Free Republic

More than five weeks after a gunman shot and killed two people in Rogers Park, apparently at random, the reward for information to help solve the case has been raised to $150,000. The reward, boosted by donations from residents and businesses, is believed to be the largest offered in Chicago for a crime suspect, according to police officials. It had been $23,000.

An avowed Nazi running as a Republican lost a House race in suburban Chicago on Tuesday. Arthur Jones, who called the Holocaust "the biggest, blackest lie in history" and described himself as a former leader of the American Nazi Party, lost by a 50-point margin to incumbent Democrat Dan Lipinski. Jones still managed to get more than 40,000 votes, according to official figures. The 70-year-old secured the Republican nomination in March, when the party did not bother to put up any other candidate in the heavily-Democratic congressional district. Jones's primary win was a major embarrassment for party leaders. They disavowed...

The Blackhawks fired coach Joel Quenneville on Tuesday and named Jeremy Colliton to replace him, making him the 38th coach in franchise history. The Hawks also fired assistant coaches Kevin Dineen and Ulf Samuelsson and named Barry Smith an assistant on Colliton’s staff. The rest of the coaching staff will remain with the team. The Hawks failed to make the playoffs last season for the first time during Quenneville’s tenure. They are 6-6-3 this season and have lost five straight. The Hawks haven’t won a playoff series since winning the Stanley Cup in 2015, their third championship in six years....

In June a writer from Chicago went to the reopening of a steel mill in southern Illinois and came away saying Donald Trump would win in 2020 because the Democrats have no one like him. At that time I said the Republicans would not lose the House in 2018 and I starting saying they would take 11 Democrat Senate seats precisely because the Democrats have no one like him to campaign for them like Donald Trump; and they don't. Now every race is about Donald Trump’s great performance as our president, our leader and main cheerleader for America. As per...

She beat Donald J. Trump last time. At least, by the popular vote. Can she do it again this time, for real? Hillary Clinton may be gearing up for a third run for president of the United States. Even as a two-time loser, she could be the Democratic Party’s best chance of ending the Trump presidency

Forty-three people were shot, including five who were shot fatally, over Halloween weekend in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that beginning with Friday, each day in the weekend became more violent. For example, “three wounded and one killed Friday night, 11 wounded and one killed on Saturday, and 25 shot — three fatally — on Sunday.” The five individual killed were 16-year-old John Pena, 23-year-old Kenjuan D. Scott, 30-year-old Deshawn Jacobs, 20-year-old Detavious Beeks, and an unidenified 33-year-old male. All were fatally shot while standing on a sidewalk, walking, or inside a vehicle.

Last week, I became so distracted watching the flocks of pigs soaring through the clouds overhead that I nearly missed the Chicago Tribune report, headlined “Bill Daley, whose brother and father ran Chicago for 43 years, backs a term limit for mayor.”It is no surprise that this latest Daley launched his bid for the next mayoral election, which will be held in February. What is surprising is the term limits biz.“I think eight years is enough for a chief executive . . .” he told the Tribune. “Whether you’re doing a good job or bad job, I just think it’s...

**SNIP** But recently, as development of the Obama center has faced obstacles and groundbreaking has been pushed back, Winston and some of her neighbors have begun to worry about the project’s fate. It faces a legal challenge in federal court over the use of park space for the center, and its chief local backer, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, recently announced he will not be seeking a third term as mayor. The result is anxiousness that has swept over some residents and communities on the South Side as they brace for a possible long wait, a bitter fight or even another grand...

The report provided numerous examples of fraudsters exploiting the food stamp program to fund terrorist activities. A grocery store owner in Chicago was imprisoned in 2006 for stealing $1.4 million through food stamp fraud and aiding the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In 2010, two Somali store owners in Michigan pleaded guilty to food stamp fraud and running an unlicensed money transfer business that sent money to “hot spots” in the Middle East and Africa. In Indianapolis, a ring of convenience stores bought food stamps from customers for 50 cents on the dollar. The ringleader was arrested on a return flight from...

Devereaux Peters I live in Chicago, not “Chiraq.” Chicago is my city, and I love it. Calling it Chiraq is an insulting, misguided attempt to describe and to cast blame for the gun violence that plagues us. Instead of constantly trying to use my city as a scapegoat when violence occurs, we need to recognize that gun violence is a national issue and not just a local one. As a kid, I developed my professional grit playing basketball at the South Side and Austin YMCA. I watched the sun rise every morning while driving up Lake Shore Drive on my...

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.

A pro-ISIS media group issued an online threat against an FBI special agent-in-charge over the arrest of one of their American members on a charge of providing material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. Ashraf Al Safoo, 34, of Chicago made his first court appearance on Friday and is scheduled to appear for a detention hearing on Thursday. At the time of his arrest he worked as a web developer for BlueBolt Solutions, a Chicago software company; his LinkedIn profile said he specializes in Microsoft technologies. Al Safoo is a member of Khattab Media Foundation, which disseminates propaganda...

At 2:04 a.m., a 23-year-old man was standing on a sidewalk in the 3300 block of West Montrose when he heard shots and felt pain, according to Chicago police. He was taken with a gunshot wound in his right leg to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where his condition was stabilized, police said. Soon after, a double shooting struck the West Side Austin neighborhood. At 1:52 a.m., officers arrived at the 100 block of North Lockwood Avenue and found the woman, of an unknown age, and a 26-year-old man shot inside a parked car, according to police. The woman had already...

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...

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...

A group of women in Chicago say they operated a covert abortion network for years in the 1960s and early 1970s, skirting the then-federal ban on abortion by discreetly sending messages to one another about abortion services. “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Call Jane,” read a 1969 newspaper advertisement from the “Jane Collective,” The New York Times reported Sunday. Formerly known as the Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation, the Jane Collective helped women have abortions before Roe V. Wade made it legal in 1973, according to TheNYT. Roe v. Wade gave women the permission to abort until the point...

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...

A City Council committee took the first step Thursday toward approving legislation that outlines how the Obama Foundation can use Jackson Park and the Obama Presidential Center once it is built. And for the first time, the committee revealed language in the legislation that seeks to protect current homeowners and residents who live closest to the selected site. As part of their agreement, which the panel approved unanimously, the city will monitor property values and other indicators of demographic changes near the center site. If there are dramatic changes, the city will implement measures to keep residents in their homes,...