My Blog

Author: Jimmy

  • Girls Getting Cheated at Sports at CPS

    The National Women’s Law Center filed complaints against 12 U.S. school districts where district data showed a double-digit gap between the percentage of female students and the percentage of female athletes. According to the complaint, that gap is 33 percentage points in Chicago high schools, the highest among the cited schools. According to the center,…

  • October 8, 2008

    By a 49-0 vote, the Chicago City Council approved a $2.5 billion, 99-year lease of Midway Airport to a private operator. … The Daley administration has not yet announced how it would spend the $1 billion the lease would yield after airport debt is repaid. (Full story here.) Second Ward Alderman Bob Fioretti votes with…

  • How Can the Park District be Broke?

    Park visitors may soon see advertisements on Chicago Park District property such as lifeguard stands, garbage cans and tennis courts, as officials look for ways to plug a $22 million hole in next year’s budget. (Full story here.) The Chicago Park District owns Solider Field; that big ugly thing many Second Ward residents can see…

  • You Owe $11,647, & That’s Just for Pensions

    Part 1 of 2 on just how completely broken the City’s pension system has become. Chicago’s public pension funds are teetering on the brink of insolvency in large part because city officials and union leaders repeatedly exploited the system, draining away billions of dollars in the last decade to serve short-term political needs…. As a…

  • City Pension Funds Poorly Managed

    Part 2 of 2 on just how completely broken the City’s pension system has become. Trustees of Chicago’s failing public pension funds have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into highly speculative investments that not only have failed to realize outsize returns but also saddled them with underperforming, long-term assets that can’t be sold off,…

  • They Don’t Want You to Know

    I bet you have no idea how many shootings there have been in Chicago this year. Me either. And it’s not because I haven’t tried to find out. About two months ago, I started reporting on crime and public safety. In light of the on-again, off-again handgun ban and Supt. Jody Weis’ insistence that there…

  • People flee high-taxes

    Americans are fleeing high tax, union-dominated states and settling in states with lower taxes, right-to-work laws and lower government spending. (Full story here.) Chicago is burdened with not only high taxes but outrageous debt (more stories to follow on that issue shortly.)  We have to understand that we are not going to be able to…

  • Rahm’s Residency Issue

    Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel was twice purged from the city voter rolls in the last 13 months but was reinstated by election officials, who allowed him to vote absentee in the February primary even though he did not live at his North Side address. (Full story here.) This is not a comment, up or…

  • Chico’s Education Plan

    Just got back from Gery Chico’s presentation of his plan to revive CPS.  The 15 page plan handout can be found here if you’re interested. For those just looking for the bullet points: As the former head of the Chicago Public Schools Gery knows something about education.  Further, as the leader when the schools were…

  • December 04, 2008

    Just a bit of history: Posted at 10:55 a.m. Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) said the lease will help the city during a tough budget time. (Daley plans to spend much of the one-time windfall to shore up the city budget during the next few years.) “I think it is a good ordinance that is going…