Afternoon Briefing: Police superintendent backs away from ‘politics' of teen curfew debate
Good afternoon, Chicago.
One person has loomed large over the controversial City Council ordinance giving police power to declare stricter teen curfews anywhere in the city: Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling.
The measure teed up for a final vote today would give Snelling and future superintendents final say to declare the curfews. And as the long-awaited vote arrives, aldermen on opposing sides are claiming Snelling supports them.
Snelling did not take a clear side this morning when his spokesperson was pressed by the Tribune. The superintendent said police will 'do everything in our power to prevent violence,' regardless of the outcome in a statement.
Here's what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit chicagotribune.com/latest-headlines and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices.
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Four Illinois Democratic members of Congress joined immigration and human rights advocates this morning at a suburban federal immigration processing center, demanding entry into the facility to check on the conditions of the detainees held there. Read more here.
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The justices' 6-3 decision in a case from Tennessee effectively protects from legal challenges many efforts by President Donald Trump's Republican administration and state governments to roll back protections for transgender people. Another 26 states have laws similar to Tennessee's. Read more here.
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Hamilton Spectator
16 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
After a senator's posts about the Minnesota shootings, his incensed colleagues refused to let it go
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Lee has in recent years become one of the Senate's most prolific social media posters, his presence seen in thousands of posts, often late at night, about politics. Fellow senators have grown accustomed to the Utah Republican's pugnacious online persona, mostly brushing it off in the name of collegiality. That is, until this past week. His posts, after the June 14 fatal shooting of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, incensed Lee's colleagues, particularly senators who were friends with the victims. It all added to the charged atmosphere in the Capitol as lawmakers once more confronted political violence in America. As the Senate convened for the week, Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., marched past a crowd of reporters and headed toward the Senate floor: 'I can't talk right now, I have to go find Sen. Lee.' Smith, whose name was listed in the suspected shooter's notebooks recovered by law enforcement officials, spoke to Lee for several minutes. The next day, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., did the same. By midday Tuesday, Lee had deleted his tweets. 'I would say he seemed surprised to be confronted,' Smith later told reporters. The shooting unfolds On the morning of June 14, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., announced that former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, had been shot and killed in their home outside Minneapolis. Another Democratic lawmaker, state Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, were critically injured, in a shooting at their home nearby. The next day, as police searched for the shooter, Lee posted a photo of the alleged shooter with the caption 'Nightmare on Waltz street' — an apparent misspelled attempt to shift blame toward Walz, who was his party's vice presidential nominee in 2024. In a separate post on his personal account, @BasedMikeLee, the senator shared photos of the alleged suspect alongside the caption: 'this is what happens When Marxists don't get their way.' On his official Senate social media account, Lee was 'condemning this senseless violence, and praying for the victims and their families.' A spokesperson for Lee did not respond to a request for comment. The man arrested, Vance Luther Boelter, 57, held deeply religious and politically conservative views. After moving to Minnesota about a decade ago, Boelter volunteered for a position on a state workforce development board, first appointed by then-Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, in 2016, and later by Walz. Boelter has been charged with two counts of murder and two of attempted murder. Lee's online posts draw bipartisan backlash Once a critic of Donald Trump, Lee has since become one of the president's most loyal allies. Lee's online persona is well established, but this year it has become especially prominent: a Salt Lake Tribune analysis found that in the first three months of 2025, Lee averaged nearly 100 posts per day on X. What was different this time was the backlash came not just from Democrats. To Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Lee's posts were 'insensitive, to say the least, inappropriate, for sure' and 'not even true.' 