Republican presidential primary candidate Jon Huntsman said it's time his
party adopt a more progressive stance on a number of issues at the
University of Chicago Thursday evening.
At the event, organized by the
university’s Institute of Politics, the former Utah governor and U.S.
ambassador to China under the Obama administration took questions from
journalist and Fox News contributor Juan Williams as well as the
audience. In his answers, Huntsman described himself as a solid
Republican, but was strongly critical of the direction his party has taken, adding that its doubtful that the GOP will find electoral success in future elections if they do not change.
“The minute we start to divorce fact and
science from our public policy debate, we are adrift,” Huntsman said.
“If Republicans are going to succeed long-term, we have to be the party
of reality.”
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More than 100 protesters descended on the Illinois Statehouse in
Springfield yesterday to rally against a regulatory bill and call for a
moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in Illinois.
Environmental policies in Illinois have pushed the state to be one of
the best ranked in the nation for green initiatives. Most recently,
Illinois ranked fourth in the nation for clean energy and clean
transportation jobs in 2012 by a 
The following was written by Jack Darin, director of the Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter.