Six Years

Where does the time go?

In any event, nearly 15 million visitors, 24 million page views, reading 8,300 posts and leaving over 503,000 comments over the last six years. We hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as we've had fun producing it. We'd like to thank everyone who contributes, either by reading, commenting, forwarding us articles for consideration, anything at all. We are humbled by your patronage and look forward to seeing you through another summer of fun.


Stay safe boys and girls.

Off Duty Shooting

An attempted disarming following an on-view shots fired:

• A bullet from an off-duty Chicago police officer's gun grazed a man's finger when the man tried to disarm the officer during a struggle this evening in the West Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side, a police source said.
  
  The officer had seen the man fire shots moments earlier -- at about 6:30 p.m. -- into a park near the 6000 block of South Vernon Avenue, the source said.
  
  The man then took off on a bicycle, with the officer chasing him in his car, the source said.
  
  The officer caught up with the man in an alley on the 6200 block of South Vernon and tried to arrest him, the source said. During the struggle, the man tried to take the officer's gun, which discharged, the source said.
  
  The man's gun was found near the scene, the source said.

Even off-duty on a holiday weekend, police run and drive toward the sound of gunfire. But be careful - you have no partner, no radio and no vest in most cases.

By the way, the headline and article don't say anything about the offender's age, but the link says "teen-injured-in-shooting," so we expect some more drama even though a gun was recovered.

Shutting Down a Beach?

This is a first, at least as far as we can remember:

• Memorial Day’s unseasonably hot weather turned dangerous early Monday evening, forcing the closure of North Avenue Beach and sending four beach-goers to hospitals, one a young man in critical condition.

  [...] In Chicago, police closed North Avenue Beach about 6 p.m., shortly after ambulances were summoned there to treat eight people who fell sick on the crowded lakefront spot, many complaining of illness related to the heat, said Larry Langford, director of the Chicago Fire Department Media Affairs.

  “They started falling down and were light headed,” he said.

  Firefighters responded and treated four beach-goers at the scene before taking four others to area hospitals. One, an 18-year-old man, was “found unresponsive” and he was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition, Langford said.

North Avenue Beach looked like a bomb hit from what we saw on the news. Stories are trickling in about gang disturbances all over the place and no police response except "close the beach." It kind of makes one long for the days of Summer Mobile.

Police Shooting North

Cops OK:

• One person was wounded this morning in a police-involved shooting on the Northwest Side in the city's Hermosa neighborhood.

  According to a preliminary report released by the police department Office of News Affairs, Grand Central Gang Enforcement Unit officers were working in the area of Keeler and Armitage avenues about 1:15 a.m. when they saw a male individual point a handgun from a vehicle in the direction of another group of people.

  The individual drove off but was later stopped on the 2000 block of North Kostner Avenue, police said. The suspect then exited the vehicle and pointed a handgun at the officers, police said.

  The suspect fled the scene and the officers chased him on foot into a yard. Soon after, the suspect again pointed a weapon at the officers, police said. Officers then opened fire, striking the suspect. A weapon was recovered from the scene, police said.

Stay safe boys and girls.

Memorial Day

God bless all those who have served, are serving, and especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Hot Monday Coming

We go from Pacific Northwest weather to August in a matter of 24 hours:

• The City of Chicago is warning residents of warmer temperatures expected to move into the area for Memorial Day weekend — including 90 degree temperatures Monday.

  The National Weather Service is predicting a high of 71 degrees with a 40 percent chance of showers Saturday. By Sunday, temperatures will climb to 79 degrees with a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms. On Memorial Day, the weather service is expecting a sunny 91-degree day.

  The heat index is expected to reach between 90 and 100 degrees Monday, according to a release from the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communication.

Instead of gale warnings, the gunfire flag is flying today. Watch yourselves and watch your partners.

Did We Miss Something Here?

Shortshanks was always bragging about how he wanted to make Chicago more "green" and "eco-friendly." He was also big on bicycles - very European in his thinking. To this end, he shut down Lake Shore Drive and invited everyone with a bike to come pedal on a venue that most people only saw at 45 MPH or more going to and from work, school or a museum. It was a friendly crowd, very family oriented. We even worked it a few times.

When did they start charging for it? And not just charging a little bit - $55 per rider (less for kids and early sign ups). The media reports 20,000 people registered. That's around a million bucks, give or take a few thousand. They already had all sorts of corporate sponsors - their webpage has around twenty listed. They still needed to charge people?

Maybe we missed something all those other times. This just struck us as a bit hinky.

Sunday Open Post

Bulls are done, Blackhawks have been gone, Bears are locked out and the Cubs and Sox suck. And it might rain again. We're actually tempted to watch the Indianapolis 500.

Open post in the meantime.

Gambling Update

The bill expanding gambling made it out of committee:

• A huge expansion of legalized gambling in Illinois is headed to the House floor.

  The proposal would create licenses for five new riverboat gambling casinos. It would include a gambling boat or land-based casino in Chicago. It also would expand horse racing and add slot machines at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

  The bill sponsored by Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie was approved 8-3 Friday by the Executive Committee. It failed in the same committee Wednesday with only five votes.

  Gov. Pat Quinn said earlier Friday he opposes “top-heavy” gambling expansion and frowned on gambling at the fairgrounds.

Still no word on our readers' proposal to direct all gambling revenues to shore up pensions though. And Quinn seems like he'd rather drive the state over the financial cliff than actually address anything that doesn't involve breaking promises and constitutional protections.

Ten Years is a Good Start

Here's what happens when you have real judges and real state's attorneys applying the law as it was written and intended:

• A judge in central Illinois has sentenced a 25-year-old man to 10 years in prison for spitting on a correctional officer at the Champaign County Jail.

  A jury convicted Emmanuel Chapple of aggravated battery to a correctional officer.

  The Champaign News-Gazette reports that Chapple earned the hefty sentence Wednesday because it was his third serious felony conviction, making him eligible for a mandatory prison term of between six and 30 years.

In Cook County, Anita would have her people CI the case until the entire jail tier could be interviewed; the judge would offer the shithead a glass of water and ask if he was parched; the reverends would demand the officer be prosecuted to the fullest extent for provoking the spit; the media would report the prisoner was just about to turn his spit around; then Quinn would pardon him.

Sergeant Cleared by Confession

That ought to be the headline, right?

• Bail was set at $900,000 today for a 16-year-old boy charged with murder after his teenage accomplice in an alleged armed robbery was shot and killed by a responding Chicago police officer.
  
  Brandon Ross, a sophomore at Chicago Vocational Career Academy, was charged as an adult with felony murder and armed robbery. Ross, of the 6800 block of South Jeffery Boulevard, appeared in court in a black T-shirt and baggy black pants that he clutched to keep from falling down.
  
  Prosecutors said Ross gave a videotaped statement to investigators admitting that he and Tatioun Williams, 15, planned and executed an armed robbery at about 8 p.m. Wednesday at 70th Street and South Cregier Avenue in the South Shore neighborhood.

That should be it then. Co-offender gives a statement, the gun was theirs, used in a planned robbery, recovered on scene along with the proceeds. Momma can go pound sand for all we care.

