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Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
The Tribune's Quotes of the Week quiz for May 31
And that's a wrap on May! Where did the month go? While we try and figure that out, here's what happened this week: Lawmakers in Springfield have been busy as the spring legislative session comes to a close. In addition to trying to pass a spending plan without 'broad-based' taxes before Saturday's deadline, state senators are considering a huge transit bill that would address a $771 million shortfall in Chicago-area transit agencies' budgets. Two big measures have also advanced in the final days of the session. The Illinois House passed a bill that would legalize medical aid in dying for terminally ill people, and state legislators voted to ban police from ticketing and fining students for minor infractions at school, a common practice uncovered in the Tribune-ProPublica investigation 'The Price Kids Pay.' The former awaits approval by the Senate and the latter now heads to Gov. JB Pritzker's desk to be signed into law. Chicago-born Gangster Disciples founder Larry Hoover got some good news this week. In a controversial decision, President Donald Trump commuted his federal life sentences. But Hoover will remain in prison, serving a 200-year sentence for his state court conviction for murder. Tariffs dominated the news again this week. The president announced Sunday that the U.S. will delay its 50% tariff on goods from the European Union until July 9 to allow time for negotiations. But on Wednesday, a federal trade court blocked the administration from imposing taxes on imports under an emergency-powers law, as tariffs must typically be approved by Congress. Still, that doesn't mean they're going away quite yet. A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the president can temporarily continue collecting tariffs while he appeals the trade court's decision. For more on that, here's where things stand. Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration. The announcement came shortly after the Tesla CEO criticized Trump's 'Big, Beautiful, Bill' during a CBS interview. As the billionaire returns to his business ventures, he faces some big challenges. In Chicago sports news, Caleb Williams addressed murmurings that he tried to avoid being drafted by the Bears in 2024, saying 'I wanted to come here.' In Thursday's win over the Dallas Wings, Chicago Sky point guard Courtney Vandersloot broke the all-time franchise scoring record, a title previously held by her wife, Allie Quigley. And Sox fans can honor one of their own being elected pope at a celebration at Rate Field on June 14. Tickets went on sale Friday. Plus, Chonkosaurus is back! The famed snapping turtle was spotted basking in the Chicago River this week. If — like Chonk — you're looking to lounge outside in the beautiful weather this weekend, check out our patio guide for 25 spots around the city. Without further ado, here's the Tribune's Quotes of the Week quiz from May 25 to 31. Missed last week? You can find it here or check out our past editions of Quotes of the Week. Best of luck!
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Daywatch: A road trip across Route 66
Good morning, Chicago. It's that time of year when we look for any excuse to spend time outside. A day at the beach. A walk through the park. A road trip with the windows down. Two members of our newsroom are heading out west for that last option, one that will span eight states, three time zones and more than 2,000 miles. Tribune reporter Jonathan Bullington and photojournalist E. Jason Wambsgans set out next week to travel the length of Route 66 ahead of the highway's centennial next year. In pursuit of the unknown, they're starting the journey at the farthest point from home, in Santa Monica, and working their way back to Chicago. Have a recommendation of a favorite spot along Route 66? Share it with us. The pair will share dispatches from their travels several times each week from the road. Follow along here. And here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including: what warm-weather destinations United Airlines is expanding service to, when tickets go on sale for the celebration of Pope Leo XIV at Rate Field and Chonkosauraus rises again from the Chicago River. Today's eNewspaper edition | Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History President Donald Trump has audaciously claimed virtually unlimited power to bypass Congress and impose sweeping taxes on foreign products. Now a federal court has thrown a roadblock in his path. A day after Donald Trump's stunning decision to commute the federal life sentence of Larry Hoover, lawyers for the Chicago-born Gangster Disciples founder were singing the president's praises while Chicago's new FBI boss told the Tribune that Hoover 'deserves to be in prison.' After months of negotiations amid warnings of potentially drastic service cuts, Illinois lawmakers yesterday introduced a bill they said addresses the expected $771 million financial shortfall for Chicago-area public transit with proposals that include a 50-cent hike on Illinois toll roads and an additional tax on ride-sharing services. United Airlines announced this morning that it will have expanded service to several warm-weather destinations