Mel Makes Porn

Hilarious!

• Less than a year after disgraced former Rep. Mel Reynolds ran a failed bid for Congress under the slogan of “redemption,” the convicted sex offender is again facing allegations of sexual misconduct, this time in Zimbabwe, according to immigration officials and state media reports.
  
  The state-owned newspaper The Herald reported that Reynolds was found with pornography when he was arrested in the southern African country on Monday. Possession of pornography is illegal in Zimbabwe.
  
  There was no official confirmation of the pornography allegations. Francis Mabika, an assistant regional immigration officer, said Reynolds had been picked up for living in Zimbabwe without a valid visa.

The Tribune appears to have purged the following from its article, but a quick internet search reveals the rest of the story:

• The Herald said Reynolds was accused of making pornographic videos and photographs of models and other women he brought to his room. At least one staff member from the paper arrived at the scene as he was being led away.

"Yeah baby, I'm a photographer. You may have seen my work in magazines? Playboy, stuff like that? Why yes, I do have a camera and my hotel is right around the corner. I'll make you a star!"

Good job Mel. You might as well stay there after your sentence.

A Fair Point

Racial politics, alive and well in Chicago:

• SCC, this is off topic but needs to be brought to light.
  
  Maria Pena from 010 was slated to become the new Commander of 011 but the local reverends of 011 blew a [gasket] and are demanding a black Commander.
  
  How is this not blatantly racist. How can no one see the racism here. Simply put if the residents of 016 demanded a white Commander as well as the local priests it would be world wide news and the local black fake reverends would be demanding action.. To add fuel to the fire, the city has backed down and are now on the hunt for a "suitable" black Commander. So the reverends are openly racist and are rewarded and NO ONE IS ACCOUNTABLE.
  
  When will the world wake up.. Safe to demand a black president and those comments are common place..Demand a white president and you're a racist..

Even McJersey will never be able to overcome this sort of political thinking in Chicago.

CAPS is Good For Something

Bang! Oops:

• A supervisor accidentally fired his gun in the Central District police station in the South Loop, hitting a water pipe and causing it to leak for two hours while police waited on city engineers.
  
  The discharge happened about 9:40 p.m., according to police. After the gun went off, police noticed a trickle of water coming from the first-floor ceiling before it turned into a gushing stream.
  
  The ensuing downpour ruined computers and desks. A damage estimate wasn't immediately available.
  
  Police said the sergeant whose weapon discharged will likely face discipline within the department. No one was injured. The accident happened in the district's Chicago Alternative Policing, or CAPS, office.
  
  Police used CAPS literature to try and soak up water.

Hit a water pipe, ruin a few thousand dollars worth of equipment, get a few days off.

But let just one person kill a pencil sharpener in the Mass Transit office....

Is the Bro-Mance Over?

From the comments after the 72-year-old jacket murderer was arrested:

• This one made Leo blow a gasket. A cheap homicide in a nursing home got his ass chewed out from gmac. I gotta agree with Leo on this one unless gmac has a plan to stop the random nursing home killings... Gmac threw a fit saying it should have been prevented. He demanded to Leo that an admin sgt in 007 pull the GPS to see where the beat and mission cars were.. Wtf does that matter if it happened inside and nobody called 911 until he was already stabbed.. Gmac has lost it

Evidently, someone rented "Minority Report." McJersey thought it was a documentary about his appearance at St. Sabina, but then believed it to be a CIA sponsored exposé about future crimes and he couldn't believe that Leo hasn't started using this as a training film.

In any event, we hear that the Bro-mance is on the way out as Leo supposedly has another job lined up with some former exempt(s) and is abandoning Chicago in short order.

Possible Identify Theft

From the comments:

• OT- 015th district officers were called to a domestic on Quincy St, once they arrived the offender fled.
  
  The reason the girlfriend called was she saw him on his laptop with a roster of 015th district police officers names, address and social security numbers. The information was still up on the computer when the officers arrived. The roster contained the names of about 100 officers and was dated from 1999.
  
  How he came about getting the information is unknown but there are some ideas. Such as the old station on Chicago Ave. still contained file cabinets with official police documents inside them before being torn down. There were always people going inside and stealing copper and whatever they could get their hands on.
  
  The offender has two names that he goes by Tramble, Tom and Hinton, Quinton along with two IR #'s. He is from Alabama but has been arrested in Chicago. SCC feel free to edit this post if you feel the need to. Report is under HX153727.

Someone also related that a former 015 District officer had an account(s) opened in his name in Alabama or Mississippi for a mortgage fraud scheme. No idea if this could be related to it, but anyone working in 015 around that time frame ought to check their credit histories and maybe keep an eye out for unusual activity.

Zero?

Well, sort of zero:

• The official Chicago police tally of shootings last weekend was a rare number: zero.
  
  The streak started after a 41-year-old man was shot at 8:20 p.m. Friday in the Austin community and was still going as of midday Monday, according to a police spokesman.
  
  That streak nearly came to an end late Sunday when a crime victim pulled out a gun while trying to defend himself during an attempted robbery on the West Side, but he ended up wounding himself in the foot, authorities said. Police typically don't count self-inflicted gunshot victims as part of their official shooting tally.

Well, at least not since it might endanger a goose-egg on the board.

And don't you dare suggest that the fifth (and climbing the charts!) snowiest winter on record had anything to do with it. This is G-Mac's moment to shine!

Coppers Hurt in Accident

West side drunk:

• Two officers responding to a call were injured late Sunday night after a car blew the stop signal and crashed into their squad car in the city's East Garfield Park neighborhood.
  
  Shortly before midnight, the officers were responding to a call of shots fired and were near the 0 to 99 block of North Kedzie Avenue, said Police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro.
  
  A sedan ran the red light and crashed into the squad car. The driver attempted to flee the scene on foot, but was taken into custody, said Alfaro.
  
  The officers were taken to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries, he said.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery Officers.

On a side note, the car situation just got worse.

CPD Resource Fair

From the Chaplains:

• CPD Resource Fair this Thursday, 20 FEB, 6:00 - 11:00 p.m. at FOP Hall.
  
  Free admission; free food and drinks; raffles; give-away items; door prizes.
  
  Come learn about the many resources available to Department members.
  
  Hosted by the CPD Survivors.

If you need help, these are the folks to point you in the right direction.

Another Large Bond

Great job to all involved who kept up the pressure leading to these arrests:

• The second teenager charged in the attempted robbery of an off-duty sheriff’s sergeant that ended in the fatal shooting of one of the robbers has been ordered held on $2 million bail.
  
  Emannuel Jackson, 15, is charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery. Accompanied by his parents, the teen turned himself in at Area South headquarters at 11 p.m. Friday, according to a police report.
  
  A second suspect, 17-year-old Devante Graham, surrendered to police on Feb. 12 and is also charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery. Bail for Graham was set at $1 million.

And you'll never guess what these altar boys have been up to for the last 6 years:

• Authorities said Mackey had 16 arrests on a rap sheet that went back to April 2008 when he was 10 years old.
  
  His most recent arrest was last month after Chicago police say he robbed a woman of her cell phone on December 16, not far from the Citgo station, authorities said. That was his only robbery arrest.
  
  Graham also has a long juvenile record of arrests for aggravated battery and criminal damage, prosecutors said.

But they were just going to turn it all around after this robbery.

Don't F@#$ With my Jacket!

Old School

• A 72-year-old man was ordered held on $500,000 bond Sunday, charged with stabbing his friend to death over a jacket at the retirement home where they both lived.
  
  Roosevelt Shaffer, 72, is charged with one count of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Raymond Robinson, 69, at the Bethel Terrace Senior Living facility, according to police and prosecutors.
  
  Robinson was stabbed in his chest about 10 a.m. Friday and taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died about an hour later, authorities said.
  
  The men, who were friends, lived at the facility at 900 W. 63rd St., prosecutors said.
  
  Shaffer allegedly stabbed Robinson in with a boning knife after they argued about a jacket in the hallway outside Robinson’s room, according to court records.

Word is that after the stabbing, he led responding officers on a merry chase, speeding away in his antique Cadi, crashing into a garage, over three fences, two rooftops and was eventually located in a nearby garage. No one is admitting to this however since we just made it all up, but it sounds more exciting this way.

