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--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.

When they weren't breaking the law or going in and out of jail, the Jersey Boys who went on to become the Four Seasons were hanging out on street corners singing with cigarettes dangling from their mouths. Not in Chicago. Here, lead singer Frankie Valli, song-writing sensation Bob Gaudio and the boys have gone cold turkey Following an apparent complaint from an irate theatergoer, the Chicago theatrical production of "Jersey Boys" has snuffed out cigarettes...

...the Examiner editorial board came up with a terrific editorial ... on a subject that EVERY conservative ought to be mentioning every day between now and November. Summary: Obama left a big mess behind in his state Senate district, where the only people who benefited -- indeed, made out like bandits -- were the rich developers who paid his campaign bills...

Mayor Daley acknowledged today that there was a gang presence at this year's Taste of Chicago, but he insisted that Chicago Police officers were powerless to stop it. "You come out of the L. You're a gang-banger. But, what is a gang-banger? Is [it] a kid that has pants, a hat and a shirt? He thinks he's a gang member. ... Can you see the police stopping every person coming down who looks like a gang-banger [based on] how people dress?" Daley said.

A Georgia man appeared in court Monday on charges he killed his own daughter for disgracing his family. Chaudhry Rashid, wearing a red jumpsuit and shackles around his ankles, went before Chief Judge Daphne Walker at the Clayton County Magistrate Court where he was arraigned on a murder charge. The 54-year-old, who is of Pakistani descent, kept his head down as charges were read, and appeared to have difficulty understanding instructions from the judge, possibly the result of a language barrier. His two sons were also in attendance, watching their father from seats in the rear of the courtroom, joined...

When Husain Mahmoud was hired as head coach of Chicago State University's baseball team last year, his resume looked impressive: A 30th-round draft pick for the Cincinnati Reds. A college football and baseball star who held a collegiate punting record. A professional football player with the Chicago Fire of the now-defunct World Football League who had also been a league-leading quarterback in the Continental Football League. But a Sun-Times examination found Mahmoud was never drafted by the Reds and didn't play for either football league. Central State University in Ohio, from which Mahmoud graduated, could not confirm his claimed record.

Vote of Confidence A huge black turnout in November 1992 altered Chicago's electoral landscape—and raised a new political star: a 31-year-old lawyer named Barack Obama. By Gretchen Reynolds A huge black turnout in November 1992 altered Chicago's electoral landscape-and raised a new political star: a 31-year-old lawyer named Barack Obama. In the final, climactic buildup to November's general election, with George Bush gaining ground on Bill Clinton in Illinois and the once-unstoppable campaign of senatorial candidate Carol Moseley Braun embroiled in allegations about her mother's Medicare liability, one of the most important local stories managed to go virtually unreported: The...

A man shot and critically wounded by police early Sunday on the city's Southwest Side has died, according to the Independent Police Review Authority. A spokesman said the victim was an adult male and that a gun was recovered at the crime scene. At about 2:13 a.m., police responded to a call of shots fired in the 6100 block of South Kedzie Avenue, the Chicago Police News Affairs office said in a release. Police and the armed person exchanged gunfire. The suspect was struck and transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition, according to police.

Chicago firearms ban may test court ruling City leaders fear decision may void restriction on guns in the Windy City CHICAGO — One small reflection of Chicago's bloody year is a sign outside a South Side elementary school that says, "Congratulations Class of 2008. Stop the Violence." In a city where homicide rates have risen by 13 percent over the same period last year and gunfire killed 26 students in the past school year, Mayor Richard Daley thinks the Supreme Court majority that overturned a Washington, D.C., gun ban last month is detached from urban reality. "If they think that's...

Chicago police will be out in greater numbers for tonight’s Navy Pier fireworks show after four people were shot last night as crowds streamed out of the Grant Park fireworks and Taste of Chicago. The shootings happened blocks away from the Taste grounds as hundreds of thousands of people headed home. Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis, has ordered a heightened police presence for tonight’s Navy Pier fireworks show after four people were shot last night as crowds streamed out of the Grant Park fireworks and Taste of Chicago. “We’re going to have an even greater police presence” tonight, Police Supt....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

CABRINI-GREEN | Mom watches as gate crushes 3-year-old son At 3 years old, Curtis Cooper thought himself invincible. He'd fashion a towel into a cape, and called himself Super Curtis. But mom Pamela Cooper knew he wasn't invincible. So despite her family ribbing her about being overprotective, she never let the boy play outside without her. Until Friday, when she let her son ride his tricycle outside his Cabrini-Green row home alone, she said. As the 22-year-old mother watched from a window, a gate weighing hundreds of pounds broke from its hinge, fell atop the boy and killed him, Cooper's...

