Series of Failures

This really REALLY needs to become a political issue this fall:

• When accused cop killer Alphonso Talley vanished from Cook County’s electronic monitoring system for more than 17 hours last month, then disappeared entirely after letting his ankle bracelet battery run dead, a series of safeguards were supposed to kick in.

  A judge was supposed to be notified within 24 hours. A warrant, once issued, was supposed to be fast-tracked for service. A seven-time convicted felon already on pretrial release for armed carjacking and armed robbery was on the loose, and authorities were supposed to round him up.
  
  That didn’t happen.

  Those safeguards were the centerpiece of a high-profile push by Chief Judge Charles Beach, who made overhauling the county’s troubled electronic monitoring programs the very first move he announced publicly after taking office on December 1. People had been steaming about electronic monitoring for days since Lawrence Reed allegedly set a woman on fire aboard a Blue Line train in the Loop after repeatedly violating his monitoring terms on a felony battery case.

How's that case going by the way?

If the FOP isn't too busy, they ought to grab a few Board members and have them contact the CWB blog editors and start compiling a list of Electronic Monitoring failures....

• by date
• by charge
• and by judge

....and start hammering the ever loving SHIT out of judges, legislators and Porkulous. In fact, maybe contact the other guy running for governor (Bailey) and his people start drafting campaign commercials or billboards or bus posters. Target minority neighborhoods that are suffering the lion's share of these recidivist criminals. Point out that democrats are not making their neighborhoods safer and are actually endangering their families. A reader suggests getting various Police Chief Associations to endorse a recall/revision/repeal of the entire SAFE-T Act.

Dukakis the crap out of them. 

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.

Mayoral Race Money

Well, we know who's going to be running commercials 24/7 shortly and who isn't garnering any support:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson has just $813,125 in campaign cash on hand — compared to $18.3 million for Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias — just a few months before deciding whether or not to seek a second term.

  The latest fundraising reports filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections show the rookie mayor raised $176,036 and spent $192,675 in the first quarter of 2026, with a so-called “burn rate” that will be difficult to sustain.

  During the same three-month period ending March 31, Giannoulias, who is a potential candidate for mayor, has been a fundraising juggernaut.

Alexi is used to dealing in millions of dollars, seeing as when he was working at Broadway Bank as the senior loan officer, he loaned two organized crime figures upwards of $20 million. And then when the bank went under, it cost taxpayers almost $400 million.

Coincidentally, Conehead's $813K is around 4% of Alexi's $18.3 million - almost matching Conehead's approval rating as decision day approaches for candidates to declare.

Conehead continues to burn bridges with the Machine, dissing a predecessor:

• As former Mayor Rahm Emanuel revs up for a 2028 presidential bid, Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday described Emanuel’s eight years as mayor as “disqualifying.” Johnson did not identify Emanuel by name when he talked about the one Democrat in the crowded field of possible presidential contenders whom he would like to, as he put it, “x-out.”

  But there was no doubt about whose potential presidential campaign Johnson was attacking, even before Emanuel has formally announced. “I have very deep concerns about the former mayor of the city of Chicago. What he did in Chicago — from school closures to privatization to austere budgets,” Johnson said during his monthly appearance on WBEZ-FM’s “Ask the Mayor” program before a live audience.

And throwing in with the CTU's efforts to completely burn all credibility (paywalled article):

• Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday that “May 1 is happening,” signaling his support for the nationwide day of protest as the Chicago Teachers Union continues to urge the school district to cancel classes so that students and staff can participate.

  “We have an opportunity in this moment to push the narrative, not just at the federal level, but for Chicago and the state of Illinois to show up on behalf of working people,” said Johnson, a former CTU organizer and close ally of the union.

Commies gotta commie - because they certainly can't teach worth a shit.

More Stupid

Coddling criminals yet again:

• A Chicago alderman has introduced legislation that would prevent the Department of Streets and Sanitation and private towing companies from collecting fees if the tow was made necessary by federal immigration enforcement actions.

