Illinois concealed carry bill stalls. Losers in Chicago fill their pampers.

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-illinois-legislature-0519-
20130518,0,2454696.story

� The push to pass a more restrictive concealed carry measure stalled late
last week as support began to drop off before a key vote in the Illinois
Senate.

The legislation represents the latest attempt to address a federal appeals
court order setting a June 9 deadline for Illinois to fashion a new law
that would allow citizens to carry concealed weapons in public. Illinois
is the only state in the nation that does not have some form of concealed
carry law on the books.

Shortly after the proposal won approval in a Senate committee Thursday,
opponents turned up the heat.

"For a day at least, the extremists have prevailed," said Sen. Kwame
Raoul, the South Side Democrat who sponsored the proposal and hoped to
call it for a vote in the full Senate on Friday.

"My interest was to try to negotiate, to create something that balanced
the interests of the goal of the Second Amendment as it's been interpreted
by the courts and preserving, as my top priority, public safety," Raoul
said.

Gun debates divide legislators along regional rather than political party
lines, with Downstate lawmakers opposed to restrictions on gun rights,
those from Chicago supportive of tighter control and suburban counterparts
split.

The lineup against the Raoul legislation is long. The National Rifle
Association weighed in heavily against the bill, and hundreds of people
filed committee witness slips as opponents.

The Raoul bill spells out who can carry concealed handguns and where they
can carry them. It also gives Chicago a chance to launch its own
investigation into applicants who want permits to carry weapons in public
in the city along with a separate permit for the rest of the state.

In the House, Speaker Michael Madigan has worked on a separate version
after both a restrictive New York-styled concealed weapons bill and a
less-restrictive, NRA-backed bill failed. Madigan has made it clear to
some lawmakers, including senators, that a better bill may be under
development in the House. That could have tempered support for Raoul's
bill.

Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said he knew some rank-and-file lawmakers
had reached out to senators about the Raoul legislation but was "not
aware" of Madigan making efforts to peel off support.

Rep. Brandon Phelps, the leading gun rights voice in the House, said there
is "no way" Raoul's bill could pass his chamber. Phelps indicated that
discussions include creating a review board that would weigh appeals over
objections that local law enforcement officials would lodge against permit
applicants as potential threats to themselves or the public.

Lower school age

The Senate approved a measure Friday to lower the age children would be
required to attend school from 7 to 6. Supporters say it would put
Illinois in line with other states that already place children in
classrooms at a younger age.

Under the measure, children who turn 6 years old on or before Sept. 1 each
year would be required to enroll in kindergarten. For Chicago schools, the
change would go into effect for the school year that starts this fall. For
other school districts, it would not go into effect until July 2014.
Children who are home-schooled are exempt. The bill now moves to the
House, where a similar attempt passed last month.

Sponsoring Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, said children cannot be
expected to excel, much less keep up, if they start school at 7 when
students in other states are already grades ahead. She pointed to a
Tribune report that found nearly 18 percent of Chicago kindergartners and
first-graders were chronic truants during the 2010-11 school year.

Opponents argued that parents should have the final say on when their kids
are ready for school and said costs in small school districts could be
prohibitive.

Calls for firing

More than a dozen African-American and Latino senators notified Senate
President John Cullerton and Gov. Pat Quinn that they opposed the
governor's reappointment of former state Rep. Julie Hamos as director of
the Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

"Director Hamos has demonstrated her priority to care for the poor and the
institutions they rely on is secondary to simply cutting the budget
regardless of the consequences," said a letter signed by Chicago
Democratic Sens. Martin Sandoval and Donne Trotter.

Standing behind Hamos, a Quinn spokesman hailed her as a "dedicated public
servant" who last year led her agency through the "challenging process of
saving the state's Medicaid system from collapse" and who is now leading
the effort to implement President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care
Act in Illinois.


--
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America.

Eric Holder, racist black murdering United States Attorney General, still
has his job.

Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.

Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptness.

Obama continues his goal of disarming America while ObamaCare increases
insurance premiums 200% and leaves millions without health care.

Obama helped bankrupt Illinois. Democrat run Chicago closes 54 public
schools.

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ne...@netfront.net ---