The coronavirus — which has killed more than 80 people in China so far and has resulted in more than 50 million Chinese citizens now effectively quarantined in the country — has reached the United States, with four states thus far confirming cases, including two new cases on Sunday in California and Arizona.
&#8220;The U.S. has five confirmed cases of the new virus from China, all among people who traveled to the city at the center of the outbreak, health officials said Sunday,&#8221; the <a href="https://apnews.com/c482d489c4e3cca2f5b549386f666e3a">Associated Press</a> reports. &#8220;Two new cases were reported Sunday — one in Los Angeles County in California and the other in Maricopa County, Arizona.&#8221;
The newly confirmed case in Arizona, AP notes, involves someone connected to Arizona State University, located in Tempe, &#8220;who did not live in school housing and had a history of travel to Wuhan, China,&#8221; according to state health officials. The patient, officials said, is not severely ill and is currently at home but isolated in order to prevent further spreading of the virus.
&#8220;The department said it would not release potentially identifying information on the person, including the gender and age, and declined to say whether the person was a student or faculty member,&#8221; AP reports.
The newly confirmed case in Los Angeles — the second in California — involves a patient who reported feeling ill upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday, at which point the patient was taken immediately to the hospital. Officials are likewise withholding identifying information about the individual, though they have revealed that the patient traveled from Wuhan.
In a press conference Sunday, L.A. County Department of Public Health&#8217;s Dr. Sharon Balter addressed the new case. “Everything worked as it should,” said Balter, as reported by AP. “The patient presented for care, the patient was immediately transported to a hospital, the patient has remained in the hospital.”
The two new cases makes a total of five confirmed cases thus far in the U.S.: one in Orange County, California, another in Washington state (reportedly a male in his 30s), and another in Chicago (reportedly a woman in her 60s).
On Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html">statement</a> confirming the five cases, all involving individuals who had traveled to the States from Wuhan:
<blockquote>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is closely monitoring an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel (new) coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Chinese authorities identified the new coronavirus, which has resulted in more than a thousand confirmed cases in China, including cases outside Wuhan City. Additional cases have been identified in a growing number of other international locations, including the United States, where 5 cases in travelers from Wuhan have been confirmed in four states (AZ, CA, IL, WA) as of January 26, 2020. There are ongoing investigations to learn more.</blockquote>
As reported by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/world/asia/coronavirus-wuhan-china-hubei.html">The New York Times</a> Sunday, the communist Chinese government has expanded its quarantine to include around 56 million people.
“A top Chinese health official warned on Sunday that the spread of the dangerous new coronavirus, already extraordinarily rapid, is accelerating further, deepening global fears about an illness that has sickened more than 2,700 people worldwide and killed at least 80 people in China,” the Times reported. “The grim diagnosis came amid concerns that China’s efforts to contain the spread of the disease, despite a lockdown of unprecedented scope affecting 56 million people, may not only have come too late but could even make the situation worse, including by exacerbating shortages of medical supplies.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-quarantines-56-million-cities-cancel-work-for-weeks-deaths-infections-skyrocket">China Quarantines 56 Million, Cities Cancel Work For Weeks. Deaths, Infections Skyrocket.</a>

Coronavirus

Coronavirus Hits U.S.: More Cases Reported In Multiple States

Arizona

California

Chicago

China

Illinois

Los Angeles

With the Illinois primary less than two months away, a spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections has admitted that some non-citizens of the United States may have illegally voted in the 2018 election because of the new automatic voter registration process implemented in the state.
Spokesman Matt Dietrich told <a href="https://www.wcia.com/illinois-capitol-news/state-board-of-elections-admits-non-u-s-citizens-may-have-voted-illegally-in-2018/">WCIA</a> on Monday that 574 non-U.S. citizens were inadvertently registered to vote in Illinois, adding, “We do know that some of them voted in 2018.” He surmised that some may have been legal citizens who incorrectly filled out the state form to vote, although it appears much if not all of the problem was that Illinois permits non-citizens to obtain driver’s licenses.
Democrat Secretary of State Jesse White’s office acknowledged the mistake in a letter to the State Board of Elections on December 18. Spokesman Henry Haupt of White’s office stated, “For whatever reason that technological programming error did not properly remove the individuals. The individuals who are applying for driver’s license were inadvertently pooled into the automatic voter registration.” He added, “This was an isolated case that impacted less than one-tenth of one percent of the people registered through automatic voter registration. As soon as the program error was discovered, it was fixed, and the individuals were notified, including the State Board of Elections and the local election authorities.”
The Macon County Sheriff’s race was decided by one vote. The <a href="https://www.news-gazette.com/news/runner-up-in-one-vote-macon-county-sheriff-s-race/article_22d76307-be83-5bde-9634-a96470551691.html">News-Gazette</a> reported in December 2018:
<blockquote>A Decatur man who was told he lost his bid to become Macon County sheriff by one vote is asking a judge to review the election results in hopes he&#8217;ll be declared the winner. Republican Jim Root filed suit Wednesday in Macon County Circuit Court against Democrat Tony &#8220;Chubby&#8221; Brown, the current sheriff, seeking to overturn Brown&#8217;s victory …The request for judicial relief comes on the heels of a discovery recount that Root&#8217;s local attorney, Jerrold Stocks, believes actually puts Root five votes ahead of Brown instead of one vote behind.</blockquote>
WCIA noted, “Illinois law allows immigrants who are not citizens to get a driver’s license or state identification. Both state and federal law prohibits non-citizens from participating in American elections …  Non-citizens who vote in American elections can face swift consequences, including immediate deportation.”
State Representative Tim Butler (R-Springfield) explained, “Non-citizens can have driver’s licenses in the state of Illinois. A driver’s license is a key tool in registering someone to vote. Oftentimes it’s your driver’s license that is one of the two documents that we use to verify that you’re a registered citizen … If that person voted, that’s a huge problem when it comes to the federal government. That’s a deportable offense for this person. And if that’s the case, that’s something that’s on the Secretary of State’s office for allowing that offense to happen.”
Because of Martin Luther King Day on Monday, no state employees were available to ascertain exactly how many non-citizens actually voted; a more detailed answer is expected to be given on Tuesday.
Five Illinois House Republicans have requested White and the State Board of Elections to testify before investigative hearings; Butler explained, “We have to have complete confidence that our offices are doing the right thing. And that goes for the Secretary of State. He may or may not have known about this. I have no idea. But he needs to be held responsible for it. It’s his operation that allowed this to happen.”
The Illinois primary election is held March 17, with early voting starting on February 6.
&nbsp;

Springfield, Illinois Cityscapes And City Views

Illinois Dems Admit Mistake Allowed Non-Citizens To Vote In 2018

Voting Rights

One of the most difficult things for those falsely accused or falsely convicted is to move on with their lives when the specter of their alleged wrongdoing follows them beyond any sort of legal win.
One way states can alleviate some of the difficulty for the wrongly convicted is to issues a certificate of innocence to say, clearly, that this person did not do the crime of which they were accused. For Eric Blackmon, whose 2002 murder conviction was vacated by a federal court, which also ordered that he be released from prison, that final proof that he was innocent now eludes him. The Cook County State’s Attorney dropped charges against Blackmon last January, but it now refuses to issue him a certificate of innocence, claiming that despite the evidence and the federal court ruling, it still believes Blackmon is a murderer.
Assistant State’s Attorney Derek Kuhn, according to the not-for-profit journalism organization <a href="https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/2020/state-opposes-certificate-of-innocence-for-man-cleared-of-2002-murder/">Injustice Watch</a>, has been clear that Illinois does not think Blackmon is truly innocent, claiming in a motion to oppose Blackmon’s certificate of innocence that the conviction was “set aside for reasons that were collateral to the question of guilt.”
Perhaps Kuhn and his office truly believe Blackmon committed the crime, but another reason the State’s Attorney office might not want to issue the certificate is because it would not only expunge Blackmon’s record, but also require the state to pay him $10,000 per year of wrongful incarceration. That would total $160,000 since Blackmon spent nearly 16 years in prison.
Blackmon was arrested and charged in September 2002 for the July 4, 2002 murder of Tony Cox. Two eyewitnesses named Blackmon as the shooter during police lineups. Neither of the eyewitnesses knew Blackmon previously. Blackmon, however, has always maintained that he was hosting a barbecue the day of the shooting and couldn’t have been the murderer. Blackmon testified on Tuesday that he “was at the barbecue from 2 p.m. until at least 10 p.m. that night, and that the alibi witnesses he collected during his time in prison corroborate his story,” Injustice Watch reported.
Further, Blackmon said he had been playing music from his car’s speakers the whole day, so the battery was drained and he couldn’t have gone to the shooting. The outlet reported that during “cross-examination, Kuhn questioned Blackmon in detail about his time at the barbecue, focusing in particular on when people arrived and left.” Blackmon, who is now a paralegal and studying at Northeastern Illinois University to become a lawyer, “appeared confident and directly pushed back on the framing of Kuhn’s line of questioning on one occasion.”
Blackmon’s attorneys called human perception and memory expert Geoffrey Loftus, who testified as to how the two eyewitnesses could have been mistaken. False identification from witnesses is one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions.
One of the two eyewitnesses, Frencshun Reese, has recanted her testimony. The state plans to call the other witness, Lisa McDowell, to testify in order to keep Blackmon from completely being exonerated for the crime.

