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Barack Obama has been hailed as a reformer, one who stands for change and hope, yet when given the opportunities to actually be part of reforming the corruption that is Chicago politics, Obama took a pass. A candidate who says he can reform Washington politics, Obama evidently didn't see a need for reform in Chicago, or he found Chicago's political machine too tough to take on. In the 2006 election for Cook County...

McCain and Obama: each wants your vote as they battle to be the next commander in chief -- but how much do you really know about them? FOX News Channel presents two one-hour specials taking an unprecedented look at the character and conduct of the men who would be president. The Obama special, hosted by Bill Hemmer, airs Monday, Aug. 18, at 8 p.m. EDT.

Although the press has been notably lax about pursuing the matter, the full story of the Obama-Ayers relationship calls the truth of Obama’s account seriously into question. When Obama made his first run for political office, articles in both the Chicago Defender and the Hyde Park Herald featured among his qualifications his position as chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a foundation where Ayers was a founder and guiding force. Obama assumed the Annenberg board chairmanship only months before his first run for office, and almost certainly received the job at the behest of Bill Ayers. During...

I hope this is okay to post. But a couple of things. First what do you think of my Cubs? Second who's your team and favorite player? Third if you found out a player was a complete opposite of you beliefs wise would it affect your opinion of him? My answers 1. I thought they'd be good but this team is awesome. Despite what might be 2 losses in a row to the Marlins. 2. Cubs. Kerry Wood or Ryan Dempster. 3. I don't think conservatives are this way. We like to watch the guys play and don't care how...

CHICAGO (WBBM) ― Robbers invaded a Southwest Side jewelry store on Wednesday, triggering a gun fight. Four people, including the alleged robbers, were injured in the shootout. It was a wild scene near the corner of 63rd Street and Kedzie Avenue Wednesday evening when a pair of robbers pretending to be customers walked into Sergio V. Jewelry. But the robbers picked on the wrong guy. The store owner, Sergio Vasquez, is known around the neighborhood to be a man who doesn't put up with any nonsense at his shop. He was behind the counter when the robbers walked in. Chicago...

Chicago hoping for Obama booster in Olympics bid13 hours ago BEIJING (AFP) — Should Barack Obama win the US presidential election it would be a huge plus for Chicago's bid to win the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, its bid chief told AFP. **SNIP** "Obviously if you have a hometown kid as president it has its advantages. "In fact Senator Obama lives three blocks from what would be the main stadium," added Ryan. **SNIP** McCain's committee eventually accused the IOC of creating a 'culture of corruption'. "There is a lot of bitterness among IOC members towards McCain," said...

Former Ald. Arenda Troutman and a gang chieftain were "romantically involved" and worked together on a crooked real estate deal, federal prosecutors allege in a new court filing. Troutman pleaded guilty last week to shaking down developers in her 20th Ward on the South Side. She was voted out of office last year. Donnell "Scandalous" Jehan, a Black Disciples "king," was one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives until April when he surrendered. He faces trial on drug charges. When the FBI searched Troutman's home and office last year, they found photos of her with Jehan. He previously was spotted...

August is the wettest and often the muggiest month of the year. Yet, summer heat continues in short supply, continuing a trend that has dominated much of the 21st Century's opening decade. There have been only 162 days 90 degrees or warmer at Midway Airport over the period from 2000 to 2008. That's by far the fewest 90-degree temperatures in the opening nine years of any decade on record here since 1930. This summer's highest reading to date has been just 91 degrees. That's unusual. Since 1928, only one year—2000—has failed to record a higher warm-season temperature by Aug. 13.

Hundreds packed a South Side church Sunday to hear Minister Louis Farrakhan address what he called a nationwide educational system that is in decline. The speech, titled "Educational Challenge: A New Paradigm for the 21st Century," culminated a three-day conference in which educators, community activists and religious leaders from across the country met here to discuss solutions to what they called a plighted education system. Farrakhan, joined onstage by the Rev. Michael Pfleger, attributed the qualms of America's education system to the country's history of elitism, minority children's disassociation with curriculums and the absence of religion in classrooms. "With a...

