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Retiring Alderman Danny Solis (25th Ward) received sex acts, Viagra, free weekend use of an Indiana farm once owned by Oprah Winfrey and a steady stream of campaign contributions in exchange for shepherding official City Council actions, according to allegations in a federal court affidavit obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times. Although no charges have been filed publicly against Solis, the 2016 affidavit lays out in detail a federal corruption case against the veteran alderman, who was one of the closest City Council allies of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Emanuel’s predecessor, Richard M. Daley. It also alleges that among the people...

<p>CHICAGO (AP) - A member of Chicago's first political family running for mayor is suggesting that an expressway on the city's South Side be renamed after former President Barack Obama and the family of the man it's named after now isn't happy.</p>

Chicago is a bloody mess. Last year, Chicago had 762 homicides — more than New York and Los Angeles combined. This represents an astounding 57 percent increase from the 2015 murder rate. On Sunday night, CBS’s 60 Minutes rightfully expressed concern about the fall in stops and arrests by police over the last year. Criminals have seemingly become emboldened as a result of the decrease in arrests. The 60 Minutes piece quotes Garry McCarthy — Chicago’s Police Superintendent up until a year ago — as saying that “officers are under attack, that is how they feel.” This isn’t a new...

CHICAGO – Mayor Rahm Emanuel pitched a massive property tax hike Tuesday as a "last resort" to correct Chicago's financial footing, suggesting the only alternative for the nation's third-largest city would include severe cuts to police and fire services, recycling programs, pothole repair and even rodent control. Emanuel, who needs approval from state lawmakers and the governor for at least part of his sweeping plan, outlined a $543 million property tax over four years, a $45 million tax to modernize schools, and other new fees for residential garbage pickup, e-cigarettes and ride-sharing services. The property tax revenue would go toward...

America’s gun-control proponents might want to consider shooting (pun intended) this memo to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. “Dear Mayor Daley: Please shut up. You ain’t helping us.” Is there anyone doing more damage for advocates of gun control than Daley? The man is a walking billboard for right-to-carry laws. Anyone needing proof of that might want to read the statements he made in the wake of an 80-year-old Chicago man fatally shooting a career criminal who invaded his home. The background story goes like this: The elderly man is a Korean War veteran who bought a handgun after three...

"...The charity was the Joyce Foundation on whose board of directors Obama served and which gave nearly $1.1 million in two separate grants that were “instrumental in developing and launching the privately-owned Chicago Climate Exchange, which now calls itself “North America’s only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases, with global affiliates and projects worldwide.” And that’s only the beginning of this tawdry tale, Mr. Barnes. The “privately-owned” Chicago Climate Exchange is heavily influenced by Obama cohorts Al Gore and Maurice Strong. For years now Strong and Gore have been cashing in on that lucrative cottage industry known...

SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are both traveling to Copenhagen this week to promote Chicago's bid to host to the 2016 Olympic Games--and they will be making the 3,979-mile trip on separate airplanes." SNIPPET: "As reported earlier by CNSNews.com, a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report cited two cost estimates for an hour of air travel by the president, vice president and first lady. One estimate comes from the White House Military Office, the other from the U.S. Air Force. Using the CRS cost estimates and the inflation adjuster from the Bureau of Labor Statisitcs,...

The Hopium from that new Chia Obama head on my desk can't grow fast enough to blot out two stories straight from Political Bizzaro World. First, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley bragged to a group of international business leaders that he's taken the lead fighting political corruption in the political corruption capital of the world. "In Chicago, we try to lead by example," the mayor of many scandals told the awe-struck crowd, according to a fascinating story broken by Tribune City Hall writer Dan Mihalopoulos. Daley went on to say that he won't tolerate those who skirt the rules, despite 20...

Since the Supreme Court upheld the individual right to own guns last summer, one municipality after another with handgun bans has faced reality. Washington, D.C., which lost the case, changed its law. Morton Grove, Ill., repealed its ban. So did neighboring Wilmette. Likewise for Evanston. Last week, Winnetka followed suit. Then there is Chicago, which is being sued for violating the Second Amendment but refuses to confront the possibility that what the Supreme Court said may apply on this side of the Appalachians. When it comes to firearms, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is no slave to rationality. "Does this lead...

The city of Chicago is one of the few major metropolitan areas which runs away from its past at every opportunity. Yet, indeed, the very construction of the city led to the term "underworld." And with rampant corruption controlled by infamous individuals like "Big Jim" Colosimo, Al Capone, Paul "The Waiter" Ricca, Murray "The Camel" Humphrey and Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo, Chicago can hardly bury its past--no pun intended. Since the turn of the 20th century, what Carl Sandburg referred to as the "City of Big Shoulders" was perhaps the center of organized crime in the United States. Though New...

