Free Republic

This past weekend flying to Atlanta, I met a FEMA guy who was on his way to Chicago to continue dealing with a disaster, he said. "What disaster - I haven't seen anything in the news?", I asked. He says the news of it are being smothered but that according to FEMA, this is Chicago's second-most expensive disaster in history. What happened was - he said - that a sewage main collapsed and backed up, flooding hundreds if not thousands of home, building and business basements. That aside from the bio-hazard that represents and its cleanup, thousands of boilers (furnaces?)...

For decades, Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan dominated the state’s political system, corrupting it to his own ends. What should we make of his ouster? The Chicago machine turned out some of the most notorious names in American public corruption, including Anton Cermak, Richard J. Daley, and Ed Kelly. The machine also turned out Mike Madigan, who ruled over Illinois politics for 50 years, 36 of which he spent calling the shots as House speaker. Most people thought Madigan would only leave office in handcuffs or a casket. Most people were wrong. For the first time since 1970, “the Velvet...

llinois Democrat State Senator Tom Cullerton on Friday was indicted on federal embezzlement charges for allegedly defrauding a union. The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced the charges on Friday. Cullerton, a Democrat, was accused of taking approximately $275,000 in salary and benefits from the Teamsters Union, but doing no work for the union. The state senator took the union job before he was elected in 2012 and continued to collect money for three years without doing any work, according to the 39-count indictment.

"Sixteen years ago, a colleague of mine on the staff of Senator Hatch discovered that Democrat staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee had negligently placed their documents on our shared server without protections. I admit that we exploited this to learn simple things about their plans to attack Bush judicial nominees at the behest of the left wing interest groups. I also did pursuant to my duty under the Code of Ethics for Government Service. The documents also revealed unlawful and unethical conduct by Senators. I reported this unethical conduct to the Senate Ethics Committee but never heard back. Among...

An anti-violence protest in Chicago briefly shut down traffic on a busy city avenue on Thursday as dozens of protesters called on Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) to resign. The Chicago Tribune reports that about 150 demonstrators blocked traffic on the southbound side of Lake Shore Drive around 4:15 p.m. local time, blocking traffic while city snowplows prevented traffic from approaching the area. Demonstrators called for Emanuel to step down citing his support for tough policing tactics in the city as well as a climbing murder rate. “There are too many killings in Chicago, there are too many police-involved killings in...

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Thursday morning slammed a provision in the pending spending bill that would repeal a piece of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and expressed doubt that enough Democrats could support the package if that rider remains. “I just spoke to Nancy Pelosi. The Democrats believe this is an odious provision that should not be included. Many of us feel the same way,” said Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “[Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)] can take it out in the bat of any eye, and I hope he will....

Through its latest witness, prosecutors are following the money trail from Tony Rezko to pay for contractors who worked on a major Blagojevich home renovation. Prosecution witness Robert Williams, Rezmar Chief Financial Office, read off the list of contractors who did work on the Blagojevich family's Ravenswood Manor home.

No citizenship? No Social Security number? No problem! llinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich(D) has used his executive powers to create a state-backed low-interest mortgage loan program for persons with little or no credit history, including illegal aliens. The Opportunity I-Loans, as they are called, have a below-market interest rate (currently 5.95 percent) for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. The interest rate will vary but will always be at least half a point below market interest rates. A slightly higher interest rate is also available for homebuyers who receive $1,000 in downpayment assistance through the program. The move generated praise from some groups...