Second City Cop

• The finger pointing has started and no one wants to look like the bad guy, but it looks like it's coming from city hall. City hall decided to take a look at it a little closer and found out that we like it so now they are having second thoughts. If it does get the ax the word is the pilot programs that are going on now will continue.

Labels: city politics, we got nothing

Labels: pension

• Why is Keating over the Central Control Group consisting of the 001 and 018 District? He is a service rank of Sgt. and gets Deputy pay because he use to work on Mayor's Detail.
  
  We have Lt. and Captains that could replace him at lower salary.
  
  Why do the two PATROLMEN Commanders of the mayors detail get commanders pay?
  
  We have Sergeants, Lt.s and Captains that are trained supervisors and not political hacks like Roti from Bridgeport and Carlow who's mother or Aunt was a secretary to the Mayor!
  
  Why does the Mayor's butler aka administrative assistant civilian get a car and a driver to cart his butt to workout, pick up his son (outside the city) and pack the mayors clothes? And why doesn't he work 8 hours a day?
  
  Why does each of the mayor's children have a car with a driver to drive them to work or shopping, or out on the town?
  
  Why does the mayor take members of his detail up to Michigan in city vehicles, paid time and 1/2 to go grocery shopping for the mayor's wife, pick up take out and transport his children back and forth to the city?
  
  Why does the mayor and his family treat his detail with disrespect? He is an elected official and not a King and she is definitely not the Queen although they act like it.
  
  Why does an employee of Special Events out of the Mayor's office get a take home car? Will there be a call out for their expertise?
  
  Why do we have to call the Alderman's office to have City Services implemented near our homes? Each of those City Service ie. Streets and San, Park District, parking enforcement, clerks office....have supervisors and could assign those services without clout Alderman.
  
  Why does Alderjerk Cardenas issue City Stickers to his staff with residential parking identification surrounding his/ their office as opposed to where they live?
  
  Why do Alderjerks have any input as to what laws should be enforced in their respective Wards. Everyday is a surprise as to what we are allowed to enforce...we have supervisors and don't need additional drain on police and fire resources for friends parking, residential parking...
  
  Why does the Park District allow one of their parking lots be used by citizens/residents overnight and anyone else using a Park District lot have to now pay the meter box?
  
  And I am sure you guys can come up with other examples...

Labels: from the comments

• The media refused to cover most of the mayhem that night, concentrating on the celebrations in Grant Park while ignoring the assaults, batteries and mini-riots exploding all over the south and west sides.

Labels: info for the police

• Chicago aldermen with their noses out of joint today demanded to know why they are searched along with the masses at the city’s central headquarters for administrative hearings.

• Budget Committee Chair Carrie Austin (34th) was so "offended," she warned Bruner what might happen if he fails to "take another look at your policy."

  "It’s not a matter of giving anybody any preference. But us that are aldermen—we are the ones who set your budget. If we’re the ones setting your budget maybe we’ll take an adjustment" downward, if the policy is not rescinded, Austin warned.

  Bruner initially defended the policy, telling aldermen, "It’s not my intention to offend anyone. It’s only our intention to make sure that people coming through are searched...We’re trying to treat everyone equally. We’re not trying to give anyone any particular favors."

  But by the time the hearing ended, he had clearly gotten the message.

Labels: city politics

• All Petitions must be notarized by the person collecting the signatures. For those of you unfamiliar with the notarization process, you must sign the Petitions in the presence of a Notary who will then stamp the Petition. This is a legal process and must be followed. BY LAW, Sgt. Northen cannot have the Petitions notarized on his own unless he collected the signatures. Most lawyers, some banks and even the Credit Union have Notaries on staff who will Notarize for a small fee or no fee for members/clients.
• Petitions will all be 8.5 by 11 inch paper. We had it set up to print that way on the website. Please do not deviate from this size. Proper postage must be on all the envelopes, and a return address is requested. Sgt. Northen will not and should not be responsible for postage due, registered mail or certified mail. First Class mail is fine, but if hand delivery is necessary for large numbers of Petitions, arrangements can be made via e-mail with Sgt. Northen for a meeting within the boundaries of the 018th Police District during hours chosen by Sgt. Northen.
  
