WASHINGTON — Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation’s capital in humbling defeat, the 39th president returned to Washington for three days of state funeral rites starting Tuesday.
Carter’s remains, which had been lying in repose at the Carter Presidential Center since Saturday, left the Atlanta campus Tuesday morning, accompanied by his children and extended family. Special Air Mission 39 departed Dobbins Air Reserve Base north of Atlanta and arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. A motorcade carried the casket into Washington for a final journey to the Capitol, where members of Congress will pay their respects.
In Georgia, eight military pallbearers held Carter’s casket as canons fired on the tarmac nearby. They carried it to a vehicle that lifted it to the passenger compartment of the aircraft, the iconic blue and white Boeing 747 variant that is known as Air Force One when the sitting president is on board. Carter never traveled as president on the jet, which first flew as Air Force One in 1990 with President George H.W. Bush.
The scene repeated outside Washington. The former president’s casket was removed from the plane, canons fired and a military band played. A hearse emblazoned with the seal of the president joined a motorcade that steered toward Washington.
A bipartisan delegation of members of Congress were led in to the Capitol rotunda by Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Osoff, Democrats who represent Carter’s home state. Three of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices also were present. Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Elena Kagan stood next to Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in the rotunda.
The U.S. Army Band Brass Quintet played as people awaited the casket’s arrival.
Carter, who died Dec. 29 at the age of 100, will lie in state Tuesday night and again Wednesday. He receives a state funeral Thursday at Washington National Cathedral. President Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy.
There are the familiar rituals that follow a president’s death — the Air Force ride back to the Beltway, a military honor guard carrying a flag-draped casket up the Capitol steps, the Lincoln catafalque in the Rotunda.
There also will be symbolism unique to Carter. As he was carried from his presidential center, a military band played hymns — “Amazing Grace” and “Blessed Assurance” for the outspoken Baptist evangelical who called himself a “born-again Christian” when he sought and won the presidency in 1976. In Washington, his hearse stopped at the U.S. Navy Memorial, where his remains were transferred to a horse-drawn caisson for the rest of his trip to the Capitol. The location nods to Carter’s place as the lone U.S. Naval Academy graduate to become commander in chief.
All of the pomp carries some irony for the Democrat who went from his family peanut warehouse to the Governor’s Mansion and eventually the White House. Carter won the presidency as the smiling Southerner and technocratic engineer who promised to change the ways of Washington — and eschewed many of those unwritten rules when he got there.
From 1977 to 1981, Carter was Washington’s highest-ranking resident. But he never mastered it.
“He could be prickly and a not very appealing personality” in a town that thrives on relationships, said biographer Jonathan Alter, describing a president who struggled with schmoozing lawmakers and reporters.
Carter often flouted the ceremonial trappings that have been on display in Georgia and will continue in Washington.
As president, he wanted to keep the Marine Band from playing “Hail to the Chief,” thinking it elevated the president too much. His advisers convinced him to accept it as part of the job. The song played Saturday as he arrived at his presidential center after a motorcade through his hometown of Plains and past his boyhood farm. It played again as his remains were carried out on their way to Washington.
He also never used his full name, James Earl Carter Jr., even taking the oath of office. His full name was printed on memorial cards given to all mourners who paid their respects in Atlanta.
He once addressed the nation from the White House residence wearing a cardigan, now on display at his museum and library. His remains now rest in a wooden casket being carried and guarded by military pallbearers in their impeccable dress uniforms.
As Carter’s remains left Georgia, President-elect Donald Trump criticized the late former president during a news conference in Florida for ceding control of the Panama Canal to its home country.
Pressed on if criticism of Carter was appropriate during the solemn funeral rites, Trump responded, “I liked him as a man. I disagreed with his policies. He thought giving away the Panama Canal was a good thing.”
“I didn’t want to bring up the Panama Canal because of Jimmy Carter’s death,” he added, even though he had first mentioned it unprompted.
Shawn Collins was an experienced litigator who devoted the latter part of his career to taking on corporations in cases involving environmental law, a field in which he became nationally known.
“He really cared about the little guy,” said Scott Entin, who regularly collaborated with Collins in litigation. “Shawn was constantly trying to find the next group of people he could help.”
Collins, 67, died on Dec. 15 of complications from a heart attack he suffered in November, said his wife of 38 years, Meg. He was a Naperville resident.
Born in Hinsdale, Collins was one of seven children of John and Rosemarie Collins. He grew up in Lisle and was the grandson of the proprietor of a local newspaper, the Lisle Eagle.
For several years, Collins commuted to attend Saint Ignatius College Prep in Chicago before transferring to Lisle High School. He received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and accounting from the University of Notre Dame in 1980 and worked for several years as an accountant in Chicago for Peat Marwick.
Collins returned to school and picked up a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1986.
