Free Republic

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved. A campaign to encourage participation in the 2010 census reflects many of the major changes since the last census in the population that is to be counted. For one thing, the advertising, marketing and promotional efforts are being produced in 28 languages -- the most ever, according to the executives responsible for the census. By comparison, a campaign to encourage Americans to take part in the 2000 census was done in 17 languages. ''There's more sensitivity to language subgroups, cultural subgroups,'' said Robert M. Groves, director of the United States...

After hearing from an angry parent, I reached out to "Queen Sister," a colorful activist who has been at the forefront of rallies to stop the violence near Fenger High School. It's not surprising that Queen Sister's mailbox is full. Last time I saw her, she was outside Fenger yelling through a bullhorn. Since the fatal beating of Derrion Albert -- a tragedy that was captured on video -- activists like Queen Sister have been in great demand. And since U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan (US Dept of Ed & Chicago Dept of Education) promised millions of dollars to quell...

Despite the advances in technologies and solutions, the concern that remains central to the objective of providing security to the nation is the question of “who is who?” The federal homeland security laws directed toward enhancing the security of the United States — and the federal government’s confidence in the adequacy of such efforts — is, at the most basic level, grounded in the process of identity determination and the use of powerful databases to accurately determine individual identity to best evaluate threat and risk. Much of government’s effort to protect the borders, minimize the risk to infrastructure and ensure...

Religious freedom is under attack in Britain The Catholic Herald ^ | 12 June 2009 | Neil Addison

A high-profile Chicago-based advocate for low-income communities has agreed to pay the federal government $550,000 to settle claims that it misused federal grant money. The National Training and Information Center was accused by the U.S. attorney’s office in a 2006 federal lawsuit of violating the federal False Claims Act when it used some of the millions it received from a division of the U.S. Department of Justice to lobby members of Congress with hopes of securing more grants. Federal law prohibits the use of federal funds to curry favor with congressmen or congressional employees in connection with a grant. NTIC,...

ISRA alerts about Wheaton gun control effort Illinois State Rifle Association is concerned about an event Tuesday evening in Wheaton. The California-based anti-gun group, Legal Community Against Violence, will be holding a gun control forum in Wheaton, IL, on Tuesday, April 21st. The purpose of the forum will be to blame law-abiding gun owners for criminal violence and spread lies about private firearm ownership. During this forum, the anti-gunners will do the following: They will blame you, the law-abiding firearm owner, for the Columbine murders! They will blame you, the law-abiding firearm owner, for the Virginia Tech murders! B They...

... you may have had heard about an onerous gun grabbing bill proposed in Cook County. ... distance restrictions from schools, etc... Additionally ...registration requirements and other issues which would further erode our second amendment rights along with a lot of other garbage included. It’s good thing the bill called “Safe Streets/Weapons Registration Ordinance” died last year. It’s the typical misnaming of a bill, as they are doing the same with the so called “fairness doctrine” to control conservative talk radio, to make it seems as if it’s good for society. ... you can still participate in a telephone poll...

When you are here in the USA as an H1B visa holder, your company sponsors you, and you live your life. When your company goes into layoff mode, and H1B visa holders are suddenly without employment and sponsorship, life can quickly turn into a nightmare, with people often being sent back home immediately unless they can get new employment. BAE law group in Seattle is offering a number of free seminars for H1B visa holders that I hope they broadcast on the internet. This is not an issue that is confined to Seattle only, and in my understanding of this...

Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary disclosed publicly Tuesday that he failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in federal taxes from 2001 to 2004. Senate Democrats tried to brush aside the last-minute complication as a minor bump on an otherwise smooth path to confirmation for Timothy Geithner, who has been president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. After the underpayments were detected, Geithner paid back taxes and interest totaling $43,200.

Freep this poll http://action.smartgrowthamerica.org/t/3224/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=789 Invest in a new direction On November 4, Americans spoke out in favor of following a new direction. But our new direction can’t wait until January—Congress must act now to chart a new path for America’s transportation system. Smart transportation investments will strengthen our economy, create jobs, reduce our dependence on oil, and make it easier for Americans to find the money to meet their growing transportation needs. Fill out the fields below (at the link) to send a strong message to your representative and senators: make sure the economic stimulus package makes the highest-impact transportation...

A huge black turnout in November 1992 altered Chicago's electoral landscape-and raised a new political star: a 31-year-old lawyer named Barack Obama.In the final, climactic buildup to November's general election, with George Bush gaining ground on Bill Clinton in Illinois and the once-unstoppable campaign of senatorial candidate Carol Moseley Braun embroiled in allegations about her mother's Medicare liability, one of the most important local stories managed to go virtually unreported: The number of new voter registrations before the election hit an all-time high. And the majority of those new voters were black. More than 150,000 new African-American voters were added...

