A Chicago Blog

I didn’t realize Rich Miller was pro-Con Con! That’s terrific. He criticized Dawn Clark Netsch yesterday for being afraid of the debate. Kudos.
For those of you not up to speed on Illinois’ Constitutional Convention, check out the Illinois Citizens Coalition and Illinois Issues.

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 [...]

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 [...]

So I went down to see the immigration protests yesterday. I went packing my video camera thinking I would get lots of interesting footage. But sadly, my battery died just as I was making my way to Federal Plaza (piece of crap). So I was left with only the functions available on my Blackberry. Over [...]

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 [...]

This sounds like a good idea. The Transportation Security Administration, in order to offset costs of airport security, is selling ads to Zappos.com, which is a online shoe site. But I think there should be some questions asked and answer. First, TSA has a $6.3 billion budget and presumably most of that comes from the [...]

I tend to be somewhat libertarian on immigration. But even I have to admit there’s a problem here.