IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
US: Illinois (News/Activism)
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1 shot to death, 1 injured in South Side drive-by Tribune staff report 7:54 AM CDT, July 5, 2008 A second man shot as he sat in a vehicle on Chicago's South Side late Thursday has died. Martin Hoard, 29, of the 6000 block of South Indiana Ave., died at Stroger Hospital following the shooting. He was parked in the 6700 block of South State Street when a car pulled up about 10:50 p.m. and fired shots into their vehicle, said Officer Amina Greer, a police spokeswoman. John Duncan, 22, of the 8000 block of South Paulina Street, was pronounced...
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LOOP | Weis says Taste safety 'undisputed' after man slain, but source notes gang presence at food fest -- 3rd burst of gun violence in 4 yrs. Hours later, three people were shot, one fatally, as hundreds of thousands of people streamed out of Grant Park after the fireworks and the Taste of Chicago. Police are investigating reports of a fourth person shot, said Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the Chicago police department, on Saturday morning. This is the third time in the last four years that gun violence has erupted at or near the Taste. With the world's eyes on...
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In an Apr. 10 interview with The Advocate magazine, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said "homophobic" messages are coming from the pulpits of black churches because "most African-American churches are still fairly traditional in their interpretations of Scripture." In the same interview, Obama praised the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor and long-time spiritual adviser, for being on the right side of the homosexual debate. ... Obama volunteered that his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was "very good on gay and lesbian issues." ... Black leaders and clregy reacted to Obama's remarks to The Advocate, saying they contradict the...
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This is an issue that isn't going away for the Obama campaign and unless they address it in an effort to put it to bed, it will become one of those "distractions" the candidate really hates: A few weeks ago, a diary entry at Daily Kos published several documents purporting to be Obama's birth certificate. One of those documents is now a confirmed forgery, ferreted out by the website Israeli Insider: Jay McKinnon, a self-described Department of Homeland Security-trained document specialist, has implicated himself in the production of fake Hawaii birth certificate images similar to the one endorsed as genuine...
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Good Morning Dad, My appointment book is filling fast as volunteer coordinator, Illinois Veterans for Dr. Steve Sauerberg, MD. Illinois veterans interested to help organize at the "grassroots level," please call me at: 708-275-0004, or josephbenning@yahoo.com for e-mail. We're building a statewide, non-partisan grassroots veterans network at the County level. Please, forward-away to your e-mail pals, especially to reach our young Illinois soldiers/sailors deployed or back from deployments. We seek veterans who made personal sacrifices for the US Constitution, which upheld blabbermouth Senator Durbin’s 1st Amendment right to make an absolute fool of his self in Washington; but didn’t appreciate...
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[CHICAGO, IL] – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today honored a fallen hero by presenting the family of Chicago Police Officer Michael Gordon with the 15 Army decorations Officer Gordon earned as a member of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. Officer Gordon was killed in the line of duty on August 8, 2004 when a drunk driver ran a red light and sideswiped his squad car.After nearly four years of dealing with bureaucratic red tape to acquire the honors, Officer Gordon’s family turned to Senator Durbin’s office for help. Officer Gordon’s father, Robert, contacted the Department of Defense shortly after...
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From the black conservatives who brought you radio ads two years ago claiming that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican come the new summer blockbusters: ads calling Sen. Barack Obama a racist and an elitist. King, of course, was an independent, not a Republican -- but that didn't stop the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) from airing their claim on urban radio. Now spots entitled "Arrogant Obama" and "Bitter Obama" are coming to radio stations serving black America, where more than 90 percent of voters supported Obama in Democratic primaries. The NBRA ads will begin airing July...
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Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has chosen to make the gun issue personal. Okay, I'll bite. Daley's reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling last week (D.C. v. Heller) overturning the Washington, D.C. ban on gun ownership was as predictable as it was incoherent. In one of his signature assaults on logic, Daley, a known enemy of modern contrivances like "facts", deftly managed to completely mischaracterize the Court's holding at the same time as embarrassing the faculty at DePaul University School of Law where he somehow obtained a law degree. "You can't carry a gun into the Supreme Court...and so why should...
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Last fall, Barack Obama explained why he hadn't been wearing an American flag pin on his lapel. "I won't wear that pin on my chest," the presumptive Democratic nominee said. "Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism." What a difference a presidential campaign makes. Obama, who suggested back then that the flag pin "became a substitute for I think true patriotism" after the Sept. 11 attacks, now regularly sports the patriotic symbol at campaign events. He even briefly employed...
