Free Republic

A federal judge in Chicago announced Wednesday that a trial date regarding a lawsuit delaying construction of the Obama Presidential Center in the city will be made in December, further shelving the project and potential hopes of breaking ground any time soon.

...They hired the Schulz company, a high-end, family-owned contractor from Evanston. Schulz had worked on the Pritzkers’ vacation home in Lake Geneva, done work for other Pritzkers, and at the time, employed J.B. Pritzker’s second cousin as a carpenter.“ ...J.B. had no intention of ever executing a final contract with Schulz,” according to court filings by the contractor. “During this meeting, J.B. rejected Schulz’s … contract proposal and requested that Schulz submit another proposal without making any counter offer. J.B. also reiterated his demand that Schulz take all necessary action to complete its work on a more expedited basis.”

I’ve covered enough campaigns to be wary of last-minute accusations. So I didn’t think much about the discrimination complaint that was filed by ten JB Pritzker for Governor campaign workers. But then I looked at backgrounds of the people making those allegations. Most of them had experience working on other important political campaigns. There’s no evidence that the lawsuit has had a negative impact on the campaign. In fact, Pritzker’s unfavorable comments about black politicians, captured on a secretly recorded wiretap... caused a bigger uproar. During the conversation, Pritzker mulled over which black politician would be “least offensive” to fill...

A group of employees alleging racism in Democrat J.B. Pritzker’s campaign offices strongly denied Monday any political motivation for their federal lawsuit — with one former worker saying she’d personally spoke to the candidate about discrimination. “He promised me to address it, and I was laid off,” said Kayla Hogan, a former field organizer for the campaign. Eight of the 10 current and former employees appeared with their lawyers Monday at an office on the South Side, saying they felt their side of the story hadn’t been accurately portrayed in news reports about the suit, filed last week. “Since then,...

Marcus Gillum...a resident of Chicago, Illinois...The Leon County Property Appraiser indicates that Andrew Gillum sold 5325 St. Ives Lane on February 27th, 2015...However, like her brother Marcus, voting records also show that Monique Gillum is still currently registered to vote at the St. Ives address...other records, including work she did as a registered lobbyist for the Southern Poverty Law Center, indicate that Monique resided in Montgomery, Alabama...

MURPHYSBORO, IL. — U.S. Representative Mike Bost announced Sunday that President Donald Trump intends to visit Southern Illinois for a campaign rally on Saturday, October 27.

The plaintiffs — all field organizers — allege that while the campaign has hired African-American and Latino workers, “the vast majority are herded into race-specific positions where they are expected to interact with the public, offered no meaningful chance for advancement, and receive less favorable treatment than their white counterparts who engage with, as the campaign sees it, a more desirable constituency.” “At all times relevant, the J.B. Prtizker for Governor campaign has been cesspool of racial discrimination and harassment,” according to the suit. The campaign also released information designed to poke holes in some of the allegations.

There is actually an organized group by that name, and they are mostly in public schools. "I have well over a thousand teachers engaging with the Teachers Who Pray network," Marilyn Rhames, the founder of that network told Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Insitute (AEI). "We have 131 school-based chapters, averaging about eight teachers per chapter in district, charter, private, and religious schools." "Most of our teachers work in traditional public schools, though you can say that we are 'agnostic' as to the types of schools we serve." Rhames had her own epiphany on 9/11 when she was working...

“JB Pritzker for Governor has a serious race problem,” the lawsuit said. “Contrary to the candidate’s many public avowals, rather than working to meaningfully address discrimination, racism is perpetuated, condoned and ratified by the Campaign.” The lawsuit, filed Oct. 16 in Chicago federal court, specifically alleges the black and Latino campaign workers are packed into majority minority neighborhoods, often in unsafe working conditions, and are denied benefits and advancement opportunities available to their white colleagues. Named plaintiffs in the action include Maxwell Little, Jason Benton, Jelani Coleman, Celia Colon, Kasmine Calhoun, Erica Kimble, Nathaniel Madison, Tiffany Madison, James B. Tinsley...

Video released Tuesday shows an off-duty Chicago police sergeant opening fire from his vehicle and wounding an apparently unarmed man as he stood on a sidewalk in front of a home in the Morgan Park neighborhood on the Far South Side. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability released police dashboard camera, home surveillance video and police reports more than a year after Ricardo “Ricky” Hayes, then 18, was shot in the arm and chest in the 11100 block of South Hermosa Avenue. The police reports identified the officer as Sgt. Khalil Muhammad, who was placed on paid desk duty indefinitely...

