Businesses Get the Old Yes No on the G-8/NATO Summits

Well which is it?

Mayor Rahm Emanuel was asked Thursday whether businesses located within the inner-most security perimeter will have a process to recover lost profits incurred during the May 19-21 events at McCormick Place.

“The [NATO and G-8] Host Committee is working on it. They’ll have a process for that,” he answered.   …

Later, after some reflection:

His answers to the questions, once reported online Thursday, set off a flurry of denials. A spokeswoman issued a statement saying: “We have no plans to reimburse businesses – the city is open for business.”

When Jennifer Martinez, a spokeswoman for the NATO and G-8 Host Committee, was asked about compensation, she said: “The plan is for all businesses to be open. We do not anticipate businesses being closed. We will not reimburse businesses that decide to close on their own.”

via Chicago Sun-Times.

Oh, I see.  I guess they didn’t want businesses closing to protect themselves and their employees from what might be 50,000 nutty protesters.  I mean, other businesses are going to be doing just that:

Already, DePaul University has decided to close its Loop campus on the day before and the day after the summits and deny access to classrooms, labs, the cafeteria and offices in the Loop campus over a four-day period.

That seems a bit extreme for a private university.  If there’s one thing the protesters understand it’s education.  They want more of it for free.  So why bother a university?  Maybe DePaul knows something they’re not telling.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has said it has “extensive contingency plans” that would allow its employees to “work from home” or from an “off-site location” in the event that demonstrations turn ugly during the summits.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is an old building that has few doors and no windows.  It has it’s own very intense security barriers between the street and the building itself and 24 hour armed guards in the adjacent alley.  It is a fortress.  And yet this place is making plans for employees to work from home or from an off-site location. If this place ain’t safe what chance does the rest of the city have?

And the Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this week that the civil courtrooms at the Daley Center … could be closed down for security reasons in the days surrounding the unprecedented gathering of world leaders.

Earlier this month, United Airlines employees worried about how they will get to Willis Tower during the summits questioned Emanuel during a roundtable about the potentially $65 million event expected to turn the world spotlight on Chicago.

So it’s safe to say that a lot of people appear to have some very reasonable concerns.  It’s not a much ado about nothing situation.

The mayor played down the inconvenience by describing the summits as a “weekend” event, conveniently ignoring the fact that protesters and world leaders are likely to arrive days before the meetings begin.

But, what was it that the protesters were saying again?  Oh ya…

On May 1, 50,000 people from all over the world will flock to Chicago, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month.

via AdBusters.

Note to Rahm:  It’s not the Heads of State breaking windows, blocking traffic, and starting squad cars on fire that people worry about.  It the protesters.  And they plan to be here for a month.

 

Beavers Indictment: Talking When Should be Quiet

Talk about passing the buck:

Cook County Commissioner William Beavers, an old-school Chicago politician who likes to call himself “The Hog With the Big Nuts,” has been indicted on federal tax charges.  …

But Beavers, 77, called the indictment “horse s— I’m not worried about.”

He said the feds only indicted him because he refused to wear a wire on fellow Commissioner John Daley, the brother of former Mayor Richard M. Daley and of former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley.

What?!  Assuming this is true, isn’t this just about the last thing you want to say?  How does this help Beavers or Daley?  It doesn’t.

Can you imagine some knuckle-dragging bent nose Tony Soprano wanna’be getting indicted and walking out of booking shouting, “They wanted me to wear a wire on Tony.”  Now what you’ve done is tie the two of you together and make both of you look guilty of somethin’.

Looks like Daley certainly took it that way:

John Daley said he was surprised at what he characterized Beavers’ attempt to change the story.

“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Daley said.

He said Beavers never approached him to say that any federal agents had asked Beavers to wear a wire on him. Looking at the indictment against Beavers, Daley said: “It’s pretty obvious what this is about, and this has nothing to do with me.

via Chicago Sun-Times.

Yes, yes.  Of course John.  This has nothing to do with you.

 

Illinois Unemployment vs. The Media

Good News!!

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Unemployment dropped to 9.8 percent in Illinois in December, state officials said Friday, a second straight monthly decrease that capped a year in which the jobless rate fell almost a full percentage point from 2010.

via Chicago Tribune.

Or, maybe not:

The unemployment rate in the Chicago area rose to 10.2 percent in December from 9.3 percent a year ago, according to seasonally adjusted figures released Thursday by the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

via Chicago Tribune.

Hummm…  So, I can’t tell if this is good news or bad news.  So I did some searching and found a cool link at CapitalFax.com which led me to a supercool Google tool were one can graph public data.

The unemployment rate for the last 20 years of several mid-western states:

Then check out the same graph for the last 5 years:

Wisconsin and Michigan appear to be heading in the right direction.  Illinois… not so much.