Free Republic

(The Center Square) – For the 13th consecutive year, the city of Chicago once again reigned as the nation’s homicide capital in 2024 with 573 murders. Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski views that as a sickness he argues has been allowed to fester for too long. Even as overall murder rates across the country dipped, Chicago also claimed the top spot for highest murder rate per capita among big cities at 21.5 per 100,000 population, or three times the levels of Los Angeles and nearly five times of New York City. “It means we have a real problem and we're sick,”...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) argued that “the prices at the grocery store are going up because democracy is being taken away.” And “The impact on you in terms of your health care, 770,000 people in Illinois will lose health care as a result of what Donald Trump and Elon Musk and the Republican Congress are doing right now, it’s a danger to your way of life, and that’s what people need to understand.” Pritzker said, “When you lose, as is happening in my state –we’re losing our meat and poultry inspectors....

The Democrat dubbed “America’s worst mayor” will no longer hold the title after getting obliterated for re-election last night, a month after brawling with her constituents. As The New York Post reported, the antics and illegal behavior finally caught up to scandal-plagued Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard at the ballot box where she suffered a landslide loss in Democratic primary. Her opponent, Village Trustee Jason House, won almost 88% of the votes while Henyard could barely manage 12%. Making things even more embarrassing for Henyard, FOX 32 reported earlier in the day that she said she had “no competition” and would...

A violent Tren de Aragua gang member who is suspected of murder has been released from prison in Chicago despite a 2022 deportation order. Pedro Colmenares, 33, of Venezuela, entered the United States in 2022 and was ordered to be deported by an immigration judge just a few months later. In 2024, two years after he was ordered to be deported, Colmenares was back in the hands of law enforcement on a weapons charge. “DHS issued an ICE detainer on Colmenares, but because of its sanctuary policy, Cook County refused to comply with the detainer, and Colmenares was set free,”...

... As President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown grips the Chicago area in fear, a burgeoning resistance movement has also emerged here to challenge — as well as evade — immigration enforcement. From statements of defiance by local leaders to an unofficial network of tips and alerts on various social media sites, Chicagoland has become an epicenter of opposition to the president’s immigration agenda. Nonprofits have ramped up education campaigns to inform undocumented residents of their rights. A Chicago organization has launched a multilingual mobile “Know Your Rights” app, which includes an audio recitation of rights; the app was designed by...

DOLTON, Ill. – Embattled Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard was found in contempt of court Friday morning in a case over her alleged refusal to sign off on promised liquor licenses. Attorneys for the owners of St. Patrick’s, a three-story restaurant and banquet hall, said the business will finally be able to open after a judge found Henyard in contempt and forced her to sign the liquor licenses she’d allegedly been stonewalling for months. “It’s been a challenge to put it mildly. It shouldn’t be so difficult. This is an ordinary event to get liquor licenses issued,” Adrian Vuckovich, an attorney...

Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) pledged to launch a campaign to boost radical sex change procedures in his state in response to Donald Trump’s landslide election. Pritzker used Transgender Awareness Week — November 12 to 19 — as a platform to showboat over the issue, Fox News reported. “This Transgender Awareness Week, I want you to know that I see you and have your back as governor,” Pritzker wrote on X. “Illinois has enshrined protections for gender-affirming care to meet this moment — and because of that, you will have a home here always.”

A man is facing felony terrorism and hate crime charges after authorities say he shot a Jewish man who was walking to a synagogue and then fired at responding officers during a weekend shootout in Chicago. Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, 22, has been charged with one felony count of terrorism and one felony count of a hate crime, Chicago Police Department Chief Larry Snelling said at a news conference Thursday. Abdallahi is also facing six counts of attempted first-degree murder, seven counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of aggravated battery with the discharge of a firearm, the...

Protesters are expected to wreak such havoc at next week’s Democratic National Convention, some members of Congress have been told not to book hotels in their own names, according to a new report from Axios. They’ve also been warned to avoid staying in certain area’s of the host city, Chicago, and one Democratic lawmaker told the website they were “very concerned” about personal security./b> At least some area hotels have been getting calls from people with random requests for names. “The protesters aren’t staying in a designated protest site … and there are people who are going to go and...

Governor JB Pritzker (D-IL) said Sunday on CNN’a “State of the Union” that Vice President Kamala Harris has “energized” the Democratic Party the way former President Barack Obama did in 2008. Host Jake Tapper said, “How will this convention be different with Vice President Harris as the nominee, then President Biden.” Pritzker said, “Well, remember, first of all, you were talking about reelection nomination, renomination, and now you’re talking about something completely different, right? We’ve got, I mean, this is a candidate who’s energized the party in a way that I haven’t seen, certainly since ‘08. And when I think...

