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Chicago rail boss commits suicide by train: reports | Reuters Last week, Phil Pagano was put on paid leave by the board of directors of Metra, where he had been executive director for 20 years. A spokeswoman for the cash-strapped agency said Pagano's bonus on top of his $270,000 salary was improper. Metra's board canceled a scheduled meeting and issued a statement announcing Pagano's death. The sheriff in suburban McHenry County said a man had walked in front of an oncoming train in an apparent suicide. Pagano's death follows some recent high-profile suicides of Illinois political figures. Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Michael Scott shot himself to death along the Chicago River in November; and Christopher Kelly, an aide to ousted former state governor Rod Blagojevich, committed suicide in September before he was due to begin a prison term.

Food-stamp tally nears 40 million, sets record | Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 40 million Americans received food stamps -- the latest in an ever-higher string of record enrollment that dates from December 2008 and the U.S. recession, according to a government update.

Lieberman’s Modest Gulag Proposal

CNSNews.com - Gallup Poll: 9 Out of 10 Americans Say Secure the Border This Year (CNSNews.com) - A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted May 1-2 shows that 9 out of 10 Americans say it is moderately to extremely important to them for the federal government to take steps this year to secure the border against illegal immigration. Similarly, 61 percent of Americans say they are very concerned that illegal immigrants are putting an unfair burden on U.S. schools, hospitals, and government services. Gallup asked respondents whether it was extremely important, very important, moderately important, or not that important to them that the U.S. government take steps this year to control the border to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the country. Only 10 percent said it was not that important. Eighty-nine percent said it was moderately to extremely important, with 42 percent saying it was extremely important, 26 percent saying it was very important, and 21 percent saying it was mode...

Why Was Cheney in Saudi Arabia? | Mother Jones [UPDATED] Foreign Policy 's David Kenner pointed out Monday that former vice president and ex-Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney just went on a junket to meet with Saudi Arabian leaders, a quiet pow-wow that's been discussed in the Saudi media but not so much over here. Cheney—who's been busy defending torture and complaining that Barack Obama lets world leaders " think they're dealing with a weak president "—weakened the president by visiting a leading torture regime and its caliph, King Abdullah. So, what was the ex-veep doing in Riyadh?

Joe Lieberman bill would strip suspects' citizenship - Kasie Hunt - POLITICO.com Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) thinks he’s found a work-around on the whole Miranda rights debate for U.S. citizens accused of terrorism: Strip their citizenship and ship them to Guantanamo. Lieberman plans to introduce a bill that would amend a decades-old law aimed at yanking citizenship from U.S. citizens who fight for a foreign military. “I’m now putting together legislation to amend that to [specify that] any individual American citizen who is found to be involved in a foreign terrorist organization, as defined by the Department of State, would be deprived of their citizenship rights,” Lieberman said Tuesday.

Muslim leader says US enemies should leave - Yahoo! News WASHINGTON (AFP) – A leader of the Ahmadiya Islamic minority on Tuesday implored US Muslims who would attack the country to leave, after a Pakistani-American was charged in a car bomb plot. The Ahmadiya, who mostly hail from Pakistan and other South Asian nations, break with mainstream Islam by not believing Mohammed was the last prophet. They also advocate a separation of mosque and state. Naseem Mahdi, the US Ahmadiya community's missionary-in-charge, said that Muslims across the United States faced both economic and social ruin unless they spoke up more loudly against violent elements. "We have to stand up and say that this is nonsense, this is not acceptable to us. If our loyalties are somewhere else, why should we be here and enjoy the benefits of this beautiful country ?" he told a news conference. He denounced US citizens who w...