Free Republic

A day after scoring 39 points against Portland, Michael Jordan took a different sort of shot this afternoon -- from one of his teammates. Craig Hodges, the Bulls' 3-point shooting specialist and one of the league's best, chided Jordan and other National Basketball Association players for failing to use their visibility to call attention to pressing social and political issues, from the deepening plight of inner-city youth to the failure of owners to hire more black head coaches. Hodges spoke after the other Bulls had left practice for the day, and Jordan could not be reached for comment. The 31-year-old...

CHICAGO (CBS) — A 57-year-old woman is killed after being attacked by a pit bull on Chicago’s far South Side. It happened near 101st and South Calhoun around noon Saturday. Police said when officers arrived at the scene, the dog charged at them. Both officers fired their guns killing the dog. The victim was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. The dog bit her throughout her body, including her neck. Police are still investigating. It’s unclear where the dog’s owner was. CBS 2 has confirmed the woman’s name is Karen Brown. Her nickname was “Punchie.” pw South...

When Charlotte Adelman was a student at the University of Chicago, the nearby parks became a refuge for her, a sprawling expanse of green where she could escape the concrete urban landscape. It was then, many decades ago, that Adelman began her journey to becoming a fighter for environmental justice. Along the way, she has fought to preserve open spaces, ban pesticides in Wilmette and co-authored a book, “Prairie Directory of North America.” Now, Adelman, 81, has set her sights on her biggest target yet — to block the Obama Presidential Center from being built in Jackson Park. Adelman, along...

Basketball legend Michael Jordan voiced his support for LeBron James on Saturday after President Donald Trump posted a critical tweet regarding the Los Angeles Lakers superstar. According to Geoff Bennett of NBC News, Jordan released a statement through a spokesperson that read, "I support LJ. He's doing an amazing job for his community." On Friday night, Trump questioned James' intelligence and suggested he preferred Jordan: @realDonaldTrump LeBron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike! Jordan was the latest in a long line...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s financial team is considering borrowing billions of dollars to pour into Chicago’s ailing pension funds — a move they contend could save future taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars but experts say comes with risk. The idea is to issue bonds at relatively low interest rates and use the money to reduce the city’s $28 billion in pension debt. The pension funds would invest the bond proceeds and ideally earn returns that outpace the interest the city would have to pay on the bond debt. Issuing so-called pension obligation bonds would be a first for Chicago, which...

An anti-violence protest in Chicago briefly shut down traffic on a busy city avenue on Thursday as dozens of protesters called on Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) to resign. The Chicago Tribune reports that about 150 demonstrators blocked traffic on the southbound side of Lake Shore Drive around 4:15 p.m. local time, blocking traffic while city snowplows prevented traffic from approaching the area. Demonstrators called for Emanuel to step down citing his support for tough policing tactics in the city as well as a climbing murder rate. “There are too many killings in Chicago, there are too many police-involved killings in...

Pay, diversity and safety are still obstacles for female bartenders in Chicago. Despite making up the majority of the bartending industry, women earn just 80 percent of their male counterparts’ income, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and The Wall Street Journal. Many female bartenders in Chicago carry a weapon at night or have a game plan for late-night commutes. Also, female bartenders of color tend to have less access to education, exposure and opportunities.

Gang violence and crime in the Windy City have not gone away under Rahm Emanuel’s leadership, though some progress has been made in specific categories of crime. Still, the endemic problems are enough to have altered the lives of many of Chicago’s residents, seemingly in a permanent fashion. The local CBS outlet looked at the effect this has had on some families and discovered some truly heartbreaking stories. In Lawndale, on the City’s west side, some parents report that they’ve become so desperate that they’ve taken to “hiding their children” rather than risking their being injured or killed in the...

Activists are calling on Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) to resign ahead of a massive protest scheduled for this week. Protesters plan to walk along Lake Short Drive during Thursday’s rush hour, on the first day of the Lollapalooza music festival, and end up at Wrigley Field during a Chicago Cubs game. Rev. Gregory Livingston and other organizers for the march against violence reportedly went to City Hill on Monday to tell Emanuel not to vocalize his support because they’re asking for him to resign. “The call of the people is ‘Resign Rahm,’” Livingston told The Chicago Tribune. “So how,...

Chicago, IL – Emergency 911 records received by Operation Rescue reveal that two women were hospitalized within three days of each other last March after having abortions at Family Planning Associates Medical Group (FPA) in Chicago, Illinois. The Pro-Life Action League initially obtained the 911 records and released them to Operation Rescue for publication. Both women suffered from bleeding so serious after their abortions that clinic staff called 911 for emergency help. “This Family Planning Associates abortion facility has a long history of medical malpractice related to botched abortions,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “Women need to be...

