Free Republic

It is absolutely essential that education be pried loose from the claws of Big Government and Big Unions. Otherwise children will continue to be educated by liberals. For a graphic example of what this entails, refer to Chicago, the political cesspools of which spawned our Community Organizer in Chief: Parents at a Near West Side school say they are “shocked” and “horrified” after viewing a new sex education curriculum intended for fifth-graders, saying the way the information is presented is over the top and not age-appropriate. During report card pickup Wednesday at Andrew Jackson Language Academy, the school hosted several...

CHICAGO (CBS) – The pilot of a small cargo plane was killed when the plane crashed into a home a few blocks away from Midway International Airport early Tuesday morning. The Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot reported engine problems shortly after taking off from Midway, and was trying to get back to the airport, but never made it. The plane nose-dived into the front of a two-story home in the 6500 block of South Knox Avenue, around 2:45 a.m., and ended up partially in the living room, and partially outside on the front lawn, its tail still up in...

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who leads the Immigration Task Force in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, offered some clues as to what could be in President Obama’s executive order. “I think the president is going to choose between five and 10 years, that is that you have to be in the United States for five to 10 years and you have to be working here and you are going to pay for a background check,” Gutierrez said on Fox last night. “You’re going to submit your fingerprints and they come back clear. He is going to give you a work authorization...

Delays of the Keystone XL pipeline are providing little obstacle to Western Canadian oil producers getting their crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast, with shipments set to more than double next year. The volume of Canadian crude processed at Gulf Coast refineries could climb to more than 400,000 barrels a day in 2015 from 208,000 in August, according to Jackie Forrest, vice president of Calgary-based ARC Financial Corp. The increase comes as Enbridge Inc.’s Flanagan South and an expanded Seaway pipeline raise their capacity to ship oil by as much as 450,000 barrels a day. Canadian exports to the Gulf...

Three men died and at least 15 people, including six teenagers, were wounded in shootings across the city since Saturday afternoon, police said. In the latest fatal shooting, a 27-year-old man died after being shot around 3:15 a.m. Sunday in the Old Town neighborhood downtown, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro. Around the same time, a 24-year-old man died and two other men were in critical condition after being shot at a party around 3:10 a.m. Sunday in the Tri-Taylor neighborhood on the West Side. A 14-year-old boy was in critical condition and a 16-year-old boy was wounded...

Parents at a Near West Side school say they are "shocked" and "horrified" after viewing a new sex education curriculum intended for fifth-graders, saying the way the information is presented is over the top and not age-appropriate. SNIP But some of the information disturbed parents at the meeting, leading one to snap photos of five pages in the binder that included a lesson plan for fifth-graders. One of the pages, titled "Feel Good Reasons to Use FCs [Female Condoms]," included how to make sexual intercourse last longer and read: "Once you pop, you don't have to stop!" The page included...

U. of I. clears way for convicted radical to teach again By Jodi S. Cohen, Chicago Tribune contact the reporter CrimeUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignHomicideHistoryWeather UndergroundUniversity of Illinois at Chicago In a change of direction, University of Illinois officials paved the way Thursday for convicted felon James Kilgore to again teach on campus, the latest controversial faculty decision at the state school. Kilgore's contract was not renewed after his criminal past was the subject of a newspaper story and board members expressed concern about his employment. But on Thursday, U. of I. board members, including Chairman Christopher Kennedy, who once...

Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who is expecting a baby in December, is being denied a request to vote by proxy in the House Democratic Caucus leadership and committee member elections next week—even though her doctor advises she can't travel to Washington in the late stages of her pregnancy. The Iraq War veteran, who lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down in 2004, made the request in a letter to fellow Democrats. Her letter was read during a closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting on Thursday. But objections were raised, and the request was denied, with opponents including Democratic Steering...

Chicago desperately needs a real leader in the fight to get illegal guns off our blood-stained streets. Nothing is more important to our city’s future. We believe that leader can and must be Bruce Rauner. That may seem counter-intuitive. Rauner is a Republican who ran for governor as a strong defender of the Second Amendment, against an incumbent Democratic governor, Pat Quinn, with a long record in support of gun control. But it is precisely because Rauner is a Republican and a staunch defender of legal gun rights — and because he now faces the prospect of finding common ground...

Longtime Illinois Congressman Phillip Crane, a northwest suburban Republican who championed conservative principles and once ran for president, died Saturday in Maryland, according to family.. Crane, who suffered from congestive heart failure and lung cancer, died of respiratory failure in a daughter's home in Jefferson, Md., according to another daughter, Catherine Hott, of Berryville, Va.

