Free Republic

Once again, our Illinois politicians believe they have the magic that will cure the crime that riddles our city of Chicago. I recently learned that our state’s Democratic lawmakers plan to introduce House Bill 4409 to amend the Illinois Crime Reduction Act of 2009 in order to rename "offenders" as "justice-impacted individuals." That is right — with the magic of rewording, we will no longer have "offenders" or "criminals." Instead, we will have "justice-impacted individuals" and the implication could not be clearer: rather than being seen as criminals who victimized society they will be seen as victims of the system....

CHICAGO (WLS) -- It's been a violent holiday weekend so far in Chicago. At least 41 people have been shot, nine fatally, since Friday evening. One of those shootings left a 5-year-old girl dead. Despite the still high shooting numbers, calls to stop the gun violence in the city seemed to have an impact. This holiday weekend's violence numbers, so far, are lower than last year's, when 53 people were shot, 11 fatally. The long weekend is putting Mayor Brandon Johnson's summer safety plan to the test. He spoke during a community walk over the weekend, criticizing previous administrations for...

The CTA has committed to providing as many as 250 buses for use during the Democratic National Convention this summer, even though the agency has faced staff shortages that led to service cuts in recent years. The head of the union that represents bus drivers says he anticipates having enough staffing for both the DNC and regular scheduled bus service. But designating buses for the convention has some advocates concerned. “Pulling CTA operators from their regular routes to a specified task that doesn’t serve all of Chicago is of tremendous concern,” said Kyle Lucas, with the transportation advocacy group Better...

Updated: Sunday, May 26, 2024 12:08PM CHICAGO (WLS) -- At least 25 people have been shot, five fatally, in Memorial Day weekend gun violence across Chicago, police said. A 5-year-old girl was shot to death on Sunday on the city's West Side, police said. The shooting happened around 3:32 a.m.. A group was standing outside when shots were fired. The girl was inside a parked vehicle when she was shot in the abdomen and taken to the hospital, where she later died. Last year in Chicago, there were 53 people shot and 11 killed over Memorial Day weekend.

Saturday, May 25, 2024 11:24AM CHICAGO (WLS) -- At least 10 people have been shot, two fatally, in Memorial Day weekend gun violence across Chicago, police said. Last weekend, at least 45 people were shot, one fatally, in gun violence across Chicago, police said. Last year in Chicago, there were 53 people shot and 11 killed over Memorial Day weekend.

... The holiday has historically marked a spike of street violence in the city, lasting throughout the summer. Though Chicago violence has decreased in recent years, dozens were shot over the last Memorial Day weekend. “I will not rest and my administration will not rest until we tackle this problem and stop the violence,” Johnson said at a news conference inside the Chicago Cultural Center. Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said the department will put additional officers on the street by canceling certain days off and adding overtime hours, but he said that the effort would be “strategic” and “deliberate.” The...

The Illinois House on Tuesday passed House Bill 581, The Hospital Emergency Service Act, which declares abortion to be a “stabilizing treatment” during pregnancy. The bill passed 71-36 along party lines. The bill is said to have been authored in response to the anticipated Supreme Court decision this June regarding an Idaho law that protects preborn children from abortion when their mother is facing a health complication during pregnancy. It’s important to note the distinction between ending a pregnancy via induced abortion and ending a pregnancy via induced delivery. In an induced abortion, the preborn child is intentionally and deliberately...

Illinois Democratic state lawmakers are aiming to change the word "offender" to "justice-impacted individual" with a new bill.

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher predicted that this year’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago will be a repeat of the chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention, which was also held in Chicago, because there will be large numbers of protesters whose “new cause” is “Hamas, to be on their side.” Maher said, “I was twelve years old, when they had it in 1968 in Chicago. It was like my baptism into politics, like, wow, this is kind of interesting shit going on on TV, and I know this is politics — but because there [were] hippies...

A high school senior's promising future was tragically cut short three weeks before graduation after he was involved in a devastating car crash that split his car in half. Authorities say the Illinois teen was killed in a "fast and furious" accident caused by a drunk driver racing at 131 mph and had his lights off. Around 11 p.m. on May 12, 21-year-old Taeyoung Kim was reportedly racing his 2021 Ford Mustang at speeds exceeding 130 mph in Glenview, Illinois – a suburb approximately 20 miles northwest of Chicago. Police said Kim's own dashcam captured him speeding, aggressively passing other...

