SPECIAL EDITION
WHITE HOUSE EASTER EGG ROLL THROUGH HISTORY
FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP
WHITE HOUSE UPDATES
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Barickman files education funding legislation
Barickman files education funding legislation including true parity for schools
Fixing the state’s broken school funding formula could soon become a reality, due in large part to two pieces of legislation filed by State Senator Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington).
“This has taken years of bipartisan negotiations to get us to this point,” said Senator Barickman. “But I believe we finally have put together a good solution for all of our schools that will begin to reduce the inequity and inadequacy that has plagued the current system, and truly addresses questions of parity between schools.”
The legislation is based on the framework advanced by the Governor’s bipartisan Education Funding Reform Commission.
Barickman’s legislation establishes an evidence-based school funding formula that uses 27 different variables to set individual adequacy targets for each school district, based on the real costs of the districts, accepted best practices, and student demographics.
“There are more than 800 school districts in Illinois, from urban schools in Chicago to rural schools downstate, and they have a wide variety of different issues and demographics,” said Senator Barickman. “The evidence-based system represents the first time Illinois will have a formula that actually takes those differences into account, and it will drive dollars to where they are needed most and where they can do the most good.”
That data will be used to establish four tiers to ensure that additional funding goes to those districts that are most in need. Tier 4 would encompass the districts that are financially the strongest, with spending already exceeding their adequacy target, and Tier 1 containing the districts that are struggling the most severely, with spending far below their adequacy target.
In the case of future budget cuts, the four tiered system would also be used to protect the most vulnerable schools. This would end the regressive nature of proration, which is what has happened when school funding was cut in the past. Under proration, the districts with the most need would often see the largest cuts to their budgets. “Eliminating the proration of GSA is a defining characteristic of this legislation,” said Senator Barickman.
All school districts would be protected through a hold harmless provision, which during the first year would be based on the amount the district received in FY17. In year two and thereafter, the hold harmless would be tied to the actual student population to better reflect need, with funding based on the amounts the districts received per student in FY17.
The legislation also repeals the controversial Chicago block grant and ensures equitable funding for charter schools. The plan would also put into place a panel to review the new formula every three years.
“This is an investment model, where lawmakers can see what they are spending money on and understand the outcomes that can be achieved for each school district. We will know the results of political decisions to spend more or less money in our schools, as well as how those budgetary decisions will impact in-class learning,” said Senator Barickman. “Taxpayers will have a better idea of how much funding their school needs, in terms of both state and local revenue.”
A second bill filed by Barickman would offer substantial mandate relief to all school districts, offering them various management tools that are currently granted only to CPS. These include cutting cost-prohibitive bureaucratic red tape involved in third-party contracting, flexibility on scheduling of physical education along with allowing student-athletes to replace P.E. hours with additional classes or study halls, and to allow citizens to discharge certain unfunded mandates from their districts via referendum.
Both bills would be tied to pension reform legislation filed by State Senator Michael Connelly (R-Naperville). As a package, the bills would eliminate the controversial Chicago Block Grant while offering pension parity to Chicago Public Schools (CPS), creating a single, uniform funding system for every school district in Illinois.
“Few people would say that it’s fair to create special deals for certain schools, particularly when they adversely affect other districts,” said Senator Barickman. “And while pension parity has been a much-talked about topic in Springfield, these bills offer real parity across the spectrum. They can finally get us toward an environment where all schools are treated similarly in terms of funding, pension costs and management flexibility.”
Illinois House bill would regulate ‘trampoline safety’
From Illinois Policy April 2017
Instead of spending time on the budget, politicians crafted a bill that would apply new rules and regulations on trampoline safety that would add thousands of dollars in costs for equipment, travel and overtime for inspections.
Springfield lawmakers are still skirting their constitutional responsibility to pass a balanced budget, and a few of them have instead been focusing their attention somewhere else: trampoline regulation.
State Rep. Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, introduced House Bill 3897 – the Trampoline Safety Act – in February with cosponsors Laura Fine, D-Glenview, Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook and Robert Martwick Jr., D-Chicago. The bill provides for the adoption of new Department of Labor rules and regulations, including registration and inspection of trampoline courts, as well as requirements for use by patrons. It would also amend the State Finance Act and create a “Trampoline Court Safety Fund.”
Trampoline courts, as defined by HB 3897 are any “commercial facility with a defined area composed of one or more trampolines, a series of trampolines, a trampoline court foam pit, or a series of trampoline court foam pits.” This excludes things such as playgrounds operated by a school or local government, inflatable rides and bounce houses, physical rehabilitation and exercise facilities and gymnastic training facilities. But it creates brand new bureaucratic authorities and regulations seemingly without any major demand.
If the bill passes, the Department of Revenue will need to purchase thousands of dollars worth of new inspection equipment and pay travel and overtime for the new required inspections.
