Free Republic

A jury found four former Commonwealth Edison executives and lobbyists guilty of bribery-related charges Tuesday as part of an eight-year conspiracy scheme centered around former Democratic Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. In the highest-profile corruption case in Illinois in more than a decade, the jury convicted the defendants on all counts. "We're tired of political corruption," juror Amanda Schnitker Sayers said after the verdict. "We're hoping this is a first step." The Chicago veterinarian put the blame on Madigan. "He really did cause this all to happen," she said. Although Madigan wasn't on trial, the longest-serving state legislative leader in...

Lawmakers from both parties have called for John Lausch to keep his job President Joe Biden is forcing Chicago's top federal prosecutor to resign amid ongoing criminal probes of powerful Illinois Democrats and their associates. U.S. attorney John Lausch is prosecuting close confidants of Democrat boss Mike Madigan, an ally of former president Barack Obama who resigned from the state legislature Thursday after a decades-long reign in Springfield. Lausch's office will also prosecute Chicago alderman Edward Burke (D.), an influential figure accused of strong-arming businesses into retaining his law firm. Lausch's abrupt removal has drawn bipartisan criticism from Illinois lawmakers...

“There’s something about a good bomb . . . night after night, day after day, each majestic scene I witnessed was so terrible and unexpected that no city would ever again stand innocently fixed in my mind.” So said William Ayers, yet another of Barack Obama’s miscreant friends. Despite the campaign’s ludicrous talking points about Obama being a mere child of eight when Ayers was planting bombs, there is no question that the relationship between Barack Obama is of long standing. Doing yeoman’s work, Stanley Kurtz has researched the Ayers/Obama connection and found that the unrepentant domestic terrorist’s tentacles run...

Two green energy companies contributed a quarter of a million dollars to the American Indian tribe spearheading a months-long demonstration against an oil pipeline in North Dakota. Standing Rock Sioux voted unanimously April 5 to accept two $150,000 donations from ConEdison Development and Fagen Inc., both of which have partnered up to build windmills in the North Dakota area, according to internal documents kept by the tribe. ConEdison Development acquired land near Standing Rock’s reservation and began construction on a wind power facility last year. Fagen was a contractor on the project. The $250,000 donations to the tribe were meant...