Free Republic

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) wants to use city contracts to punish banks that will not restrict and/or regulate clients involved in the firearms industry. Emanuel’s ordinance is co-sponsored by Alderman Edward Burke (14th). The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Emanuel introduced the ordinance by saying, “When it comes to fighting for stronger, smarter gun laws Chicago is putting our money where our mouth is. The private sector has a role to play in supporting public safety. Chicago should give our business to companies who share our values and want to be part of the solution to gun violence, not profit...

Declaring that America is in the midst of a gun violence crisis, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday urged state lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner to approve a series of gun control bills and called on the public to hold officials’ feet to the fire this week and in the upcoming elections. Lawmakers could consider a group of bills on Wednesday that would require gun dealers to be licensed, raise penalties for the illegal use of body armor, address waiting periods for gun purchases, and ban “military-style” assault weapons high-capacity magazines and “bump stocks,” Emanuel and Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson...

(Rahm) Emanuel has been under fire for keeping the Laquan McDonald shooting video under wraps for more than a year and waiting until one week after the April 7, 2015, mayoral runoff election to authorize a $5 million settlement to the McDonald family — before a lawsuit even had been filed. The video was released on Nov. 24, 2015 — but only after a judge ordered it. That same day, Jason Van Dyke, the white officer on that video, was charged with the first-degree murder of the black teenager. The mayor has emphatically denied keeping the dashcam video of the...

“We’re cutting off money for schools, cutting off money for police, allowing people to be forced to live in food deserts, closing hospitals, closing access to mental health facilities,” Kennedy told reporters during a news conference that began as a criticism of the city’s efforts to stop gun violence. What choice do people have but to move, to leave, and I think that’s part of a strategic gentrification plan being implemented by the city of Chicago to push people of color out of the city,” he continued. Asked who is behind this alleged plan, Kennedy pointed to Emanuel. “I believe...

Chicago is said to be the rat capital of America. The city is expected to break last year’s record for the number of rat complaints. “Walking to the subway after work, I looked down and there was a rat walking alongside me,” said a trained journalist not given to exaggeration. “It was gigantic, like a small dog or a fat squirrel. It just walked along without fear.” But don’t worry, Chicago. I’ve got a guy. And I hope Mayor Rahm Emanuel is listening. Jordan Reed, the legendary American rat catcher, is known far and wide in the rat-hunting community for...

In 2008 Michael B. Froman, then Citigroup executive, sends John Podesta a list of cabinet members. The email is dated Oct. 6, 2008 and bears the subject line “Lists.” It went to Podesta a month before he was named chairman of President-Elect Obama’s transition team. Froman’s list proved remarkably prescient. As it proposed, Robert Gates, a Bush holdover, became secretary of Defense; Eric Holder became attorney general; Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security; Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff; Susan Rice, United Nations ambassador; Arne Duncan, secretary of Education; Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services; Peter Orszag,...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday assured incoming high schoolers that they need not to worry about President Trump ending the “Dreamers” program, saying Chicago Public Schools are a “Trump-free” sanctuary for young illegal immigrants. “To all the Dreamers that are here in this room and in the city of Chicago: You are welcome in the city of Chicago. This is your home. And you have nothing to worry about,” Mr. Emanuel told a group of freshman on the first day of classes at Solorio Academy High School, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. “Chicago, our schools, our neighborhoods, our city, as...

Rahm Emanuel has emphatically denied that politics is behind his decision to file a pre-emptive lawsuit seeking to block U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions from cutting off federal crimefighting funds to sanctuary cities. If that’s true, why did Emanuel play the media like a fiddle by dribbling out details of the lawsuit over a three-day period? And why do the mayor’s own private emails expose his attempts to use his pro-immigration stance to shore up a national media image that took a beating after the November 2015 release of video showing a white Chicago Police officer firing 16 shots at...

The Talk Shows May 28th, 2017 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly; Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Bill Cassidy, R-La.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Kelly; Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.; former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.THIS WEEK (ABC): Kelly; Rep. Adam Schitf, D-Calif.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Sens. Linda Graham, R-S.C., and Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago.

It's going to take much more money to keep Chicago's schools open through June than previously revealed, top Emanuel budget aide Carole Brown says. The Chicago Public Schools actually need $596 million to keep schools open the rest of the school year, and not just the $129 million officials have publicly discussed, a top aide to Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday. ... Brown said all options are on the table to find the cash needed to stave off an early closing of schools that CPS CEO Forrest Claypool has warned might be needed but that Emanuel has ruled out to...

