Free Republic

A federal lawsuit aiming to halt the construction of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park is getting bigger. Three separate groups on Tuesday filed amicus briefs joining the original suit filed by Protect Our Parks, alleging that it would be illegal for the Obama Foundation to go forward with the project in federally protected parkland. The groups Preservation Chicago and Jackson Park Watch, composed of community members who have been opposed to the project from the beginning, argue that there is no precedent for a museum to be built on protected parkland, contrary to claims the city and Obama...

President Obama forcefully told West Point graduates Wednesday that the U.S. must lead on climate change, just days before the administration is expected to announce the cornerstone of his climate legacy. Obama railed against climate change skeptics, saying they make it harder for nations to cooperate in the fight against global warming. "We can’t call on others to make commitments to combat climate change if so many of our political leaders deny that it is taking place," Obama said on Wednesday. "You see, American influence is always stronger when we lead by example. We cannot exempt ourselves from the rules...

President Donald Trump wants everyone to have a Merry Christmas. Except for the White House Press Corps, that is. Or for most of its members, anyway, the ones who in his eyes -- and the eyes of many others -- will not give him a fair shake no matter what he does. They are not worthy of a merry anything. That is why Trump canceled the Christmas party, a cancellation that came after the media downplayed or ignored the president's attendance at the wreath ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery last week. Had he not gone it would have been...

In his speech in El Paso on immigration reform on May 10, 2011, President Obama declared that the fence along the border with Mexico is "now basically complete." Still, he predicted that many Republican opponents won't be satisfied. "We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement," Obama said. "All the stuff they asked for, we’ve done. But even though we’ve answered these concerns, I’ve got to say I suspect there are still going to be some who are trying to move...

Former President Obama came bearing donuts at an appearance in Fairfax, Virginia with Virginia Democrats Sen. Tim Kaine and State Senator Jennifer Wexton Monday. Obama reminded the campaign workers that he, like Wexton, had also been a state senator, which he called "great training" for Congress. "You remind me of me when I was your age," Obama told the young campaign workers, and he recalled that he had been "kind of a goof-off until my junior year," when he recognized that there was more to life. It seemed, he said, "like the people I respect live their lives for some...

The legal fight over a 2016 lower court ruling upholding Obama-era net neutrality regulations aimed at ensuring a free and open internet - rules that have since been repealed by President Donald Trump’s administration - came to a formal end on Monday, with the U.S. Supreme Court declining to take up the matter. The Trump administration and internet service providers had asked to justices to wipe away the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that had temporarily preserved the net neutrality regulations championed by Democratic former President Barack Obama. But the justices refused...

Former President Barack Obama is hitting the campaign trail in the final days before the midterm elections, stumping for Democratic candidates in critical races in states such as Illinois, Georgia and Florida. Obama has ramped up his campaign appearances in recent weeks. The case Obama is making is somewhat similar to one that President Trump has made in his rallies, on the importance of voting in the midterm elections even though neither man is on the ballot. It's not unusual for former presidents to make campaign appearances after their tenure. But Obama is campaigning against Mr. Trump's agenda and Republican...

President Obama slams President Trump and the Republican Party with gloves off for "blatantly, repeatedly, baldly, shamelessly, lying" while campaigning Friday afternoon in Milwaukee, Wisconsin:

A City Council committee took the first step Thursday toward approving legislation that outlines how the Obama Foundation can use Jackson Park and the Obama Presidential Center once it is built. And for the first time, the committee revealed language in the legislation that seeks to protect current homeowners and residents who live closest to the selected site. As part of their agreement, which the panel approved unanimously, the city will monitor property values and other indicators of demographic changes near the center site. If there are dramatic changes, the city will implement measures to keep residents in their homes,...

Former President Barack Obama is expanding his influence ahead of November's midterm elections. On Monday, he released a second slate of endorsements for Democrats running for offices ranging from local to national, bringing the total to more than 300. Among the most prominent candidates to win Obama's support are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congressional candidate who won an upset primary victory this summer in New York; Andrew Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor who is running for governor in Florida; and Kyrsten Sinema, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Arizona. While the candidates that Obama endorsed stretch up and down the ballot...

