Shortshanks Ailing

Although nominally better than what followed after, the primary driver of Chicago's decline is getting up there in years:

• Former Mayor Richard M. Daley, the longest-serving mayor in Chicago history, was hospitalized earlier this month after suffering what his brother described Tuesday as a third stroke.

  Bill Daley said his older brother, who turns 84 on Friday, is “fine now.” He returned home after a few days in the hospital and is now undergoing rehab.

  The younger Daley described the former mayor’s episode as a full-blown stroke, but a comparatively minor one compared to the serious stroke that Daley suffered in 2014.

That was the stroke that put an end to a lot of talk of subpoenaing the former mayor as to all sorts of shady City Hall dealings, escaping the discovery (and consequences) of numerous bad decisions forced through the political process....consequences that have been visited on his compatriots as of late.