Author: chicagoinquirer

by Sophia Tareen WAUKEGAN, Ill — An Illinois man pleaded guilty Monday to killing seven people and injuring dozens more when he opened fire on a 2022 Independence Day parade in a Chicago suburb, a stunning development moments before opening statements in his trial on murder and attempted murder charges. Appearing in a Lake County circuit courtroom, Robert E. Crimo III, 24, withdrew his earlier not-guilty plea in the Highland Park shooting. Prosecutors initially charged him with 21 counts of first-degree murder — three counts for each person killed — as well as 48 counts of attempted murder. Prosecutors dropped…

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Grammy-nominated R&B singer Angie Stone, a member of the all-female hip-hop trio The Sequence and known for the hit song “Wish I Didn’t Miss You,” was killed early Saturday in a car crash. She was 63. About 4 a.m., the vehicle she was riding in back to Atlanta from Alabama “flipped over and was subsequently hit by a big rig,” music producer and Stone’s longtime manager Walter Millsap III told The Associated Press in an email. Everyone else in the cargo van survived except Stone, he said. The Alabama Highway Patrol said in a news release…

by Anthony Izaguirre ALBANY, N.Y. — Some of America’s governors — mostly Democrats — have a message for the wave of fired federal workers: We want you. The governors are welcoming former federal staffers who lost their jobs in the Trump administration’s widespread cost-cutting agenda to apply for government jobs in their states. Some places are holding job fairs, while Hawaii’s governor says the state is fast-tracking hiring for these applicants. The effort amounts to a small level of resistance against the Republican president and potentially a bit of political maneuvering from the leaders in blue states, eager to be…

by Michelle Gumede JOHANNESBURG (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will skip a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the leading rich and developing nations that starts on Thursday after criticizing host South Africa’s policies as anti-American. Instead, Rubio was headed back to the United States on Wednesday from his first trip to the Middle East as America’s chief diplomat, and after leading a U.S. delegation in talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia over the war in Ukraine. Rubio spoke with the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the European Union’s foreign policy chief…

by Larry Neumeister and Mihael R. Sisak NEW YORK — Justice Department lawyers and New York City Mayor Eric Adams are set to face a federal judge who is signaling that he’s unlikely to rubber stamp their request to drop the mayor’s corruption charges weeks before an April trial. Judge Dale E. Ho in Manhattan scheduled the Wednesday afternoon hearing after three government lawyers from Washington made the dismissal request on Friday. Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor resigned after she refused an order to do so. Ho already indicated that the hearing was likely to be only an initial step when…

by Amanda Setiz, Andrew Demillo and Kevin Freking WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are weighing billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, threatening health care coverage for some of the 80 million U.S. adults and children enrolled in the safety net program. Millions more Americans signed up for taxpayer-funded health care coverage like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace during the Biden administration, a shift lauded by Democrats as a success. But Republicans, who are looking to slash federal spending and offer lucrative tax cuts to corporations and wealthier Americans, now see a big target ripe for trimming. The $880…

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Attorneys for the man suspected of killing rap icon Tupac Shakur want to delay next month’s trial, saying more time is needed for investigative work to ensure that Duane “Keffe D” Davis gets a fair trial. The motion filed Friday in a Nevada court provides insight into Davis’ defense, noting that a private investigator has identified witnesses who can testify that he was not at the scene of the 1996 shooting, nor was he in Las Vegas at the time. The motion also suggests that someone else may have orchestrated the shooting and that witnesses who…

by Fatima Hussein WASHINGTON — The IRS will lay off thousands of probationary workers in the middle of tax season, according to two sources familiar with the agency’s plans, and cuts could happen as soon as next week. This comes as the Trump administration intensified sweeping efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce, by ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protection. It’s unclear how many IRS workers will be affected. Previously, the administration announced a plan to offer buyouts to almost all federal employees through a “deferred resignation…

by Alfonso Nqunjana and Gerald Imray PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Some white South Africans showed support for President Donald Trump on Saturday and gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria to claim they are victims of racism by their own government. Hundreds of protesters held placards that read “Thank God for President Trump” and displayed other messages criticizing what they see as racist laws instituted by the South African government that discriminate against the white minority. Many were from the Afrikaner community that Trump focused on in an executive order a week ago that cut aid and assistance to…

NEW YORK (AP) — The 50th anniversary celebration of “Saturday Night Live” is so big, it’s not even on Saturday. Airing Sunday and spanning three hours, the, yes, live “SNL50: The Anniversary Celebration” will assemble a dream team of stars who have helped the show become an enduring pop culture force, including alumni like Tina Fey and Eddie Murphy, notable hosts like Dave Chappelle and Steve Martin and at least four of the surviving original cast members: Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman. The show will also pack in musical guests, with Paul McCartney, Sabrina Carpenter, Bad…