By Drew Adamek

I like Barack Obama but I don’t think we elected the right man to be our first black president.
It was clear to me from the get-go that the “hopey-changey” stuff was really just top-notch spin. Anyone who knows anything about Chicago politics knows that if you are going to be a change agent, there is no better place to start than right here (Hi, Emil).
Don’t get me wrong; I was truly touched when the Obama family stood on the stage in Grant Park in November 2008 and I realized that they were America’s first family. I was amazed that America had gone, since my freshman year in high school, from arguments about the merits of a black quarterback to a black president. I was proud to be American; I was thrilled that a Chicagoan was president. Obama’s election was a touchstone moment in American history.
But as incredible as the Obama election is in context, there seems to be something missing. Obama, in my mind, has proven himself to be a man of transient convictions and flexible promises. He is a great speaker, and I do like his measured, tempered approach. But I am disappointed because it feels like he lacks the true power of one’s convictions and that he’s wasted the certainty of his electoral mandate.
I wish the man we elected in 2008 would have more confidence in his convictions, be less likely to compromise, and be less like a Republican president. We face an uncertain world, and I want a president who is resolute, hard-core: a grown damn man. Like, say, Carl Ridenhour, otherwise known as Chuck D.
Here, then, is why Chuck D should have been our first black president:

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Posted on April 19, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Federal prosecutors revealed new details on Wednesday in their case against Rod (and Rob) Blagojevich when a judge James Zagel denied a defense request to keep the government’s Santiago proffer sealed.
Before I get to my favorite excerpts from the document itself, I’ll post a few highlights from the punditry and news reports.
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Sun-Times: “Patti Key To Feds’ Case Against Former Gov.”
From the report: “[The proffer] described a Blagojevich who almost obsessively discussed cutting a deal to personally benefit from appointing a U.S. senator to Barack Obama’s vacant seat.
“‘Now is the time for me to put my fucking children and my wife first, for a change,’ Blagojevich allegedly said . . . Blagojevich questioned whether the president-elect could do ‘something big’ in the ‘private sector’ for Blagojevich in exchange for the Senate seat.”

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Posted on April 15, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

If you don’t want to take it from me or the Tribune, take it from David Remnick and Garry Wills: Barack Obama is full of it.
From “Behind Obama’s Cool,” Wills’s review of Remnick’s The Bridge: The Life and Times of Barack Obama:
“Obama is such a good storyteller that his biographer might well be intimidated by the thought of competing with his own version of his life. But Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, has many important additions and corrections to make to our reading of Dreams From My Father.”
It seems Obama got his own life story wrong – something that would become a familiar pattern.

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Posted on April 14, 2010

By The Juvenile Justice Initiative

Legislation to Encourage Early Treatment for Juveniles Among Several Juvenile Justice Bills Pending at Half-Way Point of General Assembly’s Spring Session
The Illinois House has approved legislation aimed at encouraging early delivery of mental health treatment and other services to troubled juveniles.
House Bill 6129, now pending in the Senate, would protect arrested juveniles against incriminating themselves through any statements they make when discussing that crime in the course of a behavioral screening, assessment, evaluation, or treatment.
“It’s no secret that many youth in our juvenile justice system suffer mental issues and other behavioral problems, but too often they aren’t addressed until months after the initial arrest,” said Betsy Clarke, president of the Juvenile Justice Initiative. “If they can be reached much earlier, there is a much better chance of changing behaviors and reducing the likelihood of repeated crimes. This legislation represents a small but important step in changing a system that now leaves too many youth afraid to talk openly and freely with the professionals who can connect the youth with the most appropriate treatment and services.”

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Posted on April 12, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“Not everyone applauded when President Barack Obama’s appointment of political fundraiser Louis Susman brought Chicago-style deal-making to the Court of St. James,” the Tribune’s Greg Burns wrote this week.
No kidding.
Even the staid CBS News played it this way: “Obama Picks Crony As U.K. Ambassador.”
This was just what Obama promised not to do during his campaign, but when he backtracked during the transition we should have seen it coming.
In February, Carol Felsenthal penned a revealing profile of Susman for Chicago magazine.
Let’s take a look.