  Chicago Flips Red Vice President Danielle Carter-Walters said in a social media post that the proposal by Alderman Andre Vasquez would require taxpayers to cover the towing costs for vehicles owned by people who are in the country illegally.

We didn't vote for a "sanctuary city."

We didn't vote to give licenses to all manner of unqualified motor vehicle operators. 

We didn't vote to give hundreds of millions of dollars to ILLEGAL ALIENS.

But here's an alderasshole who is going to require that we give more money to people who shouldn't even be here. 

Sound, but not THAT Sound

Didn't Chicago used to have a sound ordinance? We recall many a day and afternoon spent at 11th and State in the Hearing Rooms on the first floor, attending court calls at 0900, 1030, 1300 and 1430 before heading off to work at 1600. This was only a matter of time:

• You already know about speed cameras. Red light cameras. Toll cameras that photograph your plate and bill you later. Now meet their cousin. Noise cameras are the newest automated enforcement technology spreading through American cities. A pole-mounted device contains sensitive microphones paired with a license plate camera.

  Your car drives past. If your exhaust tips over the legal decibel limit, a ticket arrives in your mailbox days later. No warning. No officer pulling you over. No flashing lights in your rearview mirror. Just a microphone that never blinks, never takes a break and never misses a shift.

  New York City has been running these since 2021. The cameras have issued more than 1,600 violations and collected nearly $2 million in fines. Get caught once, and you're looking at $800. Get caught repeatedly, and the fine climbs to $2,500.

Where else is this being tested?

• California has six cities running a five-year pilot program with fines up to $1,105. Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Sacramento and Washington, D.C., are all deploying or testing. Colorado, New Jersey and Hawaii have introduced similar legislation. This is not a local story anymore. It's a national one moving fast, and most drivers have absolutely no idea it's coming for them.

As a reasonably mature, educated and responsible citizen, we maintain our vehicles so that they don't disturb the public. As an old fart, we gave up even thinking about motorcycles a long time ago. 

We can't say we're against this, but we know exactly who is going to be in the wrong 99-times-out-of-100 and we know exactly how it's going to play out.

Conehead Hates Police?

For a guy who hates law enforcement, he sure has a lot of cops watching his ass:

• Manny Whitfield has served in a Chicago city government role for seven years, and said he expected to be on track to one day become the next deputy mayor for public safety. 

  But those plans came to a crashing halt last Thursday when Whitfield, serving under Mayor Brandon Johnson as director of violence prevention and community safety, was shown the door. 

  [...] Whitfield also said he and Gatewood had to prod the mayor to show up at the hospital for fallen law enforcement members, a part of the job he says is crucial for the mayor to do. Whitfield said he fears there is a culture of hostility toward law enforcement among the mayor and his senior leaders.

Given that Conehead's policies of embracing ILLEGAL ALIENS that commit crimes, murder firefighters and shoot college students, it's surprising someone would finally say this out loud....and that anyone would actually report it.

To be honest, we wouldn't want him there anyway.

But it seems like the Machine might be gearing up to launch Conehead. 

(FYI - there are still a bunch of people posting that all 150 of Conehead's security people are making E-3 pay. The only people making E-3 are the twenty-plus body people evenly divided into two squads. All of the other officers watching the residence are making regular patrolman salaries. The sergeants are the ones making commander pay. That's the way it was before and as far as we know, continues.)

Conehead Prioritizes Criminals

From a comment, this article:

• More than 100 people gathered in Sheridan’s gymnasium, about 70 miles southwest of Chicago. Students of the Northwestern Prison Education Program, which offers undergraduate degrees to men incarcerated at Sheridan, their families and professors had the opportunity to speak with the mayor. 

  In 2023, their initial graduating class became the first group of incarcerated students to earn a bachelor’s degree from a top university. Northwestern also offers a bachelor’s degree program at the largest women’s prison in the state, Logan Correctional Center.

