Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
Notes from my couch while watching the debate at Rich Central High School on Wednesday night. (You can replay it yourself here.) Participating: Robin Kelly, Toi Hutchinson, Debbie Halvorson, Anthony Beale and Ernest B. Fenton.
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Wouldn’t it be easier if the white candidate dropped out?
Posted on January 31, 2013
By Justin Elliott/ProPublica
When President Obama told supporters that he would morph his campaign into a new nonprofit that would accept unlimited corporate donations, the announcement set off a familiar round of griping from campaign finance reformers.
The creation this month of Organizing for Action, which will promote the president’s second-term agenda, appears to be the fourth reversal by Obama on major money-in-politics issues since 2008.
Posted on January 30, 2013
Obama’s America
“Pretty much everybody who pays attention to Lupe Fiasco knows he’s not exactly a fan of President Barack Obama, but for some reason the group Start Up Rock On booked him to headline their inauguration party Sunday night,” New York magazine reports. “It didn’t go well.”
Click through for the tweets that tell the story. Here’s the video:
Posted on January 21, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
“Sandi Jackson assured her faithful supporters that she was still large and in charge as she signed off as the 7th Ward alderman Tuesday night,” Mary Mitchell writes for the Sun-Times.
“It was almost symbolic that Jackson, who commuted from Washington, D.C., to represent the South Side ward, said goodbye by telephone.”
It wasn’t almost symbolic, and it wasn’t even symbolic; it was fitting. She said goodbye the way she governed: From a distance.
Posted on January 17, 2013
By The Heartland Alliance
Happy new year to you and thank you for your support as we celebrate a fresh start this season! As we begin this new year, we’re also beginning a special celebration – Heartland Alliance’s 125th anniversary.
As we celebrate this fresh start, we at Heartland Alliance have an opportunity for a new beginning, and we’re taking it, rededicating ourselves to the core of our mission – ending poverty. Over these 125 years, we’ve found solutions that work – housing, healthcare, jobs, and justice – the foundation of a stable life. We renew our dedication not only to providing those services, but to the participants receiving them.
We hope you will enjoy this video that describes our work and the amazing people we serve every day.
Posted on January 15, 2013
By Cora Currier/ProPublica
You might have heard about the “kill list.” You’ve certainly heard about drones. But the details of the U.S. campaign against militants in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia – a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s national security approach – remain shrouded in secrecy. Here’s our guide to what we know – and what we don’t know.
Where is the drone war? Who carries it out?
Drones have been the Obama administration’s tool of choice for taking out militants outside of Iraq and Afghanistan. Drones aren’t the exclusive weapon – traditional airstrikes and other attacks have also been reported. But by one estimate, 95 percent of targeted killings since 9/11 have been conducted by drones. Among the benefits of drones: they don’t put American troops in harm’s way.
Posted on January 12, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
In four acts.
Pension Punt
“State lawmakers on Tuesday bequeathed the government worker pension problem to the next General Assembly, rejecting Gov. Pat Quinn’s roundly criticized ‘Hail Mary’ plan to ask a committee to fix the worst-in-the-nation retirement system,” the Tribune’s Rick Pearson reports.
That was Quinn’s sudden, last-minute idea to establish a base-closings style commission to solve the pension issue that he once declared he was “put on Earth” to solve.
It also marked the end of a “grassroots” effort to build support for a pension solution in part by drawing on an animated python named Squeezy.
Posted on January 9, 2013
