Free Republic

(CNN)Lori Lightfoot has been elected the next mayor of Chicago, according to the Associated Press, becoming the first African-American woman picked to lead the country's third-most populous city. Lightfoot faced a historic runoff Tuesday against Toni Preckwinkle, who is also an African-American woman. "This may not be the outcome we wanted but while I may be disappointed, I'm not disheartened," Preckwinkle told supporters after she called Lightfoot to congratulate her. Mayor Rahm Emanuel was not in the race, as he was not seeking a third term. Lightfoot, 56, a former assistant US attorney, describes herself as "an out and proud...

A former Chicago police officer convicted of second-degree murder in the killing of an African-American teenager he shot 16 times received a dose of prison justice just days after Illinois prosecutors moved to seek a harsher sentence for him, his wife said Thursday. Jason Van Dyke was allegedly beaten by inmates at a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, where he was secretly moved to last week, his wife and his attorneys said during a news conference in Chicago.

When you have a President of the United States who has a close friend named Vince McMahon, you can expect a good fight show....... A top North Korean official carrying a note from that country's ruler Kim Jong-un has arrived in Washington for a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo..... Twenty were killed and dozens injured in a car bomb attack in Colombia's capital Bogota Thursday........ Act 50 of the European UnUUnion treaty invoked for Brexit explicitly states that if there is no deal to withdrawal a member nation can leave without one..... "Back to Paris" is the...

The Senate has been in session all night with senators speaking about the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The final vote will be today and it could be..... Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke faces a minimum of six year in prison after being convicted of second degree murder.... A new tone from the European Union about Brexit..... The latest on the disappearance of the Chinese official who heads Interpol is that Chinese authorities took him into custody..... We still don't know what happened to Saudi journalist and critic of hte Saudi Arabian government Jamal Khashoggi.......

A white Chicago officer was convicted of second-degree murder Friday in the 2014 shooting of a black teenager that was captured on shocking dashcam video that showed him crumpling to the ground in a hail of 16 bullets as he walked away from police. The video, some of the most graphic police footage to emerge in years, stoked outrage nationwide and put the nation’s third-largest city at the center of the debate about police misconduct and use of force. The shooting also led to a federal inquiry and calls to reform the Chicago Police Department. Jason Van Dyke, 40, was...

BREAKING: A verdict as been reached in the trial of Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, charged with shooting teenager Laquan McDonald. The jury will announce the verdict in about one hour.

Lawyers for a Chicago police officer accused of murdering a Chicago teen in a shooting captured on dashcam video that ignited protests in the city and around the country are arguing their client will not be able to get a fair trial in Chicago. Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke was back in court Thursday as his lawyers argued extensive media coverage of the October 2014 incident in which Van Dyke shot and killed 17-year old Laquan McDonald means Van Dyke will not be able to get a fair trial in Cook County where Chicago is the county seat.

Homicides and shootings have doubled in Chicago so far this year compared with the same period in 2015, and police have seized fewer illegal guns - more possible signals that officers have become less aggressive in the aftermath of a shooting video released last fall.Interim Police Superintendent John Escalante said Tuesday that he was so concerned about officers possibly holding back that he filmed a video for the entire department in which he encouraged them to do their jobs and assured them that a federal probe of the force was not aimed at individuals. "We are aware that there is...

In the latest high-profile racial railroading of a white policeman for obvious political reasons, it has taken authorities over a full year to decide to charge Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke in the fatal shooting of black 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. The obviousness of the racial/political theater here is largely due to the fact that the timing of the ridiculous charge — first degree murder — being suddenly announced after all these months, so transparently coincides with the sudden FOIA public release of a police dashcam video of the shooting which, to the untrained eye, looks pretty bad. The video in...