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The nagging voice of doubt is trying to talk me out of writing this column: You want to call for more sales taxes in Illinois? The very week Cook County residents are reeling and seething over the latest hike? Yes, more sales taxes.
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WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama received a discounted home loan in 2005, along similar lines to that received by a former adviser to his campaign who was forced to resign after it became public, The Washington Post revealed yesterday. Former Fannie Mae chief executive James Johnson resigned abruptly as head of Senator Obama's vice-presidential search committee last month after The Wall Street Journal reported he had received favourable terms for a jumbo home loan with help from the CEO of Countrywide Financial - a major actor in the sub-prime mortgage mess. Senator Obama had previously spoken out against Countrywide's...
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Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois. This Story The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a "super super jumbo." Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some...
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Sweetheart mortgage loans to Senators are much in the news of late, with calls for increased scrutiny of the solons' dealings with their mortgage lenders. In this spirit, I took a look at some of the publicly available information on Senator and Mrs. Obama's mortgage, obtained in 2005 when they purchased their mansion in Chicago's upscale Hyde Park district. The Obamas purchased their home with the help of his friend Tony Rezko, recently convicted of a felony. His wife Rita purchased the adjoining lot, the former side yard of the mansion, to seal the deal. According to the mortgage documents...
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Here's the bottom line on Barack Obama's sweet mortgage deal: He got a lower rate because he was rich, not because he's a senator. The Washington Post reported today that Obama got a lower-than-market rate on his $1.3 million home loan from Northern Trust in Chicago in 2005. This contradicts what Obama's office told Politico last week for a survey of all 100 senators' mortgages. Answering the Politico inquiry of whether the senator received any special terms, Obama's campaign answered "no." Obama received a 5.625 percent interest rate on his loan, which was below Northern Trust's going rate at the...
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Barack Obama aligned himself with welfare reform on Monday, launching a television ad which touts the way the overhaul "slashed the rolls by 80 percent." Obama leaves out, however, that he was against the 1996 federal legislation which precipitated the caseload reduction. "I am not a defender of the status quo with respect to welfare," Obama said on the floor of the Illinois state Senate on May 31, 1997. "Having said that, I probably would not have supported the federal legislation, because I think it had some problems." Obama's transformation from critic to champion of welfare reform is the latest...
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The leading liberal newspapers in the country have been croaking Barack Obama on housing issues in the past few weeks. Good for them. The most recent is a Washington Post article that reveals Barack Obama was a friend of David (Fox, CEO of Northern Trust). He got a similar deal to Friend’s of Angelo (Mozillo, CEO of Countrywide). The Dems have foreclosed, so to speak, on housing as a great campaign issue for them. They’ve given up the high ground. Washington Post: Obama Got Discount on Home Loan Campaign Defends Lower Rate as Lender Competition for Business "The freshman Democratic...
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Neighbors say officer was dedicated father and good neighbor A Chicago police officer responding to a disturbance outside a CTA bus was killed early today when he struggled with a woman who grabbed his gun and shot him in the head across the street from a North Side police station. Officers responding to Officer Richard Francis’ call for assistance with the disturbance near Belmont and Western opened fire on the woman, critically wounding her, police said. Both were taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where Francis, 60, a 27-year veteran of the force, was pronounced dead at 2:57 a.m.,...
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Presidential nominee Barack Obama joins the list of several other high-profile Democratic Party members who received highly favorable home loans. Obama, D-Ill., reportedly purchased a $1.65 million mansion in Chicago through a “super, super jumbo” loan he received from Northern Trust Bank in Illinois, the Washington Post reports. The portion of the money financed through the lender ($1.32 million) was offered to the Obamas at an unusually low discount interest rate locked in at 5.625 percent over the life of the 30-year fixed-rate loan, which was below the average of what a typical Chicagoan pursuing a similar low loan rate...
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Chicago, IL (AHN) - Eight deaths in Illinois and Missouri are being linked to a 28-year old man sighted near the border of the two states. The Illinois State Police called Nicholas Sheley of Sterling "a person of interest". Sheley is armed, dangerous and has a $25,000 prize money on his head. He has been linked to at least five of the homicides, including four people whose corpse were discovered in an apartment at Rock Falls.
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As Robert Novak noted today, voters could find it difficult to get a read on Barack Obama’s real feelings about the rights of gun owners and the constitutionality of gun bans. Obama has certainly made his position opaque with a number of contradictory statements in this campaign. Perhaps the tribulations of Hale DeMar and the legislative response to an act of self-defense can help make Obama’s impulses a little more transparent. Hale DeMar confronted a burglar in his home in December 2003 and shot him twice, forcing the burglar to flee and to seek medical care. Police arrested Mario Billings...