And to an unpublished commentator who said our response was "not reasonable at all" and it "makes it really hard to defend CPD when you continually reinforce your stereotypes," what of the stereotypical ghetto drama on display in the hood in light of the admissions of the arrested party?

We've got news for you friend - if you have a hard time supporting us when the Department is completely in the right (and especially when you fall for the media drivel plastered on their front pages - did you see they changed the headline from "child" after a few hours?), then we have a hard time believing you ever supported us at all.

About Time

If only this had a realistic chance of becoming the law of the land:

• The Chicago Housing Authority wants to require all adults who currently live in, or apply in the future for housing in any of its developments, to be tested for drugs — including senior citizens.

  The blanket policy proposal for anyone 18 years or older has residents and housing advocates crying foul.

  The American Civil Liberties Union charges the public agency seeks to place a double standard on the poor.

  “It’s such an insensitive proposal to even bring to the table,” said Myra King, a resident of the Far South Side Lowden Homes development. She chairs the Central Advisory Council of tenant leaders from CHA properties all across the city.

No, what's insensitive is expecting hard working taxpayers to subsidize an entire subculture of people who contribute nothing to society except crime statistics and democratic votes. If you accept a government check, then you ought to live by the same rules as anyone else who works for the government - like us for example. We're expected to be drug free and we have to give up a sizable portion of our check to pay for all sorts of government services we never use.

If you don't want to be drug tested, get a job and move out. Of course, that might make you a republican, or maybe even a libertarian.

Big Changes in Store

Quite a few big changes working their way through Springfield, none of which bode well for our future:

• Future pension benefits for public workers would be reduced under a sweeping new plan that would impact government employees throughout Illinois beginning next year and impose changes for city of Chicago and Cook County workers in 2013. Current workers would get the option of choosing one of three plans, and would keep the level of pension benefits they have earned up to the point of when the changes takes effect.
  
  The three choices are:
  
  *Paying more to earn their current level of pension benefits in their retirement.
  
  *Opting to earn a smaller level of pension benefits built up in future years. The benefit would be at the lower level of a second-tier pension plan adopted last year for new employees.
  
  *Choosing a 401k-styled plan that would allow a person to self-manage their retirement funds.

Then you have Worker's Comp changes:

• The state Senate is poised to vote Saturday on a major overhaul of the state's workers' compensation system, a push aimed at [saving] Illinois [business] at least $500 million a year and addressing possible abuses.
  
  The measure is the result of months of tense negotiations between Democratic lawmakers, Gov. Pat Quinn's administration and several key stakeholders, including doctors, unions, trial lawyers and business groups.

That one won't affect CPD. Finally, retirees are about to get whacked with big increases:

• More than 21,000 retired city employees under age 65 will pay 15 percent more for their health insurance — an increase a union official called “alarming” and an expert said [spotlights] a $1.3 billion unfunded liability for Chicago taxpayers.
  Paul Geiger, general counsel for the Fraternal Order of Police, said the first double-digit increase since 2004 will create an “enormous hardship” for retired couples on fixed incomes who are not yet eligible for Medicare.

Funny thing though - we've been beset by a troll who insists that we support the Tea Party, that Republicans are going to steal all our benefits, that Quinn is the greatest thing since sliced bread, yet we look to Springfield and see a democratic controlled House, Senate and Governorship all falling over themselves to do the bidding of a Chicago Machine democratic mayor and completely destroy how many years of union gains? The mind boggles.

Oh My Baby!

Reading from the same script that has been circulating for decades now:

• Chicago police shot and killed a 15-year-old boy after he pointed a gun at officers who were investigating a robbery in the South Shore neighborhood, authorities said.
  
  The suspect was identified as Tatioun Williams of the 1300 block of East 69th Street, according to police and the medical examiner's office.

  "They (are) lying. My son would never carry a gun," said his distraught motheer, Lois Pickett. "He ain't never done that, they can't say that."

  "The police officers killed him!" she cried in a telephone interview with the Tribune. Tatioun was the oldest of five siblings.

  "Yes, he has (previous arrests), but that's not a reason to kill him," Pickett said between tearful sobs. "That's no reason to kill a child."

  "They could have taken him to jail, they could have done anything but taken his life."

Blah blah blah. Police planted the gun, police shot him for no reason, police are lying for no reason, he was just about to turn his life around, he wanted to rap and play basketball, he almost got a "C-" on that last exam, yap yap yap.

We're sure he was out looking for good deeds to perform after 8 PM on a school night when those darn police somehow found a gun, a wallet, an i-Pod and an insatiable appetite for blood, located his previously arrested ass and shot him for shits and giggles.

Give us a fucking break Tribune. How about investigating what his other arrests were for? Where he got a gun? What sort of student he was? What kind of parent momma was? We suppose she would have been ecstatic if her child managed to actually kill a cop.

Honoring the Deceased

And keeping their names on the streets they served:

• On a hazy Wednesday morning inside the barn at the South Shore Cultural Center, a group of Chicago cops dodge the outside fog and huddle around a dark bay-colored horse named Knight, a saddle at the ready.

  The public might recognize Knight on the streets of Downtown Michigan Avenue, at a Cubs game or at an outdoor festival as working with the Chicago Police Department’s Mounted Patrol. But in the barn among the officers, he is recognized for his namesake, Officer John C. Knight, a former Chicago Police cop who was shot and killed in 1999.
  
  Knight was one of the first horses to be named after a Chicago police officer killed in the line of duty. Now, 21 of the 28 Mounted Patrol horses housed in this stable carry on the names and legacies of fallen officers.

Certainly a nice change from the usual fare the media likes to push.

North Side to West Side

And a bunch of cops hurt in the process:

• A female robbery suspect was wounded by Chicago police on the West Side on Wednesday night after she tried to run them down, police said.

  [P]olice were alerted about 10:30 p.m. to a robbery-in-progress in the area of the 5600 block of West Irving Park Road, according to preliminary police reports. Officers saw a vehicle matching the description of the one used in the robbery near the 4400 block of West Madison Street, police said.

  When the officers approached the vehicle driven by a female, she attempted to run down the officers, police said. One of the officers fired several shots at her, striking her in the shoulder, police said. She was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, but her condition was not available.

Four other officers were injured responding to the scene. Best wishes for a speedy recovery to all involved coppers.

Professor Shortshanks?

This bozo can barely speak English. He's already scheduled to earn something like $50,000 per speech. Now he's going to "teach" students at one of the supposedly top Universities in the world?

• Richard M. Daley is taking the advice of the old adage, if you can't do, teach.
  
  Days after Daley's 22-year tenure as mayor of Chicago ended, he was at the University of Chicago on Tuesday to announce he's joining the Harris School of Public Policy Studies as a distinguished senior fellow.
  
  Daley won't be grading papers, but the dean of the school made it clear that the longest serving mayor in Chicago history will be teaching students what he knows about cities, offering a perspective they can't get from tweedy academics.

One might assume this is payback for favors granted over the past few decades:

• "At the University of Chicago we don't discuss pay for anybody and we're not going to break this rule in the case of the mayor," said the dean, whose private university version of `no comment' prompted Daley to smile broadly.

