Free Republic

CHICAGO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The windowless newsroom of The Phoenix, the Loyola University Chicago newspaper, hums like an old refrigerator. A coffee pot burbles in the corner as juniors Julia Pentasuglio and Ella Daugherty lean over a glowing laptop, updating a Google map. Each red pin marks a sighting of federal immigration agents near campus and the surrounding neighborhoods. Nearby, editor-in-chief Lilli Malone scrolls through reports from Rogers Park, a neighborhood along Chicago's lakefront where 80 languages mix. There were new pins from seven sightings that day alone - reports of vans barreling down side streets, masked immigration officers...

Warning - a very hard article to read. But not as hard as the actual violence or the perversion of law that allowed this to happen. Progressives made the Blue Line attack possible. It's time to end their stranglehold over Chicago You don’t hate the Neo Machine enough.No matter how much you despise the Godfather of the crimes against Chicago humanity, JB Pritzker, aka Governor “Let ‘em leave” Pritzker.No matter how much you loathe Brandon “Mayor 6.6” Johnson…...No matter how much you detest his bosses: Boss Toni Preckwinkle and the instruments of her evil, late, unlamented apprentices: “State’s Attorney” who...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A federal appeals court is blocking the release of hundreds of people detained by immigration agents during "Operation Midway Blitz" in the Chicago area, at least for now. The case centers around whether the government violated a consent decree banning warrantless arrests in certain cases. The appeals court said each detainee's case should be evaluated individually. A federal judge has ordered the release of hundreds of migrants arrested in the Chicago area, including some arrested under the Department of Homeland Security's "Operation Midway Blitz," by Nov. 21 after finding their arrests could have violated a 2022 consent...

A 35-year-old woman who uses a wheelchair was sexually assaulted at a CTA station in the Loop on Thursday morning, according to a Chicago police report. The woman was at the Jackson Red Line station when a man assaulted her around 2:57 a.m. She sought help from a CTA canine security officer and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for treatment. CPD said she was in good condition.

Officer Krystal Rivera’s family says in the wrongful death suit that Officer Carlos Baker was struggling to accept her decision to end their romantic relationship when he shot her in her back in Chatham on June 5. The mother of Chicago police Officer Krystal Rivera filed a wrongful death lawsuit Wednesday in which she says her daughter’s partner, Officer Carlos Baker, was struggling to accept her decision to end their romantic relationship when he fatally shot her during a foot chase on June 5. The lawsuit, filed in Cook County court against Baker and the Chicago Police Department, says the...

I’ve spent my life covering Chicago politics and Chicago political corruption. So, I guess you could say that I’ve seen some things: Many years ago, when I was first starting out in the newspapering business, the vaunted Chicago press corps—the corporate legacy media–was bowing and sniveling before a black “reform” mayor (not named Johnson) for fear of being branded as racists. This was just as the mayor’s top aide wearing a bad wig, collected rent in a city limousine from impoverished women living in his slum buildings full of rats. Or later, when Chicago politicians were terrified into silence when...

A former Cook County judge who stole large sums of money from an elderly friend who served as a Tuskegee Airman received a probationary sentence on Friday. Patricia Martin, 66, received four years of probation after pleading guilty to theft of $100,000 to $500,000, according to court records. The judge also ordered her to pay $122,763.73 in restitution and comply with standard probation conditions that include random drug testing. Martin once served as presiding judge of the Child Protection Division and retired in 2020. Prosecutors initially accused her of stealing nearly $250,000 from then-95-year-old Oscar Wilkerson, a longtime friend whose...

I’ve watched two American cities make opposite choices about the same problem.As a young man, I worked in Memphis: first as a traveling salesman, then as a law student, and finally as an attorney at a Memphis law firm. As an associate lawyer, I dreamed of escaping the daily grind by writing a great American novel. A fellow named John Grisham beat me to it, writing a book called “The Firm,” which was loosely based on my then-Memphis law firm, Baker Donelson. I guess that is why, many years later, I’m still a practicing attorney and John Grisham has written...

A woman who steered her car into a crowd of people protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies in the Loop earlier this year has been sentenced to “second chance probation,” according to court records. Judge Peggy Chiampas imposed the sentence after Deidre Kemp, 30, pleaded guilty to aggravated reckless driving causing bodily harm last week. Prosecutors said Chicago police had already cordoned off much of the Loop for the anti-Trump demonstration when Kemp ignored officers’ verbal and physical attempts to redirect her. With her children in the car, she drove her 2003 Kia Spectra into the crowd near State...

BOMBSHELL REPORT: Nearly $2 BILLION in foreign dollars were poured into policy advocate groups in the U.S., including to the group behind anti-Trump protests in Washington D.C.