Man in prison

He Was Wrongly Convicted Of Murder And Had His Sentence Vacated. Illinois Refuses To Issue A Certificate Of Innocence.

false accusations

wrongful conviction

Law enforcement in Cook County, Illinois, allowed more than 1,000 criminal illegal aliens to go free in Fiscal Year 2019, ignoring detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
A <a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/cook-county-declined-more-1000-ice-detainers-fy19">press release</a> from ICE highlighted some of the illegal immigrants who were released from prison despite ICE lodging immigration detainers, including domestic abusers and an attempted murderer. One of the men who were released from Cook County law enforcement officials were rearrested without officials notifying ICE that they had been released. South African national Rasheed Abass, 50, was arrested in June 2019 for indecent exposure, released, and then arrested in July for assault. ICE placed detainers on him after each arrest but were ignored. Nicaraguan national Kennete Acevedo Ortiz (also known as Kennev Vasquest-Rugama), 28, was arrested three times in Fiscal Year 2019, once for driving under the influence, once for domestic violence, and a third time for failing to appear in court.
“The most concerning issue about working in an area that refuses to cooperate with ICE is not only that we do not know which criminal aliens are being released from custody, but the public doesn’t know either,” said Henry Lucero, ICE’s acting deputy executive associate director for Enforcement and Removal Operations in the press release. “Because ICE does not have access to standard Illinois law enforcement databases, it’s difficult to accurately account for all the aliens who have been arrested, released and committed additional crimes. However, with the limited information ICE can verify, we know that police resources are being wasted, more people are being victimized, and it’s a matter of time until something more significant happens.”
ICE officials also listed the following offenders as being released or about to be released even after a detainer was lodged:
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>On Dec. 3, 2018, ICE lodged a detainer with the Cook County Jail on Rokas Ablacinskas, a 22-year-old citizen of Lithuania, following his arrest for attempted murder, aggravated battery of a victim over the age of 60 and aggravated battery in a public place. Without notifying ICE, the Cook County Jail released Ablacinskas Sept. 17, 2019, and he remains at large in the community.</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>On, Dec. 10, 2018, ICE lodged a detainer with the Cook County Jail on Isidro Ramirez-Hernandez, a 52-year-old citizen of Mexico, following his arrest for aggravated domestic battery and strangulation. Despite an active immigration detainer, the Cook County Jail released Ramirez-Hernandez March 18, 2019, and he remains at large in the community.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>On Aug. 10, 2019, ICE lodged a detainer with the Cook County Jail on Mahmoud Abu Maghli, a 27-year-old citizen of Jordan, following his arrest by the Burbank (Illinois) Police Department for recklessly discharging a firearm. He remains in the Cook County Jail where, under existing sanctuary laws, he will be released into the community.</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
ICE detainers pertain to people who have been arrested and suspected by ICE of being removable aliens. The detainers merely request that law enforcement officials notify ICE when a criminal alien is being released and to maintain custody for short amount of time so that the agency can take the alien into custody.

behind bars

Cook County Ignored More Than 1,000 ICE Detainers In Fiscal Year 2019, Allowing Repeat Offenders To Roam Free

Illegal Immigration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

The wealthy Chicago suburb of Oak Park attempted to do something simple enough for a liberal town: Update the village’s diversity statement.
But as many things involving identity politics go, this simple statement caused the town some embarrassment. Mark Glennon, founder of an Illinois online outlet <a href="https://wirepoints.org/where-hate-has-a-home-oak-park-illinois-2/">called WirePoints</a>, explained what happened in Oak Park.
The Oak Park village board met and debated the diversity statement, which included the phrase “system of oppression.” As Glennon wrote, this upset some members of the board, who felt the phrase unfairly smeared the local police department.
“That’s when Trustee Susan Buchanan let loose, telling the white males on the board to &#8216;shut up,&#8217; and much more,” Glennon wrote. “Keep in mind that one of the targets of Buchanan’s comments was the mayor, Anan Abu-Taleb. He’s a Palestinian immigrant born in the Gaza Strip as the second oldest of 13 children and came to the Chicago area at the age of 18 to attend college.”
Buchanan, according <a href="https://youtu.be/COzVGRhSOuI">to video</a> of the meeting told the white members and Abu-Taleb that they “shouldn’t have an opinion on that.”
“That is the point. Why do you have an opinion on equity? You’ve never experienced oppression so shut up … . Just stop … You are not oppressed … . Enough … You stop it! You are a white male. Your skin is light enough. Stop it,” she said.
Instead of Buchanan losing her job and becoming a political pariah for her comments, she was supported by members of her community. Glennon reported that the “loudest voices” in the town support Buchanan, and have even posted <a href="https://www.change.org/p/oak-park-board-of-trustees-dan-moroney-resign-from-oak-park-s-board-of-trustees/c">a petition</a> demanding that one of the other village board members resign.
“That’s Dan Moroney, who was among the trustees who questioned the wording of the original diversity statement,” Glennon wrote. “They’ve selected him as scapegoat for the bad press Oak Park got from Buchanan’s words and for the threats she says she and her family received.”
Moroney, according to Buchanan’s supporters, is the one who has to go because he spoke about the situation on a conservative Dan Proft’s radio show. Buchanan’s supporters claim that the neighborhood was “targeted by white supremacists” and that Buchanan was threatened.
But, according to Glennon, Moroney didn’t appear on the radio show until October 18, two weeks after Buchanan’s comments went national and after Buchanan said she had been threatened. Also, the reporting on the incident was not initiated by Moroney.
For what it’s worth, the diversity statement was approved on October 9. The Chicago Tribune <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/oak-park/ct-oak-park-diversity-statement-tl-1017-20191009-sevkm5o6yvhf3fxxyiymyqynty-story.html">reported</a> at the time that the statement was updated after each election.
Despite the statement being approved, protesters showed up at last week’s village board meeting to defend Buchanan. A woman suggested men did need to “shut up,” while another said Buchanan’s critics were “vile and Brett Kavanaugh-like.” The Left believes Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted women 30 years ago, even though the available evidence suggests he didn’t. The protester’s reference was likely suggesting that anyone who thought Buchanan’s comments were disrespectful and bigoted was actually a sexual assaulter.

Cropped Hand Of Woman Holding Megaphone By Drawing Against Blackboard

Illinois Town Tries To Release Statement On Inclusion, Chaos Ensues

Diversity

Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) fired back on Tuesday after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) endorsed his progressive challenger&#8217;s bid to unseat the longtime incumbent.
&#8220;Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s endorsement of Marie Newman makes crystal clear that Ms. Newman is an extreme candidate who is completely out of step with the voters of Illinois&#8217; Third District, who do not want to be represented by a fifth member of the &#8216;Squad,'&#8221; Lipinski wrote in a statement. &#8220;The Democratic Party — and our country — cannot afford an obstructionist &#8216;Tea Party of the Left&#8217; when we need to focus on winning this next election and passing policies that will truly help working families and all who are struggling in America today.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Dan Lipinski responds to <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AOC</a> endorsing his primary opponent and it&#8217;s a doozy.
&#8220;Ms. Newman is an extreme candidate who is completely out of step with the voters of Illinois’ Third District who do not want to be represented by a fifth member of the &#8216;Squad.'&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/zewNDe6CfP">pic.twitter.com/zewNDe6CfP</a>
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) <a href="https://twitter.com/aseitzwald/status/1173986254251315205?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Lipinski&#8217;s remarks come only hours after the self-proclaimed &#8220;radical&#8221; congresswoman, Ocasio-Cortez, announced her support for Newman. The freshman New Yorker called Newman&#8217;s candidacy &#8220;a textbook example of one of the ways that we could be better as a party.&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez seemingly took issue with Lipinski&#8217;s more moderate voting record.
Lipinski is a member of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition and has one of the most conservative voting records of any congressional Democrat. As one of the last remaining pro-life Democrats in Congress, he has often been a target of the Party&#8217;s progressive wing.
The eight-term congressman handily won reelection in 2018 after receiving 73% of the vote. Democrats also won the district during the 2016 presidential election, when former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton outperformed now-President Donald Trump by nearly 20 points.
&#8220;I have been a leader in Congress in working to lower sky-rocketing health care prices, especially for prescription drugs, and in fighting to make the [Affordable Care Act] truly affordable to those without insurance,&#8221; Lipinski said. &#8220;I have also been a leader in fighting climate change since I was first elected to Congress, having authored two laws to cut greenhouse gas emissions and having helped introduce the first bipartisan carbon fee bill in Congress more than a decade ago.&#8221;
&#8220;Third District residents want commonsense leadership and someone who fights for workable policies that help create jobs, improve access to affordable healthcare, address climate change, keep communities safe, and improve infrastructure and education,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I have a long record of standing with working families on these issues and look forward to continuing to serve as their representative in the years to come.&#8221;
Justice Democrats, the progressive PAC credited with the rise of Ocasio-Cortez, has also previously endorsed Newman. Alexandra Rojas, the organization&#8217;s executive director, stated that Newman is the first Justice Democrats-backed candidate to publicly receive Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s support.
Justice Democrats revealed in April that the group would be creating its own infrastructure to fundraise for progressive primary challengers after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) announced it would not support challengers to Democratic incumbents.
Ocasio-Cortez, however, belittled Lipinski&#8217;s statement, characterizing it as &#8220;aggressive.&#8221;
&#8220;This is a real quote from a Democrat representing a safe blue seat,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez responded. &#8220;Aggressive statements like these are so casually thrown from corporate candidates towards grassroots ones, yet they never get branded as &#8216;divisive,&#8217; despite their rhetoric. We should ask ourselves why that is.&#8221;

aoc.jpg

Democratic Lawmaker Responds After Ocasio-Cortez Targets His Seat With Far-Left Challenger

