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The typical explanation for Chicago’s gang violence is as follows. Young gang members in small, disorganized cliques shoot each other over petty personal feuds that they play out on social media with the hope of gaining street notoriety and possibly fame as a rapper. This type of killing came into vogue in 2012 when a rapper and Gangster Disciples gang-member Lil Jo Jo was killed after making a music video threatening to kill members of rapper Chief Keef’s Black Disciples clique. Lil Jo Jo’s video was a response to Keef’s “3hunna” music video in which he disses the Gangster Disciples....

Chicago Anti-Second Amendment Politician Victim of Armed Robbery Aaron Goldstein, above, is an ambitious Chicago politician and Progressive lawyer. He was campaigning in his ward in Chicago when he and his crew were robbed at gunpoint by three young men. The robbery took place on Thursday afternoon, 11 January, 2018.From the chicagotribune.com: The robbery took place about 3:25 p.m. in the 4600 block of North Albany Avenue in Albany Park, when three men in their early 20s approached them, according to a law-enforcement source.One of the men flashed a handgun and demanded the camera equipment and other personal belongings from...

An avowed anti-Semite, Holocaust denier and former leader of the American Nazi Party is set to become the Republican nominee for a congressional seat in Illinois, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Sunday. Arthur Jones, 70, is running unopposed in the GOP primary for Illinois' 3rd Congressional District on March 20, making him a shoo-in to face the Democratic incumbent in the November election. Jones has stood for public office many times since the 1970s, always unsuccessfully.

A Chicago rapper who filmed himself in a music video with a gun at a Deerfield hotel was sentenced recently to 15 years in prison. The aspiring rapper, Ricardo Burgos, 31, possessed the gun in January 2016 and he can be seen in the video holding two firearms while rapping about selling drugs, committing acts of violence and disrespecting law enforcement, according to a release by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He performs under the name Nation, and he had been previously arrested and convicted of multiple felonies and he was not legally allowed to possess a firearm, according to...

Only GOP member to throw hat in ring in district covering parts of Chicago, Arthur Jones praises Hitler, says Shoah was an 'international racket,' calls Trump a 'Jew-loving fool' A noted Holocaust denier and unambiguous anti-Semite is slated to become the Republican nominee for a US House seat representing parts of Chicago and its nearby southwestern suburbs. Arthur Jones has been a perennial candidate for that seat since the 1990s, but has never come anywhere close to being a serious contender. This year, he is the only Republican on the ballot, leaving him poised to clinch the nomination on March...

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.) will introduce immigration legislation on Monday in an effort to reach a budget deal before the federal government's current funding runs out on Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The bipartisan piece of legislation provides recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, commonly known as "Dreamers," an opportunity for citizenship while ordering a study to figure out what border security measures are needed, according to the Journal. DACA aimed to protect from deportation certain immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally when they were children. Senate aides told the Journal...

Democratic Senators are rejecting President Donald Trump’s four-part amnesty-and-immigration reform, and are instead working with business-first GOP Senators to pass an amnesty with only token reforms. “There is not likely to be a DACA deal, though we’re working every single day, on telephone calls and person to person, to try to reach this bipartisan agreement,” Sen. Dick Durbin told Jake Tapper on the February 4 edition of CNN’s State of the Union. Durbin said the Democrats would not stage another shutdown, but declared: I think we’re making real progress. I want to salute the moderates in both the Republicans and...

Arthur Jones — an outspoken Holocaust denier, activist anti-Semite and white supremacist — is poised to become the Republican nominee for an Illinois congressional seat representing parts of Chicago and nearby suburbs. “Well first of all, I’m running for Congress not the chancellor of Germany. All right. To me the Holocaust is what I said it is: It’s an international extortion racket,” Jones told the Chicago Sun-Times. Indeed, Jones’ website for his latest congressional run includes a section titled “The ‘Holocaust Racket’” where he calls the genocide carried out by the German Nazi regime and collaborators in other nations “the...

A Republican lawmaker trying to unseat Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner is standing by a campaign ad that has been blasted as racist and homophobic, despite the state party chairman's call for her to stop airing it and apologize. State Rep. Jeanne Ives, a social and fiscal conservative, said the ad that began airing this weekend illustrates the GOP governor's "chosen constituents based on the policy choices he made" and primary voters need to know about his record. The ad features actors portraying, among others, a transgender woman, an African-American Chicago Teachers Union member and a woman wearing a pink hat...

