Pension Buyouts?

This came up late last week and we sat on it for the weekend - partly so we could read up on it, and partly because Monday is our "big eyeball day" and we'd get the most reader feedback. We had also touched on it a little while ago, opining that anything supported by that Martwick tool needed extra scrutiny and more than a little doubt:

• Cash-strapped Chicago is crafting a plan to chip away at its $35.8 billion pension crisis that is likely to offer city employees the option of buying out a portion of their future pension benefits in exchange for a lump-sum payment upfront.

  Acting Chief Financial Officer Steve Mahr said Thursday he expects the so-called “D.R.O.P or deferred retirement option” to be one of “roughly a dozen or more ideas” that will “set the city’s agenda” for the next decade.

  The pension commission that Mayor Brandon Johnson created shortly after taking office disbanded without releasing a single report after Gov. JB Pritzker signed a police pension sweetener that, over time, will make Chicago’s pension crisis $11 billion worse.

  Now, the Johnson administration has asked EY, the consulting firm that recommended $1.4 billion in savings and revenue-generation options for the city to consider, to start climbing the mountain of unfunded pension debt.

  Deferred retirement options already are offered at the state level and in municipal pension funds across the country.

  It could be made available to Chicago’s 33,432 employees, but only if state lawmakers agree to authorize it. A bill sponsored by state Sen. Robert Martwick (D-Chicago) would do just that and earlier this month advanced out of a Senate committee. Those types of payouts are now allowed for state retirees, and Martwick said it has reduced Illinois’ pension obligations by approximately $2 billion.

On the surface, it sounds somewhat desirable - a buyout up front to (maybe) reduce the hit a pensioner might take if (when) everything goes bust. It might also be desirable for someone with less anticipated time on earth to get a larger lump sum up front for their surviving spouse than a 50% cut at death might leave them with.

On the other hand, if you're a crappy investor, degenerate gambler, irresponsible with money or just very unlucky in terms of timing, you could be out of the pension....and broke as you enter your final years.

there are also way too many variables that aren't being explained yet - like the insurance portion of your retirement. Is everyone who signs up getting forced into SparklefartCare? Everyone goes to County for doctor appointments? Maybe introduce some of those Canadian-style death panels?

There's push-back already from some watchdog bean counters:

• The City of Chicago is crafting a buyout program to help address its monstrous pension crisis– a $36 billion combined, unfunded liability owed by its four pensions. The idea is to cancel pension obligations in exchange for a single, lump sum cash payment to pensioners who opt in. It would require state legislation. The concept is inspired by the State of Illinois’ buyout program for its own pensions, as reported Thursday by the Chicago Sun-Times.

  Buyouts might be a good idea, if done correctly and transparently. But, so far, there’s one thing we know for sure that the Chicago discussion has in common with the Illinois program: flimflam. We’ve begun hearing some of the same claptrap in Chicago that we’ve long heard about the Illinois program.

  The main question is how much, if anything, the government saves through buyouts. Answers have been wrong or dishonest, and those who are supposed to know provide no evidence behind their claims. We do know, however, that savings from the state program – if any – have been tiny.

WirePoints is directly critical of....Martwick. Which makes our hesitation for anything he supports feel pretty justified at this moment in time. Porkulous gets dragged into a bunch of the article, too.

Read both articles. Sound off in the comments. This reminds us of the many times that Bill Nolan would drum up support for his Contract negotiations with the "Enjoy your retro check!" closing line to cover up how he sold out the membership time and time again. 

 

CWB Quick Hits

These guys literally the only media blog worth reading any more. 

A sampling of their work (again):

How does this happen? Again?

• A Chicago man already out on felony pretrial release is now charged with having an automatic-firing handgun on the Blue Line downtown, according to CPD. Alphonzo Jones, 38, was taken into custody Wednesday evening after a foot pursuit that spanned two CTA stations.

  Officers from the CPD’s Public Transportation Section Tactical Team were conducting a routine train and platform check at the Clinton Blue Line Station around 8:05 p.m. Thursday when they saw Jones smoking on a train, police said. When they moved to detain him, Jones allegedly pulled away, causing one officer to fall.

  Jones then jumped onto the train tracks and fled. He eventually surfaced at the UIC-Halsted Blue Line Station, one stop to the west, where he allegedly tried to hide from responding units. Officers caught up with him and placed him into custody.

  CPD said officers who searched Jones found a firearm outfitted with a machine gun conversion device, along with suspected narcotics.

There are signs EVERYWHERE on the CTA. With a picture in case you can't read. Maybe the feds are onto something with the city misspending hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds.

- - - - - - - - - -

Remember - your cameras aren't the only ones out there....and now there are more:

• A Chicago man is being detained after prosecutors said he tried to carjack a Lyft driver during a terrifying encounter that was partially captured on video by a passing driver’s Meta glasses.

  [...] Prosecutors said the woman grabbed her purse from the passenger seat, but Brooks snatched it back and again ordered her out. Instead of complying, she tried to reverse the vehicle. That’s when Brooks allegedly wrapped his left arm around her neck from behind while pressing a hard object into her ribs.

  As the struggle unfolded, the woman rolled down her window, honked the horn, and screamed “help” in Spanish, drawing the attention of a passing driver who was wearing Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses.

  He later told police he thought he was seeing a domestic dispute. However, the glasses were actively recording audio and video, capturing key moments of the confrontation. Prosecutors said that footage was inventoried as evidence.

