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The semi-prestigious University of Illinois system is rapidly becoming famous for its bizarro penchant for hiring terrorists as professors. Last month, the statewide board of trustees cleared the way for the flagship campus in Urbana-Champaign to rehire 1970s-era Symbionese Liberation Army terrorist James Kilgore, a convicted murderer who participated in a 1975 bank robbery during which bank customer Myrna Opsahl was shot and killed. The 42-year-old mother of four bled to death on the bank floor. Now, Chicago businessman Richard Hill has notified officials at the University of Illinois at Chicago that he will rescind a pledge to donate $6.5...

**SNIP** But the worst of the SLA’s crimes came on April 21, 1975. That’s when Kilgore and three comrades, all wearing ski masks, rushed the Crocker National Bank in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael, ordering customers to get down and clerks to turn over money. One SLA member, Emily Harris, fatally shot Myrna Lee Opsahl, who was depositing funds for her church. (Harris, though claiming in court that it was an accident, had dismissed her victim as “a bourgeois pig,” Hearst said.) Opsahl wasn’t the only fatality that day, Dey noted: “Court documents allege that during the robbery, Kilgore’s girlfriend...

an Cliburn, the internationally celebrated pianist who grew up in Kilgore and whose triumph at a 1958 Moscow competition helped thaw the Cold War and launched a spectacular career that made him the rare classical musician to enjoy rock star status, has died. He was 78. Cliburn died early Wednesday at his Fort Worth home surrounded by loved ones following a battle with bone cancer, said his publicist and longtime friend Mary Lou Falcone. Cliburn made what would be his last public appearance in September at the 50th anniversary of the prestigious piano competition named for him. Speaking to the...

Tarpon Springs, Florida -- William Kilgore says he believes the Tarpon Springs Police Department wanted to intimidate him with his arrest in January when he and his friend, Tommy Frain, were taping a Tarpon Springs Police officer on the street. Frain says he believes there is no question the Tarpon Springs Police did something wrong. Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe apparently agrees. His office refused to prosecute Kilgore, who refused to turn over his video camera.

Mail box bombs found Tuesday in Rusk County and in Longview prompted the ATF and U.S. Postal Inspection Service to raise to $25,000 the reward leading to arrest and conviction of the suspect in a rash of mail box bombings in East Texas. With a pipe bomb-like device discovered in a residential home's mail box at Lake Cherokee around noon on Tuesday, another found in a bank of collection boxes at a business address and a similar device left not in a mail box at all but at a business site in Tyler on Monday, the perpetrator may be changing...

State Del. Terry Kilgore (R) acknowledged Wednesday that top Republican leaders in Washington, D.C., are encouraging him to challenge Rep. Rick Boucher (D) in the Southwestern Virginia 9th district next year. If he were to run, Kilgore would immediately be considered a top recruit in the conservative district, where Republicans have been frustrated by their inability to field a top-tier candidate to challenge the popular 14-term Congressman. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has talked to Kilgore “a couple of times” about a Congressional bid and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas) has called to talk to Kilgore...

AUSTIN (KXAN) - An anti-earmark group Tuesday named Texas Senator and Republican gubernatorial candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison as October's “ Porker of the Month .” The group gives out the title to lawmakers, government officials and political candidates it thinks “have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers,” according to its website. The group said Hutchison has requested 149 earmarks worth $1.6 billion for fiscal year 2010. The Dallas Morning News reports that, by Hutcison’s own accounting, she has steered $8.7 billion to Texas in the past five years. Hutchison has argued if she hadn't secured those funds,...

Hearing from some very good national R sources that the NRCC was polling the 9th district in the last few weeks. Apparently the environment is so bad out there that Delegate Terry Kilgore is leading Congressman Rick Boucher by 6 points!Background posts: "Boucher (D-VA9) Vacillates On Health Care Reform" - - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2306593/posts "Boucher Responds To Carbon Tax Critics" - - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2290344/posts

James William Kilgore, the last captured member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, was released on parole Sunday morning from a Northern California prison. Kilgore, 61, was arrested in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2002 after almost three decades on the run. He was one of five SLA members who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 1975 death of Myrna Opsahl, a 42-year-old mother of four who was killed by a shotgun blast after she arrived at a suburban Sacramento bank. Kilgore apologized to Opsahl's family at his sentencing, saying he wished he could live that day over. He served...

