Seriously Conehead?

The odds for another nervous breakdown just dropped considerably:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson has labeled "a done deal" his decision to cancel the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system contract after the historically violent summer months and the Democratic National Convention.

  But it may not be done at all, if some members of the City Council have anything to say about it.

  The Committee on Police and Fire will meet Monday to consider an ordinance sponsored by South Side Ald. David Moore (17th) that would, if passed, set the stage for local alderpersons to decide whether or not to continue ShotSpotter in their wards.

  It’s a high-stakes version of another ordinance that allows individual wards to decide whether to allow booting on private property.

Conehead (and his commie CTU backers) lost the "Bring Chicago Home" tax hike. 

His Prickwrinkle-sponsor ended up with the wrong states attorney candidate.

Now he's finishing what Groot started - losing the rubber stamp City Council as the aldercreatures see the political reins loosening in his hands. They're actually going to try for a ward-by-ward solution for ShotSpotter.

This is by far the weakest mayor we've seen in our entire lives here in Chicago. One-and-done is the current thinking.

Trial Reminder

For the attempted murder of a CPD Officer:

• The Whitney Temple trial will start on April 1 in room 304 at 26 cal at 11am for stealing a squad car and attempting to kill an 011th District Officer before crashing into innocent persons after a high speed chase.

It's supposed to be a bench trial, so having a presence in the courtroom would be good. 

And look who finally woke up!

• A woman will go on trial this Monday on accusations of attacking a Chicago Police officer, stealing his sport-utility vehicle, and running him over back in 2022.

  But since her arrest, it turns out the woman, Whitley Temple, has been hired by the City of Chicago.

  Authorities said at the time that around 9:45 a.m. on Monday, June 13, 2022, officers found Temple lying naked in the street near Jackson Boulevard and Kostner Avenue in West Garfield Park. Authorities at the time said as officers helped Temple, she turned the tables and began to attack one of the officers.

Attacked the ONLY officer on scene as the manpower dwindling was in full force back then....and continues to this day.

And it only took this "reporter" and her editors two years to notice this trial is long overdue and the City actually hired someone with multiple pending felony charges and drug use issues.

Welcome to the party pal.

 

Bravo NYPD

NYPD doesn't tolerate much political bull$hit, especially where their deceased are concerned:

• Gov. Kathy Hochul was filmed being confronted by an emotional mourner on her way out of a short visit to the wake for slain NYPD hero Jonathan Diller Friday afternoon – with bystanders applauding as she made her exit.

  The unidentified man dressed in a black suit gestured firmly and was visibly agitated as he spoke to the Democratic lawmaker, according to footage of the incident.

  The tense clash received support from a group of onlookers gathered outside the venue, who clapped as the mourner as the blank-faced governor shuffled back to her car.

Here's the X / twitter feed about it.

Politicians who advocate for policies that directly contribute to the deaths of Officers should suffer scorn and shunning by decent people at the very least. We'd advocate for worse, but E-blogger would ban us and the feds would come knocking.

CPD did it after Officer French was killed and Groot tried to pretend she cared.

O'Neill-Burke Wins

Congratulations Judge Burke:

• Eileen O'Neill Burke has defeated Clayton Harris III in the Democratic primary race for Cook County state's attorney, the Associated Press projected on Friday afternoon.

Harris conceded, so no recount and no further shenanigans.

This is a (sort of) additional kick in the teeth to Prickwrinkle. Her Machine (and the CTU) couldn't drag the real estate tax over the finish line and now, her hand-picked successor to Crimesha lost. 

We say "sort of" because it's still a democrat in a deep blue county, so don't expect Fioretti to pull off any upset. And voter turn out was pathetic, though it will be higher with a presidential race to be decided.

But it's still fun to see.

Paging the Keesing Bandit

Though we think KB's standards are a bit higher than people like this (seen on the CTA):

Speaking from experience, there is no "narcan" for those famous white wine spritzers.

This is a Good Idea

It's such a good idea, we don't expect it to be used here:

• One of the most common spy movie tropes is the protagonist's ability to tag a suspect with a discreet tracking dart from afar. That way, they can covertly track the baddies wherever they go. Well, it's no longer a spy movie trick—it's reality, as police departments have begun tagging fleeing vehicles with GPS trackers, eliminating the need for high-speed pursuit.

  Old Westbury Police Department in New York is using vehicle-mounted launchers that fire foam projectiles with a heat-activated sticky glue at fleeing vehicles in a car chase. The projectiles have wireless GPS tracking systems built into them, which allow police to track the car's whereabouts. The launchers and darts are made by StarChase, who also leases out handheld units to the NYPD, among other departments. The idea is to eliminate car chases, which are dangerous and often put the public at risk.

The trial lawyers who make a living suing the Department would be first in line to oppose it.

You know what would be another great idea? 

• A taser for cars that fries the electrical system. 

Bang! Zap! Dead car. Feel free to steal that idea and make millions.

Ban Assault Knives!

Not a gun to be found:

• Charges have been filed against a man who is accused of carrying out a stabbing rampage killing four people, including a mail carrier and a 15-year-old girl, and injuring seven others, authorities said Thursday.

  Christian I. Soto, 22, of Rockford, was charged with murder, attempted murder and home invasion in connection with the attack Wednesday, Winnebago County State's Attorney J. Hanley announced during a nearly 45-minute briefing at midday Thursday.

  Soto was scheduled to appear in court Thursday afternoon, Hanley said.

And remember, Fata$$ and democrats across the USA want to deny you the ability to defend yourself and loved ones from criminals like this.

And of course, no one is asking the obvious question about the offender.

Say....since the manufacturer of the knife knows it was designed and built to cut, shouldn't they be held liable for the dead and injured? Anyone got Minnesota AG Ellison's number?

Killing the Gambling Goose

Works out to a 133% increase - that's perfectly sane!

• As bets roll in on another season of March Madness, Gov. J.B. Pritzker is aiming to bust the tax bracket for Illinois sportsbooks and net the state a bigger piece of the action from a still-booming billion-dollar sports wagering market entering its fifth year.

  Casino sportsbooks across Illinois have paid a 15% tax on their revenue after paying out winners since legal betting launched in 2020, but the Democratic governor’s latest budget proposal would increase that rate to 35%.

  Pritzker’s office says the hike, which is still lower than other big-betting states, is a slam dunk to generate an extra $200 million for the cash-strapped state. Major gambling corporations argue it’ll block growth in a market that has ballooned into one of the biggest, most betting-hungry in the nation.

If our cost of doing business increased by double-plus-a-third, we'd seriously think about relocating. We were surprised to hear that 35% isn't even the top tax rate in the nation:

• 7% in Nevada
• 13% in New Jersey
• 20% in Ohio
• 36% in Pennsylvania
• 51% in New York
  

The big companies like FanDuel and Draft Kings must figure getting 49% of New York gambling is a small price to pay for their take....and they might be right. But you have to wonder if at some point there are going to be diminishing returns. And given that gambling is an addictive disease akin to alcoholism, cigarette smoking and drug use, people are going to be discouraged from partaking. That's one trouble.

