Free Republic

A University of Illinois faculty member is leading an effort to perform sex changes on papayas. That's right, the large, yellowish, sweet fruit. Papayas, it turns out, have not just one but three sexes: male, female and hermaphrodite. The third produce the yummy fruit while the male and females are mostly useless to farmers. U. of I. plant biology professor Ray Ming secured a $3.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to change the papayas' sex to grow only plants that produce hermaphrodite offspring. Currently, farmers don't know which plants are hermaphrodite until the plants have grown and flowered,...

Francheska Velez was due home soon from Fort Hood. The army private, stationed in Iraq, returned to Chicago to celebrate her 21st birthday last August. Back in Iraq, where she disarmed bombs, she learned she was pregnant, her family said, and arranged for maternity leave. "She was supposed to be coming very, very soon. Everyone's devastated. Everyone's at a loss for words," said her cousin Jennifer Arzuaga. "She was very young. She wasn't supposed to die the way she died." Velez, whose father came from Colombia and mother from Puerto Rico, attended Kelvyn Park High School and joined the army...

Pfc. Michael Pearson taught himself to play the piano and became a guitar virtuoso long before he joined the Army last year. "He had a little Jimi Hendrix in him," a relative said Friday as the family gathered to grieve in suburban Chicago. Before the attack at Fort Hood, Pearson was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan to become a bomb disposal specialist. His family knew he had received a series of inoculations and, when they learned of the shooting, figured that Pearson would be safely elsewhere. He died Thursday at age 21. A surgeon called with the news. Pearson graduated...

A 21-year-old pregnant soldier who was due to come home within weeks is the second Chicago-area victim from the shooting at Fort Hood. Francesca Velez had just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq and was due to be temporarily released from the military on maternity leave, according to her family and friends.

An Army private first class from southwest suburban Bolingbrook was one of the 13 people killed in the rampage at Fort Hood, his family said. Michael Pearson, 21, joined the Army slightly more than a year ago and was training to deactivate bombs, said his mother, Sheryll.

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

Hughes Says Kirk Appeal to Palin a “Desperate Move” (HINSDALE, IL) – A new Wilson Research analysis of polling data from the U.S. Senate campaigns of Mark Kirk and Patrick Hughes, respectively, indicates bad news for the Kirk campaign. This comes on the heels of news from Kirk’s Senate campaign that he is seeking the endorsement of former Gov. Sarah Palin. "I believe Mark Kirk, who has consistently supported President Obama's legislative agenda, including cap and trade legislation, is quickly realizing that Republican Primary voters do not share his extreme views. In a desperate attempt to prove otherwise, he is...

Daytime Diva Giving Up Syndicated Talk Show & Moving To Her Cable Network In 2011 (exerpt) The industry has been betting that the daytime diva would extend The Oprah Winfrey Show for at least another year or two because of the huge cash license fees which stations have long paid her. But people around Oprah are telling me that won't happen. They say that Discovery Communications chief David Zaslav has demanded that Oprah "move it or lose it" -- move her talk show to OWN, or risk losing the Oprah Winfrey Network altogether. I've learned that in coming days Winfrey...

Workers asked to back fund-raiser WATER DEPT. | 'Charitable equivalent of pay-to play': watchdog Chicago Sun-Times suntimes.com Member of Sun-Times Media November 5, 2009 BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter Employees in the Water Management Department at the center of the Hired Truck and city hiring scandals are being pressured to sell and purchase $50 tickets to the Nov. 19 benefit reception Mayor Daley is hosting on behalf of the United Negro College Fund. Although the cause is laudable, the tactic is questionable. The solicitation is being made on city stationery with employees referred to a city telephone number to...

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) confirmed Wednesday that he reached out to influential Republican insider Fred Malek and sought his counsel on how to court former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s endorsement for his Senate bid. As first reported by the Washington Post, Kirk sent a memo to Malek seeking advice on how to acquire a “quick and decisive” endorsement from Palin urging Republicans to embrace Kirk as the “lead candidate” in Illinois. Kirk acknowledged the authenticity of the memo to POLITICO. The Republican’s campaign said that it has sent materials to Palin, though Kirk spokesman Eric Elk downplayed the significance of...

