Free Republic

The irony is rich. President Obama told Maryland college students just days before the launch of his healthcare "marketplace" that it would take just a few keystrokes to compare prices and policy details. "Don't take my word for it, go on the website," Obama told a crowd at Prince George's Community College in Largo, MD, five days before the launch. "See for yourself what the prices are. See for yourself what the choices are and then make up your own mind. That's all I'm asking." But the bureaucrats in his administration clearly weren't listening. They created a website that is...

Adam Weldzius, a nurse practitioner, considers himself better informed than most when it comes to the inner workings of health insurance. But even he wasn't prepared for the pocketbook hit he'll face next year under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. If the 33-year-old single father wants the same level of coverage next year as what he has now with the same insurer and the same network of doctors and hospitals, his monthly premium of $233 will more than double. If he wants to keep his monthly payments in check, the Carpentersville resident is looking at an annual deductible for...

He regrets not taking on the President in the 2004 for Illinois Senate seat: “He probably wouldn’t be in the White House” Gruff Mike Ditka, the former head coach of the National Football League’s Chicago Bears and a commentator for ESPN, wishes he had called one more running play. Specifically, he said this week that he regrets not running against President Obama in the 2004 Illinois Senate race and called it “the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.”

The White House and the Senate are working to squeeze House Republicans into accepting a bipartisan compromise from the upper chamber to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. Any emerging deal, however, will leave ObamaCare largely intact, angering conservatives who have demanded defunding or delaying President Obama’s signature achievement. House Republicans are fuming over the prospect that Senate Democrats and Republicans are working on a plan to jam them with a last-minute deal they would have to accept or risk triggering a federal default. “They are trying to jam us with the Senate and we are not going...

Full carts abandoned at Chicago grocery stores were a common sight as shoppers in Illinois and many other states have been unable to use their food stamp debit cards. More than two million people in Illinois use a so-called Link Card. That's one in six residents in the state. So when suddenly the system went down Saturday morning many customers just walked out of the store. "Now I'm going to have to unfortunately do the fast food thing now. No cooking tonight," said Link Card user Rob Lee. "That's how people starve," said shopper Sean Wright. "People starve if they...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has $5 million in his reelection campaign coffers more than a year out from the filing deadline, but with lagging poll numbers, the sharks are starting to smell blood in the water. Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis, a longtime vocal critic, says Emanuel is vulnerable, and believes he'll need every penny of his campaign war chest to win another term. "I believe there's this notion that if you have a lot of money that you can overwhelm your opponents and we don't believe that. We believe that the number of people going to vote is what's...

SUV involved in high-profile murder case before current owner bought itA man separated from his vehicle for almost a year through no fault of his own, finally got it back. Cook County investigators suspected Jose Aguirre's SUV played a role in a 2007 high-profile double murder case,. Aguirre was not the owner of the 2002 Cadillac Escalade at the time of the murders, and is suspected of no wrongdoing. Still, when a search warrant was presented and the car whisked away, Aguirre was left paying his car note, and struggling to find a way to get to his job at...

A designer street drug made in Russia has hit the Chicago area according to a drug rehab doctor in Joliet, Illinois. The doctor has said that he’s seen as many as three patients who are suffering extreme effects of the drug. Those effects include scaly lesions, rotting flesh, gangrene and, eventually, death. Some reckon the life expectancy of chronic users at two years. Made by combining codeine with gasoline and other toxics, Krokidil (Russian for crocodile) is many times more potent than morphine and three times more potent than heroin, with withdrawal symptoms beginning shortly after the one and a...

Cassandra Feuerstein of Chicago was thrown face first by a Skokie officer into a concrete jail cell bench, suffering multiple injuries, her lawyer says. Feuerstein was arrested in March on suspicion of driving under the influence.A Chicago woman arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence has filed a lawsuit alleging police in Skokie, Ill., violently threw her into a jail cell, shattering several bones in her face. Cassandra Feuerstein, 47, was arrested March 10 and charged with DUI after police found her sleeping on the side of the road as she sat behind the wheel of her car. Surveillance...

A classroom of 14 and 15-year-old Illinois high school students was assigned the task of deciding the fate of ten fictional characters in an exercise that critics called a lesson in death panels. The assignment was part of a sociology unit for freshmen and sophomore students at St. Joseph-Ogden High School in St. Joseph, just east of Champaign. The story was first reported by Champion News. The lesson involves 10 people who are in desperate need of kidney dialysis. “Unless they receive this procedure, they will die,” the lesson states. But there’s a problem. The local hospital only has enough...

