Tag Archives: Chicago

BBC: Trump commutes gang leader’s sentence in flurry of pardons

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As part of a spree of clemency actions, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday commuted the federal prison sentence of Larry Hoover, the founder of a notorious Chicago street gang.

Hoover was the leader of the Gangster Disciples and in the 1990s was given six life sentences on conspiracy, extortion, drug and other criminal charges.

In addition to his federal sentence, Hoover still faces a 200-year jail term in the state of Illinois for murder, and is unlikely to be released soon. A president is unable to commute state-level sentences.

Let’s hope Illinois keeps him in the hoosegow!

Trump commutes gang leader’s sentence in flurry of pardons
Larry Hoover founded the Gangster Disciples, one of the most notorious US street gangs.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crk27003pv7o

Irish Star: US citizen detained by immigration officials who thought Real ID was a fake

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Immigration officials detained a US citizen during a raid on a construction site, as video footage showed numerous officers rushing to handcuff the man while others shouted in his defense

A US citizen was detained during an ICE raid at a construction site and claims he was ‘tackled’ and ‘handcuffed, hard,’ as police accused his REAL ID of being a fake.

Leonardo García Venegas, 25, was detained at the Foley, Alabama, site where he was working as ICE agents raided the place. A video of the incident aired by Telemundo showed the scene as authorities on the site had García Venegas bent over while multiple officers rushed over to put handcuffs on him, and someone yelled in the background, ‘he’s a citizen!’

Garcia was kept in a vehicle until officers released him. He says he took out his wallet and ID and showed them his REAL ID.

“They took out my wallet, took out my ID,” he said in an interview. “And they told me it was fake. Said it wasn’t valid and that it was fake. My ID. They handcuffed me, and they handcuffed me really tight.”

“Very hard.”

“Apparently, a REAL ID is not valid anymore. He has a REAL ID,” his cousin Shelah Venegas said.

García Venegas was born in Florida to Mexican parents and is a US citizen.

“We all made sure we have the REAL ID and went through the protocols the administration is asking for….. He has his REAL ID, and then they see him, and I guess because his English isn’t fluent and/or because he’s brown, it’s fake, it’s not real.”

The arrest left Venegas shaken, but mostly afraid for his brother, who is in the country illegally and was arrested and detained.

Venegas says he wants to sue but was told by lawyers that prosecuting a federal agent would be nearly impossible.

Pigs just gotta be pigs. ICE will be reformed only from top down, by rolling heads. Once enough people are fed up with their Gestapo behavior, it will happen.

US citizen detained by immigration officials who thought Real ID was a fake
Immigration officials detained a US citizen during a raid on a construction site, as video footage showed numerous officers rushing to handcuff the man while others shouted in his defense

https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/citizen-detained-immigration-officials-who-35283394

Tampa Free Press: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Says ICE Is ‘Trump’s Modern-Day Gestapo’ In Commencement Speech

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Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz compared the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel executing the Trump administration’s immigration agenda to the Gestapo in a Saturday commencement address at the University of Minnesota law school.

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Walz, the failed Democratic nominee for vice president in 2024, suggested during the speech that Trump is using ICE to implement his immigration agenda in similar fashion to how Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler used the Gestapo secret police to target opponents, according to RealClearPolitics.

“Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets,” Walz claimed. “They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons—no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.”

“To be clear, there’s no way for us to know whether they were actually criminals or not, because they refused to give them a trial,” Walz continued. “We’re supposed to just take their word for it.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Says ICE Is ‘Trump’s Modern-Day Gestapo’ In Commencement Speech
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz compared the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel executing the Trump administration’s immigration agenda to
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Says ICE Is ‘Trump’s Modern-Day Gestapo’ In Commencement Speech

NBC News: Justice Department to investigate Chicago after mayor’s remarks about hiring Black officials

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Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said she authorized the probe after Mayor Brandon Johnson’s comments about hiring prominent Black officials for his administration.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said Monday that it was opening an investigation into the city of Chicago after Mayor Brandon Johnson’s comments Sunday highlighting prominent Black officials in his administration.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote in a letter to Johnson posted on X that she had “authorized an investigation” into whether Chicago is “engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination” following Johnson’s remarks at a church Sunday.

The actual numbers:

According to the mayor’s office, white and Black employees are a majority of staff members, with 30.5% of employees identifying as white and 34.3% identifying as Black.

This is just more harassment for a Democratic mayor.

Justice Department to investigate Chicago after mayor’s remarks about hiring Black officials
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said she authorized the probe after Mayor Brandon Johnson’s comments about hiring prominent Black officials for his administration.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson-justice-department-investigation-black-rcna207840

Alternet: ‘A flagrant violation of the law’: Michigan AG blasts ’embarrassing and disturbing’ Trump admin

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Public health and infectious diseases know no borders, Nessel said, warning that the decision to shutter regional health programs, close CDC labs and close all 10 of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services’ regional offices jeopardizes public health in every community.

“Also it’s just a flagrant violation of the law. Disregards the separation of powers, and it places this new burden now, of course, on the states, because there are certain things that you rely upon the federal government to do, especially in terms of coordinating efforts between the states,” Nessel said.

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In addition to their case on the mass firings, Nessel and 23 other attorneys general filed suit against Kennedy and the DHHS for terminating almost $11 billion in critical public health grants across the country.

https://www.alternet.org/a-flagrant-violation-of-the-law-michigan-ag-blasts-trump-admin

Associated Press: Trump administration sues Colorado and Denver for allegedly interfering in immigration enforcement

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The Department of Justice sued Colorado and Denver on Friday for allegedly interfering with federal efforts to enforce immigration laws, the latest attempt by the Trump administration to crack down on what some call sanctuary cities and policies.

