Let's Grow Some Weed!

This weed-farming thing is reading like a Who's Who of clout:

• Three companies that want to be among the city's first medical marijuana dispensaries won zoning approval Friday, but still need state license.
  
  Three fledgling companies that want to be among the city's first medical marijuana dispensaries cleared an initial hurdle Friday when the Zoning Board of Appeals granted them special use permits to set up shop.
  
  But even with zoning approval in hand, all three will still be competing for the limited number of licenses to be granted by state regulators within eight geographical areas of the city.
  
  
• Most of the questions from board members related to security, and each of the would-be operators trotted out security chiefs with extensive resumes.
  
  Green Thumb has hired Terrance Gainer, the former Congressional sergeant at arms.
  
  Kind Care, which seeks the Elston Avenue spot, has hired Zvi Kremer, a former security manager for El Al Airlines in Moscow and Chicago.
  
  And Professional Pharmacy Management — the partnership between longtime pharmacist Barry Golin and brothers Doug and Danny Marks —has hired Michael Chasen, who retired after 39 years at the Chicago Police Department as chief deputy of detectives, to run security at its proposed shop on Milwaukee Avenue.

Wow. The connected Gainers, the ex-Chief of Detectives, an international airline security boss. How ever will Quinn/Madigan/Rahm choose to grow the medicinal weed? Maybe some sort of "sharing" among the connected?

Is it just us or does this remind anyone of the defunct Chicago casino license? That had a Who's Who list of connected rich folks looking to get richer.

Commander Suspended?

You think this would be bigger news - if in fact it happened:

• COMMANDER PENA 010 on a ten day suspension for harrassing a PO

We've never heard of such a thing. You'd think that maybe they'd have been stripped and down at callback. After all, they've done that to Captains before.

And harassment only getting 10 days? Harassment of a female PO? That's setting a bad precedent - anyone accused of harassment from this point forward can expect exactly 10 days. Otherwise there might be an appearance of "favoritism" or "clout" or who knows what.The Department wouldn't want that hanging over its collective head, would it?

Horses Again

Here we go again:

• Another horse statue honoring police was found broken into several pieces this morning on the city's Magnificent Mile.
  
  Shortly after 3:30 a.m., police responded to a report of a damaged statue at 744 N. Michigan Ave., according to the Chicago Police Department Office of News Affairs.
  
  Officers found the statue broken in several pieces, according to preliminary reports from police.

Doesn't the Mag Mile have cameras? Hundreds of cameras? Thousands? Are they all broken?

Perhaps the statues ought to be moved indoors to some of the lobbies of tourist locations? Or the lobby of the local police station where an eye can be kept on it for a bit?

Bears Favored

Three whole points.

Bears are playing .500 ball. No one knows which Jay is going to show up. Consistency is an unknown word in the locker room. For all intents and purposes, it's a coin flip.

Where's All That Camera Money?

Good news - Rahm's "Red Light Safety Cameras" have done their job!

Bad News - Rahm's budget is suddenly short $50 million:

• Chicagoans are costing the city tens of millions of dollars -– through good behavior.
  
  You heard that right: Good behavior is bad for the budget. Real bad, reports CBS 2 [...]
  
  [...] CBS 2 has learned the speed cameras caught far fewer speeders than expected.
  
  [...] How much lower? Fifty million dollars lower. Emanuel’s administration had figured on $90 million in fines to help balance this year’s budget, but they can only count on $40 million. That’s a $50 million shortfall, putting pressure on the next spending plan.

We've pointed this out in the past - why is the city (any city?) allowed to base budgets on "projected" revenue? They have some magical insight into unforeseen weather disasters? downturns in the economy?

Punitive fines influence behavior. $100 fines influence behavior a lot faster than something less. And here's taxpayers holding the bag for Rahm's unrealistic expectations. because they advanced their own economic interests by slowing down and obeying the law.

Batten Down the Hatches

Bad news for the grievance-mongering crowd:

• A white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Missouri in August told investigators he was in fear for his life after the young man grabbed at his gun, which was discharged twice in his patrol car, the New York Times
  
  Government officials briefed on a federal civil rights probe into the Aug. 9 killing of Michael Brown by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson told the Times that Wilson had said he was pinned in his car and punched and scratched by Brown in the moments before the shooting.
  
  The government officials, who were not identified in the Times report, said forensic evidence collected from the patrol car indicate Wilson's gun was fired twice, with one bullet striking Brown in the arm. The other missed, according to the Times report, published late Friday.
  
  Reuters could not independently confirm the report, and could not immediately reach officials of the Department of Justice for comment.
  
  Brown's blood was found on the gun, the interior door panel and the officer's uniform, the newspaper said.

This is a Tribune report about what appeared in the New York Times.

No True Bill is on the way. And then the media can cover the riots and burnings that they helped lay the groundwork for and wonder why in Obama's "post-racial" America, how such a thing could happen.

Hopefully, we aren't seeing blow-back across the country.

The Scandal That Keeps Giving

Fast and Furious in the news again:

• The top deputy to Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation on Thursday amid revelations that Operation Fast and Furious scandal guns were used to harm Americans in Phoenix in 2013, a development top congressional Republicans say President Obama’s administration sought to cover up.
  
  Documents released by conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch—and put forward by Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)—show that an assault rifle purchased as part of Fast and Furious was used in a Phoenix-area crime in July 2013 that left two people wounded.
  
  Part of a police report shows the rifle’s serial number, 1977DX1654. Judicial Watch obtained the documents from a lawsuit it filed against the city of Phoenix, Judicial Watch v. City of Phoenix, to get officials to release the documents. Judicial Watch had filed an Aug. 5, 2014, public records request with the city, which it ignored, forcing Judicial Watch to file the lawsuit on Oct. 2.

Hundreds of fully operational weapons allowed to "walk" over the border with no oversight or tracking are "walking" back over the border and being used by criminals and cartels against Americans in a completely manufactured crisis to degrade national gun rights. And still, no one has been held responsible.

Ebola Plans Underway!

Even though the word out of Washington has been that there's nothing to worry about, that the chances of Ebola arriving on American soil are miniscule, that if it ever gets here, quarantine protocols will keep everyone safe!

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel sought Friday to reassure Chicagoans increasingly concerned about the Ebola epidemic that the city would learn from mistakes made in Dallas and have a coordinated response if the deadly disease surfaces here.
  
  To make certain of it, Emanuel summoned hospital officials and commissioners of several city departments (police, fire, health, aviation and emergency management and communications) to the first of what he said would be weekly meetings to discuss the city’s emergency preparedness.

Weekly meetings? Oh boy! But then there are uncomfortable things like this that pop up:

• Despite the burgeoning Ebola epidemic, the Chicago Fire Department has never “fit-tested” its 4,645 firefighters and paramedics to make certain that disposable face masks used to protect them from fluid transmissions are properly sealed.
  
  The Massachusetts manufacturer of the N95 respirator recommends — and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration demands — that first responders be tested annually to make certain the mask fits tightly enough to filter out small particles.
  
  The tighter the fit, the more resistant the mask is to bodily fluids, which is how Ebola is transmitted.
  
  But until the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 sounded the alarm this week, the Fire Department had distributed masks without fit-testing any of its employees.

Um...masks are great for airborne particles, but Obama has been telling everyone that Ebola isn't an airborne disease (that's why he hasn't banned flights, disregarding the fact that while Ebola isn't airborne, infected passengers are). It hasn't mutated that far yet.

In any event, most Ebola patients exhibit projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea and the disease has shown surprisingly high infectiousness...1-to-10 particles can infect you, as opposed to hundreds, even thousands of particles to transmit colds, measles or other diseases. And Ebola doesn't have to be inhaled - it will get through whole skin. So a mask is great....if you don't make skin contact with any vomit or shit flying out of an infected individual.  And then you have to load someone on a stretcher, lift them into an ambulance, unload them at a hospital and have to decontaminate every surface, article of clothing and lord knows what else. No problem...no problem at all.

First the Trib...

...now the Sun Times? (warning - password site)

• After insisting for nearly three years that it would no longer endorse candidates for political office, the Sun-Times is reversing itself and formally backing Republican Bruce Rauner for governor.
  
  The Sun-Times announced Friday that its Sunday edition would carry its choice for governor. Although the announcement stopped short of saying whom the newspaper would endorse, sources confirmed that Rauner would get the nod enthusiastically over Democrat Pat Quinn.

Tribune endorsement is here.

Sun Times excuses over here.

Now who are the Rockford and East St. Louis papers endorsing? Those are the other two counties Quinn won last time. Maybe this is the end finally?

Kill This Money Waster Already

The Taste is still in the red:

• The rain-shortened Taste of Chicago lost $169,404 this year, the city announced Friday.
  
  The food festival had to be closed on its only scheduled Saturday in July due to heavy rains and standing water, and just 1.1 million people walked through the gates during its other four days, according to the city Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. That's down from 1.5 million attendees in 2013, when Taste turned a $272,000 profit, and 1.2 million visitors in 2012, when it lost $1.3 million.
  
  Since taking office, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has tried to guide the city's big summer food festival toward profitability in large part by shrinking it while increasing revenue.
  
  The city raised the surcharge it collected for every strip of 12 food tickets at this year's festival by 50 cents, from $2 to $2.50. And the mayor pushed through an ordinance to charge $50 for "premium seats" to Taste concerts, up from $25 the year before. Until Emanuel took office, all Taste concert seats were free.

And while they're at it, they ought to cancel the "Chicago Fizzle" fest, too.

Contract Results Are.... [UPDATES]

...not available yet.

Speculate here and check periodically for a count.

UPDATE: Early word is it passed.

UPDATE: media coverage

McHenry Shooter in Custody

Did he just snap?

• A man accused of shooting two McHenry County Sheriff deputies was found a few miles away from his home, walking along a road, after two people called police to report a suspicious person.
  
  
• The incident began after the suspect’s wife had called a friend in Michigan. That friend called the McHenry County sheriff’s office, asking that someone check on the well-being of the wife early Thursday.
  
  According to Nygren, Peters, who has military experience, fired a rifle through the door of the home, opened the door and continued firing, hitting a female deputy in the leg and striking a male deputy in the leg and abdomen.

Coppers are stabilized, but a long recovery ahead of them:

• The male officer — a seven-year veteran of the McHenry County Sheriff’s office — was taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where he was listed in “stable but critical” condition, police said. The female deputy, a 12-year veteran, was taken to Centegra Hospital – McHenry, authorities said. Her condition had stabilized.

Best wishes to the wounded.

Quinn Worried?

What do their internal numbers show?

• Former President Bill Clinton is in Chicago on Tuesday to headline an event to bolster the re-election of Gov. Pat Quinn. Clinton comes the day after early voting starts in Illinois and after President Barack Obama is scheduled to lead a big get-out-the-vote rally on Sunday at Chicago State University and then be the draw at a fundraiser in Chicago on Monday for the Democratic National Committee. On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden stumps for Quinn; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; and Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., at a turnout rally in north suburban Vernon Hills.
  
  Earlier this month, First Lady Michelle Obama and former Sec. of State and potential 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton were in Chicago to help Quinn, locked in a tight battle with GOP nominee Bruce Rauner.

Obama's second trip this month. Michelle stopping by. Both Clintons and Biden? Quinn must be running behind or Rauner is surging in the polls. It would be highly embarrassing to have a Republican elected in Obama's home state, but this desperation really makes us wonder what the pollsters and media have been hiding.

Quinn looked horrible in the debates. He has to import out-of-state shooting victims to push his anti-gun platform. Durbin hasn't been hammered nearly enough for comparing US troops to nazis. Obama is an anchor on every national and state race. And you've got Quinn trolls all over state worker websites (and our comment section) trying to use scare tactics to push the vote. Things must be grim.

Parking War Casualty

Victim of his own stupidity:

• A parking enforcement aide was slapped with a 29-day suspension for threatening to “aggressively ticket” the personal vehicles of Chicago Police officers in retaliation for an “unfair” parking ticket issued to a co-worker, the city’s inspector general disclosed Thursday.
  
  Three months ago, Inspector General Joe Ferguson used his quarterly report to lift the veil on a “rivalry” that triggered a “public screaming match” between a parking enforcement aide and a police officer.
  
  [...] On July 2, a parking enforcement aide was slapped with a 29-day suspension after being accused of sending an anonymous, profanity-laced email to an unidentified police district threatening to blanket police officers' personal vehicles with tickets to get even with an officer there for ticketing a fellow parking enforcement aide.
  
  “The PEA threatened to aggressively ticket personal vehicles parked in the CPD district police-vehicle-only parking lot, above and beyond prevailing enforcement practices,” Ferguson wrote.

No idea when the fundraiser is, but wouldn't it be funny if.........

Nevermind. Bad idea. Forget we said a word

Survey Time

Anyone getting these survey people coming to Roll Calls? According to some e-mailers, they're from the "Center for Police Equity" and they are teamed up with the UIC Survey Research Laboratory to survey departments to see what issues matter to the police.

There are sections on job satisfaction, attitudes toward supervisors, thoughts about the job, the community, the policies McCompStat comes up with, etc. There's even a section that appears to gauge your mental status and how you approach the job and coworkers.

It's over 250 questions and it's supposed ot be anonymous - except for the part where they ask you age, gender, years on the job, what beat takes up most of your time and what year you were born. In other words, enough to nail your identity 98 times out of 100. They claim you can't (or won't) be identified. They obviously haven't dealt with Chicago-types before.

They will donate $20 to the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation up to a total of $25,000. We'd do it just for the donation to the fund, but we certainly would advise against filling in the identifying data that might get you in a bit of a tight spot.

Nothing to See Here

Move along people:

• The Ebola crisis in the U.S. took another alarming turn Wednesday with word that a second Dallas nurse caught the disease from a patient and flew across the Midwest aboard an airliner the day before she fell ill, even though government guidelines should have kept her off the plane.
  
  Amid growing concern, President Barack Obama canceled a campaign trip to address the outbreak.
  
  Though it was not clear how the nurse contracted the virus, the case represented just the latest instance in which the disease that has ravaged one of the poorest corners of the earth — West Africa — also managed to find weak spots in one of the world’s most advanced medical systems.

These people are supposed to be under quarantine and isolated for 21 days minimum, yet here's one flying across the country. But everything is just great!

Kicking the Can Down the Road

Rahm releases his preliminary 2015 budget...guess what doesn't get addressed?

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday accused the Illinois Supreme Court of throwing a “wet blanket” on pension reform talks with police and fire unions and said he’s hoping for a statewide solution to the problem that might include a sales tax on services.
  
  In a meeting with the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board, Emanuel explained why he ignored the elephant in the room — a state-mandated, $550 million payment to shore up police and fire pensions — in a pre-election budget that bolsters services with higher taxes on parking, car leasing and cable television.
  
  Emanuel said he’s determined to “hold to the principle that reform and revenue go together,” just as he did in crafting a deal that saved the Municipal Employees and Laborers pension funds, with a telephone tax hike covering the first year of the city’s increased obligations.
  