• To verify receipt of the Petition delivery, it is requested that you include a self-addressed stamped envelope or postcard so Sgt. Northen can mail back a receipt. We can't require you to do this, but in the event of a challenge (and there will be challenges), it is preferable to show the Petitions were mailed legitimately.
• DO NOT number the Petitions. Once they are bound, Sgt. Northen will number the pages.

• JOHN NORTHEN
  1960 LINCOLN PARK WEST
  CHICAGO, IL 60614
  

• CPDFOP7@yahoo.com

Labels: city politics

• About a third of Chicago police officers brought up for termination in the last 10 years have actually been fired, according to a report by a watchdog group.
  
  The civilian Chicago police board responsible for disciplining officers has backed the police superintendent's recommendations for terminating officers only 37 percent of the time, though the city's top cop has recommended firings in 97 percent of the cases, according to the report by the Chicago Justice Project, which advocates public access to justice-related information.
  
  Rulings made by the nine-member police board are generally binding unless either the superintendent or the officer challenges it in court, the report states.
  
  The report -- which analyzed more than 300 cases against sworn officers and civilian workers between 1999 and 2008 -- recommends that the board release a report explaining their rulings when they go against the superintendent's recommendations.

Labels: city politics

• Over the last year, misconduct complaints against Chicago police officers have increased by nearly 19 percent, according to the city agency that investigates allegations from citizens.

  Much of the 18.6 percent increase in complaints received by the Independent Police Review Authority has been driven by a steep rise since March of this year, IPRA Chief Administrator Ilana Rosenzweig said.

  For most of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, the authority was receiving about 2,300 new complaints against police every three months. But in the second and third quarters of this year the numbers jumped to 2,600 and then 2,800.

  The increase has forced the authority to deploy more investigators to fielding new cases, causing a slowdown in the rate at which investigations are completed, Rosenzweig said.

• The city plans to prosecute citizens suspected of lying about police misconduct, authorities said Thursday.

  In 2004, the city started requiring citizens to sign an affidavit before they could file a complaint against an officer.

  But the city did not go after people who lied in their affidavits, fearing that would scare off legitimate complaints.

• lying without consequences,
  
• slaps on the wrist for battery, assault, UUW,
• increased payouts for BS lawsuits,
  
• five generations of welfare

Labels: city politics

• Press Release:
  
  Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 response to call for unpaid time off for Chicago Firefighters/Paramedics
  
  With regards to the suggestion of the City's administration and aldermen to have Chicago Firefighters and Paramedics take furlough days off, I must first tell you that the City and the Union agreed at the start of our contract negotiations that we would not negotiate in the press. Unfortunately, the City is not able to live up to this arrangement. Recent public statements by the Mayor and members of the City Council give us no choice but to respond to their recent published remarks.
  
  It is obvious that fires, accidents, hazardous materials incidents and the need for quick and competent firefighter and emergency medical response do not take a holiday or a furlough day.
  
  The taxpayers of Chicago need to know that when they call for help in their darkest hour, there will always be fully staffed emergency service ready to respond. Chicago Firefighters and Paramedics provide protection for these always existing dangers, but we must also have the manpower and capability to respond quickly and successfully to an emergency and potential catastrophe. The world we live in has changed, and we cannot afford and should not gamble on the public's safety. The safety of our citizens and also of our responders is paramount and we must not jeopardize their well-being by reducing fire and emergency medical services.
  
  The motto of the Chicago Fire Dept. is "We’re there when you need us" but that may well not be the case if reductions and cuts are implemented.
  
  Tom Ryan
  
  President
  
  Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2

Labels: contract stuff, FOP

• With a recession making money tight and jobs scarce, police said Wednesday they weren't surprised to see more people turning to crime for a fast buck.

  While overall crime in the Southland dipped 1 percent last year, burglaries were on the rise, and police blamed the economy.

• Officers are seeing more phony credit cards linked to real credit card accounts, which can drain a victim of cash or credit without the theft of the card itself, Division Chief Mike Kaufmann said.

  "The economy is certainly a factor. The need for more money puts people on edge, and you'll see stuff directly related to that," Kaufmann said. "It's definitely a factor in Oak Lawn, but also regionally and globally, really."

Labels: crime

• Heading into year No. 2 of a hiring slowdown, the Chicago Police Department is now nearly 2,000 officers short of its authorized strength of 13,500, counting vacancies, medical leave and limited duty, records show -- with 36 percent of police jobs at O'Hare Airport unfilled.

