Free Republic

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s super political action committee has spent at least $660,000 for 12 days of TV ads blasting Democratic congressional candidate Debbie Halvorson’s past support from the National Rifle Association, records filed by local affiliates of the four major networks showed Thursday. When its current ad buy ends Sunday, the Independence USA super PAC will have aired 574 half-minute broadcast TV commercials to influence the outcome of the 2nd Congressional District special election, the records show.

The controversial ads unveiled on the back of 10 CTA buses Wednesday read, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.” They conclude with the words, “Support Copts. Defeat Jihad.” Within hours of the buses' first runs, messages appeared on Facebook and Twitter denouncing the campaign. Many said degrading a spiritual tenet of Islam -- one that refers to a Muslim's personal quest to become a better person -- amounts to hate speech. “This whole campaign insinuates Muslims are violent,” said Asaf Bar-Tura, programs director for the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, which protested...

There is no way to comprehend that James Holmes, the 24-year-old alleged shooter, stormed into a theater in Aurora, Colo., fatally shot 12 people and injured dozens of others, just as there is no way to comprehend how a dozen people were killed and 45 others were wounded in Chicago over this past Memorial Day weekend. But the heinous act in Colorado committed by one individual has sparked outrage from D.C. to Hollywood, while the heinous acts by the many shooters in Chicago attracts far less national attention. While journalists have noted the violence in Chicago, there has been no...

Panera is turning one of its first Chicago stores over to the community. The store at 616 W. Diversey Pkwy. is converting to a pay-what-you-can model Thursday with only suggested prices and donation boxes. This is the St. Louis-based company's fourth "Panera Cares Community Cafe" and its first in Chicago. In an interview, founder and co-CEO Ron Shaich said the Lakeview location has particular significance for him because he wrote the company's mission statement there. "Chicago is a very important market for us," Shaich said, adding that the company has more than 100 locations in the area, and co-CEO William...

In nature, most seals are black, with relatively few white ones. The Navy's SEALs have exactly the opposite problem -- they're overwhelmingly white, with hardly any blacks. So they're trying to do something about it. It's a fundamental challenge in a democracy with an all-volunteer force: recruits may be drawn from all segments of society, but elite military units -- and none is more elite these days than the SEALs, following their dispatch of Osama bin Laden last May -- tend to draw from small pools of talent. For the SEALs, that includes athletic young men who are smart and...

Justice Antonin Scalia on Monday touted his approach to interpreting the federal Constitution that focuses on the original intent of the Founding Fathers. Scalia, a former University of Chicago law professor, called the “originalism” method “the lesser evil.” “I don’t have to prove [it’s] perfect. The question is whether it’s better than everything else,” said Scalia, who addressed about 400 people at the University of Chicago Law School. Originalism was behind his reasoning in a 2008Ö Supreme Court case that upheld the individual’s right to possess a firearm, he said. Scalia wrote the majority opinion for the case and argued...

A would-be robber was shot and killed by a male customer at an L.A. Tan in southwest suburban Orland Park Saturday, according to police. At 6:36 p.m. Saturday, an employee at the tanning salon called police to report an armed robbery in progress at 15633 S. 94th Avenue, according to a release from Orland Park police. The employee told police a male customer had wrestled a gun away from the would-be robber and shot the man, the release said. When police arrived, they found a man with two gunshot wounds. He was subsequently taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in...

The Rev. Jesse Jackson found out just how rough things are in Detroit. Several Detroit media outlets reported thieves stole Jackson’s ride — a 2009 Cadillac Escalade — from a parking lot near the city’s Doubletree Hotel. The SUV was later recovered, but it was found without its rims and one of its windows had been broken, according to Detroit’s WXYZ-TV. Jackson was in Detroit for a march and rally called “Rebuild America: Jobs, Justice and Peace.” Just days after Jackson’s SUV was stolen, one of Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s vehicles also went missing. The GMC Yukon Denali was later...

A Chicago Police officer — an academy instructor who volunteered his time by serving as a guide to a blind triathlete — was shot and killed with his own weapon Wednesday afternoon during a struggle outside a South Side police station, authorities said. Officer Thor Soderberg, 43, was killed at about 3:45 p.m. at 61st and Racine in the parking lot outside the old Englewood District police station, which is now used by the department’s targeted response and gang enforcement units. » Click to enlarge image Chicago Police officer Thor Soderberg was killed with his own weapon Wednesday after a...