Just another reason to keep any and all citizen interactions to a bare minimum, and always have your camera on regardless.

- - - - - - - - - -

Downtown crime isn't down any more:

• A 14-year-old was shot inside a downtown Chicago hotel overnight, and police say he refused to cooperate with officers who responded to the scene.

  CPD responded to the first block of East Wacker Drive around 3:36 a.m. Sunday for a call about a person shot. The victim sustained a gunshot graze wound to the leg but was uncooperative with officers and did not provide any details about what happened, according to a CPD media statement. He was transported by Chicago Fire Department paramedics to Lurie Children’s Hospital in good condition.

  Officers were seen going in and out of the Royal Sonesta Hotel, 71 East Wacker Drive, following the shooting. On a local police radio channel, an officer said the boy may have been shot in a hallway on the 12th floor of the hotel. A group of “kids” was seen running down the hotel stairwell after the shooting, the officer said.

  The boy is the fifth person shot in the Loop so far this year, the highest year-to-date total for the downtown neighborhood since at least 2019.

And as the weather warms up, Conehead's next mental breakdown inches closer and closer. 

Sound, but not THAT Sound

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

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

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

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

Where else is this being tested?

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

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

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

NYC Writes an I.O.U?

Remember the blizzard that slammed the east coast a few weeks back? New York City was reduced to begging citizens to shovel out sidewalks, bus stops and driveways....but mayor islamo-commie was willing to pay $19.14 an hour....but only if you had some for m of identification.

• imagine that - ID to shovel snow, but not to vote....hmmmmm

Guess what's been happening since?

• It was a snow job. A New Yorker who signed up to shovel snow this winter claimed he’s yet to be fully paid for his work — collecting a measly $300 instead of what he thought would be a $3,600 windfall.

  Jacob Jackson signed up to be an emergency snow shoveler in November, when pay was listed as $19.14 per hour, with overtime pay of $28.71, he said in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit against the city. He was called to help clear city streets and sidewalks once in December and another 10 days in January, working out of a Sanitation Department garage in Brooklyn.

  On Feb. 23 — after the city was slammed by a massive blizzard which dumped more than 19 inches of snow — the pay jumped to $30 an hour, $45 an hour with overtime. Even though Jackson logged 40 hours of back-breaking shoveling between Feb. 22 and Feb. 28, he was paid at the $19.14 rate — for only eight hours of work — collecting just $153.12, he said in court papers.

  “The remaining 32 hours being completely unpaid,” he said in the legal filing. Jackson received only one other paycheck before that — also for $153.12 — for shoveling earlier that same month. He allegedly hasn’t been paid at all for his work in December and January, he said in the filing.

New York seems only slightly less insolvent that Chicago but this is still amusing....and very communist in nature.

Another Conehead Corpse

North side this time:

• A 17-year-old boy is dead after being shot in a drive-by on Chicago’s Northwest Side early Friday, and the circumstances surrounding his death have renewed scrutiny of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision to let the city’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection contract expire.

  Passersby came across the boy lying in the street in the 6700 block of West Grand Avenue at around 12:49 a.m. and flagged down a patrol car, believing he had been struck by a vehicle. Officers who responded initially shared that assessment, but a subsequent investigation determined he had been shot.

  Surveillance footage pulled by officers in the local district’s surveillance room showed a gray Volkswagen SUV traveling north on Normandy Avenue, with a gunman firing from the back seat, according to preliminary information. No one called 911 to report gunfire in the area.

According to CWB, this is the 80th incident in areas formerly covered by ShotSpotter.

No Fear of Consequences

Broad daylight, directly in front of six cops:

• A judge on Friday detained two men after prosecutors said they shot and killed respected West Side businessman Jerry Lewis in front of six Chicago police officers.

  The officers were traveling in two unmarked cars in the 2100 block of West Madison Street on Tuesday afternoon when they saw Nassie Mason, 28, and Erving Harris, 31, step out of a parked Honda wearing masks and latex gloves, and holding guns, Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Pekara said.

  As the officers were getting out of their vehicles to confront the men, they saw Mason and Harris murder Lewis as he began to enter one of his businesses, according to Pekara. After the shooting, Mason and Harris turned to run away and found themselves face-to-face with six armed cops ordering them to drop their weapons.

  Mason allegedly tried to re-rack his firearm but was unsuccessful. He dropped the gun and ran, but was taken into custody just feet from where he had been standing. Harris took a few steps toward the Honda before dropping his gun, raising his hands, and surrendering.

An amazing bit of restraint not to kill both of these murderers on the spot once they turned still holding the guns. This could have been very very bad.

The judge actually held them without bond - a SAFE-T Act miracle. 

Nice arrest and no one is driving a desk for the next thirty days. Count your blessings and go buy a lottery ticket. 

Stupid, Getting Stupider

Another Bill in Springfield:

• A bill that would require Illinois workers to be provided more protections from excessive temperatures made progress in the state’s General Assembly this week.

  House Bill 3762, as amended, would require the Illinois Department of Labor to adopt extreme temperature safety standards for employers by the beginning of 2027, with enforcement beginning the following year.

  Sponsor of the bill, Rep. Edgar González Jr, D-Chicago, said he has worked with organized labor groups on the bill, but is waiting on industry interests to provide input for further changes.

The language isn't even finished yet, but the Bill is moving through the process.

