Chicago MayDay Rally

Big turnout in Chicago yesterday. Sun Times front page here. Check out photo gallery link with pix of Sen. Obama. Main story here. Good story on a neighborhood here. Bystanders interviewed here. Freedom Folks here. Here's a comment in the Tribune:

Sidney Burrus, 44, looked on as marchers traveled slowly through the Loop. Burrus, an unemployed South Side resident, said he could appreciate people speaking up but said they mean increased competition for the same factory job he has been seeking for the last 18 months.

"Everyone has a right to stand up, but I don't feel it's right if they're not legalized Americans," Burrus said. "I feel the ones who are legally in the United States should come first."

Tribune's Eric Zorn has his take here. And Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, new American citizen commented here.

Michelle Malkin has pix from the Left Coast.

UPDATE: Sun Times editorial here. Tribune's from yesterday here.

Another UPDATE: Video by Andrew Marcus who is out in LA. A real eye-opener. Also link to coast to coast video clips. Via Powerline. And this from Captain's Quarters, who analyzed some numbers:

So far it appears that Chicago outdrew Los Angeles, where the protests closed down about a third of the small businesses in the area, according to the AP. However, in a story that will likely have immigration hardliners talking for days, the AP reports that twenty-five percent of the children in the Los Angeles School District failed to attend classes today. After all, LAUSD's annual budget for its 746,000 students is over $13 billion, or about $17,000 per student. If the walkout caused 25% of the students to strike, that puts the annual educational cost for illegal immigrants at around $3.25 billion -- just for Los Angeles.

Here's some info from the Sun Times on Chicago schools. At one school 85% were missing.

UPDATE TO UPDATE: Comment here from Wilmette blog with pix. And in Sun Times, from "You Don't Speak for Me", Peter Nunez.