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US: Illinois (News/Activism)

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  • Judge wants back on bench after insanity ruling (Chicago)

    03/31/2014 7:29:26 AM PDT · by logi_cal869 · 13 replies
    Chicago Tribune ^ | 3/28/2014 | Steve Schmadeke
    (snip) Brim was effectively suspended from her duties as a judge after the battery charges were filed but was nonetheless returned to the bench by voters weeks later. She has continued to collect her $182,000 salary since her 2012 suspension. On Friday, Brim said she was once again able to fulfill her duties as judge. Over the last two years, she said, she has consistently taken her medications – a requirement of her probation in the battery case – and has not had any psychotic episodes. “I can serve as a judge with full capability as long as I continue...
  • Cover Your Eyes for the Final Obamafication of America

    03/31/2014 5:13:22 AM PDT · by Kaslin · 6 replies
    Townhall.com ^ | March 31, 2014 | John Ransom
    Oh, the irony. There it was just above Democrat Illinois Gov. Quinn’s editorial pleading to make the state’s temporary income tax hike a permanent income tax hike, as if we could see that one coming. You might remember that Illinois kind of went the “other” way a few years ago, hiking taxes on personal income 66 percent as a way of trying to get out of the de facto bankruptcy that politicians like Illinois Senator Barack Obama (Present!) had given the state. Politicians and unions had combined in plan to grift taxpayers in a union pension scheme that was...
  • NW Side man is first concealed carry permit holder arrested in Chicago

    03/31/2014 3:48:38 AM PDT · by rellimpank · 17 replies
    Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 31 mar 2014 | Frank Main
    A 54-year-old Northwest Side man who allegedly pulled a gun during a property dispute is the first concealed carry permit holder arrested in Chicago, police officials say. William P. O’Connell, of the 7200 block of North Oleander Avenue, lost his permit as a result of the arrest, said a spokeswoman for the Illinois State Police. In January, a new state law kicked in allowing people to carry concealed weapons as long as they have a permit. O’Connell was involved in a quarrel over rent money with a 52-year-old man on March 23, police said. O’Connell allegedly pointed a handgun at...
  • Cops expect dismissal of charges vs. activists seeking Obamacare signups

    03/30/2014 9:52:18 PM PDT · by smokingfrog · 16 replies
    Chicago Trib ^ | 3-30-14 | Geoff Ziezulewicz
    Chicago police on Sunday said they expect a judge to dismiss a case against two men whom officers arrested last week but later learned were community activists canvassing door to door. Felipe Hernandez, 20, and Kevin Tapia, 19, were arrested Tuesday in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood, where their employer, Grassroots Collaborative, said they were helping people sign up for health care under the Affordable Care Act in the area around 5500 South Normandy Avenue. The two men were charged with misdemeanor soliciting unlawful business after police received a 911 call from a resident, said Chicago Police Department spokesman Adam Collins....
  • Judge wants back on bench after insanity ruling

    03/30/2014 8:24:37 PM PDT · by E. Pluribus Unum · 21 replies
    Chicago Tribune ^ | March 28, 2014 | Steve Schmadeke
    Can a suspended Cook County judge return to the bench after being declared legally insane at the time she shoved a sheriff’s deputy in 2012? For the first time in Illinois, attorneys on the case say, a judicial disciplinary panel has begun tackling the question of whether a judge whose psychotic episodes can apparently be controlled through medication should be allowed to return to the bench.
  • Obama hits Chicago Wednesday for DNC fundraisers

    03/29/2014 8:35:31 PM PDT · by gooblah · 17 replies
    Chicago- Sun Times ^ | Fri, 03/28/2014 - 4:14pm | Lynn Sweet
    President Barack Obama hits Chicago on Wednesday for two jumbo priced fundraisers to benefit the Democratic National Committee. Obama hosts a roundtable—I am told keyed towards business executives—at the Chicago Cut Steakhouse downtown where about 25 folks are expected; the tab is up to $32,400. The Obama roundtable is hosted by Mesirow Financial Chairman and CEO Richard Price.
  • Republican Main Street Partnership (George Soros is funding the Moderates)

    11/10/2005 10:45:24 AM PST · by jdhljc169 · 73 replies · 3,007+ views
    Michelle Malkin.com ^ | 11/10/05 | Michelle Malkin
    Update 1145am EST. Many of you are asking for the list of the anti-drilling Republicans. The group who succeeded in pressuring the GOP to cave in calls itself the "Republican Main Street Partnership." They're holding a press conference at 130pm EST in Washington, D.C. to bray about their "victory." Here's some more info: Main Street Leaders who helped broker the deal to eliminate ANWR from budget cuts: Rep. Charlie Bass (R-NH), Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), Rep. Jim Walsh (R-NY), Rep. Joe Schwarz (R-MI), RMSP Executive Director Sarah Chamberlain ResnicHere's the complete list of "Main Street" members in Congress. 1pm EST....
  • Man fatally shot on South Side, 13 wounded in other shootings [Chicago]