Under HB 3897, the director of the Department of Labor “shall adopt and formulate definitions, rules, and regulations for the safe installation, repair, maintenance, use, operation, and inspection of all trampoline courts as the director dins necessary for the protection of the general public using trampoline courts.” This also gives the Department of Labor the ability to establish fees for initial registration or renewal of registration of trampoline courts and deposit those fees in the Trampoline Court Safety Fund. The bill passed out of committee 5-3-1 on partisan lines and could be called for a vote on the House floor.
The legislative priorities of lawmakers – who adjourned April 11 for their spring break without passing a balanced budget – are out of whack. While lawmakers ignore the drivers of Illinois’ financial crisis and the state’s mounting backlog of bills, taxpayers and social service providers continue to suffer. Pay for social service providers remains delayed, while politicians – thanks to their own doing – get paid first. And taxpayers struggling with the nation’s highest tax burden are not being offered many signs of relief.
Instead of focusing on regulating trampolines, lawmakers should jump at the idea of enacting economic reforms that can change the trajectory of the state. As part of a balanced budget, passing a true, permanent property tax freeze and ending costly state subsides to local governments would be two ways lawmakers could give Illinoisans confidence that they are serious in turning the state around. Regulating trampolines is not.
State Rep. Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, introduced House Bill 3897 – the Trampoline Safety Act – in February with cosponsors Laura Fine, D-Glenview, Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook and Robert Martwick Jr., D-Chicago. The bill provides for the adoption of new Department of Labor rules and regulations, including registration and inspection of trampoline courts, as well as requirements for use by patrons. It would also amend the State Finance Act and create a “Trampoline Court Safety Fund.”
Trampoline courts, as defined by HB 3897 are any “commercial facility with a defined area composed of one or more trampolines, a series of trampolines, a trampoline court foam pit, or a series of trampoline court foam pits.” This excludes things such as playgrounds operated by a school or local government, inflatable rides and bounce houses, physical rehabilitation and exercise facilities and gymnastic training facilities. But it creates brand new bureaucratic authorities and regulations seemingly without any major demand.
If the bill passes, the Department of Revenue will need to purchase thousands of dollars worth of new inspection equipment and pay travel and overtime for the new required inspections.
Under HB 3897, the director of the Department of Labor “shall adopt and formulate definitions, rules, and regulations for the safe installation, repair, maintenance, use, operation, and inspection of all trampoline courts as the director dins necessary for the protection of the general public using trampoline courts.” This also gives the Department of Labor the ability to establish fees for initial registration or renewal of registration of trampoline courts and deposit those fees in the Trampoline Court Safety Fund. The bill passed out of committee 5-3-1 on partisan lines and could be called for a vote on the House floor.
The legislative priorities of lawmakers – who adjourned April 11 for their spring break without passing a balanced budget – are out of whack. While lawmakers ignore the drivers of Illinois’ financial crisis and the state’s mounting backlog of bills, taxpayers and social service providers continue to suffer. Pay for social service providers remains delayed, while politicians – thanks to their own doing – get paid first. And taxpayers struggling with the nation’s highest tax burden are not being offered many signs of relief.
Instead of focusing on regulating trampolines, lawmakers should jump at the idea of enacting economic reforms that can change the trajectory of the state. As part of a balanced budget, passing a true, permanent property tax freeze and ending costly state subsides to local governments would be two ways lawmakers could give Illinoisans confidence that they are serious in turning the state around. Regulating trampolines is not.
DEAR READER:
To make informed decisions, the public must receive the unbiased truth. Unfortunately, that isn’t what we often get out of our elected officials or the legacy media. At the Illinois Policy Institute, that is something we are going to fix.
We are an independent nonprofit consisting of more than 20 writers and policy experts. Our mission is to generate public policy solutions that promote personal freedom and prosperity in Illinois.
- We have produced the only viable plan to balance the state budget while also reducing the tax burden placed on residents like you.
- Our work is consumed by more than 500,000 Illinoisans each month, free of charge.
- We are funded solely by the support of the general public. We receive no government dollars.
But to continue to provide unbiased reporting and viable policy solutions, we need your support.
If you want to see a more prosperous Illinois for your family and friends, please take a minute to help make a difference. Thank you.
Maybe this can help you stay alive
Republican Precinct Committeeman and Will County Board Member Gretchen Fritz is a Concealed Carry Instructor at Safer USA wrote an interesting article for the latest edition of The Illinois Shooter on the common misperceptions that her students had towards concealed carry. Here it is. A must read: “Not-So-Common Sense for Concealed Carry 
By Gretchen A. Fritz April 2017
I have been involved with teaching Illinois concealed carry for SAFER USA since the state police authorized us to start teaching it, which was October of 2013. In that time SAFER USA has educated over 1000 students about the big concepts and finer points of concealed carry.
We prefer students arrive with open minds, ready to be filled with knowledge. But many come to class with some preconceived ideas that are not accurate and that do not contribute to their safety. To be honest, some of these ideas are so ludicrous that it is by sheer luck that these individuals have lived this long and are able to attend a concealed carry class at this point.
