Measles!

From a few days ago:

• The first measles case reported in Illinois since 2019 has been confirmed in Cook County, the Illinois Department of Public Health said Friday, noting the case is a reminder of the importance of the measles vaccine.

  The suspected case was reported on Oct. 10 by the Cook County Department of Public Health and confirmed the next day by IDPH. The case involved an unvaccinated person with exposure internationally, according to IDPH.

Gee....an "unvaccinated person with exposure internationally."

Anyone care to translate? After all, we're pretty sure Americans headed abroad are almost required to have a litany of immunizations to travel. And passport-carrying visitors/students coming here are screened for all sorts of things.

We're stumped.

Illegal Home Invader?

Anyone hear about an illegal attempting to climb in the windows of multiple homes in 022 the other night?

Confronted by an off-duty cop? 

We're telling you, vigilantes are going to become a real thing one of these days.

Porky and BJ Full of $hit

And not because of missing toilets:

• Among America’s current insanities, few are more pernicious than deliberate incitement of division, especially on race. Among officeholders most guilty, two are here in Illinois – Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. And they stoke that division even while claiming to oppose it.
  
  Most recently, look where Pritzker placed blame for the guy who stalked and vandalized his home – on a group he routinely describes as white supremacists.

  “The divisions across the country,” he said when asked about the crime, “are being fomented by the MAGA Republicans,” who he said are “causing people to feel that there’s a hatred that it’s OK to act upon if they disagree with you on an issue. I think these examples are a sign of the times.”

Let's just check the tape here (image via CWB Blog):

Aside from probably being certifiably insane, this "white supremacist" is awfully tan. 

And BJ follows has been following Porky's example:

• Johnson’s most recent came when asked point blank about surveys in Chicago showing overwhelming majority opposition to his sanctuary policies for migrants – opposition that’s most intense among Blacks and Hispanics. 
  
  But that opposition is the far right’s fault, Johnson wants you to believe. “We have an alt-right movement not just in this country but around the globe that continues to disrupt black and brown economies.” He then went into a comparison about Afro-Columbian discrimination, that he apparently thinks helps explain opposition to him. In truth, white Chicagoans are the only racial group supporting his sanctuary policies, the survey found.

Newsflash - it wasn't alt-right people at the Park District community meetings. And it wasn't alt-right people blazing away at the illegals camped in front of 003.

But when you've only got one card to play....

If it Saves One Life...

Remember when people claim that "If it saves even one life, we need to enact this law/that law"? The left says it to push gun control all the time. Sparklefarts often used this line to great applause. It's how they show that they "care."

If they cared so much, they'd outlaw swimming pools (3,500 drownings), multistory dwellings (26,000 deadly household falls) and automobiles (35,000 deaths). 38,000 Americans commit suicide annually, so why aren't there mandatory mental health evaluations? Almost 1,000 mothers die during childbirth, so maybe outlaw pregnancy?

And if this could have been prevented....:

• MONTEAGLE, TN - In Monteagle, Tennessee, a concerning discovery was made this Sunday. A 16-year-old girl's body was located in the parking lot of a restaurant on West Main Street, right near the Interstate 24 junction on Monteagle Mountain. Local authorities and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) have taken charge of the situation.

  Details are still emerging. However, the young girl is believed to have ties to Guatemala, as shared by Marion County Sheriff....

....then maybe the border should be secured?

Child Trafficking reports have exploded over the past two years - and we aren't talking about the bullshit story out of the 010th District - and the left is doing nothing along with the DOJ, FBI and Border Patrol. 

The Administration was flying unaccompanied minors into the country, and turning them over to predators in Tennessee. And now they're turning up dead.

Corruption

One video perspective of Chicago corruption:

Some of this is pure nonsense, but some is on point.

Political Theater

Ray makes noise, but accomplishes nothing at all:

• A series of City Council crackdowns have failed to stop drag racers and drifters from driving in circles and figure-eights on Lower Wacker Drive amid a crowd of spectators and posting video of their stunt driving on social media.

