My Blog

Month: April 2012

  • How to Make More ‘Makers’

    Joey Hudy, a young “maker” from Phoenix went to the White House this week to show off his project, the “Extreme Marshmallow Cannon.” When President Obama saw it, he told Joey: “Let’s try it.” Joey set up the air cannon, which uses a bicycle pump to build up air pressure, and put a marshmallow down…

  • Fioretti: Not So Fast Rahm

    Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to have five financing giants bankroll $1.7 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects ran into opposition Monday from aldermen concerned about “hidden fees” and long-term leasing of city assets. During closed-door briefings with aldermen, sources said Chief Financial Officer Lois Scott stuck to the script and talked only about the $225 million…

  • Illinois Teachers’ Pension Troubles

    It’s important to note that this fund do NOT include CPS teachers. Illinois public school teachers and retirees could have reason to worry about the kinds of pension checks they will be getting down the line.  … The Springfield State-Journal register reported over the weekend that pension director Dick Ingram sent a memo to his…

  • Chinese Driver’s Test — Really!

    If you have ever thought of cruising on the freeways of Shanghai, think again. Beside being considered one of the deadliest countries for drivers, China also appears to have some of the strangest questions in the written test that people need to pass in order to have a driver’s license issued.Some of the questions in…

  • Bogus Chicago-area Jobless Rate Dips

    Lies… Damn Lies… and Statistics: The February unemployment rate in the Chicago area dropped to 8.9 percent from 9.6 percent a year ago, according to preliminary data released Thursday by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The Chicago area, which includes Joliet and Naperville added roughly 38,100 jobs  to the payrolls, according to the data,…

  • Clout Boosts Ex-Police Chief $30k per Year

    The Machine taking care of its own: At first blush, a pension bill adopted by the General Assembly in 2007 seemed to have a laudable goal: extending retirement benefits to local police force employees’ widows after they remarried. But buried within the legislation was something considerably less altruistic: a provision that enabled a member of…

  • WI Billboard: Truth to Power on Teachers’ Unions

    This is an idea I’ve discussed with CTU reps at a meeting one time.  CTU cannot represent “the children.”  The truth is that CTU, WEAC, and all other teacher’s unions have a fiduciary duty to the union members.  The union cannot do anything which would advance the interests of non-members (i.e. children) to the detriment of the…

  • Chicago Business Round-Up

    Cruising the local business section I found the following: Caterpillar Opening Facility in Mexico Peoria-based Caterpillar said Friday it is building a parts distribution center in Mexico that will employ up to 150 people.  … The 500,000-square-foot facility will be in San Luis Potosi, and it’s expected to be operational in mid-2013. The new plant…

  • McCarthy (Rahm) Shakes-up Police Brass (Not Really)

    This past week Rahm launched an ambitious plan to revitalize the city.  However in order to make that work, he must first prevent Chicago from becoming Gotham.  The post below talks about how the lack of enough police officers is causing a false reduction in the number of crimes being reported.  I personally think that…

  • Crime? What Crime?

    Crime is out of control.  It’s not reported because in this town No Report = No Crime.  And because we have so few police — who are constantly running from call to call — a LOT of crime is going unreported.  Sometimes you can call 911 and wait 30-40 seconds before someone answers the phone.  But when…