    03/29/2014 12:52:49 PM PDT · by smokingfrog · 23 replies
    Chicago Trib ^ | 3-29-14 | Carlos Sadovi, Deanese Williams-Harris, and Rosemary Regina Sobol
    A man was fatally shot in the city's South Side in the Bronzeville neighborhood, and at least 13 others were wounded during shootings citywide over 36 hours Friday and Saturday. Most recently, about 7:30 a.m. in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, a 19-year-old man was shot in the upper thigh in the 3500 block of West Hirsch Street, according to police. Chicago Police News affairs Officer Jose Estrada said the man was taken to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County in an unknown condition. In addition to the gunshot victim, another 19-year-old man was the victim of a battery...
  • Train Operator Behind O'Hare Crash Identified

    03/29/2014 4:12:56 AM PDT · by fulltlt · 52 replies
    nbc news ^ | 3/28/2014 | Phil Rogers
    <p>The woman at the controls of a Chicago Transit Authority train that crashed at O'Hare Airport had worked 69 hours in the seven days before the accident.</p> <p>Brittney T. Haywood, 25, from Chicago, said she dozed off at the controls Monday when the train crashed into the terminal and rode up the escalator.</p>
  • Gun Grabber Keith Farnham’s Office Raided By Feds Searching For Child Porn!

    03/28/2014 2:55:56 PM PDT · by Impala64ssa · 23 replies
    Free Patriot.org ^ | 3/27/14 | Eric Reed
    This is becoming one hell of a week! The “gun-grabbers” are falling finally, and it all started with Rhode Island State Senator (“Go F%#K Yourself”) Joshua Miller. Next was Rhode Island Speaker of the House Gordon Fox when his house was raided by the “Feds,” then Democratic gun-grabbing CA Senator Leland Yee who’s charged with illegally trafficking machine guns and rocket launchers, and who’s in the hot seat now? None other than Illinois Democratic State Representative Keith Farnham. How could things possibly get any worse for the Democratic party? We’ve already got cheating, bribery, extortion, money laundering, illegal weapons trafficking,...
  • Cook County Judge Once Found Insane Wants Back On the Bench

    03/28/2014 1:03:38 PM PDT · by PBRCat · 52 replies
    Chicago Sun Times ^ | March 28, 2014 | Stefanie Esposito
    “I’ve had two years to think about this,” Judge Cynthia Brim said Friday downtown before the seven-member Illinois Courts Commission. “I have a different understanding and perspective of my condition.” The commission is considering a complaint filed by the state’s Judicial Inquiry Board. A board attorney argued Friday that Brim remains “mentally unable to perform her duties.” But Brim — who has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type and has been hospitalized multiple times for mental illness since 1993 — said she now knows she must carefully monitor her condition and keep taking medication regularly. “You’re not expecting to...
  • (Democrat Governor) Quinn Could Be Added to Suit By CSU Whistleblower

    03/28/2014 12:58:14 PM PDT · by PBRCat · 1 replies
    Chicago Sun Times ^ | March 26, 2014 | Mitch Dudek
    Gov. Pat Quinn could be added as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by a whistleblower who claims he was fired in retaliation for calling attention to alleged financial misconduct by Chicago State President Wayne Watson. Glenn Meeks, who was vice president of administration and finance at the school, claims in the suit that he introduced himself to Quinn at a luncheon on March 25, 2013, and urged the governor to reappoint members of the university’s Board of Trustees who intended to replace Watson. Quinn did not reappoint the board members. And the next day, Watson fired Meeks. Meeks’ attorney,...
  • Bruce Rauner copies Mark Kirk’s Illinois playbook [IL Governor race]

    03/28/2014 8:17:50 AM PDT · by GIdget2004 · 18 replies
    Politico ^ | 03/28/2014 | REID J. EPSTEIN
    Bruce Rauner, the billionaire Republican nominee for Illinois governor, is doing all he can to turn himself into a career politician named Mark Kirk. Fresh off a closer-than-expected primary victory over three underfunded opponents, Rauner is avoiding social issues at all costs and hewing to a throw-the-bums-out message against the unpopular Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. Rauner has on his staff four Kirk alumni in his effort to replicate the moderate GOP senator’s path to blue-state victory. And like Kirk — and unlike Republicans in almost everywhere else in the country — Rauner avoids bashing President Barack Obama, who remains popular...
  • Obama hitting Chicago for April 2 DNC fundraiser