Yeah, because we all saw the aldercreatures downtown, pulling over cars, throwing down stop-sticks, towing vehicles:

• Ald. Ray Lopez (15^th) says it’s time to try something different. He wants to hold parents and legal guardians responsible for the mayhem and require them to undergo “licensed family counseling.”

  “We have children who are out of control causing 90% of the problems, particularly as it relates to the street takeovers, drag racing and all of the other illegal activities,” Lopez told the Sun-Times.

  The ordinance that Lopez introduced at Monday’s City Council meeting would make it a crime for any parent or legal guardian to “willfully and/or knowingly allow a minor in their charge to engage in a host of offenses wreaking havoc on the quality of life in Chicago neighborhoods. Those offenses range from panhandling, underage and public drinking and cannabis use, violating curfew and “climbing on” cars to street takeovers and drag racing.”

"....willfully and/or knowingly...."

Those are weasel words Ray. You're performing an act, claiming to be "passing Laws" that will "crackdown" on non-demonized yutes, and it will accomplish exactly zero. You know why?

• "I didn't know"
  

That will be the response to any and all interrogations of the parents. After all, you can't keep an eye on your kids 24/7 and you can't always control the bad choices they make. Now, if you authorize the actual use of stop sticks, flatten their tires, take their cars and charge them a grand for misbehavior, you'll get their attention.

Remember when the city started sound impounds? Remember how quiet it got for a year or two afterward? Massive tickets, fines and impound fees made an impression on the miscreants and they stopped being assholes for a while. Of course, enforcement was "racist" and discouraged after the spineless bosses and politicians caved to the mob. 

We're going to guess Ray is running for mayor in three years after BJ fails.

Got Your Booster? (UPDATE)

Hey, remember that thing a few years back...that manipulated and manufactured version of the common cold? And remember all the hype about a "vaccine" that would cure everyone, prevent transmission and enrich pharmaceutical companies to heights beyond Buffet, Bezos and Gates?

They had to cajole, bully, threaten and lie to get around 67% of the US population to take a "vaccine" which turned out not to cure anyone, failed to prevent transmission, but did make all sorts of connected people rich.

After the scare tactics wore off, the powers-that-be came up with a "booster" that everyone had to take so that the new and improved variant - which followed the course of every single virus in human history becoming MORE transmissible and LESS deadly - could be stopped. If you didn't get the "booster" you were killing grandma, were promoting "conspiracy" theories, and were probably racist, too.

Unfortunately for the greedy corporations, data started to leak out along with startling rises in unexplained and statistically excessive deaths. There were still the mask Karens, bug chasers, and hypochondriacs screaming about the "dangers" of Covid, but the data didn't bear any of it out.

Less than 17% of people got the "bivalent booster." And hospitalization/death rates from Covid continued to plummet while heart issues and strokes grew at alarming numbers. No one is looking at that though.

Now, as winter rolls around and ::gasp:: people start getting colds again, ANOTHER booster has been released by the drug companies, supported by the CDC and everyone MUST get it as soon as possible to prevent bodies from stacking up in the streets. limiting the ability for the "elites" to get around in their gas powered limousines.

A full month into this latest "booster," the compliance rate sits at.....2%. The death and hospitalization rates from Covid continue to fall while surges in heart attacks, strokes and suicides continue to be ignored.

Trust in the medical community "experts" has been utterly destroyed. Which makes this even more nonsensical:

• An Illinois state appeals court has ruled that Illinoisans can be fired from their jobs for refusing to get a Covid vaccine, because a state right of conscience law that otherwise protects people for refusing to participate in morally objectionable medical procedures doesn’t apply to anything related to Covid after Illinois Democrats specifically rewrote the law to ensure its protections didn’t apply to Covid vaccine mandates.

