Naperville Park District was awarded a $600,000 state grant to help fund $4.25 million in improvements at Nike Sports Complex.

Planned upgrades and new amenities — selected after extensive input was provided by Naperville residents — include the installation of synthetic turf on three existing ball fields, playground renovations, a challenge course area, a 10-foot-wide asphalt loop trail and a shelter overlooking the cricket field.

The grant money comes from the Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development program, administered through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which provides matching funding for park and forest preserve district conservation projects throughout the state.

Since its establishment in 1986, the OSLAD program has awarded $675 million to projects throughout the state, according to an IDNR news release. In this most recent round of funding, $36 million was awarded to 67 local park projects to “help communities acquire land and develop recreational opportunities,” the release said.

“It’s been a tremendous program. It’s certainly benefitted Naperville with the park district being able to bring on various projects and add amenities throughout the community,” park district Executive Director Brad Wilson said. “We’re excited to be able to receive the grant to help with fast-tracking and bringing improvements to the Nike Sports Complex.”

Other Naperville parks that have benefited from the OSLAD grant in the past include Knoch Knolls Park, Meadow Glens Park and Seager Park. To date, the Naperville Park District has been awarded 14 OSLAD grants to help fund various projects.

In addition to the grant, the site improvements will also benefit from a $200,000 donation from Naperville Little League Baseball, which is specifically earmarked for the cost of replacing the grass ball fields with synthetic turf.

Construction on the planned improvements is expected to begin late this year and continue into 2028, officials said.

The Nike complex improvements were initially included in the park district’s proposed $135 million bond sale referendum, but removed after Naperville residents expressed less interest in making changes to the facility compared to other proposed referendum projects.

Now, the district is pursuing a $120 million bond sale for a new Frontier Sports Complex activity center and the expansion of wooded trails in Naperville. Residents will vote on the referendum question in March.

cstein@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/16/naperville-state-grant-nike-complex/ 

The Chicago Cubs Convention is a celebration of the past, present and future, and seldom has that been more evident than this weekend’s party at the Sheraton Grand Chicago.

The 2016 Cubs convened on the 10-year anniversary of their championship season, the current players, manager Craig Counsell and the coaches were on hand to kick off the 2026 campaign and dreams of repeating the once-in-a-lifetime run of ’16 were on everyone’s mind.

The weekend actually got started Thursday night at Wrigley Field when almost the entire 2016 team and other team personnel showed up to laugh, cry and tell a few lies, like any other 10-year reunion.

“It was really cool for me to celebrate their World Series,” Cubs left fielder Ian Happ said with a laugh Friday afternoon.

Happ wasn’t on that team, but he was a first-round draft pick in 2015 and remains as one of two remaining links to that Joe Maddon era, along with Nico Hoerner.

“I was able to hop in and see those guys and just get a chance to see everybody,” Happ said. “Not only the players, but the coaching staff that was here the next year. To see everybody and just say hi and all those old faces was really cool. Felt like it was just yesterday I was playing with those guys. There was a lot of love in that room, all those guys, for each other and what they accomplished.”

President Jed Hoyer said it was a fun night, and every player but Kris Bryant, Jake Arrietta, Hector Rondon, Jorge Soler and Tommy La Stella was on hand. Everyone had their old locker with their nameplates on it.

“It sort of gives the itch a little bit when you think of what that team accomplished and the kind of guys we had on that team,” Hoyer said. “It was obviously a great year and I think we’ll have more celebrations (during the season). A fun night, and I’m more tired tonight than I should be.”

Former Cubs manager David Ross, whom Hoyer fired after the 2023 season so Hoyer could hire the well-respected Counsell, was obviously a big part of that 2016 team. But he hadn’t been seen at Wrigley since the firing, outside of concerts, and told The Athletic last summer that he was blindsided by the decision.

“The way it went down sucked,” Ross said. “I’ve had so many people say the same thing . . . about how I got screwed. I don’t look at it like that. But a lot of people like it a lot less than me.”

Fortunately Ross returned for the reunion and to see best friend Jon Lester announced as one of three new members of the Cubs Hall of Fame, along with Jody Davis and announcer Vince Lloyd.

President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer speaks with the media during the first day of the Cubs Convention on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, at the Sheraton Grand Chicago. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Hoyer said he and Ross spoke at the reunion, and it was not a big deal.

“I’ve talked to him a lot,” Hoyer said of their relationship. “We’ve had a fair amount of communication throughout the last couple years, so it wasn’t the first time we’ve talked.”