Stop Already

More snow:

• Forecasters are predicting another winter wallop to the Chicago area, with up to 6 inches of snow expected to fall on Monday.
  
  A winter weather advisory for snow across all of northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana is slated to last from 6 a.m. through 6 p.m. in a slippery start to the week, according to the National Weather Service.

We are posting a bounty for the head of the groundhog causing the extended winter.

Car Situation.....Again

Winter takes its toll, and so does the complete lack of effort into maintaining equipment.

VRI is doubling up cars. The Area garages have no pool rides. Districts are downing cars in order to add a third (and sometimes a fourth body) to the cars going out.

The substandard equipment being bought is one reason - we've never seen so many SUV's down for blower motor failure. The non-existent maintenance is another - cars down for a month at a time for a "part" to come in.

It's been bad before, but we're reaching "takes-the-cake" proportions lately.

Avoiding Prison

Avoiding "sex offender" status, too:

• Nearly three years after they were charged with sexually assaulting a woman while on duty, two former Chicago Police officers have pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of official misconduct and each been sentenced to two years of probation.
  
  Paul Clavijo and Juan Vasquez, each 41, were charged with criminal sexual assault and official misconduct after a 22-year-old woman said they assaulted her in March 2011.
  
  Clavijo resigned that year and Vasquez the following year, according to a Chicago Police Department spokesman.
  
  Court records show both men pleaded guilty Jan. 22 to official misconduct involving battery, which is a felony. They did not admit to any sexual offense and got no jail time.

Anita and her people had no comment, so we can't imagine the case was much good in the first place. But really? The story was just too these two told was just too fucked up from the word "go."

The poster boys for on-the-job-bad-judgement-and-idiocy. Count your lucky stars.

Info for Retirees

We hadn't heard of this, but it popped up so often in the comments, we figured a bunch of other people hadn't either:

• My 1099 and others who had retired went to the unit of our last assignment. The office staff is so busy that they did not have time to call any of the retired people or to have the forms forwarded to them. I would not even have known about it if some of the people that I used to work with had not called me to let me know that they had seen a form with my name on it in the pile with the rest of the forms. 

Hopefully, you had a front office who looked out for guys and gals who retired early last year and may have fallen off the radars. Especially those who may have left town for warmer climes, or just places away from here.

Station Defibrillators

We see these things at the airport as we jet off to Vegas. And on the planes.

We see em downtown in nearly every building we wander into.

A quick google search reveals they cost anywhere from a grand to a few thousand.

So why wouldn't there be a couple in every single police station? People come in off the street and ask for ambulances. People in the lockups and under high stress, fall out occasionally. Coppers, like an unfortunate detective earlier this month, suffer medical emergencies at all hours and may benefit from having this device nearby.

Isn't this something that the City ought to have around? And if the City won't pay for it, many wouldn't object to the FOP and PBPA getting together and fronting the bill for a few to be kept in the stations out of the public areas - if the City wants them for the public, pay for them. If the bargaining units pay, they're for coppers.

Something to think about.

FOP Election

First - have you voted?

Second, we've gotten e-mails from two sergeants who were promoted in recent years. None of these sergeants maintained their membership in the Lodge, declining to send in dues for a "fraternal" membership.

Each related that they received ballots in the mail though. Is someone not updating the membership list and sending out dozens, maybe hundreds of extra ballots?

Those types of numbers could screw up an election easily.

Vanecko Jail Time

He'll be home before Easter:

• A nephew of former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley today began serving his 60 day sentence after pleading guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter, officials said.
  
  Richard Vanecko, 39, turned himself into McHenry County officials where he began serving his sentence at the McHenry County Jail, according to McHenry County Sheriff's officials.
  
  A spokeswoman could not say if Vanecko would be in protected custody.

Meanwhile, the BGA wants the feds to investigate the investigation:

• The BGA supported the appointment of a special prosecutor in the Koschman/Vanecko case, and filed an amicus brief on the matter back in 2012.
  
  We now support continued scrutiny – this time, by your office – to determine whether federal crimes were committed by police, prosecutors or other government figures in regards to the Koschman/Vanecko case.
  
  In many ways, we regarded Mr. Webb's report not as the end of the story, but just the beginning.

But they couldn't do any of this while Shortshanks was running the show.

There's the Big Bond

Felony Murder charge approved:

• A Far South Side teenager was ordered held in lieu of $1 million bail Thursday on murder and robbery charges tied to a botched hold up that left his alleged gun-toting accomplice dead.
  
  Devante Graham was charged with his cohort’s death based on the theory of accountability after an off-duty Cook County sheriff’s sergeant killed a teen when he was robbed by the younger men Monday night at a Citgo gas station in the 700 block of East 103rd, authorities said.

His lawyer is protesting the lack of evidence:

• Outside of court, Rotunno said prosecutors are relying mostly on circumstantial evidence against her client.
  
  “All they have is the video we have all seen,” she said.

Um.....ok. Maybe she's hoping George Lucas will show up and insist it's all special effects or something.

Morgue Improvements

New high capacity refrigeration units - just in time for summer:

• The man charged with fixing a broken Cook County medical examiner’s office 18 months ago, declared his agency “risen from the ashes,” as he led a tour of a gleaming new morgue cooler Thursday.
  
  “These are exciting times for the Cook County medical examiner’s office,” said the office chief, Dr. Stephen Cina. “We will continue to look to the future, while we never forget the lessons of the past.”
  
  Some two years after the Chicago Sun-Times first detailed appalling conditions at the morgue on Chicago’s West Side — including bodies stacked on top of each other beneath blue tarps — Cina said his office has received “provisional accreditation” from the National Association of Medical Examiners.
  
  “It’s evidence that key standards and measures are being followed,” said Cina’s boss, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. “Perhaps more importantly, it should give assurance to those whose loved ones pass through the medical examiner’s office that the deceased are treated with dignity, care and respect.”

Everything is just about ready to go - now let's fill that thing!

Nice Going Dart

County taxpayers on the hook once again:

• The Cook County Board next week is expected to approve spending $2.4 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that Sheriff Tom Dart retaliated against deputies who backed his political opponent when he first sought the job eight years ago.
  
  Dart has objected to the settlement, believing he could ultimately win the case, but it was mediated under the auspices of the federal courts, endorsed by the state’s attorney’s office and recommended by the Cook County Litigation Subcommittee, making a rejection by county commissioners highly unlikely.
  
  Lurking behind the machinations of the lawsuit is a complex tale of Chicago politics, alleged jail abuse and public images.

The entire article spends some time pointing out 19th Ward connections, which makes it an entertaining bit of reading anyway. Not entertaining is the millions being paid out because 19th warders can't stop playing politics.

Flint Loses One

Backed the wrong horse this time:

• A Cook County judge today denied a new trial for a convicted murderer who alleged he was beaten into confessing by a detective who had worked under disgraced former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge.
  
  Shawl Whirl looked down as Judge Jorge Alonso ruled this afternoon that Whirl “was not credible” and denied his petition.
  
  Whirl pleaded guilty to the 1990 murder of a taxicab driver. His case had been sent back to the Circuit Court by the Illinois Torture Relief and Inquiry Commission after a hearing on Whirl’s claims that he was slapped and beaten by a Burge underling.
  
  But Alonso noted that Burge had left Area 2 several years earlier and found that certain details in Whirl’s petition – including that the detective had held a potato chip bag over his mouth – hadn’t been raised in his earlier claims.

Burge was gone for years - oops. And he's making it up as he goes along. How the hell did that judge end up on the bench? He actually read the file and made sense of it.

Blood on Their Hands

There's plenty of blame to go around on this one:

• A parolee has been charged in the shooting death of a clerk at a Bensenville store as police search for the gunman in the slaying.
  
  Kenneth Bardlett, 20, of Bellwood accompanied the man who fatally shot Hussein Saghir during an attempted holdup Jan. 19, DuPage County prosecutors said. Bardlett was charged with first-degree murder and ordered held Wednesday on $2.5 million bail. Assistant State’s Attorney Tim Diamond said he could not offer additional details about Bardlett’s arrest because of the search for the other man involved in the shooting.
  
