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Chicago, Illinois mayor uses private email accounts to hide conversations about controversial photo enforcement program. The city of Chicago, Illinois is doing everything it can to keep the local newspaper from getting a hold of documents related to the controversial red light camera and speed camera programs. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen M. Pantle heard motions from city lawyers last week designed to delay the process. Back in June, Chicago Tribune reporter David Kidwell filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking six months' worth of emails to or from Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) discussing automated ticketing. The request...

WASHINGTON - Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are split on whether Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel should resign for his actions in the case of the police shooting of Laquan McDonald. Emanuel has been under fire since the November release of video showing the 2014 police shooting of McDonald. The video - which the city refused to disclose until a court order forced it to do so - showed McDonald being shot 16 times by police in an encounter that played out much differently than the original police account of the incident. Some CBC members told BuzzFeed News that Emanuel...

Two weeks after a video was released of a Chicago policeman shooting a black teenager 16 times, the mayor of Chicago on Wednesday apologized for it and took some measure of responsibility. "I'm sorry" for the shooting of Laquan McDonald, which "happened on my watch," Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) told the full Chicago City Council in a rare speech. For the next 40 minutes, Emanuel delivered a "genuine" and "heartfelt" speech about police brutality and city violence that seemed "real," said critics and supporters alike who heard it, according to the Chicago Tribune. But the reaction on the street was...

If Rahm Emanuel refuses to resign from office after his administration buried the video of Laquan McDonald shooting until after his re-election, Chicago voters can’t do much about it. One Illinois Democrat wants to change that. State representative LaShawn Ford will introduce legislation that will allow for a recall of the Chicago mayor if enough voters sign petitions — and based on recent polling, that won’t be much of a hurdle:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO An Illinois state representative has introduced a bill that could remove Mayor Rahm Emanuel from office immediately.Democratic Rep. La Shawn Ford filed legislation...

Hundreds of protesters demanding an investigation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration flooded downtown Chicago streets Wednesday afternoon as part of a citywide walkout just hours after Emanuel publicly apologized for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald and vowed to fix broken Chicago police practices.The group chanted "Whose city? Our city," "Who's got to go? Rahm's got to go," and "No more killer cops."Demonstrators gathered at Daley Plaza at noon and started marching on North Dearborn. Police briefly detained two people during the protest near Dearborn and Washington as several other activists gathered around the vehicle chanting "Hell no, we won't...

As controversy swirls over high profile police killings in the city, hundreds of protesters blocked streets in downtown Chicago on Wednesday as part of a citywide walkout to demand Mayor Rahm Emanuel resign from his position. Hours earlier, Emanuel had publicly apologized for the 2014 police-involved shooting death of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old black city resident, and pledged to fix the broken Chicago police practices.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday “welcomed” a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of “systemic issues embedded in” the Chicago Police Department and said, “I own the confusion” about his earlier opposition to the probe in the unrelenting uproar over the Laquan McDonald shooting video. Fran Earlier this week, Emanuel called the federal civil rights investigation requested by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan “misguided.” But that was before Hillary Clinton, Emanuel’s candidate for president, sided with Madigan. That’s apparently at least partially responsible for the mayor’s reversal. A conversation with Gov. Bruce Rauner, the mayor’s longtime friend, may also have played...

Chicago is facing a defining moment on the issues of crime and policing and the even larger issues of truth and justice. To meet this moment, we need to conduct a painful but honest reckoning of what went wrong — not just in one instance, but over decades. Then we need to determine what to do differently to ensure that incidents like this don’t happen again. We cannot afford to have any resident of our city living in fear of the police and distrusting their words and actions. And we cannot allow the crimes of a small number of officers...

There is a reason Chicago mayor and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel earned the nickname “Rahmbo”. He is ruthless and relentless in acquiring and preserving power, and has no reservations about throwing people under the political bus to protect himself or his clients. He was a master at protecting President Obama’s political backside and is now busily protecting himself. Chicago police chief Garry McCarthy, appointed by Emanuel, resigned Tuesday under pressure from Emanuel who claimed McCarthy had lost the trust of those he had pledged to serves, with Mayor Emanuel making the announcement with typical political double-speak:

Living out the Rahm Emanuel adage to never let a crisis go to waste, Attorney General Loretta Lynch told reporters today that the likely terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California represents a “wonderful moment to make significant change.” . After offering the obligatory condolences to the victims and support to the law enforcement officials conducting the investigation, Lynch said, “We’re at a point where these issues have come together really like never before in law enforcement thought and in our nation’s history. “It gives us a wonderful opportunity — a wonderful moment to really make significant change.”

