Free Republic

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is calling for commercial airplanes to be equipped with missile defense systems after a Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday. Kirk said Friday in an interview with CNN that the missile defense system would prevent a repeat of Thursday's crash, which killed the 298 passengers aboard the flight. "I would have another suggestion that there is a system called DIRCM, which could potentially defeat heat-seeking missiles looking to shoot down a civilian airliner," Kirk said after calling for "one hell of a wrongful death suit" to be filed against Russia. "It is...

<p>A foul-mouthed Tinley Park man cursed out his children and threatened to lock them in a "hot truck" if they didn't "shut up," then unleashed a stream of profanity at a woman who objected to his language, police said.</p> <p>The man, 33-year-old Mark Pawlak of 17411 Carlyle Court, was carted off by the Orland Park cops and charged with disorderly conduct for his allegedly offensive behavior.</p>

A key House Democrat on immigration reform is slamming a bipartisan bill that would make it eaiser to deport child immigrants from Central American countries who are crossing the border illegally. “This is not the middle ground, this is the deportation-only agenda dressed up in sheep’s clothing," Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said of the bill introduced by Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). "More of the same is not a solution,” he said. Gutierrez had already expressed opposition to the Cornyn-Cuellar proposal at a press briefing on Friday in which he and his colleages from the Congressional...

AURORA, Ill. – A Hobby Lobby store in Illinois is facing a discrimination complaint after a ‘transgender’ employee was told that he may not use the women’s restroom until he has reconstructive surgery to switch from male to female reproductive organs. The employee, who goes by the name Meggan Sommerville, also professes to be a Christian. He has worked for Hobby Lobby since 1998, at which time he identified as male.However, in 2009, Sommerville began transitioning to look like a woman and changed his name. According to Sommerville, Hobby Lobby accommodated him by changing his gender in the company records...

CHICAGO • llinois Gov. Pat Quinn is once again calling for legislation that would ban the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. The Democrat addressed the issue at a news conference on Sunday. He spoke in the Morgan Park neighborhood — a South Side Chicago community that's been affected by gun violence.

A group of protesters in Chicago called for action and heavily criticized President Obama for ignoring the high rates of violent crime in the city while spending billions of dollars to deal with an influx of illegal child immigrants into the U.S. “Do something for our children,” said one of the protesters, in a video posted at the blog Rebel Pundit. “Have the same love for these young young people like you got for the ones across the border, and you want to save them.” “With the president setting aside all of these funds for immigrants, and forsaking the African...

This video is interesting. I dont know how embed video.

For 10 minutes, it seemed like the shooting was everywhere in the South Chicago neighborhood. It started when someone shot and wounded a couple, then two people fired at the shooter, then there was a chase and shots exchanged and a man sitting on a porch was hit. Responding officers kept cutting each other off on their radios as they reported other gunfire in the area late Sunday night and early Monday morning. Then the heavy equipment rolled in: A helicopter and SUVs packed with lockers of rifles. SWAT teams in green coveralls patrolled the streets with uniformed officers. It...

Friday on "Democracy Now," Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) attacked his "shameful" Republican colleagues for wanting to change the 2008 child trafficking law so that the children from from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador current streaming across the border in hopes of evading deportation will be treated the same as those from Mexico before approving the $3.7 billion in emergency funding the president has requested. The Illinois Democrat said, "I think it is shameful that in the Congress of the U.S. we see members of Congress engendering and creating fear of children. We should be protecting children, not creating fear of...

CHICAGO (CBS) – Joined by several families facing deportation, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) on Tuesday demanded President Barack Obama take “immediate” action that would prevent those families and others from being torn apart. WBBM Newsradio’s Dave Berner reports families stepped to the microphone with tears in their eyes as they Agustin Corona, who is facing deportation, said he has children who were born in the U.S., and he’s had a job since the mid-90s. “I would like to stay here. This is Chicago. I’m part of Chicago,” he said. Gutierrez said Obama can use his executive powers to halt...

