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A Chicago community group is suing three suburbs, accusing them of not adequately monitoring gun stores they believe are the source of weapons that have filtered into the city. The Rev. Michael Pfleger on Tuesday announced the lawsuits against Lincolnwood, Lyons and Riverdale. The activist priest says many of the guns recovered from Chicago crime scenes came from stores in those communities. Lawyers for the Coalition for Safe Chicago Communities filed the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court claiming the suburbs' gun store regulations violate the Illinois Civil Rights Act.

If President Obama had a son, he might look like Amari Brown, the little boy killed by a bullet intended for his gang-banger father on the streets of President Obama’s Chicago in yet another bloody Windy City weekend. As the Chicago Tribune reported, over the Fourth of July weekend, Amari Brown was one of the ten that were killed among 55 that were shot, none attributed to Confederate flag loyalists: Among those killed was 7-year-old Amari Brown, shot in the chest as he watched fireworks near his father's home in Humboldt Park late Saturday night. Police say they believe the...

Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church and other community activists plan to sue three Chicago suburbs to stop guns from getting into the wrong hands. The lawsuit will be filed in Cook County Circuit Court. It accuses Riverdale, Lyons and Lincolnwood of not having enough oversight when it comes to licensing and regulating gun shops.

CHICAGO LAWN — When Marshall Hawkins walks around his neighborhood, he carefully picks a route based on the places where people haven't been shot. "If there are flowers on the block, you can go there," the 38-year-old said. "If there's been police tape or gunshots, you avoid it." Such is life for the former North Sider in his adopted Chicago Lawn neighborhood. Same for his kids: 5 and 7. "On days that I can't pick them up and drive them to school, I give specific directions. 'Don't take this street. Go this way. Not that way,' " Hawkins said.

Mundelein Mayor Steve Lentz on Monday defended widely criticized comments he made about the legalization of gay marriage and other societal issues during an Independence Day speech. "If people are curious about what I said, go listen to it," Lentz said of the 11-minute speech, which can be found on YouTube and Facebook. play video video Lentz July 4 speech Near the midpoint of his remarks Saturday morning at the village's Fort Hill Heritage Center, Lentz said he wanted to "address the elephant in the room" and started talking about the Supreme Court's recent ruling on marriage equality. He called...

On Chicago’s lakefront bike path, across the lawns of the museum campus and in the stands of Soldier Field, Grateful Dead fans toasted to the band’s farewell tour this weekend by lighting up. A pungent fog of marijuana smoke wafted throughout the arena packed with 70,000 Deadheads over three straight nights of concerts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But almost none of those fans needed to fear any repercussions for breaking the city’s ordinances prohibiting public weed consumption. Chicago Police officers made only one arrest for possession of cannabis on Friday and wrote only two possession of cannabis tickets Sunday...

Breaking: Flynn Endorsed by Senator Ted Cruz "Mike Flynn is the kind of courageous conservative we need in Washington. When Andrew Breitbart launchedBigGovernment.com to expose ACORN and fight back against the institutional left and the political class, he chose Mike Flynn as his lieutenant. For 6 years, Flynn helped expose the media’s lies and led many fights against the Obama Administration and Washington’s entrenched political establishment. I’m happy to endorse his campaign for Congress. With Flynn, Central Illinois will have a strong voice to uphold the constitution, defend the 2nd Amendment and stand up to the media and political elite."...

Yes, it was another dismal holiday in the Windy City, with gang violence running wild. 47 wounded and nine dead, including a seven year old boy whose father – a multiple conviction criminal with recent illegal gun charges – was probably the actual target. Sure, those numbers sound like bad news, (and they are) but the actual title of the Washington Post article covering the story includes the caveat… but better than last year.

While New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced his run for President with bold promises and brash rhetoric, he balanced truth and compromise as though they could coexist as two sides of a marred coin. In troubling budgetary times, when socialist-minded state legislatures refuse to recognize that they have run out of other people’s money, or that middle class makers have elected to leave their home state rather than pander and enable more takers, compromise is not the watchword. Conviction and confrontation must be the mainstay, and Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, the only Republican gubernatorial candidate to unseat a liberal incumbent...

Fourth of July weekend shootings have left nine people dead — including a 7-year-old boy — and at least 47 others injured since Thursday evening. Seven-year-old Amari Brown was killed in a shooting that also left a 26-year-old woman wounded late Saturday in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. [Snip] The boy’s father, Antonio Brown, is a ranking gang member with 45 previous arrests and was not cooperating with police as of Sunday afternoon as they tried to find his son’s killer, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Sunday.