Contact Your State Legislator Today! Written By David E. Smith | 10.10.13 The second Defend Marriage Lobby Day of the year is less than two weeks away on Wednesday, October 23rd in Springfield. Whether you’re able to come or not, we need you to contact your state legislator today. If you are able to join us in Springfield, please let your legislators know that you’re coming and look forward to speaking with them about protecting marriage in Illinois. If you’re unable to come, please send your legislator a message to protect marriage by clicking HERE. Tell them that you wish...

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the kingpin of the Sinaloa Cartel, owns the Chicago-area drug game. Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the Sinaloa cartel’s “logistics coordinator” and son of a principal Sinaloa leader, asserted in court documents that Guzman is a U.S. informant and Sinaloa was "given carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago.Niebla also alleged that Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to finance and arm the cartel in exchange for information used to take down its rivals.

4 dead, 12 wounded during weekend violence Four men are dead and at least 12 others have been wounded in violence across the city since Friday afternoon.

Recent reports surfacing about a particular NFL franchise, the Washington Redskins, created a minor stir throughout the sports world, bringing the Chicago Blackhawks in the argument as well. What unites the two teams, you might ask? It is the name, which is suggestive of a native group. Not only are the Redskins and Blackhawks involved, but another NFL franchise, the Kansas City Cheifs, and the Cleavland Indians of the MLB. Besides those four main teams, are over 150 other clubs in various sports across North America. Many activist groups for indigenous people have called out these clubs on occasion, with...

Growing concerns about identity theft and fraud have led the Illinois Department of Insurance to issue a public warning, just as the new health insurance exchanges enter their implementation phase. Concern focuses on those charged with assisting Illinoisans with enrollment to the new health insurance exchanges, the so-called “navigators.” Navigators will “educate consumers about the health insurance Marketplace, answer health coverage-related questions, and facilitate consumers’ selection of affordable health coverage through the Marketplace,” according to the navigator training manual. This will give navigators access to individuals’ personally identifiable information: the information necessary for identity theft. The Illinois Department of Insurance...

October 8, 2013 Obama’s hometown government proposes dumping 400 part-timers from health plan Michael Volpe Part-time government employees working for Cook County, Illinois — President Obama’s home county — may soon lose their employer-funded health insurance and instead have to move onto Obamacare’s healthcare exchanges.That move would once again directly contradict President Obama’s promise that Americans who like their health plans could keep them.In a press release from the Office of Cook County Board President, Democrat Toni Preckwinkle announced that she has proposed that all part time local government employees be removed from the county’s health plan or pay the...

CALLING ALL FREEPERS! Come on down to Chicago and Join the Protest of Dick Durbin and John Mc Cain at Maggiano's Banquets 111 W. Grand Avenue Chicago IL, 60654 Monday, October 28, 2013 7:15 a.m. reception/7:45 a.m. breakfast FREEPMAIL ME if you plan on coming out!

AURORA — The Illinois office that issues driver’s licenses is preparing to roll out its biggest initiative in 14 years: helping undocumented immigrants apply for those licenses. Come December, when appointments become available to apply for the licenses, an Aurora facility will be one of 25 designated locations across the state where immigrants can go to get them. “This is our No. 1 priority right now in our office,” said Tom Benigno, chief of staff to Secretary of State Jesse White, who leads the office that is overseeing the initiative. Benigno joined State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora) and Alderman...

Councilwoman Jan Quillman said the night she squabbled with a firefighter she was greatly upset by the bloody "massacre scene" she happened upon when her mother-in-law injured a varicose vein.

...........During an appearance on ABC’s Sunday program “This Week,” Boehner was asked what will happen if Obama maintains his position not to negotiate over raising the debt limit. “If he [Obama] continues to refuse to negotiate, the country is going to default?” a stunned George Stephanopoulos asked Boehner. “That’s the path we are on,” he replied. “I’m willing to sit down with the president, but his refusal to negotiate is putting our country at risk,” he added, reiterating it multiple times throughout the interview.......

The president’s health care law is driving down employment in his home state, according to a recent report. Employers in Illinois are cutting worker hours to avoid costly penalties from Obamacare’s employer mandate, where employees in the lowest wage sectors are the hardest hit. The Illinois Policy Institute studied the three employment sectors — retail, food, and merchandise– whose average hours were closest to 30 hours per week prior to the Affordable Care Act. The institute found that all three have now dipped below 30 hours per week, the threshold for a full-time worker under the law. Average hours for...