After pumping more than $1 million into an upstate New York House race to elect the Conservative Party’s Doug Hoffman, the Club for Growth is on the hunt again. Chris Chocola, president of the conservative political action committee, made it clear the PAC is looking for more GOP targets who don’t embrace the Club’s limited-government approach. Priority No. 1 is likely to be the Senate contest in Florida, where Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who embraced President Barack Obama’s stimulus package, is being challenged by former State House Speaker Marco Rubio. . . . . . Beyond Florida, other establishment Republicans...

Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk penned a memo to Republican poobah Fred Malek hoping to secure an endorsement from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his Senate candidacy, according to a copy of the memo obtained by the Fix. After noting that Palin will be in Chicago later this month to appear on "Oprah", Kirk writes that "the Chicago media will focus on one key issue: Does Gov[ernor] Palin oppose Congressman Mark Kirk's bid to take the Obama Senate seat for the Republicans?" Kirk goes on to write that he is hoping for something "quick and decisive" from Palin about the...

HINSDALE, Illinois, November 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A congregation of US Dominican nuns has publicly apologized for the scandal caused by one of its members acting as a volunteer escort at a Chicago area abortion facility, who now faces severe canonical penalties including excommunication and the possibility of dismissal.    LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) first broke the story about Sr. Donna Quinn, O.P., a Dominican nun who is outspokenly in favor of legalized abortion, who had been identified by pro-life witnesses as an escort for the ACU Health Clinic.Sr. Quinn's religious community, the Wisconsin-based Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation, admitted in a press release posted...

A look at whether the City of Chicago's first TIF district was successful, or whether the City is simply blowing smoke.

In what could be a nightmare scenario for Republican Party officials, conservative activists are gearing up to challenge leading GOP candidates in more than a dozen key House and Senate races in 2010. Conservatives and tea party activists had already set their sights on some of the GOP’s top Senate recruits — a list that includes Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida, former Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut and Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, among others. But their success in Tuesday’s upstate New York special election, where grass-roots efforts pushed GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava to drop out of the race and...

State doc group fighting health care bills By Paul Merrion Nov. 02, 2009 (Crain’s) — The largest physicians’ group in Illinois, in a break with the American Medical Assn. on health care reform, is writing letters to Congress and running full-page ads in major newspapers across the state opposing legislation nearing critical House and Senate votes. “Our physician members are very concerned health reform is moving in the wrong direction,” the Illinois State Medical Society wrote in an “open letter to Illinois patients” posted on its Web site last week. Like the AMA, the Illinois State Medical Society has expressed...

Former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan, who lost to Democrat Rod Blagojevich in the 2002 governor's race, will be attempting a political comeback by filing petitions to seek next year's Republican governor nomination, aides said Sunday. Ryan's camp will file petitions Monday to appear on the Feb. 2 Republican primary ballot, aides said. That's the last day to do so. Ryan hasn't said anything publicly about his potential candidacy. A news conference is scheduled for Tuesday in Springfield. Ryan lost to the now-disgraced Blagojevich 52 percent to 45 percent in an open-seat contest -- the result of an election in...

A 21-year-old man shot and killed at a party in the city's Logan Square neighborhood was a "standout student" at DePaul University who was recently named as a recipient of a prestigious statewide honor, officials said. Chicago police continued their search for a gunman who killed Francisco "Frankie" Valencia and wounded fellow DePaul senior Daisy Camacho early this morning at a party in the 1700 block of North Rockwell Street.

A Chicago suburb could not get anyone to fork over $1 for a home, the Belleville News-Democrat reported. The village of Barrington, Illinois put three older homes up for sale for just $1 each, but was not able to get any interested buyers. The suburb hopes to sell and relocate the homes in order to make way for redevelopment in the downtown area, according to the paper. If no buyers come forward, the village will demolish the houses, which many residents say hold an historic value.

August 8, 2006 These are the Blue Dog democrats to pound on obamacare Part #1 Jason Altmire (PA-4) Aliquippa Office 2110 McLean St. Aliquippa, PA 15001 ph: 724-378-0928 fx: 724-378-6171 Natrona Heights Office 2124 Freeport Road Natrona Heights, PA 15065 ph: 724-226-1304 fx: 724-226-1308 Washington DC Office 332 Cannon HOB Washington, DC 20515 ph: 202-225-2565 fx: 202-226-2274 Satellite Offices Cranberry Township Office Cranberry Township Municipal Building 2525 Rochester Road Cranberry Township, PA 16066-6499 1:30 pm to 5:00 pm - First and Third Thursdays of every month Ellwood City Office Ellwood City Municipal Building Lawrence Avenue Ellwood City, PA 16117 2:00...

