Month: January 2011
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Robbery using Pepper Spray (instead of handgun)
Three men attempting to rob a Loop Old Navy store Tuesday by deploying pepper spray fled without stealing anything. Three men entered a retail store at 35 N. State St. about 7 p.m. and one of them deployed pepper spray or a similar chemical agent on three patrons in an attempted robbery, police News Affairs…
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Daley: Giffords Tragedy Show Need for More Gun Laws
Mayor Richard Daley expressed sadness and outrage in the wake of the Arizona shooting rampage, and said the incident is yet more evidence that stronger gun control is needed. … “But unfortunately, events like this happen far too often in America. We have to come back with some common sense gun laws. I mean no…
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Fermilab’s Tevatron Shutting Down
The Tevatron at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will be shut down later this year after the Batavia-based lab failed to win additional funding from the Obama administration. Once the world’s largest atom smasher — technically, a proton-antiproton collider — the Tevatron was scheduled to cease operations this year with the recent startup of a much…
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$5/gal gas? Yes Says Former Shell Exec
NOTE: This story is a few weeks old. 12/28/2010 Gasoline rationing and $5 pump prices are predicted by 2012 for consumers if U.S. politicians don’t get their act together, a former Shell executive said. … John Hofmeister, a former president at Shell Oil, told the Platts news service that energy shortages and record-high gasoline prices…
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O’Hare Bonds Downgraded
The cost of debt is going up because of years of bad management. A major credit rating firm delivered a stern warning Monday regarding the mounting risks that Chicago is taking by going deeper into debt in an attempt to build more runways at O’Hare International Airport without securing financial support from the airlines. Moody’s…
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Convicted But Still on the Payroll
Chicago, the city that works, is also the city that keeps on paying city employees long after they’re convicted of corruption.Nine former city employees were paid a total of $383,205 after they pleaded guilty or were found guilty in corruption cases, records show. (Full story here.) Simply unbelievable. Another clear example of how one no…
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Gas Tax at Work
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The twice-monthly Lundberg Survey has found the price of regular gasoline has risen about nine cents a gallon over three weeks to $3.08. … Lundberg says the highest gas price in the country was recorded in Chicago at $3.35 a gallon. The low, $2.73, was in Salt Lake City, Utah.The survey…
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Parking Meter Analysis
So Monday is the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board review for the Second Ward candidates and as I was having breakfast this morning I got to thinking. How bad really was the parking meter deal? So I started poking around to find out. Ten minutes later I was shocked!! Based on this story here I estimated…
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State Dems Press Ahead on Tax Hikes
Gov. Pat Quinn and top Democrats are pressing forward on a major income-tax increase and a $1-a-pack hike in cigarette taxes. The personal income tax rate would rise from 3 percent to 5.25 percent, Senate President John Cullerton said this evening. The amount tracks with what the Tribune reported today. After four years, it would…
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Media Drops Ball on Taste Proposal
Chicago aldermen responded coolly Tuesday to a lone bidder’s proposal to charge Taste of Chicago patrons a $20 admission fee — and up to $65 for tickets to a music stage that draws the biggest-name talent to the lakefront festival. (Full story here.) This is the whole story; $20 admission & $65 concert tickets. Completely…