Free Republic

The chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus is purging himself of a surprise, $20,000 contribution from Mayor Rahm Emanuel amid concern that it might damage his chances of winning re-election. Instead of keeping the money and putting the windfall into his campaign fund, Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) is distributing the mayor’s check — in $2,000 increments –– to ten community organizations and other groups in his ward that are working to stop the never-ending cycle of gang violence and train people for jobs. The alderman said he appreciated the mayor’s gesture and means no disrespect. But he was concerned...

For a long time, Thomas Caldwell behaved like a man who wanted to go to prison and wouldn’t stop until he got his way. In September, he pleaded guilty to selling guns without a federal license and now faces a prison sentence of up to five years. The question is why he wasn’t locked up sooner.

Source: Reuters Sears is planning to close up to 150 of its department and discount stores and keep at least 300 open as part of a plan to restructure under U.S. bankruptcy protection, people familiar with the matter said Friday. The plans, which remained in flux Friday afternoon, would leave the fate of Sears' remaining roughly 250 stores uncertain, the sources said. The future of the stores could hinge on Sears' negotiations with landlords over their leases.

Fictional 21st Century Woman at her “reveal” party: Mom, Dad, Family, Friends, there’s something inside me! Lol, no, it’s not a tumor. It’s a human. It’s got boy DNA (so, not me. lol). I just need to find out if he’s defective. Oh, and I’ll revisit my life goals and career path, check my bank account, and meditate on how I feel about him. If I choose to let him live, y’all can call him a baby! Remember the less bad old days when Leftists repeated Hillary Clinton’s disingenuous mantra that she wanted abortion to be “safe, legal, and rare,...

WASHINGTON – Following the release of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (UN IPCC) report on Monday, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today called on President Trump and Congressional Republicans to take immediate action to limit human-induced global warming.  In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin also urged President Trump to rethink his decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement.“Last year, President Trump decided that the United States would step away from the rest of the world, step away from our allies and trading partners, and leave this [Paris] agreement.  I hope after this week’s announcement from...

Bump [Philip Bump, WaPo] quotes Ford as telling the Senate Judiciary Committee, “I did see Mark Judge once at the Potomac Village Safeway after the time of the attack, and it would be helpful with anyone’s resources if – to figure out when he worked there if people are wanting more details from me about when the attack occurred.” Now Bump announces his Eureka moment. He can pinpoint Ford’s timeline thanks to Mark Judge himself. Bump quotes from Judge’s 1997 book “Wasted.” Judge wrote, “It was the summer before senior year, and by now, even though I wasn’t drinking every...

Thomas Caldwell once told a federal agent that selling guns was an addiction. Even after being told to stop because he had no license, the Wisconsin man kept peddling firearms, posting more than 200 ads on a controversial website. One of those guns, a Glock 26 9 mm handgun, ended up in the hands of a four-time felon who used it in February to kill Chicago police Cmdr. Paul Bauer in a shocking daylight shooting in the heart of the Loop, according to recently filed federal documents. The records give a rare look at how shadowy gun deals flourish between...

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is offering a course this semester focusing on what it calls “Trumpaganda.” Students will examine Trump’s “war on facts, press and democracy,” according to the eight-week course title. The class is offered through the university’s journalism program, according to the Daily Illini. “As a candidate, Trump employed the most common propaganda device, name-calling, to define, degrade, discredit and destroy his primary opponents as well as the “fake” news media,” the course description reads. Mira Sotirovic, associate professor in media, is teaching the class, and told the Daily Illini that students will look at President...

Trump on Thursday to discuss manufacturing jobs in Chicago and opportunities for ex-cons The rapper will meet Trump along with his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner They will discuss manufacturing jobs in Chicago and opportunities for ex-cons West has been a prominent supporter of the president despite public criticism Angered SNL cast members when he went on an unscheduled rant last month at the end of the show about Trump Met with Trump at Trump Tower in New York City in 2016 after he was elected Wife Kim Kardashian has been the White House two times to discuss prison reform...

President Donald Trump drew an enthusiastic response from a law-and-order crowd Monday, advocating the use of “stop and frisk” policing and saying he has directed the Justice Department to work with local officials in Chicago to stem violence in the nation’s third-largest city. “The crime spree is a terrible blight on that city,” he said at a convention of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Trump said he had ordered Attorney General Jeff Sessions to “immediately” go to Chicago “to help straighten out the terrible shooting wave.” He also encouraged the city to embrace the stop-and-frisk policing method, in...

