Free Republic

CHICAGO - After Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired Garry McCarthy from his post as Chicago police chief amid the Laquan McDonald shooting fallout, protesters danced in the streets. However, CBS Chicago reports that while the protesters had gotten their wish with McCarthy's ouster, they said they wanted more, and have set their sights on Mayor Emanuel and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez for their handling of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald by Police Officer Jason Van Dyke. Van Dyke has been charged with murder for McDonald's death, and video of the shooting released last week shows him shooting...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday fiercely resisted calls to follow his police superintendent in stepping down, even as the city continues to roil over the dashcam video released last week showing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being shot by police. Asked at a POLITICO Playbook event whether he planned to resign, the notoriously brazen Emanuel sneered and made light of the question. “No, because I really so much look forward to this interview and I wanted to have it. I just felt so good saying that to you,” Emanuel said, explaining that Chicago voters already put their faith in him. ~SNIP~...

The University of Chicago has canceled all classes and activities at its Hyde Park campus after being warned by the FBI of an online threat of gun violence there. In an alert sent out to the campus community, university president Robert Zimmer said FBI counterterrorism officials said the threat, posted by an unknown individual, specifically mentioned "'the campus quad' on Monday morning at 10 a.m." "Based on the FBI's assessment of this threat and recent tragic events at other campuses across the country, we have decided in consultation with federal and local law enforcement officials, to exercise caution by canceling...

In an interview published November 25, actress Angela Bassett suggested some Chicago leaders are having trouble with Spike Lee’s film Chi-Raq because they are embarrassed by the gun violence in their city. “Chi-Raq” is a nickname given to Chicago because the violence in parts of the city is reminiscent of a war-zone like Iraq. According to The Wrap, Bassett said the “bloodshed” in Chicago’s black communities is “completely and utterly wasteful, shameful, hurtful to the core.” She said that Lee is trying to use his movie “to just bring some awareness….It’s a good picture, it’s very positive.” Bassett said she...

At least eight people have died and 41 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago this Fourth of July weekend.

St. Sabina holds ‘Chiraq’ block party Posted 5:20 PM, June 13, 2015, by Erik Runge CHICAGO — Permit or not, Father Michael Pfleger’s St. Sabina block party was going to happen Saturay. The alderman who first tried to block the permit, because Spike Lee and his cast of “Chiraq” was involved, ended up changing his mind. The star of this year’s St. Sabina block party may be film maker Spike Lee, but it’s the name of his new film that’s really been hogging the spotlight.

Chicago (CNN)Violence in this great American city matures so notoriously that film director Spike Lee now purportedly seeks a new nickname for the Windy City: Chiraq. The name merges Chi-town with Iraq -- as if Chicago sinks like the godforsaken Iraq, a hopeless war zone to the world.

A reference to the gun violence that has left parts of Chicago feeling like a war zone to many residents, the word is believed to have been coined by local rappers years ago. But it is taking on another life as the working title of a new Spike Lee movie that is expected to be filmed here this summer. Local politicians have lined up against the title. Mr. Lee has been confronted by Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, who told him in a meeting last month that he was “not happy” about the name.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he’s been in touch with the families of the dozen people killed by gunfire this weekend, including a four-year-old girl. He also talked to reporters and police about the more than three dozen people wounded as well, reports WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore. Mayor Emanuel attended a luncheon honoring police officers for valor and service above and beyond the call and he acknowledged this was a weekend with far too many shootings and deaths. He says it will take more than police officers to quell the violence, it will take community action and it will take...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he told film director Spike Lee that he's not happy the working title of Lee's upcoming motion picture is "Chiraq." The word suggests the city is as dangerous as the war zone in Iraq. "We had an honest, frank conversation," Emanuel said. Emanuel said he suggested the name would be offensive to the many good people who live in the Englewood neighborhood where the film takes place. The mayor says he thinks that the subject Lee told him his film would deal with - black-on-black violence - is an important topic that...

