Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
1. CTA Plans No Fare Hikes, Service Cuts Next Year.
Will make up for it with slower trains, more derailments.
–
2. Ventra Plans To Work Next Year.
Ventra’s website will undergo maintenance this week! And here I bet you thought we only fixed things that weren’t broken, like Chicago Card.
— Ventra Chicago (@chicagoventra) October 18, 2013
Posted on October 18, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
This just in:
Today, the Northwestern School of Law Bluhm Legal Clinic has released Combating Gun Violence in Illinois: Evidence-Based Solutions on behalf of more than 30 scholars and clinical professors from colleges and universities throughout Illinois. In its research paper, the authors start with the premise that every life lost to gun violence is tragic and a call for action.
The paper refutes claims that increased mandatory minimum sentences (HB 2265) would deter crime and argues Illinois’ responses must be smart, strategic and grounded in evidence-based solutions.
Here are some summary points:
Posted on October 17, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
“Jens Ludwig, director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab, is a superb scholar of violence and a talented economist, but his just released analysis of gun penalties tells me he desperately needs a course in criminal justice, Illinois style,” Franklin Zimring writes to the Sun-Times.
“Ludwig’s memo, widely cited by politicians who favor a mandatory three-year prison sentence for people convicted of the illegal use of a weapon, makes three assumptions about Illinois law and practice that are provably not true.”
Posted on October 16, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
Working on it.
So far:
* It Was Bartman’s Fault. Why is the media trying so hard to rewrite history?
* A Modest Transit Proposal Part 2: Look At A Fucking Map. It’s not hard. In fact, we’re looking at one now. And the solutions are blindingly obvious.
Posted on October 15, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
“Far fewer students from Chicago’s closed elementary schools are enrolled where the district thought they would be this fall,” Linda Lutton reports for WBEZ.
“Just 60 percent of 10,542 students from Chicago’s shuttered elementary schools ended up at so-called ‘welcoming schools,’ despite efforts by the district to woo them with promises of improved education, safe passage to school, and sweeteners like iPads, air conditioning and new science labs.”
That, my friends, is what we call an utter failure.
Posted on October 14, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
“Gov. Pat Quinn Friday turned to a former football player named Urlacher to fill a vacancy on a state personnel panel – only it wasn’t Chicago Bears great Brian Urlacher,” the Sun-Times reports.
“It was his brother, the newly elected mayor of north suburban Mettawa, Casey Urlacher, whom Quinn tabbed for a $25,000-a-year slot on the state Civil Service Commission.
“That panel handles, among other personnel-related functions, disciplinary cases involving state employees and appeals whenever a state worker believes he or she has been wrongfully terminated or laid off.
“Urlacher, 33, was elected to the Lake County village’s mayorship last April. He participated in training camp for the Bears in 2003 and went on to play semi-professional football for the Peoria Pirates, Chicago Rush and Nashville Kats.”
So he’s eminently qualified.
Posted on October 12, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
“The Chicago Sun-Times and NBC5 asked a judge Thursday to unseal a special prosecutor’s report on his investigation into the 2004 death of David Koschman in a case involving a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley,” the paper reports.
Good. I always thought it was strange that the prosecutor, Dan Webb, courtier to power, asked for the report to be sealed out of concern that the defendant get a fair trial. Isn’t that the defense attorney’s job?
In fact:
“Thomas Breen, one of the lawyers representing Vanecko, said of Thursday’s court filing, ‘We do not take a position on that.'”
Then it’s settled!
Posted on October 10, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
I’ve got some secret work to do for the government this morning so we’ll just start with these fine offerings from our sports staff and see where rest of the day takes us.
* Another Beachwood Special Report: Why Joe Girardi Rejected The Cubs.
* The Blue & Orange Kool-Aid Report: Garbage Time.
* Fantasy Fix: CPR For PPR.
Posted on October 10, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
“Patrick Arbor, the former chairman of the Chicago Board of Trade involved in an ugly divorce case, acknowledged in court documents that he dodged paying income taxes for 30 years on assets he has outside the United States and only made amends with the government last year after he was prompted by his wife’s attorneys,” Shia Kapos reports for Crain’s.
Arbor has been a civic titan around these parts for decades, and as such, the subject of, well, not quite lionizing press but kitty cat press, from his mountain climbing exploits to his business punditry to his political climbing (he was/is pals with both Richard M. Daley and trader/U.S. Senate candidate Blair Hull, just to throw out two names).
That’s how civic titans get covered.
But I’ll go out on a limb here and say most civic titans are dirty. That’s how they become civic titans. And that’s how we should approach them until proven otherwise.
It’s not that everyone with money and/or power is corrupt, but the starting point for any journalist – especially in Chicago – ought to be one of skepticism, not admiration. After all, the central mission of journalism is to provide a check on power. I mean, whatever happened to “If Pat Arbor says he’s an upstanding citizen, check it out”?
Posted on October 9, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday steered clear of the controversy posed by Ald. Edward M. Burke’s public role as chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee and the $3.6 million that Burke’s private law practice has cost the city by winning property tax appeals for business clients,” the Sun-Times reports.
“Every public official has to speak for themselves about what’s both legal and appropriate, as I have in my own career,” the mayor said after cutting the ribbon at a new Mariano’s grocery store in the South Loop.
But doesn’t it bother you, Rahm, that Burke has gotten rich in part on the backs of Chicago taxpayers, whom you present yourself as the protector of? (My question, not theirs.)
Posted on October 8, 2013
