$50 Grand per Speech?

Seriously?

• For a politician who was once viewed as inarticulate — and even took public speaking lessons to overcome that reputation — Mayor Daley sure has come a long way.

  The retiring mayor has signed on with a New York speakers bureau and lecture agency to make a living delivering speeches — in exchange for a fee in the $50,000-an-engagement range.

  The Harry Walker Agency has a blue-chip roster of clients that includes former President Bill Clinton, former Vice-Presidents Dick Cheney and Al Gore, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and rock star/philanthropist Bono.

Has anyone from the Harry Walker Agency actually seen Shortshanks deliver a speech? It's painful. Choppy monotone, little-to-no-audience connection, constant mangling of the King's English.

And then there's the question of what he's going to speak about?

Urban planning? Anyone seen the laundry list of scandals this goof presided over? Shoddy construction, crooked contracts, friends and relatives with no job experience running departments into the ground while the politically and Outfit connected businesses get rich. Then there's the flower boxes, parking meter contracts, pension disaster, No-lympic glory, the list is near endless.

Leadership? All his speeches about how he "don't know nuthin," yet has a reputation as a micro-manager without peer, every cog in the Machine reporting to his political organization, yet no obvious successor or heir-apparent which most successful leaders attempt to groom. Do we really need to rehash the mess he made of the police department command structure. And exactly how many chiefs-of-staff did he go through in his 20-plus years?

The article was written by, you guessed it, Fran Spielman, who never met a Daley press release that couldn't be spun into some fawning profile, even to the very end of Shortshanks' career. We really have no idea how she's going to make a living once the Daley gravy train ends. We imagine her emaciated remains will be located, starved to death on lower Michigan Avenue, her clothes stuffed with all the clippings of Daley-praise she's written over the years in an attempt to stave off the freezing temperatures.

It's the kind of thought that keeps us warm at night as we dream about eating cat food in our own cardboard box after the Ballerino finishes Daley's dirty work draining our pensions.

Chicago Tonight

Carol Marin played up the J-Fled angle on the Valentine's Day broadcast of WTTW's Chicago Tonight. The fun begins around the 30 minute mark. She claims J-Fled was brought in as Superintendent to "clean up" a Department wracked with scandal.

The reality is J-Fled was brought in to remedy a problem that didn't exist. A few high profile incidents played up endlessly in the media and suddenly, we're the punching bag of the decade. Ask yourself a few questions:

• How many times did you see the Abbate tape? Scientists from National Geographic just located a heretofore unknown tribe of Indonesian pygmies living on a remote Pacific island, and even they saw the Abbate video a dozen times. This was a drunken idiot who never should have been the police in the first place and was eased through the cracks in a corrupt hiring process. We all paid a price for it, but no one ever outed the clout that got him there.
  
• High profile DUI's. A number of cops went to jail, are about to go to jail or got fired for drunken behavior. The total? Probably under twelve, a mere tenth-of-one-percent. We aren't going to defend the behavior of alcoholics, but is was (and remains) a very small minority of officers. Media overkill again.
• The SOS Scandal. Rogue teams of officers doing home invasions, stealing from dope dealers and making life hell on everyone, right? How many people went to jail? Six? Less than six? Each for under 6 months if we recall correctly. The alleged "ringleader" still sits in the MCC with no trial date in sight. The other big name made a bunch of media appearances in an attempt to save his own worthless ass. Charges were actually dropped against two others. So we're looking at 6 to 8 resignations, a few small fish doing county time and a larger case that seems to be stalled and falling apart.
  

We don't call that a Department "out-of-control" by any stretch of the imagination.

So J-Fled turned inward, destroyed the established order (not necessarily a bad thing), forced decades of experience that may have assisted him out the door (unforgivable), jackpotted a cop who had served his punishment (really unforgivable), then attempted to win the hearts and minds of the Department by taking old ideas and passing them off as his own while trying to tell us that Tahoes and cameras would save the day. All of this while abetting the reduction in manpower numbers to historic lows, creating units of clout babies while pretending ability and results meant something, promoting more incompetent hacks, criminals and psychopaths and going through four or five "restructurings" that solved nothing. Then there was the whole "gotta run" debacle.

Getting the candidates on record for launching J-Fled is a good thing. He was a mistake.

Chicago Shrinking

No, we don't mean Shortshanks and the Ballerino. We mean losing people that they can potentially get tax money from:

• Chicago’s population plunged by more than 200,000 people -- a 6.9 percent decline from 2000, according to the official Census count released Tuesday.

  The drop was significantly more than indicated by previously released census estimates and over the next decade it could cost the city hundreds of millions in federal funds, which are partly distributed on the basis of population counts.

  Chicago’s black population fell the most, nearly 17 percent. Today, blacks make up only 33 percent of the city’s population, down from 36 percent 10 years ago.

• Hispanic population grew 3.3 percent in the city. But since this is less than the birth rate it is likely that Hispanics also are leaving the city for the suburbs.

  Non-white Hispanics now comprise 32 percent of the population, while Hispanics of all races make up 29 percent

  Population also fell in Cook County -- an 182,000 drop. However, the population of suburban Cook grew slightly by 18,000, indicating Chicago’s drop was the major factor in the county’s loss of population.

We'll bet that 200,000 population decline doubles in the next decade. Chicago reached a tipping point a few years back and the view looks all downhill from what we can see. Anyone who can afford to move out, will move out. Anyone who can't afford to move out, will move out anyway to live with friends or relatives. Chicago and Cook County are too expensive to live in for the average family. And as Illinois continues to become a more and more business un-friendly environment, the jobs that make it possible to scrape by will dry up.

Hey? Maybe someone ought to look into reducing the number of aldercreatures again. With less population, there isn't any need for 50 of these leeches sucking up tax money. If only there was someone who could circulate a petition or draft an ordinance to shrink the size of the City Council.

Pothole Season

They're out there. Tire flatteners, rim benders, axle crackers:

• The snow is melting and the potholes are appearing. Chicago-area drivers are challenged every year by an obstacle course in the city and suburbs.

  Potholes are caused by the freezing and thawing of pavement; the more cycles area roadways go through, the greater the chance of potholes. The condition of the streets also plays a part.

  "Since Saturday we have received 500 calls about potholes throughout the city of Chicago. Of those 500, 400 came yesterday," said CDOT's Bobby Ware.

Word is there are no pool cars citywide (again), so drive carefully. Those unfortunate enough to suffer damage to personal cars can file claims with the city to recoup some of your costs at this link here.

Still Hiring Trucks

Weren't there supposed to be some "lifetime bans" instituted after all this scandal broke? Or was that only with firms doing business with the state?

• The blizzard of costs to clean up Chicago’s third-largest snowstorm is starting to pile up — with $8 million in emergency contracts awarded in just one day, three of them to former Hired Truck companies.

  On Feb. 3, the day after it stopped snowing, the Daley administration awarded 32 emergency contracts of $250,000 apiece, all of them tied to snow removal, storm cleanup or rescue.

