MONEE – U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. presided over a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony Saturday for a third Chicago-area airport that he wants to see built in the southern suburbs, touting the project as a path toward thousands of badly needed jobs. Protesters gathered nearby to oppose the plan, which they said threatened livelihoods of the area's farmers.

Wearing a hardhat and standing on the back of a flatbed truck, Jackson said the project would lift the economy of Chicago's struggling southern suburbs. He was accompanied by several pastors who delivered a blessing of the farmland in the footprint of the proposed airport.

"We have found ... developers who are willing to put up $700 million of their own dollars and backed by a guarantee from the government of Canada," Jackson said in remarks broadcast by WBBM Radio. "And they want to be on this land by June 1 of this year. ... Together, we can and we will build our future."