Midwest
Perez Hilton says Jussie Smollett decision won't help 'tanked' career: Court didn't dispute hate crime hoax
Pop culture expert and crime buff Perez Hilton says the Illinois Supreme Court’s Jussie Smollett decision didn’t dispute the accusations against him when it let him go from prison. It just ruled on a technicality.
And that may not help revive the disgraced actor’s “tanked” career.
“Unfortunately for Jussie Smollett, this won’t do him much good,” Hilton said. “Even though it has spared him from any time behind bars – so it literally did him good in that sense – but he wasn’t going to spend that much time locked up anyways.”
Smollett, who is Black and gay, initially told Chicago police that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men wearing ski masks in January 2019. Then two brothers, Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, said they were the masked men and that they helped Smollett pull off a hoax.
JUSSIE SMOLLETT CONVICTION OVERTURNED BY ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT
Smollett was convicted on five of six charges of disorderly conduct. (Nuccio DiNuzzo)
Kim Foxx, a progressive Democrat district attorney who oversaw the initial case, dropped the hoax charges against Smollett as part of an agreement in which he forfeited his bail money and was told to do community service. But he was later indicted by a grand jury with a special prosecutor on the case, tried and convicted.
People are going to see the headline, gloss over the details and continue to keep their opinions of him, Hilton said.
Special prosecutor Dan K. Webb blasted the court’s decision as “unprecedented.”
Hilton, like Webb, noted that the court didn’t address the allegations or throw out the evidence that Smollett conducted a hoax and then led Chicago police to waste limited resources trying to solve a hate crime that didn’t happen.
Hear more from Perez Hilton on the Jussie Smollett decision:
JUSSIE SMOLLETT’S CAREER HAS ‘HIT BOTTOM’ DESPITE MAINTAINING INNOCENCE OVER HATE CRIME HOAX: EXPERT
“Today’s decision is only possible because of the unprecedented resolution of Mr. Smollett’s initial case by the Cook County State’s Attorneys’ Office (CCSAO) in March 2019, which the Illinois Supreme Court determined barred Mr. Smollett from any further prosecution,” Webb said in a statement.
“The Illinois Supreme Court reached this decision notwithstanding the fact that the CCSAO dismissed the initial Smollett case via a nolle prosequi, which does not bar re-prosecution under Illinois law, and Mr. Smollett’s own lawyers told the public immediately following the dismissal of his initial case in March 2019 that there was ‘no deal’ with the CCSAO.”
This booking photo provided by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office shows Jussie Smollett. (Cook County Sheriff’s Office via AP/File)
Some legal experts agreed with the court’s finding.
James Scozzari, a Michigan-based defense attorney who handles cases in multiple Midwest states, said it’s similar to what happened with disgraced actor Bill Cosby, when he was released from a Pennsylvania prison for similar reasoning.
Cosby had entered a non-prosecution agreement with a Philadelphia district attorney only to have another one bring charges against him over the same accusations.
Brothers Olabinjo Osundairo, right, and Abimbola Osundairo appear outside the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago on Feb. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
“Similar to the Cosby reversal, the DA initially agreed to non-prosecution dismissal in exchange for Smollett giving up his bond money,” Scozzari told Fox News Digital. “Refiling the case violated that agreement, hence double jeopardy.”
Smollett’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, said it boiled down to whether the state has a responsibility to honor its agreements in court.
“We hold that a second prosecution under these circumstances is a due process violation and we, therefore, reverse the defendant’s conviction,” he said.
Read the ruling:
BILL COSBY’S LAWYER ASKS SUPREME COURT NOT TO REVIVE HIS SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE
“Justin Smollett’s career has tanked, and I don’t see that changing as a result of this outcome,” he said.
Still, Hilton said, people shouldn’t be canceled “forever.”
He shared some advice for Smollett, if he has the work ethic to hit the ground running.
“He doesn’t need a ton of money,” Hilton said. “He just needs the work ethic and the ideas, and if he has that, he can make things happen.”
But he’d be wise to let other people be the face of his projects, he added.
“He should be making these projects for others to star in and not as vehicles for himself,” he added. “So I think my suggestion would be, be a creative behind the scenes, and you can hopefully still be fulfilled and monetizing that way.”
Fox News’ Lauryn Overhultz and Matt Finn contributed to this report.
Read the full article from Here
What to know about NCAA-tourney bound Wisconsin Badgers softball
The Wisconsin Badgers are headed to the NCAA softball tournament. These are some names to know, as well as some pertinent history.
Wisconsin softball could not keep up with the reigning national champions.
Texas – the No. 2 overall seed in the tournament – run-ruled the Badgers, 9-0, in six innings on May 16 in the Austin regional of the NCAA Tournament, easily sending UW to the consolation side of the double-elimination bracket.
Texas pitcher Teagan Kavan took a no-hitter into the fifth inning until Alivia Bark’s single. The Badgers’ only other baserunner during Kavan’s five innings in the circle was on a walk in the first inning.
The Badgers did not have a runner in scoring position until the sixth inning, when Emily Bojan hit a double off Texas reliever Cambria Salmon.
The Longhorns, meanwhile, wasted no time in distancing themselves from the Badgers with their bats. They scored three runs in the first inning after back-to-back hits by Kayden Henry and Katie Stewart, a sacrifice fly by Viviana Martinez and a two-run home run by Reese Atwood.
Texas scored another two runs on a Henry double in the second inning, prompting the Badgers to pull UW ace Shelby Jacobson. One day after her complete-game win over Baylor, Jacobson gave up five earned runs against the Longhorns in 1 ⅓ innings pitched.
Texas piled on with two more runs in the third inning in small-ball fashion after loading the bases, and completed the run-rule win with Henry’s two-run homer in the sixth inning – her third hit of the afternoon – off UW reliever Jordan Felci. (The mercy rule in college softball is eight runs after five or more innings.)