How bad (unwritten and open ended) is the language? This bad:

• When temperatures are too cold, employers must provide thermal protection and face coverings, mandatory warm-up breaks and either schedule modifications or task rotation to limit exposure.

  Rep. Dan Ugaste, R-St. Charles, said the bill’s scope was too large, which he emphasized by saying there is nothing that would prevent it from applying to professional sports teams.

  “Are we going to tell these sports teams that they have to stop something mid-game because Illinois has a law,” Ugaste said. “They've been playing these games for hundreds over 100 years”

Supporters of the Bill claim that "would never happen," except when Bills are poorly worded, someone - usually some blue haired libtard - will do EXACTLY that.

Maybe Firefighters can refuse to battle blazes when the temperature inside the fire gets above 80 or 85 degrees? Or Officers can refuse to fight crime when it gets too hot? 

Zero Coverage

This popped up in our comments:

• Possible IED found in front of police academy 

And it turns out, the Bomb Squad had to explosively  disable the suspect device as the best option. 

Not that there haven't been all sorts of islamists shooting up stuff all over the place the past few weeks. You think that might be noteworthy of some sort of coverage, even if it was a straight up denial of anything terror related?

Negligent Discharge

What's the story behind this one?

• Whats up with the Desk Dolly shooting the mirror in the weight room in 6. We have a range for that

Practicing quick draws in front of the mirror? 

Exercising with the gun tucked in your waistband?

Could find a spare three-pound dumbbell, so you're curling with your pistol?

We're at a loss here. 

More ILLEGAL Criminals

Remember this from two days ago?

This happened:

• A 17-year-old Mather High School student is charged with raping a 15-year-old girl at gunpoint in an Albany Park alley late last year while his accomplice held the victim’s friend at knifepoint nearby. Gerson Castillo Flores, originally from Colombia, was ordered detained pending trial by Luciano Panici, Jr.

And unmentioned - his legal status, which as it happens, is ILLEGAL.

So for the past ten days or so, we've written about:

• an ILLEGAL ALIEN child rapist in New York City who was almost allowed to walk out of police custody;
• an ILLEGAL ALIEN murderer executing an 18-year-old Loyola student and their "newspaper" apologizing for accurately describing the murderer;
• an ILLEGAL ALIEN pushing an 83-year-old Air Force veteran onto the subway tracks in New York City who later died of his injuries;
• an ILLEGAL ALIEN raping a 15-year-old high school Chicagoan

And then:

• days of silence from the politicians, 
• then blaming the dead Loyola student for being in the "wrong place at the wrong time" and startling the murderer,
• numerous incidents of Fuckworthless blaming everyone except the Drooling Vegetable who let almost twenty million unscreened ILLEGALS into the country,

And now there's going to be a "no kings" rally Saturday? What "kings" would these be? The ones who - without any sort of debate or votes, shut down schools and the entire economy over a bad cold virus? Who flew themselves and their families to unrestricted Red States while ordering everyone else into masks without definable legal authority? The ones who spent over a billion dollars on housing ILLEGAL ALIENS in police stations and park district properties in filthy unsanitary conditions?

Those non-kings? The ones who love criminals, especially murderers and rapists.

Any Bets?

What's the over/under on Conehead's next mental breakdown?

He's been looking extra raggedy lately.

Pick a date - we've got a couple spies who claim to be on his detail and they've got some stories. 

Accept Trump's Help?

This is odd:

• A former south suburban mayor is calling for federal help to address crime in Chicago after her father was reportedly shot earlier this week.

  Former Dolton Mayor and Thornton Township supervisor Tiffany Henyard urged Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to accept federal assistance to help clean up crime after she says her father was seriously wounded in a shooting Wednesday on the city's West Side.

She was a suburban mayor let her dad stay on the west side? Isn't she a democrat...or was until she left Illinois to run as a RINO in Georgia? Wasn't she under numerous federal investigations?

This isn't going to win her many friends in the party. You're not their concern any more - you left town, abandoned the party, brought bad publicity and don't represent the new voter base, i.e. ILLEGAL ALIENS.

John Dineen Passes

We're told former National Lodge President and FOP Lodge 7 President John Dineen passed yesterday, but can find almost no coverage.

He was a consequential man during a time a massive change and led the Lodges through various trial and tribulations. He is the reason for many of the Contractual protections currently in force.

He had his critics, too, and we're sure they'll be telling their side. He wasn't perfect, but he was better than a lot of what followed over the years. 

Takeover Season has Arrived

Thank goodness there's a curfew in effect!

• A large teen gathering in downtown Chicago descended into chaos Wednesday night—prompting a curfew enforcement order and intensifying the debate over how to stop repeat takeovers in the Loop.

  The activity centered on State and Lake streets, where witnesses described crowds of young people running through the area, climbing on vehicles and engaging in fights.

  Alderman Brian Hopkins said conditions escalated quickly before officials intervened.

Wait....the kids actually read a clock? And instituted the mayhem BEFORE the curfew? Congrats to the Chicago Teachers Union for learing [IYKYK] the children how to tell time! 

• Chicago police confirmed multiple enforcement actions tied to the gathering, including eight juvenile arrests and 24 curfew violations.

  According to police, seven juveniles, ranging in age from 13 to 16, were each charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct. One of those teens, a 15-year-old boy, also had an outstanding warrant.

  Another 16-year-old boy faces more serious charges, including three felony counts of aggravated assault of a peace officer, along with a misdemeanor reckless conduct charge and a citation for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk.

