Free Republic

Adam Hamawy’s past relationship with terrorist mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman has loomed over his rapid rise in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ). Their relationship spanned a 1991 road trip the two took together to Detroit, Hamawy’s service as the sheikh’s translator for a press conference in which Abdel-Rahman denied any role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and Hamawy’s testimony on the sheikh’s behalf at his 1995 trial, where the Islamist leader was convicted of plotting to carry out a campaign of terrorist attacks in New York City. But just one year before Hamawy...

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker had a "minor complication" from a recent procedure and was taken to a Springfield hospital earlier this week, a spokesperson for the governor confirmed to NBC Chicago Friday. The complication stemmed from an earlier urology procedure, with Pritzker going to a Springfield hospital overnight Wednesday and into Thursday morning.

Roughly 8% of the more than 3,000 people enrolled in the often-criticized electronic monitoring system in Cook County are missing, according to the chief judge. In other words: 243 people are missing. “Transparency is not optional — it is a core obligation of this office,” Chief Judge Charles Beach II said in a statement. “The public has a right to know how this program operates, what the data shows and what we are doing every day to make it stronger." Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, a frequent critic of electronic monitoring, issued a statement Wednesday saying she welcomes...

A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois has convicted an Illinois woman of unemployment insurance fraud for participating in a scheme that submitted nearly 700 fraudulent claims and caused more than $11 million in fraudulent COVID-19 relief benefits to be dispersed. Hiam Hmaidan, 54, of Orland Park, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and five counts of mail fraud, the Justice Department announced. She is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2 and faces up to 20 years in prison. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Hmaidan operated the fraud...

Amid an active war, Pope Leo XIV has bestowed the Vatican's highest diplomatic honor on the Islamic Republic's envoy. Critics say it validates a regime that murders Christians, kills protesters by the thousands, and fires missiles at Western allies. In a move that has ignited controversy across religious, political, and human rights circles, Pope Leo XIV has decorated Iran's ambassador to the Vatican with the most prestigious diplomatic honor the Holy See can confer. Pope Leo XIV has awarded the Grand Cross of the Pontifical Order of Pius IX, the highest active diplomatic distinction of the Vatican, to the ambassador...

The Trump administration is cracking down hard on radical gender policies in public schools. The Department of Justice has launched full investigations into 36 Illinois school districts accused of helping children “change genders” without telling their parents and pushing sexual orientation and gender ideology without proper opt-out notifications.While blue-state bureaucrats treat families as obstacles, the DOJ is stepping in to enforce basic accountability and Supreme Court precedent. The review is also looking at whether the district’s violated parents right to opt their child out of lessons on gender and s*xuality.”🚨 BREAKING: The Trump administration launches investigations into DOZENS of Illinois...

Last month, the Arab-American Business and Professional Association (ABPA) unveiled the first of its "Welcome to Little Palestine" signs in Bridgeview, a suburb 15 miles southwest of Chicago. The sign was erected at 83rd Street and Harlem Avenue, welcoming visitors to an area stretching from 79th Street to 113th Street that ABPA calls one of the largest Palestinian-American communities in the United States. A second sign followed at Westfield Plaza on 87th Street. ABPA president Rush Darwish declared at that unveiling: "This unveiling is more than a sign -- it is a declaration of who we are."The designation came after...

Police accused a semi-truck driver from New Jersey of causing eight accidents on a Chicago highway before attempting to strangle another driver on April 28 in an alleged instance of road rage. Police alleged that the suspect was driving “recklessly,” which resulted in a string of collisions on I-57 northbound, according to an Illinois State Police (ISP) news release. The suspect, 25-year-old truck driver Hassan A. Moutassim of Jersey City, New Jersey, reportedly removed a driver from another crashed vehicle and allegedly started “battering the driver, including an attempt to strangle the victim,” the press release stated. The alleged victim...

As I recover from foot surgery in Chicago, my break from the Walk Across America has given me time to do more than reflect. I’ve seen so many things on my walk so far through small towns, big cities, ghettos, suburbs, open-air drug markets, posh farmers markets and even the occasional country market. Throughout it all, I’ve seen Americans of so many stripes, and they’re all moving forward, moving with a sense of purpose in their work and in their belief in God. And when I returned home to the South Side of Chicago, I was struck by the stillness...

Nick Fuentes, part of the twisted “WOKE REICH”, just got exposed as the MONSTER he truly is. A woman shows up at his Illinois home… and this coward SPRAYS her with mace, then SHOVES her down the stairs like a ragdoll. She crashes hard onto the concrete, crawling in pain while he stands over her like some deranged predator. This is the same Fuentes who is telling everyone to ”VOTE DEMOCRAT” to stick it to Trump and Republicans, and physically assaults women for daring to confront him. Battery charges? Mysteriously dismissed. But the video doesn’t lie. This is not a...