If that snowstorm felt unusual for this time of the year, it was. Saturday was the snowiest November day ever recorded in Chicago, according to the National Weather Service. The storm dumped over 8 inches of snow on parts of the city. O’Hare International Airport got 8.4 inches as of Sunday morning, and Midway had 6 inches, forecasters said. But the storm isn’t over yet. The area’s winter weather advisory was extended from 6 a.m. to noon Sunday. “A band of snowfall is moving across Chicago, bringing a quick coating of snow again,” Weather Service meteorologist Zachary Yak said. “We...

A Chicago Public Schools (CPS) policy allows illegal immigrant students excused absences if they or their family members are afraid of federal immigration enforcement activities in the area. A document called Chicago Public Schools’ Attendance Coding for Safety Concerns Related to Federal Representative Activity, obtained by education watchdog Defending Education, affirms that illegal immigrant students can be marked as “excused” if a parent conveys to the school that they fear federal immigration authorities. Immigration enforcement actions are dubbed “federal representative-related procedures” in the school’s policy, which was reaffirmed by the school board in February. “If a parent/guardian reports an absence...

A harrowing US podcast documents a community’s struggle against immigration raids – and warns us about herd mentalityEarlier this year, the Trump administration reversed the convention that nobody would be snatched by immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE, by a school, church or hospital. Since then, teachers have reported classrooms a third empty, as parents are too scared to send their kids in – volunteers walk them there and back.In the Rogers Park area of Chicago, a group of citizens are organising to resist such immigration raids. Sometimes, it’s simple non-violent tactics, such as slowing officers down by walking in...

Pope Leo visited Istanbul's Blue Mosque on Saturday, removing his shoes in a sign of respect but not appearing to pray in his first visit as leader of the Catholic Church to a Muslim place of worship during his four-day visit to Turkey. The first U.S. pope bowed slightly before entering the mosque and was led on a tour of the expansive complex, able to hold 10,000 worshippers, by its imam and the mufti of Istanbul. Leo, walking in white socks, smiled during the 20-minute visit and joked with one of his guides, the mosque's lead muezzin - the official...

Reed approached MaGee and repeatedly yelled ‘burn alive b***h,’ a criminal affidavit filed in federal court alleged. Other X users also shared footage of a speech the judge gave at a Hispanic Heritage Month event, where she said she enjoyed her previous role as a prosecutor because she had a ‘chance to decide’ what cases were prosecuted, as she often faced ‘defendants who looked like me.’

THE ROAD TO THE CHICAGO TRAIN FIRE ATTACK. On April 23, 2020, a man poured gasoline around the Illinois state government building in Chicago and set it on fire. The man, identified as Lawrence Reed, 44, was said to be angry because he had not received his monthly government Supplemental Security Income check. According to the Chicago news site CWB Chicago, Reed went inside the building, known as the Thompson Center, and asked a worker at a train kiosk where his check was. Reed left and came back about an hour later, asking the same thing. Then, according to CWB...

“The mayor is incompetent, and the governor is … a big, fat slob,” he said with a comically-timed pregnant pause. “He ought to invite us and say, ‘Please make Chicago safe.’ We’re gonna lose a great city if we don’t do it quickly,” Trump warned. Minutes later in his remarks, Trump was in full comedian-in-chief mode, mercilessly trolling Pritzker while mocking Chicago’s soft-on-crime policies. “I looked at the various cases, granting mercy, discovering the terrible trauma that everyone’s going through, and I had a little bit of a Pritzker joke. I was going to talk about Pritzker in size, but...

3.6 million in tax dollars on lavish vacations at 5-star hotels and overseas trips. Much of it was without approval. Hotel rooms costing $945 per night. Anniversary trips to Las Vegas. South African safaris. Nearly $5,000 for trips to Hawaii. Grand total: $23.6 million in six years. All at taxpayer expense. All by Chicago Public Schools employees and students. Much of it was never approved. Because of “lax, vague, inadequate and unenforced CPS travel rules, training and procedures,” CPS employees excessively spent taxpayer money, in many instances without approval. Luxurious vacations were veiled as professional development conferences, according to the...

s Metro Long Island Politics World News Search Type to Search Search US News Bethany MaGee, 26, is identified as Chicago victim set on fire on CTA train by serial thug with 72 arrests By Chris Nesi Published Nov. 23, 2025, 3:53 p.m. ET 1.8K Comments Man faces terrorism charge after allegedly lighting woman on fire on Chicago train 01:41 / 01:57 The 26-year-old woman who cops said was set on fire by a lunatic with a lengthy rap sheet on a Chicago L train earlier this month has been identified as Bethany MaGee. “It is devastating that a career...

At least three people were killed, and 26 others were wounded in weekend shootings across Chicago as of Sunday. The ages of the victims range from 13 to 65, according to police. Two separate shootings took place in Chicago's Loop following holiday festivities. The first was around 9:50 p.m. in the 100 block of North State Street, near the Chicago Theatre. Police said officers saw a large group on the sidewalk and heard gunfire before the group ran from the area. Responding officers immediately responded to the area and found seven people, between 13 to 17 years of age, who...