FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— Why Henry Hyde’s name should stay on the DuPage County courthouse. The GOP powerhouse stood for far more than his famous eponymous abortion amendment.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/10/editorial-henry-hyde-dupage-county-courthouse/
(FROM THE EDITORIAL: History often is complex and resistant to simple narratives. So are people. So it is a needlessly divisive mistake for DuPage County Board Chair Deborah Conroy to push for her fellow board members to remove the name of the late Henry J. Hyde, longtime Republican congressman, from the county courthouse. The board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the issue. Hyde represented DuPage, which until recent years was a Republican power center, in Washington for more than three decades, retiring in 2007. During that time, Hyde wasn’t some low-profile lifer in Congress. He was one of the House’s most prominent members, even when he was serving in the minority, which is to say most of his career there. Conroy’s rationale for removing Hyde’s name from the court building is that the staunchly anti-abortion politician was responsible for the Hyde Amendment, the provision in federal law that for decades barred spending federal taxpayer money on abortions with exceptions for rape, incest or endangerment to the life of the mother. “It’s strictly because of the Hyde Amendment, and it’s very difficult for so many women to walk into the courthouse and see (his name),” she told the Tribune. Abortion rights is an issue that only has grown more intense since Hyde died 10 months after his retirement. We understand the symbolic argument. But to strip his name from the building would be akin to removing Richard J. Daley’s name from the courthouse in the heart of the Loop over a single issue — say, the police beating of protesters at the 1968 Democratic convention on his orders, the culture of corruption that the Daley machine fostered or his brutal segregationist policies. Even many ardent Daley critics wouldn’t suggest doing so. Why is that? Because Daley is a singularly important figure in the history of Chicago and to rename the Daley Center or Daley Plaza would be to try to negate that history. Like Daley, Hyde was a complicated figure and far more than the name adorning a famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) piece of legislation. Memories are short, of course, but for most of his career Hyde was an intellectual heavyweight on the Republican side of the aisle. Agree or disagree, but when Hyde took the floor to speak, people listened. And for good reason. He was a thoughtful conservative. Consider this: Hyde stepped down in 1981 from the advisory board of the National Pro-Life Political Action Committee after Executive Director Peter Gemma Jr. identified incumbent lawmakers the group planned to work to defeat. Hyde objected to targeting officeholders over a single issue. Much the way the DuPage board is considering doing Tuesday. Would the Democratic majority on the DuPage board consider themselves in favor of reasonable gun regulation? If so, against the consensus of his party, Hyde in 1994 voted for President Bill Clinton’s ban on assault weapons, demonstrating that he could be persuaded to change his mind on a monumental issue of the day. Just three years earlier, he had voted against the same ban. Hyde reversed himself after reading detailed accounts of gun victims in Chicago, provided by Democratic Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois. “At the end of reading this list of bloody crimes, I had to conclude these guns have no purpose but to kill a lot of people very rapidly,” Hyde said. “It wasn’t like falling off a horse on the road to Damascus. But like many things complicated and emotional, you don’t dwell on them unless forced to.” Hyde’s change of heart induced Illinois Rep. Bob Michel, then GOP minority leader, and dozens more Republicans to vote for the ban. Such political courage is almost impossible to imagine on today’s Capitol Hill. Of course, four years later Hyde led Clinton’s impeachment proceedings on behalf of the House before the Senate, leading critics to disclose Hyde’s yearslong extramarital affair decades earlier and accusing him of hypocrisy. Hyde admitted to cheating on his wife but claimed Clinton’s alleged wrongdoing was about Clinton’s cover-up attempts rather than his actual affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The public didn’t buy it, and Hyde paid a reputational price in the process. All of this is to say that Henry Hyde was complicated. Just like most people. But what is indisputable is that he was one of the most important political figures to emerge from DuPage County. Ever. His name should stay on that courthouse.)
ABC7
— DuPage County Democrats push to rename courthouse over late Congressman’s abortion views
https://abc7chicago.com/post/local-democrats-push-rename-dupage-county-courthouse-late-congressman-henry-hydes-abortion-views/15890259/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: “He had a lot of support, a lot of friends on the other side of the aisle. He strikes me as a kind of official that we should be looking to model ourselves after, not disrespect,” said DuPage County GOP Chair Kevin Coyne. While he was bipartisan on certain issues such as gun control and the Family and Medical Leave Act, Hyde was one of Congress’ biggest opponents of abortion. He authored the Hyde Amendment, which denied abortion access to poor women on Medicaid. . .The board will vote on the resolution to remove Hyde’s name on Tuesday. With a Democratic majority, Conroy says, the proposal will pass. “To cherry-pick this one issue and hold it against a man that was such a big part of our history, to me, is just wrong. It’s short sighted,” Coyne said. Coyne says the decision to remove Hyde’s name may ruin the bipartisanship Conroy says she has proudly created while serving as chair.)
