Free Republic

Responding to President Donald Trump’s comment that she’s privately happy with the federal government, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday acknowledged telling Vice President Michael Pence that the Army Corps of Engineers did good work turning McCormick Place into an alternative care facility but denied being “one way publicly and another way privately with the administration.” At a press briefing on Monday, Trump said, "The mayor of Chicago, at least on the phone, is extremely happy with what we’re doing — thanking us. I just wish the politicians would say to you what they say to us.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been adamant that people stay home and socially distance for weeks. But a social media post from the woman who cut the mayor’s hair this weekend has some wondering if Lightfoot is saying one thing and doing another. As CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov reported, the stylist in the post, Cashmere Neal, thanked the mayor for allowing her to cut her hair on Sunday. And in the photo, the two are standing inches apart without masks. Mayor Lightfoot on Monday was asked about the photo, whether it is acceptable social distancing, and any concerns that...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot defended getting a haircut over the weekend even though barbers and stylists were shut down under the state’s stay-at-home order, saying she’s the face of the city and the woman who cut her hair wore a mask. Asked about photos on social media showing her with a stylist, Lightfoot acknowledged getting a haircut, then said the public cares more about other issues. “I think what really people want to talk about is, we’re talking about people dying here. A reporter asked the mayor about one of her “stay home, save lives” public service announcements where Lightfoot admonishes...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday she’s “very disappointed” in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for fanning the flames of fear about the spread of the coronavirus in the United States. Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, is warning Americans to start preparing now for “the expectation that this might be bad,” triggering a severe disruption in their daily lives. That may require what she called, “social distancing measures” that include smaller classes or closing schools, canceling meetings and conferences and allowing employees to work from home. Lightfoot essentially accused the federal...

The stay-at-home order issued by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker realistically will extend “deep into April,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told reporters on Friday. Asked whether she’s talked with Pritzker about extending his stay-at-home order, which he issued a week ago for the entire state through at least April 7, Lightfoot said she doesn’t want to get ahead of the governor but said it’s realistic that it would “stretch deep into April.”

Chicago’s mayor issued a warning to residents spending long periods of time outside their homes as the city tries to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday that Chicagoans need to follow the statewide "stay at home" order issued by Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week. She said residents should “only go out for the essentials” and warned that those violating the rules could wind up in trouble. “Be smart,” Lightfoot said, according to CBS Chicago. “Not only will our police be deployed to shut them down if you are not abiding by these orders, we will...

Visibly frustrated with reports of gatherings throughout Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot delivered a stern warning to those who continue to get together during the COVID-19 pandemic: We will shut it down and you may be arrested. “Stay at home. Only go out for essentials. You have to readjust your thinking. Be smart,” Lightfoot said. “Not only will our police be deployed to shut them down if you are not abiding by these orders we will be forced to shut down the parks and lakefront. The situation Is deadly serious and we need you take it deadly seriously.” Lightfoot added that...

Why doesn’t this surprise me? People lament the violence in cities that have been under one-party political rule for decades. But voters keep electing people who not only fail to make things better but also make things worse. Take Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for example. Voters elected another cookie-cutter, anti-law and order politician, and the violence that was bad before she took office may be getting worse. But, of course it’s not her fault or the fault of bad policies. No. The fault belongs to—you guessed it—the police. Who didn’t see that one coming? No cop, that’s for sure. But...

New Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot took office in May facing major worries, among them the city’s woefully underfunded pensions, a projected $800 million budget deficit, and one of America’s highest large-city crime rates. Yet one of her first moves as mayor was to appoint . . . a chief equity officer. In her view, all of Chicago’s woes are smaller than its bigger one: it is “two cities,” where racial outcomes differ dramatically. The equity job’s purpose, as a local paper described the cabinet position, was to lead local government in “uprooting . . . inequity in just about every...

