Happy New Year 2025

Tag: Illinois

Illinois botches Terrence Shannon Jr jersey retirement ceremony with hilarious gaffe during unveiling

How about we try that again, Fighting Illini?

During a halftime jersey retirement ceremony for University of Illinois great men’s basketball player, Terrence Shannon Jr., the unveiling of his retired No. 0 threads went awry at State Farm Center on Saturday.

Everything looked great until Shannon’s jersey was upside down when he pulled the cord to show everyone in the arena.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Former Fighting Illini player Terrence Shannon Jr. reacts as he reveals his jersey at State Farm Center, on Feb. 15, 2025, in Champaign, Illinois. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Illinois apologized after the gaffe led to a viral moment.

“Before we get into the substance of the game tonight, obviously, we had a regrettable situation at halftime with the jersey around [Shannon’s] celebration,” Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman said after the 79-65 loss to Michigan State, per The New York Post. “Obviously, a really regrettable moment. It’s a shame that it happened that way.

“Of course, I didn’t hang the jersey, but I’m ultimately responsible for everything that happens in this building, and ultimately, that means that was on me tonight. We need to make sure we understand that in life, mistakes happen. But there are also certain moments where mistakes can’t happen. And tonight, we stole that moment from [Shannon] and that’s on us and something that we have apologized to him for, apologized to his mom. We want to make sure that we apologize to our fans and everybody who was excited to be a part of this experience tonight.”

DUKE STAR COOPER FLAGG, PROJECTED TO BE NO. 1 PICK IN NBA DRAFT, MAKES SURPRISE ADMISSION ABOUT FUTURE

Shannon, who now plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves after being selected 27th overall in the 2024 NBA Draft, was a crucial to the Fighting Illini reaching the Elite Eight in this past year’s NCAA Tournament.

He averaged 23 points per game to help his school get that far in the tournament for the first time since 2005. Shannon, who spent his first three years at Texas Tech, also averaged 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game while shooting 47.5% from the field.

Terrence Shannon Jr. speaks to the crowd during his jersey retirement ceremony at halftime during the Michigan State Spartansgame at State Farm Center on Feb. 15, 2025, in Champaign, Illinois. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

His final collegiate season wasn’t without some off-court issues, though, as he was arrested in December 2023 and suspended after being charged with sexual assault and rape.

An 18-year-old woman accused Shannon of grabbing her and sexually touching her without consent at a bar on Sept. 9, 2023, after the Fighting Illini faced the Kansas Jayhawks in a football game.

Shannon was ultimately reinstated after his lawyers challenged the claims. He was eventually found not guilty of rape and sexual assault in Douglas County, Kansas, in June 2024.

Shannon expressed his excitement for the jersey retirement, which he said came as a shock when he heard what his alma mater wanted to do after only two seasons.

Terrence Shannon Jr. stands with athletic director Josh Whitman during his jersey retirement ceremony at State Farm Center on Feb. 15, 2025. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“I was just happy,” he said. “I’m grateful to have the opportunity to get my jersey up there.”

Illinois just has to get it right-side-up in the rafters.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Scott Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.

February 16, 2025
Trump to pardon former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Fox News confirms

President Donald Trump is expected to pardon former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Fox News has learned.

Blagojevich, a former “Celebrity Apprentice” contestant, served eight years in prison on charges stemming from his effort to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat after Obama won the 2008 presidential election.

Former Illinois governor and convicted felon Rod Blagojevich speaks to the press outside the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Aug. 2, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Trump commuted his 14-year sentence in 2020.

Fox News’ Pat Ward contributed to this report. This is a developing news story. Check back for updates.

Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on X: @danimwallace.

February 10, 2025
Pritzker trolls Trump by ‘renaming’ Lake Michigan as ‘Lake Illinois,’ joking he’d annex Green Bay

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has taken a satirical jab at President Donald Trump’s effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico and annex Greenland.

A straight-faced Pritzker released a choreographed video on Friday, with fake camera shutter clicks going off in the background, where he asserts that he is renaming Lake Michigan to “Lake Illinois,” poking fun at Trump’s recent executive order where he changed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.

Pritzker trolls Trump by sarcastically renaming Lake Michigan as “Lake Illinois,” jokes about annexing Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Vincent Alban/Getty Images, left, Stephen Maturen/Getty Images, right.)

PRITZKER BASHES TRUMP ORDER ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP: ‘WE WILL NOT FOLLOW AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL ORDER’

“The world’s finest geographers, experts who study the Earth’s natural environment, have concluded a decades-long council and determined that a great lake deserves to be named after a great state,” Pritzker said.

“So today, I’m issuing a proclamation declaring that hereinafter, Lake Michigan shall be known as Lake Illinois. The proclamation has been forwarded to Google to ensure the world’s maps reflect this momentous change.”

Trump signed Executive Order 14172 on his first day back in office which changed the name of the ocean basin. The order also renamed the highest peak in North America to “Mount McKinley,” reversing the 2015 decision to call it by its centuries-old name Denali.

Google has said it will make Trump’s changes once the Department of the Interior updates the Geographic Names Information System. As of today, Google Maps still refers to it as the Gulf of Mexico.

In the video, Pritzker then switches his attention to Green Bay, a Wisconsin city near Lake Michigan. And just like how Trump vowed to take over Greenland from Denmark, Pritzker pledged to snap up Green Bay from The Badger State.