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In this Illinois Veteran's mind, Senator Dick Durbin wore out his welcome. At times I've wondered just who Mr. Durbin thinks he works for. So I'm asking Illinois FReepers, especially Veterans for help. Assist me with the Dr. Steve Sauerberg, MD US Senate campaign. It's time we increase the Illinois Senate delegation unemployment rate by one.
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CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- An Illinois man was charged with possession of a potentially deadly neurotoxin commonly found in puffer fish after the FBI led a raid at his home Monday. Edward F. Bachner, 35, of Lake in the Hills, was charged with one count of illegal possession of a toxin, according to a federal complaint filed in U.S. district court. Bachner is listed as the corporate secretary of Rosetta Wireless Corp. in Naperville, in suburban Chicago. Bachner was arrested after accepting a small amount of tetrodotoxin delivered by an undercover federal official at his home, the FBI said. Tetrodotoxin...
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Chemical allegedly found in FBI-led search can cause muscle paralysis in humans ~~~~~ A Lake in the Hills man was charged Monday with possession of a powerful neurotoxin found in species of puffer fish and octopus after agents with the FBI-led counter-terrorism task force raided his home. Edward Bachner, 35, was charged in a criminal complaint with one count of illegal possession of tetrodotoxin. He was arrested Monday and appeared briefly before U.S. Magistrate Judge P. Michael Mahoney in Rockford and was being held pending a detention hearing Wednesday morning, authorities said. Tetrodotoxin is an extremely powerful neurotoxin that in...
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June 30, 2008 -- CHICAGO -- Capt. Dan Rooney delivered a perfect strike Thursday afternoon in Wrigley Field. But, the pitch he made off the mound meant much more. The 35-year-old PGA Professional from Broken Arrow, Okla., and founder of Patriot Golf Day and the Folds of Honor Foundation, Rooney will be serving his country once again this fall by making his third tour of Iraq as an F-16 fighter pilot.
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Two men and a 21-year-old woman were found shot to death late Sunday in what Chicago police believe was a drug-related attack inside an apartment building on the city's South Side. The bodies were discovered at about 10 p.m. Sunday in the 7800 block of South Kingston Avenue in the South Shore neighborhood after police received a call about gunfire, Officer David Banks said.
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Some of the newest police officers in East St. Louis, Ill., have criminal records, and one of them took his oath having an outstanding warrant, officials said.
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Local officials study the potential impact of the federal decision overturning Washington's law Some Chicago suburbs that have passed handgun bans in the past weren't sure if those laws could be jeopardized by Thursday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Others didn't think it would matter either way. In the years since Morton Grove passed the first handgun ban in the nation in 1981, Evanston, Oak Park, Winnetka and Wilmette also outlawed handguns. Because of the high court's ruling that Washington, D.C., cannot ban people from owning guns, all five suburban bans could now be declared unconstitutional. Though Chicago officials Thursday vowed...
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WILMETTE, Ill. -- Wilmette has suspended enforcement of its 19-year-old ordinance banning handgun possession in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that appears to invalidate such bans. Video:Wilmette Lifts Ban Interactive:Meet The Justices In a 5-4 decision, the court struck down Washington, D.C.'s ban on handguns, a prohibition similar to those used in several major cities, including Chicago, and a handful of suburbs including Wilmette, Evanston, Winnetka and Oak Park. "The Law Department and the Police Department have suspended enforcement of the ordinance pending further review by the Village Board," Wilmette village attorney Tim Frenzer said Thursday. "Based...
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The June 19, 2008 headline reads “US doctors kill skin cancer with cloned T-cells.” Does this suggest that human cloning of embryonic stem cells has been successful in treating skin cancer? Absolutely not! The details of the New England Journal of Medicine report that generated this news coverage reveal that adult stem cells obtained from the patient were used. As reported in ScienceDaily, researchers “removed CD4+ T cells, a type of white blood cell, from a 52-year-old man whose Stage 4 melanoma had spread to a groin lymph node and to a lung. T cells specific to targeting the melanoma...
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No, we don't suppose that's going to happen any time soon. But it should. The 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is evidence that, while the founding fathers were brilliant men, they could have used an editor. 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. If the founders had limited themselves to the final 14 words, the amendment would have been an unambiguous declaration of the right to possess firearms. But they didn't, and it isn't. The amendment was intended to...