• The list also includes three companies that rode the Hired Truck gravy train before the Sun-Times blew the whistle on a program that paid clout-heavy companies — some with ties to organized crime — to do little or no work.

Nice to see the Outfit is still getting its piece of the pie. We supposed Shortshanks was overjoyed to be able to pay back some favors to the mob after the entire "No-lympic" fiasco shorted the mafia-connected construction firms of billions in skim.

Rahm Targets Burke

The Ballerino's "enemies list" begins to take shape:

• Mayoral contender Rahm Emanuel suggested powerful Ald. Ed Burke will have to give up his police detail and might also lose his chairmanship of the City Council Finance Committee to move Chicago forward in the coming years.
  
  Emanuel's comments about Burke, who is supporting Gery Chico for mayor, came during a sometimes feisty debate Monday. Miguel del Valle and Carol Moseley Braun joined the two in discussing pension reform, their abilities to lead and what mistakes longtime Mayor Richard Daley has made.
  
  But it was the topic of Burke, the longtime 14th Ward alderman, and his security detail that broke new ground a week before the election.

This sounds kind of like some outsider coming into the police department and completely gutting the command staff, losing decades, even hundreds of years of police experience. On one hand, it's kind of short sighted. On the other, it's entertaining as hell.

In this case, the entertainment value wins out.

Watch Yourselves Again

Another silly idea from the brain trust:

• In districts beat officers are being given a humper like sheet of paper called the "watch commanders action report" This piece of paper consists of 3 sections where a specific problem on the beat is pointed out and officers are expected to check the location. this is all well and good but when checking on individuals we are asked to knock on doors of Trap (repeat offenders>) offenders with extensive criminal backgrounds, as well as subjects on parole, and a large assortment of others.
  
  This idea thought up by downtown ernie Brown ( 22 total arrests in his career) sole purpose is to let offenders know that we the police are watching them. most offenders are not wanted and we have no probable cause to door knock, ernie just wants us to harass these individuals. not only will the city not back us when a beef comes down but the issue of officer safety is huge.
  
  If possible please pass this info on to your readers and let them know when they are given one of these sheets and it asks to check for a previously arrested individuals make sure they do their homework. Run a name check and cqh inquiry (criminal history) check. Know what type of individual you are dealing with. And if there is no warrant and no investigative alert with probable cause to arrest do not harass these subjects as we are not in the scare tactic business. simply circle the no contact made box.
  
  As working coppers we have no problem dealing with the shitbags but all within reason. this report which is being force fed down lieutenants, and captains at the district level serves no purpose other to make Down town ernie Brown look good. In turn the bosses are feeding them to us.

Institutional harassment? Yeah, that's going to go over really well with Corp Counsel and the Courts. And didn't those "humpers" die when Maurer left? Nope - they're still here - just like CAPS - the zombie paperwork.

Funny Things

Rahm's new nickname. So it is written, so let it be done.

He is now "The Ballerino."

We'll see if this one sticks.

More Crystal Ball Failures

Shooting near a school:

• Two teens were shot at 75th Street and South Constance Avenue near South Shore High School this afternoon, authorities say.
  
  One teen was taken in serious-to-critical condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, while the other was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, also in serious-to-critical condition, according to Fire Department spokesman

And in the land of 40% homicide reductions:

• A 20-year-old West Side man was shot and killed this morning following a minor traffic accident blocks from his home, authorities said.
  
  Killed was Brandon Williams, of the 700 block of South California Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

One day, they might predict something we can use. Might. We aren't holding our breath.

Residency Again?

Someone at City Hall must be worried because this is still on the front burner. The Sun Times (a wholly owned subsidiary of Shortshanks Inc.) is once again devoting numerous columns to the effects and the possible end of residency:

• Rethinking the Residency Rule
• Neighbors Feel Safer in "Copland"
• Residency Ignored Until Elder Daley Cracked Down
• The Current Candidates Weigh In

We can only assume it's going to keep coming up. Someone somewhere is worried so they're laying the groundwork of public perception early.

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics - Again

Once again, if you can't point to success, create a successful scenario:

• Chicago police credit a controversial summer meeting with gang leaders and a gang crackdown guided by what they call "social network analysis" with a dramatic drop in gun violence this past fall in a West Side police district, including a 40 percent drop in homicides.

  After the Aug. 17 meeting with gang leaders at the Garfield Park Conservatory and a subsequent crackdown on gangs, homicides for the rest of the year in the Harrison District dropped 40 percent from 2009, Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said today. That translates into a drop from 25 to 15 through Dec. 31, Weis said in a news conference this morning at police headquarters.

In 2010, the 011th District led the city in homicides - 49 killings. In 2009, the 011th District also led the city in homicides - 54. So the entire drop was actually 5. But J-Fled is pointing to his "secret gang summit" as the focal point of a 10 less homicides for a four month period?

And this tidbit buried in the report?

• Police showed computer slides of graphics they said proved reductions in other crimes but did not provide copies to reporters.

They won't provide copies of the statistics or sourcing of the data, but claim a near miraculous 40% drop in killings over a random four-month spread?

Anyone in the media smell what J-Fled and the boys at HQ are shoveling? Because it really stinks at this end.

Apologize?

This is fucking ridiculous:

• [Colorado] The attorney for the family of a man who shot and killed a Weld County Sheriff’s deputy demanded an apology from Sheriff John Cooke for the killing of the gunman and said the family’s threat of a lawsuit is “not about the money.”

  Asked Thursday if he would write a letter of apology, Cooke simply stated: “No.”

  Denver attorney Michael Evans sent a notice early this week to Cooke and to the Greeley and Evans police departments warning that Rueben Reyes’ family could file a civil lawsuit for $250,000 plus punitive damages unless they could reach a settlement.

• On Nov. 23, at the end of a long police chase, police and Reyes scuffled where the cars had stopped in Evans. Reyes was able to get Deputy Sam Brownlee’s service weapon and shot him three times, killing the sheriff’s deputy. An Evans police officer immediately shot Reyes in the back three times, and he died later at North Colorado Medical Center.

  In the notice this week, attorney Evans said the nature of the chase and the way it was handled, “aggravated the circumstances” leading to the death of Reyes. He also accused the officers at the scene of not offering help to Reyes in the form of CPR or first aid.

Seriously? Offer a cop killer CPR or first aid? We're sure this bottom-feeding scumbag lawyer (but we repeat ourselves) wouldn't then be suing the police for aggravating the wound channels already inflicted by the bullets. We can only hope there's a special hell reserved for creatures such as this and the lifeforms they represent.

Quinn Says "More More More!!!"

As predicted, here and elsewhere:

• Taxpayers might have expected that state government was back on solid financial footing after lawmakers approved a major income tax increase that's already being docked from their paychecks.

  But Gov. Pat Quinn says Illinois' books were so neglected for so long that the money isn't coming in fast enough to repay billions owed to schools, doctors, mental health centers and other providers.

  So during his budget speech Wednesday, Quinn is expected to push a plan to borrow $8.75 billion to help alleviate the pressure.

But don't worry taxpayers!