Yowie....eight arrests and twenty-four curfew violations, not a single oen of which will result in fines or restitution for damaged property. And a fifteen year old who - SURPRISE! - already has a warrant. What a future this one has, eh? Probably an astronaut or something.

But don't demonize....Conehead says it's bad and crime is down anyway. 

UPDATE: SCC reader, commentator and mayoral hopeful Ja'Mal Green throws his two cents worth behind the Tribune paywall:

• Let’s stop pretending we don’t know what’s going on. 

  These “teen takeovers” downtown, such as the one on Wednesday, aren’t just harmless get-togethers. They’re organized disruptions — planned online, carried out in large groups and allowed to spiral out of control because the city has been too slow and too hesitant to respond. 

  That needs to change. 

  Here’s the truth nobody wants to say out loud: If you don’t control your public spaces, you lose your city. 

Read it all if you know a way around the paywall. If he ain't running for office, he's pushing for a spot in the next administration.

Hey Fuckworthless?

You going to support THIS veteran?

• The 83-year-old US Air Force veteran who was randomly shoved onto the subway tracks by an illegal migrant on the Upper East Side has died from his injuries — and his alleged killer has been charged with murder.

  Grandfather Richard Williams succumbed to his injuries March 17 after he was allegedly pushed onto the tracks with another man while waiting for a train at the Lexington Avenue-63rd Station just before noon March 8, authorities and sources said.

  His alleged attacker, Honduran national Bairon Hernandez, 34, was arrested March 10 at a homeless shelter — and his charges have been upgraded to second-degree murder following Williams’ death, court records show.

Yeah, didn't think so.

Skynet Stumbles

Robots are the future, doing jobs ILLEGAL ALIENS won't do:

• A rogue delivery robot was caught on camera in Chicago - a city President Trump once slammed as 'the most dangerous in the world' - as it smashed through a glass bus stop.

  Bizarre footage captured the aftermath of the delivery robot rampage in Chicago, where one of many machines roaming the city destroyed a glass bus shelter on Tuesday.

  The clip, viewed millions of times on X in just hours, shows the glass-covered robot twitching violently as it crushes the shattered shelter beneath its four wheels. 

  It eventually rolled away, blinking occasionally, as a stunned passerby filmed the debris scattered across the pavement.  

Good thing there wasn't a homeless person living in the shelter - that robot would have ground him into the pavement. 

Hopefully the Terminator T-1000s are just as uncoordinated.

OUR Sports Team Comrade

America's Number One communist is at it again:

• Sen. Bernie Sanders and Texas Rep. Greg Casar want communities to be able to buy a sports team before “billionaire owners” try to move it, very pointedly bashing the Chicago Bears’ effort to relocate to Indiana which Casar repeatedly likened to “negotiating with a gun” to the head.

  While it’s typically never a good thing for the Chicago Bears to be compared to the Green Bay Packers, a new bill would allow the Bears, and any other sports team, to be offered up for sale one year before sports team owners can move it to another state or metropolitan area. The legislation would lift a prohibition on teams being publicly owned, like the Packers are. The Wisconsin team is a non profit franchise in the NFL, with more than 538,000 shareholders.

  Casar even went so far to say that “this is a keep-the-Bears-in-Chicago bill” during a Washington press conference on Thursday. The Home Team Act would require an owner to announce that it wants to relocate a year prior, giving the community, not-for-profits or private investors a chance to buy it at “fair market value,” including through the community ownership model of the Packers. Franchise owners would be penalized if they don’t comply with the one-year notice.

The Bears are a privately owned business, so it's never good when government looks to force a sale of something they never owned in the first place. Especially an avowed communist like Bernie. 

Remember, this guy owns THREE houses and has never held a job outside of government. His wife ran and bankrupted Burlington University with a series of questionable real estate "deals" that cost the college upwards of $10 million - much of which was never adequately accounted for.

(::cough cough three houses? cough cough::)

The Bears should be paying for their own stadium, but the government shouldn't be anywhere near forcing ownership and location decisions, especially when they're how many trillions in debt and Bernie owns three houses.

Funeral Cancelled

This sounds like some bizarre movie script, except it's tragically real and heartrending:

• The funeral for Michael Altman, a Chicago firefighter killed in a Rogers Park blaze earlier this month, was canceled after his wife went into labor Thursday.

  The funeral, scheduled for Friday, will be rescheduled for a later date, according to the Chicago Fire Department. Visitation was still scheduled to take place Thursday from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel, 7740 S. Western Ave.

  Altman was among the firefighters who responded to a fire behind a four-story building in the 1700 block of West North Shore Avenue that started around 11:20 a.m. March 16, Deputy District Fire Chief Kelly Burns told reporters at the scene. Burns said he fell through a floor that collapsed.

Hopefully, everything goes / is going smoothly for Mom and her newest child is surrounded by an outpouring of love and support in the absence of Dad.

God Bless the Altman family. 

WTF New York???

Our "un-fucking-believable" button is getting quite the workout today. 

Fuckworthless is at it again:

The hold up is your party Tammy. 

When ICE showed up at the airports this week, the lines all but disappeared - even CNN reported it. Obviously you're just a tool for the left. Good thing Stratton is waiting in the wings. She might make you look (slightly) smarter.

In the meantime, this happened in New York City:

• An illegal migrant sat stone-faced in Long Island court Monday as prosecutors outlined sickening new details of his alleged babysitting sex attack on a young girl he left needing surgery.