A group of Texas congressmen armed with wire cutters made their way to the World War II Memorial in Washington after they learned the National Park Service had reinforced the barriers blocking the site with wire. “This is Chicago thuggery,” Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) told me. “The president is trying to inflict the most amount of pain and suffering. This is not some bureaucratic mistake. This is Chicago thuggery. You try to make people hurt so they don’t resist what you tell them to do in the future.”

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday blasted Congressional Republicans for their “wrong-headed” budget brinksmanship he said led to a partial government shutdown, while maintaining that city services are still immune to the impasse in Washington. “It’s time for the Republican leaders in Congress to step up, provide leadership and tell a small minority in their party to stop trying to hold the country hostage to their ideology,” Emanuel told reporters at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday. As the first federal shutdown in nearly 18 years entered its second day, Emanuel said city services are still unaffected by the shutdown,...

Politics: Defying the Supreme Court, the administration is suing North Carolina for requiring valid ID at the polls, a rule that President Obama had no problem complying with in his home state. North Carolina is the first state to make changes to its voting laws after June's Supreme Court ruling making it harder for the Justice Department to block such changes under the outdated Voting Rights Act of 1965. Raleigh's new GOP majority passed a common-sense law making all voters show a state driver's license or other valid ID to guard against fraudulent ballots. The law will help stop noncitizens...

For the first time in 48 years Catholic grammar schools in Chicago and surrounding suburbs grew in population, by more than 1,300 students. “It’s gratifying to see all the hard work in improving Catholic schools recognized in increased enrollment,” Cardinal Francis George said in a statement. After so many years of declining enrollment, the Chicago Archdiocese hopes this marks a new trend that will continue to see growth. “For nearly 50 years there has been a story of declining student enrollment in our Catholic schools, and my hope in achieving this milestone of growth is to continue rewriting the script...

A teenage girl with Down Syndrome has realized her childhood dream of becoming a model. Karrie Brown, 17, from Collinsville, Illinois, was picked to star in a new campaign for the girls' fashion label, Wet Seal after a Facebook photo of her wearing items from the brand attracted public attention. The image, posted to her Fan Page, 'Karrie Brown - Modeling the Future', garnered more than 200 Likes and saw her number of followers rocket to 18,914.

Most Chicagoans won't notice a short-term federal government shutdown, but the effects could start to be felt by some if the stalemate lingers a few weeks, officials from Springfield to City Hall to college campuses indicated Monday. That's because most agencies can get by for a few weeks without federal dollars by tapping into reserves. [Snip] Cook County hospitals still will accept patients, college students will get financial aid and the state won't stop processing unemployment checks or child support payments. [Snip] Here's a look at some of the potential effects after Congress failed to reach an agreement before Tuesday's...

Rod Blagojevich is peeling potatoes in prison Rod Blagojevich is "a lovely guy," according to defense attorney Sam Adam Sr. Apparently he isn't the only one with that assessment. Adam says that Blago's fellow prisoners "just adore him." So what does the Bureau of Prisons have him doing? "They've got him working in the kitchen peeling potatoes just like I did in the Army! They've given him a lot of time to run and exercise. He’s settled in now, which knowing the Bureau of Prisons, they’ll probably transfer him!"

The one state arguably more screwed up than California is Illinois. Unions, union sympathizers, socialists, and tax-hike proponents are strongly in control of both states. Is it any wonder that perpetual economic difficulties and insurmountable pension underfundings face both states? Via email, Ted Dabrowski at the Illinois Policy Institute writes ... Unhappy Anniversary Six months ago, Illinois overtook California to become the state with the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation, behind only Nevada. It hasn’t budged since. Last week’s release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics detailed yet another month of stalled unemployment numbers for Illinois. The state’s...

He may have served two tours in Afghanistan protecting the freedom of his nation, but double-Bronze Star veteran David Wood has returned home only to battle ungrateful NIMBYS. Gifted a charitable home through the efforts of his local congressman, Aaron Schock for his wartime efforts, Wood, who has lost the hearing in one ear was told that the property plans for his family's house were opposed by his potential neighbors. Indeed, an unidentified cabal of neighbors in the Peoria suburb of Morton, Illinois, has clubbed together to oppose his wooden home saying quite clearly, not in my backyard. The father...

