Free Republic

The head of Chicago's Film Office was rushed to intensive care after being beaten by three car thieves described as children - as the very mayor who appointed him claimed carjackers only struck because they feel unloved. Kwame Amoaku, 51, was attacked twice by three people just before 8am Wednesday morning outside his home in the centre of Chicago, near the National Museum of Mexican Art. Chicago police reported that Amoaku saw three young men inside his car as he walked toward it at 7:46am, on the 2100 block of West 22nd Place. He confronted the intruders, who then attacked...

Many attendees of an Obama campaign rally headed for the exits shortly after the president began speaking Sunday evening. Speaking at campaign rally in Maryland for Democratic candidate for governor Anthony Brown, Obama either ignored or didn’t notice the movement of attendees out of the event. The White House pool report described the mass exodus as “unusual” and one reporter present tweeted it was “weird.” Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason tweeted that the steam of rally attendees leaving early was “noticeable and noisy.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday signed his first state budget, a month-late, $105 billion spending plan that fell short of the celebrity governor's promise of an on-time budget free of short-term fixes, special-interest pressures and partisan bickering. Schwarzenegger signed the budget at a ceremony in the rotunda of the state Capitol, surrounded by county government leaders involved in the deal and dozens of tourists. The governor used his line-item veto power to cut $116 million from the plan approved earlier in the week by lawmakers. In his remarks, Schwarzenegger betrayed little of the frustration that, during the budget impasse, led...