"His accomplishments, and his lifelong pursuit of conservative principles, will have a lasting effect for generations to come: from his work on the Ways and Means Committee and the Republican Study Committee, to his work founding the Heritage Foundation and leading the American Conservative Union. He fought for lower taxes, a simplified tax code, free-market principles, and free trade."

GARY — The Internal Revenue Service is seeking $6.78 million in unpaid payroll taxes from Gary Community School Corp. The IRS has filed two liens in the Lake County Recorder’s Office against the school district. One lien, filed Sept. 3, seeks payment of $5,270,467 for payroll taxes in 2013. The other lien, filed June 24, says the district owes $1,514,529 for part of 2012 and 2013. IRS spokesman Luis Garcia said the agency doesn’t comment on specific taxpayers. “The public document has to speak for itself,” he said. The documents state the IRS is giving notice that taxes, including interest...

Dems Realize “War on Coal” Cost Them Coal Country by Daniel Greenfield People are funny that way. They cling to their bibles and guns. And then if you declare war on them, they don’t want to vote for you. Coal-heavy districts in West Virginia, Kentucky and Illinois that had been steadily moving away from Democrats in recent elections appear to have completed that shift Tuesday, when they overwhelmingly backed Republicans who vowed to oppose what they call President Barack Obama’s “war on coal.”In West Virginia, once a long-time Democratic stronghold, Republicans will take control of both houses of the state...

Illinois residents who enroll in Obamacare on the whole will pay higher premiums than last year for the most popular plans, but they'll have many more options to choose from, according to 2015 plan information released Friday. Premiums for the lowest-cost options in the most popular group of plans will rise 2.6 percent on average statewide, although rates for those so-called silver plans will vary widely, from a decrease of 5 percent to an increase of 12 percent, the Illinois Department of Insurance announced Friday. Rates for the lowest-cost plans, called bronze, will increase 11 percent on average. While Illinois...

Almost since the start of Barack Obama’s presidency, people who have actual, real duties in the West Wing of the White House—the working, executive part of the government, that is—have been urging him to do something about Valerie Jarrett. Push her into the East Wing, where she can hang out with Michelle Obama and the White House social secretary, or give her an ambassadorship—or something—but for Pete’s sake get her out of the way of the hard work of governing that needs to be done. Now it’s really time to do it. Let’s stipulate right away that it would be...

With Bruce Rauner’s election in Illinois, the Republican Governor’s Association has checked this bluer-than-blue state off its Democrat tick list. It must feel good—but I’m less than sanguine. For the better part of a year, powerful Chicago Democrats have been whispering in my ear, extolling Rauner’s virtues. I heard similar insider political “chatter” about Barack Obama from these same Democrats long before he ran for U.S. Senate. Even the left-leaning Chicago Sun-Times suddenly changed its no-endorsement policy to back Rauner — and only Rauner — without even the basic formality of a candidate questionnaire or interview.

While Chicago has been portrayed as a city that has been overwhelmed with violence in the Black community, a group of protesters gathered in front of the Chicago police headquarters on Wednesday night to charge that in fact the Chicago police department is systematically targeting African Americans in the city, leaving far too many dead at the hands of Chicago police officers. A group of noteworthy attendees at the rally was the families of young people killed by the police, who publicly recounted the circumstances of their deaths and described how they have been trying to get answers and justice...

(CBS) – If you have to be 21 to buy a drink, do you need to be the same age to buy cigarettes? One community in Illinois thinks so. Health experts are hoping Evanston won’t be the last. CBS 2’s Derrick Blakley reports. At this Evanston grocery store, signs warn you can’t buy tobacco under age 18. Starting Saturday, the age limit goes up to 21, when a new ordinance takes effect. “You’re going to have some customers that are going to be upset, but the law’s the law,” says Kosta Douvikas of D and D Finer Foods.

Demonize coal. Keep the poor in the dark. And, above all, keep pushing the fantasy that U.S. government action (with or without the approval of Congress) is essential to dealing with climate change. That — in a nutshell — is the climate-change strategy of the Obama administration and its environmentalist allies. Evidence of the third point can be found by looking at the “Clean Power Plan” — the 645-page set of rules issued by the Environmental Protection Agency last June that, if it withstands legal challenges, will effectively outlaw the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States....

'They came from nearby North Lawndale and as far away as Oceania to witness a landmark rugby game Saturday at Soldier Field.. Both curious and committed fans crowded into the lakefront arena as New Zealand's All Blacks — the world's top team — opened a 43-6 first-half lead and beat the USA Eagles 74-6 on a crisp, sunny afternoon. The All Blacks never trailed, but results were almost beside the point. Saturday's game celebrated both community and an emerging sport that returns to the Olympics in 2016 after a more than 90-year absence. The sellout crowd of 61,500 was the...