• The idea is to use the cash infusion to whittle down the bill backlog from a mountain to a molehill and rush payments to the 36,000 vendors owed an estimated $7 billion. The loan would be paid back over 14 years using money generated by a portion of the income tax hike.

Of course, he's trusting that no one will remember any of this in 4 years. And in 14 years, that's like a political eternity.

Bloody Weekend Commences

Temperatures rise - and so does all that stored up anger:

• A 19-year-old man died today after being shot while in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side, officials said.
  
  
• A gunman fired multiple shots at a 20-year-old man standing on a South Side street this evening, wounding the victim in the leg, police said.
  
  
• A man and a woman were shot early this morning after leaving a party in the West Side Humboldt Park neighborhood, police said.
  
  
• A 23-year-old man is dead and two others were wounded following a shooting on the South Side early this morning, police said.
  
  
• A man was shot in the foot Friday in an early morning gang confrontation on Chicago’s Southwest Side, Cook County prosecutors said this morning.

And once again, the Crystal Ball Unit predicted none of these. Let's see what Sunday brings.

And Speaking of Guns.....

This is great:

• Security is newly tightened at the Texas Capitol, but plenty of gun-toting visitors can breeze right through.

  Concealed handgun license holders walk through a special lane marked "CHL Access" around, and not through, the metal detectors put in place last year after a man fired shots outside the statehouse.

  Schoolchildren and tourists, meanwhile, have to walk through metal detectors and put their bags and keys through scanners. One of the busiest times is now, when the legislature, which meets biennially, is convened.

Golly. Armed people, walking the halls of power in Texas, rubbing elbows with their elected representatives, amid school children touring government offices. No "wild west" scenarios. No bloody shoot-outs in the streets.

It sounds exactly like being a citizen of a free country and not the subject of a despotic dictator.

"Gun Free" Liability

A gun law we could actually think of supporting - too bad it was withdrawn:

• In January, [Illinois State Senator] Cultra filed a bill concerning gun-free zones, but already has changed his mind and determined not to move that forward due to “backlash” from the business community and concern for schools.
  
  Senate Bill 48, which came to Cultra from Illinois Rifle Association, would make any organization, business, agency of government or other entity that creates a gun-free zone financially liable in cases when “a reasonable person would believe that possession of a firearm could have helped” someone defend themselves from criminal conduct in that zone.
  
  That would mean that anybody, including a school district or a university, would have to pay all costs and attorney’s fees in those situations, and it would mean higher insurance costs for those entities.

Touchy-feely "gun-free" zones seem to attract people with guns, probably because those bent on mayhem realize that they'll be the only one there with a gun, making for a target rich environment with minimal exposure to resistance.

The Push for 50% + 1

Homestretch time:

• Gery Chico is pushing a class warfare message, and Carol Moseley Braun is trying to win back African-American voters as they try to finish second and force a runoff in the Chicago mayor's campaign.
  
  While the two candidates are launching new stretch-run strategies, Rahm Emanuel is following the same path that has kept him the front-runner throughout. He mostly is ignoring the barbs from opponents and airing a non-stop ad blitz of his near-endorsement by hometown President Barack Obama.
  
  Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff, was at 49 percent in last week's Tribune/WGN poll, on the cusp of the majority he needs to clinch victory Feb. 22. Chico, the former Chicago Board of Education president, was at 19 percent, and former U.S. Sen. Braun had fallen to 10 percent.

The problem seems to be the people abandoning Moseley Braun aren't breaking for Chico as much as he needs them to. It's almost 50/50 and Chico needs them to come to his side something like 75% or more to keep Rahm from the magic "50% plus 1" number.

Del Valle continues to play spoiler for Chico. It'll be interesting to see if he lands a big spot in the new administration.

As usual, turnout will be the key. Encourage your friends and neighbors to get out and vote.

Swiping is Here?

Admin Fax message out today... or at least brought to our attention today.

007, 009 and HQ start swiping on Valentine's Day.

Remember, 7.5 minutes = the full quarter hour. This is going to bury the overtime budget in short order.

UPDATE: We may have gotten an old version of the directive? Someone says it's for civilians citywide on 14 Feb and 007, 009, and HQ were pilot district? How did that all work out for everyone then?

Balance the Budget

Here's a way to make up revenue:

• Memo to property owners who have still not shoveled their sidewalks: Not only does a Chicago ordinance require it, the law also protects those who might not do a perfect job from being sued.

  From the Municipal Code Section 10-8-190: “Any person who removes snow or ice from the public sidewalk or street, shall not, as a result of his acts or omissions in such removal, be liable for civil damages. This section does not apply to acts or omissions amounting to wilful or wanton misconduct in such snow or ice removal.”

We're assuming it's an ANOV? There are swaths of the city that haven't shoveled, and probably haven't paid taxes in years. Perhaps if everyone signed out a ticket book and generated some revenue....

Aw, who are we kidding?

Snow Bonus?

We want a snow bonus:

• Dateline — The Money Line: The county may be in dire financial straits, but Sneed hears union employees of the Cook County Health and Hospital System are being awarded $250 bonuses for showing up to work during last week’s blizzard.

No wonder Preckwinkle needs those budget cuts if she's still paying these "bonuses."

Wow

Just wow. Seriously:

• "We've got a domestic situation!" exclaimed Phil Strazzante, a Chicago police recruit, as he quickly sized up the scene — a man struggling with a naked woman just inches away from a knife lying on the floor.
  
  But this was no crime scene. Strazzante and 15 other recruits were checking out "Tarquin and Lucretia," a painting by 16th century Italian artist Tintoretto, as part of an unusual exercise Thursday at the Art Institute of Chicago. The aim was to teach soon-to-be patrol officers to sharpen their observational skills when they respond to shootings, robberies or traffic crashes.
  
  The department started the museum visits a couple of years ago but discontinued them until recently. The afternoon session was one part of the recruits' months-long training.

We're all for art appreciation, but this sounds more like a field trip to no apparent purpose. There has to be some other way to enhance recruits observational skills? We remember the gym instructors taking us for a run through a number of not-so-nice neighborhoods, then a few alleyways and then demanding to know the address of the building we were behind, how many people were on the sidewalk out front and what the car on the corner looked like. That was an eye opener to say the least.

Media Influence on Sheeple

This is ridiculous:

• As Chicagoans put away their snowblowers and "dibs" chairs — for now — city officials can look back on the Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011 and congratulate themselves: An overwhelming majority of residents think the city did a good job responding to the storm, according to a Tribune/WGN poll.
  
  Nearly three-quarters of the Chicagoans surveyed — 73 percent — gave the city an overall passing grade for how it handled the storm.
  
  In fact, when it came to the storm's most conspicuous consequence — the hundreds of vehicles snowbound along Lake Shore Drive — respondents were more likely to blame the stranded drivers than the city.

Almost 1,000 cars abandoned on Lake Shore Drive and the city gets a passing grade? Not only as passing grade, but the respondents blame the stranded drivers?

We don't know about you, but if we see an entrance ramp open to a main thoroughfare, we assume that the road is passable, drivable and safe for us to proceed on. We mean, why else would you leave a road open?

