eric crane, chicago business. can you talk about whether chicago is any further ahead or behind other major cities, particularly after stopping the use of a.c.o.r.n. to help, did that have any effect? >> i was in the chicago region just a few weeks ago. chicago has a wonderful feature of their mobilization for the census that, i think, is a model for other regions, and that is a group of local foundations have gotten together, offered small grants to communities throughout illinois to help them advertise the census to their local community. this is the joyce foundation and others. that has filled a gap in this, in that region that needs to be filled in other regions. state and local governments are on hard times right now. many of the staff that were used in 2000 for outreach aren't there now because of layoffs and other things. we're relying on volunteer activity thes at a greater rate than we did in 2000, and those activities of private foundations are filling a gap, and chicago's a wonderful example of that, i

he is trying to get a lot of wind out of north dakota and then to chicago. one of the issues is the cost for the region. what we are suggesting is that congress needs to eliminate the entire structure of planning and cost allocation. the states can ultimately solve the problem but if they cannot, the pressure should be there to allow the federal government to step in. >> thank you. i was author in 1992 of the wholesale transmission access provision. for the very first time, they have the ability to force the utilities to stop blocking the requests for the non- discriminatory access so that there could be more competition in that area. they built upon the new law that i created, issuing a generic order on transmission access, which is a historic order. and based upon my 1992 law. i am very sensitive to this issue. we should not take this to something that goes beyond what this needed. part of the problem in massachusetts and new england is that -- this is your predecessors. the one who has just left office. pre-empting the state and local governments from gra

, and sat on the boards of two organizations that provided funding to acorn's chicago chapter. just last year, his campaign misrepresented that it had paid more than 800,000 to an offshoot of acorn. the obama campaign initially said that they used this for polling. there really use the money for the same types of voter registration project that have mired acorn in criminal investigations in at least 12 states. the president's ties to acorn take any conclusion that the justice department may reach with regard to whether or not to investigate and prosecute acorn employees. that is why i requested date the attorney journal -- i have requested that the attorney general appoint a special prosecutor. congress also has an obligation to investigate the apostle -- the possibly illegal conduct of acorn. acorn has received $53 million in federal funding. it is disappointing that that is a pat -- the democratic majority have taken no steps investigate the wrongdoing, even though the majority of the senator -- of congress people have voted to ban the acorn from federal funding. so far it ha

on the community reinvestment act and the shakedown of lenders and a lot of that that took place in chicago and that's been documented i think pretty well in the media, there's an expression used "get in their face." and we read articles about how acorn and their operatives bragged about going in and shoving a lender's desk off to the side and surrounding him and getting in his face. i remember during the campaign when president obama said about three weeks before the election to his supporters "get in their face." now, that echoed in my ear as something that maybe was lifted right out of the handbook of acorn. and there's another phrase that happens to come back and echo in my ear, and that is i left it out of the fox news report -- i lifted out done by megan kelly on acorn, a special that was done a month or so ago when she was interviewing wayne rafke and she asked him about the script of the mission statement of acorn. and in that mission statement it said "share the wealth." share the wealth. exactly the language that president obama used when he was confronted by joe the plumber. so i

through miami. 20 thousand enter through chicago. so that's another 50,000 more -- 20,000 enter through chicago. so that's another 50,000 more pabbages that enter the u.s. -- packages that enter the u.s. each day. and what's worse, about 20% of the drugs coming in are controlled substances. so we have a situation where we need the basic approach in this amendment to ensuring that imported drugs are safe. and that's what the dorgan amendment is all about, to give f.d.a. the ability to verify the drug pedigree back to the manufacturer, to require f.d.a. to inspect frequently and to require fees to give the f.d.a. the resources to do that. so the bomb tom line is the dorgan amendment gives the in f.d.a. the authority and the resources it needs to implement drug safety from court importation of drugs. and certainly the president knows that a great way to hold drug companies accountable is to allow safe, legal drug importation, because i would like to quote this president not when he was a ca candidate for president but a candidate for th