Whether or not you have already taken an Illinois concealed carry class, if I can re-educate you, maybe I can help you stay alive. We take great care to encourage questions and to answer them with the best facts we can find, dispelling the myths that people too often believe. So here are some statements students have actually made in class.
“My town is safe (and I basically never leave my town).” There is no such thing as a 100% safe town. Suburbs and parts of Chicago that were previously thought to be “safe” have been experiencing never-before-seen crimes lately. A man was murdered in his car in a school parking lot in Naperville at the end of January. Three people were shot and wounded in a parking garage in the Gold Coast, also in late January.
In November 2016 two men kidnapped a rideshare driver in Glen Ellyn and forced him to withdraw money from ATMs. A man from Skokie committed an armed robbery at a Target store in Plainfield last August; that one hit close to home. So don’t tell me you live in a safe town. Bad stuff happens pretty much everywhere, and you never know when it will be in your town.
“I don’t plan to carry all the time.” Carrying occasionally is basically pointless. You cannot possibly know when you will need a gun. The very nature of crimes, terrorist attacks and mentally unstable people committing mass shootings in public places is that they are unexpected. If someone knew these things were going to happen, they would have been prevented. To the credit of law enforcement in this country, many of these incidents have been prevented, but 100% prevention is not attainable.
If more people carried all the time, mall and movie theater shootings would be rarer and would be cut short by “sheepdogs” when they did occur. (Lt. Col. David Grossman coined the term “sheepdogs” for people who protect others: law enforcement officers, soldiers and people who carry concealed weapons.) Carrying occasionally will give you a false sense of security when you do carry, but you will be less mentally and physically prepared than someone who carries all the time. It is my experience that when you carry a gun, your situational awareness is heightened. So you are more likely to detect that a situation just doesn’t feel right and either leave the situation or alert law enforcement than someone who does not carry.
“Cook County is so anti-Second Amendment that I will be prosecuted if I defend myself with a firearm.” There is no denying that Cook County is anti-Second Amendment. That’s a fact. Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy gave many interviews about the problems he expected to come with legal concealed carry. Sheriff Tom Dart and Mayor Rahm Emanuel didn’t hold back either. But it is also a fact that not one single concealed carry self-defense incident in Illinois has resulted in prosecution of the law-abiding citizen who defended himself or others.
The first two uses of Illinois concealed carry for self-defense happened in July of 2014, one in West Pullman and one in Crestwood. In April 2015 an Uber driver shot a man who was shooting into a crowd on a Friday night in Logan Square. In October 2015 a man who was committing an armed robbery at a Gage Park corner store was shot and killed by a man with concealed carry. Not one of these four sheepdogs has been prosecuted despite all the incidents taking place in Cook County.
Even back when Chicago still had a handgun ban, many homeowners who used guns in self-defense against home invasions were not charged or prosecuted for violating the ban. So I think we have enough evidence to show that even Cook County is a good place for concealed carry.
“If I get pulled over by a police officer, s/he will find out that I have concealed carry and will give me a hard time (or will be anxious or will take some other undesirable action).” I can’t say that none of these things will ever happen, but I will tell you that most police officers support concealed carry. A 2013 PoliceOne survey of 15,000 police officers revealed that 91 percent of them support law-abiding citizens carrying concealed. They know that they simply can’t be everywhere to prevent every crime.
They also know that the primary responsibility to keep you safe is yours. In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Castle Rock v. Gonzales that police have no specific constitutional duty to protect persons from harm. The smart ones will also consider that three or four background checks have been run on you in the past three years or less in order for you to have gotten an Illinois concealed carry license. People who have concealed carry are the crème de la crème of law-abiding citizens! You are actually the last person a police officer needs to worry about, and I think most of them intuitively know that.
“I won’t carry my gun with a round in the chamber.” I immediately know two things about the person who says this. The first is that you don’t trust your gun. Why would you want to carry a gun that you don’t trust? It is highly unlikely that a modern firearm will go off accidentally, like by being dropped, for example. I once dropped my Glock on my driveway from a height of about three feet. Nothing happened, just as I would expect.
The second thing I know is that you don’t know anything about what will happen when your life is threatened and you need to use your gun for self-defense. Because when your life is being threatened, you will get a dump of adrenaline, also known as the fight or flight response. When that happens, your fine motor skills don’t work as well because your hands shake big time. So while you are shaking, now you need to cycle the slide of your firearm, which you will not be able to do. As it turns out, you have been carrying a paperweight around rather than a gun with which you can defend yourself.
It is absolutely imperative that the 2A community applies logic to the keeping and bearing of arms, concealed carry specifically. The illogical beliefs that the Second Amendment is outdated, that carrying guns in public, legally, is somehow dangerous and that people who carry concealed will turn into irrational hotheads and kill people over parking spots must constantly be refuted. We cannot let the gun controllers or the criminals win simply because we did not educate ourselves about the actual facts of self-defense and concealed carry.”
