Free Republic

My mask is not coming off. COVID-19 has faded, and people who continue to wear masks in public spaces are just neurotic, my husband says. “You look goofy,” he admonishes me. On Monday, the most onerous COVID-related mandates will fall away. Customers in public spaces will no longer be required to mask up or produce proof of vaccination at restaurants, bars and gyms in Chicago and throughout Illinois. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosened its mask guidelines for public indoor spaces on Friday. I am thrilled the Omicron surge is fading and eager to return to “normal,” whatever...

Grumpy. Gruff. Stern. Steely. Unrelenting. All these adjectives aptly describe Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. She may not be someone you’d invite for a drink, Like her predecessor, Lightfoot brings a tough, take-no-prisoners style. Unlike her predecessor, she doesn’t pretend to be soft and fuzzy even in these lonely pandemic times. That’s a very good thing. She is pushing her citywide order with a stern, steely, unrelenting message: “Stay home. Save lives.”

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is not going to resign. She’s going to run. Last month, Foxx plunged into a white-hot controversy when her office dropped all charges against the actor Jussie Smollett, accused of staging a fake assault and claiming he was the victim of a hate crime. The venom leveled at Foxx is not about Jussie Smollett. It’s about taking down the first African American woman to serve as the county’s top prosecutor, and about her efforts to bring justice and equity to communities of color. Her law enforcement critics, mostly white men, say Foxx is soft...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will be formally nominated this week at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. It’s his first and best chance to tell his personal story and warm up before a national audience in prime time. (Did you know his real first name is “Willard?”). The GOP ticket is still trailing the competition in national polls. Republicans must make a tricky pitch: Convince voters that the reserved, wealthy businessman can “save” America from a personally popular incumbent. As the four-day confab kicks off in Florida, here are a few words to the wise men of the GOP....

A semiautomatic assault rifle, anyone? How about a few thousand rounds of ammo? On July 20, those weapons of choice killed 12 innocents at the Century 16 Theatre in Aurora, Colo. The shooter legally bought an AR-15 assault rifle, three other guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition, according to police. In America, acquiring a lethal assault rifle is almost as easy as picking up a buttered popcorn at the movies. The communities of Aurora, Columbine, Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University and Chicago’s South and West sides know that. The families of thousands of murdered and injured souls get it....