You would probably be 100% correct in that assumption.

Bulls Out

And doing it in style! Blowing an 11 point lead in just over 2 minutes.

We guess the Time Due books are open again for June. Thank goodness for small favors.

Another Shooting?

One suspect dead, one in custody, cops all fine:

• Chicago police shot and killed an alleged robber Wednesday night in the city's South Shore neighborhood, authorities said. The shooting occurred just before 8 p.m. on the 7000 block of South Cregier Avenue, police said.
  
  Preliminary reports stated a robbery-in-progress was reported and two sergeants responded to the scene and were flagged down by a witness who told them two suspects had just committed a robbery on the street, police said. The sergeants saw two suspects matching the description and approached ordering them to stop, police said.
  
  One of the suspects turned and pointed a weapon at a sergeant who fired his weapon, striking the suspect, police said. The suspect was taken into custody and transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. The second suspect was taken into custody by the other sergeant on the scene, police said.

Nicely done Sergeants.

Flash Mob Crack Down

A plan?

• Acting Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Tuesday he may follow Philadelphia’s lead when it comes to the text-messaging, shoplifting “flash mobs” now terrorizing the Michigan Avenue shopping district.

  After eight days on the job, McCarthy has his hands full redeploying police resources to combat the traditional summer crime surge.

  But, he’s also following through on a promise to “sweat the small stuff” — by cracking down on quality-of-life complaints that tear down neighborhoods and frighten residents and businesses.

  Juvenile flash mobs fall into that category.

Almost two years of silence by the media and now it's "flash mobs terrorizing" the downtown area. Hilarious.

Anyway, the plan involves breaking up groups of "people" prior to their being able to coordinate their thievery. We aren't sure as to the methods behind "breaking up" these groups, but we'll be interested to see what the new policy is.

HQ Dump?

Supposedly, dozens, maybe more than a hundred, got their notice that their services will no longer be required at the Brain-Drain on 35th and Michigan. Any confirmation?

This could put Rahm at either 100 or 600 additional cops on the street, depending on who's doing the counting.

JJJr Sinks Blago?

Great stuff in the ongoing corruption trial of Blago:

• Rod Blagojevich has called U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. “repugnant,” a liar, and a “really bad guy.” Then he called him to the witness stand. It was a gamble for the former governor to ask his onetime nemesis to testify Wednesday as the first defense witness in his retrial, one that ultimately didn’t seem to pay off.
  
  As he took the stand on an electrified day that also saw the testimony of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Jackson’s remarks initially appeared helpful. In contrast to what a government witness’ testimony suggested, Jackson said he in no way knew about or authorized anyone to offer Blagojevich money in exchange for the Senate seat.
  
  Jackson’s testimony then devolved as he leveled an allegation against the ex-governor, mocked Blagojevich, and appeared as if he were enjoying it.

The entire article is Illinois/Chicago politics writ large, right down to Blago demanding $25,000 and the payback when he doesn't get it. "F#$%-ing Golden" indeed. Hopefully, the government got it right this time and Blago will be doing a number of years in the Federal pen.

::SNAP!!:: It's Like Magic!!

Five hundred officers on the street, just like that!

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel's decision to put hundreds more officers on the beat this summer represents a significant shift away from the Chicago Police Department's strategy of fighting crime with specialized units.
  
  Under former Superintendent Jody Weis, units such as the Mobile Strike Force were beefed up. The idea was that pulling officers from the districts would allow more flexibility to move them to neighborhoods experiencing spikes in gang and gun violence.
  
  The new mayor's strategy, first reported in the Tribune, puts an emphasis on the department's interaction with residents, officials said. The officers will stop parachuting into hot spots and focus on crime within district boundaries.

So instead of TRU and MSF spending all their time in Districts like 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 011 and 015, they'll be assigned directly to 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 011 and 015. It's brilliant!

Wait a minute....

Don't get us wrong, we're still of the opinion that overlapping and redundant assignments should be phased out and eliminated. We're just amused as hell that Rahm is so blatantly claiming credit for half of his "1,000 more cops on the street" promise based on a paper move that increases the number of cops on the street by exactly "zero."

• Asked twice whether he still intends to honor his campaign promise to put 1,000 additional officers on the street, Emanuel appeared to hedge. His staff subsequently argued that Emanuel promised 1,000 new officers “on the beat” and that, by that measure, he’s half-way home.

The above statement was brought to you by the Goalpost Movers Local #76 and The Committee to Re-elect Rahm Emanuel.

The FOP isn't impressed:

• “To say this is 500 more officers on the street — no, it’s not. Don’t mislead the public. There are no more police officers today than there were yesterday. They’re taking 500 officers as if they were never on the street and putting them into beat cars. They’re acting as if they were assigned to some desk duty,” [someone was quoted as saying].

Let's see if the media gives Rahm a pass on this smoke and mirror bullshit the way they did for Shortshanks.

DUI Wasn't the Only Problem

Rahm's got some cleaning up to do in city hiring. Shortshanks was famous for giving convicted felons all sorts of chances to get city jobs as long as they produced votes for the Machine. That appears to be the case here:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday he has ordered Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne to tighten supervision to prevent a repeat of the Gold Coast accident that saw a city laborer accused of driving drunk and plowing into a crowded sidewalk, injuring seven people.

  Emanuel noted that termination proceedings have already begun for 61-year-old laborer Dwight Washington, whose blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit when the accident occurred Saturday, according to prosecutors.

Of course, if anyone had looked at Dwight Washington's criminal history, they might have seen a rap sheet running back decades with convictions for Armed Robbery and assorted other offenses. Anywhere else, the hiring process is designed to catch these things before they become issues, preventing the hiring of persons with a propensity for law breaking.

Anywhere else isn't Chicago though. We imagine we're going to be hearing about many of these types of hirees slipping through the cracks in the coming years. It's like Shortshanks left us all these little surprises to remember him by for years and years to come.

Hop Off the Bandwagon

On the brink of elimination:

• In the locker room before Game 4, Tom Thibodeau implored his Bulls team to shake off all mistakes and frustration and move on to the next play. He demanded they show fight from the start to avoid a debilitating hole in the Eastern Conference final.
  
  They answered that demand. And they wound up with nothing but a debilitating series deficit to show for it.
  
  The Bulls battled through four quarters but swooned in overtime, succumbing to the Heat in a 101-93 defeat that sent them spiraling to a 3-1 hole in the Eastern Conference finals, with an elimination game awaiting them in Game 5 at the United Center on Thursday night.

We saw that the Department was already in the process of restricting Time Due the week of 12 June in case of a Finals appearance by the Bulls. Rumors of furlough cancellations were also in evidence. We imagine a lot of sighs of relief are coming out of the fifth floors at HQ and City Hall tonight.

Big Change - No More TRU or MSF

Interesting beginning to the expected changes:

• BREAKING NEWS!!!
  
  This just in. . .
  
  MSF & TRU disbanded under the guise of a 90 day detail. AMFN#111702 reads as follows:
  
  "Full duty personnel with title codes 9161, 9171, and 9173 assigned and not detailed out of either MSF or TRU will be detailed to one of the following districts: 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 011 and 015. Personnel must submit a PAR form to their Unit of Assignment by 0800 hours on Wednesday, 25 MAY 11."
  
