Free Republic

Bedbugs have apparently taken up a long-term residency in Chicago based on a new report from pest control company Orkin. Chicago topped Orkin's "Top 50 Bed Bug Cities" list for the fourth year in a row. In all, fourteen cities in the Midwest made the list, more than any other region, according to Orkin. The pests were spotted in multiple cities in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky. Orkin based its findings on the number of bedbug treatments employees conducted between January and December of 2015, according to the pest control company. The list includes both residential and commercial treatments. [Snip]...

Two robbery suspects were shot by an employee at a cell phone store in the Jeffrey Manor neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. The T-Mobile store in the 2000-block of East 95th St. was left riddled with bullet holes. If not for the employee carrying a weapon with a concealed carry license, the manager of the store says he might be telling a different story. "I think concealed carry is a great opportunity for managers, workers, employees to protect themselves in these cases. And our employee did a great job to protect themselves and the other employee," said Neil Tadros, store...

Even as Obama takes his anti-gun crusade to new highs with every passing week, having recently started dispensing executive orders, the president conveniently continues to ignore the state of affairs in his native Chicago - a city in which guns are banned - yet where the shooting epidemic has never been worse, and is truly emblematic of the "gun problem" America has. Judging by the most recent developments, Obama will have nothing to say about Chicago gun violence either during tonight's state of the union address, or ever for that matter, because recent developments are downright disastrous. According to the...

More than 100 Chicagoans have been shot in the first 10 days of 2016 — a jarring figure three times more than last year. At least 19 people were shot and killed between New Year’s Day and Monday morning, including someone gunned down just blocks away from the mayor’s home, the Chicago Tribune reported. Another 101 were injured by firearms.

New Trier High School, one of the country's top public schools, is forcing students to attend seminars on racial identity on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. "The goals for this day are to help New Trier students develop a deeper understanding of their own racial identities and the identities of others, and to better understand how we can all work to counter the impact of systemic racism in our lives," reads a statement on the school district's website. Attendance is mandatory, though other public institutions in New Trier Township will be closed in observance of the holiday.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Three teenage boys charged with breaking into a Lakeview home and beating a 77-year-old woman appeared in court on Monday.The victim, Joanne Signa, remains hospitalized in intensive care after she was assaulted in her home early Saturday.Eli R. Ruff, 18, Lilearl T. Taylor, 19, and Tracie J. Towbridge, 19, all of Chicago, face home invasion, burglary and criminal trespassing charges.However, the charges did not ease concerns of residents in the Lakeview neighborhood. Some said they are taking extra security measures and others are preparing to assist Signa when she returns home.Relatives said Signa is improving. Prosecutors said...

For some of us who followed and participated in the Obama eligibility question, the last eight years have been more than a little frustrating on that front. Despite dozens of attempts by lawyers and others of varying degrees of competence to win a fair and impartial hearing of the issue, the court system closed its doors to us. The issue of the constitutional eligibility of the President of the United States would not be resolved by a neutral arbiter applying long-established principles of law to facts established pursuant to the rules of evidence (if you believe courts ever actually do...

Two would-be robbers who were fatally shot at a liquor store in the Gresham neighborhood Saturday night have been identified as a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy, authorities said. Keshawn Marzette, 15, of the 8300 block of South Throop Street, and William Larson, 17, of the same address, were pronounced dead on the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Autopsies Sunday determined both died of multiple gunshot wounds and their deaths were classified as homicides, the office said. The two were shot to death by a store employee about 8:30 p.m. when they tried to rob...

Two would-be robbers were fatally shot at a liquor store in the Gresham neighborhood Saturday night, sources said. The two were shot to death by a store employee about 8:30 p.m. when they tried to rob Z&S Food & Liquor in the 1300 block of West 87th Street, sources said. Citing preliminary information, authorities said two people walked into the store, and one of them hopped over the counter. That person hit the clerk standing behind the counter, while the other remained in front of the counter, authorities said. Meanwhile, a relative of the store owner heard a commotion upstairs...

Among the lies about himself Obama consistently repeats is that he was a constitutional law professor. Lie one: Obama was never a professor; he was a lecturer. He did not have the qualifications to be a professor. Obama never published a single law paper. He was hired by the University of Chicago when they learned he had been given a book contract on race and law directly after graduating from Harvard. There was no book - just the contract, which he later reneged on. This is not the normal level of accomplishment for a University of Chicago professor or even...

