By Clean Power Now and TheClean.org
A WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT’S GUIDE TO CAPE WIND/MARTHA’S VINEYARD
In addition to being the site of President Obama’s August 2009 vacation, Martha’s Vineyard is in the immediate vicinity of Cape Wind, which would be the United States’ first offshore wind park. The project involves 130 wind turbine towers in Horseshoe Shoals, a shallow area in the federal waters of Nantucket Sound, and would produce enough clean power for 75 percent of the Cape & Islands energy needs.
If you are doing stories about what is going on where the First Family will be taking its summer break, Cape Wind should be at the top of your list of things to cover. This “White House Correspondent’s Guide to Cape Wind” from Clean Power Now and TheClean.org sets out all of the background you will need to tell your story. In addition, we can supply you with (1) expert interviews on site in the Cape & Islands, (2) local community perspective on Cape Wind, (3) a tour of the Cape Wind site and (4) related cover video/simulations.

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Posted on August 13, 2009

By Marcus Stern and Jake Bernstein/ProPublica
To supporters, the “cash for clunkers” program miraculously jolted the moribund car market back to life, engendering hopes that it might help revive the broader U.S. economy.
Skeptics saw it differently: The automotive industry had hijacked an environmental bill and turned it into a bailout for itself with the help of the Obama administration and a Congress besotted with wishful thinking and a hair-trigger for stimulus spending.
Both views may turn out to be correct. But one thing is certain. The sight of car buyers back in showrooms these past two weeks has raised hopes that U.S. consumers are ready, primed by government stimulus, to spend again. Those hopes gained momentum by the release Friday of employment data showing a reduced pace of job losses in the overall economy.

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Posted on August 11, 2009

By Erica Christoffer
Carrotmob is a nationwide consumer activism group with local chapters that reward independently-owned businesses committed to making energy-efficient upgrades.
To help make those improvements a reality, Carrotmob stages what they call “reverse boycotts.” In one-day events, Carrotmob participants descend on a business of choice to purchase stuff. Although there is no contract, the business verbally commits to dedicating a portion of the money made during the “mobbing” toward energy upgrades.
Carrotmob Chicago is scheduled to descend on the Fox & Obel Market at 401 E. Illinois, near Navy Pier, this Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. The store has committed to set aside 50 percent of the business the mob brings in for efficiency upgrades. The Greater Chicago Food Depository will also be accepting donations from mobbers throughout the afternoon.
Laura Flanigan, co-vice president of action projects for the Net Impact’s Chicago Professional Chapter, is one of this Carrotmob event’s lead organizers. She answered a few questions about mobbing, consumer activism and what’s going on this Sunday.

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Posted on August 5, 2009

By The Beachwood Olympic Smackdown Affairs Desk

vs.

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Posted on July 24, 2009

By The Chicago Community Trust
The Chicago Community Trust, metropolitan Chicago’s community foundation, announces today a grant of $500,000 from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that pushes the total raised for The Unity Challenge to over $1.3 million. The Trust has matched all Unity Challenge donations 2-to-1, making available $4 million to aid those hit hardest by the recession.
Following its first round of Unity Challenge grants in January that provided immediate relief for food pantries and homeless shelters, today the Trust also announces its second round of grant recipients from this special initiative. These grants in the amount of $675,000 will support a regional response to the foreclosure crisis and increase the capacity to provide legal assistance to families and individuals who are bearing the brunt of the economic recession and have the fewest resources secure their financial well-being.

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Posted on July 21, 2009

By Dennis Kucinich
In mid-May, in an effort to reach consensus, President Obama secured a deal with the health insurance companies to trim 1.5% of their costs each year for ten years saving a total of $2 trillion dollars, which would be reprogrammed into health care. Just two days after the announcement at the White House the insurance companies reneged on the deal which was designed to protect and increase their revenue at least 35%
The insurance companies reneged on the deal because they refuse any restraint on increasing premiums, co-pays and deductibles – core to their profits. No wonder a recent USA Today poll found that only four percent of Americans trust insurance companies. This is within the margin of error, which means it is possible that NO ONE trusts insurance companies.
Then why does Congress trust the insurance companies? A few days ago, HR 3200 (“America’s Affordable Health Choices Act”), a 1,000 page-bill, was delivered to members. The title of the bill raises a question: “Affordable” for whom?

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Posted on July 20, 2009

By The Blue State Cowboys
Including bonus tracks!

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Posted on July 17, 2009

By Ald. Joe Moore
Adapted from Moore’s e-mail city council report to constituents.
You would have never known it from the newspaper accounts, but the most intense debate at our last city council meeting on June 30th was over the approval of furlough days in 2009 for all non-unionized city workers.
For me, the core of the debate was not so much about the benefit to the city (15 furlough days would save about $10 million) or the pain to workers (considerable, but not as harsh as layoffs). Rather it focused once again on transparency and honesty by Chicago’s executive branch.

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Posted on July 15, 2009

By Kiljoong Kim
Editor’s Note: Beachwood contributor Kiljoong Kim submitted this testimony last Friday to the Chicago City Council Subcommittee on MBE/WBE Affirmative Action Matters in support of proposed changes to the city ordinance. I added the links.
I. Introduction
My name is Kiljoong Kenneth Kim. I have been a freelance research consultant in Chicago for the past 11 years. My clients include various corporations and law firms in Chicago area as well as Metro Chicago Information Center (MCIC), Northwestern University, and Chicago Public Schools. I have served as a faculty member in department of sociology for 12 years and also as research director for seven years at DePaul University. I have co-edited and co-written critically acclaimed book New Chicago: Social and Cultural Analysis in 2006; the same year I began writing online columns about demographic trends in Chicago on The Beachwood Reporter. My work has been cited by such prestigious academic journals as Harvard Law Review and has been positively reviewed by top tier journals in sociology, urban planning, and geography. Finally, I am a product of Chicago Public Schools, Clinton Elementary and Stephen T. Mather High, as well as University of Wisconsin-Madison and DePaul University. Currently, I am a doctoral student of sociology at University of Illinois at Chicago, where my dissertation will examine how ethnic communities in Chicago are formed and how they impact racial and economic segregation.
In this document, I’d like to discuss Chicago’s MWBE program and Asian American contractors. In order to do so, I’d like to revisit the larger historical landscape of Chicago. The history of Chicago is a history of underdogs, whether it be Irish, Italian, or Polish immigrants who built proud traditions of several generations of firefighters and policemen despite the fact that those were the only government positions they could attain when they were looked down upon by others; or African Americans who fought hard to elect their own mayor despite the fear and resistance of those who doubted that a black man could be the leader of this city.

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Posted on July 14, 2009

By Tamms Year Ten
Editor’s Note: The folks from Tamms Year Ten won a meeting last week with the Tribune editorial board to discuss a recent editorial (reprinted below) it took issue with. Here is their account.

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Posted on July 13, 2009