Free Republic

A new commercial play about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is readying a world premiere in Chicago, just as its subject is at the center of the news and playing a central role in the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

With its custom red paint job, on-board TV, public-address system, game consoles and sparkling chrome tire rims, the 2003 Hummer was no ordinary vehicle. The $45,196 SUV was designed to deliver an eye-catching, AIDS-awareness message to people in poor African-American neighborhoods on behalf of the Illinois Department of Public Health, then headed by Dr. Eric E. Whitaker, one of President Barack Obama’s closest friends.Soon, though, other AIDS activists began to question how the Chicago not-for-profit organization that used the decked-out Hummer to spread its message could afford to spend money on such a vehicle. After first insisting otherwise, Whitaker aides...

If you think making purchases online means you don’t have to worry about paying the state sales tax, think again. As the state continues to grapple with a big deficit the Illinois Department of Revenue this year has begun targeting those purchases on state tax forms and is seeking to collect. This year, for the first time, taxpayers are being asked how much they owe in so-called “use taxes” on the Illinois 1040 tax form. The law already required taxpayers to pay the “use” tax, but it wasn’t listed on the basic form. A use tax is a form of...

President Barack Obama has ordered a "surge" of federal air marshals to be in place by Feb.1 in what officials said was a "race against time," with other suicide bombers believed to be in the terrorist pipeline, although there is no specific imminent threat, federal officials told ABC News. President Obama has authorized the augmentation of the Federal Air Marshal Service from other Federal Law Enforcement Agencies. ALL international flights will have Air Marshals on board. Under a preliminary plan, the officials said the already existing federal air marshal force of more than 3,200 personnel would be deployed almost exclusively...

Years of shoddy maintenance and mounting shortages of spare parts have left Venezuela's second-largest oil refinery barely capable of functioning, three sources at the refinery told Reuters. State oil company PDVSA's 300,000 barrels per day Cardon refinery is currently operating at minimal rates because four of its six steam boilers are out of service, leaving the facility without enough steam to keep units functioning, the three sources said. Cardon normally uses the steam from five boilers and holds the sixth in reserve, the sources said. "They don't have the equipment. There are no spare parts, and they don't have them...

Forty years after his death, Ernesto "Che" Guevara is still revered by many in Latin America but his calls for armed insurrection and class warfare now seem outdated in a region that has largely embraced democracy. A new generation of socialist leaders has come of age since the Argentine-born guerrilla leader was captured in the Bolivian jungle and executed on Oct. 9, 1967. Those new socialists -- Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Bolivia's Evo Morales -- all pay homage to Che and are happy to perpetuate the romantic image of the dashing outlaw with flowing locks and a...

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has a new pastime far from fund raising for worthy causes -- designing a crossword puzzle for The New York Times. Clinton wrote the clues for an online crossword puzzle published this weekend by the Times, filled with puns, pop culture references and plays on words. The theme of the puzzle is "Twistin' the Oldies," with clues seeking updated versions for baby boomers of musical hits by artists such as Neil Sedaka and Carly Simon. In an editor's note, Times' puzzle editor Will Shortz wrote: "The clues in this puzzle are a little more playful...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Community groups that help subprime borrowers try to save their homes from foreclosure would receive $300 million in aid under legislation introduced on Thursday. The infusion of federal money would help consumer groups reach out to troubled borrowers and, in some cases, provide new financing directly. The groups that would benefit from the money are in direct contact with delinquent homeowners and guide them through the complicated steps they can take to save their homes, said Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of a Senate subcommittee on housing and sponsor of the legislation. "They know how to do it....

BEIJING, April 30 (Reuters) - A Chinese judge charged with corruption died in his cell from "adult sudden death syndrome", Xinhua news agency said on Monday. Investigators said Li Chaoyang, 38, had been uncooperative while in detention in Xing'an county in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of southwestern China. "Cuts on his face and other injuries" had been caused by a fall during an escape attempt, they said. Li, a judge with the local Pingle County Court, was detained on March 23, accused of taking bribes. Shi Shaosen, head of the Guilin municipal law enforcement supervisory section and chief investigator...

ADDISON, Ill., March 23 (Reuters) - In a month or two, Jose Cortez will likely lose the home he wanted for his children. But he says that's not what bothers him most. "I wanted to consolidate my debts, but everything the brokers said they would do was a lie," he said, waving a sheaf of documents in the basement apartment where he, his wife and four children live. Many minorities in Chicago are facing the same predicament as the 57-year-old Mexican-born maintenance worker, according to several nonprofit organizations. Some unscrupulous and unregulated mortgage brokers arranged for low-income families to take...

