Author: chicagoinquirer

by Sara Burnett CHICAGO  — Brandon Johnson, a union organizer and former teacher, was elected as Chicago’s next mayor Tuesday in a major victory for the Democratic Party’s progressive wing as the heavily blue-leaning city grapples with high crime and financial challenges. Johnson, a Cook County commissioner endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, won a close race over former Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas, who was backed by the police union. Johnson, 47, will succeed Lori Lightfoot, the first Black woman and first openly gay person to be the city’s mayor. Lightfoot became the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to lose her…

by Sara Burnett CHICAGO  — The candidates for Chicago mayor were in a tight race Tuesday as voters chose between sharply contrasting views on issues including crime, taxes, schools and investment in policing to lead the heavily Democratic city, the country’s third-largest. The race pitted former Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas, a moderate Democrat endorsed by Chicago’s police union and major business groups, against progressive Brandon Johnson, a former teacher and union organizer backed by the Chicago Teachers Union. With much of the vote counted, the race was neck-and-neck. Vallas and Johnson advanced to the runoff after finishing aheadof current Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a…

by Michael R. Sisak, Eric Tucker, Jennifer Peltz and Will Weissert NEW YORK  — Donald Trump conspired to illegally influence the 2016 election through a series of hush money payments designed to silence claims that he feared would be harmful to his candidacy, New York prosecutors said Tuesday in unsealing a historic 34-count felony indictment. The charges arose from a series of checks that Trump or his company wrote during the presidential campaign to his lawyer and fixer for his role in making a payment to a porn actor who alleged an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier. The…

by Erika Kinetz LONDON  — On Oct. 14, a Russian engineer named Gleb Karakulov boarded a flight from Kazakhstan to Turkey with his wife and daughter. He switched off his phone to shut out the crescendo of urgent, enraged messages, said goodbye to his life in Russia and tried to calm his fast-beating heart. But this was no ordinary Russian defector. Karakulov was an officer in President Vladimir Putin’s secretive elite personal security service — one of the few Russians to flee and go public who have rank, as well as knowledge of intimate details of Putin’s life and potentially…

by Sara Burnett CHICAGO — Voters in Chicago will choose a new mayor on Tuesday as two candidates with contrasting views on issues including crime, taxes, schools and investment in policing compete to lead the heavily Democratic city, the country’s third-largest. The race pits former Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas, a moderate Democrat endorsed by Chicago’s police union and major business groups, against progressive Brandon Johnson, a former teacher and union organizer backed by the Chicago Teachers Union. Both men finished ahead of current Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a February election, making her the first incumbent in 40 years to…

by Eddie Pells HOUSTON  — After six games and 240 minutes of pure dominance that ran through March, then part of April, it finally became clear there was only one thing that could stop the UConn Huskies. The final buzzer. The team from Storrs, Connecticut, topped off one of the most impressive March Madness runs in history Monday night, clamping down early, then breaking things open late to bring home its fifth national title with a 76-59 victory over San Diego State. “We knew we were the best team in the tournament going in, and we just had to play…

NASA on Monday named the four astronauts who will fly around the moon late next year, including the first woman and the first African American assigned to a lunar mission. The first moon crew in 50 years — three Americans and one Canadian — was introduced during a ceremony in Houston, home to the nation’s astronauts as well as Mission Control. “This is humanity’s crew,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. The four astronauts will be the first to fly NASA’s Orion capsule, launching atop a Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center no earlier than late 2024. They will…

Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson face off in the city’s runoff election for mayor on Tuesday, vying to replace outgoing incumbent Lori Lightfoot. Vallas has positioned himself as a moderate and has the backing of the Chicago police union and major business groups. Johnson is a former teacher and union organizer backed by the Chicago Teachers Union. Vallas finished first and Johnson was second in the February municipal election, which proceeded to a runoff because no candidate received over 50% of the vote. Lightfoot was eliminated from contention after placing third. Here’s…

by Emeka ObasiHe is no Jack of all trade, this one knows his way round leadership and from the military, Jack Keonyemere Lincoln ( LKJ) Ogunewe is gradually settling into political engineering. For a man who enlisted as a teenager, his civility is infectious.Gen. Ogunewe has eyes on the Imo State Government House which I will never refer to as Douglas House because it is a huge shame that a man who dealt with Mbaise in the colonial period is celebrated in the Imo State capital.Ogunewe is an Mbaise man from Ezinihite. I do not not know how he feels…

by Corey Williams The Rev. James Stokes remembers Grand Rapids following the slaying of George Floyd, when demonstrations devolved into rioting that left businesses damaged and scores of people arrested. Stokes and other leaders in the western Michigan city desperately wanted to avoid a similar outbreak of violence when a white Grand Rapids police officer fatally shot Patrick Lyoya, a Black motorist, last April. After video of that shooting was publicly released, outrage in the community grew, and some feared a violent response. But the protests — while loud and angry — were peaceful. No buildings were burned. No shops…