  “I’m here to learn and ensure that my responsibility as a leader of the city in Chicago, that you all know that you will always be front and center in all of the decisions that I make,” Johnson said to the crowd.

And our commentator points out exactly what these criminals are in prison for:

• Who's at the forefront of his mind you say?
  
  Anthony Ehlers - Currently spending life in prison for murder and armed robbery
  Nikolas Gacho - 35 years for attempt murder
  Giovanni Rios - 23 years for murder
  Hugo Ocon - 45 years for murder
  Darvin Henderson - 45 years for murder
  Taki Peacock - 80 years for murder and kidnapping
  Ian Valencia - 26 years for attempt murder
  Demetrius Cunningham - 80 years for murder
  Anthony Harris - 15 years for robbery (with a prior agg CSA/weapon conviction)
  William Peeples - Life for murder
  
  WTTW's cute little article omitted what these guys were charged with, go figure.

We did see the article noted the last name was serving time for murder, but it seemed like the article glossed over the rest of them.

But if Conehead isn't sucking ILLEGAL ALIEN ass, he's sucking up to murderers instead of law abiding citizens. 

Another Conehead Corpse

They bodies keep stacking up:

• A 29-year-old woman was found shot to death in a West Side alley Friday morning, becoming at least the 79th shooting victim who might have received faster police and EMS response had Mayor Brandon Johnson not disconnected Chicago’s gunshot detection network 18 months ago.

  The woman was found dead behind the 200 block of North Kilbourn around 6:30 a.m. The person who discovered her told police they believed they had heard gunfire approximately 30 minutes earlier, but they never called 911.

  In fact, one called.

  “We had no calls of shots fired anywhere in the area,” a police dispatcher confirmed over the radio. “I checked back to 4 a.m., and we had nothing.”

  “Another one for ShotSpotter,” an officer remarked.

The fact that no one in the neighborhood ever seems to call in "shots fired" is something that the media will never mention. Ever.

Except CWB. 

Another Conehead Win!

Another plywood-sapling sprouting on Michigan Avenue:

• The iconic Saks Fifth Avenue store on Chicago's Magnificent Mile is one of several locations across the U.S. now set to shutter, the company said in an announcement of a second round of closures on Friday.

  Saks Global announced the closure of the Saks Fifth Avenue store on Michigan Avenue as part of a "planned optimization across its store portfolio" that also includes shuttering 19 other Saks Fifth Avenue stores and 4 Neiman Marcus stores across the country.

Sounds like Saks is getting ready to go out of business in a few years, so maybe not entirely Conehead's fault - but the buck stops with the guy in the big chair when shit gets real. Maybe FAta$$ can get partial credit for the business-unfriendly atmosphere.

Good Read

Has the CTU finally become politically toxic? 

Prickwrinkle is acting like it:

• Illinois primary season is in full swing, with Election Day just a month away.

  The political shakeup is unprecedented in the Chicago area.

  Five open congressional seats, plus an open seat for U.S. Senate, several open seats in the state House and Senate, and a competitive race for Cook County board president.

  All will largely be decided by the March 17 Democratic primary.

  And the latter saw one of the most interesting developments of any race last week, with news of an auspicious endorsement. Or lack thereof.

  The Chicago Tribune’s Alice Yin reported that Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle did not seek an endorsement from the Chicago Teachers Union.

An interesting development to be sure.

Reporter Austin Berg outlines exactly how the CTU has become mired in controversy and scandal with links and charts outlining most if not all of it.

Give it a read. 

Still Losing Business

Cionehead has to be under orders to bankrupt the city:

• Office space vacancies have soared to 28.2 percent in Chicago, which is higher than the vacancy rate from before the pandemic. The latest contraction marks the 14th straight quarter of rising vacancies, according to The Center Square.

  Wirepoints Executive Editor Mark Glennon says that the "anti-business attitude" in Brandon Johnson's City Hall is strangling the business sector and costing the city thousands of jobs.

  "You never see any effort to make life easier for employers here. The state of Illinois is like one big oppressive intermeddling HR department with countless rules and regulations that strangle people," Glennon told Center Square.