  On Oct. 12, a three-justice panel of the Illinois First District Appellate Court backed hospital company Advocate Health, saying the hospital and medical clinic system can’t be sued by a nurse who was fired after she asserted her religious beliefs did not allow her to comply with the company’s mandate requiring workers to receive the vaccine as a condition of continued employment.

How many coppers are before the Police Board for daring to exercise their Rights over their own bodies?

Get out while you can.

UPDATE: from a comment, the rumor mill gets fired up:

• Anyone else receive phone calls from City's Dept of Health inquiring when one plans on receiving the vaccine? I sure have. Told the spoke on the wheel I do not discuss my medical history with anyone other than my doctor. Something tells me those religious exemptions will be "re-evaluated" soon. Then terminations to follow for the few who haven't succumbed to the pressure.

Any verification?

BJ Cancels Vacation

Guess who ISN'T going to the southern border after all?

• Mayor Brandon Johnson announced Monday he is not attending his administration’s trip to the U.S.-Mexico border later this week, a reversal he said stems from having to address the “urgency” of the growing migrant population in Chicago.

  Instead of Johnson heading the group, Chicago deputy mayor of immigration Beatriz Ponce de León will lead a delegation, which is scheduled to leave Tuesday for the Texas cities of El Paso, San Antonio, McAllen and Brownsville, according to a statement from the mayor’s office.

  “The Mayor, along with senior aides and key operations personnel, will stay in Chicago to address the immediate urgency of adding shelter space to house thousands of new arrivals sleeping in police stations, airports or outside,” the statement read.

We guess he (A) couldn't get clearance from Mrs BJ and the family or (B) the kids didn't want to miss Halloween.

Or (C) the optics were just not playing well in the polling. The neighborhoods are pissed off and if he really wants to see what all the hubbub is about, go visit some of them.

Porky Torpedoes Bad Idea

Hey look - someone can read the writing on the wall:

• Governor J.B. Pritzker said he would veto any legislation to impose a financial transaction tax that could harm Chicago’s storied exchanges and cause them to leave the state.

  “Let me be clear, there is no financial transactions tax on the table, period,” the Democratic governor said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “There will not be support. I would veto it.”

  Pritzker’s comments follow months of speculation over how Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson plans to raise revenue to tackle the city’s embattled finances. They also represent the billionaire governor’s strongest words of opposition to the levy, after he expressed dissent to the proposal following Johnson’s election.

You'll recall last week we cited a couple of articles about the major financial exchanges in town. They have already experimented with moving their electronic footprint to other states and their CEOs made statements to the effect that should the communist progressives make an attempt on this highway robbery,  they're gone. 

If you've been on LaSalle Street any time in the past two years, it looks like they've already made a sizeable dent in their presence anyway.

FOP Changing Rules?

When "rule changes" like these start appearing, your Bullshit Detector ought to start climbing into the Danger Zone:

• I’m not sure if you’ve heard that the FOP is restricting officers from reviewing FOP Board minutes and financial information. These new “rules” treat us like we’re the ones on some shady shit. John and company are acting like we should feel privileged for being allowed to pay them to “represent” us. What are these guys hiding? We’ve always been allowed to see these documents without any issue; federal law says we have every right to them. Why has everything become such a secret with these guys? I was just wondering if you guys might know what is going on.

And it isn't just one email....it's a few:

• Back in May, FOP members in good standing [...] submitted bylaw amendments to address some financial issues within the FOP. J-Cat subsequently violated the FOP Constitution and Bylaws by wrongfully keeping these amendment proposals from going to the members for a vote. Additionally, he refused to give a formal denial to these amendments despite numerous requests for a status.
  
  
  
  Per our Constitution, these proposed bylaws can only be submitted between April and May of any given year and must go to a vote by the members at the Sep General Meeting as long as they do not violate our State or National Constitution and Bylaws.
  
  
  
  Recently, these same members began emailing Recording Secretary Noceda and Treasurer McGuire to view financial documents and Executive Board minutes.  As the stakeholders of this organization, members are lawfully entitled to access these documents. 
  
