Free Republic

The woman found not guilty by reason of insanity after running over a Chicago police officer with his own squad car is now asking the court to let her start anew—by changing her name. Whitley Temple, who was acquitted last year of attempting to murder Officer Ed Poppish during a bizarre 2022 West Side encounter, filed a petition on July 11 to legally change her first name to “Michelle,” according to Cook County court records. Temple fled the scene in the patrol car, briefly stopped at a gas station, then continued onto the Eisenhower Expressway, reaching speeds of 97 mph...

Chicago, IL — Three separate medical emergencies were reported in January 2025 following botched abortion procedures at three different clinics in Chicago. Each incident involved women experiencing serious complications and required emergency medical intervention. “A Minor Complication” The first emergency occurred on the morning of January 18 at the Near North Health Center Planned Parenthood facility. A 19-year-old woman reportedly suffered a uterine perforation following an abortion procedure. According to 911 dispatch records, the patient was still sedated at the time of the call. The clinic worker who contacted emergency services was hesitant to disclose the nature of the emergency....

There’s an old saying that goes, something that can’t go on forever won’t. Chicago is now in the early stages of learning that this applies to their public school system. They’re facing a massive budget deficit of $734 million and are on pace to lay off almost 1,500 teachers and staffers. Perhaps Mayor Brandon Johnson should have been more focused on delivering the services that American citizen taxpayers paid for and less on the needs of illegal immigrants and Chicago’s ‘sanctuary city’ status. ... Chicago Public Schools parents and community members sounded off on Monday, three days after the district...

A professor at the University of Chicago recently cursed against the school and said she only worked there to “build power” for Palestinian solidarity. The professor, Eman Abdelhadi, made the statements on July 5 during a socialism conference held in Chicago, according to The Daily Caller. In her remarks, Abdelhadi reportedly said that UChicago is “evil” and a “colonial landlord,” and that she asked herself why she worked there. “F**k the University of Chicago—it’s evil,” the professor said. “You know, it’s a colonial landlord. Why would I put any of my political energy into this space?”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed Tuesday that his city “will not ever cooperate with ICE” “You know, again, it’s unconscionable at a time in which so many working people and poor people need government to show up for them, that this administration, the Trump administration, has caused so much consternation and division,” Johnson said Tuesday during a press conference. Johnson was responding to a question about whether the city would “set up local police perimeters around schools to shield students from federal agents without warrants.” “Look, we are welcoming city ordinance,” Johnson said. “Our local police department will not ever...

Shocking footage captured the moment hundreds of unruly Chicago teens shoved a lifeguard as they overran an upscale suburb's public pool. The 'flash mob' of around 200 teens and young adults swarmed Glen Ellyn's Sunset village pool on Saturday, forcing their way past security to pack out the area.

At least 50 people have been shot, six fatally, in gun violence across the city so far this Fourth of July weekend, Chicago police said. ABC7 is tracking holiday weekend shootings from the morning of Thursday, July 3 at midnight to the evening of Sunday, July 6 at 11:59 p.m. A man was shot to death inside a vehicle on the city's North Side on Saturday morning, Chicago police said. Police said the shooting happened in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood's 800-block of North Cambridge Avenue just after 9:45 a.m. A 46-year-old man was inside a vehicle when someone fired shots, striking...

A Chicago man has been jailed after allegedly robbing a 14-year-old boy of his iPhone, gym shoes, and hoodie at a West Side bus stop—then getting beaten up by the victim’s relatives when they tracked him down minutes later. Dnario Brown, 18, is charged with robbery in connection with the June 16 incident, which unfolded near a bus stop at Roosevelt Road and Central Park Avenue, according to a Chicago Police Department arrest report and court documents reviewed by CWBChicago. Authorities said the 14-year-old was walking at 2:40 p.m. on June 16 when four males approached him. One of the...

Chicagoans can’t catch a break when it comes to the cost of living—at least, according to a new study from home-goods pros Highland Cabinetry, which ranks the most overpriced cities in the U.S. Analyzing a diverse range of metrics that consider not only the cost of living but also the quality of life in the Windy City—including the exorbitant expense of housing, earned income, relative safety, traffic and so on—the study sourced its data from the likes of the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Zillow real estate stats. While Newark, New Jersey earned the number one spot for being the...

Chicago, long infested with crime and poverty, keeps crawling ahead of its rivals to remain the champion of one more side effect of its decline. Pest control company Orkin said that the deep-blue Democrat-dominated city is top in the nation in bed bugs for the fifth consecutive year. Orkin bases its list on data from metro areas where the company has been called in to provide bed bug treatments between May 15, 2024, and May 14, 2025. Both residential and commercial calls are counted. ... Although Chicago remains on top, Orkin noted that Hartford, Connecticut, crawled onto its list of...