  ‍Glennon added the continued cratering of Chicago's businesses means trouble for the city itself. Fewer businesses mean fewer jobs and subsequently fewer taxes returned to the city, too. Worse, it is the city's homeowners that will hurt the most in the long run.

And this is directly responsible for the property taxes on the west and south sides finally catching up with the rest of Chicago.

Rehashing previous reports, the list of companies leaving is impressive, just in terms of market capital leaving town:

• ....Beam Suntory, Boeing, Caterpillar, Citadel, Guggenheim Partners, PEAK6 Investments, Schumacher Electric Corp., SC Johnson, TTX Company, Tyson Foods, United Airlines, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and many others.

And this number just beggars the imagination:

• Chicago's famed Magnificent Mile was hardest hit, too, going from 1,600 registered businesses to only 784 in 2024 -- that's a 51 percent drop.

Most of those are retail establishments, but there are attached support businesses as well (supply, restaurants, etc).

Go read it all. 

Then think about that pension buyout option they're talking about in Springfield. 

Deadbeat Groot

Anyone actually surprised that someone who was a disaster of a mayor is a disaster throughout life?

• [paywalled Tribune article] Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot was sued late last year for unpaid credit card debt, records show.

  Lightfoot was served in October at her Chicago home with a lawsuit from JPMorgan Chase Bank for allegedly failing to pay about $11,078 in bills, according to a copy of the complaint filed in Cook County Circuit Court.

  The suit says that Lightfoot did not object to the bank’s last statement issued before it declared her debt a charge-off in March. Her last payment on the card was in August 2025, amounting to $5,000, and her next court hearing in the case is in December, according to the complaint.

  Through a spokesperson, Lightfoot declined comment on Monday.

Funny how this happened in October, but it didn't hit the media until yesterday. Almost like they're covering for Groot in case she decided to run again. She shouldn't be hurting for cash:

• [Groot has been] serving as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy as well as teaching at Harvard University and the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

• She reported taking out $210,000 in early distributions from retirement accounts that year to supplement her mayoral salary.

  While working as a partner at law firm Mayer Brown before becoming mayor, Lightfoot reported an average adjusted gross income of $971,626 from 2014 through 2017.

And speaking of loser mayors, anyone want to call in to this disaster?

• Mayor Brandon Johnson returns to WBEZ 91.5 on Tuesday to answer listener questions live on the morning talk show “In the Loop” with host Sasha-Ann Simons. Listeners can call in at 866-915-WBEZ to present their concerns directly starting at 9 a.m.

A couple ideas for questions:

• have you paid that water bill yet or is does the position of mayor absolve you of pending debt....like Groot?
• is your actual residence in Lombard as rumor has it and not the 015 District pretend address?
• who does your hair?

Additional suggestions in the comments. 

Find the Snitches?

We're sorry (not), but don't these pricks work for us?

• The Chicago Board of Education has launched two investigations into how internal information got into the hands of the media.

  It is looking at whether a member is responsible for revealing the names of superintendent finalists to the media and how a reporter recently got an internal update that included information about plans to hold a special meeting to raise property taxes.

  The board president is so incensed by the recent leak that he is threatening to ask the guilty party to resign.

  This appears to be the first time in recent memory that the Board of Education has investigated a breach. Across the country, such investigations at the school board level are unusual, said Jeffrey Henig, professor emeritus at Columbia University’s Teachers College, who has studied the politics of school boards. More often, school boards are accused of acting in unison and doing too much business behind closed doors, he said.

There should be cameras in the schools so parents can monitor what their children are being taught, body cams on teachers to catch the constant child molesting going on, and cameras at every meeting held by the Board of Ed, especially when they're meeting in secret to raise taxes (again and always) while completely failing to do their jobs - namely EDUCATE children.

Conehead the Moron....Again

So, since the threat of "curfew enforcement" on New Years Eve worked (and that no one showed up to the party) there's now no need for any curfew enforcement ever again!

• Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday that Chicago’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve celebration hosted by Chance the Rapper, which came off without a hitch, proves there is no need for a revised curfew crackdown.

  On the eve of a showdown vote by a City Council committee, Johnson declared his opposition to Public Safety Chair Brian Hopkins’ latest attempt to give police officers additional tools to combat teen takeovers.

  “New Year’s Eve was a testament that we did not need an additional tool in order to ensure that our young people were where they need to be, and that our parents and adults who are part of these young peoples’ lives — that they are also held accountable for their whereabouts,” said Johnson, who vetoed the snap curfew ordinance that Hopkins muscled through the City Council after a violent teen takeover last year.

So instead of just leaving it unmentioned as a tool that could be rolled out at a later date (because crime has never been cyclical in nature or driven by current events) Conehead just decides it isn't needed.

Aldercreature Hopkins calls out the hypocrisy and shortsightedness of Conehead, but you just know morons gotta moron.

Split that Vote Even More!

Another one of the regular Machine hacks lining up to split the voter base again:

• U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley said during a radio interview on Tuesday that he will run for mayor of Chicago in 2027. The Democratic congressman who represents parts of Chicago's North Side made his intentions known on WGN Radio.

  Quigley is already running for re-election to his seat representing Illinois’ 5th Congressional District in this year’s midterm election. He’s also amassed more than $150,000 in his campaign war chest.

  "Are you going to run for mayor of Chicago?" the host, John Williams, asked.

  "I am, but we'll have a formal announcement and talk about that after the March primary," Quigley said. "Look, I've filed again for reelection. I've got another year to serve. The primary for mayor is in February of 2027. Look, what I'm trying to do is show proper respect for the March 17 primary next year. That's really important. So I don't want the voters to get too far ahead of ourselves. I want to focus on the issues of the day."

In other words, he wants to make sure he has a fall-back position in case the mayor thing doesn't work out, so he'll run for the safe DC spot before committing to a local run.

So far, this is what the mayoral race looks like:

• Joe Holberg, a venture capitalist
• Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas
• Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza
• Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias

Conehead has yet to announce if his 6% will be running and we'll bet Willie Wilson will be buying tanks of gas for voters in the run-up to 2027.

CTU Commies

Remember these idiots back in 2019?

• The recent trip to Venezuela by a group calling itself a Chicago Teachers Union delegation has upset some union members and expats who question the point of the tour and take issue with the group’s praise of the country’s disputed government.

  The four travelers, who crowdfunded the July trip under the banner of the CTU, met with Venezuelan government officials and educators, visited a commune and were featured in local media.

  They wrote online about wanting to connect with Venezuelan teachers, students and unionists, criticized U.S. economic sanctions against the South American nation and wrote admiringly of its socialism, its communes and high literacy rates.

  But critics say the group glossed over Venezuela’s ongoing political and economic crises and were excessively complimentary of President Nicolás Maduro, whose administration has been accused in recent United Nations reports of “grave” human rights violations and violence against dissenters.

They're still at it in 2026:

• The Chicago Teachers Union on Saturday promoted a protest of the Trump administration's action in Venezuela hosted by a who's who of far-left organizations, including a group that openly supports socialism.

  Activists from the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition, along with activists from the Party for Socialism and Liberation, organized just hours after news that Venezuela's socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro had been captured by U.S. special forces in a daring mission during the dead of night. By Saturday afternoon, protesters in cities across the nation came together with signs and promotional material made specially for the occasion.

Test scores are going what direction again? Attendance numbers are headed where? But gotta support their commie brethren.

Anyone remember this?

 

One of many police Districts where over one hundred ILLEGAL ALIENS camped out for months on end with the infestations of bedbugs, lice, unsanitary conditions and all manner of transmissible sicknesses - and overwhelmingly Venezuelan in certain Districts.

And this is what the CTU supported....and continues to support. 

Curfew Are Racist!