All water under the bridge?

“I’m sure there’s naturally disappointment,” Hoyer said of Ross’ feelings. “I think rightfully he feels like he did a really good job. I don’t expect him to feel differently. But we’ve had a lot of conversations over the last couple years and those are cordial and fun.”

Life goes on, and hopefully Ross gets another opportunity to manage. Meanwhile, the Cubs had several hours to celebrate the arrival of free agent Alex Bregman on Thursday before the news hit that the Los Angeles Dodgers signed another free agent, Kyle Tucker, to a four-year, $240 million deal with an average annual value of $60 million, second to Shohei Ohtani’s $70 million per-year average.

The rich got richer, and all across baseball, fans of teams lamented the fact the Dodgers always get what the Dodgers want, no matter the price. According to spotrac.com, the Dodgers have an astounding $2.11 billion in guaranteed salaries on the books.

“Look, I think the Dodgers have run their team and their franchise really, really well,” Counsell said. “Clearly they think they can afford things like that, so that’s pretty amazing, and credit to how they’re running their team. When you get to certain levels (of spending), you do start to ask some questions, but there’s also a side of me that says they’ve taken risks to get to this point, and they should be rewarded for the risks they’ve taken to get there.”

Hoyer said he had conversations with Tucker’s agent, Casey Close, but few expected the All-Star right fielder to return to the Cubs. Hoyer said Tucker had an “interesting season” and helped carry the offense in the first half before slumping.

“He’s a star and got paid like a star,” Hoyer said matter-of-factly.

Few fans mourned the loss of last year’s big offseason addition, and most seemed happy the Cubs at least went out and got a significant free agent in Bregman. There was a decided buzz at the convention for Hoerner, whose high approval rating was apparent as trade rumors swirled. Hoyer said he “thinks the world of Nico,” but it’s his job to listen to any teams regarding trade discussions.

Second baseman Nico Hoerner has a laugh while being interviewed during the first day of the Cubs Convention on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, at the Sheraton Grand Chicago. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Hoerner, who finished second in National League hitting with a .297 average and had a .973 OPS in the postseason, took it all in stride. He noted it was part of the business for any player heading into his walk year without a no-trade clause and said he hopes to stay a Cub.

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“Trade rumors always make you reflect, and anything that makes you question things is always healthy,” Hoerner said. “I absolutely love the Cubs and I’m grateful to be here right now.”

With the addition of Bregman, could this team be the one that emulates the blueprint of those Maddon-led Cubs teams that broke the mold in 2015 and won it all in ’16?

“I joined the organization in ’15, and so I got to see the build between 2015 and ’16,” Happ said. “And there are definitely some similar feelings of building to a really good place, and a really good group, and then adding to that group.

“Seeing those guys in the room (Thursday), and the different personalities and guys that came through, there is a lot of that in this group, and a lot of the (same) love for the game and love for each other. I was lucky to have those experiences with those guys and get to learn from them.

“Hopefully we can implement some of that this year.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/16/chicago-cubs-convention-jed-hoyer-alex-bregman/ 

A new review of studies has found that taking Tylenol during pregnancy doesn’t increase the risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities – adding to the growing body of research refuting claims made by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump last year promoted unproven ties between the painkiller and autism, telling pregnant women: “Don’t take Tylenol.”

The latest research review, published Friday in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women’s Health, looked at 43 studies and concluded that the most rigorous ones, such as those that compare siblings, provide strong evidence that taking the drug commonly known as paracetamol outside of the U.S. does not cause autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities.

It’s “safe to use in pregnancy,” said lead author Dr. Asma Khalil. “It remains … the first line of treatment that we would recommend if the pregnant woman has pain or fever.”

While some studies have raised the possibility of a link between autism risk and using Tylenol, also known as acetaminophen, during pregnancy, more haven’t found a connection.

A review published last year in BMJ said existing evidence doesn’t clearly link the drug’s use during pregnancy with autism or ADHD in offspring. A study published the previous year in the Journal of the American Medical Association also found it wasn’t associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability in an analysis looking at siblings.

But the White House has focused on research supporting a link.

One of the papers cited on its web page, published in BMC Environmental Health last year, analyzed results from 46 previous studies and found that they supported evidence of an association between Tylenol exposure during pregnancy and increased incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders. Researchers noted that the drug is still important for treating pain and fever during pregnancy, but said steps should be taken to limit its use.

