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Thanks to a special freepmailer for pointing to this link. # SNIPPET: “”We are trying to ascertain whether the Moroccan was one of the women who could have helped guide the Mumbai terrorists during the attacks. Our investigations show that this woman had visited Mumbai on two occasions and met Headley during his stay here,” said an IB source.” SNIPPET: “Indian investigators say that Headley was not a womaniser but used women as a perfect cover for his operations. The IB says that this is contrary to the image Headley portrayed during his interrogation by the FBI. He came across...

Chicago police were investigating a burglary at the offices of attorneys for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich in which at least one computer containing undercover recordings from the sweeping corruption case was stolen, sources said. The break-in took place about 4 a.m. at the law offices of Sam Adam and his son, Sam Adam Jr., in the 6100 block of South Ellis Avenue, police and Sam Adam Jr. said. Contrary to early statements by a police News Affairs officer who referred calls regarding the burglary to the FBI, the FBI is not involved in the investigation, FBI Chicago office spokesman Ross...

LOCKPORT, Ill. — Wildlife officials discovered a single Asian carp Thursday in a canal leading to Lake Michigan, the nearest the destructive species has come to the Great Lakes, Illinois environmental officials said. Environmentalists fear that if the silver or bighead species of giant Asian carp reach the lakes they could starve out native fish species and devastate a $7 billion-a-year fishing industry. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials found the 22-inch immature specimen among tens of thousands of dead fish identified in a fish kill operation in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, about 40 miles from Lake Michigan,...

Computers with Blagojevich evidence stolen from law firm

Thousands Ripped Off In Suburban ATM Scam $20,000 Stolen From Accounts Through Mount Prospect ATM MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. (CBS) ― Hundreds of people have been ripped off by an ATM scam making the rounds in the north and northwest suburbs. This time, the Daily Herald reports thieves installed a skimmer to steal users' PIN numbers at a drive-up Bank of America ATM in Mount Prospect, and made off with more than $20,000 from 316 bank accounts. The device was used for several days in October and November at the Bank of America at 200 E. Kensington Rd. in Mount Prospect,...

General Growth Properties Inc. said Wednesday that it has filed its reorganization plan, and its lenders have agreed to restructure about $9.7 billion in shopping mall mortgage loans, more than previously planned. Last month the mall operator, which earlier this year filed the largest U.S. real estate bankruptcy case in history... The company had about $27 billion in debt piled up at the time. General Growth, based in Chicago, is the second-largest U.S. mall operator.

CHICAGO – Illinois environmental officials will dump a toxic chemical into a nearly 6-mile stretch of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal Wednesday to keep the voracious Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes while an electrical barrier is turned off for maintenance. The fish, which can grow to 4 feet long and 100 pounds and are known to leap from the water at the sound of passing motors, have been found within a few miles of Lake Michigan and there is evidence they might have breached the barrier, designed to repel them with a non-lethal jolt. Environmentalists fear the...

Dear [Forgiven Sinner]: Thank you for contacting me about healthcare reform. I appreciate the benefit of your views. As your United States Senator, one of my top priorities is to ensure that my constituents have access to affordable, quality healthcare. Today, nearly 3.5 million Illinois residents, 30.8% of the under 65 population, lack health insurance. Those who remain covered face rapidly rising premiums. A Kaiser Family Foundation report found that average insurance premiums have more than doubled in the past nine years, and the New America Foundation projects that, by 2016, coverage costs for an average Illinois family could top...

*Well, it's all over for "Oprah." Oprah Winfrey's production company says she'll announce Friday that her show will end in 2011. If you recall, earlier this month, we reported that there was speculation that she would end her daily syndicated show on broadcast TV and move to her cable network called OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network). Then on Nov. 9 her camp released a statement saying that she would make an announcement by the end of the year:

'A fighter pilot has recalled the moment he crash landed in a lake - as his fighter plane was lifted from the water 65 years on. The U.S. Navy led the recovery of the World War II F6F-3 Hellcat from the depths of from Lake Michigan, Waukegan, today. The plane – the sixth to be removed from the lake – had been submerged at 250 metres since January 5, 1944.'