  But he argued that the Illinois Supreme Court made that impossible when it ruled in July that subsidized health care premiums for state employees are protected under the state Constitution and cannot be “diminished or impaired.”

Pushing it to the crisis point....and beyond.

McCloseBuildings Fail

Anyone willing to admit that at least one of the stations mergers has failed miserably?

• 012 is getting a satellite office in the old 013 Wood Street Station now occupied by Sheriff's deputies doing warrants. Will save us a lot of time spent driving to and from the 012 station.
  
  Even though Staples was the driving force behind this -- based on input (begging) from officers and the community -- Ald. Moreno issued this earlier today taking most of the credit. Election year...
  
  "When the Wood Street 13th District Police Station closed in 2012, the nearby residents were concerned that the closing would effect the safety of the immediate neighborhood. The mere presence of police officers gave nearby residents the comfort of having police officers nearby."
  
  "At that time I vowed that the facility would continue to have a security presence. I worked closely with the Cook County Sheriffs office and in the Fall of last year, the Cook County Sheriff's office officially took over the Wood Street station and to this day, up to 75 sworn officers use the facility on a daily basis, bringing a deep sense of security to the community."
  
  "Today, I am pleased to announce that the Wood Street Station will also serve as a Satellite Office for 12th District Chicago Police Officers. Although neighbors welcomed the Sheriff's office, they still felt that a presence of Chicago Police Officers would add to the safety of the neighborhood."
  
  "Over the next month, I will be working hand in hand with the Sheriffs Office and the 12th District Police Office to welcome officers from the 12th District to the Wood Street Station. As your Alderman, safety is my number one priority and I want to thank the tremendous work of 12th District Commander Melissa Staples and the leaders in the Cook County Sheriffs' department. These dedicated individuals will make our neighborhood even safer when Chicago Police officers are working out of the Wood Street Station hand-in-hand with Cook County Sheriffs within the next month."

Seriously, have you seen the size of the new 012 on a map? And where 012 itself is located? And the neighborhoods and traffic in between. Now the Department is going to run a "satellite" office? Here's an idea....build a new building, somewhere in the area of ...oh Wood and Augusta. You could name it...013!

Almost Got Away...

...and almost won the Marathon!

• A Northwest Side man joined runners for a portion of the Chicago Marathon on Sunday morning while fleeing police, according to authorities.
  
  The man drew the attention of Chicago police officers after he began bumping into marathon spectators along a stretch of River North, according to police accounts. When the man saw officers, he bolted—bumping into more spectators and even some marathoners around the 200 block of West Superior Street—along Mile 12 of the marathon route, authorities say.
  
  Officers chased the man and tackled him to the ground, according to Chicago police. While arresting the man, police say, officers discovered he was carrying illegal drugs.

Moron - go break the law where there are tens of thousands of runners, hundreds of thousands of spectators and hundreds of coppers every few yards, all on heightened alert looking for Bostonian-type malfeasance. Real brainiac there.

Did You Vote?

You probably had to mail in your ballot yesterday for it to arrive in time for counting. If you brought it directly to the post office, it might get there in time, but we doubt it.

You cannot hand deliver it - the postmark acts as a validation of sorts, otherwise someone could bring a shitload of unfranked ballots to the count and claim they were hand delivering the decision in a box.

We believe your only option is to show up for provisional voting the morning of the count. Check the FOP site for times.

Send it Here

From the comments:

• A bit off topic,
  I am a red light camera installer.
  I worked for Spaantech,A Xerox subcontractor. I have info about the times being changed for the Yellow,
  and names of people at Xerox that told us to do it. Soooo who do I talk too?
  I would like to give my info to the right people to do the most good.
  Any help would be great. And A BIG THANK YOU!! TO ALL CPD.
  not a cop, Just a really pissed of tax payer 

The papers have had a few articles lately about the timing of yellow lights. If they don't want it, we'll spread it around. Our profiles are on the right hand sidebar.

Good News Just Got Better

Homicide in 011 the other night at the hair salon:

• Eddie Taylor was killed in a West Garfield Park shooting that left three other people injured early Saturday.
  
  Taylor and his acquaintances were at a party in the 4400 block of West Madison Street when one member of their group got into an argument with a man with a gun about 1:10 a.m., authorities said.
  
  During the dispute, the man with the gun opened fire, police said.

Turns out this dead turd is the subject of the recent Officer Safety Alert in 011. Seems he and his fellow altar boys went up the gang chain of command and got approval to kill an 011 District Officer in retaliation for a shooting about a month ago where the cops killed an assailant armed with a machine pistol. The information was credible enough that extra teams have been assigned to 011 over the past weeks.

Good riddance.

Lewis Out

So does Fioretti make a legit run? Or was he the vote-splitter?

• Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis will not pursue a bid for Chicago mayor, the coordinator of the committee that was exploring a run announced Monday.
  
  Lewis, 61, had been seen as a potentially strong challenger to Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the February election.  Her series of speaking engagements around the city was interrupted last week when she was hospitalized after becoming sick at home. Union officials said she underwent surgery and was suffering from a “serious illness,” but have provided few other details about what is wrong with her.

Our guess? Cancer. [UPDATE: It's cancer]

In the meantime, Lewis's statement by her people had no mention of maybe endorsing someone other than Rahm. She appears to hate his guts and there was no love lost in return either. Either Fioretti starts making the right moves or he was the plant all along.

More Damaged Statues [UPDATE]

It wasn't just one Memorial Horse:

• A few of the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation’s Horses of Honor fell victim to their popularity during a busy Chicago Marathon weekend, with two vandalized and several damaged after people climbed or leaned on them.
  
  The horses, decorated by local artists and installed along Michigan Avenue and in other parts of downtown, honor officers who died or were injured in the line of duty.
  
  The company handling the approximately 60 statues’ installation has checked all of them for damage, and had to take three in to be repaired.

And big surprise - the one individual arrested? Local problem child:

• A Near West Side man who broke the wooden wings off a Chicago police memorial horse statue along North Michigan Avenue while sitting on it was ordered held on $50,000 bail today.
  
  Darius Moss, 25, of the 2300 block of West Jackson Boulevard, is charged with three felony counts of criminal damage to property. Judge Peggy Chiampas ordered him held on $50,000 bail.

You just can't leave nice things out when company comes around.

UPDATE:  The title of the Tribune piece is further proof of their decline from the voice of "Mid-Western Republican" to "Ball-Washers of the Illinois Combine"

• Horse statues honoring police fall victim to their own popularity

No they didn't - they fell prey to morons, idiots, morally-and-mentally-deficient wastes of tissue who suck up oxygen so there's less for the rest of us to breathe. How difficult is it to stay off of a piece of sculpture that doesn't explicitly invite you to climb on it? How hard is it to read a sign? But the Tribune wants you to think it's because the displays are "popular"?

Did you notice it took the Trib almost 3 days to identify the offender in custody? Anyone wonder why? Because they had to try to tie it into the crowds that attended the Chicago Marathon? Right - that's a crowd that has been notorious for years, destroying everything in their path as they jog throughout the city.

Cops Kill Armed Assailant

He had been shooting in the neighborhood earlier:

• A man was shot to death by a Chicago Police officer after he pointed a gun at police in the Washington Park neighborhood on the South Side early Sunday, police said.
  
  About 12:35 a.m., Wentworth District tactical officers responded to a call of shots fired in the 5300 block of South King Drive, according to a statement from Chicago Police.
  
  A 26-year-old man with a gun ran east toward Washington Park when the officers tried to stop him, according to the statement and Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden.
  