  Saghir, 36, was shot during a confrontation outside Sam’s Tobacco and Food Mart, 235 W. Irving Park Road.

So to start, we have the parole board who granted this asshole freedom to commit more crimes.

But then you have this:

• Bardlett has been arrested several times, the prosecutor said, including on a burglary charge as a juvenile. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections, Bardlett is on parole for a 2011 conviction in Cook County for possession of a weapon by a gang member. He was given a boot camp sentence, according to authorities

Oops. A boot camp sentence.

For a weapon violation. Big Oops.

Some liberal judge, probably the same one that's already admitted to not following sentencing guidelines for weapon convictions, let this jagoff go to boot camp for a "gun + gang" conviction.

Tom Dart's people accepted this inmate whom they almost certainly knew was sentenced improperly.

Some reporters ought to ask if Anita's people raised any objections in court following conviction.

Preckwinkle and Chief Judge Tim Evans ought to be questioned as to what they are doing to re-train judges and suspend those who refuse to follow the laws passed by the legislature.

Someone paid in blood this time - and the blame can be placed squarely on the failed, broken Cook County "justice" system.

Well, This is a Relief

Maybe the start of a trend toward personal responsibility?

• 16-year-old Deonta Dwight Mackey died after he held the off-duty Cook County Sheriff’s sergeant at gunpoint.
  
  [...] “To the correctional officer. I don’t have no hate in my heart, for what he did,” said Tonia Stevens, Mackey’s mother. “He was out doing a criminal act.”
  
  “I’m not one of those parents. I’m not. Everybody knows me. I’m not one of those parents. I promote fairness.”
  
  Tonia Stevens says she doesn’t blame the off duty Cook County Sheriff’s Office sergeant who shot and killed her son, Deonta Dewight Mackey.

Someone must have showed her the video, because there's nothing in there that any bottom-feeding lawyer would be able to make hay over.

In related news, one of fleeing would-be-robbers was located, probably by following the trail of excrement he left behind:

• A suspect was in custody today in the attempted robbery of an off-duty Cook County sheriff’s sergeant, who fatally shot one of the two other robbers during the Monday night holdup, authorities told the Tribune.
  
  The suspect is a 17-year-old boy who, accompanied by a lawyer, turned himself in to Chicago police this afternoon after he saw himself on television when surveillance video footage of the holdup at a Far South Side gas station went viral, according to authorities.
  
  The teen has not been charged in the holdup and police were still looking for the third suspect.

Showing up with his lawyer - that's almost as good as a confession. Hello Felony Murder charges. And maybe a better seat on the bus to prison if he gives up number 3.

CPS Not Following Own Rules

Imagine that - Rahm's handpicked people spinning numbers to make everything look great:

• CPS has spent the last week touting what officials say is a big decrease in suspensions, culminating with a school visit and press conference by Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday, where the mayor declared that curbing suspensions was just the “right thing to do.”
  
  But a confidential document obtained by Catalyst Chicago shows that suspension data from last year is more troubling than something to boast about. Last year, young elementary-age students were suspended far more than in previous years.
  
  Plus, the racial disparity in suspensions of black students compared to whites and Latinos—long a problem in CPS and something that current CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett says she cares personally about—has widened over the past few years.

The people running the Catalyst-Chicago website seem to know what they're doing - stats, studies, and digging into the numbers like investigative journalists used to do. And willing to call out the political bullshit, too.

Former FOP Pres Suing FOP - Denied?

In Chancery Division of Cook County, Docket Number 2014 CH 2400, filed 10 February 2014.

The summary:

• Michael K. Shields
  v.
  Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge No. 7
  2/10/2014 2014 CH 2400
  
  Action for violation of the Illinois Whistleblower Act, breach of contract and declaratory judgment. Defendant - "an organization consisting of approximately 10,500 active Chicago Police Officers and Detectives and 7,000 retired Officers" - unfairly suspended plaintiff and removed him as President of Chicago Lodge No. 7 without due process after he complained to the City of Chicago Inspector General that arbitration between the City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Sergeant's Association "may have been rigged."

We don't have access (and neither does our tipster) to the on-line filing, but maybe someone out there does? We'd still like to see the specious reasoning behind it all.

According to a comment or two earlier yesterday, the motion was heard and denied already because - get this - Shields didn't get his letter in on time to contest the ballot issue! Talk about irony.

Shooting Video

We tried to embed the link, but there seems to be an issue with it, so here's the link:

• Click Here

The off-duty sheriff is one cool customer, confronted by three and distracting them by fumbling for his wallet before drawing and shooting the gunman. This video should forestall any sort of claims of innocence by the family - this was clearly a stick up, the deceased clearly pointed a gun at the sheriff a few times, and the sheriff was clearly acting lawfully within the scope of a life threatening situation.

Very well done Sir.

Killing the Taste Slowly

Honestly, just put a bullet in this thing. It was dying before and the packs of roving "wilding" yutes have made it a less-than-desirable destination for a few years now:

• Former Mayor Richard M. Daley once declared that Taste of Chicago would “always be free.” Under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s premier lakefront festival is getting a little less free every year.
  
  On Tuesday, Emanuel defended his latest plan to ring a profit out of what once was a money-losing Taste — by raising the surcharge on food tickets, doubling to $50 the cost of “premium seats” for concerts at the Petrillo Music Shell and selling 3,000 “general admission lawn seats” that used to be free.
  
  “If you’re going to the concert, you can still see the concerts free. If you want seating, that’s a different thing,” the mayor said.

And of course, Rahm was (and continues) to point out the Taste made money last year:

• Taste of Chicago turned a $272,000 profit in 2013 for the first time in six years — thanks to a recipe that included perfect weather and a popular music lineup. It was a $1.6 million turn-around in just one year.

Sure - an all cash business, no real accounting, hundreds of thousands changing hands over a week or two. We're sure it just happened to start making money in half the number of days after a six year decline. And crime was down in the city if  you don't count that pesky 2012, reclassify burglaries as thefts and call dead bodies "death investigations" and just ignore the rise in arson.

Cook County Officer Shooting

The off-duty is fine, the offender is chilling at the scene:

• An off-duty Cook County Sheriff’s sergeant shot and killed a man who tried to rob him Monday night at a Far South Side gas station, police said.
  
  The shooting happened shortly before 10 p.m. on the 700 block of East 103rd Street in the Pullman neighborhood, officials said.
  
  The sergeant stopped on his way home at a Citgo station on 103^rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue across the street from Gately stadium and was approached by as many as three men, a law enforcement source said, citing preliminary information.
  
  Police News Affairs Officer [...] said the robbers had demanded the sergeant’s wallet. But when the sergeant complied, the armed robber pointed his gun in the sergeant's direction. In response, the sergeant shot the robber in the head, said [News Affairs], citing preliminary information.
  
  That robber's gun was found at the scene and the off-duty sergeant was not hurt. Chicago police are trying to find the other suspects, who fled the scene.

Sounds like they ought to give the sergeant another crack at the rest of them. Nice shooting sir.

More Koschman Fallout

There is now a timeline of the behind-the-scenes actions of the Department and who was calling/texting/e-mailing whom:

• After the Chicago Sun-Times began the investigation that led to former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, Daley’s administration began scrambling to write a police report that falsely concluded Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko was defending himself when he threw the punch that killed David Koschman.
  
  City Hall’s 59-day investigation involved 16 police officials — from top brass to detectives — as well as Daley’s law department and the mayor’s press office, including one of Daley’s closest confidantes, Jacquelyn Heard.
  
  Daley’s press office released the findings only after police officials met with Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s chief of staff, who apparently agreed Vanecko shouldn’t be charged.

So the mayor's people were kept in the loop pretty deeply. Webb says there's no evidence that Shortshanks participated in these exchanges, but when everyone involved was either hired by, worked for, or was promoted at the behest of one guy, one political Machine, well...let's not kid each other. This is still Chicago.

Also, the ASA who "threw away" the files from the case resigned - six weeks ago:

• The prosecutor who declined to charge former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew in the killing of David Koschman — and apparently “threw away” the case file — has left the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
  
  “Darren O’Brien no longer works in the [state’s attorney’s office]. The state’s attorney accepted his resignation letter approximately six weeks ago,” said Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.
  
