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| Chicago Fire Department station in Chinatown |
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| Closed Chicago school |
More than 14,000 votes were cast in Chicago during the 2016 general election than there were voters to cast them, based on separate figures released by the Chicago Board of Elections, the chairman of the Chicago Republican Party has reported.
Chris Cleveland told the Chicago Wire that "on a whim," he filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the board, which provided him with a list of 1,101,178 people who voted in the general election. An earlier post on the board's website said that 1,115,664 votes had been cast.
"There should never be more votes than voters," Cleveland said. "Every ballot cast should be recorded against a registered voter."
The party did a breakdown of voting by precinct, and Cleveland said it found an uneven distribution of discrepancies. Fifteen precincts had 100 more ballots cast than voters, while others had fewer votes than voters.
President Donald Trump sought Tuesday to reassert an American military threat against North Korea, saying that "all options are on the table" in response to its launch of a missile over close U.S. ally Japan.
In a terse, written statement, Trump said that North Korea's missile launch "signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior."
"Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the region and among all nations of the world," Trump said. "All options are on the table."
Trump later told reporters, "We'll see, we'll see" when asked what he would do. Trump, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, was departing the White House to survey storm damage in southeast Texas.
A man was charged Thursday after authorities said he pulled his car into a group of demonstrators protesting a police shooting in St. Louis, injuring three people.
Mark Colao, 59, faces a felony count of resisting arrest by fleeing and misdemeanor charges of leaving the scene of an accident and operating a vehicle in a careless and imprudent manner. It's not clear if he has an attorney who can comment on his behalf.
Police said the three people suffered minor injuries Wednesday night during a candlelight vigil and protest in honor of Kenny "Kiwi" Herring, who was fatally shot by officers Tuesday after allegedly stabbing one of them. Relatives and friends have said Herring was a transgender woman.
Bloomberg's charity announced Thursday that $2 million will be spent on television, radio and digital ads. The ads will contend the tax could help fight "the epidemic of childhood obesity and diabetes" and support Cook County hospitals and health programs.Taxwinkle shot the myth that the soda tax was about health after she sued the IRMA for $17 million in lost revenue because they were able to delay its implementation for a month.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle broke a tie vote in November to approve the tax. She initially contended she was motivated by the health concerns voiced by Bloomberg. She has since acknowledged it was more to raise revenue.
Preckwinkle has faced increasing criticism since the tax went into effect this month.
A court challenge by the Illinois Retail Merchants Association failed to prevent its collection.
The immigration legislation would prohibit police in Illinois from detaining or arresting a person based on their immigration status or on federal immigration detainer. It would allow law enforcement officials, however, to detain a person with a judge's order.Who speaks up for the ordinary taxpayer in Illinois?
The bill passed with bipartisan support and was supported by faith leaders, law enforcement and businesses. But Republicans initially opposed the measure, arguing it will cause a conflict with federal laws.
ESPN reassigned a college football announcer named Robert Lee from the University of Virginia's season-opening game because he shares a name with the Confederacy’s most famous general, the network confirmed Tuesday. Instead of calling UVA's game against William & Mary, Lee will instead work Pitt versus Youngstown State. In a statement, ESPN said it's "because of the coincidence of his name."Two years ago ESPN, remember, it's a sports network, gave Bruce Jenner, or whatever his name is now, an ESPY courage award, even though he retired from competitive sports when Gerald Ford was still president.
The statement added that executives and Lee made the decision together "as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding," a reference to the deadly neo-Nazi rally on August 12.
"In that moment it felt right to all parties," ESPN said. "It's a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play-by-play for a football game has become an issue."
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| 159th Street in Harvey |
In an unprecedented ruling, an appellate court declared the city of Harvey so severely neglected its firefighters' pension fund that it was on the verge of insolvency — meaning there might not be any money for retirees or firefighters on the job there today.Related posts:
The ruling comes as local firefighters complain of equipment in disrepair and manpower cuts. And it follows another embarrassing ruling in which a Cook County judge took away control of Harvey's water finances from leaders of the scandal-plagued and debt-ridden south suburb.
In a scathing opinion filed earlier this month, the 1st District Appellate Court found that for nearly a decade, the city neglected to pay enough money to keep the pension fund solvent, leaving it in danger of running dry in as little as five years. Indeed, the court found that over that period, the city contributed only 17 percent of the amount needed to sustain the pension fund.
"Harvey has set up a collision course over a period of many years where the beneficiaries of their firefighters' Pension Fund are being paid substantially out of the money that the firefighters have themselves contributed to the Pension Fund and the money the Pension Fund earns from investments…" the court wrote. "In essence, Harvey is robbing Peter to pay Paul, but what happens when Peter retires?"
Chicago Police officers made 85,493 arrests in 2016, a 24 percent drop from the year before and roughly half the number of arrests they made the year before Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office.This is part of a long term trend, a disturbing one if you are a law-abiding resident of the city.
The steady and precipitous decline in arrests coincided with the mayor’s decision to rely on overtime — to the tune of $143 million last year, and even more during in the first quarter of this year — to mask a severe manpower shortage before abruptly reversing course and embarking on a two-year hiring blitz.
They show that Chicago Police officers made 167,355 arrests in 2010; 152,740 in 2011; 145,390 in 2012; 143,618 in 2013; 129,166 in 2014; 112,996 in 2015, and 85,493 last year.According to HeyJackass, no one is charged in nearly 90 percent of all Chiraq homicides.