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Workers at Turkish Airlines celebrated a job well done by sacrificing a camel at Istanbul airport and their boss has now been suspended. The national flag-carrier said on Wednesday maintenance staff killed the camel at Turkey's busiest airport after sending a batch of aircraft back to the supplier ahead of schedule. Turkish Airlines has suspended the head of plane maintenance pending an investigation, the company said in a statement. Turkish newspapers carried pictures of the camel, two rugs thrown over his hump, ahead of Tuesday's sacrifice. They also showed pictures of the beast chopped up into chunks...

WASHINGTON - A Senate panel postponed a vote scheduled for Thursday on approving John Bolton as U.N. ambassador, a job he has held temporarily since last year when President Bush appointed him over Democratic opposition. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., gave no reason for the delay and did not say when the vote would be held. Bolton had been opposed by many Democrats but was expected to be confirmed by the Republican-led panel. Lugar said he removed the nomination from the agenda of Thursday's committee meeting after conferring with several senators. His approval by the committee would...

A crude pipe bomb exploded this morning in a garbage can inside the Hinsdale Metra station lobby, but no one was injured and authorities said the incident was not a terrorist act.Thomas Ahern, special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Tobacco, Alcohol and Firearms, said authorities had a “person of interest” in custody and were questioning him. “It’s too early to know any motive,” he said, noting authorities were still interviewing the suspect, as well as train passengers. “It is what we could characterize as an improvised explosive device.” Ahern said ATF officials worked with Hinsdale police, the FBI and...

LONDON (Reuters) - A distant object discovered in space last year which could be the 10th planet in our solar system is around a third bigger than Pluto, German astrophysicists said on Wednesday. They determined the diameter of the potential new planet, known as 2003 UB313, by measuring its thermal emission. "We actually measured the size of UB313 which was not known prior to these observations," Professor Frank Bertoldi, of the University of Bonn and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany who headed the research team, said in an interview with Reuters. According to their calculations it...

Mexico will fight proposals to fortify part of the U.S.-Mexico border with a high-tech wall, Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said on Thursday. Concerned about the huge numbers of illegal immigrants streaming across the border, and worried it could be an entry point for terrorists, many members of the U.S. Congress are backing an idea to erect a Berlin Wall-style division along the border. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, has proposed building two parallel steel and wire fences with a lighted strip in between running from the Gulf of Mexico to the...

Three West Side auto dealerships acted as havens for drug dealers and gang-bangers from some of Chicago's largest gangs, taking drug money for luxury cars and laundering more than $9 million in a 10-year scheme, authorities said Tuesday. After a four-year investigation by federal agencies and Chicago Police, two auto dealership owners and two managers were arrested late Monday and early Tuesday and brought up on federal racketeering charges. All day Tuesday, federal agents -- who seized about 100 vehicles -- drove a caravan of Jaguars, Mercedeses, BMWs, Cadillacs, tricked-out SUVs and other luxury vehicles out of the dealership lots....

Last week, the Illinois Democratic senators split over confirming Condoleezza Rice for secretary of state. Sen. Dick Durbin said no and Sen. Barack Obama said yes. Thursday, both senators voted against President Bush's nominee for attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, who was confirmed on a 60-36 roll call. Voting "yes'' were six Democrats and 54 Republicans; voting "no'' were 35 Democrats and an independent. These two nominations have in common the selection by Bush for his cabinet architects of some of the administration's most controversial strategies: Rice, regarding the Iraq war, and Gonzales, policies that opened the door to the detention...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush prepared to take the oath of office for a second term on Thursday and will tell Americans "the survival of liberty in our land" increasingly depends on advancing freedom abroad, in an allusion to his hotly contested Iraq policy. Three hours before his swearing-in ceremony on Capitol Hill, Bush, who has considerably less popular support than other recent incumbents after their re-election, attended a morning church service with his family at St. John's Episcopal Church, attended by presidents since it was organized in 1815. At noon (1700 GMT), Bush will stand on the steps of...

A former city employee charged in Chicago's hired truck scandal has died from injuries he received in a fall from a horse. Nick M. LoCoco, 64, had been in a coma at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he died Thursday night, the Cook County medical examiner's office said Friday. LoCoco injured his head in a fall from a horse Nov. 14 in rural Monee. LoCoco, a retired foreman in the city transportation department, was charged in October in a federal investigation of corruption in the Hired Truck Program, Chicago's $38 million a year program in which the city...

Companies headed by onetime Democratic mega-donor James Levin are under investigation by school officials for allegedly pocketing more than $1 million of $2.7 million in school fencing contracts, money intended for minority- and women-owned businesses, school officials said Thursday. Because of the alleged scheme, officials said they are moving to bar Levin, his parents and nine others--including representatives of four minority- or women-owned businesses--from doing business with the Chicago Public Schools for three years, the maximum possible penalty. Levin was notified of the allegations this week, and hearings were being scheduled for all 12 parties, officials said. Board of Education...