Illinois lawmakers are considering a tax incentive package in hopes of persuading agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland Company not to move its global headquarters out of the state. The proposal filed Friday in the Illinois House would give ADM a 10 percent break on utility taxes for up to 30 years and a credit against some state income tax withholdings. The value of the incentives was not disclosed. The package was introduced by state Rep. John Bradley, a Democrat from Marion who is chairman of the House Revenue and Finance Committee. The committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday in Chicago...

So-called “stand your ground laws” have led to unnecessary shootings around the country, and now Illinois is on the brink of having one of its own sneak onto the books through the back door. The Legislature should act to prevent that before anyone dies in one of those stupidly unnecessary confrontations. Historically, laws in America generally have required people to retreat from confrontations if possible before resorting to lethal force. But in recent years, stand your ground laws — which allow individuals claiming to fear for their lives to use such force even if they have the opportunity to back...

When children walk the stretch along Montrose Avenue through the heart of Uptown to Brennemann Elementary School, they already deal with violence and gang tensions. But like children at most of the other schools that received new Safe Passage routes, another potential danger lurks: registered sex offenders, especially those deemed predators who victimized children.

Nine Alleged Members of Hobos Street Gang Indicted in RICO Conspiracy for Murders and Other Violent, Drug-Related Crimes CHICAGO—Nine defendants who allegedly directed or participated in a violent, drug trafficking street gang known as the Hobos were charged today in a federal racketeering conspiracy (RICO) indictment with engaging in murders, attempted murders, robberies, and narcotics distribution. The five-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury alleges five murders, solicitation of a sixth murder, four attempted murders, three robberies, and the operation of “drug spots” and “drug lines” on the city’s south side among a pattern of criminal activity between 2004...

Though there is still a long way to go for the Delta Queen to return to the rivers as a cruise ship, passing of bill H.R. 1961 in the House of Representatives is a major step in this direction. On Wednesday, September 25th 2013, the House has approved the bill that would grant the historic Delta Queen a 15 years exemption from a fire-retardant materials construction requirement. The House voted 280 to 89 in favor of the Delta Queen with almost all Republicans voting with “yea”, while Democrats voted 82 to 84 against the bill. The bill still has to...

Bryon Champ decided to seek quick revenge last week after he was grazed in the leg in a gang-related shooting, authorities say. The convicted felon reached out to Kewane Gatewood, who for a few months had been hiding an AK-47-style rifle under his bed for Champ, according to authorities. Just hours after he had been injured, Champ and Tabari Young, one armed with the assault rifle and the other toting a .22-caliber handgun, indiscriminately opened fire Thursday night at a crowded South Side park that they considered the turf of the rival gang, police and prosecutors alleged. In one of...

20 Sep Republican Sen's Who Are UNDECIDED On Defunding Obamacare! Let's help them decide! Please RETWEET!! #DefundObamacare pic.twitter.com/xn8nG6Y9v6

At least 24 people have been shot, five of them fatally, in Chicago since Friday, police said. The weekend violence began just one day after 13 people were injured in a Chicago park. The victims from Thursday's shooting included 10 males and three females, including 3-year-old Deonta Howard -- known as "Tay-man" -- who was shot in the jaw and listed in critical condition. Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said an assault style rifle with a high capacity magazine was used in the park shooting. McCarthy added that based on witness interviews, the attack appears to be gang-related, as...

Gov. Pat Quinn says he would consider using state resources to help combat Chicago street violence, but only if city officials want the assistance. Speaking on this week’s mass shooting in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, Quinn was asked whether there have been discussions about sending in the state police or Illinois National Guard to assist Chicago police. (snip) "I live on the West Side of Chicago. It is an area that has been inflicted with violence, and we’ve got to protect the people,” Quinn said.

On Thursday, 13 people were shot and injured in a park in Chicago. The shootings were carried out by an “assault style rifle” with a high-capacity magazine, both of which are already banned in the city of Chicago. Nevertheless, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy has called for a nationwide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. “Illegal guns drive violence. Military-type weapons, like the one we believe to have been used in this shooting, belong on a battlefield, not on a street or in a corner or in a park.” Chicago was named the murder capital of the United...

