Free Republic

<p>At least 33 people have been shot in Chicago so far this Fourth of July weekend, most of them in traditionally violent neighborhoods on the South and West sides despite stepped-up police patrols in those areas.</p> <p>Between Sunday afternoon and early Monday, 13 people were shot over 17 hours in the city. They included a 15-year-old boy shot in the foot, a 16-year-old hit in the elbow, a 17-year-old wounded in the thigh, and a woman hit in the chest by a bullet fired through the window of a home.</p>

Illinois has redefined what it means to have a late budget. Other states have gone several months without a spending plan before, and Illinois has had prior delays that caused great anxiety. But going an entire fiscal year without a full budget? It’s the only time in post-World War II history it’s happened in the country. “Late budgets will have a new meaning after you guys are done,” said Arturo Perez, a fiscal analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures who has researched past overdue budgets nationally. …

NEW YORK – Ten years ago, the New York Times reported on a growing underground subculture in the black community known as Down Low, comprised largely of men who secretly engage in homosexual activity while living “straight” lives in public. It’s within that subtext that opposition researchers for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign began investigating rumors that Rev. Jeremiah Wright was running a “matchmaking service” for members of his Trinity United Church of Christ known as the Down Low Club, which included Barack Obama. Over the past several months, WND investigators have interviewed a number of members of the church...

As police fanned out across the city Friday to guard against Fourth of July weekend shootings, a group including Illinois Sen. Kwame Raoul and Police Supt. Eddie T. Johnson announced a new effort to cut down on gun crime. Although the legislation has yet to be drawn up, the idea behind it — “presumptive guidelines” — looks to us like a smart way to keep the worst gun offenders off the streets for longer periods of time. It would crack down harder on gun crimes without stripping judges of all discretion — and that means it could pull enough votes...

Saying he was "sick and tired" of the violence plaguing the city, Chicago's top cop announced Friday that thousands more law enforcement officers would hit the streets, lakefront and major tourist attractions, including Navy Pier, this Fourth of July weekend. Within the past 24 hours, three people had died and 21 more were wounded in violence across the city: this on the eve of the July Fourth weekend, typically one of the most violent holiday weekends of the year.

WAUCONDA, Ill. (WLS) -- Wauconda police say they are evacuating an area around a house in the 400-block of Lakeshore Boulevard in Wauconda after receiving a tip that a man may have explosives in his home. Police say they have a suspect in custody and are evacuating the interior of a perimeter set up around the home to complete a search. According to police, earlier Thursday the suspect threatened an employee at a business, saying he wanted to lure the police to his home with the intention of blowing them up. According to police, the suspect said he is terminally...

The Fourth of July holiday is Monday, and if the long holiday weekend is anything like previous years, it could be one of the most violent of the summer. The total number of Chicago shootings rises significantly during the summer months ­- - June, July and August. Those three months have the most shootings per month of the year from 2012 to 2015 combined, the years the Tribune has tracked the data. June, the lowest of the summer months, has a total of 1,137 shootings from 2012 to 2015, which is nearly 150 more than the nearest month, May.

The minimum age in Chicago for buying cigarettes and other tobacco products goes up to 21 at the end of the week. […] Hawaii and California have raised the tobacco purchase age to 21 statewide. Illinois lawmakers are considering a similar measure. The Chicago City Council approved the age increase in March, along with higher taxes and other efforts to combat tobacco sales. …

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is looking into options to challenge a Supreme Court ruling that effectively determined a lower court’s decision neutering President Obama’s executive amnesty would stand. The ruling would help to prevent Obama from ignoring U.S. laws and from allowing many illegal aliens to stay in the U.S. without deportation. The statements from Attorney General Lynch were made during an interview with Reuters. The Reuters writer appears to have confused the ruling, as SCOTUS did not make the decision to block President Obama’s executive amnesty, they simply tied in their decision–which led to the Fifth Circuit’s ruling...

Judge Richard A. Posner, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, has published an op-ed at Slate declaring that the U.S. Constitution is a waste of time. Posner writes: And on another note about academia and practical law, I see absolutely no value to a judge of spending decades, years, months, weeks, day, hours, minutes, or seconds studying the Constitution, the history of its enactment, its amendments, and its implementation (across the centuries—well, just a little more than two centuries, and of course...

