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Senior Obama administration officials, including the White House chief of staff, knew as early as 2009 that Hillary Rodham Clinton was using a private email address for her government correspondence, according to some 3,000 pages of correspondence released by the State Department late Tuesday night The chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, requested Clinton's email address on Sept. 5, 2009, according to one email. His request came three months after top Obama strategist David Axelrod asked the same question of one of Clinton's top aides

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Hundreds of Chicago Public Schools teachers and parents protested at City Hall Thursday morning following 1,400 layoffs and $200 million in cuts to meet a teachers' pension deadline. Mayor Rahm Emanuel delayed a $634 million pension payment until the eleventh-hour on Tuesday, waiting to see any relief would come from state lawmakers. It never came. The mayor and Interim CPS CEO Jesse Ruiz outlined on Wednesday who would be laid off and where cuts would be made. Ruiz said most of the 1,400 jobs cut were in administration and special education programs. Very few teachers were laid...

Chicago school and city officials detailed $200 million in cuts—including layoffs, scaled-back maintenance and reduced transportation—to the nation’s third-largest school district Wednesday, one day after the district paid a $634 million pension bill officials said it couldn’t afford. Mayor Rahm Emanuel said schools would still open on time in the coming school year and class sizes wouldn’t be affected. He put the blame on state legislators for worsening the situation and said a property tax increase was up for consideration. The district had to borrow and factor in the cuts to make the pension payment by Tuesday’s deadline because legislators,...

Chicago Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is famous for saying that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste since it allows you to do things you might not be able to get done except for the emotions of the moment spurring calls to action. Chicago’s bloody Memorial Day weekend, which saw a dozen people killed -- including a four-year-old-girl -- certainly proved no exception to Rahm’s Rule as he called for, wait for it, stricter gun control as he spoke at a luncheon honoring police officers for valor and service. “It’s not just about...

A reference to the gun violence that has left parts of Chicago feeling like a war zone to many residents, the word is believed to have been coined by local rappers years ago. But it is taking on another life as the working title of a new Spike Lee movie that is expected to be filmed here this summer. Local politicians have lined up against the title. Mr. Lee has been confronted by Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, who told him in a meeting last month that he was “not happy” about the name.

.....Chicago Police Officers Jerome Finnigan, left, and Timothy McDermott with an unknown man in a photo believed to be taken between 1999 and 2003. | Court file photo Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday had two choice words for the now-fired Chicago Police officer who joined another former officer in posing with rifles as they stood over a black man lying on his belly with deer antlers on his head. “Good riddance.” “Let me be clear: That photo does not represent the values of the city of Chicago that we all share in common. It doesn’t represent the values of the...

Former White House Chief of Staff and currently mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, whose city is rushing to be the next Detroit after decades of big government excesses, once said that a crisis was a terrible thing to waste since it allows you to get things done you couldn’t get done in a saner atmosphere. The Amtrak derailment outside Philadelphia is the latest case in point. Never mind that the Antrak train that crashed outside Philadelphia, killing seven, was being driven at 106 miles per hour around a curve that was designed for 50 or that the “positive train control”...

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the debt of both the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Park District on Wednesday, a day after it downgraded the city’s bond rating to junk status. Moody’s has given a Ba3 rating to the school district’s debt, down from a Baa3 rating, saying the district faces “increased strain on its precarious financial position” due to last week’s Illinois Supreme Court decision overturning state pension reform. It reduced the Chicago Park District’s rating to from Baa1 to Ba1, one notch below investment grade. The rating service’s moves affect the school district’s $6.2 billion in general obligation...

"......When Mr. [Tony] Rodham was short on cash in 2010, Mr. Clinton helped get him a job for $72,000 a year raising investments in GreenTech Automotive, an electric car company then owned by Terry McAuliffe, an old friend of Mr. Clinton’s and now the governor of Virginia. “I was complaining to my brother-in-law I didn’t have any money. And he asked McAuliffe to give me a job,” Mr. Rodham said during the court proceedings, which were the result of a lawsuit over unpaid legal bills filed by his lawyer in a child support case. A brother down on his luck...

