Illinois news

• A Hedge Fund Manager Committed Fraud. Would the U.S. Let Him Go?

  18-11-2017 13:00
  Philip Baker admitted that he defrauded his hedge-fund clients. He was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Then he devised an escape plan.
  
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• Ancestral Bloodlines: The One-Drop Rule in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

  08-12-2025 21:23 via chicagodefender.com
  By Dr. Carolyn Haliburton Carter, Guest ColumnistExploring the collision of race, identity, and machine logic—how data-driven technologies are reimagining old racial hierarchies in digital form. Artificial intelligence (AI) was supposed to free us from human bias. Instead, it’s learning our worst habits with frightening accuracy.Algorithms now decide who someone hires, who the police flag, who receives a loan, and even how someone defines ancestry. Controversies around race and mach
  
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• Chicago drummer Ellie Rui 瑞 turns her jazz daydreams into realities

  08-12-2025 19:40 via chicagoreader.com
  Ellie Rui 瑞 Quintet Fri 12/12 at Epiphany Center for the Arts
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• COMMUNITY VOICES: Trump Removes MLK Day & Juneteenth as Free National Park Dates, Adds His Birthday

  08-12-2025 19:33 via chicagodefender.com
  By Hodari Brown, Contributing ColumnistOn November 25, 2025, the National Park Service (NPS), under the direction of the U.S. Department of the Interior overseen by Donald Trump, announced its 2026 “fee-free” days. Gone from the list: Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth. Added instead: June 14 — the birthday of Donald Trump, which is also observed as Flag Day.Those free-entry days were never just about convenience. They acknowledged the nation’s ongoing reckoning w
  
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• Trump Admin Threatens To Freeze SNAP For Blue States Over Immigration Data

  08-12-2025 15:14 via chicagodefender.com
  The Trump administration threatened to begin withholding federal food assistance from dozens of Democratic-led states next week after officials refused to turn over SNAP recipients’ names and immigration statuses.According to NBC News, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the food assistance freeze on Tuesday (December 2) for the 21 Democratic-led states that declined to comply with the department’s February data request.“So as of next week,
  
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• Holiday Fun as The Chicago Bulls and Students Face Off in NBA 2K26

  07-12-2025 18:50 via chicagodefender.com
  Marshelle SandersOn Thursday, December 4th, fifteen students from Galileo Scholastic Academy received the holiday surprise of a lifetime as they stepped inside the United Center Atrium, not as spectators, but as competitors, preparing to challenge their favorite Chicago Bulls players in NBA 2K26.The exclusive event brought students up close with the entire Bulls roster as part of the team’s annual Season of Giving, an initiative dedicated to spreading joy, support, and insp
  
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• Faith Leaders Rally Communities for a National Spending Blackout

  07-12-2025 15:09 via chicagodefender.com
  by Rev. Dorothy BoulwarePastors are leading the call for a halt in holiday shopping to show that Black America won’t invest in businesses that don’t invest in us. Community and faith leaders across the country have banded together to extend the economic blackout. Black people and people who love justice are asked to withhold their dollars to allow the economy to feel the power citizens wield with their dollars.RELATED: If You’re Gonna Shop, Make it Black-Owned &ldquo
  
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• Why Black Folks Say ‘No’ to Organ Donation

  07-12-2025 14:59 via chicagodefender.com
  Mistrust is rooted in lived experience, medical racism, systemic neglect, and a history that still shapes Black patients’ choices.by Anissa DurhamDecember 2, 2025This article is part of “On Borrowed Time” a series by Anissa Durham that examines the people, policies, and systems that hurt or help Black patients in need of an organ transplant.Every day across the country, people renew or apply for driver’s licenses. Toward the end of the form sits a deceptively simple
  
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• AT&T Dismantles DEI Programs Amid Pressure From Trump’s FCC