Until there's a national event in town, then they're necessary and good as CWB reports:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson has spent much of his term in office arguing that curfews for teenagers are ineffective, outdated, and rooted in what he has called “the sins and the values of the past,” even as large youth gatherings downtown have repeatedly devolved into violence, including murders.

  Now, with a nationally televised New Year’s Eve celebration set to unfold along the Chicago River, Johnson is striking a sharply different tone, warning teenagers that the city will strictly enforce its long-established 10 p.m. curfew downtown tonight.

  The pivot, and that is the most charitable word available, is difficult to miss. Johnson has consistently opposed expanding or strengthening curfews when teenagers have shot each other, violently robbed out-of-towners, and even shot tourists in the Loop and Streeterville. But with ABC broadcasting a midnight countdown in the heart of downtown tonight, the mayor is suddenly emphasizing the importance of the city’s 10 p.m. curfew, which has been in place since 1992.

Conehead is a typical commie hypocrite embracing disorder and law breaking as long as it advances the leftist agenda. But when it might embarrass him on the national stage, then it's days off cancelled, twelve hour days and curfew citations for everyone!

Election Season Approaching

Remember, don't elect this moron:

• Politics is filled with shallow and intellectually obtuse people, and Chicago pols are no exception. All things being equal, Chicago politicians are probably worse than average.

  One of them, Illinois’ Secretary of State Alex Giannoulias, regularly posts images and videos of himself on social media lifting weights, presumably to distract voters from his cerebral shortcomings and his checkered history as a public official.

Aside from the Broadway Bank fiasco that saddled taxpayers with many hundreds of millions in bailout money (while leaving the Giannoulias bank accounts looking awfully healthy) and his awkward associations to Sparklefart fixer Tony Rezko, there was the Illinois Bright Start college fund that lost over $150 million while under Giannoulias' rein as State Treasurer.

Any single one of these things should have disqualified him from political office and kept him ten-to-twenty years away from public funds, but he's still around, playing coy about running for Conehead's job.

Go over to the Contrarian link and read it all. 

$8 Billion (with a B)

So the budget will pass without Conehead's signature, preventing a shutdown and proving Conehead to be a ball-less CTU tool:

• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says he will not veto a 2026 budget that he has called “morally bankrupt,” instead allowing it to go into effect and staving off political gridlock and the risk of an unprecedented government shutdown.

But then he starts up with so-called "executive orders" that don't seem to have been passed by any legislative body and we can't recall being codified into law:

• Those executive orders prohibit the city from selling medical debt to third parties and create more oversight on police overtime spending.

  “I don’t want to give a signal to the people of Chicago that I support what I believe is one of the most detrimental and immoral aspects of this budget,” Johnson said, explaining why he will allow the budget to take effect without proactively signing it. He was referring to a part of the budget that will rake in about $90 million in increased debt collection.

$90 million sounds like a bunch, but Conehead's own economic team claims the budget shortfalls will be in the neighborhood of $160 million (slightly less than what Conehead spent on ILLEGAL ALIENS by the way). 

The amount of outstanding debt due to the city (meaning taxpayers) is over $8 billion, meaning the $90 million to be collected (maybe) is just over 1% of the $8 billion owed. If Chicago collected even 10% of the debt owed, it would cover shortfalls for years, negating tax hikes and fee increases. (the Tribune has a paywalled editorial at this link)

This is what Conehead calls "immoral," that everyone else has to cover the cost of these freeloaders. 

Another "Brandon Body"

Or Conehead Corpse:

• A man was found shot to death early Tuesday in a South Side area that was previously monitored by ShotSpotter, even though no gunfire alerts were recorded near the scene around the time investigators believe the killing occurred.

  The homicide happened in the 1600 block of East 95th Street. A private security guard discovered the man unresponsive at about 6:21 a.m. on December 23, 2025, and called 911, according to preliminary police information.

Wait....is ShotSpotter still active in the background? Why would there be an "alert" that wasn't a 9-1-1 call?