Adult video store robbery suspects arrested Posted: April 13, 2009 02:58 PM Updated: April 13, 2009 06:51 PM Christopher Ray Fitzgerald John Scott Kincaid Posted by Ellen Krafve - emailKILGORE,TX - Police captured two suspects after they allegedly robbed Adult Video and DVD located at 1907 Industrial Ave. in Kilgore, early Monday morning.While police were in route to the video store, a description of the suspects and the suspect vehicle was given over the police radio. Kilgore Police Officer Rob Farnham located the vehicle near the Kilgore traffic circle. Officer Farnham, with the assistance of other Kilgore Police Officers, was able to stop...

The killer of a Winchester police officer whose case became a flash point in the debate over Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's views on the death penalty was executed last night by lethal injection after Kaine declined to intervene. Edward N. Bell was ... pronounced dead at the Greensville Correctional Center at 9:11 p.m., said Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections. Bell, 44, was convicted in the 1999 killing of Sgt. Ricky L. Timbrook, who was shot while chasing a probation violator. Although capital punishment has been the subject of long-standing debate in Virginia, the case had...

GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin continued attacking Democratic nominee Barack Obama before a crowd of roughly 20,000 outside the Richmond International Raceway, while also promising that she and John McCain would help revive the U.S. economy. Suggesting that Obama would undermine a possible American victory in Iraq -- "Just once I would like to hear Barack Obama say he'd like America to win" -- Palin said the Democrat would jeopardize the economy further by raising taxes and expanding the federal government. SNIP Kilgore sought to bolster the mood of the crowd by attacking the media, suggesting reporters were trying...

A would-be robber invaded an East Texas home while the homeowner fights to keep him and his son alive. The home invasion happened in the 4500 block of FM 2204, east of Kilgore, around 7:00 this morning. Gregg County officials say an armed man entered the home in search of money, but left empty handed. Tuesday afternoon, the homeowner showed KLTV 7 LaKecia Shockley step by step how he survived his home invasion. "I slammed him into this wall here and I think that's when we fell on the floor. I wasn't going to let go of him. I had him...I wasn't...

RICHMOND - The intoxicating rush from campaigning returned to Jerry Kilgore's veins at a shopping mall, two weeks after he lost the gubernatorial election. The weekend excursion for Kilgore and his family was interrupted by dozens of people who kept stopping the recovering candidate to compliment his campaign and assure Kilgore they had voted for him.

Last night, after the Associated Press called the race for governor in Virginia for Tim Kaine, Mark Warner gave a speech. During the speech, Warner said something along the lines of "a big victory for democrats in Virginia." A big victory? Is Kaine winning alone a big victory, especially after he won by a much smaller margin than Warner is 2001? What about the republicans winning the Lt. Governor spot? What about the republicans winning the attorney general? Maybe not. After hearing more of Warner's speech, I heard him talk about "big pick-ups for democrats in the house of delegates."...

Discuss the results of the Virginia election as results come in. The governor's race is especially important, but there are also races for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General. Also, there are significant House of Delegates races Virginia Election Results in Real Time

Last night, President and Mrs. Bush arrived home safely from their trip to South and Central America, and made a campaign stop for Jerry Kilgore in Virginia before arriving back at the White House. Today, President Bush welcomed the 2005 Nobel Prize winners in the Oval Office at the White House, and also announced the National Medal of Arts Recipients and National Humanities Medal Recipients , who will be presented with their awards at the White House on Thursday. . Enjoy your trip to Sanity Island on the Daily Dose!!

Virginians go to the polls today (open from 6 A.M. to 7 P.M.) to vote for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and candidates for the house of delegates. The big fight everyone’s focused on is the gubernatorial race where Governor Mark Warner’s Democratic successor, Tim Kaine, is running against Republican Attorney General and George Allen Protégé Jerry Kilgore. To make matters more interesting, a third-party candidate, Russ Potts, has decided to waste his (and our) time tilting at electoral windmills and scrambling political calculations. Potts is a Republican in Name Only from Winchester. What will happen when the polls close...

For those of us following the recent history of exit polls, the headline is all you need to read to get the joke. ;-) Go Forrester!!! Go Kilgore!!! Pull the upsets, gentlemen!!!

U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine (news, bio, voting record) acknowledged a little nervousness as he voted Tuesday in his race for governor of New Jersey, one of several contests being closely monitored for evidence of how the GOP's recent struggles are influencing voters. ADVERTISEMENT Tuesday's voting in New Jersey concluded a campaign that featured more personal attacks than actual talk about the issues. The races there and in Virginia — together the biggest contests in this off-year election season — broke spending records in both states, got progressively nasty and yet remained close. Several New Jersey voters said Tuesday they were...