  "Personnel will be selected by seniority and reverse seniority will be used to fill unused vacancies. Personnel who do not submit a PAR form will be assigned at the discretion of the department."

We'll confess that we thought McCarthy was going to eliminate one of these units based on the simple fact that their missions were pretty much redundant. Eliminating both was a surprise and makes us wonder what other spots are about to get gored. A couple of questions:

• Does this eliminate any exempt spots? We're still way too top heavy and all of these gold stars running their own little fiefs needs to stop;
• Who is going to become the city wide response unit? You need a pool of officers that you can move about at a moment's notice regardless of contract restrictions. You will get volunteers for this, regardless, but who? The rumors are running fast and furious that GEU is next on the block. Are the Area Chiefs about to start fielding Saturation Teams again that will step into this role?

For too long, the Department has lost sight of the fact that everyone else exists to support Patrol. The function of the Department as a whole is to answer calls regarding crime and disorder. If you lose that (and it can be argued that we have for years now), you lose the direction and purpose of the organization.

An interesting beginning, that's for sure.

Cop Injured

This car is a mess:

• A Chicago police officer was among two people injured this morning in a two-vehicle accident involving a squad car on the West Side.

  The accident happened shortly after 7 a.m. near the intersection of Roosevelt Road and Independence Boulevard, officials said.

Speedy recovery Officer.

Another Parolee Charged

Hey Illinois? Fed up yet?

• A 19-year-old Chicago man, on parole for robbery, has been charged with the fatal shooting of a taxi driver in Evanston on May 15.

  Darien Lawrence Marquez Connerly, of 2005 W. Jarvis Ave., was charged with first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery for shooting driver Leodis Blackburn, Evanston Police Cmdr. Tom Guenther said at a press conference Monday.

On parole for Aggravated Robbery, a charge that usually means a sentence of how long? Yet, here he is, out with a stolen gun, committing murder. He "served" under two years. And you, fellow citizens, can't carry a gun to stop it.

A-fucking-mazing, isn't it?

California Dreaming

From the "it could always be worse" file:

• The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that California must remove tens of thousands of inmates from its prison rolls in the next two years, and state officials vowed to comply, saying they hoped to do so without setting any criminals free.
  
  
• The court gave the state two years to shrink the number of prisoners by more than 33,000 and two weeks to submit a schedule for achieving that goal. The state now has 143,335 inmates...
  
  
• The court's four conservatives accused their colleagues of "gambling with the safety of the people of California," in the words of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. "I fear that today's decision will lead to a grim roster of victims. I hope that I am wrong. In a few years, we will see," he said.

We know what happened here when Quinn started releasing a mere 1800 inmates early.

Impersonator Story Pans Out

We guess it was true after all:

• The South Side teenager who made national headlines for impersonating a Chicago Police officer and patrolling the streets as a 14-year-old is in trouble with the law again.

  Vincent Richardson was only a minor when he sauntered into the Grand Crossing District station in a uniform over two years ago, duping cops in an embarrassing stunt that led to disciplinary action within the department.

  But the troubled teen, now 17, has been charged as an adult for his May 10 arrest for felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

This would seem to be a violation of his probation:

• Juvenile Court Judge Andrew Berman sentenced Richardson to three years’ probation in July 2009 for possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

2010, 2011, 2012. Yup. Missed it by a year. Then there's this (from the Tribune article):

• A few months later he was sentenced to juvenile prison for five years after pleading guilty to shoving his mother and stealing a relative's Cadillac.

Five years? But he's out in two? And this time with a gun? Let's see...looks like Judge Berman gets a bit of the blame along with Anita and her office. What the fuck does it take to have a criminal serve out an actual sentence handed down by a judge in this county? What if this jagoff decided to use the pistol instead of trying to hide it? Who's going to explain to the family of the dead citizen or dead copper what this obviously disturbed and intent-on-mayhem jagoff was doing free in the first place?

Oh, and to the Tribune and Sun Times writers? You're welcome. Now do something with it you asshats. Generate some outrage over coddling criminals from cradle to grave.

Enforcer Comeback Win

An awesome halftime speech by new Superintendent Garry McCarthy spurs the team on toward victory - it was almost like seeing "Knute Rockne: All American" in person:

• When the Chicago Police Department’s football team was down by 20 points at halftime today to the Fire Department’s squad, Acting Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told the police team about a game in the 1990s where his New York City cops were up 21-0 at the half against that city’s firefighters.
  
  Recalling that New York City’s firefighters came back and beat the NYPD by one point, he urged Chicago’s finest to engineer the same kind of rally. And they did just that.
  
  “I told them that this is where you show what type of character you have. They responded. There’s no doubt the character and the heart that these guys have,” McCarthy said shorty after the police team -- dubbed the Enforcers -- prevailed in overtime over the Chicago Fire Department’s team -- aptly called the Blaze -- 29-26.
  
  The game came down to an overtime field goal made by the police kicker Chris Lenti, followed by loud chants of “CPD! CPD!” from hundreds of their fans in the bleachers behind the officers' sidelines at St. Rita High School's football stadium on the Southwest Side.

OK, OK, we're teasing about the "Knute Rockne" movie thing. Lighten up. We're giving the superintendent too much credit, but it was a very good game nonetheless featuring a 20 point comeback and a winning OT field goal, all for Police and Fire charities. What's not to like about that?

Riot Watch

Momentum has shifted a bit:

• The extremely physical, defensive series continued, and when the last body blow had been delivered, the Heat shoved ahead with a 96-85 victory, taking a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 is in Miami on Tuesday night, and the Bulls haven't lost three straight games all season. They also hadn't lost two straight since Feb. 5-7.

We recall the years leading up to the Bulls' first three-peat. So close, but something that inspired Jordan to literally drag the team to the first of three straight championships.

More Radio Problems

If you've been the recipient of the "new" narrow band radios, you may have noticed that the batteries are running out halfway through your tour with astonishing regularity. The Department denies it has anything to do with the reprogramming, but might have something to do with the batteries currently in service.

Now comes word from a couple different locations that the techs are coming into districts and replacing every single battery charger that have the old "red, yellow, green" indicators with a new version that actually has a "% remaining" indicator display.

So once again, someone isn't telling the entire truth and the Department appears to be trying to get by with some half-assed incompatible charging stations that don't match to the batteries currently in service. This is a monstrous safety issue, especially in the later stages of the tour where sometimes half the watch is working with chirping or dead radios.

Impersonator Caught Again?

One of the comments that got lost in last week's blogger meltdown said something about everyone's favorite police impersonator being caught once again, this time with a gun, in the 007th District.

Can anyone confirm if this little bastard was indeed locked up? Without running the reports since the Department is looking to hand out days.

World Still Here

Evidently, the world didn't end as predicted. So now we have a few extra bills to explain to the spouse, including a new set of hockey skates, two lobster dinners and a few charges from one of those "discretion guaranteed" places.

Open post for Sunday.

