Free Republic

Rahm Emanuel has emphatically denied that politics is behind his decision to file a pre-emptive lawsuit seeking to block U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions from cutting off federal crimefighting funds to sanctuary cities. If that’s true, why did Emanuel play the media like a fiddle by dribbling out details of the lawsuit over a three-day period? And why do the mayor’s own private emails expose his attempts to use his pro-immigration stance to shore up a national media image that took a beating after the November 2015 release of video showing a white Chicago Police officer firing 16 shots at...

The City of Chicago is engaged in a legal battle against the Trump administration over the Justice Department’s policies towards sanctuary cities, and they’ve hired a firm that’s quite familiar with the President. Well, his family, anyway. The city is being represented by the law firm WilmerHale, with one of the attorneys on the case being Jamie Gorelick. Yup, the same Gorelick who up until recently was representing Jared Kushner in the Russia investigation, and still serves as his counsel (and Ivanka Trump‘s) for issues including security clearance and ethics compliance. Gorelick also served as Deputy Attorney General under President...

The attorney general called the “open hostility” against protecting law enforcement -- while protecting criminal aliens -- “astounding” given the influx of Chicago’s violence crime. “The city’s leaders cannot follow some laws and ignore others and reasonably expect this horrific situation to improve,” Sessions continued. The grants, named for former New York City police officer Edward Byrne, who was murdered in 1988, would provide $3.2 million to Chicago, to be used for police vehicles. Funding from the grant is a small fraction of the city's budget. A requirement added to the grants would force local jurisdictions to report to federal...

The city of Chicago says it plans to file a lawsuit against the US Justice Department on Monday over new stipulations placed on federal law enforcement grant money requiring local police departments to assist in federal immigration actions. Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office said in a statement that the Trump administration's "latest unlawful misguided action undermines public safety and violates" the Constitution. He said the city is challenging the administration "to ensure that their misguided policies do not threaten the safety of our residents." [Snip] "Chicago will not be blackmailed into changing our values, and we are and will remain a...

High-priced government workers cost taxpayers in Illinois $10 billion a year, with municipal managers in areas surrounding Chicago reaping the most benefits. Illinoisans are struggling under the highest property taxes in the nation, a declining population and the nation’s worst income growth, but one group is still doing pretty well – government workers. According to OpenTheBooks.com, Illinois has 63,000 public employees making more than $100,000, costing taxpayers $10 billion. These government workers range from auto pound supervisors to corrections nurses to junior college presidents and more. One of the most lucrative government fields is that of village and city managers,...

To the surprise of no one who’s ever listened to a single Donald Trump campaign speech, the Attorney General made an announcement last week in which he signaled that “sanctuary cities” were going to lose access to some federal grants and DoJ funding. The howls of outrage immediately followed, including various claims from the left that he can’t do that and all the usual protests over the limits of federal power. Among the cities under discussion was Chicago, famous for needing a lot of help in the law enforcement arena, but not willing to do anything to support immigration law...

The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, among the busiest in the nation, must set its priorities to fit the times. Twenty years ago, the top priority might have been public corruption. Ten years ago, it might have been white-collar crime. EDITORIAL Today, as John Lausch prepares to take over the job, we urge the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago to focus on one priority above all others: Ridding our city of illegal guns. Shootings are the scourge of Chicago, so much so that President Donald Trump has mocked our city for its violence, though he has done nothing to combat...

(CHICAGO) Mayor Emanuel says he’s going to sue the Trump Justice Dept on Monday over its new Sanctuary City rules. New rules just out prevent Sanctuary Cities like Chicago to get certain law enforcement grants and so the mayor says Chicago will file suit to kill the rules and get the millions in question. In an interview with WLS-AM for Sunday’s edition of “Bill Cameron and Connected to Chicago”, the mayor said “We are not going to be put in a position of choosing who we are as a welcoming city and strengthening our police dept. These are exactly the...

Chicago faces an epidemic of gun violence. This year alone, more than 2,100 people have been shot, more than 400 killed.(snip) Young men on the city's south and west sides told CBS News how easy it is to get illegal guns, and why many never leave their homes without one. "I know people who can't walk from they house to the store without a gun," said Aaron Murph. "Because people getting killed left and right. It's sad." "I got shot twice and I could have been gone but I'm still here so, that scar, that's with me, so," said Tyshaun...

A nationwide manhunt is underway for a Northwestern University professor and an Oxford University employee who are wanted as suspects after a man was found fatally stabbed inside a luxury Chicago apartment, police said. On Monday, first-degree murder warrants without bail were issued for Wyndham Lathem, 42, and Andrew Warren, 56, for their alleged involvement in the death of Trenton H. James Cornell-Duranleau, Cook County court records show. The documents say Cornell-Duranleau, 26, died after being stabbed multiple times. A community alert released by the Chicago Police Department says the body was discovered on July 27. Lathem has been an...

