Briefs: 'Alcopop' ads targeted
A new state law aims to keep companies from marketing flavored alcoholic beverages to minors. The drinks, also known as "alcopops," are alcoholic beverages mixed with fruit juice, lemonade, tea or other flavors. The law's sponsors allege that the beverages' advertising targets young people, especially girls. Senate Bill 1625 will fine companies caught promoting to minors $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for a second offense. The bill takes effect next June.
Mom found fit for trial
A Streamwood woman charged with attempted murder in the May stabbing of her son has been found fit to stand trial so long as she continues her medication, officials with the Cook County state's attorney's office said Friday. An attorney for 43-year-old Alicja Makowska had called her mental health into question at an earlier court appearance. She appeared Friday before Cook County Judge Charles Burns for a mental fitness hearing. Prosecutors say Makowska, of the 2000 block of Quake Hollow Lane, repeatedly stabbed her 6-year-old son. Injuries were discovered on his back, legs and hands. Makowska reportedly threatened to hurt herself afterward. She faces charges of attempted first-degree murder and battery of a child, and is being held on $1 million bond. Makowska is set to be back in court again Sept. 21.
Enrollment down by design
University of Illinois enrollment dropped this fall by about 200 students, the result of a push to reduce the number of freshman admitted each year, a university official said. The university has 41,135 students on its Urbana-Champaign campus, down from 41,342 a year ago. The number of freshmen enrolled this fall is 7,424, down from 7,778 in 2006. Illinois wants to reduce the size of its freshman class to about 6,500 over the next four years, said Keith Marshall, associate provost for enrollment management. "We're returning to kind of our traditional levels of enrollment to provide smaller faculty-to-student ratios," he said Friday. This fall's enrollment includes 30,695 undergraduates and 10,440 graduate, law school and veterinary school students. A year ago, Illinois had 30,395 undergraduates and 10,407 students in grad school and the law and veterinary schools.