Early on, Collins felt the pull of politics. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Democrat in Illinois’ 4th District in 1986 and a 1990 bid for state comptroller also fell short.
Collins worked in commercial litigation for the Mayer Brown & Platt law firm in Chicago, then opened the Collins Law Firm in Naperville in 1992.
His focus on environmental litigation began after a Lisle metal fabricating company, Lockformer, was found to have spilled a metal degreaser on its property repeatedly while a supplier was filling a 500-gallon storage tank. Some nearby residents found that their private wells had been contaminated with the volatile, cancer-causing organic compound trichloroethylene, or TCE, and though Lockformer acknowledged the spills, the company denied that they were the cause of the TCE in the wells.
Shawn Collins was a longtime environmental attorney who won settlements for clients whose lives were affected by environmental issues. (Rob Wienski)
By his own admission, Collins was not versed in environmental law, nor in filing class-action suits on behalf of groups of wronged homeowners. However, that did not deter him.
“The only reason he took the case was because someone approached him with an environmental issue in his hometown,” his wife said. “They needed a lawyer, and Shawn had no idea how to help them, but he said, ‘This is my hometown, so I’ll figure it out.’”
So Collins filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that Lockformer had been aware of the spill for eight years but didn’t alert homeowners.
“It’s a geological fact that both Lockformer and the homeowners’ houses literally sit on top of a water source about 60 to 120 feet deep which is fed by a thousands-year-old, underground stream which slowly moves north to south and directly toward Front Street,” Collins told the Tribune in 2000.
Ultimately, Collins represented residents in two federal class-action suits. In the first, he won a $10 million settlement in a class-action suit he filed on behalf of 186 homeowners. In a second class-action case covering a much broader number of homeowners, a federal judge signed off in 2006 on a $16.9 million settlement that helped fund homeowners’ hookups to Lake Michigan water and compensated the most severely affected ones for the loss of property value and for using bottled water for five years.
“These folks have been through hell,” Collins told the Tribune in 2006. “They need to move on with their lives, and that means getting them connected to clean water. That’s got to happen right away.”
Collins’ wife called her husband “a bit of a risk-taker,” noting that he and a partner each had to put up equity in their homes to undertake the Lockformer case. But, that type of work immediately became his passion, she said.
“After Lockformer, he said, ‘This is what I want to do — not just cases involving a couple of business owners having an argument. I can fight for the little guy, battling against the corporations that don’t really care,’” she recalled.
To pay the bills, Collins continued to perform some corporate law while also practicing environmental law and taking on class-action suits.
“His passion about helping the people he represented is … what drove everything for him,” said Collins’ longtime law partner Ed Manzke, who also worked on the Lockformer litigation. “I’ve never met anyone with as much passion about anything, really, as Shawn was passionate about helping his clients. He just really lived it.
“Also, he wanted to make sure he knew more about a case — more about the subject matter, more about the science — than anyone in the room, including the experts who he might be deposing or cross-examining. So he would just throw himself into the science of toxicology and how cancers are formed and how environmental contaminants can create a cancer in a human being.”
Collins “always was for the underdog, and I think his practice underscored that,” said his younger brother, former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins.
“When he did that Lockformer case, the firm sort of found its soul, because it was our community where we grew up, where we were born and raised, and these were our neighbors, and this was a big company that was doing harm to the little people,” Patrick Collins said. “It was a fight that Shawn was made for, and from there, environmental justice matched his keen intellect with fighting for the little guy.”
Environmental attorney Norm Berger worked with Collins on cases, including the Lockformer litigation, for 24 years.
“We became known as some of the very few (lawyers) who really did these big environmental damage cases,” Berger said. “It’s a tremendous loss not only for the thousands more of people who he would have helped but for me personally — he was a brother, and I just absolutely loved working with him on those cases.”
Collins represented more than 90 residents who were living near a plant leased by Sterigenics Co. in Willowbrook and contended in 2019 that they had contracted cancer due to Sterigenics’ use of the toxic chemical ethylene oxide to sterilize medical equipment. One of his clients who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 was awarded $363 million in damages in 2022 by a Cook County jury. Sterigenics’ plant closed for good in 2019.
Colleagues recalled Collins as a devoted family man who would drop everything — even, for example, in the midst of a deposition — if his wife and daughters needed him.
In addition to his wife and brother, Collins is survived by three daughters, Cat Sheridan, Cassidy Collins and Darcy Collins; his mother, Rosemarie Collins; four sisters, Mary Collins, Kathy Moran, Bridget Carlson and Monica Stevens; and another brother, Tom.
A private celebration of life is planned for later this month.
North Central College’s championship-winning Cardinals football team returned Monday to Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium in Naperville after a decisive 41-25 victory Sunday over the University of Mount Union at the Stagg Bowl. The battle for the NCAA Division III title was fought at the Shell Energy Stadium in Houston.