The other trouble is governments (especially blue state $hitholes) are going to treat this money as an "extra" instead of paying down long-term debt. They'll fund all sorts of nonsense and ignore the $155 BILLION that Illinois is already in the hole.

Be Aware

Be smart:

• An off-duty police officer was carjacked in River North on Tuesday night. Another armed carjacking was reported less than an hour later in the West Loop. Chicago police have not made any arrests.

  In River North, two men armed with handguns robbed a man in the 500 block of West Grand around 10 p.m., a CPD media statement said. They escaped in his red VW Jetta. The victim, who was not hurt, is an off-duty police officer, according to two sources, but we were unable to confirm which agency he works for.

Hopefully, everyone was taught this in the Academy:

• if you carry your badge, carry your gun and be aware;
  
• if you leave the gun at home, leave the badge and department ID there, too. Be smart
  

No need to make yourself a bigger target than necessary. Give up what you have to and get away with your life.

Again, the British Media

Covering Chicago stories the local media sweeps under the rug:

• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has been criticized for refusing to be completely transparent on where hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have gotten to the city's homeless shelters amid a migrant crisis.

  The Windy City has struggled to care for more than 34,000 asylum-seekers bussed in from the border by Texas Governor Greg Abbott over the past 18 months.

  It has spent $300 million on the crisis and has been fighting with the state of Illinois about where to build more shelters and is currently fighting a measles outbreak at one of the shelters.

Those links in the quoted paragraphs are all UK links, not Chicago reports.

$300 million? Anyone mention this to Stacy Davis Gates and the CTU? The cupboard is looking bare for the teachers. Maybe they'll have to take a pay cut to help balance the budget?

This isn't unique to Chicago. New York is giving away $53 million:

• The Adams administration launched its program to give prepaid debit cards to New York City migrants this week — two months after inking a controversial no-bid $53 million contract for the deal. Staffers with the New Jersey company, Mobility Capital Finance, handed out eight preloaded Mastercards at the Roosevelt Hotel on Monday as part of its pilot program that will expand to 115 cards by next week, according to a City Hall spokesperson.

  The one-year deal came under fire after The Post first revealed the contract was inked without a typical bidding process. The program could be a boon for the tech start-up, giving it the potential to net $1.8 million by taking a cut of the funds loaded onto each Mastercard, according to the contract.

  The administration scaled back the original plan, which would have loaded up the cards with a month’s worth of money for food and baby supplies. Cash will now need to be replenished each week. A family with two parents and kids under five will receive about $350 a week, the spokesperson said.

  The Post was unable to track down any of the migrant families who received the cards Monday. Even the staffers at the Roosevelt Hotel said they weren’t aware the cards had been handed out.

The media can't find any of the recipients and the hotel didn't hear of the program? Any bets on how many cards just disappeared into pockets?

You Don't Say?

The medical experiment that keeps on giving:

• JUST when TCW readers might have thought they had heard enough about the covid jab harms, a major review has called for the vaccination campaign to be suspended pending studies of the risks to blood transfusion and organ transplant recipients.

  A team of researchers in Japan say that, based on the volume of evidence that has come to light about post-vaccination harms, medical professionals worldwide should be alerted to potential dangers in using blood derived from people who have had the jab, as well as from those suffering persistent symptoms from covid itself (‘long covid’). They say methods to identify and remove the contaminants are urgently needed, and propose a range of specific tests and regulations to deal with the risks.

We had to find this in the British press. 

And if anyone is interested, there are studies showing a 30% unexplained rise in abdominal-type cancers. The Princess of Wales perhaps?

Labor Unrest Meets Illegals

No wonder they're emptying the Park District buildings:

• Chicago Park District union workers overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike after more than nine months of contract negotiations.

  SEIU Local 73, which represents more than 2,200 park district workers, seeks competitive pay increases, a $20 hourly minimum wage, health insurance for every worker and more full-time positions.

Can't have all these illegals there if no patronage workers are minding the store.

And the crack we made about taxpayers getting to enjoy the park facilities they pay for with exorbitant taxes?  Yeah, sorry about that.

The End Game Revealed

You remember last week Conehead said Chicago was suing Glock for their completely legal product being too easy to turn into a "machine pistol"? And you may recall another lawsuit against Kia for making their completely legal cars too easy to steal?

No such thing as a bad boy:

• You may recall the progressive Ellison, who previously was a representative from Minnesota and the Deputy Chair of the DNC. Remember this picture?

  As indicated, he's now the Minnesota Attorney General. And here's what he has to say on the subject of young people stealing cars. Whose fault is it? He has some novel thoughts about who is "tempting" the kids to swipe the cars.

• Ellison continued to take the blame off of criminals, suggesting law enforcement needed to go after others on the "chain of criminality."

  "We are investigating 2 automakers. Their cars are too easy to steal for young people."..."We have to go upstream on crime and not just say we are going to only deal with the criminals, the people on the street. There are a lot of people involved in the chain of criminality, starting sometimes for people who are members of the country club, resulting in tragic circumstances for victims on the street," he continued.

That's Minnesota Attorney General, former Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee, former US Representative, noted antifa supporter and alleged beater of multiple women, Keith Ellison. His contention is there's no such thing as personal responsibility - everything is someone else's fault, especially if there's a bunch of money at the other end.

Nothing about failed families, broken schools, and praising role models like St. George of Fentanyl, etc. And if he "allegedly" put his girlfriend into the hospital, well that's permissible under the religious teachings he follows. He's not to blame for her asking for a beating.

What's This Called Again?

There's a name for an event like this.....we just can't remember it:

• Five more measles cases were reported by Chicago health officials Tuesday.

  The city has reported 31 measles cases since an outbreak in early March. Those were the first cases of the disease detected in Chicago since 2019.

  Children ages 4 and younger account for 21 of the city’s total cases, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

And cases are popping up in the collar counties, too.

Panorama? Pandemonium?

Ah, we'll remember it later.

Kass

Even Kass is finally pointing out the obvious fraud going on:

• The Democrat Primary election for Cook County State’s Attorney—a key office in a county overwhelmed by repeat violent crime–was held last Tuesday. It was a nail-biter with less than 1,700 votes separating the top two candidates.

  And a day or so after the polls were closed, there was a miracle. 10,000 “lost” votes were found!!!!

  Social justice warrior, Defund the Police leftist and Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Max Bever explained it all as an arithmetic error. But 10,000 votes! Amazing.

  As I write this, they’re still counting the votes, again and again. And they’ll keep counting as history and tradition inform us.

Fortunately (?) the rate of fraud has slowed and the "narrowing gap" has diminished. Harris cannot win on the vote count....

....so, time for a RECOUNT! along with the usual accusations of voter suppression and "racism" (copyright SCC 2024, All Rights Reserved)

We Learned Something!

Who said CPS couldn't teach an old dog new tricks?