  As the officers chased him, the man allegedly pointed a gun in their direction and one of the officers opened fire, striking him multiple times.
  
  He was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead, police said.
  
  A weapon was recovered at the scene, police said.

Well done. St. Louis and Ferguson, Missouri will hold a sympathy riots later tonight. Just because. What? You need a reason now?

Are These Rahm's "Immigrants?"

There aren't in the city after all?

• Two teenage asylum seekers from Guatemala have escaped a detention center in Illinois and carjacked a 91-year-old Navy veteran.
  
  The incident has prompted the federal government to order a security review at all 139 shelters across the country that house illegal immigrant minors, MailOnline can exclusively reveal.
  
  The boys, age 16 and 17, were able to walk away unchallenged from Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, Illinois, outside Chicago, on Wednesday morning and carjack two victims before they were arrested more than 225 miles away outside Iowa City, Iowa, according to authorities.

So Obama is letting in car thieves and violent teenage felons-to-be without any sort of screening whatsoever? That's reassuring. And why are we reading about this in a British daily paper and not a local rag? Cat got their tongue...or Rahm?

This is also "reassuring:"

• At least five children infected with the respiratory illness known enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) have died in the U.S. in the past month.
  
  The lastest confirmed victim was a four-year-old New Jersey boy, Eli Waller. He died at home on September 25. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed the cause of death Friday night. But health officials say they have no idea how he contracted the virus. A health official says Eli was “asymptomatic and fine” when he went to bed but died overnight. He had no known preexisting immune weakness.
  
  A 10-year girl Rhode Island girl infected with EV-D68, Emily Otrando, died less than 24 hours after being rushed to the hospital with breathing problems. Three other patients with EV-D68 also died in September.
  
  
• Enteroviruses commonly circulate in the U.S. during summer and fall. EV-D68 was first identified in California in 1962. Over the past thirty years, only small numbers were reported in the U.S.
  
  The CDC hasn’t suggested reasons for the current uptick or its origin. Without that answer, some question whether the disease is being spread by the presence of tens of thousands of illegal immigrant children from Central America admitted to the U.S. in the past year.
  
  The origin could be entirely unrelated.
  
  However, a study published in Virology Journal, found EV-D68 among some of the 3,375 young, ill people tested in eight Latin American countries, including the Central American nations of El Salvador and Nicaragua, in 2013.
  
  Though the U.S. government is keeping secret the locations of the illegal immigrant children, there are significant numbers of them in both cities in which the current outbreak was first identified, Kansas City, Missouri and Chicago, Illinois, according to local advocates and press reports.

Open borders....and open season on diseases, too.

Predictable

Public art is going to be climbed on, abused and damaged by assholes - it's a given in these times where no one has any sense of propriety:

• A 25-year-old man was arrested after allegedly vandalizing a police memorial horse statue late Saturday night on Michigan Avenue.
  
  A few minutes after 11 p.m., a man climbed on one of the Chicago Police memorial horse statues in the 500 block of North Michigan Avenue, according to police.
  
  Both of the wings on the horse, one on each side, were broken off the statue, according to a police report. There are signs “clearly posted” in the area prohibiting trespassing and climbing, according to the report.
  
  A witness called police to report the damage and the 25-year-old man was arrested. He was custody and charges are pending, according to police.

Hopefully, repairs can be made in short order.

Firefighters Hurt

Bridgeport:

• A tricky fire burning in Bridgeport trapped several Chicago firefighters and two of them ended up in the hospital Sunday afternoon.
  
  CBS 2 [...] reports those firefighters are being observed after being trapped in two separate areas while barreling this blaze. Though fortunately there are no significant injuries to report crews say this was a nasty blaze to battle.
  
  Crews described the fire as stubborn and unpredictable. The Bridgeport house fire started in a three flat and spread to two neighboring homes.

Best wishes to the injured.

Underdogs Again

3 point underdogs this weekend, but the over/under is the highest of the entire schedule (54.5 points). We don't see a shootout in Atlanta.

Someone Explain "Business Hours"?

Once again, a hair salon open until all hours. And once again, a bunch of people get shot and someone dies:

• A 22-year-old man was shot to death and three other people were wounded in a shooting during a party about 1:10 a.m. Saturday at a beauty salon in the West Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side, authorities said.
  
  The man, who was identified as Eddie Taylor of the 1900 block of South Homan Avenue, was shot in the face and was pronounced dead at the scene in the 4400 block of West Madison Street, according to Chicago Police Department News Affairs....
  
  
• Police said one of the people who was shot got into an argument with a "male offender," who wasn't invited to the party at the salon. The attacker then took out a gun and started firing shots. No one is in custody as a result of the incident....

We're assuming these are licensed premises. Do they have some sort of "B.Y.O.B." thing where they can claim they're actually doing hair at 0100, 0200, even 0400 hours, but in reality, people are getting charged a cover, bringing in booze and settling old scores with guns? Someone ought to ban after-hour salons.

Another Crash

Two more Officers hurt in a crash:

• Two Chicago Police officers were injured Friday evening when their squad car crashed in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side.
  
  The single-vehicle crash happened about 9:10 p.m. in the 3500 block of West Washington, police News Affairs Officer [...] said, citing preliminary information.
  
  Both officers were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, [...]. Additional details on the crash were not immediately available.

Best wishes to the injured officers.

Maybe it's a good thing the FOP made vehicles part of the contract - we've counted about eight crashes since the Contract went out for a vote. We'll be down to 392 cars before ratification.

By the way - did you vote yet? The count is at the end of this week.

Media Word Games

Make up your minds please:

• A 16-year-old boy is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail after approaching a 17-year-old man and shooting him in the chest last week.

Such a fine line between "boy" and "man" evidently. But you know if he was shot by the police, he's be a "teen" or "boy" or "child" until at least age 20, especially if he was "turning his life around" or an "aspiring brain surgeon."

Corruption in the Making

Remember when the Supernintendo made his driver a sergeant? He was following in the footsteps of previous supernintendos who promoted their lackeys and lickspittles to lucrative spots as payback (payoff?) for long hours, missed time at home, and keeping their mouths shut about who the supernintendo was visiting and at what hours.

Of course, after this particular driver was promoted, it was revealed that he hadn't even taken the test, and was therefore ineligible and eventually unpromoted.

Everyone knows there are a couple of people who have slipped through the cracks and gotten promoted without taking or passing the test. So this stunt of Rahm's doesn't surprise us in the least:

• The city of Chicago denied the rank-and-file police union’s Freedom of Information Act request asking for the names of officers who applied to be sergeants. Now, the union is asking the Cook County Circuit Court to overturn the city’s denial.
  
  On Sept. 29, the Fraternal Order of Police filed a FOIA request with the city asking for “the rank order list of Chicago Police Officers who took the most recent promotional examination for promotion to the rank of Sergeant,” according to a lawsuit filed by the union Tuesday.
  
  On Oct. 6, the city denied the request, contending the records sought are exempt from FOIA disclosure because they invade the applicants’ personal privacy, according to a letter attached to the lawsuit as evidence.
  
  The release of applicants’ names could also “hinder the City’s ability to attract qualified candidates,” the city wrote. “Additionally, individuals may be reluctant to apply for positions with the City of Chicago if a third party can access lists of applicants of job candidates.”
  
  A spokesman for the city’s Law Department did not respond to request for comment Wednesday evening.
  
  The union is asking the court to overturn the city’s denial and compensate it for court and attorney fees.

