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US Senate Candidates Meet in Final Debate

The two major candidates for U.S. Senate touched on some new topics in their final joint appearance of the campaign.  Among them: Whether the NFL should keep its tax-exempt status. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said there are rumblings in Congress about changing the league’s classification as a non-profit organization. “Both the NFL and the National Hockey League are tax-exempt,” Durbin said.  “The National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball are not.  Why?  No one can explain why there’s a difference.”

The candidates also touched on space travel during their debate broadcast on public television.  State Sen. Jim Oberweis (R-Sugar Grove), the Republican Senate nominee, says the explosion of a private company’s unmanned craft loaded with supplies for the International Space Station shouldn’t affect the growth of private space flight. “Just because there was one rocket failure shouldn’t invalidate that program," Oberweis said.  “When NASA was running it, we had a much more serious failure.”

Ebola was also a point of discussion. Durbin says he favors close monitoring of passengers and quarantining those at high risk of exposure.  But he disagreed with Oberweis on the need for a travel ban from certain countries where Ebola. "We have to keep the movement of health care workers into West Africa very much in the front burner.  This is when we can stop this disease at its source."

Oberweis says the government has a real responsibility: "to defend us, not only against military challenges  but also against health challenges.  So whatever the government can do to protect us, I'd rather err on the side of caution in this case."
 
The two men clashed over issues such as whether the Affordable Care Act is a success. The candidates did agree on several issues brought up during the Chicago Tonight forum, including a federal law legalizing medical marijuana, and opposing the use of public funds to build the Obama presidential library.

The forum was sponsored by WTTW, Chicago's public TV station.
 

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