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The Rev. Al Sharpton portrayed Mayor Rahm Emanuel as a hypocrite Saturday for criticizing Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case when the mayor long was silent on the police murder of Laquan McDonald. **SNIP** “The reason this is of national significance to me, there is a marked difference between how they reacted to this and how they reacted to the Laquan McDonald case. They were not outraged when the video was withheld until after the mayor’s election,” Sharpton said of Emanuel, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and other top police officials. “There was a fox...

Iranian media report that a British flagged oil tanker has been seized by Iranian forces. Iran claiming that the tanker was seized for violating maritime regulations.... Iran stated its intention in recent days to respond to the seizure of one of its tankers by the UK. Earlier Friday the Supreme Court in Gibraltar granted a 30-day extension for detention of the Iranian oil tanker.... The Pentagon making it official Friday that US forces are going to Saudi Arabia.... Amidst all the controversy surrounding them, its been almost forgotten that Congresswoman Ihan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are...

(CNN)Lori Lightfoot has been elected the next mayor of Chicago, according to the Associated Press, becoming the first African-American woman picked to lead the country's third-most populous city. Lightfoot faced a historic runoff Tuesday against Toni Preckwinkle, who is also an African-American woman. "This may not be the outcome we wanted but while I may be disappointed, I'm not disheartened," Preckwinkle told supporters after she called Lightfoot to congratulate her. Mayor Rahm Emanuel was not in the race, as he was not seeking a third term. Lightfoot, 56, a former assistant US attorney, describes herself as "an out and proud...

A former Chicago police officer convicted of second-degree murder in the killing of an African-American teenager he shot 16 times received a dose of prison justice just days after Illinois prosecutors moved to seek a harsher sentence for him, his wife said Thursday. Jason Van Dyke was allegedly beaten by inmates at a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, where he was secretly moved to last week, his wife and his attorneys said during a news conference in Chicago.

When you have a President of the United States who has a close friend named Vince McMahon, you can expect a good fight show....... A top North Korean official carrying a note from that country's ruler Kim Jong-un has arrived in Washington for a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo..... Twenty were killed and dozens injured in a car bomb attack in Colombia's capital Bogota Thursday........ Act 50 of the European UnUUnion treaty invoked for Brexit explicitly states that if there is no deal to withdrawal a member nation can leave without one..... "Back to Paris" is the...

The Senate has been in session all night with senators speaking about the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The final vote will be today and it could be..... Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke faces a minimum of six year in prison after being convicted of second degree murder.... A new tone from the European Union about Brexit..... The latest on the disappearance of the Chinese official who heads Interpol is that Chinese authorities took him into custody..... We still don't know what happened to Saudi journalist and critic of hte Saudi Arabian government Jamal Khashoggi.......

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...

Lawyers for a Chicago police officer accused of murdering a Chicago teen in a shooting captured on dashcam video that ignited protests in the city and around the country are arguing their client will not be able to get a fair trial in Chicago. Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke was back in court Thursday as his lawyers argued extensive media coverage of the October 2014 incident in which Van Dyke shot and killed 17-year old Laquan McDonald means Van Dyke will not be able to get a fair trial in Cook County where Chicago is the county seat.

Institutional problems within the Chicago Police Department have led to serious civil rights violations for years, including racial bias against blacks and a tendency to use excessive force, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report released Friday. The Justice Department launched its investigation of the 12,000-officer force — one of the nation’s largest — in December 2015 following the release of dashcam video showing a white police officer shoot a black teenager, Laquan McDonald, 16 times as he walked away holding a small, folded knife. The video of the 2014 shooting, which the city fought to keep from being...

Chicago’s police superintendent called for the firing of seven officers for their response to a colleague’s fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald in 2014, a case that incited widespread protests here and led to accusations of a cover-up.The decision by Superintendent Eddie Johnson, announced Thursday morning by a Police Department spokesman, comes nearly two years after Officer Jason Van Dyke fired 16 shots at Mr. McDonald, who was 17 and African-American.Mr. McDonald’s death roiled the city, laying bare longstanding tensions between the police and black Chicagoans. The case has led to increased scrutiny and skepticism of the department, including a Justice...

