Free Republic

VIDEO It's a miracle! In the Democrat primary race for Cook County State's Attorney the law and order candidate, Eileen O'Neil Burke, was leading her standard Democrat (meaning NOT law and order) opponent by over 10,000 votes in the March 19 primary election. And then the miracle happened! A few days after the election 10,000 uncounted ballots were found! And then, miracle of miracles, almost all of those ballots were cast for the leftist candidate opposed to law and order. And WHO counted those votes? Why a radical leftist defund the police communications director for the Chicago Board of Elections,...

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The gap in the race for Cook County State's Attorney has narrowed even more. The Chicago Board of Elections added more than 10,000 votes to its total count on Saturday after its director of public information said he mistakenly left out some vote-by-mail ballots. The unofficial count now stands at 368,990 ballots cast after the 10,659 additional votes were added, bringing the citywide turnout to 24.44%. There are 1,509,554 active registered voters. "In adding up the total number of Vote By Mail ballots the Board had received back so far, I mistakenly left out additional ballots that...

In a surprise move, an Illinois judge has removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s ballot based on the 14th Amendment’s so-called “insurrectionist ban.” The decision is paused, giving Trump a short period of time to appeal.

Cook County, or Chicagoland, has a higher illiteracy rate than Illinois, as well as the rest of the nation, which is either proof that the Democrats suck at successful policy-making, or dumbing down the people is the agenda. Here’s this, from a new education report by Hannah Schmid at the Illinois Policy Institute:One-fifth of Illinois adults are functionally illiterate, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.…In Cook County, 25% of adults are functionally illiterate.So what does it mean to be a “functionally illiterate” adult? Well according to Schmid, the functionally illiterate person “cannot understand the meaning of sentences, locate...

CHICAGO — Four months after hearing arguments, the Illinois Supreme Court will release an opinion on Tuesday that will either eliminate cash bail in the state or keep it as the law of the land. The court “anticipates” releasing its opinion in Rowe v. Raoul at 9 a.m., according to a statement. The state legislature sweeping criminal justice legislation passed in 2021, known as the SAFE-T Act, banned using cash deposits as a pre-trial release “surety” effective January 1, 2023. But dozens of state’s attorneys, sheriffs, and other local officials filed lawsuits challenging the law’s constitutionality. Those cases were combined...

CHICAGO — Prosecutors yesterday charged Nicolas Ramirez, 20, with carjacking a woman at gunpoint in Little Village on Tuesday. Ramirez was on bail for another armed carjacking case and on probation for a felony gun case at the time. And, for good measure, he had warrants out on both cases because he stopped showing up for his court dates. When we report stories like the one you’re about to read, people often ask us, “How in the world was that person out on the streets?” It depends. But, in the case of Nicolas Ramirez, the answer is Cook County Judge...

The victim was 32 weeks pregnant at the time of her murder. Court documents suggest that the fatal shooting of a pregnant woman in downtown Seattle on Tuesday was unprovoked. Suspect Cordell Maurice Goosby, 30, who is a convicted felon with a history of mental health issues, allegedly approached the victim's vehicle and shot the 34-year-old pregnant woman four times, including in the head, which resulted in the death of her unborn baby. The victim Elna Kwon was 32 weeks pregnant at the time of her murder, court records show. Following the shooting, the victim was transported to Harborview Medical...

CHICAGO (CBS) –Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke Friday in favor of a basic income guarantee program at a conference held in Chicago. "We are ushering in a more dynamic, prosperous economy by giving people a guarantee that their lives have meaning," Johnson said. About 3,200 families are receiving direct payments in the first-ever Cook County Promise Guaranteed Income pilot program for low-earning households.

It was remarkable news in 2021 when the Cook County State’s Attorney Office, run by Soros-supported Kim Foxx, refused to prosecute any of the 5 people arrested after a gang shootout on the streets of Chicago. The reason given would have in effect legalized gang shootouts from that point on. You see, both sides were firing at each other. As I wrote at the time:[H]ow many more shooting matches will start now that the word is going out that you can escape charges in a gang shootout -- even if someone is killed -- if both sides are shooting? (snip)Tom...

Editor’s note: On May 20, 2023, the Cook County medical examiner’s office stated that the woman has died. The agency identified her as Linda Chattman, 39, of Chicago. Alton Mills, a 54-year-old man whose federal life sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in 2015, now faces the potential of another life sentence after officials accused him of shooting and gravely wounding a woman on an expressway in suburban Chicago this week. Mills was held without bail by Judge Thomas Carroll during a bond hearing on Tuesday. Prosecutors told Carroll that the woman Mills allegedly shot was brain dead. She...