2020 Election

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Democratic Party

A 26-year-old conservative Latina from America&#8217;s heartland announced last week that she is running for Congress to take on the far-left and to lead a new generation of Republicans that will be relentless and uncompromising in protecting the freedoms guaranteed to Americans in the U.S. Constitution.
Catalina Lauf, from Wood­stock, Illinois, is a former Trump administration adviser who is running against Democrat Rep. Lauren Underwood in Illinois&#8217; 14th Congressional District. If elected, Lauf will be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, breaking the record set by socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018.
Lauf, who gave an interview to The Daily Wire about her candidacy, announced her run last week in a campaign ad that took aim at the identity politics pushed by media and the Democratic Party.
&#8220;My father is a small business owner who worked hard all of his life providing for his family,&#8221; Lauf says in the video. &#8220;My mother is a legal immigrant from Guatemala who worked hard to escape poverty, corruption, and war to find freedom and opportunity here in the United States of America.&#8221;
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Some may say I don’t fit the mold, but I’m a product of the American Dream. Today we see that Dream under attack from the divisive far-left. I’m running for Congress to defend the promise of the American Dream. Join me today <a href="https://t.co/Gwp1E58Kwg">https://t.co/Gwp1E58Kwg</a>
This is <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ourfutureourfight?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ourfutureourfight</a> <a href="https://t.co/FkM6SeDDQI">pic.twitter.com/FkM6SeDDQI</a>
— Catalina Lauf (@CatalinaLauf) <a href="https://twitter.com/CatalinaLauf/status/1164532651186954240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
In her first lengthy interview with a media publication, Lauf told The Daily Wire about her sincere desire to make a real difference in the nation&#8217;s capital and to fight back against far-left members of Congress who are trying to destroy the Constitution and trying to turn America into a socialist nation.
QUESTION: What inspired you to run for Congress?
LAUF: I am someone who is driven by purpose. I grew up with a profound love of this country, and when I see the other side, particularly young women who are using their platform to stand against everything this country has fought for, including my own representative in Congress, I couldn&#8217;t just sit there and watch. Politics is a bloody sport, but I believe so much in what I stand for, and I&#8217;m inspired by the men and women past and present who have fought for our freedoms, who have given up far greater than I ever will. This is the minimum I can contribute, and I want to ensure their fight was not for nothing. That starts by preserving our republic and helping us get back on track to where we should be. It is possible! The American Dream is alive and well and people like myself are going to ensure it remains that way.
QUESTION: As the daughter of a legal Guatemalan immigrant, what do you say to immigrants in the U.S. who listen to organizations like CNN, and believe that the president is racist, and that enforcing immigration law and securing the border is racist?
LAUF: The president is not a racist. This type of accusation and rhetoric from those like Lauren Underwood and AOC is destructive to our democracy. I am the daughter of an immigrant. I have seen first-hand what it means to come to this country and go through the process of becoming a legal citizen. I stand with President Trump on securing our border and closing loopholes in our broken immigration system. Those on the Left, Lauren Underwood included, would rather tweet-storm about the president being a &#8220;racist&#8221; instead of actually coming to the table to get things done. Their hatred for Trump is blinding their love of country. I love this country. It gave my family a better life. Instead of highlighting American&#8217;s hard work, Lauren Underwood and the other extremists push a radical agenda, focused on lawlessness and inciting division and hate. She needs to be stopped. That is why I&#8217;m running for Congress. The system is broken and we have to fix it. You don&#8217;t like the president&#8217;s proposals on how to do so? Fine, show up to work with some ideas and let&#8217;s talk through how to fix this together. No one in the Democratic Party has shown they take this issue seriously enough to actually solve it for Americans around the country.
QUESTION: Why should Latinos vote for Republicans, and how should the party reach out to them?
LAUF: My Abuelita grew up in Guatemala, where she had to stop her education in 3rd grade and work on a coffee bean farm to provide for her family. She came to this country for a better life. She and my mother worked every day and learned English at night to become citizens. Because of their sacrifice and hard work I was blessed to grow up in America&#8217;s heartland, Woodstock, IL, where things like community, hard work, freedom, and patriotism aren&#8217;t just nice ideas, they are how people live their lives. The pillars [of the] Republican Party are centered around those ideas. The policies the Party advocates open windows of opportunity for all Americans. Those values and those windows of opportunity made my life possible. Hispanic Americans across the country have similar stories. They work hard, value family, community, and freedom. They also believe in law and order. Hispanic Americans like my mother and grandmother came to this country and went through the process to become American citizens. My grandmother and mother did not want to break the law to be here. We need to go and speak to these Hispanic Americans, hear their stories, share our stories, and discuss how Republican policies aim to make their lives better. If we don&#8217;t then they only have MSNBC and those on the far-left offering them limited opportunities and distorted realities.
QUESTION: Why should younger voters vote Republican, and what are you going to do to reach them?
LAUF: Because we&#8217;re the ones with a future at stake! Republicans support policies that will provide more windows of opportunity to us. Democrats offer false promises of socialism and limited possibilities. I&#8217;m running because I see what the far-left is doing – they&#8217;re threatening the promise of the American Dream. If they succeed, Americans like me will be limited in what we are able to accomplish in our lives. This is our future. This is our fight.
QUESTION: Will the Democrats increasing embrace of socialist policies work for them on election day?
LAUF: Absolutely not. Socialism is a strong contrast to everything that makes America great. But we need to offer the country an alternative, one that will preserve freedom and the promise that is the American Dream. I am confident on Election Day, when voters have a choice between dangerous socialism and hopeful, pro-democracy Republican ideals, they will vote for myself and others around the country who have also stepped up to defend the American Dream.
QUESTION: How does the GOP respond to some of the issues, like healthcare and student debt, that Democrats propose addressing with these socialist policies?
LAUF: We need to make it very clear to voters that the false promises of socialism come with a large price tag and they will be the ones who will foot the bill. Take the Green New Deal – that alone will cost the average American family about $75,000 in its first year alone. Once Americans learn the truth behind the Democrats&#8217; rhetoric, the choice will be very clear. We also need to give them a choice, take these issues with a free-market approach. We need to offer our own ideas on how to tackle ballooning school debt and surprise doctor bills. And we need to be the adults in the room. While AOC and Lauren Underwood spend this Election Cycle calling Republicans racists and sexists, we need to keep moving forward, bringing people together around resolutions, not retweets.
QUESTION: With the rise of socialism in the Democratic Party, are you also concerned about the Democrats’ continued push to curtail the freedoms of U.S. citizens?
LAUF: Absolutely. They would destroy everything that makes our country great. That is why I&#8217;m running for Congress. To protect those freedoms.
QUESTION: How should Republicans respond to the Democrats becoming the party of identity politics?
LAUF: By winning on what we&#8217;re offering Americans, not on the color of our skin or heritage.
QUESTION: What do you view as the greatest threat to the United States both from a foreign and a domestic standpoint?
LAUF: Our divide. United we stand; divided we fall. We need to get back to a place in America where people are respecting each other, working together, and uniting against the internal voices that are causing the division. We need to bind together as patriots to ensure the American Dream can continue to be possible for generations to come.
QUESTION: If elected, what do you hope to accomplish with respect to policy?
LAUF: Expanding our Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, finding ways to cut entitlement spending, and fostering a friendly economic environment, especially for our small businesses. Fixing our broken immigration system and ensuring Congress is supporting our President&#8217;s agenda of having safe and secure borders.
QUESTION: The Democratic Party, with the help of the media, have really taken control of the narrative surrounding climate change. How does the Republican Party start to win over people who are concerned about the climate?
LAUF: I believe it&#8217;s important to make sure we leave the world a better place for our children and grandchildren. That said, policies like the Green New Deal aren&#8217;t just ineffective, they&#8217;re harmful to American families. There has to be a way to address environmental issues that don&#8217;t put the burden on American families, and we need to be open to a productive conversation, not the hyperbolic blame game that the far-left and mainstream media like to play.
QUESTION: A lot of the narrative surrounding the climate has come from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and her proposed &#8220;Green New Deal,&#8221; which her former chief-of-staff even admitted was about implementing socialism. AOC&#8217;s &#8220;Green New Deal&#8221; is a socialist vision that the Democratic Party is trying to sell to America. How do you counter that? What is your vision for America?
LAUF: My mother and grandmother legally immigrated to this country from Guatemala. My father is a small-business owner from Chicago. My story is only possible because of their hard work and sacrifice. I am a direct product of the American Dream. They taught my sister and [me] the values of hard work, personal responsibility, and an unapologetic love of our country. Today I see the fringe, far-left trying to divide us and trying to replace the American Dream with socialism. So, my own story counters their hateful rhetoric. I&#8217;m running for Congress because I believe it&#8217;s time my generation stood up and defended the promise of the American Dream against those who do away with it for their own political game. My vision for America is one where the same opportunities the American Dream provided for my family and me are available for our children and grandchildren.
QUESTION: What are your thoughts on Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and the rise of anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party?
LAUF: I think it&#8217;s disgusting and has no place in public discourse, especially from our elected representatives.
QUESTION: In what areas do you think your opponent Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) is weak, and has she let your district down?
LAUF: I think her desire to be a member of the &#8220;Squad&#8221; or the &#8220;B Squad&#8221; outweighs her desire to listen to and serve her constituents. She sees AOC and [Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)] getting national attention and retweets, and wants to be in the same club. As a consequence, she ignores the issues that people in our district deal with every day. Additionally, her far-left voting record does not represent a traditionally Republican district, or American values as a whole.
QUESTION: What are your thoughts about Underwood&#8217;s unsubstantiated claim that the Trump administration is intentionally killing kids inside immigrant detention facilities?
LAUF: I think it&#8217;s sad. It&#8217;s that type of rhetoric and grandstanding that has put a halt to any productive reforms. People like Lauren Underwood politicize policy issues like that and go against the President to make headlines, without taking into consideration how divisive and damaging that is.
QUESTION: What areas of the Republican Party&#8217;s platform do you think need to be addressed, and/or changed?
LAUF: We need to stop compromising on our values. I&#8217;m disappointed when Republicans get cornered on an issue and cave to the other side. For example, the Violence Against Women Act. Of course, progressives named it that for obvious reasons, as a smokescreen so if anyone who voted against it they could immediately jump on them and say &#8220;Oh you’re against women?&#8221; Well, there&#8217;s more to that story. The &#8220;boyfriend loophole&#8221; proposed a serious threat against our Constitution. We need people who will not cave, put our Constitution first, and stand up to pressure from the Left. I&#8217;m committed to doing that. Republicans, Americans as a whole frankly, deserve strong leaders. If you&#8217;ve been elected to be the voice of hundreds of thousands of people, your voice better be as powerful as hundreds of thousands of those people combined. That&#8217;s leadership.
QUESTION: A New York Post profile on you said that Ronald Reagan was someone you looked up to. What about Reagan do you admire, and what aspects about the way he led do you wish today&#8217;s elected leaders would emulate?
LAUF: He was positive and was a true leader! He brought warmth and energy to the country and had a personality that united people. Not to mention his &#8220;America First&#8221; message after a weak President Carter was exactly what our country needed. There&#8217;s also that Illinois tie. He grew up a few hundred miles from where I did so there’s that element of home-state pride!
QUESTION: What issues matter to you that you think the Republican Party needs to do a better job of addressing, and how should they address them?
LAUF: The minority vote. Minorities are going to be the majority of the population by 2044. It&#8217;s time we focus on uniting minorities to join our freedom message. That no matter where you come from, no matter what color your skin is, as citizens of the United States, we are all Americans first. A way to do that is by continuing upon the successes of this Administration when it comes to the economy. We all want jobs; we all want opportunity; we all want our communities to thrive.
QUESTION: What do you hope to inspire in other elected officials and future leaders to help make America a better place?
LAUF: Re-establishing integrity in public service. Americans want leaders who are authentic, real, and who believe in something. When our Founders created our country&#8217;s framework, they wanted everyday people representing their districts. Far too often now you see politicians who sit in that seat and do just enough to get re-elected. They compromise their beliefs too much, even if it risks pushing our country further away from our constitutional intent. We need patriots in Congress – those who will not back down from freedom, and who will never stop loving and serving their people. I&#8217;m committed to doing that, and I think you&#8217;ll see a lot of people, every day Americans, step forward this cycle who are driven to do that, too.
QUESTION: When you are not working, what do you do for fun?
LAUF: Read books – I&#8217;m a huge history nerd! I also shoot guns, spend time with friends, family, and my dog! I love people, so I try to spend time connecting with folks, being in the moment as much as I can.