“Reprint permission is granted provided that appropriate credit is given in the form of the statement: “Reprinted from The Illinois Shooter.”
By Gretchen A. Fritz April 2017
I have been involved with teaching Illinois concealed carry for SAFER USA since the state police authorized us to start teaching it, which was October of 2013. In that time SAFER USA has educated over 1000 students about the big concepts and finer points of concealed carry.
We prefer students arrive with open minds, ready to be filled with knowledge. But many come to class with some preconceived ideas that are not accurate and that do not contribute to their safety. To be honest, some of these ideas are so ludicrous that it is by sheer luck that these individuals have lived this long and are able to attend a concealed carry class at this point.
Whether or not you have already taken an Illinois concealed carry class, if I can re-educate you, maybe I can help you stay alive. We take great care to encourage questions and to answer them with the best facts we can find, dispelling the myths that people too often believe. So here are some statements students have actually made in class.
“My town is safe (and I basically never leave my town).” There is no such thing as a 100% safe town. Suburbs and parts of Chicago that were previously thought to be “safe” have been experiencing never-before-seen crimes lately. A man was murdered in his car in a school parking lot in Naperville at the end of January. Three people were shot and wounded in a parking garage in the Gold Coast, also in late January.
In November 2016 two men kidnapped a rideshare driver in Glen Ellyn and forced him to withdraw money from ATMs. A man from Skokie committed an armed robbery at a Target store in Plainfield last August; that one hit close to home. So don’t tell me you live in a safe town. Bad stuff happens pretty much everywhere, and you never know when it will be in your town.
“I don’t plan to carry all the time.” Carrying occasionally is basically pointless. You cannot possibly know when you will need a gun. The very nature of crimes, terrorist attacks and mentally unstable people committing mass shootings in public places is that they are unexpected. If someone knew these things were going to happen, they would have been prevented. To the credit of law enforcement in this country, many of these incidents have been prevented, but 100% prevention is not attainable.
If more people carried all the time, mall and movie theater shootings would be rarer and would be cut short by “sheepdogs” when they did occur. (Lt. Col. David Grossman coined the term “sheepdogs” for people who protect others: law enforcement officers, soldiers and people who carry concealed weapons.) Carrying occasionally will give you a false sense of security when you do carry, but you will be less mentally and physically prepared than someone who carries all the time. It is my experience that when you carry a gun, your situational awareness is heightened. So you are more likely to detect that a situation just doesn’t feel right and either leave the situation or alert law enforcement than someone who does not carry.
“Cook County is so anti-Second Amendment that I will be prosecuted if I defend myself with a firearm.” There is no denying that Cook County is anti-Second Amendment. That’s a fact. Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy gave many interviews about the problems he expected to come with legal concealed carry. Sheriff Tom Dart and Mayor Rahm Emanuel didn’t hold back either. But it is also a fact that not one single concealed carry self-defense incident in Illinois has resulted in prosecution of the law-abiding citizen who defended himself or others.
The first two uses of Illinois concealed carry for self-defense happened in July of 2014, one in West Pullman and one in Crestwood. In April 2015 an Uber driver shot a man who was shooting into a crowd on a Friday night in Logan Square. In October 2015 a man who was committing an armed robbery at a Gage Park corner store was shot and killed by a man with concealed carry. Not one of these four sheepdogs has been prosecuted despite all the incidents taking place in Cook County.
Even back when Chicago still had a handgun ban, many homeowners who used guns in self-defense against home invasions were not charged or prosecuted for violating the ban. So I think we have enough evidence to show that even Cook County is a good place for concealed carry.
“If I get pulled over by a police officer, s/he will find out that I have concealed carry and will give me a hard time (or will be anxious or will take some other undesirable action).” I can’t say that none of these things will ever happen, but I will tell you that most police officers support concealed carry. A 2013 PoliceOne survey of 15,000 police officers revealed that 91 percent of them support law-abiding citizens carrying concealed. They know that they simply can’t be everywhere to prevent every crime.
They also know that the primary responsibility to keep you safe is yours. In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Castle Rock v. Gonzales that police have no specific constitutional duty to protect persons from harm. The smart ones will also consider that three or four background checks have been run on you in the past three years or less in order for you to have gotten an Illinois concealed carry license. People who have concealed carry are the crème de la crème of law-abiding citizens! You are actually the last person a police officer needs to worry about, and I think most of them intuitively know that.
“I won’t carry my gun with a round in the chamber.” I immediately know two things about the person who says this. The first is that you don’t trust your gun. Why would you want to carry a gun that you don’t trust? It is highly unlikely that a modern firearm will go off accidentally, like by being dropped, for example. I once dropped my Glock on my driveway from a height of about three feet. Nothing happened, just as I would expect.
