Happy New Year! The Rascals are back for 2024. The Mincing Rascals this week are John Williams of WGN Radio, Eric Zorn, Publisher of The Picayune Sentinel, Austin Berg of the Illinois Policy Institute, Brandon Pope, host of ‘On the Block‘ on WCIU, and Cate Plys, former staff writer at the Chicago Reader and political op-ed columnist at the Sun-Times and Tribune. The Rascals kick off the pod discussing new laws in Illinois for 2024 including the provision of the assault weapons ban that requires requires individuals who owned assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and other devices to register those devices. Darren Bailey posted a picture on X saying he will not comply to the ban. What to the Rascals make of the photo? Austin points out that Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias also has been posting some pictures, too. Since the Rascals last met, former alderman Ed Burke was found guilty of racketeering in his federal corruption trial. Will he eventually spend time in prison? Meanwhile, former Speaker of the House Mike Madigan had his trial date postponed until October 8th. Former president Donald Trump was disqualified from the primary ballot in Colorado and Maine pending appeals. Do the Rascals believe Trump should be on the ballot? Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned for how she has handled antisemitism on campus and accusations of plagiarism in her academic work. The Rascals talk about how this whole situation played out and what led to the resignation. And finally, how about those Wolverines, Brandon?