By The Rainbow PUSH Coalition

The racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, violent climate we find ourselves in these days manifests in many ways – starting at the top with the toxic rhetoric coming out of Washington to the latest police slaughter of an unarmed African American in California to the n-word showing up in an ad selling boots on Groupon.
This week, Groupon was forced to apologize after a third-party vendor used the n-word in an ad to describe the color of suede boots for sale on the site. Groupon said that as soon as company officials became aware the word was being used, both the product and the vendor were pulled.
“We are appalled,” a Groupon VP said.
So are we. How does this keep happening?

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Posted on March 29, 2018

By The Obama Library Community Benefits Agreement Coalition

Tenants who live in the Jackson Park Terrace Apartments, across the street from the proposed Obama Center, are already facing a rent increase ranging from $100 a month to more than $250 a month.
“[Obama] heard that we would not be displaced but my rent is going up next week,” said Cindy Lee, a Jackson Park Terrace tenant and longtime neighborhood resident. “I don’t want to move now that the Obama Center is coming, but with this rent increase I may have no choice.”
The building is owned by politically connected Leon Finney, who has put up “We Trust Obama” signs on the housing development.

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Posted on March 27, 2018

By The Let Forest Park Vote On Video Gaming Political Action Committee

On March 16th, the Illinois Appellate Court 1st District overturned the finding of the Electoral Board of Forest Park and the Cook County Circuit Court ruling that tossed all 276 sheets containing 2,840 valid signatures from a citizens’ petition that would allow residents Forest Park residents to vote on the ballot question, “Shall Video Gaming be Prohibited in Forest Park?”
The appellate court found that despite six sheets having erroneous headings, the rest of the petition sheets exhibited substantial compliance with Illinois election law. Thus, this binding referendum is now allowed to continue to the ballot.

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Posted on March 26, 2018

By The City Of Chicago Office Of Inspector General

The Office of the Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety (Public Safety) is announcing its first list of initiated projects related to police and police accountability functions and operations in the City of Chicago.
Public Safety supports the mission of the Office of Inspector General by conducting independent, objective inspections, evaluations and reviews of police programs and operations, as well as by issuing public reports and making recommendations to strengthen and improve public safety.
Its goals include fostering trust and improving interactions between Chicago Police Department officers and the communities they serve through assurance of constitutional policies and practices, within a system of operational accountability that fully identifies and supports the needs of the community and the members of CPD. Public Safety is examining the following issues:
1. Evaluation of CPD’s Gang-Related Designations and Tracking.
Public Safety is assessing CPD’s standards and practices for determining gang affiliation and the consequences of being identified as gang-affiliated. The “gang database” in Chicago has prompted public concern regarding the potential for significantly adverse impacts on those designated as “gang-affiliated.”

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Posted on March 22, 2018

By Steve Rhodes

The three most noxious candidates on the ballot.
Joe Berrios, chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party: Nepotism. Ethics. Campaign finance. Dirty tricks. Oh, and generally being a piece of shit.
Supporting him? Rahm, Pritzker, Madigan, Preckwinkle, Burke, White, Gutierrez.

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Posted on March 19, 2018

By Steve Rhodes

Let’s take a look at the (sorry) field of state attorney general candidates.
DEMOCRATS:
Kwame Raoul: The frontrunner from Day One hasn’t exactly run a confidence-building campaign; he’s been exposed as a creature of the Machine, if there was ever any doubt. CTU-endorsed. AFL-CIO-endorsed. His race to lose, but lose it he may.

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Posted on March 19, 2018

By Steve Rhodes

“Here’s an issue on which rich Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker – by far the wealthiest of the Democrats aiming to unseat Rauner next year – find common ground,” Dan Mihalopoulos reported for the Sun-Times last fall.
“Both Rauner and Pritzker are fans of a state tax-credit program for rich investors in startup companies in Illinois.

In fact, Pritzker is more than just a supporter of the program – the venture capitalist has profited handsomely from it.
Pritzker’s companies have gotten tax credits worth more than $1.9 million over four years through the Illinois Angel Investment Tax Credit program, records show.
As he did when his big property-tax breaks were revealed earlier this year, Pritzker says he’s merely availed himself of what the law offers him.

And who writes those laws – and at the behest (and campaign contributions) of whom?

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Posted on March 19, 2018

By Steve Rhodes

Look, he has the Pussy Riot endorsement. That’s almost good enough for me. Almost.
*
First, what was Carlos Ramirez-Rosa all about? Really? And I don’t mean that because he’s socialist, I mean that because he’s a 29-year-old first-term Chicago alderman.
And then this. I know it seems like ages ago, but it’s worth remembering and reflecting upon.

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Posted on March 19, 2018

By Steve Rhodes

Here’s how it started:

The son of the slain Robert F. Kennedy used a speech to the Illinois delegation to the Democratic National Convention to sharply criticize Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, fueling speculation that the man with the famous political bloodlines might commit to running this time around after previously weighing campaigns for the U.S. House, U.S. Senate and governor.
But after Kennedy wrapped up his polished address, he showed little savvy with the collection of reporters awaiting him outside a hotel banquet room to ask whether he would challenge Rauner in 2018.
“I said what I was going to say inside today,” he said, “and the rest of the convention I’m going to spend listening and learning from other people.”
Kennedy then walked toward a waiting elevator, but a crush of Chicago reporters followed him in, not satisfied with the non-answer.
“This is sort of ridiculous, please,” Kennedy pleaded.
“What’s ridiculous is you don’t answer questions,” WFLD-Ch. 32 reporter Mike Flannery shot back. “You’ve run four or five campaigns in the gossip column. Are you running for governor or not?”
“I don’t have to address you. Please leave the elevator and let me go to my meeting. Please do that. Have some decency,” Kennedy responded. “What have you become? Please, please.”
A furious Kennedy then left the elevator and headed to a nearby stairwell. Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet then chased him into the stairwell doorway requesting to take a photograph of the businessman, who obliged with an awkwardly forced smile.

Dude.

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Posted on March 18, 2018

By Steve Rhodes

First in a series: The GOP candidates for governor.
Ah, the irony: Incompetent serial liar vs. Trumpist.
Undercovered – and underappeciated – about the Jeanne Ives campaign (perhaps because reporters love a close race and would love to see an upset just for the drama of it, as well as an earned dislike of the sitting governor) is that she’s not just a hard-right, rock-ribbed conservative, but a full-fledged Trumpist.
“Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeanne Ives spoke at the [MAGA] rally because she wants voters to know she voted for President Trump and still strongly supports him,” Northern Public Radio reported in November, as just one example. “She said, ‘I believe in the policies that he’s implemented to date. I believe in following our federal laws. I believe in arresting illegal immigration so that we can support workers in our state first.'”
She backs Trump through-and-through. And the sitting governor whom she’s challenging is not about to make an issue of it. That’s where we’re at, as they say.

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Posted on March 18, 2018