Officer Passes

He became ill last night and comments asking for prayers started popping up here almost immediately. Sadly, he didn't pull through:

• A 21-year veteran Chicago Police narcotics officer died this morning, a day after he was taken to a hospital complaining of chest pains while on duty, officials said.
  
  The officer, Paul Nauden, 46, of the Scottsdale neighborhood on the Southwest Side, was pronounced dead at 6:15 a.m. at the University of Chicago Medical Center, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
  
  [...] Nauden was a 21-year Chicago police veteran, according to city records.
  
  The officer was on patrol Thursday afternoon when he began feeling ill and was taken to the hospital, said police spokesman Officer John Mirabelli. The narcotics officer was assigned to the police’s Homan Square facility, said [Police News Affairs]...

RIP Officer Nauden.

Injured Recruit Returns

Welcome back Officer:

• The call crackled over the police radio — a possible suspect was on foot a few blocks away on North Michigan Avenue, so Officer Daniel Vazquez, several other newly minted cops and their instructor took off running to help out.
  
  Seven months ago, the chances of Vazquez being back in uniform and on the street like this seemed remote. In his final days of training last October, he was seriously injured when he was struck by a car after he stopped to help at a crash scene.
  

Three weeks in the hospital and three months of rehab from injuries that almost proved fatal.

Glad to see you back and glad to have the help.

Interesting Proposal

Not exactly unique according to the article, but a new (or under-utilized) approach here for the CPD:

• As the city struggles with a crippling budget crisis, Acting Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy is proposing to set up a police foundation that would raise money from private sources to support the Chicago Police Department.

  McCarthy broached the idea Thursday during a meeting with representatives of foundations and businesses, but didn’t explicitly ask them for donations. Joyce Foundation President Ellen Alberding said she wasn’t surprised McCarthy raised the possibility during a broad discussion of police strategies. The Chicago Public Schools have a similar foundation, she said.

• Earlier this month, McCarthy was hired from Newark where he was the police director. Before that, he was the head of crime strategy for the New York Police Department, which has been supported by a police foundation since 1971. The New York City Police Foundation bought the city’s officers their first bulletproof vests. Over the years, it has raised more than $100 million for over 400 programs, according to its website.

  “It’s critical in these times that we look for alternative funding for things that might be cut,’’ said McCarthy, who pointed to new technology as an example of something they could raise money for.

This could bridge some rather large gaps in equipment and technology issues. It may even help avoid the build-in pitfalls of "low bid contracting" that plagues so much of our secondhand and third world computers, radios and the like.

This is also interesting:

• [...] And it enforces the department’s valuable trademarks, including the letters NYPD and the NYPD shield logo. The foundation created a licensing program for the trademarks to provide revenue for the NYPD.

Opinions?

Pleger Dollar Time

Cardinal George is sitting on the best poker hand in 30 years, Pfleger is showing nothing but a busted flush. So of course, the Cardinal folds:

• Ending a weeks-long standoff, Cardinal Francis George lifted his suspension of the Rev. Michael Pfleger on Friday after the two men met and Pfleger apologized for statements the cardinal took as a threat to leave the priesthood.
  
  Both men issued simultaneous statements, with Pfleger saying he would deliver a transition plan by Dec. 1 for St. Sabina Catholic Church, the South Side parish he has served for nearly 30 years.
  
  But neither statement clarified how long Pfleger might remain at the parish. For now, he'll be back in the pulpit for the 11:15 a.m. Mass on Sunday.

Great. An open ended commitment to an egomaniac who hasn't had to answer to Church law, doctrine or tradition for 30 years. Time for Roman Catholics to toss a few of these in the old collection basket:

Good News for Gun Owners

Lisa Madigan loses....and loses big:

• Gun owners’ identities would remain shielded from public disclosure under legislation the Senate overwhelmingly approved Friday and that Gov. Quinn signaled he would support.

  The 42-1 vote for a bill now headed to the governor’s desk represents a victory for gun-rights lobbyists who sought to keep the owners’ names private after Attorney General Lisa Madigan contended that lists of those with Firearm Owner Identification cards should be made public under the state’s open-records law.

• The House passed the bill in April with a 98-12 vote. It now heads to Quinn, who could either sign or veto it, though he signaled his support for the bill during a Friday press conference in Chicago.

  “We had the position with State Police that that was information that was confidential and should not be shared,” Quinn said. “I agreed with the State Police’s position, and we’ll see what the bill says.”

Rarely has a politician been so obviously on the wrong side of an issue and Madigan's anti-gun owner biases pushed her so far left that she even alienated the normally liberal Illinois legislature into acting centrist, even conservative for a moment.

Police Shooting

Cops are all OK at last report:

• A male suspect was wounded during a police-involved shooting in the South Deering neighborhood on the Far South Side late Wednesday night, police said.
  
  About 11:30 p.m., police exchanged gunfire with a male in an alley near South Hoxie Avenue and East 105th Street, according to South Chicago District police.
  
  No police officers were injured, police said.

Keep safe out there boys and girls.

Casino Time - Again

And gambling shall save us all:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday he’s all for the idea of a Chicago casino, provided certain “conditions” are met, including municipal ownership long-demanded by former Mayor Richard M. Daley.

  “We have gambling, or casinos rather, in Chicago. It happens to be in Hammond, Ind. We’re losing that revenue. We can’t continue to do that,” the new mayor said.

  Emanuel’s push comes as the Legislature’s spring term faces an end-of-month adjournment deadline with a laundry list of major items still unresolved, including a budget, new legislative maps, and workers compensation and state pension reforms.

This is a huge opportunity for connected folks to make a pile of money. And where money is concerned, well, let's just say the Machine doesn't share very well.

We need some sort of safeguard or addendum to the casino bill that dictates all revenues go to shore up pension obligations before one red-cent is paid out to connected "investors." In fact, there ought to be some built-in rules that 100% of the profit go toward pension funds until such time as the obligations are met for the current fiscal year. That might encourage the casino to actually run efficiently enough to get the pension obligation out of the way as quickly as possible so they can start seeing returns on the initial investments.

World to End Tomorrow

This might be the last blog posting ever.

Well, this and a few others this morning.

So if perchance the rapture arrives as you may have been hearing the past few days, we hope you had as good a run as we did.

Otherwise, we'll be here again Saturday.

Friday open post in the meantime.

More "Wilding" Coverage

The Sun Times joins the "rush" to post real news:

• At a mall outside Milwaukee, parents must escort their teens on weekends because of rampant shoplifting there.

  In St. Louis, Las Vegas and Philadelphia, text-messaging “flash mobs” of youths have swooped into stores, stealing merchandise and running away.

  And here in Chicago, shoplifting arrests of juveniles have jumped in the police district that includes the Magnificent Mile — even though retail-theft arrests as a whole have fallen slightly.

  Chicago’s juvenile theft problem gained a high profile earlier this year when stores on North Michigan Avenue were repeatedly targeted by large groups of young shoplifters.

Random shoplifting? No mention yet of the unprovoked beatings and strong armed robberies that are becoming endemic to the downtown area. We figure in another year or two, they might mention that a battery occurred at some point.

