Free Republic

The mayor of the ultra-liberal, near-north Chicago suburb of Evanston wants to apply for a slice of a $20 million county grant to turn an abandoned office building in his city into a new migrant shelter in a bid to help take migrants off the hands of officials in Chicago. Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss (D) announced his intention to apply to Cook County’s recently created $100 million-dollar “disaster response and recovery” fund, of which $20 million is set aside for migrants, to help him rehab an empty office building near Church Street and Oak Avenue. Biss wants to turn the...

Busloads of asylum seekers headed for the Big Apple are thwarting Mayor Eric Adams’ crackdown on arrivals by being dropped off in New Jersey and jumping on a train to reach their “final destination” — turning a family-friendly Garden State suburb into a migrant hub. The Secaucus Police Department and town officials were informed Saturday by the Hudson County Executives’ Office that four buses transporting migrants bound for New York had arrived at the Secaucus Junction train station, according to officials. “From what we understand, after being dropped at the train station the migrants then took trains to New York...

A suburb of Chicago has become the first to start paying reparations to qualifying black residents in what is being seen as “a test run for the whole country.” The city of Evanston has already paid 16 locals from a $10 million package first approved in 2019, the Evanston RoundTable said Monday. By the end of the year, the reparations committee expects to have paid $25,000 each to 140 qualifying residents in the city of about 75,000, officials also told the Wall Street Journal. “I see it as like a test run for the whole country,” Justin Hansford, head of...

One of Atlanta’s wealthiest neighborhoods is one step closer to seceding from the city, as some of its well-heeled residents have become increasingly fed up with elected officials’ failure to tackle rising crime. Georgia’s Republican-controlled state Senate and Local Government Operations Committee passed two bills Monday that would allow a public referendum on the proposed City of Buckhead, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Located in the 24 square miles of the southern capital’s northside, Buckhead is one of Atlanta’s most affluent enclaves. With a median household income of $109,774 compared with the rest of the city’s $68,806, the neighborhood is known...

A blue wave that washed over Republican-held suburbs across the country in last week’s midterm elections has reshaped the nation’s political map. Deep dissatisfaction with President Trump and an apparent realignment, both political and geographic, among suburban voters helped Democrats reclaim control of the House of Representatives, where the party won more Republican-held seats than in any midterm election since Watergate. Now, even before the final races have been decided, Democrats are plotting new forays into what has long been seemingly invincible Republican territory. At the same time, Republicans are eyeing some districts held by Democrats still undergoing their new...

Just a decade ago, in the midst of the financial crisis, suburbia’s future seemed perilous, with experts claiming that many suburban tracks were about to become “the next slums.” The head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development proclaimed that “sprawl” was now doomed, and people were “headed back to the city.” This story reflected strong revivals of many core cities, and deep-seated pain in many suburban markets. Yet today, less than a decade later, as we argue in the new book that we co-edited, “Infinite Suburbia,” the periphery remains the dominant, and fastest growing, part of the American...

On one side, there are dilapidated houses, gardens overflowing with weeds and a high crime rate. On the other, there are streets filled with spacious homes, well-manicured lawns and yoga studios. This is one of numerous fences that have been erected by the wealthy 'haves' of the Michigan suburb of Grosse Pointe Park to 'prevent 'have-nots' from Detroit from driving into the city'. The brick barrier, reading 'Road Ends', represents a significant divide between the two cities, which despite their proximity, differ greatly in terms of average salary, crime rates and general desirability.

The governor of Bethlehem signed an order, on Sunday, banning the entry of Israeli agricultural products into the city, effective from May 1, Ma’an News Agency reported. Abdul-Fattah Hamayil gave orders to security services to enforce the ban and monitor all agricultural imports. Hamayil has also sought to ensure PA produce is not brought into the 47-year-old St. George Landmark Hotel in eastern Jerusalem. The decision follows the ban on Israeli-grown watermelons, onions, strawberries and potatoes implemented by PA Minister of Agriculture Ahmad Majdalani earlier this month, a press statement said. The ban, only the latest in a series of...

