Shooting occurred at the Forest Park CTA Blue Line station early on Monday, according to police
Four people were shot and killed on a Chicago metro train early Monday, according to news reports.
Police said they had received a 911 call at about 5.27am that three people were shot on a train at the Forest Park CTA Blue Line station.
Continue reading...Rough weather forces flight from Mexico to Chicago to make emergency landing in Memphis
Severe turbulence caused injuries to seven people on a United Airlines flight from Cancun in Mexico to Chicago and forced an emergency landing in Memphis, according to the airline.
The Boeing 737 was hit by the rough weather and forced to land on Wednesday in the latest such incident to hit the industry. One person was taken to hospital.
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Now comes Pat Ryan, who represents a New York battleground district in the House of Representatives.
He hit out at Donald Trump for his reported insults towards military veterans, then obliquely referenced the newfound optimism Democrats are feeling since Joe Biden ended his bid for a second term:
These last few weeks have felt like a new day in America, when we are waking up, rising up, patriots, to demand a president who does not just treat our veterans with respect, but everyone with respect.
We do not retreat, we are the United States of America, we lead!
Continue reading...Her acceptance address was short on policy and poetry, but the Democratic nominee took the fight to Donald Trump
It was not a political address for the ages. It was not even the best of the convention (no one can compete with the Obamas). But Kamala Harris did enough in her speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday to put an exclamation mark on one of the most dramatic turnarounds in modern political history.
And she made you reflect that you would not want to be Donald Trump facing her in next month’s televised debate. A speech that was short on policy and poetry was nevertheless devastating in skewering the menace from Mar-a-Lago. Trump can expect the same kind of interrogation when the two go head to head that would make most mortals tremble.
Continue reading...Movement launched protest after party rejected requests for Palestinian American to speak on the main stage
A sit-in that began Wednesday evening in protest of the Democratic convention’s denial of a Palestinian American speaker on the main stage continued on Thursday.
Uncommitted, a national movement that began in Michigan, won 30 delegates to the convention and has tried to use the party process to pressure Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to broker an end to the war in Gaza. The sit-in has been taking place outside the United Center, where Harris will speak this evening, is the latest attempt to get the Democratic party to allow greater prominence for the anti-war movement at this week’s convention in Chicago. Organizers were expected to remain in place until or unless the party changes course.
Continue reading...Tim Walz and Bill Clinton headline the third night amid reports Oprah Winfrey will also appear. Here’s a look at other noteworthy speakers on the schedule
The Democratic national convention is under way, with primetime addresses scheduled for tonight from Bill Clinton; Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate; and many more.
CNN reported that Oprah Winfrey, the talkshow host and longtime Democrat, is set to appear on the main stage. In previous elections, Winfrey lent her star power to Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Chris Murphy, US senator, Connecticut
Olivia Troye, former Trump administration national security official
Bennie G Thompson, member of the US House of Representatives, Mississippi
Andy Kim, member of the US House of Representatives, New Jersey
Stevie Wonder, singer-songwriter and musician (performance)
Kenan Thompson, comedian, and guests (remarks on Project 2025)
Mindy Kaling (host introduction)
Hakeem Jeffries, US House of Representatives Democratic leader
Bill Clinton, former US president
Nancy Pelosi, former US House speaker
Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania
Catherine Cortez Masto, US senator, Nevada
Amanda Gorman, national youth poet laureate, whose performance of The Hill We Climb at Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration wowed the audience
Wes Moore, governor of Maryland
Pete Buttigieg, US transportation secretary
John Legend and Sheila E, musicians (performance)
Amy Klobuchar, US senator, Minnesota
Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota and Kamala Harris’s running mate (keynote address)
Democratic national convention 2024 live updates
Monday: For the People
Tuesday: A Bold Vision for America’s Future
Wednesday: A Fight for Our Freedoms
Thursday: For Our Future
Continue reading...The ‘joyful warrior’ will seek to build on the momentum of his and Kamala Harris’s campaign
Tim Walz will seek to build on the intense enthusiasm surrounding his and Kamala Harris’s campaign on Wednesday, as the newly anointed vice-presidential nominee headlines the third night of the Democratic national convention in Chicago.
The speech will give Walz an opportunity to introduce himself to a much wider audience of voters, as most Americans were unfamiliar with the Minnesota governor before Harris selected him as her running mate earlier this month. An ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted last month, shortly after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed Harris, showed that only 13% of Americans knew enough about Walz to register an opinion of him.
Continue reading...Stephanie Grisham, ex-press secretary who excoriated Trump on Tuesday, to be followed by lawmakers and voters
Stephanie Grisham, Donald Trump’s former press secretary, excoriated the Republican presidential nominee at the Democratic national convention on Tuesday, saying: “He has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth.”
Grisham, a Republican operative who also served as a spokesperson to Melania Trump, offered firsthand accounts of the former president’s behavior behind closed doors.
When are Michelle and Barack Obama speaking?
The lineup of notable Democratic speakers tonight
Obama to bring message of hope to convention speech
Here are the rising stars and politicians to watch this week
What to know about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz
Continue reading...President set to receive electrifying welcome but thousands also expected to protest in Chicago over Israel military aid
Joe Biden will take centre stage for perhaps the last time on Monday night when he addresses the Democratic national convention in Chicago – as the US president faces a backlash over one of his most complex legacies.
Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to converge in the host city to demand that the US end military aid to Israel for its ongoing war in Gaza. Activists have branded Biden “Genocide Joe” and called for the vice-president, Kamala Harris, to change course.
