From the Illinois Policy Institute…
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has seen a “strong desire and need for real transformation in the County.” A good place to start this much-needed transformation process would be at the county’s Adult Probation Department, which receives more than $43 million per year to keep the public safe by monitoring dangerous criminals sentenced to probation rather than prison.
Preckwinkle will soon discover these taxpayer dollars are being poorly spent and the department is not keeping people safe–a key tenant of Preckwinkle’s “Compact for Change.”
My latest special report reveals how the Cook County Adult Probation Department, according to its own chief probation officer, “dropped the ball,” by allowing a convicted sexual predator to go unmonitored, which resulted in his arrest for molesting a 13-year-old girl. The special report also documents how a lack of leadership, transparency, and accountability have crippled the department, while senior staff worked off-duty jobs, including providing a personal security detail for Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.
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Illinois Policy Institute Breaking Report: A Public Menace in Cook County”
It’s very easy for Obamacare supporters to scoff at the whole idea that there are “death panels” ensconced in Obama’s health care power grab. But the fact of the matter is that they exist in a defacto form. One of those defacto death panels is the Independent Payment Advisory Board (
Most Americans would imagine that if a homeowner is accosted in her own home by an outsider, the homeowner would be justified in arming herself. In fact, most Americans would think it a right… seeing as how there’s that whole Second Amendment and all. 
Arrogance is an ugly thing. But it seems that Grayslake School Board Superintendent Ellen Correll has it in spades. Not only did she and four other board members vote to increase its tax levy on the community, but she also announced that she used federal “stimulus” money to dole out raises and bonuses to teachers and administrators.
The government is over spent. This single fact is beyond dispute. Even Democrats say so. We have but to recall that Democrat after Democrat attempted to run for office this last election by claiming fealty to small government, cost cutting, and lower spending. So with all this small government/low spending fever sweeping the political classes, what does Barack Obama do? He forces policies on federal building projects that inflates costs by the millions. And why would he do this? As a payoff to unions that gave him millions in campaign contributions, of course.
Obama’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is due to take up the case of Avastin, a cancer drug that successfully treats some 17,000 women annually. With a coming December 17 decision, the FDA seems poised to take this drug away from these patients quite despite the fact that their doctors find the drug effective.
From contacts in the Senate we’ve learned that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) will likely on Wednesday (Dec. 8th) try and bring a cloture vote on The DREAM Act and the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act in order to grab as much power for his supporters as he can before his power is weakened starting in the next congress.
A few days ago the miserable Helen Thomas, famed long-time Washington correspondent, let her hatred for Jews get the best of her once again. At a 
Jonathan Strong of the Daily Caller has 
All day the Democrats and Republicans have been trying to reach an agreement on extending the Bush tax cuts. They may be close to an agreement. GOP Senate minority leader McConnell issued a statement today on the issue:
As most of you know last week I was down in Cancun, Mexico reporting on the U.N. Climate Change Summit (officially called 
Most Chicagoans are assuming that former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will become the next mayor of Chicago. But while the perception might satisfy many folks in the Windy City, at least