Stiff fight at O'Hare

Opponents of Chicago O'Hare Airport expansion (and they are quite a body) aren't taking their latest defeat lying down.

They have vowed a stiff fight against a court ruling that killed their latest bid to block a growth plan for the nation's number two airport, an expansion that would force the relocation of a suburban cemetery. The owners of the burial ground joined with Chicago suburbs that have fought O'Hare growth for more than a decade, arguing that if they were compelled to move the 157-year-old cemetery, it would constitute a grave violation of their religious rights.

The appeals court disagreed, saying that the FAA wasn't the one compelling the resting-place relocation. The government was really only approving Chicago officials' plans to do so. One judge questioned the suburbs' standing to sue, but folks in Bensenville, the leading O'Hare opponent, have vowed to fight to the last man standing (or lying?). The case, they vow, is far from dead.