Results tagged “southcarolina”

Stephen Kazmierczak's professors and classmates say he seemed like a normal guy. [Trib]

Well, the hits just kept on coming for one Mr. Christopher T. Turner of South Carolina. Last February, he checked into the Drake, where he was staying while on a business trip. He decided to have a little whiskey from the minibar, but when he drank the mini bottle of Dewar's White Label Scotch Whiskey, he says it tasted like urine.

An unrelated mystery has been solved as police investigate the Tinley Park murders. A con woman, evading police for years, was apprehended this weekend because police tracked down the owners of the cars parked near the Lane Bryant, where the fugitive Esther Reed had left her car, which was registered under an assumed identity.

Today's the big day. Along with 24 other states, we're voting in Super Duper Tuesday. Up for grabs are 1688 pledged Democratic delegates, and 900 Republican delegates. Delegate-heavy states such as California, New Jersey, New York, Illinois and Georgia could play a deciding role in the outcome of both races. But with polling showing a tight Democratic race, and Obama working overtime to split votes in odd-numbered districts, tonight's results won't produce a nominee for the Democrats.

John McCain changed careers last night, from the candidate who was almost out of money (and the race) last summer to quite possibly the Republican presidential nominee. He's now the man to beat. The close but critical win in Florida gave him 57 delegates and a solid lead going into Super Duper Tuesday, (there are no superdelegates at the Republican National Convention). Hillary Clinton won the non-binding Florida race, a largely symbolic victory that featured virtually no campaigning and earned her no delegates to the convention.

With this year's presidential primaries perhaps the most exciting in recent memory, the media, and the nation, have paid very little attention to today's Democratic primary in Florida. Unlike the Republicans, who will let half of the state's delegates vote at the convention, the Democrats stripped Florida of its delegates to the August convention for holding a primary earlier than party rules allowed. As part of the party's castigation of the state, Democrats have agreed not to campaign in Florida, an agreement that has been honored until now.

The South Carolina Democratic primary could have been a footnote in this year's race to the nomination. The Clintons fought hard in South Carolina, hoping that Bill's popularity in the black community could divide the vote, giving an unexpected win to Hillary. By the time the exit polls indicated that Obama had carried the state by wide margins, the Clintons were dismissing Obama's win as a by-product of the racial demographics in this southern state, the "black candidate" that carried a mostly African-American electorate. But the large turnout yesterday (over half a million by some estimates) combined with Obama's strong showing among non-black voters give the freshman Senator from Illinois new momentum heading into the February 5 vote.

With lots of delegates and potential momentum going into Super-Duper Tuesday, Nevada's primary has been both contentious and significant this year. Earlier this week a federal judge settled a lawsuit brought by the Nevada Teachers Union that should have helped Obama. Instead, with more than half of the precincts reporting, CBS, CNN and other major news outlets are projecting Clinton the winner today. Mitt Romney was the big winner in the GOP caucuses, taking his third primary win, and some serious momentum heading into Florida.

Now that the Michigan primary is safely behind us, all eyes are focused on Nevada and South Carolina. For Democrats, who need at least 2,025 delegates to win the presidential nomination, Nevada's caucuses this Saturday offer 33 delegates. Not only is the nation looking at the Silver State, where early voting is a new experience for a mix of Latino, rural and urban voters, but so are the federal courts. Hillary Clinton has been polling well there, but Barack Obama has been endorsed by the state's largest union, the Culinary Workers. This endorsement is significant not only because it is the largest union in the state, but also because the state's Democratic party has opted to hold nine "at-large" caucuses, open to anyone within 2.5 miles of the Las Vegas strip, where the bulk of CWU members work. Intended to make voting easier for shift-workers in Nevada's casino industry, the move prompted a lawsuit by the Nevada Teachers Union. The lawsuit claimed that those voting in at-large precincts being held on the Strip would have too much weight compared with those voting at their polling places, infringes on the right to equal protection guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and violate state statute in the way they were drawn.

Michigan defied the conventional wisdom yesterday, giving Mitt Romney 30 delegates to the national convention and his second primary win.

For Michigan Democrats, the choices in today's primary are pretty stark. Late last year, Michigan Senator Carl Levin supported moving Michigan's primary up to January 15 in an attempt to make the state more relevant in this year's race. That move backfired, however, when the Democratic National Committee punished the state party by stripping it of all its delegates at the convention. Party rules mandate that Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina hold the first primaries.

Hillary Clinton's "Emotional Moment" in the Portsmouth, NH café on Monday has already become the stuff of myth, with many pundits directly and indirectly attributing Clinton's surprise victory in Tuesday's primary to the tears that almost fell (but never actually did). Leave it to Chicago's own Jesse Jackson Jr., co-chairman of Barack Obama's national campaign, to siphon the tears out of the excretory ducts of Clinton's eyes and leverage them for political gain:

In what could quite possibly be the nail biter of the season, Hillary Clinton pulled it out last night, winning the New Hampshire Democratic primary by a two to three point lead over Iowa front-runner Barack Obama. While most of the media was writing Hillary's political obituary, she was winning New Hampshire. With the Nevada caucuses next, and the black vote potentially split between the Clintons and Barack Obama, South Carolina may be back in play. In fact, Clinton's win last night showed one of Obama's key weaknesses: his reliance on independent and new voters. Female and older voters seemed to gravitate towards Clinton last night, with 45 percent of female Democratic voters chose Clinton. Voters over the age of 40 also picked Clinton, with nearly 70 percent going for Hillary over Obama.