Desperate to save his own head in the fallout over the recorded police killing of Laquan McDonald, Mayor Rahm Emanuel reached for another. Another head, that is. This one belonged to Garry McCarthy, Chicago's superintendent of police, who just the other day said he'd never, ever quit. "I never quit on anything in my life," McCarthy told reporters late last week, after protesters closed Michigan Avenue on Black Friday, after the mayor hid out, lying low, letting McCarthy and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez take all the heat. "The mayor has made it very clear that he has my...

“We were saying backstage that you want to come back as an Emanuel child. You take your young people on fascinating trips around the world, headed these holidays to Cuba. Why?” POLITICO's senior White House correspondent asked. Emanuel bristled, responding, “Well, first of all, thanks for telling everybody what I’m going to do with my family." "You had a private conversation with me and now you decide to make that public. I really don’t appreciate that, for one, I really don’t," the mayor scolded

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday fiercely resisted calls to follow his police superintendent in stepping down, even as the city continues to roil over the dashcam video released last week showing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being shot by police. Asked at a POLITICO Playbook event whether he planned to resign, the notoriously brazen Emanuel sneered and made light of the question. “No, because I really so much look forward to this interview and I wanted to have it. I just felt so good saying that to you,” Emanuel said, explaining that Chicago voters already put their faith in him. ~SNIP~...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday announced he has dismissed Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, citing a lack of public trust in the police leadership in the wake of the high-profile shooting that eventually led to a white officer being charged with first-degree murder in the death of a black teen shot 16 times in a Southwest Side street last year. "Superintendent McCarthy knows that a police officer is only as effective as when he has the trust of those he serves," Emanuel said at a City Hall news conference where he appointed a task force to look at police accountability....

The University of Chicago has canceled all classes and activities at its Hyde Park campus after being warned by the FBI of an online threat of gun violence there. In an alert sent out to the campus community, university president Robert Zimmer said FBI counterterrorism officials said the threat, posted by an unknown individual, specifically mentioned "'the campus quad' on Monday morning at 10 a.m." "Based on the FBI's assessment of this threat and recent tragic events at other campuses across the country, we have decided in consultation with federal and local law enforcement officials, to exercise caution by canceling...

In an interview published November 25, actress Angela Bassett suggested some Chicago leaders are having trouble with Spike Lee’s film Chi-Raq because they are embarrassed by the gun violence in their city. “Chi-Raq” is a nickname given to Chicago because the violence in parts of the city is reminiscent of a war-zone like Iraq. According to The Wrap, Bassett said the “bloodshed” in Chicago’s black communities is “completely and utterly wasteful, shameful, hurtful to the core.” She said that Lee is trying to use his movie “to just bring some awareness….It’s a good picture, it’s very positive.” Bassett said she...

The indictment of former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett closes a chapter in yet another sad tale of greedy, cheating city officials. Her lawyer says she has agreed to plead guilty when she appears in court, and I hope the judge throws the book at her. But ethical misconduct is only a part of BBB's legacy. The ex-CEO—along with the rest of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's crack team at the Board of Education—has left us with a whopper of a problem that could hit full force as soon as next month. I'm referring to the nearly $500 million hole in...

The former head of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) was indicted Thursday for allegedly participating in a bribery scheme that illegally influenced more than $20 million in city spending. According to the charges against her, ex-CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett steered a no-bid $20.5 million contract to the consulting company SUPES Academy in return for bribes and the promise of a job after she left her post. Prosecutors claim that Byrd-Bennett’s corrupt dealings began in April 2012, when she first arrived in Chicago to work as chief education adviser, and continued for the next three years. U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon said Byrd-Bennett...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has disclosed that his record property tax hike plan entails significant cuts for nearly 300,000 homeowners, leaving Chicago businesses predicting they will face hikes of up to 50 percent. The second-term mayor last week proposed a $544 million property tax increase, the city's biggest ever, to help fix one of the worst-funded city pension systems in America ... Emanuel's office, which has said one in four dollars of the tax hike would come from the city's central business district, did not contest the 50-percent figure. But a mayoral aide insisted Emanuel's plan is his best effort...

A barbecue at a South Side park was interrupted by gunfire early Tuesday, leaving Antian Hardmon, Ayanna Northern, and Tyrone Spikes dead, and three other people injured in the Fuller Park neighborhood.About 30 people were enjoying the barbecue, a memorial for someone who died in a crash years ago, when more than 15 shots rang out, according to a woman who wished to be identified only as “Shorty.”Five people were shot about 12:10 a.m. in the 300 block of West 42nd Street when two males opened fire from an alley, according to Chicago Police. Lawn chairs and beer cans could...