Author: chicagoinquirer

by Sara Burnett CHICAGO — Ken Kunz used to know everyone in the North Side Chicago neighborhood where he’s lived for more than 40 years. But crossing paths with old friends is rare these days because longtime residents have been pushed out by new development and soaring property taxes. When they do meet, the 64-year-old says, they exchange the same greeting: “I’m so glad you’re still here.” Chicago has grown unaffordable for many working- and middle-class people like Kunz who have been “run over by development,” as he put it. That’s why he voted both in the February mayoral election…

by Chris Megerian ACCRA, Ghana  — Vice President Kamala Harris was greeted by schoolchildren, dancers and drummers as she arrived Sunday in Ghana for the start of a weeklong visit to Africa intended to deepen U.S. relationships amid global competition over the continent’s future. “We are looking forward to this trip as a further statement of the long and enduring very important relationship and friendship between the people of the United States and those who live on this continent,” Harris said. The children cheered and waved Ghanaian and American flags as she stepped off her plane after an overnight flight.…

by Michael Tarm and Alanna Durkin Richer CHICAGO  — Rejon Taylor hoped the election of Joe Biden, the first U.S. president to campaign on a pledge to end the death penalty, would mean a more sympathetic look at his claims that racial bias and other trial errors landed him on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana. But two years on, Justice Department attorneys under Biden are fighting the Black man’s efforts to reverse his 2008 death sentence for killing a white restaurateur as hard as they did under Donald Trump, who oversaw 13 executions in his presidency’s final months.…

by Amanda Seitz FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill.  — Dr. Colleen McNicholas is fresh off performing two abortions when a ringing phone quickly stops her. “Oh, ugh,” she said, eyes widened, before she darted off to another room. Just the day before, 58 women had abortions at the Fairview Heights’ Planned Parenthood clinic, 15 miles east of St. Louis. But the new day is still stacked with appointments; as many as 100 abortion and family planning patients might walk through the doors. Every day is busy now. Hundreds of women travel each week to the southern tip of Illinois to secure an…

by Gary Field and Michael Tarm CHICAGO  — The voting precinct could have been any one of hundreds throughout Chicago, except that these voters in the first round of the mayoral election were all wearing the same beige smocks. And the security at this polling place wasn’t intended to keep disrupters and campaigners out, but the voters in. When first-time voter Tykarri Skillon finished studying the list of nine candidates, looking for those who shared his priorities on jobs and affordable housing, he marked his ballot and then was escorted with other voters back to their cells in the Cook…

by Jill Colvin and Michael L. Price WACO, Texas  — Facing a potential indictment, Donald Trump took a defiant stance at a rally Saturday in Waco, disparaging the prosecutors investigating him and predicting his vindication as he rallied supporters in a city made famous by deadly resistance against law enforcement. With a hand over his heart, Trump stood at attention when his rally opened with a song called “Justice for All” performed by a choir of people imprisoned for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Some footage from the insurrection was shown on big screens…

by David Koenig WILMINGTON, Del.  — President Joe Biden’s choice to run the Federal Aviation Administration has withdrawn his nomination, a setback for the administration that comes after Denver International Airport CEO Phillip Washington appeared to lack enough support in the closely divided Senate. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg confirmed Washington’s withdrawal in a tweet Saturday night, calling him “an excellent nominee” and blaming undeserved and partisan attacks. Republicans were united in opposition to Washington, calling him unqualified because of limited aviation experience. Democrats and allied independents still might have pushed the nomination through, but key senators on their side balked…

by Edith M. Lederer UNITED NATIONS  — The African Union appealed for nearly $90 million Wednesday for its peacekeeping force in Somalia, which is providing support to its military forces battling al-Shabab extremists. Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, the AU commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, told two reporters that the more than 19,600-strong AU force won’t be able to function properly and help the Somalis unless that funding gap is filled. A year ago, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a new African Union Transition Mission in Somalia, known as ATMIS, to support the Somalis until their forces take full…

by Abby Sewell IRBIL, Iraq — Complexes of McMansions, fast food restaurants, real estate offices and half-constructed high-rises line wide highways in Irbil, the seat of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Many members of the political and business elite live in a suburban gated community dubbed the American Village, where homes sell for as much as $5 million, with lush gardens consuming more than a million liters of water a day in the summer. The visible opulence is a far cry from 20 years ago. Back then, Irbil was a backwater provincial capital without even an airport. That…

GREEN BAY, Wis.  — A 23-year-old Rockford man charged with abuse of a corpse for stealing a funeral home van containing a body that was later dumped in Chicago has been arrested in Wisconsin. The man, who also faces a charge of unlawful possession of a stolen vehicle, was arrested Sunday in Green Bay. The van belonging to Collins & Stone Funeral Home was stolen from outside the Rockford business on Jan. 21. Chicago police found the van the following day without the body inside. The body of 47-year-old Curtis Brown that had been in the van was recovered Jan.…