  Guatemala citizen Carlos Aguilar Reynoso, 27 was babysitting a 5-year-old girl while her mother was at work on Feb. 1, and violently raped the toddler leaving her bleeding and suffering from internal injuries, Suffolk County prosecutors told the court Monday.

New York has some of the same problems as we do here: 

• Police arrested Reynoso just one day later, though not easily as he resisted the cops attempts to detain him, Murphy revealed. He was nearly let loose back on the streets due to a combination of lax state bail laws and sanctuary policies.

  Reynoso was initially charged with endangering the welfare of a child, which isn’t bail eligible in the Empire State. ICE would have been barred from picking him up because of the state’s sanctuary policies but investigators issued the alleged perv a desk-appearance ticket so he would be processed and released.

  The federal agents then cuffed him on his way out of the precinct, sources said.

They issued a child rapist a "desk appearance ticket" and let him walk out of the station?!?!? 

We snidely opined a few posts down that democrats will shortly be thanking ILLEGAL ALIENS for sexually assaulting their families....and it looks like we weren't too far off the mark:

 

While the five-year-old is a completely innocent victim here, New York certainly deserves everything they voted for.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

It keeps getting worse:

• Taxpayers in the sanctuary city of Chicago, Illinois, reportedly footed the housing bill for an illegal alien accused of murdering 18-year-old Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman.

Part of Conehead's habit of embracing criminals over citizens:

• By June 2023, Medina was in Chicago, living at the Leone Beach Park fieldhouse in Rogers Park, a city-sponsored shelter for migrants, according to the address given on his arrest report.

  The fieldhouse — about a half mile north from where Gorman was killed — was among the scores of city-owned buildings that temporarily served as shelters for the thousands of mostly Venezuelan migrants who arrived in the city in 2022 and 2023.

And now, we're paying for his tuberculosis treatment that he either brought with him or caught at the overpopulated shelter from another unscreened unvetted un-immunized ILLEGAL ALIEN.

And the national party won't even commit to deporting a murderer after his time is served ()we're assuming he'll be paroled within five years):

• House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) did not say whether or not an illegal immigrant charged with murdering Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman should be deported if convicted.

  During an exchange with Fox News congressional correspondent Bill Melugin on Capitol Hill, Jeffries was asked, “An illegal immigrant has been charged with murdering a college student in Chicago last week. Do House Democrats believe if he’s convicted, he’s someone who should be deported?”

  Jeffries replied, “I’ll look into the case,” as he continued walking and did not elaborate further.

We guess Temu-Obama has to see if the murderous ILLEGAL ALIEN would be voting democrat once he gets out of prison....if he's even convicted.. The alderbitch says he might have been "startled."

Oh No, Must be an Election!

How can we tell?

• A new Covid variant is spreading across the U.S. and it may be able to evade protection from current vaccines.

  The variant, known as BA.3.2, has been detected in nasal swabs taken from four American travelers and clinical samples from five patients in four unidentified states. It’s also been found in three airplane wastewater samples and 132 wastewater samples taken in more than 20 states, suggesting that its reach is actually far more widespread than what scientists see right now.

Four cases!!!!  SHUT IT DOWN!!!!

Wait, is it here?

• BA.3.2 has been found in California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming, Louisiana, Michigan and Ohio.

AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! Illinois!?!?!?!  Quick, someone evacuate the governor's family to Florida and fly the daughter's horses down on a private flight!!!

How many dead already????

• The variant was detected in hospitalized patients in December and January in three unidentified U.S. states.

  The patients included two hospitalized older adults with additional health conditions - including one who had been admitted for heart care - and a young child who received outpatient care.

  All of the patients survived and the researchers said detection in hospitalized patients does “not necessarily indicate that the variant causes more severe disease, nor does it establish any association with risk factors.”

Oh.

So 100% survivable, doesn't effect kids to the point of hospitalization and one of hte two hospitalized adults had a contributing health factor.

Just like the original virus. 

Tone Deaf Moron

Mayor Dumbfuck must have doubled up on his stupid pills today....and even the Slum Times noticed:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson and city officials unveiled Wednesday the “Abolish ICE” snowplow, the winner of this year’s snowplow naming contest, which drew a record number of submissions.

  The mayor said the winning snowplow name is a message to the federal government that U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement isn’t welcome in Chicago.

  But the unveiling in West Town came as Chicago has again become a focal point of America’s debate over immigration policies following last week’s fatal shooting of an 18-year-old college student.

If ICE was here, doing their jobs and ejecting ILLEGAL ALIEN criminals from the country without dumbocrats embracing lawbreakers, Sheridan Gorman would still be alive.

But then, expecting a leftist commie to have an IQ above room temperature would be a stretch. 

What the Actual F#$%?

There has been an awful lot of stupidity on display the past week from the leftists, especially media types:

• As the Loyola University Chicago community grieves over the ruthless murder of an 18-year-old freshman, the campus newspaper is focusing on not offending the suspected murderer.

  On Monday, prosecutors charged Jose Medina-Medina with murdering freshman Sheridan Gorman. Medina, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, allegedly killed Gorman while the student was hanging out with friends at a nearby beach early on the morning of March 19.

  Campus newspaper The Phoenix originally reported on the charges with an Instagram post titled: “Immigrant Man Charged in Murder of Sheridan Gorman, DHS Involved.”

  The original post also referred to Medina as an “illegal immigrant.”