Some health experts have raised concerns about that review and the way Trump administration officials portrayed it, pointing out that only a fraction of the studies focus on autism and that an association doesn’t prove cause and effect. Khalil, a fetal medicine specialist at St. George’s Hospital, London, said that review included some studies that were small and some that were prone to bias.

The senior author of that review was Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who noted in the paper that he served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in a case involving potential links between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders. Baccarelli did not respond to an email seeking comment on his study.

Overall, Khalil said, research cited in the public debate showing small associations between acetaminophen and autism is vulnerable to confounding factors. For example, a pregnant woman might take Tylenol for fevers, and fever during pregnancy may raise the risk for autism. Research can also be affected by “recall bias,” such as when the mother of an autistic child doesn’t accurately remember how much of the drug she used during pregnancy after the fact, Khalil said.

When researchers prioritize the most rigorous study approaches – such as comparing siblings to account for the influence of things like genetics – “the association is not seen,” she said.

Genetics are the biggest risk factor for autism, experts say. Other risks include the age of the child’s father, preterm birth and whether the mother had health problems during pregnancy.

In a commentary published with the latest review, a group of researchers who weren’t involved — from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Children’s Hospital Colorado and elsewhere —cautioned that discouraging the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy could lead to inadequate pain or fever control. And that may hurt the baby as well as the mother. Untreated fever and infection in a pregnant woman poses “well-established risks to fetal survival and neurodevelopment,” they said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/16/new-research-tylenol-autism-risk-trump/ 

Rashida Tlaib Melts Down Over America 

Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/16/2026 – 19:40

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rashida-tlaib-melts-down-over-america 

The city of Aurora will honor the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during an event on Monday at East Aurora High School.

The 41st annual MLK Ceremony in Aurora, set to begin at 6 p.m. at the high school at 500 Tomcat Lane, will feature a keynote speech by Stacy Davis Gates, who is president of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, a former high school social studies teacher and a national advocate for educational equity, labor rights and racial justice, according to a news release from the city of Aurora.

Doors will open at 5 p.m., officials said.

The city news release said that Davis Gates, as a prominent labor leader and advocate, embodies King’s vision for economic and racial justice. Her leadership highlights the intersection of public education and civil rights, city officials said.

The evening will also include youth and adult performances along with the presentation of the Donna J. Williams MLK Service Awards and the MLK Youth Liberation Awards, officials said.

The city of Aurora has gathered to commemorate the birth and mission of Martin Luther King Jr. for over 40 years, according to the news release.

As part of the day’s events, three workshops centered on King’s legacy and philosophy will take place from 1 to 4 P.M. Monday at East Aurora High School, according to organizers.

The interactive workshops will focus on art, faith in action and anti-war activism, organizers said. The workshops are open to all ages and will be facilitated by local leaders.

More information about the events can be found on the city’s website at: www.aurora.il.us/Recreation-and-Amenities/Events/Special-Events/MLK-Day

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/16/aurora-to-honor-legacy-of-martin-luther-king-jr-during-monday-event/ 

CAIRO — The White House released the names of some of the leaders who will play a role in overseeing next steps in Gaza after the Palestinian committee set to govern the territory under U.S. supervision met for the first time Friday in Cairo.

The committee’s leader, Ali Shaath, an engineer and former Palestinian Authority official from Gaza, pledged to get to work quickly to improve conditions. He expects reconstruction and recovery to take about three years and plans to focus first on immediate needs, including shelter.

“The Palestinian people were looking forward to this committee, its establishment and its work to rescue them,” Shaath said after the meeting, in a television interview with Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahera News.

U.S. President Donald Trump supports the group’s efforts to govern Gaza after the two-year war between Israel and Hamas. Israeli troops withdrew from parts of Gaza after the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, while thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to what is left of their homes.

Now, there will be a number of huge challenges going forward, including the deployment of an international security force to supervise the ceasefire deal and the difficult process of disarming Hamas.

Under Trump’s plan, Shaath’s technocratic committee will run day-to-day affairs in Gaza under the oversight of a Trump-led “Board of Peace,” whose members have not yet been named.

White House names some officials to oversight boards

The White House said an executive board will work to carry out the vision of the Board of Peace.

The executive board’s members include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and Trump’s deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel.

Nickolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and U.N. Mideast envoy, is to serve as the executive board’s representative overseeing day-to-day matters.

The White House also announced the members of another board, the “Gaza Executive Board,” which will work with Mladenov, the technocratic committee and the international stabilization force.

