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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A state parole board member resigned Monday after recommending the release of a man who a day later attacked a pregnant Chicago woman with a knife and fatally stabbed her 11-year-old son while he tried to protect her, according to authorities. The Illinois Prisoner Review Board's handling of the case prompted Gov. J.B. Pritzker to order that procedures for dealing with situations involving domestic violence be revamped. Pritzker announced that LeAnn Miller, 63, of Junction submitted her resignation. Miller had prepared a report recommending Crosetti Brand's release from prison. The 37-year-old felon had repeatedly violated orders...

The leader of a Baltimore nonprofit got an up-close and personal look at the destruction caused by the war in Gaza. Sean Callahan, CEO of Catholic Relief Services, said the devastation and desperation there is clear. “In the morning, afternoon and night, you have jets buzzing overhead. You hear bombing in the distance. You have drones and helicopters over you. You have these poor people that have moved around and it’s very difficult,” he said. Callahan toured the area and visited the group’s office there to get a better idea of what assistance they need, as many civilians have been...

The e-mail was about Chanel Lewis, whom I wrote about in a 2022 article for The Nation, “When The NYPD Gets Desperate.” In 2019, Lewis was convicted of the 2016 murder of Karina Vetrano. In my piece, I confirmed that during the Vetrano homicide investigation the NYPD illegally used a private and secretive DNA lab to conduct unproven forensics and then failed to disclose it during Lewis’s first trial, which ended in a mistrial, or his second, which ended in a life sentence. “We have recently received some disturbing reports about his circumstances,” Scaife wrote. The information in the June...

Hillary Clinton’s choice for presidential running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, is a Harvard Law grad who cut his teeth as a young lawyer fighting for fair housing issues, winning a $100 million jury verdict against Nationwide Insurance over allegedly discriminatory lending practices. Clinton’s campaign announced the former Virginia governor as her pick for vice president on Friday evening. Clinton and Kaine are expected to make their first campaign appearance together on Saturday in Miami. ... The case went to trial in 1998, after Kaine had become Richmond’s mayor. The jury sided with HOME and returned a $100 million verdict...

When the state sent 2,500 volts through the body of murderer Richard Lee Whitley on Monday night, a little bit of Timothy Kaine died, too. It's not that Kaine, Whitley's lawyer, thought his client was innocent. Whitley had a long criminal history and had confessed to the 1980 murder and sexual assault of an elderly Fairfax County neighbor.

Neil Peart, the drummer behind the band Rush, has made it known that, as a “bleeding-heart libertarian,” he encourages people to support Democrats. […] Rolling Stone notes that Peart's newfound beliefs appear to prioritize the “bleeding-heart” aspect over the “libertarian” one. Speaking of the libertarian-oriented Senator Rand Paul, a 2016 presidential candidate, Peart allegedly told Rolling Stone it is “very obvious” that Paul "hates women and brown people.” […] Peart, who recently became a United States citizen, told Rolling Stone, “For a person of my sensibility, you’re only left with the Democratic party.” …

WASHINGTON – On the morning of Jan. 28, federal agents knocked on Shirley Tan's door, showed her a deportation letter and put her in handcuffs. "I was put into a van with two men in yellow jumpsuits and chains and searched like a criminal in a way I have only seen on television and in the movies," said Tan, 44, a housewife and mother from Pacifica. But Tan is still in the United States today, and she says there's only one reason why: "the great compassion" of California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. People seeking to get around U.S. immigration laws...

America needs to be more welcoming to foreigners Saturday, September 27, 2008 3:11 AM We are a nation built on immigrants. We became great because of the people who came here and worked and eventually became citizens. Not everyone wishes to stay, but as I read and hear more and more about the immigration issue and the distrust and anger that increasing numbers of Americans have against those who come here for work and whose work we need as well, I am increasingly fearful not of these people, but for our country. We are working hard to create a country...

Late one night in the summer of 2005, Matthew Sepi, a 20-year-old Iraq combat veteran, headed out to a 7-Eleven in the seedy Las Vegas neighborhood where he had settled after leaving the Army. This particular 7-Eleven sits in the shadow of the Stratosphere casino-hotel in a section of town called the Naked City. By day, the area, littered with malt liquor cans, looks depressed but not menacing. By night, it becomes, in the words of a local homicide detective, “like Falluja.” Mr. Sepi did not like to venture outside too late. But, plagued by nightmares about an Iraqi civilian...

