Free Republic

The hearing officer, a retired Republican judge, wrote a scathing assessment of Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection but said the courts ultimately should decide. The full board will consider the matter Tuesday Former Republican President Donald Trump participated in the fatal Jan. 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, but it’s the courts — and not the State Board of Elections — that should decide whether to remove him from Illinois’ primary ballot, a state hearing officer recommended Sunday.

During his roughly hour-long, thunderstorm-shortened speech, Trump was typical Trump, airing his false grievance about the “rigged” 2020 presidential election that he lost, jabbing at President Joe Biden’s handling of the inflation-savaged economy and rejoicing at Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the 49-year-old Roe v Wade abortion-rights case. But the biggest Illinois-centric news to come from Trump’s rally was his decision to finally make a splash in the state’s gubernatorial primary three days ahead of the election, where Bailey appears to be holding a commanding lead.

L SPRINGFIELD — After a state conservation officer ticketed the National Rifle Association’s Illinois lobbyist last December for breaking a hunting law, the gun-rights advocate dutifully paid his $120 fine. But Todd Vandermyde, one of Springfield’s most powerful and effective lobbyists, didn’t stop there. A month later, he worked with one legislator to rewrite the law he broke. And not long after that, he enlisted help from House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, to carry legislation that, at least initially, would have greatly restrained the authority of Department of Natural Resources police officers to venture onto private property. “I...