The second thing I know is that you don’t know anything about what will happen when your life is threatened and you need to use your gun for self-defense. Because when your life is being threatened, you will get a dump of adrenaline, also known as the fight or flight response. When that happens, your fine motor skills don’t work as well because your hands shake big time. So while you are shaking, now you need to cycle the slide of your firearm, which you will not be able to do. As it turns out, you have been carrying a paperweight around rather than a gun with which you can defend yourself.
It is absolutely imperative that the 2A community applies logic to the keeping and bearing of arms, concealed carry specifically. The illogical beliefs that the Second Amendment is outdated, that carrying guns in public, legally, is somehow dangerous and that people who carry concealed will turn into irrational hotheads and kill people over parking spots must constantly be refuted. We cannot let the gun controllers or the criminals win simply because we did not educate ourselves about the actual facts of self-defense and concealed carry.”
“Reprint permission is granted provided that appropriate credit is given in the form of the statement: “Reprinted from The Illinois Shooter.”
God Bless Everyone and Their Families
This Easter “Be Not Afraid”
Easter is the most important day of the year for Christians.
On Easter, Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Christians believe that Jesus Christ was crucified, died, and was buried; and that Christ rose from the dead – that all may have eternal life with God the Father in heaven.
At the heart of Christianity is this act of God’s love for humanity. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16
As we commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we should remember the many threats facing Christians today.
Christianity is under siege on two fronts. On one front, it faces a growing secularism, which seeks to place human desires ahead of God and His will.
On the other front, radical Islamism seeks to destroy Christianity across the globe.
We were reminded of this just days ago on Palm Sunday as Coptic Christian churches in Egypt were attacked and Christians were killed. This Easter we should remember and pray for those who lost their lives in these heinous attacks.
It is horrifying to watch the spread of ISIS around the world. It is equally horrifying to see Boko Haram’s treatment of Christians, especially young Christian women, in Nigeria, and to witness the countless atrocities committed by radical Islamist groups.
But in the face of this evil, we remember the words of Saint John Paul II, who throughout his papacy urged us to, “Be not afraid.”
In his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, John Paul II reminds us that we have been redeemed. “The power of Christ’s Cross and Resurrection is greater than any evil which man could or should fear,” he wrote.
Easter Sunday is a good day to reflect on the words of Saint John Paul II and remember that the Son of God overcame death so that we may be saved through faith in Him.
No enemy can threaten this gift from Jesus.
We wish you and your family a blessed Easter.
Your Friends,
Newt and Callista
Team Rauner News April 14, 2017
This week Gov. Rauner took to the road to visit Illinoisans across the state – in person – pushing for a balanced budget with real reforms. Here are a few highlights from his trip.
Happy Easter weekend!
– Team Rauner
Happy Easter weekend!
– Team Rauner
THE GOVERNOR MADE STOPS IN 11 CITIES ACROSS THE STATE
ROBINSON: “There’s no reason, no excuse, for us not to have a balanced budget” – Gov. Rauner
ROBINSON: “There’s no reason, no excuse, for us not to have a balanced budget” – Gov. Rauner
Gov. Rauner said it’s time to “stop the duct tape solutions” and fix what’s broken in Illinois.
QUAD CITIES: “This is about whether we are going to be on the track of prosperity with outstanding economic opportunity for everybody and a great education system for everybody so our children have a better future in Illinois.” – Gov. Rauner
SPRINGFIELD: “We’re talking about all the important changes we’re making in Illinois to make a strong and proud, prosperous and a better future for our children and grandchildren.” – Gov. Rauner
CHICAGO: A renewed push to end the stopgap fixes and create longterm change for Illinois. Watch Recap Video Here.
Why ISIS Declared War on Egypt's Christians
The group has been exporting Iraq-style sectarian tactics to the Arab world’s most populous country.
When the ISIS claim of responsibility came within hours of the attacks, it wasn’t a surprise. For months, the Islamic State has been accelerating the import of Iraq-style sectarian tactics to Egypt. In doing so, the group hopes to destabilize the Middle East’s most populous country and expand the reach of its by now clearly genocidal project for the region’s minorities.
Egyptian authorities have thus far been unable to keep up with this escalating threat. This may be largely due to their own incompetence, but it also reflects the increasing sophistication of ISIS assets directed at Egypt. As the group goes on the defensive elsewhere, mainland Egypt is too attractive a potential front in its jihad to pass up. It appears that the group is now focusing more time, resources, and most importantly ISIS talent on Egypt, making the situation likely to worsen in the future.
Targeting Egypt’s Christians is a cold and calculated strategy for the group. ISIS hopes that inflaming sectarian strife in Egypt will be the first step in the country’s unraveling. Several explosions have rocked Cairo and the Delta since 2013, carried out by both ISIS and its precursor group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which pledged its allegiance to Raqqa in 2014. Yet despite this, Islamic State efforts had before now largely floundered in mainland Egypt—where nearly 97 percent of the population resides—due in part to the strength of the central government, the amateur nature of Islamic State assets, and perhaps most importantly, the relative cohesiveness of Egyptian society. The group has fared much better in the remote North Sinai, where it has killed over a thousand government troops in recent years, but the area is simply too far away from Cairo to constitute an existential threat to the government.