The FOP has always had a copy of the results to ensure that the city was adhering to their 20-or-30% meri-clout-orious promotions and taking the rest in rank order. Without this check, you can bet that the drivers and other connected fools would be the rule instead of the exception. The city's claim that this invades the applicants' privacy is ludicrous as the FOP has everyone's address for newsletters and elections. Same with the "hindering" - we already work for the City and a 9.5 fingered midget - we're just applying for a different spot within the organization.

Rahm is playing stupid games.

Freedom! ::Bang Bang::

This is priceless:

• After spending 15 years in prison, a New York man was shot within minutes of his release after he got into a car not knowing that another ex-convict with a gun and a grudge was hiding in the trunk, state police said on Friday.
  
  Devon Simmons, 33, had intended to catch a train from the prison in Otisville, New York, back home to New York City on Thursday morning after getting out on parole. Instead, he accepted a ride from a man in a car with Illinois license plates...

Now that's a grudge.

Cop Injured

Traffic crash, which in recent years, are more deadly and more injurious than attacks:

• A Chicago police officer was injured this morning as she was responding to a call and her vehicle was struck by another motorist in North Lawndale, police said.
  
  The accident happened on the 3800 block of West 16th Street at 11 a.m., said Chicago Police News Affairs...

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

2nd Officer Wounded

That adrenaline rush is something, isn't it?

• Thirty-nine shots were fired Tuesday night during an Englewood gunbattle with an Indiana fugitive that injured a Chicago Police captain and a detective and left one man dead, Supt. Garry McCarthy said.
  
  [...] Brown was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, unlawful use of a firearm and being a fugitive from justice.
  
  But McCarthy also divulged for the first time that a second police officer had been wounded in the firefight near 72nd and Lowe. Brown barricaded himself in his sister’s first-floor apartment and a six-hour standoff followed.
  McCarthy said a detective was hit in the leg by a bullet fragment. He didn’t realize until he got home that the blood on his pants was his own. An X-ray later revealed a bullet fragment was burrowed into his leg, McCarthy said.

And a speedy recovery wished to this Officer also.

CTA Shooting

Sounds like a head case:

• A man who opened fire on a CTA Blue Line train with “an assault weapon-type rifle” Thursday morning was taken into custody, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said.
  
  While no one was hurt in the shooting, passengers were rattled when the man fired five shots from the La Salle Station platform at the oncoming train about 11:20 a.m.
  
  
• At a news conference later in the day, McCarthy confirmed that five shots were fired at the train, but he wouldn’t speculate about the man’s motive. He said the man had a FOID card and that the stock had been cut off the rifle.
  
  “He fired a number of shots at the train — not an individual, which is perplexing,” McCarthy said. “We responded, we got the gun, we got him. It’s kind of bizarre behavior. I don’t know his motivations.”

If you can classify him as a mental, he might lack intent. Without intent, CompStat can claim there wasn't a crime and all those bullet dents and holes are just so much "damages of unknown origin!" It's fool-proof!

Karen Lewis Seriously Sick

This doesn't sound good at all:

• Chicago Teachers Union officials revealed on Thursday that CTU president Karen Lewis has a “serious illness,” underwent surgery Wednesday and is “alert and comfortable.”
  
  But for the fourth straight day, neither the union nor Lewis’ campaign staff would comment on the nature of that illness or any prognosis for the charismatic union leader. And their continued silence raises serious questions about the viability of her all-but-announced campaign to unseat Rahm Emanuel.

Good news for Rahm as she was definitely the more charismatic opponent.

Bad news for Rahm - a three way race with Rahm, Lewis and Fioretti seems all but doomed. If Lewis endorses Fioretti, there's a better-than-average chance Rahm loses.

Scanner Audio of Shooting

One of a couple copies out there by the scanner community:



Very intense very fast. The dispatcher deserves a lot of recognition for a job well done.

Hawks Opening Night Win

One down - eighty-one to go.

Illinois FOP Endorses Quinn?

Quinn released how many hundreds of violent Illinois offenders, endangering the lives of citizens and the police, but the Illinois FOP think he's a better deal than Rauner?

• Governor Pat Quinn today was endorsed by the state’s largest public safety organization, the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, which represents more than 35,000 active duty and retired police officers in Illinois. Today’s major endorsement by the largest public safety organization in Illinois adds to the growing momentum for Governor Quinn’s re-election in 2014.
  
  “Governor Quinn is the strong leader we need to protect the people of Illinois,” said Chris Southwood, President of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge (FOP). “There is only one candidate in this race with a proven record of making the tough decisions to protect public safety. Governor Quinn is on our side fighting every day to keep our communities safe and we are proud to endorse him in this important election.”

Yes, Quinn is the only one in the race empowered to make those decisions - Rauner doesn't hold office. But we take issue with "tough decisions to protect public safety." Letting robbers, thieves, burglars, etc go free before their sentences are completed doesn't contribute anything to public safety. In fact, e-mails released yesterday hint at a deeper connection concerning Quinn's Neighborhood Recovery Initiative as a "slush fund" steering money to connected entities in exchange for votes for Quinn:

• The former agency head overseeing Gov. Pat Quinn’s troubled anti-violence program gave state lawmakers a contrasting picture Wednesday, saying the 2010 initiative largely worked and created jobs and opportunities during a violent time for the Chicago area.
  
  Barbara Shaw, former executive director of the Illinois Violence Prevention Authority, spoke publicly for the first time about the now-defunct program, spending more than five hours detailing how the program was run.
  
  Painting a different picture, the GOP seized on 2010 emails from Quinn’s former chief of staff released to the commission mentioning the program in the context of the competitive 2010 election. Questions over the program have dogged Quinn’s current re-election bid against Republican Bruce Rauner.

Just who we'd want our endorsement to go to. Smooth move Southwood.

Slow Learner

For being so politically "astute," the 9.5-fingered-ass sure is tone deaf about the Great Chicago Fizzle:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel indicated Wednesday he’s ready to double down on the Great Chicago Fire festival despite a first edition that fizzled last weekend as he looked on with tens of thousands of people along the Chicago River.
  
  The mayor would not say whether he would once again spend taxpayer money on a second edition of the festival after the first one got $1.35 million or whether Redmoon Theater would continue to organize it. On Saturday night, the event’s signature moment fell flat when the planned torching of three faux Victorian homes floating on the river failed to ignite following heavy rains. It prompted veteran Ald. Ed Burke to dub it “the fiasco on the river.”

Anyone know if Fioretti is paying attention? Karen Lewis is in the hospital with "undisclosed issues" - she's this close to being out for the election. The copper from 012 - pipe dream. Same for that other political guy. The pieces have fallen into place and Fioretti should be slapping Rahm with this.

Burke sees which way the wind is blowing. Co-opt Lewis to endorse Fioretti and Rahm is a bad memory.

Horse is Out - Close the Door!

The infected person died late yesterday, but this hit the news just prior to death:

• The Dallas County prosecutor is considering whether to file criminal charges against Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who traveled from Monrovia to Dallas, where he was diagnosed with the deadly virus last week.
  
  “We are looking at whether he intentionally and knowingly exposed the public to the virus,” said Debbie Denmon, a spokesperson for the Dallas County prosecutor’s office.
  
  “It’s the issue of holding someone accountable, that you can’t just get on an airplane and lie on a travel document and get to the United States and lie on a hospital document,” she said.

Actually, you can just get on an airplane. You can just lie on a travel document. You can get to the United States. You can just lie on hospital documents. This guy did all of that. Then you can die and leave behind 80 people being monitored for further spread of a virus.

A first responder is currently under observation in Dallas. He never met or touched the infected party - he just went to the infected apartment, and he's been on the loose for a week or so. Hopefully, this is a false alarm.

