Free Republic

Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on Tuesday suggested that it will continue to force individuals to wear masks — a move which would effectively ignore the ruling from a federal judge who on Monday deemed President Biden’s federal mask mandate illegal. “The safety and security of passengers and employees is the highest priority for the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA),” the airport said in a relatively unclear statement Tuesday afternoon.

Illinois State Police on Monday arrested a dozen anti-violence protesters who were trying to march onto the Kennedy Expressway near O’Hare International Airport. Eight men and four women were arrested, given $120 citations for being a “pedestrian on a highway,” and released, according to State Police Major David Byrd. Among those arrested was the Rev. Gregory Livingston, who organized the protest. Livingston and about 60 other protesters were met by dozens of state troopers who lined the Cumberland Avenue entrance ramp to Interstate 90. A trooper on a megaphone repeated: “This is the Illinois State Police. It is against the...

Three people were taken into custody Saturday after a driver was pulled over as he left O’Hare International Airport and an assault-style rifle and handgun were found inside his vehicle. A pressure cooker was also found during the traffic stop, which happened shortly after 8 a.m. as the vehicle exited O’Hare Airport, according to Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. Neither the guns nor the pressure cooker were believed to have been intended for any acts of violence in the city, which will see enhanced security measures during the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, police said. The vehicle was stopped after the...

Nearly a year after their family was removed from a flight at O'Hare International Airport, a Muslim couple from the north Chicago suburbs filed a federal lawsuit against United Airlines, claiming they were discriminated against them based on their faith.

A dispute that threatens decade-old plans to build a western access road to O'Hare International Airport is headed to a federal agency, as the Illinois Toll Highway Authority sues the Canadian Pacific Railway. In a petition filed today, the tollway asked the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to allow it to force CP to sell or grant easements to the tollway for portions of railroad property immediately to the north of the railway's huge Bensenville Yards. The tollway indicated it also may eventually need access to the yard itself. The Surface Transportation Board is the federal agency that regulates railroads, and...

A divide between the Illinois tollway and Chicago on the cost of airport land needed for the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway extension is threatening progress on the massive project, considered vital for the suburbs. An agreement to sell property on the western edge of O'Hare to the tollway at market value more than a decade ago has disintegrated, officials said, and the city's latest price tag of about $190 million is giving the tollway sticker-shock. "We've been negotiating for a long time. ... It's within the last couple of months I've realized how far apart we were," tollway Chairman Robert Schillerstrom said....

<p>Matt Brandon, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union Local 73, which represents the aviation police officers, said he doesn’t understand why the officers are prohibited from carrying guns.</p> <p>He said the union has been unable to get the aviation department to change the no gun policy, which dates to the early 1990s.</p>

Within minutes, radar feeds, flight plans and other data controllers rely on to direct more than 6,000 aircraft a day above five U.S. states had vanished as a fire was being set in a communications room one floor below. The attack was thorough and carried out by someone who knew the system intimately -- down to removing steel sheathing on data cables to destroy them, according to three people with knowledge of the incident.

Flights at both Chicago airports have been halted Friday morning, due to a fire at Federal Aviation Administration radar facility in Aurora. Emergency crews found a man with self-inflicted wounds while putting out the fire. A ground stop was in place at O’Hare International and Midway International airports as a result of the fire. Flights headed into both airports were being diverted to other airports, while flights departing the airports were being delayed. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said fire investigators were at the scene, as part of the DuPage County Fire Investigation task force. Aurora...

Flights are slowly resuming at O’Hare Airport after a fire at an FAA air traffic control center in Aurora forced a complete halt to flights in and out of O’Hare and Midway Airports. Hundreds of flights are cancelled at O’Hare, and that’s put thousands of travelers in long lines to re-book their trips. Some people stuck in Terminal 3 waited in line for at least one hour to reschedule their flights. Some travelers didn’t receive any notification about the cancellations and delays, and were shocked when they arrived at O’Hare and saw the long lines. Some people got alerts too...

Chicago (AFP) - A French family who came to the United States for medical treatment said they were stranded in Chicago after British Airways determined their son was too fat to fly. Kevin Chenais, 22, spent a year and a half at the Mayo Clinic for treatment of a hormone disorder which led him to weigh 500 pounds. His mother was near tears as she described the family’s problems to the local CBS affiliate. "We blame British Airways because now they just leave us, and they brought us here,” Christina Chenais told the station. "If they could bring him here...

Federal officials say it was probably just some weird weather phenomenon, but a group of United Airlines employees swear they saw a mysterious, saucer-shaped craft hovering over O'Hare Airport in November. The workers, some of them pilots, said the object didn't have lights and hovered over an airport terminal before shooting up through the clouds, according to a report in Monday's Chicago Tribune. The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged that a United supervisor had called the control tower at O'Hare, asking if anyone had spotted a spinning disc-shaped object. But the controllers didn't see anything, and a preliminary check of radar...

Revelations in the Peoria Journal Star earlier this week that the Peoria/Champaign area is one of seven in the United States on a terrorist “circuit” were frightening. “Terrorists enter the United States in San Francisco and Los Angeles, then move to Phoenix, then Denver," reported Phil Luciano of the PJS. "From there some head to Peoria and Champaign. Some terrorists remain in those communities, while others head on to New York City" (emphasis added). Luciano was provided this information by Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy, who received it at a recent FBI conference held in Springfield. Names of larger cities...