'I just think whenever you rush to a judgment like this, when your political instincts kick in during a tragedy, you probably should realign some priorities,' Cramer said. Republican state Rep. Nolan West wrote on social media that his respect for Lee had been 'rescinded.' A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., did not respond to a request for comment. Last Monday night, after Smith's confrontation with Lee, a senior member of her staff sent a pointed message to Lee's office. 'It is important for your office to know how much additional pain you've caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend,' wrote Ed Shelleby, Smith's deputy chief of staff. He added, 'I pray that Senator Lee and your office begin to see the people you work with in this building as colleagues and human beings.' Lee avoided reporters for much of the week, though he did tell them he had deleted the posts after a 'quick' discussion with Klobuchar. Lee has not apologized publicly. 'We had a good discussion, and I'm very glad he took it down,' Klobuchar said at a news conference. Tragedy prompts reflection in Congress The uproar came at a tense time for the Senate, which fashions itself as a political institution that values decorum and respect. Senators are under intense pressure to react to the Trump administration's fast-paced agenda and multiple global conflicts. Republicans are in high-stakes negotiations over the party's tax and spending cuts plan. Democrats are anxious about how to confront the administration, especially after federal agents briefly detained Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., at a recent Department of Homeland Security news conference in California. Lawmakers believe it's time to lower the temperature. 'I don't know why Mike took the comments down, but it was the right thing to do,' said Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. 'I appreciate my Republican colleagues who were very clear with their observations. And those that spoke up, I want to commend them.' He added: 'We just all have to talk to each other. And what I learned from this week is people need to lean on each other more, and just get to know each other more as well.' ___ Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Cuomo puts the pedal to the metal in new sports car— and racks up multiple speeding tickets in school zones
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been putting the pedal to the metal since moving back to the Big Apple to run for mayor. Cuomo's Dodge Charger muscle car was caught on camera speeding in school zones in Brooklyn on April 27 and May 2 — after being socked with two speeding tickets a mere minute apart March 28 while flying northbound on a seven-block stretch of the West Side Highway in Lower Manhattan, a Post analysis of city records shows. The ex-governor paid $365 in fines from March 6 through May 2, including the four speed-camera tickets, a ticket for parking in a bus lane and another for failing to feed a meter, according to the latest available data. Advertisement 4 Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been racking speeding tickets and breaking all sorts of other traffic laws park since moving back to the Big Apple to kick off in NYC mayoral campaign in March, records show. REUTERS And that's not counting the times Cuomo wasn't caught. The lead-foot ex-lawmaker was filmed May 28 apparently blowing a red light on Seventh Avenue in Midtown after speeding away from reporters trying to ask him questions following a news conference he hosted with labor leaders, according to video posted on social media. Advertisement On Monday, Cuomo's car was filmed blocking a left-turn lane on Eighth Avenue in Times Square while he attended a campaign event. 4 Cuomo's Dodge Charger muscle car was caught on camera speeding in school zones in Brooklyn on April 27 and May 2 — after being socked with two speeding tickets a mere minute apart March 28 on the West Side Highway in Manhattan. (Kevin C. Downs for The New York Post ) Cuomo's rogue riding is the latest example of his 'do as I say, not as I do'-style of governing, said Republican mayoral rival Curtis Sliwa, who added Cuomo is the one who signed a 2013 bill into law creating NYC speed-camera program. 'Andrew Cuomo racked up school zone and bus lane violations within weeks of moving to the city to run for mayor,' the Guardian Angels founder said. 'These are the very enforcement programs he helped create, and if he had actually lived here longer, there's no doubt the list would be a lot longer. Once again, it's rules for everyone else and a free pass for Andrew.' Advertisement Cuomo didn't have to worry about getting caught by speed and red-light cameras while serving his 10-year stint as governor, since he was chauffeured by state troopers in vehicles with license plates that can't be flagged by traffic cameras. 4 Cuomo paid $365 in traffic-violation fines from March 6 through May 2 after being slapped with four speed-camera tickets and two parking tickets. Michael Nagle The frontrunner heading into the Tuesday's Democratic mayoral primary won't have that luxury if elected to City Hall, because official city vehicles aren't shielded from speed cameras. Cuomo is 'committed to public safety' and wasn't driving 'reckless' when filmed running the red light, spokeswoman Esther Jensen insisted. Advertisement The governor was 'guided through a green light' and then 'paused mid-turn' to let a pedestrian cross safely before proceeding once the 'path was clear,' Jensen said. She added that NYPD cops were aware Cuomo parked in the left-turn lane to attend Monday's event, and a campaign staffer was available 'at all times' to move it, 'if asked.' The Dodge Charger is driven by multiple people, said Jensen, who would not clarify if the governor was behind the wheel when the car was fined. 