Tag Archives: Chicago

The New York Times reports: A scathing report by the Illinois attorney general accused the Roman Catholic Church in the state of failing the victims of clergy sexual abuse by neglecting to investigate their allegations against priests and finding flimsy reasons to dismiss their claims. The names of more than 500 priests who were accused of sexual abuse did not …

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: Federal agents showed up unannounced at the City Hall office of Finance Committee Chairman Ed Burke, kicked everyone out and papered over the windows Thursday morning. The nature of their visit was not known, but Ald. Burke (14th) has dodged dozens of federal investigations over five decades in Chicago politics. Federal agents also showed up to …

NBC News reports: Police were responding to reports of shots fired at Mercy Hospital in Chicago on Monday afternoon. Anthony Guglielmi, chief communications officer for the Chicago Police Department, said there are reports of multiple victims on Twitter Tuesday. One suspect was shot as searches of the area were continuing, authorities said. Mercy Hospital is 26 blocks south of the …

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: The priest who ignited controversy last week by burning an LGBTQ-friendly flag on church grounds against the orders of Cardinal Blase Cupich [photo] has been removed from his Avondale parish. Cupich sent two of his top deputies to Resurrection Catholic Church on Friday to notify the Rev. Paul Kalchik that he was being removed as pastor, …

CNBC reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions blamed a number of activist groups on Wednesday for a rise in violent crime in Chicago, saying that “if you want more shootings, more death, then listen to the ACLU, Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and groups who do not know the reality of policing.” “If you want public safety, then listen to the police …

As I reported several days ago, the Archdiocese of Chicago ordered Father Paul Kalchik to cancel his plan to burn a rainbow flag that someone supposedly left in his church. He did it anyway and then some. NBC News reports: “We did so in a private way, a quiet way, so as not to bring the ire of the gay …

Carrie Maxwell reports at the Windy City Times: In a Sept. 2 Sunday bulletin, Resurrection Catholic Church Pastor Fr. Paul Kalchik announced in a post-script to his re-printed Homily message that a Rainbow flag found in the church, along with parishioner’s pledge cards mixed with incense, would be burned in front of the church as a sacrilege during a prayer …

CBS News reports: Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani weighed in on a bloody weekend in Chicago, in a mistake-laden tweetstorm, blaming the city’s Democratic elected leaders, and claiming former police superintendent and current mayoral candidate Garry McCarthy “can do a lot better.” In a series of four tweets overnight, Giuliani twice mistakenly referred to McCarthy as “Jerry,” twice misspelled …

Block Club Chicago reports: The white CVS manager who called the police on a black woman trying to use a coupon at an Edgewater store Friday night has been fired by the company, a CVS Health spokesman told Block Club Chicago Monday morning. “We have completed our investigation, and as a result the two colleagues who were involved are no …

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: Camilla Hudson wanted to use a manufacturer’s coupon at CVS on North Broadway on Friday night, but a manager who said he’d never seen a coupon like that called the police, she said in a Facebook post. “So, THIS just happened: I had the police called on me for attempting to use a coupon @ the …

The Chicago Tribune reports: A man charged with threatening violence at gay bars in Lakeview was accidentally released from Cook County Jail this week and remains at large, officials said. Officials say an apparent communication breakdown between the state’s attorney’s office and the sheriff’s office led to the release of Shane Sleeper, 31, on Tuesday night. Sleeper was arrested in …

The Chicago Tribune reports: The Rev. C. Frank Phillips, founder of a religious order of men and pastor at the storied St. John Cantius Catholic Parish, was removed last week by the Archdiocese of Chicago amid an investigation into allegations of improper conduct with adult men, according to church officials. In a statement to parishioners, Cardinal Blase Cupich explained that …

CBS Chicago reports: A megachurch in Ohio is accused of coercing an elderly woman in Rogers Park to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars. The woman is mentally ill and has dementia. She is now under the care of the Cook County Public Guardian, who is fighting to reclaim that money — her life-savings. Bridget Pollard, 76, has lived …

The Associated Press reports: Former President Barack Obama, free of a job that forced him to move to Washington for eight years, showed up to a downtown Chicago courthouse for jury duty on Wednesday morning. Whether he will be selected to sit on a jury, and presumably be selected jury foreman, was not known. But if he is like other …

Tracy Baim reports at the Windy City Times: Chuck Renslow, 87, a longtime pillar of the LGBTQ community in Chicago and around the world, has died after multiple long-term health issues. Renslow reigned over a seven-decade empire, starting more than two dozen businesses—bars, discos, photo studios, health clubs, bathhouses, gay magazines and newspapers, hotels, restaurants and bookstores. He fostered organizations …

Chicago Pride is this weekend and as seen in a photo tweeted late Tuesday by a local NBC reporter, that night the entrance to Trump International Hotel & Tower was illuminated in the rainbow colors. I couldn’t find any news accounts of this, so early yesterday morning I called the hotel to inquire. The cheerful staffer I was directed to …

The Washington Examiner reports: Former President Barack Obama revealed Wednesday his intention to donate $2 million to a summer jobs program for young people in Chicago. He made the announcement while at a roundtable about his soon-to-be-built presidential center and library in Chicago. The completion of that project is “about four years” away, Obama said. However, the programming of this …

Newsweek reports: After three months of relaxation, former President Barack Obama will step back into public life Monday with a speech in his adopted home of Chicago. His first public remarks since the end of his two terms in the White House will come as part of an event with young leaders at the school where he taught constitutional law …

The Chicago Tribune reports: Former President Barack Obama will return to Chicago on Monday to speak to young people at the University of Chicago, in what will be his first speech since leaving the White House. Obama and young leaders will hold a conversation on civic engagement and discuss community organizing, his office announced Friday. Hundreds of people are expected …

Grammy-winning DJ Frankie Knuckles, known worldwide as “the Godfather of House,” died three years ago this month. But his personal record collection is now on display for the public to actually touch and play. MixMag reports: With the record collection of Frankie Knuckles now at Theaster Gates’s Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, The Frankie Knuckles Foundation has shared a …