Are you worried about the Russian influence on the presidential election? If so, there's a chance you are at least eight years too late. Consider the curious case of Rainer Baake, born in 1955 in the West German town of Witten. From his German Wikipedia entry (translated): After the Abitur (final high school examinations), Rainer Baake worked as a Community Organizer in Chicago from 1974 to 1978. So a 19 year old German went from a small town in Germany to be a community organiser in Chicago for four years. This is as strange as a 19-year-old African-American would be...

[snip]It has been a lucrative month for former President Barack Obama’s longest-serving senior adviser[Valerie Jarrett] — she sealed a book deal with publishing house Viking in early July and joined the popular ride-hailing company Lyft on Monday. It has been a lucrative month for former President Barack Obama’s longest-serving senior adviser — she sealed a book deal with publishing house Viking in early July and joined the popular ride-hailing company Lyft on Monday.Logan Green, co-founder and CEO of Lyft, called Mr. Obama’s confidante “one of our country’s foremost leaders and a distinguished public servant, and a natural fit for our...

The Chicago Tribune is offended by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ use the term “illegal alien” when discussing sanctuary cities. “In a democracy that values the rule of law, word choice is important, especially when those words come from voices of authority,” the Chicago Tribune wrote. The Tribune is correct in what they said, but not in what they meant. Word choice is important, which is why the DOJ and the attorney general use the most legally accurate term when discussing illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. “Alien” is a term used by the federal government...

A 4-year-old boy and an 89-year-old man were among 35 people shot across the city from Friday evening to Monday morning, a period that also saw four homicides. The most recent deaths were the latest of 377 people fatally shot in the city this year, according to data maintained by the Chicago Sun-Times. In all, more than 2,150 people have been shot since the start of the year. About 5:15 p.m. Friday, the 4-year-old was in the Austin neighborhood’s 5200 block of West Kamerling with 28-year-old Nikia Betts and a 19-year-old man when gunfire erupted,(snip) Betts, who lived in the...

Full Title: A new tax on sugary drinks designed to generate revenue for cash-strapped Cook County will be the third burdensome tax applied to soda prices in Chicago, making a $4 12-pack of soda in the city cost $5.97. Beginning July 1, residents of Cook County may notice their grocery bills growing as a penny-per-ounce tax on artificially sweetened beverages takes effect.The new tax will be added on top of Chicago’s highest in the nation sales tax of 10.25 percent and the city’s 3 percent tax on non-alcoholic beverages. With the new sugary beverage tax, soda in Chicago will be...

At least 17 people were shot, over 17 hours from Friday to Saturday including a 4 yr. old boy. The boy's mother was also shot in the head and died later. In the North Austin neighborhood were they were "Ambushed" by Gunmen.

(CBS) – President Donald Trump on Friday said he could fix Chicago’s violence problem with one phone call. In fact, the president told Mayor Rahm Emanuel about a Chicago police officer who guarantees he can fix the problem. Trump, speaking before police in New York, said he met the Chicago cop during a campaign appearance last year. “I said what the hell is going on,” Trump recalled. He says he asked the officer, “How long would it take you to straighten out the problem?” The Chicago police officer told Trump if he had the authority, only “a couple of days,”...

A naked Chicago man, bleeding from his penis, charged toward police officers who subdued him with tasers, according to the video footage of the incident. Police responded to a call Monday at Grace Street and Drake Avenue to find a naked man yelling incoherently, the New York Post reported. The video, which blurs the man’s crotch area, shows him charging at a female police officer. “Get outta here, b—h!” he screams at the officer. The person who recorded the video shouted at the officers responding to the scene that they should open fire to subdue him. “Oh my God, bro!...

Carl Sandburg indelibly dubbed Chicago "hog butcher for the world," though swine are no longer[i] massacred there.  But slaughter remains part of the city's global image, as every weekend sees multiple deaths from gang warfare (this weekend's total is 6 dead, 35 wounded).  Until recently, the remaining affluent tax-paying residents, the ones occupying expensive condos and townhouses near the lake, for instance, were able to comfort themselves that the bloodshed was largely confined to a couple of districts to the south and west of their Northside enclaves. That assumption is crumbling, as CWB Chicago reports gang warfare at one of the city's...

3 Men Blocked I-80 Ramp Before Early Morning Carjacking A report indicates three suspects carjacked a vehicle on the I-80 ramp to I-355 in New Lenox early Saturday morning. By Tim Moran (Patch Staff) - Updated July 23, 2017 12:41 am ET NEW LENOX, IL -- A reported car jacking took place early Saturday morning on an expressway ramp. An incident was reported on police scanner traffic on the westbound Interstate 80 ramp to northbound Interstate 355. Three men were blocking the ramp and asked the victim to use his phone before one of the men approached on the passenger...