Witkoff, Kushner, Blair, Rowan and Mladenov will also sit on that board. Additional members include: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan; Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi; Hassan Rashad, director of Egypt’s General Intelligence Agency; Emirati minister Reem Al-Hashimy; Israeli businessman Yakir Gabay; and Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands’ former deputy prime minister and a Mideast expert.

Death of boy mourned in the West Bank

In the West Bank, friends and relatives gathered Friday to mourn the death of a 14-year-old Palestinian boy killed by Israeli forces.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, which confirmed his death, said Mohammad Na’san was the first child killed by the army in the occupied West Bank in 2026.

Residents said Israeli forces fired stun grenades and tear gas in an unprovoked attack. Israel’s military said in a statement that the incursion came after Palestinians had hurled rocks at Israelis and set tires aflame.

“There was gunfire directed at citizens and farmers, the most dangerous of which occurred during the storming of the village as people were leaving the mosques. The streets were crowded with the elderly, children, women, and elders, and they began firing relentlessly,” said Ameen Abu Aliya, head of the Al-Mughayyir village council.

The death was the latest episode of violence to hit al-Mughayyir, a village east of Ramallah that has become a flashpoint in the West Bank. Much of the community’s agricultural land falls under Israeli military control.

Early this year, settlers and Israeli military bulldozers destroyed olive groves in the area, saying they were searching for Palestinian gunmen. A children’s park in al-Mughayyir was also demolished.

In 2025, 240 Palestinians — including 55 children — were killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank, while Palestinians killed 17 Israelis — including one child — in the region, according to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, two children were killed Friday in Gaza, a 7-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy. They were killed in Beith Lahiya, near the Yellow Line, and their bodies taken to al-Shifa Hospital, the hospital said. No further details were immediately available.

Price reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Jalal Bwaitel and Imed Isseid contributed to this report from Ramallah, Wafaa Shurafa from Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Matthew Lee from Washington.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/16/white-house-gaza-palestinian-committee/ 

A political action committee with ties to Gov. JB Pritzker launched a “seven-figure” ad campaign Friday backing his two-time running mate, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, in her Democratic primary bid for U.S. Senate.

The first ad supporting Stratton’s candidacy comes six months after the top fundraiser in the March 17 primary race, U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg, hit the screens of televisions and other devices across Illinois with ubiquitous commercials paid through his own campaign fund.

The new 30-second PAC spot, which underscores Stratton’s close working relationship with Pritzker and incorporates several images of them together, is airing on broadcast TV, cable and digital platforms, according to Illinois Future PAC, which paid for the ad. Pritzker endorsed Stratton the day after she entered the race, and he, his wife, MK, and their two children all have contributed directly to her campaign.

“What will it take to lower costs in Illinois?” the ad’s narrator says. “You need the grit of growing up working class. That ‘working mom of four’ ability to get things done. The kind of person who worked with Gov. Pritzker to save health care for millions and protect abortion rights.”

The pro-Stratton ad drew a quick complaint from Krishnamoorthi’s campaign, which sent a letter to Chicago TV stations that were slated to air the ad, alerting them that the commercial did not include the required written disclaimer that it was not authorized by Stratton or her campaign.

The ad was paid for by Illinois Future PAC, a super political action committee led by former Pritzker deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks. Illinois Future, which formed 12 days before Stratton formally announced her candidacy for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Dick Durbin, has yet to report raising any money.

Illinois Future spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh, who was Pritzker’s government press secretary and worked on his 2018 campaign for governor, declined to comment on any contributions from the governor, pointing to the upcoming Jan. 31 deadline for federal disclosures covering the end of 2025.

Pritzker campaign spokesman Alex Gough, another former press secretary for the governor, did not respond Friday to a request for comment.

In response to the Krishnamoorthi campaign’s complaint to TV stations, Abudayyeh said, “The disclaimer in the ad has been updated, and the advertisement will continue to run without interruption.”

Krishnamoorthi’s campaign, in a letter from attorney Michael Dorf, told stations the ad was “designed to mislead the public by failing to properly disclose its status as an Independent Expenditure by Illinois Future PAC, and its nonaffiliation with any candidate or any candidate’s committee.”

The letter, which warned stations that they had “an obligation to cease airing this advertisement immediately,” also took issue with the similarity between a logo used in the ad and one used by Juliana for Illinois, Stratton’s campaign committee.