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Barack Obama made one shrewd move this week, along with one risky one. In talking with reporters after the Supreme Court ruled that criminals who rape children may not be executed, Mr. Obama moved smartly to the political center. "I think that the rape of a small child, six or eight years old, is a heinous crime and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances, the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that does not violate our Constitution," he said, siding with conservative dissenters in the case. Mr. Obama was on shakier ground when...
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NEW YORK — News of a cluster of at least 17 pregnant teenagers at a Massachusetts high school recently made headlines around the world, but it came at a time when teen pregnancies and abortions in the United States actually are at their lowest points in 30 years. Pregnancies — whether they end in birth, miscarriage or abortion — among women age 15 to 19 dropped to 72.2 per 1,000 women in 2004, down from a peak of 117 per 1,000 women in 1990, according to the latest data compiled by New York's Guttmacher Institute, which focuses on reproductive health...
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I don’t begrudge Barack Obama the modesty of his accomplishments as a community organizer. 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...
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With President Obama in office, the days of governments extracting a top marginal rate of 60% will return. Could bell bottoms be far behind? Remember how the press made George Bush’s tax rate cuts look so “huge” in 2001 and 2003? A March 10, 2001, New York Times article by reporters Frank Bruni and Richard W. Stevenson typified the approach. The trick was to talk about the (scary) $1.6 trillion impact of the “cuts” while minimizing attention to their time frame. At the linked article, the reporters waited until the ninth paragraph to tell us that it was a “$1.6...
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Fr. Michael Pfleger has reappeared on the national ABC program “Good Morning America” as some type of spokesman on race who is also against gun violence being touted as having “spent the last 30 years cleaning up his impoverished south side Chicago parish, fighting the presence of poverty, drugs, gangs and gun violence..” despite the dismal reality of the St. Sabina’s neighborhood floundering in a sea of prosperity in Chicago. Mixing partisan politics with religion has been combustible combination in Chicago for generations. The media practice of using a religious persona to somehow add legitimacy to a political cause is...
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Gun Rights: Obama claims he believes the Second Amendment says you can own a gun but that local communities can still opt out of the Constitution. What will he say as his political hometown is sued by the NRA?While campaigning in Pennsylvania earlier this year, Barack Obama was having breakfast with his Democratic Senate colleague Bob Casey. A reporter asked Obama about Jimmy Carter's trip to see the terrorist group Hamas. Obama responded: "Why is it that, like, I can't just eat my waffle?" There's going to be another waffle Obama's going to eat as he tries to explain his...
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·11250 Waples Mill Road · Fairfax, Virginia 22030 ·800-392-8683 NRA Files Second Amendment Cases in Illinois, California Friday, June 27, 2008 Fairfax, Va., June 27-Following up on yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment protects a private right to possess firearms that is not limited to militia service, the National Rifle Association of America today filed five lawsuits challenging local gun bans in San Francisco, and in Chicago and several of its suburbs. “The Supreme Court held yesterday that the Second Amendment right is exercised individually and belongs to all Americans,” said NRA chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox. “These lawsuits...
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The candidate endorsed subsidies for private entrepreneurs to build low-income units. But, while he garnered support from developers, many projects in his former district have fallen into disrepair. The squat brick buildings of Grove Parc Plaza, in a dense neighborhood that Barack Obama represented for eight years as a state senator, hold 504 apartments subsidized by the federal government for people who can't afford to live anywhere else. But it's not safe to live here. ... Grove Parc has bvecome a private symbol for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build...
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Barack Obama's name could have been invoked more at the corruption trial of his former fund-raiser Tony Rezko. But it appears prosecutors opted against bringing Obama into the mix during the two-month trial. Newly unsealed documents show that prosecutors sought to call witnesses to testify about Rezko's ties to Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
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His name came up repeatedly in Tony Rezko’s corruption trial, and his voice was heard time and again on FBI wiretaps. Now Robert Weinstein — a confidant of the star witness in Rezko’s trial — has been indicted. Robert Weinstein, a doctor, is accused in a three-count indictment of raiding the Chicago Medical School and the North Shore Supporting Organization, a charity, of millions of dollars. (Sun-Times file) Weinstein, a doctor, is accused in a three-count indictment of raiding the Chicago Medical School and the North Shore Supporting Organization, a charity, of millions of dollars. He diverted $6 million from...
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Attorney Alan Gura, on behalf of a coalition of the Second Amendment Foundation and several Chicago Residents, filed suit this morning against the City of Chicago, challenging that city’s draconian gun ban laws. You can view a copy of the complaint here. This suit is the necessary and logical second step towards restoring the Second Amendment as a viable force in American law. As you read from our prior coverage, the Heller decision applies only to the Federal government. A necessary second step is “incorporation” of the Second Amendment against the 50 states. As originally written, none of the Bill...
