Free Republic

The hearing officer, a retired Republican judge, wrote a scathing assessment of Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection but said the courts ultimately should decide. The full board will consider the matter Tuesday Former Republican President Donald Trump participated in the fatal Jan. 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, but it’s the courts — and not the State Board of Elections — that should decide whether to remove him from Illinois’ primary ballot, a state hearing officer recommended Sunday.

My mask is not coming off. COVID-19 has faded, and people who continue to wear masks in public spaces are just neurotic, my husband says. “You look goofy,” he admonishes me. On Monday, the most onerous COVID-related mandates will fall away. Customers in public spaces will no longer be required to mask up or produce proof of vaccination at restaurants, bars and gyms in Chicago and throughout Illinois. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosened its mask guidelines for public indoor spaces on Friday. I am thrilled the Omicron surge is fading and eager to return to “normal,” whatever...

Yolanda Anderson had owned a property gem in Austin for decades before she had no other choice but to put it up for sale. She didn’t want to do it, but when she was unsuccessful in securing funding to do extensive renovations on the pink-and-white Victorian — a marvel among passersby — she had no other choice. When the house sold in March, she moved her family to Oak Park, where they rent a condominium. “We really put our all into it,” Anderson said. “We reached out to the mayor, to our alderman, and there’s just no help for situations...

<p>But a short time later, Lightfoot brushed off Foxx’s claims and announced that she’d effectively circumvented her by asking U.S. Attorney John Lausch to review the evidence in the gang-related gunfight Friday morning in Austin that left one shooter dead and two suspects wounded.</p>

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and a group of City Council members urged Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx Monday to reconsider prosecuting five suspects in a deadly gang-related shootout last week in Austin after they were released when prosecutors rejected charges against them. Chicago police sought to charge all five suspects with murder and aggravated battery after they allegedly engaged in a Friday morning gunfight between two factions of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang, the Chicago Sun-Times first reported. The state’s attorney’s office, however, declined to charge any of them, calling the evidence insufficient. A police report further noted that...

But not Michael Andrew. He said he didn’t want it to interfere with his training, figuring it might cause him to miss a few days of practice. You know, side effects and all. The vaccine probably affected the training of Olympic gold medalists Ledecky and Manuel too, but they went ahead and got the shots, gladly doing their part to not only keep themselves safe, but also those around them, including their future Olympic swimming teammates. But Andrew? The 22-year-old who said he contracted COVID months ago decided he didn’t need to do any of that. Speaking on the YouTube...

WASHINGTON — Facebook has removed campaign ads by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that featured an upside-down red triangle, a symbol once used by Nazis to designate political prisoners, communists and others in concentration camps. Nathaniel Gleicher, the company’s head of security policy, confirmed at a House Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday that the ads had been removed, saying Facebook does not permit symbols of...

After peaceful protests of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd were marred by widespread vandalism and looting, city officials announced they would pay up to $1.2 million to three private security firms to avoid a repeat of last weekend’s mayhem. Over 100 private security guards from Monterrey Security, AGB Investigative Services and Illinois Security Professionals will be dispatched to retail corridors across the city - with a particular focus on the South and West sides, city officials said. The private guards will not be armed and will not have police powers, but are meant to be “another set of...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday she’s “very disappointed” in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for fanning the flames of fear about the spread of the coronavirus in the United States. Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, is warning Americans to start preparing now for “the expectation that this might be bad,” triggering a severe disruption in their daily lives. That may require what she called, “social distancing measures” that include smaller classes or closing schools, canceling meetings and conferences and allowing employees to work from home. Lightfoot essentially accused the federal...

Grumpy. Gruff. Stern. Steely. Unrelenting. All these adjectives aptly describe Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. She may not be someone you’d invite for a drink, Like her predecessor, Lightfoot brings a tough, take-no-prisoners style. Unlike her predecessor, she doesn’t pretend to be soft and fuzzy even in these lonely pandemic times. That’s a very good thing. She is pushing her citywide order with a stern, steely, unrelenting message: “Stay home. Save lives.”

Why risk provoking the Carol Moseley Braun defense? You know, when pointing out obvious deficiencies of public officials who are black is portrayed as a form of bigotry. Thus, if I observe, that Foxx wasn't ready for the job her main qualifications being a law degree and a cozy spot under the wing of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who elevated her for reasons mysterious then suddenly I'm Bull Connor tightening my grip around an axe handle. When in reality, the defense itself is racist: the racism of low expectations, the unsupportable notion that certain public figures are exempt...

