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President Barack Obama won't be getting an entirely warm welcome during his visit to his home city of Chicago Wednesday; members of the Occupy Wall Street movement have announced plans to picket a fundraising event and concert at the University of Illinois at Chicago where Obama is expected to speak.
Occupy UIC, in conjunction with Occupy Chicago, is organizing a demonstration during the concert to protest the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, which Obama signed into law on New Year's Eve. The law includes a number of controversial provisions that allow for long-term imprisonment of suspected terrorists -- including American citizens -- without criminal charges or court hearings, at the President's discretion.
WASHINGTON, DC--(ENEWSPF)--January 9, 2012. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has made a $693,876 investment in seven fire departments in Illinois. Today’s funding will help support and improve the capability of each department and protection district to respond to fires and other types of emergencies.
A federal program designed to protect residents of the nation’s second most populous county against terrorist threats was mismanaged from the start, fraught with malfunctioning equipment and potentially wasted millions of taxpayer dollars, according to a Monday report by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
It was called “Project Shield” and cost about $45 million in federal funding. The idea was to equip police cars and other locations in Cook County with cameras capable of sending live video to a command center, giving first responders more information in an emergency.
But Monday’s report said the program was troubled from the beginning. Equipment was never adequately tested, funds were mismanaged and of the 128 municipalities, 32 never received equipment. The report blasted Cook County officials, state leaders and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administered the funds.