• What started as a student being sent home for smoking pot on a field trip turned into something much more serious at Association House of Chicago High School in Humboldt Park, officials say: the recovery of a stolen, loaded machine gun from the student’s locker.

  Marquis Terry, 19, was sent home in an Uber for “disruptive behavior” during the field trip last Wednesday, March 20, a Chicago Police Department arrest report said. In a detention petition, prosecutors said he got caught smoking pot. That afternoon, the school’s principal searched Terry’s locker to see if he had any more pot stored there, the petition said.

  Court records don’t say if the principal found any more pot. But inside a backpack in the locker, prosecutors alleged, the principal found a loaded .45-caliber Glock handgun equipped with an extended ammunition magazine and a switch, rendering it capable of generating automatic gunfire. CPD’s report said the weapon had been reported stolen from Henderson, Kentucky.
  

What did we actually learn?

Well, CWB has a short 22 second video of a Glock switch in action:

We learned that switches - when used in a proper manner - look kind of cool. Ammo has to be as expensive as Hell though.

Unusual Weekend

We had to go back and check it to make sure there weren't any late updates:

• In addition to wintry weather being a known deterrent of silly decisions, we didn’t realize that the search for mail-in ballots provided similar relief. Early November should result in the city being a crime-free utopia, for at least a week or so.

  Final Demonized Tally: 0 killed, 13 wounded

Per HeyJackass.com, no one died over the weekend.

Supposedly, Dave Harris is taking all the credit.

Slow Motion Steal

Make no mistake - the Machine is merely exercising it's Steal-the-Vote efforts to fine tune it for when they really need it. Most other countries of world would be rioting, burning, marching and protesting if they had to wait ten days for a final tally. But here, they're boiling the frog slowly so voters don't really see the steal in action.

Election Day has turned into Election Season and they're "finding" votes in percentages that defy explanation, always favoring the anointed candidate as opposed to the upstart who isn't wholly controlled by the Prickwrinkle machine. Who takes ten days to count 100,000 votes? They did half-a-million election night.

This is dem-veresus-dem, so no one is really that worried about the outcome. Burke is making the appropriate anti-abortion noises to reassure the political paymasters that she'll be part of their team should she prevail. And the bosses are slow-rolling the count to show Burke how badly it could go for her if they really needed to shut her up.

They're counting un-postmarked ballots stuffed into drop boxes on who knows what date, for pete's sake.

Dumbasses

Corporate America is reversing course and fleeing the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) mandates that are costing shareholders hundred of millions of dollars.

So it only makes sense that CPD (and Chicago at large) is embracing this failed ideology for its "progressive" masters:

• The Racial Equity Action Plan (REAP) is a strategic plan for the Chicago Police Department (CPD or the Department) that details priorities and actions that CPD will take over the course of three years (2024 – 2026) to advance racial equity and inclusivity within its operations and interactions with the community. Implementation of the plan intends to improve equitable outcomes, reduce racial disparities, and achieve racial equity and inclusion in CPD’s core work by fostering inclusivity, diversity, and fairness within the Department and its interactions with the community. By addressing community engagement, workforce diversity, and public safety with a racial equity lens, CPD aims to build trust, promote justice, and create a safer and more equitable Chicago for all.

We'll just refer everyone back to our post Monday (and HeyJackass.com every day) that points out in plain English that "equitable outcomes" are impossible when 85%-to-90% of your victims AND offenders are of one demographic.

A Lot to Unpack Here

Someone posted this in the comments section and there's a lot of info here. Quite a bit of it is actually in sync with things we're seeing and hearing:

• OT:
  
  
  city a while back paid many millions of $ for a study to determine positions that could be civilianized and results came back. this has been done before, but its usually something the supt asks for and then buries quietly so as not to upset the hundreds of useless females trotting around HQ doing jack all day. this time is different. and make no mistake, Snelling was brought in to transform the department into what the consent decree mandates it should be, and these changes will come- some faster than others. here's some examples;
  
  some BIA investigators and case review people, filing, non-essential stuff.
  training staff at the academy for some non-critical classes, curriculum development, etc.
  timekeepers (eventually every one of them will be a civilian)
  admin assistants and secretaries going civilian (except for admin SGT's)
  expansion of front desk, lockup and radio room to all civilian (except for bond desk) & not allowed to staff those spots w/ sworn
  other HQ places like legal affairs, risk, graphic arts, compstat, audit, R&D, tech, etc.
  and.... detectives
  
  d-unit is the big surprise because a lot of other properly-functioning agencies use investigative aides in assisting detectives with clerical stuff, criminal analysis, review, etc. one of the downsides of giving 1,100+ detectives many thousand dollar raises is it costs city hall millions more per year to staff the d-unit- plus OT... why hire more detectives, when you can hire 100 civilians (a lot of them being retired detectives) to help them do their job at 30-50k less per year.
  

The politicians have wanted to go this way for a long time. And we remember specifically the "efficiency experts" coming in for couple of weeks back in the early 2000s. One week was all Front Office stuff and the other was operations. We thought for sure they were going to gut the admin staff at the District level, but it never seemed to get off the ground.

We're thinking with the increasingly bad manpower shortages, this is going to force their hand at some point to get sworn personnel on the street (see below).

(and yes, we're aware of contractual bid spots. we're also aware of the city violating the contract at least three-thousand times over the course of our careers)

Falling on Swords

In a truly just system, these corrupt f#$%ers would be facing jail time and ruinous punitive damages:

• The chairman and another member of the state’s parole board have resigned in light of the board’s controversial decision to release a convicted felon who then allegedly stabbed a pregnant former girlfriend and killed her 11-year-old son just a day after leaving prison.

  Pritzker initially announced the resignation of LeAnn Miller, the member of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board who oversaw the decision to release Crosetti Brand after he allegedly violated his parole by showing up at the woman’s home just over a month before the deadly attack.

  The governor didn’t say why Miller had chosen to step down but indicated she played a key role in the flawed decision to place Brand back on the street. Pritzker noted she conducted the pivotal parole hearing and “prepared a draft order provided to a panel of two additional members for concurrence.”

  Pritzker said she ultimately made “the correct decision in stepping down.”

As a number of our commenters pointed out, Miller was....Fata$$'s choice for the spot.

AND....

He pushed for her over the objections of numerous Republican legislators because she had a bad record at the prisoner review board. 

The Slum Times takes great pains to point out she's a "republican." But any "republican" appointed by Fat$$ is a RINO 100% of the time, merely filling a roll for Fata$$ to claim "bipartisanship" while the appointee always seems to vote with democrats.

Meanwhile, an 11-year-old kid is dead after trying to protect his mother from being killed.

Manpower Dwindling

These are the sheets for the 004 District, 2nd Watch the other day:

Talk about a skeleton crew. And yes, we're aware it's days, but still....

• 6 beat cars (for 12 beats)
• 1 wagon
  
• 2 field sergeants
• 1 fixed post
• and a pair of lieutenants

And 004 is not exactly a small District in terms of acreage....almost certainly top five.