  According to county records, O’Brien, 56, retired on Dec. 30, as Daley nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko was awaiting trial for causing Koschman’s death. O’Brien had worked in the state’s attorney’s office since 1984, when he was hired under Daley, who was state’s attorney before he became mayor.

For the naive, Daley used to be the State's Attorney for Cook County, and when he moved up, he put his deputy Dick Devine in charge and kept a tight hold of the leash. But remember, there's no evidence that Daley knew anything. Ever. At any time. But when you control all the levers of power, and everyone knows what's expected of them before they're even appointed to a spot (elections being a mere formality), well then, you have insulated yourself from ever having to actually having to engage in something as sundry as covering up a homicide.

Down the memory hole everything goes, with only the police taking any heat in the media. As predicted, this case is going to be the new Burge or Abbate hammer with which to beat the Department.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

From the frozen tundras of Canada, the brilliance of ....well, not exactly brilliance. More like enabling on a grand scale:

• A nonprofit organization has installed Canada’s first-ever crack pipe vending machines in Vancouver in an effort to curb the spread of disease, according to Canada’s CTV News.
  
  The machines dispense Pyrex crack pipes in exchange for just 25 cents.
  
  “For us, this was about increasing access to safer inahalation supplies in the Downtown Eastside,” Kailin See, director of the Drug Users Resource Centre, told CTV.

"Drug User Resource Centre." We had those at one time - it was called "prison."

We can see the wheels turning inside some politicians' heads.

Workplace Accident

You hate to hear about incidents like this. It just screams for government attention:

• BAGHDAD — If there were such a thing, it would probably be rule No. 1 in the teaching manual for instructors of aspiring suicide bombers: Don’t give lessons with live explosives.
  
  In what represented a cautionary tale for terrorist teachers, and a cause of dark humor for ordinary Iraqis, a commander at a secluded terrorist training camp north of Baghdad unwittingly used a belt packed with explosives while conducting a demonstration early Monday for a group of militants, killing himself and 21 other members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, army and police officials said.
  
  Iraqi citizens have long been accustomed to daily attacks on public markets, mosques, funerals and even children’s soccer games, so they saw the story of the fumbling militants as a dark — and delicious — kind of poetic justice, especially coming amid a protracted surge of violence led by the terrorist group, including a rise in suicide bombings.

Hopefully, OSHA-Iraq looks into this and comes up with a series of guidelines and manuals.

ISP Trooper Still Critical

The fiery crash that killed an Illinois Tollway worker and severely injured a Trooper has fallen mostly out of public sight. We heard that he is still in critical condition and accounts have been set up in both mens' names to help defray incidental costs not covered by insurance:

• To support Tpr. Doug Balder and his family (two kids 3 and 8 and wife) there is an account set up at the Illinois State Police Credit Union under the name Trooper Douglas Balder Benefit. Those interested can send a check to the credit union 730 Engineering Ave. Springfield, IL. 62703. He could really use it. He is still critical in the hospital.
  
  If they also want to donate to Vincent Petrella's family (tollway worker killed) they can at any Chase Bank under the name Vincenzo Enzo Memorial Trust account # 3020146931. Vince had two small kids ages 4 and 7 and a wife he left behind.
  
  Any help is appreciated...
  
  ISP Troop

Godspeed Trooper.

FOP Ballots on the Way

According to the newsletter at least, ballots ought to be arriving by the 11th.

The different slates have been overly active in our comment section and we've clamped down a bit on the slanderous accusations and nonsense posting, the biggest of which was the 16% issue. Shortshanks pulled the 16% offer long before it would have been offered for a vote and the extra stuff 'Shanks wanted was intolerable. Give it a rest.

While we have refrained from endorsing a ticket or slate, we cannot let it be that this regime, from the top down, has been a source of constant disappointment. The infighting, the poor decision making, the lack of a cohesive voice, the constant bickering, backbiting and backsliding, the supposedly "tactical" decision to let the disgraced former president drag the entire organization into disrepute is intolerable.

For this reason, we will not be voting for a single office holder who is listed on the inside cover of the current FOP book, including the Trustees and Past President. Their efforts to keep their jobs rather that do their jobs, in our eyes, makes them unqualified to represent the rank-and-file of the Department.

When questions were asked, they were uncommunicative.

When confidence was lacking in the job being done, they were invisible.

And when we provided a more visible platform for people to air their concerns, we were asked to remove a post lest it embarrass the then-First VP (now acting president) and we were threatened with a lawsuit to shut us down by a lawyer whose behavior was something the FOP should have distanced themselves from years ago.

Again, we make no endorsements and encourage no one to follow our lead. We encourage everyone to do a bit of research, ask a lot of questions, and stay involved by voting. You're welcome to disagree with us - politely - and vote the way you want. We don't owe anyone a platform to rip us for the way we're going to vote and we aren't going to be a punching bag for the vitriol sure to be spouted our way, much of it from IP addresses we know are from Washington Blvd.

Chicago Spire to Return?

This has been an empty hole in the ground for almost six years:

• The Irish developer behind the Chicago Spire said it has found an investor to pay its creditors, allowing it to emerge from bankruptcy and possibly restart work on the long-stalled residential project.
  
  In papers filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court Thursday, Shelbourne North Water Street LP, the firm headed by Irish developer Garrett Kelleher, is seeking court approval to move forward with an investment of up to $135 million from Atlas Apartment Holdings LLC, a Northbrook-based apartment development and management company.
  
  While Shelbourne said the amount would enable it to pay bona fide bankruptcy claims in full, there is no detail in the court documents about the additional funds that would be needed to construct the twisting, 2,000-foot tower designed by Santiago Calatrava that was to be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. The 1,194-unit condo building captured people’s fascination but couldn’t get construction financing.

As long as their financing isn't coming from Rahm, build it.

This is Grisly

Wow...and they've classified it as suicide:

• The founder and CEO of American Title Services in Centennial was found dead in his home this week, the result of self-inflicted wounds from a nail gun, according to the Arapahoe County coroner.
  
  Richard Talley, 57, and the company he founded in 2001 were under investigation by state insurance regulators at the time of his death late Tuesday, an agency spokesman confirmed Thursday.
  
  It was unclear how long the investigation had been ongoing or its primary focus.
  
  A coroner's spokeswoman Thursday said Talley was found in his garage by a family member who called authorities. They said Talley died from seven or eight self-inflicted wounds from a nail gun fired into his torso and head.
  
  Also unclear is whether Talley's suicide was related to the investigation by the Colorado Division of Insurance, which regulates title companies.

We imagine they're on safe ground assuming it was related to the business improprieties, but ouch! Seven to eight shots with a nail gun? That took some effort.

Olympics

We aren't covering the Sochi Games. They're something like 12 hours ahead of us, so everything is over by the time we wake up. And the horror stories coming out of Russia make Chicago's connected building contracts look almost legit.

No, we just thought we'd remember this:

Ah, happy memories. Maybe that's why 'Shanks went to the hospital? He was remembering that fateful day.

UPDATE: Correction for the rotation of the earth - we long for the days that the earth was flat.

Silly, Just Silly

This is just an amazing piece of propaganda:

• The low point so far in Chicago's closely watched battle with street gangs may have been the day that Michelle Obama came home for the funeral of a teenage honor student.
  
  A year ago, the city's bloodiest January in more than a decade had just ended. On Feb. 9, 2013, the first lady stood in a church mourning 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, who had been shot dead in a gang dispute she had nothing to do with. It happened just a mile from the Obamas' Chicago house.
  
  Since then, the number of homicides and other violent crimes that turned Chicago into a national symbol of gun violence have fallen sharply.

It gets worse:

• The overall crime rate fell last year to a level not seen since 1972, and the number of shooting incidents involving victims 16 and younger dropped 40 percent in 12 months, city officials say.
  
  Some wonder if the decline is a result of spending nearly $100 million on police overtime. But city officials insist the numbers are evidence that changing police tactics and creating and expanding after-school jobs and mentoring programs for young people are paying off.

City officials will do anything to NOT credit the police and pretend the $103 million in overtime didn't happen. They also won't mention the weather, because as you all know, people are just as likely to get killed on a 90 degree day as on a day that's 15 below zero.

The article also mentions the CPD Postal Service:

• Today, the department also provides gang members with information about social services and even sets up meetings between them and the parents of murder victims "to give them a sense of what they are doing to the community."
  
  McCarthy says it's the largest program of its kind in the nation and will be expanded this year.
  
  So, too, will the department's so-called "heat lists" of people deemed likely to kill or be killed. Officers gathered statistics showing that associates of murder victims are 100 to 500 times more likely to end up on either side of a slaying. Last summer, they hand-delivered letters to 25 people warning them of those dangers and asking what police could do to help.

Wow. Just wow. Twenty-first century policing.

$30,000 Bond

Um...shouldn't this be a bit higher?

• A security guard at a West Side home improvement store was dragged by a Jeep for five blocks Friday and then beaten after confronting a shoplifter who stole a set of drill bits, a Cook County prosecutor said Saturday.
  
  Two guards from Menards, 4501 W. North Ave., approached Danny Johnson in the parking lot outside the West Humboldt Park neighborhood store. Prosecutors said the employees had watched Johnson, of the 4800 block of West Polk Street, conceal a pack of drill bits in his coat pocket while standing in line to buy other items Friday afternoon. Johnson denied taking the items and got in his car.
  
  One of the guards stood behind Johnson’s Jeep Liberty in order to prevent him from leaving, but Johnson backed up anyway and the guard jumped onto the bumper and held onto the luggage rack in order to avoid being hit, prosecutors said. In Johnson’s arrest report, police allege that he swerved intentionally in order to knock the guard off the car.

He then pulled into an alley, scratched and beat the security guard until the police arrived. All that and a bail of 30 grand?

Or is Anita undercharging again?

District Vacancies

Good news north siders!  Openings in 016 and 017 - 4 each. That's 1.33 extra officers per watch! Unless one goes to the Tact team, then it's only 1 per watch.

Even 008 had 5 openings.

Oh, and the usual plethora of less-than-desirable assignments litter the south side:

• 003 - 10 openings
• 004 - 10
• 005 - 10
• 006 - 05
• 008 - 05
• 016 - 04
• 017 - 04

There also appear to be around 50 sergeant openings, but we're told that's a contract thing for assignments.

Partial Victory

We had suspected that a Cook County jury would have acquitted these mopes, but were surprised they got part of it right:

• The so-called NATO 3 were convicted today of two counts of mob action, but not the more serious charges of terrorism.
  
  They were also convicted of one count each of possessing an incendiary device to commit arson, a charge that carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. But all three were acquitted of three other counts of possessing Molotov cocktails as well as an additional arson count.
  
  The five-woman, seven-man jury deliberated almost eight hours over two days before reaching its verdict for Brent Betterly, 25, Jared Chase, 29, and Brian Church, 22.

As you see, they were convicted of possessing an incendiary device, but acquitted of possessing a Molotov cocktail - an actual incendiary device. We have no idea what that means, but we suspect is has something to do with the average intelligence of a Cook County juror.

Lawyers for the defense called it a victory, meaning they'll likely get paid by someone and their clients won't be locked away for life automatically.

Anita thinks it could have been better:

• State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez denied her office had overreached to prosecute the first case ever brought in Cook County under the state’s terrorism law.
  
  "You know what, I would bring these charges again because you know what we did, we saved people from being hurt,” she told reporters at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. “Do we have to wait for a Chicago police officer to be set on fire? I don’t think so … Have we forgotten about Boston here? Have we forgotten about homemade bombs in backpacks?”

While we appreciate the sentiment, Anita's office has notoriously undercharged for years, and always gone for the plea when available. We're glad these guys will be getting some time in prison and certainly hope they won't be teaching at an Illinois university once they get out like certain other bombers we could name.

Burglaries Up?

But crime is down:

• An alderman warns homeowners and businesses about a rash of burglaries in his ward on the city's North Side. 44th Ward Ald. Tom Tunney says he is working closely with the 19th District police commander, and that the burglaries are happening during the day when people are at work.
  
  Shattered shards of glass littered the floor. The front door was open. And from behind the counter of this sandwich shop, the cash register was ripped out and hauled away.
  
  "My glass is broke and broke my register. I think $280 in my register," said Sangey Patel, store employee.
  
  Burglaries, especially residential, are on the rise in the 44th Ward, which includes Lakeview.

Gee, this wouldn't have anything to do with the recent manpower issues covered by the Tribune where northside district are being stripped of officers, in direct contradiction of what Rahm has been spouting the past few years?

This same ward led the city in armed robberies (or had the greatest increase in armed robberies?) in 2013. An observer wiser than us would assume that criminals were preying on places that the police aren't. But that can't be true, because McCarthy said it isn't.

::GASP!!:: Cops Earn Overtime?!?!?

Questions from the usual suspects:

• Eight Chicago Police officers were among City Hall’s top 20 overtime earners in 2013 — supplementing their annual salaries by more than $78,990 — renewing debate about police hiring and officer burnout.
  
  Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said he expected to spend $93 million on overtime in 2013 after flooding 20 of Chicago’s most violent crime zones with officers working overtime.
  
  The actual total was $103 million, nearly half the $197 million Mayor Rahm Emanuel spent on overtime for the entire city workforce.
  
  
• McCarthy has argued repeatedly that it is “cheaper to pay a police officer overtime than it is to hire a fully-loaded-with-health benefits-and-pay officer.”
  
  But after learning Thursday about the amount of overtime earned by individual officers, Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) said, “The policy needs to change. Any management consultant can tell you that, to depend on overtime of this magnitude is unhealthy. You’ve got the issue of burnout, stress and long hours. We need to make sure our Police Department is well-staffed and well-rested.”
  
  Pat Camden, a spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police, reiterated his contention that McCarthy’s Violence Reduction Initiative is a “Band-Aid approach to crime-fighting.” That’s even though the hefty overtime paychecks are not confined to officers working that program.

If this is what Rahm wants, and he's willing to have it paid for, there's really not much to complain about. $80,000 in overtime though - that doesn't leave you a lot of time to even enjoy the extra money and if you don't have your health....

Wrong Answer

Better to keep your mouth shut and run away:

• Two men have been charged in the slaying of a 15-year-old boy in Little Village who was shot after asking “What?” when one of them shouted a gang slogan, police and prosecutors said.
  
  Martin Miranda and Andres Guerra, both 19, are both charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Miguel Navarrette in the 4100 block of West 30th Street about 4:50 p.m. on Jan. 26.
  
  Miranda, who is believed to have killed Navarette with three shotgun blasts, was ordered held without bail during a hearing today before Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. Guerra is being held on $1 million bail, according to court records.

Nice work on the arrests though.

And remember, crime is down everywhere! Except where the Department has been stripping manpower for the past few years:

• Police say the four teens were in the parking lot of the McDonald's at 6740 N. Clark St. around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday when there was an argument and then gunfire. Carr was shot in the head and collapsed in a driveway next to a strip mall with a pizza restaurant, a dental office and a dollar store.
  
  A girl, about 15, was shot several times and apparently ran into a bathroom in the McDonald's, authorities said. She and an 18-year-old man shot in the lower back were taken to Presence St. Francis Hospital in Evanston in serious condition.
  
  Another 18-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the arm walked into Weiss Memorial Hospital saying he had been shot at the McDonald's, authorities said.

The usual denials of gang involvement are making the rounds, but word is that the deceased's Facebook page has numerous snapshots of guns, drugs, money and mysterious hand signals that liberals just can't figure out.

Dart Does ObamaCare

Hoping for a cushy gig somewhere?

• Being arrested in Chicago for, say, drug possession or assault gets you sent to the Cook County Jail to be fingerprinted, photographed and X-rayed. You’ll also get help applying for health insurance.
  
  At least six states and counties from Maryland to Oregon’s Multnomah are getting inmates coverage under Obamacare and its expansion of Medicaid, the federal and state health-care program for the poor. The fledgling movement would shift to the federal government some of the more than $6.5 billion in annual state costs for treating prisoners. Proponents say it also will make recidivism rarer, because inmates released with coverage are more likely to get treatment for mental illness, substance abuse and other conditions that can lead them to crime.
  