Five people were killed and at least 15 others have been wounded in separate shootings across the city since Friday evening, including eight shot within the first 30 minutes of June. The most recent fatal shooting happened early Sunday in the Austin neighborhood, when a teenage boy was killed and five others were wounded. The six were standing in a group at the intersection of West Ferdinand Street and North Lavergne Avenue about 12:30 a.m. when several shooters emerged from a nearby alley and opened fire, police said.

Two men were killed and at least 26 other people have been injured in shootings across Chicago since Friday night. The most recent fatal shooting happened about 11:30 p.m. Saturday in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side. Kendall Floyd, 20, was in the 3400 block of West Madison Street when someone in a white minivan drove up and fired shots, striking him in his head and chest, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Floyd, who lived on the same block he was shot, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced...

A gang-related drive-by shooting in the River North neighborhood left a man dead and three others wounded early Sunday morning, the four among at least 18 people shot since 11 a.m. Saturday. The River North shooting happened in the 500 block of West Erie Street about 3:10 a.m. At least one person in a passing sedan opened fire after shouting gang slogans toward the four, who police say are also gang members.

Forty-four people were shot over the last three days in a bloody epidemic sweeping Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago. Yet CBS has, thus far, ignored the crime wave. In contrast, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS This Morning on Tuesday both briefly covered the violence in the city run by Barack Obama’s former chief of staff. […] Even though CBS allowed no time for tragic news out of Chicago, the network’s morning show devoted four minutes to a possible maple syrup shortage. …

While everyone's attention is focused on the Detroit bankruptcy, and just what assets the city will sell in lieu of raising a DIP loan, perhaps it is time to refocus attention to the city 300 miles west: Chicago. According to the Chicago Sun Times citing year-end audits, Obama's former right hand man, Rahm Emanuel, closed the books on 2012 with $33.4 million in unallocated cash on hand — down from $167 million the year before — while adding to the mountain of debt piled on Chicago taxpayers. In addition to a liquidity problem, Chicago may also be quite insolvent as...

dhensley813 wrote: The city of Chicago really had no option but to curtail the benefits of retirees. It's not as bankrupt as Detroit, but it was getting there. Obamacare wasn't so much the reason the city cut retiree insurance, as the excuse it gave them to say that they weren't really being dropped. - Obama Solves Mass-Layoff Problem by Laying Off Mass-Layoff Statistics Guys at BLS Dear Comrade 813, I think they had no choice once they negotiated a contract that allowed retirees to have benefits that the city knew it couldn’t afford. That’s outrageous enough. But to make matters...

Charges have been filed in the death of a Cicero restaurant owner who was shot in the chest after he confronted a robber who was holding a gun to his wife's head near the cash register, police said this morning. Matthew A. Brown-Turner, 25, has been charged with murder and attempted armed robbery in the fatal shooting of Giovanni Donancricchia, 64, early Thursday morning. He is due in bond court this morning.

The 77-year-old, whose presidency of France ran from 1995 until 2007, could face a ten-year prison sentence and 150,000-euro (£130,000) fine if found guilty. He will be the first modern French leader to face a corruption trial. Mr Chirac faces charges of abuse of public funds while he was mayor of Paris. It is alleged that he paid 21 allies for doing non-existent jobs as part of his drive for power in the 1990s. Last month, the Socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, agreed to drop the town hall's civil lawsuit against Mr Chirac in exchange for 2.2 million euros...

Judges could come knocking over at least five cases involving suspected corruption and alleged financial misdeeds, most dating to Chirac's time as Paris mayor from 1977 to 1995 — the year he became president. It's unlikely that Chirac, 74, would ever go to jail, but the cases loom as a humiliating coda to his four-decade political career. Since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958, a former head of state has never been required to answer allegations of wrongdoing from earlier in his career.

PARIS, Jan. 31 — President Jacques Chirac has demanded that the United States sign both the Kyoto climate protocol and a future agreement that will take effect when the Kyoto accord runs out in 2012. He said that he welcomed last week’s State of the Union address in which President Bush described climate change as a “serious challenge” and acknowledged that a growing number of American politicians now favor emissions cuts. But he warned that if the United States did not sign the agreements, a carbon tax across Europe on imports from nations that have not signed the Kyoto treaty...