A Chicago Blog

This morning I attended a press conference where the Illinois Policy Institute released the latest version of their Piglet Book. In the clip below, Chairman John Tillman runs through some highlights. My favorite is a study of Ukranian Easter Eggs. Nice!
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Let’s see, get arrested on charges of racketeering because you took $150k from a booster for steering a talented player to the University of Alabama. Lose your teaching license. Get convicted and sentenced for time served. Do god knows what for a couple years. Get your teaching certification reinstated?
Yep, sounds like the American public education [...]

A little over a week ago I blogged about my attempt to gain access to Governor’s Office emails using a freedom of information act request. I didn’t expect this request to be greeted with a smile. Other bloggers around the country have made similar requests and been told it would cost anywhere from $1350 to [...]

Seriously, the guys over at AFP have put together a coalition letter supporting HB4765 which would create an “Accountability Portal” on web for Illinois state government. According to their press release the bill would require the posting of “comprehensive information about state spending, state employees and their pay rates, state contracts, state tax credits, and [...]

A fellow blogivist alerts us to a breaking development in Georgia. The State Senate has approved a tuition tax credit scholarship program (read the full bill). The bill now just needs to be signed by the Governor, Sonny Perdue. Perdue signed a special-needs voucher program last year, so there is every reason to expect he’ll [...]

The teachers unions will sue anything that moves. Last year, I remember being shocked that union-funded groups went after the Teach for America because the young men and women the program put into underprivileged classrooms were not properly “certified.” Now they are going after the biggest and best school choice program in the country.
Can America [...]

The nerd in me is really excited to hear about the CTA’s new bus tracking system.  The taxpayer in me cringes at the $24 million we’re going to spend on it. I only use the bus once a week, on Monday afternoons, so it will take me a while to determine the usefulness of this [...]

I am taking part in the Sunshine Blogger project.  Last week I called the Gov’s office to find out who the freedom of information contact is. They couldn’t tell me. I was connected to the press office, but they couldn’t tell me either. This is pretty frightening because it would seem to indicate that the [...]

This the third installment in my series on David Frum’s Comeback. I should have finished this book by now because it is a really quick and easy read. But I’ve been sidetracked lately and haven’t been able to put as much time in as I would have liked.
So far I’ve been a little disappointed at [...]

I must say that, as an ex-smoker, I have found the smoking ban beneficial to my personal needs. I am no longer tempted to light up every time I walk into a smoky bar because there are no more smoky bars. That said, I’m still a staunch supporter of smoker’s rights and business owners rights. [...]