Free Republic

When asked whether President Donald Trump would still cut off law enforcement funds to the city of Chicago because it’s a sanctuary city even though it could hamper police from fighting violent crime, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said sanctuary cities can’t have it both ways — refusing to cooperate with federal immigration officials and still expecting to get law enforcement grants to handle a situation they created. “You can’t be a sanctuary city and at the same time seem to pretend or express concern about law enforcement or ask for more money when probably a number of the...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday questioned the legality of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ threat to cut or “claw back” Justice Department money to “sanctuary” cities and called it “a bit of a joke” at a time when DOJ funding is being cut. “I find it a little ironic. They said they were gonna cut or withhold monies on public safety. Did you look at the president’s budget that he introduced? He actually cut the Justice Department. So this is kind of like, in my view, a bit of a joke in that sense,” the mayor said at an unrelated news...

When bioethicist and oncologist Ezekiel Emanuel met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, the session revealed publicly what has been happening privately for months: A trusted ally of former President Barack Obama and chief architect of the Affordable Care Act is trying to help steer how Republicans take it apart.

Fox News announced Tuesday it has hired Obamacare architect Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel to serve as an on-air contributor. Emanuel has two famous brothers: Rahm Emanuel served as former President Barack Obama's chief of staff from 2009-2010 and has been the mayor of Chicago since 2011, while Ari Emanuel is a Hollywood talent agent. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, according to a press release, will appear on Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network to discuss healthcare and policy. Emanuel worked in the Obama administration from 2009-2011 as a special advisor on health policy to the director of the Office of Management and...

The man who managed former President Barack Obama’s campaign has been slapped with a $90,000 fine for using Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s private email account to lobby the mayor on behalf of ride-sharing giant Uber without registering as a lobbyist. Newly-appointed Chicago Board of Ethics Chairman Attorney William Conlon said the fine assessed against David Plouffe is the largest ever by the Chicago Board of Ethics. It represents $1,000 for every one of the 90 days that Plouffe failed to registered as a lobbyist after his November 2015 email to Emanuel on the mayor’s personal account. “Registration of lobbyists is important....

A former senior executive for Uber who once served as Barack Obama's campaign manager has been fined $90,000 by the Chicago Board of Ethics for illegally lobbying Mayor Rahm Emanuel on behalf of the ride-hailing company. The board voted 5-0 to find that David Plouffe violated city ethics rules by failing to register as a lobbyist after contacting Emanuel to help the company on regulations for picking up travelers at Chicago's two airports.

Uploaded on Mar 8, 2010 Here is audio of Democrat Rep. Eric Massa saying Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is the "Son of the Devil's Spawn." He also described an encounter he had with Emanuel in the House Gym's shower, where he said Emanuel approached him while he (Massa) was "naked as a jaybird" and started yelling at him: "I am showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me." "He is an individual who would sell his mother to...

... Instead, he said, Democrats should focus on the GOP. "Wherever there's a disagreement among Republicans, I'm for one of those disagreements," he said. "I'm all for it. The president's with Russia? I'm with John McCain and Lindsey Graham, I'm for NATO! Why? (It's a) wedge. Wedges have to be schisms, schisms have to be divides."

Two days after President Donald Trump told a national television audience that Mayor Rahm Emanuel needed to "smarten up and toughen up" on fighting gun violence, the mayor held a carefully-orchestrated news conference to discuss Chicago's "smart-policing strategy." As Emanuel summoned a swarm of cameras to the 7th District Police Station in Englewood Friday to highlight new police cameras and gunshot tracking technology, sources said the Police Department's top brass was busy carrying out an order to flood the city's most violent neighborhoods with extra officers this weekend. In a Tuesday night tweet in which he said he "will send...

The most important statement in the Justice Department’s damning report on the Chicago Police Department has nothing to do with police behavior. Released on Friday, the report found the Chicago police guilty of a “pattern or practice” of unconstitutional force. But it turns out that the Justice Department has no standard for what constitutes a “pattern or practice” (the phrase comes from a 1994 federal statute) of unconstitutional police conduct. “Statistical evidence is not required” for a “pattern or practice” finding, the DOJ lawyers announce, citing unrelated court precedent. Nor is there “a specific number of incidents” required to constitute...