A Republican lawmaker trying to unseat Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner is standing by a campaign ad that’s being blasted as racist, homophobic and “repulsive.” State Rep. Jeanne Ives, a social and fiscal conservative, says the ad that began airing this weekend illustrates the GOP governor’s “chosen constituents based on the policy choices he made.” The ad features actors portraying people including a transgender woman and a Chicago Teachers Union member, all thanking Rauner. The deep-voiced transgender woman, wearing a dress that reveals a hairy chest, says “Thank you for signing legislation that lets me use the girl’s bathroom.” …

The ad marks a sharp public shift to the right in Ives’ campaign. Ives had been gaining attention following a debate with Rauner at the Chicago Tribune last week. And her sharp critiques of the governor were used in a digital ad by Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker. “Thank you for legislation that lets me use the girls’ bathroom,” says a man in the new ad, dressed in a woman’s red dress. That targeted a House bill Rauner signed into law which allows transgender citizens to change their gender designation without going through gender reassignment or gender confirmation surgery. “Thank...

A University of Chicago student group has issued a series of more than 50 demands, which include calls for a mandatory “Diversity and Inclusion” graduation requirement. UChicago United, the group behind the demands, describes itself as “a coalition of multicultural student organizations formed to make the University of Chicago campus more inclusive for students of marginalized backgrounds and identities,” according to its Facebook page.

Illinois state lawmakers on Jan. 30 heard a proposal to borrow more than $107 billion to fund pensions. If implemented, it would be the biggest debt sale in municipal bond market history. Lawmakers discussed the proposal in the House Personnel & Pensions Committee. The State Universities Annuitants Association, or SUAA, claims the plan will save the state $103 billion in the next 25 years. But baked into that estimate are assumptions regarding borrowing and investment returns that are by no means guaranteed. Illinois’ pension debt is as high as $250 billion, according to Moody’s Investment Service. The SUAA plan is...

According to a letter written by Senator Richard Durbin (IL), the FBI’s internal review of its counterterrorism training materials uncovered a PowerPoint presentation that taught FBI agents that “Under certain circumstances, the FBI has the ability to bend or suspend the law to impinge on the freedom of others.”

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., on Wednesday hit back at reports he "stormed out" of President Trump's inaugural State of the Union address, labelling them as "completely false" and "spin.""There is a story going around that I 'stormed out' of the President’s speech last night which is completely false. That I boycotted the speech or protested by leaving during an applause break is just someone’s spin," Gutierrez wrote on Twitter. "I was due on TV for an interview and the speech was running late. I waited until the President stopped talking and walked to the back and watched the last 90-seconds...

(Screen Capture) (CNSNews.com) - The American Civil Liberties Union -- note the word "American" in its title -- complained Tuesday night about President Trump's repeated use of the word "America" in his State of the Union speech. In a written response to Trump's speech, Faiz Shakir, the ACLU's national political director, said: Tonight, President Trump said the word ‘America’ more than 80 times in his speech. Yet, after a divisive first year, we hear and feel how exclusionary that ‘America’ is, with policies that have harmed so many vulnerable American communities. The ACLU stands ready to protect these communities,...

The economy is booming, the tax reform package has spurred over 250 companies to dole out bonuses to some three million workers, more employee investments are coming, more jobs are projected to be created, and charitable donations are expected to increase from companies thanks to Trump’s tax bill. Apple’s repatriation of $250 billion, part of their $350 billion investments back into America over a five-year period is projected to create 20,000 jobs in the process. We've reached a new era, one of economic prosperity, which is what President Trump emphasized during the State of the Union Tuesday.President Trump spoke of...

With many of them clad in black, the Democrats who did show up to President Trump’s first State of the Union address Tuesday night were not happy about it. In fact, they seemed so focused on opposing everything he said they couldn’t even bring themselves to applaud things that are normally considered bipartisan.They set the tone for their behavior that evening right away, by refusing to stand to greet Trump and many even first lady Melania Trump.The resistance continued, with most Democrats also refusing to applaud:- job creation- higher wages- lower African American and Hispanic unemployment rates- bonuses for employees-...

They scowled as President Trump touted soaring jobs numbers, sat stone-faced when he honored veterans, and one even walked out after becoming triggered by a patriotic chant. Democrats at President Trump's first State of the Union, after a year of partisan rancor, showed they were in no mood to accept his call for bipartisanship. "Why are @TheDemocrats not applauding job growth, higher wages and the drop in Latino and African-American unemployment?" pollster Frank Luntz asked in a tweet. "I thought economic success is good for everyone regardless of party." Rep. Luis Gutierrez walked out after chants of "USA, USA!" erupted...

New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that a coalition of East Coast states will sue the federal government over the Trump-signed tax overhaul, in the latest bid to undermine the law that Republicans have cheered. The states -- New York, New Jersey and Connecticut -- appear to be taking aim at a provision that limits residents' state and local tax deduction (SALT) to $10,000. While the law contains sweeping tax rate cuts for businesses and individuals, taxpayers in high-tax states like those in the Northeast are expected to take a hit from the SALT change. Cuomo called it...