Catalina Lauf

Conservative Latina Rises From The Heartland To Take On Ocasio-Cortez In Congress

Conservatism

Republican Party

Socialism

On April 11, the Illinois state Senate <a href="http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory.asp?DocNum=0556&amp;DocTypeID=SB&amp;LegID=116493&amp;GAID=15&amp;SessionID=108&amp;GA=101&amp;SpecSess=">voted</a> 53-0 in favor of <a href="http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/101/PDF/101-0165.pdf​">SB 556</a>, otherwise known as the &#8220;Equitable Restrooms Act,&#8221; which would have all single-occupancy restrooms in &#8220;places of public accommodation&#8221; be labeled as gender-neutral.
On May 21, the state <a href="http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory.asp?DocNum=0556&amp;DocTypeID=SB&amp;LegID=116493&amp;GAID=15&amp;SessionID=108&amp;GA=101&amp;SpecSess=">House</a> passed the bill on a 109-5 vote, and on Friday, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the legislation into law.
The text of the law <a href="http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/101/PDF/101-0165.pdf">reads in part</a>:
<blockquote>(b) This Section applies to any existing or future places of public accommodation or public buildings.
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, every single-occupancy restroom in a place of public accommodation or public building shall be identified as all-gender and designated for use by no more than one person at a time or for family or assisted use. Each single-occupancy restroom shall be outfitted with exterior signage that marks the single-occupancy restroom as a restroom and does not indicate any specific gender.
(d) During any inspection of a place of public accommodation or public building by a health officer or health inspector, the health officer or health inspector may inspect the place of public accommodation or public building to determine whether it complies with this Section.</blockquote>
A &#8220;place of public accommodation,&#8221; according to the <a href="http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=077500050HArt%2E+5&amp;ActID=2266&amp;ChapterID=64&amp;SeqStart=2600000&amp;SeqEnd=3200000">Illinois Human Rights Act</a>, includes movie theaters, concert halls, hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, clothing stores, laundromats, etc. Essentially anywhere people might use a restroom, this law will apply when it goes into effect on January 1, 2020.
This legislation differs from the various, and often contentious, attempts in multiple states to allow transgender individuals to use public restrooms designated to the gender with which they identify, as this only applies to single-occupancy restrooms.
According to <a href="https://www.equalityillinois.us/issue/transgender/">Equality Illinois</a>:
<blockquote>As a general rule, you can use the restroom consistent with your gender identity. If confronted, you are not obligated to produce identification to prove your gender, and you are protected by public accommodations laws in Illinois.</blockquote>
The Illinois Human Rights Act <a href="http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=077500050HArt%2E+5&amp;ActID=2266&amp;ChapterID=64&amp;SeqStart=2600000&amp;SeqEnd=3200000">reads in part</a>: &#8220;It is a civil rights violation for any person on the basis of unlawful discrimination to &#8230; deny or refuse to another the full and equal enjoyment of the facilities, goods, and services of any public place of accommodation&#8230;&#8221;
Social media reaction to the legislation was decidedly flat:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">Honestly, gendered single bathrooms never made sense to me. Why do they exist?
— Dwob (@Dwobers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Dwobers/status/1155246009833918466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>Honestly, gendered single bathrooms never made sense to me. Why do they exist?</blockquote>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">^eyeroll* 
That&#8217;s exactly how they all would have functioned before this point anyway&#8230; but I guess some people need to be told. <a href="https://t.co/0yMvXXvowt">https://t.co/0yMvXXvowt</a>
— Cody LaDiablita (@cody_k) <a href="https://twitter.com/cody_k/status/1155246566837497856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>*eyeroll* That&#8217;s exactly how they all would have functioned before this point anyway&#8230; but I guess some people need to be told.</blockquote>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">Since we don&#8217;t care who will be using it, why not just call it bathroom?
— Sean Champ (@SeanChampVA) <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanChampVA/status/1155247442142666752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>Since we don&#8217;t care who will be using it, why not just call it bathroom?</blockquote>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">I mean, this just makes sense honestly. Not for any political virtue signaling reasons, but it&#8217;s just practical.
— No One Cares (@whocares1311) <a href="https://twitter.com/whocares1311/status/1155249481446821888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>I mean, this just makes sense honestly. Not for any political virtue signaling reasons, but it&#8217;s just practical.</blockquote>
It’s unclear at this time whether or not the Illinois definition of &#8220;public accommodations&#8221; includes churches or religious organizations of varying stripes. That said, it’s unlikely that any individual or group, religious or not, would object to this legislation as it pertains solely to single-occupancy restrooms and not to the more divisive issue of multi-use restrooms.

Illinois Gov Signs ‘Gender Neutral’ Restroom Bill

Gender

Transgender

When Deb Feinen, the mayor of Champaign, Illinois, suddenly and unexpectedly decided to replace one of the members of her city’s Human Relations Commission, she <a href="https://www.news-gazette.com/news/champaign-mayor-human-relations-commission-switch-up-a-great-opportunity/article_d6e50931-3e56-5772-90d0-2efba9146c47.html">cited</a> the importance of “diversity” as the reason. Out went Kenton Elmore, an unquestionably white Commission member; in came Ahmed Taha, an Egyptian immigrant and a prominent figure in the city’s Muslim community.
Elmore appears to have been a popular member of the Human Relations Commission, and his abrupt removal left other members of the Commission a little unsettled. But the mayor said she felt the city was “underrepresenting the Muslim-American community.”
At a cursory glance, the decision to appoint Ahmed Taha made sense. Champaign has a significant Muslim community, and Ahmed Taha is a significant figure in that community. But just a slightly closer look would have found that he is significant for one thing more than anything else: His hatred of Jews.
Taha’s anti-Semitism is no secret, and has been unveiled before — mostly because of his involvement with two prominent Islamist organizations, the Muslim American Society (for which he runs the Champaign branch) and the Islamic Circle of North America. The latter group is a <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7952/ipt-report-exposes-icna-radical-domestic-agenda">proxy</a> for Jamaat-e-Islami, a <a href="https://libertysouthasia.org/2018/03/jamaat-e-islami-conservative-islamic-political-party-or-violent-extremist-group/">violent</a> South Asian extremist movement.
In 2013, Taha republished a photo on his Facebook page, ostensibly of a brutally killed Egyptian teenage boy, which was accompanied by the text: “O Muslim, O servant of God. There is a Jew behind me, come kill him.&#8221;
In March 2014, Taha shared a conspiracy theory by a far-right website claiming that the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, was secretly Jewish. &#8220;Is that true?&#8221; Taha asked, &#8220;If yes, this is a castastroph [sic].&#8221; In October that year, he then posted a video supposedly exposing Joe Biden as a “Zionist” and revealing the &#8220;Rothschild Zionism Secret Regime in America.&#8221;
After we at <a href="http://islamist-watch.org/">Islamist Watch</a> <a href="https://www.meforum.org/6439/worst-of-the-2016-mas-icna-speakers">revealed</a> Taha’s extremism in 2017, he quickly deleted his vile posts. We kept screenshots.
Tellingly, Taha only deleted the Facebook posts we mentioned — and none of the extremist posts we didn’t mention. Today, his Facebook account remains replete with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ahmed.taha.37051579/posts/10153458764901886">support</a> for Egypt’s leading theocratic movement, al-Ikhwan al-Muslimeen. The page is also full of various other hateful, mad conspiracy theories — mostly written in Arabic, about such &#8220;topics&#8221; as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ahmed.taha.37051579/posts/10152026865941886">Jewish control</a> of the current Egyptian government and how President Sisi <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ahmed.taha.37051579/posts/10151575615131886?__tn__=-R">comes</a> from a family of Jews and CIA members.
Given that the role of the Human Relations Commission is to <a href="https://champaignil.gov/boards_inside/human-relations-commission/">promote</a> “equal rights and opportunities” and to serve as a “hearing board for complaints of violation of [the city’s Human Rights] ordinance,” few can doubt that appointing a man infamous for his hatred of one of the city’s minority groups is a thoroughly injudicious choice.
Did the city know about Taha’s hatred of Jews? And now that they know, will they do anything? We asked the Human Relations Commission if they were aware of Taha’s extremism, and whether they now still believe he is a suitable member for the body? We were only told the Commission has “no comment.” We also left a message for the mayor’s office, but have not yet heard back.
However, the city council is not alone in its elevation of Ahmed Taha. A number of pieces published in the media have praised Taha as a moderate. Illinois’ News Gazette ran a <a href="https://www.news-gazette.com/news/newest-champaign-human-relations-commission-member-i-have-to-do/article_9aaa44e1-2dd8-52cf-8d98-1b5ac355a7bb.html">puff piece</a> on Taha on July 16, discussing his recent appointment. Taha is quoted, incongruously pledging “to stand for justice, support social justice causes and investigate against every kind of discrimination.”
The journalist, Adalberto Toledo, notes Taha’s involvement with the Muslim American Society (MAS), although neatly leaves out widespread accusations by politicians and <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/07/rep-ilhan-omar-supports-group-that-produced-child-beheading-skit/">law enforcement</a> alike about the organization’s links to the designated terrorist group Hamas — and its own <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/4655/uae-designates-cair-mas-as-terrorist-groups">designation</a> as a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates in 2014. Readers may remember that MAS made <a href="https://www.phillyvoice.com/philadelphia-muslim-american-society-video-children-beheading-torture-disturbing/">national news</a> in May 2019, after its Philadelphia branch hosted an event at which children sang about their violent hatred of Jews: &#8220;We will chop off their heads&#8221; and &#8220;we will subject them to eternal torture.&#8221;
Convinced that a respected local newspaper would undoubtedly want to investigate a decision to appoint a hateful anti-Jewish activist to a Commission tasked with fighting discrimination and hatred, the Middle East Forum contacted Toledo, the journalist, and sent him evidence of Taha’s extremism. Astonishingly, Toledo refused to investigate, claiming the Middle East Forum was “racist,” and that he imagined we were conspiring to “besmirch a man&#8217;s name with false accusations.”
America was once famous for local journalists dogged pursuing the truth. Now it seems there are too many examples of local journalists doggedly avoiding it. At the very least, Toledo decided on a political agenda over a factual one. Some might conclude, though, that Toledo must have a degree of tolerance for Taha’s hateful rhetoric; why else, truly, would he refuse to investigate, even if he objects to the politics of the messenger?
It is also difficult to believe that no one in the mayor’s office, the Human Relations Commission, or at the News Gazette thought to carry out a quick Google search of a man appointed to a public role — a man tasked with the well-being of Champaign’s residents.
There are thousands of Muslims in Champaign who would undoubtedly make excellent members of the city’s Human Relations Commission. Very few have published calls for the killing of Jews. And yet the city and its puff piece writers managed to find and promote the one resident who did exactly that.
Sam Westrop is director of <a href="http://islamist-watch.org/">Islamist Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>.