“There ain’t no rules in a knife fight.” Robert Redford and Paul Newman escaped prison in the old west. They went to reclaim their old gang of thieves. But a new leader had emerged, a large, mean looking neanderthal. They agreed to a knife fight to determine leadership. Paul Newman then asked what the rules of the knife fight were. While the dumb ox responded in confusion “There ain’t no rules in a knife fight”, Paul Newman kicked the neanderthal in the balls and won the fight. The perplexed loser protested “That ain’t no knife fight”. But it is the...

After years of pleading with the Elgin Area U-46 school board for middle school dual-language opportunities, a group of Channing Elementary parents are in panic mode. “We’re nervous for our sixth-graders,” said Kristen Webb. “After seven years of dual language study, there are no programs in place for them when they head to middle school.” Channing’s dual language program, unique among U-46 schools, was established seven years ago, splitting a select group of students’ school days and subjects, between Spanish and English. Currently, officials said, there are two dual language kindergarten classes, two each in first and second grades, one...

King Juan Carlos of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to zip his lip recently, and the Spanish-speaking world went nuts. Overnight, the king’s Why don’t you shut up? became a YouTube sensation and a downloadable ring tone. One industrious composer turned the king’s choice words into new lyrics, giving the old warhorse “Que viva Espana” new, and somewhat amusing, life. At the three-day Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, Chavez seemed to take every opportunity he could to pick a fight. He targeted former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who wasn’t present, calling him a “fascist,” adding that fascists...

The White House sued the state of Illinois yesterday, in an attempt to unblock the state's law that bars employers from verifying the immigration status of their employees. This is the first move by the Bush adminsitration to halt the stalling of the new 'no-match letters' immigration crckdown by states and judges, reports the New York Times. Illinois' barred use of the federal database, previously called Basic Pilot and now called E-Verify, on the grounds that they did not want to risk using a system that might be flawed. Illinois said it would allow employers to use E-Verify once Washington...

A global IT company with a work force in Bloomington agreed to pay $#2.4 million to visa workers whom a federal agency claimed were underpaid compared to U.S. worers. India based Patni Computer Systems will pay an average of about $4,000 each to 607 employees for work performned in 32 states in 2004 and 2005, as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor. Patni, which has more than 12,000 clients globally, employes more than 400 workers in Bloomington, and analysts for serveral investment firmst list State Farm Insurance Cos. as one of the company's largest U.S. clients....

Random tax audtis are coming back. Beginning this fall, the IRS plans to revive a once controversial practice of randomly targeting thousands of taxpayers for audits, even when the agency has no reason to suspect them of wrong doing. IRS officials expect the tax probes to provide fresh data to update the top sccret formulas the agency uses to help select which returns to audit and thus enable it to do a better job. The first wave of random audits will start in October and target about 13,000 income tax returns for the 2006 tax year, selected from various income...

Sixty-five percent of Mexicans approve of the performance of the president of Mexico, conservative Felipe Calderon, in his first six months in office. . . Calderon’s approval rating is seven percentage points higher than in March. . . In terms of concrete aspects of his leadership, 64 percent of Mexicans think there are successes to report in the Mexican president’s strategy against organized crime. . . Eighty-three percent of those polled back the use of the Mexican Army in the direct fight against criminal organizations. . . 46 percent of those polled think that the Army, which has been in...

Grassroots student effort key in Springfield GOP win Still flying high, we hear from Aakash Raut, Chairman of the University of Illinois-Springfield College Republicans, about his group's part in local election victories last Tuesday . . . It has been one week since Election Day, when Springfield Republicans did better than most had predicted, particularly in the City Council races. For the first time in 12 years, a majority of the City Council will be Republicans; in addition, independent-minded Democrats prevailed in most of the other races, against their party-establishment opponents. Many people were caught off guard, by the results,...

Is there a mainframe skills shortage? I've got a lot of respect for much of the market research that Gartner produces -- but in this case I believe that Gartner is just plain wrong. In a recent research note, "Impact of Generational IT Skill Shift on Legacy Applications", Gartner suggests that a pending, projected decrease in mainframe-skilled individuals may be a reason to migrate to other, "more-modern application platforms. The logic is that as baby-boomer mainframe coders and administrators leave the workforce over the next five to seven years, mainframe shops (particularly the smaller ones) are going to have great...