edited by: Douglas Welch,
Illinois Editor
We haven't heard a great deal from Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush on the issue of health care reform in recent months. But he suggested today that he might vote "no" on the package. Here's his rationale, via the Huffington Post:
A Rush spokeswoman told one HuffPost reporter that Rush plans' [...]
[...]
A reader wrote at 5:48: "3 shots heard at Kenmore and Winona. Cops got there right away, one guy in the ambulance. Cop looking for shells or something on the ground by Kenmore and Argyle. Feels like summer."That didn't take long.
Days after his appointment as alderman of the First Ward, Proco “Joe” Moreno, is being billed as the headline guest at a fundraiser for the 1st Ward Democrats political organization. Hosts of the event include some of the biggest names in local politics, including Cook County' [...]
First there was the Louisiana Purchase, then the Cornhusker Kickback...now it's the Bismarck Bank Job.
Obama’s approval goes negative in RealClearPolitics average.
ObamaCare To Increase Power and Funding of IRSWould knowing about a candidate's troubled financial past affect your vote?
Republican 8th Congressional candidate Joe Walsh has had financial troubles in his past, he admits, but Walsh's 2009 foreclosure on his Evanston condominium shouldn't disqualify him from running for Congress, he told the Daily Herald this week. It was after' [...]
Here's what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says about the release of the Congressional Budget Office's ObamaCare estimate.The Tea Party Express, a part of the growing anti-big government, anti-tax movement throughout the land, is coming to the Forest City on its national tour, according to information on fliers being distributed about town, and listed on the group’s website.
The website teapartyexpress.org says the local rally will be [...]
Chicago developer Calvin Boender was convicted of five counts of federal bribery and obstruction of justice today for financing nearly $40,000 worth of improvements at the home of former-Ald. Isaac "Ike" Carothers in exchange for a lucrative zoning change.
Check out this Washington Times article on the Illinois Senate race by reporter Joseph Curl. In it, he quotes Illinois Republican Party chairman Pat Brady saying that the GOP will try to link Democratic candidates "directly to President Obama's policies, which are not popular here." As evidence, Curl cites a March [...]
by Mark Silva
Not only has President Barack Obama's job approval reached an all-term low -- 46 percent -- in the latest Gallup Poll daily tracking surveys.
His disapproval rating also has reached a high point, and that 48-percent disapproval in today's results of the last three days'' [...]
After flirting with the idea of opposing the Senate health care bill because of its harsh anti-immigrant language, Illinois' own Rep. Luis Gutierrez has confirmed that he will support the legislation when the House votes on it this weekend. The' [...]
State Rep. Jehan Gordon (D-Peoria) is giving Governor Pat Quinn a legislative taste of the difficulties that his budget faces in the Illinois legislature. [...]
More: CHARLIE GASPARINO: America’s Debt Gets Scary. ***Philip Klein, The American Spectator: CBO: 98% of Spending in HC Bill Comes in Last 6 Yrs
by Mark Silva
Never mind the substance of the healthcare legislation that all the House's Republicans stand prepared to oppose -- the House is heading toward a vote on Sunday, with the White House voicing optimism today that it will pass Sunday.
Rep. Steve King, the Iowa Republican [...]
Updated with Gutierrez statement....
WASHINGTON--Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) decided on Thursday to vote "yes" for the Obama health bill, after threatening to vote no because of issues related to coverage of illegal immigrants in the bill and the lack of action from the Obama White House on comprehensive immigration reform.
Why [...]
WASHINGTON--The health bill is posted at www.rules.house.gov
A vote is expected on Sunday, March 21, 2010.
Here is the link to a Ways and Means Committee analysis.
Here's what you will find at [www.rules.house.gov]
H.R. 4872 - Reconciliation Act of 2010
§ Text of the Amendment in the [...]
The U.S. government has told U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Egan, that it wants to buy the nearly vacant state prison at Thomson to use as a federal prison, regardless of whether the suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba ever come there or not. The prison is south of Savanna [...]