in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean from Chicago, just as temperatures start their inevitable drop here. Temperatures may still be hovering in the 60s, but one more sure sign of summer's arrival has graced Chicago: Chonkosaurus has risen. The celebration, set for June 14 at the White Sox's Rate Field in Bridgeport, is open to all. Pope Leo XIV, a native of the Chicago area and the first American to lead the world's Catholics in the church's history, will not be at the event but will address 'the young people of the world' in a video message, according to the archdiocese's invitation. Candace Parker will be enshrined at Wintrust Arena this summer. The Chicago Sky will retire Parker's No. 3 jersey on Aug. 25 before a game against the Las Vegas Aces. Parker, who grew up in Naperville, is the first former Sky player to have her jersey retired, an honor that reflects her stature in the history of Illinois women's basketball as much as her impact on the franchise. Former Chicago Blackhawks captain and three-time Stanley Cup champion Jonathan Toews is eyeing a return to the NHL in the fall, according to a new report. This summer's concert slate points to a transition that continues to slowly unfold locally and around the country. Shying away from big festivals, artists are opting for standalone tours or participating in smaller, manageable package bills. That's welcome news for music lovers who prefer the equivalent of a savory main course to a prix-fixe buffet. And great for anyone looking to catch performers in more intimate environments where headliners can stretch out with a dedicated show. In the next few months, Chicagoans have no shortage of first-rate options in smaller venues purpose-built for music — and, in most cases, at prices that remain below the three-figure threshold. Here are 10 such stops that should be on your shortlist. Right now at the movies, Tom Cruise, a Hawaiian island dweller and a genetic lab experiment from space are simultaneously agitating and reassuring millions with tales of apocalypse-thwarting derring-do ('Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning') and a loving family in challenging circumstances ('Lilo & Stitch'). It's good news for theater owners, and the perpetually challenged moviegoing tradition. This is good news, too: We have a couple of eccentric film festivals opening this week in Chicago, designed to broaden our options and reexamine some movies past, launching the new month in this nervous breakdown of a year with some striking emotional/visual extremes, careening from darkness to giddy intensity in multiple genres. Also, around the area this weekend, a tour of R&B divas at the United Center and a plant giveaway at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Larry Hoover ‘deserves to be in prison,' Chicago FBI boss says of Gangster Disciples founder whose sentence was commuted
CHICAGO — A day after President Donald Trump's stunning decision to commute the federal life sentence of Larry Hoover, lawyers for the Chicago-born Gangster Disciples founder were singing the president's praises while Chicago's new FBI boss told the Tribune he 'deserves to be in prison.' Trump abruptly ended Hoover's long quest to win early release under the First Step Act by granting a full commutation of his sentence Wednesday afternoon, directing the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to release him 'immediately,' according to a copy of the document provided by Hoover's legal team. But Hoover is still serving a 200-year sentence for his state court conviction for murder, making him likely to stay behind bars. 'The President of the United States has the authority to pardon whoever he wishes,' FBI Special Agent in Charge Douglas DePodesta said during an interview on unrelated topics. 'I think Larry Hoover caused a lot of damage in this city and he deserves to be in prison and he will continue to be imprisoned in the state system.' As of Thursday, Hoover was still stationed at the supermax prison compound in Florence, Colorado, that he's called home for the past two decades, and his release date in online prison records had changed to 'UNKNOWN.' The U.S. Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the plan for his release. On Thursday afternoon, one of Hoover's lead attorneys, Justin Moore, told the Tribune he was stationed nearby the prison in Colorado hoping to hear any word. 'We're in limbo,' he said. Moore also said he'd spoken with an elated Hoover earlier in the day — describing his typically even-keeled client as 'jubilant.' 'He's always been not too much up or down,' Moore said. 'This was the first time I've seen him genuinely happy, and he expressed great optimism for the future. It's a day that we've constantly talked about since the first First Step briefings and hearings eight or nine years ago.' Moore praised Trump for making the move, which he said former President Joe Biden had also considered but rejected. 'The president showed a great deal of courage in making the decision he did,' Moore said. Others, meanwhile, were not so jubilant that Hoover may be coming back to Illinois one step closer to freedom. DePodesta, who took over the Chicago Field Office in August, told the Tribune on Thursday his agents will be on the lookout for any increased gang activity. DePodesta, who spent years as an FBI special agent in Chicago tasked to cartels and gang investigations, said that when Hoover was in the supermax setting, it was 'very hard to communicate out of there.' 