  After hiring only 46 police officers this year, Mayor Daley's 2010 budget counts on federal stimulus funds to boost manpower next year. Still, just 86 officers are to be added, 30 of them to patrol CTA buses and L trains.

  That's nowhere near enough to fill 596 vacancies and a wave of retirements.

Labels: department issues

• Mayor Richard Daley and some aldermen suggested today that police officers and firefighters take off nearly five weeks without pay to cut city spending next year.
  
  The idea, which the city cannot force on the police and fire unions, surfaced as outside critics and aldermen are questioning Daley’s plan to dip into long-term cash reserves to help pay for his proposed 6ドル.1 billion budget.
  
  "Everyone has to be part of the solution, not part of the problem," Daley said today when asked if police officers and firefighters should take unpaid furlough days. "And that’s why I’m taking 24 days without pay, and I got other people to take that, because you have to show that government understands the suffering that is going on throughout your communities."

• A boy and girl were shot in an apparent drive-by shooting tonight in the Far South Side's Morgan Park neighborhood, police said.

  WGN-TV reported that the children were an 11-year-old boy and his 10-year-old cousin.

• GeRod Thomas went out of his way to avoid trouble, often staying inside when he was at his Bronzeville home.

  Yet violence found him on his front lawn Tuesday night when he was gunned down in what police believe was a gang-related drive-by shooting.

• A body was reported to be found in a trash receptacle this morning in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side.

  The discovery was made about 10:40 p.m. near West 73rd and South Carpenter Streets, officials said.

• A man in his 20s was shot and critically wounded this morning in the West Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.

  The shooting happened within a block from where a woman and a teen were killed Tuesday afternoon in a drive-by shooting, which also left two men wounded.

• A 19-year-old man and a woman were killed Tuesday afternoon in an apparent drive-by shooting in the city's West Englewood neighborhood, police said.

Labels: city politics, money questions

• Despite Daley’s promise to hold the line on taxes, fines, and fees, Budget Director Eugene Munin acknowledged that the budget includes a 14 percent increase in water rates.

  "We took pains to say, ‘No new taxes,’ ’’ Munin said, noting the increase was approved three years ago.

Labels: city politics

Labels: city politics

• If you go onto the 12th ward website he offers a meeting with him to address concerns on mondays from 3pm to 6pm. I say we (hopefully a few hundred or so) of us should show up there and ask him in front of his constituents about his discretionary fund and his 6% pay raise. It is about time we put them on the hot seat and open the publics eyes on their pay and how it is distributed. I just called his office and spoke with one of his flunkies that said he would be available to meet. I am serious SCC make a post about this. We need to start putting pressure on this goof and it needs to be done now while it is still fresh and doesn't fade away.
  
  I encourage everyone to call his office the number is 773-523-8250

Labels: city politics, from the comments

• If an independent arbitrator awards double-digit pay hikes to Chicago Police officers, there's a good chance the City Council will reject it, some aldermen said Tuesday.

  During closed-door briefings on the status of police negotiations, aldermen vented their anger about the fact that public safety employees who account for 70 percent of city spending have been exempt from furlough days and other cost-cutting concessions.

  Some aldermen also served notice that City Council ratification can no longer be taken for granted.

  "The message given was, it is very likely the Council will reject any double-digit increases in pay for sworn personnel," said Ald. George Cardenas (12th).

• Some Chicago aldermen are suggesting a change in salary. There's growing support for a pay raise, but the general election may play a role in how much more money they get.

  Chicago aldermen make 98,000ドル a year for jobs that are technically part-time. However, most council members said they work 24/7 and they deserve a raise. Under state law, they have to vote on salary issues before the election, which forces them to make controversial decisions now. Those decisions can be used against them by opponents come February.

• Cost of living seems to be a fair request to most Chicagoans.

  [...] The cost of living this year is around 4%. Last year was 5.7%. So it might actually average out at 5,000ドル over the next four years. That's harder to attack politically than the fixed amount. So we'll see how it plays out over the next few weeks.

Labels: city politics, contract stuff

• how many casualties are you willing to accept?
• how many structure fires and fire deaths?
• how many grandmothers, grandfathers and shooting victims are you willing to have die in the street?
• how much property crime and damage are you willing to endure?
  

Labels: city politics

• Crime in Illinois continued a steady two-decade decline last year, reported the Illinois State Police in its annual crime-rate index released today.