Put the Helmets Away

Ok, Ok, we're kidding. No one knows what's going on and we can't help but mess with the bandwagon jumpers:

• The Heat turned up the heat defensively, smothering the Bulls into a franchise-playoff-low 10 fourth-quarter points, and riding LeBron James' offense down the stretch of their gritty 85-75 victory.

We sense a long and unsure playoff picture for the duration.

Bruce Lee Killed

Honest to god, we though he had been dead since the 1970's. Evidently, he's been a gang banging dope dealer on the west side all these years:

• A 28-year-old man was fatally shot this morning in the city's Humboldt Park neighborhood, according to Chicago police.

  Killed was Bruce Lee, of the 3800 block of West Flournoy Street, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
  
  The victim was found wounded in the chest and abdomen a little before 10 a.m. at Chicago and Avers avenues, police said. Officers in the area heard gunshots, went to that location and found the man lying in the street, police said.

Wow.

McCarthy Era Begins

Here we go!

• Garry McCarthy made a beeline to Chicago Police headquarters after his boss Rahm Emanuel was sworn into office Monday morning as Chicago’s 46th mayor.

  McCarthy, the former Newark Police director, assumed the role of Chicago’s acting top cop as he awaits City Council approval to officially become the next police superintendent.

  McCarthy said he met with the department’s two assistant superintendents and other police brass. He said he was impressed with “a couple” of the officials but will have to “get a better feel” for others.

  Last week, Massachusetts consultant Robert Wasserman visited Chicago on McCarthy’s invitation to create a list of information McCarthy should ask the department to collect —including priorities for his first 30 days.

A couple of comments said that the new supe is gathering resumes and beginning interviews of current exempts. While a wholesale decapitation and bloodbath (a la J-Fled) seems unlikely, there are enough nervous gold stars out there to fill a bus. McCarthy is on record saying there's "too much specialization" in regard to units, which we assume means overlapping areas of responsibility and bosses carving out little spheres of influence. This might be a bout to change. A top-to-bottom consolidation of redundant units would free up enough bodies to fill a few districts and since Rahm promised 1,000 more street officers, they've got to come from somewhere. The Academy certainly isn't filled.

Enforcer Football

Big event this weekend:

• Hey SCC, we'd like to get the word out early this year if we could, so we can maximize our support. The CPD football team has a big game this weekend against CFD. It looks like the winner will play for the national championship, and CPD is looking to defend their trophy from last years game. This game, and the whole point of the season is fundraising for charity.
  GAME DETAILS:
  Sunday, 22May2011
  1300 hr kickoff
  St. Rita High School
  8-10,000 people are expected, and Budweiser is a sponsor this year. Parking lot opens at 11 for tailgating. Come enjoy some good football for a great cause!

All for a good cause. Good Luck guys!

Rahm's Magic Budget

The honeymoon is over...not even two days in:

• On his first full day in office, Mayor Rahm Emanuel proclaimed he's already figured out how to cut $75 million from his predecessor's final budget, just as he said he would.

  "These figures are not based … on assumptions of what might or might not happen," Emanuel said. "They are based on the realities that will happen."

  But a look at what Emanuel unveiled Tuesday shows much of his planned spending cuts are estimates based on marching orders the new mayor gave to his staff. Other proposals lack specifics. So it remains to be seen whether they'll pan out by year's end.

Daley proposed and passed entire budgets for years with all sorts of speculative numbers - supposed cuts that became cost overruns, pie-in-the-sky revenue predictions that never materialized, "rainy day funds" that disappeared during sunny years, etc. Our readers have been pointing this out for years.

The fact that the media isn't giving Rahm the play they gave Shortshanks opens up another front that Rahm is going to have to quell in his quest to inherit and run the Machine.

$230 Million? From Where? For Whom?

Quinn keeps generating money out of thin air:

• Illinois in 2011 is on pace to provide much more money in financial incentive programs to businesses to retain and add jobs, with the total through early May exceeding $230 million pledged to 27 companies.
  
  That is nearly the amount pledged all of last year by Illinois to keep corporations from leaving the state or to attract businesses to relocate or expand here, the Tribune has learned.
  
  
• Last year, the state pledged about $236 million in similar programs to 53 companies; the figure was about $116 million to 47 companies in 2009.

Who's getting the money? No one knows!

• The identities of 21 of the 27 companies receiving a total $53.1 million were not disclosed in a list provided to the Tribune on Tuesday by the state's Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
  
  The company names weren't released because of nondisclosure agreements with the companies, because contracts have not been finalized or because employees had not been told of plans at the companies in question, department spokeswoman Marcelyn Love said in a statement.

But don't worry. Quinn has everyone's best interests at heart.

Shooting This AM

Police involved shooting south. Details unavailable at this time. Man with a gun call and someone was taken away by ambulance - sounds like the bad guy.

Federal Scandal?

Some would say this was a long time coming:

• off topic but interesting. Look for some federal activity to start up again...Not among the police department but at the FEDERAL BUILDING!
  
  I hear that a few clerks at the federal court building are about to bet indicted for taking money to assign certain cases to certain judges. The reason this effects us is because it was being done by several lawyers involved in civil cases, some of those cases which involved the city and police department getting sued. I would imagine that the lawyers would have to get indicted too right.. and if the lawyers are trying to get certain cases to a certain judge does this mean that the judge has knowledge of it and is just as liable?? Even though they are jury trials the judges have plenty of influence over these cases by granting or denying motions that make or break the case and demanding in some cases that a settlement be reached and for it to not go to trial.
  
  I would call this a rumor but according to the guy I talked to he/she is very in the know at the federal building and very buddy buddy with the federal prosecutors.... sit back and watch, it could get interesting...

Interesting doesn't even begin to describe what this could be.

U of C Rumor

This would be amazing if true:

• Can you imagine CPD giving a promotional exam...and nobody signed up to take it? Or showed up to take it? Sounds crazy, right?
  
  Well, that is exactly what's happened at the University of Chicago PD. How could this happen? Two words: John Doty.
  
  Doty has got the be the most hated man ever in the employ of the UCPD. From watch commanders to the newest rookie patrolman, you won't find anyone with a kind word to say about this guy. Even our civilians do everything in their power to avoid speaking to him.
  
  A new Sgt./Lt. promotional exam was announced. A few (maybe 3) showed up for the pre-test seminar. It was expected that someone would register online to apply for the promo exams. But no one did. And that pissed off the upper command. Phone calls soon started. People were called at home, at all hours, and 'urged to apply to take the test.' Now the calls have turned into threatening phone calls. 'Take the test unless you don't plan on working here in the near future.'

Everywhere former CPD exempts go, they bring mediocrity, dissension and low morale. It's almost like they're trading on the supposed prestige of their position and not actual ability.

Golf or Memorial?

Not surprising in the least:

• President Obama left the White House this morning a little after 9:30 am. He wasn’t on his way to the Capitol building, where grieving friends and families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty hold a yearly commemorative service. Though he was invited to recognize the fallen and offer condolences by speaking at the annual Peace Officers’ Memorial Service, he instead spent this fine Sunday playing a round of golf with aide Ben Finkenbinder, White House trip director Marvin Nicholson and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
  
  Every president deserves down time. But after offending police earlier this week by hosting a rapper at the White House whose corpus includes a song lauding a convicted cop-killer, blowing off their service in order to golf seems tone-deaf, if not outright callous. Badly done, Mr. President.