'With any gang, we always will continue to work our confidential human sources, our technical sources to determine if there is a spike in gang activity…this will be no different,' he said. Trump's intervention in Hoover's case is the latest in a small parade of notable Chicago-area defendants the president has granted clemency to, most notably the commutation of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's 14-year prison sentence for corruption in February 2020, which he followed five years later with a full pardon. Near the end of his first term, Trump also granted a full pardon to Casey Urlacher after a personal pitch from his brother, former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, on charges related to an illegal sports gambling ring in 2021, and commuted the 20-year sentence of Chicago-area nursing home mogul Philip Esformes, who was convicted of cycling elderly, destitute and drug-addicted patients through his network of facilities and billing millions of dollars to government programs. While Trump has not commented directly on his decision on Hoover, the effort to get the president's attention goes back years and involved several celebrity pitches, including a bizarre, highly publicized meeting with Chicago rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, in the White House. At the meeting, West, a vocal Trump supporter, urged Trump to free Hoover, describing him as a man who was turning his life around when law enforcement went after him and calling him a 'living statue' to African Americans. The meeting was also attended by Moore. Following the news of Hoover's commutation Wednesday, West posted to social media, 'WORDS CAN'T EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE FOR OUR DEVOTED ENDURING PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP FOR FREEING LARRY HOOVER.' Hoover's case also has a connection to Alice Marie Johnson, a criminal justice reform advocate and Trump's new 'pardon czar' who was granted clemency for drug trafficking charges by Trump in his first term. Johnson's clemency petition was pushed heavily by Kim Kardashian, Kanye West's then-wife, who used her husband's connections to get face-time with Trump at the White House. Moore said Thursday that even though Trump took no action on Hoover's case in his first term, Hoover's legal team 'stuck with it' and circled back a few weeks ago with a new clemency petition that laid out how Hoover 'without question is rehabilitated, he's reformed and his risk of recidivism is nearly zero.' He said comments like those by DePodesta were 'postering' of law enforcement without an understanding of the science behind rehabilitation. One of the nation's largest street gangs, the Gangster Disciples became a major criminal force under Hoover's leadership, with operations that spread to dozens of U.S. cities and were as sophisticated as many legitimate corporations, including a strict code of conduct for members and a franchise-style system for drug sales. But they were also notoriously brutal, using violence and murder as a way to keep rivals at bay and even punish members who went astray. Hoover was convicted in state court in 1973 of the murder of William Young, one of Hoover's gang underlings who was shot to death that same year after he and others had stolen from gang stash houses. He was sentenced to 200 years in prison. In the early 1990s, before Hoover was charged in federal court, former Chicago Mayor Eugene Sawyer lobbied the IDOC parole board on his behalf, arguing that Hoover could help stem Chicago's street violence if he were allowed to return home, the Tribune reported at the time. Hoover was indicted in federal court in 1995 on charges he continued to oversee the murderous drug gang's reign of terror from prison. He was convicted on 40 criminal counts in 1997, and then-U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber sentenced him to the mandatory term of life. For years, Hoover has been housed in solitary confinement at the supermax prison in Colorado, which counts a number of high-profile and notorious detainees, including Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, Sept. 11 terrorist attack plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, and Jeff Fort, the Chicago gang leader who founded the El Rukns. Meanwhile, Hoover was still listed Thursday in online state prison records for Dixon Correctional Center in western Illinois — the same prison where he continued to run the Gangster Disciples before being convicted on federal charges in the 1990s — with a parole date of October 2062. The Illinois Prisoner Review Board last year heard arguments for Hoover's release, but ultimately denied the request, records show. The review board won't hear his case for another four years, records show. Hoover could also petition Gov. JB Pritzker for clemency — a move that would also come with a recommendation to the governor from the Prisoner Review Board. In one of his social media posts after Hoover's commutation Wednesday, Moore said the effort to end his federal sentence was 'all faith, legal precision, and relentless determination.' '6 life sentences. Beneath the Rocky Mountains. Gone. Just like that,' he said. 'Chicago, it's your turn. Illinois must send him home for good.' _____
