ICYMI: our latest news and top stories from this week. Sign up today so that you never miss our breaking news!

“Nobody’s above the law” was the message that jurors wanted to send on Tuesday evening after former ComEd lobbyist and City Club of Chicago President Jay Doherty; former ComEd executive John Hooker; former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore; and Michael McClain, a former ComEd lobbyist and longtime confidant to ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan were found guilty of bribery conspiracy and falsification of business records, in a trial that pulled back the curtain and exposed the scheme to bribe Madigan in exchange for his support of ComEd’s legislative agenda in the state House of Representatives. Click to read more.

Since 2017, Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau has used a political propaganda website masquerading as legitimate news publications, to control the narrative and ensure positive media coverage – publishing over 70 stories dating back to his 2017 campaign for mayor – and most recently, his failed bid for Congress.

In a Tuesday column written by the Chicago Tribune editorial board, this online portal allows elected officials, candidates and their campaigns to submit stories exactly as they want them published – including op-eds, without any fact checking – ensuring, as the Tribune highlighted, “that the finished ‘article’ was about as objective and probing as a campaign flyer.” Click to read more.

New York City, to the extent it can, is not only banning normal, efficient, affordable natural gas-powered appliances (furnaces, dryers, water heaters, ovens and ranges) from new construction in the city, they are now attempting to require existing buildings to junk the perfectly good appliances they already have, too and replace them with electric-powered versions.

The state of California, to the extent it can, is not only banning some normal, functional, safe, efficient diesel-powered trucks from the congested seaports that need every truck they can get – they are even trying to find a way to ban strong diesel locomotives from their struggling state. Click to read more.

The old saying ‘if the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, you will begin to see every problem as a nail’ is particularly true in the political world. Pollsters continually advise candidates that they need more polls; media gurus argue more radio and television ads; direct mail consultants claim the key to victory is their message in every voter’s mailbox. Social media experts dismiss all of the above as antiquated and inefficient.

However, few political or real-world problems are susceptible to one-size-fits-all solutions. The tendency to reach for the hammer is nowhere more apparent than in the progressive political approach to crime. Progressives are determined to define crime as a nail and their hammer is “gun control.” They have managed to persuade themselves and each other that if there were no firearms in private hands there would be no crime. Click to read more.