By Steve Rhodes
“In July 2012, The Chicago Reporter exposed one of the Chicago Housing Authority’s best-kept secrets: The agency was cashing federal rent checks worth millions for empty apartments while a record number of families sat on a wait list hoping for a unit to open up,” Angela Caputo reports.
“The CHA has made little progress on filling thousands of empty units, and there is still no clear plan for how many – or when – they will get filled. Meanwhile, the agency has built a nice little slush fund – mostly with federal money – that is supposed to be used to house poor families.
“The CHA had $661 million in unrestricted assets at the end of last year, a Reporter review of audited financial reports shows.”
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“This is crazy,” Sarah Karp of Catalyst notes on Facebook. “[B]y the way, more than 10,000 CPS students are homeless.”
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See also Karp’s report from last week: “More Transparency On Suspensions And Expulsions, But Racial Disparity Lingers.”
Caputo, Karp and Linda Lutton are like the Justice League around here.
Catholic Guilt
“In the past, priests from the Archdiocese of Chicago with substantiated allegations of child sex abuse were sometimes relocated to another parish, but that wasn’t a cover-up, an archdiocese representative said Wednesday – the same day local church officials released documents to attorneys detailing accusations against dozens of priests,” the Sun-Times reported.
“The relocations happened ‘after’ the priests underwent therapy, Bishop Francis Kane, vicar general of the archdiocese, told reporters at the archdiocese’s Near North Side offices. ‘You wouldn’t do that today. That’s something we learned.
“One of the things that we’ve learned is that we sent people off for evaluation and we got reports back saying . . . it’s safe to put them back in ministry” with monitoring, Kane said. “We found out that isn’t true.”
I’d like to know exactly who told them it was safe to do that.
Petcoke Poppycoke
“Chicago elected officials have vowed to crack down on the growing piles of petcoke stored by a subsidiary of Koch Industries and another company along the Calumet River on the city’s Far Southeast Side,” Kari Lydersen reports for Midwest Energy News.
“But at a public hearing Monday night, local residents made clear that they don’t trust the City Council or Mayor Rahm Emanuel to take meaningful action on the issue.”
Go read the whole thing to find out why.
Alinea Baby
Coming to an eTrade commercial near you.
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Hawkeye on Alinea baby: “Will you shut that chicken up!”
– Tim Willette
NSA Today
Beachwood post cites Jewel v. NSA.
Tim Willette responds: Even the produce is under surveillance nowadays.
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That’s Jewels vs. NSA.
Clark Speaks
Beachwood Lands Exclusive Interview With Clark Cub!
Should Tom Thibodeau Be Fired . . .
. . . For Player Abuse?
Chi-Fi vs. Westin
Convention cancelled after alleged freaks slur.
AccentureCare
Chicago company called upon ’cause shit’s fucked up.
Unreliable Source
Howard Kurtz Lied About Ties To Fox News Contributor.
Chicago-Style Drumming
A history lesson.
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TweetWood
Alderman Mareno is chewing tobacco in council while supporting the limit on e-cigs
— Willie B. Cochran (@ALDERMANWBC) January 15, 2014
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Ald colon says he really doesn’t care about e cigs. Got 4 calls this week about charter expansion and none about this issue.
— Raise Your Hand (@ILRaiseYourHand) January 15, 2014
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Many journalists attacking specific NSA stories as reckless are too cowardly to attack NYT or WP for publishing them, so they attack Snowden
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 15, 2014
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Danceable.
Posted on January 16, 2014