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Larry Hoover ‘deserves to be in prison,' Chicago FBI boss says of Gangster Disciples founder
A day after Donald Trump's stunning decision to commute the federal life sentence of Larry Hoover, lawyers for the Chicago-born Gangster Disciples founder were singing the president's praises while Chicago's new FBI boss told the Tribune he 'deserves to be in prison.' Trump abruptly ended Hoover's long quest to win early release under the First Step Act by granting a full commutation of his sentence Wednesday afternoon, directing the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to release him 'immediately,' according to a copy of the document provided by Hoover's legal team. But Hoover is still serving a 200-year sentence for his state court conviction for murder, making him likely to stay behind bars. 'The President of the United States has the authority to pardon whoever he wishes,' FBI Special Agent in Charge Douglas DePodesta said during an interview on unrelated topics. 'I think Larry Hoover caused a lot of damage in this city and he deserves to be in prison and he will continue to be imprisoned in the state system.' As of Thursday, Hoover was still stationed at the supermax prison compound in Florence, Colorado, that he's called home for the past two decades, and his release date in online prison records had changed to 'UNKNOWN.' The U.S. Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the plan for his release. On Thursday afternoon, one of Hoover's lead attorneys, Justin Moore, told the Tribune he was stationed nearby the prison in Colorado hoping to hear any word. 'We're in limbo,' he said. Moore also said he'd spoken with an elated Hoover earlier in the day — describing his typically even-keeled client as 'jubilant.' 'He's always been not too much up or down,' Moore said. 'This was the first time I've seen him genuinely happy, and he expressed great optimism for the future. It's a day that we've constantly talked about since the first First Step briefings and hearings eight or nine years ago.' Moore praised Trump for making the move, which he said Biden had also considered but rejected. 'The president showed a great deal of courage in making the decision he did,' Moore said. Others, meanwhile, were not so jubilant that Hoover may be coming back to Illinois one step closer to freedom. DePodesta, who took over the Chicago Field Office in August, told the Tribune on Thursday his agents will be on the lookout for any increased gang activity. DePodesta, who spent years as an FBI special agent in Chicago tasked to cartels and gang investigations, said that when Hoover was in the supermax setting, it was 'very hard to communicate out of there.' 'With any gang, we always will continue to work our confidential human sources, our technical sources to determine if there is a spike in gang activity…this will be no different,' he said. Trump's intervention in Hoover's case is the latest in a small parade of notable Chicago-area defendants the president has granted clemency to, most notably the commutation of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's 14-year prison sentence for corruption in February 2020, which he followed five years later with a full pardon. Near the end of his first term, Trump also granted a full pardon to Casey Urlacher after a personal pitch from his brother, former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, on charges related to an illegal sports gambling ring in 2021, and commuted the 20-year sentence of Chicago-area nursing home mogul Philip Esformes, who was convicted of cycling elderly, destitute and drug-addicted patients through his network of facilities and billing millions of dollars to government programs. While Trump has not commented directly on his decision on Hoover, the effort to get the president's attention goes back years and involved several celebrity pitches, including a bizarre, highly publicized meeting with Chicago rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, in the White House. At the meeting, West, a vocal Trump supporter, urged Trump to free Hoover, describing him as a man who was turning his life around when law enforcement went after him and calling him a 'living statue' to African Americans. The meeting was also attended by Moore. Following the news of Hoover's commutation Wednesday, West posted to social media, 'WORDS CAN'T EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE FOR OUR DEVOTED ENDURING PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP FOR FREEING LARRY HOOVER.' Hoover's case also has a connection to Alice Marie Johnson, a criminal justice reform advocate and Trump's new 'pardon czar' who was granted clemency for drug trafficking charges by Trump in his first term. Johnson's clemency petition was pushed heavily by Kim Kardashian, Kanye West's then-wife, who used her husband's connections to get face-time with Trump at the White House. Moore said Thursday that even though Trump took no action on Hoover's case in his first term, Hoover's legal team 'stuck with it' and circled back a few weeks ago with a new clemency petition that laid out how Hoover 'without question is rehabilitated, he's reformed and his risk of recidivism is nearly zero.' He said comments like those by DePodesta