  
  
  After multiple denials to review said documents, the FOP Executive Board convened just the other day and made up their own bylaws, restricting what documents members can view and when they can view them. This new bylaw came the day after the last request to review these documents was submitted. 
  

These "bylaws" or "rule changes" instituted unilaterally by the FOP include restrictions on the hours that documents may be reviewed (not business hours, but inconveniently short hours), no copies may be made, and no notes may be taken.

No notes? You know why people in charge of stuff don't want you taking notes? It's exactly the same reason the City, COPA/IPRA and everyone else doesn't want you reviewing your body worn cameras before writing reports. They don't want you being accurate - they want to screw you later.

We certainly hope this isn't the case over on Washington.

And to head off some obvious accusations headed our way later today:

• we have no axe to grind; we're leaving soon anyway
• we've been to meetings; we've run for office
  
• we're anonymous - deal with it
  
• we have leveled no accusations - seriously, go back and read it
• we have only raised the concerns of members; if we're getting multiple emails from multiple people, it's because they aren't getting answers and your communication skills suck

We reserve the Right to add more later after the regular trolls wake up.

No Money from Porky

Either BJ is going to have to find Rahm's money tree or he's going to have to start paying people with IOU's:

• Gov. J.B. Pritzker and House Speaker Chris Welch both threw cold water on the idea of a veto session supplemental appropriations bill to help Chicago handle the increasing influx of asylum seekers from Venezuela.

  Speaker Welch told reporters Thursday he had “made it clear” to Mayor Brandon Johnson that “we were not expecting to do a supplemental budget in the veto session,” while the governor told reporters the week before that he hadn’t heard about any plans for a supplemental. Governors always know about supplementals because their office writes them.

  There is simply no appetite in the General Assembly to tackle any super controversial issues during the veto session, which runs from Oct. 24 through Nov. 9.

And this little tidbit:

• Plus, Johnson’s recent budget proposal cut the city’s earlier projected spending on the new arrivals by $50 million while increasing spending on other items. That didn’t go over too well with legislators, either.

So that $50 million steered away from illegals and into "other items" is....where exactly? Are these projects going to be cut or eliminated? Unlikely, because they are obviously some politician's pet graft. Are the illegals going to be shorted food, shelter or handouts? Again, unlikely, because they have to be coddled and cultivated lest they leave or :::gasp!::: not vote for democrats in the future.

This is one of the reasons we labeled BJs budget as "fantasy."

This Sounds Familiar

What's the worst that could happen?

• The Biden administration released a statement Thursday warning financial institutions against using a person’s immigration status in credit applications.

  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a joint statement telling financial institutions that while it is not illegal to consider a person’s immigration status in the decision on whether to lend money, an overreliance on it could run afoul of the law, according to the statement. The statement implicates the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), which makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex and more in considering a person’s credit application as the mechanism, even though the law does not list citizenship status as a protected attribute.

So "loan" money to people with no assets, no collateral, no employment history, no ties to this country....

We're remembering a time, 2007/2008, where banks were required to give mortgages to anyone who applied. It was like an Oprah show where, "You get a mortgage! And you get a mortgage! And you, yes, you get a mortgage!" regardless of qualifications. It was championed by democrats (of course) and was promised to bring home ownership to the masses.

It failed. Badly. And everyone felt the pain. Millions lost jobs, millions lost homes across the globe, funds lost trillions in value, and all those poor people who didn't have houses? They still didn't have houses.

If you have time for a bit of light reading, here's a site (apologies for the wikipedia referral) with what looks like over a thousand links to browse, explaining a tiny part of what happened. Too bad Tiered Deployment is gone - this would have covered the tour for about six years.

If you're a movie fan, The Big Short and Margin Call are basic introductions to the (at the time) largest financial disaster in history. 

Mark Twain may have said, "History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes." We don't know about you, but we're hearing a lot of the same things from 2007.

Crime is Up, Budget is...?

