Free Republic

At 15, Jarvis Nelson should be in high school and even thinking about college. Yet Jarvis is in seventh grade, and doesn’t know where he’ll go to high school — or even where he will be living — when he graduates from junior high, hopefully next year. That’s because Jarvis has attended three different schools in the past four months. He’s lived in three different places on the North and South Sides of the city — including his most recent home, a temporary shelter in Lake View. Jarvis, like thousands of other students in Chicago Public Schools, is homeless. He...

June 15, 2011 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- A 15-year-old boy was mugged at gunpoint and struck on the head by a group of teens near the Ogilvie Transportation Center in the West Loop on Tuesday evening. The incident happened about 6:30 p.m. near an alley at 101 N. Clinton St., according to police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli. The victim was approached by a group of seven male teens, Mirabelli said. One, who was armed with a handgun, approached the victim and demanded his money, according to police. A second teen struck the victim on the back of his head, Mirabelli...

A third of immigrants have not graduated from high school and 60 percent do not speak English fluently, the Migration Policy Institute found. These immigrants make up half the Los Angeles workforce. It said this left immigrants ill-equipped to fill California's fastest-growing occupations. The organization said that as the so-called baby boomers reach retirement age, a similar pattern will spread across the U.S. Ernesto Cortes, of the Industrial Area Foundation, a think-tank that specializes on social change said "The question is are we going to be a 21st century city or a Third World city with an elite group on...

Like a cash-strapped shopaholic reaching for a credit card before payday, New Jersey is planning to borrow $2 billion to cover expenses over the next few months – including those record-high property tax rebates.  But given the state's financial situation, some wonder if it's a wise move.   The state already owes an estimated $29.7 billion to creditors. Debt service alone is costing taxpayers upward of $2.5 billion a year. And employee pension funds are at least $25 billion behind where they should be to cover projected future costs. Overall, money is so tight that Governor Corzine is looking at...