But Shortshanks and Tommy Thumb and everyone else started the blame game early and said the citizens should have known better than to drive on a road for pete's sake. Why think you could get anywhere on a road? The media ran with it and all of the sudden, the city did a fine job during a blizzard.

Now imagine if you had a major newspaper or two making political endorsements for a candidate that says things like "politicians shouldn't trade on their connections to make money," but somehow forget to ask that same candidate how he made $18 million for under two years work for a connected buyout of a power company. Or how he got paid another few hundred thousand for attending just 6 meetings for a government agency that precipitated the mortgage meltdown. Or how his enemies list rivals that of Richard Nixon.

Oh wait, you don't have to imagine it. It's happening right now and the object of the media affection is approaching 50% of the vote total from people who don't know any better.

Smooth Move

What could possibly happen if you don't have your own technicians in house?

• The whole arrest system for the entire city crashed last night. Officers sitting in stations because no one could process prisoners for hours. No one would make the decision to revert to paper. Word is that the ISD Commander (JL) [laid] off all the civilians that worked on the system and farmed the work out to an outside company. They took forever to respond. I think when I left work at 0800, they were still down. So we are shorthanded, and those that still make arrests are sitting around wasting time because the system they use to process prisoners is down.
  If they don't think the system used to process prisoners is important enough that they farm it out to outsiders, what is the message they are sending out to us? Just saying. Stay safe.

No arrest reports, no photographs, no fingerprints, lines of prisoners headed out the door. It was an amazingly bad display of bureaucratic incompetence and no one in charge willing to make the call to go to paper reports for the moment. But hey, we saved money somewhere, right?

It's a Miracle!

Lura Lynn Ryan has returned home from the hospital and appears to be doing well around a month after she was at death's door and managed to get some face time with the imprisoned ex-governor. Thompson wouldn't have lied to everyone, would he?

Who's Got the Inside Track?

Next up - an insider:

• Picking a new police superintendent, getting more cops on the street and looking at where they're deployed will be considerations for Chicago's new mayor.

  Mayor Richard Daley's successor also will have to figure out a way to deal with the Chicago Police Department's perception problem: Statistics show the city is safer than it has been in decades, yet high-profile, persistent gun violence in some neighborhoods has blunted that message.

  Police Superintendent Jody Weis has served as a political football during the campaign, with the four top mayoral contenders saying they won't renew his contract.

  Candidates Gery Chico, Miguel del Valle and Carol Moseley Braun say they'll name someone from within the department's ranks.

So who has the inside track? Rumors are that our leaders are going to take a page from the "Chicago Code." What does everyone else hear?

Saving Money by Fighting Cases

As advocated by coppers for years:

• In 2009, Chicago’s court system was hopelessly clogged by cases alleging police misconduct. For years, the city’s Department of Law had watched as the number of misconduct allegations crept upward. With the increasing strain on municipal resources, Chicago’s attorneys were forced to settle many cases out of court, which reflected poorly on the city’s bottom line and police force.

  But Chicago found a somewhat counterintuitive way to save money and save face -- by taking every single police misconduct case to court.

The result?

• The move is working better than anyone had anticipated. In the first year after the city began taking every case to court, the number of federal civil rights cases filed against police officers dropped by almost 50 percent. In addition, cases brought against officers are being voluntarily dismissed at higher rates. In 2009, about 18 percent of plaintiffs voluntarily dropped their case. By October 2010, nearly 46 percent of plaintiffs dropped their case. The Department of Law told the city that the results are "nothing short of astonishing."

Astonishing only to anyone who wasn't paying attention for years. It is a simple fact of economics - if you reward misbehavior by plaintiffs, you are going to get more of it. If you fight it, and fight it early and wholeheartedly, you will get less. In this case, a whole lot less.

There is no doubt in our minds that certain law firms were getting a lot of business steered in their direction by the lure of easy payouts from the city. And we don't doubt more than a few of those settlement dollars found their way into certain political campaigns. We're glad someone finally saw the light and shut off this spigot.

St. Baldrick's Event

Word is the fundraising is a little bit behind last year's totals. The economy is rough and times are tough all over, but this is a worthwhile cause that has always proved to be a good time:

• St. Baldrick's is one month away and it's not too late to sign up. Come join us on Friday, March 11, 2011 at the Academy, Area 2 or Area 5 from 0700 - 1700 hours as we raise money to help fund research for a cure to childhood cancer. Just go to THIS LINK RIGHT HERE!!! and choose the location that's best for you. Click on "participate" under participants and get yourself signed up. Hope to see you on March 11th!

You can sponsor a "shavee" if you're attached to your own locks. Ask around they're out there collecting pledges.

The County Axe Starts Trimming

Preckwinkle versus Alvarez, and so far, Preckwinkle appears to be winning:

• Just a day after State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez told the Cook County Board that budget cuts would severely impact her office, she issued pink slips to more than 100 office staff members.

• Most of the 101 workers were called throughout the day Wednesday. The remainder will be called by Thursday, Daly said.

  Seven court reporters were told they were being laid off last week, for a total of 108 job losses so far, Daly said.

• Fifty-eight assistant state’s attorneys and 20 investigator positions could also be eliminated to meet the 8 percent reduction Alvarez is willing to cut in her budget, Daly said. But Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has demanded a 10 percent cut.

So what will be the effect on court operations? Fifty-eight ASA's probably means no "third chair" in anything but the big trials. Twenty investigators means a whole bunch of witnesses and summonses don't get delivered. The savings in gas and vehicles might be substantial, but the always inefficient court operations may grind to near immovability in short order, and a system that can't even convict murderers in 66% of its cases may see that number climb even higher in other categories.

ACLU Criticizes Cameras

Listen to Shortshanks spout his bullshit:

• Chicago’s network of more than 10,000 public and private surveillance cameras has solved crimes, prevented police misconduct and made residents feel safe, Mayor Daley said Tuesday, rejecting the American Civil Liberties Union’s call for a moratorium on new cameras and strict controls on existing ones.

  One day after the ACLU proposed reining in the Big Brother program, Daley talked about expanding it to prevent senior citizens living in high-crime neighborhoods from becoming prisoners in their homes.

  “Don’t you think we should be concerned for seniors that someone is standing out there at 2 o’clock in the morning or 8 o’clock in the morning? A senior is going to church in the morning. Don’t you think that senior should be protected as he or she leaves a building or their home?” Daley said after ribbon-cutting ceremonies at a new senior citizens complex in Pilsen.

Once again, cameras don't prevent anything. That armored car robbery in 011 last week? Directly under a POD camera. It didn't deter anything and didn't even provide decent footage of the event. Instead of everyone "thinking about the children," Shortshanks uses the elderly as his crutch for spending millions of dollars to prevent nothing.

You know what protects the senior citizen? Cops on the streets. Or concealed weapons on the senior citizen. The ACLU is worried about abuses of the cameras and one of our regular e-mailers from the west side tells us that Penny's Pod Room isn't allowing regular citizens in to view cameras until they undergo training on Fourth Amendment issues as we do. Seems only reasonable.

