Free Republic

... Kellie O’Connell, CEO of Nourishing Hope, said the past four years have “felt like one crisis after another.” "We're providing more services to more people than we did at the height of the pandemic. And now we're really responding to a major influx of migrants and asylum-seekers who have arrived in Chicago in the past two years, while continuing to serve Chicagoans who have turned to us for years,” O’Connell said. Yet while local food pantries report an increase in demand for help, a federal nutrition assistance program serving women and young children has seen a big drop in...

In a surprising turn of events, Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard has vetoed a unanimous board resolution aimed at investigating her use of tax funds, plunging the town into a storm of controversy. The mayor defends her veto by asserting it’s a preventative measure against potential personal attacks. Mayor Henyard’s actions have triggered public outrage, as recent revelations shed light on the alleged misuse of taxpayer money. Accusations range from indulging in lavish trips to orchestrating a $1 million giveaway and maintaining a $1 million police detail, all while drawing a hefty annual salary of $287,000.

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a federal lawsuit against the Illinois State Board of Elections and its Executive Director, Bernadette Matthews, over their failure to clean Illinois’ voter rolls and to produce election-related records as required by federal law, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) (Judicial Watch Inc. et al. v. Illinois State Board of Elections et al.(No. 1:24-cv-01867)). The lawsuit requests the court to require Illinois to “develop and implement a general program that makes a reasonable effort to remove the registrations of ineligible registrants from the voter rolls.” (Legal pressure from...

Self-described “super mayor” Tiffany Henyard vetoed a resolution seeking to investigate her spending following allegations that she misused taxpayer money on lavish trips and her own $1 million police detail. The Dolton, Illinois, village board unanimously voted to open a probe into Henyard, calling on her to submit the village’s financial records and inviting the FBI to conduct its own investigation. Henyard, however, issued a veto on Monday, claiming the resolution was the result of personal attacks against her and stemmed from one-sided narratives. “As you can see, our village, our community, myself, we are under attack,” Henyard said at...

A special agent with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is dead after being accidentally shot by another IRS agent during a training exercise Thursday at a federal gun range in Phoenix, officials confirmed. A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirms that an incident occurred Thursday at their gun range, which multiple federal agencies were utilizing at the time through an interagency agreement. The spokesperson said no Federal Bureau of Prisons employees were injured in the incident. Charlotte M. Dennis with the Phoenix Field Office of the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) division replied to Arizona’s Family on Thursday afternoon,...

A special agent for the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) was indicted in Tucson, Arizona, Wednesday by a federal grand jury on one count of Involuntary Manslaughter of an Officer of the United States. Larry Edward Brown, Jr., 42, of Peoria, is the agent who was charged, according to a press release from the U.S. States Attorney's Office, District of Arizona. It is based on an incident that allegedly occurred on August 17, 2023, at a firearm range at the Federal Correctional Institution – Phoenix that is used for standard pistol qualifications and classroom training. Brown, a special agent...

We need to quit blaming the Democrats for the Outrageous Border Crisis. The Republicans have done just as much for the illegal aliens with our tax dollars. Where I live they just came out with 2024 initiatives in Sangamon County Illinois which is 99 percent Republican. COMMUNITY FOCUS GROUPS/INTERVIEWS Community focus groups/interviews provide deeper insight to the Core Team, CAC and IAC about their personal experiences related to key health indicators. • Asian Indian Women’s Organization* • Chinese American Association* • Divine Nine Sororities & Fraternities* • Hispanic Women of Springfield* • Islamic Society of Greater Springfield* • Ministerial Alliance*...

A Cook County judge Wednesday ordered the state election board to remove former President Donald Trump from Illinois’ March 19 primary ballot but put her order on hold until Friday in anticipation of a likely appeal. Judge Tracie Porter’s decision comes amid national debate over whether Trump is disqualified from the presidency because of his actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and whether that attack amounted to an insurrection.

CHICAGO - A Cook County judge is ordering the Illinois State Board of Elections to remove President Donald Trump from the state's primary ballot. Judge Tracie Porter gave the order Wednesday, urging the board to remove Trump or "cause any votes cast for him to be suppressed," for violating section three of the 14th Amendment, according to court documents. The order, however, is put on hold until Friday, March 1, in case of an appeal from Trump's attorneys to the Illinois Appellate Court, First District or the Illinois Supreme Court. Judge Porter's ruling reverses last month's decision by the Illinois...

A recently-introduced bill in the state of Illinois would change the definition of “abused child” to include minors whose parents object to their children receiving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, transgender surgeries, and abortions. House Bill 4876, which was introduced in early February, also shields doctors from liability if they prescribe such treatments to minors who do not have parental consent — and empowers the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to step in and, if they deem it necessary, remove children from their biological parents based on the new definition of an “abused child.” According to the legislation,...

