Free Republic

Is it permissible to desecrate the American flag for educational purposes? That question is at the center of a raging firestorm in suburban Chicago after York High School allowed teachers to desecrate an American flag – in the school’s library. Staff members from the English and social sciences departments placed an American flag on the floor in the school’s library on Sept. 26 as part of a project on First Amendment rights. Students were not permitted to walk-on or deface the flag. The school gave the defiled flag to the American Legion so it could be properly retired. A spokesperson...

In Ana Rodas’ room, right next to her closet, she’s pinned a quote that reads, “With God all things are possible.” The small decoration is just one element of a space that is not only adorned with words of encouragement but also pictures, letters and anything else Rodas holds dear to her heart. Rodas, senior in FAA, has made a lot of sacrifices to get to this point. As an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, she is now within less than a year of graduating from the University. Rodas has spent 15 years living in the United States, and although she...

CHICAGO -- Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation Thursday allowing state health insurance and Medicaid coverage for abortions, ending months of speculation after the Republican reversed his stance on the issue last spring. The General Assembly controlled by Democrats approved the measure in May but delayed sending it to Rauner until Monday, in part because he has changed his mind about support of the plan. As a candidate in 2014, Rauner said he would support expanding coverage for abortions. But last April he said he opposed the idea and said the state should focus on improving the economy. The proposal...

Governor Bruce Rauner has stabbed conservatives in the back—again. But much worse, he has ensured that thousands more babies will be killed in the womb every year in Illinois, and taxpayers will pay for their deaths. Despite his commitment to veto HB 40, which requires taxpayers to fund the intentional killing of humans in utero—including healthy humans of any gestational age—through Medicaid and state employee insurance plans, Rauner is signing it into law. This is the same man who during the gubernatorial campaign told IFA that he believes life begins at conception. Claiming that life begins at conception and then...

A family outing at Six Flags Great America’s “Fright Fest” took a horrific turn Saturday night when a group of teenagers brutally beat a 12-year-old boy and his parents as they waited in line at the amusement park in north suburban Gurnee, authorities said. The annual Halloween-themed attraction typically draws “an increased number of knuckleheads who come to stir things up” at the park, but nothing like Saturday’s attack that left a family of three hospitalized, Gurnee Deputy Police Chief of Operations Brian Smith said. “This is rare. This is on a different spectrum,” Smith said. “This family is lucky...

A Chicago-area school member says she isn’t backing down from comments she made on Facebook equating the American flag with toilet paper, saying the flag is a meaningless piece of cloth and “a false symbol of hope” for black people. In a post on her personal Facebook page supporting NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, School District U46 board member Traci O’Neal Ellis wrote, “That flag means nothing more than toilet paper to me,” The Chicago Tribune reported. “And I promise you, I would take #TakeAKnee at school board meetings if my doing so would not be disruptive...

The nation's biggest mover is corroborating Census data showing the exodus of residents from Chicago and across Illinois. Earlier this month, the U.S. Census released its report that said most Illinois' cities are shrinking in population, with the entire state estimated to have lost 58,456 people on net in 12 months ending in July. United Van Lines tracks how many people come and go from the nation's larger cities every summer. They found more people moved from Chicago than any other state. "We're really seeing a trend of a lot of people moving out of big cities on the east...

Amid a chorus of support from gridlock-weary drivers and the construction industry, Illinois tollway directors approved widening the Central Tri-State Tollway (I-294) Thursday. Officials promised no toll increases but about $120 million for the $4 billion project will come from new fees to be imposed on I-PASS holders when they don't use transponders. A concept plan includes extra lanes, a "Flex Lane" for express buses, and highway interchange improvements at bottlenecks between Rosemont and Oak Lawn. "This is a first step," Chairman Robert Schilerstrom said. "We'll be reaching out to the communities. We're very interested in listening to their input...

A family of three was hospitalized Saturday after being attacked by an adult and eight teens at Six Flags Great America after members of the larger group apparently cut in line and were using foul language when the family exchanged words with them, according to Gurnee police. Gurnee police Officer Daniel Ruth, the incident's lead investigator, said the family members — a 51-year-old man, 50-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy — all were transported to an area hospital by a Gurnee Fire Department ambulance with injuries that were not life-threatening. Police arrested Gregory Battle, 18, of Waukegan, who was being...

CHICAGO — Sixteen miles of new "flex lanes" will allow PACE buses to breeze past traffic along I-90 going west from O'Hare Airport, suburban transportation officials announced this week. The lanes will carry six new bus lines all along the Jane Addams Tollway, half of them linking up with the Rosemont Blue Line station to give passengers direct access to the city. Ratcheting up bus service was the last piece of a $2.5 billion effort to widen the tollway between O'Hare and suburban Elgin, officials said. Construction wrapped up last December. The extra lane will stay clear most of the...