CHICAGO (CBS) ― It was a violent and deadly holiday weekend in the Chicago area, with nine people reported slain between Wednesday and Sunday nights. The violence began around 5 p.m. Thanksgiving eve, when Shannon Moore, 18, was found lying on the ground with gunshot wounds in the hallway of a building at 537 E. 44th St. A witness who saw Moore involved in an argument went to call police, and as he was going to make the call he heard multiple gunshots, Perez said. Moore was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died at 4:45 p.m. Saturday, according...

Dear Pro-life Friend: The next week will be a grueling and, we pray, critical effort in this life and death struggle. It is late Saturday night; I am here in Southwest Nebraska. I spoke for a few moments at a vigil Mass here, begging people to contact their Senators. I speak 3 times in the morning. Then, we leave late Sunday for an eight-city, fourteen-event effort to mobilize people against this damnable "health care" legislation. I beg you for your prayers with all my heart. If you are ANYWHERE NEAR where we will be, please join us! (To read the...

The last time Jim Ryan ran for governor of Illinois, he offered voters a clear choice between a man who never took a dime in public life and Rod Blagojevich. And though many would like to forget it, they chose Blagojevich. "The infrastructure of the Illinois Republican Party has never really been for me," Ryan said over breakfast the other day as we talked about that 2002 campaign and his current run in the crowded GOP primary for governor. "I'm not a deal-maker. And senior Republicans knew my reputation. They knew I wouldn't be flexible." Seven years ago, Ryan, then...

We know how an Addison family died on Wednesday but police aren't releasing the details of why. Police say Thomas Mangiantini, 49, wrote a note prior to killing his wife, 2 children and then himself. The family was found shot to death in their home on 225 South Wisconsin after Elizabeth Mangiantini, 46, called 911. Police say dispatchers could hear gunshots in the background. The DuPage County Coroner's office says autopsies show Mangiantini shot his 12-year-old son Angelo several times in the head. He shot his 8-year-old son Thomas once in the head. He then shot his wife in the...

Layton Ehmke/MEDILL Al Gore signs a copy of his new book at the Borders book store in the Loop on Tuesday. Hundreds of fans showed up but protesters took advantage of the event to tell the former vice president that his science was “bunk.” Protester from the We Are Change group shout after chasing Al Gore’s SUV down State Street in the Chicago Loop on Tuesday.

The High Price of Appeasement “Diversity” Responsible for Terror Plague One year after the Mumbai attack, the tentacles of terror are spreading DEBKAfile Special Report thelastcrusade.org Thursday, Nov. 26, marks the first anniversary of the Islamic terrorist siege of the Indian city of Mumbai, in which 170 people were shot and blown up and more than 300 wounded. Ten killers of the Pakistan-based al Qaeda offshoot, Lashkar-re-Taibe, shot up and invaded two hotels, a train station, a café and the city's Chabad hospitality center, holding them for three days against Indian police commandos. The terrorists were instructed to make...

Barack Obama, the unapologetic pro-choice presidential candidate, needs to find his strong voice again on the issue now that he is president. And he needs to stand up to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a tax-exempt religious organization, declaring that reproductive rights of women will not be sacrificed in the fight over a universal health-care bill. Time is running out. The acrimonious debate that surrounded this legislation on the floor of the House, coupled with shortsighted acceptance of the Stupak-Pitts amendment, set the stage for the further erosion of a woman's access to abortion for whatever the reason --...

The fast-moving international case against a Pakistani-Canadian businessman charged with plotting a terror attack in Denmark and suspected of others in India moved into Pakistan on Monday night with news of the capture of another suspect.Illyas Kashmiri, a former Pakistani military officer and now a reputed commander of the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) militant group, is believed to have been detained by Pakistan at the behest of the FBI, according to an unconfirmed report in The Times of India.It's not clear when and where Kashmiri may have been taken into custody or if he is among as many as five people...

CHICAGO (AP) - The White House and Illinois Democrats said Tuesday that their bid to hold on to President Barack Obama's old Senate seat won't be easy and their difficulties aren't just because of the scandal that engulfed ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Next year is the first major election for Democrats since Blagojevich was arrested last year on federal corruption charges and removed from office. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he tried to sell or trade Obama's Senate seat. "No one ever said it was going to be easy. There's a dark cloud over everyone's head," said...

11/24/2009 - SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFNS) -- Capt. Marian Collins' third deployment to Afghanistan in October became her most rewarding one. Not because of any medal earned or battle fought, but because she reached out to an Afghan youth whose gratitude gave added meaning to her team's mission. Captain Collins, the assistant director of operations for the 571st Global Mobility Squadron at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., was deployed to Shindand, Afghanistan, to restore a 1960s-era airfield to accommodate air mobility operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. While deployed, her desire to help others inspired her to...