Members of the Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America met Sunday morning to coordinate efforts to assist the Chicago teachers and school support staff whose concurrent strikes are likely to stretch into a second week. The group, commonly known as Chicago DSA, has remained on the front lines of the strike that now threatens to cancel a third day of classes for Chicago Public Schools students. During Sunday’s meeting at Chicago DSA’s modest Logan Square headquarters, about a dozen members of the chapter were preparing to curry public support by canvassing a series of brunch spots around Mayor...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s choice to be director of violence prevention is a longtime anti-violence worker in Chicago, her administration announced. Norman Livingston Kerr will start in the $130,000-per-year role Monday, officials said. Originally from Jamaica, Kerr is a Chicago Public Schools graduate and former director of CeaseFire. He also worked at UCAN, a group that works with “15,000 at-risk children, youth and families across Illinois,” according to the organization. At UCAN, Kerr led the organization’s community violence intervention efforts, the mayor’s office said.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she is sorry she insulted a police union leader aloud on Wednesday. It's no secret that Mayor Lightfoot does not get along with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). However, it was still surprising when, during the City Council meeting, she was caught on a microphone insulting the group's second in command. As Patrick Murray got up to speak, Lightfoot could be heard saying, “oh, back again, this FOP clown."

A day after she announced that the city of Chicago would not cooperate with planned deportation raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is doubling down on her opposition to President Donald Trump’s policies. The mayor, speaking to a gathering of immigration activists and concerned residents in the city’s Uptown neighborhood Saturday, had two words for the president. “Back off,” she said to applause from the gathered crowd.

By Sunday evening of Memorial Day weekend, Chicago police had responded to the shootings of 34 people, five of whom died of their injuries, officials said. The grim tally grew as a shooting Sunday about 6 a.m. in the 1300 block of West Hastings Street left two dead and three injured. The shooting was possibly in retaliation for an earlier one in the same University Village neighborhood where large crowds had gathered, and which also left a man dead, investigators said. (snip) Guglielmi said detectives are questioning four people of interest in connection with the shooting of five people on...

Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot held her second high-level crime fighting meeting of the week Tuesday, bringing together several city department heads at City Hall to prepare for summer violence. “I want to make sure that every single city resource that we have is focused on keeping our communities safe this summer,” Lightfoot told reporters after talking to officials from the Police Department, the Chicago Park District, the Department of Streets and Sanitation, Chicago Public Schools and other agencies. Commenting on the arrests of young people who gathered in large numbers downtown over spring break earlier in April, Lightfoot said teens need...

Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot said illegal immigrants are always welcomed to her city, even if President Trump is the one sending them there. On Friday, Trump confirmed reports that he was seriously considering relocating asylum seekers who exceeded their 20 days in custody to Democratically controlled sanctuary cities nationwide. Lightfoot, who was recently elected mayor, appeared on CNN and reaffirmed the sanctuary policies in her city. She dismissed Trump as being “provocative” and told CNN anchor Anderson Cooper that her city has been dealing with asylum seekers for decades. Trump's threats are “much ado about nothing.”

Lori Lightfoot did something during her victory party last week that once would have been considered obscene. As Chicago's beaming mayor-elect stood at a podium, she turned toward her wife, Amy Eshleman, and kissed her in full view of a roomful of jubilant supporters while photographers snapped away. The images of that moment looked like a sneak preview of a New America breaking through -- a black, gay woman kissing her white wife before a mini-rainbow coalition of onlookers. And nobody raised an eyebrow. But focus on just the black supporters in that room and another image emerges. The black...

If you could read his mind, what a tale his thoughts could tell. So claimed Gordon Lightfoot in his 1970 breakout hit, the song that would launch his career as one of the most consistently satisfying singer-songwriters of the decade and would subsequently be recorded by some 300 other artists. There was a lot of musical confession in those days, with James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell and so many others wearing their hearts on their lyric sleeves. Yet Lightfoot generally kept his mind to himself. A reserved Canadian, he played his emotional cards comparatively close to his vest, rarely...

At age 75, the legendary songwriter and beloved recording artist Gordon Lightfoot is still working hard and enjoying it more than ever. The creator of such standards as If You Could Read My Mind, Early Morning Rain, Carefree Highway and Sundown still performs upwards of eighty concerts a year in North America. "We love the work" is the joyful mantra his associates hear him say all the time. Even after waking up from a six-week coma following a burst abdominal artery in 2002, Gordon worked from his hospital bed and polished the final tracks for his twentieth album. It would...

Gordon Lightfoot was pronounced dead on the Internet on Thursday, in a well-planned hoax. Apparently the news started from the social networking, and the micro blogging site Twitter, and from there it spread like wildfire to the radio, TV, news channels. Even Gordon Lightfoot heard his own death news on the radio in his car, as he was traveling to work. So Gordon Lightfoot is very much alive, contrary to reports that he had died while touring North America. His death news on Thursday was confirmed as a hoax. The 71-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter is well known for his hits like...