were 'postering' of law enforcement without an understanding of the science behind rehabilitation. One of the nation's largest street gangs, the Gangster Disciples became a major criminal force under Hoover's leadership, with operations that spread to dozens of U.S. cities and were as sophisticated as many legitimate corporations, including a strict code of conduct for members and a franchise-style system for drug sales. But they were also notoriously brutal, using violence and murder as a way to keep rivals at bay and even punish members who went astray. Hoover was convicted in state court in 1973 of the murder of William Young, one of Hoover's gang underlings who was shot to death that same year after he and others had stolen from gang stash houses. He was sentenced to 200 years in prison. In the early 1990s, before Hoover was charged in federal court, former Chicago Mayor Eugene Sawyer lobbied the IDOC parole board on his behalf, arguing that Hoover could help stem Chicago's street violence if he were allowed to return home, the Tribune reported at the time. Hoover was indicted in federal court in 1995 on charges he continued to oversee the murderous drug gang's reign of terror from prison. He was convicted on 40 criminal counts in 1997, and then-U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber sentenced him to the mandatory term of life. For years, Hoover has been housed in solitary confinement at the supermax prison in Colorado, which counts a number of high-profile and notorious detainees, including Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, Sept. 11 terrorist attack plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, and Jeff Fort, the Chicago gang leader who founded the El Rukns. Meanwhile, Hoover was still listed Thursday in online state prison records for Dixon Correctional Center in western Illinois — the same prison where he continued to run the Gangster Disciples before being convicted on federal charges in the 1990s — with a parole date of October 2062. The Illinois Prisoner Review Board last year heard arguments for Hoover's release, but ultimately denied the request, records show. The review board won't hear his case for another four years, records show. Hoover could also petition Gov. JB Pritzker for clemency — a move that would also come with a recommendation to the governor from the Prisoner Review Board. In one of his social media posts after Hoover's commutation Wednesday, Moore said the effort to end his federal sentence was 'all faith, legal precision, and relentless determination.' '6 life sentences. Beneath the Rocky Mountains. Gone. Just like that,' he said. 'Chicago, it's your turn. Illinois must send him home for good.' jmeisner@
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Larry Hoover ‘deserves to be in prison,' Chicago FBI boss says of Gangster Disciples founder
A day after Donald Trump's stunning decision to commute the federal life sentence of Larry Hoover, lawyers for the Chicago-born Gangster Disciples founder were singing the president's praises while Chicago's new FBI boss told the Tribune he 'deserves to be in prison.' Trump abruptly ended Hoover's long quest to win early release under the First Step Act by granting a full commutation of his sentence Wednesday afternoon, directing the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to release him 'immediately,' according to a copy of the document provided by Hoover's legal team. But Hoover is still serving a 200-year sentence for his state court conviction for murder, making him likely to stay behind bars. 'The President of the United States has the authority to pardon whoever he wishes,' FBI Special Agent in Charge Douglas DePodesta said during an interview on unrelated topics. 'I think Larry Hoover caused a lot of damage in this city and he deserves to be in prison and he will continue to be imprisoned in the state system.' As of Thursday, Hoover was still stationed at the supermax prison compound in Florence, Colorado, that he's called home for the past two decades, and his release date in online prison records had changed to 'UNKNOWN.' The U.S. Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the plan for his release. On Thursday afternoon, one of Hoover's lead attorneys, Justin Moore, told the Tribune he was stationed nearby the prison in Colorado hoping to hear any word. 'We're in limbo,' he said. Moore also said he'd spoken with an elated Hoover earlier in the day — describing his typically even-keeled client as 'jubilant.' 'He's always been not too much up or down,' Moore said. 'This was the first time I've seen him genuinely happy, and he expressed great optimism for the future. It's a day that we've constantly talked about since the first First Step briefings and hearings eight or nine years ago.' Moore praised Trump for making the move, which he said Biden had also considered but rejected. 'The president showed a great deal of courage in making the decision he did,' Moore said. Others, meanwhile, were not so jubilant that Hoover may be coming back to Illinois one step closer to freedom. DePodesta, who took over the Chicago Field Office in August, told the Tribune on Thursday his agents will be on the lookout for any increased gang activity. DePodesta, who spent years as an FBI special agent in Chicago tasked to cartels and gang investigations, said that when Hoover was in the supermax setting, it was 'very hard to communicate out of there.' 