Smash and Grab Crew

Norridge and Harwood Heights are two unusual suburbs, in that they are completely within the corporate boundaries of the City of Chicago, but not part of Chicago.

That isn't protecting them from Chicago crime:

• Police are searching for the people responsible for a smash and grab robbery of a jewelry store in Norridge.

  Police said officers responded to the Harlem and Irving Mall around 4:30 Sunday. Video from a bystander shows a group of people smashing the glass display cases at the Zevar Jewelers and stealing the items in the cases.

  Police said the group fled with an unknown amount of watches and jewelry. The group left in the area in a dark grey sedan.

WGN with the fantastically accurate description of the fleeing vehicle.

Guess where the car was headed?

Back to the Streets!

Back to the border would be better, but....:

• Hundreds of migrants staying at five Chicago Park District facilities serving as temporary shelters will soon be moved to other locations to reopen those park sites to the public.

  Mayor Brandon Johnson's office said, beginning Saturday, migrants currently living in the field houses at Gage Park in the neighborhood of the same name, Broadway Armory Park in Edgewater, Brands Park in Avondale, Leone Park in the Rogers Park neighborhood, and Piotrowski Park in Little Village will be moved to other shelters "over the next several weeks."

  "After all shelter residents have been transitioned to another shelter, the Park District will begin restoring the facilities and resuming park programming and other park operations at each of the five locations currently used as temporary emergency shelters," Johnson's office said in a news release.

Golly, taxpayers getting to use the Parks that they pay for via exorbitant taxes. 

What an idea!

Equality NOW Damnit

We came across a disturbing statistic this weekend. In fact, it is so disturbing, we're going to have to ask that you remove children from the room before reading it. It can only be described in picture form (from HeyJackass.com):

Cuck Goudie would be ashamed. After all that time he spent telling everyone how black people only make up 28% of Chicago's population (whites at 32%, Hispanics at 30%) and castigating the CPD's 60% "rate" of stopping black people, we're sure he's crying in his suburban basement. We need to help Cuck in any way possible.

So we're going to be proactive here and ask black people to take a break. Slow down. Stop getting killed in such disproportionate numbers. It's unseemly and it makes Cuck Goudie sad. White and brown people (and folks) of all economic stripes MUST step into the breach that will be vacated by our black brothers and sisters, and die to even out the racial statistics....for Goudie!

And now for another part of the story that Cuck isn't covering and the story that only the hero wife-beating Steinberg may have the courage to tackle, like when he smacked the Mrs around in a drunken rage a few years ago:

Women of Chicago, you gotta start stepping up and taking a few hits for Your Man. As Cuck Goudie taught us just weeks ago (and lib-tard believe with all their hearts), the only way to achieve true equality is in the equity of outcomes. 

So females, you MUST strive to become 51% of the homicide statistics as you are 51% of the population. You must allow yourselves to be shot, stabbed, strangled, beaten in domestic incidents - TO DEATH - in order to make Goudie, Steinberg, democrats and "progressive" libtards happy everywhere.

Family Demands Answers

Here's one - your son was a useless piece of garbage, out on a previous gun charge, and he still managed to get his hands on another gun:

• The man Chicago police leaders say was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police officers during a traffic stop this week was on pretrial release for a pending felony gun charge, according to court records.

  Dexter Reed, 26, was arrested on July 13 after Chicago cops said they found him in possession of a firearm in a vehicle in the 1800 block of West Warren. Prosecutors charged him with aggravated unlawful use of a firearm the next day. Later, a grand jury returned a true bill charging him with three counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a firearm with a revoked Firearm Owner’s ID card, court records show. 

  On Thursday evening, CPD officers stopped a vehicle in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand. Reed was inside the SUV.

But don't worry, it isn't like this happens all the time under the "bail reform" act:

• Reed is the fourth person accused of murder, attempted murder, or trying to shoot someone this year while on felony pretrial release.

Business as usual in democrat control $hithole cities. CWB has all the stats about that.

That's a Helluva Kick

If the Bears could sign someone who kicks a ball like the City Council is attempting to kick this can, they might actually be contenders again:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to borrow $1.25 billion to bankroll economic development and affordable housing projects is back on track for City Council approval, but not without a bit of a fight.

  The Rules Committee on Tuesday sent the mayor’s ordinance to the Finance Committee, where it would have been assigned originally if Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) hadn’t slowed it down. The vote was 29-7, with Ald. Bill Conway (34th) leading the charge against the legislative reroute.

And why is Conway objecting to this borrowing plan?

• “The bond ordinance is set to issue $250 million of debt for each of the next five years. … It’s going to require significant oversight. Tanking or derailing my ordinance indicates that, on some level, the mayor’s office is fighting government oversight,” Conway told the Sun-Times.
• Although the city plans to borrow $1.25 billion, interest would cost the city $2.4 billion over 37 years. Top mayoral aides have insisted that money would be more than recouped by property tax revenues that would flow back into the city’s coffers from expiring TIF districts.
  

Thirty-seven years? 

Almost every single aldercreature who votes for this will be dead and buried by the time this is paid off. They won't have to live with the eventual consequences....and that's the attraction to these budgeting inanities. 

When there aren't any consequences, a whole new set of circumstances influences the vote. Like, "How much can I steal for my children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren to make sure they move out of Chicago as it collapses and burns to the ground?"

There's a reason these a$$holes leave office as multimillionaires. Just look at Congress.

Votes Keep "Turning Up"

It wouldn't be Chicago without criminal incompetency and shady election practices:

• The Chicago Board of Elections added more than 10,000 votes to its total count on Saturday after its director of public information said he mistakenly left out ballots. 

  The unofficial count now stands at 368,990 ballots cast after the 10,659 additional votes were added, bringing the citywide turnout to 24.44%. There are 1,509,554 active registered voters. 

  "In adding up the total number of Vote By Mail ballots the Board had received back so far, I mistakenly left out additional ballots that had been received back via USPS the evening of Monday, March 18," said Max Bever, director of public information for the Chicago Board of Elections. "I traded speed for accuracy in reporting out numbers this week as quickly as I could. I truly regret this error on my part and for the confusion that it has caused the voters of Chicago. I will share updated numbers only when they are accurate and verified."

Bullshit Max. At the very least, you're incompetent at your job and should be fired. At worst, you're an un-indicted criminal who needs to be jailed.

On the plus side, Burke maintains her lead and one of the writers / editors over at IllinoisPolicy.org posted on his twitter feed that Burke's lead is pretty much insurmountable at this point by legal and statistical norms. "Outside the margin of cheat" is what we'd call it.

But we'll see.

Good News

That naked west side woman who was:

• high on illicit substances, 
• stole a squad car, 
• attempted to murder a cop with it, 
• then wrecked the squad car into another civilian vehicle,
• then got hired by the Department of Family and Support Services making $85,000 a year?

Yeah, she got fired the other day and is currently on the Do Not Hire list thanks to the efforts of the FOP and other pissed off voters.

Her trial is still coming up 01 April.