This is a sight for sore eyes facing pathological levels of debt. We can't sell some islands like the Greeks, who say no for now, (or can we) but there is other stuff. (Please, take my state).CHICAGO RESIDENT DAVID COLEMAN HEADLEY PLEADS GUILTY
TO ROLE IN INDIA AND DENMARK TERRORISM CONSPIRACIES
Admits Conducting Surveillance for Lashkar e Tayyiba in Planning 2008 Mumbai Attacks
CHICAGO -- David Coleman Headley, a U.S. citizen of partial Pakistani descent, pleaded guilty today to a dozen federal terrorism charges, [...]
If Democrats pass health care reform at the national level, their counterparts in Springfield want to ensure those new reforms are implemented fairly back home. Along a party-line vote (PDF) today, the State Senate passed a bill (SB 3047) to establish the Health Care Justice Implementation Task Force, which would monitor [...]
In the last Congress that Republicans controlled, from 2005 to 2006, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier used the self-executing rule more than 35 times, and was no stranger to the concept of “deem and pass.” That strategy, then decried by the House Democrats [...]
WASHINGTON---The Obama White House will honor the president of Mexico and his wife in the second state dinner of the administration on May 19.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced the upcoming event at the Thursday briefing--held outside on a warm day in the Rose Garden.
Most public universities in Illinois operate small coal power plants, similar to the State Capitol plant in Springfield. Last week, a campaign kicked off to switch the coal burner at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus to a cleaner alternative.
The coal systems at Abbott power plant [...]
WASHINGTON--If there was any doubt--the Obama White House reaffirmed Thursday plans to buy a near empty state prison in Thomson, Ill, whether or not terrorists will be transferred there from Guantanamo Bay military prison.
The Obama administration's Justice Departmant "would be seeking to purchase the facility in Thomson even" [...]
It worked in Massachusetts, so Illinois Republicans are looking for a repeat.
"This is not Obama's seat, it's the people's seat," Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, the Republican candidate running for Illinois' Senate seat' [...]
Video: And on Squawk Box this morning: [...]
This morning, the Illinois Senate passed a measure (SB 2571) that would establish a high-speed rail authority in Illinois. The 15-member board would be tasked with preparing a slate of recommendations for how the state should "design, build, operate, maintain, and finance" its high-speed rail system. Experts say that a similar authority [...]
WASHINGTON--President Obama was charitable in his comments about Tigers Woods when he was asked about the star golfer--who cheated on his wife in multiple affairs playing in the upcoming Masters tournament.
Fox News Bret Baier put a Woods question to Obama at the end of a Wednesday interview.
Baier told [...]
WASHINGTON--White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that President Obama will postpone his trip to Indonesia, Australia and Guam to stay in town for showdown votes on health care that could come this weekend.
Obama's original schedule had him departing on March 18; he pushed it back to Sunday [...]
Word out of the U.S. Justice Department today is that the Obama administration plans to purchase the Thomson Correctional Center regardless of whether Congress allows terrorist suspects from Guantanamo Bay to be transferred there. In a letter to Illinois Rep. Don [...]
by Mark Silva
The Obama White House, which already had pushed a planned Pacific and Asian trip back three days because of the ongoing healthcare debate, announced today that Obama will delay his trip to Guam, Australia and Indonesia until June.
With the earliest time for a House vote [...]
HL: “It’s too soon to stop sleeping now.”
[...]by Mark Silva and updated
So President Barack Obama finally sat down with FOX.
The president spoke at length about his healthcare plans, in an interview aired last night on FOX News Channel's Special Report with Bret Baier.
But FOX's Baier also got a few words of his [...]
When lawmakers talk about protecting "crucial state services," funding for HIV/AIDS prevention programs like the Illinois AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) should be at the top of the list. "Withdrawing any of the provisions of the program right now," Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) said at a Springfield press conference yesterday, "would literally" [...]
by Henry W. Meers, Jr.
With IR full of comments on Obama’s healthcare plan, we had better not lose sight of the fundamental differences between conservative Republicans and the Democrats running Springfield and Washington. The Democrats have set a very effective semantic trap for us, and we walked right into it. [...]
by Christi Parsons
The Obama administration plans to purchase a state prison in rural Thomson, Ill., regardless of whether Congress allows terrorist suspects to be transferred there, a Department of Justice official said today.
In a letter to a member of the Illinois delegation to Congress, Asst. Atty. Gen. [...]
