Free Republic

This week at the The University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, long-time immigration activist Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) said the potential Republican president he could work best with to pass comprehensive immigration reform is Jeb Bush. Gutiérrez said, “We would have to stay with the Bush family,” explaining George W. Bush tried twice to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

A Machesney Park man is falsely accused of killing his girlfriend and holding a 7-year-old hostage. It's called "swatting" and police say it's a growing trend. It's when a person calls in a fake police report with hopes of having someone else's home raided by law enforcement. "I was sleeping, literally sleeping." It was supposed to be like any other day for Drew Terpstra, that is until he opened up his bedroom door. "I heard 'Police, police!' and I was like what's going on right now? I'm sleeping and all of a sudden, I get up, go out of my...

This past Friday, an Uber driver with a permitted concealed handgun stopped what likely would have been a mass public shooting. Police arrived on the scene quickly, but the Uber driver had still already taken care of the situation before they arrived. From Mitch Dudek in the Chicago Sun-Times: . . . 20 other cases are also listed.

Rubio’s right that this is a hypothetical and that nothing like the Gang of Eight bill could pass the House right now. But Mickey Kaus is right that it’s a darned fine gotcha, a way to gauge how far Rubio’s willing to go in renouncing his signature “achievement” as a senator. What if Rubio defeated Hillary next year and the party’s leadership decided to capitalize by doing something splashy to show Latino voters that the new, Rubio-led GOP was ready to engage them like never before? A bill like the Gang of Eight bill getting past the House isn’t...

Opposition to Common Core continues to spread well across party lines, no matter how much the educational establishment tires to minimize the blowback. “Illinois state officials have threatened to withhold funding from school districts that refuse to administer a new state exam aligned with Common Core State Standards,” the American School Board Journal reported in the current issue of the magazine. “The threat, issued in a letter earlier this year to school districts, followed a Chicago Public Schools announcement that it would not administer the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exam.” “In explaining their decision,...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, under fire since last year when reporters caught his police-driven SUV running red lights, is still running red lights and putting the good people of Chicago in danger: ... How flagrant? Check out the videos. First up, running a red light and making a left turn: And here’s the mayor’s SUV reportedly running the light and driving into the wrong lane:

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently appeared on one of the late night talk shows, beating the class warfare drum and arguing for billions of dollars in new social programs paid for with higher taxes on millionaires and billionaires. In recent years, though, blue states such as California, Illinois, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland and Minnesota adopted this very strategy, and they raised taxes on their wealthy residents. How did it work out? Almost all of these states lag behind the national average in growth of jobs and incomes. So, if income redistribution policies are the solution to shrinking the gap between rich...

Last weekend’s National Rifle Association annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn., had something for everyone. For mainstream NRA members, there were guns aplenty. For the gullible, there was a discussion of “no-go zones” U.S. neighborhoods living under the iron hijab of the Sharia, or Islamic law. For liberals and gun-regulation advocates, there was seemingly endless fodder for snark. There may even have been an answer to a crucial question: Why now? Why are gun-industry sales so robust, and the gun movement so militant, at this particular moment? Sure, the U.S. Supreme Court emboldened the movement with its 2008 decision in District...

Raleigh, N.C. — A highway contractor pleaded guilty Thursday in a scheme to supply defective components to bridges in North Carolina, authorities said. Joel De La Torre, 33, of Chicago, pleaded guilty to federal charges of making false statements concerning highway projects and aggravated identity theft. He will be sentenced in July, when he faces up to seven years in prison and $500,000 in fines. Defects were found in October 2011 in elastomeric bridge bearings – slabs of rubber reinforced with multiple layers of steel and placed underneath bridges to absorb shock – that had been shipped to 25 highway...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he told film director Spike Lee that he's not happy the working title of Lee's upcoming motion picture is "Chiraq." The word suggests the city is as dangerous as the war zone in Iraq. "We had an honest, frank conversation," Emanuel said. Emanuel said he suggested the name would be offensive to the many good people who live in the Englewood neighborhood where the film takes place. The mayor says he thinks that the subject Lee told him his film would deal with - black-on-black violence - is an important topic that...

