By Steve Rhodes
A walk through the day’s news.
1. Well, it’s not exactly decriminalization; Rahm’s proposal has him collecting $150 to $500 from every schnook caught with 15 grams or less. Costly pot prosecutions become profitable ticket-writing. Next: Get nabbed twice and they boot your bong.
2. “School districts across Illinois are failing to disclose thousands of drug, weapon and teacher assault incidents to the state as required by a long-standing state law created to give the public a clear picture of crime at neighborhood schools,” the Tribune reports.
“The statewide reporting system is deeply flawed, with lax oversight and no enforcement from the very state agencies that built it, a Tribune investigation found.”
Can the state create a law it doesn’t have to follow? #ExistentialIllinois.
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“School officials struggled to explain why their districts weren’t complying with the 13-year-old state law . . .
“Jadine Chou, the top safety and security officer at Chicago Public Schools, said the district reports crime statistics to local police but acknowledged that CPS does not report directly to state police as required by law. Instead, Chou said, the district relies on local police to turn the data over to state police. Though crimes on school grounds are included in the data that Chicago police supply regularly to state police, the information does not tag incidents as school-related crime.
“Chou, who joined CPS earlier this year, had no explanation of why the district had not been sending crime data to the state’s school crime database and was surprised to learn it was not in compliance with the law.”
Is Chou on merit pay?
3. Theo Epstein held his first Hot Stove Cool Music event in Chicago last night at the Metro. I haven’t seen video yet but the Beachwood was on the case last fall and it probably wasn’t much different, with the exception of Billy Corgan’s sad presence.
4. Leading economic indicator.
5. Why oh why oh why does the local media give the mayor the authority to commandeer its pages at will? Congratulations, Crain’s, you are now Splash.
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You do realize there’s no difference between publishing a press release out of City Hall and publishing a press release out of City Hall dressed up as an Op-Ed except that the mayor’s byline has been slapped on it?
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Worse, you don’t even extract a promise from the mayor that he’ll actually abide by the state’s Freedom of Information Act in exchange for acting as his press agent.
In other words, the mayor gets to say whatever he wants – no fact-checking or editing – in our various media outlets even as he stiffs the reporters at those same organizations whenever they are in pursuit of anything of substance.
Dear Chicago editors: There’s room at my poker table.
6. Ostensibly to save taxpayers’ money, a provision in the new Medicaid “reform” law allows no-bid contracts, which had been required to save taxpayers’ money.
7. Just Say No: Only America drugs its racehorses.
8. I Am A Pizza Delivery Guy.
9. The Week in Chicago Rock: Last weekend’s hugeness must have worn everybody out.
10. “800-588-2300 Empire, bitch!”
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Carpet bombing.
Posted on June 15, 2012