Statements inadmissible:

A judge on Thursday ruled that statements a white Chicago police officer made to an investigator two days after he fatally shot a black teenager in 2014 cannot be used at his murder trial. During a brief hearing, Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan sealed an audio recording and a transcript of an interview that officer Jason Van Dyke gave to the agency that investigates police shootings in Chicago after Van Dyke shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Gaughan’s ruling means that the material cannot be released publicly or used by prosecutors against Van Dyke because he was required to talk to the Independent Police Review Authority.

Faculty recruitment begins:

University of Illinois President Tim Killeen says now the state has a budget the school can officially launch an initiative aimed at recruiting top faculty. The three-year, $60 million program was announced in May. The university system said Thursday that the system’s universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield now can make proposals for money to recruit professors. The objective is to bring in tenured, high-achieving faculty in a broad range of academic disciplines. The plan is called the President’s Distinguished Faculty Recruitment Program. Under the program, $10 million would be committed from the university system to recruitment efforts each year, matched by each of the three campuses. The goal is to hire 10 to 15 new faculty members each year.

Triple murder in Joliet:

Joliet police are investigating the deaths of three adults who were found shot to death in a home on the city’s far west side Thursday afternoon, the department’s chief said.

According to the Daily Southtown, Police Chief Brian Benton said the victims appeared to have been shot to death sometime overnight. He would not disclose the victims’ ages or genders. “We don’t believe this was a random act,” Benton said.

Police are investigating the slayings as homicides, according to a news release. Benton said police were called to the home for a death investigation around 3 p.m. and the caller told police about the bodies, the Daily Southtown reported. Benton said several people were at the home Wednesday for a party. He could not say whether the victims lived in the home or were related.