Free Republic

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has once again joined a coalition of other attorneys general in suing the Trump administration over new rules that could bar immigrants without legal status from health and education programs. The suit, announced Monday, seeks to stop a series of orders from federal agencies that would block people from the early childhood education program Head Start, Title X family planning, adult education, mental health care and community health centers based on immigration status.

Gov. JB Pritzker has officially signed the Illinois "Squatter Bill" into law on Monday. The law will make it easier for police to remove squatters from someone's home, bypassing a possibly months-long eviction process Previously, squatters were allowed to stay at the property during the court process to get them out. The law differentiates squatters from tenants, making it easier for property owners to regain control of their home. "This outdated eviction law has treated squatters the same as tenants, leaving property owners in limbo and tying the hands of law enforcement," Pritzker said.

2024, prices jumped 800% at PJM Interconnection, a “traffic controller” part of the grid that provides service in 13 states as well as D.C. .. PJM operates the largest power grid in the U.S., with around 67 million customers—that’s more than 20% of the American population. ... amid a dwindling supply and an increase in demand, “Prices for power plants landed at $269.92 per megawatt-day, compared to $28.92 per megawatt-day” in 2023. ... prices are set to spike again, and the projection for this year is around 20%. If you live in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey,...

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...

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley announced Thursday that the Department of Energy (DOE) is canceling its Grain Belt Express project. Hawley’s X post announcing the DOE’s decision to cancel the project followed a conversation with President Donald Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. The post also called the Grain Belt Express a “green scam” that is “costing taxpayers BILLIONS.” ... The Grain Belt Express was a $11 billion transmission line project designed to carry electricity from wind farms in Kansas across Missouri and Illinois to Indiana. “Energy demand is growing – our grid needs an upgrade,” the project’s website states,...

In March, in a coordinated effort by the U.S. Marshal Service (USMS) Southeast Regional Task Force (SERFTF), USMS Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Chicago Police Department, Venezuelan illegal migrant and Tren de Arugua member Ricardo Gonzales Leon, age 32, was arrested at a residence in Cobb County, Georgia. According to the US Marshals, Ricardo Gonzales chose to enter the country illegally. Alleged killers Gonzalez Leon (left) and Gabriel Romero Gonzales and Gabriel Edison Romero are accused of kidnapping and killing two women and attempting to murder a third woman in execution-style...

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...

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 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...

The Department of Justice on Monday unveiled a record-shattering crackdown on the corrupt underbelly of America’s health care system. A jaw-dropping 324 defendants — including 96 medical professionals — have been charged in 50 federal districts and 12 states for orchestrating over $14.6 billion in intended fraud, largely targeting Medicare, Medicaid, and federal health programs meant to serve the elderly, disabled, and the poor. The takedown, spearheaded by the DOJ’s Health Care Fraud Unit in coordination with HHS-OIG, the FBI, the DEA, and over a dozen state attorney general offices, marks the largest health care fraud bust in U.S. history....

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...

Nearly seven years after the feds raided his Northwest Side home, a Chicago IT specialist was convicted Friday of helping the Islamic State terrorist group through a media campaign that encouraged attacks, celebrated beheadings and other gruesome violence and taunted Western culture with memes like a headless Santa delivering a bomb. U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey issued his verdict following a rare bench trial that began last month, convicting Ashraf al Safoo on 11 counts, including providing material support to a terrorist organization, conspiracy to transmit threats in interstate commerce, and computer fraud. Al Safoo faces up to 130...

Pritzker was scheduled to crisscross the state for a series of reelection rallies starting Thursday morning at the Grand Crossing Park Field House on the South Side.

Pritzker will make his reelection campaign official with kickoff events in Chicago and Springfield, but it’s still unknown whom he’ll tap as running mate.

Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) president Stacy Davis Gates said on Monday that “all children belong to” the union. At the City Club Chicago event, Gates bashed President Donald Trump for lessening the power of teachers’ unions, calling his education agenda a “relitigation” of the Civil War while complaining about the failing state of Chicago schools. Quoting civil rights activist James Baldwin, Gates tells the crowd, “The children are always ours. Every single one of them, all over the globe.” Gates then mocks parents who would respond by saying “CTU thinks your children are its children.” “Yes, we do,” Gates said....

Chicago activists welcomed word of a “complete and total ceasefire” in the war between Israel and Iran at a downtown protest Monday evening but said they were cautiously optimistic and urged continued agitation. The protest at Federal Plaza attracted about 200 people despite Monday’s extreme heat. Demonstrators called for the United States to stop bombing Iranian nuclear sites, among other demands. Many condemned U.S. military aid to Israel, supporting its war in Iran and also in Gaza, which has lasted nearly two years. President Donald Trump said on social media Monday that Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire...

Despite the blistering heat, Chicago had relatively few shootings over the weekend, with three people killed and 23 others injured across the city, according to data from the crime tracking site HeyJackass.com. It’s the lowest shooting toll for the same weekend since 2018, which also had three killed and 23 injured, the site reported. In total, CPD handled 20 shooting incidents over the weekend, involving victims ranging in age from 11 to 63. So far, police have not announced charges in connection with any of the shootings. The department provided the following details about the crimes: Friday, June 20 1:58...