  While the crime rate was up slightly in suburban Cook County, it was mostly in crimes against property and not violent crime. The crime rate dropped in the collar counties of DuPage, Lake, McHenry and Will.

• The crime index was up 3.1 percent in Chicago, but down 2.2 percent over the rest of the state.

Labels: stats

• Foie Gras ban
• Bottled Water tax
• Potholes
• Sewer collapses
• Snow removal - haha
  
• Barking dogs
• Burke actually proposed looking under dogs tails for unneutered pets
  
• Substandard schools that never get better
• Crooked land deals, including CTA property for 1ドル
• Approval of the Parking Meter debacle
• Approval of selling Chicago's future for pennies on the dollar
• Wasting money fighting for a gun ban that is in direct conflict with an established Supreme Court ruling
• Jackpot justice payouts

Labels: city politics

• Chicago homeowners squeezed by rising property tax bills could be in line for cash grants of up to 200ドル thanks to 35ドル million worth of property tax relief tied to Mayor Daley’s 2010 budget.

• It will be confined to families whose total household income is 200,000ドル or less.

• The city is not requiring tax returns to prove income, which raised questions of whether people would be truthful about their income when applying for aid.

  But Daley said, "You have to have faith in people. . . . You’re trying to help ’em. . . . You can’t have ’em bring 40 different documents."

Labels: dumb ideas, money questions

• New Yorkers are fleeing the state and city in alarming numbers -- and costing a fortune in lost tax dollars, a new study shows.

  More than 1.5 million state residents left for other parts of the United States from 2000 to 2008, according to the report from the Empire Center for New York State Policy. It was the biggest out-of-state migration in the country.

  The vast majority of the migrants, 1.1 million, were former residents of New York City -- meaning one out of seven city taxpayers moved out.

Labels: we got nothing

• An internet blogger who claims to be a Chicago police officer wants to fire 25 aldermen.
  
  The Second City Cop blogger says it's his response to West Side Ald. Ed Smith. Last week, Smith said police and firefighters should no longer be immune from the cuts in pay and benefits that are hitting other city workers.
  
  
• The cop blogger wants this non-binding, advisory referendum on the February 2010 ballot: Should the Chicago City Council be reduced from 50 aldermen to 25?
  
  It's a far-fetched idea, maybe, but it could save taxpayers more than 10ドル million a year.

Labels: city politics

Labels: dumb ideas

• President Barack Obama has only been in office for just over nine months, but he's already hit the links as much as President Bush did in over two years.

  CBS' Mark Knoller — an unofficial documentarian and statistician of all things White House-related — wrote on his Twitter feed that, "Today - Obama ties Pres. Bush in the number of rounds of golf played in office: 24.

  Took Bush 2 yrs & 10 months."

  This news comes on the heels of today's news that Obama played golf with a woman — chief domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes — for the first time since taking office.

Labels: national politics

• An Advisory Referendum can be placed on the ballot for the February 2010 election if a total number of signatures equaling 11% of the previous general election totals can be gathered in a 90 day period preceding the filing deadline.

• 121,660 signatures

• 10,000 cops? If everyone did a sheet, that's 100,000 signatures. Cops being cops though, figure on less than 50% participation. That means everyone who did contribute would have to get 2 or 3 sheets.
• 2,400 firefighters? That would be another 24,000 signatures. Again, the under 50% participation though would mean 3 sheets per participating firefighter.
• Other unhappy city dwellers and regular people visiting the site might be able to push another few thousand signatures. The Machine would react badly to this initiative, so estimate double the number of signatures to survive the inevitable challenges.
• You couldn't circulate these at work, you couldn't mail them around via Department mail, and to be sure of not getting duplicate signatures, you'd have to make sure you got all the signatures from people unassociated with the Department - it would have to be friends, neighbors, acquaintances outside of work.
  

Labels: city politics

Labels: sports

• Your chances of receiving a parking ticket in Chicago have shot up from last year, and the pace has accelerated even more in recent months.
  
  A ticketing blitz in the city has led to a 26 percent spike in parking meter violations so far in 2009, according to city records provided to the Tribune in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
  
  The area in and near the Loop accounted for half the increase in tickets.
  
  
• Parking and non-moving compliance violations tickets issued by the Chicago Police Department and traffic control aides declined about 10 percent in the first eight months of this year compared to the same period last year, Walsh said. Meanwhile, tickets issued by the Revenue Department increased almost 10 percent.