The lawsuit claims the state and its most populous city, Denver, have passed “sanctuary laws” violating the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

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There is no strict definition for sanctuary policies or sanctuary cities, but the terms generally describe limited local cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE enforces U.S. immigration laws nationwide but seeks state and local help, particularly for large-scale deportations, and requests that police and sheriffs alert ICE to people it wants to deport and hold them until federal officers take custody.

Read up on the Tenth Amendment, bozos. Local officials don’t have to do federal officials’ work.

Trump administration sues Colorado and Denver for allegedly interfering in immigration enforcement
DENVER (AP) — The Department of Justice sued Colorado and Denver on Friday for allegedly interfering with federal efforts to enforce immigration laws, the latest attempt by the Trump administration to crack down on what some call sanctuary cities and policies. The lawsuit claims the state and its most populous city, Denver, have passed “sanctuary l…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-administration-sues-colorado-and-denver-for-allegedly-interfering-in-immigration-enforcement/ar-AA1E5gA8

Associated Press: May Day demonstrations in US and around the globe protest Trump agenda

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Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. and around the world rallied Thursday in May Day protests that united many in anger over President Donald Trump’s agenda from aggressive tariffs that are stoking fears of global economic turmoil to his administration’s immigration crackdowns.

In the United States, organizers framed this year’s International Workers’ Day protests as a pushback against what they see as the administration’s sweeping assault on labor protections, diversity initiatives and federal employees. Protesters lined streets in many cities from New York to Philadelphia to Los Angeles and held a boisterous rally outside the White House in Washington.

May Day demonstrations in US and around the globe protest Trump agenda
Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in U.S. cities and around the globe for International Workers’ Day or May Day, with the focus this year on President Donald Trump’s agenda.

https://apnews.com/article/may-day-workers-labor-unions-rallies-marches-trump-46de8196d7f01d7458c3d77ccd5e0e54

Musk Watch: Musk-owned company says it qualifies for federal contracts reserved for small businesses

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Trump’s crony & billionaire F’Elon Musk isn’t above looting the treasury by pretending to be a “small” business:

Musk founded Boring in 2017 as a subsidiary of SpaceX. Its raison d’être was rectifying Southern California gridlock via a subterranean transportation network, though it has failed in that regard. In 2018, Musk spun off Boring, making it a privately held company that has largely served to promote his car manufacturer, Tesla. Through the gravity of its founder, carefully staged photo ops, and alleged environmental and labor violations, Boring has maintained media interest throughout its eight years of existence. But it remains the least distinguished of Musk’s companies. It has struggled to generate revenue despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in fundraising.

The company, which is based near Austin, Texas, has built just a few miles of commercial tunnels, all of which are located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its failure to generate substantive business could explain why it would seek federal funding from a White House that has proven to be partial to Musk’s business interests. A senior Trump adviser, Musk also leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the White House’s austerity and parapolitical initiative. Steve Davis, the president of the Boring Company, is reportedly in charge of DOGE’s day-to-day operations.

Musk-owned company says it qualifies for federal contracts reserved for small businesses
Not long after Donald Trump won the 2024 election, Elon Musk’s $7 billion tunneling company registered as a small business on a government portal for federal contractors.

https://www.muskwatch.com/p/musk-owned-company-says-it-qualifies

Daily Mail: Colombian president stunned his US visa has been revoked… and reveals nickname for Trump in response

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Colombian President Gustavo Petro is seemingly no longer welcome in the United States.

Petro, a former member of the 19th of April Movement guerrilla group and Colombia’s first leftist president, claimed the Trump administration revoked his visa to attend meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

He is instead be replaced by the Minister of Finance Germán Avila, who is in Washington, D.C. this week.

The major international snub comes after Donald Trump threatened ‘decisive retaliatory measures’ against government officials over Colombia’s refusal to let two US Military flights full of migrants land in January. 

‘I can’t go anymore because I think they’ve revoked my visa,’ Petro said during a Council of Ministers meeting on Monday.

‘I didn’t need a visa, but hey, I’ve seen Donald Duck several times. So, I’m off to see other things.’

King Donald is like a child in a school yard who can’t bear to lose a marble.

World leader stunned to learn his US visa has been revoked
A world leader says he’s been denied entry into the United States in what appears to be a major escalation in the Trump administration’s trade and tariff war.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14635611/colombian-president-visa-revoked-donald-trump-gustavo-petro.html

CNN: Trump’s retribution sends a chilling message to dissenters

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Donald Trump’s White House has a threatening message for anyone who might even be perceived to disagree with the president: Don’t. Or else.

Even though he has promised to end what he viewed as “weaponization” of the Department of Justice, Trump is treating people who disagree with him more like the “enemy from within” he talked about during the presidential campaign.

The president took the unusual step this week of issuing official proclamations ordering the federal investigations of people who worked in his first administration.

He’s demanding free work from law firms who represented his perceived enemies, threatening to impeach judges, deporting campus protesters and so much more.

The underlying message, for anyone who hasn’t put all these things together, is that dissent will not be tolerated under Trump 2.0.

Analysis: Trump’s retribution sends a chilling message to dissenters | CNN Politics
Donald Trump’s White House has a threatening message for anyone who might even be perceived to disagree with the president: Don’t. Or else.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/12/politics/trump-krebs-khalil-taylor-crackdown-dissent-what-matters/index.html