Free Republic

State Senator Patricia Van Pelt (D-Chicago) collects pay and benefits to represent parts of Chicago's north and west sides in the General Assembly. She has a state-funded district office and state taxpayer-paid staff members. But Van Pelt herself doesn’t participate in the legislative part of her job anymore. Van Pelt refuses to do so, sources tell Chicago City Wire, and she refuses to resign so Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) can appoint a replacement. “Last year, she told (Harmon) she was going to do nothing this year, tell people she was having a medical procedure done, then resign. She...

ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt joined the latest edition of “Off The Board,” hosted by Jimmy Traina, and fought back hard against claims the World Wide Leader is dying. With ESPN recently losing subscribers and facing ratings that aren’t as strong as they once were (Van Pelt’s midnight edition of SportsCenter is actually up 20 percent year-over-year among total viewers), some critics of the network have said its a sinking ship. Van Pelt is having none of it. On how frustrated he gets with the narrative that ESPN is in trouble: “I push back against it. I get it everyday. Largely,...

A long-time feminist activist whose campaign resume noted that she had an illegal abortion in 1968 has been elected as the new president of the National Organization for Women. Toni Van Pelt, 69, who has been active for decades in NOW’s Florida affiliates, was elected Saturday night at the organization’s national conference in Orlando, Florida. Elected as vice president was her running mate, Gilda Yazzie, a Navajo Indian from Durango, Colorado. …