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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.

As the sun rose, the first frost of the season flashed silver across the mowed fields of Adams County, Illinois, and the same small group of regulars gathered at the Fast Stop gas station in Payson. They get their coffee here most mornings before commencing the day’s business. (One definition of progress: Americans used to worry about getting gas from a coffee shop; now we think nothing of getting coffee from a gas station.) Most of the guys are retired or close to it—firefighters, farmers, machinists. All but a couple of them are Republicans, and when they talk politics, as...

**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...

Times updated! The rally will be held on Saturday, October 27 at 4:30 pm CDT. Doors will open at 1:30 pm CDT. http://www.donaldjtrump.com/rallies/il-oct-2018/ also http://www.kfvs12.com/video/2018/10/27/morning-look-airport-ahead-pres-trump-rep-bost-rally/ Offsite parking / shuttle still not announced - bummer!

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...

Trump rally live

Several hours after announcing their suspensions, two campaign workers have been fired from Democrat J.B. Pritzker’s campaign amid controversy over an Instagram photo of a campaign worker wearing a charcoal face mask that resembles blackface. The campaign on Friday morning insisted the incident was not racial in nature and the employees in question would be suspended without pay for exercising poor judgment. But within hours, the campaign workers were ousted. The post by Carolyn Mehta — which LinkedIn identifies as the campaign’s Deputy Get Out The Vote Director — comes as the Pritzker campaign faces a lawsuit from former campaign...

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.

...They hired the Schulz company, a high-end, family-owned contractor from Evanston. Schulz had worked on the Pritzkers’ vacation home in Lake Geneva, done work for other Pritzkers, and at the time, employed J.B. Pritzker’s second cousin as a carpenter.“ ...J.B. had no intention of ever executing a final contract with Schulz,” according to court filings by the contractor. “During this meeting, J.B. rejected Schulz’s … contract proposal and requested that Schulz submit another proposal without making any counter offer. J.B. also reiterated his demand that Schulz take all necessary action to complete its work on a more expedited basis.”

I’ve covered enough campaigns to be wary of last-minute accusations. So I didn’t think much about the discrimination complaint that was filed by ten JB Pritzker for Governor campaign workers. But then I looked at backgrounds of the people making those allegations. Most of them had experience working on other important political campaigns. There’s no evidence that the lawsuit has had a negative impact on the campaign. In fact, Pritzker’s unfavorable comments about black politicians, captured on a secretly recorded wiretap... caused a bigger uproar. During the conversation, Pritzker mulled over which black politician would be “least offensive” to fill...

A group of employees alleging racism in Democrat J.B. Pritzker’s campaign offices strongly denied Monday any political motivation for their federal lawsuit — with one former worker saying she’d personally spoke to the candidate about discrimination. “He promised me to address it, and I was laid off,” said Kayla Hogan, a former field organizer for the campaign. Eight of the 10 current and former employees appeared with their lawyers Monday at an office on the South Side, saying they felt their side of the story hadn’t been accurately portrayed in news reports about the suit, filed last week. “Since then,...

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...

MURPHYSBORO, IL. — U.S. Representative Mike Bost announced Sunday that President Donald Trump intends to visit Southern Illinois for a campaign rally on Saturday, October 27.

The plaintiffs — all field organizers — allege that while the campaign has hired African-American and Latino workers, “the vast majority are herded into race-specific positions where they are expected to interact with the public, offered no meaningful chance for advancement, and receive less favorable treatment than their white counterparts who engage with, as the campaign sees it, a more desirable constituency.” “At all times relevant, the J.B. Prtizker for Governor campaign has been cesspool of racial discrimination and harassment,” according to the suit. The campaign also released information designed to poke holes in some of the allegations.

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...

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...

Democratic allies gathered downtown Saturday for Chicago’s latest Women’s March, with organizers pushing for participants to help get out the vote ahead of next month’s midterm elections. Organized as a nonprofit — and not specifically endorsing candidates — the group Women’s March Chicago is bankrolled by Democrats and Democratic supporters. Major donors include the Chicago Federation of Labor and Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker’s campaign. Several thousand took part in Saturday’s march and rally, which was the third Women’s March through Chicago. It was a far cry from the roughly 250,000 who marched through the city shortly after President Donald...