“In conjunction, these two facts produce an advertisement designed to intentionally mislead the public into a believed official relationship between Juliana for Illinois and the Illinois Future PAC ad,” the letter says.

Illinois Future countered that Krishnamoorthi’s campaign was trying to distract from questions about its contributors, including some who hold contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement and have supported President Donald Trump.

“It is no surprise that congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi would prefer voters not hear about Juliana’s proven record of delivering results for the people of Illinois,” Abudayyeh said. “Nothing in the advertisement misrepresents that record.”

Stratton’s campaign plans to launch its own television ads in the final two months before the primary, spokeswoman Allison Janowski said Friday, but she declined to provide additional details.

As of Friday, the Illinois Future ad backing Stratton was slated to air on all three major network affiliates, as well as WGN-Ch. 9 and cable television, according to Federal Communications Commission records.

From July through September, the most recent period for which records are available, Krishnamoorthi’s campaign reported spending nearly $4.8 million on TV ads, more than double the total amount Stratton’s campaign had reported raising since launching in late April.

On Friday evening, Stratton’s campaign sent a fundraising email in the governor’s name, in which the billionaire Hyatt Hotels heir asks supporters to “chip in $3 today to help Juliana regain momentum.”

“Juliana is running a true grassroots campaign — no corporate PAC money — and that means every dollar we raise right now goes directly toward reaching voters, organizing on the ground, and making sure her message cuts through the noise,” Pritzker says in the email solicitation.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/16/juliana-stratton-senate-pritzker-pac-ad/ 

WASHINGTON — Michael Ben’Ary was driving one of his children to soccer practice on an October evening last year when he paused at a red light to check his work phone. He was in the middle of a counterterrorism prosecution so important that President Donald Trump highlighted it in his address to Congress.

Ben’Ary said he was shocked to see his phone had been disabled. He found the explanation later in his personal email account, a letter informing him he had been fired.

A veteran prosecutor, Ben’Ary handled high-profile cases over two decades at the Justice Department, including the murder of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent and a suicide bomb plot targeting the U.S. Capitol. Most recently he was leading the case arising from a deadly attack on American service members in Afghanistan.

Yet the same credentials that enhanced Ben’Ary’s résumé spelled the undoing of his government career.

His termination without explanation came hours after right-wing commentator Julie Kelly told hundreds of thousands of online followers that Ben’Ary had previously served as a senior counsel to Lisa Monaco, the No. 2 Justice Department official in Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. Kelly also suggested Ben’Ary was part of the “internal resistance” to prosecuting former FBI Director James Comey, even though Ben’Ary was never involved in the case.

As Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, approaches her first year on the job, the firings of lawyers such as Ben’Ary have defined her turbulent tenure. The terminations and a larger voluntary exodus of lawyers have erased centuries of combined experience and left the department with fewer career employees to act as a bulwark for the rule of law at a time when Trump, a Republican, is testing the limits of executive power by demanding prosecutions of his political enemies.

Interviews by The Associated Press of more than a half-dozen fired employees offer a snapshot of the toll throughout the department. The departures include lawyers who prosecuted violent attacks on police at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; environmental, civil rights and ethics enforcers; counterterrorism prosecutors; immigration judges; and attorneys who defend administration policies. This week, several prosecutors in Minnesota moved to resign amid turmoil over an investigation into the shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

“To lose people at that career level, people who otherwise intended to stay and now are either being discharged or themselves are walking away, is immensely damaging to the public interest,” said Stuart Gerson, a senior official in the George H.W. Bush administration and acting attorney general early in Bill Clinton’s administration. “We’re losing really capable people, people who have never viewed themselves as political and attempted to do the right thing.”

Justice Connection, a network of department alums, estimates that more than 230 lawyers, agents and other employees from across the department were fired last year, apparently because of their work on cases they were assigned or past criticism of Trump, or seemingly no reason. More than 6,400 employees are estimated to have left a department that at the end of 2025 had roughly 108,000, the group says.

The Justice Department says it has hired thousands of career attorneys over the past year. The Trump administration has characterized some of the fired and departed workers as out of step with its agenda.

Ben’Ary left with unfinished business, including the prosecution stemming from the airport bombing in Kabul, the Afghan capital, and the national security unit he led at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Left to pack his belongings, he posted a typed note near his door that functioned as a distress call, reminding colleagues they had sworn an oath to follow the facts “without fear or favor” and “unhindered by political interference.”

But, he warned, “In recent months, the political leadership of the Department have violated these principles, jeopardizing our national security and making American citizens less safe.”