Aaaaaaaaaawkward

You have a program that works (mostly) and Conehead is about to kill it:

• Critics of the ShotSpotter system insist that it is inaccurate and ineffective. Some say it is racist. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx claimed that ShotSpotter does not contribute significantly to firearms-related prosecutions in the city.

  Our team reads hundreds of Chicago police reports every week. We can say with certainty that ShotSpotter alerts routinely result in the arrests of armed men—and they’re almost always men—after shots are fired in the city. This series includes cases we happened to come across during our work. It is not an exhaustive list of every ShotSpotter case.

CWB goes on to to cite a swath of cases where ShotSpotter actually guided police to the general vicinity (sometimes the EXACT location) of shots fired, resulting in many arrests, even if Crimesha later dropped charges.

The claims of "racism!" are obviously ridiculous and political. If Shotspotter didn't track gunfire, cops wouldn't be in the area looking for....people shooting guns. Which we assume, the lib-tards want so that children and felons of all stripes aren't....you know....shot?

Unless the "progressive" lib-tards want dead minority children?

Jumping Off the Ship

We've heard good and bad about this guy, but he obviously isn't dumb:

• When Mayor Brandon Johnson chose City Hall lifer Rich Guidice to serve as his chief of staff, it sent a reassuring message to the business community and everybody else wary of the most progressive mayor in Chicago history.

  A seasoned veteran who knows city government like the back of his hand would be steering the ship through transition waters. 

  The fact that police officers and firefighters among the most leery of Johnson knew and trusted Guidice from his tenure as executive director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications was an added plus. They assumed that Guidice, who has seen Chicago through countless special events, would guide the new mayor and Chicago through the Democratic National Convention in August and all of the protests that come with it.

  On Thursday, Guidice abruptly pulled the plug on those assumptions. After nearly 33 years, he’s leaving city government to start a new job in April that he refused to identify.

Rumor is he saw the election results AND the non-existent plans for the DNC and then he "noped" the Hell out of City Hall.

And he's just the first of many if rumors are to be believed.

No Wonder Chicago is Broke

No one sends out the bills:

• When Green Day, Def Leppard and Maroon 5 headlined separate concerts at Wrigley Field in August 2021, the city of Chicago billed the promoter nearly $24,000 to cover the cost of city employees working as traffic control aides.

  The bill went unpaid for 2½ years — among a $6.4 billion mountain of uncollected bills, fines and fees that City Hall has allowed to pile up over two decades.

  Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Finance Department won’t release details on traffic violators and many scofflaws, but it agreed to release data on $1.3 million in traffic control bills owed by the city’s sports teams, concert promoters and organizers of special events like the 2014 TV show “The Biggest Loser.”

  And then a funny thing happened once Chicago Sun-Times reporters began calling those businesses: They began paying up. One million dollars of the $1.3 million in unpaid traffic control bills got paid, City Hall records show.

The article goes on to quote numerous persons who run festivals, concerts and special events and they all say the city never sends out billing invoices on time. Sometimes, the city doesn't bill a company...until a company goes out of business, probably as a political favor to some connected entity.

But try being a week late with your water bill and see how that goes.

Lawsuit on the Way

Progressives are morons....and so is the CTU:

• Chicago Public Schools is officially moving away from a school funding formula that pitted schools against each other as they competed for students and critics say undermined schools as they lost enrollment.

  District officials announced Thursday they are implementing a formula that targets resources for individual schools based on the needs of students, such as socioeconomic status and health. They will abandon student-based budgeting — a formula unveiled a decade ago under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel that provided schools a foundational amount of money based on how many students were enrolled.

And then they put this in print?

• Schools will then get additional funding based on the opportunity index, which looks at barriers to opportunity, including race, socioeconomic status, education, health and community factors. Because it will be so important this year, principals have been working with CPS officials to make sure their status on the opportunity index adequately reflects the current conditions in their schools.

We're pretty sure it's a violation of Federal Law to base funding on race. It's how many lawyers get rich.

And we'll just remind everyone:

Maybe start by closing under-utilized buildings?

Officer Wounded, Assailant DOA?

The media, as usual, take extreme pains to hide the fact that an offender shot an officer and the officer returned fire:

• A Chicago police officer and an offender were shot Thursday evening in the city’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, according to Chicago police and fire departments.

  The shooting happened around 6 p.m. near West Ferdinand Street and North Avers Avenue.

  The Chicago Fire Department said an officer was shot and taken to Stroger Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

  An offender was shot and taken to Mount Sinai in critical condition, according to the fire department.

  Another officer was taken to Stroger Hospital with a minor medical issue, according to the fire department.

They make it sound like two unrelated events. Assholes.

In any event, we're told the officer is stable and his wound(s) are non-life threatening.

Early reports are that the offender is stable also, as being in an inert non-alive state is stable by definition. But maybe our e-mailer was just being funny.

Johnson's Johnson Exonerated

Special Ed's schlong is free to roam the streets again:

• A federal judge Wednesday tossed a sexual harassment lawsuit which revolved around the 2019 scandal that led to the firing of former Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson.

  Officer Cynthia Donald had alleged that Johnson subjected her to unwanted sexual advances, abuse and harassment for more than three years while Johnson served as the city’s top cop. She said Johnson forced himself on her, sent her nude photos, made sexual comments and took advantage of his position of power.

  But in a 20-page opinion Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo wrote that Donald’s evidence fell short and granted summary judgment sought by Johnson and the city.

  “The basic problem with Donald’s claim is that virtually all the evidence of her conduct suggests that she welcomed and was an active participant in her relationship with Johnson,” Bucklo wrote.

Active, willing and certainly hoping to score one of those "merit" promotions that fulfilled the "...who you blow" portion of the "qualifications."

A Certain Win

This went mostly the way it was predicted to go:

• A Cook County judge ruled Thursday that rank-and-file Chicago cops facing the most serious disciplinary charges can bypass the Chicago Police Board and have their cases heard by an outside arbitrator, but he found the proceedings should be held in public.

  In his 26-page ruling, Judge Michael Mullen said arbitrator Edwin Benn’s decision that such arbitration cases should be held behind closed doors “was neither arbitrary nor capricious,” but Mullen sided with the city in deciding that Benn’s finding ran contrary to “a dominant and well-defined public policy.”

  Mullen found that closed-door arbitration would violate a federal court order mandating sweeping reforms to the police department's policies and practices, namely a requirement "to increase and promote transparency in matters of police accountability.

To be realistic, we kind of expected something like this. Everything the city has done, said, and legislated for the past eight or more years has always been couched in terms of "transparency," so a hearing held out of the public view was going to be a stumbling block.

But the biggest issue, and the one the FOP wanted most of all, was getting cases away from the politically corrupted Police Board and in front of a neutral arbitrator who would actually be versed in the way Supreme Court decisions have been going for decades:

• that an officer's actions must be judged on what "a reasonable police officer" would decide and not a political hack beholden to those who appointed them, along with the constantly shifting political winds.