citizen who attended terrorist training camps in pakistan was living in chicago and planned attacks abroad. we've learned that he was not only planning future attacks but has now been charged with leping to plan the 2008 attacks in mumbai, india. and just over the past few days we're learning about five young men in virginia just outside where we sit here today who traveled to pakistan reportedly to link up with members of al qaeda. it appears these young men were radicalized just miles from where we sit here and 9 danker we are seeing more and more of these cases, more individuals ooh self-radicalize oesh the internet versus being actively recruited by al qaeda. individuals turning radical extremist thought and then turning to terrorism. mr. smoty, in my home state of texas, in the united states, illegally in this country and living in texas was arrested for plotting to blow up a skyscraper in dallas, texas. according to the fbi, smoty made a decision to act to commit a significant conspicuous act of violence under his banner of subjihad. smoty is one of several recent cases of lone wolf

alternatives that have been successful like fifth and sixth graders who can testify about their experience in chicago. our optimistic hope that juxtaposeds the injury is policies against alternatives that work would persuade officials to do the right thing. in the absence of them being persuaded we would say take the transcript from that public notice forum and use it as exhibit a in a piece of civil-rights litigation to challenge the achievement gap. in closing i have seen it as the director of an alternative school in d.c. that was originally founded by attorney general eric holder. i saw that setting high expectations drives education turnaround by hard work, instructional strategy that reflects and embraces different learning styles. they participate in counseling, college tours and ap classes. young people who everyone had written off or going to college and exceeding 80%. last weekend pr reported a study from the university center for cognitive green image mr. chafee during an element to improve elementary reading demonstrating a breakthrough in understanding brain function. they looked at the

we get illinois, we get chicago money up here. we get indiana, ohio, but everything around our state, we are literally looking at a 25% unemployment. the numbers game and just last week. can you imagine that around -- the numbers came out just what we. can you imagine that run the country? detroit and other places are almost at 50% unemployment. the west side of the state, we do not see a lot of the auto industry is suffering. host: from the business section of the "new york times" is a story of fannie and freddie. 10 more minutes on your favorite political stories of the year. and the heat from los angeles, good morning on the independent line. -- betty from los angeles. caller: the health care situation is ridiculous. in 1940, there was a hill -- a bill called the hill burton bill. it was a single payer bill and it went into effect immediately. you might be a little young, but we had community hospitals, clinics everywhere. it was single payer. and for those who do not want abortion, look at planned parenthood. planned parenthoo

there is a physician in the chicago area that has a practice of about 35,000 patients and many of them choose not to vaccinate, and their offices and rage is next to nothing. there are populations of people -- and the rate -- the autism rate is next to nothing. the population with this doctor is very broad based. it is not people from every walk of life. >> i do not know about that. >> let me just be very clear. i am representing what we know about the scientific evidence so far. that is unequivocal. it is a not thecd cdc and nih. multiple studies have looked at this. this has been looked at over and over again. 16 large-scale studies have looked at this. whether you read the studies or listen to the institute of medicine -- >> looking at the connection, the possibility of a connection between the vaccination with without a particular formulation can be prevalence of autism. whether this is a risk factor. the studies have found no evidence of a connection. we heard that. the looked at the whole broad spectrum and we heard from the injury cord. they said there is not plausibility here.

host: chicago is next. caller: how are you doing? i see steve forbes on other services and i am familiar with what you are basically doing. it is two different contradictions. you have had the economy for the last 25 years and made money. you forget about those left. the object of the game is to make money, but to people like you have already bankrupt the country and want to do it again. you want to tell everybody that you know how to fix its. how could you fix it if your ideas are so plentiful -- then how did you get into this mess in the first place? guest: in terms of the last 30 years since the early 1980, the u.s. among developed countries has been the biggest job craig torres in the world. seeing a huge expansion in our standard of living. little things on the day to day basis like cell phones, ipods. longevity has gone up. what open a the economy was the federal reserve. that is a government institution deciding if needed to help the economy by printing too much money. it is the equivalent of an automobile. you can have a fine