CHICAGO — Nearly a year after Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration floated the possibility of opening a municipally owned grocery store to help improve food access on the South and West sides, a feasibility study created for the city describes a municipal grocery model as “necessary, feasible, and implementable.” The study recommends the city pursue some version of a municipally owned store or stores — and finds such stores could even turn a profit. It also suggests the city not attempt to operate a supermarket itself, but rather partner with a for-profit operator, a non-profit operator or a co-op. Private grocers...

Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) were “just weird.” Pritzker said, “The electorate is energized. Democrats are ready to go. You’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people signing up to volunteer. Our candidate is the energizer bunny. She’s been everywhere all the time over the last several days, and we’re excited about that to get to see her in the battleground states and all over the country. Her message is one that I think resonates with people. One of those things, of course,...

In sunny Chicago, Illinois, on the weekend of Independence Day, 2024, we are told that 109 people were shot, 19 of them fatally. This of course doesn’t include the always-unknown numbers of people who were shot at but missed, and those who were shot but chose not to seek medical care, and those who were stabbed, slugged, or clubbed, because the gun is the only weapon in which most modern journalists are interested. Statistics of any kind are rarely truly comprehensive. But still, “109 shot, 19 fatally” is in itself a scary enough number for a four-day weekend in a...

CHICAGO -- At least 87 people have been shot, 16 fatally, in gun violence across Chicago since Wednesday evening during the extended Fourth of July holiday weekend, police said. The violence includes three mass shootings, one in which two women and an 8-year-old boy were killed and two young boys were left in critical condition after multiple shooters opened fire into a Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood home on the South Side. At least 19 of those shot were in mass shootings in Austin, Greater Grand Crossing and Little Italy. About 12:15 a.m. Friday, police responded to calls of shots fired...

The Fourth of July historically is one of the nation’s deadliest days of the year. A flurry of shootings around the holiday a year ago left more than a dozen people dead and over 60 wounded. And a year before that, seven people died in a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade near Chicago. Violence and mass shootings often increase in the summer months, with more people gathering for social events, teens out of school and hotter temperatures. Chicago ‘in state of grief’ In Chicago alone, 11 people had been killed and 55 wounded in shootings as of...

A woman dubbed 'America's worst mayor' will be probed by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot after her town vetoed her attempts to block any investigation - the decision sent a town meeting into chaos. Police, on Monday, were forced to break up the room as the situation devolved following a 4-2 vote by the town board to reinstate Lightfoot, who will conduct an investigation into Mayor Tiffany Henyard. The Dolton mayor - who spoke into a golden microphone during the meeting - is currently under federal investigation, as well as immense pressure from her constituents to resign. She is being...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- It's been a violent holiday weekend so far in Chicago. At least 41 people have been shot, nine fatally, since Friday evening. One of those shootings left a 5-year-old girl dead. Despite the still high shooting numbers, calls to stop the gun violence in the city seemed to have an impact. This holiday weekend's violence numbers, so far, are lower than last year's, when 53 people were shot, 11 fatally. The long weekend is putting Mayor Brandon Johnson's summer safety plan to the test. He spoke during a community walk over the weekend, criticizing previous administrations for...

A mother, who was the victim of a home invasion, is outraged after a 911 dispatcher told her she should call a local lawmaker to request more police funding. Michelle, who has chosen to remain anonymous, called 911 six times after two men broke into her Chicago home. When they picked up, they told her if she wanted help from the police, she should call her alderman and demand more funding for the Chicago police department. 'A gentleman got on and said sorry to say we have no units to send you…then there was an awkward pause,' she told NBC...

Video footage on Tuesday emerged showing the moment when plainclothes Chicago police officers unloaded nearly 100 gunshots during a traffic stop last month, killing a man and subsequently leading to negative anti-cop coverage. However, the narrative of police killing an innocent man runs counter to the facts. As the New York Post reported, 26-year-old Dexter Reed was killed during a March 21 traffic stop in Humboldt Park on West Ferdinand Street after officers in an unmarked cop car pulled him over for failing to wear a seatbelt. The wild footage opens with a female officer and four others approaching Reed’s...

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates has let $5,579 in Chicago water, sewer and trash bills pile up. She makes over $289,000 and demands the “wealthy” pay a greater share. So why doesn’t she pay her fair share to a city in financial turmoil? Davis Gates’ tenure as CTU president has been filled with controversy, from taking a homestead exemption on an Indiana home she doesn’t live in to killing school choice for low-income kids while putting her own son in private school. CTU has also come under fire from its own members for potentially misappropriating members’ dues for...