And how are the national powers-that-be reacting? Temperature checks:

• Federal health officials will require temperature checks for the first time at five major American airports for people arriving from the three West African countries hardest hit by the deadly Ebola virus. However, health experts said the measures were more likely to calm a worried public than to prevent many people with Ebola from entering the country.

Gee, a completely ineffective response from the feds - who would have thunk it? This "screening" can be defeated by simply taking a couple of Tylenol mid-flight. ::Poof!!:: Fever gone! Then just lie on a few forms, lie to a few interview questions and you're free to infect hundreds, thousands, tens-of-thousands.

Shooting Coverage

What has been published at last count:

• Channel 2
• Channel 5
• Channel 7
• Channel 32
• Tribune
• Sun Times

How is This Helpful?

The definition of a virus:

• ...is an extremely tiny parasite that can only reproduce if it is within a living being, or anything that corrupts something else.

In related news, Jesse Jackson went to Texas:

• As an Ebola investigation continues at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, the family of the man diagnosed with the deadly illness is getting some assistance from civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.Jackson said the family of the patient — Thomas Duncan — asked him to come to Dallas to help them get some answers from the doctors treating the man.

That makes two viruses in Dallas. Jesse must do translating as a side job.

More Clues - Detectives Soon

If you check out the Administrative Faxes at the desk or on the computer yesterday, you would have seen that the Department is currently soliciting interested Detectives for Financial Crimes and Auto Theft positions. That means they're moving the clouted individuals/interested parties to specialized spots prior to promoting the new guys and gals who will be back-filled where needed.

Update those resumes people!

More VRI Requirements

But not for you - for sergeants.

According to a recent AdminFax, sergeants are required to have the same qualifying activity numbers to work VRI that Officers must have.

The sergeants have to have it within a year though, not every month.

Englewood Gun Battle

On going.

Officer shot and headed to Stroger.

Subject(s) trapped in a building nearby, SWAT en route.

Updates as able.

UPDATE: 700X grazed in the head and shot in the vest. Listed as critical, but that looks like a precaution due to age and location of wounds. Numerous media outlets say the Department spokespeople are saying "not life threatening," so we'll see.

UPDATE: Homicide suspect from Indiana?

UPDATE: Suspect identified as wanted in a triple shooting in Indianapolis this past weekend. It's a barricade situation at last report.

Burke Gets In on the Act

Is he for real? Or is he "inoculating" Rahm from further criticisms by "addressing" the issue in a hearing:

• An influential alderman on Monday took aim at one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s pet projects by describing last weekend’s inaugural Great Chicago Fire Festival as “the fiasco on the river.”
  
  [...] “What can you tell me about the fiasco on the river over the weekend, the Chicago Fire Festival?” Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, asked an Emanuel administration official Monday during a Budget Committee meeting that did not have the subject on its agenda. “Were there any taxpayer dollars involved in that event?”

Really Ed? We guess it's kind of obvious that Ed is merely providing cover for Rahm. The taxpayer element was covered extensively in the lame-stream media for weeks leading up to the fiasco. Weren't you paying attention as $350 grand walked out the door?

• “One would think to celebrate the 143rd anniversary of one of the most significant events in Chicago’s history, there ought to be a better way of doing it,” said Burke, a longtime student of city history. “One would think if there’s enough money to spend on something like this that maybe the money would be better spent being contributed to the Greater Chicago Food Depository to help feed people that are going hungry, or to donate to a shelter that takes care of abused women, or many such things.”
  
  Asked if the city should do it again, Burke responded: “What’s the old adage? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I think that applies.” On Sunday, both Redmoon and city officials told the Tribune that they planned to try again.

Wait a minute....where's the call for a full accounting of the taxpayer money spent? Where's the receipts for material? The stores the material was bought? Who wired this disaster? How much was paid to the workers? Who were the workers? You know what we wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out? That a sizable portion of this money found its way into connected pockets.

In the meantime, the quotes from the Redmoon softballs are something to behold:

• "We had been building up anticipation of those houses burning. It's not an unfair expectation that they should have burned and burned spectacularly," said Jim Lasko, executive art director for Redmoon Theater, which produced the show in partnership with the city of Chicago.
  
  
• Lasko, who first expressed his hope for a second shot Sunday on his Twitter account, said the motifs were "symbolic inner core reflections of Chicago's grit, greatness and renewal."
  
  
• "The houses didn't burn, and that was sad," he said. "It's hard not to feel like we're being challenged to embrace our message, which is to have grit and resilience and come back and do it better." Lasko said one of the group's failures was not coming up with a backup plan that didn't rely on the same electrical connections that failed to ignite the houses.
  

That is some excellent blather right there folks. A lot of words and not a coherent thought in the bunch.

Nothing to Worry About!

Still no word on Ebola training. Meanwhile, in the real world, Ebola has managed to make the jump from a patient to a health professional in Spain:

• A nursing auxiliary in Madrid has tested positive for Ebola after treating a patient in the Spanish capital, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais. The case is believed to be first in which a person contracts Ebola from a source outside of Africa.

These are the folks with all the protective gear, procedures and protocols. Here in the USA, no one knows exactly how many people were exposed to the disease:

• A homeless man who rode in the ambulance directly after Thomas Eric Duncan, the Dallas Ebola patient, was found by police. Although the man will be taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital to be monitored, it is unknown if he came in contact with others while on the loose.

That's the ambulance that stayed in service for multiple days after Duncan rode in it. But the government will protect us, right?

• “Our political class is not comfortable with the idea of using border control and immigration law to protect Americans,” immigration expert Mark Krikorian told Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon on Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot Radio. “They don’t really like the idea of keeping out people who want to come here.”

And why can't we cut off flights to the USA from Ebola stricken countries? CNN has a guest who claims that same old bugaboo - Racism!

• An author on Anderson Cooper’s CNN program Thursday said the United States is uniquely obligated to maintain air links with the Ebola-ridden nation of Liberia, claiming it would be immoral to quarantine a nation created through “American slavery.”

Yup - because of a practice outlawed for over 150 years, America must now forgo even the simplest of precautions lest the world think badly of us. And it wouldn't be a party without a cult of victimhood springing up:

• Residents in the Vickery Meadow neighborhood of Dallas are living near the epicenter of the Ebola scare in North Texas. Now, they say they’re facing a different challenge — discrimination.

And the so-called leaders on the left and right are willfully blind:

• On Monday Texas Governor Rick Perry dismissed the notion that a travel ban from Ebola-afflicted nations would be an effective step to prevent a viral outbreak in the United States. Perry's comments echo those of the Obama Administration; over the past week the CDC has repeatedly refused to support banning flights from countries affected by Ebola.
  
  
• CDC Spokesman Dave Daigle recently admitted that Ebola screening for airplane passengers flying from West Africa to the U.S. is inadequate. He said, "I think he [Duncan] got on the plane asymptomatic, without any symptoms whatsoever… the symptoms occurred after he landed or after he arrived in the US so it’s very difficult to prevent that. I mean the viruses don't respect borders."

The entire Obama administration doesn't respect borders, fool. And everyone knows the viruses need a host to travel and cross those same borders. Assholes one and all.

Still Short

Police Limit:

"short" meaning "shorthanded," but also "too damn many people hidden away in do-nothing spots."

More Cold = Less Crime?

Except this weekend it seems:

• At least three people have been killed and 26 others wounded in shootings across Chicago since Friday evening.
  
  The most recent fatal shooting took place just before 11:30 p.m. Saturday in the 1700 block of West 59th Street.