Not a total victory, but a good win. It remains to be seen what form this process will take now. Video hearings where the public could observe, but not participate or interrupt?

Advantage Goes to Units

Someone who had a lot of time on their hands broke down the Sergeant promotions over the last test. It's certainly an interesting set of statistics:

It certainly pays to be in a Unit.

Firstly, because you are exposed to a lot more police work than just the regular day-to-day operations of District Law Enforcement.

Second, because you're exposed to a lot more of the connected Subject Matter Experts who provide you with insight and answers to test material.

And third, because if you need extra time to study or join a study group, it's far easier to be somewhere that you aren't attached to a regular watch answering calls, and can flex your working hours - or even your RDO's - to accommodate your efforts.

What Did He Do?

Did the Chief of Patrol say something / write something stupid that pissed off a lot of coppers already?

Is Larritorious going to regret putting this egomaniac in charge of anything other than a broom closet?

Just Don't Count It

If an illegal shoots a tranny, was a crime actually committed?

• Early one mild morning last month, a transgender woman who recently migrated from Venezuela was waiting for a ride outside a Little Village nightclub when a driver pulled up and made an ominous remark in Spanish.

  “Bad gay,” he allegedly said before firing three shots at the woman around 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 4. She was struck in the groin and both legs and left in critical condition, according to Chicago police records.

  [...] Detectives began investigating the shooting as a hate crime and eventually homed in on a suspect — a 29-year-old Venezuelan man who was linked to a drug cartel by federal authorities. With the help of a U.S. Marshals fugitive task force, officers took him into custody on Feb. 26 as he left a courthouse in west suburban Maywood.

  He had been arrested two days earlier in Austin and hit with a list of charges, including felonies for illegally possessing a gun and ammunition, court records show. After a judge ordered him released that day, police records show he was quickly arrested again and brought in for questioning.

  While he had been identified as the gunman and police had recovered key evidence — including a shell casing and video of the Ford Explorer used in the attack — Cook County prosecutors wouldn’t bring charges.

And why did Crimesha refuse charges?

• A spokesperson for the state’s attorney’s office said the case has been “continued for additional investigation,” noting that “no charging decision has been made at this time.” In a report, police acknowledged the investigation had faced a serious setback: “Our one witness who can positively identify the gunman will not cooperate any further.”

  A law enforcement source said the victim stopped cooperating because she believes she was targeted for being a sex worker and has fears about the suspect’s association with El Tren De Aragua, a violent Venezuelan gang known in South America for human trafficking and drug sales.

  Baltazar Enriquez, an organizer in Little Village, said community members have been left with lingering questions after similar cases have seemingly fallen apart. “Do we blame the police department or do we blame the state’s attorney?” Enriquez asked.

Hey dumbass - the cops investigated AND caught him. How the f#$% would you blame the police unless you're a total moron?

And the equally moronic Slum Times reporters thinks the issue is.....the language the feds used and not the fact that an illegal with multiple weapon arrests during his short stay is blasting away in Little Village:

• That same day, the U.S. Marshals Service issued a news release that offered an erroneous account of his arrest in the shooting. The release named the suspect, provided incorrect details about his arrest and wrongly stated that he had been charged. It also used language uncommon for a news release from a federal agency, describing the suspect as “an illegal migrant from Venezuela and an alleged cartel member.”

  After the Sun-Times raised questions about the release, a spokesperson issued a separate statement on March 11 saying it had “been retracted and the information was removed from our website.”

  “It should not be used for reference or reporting,” spokesperson Brady McCarron added.

  However, multiple news stories referencing the release remain online, including those published by Fox News and other right-wing outlets critical of the country’s current immigration policies.

So since two "protected classes" were involved and no one was charged for various reasons, no crime was committed that can be tracked on paper.

Incidentally, this happened literally less than four blocks from where Lil Homicide was shooting at vehicles a couple years back, so you could make the argument this neighborhood needs extra police around to control the violence.

We Missed This One

This is from earlier last week - did someone blackmail Arlington Heights to the bargaining table?

• A quote from State Representative Mark Walker posted Monday afternoon, March 11, 2024 in a WGN News video indicates that Mark Walker is looking forward to many interesting proposals to come to the future Arlington Park, including affordable housing and “welcoming centers for new arrivals.”

  I look forward to the many interesting proposals to come on the future of Arlington Park like new business development, more affordable housing, or welcoming centers for new arrivals.”

  — State Rep. Mark Walker

  There has been a rumor circulating for several months that migrant welcoming centers are planned for the property at Arlington Park instead of a Chicago Bears stadium. This rumor seemed to have a little more credence following the quote from State Representative Mark Walker (D-Arlington Heights/53rd District). Notice the euphemism used by State Rep. Mark Walker for migrants — “new arrivals”.

This guy "represents" Arlington Heights, so it would be hard to see him trying to force illegals into housing in an upper-middle class suburb. It also makes you wonder who he's actually working for - the citizens or the Bears, and how much leverage did he bring to (A) the taxing issue and (B) the end game.

It sure is interesting to see how the money and power works behind the scenes.

Election Upsets?

As of this writing, two big bits of news regarding the election:

• the "Bring Chicago Home" cash grab supported by the CTU and progressives appears headed for defeat. With 98% reporting, the NO's are leading by roughly 23,000 votes.
• and bigger news if it holds, Prickwrinkle's handjob hand picked candidate to replace Crimesha is losing by 10,000 votes with 99% of precincts reporting.

We have no idea if there are boxes and barrels of "absentee" votes hidden away for later, so we'll remain hopeful rather than happy. This all might have changed by sunrise tomorrow. 

Who knows? Maybe there will be a burst pipe at some location no one is watching, where no cameras are present and suddenly, 20,000 ballots from a precinct with 140% voter turn-out will swing the election.

It's happened before.

Cops Injured

North side at a fire:

• Three people including a woman and two Chicago cops were taken to hospitals after a fire broke out in a Rogers Park apartment building Tuesday morning, fire officials said.

  The blaze started on the second floor of a U-shaped building with a courtyard located at 1423 W. Farwell Ave., according to a post on X from the Chicago Fire Department.

  The civilian, a woman, was rescued by police and she and the two officers, all of whom suffered smoke inhalation, were taken to a hospital where they were in good condition, police and fire officials said.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery to all injured parties.

Granny Resurfaces

The rats in New Orleans are getting high...and look who the chief is:

• These rats have got friends in high places.

  Reefer-loving rodents are gobbling up the cannabis stash held under lock and key in the New Orleans Police Department’s dilapidated evidence room, officials announced on Monday.

  “The rats are eating our marijuana,” Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told the City Council’s Criminal Justice Committee, according to NOLA.com. “They’re all high.”

We wondered what had happened to Granny Clampett after she got chased out of Chicago, then went to Oakland and ran over a motorcycle.

We have to wonder how someone who has been an incompetent failure at so many Police Departments keeps managing to land high profile gigs. It's enough to make an aldercreature's nephew green with envy

Movement on AH Bears

The Bears hardball efforts are paying off - Arlington Heights just blinked:

• Suburban Arlington Heights is offering big tax breaks to the Chicago Bears to build a new stadium in the village.

