Free Republic

A Chicago-based newspaper columnist predicted re-election for President Trump in 2020 after witnessing first-hand the enthusiastic support for the president among blue-collar workers. Neil Steinberg attended a recent appearance by the president at a U.S. Steel facility in Granite City, Illinois, outside St. Louis. He wrote about speaking to steel workers and seeing how Trump connected with the audience. "We need steel," Trump said. “We need steel plants. And to see an old, big monster plant like this re-opening — that is an honor. I look at the faces of you people; I could be one of you. I like...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Dozens of people were wounded in shootings across Chicago since Friday, police said. One paramedic described the evening as "a war zone." Since midnight, police said 42 people have been shot, five fatally. Since Friday at 5 p.m., 59 people have been shot, eight fatally, in shootings in Chicago. 34 of the shootings and five deaths occurred between 10 a.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday, according to police. During one two-and-a-half hour-hour period, 25 people were shot in five multi-injury shootings. "We know that some of these incidents were targeted and are related to gang conflicts in...

GRANITE CITY, Ill. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday trumpeted the renewed success of an Illinois steel mill, pushing back against criticism that his escalating trade disputes are hurting American workers and farmers. The president pointed to the U.S. Steel plant's reopening as a success story after he slapped tariffs on imported steel and aluminum last spring. On Wednesday, he and European leaders agreed to open talks on trade, a decision he called a breakthrough. "America never surrenders," Trump said in an address to workers at the company's steel coil warehouse in Granite City. "We don't wave the white...

Protesters greeted President Trump on his visit to Granite City, Ill., with a giant balloon depicting him as a chicken. Trump delivered remarks at the U.S. Steel Co.'s Granite City Works, where he also took credit for the plant’s reopening following his increased tariffs on imports. Protesters lined up hours ahead of his visit to greet the president with the “Trump chicken” balloon and numerous signs attacking the president as a “liar,” calling for his impeachment, and slamming his controversial “zero-tolerance” immigration policy. (TWEET-AT-LINK) Last week, another 33-foot-tall inflatable blimp depicting Trump as a chicken captured headlines after it was...

President Donald Trump is making his first visit to Illinois since becoming president, making a stop in Granite City on Thursday where he is expected to tout the reopening of a U.S. Steel Corp. mill. The White House announced Sunday night Trump will swing through Granite City, in southern Illinois near St. Louis and Dubuque, Iowa, on Thursday. The Trump administration has been highlighting U.S. Steel’s Granite City mill as a trade war success story even as the tariffs have sparked concerns in other sectors, with alarms sounded by Illinois farmers whose main crop is soybeans. The visit will have...

U.S. Steel Corp. says it will restart the second of two shuttered blast furnaces at its Granite City mill and hire 300 employees. The decision by the Pittsburgh-based company follows a March announcement that it would restart the other blast furnace at the Granite City Works in the Metro East and recall 500 workers. U.S. Steel laid off hundreds of workers when it idled the furnaces in late 2015, with employment at the nearly 2,000 worker plant dipping as low as 100 in the ensuing two years. The company says the restart of the first furnace is in progress and...

The company plans to call back about 500 employees United States Steel Corp. X +4.25% said it would restart a blast furnace in Illinois to handle the higher demand it expects from President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on foreign steel. The steelmaker said it also plans to call 500 employees back to work at the Granite City mill. U.S. Steel idled its blast furnaces there two years ago as a flood of cheap imports pushed down domestic steel prices. Steel producers have been hurt in recent years by increasing competition from foreign competitors, particularly China, that have ramped up production...

<p>Joseph Lynn Pickett of Edwardsville was charged June 15 with threatening the president of the United States, the Belleville News-Democrat ( http://bit.ly/2ssw5WM ) reported.</p> <p>U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Vincent Pescitelli said in a criminal complaint that Pickett "did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, to kidnap, and to inflict bodily harm" against Trump on Facebook.</p>

Two-state chase ends in fatal accident By Jeremy Kohler Post-Dispatch 12/02/2003 A driver was killed this morning after police in Florissant chased a stolen van into Granite City, where it crashed into another car. The chase started about 5:00 a.m. at Lindbergh Boulevard and Trotter Way. A Florissant Police Officer tried to stop a suspicious GMC van and pursued it into Illinois. It crashed into a Chevrolet Camaro, killing the driver, John Smith, 32, of Granite City at Nameoki Road and Pontoon Road near Route 203. He had a green light and was going west through the intersection when he...