My Blog

Category: Crime

  • Problems in Pennsylvania Schools

    Well over 100 educators will eventually face state disciplinary charges for cheating that could lead to the revocation of their professional certificates, Tomalis said. But that could take years, and the results of state disciplinary board hearings in Harrisburg would be disclosed only if educators were disciplined.

    In Philadelphia, 53 district-run schools and three charter schools are still under investigation for allegations of cheating in past years.

    via Philly.com.

    Charter Schools do NOT perform any better than Government Schools.

    Failing test scores.  Cheating teachers.  And general poor performance all around.

    Pathetic.

  • Huge Increase in Warrantless Electronic Surveillance

    Pen register and trap and trace devices now generally refer to the surveillance of information about—rather than the contents of—communications. Pen registers capture outgoing data, while trap and trace devices capture incoming data. This still includes the phone numbers of incoming and outgoing telephone calls and the time, date, and length of those calls. But the government now also uses this authority to intercept the “to” and “from” addresses of email messages, records about instant message conversations, non-content data associated with social networking identities, and at least some information about the websites that you visit (it isn’t entirely clear where the government draws the line between the content of a communication and information about a communication when it comes to the addresses of websites).

    via ACLU.

    For the record, I agree with the ACLU exactly one time.  This is it.

    Our government has taken to spying on its own citizens, that’s us, on an unprecedented level.  As more and more communications go electronic it’s easier and easier to intercept.  That it is done without a warrant is truly frightening.  If these communications are so important then the FBI should present evidence to a judge and get a warrant.

    Mind you, this is the same FBI that cannot find hundreds of guns from Fast and Furious.  This is the same presidential administration that refuses to turn over records regarding those guns or the Fast and Furious catastrophe.  The same administration that promised to the “the most open and transparent in history” and has proven to be just as closed and private as Dick Cheney and the Bush years.

    When it comes to spying on you but keeping gov. secrets Obama = Bush.

  • Pete’s Update – 09/27/2012

    A couple of new things to report on the situation with Pete’s Fresh Market.

    As most readers know, the story has now made the local papers and WGN TV News.  Here’s what’s new — and what you won’t read in those papers:

    #1
    My original story stated that “the ring-leader of the group of thugs who showed up at Pete’s is known acquaintance of Ald. Burnett’s chief of staff.”  I’ve now been told that may or may not be correct.  There was some confusion as to who exactly it was from Ald. Burnett’s office.

    What we now know is that it was Ald. Burnett’s assistant chief of staff who was actually on-site and fully participated in the shakedown.  There is a rumor that one of the construction workers actually captured the event on video with his/her cell phone.  It is for this reason that Ald. Burnett has had to come out and acknowledge that his staff was there.

    #2
    Local community organization HOW United has announced that they will be having a community meeting to discuss the situation with Pete’s.

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    HOW UNITED
    announces a public meeting on
    PETE’S FRESH MARKET

    Wednesday
    October 03, 2012
    6:00 PM – 7:00PM

    St. Malachy Church
    2248 West Washington Boulevard
    Chicago, Illinois 60612

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    Everyone who cares about removing corruption from the system should plan to attend.  A packed house will show the rest of the world that at least there are some people who will stand up to corrupt politicians.

  • Corruption “Widespread” in Illinois

    A new poll finds that a whopping majority of state residents believe that not only state government but Illinois business is plagued by serious misconduct.

    According to the survey of 1,271 registered voters by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, 76.8 percent agree that “corruption in Illinois government is widespread.”

    via Crain’s Chicago Business.

    Awhile back there was a long article about why Illinois is so corrupt.  The bottom-line is that the people tolerate it.

    Most people won’t tolerate someone stealing from them.  But in Illinois the people do.  My guess is that the school system is so bad that most folks don’t even realize that all the corruption costs them a boat-load of money.

    People get what they vote.

  • Pete’s — Update 09/26/2012

    “If we don’t work then nobody work.”

    via. WGN.

    Dude on camera telling the world he’s going to shut-down construction.

    This is insanity.

  • East Coast Liberals: Smartest Students in CPS are the Gang Leaders

    …  Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker and former New York Gov. David Paterson — who spoke Tuesday morning about recidivism and racism at a panel hosted by Stroock law firm — say.

    During the talk, Paterson observed the smartest students in the Chicago Public School system are the gang leaders because they’re giving kids what they need — structure, a way to make money, and some sense of belonging.