Edward Hambrick also enjoyed choosing his own clothing Wednesday, something he could not do in 14 months at the Cook County Jail. He was locked up longer than some convicted of violent crimes, though authorities said the 40-year-old computer programmer's record is completely clean. He was among four defendants freed from the jail overnight. State's Attorney Anita Alvarez dropped gun possession charges against 103 defendants Tuesday. The Illinois Supreme Court last week ruled the gun possession charges they all faced were based on a law that is unconstitutional. "Everything is pretty much destroyed," Hambrick said of being locked up. "But...

In some cash-strapped Chicago schools, no resource can be taken for granted -- not even toilet paper. Nicholas Sposato, alderman of Chicago’s 36th ward, recently held a toilet paper drive for the schools in his community.

A gunman with a military-grade assault rifle opened fire on a pickup basketball game in the Back of the Yards neighborhood late Thursday, injuring 13 people and dragging the city back into the international spotlight for its violent crime problem. At least 16 bullets were fired into Cornell Square Park around 10:15 p.m. on Thursday, wounding a 3-year-old boy and a dozen other people. All are expected to survive, many with wounds to their arms and legs. Shell casings found around the blood-soaked basketball courts were 7.62 mm rounds, which are traditionally used in AK-47 assault rifles and rarely found...

The kind of violence that typically plagues Chicago does not handily fit the terms of the national debate on assault weapons and mass shootings. While tragedies in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., and other cities have made the nation stop and take notice, the nearly daily killings in Chicago more often make headlines only by the periodic tallying of their collective toll. Most often, the approximately 500 people slain last year in Chicago were shot one at a time, usually with a handgun that could be concealed in a waistband or jacket pocket. The gun violence that unfolded Thursday night at...

By 9 a.m. Friday, bandaged shooting victims began hobbling out of Chicago-area hospitals. Around the same time, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's communications staffers punched the "send" button on their computers, firing off statements about an overnight shooting rampage. Television news crews and newspaper editors scurried to post pictures of one of the victims, 3-year-old Deonta Howard, who was shot in the face. Just a short time later in a federal courtroom, a jury announced it had reached a verdict in an unrelated case. A proficient gun trafficker who routinely bought firearms in Indiana and resold them in Chicago was convicted of...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel condemned a Thursday night shooting on Chicago’s South Side that wounded 13 people, including a three-year-old boy. “Senseless and brazen acts of violence have no place in Chicago and betray all that we stand for,” said Obama’s former chief of staff in the first of a series of tweets Friday morning. “The perpetrators of this crime will be brought to justice and prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Emanuel added. Witnesses said several gunmen fired at least 20 shots at a group on basketball courts, according to NBC News’s Chicago affiliate. The station said...

Those behind a late-night attack at a southwest Chicago park in which 13 people were wounded, including a 3-year-old, used an assault-style weapon to spray the crowd with bullets, making it "a miracle" no one was killed, the city's police superintendent said Friday. Ballistics evidence shows that those behind Thursday night's attack used a 7.62 mm rifle fed by a high-capacity magazine, police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told reporters. That type of weapon, he said, belongs on a "battlefield, not on the street or a corner or a park in the Back of the Yards," the neighborhood where the shooting took...

Here's a mass shooting that probably won't elicit calls for more gun control. Chicago Sun Times: Thirteen people were shot - including a 3-year-old boy - Thursday night at a South Side park when two gunmen opened fire on a group gathered at a basketball court in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.As bullets began to fly about 10:15 p.m., the group scattered, taking cover wherever they could at Cornell Square Park, police and witnesses said.Julian Harris, 22, said his 3-year-old nephew, Deonta "Tay-man" Howard, was shot in the face.Deonta was taken in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital,...

Thirteen people, including a 3-year-old boy who suffered a gunshot wound to the head, were shot at a Chicago park in the Back of the Yards neighborhood Thursday night, authorities said. Ten adults and the 3-year-old were transported by Fire Department ambulances after the attack in the 1800 block of West 51st Street in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, said Fire Department Deputy District Chief James Mungovan at the scene. A 12th victim was believed to have driven himself to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, a source said, citing preliminary information. Police said later a total...

A 30-year-old woman gunned down her rival at a West Side gas station last month after the pair got into a fight on Facebook, Cook County prosecutors said Thursday. Khalila Southall, who fled to Rochester, Minn., following the Aug. 26 shooting, allegedly admitted to Chicago Police that she and Lakeisha Tate had a previous argument on the social media site and “did not like each other.” Before she was killed, Tate, 28, made a purchase and was walking out of the gas station in the 3300 block of West Harrison when she was confronted by Southall in a red dress,...