<p>KINGMAN, Ariz.—A western Arizona man has received a three-month sentence after authorities say he shot his Camaro because it wouldn't start and then refused to come out of his home.</p>

The modernized America we know today is largely dominated by suburbs, the perfect mix of city and ranch, commonly on the outskirts of cities. Its not the stacked to Timbuktu apartments like in New York, Kansas City, and Chicago, but its not the "home on the range" sort of thing. We know the modern suburb as nicely assorted houses, separated by lush, thick, dark green lawns, that are neatly cut every weekend. We know them with the smell of barbeque every Sunday after the residents have come home from Church. Its these modern American paradises that house the factory-workers, the...

Police Sweep Paris Suburb After Attack Tuesday September 26, 2006 4:01 AM PARIS (AP) - More than 200 police raided a neighborhood Monday in suburban Paris where a band of youths attacked riot police last week and seriously wounded one officer, reviving memories of the violence that raged in poor French suburbs last year. Twelve people were detained in the early morning sweep in Corbeil-Essonnes south of the capital, the local prosecutor said. A band of up to 30 youths armed with makeshift weapons attacked two riot police patrolling a housing project in Corbeil-Essonnes last Tuesday. One suffered a double...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Nov.21, 2005.) -- Task Force Baghdad Soldiers successfully repelled a terrorist attack near Jisr Diyala Nov. 15. Two terrorists were killed, one was wounded and two suspects were detained after the exchange of fire in the Baghdad suburb. There were no American casualties. “We received small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire from the edge of a small village,“ said Capt. Michael Burgoyne, commander of C Troop, 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry. “We immediately placed well-aimed fire on the enemy and killed one and severely wounded another.” Iraqi Police evacuated the wounded terrorist to a nearby medical facility. “We...

LOS ANGELES - A former mayor of suburban Lynwood was convicted Tuesday of federal charges involving the funneling of millions of dollars in city contracts to a sham consulting company he secretly controlled. Paul Richards, 49, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit extortion, fraud, money laundering and depriving the public of honest services. Prosecutors accused Richards of arranging to have more than $2.5 million in city contracts awarded to a consulting company, Allied Government Services, that listed his sister, Paula Cameo Harris, as its president. Last week, Richards denied wrongdoing and told jurors he did not disclose his ties...

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. (AP) - A huge cloud of construction dust blowing across the field where his son played Little League signaled to Lance McMahan it was time to get out of this fast-growing suburb above Sacramento. Watching from a lawn chair as bulldozers reshaped a nearby hillside into another setting for high-priced homes, McMahan knew that the ground getting torn up and carried by the wind over the baseball diamond contained natural veins of asbestos. "That was like the last straw." said McMahan, recalling the day six years ago when he decided his family's health was more important...

<p>The Republican Party, once the underdog in Macomb politics, has slowly eroded Democratic clout, in part because of the growth of Macomb's northern and more conservative townships, analysts say.</p> <p>Population growth has boomed in all of Macomb's townships north of Hall Road. At the same time, Macomb's southern cities, which have been the Democratic backbone of the county, have suffered population losses.</p>

US lays siege to suburb of Mosul after tip-off By Katherine Butler 01 September 2003 American forces backed by helicopters besieged a district in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul yesterday after receiving a tip-off that Saddam Hussein was hiding there. Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite channel, reported that soldiers backed by air support moved into the al-Arabi district after receiving intelligence that Saddam was in the neighbourhood. Witnesses said that soldiers in 15 armoured vehicles checked a batch of farms in the Hawwi outskirts of Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, as helicopters flew overhead. "There is a heavy presence...

(A gentle warning, this is a humble attempt at satire.) My uninformed guess is that supporters of "smart growth" and other environmentalists wouldn't be so enthusiastic if the end result of their activism was that their neighborhoods would not be kept free of lower-income residents. I know that I'm tired of seeing the Endangered Species Act abused to limit development of affordable housing for lower-middle class people by rich do-gooders. It always seems that when the neighboring platt is zoned for single family homes some endangered toad or bird becomes Priority Number One. The end result of this is that...

NORTHBROOK, Ill. (May 20) - Thirty-one students accused in a videotaped hazing have been offered a deal to graduate on time if they won't fight expulsion or try to exploit the widely publicized incident with a book or movie deal. Glenbrook North High School officials say some of the students are considering the offer, which also requires the students to attend counseling and perform community service. School board attorney Lawrence Weiner said they would be expelled but the school would freeze their grades at their previous levels instead of automatically flunking them. ''They'll graduate with their class,'' he said. School...