The Obama Foundation spent nearly $12 million on programming last year, including its star-studded international summit that brought leaders, elected officials and world-renowned activists to a two-day conference in the South Loop, newly released records show. The foundation also spent about $5 million paying its architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien to design the Obama Presidential Center campus, according to tax documents that were filed Tuesday morning. **SNIP** In 2017, the foundation raised about $232 million in contributions from private donors. It spent the bulk of its income — about $21.3 million — on operations, salaries and programs, the tax...

Vanecko and Davis. Their firm made millions in fees even as retirement plans for teachers, cops, other Chicago city workers suffered big losses. A dozen years ago, five financially strapped city of Chicago pension funds invested $68 million in a shaky real estate deal put together by a former boss of resident Barack Obama and a nephew of Mayor Richard M. Daley. It was a high-risk investment. Allison S. Davis — who once headed a small Chicago law firm that gave Obama his first job out of Harvard Law School — and Daley nephew Robert G. Vanecko even warned in...

**SNIP** And when President Obama tried to take credit for the current economic boom— "When you hear how great the economy's doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started"— you could practically hear the heads exploding across Trump Country. Yes, it's true that the economy recovered after the Great Recession. What Trump supporters know but people who rarely consume conservative media content likely don't, is that the economic recovery under Barack Obama was the slowest since World War II. Obama's recovery was so awful that in August of 2011— two years after the $1 trillion stimulus was passed—the...

VIENNA - Iran has remained within the main restrictions on its nuclear activities imposed by a 2015 deal with major powers, a confidential report by the U.N. atomic watchdog indicated on Thursday. In its last report in May, the IAEA had said Iran could do more to cooperate with inspectors and thereby “enhance confidence”, but stopped short of saying the Islamic Republic had given it cause for concern. Thursday’s report to member states seen by Reuters contained similar language. It said the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog was able to carry out all so-called complementary access inspections needed to verify Iran’s...

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Parma Heights man who spent 22 years in prison before President Barack Obama granted him clemency is headed back to prison for a separate drug case. Antwon Rogers, 47, pleaded guilty Wednesday to drug possession, a third-degree felony, in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Judge Michael Shaughnessy sentenced him to nine months in prison. Rogers could spend additional time in prison if a federal judge determines the guilty plea constitutes a violation of the terms of his probation in a prior federal drug case. In that case, Rogers was sentenced to life in prison in January...

Christopher Steele expressed concern last year at a Senate committee’s request for information about the former British spy’s anti-Trump dossier, according to text messages recently provided to Congress. “Would it be possible to speak later today please? We’re very concerned by the Grassley letter and it’s possible implications for us, our operations and our sources. We need some reassurances,” Steele wrote in a March 7, 2017 text message to Bruce Ohr, who then served as deputy assistant attorney general. Steele, a former MI6 officer, was seemingly referring to a March 6, 2017 letter that Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chairman...

**SNIP** The federal lawsuit filed in May might seem a legal long shot, since the center is an ode to Obama, the city's favorite son. But Caplan's challenge forced the city last month to reveal that the Obama Center isn't quite the done deal that many Chicagoans think it is: The city hasn't reached key agreements or a lease with the foundation, and those pacts will require another new city ordinance to be passed sometime soon. "The City Council has yet to introduce, much less enact, an ordinance authorizing the construction and operation of the center," the city's corporation counsel,...

VALDOSTA, Ga. (AP) - Residents of a Georgia city are pushing to change the name of a residential street to Barack Obama Boulevard. **SNIP** Rose says the name should be changed because Valdosta city leaders named Forrest Street in April 1883 for Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was also an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Last week’s arrest of Marina Butina, the 29-year-old operative who allegedly wielded sex as a weapon to spy for Russia, revealed not one but two channels into American power pursued by Russian intelligence. We’ve known for a while now that the Russians have attempted to use the NRA, and America’s love affair with guns, to shape the nation’s politics. But Butina’s other “backdoor” was more surprising: the faith community, which she infiltrated through the National Prayer Breakfast. The annual National Prayer Breakfast dates back to 1953, and every US president since Eisenhower has regularly attended, along with much of Congress,...

In his first major speech since leaving office, former President Barack Obama endorsed the idea of providing a universal basic income. Speaking at the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in South Africa on Tuesday, Obama raised the notion of guaranteed income as a way to reduce what he called "yawning disparities" in wealth, education, and security across different socioeconomic groups. "It's not just money that a job provides," said Obama. "It provides dignity and structure and a sense of place and a sense of purpose. So we're going to have to consider new ways of thinking about these problems, like a...