Author: chicagoinquirer

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…

by Andrew Seligma CHICAGO  — Zach LaVine scored 36 points, DeMar DeRozan added 31 and the Chicago Bulls used a huge second half to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 128-107 and overcome Ja Morant’s triple-double Sunday. The Bulls outscored the Western Conference’s second-place team 75-39 over the final two quarters after trailing by 23. They dominated the Grizzlies 40-16 in the third, ending it on a 17-0 run while taking the lead. And they responded with another big push in the fourth after Memphis pulled within three. Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 31 points and made five 3-pointers for the Grizzlies, who…

CHICAGO  — A state appeals court has ordered a new trial for the man accused of gunning down a Chicago honor student days after she had performed at Barack Obama’s 2013 presidential inauguration. Micheail Ward was found guilty in connection with the death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton and sentenced to 84 years in prison in 2019. The Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday that the 1st District Appellate Court ruled that detectives improperly extracted a confession from Ward after he invoked his right to remain silent at least three times during a 12-hour interrogation. Ward was 18 years old at the time…

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