Author: chicagoinquirer

by Mark Sherman and Jessica Greeks WASHINGTON  — Conservative justices holding the Supreme Court’s majority seem ready to sink President Joe Biden’s plan to wipe away or reduce student loans held by millions of Americans. In arguments lasting more than three hours Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts led his conservative colleagues in questioning the administration’s authority to broadly cancel federal student loans because of the COVID-19 emergency. Loan payments that have been on hold since the start of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago are supposed to resume no later than this summer. Without the loan relief promised by the…

by Sara Burnett CHICAGO  — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is fighting for reelection Tuesday after a history-making but tumultuous four years in office and a bruising campaign threaten to make her the city’s first one-term mayor in decades. Lightfoot in 2019 became the first Black woman and first openly gay mayor of the third-largest U.S. city, and only the second woman to hold the office. But Lightfoot, a former prosecutor and head of a city police review board, now faces serious challenges from multiple candidates, who have hammered her over crime that spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic and a leadership…

PARIS — World Cup champion Lionel Messi edged Kylian Mbappé again, this time to take FIFA’s best men’s player award on Monday. The best women’s player was Spain’s Alexia Putellas for a second straight year. After steering Argentina to World Cup glory in an epic final against Mbappé’s France last year in Qatar, Messi won the best player vote against Mbappé and Karim Benzema and secured the FIFA prize for the seventh time in 14 years. He won the World Cup at his record-equaling fifth attempt. “It was a crazy year for me,” Messi said. “I could fulfil my (World…

by Chinedu Asadu ABUJA, Nigeria  — Some frustrated Nigerians cast their ballots with flashlights while others stood watch at their polling stations as counting got under way late Saturday amid fears of vote tampering after a day of delays in Africa’s most populous nation. Election officials blamed the delays on logistical issues, though other observers pointed to the upheaval created by a redesigned currency that has left many unable to obtain bank notes. The cash shortage affected transport not only for voters but also election workers and police officers providing security. Voting ended well beyond schedule in many places after…

by Sara Burnett CHICAGO  — For years, Republicans have sought to win over voters by depicting Democratic-led cities as lawless centers of violence that need tough-on-crime policies. In Chicago, some of the Democrats running for mayor are deploying the same strategy as they debate how to make the city safer. One leading candidate, who touts his endorsement from the Chicago police union, says “crime is out of control” and the city needs hundreds more officers patrolling its streets. Another hopeful says that if suspects flee a crime scene, officers should be able to “hunt them down like a rabbit.” Even…

by Mark Sherman and Jessica Gresko WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court won’t have far to look if it wants a personal take on the “crushing weight” of student debt that underlies the Biden administration’s college loan forgiveness plan. Justice Clarence Thomas was in his mid-40s and in his third year on the nation’s highest court when he paid off the last of his debt from his time at Yale Law School. Thomas, the court’s longest-serving justice and staunchest conservative, has been skeptical of other Biden administration initiatives. And when the Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday involving President Joe Biden’s debt…

by Chinedu Asadu ABUJA, Nigeria  — Polling stations opened late across parts of Nigeria on Saturday as Africa’s most populous country held presidential and parliamentary elections amid a nationwide bank note shortage that left many without transport to their voting centers. The elections come amid fears of violence, from Islamic militants in the north to separatists in the south, though officials did not postpone the vote as the last two presidential elections were. In northeastern Borno state, policemen deployed to protect voting units were seen trekking long distances to get to their posts. The delays raised concerns about whether voters…

by Michael Tarm and Claire Savage CHICAGO  — A federal judge on Thursday rejected a call from prosecutors to keep R. Kelly behind bars until he is 100, instead telling the Grammy Award-winning R&B singer he would serve all but one of his 20 years on child sex convictions simultaneously with a previous sentence. Handed down in a courtroom in Kelly’s hometown of Chicago, the sentence means Kelly could make it out of prison alive, when he is about 80. Prosecutors had asked Judge Harry Leinenweber to sentence him to 25 years — and to not let him begin serving…

by Andrew Seligman CHICAGO  — The Chicago Bulls signed veteran point guard Patrick Beverley on Tuesday and ruled point guard Lonzo Ball out for the season because of lingering discomfort in his surgically repaired left knee. The Bulls brought in Beverley to help solidify a position that has been a sore spot all season with Ball recovering from his second left knee surgery in less than a year and his third since entering the NBA in 2017 with the Los Angeles Lakers. The team said Ball’s focus now will be on resolving the discomfort he feels performing “high level basketball-related…

by Doug Feinberg Brittney Griner will be back in the WNBA this season, once again playing with the Phoenix Mercury. Griner, who was a free agent, re-signed with the team Tuesday. The 32-year-old Griner had said she would return to Phoenix in a social media post in December, after she returned home from her 10-month detainment in Russia. Griner had been arrested at an airport just outside of Moscow on drug possession charges a year ago and was brought home in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange in December. “We missed BG every day that she was gone and, while basketball…