Chicago Daily Observer

So Sen. Obama, who is trying to distance himself from the Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, has named to his Vice Presidential Search Committee Eric Holder… the top Clinton Justice Department official who was deeply enmeshed in the disgraceful pardons granted by President Clinton on his way out the door — pardons which included two Weather Underground terrorists, whose lengthy terrorism sentences were commuted.

It’s heartening to learn that the U. S. Congress is targeting ministries that it suspects of violating the IRS nonprofit rule. Guess which ones? Trinity United Church of Christ which under Jeremiah Wright cursed America and hustles votes for liberal Democratic candidates? St. Sabina’s under Fr. Michael Pfleger which hits whitey and urges the election of Barack Obama for president? Rev. James Meeks who is both pastor of Salem Baptist church and a Democratic state senator and who regularly mixes political agendas with theological ones?

No. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has launched a probe of six conservative televangelists which, Grassley said, “share the same branch of evangelicism and…promote socially conservative and public policy positions.” Meaning pro-life and anti-homosexual rights.

Last Nov. 6, Grassley, the ranking Republican on Senate Finance, asked for detailed financial information from Paul and Randy White’s Without Walls International Church, Benny Hinn Ministries, Joyce Meyer Ministries, ... Read More...

City Hall is planning another subsidy for Block 37 — this time a three-phased bailout of an el station under construction there that’s running more than $100 million over budget.

Under plans that the Chicago Transit Authority board is scheduled to consider on Wednesday, the city would provide roughly $20 million in additional tax-increment financing funds for the “superstation” beneath the mixed-use project rising at Block 37, Crain’s has learned.

In addition, the CTA in several stages over the past year or so has poured an extra $60 million to $70 million of its own money into the project, despite its shortage of capital funds, sources say. And developer Joseph Freed & Associates, which is building the retail and residential structures on top of the station, reportedly has agreed to absorb about $19 million of the cost overruns.

Cathleen Falsani Religion Editor of the Chicago Sun Times had this to say about Benson ‘Time Out.’

There’s something painfully ironic about Cedric’s (if temporary) ouster.

He’s been thumbing his nose at authority—secular and sacred—for years in pursuit of what he believes God has called him to do: fight for the poor yardage and the press coverage; battle injustice in whatever form it appears to taxing him at the moment, be it racism, sexism, or classicism; and to above all present the God of revolutionary love and radical grace to the world around him like he did when those cracker Texas Gomers boarded his boat. That sometimes has meant disobeying civil and Man law.

Benson has been arrested several dozen times over the last five weeks for civil disobedience. He’s taken on drug dealers aboard his boat, big alcohol content while driving, the tobacco products ... Read More...

The IMA (Illinois Manufacturers’ Association) is supporting the United States’ possible free-trade pact with Colombia and would like U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Geneva, to consider it as well.

“We want to keep free trade open, especially when huge operations like Caterpillar have struck in this part of the world,” he told the crowd.

“Rep. Foster hasn’t made up his mind on this, and Sen. Dick Durbin hasn’t said a word,” added Baise, a former transportation department secretary for Illinois in Gov. Jim Thompson’s administration, and a former Republican candidate for Illinois state treasurer.