San Francisco has the unfortunate honor of appearing in a new propaganda video for the Islamic State released Sunday, no doubt to coincide with the city’s massive Pride celebration, since persecution of LGBT people is a hallmark of deranged fundamentalists. Several alleged terrorists appear on screen to praise Omar Mateen, the Orlando gay nightclub shooter, and Larossi Abballa, the man who attacked a French police officer and his family June 13, the day after the Orlando shooting. The trio reportedly encourages more attacks in the U.S. and Europe, and this is when the footage of San Francisco starts to roll...

It is well known that Chicago's pension liabilities have completely decimated the city's finances and currently stand at close to $20 billion. Faced with a significant challenge of meeting funding obligations as a result of a 2010 state law, Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently won a slight reprieve in the amount of money the city would have to contribute to fund the liabilities over the next few years, as recently Illinois lawmakers overrode Governor Bruce Rauner's veto and will now change the legislation in order to allow the city to defer payments to fund pensions. Under the prior legislation, Chicago was...

In recent decades, a revisionist history of American trade policy has developed an almost religious status in Washington D.C. In this context, the candidacy of Donald Trump has been presented as a deviation from America’s historic “free trade” policy when, in fact, America was founded on Alexander Hamilton’s protectionist economic system whose greatest defenders would become Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party.

Calamity reigns in 2016 in Chicago, as 1,818 people have been shot in gun violence, 311 murdered, and 1,538 wounded. June has been the bloodiest month with a total of 289 people shot, 51 killed, and 240 wounded, as of June 21. Fifty-six were shot and 13 killed over the Father’s Day weekend, alone. Strikingly, mayhem in Chicago ranks right up there with some of the most violent spots globally — Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; Karachi, Pakistan; Mogadishu, Somalia; Beirut, Lebanon; and the West Bank in Israel.

Four people were killed and at least 26 others have been wounded from Saturday morning through early Sunday across the city, police said. Among the victims were a 19-year-old pregnant woman shot along with three friends in Morgan Park; a 55-year-old man killed at a party in East Garfield Park; and a man shot by another person as they sat together in a car in Edgewater Beach. The Morgan Park attack occurred at 11:43 a.m. Saturday in the 1400 block of West 114th Place, said Officer Jose Estrada, a police spokesman.

Illinois could become the first state in the U.S. with a law giving Muslim-Americans a formal voice in state government. The Chicago Tribune reports that a bill approved by the Legislature would create a 21-member Illinois Muslim-American Advisory Council. It's awaiting Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's signature. The governor's office said he's reviewing it. Muslim leaders said it would send a welcoming message to Muslims. The governor and legislative leaders would appoint council members. Kareem Irfan, a Chicago lawyer who led an earlier version of the council under Gov. Pat Quinn, said it would be good to have a lasting institutional...

Two delegates to the Democratic Party’s platform drafting committee — one appointed by Hillary Clinton and the other by Bernie Sanders — said the platform must reflect the hardships faced both by Israelis and Palestinians. [Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., appointed by Sanders and Clinton respectively, said] “Palestinians struggle under an unjust occupation that deprives them of the rights, opportunities and independence that they deserve. That is the reality of a conflict that has gone on for far too long and at a terrible cost.” The statement was released by J Street, the liberal Middle East policy...

Chicago Police are tonight confirming that they are on the lookout for singer Sinead O’Connor, who famously went missing for a 24-hour period in May while staying at a home in Wilmette, and was later found safe, and may now be threatening suicide. Chicago police received a call from police in Dublin, Ireland, stating that the singer had apparently threatened to jump off a bridge in Chicago. Concerns prompted Chicago Police Department to issue an “All Call” alert Thursday advising officers to be on alert for the 49-year-old singer.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.) has paid his wife and daughters hundreds of thousands of dollars from his campaign’s coffer since 2010, according to campaign finance data. Gutierrez, who was first elected to Congress in 1993, brought his wife, Soraida Gutierrez, onto his campaign’s payroll six years ago to act as his office manager, treasurer, and fundraiser. Soraida Gutierrez was a registered lobbyist in the state of Illinois from 2003 to 2009 before joining Gutierrez for Congress. She has since raked in more than $300,000 for her work on behalf of the committee while being the top recipient of campaign...

he city recorded its 300th homicide this weekend and went on to record six others over a 60-hour period that saw 59 people shot, 13 fatally, from Friday afternoon through early Monday morning. So far this year, about 1,800 people have been shot across the city and more than 200 of those wounded have died of their wounds, according to records kept by the Chicago Tribune. A total of 306 people have been killed this year by shooting, stabbing or other means, Tribune records show. A 3-year-old boy was among the wounded who survived the weekend shootings. Police said he’s...