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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has said that imprisoning violent criminals is racist and immoral.

THE ROAD TO THE CHICAGO TRAIN FIRE ATTACK. On April 23, 2020, a man poured gasoline around the Illinois state government building in Chicago and set it on fire. The man, identified as Lawrence Reed, 44, was said to be angry because he had not received his monthly government Supplemental Security Income check. According to the Chicago news site CWB Chicago, Reed went inside the building, known as the Thompson Center, and asked a worker at a train kiosk where his check was. Reed left and came back about an hour later, asking the same thing. Then, according to CWB...

At least three times a week — and sometimes more — a big story will come out of New York about an awful crime that was committed against an innocent by a criminal who, too often, shouldn't have been walking the streets anyway due to a rap sheet as long as a CVS receipt. Even just scrolling down the front page of RedState, you can see this story published on Monday that reported that someone stabbed someone else on the New York subway because a person asked them not to talk on their cell phone so loudly. Charming city. And...

Liberal judges who decide not to jail violent career criminals and sadistic psychopaths ought to be held liable when the felons attack innocent citizens.Two horrendous, unprovoked attacks on helpless young women on public transit in recent weeks would never have happened if the legal system had done what it’s designed to do. Instead, BLM-inspired reparatory justice has endangered the most vulnerable among us — women, children, the elderly and disabled. We pay police and judges to keep evil and dangerous predators away from weak and defenseless innocents. Yet radical Democrats who have taken over blue cities are hellbent on a...

s Metro Long Island Politics World News Search Type to Search Search US News Bethany MaGee, 26, is identified as Chicago victim set on fire on CTA train by serial thug with 72 arrests By Chris Nesi Published Nov. 23, 2025, 3:53 p.m. ET 1.8K Comments Man faces terrorism charge after allegedly lighting woman on fire on Chicago train 01:41 / 01:57 The 26-year-old woman who cops said was set on fire by a lunatic with a lengthy rap sheet on a Chicago L train earlier this month has been identified as Bethany MaGee. “It is devastating that a career...

A man with a 30-year criminal record, reportedly at least 72 arrests, and around 15 convictions, lit a 26-year-old woman on fire on a train in Chicago Monday night. She is fighting for her life in critical condition. Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday called it an “isolated incident.” The “isolated incident” highlights everything that is wrong with progressive politics and Democrat leadership in all too many of our cities: let the criminals run free, forget about the victims, and vilify the police. But it only got worse for the Windy City Friday night, as the rampant violence and death the...

*** These are the hideous progressive sounds of Chicago political corruption: The jails are opened as the Cook County Democrats congratulate themselves …. And there is another sound that defines it. “Burn alive B****!” That is what a career violent predator with more than 50 arrests–at least 10 of them for violent felonies–is alleged to have shouted the other night in Chicago after dousing a female ... with gasoline on the Blue Line CTA train and setting her on fire. She is reportedly in critical condition. *** Lawrence Reed, 50, was out on pre-trial release for allegedly knocking a psychiatric...

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed federal charges against a woman shot by a Customs and Border Protection agent in Chicago after allegedly ramming into his car. The ruling from US District Judge Georgia Alexakis came hours after prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the charges in a striking reversal by the US government, court documents show. Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old American citizen, and her co-defendant, Anthony Ruiz – who was driving a different vehicle – had entered not guilty pleas to a federal charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers.

Voices across Chicago and the nation expressed alarm on Saturday after two shootings in the Loop following the city’s annual Christmas tree lighting left a 14-year-old boy dead and eight other people, nearly all juveniles, wounded. Officials said officers arrested 18 people and recovered five firearms during what authorities described as widespread mayhem in the downtown area after the ceremony. Video circulating on social media showed a group of young people beating and robbing an apparent teenage victim in the Loop during Friday’s mayhem. As the boy curled up on the ground, someone pulled off his winter coat. Moments later,...

A 29-year-old male accused in a fatal stabbing in Boston over the weekend was facing weapons and drug charges less than a month ago but walked free. Court records indicate that Javonte Robinson's previous weapons and drug charges were dismissed when an attorney could not be found after 45 days, WCVB-TV reported. Robinson's case was dropped amid a work stoppage involving private attorneys who normally defend suspects who can't afford lawyers, the station said, adding that the attorneys in question stopped accepting new cases in May in an attempt to force the state to pay them more. WCVB said Robinson...

Multiple police officers were attacked, including one who was injured, while responding to a shooting in Chicago on Friday in which at least five victims were shot. The incident happened near State and Randolph streets at about 10 p.m., just hours after a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, according to Fox 32. Ald. Brian Hopkins of Chicago's 2nd Ward said at least five people were shot, including one person in critical condition. "300 juveniles rioting in the Loop now, at least 5 victims shot, one critical with life threatening gunshot wound to torso," he wrote on X. "Multiple police officers attacked...

