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It’s a day every student at Englewood’s Urban Prep Charter Academy eagerly anticipates, including 17-year-old Deonte Hoard. On Friday all seniors admitted to college are honored during the school’s august “On to the Next One Ceremony.” It’s a beautiful, moving event. Hoard won’t be there. Instead of reveling in his success — Deonte earned multiple college admissions letters — his family is mourning. Deonte is Chicago’s latest agonizing and senseless shooting victim. He was killed Monday on his block in the South Deering neighborhood, shot after someone in a black SUV opened fire around 7 p.m.

"Burn Down The Mission" Elton John

(Reuters) - A BNSF Railway [BNISF.UL] train loaded with crude oil derailed on Thursday afternoon in a rural area south of Galena, Illinois, with two of the tank cars catching fire, according to local officials and the company. The incident marks the latest in a series of derailments involving trains hauling crude oil, a trend that has put a heightened focus on rail safety.

Is the Chicago pension system so messed up and union work rules so entrenched the only way to change either of them is bankruptcy? I think so. So does Dennis Byrne who wrote on his blog today Chicago's Only Salvation: A Detroit-Like Bankruptcy. This is a guest post from Byrne. Chicago's Only Salvation: A Detroit-Like Bankruptcy Wait, I thought only the Republican Party was being torn asunder by a rift between the establishment middle and the fringe. That impression was nailed down, again, last week by the embarrassing fracture among House Republicans over funding for the Department of Homeland Security....

Rev. Jeremiah Wright spoke at Fresno State on Monday night, and in the mold of his protégé, Barack Obama, bent the truth for his audience. Wright, who infamously called the United States the “U.S. of K.K.K.A.” while he was the pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago; and who snapped that the nation’s “chickens are coming home to roost” after the 9/11 terrorist attacks

Last week, the mayoral election in Chicago produced a shocking result when incumbent Rahm Emanuel—Barack Obama’s former chief of staff—failed to get the 51% of the vote needed to avoid a run-off. Emanuel should be worried, but you know who should really be terrified? Hillary Clinton and her acolytes. This election result is a warning that not everyone is ready for Hillary. First, some context. In Chicago, Da Mare does not go to a runoff. Ever. If you’re in charge of the machine, it does your bidding and its gets you re-elected, period. That’s how Richard M. Daley ended up...

Sen. Kirk: Chicago Could End Up Like Detroit If Mayor Emanuel Not Re-Elected March 2, 2015 Craig Dellimore (CBS) — Republican U.S. Senator Mark Kirk has given his tacit endorsement of Mayor Rahm Emanuel for re-election, reports WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore. He refused to call it an endorsement, but Senator Mark Kirk made clear he feels Chicago would risk dire financial straits like Detroit has seen if Mayor Emanuel is not re-elected.

Currently, 61 members of Congress have confirmed they will not attend the speech. Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) California Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — “I am disappointed Speaker Boehner chose to irresponsibly interject politics into what has long been a strong and bipartisan relationship between the United States and Israel. As President Obama has noted, it is inappropriate for a Head of State to address Congress just two weeks ahead of their election. I agree that Congress should not be used as a prop in Israeli election campaigns,...

President Barack Obama last week vetoed legislation that would have greenlighted the Keystone XL pipeline, linking Canadian oil sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Senate lacks the votes to override Obama's veto. Yet Keystone isn't dead. Both Democrats and Republicans have an interest in keeping this political football in play. Someday, we hope, the pipeline will be built. But that day won't come any time soon — and perhaps never during Obama's dwindling presidency. In his veto message, Obama asserted that he hasn't decided whether Keystone should be built or not. Obama said he was using his veto pen...

The debt-plagued city of Chicago took another financial blow late Thursday when Moody's Investors Service downgraded the city's debt rating, citing its overwhelming pension burden. Even if recent state pension changes survive a court challenge, the ratings statement said, "we expect Chicago's unfunded pension liabilities — and the costs of servicing those liabilities — to continue to grow, placing significant strain on the city's financial operations." The drop, to a rating of Baa2, could drive up borrowing costs for the city and cause problems with some of Chicago's current interest-rate swap contracts.

The Dem Congressmen Boycotting Netanyahu are the Same Old Hamas SupportersPosted By Daniel Greenfield On February 26, 2015 @ 6:02 pm In The Point | 12 Comments There are a lot of stories about the Dem members of Congress boycotting Netanyahu’s speech. But most of the names on the list are longtime opponents of the Jewish State.The boycott lists consists of two groups. Congressional Black Caucus members who are offended on Obama’s behalf and can smell racism anywhere.The other consists of opponents of Israel.It’s instructive to compare the list of boycotters to the 54 members of Congress who signed...