(CNN)A visibly angry Chicago Police Department Superintendent said Sunday that he is "outraged and saddened" by a violent holiday weekend there. Even in a city frequently beset by head-grabbing violence, seven slayings between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon drew terrible attention.

A 7-year-old boy and two men were killed overnight and at least 27 other people were injured during an 8-hour stretch that started not long after dark.. About 11:55 p.m., a 7-year-old boy was killed and a 26-year-old woman was injured in a shooting in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, police said. The woman and the boy were standing on a sidewalk in the 1100 block of North Harding Avenue when gunfire erupted and bullets hit them, police said. The boy was hit in the right side of the chest and was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition. He was...

Even as the contours of the nuclear deal with Iran remain unknown (though a total cave in is strongly suspected), a progressive “Dark Money” group, whose donors’ identities are hidden, is threatening Democrats who might oppose the deal to keep their mouths shut and vote with the administration. Adam Kredo reports in the Washington Free Beacon: A prominent progressive organization linked to the White House and claiming to work for dozens of like-minded groups is threatening to attack any congressional Democrat who objects to a final nuclear deal with Iran, even before the terms of any such agreement have been...

Even as Mayor Rahm Emanuel warns about a property tax hike of up to $250 million for the cash-strapped Chicago Public Schools, another big wave of increases likely is coming to rescue the pensions of police officers and firefighters. A massive payment due to those retirement plans next year could drive up Chicago property taxes by more than 30 percent, according to a Crain's analysis. And if the current logjam in Springfield continues, it could be a lot worse. Taxes on a $250,000 home would jump $224, assuming the city continues its current practice of using property taxes to fund...

Pizzas — 5,500 of them — were delivered this Fourth of July to servicemen and women in Afghanistan and Kuwait, thanks to an initiative that was born at a kitchen table in Elk Grove Village. "It's raining pizza in Afghanistan," said Pizza 4 Patriots founder Mark Evans. "We air-drop it." Eight years ago, Evans and his son Kent were eating pizza and watching coverage of the Iraq war on television. Kent asked his dad, a retired Air Force master sergeant, if the troops got to eat pizza. Evans answered that they got MREs — meals ready to eat in a...

Dr. (and I use that title lightly) Adam Kotsko, a professor at Shimer College in Chicago, Illinois, thinks that all white people have been “complicit” in slavery, and should therefore “commit mass suicide” as reparation.

At least three men were killed and another five people were wounded across Chicago as the Fourth of July weekend got underway.. On one block in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, a man was killed and another man was wounded about nine hours apart in shootings at the corner of 49th and Justine streets. Police said both men belonged to the La Razas gang, which has been fighting with a gang to the north in a small pocket of the Back of the Yards called "Halo City.”

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Hundreds of Chicago Public Schools teachers and parents protested at City Hall Thursday morning following 1,400 layoffs and $200 million in cuts to meet a teachers' pension deadline. Mayor Rahm Emanuel delayed a $634 million pension payment until the eleventh-hour on Tuesday, waiting to see any relief would come from state lawmakers. It never came. The mayor and Interim CPS CEO Jesse Ruiz outlined on Wednesday who would be laid off and where cuts would be made. Ruiz said most of the 1,400 jobs cut were in administration and special education programs. Very few teachers were laid...

A man wanted in western Illinois for stomping a puppy to death has been arrested during a routine traffic stop in Chicago, according to authorities. King Sami, 24, was stopped on Monday and taken into custody when officers discovered an outstanding arrest warrant from Warren County. Police say Sami kicked and stomped the pit bull puppy, Cash, in early May at his home in Monmouth, where he had gone to college after growing up in Chicago. King Sami WGN-TV The arrest warrant was issued after a neighbor went to police. Sami is charged with aggravated cruelty to an animal, a...

The black scholar who previously revealed Obama’s personal relationship with Communist Party operative Frank Marshall Davis is now speaking in detail on the record. Professor Gerald Horne says that while the relationship is noteworthy and should have been uncovered by the press, there is no evidence that Davis turned Obama “into some sort of Manchurian candidate.” However, Professor Paul Kengor’s book about Davis, The Communist, argues that Davis had a significant influence on the formation of Obama’s Marxist views and policies as President. Horne, who holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at...