Amusingly, NBC has started putting this disclaimer at the top of their weekend shooting report articles:

• Editor's Note: NBC Chicago includes shootings that took place between 6 p.m. Friday and 12 a.m. Monday in the weekend violence report.

Meaning that this is a preliminary number - the article was posted at 7:05 pm Sunday, so there are still almost 5 hours to go on the crime clock.

Another Death Investigation?

Bits and pieces found:

• Detectives were investigating how dismembered human remains ended up in a garage in the Hegewisch neighborhood, police said.
  
  A male was found dead in a garage in the 13300 block of South Avenue M about 3:20 p.m., said Police News Affairs [...]. Detectives were conducting a death investigation, she said.
  
  The man was found dismembered, a source with knowledge of the investigation said.

Because the chances he wandered into the garage and just cut himself into disposable pieces are so astronomically high.

Bears Post Mortem

Anyone else getting the feeling that the Bears are a "first half" team and nothing more?

The last three games they've been outscored 40-13 in the second half and been held scoreless in 3 of those 6 quarters. In fact, in 10 second half quarters, the Bears have scored 7 or more points only three times.

Cost Comparison

Maybe the Chicago media can jump on the bandwagon?

Someone pointed out that the 3rd of July fireworks were cancelled a couple of years ago. That cost how much? Under a quarter-million at last estimate (excluding police overtime). And it entertained a million people - minimum. It also went of without a significant hitch (the display, not the wilding afterwards).

Saturday night's total attendance was 30,000. Figure that one out.

The New Faces of Crime

Anyone get a look at the suburban kids charged in the murder, attempt murder, armed robbery up in Skokie?

Let's see, black guy, Asian guy, white guy and some Boston-bomber-type. The new Rainbow Coalition of Crime.

Hey Rahm, Nice "Parade"

Now where's our $350,000 you ass?

• Organizers had promised a big fire display for Chicago's first Great Chicago Fire Festival, but in the end it didn't quite meet expectations.
  
  Crowds were disappointed when the spectacle of fire ended up fizzling on the Chicago River this weekend. Elaborate sculptures of Victorian homes did not go up in flames like they were supposed to.
  
  Organizers blame recent heavy rains for an electrical malfunction.

Spin it any way you want - it sucked to the tune of $2 million, $350,000 of which was taxpayer money. If we were running for office, we'd be cutting the campaign commercials right now.

The crowd reactions were fantastic:

• “It looks kind of like a sad bonfire,” said Luther Walls, 20, a University of Chicago student who was at the event with a group of his college friends who live at the university’s Talbot House.
• “We’re a little disappointed,” he said. “I could have found a different way to spend my Saturday night.”
• “The concept is nice, the concept is cool . . . but honestly it was a let down,” said Arguro Carmona, 29, of Woodridge. “We were expecting to see big flames and they just didn’t seem to catch.”
• “It was disappointing to say the least,” said Jane Kollmer, 31, of Uptown, who watched the festival from the 14th floor of the Wrigley Building.

No better way to celebrate the deaths of 300 Chicagoans who died than a blazing parade that can't ignite.

Next up - The Eastland Commemorative Extravaganza! It'll be FANTASTIC we tell you - AMAZING! Rahm will pack the ship with city union workers and potential Fioretti voters. And for the grand finale, the ship won't capsize or sink.

Bears - and 3 Days til NHL Starts

Four days for the Blackhawks, but who's counting?

In any event, the Bears are 2.5 point dogs today in Carolina.

They're certainly lucky to be 2-and-2 so far.

That Was a Bit Chilly

Snow - third earliest snow on record:

• Cold temperatures are being felt throughout the Chicago area as some places saw brief flurries Saturday morning.
  
  Many residents in northern suburbs, such as Villa Park and Wadsworth, awoke to brief flurries - though the snow showers didn't last long as they developed into cold rain. It's the third earliest snowfall ever reported in Chicago, according to the National Weather Service.
  
  Temperatures began dropping Friday evening and continued to plunge below 50 degrees in many areas.

And speaking of weather, this amused us some more:

• After 35 years of telling us carbon dioxide is melting ice in Antarctica, New Scientist is now saying carbon dioxide has caused the ice to grow for 35 years.
    
• All that changed this month. On September 17, New Scientist said the ice is growing.
  From the article:

  Since satellite records began in 1979, the winter maximum sea ice cover around Antarctica has been growing at 1.5 per cent per decade. This year has long been on track for a new annual record, with 150 daily records already set. 

  The record was finally broken on 15 September and sea ice extent has increased since, according to data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center analysed by Australia's Bureau of Meteorology in Hobart.

  Wait a second, for years New Scientist has said the ice is melting at the South Pole due to global warming.
  Now it suddenly claims that it has been growing for 35 years?

The data shows it's been growing for 35 years. How about we just all go with this?

And someone bring us the head of Al Gore on a platter..

Um...What Now?

Is this crap still popping to the surface?

• Speaking of voting Monday August 6th 7pm @ Steve's lounge, That little neighborhood of Hegewisch is having the vote for the new board of directors of the baseball league the cop killer was coaching in.
  Guess what the one remaining board member rigged the election and has the old board wives running.
  
  He rejected the slate of police and firemen that wanted to run the league.
  
  Babe Ruth international DID NOT change the background rules so guess who will be a coach next year yup and now they have legal defense to stop any attempt to remove him. Great turn out that night for nothing.

Is this true? 

UPDATE: Obviously, the writer meant October. And obviously, the remaining board member has studied Machine politics if he can rig an election this way.

FOP Worried About Contract?

A couple people have written to say that the FOP is hitting 3rd Watch roll calls again to encourage a "yes" vote on the pending Contract. Not days because the veterans aren't happy, and not midnights because the young kids are the ones that have to live with the resultant changes for the rest of their careers. Anyone have further info?

Have you voted? Get it in soon via the printed instructions.

Voter Registration Deadline

Sure we complain and give others a forum to complain. But have you taken the next step? Are you participating in the process?

• Register To Vote On Line.
  
  Deadline is 7 Oct.
  
  You can check if you're registered, register if you're not and find your polling place.
  
  http://www.elections.il.gov/votinginformation/register.aspx

Don't worry about jury duty - they go by Driver's Licenses in addition to voter rolls, so you're in the hopper regardless. And you get to vote against the Machine if you're so inclined.

Congratulations

Most people learn from their mistakes. We kid! We kid!

• Congratulations to Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, a native of New York, on his engagement to Chicago personal injury attorney Kristin Barnette, a 5-foot-9-inch blonde of Scandinavian descent who brooks no nonsense.
  
  “When Kristin proposes, one complies,” he joked.

Well that would explain the sideways CompStat anger....what? We're kidding!

In any event, congratulations and good luck. There were a couple of snide asides made in other comment sections - they were removed as a matter of course. Our ongoing verbal bitching at the superintendent is over policy moves and political considerations. Let's all try to keep it that way.

Bad to Worse

These numbers are appalling:

• Chicago’s unfunded pension obligations have ballooned to $37.3 billion — a more than three-fold increase since 2003 — because of inadequate employer contributions, declining investment income and a shrinking base of active employees, a taxpayers’ watchdog group has concluded.
  
  The Civic Federation’s latest report on the sorry state of the Chicago area’s 10 public employee pension funds does not factor in a Chicago pension reform bill signed by Gov. Pat Quinn that saved the Municipal Employees and Laborers pension funds.
  
  But Civic Federation President Laurence Msall said the report nevertheless underscores the need for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police and fire union leaders to forge an agreement on pension reforms and for the Illinois General Assembly to approve it during the fall veto session.

We made our contributions - every single payday for decades - but the City?

