In the News
U.S. Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL, 11) kept his word and donated the pay he earned during the government shutdown to the Northern Illinois Food Bank on Friday.
The numbers are grim: 71 overdose deaths in DuPage and Will counties so far this year. Last year, Kane County tallied 27 heroin fatalities. Fifty percent of all addicts are doomed to die from their dependency.
Still, there is reason for hope.
Vicki Foley can trace her son Chris' drug use back to junior high, when he started smoking cigarettes.
The cigarettes led to marijuana and the marijuana eventually led to heroin.
The heroin led to his death.
"Heroin took his life," Foley said of the 27-year-old. "And it left a big hole in ours."
Inaction on immigration reform will have negative consequences for the mostly white, male-dominated Republican Party during next year's election, according to a group of protesters who vowed Saturday to vote Illinois' GOP congressional delegates out of office if they do not work towards passing legislation that would overhaul the nation's broken immigration system.
Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner is one of 21 elected heads of larger Illinois municipalities who recently wrote to the state's congressional delegation in Washington imploring members to overhaul immigration laws as a way to repair and boost the economy.
ICE has worked to develop and implement some critical improvements to the system, though additional reforms remain needed.
WASHINGTON — Two House Democrats are going after the congressional dumbbells.
Reps. Patrick Murphy of Florida and Bill Foster of Illinois demanded Wednesday the shutdown of the House gym, which has stayed open even while much of the federal government has closed.
House Democrats have a new strategy to force their fellow members of Congress to feel the pain of the shutdown — stripping them of their gym privileges.
Such a move would not just block members from burning carbs, though. It would also prevent the members who sleep in their offices from availing themselves of the showers that keep them from offending.