Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner denied that his two-day tour of the state last week had anything to do with the 2018 election, but it was pretty darned clear that he and his team were tuning up the band for the big show down the road,” Rich Miller writes.
“Campaign funds not only paid for the tour, but political money was used to promote in it advance. I’m told Rauner’s advertising on social and online media served more than a million impressions in the days leading up to the fly-around.”
Rauner’s denials that he was actually campaigning were just the kind of standard disingenuousness that he’s exhibited from the start of his first campaign, even as he claimed, in a bid for our approval, to not be a politician. And perhaps he isn’t – he obviously isn’t one who knows how to govern – but let’s not forget that the same kind of disingenousness is how one succeeds in the private sector as well. Besides the fact that he’s a politician.
At least the media didn’t buy it. But did they serve citizens well when acting like pointing out the obvious was an act of political insight?
Miller doesn’t think so, and I agree.

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Posted on April 17, 2017

The [Friday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“In his first full day as president of Chicago’s largest police union, Officer Kevin Graham appeared at a news conference to address reporters seeking details of his plan for leading the embattled rank-and-file of the police force,” the Tribune reports.
“With cameras and reporters ready at the Fraternal Order of Police lodge in the West Town neighborhood, Graham spoke for one minute, offered no specifics, said ‘thank you’ and left without taking questions.”

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Posted on April 14, 2017

The [Thursday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“With high turnout and low morale, rank-and-file Chicago Police officers decided Wednesday to change union presidents heading into contentious contract negotiations,” the Sun-Times reports.
“With 9,811 votes cast, Police Officer Kevin Graham captured 56.2 percent of the vote to incumbent Dean Angelo’s 43.8 percent.”
This isn’t necessarily a surprise, but it’s beyond disturbing – not that Angelo was an honest broker. In effect, Chicago’s police officers have just doubled down against reform.

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Posted on April 13, 2017

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

A bit too much on my plate today for a proper column, so here’s some United stuff if you haven’t seen it already.

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Posted on April 11, 2017

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“In the fallout from the Laquan McDonald shooting, Mayor Rahm Emanuel trumpeted a new policy requiring that videos of shootings by police be released within three months, calling it a shift toward transparency for a city that long fought to keep evidence of wrongdoing by officers hidden from the public,” the Tribune reports.
“Now, a little more than a year later, Emanuel’s top lawyer has agreed for the first time to delay the release of a video of a police shooting beyond the 90-day limit set by the city’s own policy.”
In other words, there is no new policy.

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Posted on April 10, 2017

The [Friday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“As private landlords increasingly take over the government’s role of housing low-income families, dozens of children have been poisoned by brain-damaging lead while living in homes and apartments declared safe by the Chicago Housing Authority,” the Tribune reports.
“Federal law requires the CHA to inspect subsidized homes before tenants move in and at least once a year afterward. But since 2010, at least one child has been diagnosed with lead poisoning in 187 homes the housing authority approved for occupancy, according to a Tribune analysis of thousands of pages of inspection reports, monthly payments, court documents and property records.
“The CHA paid the landlords of those hazardous homes more than $5.6 million in federal rent subsidies after clearing them to participate in the Housing Choice Voucher program, the Tribune analysis found. Nearly $1 million of that amount was delivered to landlords while they faced housing code violations or lawsuits filed by another city agency, the Chicago Department of Public Health, over deteriorating lead-based paint in their rentals.”

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Posted on April 7, 2017

The [Thursday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants Chicago public high school students to show they have a plan for what’s next before they can get a diploma,” the Tribune reports.
“Emanuel’s proposal would add one more big item to the graduation checklist for high school seniors: proof they’ve been accepted into college or the military, or a trade or a ‘gap-year’ program. The requirement would also be satisfied if the student has a job or a job offer.”
Here was my initial response to this idea:


Now, it turns out there’s a little bit more nuance to Emanuel’s proposal, even though it’s still a bad idea. And it seems to have been met with instantaneously bad reviews. Let’s take a look at why.

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Posted on April 6, 2017

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