Free Republic

Severely impacted by the negative effects of Obamacare, Blake Frund, a worker at a central Illinois Police Department, is asking the question millions of Americans are now asking: “Why do we need Obamacare?” Frund works part-time with almost-full time hours. He was aware that because of Obamacare insurance costs to municipalities and businesses, he would have his hours reduced, but he did not know the extent of his soon-to-be work woes. His boss informed him at Christmastime that his work week would be reduced to 56 hours per week from 79 hours per week. He lost about $300 a month...

A smaller and smaller percentage of adults are working to support the entire state population. Why does this matter? Because a booming economy provides the benefits of opportunity and upward mobility. But not only that. Growing the number of taxpayers is essential for funding core government services and pension bills. The only other tools legislators have are tax hikes, which have done more to chase away taxpayers than to fund the government. The percentage of the working-age population that is employed fell by 5.6 percentage points, from 65 percent in January 2008 to 59.4 percent in December 2013. This percentage,...

CHICAGO (AP) — When superrich Republican Bruce Rauner decided to run for governor of Illinois, it was clear this wouldn't be the kind of race the state was accustomed to. Rauner, who made his fortune as a venture capitalist, was new to campaigning and bragged of being beholden to no one. He came out swinging at entrenched special interests and "government union bosses" with an intensity not seen before.

(Reuters) - Illinois, the longtime home of President Barack Obama, has chosen Democrats for president in every election since 1992 and for governor since 2002. But this year Republicans, finding a weak incumbent in Democratic Governor Pat Quinn, see an opening. The Republican front-runner ahead of the March 18 primary, venture capitalist Bruce Rauner, has emerged as a deep-pocketed and potentially formidable rival. The Republican National Committee already has staff on the ground in Illinois and plans to add more this spring. Quinn eked out a victory four years ago by less than 1 percentage point and his job approval...

Top Illinois politicians say a multimillion-dollar institute bound for Chicago will be the nation’s flagship research site for digital manufacturing. Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday publicly heralded Chicago’s selection by the Defense Department as the site of one of two manufacturing institutes. …

Gov. Pat Quinn is partnering with satiric news site the Onion to persuade young invincibles” to sign up for health care insurance — before it's too late under Obamacare. Beginning today, Onion Labs, the creative services division of Chicago-based Onion, will run banners ads on its website of a man forced to sell his action figures to pay his medical bills because he didn't buy health insurance, according to a statement today from Get Covered Illinois, the state's health insurance exchange.

Labor Law: The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case that will determine if a Medicaid recipient caring for her child is a state worker required to turn part of her meager resources over to union bosses. Illinois resident Pam Harris is a 55-year-old mom earning less than the minimum wage who cares for her son Josh Harris, 25. He has Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, a muscular degenerative disease, compounded by physical disabilities and mental illness. Josh and his family qualify for an Illinois home-based support-services program that lets disabled adults live at home. He gets $721 each month from...

Former White House chief of staff William Daley abruptly dropped out of the race for Illinois governor Monday, signaling he wasn't sure he wanted to devote time to a long, hard campaign followed by at least four years in office. The decision leaves Gov. Pat Quinn without a prominent challenger in the Democratic primary next March, unless another candidate makes a late entry into the race. Daley spokesman Peter Giangreco confirmed that the son of late Mayor Richard J. Daley and brother of former Mayor Richard M. Daley was ending what many had believed would be a serious challenge to...

The American Legislative Exchange Council Center For State Fiscal Reform’s latest publication, Keeping the Promise: State Solutions for Government Pension Reform, offers a solution-based perspective that should be valuable even for high-tax and higher-debt Illinois in its search for Illinois pension reform. Illinois pensions face a liability of at least $97 billion, with some estimates much higher. Gov. Pat Quinn has gone so far as to deny paychecks to the state legislature in attempt to put a more immediate cost on inaction. The governor’s office projected the defined-benefit liability will grow by $5 million per day, an improvement over last...

CHICAGO (CBS) – An Illinois state representative has publicly raised the possibility that Chicago police officers might be the ones responsible for the unsolved murders of black youths in Chicago. State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) was interviewed about Chicago crime Tuesday on WCHB-AM in Detroit. “I’m going to tell you what some suspicions have been, and people have whispered to me: they’re not sure that black people are shooting all of these children,” Davis said. “There’s some suspicion – and I don’t want to spread this, but I’m just going to tell you what I’ve been hearing – they suspect...