Labels: city politics

• Iowa City police are investigating an early morning assault in which a man accused another of being a zombie, then punched him twice. Police said the assault occurred at 1:17 a.m. Sunday at an Iowa City restaurant south of the University of Iowa campus.
  
  A man was ordering food when he was approached by another man who called him a zombie, then hit him in the eye. When the victim tried to call police on his cell phone, the man punched him again, breaking his nose.
  
  The man then ran out a back door.

Labels: sarcasm AND silliness

• Force Turnovers
• Don't give up any Turnovers

Labels: sports

• President Obama declares the SWINE FLU a national emergency - To get the public's attention off all his failures.... EVERYBODY, LOOK OVER HERE INSTEAD! SWINE FLU IS A NATIONAL EMERGENCY! Even though more people will die fire ant bites than the swine flu.

• The clinics are set up at six City College locations, and health officials are cautioning that the supply is more limited than they had hoped and that it would be reserved only for high-risk population groups.

  Each site has about 1,500 doses and officials will start turning away people once they reach that number.

  At the West Side Technical Institute, 2800 S. Western Ave., the line numbered more than 600 at 9:30 a.m. People inside the gymnasium were filling out paperwork as a woman in an orange vest called out numbers in English and Spanish.

Labels: sarcasm AND silliness

• At least two teenagers are being held in police custody in connection with the murders of CLTV talk show host Garrard McClendon’s parents, a source said.

  The suspects, who have been in custody since Friday, were positively identified as being seen in Milton and Ruby McClendon’s car, the source said.

  One of the teens is from Hammond, the source said, where Milton, 76, and Ruby, 74, lived.

Labels: crime

• As Chicago aldermen prepare to pore over Mayor Richard M. Daley's 6ドル.1 billion budget and the spending cuts and financial maneuvering needed to balance the budget, one alderman is suggesting a politically risky idea: pay cuts for police officers and firefighters.
  
  
• He said that means police officers and firefighters should have to take pay cuts to help deal with the budget. "I mean, they are employees of the city of Chicago and we have to make sure that the city functions."
  
  But Smith's suggestion has no realistic chance of being approved by the City Council.
  
  
• [Ald. Leslie] Hairston (5th) would like to eliminate the practice of paying police on days when they're "available" for duty, even if they don't actually get called in to work.

Labels: city politics

Labels: we got nothing

• A member of the McClendon family is blaming the "thug mentality" in the black community for the slaying of his parents and said black leaders have "to wake up" to change it and "come to grips that our pathologies run deep."
  
  Theodore McClendon early this morning posted a 3-minute videoclip entitled "AddressingThug-Life" on the Facebook social networking site in which he also said that "this kind of intimidation has to stop."
  
  
• "My parents happened to be the unfortunate victim of their immaturity and their thugism, and quite frankly to their primitive nature," he said. "We got to change this. Unless we change this we are doomed to have an uncivilized society. We are doomed to live in a quagmire of primordial existence. Unless we change it.
  
  "But we got to admit it. That's where black leaders have to wake up. Black leaders have to come to grips that our pathologies run deep.
  
  "Despite the causes of black pathologies, we must understand they exist. We need to address them rather than to blame external forces, blame economics, blame the white man. Blame something that's not going to solve anything.
  
  "You got to admit our shortcomings... That's what we got to do."

Labels: we got nothing

• Dispatcher on zone 6 doesn't give out a 10-1. Two 10-1 events come across the board and her partner can be heard loudly and urgently telling her to get out the 10-1 event. Dispatcher refuses so the secondary does what she is supposed to do and dispatches the job. The primary dispatcher who failed to dispatch the job is the sister yes I said the sister of the guy who failed to dispatch the infamous 10-1 last month. Guess stupidity runs in the family. Best part is that nothing happened to the primary who failed to dispatch the 10-1 in a timely manner but a supervisor was seen giving papers to the secondary who thought quickly and gave out the job (I didn't see the papers but am told it was a reprimand). Watch your back out there guys and girls because while most of us up here at OEMC want you to make it home, some of us just aren't cut out for this job.

Labels: 911

• Five students were arrested at Fenger High School — four charged with reckless conduct and one charged with allegedly threatening a teacher — after a fight broke out in a lunchroom Thursday.