  “When someone gets discharged from the jail and they don’t have insurance and they don’t have a plan, we can pretty much set our watch to when we’re going see them again,” said Ben Breit, a spokesman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.

We're betting County is still going to be seeing them...just with the feds paying the bills. The feds will have just as much success getting mopes to take their meds as County did, which is to say, "none." Dart will then have more money to spend searching for photo ops.

Manpower Down Again

(This is from a Tribune Digital Plus story - you may need a password to read the connected article)

Evidently, Rahm lied....again:

• By fall 2011, months after taking office, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he had fulfilled a campaign pledge to move some 1,000 cops to beat patrols to beef up the Police Department's front lines in the fight on crime.
  
  But in the more than two years since then, those numbers have plunged by hundreds of cops, the city's own data show.
  
  In spite of a renewed hiring push over the past two years, the department has struggled to keep up with retirements, in part because of sweetened medical benefits for police retirees as part of a cost-saving move a few years ago.
  
  According to the data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the department had 7,078 rank-and-file officers and supervisors assigned to work in its 22 patrol districts as of Dec. 8, a decline of 10 percent, or 779 beat officers, since fall 2011.

The article goes on to point out pretty much everything that we've covered here for the past few years via our own observations and those of our readers - actual cops on the front lines who see the plain unvarnished truth behind the political smoke, including:

• hiring not keeping pace with retirement attrition;
• disbanding of various citywide teams and then counting them as "officers back on patrol" when they were already on patrol, just under a different name;
• staffing declines across the "safer" north side districts;
• the spike in robberies in formerly "safer"districts, including the notorious beat 1924, which ranked 6th in the city and led to the "Crime in Boystown" blog being created;
• near constant Radio Assignments Pending (RAPs or backlogs) where manpower has been severely cut;
• the closing of districts that supposedly led to "surpluses" of officers but was actually fewer officers patrolling vastly expanded boundaries;
• the $100 million in overtime - a bandaid on a gaping wound.

 Glad to see the media is finally catching up, but we doubt it will affact anything Rahm does.

Won't Someone Think of the Horses?!?

Ed Burke is at it again, and all to "beat" New York to the punch:

• City officials laid out an animal protection agenda Wednesday as a veteran alderman introduced a measure that would make horse-drawn carriages toting tourists and clogging downtown traffic a thing of the past and an ordinance to require dogs or cats sold in city pet stores to come from shelters gained momentum.
  
  Southwest Side Ald. Edward Burke said he was spurred to propose banning horse carriages at least in part by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vow to end the carriage rides in Central Park. “They’re a nuisance, they’re a traffic hazard, it’s cruel to the animals, and we should be able to beat New York City to the punch,” said Burke, 14th.
  
  Burke challenged the idea that the carriages are beloved by tourists who pack in for rides around North Michigan Avenue. “Well, I don’t know that the tourists love cruelty to animals, nor I do know that tourists that don’t ride in the carriages want to be inconvenienced by the traffic jams and the hazards that are created,” he said.

de Blasio is a communist, and this is who Burke wants to beat to a total ban on horses? A few points:

• Burke claims it's cruel to the horses - aren't there ordinances against cruelty? Aren't there police, even an animal crimes unit, that could enforce these supposed violations?
• Traffic hazard? This from a member of the organization that has reduced traffic lanes by how many hundreds of miles with plastic barricades so bikers have an entire lane of traffic to themselves that they can use maybe 8 months a year?
• Is it wise of Burke to follow the lead of an avowed communist and actually destroy jobs during a recession? Carriage drivers, stable hands, delivery drivers, waste haulers, etc. These jobs won't be coming back, and Chicago is already lacking in the jobs department.
• What does Burke think is going to happen to all the horses he puts out of work? They'll go to the old horse home and live out their golden years with the grand-horses visiting and reliving the glory days of when they almost ran in the Kentucky Derby and The Million? No, they'll be off to the knacker and end up as dog food, glue or if they're really lucky, in a Frenchman's lower intestine.

Hey Ed, how about asking some questions about why Rahm is borrowing another $2 billion instead of sticking your nose in a successful business enterprise that provides jobs, tax revenue, licensing fees and a reason for tourists to look at something pretty on the Mag Mile instead of over their shoulders for wilding youth intent on their iPhones and wallets?

Suburban Anti-Gunners Not Satisfied

Just when you think liberals couldn't get any stupider, you get this:

• School officials in a Chicago suburb are not thrilled with a state law passed last year requiring schools to post a "no gun" sticker featuring an Image of a handgun with a red slash through it.
  
  Guns were already not allowed in schools before the law was passed, and now some school officials are worried the Image on the warning sign might send the wrong message.
  
  “One of my biggest concerns as a principal is safety and security,” Tinley Park High School Principal Theresa Nolan told the Southtown Star. “It is bothersome to have to post a sticker of a gun that says, ‘Hey, folks, leave your guns at home.' ”
  
  Nolan said she feared the Image could be misinterpreted.

Misinterpreted? How? It's a gun silhouette with a big ol' red circle with a line through it. Pretty straightforward....No Guns.

And placing it on the door lets everyone (with good or bad intentions) know that all legal firearms are banned on the premises, meaning no one who actually believes in following the law will be around to defend themselves or others with a firearm, kind of like that theater in Colorado, or those Universities in Illinois and Virginia, or that Grade School in Connecticut, all so-called "gun-free zones" full of defenseless victims.

No Debate Over $1.9 Billion in Debt

Rahm wants money, but does anyone think he's actually going to spend it on pension shortfalls?

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel convinced all but a handful of aldermen Wednesday to allow him to borrow $900 million with no debate and without saying how much of the money would be spent.
  
  The 43-4 vote gives the Emanuel administration the power to issue $900 million in new bonds and to double the city’s short-term credit line to $1 billion.
  
  The move illustrates the city’s shaky financial condition, as Emanuel continues a City Hall habit of using long-term borrowing to paper over budget shortfalls and push current costs onto future generations. The vast borrowing, which comes at a time when the city already is dealing with an outsized level of debt and a recent triple-downgrade in its bond rating, along with a major increase in police and fire pension payments looming next year.

43-to-4 for an additional $2 billion in funny money and the City Council doesn't even have the decency to ask a few questions to even pretend to want to protect taxpayers. Someone tell us again why we need 50 of these thieves rippingof future generations?

Road Rage = Up to 20 Years

Is this why Venecko took the 60 day gift?

• A Lemont man was found guilty late Monday of second-degree murder for a 2011 road rage incident that claimed the life of a 63-year-old man.
  
  After deliberating more than five hours, a jury found Christopher Yeoman, 41, guilty of second-degree murder and three counts of aggravated battery – including one count that carries a mandatory prison term of three to seven years because the incident involved a senior citizen. Yeoman could face up to 20 years in prison for the murder charge.
  
  Prosecutors said Yeoman punched Frank Egas in the head after an altercation in June 2011 on 135th Street near Route 53 in Romeoville. Egas’ head hit the pavement from the punch and he died several months later from injuries suffered due to the incident, prosecutors said.

Aside from the aggravating factor of the age of the victim, road rage is just a step from sidewalk rage.

Koschman Report - No Clout

The lack of a cohesive take in the media shows everyone exactly how fucked up this case was from the word go.

First up, you have the Tribune with this headline and opening lede:

• Special prosecutor: Daley, family did not try to influence Koschman case
  
  
• Over the course of a 17-month investigation, after nearly 150 interviews and a review of more than 300,000 pages of records, special prosecutor Dan Webb found no evidence that former Mayor Richard Daley exerted political pressure to shield one of his relatives from criminal charges.

But then you have the Sun Times with this take:

• Daley quickly knew of nephew’s involvement
  
  
• Former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley knew “shortly after the incident” that his nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko had been involved in the drunken confrontation that led to David Koschman’s death, according to a report from Koschman special prosecutor Dan K. Webb Tuesday.
  
  Daley, higher-ups in his office and others in Daley’s Chicago Police Department were aware of Vanecko’s involvement even as Koschman lay dying in a hospital with a cracked skull and swelling brain, the Webb report revealed.

But no one could make the connection? Or no one wanted to see the connection? And no clout was involved, but everywhere you look, there are the Daley appointees making decisions, "adjusting" statements, imagining conclusions based on what was convenient rather than what was on paper.