Unparalleled in scale, scope and motivation

Since its founding in 1870, the Justice Department has occupied elevated status in American democracy, sustained through transitions of power by reliance on facts, evidence and law.

To be sure, there has always been a political component to the department, with lawyers appointed by the president.

But even during turbulent times, when attorneys general have been pushed out by presidents or resigned rather than accede to White House demands — as in the Watergate-era “Saturday Night Massacre” — the department’s rank and file have generally been insulated thanks to long-recognized civil service protections.

“This is completely unprecedented in both its scale and scope and underlying motivation,” said Peter Keisler, a senior official in the George W. Bush Justice Department.

In his first term, Trump pushed out one attorney general and accepted another’s resignation, but the workforce remained largely intact. He returned to office in January 2025 seething over Biden-era prosecutions of him and vowing retribution.

The firings began even before Bondi arrived in February. Prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team that investigated Trump were terminated days after the inauguration, followed by prosecutors hired on temporary assignments for cases resulting from the Capitol insurrection in 2021.

“The people working on these cases were not political agents of any kind,” said Aliya Khalidi, a Jan. 6 prosecutor who was fired. “It’s all people who just care about the rule of law.”

The firings have continued, at times surgical, at times random and almost always without explanation.

Adam Schleifer, a Los Angeles prosecutor targeted in a social media post by far-right activist Laura Loomer over past critical comments of Trump, was fired in March. The Justice Department the following month fired attorney Erez Reuveni, who conceded in court that Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported. Reuveni later accused the department of trying to mislead judges to execute deportations. Department officials deny the assertion.

Two weeks after Maurene Comey completed a sex trafficking trial against Sean “Diddy” Combs, the New York prosecutor was fired, also without explanation. Like Ben’Ary, she wrote a pointed farewell, telling colleagues that “fear is the tool of a tyrant.” Her father, the former FBI director who was a frequent Trump target, said those same words after being indicted in September in a case that has been dismissed.

Among the most affected sections is the storied Civil Rights Division. A recent open letter of protest was signed by more than 200 employees who left in 2025, with several supervisors recently giving notice of plans to depart. The Public Integrity Section, which prosecutes sensitive public corruption cases, has also been hollowed out by resignations.

The Justice Department has disputed the accounts of some of those who have been fired or quit and has defended the termination of those who investigated Trump as “consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government.”

“This is the most efficient Department of Justice in American history, and our attorneys will continue to deliver measurable results for the American people,” the department said in a statement. More than 3,400 career attorneys have been hired since Trump took office, the department says.

The departures have caused backlogs and staff shortages, with senior leaders soliciting job applications. It has affected the department’s daily business as well as efforts to fulfill Trump’s desires to prosecute political opponents.

Desperate for lawyers willing to file criminal cases against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, the administration in September forced out the veteran U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, replacing him with Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide with no experience as a federal prosecutor.

Halligan secured the indictments but the win was short-lived.

One judge later identified grave missteps in how Halligan presented the Comey case to a grand jury. Another dismissed both prosecutions outright, calling Halligan’s appointment unlawful.

Smith, the special counsel who investigated Trump but left before he could be fired, has himself lamented the losses. “These are not partisans,” he recently told lawmakers.

“They just want to do good work,” he added, “and I think when you lose that culture, you lose a lot.”

‘Our dream was to be federal prosecutors’

Khalidi joined the department in 2023 in a group of new prosecutors hired to help with the hundreds of cases stemming from the Capitol riot.

Upon Trump’s return to the White House, she watched cases she prosecuted get dismantled by Trump’s sweeping clemency for all 1,500 defendants charged in the riot, including those who attacked police.

Less than two weeks later, a Justice Department demand for the names of FBI agents involved in Jan. 6 investigations triggered rumors of potential mass firings. Worried about the agents she worked with, Khalidi spent the day checking in on them. But as she started preparing dinner one Friday evening, she received an email suggesting she had lost her own job.

Attached was a memo from then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordering the firings of prosecutors such as Khalidi who had been hired for temporary assignments but were moved into permanent roles after Trump’s win, a maneuver Bove called “subversive personnel actions by the previous administration.” Neither the email nor memo identified the fired prosecutors, leaving them to guess.

Khalidi grabbed a suitcase to collect family photos and other personal items she kept at work and rushed to the office, retreating with fellow shocked prosecutors to a bar where they received termination emails.