The man Chicago police have been hunting since a woman was attacked in the West Loop last month is a Venezuelan migrant living at a nearby shelter, officials say. And a CWBChicago reader helped police track him down. Jheison Lazaro, 19, was on pretrial release for a felony shoplifting case when he attacked the woman in the 100 block of North Carpenter on April 14, officials said. Lazaro grabbed the 38-year-old woman with both hands and dragged her into an alley around 5:24 a.m., according to prosecutors. He covered her mouth with one hand and wrapped his other arm around...

Breaking News: Donald Trump could owe $100 million for improper tax breaks on his Chicago tower, an IRS audit uncovered by The New York Times and ProPublica shows

A 24-year-old man was shot and killed while walking to work on Chicago's Northwest Side Friday morning. The victim was walking in the 3900 block of North Pittsburgh Avenue around 7 a.m. when an unknown offender shot him in the chest, Chicago police said. He was taken to Loyola Hospital in critical condition and later died. In surveillance video posted on social media, a person in dark clothing was seen running southbound on Pittsburgh Avenue. A woman, who asked she not be identified, told CBS 2 she heard a gunshot and ran to help the man who was on the...

The annual Little Village Cinco de Mayo parade was rerouted and then cut short Sunday after shots were fired along the parade route, officials said, though paradegoers still reveled the chance to celebrate Mexican culture and history. The Chicago Fire Department responded to the scene near Cermak Road and Washtenaw Avenue, but they found no one with injuries to take to the hospital. Chicago police worked with parade organizers to reroute the celebration, which was scheduled to start at noon, heading west along Cermak from Damen Avenue to Marshall Boulevard. Instead, the parade started closer to 12:30 p.m. south on...

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is negotiating a new contract with the public schools system and is understood to be calling for an extra $50 billion to pay for wage hikes as well as other demands such as fully paid abortions for its members, new migrant services and facilities and a host of LGBT-related requirements and training in schools. To put the figure into context, the total base tax receipts for the state of Illinois last year were $50.7 billion.

Chicago, like so many of our major cities, is out of control. Homelessness, smash-and-grab robberies, carjackings, gangs effectively taking over parts of the city - Chicago is in free fall. On Sunday, another incident in Chicago's meltdown was revealed when the Chicago Police Department canceled the city's Cinco de Mayo parade "out of an abundance of caution," due to gang violence and large-scale fighting in the area of the parade.Families in Democrat-run Chicago hoping to enjoy a Cinco de Mayo parade will have to wait until next year – after the city canceled the festivities due to "gang violence."The Chicago...

At $1.5 million per job, this new incentive package from the state is at least 15 times the norm. For this much money, the state could have just handed out a million bucks to 827 people, instead of creating 550 jobs.Gov. JB Pritzker announced Thursday that the State of Illinois will provide an $827 million incentive package for Rivian to invest $1.5 billion to expand its electric vehicle factory in Normal, Illinois. The expansion is expected to create at least 550 full-time jobs within the next five years, and will build Rivian’s next model EV, the R2. Rivian initially got...

The Democratic Party is bracing for massive protests during the Democratic National Convention, comparing it to another chaotic event from the 1968 convention. As pro-Hamas protests continue to rage through college campuses due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, concerns that similar protests will occur during the DNC convention this August in Chicago. Former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff William Daley told the Washington Post that the chaotic college protests that have occurred in the past week have “taken the demonstrations to a different level.” “It portends that you have the potential for big demonstrations. Whether they get violent —...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was caught on camera bolting from local reporters who wanted to ask him about the recent arrest of an alleged cop killer. Johnson was at a National Day of Prayer service Thursday in the Windy City, with his chauffeured car waiting in an alley, according to reports. Local reporters darted after the mayor, hollering for him to wait and to comment about the arrest of Xavier Tate Jr., who allegedly killed Chicago Police Officer Luis Huesca in a carjacking last month, according to video.

(CHICAGO) – Workers at Sunnyside, a subsidiary of Cresco Labs, in River North have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 777. “We are thrilled to welcome another Cresco location to Teamsters Local 777,” said Jim Glimco, President of Local 777. “Dispensary workers are seeing their counterparts at other locations organize with the Teamsters and they want to secure the benefits of a union contract for themselves. We look forward to helping these workers get their first contract and continuing to organize workers in the cannabis industry across Illinois.” The River North dispensary is the sixth location to organize with Local...