Free Republic

A bid by several aldermen to demand that Gov. J.B. Pritzker deploy the Illinois National Guard to Chicago in an effort to reduce escalating violence and sustained protests amid the coronavirus pandemic failed on Friday at a special meeting of the Chicago City Council. Although Mayor Lori Lightfoot dismissed the effort by Alds. Leslie Hairston (5th Ward), Anthony Beale (9th Ward), Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) and Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward) earlier this week to force the special City Council meeting as a stunt and an example of “grandstanding,” 47 aldermen attended the virtual meeting, ensuring it took place. Veteran City...

Four Chicago aldermen on Wednesday called for a special meeting of the City Council to consider a resolution asking Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to declare a state of emergency and deploy the Illinois National Guard to the city over recent violence and looting. Alds. Leslie Hairston, Anthony Beale, Raymond Lopez and Anthony Napolitano issued the call in a letter to Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia. The letter calls for a special meeting of the Chicago City Council at 10 a.m. on Friday to take up a resolution calling for the state of emergency and to hear from city and Cook...

In the ongoing effort to get control of the city’s streets, Mayor Lori Lightfoot staged a news conference last Friday that was meant to make a statement. Standing on a platform in Olive Park, offset by a sapphire Lake Michigan on a topaz-sky day, the Magnificent Mile’s skyscrapers served as backdrop. Aldermen, clergy, federal and state law enforcement officials all stood as socially distanced props. Lightfoot even invited Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to stand within shouting distance of her new police superintendent, David Brown. Days earlier, Foxx had called out Brown and Lightfoot for “dishonest blame games,” after...

Former Attorney General Eric Holder has come out against proposals in Chicago and New Jersey to require fingerprint background checks of drivers for ride-hailing platforms such as Uber and Lyft. Why would President Obama's onetime top lawman come out against regulation that is supposed to protect the riding public? Credit the intersection of two forces. First, Holder's tony corporate law firm, Covington & Burling, represents Uber. Also, as Holder sees it, requiring drivers to submit fingerprints may "have a discriminatory impact on communities of color." I was surprised to read about Holder's opposition, as I have trouble seeing Holder as...

An influential alderman warned Metra’s executive director on Thursday that “people are going to get hurt” if the commuter rail agency fails to bolster minority participation on a $133-million South Side railroad bridge known as the “Englewood Flyover.” Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), chairman of the City Council’s Transportation Committee, did not explain who he believed would “get hurt” or who the perpetrators might be. But, he was clearly referring to civil disobedience or maybe even violence at the construction site. “I’m trying to help you help yourself. When I say that, problems could arise. When you look at a community...