A full list of the Democrats who have confirmed they're missing the speech follows: SENATE - 4 members Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.) Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Sen. Brian Schatz (Hawaii) HOUSE - 26 members Rep. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.) Rep. G.K. Butterfield (N.C.) Rep. Andre Carson (Ind.) Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.) Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.) Rep. Peter DeFazio (Ore.) Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.) Rep. Donna Edwards (Md.) Rep. Keith Ellison (Minn.) Rep. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.) Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (Ill.) Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.) Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (Texas) Rep. Barbara Lee (Calif.) Rep. John Lewis (Ga.)...

The US Department of Justice and embattled mayor Rahm Emanuel are under mounting pressure to investigate allegations of what one politician called “CIA or Gestapo tactics” at a secretive Chicago police facility exposed by the Guardian.Politicians and civil-rights groups across the US expressed shock upon hearing descriptions of off-the-books interrogation at Homan Square, the Chicago warehouse that multiple lawyers and one shackled-up protester likened to a US counter-terrorist black site in a Guardian investigation published this week. As three more people came forward detailing their stories of being “held hostage” and “strapped” inside Homan Square without access to an attorney...

While many say the right to vote is priceless, in Chicago, the real value of a vote itself is apparently $10. In the run up to the Windy City’s vote this week for city leaders, resident Willie Allen says he was approached and offered $10 to vote for a particular candidate. “I was coming down the street, going to the house. And there was a gentleman who approached me,” Allen says.

A Palestinian immigrant convicted of hiding an Israeli terrorism conviction from U.S. authorities when she moved to the Chicago suburbs in the 1990s should be locked up for at least five years, federal prosecutors say. Anything less would be a “slap on the wrist” for Evergreen Park activist Rasmieh Odeh, and could encourage terrorists fighting with ISIS to come to the U.S., they argue. But lawyers for Odeh — who was convicted by an Israeli court of taking part in a Jerusalem supermarket bombing that killed two students in 1969 — say she was a freedom fighter, not a terrorist,...

More than two dozen states have joined the Texas lawsuit opposing President Obama’s executive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, but more eye-opening is the list of Republican governors whose names still do not appear on the suit. The seven Republicans who have thus far elected not to join the suit aimed at reining in Obama are Chris Christie of New Jersey, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Larry Hogan of Maryland, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, Matthew Mead of Wyoming, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Bruce Rauner of Illinois. Five of those seven states – Maryland, Iowa, New Mexico, Massachusetts and...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog Sunday of undermining his efforts to prevent Iran’s nuclearization by declining to call a potentially nuclear Iran an existential threat to the State of Israel. “I agree that a nuclear Iran is extremely dangerous, and I believe that it must be prevented,” Herzog said in an interview with Washington Post correspondents William Booth and Ruth Eglash. “No Israeli leader will accept a nuclear Iran. All options for me are still on the table,” including Israeli military strikes. When they asked if he agrees with Netanyahu that a nuclear Iran would...

The proportion of Democrats who sympathize more with Israel than with Palestinians in the Mideast conflict dropped ten points this year to 48 percent, according to a new poll by Gallup. The polling company suggested a link to tensions between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu over the Iran nuclear threat. In addition, the percentage of Democrats viewing Israel favorably also dropped—by 14 points—over the past year, from 74 percent to 60, the poll found. By contrast Republican sympathy for Israel over the Palestinians rose to 83 percent, continuing a trend that has risen from the low 50s...

Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog announced Tuesday he will not be traveling to the US to appear before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference, amid growing tensions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress on March 3. "Netanyahu's spin about who is going to Washington must stop," Herzog told a gathering of foreign media in Israel. "My firm position against a nuclear Iran is known by every Israeli and American, including the US president, and I know how to voice it in a sharp, clear manner - from here, not from there." Herzog added: "A...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined on Tuesday an invitation to meet with US Senate Democrats during his trip to Washington next week. "Though I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to meet with Democratic Senators, I believe that doing so at this time could compound the misperception of partisanship regarding my upcoming visit," Netanyahu wrote in a letter to Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein obtained by Reuters. Durbin and Feinstein had invited Netanyahu to a closed-door meeting with Democratic senators in a letter on Monday.