Northwest Indiana Discussion

Hundreds of Chicago flood victims seeking to sign up for food assistance lined up early outside a food relief center this morning after "an overwhelming response" forced state officials to turn them away yesterday.

Yesterday's long lines prompted the Illinois Department of Human Services to hand out tickets and ask applicants to come back today. If today's early response is any indication, the agency may have to do the same thing again.

At 5 a.m., hundreds of people were sitting on chairs and under umbrellas at the application center at 4105 W. Chicago Avenue in the West Garfield Park neighborhood.

Other Chicago application centers are in Humboldt Park, Calumet Park, Roseland and Oakland.

To qualify for aid, a person must have had damage to their home or business, disaster-related expenses that were not reimbursed or a loss of income in the period July 22 through August 20.

"We know that thousands of families are in need of food assistance as of result of the July flooding and we are working hard to sign up as many people as we can as quickly as possible," said IDHS Acting Secretary Grace Hong Duffin on Tuesday.

I understand from a few friends of mine whose house was under water that this is what the FEMA line in Munster looked like after the 08 floods.

I didn't realize that area of Munster was so ''diversified''.

A 2-year-old boy who was so severely abused that he had to be hospitalized most of his life is believed to have died of those injuries, officials said today.

Alexander Pearson Jr., who was born May 15, 2008, had been hospitalized since August 2008. He was pronounced dead at 7:20 a.m. Saturday in Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, officials said.

An autopsy conducted Sunday on the child's body by the Cook County medical examiner's office was inconclusive. The final determination of the boy's cause and manner of death was "pending further studies," officials said.

Though the autopsy was inconclusive, officials from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services believe that the boy died because of the abuse he sustained earlier, said Kendall Marlowe, a spokesman for the agency.

Alexander had been living at the Children's Habilitation Center, 121 W. 154th St., Harvey, officials said. The facility is a long-term care hospital for infants and children, according to its Web site.

In August 2008, the boy's father, Alexander Pearson, 23, of the 100 block of West 110th Street, Chicago, was charged with aggravated battery of a child, attempted murder with intent to kill and aggravated domestic battery in the case.

Maybe they will change the charges to include actual murder.

Obama's aunt says US obligated to make her citizen

BOSTON – President Barack Obama's aunt, who lived for years illegally in Boston before being granted asylum in May, said the United States has an "obligation" to grant her citizenship.

"If I come as an immigrant, you have the obligation to make me a citizen," Zeituni Onyango told WBZ-TV in an interview that first aired Monday.

Onyango came to the U.S. from Kenya in 2000 and was denied asylum by an immigration judge in 2004. She was granted asylum earlier this year by the same judge who said she could be in danger if she returned to her homeland.

She said she had intended to return to Kenya but fell critically ill and was hospitalized. When she was discharged, she was penniless and lived in a homeless shelter for two years.

She told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview last December that she was paralyzed for more than three months because of an autoimmune disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome and had to learn to walk again.

"To me, America's dream became America's worst nightmare," she told the TV station in her first interview since being granted asylum.

It was after her illness, she said, that she was assigned public housing.

"I didn't ask for it; they gave it to me," she said.

She said she resented being used to attack her nephew, who has never intervened in her immigration case. "Don't drag my child into it," she said.

She said she feels as if she's been treated as "public enemy No. 1" since her residency status went public.

Onyango, the half sister of Obama's late father, still lives in public housing and collects $700 monthly disability. She doesn't work, but said she volunteers time at the Boys and Girls Club and with the Boston Housing Authority.

I don't feel obligated at all!

and has NEVER, ...EVER...paid a dime into the system.

Typical liberal hatred and name calling.