Thoughts & Musings
DNC, Obama Campaign: It’s “Okay” to Vote Twice
When undercover reporters visited various [DNC] locations across the country they received the same response from Obama campaign staffers – that it’s basically okay to vote multiple times if you happen to be registered in two or more states. In Houston, Texas, for...
Biden: Doesn’t Know his Own Votes
“By the way, they talk about this great recession like it fell out of the sky–like, ‘Oh my goodness, where did it come from?’” Biden said. “It came from this man voting to put two wars on a credit card, at the same time, put a prescription drug plan on the credit...
Chicago’s Pension Time-Bomb
While Emanuel can coast for two more years, the city in 2015 is required by law to set aside an additional $700 million a year for two of its four pension funds, all of which are woefully underfunded: That year's budget will include a total of $1.2 billion for the...
When a Wise Man Debates a Fool…
When a wise man debates with a fool the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet. -- Proverbs 29:9
Feds Investigate Jesse Jackson Jr.
We all knew this was coming: Federal prosecutors and FBI agents in Washington have launched a new criminal investigation of Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. involving financial improprieties, including possible misuse of funds monitored by Congress, law enforcement...
Businesses Expanding but Not Hiring
A majority of owners of midsized businesses in the Chicago area plan to expand in the next three months, but only a third say they will hire more workers in that time, according to a new survey. ... The most recent poll ... found that nearly 60 percent of surveyed...
$2M in Unemployment to Inmates
More than 1,100 people have collected nearly $2 million in unemployment benefits while they were in county jails or state prisons, including $43,000 that went to a person in the Cook County Jail, a state agency said Tuesday. Now they may face state or federal criminal...
SUV as Deadly Weapon
Two people were struck by a hit-and-run driver after a fight outside a River North neighborhood bar early Sunday morning, police said. via Chicago Tribune. Although it's not reported here, the news from police on the scene is that this was a street fight where the...
No Internet Access
Dear Friends, Please hang in there with me. I'm without Internet access until Wednesday. Thanks.
Ald. Burke, Wrigley & Your Tax Dollars
Ten years ago, Chicago’s most powerful alderman, Edward M. Burke, and the rest of the City Council signed off on a deal that promised $16 million in taxpayer subsidies to the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. to help it build a new corporate campus on Goose Island rather than move...
Illinois Need to Cut COLAs
The head of Illinois' largest pension plan strongly suggested that cuts in cost-of-living benefits are inevitable for more than 360,000 teachers and retirees outside of Chicago. In an interview with Crain's editors and reporters, Richard Ingram, executive director of...
Illinois – Worst Financial Shape Ever
Bloomberg L.P., the big New York financial data firm, is holding its fall municipal-financing conference on Wednesday, and guess what the title is for the special panel on the Land of Lincoln? Try Land of Entropy. Yes, sports fans, the panel titled "Illinois...
Fast and Furious Killed 14 Teenagers
“Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed...
Obama Releases Al Qaeda Killer of U.S. Soldier
Omar Khadr was recently released from Gitmo. What did he do again? Khadr killed Sergeant First Class (SFC) Christopher Speer. Khadr’s advocates said this wasn’t true because Khadr was incapacitated during al Qaeda’s firefight with American troops. But they were...
MSM is a Fundamental Threat to Democracy
In case you don't know, Pat Caddell was part of team Jimmy Carter. He is no right-winger or tin-hat wearer. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBR4g6cBYeA?rel=0] It's safe to say if you were not aware that U.S. embassies all over the Middle East and Northern...
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...
Jimmy John’s Leaving Illinois, Florida Bound
Jimmy John Liautaud is moving part of the sandwich chain that bears his name to Florida next year, making good on a threat issued in 2011 after Illinois hiked its corporate tax rate. The founder of Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches said during a Sept. 18 panel...
China Crushes Man by Steamroller
A villager in northern China attempting to resist a forced government relocation by remaining on his land was brutally crushed to death by a road flattening truck on the orders of a Chinese government official. ... The victim, He Zhi Hua, refused to accept a paltry...
How Carter Beat Reagan
Remember when Jimmy Carter beat Ronald Reagan in 1980? ... In a series of nine stories in 1980 on "Crucial States" -- battleground states as they are known today -- the New York Times repeatedly told readers then-President Carter was in a close and decidedly winnable...
U.N. Wants New Global Taxes
A 1 percent tax on billionaires around the world. A tax on all currency trading in the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound sterling. Another “tiny” tax on all financial transactions, including stock and bond trading, and trading in financial...