  Police responded to a disturbance at the school at 11220 S. Wallace St. about 11:25 a.m., News Affairs [...] said. Officers were called to the scene after a fight broke out in the lunchroom.

Labels: we got nothing

• Cook County Board President Todd Stroger unveils his budget for next year which he says includes no new taxes or fees.

  He told county commissioners on Thursday afternoon that the 3ドル billion spending plan will not reduce services.

  Stroger says this is possible because of a controversial sales tax increase passed last year.

Labels: county

• 5th Annual Call Box Cup Charity Soccer Match
  
• Chicago Fire Department vs Chicago Police Department
  
• 25OCT09 7:00pm at St. Rita Stadium
  
• 5ドル Donation to benefit the CPD Peer Support and CPD/CFD Honor Guard
  
• www.cpdsoccer.com

Labels: events

• The maker of Taser stun guns is advising officers to avoid shooting suspects in the chest with the 50,000-volt weapon, saying that it could pose an extremely low risk of an "adverse cardiac event."

  The advisory, issued in an Oct. 12 training bulletin, is the first time that Taser International has suggested there is any risk of a cardiac arrest related to the discharge of its stun gun.

  But Taser officials said Tuesday that the bulletin does not state that Tasers can cause cardiac arrest. They said the advisory means only that law-enforcement agencies can avoid controversy over the subject if their officers aim at areas other than the chest.

Labels: info for the police

• As part of his new budget proposal, Mayor Richard Daley wants to give low-income homeowners 200ドル in property-tax relief.

  Daley would take 35ドル million out of parking meter lease proceeds and offer the tax relief to partly fill a gap caused by the state's decision to phase out a limit in how much property assessments can increase.

Labels: money questions

• Derrick King, 47, was paroled Tuesday for the earlier attack, which happened in August 2008 less than a mile east of today's incident. Hours later he was in police custody again, charged with misdemeanor simple assault.

  Police say King approached the woman, who was smoking a cigarette, at about 3:20 a.m. in the 500 block of West Roosevelt Road and asked her for a smoke. She said no.

  "He told her: 'Remember the couple who got beat real bad for not giving a cigarette? That was me,' " [...]

  King then charged at her, Chaplin said. The woman caught the attention of two police officers patrolling nearby who quickly arrested King.

Labels: county, crime

• On October 15, Mayor Richard M. Daley held a press conference to break some bad news: To erase a 500ドル million budget deficit for next year, he would probably have to eliminate jobs, cut services, and dip into reserve funds generated by leasing the Skyway and the parking meters.

  But behind the scenes, the mayor and his chief aides were proposing to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on a rehab of Willis Tower, subsidies for privately run hospitals and Fortune 500 corporations, and pet neighborhood projects that won't be included in the official city budget.

  We recently came into possession of hard evidence of what we've long argued: that the city produces two annual budgets, one released to the public, covered by the media, and debated by the City Council, and the other forged behind closed doors by the Daley administration, shared only in pieces with certain aldermen, and never fully disclosed to citizens. Both budgets are funded by taxpayers.

Labels: corruption

• For Thomas Vargas and Alex Valadez, friendship came easily after meeting at the Chicago police academy in 2005. They shared similar backgrounds, music tastes and senses of humor.

  Reunited later at the Englewood District, they found they also had similar street sense -- and such a strong resemblance that they were known as "the twins."

  Later, as partners, they found their lives reflecting each other in even deeper ways. Both were going to be fathers -- Valadez for the first time and Vargas for the second. From then on, conversations were sprinkled with how they would raise their children together.

Labels: officer down

• Venetian Night — Chicago’s annual parade of illuminated boat floats that draws up to 500,000 people to the lakefront — could be sunk, thanks to cost-cutting tied to Mayor Daley’s 2010 budget.

  Special Events Director Megan McDonald said the decision to end a time-honored tradition that dates back to the days of former Mayor Richard J. Daley was dictated by a decline in corporate sponsorships.

  Chicago’s production costs were 100,000ドル. But that taxpayer tab was multiplied by the cost of police, fire, traffic and sanitation needed to stage the event.

Labels: we got nothing

• It’s time, once again, to pay the piper.

  Cook County tax bills should arrive in your mailbox next week — and Chicago landowners will be paying a collective 6.04 percent more than last year, according to tax rates released today by Cook County Clerk David Orr.

  Across Cook County, property owners — including the city and suburbs — are paying 4.2 percent more, said Bill Vaselopulos, the Cook County clerk’s director of tax extension.