SAN PASQUAL VALLEY – For 50 years she called San Diego County home. That's why animal-welfare activists are upset that Peaches, the oldest African elephant in the country, died earlier this week at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. Activists are criticizing the San Diego Wild Animal Park for its decision to move Peaches and two other older elephants, Wankie and Tatima, to the cold-weather city in early 2003. With two of those elephants now dead, they called the move "grossly irresponsible." Peaches, 55, died of "complications due to old age," according to Lincoln Park officials. She was found lying on the...

U.S. cities that implemented big minimum-wage hikes to $10 an hour or more in 2015 have seen a strikingly similar aftermath: Job gains have fallen to multiyear lows at restaurants, hotels and other leisure and hospitality venues. The data aren't, for the most part, stark and reliable enough to amount to smoking-gun proof. But Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. — all on the leading edge of the push for big minimum wage hikes — all show worrisome job trends.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Indiana is a gun state, and government leaders here are pushing back on President Obama's efforts to increase gun control. The president wants to make an example of Indiana because gun laws in the Hoosier state are less strict than the gun laws in his home state of Illinois. During the president's CNN town hall meeting on gun control Thursday he spotlighted the number of illegal guns in Chicago. "The problem," he said, "is that about 30, 40 percent of those guns are coming from Indiana, from across the border, where there are much laxer laws." The...

Semi driver cited after rolling over graves at Abraham Lincoln VETERANS cemetery Updated: Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016 ELWOOD - Elwood police have cited a truck driver after he allegedly entered the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery and ran an 18-wheel semitrailer over the graves of three veterans. Disobeying the "No Truck" signs posted at the entrance to the cemetery off Route 53, the driver told police he was traveling Monday afternoon to a warehouse located at the nearby intermodal facility operated by CenterPoint Properties, according to a news release from Elwood initiative Safe Roads Illinois. Identified by Elwood Police Chief Fred...

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz today announced his 46-person Illinois Leadership Team that will help direct his strong grassroots organization and bring his consistent, conservative message to voters throughout the Prairie State...

In a year when the Chicago Police Department, mayor and the city itself dominated national headlines and received widespread attention over the fatal shooting of teenager Laquan McDonald by a police officer, the city also saw an increase in violence. Four hundred sixty-eight homicides were reported in 2015, making it the most violent year since 2012, when 500 people were killed, the Chicago Tribune reported. The number, however, still was well below the level of homicides in the 1970s. Chicago's violent streak was much worse than those of other major cities. Los Angeles saw 280 killings through Dec. 26, and...

llinois is America's biggest basket case: Over $150 billion in unfunded retirement liabilities. The worst overall fiscal condition of any state. Two governors and a raft of other public officials sent to prison. Corruption that costs every citizen more than $1,300 a year. Job growth that trails all surrounding states. The slow-motion liquidation of Downstate's manufacturing economy. Over 300,000 more people fleeing the state just since 2010. The venal and bankrupt political class of both parties created this toxic mess. Those who benefited served as enablers, including public employees, unions and the big business interests who always seemed to cut...

Illinois' role in the 2016 presidential nominating process began to take shape Monday, the first day of filing for White House aspirants and their all-important convention delegates to get their names on the state's March 15 primary ballot. On the Republican side, businessman and reality TV show star Donald Trump, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio filed for the GOP presidential preference ballot when the doors to the State Board of Elections opened at 8 a.m. All but Rubio also filed national convention delegate slates in the...

<p>As Wilbur Ross so eloquently noted, for Puerto Rico "it's the end of the beginning... and the beginning of the end," as he explained "Puerto Rico is the US version of Greece." However, as JPMorgan explains, for some states the pain is really just beginning as Municipal bond risk will only become more important over time, as assets of some severely underfunded plans are gradually depleted.</p>

While the video release of a Chicago police officer's shooting of Laquan McDonald prompted a domino effect of change, including the ousting of the police superintendent and a federal civil rights investigation, the department finished 2015 on an ironic note: Officers shot the fewest people that they have in years. Chicago police officers shot 22 people in 2015, eight of them fatally. That's a 40 percent drop in the total number of people shot compared with 2014, when 37 people were hit by police gunfire and 16 of them were killed, according to department figures.