In one of the first nationwide hypothetical polls for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary, Illinois Governor and billionaire JB Pritzker ranks at the bottom, receiving the lowest level of support from minority voters as prominent Democrats begin preparing for potential campaigns. On Friday, the well-regarded Emerson College Polling released new results showing former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg leading the Democratic field with 16 percent support. Former Vice President Kamala Harris follows at 13 percent, with California Governor Gavin Newsom close behind at 12 percent. JB Pritzker, billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune who invested over $350 million of...

In a chilling encounter that began with a gay dating app hookup, a young man from Whiting found himself battling for survival after a vicious hammer attack inside an abandoned home in West Pullman, officials said. Details of the crime, which occurred on March 23, 2024, are now emerging as prosecutors charge Carl Sturdivant, a multi-convicted felon, with attempted murder and robbery. In a detention filing, prosecutors said the 24-year-old Indiana man connected with Carl Sturdivant, 44, through the gay dating site Sniffies.com, agreeing to meet at a Motel 6 in Hammond for a sexual encounter. Officials stated the victim...

A jury on Wednesday found a former Chicago Public Schools dean guilty of multiple felony counts for sexually abusing a student, after the young woman testified that he coerced her into a relationship years earlier while she attended a Little Village high school. But after deliberating for nearly three hours, the jury also acquitted Brian Crowder, 43, of three of the seven felony sex charges he faced. Earlier in the afternoon, Cook County prosecutors had asked jurors to hold Crowder accountable for using his position of power to prey on a 15-year-old girl. On Tuesday, jurors began hearing testimony in...

At least three people were killed and 16 others wounded in a mass shooting outside a nightclub in downtown Chicago late Wednesday night, authorities said. Police confirmed multiple people were shot in the 300 block of West Chicago Avenue. A city official said 19 people were shot, three of them fatally in a drive-by shooting. The shooting apparently happened as people were leaving the Artis Lounge nightclub following an album release party for rapper Mello Buckzz. The same block was also the scene of a mass shooting in November 2022, when the same nightclub was known as Hush Lounge. One...

A program designed to allow low-income Chicago residents to have their traffic fees waived has been made permanent due to a new law. ...We don't know - if you can afford a car, plates, stickers, insurance and gas, then you can afford to either obey the f#$%ing law or pay the fines that go along with breaking the law. Or just take the damn bus.

Police arrested 39 people in connection with the Chicago Pride Parade and its aftermath between Sunday evening and early Monday, including five individuals who were illegally carrying firearms, according to the Chicago Police Department. One man charged with weapon possession was allegedly carrying two guns. Of the 39 arrested, 13 individuals, including two juveniles, were charged with felonies, while 21 face misdemeanor charges, and one person received citations, a police spokesperson said. Charges were still pending against four people as of midday Monday.

A Chicago Park District lifeguard has been charged in the fatal shooting of one teen and the critical injury of another near Douglass Park's swimming pool. The accused, Charles Leto, 55, faces several charges including first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the shooting occurred around 7 p.m. on Thursday and resulted in the death of Marjay Dotson, 15, and severe injuries to Jeremy Herred, 14, a cousin of Laquan McDonald, a teenager killed by Chicago police in 2014. Leto, a Lake View resident, was reportedly fixing his bike when the teenagers were shot. Initial claims...

A man has been charged with punching at least four people and knocking them to the ground on the same day earlier this week in the Loop, South Loop and Lakeview neighborhoods. Joshua Rowell, 36, is charged with two counts of aggravated battery in Cook County Circuit Court, and one count of forcible assault on a federal judicial employee in federal court in Chicago. According to a Chicago Police Department arrest report, Rowell was arrested shortly before 5 p.m. on Tuesday in the South Loop, after he attacked a 20-year-old woman on the street in the 900 block of South...

CWBChicago has obtained surveillance footage of a shooting that left one teenager dead and another gravely wounded near the Douglass Park swimming pool on Thursday evening. Marjay Dotson, 15, died from a gunshot wound to his back, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. A 14-year-old boy, identified to the media by family members as Jeremy Herred, has undergone surgery for a gunshot wound to his neck. On Saturday evening, Chicago police announced that murder charges had been filed against 55-year-old Charles Leto of Lakeview. CPD and fire department personnel responded to the park at 1401 South Sacramento at...

Two men who held key positions at nonprofit groups that were found liable in a Hamas terror financing scheme helped organize campaign fundraising events for Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) in 2018. The men, who organized events that were paid for by Tlaib's campaign, were associated with a network of nonprofit groups that were found liable by a federal jury in 2004 for financing the terrorist slaying of an American teenager, David Boim, at a bus stop in the West Bank in 1996. A federal judge ordered the three groups to pay Boim's parents a $156 million judgment for funding Hamas,...