Free Republic

Chicago’s teacher’s union voted on Sunday to defy Chicago Public Schools administration and refuse to return to in-person teaching even though pupils are due back in classrooms on February 1st. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has been locked in a power struggle with the union for some time, with teachers and union brass insisting that it is not safe for teachers to return to classrooms, even though Chicago’s private schools have been in-person for months. At one point, the Chicago Teachers Union, or CTU, suggested that any plan to return to in-classroom teaching would be both racist and sexist. As the...

First Amendment: The ex-head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops compares the administration take on freedom of worship to the Soviet Union's and says its contraceptive mandate will force church hospitals to close. On the first Sunday of Lent, Chicago's Francis Cardinal George issued his version of the letter issued by the USCCB he recently led. It shredded assurances by the administration that things could be worked out so that religious freedom would not be impaired and painted a bleak future that just might be the administration's intent. Going a bit further than his peers

Nightclub stampede reopens Chicago's racial wounds By Andrew Gumbel in Chicago 19 February 2003 The nightclub stampede that claimed 21 lives in Chicago on Monday caused a war of words yesterday between the city's civic leaders and the African-American community. Each blamed the other for allowing the club to operate after a court order demanded its closure eight months ago. The Rev Jesse Jackson, who is based in Chicago, returned to the nightclub yesterday to demand an independent investigation that would look at the city's failings as well as any negligence on the part of the club. He said the...