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Posted on April 9, 2010

By The University of Illinois at Chicago

The University of Illinois at Chicago Library will celebrate the opening of the Doug Dobmeyer Papers at a reception today from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Richard J. Daley Library Special Collections department.
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UIC LIBRARY RECEIVES DOUG DOBMEYER PAPERS
Social activist Doug Dobmeyer, a long-time Chicago advocate for the homeless, has donated his professional papers to the University of Illinois at Chicago Library.
As a communications consultant, Dobmeyer works with nonprofit organizations on persistent social issues, particularly housing and emergency social services.
The Doug Dobmeyer Papers comprise 106 cases of papers documenting organizations for which Dobmeyer served as founder, director, board member or consultant between 1978 and 2008. The papers include administrative records, correspondence, reports, publicity and fundraising materials and media coverage.

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Posted on April 8, 2010

By The Doctors Of The Cook County Health and Hospital Systems

County docs offer stress-relieving tips to help taxpayers as they crunch numbers before April 15
CHICAGO – In the two weeks leading up to April 15 – Tax Day – thousands of Cook County residents will be thumbing through W2s and stressing out about whether or not they will receive a refund, or if they will have to pay Uncle Sam. To help navigate people through the long nights of filing, Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS) doctors are offering a few stress relief tips of their own.
Tax Season doesn’t have to be a stressful time of year, but CCHHS doctors recommend learning how to deal with it and suggest taking proactive measures to alleviate it. Some suggestions include:

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Posted on April 6, 2010

By Kiljoong Kim

The value of college education has been emphasized in the American educational system for a very long time. School districts around the country treat higher rate college admission as emblematic of their success and universities consider admission of first-generation college students to be their contribution to society’s upward mobility. But is it possible for this valuable measure of human capital to lose its worth? And what does it mean for a city that has portrayed itself as a historically blue-collar and working-class to having increasing numbers of highly educated residents?
Between 1990 to the mid-2000s, Chicago’s adult population over the age of 25 remained steadily around 1.8 million (1.75 million in 1990, 1.82 million in 2000, and 1.77 million in 2006-8 estimate). However, the percentage of that population with college degrees jumped from 19.5 percent in 1990 to 30.2 percent in the mid-2000s. This massive 56 percent increase in less than two decades means that more than 533,000 residents in Chicago have completed at least a four-year college education.
Yet, despite this dramatic shift, Chicago is still behind a number of cities that are composed of more college graduates, including Seattle and San Francisco. (See a really cool chart of this here.) If Chicago’s collective aspiration to be a global city becomes a reality, it is likely to attract and accommodate even more highly educated residents with higher earning power and potential.

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Posted on March 29, 2010

By The Chicago Justice Project

Chicago Justice Project blasts General Assembly efforts to roll back public access laws
The Chicago Justice Project is criticizing the Illinois General Assembly for what it calls “attempts to send the Illinois Freedom of Information Act back into the Dark Ages.”
“Our legislators have moved quickly and quietly to make sure that the more open laws governing public access to government records are closed down before we citizens can ever get a chance to use them,” CJP Executive Director Tracy Siska said. “My question is: Who is looking out for the citizens of Illinois, whose right to learn about how their government is serving them is being restricted in an effort to cater to special interests?”
Several pieces of legislation will unfairly limit access to information, CJP says. Among them:

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Posted on March 24, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

The selection committee has made its picks, and now we make ours.
ROUND ONE
Play-in Game: Spiridoula Mavrothalasitis vs. Jasper St. Angel
Comment: Mavrothalasitis comes out of the Lawyer Conference, which is down this year, representing Jenner & Block. She is believed to have access to donors and is both Mexican and Greek. St. Angel is a top real estate agent in Rockford, which makes him geographically undesirable.
Pick: Mavrothalasitis
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Match-Up: Susan Garrett (1) vs. Play-in Winner (16)
Comment: Garrett is super-rich and chromosomically desirable. She might not play well Downstate, but she’ll clean up in the suburbs.
Pick: Garrett.

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Posted on March 23, 2010