The names of the coppers Webb considered indicting are bad enough. The footnotes and connections contained therein are downright shameful. Save for the convenience of the statute of limitations running out, there's plenty of crap contained in this report to paint a damning picture of the Department as incompetent, bungling, criminal and in the pockets of the connected.

Bleeding Jobs

This is NOT the sign of a healthy economy - not here in Illinois and certainly not the country:

• President Barack Obama's home state, which has been governed by Democrats throughout his national political career, has slipped in the rankings and now has the third-worst unemployment rate in the nation. Though the jobless rate was the same in December 2013 (8.6%) as in December 2012, the state's labor force declined by a staggering 80,000 workers, according to Michael Lucci of the Illinois Policy Institute.
  
  Across the same period, the national unemployment rate fell by 1.3%--though that, too, was partly driven by an exodus of workers from the labor force, albeit less dramatic than in Illinois. Lucci observes: 'The state now suffers from its worst labor force participation rate since June 1978. It has been nearly 36 years since such a small percent of the working-age population in Illinois found it worthwhile to search for work."
  
  In terms of policy, Illinois represents utopia, at least in Obama's imagination: high taxes, high regulation, high levels of (mandatory) union membership, and one-party rule. Yet the state is a financial failure and remains in economic free-fall, as hundreds of thousands of residents leave the state (often for more conservative, growth-friendly states). A recent pension reform bill will have only modest effects on the state's unfunded liabilities.

"...modest effects...?" How about "next-to-no effects."

Many smaller communities have entered bankruptcy recently. Detroit is the largest city so far forced to explore that option. Could Illinois be the first state to careen into insolvency? Or will California beat us to the punch?

That Was Fast

All the posturing and accusations that the Naperville Police may have "targeted" Savini for his drunken driving, battering and endangering? Nowhere to be seen yesterday:

• CBS 2 News investigative reporter Dave Savini pleaded guilty Tuesday to drunken driving, stemming from a case early last month that began in the drive-through lane of a Naperville fast-food restaurant.
  
  Savini, 47, of Naperville, pleaded guilty in DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton to a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol.
  
  Companion charges of battery, endangering the health or life of a child and leaving the scene of an accident involving vehicular damage were dismissed in exchange for that plea.
  
  Judge James J. Konetski ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service work as part of his penalty. Savini also was placed on a year of court supervision, ordered to attend the county’s drunken-driving school, make restitution to the driver of the vehicle damaged in the incident and pay a fine of $1,700 plus court costs, said his attorney, Terry Ekl.

Seems about right for a first time DUI. Hopefully a lesson learned about the dangers of drunken driving. And maybe a lesson in humility, too.

Firefighters Hurt

Burning does not appeal to us - not in the least:

• Three Chicago firefighters searching a burning basement for three trapped residents inside a Southwest Side home became trapped themselves when flames quickly moved around them, cutting off their exit, officials said today.
  
  While the three residents -- which included two young children -- managed to make it outside to safety, it took a fire department rapid intervention team to help rescue the firemen, who suffered non-life threatening burns in the fast-moving blaze in the 3000 block of South Drake Avenue in the Little Village neighborhood.

We heard a story on Newsradio 780 about another firefighter who suffered minor injuries at a church fire on the west side. A speedy recovery is wished to all of our first responder brothers. Be careful guys and gals.

Waste of Resources

This is just dumb:

• A coyote ranged over the lake ice off 59th Street for more than an hour this morning, but had moved on by the time animal control workers showed up to coax it back to shore.
  
  "We patrolled the area but did not find any animal," said Brad Powers, spokesman for the city's Animal Care and Control office.
  
  The coyote was spotted around 10 a.m. and traveled between 57th and 59th streets as helicopters hovered overhead. It did not appear injured.

Wild animals wander onto the ice all the time. It's what they do.

Sometimes they fall in and die. It's what happens.

Coyotes are classified as a pest in Illinois and hunt-able year-round with very minimal restrictions. To expend valuable helicopter time (which runs into thousands of dollars per hour) and risk human life (pilots, divers, etc.) is shortsighted and an almost criminal waste of resources. The circle of life involved death, too.

Off Duty Shooting

Officer is fine, jagoff is not:

• An off-duty police officer fatally shot an armed man in his 50s who was attempting to rob a Walgreens store Monday morning in the Jefferson Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side, police said.
  
  About 10:30 a.m., the suspect entered the Walgreens in the 5200 block of North Milwaukee Avenue and announced a robbery, according to a statement from Chicago police.
  
  The officer had observed a "frantic" cashier stuffing money into a bag, Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden said. The officer's wife and kids were waiting in a car in the parking lot. Camden said the officer ordered the man, estimated at around 400 lbs., to kneel on the ground. After doing so, Camden said, the suspect told the officer he would not be taken into custody willingly, and the officer would have to shoot him. Camden said the suspect then reached for a gun in his pocket, and the officer shot him.

The former robber fits the description of a suspect who is wanted in a suburban pattern and may have held up the same Walgreens recently. Tipping the scales at 400 pounds, we can only hope that there aren't two of them running (rolling?) around the north side and 'burbs.

Very well done Officer.

Koschman Report Out Today

Scheduled to be released at 0900:

• Special prosecutor Dan K. Webb will release a 162-page report Tuesday morning that’s expected to shed light on whether clout kept police and prosecutors from charging Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, with killing David Koschman.
  
  Webb’s report was filed under seal five months ago as Vanecko, 39, was awaiting trial for involuntary manslaughter.
  
  Vanecko pleaded guilty Friday, admitting he punched Koschman in the face during a drunken confrontation outside the late-night bars along Division Street on April 25, 2004, leading to Koschman’s death 11 days later.
  
  Cook County Circuit Judge Michael P. Toomin — who directed Webb to produce a report on the investigation when he appointed him special prosecutor in April 2012 — signed an order Monday to make the report public now that Vanecko’s case is over.

Like it or not, it's news. And it's going to generate a lot of comments, ill-will and finger pointing.

What the Hell Was That Sound?

Around 1500 hours yesterday:

• Stocks were battered on Monday, with benchmark indexes falling through key support levels after a disappointing factory activity report, heightening concern about the economy before Friday's monthly jobs report.
  
  The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 326.05 points, or 2.08 percent, at 15,372.80.
  
  The S and P 500 fell 40 points, or almost 2.28 percent, to 1,741.89. The Nasdaq declined 106 points, or 2.6 percent.

That's a few years of deferred comp gains flushed away. But hey, let's talk about legalizing 11 million illegals and putting them into a job market that is non-existent as people leave the  workforce in record numbers.

Detroit is Hiring

Anyone who had a dream of working in the farther reaches of the Rust Belt have a unique opportunity:

• The City of Detroit Police Department is committed to maintaining a police force that reflects the diversity of the community. The City of Detroit is constantly striving to provide the highest level of public service by employing men and women from all backgrounds and cultures to maintain a police department that is responsive to the needs of the total community.

Pay cut, less holidays, fewer perks and pension that might pay ten-cents on the dollar.

We'll have to think about it.

Sentencing Hearing

From a friend:

• The sentencing and victim impact statement in the trial for the killer of Chicago Police Officer Richard Francis #5276, End of Watch 02 July 2008 at 0153 hours, is set for 05 February 2014 (Wednesday) at 1000 hours. All officers are encouraged to attend the proceedings at 26th and California, room 302. The judge has asked that all officers wear a covering over their police uniform while in the court room.

If you're in the building, swing by.

Aspiring Actresses and Actors to Starve

We had to sort through an inordinate number of comments in the "Economic Disaster Coming" post where we pointed out that most elected officials have no idea how the real world works and opined that they might benefit from a few Econ 101/102 type courses. The ignorance on display was makes us think that the entire City Council showed up in our comment section just to prove exactly how smart they aren't. If they hadn't spent so much time swearing at us, slandering our parentage and displaying their libtard tendencies, we might have published more of them.

In any event, we stand by our previous statements that if city government jacks up the minimum wage to $15/hour, hiring will stop, unemployment will skyrocket and the death spiral will tighten. If costs go up businesses are left with few options:

• raise prices, leading to a decline in sales;
• reduce profit margins, leading to a decline in share prices;
• reduce workforce

There may be another option of two, but the basic drive is to cut costs and increase sales, thereby increasing profits. How to cut costs? Automate!