    Until society steps up and gives those kids that same sense of security, according to Paterson, this non-stop cycle of people going to prison on nonviolent drug offenses is never going to end.

    via Business Insider.

    These two guys are real pieces of work.  Newark is quite likely the only city in America worst off than Detroit and East St. Louis.  Why doesn’t he fix his own damn problems before telling us who our smart kids are?

    Doesn’t he have any gang leaders smart kids in Newark he can talk about?  Why drag us down to Newark’s standards?

    What a jerk.

  • Pete’s — 09/25/12 Update

    The Sun-Times joins the discussion:

    The West Side is one of Chicago’s “food deserts,” so named because it lacks full-service grocery stores. Cheers went up from people in the neighborhood when the city sealed a deal two years ago to bring one to Madison and Western.

    Pete’s Fresh Market, a South Side-based chain, got the authority to buy city-owned land at the southeast corner and build there. It was hung up in the city bureaucracy for a while, and work on the site, a half-mile from the United Center, finally started this month.

    That’s when real trouble started. Two weeks ago, according to Pete’s attorney and other sources, a large group of people arrived at the construction site and threatened the crews. One person allegedly showed a gun.

    The grocer’s lawyer, Endy Zemenides, said it was a clear shakedown. “What I would characterize as professional agitators stormed the site and made some very open threats to our construction crew,” he said.

    via Sun-Times.

    Quick Update:

    Something fishy about Ald. Burnett’s story here.

    Burnett said he had a staff member on site for one of the incidents because Pete’s called and requested his help. While Burnett backs the development, he said he’s deferring to Fioretti on matters pertaining to the city.

    His staff was on site b/c Pete’s asked for help. That makes no sense whatsoever. Pete’s would call the police; how could Ald. Burnett’s guy get there before the police? And Ald. Fioretti was dealing with Pete’s for years… if they needed help they would have called Fioretti’s office, not Burnett’s.

    I’m guessing that Burnett’s guy was there as part of the shakedown crew. I’m curious if there’s video of this event on someone’s cell phone. That would be something. Assist in telling what really happened and why Ald. Burnett’s guy was really there.

    I will not hold my breath for all those who said I was lying to apologize.

  • Anti-Austerity Protests in Spain; U.S. Media Not Reporting

    Police are trying to clear out the massive anti-austerity demonstration that engulfed Spain’s federal district this evening.

    via Business Insider.

    Follow the link for photos.  This is us in a few years.  There’s no other way.

  • Painkillers Kill More Than Heroin And Cocaine Combined

    Prescription opioid painkillers are responsible for more fatal overdoses in the U.S. than heroin and cocaine combined, according to a new study out of Brandeis University.

    via Business Insider.

    I’m fascinated by statistics about how we die.  In Chicago gun crimes get all the media attention however heroin, and now I guess narcotic overdoses actually kill more.  In any given year it is likely that more die in automobile accidents as well; the media doesn’t really cover those either.  This is all media bias against guns.

    Where is the 60 mins story on prescription narcotics?  Where are the interviews with the parents of the dead teenager, crying, screaming into the camera?  Why is Mayor Bloomberg silent on this?  Why isn’t there a call for more regulation of these drugs?  Isn’t there a single politician who will stand up and say that it’s all for the children?

  • Mayor Booker Gives Rahm & McCarthy an Idea

    This will be “policy” in Chicago within the next 12 months.

    Controversial Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker wants to make an offer to local drug dealers that they can’t refuse.

    Cory Booker and former New York Gov. David Paterson spoke Tuesday morning about recidivism and racism at a panel hosted by Stroock law firm.

    One of Booker’s most shocking policies is dubbed a “call in,” something he borrowed from High Point, N.C. During a call in, police and other government officials meet with known drug dealers and try to convince them to choose another path.

    “What we’ve decided to do in Newark is bring them all in and sit down with them and not have a ‘you’re going to get arrested’ conversation but ‘hey, this is the pros and cons,’” Booker said.

    When the suspects come to the meeting, law enforcement has already collected evidence against them, including pictures of them dealing drugs.

    “And we basically said to them, ‘you can work with us, we have people here with housing, jobs, everything possible,” Booker said. “Or you can go out and continue doing [crimes], but if there’s one shooting in this area again […] we will come in and find every reason that’s legally allowable to arrest everybody you know.’”

    via Business Insider.

    Now mind you, I’m not saying that it’s going to be a miserable failure… I’m just saying that Rahm and McCarthy are going to bring this forward as a new and creative idea all their own after the current policy is a demonstrated failure.