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release March 18, 2010
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
BEFORE SIGNING THE HIRE ACT
Rose Garden
11:20 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. Please have a [...]
“The Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that there is currently no official cost estimate. Yet House Democrats are touting to the press – and spinning [...]
by Michael Muskal
President Barack Obama used a jobs bill signing ceremony today to lobby for his healthcare overhaul and to argue that bipartisanship can get things done.
In a Rose Garden ceremony, Obama signed bipartisan legislation that includes about $18 billion in tax breaks for employers and injects [...]
House Democratic leaders are frantically whipping votes in the final push for health care reform. That means pressure is building on several Illinois lawmakers who remain undecided.
First, there's the anti-abortion crowd. That includes Reps. Dan Lipinski and Jerry Costello (pictured right), both of whom have previously indicated that the abortion [...]
From a press release:
In our ongoing effort to show Google how it “Plays in Peoria”, we have been asking people to shoot videos saying why Google should come to Peoria, upload it to You Tube and send us the link. We will then post your video on our Google [...]
First, from Ezra Klein at the Washington Post:
Washington has spent the past week or so waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to release its preliminary estimate of the Senate bill with the reconciliation fixes. Not only are those numbers important for the debate, but Democratic leaders refuse to release [...]
by Michael Muskal and Noam N. Levey
The Congressional Budget Office today estimated the cost of the proposed healthcare overhaul at $940 billion over 10 years, a scoring that clears the way for a House vote as soon as Sunday.
Democrats greeted the number with joy, because it [...]
Budget expert Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, says Gov. Pat Quinn's 1-percent income tax proposal is "insufficient and probably counterproductive.” By scaling back his tax hike plan, Martire fears Quinn will use up his chance to push" [...]
An announcment from the Champaign County Republican Party:
Champaign County Republicans are gearing up to welcome Karl Rove at their annual Lincoln Day Celebration this Saturday, March 20, 2010 at the iHotel and Conference Center. Because of the incredible amount of interest shown for this event, they have [...]
President Obama filled out a bracket for ESPN for the second straight year Wednesday.
Obama picks: Kansas and Kansas State to join Kentucky and Villanova in the men's basketball Final Four this season, with the Jayhawks defeating Kentucky for the title.
Yesterday, Illinois Republicans -- including Congressman Peter Roskam and House Minority Leader Tom Cross -- held a conference call with reporters in which they repeated the claim that the Democratic health care package, if passed by Congress, would add $2 billion to Illinois' Medicaid bill and "could cripple the'" [...]
The Illinois Policy Institute's (IPI) John O'Hara hit the airwaves yesterday pitching the conservative group's new "no tax hike" budget. On WFLD's Good Day Chicago, O'Hara claimed their plan would "preserve core services without making draconian cuts and raising taxes on Illinois families."
What O'Hara failed to mention is [...]
That headline probably isn't the best, with Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Mark Kirk's using a new motto, "This isn't Obama's seat, it's the people's," drafting off U.S. Senator Scott Brown's galvanizing quip during the Massachusetts campaign winning Ted Kennedy's seat for the Republicans in January.
Indeed, Kirk's line is the focus' [...]
Illinois’ highest court on Thursday ruled that state officials were justified in their decision to yank the tax exemption of Downstate Provena Covenant Medical Center for not providing enough charity care, a ruling that could have implications for thousands of hospitals nationally.
“In this decision, the Supreme Court upheld [...]
by Mark Silva
If Vice President Joe Biden was entertaining the media last night, it was for a good cause, he suggested -- that's President Barack Obama's "base.''
Obama was back at the White House hosting a St. Patrick's Day reception, Biden noted at the annual Radio and Television" [...]
Until this story -- Bail set at $3 million in Schaumburg hotel slaying -- Elgin woman charged with murder in botched robbery -- it had never occurred to me that an unarmed person could be charged with murder if his or her accomplice was killed in the commission of [...]
REMARKS BY FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA AT A GROCERY MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE
GRAND HYATT HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D.C.
11:40 A.M. EDT, TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2010
MRS. OBAMA: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much. (Applause.) And Rick, thank you for that very kind introduction. I enjoyed our [...]
ObamaCare is a disaster for small business.
Taking on the lefties the media loves to highlight. They are from growing religious communities of women. 