Chicago stands to lose $13.4 million in federal anti-crime grants if U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions follows through on his threat to cut or even “claw back” Justice Department money flowing to sanctuary cities, City Hall said Monday. The annual funding at stake for Chicago comes in the form of three federal grants: $3.05 million in federal asset forfeiture funds; $3.2 million in Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants; and $3.13 million under the “Cops Hiring Program.” The money is used for a host of law enforcement activities ranging from hiring additional police officers to buying police vehicles and other equipment,...

Four years ago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel argued that he wasn’t using public money to build a basketball arena for DePaul as much as DePaul was “subsidizing” an “event center” that McCormick Place needs to compete... Chicago-based sports business consultant Marc Ganis predicted that most of the events would be “economically meaningless, both to the facility and to Chicago taxpayers.” “I fully expect they will do whatever they can in the first few years to try and gin up a positive spin because this was such a foolhardy project in the first place,” said Ganis, who has opposed the project from...

When asked whether President Donald Trump would still cut off law enforcement funds to the city of Chicago because it’s a sanctuary city even though it could hamper police from fighting violent crime, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said sanctuary cities can’t have it both ways — refusing to cooperate with federal immigration officials and still expecting to get law enforcement grants to handle a situation they created. “You can’t be a sanctuary city and at the same time seem to pretend or express concern about law enforcement or ask for more money when probably a number of the...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday questioned the legality of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ threat to cut or “claw back” Justice Department money to “sanctuary” cities and called it “a bit of a joke” at a time when DOJ funding is being cut. “I find it a little ironic. They said they were gonna cut or withhold monies on public safety. Did you look at the president’s budget that he introduced? He actually cut the Justice Department. So this is kind of like, in my view, a bit of a joke in that sense,” the mayor said at an unrelated news...

When bioethicist and oncologist Ezekiel Emanuel met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, the session revealed publicly what has been happening privately for months: A trusted ally of former President Barack Obama and chief architect of the Affordable Care Act is trying to help steer how Republicans take it apart.

Fox News announced Tuesday it has hired Obamacare architect Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel to serve as an on-air contributor. Emanuel has two famous brothers: Rahm Emanuel served as former President Barack Obama's chief of staff from 2009-2010 and has been the mayor of Chicago since 2011, while Ari Emanuel is a Hollywood talent agent. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, according to a press release, will appear on Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network to discuss healthcare and policy. Emanuel worked in the Obama administration from 2009-2011 as a special advisor on health policy to the director of the Office of Management and...

The man who managed former President Barack Obama’s campaign has been slapped with a $90,000 fine for using Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s private email account to lobby the mayor on behalf of ride-sharing giant Uber without registering as a lobbyist. Newly-appointed Chicago Board of Ethics Chairman Attorney William Conlon said the fine assessed against David Plouffe is the largest ever by the Chicago Board of Ethics. It represents $1,000 for every one of the 90 days that Plouffe failed to registered as a lobbyist after his November 2015 email to Emanuel on the mayor’s personal account. “Registration of lobbyists is important....

A former senior executive for Uber who once served as Barack Obama's campaign manager has been fined $90,000 by the Chicago Board of Ethics for illegally lobbying Mayor Rahm Emanuel on behalf of the ride-hailing company. The board voted 5-0 to find that David Plouffe violated city ethics rules by failing to register as a lobbyist after contacting Emanuel to help the company on regulations for picking up travelers at Chicago's two airports.

Uploaded on Mar 8, 2010 Here is audio of Democrat Rep. Eric Massa saying Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is the "Son of the Devil's Spawn." He also described an encounter he had with Emanuel in the House Gym's shower, where he said Emanuel approached him while he (Massa) was "naked as a jaybird" and started yelling at him: "I am showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me." "He is an individual who would sell his mother to...

... Instead, he said, Democrats should focus on the GOP. "Wherever there's a disagreement among Republicans, I'm for one of those disagreements," he said. "I'm all for it. The president's with Russia? I'm with John McCain and Lindsey Graham, I'm for NATO! Why? (It's a) wedge. Wedges have to be schisms, schisms have to be divides."