We're surprised anyone in the media noticed actually. Thanks Washington Times.

Still Not a Cover Up?

Seriously, there are people who still think this is all on the up-and-up:

• Bridget Higgins McCarthy and her husband, Kevin McCarthy, found themselves in a tough spot early on the morning of April 25, 2004.

  Their friend Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, a nephew of Mayor Daley, had just been involved in a drunken confrontation in the Rush Street area that left a 21-year-old man from the suburbs severely injured, the result of a single punch the police would conclude seven years later Vanecko had thrown.

• The McCarthys — born into wealth, with a circle of friends that includes Daley’s children, nieces and nephews — knew that their friend R.J. was the guy the police wanted to talk to but hadn’t been able to identify.

  But they weren’t telling.

Of course they weren't. The full list of connections Novak and Fusco turned up:

• Bridget Higgins McCarthy, 33, is the daughter of developer Jack Higgins and his wife, Marty, who are regulars at high-society gatherings around Chicago. Jack Higgins runs Higgins Development Partners, whose projects have included building the headquarters of the Chicago Police Department and the FBI’s Chicago regional headquarters. The Pritzker family, proclaimed Chicago’s wealthiest, teamed with Higgins to build a Loop skyscraper that includes the headquarters for the family’s Hyatt hotel chain.

  Jack and Marty Higgins are friends with Daley and have contributed to his political campaigns. From June 2002 to February 2007, Daley’s son, Patrick Daley, 35, registered to vote from a Gold Coast condo owned by the Higginses.

Surprise surprise. And since we haven't read the entire file, this certainly should sink any thoughts this isn't exactly what it smells like:

• The police reinvestigation this year determined that the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Vanecko threw the punch. It also found that Koschman never struck Vanecko and had been arguing not with him but with Denham. Still, the police decided Vanecko had acted in self-defense and formally closed their homicide investigation, declining to ask the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to decide whether to file criminal charges.

So Vanecko pretty much blindsided the victim. And some are still pushing the "self defense" angle? Give us a fucking break.

Inauguration Day

Someone said "Swear him in" and Rahm embarrassed everyone by letting off a string of four-letter words. The judge actually dropped the bible.

Strap in people. The next four years just got really really interesting.

Dust Off That Helmet

The Bulls manhandled Miami last night, winning by 21 points.

The Finals are looking like a distinct possibility.

And we can only cringe at the imagined aftermath.

UPDATE: Whoops - drunk blogging isn't pretty.

First Female Superintendent

AdMin Fax out this past Friday.

Terry Hillard's second term ended along with Shortshanks. And the acting Supernintendo?

Bea "the Bartender" Cuello.

So does this count toward her pension? And did she have anything to do with the sudden cancellation of "The Chicago Code"? Because someone said that this town wasn't big enough for two female superintendents, so Jennifer Beals had to go.

Another Pic From DC

Any old timers remember driving these?

Honor Guard in DC

The CPD Honor Guard put on a good show in Washington:

• The Honor Guard placed 2nd in the D.C competition and received the chief judge award for the freestyle portion for the 2nd year in the row.

Congratulations Officers.

Here's a shot someone sent from one of the events.

California Insanity

Before Illinois and New York go bankrupt, California will lead the way. And the following is exactly why this country is on the skids:

• High pay and benefits for lifeguards in Newport Beach is the latest example of frustrating levels of compensation for public employees. More than half the city’s full-time lifeguards are paid a salary of over $100,000 and all but one of them collect more than $100,000 in total compensation including benefits.

  When thinking about career options with high salaries, lifeguarding is probably not one of the first jobs to come to mind. But it apparently should. In one of Orange County’s most desirable beach destinations, Newport Beach, lifeguards are compensated all too well; especially compared with the county annual median household income of $71,735.

  It might be time for a career change.

• Lifeguards are able to retire with 90 percent of their salary, after only 30 years of work at as early as the age of 50.

Seriously. Lifeguards. 90% of a $100,000 salary. We remember lifeguards here in town working for minimum wage all summer long. Hell, some of them would have done it for free just to pick up chicks and drink in the boathouse after hours.

St. Jude March

By "Musical Memories in Motion"

St. Jude 2011 from Musical Memories In Motion on Vimeo.

Something to reflect on during the conclusion of Police Week in Washington DC.

Propaganda War

The aftermath of the bin Laden operation continues to reverberate throughout the world. This story popped up in most major papers:

• A stash of pornography was found in the hideout of Osama bin Laden by the U.S. commandos who killed him, current and former U.S. officials said Friday.
  
  The pornography recovered in bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, consists of modern, electronically recorded video and is fairly extensive, according to the officials, who discussed the discovery with Reuters on condition of anonymity.
  
  The officials said they were not yet sure precisely where in the compound the pornography was discovered or who had been viewing it. Specifically, the officials said they did not know if bin Laden himself had acquired or viewed the materials.

Thanks to our extensive contacts in the CIA, the NSA and the Pentagon, SCC can exclusively reveal a partial listing of the porn-stash Osama bin Laden kept around (for fatwa research purposes only):

• Between the Sheiks
• Broke-Yak Mountain
• Hard as Iraq
• Packin' Stan
• Tora Bora Whora
• Turban Cowboys
  
• I Dream of Weenie
• I Slam
• Arabian Tights
• The Love Goat (Seasons 1 and 2)

We suppose anyone viewing these titles would think America was a decadent, infidel, Great Satan nation. And if the Navy Seals caught us with any of this, we'd pray they killed us and hid our body underwater, too.

These and more can be viewed over at AceofSpades.

Sneed Still Dishing Daley II

Even more Sneed droppings. This time, the bodyguard question appears to be settled:

• Protect ’em: Sneed has also learned Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel will have fewer bodyguards than Mayor Daley.

  The stats: Emanuel will have approximately 17 police officer bodyguards — compared with the 22 on Daley’s detail.

  It’s a wash: Daley will be assigned five officers already serving on his detail to stay with him — for an unspecified period after he leaves office.

  New brass: Mayoral bodyguard Brian Thompson, an African-American patrolman who was elevated to commander status months ago, will lead Emanuel’s detail. (Thompson will not be the first African American to head a mayoral detail; Mayor Harold Washington tapped Howard Saffold to run his security team in the 1980s.)

  Phew! Let’s hope Emanuel’s bodyguards won’t have to haul bags of recycled garbage from his vacation compound in Michigan back to Chicago like Daley’s bodyguards did. (Is it a measure to keep prying eyes off private paperwork?)

  The big question: Will Daley’s post-mayoral security detail still have to haul his trash?

  Back to the beat: Word is 10 of Daley’s bodyguards will be re-assigned to do regular police work in Chicago neighborhoods — but must go through the training academy again before doing so.

Can someone tell Sneed she can stop writing about Shortshanks finally? He's gone now.

Sneed Still Dishing Daley

We're busy...out of town type busy. Today's posting is going to be liberally stolen borrowed from the local rags.