With his retirement rapidly approaching, Melrose Park Detective Gregory Salvi was looking to feather his nest. He moonlighted as a security guard to make a few extra bucks. But he also plotted to steal drugs and guns from the police department's evidence room, according to the FBI. He also schemed to steal a crate of more than 30 guns from the Melrose Park Police Department evidence room and sell them to one of the informants, the FBI said. “The pistols, as soon as the chief gives us OK to destroy them, then I can get 'em,” Salvi allegedly told the...

ILLINOIS COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE BOONE BUREAU CASS CHAMPAIGN CHRISTIAN COOK DE KALB DE WITT DUPAGE FORD FULTON GRUNDY IROQUOIS KANE KANKAKEE KENDALL KNOX LAKE LA SALLE LEE LIVINGSTON LOGAN MACON MARSHALL MASON MCHENRY MCLEAN MENARD MORGAN OGLE PEORIA PIATT PUTNAM SANGAMON SCHUYLER SCOTT STARK TAZEWELL VERMILION WILL WINNEBAGO WOODFORD WISCONSIN COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE GREEN JEFFERSON KENOSHA MILWAUKEE RACINE ROCK WALWORTH WAUKESHA WISCONSIN COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE GREEN JEFFERSON KENOSHA MILWAUKEE RACINE ROCK WALWORTH WAUKESHA $$

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (AP) - Crews are working to clear a path through ice on eastern Lake Superior that's left freighters unable to move, including one that had a hole punched in its hull.......The cargo shipping season started last month on the upper Great Lakes.

Rahm Emanuel Re-Elected as Chicago Mayor in Runoff Incumbent defeats challenger Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia after failing to win a second term outright in February By MARK PETERS and BEN KESLING April 7, 2015 CHICAGO—Mayor Rahm Emanuel was re-elected Tuesday following a spirited runoff here that tested the policies and personality of the nationally known politician.

Rahm Emanuel won re-election Tuesday as voters in Chicago’s first mayoral runoff decided that, despite his brusque management style, the former White House chief of staff was best equipped to deal with the many dire challenges facing the nation’s third-largest city. Emanuel was forced to campaign furiously across the city to beat Cook County Commissioner Jesús “Chuy” Garcia after failing to capture a majority against four other candidates in a February election. The mayoral runoff was the first since the city changed the way it conducts elections about 20 years ago. […] Emanuel raised far more money than Garcia, plastered...

They just broke in and announced Jesus "Chuy" Garca called rahm to congratulate him. This city deserves what they vpte for. Idiots.

Illinois inmates who will soon get out of jail won't pass "Go" and get $200, but they may collect their Medicaid card. A new plan working its way through the Illinois statehouse would start the enrollment, or re-enrollment, process for inmates 30 days before their release through the state's ObamaCare office. State Rep. Camille Lilly, D-Chicago, is sponsoring the legislation that would have Illinois' Department of Health Care and Family Services enroll inmates automatically upon their release. Illinois' prison system released 30,083 people last year, more than 27,000 men and nearly 2,500 women.

If Rahm Emanuel defeats Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia to win re-election as mayor of Chicago on Tuesday, it won’t be because he’s made the city a better place to live. He hasn’t. [Snip] [Rhambo has made] Chicago feel more like a confederation of 50 wards than a single city. And in most of those places, life has become more of a hassle. The libraries are open only half a day on Mondays. (And that’s a compromise after the mayor initially closed them all day.) Speed cameras spit out $35 tickets for going 36 miles an hour in a...

<p>A teenager shot by a Zion police officer Saturday died of two gunshot wounds to the back, Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd announced Monday.</p> <p>Justus Howell, 17, was shot twice, with one bullet penetrating his heart, spleen and liver, and the other entering his right shoulder, according to a coroner's news release on the autopsy.</p>

A woman died and her husband was injured after they drove off the ramp to the demolished Cline Avenue bridge, which has been closed since 2009. Zohra Hussain, a 51-year-old woman from Chicago, died of burns at the closed Riley Road exit of Cline Avenue, according to the Lake County coroner's office. Her husband, Iftikhar Hussain, 64, survived the plunge of 37.5 feet off an elevated section of highway. He was able to get out of their 2014 Nissan Sentra after it smashed into the ground below, on property owned by BP. But the car erupted into flame while his...