'With any gang, we always will continue to work our confidential human sources, our technical sources to determine if there is a spike in gang activity…this will be no different,' he said. Trump's intervention in Hoover's case is the latest in a small parade of notable Chicago-area defendants the president has granted clemency to, most notably the commutation of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's 14-year prison sentence for corruption in February 2020, which he followed five years later with a full pardon. Near the end of his first term, Trump also granted a full pardon to Casey Urlacher after a personal pitch from his brother, former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, on charges related to an illegal sports gambling ring in 2021, and commuted the 20-year sentence of Chicago-area nursing home mogul Philip Esformes, who was convicted of cycling elderly, destitute and drug-addicted patients through his network of facilities and billing millions of dollars to government programs. While Trump has not commented directly on his decision on Hoover, the effort to get the president's attention goes back years and involved several celebrity pitches, including a bizarre, highly publicized meeting with Chicago rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, in the White House. At the meeting, West, a vocal Trump supporter, urged Trump to free Hoover, describing him as a man who was turning his life around when law enforcement went after him and calling him a 'living statue' to African Americans. The meeting was also attended by Moore. Following the news of Hoover's commutation Wednesday, West posted to social media, 'WORDS CAN'T EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE FOR OUR DEVOTED ENDURING PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP FOR FREEING LARRY HOOVER.' Hoover's case also has a connection to Alice Marie Johnson, a criminal justice reform advocate and Trump's new 'pardon czar' who was granted clemency for drug trafficking charges by Trump in his first term. Johnson's clemency petition was pushed heavily by Kim Kardashian, Kanye West's then-wife, who used her husband's connections to get face-time with Trump at the White House. Moore said Thursday that even though Trump took no action on Hoover's case in his first term, Hoover's legal team 'stuck with it' and circled back a few weeks ago with a new clemency petition that laid out how Hoover 'without question is rehabilitated, he's reformed and his risk of recidivism is nearly zero.' He said comments like those by DePodesta were 'postering' of law enforcement without an understanding of the science behind rehabilitation. One of the nation's largest street gangs, the Gangster Disciples became a major criminal force under Hoover's leadership, with operations that spread to dozens of U.S. cities and were as sophisticated as many legitimate corporations, including a strict code of conduct for members and a franchise-style system for drug sales. But they were also notoriously brutal, using violence and murder as a way to keep rivals at bay and even punish members who went astray. Hoover was convicted in state court in 1973 of the murder of William Young, one of Hoover's gang underlings who was shot to death that same year after he and others had stolen from gang stash houses. He was sentenced to 200 years in prison. In the early 1990s, before Hoover was charged in federal court, former Chicago Mayor Eugene Sawyer lobbied the IDOC parole board on his behalf, arguing that Hoover could help stem Chicago's street violence if he were allowed to return home, the Tribune reported at the time. Hoover was indicted in federal court in 1995 on charges he continued to oversee the murderous drug gang's reign of terror from prison. He was convicted on 40 criminal counts in 1997, and then-U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber sentenced him to the mandatory term of life. For years, Hoover has been housed in solitary confinement at the supermax prison in Colorado, which counts a number of high-profile and notorious detainees, including Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, Sept. 11 terrorist attack plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, and Jeff Fort, the Chicago gang leader who founded the El Rukns. Meanwhile, Hoover was still listed Thursday in online state prison records for Dixon Correctional Center in western Illinois — the same prison where he continued to run the Gangster Disciples before being convicted on federal charges in the 1990s — with a parole date of October 2062. The Illinois Prisoner Review Board last year heard arguments for Hoover's release, but ultimately denied the request, records show. The review board won't hear his case for another four years, records show. Hoover could also petition Gov. JB Pritzker for clemency — a move that would also come with a recommendation to the governor from the Prisoner Review Board. In one of his social media posts after Hoover's commutation Wednesday, Moore said the effort to end his federal sentence was 'all faith, legal precision, and relentless determination.' '6 life sentences. Beneath the Rocky Mountains. Gone. Just like that,' he said. 'Chicago, it's your turn. Illinois must send him home for good.'