Andrew Roth and Rachel Leingang contributed reporting
Continue reading...The former president snapped and snarled through his interview – and looked for all the world like an old crank
After keeping an audience of interrogators waiting, Donald Trump finally arrived on stage for his Wednesday appearance at the convention for the National Association of Black Journalists over an hour late. He blamed the delay not on the furious behind-the-scenes between the NABJ and his campaign about whether he could be factchecked in real time, but on what he described as organizers’ inability to calibrate the audio equipment in time for his highly controversial panel discussion. “It’s a disgrace,” he snarled.
When ABC’s Rachel Scott opened the proceedings by asking the former president his impetus for addressing the Black journalists, women and Chicagoans in the crowd who have been regularly subject to his hostility, Trump dismissed the question as “horrible” and called Scott “nasty” before turning his bluster meter up to 11.
Continue reading...Many expressed frustration with National Association of Black Journalists for inviting ex-president ‘into our home’
On Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump participated in a contentious panel hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). The discussion, held in Chicago at the organization’s annual convention, began after an hour-long delay, with a room full of journalists tensely awaiting the program.
During the wait, Philip Lewis, the HuffPost deputy editor, shared on X that the hold-up was being caused by a disagreement between the NABJ and the former president. “I’m told that Trump is demanding that NABJ not do the live factchecking and that’s why the event hasn’t started yet,” he wrote. “We’re in a standoff.”
Continue reading...Officials have mixed accounts around arrest of Sinaloa co-founder El Mayo after Guzmán López turned himself in
Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in federal court in Chicago, days after his arrest in a dramatic operation in which he may have delivered his father’s former business partner to US authorities.
Guzmán López, 38, was detained on Thursday alongside Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, the other co-founder of one of Mexico’s most powerful organised crime groups, after touching down in a small plane in El Paso, Texas.
Continue reading...Multiple twisters reported in Illinois, Iowa and Indiana as weather service warns of damaging winds
A tornado apparently touched down outside Chicago’s O’Hare airport on Monday as storms spawned multiple reports of twisters blowing through Illinois, Iowa and Indiana.
The turbulent weather knocked down trees and power poles, cutting electricity to more than 460,000 customers and businesses. A woman in Indiana died after a tree fell on to a home, authorities said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
Continue reading...Family of Taylor Casey, missing since 19 June, say Bahamian officials left them with ‘more questions than answers’
The family of Taylor Casey, a 42-year-old transgender woman who went missing in the Bahamas, said they initially shielded the media from her gender identity because they feared it would undermine efforts to find her.
Casey, who lives in Chicago, went missing on 19 June while on a month-long yoga retreat on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
Her family has since worked to involve city, state and federal officials in the search for her – and said Bahamian officials left them with “more questions than answers”.
Pro-Palestinian students staged the walkout as school withheld degrees of four seniors pending disciplinary review over protests
Dozens of students protesting Israel’s ongoing military strikes in Gaza walked out of the University of Chicago’s commencement on Saturday as the school withheld the diplomas of four seniors over their involvement with a pro-Palestinian encampment.
The disruption to the rainy two-hour outdoor ceremony was brief, with shouts, boos and calls to “stop genocide”. A crowd of students walked out in between speeches and a demonstration followed the official ceremony. Some chanted as they held Palestinian flags while others donned traditional keffiyehs, black-and-white checkered scarves that represent Palestinian solidarity, over their robes.
Continue reading...Robinson, who moved to White House when Barack Obama won presidency, helped to care for granddaughters Malia and Sasha
Marian Shields Robinson, the mother of Michelle Obama who moved with the first family to the White House when son-in-law Barack Obama was elected president, has died. She was 86.
Robinson’s death was announced in an online tribute by Michelle Obama, and included details of the time she spent living in the White House, as an informal first grandmother to the Obama children.
Continue reading...Vocalist, guitarist and producer for bands such as Nirvana and Pixies suffers heart attack at his recording studio
Steve Albini, the vocalist, guitarist and producer who helmed a series of the most esteemed albums across the US alternative music scene, has died aged 61 from a heart attack suffered at his recording studio. Staff at his studio, Electrical Audio, confirmed the news to Pitchfork.
As well as fronting the bands Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac, who all pushed at the boundaries of post-punk and art-rock, Albini also produced – or, to use his preferred term, engineered – albums by Nirvana, Pixies, PJ Harvey and Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. He was noted for his DIY and punk ethos, resisting streaming services and refusing to take royalties from the recordings he produced for other artists.
Continue reading...Airport staff surprised by arrival of centenarian instead of infant after American Airlines booking system errors
A 101-year-old woman has been regularly mistaken for an infant because an airline’s booking system was unable to compute her date of birth.
The woman, named only as Patricia, was born in 1922, but the American Airlines system apparently does not recognise that year, defaulting instead to 2022, the BBC reported.
Continue reading...City officials made the decision after saying the sidewalk in Roscoe Village was damaged and needed to be replaced
A Chicago sidewalk landmark some residents affectionately referred to as the “rat hole” has been removed after city officials decided it was damaged and needed to be replaced.
The sidewalk, which had an impression that looked like the outline of a rat with claws and a tail, had been present in Chicago’s North Side neighbourhood of Roscoe Village for years. It found fresh fame in January after a Chicago comedian shared a photo on the social platform X.
Continue reading...Study says the 19% of kids using unfiltered tap water have about twice as much lead in their blood as they would otherwise
About 129,000 Chicago children under the age of six are exposed to poisonous lead in their household drinking water because of lead pipes, according to a study published on Monday.
The study used artificial intelligence to analyse 38,000 home water tests conducted for the city of Chicago, along with neighborhood demographics, state blood samples and numerous other factors.
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