New research takes a look at decades of corruption convictions to find the crookedest states in the union. When we think of government corruption (as one tends to do), our biased minds often gravitate to thoughts of military juntas and third world governments. But, of course, corruption is everywhere, in one form or another. And it’s costing U.S. citizens big time. A new study from researchers at the University of Hong Kong and Indiana University estimates that corruption on the state level is costing Americans in the 10 most corrupt states an average of $1,308 per year, or 5.2% of...

yesterday's decision in a key Illinois Supreme Court case has set off a first-class explosion in state and local government, potentially punching tens of billions of dollars in holes in their collective budgets. Some elements of the court's decision are drawing intense debate. But if the overnight consensus is anywhere near correct, everyone from City Hall and the Capitol to your local village and school board will have little option now but to dig deep, cut services and raise taxes a lot — and labor unions little incentive to compromise. "The law in Illinois is now crystal clear: Politicians cannot...

---behind a firewall but article is about 800 denials of concealed carry permits without explanation--pictured is recent Air Force veteran ,clean record, honorable discharge--denied --lawsuits are being filed--

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled today that subsidized health care premiums for retired state employees are protected under the Illinois Constitution, signaling potential trouble for an overhaul of pension benefits that’s also being challenged in court. Today’s ruling also could affect the city of Chicago’s ongoing phase-out of retiree health insurance subsidies, a program Mayor Rahm Emanuel was counting on to save millions of dollars a year, as well as legislation recently approved to modify the pension plans of city workers and laborers. The 6-1 decision centers around a 2012 law that allowed the state to charge retired workers for...

Welcome to Illinois! The Land of Lincoln… home to the City of the Big Shoulders… a great place to get a thick, round, casserole-like dish which the locals mysteriously refer to as “pizza.” One thing that you probably shouldn’t hope to get in Illinois, though, is a job. Because from August of last year until this May the entire state managed to generate … 900 of them. A report by the Illinois Policy Institute finds that only 500 jobs were created in the state from August 2013 to May 2014, ranking it among the worst in the country over...

A little less than two years ago, Gregory D. Wasson, the chief executive of Walgreen, sought a series of tax breaks from Illinois, where his company is based. “We are proud of our Illinois heritage,” he said at the time. “Just as our stores and pharmacies are health and daily living anchors for the communities we serve, we as a company are now recommitted to serving as an economic anchor for northeastern Illinois.” The state gave Walgreen $46 million in corporate income tax credits over 10 years in exchange for a pledge to create 500 jobs and invest in upgrading...

This year, the colorful procession will start out with dozens of married gay couples walking side by side, some with their children. Follow along here for live coverage, including photos, tweets, stories, videos and more.

( 'And that's what happens when they know you're recording': Cop caught by trucker for speeding and talking on his cell phone changes his tune when he sees camera ) A trucker was driving through Illinois last week when he says a police officer sped past him going way above the speed limit - while chatting on his cellphone. Brian Miner decided to take the law into his own hands and honked his horn repeatedly, prompting the officer to pull over. In a video posted to YouTube by Miner, the officer undergoes an amazing transformation once he realizes he's being...

**SNIP** But the worst of the SLA’s crimes came on April 21, 1975. That’s when Kilgore and three comrades, all wearing ski masks, rushed the Crocker National Bank in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael, ordering customers to get down and clerks to turn over money. One SLA member, Emily Harris, fatally shot Myrna Lee Opsahl, who was depositing funds for her church. (Harris, though claiming in court that it was an accident, had dismissed her victim as “a bourgeois pig,” Hearst said.) Opsahl wasn’t the only fatality that day, Dey noted: “Court documents allege that during the robbery, Kilgore’s girlfriend...

George Lucas, creator of "Star Wars," announced this week that he had chosen Chicago as the home of his new museum. Here's how the city and the movie series are remarkably alike: 1. An invisible power influences events, sometimes with negative results. In "Star Wars," it's The Force. In Chicago, it's The Clout. 2. Robots engage in predictable, often inane dialogue. In "Star Wars," there are R2-D2 and C-3PO. In Chicago, there are TV news anchors. 3. Story of a father and a son has great significance. In "Star Wars," it's Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. In Chicago, it's the...