Free Republic

CDC Update: Tularemia Outbreak in Prairie Dogs in Texas Tuesday, August 06, 2002 4:15 PM Eastern US http://www.videonewswire.com/CDC/080602/event.html?id=7237

Gov. Gavin Newsom grinned like Cheshire at civil rights icon Jesse Jackson’s public memorial service Friday – treating it as a campaign event as the rumored 2028 presidential hopeful schmoozed with Democratic heavyweights including Presidents Obama and Clinton. The California governor was pictured working the room and snapping selfies with Democratic party elites, as thousands of people gathered at a church on Chicago’s South Side to pay a final public tribute to Jackson. In one telling moment, Obama, who was front row at the event, turned around and pointed directly at Newsom, who’s also been on the publicity trail for...

A Chicago woman with a pending robbery case is suing Target, accusing the retail giant of violating Illinois civil rights law by rescinding a conditional job offer after discovering her unresolved criminal case. Courtney McElrath-Bey, 35, claims the company unlawfully used her background against her when it decided not to hire her for a warehouse position last year. Her lawsuit, filed in February and first reported by Legal Newsline, seeks damages and could expand to cover other applicants who were denied jobs under similar circumstances. According to the complaint, Target extended McElrath-Bey a conditional offer in October for a job...

A Chicago federal appeals court on Thursday vacated a lower court’s injunction placing use-of-force restrictions on immigration agents during Operation Midway Blitz, calling it “constitutionally suspect” and questioning the manner in which the district judge dismissed the underlying suit. The three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was split 2-1, with Chief Judge Michael Brennan and Judge Michael Scudder in the majority and Judge Frank Easterbrook dissenting. The ending of the Trump administration’s appeal was a foregone conclusion after U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis in January granted a motion by the plaintiffs to dismiss the underlying lawsuit....

The House committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein voted to subpoena U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify on her handling of Justice Department files on the disgraced financier. The Republican-led House Oversight Committee voted 24 to 19 Wednesday to issue the subpoena. A Justice Department spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the vote. Republican Nancy Mace of South Carolina proposed the subpoena and it passed the over the objection of the panel’s chairman, James Comer of Kentucky. Mace said the subpoena would require a taped, closed-door deposition under oath and a time had not yet been set...

Some Illinois lawmakers want to rebrand fentanyl deaths as “poisoning” instead of “overdose,” but coroners say the change would force them to lie on death certificates. Senate Bill 3014 would direct coroners and medical examiners to classify deaths involving fentanyl as “poisoning” instead of “overdose.” Under the bill, each fentanyl-related death would have to be reported separately to the Illinois Department of Public Health, and the department would be required to publish these fatalities distinctly in its monthly overdose reports, rather than grouping them with other drug overdoses. The bill’s sponsor Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris), says the change is intended...

🚨 HOLY SMOKES. Black Lives Matter Illinois founder Clyde McLemore exposed on video MERCILESSLY BEATING one of his female employees This same employee caught him embezzling grant funds THIS IS BLM!

A Black Lives Matter founder in Illinois was caught on camera in a violent office confrontation with a female worker who accused him of misusing the organization's money, a report said. The violent clash erupted into shoving, grabbing and a physical struggle along a corridor at the group's headquarters, according to a police report. Police in Waukegan, Illinois, were called to the Black Lives Matter Lake County Resource Center on January 12 after reports of a battery involving the group's founder, Clyde J. McLemore, and project manager Nyesha A. Hill. Surveillance footage and police reports detail a heated confrontation that...

Many in Chicago’s Iranian community are in high spirits after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was reported dead following a major attack Saturday by the United States and Israel. Saba Niaki, an Iranian living in Chicago, was getting ready for another rally in solidarity with Iran when she heard the news. Niaki, 38, who had stopped at a Starbucks near Daley Plaza where the rally was to be held, was carrying posters with the faces of the victims of the recent protests in Iran. “I started screaming and there was a construction guy standing on the railroad, and he...

An Illinois school district whose faculty members came under fire for “celebrating or justifying” the death of Charlie Kirk implemented expansive DEI and critical theory-driven programming, a new report revealed last week. One school even ran sessions that allegedly “segregated” students based on race. Anti-indoctrination watchdog Defending Education obtained multiple Freedom of Information Act requests exposing “extensive, taxpayer-funded DEI initiatives” in Illinois’ Oswego District 308, including “equity trainings for students and staff,” trainings where students were “separated based on racial background,” and “equity partnerships” with other groups. The obtained materials also exposed “district policies explicitly committing to anti-racism, marginalized identities,...