Chicago officials summarily rejected President Trump's advice Monday to use "stop and frisk" policing to reduce violence, with the mayor's office calling the president "clueless" and motivated by the fear of losing midterm elections. Trump urged Chicago to use "stop and frisk" policing at a police convention earlier in the day and offered federal assistance to undo a 2015 legal agreement between the Chicago Police Department and the American Civil Liberties Union. The office of Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the city was uninterested in Trump's idea for reducing violent crime.

Real estate experts say J.B. Pritzker, Democrat candidate for Illinois governor, may have some serious legal problems stemming from a leaked report outlining how he allegedly manipulated Cook County’s tax system to lower his property tax bill. The leaked report from Cook County’s top watchdog revisits how the Chicago billionaire got tax breaks totaling more than $300,000 by ripping out the toilets and altering other parts of one of his Gold Coast mansions shortly before having it deemed uninhabitable by a private appraiser.

Illinois Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday he will repay more than $330,000 in property tax breaks he received on a Chicago mansion after a county investigator accused him of a "scheme to defraud" taxpayers by taking toilets out to lower its value. -snip Key to Blanchard's findings was an October 2015 email in which contractors contended that Pritzker's wife, M.K. Pritzker, wanted to declare the mansion uninhabitable and directed that toilets be removed before a property tax reassessment. The Chicago Tribune said that the report indicates that M.K. Pritzker's brother and her personal assistant made "false representations" in...

A white Chicago officer was convicted of second-degree murder Friday in the 2014 shooting of a black teenager that was captured on shocking dashcam video that showed him crumpling to the ground in a hail of 16 bullets as he walked away from police. The video, some of the most graphic police footage to emerge in years, stoked outrage nationwide and put the nation’s third-largest city at the center of the debate about police misconduct and use of force. The shooting also led to a federal inquiry and calls to reform the Chicago Police Department. Jason Van Dyke, 40, was...

You know what you think of Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker. One promised to shatter the status quo and admits he has come up short. The other removes mansion toilets to save on taxes and coos on FBI recordings with a corrupt Rod Blagojevich. Now set all of that aside. Focus instead on the one reality that should guide your vote for governor of Illinois. Combative campaigns, like summer romances, tend to be fun and have no lasting consequence. But after this election, one of these men — Republican Rauner or Democrat Pritzker — likely will govern with an overwhelmingly...

A freelance automotive journalist worries a testing site operated by the Illinois Tollway Authority could be for more than just testing automated tollway technology. Paul Brian said he’s noticed a site with various sensors on northbound I-294 for years with a sign that reads “for testing purposes only.” Illinois Tollway Authority officials said the site is used for testing various sensors, but only for tollway purposes. The site, established in 2015, had an initial price tag of $2.7 million. “The Illinois Tollway has used the test site to study a range of systems – some of which were adopted and...

BREAKING: A verdict as been reached in the trial of Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, charged with shooting teenager Laquan McDonald. The jury will announce the verdict in about one hour.

In less than two years, the Illinois tollway has hired six Republican insiders for high-level jobs that collectively pay nearly $916,000 a year, including a former elected official, political operatives and the relative of a state GOP leader. That troubles some government watchdogs who say they are concerned about favoritism in an agency with a history of patronage. Tollway officials said the agency is staffed with qualified professionals. "More and more the Illinois tollway is becoming the 'Who's Who' of Republican political hires," said Illinois Campaign for Political Reform Chairwoman Susan Garrett, a former Democratic state senator. Tollway spokesman Dan...

It seemed like Frank Caputo had worked in construction with his family since he could walk, and at 61 years old, he had no plans of retiring anytime soon, his family said. “He would die with concrete on his hands, and he did,” said Lorraine Richards Caputo, his estranged wife. “His blood ran concrete. He was proud of his job. He was a good worker, and he did a damn good job.” Caputo was working Friday night on the northbound lanes of the Tri-State Tollway near Rosemont where two lanes had been closed for a construction project. Just before 10:20...

DOWNERS GROVE, IL - The Illinois Tollway, in partnership with Blick Art Materials and MB Real Estate (MBRE), is inviting high school art students to participate in the 2019 Tollway Map Cover Art Contest for a shot to land on the cover art of the official 2019 Illinois Tollway Map. Recognizing the Illinois Tollway's commitment to diversity, the theme for the 2019 contest calls on student artists to submit artwork that illustrates the importance of diversity and inclusion. Areas of focus for the 2019 Tollway Map Cover Art Contest may include, but are not limited to, the following themes: Diversity...