Free Republic

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — A new bill under consideration in the Illinois House would allow individual municipalities to impose their own, local motor fuel tax on top of the state’s gas tax. House Bill 1283 would create the Municipal Motor Fuel Tax Law, allowing cities, towns and villages to impose their own gas tax, at a rate not to exceed 3 cents per gallon. The bill was introduced by Rep. Anthony DeLuca (D-80th). Illinois residents currently pay the second-highest gas tax in the country besides California, at 66 cents per gallon.

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said Tuesday on his show “Morning Joe” that Republican Party is to blame for mass shootings while reacting to a mass shooting in East Lansing, MI on the campus of Michigan State University. Scarborough said, “What’s wrong with the country? More specifically, what’s wrong with state legislatures? What’s wrong with governors? What’s wrong with members of Congress? What’s wrong with elected leaders? They don’t do everything that they can to stop mass shootings in America. This does not happen in other industrialized nations.” Co-host Mika Brzezinski said, “This is an American problem.”

Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday announced that he will soon roll out an expansive reopening plan for Connecticut, including allowing restaurants to operate at full capacity, loosening rules on sports and entertainment venues and lifting the travel ban. Most of the changes will go into effect on March 19, with several more coming down the line over the following two weeks. The decision comes as President Joe Biden warns states not to move fast on reopening. Lamont said the decision was a result of Connecticut’s dropping COVID-19 metrics.

“Mexican commandos have discreetly traveled to the United States, assembled at designated areasand dispatched helicopter missions back across the border aimed at suspected drug traffickers,” reports the New York Times. This is all part of what the Obama Administration is calling “boomerang operations” which are designed to get at Mexican drug traffickers through the back door. ”The cartels don’t expect Mexican police coming from the U.S.,” one senior military official told the Times. Clearly things are not going well in Mexico.

A federal appeals court considered Tuesday whether the Bush administration can go ahead with a pilot program that allows a small number of Mexican trucks to travel freely on U.S. highways, despite a new law by Congress against it. Members of the Teamsters Union and their supporters packed a courtroom at 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where an apparently divided three-judge panel heard arguments in the case, which may boil down to the meaning of "establish." Several tractor trailers also were parked outside the courthouse and union members and their supporters carried signs opposing the program, which allows participating...

TOKYO - A government panel discussing imperial succession decided Monday to propose allowing female members of the royal family to ascend to Japan's throne. Panelists agreed that Japan's succession law should be changed to give the first-born child the right to ascend regardless of gender, said committee head Hiroyuki Furukawa, a former Tokyo University president. "If the priority is given to a male heir, it would make an unstable system that could involve a long wait for the birth of a boy in an uncertainty," Yoshikawa said. "It's not desirable." The advisory panel has been meeting since January to study...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A bill that would allow Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to change his mind and call off the Nov. 8 special election stalled Wednesday in the Senate as Republicans refused to vote for it. The measure by Assemblyman Johan Klehs, D-San Leandro, fell four votes short of passing on an initial roll call, but the Senate delayed announcing the final vote as the house worked into the evening on other legislation. Democrats said the approximately $50 million that would be spent to hold the election could be better used to aid Gulf Coast hurricane victims or repair California's own...

WASHINGTON (Nov. 24) -- A proposal to let more lawmakers see income tax returns is going to stay alive into December, thanks to Democratic complaints over how the one-sentence provision was stuffed into a gargantuan spending bill. With most of its members scattered for the Thanksgiving holiday, a handful of House members had been scheduled to use a voice vote on Wednesday to kill the tax-peeking idea. The Senate voted to kill it Saturday night. But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Tuesday that Democrats would not allow the provision to be withdrawn Wednesday unless Republicans agreed to stop...

WASHINGTON - A Senate hearing on a proposed constitutional amendment to permit foreign-born citizens like Arnold Schwarzenegger to run for president demonstrated many things Tuesday, including that it's a bigger issue than the governor. Some Democrats and Republicans backed the amendment. Others expressed deep skepticism. But bridging the gap between them was the suggestion that whatever is done, it probably should not apply to current politicians. Only once was Schwarzenegger mentioned by name in the two-hour Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, and then by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, in a passing reference. "The hearing would not be complete if the...

WASHINGTON - A senior Bush administration official on Tuesday accused Syria of allowing Islamic militants to cross into Iraq to kill U.S. soldiers and said the Syrian government is pursuing a program to develop weapons of mass destruction.Undersecretary of State John Bolton said the Bush administration is trying to resolve its differences with Syria through diplomacy. But he left open the possibility of tougher action."Our preference is to solve these problems by peaceful and diplomatic means, but the president has also been clear that we are not taking any options off the table," said Bolton, who oversees U.S. efforts to...