Thoughts & Musings
Fioretti Anti-Building Protection
Powered by a solar-powered device akin to a car battery, the fences send 7,000 volt jolts every 1.3 seconds into the hands of people who touch the fences, which have never proved fatal in the states and cities that allow them.... The systems are allowed in California,...
Post Objection Blogging
I'm back!! Had a little hiatus from posting there. Turns out that Alderman Fioretti's guy objected to my petitions so I had to get some legal work done in order to stay on the ballot. But I think I have all that behind me now; we should be rolling full steam ahead....
Media on TIF does not understand TIF
Media tries, fails to explain why TIF is so confusing: [E]ven Mr. Orr and top aides [are] unsure exactly how much money is in Chicago’s TIF coffers. ... There are now 158 TIF districts in Chicago, and they generated $519 million last year, Mr. Orr said. In all, there...
Rahm on Education: Not Daley’s Fault
Rahm Emanuel made a campaign promise last week that if elected mayor, he would install a new math and English language curriculum in Chicago’s public schools by the end of his first term. ... Mr. Emanuel made clear that he meant no disrespect to Mayor Richard M....
June 11, 2008
Alderman Fioretti send two very dangerous messages with one vote: campaign and other donations to the city get results for the donors, and what the citizens want doesn't matter, the city should always get its way. Bob Fioretti believes that if your names sounds like...
Emanuel’s Foolish TIF for Police Plan
Over the weekend Rahm Emanuel became the latest local politician to propose tapping funds from the city’s tax increment financing districts to help pay for city services. Emanuel said that if he is elected mayor he would use $25 million in TIF money to pay for 250 new...
CPD Considers Reallocation of Officers
Police districts on Chicago's North Side would lose beat officers to South Side and West Side districts if the city were to reallocate cops based on the volume of 911 calls and backups for police service, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found. (Full story here.) The...
I’m just asking…
I have sat on this idea for several days now and not having seen anything in the news inline with my thinking. After considering the pro's and con's, I'm asking a relatively simple question. Last week John Kass at the Tribune wrote an interesting piece on how Rahm...
This is What I’m Talking About
This gent here has a new take on education. The video is not short attention span theater, however it is an interesting... no compelling, look at what is wrong with our educational system. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkPvSCq5ZXk&w=640&h=385]
CPS Gets Help From Discovery Channel
With tales of cannibalistic giant squids and endangered leatherback turtles that travel thousands of miles to lay eggs on the beaches where they were born, Philippe Cousteau, grandson of famed oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, tried to capture the imaginations of...
One Great School, Not Part of CPS
[Providence St. Mel] The lauded West Side high school -- profiled in "The Providence Effect," a documentary that hit the big screen last year -- has long been considered a national model for urban education, sending 100 percent of its low- to very low-income students...
Daley, Chico Squable on Education
In a back-n-forth through the press: "This is not a personal attack on Mayor Daley," Chico said. Daley has done a "tremendous job in this city," Chico said, but added he would continue to "call it the way I see it." (Full story here.) What?! A "tremendous job?" The...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...