Rahm Emanuel: The House Rahm Built FROM THE ARCHIVES: Rahm Emanuel was seething. He was hurtling down an asphalt road in upstate New York on the 47th trip of his ferocious campaign to win back the House. A lecture, even from his friend James Carville, was the last thing he needed. Carville and pollster Stan Greenberg telling him he had to make each of his handpicked candidates shift from attack mode and strike a conciliatory note in their final campaign ads. "James. No James, YOU LISTEN," Emanuel barked into a cell phone, about to release a string of profane invectives...

Gun-control advocates across the country reacted with shock and outrage at the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns today, saying the ruling would threaten gun-control measures in other states. If there was any doubt that other bans would be in peril, the National Rifle Association quickly put those questions to rest when it announced shortly after the ruling that it would file a flurry of lawsuits challenging restrictions in San Francisco, Chicago and several Chicago suburbs. The law in Washington, which spelled out rules for the storage of weapons and made it extremely...

CHICAGO, Jan. 5 - Mayor Richard M. Daley was explaining away $48 million in overruns for renovation of a terminal at O'Hare International Airport when a regular at his daily news conferences asked if the mayor would be reciting a similar refrain, five or 10 years hence, for busting the budget in his $15 billion expansion of the airport. I'm coming back in five or 10 years?" Mr. Daley replied. "Thank you!" It used to be that no one (let alone the mayor himself) questioned the longevity of Mr. Daley, the country's longest-serving big-city mayor whose staggering margins in four...

CHICAGO, Aug. 26 - The corruption scandal that has engulfed City Hall here for months came on Friday morning directly to the desk of Mayor Richard M. Daley, who spent two hours answering questions from the federal authorities investigating political influence in city hiring. "What I can say is that I answered their questions fully and openly," Mr. Daley said at a noon news conference after he was interviewed by representatives of the United States attorney's office. "I cannot comment on the substance of their questions." Asked if he was a target of the criminal inquiry that has already resulted...

The Cook County Republican Party is offering a $10,000 bounty — on the political head of Mayor Richard M. Daley. Saying the mayor’s credibility has vanished, county GOP Chairman Gary Skoien Tuesday announced that the Republicans will pay a $10,000 reward to anyone who offers information “leading to the indictment and conviction of Mayor Richard M. Daley for violations of the Shakman Decrees or other forms of corruption.” The Shakman Decree bans the use of political factors in hiring, firing and promotion for most city workers. Mr. Skoien said the bounty is being offered “to assist” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald,...

Illinois congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. is making a political power play in his fight to get a new airport for Peotone. Jackson says if Mayor Daley will back the Peotone plan he may not run against Daley in the race for mayor. Congressman Jackson is in the mayor's face every time another City Hall corruption scandal breaks, and Jackson is definitely considering a challenge to Daley in 2007. But Jackson says his top priority is to get a new airport built near south suburban Peotone, and he considers Daley an impediment. So, the congressman is offering the mayor a strategy...

- CHICAGO -- Congressman Jesse Jackson Junior says if a massive voter registration drive worked for Harold Washington in his 1983 run for mayor, it can work in 2006 and beyond for the Democrats. Jackson Jr. and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition will work to register new voters. But Jackson won't say if it is a prelude to a run for mayor of Chicago. Jackson (D-Ill.) stressed that his goal was to help all Democrats. Nonetheless, he announced the registration drive moments after drawing comparisons between today's political landscape and the landscape in 1983, when Harold Washington was first elected mayor of...

CHICAGO (CBS 2) Mayor Daley took new steps Wednesday to try to end the epidemic of embarrassing scandals inside City Hall. He is proposing increased prison time and other penalties for those who try to corrupt city programs. The mayor offered a few more details on changes he wants in the way if City Hall hires private trucks. It’s a program federal prosecutors say was hijacked by crooks. But sill some aldermen disagree with Daley’s proposal. When he pounds the gavel hard enough, Rich Daley almost always gets what he wants from the City Council. But the possibility that the...

CHICAGO (AP) Mayor Richard Daley's son, prompted by a lifelong desire to serve in the military, will soon report to active duty as an enlisted soldier in the Army's regular airborne infantry. ``It's been in the back of my mind for some time,'' Patrick Daley told the Chicago Sun-Times in Tuesday's editions. ``I left West Point during my freshman year when I was 18 years old and always remembered their motto, 'Duty, Honor and Country.' But I was so young and not really old enough to understand what it really meant. But I know now.'' Daley, 29, graduated with honors...

McCormick Place is called the nation's largest convention center, but reputed Outfit guys, ex-cons and criminals have another name for it: A haven. The kind of guys who populate a prison yard have been getting work at McCormick Place for decades, especially through the small but politically powerful riggers union that sets up some of Chicago's biggest trade shows, including the Chicago Auto Show. There's a man working there who has ties to reputed organized crime figures and who helped run a heroin ring while locked up in Leavenworth. There's also a mobster's son, a convicted felon, who beat a...