A Chicago Blog

Dear members of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (VRC),
You are failing miserably. I rely on you to ensure that government doesn’t take away my property, my money, my guns, my speech and my freedom. And I must say, I’m beginning to get a little worried. Not only did you nominate John McCain, whose track record on [...]

Illinois Reason is up in arms over a robocall into Melissa Bean’s district coming from area code 217, which is Springfield and central Illinois. While there could be something nefarious at work here, it’s more likely just the marketplace. Campaigns are a businesses just like any other. No one in their right mind would turn [...]

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 [...]

Zorn’s column yesterday was titled “Let churches decide what marriage is.” Here Here! This is the only possible compromise. And pretty libertarian sounding to me. There is no reason why I, a straight man, shouldn’t have to get a “civil union” contract to share any legal privileges with my wife. For that matter, my tax [...]

I take Metra in every day. This week the train has been shorter. By that, I mean fewer train cars, which means fewer places to sit. If they had cut back in order to avoid raising taxes, I would have been fine. But seeing as taxes were raised, I am wondering why I’m standing up [...]

Michael Gerson wrote a despicable column yesterday bashing a group of Senators he calls the “Coburn 7″ for blocking an AIDS relief bill. According to Gerson:
The seven, led by Coburn, complain that the reauthorization is too costly. They object to “mission creep” — the funding of “food, water, treatment of other infectious diseases, gender empowerment [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]