What worries us is the ACLU taking a very close interest in anything to do with the Pods. We figure it's only a matter of time before they file some sort of lawsuit against the Department over camera usage and some copper who was only trying to generate activity for some mission is dragged into Federal court and finds his house is on the line for civil rights violations.

Ballots are Arriving

Vote damnit.

Do some research, talk to your coworkers, get behind some candidates. Then when it's all over, stand behind the leadership, attend some meetings and see if we can't protect the things we've negotiated for over the years.

It's going to be more important than ever very shortly.

Another $25 Million Pissed Away

Who the hell does the accounting for the city? They really need to have their asses kicked:

• Chicago’s public pension funds, already reeling from years of inadequate contributions, took another financial hit when Mayor Richard Daley’s administration and the city’s unions agreed to require workers to take unpaid furlough days, according to a report released today by the city Office of the Inspector General.

  Under the agreement, city workers were not required to make pension contributions for the furlough days even though they continued to accrue benefits. The city, meanwhile, gave itself a pass on another $13 million in payments for its share of pension contributions for the furlough days.

  That means city pension funds were shortchanged nearly $25 million over the three-year period, at a time when funding had fallen to levels that threaten the retirement security of thousands of policemen, firefighters, teachers and municipal employees.

But somehow, this is all our fault?

We will repeat ourselves once again:

• we contribute 9% to our own pensions - that contribution is about to climb to 12%
• the city has refused to increase their pension contribution for almost 30 years now
• we cannot collect Social Security
• after 20 years service, we get 50% of our salary - under $40K a year.

But we're the reason for the pension crisis according to Rahm?

Here Comes the Cold

Once again, we point out, it's February in Chicago:

• The Chicago area's latest weather challenge is moving in this morning with arctic chill and breezy winds expected to linger through Thursday.
  
  A wind chill advisory is in effect from 9 p.m. today until noon Wednesday, with wind chill values today reaching as low 5 below to 15 below early this morning and 20 below to 25 below tonight. Wind chills at the latter level will cause frostbite to exposed skin within 30 minutes. Today's high temperature will be 10 to 14 above.

Just to show how goofy the media is making all this, next Monday is predicted to break 40 degrees. So do we really have to get everyone into a tizzy over a day or two of cold?

Chicago Code Reviews

It's kind of funny when a completely fictional character is credited with having more balls than the actual superintendent.

It's hilarious when we all know it's true.

You can use this post for critiques of the show. Frankly, we didn't see much that caught our interest. Whoever was "consulting" on the show missed a lot of opportunities for inside jokes and veiled criticisms which would have endeared it to audiences familiar with Chicago.

Predict This!

Larry Yellin gets to the bottom of everything with hard hitting questions and a serious investigation:

• Yellen: Have you had an example in the last few months, since the predictive analytics group was put together, where you predicted a crime would occur in a particular neighborhood, and you were able to get there much quick than without the group? For example, where this person said, based on my data, we're going to have something within the next week in this neighborhood because it was busy at this time last year?

  Weis: That's hard to measure, because if we get there ahead of time, you are able to prevent it. When you talk to Brett [Goldstein, Director of Predictive Analytics], though, where he can cover you, is where he has anticipated some areas by a block, and like three hours afterward, there's been a shooting two hours away from where he actually thought there would be something.

Well that's a big fat "no" to a softball question. Yellen gives J-Fled and company a huge window of opportunity to demonstrate any tangible result, any definitive incident to justify the expenditure of how many hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary, software, programming along with god knows how many man-hours and they come up with zero? Hell, we predicted that exact outcome here months ago. How about paying us a Director's salary, giving us a corner office and a staff of dozens?

The fact is you cannot predict random events. Most crime is opportunistic and, yes, random. You might be able to spot trends or similar crimes over a period of time ranging from days to weeks to months, especially in the cases of serial killers, rapists and some robberies, but cops have been doing that without "predictive analytics" for decades now. Even then, it relies mostly on the criminal falling into habitual behavior (comfortable surroundings, repeated successes, available time to commit the crime and available victims to confront). These aren't "GATTACA" or "Minority Report" type scenarios full of genetic markers and "precogs" dealing with preordained outcomes.

And you have to love how Weis comes right out and says, "That's hard to measure, because if we get there ahead of time, you are able to prevent it." So let's get this straight....

• If we make an arrest, we must have been successful in being on scene;
• If we don't make an arrest, we must have been just as successful because we prevented a crime from occurring

Amazing. There is no downside for J-Fled or the Crystal Ball Unit. Does anyone else smell what this jackass is shoveling?

Rahm Admonishes the Help

This ought to be bigger than it is:

• Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police and the state's largest public service workers union came out Friday afternoon with stern statements admonishing Rahm Emanuel over a new television ad.
  
  In the spot, dubbed "Service," Emanuel vows to be mindful of taxpayers' wallets.
  
  "We're going to deliver a service to the taxpayers. We're going to get them the best price for what they pay for," Emanuel says in the ad. "And that means making sure that everyone that works for the city government knows that they're actually a public servant representing and helping the people that pay them."
  
  It's four words in that phrase -- "actually a public servant" -- with which the groups take issue.

After five police line of duty deaths and three firefighter line of duty deaths, we don't think we need a lecture from Rahm Emanuel about "service" or anything else for that matter. And the crack about "get[ting] them (taxpayers) the best price for what they pay for" reeks of insincerity.

First up, we are taxpayers. In fact, we probably pay more in taxes than most of the people we serve. And for our troubles, we will shortly be paying around 12% of our salaries into an underfunded pension that if we're lucky, may provide us with 50% of our pay after 20 years - assuming it exists by then.

And we're lectured by an asshole who preaches "public servants" shouldn't be using their connections to enrich themselves while collecting hundreds of thousands from Freddie Mac while attending 6 meetings a year as the mortgage industry dragged the economy into the ground, not to mention the millions from his ComEd work, none of which had anything to do with "connections" we're sure.

What a stroke.

CFD Retro

And someone is bitching?

• Chicago firefighters and paramedics will get $94 million in back pay dating back to June 30, 2007 — bankrolled by debt likened to “borrowing to pay for last year’s groceries” — thanks to a contract ratified Monday.

  “We’re very concerned. It’s enormously expensive to borrow to pay for operating costs. Future taxpayers are gonna have to pay, not only for their own city services but debt on services they did not receive,” said Civic Federation President Laurence Msall.

  “It’s similar to borrowing to pay for last year’s groceries. It demonstrates a failure to plan and leave aside adequate funds” for an expense the city knew was coming.

Well gee Larry. If someone, namely Shortshanks, had negotiated in good faith and hadn't delayed countless meetings and truly wanted to wrap things up in a timely manner, then the city wouldn't have been burdened with this completely predictable "expense," the same way it was with the police contract.

Airport Lawsuit

This could get interesting:

• A judge today ordered Chicago Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino to testify in a pre-trial deposition in connection with a lawsuit United and American airlines filed against the city over financing the expansion of O’Hare International Airport.