— President Trump pardons ex-Illinois Gov. Blagojevich 5 years after commuting his sentence
https://abc7chicago.com/post/president-donald-trump-expected-pardon-ex-illinois-gov-rod-blagojevich-5-years-commuting-sentence-reports/15889540/
FOX32
— ICE operations intensify across U.S. sanctuary cities
https://www.fox32chicago.com/video/1591008
DAILY HERALD
— Residents protest proposed cuts to Medicaid at DuPage County rally
https://www.dailyherald.com/20250210/news/residents-protest-proposed-cuts-to-medicaid-at-dupage-county-rally/
CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS
— Blagojevich pardoned on corruption conviction by Trump
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics/trump-pardons-rod-blagojevich-corruption-conviction
CENTER SQUARE ILLINOIS
— Del Mar teases run for ‘higher office,’ sparking 2026 Illinois governor speculation
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_69d594d6-e7c2-11ef-b535-b39343671dce.html
CITIES 92.9
— Illinois circuit judge finds FOID for firearms in home unconstitutional (COMMENT: I have had a FOID card since I was 20 years old in 1968.)
https://www.cities929.com/2025/02/10/illinois-circuit-judge-finds-foid-for-firearms-in-home-unconstitutional/
CAPITOL FAX
— Afternoon roundup
https://capitolfax.com/2025/02/10/isabel%e2%80%99s-afternoon-roundup-246/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
ILLINOIS STATE RIFLE ASSOCIATION
— FOID Card Found to be Unconstitutional Yet Again
https://isra.org/foid-card-found-to-be-unconstitutional-yet-again/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
NEW YORK POST
— Migrants turning around and heading back home in ‘new trend’ under Trump border crackdown
https://nypost.com/2025/02/10/us-news/new-trend-of-migrants-turning-around-and-heading-back-toward-home-under-trump-border-crackdown/
DAILY SIGNAL
— ‘BETRAYAL’: Lawmaker Responds to FEMA Diverting $59M to House Illegal Aliens
https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/02/10/fema-using-59-million-house-illegal-aliens-is-betrayal-highest-order-congressman-says/
DAILY WIRE
— Musk Says FEMA Spent $60M Housing Illegal Immigrants In ‘Luxury Hotels’ Last Week. The payments were suspended by acting FEMA Director Cameron Hamilton after Musk’s announcement.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/musks-says-fema-spent-60m-housing-illegal-immigrants-in-luxury-hotels-last-week
— 27% Of National Science Foundation Grants Went To DEI Projects, Study Finds. ‘Congress must end the politicization of NSF funding and restore integrity to scientific research,’ Sen. Ted Cruz says.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/27-of-national-science-foundation-grants-went-to-dei-projects-study-finds
EPOCH TIMES
— Musk Says FEMA Spent $59 Million on Housing Illegal Immigrants in NYC Hotels. ‘This stops now,’ said acting FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton, announcing that all such payments from FEMA were suspended on Feb. 9.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/musk-says-fema-spent-59-million-on-housing-illegal-immigrants-in-nyc-hotels-5807322
FOX NEWS
— Trump expected to pardon former Illinois Gov Rod Blagojevich. Trump previously commuted Blagojevich’s sentence in 2020.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-expected-pardon-former-illinois-gov-rod-blagojevich
MRC TV
— Illegal Alien Crossings Have Plummeted 90% Under Trump
https://www.mrctv.org/blog/brittany-m-hughes/border-agent-illegal-alien-crossings-have-plummeted-90-under-trump
TOWNHALL
— Trump Ramps Up Purge of ‘Woke’ Ideology in the Military
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/jeff-charles/2025/02/10/trump-liquidates-woke-board-of-visitors-for-military-branches-n2651967
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
THE HILL
— Trump says ‘too early’ to name Vance as successor
https://www.aol.com/trump-says-too-early-name-215711428.html
CNN
— Trump imposes 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/politics/tariffs-steel-aluminum-trump/index.html
CBS NEWS
— Increasing numbers of Democrats want their party to oppose Trump
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/democrats-want-party-oppose-trump-poll-analysis/
— Trump ousts director of Office of Government Ethics
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-office-of-government-ethics-director/
WEEK
— DeSantis signs agreement with ICE to have Florida state troopers detain illegal immigrants
https://www.25newsnow.com/2025/02/10/desantis-signs-agreement-with-ice-have-florida-state-troopers-detain-illegal-immigrants/
WALL STREET JOURNAL
— DHS Seeks to Deputize IRS Officers to Help With Deportation Effort. Tax-collecting agency has thousands of special agents in its criminal-investigation division. (COMMENT: I worked for GAO on audits of IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division at the GS-13 Step 1-3 Levels, currently $117,807-$125,661/year, for 3 years.)
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-irs-officers-ice-deportations-ed87c4b5
AUTO GUIDE
— Why Is General Motors Getting Rid Of Key Corvette Personnel?
https://www.autoguide.com/auto/manufacturers/chevrolet/why-is-general-motors-getting-rid-of-key-corvette-personnel-44616109