If you or I lived rent free for five years in an apartment in pricey Washington, DC, we would have to pay income taxes on the value of the rent on the place. But apparently not Rahm Emanuel. The wonderful Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times writes: We already knew that BP and its folks were significant contributors to the record $750-million war chest of Barack Obama's 2007-08 campaign. Now, we learn the details of a connection of Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayoral wannabe, current Obama chief of staff, ex-representative, ex-Clinton money man and ex-Windy City political machine go-fer. Shortly...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, under fire since last year when reporters caught his police-driven SUV running red lights, is still running red lights and putting the good people of Chicago in danger: ... How flagrant? Check out the videos. First up, running a red light and making a left turn: And here’s the mayor’s SUV reportedly running the light and driving into the wrong lane:

Wow, so Bob Woodward’s new book is making a lot of headlines to today and why shouldn’t it? It’s an amazing view into the White House and well, frankly scared the bejeesus out of me just knowing that this joker is in charge of our country and military. Where to begin? It starts with the front page story from the Washington Post which talks about Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars. The book quite literally is a stark reality check for the American people on who their Commander-in-Chief is and how he thinks. The first bombshell that people are talking...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he told film director Spike Lee that he's not happy the working title of Lee's upcoming motion picture is "Chiraq." The word suggests the city is as dangerous as the war zone in Iraq. "We had an honest, frank conversation," Emanuel said. Emanuel said he suggested the name would be offensive to the many good people who live in the Englewood neighborhood where the film takes place. The mayor says he thinks that the subject Lee told him his film would deal with - black-on-black violence - is an important topic that...

Karl Marx who would be a Democrat Senator if he was alive today said, “The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope.” Last week’s runoff mayoral election in Chicago brought this quote to mind. It also suggested a comparison to the plot of Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. In that production we see Mickey Mouse working as an apprentice to a sorcerer who orders him to tend to a series of chores that includes fetching water. Seeing his opportunity to use the power in the sorcerer’s wand for his own benefit, Mickey commands a broom...

Rahm Emanuel Re-Elected as Chicago Mayor in Runoff Incumbent defeats challenger Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia after failing to win a second term outright in February By MARK PETERS and BEN KESLING April 7, 2015 CHICAGO—Mayor Rahm Emanuel was re-elected Tuesday following a spirited runoff here that tested the policies and personality of the nationally known politician.

Rahm Emanuel won re-election Tuesday as voters in Chicago’s first mayoral runoff decided that, despite his brusque management style, the former White House chief of staff was best equipped to deal with the many dire challenges facing the nation’s third-largest city. Emanuel was forced to campaign furiously across the city to beat Cook County Commissioner Jesús “Chuy” Garcia after failing to capture a majority against four other candidates in a February election. The mayoral runoff was the first since the city changed the way it conducts elections about 20 years ago. […] Emanuel raised far more money than Garcia, plastered...

The ABC network refuses to air a commercial criticizing Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel even though other networks are running the spot, The Daily Caller has learned.As Emanuel seeks re-election in the Chicago mayoral run-off next week, the Republican-leaning Real Chicago PAC produced an ad highlighting reported instances of Emanuel’s corruption and crony capitalism, including his promotion of the transportation company Uber, in which his brother Ari is a major investor.“We sent the commercial to the local Fox affiliate. They vetted it, they checked every single quote and every single headline to make sure it was accurate and they ran...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has become the latest high-profile progressive to endorse Cook County Commissioner Chuy García's challenge to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D). “I am going to Chicago to support Chuy García and [City Council candidate] Susan Sadlowski Garza. I support them because we need a political revolution in this country and we need the kind of working-class coalitions that Chuy and Susan are pulling together,” Sanders said in a statement.

A federal judge says he'll decide soon on whether the Chicago Transit Authority must let employees distribute campaign leaflets in break rooms that oppose Mayor Rahm Emanuel's re-election bid. U.S. District Judge Robert Dow began hearing testimony Wednesday on a temporary restraining order that would force the transportation agency to allow the materials in advance of the April 7 runoff election. Dow told attorneys he hopes to rule by noon Thursday. The Amalgamated Transit Union filed a lawsuit in Chicago federal court Tuesday accusing the CTA of violating its members' free-speech rights. It claims the CTA allowed the distribution of...

Though Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) recently praised Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) for making Chicago the “friendliest” city for immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, pro-amnesty advocates and progressives are lining up beyond his opponent, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who is in a dead heat with Emanuel in the mayoral runoff. (SNIP) “He told targeted Democrats in tough re-election fights that he wanted them to vote for this anti-immigrant bill,” Gutierrez said then. “That’s a fact, an irrefutable fact. So it’s nice that Rahm Emanuel the candidate is for the DREAM Act kids now, but actions speak louder than words.”