It's time to watch the Today Show. The best news the annoying perky one could get is that her old show is doing better without her. Then, after a week or two, stop watching again. FreeRepMates Unite!

She won't last till 2007. Should we start a pool?

What Christians should do regarding illegal immigration has been an ongoing debate for a long time. Recently, Christianity was entered into the debate over immigration bills being worked on in the US Congress by Senator Hillary Clinton. Hillary basically advanced the argument that opposing illegal immigration is "un-Christian" and claimed that such enforcement would be the same as making the Good Samaritan and Jesus criminals. Missing from Hillary's comments were quotes from the Bible. While immigration from Mexico is of course not mentioned, there are issues that illegal immigration bring up that are mentioned in the Bible. 1. Taxes Matthew...

Robin McKennel Lovitt will not die by injection tonight as the 1,000th person executed in the U.S. since the death penalty was allowed to resume in 1976. Gov. Mark R. Warner commuted Lovitt's death sentence to life without parole yesterday. He found no fault with the jury that convicted Lovitt and said he was mindful of the loss suffered by the family of the victim, Clayton Dicks. Nevertheless, citing the destruction of evidence in Lovitt's case by a court official, Warner said the state "must ensure that every time this ultimate sanction is carried out, it is done fairly." Mary...

On March 7, 2005, Mr.and Mrs. Miranda arrived home, in Monroe, Walton Co., with their newborn (4th child) bundle of joy. While they're enjoying and bonding with Lil. Alyssa, their two sons were excited to have finally their baby sister home. In the meantime, anxciously awaiting for three o'clock to come, Alyssa's 6 year old sister can't wait to come meet her baby sister. However, within two hours of Alyssa being home, a worker from DEFACS arrives with the sheriffs, and warrant to remove Alyssa from the home.

For three years, I was an academic prostitute. I ruined the curve for the honest and ensured that the wealthiest, and often stupidest, students earned the highest marks. I was a professional paper-writer. It all started when I quit my journalism job in order to pursue my dream of being a singer-songwriter. I snagged a job tutoring inner-city foster children, but it didn't pay the bills. One day, I found a TUTORS WANTED flier on the UCLA campus. A small tutoring agency that serviced affluent families hired me. "Just sit at her computer and type for her," my boss advised...

Senior editors at the BBC are understood to have remonstrated with their correspondent, Barbara Plett, over her "misjudgment" in revealing on air that she had cried when Yasser Arafat's Jordanian helicopter carried him away from Ramallah en route to hospital in France.

Fresh from a Peace Corps assignment in Haiti, 26-year-old Melissa Kreek last month turned her hopeful attentions to the Mexico-Arizona border. Though she'd just come from the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, the Missouri native was not prepared for the human desperation and suffering she found in the Sonoran Desert. "I had absolutely no idea of the sheer numbers - between 1,000 and 3,000 people every day crossing the border .............

A surreal society has emerged at the tip of Cuba in which rules are the only common language and prisoners and guards alike feel marooned. A preview of Sunday's magazine. I. Dropped From the Sky The juvenile enemy combatants live in a prison called Camp Iguana. It looks like a pair of tennis courts surrounded by fence lined with a few extra layers of the usual green-nylon wind screen. It is perched on a bluff overlooking the sea; the breeze is warm and pleasant. Not far away is a beachside park for barbecues and picnics and a wildlife-viewing area, but...

Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers, AKA L.A.R.K. Program I searched for this bit of satire on FR, but couldn't find it. I thought it the perfect response to the hand-wringing seen in articles like Secret world of Cuba’s boy captives. So, here is the text of an imaginary letter from George Bush to one of his critics--ah, but I wish he would make it so! (NOTE: THIS IS A PARODY!) A person wrote a letter to the White House complaining about the treatment of a captive taken during the Afghanistan war. Attached is a copy of a letter they received...

For somebody as earnest, smart and church-mouse-quiet as Lori Price, she sure gets called some awful names. Every day, or just about, people she has never met send her notes to inform her that she is "moron." "Retarded" and "idiot," too. Not long ago, a fellow wrote to suggest that she "Get a [expletive] life you piece of [expletive]." What has Price done to earn so many enemies? She is an Internet activist who, in the space of a few months, has collected more than 15,000 signatures on an online petition (www. petitiononline.com/11601TFS/petition.html). The petition, which she plans to send...