  Village officials came up with a compromise over a tax property bill for land the Bears already own in Arlington Heights.

  The potential deal would give the Bears tax liabilities of about $6.3 for the first year and $3.6 million for the second year. The current tax bill for the former Arlington Park property is nearly $10 million.

As we understand it, the property was taxed as if the racetrack and buildings were still intact. they aren't as the Bears have leveled just about everything on site, and they wanted the tax rated backed off to the "unimproved" levels for two years - which makes sense. There's nothing there.

The fact that Arlington Heights is acknowledging this is a pretty big step to landing the Bears stadium.

Epidemic Yet?

Measles count up to fifteen:

• The Chicago Department of Public Health reported three more measles cases in the city on Tuesday.

  That brings the total number of confirmed cases in Chicago to 15.

  CDPH said two newly confirmed infections, reported to the city on Monday, are in children 4 years old or younger. Authorities did not immediately provide further information about those two cases.

Ten of these cases are out of the Pilsen shelter, home to just under 2,000 illegals stuffed into warehouse space not meant for human habitation.

50 Sergeants, but....

.... only 20% "merit"? The list dropped yesterday, late. 

On a Monday, so kind of unusual. 

And it was fifty names, not unusual.

But forty by rank score and ten by "merit"? Very unusual.

Anyone know why? And anyone who has the list, send it. Otherwise we'll have to wait until we get to work later.

UPDATE: (click for larger view)

Beware of Males!

Fantastic reporting from the thieves over at Channel 7:

• Chicago police have issued a warning about 14 armed robberies on Chicago's West and Northwest sides.

  Thirteen of those robberies happened over several hours on Saturday in Avondale, Austin, Logan Square and Portage Park.

  Another armed robbery happened Thursday.

  Police said in each instance, the group of four to five men jump out of cars, pointing guns at victims and demanding their wallets and purses.

That's the extent of the descriptions given by ABC - "four to five men."

To add insult to injury....:

• Police said the robbers were armed with black handguns, rifles and knives.

They do a better job describing the handguns than they do the offenders! But aren't they supposed to capitalize the adjective? We thought that was a Law or something.

After that, they list all fourteen addresses, but that's just reporting and does nothing to insult their viewers.

Voting Today

IMPORTANT: Remember to vote NO on the "Bring Chicago Home" binding referendum. 

These jags constantly fight against non-binding referendums  even appearing on the ballot to reduce the size of government, term limits and all sorts of stuff that would actually change government, but then put forward a tax hike and lie about what and where the money is going. 

If the CTU is backing this, you know they're going to steal every dime.

Standards Falling Nationally

Thinking of moving to Tennessee?:

• Nashville’s police department changed its standards to increase the number of female officers that make up its workforce. As part of an initiative to make the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s 30% female, the MNPD dropped an ability test for police recruits and replaced it with an easier agility test, WSMV reported. The change resulted in more recruits passing, particularly women.

  The original test, known as the Cooper Standards Test, “measured pushups, sit ups, a 300-meter sprint and a 1.5-mile run,” a report from the MNPD said. During an 18-month period between 2019 and 2021, a total of 1138 recruits attempted to join the MNPD. Of those, 72 (6%) failed the Cooper Standards Test.

  In 2021, Police Chief John Drake signed the 30×30 initiative to make women 30 percent of the MNPD by 2030. Part of this drive involved dropping the Cooper Standards Test in favor of the Physical Agility Test which “consists of a 99-yard agility run, a rescue simulation (dummy drag), chain link fence climb, solid wall climb and a 500 yard run,” according to the MNPD.

If you really want to be amazed, check out this video report that has actual footage of the "agility run."

• No, we aren't joking - this is actual footage

This isn't just reducing the standards (which all police departments did for age and gender anyway). This is obliterating any effort at having an actual ability to do what is required of police officers in dire life-threatening emergencies.

If you're retiring and moving to Tennessee, be aware.

Trial Date Approaches

The trial is beginning soon for the drug-addled, carjacking, attempted-cop-murdering, newly-hired-85K-accounting spot person on 01 April.

Our reader / cop victim has been doing a lot of research on his assailant:

• Can anyone name any employee in recent memory who was hired for a 85000 a year job with the city while awaiting trial for several violent felonies ?
• Which high powered politician pushed through the application to the hiring stage with all these red flags
• Is the city going to pay her the days she’s in court for trial for attempted murder , vehicular hijacking, and other felonies? 

This is going to be a bench trial at 26th Street, so some friendly faces in the courtroom would be appreciated. We'll post a room number when we have it.

Wait...What? The Name?

We think the entire intent of this article is to change the name of a law? While claiming police are bad of course

• In the midst of a partly cloudy October afternoon in 2022, Jesse Green dashed out the door of his home. Dragging luggage in one hand and clutching onto a sandwich, jacket and firearm in the other, Green hurriedly made his way to the back of his parked vehicle.

  As executive director of the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council, Green was running late for his trip to the Illinois Main Street Conference in downstate Bloomington — looking forward to furthering his knowledge in community and economic development.

  He loaded his luggage into the trunk, where he usually stores his firearm whenever he travels. But in his rush, he forgot to place his gun in its case. Instead, after closing the trunk, he quickly got into the driver’s seat and dropped some of the items in his hands, including his jacket and his firearm, into the passenger seat.

Notice who the offender is about to be. We underlined it so you don't miss it. Note, by his own admission, he is currently in violation of the law. Period. Full stop.

• Before he had made it out of the North Lawndale community, Green found himself stuck in traffic. He turned down a one-way street — in the wrong direction — to avoid the congestion and passed by a Chicago Police car, which made a quick U-turn, flashing its red and blue lights, and pulled him over.

  During the traffic stop, while reaching for his license and proof of insurance, Green noticed the butt of his gun underneath his jacket in the passenger seat and informed the officer. “Hey, I have my weapon, and it’s in the seat,” he told the officer, who then instructed Green to step out of the vehicle.

Leaving aside the fact that CPD squads don't have red lights, while in violation of Weapons statute, he commits a traffic violation in full view of the police. Then he admits to the cops (who haven't even requested a search at this point), that his gun is on the seat, immediately accessible, loaded and uncased. The article says so, but twists it into a critique of....cops doing their job AND the name of the law:

• Since his gun was not stored properly and Green did not have a concealed carry license, he was arrested for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, a felony charge that could lead to one to three years in prison.

  Green is among a growing number of people in Cook County who have been arrested for unlawful use of a weapon resulting from a traffic stop. The increase has emboldened civil rights advocates who have long criticized how Chicago Police use traffic stops and has renewed efforts to rename unlawful use of a weapon charges.

Um....how did cops "use [a] traffic stop"? He drove the wrong way down the street in front of them and they did exactly what cops are authorized to do. Then the "executive director" volunteered that he had a weapon close at hand. He was detained, transported, processed and will get his day in court.