The big news from the campaign trail yesterday evening was an emotional moment with Hillary Clinton and a group of sympathetic, yet undecided, New Hampshire voters. When asked "how do you do it? How do you keep up ... and who does your hair?", Hillary Clinton choked up as she responded, tears welling up in her eyes. Less widely reported, however, was an incident of two men who heckled her in Salem, NH, holding signs that read "Iron My Shirt", and chanting the same slogan. As the hecklers were removed, Clinton responded "ah, the remnants of sexism" to cheers from the crowd. “I’m also running to break through the highest and hardest glass ceiling,” she told the audience.

Oprah has been doing everything in her colossal and terrifyingly formidable power to see that Obama is elected, but now she's taking it up a notch by going on the campaign trail with him. While she won't be offering everyone in Iowa a new car, she will be stopping there in the first week of December, as well as in South Carolina and New Hampshire. Tickets for each of the four stops (two in Iowa,...

Is Barack Obama a hypocrite? Bloggers want to know. Obama's looking for votes in South Carolina--that primary is only 97 days away--by hosting three gospel concerts. (We've seen Obama use gospel music to inspire people before.) Included in the line-up is minister and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Donnie McClurkin, who says "homosexuality is abominable" and can be "cured" with prayer. (FWIW, he also says prayer cured his leukemia.) Obama released a statement on the LGBT section of...

Servers aren't cheap, so we'd like to take a moment to thank the advertisers on Chicagoist this week: Busted Tees for making us feel like our T-shirt collection isn't quite funny enough. Strong American Schools lest we end up like Miss Teen South Carolina. If you want to become an advertiser on Chicagoist or the Gothamist Network of sites, why not take a look at our handy-dandy online mediakit?...

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires...

Anyone who's seen The Neo-Futurists’ weekly show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind knows the purveyors of this evening of rapid-fire entertainment regularly rely on the audience for seriocomic inspiration. We've seen these performers take up a collection for a poor college kid, treat random ticket holders to ice cream treats, start an impromptu dance party, and enlist the entire room in silent protest against the invasion of Iraq. The Neos also produce...

We absolutely love it when crazy rich people run for president for no other reason than they are rich and crazy. If you're like us and you're sick and tired of regular rich people running for prez, then you'll be happy to hear we have a new crazy dude running for president right here in Chicago! It's not really whether Gold Coast millionaire John H. Cox would be a great candidate that makes this a...

With the grown-ups film fest out of the way for another year, it’s time for the kids to get theirs with the Chicago International Children's Film Festival. The CICFF kicked off last Thursday with an opening gala hosted by Chicago’s own Harold Ramis. A friend of Chicagoist reports that Ramis kept it real and was nice enough to sign his nephew’s Ghostbusters DVD. You’re all heart, Egon. Though the fest runs through November 6th, screenings...

Last week, the NCAA instituted a new policy that would ban schools using "hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery" during NCAA Championships and would prevent offending schools from hosting postseason events. While broad in policy, the NCAA has squarely aimed these new rules at the 18 schools with Native American nicknames -- including the University of Illinois Fighting Illini. Many have been outspoken in their opposition to the NCAA's decision, including Florida...

Wow, it was a busy weekend here in the Chicagoist sports offices! Bears draft, Bulls playoffs, Sox winning streak... First up this weekend was the NFL Draft. Wanting to bring the Chicagoist readers a first hand account, we set an alarm on a Saturday to be up for the big day. Around 12:30pm, moments after their 15 minute clock had expired, the Bears selected Texas running back Cedric Benson with the 4th pick. This was...

Bill Murray owns a what now? A restaurant? Wait. Restaurants? As in plural? So it seems that North Shore native Murray, as well as his brothers, own a small, fast-casual chain of golf-themed restaurants in Florida and South Carolina called, naturally, Murray Bros. Caddyshack Restaurants. And according to the Trib today, they're looking to bring one or two of them to Chicago. Let us state of the record that we at Chicagoist are huge Bill...

Oh, good heavens! Chicagoist’s dearest neighbor in the southwesterly direction, the fair city of Peoria, has been officially recognized as one of our nation’s most well-mannered cities. Let us demonstrate our deepest approval in a fitting manner, with just a hint of a grin and gentle applause. Prim and proper Peoria was recognized by 79-year-old etiquette princess Marjabelle Young Stewart, of Kewanee, Illinois, who has been compiling the best-mannered list for the past 28 years....