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who wrote a letter asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate Chicago Police policies in December, recently said the windy city’s law enforcement is “holding back.” In coverage of the 44 people killed or injured in last weekend’s shootings in Chicago, WGN-TV reports:U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin feels the spike in shootings could be related in part to low officer morale, as the Department of Justice investigates the police department. “I think they’re holding back now in fear of video cameras, DNA, and losing a job over a mistake they might make,” Durbin said.…

Homicides and shootings have doubled in Chicago so far this year compared with the same period in 2015, and police have seized fewer illegal guns - more possible signals that officers have become less aggressive in the aftermath of a shooting video released last fall.Interim Police Superintendent John Escalante said Tuesday that he was so concerned about officers possibly holding back that he filmed a video for the entire department in which he encouraged them to do their jobs and assured them that a federal probe of the force was not aimed at individuals. "We are aware that there is...

If Rahm Emanuel refuses to resign from office after his administration buried the video of Laquan McDonald shooting until after his re-election, Chicago voters can’t do much about it. One Illinois Democrat wants to change that. State representative LaShawn Ford will introduce legislation that will allow for a recall of the Chicago mayor if enough voters sign petitions — and based on recent polling, that won’t be much of a hurdle:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO An Illinois state representative has introduced a bill that could remove Mayor Rahm Emanuel from office immediately.Democratic Rep. La Shawn Ford filed legislation...

Hundreds of protesters demanding an investigation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration flooded downtown Chicago streets Wednesday afternoon as part of a citywide walkout just hours after Emanuel publicly apologized for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald and vowed to fix broken Chicago police practices.The group chanted "Whose city? Our city," "Who's got to go? Rahm's got to go," and "No more killer cops."Demonstrators gathered at Daley Plaza at noon and started marching on North Dearborn. Police briefly detained two people during the protest near Dearborn and Washington as several other activists gathered around the vehicle chanting "Hell no, we won't...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday “welcomed” a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of “systemic issues embedded in” the Chicago Police Department and said, “I own the confusion” about his earlier opposition to the probe in the unrelenting uproar over the Laquan McDonald shooting video. Fran Earlier this week, Emanuel called the federal civil rights investigation requested by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan “misguided.” But that was before Hillary Clinton, Emanuel’s candidate for president, sided with Madigan. That’s apparently at least partially responsible for the mayor’s reversal. A conversation with Gov. Bruce Rauner, the mayor’s longtime friend, may also have played...

A 21-year-old man was arrested Monday, accused of threatening to kill students and staff at the University of Chicago in an apparent attempt to avenge the death of Laquan McDonald, authorities said. Jabari Dean, 21 was arrested without incident. He is expected to appear in court later in the day. According to a criminal complaint, Dean posted a threat on social media over the Thanksgiving weekend. "This is my only warning. At 10 a.m. on Monday mourning (sic) I am going to the campus quad of the University of Chicago. I will be armed with a M-4 Carbine and 2...

Chicago protesters pulled down barricades and tore light strands off the city Christmas tree Wednesday night in Millennium Park, WGN-TV reported. It was the second night of protests over the death of Laquan McDonald, a black 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a white police officer.

In the latest high-profile racial railroading of a white policeman for obvious political reasons, it has taken authorities over a full year to decide to charge Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke in the fatal shooting of black 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. The obviousness of the racial/political theater here is largely due to the fact that the timing of the ridiculous charge — first degree murder — being suddenly announced after all these months, so transparently coincides with the sudden FOIA public release of a police dashcam video of the shooting which, to the untrained eye, looks pretty bad. The video in...

Protesters took to the streets in the wake of the release of dash cam footage showing police shooting a teen being shot by police, chanting "16 shots" for the number of times the officer allegedly shot him.The dash cam video, released by police today a day ahead of a court-ordered deadline, shows officers confronting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who later died at a hospital, as he walked down the street on Oct. 20, 2014. snip Chicago police officials said they were responding to a report of a person walking down the street with a knife and that McDonald refused to drop...

McDonald runs towards one police cruiser while brandishing a knife, a 2nd cruiser rolls up, cop steps out walks towards McDonald and proceeds to shoot him 16 times.