The Trump administration suffered another legal defeat on its sanctuary city crackdown after a judge Friday permanently blocked the government from retaliating against Chicago’s sanctuary policy by stripping away its police grant money. U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber, a Reagan appointee to the bench, said the administration is free to track down illegal immigrants on its own, but it cannot force Chicago to cooperate in reporting or turning them over. His ruling follows similar defeats for the Trump administration in California and Philadelphia, where judges have also ruled against the administration’s attempts to condition Byrne Justice Assistance Grant money...

**SNIP** The federal lawsuit filed in May might seem a legal long shot, since the center is an ode to Obama, the city's favorite son. But Caplan's challenge forced the city last month to reveal that the Obama Center isn't quite the done deal that many Chicagoans think it is: The city hasn't reached key agreements or a lease with the foundation, and those pacts will require another new city ordinance to be passed sometime soon. "The City Council has yet to introduce, much less enact, an ordinance authorizing the construction and operation of the center," the city's corporation counsel,...

Today, Chicago-based Skender announced the creation of 100 new jobs in the City of Chicago, made possible with the opening of the new Skender advanced manufacturing facility, and the hiring of Peter Murray as President, Skender Manufacturing. The new advanced manufacturing operations will be located at 3348 S. Pulaski, on Chicago's southwest side; approximately 100 new jobs will be created related to the production of modular buildings for multifamily, healthcare and commercial buildings. Production is scheduled to start as early as November 2018 for Skender Manufacturing's first project, a six-story, 110-unit, 80,000-square-foot West Loop multifamily building. "With the launch of...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A group is planning to shut down part of Lake Shore Drive on Chicago's North Side for an anti-violence protest next week. The demonstration is scheduled for 4 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 2, which will be as fans are headed to the Cubs-Padres games.

A former longtime police misconduct investigator claims in a new lawsuit he lost his job last year after he refused to give false testimony to make a shooting by an officer seem like it was not justified. Kelvin Lett made the claim in a complaint filed Sunday against the city of Chicago, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the Independent Police Review Authority, AFSCME Local 654 and Council 31 and others. Also mentioned throughout the lawsuit, but not named as a defendant, is Lori Lightfoot, the former Police Board president now challenging Mayor Rahm Emanuel for his job. The complaint...

CHICAGO — Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson says he wasn't trying to buy anyone's vote when he handed out close to $200,000 to churchgoers. The millionaire businessman said Sunday's appearance at the New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church was nothing more than "one of the biggest property tax relief assistance" events of the year and the kind of thing he's done before. The Illinois State Board of Elections said Wilson didn't break any campaign finance laws because the money came from his non-profit foundation. Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, himself seeking reelection, joined Wilson at New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church at the...

Chicago, Illinois, July 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlueGrace Logistics, a nationwide third-party logistics (3PL) provider, announces the official July 23, 2018 opening of their new Chicago office in the iconic Chicago Board of Trade Building, 141 W. Jackson Blvd. The BlueGrace Logistics recruiting staff is currently deep into their search for both experienced sales professionals and recent college graduates in Chicago who are looking for a new and exciting opportunity in the rapidly growing Chicago market, which the industry’s Journal of Commerce described as a high-tech logistics magnet. BlueGrace Logistics is grateful to Mayor Rahm Emanuel for his warm...

•A federal judge has postponed until July 31 the start of the upcoming trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort. •The judge also has granted immunity to five potential witnesses for their testimony against Manafort, who is charged with crimes related to his consulting and lobbying work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. •Prosecutors in the office of special counsel Robert Mueller had asked for so-called use immunity for the five witnesses, which would bar their testimony at Manafort's trial from being used against them in a criminal prosecution. A federal judge has postponed from Wednesday...

How would you react to finding your seatmate on a 12-hour flight to China is a talkative eight-year-old boy whose father had ditched him to go sit in business class? Flyertalk member steveo posted the following question in the United forum: Hi Flyertalk. Just got off [Chicago] to [Beijing] and to my delight I had a maybe [an] 8-year-old boy sitting next to me the whole flight while his dad was in Polaris. I had the distinct pleasure of entertaining this kid who wouldn’t shut up for 12-hours. Should I complain about this? Short answer: yes. Flight attendants appear...

President Donald Trump is making his first visit to Illinois since becoming president, making a stop in Granite City on Thursday where he is expected to tout the reopening of a U.S. Steel Corp. mill. The White House announced Sunday night Trump will swing through Granite City, in southern Illinois near St. Louis and Dubuque, Iowa, on Thursday. The Trump administration has been highlighting U.S. Steel’s Granite City mill as a trade war success story even as the tariffs have sparked concerns in other sectors, with alarms sounded by Illinois farmers whose main crop is soybeans. The visit will have...