All three UW pitchers to face the Longhorns – Jacobson, Berritt Herr and then Felci – each gave up at least two runs against the host and SEC tournament champion.
When, who will Wisconsin softball play next
The Badgers will look to keep their tournament run alive later today in a consolation game against the winner of the Baylor-Wagner game. (The winner of UW’s next game would then need to defeat Texas twice on May 17 to win the Austin regional.)
UW defeated Baylor in the first round following Hannah Conger’s walk-off double in the ninth inning. Wagner is coming off a 9-1 loss against Texas. The first pitch of UW’s second game is expected to be at approximately 5 p.m., depending on the duration of the Baylor-Wagner game.
This story will be updated after Wisconsin’s second game against Baylor or Wagner.
Every year, the NFL schedule bring upon something new for the Detroit Lions. This year, it’s a trip to Germany, a rare “Sunday Night Football” game at Carolina, and an early bye week. Oh wait, scratch that last one. It happens all that time.
Another constant on the Lions’ schedule is their divisional opponents. Like every other team, Detroit’s six divisional games make up over a third of their entire schedule. That means Detroit’s record within the NFC North will likely be crucial toward their regular season success. And with all three of their road divisional games crammed into the final four weeks of the season, how Detroit fares in those contests will almost certainly decide where they land in the postseason picture.
Last year, Detroit was swept by both the Vikings and Packers, and even though they ended up sweeping the division-winning Chicago Bears, it wasn’t enough to punch their ticket to the playoffs. So today’s Question of the Day is:
How many division wins will the Lions pick up on their 2026 schedule?
My answer: I’m going with three.
First off, let’s get this straight. There is no universe where getting swept by the Vikings again in 2026 is acceptable. I understand their defense is a very tough matchup for an offense-heavy team like the Lions, but Minnesota’s roster just doesn’t compare to the rest of the division right now—especially with the questions at quarterback. Because the Vikings still always play the Lions tough, I’ll give them a split of the series.
And I’m going to be boring with the other two teams, too. I expect a split with each series. I think Ben Johnson will have a chip on his shoulder after getting swept by Dan Campbell last year and find a way to win one of those games. And while I’m really tempted to predict a sweep of the Packers, I’m just having a hard time seeing it given how well they tend to play against Detroit. The Lions will have the benefit of the bye week going into their first matchup, but a Week 18 game in Lambeau will be tough, even if the Lions managed to beat them in that exact scenario during the 2022 season.
How many division wins do you think the Lions pick up this year? Vote in the poll below and share your reasoning in the comment section.
Homeownership questions answered by experts: Ask Contact 6
Ask Contact 6 is fielding questions from you about homeownership. The questions are about everything from first-time homebuying, first generation homebuying, down payment assistance, financing a home, mortgage underwriting, maintenance, repairs, foreclosure, assessments, and HUD housing counseling.
MILWAUKEE – Where you live can have a significant impact on how much money you need saved for retirement. And according to a new study, Wisconsin ranks near the middle of the pack in terms of the most and least expensive states for retirees.
Big picture view:
MoneyLion, a consumer finance app and marketplace, examined how much money Americans would need to save each month to retire comfortably in each state. The study weighed factors such as average retiree household expenses, Social Security income and the age at which a person started saving for retirement.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android
The study’s full methodology can be found on MoneyLion’s website.
What they’re saying:
Ted Jenkin, managing partner at Exit Wealth Advisors, told FOX Business that state income taxes and real estate property taxes are two of the biggest expenses that retirees need to look at. Thomas Aiello, National Taxpayers Union vice president of federal affairs, added that taxes are a reason some retirees may move to places like Florida, Texas and Tennessee – which offer no sate income tax or “death” tax.
How much in Wisconsin?
Local perspective:
Wisconsin ranked No. 28 in MoneyLion’s study, which determined someone would need to save $1,096,140 to retire comfortably at age 65. That’s based on a $54,807 average annual cost of retirement over 20 years.
To hit that number, MoneyLion said someone would need to start saving $2,030 per month at age 20 or $2,610 per month starting at age 30.
SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News
By the numbers:
MoneyLion’s study also determined the following savings needed to retire comfortably at age 65 (as well as the average annual cost of retirement over 20 years) in neighboring states:
- Minnesota, No. 25: $1,162,628 ($58,131)
- Illinois, No. 34: $1,003,326 ($50,166)
- Michigan, No. 42: $868,526 ($43,426)
- Iowa, No. 43: $821,180 ($41,059)
Hawaii was the most expensive state for retirees, with $3,132,206 needed to retire comfortably at age 65. The most affordable state in the study was West Virginia, with $664,463 needed to retire comfortably at age 65.
The Source: Information in this story is from the MoneyLion study, which referenced data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources. LiveNOW from FOX and FOX Business contributed to this report.
-
Virginia4 minutes agoWest Virginia American Water opens new training facility in Nitro – WV MetroNews
-
Washington10 minutes agoNOAA outlines why Washington’s snowpack fell short after a brutal winter
-
Wisconsin16 minutes agoTexas routs Wisconsin softball in NCAA Tournament | When Badgers play next
-
West Virginia22 minutes agoLogan, Catholic, Huntington and GW win team titles at State Tennis
-
Wyoming28 minutes ago(LETTERS) Republican values and homeowners associations
-
Crypto34 minutes agoBen McKenzie Rails Against Cryptocurrency and Trump’s Meme Coin: ‘Largest Ponzi Scheme in History’ | Video
-
Finance39 minutes agoFort Worth Housing Finance Corp. looks for new revenue for affordable housing
-
Fitness46 minutes agoBest Peloton Alternatives for 2026