Author: chicagoinquirer

by Ayanna Alexander and Gary Fields WASHINGTON  — Black voters have been a steady foundation for Democratic candidates for decades, but that support appeared to show a few cracks in this year’s elections. Republican candidates were backed by 14% of Black voters, compared with 8% in the last midterm elections four years ago, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive national survey of the electorate. In Georgia, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp more than doubled his support among Black voters to 12% in 2022 compared with 5% four years ago, according to VoteCast. He defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams both times. If that…

HAMMOND, Ind. — A northwestern Indiana hospital said it will close its emergency room Saturday, a day after an Indiana Court of Appeals judge issued a stay of a lower court ruling that it must operate those services for nine more months. The stay, issued Friday afternoon by Chief Appeals Court Judge Cale Bradford, halted a Lake County judge’s ruling that would have postponed the closure of Franciscan Health Hammond’s emergency room for nine months while the city of Hammond searched for another operator. Ambulances were to be diverted elsewhere starting at midnight and the emergency room will close to…

by Andrew Seligman CHICAGO  — Zach LaVine scored a season-high 43 points, and the Chicago Bulls pulled away in the closing minutes to beat the Detroit Pistons 132-118 on Friday night. LaVine looked more like his old explosive self than the guy managing his left knee following offseason surgery. And the Bulls ended the game on a 17-3 run after getting all they could handle from the team with the NBA’s worst record. “Nothing surprising. That’s the Zach we all know,” DeMar DeRozan said. LaVine had the crowd roaring when he capped an 18-point first quarter with a thunderous, right-hand…

by Frazier Moore NEW YORK — Barbara Walters, the intrepid interviewer, anchor and program host who blazed the way as the first woman to become a TV news superstar during a career remarkable for its duration and variety, has died. She was 93. ABC broke into its broadcast to announce Walters’ death on air Friday night. “She lived her life with no regrets. She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists, but for all women,” her publicist Cindi Berger also said in a statement, adding Walters died peacefully at her New York home. An ABC spokesperson did not have…

by Tales Azzoni and Mauricio Savarese SAO PAULO — Pelé, the Brazilian king of soccer who won a record three World Cups and became one of the most commanding sports figures of the last century, died Thursday. He was 82. The standard-bearer of “the beautiful game” had undergone treatment for colon cancer since 2021. The medical center where he had been hospitalized for the last month said he died of multiple organ failure as a result of the cancer. “Pelé changed everything. He transformed football into art, entertainment,” Neymar, a fellow Brazilian soccer star, said on Instagram. “Football and Brazil…

by Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro WASHINGTON  — Virginia Thomas, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, says she regrets sending texts to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows after the 2020 election, telling the House Jan. 6 committee that “I would take them all back if I could today.” Thomas — known as Ginni — is a longtime conservative activist. In a transcript of the interview released by the panel on Friday, she told investigators she was “emotional” after the election when she sent several texts to Meadows urging him to stand firm with then-President…

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.  — South Dakota’s six public universities plan to offer in-state tuition rates to students from Wisconsin and Illinois by next fall. The South Dakota Advantage plan has until now offered in-state tuition to undergraduates and graduate students from Colorado, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming residents, the Argus Leader reported Thursday. The Board of Regents voted to add Wisconsin and Illinois to the list earlier this month. Officials at South Dakota’s universities say the move should boost enrollment and lead to more graduates remaining in South Dakota. The regents said in a Dec. 9 news release…

by Our reporters SPRINGFIELD, Ill.  — Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Friday notified the state Supreme Court that he will appeal a local judge’s ruling that eliminating cash bail for criminal defendants is unconstitutional. Raoul’s notice requests the high court reverse Wednesday’s ruling by Kankakee County Circuit Judge Thomas Cunnington. Cunnington decreed that the General Assembly violated the constitution’s separation of powers clause by eliminating cash bail in the so-called SAFE-T Act criminal justice overhaul. The issue of bail should be left to the judiciary, he said. The rest of the SAFE-T Act, which updates rules and procedures for…

by Michael R. Sisak and Jill Colvin Democrats in Congress released thousands of pages of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns Friday, providing the most detailed picture to date of his finances over a six-year period, including his time in the White House, when he fought to keep the information private in a break with decades of precedent. The documents include individual returns from Trump and his wife, Melania, along with Trump’s business entities from 2015-2020. They show how Trump used the tax code to lower his tax obligation and reveal details about foreign accounts, charitable contributions and the performance…

by Michael R. Sisal and Jill Colvin A House committee is set to release six years of Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday, pulling back the curtain on financial records that the former president fought for years to keep secret. The Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee voted last week to release the returns, with some redactions of sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers and contact information. Their dissemination comes in the waning days of Democrats’ control of the House and as Trump’s fellow Republicans prepare to retake power in the chamber. The committee obtained six years of Trump’s…