WESTROP: City Of Champaign, Illinois Appoints Anti-Jewish Extremist To Anti-Discrimination Commission

Anti-Semitism

Discrimination

Egypt

Islam

Israel

Judaism

Muslims

Radical Islam

An Illinois state senator told a constituent who was worried that a state bill would threaten his ownership of firearms that perhaps the state should skip fining him and simply confiscate his guns. State Senator Julie A. Morrison, who was a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 107, which was sponsored by five Democratic senators, spoke with the gun owner at a public meeting.
The gun owner stated, &#8220;Senator Morrison, you have a Senate Bill 107 to take away some of my automatic firearms.&#8221;
Morrison replied, &#8220;To clarify, I&#8217;m not really taking your gun away from you; you just can&#8217;t buy any new ones.&#8221;
The gun owner responded, &#8220;You want me to turn them over to the state police unless I pay a fine for each firearm and register them, then I get to keep them. So, if I get to keep it &#8212; if I pay a fine and register it &#8212; then, how dangerous is it in the first place and why do you need to ban it all? Why do you need to try to ban my semi-automatic firearm?&#8221;
Morrison replied, &#8220;Well, you just maybe changed my mind. Maybe we won&#8217;t have a fine at all, maybe it&#8217;ll just be a confiscation and we won&#8217;t have to worry about paying the fine.&#8221;
Illinois Senate Bill 107 <a href="http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=&amp;SessionId=108&amp;GA=101&amp;DocTypeId=SB&amp;DocNum=107&amp;GAID=15&amp;LegID=115114&amp;SpecSess=&amp;Session=">states</a>:
<blockquote>
Makes it unlawful for any person to knowingly possess an assault weapon 300 days after the effective date of the amendatory Act, except possession of weapons registered with the Department of State Police in the time provided. Provides exemptions and penalties. Effective immediately.
</blockquote>
The bill adds, &#8220;Assault weapon means&#8221; a semiautomatic rifle that has the capacity to accept a large capacity magazine detachable or otherwise &#8230;&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.nraila.org/articles/20190124/illinois-bill-introduced-to-ban-many-firearms-accessories">NRA</a> noted that some of the firearms that could be banned if the bill passes include:
<blockquote>
Any semi-automatic rifle or handgun that can accept a detachable magazine greater than ten rounds in capacity and has one or more features, such as a protruding grip for the support hand; a folding, telescoping, or thumbhole stock; a handguard; or a muzzle brake or compensator. Any semi-automatic shotgun that has one or more feature such as the ability to accept a detachable magazine; a folding, telescoping, or thumbhole stock; or a protruding grip for the support hand. Any fixed magazine semi-automatic rifles or handguns greater than ten rounds in capacity and fixed magazine semi-automatic shotguns greater than five rounds in capacity. Any shotgun with a revolving cylinder.
</blockquote>
In March, as <a href="https://www.14news.com/2019/03/05/controversial-gun-control-bill-draws-hundreds-town-hall-meeting/">WFIE reported</a>, at a public meeting discussing the bill, White County District Attorney Denton Aud triggered a standing ovation when he stated, &#8220;With the limited resources we have in seeking justice, we will not arrest or prosecute any one who is otherwise law-abiding for merely possessing those firearms.&#8221; White County Sheriff Doug Meier echoed that he and the Illinois Sheriff&#8217;s Association didn&#8217;t back the bill. WFIE noted of the bill, &#8220;If it passes, registration would cost $25 per person. Failing to register a weapon could then land you with a Class 3 felony, which carries a prison sentence of up to five years and a $25,000 fine.&#8221;
Video below:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ts08U2673EI" width="560"></iframe></div>
H/T <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/06/18/il-sen-taunts-gun-owner-forget-the-fine-maybe-well-just-take-your-firearms/">Breitbart</a>

WATCH: Illinois State Senator Tells Gun Owner: Maybe The State Will Just Confiscate Your Guns

Guns

Illinois governor JB Pritzker signed the nation&#8217;s most permissive abortion bill into law Wednesday, as part of an effort to make abortion a &#8220;fundamental right&#8221; in the state.
The legislature passed the sweeping abortion bill last month in a whirlwind session that saw massive tax hikes and huge expansions in government in addition to this most recent abortion bill.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47794/illinois-bucks-national-trend-passes-sweeping-emily-zanotti">As The Daily Wire reported then</a>, Pritzker&#8217;s landmark abortion bill repeals the state&#8217;s ban on &#8220;partial birth abortions,&#8221; legalizing the procedure all the way through pregnancy and up until the moment of birth. The bill utterly ignores the concept of viability, a particularly shocking development given that most states currently passing abortion-related regulations are greatly restricting the practice, not expanding it.
The bill also removes licensing requirements for medical professionals conducting abortions, mandates that all insurance providers within the state pay for abortions in full &#8212; even Christian health-share insurance options &#8212; and permanently repeals protections for doctors and other medical professionals who refuse to take part in performing abortions. It also strips away any remaining licensing and inspection requirements for abortion clinics in the state &#8212; even though several have been targeted for unsafe practices &#8212; and repeals penalties for providing abortion services without a license.
Worse, the bill changes the legal language of the state&#8217;s bevy of laws on &#8220;reproductive rights&#8221; in an effort to ensure that abortion is treated as a &#8220;fundamental right&#8221; by the Illinois constitution and legal code. Without any specifications on what constitutes a &#8220;fundamental right,&#8221; it is likely only a matter of time before the new law is used to challenge existing parental notification laws and mandatory reporting laws.
The ACLU has already indicated that it will use the new bill to challenge any remaining abortion restrictions in Illinois.
Pritzker accepted accolades for his progressive bill at a signing ceremony Thursday morning.
&#8220;Today we proudly proclaim that in this state, we trust women,&#8221; Pritzker said, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/12/politics/illinois-governor-signs-abortion-protection-law/index.html">according to CNN</a>. &#8220;And in Illinois we guarantee as a fundamental right a woman&#8217;s right to choose.&#8221;
The law &#8220;ensures that women&#8217;s rights in Illinois do not hinge on the fate of Roe v. Wade or the whims of an increasingly conservative Supreme Court in Washington,&#8221; Pritzker added.
&#8220;The governor and the Democratic supermajorities who fast-tracked this legislation have created a new &#8216;death penalty&#8217; in Illinois, with no possibility of appeal, for viable unborn preemies,&#8221; Peter Breen, Vice President and Senior Counsel of Illinois&#8217; Thomas More Society, which fought the bill, told reporters in a statement Thursday. &#8220;This act is barbarous. Its definition of &#8216;viability&#8217; expressly excludes many babies who today live and thrive when born premature &#8211; these babies now have zero legal rights or protections, under this law.&#8221;
&#8220;Governor Pritzker showed Illinois residents today that his gubernatorial record will be no different than Governor Rauner&#8217;s,&#8221; Mary Kate Knorr, spokeswoman for Illinois Right to Life Action, said at a press conference held in conjunction with Pritzker&#8217;s signing ceremony. &#8220;It&#8217;s a tale as old as time. Illinois politicians are more concerned with pandering to cash-wielding progressives and Chicago media outlets than they are with representing the people of our state. Pritzker doesn&#8217;t care what the people of Illinois want, nor does he care that abortion takes a human life.&#8221;
The law&#8217;s provisions go into effect immediately.

Illinois Governor Signs Most Permissive Abortion Law In The Nation, Legalizes Abortion ‘Until Birth’

Abortion

An Illinois weatherman complained on air about his station&#8217;s repeated &#8220;Code Red&#8221; weather warnings. Now his job appears to be on the line.
CNN <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/06/10/media/weatherman-code-red-joe-crain/index.html">reported</a> that the weatherman, Joe Crain, works for its affiliate WICS in Springfield, Illinois. On June 5, Crain went off script to criticize his network, saying, &#8220;&#8216;Code Red&#8217; was created by likely a journalism school graduate.&#8221;
&#8220;A lot of people not happy with this since we&#8217;ve implemented it,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;That&#8217;s evident by the thousands of comments on social media, letters to the editor, frequent calls to local talk-radio shows.&#8221;
He would later apologize to viewers for his word choices, but not for his criticism.
&#8220;This is a corporate initiative, the &#8216;Code Red&#8217; alert, and behind the scenes many of us have tried to dissuade it for the last few months, to try something else that&#8217;s less controversial to the viewers,&#8221; he said.
It is now June 11, and according to CNN, Crain has not appeared on air since his comments went viral. The network reported that &#8220;his job may now be on the line.&#8221;
&#8220;In addition, several companies have stopped advertising with the station in solidarity with Crain and his commentary against the corporate decision-makers,&#8221; CNN reported.
Crain&#8217;s main complaint about the &#8220;Code Red&#8221; alerts was that there was no nuance to the warning, as &#8220;not all storms are created equal,&#8221; he said.
WICS is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which defended the alerts in <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fweather%2F2019%2F06%2F07%2Ftv-meteorologist-objected-managements-code-red-orders-on-air-apology-he-might-be-out-job%2F%3Futm_term%3D.01a91a82ecd0&amp;key=15785bf48552a1cdfab425661118986f">a statement</a> to The Washington Post.
&#8220;That afternoon there was significant storm damage in the area including trees falling on homes, downed power lines, and hail storms. Thankfully, residents were adequately warned to prepare,&#8221; the statement said.
CNN made sure to note that Sinclair &#8220;has come under heightened scrutiny in the past couple years,&#8221; without noting that scrutiny comes from left-wing outlets because Sinclair is conservative-leaning.
Sinclair&#8217;s statement to the Post added that the increase in &#8220;Code Red&#8221; alerts was the result of an active weather pattern, &#8220;given the severe weather-related events across the country in recent weeks.&#8221; The broadcasting group said the decision to issue the alerts came from local meteorologists and not Sinclair.
Crain&#8217;s bio no longer appears on the company website, yet he would not tell CNN the current status of his employment. Sinclair would not tell the Post the status of Crain&#8217;s employment, either.
Other meteorologists have stepped up to defend Crain, who earned his degree in broadcast meteorology from Mississippi State University, as well. Erik Dean, the chief meteorologist at K2TV in Casper, WY, told the Post that broadcasters should &#8220;Let meteorologists do their job,&#8221; and for management to &#8220;stay out of it.&#8221;
Kit Cloninger, the weekend meteorologist at KSNB in Hastings, NE, wrote that &#8220;consistency is key with broadcasting.&#8221;
&#8220;Otherwise, viewers may wonder why one station issued an &#8216;alert day&#8217; while another one didn&#8217;t.&#8221;
Crain noted in his original monologue that a one-size-fits-all alert doesn&#8217;t help.
&#8220;It&#8217;s not the perfect solution because, of course, with &#8216;Code Red,&#8217; it&#8217;s all inclusive. It doesn&#8217;t recognize that not all storms are created equal,&#8221; Crain said.
The National Weather Service, for example, has a 1-5 scale to rate storms.

