Illinois Review

Former South Suburban village president admits embezzling funds to gamble at Joliet casinos

POSEN - The former president of the village of Posen pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to charges he embezzled money from the south suburb and spent it at casinos, the Northern District of Illinois' U.S. Attorney's office reported Friday.

Thorner: Apocalypse Events and Fake News are two birds of the same feather

By Nancy Thorner - 

The pairing of Apocalypse events with Media Bias might sound like an odd association, but as you will learn from what unfolds, both can foment unnecessary concern, and even anxiety, through the assimilation of false information to the pubic geared to advance the interests of the propagators. Furthermore, both Apocalypse events and Media Bias are nothing new in the course of human history.  It is also true that many of the evils that beset us can be traced to stupid and unhinged Leftists with too much time on their hands.

There are individuals who seriously believe a planet called Nibiru  is going to smash into us at any time.

DiLeo: Donald Trump and the Problem of Tariffs

 

By John F. DiLeo - 

For over a year, the American business community has been disrupted by the current trade war. First the new tariffs on steel and aluminum from most trading partners – but then most significantly, the broadly-assessed new tariffs on products of China arrived, and shook the world.

We’ve seen wave after wave of China duties, until reaching the point at which most products from China – that’s both finished goods and components for American manufacturing too – are now another 25% higher-priced than they used to be. (and incidentally, there’s no reason to assume that 25% is the maximum. With 5.5 years left in the Trump administration, it’s entirely possible that we should think of 25% as a floor, not a ceiling).

Will US Supreme Court burst Chicago's bubble zone law?

CSMonitor.com photo

CHICAGO - The challenge to the Chicago law creating a “bubble zone” around abortion clinics moves on to the United States Supreme Court with a June 7, 2019, docketing of a Petition for Writ of Certiorari in Veronica Price et al. v. The City of Chicago et al. Attorneys from the Thomas More Society charge that the restrictive ordinance is an unconstitutional, content-based abridgment of free speech.

The Chicago “bubble zone” ordinance, applied exclusively at abortion facilities, designates a 50-foot radius from the entrance as an area in which persons are prohibited from intentionally coming closer than eight feet to any other person, unless that person gives permission, “for the purpose of passing a leaflet or handbill to, displaying a sign to, or engaging in oral protest, education, or counseling with such other person.”

The Danger of the Attacks on the Electoral College

By Trent England, Director, Save Our States - 

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on April 30, 2019, at Hillsdale College’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C.

Once upon a time, the Electoral College was not controversial. During the debates over ratifying the Constitution, Anti-Federalist opponents of ratification barely mentioned it. But by the mid-twentieth century, opponents of the Electoral College nearly convinced Congress to propose an amendment to scrap it. And today, more than a dozen states have joined in an attempt to hijack the Electoral College as a way to force a national popular vote for president.

House Keepers & Losers

By James M. Kushiner, Executive Director, The Fellowship of St. James - 

I can still picture the street I grew up on during my childhood (not pictured above!). Working- middle-class Detroit, brick single-family homes for the most part, not cookie-cutter homes, but distinct from each other. Each home had its own look beyond the bare structure: landscaping, backyard vegetable gardens or lawn, awnings or shutters, screened porches on a few, large covered open porches, tiny front "stoops," bay or picture windows, multi-gabled or simpler roofs--each was wonderfully unique.

Iowa Supreme Court Rejects Kelo V. New London, Upholds Eminent Domain For Dakota Access Pipeline

Another State Supreme Court rejects eminent domain for economic development. The Iowa Supreme Court recently allowed the use of eminent domain for an oil pipeline. But in so doing, writes Nick Sibilla, it rejected the infamous Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London:  

Under both the Iowa and U.S. Constitutions, the government may only take private property with eminent domain for “public use,” which has long been limited to infrastructure projects. But in Kelo, a bitterly divided U.S. Supreme Court expanded “public use” into “public benefit,” and declared that the mere promise of new jobs and increased tax revenue could justify using eminent domain. The court even rejected a request by the affected homeowners in New London (who were represented by the Institute for Justice) that would have required a “‘reasonable certainty,’ that the expected public benefits will actually accrue.”

Yet when a similar argument was made for Dakota Access, the Iowa Supreme Court was “unmoved” about “the alleged economic development benefits of building and operating the pipeline.” Instead, the court explicitly rebuked the Kelo decision and even mocked its reasoning:

Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Jump the Shark

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) recently introduced the Loan Shark Prevention Act, which they claim will end the plague of unfettered, unscrupulous usury in the United States. “Under the legislation we are introducing today, we would establish a national usury rate to make sure that no bank or store in America could charge an interest rate higher than 15 percent,” Sanders said.
Ocasio-Cortez, the other half of the democratic socialist dynamic duo, chipped in via Twitter: “There is no reason a person should pay more than 15% interest in the United States. … It’s a debt trap for working people + it has to end.”

Once again, as is their prerogative, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are lobbying unwarranted attacks against the free-enterprise system. Moreover, they are resorting to ad hominem attacks because their policy positions lack rigor and cannot withstand basic economic scrutiny.

More HERE

How Much is Your Personal Information Worth?

IL gun owners bolster Constitutional rights county by county

EFFINGHAM COUNTY - Firearms owners in Illinois are not taking sitting down all the General Assembly's efforts to squelch their unalienable right to bear arms. Taking advantage of local control, gun owners are taking the route of passing countywide resolutions to make stands protecting their rights.

