By Steve Rhodes
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel easily won approval Wednesday for two measures that will tighten parade rules, increase fines for violating the restrictions and give him unfettered power to spend money on two international summits coming to Chicago in May,” the Tribune reports.
My take: City Council Demands You Shut Up And Sit Down, Just Like They Do.
Durbin To Internet: Drop Dead
Though a staffer now says “It’s not a top priority,” Dick Durbin is a co-sponsor of PIPA – the Senate version of SOPA.
Nobel Prize
“This April, an unprecedented global event lands in Chicago,” Fox Chicago reports. “A number of Nobel Peace Prize winners will gather in town for the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates.
New protest rules will be in effect.
Occupy via Chicago
“Weeks after their eviction from several area encampments, anti-Wall Street activists in San Francisco, including a former Pacific Stock Exchange president, are vowing to disrupt the city’s financial district on Friday with a series of protests,” Reuters reports.
“On Wednesday, the protesters held a carefully-scripted press conference in front of the former world headquarters of Bank of America.
“A half dozen activist groups, including the California Nurses Association and Iraq Veterans Against the War, held up identical ‘Occupy Wall Street West’ signs as they stood in a semicircle around a bank of broadcasters’ microphones. One person dressed up as a giant squid to symbolize the global reach of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment giant.
“The speakers included Vivian Richardson, a San Francisco homeowner who credited the Occupy movement with helping her resist foreclosure, and R. Warren Langley, 69, who served as president of the now-defunct Pacific Stock Exchange until 1999.
“Langley’s grew up in Alabama and served in the U.S. Air Force before beginning his career in finance.
“As an executive at Hull Trading in Chicago, he lobbied for the deregulation of financial services, he said. But as he contemplated the future of his grandchildren, he rejected the positions of his former colleagues.
“‘It’s not that these people are doing anything illegal,’ he said. ‘It’s just that the laws have been set up for them. The game has been rigged. This is the last chance to level the playing field so my grandchildren can enjoy the kind of opportunities I enjoyed.’
“Langley said he planned to demonstrate in front of a Bank of America branch on Friday.”
Bad Optics
Obama To Deliver Convention Speech At Bank of America Stadium.
Know Your Rights
In Song of the Moment.
When WTTW Pledge Master Marty Robinson . . .
. . . Kept Interrupting Doctor Who.
That Happened
The 2011 Chicago Underwater Hockey Finals.
Wakeboarding And Scuba Emporium
At the 2012 Chicago Boat Show.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Tasty waves.
Posted on January 19, 2012