Apologies for the lateness of this article, but real life (in the form of my central heat/air dying) put a huge crimp in my writing time. This week’s Jerk of the Week is a no-brainer. First and foremost, RightWingPatriot.com is a staunch defender of the Second Amendment and believes that it is the right of every citizen to be armed. An armed citizen is a free man whilst an unarmed man is a subject. There is a huge difference between the two. As it has been reported last week, Illinois passed a law allowing concealed carry. Illinois has the shameful...

“Every single day we wake up in the city of Chicago, some child, some young adult, some African-American male has been murdered,” state Rep. Monique Davis said Thursday. “This is not acceptable. “I’m hearing from mothers that they are afraid to go outside,” she said. “Hospitals are overburdened with 70 gunshot wounds in one day. Ambulances are so busy people are driving victims in their own cars.” Davis held a press conference this week to ask Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn to call in National Guard “to protect our children so they can go to the park and swim and play...

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois today became the last state in the country to legalize the concealed carry of guns after both the House and Senate rejected Gov. Pat Quinn’s attempt to rewrite the compromise bill. Senators voted 41-17 to override Quinn’s amendatory veto of the bill. Earlier in the day, the House voted 77-31 to overturn the governor’s rewrite. The measure now becomes law, though the actual ability of gun owners to carry a concealed firearm remains months away. The action by the Democratic General Assembly was a major repudiation of the actions of the state’s Democratic governor.

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. Illinois enacts nation’s final concealed-gun law. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois became the last state in the nation to allow public possession of concealed guns as lawmakers rushed Tuesday to finalize a proposal ahead of a federal court’s deadline. Both chambers of the Legislature voted to override changes Gov. Pat Quinn made to the bill they approved more than a month ago. Even some critics of the law argued it was better to...

Lawmakers return to Springfield on Tuesday, poised to override Gov. Pat Quinn's rewrite of a proposed law allowing concealed carry of firearms, but his actions and those of his potential rivals have created a conundrum for many Downstate Democrats in the early stages of the 2014 race for governor. The prospects for rejecting Quinn's changes are high in the Democratic-controlled legislature, which faces a court-ordered deadline to enact a concealed carry law. Still, even a quick resolution on the latest gun regulation fight poses longer-term questions for the Democrats. Quinn's gun-control position, along with those of potential primary challenger Bill...

Gov. Pat Quinn is off target in his bid to rewrite a bill that would allow Illinoisans to carry concealed firearms. Last week, and with only a week before a federal court deadline requiring the state to approve a concealed carry law, Quinn issued an amendatory veto of House Bill 183, the legislation passed in May by the Illinois General Assembly in an attempt to meet the court's mandate. Even though the bill was approved by wide margins in both the Illinois House and Senate, Quinn's amendatory veto sends the measure back to legislators with significant changes that the governor...

Gov. Pat Quinn is off target in his bid to rewrite a bill that would allow Illinoisans to carry concealed firearms. Last week, and with only a week before a federal court deadline requiring the state to approve a concealed carry law, Quinn issued an amendatory veto of House Bill 183, the legislation passed in May by the Illinois General Assembly in an attempt to meet the court’s mandate. Even though the bill was approved by wide margins in both the Illinois House and Senate, Quinn’s amendatory veto sends the measure back to legislators with significant changes that the governor...

So a man packing 10 guns, some peeking out of his jacket, goes into a restaurant and gets drunk and boisterous. Good idea? Only as a set-up in a Quentin Tarantino movie. Using the power of his amendatory veto, Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday deleted the provisions that would allow for such a scenario from a bill that passed the Legislature in May to legalize the concealed carrying of guns. He also edited out other troubling measures. Quinn wants to limit the number of concealed guns to one — and require that one be fully concealed. He would limit the...

The Illinois House, with no debate, voted 77-31 today to override Gov. Pat Quinn’s changes to a compromise plan to regulate the concealed carrying of firearms in the state. The state Senate must also vote to override Quinn’s rewrite of the bill for the measure to become law. That vote is expected later today.

SPRINGFIELD-Illinois joined 49 other states Tuesday by approving legislation allowing gun owners to carry their weapons in public places, overriding Gov. Pat Quinn and dealing the governor a resounding defeat. The Senate put the finishing touches on the override push, voting 41-17 to reject a series of changes Quinn had recommended to the concealed-carry legislation that passed in May. The Senate’s action followed a 77-31 vote by the House earlier Tuesday.