Author: chicagoinquirer

y StoryMore OptionsClose by Dee-Ann Durbin Concerns about illness or inflation aren’t stopping Americans from hitting the roads and airports this holiday season. But a massive winter storm might. Forecasters predict an onslaught of heavy snow, ice, flooding and powerful winds from Thursday to Saturday in a broad swath of the country, from the Plains and Midwest to the East Coast. A surge of Arctic air will follow. The Christmas weekend could be the coldest in decades. The National Weather Service said Wednesday the storm was so large and encompassing that around 190 million people are currently under some type…

by Josh Boak, Brian Slodysko, Lisa Mascara and Meg Kinnard WASHINGTON  — The Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee voted along party lines on Tuesday to make parts of Donald Trump’s tax returns public, a move that could provide new insight into the finances of a former president who broke political norms by refusing to release the information on his own. The level of detail that will be revealed is uncertain, but lawmakers said they expect it to include six years of Trump’s tax returns and eight affiliated companies. Some sensitive personal information would be redacted. While an initial report…

by Kevin Freaking WASHINGTON  — Congressional leaders unveiled a government-wide $1.7 trillion spending package early Tuesday that includes another large round of aid to Ukraine, a nearly 10% boost in defense spending and roughly $40 billion to assist communities across the country recovering from drought, hurricanes and other natural disasters. The bill, which runs for 4,155 pages, includes about $772.5 billion for non-defense discretionary programs and $858 billion in defense funding and would last through the end of the fiscal year in September. Lawmakers worked to stuff in as many priorities as they could into the sprawling package, likely the…

by Steve Peoples NEW YORK  — The Republican Party quickly and forcefully rallied behind Donald Trump in the hours after federal agents seized classified documents from his Florida estate this summer. Four months later, that sense of intensity and urgency was missing — at least for now — after the Jan. 6 House committee voted to recommend the Justice Department bring criminal charges against him. Leading Republicans largely avoided the historic criminal referral Monday, while others pressed to weigh in offered muted defenses — or none at all. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell called for “an immediate and thorough explanation”…

by Andrew Seligman LAKE FOREST, Ill.  — Justin Fields insisted he doesn’t plan to make 1,000-yard rushing seasons a regular occurrence. The single-season record for a quarterback is in sight, and he’ll gladly take it if he can get it. A day later, coach Matt Eberflus expressed a similar thought. He’d be thrilled to see Fields break Lamar Jackson’s record for a QB. He’s just not necessarily going to scheme to make it happen. “I think we’ll just use him the best way we can to win the football game,” Eberflus said Monday. “So we’ll take a look at it…

by Rebecca Santana WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative states pushing to keep limits on asylum-seekers put in place during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort before the limits are set to expire. But with the immigration restrictions going away on Wednesday it’s unclear if the Supreme Court will intervene. The nineteen states Monday asked the court for an emergency stay that would keep Title 42 in place. “This Court’s review is warranted given the enormous national importance of this case. It is not reasonably contestable that the failure to grant…

LAKE FOREST, Ill.  — Chicago Bears offensive lineman Teven Jenkins has been released from the hospital and was seeing specialists Monday, a day after he was carted from the field with a neck injury during a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Coach Matt Eberflus called the news “encouraging,” though he had few details about the extent of the injury. He said Jenkins was released from the hospital on Sunday and was seeing specialists to “double-check and cross-check everything.” Whether Jenkins will play again this season was not clear. “We’ll see,” Eberflus said. “We’ll see. I don’t know yet. I don’t…

by Jennifer Peltz NEW YORK  — R. Kelly’s onetime manager was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison for calling in a shooting threatthat halted a screening of a damning documentary about the R&B star. The punishment won’t add to the time ex-manager Donnell Russell is already set to serve for a different effort to squelch sexual abuse claims against Kelly. Russell told a Manhattan federal judge Monday that he had “made bad judgments” while briefly working with the Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling singer. “I’m not a horrible person,” Russell said. Russell said he reconnected with Kelly, a fellow Chicagoan he’d…

by James Robson DOHA, Qatar — When it comes to soccer, money can buy the world. It can pay for the World Cup. And the world’s best players. And it can bundle them all up into a perfect package and present it to a global audience of millions. The power of money was on full display in the Qatari city of Lusail on Sunday as Argentina beat France 4-2 on penalties to become world champion for the third time and end Lionel Messi’s pursuit of the one major trophy that had eluded him in his storied career. One of the…

by Mary Clare Jalonick, Eric Tucker and Farnoush Amiri WASHINGTON  — The House Jan. 6 committee is wrapping up its investigation of the violent 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection, with lawmakers on Monday declaring that they have assembled a “roadmap to justice” to bring criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and his allies. As they cap one of the most exhaustive and aggressive congressional probes in memory, the panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans are recommending criminal charges against Trump and associates who helped him launch a multifaceted pressure campaign to try to overturn his 2020 election loss. The committee…