So where are the budget cuts to Dart's jail?

• The Cook County Jail population has dipped below 5,000 for only the second time in nearly four decades, a drop experts are linking to Illinois’ historic elimination of cash bail on Sept. 18.

  The jail had 4,909 detainees as of Thursday, according to Sheriff Tom Dart’s office. The only time since the mid-1980s that the jail’s population was smaller was a 141-day stretch of 2020, as officials scrambled to combat a COVID-19 outbreak inside the facility.

  “We’re always pleased to see that there are fewer people in cages,” said Sarah Staudt, an attorney with the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice, which helped forge the bail measure. “We expect to see some fluctuation in [the jail population size] going forward. But we hope that the courts and prosecutors and everyone else involved stay committed to the law and to applying the law correctly, so that we can see this trend continue.”

We should be seeing millions in savings, yes? And refunds from the County government?

This part of the article made us shake our heads a bit:

• WBEZ reached out to several law enforcement groups and agencies for comment on the jail population drop, but most did not respond. Previously, some of those groups have predicted that many arrestees released due to cash bail’s elimination would find new victims.

No one reached out to us, but we did notice these articles posted by SeeBS the other day:

• An attempted robbery led to a man being shot and killed on Chicago's Northwest Side late Tuesday morning. Two victims, a 50-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man, were in the 1600 block of North Lawndale Avenue around 10:46 a.m. when two armed suspects got out of a white sedan and approached them, Chicago police said. One of the suspects fired a gun, striking the male victim. The suspects then fled the scene inside the sedan without taking any belongings.
• Following three armed robberies near campus, the University of Illinois at Chicago on Tuesday became the third Chicago university to warn students about spiking violent crimes in recent weeks. Spokespeople for UIC said they wanted to make two things clear: the three robberies happened just off campus, and they take safety very seriously. 
• Chicago police are warning residents about a series of armed robberies in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. Police say the robberies happened between the months of August and October during the afternoon hours. In each incident, the offender, while riding a bike or scooter, pointed a gun at victims or threatened to shoot them before taking headphones, money, and jewelry.

The articles were posted in a twenty-hour span covering 10/11 October and detail at least seven armed robberies and a homicide. You can't open up a news website (see links in the right hand column) and not find at least two articles about robberies. We can't prove that the no-bail option is or isn't contributing to the uptick, but we can make an educated guess after nearly thirty years on the job and well over fifty living in Chicago.

We're Number....One-Hundred-Forty?

What the heck?

• Threats to safety in the U.S. come in many forms, from public health crises and natural disasters to mass shootings and traffic accidents. People can feel unsafe in other ways, too. Aside from the types of hazards that can cause bodily injury or other physical harm, taking out an unaffordable second mortgage, forgoing health insurance or even visiting unsecured websites are also ways people run into danger. One big worry for many people right now is the cost of inflation, which threatens Americans’ financial safety.

  No one can avoid all danger, however, and we take on a certain level of risk based on where we choose to live. Some cities are simply better at protecting their residents from harm. To determine where Americans can feel most secure — in more than one sense — WalletHub compared more than 180 cities across 41 key indicators of safety. Our data set ranges from traffic fatalities per capita and assaults per capita to the unemployment rate and the percentage of the population that is uninsured.

And out of one-hundred-eighty-two cities evaluated, sitting at the very bottom (least safest city) spot?

• St Louis, Missouri
  

Which we can understand. When we used to travel down that direction, we always made sure we had a full tank of gas and plenty of snacks about an hour before St Louis....and didn't even think about stopping until we were an hour past. 

If you go to the link, start at the bottom and work your way up. It's more fun to see what cities are worse that Chicago....on a per capita basis of course. For total body count, we've been running away with that number for years.

It's Cold Out Here

Boo-fucking-hoo:

• Even as temperatures drop, Yaritsa Leal and a dozen of her family members are sleeping outside the Town Hall District police station as there isn’t enough room for them inside.

