Kevin McCormick claimed he refused the vaccine due to his sincerely held religious beliefs and that he was denied a religious exemption. The jury awarded McCormick compensatory damages in the amount of $425,000.

As the crowd wove through the city, some walking dogs and carrying children on their shoulders, diners sitting outside at local restaurants and cafes pumped their fists and cars honked in support. Organizers estimated 5,000 to 10,000 people were in attendance.

“We’re going to take this fight across America, but we’ve got to defend the homefront first,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Despite the massive budget deficit, the mayor is not planning to seek a property tax increase for 2026, other than the natural growth in property tax revenue due to new properties. Johnson reiterated his desire for new “progressive revenue” to help the plug the city’s budget gap, citing concern that “budgets have been historically balanced off the backs of working people. … Just know that I’ve said from the very beginning that the ultra-rich in our large corporations have to do more.”

Chicago police officers were already on scene directing traffic and trying to control a large street gathering when they reported hearing shots, including automatic gunfire, shortly after 1 a.m.

“It’s unclear what impact Johnson’s executive order would have if troops or immigration agents are sent to the city.”

“You talk about whether or not criminals are gaming the system by taking advantage and exploiting this no-cash bond system, the SAFE-T Act, as it’s called. Absolutely,” retired chief detective Eugene Roy said. “They are professionals at what they do. They’re as professional at what they do – whether it’s committing armed robberies, burglaries, auto thefts, shootings – they’re just as good at doing that as the police are at doing their jobs, except there’s no constraints on the bad guys.”

North of the city, families traded protest signs for rosaries and crosses as they marched from Waukegan to Naval Station Great Lake, taking a peaceful stand against the militarization of immigration enforcement.

As the student debt crisis grips the country and continues to hinder college graduates financially, college costs at Chicago-area colleges range from more than $22,000 to nearly $100,000 per year and include price hikes of hundreds or thousands of dollars over last year.

Despite its budget crisis, Chicago school administrators are burning through money on woke programs and resulting litigation. The latest example is the over $2.6 million in damages that will be paid to students who were forced to participate in a Transcendental Meditation program during classes. Teachers ignored the religious objections to the Hindu-based program, and the school subsequently litigated the case, incurring even greater costs to the system.

“The mayor’s frustration culminated in remarks at a town hall meeting last week. ‘You put a Black man in charge of a city and all of a sudden everybody wants to be an accountant,’ he said.”