At the University of Chicago no man looms larger than Milton Friedman, the Nobel laureate who led the “Chicago school” of economics and who died in 2006. When the university announced plans for a $200m economics institute in May, it seemed fitting that the centre should be named after him. But a small war broke out. On June 6th more than 100 faculty members wrote to the university’s president to protest against the institute. Armed with academia’s common weapons, indignation and verbosity, they said they were all “disturbed by the ideological and disciplinary preference implied by the university’s massive support...

Oak Park, Ill.--There seems to be no end to the nonsense coming out of Chicago this election cycle. While the presumptive Democrat candidate is on vacation in Hawaii, another Chicago minister close to Senator Obama has a plan to improve public education in the city. State Senator Reverend James Meeks wants students to boycott school the first day of class and then get on busses and try to enroll in mostly white suburban schools. According to Rev. Meeks, this protest will make a statement about so called funding inequalities in the Chicago area. This protest will also disrupt funding for...

In a recent 5-4 ruling, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own a gun for personal use. While the debate will continue to go on about whether the Second Amendment really means that American citizens only have the right to bear arms in connection with service in a well-regulated militia as referenced in the amendment or we have the right to keep a loaded handgun for self-defense, right now this is the law of the land. For those American citizens who reside in congested crime-ridden urban areas riddled with drug and...

For Wall and a few dozen others, Obama on the campaign trail often brings to mind Stanley Ann Dunham, Obama's mother and a strong-willed, unconventional member of the Mercer Island High School graduating class of 1960. "She was not a standard-issue girl of her times. ... She wasn't part of the matched-sweater-set crowd," said Wall, a classmate and retired philosophy teacher who used to make after-school runs to Seattle with Dunham to sit and talk -- for hours and hours -- in coffee shops. "She touted herself as an atheist, and it was something she'd read about and could argue,"...

The Obama campaign's Arab- and Muslim-American liaison has resigned after revelations of a brief association with a radical imam. Mazen Asbahi quit Monday because he did not want to be a "distraction" to the presidential campaign of US Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), The Wall Street Journal reported. Asbahi, a prominent Chicago lawyer, for a few weeks in 2000 had served on the board of the Allied Assets Advisors Fund affiliated with the North American Islamic Trust. Also serving on the board at that time was Jamal Said, an imam at a Chicago-area mosque known for his radical views. Said raised...

To make good on his offer to help Chicago combat violence, Gov. Blagojevich envisions putting speed cameras on interstates across Illinois -- and using the revenue to form an "elite tactical team" that would operate in Chicago and other cities. The idea is in its infancy, with no budget and no timetable. About 50 Illinois State Police employees have been assigned to work with Chicago Police on everything from tracking down illegal gun buyers to hunting for criminals on Chicago's expressways, Guerrero said. "I want to be judged not by the number of people we provide, but by the results...

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City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com Mayor Daley on Friday cracked the door open to abandoning the costly fight to uphold Chicago's 1982 handgun freeze -- if he can fashion a replacement ordinance that protects the safety of first-responders. Until now, Daley had promised to defend Chicago's ordinance all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, despite what he called the dangerous precedent set by the court. RELATED STORIES Daley pushing new gun ban measure Chicago continues to enforce gun ban On June 26, the Supreme Court overturned a Washington, D.C., handgun ban on grounds that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to...

Chicago is the worst “nanny-state” city in the U.S. — the metropolis with the most stringent regulations interfering with the exercise of personal freedoms. That’s the finding of a survey by Reason magazine, a libertarian publication, which ranked cities according to the degree they treat citizens as a “nanny” might treat children incapable of making their own decisions. The magazine ranked the 35 most populous American municipalities in eight categories: sex, alcohol, tobacco, guns, movement, drugs, gambling, and a catch-all category of food and “other.” The higher the score, from 1 to 35, the more restrictive the city. In the...

There is one way for the city to deal with concerns and that’s though bringing gun safety education to Chicago’s gun owners. That’s simple enough. Daley can and should call on the world’s greatest firearm training resource, The National Rifle Association. Daley needs to get facilities open in Chicago for training civilians about safety, the laws and liabilities of the justifiable use of deadly force. The Chicago Police Department needs to work out a protocol with armed civilians to avoid unnecessary tragedies.

Mayor Daley today cracked the door open to abandoning the costly fight to uphold Chicago’s 1982 handgun freeze—if he can fashion a replacement ordinance that protects the safety of first-responders. Until now, Daley had emphatically promised to defend Chicago’s ordinance—all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if need be—despite what he called the dangerous precedent set by the nation’s highest court...