“In addition, the recent announcement that to protect the homeland, the United States will be purchasing Greenland… Illinois will now be annexing Green Bay to protect itself against enemies, foreign and domestic,” Pritzker said.

In the video, Pritzker jokingly pledged to annex Green Bay from Wisconsin. (@JBPritzker)

TRUDEAU SAYS TRUMP IS SERIOUS ABOUT CANADA BECOMING 51ST STATE: REPORTS

“I’ve also instructed my team to work diligently to prepare for an important announcement next week regarding the Mississippi River.”

“God bless America and bear down,” Pritzker said, a nod to Wisconsin’s Green Bay Packers, one of Chicago Bears’ biggest rivals.

The video comes on the heels of a Justice Department lawsuit filed against the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago for allegedly interfering with federal immigration enforcement with its sanctuary polices.

The lawsuit claims that several state and local laws are designed to interfere with the federal government’s enforcement of federal immigration law in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.

Trump signed Executive Order 14172 on his first day back in office, which changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Pritzker and Trump have also clashed over Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, with Pritzker declaring the move unconstitutional.

Trump’s order, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” asserts that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution does not automatically confer American citizenship to individuals who are born within the United States.

They also feuded during Trump’s first term in office when Pritzker claimed the state only recovered a quarter of its requested personal protective equipment from the federal government.

Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.

You can send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.

February 8, 2025
Trump DOJ slaps Illinois, Chicago with lawsuit over sanctuary laws

The Department of Justice on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago for allegedly interfering with federal immigration enforcement – the latest escalation in the battle between the Trump administration and Democrat-led cities and states on the administration’s mass deportation operation.

The lawsuit filed in Illinois, against Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and others, claimed that several state and local laws are “designed to and in fact interfere with and discriminate against the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.”

The lawsuit comes a day after Attorney General Pam Bondi signed a directive to limit funding to sanctuary cities. Sanctuary jurisdictions typically limit or forbid state and local law enforcement cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers – requests that illegal immigrants in custody be transferred to ICE.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker slams President Donald Trump’s leadership following the American Airlines crash. (AP/Getty)

This is a breaking news alert; check back for updates.

Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.

He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter.

February 6, 2025
Illinois ‘super mayor’ conducted ‘systematic’ cover-up of excessive spending, Lightfoot investigation finds

Dolton, Illinois, Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s administration was engaged in a “systematic effort” to cover up the Illinois town’s financial situation as Henyard and other officials failed to track the spending of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to an investigation by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

Lightfoot, who now works as a consultant with Charles River Associates, was tasked with investigating Henyard’s administration last year, and she presented her findings at a meeting Monday night. Henyard has served as the city’s self-styled “super-mayor” since 2021.

“Beginning at least as early as late 2021, there was a concerted, systematic effort on behalf of Mayor Henyard and others in her administration to hide the true financial condition of the Village of Dolton from the trustees and from members of the public,” Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot said the Village of Dolton received some $3 million in payments from the American Rescue Plan, hundreds of thousands of which went missing without receipts. Henyard failed to appoint an official to track how the funds were spent, as required by the Treasury Department, according to Lightfoot’s report.

SCANDAL-RIDDEN ILLINOIS MAYOR LOSES TOWNSHIP SUPERVISOR NOMINATION IN HISTORIC CAUCUS

Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued a damning report over financial mismanagement in the Village of Dolton, Illinois. (REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski)

The city’s credit card spending also spiked to $779,638 in 2023, also with little to no tracking.

“Many of the credit card expenditures have no accompanying receipt, and the statements alone provide limited information about the purchases,” the report says, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

FELLOW DEMOCRATIC MAYOR BACKS TIFFANY HENYARD’S VOTER SUPPRESSION CLAIMS: ‘TELLING THE TRUTH’

City credit cards were also used to pay for large trips to Las Vegas in both 2022 and 2023, and the report claims, “There is no evidence that any business development opportunities came to the village as a result of either of these two trips.”

Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s administration is accused of misplacing hundreds of thousands of dollars. (Fox32 Chicago screen capture)

Lightfoot’s report comes just days after Henyard was found in contempt of court for stonewalling liquor licenses.

The owners of St. Patrick’s, a three-story restaurant and banquet hall on Lincoln Avenue, sued in August claiming the mayor had repeatedly promised to sign the liquor licenses – which were already approved by the village board of trustees – but did not.

In court on Wednesday, Henyard, who also serves as the village liquor commissioner, reportedly vowed again that she would sign the licenses, but she did not before the 5 p.m. Thursday deadline.

The parties were therefore forced to return to court again Friday, and Henyard arrived a half hour late for the hearing, WGN-TV reported.

Mayor Tiffany Henyard is accused of extravagant spending that could bankrupt the Village of Dolton, Illinois. (Fox 32)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Cook County Judge Cecilia Horan held Henyard in indirect criminal contempt. That means the mayor was considered “disrespectful to the authority of the court,” Adrian Vuckovich, an attorney for the owners of St. Patrick’s, told WMAQ-TV.

“It’s been a challenge to put it mildly. It shouldn’t be so difficult. This is an ordinary event to get liquor licenses issued,” Vuckovich told WGN separately.

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to [email protected], or on Twitter: @Hagstrom_Anders.

January 28, 2025