• Government employees did their part by contributing the required portion of their paychecks to their future pensions. But the government contribution fell nearly $2 billion short of the $2.8 billion required to cover costs and reduce a portion of unfunded liabilities over a 30-year time frame, the report concludes.
  
  Investment income didn’t help. And the future outlook is bleak, thanks to a “declining ratio” of active employees to beneficiaries.
  
  In 2012, the 10 funds had 1.11 active employees for every retiree, down from a 1.55 ratio a decade ago. The police, laborers, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, Forest Preserve and CTA funds all had more beneficiaries than active employees in 2012.
  
  Counting statewide funds, the pension liability amounts to $19,579 for every Chicago resident.

Just fucking great. And Rahm is burning - yes burning - $350,000 in taxpayer cash Saturday.

Retirees Lose One Battle

No delay in jacking up their rates 30-to-79%:

• A federal appeals court has given Mayor Rahm Emanuel the green light to save $27 million in 2015 by forging ahead with a three-year phase-out of the city’s 55-percent city subsidy for retiree health care.
  
  In July, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that subsidized health care premiums for state employees are protected under the state Constitution and that the Illinois General Assembly was "precluded from diminishing or impairing” that benefit.
  
  Attorneys representing the city’s 28,000 retirees and their dependents argued that the high court ruling “substantially increased” their chances of prevailing on the merits.
  
  They wanted the 7^th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to force Emanuel to roll back their monthly health insurance premiums to 2013 levels.
  
  That’s when Emanuel announced plans to phase out the 55-percent subsidy by January 2017 — but continue that coverage for the 5,500 oldest retirees — and force the younger retirees to make the switch to Obamacare.

So the higher rates take effect, even as the case proceeds forward at the federal level. Take note boys and girls, especially those hoping to retire this year or next or any time in the future actually. We may never have enough money to fully retire - ever.

There Goes More Money

Ben Joravsky at The Readaer explains where another $100 million went:

• Yesterday was a banner day in the city's effort to waste more property tax dollars on dreadful tax increment financing deals.
  
  In this case, the city sent roughly $1.3 million—the first of many such payments, mind you—to one of the world's largest privately held medical supply companies in exchange for the Michael Reese Hospital property.
  
  A property that apparently nobody else wanted.
  
  My guess is that Mayor Emanuel didn't mention this in any of his daily press releases because there was just no way his media team, as nimble as it is, could possibly spin it into good news—though it would be fun to watch them try.
  
  
• I might as well mention that some of Medline's principals have been generous contributors to Mayor Emanuel's election campaigns. Another thing you won't read about in a mayoral press release.
  
  By the way, Michael Reese is a few blocks south and east of the site where Emanuel plans to spend another $55 million in your property tax dollars buying up land for a Marriott hotel and DePaul basketball arena.
  
  You'd think that the mayor would just use the Michael Reese site—which the city already owned—for his South Loop real estate dream.
  
  But instead he's spending more property tax dollars to take more property off the tax rolls, meaning your property tax bill will go up to compensate for the taxes we aren't collecting from of the South Loop site.

Go read it all while you figure out a new way to make cat food palatable.

Spin Spin Spin

Look over here! Look at the shiny balls!

• Homicides continue to drop in Chicago, to the lowest levels since the 1960s, but shootings remain stubbornly higher, with the numbers of incidents and victims both on the rise at the nine-month mark of 2014, according to statistics released Wednesday by Chicago police.
  
  For the first nine months, 1,927 people were shot, a 6 percent increase that translates into 114 more victims than the year-earlier period, the statistics show.
  
  But homicides fell 7 percent to 298, 22 fewer killings than a year earlier and the lowest numbers since 1965, according to the department. It also marks the eighth consecutive quarter in which homicides have dropped.

If homicides are up for the month (which they were), bring out the quarterly numbers. If the quarterly totals are shady, trumpet the annual decrease. DO NOT mention the advances in medical technology or near universal presence of cell phones that permit the immediate summoning of medical assistance. And downplay the "more lead, less dead" mantra that seems to be taking hold - shootings incidents and shooting victims are up, despite extra State Troopers, Feebs, ATF, sheriffs and 200 CPD a night working at OT rates.

Promotions Coming?

Guess which orders they just updated?

The "Merit Board" and "Academic Selection Board" orders?

Start updating those resumes and making those phone calls. The question is now what rank are they promoting?

No CompStat Again?

This means at least 5 out of the last 6 CompStat meetings have been canceled.

If you can't do the job (and the job includes all these tedious meetings that supposedly directly impact crime rates) then maybe it's time for someone else to have a shot at the top spot.

Seems the only people doing their jobs and reducing crime on a daily basis are the blue shirts.

Welcome Ebola Virus!

This can't be good:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed on Tuesday that a patient being treated at a Dallas hospital has tested positive for Ebola, the first case diagnosed in the United States.
  
  The patient left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in the United States on September 20, CDC director, Dr. Tom Frieden told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. It’s the first patient to be diagnosed with this particular strain of Ebola outside of Africa.
  
  “[The patient] had no symptoms when departing Liberia or entering this country. But four or five days later on the 24th of September, he began to develop symptoms,” said Frieden.

So.....training anyone? Garry - you want to chime in on this?

Up To Strength? Hardly

The CrimeInBoystown blog has been hammering the crap out of Rahm and Garry over manpower issues. Here's a look at some of it:

• Two guys were peeking into Boystown yards early Saturday morning. A cop was dispatched an hour later.
  
  A drunk reportedly climbed behind the wheel of a car around the same time. A cop was dispatched 70 minutes later.
  
  Welcome to the world of RAPs and the incredible effort to deny that they have an impact on police service.
  
  Frequent CWB readers are probably familiar with the term RAP. It stands for "Radio Assignments Pending," an official term used by the Chicago Police Department and their dispatchers to designate periods of time when police districts have no cars available to handle incoming 911 calls.
  
  When all officers are tied up on assignments, districts go "into a RAP" and new calls for help stack up and wait for an officer to become available.
  
  So far this weekend, our district has been in RAP status at least four times for periods lasting from just over an hour to more than three hours.

They've also been covering the outbreak of arsons that have been occurring all over the northside long before the Department came out with a community alert the other day. And more troubling, a 45-minute wait for an ambulance recently experienced by some traffic accident victims, a Fire Department shortage that doesn't receive enough coverage.

Gun Laws Impact Poor...and Minorities

You'll never see this reported by a local outlet - you have to go to Washington DC:

• Within Cook County, the top five concealed carry ZIP codes per capita are all predominately white, middle class and are in areas that have low crime rates. However, the most violent neighborhoods within the county — all of which are on the South Side of Chicago — are predominately black, where residents earn less than $48,000 annually and hold the fewest concealed carry licenses as a percentage of the population.
  
  If the same data trends occurred in banking and insurance, there might be outcries of “redlining,” denying a group of people access to goods or services because of the color of their skin or income levels. But there’s little public concern expressed so far about the possibility that poor blacks are being disenfranchised from the right to carry a concealed weapon.
  
  “You really need to ask whether or not politicians are consciously trying to disarm certain groups of people,” said Dr. John Lott, a Second Amendment expert and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center. “Why do they want a law that primarily disarms blacks and gives guns to only well-to-do whites? Don’t they think it should be equal for everyone to protect their lives?”
  
  Illinois residents say the disproportionate statistics all boil down to cost. Of right-to-carry states, Illinois has the highest registration and training fee, costing an applicant about $650 on average for fingerprinting, taxes and logistics — excluding the price of the gun.

Those who most reliably vote for democrats are those most disadvantaged by democrat policies.