The senator's tenure as a state legislator reveals him to be an old-fashioned, big government, race-conscious liberal.Barack Obama's neighborhood newspaper, the Hyde Park Herald, has a longstanding tradition of opening its pages to elected officials-from Chicago aldermen...senators. Obama himself, as a state senator, wrote more than 40 columns for the Herald, under the title "Springfield Report," between 1996 and 2004. Read in isolation, Obama's columns from the state capital tell us little. Placed in the context of political and policy battles then raging in Illinois, however, the young legislator's dispatches powerfully illuminate his political beliefs. Even more revealing are hundreds...

-Throughout the 2008 campaign, Obama has made a point of refusing the liberal label. While running for Congress against Bobby Rush in late 1999 and early 2000, however, Obama showed no such compunction. At a November 1999 candidate forum, the Hyde Park Herald reported that "there was little to distinguish" the candidates, who "struggled to differentiate themselves" ideologically. Acknowledged Obama, "[W]e're all on the liberal wing of the Democratic party." -The most interesting characterization came from Obama himself, who laid out his U.S. Senate campaign strategy for the Defender in 2003: "[A]s you combine a strong African-American base with progressive...

Bell's Brewery Inc. beers are headed back to the Windy City nearly two years after the company pulled its brands out of the Chicago market following a nasty dispute with a distributor.

Hyde Park, Chicago, Ill. — "Community organizer." If you've heard the term, you likely learned about it through Barack Obama's memoir or one of his speeches where he talks about his time working in poor neighborhoods on Chicago's South Side in the 1980s. He refers to this time in his life a lot. Obama leans on it, hard, while stumping. But what does it mean? "One of my fundamental beliefs from my days as a community organizer is that real change comes from the bottom up ... And there's no more powerful tool for grassroots organizing than the Internet." -Barack...

City Hall must have been insane to even think about pulling a Jesse Jackson on every male dog in town. Now they're backing off, because their plan won't work. It can never work. It's all about ego. In Chicago, being the dog with the big ones is a lifelong dream of every politician. And even most pet owners who'll never breed their dogs still become squeamish about government-mandated dog sterilization. Afterward, the dog won't care. He won't care about anything. But humans care. Some walk behind their dog. They sigh. They long for the old days.

Bob Barker, retired game show host of "The Price is Right," testified Tuesday at City Hall in support of a controversial ordinance that would make spaying and neutering mandatory in Chicago. Under this legislation, all cats and dogs would be required to undergo the necessary operation once they reach six months of age. “Overpopulation is one of the most tragic animal problems that we have in our country,” Barker said. “There are thousands, probably millions of people across the country who have devoted [themselves] to trying to find homes for surplus animals. And these people… are doomed to fail,” he...

Barack Obama carried out a secret assignment during his global tour last week. While talking about the Middle East peace process in the West Bank Wednesday, the presumptive Democratic nominee slipped a note to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The private message: Help an anguished Chicago mother get her daughters back.

I wonder if there is any correlation between Obama's rise and the increased violence in Chicago. Also, aren't they pulling in the Nat'l Guard? is that part of his district? Is he therefore overseeing the use of National military as "peace keepers', perhaps the onlyplace in the U.S. currently doing so? If he succeeds will this violence spread to other major cities (if it turns out there is some cause and effect relationship invloving him)? Just curious??

CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Chicago’s gun laws have been challenged in federal court since the Supreme Court’s decision on the D.C. ban. But, City Corporation Counsel Mara Georges has told two City Council committees she’s confident Chicago’s law will stand. Georges tells Aldermen the Supreme Court’s decision on Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban shouldn’t apply to Chicago, because previous Supreme Court rulings have said Second Amendment "right to bear arms" doesn’t apply to local governments, like Cities. She says D.C. is a federal jurisdiction. And Georges is confident that, and other arguments, will prevail, at least in the lower courts. But, she...

“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state: the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”—United States Constitution, second amendment of the Bill of Rights Subject only to the police power, the right of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.—- Constitution of the State of Illinois, Article 1, Section 22 Illinois’ 1970 Constitution provides gun grabbing counties and city councils with an invaluable mechanism so as to create two strata of gun rights in Illinois. One strata that would pass muster south of I....