UUW is one of those charges that cops DO NOT have discretion on. You find a gun and someone in possession of said weapon, they better appear on an arrest report, there better be a case report, an inventory number, a call to the gun desk, sergeant and lieutenant signatures on the arrest report, and a call to Crimesha's office for approval (or disapproval) of charges.

Any one of those missing, and a cop is looking at suspension time. A number of years back, we know of a bunch of cops who were suspended, fired and faced charges of their own for making deals on the street regarding weapons. We also know of someone who made commander of 025 after being caught with a number of weapons in his locker on the west side, and you can search through our archives and comment sections for the history of Escamerit.

But all of this seems mainly to criticize CPD and the name of the law - Unlawful Use of a Weapon - along with the felony charge that goes with it. 

NEWSFLASH for WBEZ - CPD didn't pass the law, name the law or sign the law. And enforcing the law is kind of the job of cops everywhere, regardless of every leftist effort to have cops not enforce any laws, especially in the ghettos where crime is rampant.

How Much?

The teachers are aiming big:

• If the Chicago Teachers Union gets its way with the mayor they helped elect, their next contract will boost the average teacher’s pay by half to $144,620 in the 2027-2028 school year.

  The average now is $93,182.

  Teacher pay rose more than $43,000 since 2012 – nearly triple the private-sector salary increase. If CTU’s demands are met, another $51,438 will be added to the average salary by the next contract – a 55.2% increase.

The balls on these people are amazing.

The linked article shows their raises versus what private sector people have gotten and it isn't even close:

And their pay raises as compared to results:

These morons need to be brought to heel, stripped of the ability to strike and have pay directly proportional to classroom results. And it needs to happen now.

This Sounds Like a Mess

In a few years, we'll probably be far away and just shake our heads:

• Prosecutors say two Chicago men robbed a construction crew, exchanged gunfire with an off-duty sheriff’s deputy at the scene, fled, then returned to fire another shot, only to have one of the victims pull out a gun and open fire on them, too. No injuries were reported.

Robbers armed. Security armed. Victims armed.

No one can hit a damn thing, but everyone is blazing away.

Dart for Mayor!

Rumor popping up that Tommy Dart is looking into a mayoral run.

As Dart did such a good job emptying Cook County jail, it's hoped that he'll be just as successful in emptying out Chicago as Prickwrinkle's tool.

Conehead still has three years to go, but Prickwrinkle is already realizing he's a one-term failure, so perhaps she's lining up the next disaster?

S.O.I.D. Card Needed

When you're a felon who can't buy a gun legally, what are you left with?

• A 65-year-old Chicago man is charged with attempted murder for allegedly attacking another man with a samurai sword in Auburn Gresham this week. Judge David Kely detained Gerald Davis as a public safety threat, calling the attack “brazen, bold, and violent.”

  Police responding to a noise complaint in the 800 block of West 84th Street around 2:15 a.m. on Tuesday found the 61-year-old victim leaning against a vehicle, bleeding from both hands and missing some fingers, officials said. The cops applied tourniquets to both of the victim’s arms to help slow his blood loss.

  They also saw Davis nearby holding a samurai sword, and they watched as he threw the weapon, Davis’ arrest report said. He was immediately detained.

We fully expect the legislature to begin a Sword Owner Identification process. Not to mention a registry for Assault Swords such as this felon got hold of.

Conehead "Frustrated"

And not just by the waiting period at the hospital for his panic attacks:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday he is “frustrated” that the city of Chicago spent approximately $524 million on employee overtime in 2023 — 19% more than in 2022, with more than half of the total amount used to compensate Chicago Police Department officers for working extra hours.

  “Yes, I’m frustrated, yes,” Johnson said in response to a WTTW News story that was the first to report that the Chicago Police Department spent $293 million on overtime last year, 40% more than in 2022 and nearly three times the $100 million earmarked for police overtime set by the Chicago City Council as part of the city’s 2023 budget.

  “This has been a situation that has gotten increasingly out of control,” Johnson said at an unrelated news conference. “The superintendent and I, we both agree on that.”

And why is it out of control? C'mon, you and Larritorious are both adults, you may have passed elementary school at some point, maybe even high school. And you existed in the school system for a short while, correct?

• Overtime covers shortages.

• Shortages are caused by lack of hiring.

• Lack of hiring was (is) caused by defunding, demoralizing and denigrating an entire profession to the point no one wants to do it.

And who spent the better part of three years doing that? 

Maybe, Just Maybe....

He was guilty the first time around? 

A leopard doesn't change his spots:

• A man who spent 22 years in prison after he was allegedly framed by a notorious Chicago Police Department detective is in line for a $5.5 million payout, even as he faces charges for a home invasion and kidnapping he's accused of committing a year after his release.

  The City Council’s Finance Committee is scheduled to meet Monday, when it will consider a proposed payment to settle a lawsuit by Ricardo Rodriguez, who claims former CPD detective Reynaldo Guevara and other CPD investigators bullied witnesses into identifying him as the shooter in a 1995 Belmont Cragin shooting. Dozens of men have won release from prison based on similar allegations against Guevara, who retired from CPD in 2005.

  [...] But Rodriguez’s petition for a certificate of innocence was denied by a Cook County judge in 2019, a decision upheld by an appeals court in 2021. The certificate would have represented formal recognition from a court that Rodriguez was innocent in the murder, and entitle him to around $200,000 from a state fund for the wrongfully convicted.

  Prosecutors now allege that in August 2019, a little over a year after his release, Rodriguez, his younger sister and two accomplices went to a house in the 2200 block of North Leamington early in the morning wearing masks, police badges and bulletproof vests, according to court records.

Hmmm. Denied a "certificate of innocence," which is just a license for slimebag attorneys to extort money from taxpayers, and then caught up in a kidnapping gig. He claims he's being framed...again.

ISP on High Alert

All of the sudden, the Illinois governor WANTS border security?

What changed?

• After hearing about the size of the average American, Haitian cannibal gangs rushed the southern border near El Paso this week in a race to be first in line for the smorgasbord.

  "Hey man, look at dat," Haitian cannibal and political leader Barbecue said. "Those are some chunky, chubby, rolly polly people coming at me. Hang on, let me grab my bib and steak knives. It's lunchtime!"

  After reports surfaced of Haitian gang members cannibalizing their victims, coup leader Barbecue announced he would be taking his men across the U.S. border to find a more plentiful source of food. With a nearly 30 percent overall obesity rate among adults, experts believe the U.S. is poised to be a prime destination for those wishing to dine on human flesh.

Texas Governor Abbott has promised to bus any and all Haitians to Illinois for some of that "corn fed governor."

Florida Governor DeSantis reported police in his state stopped a boatload of Haitians carrying drugs, guns, night vision goggles and about thirty cases of barbecue sauces:

• A vessel from Haiti was intercepted two weeks ago with 25 refugees aboard, DeSantis said during a news conference in Winter Haven on Friday.

DeSantis supposedly shipped their boat north along with a detailed map of Chicago harbors and beaches.