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Illinois Democratic PAC loses appeal of massive fines for not timely reporting campaign spending

The Illinois State Board of Elections rejected Wednesday a request to reconsider or lower more than $100,000 in fines levied against a political action committee that helped expand the Democratic Party’s majority on the Illinois Supreme Court.

The board’s unanimous bipartisan vote followed a request by All for Justice, an independent expenditure PAC backed by Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, after it was fined $108,500 by the board last year for failing to timely file detailed expenditure reports in spending $7.3 million to help elect Elizabeth Rochford and Mary Kay O’Brien to the state’s ...

Is America still the indispensable nation?

By Richard C. Longworth

Back in 1998, Madeleine Albright, then the secretary of state, called the United States the “indispensable nation.”

She meant that this country, armed with unmatchable force and influence, stood at the helm of a web of alliances and global organizations that guided world events.

More than 50 years after the invention of nuclear weapons, the U.S. had presided over a Pax Americana that had kept the peace among the nuclear powers.

Today, more than a quarter century later, are we still the indispensable nation?

The answer is yes — but probably not for much longer.

The death of Alexei Navalny is being greeted by Putin-enabling fools

“Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now,” the pundit-poodle Tucker Carlson observed before his Feb. 6 interview of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “They’ve never heard his voice. That’s wrong.”

What total claptrap.

We’ve never been under any illusions about why Putin invaded Ukraine, his being a naked grab for power and control at the expense of a sovereign nation.

Putin’s goals, any fool can see, are the subjugation of a proud and independent people with (for the record) a long history here in Chicago.

The faith of Black America has been a gift to this nation

By Tariq I. El-Amin

For years, the Pew Research Center listed Black Americans as having the highest levels of religiosity and faith.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in fact, was known as “the moral conscience of America” by many Americans, irrespective of race. King was not exceptional in this regard.

Black people’s relationship with faith and spirituality has been essential to their survival in a society that has sanctioned, tacitly or explicitly, the brutalization and subjugation of Black bodies, historically and up to the present day.

Cook County judge to decide next week on challenge to Trump’s place on Illinois ballot

CHICAGO — A Cook County judge said Friday she will decide late next week the fate of a legal challenge seeking to strike former President Donald Trump’s name from Illinois’ March 19 Republican primary ballot.

Judge Tracie Porter announced her plans after a near four-hour Daley Center hearing that featured footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol as attorneys for Trump sought to cast the challenge to the former president’s place on the ballot as a political attempt to “abuse the election code of Illinois.”

Uber and Lyft drivers plan airport strikes on Valentine’s Day

Drivers for Uber and Lyft are planning a one-day airport strike in 10 cities on Valentine’s Day, including Chicago, New York, Newark, Tampa and Orlando, to once again call attention to demands for better wages, better safety practices and job protection.

The Justice for App Workers coalition, which represents over 30,000 ride-share and delivery drivers across Illinois, is leading the local effort by calling for Chicago Uber and Lyft drivers to rally at O’Hare International Airport Wednesday at 11 a.m., according to a news release from the coalition.

How bad was Joe Biden’s Thursday? Awful.

How rough was special counsel Robert K. Hur’s report on Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, released Thursday afternoon?

It first seemed to depend on your newspaper of choice.

“Biden Cleared in Documents Case; Report Raises Concerns About His Memory,” read the headline in The New York Times, leading with what Democrats desperately hoped the main takeaway would be.

“Biden Knowingly Kept and Shared Classified Material, Special Counsel Concludes,” read the contemporaneous story in The Wall Street Journal, foregrounding exactly the opposite.

It’s indefensible to attack Haley’s name — but it’s fair to examine her denial of racism

Recently, in addition to pushing a birther-like conspiracy against his former United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley, Donald Trump has now taken to mocking his Indian American Republican challenger’s name, recently calling her “Nimbra” and “Nimbrada.”

As a Democratic commentator, I even get feedback online from some of my progressive followers that I should refer to Haley as “Nimarata” — the first name on her birth certificate.

Former transportation official pleads guilty to offering bribe to Illinois senator

CHICAGO — A longtime Chicago political operative pleaded guilty Friday to a scheme to bribe then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval on behalf of a suburban construction company that needed state approval for a development in East Dundee.

William Helm, the onetime deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation and a former state transportation official, also admitted in a plea agreement with prosecutors that he and others helped arrange $40,000 in bribes to other, unnamed officials.

Judge rejects request for hold on challenge to Donald Trump’s place on Illinois primary ballot

CHICAGO — A Cook County judge on Wednesday rejected a request to put a hold on a legal challenge to former President Donald Trump’s place on the Illinois’ March 19 Republican primary ballot. Attorneys for the former president had filed a motion to halt legal proceedings in Illinois until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on an appeal of a Colorado Supreme Court decision that found Trump disqualified from running for the presidency in that state under the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The nation’s highest court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the Colorado...

Charges dropped against students accused of distributing fake Daily Northwestern page

CHICAGO — Cook County prosecutors on Wednesday dropped charges against two Northwestern students amid controversy over the decision to pursue a criminal case against them for allegedly circulating a fake page of the student newspaper to protest the school stance on the crisis in Gaza and Israel.

The charging decision, as well as the newspaper’s parent company’s pursuit of a complaint, attracted harsh criticism from students, professors and community members, who blasted the move as an example of over-policing of Black students and an effort to silence pro-Palestinian voices.

Illinois man sentenced to 5 years in prison for trying to destroy downstate abortion clinic

An Illinois man was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday for trying to prevent the opening of an abortion clinic in downstate Danville by crashing his car into the building and attempting to set it on fire, an act that reproductive health care advocates say has been part of a spike in violence and harassment against such facilities since the end of Roe v. Wade.

Philip Buyno, 73, of Prophetstown was also ordered to pay more than $300,000 restitution, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Suburban Chicago couple latest Illinois residents to be charged in Jan. 6 Capitol riot

CHICAGO — A couple from Lockport became the latest Illinoisans to be charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, federal court records show. Kelly Fontaine and Brian Dula face four counts of knowing and unlawful entry to a restricted building, disorderly conduct in restricted buildings, disorderly conduct in and around the U.S. Capitol and parading and picketing in and around the Capitol, according to a criminal complaint and arrest warrant dated Wednesday. The charges made Fontaine and Dula the 45th and 46th Illinois residents charged since the rampage that sent members of Cong...

Video shows educators at U. of Chicago charter school mocking special education student

CHICAGO — A University of Chicago charter school is being sued after a video emerged showing a teacher mocking a special education student for crying and a classroom aide was convicted of misdemeanor battery for her role in the episode.

The incident, which was recorded on another student’s cellphone, took place at the UC Charter School’s Woodlawn campus in December 2022.

The Chicago Tribune reviewed the minute-long video, which offered a troubling glimpse inside the publicly funded high school overseen by the prestigious university.

Is air travel in crisis? Hardly

Airplanes seem to be coming apart in midair.

An Alaska Airlines flight was disrupted when the door plug on a section of its fuselage broke off after takeoff.

The airplane model, Boeing 737 Max, has been under scrutiny since airplane crashes dating to 2018 and 2019.

Investigators determined the cause as a door plug that failed. Other investigations have found loose bolts on 737 Max planes that could be the cause of the door plug failure. Consequently, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the nation’s Boeing 737 9 Max fleet, citing safety concerns.