As Christopher Kelly was being treated for a fatal overdose, the political fundraiser who was being pressured to testify against ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich confided to his girlfriend to "tell them they won." "It's my life," Kelly told Clarissa Flores-Buhelos, according to a police report released today to the Tribune. "Tell them they won, tell them they won." The report does not specify to whom Kelly was referring. It was one of several new details contained in the 47-page police report released by Country Club Hills, where Kelly took numerous pills before his Sept. 12 death that authorities have ruled a...

Last week, the body of Chicago school board president Michael Scott was found in the Chicago River with a single bullet wound in his head. The big story was that this powerful, well-connected public official had, according to the county medical examiner, committed suicide. The less-noticed story was that he did it with an illegal weapon. After all, handgun ownership is not allowed in the city of Chicago, which has one of the strictest gun control laws in the country, and Scott killed himself with a .380-caliber sidearm. Unlike most Chicagoans, Scott could have been a legal handgun owner. Because...

Last week, the body of Chicago school board president Michael Scott was found in the Chicago River with a single bullet wound in his head. The big story was that this powerful, well-connected public official had, according to the Cook County medical examiner, committed suicide. The less-noticed story was that he did it with an illegal weapon. After all, handgun ownership is not allowed in Chicago, which has one of the strictest gun control laws in the country, and Scott killed himself with a .380-caliber sidearm. Unlike most Chicagoans, Scott could have been a legal handgun owner. Because he had...

THOMSON, Ill., Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Thousands of jobs would be created in Illinois if the U.S. government purchases a nearly empty prison there to house terror detainees, a study indicates. The study, performed by the Obama White House Council of Economic Advisers and obtained by The Chicago Sun-Times, asserted that 2,290 to 2,960 jobs would be created in and around Thomson, Ill., in the first year after its conversion to house some of the prisoners now held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility, the newspaper reported Sunday. Local residents in the Illinois-Iowa border town would be "good candidates"...

A politically connected zoning investigator has returned to work at City Hall barely a week after he admitted to accepting bribes of cash and gifts to repeatedly overlook zoning violations. William Wellhausen — who pleaded guilty Nov. 3 and was brought back to the job the following Monday — said he’s clueless why that happened. “I have no idea. You’ll have to ask the city,” Wellhausen said before hanging up the telephone at the city’s Landmarks Commission, where he is doing clerical work. Court records show that Wellhausen took bribes ranging from $100 to $8,000, including a $200 Bloomingdales gift...

Citizens for a Public Option Dear Friend, Moments ago, the Senate voted to begin its full debate on historic health care reform legislation instead of obstructing it with a filibuster. Tonight's vote marks the biggest victory to date for our grassroots effort to pass health care reform with a public option. We cannot give enough thanks to the over 100,000 signers of our petition at CitizensForAPublicOption.com for helping to fundamentally shift the momentum towards meaningful reform. Not long ago, a few loud opponents of reform armed and organized by the insurance industry dominated this debate. Now the American people, the...

They always say Hispanics do jobs that other Americans won’t do. Believe it. You even see it in Congress. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) is getting ready to do something that none of his non-Hispanic colleagues are the least bit anxious to do: introduce a bill calling for comprehensive immigration reform. Why the hesitation? Simple: grabbing hold of this thorny issue is a sure way to lose friends and infuriate people. Here are three things to keep in mind about the legislation: (1) It will likely be the template for what Gutierrez recently predicted would be a rebooting of the immigration...

An Illinois woman is charged with a hate crime for berating a Muslim woman about the Fort Hood shooting and then pulling at her headscarf. The charge could lead to three years in prison: justice or prosecutorial overkill? In the days after the Ft. Hood shooting, mosques around the country bolstered their security in anticipation of a backlash from Americans angry about a Muslim man alleged to have killed American soldiers on their own turf. Since then, only one alleged hate crime against Muslims has been directly tied to the Fort Hood rampage. Two days after the rampage by an...