  However, facing backlash, the student newspaper edited the post to remove the term “illegal immigrant.” The newspaper refers to Medina as a “Rogers Park Resident,” referring to the Chicago neighborhood where Loyola’s main campus is located.

They apologized....for accurately describing an ILLEGAL ALIEN who murdered one of their classmates. 

At this point, Trump can't deport enough ILLEGALS fast enough, regardless of criminal records. Everyone goes. Period. And every democrat supporting criminals over Americans needs to be removed from office.

Next thing you know, they'll be thanking rapists for violating their wives and children. 

Conehead Hates Police?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tammy Strikes Again

Durbin was always a moron.

Fuckworthless leaves him in the dust:

This is the bullshit that claims women are too dumb to vote or find the documents to be able to vote - kind of what they told black and brown people for years. 

One of authors of the Bill immediately fired back:

We checked the Bill, and by golly, it's right there:

• ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL .—Subject to any relevant guidance adopted by the Election Assistance Commission, each State shall establish a process under which an applicant who cannot provide documentary proof of United States citizenship under paragraph (1) may, if the applicant signs an attestation under penalty of perjury that the applicant is a citizen of the United States and eligible to vote in elections for Federal office, submit such other evidence to the appropriate State or local official demonstrating that the applicant is a citizen of the United States and such official shall make a determination as to whether the applicant has sufficiently established United States citizenship for purposes of registering to vote in elections for Federal office in the State.

So if anyone is denying women the right to vote, it would be officials in Illinois making that determination. Not only that, but there are already a number of Laws in place whereby - if you cannot afford it - free official copies will be provided for birth, marriage and divorce certificates, passed by dumbocrats in Illinois years ago.

No one is getting a free passport of course. If you can afford to travel, you can afford a passport,and we know hundreds of people who have never set foot outside of the country and even a few outside of Illinois.

But Tammy thinks you're all morons and has to lie to attempt to stop a Bill that has nearly 75% support across ALL political parties. You'd think that there was a load of fraud going on or something she wanted to protect.

Another Billion....GONE

This money sure would have come in handy:

• Last fall, a Chicago headline caught my eye: A man who had posed with Governor J.B. Pritzker at a “Peacekeepers” anti-violence event had just been charged with murder.

  The man was part of a state-funded program designed to prevent gang violence by paying locals—often former gang members—to mediate conflicts on the street. About a week after appearing with the governor, prosecutors say, the man participated in a smash-and-grab robbery of a Louis Vuitton store. In the chaotic getaway, another man was killed: Mark Carlo Arceta, whose son was born the next day without a father.

  The story raised obvious questions: What exactly is a Peacekeeper? And how often do people in this program end up back in cuffs?

  The local press quickly moved on. I started digging.

  After three months of Freedom of Information Act requests, door-knocking, and speaking with ex–gang members, I answer those questions in today’s story.

The entire article is behind a paywall, but here's the damning graphic:

 

Although they tout private contributions, the fact is taxpayers are footing the majority of the bills for what is essentially a money-laundering operation for gangs, criminals, grifters and scammers. The article delves into all sorts of names and events that would invite scrutiny from legitimate news organizations, but those don't seem to exist any more.

If you can find a way to read the article, do so. 

The Startled ILLEGAL ALIEN

The Loyola murder is attracting national attention.

So what does the aldercreature do? Blames the victim:

• Meet Chicago Democrat and 49th Ward Alderwoman Maria Hadden, who pretty much blamed Sheridan Gorman for her own murder: “The kids were out doing normal things people do in the neighborhood. And it sounds like this might have been a wrong-place, wrong-time situation, running into a person who had a gun. They might have unintentionally startled this person at the end of the pier.”

Others are pointing out:

• Sheridan Gorman was kiIIed 4 days ago by a Venezuelan illegal in Chicago

  0 [comment or mention] from Chicago Mayor Johnson
  0 from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker
  0 from Illinois Lt. Governor Stratton
  0 from Illinois House Speaker Welch
  0 from Illinois Attorney General Raoul
  0 from Illinois Senate President Harmon

But earlier this year, Porkie went to Minnesota to honor law-breakers for interfering in ILLEGAL ALIEN removals....while removing themselves from the gene pool.

So remember:

• ILLEGAL ALIENS who might vote for democrats - good
• eighteen-year-old college student killed by ILLEGAL ALIEN - bad 

Tax Revenue Generation

The City needs money. It's a never-ending quest.

Democrats think you can tax everybody and everything into prosperity but all that does is drive out the people who can afford to leave and they take their money with them. It also drives us to do all of our shopping in the suburbs and collar counties, not to mention out-of-state when we need un-serialized ammunition. 

There used to be giant tax generating entities in Chicago that funded much of the government - McCormick Place conventions, the Mag Mile, a thriving bar, music and entertainment scene. 

But cost overruns killed the convention business, the Mag Mile is a plywood forest, Chicago went from a few thousand bars to a few hundred, movie theaters are dying, stage plays are few and far between, the Bears are leaving and so are the White Sox. And instead of dealing with these shortfalls, Fata$$ and Conehead raise hotel and restaurants taxes for tourists that aren't coming in numbers big enough to save the city.

But here's a bright idea that's sixty years overdue:

• Madison Street on the city’s West Side has been rocked by some serious body blows over the last 60 or so years and it shows: the unhealed scars left by the civil unrest that followed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 assassination, nearly three generations of disinvestment and scores of vacant commercial buildings.