  06-12-2025 11:29 via chicagodefender.com
  AT&T has pledged to dismantle all of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs “not just in name, but in substance” amid the Federal Communications Commission’s push to end such initiatives, per The Hollywood Reporter.In a letter sent on Monday (December 1) to FCC Chair Brendan Carr, AT&T cited the shifting “legal landscape,” including President Donald Trump’s executive orders, Supreme Court rulings, and guidanc
  
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• Mayor Brandon Johnson Joins Families for Holiday Shopping at Pullman Walmart

  05-12-2025 18:10 via chicagodefender.com
  The Pullman Walmart was overflowing and stocked with energy, generosity, and community spirit as families, volunteers, corporate partners, and elected officials gathered for a festive night of holiday shopping on Chicago’s South Side. The event, rooted in nearly three decades of service and giving, brought together leaders from across the city to ensure children and families received toys, warm clothing, and essential items during the holiday season.Mayor Brandon Johnson Helps Famili
  
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• Quirky Welsh rockers the Bug Club keep the tunes coming thick and fast on Very Human Features

  05-12-2025 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  The Bug Club Thu 12/11 and Fri 12/12 at Empty Bottle
  The post Quirky Welsh rockers the Bug Club keep the tunes coming thick and fast on <i>Very Human Features</i> appeared first on Chicago Reader.
  
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•  Jay Som reveals a sleeker take on bedroom pop with Belong

  05-12-2025 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  Jay Som Sat 12/13 at Lincoln Hall
  The post  Jay Som reveals a sleeker take on bedroom pop with <i>Belong</i> appeared first on Chicago Reader.
  
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• Detroit rapper Bruiser Wolf blends humor and vulnerability on two new albums

  05-12-2025 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  Bruiser Wolf Wed 12/17 at Schubas
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• Chicago’s Flowersatherfeet rise on dreamy clouds of shoegaze and alt-rock

  05-12-2025 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  Flowersatherfeet Fri 12/12 at Gman Tavern
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• 1.6 Million Americans Removed From Medicaid Under Trump Administration

  05-12-2025 12:29 via chicagodefender.com
  About 1.6 million Americans have been removed from Medicaid during the first six months of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to new numbers from the health research group KFF, per Newsweek.The drop reflects continued rollbacks of pandemic-era protections that expanded access to the program. During the COVID-19 public health emergency, states were barred from removing people from Medicaid even if their income changed.That policy, enacted under former President 
  
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• The Prague Spring, by way of Adventure Time

  04-12-2025 17:14 via chicagoreader.com
  In the project 60 wrd/min art critic, writer Lori Waxman explores how art writing can serve an expanded field of artists—including those incarcerated, trying to gain visas, working to establish themselves professionally, or just wanting feedback for a secret hobby. For this iteration, Waxman reviews an animation by Chicago-based designer Jiadi Tang. Jiadi Tang Jiadi […]
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• Tax Refunds Expected to Rise by About $1,000 Next Year

  04-12-2025 13:29 via chicagodefender.com
  By Stacy M. Brown
  Black Press USA Senior National CorrespondentFederal tax refunds are positioned for a sharp rise next year, with new projections showing that the average payment could increase by about $1,000 for millions of Americans.Analysts expect the typical refund to reach roughly $4,151 for the 2026 filing season, a major jump from the $3,151 average refund taxpayers received during the 2025 season. CBS News reported that IRS filing data has revealed that the average direct deposit refu
  
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• Organ Donation 101: Here’s What to Know

  04-12-2025 11:16 via chicagodefender.com
  We asked experts to break down the top 10 questions about how the transplant system works — and why equity matters.by Anissa DurhamThis article is part of “On Borrowed Time” a series by Anissa Durham that examines the people, policies, and systems that hurt or help Black patients in need of an organ transplant. This story is copublished with The Markup.Teenagers aren’t supposed to struggle to breathe. But two years ago, Micah Clayborne, a then-ac
  
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• It’s a dinner party with Divs when Umami From Scratch returns to Monday Night Foodball

