A Chicago Blog

While we’re on education today, I want to comment briefly on the absurd column by Alice Armstrong in the State Journal Register yesterday. In her column, Alice criticizes Collin Hitt (Disclaimer: I’ve co-written several articles with Collin) for allegedly “oversimplifying” the issue when he suggested that Illinois’ charter schools have been successful and that it’s [...]

Seriously. This is only partly invective. Today the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is busing 30,000 kids to Soldier Field to rally for more school funding. But Chicago already spends more than $11,000 per student on average. The real problem is that Chicago school budgeting ensures that most of the resources are sucked up by schools [...]

Man I have to get a new camera. For the last few weeks I’ve been using the camera on my phone since my CyberShot crapped out on me. It just doesn’t cut it. Believe it or not, Johnny Depp is in the picture below. He’s in town shooting a movie and I happened to find [...]

Did you know Congressional staff salaries are available online. Me neither. But for kicks I downloaded Dick Durbin’s staff. Hmmmm. I wonder why he needs so many people. Don’t get me wrong I think Senators need staff. But 64 people in one year? wow. But I guess I can’t complain too much, Barack Obama had [...]

According to the Chicago Tribune:
The jury convicted Rezko of 12 counts of wire and mail fraud, two counts of money laundering and two counts of aiding and abetting bribery. He was acquitted of attempted extortion.

Ever since this campaign started, people have been asking me whether I thought Obama had what it takes to beat the Clintons. My response is always the same: it doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter to me whether Obama is a “good” enough candidate. I’m from Arkansas and so I NEVER bet against the Clintons, [...]

And the circus continues. The Trib reports:
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s new chief of staff is a former Chicago Park District executive from Bridgeport who once gave his new boss a job.
Joseph Fratto, 52, an accountant who serves as the county’s comptroller, is taking a more conciliatory tone than his predecessor, Lance Tyson, whom [...]

Check out the Grease Freak. [Hat Tip to Fuzzy Gerdes]

And endorses the Metro Planning Council’s suggesting that we rank spending priorities:
With a little more than a week until the General Assembly’s scheduled adjournment, the prospects for a capital bill this spring aren’t good, especially since the current proposal relies heavily on money from two iffy sources: a partial lease of the state lottery [...]

As most of you know, I have been filing FOIAs on a regular basis, not because I necessarily think Chicago City Government is corrupt (!ahem!) but because I think there is certain information taxpayers should be provided whether they ask for it or not.
Credit Card statements are a big one. All my credit card bills [...]