The housing market is so bad you can't even give away homes these days. Officials in suburban Barrington put three homes up for a sale at just a dollar a piece - a dollar! - and didn't get a single bidder. A dollar! Let's review: For less than the price of a CTA ride, a Starbuck's coffee, or the typical tip slipped under a stripper's G-string, you could have bought a home in Barrington. Sure, buying a house means assuming the future costs of upkeep, but a dollar! "Even if you're offering a house for a dollar, sometimes all...

After hearing from an angry parent, I reached out to "Queen Sister," a colorful activist who has been at the forefront of rallies to stop the violence near Fenger High School. It's not surprising that Queen Sister's mailbox is full. Last time I saw her, she was outside Fenger yelling through a bullhorn. Since the fatal beating of Derrion Albert -- a tragedy that was captured on video -- activists like Queen Sister have been in great demand. And since U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan (US Dept of Ed & Chicago Dept of Education) promised millions of dollars to quell...

Sen. Durbin (D-Ill.) last night [10/26/2009] and today [10/27/2009] is once again using his leadership position to make false claims about E-Verify's reliability and to project the absolutely foolish notion that unemployment and immigration have no relationship. But while he laments the 125,000 who have recently lost their unemployment benefits (I do, too), he ignores the fact that HIS immigration policies now in place have given out 125,000 brand new work permits to foreign workers during the last month. Sadly, Sen. Durbin is Exhibit A of the intellectual hypocrisy that is pervasive in Congress. He gives speeches as a champion of unemployed...

'the chicago way' is obama's way October 28, 2009 always right fran eaton featon@illinoisreview.com It was in the 1987 movie "The Untouchables" that we learned first about "The Chicago Way." Overall, the gist is that when someone's done something wrong, the victim retaliates with something slightly worse. "The Chicago Way" seems to be the Obama administration's modus operandi. The administration is teaching "The Chicago Way" to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Fox News and the health insurance industry. During presidential addresses, Obama drops hints of who's irritated him. Obama mentioned the amount the chamber has spent on lobbyists, he pointed...

SNIPPET: “WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s Consul General in Chicago personally knew both David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, nabbed by the FBI for planning to carry out a major terror attack in India at the behest of LeT, the US authorities have claimed. The FBI in its revised chargesheet filed before a Chicago court said the Consul General of Pakistan in Chicago personally knows both Rana and Headley alias ‘Daood Gilani’, as all three of them are from the same high school. According to the website of the Pakistan Embassy here, Dr Aman Rashid is the Consul General in Chicago. “On...

IFI E-Alert:: Marriage Rally and Lobby Day -- Oct. 29th 10/20/2009 8:10:00 AM By David E. Smith, Executive Director -Illinois Family Institute Approximately eight hundred Illinois citizens from around the state joined IFI & other Christian leaders in Springfield last year to rally, pray, and lobby for natural marriage, religious freedom, parental rights and the innocence of our children. Click HERE to download a flyer to distribute at church and in your community. Join IFI and Illinois families from around the state to take a stand for protecting marriage, religious freedom, parental rights and the innocence of our children! Plan...

A U.S. Air Force psychologist described an al-Qaida sleeper agent as a sometimes kind, respectful man who nonetheless would attack the United States if given a chance. The psychologist testified during the first day of a sentencing hearing for 44-year-old former Bradley University graduate student Ali al-Marri, who has admitted training in al-Qaida camps and having contact with those involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The second and what is scheduled to be the final day of al-Marri's sentencing is Thursday in U.S. District Court in Peoria. The Qatar native faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading...

Unemployment in the St. Louis region topped ten percent in September — the first time in over 26 years that joblessness in the area has reached into double figures.

EAST ST. LOUIS — City officials seeking a new police chief passed up the former director of the Florida Highway Patrol, who formerly was a top commander of the Illinois State Police, because he is white, two former members of a city board claim. Wyatt Frazer and Della Murphy allege in a federal lawsuit that they were forced off the Police, Fire and Civil Service Board for their advocacy of a white candidate when the chief's job was open in 2007. Their lawyer said Tuesday the spurned candidate was Ronald Grimming, a Metro East resident who rose to be deputy...

