By Justin Elliott/ProPublica

The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 on Friday to require broadcasters to post political ad data on the Web, making it easier for the public to see how as much as $3.2 billion will be spent on TV advertising in this election.
The files, which detail the times ads aired, how much they cost and whether stations rejected ad buy requests from campaigns, among other things, are currently available only on paper at each station.
The FCC rejected an industry push to water down the measure. But the adopted rule also has serious limits. For example, the data will not be searchable or uploaded in a common format.

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Posted on April 30, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

If there were any doubts that Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s infrastructure bank proposal had been revised into an acceptable form and looked much better after an extra six days to think about it, those doubts were dispelled on Monday’s Chicago Tonight. I’m convinced more than ever that this is a very bad idea.
Further, the mayor and his city council allies – growing by the minute after mysterious closed-door meetings of the sort that are usually a one-way exchange of threats and promises – have upped the ante on how disingenuous they are willing to be in handing over to Emanuel an unprecedented level of power to create a legacy that will either ultimately dissipate into dust or get dumped onto the taxpayers long after Rahm is gone.
But don’t just take it from me. Take it from, say, the city’s inspector general, Joe Ferguson. In a letter he wrote at aldermanic request, Ferguson writes that the infrastructure bank as currently structured “will only lead to legal disagreement and conflict down the road that will undermine public confidence in the integrity of this potentially beneficial program,” according to the Tribune editorial board, which echoes the IG’s call to fix the mayor’s proposal before passing it.
Ferguson thus joins both the Tribune editorial board, the Crain’s editorial board, the Better Government Association, the Sun-Times editorial board as well as the Grassroots Collaborative in opposing Rahm’s plan. What a coalition!
Unfortunately, the Chicago City Council is still the Chicago City Council. And nobody on the council, by the way, is clowning as hard in the final hours as Ald. Joe Moreno.
Let’s take a look.

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Posted on April 24, 2012

By Justin Elliott/ProPublica

News organizations cultivate a reputation for demanding transparency, whether by suing for access to government documents, dispatching camera crews to the doorsteps of recalcitrant politicians, or editorializing in favor of open government.
But now many of the country’s biggest media companies – which own dozens of newspapers and TV news operations – are flexing their muscle in Washington in a fight against a government initiative to increase transparency of political spending.
The corporate owners or sister companies of some of the biggest names in journalism – NBC News, ABC News, Fox News, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Politico, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and dozens of local TV news outlets – are lobbying against a Federal Communications Commission measure to require broadcasters to post political ad data on the Internet.

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Posted on April 20, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

The city council is poised to do what it always does: Roll over for a mayor they are afraid of and pass a controversial plan that even the smart ones don’t quite understand.
“This might be the greatest idea on earth,” downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly said before voting against the plan at Monday’s finance committee meeting. “I just have so many questions, I haven’t been able to figure out if it is.”
Reilly was joined by six other dissenting colleagues, but somehow 11 aldermen less brainy than Reilly pretended they knew how Rahm’s bank will work and voted to send it to the full council today.
“I’d like to find a way to support . . . this incredibly bold plan,” downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly said during hearings on Monday. “But I have almost as many questions as when I walked in here this morning . . . You’re asking us to take a leap of faith.”
Oy.

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Posted on April 18, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“Police arrested about two dozen people who barricaded themselves inside the Woodlawn Mental Health Clinic on the city’s South Side to protest its planned closing,” the Tribune reports.
“Of the 23 arrested, 12 were expected to be charged and 11 were released without charges, Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said.
“The outpatient clinic is one of six Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proposed closing, along with clinics in the Palmer Square, Rogers Park, Auburn Gresham, Back of the Yards and Morgan Park neighborhoods.
“Dozens of people, including the facility’s patients, locked themselves inside the building by chaining doors shut and erecting barricades about 4 p.m. Thursday. Police cut through chains and started arresting people about 1 a.m.”
The Twitter feed of Occupy Chicago provides an invaluable play-by-play from the inside, but this one summed up the general principle:

When a city can find $60MN to host a summit of economic & military elites but can’t provide mental healthcare to its poor, we have a problem

— Occupy Chicago (@OccupyChicago) April 12, 2012

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Posted on April 13, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“A city council committee today passed a controversial proposal to install speed enforcement cameras near schools and parks – despite incomplete information on changes to the proposal, especially how the city might use speeding ticket revenue,” Progress Illinois reports.
Truly, this is an embarrassment.
“The city, though, has not specifically laid out to the public – or City Council members – how installing cameras help children. For example, aldermen were provided statistics from the city that showed 800 children pedestrians were seriously injured or killed between 2005 and 2010 due to a motorist.
“But [city transportation commissioner Gabe] Klein could not say – in the face of repeated questions from aldermen – how many of these motorists were speeding or how many of these accidents happened near schools and parks.”
In video I saw on Chicago Tonight, Klein also cited the difference in mortality rates between pedestrians hit by cars going 20 mph and those hit by cars going 40 mph – but reportedly could not say how often Chicago motorists are caught driving 20 mph over the speed limit or how often they were caught doing so in school zones.
In fact, the administration still can’t say just how speed cameras will make children safer.
“Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, questioned why the cameras will be ticketing drivers at all during school hours if children’s safety is the focus,” the Tribune reports.
“At 10 a.m., you don’t see too many kids outside,” he said.
In other words, investing in crossing guards in morning and afternoon shifts makes more sense if generating revenue isn’t your goal – and Mayor Rahm Emanuel insists it isn’t.
But even the revenue front is hazy.

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Posted on April 12, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“Fracking is coming to Illinois,” Crain’s reports.
“The state, which has sat on the sidelines as new technologies using high-pressure fracturing techniques to extract natural gas have launched energy booms in long-dormant states, could see a boomlet of its own in coming months.”
Sounds great, huh? Not so fast.

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Posted on April 5, 2012