Weatherman Calls Out Station’s Constant ‘Code Red’ Warnings, Hasn’t Been Seen On Air Since

On Friday, the Illinois state Senate voted 34-20 to pass the &#8220;Reproductive Health Act.&#8221; The legislation already passed the state House, as The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47794/illinois-bucks-national-trend-passes-sweeping-emily-zanotti">previously reported</a>, and will now head to the desk of Governor J.B. Pritzker, who is expected to sign it into law.
The following are several pertinent portions of the &#8220;<a href="http://ilga.gov/legislation/101/SB/10100SB0025ham001.htm">Reproductive Health Act</a>&#8221; text:
<blockquote>
This act sets forth the fundamental rights of individuals to make autonomous decisions about one&#8217;s own reproductive health, including the fundamental right to use or refuse reproductive health care.
This includes &#8230; the fundamental right of an individual who becomes pregnant to continue the pregnancy and give birth to a child, or to have an abortion, and to make autonomous decisions about how to exercise that right.
This act restricts the ability of the state to deny, interfere with, or discriminate against these fundamental rights&#8230;
A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent rights under the laws of the state&#8230;
Except as otherwise provided in this section, no individual or group policy of accident and health insurance that provides pregnancy related benefits may be issued, amended, delivered, or renewed in the State after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 101st General Assembly unless the policy provides a covered person with coverage for abortion care.
</blockquote>
In a 13-page <a href="https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/FEBRURARY-21-2019-MEMORNADUM-ON-HB-2495-SB-1942.pdf">document</a>, the Thomas More Society condemns the legislation, and breaks down what each component means.
The legislation would eliminate the <a href="http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2068&amp;ChapterID=58">Abortion Performance Refusal Act</a>, which states that &#8220;no physician, nurse or other person who refuses to recommend, perform or assist in the performance of an abortion &#8230; shall be liable to any person for damages allegedly arising from such refusal,&#8221; and provides financial penalties for those who would discriminate against individuals who refused to participate in an abortion procedure.
The legislation would also compel insurance plans to provide &#8220;coverage for abortion care,&#8221; and make regulating abortion clinics much more difficult.
The legislation would repeal the <a href="http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=1929&amp;ChapterID=53&#8203;">Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act</a>, which states that &#8220;any person who knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus or infant is guilty of a Class 4 felony.&#8221; The law defines a partial-birth abortion as &#8220;an abortion in which the person performing the abortion partially vaginally delivers a living human fetus or infant before killing the fetus or infant and completing the delivery.&#8221;
The Thomas More Society concludes by stating that the &#8220;Reproductive Health Act is an extreme bill that would basically enshrine abortion as a positive good in Illinois law.&#8221;
After the news broke that the Illinois state Senate passed the RHA, abortion advocates across the country cheered, and pro-life organizations sent out messages of condemnation.
The Illinois chapter of NARAL tweeted:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The IL legislature just passed the Reproductive Health Act! The RHA protects the right to safe &amp; legal abortion, removes outdated restrictions &amp; will ensure abortion is treated like any other form of healthcare. Now it goes to <a href="https://twitter.com/GovPritzker?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GovPritzker</a> to sign! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PassTheRHA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PassTheRHA</a>
&#8212; NARAL Pro-Choice Illinois (@NARALIllinois) <a href="https://twitter.com/NARALIllinois/status/1134677492579614720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>
The RHA protects the right to safe &amp; legal abortion, removes outdated restrictions &amp; will ensure abortion is treated like any other form of healthcare. Now it goes to @GovPritzker to sign! #PassTheRHA
</blockquote>
Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action, an anti-abortion organization, tweeted:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BREAKING: Illinois lawmakers just passed a law even more extreme than New York&#8217;s that includes repealing a ban on partial-birth abortion, where an infant is delivered feet first, her neck is punctured with surgical scissors and her brain is suctioned out. <a href="https://t.co/sOzU3pdPcF">https://t.co/sOzU3pdPcF</a>
&#8212; Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) <a href="https://twitter.com/LilaGraceRose/status/1134891021068693505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>
BREAKING: Illinois lawmakers just passed a law even more extreme than New York&#8217;s that includes repealing a ban on partial-birth abortion, where an infant is delivered feet first, her neck is punctured with surgical scissors and her brain is suctioned out.
</blockquote>
On Saturday, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker tweeted:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Illinois is making history, because our state will now be the most progressive in the nation for reproductive health care. <a href="https://t.co/W91r8WNp0g">pic.twitter.com/W91r8WNp0g</a>
&#8212; Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovPritzker/status/1134942798136926208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
In Illinois, we trust women to make the most personal and fundamental decisions of their lives &#8211; and now, that will be the law of the land, even as it&#8217;s under threat in other states.
&#8212; Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovPritzker/status/1134942804109602817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
This progress is only possible thanks to the fierce advocacy of leaders like <a href="https://twitter.com/RepKellyCassidy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepKellyCassidy</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorBush?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenatorBush</a> and countless advocates and groups around the state, and I look forward to joining them to sign this bill.
&#8212; Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovPritzker/status/1134942804843606017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>
Illinois is making history, because our state will now be the most progressive in the nation for reproductive health care.
In Illinois, we trust women to make the most personal and fundamental decisions of their lives &#8211; and now, that will be the law of the land, even as it&#8217;s under threat in other states.
This progress is only possible thanks to the fierce advocacy of leaders like @RepKellyCassidy, @SenatorBush and countless advocates and groups around the state, and I look forward to joining them to sign this bill.
</blockquote>
As of publication, there&#8217;s no word on exactly when Governor Pritzker will sign the legislation into law.

Extreme Abortion Bill Passes Illinois State Senate; Governor Expected To Sign

Progressivism

The Illinois House is on a roll. On Tuesday, it approved the single largest expansion of abortion &#8220;rights&#8221; in the state&#8217;s history, rolling back a ban on partial-birth abortion, bringing a de facto end to the state&#8217;s parental notification requirement, and authorizing the barbaric practice through all nine months of pregnancy.
On Wednesday, the Illinois House passed an expansive gun control package, including a first-of-its-kind fingerprint requirement, demanding that all gun purchasers in the state have a set of fingerprints on file with authorities before they actually buy a weapon.
The <a href="https://www.nraila.org/articles/20190529/illinois-house-passes-foid-fee-increase-mandatory-fingerprinting">Illinois branch of the National Rifle Association</a> also reports that the bill expands the amount of time allowed for background checks, limits the duration of &#8220;firearm owner identification cards&#8221; (FOID) already required to purchase or own a firearm within the state, and raises prices for FOID applications.
The bill also creates a &#8220;task force&#8221; charged with scouring state records for expired and revoked FOID cards, so that the state is better capable of confiscating guns from those whose legal ability to own firearms has ended or changed.
Legislators who, just the day before, argued that greater restrictions on abortion would have no effect on limiting the practice, were determined to push through the gun control bill before the legislative session expires on Friday. The measure passed narrowly &#8212; 62-52 &#8212; Wednesday night.
Critics of the bill told reporters that it represents &#8220;a total and complete infringement of the Second Amendment and the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution,&#8221; and promised to level an immediate legal challenge to the bill. Proponents claimed that the bill was a necessary &#8220;improvement&#8221; to Illinois&#8217; gun control statutes, particularly in light of a mass shooting that took place earlier this year in Aurora that left five people dead.
Proponents of the bill seem not to realize that it wasn&#8217;t Illinois&#8217; lack of gun laws that allowed a shooter to enter an industrial facility in February, killing several of his former colleagues, it was the state&#8217;s lack of attention to existing gun laws. The Aurora shooter committed at least two separate offenses that should have gotten his FOID card revoked and his guns confiscated. In addition, in the interim between obtaining his FOID card and committing the mass shooting, the shooter was institutionalized, yet another incident that should have triggered Illinois&#8217; statutes.
Five separate background checks and warnings to the state went unheeded. Illinois ultimately failed to enforce its existing laws.
In 2014, the shooter even provided his fingerprints to authorities, as part of the application process for a concealed carry license. The system was triggered, but no action was taken.
A <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-illinois-guns-foid-cards-revoked-20190520-story.html">follow-up investigation by the Chicago Tribune</a> found that although around 34,000 Illinois residents no longer qualified to legally own firearms, authorities confiscated guns in only around 20% of cases.
The bill has already passed the Illinois Senate. It will likely go to the governor&#8217;s desk late Thursday.

Illinois Legislature Approves Fingerprinting Requirement For Gun Purchases

Gun Control

Weeks ago, Illinois &#8220;fast-tracked&#8221; a shocking bill designed to make the state the &#8220;abortion capital,&#8221; and over the weekend a determined legislature passed the collection of changes to state law, rolling back the state&#8217;s partial-birth abortion ban and creating a &#8220;fundamental right&#8221; to abortion.
The legislation is even more shocking considering that it comes amidst a national trend in the opposite direction. States like Alabama, Missouri, Georgia, and Louisiana have all greatly restricted abortion and, in some cases, moved to eliminate the practice almost entirely.
But under Illinois&#8217; new Democratic governor, eliminating protections for the unborn has become a paramount priority, though it&#8217;s not immediately clear how many residents of the state &#8212; which is so far in debt and mired in fiscal mismanagement that social legislation seems to be little more than a distraction &#8212; support the measure. Democrats in the state legislature quietly passed the bill out of committee Saturday, then rushed the measure to a floor vote in the Illinois House on Tuesday.
<a href="https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/illinois-abortion-bill-legalize-late-term-abortions-on-viable-preemies/">The Thomas More Society</a>, which fought the bill, released a legal assessment of the measure over the weekend, outlining exactly how extreme Illinois&#8217; new abortion laws really are.
The bill not only legalizes abortion up until the very moment of birth, eliminating the state&#8217;s longstanding ban on partial-birth abortion, it utterly ignores the concept of &#8220;viability,&#8221; making no concessions for unborn children capable of feeling pain in the womb or capable of surviving on the outside.
The bill creates a &#8216;fundamental right&#8230;to have an abortion, and to make autonomous decisions about how to exercise that right,&#8217; but does not put an age limit on who can exercise that right, effectively eliminating the state&#8217;s Parental Notice of Abortion Act, which requires minor children to obtain an adult&#8217;s consent before undergoing an abortion procedure. Although the bill doesn&#8217;t specifically discuss the act, the ACLU has indicated that it will use the bill to undermine parental notification requirements.
The bill also reportedly removes licensing requirements for clinics and for abortion providers, allowing non-physicians to perform medical abortions. And to add insult to injury, the bill mandates that insurance providers &#8212; including explicitly Christian or religious insurance providers &#8212; cover the costs of both birth control and medical abortion.
&#8220;This bill remains the most radically pro-abortion measure of its kind and would make Illinois an abortion destination for the country. The amendment filed last night does nothing to change the core of the bill that bears the deliberately deceptive title &#8216;Reproductive Health Act,&#8221; Thomas More Society senior counsel Peter Breen said in a written statement.
&#8220;The bill, as amended,&#8221; Breen continued, &#8220;would remove any penalty for performing late-term abortions, allow nurses to perform medication abortions, and eliminate licensing and health and safety inspections of abortion clinics. The bill would strip all rights from unborn children and wipe nearly every abortion regulation off the books in Illinois, subjecting any that remain to a court challenge under a near-impossible-to-meet &#8216;strict scrutiny&#8217; standard.&#8221;
Sponsors of the bill don&#8217;t see it that way. They consider themselves crusaders against what they believe to be a national attack on &#8220;reproductive rights.&#8221;
&#8220;RHA codifies our existing practices and &#8212; and this is critical &#8212; treats abortion care just like any other health care, because it is,&#8221; state representative Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) said in her own statement. &#8220;Make no mistake, it doesn&#8217;t end here. Since Roe was decided in 1973, our opponents have fought to impede access to care and these efforts have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable population.&#8221;
Clearly, Cassidy does not consider the unborn a &#8220;vulnerable population.&#8221;
Opponents of the bill rallied near the state capital in Springfield and filed more than 18,000 witness slips according to Illinois Right to Life Action, to no avail.
The bill will go to the Illinois Senate later this week and then to the desk of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, who is expected to sign it into law.

