Author: chicagoinquirer

by Kate Brumback ATLANTA  — Mark Meadows testified in court Monday that actions detailed in a sweeping indictment that accuses him of participating in an illegal conspiracy to overturn then-President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss were all part of his job as White House chief of staff. The extraordinary testimony — from a former top presidential aide who now faces charges alongside his old boss — came in the first courtroom skirmish in a case that’s likely to have many. Meadows’ claims were part of his argument that the case should be moved from a state court to federal court.…

by Russ Bynum JACKSONVILLE, Fla.  — A campus security officer tipped off by observant students likely stopped the killer who fatally shot three people at a nearby Dollar General Store from carrying out his racist attack at Edward Waters University, the president of the historically Black institution said Monday. Students reported seeing a young, white man, pull into a campus library parking lot in Jacksonville, Florida, and begin putting on tactical gear Saturday, Edward Waters University President Zachary Faison Jr. said. They immediately flagged down a security officer who was on patrol to tell them what they saw. The officer approached the…

by Michael Tarm CHICAGO  — A judge on Monday refused to dismiss the case against a father who helped his son obtain a gun license three years before authorities say the younger man fatally shot seven people at a 2022 Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago. Illinois prosecutors charged Robert Crimo Jr. under a unconstitutionally vague law, his lawyer argued at a hearing earlier this month in Waukegan, north of Highland Park where the shooting took place. Lake County Judge George Strickland rejected that argument, as well as a defense contention that prosecutors charged Crimo Jr. too late — after a…

by Nathan Ellgren WASHINGTON  — “Hola, mamá.” What seems like an unremarkable greeting between mother and son was in this case anything but. Forty-two years ago, hospital workers took María Angélica González’s son from her arms right after birth and later told her he had died. Now, she was meeting him face-to-face at her home in Valdivia, Chile. “I love you very much,” Jimmy Lippert Thyden told his mother in Spanish as they embraced amid tears. “It knocked the wind out of me. … I was suffocated by the gravity of this moment,” Thyden told The Associated Press in a…

by Ciaran Giles MADRID  — The mother of Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales started a hunger strike Monday in a church in southern Spain in defense of her son, who is under fire for kissing a player during the Women’s World Cup awards ceremony. Ángeles Béjar told the state news agency EFE she would remain on hunger strike “night and day” until a solution is found to the “inhumane hounding” of her son. Speaking outside the church in the southern town of Motril, Rubiales’ cousin, Vanessa Ruiz, joined his mother in calling on the player, Jenni Hermoso, to “tell the truth.”…

by Eric tucker, Lindsay Whitehurst and Michael Kunzelman WASHINGTON  — A judge on Monday set a March 4, 2024, trial date for Donald Trump in the federal case in Washington charging the former president with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, rejecting a defense request to push back the case by years. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rebuffed claims by Trump’s attorneys that an April 2026 trial date was necessary to account for the huge volume of evidence they say they are reviewing and to prepare for what they contend is a novel and unprecedented prosecution. But she agreed to postpone…

by Emeka Obasi There is no disputing the fact that Godwin Dudu – Orumen knows almost everything about Nigerian football from 1970 to 1982. If you challenge him to a test, be prepared to go back home on the losing side, for beating him needs more than the ordinary. I engaged him recently and got even more than was expected. Dudu – Orumen reminded me that the decision to increase Africa’s slot at the World Cup was taken in Lagos after then FIFA president, Joao Havelange watched Bendel Insurance play a thrilling 2-2 draw with Raccah Rovers. He said :…

by Jill Colvin NEW YORK  — For former President Donald Trump, a picture is worth … more than $7 million. Trump’s campaign says he has raised $7.1 million since Thursday when he was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in the state and became the first former president in U.S. history to ever have a mug shot taken. Spokesman Steven Cheung said that, on Friday alone, the campaign brought in $4.18 million — its highest-grossing day to date. The record haul underscores how Trump’s legal woes have been a fundraising boon for his…

by Will Graves SAN JOSE, Calif.  — A decade later, Simone Biles is still on top. The gymnastics star won her record eighth U.S. Championship on Sunday night, 10 years after she first ascended to the top of her sport as a teenage prodigy. Biles, now a 26-year-old newlywed considered perhaps the greatest of all time, posted an all-around two-day total of 118.40, four points clear of runner-up Shilese Jones. Florida junior Leanne Wong claimed third, bolstering her chances of making a third straight world championship team. Biles is all but assured of returning to the gym where she captured her first world…

by Emeka ObasiNiger as battle ground is sweet music to the ears of President Alassane  Dramane  Ouattara whose goal is to divert attention from his contentious third term in Cote d’Ivoire and keep war away from his country through neighbouring Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea respectively.When Ouattara boldly announced in Nigeria that ECOWAS leaders were battle ready to restore Mohamed Bazoum to power in Niger, he meant every word that came out of his mouth. “We are determined to restore president Bazoum to his functions”, the Ivorian leader said.ECOWAS chairman, Bola Tinubu, was yet to announce a Foreign Minister when…