The Gintong Pamana Awards Foundation has presented Illinois Tollway Deputy Chief of Program Implementation Clarita Lao with its 2017 Panday Pira Award for Outstanding Achievements in Engineering. The award recognizes “Filipino Americans nationwide whose accomplishments inspire, motivate and sustain others in the Filipino community.” The group recognized Lao for her engineering career accomplishments spanning more than three decades, her leadership and management skills and dedication to engineering excellence. As deputy chief of program implementation, Lao is responsible for providing overall project management and support for multiple engineering projects from inception to completion, including projects that are part of the Tollway’s...

Facing intense pressure from abortion activists, the pro-abortion Republican governor of Illinois may sign a bill forcing state taxpayers to pay for abortions up to birth.

Illinois State Police are looking for the driver of a semitrailer that struck and killed an Illinois tollway maintenance worker Monday afternoon. The 48-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was picking up debris on the right shoulder of the southbound Tri-State Tollway (I-294) close to 127th Street in Alsip. As he headed back to his vehicle just before 12:30 p.m., the semitrailer driver hit the worker and sideswiped his vehicle, an Illinois State Police spokesman said. The driver did not stop. The tollway "extends its deepest sympathy to his family and friends," officials said. This is the first...

Chicago Police Officers Discplined for Taking a Knee in Solidarity With Colin Kaepernick By Tom Porter On 9/26/17 at 5:25 AM Two Chicago police officers who kneeled alongside an activist in a social media photograph that went viral will face disciplinary action for making a political statement while in uniform, a department spokesman said. Activist Aleta Clarke posted the photo on Instagram Sunday, showing two police officers kneeling alongside her, with all three raising their fists. In her caption to the photo with the officers, Clarke, who posts on Instagram under the name @englewoodbarbie, wrote “That Moment when you walk...

Two Chicago Police officers who kneeled while in uniform after being asked about President Donald Trump's blistering criticism of football players' decision to kneel during the National Anthem before games will be reprimanded, a department spokesman said Monday. In a picture posted to the Instagram account of an anti-violence and anti-poverty activist Aleta Clark, a woman wearing Clark's signature "Hugs No Slugs" shirt kneels between two African American officers holding up their fists. The Instagram picture, which had about 1,800 likes, was captioned: "That Moment when you walk into the police station and ask the Men of Color are they...

Gov. Bruce Rauner said Monday he will decide "in the near future" the fate of a controversial and politically complex measure that would expand taxpayer-subsidized abortions for women covered by Medicaid and state employee insurance. The Republican governor's decision has major political consequences as he seeks re-election, illustrated by his vow in April to veto the bill and comments last week that he was undecided. Democrats who run the legislature approved the legislation May 10 but did not send it to Rauner's desk until Monday. The governor was immediately peppered with questions at a pair of stops about what he'll...

Arby’s Ripper Told Mom, ‘I Did A Bad Thing:' Prosecutor Bail denied for 26-year-old man accused of stabbing his co-worker to death at the Hickory Hills Arby's. Lorraine Swanson September 23, 2017 HICKORY HILLS, IL -- Kristina and Daniel Price gripped each other’s hands during a bond hearing Saturday afternoon at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building, as they listened to a Cook County prosecutor describe their brother Johnny’s last moments of life. John Price, 35, was stabbed to death last week while working the night shift at Arby’s in Hickory Hills. The man accused of his murder, Irvin Thomas, 26,...

Last month we looked at the state of the Cook County, Illinois soda tax, passed into law in December of last year. They had barely gotten the sin tax (which affects Chicago primarily) into motion before realizing that it probably violates the state constitution. They have a workaround in progress which seems dodgy enough as it is, and for the time being they are collecting it. The county executives insisted that it would work out for the best, improving everyone’s health and raising tons of money.Long before it went to effect we were warning the county that this experiment...

About 300 residents packed a South Side auditorium Wednesday night to demand that the promise of jobs, economic development and other benefits of the Obama presidential library center be put in writing. The activists and residents want a community benefits agreement, something many say will protect the neighborhoods and people the center may displace. Last week, at the foundation’s community meeting, President Barack Obama himself told residents that he would not sign a benefits agreement, which would put into writing the promises the foundation has made thus far on bringing jobs, economic development and resources to the South Side.

Loyola University-Chicago is expanding a controversial program that trains white students to become “anti-racist, anti-supremacist White allies.” While the school has offered the Ramblers Analyzing Whiteness (R.A.W.) program in the past, the number of recruits will nearly double this year, according to Loyola, which hopes to recruit at least 25 participants, more than double the 12 students who participated in 2016.