The group of 15 fired attorneys later assembled to surrender their computers and phones, entering the same room where they gathered on their first day in 2023.

“For a lot of us, our dream was to be federal prosecutors,” Khalidi said. “And so we had happy memories of that room, of being excited on our first day. So it was just kind of surreal to be back there turning in our stuff.”

The news came for Anam Petit, an immigration judge, during a break between hearings.

Hired during the Biden administration, she said she felt a little uneasy when Trump won the election but also figured her position would probably be safe because immigration judges generally have job stability and because they bear responsibility for issuing removal orders for those who are in the United States illegally, a core presidential priority.

Petit arrived on Sept. 5 bracing for bad news because it was the Friday of the pay period before her two-year work anniversary, when her probationary appointment was poised to become permanent. Though she said she had received strong performance reviews and had already exceeded her case completion goal for the year, she had become anxious as colleagues were fired amid an administration push to accelerate deportations.

She was in the courtroom between hearings when she learned via email that she had been fired. She left to text her husband, then returned to the courtroom to render a decision in the case before her.

“I just put my phone back in my pocket and went into the courtroom and delivered my decision, with a very shaky voice and shaky hands, trying to center myself back to that decision just so that I could relay it,” Petit said.

Joseph Tirrell was mindful of his job security from the very start of the Trump administration. As the department’s chief ethics officer, he had affirmed that Smith, the special counsel, was entitled to a law firm’s free legal services, a decision he sensed had the potential to rile incoming leadership.

But he remained in the position and over the ensuing months counseled Bondi’s staff on the propriety of accepting various gifts, including a cigar box from mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor.

He was fired in July, just before a FIFA Club World Cup final in New Jersey that Tirrell had said Bondi could not ethically accept a free invitation to. He was not terribly surprised, he says, when it was later reported that Bondi attended in Trump’s box. The Justice Department said in a statement that none of Tirrell’s advice “was ever overruled” and that “the Attorney General obtained ethics approval to attend this event in her official capacity as a member of the FIFA Task Force.”

“There’s a great deal of fear there just because I was fired and just because so many others were summarily fired,” Tirrell said. “Are you going to get fired because you provided ethics advice? Are you going to get fired because you have a pride flag on your desk?”

‘Our country depends on you’

Trump was promoting his administration’s commitment to counterterrorism during his address to Congress in March when he announced a success: the capture of a militant from the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate who was charged in the Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 American service members during the 2021 withdrawal from the country.

Mohammad Sharifullah arrived the following day in the United States, encountering Ben’Ary in an Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom.

Ben’Ary spent the next several months working on the case, but on Oct. 1, he was fired. It was the apparent result, he told colleagues, of a social media post he said contained “false information” — a reference to the one from Kelly, the commentator.

The termination was so abrupt that Ben’Ary could not tell his colleagues where he had saved important filings and notes. Another prosecutor listed on the case, James Comey’s son-in-law, Troy Edwards, had resigned days earlier upon Comey’s indictment. Once set for trial last month, the case has been postponed.

In his farewell note, Ben’Ary observed that he was not alone, that in “just a few short months” career employees like himself had been removed from U.S. attorneys offices, the FBI “and other critical parts of DOJ.”

“While I am no longer your colleague, I ask that each of you continue to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons,” Ben’Ary wrote. “Follow the facts and the law. Stand up for what we all believe in — our Constitution and the rule of law. Our country depends on you.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/16/trump-administration-justice-department-experience/ 

US Foreclosures Up 14% In 2025; Florida Tops States

Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/16/2026 – 19:15

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/us-foreclosures-14-2025-florida-tops-states 

An estimated 2 million Illinois residents who’ve served their sentences for nonviolent offenses will become eligible to have their state criminal records automatically sealed from public view beginning in 2029, under the so-called Clean Slate measure Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law Friday.

Following the lead of a dozen other states, Illinois will automate the byzantine process of sealing records that can stand in the way of people obtaining jobs, housing and education, a move supporters say will help those with past convictions escape cycles of poverty and crime.

“For too long, we have been shutting doors for Illinoisans that are coming home from incarceration, nonviolent offenders trying to properly reenter society, get back on their feet and be law-abiding, productive members of society,” Pritzker said Friday during a news conference at XS Tennis, a training and education center in the Washington Park neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. “They too often face insurmountable barriers and stigma in finding jobs and housing and education. For many, that means it can be easier to fall back into old patterns rather than build a new life.”