A bill introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives would legally define it as ‘child abuse’ for parents to object to gender transitioning of their children by way of puberty blocking, cross sex hormones or surgery.The legislation, Bill 4876, introduced earlier this month, would also protect doctors from liability should they decide to prescribe those treatments to children who have not gotten parental consent.The legislation would also allow for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to take children away from their parents for opposing such procedures.The legislation also allows for minors to be afforded the same legal...

Just hours after reports that embattled Democratic Dolton, Illinois Mayor Tiffany Henyard was under investigation by the FBI, multiple local businesses were said to be raided by local police. On Tuesday, FOX 32 reported that six individuals have spoken to the FBI about Henyard’s conduct, including business owners, a former village employee and one or more public officials. One complained of difficulties renewing his business license, claiming to suffer from harassment, a raid on his business and being shut down by Dolton police. The U-Haul rental and trucking business owner believed it was retaliation after he refused to donate to...

FBI officials are reportedly investigating allegations against Dolton, Illinois, Mayor Tiffany Henyard (D) who recently spoke with President Joe Biden (D). Henyard apparently shared a few moments with Biden at the White House on January 19 when officials met for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Fox News reported Thursday. Video footage posted to Henyard’s Instagram account on February 8 shows her talking with Biden. Later in the clip, Henyard films herself standing in front of the presidential podium and also waiting for Biden to arrive:

A vocal critic of embattled mayor Tiffany Henyard believes her home was sprayed with bullets at the behest of the official during a bitter feud between them last summer. Two cars belonging to tenants of former Village of Dolton Trustee Valeria Stubbs, a retired member of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, were riddled with at least nine shots last July. The raid, she believes, stemmed from her public attacks on Henyard, who has been accused of plundering the debt-ridden Illinois town’s coffers to pay for lavish travel, dinners and personal indulgences. Asked if she believes Henyard, 40, was behind the...

DOLTON, Ill. — Illinois Attorney General has ordered a politician’s charity to stop soliciting money because it has failed to report how it spends funds and who has benefited. WGN Investigates previously reported on questionable spending by Dolton mayor Tiffany Henyard, who also serves as Thornton Township supervisor. Thousands of tax dollars have been funneled to the Tiffany Henyard Cares Foundation. Township and Dolton workers and vehicles have been used for the charity’s events. The foundation claims to help cancer patients; but hasn’t filed any of the required financial disclosures with the state of Illinois. The attorney general sent a...

The FBI is probing self-described “super mayor” Tiffany Henyard over mounting accusations of misconduct and misuse of office — as the Illinois Attorney General shut down her charity Tuesday, The Post has learned. The eccentric mayor — whose face is plastered across billboards in tiny Dolton, Ill. — is accused of spending taxpayer money on lavish an unnecessary trips and forking over one million dollars on a police detail then using them to retaliate against her percieved enemies. Lawrence Gardner, 57, said he visited an FBI office after Henyard shuttered his trucking business because he refused to renew a $3,500...

CHICAGO — Dexter Williams has been on a roll in Cook County. Since 2022, he’s been charged with misdemeanors six times, and prosecutors dropped all but one of those cases. Among the charges they dropped was a 2022 theft case that police filed against him after on-duty Chicago police officers said they saw Williams trying to steal a catalytic converter in Roscoe Village. The cops asked prosecutors to approve felony charges, but the state’s attorney’s office rejected that idea and then dropped the entire matter a few months later. Maybe Williams should have stayed in Cook County. He’s now being...

The city of Chicago on Tuesday sued six major oil companies and the primary fossil fuel lobbying group, alleging they funded and planned a campaign of climate change denial that directly affects the city’s residents. In the lawsuit, the city accused BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute (API) of misleading the public about the impact of their products and of contributing to the effects of climate change on Chicago. These impacts include unsafe summer temperatures, an increase in extreme weather, shoreline erosion and susceptibility to disasters such as flash flooding in basements on...

Abraham Lincoln didn’t just free the slaves and preserve the Union. America’s 16th (and arguably greatest-ever) president also pardoned the current chief executive’s paternal great-great-grandfather after he was sentenced to hard labor at a military prison, newly unearthed documents show. President Biden’s ancestor, Moses Robinette, was put in the dock after he came to blows with one John Alexander, a fellow civilian employee of the Union Army, on March 21, 1864, according to records found by the Washington Post. Alexander, a brigade wagon master, was left bloodied by wounds that came from Robinette’s pocket knife and the presidential forebear was...

Documents discovered at the National Archives in Washington show that former President Abraham Lincoln pardoned the great-great-grandfather of President Joe Biden, a Union Army civilian employee named Moses Robinette, The Washington Post reported Monday. Joseph Robinette Biden's ancestral line has long been known and includes Moses Robinette among his paternal ancestors from western Maryland, but little has been chronicled about the man until his court-martial records were discovered. The story dates to March 21, 1864 during the Civil War, when a fight broke out in one of the mess tents near Beverly Ford, Virginia, between Robinette and Union Army civilian...