Free Republic

One of the most damaging impacts of Illinois’ people loss to other states is the destruction of Illinois’ tax base. When people leave in a given year, they take their incomes (adjusted gross incomes, or AGI) with them, and that means the state’s tax base suffers. A smaller tax base, everything else equal, means less tax revenues for safety, education, road repair and every other core government service – or, as is typically the case in Illinois, more debts and more tax hikes.Unfortunately, Illinois’ out-migration problem is much bigger than just a one year loss: the state has lost people...

With President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race and passing the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris, donors and delegates from Illinois said Monday that the mood of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month vaults from trepidation to elation. “The mood will be dramatically different,” said John Cullerton, the former state Senate president who, as a member of the Democratic National Committee from Illinois, is a delegate. With Biden staying in the contest, the convention “would have been depressing. There would have been a pessimism that Biden was not going to win. But now there is...

CHICAGO — When Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announced in March that it was filing a “first-of-its-kind lawsuit” against firearm manufacturer Glock, the city drummed up publicity with a press release and widespread media coverage. There was no press release and no media coverage on Monday when the city’s attorneys unceremoniously dropped the case in a two-sentence federal court filing. The city’s lawsuit sought to hold Glock responsible because some of its handguns can be equipped with cheap, illegal after-market devices that allow the weapons to generate automatic gunfire, similar to a machine gun. ...

July 22 (Reuters) - The Illinois State Police released video on Monday of a sheriff's deputy killing a woman in her home this month, revealing details of a shooting that some likened to high-profile cases in which law enforcement has used excessive force on Black Americans. Sean Grayson, a white deputy who was dismissed from the Sangamon County Sheriff's Office and charged with three counts of first-degree murder last week, fired three shots at the woman, Sonya Massey, according to the indictment. He also faces a charge of aggravated battery and one of official misconduct. "Sonya’s death at the hands...

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ILLINOIS - President Joe Biden announced he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race. With all the speculation over who could replace him, would Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker be a possibility? The president posted his decision to bow out of the race Sunday on social media and he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. Despite his endorsement, Harris has not been officially selected as the nominee for president in the 2024 election. Shortly after Biden's announcement, Pritzker issued this statement on his decision, emphasizing the president's successful term and the "threat posed by Trump's potential return...

Residents of the 33rd Ward, social justice groups and local officials demanded an outside investigation into Chicago police officers with ties to the Oath Keepers extremist group two months after CPD officials chose not to discipline them after what the groups called an “inadequate” investigation. At a news conference outside Horner Park fieldhouse Saturday afternoon, local residents and members of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression called on the city’s inspector general to investigate the officers named in the probe— including Officer Alberto Retamozo, who is assigned to the 17th District, which covers parts of Albany Park and...

I’m a major donor to the Democratic Party. Only one strategy can rescue the Dems: an open convention. Being a large donor to the Democratic Party is like having elective surgery. You know it’s the right thing to do, but you also know it will be painful. You are often going to be thrown under the bus by the very candidates you support. I would know. I maxed out my giving in the last four presidential elections to the Democratic candidate: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Biden again, this cycle. Perhaps that makes me sound partisan, but I...

Farm equipment maker John Deere says it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events, becoming the latest major U.S. company to distance itself from diversity and inclusion measures after being targeted by conservative backlash... John Deere also said it would audit all training materials “to ensure the absence of socially-motivated messages” in compliance with federal and local laws. It did not specify what those messages would include... John Deere added “the existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy.” But it noted that it would still continue to “track and advance”...

With the Democratic National Convention about a month away, the chief judge of Chicago’s federal court has called for greater clarity in the Chicago Police Department’s policy dictating when officers may deactivate their body-worn cameras. But the order issued this month by Chief Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer gives the city and CPD until Aug. 30 — more than a week after the conclusion of the DNC — to provide a new draft of the policy to the Illinois attorney general’s office and the independent monitoring team that assesses consent-decree compliance. Since the consent decree was entered in early 2019, the independent...

