Author: chicagoinquirer

Prosecutors rest case in Illinois utility corruption trial CHICAGO — Prosecutors rested their side of the trial Wednesday against four people accused of seeking favors for Illinois’ largest electric utility by arranging $1.3 million in contracts and payments for associates of a powerful state politician. Michael Madigan, the former House speaker, is not in court and faces his own separate trial. But he’s been a key part of the evidence presented over 17 days. Longtime Madigan ally Ed Moody got more than $300,000 between 2012 and 2018 through ComEd’s contracts with various firms. He testified Tuesday that he believed the money…

by Adrian Zainz MEMPHIS, Tenn.  — The second of two Black Democrats expelled from the Republican-led Tennessee House will return to the Legislature after a Memphis commission voted to reinstate him Wednesday, nearly a week after his banishment for supporting gun control protesters propelled him into the national spotlight. Hundreds of supporters marched Justin Pearson through Memphis to the Shelby County Board of Commissioners meeting, chanting and cheering before entering the commission chambers, where officials quickly voted 7-0 to restore him to his position. “The message for all the people in Nashville who decided to expel us: You can’t expel…

by Agency reports MIAMI  — Quin Snyder’s bags were packed in February for an overseas trip. He was going to spend time with some friends and family, see some coaches he’s gotten to know over the years. Then the Atlanta Hawks called with a job offer, to bring him on as coach. And now Snyder’s bags are packed again — for the playoffs, starting with a trip to Boston. Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Hawks earned the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a…

by Will Weissert and Sara Burnett CHICAGO  — Donald Trump won the White House in 2016 by breaking up the famed electoral “blue wall,” snatching the Midwestern battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin, along with Pennsylvania, from Democrats. He lost the White House four years later when those same states flipped to Joe Biden. Both parties are already zeroing in on the Midwest ahead of next year’s presidential election, each choosing to hold their national conventions in the region. Republicans will have their event in July 2024 in Milwaukee, the largest city in the swing state of Wisconsin. Democrats announced…

by Adrian Sainz MEMPHIS, Tenn.  — Commissioners in Memphis are scheduled to decide Wednesday whether to return a Black Democrat to the Republican-led Tennessee House after he and a Black colleague were kicked out of the Legislature following their support of gun control protesters. The Shelby County Board of Commissioners set a vote to determine whether Justin Pearson will be sent back to the Legislature in Nashville. Republicans banished Pearson and Rep. Justin Jones last week over their role in a gun control protest on the House floor in the aftermath of a deadly school shooting in Nashville that left…

by Michael R. Sisak and Farnoush Amiri NEW YORK — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sued Rep. Jim Jordan on Tuesday, an extraordinary move as he seeks to halt a House Judiciary Committee inquiry that the prosecutor contends is a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” him over his indictment of former President Donald Trump. Bragg, a Democrat, is asking a judge to invalidate subpoenas that Jordan, the committee’s Republican chair, has issued or plans to issue as part of an investigation of Bragg’s handling of the case, the first criminal prosecution of a former U.S. president. U.S. District Judge…

by Hillel Italie NEW YORK  — Saying she is ready to share the “unfathomable” experience of being arrested and incarcerated in Russia, basketball star Brittney Griner is working on a memoir that is scheduled for spring 2024. Griner was arrested last year at the airport in Moscow on drug-related charges and detained for nearly 10 months, much of that time in prison. Her plight unfolded at the same time Russia invaded Ukraine and further heightened tensions between Russia and the U.S., ending only after she was freed in exchange for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. A WNBA All-Star…

by Will Weissert WASHINGTON  — Democrats announced Tuesday that they will hold their party’s 2024 national convention in Chicago, choosing the biggest liberal city in the Midwest as they try to keep the momentum going after a strong midterm election performance in the key battleground region. Organizers from Chicago, Atlanta and New York spent months lobbying to be the site of the convention, but the final decision lay with President Joe Biden, who is expected to formally launch his reelection campaign in the coming weeks. “Chicago is a great choice,” Biden, who was flying to Northern Ireland, said in a…

by Mike Schneider and Siri Arasu India will surpass China’s population this month. Or maybe in July. Or, perhaps it’s happened already? Demographers are unsure exactly when India will take the title as the most populous nation in the world because they’re relying on estimates to make their best guess. But they know it’s going to happen soon, if it hasn’t occurred by now. China has had the most people in the world since at least 1950, the year United Nations population data began. Both China and India have more than 1.4 billion people, and combined they make up more than a third…

by Larry Neumeister NEW YORK  — A federal judge wants to know if ex-President Donald Trump plans to attend a New York trial this month resulting from a columnist’s claims that he raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued an order Monday directing parties in the case to notify him by April 20 whether they will be present throughout the trial, scheduled to start April 25 in Manhattan federal court. And later in the day, he rejected a request that names of anonymous jurors be released to lawyers, saying Trump’s latest…