ISIS has taken the radical step of positing that Christians are to Egypt what the Shia are to Iraq, embracing the position that they can be killed indiscriminately and for no reason other than for what they believe. Since the December 2016 Cairo church bombing, the group’s supporters online have been forcefully pushing this notion, claiming that the Christians of Egypt were first and foremost polytheists and that due to the “treachery” they had showed, by presumably “allying” with the West and the Egyptian government, they had to be killed.
Egyptian ISIS supporters launched an online “Campaign to Surveil Egypt’s Apostates” in order to crowdsource targeting information; they produced crudely made “wanted dead” posters to urge supporters to take action. A glimpse of the possible implications was on display last February, when hundreds of Christians in North Sinai fled their homes in panic after seven Christians were brutally murdered by IS fighters.
The strategy is in reality not the result of an ideological revision inside ISIS. And its implementation has serious repercussions for Egypt’s security, and if successful, for regional stability. For years members of the group, and jihadis in general, have struggled with the important question of why jihad has failed in mainland Egypt. The question is fundamental for the group not only because of Egypt’s size, but also because it tests whether the jihadi project can succeed in countries not already torn by civil war or hopelessly destabilized.
One 2014 jihadi “study” by an ISIS ideologue, Abu Mawdud al-Harmasy, is instructive. Titled “The Secret of The Egyptian Enigma,” the author first laments that Egyptian Muslims are like cattle for not understanding “the reality of the struggle,” before offering his “keys for jihadi success.” Among them is “sectarian killing of Christians” in order to inflame certain rural areas, and “most importantly targeting directly every Christian without exceptions.” He goes on to say that inflaming sectarian strife will be the key to “revealing the reality of the conflict and [inciting] the latent feelings of the Muslims towards their [Christian] creed;” to him, only after targeting minorities happened in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen did jihad take hold in those places. The author concludes with this exhortation: “Do not leave any infidel Christian in Egypt until you threatened their life.” In recent months in Egypt ISIS has also begun to take a similar tone toward Sufis, who constitute a large share of Muslims in Egypt, North Africa, and elsewhere, decapitating two Sufi clerics in Sinai and forcing others to “repent.”
It is unlikely that this strategy will succeed the way ISIS envisions in Egypt, but the attempt to implement it will leave a trail of destruction that will primarily devastate Egypt’s Christian minority. The group’s genocidal program may perhaps backfire as it did for their jihadi predecessors of the 1980s and 1990s, whose wanton killing of civilians dried up any base of popular support. But as the ISIS ideologue al-Harmasy hints, there is deep-rooted sectarianism in Egyptian society that has been fanned by Islamists for decades, to which government policies have also contributed. Egypt, like many other states in the region, still enforces blasphemy laws, places discriminatory restrictions on the building of churches, and fails to prosecute sectarian offenders, while Islamists continue to spew hate against minorities unchecked. Sectarianism wouldn’t have worked so well for ISIS in Egypt, or elsewhere before it, had the group not found an ideological context where its radical ideas could thrive.
News From on Gun Rights April 8, 2017
 |
|
|
| NRA-ILA GRASSROOTS VOLUME 24, NUMBER 14 |
|
|
|
||
| On Friday, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Neil M. Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Gorsuch’s nomination was heavily backed by the NRA, both because of the pro-Second Amendment views expressed in his judicial writings and his originalist approach to jurisprudence. Justice Antonin Scalia exemplified originalism in his landmark Heller opinion in 2008 that recognized the Second Amendment protects an individual right grounded in the principle of self-defense. |
|
||
| On Thursday, Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-WV) introduced the “Protecting the Second Amendment Act,” H.R. 1976. This legislation would amend the Gun Control Act (GCA) to permanently prohibit executive actions like the Southwestern Border states’ rifle sales reporting initiative launched under the Obama administration. The bill states that no federal firearm licensee (FFL) could be subject to any generalized or ongoing reporting requirement based on the FFL’s geographic location or on sales of multiple long guns. |
|
||
| The U.S. and Canada share much, not the least of which are a common colonial heritage and a robust appreciation for the outdoors. Unfortunately, it appears Canadian public health researchers and gun control advocates share a regrettable distinction with their U.S. counterparts; a willingness to use misleading statistics on childhood firearms-related injuries to advance an anti-gun agenda. |
|
||
| We’ve covered – and debunked – the claims that firearms sales are significantly declining under the Trump Administration. The latest FBI report on NICS checks for March 2017 should help put any lingering claims about the “Trump Slump” to bed. |
|
||
| Join NRA-ILA Grassroots Director Glen Caroline during NRA’s Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Atlanta, Georgia, for a FREE briefing on NRA-ILA’s grassroots successes in the 2016 elections and how those lessons learned can be applied to defending your rights moving ahead. Glen will also be discussing modifications & improvements to NRA-ILA’s Grassroots programs to better meet the needs of today’s Second Amendment activists. |