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Barack Obama's name could have been invoked more at the corruption trial of his former fund-raiser Tony Rezko. But it appears prosecutors opted against bringing Obama into the mix during the two-month trial. RELATED STORIES Who lied, witnesses or gov? Feds: Blago denied details Backers turn out for gov's fund-raiser Obama says he avoided city, state corruption Eye on Rezko: Updates from our blog Special section: The Tony Rezko trial RELATED PDF Unsealed document relating to Obama Newly unsealed documents show that prosecutors sought to call witnesses to testify about Rezko's ties to Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president....
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[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – United States Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) released the following statement today following the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller:“This school year alone, over 20 Chicago public school students have been killed by guns. And in April there was a 10-day stretch in Chicago where there were 48 shootings.”“When the equivalent of an entire classroom full of kids is killed by gun violence, it underscores the need for common-sense, effective gun safety measures that respond to the level of violence in our communities."“Acknowledging that gun ownership is a basic right does not absolve us...
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Daley is going to blow an aorta. I'm positive of it. Dick Daley is SPITTING mad. You see, the Supreme Court told him "no". You don't tell Dick Daley "no". Not in Chicago, you don't. Dick Daley wants to ban guns in Chicago. And on its face, that might make sense in some twisted parallel universe. But here in Chicago, where kids are routinely slaughtered in the mean streets even with the Mayor's overpriced, intrusive camera system, there are some people who would like to be able to defend themselves against attack. So we have a gun ban here. The...
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Gun-control advocates across the country reacted with shock and outrage at the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns today, saying the ruling would threaten gun-control measures in other states. If there was any doubt that other bans would be in peril, the National Rifle Association quickly put those questions to rest when it announced shortly after the ruling that it would file a flurry of lawsuits challenging restrictions in San Francisco, Chicago and several Chicago suburbs. The law in Washington, which spelled out rules for the storage of weapons and made it extremely...
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Republican Presidential Candidate Singles Out Chicago In Statement Praising Supreme Court Ruling - Gun Rights Ruling May Change Chicago Law - ARLINGTON, Va. (CBS) ― U.S. Sen. John McCain said Thursday that the Supreme Court ruling in favor of gun ownership showed that the Chicago handgun ban has "infringed on the constitutional rights of Americans." The presumptive Republican presidential nominee called the ruling a "landmark victory for Second Amendment freedom in the United States." "For the first time in the history of our Republic, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was...
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High court strikes down Washington D.C. law in ruling that could have Chicago implications - An angry Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday called the Supreme Court's overturning of the Washington D.C. gun ban "a very frightening decision" and vowed to fight vigorously any challenges to Chicago's ban. The mayor, speaking at a Navy Pier event, said he was sure mayors nationwide, who carry the burden of keeping cities safe, will be outraged by the decision. Chicago's handgun ban, which has lasted for more than a quarter-century, came under threat earlier in the day when the Supreme Court decided that Washington...
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WASHINGTON, DC -- With federal aid limited and most homes damaged or destroyed by Midwest flooding lacking the proper insurance, states along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers will soon have to help homeowners recover, according to the nation's No. 1 disaster official. "There's a big gap that they are going to have as people get back to rebuild their homes," R. David Paulison, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said after meeting at the Capitol with some members of Illinois' congressional delegation. Homeowners with flood insurance may receive up to $250,000 to help with rebuilding and up to $100,000...
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PEORIA — As water levels continue to threaten areas along the Mississippi River, hundreds of Illinois National Guard members and volunteers continue to work around the clock to keep some communities afloat. Building levees - sandbag by sandbag - 15 to 20 feet high is a daunting task for the Guard units which, for the past week and a half, have sweated through miserable weather conditions as they worked in dangerous and dirty environments.More than 300 Guard members, including Bartonville's 182nd Airlift Wing, have doubled the population of Kinderhook, a small town south of Quincy, as they fight to curb...
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Clout and corruption scandals that have plagued Chicago and Illinois politics in recent years have not laid a glove on Barack Obama, he told reporters here Wednesday. "You will recall that for my entire political career here, I was not the the endorsed candidate of any political organization here," the Democratic presidential hopeful said at the Westin Hotel downtown. "I didn't go around wielding a bunch of clout. My reputation in Springfield was as an independent. There is no doubt I had friends and continue to have friends who come out of the more traditional school of Chicago politics but...
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