In a rare and hilarious sighting, a giant snapping turtle was caught on video in the Chicago River. This video is going viral and for good reason! This isn't your average snapping turtle. This big boy has been dubbed "Chonkosaurus," and the guy who caught it on camera just made my day. Joey Santore was kayaking with his friend last weekend when they spotted the turtle sunbathing on some rusty chains and rotting logs – in pure bliss and relaxation. Santore was stunned, so he started filming, and his commentary was just perfect. Look at this guy. We got a...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Kim Foxx will not seek reelection in 2024 after serving two terms as Cook County state's attorney. She made the big announcement at the City Club of Chicago Tuesday afternoon, saying "I leave now with my head held high and my heart full." She also spoke one-on-one with ABC7 Chicago in her only sit-down television interview on her decision and legacy in office. Foxx told Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson of her decision on Monday, and called him "the man of the moment," whose election reminds her of her own first win in 2016. Foxx became the first African...

Dozens of Cook County employees have resigned or been fired in ongoing investigations of fraud in COVID-19 relief programs. Forty-eight employees of Cook County Clerk of Court Iris Martinez “no longer work” for the office after they were found to have defrauded the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which was enacted to provide forgivable loans to help struggling businesses stay in business in 2020 and 2021 during the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic. Nationally, most of the loans in the federal Small Business Administration’s fraud-plagued program were forgiven, meaning the businesses’ owners didn’t have to pay back any of...

his is not the way to get ready for the Super Bowl. The food service director of an impoverished Illinois school district was charged with stealing $1.5 million of food — most of which was chicken wings. Vera Liddell, 66, alleging began stealing from the Harvey School District during the heigh of COVID-19, local TV station WGN station reported. The station reported that Liddell ordered more than 11,000 cases of chicken wings for the district with school funds, but took all the poultry for herself. “The food was never brought to the school or provided to the students,” court records...

The food service director of an impoverished Illinois school district was charged with stealing $1.5 million of food — most of which was chicken wings. Vera Liddell, 66, allegedly began stealing from the Harvey School District during the height of COVID-19, local TV station WGN reported. The station reported that Liddell ordered more than 11,000 cases of chicken wings for the district with school funds, but took all the poultry for herself. “The food was never brought to the school or provided to the students,” court records claimed.

Crime Former school official accused of embezzling $1.5 million worth of chicken wings January 31, 2023 / 7:27 AM / CBS News A former official in a school district in the Chicago suburb of Harvey is accused in a bizarre scheme involving more than $1 million worth of stolen chicken wings, CBS Chicago reports. Vera Liddell is the former director of food services at Harvey School District 152. The Cook County State's Attorney's office alleges that Liddell launched an embezzlement scheme that resulted in the theft of wings that cost more than $1.5 million in taxpayer money. The alleged scheme...

Illinois Cook County prosecutors have dropped state sex-crime charges against singer Robert Sylvester Kelly, known as R. Kelly. The charges that have been dropped are aggravated criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse counts involving four accusers, three of them minors. On Monday, County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said that they are being dropped in part because of the prison sentences he is already facing for his federal convictions. Kelly had been charged in federal courts in New York and Chicago after Foxx’s office filed charges in 2019.

Carjackings have been making headlines in Chicago for nearly two years. But what is the punishment for a carjacker convicted of hijacking someone’s vehicle in Cook County? According to sentencing data from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, defendants convicted of hijacking charges between January 2017 and the end of 2021 received an average sentence of 9.4 years. Kim Foxx assumed leadership of the office in December 2016. In the seven years before Foxx was sworn in, hijacking convictions carried an average sentence of 12.4 years. CWBChicago pulled some court records to find the outcomes of some carjacking cases we...

Perhaps the most influential judge who is up for retention in the current election cycle is Timothy C. Evans, the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County. The chief judge does not hear cases, but he heavily influences the county’s justice system through judicial assignments, policy decisions, the operation of an electronic monitoring program for people awaiting trial, and management of the adult probation department and juvenile detention programs. Evans, 79, was a Chicago alderman from 1973 to 1991, when he lost a re-election campaign. He became a Cook County judge in 1992 and rose to chief judge...

Residents, which includes illegal immigrants, of Cook County, Illinois, will be eligible to apply. To receive the assistance, applicants must be adult residents of Cook County, which includes parts of Chicago, and make an income of below 250% of the federal poverty level. ***** The government's press release state’s that 36% of county residents are eligible to apply, and the program is funded through the American Rescue Plan, which was launched to help struggling Americans dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.