|
||
| All college students and recent graduates are welcome to join NRA-ILA Grassroots staff for our third annual Collegiate Leadership Conference during NRA’s Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Atlanta, Georgia (admission is FREE). In addition to Grassroots staff, attendees will hear from a panel of pro-gun student activists who will share their successes in organizing in support of the Second Amendment on campus. Participants will also have the chance to network with other students, build a regional activism plan, and talk with NRA-ILA staff about job opportunities. |
|
||
| The Annual National Firearms Law Seminar will be held on Friday, April 28, 2017 as part of the NRA Annual Meetings. The gold standard in firearms law classes, this day-long seminar provides legal instruction for attorneys and all others interested in Second Amendment law. CLE credit for all states is available. |
|
|
| VIDEOS |
|
|
|
||
| NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox delivers a message to the members of the mainstream media: The NRA will expose your attempts to use the First Amendment to destroy the Second Amendment. Cox also comments on the NRA’s recent victory in the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. |
|
||
| Wayne LaPierre explains why the news media has never been less trusted, less credible or less respected. If the fate of freedom had rested in their hands, our nation would have fallen long ago. Instead, Americans placed their faith with the most trusted defender of individual freedom in American history. The National Rifle Association of America is Freedom’s Safest Place. |
|
||
| NRA-ILA’s annual Leadership Forum is one of the most politically significant and popular events in the country, featuring our nation’s top Second Amendment leaders in government, the media, and the entertainment industry. The Forum is also a must-stop for candidates seeking the highest levels of elected office – including governor, congressman, Senator, or President of the United States. |
|
||
| The 146th NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Atlanta, Georgia will be attended by over 80,000 patriots, feature 800+ exhibitors, and include a jam-packed schedule of seminars, workshops, special events and celebrity meet and greets! You don’t want to miss out on this exciting celebration of freedom. |
|
||
| Connected by their commitment to freedom, women from all walks of life come together at the NRA Women’s Leadership Forum Luncheon & Auction. The Women’s Leadership Forum is a coalition of philanthropic women united with the mission of infusing new enthusiasm, new excitement, new leaders and new opportunities into the fight for Second Amendment freedoms. Please join the Women’s Leadership Forum Co-Chairs Susan LaPierre and Janet Nyce for an exciting day of auctions, food and entertainment. Held on Friday, April 28 at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia, the 11th Annual Women’s Leadership Forum Luncheon & Auction will be the best event yet! |
|
||
| NRA Country is known for delivering great country music entertainment, and this year will not disappoint! Come hear Chris Janson, Josh Thompson, Lindsay Ell, and Cary Barlowe tell the stories behind their songs, and get a glimpse of what it’s like to be a songwriter in Nashville. |
|
|
| STATE GRASSROOTS ROUND-UP |
|
|
 |
California California: “Shall Issue” Legislation Defeated in Committee |
 |
Florida Florida Action Report! 6 Wins for Gun Owners on Wednesday 4/5-7/2017 |
 |
Nevada Free NRA-ILA Grassroots Meetings in Nevada |
Illinois Democrats Line Up to Run for Governor Written by John Biver From IFA
Illinois Democrats Line Up to Run for Governor
Written by John Biver From IFA
Twenty months is a long time in politics. Like it or not, here in Illinois, that is how long the campaign for governor will be. In November 2018, Illinoisans will once again be going to the polls to elect or re-elect someone to run the executive branch — and that race is already underway. There are five Democrats who have announced their candidacy, and several more are rumored to be considering a run.
On the Republican side, it is assumed that Republican Governor Bruce Rauner will stand for reelection. And as of yet he doesn’t appear to have any primary challengers. If Rauner is the GOP nominee, the election will obviously be a referendum on his leadership. With the continuing budget and fiscal crisis in Illinois, Rauner has a lot of work to do to regain the trust of the voters.
Headlines such as this are common these days: “Rauner job-approval rating hits record low.”
Rauner and his fellow Republicans have spent the last two years making the very public case that Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) is the problem. The real problem, however, is that though Mike Madigan’s approval ratings are worse than Rauner’s, Madigan isn’t running for governor.
Who is running? In alphabetical order, here are the declared Democratic candidates:
- Daniel Biss of Evanston, math teacher, former state representative, currently a state senator.
- Bob Daiber of Marine, former teacher, current Madison County Regional Superintendent of Schools.
- Chris Kennedy of Kenilworth, a real estate investor, former Chairman of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees and member of the Kennedy family.
- Alex Paterakis of Vernon Hills, civil engineer and business owner.
- Ameya Pawar of Chicago, where he is an alderman.