Illinois Bucks National Trend, Passes Sweeping Abortion Rights Bill, Rolls Back Partial-Birth Abortion Ban

Illinois&#8217; new governor, Democrat J.B. Pritzker, has only been in office a few months, but he&#8217;s already following the proud Illinois gubernatorial tradition of being investigated by the federal government. This time, though, it&#8217;s not a public corruption investigation &#8212; it&#8217;s a probe into whether Pritzker and his wife deliberately removed toilets from their Chicago mansion to avoid paying around $300,000 in property taxes.
<a href="https://wgntv.com/2019/04/24/report-feds-investigating-claims-pritzkers-removed-mansions-toilets-to-get-tax-break/">WGN News reports</a> that the Feds are looking into claims, which surfaced during the Illinois gubernatorial campaign last year, that Pritzker&#8217;s wife, MK, directed contractors to remove all of the toilets from a mansion the pair were remodeling in Chicago&#8217;s tony Gold Coast neighborhood so that the mansion could be declared &#8220;uninhabitable.&#8221; The move allegedly reduced the value of the home by $5 million and the Pritzkers&#8217; tax burden by $331,000.
&#8220;The report also found that [Pritzker aide Christine] Lovely and the governor&#8217;s brother-in-law, Thomas J. Muenster, made &#8216;false representations&#8217; on tax appeal documents,&#8221; <a href="https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/source-feds-probe-illinois-gov-jb-pritzker-first-lady-for-property-tax-appeals-on-gold-coast-mansion/afb5e34e-e7f5-4113-a110-ac8ec98bca63">WBEZ adds</a>. The pair reportedly declared to the county that that the home had no working bathrooms for the two years prior to the toilet removal project, which allowed the Pritzkers to reclaim around $132,000 in taxes they&#8217;d already paid to Cook County.
The Cook County IG that issued the report called the incident a &#8220;scheme to defraud taxpayers,&#8221; and suggested that the Pritzkers could be guilty not just of lying to tax assessors, but of perjury and mail fraud.
When the reports surfaced in the form of an <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/toilet-watchdog-pritzkers-property-tax-break-scheme-defraud-blanchard/">inspector general&#8217;s report</a> released in October, Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune with a net worth of approximately $3.2 billion, cut Cook County a check for the missing money, with a note that said the &#8220;gift&#8221; was &#8220;in no way an admission of any wrongdoing.&#8221;
The Pritzkers also said at the time that they did have at least one working toilet in the home.
Simply repaying the county $331,000 doesn&#8217;t absolve Prtizker or his wife of attempting to commit tax fraud, and, shortly after the IG report surfaced in October, the federal government began an official inquiry into what, precisely, the Pritzkers were trying to do.
Pritzker wrote off the tax fraud claims during the campaign as &#8220;politically motivated.&#8221; Through a spokesperson, Pritzker told media that he does not believe he or his wife engaged in any wrongdoing.
&#8220;Neither the Governor nor the First Lady have been contacted by law enforcement regarding the property tax appeal,&#8221; the spokesperson, a high-powered attorney whose firm worked with Pritzker during the campaign, told WBEZ. &#8220;We are confident that any further review of the matter will show that the appropriate rules were followed.&#8221;
Pritzker himself told media that he has &#8220;no concerns at all&#8221; about the probe and that he knows as much about the federal government&#8217;s investigation as reporters do: &#8220;what I know is what you all know from the reporting that was done this week.&#8221;
The news of an Illinois governor under federal investigation may not be very novel &#8212; many of the state&#8217;s former governors often live out their &#8220;retirement&#8221; behind bars &#8212; but this one comes at a particularly fraught time for Illinois and for the governor, who is trying to convince Illinois residents that a significant tax hike is needed in order to address the state&#8217;s overwhelming financial issues.
Pritzker is proposing changing the state&#8217;s &#8220;flat&#8221; income tax to a graduated income tax in order to ensure that the state&#8217;s rich pay their &#8220;fair share.&#8221; His Republican opposition have already pointed out &#8212; quite cleverly &#8212; that even given the opportunity, it appears Pritzker &#8212; one of the state&#8217;s wealthiest businessman &#8212; may have resorted to breaking the law in order to avoid paying his own fair share to the citizens of Cook County.

Feds Probing Illinois Governor’s Finances Over Alleged ‘Missing Toilet’ Tax Scam

Taxes

In 2011, 6-year-old Timmothy Pitzen was pulled out of an Aurora, Illinois school by his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen. The two went on a three-day vacation that included a trip to the Brookfield Zoo and a water park, Key Lime Cove.
At the end of the trip, Fry-Pitzen was found dead in a Rockford, Illinois hotel room in an apparent suicide. She left behind a note saying &#8220;Tim is somewhere safe with people who love him and will care for him.&#8221; She added: &#8220;You will never find him,&#8221; <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/dna-results-could-be-released-thursday-to-determine-if-teen-is-timmothy-pitzen-/5233471/">according to ABC7 Chicago</a>. Months later, police reported a &#8220;concerning&#8221; amount of blood had been found in the back seat of Fry-Pitzen&#8217;s SUV belonging to Timmothy.
On Wednesday, a teenage boy was seen wandering the streets in Newport, Kentucky. Residents called police and the boy reportedly approached a woman in her car to ask for help. The woman stayed with the teen until police arrived.
&#8220;He looked like he had been beat up, punched in the face a couple of times,&#8221; one resident told ABC7. &#8220;You could see the fear on him and how nervous he was and how he kept pacing. He just looked odd.&#8221;
The boy allegedly asked residents to &#8220;call the cops&#8221; because he was tired, his stomach hurt, and had been &#8220;running for two hours.&#8221; He told police that he was Timmothy Pitzen and had been held captive for seven years by two white men who were &#8220;body-builder types.&#8221; He said he had just escaped and ran across the bridge between Ohio and Kentucky, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-illinois-missing-child/teen-found-in-kentucky-claims-he-is-boy-missing-since-2011-dna-test-results-awaited-reports-idUSKCN1RG1W5">according to Reuters</a>. He also said he had been kept at a Red Roof Inn and his captors had been driving a &#8220;newer model Ford SUV,&#8221; according to a police report reviewed by ABC7. Investigators were dispatched to search nearby Red Roof Inns.
Police in Pitzen&#8217;s hometown of Aurora are currently running a DNA test to confirm the teen&#8217;s identity, the results of which may be released Thursday afternoon.
Pitzen&#8217;s grandmother has been &#8220;cautiously optimistic&#8221; about the situation, telling ABC 7 that she and her family &#8220;never stopped looking for him.&#8221;
If the teen is indeed Pitzen, it will be one of the most incredible endings to a kidnapped child since Elizabeth Smart was found alive after being held for nine months between 2002 and 2003. Though many initially suspected her father had something to do with her disappearance, Smart was indeed abducted and her captors were arrested. Brian David Mitchell was found guilty of kidnapping and sexual assault and sentenced to two life terms in a federal prison. Wanda Barzee plead guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In another case of a missing boy, however, the &#8220;teen&#8221; claiming to be the missing boy turned out to be an imposter from France nicknamed &#8220;The Chameleon.&#8221; Frederic Bourdin pretended to be missing Texas boy Nicholas Barclay, who disappeared when he was 13. Though Bourdin was clearly not a blonde-haired, blue-eyed teenager (he was nearly 23 at the time of his claim), he was taken in by Barclay&#8217;s family until a private investigator determined definitively that he was not the missing teen.
UPDATE: Tragically, a DNA test conducted by the FBI has confirmed that the teenager is not Timmothy Pitzen, as he claimed, nor is he even a teenager.
&#8220;To be clear, law enforcement has not and will not forget Timmothy, and we hope to one day reunite him with his family. Unfortunately, that day will not be today,&#8221; FBI Louisville Supervisory Special Agent Timothy Beam <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/mystery-surrounds-discovery-timmothy-pitzen-disappeared-2011/story?id=62166730">told ABC in a statement</a>.
The &#8220;teenager&#8221; is actually 24-year-old Brian Michael Rini of Medina, Ohio, <a href="https://t.co/YrjyR8l2Ml">according to CBS Chicago</a>. WLWT reporter Dan Griffin reported the news on Twitter, adding that police are still looking into Rini&#8217;s story of kidnapping.
&#8220;Newport Police say the guy&#8217;s real name is Brian Michael Rini. 23 years old. From Medina, Ohio. They are still looking into his story of kidnapping, but also add he gave false statements and is obviously not 14,&#8221; Griffin tweeted.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: Newport Police say the guy&#8217;s real name is Brian Michael Rini. 23 years old. From Medina, Ohio. They are still looking into his story of kidnapping, but also add he gave false statements and is obviously not 14. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wlwt?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wlwt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/WLWT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@wlwt</a>
&#8212; Dan Griffin WLWT (@DanGriffinWLWT) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanGriffinWLWT/status/1113908578824409097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

Teen Claims To Be Illinois Boy Who Disappeared In 2011 [UPDATE: It’s Not Him]