The current Mayor Daley behaves as if Chicago was located in Death Valley where every drop of water must be conserved and accounted for. I am not sure if Coleridge‘s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is the incumbent mayor’s favorite poem, but sometimes I think that it ought to be. “Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink…” Under the present, enlightened regime, public buildings are being refitted, at great material expense and union labor costs, with automatic plumbing fixtures that will scrupulously dole out water each time a visitor goes to rinse his or her hands. Toilets...

Local gun shop owners say they're seeing an increase in the number of women shoppers right now. The reasons, they say, are many, including the downturn in the economy and violence on the street. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, about 48 percent of people taking their first handgun seminars this year happen to be women. CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports on the growing trend. "It's very dangerous out there. I mean, there's people getting robbed here and there," said Josie Santiago. "It's just for protection."

To save his bloated city budget Mayor Daley sold the Chicago Skyway toll road. Then he sold the city parking meters. And now? Now Daley wants to sell the city water system in order to keep paying all his broken nosed pals their monthly stipend. CBS Channel 2 is reporting that that Chicago is considering leasing its water system. Apparently there is a local precedent for this idea already in the Will County city of Homer Glen that leased its city water services to a German-owned company. Amusingly enough, the mayor of Homer Glen is also named Daley (no...

IFI E-Alert:: Marriage Rally and Lobby Day -- Oct. 29th 10/20/2009 8:10:00 AM By David E. Smith, Executive Director -Illinois Family Institute Approximately eight hundred Illinois citizens from around the state joined IFI & other Christian leaders in Springfield last year to rally, pray, and lobby for natural marriage, religious freedom, parental rights and the innocence of our children. Click HERE to download a flyer to distribute at church and in your community. Join IFI and Illinois families from around the state to take a stand for protecting marriage, religious freedom, parental rights and the innocence of our children! Plan...

With the City of Chicago running $500 million short, thoughts are that its billion dollar shadow budget could be used to cover the gap. But is it running in the red, too?

The FBI this month arrested a second Chicago man allegedly involved in an international terrorist plot with Western European targets, the Tribune has learned. The man was taken into custody Oct. 3 before he boarded a flight at O'Hare International Airport to Philadelphia, the first stop on a trip to Pakistan, where he planned to meet people with known ties to terrorist organizations that have carried out fatal attacks that resulted in the deaths of U.S. citizens, a source said. He has not been charged.

Hundreds of union members and organizers descended on the streets of downtown Chicago on Monday morning to picket the offices of Goldman Sachs Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. The group, which included supporters from community group National People's Action and the Service Employees International Union, has organized the protests to coincide with the annual meeting of the American Bankers Association. The group is demanding that "banks end their over-reliance on greed and profits and commit to using their taxpayer bailouts and backstops to help America's economy recover," said a news release from the Service Employees International Union. The protests,...

Caterpillar Inc. said it expects to call 550 laid-off employees back to work by the end of next year, but will permanently trim about 2,500 idle employees. The company on Monday began notifying the employees designated for permanent separation from the construction machinery maker. The company said it will provide severance benefits to those employees, but it didn't specify whether they are from the hourly or salaried employee ranks or where they worked.

Chicago) -- Those who thought President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was premature have something else to ponder: Obama's presidential library. Although the George W. Bush library hasn't opened yet in Dallas, "Bloomberg News" reports sponsors already have contacted the White House about making the University of Chicago a permanent home for Obama's papers. There's a connection to the Nobels, because more than 80 have been claimed by people affiliated with the university. Obama taught constitutional law at the school for twelve years.

The truth behind why a property tax hike won't happen would appear to have nothing to do with how much the government is willing to take from its citizens. As Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke at the Chicago Reader have worked tirelessly to shine light onto Mayor Daley's shadow budget created by Tax Increment Financing, it becomes abundantly clear that a property tax hike would do little to affect operating budgets, while pouring more money into what ultimately amounts to a personal slush fund for the mayor to utilize to play favorites among clout heavy developers, politically powerful alderman, and...

Chicago - A well-known bar in Chicago's Gold Coast is being accused of racism. Some college students from St. Louis say they were barred from going in and they're not buying the reason they got. This is about a senior trip for nearly 200 students from Washington University in St. Louis. Trip organizers are angry at the treatment they got at Mother’s on Division. Six African-American men in the group were denied entry to the bar last weekend. Student Regis Nurayi says the bar's manager told them their jeans were too baggy. But Murayi didn't buy it. So he switched...