• To see the property tax rates for the more than 1,200 taxing bodies in Cook County, visit www.cookcountyclerk.com.

Labels: county

• It didn't take long for Bears management to see that they wanted Jay Cutler to be their quarterback for the long term.
  
  The team signed Cutler to a two-year contract extension late Tuesday that will give the Bears rights to Cutler for four years after this season. The rookie contract he signed with the Broncos went through 2011.

Labels: sports

• Bank of America Corp. and a consortium of lenders have filed a foreclosure suit against the developer of the Loop's Block 37 project.
  
  The suit was filed late Monday in Cook County Circuit Court. The action could herald new financial trouble for property that has been dogged by false starts and missteps for two decades.

Labels: city politics

• After hiring only 46 Chicago Police officers all year, Mayor Daley acknowledged Monday that the slowdown would continue in 2010, dramatically impacting the city's ability to fill 591 police vacancies.

  "We will be filling them, but not at a faster rate," the mayor said after announcing unrelated budget moves.

  Daley was noncommittal when asked whether Chicago could afford to hire any police officers -- beyond the 80 whose salaries will be paid by federal stimulus funds -- and still honor his promise to hold the line on all taxes, fines and fees.

Labels: department issues

• Perry Mandera might not be a well-known name in most circles. But when he tried to get people a job in then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration, it seems his name carried weight, according to records kept by Blagojevich aides.
  
  Hundreds of clout-heavy political sponsors turned to Blagojevich in the early days of his tenure as governor, asking him to give friends, family members and supporters state jobs, promotions and appointments, the secret hiring database obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times shows.
  Most of the sponsors were politicians. But not Mandera. He's the president of a company that owns VIP's A Gentlemen's Club, a topless bar on the Near North Side.

• "I talked to one person at one time, but that's drawn way out of proportion," Mandera said. "I believe I spoke to Mr. Kelly about one of those names, a minority individual. But that was it."
  Mandera -- who is the ex-husband of state Sen. Iris Martinez (D-Chicago) -- declined to identify that person.

• But any such talks would have had to have taken place at a point when Mandera was in hot water with the federal government. His Northlake trucking business -- called the Custom Companies -- was sued in May 2002 by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a sexual harassment case that resulted in a 1ドル.1 million fine against the company in 2007.
  
  The government proved that female sales representatives of Mandera's trucking business were required to entertain clients at his previous strip club, called Crazy Horse, Too.

• Mandera also was busy in another legal venue, fighting the City of Chicago in a case that went to the Illinois Supreme Court after Crazy Horse, Too had its liquor license revoked for violating a city ordinance barring the sale of alcohol in adult-entertainment businesses that featured all-nude dancers.
  
  That case exposed ties among the club, Mandera and a family linked to organized crime in Chicago.
  
  The court's 2006 opinion noted that Mandera employed Fred Pascente, a reputed Chicago mobster, at Crazy Horse, Too between 1995 and 1999. Pascente's son was an assistant manager at the business who is quoted in court documents as having described Mandera as "a family friend."
  
  Fred Pascente, a former Chicago cop, was convicted of mail fraud in 1995. He is listed in the Nevada Gaming Commission and State Gaming Control Board's Black Book, which bars him from entering any Nevada casino, based on his federal conviction and for being "an associate of the Chicago organized crime family."

Labels: city politics

• Mayor Daley said Monday he would eliminate 220 vacant city jobs, cancel cost-of living pay raises for 3,500 non-union employees and order those bureaucrats to take 24 unpaid days off to honor his promise to keep his hand out of taxpayers’ pockets in 2010.

  Together with cuts in non-personnel spending, the latest round of bureaucratic belt-tightening will reduce spending by 64ドル million.
  

  The remainder of the city’s 550ドル million budget gap is expected to be filled by raiding reserve funds generated by city asset sales. That’s a controversial move that threatens the all-important bond rating used to determine city borrowing costs.

• The CTA has sent out just under 2,000 notices to bus drivers and other unionized employees that their jobs will be eliminated in the next two months.

  The layoffs are part of a plan to close a massive 300ドル million budget hole. The proposal also includes raising El rides fares to 3ドル from 2ドル.25 for a single ride, as well as the cost of a monthly pass.

