Thomson News

A panel of Illinois lawmakers could make a decision after another hearing is held in Chicago on Jan.

Lawmakers have refused a White House bid for money to buy an Illinois prison where Guantanamo Bay terrorism detainees would be moved, The New York Times says.

Obama's dwindling band of true believers has taken heart that their man has finally delivered on one of his many promisesa 'the closing of the Guantanamo prison.

Testimony at Illinois' Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability's public hearing at Sterling High School on Tuesday lasted nearly 7 hours and drew passionate words from supporters and detractors alike.

This town has waited eight years for its prison to open. Families have come and gone.

Protesters gather outside a Illinois legislative hearing Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009 in Sterling, Ill.

Hundreds of new jobs? Sounds good. An influx of wages rippling through the area economy? Sounds good.

Does the federal government have the money it needs to close Guantanamo Bay prison and move suspected terrorists to Illinois? The New York Times says the Federal Bureau of Prisons doesn't have the cash to make the move happen and Democratic leaders of the House Appropriations Committee are refusing to earmark new money to buy and update the prison.

Remarks from Jack Lavin, Gov. Pat Quinn's representative at the hearing: Perimeter fencing and internal security upgrades would make Thomson the most secure federal prison in the United States.

THOMSON – Far from sleepy Illinois Highway 84 and the mostly empty prison, the Pentagon and Justice Department are drawing up plans to build a new security perimeter and send in federal marshals if President Barack Obama's administration succeeds in moving detainees here from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A sign directs prisoners to sit down when shots are fired in the main yard during a media tour of the Thomson Correctional Center Tuesday, Dec.

The first state hearing regarding the plan to move Guantanamo detainees to a prison in Thomson, Illinois takes place Tuesday afternoon.

A public hearing Tuesday on the conversion of an Illinois prison into a detention center for Guantanamo detainees could prove contentious, as supporters and opponents face off over the controversial White House plan.

The Obama administration says moving detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a prison in Thomson, Illinois, will create about 3,000 jobs in the region.

By transferring terror detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Thomson, Ill., President Obama plans to exchange security for a vague hope of removing just one of the numerous incentives terrorists have invented to justify attacking us.

The U.S. has transferred a dozen Guantanamo detainees to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region as the Obama administration continues to move captives out of the Cuban facility in preparation for its closure.

A guard tower and prison yard at the Thomson Correctional Center in November. Take our Poll The new Gitmo Do you believe it is a wise choice to house suspected terrorists at the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois? WASHINGTON - President Obama is moving dozens of Islamic terrorists from Gitmo to Thomson, Ill.

Congressman Phil Hare today released the following statement in response to the White Houses announcement that the federal government will acquire Thomson Correctional Center.

The United States freed a dozen men from Guantanamo this week -- including one of the last captives sent there by the Bush administration -- in a mission that dropped detainees off in Yemen, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa.

A new subdivision, more restaurants and retail stores could all be in Clinton's future after the Obama administration made its intentions official Tuesday that it will purchase the near-vacant prison in Thomson.