Juliana Stratton, the state’s lieutenant governor, is running her first TV ad beginning Friday, a spot featuring a series of people, including Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., all saying “F--- Trump.” “F--- Trump, vote Juliana,” one person after another says in the ad. At least half a dozen bleeps will be audible to obscure the salty language when it airs on TV, according to the campaign. For her part, Stratton does not take part in the cursing. “They said it, not me,” Stratton says as she appears on the screen.

A mother says she just wants answers after she found her son with special needs wandering miles away from his school when he was supposed to be in class. "I don't feel safe. I'm just scared to go back. Something could happen ... again," sixth-grader Richard Harley said. Harley, 11, says he doesn't want to go back to class after he was found wandering, scared and alone, miles away from school grounds after a student-led walkout protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "They were supposed to stay there, like on 72 by the school. But they did the exact opposite...

Destructive storms blasting through parts of the Midwest spawned tornadoes that hit Indiana and Illinois, as near-hurricane force winds swept parts of the region. A violent tornado ripped through southeastern Illinois on Thursday, shredding homes, overturning cars and leaving a trail of destruction that stretched at least six miles long. At least a dozen buildings were destroyed. Powerful wind mangled mobile homes and flipped them upside down. One woman was trapped inside until rescue crews could reach her. That same twister then barreled across the Indiana state line. Another powerful tornado ripped through Bloomington, Indiana, on Thursday, as severe thunderstorms...

An Illinois school district filled with faculty who celebrated and hoped for the death of Charlie Kirk was exposed for their 2026 equity framework plan the district “aspires to” that includes hiring and retaining staff with “diverse backgrounds” and mandated DEI training sessions for faculty and students. Defending Education uncovered Oswego District 308’s equity roadmap through several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, which brought to light an annual report summary on DEI as well as the district’s DEI plan for 2026. One FOIA request detailing an equity report showed that a middle school in the district divided students by...

Two Pakistani nationals were indicted on Thursday for their roles in defrauding Medicare in a scheme conducted in Chicago, Illinois. The duo allegedly regularly billed “Medicare and private insurers” in excess of $10 million for “nonexistent healthcare services,” according to the Department of Justice. Kashif Iqbal and Burhan Mirza, and several other unnamed participants, “used nominee-owned laboratories and durable medical equipment providers to submit fraudulent claims to Medicare and private healthcare benefit programs for items and services not rendered. Mirza illegally obtained private identification information of individuals and providers as part of the fraud. He then used this data to...

Evanston, Illinois. will issue $25,000 to 44 residents in reparations payments, the City’s Reparations Committee has announced. Established in 2019 and approved by the City Council in 2021, the program issues $25,000 direct cash payments to Black residents and descendants of Black residents who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969. Evanston was the first city in the nation to pass a reparations plan, pledging $10 million over a decade to Black residents. The payments are intended to cover housing expenses, Evanston official Cynthia Vargas told the Chicago Tribune. Tasheik Kerr, assistant to the city manager, said during a meeting...

is out thousands of dollars after they wrote two checks, not even close to that amount. They said they're victims of a check washing scheme, and believe it is taking place at their local post office. Therese Scarlati collected during her own investigation, collecting every sheet of paper, starting with those two checks. Therese sent a $165 check to her insurance company. Her husband wrote this $64 check for the water bill — both mailed on the same day, yet somehow the amounts were both changed. Her husband's was cashed for $5,700 in storage fees, while Therese's check was cashed...

You may vote red or blue, but would you rather live in a blue state or a red state? Regardless of what people do at the ballot box, newly released data from the Census Bureau overwhelmingly show people voting with their feet, leaving blue states for red states. And this is nothing new.From July 2024 to July 2025 (the latest numbers available), blue states like California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts hemorrhaged their most valuable resource—people—at an alarming rate.These were the five worst states for net domestic migration, meaning more people left those states than moved in, for...

Tuesday on MS NOW’s “The 11th Hour,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should not be wearing masks during their operations in American cities. Paul said, “I think the main thing is if you want trust to develop again, I’m not somebody who wants to abolish ICE. I want ICE to behave within the rules and enforce the law. But I want them to behave in a normal, rational law enforcement manner.” Host Stephanie Ruhle said, “Do you think it’s OK for ICE to be wearing these masks? Paul said, “I think that anonymity and wearing...

As the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown has swept across the U.S., countless people have been documenting federal agents’ actions, warning neighbors of their whereabouts with whistles and car horns, and uploading videos of encounters to social media. Two people who have been on the front lines are Ben and Sam Luhmann, a pair of homeschooled teenage brothers from the Chicago area. They kicked off their work as so-called ICE watchers when “Operation Midway Blitz” began in the Chicago region back in September, and most recently were on the ground in Minnesota documenting immigration enforcement actions in the Twin Cities....