As City Hall prepares to borrow $1.2 billion, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has asked a Wall Street debt ratings agency that’s been highly critical of Chicago’s finances to withdraw its evaluation of city creditworthiness, the administration disclosed Tuesday. The mayor contends that the junk status placed on the city’s debt by Moody’s Investors Service drives up borrowing costs covered by taxpayers and does not reflect the steps he has taken to fix the city’s finances. “It has become increasingly clear that Moody’s rating methodology and agenda are far from objective and independent,” Emanuel wrote to Raymond McDaniel Jr., president and CEO...

WATCH: Man ‘Tied Up & Tortured’ on Facebook Live in Chicago Published 6:40 pm EST, January 4, 2017 Updated 8:11 pm EST, January 4, 2017 7 Comments By Tom Cleary 6.3k

An alderman indicted on corruption charges while he sat in a City Council meeting is merely the latest in a rogues’ gallery of elected officials to face such allegations in Chicago, a city that over the years became saddled with a national reputation for corruption. Willie Cochran — who pleaded not guilty Friday to bribery, extortion and wire fraud charges — received word of his indictment last week while he sat in the City Hall chamber, fellow aldermen stopping by for hushed conversations. According to Illinois corruption researchers Dick Simpson and Thomas Gradel, more than 30 Chicago aldermen have been...

Illinois losing 1 resident every 4.6 minutes, could fall behind Pennsylvania in population Jobs + Growth / Article December 20, 2016 Illinois has record loss of 114,000 residents to other states in 2016 as population shrinks by 37,500. Imagine the entire population of Peoria, Illinois’ seventh-largest city, all picking up and moving across state lines in one year, never to work, pay taxes or create jobs in Illinois again. That’s equivalent to what happened to Illinois over the past year: New migration data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that from July 2015 to July 2016, Illinois lost 114,000 people,...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with President-elect Donald Trump in New York on Wednesday morning, using the discussion to urge Trump to reconsider his positions on immigration. During his 45-minute meeting with the president-elect in his personal office high above Manhattan in Trump Tower, Emanuel hand-delivered a letter from the mayors of some of the nation's largest cities urging Trump to continue protections offered to young immigrants instituted under President Barack Obama's administration. The two-page letter asked Trump to continue Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the provision that protects young, so-called Dreamers who came to the country before the age...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday kept up his postelection push to position himself as a protector of immigrants against President-elect Donald Trump, announcing the creation of a $1 million "legal protection fund" to help those fighting possible deportation. The fund was created in partnership with the National Immigrant Justice Center to "provide immediate legal information, screenings, consultations and representation to individuals who may be at risk for deportation," according to a news release from Emanuel's office. The money will come from the $20 million the city set aside for Emanuel's property tax rebate program, according to city spokeswoman Jennifer Martinez.

November was another bloody month in Chicago, ending with more than twice as many homicides as during the same month last year. The 77 homicides recorded in November 2016 mark the highest death toll for that month in nearly a quarter century. The increase comes as the city and police department scramble to bring the number of killings down with initiatives targeting high crime areas and a plan to add 970 new police positions. …

Last year, the Emanuel administration slipped through a tax on streaming video and cloud computing. Now, again without public hearings, City Hall is targeting bars and restaurants with a surcharge on satellite TV feeds. Earlier this month, the city served notice that its 9 percent amusement tax applies to businesses that subscribe to satellite TV services. The impact likely will be felt most by public spaces that buy premium subscriptions for NFL and college games that can easily run $5,000 to $10,000 a year, meaning their annual taxes would come to at least $450. "This is obviously a huge concern...

The president-elect's former agent is said to be hoping to discuss some of Trump's initial appointments. Is the president-elect soliciting help from his former Hollywood agent in selecting a cabinet? Ari Emanuel, the co-CEO of entertainment and sports powerhouse WME-IMG, was spotted at the Trump National Golf Course in New Jersey on Sunday, and a WME-IMG source confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that a meeting is set for this afternoon. The exact nature of the sit-down is unclear, but the Democratic stalwart Emanuel is said to be uninterested in a job in the Trump administration and instead hopes to discuss...

The mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, has announced that Chicago will remain a sanctuary city and that it will not cooperate with ICE and defy any orders given by a President Donald Trump. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel promised Monday to defy President-elect Donald Trump’s deportation orders and vowed that the city will always be a so-called sanctuary city. Chicago laws prohibit government workers and police officers from asking the locals about their immigration status, according to the Chicago Tribune. Emanuel reaffirmed that the policy will continue. "To all those who are, after Tuesday's election, very nervous and filled with anxiety...