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration is putting unhoused people back on the streets to make room for relocated tent encampment occupants who are being moved before the Democratic National Convention next month. More than half a dozen people told the Sun-Times that they were thrown out or fear they are about to be ejected from a shelter in a former hotel off the Magnificent Mile — as city officials begin to clear a highly visible tent city abutting the Dan Ryan Expressway. A domestic violence survivor, a recovering alcoholic and others with anxiety or chronic medical conditions were among those kicked...

Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party shows itself in the platform priorities approved here at the convention and the people who are now influencing the Illinois Republican Party. With all the hoopla from inside the convention hall at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, it’s easy to miss the people left outside of the arena and the party. Among them: Adam Kinzinger, who was once viewed as the future of the GOP. He was a fresh-faced military vet who, as a congressman, voted with Trump more than 90 percent of the time. But then he committed the Cardinal Sin of today’s GOP:...

Dear readers, The Chicago Sun-Times newspaper wasn’t printed or delivered Tuesday due to unexpected issues with the printing presses at our vendor, Chicago Tribune Company, which also prints the Tribune, the Daily Herald, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and other papers. This means our home delivery subscribers didn’t receive the newspaper and it was also unavailable at any newsstands. We’re disappointed that this happened, and I want to apologize to you, our readers. Whether you get the newspaper delivered or pick it up on the newsstands, we know you count on getting the newspaper every morning —...

NASHVILLE, Ill. — Emergency officials said residents in some neighborhoods of Nashville, Illinois, are being urged to evacuate after a nearby dam is imminently failing. Recent heavy rains triggered Flash Flood Warnings in the region Tuesday morning, and flood waters overtopped the dam behind the Nashville City Reservoir. "Attention the failure of the Nashville dam is imminent," Washington County (Illinois) emergency managers wrote, adding a map shading an area at risk of flooding downstream. "If you are in the grey box, you need to evacuate now!" Two shelters have been opened in the area.

BREAKING: JD Vance spotted leaving Ohio home in a motorcade.

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said Sunday Sen. JD Vance’s (R-Ohio) response to the attempted assassination of former President Trump should “disqualify” him from serving as vice president. Vance, a contender for Trump’s choice of running mate, said in a social media post on Saturday that the shooting was “not some isolated incident” and suggested President Biden’s campaign was, at least in part, at fault. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance said on the social platform X. “That rhetoric led directly to...

Douglass Academy High School had 35 students with nearly 900 seats unfilled. None were proficient on the SAT. The Chicago Teachers Union wants to add at least eight staffers there and at every other school in the district at a cost of $1.7 billion. Only 35 students enrolled in Douglass Academy High School for the 2023-2024 school year, but the building can hold over 900 students. Logic would say it should be closed, but the Chicago Teachers Union prohibits closing it and other underused schools. In fact, CTU sees the 23 staffers at Douglass as inadequate. CTU’s new contract demands...

(The Center Square) – In June, nine Illinois companies announced a total of 1,017 jobs affected by mass layoffs. A policy analyst and economy expert says more people are relying on themselves for employment. A “mass layoff” under the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act is a reduction in force at a single site of employment of 25 or more full-time employees if they constitute one-third or more of full-time employees at the site, or 250 or more full-time employees. Director of Fiscal and Economic Research at Illinois Policy Bryce Hill said Illinois has the least business-friendly state of...

With tens of thousands of delegates, elected officials and protesters expected to flood Chicago next month for the Democratic National Convention, the city’s busiest health care nexus could be facing some serious blockages. Hospital officials within the Illinois Medical District told the Sun-Times they’re bracing for major disruptions to their operations as convention-goers flock just up the street to the United Center for the Aug. 19-22 convention, which is expected to draw some 50,000 people to the city. It’ll mean traffic delays and delivery disruptions for patients and health care workers even under the smoothest of circumstances — and hospital...

"If the organizers had not caught my subterfuge, this could have been much worse, and for that, I'm grateful," she said, according to documents from the Campaign Finance Board. The chair of a local DFL unit has been fined $200 after admitting to using a fake name and incorrect address when attending a Republican fundraiser earlier this year. The Republican Party of Minnesota previously filed a campaign finance complaint against Barbara Crow, the chair of a local DFL Party unit in St. Louis County, who later admitted to using a false name, mailing address, email address, and phone number when...