• Applebee's, the nation's largest casual dining chain, on Tuesday will announce plans to place tablets at every table in every one of its U.S. restaurants by the end of 2014. Folks can use the tablets to pay whenever they want -- and to order things like appetizers, desserts or even play video games.
  
  The action follows a similar move by rival Chili's, which already has begun the process of placing tablets at its company-owned locations. IHOP, also owned by Applebee's parent, DineEquity, is looking into tablets, too.
  
  The way Americans pay for and order food when eating out is about to be turned on its head. If these high-tech moves — already common at eateries in parts of Europe and Asia — are a hit domestically, much of the $70 billion full-service and casual dining industry is expected to follow.

No more out-of-work Liberal Art majors struggling to make ends meet on less than minimum wage and tips.They'll be living in boxes on Lower Wacker looking for the next Salvation Army truck to come by.

Of course, we'll save money eating out since we won't have to tip anyone, and our DineEquity stock will being headed up. So it's a win-win we suppose. Thanks Chicago Aldercreatures!

The Reader is De-Stigmatizing Guns

Yes, the Reader, of all papers:

• The first lesson Gerald Vernon shared with his conceal-and-carry class is, to him, the most fundamental: "The only thing that stops bad people with guns is good people with guns."
  
  His ten students—eight men and two women, all African-Americans—were listening intently. They had gathered in a meeting room at a south-side social service center to learn about gun ownership and self-defense from Vernon, a veteran firearms instructor who was seated at the front of the room next to a table set with an array of revolvers and semiautomatic handguns from his collection.
  
  The students didn't appear to need any convincing. "I'm interested in protection," explained Thomas Brandon, 57, when it was his turn to introduce himself. The others said they were there for the same reason.

This is actually a well written, even-handed, unbiased piece about guns. In the Reader. In Chicago.

Color us amazed.

Shortshanks is Sick

Taken to the hospital after feeling disoriented and semi-coherent. Witnesses say it was almost like he had just finished a federal deposition:

• Former Mayor Richard M. Daley was rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital Friday evening after suffering possible stroke-like symptoms while in Arizona, a source told Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed.
  
  Daley, 71, was taken there by ambulance after he felt ill following a business trip in Arizona, according to a Daley spokesman.
  
  The health scare came on the same day his nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in David Koschman’s killing.

We would like to join our readers in wishing a speedy recovery to the former mayor and many more years of exceptional health - after all, how will he ever serve his time in federal prison if he isn't around to stand trial?

Crime is Down!

Shout it from the rooftops! Someone prepare a press release!

• Chicago police say crime in the city was down last month compared to statistics from the same time last year.
  
  In January, shootings were down 43 percent and murders were down 47 percent in Chicago.
  
  The Chicago Police Department says overall crime is down 34 percent compared to January 2013.

Meanwhile, there's 51 inches of "global climate change" on the ground, streets are still unplowed from the last storm, the south side is getting hammered with another batch of lake effect snow and we're waiting the third "polar vortex" of the new year already.

But hey media, keep releasing those stats spoon fed to you by the Department and City Hall. Has anyone totaled up the percentages of "crime is down" since McCompStat got here? We're almost positive that Chicago actually owes crime now, stretching into 2015.

Homeowner Charged

The guy who killed the burglar in his house the other day?

• They did end up dinging the homeowner for an expired FOID card. That in itself should be a life sentence (assuming you're not a Daley).
  
  In all, a job well done by the homeowner. 

That's some crime fighting there! If the homeowner had just fled the residence and surrendered all of his worldly goods to whatever the burglar could carry, he wouldn't have been charged with anything and no one would know he had an expired card.

Might this be an opportunity for the NRA to sue to get the FOID Card eliminated from existence all together? Illinois citizens (with the exception of Chicago Police officers) are not required to register weapons any more, so what is the purpose of an FOID Card anyway? It certainly seems to be yet another redundant bit of government, this time used to persecute (yes, persecute) an otherwise law abiding citizen defending his home and the lives within it.

Super High-Tech Lab

Something that had long been neglected in Chicago:

• Devel Newell allegedly fired repeatedly into a group standing outside a strip mall last summer on the North Side.
  
  Chicago Police officers arrested the 30-year-old repeat felon, but he insisted he wasn’t involved in the June 10 shooting, which left two men with bullet wounds to the legs.
  
  Police found 9mm bullet cartridge casings at the scene and recovered a 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol, which they brought to a new police lab in a West Side warehouse. After less than two weeks of testing, forensic investigators had some intriguing results. Fingerprint tests confirmed Newell used the gun in the shooting, prosecutors said. But investigators also learned the pistol was used in a December shooting almost 18 miles away on the South Side.
  
  Newell is facing charges in the June 10 shooting, including being an armed habitual criminal. He isn’t charged in connection with the unsolved 2012 shooting, but the confirmation that the gun was used in that crime gave detectives a new lead to follow.

This is a good thing. Of course, McCarthy is given a bit of credit, and it may be slightly deserved. At the same time however, we have to tip our hats to the old-timers who, years ago, warned that farming out this job to the State, would result in years-long backlogs and untested weapons. 

They were exactly right and the Department was exactly wrong.

60 Days

It must be nice to be a Daley relative:

• Nine years, nine months and five days after he punched David Koschman in the face and ran away, Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko — a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley — stood before a judge and admitted he was guilty of causing Koschman’s death.
  
  Judge Maureen P. McIntye accepted Vanecko’s guilty plea and ordered him to spend 60 days in jail, followed by 60 days of home confinement with electronic monitoring.
  
  The judge also gave Vanecko the maximum 30 months of probation and ordered him to apologize to Koschman’s mother Nanci Koschman and pay her restitution of $20,000.

Just for comparison purposes, Cozzi did four years for slapping a drunk who was spitting on him and hospital personnel, and that was after he had already served a lengthy suspension, two years of court ordered probation and apologized in open court for his misbehavior.

Webb is pushing to make his entire investigation public while repeatedly stating he will not be pursuing any additional charges against anyone involved. That would include everyone from the States Attorney and Superintendent on down who claimed for years that there was no basis for charges - charges which Vanecko has just cut a deal for. Also, no charges for the witnesses who lied and obfuscated for years to protect their political family.

So this will fade into the background, forgotten by all involved aside from Koschman's mother. The missing file, the failure of the system, the desperation to conceal who else might have been present at the time who has a history of getting drunk, beating people and being covered for time and time again, and whose name isn't "Vanecko.

Sad.

Joravsky on Rahm's Spending

Why this guy doesn't have a closet full of awards is curious. Probably because he works for a paper that gives itself away for nothing. In any case, he has a very well written article about Rahm's plans to help build DePaul a new stadium for a team that can't even fill the current one and hasn't seen an NIT berth in 5 years or an NCAA bid in 10. He closes with this whopper of a lie by Rahm's people:

• The climactic moment of yesterday's meeting came when a fellow in the audience asked if there would be "any additional costs to the city for the new plans?"
  
  At which point Brad McConnell, from the city's department of planning, stepped forward to say:
  
  "No."
  
  "None?" asked the audience member.
  
  "None," said McConnell.
  
  Wow.
  
  I don't think anyone knows how much all this wheeling and dealing will cost when it's all over. But the mayor must think we, the taxpayers, must be really stupid to believe that buying three plots of land won't cost more than buying two.
  
  Of course, we're the ones who elected him in the first place. So I can see why he'd have a low opinion of our intelligence.

We're pretty sure Jaravsky didn't vote for Rahm, and we're damn sure we didn't. But we're pretty sure that we know who did. Go read the whole thing here.

Burglaries Down

At least they will be in this neighborhood:

• A man who was breaking into a home was shot to death by a property owner in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood this morning, authorities said.
  
  Mario Viramontes, 31, was declared dead on the scene in 2000 block of West 21st Street at 9:22 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
  
  Police were called to the scene about 9:10 a.m. for a burglary, and when they arrived, they found that a “male offender” who had been trying to commit a burglary had been shot by the homeowner, said Police News Affairs [...].
  
  No one has been charged in the incident....

Here's to many more.