Thoughts & Musings
Illinois lags in science, tech, engineering, math grads
Bad News: Illinois is producing fewer graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math than the national average, according to the June release of the Illinois Innovation Index. ... According to the Illinois Innovation Index, the number of STEM...
Google and the Merchandise Mart
Good News!! Crain's Chicago Business reports: Google is in talks to lease some 500,000 square feet in the Merchandise Mart, sources say. The deal would include a rooftop deck. The Internet search giant, looking to move employees from the Libertyville headquarters of...
Chicago’s Unreported Race War
We've gone national! According to a statement in the Chicago Tribune, reporting on the race of individuals involved in news events, such as mobs attacking, robbing and vandalizing, is irrelevant. A news anchor at the ABC affiliate in Chicago goes even further: Anyone...
Illinois’ Pensions are the Worst
A new report being issued today — see the bottom of this post — from the Pew Center on the States says that Illinois once again ranks 50th of the 50 states in assets relative to liabilities. But while Illinois' absolute position did not sink — a mathematical...
JP Morgan: Public Employee Pension’s Set to Explode
But they wanted to keep the story to themselves: JPMorgan recently circulated a “strictly confidential” report among leaders at the bank and with trusted hedge fund allies outside of the bank which details an impending public pension crisis. And we mean big time...
Gun Ownership Up, Crime Down
Gun-control advocates are noticeably silent when crime rates decline. Their multimillion-dollar lobbying efforts are designed to manufacture mass anxiety that every gun owner is a potential killer. The statistics show otherwise. Last week, the Federal Bureau of...
Gun Turn-In Weekend in Chicago
Using the lure of $100 gift cards, the Chicago Police Department is encouraging people to get guns out of their homes and turn them in this Saturday, during the annual gun turn-in program. ... First Deputy Supt. Alfonza Wysinger says anyone who turns in a real gun...
Obama’s Policy Strategy: Ignore Laws I Don’t Like
“In many ways, President Obama has fulfilled the dream of an imperial presidency that Richard Nixon strived for. On everything from [DOMA] to the gaming laws, this is a president who is now functioning as a super legislator. He is effectively negating parts of the...
Spanish Miners Fire Rockets at Police
In a scene that looks more like Gaza than Spain, striking coal miners armed with homemade rockets and slingshots clashed with police Friday, leaving seven people injured– two of them seriously– the Interior Ministry said. The strike is the latest and the most violent...
Teens Employment Lowest Since WWII – Obama Not Helping
This article was published yesterday about the same time that Obama was in the Rose Garden making the situation worse: Fewer than 3 in 10 American teenagers now hold jobs such as running cash registers, mowing lawns or busing restaurant tables from June to August. The...
MAP: CTA Trains and Drug Arrests
This is from Windy Citizen, I wish I could find a story to go with it but someone just sent me the link to the map.
City Hall’s New TIF Troubles
This story is actually from early April: According to a report issued today by Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson, a fluke of state law means that many neighboring business districts that collect an extra property tax to pay for security, advertising and the like...
The ‘Wild, Wild Midwest’
The city’s murder rate is quadruple New York City’s. Homicides since 2001 total twice the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Afghanistan in the same period. Police have moved to reduce the carnage, but activists say gun use must be reined in—and they will...
Obama’s Hand Forced on Illegal Immigration Issue
Yesterday, a/k/a Thursday: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency charged with guarding the U.S. borders, has written a secret draft policy that would let its agents catch and release low-priority illegal immigrants rather than bring them in for processing and...
Indicted Derrick Smith to Host Legal Clinic
Derrick Smith, the indicted Near West Side state rep accused of accepting a $7,000 bribe, is organizing an event for locals who might need legal help of their own. In the first publically organized event for his 10th District constituents since being arrested and...
Strange Pelican Brewery Coming to the West Side
For my local Chicago readers: Under the name Strange Pelican Brewing Company, McNeil will brew about 3,000 barrels a year in a 10,000-square-foot space near the intersection of Damen Avenue and Fulton Street. Strange Pelican’s philosophy evokes maritime history – in...
John Wayne Gacy’s Other Victims
Are there others? Bill Dorsch believes there are and he’s pretty sure he knows exactly where they’re buried. This site documents the efforts of Dorsch, a career Chicago homicide detective, to find and share new evidence in the case of the notorious serial killer John...
Parents Not Happy with Blue School
Back in April I wrote about the Blue School. By some measure it's not doing so well. Parents are yanking their kids out of the “progressive,” $32,000 per-year private school founded by the Blue Man Group — which has no books and no tests — because their kids are...
Personal Safety Demonstrated by Two Cases
Two different stories in the papers recently on the same day (April 25, 2012.) The first: For nine years the "teardrop" rapist was one of Los Angeles' most prolific serial predators, preying on women from Melrose Avenue to Manchester Boulevard. The assailant,...
The Media’s Unholy Relationship with Obama
On the evening of Tuesday, June 30, 2009—just five months into his administration—Barack Obama invited a small group of presidential historians to dine with him in the Family Quarters of the White House. His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, personally delivered the...