    03/27/2014 1:54:37 PM PDT · by KeyLargo · 6 replies
    Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 3-18-14 | Lynn Sweet
    Chicago Obama hitting Chicago for April 2 DNC fundraiser Tue, 03/18/2014 - 6:09pm Lynn Sweet President Barack Obama returns home on April for fundraising to benefit the Democratic National Committee with a small dinner among the events at the Lincoln Park home of Obama major donors Grace Tsao-Wu and Craig Freedman. "It will be a great opportunity to get a photo with the President and hear him speak in an intimate setting," a note with the invite said.
  • 2nd Former Chicago State Employee Files Whistleblower Lawsuit

    03/27/2014 10:06:32 AM PDT · by PBRCat · 6 replies
    The Chicago Tribune ^ | March 26, 2014 | Jodi S. Cohen
    <p>A second former employee of Chicago State University has filed a lawsuit against the public institution claiming he was fired in retaliation for reporting alleged misconduct by the school’s president.</p> <p>The whistleblower lawsuit brought by Glenn Meeks, the university’s former chief financial officer, comes just weeks after the university lost another wrongful termination case and was ordered to pay more than $3 million to a former employee.</p>
  • Pat Quinn Named in Chicago State Lawsuit

    03/27/2014 8:30:37 AM PDT · by PBRCat · 5 replies
    The Chicago Daily Observer ^ | March 27, 2014 | Anonymous
    The circumstances of this suit differ dramatically from those revealed in the recent Crowley case. Vice President of Administration and Finance Glenn Meeks alleges his firing occurred because he brought a number of, unseemly at best and possibly illegal at worst, Watson practices to the attention of former Chicago State Board of Trustees Gary Rozier on October 31, 2012 and told Rozier he (Meeks) would report his concerns to the Illinois Inspector General’s Office if the board did nothing. Ultimately, in February-March 2013, the board attempted to remove Watson from the presidency During this attempt, Meeks had a conversation with...
  • NTSB: Operator in O'Hare crash had fallen asleep at controls before

    03/26/2014 7:46:07 PM PDT · by WeatherGuy · 12 replies
    Chicago Tribune ^ | March 26, 2014 | Richard Wronski and Juan Perez Jr.
    The train operator who was asleep during the Blue Line crash at O'Hare International Airport also had dozed off at the controls in another incident less than two months earlier, a federal investigator said Wednesday. The stunning revelation — that the operator admitted “dozing off” twice — came as National Transportation Safety Board experts wrapped up three days of on-site investigations into how an eight-car subway train could smash through a barrier, leap a station platform and end up atop an escalator. But the CTA said it was unaware that the operator was asleep during a Feb. 1 incident and...
  • Northwestern players get union vote

    03/26/2014 3:21:03 PM PDT · by iowamark · 28 replies
    ESPN ^ | 3/26/2014 | Brian Bennett
    In a potentially game-changing moment for college athletics, the Chicago district of the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Wednesday that Northwestern football players qualify as employees of the university and can unionize. NLRB regional director Peter Sung Ohr cited the players' time commitment to their sport and the fact that their scholarships were tied directly to their performance on the field as reasons for granting them union rights. Ohr wrote in his ruling that the players "fall squarely within the [National Labor Relations] Act's broad definition of 'employee' when one considers the common law definition of 'employee.'" Ohr ruled...
  • Elgin officials shocked by child porn investigation of ex-Rep. Farnham

    03/26/2014 12:34:24 PM PDT · by servo1969 · 53 replies
    Chicago Tribune ^ | 3-26-2014 | Stephanie K. Baer
    Reports that federal agents were looking for evidence of child pornography when they seized computers from the Elgin district office of former state Rep. Keith Farnham shocked local officials who said the lawmaker was well-liked and active in the community. "I couldn't even fathom it. I was stunned," said former Elgin Mayor Ed Schock, adding that Farnham always worked on the city's behalf. Farnham has not been accused of any crime. Federal agents were searching for documents "pertaining to the possession, receipt or distribution of child pornography" as well as computer files, copies and negatives of child pornography or any...
  • College athletes can unionize, federal agency says

    03/26/2014 12:33:35 PM PDT · by AU72 · 132 replies
    Associated Press ^ | March 26, 2014 | Michael Tarm
    In a stunning ruling that has the potential to revolutionize college athletics, a federal agency said Wednesday that football players at Northwestern University can create the nation's first college athlete's union. The decision by a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board means it agrees football players at the Big Ten school qualify as employees under federal law and therefore can legally unionize.