After a lone arson investigator was shot early Sunday while investigating a blaze in an alley, the Chicago Fire department changed its policy so investigators must now work in pairs. The 18-year department veteran was in an alley behind a home in the 2900 block of E. 80th Place about 4:35 a.m. when he was shot in the side and called for help on his radio.

A powerful gun lobby group in the United States has filed legal challenges to handgun bans in San Francisco and Chicago. The lawsuits come a day after the US Supreme Court ruled that a ban on the private possession of handguns in Washington DC was unconstitutional. A National Rifle Association lawyer said the cases were necessary to expand the ruling to other states and cities. San Francisco's mayor says he plans to fight the NRA challenge. The San Francisco lawsuit challenges the city's handgun ban in public housing, while in Chicago it challenges a ruling that makes it illegal to...

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...

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...

[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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Do you know what a community organizer does? And if so, do you know what it is about being a community organizer that might qualify one to be president of the United States? My guess is most people don’t know, and they’re not sure what Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) means when he frequently cites his time as an organizer in Chicago as one of his qualifications for the White House.I didn’t know either, which is why I went to Chicago recently to learn about Obama’s organizing years, from 1985 to 1988. And after looking at Obama’s experience there, and talking...

Freeper CHICAGOLADY has been asked to appear on CNN AMERICAN MORNING Monday June 23, 2008. 5 A.M.Chicago time (Central) This will be the second recent program at CNN for Rosanna Pulido to speak about the meetings GOP Presidential Candidate John McCain has been holding with 'hispanics' only and attended by Ms. Pulido. [snip]In an interview with AP, she states, “He’s one John McCain in front of white Republicans. And he’s a different John McCain in front of Hispanics,” complained Rosanna Pulido, a Hispanic and conservative Republican who attended the meeting.......He’s having his private meetings to rally Hispanics and to tell...

In Chicago politics a key question has always been, who "sent" you? The classic phrase is "We don't want nobody that nobody sent" - from an anecdote of Abner Mikva's, the former White House Counsel (Pres. Clinton) and now retired federal judge. (And someone I campaigned for while in high school when he ran, unsuccessfully, for Congress in the early 70s.) As a young student, Mikva wanted to help out the his local Democratic Party machine on the south side of Chicago. In 1948, he walked into the local committeeman's office to volunteer for Adlai Stevenson and Paul Douglas and...

from the link, "Who 'sent' Obama?" in the Power line post: Certainly Ayers' politics remain unapologetically authoritarian. He recently traveled to Venezuela - only the most recent of several such trips - and delivered a speech in front of Hugo Chavez in which he spoke of education as the "motor force of revolution" and his interest in "overcom[ing] the failings of capitalist education" and said he thought Chavez was creating "something truly new and deeply humane." He closed his speech by mouthing typical slogans of the authoritarian left: "Viva Mission Sucre! Viva Presidente Chavez! Viva La Revolucion Bolivariana! Hasta La...

If you can get to Chicago (and even if you normally make a point of avoiding Chicago--an easily understandable policy) on July 11th, you need to do so. The Illinois gun rights movement, with the help of ISRA and Illinois Carry, has a little surprise for the purveyors of the forcible citizen disarmament agenda in Illinois. (Click on image for larger view, or click here for the pdf version). That's right--a Second Amendment rally in downtown Chicago, featuring Suzanna Hupp (if you don't know who she is, or how compelling she is as a speaker, see this). IGOLD was a...

<p>CHICAGO — On-duty Chicago police officers and any officers who shoot their weapons, on or off-duty, would be required to submit to random alcohol tests under a contract proposal sent to the union.</p> <p>Police officers also would be forbidden to drink alcohol four hours before any shift.</p>

Woman pulled cop from wrecked car in 2002, but police said she stole service weapon A trained nurse, Rachelle Jackson immediately ran toward the sound of the crash. A Chicago police car had collided with another vehicle and was starting to smoke, two officers still inside. Fearing an explosion, she quickly pulled one officer from the passenger side.She never imagined her act of kindness nearly six years ago would land her in jail for more than 10 months on charges that she robbed, battered and disarmed a peace officer. Jackson filed a lawsuit, and on Thursday a federal jury found...

Obama Moves DNC Offices to ChicagoBen Smith & David Paul Kuhn, The Politico Barack Obama’s move to merge key elements of the Democratic National Committee into his own campaign’s Chicago headquarters appears aimed at the goal of a centralized and united Democratic Party. The shift of the DNC’s political and field organizing operations to Chicago will consolidate the Democratic presidential campaign apparatus more than in either of the last two cycles, when staffers at DNC headquarters overlapped – and occasionally competed – with aides to Al Gore and John Kerry. Obama’s move also seemed aimed at producing minimum conflict:...