A federal jury on Friday awarded more than $1.5 million to a supervisor in the city's Traffic Management Authority after finding that four Chicago police officers conspired to violate her civil rights when she was arrested during a dispute over a parking ticket. Jacqueline Fegan hunched over the plaintiff's table in U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow's courtroom and wept at word of the verdict. She alleged the officers permanently injured her wrist when she was handcuffed and tossed into a police vehicle on Michigan Avenue.

Chicago is considering leasing its water system to help fix the budget. The new boss could charge whatever they want for water, CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports.

The “innocent until proven guilty” concept is at the very heart of our legal system. Government ought not be able to exact punishment for a crime until proof has been established, beyond a reasonable doubt, by a jury of one’s peers.But this foundational principle of justice has been tossed out the window in recent years, at least in one realm, that of civil or asset forfeiture. Civil forfeiture allows police to seize more than $1 billion worth of property each year — cash, cars, boats, etc. — that is alleged to have been used in the furtherance of a crime.The...

First Dupage Bank, Westmont, IL Riverview Community Bank, Otsego, MN Bank of Elmwood, Racine, WI Hillcrest Bank Florida, Naples, FL Flagship National Bank, Bradenton, FL American United Bank, Lawrenceville, GA Partners Bank, Naples, FL

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's a big number that only tells part of the story. The number of banks that have failed so far this year topped 100 on Friday — hitting 106 by the end of the day — the most in nearly two decades. But the trouble in the banking system from bad loans and the recession goes even deeper. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other banks remain open even though they are as weak as many that have been shuttered. Regulators are seizing banks slowly and selectively — partly to avoid inciting panic and partly because buyers for bad...

Northwestern research finds drugs aim at wrong target CHICAGO --- More than half the people who take antidepressants for depression never get relief. Why? Because the cause of depression has been oversimplified and drugs designed to treat it aim at the wrong target, according to new research from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The medications are like arrows shot at the outer rings of a bull's eye instead of the center. A study from the laboratory of long-time depression researcher Eva Redei, presented at the Neuroscience 2009 conference in Chicago this week, appears to topple two strongly held...

We are all used to hearing political candidates make campaign trail promises. Usually the promises are benign enough, big on rhetoric and lacking on details. Candidates announce public policy ideas that most anyone can agree with at some level. This is understandable; they want to attract as many voters as possible and don’t want to alienate any voting block. Rarely, if ever, would a politician promise something detrimental, like a tax hike. Just don’t tell Illinois Comptroller and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Dan Hynes that... ===============> Read the important info alert at ATR.org...

A 36-year-old Richfield man charged with making terroristic threats during an argument with another man in Wright County has been arrested at O'Hare Airport after skipping out before his trial was to begin this month, authorities in Minnesota said today. Ismail Alqawasmi remains in custody after his arrest at 8 p.m. Thursday, the Wright County Sheriff's Office said. The Chicago-Sun Times reported that Alqawasmi flew into the United States from Amman, Jordan, on Royal Jordanian airlines and a customs official conducting a name check found the warrant on a law enforcement data base, according to police. Alqawasmi was searched and...

Lawyer accused of demanding sex for job October 23, 2009 4:21 AM A Chicago immigration attorney is facing sanctions after he demanded "sexual interaction with me and my partner" as a job condition from a woman seeking a position as legal assistant at their firm. After the woman responded to an ad that Samir Z. Chowhan placed in the "Adult Gigs" section of Craigslist, he told her in a follow-up e-mail that she would also need to "perform for us sexually" as "part of the interview process." Chowhan is accused of lying to the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission...

In 2008 an enraged, deranged known drug dealer/crack cocaine smoker attempted a violent attack on a Central Illinois man. The FOID-carrying victim pulled his legally owned, legally carried, unloaded, disassembled, non-functioning, encased semi-automatic pistol, inserted the magazine, readied a bullet and stopped the attack abruptly. The crackhead had a spiritual awakening, a "Come to Jesus" moment. Possible instant death creates instant deep thinkers. Police responded. Police rejected the gun owner's vehicular carry methods. Plus, the gun wasn't unloaded immediately after the event. Police arrested the gun owner on a questionable felony and several questionable misdemeanors. The legitimate, recordless, lawful defender...