  They’ve jury-rigged a tent to shield them from the elements, but it’s not enough to keep out Chicago weather.

  “We huddle under there and give each other warmth,” said Leal, 43. “I feel cold, I feel uncomfortable and I feel scared, but I know that I can’t come here and demand too much.”

  The Venezuelan family is among the 3,000 migrants who were staying at police stations on Thursday, according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communication. With room for only dozens inside at each, hundreds, like the Leal family, are sleeping outside, according to volunteer estimates.

Hey, here's a riddle:

• Where was it 87 degrees Friday, 90 degrees Saturday, and 88 degrees Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday all next week?

Answer:

• Venezuela!

We don't know why that popped into our heads. 

The Tribune also gets into the act (but there's no coordination among the media, right?

• Frangeny Mendoza, 27, huddled on a thin fleece Salvation Army blanket next to her husband, Pedro Matos, 30, and 8-year-old son, Ediomar, Tuesday night in Edna White Century Garden, which over the past month has become a tent encampment for hundreds of migrants waiting for shelter placement at the nearby Morgan Park police station.

  The family from Venezuela, who were put on a bus by city officials in El Paso, Texas, and sent to Chicago without knowing where they were going, spent their first three nights in the sanctuary city sleeping outside on the ground.

  “It’s so cold here, but we have nowhere to go. We don’t have anyone here,” she said in Spanish.

Then why did you come? At least you were warm where you came from. 

And the "...without knowing where they were going..." is a blatant lie by the now leftist-Tribune. Perhaps they missed the authorities in Texas having each and every illegal sign a waiver explaining where they were headed and how they were getting there? Whatever your beliefs, Texas is provably following all the rules.

But verifying that would take effort and actual reporting.

President Potato to Speak

Dementia Joe appearing on 60 Minutes tonight. By "appearing" we mean "pumped full of Adderal and adrenaline and whatever uppers they can stuff into this walking corpse  to give the impression of knowing what flavor Jello he had for dinner." Either that or some more deep-fake interview pieced together over the past few days, edited together clips to conceal his mumbling, wandering and shitting his pants.

There's the usual complaints from media puppets about how they shouldn't be doing this presser at this time and grandpa bad touch needs his rest. But we're going to make a little prediction here.

Anyone want to bet this is a scripted disaster? Or at least a scripted misstep? The calls from the left for potato to step aside and let someone else (younger) run for president have been increasing as of late. What better way to gather support for a Newsom or Fatass candidacy than have Joe mumble and stumble through a 60 Minutes interview and then have the talking media heads demand he step aside?

A clearer picture will emerge on the Monday news cycles.

Occupancy Hazards

Political theater in the Big Apple?

• The FDNY is expected order more than half a dozen migrant centers across the Big Apple be vacated over increased fears the sites could become fiery death traps, The Post has learned.

  Officials from both the Office of Emergency Management and FDNY believe the vacate orders are necessary at seven migrant shelters and respite centers where various fire and health hazards have been discovered, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

  Fire officials will return to the locations starting Sunday to issue their final inspections, the sources said.

We did hear that earlier this year, a CFD Fire Marshall attempted to write up a Police Station for an occupancy violation but it went nowhere. Who would have been the recipient of the ticket? 

• the Desk Sergeant is nominally in charge of the building, but they have no actual control of the illegals;
• same with the Watch Operations Lieutenant;
• the Commander doesn't own the building and can be removed at a moments notice, with or without cause.

Isn't there a "building liaison" or someone from Facilities Management? But they're appointed by the mayor, who also appoints the people who appoint the Fire Marshalls (we don't think it's a testable rank).

If the city wanted to store a few hundred scaffold assemblies in station lobbies, we don't think there's a thing anyone could do about it. The fact that they're using stations to store thousands of diseased illegals and millions of bugs and viruses should be illegal, but there's no one to be cited.

No Charges Again Crimesha?