A suspect is in custody after a shooting inside a Chicago hospital left one police officer dead and another critically injured on Saturday morning, law enforcement sources said. Around 10:45 a.m., two Chicago police officers were shot at Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital, located at 5140 N. California Ave. in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood. Police took the suspect to the hospital to be checked out before going to jail for a separate offense before the shooting broke out, police sources told NBC Chicago. One of the officers was shot in the head, sources told NBC Chicago. Both were taken to a different...

The Constitution Party has begun maintaining a national list of candidates running with the party in the 2026 election cycle. Party leadership has previously said that recruiting candidates would be a major priority moving forward. The party shared the current list Tuesday, stating that additional candidates will be added as filing deadlines pass in other states. As of publication, the list includes 28 candidates across four states, with the majority concentrated in Utah and Nevada. In Utah, the party is fielding 16 candidates, most of whom are running for county-level offices. These include commission and council seats in Cache, Salt...

CHICAGO—Barack Obama’s new presidential center isn’t a cheap date, and neither is his adopted hometown. When it opens June 19, it will set at least three modern-era records for a former White House occupant: time taken to be completed, project cost and the price to get inside. At $30, adult admission to see the 44th president’s story is more than at any other U.S. presidential library, a Wall Street Journal review shows. That is 59% higher than the average for presidents from John F. Kennedy through George W. Bush...... Still, the GOP should tread cautiously. One of their own isn’t...

A majority of U.S. Catholic voters supported Donald Trump in his 2024 presidential victory. Yet across the broad Catholic political spectrum – even among conservative-leaning bishops – there is dismay over Trump’s unprecedented verbal assault on Pope Leo XIV, the first American to lead their church. Leo says he is sharing a Gospel message and not directly attacking Trump or anyone else with his appeals for peace and criticism of attitudes fueling the war. Criticism of Trump came from Archbishop Paul Coakley, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and from Minnesota-based Bishop Robert Barron, who only a few...

An Illinois woman who claimed she was detained by ICE for nearly two days was actually relaxing at a hotel getting spa treatments, according to a $1 million defamation suit filed by a county sheriff. US citizen Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi, 28, gained national attention last month when she and a band of supporters – including Cook County, Ill., Commissioner Kevin Morrison – publicly insisted she was unlawfully detained by ICE officers for roughly 43 hours. Naqvi claimed that after landing back in the US from a work trip to Turkey on the morning of March 5, she was detained for...

The name of President Obama came into play this afternoon at the political corruption trial of former governor Rod Blagojevich as an associate of political fund-raiser Tony Rezko testified that Rezko asked him to write a $10,000 check to Friends of Obama. The Chicago Sun-Times reported in January 2008 that Glenview businessman Joseph Aramanda, who is testifying today, made the donation as part of a scheme orchestrated by Rezko. Aramanda gave $10,000 in campaign cash to Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign on March 5, 2004, according to records. The money came from part of a finder’s fee Aramanda received, but did...

The Justice Department on Friday charged three Azerbaijani gangsters with plotting to murder a Brooklyn-based Iranian-American author and activist last year. The case stems from the July arrest of Khalid Mehdiyev, who was collared near Masih Alinejad’s home with an assault rifle after the beefy and bearded 24-year-old was filmed ringing Alinejad’s doorbell and lingering on her porch in a leafy part of the New York City borough. The other two men facing charges are 43-year-old Rafat “Rome” Amirov, a resident of Iran who was arrested on Jan. 26 in New York, and 38-year-old Polad “Haci Qaqa” Omarov, who was...

The radical culture war on public art. The Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, has called for the removal of a mural of Iryna Zarutska, a young Ukrainian refugee whose brutal murder was caught on video, because, according to Mayor Smiley, because of its “misguided, isolating intent”. Providence has a BLM street mural covering three blocks and a “Love is a Many Gendered Thing” mural, but Mayor Smiley urged supporting artists “whose work brings us closer together rather than divide us” and remembering Irina’s murder divides us. Unlike BLM and “Love is a Many Gendered Thing” which bring us together. In...

Rashida Tlaib had the crowd eating out of her hand. It was March 2018, and the hookah lounge in a working-class suburb outside of Chicago was packed. Warm and engaging, switching frequently between English and Arabic, Tlaib - a Michigan State representative with larger ambitions - pleaded for out-of-state donations to help her become the first Palestinian American in Congress. She unashamedly told the audience that her Detroit constituents often declared: 'Rashida is a warrior, and this is a war we're in.' Sitting in the front row, Rafeeq Jaber listened intently, seemingly impressed and knowing a thing or two about...

The Bulls are cutting bait with Jaden Ivey, waiving the guard following comments on social media livestreams against the LGBTQ community and the Catholic church. The team announced he was waived “due to conduct detrimental to the team” in a statement. Growing concerns about Ivey date back to last month and his comments on a livestream on his personal Instagram account on Monday about the LGBTQ community were the last straw for the Bulls, according to the Chicago Sun Times. Ivey has been posting several lengthy videos on his social media in recent weeks, with the topic of the NBA’s...