4 Cuomo signed a 2013 bill into law creating NYC's speed-camera program. Christopher Sadowski Despite Cuomo's dismal driving record, he's got nothing on far-left mayoral candidate and Comptroller Brad Lander. The Democratic socialist racked up a jaw-dropping 136 traffic summonses since 2013 on his Totoya Prius, records show. Ten of the tickets were issued to lead-footed Lander for being caught on camera speeding in school zones, but a vast majority were for being a parking scofflaw. Lander has long pushed a green agenda aimed at getting New Yorkers to give up driving and take mass transit, but he's been chauffeured daily around the Big Apple by his NYPD security detail since 2022 when he was sworn in as comptroller.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Karen Bass in hot seat as Trump targets Los Angeles – but it's not her first crisis
In the mid-1990s, Karen Bass was in the streets of Los Angeles, protesting alongside Latino activists against new laws that targeted undocumented immigrants and were expected to land more young men of color in prison. These days, Bass is monitoring the status of protests against US immigration agents from a helicopter, as the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles. Bass, a 71-year-old former community organizer, is leading the city's response to an extraordinary confrontation staged by the federal government, as federal agents have raided workplaces and parking lots, arresting immigrant workers in ways family members have compared to 'kidnappings', and Donald Trump sent in the national guard and hundreds of US marines in response to local demonstrations. As Trump and other Republicans have tried to paint Bass as the negligent guardian of a city full of wild criminal behavior, Bass has pushed back hard. The political career of Los Angeles' first Black female mayor was forged during the chaos and violence of the 1992 LA uprising, which left more than 50 people dead, and in the long struggle afterwards to rebuild a more equal city. When the Trump administration tried to depict a few protests in downtown Los Angeles as rioting equivalent to the aftermath of the Rodney King trial in 1992, Bass scoffed: 'There is zero comparison,' noting that, as a Black community leader in South Central Los Angeles, 'I was at the epicenter when it was occurring.' Bass has earned widespread praise within California for her forceful denunciation of Trump's immigration raids, and her focus on the safety of LA's immigrant residents, and the terror the raids have caused. She has repeatedly described immigrants as central to the city's identity. 'We are a city of immigrants, and we have always embraced that,' Bass said. She has also made clear that what's happening in Los Angeles has wider importance, and that the tactics the administration is testing out in one Democratic-majority city are likely to be used elsewhere. 'I don't think our city should be used as an experiment,' she said last week. As city leadership, she's been holding it down Eunisses Hernandez, LA city council Bass, a force in California state politics before she spent a decade in Congress, built her reputation on consensus-building and pragmatism, not political grandstanding. Once a favorite of congressional Republicans for her willingness to work across the aisle, she is now denouncing Trump administration officials for the 'outright lie' of their characterization of Los Angeles as a war zone, and saying bluntly that 'this is chaos that was started in Washington DC.' 'As city leadership, she's been holding it down,' said Eunisses Hernandez, a progressive Los Angeles city council member who represents a majority-Latino district north of downtown. 'All of our leaders are navigating unprecedented waters.' In the short time Bass has been mayor – she was inaugurated in December 2022 – she has been faced with a series of escalating post-Covid crises, starting with the city's long-running struggle with homelessness and rising housing costs, then a historic double Hollywood strike in 2023, followed by ongoing economic problems in the city's crucial film and TV business. As multiple wildfires raged across the city this January, she was slammed for having left the city for Ghana during a time of high wildfire risk and dodging questions about her absence. Her leadership during the wildfires left her political future in question, with half the city's voters viewing her unfavorably, according to a May poll. The challenges Bass faces in leading Los Angeles through this new crisis are also only beginning, even as the first wave of Los Angeles' anti-immigration raid protests have quieted in the wake of Saturday's large nationwide demonstrations against the Trump administration. 'Our city is under siege,' said Roland Palencia, an organizational consultant and longtime local activist. 