From an email:

• ASA’s refused to charge the offender with Agg Assault despite eyewitness account from both officers because their BWC did not catch the shooting! An override was attempted but failed. “Dude” was home before the ink dried.
  
  

  INCIDENT:     SHOTS FIRED AT THE POLICE (NO HITS)          
  

  LOCATION:   6100 S WOOD ST         
  

  DISTRICT:     007          
  

  BEAT:            714         
  

  DATE/TIME:  10 OCT 23 /   1446 HOURS
  

  
  SUMMARY: OFFICERS WERE FIRED UPON AT THE ABOVE ADDRESS.  NO OFFICERS WERE STRUCK BY GUNFIRE AND NO OFFICER RETURNED FIRE AT THIS TIME.  THE OFFENDER WAS TAKEN INTO CUSTODY 6115 S HONORE. OCIC MELEAN ON SCENE.

We've pointed this out we don't know how many times - a camera only films in the direction it's pointed. On your chest or mounted on your windshield, it's filming STRAIGHT AHEAD and not where an ambush might come from.

Not to mention, if this was Officers driving around on routine patrol when they got shot at, THE CAMERA ISN'T ACTIVELY FILMING! It's buffering on a one-minute or two-minute cycle without sound. If someone is shooting at you, your first thought isn't to active the camera:

• Your first thought is "DUCK!"
• Your second thought is locate the shooter and direction of incoming fire.
• Your third thought is, "Am i hit? Is my partner hit?"
• Your fourth thoughts are, "Get my gun out! Radio! Location! Assists!"
• After all that, you might think, "Hit the camera button."
  

And by the way, all of that just happened in about three seconds.

Of course, if this was a radio assignment, then the camera is already on (or you're taking a three day suspension for Failure to Activate). But it's still only pointed in one direction and if we remember our geometry class, the chances of it being pointed in exactly the correct direction are one-in-three-hundred-sixty.

Have we said Fuck Crimesha lately?

PPP Loans in the Spotlight

Again, we've heard all kinds of rumors about this. Something must be stirring if it's in the paper on a Friday afternoon. That's when you release all the bad news.....so you can bury it:

• More than 1,000 federal COVID-19 relief loans for struggling businesses went to city of Chicago employees — including cops — and City Hall’s watchdog believes many were obtained fraudulently.

  Deborah Witzburg, City Hall’s inspector general, said her office examined more than 350,000 federal COVID-19 loans approved in the Chicago area. Of them, she found more than 1,000 loans that city employees got from the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.

  “Some of those loans may have been obtained legitimately, but a substantial number of the identified loans have indicators of potential fraud,” Witzburg said in a report Friday. “We continue to investigate these matters.”

At the county level, the Department of Public Health had a bunch of these investigations.

CPS is investigating over 780 cases of PPP loans that may have been obtained illegally. No word on investigating teachers "teaching" from Caribbean vacations or the hundreds of sex crimes the media has assisted in hiding form public scrutiny though.

At the city level?

• Witzburg’s pandemic fraud investigation has lasted more than a year, according to her report, which didn’t say how many cops or firefighters were among those who got the loans intended to help struggling businesses during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

  “There are members of the police department included on the list that we are looking at,” Witzburg said.

Rumors of upwards of a dozen exempts - perhaps two dozen - with one-person security firms that suddenly got incorporated in late 2020.

Crime Fighter Retiring

We remember this guy when the TV was black and white:

• Tom Skilling, the dean of Chicago weather forecasters, says there’s a 100% chance he retires early next year.

  His last day will be Feb. 28, marking the end of a 46-year run on WGN-Channel 9.

  Skilling, 71, made the announcement Thursday on “WGN Evening News.”

We also jokingly named Skilling to assorted superintendents' offices as the single biggest reason crime was ever down. Rain, snow, wind or cold temps, if there was ever a weekend with lower stats, it was all Skilling's doing.

We may have even recommended him for a couple of Department Commendations. 

Happy retirement and hopefully we're joining you soon.