A Chicago Blog

It looks like Jim Oberweis’ chances of beating Bill Foster in the 14th District just got a little slimmer. From the Beacon News:
Libertarian Dan Druck announced Monday that he is planning to run if he can get the required number of signatures to be on the ballot.
If he does, Druck would join Democratic incumbent Rep. [...]

Another year older and what do you get. The Chicago Tribune reports this morning that the Governor’s people are preparing to fight over a $750 million budget gap. The chart below shows that we are (according to Dan Hynes records) off pace for the year, by 0.7%.
The Trib calls this a “shortfall.” Isn’t that one [...]

Regardless whether a gas-tax holiday will really do anyone any good, Obama’s failure to anticipate and triangulate the issue is exposing a major weakness of his. Yes, sure. I agree that gas-tax holidays are more pandering than anything else. There are probably better ways to deal with the energy problems. But this is not really [...]

Another year older and what do you get. The Chicago Tribune reports this morning that the Governor’s people are preparing to fight over a $750 million budget gap. The chart below shows that we are (according to Dan Hynes records) off pace for the year, by 0.7%.
The Trib calls this a “shortfall.” Isn’t that one [...]

Following up on my post earlier this week questioning why Jim Thompson cares so much about the Illinois Sports Facility Authority purchasing Wrigley Field, I’ve decided to see if the former governor is getting any expenses reimbursed by the ISFA, for which he serves as chairman.
So this week’s Friday FOIA is a request for Thompson’s [...]

Is anybody but me curious about why Jim Thompson is so interested in orchestrating a state purchase of Wrigley Field? The easy answer would be that he’s getting a kick back from someone. And this is Illinois, after all. But the question is who is kicking back to who and where. My best guess at [...]

Meanwhile, Illinois Reason is viciously attacking Ann  Leary for viciously attacking Barack Obama. Leary argues that Obama encouraged gang violence when he voted against extending the death penalty to cover gang murders. As a libertarian who is AGAINST the death penalty, I agree with Argus that Leary has gone a little too far with this [...]

From the Trib Editorial Page:
Two Chicago Democrats in the Illinois Senate paid a call on the Tribune editorial board last week. When prompted, Kwame Raoul and Heather Steans told us they don’t want a recall amendment added to the state constitution. They do, however, want an amendment to kill the mandate of a flat-rate state [...]

The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform has done the state of Illinois a major service by investigating how much local governments and government agencies spend to lobby state government for tax and funding increases. It published a report this week with the following details:
* In the midst of legislative debates [...]

Well, I’m finally back in Chicago after more than a week on the road. I feel like Johnny Cash; I’ve been to Seattle, Denver, Reno, and Vegas. Two days in Seattle were vacation days and I will be posting pictures and video shortly.
It’s good to be home, and the spring weather reminds me that [...]