Chicagoans should be limited to one handgun for every eligible person living in a home — and gun dealers should be banned within the city limits — in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to shoot down the city’s handgun ban, the city’s top lawyer said today. One day after Chicago’s strictest-in-the-nation handgun ban was rendered unenforceable, Corporation Counsel Mara Georges argued that it’s “critical to public safety” to at least draw the line on the number of handguns in Chicago. One day after Chicago’s strictest-in-the-nation handgun ban was rendered unenforceable, Corporation Counsel Mara Georges argued that it’s...

In anti-handgun Chicago, criminals aren't bothered by Mayor Richard Daley's handgun ban. They haven't been bothered for years. And so another Chicago police officer was shot to death. But it wasn't during a traffic stop or some hunt through an alley after a drug sting. Thomas Wortham IV, 30, was a victim of a robbery, shot down outside his boyhood home in the staunchly middle-class Chatham neighborhood, his body dragged 100 feet or so by the getaway car.

CHICAGO -- The Chicago police department wants your guns. The department is offering up to $100 for weapons handed over during its Gun Turn In on Saturday. The event will be held at 22 locations across the city. Police will give a prepaid credit card for each weapon that's turned in. They're giving $100 for each assault weapon, $75 for guns and $10 for BB guns, air guns and replica guns. Officials say police won't ask any questions about the guns or the people who are turning them in. Police say all guns that are turned in will be destroyed....

<p>During the showdown over healthcare reform, some of the members of the Tea Party took off their masks.</p> <p>Many African Americans had already suspected some of these people are more opposed to the skin color of the man in the White House than they were to the president's political ideology.</p>

Mayor Daley today unveiled his annual package of gun control legislation and denied he's "swimming upstream" at a time when the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its intention to overturn Chicago's handgun ban. Most of the ideas are re-treads, but there are a few new wrinkles. They include a proposal to make it a mandatory Class 1 felony to "knowingly sell or transfer a gun to a known gang member." Daley also wants to strengthen penalties for unlawful use of a weapon so those caught carrying loaded weapons are no longer, as he put it, "let off scot-free." Yet another...

During oral arguments this week, U.S. Supreme Court justices signaled their intention to overturn Chicago’s strictest-in-the-nation handgun ban. Still, Mayor Daley isn’t giving an inch. In fact, he’s ridiculing the high court for affirming the Second Amendment right to bear arms while sitting in a protective bubble. “Why can’t I go to the Supreme Court and sit there with a gun and listen to the arguments? If a gun is so important to us on the street or someone’s home, why can’t I go to the Supreme Court and sit there with a gun? I’m not gonna shoot anyone. But,...

Reporting from Washington - The controversy over racial bias, testing and firefighters that blew up at both the Supreme Court and the Senate last year returns Monday, this time as the justices decide whether blacks who were not hired in Chicago because of their test scores are due damages for years of lost wages. The potentially $100-million civil rights case comes before a high court that has already shown its skepticism toward such claims. Last year, the justices ruled for white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who said they were victims of illegal racial discrimination when the city threw out...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has turned away a new challenge to a 2005 law that gives gun manufacturers immunity from lawsuits by shooting victims. The justices on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Hector Adames Jr. to revive his lawsuit against the Beretta U.S.A. Corp. over the accidental shooting death of his 13-year-old son. The justices on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Hector Adames Jr. to revive his lawsuit against the Beretta U.S.A. Corp. over the accidental shooting death of his 13-year-old son. The Illinois Supreme Court threw out the lawsuit, citing the federal 2005 Protection...

Cook County taxpayers will write a $14,022 check to a custodian who claims she twice injured her back by "reaching around to pick up a piece of toilet paper," according to county documents. More than 1,000 county workers file workers compensation claims each year, but this one got the attention of County Commissioner Bridget Gainer, who spent 11 years in the insurance industry. "Do I think it's excessive? I think we end up compensating employees for illnesses and injuries they bring with them to work," she said after Wednesday's meeting in which the settlement was approved. Gainer stressed she she...

Where do old guns go when retired from police duty? Some are melted down or used for training. One department dumped them ceremoniously into the ocean, but many return them to gun dealers who resell them to the public. So Northbrook officials thought it was a better idea to give the village's 70 police officers their old Beretta semi-automatics for personal use after replacing them with a newer model. Instead, officials have been surprised by a firestorm of controversy. "There is some strange notion that handguns are safer in the hands of police officers than anyone," said Northbrook activist Lee...

Isn't it great that President Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize? He'd been in office only 12 days when the Nobel nominations were due. That's a mere 288 hours for Obama to have been credentialed as President Peace. It's not every day that a Chicago politician with City Hall guys running the White House goes and wins the Nobel Prize. So when the news broke last week, a bold decree was read across the land: Henceforth, the 12 glorious days shall be known as Barack's Golden Almost-Fortnight; or Barack's Amazing Days of Peace, Harmony, and Universal Love! The...