An Algerian national allegedly assaulted two women in the back of his New York taxi in separate incidents but is still snagging fares after getting a sweetheart deal from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the New York Post reported Saturday. Records show that Mohammed Bellebia, 34, was allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges in at least one of the incidents, according to the newspaper. According to the tabloid’s detailed reporting, the cabbie’s first alleged victim was 23-year-old Maile Bartow who entered Bellebia’s yellow cab minivan around 2 a.m. in November of last year after a night on the town...

I began my career with Allegheny County Pretrial Services in April 2008. I was sworn in by a judge, issued a badge, and placed into a system built on neutrality and public safety. Our job was simple: interview defendants, verify information, review police reports, pull complete criminal histories, and present magistrates with fact-based recommendations. We weren’t advocates for release or detention. We were there to present facts. And for a long time, the system worked because facts were the only thing that mattered. Failures to appear happened, but they were usually honest mistakes. Multiple pending cases were rare. Dangerous charges...

A Latin street gang in Chicago is reportedly telling its members to shoot federal immigration officers on sight, escalating the already highly dangerous and volatile situation in Chicago. When you’re on the side of gang criminals, you’re probably in the wrong. Then again, leftists never met a murderous criminal whom they didn’t like. The Latin Kings gang is putting out hits on all Border Patrol agents participating in Operation Midway Blitz, which has rounded up hundreds of illegal alien criminals. That’s probably cutting into the gang’s membership — hence the new threat. And since Democrat politicians, mainstream media hacks, and...

The election success enjoyed by Democrats in New York City, New Jersey, Virginia, and California have buoyed optimism in the Party. Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn) said "the blue wave validates our strategy of keeping the government closed until our Party's demands are met. Essential personnel in areas of national defense and air traffic control are not getting paid. Sooner or later they will have to stop working for the government and get other jobs just to pay their bills. Folks dependent on welfare will balk at the Trump Administration's continued efforts to enforce the legislatively enacted work requirements for able-bodied...

Well, here's another tolerant lefty in elected office. This ranting and raving lib is now the mayor of Couer d'Alene. [Warning: Language] New mayor of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Dan Gookin: “"Christian conservatives are mindless, cult-member morons. They are white, racist supremacists. They can **** themselves and go to hell.” pic.twitter.com/eyvFgsE8uU— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) November 5, 2025Here's the local CDA Press: Longtime Coeur d'Alene City Councilman Dan Gookin ran for mayor on a campaign of providing stronger leadership at City Hall. He'll have the next four years to deliver on that pledge ... Gookin found a following...

Democrats wield chaos as a strategy, overwhelming voters with nonstop turmoil that obscures blame and rallies key groups—leaving Republicans scrambling to counter before the clock runs out. We can draw a few conclusions from an off-year election, when iconic races in blue states went, as expected, overwhelmingly Democratic. Nevertheless, there is only a year left before the midterms. So Republicans must react to even these paltry results. 1) Democrats’ chaotic nihilism still works. The chaos strategy causes so much turmoil, noise, and negative media coverage that the confused voting public simply cannot sort it all out. The public wishes the...

Let’s say you paid top dollar to go to a fancy, five-star restaurant, and the waiter served you warmed-over McDonald’s. Would you ever go back? Maybe, if you didn’t know any better. I started thinking about that after I recently changed my residency from Virginia to California (for reasons I won’t go into) and noticed that my state income taxes had gone up by more than 33%. Over the course of the year, I will pay California $2,115 more than I’d been paying in Virginia, which is hardly a low-tax state (Virginia has the 14th highest income tax burden in...

SNAP recipients are taking to TikTok and threatening to loot grocery stores if their food stamp payments don’t go through on Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown. “I’ma tell y’all straight up like this, I just got that text that the link is definitely cut the f–k off for November. Y’all better stay the f–k out of my way in these stores because I’m walking out with carts and I’m not paying for s–t,” one angry SNAP recipient fumed on TikTok. Another added: “You know what? Since they wanna take food stamps away, I’m gonna go to f–king Walmart,...

The Agriculture Department has $5.5 billion in backup funds for food stamp benefits but says it can’t use them.With the nation’s primary anti-hunger program on the verge of running out of money, more than two dozen states and D.C. sued the Agriculture Department on Tuesday to force it to make billions of dollars in contingency funds available to help feed the most vulnerable individuals and families. SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program commonly known as food stamps, needs $9.2 billion to pay benefits in November. The Trump administration has said there’s no money for next month because of the government...