For the Pritzker family of Chicago, the 2001 collapse of subprime-mortgage lender Superior Bank was an embarrassing failure in a corner of their giant business empire. Billionaire Penny Pritzker helped run Hinsdale, Ill.-based Superior, overseeing her family's 50% ownership stake. She now serves as Barack Obama's national campaign-finance chairwoman, which means her banking past could prove to be an embarrassment to her -- and perhaps to the campaign. Superior was seized in 2001 and later closed by federal regulators. Government investigators and consumer advocates have contended that Superior engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices. Ms. Pritzker, a...

<p>The New Yorker's Washington correspondent has been denied a press place on Barack Obama's tour of the Middle East and Europe after the magazine depicted the presidential candidate as a terrorist on its cover.</p> <p>The Obama camp said there was not enough room on the aircraft but the move is being seen as a snub to the magazine.</p>

By now you've seen the cover of the New Yorker depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as depicted in wingnut Internet lore. It's a cover the Obama campaign was quick to condemn. "The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree," said Bill Burton, an Obama spokesman. Methinks Burton doth protest too much. After all, this latest campaign kerfuffle was the perfect distraction to mask what's...

--snip-- Violent crime in the city of Chicago is out of control," Blagojevich said at the bill signing ceremony. "I'm offering resources of the state to the city to work in a constructive way with Mayor Daley to do everything we can possibly do to help stop this violence," said the governor. The summer of 2008 will be remembered as especially violent. Blagojevich said there's been a child shot nearly every day since June 26, with 29 Chicago Public School students shot since last fall

William Greene would like to register his guns with the city of Chicago. So would Charles Wilson, Ronald Wallace, Alberto Ortega, J. Anthony Clark, Nashaat Mhanna, Thomas Scileppi and Darrell Powell. And for the life of me, I don't really understand why we shouldn't let them. Each of the eight men appeared before a city hearing officer Tuesday to argue that the Chicago Police Department erred in rejecting their efforts to register -- or in many cases re-register -- their firearms. I was in attendance mostly by accident, thinking I'd be seeing cases brought under the city's handgun ban ordinance....

NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN? | Gov offers to send state troopers and National Guard copters to fight gang violence Calling violence in Chicago "out of control," Gov. Blagojevich on Wednesday offered to lend state troopers and National Guard helicopters to the city to augment the Chicago Police. The governor is considering forming an "elite tactical team" to help the Chicago Police fight gang problems, a source said, adding that the unit could later be sent across the state to deal with gang problems at any city's request. It's fair to say that violent crime in Chicago is out of control....

U-Chi’s Dishonorable Faculty by: Deborah Lambert, July 17, 2008 When news surfaced that a research institute was to be established at the University of Chicago in honor of the late Nobel-prize winning economist Milton Friedman, nearly 100 faculty members signed a petition, “objecting to any such enterprise that might place a stamp of approval on Professor Friedman’s economic theories,” according to James Piereson, reporting on the newcriterion.com. One of the major gripes was that this choice “would signal to the outside world that Chicago’s faculty ‘lacks intellectual and ideological diversity’” when in fact it implies “that the left leaning faculty...

Gov: Chicago may get troopers, National Guard By DON BABWIN | Associated Press Writer 5:14 PM CDT, July 16, 2008 CHICAGO - Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday raised the possibility of bringing in state troopers or even the Illinois National Guard to help Chicago combat a recent increase in violent crime -- an offer that Mayor Richard Daley didn't know was coming. Appearing at signing ceremony for a bill that toughens the penalty for adults who provide guns to minors, Blagojevich said "violent crime in the city of Chicago is out of control." "I'm offering resources of the state to...

The Chicago Police Board made the correct decision in suspending — and not firing — an officer who was videotaped beating a 60-year-old man handcuffed and shackled to a wheelchair, a Cook County judge has ruled.

Ryan Lizza writes a New Yorker article entitled "Making it: How Chicago shaped Obama." If you ask me, Barack Obama does not come off well here. Calculating politicians, ready to find scapegoats and godfather to pull levers for him and shower money unto him. But more importantly, 15 pages later, I find no evidence that Obama accomplished anything other than helping out on Project Vote. My guess is that he allied himself with ACORN on that one, but we don't see any information on that. Lizza ignores his work on what he calls the two "liberal foundations" -- which is...