Vietnam veteran robbed, killed on his way to deposit VFW money William Burtner had helped raise money for WWII vets' trip to Washington Army veteran William Burtner survived Vietnam and dedicated his life to helping other veterans. On Monday, Burtner was about to enter a bank in Midlothian to deposit money that the south suburb's Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2580 had raised during a benefit. He never made it inside. Burtner, 65, was assaulted and robbed outside the bank. He died Wednesday night in Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. An autopsy Thursday concluded Burtner died of hypertensive...

EAST ST. LOUIS — A store clerk in East St. Louis killed robber Larando King, but it was holdup accomplice Michael T. Hunter Jr., who was charged Friday with first-degree murder, officials said. CRIME STATS bullet Get the breaking news from our St. Louis Crime Beat blog bullet See stats around St. Louis and the nation in our searchable database. A person committing a felony can be charged with murder under Illinois law for the death of anyone during the crime. St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida, whose office filed the charge, said in a prepared statement: "I commend...

The Senate Select Committee on Ethics has completed its investigation of Sen. Roland Burris, and his office is trumpeting its finding that he committed no "actionable violations of the law." What his press release didn't mention is that the committee also found he had provided "incorrect, inconsistent, misleading or incomplete information" about his appointment to the Senate. Which is senatorese for, "Pants on fire!"

Could Illinois Senate candidate Patrick Hughes be the next insurgent Republican candidate to get the backing of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)? Hughes is slated for his second meeting with DeMint on Thursday (the two also met in September), and DeMint’s Senate Conservative Fund website is currently polling visitors on whom they support in Hughes’s primary with Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.). DeMint has backed former Rep. Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, Marco Rubio in Florida and Chuck DeVore in California, all in the face of establishment favorites. Toomey, of course, soon assumed that mantle when Sen. Arlen Specter switch to the Democratic...

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Oprah Winfrey's expected announcement that she'll end her show -- and the prospect that she'll say goodbye to Chicago – has Mayor Daley placing some blame on the media. Daley said Thursday evening he's going to call Oprah to get the real story. But he's obviously concerned that if she says farewell to this city it'll be a blow to Chicago's image. "I think she was the most successful woman that we will ever know in the history of this country," Daley said at a fundraising event for United Negro College Fund. The mayor says it was...

November 20, 2009 -- Chicago-Rosanna Pulido, staunch defender for unemployed American citizens in her district, expressed outrage this afternoon at Luis Guterriez's Amnesty reform bill, to be introduced some time this month. "With unemployment in Illinois at 10% and rising, our nation's legal law abiding citizens do not need more competition for jobs", Rosanna said. "It is irresponsible public policy". 53 rallies have been held across the country this week protesting the Obama administration's amnesty for undocumented immigrants already living in the United States, along with a promise of tougher enforcement and a streamlined legal immigration system. In other countries,...

Englewood saw two homicides this week, bringing its 2009 murder toll to 17 victims. On Sunday, a 20-year-old man was found shot to death in the 500 block of West 58th Street, according to police information. The next day, a 21-year-old man was shot and killed about four blocks away. This year, Englewood has seen 16 shooting deaths and one fatal beating, a RedEye analysis of preliminary police data found. Fourteen of the 17 victims were male, 14 were under the age of 30 when they died and all victims were black, according to data from the Cook County Medical...

Two people attempted to rob the BFM Market in East St. Louis at 4 am yesterday. An alert employee shot at the robbers, who retreated. One of the wounded robbers was dropped off at the hospital, where he expired of his injuries. The other robber is still at large. Free Republic is banned from posting the original sources.

Wednesday night, scores of people turned up at a town hall meeting in the Village of Barrington Hills, Ill., 40 miles outside of Chicago. Residents are resisting a new lighting ordinance being entertained by the village government. In a bid to win plaudits from the International Dark-Sky Association—which fights outdoor lighting as a blight that blots out the starry splendor of the natural night—local officials want radically to restrict how residents use light on their properties. In response, some 200 people, out of a village of 4,000, have formed a group they call Homeowners Against Lighting Ordinances, or HALO. Barrington...

The plastics industry trade show on Tuesday said it is moving to Orlando, Fla., for 2012 and 2015 after nearly four decades in Chicago. The announcement follows a decision by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society last week to move its 2012 annual meeting to Las Vegas. Both shows cited the high cost of doing business in Chicago. The plastic show's decision to leave is "a very serious loss," Mayor Richard Daley said, calling on unions and others working at the convention center to change fee structures and onerous work rules so Chicago can better compete for major shows....

