My Blog

Tag: Rahm

  • Bus-Only Lanes Hurt Everybody

    CTA super-express buses that will operate on 21-mile stretches of Ashland and Western avenues will have the benefit of using full-time bus-only lanes, under a still-evolving concept the transit agency and the city will present this week at three open houses, starting Tuesday. via  Chicago Tribune. This is just an extension of the ongoing war…

  • 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 retirement accounts of teachers, police,…

  • 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 fight’s loser went to his car and then used…

  • 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 Treading Water” is set for 1:45 p.m. and, according to a synopsis,…

  • 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 discussion in Chicago that he will relocate the company’s…

  • CPS Debt Downgraded

    A leading bond-rating agency has downgraded the Chicago Board of Education’s debt in the wake of the settlement of the Chicago Teacher’s Union’s recent strike. Moody’s Investor Service had already downgraded the Chicago Public Schools’ bond rating outlook to “negative” from stable in July, and cited Thursday the rating agency’s “view that the district will…

  • Aldermen Briefed on Pension Time-Bomb

    [Chicago’s] Chief Financial Officer Lois Scott reminded council members that absent significant changes to pension plans, the city will be forced to drastically cut services, raise taxes or do both to close a funding gap that could reach $700 million in just a few years, aldermen said.  … …  Lawmakers are looking to fix the…

  • 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…

  • Two Stabbed Outside Near North Bars

    Two men were stabbed, another badly beaten and a fourth arrested early Sunday morning after a fight on Division Street spilled over onto State Street, according to police. An officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries that didn’t require hospitalization while trying to make the arrest on a 24-year-old man, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli…

  • Quick Pension Analysis

    Ok, so I was getting asked about this the other day both in person and in the comments about why the pensions are really in such bad shape and what the latest GASB positions mean to the funds.  GASB first. GASB Changes I did some poking around and the recent GASB changes really mean nothing.…