Of the roughly 2 million people in Illinois who are eligible to have their records sealed under existing state law, only about 6,000 each year go through the labor-intensive legal process required to get it done, Pritzker said.

“That’s not fair or just. It’s also not smart,” the governor said, noting that stable employment and housing and access to higher education, all of which can be denied as a result of routine background screenings, make it less likely someone will end up back in prison.

The new law doesn’t change which convictions can be sealed; it only makes the sealing automatic, applying to only some misdemeanor and felony convictions. Convictions for violent crimes, sex crimes, drunken driving and other serious offenses are not eligible.

Police, prosecutors and courts will continue to have access to sealed records, as will other entities regulated by state and federal law, including school and park districts, financial institutions and public transit agencies, through the Illinois State Police background check system.

Under the law, the Illinois State Police will be tasked with identifying criminal records dating back to 1970 that are eligible for automatic sealing, while circuit court clerks across the state will be responsible for sealing the records and notifying local law enforcement agencies. The Pritzker administration estimates that automating the process, which will require an upgrade to state police records systems, will cost $20 million over five years, funds that lawmakers will have to approve as part of the state’s annual spending plan.

The measure, approved with mostly bipartisan support during the General Assembly’s fall veto session, was hailed by a broad array of lawmakers, criminal justice reform advocates, law enforcement officials and business groups during Friday’s signing ceremony.

“I know I’m supposed to have a little decorum, but, Mr. Governor, we’re at a celebratory event today,” advocate Sheena Meade, chief director of the Clean Slate Initiative, said as she stepped to the microphone.

“Clean slate!” Meade called out, turning to the audience.

“Can’t wait!” an enthusiastic group of supporters inside the cavernous tennis center replied.

“And it didn’t,” Meade said.

“This victory did not happen by accident and overnight,” Meade continued. “It was the result of tireless organizing, collaboration, power building, by advocates, lawmakers, community leaders. … Today, the red tape is cut.”

Democratic state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth of Peoria, who sponsored the measure in the House, connected the potential impact of the new law to her own experience: A shoplifting conviction from when she was 18 was used against her in her first legislative campaign in 2008.

“When I decided to run for office for the first time, both opponents in that election cycle used it against me, once in the primary and again in the general,” Gordon-Booth said. “They spent over a million dollars telling the entire community, taking the worst thing that I had ever done in my life and told the story of me. But that wasn’t me. But that’s what happens when people have convictions: They are judged by the worst moment in their lives as though that is who they are.”

Gordon-Booth, who went on to win the election that year, said she “was given the chance to move beyond my mistake and to manifest my potential in service of my community, and I want the millions of other people in this state to have that same exact opportunity.

“This law is not about charity. It’s not about forgiveness,” she said. “This is about justice. This is about redemption.”

Since 2020, Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser, a Democrat, has run a program twice a year in which local attorneys help people who are eligible fill out the paperwork necessary to have their records sealed. Her office has never had trouble reaching the 50-person cap for each session, she said.

“This legislation is going to give that opportunity to millions of people so that they don’t have to face the burden of having to overcome a system where it’s difficult to find the paperwork, it’s difficult to fill out the paperwork, and it’s really difficult to be able to represent yourself,” Mosser said.

Noting frequent disagreements between law enforcement and some lawmakers over criminal justice issues, Mosser said, “Here, we in law enforcement agree this is exactly the way forward, and I’m very proud to have been a part of the team that helped to put this law into effect.”

While the measure was approved with some Republican support in both the House and the Senate, opposition from some GOP lawmakers remained.

Republican Sen. Steve McClure, a former prosecutor from the Springfield area, said during the fall session that, among other concerns, the measure could create situations where people who have been convicted of financial exploitation would have their records automatically sealed and then be able to work with elderly residents.

“We’re talking about issues where someone would be in a situation where they could deal with vulnerable people,” McClure said during a committee debate. “And those positions will be filled by employers that no longer have access to information that could cause someone to be victimized.”

For advocate Marlon Chamberlain, though, the significance of the new law is that it will give people who have already served their sentences a chance for a new start. It’s what he was looking for when he walked out of federal prison in 2012 after serving 13 years of a 20-year sentence for a drug crime, a record that will not be sealed under the Illinois law.

“‘Clean slate’ does not remove the accountability from what happened,” said Chamberlain, executive director of the Illinois Coalition to End Permanent Punishments. “It simply acknowledges that at some point the punishment has to end.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/16/jb-pritzker-clean-slate-act/