  Yet the street goes on. Down, perhaps. But never quite out.

  And now, the thoroughfare is the focus of a city study aimed at helping bring new retail, housing and other activity to three miles of Madison Street, stretching from the shadow of the United Center to the heart of K-Town.

The United Center has (had?) the potential to be an anchor for west side redevelopment that was never fully explored or exploited. People always knew that the Mag Mile was a massive generator of revenue and jobs for decades. But not many knew that the second highest generator of revenue was the Twenty-Sixth Street business corridor for most of the 80's, 90's and 2000's. Madison Street (corrected) was that, too....but at the other end of the 20th Century....until the 60's. 

We don't know if it has that potential any more.

And Speaking of Shortages....

Building on the post directly below this one, we got an interesting e-mail about the "quiet defunding" going on here in Chicago:

• Hey SCC, just thought you'd like to know. The current manpower levels of the CPD are around 8,000 bodies. That isn't just blue shirts - that is everyone from Larry to the newest rookie. Not only that, the city has just about reached it's hiring numbers for the year, a grand total of 250 officers. Keep in mind there are about 1,000 retirements on tap for 2026, so that's a net loss of 750 bodies.

The letter goes on a bit, but that's the meat of it. 

Eight thousand is a ridiculous number for twenty-two District and five Areas. 

Is the Great Re-Districting finally upon us?

More NYPD Shortages

NYPD pensions are based on salary plus overtime, a nifty little benefit. But with the islamo-communist mayor defunding everything that isn't "progressive," thousands of NYPD personnel are likely to bail out at their current rates instead of sticking around to lose money:

• More than half of the NYPD’s Joint Terrorism Task Force cops can retire right now, along with thousands of sergeants, lieutenants, and captains, worrying officials about the future of terror and crime fighting in Gotham, The Post has learned.

  Forty-five of 82 JTTF detectives – or 55% – have 20 years under their belts, which is enough time on the job to leave with a full pension, according to union data.

  There are 5,121 active detectives in the NYPD, and 1,193 of them — or 23% — are in the same boat, eligible for a full pension after 20 years.

  Another 698 lieutenants, or about 42% of the total 1,669, could retire today; 518 captains, or 66% of the 780, could leave; and 954 sergeants, representing about 22% of the 4,300 total, could exit at any time, according to union data. 

  Police are concerned that the thousands of veteran NYPD bosses and gumshoes will flee if Mayor Mamdani cuts overtime, which would significantly reduce their pensions, union officials said. 

A couple of years ago, there were ambassadors from dozens of mid-to-small city police departments recruiting from blue state $hitholes, including Chicago and New York, grabbing any warm trained body and incentivizing departures with tens-of-thousands of dollars.

We're imagining a lot of NYPD people will be filling these small town departments, greatly reducing opportunities along the way. Make your moves soon.

Blue Haired Karen

So the ILLEGAL ALIEN who executed the Loyola student was allowed in by the Drooling Vegetable administration a few years back and promptly began committing crime:

• Court records show he was arrested in mid-June 2023 for allegedly shoplifting merchandise worth $132 from the Macy’s at 111 North State Street in the Loop. Arrest records show he listed 1222 West Touhy Avenue in Rogers Park as his home address at the time — the address of Leone Beach Park, where the fieldhouse had been converted into a migrant shelter by City Hall. Leone Beach Park forms the north end of Loyola Beach.

  According to court records, he was released from custody “by rule of the court,” a cash bail-era procedure by which people charged with non-violent crimes were released on their own recognizance. He never showed up for court again, records show. After his first failure to appear in July 2023, Judge Peter Gonzalez granted a 30-day continuance. When a Macy’s representative appeared for that date and the man once again failed to appear, Gonzalez issued an arrest warrant requiring a $50 deposit to be released from jail. He was never caught.

There's that judge again. Big surprise.

And remember, Fata$$ is going to stand between ILLEGALS and federal authorities who will have to "go through" Lord knows how many layers of shit to get to a murderer.

Now he's in custody and the feds filed an immigration detainer - which may or may not be enforced according to Porkulous:

• The federal agency also claimed that “Medina-Medina should have never been in our country, but was RELEASED into our communities by the Biden administration. He was then released AGAIN following an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago, Illinois.”

Just pointing out to CWB, the federal agency doesn't have to "claim" any of this. CWB's reporting cites it in the first article - he's ILLEGAL, he came in under Biden, he was released by judge Gonzalez - it's all there. Give yourselves some credit guys - you ARE the media now.

And one of the tools that led to the arrest of an ILLEGAL ALIEN MURDERER....well, democrats can't have that working against their new core constituency!

• An Illinois state legislator wants to strip law enforcement of a tool that has helped detectives solve murders, robberies, kidnappings, and sexual assaults — including some of the most violent crimes to hit the CTA in recent years: facial recognition.

  [...] But if a North Side state legislator gets her way, Illinois police will soon be barred from using any facial recognition database, including the Secretary of State’s, to do their work ever again. 

  The bill is called the Illinois Biometric Surveillance Act, and it’s being pushed by Rep. Kelly Cassidy, who represents most of Rogers Park and Edgewater in Springfield. Cassidy’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story.

Cassidy looks EXACTLY like you think (check out the CWB link for a picture) - a blue-haired AWFL troll bent on destroying the Rule of Law by importing ILLEGALS and setting them loose on the public to rape, rob, and murder. The Loyola murder took place in her District, and she still had the gall to propose Police be prevented from solving it.