How did hate crime huckster Jussie Smollett get away with it? All crooked roads in Chicago lead back to the Obamas. On Tuesday, as part of a sealed deal, the Illinois state attorney's office dismissed 16 felony charges brought by a grand jury against the Trump-hating actor, who blamed phantom white MAGA supporters for a brutal racist "assault" that left him with a teensy-weensy scratch under his eye. The day before the "attack," Smollett's two bodybuilding friends were caught on surveillance tape buying costumery (red hat, ski masks, bandanas, sunglasses and gloves) that just happened to match Smollett's descriptions of...

I knew nothing was ever going to change there,” (Kim) Foxx is quoted as saying. “It’s a fruitless effort when the boss knows the predator and says, ‘He’s a good dude.’ That was it for me, ..., I knew I couldn’t work... there, any longer.'” In her chapter of the book, (Lisa) Madigan speaks more generally about “inappropriate and uncomfortable comments” made to her at political events she attended with her parents. “When as a state senator, a man would come to my office or serial call my phone and leave 30, 40, 50 messages a day, I snuck around...

As the Chicago Sun-Times reported, “Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff said Wednesday that her behind-the-scenes communications with Cook County’s top prosecutor about the case involving actor Jussie Smollett were not intended at influencing the outcome of the case.” The former chief of staff is Tina Tchen, who said in a statement:  “I know members of the Smollett family based on prior work together. Shortly after Mr. Smollett reported he was attacked, as a family friend, I contacted Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who I also know from prior work together. My sole activity was to put the chief...

Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff said Wednesday that her behind-the-scenes communications with Cook County’s top prosecutor about the case involving actor Jussie Smollett were not intended at influencing the outcome of the case. Facing backlash following the decision Tuesday to drop felony charges that Smollett faked a hate crime against himself, Tina Tchen said she simply reached out to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to put her in touch with Smollett’s family after Smollett reported that he was a victim of an attack in River North. “I know members of the Smollett family based on prior work together,”...

Within months of the law’s passage, the state began borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars against the anticipated revenue. Bond documents claimed video gambling machines would raise $300 million each year to help cover the debt payments. It wasn’t until 2017, eight years after the legalization of video gambling, that the state came close to collecting that amount. By then, video gambling had brought in less than $1 billion to pay the bond debt — $1.3 billion short of what lawmakers anticipated. But the costs of video gambling had already exacted a heavy toll on the state.

Jesse Jackson was getting away with a big lie so well that the Chicago Sun-Times even wrote an editorial based on his phony claim. As the old, wry journalism joke goes, Jackson’s lie was so agreeable to the prejudices of MSM-ers, that it was “too good to check.” Enter the brave and scrappy bloggers at CWB Chicago, a neighborhood blog that: …was created in 2013 by five residents of Wrigleyville and Boystown who had grown disheartened with inaccurate information that was being provided at local Community Policing (CAPS) meetings. We knew from city data that robberies in our neighborhood had been soaring...

As the Trump Dynasty stumbles into misrule and failure, how long before the first well-known journalist gets murdered? With the president designating the news media as “enemies of the people,” unstable personalities like pipe-bomb mailer Cesar Sayoc and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter have been shaken loose from their moorings. Imitators surely will follow. Not that there’s anything new about it. Soreheads have been menacing journalists since the invention of newspapers. Recently, a man in Mountain Home, Arkansas, was charged with terroristic threatening after repeated phone calls targeting CNN’s Don Lemon. I wondered if he was the same idiot who used...

She beat Donald J. Trump last time. At least, by the popular vote. Can she do it again this time, for real? Hillary Clinton may be gearing up for a third run for president of the United States. Even as a two-time loser, she could be the Democratic Party’s best chance of ending the Trump presidency

JERUSALEM – Although the reporter involved denies she coordinated with the White House, speculation abounds over the genesis of the press conference inquiry last week by Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times, whose question about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. prompted a national race scandal involving President Obama. Several blogs have picked up on unanswered questions surrounding the event and have speculated that the White House may have coordinated the question. "Sweet was prepped, planted and performed on cue," was the title of a piece on The Real Barack Obama blog. "Lynn Sweet has earned her bones as a...