From Springfield To Kunar

“A group of about 60 Illinois National Guard soldiers is getting ready to spend a year in Afghanistan working with the country’s farmers,” AP reports.
“The guard says the 14th Agriculture Development Team is made up of soldiers from around Illinois. Their backgrounds and professions make them good candidates to help develop Afghan agriculture. They’ll work with farmers on their growing techniques and with government on agricultural infrastructure.”

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Posted on April 22, 2011

By The Beachwood Freshmen Affairs Desk

“Freshman hazing a tradition in Illinois General Assembly.”
We have some suggestions:
* Embarrass a freshman by making them complete an ethics course.
* Freshmen are required to wear Michael Madigan’s dirty laundry on the floor.
* Disable a freshman’s “Present” voting button.
* Assign a freshman to read a bill and report back to the caucus. Then pretend to care.

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Posted on April 20, 2011

By The Beachwood Tea Party

1. “Still scrambling to file your taxes? You’ll probably take little consolation in hearing that the super rich pay a lot less taxes than they did a couple of decades ago,” AP reports. “And nearly half of U.S. households pay no income taxes at all.”
2. The Real GE Scandal.
3. Over The Last Five Years, Boeing’s Total Tax Rate Was 4.5 Percent.
4. A Little Extortion Never Hurts The Bottom Line.
See also: New Caterpillar CEO’s Compensation Quadruples.

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Posted on April 18, 2011

By AP

President Barack Obama kicked his formidable fundraising operation into action Thursday in Chicago, telling supporters his 2012 campaign will focus on fixing the country’s money problems without doing harm to “the America we believe in.”

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Posted on April 15, 2011

By Andrew Thomason/Illinois Statehouse News

The Illinois Legislature might make the state’s Freedom of Information Act less open.
A measure moving through the state Senate would restrict some records that are available to the public. The plan comes a little more than a year after sweeping changes in the law made it easier for the public to access public records through Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act.
“I think a lot of the changes that are being proposed right now are premature at best,” said Josh Sharp of the Illinois Press Association. “And a lot of them are just not at all in the public’s interest.”

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Posted on April 13, 2011

By The Sunlight Foundation

Many important government transparency programs may be cut by Congress. Help us defend them.

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Posted on April 12, 2011

Produced by Staff Sgt. Joshua Peargin

This edition features SPC Joshua Smith, a Metal Worker from Chicago, Ill.

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Posted on April 11, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

Reading the stories about the death of David Koschman in the Sun-Times led one of my contributors to wonder this week where the paper was seven years ago when the actual incident occurred. I wondered too; I presumed a fight outside a bar didn’t result in any coverage at all, but in fact the papers back then – if briefly – were asking some of the same questions they are now. Let’s take a look.
*
Headline: Mayor’s Nephew Quizzed in Fatal Fight – No charges in Suburban Man’s Death Outside Bar
Date: Saturday, May 22, 2004
Newspaper: Sun-Times
Reporters: Frank Main, Fran Spielman
“A nephew of Mayor Daley was among those questioned by Chicago Police about a fight outside a Near North bar that led to the death of a suburban man, sources said Friday.
Richard J. Vanecko, the son of Daley’s sister Mary Carol Vanecko, has not been charged in connection with the fight at 3:15 a.m. on April 25 on the sidewalk at 35 W. Division, officials said.

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Posted on April 6, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

You may have heard about the news this week that the city could save $18 million if it just cracked down on loafing truck drivers who, the city’s inspector general found, are so typically paid to do nothing.
And you would have heard wrong because the media largely missed the point of the report that came out of Joe Ferguson’s office, which was that Richard M. Daley negotiated a terrible long-term deal with the city’s unions that we know was spurred by his desire to assure labor peace for the 2016 Olympics – which will be held in Rio.
In fact, Ferguson said in a statement accompanying his report that “The prevailing stereotype would have it that these workers were wrongfully loafing on the taxpayer dime when they should have been actively engaged in work. Our review revealed that these idle workers were not technically doing anything wrong; remarkably, they were completely fulfilling their defined job duties.”
So what did the media do? It went with the stereotype.

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Posted on April 1, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

Louis Farrakhan is scheduled to hold a press conference today about U.S. involvement in Libya. Should we care what he has to say? While not endorsing his views, I found his take as expressed on WVON with (an obsequious) Cliff Kelley to at least be thought-provoking. Be not afraid – but be aware.
First, here’s the video from his WVON appearance.

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Posted on March 31, 2011