All sorts of good stuff here:

• Sneed has learned Mayor Daley has set up his new office at 900 N. Michigan, a site which once housed the doctor’s office where his father, Richard. J. Daley, died of a massive heart attack in 1976. (A new building has since been built at the address.)

  All in the family: Sneed is also told Mayor Daley has set up shop with his son, Patrick, who has an MBA and speaks at least three languages fluently. Although the duo has had a loving relationship, it has also been an uneasy one.

  To wit: The younger Daley has expressed frustration conducting business in the glare of his father’s influence. Patrick subsequently ran a business in Russia after leaving the military, where he served in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan. Sneed hears the pair might be considering attracting foreign investment for American infrastructure projects.

We guess Daley will be telling people how to sell taxpayer financed infrastructure like parking garages, parking meters, toll roads and airports to foreign investors for quick cash that you can burn through in three years while locking taxpayers out for 75 or 99 years.

Thanks Again Daley

Another $30 million the city doesn't have:

• After years of legal battles, a federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Chicago must hire 111 African-American firefighters and pay about $30 million in damages to applicants who were unfairly denied Fire Department jobs because of a discriminatory entrance exam given in 1995.

  The ruling by the 7th U.S. Court of Appeals likely ends a 13-year legal battle waged against the city over the exam, which kept more than 6,000 qualified applicants from getting jobs because results continued to be used through 2002, according to attorneys in the case.

Back pay, back seniority, the city didn't win a single portion of the appeals that have been going on for 14 years. The lawyer bills are going to be obscene.

But in one of Shortshanks' last official acts, he gives away a piece of property worth millions of dollars:

• A former police station on the North Side that once was a symbol of discrimination to Chicago’s gay community will become part of a housing development serving gay seniors.

  For $1, the city will sell the old Town Hall District station, 3600 N. Halsted, to Heartland Housing Inc., sources said. The nonprofit developer will incorporate the old station into new construction of about 90 apartments for senior citizens.

  The apartments will be priced for lower-income renters. The project is a final favor for the gay community from Mayor Daley, who leaves office Monday.

A corner lot. On a busy intersection. In Wrigleyville. What does anyone think the property alone might be worth to a city that at last count, had a projected budget deficit of $500 million? We couldn't really care less about who got the property - gays, straights, black, white, Martian, demons from Hell, whatever. But one fucking dollar? How about we'll bid $2 and turn it into a SRO where drunk Cub fans can sleep off a hangover?

If Daley was so intent on giving away property on the cheap, how about unloading the old 009 District station for $1 and someone can finally reopen the old Police Museum that is probably stuck in storage somewhere?

Pray for Cold

Otherwise, these stories are going to be more commonplace than last summer:

• At least seven people, including a 12-year-old boy, were wounded Thursday afternoon and evening in several shootings across the city, authorities said.
• A 21-year-old man was fatally shot Thursday in the West Englewood neighborhood, police said.
• A 32-year-old man was fatally shot Thursday in the South Deering neighborhood on the city's Southeast Side, authorities said.
• A 19-year-old man critically shot in the head Wednesday in the Oakland neighborhood on the South Side has died, authorities said this morning.
• A 24-year-old woman was being questioned this morning following the stabbing death of a 28-year-old man in what police described as a domestic incident late Thursday in the West Englewood neighborhood.

Two uncomfortably warm days, not even truly hot by the standards of July and August, and we end up with almost thirty people shot and five or more dead. In the middle of the week. But hey, crime is down!

Darwin Award Winner

After all the warnings about train attacks, we're sure many people were on pins and needles when this story hit. Then as the day wore on, we began to wonder why this asshat was driving at all:

• A truck hauling chunks of concrete made an illegal left turn and drove around crossing gates before slamming into a Metra train in Mount Prospect this morning, officials say.
  
  The truck driver, Kazimierz Karasek, 59, was killed. At least 26 passengers were taken to hospitals and 10 others were treated on the scene. Officials said none of the injuries aboard the train appeared life-threatening.
  
  Karasek, of Prospect Heights, had been cited for more than 50 traffic violations, including a DUI, since 1986.

And then we began to wonder, was this one of George Ryan's gifts that has plagued and most likely continues to plague Illinois roadways years after his imprisonment? He was averaging two moving violations a year for a quarter century. At least his reign of terror is over and he didn't manage to take any innocent lives with him.

Technical Difficuilties (UPDATED)

Blogger crashed Wednesday.

To fix it, they had to make the entire network "Read Only" and then they removed all posts from Wednesday evening onward. We've been checking it every couple of hours from various locations, but we weren't even able to post an update to let everyone know what was going on. This gave us a mini-break and allowed us to finish some packing for a weekend trip you may have heard about.

It also has put us two days behind in posting threads, two days behind in going through comments and from what we can tell, may have wiped out dozens or hundreds of comments from Wednesday onward. So if something is missing, or you had some brilliant observation, or if you had solved world hunger and brought peace to the globe, it might be gone forever.

In the meantime, we're going to try to put things together here before departure. Updates will be sporadic.

Open post for now.

UPDATE: The Thursday threads are back in place but without the comments that were posted in each thread. As far as we can account, the total number of comments lost is around 100 or so. It is possible that at some point, the comments will reappear. The last time this happened, the comments returned about 10 months later, so any brilliance (or the polar opposite of brilliance) may pop up in a year's time.

Thursday Posts All M.I.A.

Blogger has "misplaced" everything posted for Thursday 12 May.

We are trying to recover, recreate or restore it.

See post directly above this one 13 May.

Closed post - informational purposes only.

UPDATE: We are recreating the Thursday posts with a note at the top of each. Please be patient.

Well Lookee Here

Please note: Post recovered from a cached copy. All comments previously attached to this post are still lost in the cyber-wasteland. This originally was to appear at 12:04 hours on 12 May 2011.

The wall of silence put up by the main stream media begins to crumble:

• A warning to those who come downtown: Chicago Police are on alert for a new brand of criminal.

  Sources say in the past three weeks, there have been more than 35 arrests for wilding and flash mob attacks.

  CBS 2′s Suzanne LeMignot reports, Chicago police are stepping up patrols to try to put a stop to it. Recently there was a large police presence in front of McDonald’s at State and Chicago and officers on horseback at North Avenue Beach.

  The increased patrols have been noticeable among residents.

  “I saw cars, [officers] on horseback and just walking around,” said Joseph Golz, who was cycling along the lakefront. “They were present, now I know why.”

  Sources say the lakefront has been targeted by large groups of teens, carrying out wilding incidents. Two people riding bikes on the path at North Avenue Beach were recently surrounded by about 100 teens.

  Both were knocked off their bikes, then thrown into Lake Michigan. The same thing happened to a person who was walking along Navy Pier. The pier was shut down for a few hours after the incident.

  “I think it’s terrible,” said Jill Gomberg. “I think it’s really scary. The lakefront is like a sanctuary.”

Gee, we've only had our readers commenting on this for what? About a year now? Hell, our contacts across the Central Control Group predicted it following two years of Taste debacles. And we imagine that if Shortshanks had run for re-election instead of retiring, you still wouldn't be hearing shit about it. The media has been in the bag for the Machine for so long, they have no idea how to actually cover news anymore.