Chicago, IL. -- A 13-year-old boy is dead after being shot Saturday night in the South Side’s Little Village neighborhood. The boy was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition after a shooting near West 30th Street and South Avers Avenue, Fire Media Affairs Cmdr. Will Knight said. The Cook County Medical Examiner's office has been notified of a fatality, but the boy's identity and pronouncement information were not immediately available. Police responded a fight about 7:45 p.m. in the 3000 block of South Avers Avenue and found a boy was shot, police News Affairs Officer JoAnn Taylor said,...

Chris Grissom and his wife were sitting up in bed at the Hotel Blake the evening of July 3 watching "The Late Show With David Letterman" as their two children, ages one and four, slept in the next bed. That's when they heard what Grissom said sounded like a firecracker in the next room. » Click to enlarge image Tennessee native Chris Grissom posted a video to YouTube that shows how a bullet hit the Hotel Blake and traveled through his family's hotel room and ended up in the room adjacent to theirs. (YouTube.com) RELATED STORIES Weis meets with aldermen...

As a state senator, Barack Obama gave $100,000 in state money to a campaign volunteer who failed to deliver on a plan to create a botanic garden in one of Chicago's most blighted neighborhoods. Obama -- who was running for Congress when he announced the project in 2000 -- said the green space in Englewood would build ''a sense of neighborhood pride." Instead, what was supposed to be a six-block stretch of trees and paths is now a field of unfulfilled dreams, strewn with weeds, garbage and broken pavement.

I was particularly pleased with this post, assessing the pattern of Obama's career. Stemming the tide of urban decay in Chicago’s worst neighborhoods in the late 1980s was beyond even the most tireless efforts of one man. “Sisyphean” is the term that keeps coming to mind, but I would note that what Obama actually accomplished – “a successful effort to convince the city of Chicago to locate a jobs placement office on the far South Side and his part in a drive to push the city to clean asbestos out of a housing project in the same area [Altgeld Gardens]”...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Proponents of gun rights gathered in the Loop Friday to push legislation legalizing concealed weapons in Illinois. Among the speakers at the rally was a Texas state representative whose parents were among 23 people gunned down at Luby's cafeteria in 1991. Recent rallies at the Thompson Center have been demands for gun control laws following fatal shootings of Chicago children. Thursday, the plaza was full again, but the message was from those demanding the right to bear arms. In a show of support for responsible gun ownership, about 200 chose the plaza of the Thompson Center for...

By Leah HopeCHICAGO (WLS) -- Proponents of gun rights gathered in the Loop Friday to push legislation legalizing concealed weapons in Illinois. Among the speakers at the rally was a Texas state representative whose parents were among 23 people gunned down at Luby's cafeteria in 1991. Recent rallies at the Thompson Center have been demands for gun control laws following fatal shootings of Chicago children. Thursday, the plaza was full again, but the message was from those demanding the right to bear arms.

We just got back from the Heller rally in downtown Chicago and let me say these are some happy people. I’d estimate the crowd at between 200-300 (and I suck at estimating crowds!) Folks of every size, shape, color and religion were jubilant with the recent Heller decision and looking forward to being able to carry a handgun as a law abiding citizen of Chicago. Here are some photos… The crowd! The NRA folks were disappointed at the turn out, all I can say is for Chicago, on a Friday afternoon a crowd of this size was damn near miraculous!...

The Second Amendment Freedom Rally The first rally of its kind in the history of Chicago! Join the grassroots movement that is sweeping the state of Illinois. A movement to restore the Second Amendment right of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms! James R. Thompson Center 100 W. Randolph St. Chicago, IL 60601 Date: July 11th, 2008 Time: 11:00am—1:00pm Please join us in celebrating at the James R. Thompson Center with featured speaker Dr. Suzanna Hupp This event sponsored by: Illinois State Rifle Association and IllinoisCarry.com A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free...

(UPDATE: Jackson is holding a news conference at 5 p.m. from Operation Push HQ).

. The LifeLock 400 Saturday 8:00 pm ET on TNT from Chicagoland Speedway SPEED Pre-race show at 4:30 ETTNT Pre-race show at 6:30 ET Green Flag 8:15 (?) Please visit the FR Canteen - Dedicated to our troops, veterans, and their families: The FR Canteen God Bless Our Troops Please pray on this day, and every day, for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world in defense of our liberty, and for the families awaiting their safe return.