'The plan here is basically, strangle the city: economically, politically, every which way.' At least 2,000 members of the national guard and hundreds of US marines are still staged in downtown Los Angeles. A legal battle over whether Trump illegally deployed the national guard over the protests of California's governor is still playing out: after a Tuesday hearing, a federal appeals court seemed likely to keep the national guard under Trump's control as the litigation continues. I do not believe that individuals that commit vandalism and violence in our city really are in support of immigrants Karen Bass While denouncing the Trump administration for causing chaos in Los Angeles, Bass has also had to confront some of those taking to the streets, demanding that protests be 'peaceful' and responding sharply to anti-Ice graffiti on downtown buildings and businesses, noting that the city was supposed to host the Fifa World Cup in 2026. 'I do not believe that individuals that commit vandalism and violence in our city really are in support of immigrants, they have another agenda,' she said on 10 June. 'The violence and the damage is unacceptable, it is not going to be tolerated, and individuals will be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.' Meanwhile, federal agents are still conducting unpredictable immigration raids across the Los Angeles area, detaining people at work, in parking lots, and even at a weekend swap meet. Family members have been left without any information about their loved ones' whereabouts for days: lawyers and elected officials have described horrific conditions in the facilities where suddenly detained immigrants are being held. On Tuesday, Bass lifted the evening curfew that she had set for a swath of downtown Los Angeles a week before, one that major Los Angeles restaurants had complained had cost them tens of thousands of dollars. But the economic shock waves of the immigration raids are still rippling through the city, with many immigrants, even those with legal status to work in the US, afraid of going to work, or even leaving the house. The message Angelenos have taken from the federal raids so far, Hernandez said, was 'It doesn't matter whether you're documented or not: if you look brown, if you look Latino, if you look like an immigrant, we're going to stop you.' A third of Los Angeles county's roughly 10 million residents were born outside the United States. Half are Latino. An estimated 1 million people here are undocumented. Since the federal government stepped up the raids, swaths of the city once bustling with immigrant businesses and immigrant customers are unusually quiet, community members and local politicians say. 'It is pretty profound to walk up and down the streets and to see the empty streets, it reminded me of Covid,' Bass told the Los Angeles Times during a Father's Day visit to Boyle Heights, a historic Latino neighborhood. Bass has urged Angelenos to help local businesses harmed by the Trump administration's targeting. 'Now is the time to support your local small business and show that LA stands strong and united,' she posted on X on Tuesday. But Hernandez, the city council member, warned that the economic pain of the raids could escalate even further, particularly as immigrant families afraid to send breadwinners to work over the past two weeks faced the threat of being evicted from their homes. 'We cannot afford to have more people fall into the eviction to homelessness pipeline,' she said. When small businesses lost money, Hernandez added, the city's revenue was hurt, as well: 'Our budget – a significant portion of it is made from locally generated tax dollars,' she said. 'That revenue is drying up.' And the city government, already struggling with a huge budget deficit after the wildfires this January, also faced new crisis-related costs, Hernandez said: 'We're spending millions upon millions in police overtime.' She noted that the police department had estimated Ice-raid-related overtime costs at $12m within the first two weeks. Many journalists and activists have criticized the Los Angeles police department's own response to the protests of the past two weeks as violent and heavy-handed. The city of Los Angeles is currently facing a lawsuit from press freedom organizations over the police department's use of force against journalists. Palencia, the longtime activist and organizational consultant, said Bass's commitment to Los Angeles' immigrant community, and to Latinos in particular, was not in doubt. Bass's connection to the Latino community is deep, Palencia said, forged both through her early political activism as the founder of the Community Coalition, a non-profit which built ties between Black and Latino communities in order to jointly confront the challenges of the crack epidemic in the 1990s, and through her own family. Bass's ex-husband was Latino, and she remains very close to her four Mexican American stepchildren and their children. But, Palencia argued, leaders like Bass and the California governor, Gavin Newsom, will need a long-term leadership plan, one that gives more guidance to all the state's residents on how to respond to a new and dangerous situation. Even though Los Angeles had had a quieter week, the feeling that the city was 'under siege' continued, Palencia said. 'It's kind of like a cat-and-mouse situation,' he said. 'It's very fluid – and it can blow up any time.'