  04-12-2025 00:29 via chicagoreader.com
  You’re invited to dinner with Divs. Of course you’re invited. You’re friends now. Most people know Divs Ray’s radical, spice route–inspired pastries from her countless menu drops, morning pop-ups, and spellbinding Instagram documentation. But when Ray has the time to throw a dinner party, the DMs come flooding in. “I get messages whenever I share, […]
  The post It’s a dinner party with Divs when Umami From Scratch returns to Monday Night Foodball
  
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• ‘Fat’ is not a dirty word

  03-12-2025 19:40 via chicagoreader.com
  “Everything about me is to scale,” says Femme de Violette, drag performer and producer of fat performer showcase Big Fat Fabulous. That’s part of what de Violette says she loves about being a fat performer. With New Year’s resolutions around the corner and weight loss often being an item on people’s lists, now feels like […]
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• Righting systemic wrongs of Illinois prisons

  03-12-2025 19:39 via chicagoreader.com
  For far too long, Illinois politicians have been playing politics with people’s lives in the criminal legal system. (I do not call it the criminal justice system because there is no justice in it.). They have used the “tough-on-crime” myth to get elected, claiming that the best way to deter crime is with harsher and […]
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• Cindy Lou Who is no longer two

  03-12-2025 18:43 via chicagoreader.com
  Who's Holiday!, through 12/28, Theater Wit
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• Let it snow

  03-12-2025 18:24 via chicagoreader.com
  White Christmas, through 1/11/26 at Paramount Theatre, Aurora
  The post Let it snow appeared first on Chicago Reader.
  
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• Full house

  03-12-2025 18:13 via chicagoreader.com
  The Moviegoer is the diary of a local film buff, collecting the best of what Chicago’s independent and underground film scene has to offer. The big room at the Music Box Theatre has a capacity of about seven hundred, a number I know well from my time working for the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, […]
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• Cook County’s new chief judge

  03-12-2025 17:58 via chicagoreader.com
  Moving on, moving up On Monday, Cook County swore in the first new chief judge in more than two decades. Charles Beach replaces Timothy Evans as leader of the nation’s second-largest unified court system.  Evans presided over historic changes to the judiciary during his quarter-century as chief judge, including issuing a 2017 order that required […]
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• The CHAAD Project’s restaurant preparedness tool kit puts la migra on ice

  03-12-2025 17:55 via chicagoreader.com
  One Monday afternoon last month, about 50 kitchen workers, servers, bartenders, managers, owners, and activists gathered in the dining room of a Logan Square restaurant for an emergency meeting. It had been called by hospitality worker advocacy group the CHAAD Project to brainstorm strategies to protect workers from federal immigration enforcement raids. A few weeks […]
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• This is not a drill

  03-12-2025 17:53 via chicagoreader.com
  Nadya Tolokonnikova’s new performance installation, Police State (which ran through November 30), is heard and felt before it is seen. As you enter the Museum of Contemporary Art from the street level, you’re immediately struck by a thunderous rumble. Is it the sound of trucks? Tanks? A whole battalion? Regardless, even within the surroundings of […]
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• Chicago Reader Volume 55, Number 10

  03-12-2025 17:52 via chicagoreader.com
  Chicago Reader Volume 55, No. 10. December 4, 2025.The post Chicago Reader Volume 55, Number 10 appeared first on Chicago Reader.
  
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• Seasonal circus

  03-12-2025 17:20 via chicagoreader.com
  Every Yule season, you can count on circus to show up, but A Magical Cirque Christmas (presented by Broadway in Chicago last week at CIBC Theatre) went a step further and tossed in some magic. Host and magician Mark Clearview took the audience through a family-friendly winter extravaganza full of his own antics and featuring […]
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• Nate Coleman, cinematographer and editor with Videowaste

  03-12-2025 16:52 via chicagoreader.com
  Cinematographer and editor Nate Coleman cofounded Chicago analog video art collective Videowaste in 2018. The collective works at the intersection of the city’s music, film, and design communities, contributing to music videos for independent artists such as Pixel Grip and Ganser, creating stage designs with custom live visuals (most notably for the Sanctum Festival), and […]
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