The largest percentage drop occurred between 2015, when a judge ordered the city to release the Laquan McDonald shooting video, and 2016, when the U.S. Justice Department conducted its sweeping civil rights investigation of the Chicago Police Department triggered by the shooting of the black teenager.
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| West Pullman |
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| Holocaust memorial in Skokie |
starring Danny Kaye who plays a Holocaust survivor, was first broadcast in 1981. Eli Wallach. Carl Reiner, and Brian Dennehy are in it too.
The former head of Operating Engineers Local 324 struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors Friday, admitting he forced union workers and officials to pay kickbacks that he blew on booze, meals and his daughter’s wedding.
John Hamilton, 62, of Rivera Beach, Florida, reached the plea deal three weeks before he was scheduled to stand trial in federal court. Hamilton faces up to five years in federal prison and has agreed to pay $250,000 restitution to victims of the crime, prosecutors said Friday.
He will be sentenced Jan. 16 by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman.
Hamilton, who was indicted two years ago, admitted conspiring to violate the Hobbs Act with at least two other leaders of Detroit-based Local 324, which represents 18,000 heavy equipment and crane operators throughout the state.
Federal agents probing a $4.5 million corruption scandal are investigating questionable spending by more leaders of the United Auto Workers, including pricey designer purses and a $2,180 shotgun bought with union training center funds, The Detroit News has learned.
The investigation has entangled current and former top UAW officials, including union Vice President Norwood Jewell, who received the shotgun as a birthday present in 2015 after the firearm was purchased with funds earmarked for blue-collar workers, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
The purchase is part of a broader pattern of personal spending by some board members at the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center, multiple sources told The News. The UAW said that Jewell didn’t know the shotgun was purchased with training center money.
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| Jackson Park last fall |
The pastor also said President Andrew Jackson's name should be removed from nearby Jackson Park, because he also was a slave owner. He said he’s not necessarily asking the city rename the parks altogether. He suggested Washington Park could be named after former Mayor Harold Washington, and Jackson Park could be named after civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson or singer Michael Jackson.What a load of crap piled upon more crap. First of all, neighborhoods change and the area surrounding Washington and Jackson Park used to be as white as Mount Greenwood on the Southwest Side is now. And while the white, Asian, and Hispanic populations of Chicago are increasing, the African-American population of America's third-largest city is falling fast.
Dukes said he’s not trying to erase history. He said black people should be able to decide who is and is not honored in their communities.
— Vaal_1899 (@RaulVal93) August 17, 2017
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| Blue Lives Matter flag in Chicago |
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement on Monday that the purpose of the flight of the chopper was to provide a continuous video feed of activities on the ground. This was accomplished with multiple helicopters on Saturday, the day of the rally in Charlottesville.Ah, at that point the cops were providing security coverage for McAuliffe.
The helicopter in the accident was a Bell 407 that was manufactured in 2000.
Officials say it departed Charlottesville airport around 3:54 p.m. and was over the downtown area by 4:04 p.m. and was engaged in mission-related activities there until 4:42 p.m. They then departed the area to provide support for a motorcade carrying Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.
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| Blogger with Little Marathon Pundit at Mount Rushmore |
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| Downtown Cairo in 2008 |
Cook County is in hot water with yet another government agency over its pop tax, this time the Illinois Liquor Control Commission.There is a group that loves the sweetened beverage tax-retailers in located just outside of Cook County.
In a letter to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, the commission wrote that even though the tax on sweetened beverages excludes alcohol, many of the wholesalers to which it applies distribute both kinds of products and therefore have to deal with the tax complications of the county's new levy. As a result, it "may lead to practices that violate the Illinois Liquor Control Act."
"ILCC is concerned that the unintended consequences of the refund and credit procedure for the sweetened beverage tax would result in ongoing, continuous violations of existing law," commission Executive Director Donovan Borvan wrote. Other difficulties he cited include "extreme costs of enforcement and audit, and the potential for mandatory denial of deliveries to retailers."
"Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!"Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2017
The federal government is threatening to withhold about $87 million in food stamp funds from the state of Illinois if Cook County doesn’t alter the manner in which the penny-an-ounce tax on sweetened beverages has been implemented, officials said Thursday.The sugary drink tax was passed in November, Preckwinkle cast the tie-breaking vote. No Republican voted for it. And the county was warned by the feds last month that is was non-compliant. To be fair, soda should not be covered, in my opinion at least, by food stamps. Remember--the "N" in SNAP stands for nutrition.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is objecting to how the tax is applied to purchases using food stamps, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It says the county must take "immediate steps" to become compliant, adding no taxes can be collected until the problem is solved.
Cook County officials told retailers that purchases made with food stamp benefits are exempt from the soda tax under federal law. However, it allows retailers to tax those purchases and provide refunds as a workaround for stores that haven;t been able to properly update their point-of-sale systems.
The Agriculture Department on Monday warned the Illinois Department of Human Services in a letter that the refund system violates federal law and money could be withheld.
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| 1997 Toyota Celica |
Besides Texas — Toyota’s new North American headquarters — other states on the companies' shortlist are Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina, The [Wall Street] Journal reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the potential investment. Those sources also said the manufacturing facility would require at least 1,000 acres of land.Except for Illinois, these states have one thing in common--they are right-to-work states, meaning "closed shop" union workplaces are banned.
