By The Chicago Chapter Of The National Lawyers Guild

Cook County Court Judge Thomas Donnelly dismissed over 90 cases Thursday against Occupy Chicago activists who were arrested last October and charged with a violation of rarely used park curfew law. [All links added by the Beachwood Linking Squad.]
Judge Donnelly issued a written ruling Thursday which found that the city’s park curfew ordinance is “unconstitutional both on its face and as applied and all complaints in this case are dismissed with prejudice.” The Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) filed motions to dismiss in February on behalf of 92 Occupy Chicago protesters.
Judge Donnelly’s order reads in part that, “The City’s claim that citizen safety, park maintenance and park preservation constitute the substantial governmental interests that justifies closing the park seven hours nightly fails because the City routinely closes the park for fewer than seven hours nightly, making ad hoc exceptions to the Curfew for permitted groups.”
The order continued that, “Because it is undisputed that the City closes Grant Park longer than necessary to serve the governments interests, the Curfew is not narrowly tailored, in violation of the First Amendment. The Curfew also violates the Illinois Constitution which provides a more vigorous right to free assembly, embracing even non-expressive assemblies.”

Read More

Posted on September 28, 2012

By The Chicago/Gary Regional Affairs Desk

Former Chicago mayor and managerial whiz Richard M. Daley has been “tapped” by the city of Gary to help dig itself out of its decades-long doldrums.
The Beachwood, of course, has an exclusive preview of what Daley’s recommendations will be.

Read More

Posted on September 27, 2012

By Ed Hammer

Most of us are familiar the old joke, “How do you tell if a politician is lying?”
Of course the punch line is, “His lips are moving.”
This is funny and, more often than not, sad but true.
Well, I have an idea that might help us decide which of the two presidential candidates is lying the most. Once we make that determination we can decide which one to vote for in the upcoming election, or as I too often do, pick the lesser of the two evils.

Read More

Posted on September 26, 2012

Independence Of Investigators At Stake

“The Illinois Supreme Court heard oral arguments [last week] in a case that will help determine what power the city of Chicago’s main watchdog has to investigate City Hall,” Progress Illinois reports.
Here’s the statement sent out by the IG’s office ahead of those arguments:
“The City’s Corporation Counsel blocked full IGO access to documents it requested in an investigation of a sole-source contract to a former City employee made in apparent violation of the City’s ethics and contracting rules. The City’s Law Department produced some documents but redacted others on the basis of attorney-client privilege and/or the work product doctrine.

Read More

Posted on September 25, 2012

By Matt Farmer

Ms. Tola Sobitan (asobitan@atg.state.il.us)
Assistant Attorney General — Public Access Bureau
100 W. Randolph St. Chicago, IL 60601
VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL ONLY
Dear Ms. Sobitan:
On June 21, 2012, Mayor Emanuel announced that “Clemente Community Academy High School will become the third, wall-to-wall International Baccalaureate (IB) school” in Chicago. The mayor’s press release noted that “[t]he decision to convert Clemente into a wall-to-wall IB school was made after significant engagement with the Humboldt Park community and discussions with key community stakeholders.” (Emphasis added.)
On June 27, I served a Freedom of Information Act request upon the FOIA officer for Chicago Public Schools requesting all documents relating to CPS’s decision to turn Clemente High School into a “wall-to-wall” IB school.

Read More

Posted on September 24, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

Now was that really so hard?
Well, yes.
But the part about the CTU’s delegates asking for two days to go back to their members for input?
That part was beautiful.

Read More

Posted on September 19, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“The tentative contract calls for a 3 percent raise in its first year and 2 percent for two years after that, along with increases for experienced teachers,” AP reports.
“While many teachers are upset it did not restore a 4 percent pay raise Emanuel rescinded earlier this year, the contract, if adopted, would continue to make Chicago teachers among the highest-paid in the country.”
The media keeps reporting that as if it’s a bad thing. Shouldn’t our teachers be among the highest-paid in the country? Shouldn’t we be proud of that? Isn’t that what being a world-class city is all about?

Read More

Posted on September 18, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

We are seeing in the coverage of the decision by the Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates to take the city’s latest contract offer back to the rank-and-file so they can actually read it carefully and provide input the importance of the media’s ability to recognize political framing and reject it in favor of independent reporting instead of becoming the toadies of those in power who spend a lot of money on consultants to create such narrative devices.
As it did earlier in the negotiations when it falsely claimed an agreement was near, the city created a sense that the contract was a done deal but for dotting i’s and crossing t’s, as the media dutifully reported. The effect is to make the CTU look like it is now stubbornly stalling or, as the Tribune argues, holding out for an even “sweeter deal.”
The Tribune fails badly in reading and listening comprehension. They begin their editorial today this way:

On Friday, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis sounded ebullient when she announced that the union had reached a tentative deal with Chicago Public Schools officials. The union leader, hailed by some as a national labor hero, said she was “very comfortable” with the terms. “We think it’s a framework that will get us to an agreement.”

Memo to the Trib: A “framework that will get us to an agreement” is not the same thing as an agreement.

Read More

Posted on September 17, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“The Chicago teachers strike and its focus on new ways to assess teachers remind me of a brilliant 2002 book, Children As Pawns: The Politics of Educational Reform, by Timothy A. Hacsi,” Jay Mathews writes in the Washington Post. “It argued convincingly that politicians and others with the power to make education policy rarely read education research, and if they do, they only accept conclusions that confirm their biases.
“Chicago teachers don’t like the hot new trend of rating teachers by how much their students improve on standardized tests. They cite research showing the tests are unreliable indicators of what is happening in classrooms, particularly when based on just a year of data. They are right.

Read More

Posted on September 14, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

Has the strike actually been a good thing – are we better off as not only a city but a nation for having it?
When I see the discussions that the strike has sparked all over the country, I kind of start to think so.
It’s been more substantive than the presidential campaign, even given the vast amount of misinformation spinning around out there.
And if it comes to an end soon, as it now again looks like it might, one week of lost instruction (that will be made up) isn’t a big deal.
In fact, we all may have learned a thing or two.

Read More

Posted on September 13, 2012