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

War On Terror: Sen. Dick Durbin calls a plan to transfer 100 Guantanamo detainees to northwest Illinois "a dream come true." It would paint a bull's-eye on America's heartland in time for the 2012 Iowa caucuses. It seems the question of where to put the Guantanamo detainees is being settled as we speak, with liberal Democrats in the very blue state of Illinois welcoming them with open arms and outstretched hands for the federal dollars that will come with them. Federal officials last Friday inspected the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., a town of 500 on the Iowa border,...

A judge on Wednesday handed a six-year jail sentence to a man accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and allegedly swearing allegiance to Al-Qaeda.

(snip) The autopsy showed the single gunshot wound to Scott’s left temple. (Scott was left-handed.) It also showed probable post-mortem wounds to Scott’s chin that were likely suffered after his face-first fall into the Chicago River. And it showed swelling around Scott’s right eye, possibly from skull fractures, sources said. (snip) Because Scott landed in water, some evidence on his body was contaminated. Medical Examiner’s office investigators did not inspect the death scene because police didn’t notify them before Scott’s body was removed from the river, Jones said.

Rosanna Pulido Fires Back At David Ratowitz’s Immigration Proposals Rosanna Pulido: First off, let’s remember how immigration lawyers make their living. When you take it under consideration that David Ratowitz is an immigration lawyer, it’s no wonder that David wants even higher levels of legal immigration and would support legalization of the 12-20 million already here. Actually, what this government needs to do at this moment is suspend ALL UNNECESSARY IMMIGRATION until our economy recovers and the unemployment rate drops to below 5 percent. How can the government continue to bring in 125,000 foreign workers EVERY MONTH when 15 million...

When asked by CNSNews.com what specific part of the Constitution authorizes Congress to mandate that individuals must purchase health insurance, Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) pointed to the part of the Constitution that he says authorizes the federal government "to provide for the health, welfare and the defense of the country."  In fact, the word "health" appears nowhere in the Constitution. “Well, that’s under certainly the laws of the--protect the health, welfare of the country," said Burris. "That’s under the Constitution. We’re not even dealing with any constitutionality here. Should we move in that direction? What does the Constitution say? To provide for...

There are few organizations in the United States as steeped in tradition as the military. And one of the oldest customs is the giving of "challenge coins," privately made medallions stamped with a unit or service emblem. The ritual reportedly started during World War I, when new aviators were given coins from officers upon joining a squadron. According to one tale, a pilot was saved from execution in France after proving his identity with his coin. In a memorial ceremony this week, President Obama placed the commander in chief's coin in front of the photos of the 13 soldiers slain...

Some folks in this dying Mississippi River town would rather take their chances with suspected terrorists in their backyard than watch their neighbors continue to move away in despair over the lack of jobs. News that the federal government may buy the nearly empty Thomson Correctional Center and use the maximum-security state prison to house Guantanamo Bay detainees has given people in Thomson hope that things might be about to turn around in this woeful town of 450. "This town is slowly but surely dying off, and I mean that literally because the people that are retired are dying off...

Ill. town would rather get Gitmo prisonersBy Deanna Bellandi, Associated Press Writer – 42 mins ago THOMSON, Ill. – Some folks in this dying Mississippi River town would rather take their chances with suspected terrorists in their backyard than watch their neighbors continue to move away in despair over the lack of jobs. **SNIP** "This town is slowly but surely dying off, and I mean that literally because the people that are retired are dying off and there's no young people coming back in to take their place. There's nothing here to draw them," said Richard Groharing, a 68-year-old retired...

Obama's Democrat allies in Illinois support this decision. Senator Dick Durbin calls it "a dream come true". Meanwhile, Iowa's elected representatives have been completely silent. It is time for Iowa Governor Debt Culver to show some backbone and speak out against this travesty.

King is trying to prevent the transfer of Guantanamo Bay terrorists to a prison near the Iowa-Illinois border. He has asked 1st District Congressman Bruce Braley, whose district is closest to the prison, to join his efforts.

A body tentatively identified as Michael Scott, president of the Chicago Board of Education, was found in the Chicago River near the Merchandise Mart this morning, police sources said. A blue Cadillac registered to Scott, 60, was found parked next to a trash bin yards away from the river. A police spokesman said the identification was preliminary. The Cook County medical examiner's office has not yet positively identified the body. Scott's family, concerned about his whereabouts, had contacted police Sunday night, reporting he was missing.