By Erica Christoffer and Becky Schlikerman

The shuffling of papers and the quiet murmur of small talk broke the silence of the nearly empty Chicago City Council chambers as a handful of city staffers filed in for a Traffic Control and Safety Committee meeting Dec. 5, 2007.
Of the 14 members assigned to the committee, only three showed up that morning: committee Chairman Patrick O’Connor (40th), Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) and Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd).
The trio sat at the front table facing the empty chamber’s 50 seats and listened as City Clerk Miguel del Valle presented a measure aimed at curbing counterfeit city stickers. The aldermen asked a few questions, then voted to approve the measure to raise fines for counterfeiters. The knock of the gavel ended the meeting in less than 20 minutes.
It would seem this meeting went off without a hitch.
Except for one thing: The aldermen broke state law, experts say.

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Posted on May 19, 2008

By The Beachwood Children’s Amusement Affairs Desk

With each successive proposal, the folks behind moving the Chicago Children’s Museum to Grant Park push it further underground in an effort to satisfy opponents who say the new building would violate court decrees designed to keep the park free and clear. We here at Beachwood Labs got to wondering where just such a museum would rank among underground children’s attractions in the city, such as:
1. The Coal Mine at the Museum of Science & Industry.
2. The Streets and San public tour.
3. Al Capone’s real vault.
4. The assets Michael Jordan hid from Juanita during their divorce.
5. The meeting place for the Daley Resistance Front.

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Posted on May 6, 2008

By Larry Horist

There once was a Mayor named Rich
A kids museum was his pitch
A tall building in Grant
Is something you shan’t
So he put all the kids in a ditch
*
They wanted to put kids in a museum
Below the ground where no one could see ’em
Allstate was hyper
To pay the town piper
But the critics fought back ad nauseam
*
Allstate said they needed more fame
In Grant Park they wanted their name
Fifteen million is small
For breaking the law
And putting their good hands all to shame

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Posted on April 30, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

Barack Obama’s campaign has put the kibosh on more debates, including one that CBS was hoping for in North Carolina. It’s too bad; the debates have mostly been terrific during this campaign, and we’ve learned a lot about both the candidates themselves and their policy positions. Here are just a few questions for both candidates we’d like to have seen posed if another such contest was held.
FOR OBAMA:
1. Your campaign and many of your supporters were highly critical of the questions at the last debate. Which questions do you think were inappropriate, and why.
2. You have reportedly described Tony Rezko, who is now on trial in Illinois in a massive political corruption trial, as your ‘political godfather.’ What did you mean by this, and have you been honest about the nature of your relationship with Rezko?
3. Please tell us what you mean when you say that your religious beliefs inform your view that gay marriage should not be legal.
4. Is it true or just one of those Internet rumors that you refused to appear in a photo with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome?
5. When it comes to health care, aren’t you giving away a bargaining chip when you start from a position of being against mandated insurance?

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Posted on April 25, 2008

By The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GOVERNMENTS SPENT $5 MILLION TO LOBBY STATE GOVERNMENT
CHICAGO AREA MASS TRANSIT AGENCIES HIRED 14 LOBBYING FIRMS AT COST OF NEARLY $700,000
Local governments and public agencies in Illinois spent more than $5 million to contract with lobbyists last fiscal year, according to Governments Lobbying State Government, a study by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR).
In a first-of-its-kind research, ICPR identified 110 units of government with contract lobbyists and 65 lobbying firms working for government bodies in Fiscal Year 2007. Several of the governments hired multiple firms to provide advice and to attempt to influence decisions by the governor, state legislators and other state government officials.

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Posted on April 22, 2008

The Democrats, Episode 16

Once again the Mystery Debate Theater team of Andrew Kingsford, Tim Willette and Steve Rhodes gathered at Beachwood HQ . . . well, no, it was just me last night. Tim and Andrew are in Guam preparing for the upcoming primary there that we predict will decide the whole thing. So this episode of MDT 2008 is brought to you just by me.As always, this transcript has been edited for length, clarity and sanity.
*
GIBSON: So we’re going to begin with opening statements, and we had a flip of the coin, and the brief opening statement first from Senator Obama.
OBAMA: You know, Senator Clinton and I have been running for 15 months now. We’ve been traveling across Pennsylvania for at least the last five weeks. And everywhere I go, what I’ve been struck by is the core decency and generosity of people of Pennsylvania and the American people.
But what I’ve also been struck by is the frustration. You know, I met a gentleman in Latrobe who had lost his job and was trying to figure out how he could find the gas money to travel to find a job. And that story, I think, is typical of what we’re seeing all across the country.
STEVE: Well, did you give him gas money?

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Posted on April 17, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

Who is Nadhmi Auchi and why is he important to Barack Obama? Let’s take a look.
*
Contrary to Obama’s persistent claims, he indeed did favors for Tony Rezko, including this one:
“While Mr. Obama was running for the Senate, Mr. Rezko was also raising money for a huge development in the South Loop of Chicago, often playing host to dinners in a private room at the Four Seasons Hotel here.
“Former Rezko associates said that Governor Blagojevich attended one of the dinners, and that at Mr. Rezko’s request, Mr. Obama dropped in at one for Middle Eastern bankers in early 2004, just as he was starting to pull ahead in the Senate primary. The visits, Mr. Rezko’s partners said, helped impress foreign guests.
“‘I remember that he had been on the campaign trail, and he was completely wiped out and exhausted,’ said Anthony Licata, a lawyer who represented Mr. Rezko on real estate deals. ‘My recollection is that he drank ice tea, and he talked about how he was really making progress, and we were all excited to see him.'”
Last March, I asked: Was Nadhmi Auchi there?

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Posted on April 15, 2008

By The Metro Chicago Information Center

Former prisoners are returning in high concentrations to the West and South Sides of the City of Chicago. Generally characterized by high levels of poverty, female-headed households and crime, as well as low levels of employment and educational attainment, these communities are the most socially and economically disadvantaged communities in the city.
While many residents in these communities face challenges in finding adequate employment, the challenges are even greater for former prisoners reentering these communities, after serving their debt to society. MCIC analyzed data from the Illinois Department of Corrections and various employment-related datasets to identify the communities most impacted by re-entry issues and examined characteristics of the re-entry population and re-entry communities in the context of employment opportunity and the availability of services.

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Posted on April 7, 2008

By Martin Luther King Jr.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

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Posted on April 4, 2008

By The Foreign Policy Press Release Affairs Desk

For Immediate Release
–
FIRST LIECHTENSTEIN BI-RACIAL CITIZEN SENT TO AMERICA TO ASSESS RACIAL CLIMATE IN WAKE OF BARACK OBAMA SUCCESS
Superstar Al Walser meets with presidential hopeful!
–
With the phenomenal success of presidential hopeful Barack Obama, the tiny alpine country of Liechtenstein has sent their first bi-racial ambassador of goodwill to America. Al Walser has met with Obama to discuss how the two men’s bi-racial background has been received in several different American states and in other countries.

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Posted on April 1, 2008