  Cook County Circuit Judge Richard Billik denied a motion by the city’s attorneys saying that Andolino is too busy to testify and that other city aviation officials could fill in for her. A date for Andolino to give her deposition was not immediately set.

  The airlines are seeking to stop Chicago from selling about $1 billion in bonds, without airline approval, to start building the final phase of new O’Hare runways, at a projected cost of $3.4 billion. The airlines contend the city's borrowing plan to finance construction will cost the carriers $7.7 billion in debt service.

We had never heard of the "too busy to testify" defense until today. We'll have to try that on for size one day soon. but here's a woman, politically connected as all hell, attempting to saddle the city and airlines with a near insurmountable amount of debt just to keep connected construction firms in business.

We can see exactly why Shortshanks and his people don't want her testifying.

Running to Remember

A good cause to run for:

• As his knees buckled with five miles to go in the half-marathon, Chicago police Detective Greg Jacobson focused on the five colleagues he had recently lost in the line of duty.

  Mile 9 was for Sgt. Alan Haymaker, mile 10 for Officer Thomas Wortham IV, mile 11 for Officer Thor Soderberg, mile 12 for Officer Michael Bailey and the last one for Officer Michael Flisk, Jacobson said, his voice breaking with emotion.

  "Whenever you're in trouble, you always count on another officer coming to your help," he said. "At mile 8 1/2, I was in a little bit of trouble so I called on these guys to get me through it — and they did."

All of the events this year, St. Jude, The Run to Remember, Police Memorial Week here and in Washington, the motorcycle runs, all of them are going to be tinged with memories of a very painful year just past.

FOP Pushing Hard for Chico

A couple of events coming up:

• There will be a First Responders Rally for Mayoral Candidate Gery Chico on Wednesday, February 9th. The rally will take place at 115 Bourbon Street from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Come out and meet and greet one on one with our next Mayor. Tell, text, or just bring your friends.

A comment said that tickets were $25 and of that, $10 was headed to one of the Police Memorial Funds, but the FOP site doesn't say which one. Can anyone verify?

Also, this one:

• Come out and support the FOP endorsed candidate for the Mayor of the City of Chicago, Gery Chico.
  
  The Lodge will be hosting a phone bank at the FOP Hall to support Gery Chico's campaign for Mayor. This event will take place on Thursday, February 10th from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm.
  
  All members are invited to volunteer and attend this event. Refreshments will be served. Please contact Mary Pat at 312-733-7776 to volunteer.

Whatever it takes to get Chico into the runoff.

Another Secret Meeting

J-Fled had another secret meeting at 35th Street. Seems he's been told he can stay until the new mayor is inaugurated at the beginning of May. No word on how that contract extension is going to play out.

But seriously? The city is going to pay something like $25,000 a month if the terms of the previous contract are intact. We'd be better off if Shortshanks just turned over Department to some of the existing exempts and told them not to touch anything until the new guy got in. He'd save the taxpayers some money for the first time ever.

Game Time!

Of course, we hate Green Bay and have no attachment to Pittsburgh aside from some paint that bears its name, so we don't really care much. The Pack was favored at last count.

Game time trash talk for now.

That's More Like It

The calm couldn't last:

• Chicago saw a spate of shootings and a fatal stabbing overnight, a more typical night of violence in the city after a 60-hour lull that ended early Friday.

  The 2½ day streak without a shooting in the city ended about 1:40 a.m. Friday when a 47-year-old South Side man was shot in a robbery over a snowblower and cash.

  Friday night and early today, two people were shot to death and a third fatally stabbed, according to police.

The story actually lists 3 shot to death and another stabbed, but when has accuracy ever mattered to the media?

The Crystal Ball Unit missed all four of these, but the "Innie-Outtie Task Force" has determined that one shooting was inside, two outside and the stabbing was a "half-and-half" since he was stabbed at a card game but ran outside to expire.

Parking Question

The amnesty runs out tomorrow:

• The snow-induced “break’’ from paying parking meters continues.

  Officials Saturday said downtown parkers can leave their cars on the street without fear of getting a ticket until 9 a.m. Monday. In the neighborhoods, parkers have until 9 a.m. Tuesday before they have to begin to again feed the payboxes.

  On Friday, the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications announced the suspension of ticketing for parking meter violations, but said motorists should still pay if the parking spot was clear and the payboxes accessible after snow piled up from this past week’s blizzard.

As an e-mailer reminded us, whenever the city closes a metered street for a pre-planned festival or parade or whatever for over a certain number of hours, the city is contractually obligated to pay the meter company for any supposed revenue the meters would have generated.

Does a snow event fall into that category of having to pay those connected companies for un-generated revenue? Because that would be a typical Daley move.

More Tahoe Follies

Funny stuff from Channel 7. They even get a couple of lies from various department talking heads:

• This week's blizzard was the first major test of Chicago's new police patrol fleet.
  
  In this Intelligence Report: how the Chevy Tahoes did and what one mayoral candidate is saying after helping to push a police SUV from some deep snow.
  
  Chicago police officials spent tens of millions of dollars the last two years replacing most of their aging Ford patrol cars with Chevy Tahoe SUVs.
  
  The old Crown Victoria sedans were popular with many officers but terrible in the snow because they were rear-wheel drive cars.

Popular because they were capable vehicles. And you could push a CV out of the snow if you got stuck. You need three cops and a mayoral candidate to push a Tahoe it seems.

• On Friday, a Chicago police spokesman disputes that, saying that only 25 Tahoes from a total fleet of 3,000 vehicles needed towing during the storm.

  "In some conditions you could be driving an M-1 Abrams tank and you're not going to move forward on this," said Chicago Police Department Superintendent Jody Weis.

Dispatchers were making announcements on Citywide all day and all night that if you were stuck, there was no R-Service and tow trucks had no E.T.A. That probably means of the hundreds of stuck Tahoes, officers did what they normally do and dig out, enlist help, flag down passing tows, etc. We took the initiative. And for our troubles, J-Fled claims only 25 Tahoes needed tows? What a bunch of double-speaking bullshit.

Rahm made some political hay, too:

• One of the SUVs, however, did get stuck, and Rahm Emanuel helped push it out. If elected mayor, he says the police fleet may change.

  "We have snowstorms. It is the City of Chicago. It did not make sense to me," Emanuel said.

  [...] Emanuel said as mayor he would get rid of the police Procurement Director who did the SUV deal.

We're pretty sure there was a political stink over the SUV contract being awarded to a suburban dealer rather than a city one. With all the crap Shortshanks spouts about patronizing the city and keeping his indentured workforce close by, you'd think that he would have wanted to keep that contract around here.

Anyway, always fun on the political side of stuff.

No Confidence

It must be something in the Chicago Police Department command structure, because this seems to be the common thread:

• Inside police headquarters, cops sent a message: We have “no confidence” in Chief Frank Limon or his assistant chiefs. Meanwhile, protesters outside the building also expressed no confidence—in the entire department.

  Cops sent their message in a 246 to 21 vote Thursday at police headquarters at 1 Union Ave. The results were announced just after 7:30 p.m. by union president Sgt. Lou Cavaliere.

