The death of a 15-year-old boy in Champagne, IL is causing community leaders to ask if the Champaign Police Department is targeting young black males.

Kiwane Carrington was killed Friday after an altercation with police after a neighbor called 911 to report a possible robbery. Carrington and another teen got into a scuffle with officers that resulted in Carrington being shot and killed. The name of the other boy involved is being withheld since he is in juvenile hall.

An officer involved in the incident was injured during the scuffle.

Debra Thomas, the owner of the home in question said Carrington has permission to be in the home. She took Carrington in after his mother died of cancer.

The Illinois State Police is investigating the incident.  View the family press conference here

Dethroned Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was indicted Thursday on charges that he not only plotted to sell President Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder but that he has a long political history of using his stature as a lawmaker for personal gain. In their 19-count indictment, federal prosecutors allege that Blagojevich was angling for a lucrative gig, a post in Obama’s Cabinet or kickbacks from businesses in exchange for the seat. “I’m saddened and hurt but I am not surprised by the indictment,” Blagojevich, who was in Walt Disney World with his family, said in a statement. “I am innocent. I now will fight in the courts to clear my name.” Blagojevich told an aide in 2006 that he wanted to stall a $2 million state grant to a school supported by a congressman until the lawmaker’s brother held a political fundraiser for the governor, The Associated Press reported, citing the indictment. That congressman was Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, attorneys familiar with the case told AP Thursday. The indictment also charges Blagojevich with: scheming to get a large kickback in exchange for the refinancing of billions of dollars in state pension funds; telling an assistant that he didn’t want executives with two financial institutions getting further state business after he concluded they were not helping his wife get a high-paying job; withholding state funds sought by the Tribune Co. unless the company fired unfriendly editorial writers at the Chicago Tribune, AP reported.

Soon-to-be dethroned Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, in his latest shocker, acknowledged that he was eyeing daytime TV Queen Oprah Winfrey to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. Speaking on ABC’s Good Morning America, Blagojevich said that a friend of his suggested that consider Winfrey to fill the spot vacated by Obama when he headed to the White House. “She seemed to be someone who had helped Barack Obama in a significant way become president,” Blagojevich said. “She was obviously someone with a much broader bully pulpit than other senators.” However, Blagojevich said, he doubted she would accept. “She probably wouldn’t take it, and then … if you offered it to her, how would you do it in a way it didn’t look like it was some gimmick and embarrass her?” At least the governor’s intuition about that was correct. Appearing on Gayle King’s radio show, Winfrey said, that while she also believes she could be a senator, “I’m not interested” in the position. “I’m pretty amused by the whole thing,” she said. “I guess you’re under consideration but no one tells you you’re under consideration …I would have to say: Where would I fit it in with my day job, my night job, my radio job, my magazine job?”

Obama: I want to talk about the Illinois scandal. President-elect Barack Obama may seem like he’s dodging questions about the ongoing investigation into the alleged misdeeds of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but he said Wednesday that “it’s a little bit frustrating” to not talk in detail about the investigation.  The feds contend that Blagojevich was working on a fat payday as he plotted his strategy to name Obama’s replacement in the U.S. Senate. The spoils of the victory were to be awarded to the wannabe senator who offered the best political or financial deal for Blagojevich and his family, according to investigators, who taped the governor as he allegedly talked about a deal. FBI agents arrested him last week, saying they had plenty of evidence for a strong case against him.

Rep. Jesse Jackson told the feds about Illinois’ governor. Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has been a government informant, spilling the beans on Illinois’ embattled governor and other miscreant politicians for years, The New York Post reported Tuesday. The newspaper said that a Jackson spokesman, Kenneth Edmonds, acknowledged that Jackson had spoken to the feds about Gov. Rod Blagojevich and others. Blagojevich is now under investigation for allegedly trying to sell Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. Chicago’s WLS-TV reported that Jackson Jr., the son of the famed civil rights leader of the same name, told investigators Blagojevich refused to make Jackson’s wife director of the state lottery because Jackson would not pledge $25,000 to the governor’s campaign fund. “Blagojevich went out of his way to say, ‘You know I was considering your wife for the lottery job and the $25,000 you didn’t give me? That’s why she’s not getting the job,’” a source told The Associated Press. Jackson doesn’t deny meeting with Blagojevich about his interest in Obama’s Senate seat one day before the governor was arrested on federal corruption charges.

Obama’s team investigates Illinois governor. President-elect Barack Obama is to release in the next couple of days a report on the internal probe into whether any of his aides had any conversations with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was charged earlier this week with trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. Read the rest here.

Obama calls for the Illinois governor to resign. As Illinois lawmakers scrambled to find a way to force a disgraced but defiant Gov. Rod Blagojevich out of office in light of his arrest on corruption charges, President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats are calling for his resignation. Read more here.

Rep. Jackson denies involvement in Illinois Senate seat scandal. Federal authorities confirmed on Wednesday that U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was the “Candidate Five” to which Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich implied in a taped conversation was willing to pay to get appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. In the indictment, the governor said a representative for “candidate #5″ was willing to raise $500,000 for his campaign and $1 million if he was appointed to the coveted Senate seat. However, Jackson, in a Wednesday news conference, strongly denied he had promised anything to the governor in secure the seat. Read the rest here.

Obama says he knew nothing of governor’s alleged corruption. Illinois governor is out on bond after an arrest on corruption charges. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was released on $4,500 bail after appearing in court Tuesday afternoon on federal corruption charges. Blagojevich is accused of attempting to sell the Illinois Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. His arrests were the result of what the governor said in wiretaps from phones at his home and campaign headquarters, investigators said. FBI officials say they were shocked and disgusted by what they heard Blagojevich say on the wiretaps, particularly considering that the governor knew he had been under investigation for hiring irregularities over the past three years. “It’s a bleeping valuable thing,” Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Illinois, said Blagojevich said on the wiretap. “You just don’t give it up for nothing.” In a 76-page affidavit, federal officials said the governor had been “working furiously” to get as much money as he could before the holidays for Obama’s old Senate seat. The governor is charged with conspiracy to commit mail, wire fraud and solicitation of bribery, authorities said.  He was also expecting a key federal appointment or other plum Capitol Hill job in the pay-to-play scheme. “This is a sad day for government,” Fitzgerald said at a news conference on Tuesday to announce the governor’s arrest. “Gov. Blagojevich has taken us to a new low. This conduct would make [Abraham] Lincoln roll over in his grave.” Lincoln was a congressman from Illinois before becoming president. Fitzgerald said that the governor had expressed displeasure with the Obama camp for refusing to play the game, and that there was no evidence of Obama or his associates talking with the governor about the Senate seat. “I had no contact with the governor or his office… . So I had no idea what was happening,” Obama said on Tuesday. The president-elect called it a “sad day for the state of Illinois.” Released on bond, Blagojevich is still the Illinois governor and, as such, can still appoint Obama’s replacement. Democrats fear that if that happens, Obama’s successor could be tainted by the scandal and are threatening not to seat the replacement if Blagojevich does make a pick.

More Blacks could be headed to U.S. Senate. African Americans could take over the seats in the U.S. Senate once occupied by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In Illinois, it’s looking like Obama’s old spot in the upper chamber of Congress could be filled by one of many promising Black wannabes, including Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Rep. Danny Davis, Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones and former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris. The decision rests with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat. In New York, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown could be a shoe-in, especially considering that the decision rests in the hands of the state’s first Black governor, David Paterson.