  "They want to mimic what City Hall did with the unions — the furlough days, the unpaid vacations and holidays, things of that nature," said Darrel Jefferson, president of the bus driver and mechanic’s union, which is expected to bear the brunt of the layoffs. "We’re not open to that."

Labels: city politics, we got nothing

Labels: FOP, general

• Two employees at Chicago’s 911 emergency center have been slapped with lengthy suspensions without pay for their roles in an Aug. 28 dispatch delay that left an off-duty police officer to fend for himself while being shot at by a car filled with alleged gang members.

  Ray Orozco, executive director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, identified the suspended employees as a dispatcher and his supervisor, but he refused to name them.

• Four men are facing first degree attempted murder charges after allegedly following the unidentified Marquette District officer and firing shots into his vehicle shortly after 3 a.m. The officer reportedly kept driving while returning fire until he reached the Harrison District station, where he sought help while the alleged gang members drove off.

Labels: department issues

• Four people were charged this afternoon after a teen girl was critically injured during a melee in the Far South Side's Roseland neighborhood that one witness said involved up to 25 people.

  Chicago police responded to 111 W. 115th St. at about 9 a.m. to a call of a disturbance...

• A man who answered the phone at a nearby store said the fight broke out at about 9 a.m., just as he was opening up shop. He said the 20 to 25 people--largely teenagers--involved were punching each other and wielding bottles and bats.

  The fight appeared to start when "people just started talking trash to each other," said the man, who declined to give his name.

Labels: crime

Labels: national politics

Labels: sports

• Drug traffickers shot down a police helicopter and killed two officers in a burst of drug-based violence just two weeks after the city won the 2016 Olympic games. Three suspected drug traffickers were also killed.

  Bullets flying from the Morro dos Macacos ("Monkey Hill" in Portuguese) slum in northern Rio de Janeiro hit the police helicopter pilot in the leg as he hovered above a clash between rival drug factions, causing him to lose control and crash.

  The pilot and another officer managed to flee with burns after the helicopter burst into flames on a football field, but two officers were unable to escape, said a police spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy.

Labels: officer down, olympics

• An unidentified man was shot by police Saturday night on Chicago's South Side, officials said.

  At about 10:20 p.m. police responded to the 8200 block of South Marquette Avenue, said Chicago News Affairs Officer [...].

  A person was shot by police at the scene [...].

  A 41-year-old man was taken from the scene to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious-to-critical condition, said Fire Department spokesman Quention Curtis.

Labels: shooting

• Illinois state Sen. James DeLeo (D-Chicago) -- who has made public statements questioning the existence of the Chicago mob -- was credited by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office with trying to help the widow of one of Chicago's most infamous slain mobsters.

  The Northwest Side lawmaker is listed in a secret hiring database the then-governor's aides kept as the political sponsor for Anne Spilotro, the widow of murdered mob associate Michael Spilotro.

  She's among 146 "recommended" job candidates linked to DeLeo by Blagojevich's office, though it isn't clear for what job.

Labels: corruption

• One person was shot and critically wounded in an exchange of gunfire with Chicago police late Friday in the West Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side.

  At about 11 p.m. police shot a person who fired at them in the 6300 block of South King Drive, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].

  The suspect was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Quention Curtis. The gender and age of the suspect were not available.

Labels: shooting

• The Lodge has been working to modify the current 6-on 2-off work schedule for at least fifteen years. That goal was finally accomplished today when the Contract Negotiations Team unanimously recommended that the full Board of Directors vote to accept an agreement that will implement a 4-on 2-off work schedule in Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25 beginning the first period of 2010. Areas 1, 3, 4, and 5 will also participate in this schedule. The full Board of Directors unanimously voted to accept the Negotiations Team's recommendation.
  
  This schedule has been piloted in the 014th and 018th Districts for the past ten and one-half months. All details, including sample rotations, regarding this schedule can be found on the FOP website under the Current Contract tab on the left side of the page.
  
  The 005th and 020th Districts will continue to work the Ten-Hour Rotating Schedule in 2010.
  
  The 008th and 013th Districts will continue to work the 6-on 3-off Schedule.
  
  Area 2 will continue to work the Ten-Hour Rotating Schedule in 2010.
  
  All Special Functions Units that participated in any 2009 pilot work schedule will continue to work that schedule in 2010.
  
  It should be noted that all desk, lockup, and watch relief positions will be included in all of these work schedules in 2010.

Labels: contract stuff, FOP