  By an overwhelming majority, they took a non-binding vote of “no confidence” in the Chicago trio at the top of the department, Chief Limon and Assistant Chiefs Thomas Wheeler and Tobin Hensgen. The balloting took place at 1 Union Ave. between 6:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.

The full story is here and here.

This is what happens after years and years of promoting political hacks in Chicago who can't demonstrate even the tiniest bit of talent in actually running a police department, then they trade on those ill-gotten promotions to spread the virus of their incompetence nationwide.

Between these three goofs in New Haven and J-Fled, we'd hope that they've ruined the chances of numerous other not-ready-for-prime-time Chicago hacks from getting a job above the level of dog catcher.

Technical Difficulties

Please Stand By:



Something didn't go through this morning. Working on the error at this time.

Open Post in the meantime.

Volunteer for Shortshanks!

Seriously?

• Interested volunteers will help shovel out bus shelters and sidewalks in high traffic areas around the city.
  
  The Mayor’s Office is asking that City Employees PLEASE volunteer some time over the weekend to help in this effort.
  
  Interested volunteers can report to Soldier Field at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, Saturday, February 5th and will be given directions and deployed with other volunteers to work from 10-4. If you can work part of that time, let us know.
  
  Saturday, Feb 5th 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
  Soldier Field SOUTH Parking Lot (just south of 18th street)
  
  Volunteers will be able to park their personal vehicles at no cost at Soldier Field for the day, and after the work is complete, return to Soldier Field for pick up. Equipment will be provided, please dress warmly and appropriately for the day.

We just can't wait to help an incompetent goof who hates our guts, takes food from our childrens' mouths, taxes us into near-poverty, destroys our pension, attempts to deny our retirees the right to carry arms, and probably kicks puppies in his spare time when he's not consorting with Satan.

Check your Department e-mail for details and phone numbers.

See you there!

Um....Duh?

For years now, even before this humble blog existed, first responders have been pointing out how Shortshanks' obsession with median planters was interfering with public safety by removing the center lane of traffic emergency vehicles were able to drive down. All of the sudden, some candidates are noticing the problem, too:

• Mayoral challengers Gery Chico and Miguel del Valle on Friday suggested periodic gaps in the median planters that beautified Lake Shore Drive to prevent a repeat of the Blizzard of 2011 fiasco.

  If there had been a few well-positioned breaks along the way, emergency vehicles would have had quicker access to stranded motorists and traffic stalled behind accidents could have been diverted to the southbound lanes before being buried in snow, both candidates said.

As the title says, "Duh!" How many millions were spend on the Lake Shore Drive medians, and the ones up and down so many major thoroughfares? Not to worry though, someone else will be paid even more millions shortly to remove a bunch of them in short order.

Snow Kills Crime

And we're sure J-Fled took all the credit for it, completely bypassing Tommy Skilling. But you knew the streak couldn't survive for long:

• A man was shot and robbed of a snowblower in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side early this morning -- the first shooting since this week's blizzard hit on Tuesday, police said.
  
  This week's storm kept crime down so much that the shooting was one of the first serious crimes reported to police since the storm landed, Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said. There had been no shootings in the city since around 3 p.m. Tuesday, when the snow first hit, according to preliminary data.

At least the crime was seasonally appropriate.

Nicely Played Aldercreature!

Channel 7 has some humorous info:

• Some side streets are plowed early and other neighborhoods have to wait a little longer. In this Intelligence Report: Why all Chicago side streets are not created equal.
  
  A veteran employee at Chicago Streets and Sanitation says his department has a "priority list" of who gets plowed first. It is said to be unwritten but understood, and it features the names and home addresses of well-connected Chicago political figures and sometimes their families, including numerous current members of the City Council.

A list? Of whom gets plowed first? Can we rest assured it's firemen, police officers, bus drivers and other snow truck operators who in turn make sure the rest of the city gets the services it needs in a safe and timely manner?

• Chicago aldermen live on 50 of the blocks. Right after a snowstorm, they could be the 50 cleanest blocks in the city.

  On the street where 14th Ward Alderman Ed Burke lives, for the dean of the City Council and chairman of the finance committee, Streets and San had the road scraped clean by first thing Thursday morning. But not those on each side.

  In the 2nd Ward, Alderman Bob Fioretti's street was plowed Thursday morning as well -- as was the home street of Alderman Leslie Hairston in the 5th Ward.

Golly. The aldercreatures. Surprise surprise. It's not like they couldn't delay a City Council meeting or something.

The kicker?

• When the I-Team got to the 7th Ward, home of Alderman Sandi Jackson, to take some pictures of her plowed street, a Streets and Sanitation truck rolled up. And who was riding shotgun? Alderman Sandi Jackson, who said she was riding around all morning trying to help her constituents get clear streets.

  Jackson said she wouldn't be surprised if Streets and San had a VIP list especially of wards that get favored treatment. Jackson is calling for an investigation by the city inspector general.

She pulls up in a f#$%ing snowplow, then has the audacity to demand an investigation into VIP lists? Pardon our laughter, but "hahahahahahahahahahahahaha."

Hired Truck All Over?

That's it? Nothing more?

• The federal sentencing hearing Thursday of ex-Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez meant 2 1/2-years in prison for the onetime city official.

  It prompted opinions over this week’s disaster on Lake Shore Drive as well as a hiring scheme that has gone on in the city for decades.

  But it also did something else.

  It ended a seven-year run of federal prosecutions into city hall that began with the Hired Truck scandal in 2004.

  Sanchez was the very last defendant to be prosecuted as part of a hiring scandal that grew out of the Hired Truck probe. Prosecutions were prompted by a Chicago Sun-Times investigation in 2004.

Funny that the whole thing ends just a day or two after one of the larger displays of incompetence by the City government and the last guy sentenced is the last guy who actually seemed to keep the streets clear and make Shortshanks look good. Way to fall on the sword for a thankless leader there Al.

Thanks! May We Have Another?

Now suddenly, we're indispensable and heroes again?

• Mayor Daley on Thursday defended his lame-duck administration’s performance during the Lake Shore Drive fiasco, saying city crews did the best they could during the worst weather “crisis” he has ever seen.

  “The Fire, the Police, Streets and Sanitation all did a tremendous job. ... These people worked hard out there. Accidents took place on Lake Shore Drive, backed up traffic. Immediately, they closed the Drive, ” Daley said.

Now go take another how many unpaid days off? How much in pension reductions? And how much did that first installment of the property taxes go up this month?

City Blows It

Whose bright idea was it to have the plows, garbage trucks and heavy equipment clearing school parking lots - schools that everyone knew were going to be closed for at least a day, maybe two - while CPD lots and CFD firehouses remained buried under drifts 3 feet deep?

And Lake Shore Drive? The clusterfuck that keeps on giving:

• More than 200 abandoned cars remain stranded, shrouded in snow on Lake Shore Drive and it's not clear when the drive will reopen, said Daley Chief of Staff Raymond Orozco in a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
  
  Crews are expected to work through the night to clear what has become a sore spot for the mayor's administration, but officials said they don't know when the lakefront roadway will be re-opened.