In their own words: Democrats boast making Illinois only state where abortion is "fundamental right"

The following is a verbatim release from the Governor's office on Wednesday, in which Governor Pritzker and Democrat lawmakers boast of making abortion a "fundamental right":

CHICAGO — Making good on his promise to make Illinois the most progressive state in the nation for women’s reproductive rights, Governor JB Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act on Wednesday, enshrining a woman’s right to choose into law.
 
“In a time when too many states across the nation are taking a step backward, Illinois is taking a giant step forward for women’s health,” said Gov. JB Pritzker. “Illinois is demonstrating what it means to affirm the rights of individuals to make the most personal and fundamental decisions of their lives, no matter your income level, race, ethnicity or religion. When it comes to contraception, abortion, and reproductive care, this law puts the decision-making where it belongs: in the hands of women and their doctors.

Thorner: First Amendment threats explored in new movie "No Safe Places"

By Nancy Thorner - 

Photos by Mark Weyermuller 

A special advance screening of the movie No Safe Spaces was presented at The Heartland Institute Wednesday, June 5th, 2019, to a full house in the Andrew Breitbart Freedom Center. Starring comedian Adam Carolla, host of the number one podcast in the world the Adam Carolla Show and national Salem Radio host Dennis Prager, the team collaborated on the 90-minute film. Not yet in its final version, a few more tweaks are needed before the film's September release in theaters. Heartland’s advance screening of the film was the only Illinois screening prior to its release.

Obama-appointed federal judge tosses lawsuit against proposed Obama landmark

CHICAGO - A whole story in the Sun-Times reporting how a federal judge moved quickly to dismiss a local advocacy group's lawsuit against the Obama Presidential Museum didn't note that U.S. District Judge John Blakey got his job in 2014, thanks to then-President Barack Obama. 

Anyone think that little bit of information should have been inserted somewhere? Or is that just another simple demonstration of how the Chicago media covers up details when their inclusion could be embarrassing? Or is the Sun-Times' deficient reporting an established contributor that allows the Chicago Way to continue?

Rossi: President Trump’s Big Win with Mexico

By Randy Rossi - 

President Trump’s new big win with Mexico is just more proof that if President Trump walked across the ocean, Dems would say he can’t swim! Illegal immigrants cost American taxpayers $135 billion a year and take critical medical, education, and police resources away from American citizens and legal immigrants.

“Republicans Must Lead on Climate Change”

There have always been prominent Republicans prepared to support, or acquiesce to, the climate scare. It is a huge problem for President Donald Trump who understands, correctly, that concerns about dangerous man-made climate change are not based on solid science.

More HERE

Americans May Be Strapped, But the Go-To Statistic Is False

Not a $400 expense away from disaster. Sens. Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren have all made the claim that a large portion of Americans are unable to pay a $400 emergency expense. That’s just not true, writes Michael Strain:

It turns out the claim that nearly half of Americans are a flat tire away from financial crisis is largely based on an inaccurate reading of one survey question. 

The question comes from the annual “Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households” by the Federal Reserve. The reportfinds, in 2018, that 61% of adults would cover a $400 unexpected expense using cash (or its equivalent). Politicians and many in the media seem to be subtracting 61 from 100, and concluding that 39% of people, to use Warren’s phrase, “can’t come up with” the money they’d need to handle this situation.

Instead, as the Fed report makes clear, though “the remaining 4 in 10 adults” “would have more difficulty covering such an expense,” many of them would be able to make it work by carrying a credit card balance or borrowing from friends and family. (Presumably some of these adults are 18-year-olds borrowing from their parents, but I’m not sure about that.) 

The report states: “Twelve percent of adults would be unable to pay the expense by any means.” I’m dubious about that as well. In any event, 12% is a lot less than 39%.

Bernie Sanders' Latest Socialist Pipe Dream

Presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is once again proving that it’s easy to be a democratic socialist. All you have to do is make wildly unrealistic promises and blame rich people for the world’s problems.

After that, most of the left-wing media will fawn all over you for your “revolutionary” and “innovative” thinking—no matter how foolish the policy proposal might be.

Sanders’ newest idea is to have government build “millions” of new housing units to help improve access to “affordable” housing.

More HERE

Why Neo-liberalism is Really Neo-socialism

If there is one common enemy that all opponents of individual liberty, free markets, and limited government seemingly can agree upon it is the “evil” of neo-liberalism. Everything that is hated in an open, competitive market society is summed into that word and condemned. The problem is that actual free market liberalism has nothing to do with its “neo-liberal” caricature and is being used as a rationale for abolishing what remains today of a free market society.

The idea of need for a “new,” or “neo,” ”liberalism did not arise out of the ranks of the proponents of laissez-faire as an attempted justification for unrestrained and unregulated markets. Instead, it emerged from those who wished to do away with the relatively free market system of the mid- to late 19th century as it was still widely in existence, especially in countries such as Great Britain and the United States.

More HERE

Cook Co Commissioner Sean Morrison leads effort to stop abortion resolution

CHICAGO - When pro-abortion Cook County Board commissioners joined together to promote a bill that would make Illinois the most abortion-friendly state in the nation lat month, Commissioner Sean Morrison determined it would not face the whole Board without opposition.

Last Wednesday, when the resolution came before the Board's Legislation & Intergovernmental Committee, pro-lifers were on hand to object to the resolution, and they were effective enough to stall the resolution's progress.

"New Illinois" coalition offers help to new Chicago mayor

Five of these seven Republican lawmakers offered their assistance to Mayor Lightfoot Monday

SHELBYVILLE -- A coalition of reformers are offering Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot support in her efforts "to end the corrupt status-quo in the state's biggest city, which drives corruption in state government," the group said in a letter Monday.