Children

A Lake County Circuit Court judge has ruled that Deerfield, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, cannot enact a blanket ban on &#8220;assault weapons,&#8221; leaving progressive gun activists at a loss as to how to ban the AR-15.
According to WGN News, the Deerfield ordinance included a blanket ban on &#8220;assault weapons&#8221; and &#8220;high capacity magazines,&#8221; two terms that the gun rights groups who challenged the legislation said were inappropriately vague, as well as a ban on &#8220;semiautomatic rifles, semiautomatic shotguns and semiautomatic pistols with detachable magazines.&#8221; The ordinance fined anyone within the city limits of Deerfield $1,000 per day until they relocated their guns to a gun club or other holding facility outside the city.
The same judge issued an order temporarily halting enforcement of the ordinance almost immediately after it was enacted by the Deerfield city council, and after two Illinois-based gun rights groups filed suit.
The judge, Luis Berrones, issued a final, permanent injunction Friday preventing Deerfield from enforcing the ordinance, finding that the Deerfield gun owners had &#8220;a clearly ascertainable right to not be subjected to a preempted and unenforceable ordinance,&#8221; <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/deerfield/news/ct-dfr-assault-weapons-ban-ruling-tl-0328-story.html?fbclid=IwAR2GWGpseCw8JNLFowGUCAPmyjUqV1b_JryP1v3_MPlGkSUh-3vApLuIwnI">according to the Chicago Tribune</a>.
The two gun owners who filed suit contended that Deerfield, Illinois &#8212; along with all other Illinois municipalities &#8212; had been given the chance to regulate &#8220;assault weapons&#8221; back in 2013 when the Illinois legislature passed an omnibus gun control bill after being ordered by both the Supreme Court and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to abandon their efforts to completely ban any kind of firearm.
At that time, the legislature passed the Illinois Concealed Carry Act &#8212; a heavily restrictive concealed carry scheme that requires hours of training and extensive background investigation &#8212; and the Firearm Owner&#8217;s Identification Card Act, which requires that any prospective Illinois gun owner register with the state and apply for a license simply to purchase a gun. The legislature added that any municipalities seeking more restrictive gun control measures &#8212;including Deerfield &#8212; do so sometime before July 19, 2013, when the new Illinois laws took effect.
Deerfield argued that they did not introduce new legislation, but that the ordinance was simply an amendment to their existing rules for Deerfield gun owners. Judge Berrones agreed with the plaintiffs that Deerfield&#8217;s assault weapons ban was a separate, new regulation which should have been enacted at the time, rather than just last year after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
Deerfield officials were, of course, unsatisfied with the ruling.
&#8220;This unprecedented interpretation of state legislative action and intent make this case ripe for appeal,&#8221; Deerfield village officials said in a statement to media. &#8220;We continue to believe that these weapons have no place in our community and that our common-sense assault weapon regulations are legal and were properly enacted.&#8221;
The Illinois State Rifle Association thought differently.
&#8220;This is a big win for the 2nd Amendment,&#8221; their executive director said in his own statement. &#8220;The Village of Deerfield had an opportunity to pass a ban in 2013 and failed to do so. Their ordinance is a clear violation of Illinois&#8217; concealed carry law which was passed into law precisely because of the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling on what municipalities could and could not do in terms of establishing their own gun laws. Today&#8217;s ruling reaffirms the US Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling and makes it clear that communities do not have the authority to enact more onerous gun laws than what is already codified in state statute. This is a very good day for those of us who put a premium on the 2nd Amendment freedoms afforded to us in the Constitution.&#8221;
Deerfield officials say they&#8217;re investigating their options for appeal.

Judge Tosses Chicago Suburb’s Assault Weapons Ban

Gun Laws

As the mother of the modern-day Progressive movement, it would make sense for Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) to take her young Democratic colleague Rep. Ilhan Omar under her maternal wing in loco parentis.
Defending Omar against accusations of anti-Semitism last week on MSNBC, Schakowsky explained that as a refugee from Somalia, Omar &#8220;comes from a different culture. She has things to learn.&#8221; Rather than acknowledge that Omar is a bigot, Schakowsky thus invokes the doctrine of unconditional love.
But Omar is not &#8220;just off the boat.&#8221; She came to the United States in the 1990s, according to her official House <a href="https://omar.house.gov/about">website</a>. &#8220;Before running for office, she worked as a community educator at the University of Minnesota, was a Policy Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and served as a Senior Policy Aide for the Minneapolis City Council.&#8221; She is also a former state representative.
It&#8217;s safe to say she understands American culture very well and knows exactly what she is saying.
Just as the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace uses its name as cover for anti-Semites who share its far-Left agenda, the Jewish congresswoman from Illinois &#8212; known in the pro-Israel community as &#8220;J Street Jan&#8221; &#8212; conveniently played the &#8220;Jew card&#8221; to excuse Omar&#8217;s anti-Semitism. Maybe a mazel tov is in order here. For decades, Schakowsky remained silent when it came to leftist anti-Semitism. Now she is speaking up &#8212; to defend that very hate.
As a former constituent of Schakowsky&#8217;s, I was overwhelmed by a sense of déjà vu, having experienced her use of anti-Semitism as a political tool before. It&#8217;s been over twelve years since I <a href="https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2007/02/rep_jan_schakowsky_and_conveni.html">first opined</a> about it. Back in February 2007, Schakowsky led the criticism against Walmart for selling a T-shirt bearing the Nazi Totenkopf (German for &#8220;death&#8217;s head&#8221;), the emblem adopted by Adolf Hitler&#8217;s personal guards. When Walmart learned what the symbol meant, they immediately pulled the shirts off the shelf.
I applauded Schakowsky&#8217;s efforts to educate Walmart about their offensive mistake. But at the same time, she had been conveniently silent over hate stemming from her own party.
In February 2007, I <a href="https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2007/02/rep_jan_schakowsky_and_conveni.html">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>
When the president of Iran is threatening to cause a second Holocaust and hatred toward Jews is growing in epidemic proportions, why is Congresswoman Schakowsky, who is Jewish and represents a large Jewish constituency, only fighting Walmart? Why is it that whenever anti-Semitism shows its ugly face amongst her political allies within the Democratic Party or Progressive movement, her voice is silent?
</blockquote>
Back then, Walmart was the perfect target for the Illinois Democrat. &#8220;[Schakowsky] despises the fact that the retail chain is the largest employer in America and is non-union. Any opportunity to label Walmart as anti-Semitic, or at minimum insensitive to the Jewish community, is a golden opportunity for a politician with an agenda such as hers.&#8221;
Leftist anti-Semitism, often referred to as the &#8220;New Anti-Semitism,&#8221; has been brewing for decades, gaining prominence during the second Gulf War. &#8220;If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this,&#8221; said then-congressman Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) in 2003, invoking the old stereotype of Jewish control.
Moran also claimed that Jews had the power to stop the country from going to war. Where was Schakowsky back then? Where was her suggestion that Moran apologize for his anti-Semitic remarks, let alone demand his resignation? Nowhere to be found. 
Two years later, Schakowsky attended a mock House Judiciary Committee hearing. In plain view of a C-SPAN audience, Schakowsky sat behind Congressman Moran as he questioned former intelligence analyst Ray McGovern &#8212; who claimed that the U.S. went to war in Iraq for oil, military bases, and Israel. Moran thanked McGovern for his &#8220;candid answer,&#8221; which included claims that the war was conducted so the &#8220;U.S. and Israel could dominate that part of the world.&#8221; Schakowsky just sat there and didn&#8217;t raise an eyebrow.
Full disclosure: I served as a senior adviser for a political campaign opposing Rep. Schakowsky in 2010. At that time, we raised the issue of Schakowsky honoring Helen Thomas, the late UPI journalist notorious for her disdain for the Jewish state.
In 2006, Thomas badgered the late White House press secretary Tony Snow regarding Israeli military action in Lebanon. Snow thanked Thomas for &#8220;the Hezbollah view.&#8221;
This is who Schakowsky considered worthy of honoring.
In January 2017, Schakowsky spoke at a Chicago rally protesting President Trump&#8217;s travel ban. Standing on the same stage, right behind the congresswoman, was Rasmea Odeh.
Sharing my emotions publicly, I <a href="https://observer.com/2017/02/jan-schakowsky-alliance-progressives-anti-semites-rasmea-odeh/">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>
So, you&#8217;ll understand my anger and revulsion when I saw the convicted mastermind of the terror attack, Rasmea Odeh, standing with Rep. Jan Schakowsky. I could never have imagined that the congresswoman, who represents one of the largest Jewish constituencies in the country, would be willing to share the stage with a killer.
</blockquote>
Schakowsky&#8217;s embrace of a blatant anti-Semite like Rasmea Odeh is of a piece with her defense of Ilhan Omar. If today&#8217;s Democratic Party is now the party of refuge for bigots, Schakowsky deserves credit for the transformation. Tantamount to a religious conversion, she betrays her constituency and her own heritage &#8212; indeed Judaism itself &#8212; worshiping instead at the altar of political expediency.
To all Jewish supporters of Jan Schakowsky: Know before whom you stand.

Paul Miller is president and executive director of the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/pauliespoint">@pauliespoint</a>.

MILLER: The Déjà Vu Of Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s Convenient Anti-Semitism

Illinois&#8217; new Democratic governor, and a complicit Democratic legislature, are reportedly &#8220;fast-tracking&#8221; a pair of identical measures in the Illinois House and Senate designed to greatly extend legal abortion within the state of Illinois, wipe out parental notice requirements, and deny any and all rights to any pre-born individuals in the state.
<a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/03/05/illinois-fast-tracks-abortion-legislation-extreme-wont-believe/">The Federalist reports</a> that the new laws boil down to one sentence: &#8220;A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent rights under the laws of this State.&#8221;
Per that outline, the bills would mimic similar measures in New York state and Virginia, which would legalize abortion up until the moment of birth (and, potentially, throughout the birthing process). Like New York&#8217;s law, it would alter the state&#8217;s code, completely decriminalizing any harm or murder of a wanted child &#8212; through domestic abuse or intentional act &#8212; along with other major changes to state policy.
&#8220;According to the legal group&#8217;s analysis, the bill would prohibit the state from interfering in any way with abortions. It would erase criminal penalties for performing abortions and allow non-doctors to do them. The legislation also would repeal the partial-birth abortion ban and abortion clinic regulations that protect women&#8217;s health,&#8221; pro-life news outlet <a href="https://www.lifenews.com/2019/03/04/illinois-bill-would-legalize-abortions-up-to-birth-enshrines-a-constitutional-right-to-abortion/">LifeNews reports</a>, based on a legislative analysis provided by in-state, pro-life public interest law firm, the Thomas More Society.
Additionally, the state is now &#8220;prohibited from intruding in a woman&#8217;s &#8216;reproductive health care decision-making&#8217; and creates an avenue for a woman to bring a lawsuit should she feel this right was violated,&#8221; meaning that individual localities cannot roll back any part of this abortion legislation. It also appears that the bill will punish those doctors and other medical services professionals who will not perform and do not refer for abortion &#8212; potentially even those who have moral objections to the procedure.
LifeNews adds that &#8220;the Illinois legislation would treat abortion as a &#8216;fundamental right&#8217; and strip away even minor protections for unborn babies and medical professionals who object to abortions.&#8221;
Both bills are likely to pass the legislature. The Democrats control both houses of the state legislature, and extreme abortion bills passed even under the former Republican governor, Bruce Rauner, including a measure that prohibited doctors from refusing to refer for abortion if they do not personally provide the &#8220;service.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/FEBRURARY-21-2019-MEMORNADUM-ON-HB-2495-SB-1942.pdf">The Thomas More Society</a> report drives home the severity of the situation.
&#8220;The Reproductive Health Act is an extreme bill that would basically enshrine abortion as a positive good in Illinois law,&#8221; the law firm noted.
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/illinois-abortion-bill-will-make-state-the-abortion-capital-of-america-pro-life-group-warns">Fox News reports</a> that &#8220;Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel for Thomas More, said in a statement, adding that the Democratic legislation would change the &#8216;Land of Lincoln&#8217; into the &#8216;Abortion Capital of America.'&#8221;
Both of the bills were supposed to go in front of a committee on Wednesday, March 6, 2018, but there are currently 70 bills pending before that committee. It has not been discussed yet, as of Thursday, but the Federalist notes that &#8220;the deadline to pass bills out of committee and onto the floor for consideration by the whole House is March 29.&#8221; The committee is currently soliciting commentary on the bill, as well as witness slips.

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