from the university of illinois in chicago. thank you for coming in, mr. fabricant. your testimony is next. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for the opportunity to be here today. we represent the interests of more than 10,000 manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors. i am also a former college athlete and cited as a sports nutrition expert, so i have a peak -- a deep personal understanding of this issue. we welcome this hearing because we share your concern about illegal steroids -- selling products containing illegal substances is already a crime. we were the first to call for throwing the book that in the opening party. anyone caught selling steroids should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and the natural products industry has worked for years to pass those laws. this is the best way to stop the criminals. the barriers to enforcement are simple. money, manpower, and well. we fully support strong rules to ensure what is on the label is what is in the bottle. the criminals who sell steroids illegally do not agree we fought for stronger drug enforce

in the example i am sharing ordinary fifth and sixth graders in 25 failing elementary schools in chicago public schools tutored first and second graders and achieved remarkable success. at its heart is the fact that no one of the best ways to cement understanding is to try to explain that lesson to someone else. here, failings this and sixth graders became dedicated tutors and role models. everybody learned, everybody won, and every child became the smart kid. test scores and educational achievement improved for the tudors and tuttis driving many of the schools of the failing schools list altogether. this account is documented in dr. pons but no more throwaway people which i would like to have introduced to the record. we know it works and i am here to talk about how to compel public education officials to use that knowledge. for decades ever since the supreme court decided washington versus davis in 1976 challengers of structural braces of seeking relief under section 1983, civil-rights litigation, had faced the onerous burden of proving that responsible government and authorities inten

they surrounded the chairman of the ways an means committee in -- and means committee in chicago. and then there was the luxury tax on boats over $100,000. another historic mistake. because it only -- it raised about half the taxes it was supposed to and nearly sank the boating industry and it put 7,600 people out of jobs. i would ask my friends from oklahoma and wyoming. it's going to be a lot harder for congress if they try to fix all of this health care system at once to come back and repeal it than it was t to repeal a bot tax. don't you think we should take the time to avoid another historic mistake? mr. coburn: i would answer my colleague from tennessee that as a practicing physician, what i see is the historic mistake is we're going to allow the federal government to decide what care you're going to get. we're going to divide the loyalty of your physician. no longer will they be a 100% advocate for you. they're going to be an advocate for the government and what the government says. this bill, even the one that's going to come, has three different programs that puts bureauc

is a professor of psychiatry and responses to could as it trophies as the university of illinois at chicago currently serves at the principal investigator of the national institute of mental health sponsored study on add lessant refugees from siberia in the united states, authored several articles and book including "testimony in catastrophe," he was awarded a career scientist award from the nimh on scientist based with refugee families. finally dr. craigin, a professor at the university of maryland, focusing on terrorist related issues. served three months on general petraeus' staff in iraq in 2008 and her iran publications include "the terrorist, dynamic terrorist threat" sharing the dragon's teeth" and exchange of new technologies. without objection the witnesses full statements will be inverted -- inserted in the record. and i welcome first dr. zogby. welcome, dr. zogby. >> thank you, madam chairman and members of the committee. the issue before us is indeed a critical one. it concerns our national security to be sure, but it also represents a grave challenge to our national character.

evanston is a great town north of chicago. i enjoy going up there and have a lot of friends there. david had insurance when he needed it, but it ended up costing him his financial health. he's a freelance videographer. he was paying $4,500 a year for health insurance when he was diagnosed with cancer at 48. he had prompt surgery followed by chemo and radiation. he managed to rid his body of cancer. but that battle ended and another battle began. david's insurance company agreed to cover his cancer treatment, but only after three solid months of investigations of his application for health insurance to determine whether they could find in that application a preexisting condition which would eliminate any responsibility to pay for david's bills. they couldn't. after covering his cancer treatment costs, they did the next thing that insurance companies do. they raised his premiums. and they didn't just raise them a little bit. in the year following his cancer diagnosis, david's insurance rates went up 80%, and that was just the beginning. within seven years david was paying $28,000 a y