Sears was once the nation's largest retailer and its largest employer. In its heyday, it was both the Walmart and Amazon of its time. Formed in 1886 by railroad station agent Richard Sears, the company started as a watch business in North Redwood, Minnesota. Sears moved to Chicago in 1887, and he hired watchmaker Alvah Roebuck as his partner. The first Sears Roebuck catalog, which sold watches and jewelry, was printed in 1896. The Sears catalog was the way many Americans first started to buy mass-produced goods. That was an enormous shift for people who lived on farms and in...

Democratic allies gathered downtown Saturday for Chicago’s latest Women’s March, with organizers pushing for participants to help get out the vote ahead of next month’s midterm elections. Organized as a nonprofit — and not specifically endorsing candidates — the group Women’s March Chicago is bankrolled by Democrats and Democratic supporters. Major donors include the Chicago Federation of Labor and Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker’s campaign. Several thousand took part in Saturday’s march and rally, which was the third Women’s March through Chicago. It was a far cry from the roughly 250,000 who marched through the city shortly after President Donald...

The chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus is purging himself of a surprise, $20,000 contribution from Mayor Rahm Emanuel amid concern that it might damage his chances of winning re-election. Instead of keeping the money and putting the windfall into his campaign fund, Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) is distributing the mayor’s check — in $2,000 increments –– to ten community organizations and other groups in his ward that are working to stop the never-ending cycle of gang violence and train people for jobs. The alderman said he appreciated the mayor’s gesture and means no disrespect. But he was concerned...

For a long time, Thomas Caldwell behaved like a man who wanted to go to prison and wouldn’t stop until he got his way. In September, he pleaded guilty to selling guns without a federal license and now faces a prison sentence of up to five years. The question is why he wasn’t locked up sooner.

Source: Reuters Sears is planning to close up to 150 of its department and discount stores and keep at least 300 open as part of a plan to restructure under U.S. bankruptcy protection, people familiar with the matter said Friday. The plans, which remained in flux Friday afternoon, would leave the fate of Sears' remaining roughly 250 stores uncertain, the sources said. The future of the stores could hinge on Sears' negotiations with landlords over their leases.

Fictional 21st Century Woman at her “reveal” party: Mom, Dad, Family, Friends, there’s something inside me! Lol, no, it’s not a tumor. It’s a human. It’s got boy DNA (so, not me. lol). I just need to find out if he’s defective. Oh, and I’ll revisit my life goals and career path, check my bank account, and meditate on how I feel about him. If I choose to let him live, y’all can call him a baby! Remember the less bad old days when Leftists repeated Hillary Clinton’s disingenuous mantra that she wanted abortion to be “safe, legal, and rare,...

WASHINGTON – Following the release of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (UN IPCC) report on Monday, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today called on President Trump and Congressional Republicans to take immediate action to limit human-induced global warming.  In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin also urged President Trump to rethink his decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement.“Last year, President Trump decided that the United States would step away from the rest of the world, step away from our allies and trading partners, and leave this [Paris] agreement.  I hope after this week’s announcement from...

Bump [Philip Bump, WaPo] quotes Ford as telling the Senate Judiciary Committee, “I did see Mark Judge once at the Potomac Village Safeway after the time of the attack, and it would be helpful with anyone’s resources if – to figure out when he worked there if people are wanting more details from me about when the attack occurred.” Now Bump announces his Eureka moment. He can pinpoint Ford’s timeline thanks to Mark Judge himself. Bump quotes from Judge’s 1997 book “Wasted.” Judge wrote, “It was the summer before senior year, and by now, even though I wasn’t drinking every...

Thomas Caldwell once told a federal agent that selling guns was an addiction. Even after being told to stop because he had no license, the Wisconsin man kept peddling firearms, posting more than 200 ads on a controversial website. One of those guns, a Glock 26 9 mm handgun, ended up in the hands of a four-time felon who used it in February to kill Chicago police Cmdr. Paul Bauer in a shocking daylight shooting in the heart of the Loop, according to recently filed federal documents. The records give a rare look at how shadowy gun deals flourish between...

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is offering a course this semester focusing on what it calls “Trumpaganda.” Students will examine Trump’s “war on facts, press and democracy,” according to the eight-week course title. The class is offered through the university’s journalism program, according to the Daily Illini. “As a candidate, Trump employed the most common propaganda device, name-calling, to define, degrade, discredit and destroy his primary opponents as well as the “fake” news media,” the course description reads. Mira Sotirovic, associate professor in media, is teaching the class, and told the Daily Illini that students will look at President...