A scratch-off Illinois State Lottery ticket purchased from the Speedway gas station in South Elgin has netted a lucky winner $10 million.
Assistant manager Samethia Broomfield says she had no idea who the newly minted millionnaire is but speculates it could be one of their regular customers who often come in to buy scratch-off tickets.
When asked if she thinks the winner will want to tip the employee who sold them the life-changing ticket, she laughed.
“Hopefully,” Broomfield said.
Illinois State Lottery officials announced the ticket was sold at the 1775 N. LaFox St. store in the first few days of January. But since winners can opt to remain anonymous, it’s possible their identity will never be known publicly.
What is known is the winner is the third to land the $10 million jackpot in the last year. The others were sold at an Alton convenience store in May 2024 and at a Jewel-Osco store in Countryside in November. The game also offers 15 chances to win a $1 million prize.
Whoever drew the winning ticket can opt to be paid in annual payments of $500,000 for 20 years or receive a one-time cash payment of $6 million (less taxes), according to the lottery website.
For selling the winning ticket, the Speedway gas station will receive a $100,000 bonus — 1% of the prize.
Instant tickets netted players more than $1.64 billion in prizes in 2024, a news release on the winning ticket said. Tickets range in price from $1 to $50 and are available in about 7,000 retailers across the state.
The Illinois Lottery was founded in 1974 and has contributed over $25 billion to the State’s Common School Fund in support of K-12 public education in Illinois since 1985, the release said. The Common School Fund is the Illinois Lottery’s primary beneficiary.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
The Porter County Board of Commissioners convened for its first meeting of the year as an all-Republican body after newcomer Ed Morales took over the South District from Laura Blaney, who did not seek another term. President Jim Biggs, of the North District, retained his office after Morales nominated him, and Vice President Barb Regnitz, of the Center District, seconded the motion.
Biggs then nominated Morales, former Porter Township Trustee, for the number two spot, which Regnitz seconded. Finally, Biggs nominated Regnitz for secretary, seconded by Morales. County Attorney Scott McClure was retained for 2025.
The board elected to retain the majority of the appointments whose terms were up on various boards. Bob Filipek was reappointed to the Alcohol Beverage Board; Cathy Brown and Bill Welter were reappointed to the Convention, Recreation and Visitors Commission, otherwise known as the Tourism Board; Linda Zyla and Nancy Kolasa were reappointed to the Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals; Craig Kenworthy was reappointed to the Plan Commission; James Ton was reappointed to the Recycling and Solid Waste Board; Jason Gilliana and Bill Herring were reappointed to the Redevelopment Commission; Paul Nelson was reappointed to the Stormwater Advisory Board; and Craig Klauer and Joe Wiszowaty, who is also the county’s facilities director, were reappointed to the West Porter Township Fire Protection District Board.
Brian Niksch was newly appointed to the Tourism Board and one appointment to the Board of Health was put on hold as a staff illness made it unclear if the county had received all three nominations that Portage Mayor Austin Bonta was going to submit. Regnitz said further research into the county’s appointment to the Shared Ethics Commission, formerly held by Blaney, was necessary before appointing an elected official, as required, to that role.
Commissioners voted to appoint Biggs to the Community Corrections, Juvenile Justice, and 911 boards; Regnitz to the Storm Water Advisory, Redevelopment, and Center for Workforce Innovations Boards; and Morales to the Child Protection, Northern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, Plan Commission, and Emergency Management Agency boards.
In other business, Regnitz announced the county will accept applications through the end of January for this year’s disbursement of Opioid Settlement funds. She said interested organizations should go to Porterco.org and enter “opioid money” in the search bar to locate the application.
Porter County Coroner Cyndi Dykes received approval to lease a 2025 Ford all-wheel drive Transit 150 cargo van to replace a 2007 Ford cargo van. Biggs took exception to the monthly $1,223 lease amount, saying over $70,000 over five years seemed excessive.
“I think you can get one for the high 50s,” he said. Dykes explained that the monthly payment includes strobe lights, a cot deck, and a partition between the front row and the back that the van must be equipped with.
“This is an open-end equity lease so possibly when the van is at its peak they’ll give us a call and whatever equity we have in that van goes into the new one,” she said.
Biggs still wasn’t satisfied. “Why are we now replacing to the tune of $70,000 every five years?” he wanted to know.
“I’ve been working on this for five years and every time I’ve come before you guys I’ve been encouraged to lease rather than buy,” Dykes replied.
Dykes and her chief deputy have reported in years past that it doesn’t reflect well on the county or show proper respect for the dead when residents have to watch their loved ones’ bodies taken away in a rusty van. The county also uses a second transport van which is 13 years old.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