Among those also considering a run:
- Robin Kelly (D-Chicago) U.S. Representative from the 2nd Congressional District.
- J. B. Pritzker, billionaire venture capitalist, philanthropist and attorney from Chicago.
- Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago) State Senator from the 13th Senate District.
In this article we’ll introduce state State Senator Daniel Biss. Future articles will introduce the other candidates listed above.
State Senator Daniel Biss
Daniel Biss is young — only 39. He lives in Evanston with his wife and two children. He holds degrees from Harvard and MIT, and has taught math at the University of Chicago. He served a term in the Illinois state house before moving to the senate in 2013.
Biss has been a critic of both Governor Rauner and Speaker Madigan. The Rauner criticism is to be expected. The Chicago Tribune’s Rick Pearson reported some of what Biss has said about Madigan:
Asked directly in a Facebook question about Madigan, who is Rauner’s chief political nemesis, Biss sought to create some distance from the House speaker, who also chairs the state Democratic Party.
“I’ve been clear for a long time that Madigan’s been there too long,” Biss said. Madigan has been speaker for 32 of the past 34 years. Biss noted that he early on sponsored a measure to limit how long a legislative leader can serve.
At the same time, Biss said focusing on clashing personalities in Springfield such as Madigan and Rauner helps obscure the need for a comprehensive plan to restore Illinois’ economy and finances.
On the latter note, Biss has been published in academic journals such as the Annals of Mathematics. Might someone who understands math be just what Illinois needs to fix the fiscal mess? A statement announcing his candidacy included this:
“Daniel isn’t a millionaire or part of any political machine. As a math professor and legislator, Daniel has spent his career finding solutions to complex problems.”
Spending too much money and over-promising lavish benefits and pensions for public sector workers isn’t complex, but it is a math problem. While understanding mathematics is not the same as understanding economics, it can be helpful.
In the video on his homepage, Biss says that Illinois’ fiscal problems are solvable. We get more than a hint about his “big idea” solution: “millionaires and billionaires are not paying their fair share – so the burden is shifted to the rest of us” … “it’s time to make the billionaires pay.”
After reading that, few will be surprised to learn that according to news reports, Biss is competing for votes in the “progressive wing” of the Democratic Party. We all know what that means: he’s all in on the radical left-wing Democratic Party Platform.
“We’re building a movement more powerful than money and the machine,” his website says, “Join us.”
Feel the Bern?
Also from his website:
“People across Illinois are hurting, and it’s time to be honest about why. For too long, the rich, special interests and political insiders have made decisions about us, without us. They have set up a system that benefits them, and the rest of us are paying the price.”
Earlier this year, Senator Biss introduced a resolution condemning the temporary refugee order signed by President Donald Trump, calling it “cruel, unnecessary, and bigoted…”. Biss’ resolution also called Trump’s temporary ban “malicious and arbitrary.”
During the previous session of the Illinois General Assembly (2015-2016), Senator Biss voted to support legislation to force pro-life medical workers to give referrals to abortion providers (SB 1564), and he also voted to support legislation censoring professional therapists from counseling minors who struggle with same-sex attraction and gender confusion (HB 217).
In 2013, Senator Biss voted to support legislation to redefine marriage (SB 10), to legalize “medical” marijuana (HB 1), and to mandate that public schools, grades 6-12 teach “comprehensive sex education.” To his credit, however, he did vote against gambling expansion and a Chicago casino in 2013.
Recently, Senator Biss applauded legislation to legalize recreational marijuana in Illinois, saying:
It’s the right criminal justice policy, it’s right from the point of view of fairness, and it’s right for the state’s bottom line.
The state senate seat that Daniel Biss holds is up for reelection in 2018, so he will have to choose which office to run for as the filing deadlines approach later this year.
Trump News April 14, 2017
FEATURED
WHITE HOUSE MEMO
This is a season of hope for millions of Americans. This week, Jewish families celebrate Passover and retell the story of God’s deliverance of the Jewish people. This Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ and the promise of eternal salvation. America is a Nation of believers. As long as we have faith in each other, and trust in God, we will succeed!
OVAL OFFICE HIGHLIGHTS
President Donald J. Trump meets with I-85 bridge first responders.
Read More
President Trump signs H.J.Res. 67 into law.
Read More
President Trump signs H.J.Res. 43 into law.
Read More
Read More
President Trump signs H.J.Res. 67 into law.
Read More
President Trump signs H.J.Res. 43 into law.
Read More
WHITE HOUSE UPDATES
Photo of the Day:
Spring flowers outside the South Portico of the White House on April 12th, 2017. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead).
View Photo
Retweet
Retweet
President Trump Welcomes NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg to the White House.
Read More
Spring flowers outside the South Portico of the White House on April 12th, 2017. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead).
View Photo
Retweet
Retweet
President Trump Welcomes NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg to the White House.
Read More
PRESS ROOM
NEWS REPORTS
