Joshua T. Atkinson

08/31/2026

***IMPORTANT UPDATE**** - The games continue!

Today, September 1, 2026 Alderwoman Rachel Simmons was officially notified that her hearing date has been changed to September 23, 2026 at 10am at Freeport City of Freeport IL - City Hall

🚨 FREEPORT: SHOW UP. STAND UP.

On September 3 at 10:00 a.m. at Freeport City Hall, Alderwoman Rachel Simmons has been ordered to appear before an Administrative Hearing Officer.

We're asking the community to show up and stand up for Alderwoman Simmons — the way she has continued to stand up for people throughout this community.

Because apparently this is what happens in Freeport when an elected official refuses to sit down, shut up and comply.

Last month, Third Ward Alderwoman Rachel Simmons was publicly censured following a heated July 7 City Council meeting.

Simmons was attempting to help Alderman Larry Sanders de-escalate a situation and avoid being removed from City Hall when Mayor Jodi Miller chimed in:

“You’re wasting everybody's time.”

Disrespectful. Condescending. And apparently one disrespectful comment too many.

Simmons didn't hold back.

She told Mayor Miller what few in this community are brave enough to say out loud.

Then came the censure, led by Alderwoman-at-Large Joy Sellers and First Ward Alderman Tom Klemm.

Simmons accepted it with grace and professionalism.

She stood with her head held high and refused to give them the public humiliation they seemingly wanted.

Apparently, that wasn't enough.

The City has issued Simmons a “VERIFIED NOTICE OF CODE VIOLATION AND HEARING” and ordered her to appear September 3.

Her alleged offense?

According to the City's own notice, repeatedly speaking without first being given the floor during that July 7 meeting.

Seriously?

LOOK AROUND, FREEPORT.

In a city struggling with increasing crime, a housing crisis, unaffordability and a lack of good-paying jobs...

In a community where serious questions remain about whether authorities are doing enough to protect our children...

And where someone can spray-paint “KILL ALL JEWS” on a local church sign, leaving members of our community wondering whether they are safe walking into Sunday services...

THIS is what the Miller administration is spending its time pursuing?

Rachel Simmons explaining procedure to another alderman?

A Black woman who finally stood up to Freeport's entitled Dairy Queen?

Give us a break.

And Fighting4Freeport is done dancing around something else.

WE BELIEVE THE MILLER ADMINISTRATION HAS A RACISM PROBLEM.

We have watched what we believe is a pattern of racism, intimidation, disrespect and indifference for far too long.

And watching Alderwoman Joy Sellers repeatedly provide political cover for the Miller administration doesn't make the problem disappear.

It makes her an enabler of it.

Rachel Simmons refused to bend the knee.

She refused to accept the Mayor's disrespect.

Censure.

And now she's answering to the City again over her conduct at that same meeting.

So Freeport deserves an answer:

IS THIS ACCOUNTABILITY — OR RETALIATION - OR GOOD OL' FASHIONED RACISM?

And if repeatedly speaking without recognition warrants this treatment, let's see that ordinance enforced equally against every elected official sitting around that table.

You don't have to agree with Rachel Simmons on everything.

We don't and won't.

But this is bigger than Rachel Simmons.

It's about whether elected officials can challenge those in power without fearing what City Hall might do to them next.

So this Thursday, don't just complain from behind a keyboard.

SHOW UP. STAND UP.

Stand with Alderwoman Rachel Simmons the way she has continued to stand up for people throughout this community.

📍 Freeport City Hall — 314 W. Stephenson St.
📅 Thursday, September 3
⏰ 10:00 a.m.

Let City Hall look into that room and see the community watching.

Rachel shouldn't have to stand there alone.

And while Rachel Simmons spends Thursday morning answering to the City for refusing to sit down, shut up and comply, Mayor Miller will spend hers handing out I-Passes and posing for photo ops with State Rep. John Cabello.

One gets a hearing.
The other gets a photo op.

We Watch. We Listen. We Care. We Speak. We Fight.
— Fighting4Freeport

08/29/2026

🔨

08/29/2026

🚨 F4F NEWS EXCLUSIVE | HOLY KISSES

“Listen to your child. Don’t judge. Get help.”

For weeks, you've heard the allegations.

You've seen the documents.

You've watched the investigation unfold.

Now, you hear directly from one of the mothers living it.

Sue Neiger is a mother.

She's also a former police officer.

She understood investigations. She understood evidence. She understood the system.

Then her daughter spoke.

And suddenly, Sue found herself on the other side of that system.

In an exclusive interview with F4F NEWS investigative correspondent Alex Mercer, Sue breaks her silence about what her daughter told her, where she turned for help, what happened after she reported it—and why she eventually turned to Fighting4Freeport.

She also answers the question we've heard over and over throughout this investigation:

“Where's the evidence?”

And after everything her family has experienced, Sue has a message for every parent:

Listen to your child.

For weeks, you've heard about the investigation.

Tonight, you hear from the mother who refused to stop asking questions.

Read “Listen to Your Child”: A Mother Breaks Her Silence in the Holy Kisses Investigation now at:

🌐 Fighting4Freeport.com

08/28/2026

Wake up people.

08/24/2026

I’m actually less concerned about the dollar amount than I am that a candidate for Governor of Illinois apparently decided “annual salary” was too complicated for his audience.

“YEARLY PAY.”

Come on.

You want to lead the sixth-largest state in America — with a multibillion-dollar budget, complicated pension obligations, thousands of employees and one of the largest economies in the country — but your political messaging needs to be written like a third-grade worksheet?

There’s simplifying an issue so everyone can understand it.

Then there’s playing to the lowest common denominator because you apparently believe your own supporters need everything dumbed down.

Whatever you think about Pritzker, $160,800 for a janitor, or state spending, we ought to be able to have an adult conversation about government without politicians treating voters like they’re incapable of understanding the words “annual salary.”

Raise the level of the conversation.

Don’t lower the intelligence of the audience.

08/20/2026

PERSECUTED? Or QUESTIONED?

This morning, Pastor Steve Cassell published thousands of words about resilience.

But buried inside were some remarkable words of his own:

“Evil circumstances.”
“Slanderous fallout.”
“Weaponized government.”
“Blood-drunk social media.”

And then there was Elijah.

Cassell writes about being a “1%-er like Elijah.”

After weeks of Holy Kisses and allegations involving approximately 15 young girls across multiple counties and states, Alex Mercer had one question:

Is Steve Cassell being persecuted?

Or is he simply being questioned?

Tonight, we examine Cassell's own words — and what happens when questions become “slander,” scrutiny becomes persecution, and doubt becomes “fragility.”

Questioning isn't weakness.
Accountability isn't persecution.

Read the newest chapter of HOLY KISSES: Living in Beloved Silence:

🌐 Fighting4Freeport.com

08/19/2026

08/19/2026