Free Republic

An effort is underway to honor one of Waukegan's favorite sons, the late science fiction pioneer Ray Bradbury. Waukegan Public Library Executive Director Richard Lee said nearly all the details remain to be worked out beyond the basic idea -- a realistic statue or bust of Bradbury, who wrote evocatively of the fictional Green Town, a recognizable stand-in for his hometown. lRelated A history of Waukegan The effort echoes the push for a statue memorializing another Waukegan legend, comedian Jack Benny, a radio and early TV star honored with a downtown statue in 2001.

Last spring, a caller to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy unleashed a profane series of death and bomb threats in phone messages left at the Center's headquarters in Midland, Mich. On Feb. 2, a Laura Campbell of Waukegan, Ill., was charged with making death and bomb threats against the Mackinac Center on April 1, 2011, according to court documents. She was to be arraigned on those charges Feb. 15, but the arraignment was rescheduled until next week, according to Kim Nerheim of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The U.S. Attorney charged that Campbell used a telephone to make an “alleged...