We can see why tar-and-feathering was a thing back in the day.

Hammer Time

That CTA rider with the two hammers that we posted about a few days ago....he's been identified:

Meet Eric F. Vinson and his THIRTY prior arrests for different levels of assault, with and without deadly weapons. But you know, "crime is down."

This guy doesn't just have a forehead....or a five-head. Hell, that thing is even beyond an eight-head. But it would make an excellent backstop if he approaches us anywhere on the public way.

Dumb Ideas Continue

And the stupidity keeps coming from dumbocrats in Springfield (click for larger version):

 

We're pretty sure something similar was decided by the Supreme Court years ago whereby you cannot require extra expenditures to exercise what is an enumerated Right in the Constitution. This was related to the "poll tax" or literary tests that were utilized across the Jim Crow south to deny minorities the Right to vote.

Those restrictions were instituted by democrats back then, too. 

Arrest in Loyola Execution

And you'll never guess who the offender was:

• Offender in custody who lives a block from incident location.
  
  Gun recovered.
  
  Venezuelan migrant.
  
  Not targeted.
  
  Random.
  
  Had a picture and used good ol’detective work to track him down.

Turns out to be an ILLEGAL ALIEN, who shouldn't be able to get near a gun, but somehow in a city and state with some of the most restrictive gun laws in existence, manages to get one and kills an 18-year-old student from New York.

Here's the Slum Times coverage: 

• Chicago police are questioning a person of interest in the Thursday fatal shooting of an 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student.

  Sheridan Gorman was on a walk with her friends in the 1000 block of West Pratt Boulevard around 1:30 a.m. when she was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Chicago police confirmed they are questioning a person of interest in the shooting of the student from Yorktown, New York, but no other details were released.

No other details were released because they would be embarrassing to Conehead and Fata$$. 

If I.C.E. was here hunting illegals, this girl might be alive.

Park with the Engine Off?

Is this true?

• OT. We were told in roll call today to be mindful of how much gas we’re using. It were stopped we should turn the engine off. WTF. 

At least it's been nice weather - could you imagine if it was below freezing and they wanted you to park with the engine off? Or 100 degrees like out west this weekend.

Maybe it's time to adopt the CFD model and park at the station until a call comes in. 

Is Conehead having money problems? 

UPDATE: How many cars on Conehead's detail?

• 150 cops across three watches - call it +/- fifty per watch
• days off, furlos, etc - that's twenty two-man cars plus at least one supervisor, probably two

So Conehead has twenty-plus cars burning gas 24/7 plus the two armored vehicles which are constantly kept running in case Conehead needs to leave in a hurry.

Too Stupid to Vote

Anyone else find it amusing that the party that spent the last couple of decades telling everyone that requiring ID to vote was racist because black and brown people were too dumb to....

• use the internet,
• locate government offices and
• get an ID, social security card, birth certificate or passport

....have started telling women that THEY'RE too stupid to get a copy of birth certificate, a marriage certificate  and/or a divorce certificate so they're going to be unable to vote?

Democrats think their voters are morons. 

Sometimes, they're correct, but many are waking up to this degrading behavior that is meant to maintain the left's control over fraud.

Arsonist Charged

And (surprise!) he was on electronic monitoring:

• A Rogers Park man has been charged with murder and aggravated arson in connection with a fire that killed Chicago Fire Department Firefighter and EMT Michael Altman, prosecutors announced. He is the fourth person charged this year with killing or attempting to kill someone in Chicago while on felony pretrial release.

  Sheaves Slate, 27, is expected to appear for a detention hearing at the Cook County courthouse at 26th and California on Saturday afternoon, where additional details about the allegations against him are expected to be released.

Apologies for bringing this up, but this really should be used as a giant f#$%ing club to beat any and every politician who voted for the SAFE-T Act. 

These creatures shouldn't be walking the streets among the decent and law-abiding citizens, sowing mayhem and murder wherever they go. They need to be in cages or - if on bond - be forced to live with the politicians who voted for this crap bill....and the fat tub of shit that signed it.

Another Property Tax Scandal

Nice to see Conehead's staff carrying on the long time traditions of the Chicago Machine:

• For the past five years, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget director has illegally gotten property tax breaks on a South Loop condo she owns but hasn’t lived in since 2019.

  Annette Guzman got those tax breaks from her former boss, Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi. They’ve saved her $3,434 in taxes on a condo she called an investment property on the required financial disclosure statement she filed with the Cook County clerk a year ago.

  Guzman and Kaegi say that, until asked by a Chicago Sun-Times reporter about the tax breaks, they were unaware she was violating state law by collecting the homeowner exemption on her investment property and also her Bronzeville home.

  Illinois law allows homeowners one such exemption every year and requires them to live in the home.

  Now, Kaegi’s staff has canceled the homeowner exemption on the investment property and ordered Guzman to repay $2,071.89 in tax breaks she got — not what she wrongfully failed to pay for the past five years but just for the past three years. Kaegi also waived any interest payments.

Dozens of politicians have been caught up in the scam of undervaluing properties or residency issues connected to "investment" properties. Seldom have they been held criminally liable and certainly never politically. Luis Gutierrez is the first one that comes to mind. Shortshanks got a sweetheart deal on his condo before it was even built and then sold it for ten or more times what he bought it for within a very short time frame.

Just pay back a portion (never the whole thing) and skip the interest payments that cheated actual taxpayers out of services.