Lake Shore Drive was getting pounded by 30-foot-waves on Monday. It should have been shut down the minute the snow began to fall and plowing efforts concentrated on alternatives to keep traffic moving on adjacent arterial streets. Orozco or Byrne or whomever blew this one big time.

We especially like how the city officials are blaming the citizens for assuming an unblocked, unrestricted, wide-open entrance ramp means they shouldn't be using a major thoroughfare to get to where they want to go. We certainly hope this is a new trend of blame. Maybe we can blame the parents for having children who think "wilding" down Michigan Avenue is acceptable behavior, that snatch-and-grab phone robberies on the El is a good time, that daily riots at the pre-penitentiary high schools is normal behavior, that slinging dope and teen pregnancy is normal and that three meals a day, no-strings-attached cash, "free" heat and electricity is somehow a birthright.

And since when has the mayor not showing up at press conferences been any sort of example of leadership?

Here's the thing about natural disasters - they can reveal all sorts of shortcomings with emergency plans. In fact, a relatively benign occurrence like a blizzard could be used as a training exercise to test a response to shutting down a major arterial highway, evacuating abandoned vehicles, relocating crashes, mass rescues, clearing roads, etc.

How much of that did you see in action Wednesday? If you said "zero," you're pretty much right on target. We better hope with all our hearts that Chicago is never singled out as a target of a major terror incident. Individual acts of heroism might be a regular happening, but a cohesive strategy to address the aftermath is so far beyond our leadership it isn't even funny.

Two-Wheel Drive

We've covered this before, but never was it more evident than yesterday how short sighted this decision was. Even a four-wheel-drive vehicle per sector would have been an improvement over what we saw today.

Did everyone catch the citywide broadcasts that there was no R-service available and if you got stuck, your sergeant had to call for a tow with no ETA? That was a brilliant bit of planning there - hope the previous watch remembered to fill up the tank.

And just in case you forgot, this is what J-Fled was driving today while you skidded across miles of almost plowed roads and unsalted pavement:


And while we're aware that J-Fled probably had little to do with the choice of two-wheel-drive SUVs, but if he wants to claim credit for getting us the new vehicles, he can damn well accept the blame for getting us crappy ones.

This About Sums it Up

From the comment section:

• Already I am sick of hearing about the "Great Blizzard of 2011"
  
  "Record setting"
  "Life threatening"
  "Top snowstorm of ALL TIME"
  "Never before in the course of human events..."
  
  Fucking blow me already, 15 inches of snow and some wind. That's all. Big fucking deal.
  
  WGN this morning was struggling to find enough superlatives to describe this alleged cataclysmic event. It got up to Major Major Storm before I had to vomit. Maybe they will add a third Major on there before noon.
  
  They panned endlessly on the cars marooned in the life threatening wilderness of.... Lake Shore Drive, a mere few feet away!
  
  Then they found two people stumbling and falling and getting up and stumbling some more and zoomed in on them. Were they the latest to be miraculously rescued from death's door in this unholy Perfect Mother of Storm of Storms?
  
  No, they were just another news crew, cameraman and junior junior anchor with microphone in hand attempting to jump the fence onto LSD (Byrne's Alley) to interview some "survivors" of the Blizzard of Blizzards.
  
  Were any still alive? Had they started eating each other yet? How many dead were in those cars? What heart rending tales could they tell?
  
  Who knows, who cares?
  
  They were busy making stories of each other covering the MegaStorm of the Millenium.
  
  Get a life. Storm of '67 still rules, '79 is close second, '99 was worse than this.
  
  Another cup of coffee and then back to nap time and then I will watch the Godfather trilogy. I haven't seen that since I had the flu a few years ago. And after that, the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western trio, and no I am not talking about former Italian American Streets & San Department Heads.
  
  As far as storms go, I wouldn't put this in the top ten. In hype, yes, it is at the top, Numero Uno in Bullshit.
  
  The wind whistles, the coyotes howl, the couch calls out it's seductive siren song...

Damn, that's almost poetry. Nicely written "anonymous."

Spot the Patsy

Kass calls it:

• After this week's terrible blizzard, the politics of snow in Chicago should be clear to anyone who can read the signs.

  But you also have to know the creatures and their peculiar habitats. And you must be able to identify the tracks they leave — and those they don't leave — in all that snow.

• So he wasn't standing next to Tom Byrne, his hand-picked Streets and Sanitation commissioner. Byrne spent his career as a cop, not as some snow fighter, and it's clear that he violated the cardinal rule of Chicago snow-fighting:

  You never, ever, ever lose control of Lake Shore Drive, no matter how much it snows, no matter how hard the wind blows. Ever.

Orozco was out there too, committing ritual suicide on camera while Tommy Thumb stewed in the background. The mayor didn't even show up for the press conference, so we all know exactly who's walking the plank here.

The question remains, will they both rise from the political dead in a new administration?

Updates Delayed

Yes, even SCC is going to be running behind today. We'll update as able, but based on what we've seen so far, everything is going to be done in very narrow windows of opportunity. Be careful out there boys and girls. Your backup might be mere blocks away, but getting there could take minutes and more.

Everything Closed

Lake Shore Drive

• All of Lake Shore Drive was shut down as of 7:50 p.m. due to safety concerns over the weather, according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communication.

  Officials want to clear the drive of all traffic in order to plow and salt the entire roadway.
  
  They hope to have it reopened sometime tonight, according to the OEMC.

CPS:

• There will be a snow day Wednesday for more than 410,000 students at Chicago Public Schools.

  The nation’s third largest school system announced late Tuesday that it was canceling all classes

  Wednesday at its more than 700 schools out of an “abundance of caution.’’

Midway, but not all of O'Hare:

• In anticipation of the incoming blizzard, operations at Midway Airport have been shut down for the day Tuesday and most airlines at O’Hare Airport -- where more than 1,300 flights have been canceled so far -- have indicated they will have limited or no operations on Wednesday, according to the Chicago Dept. of Aviation.

  For those flights still operating in and out of O’Hare, as of about 1:30 p.m. airlines were reporting delays of approximately 30 minutes, according to a release from the city Dept. of Aviation.

I-80:

• State Police are reporting that I-80 will soon be closed, from Morris west to Ottawa, because of “impassable” blizzard conditions.

  The interstate will be closed as soon as the Illinois Dept. of Transportation can get the barricades up, said Joliet District State Police Sgt. Chris Paluch, and the road will remain closed all night.

It does seem that the Chicago Police Department will be open for business though. No word on operational status, but that alleged order to drive the streets with blue lights flashing ought to be thought over. There are already going to be hundreds of orange and yellow lights flashing all over the city. Blue lights are just going to panic drivers into pulling over and getting stuck in plow lanes.

Thanks goodness we have all those brand new 4-wheel-drive Tahoes to drive the snow covered streets and respond to emergency situations! Oh wait....

Taste to Continue Losing Money

Taxpayers to be screwed again:

• Mayor Daley’s plan to privatize the Taste of Chicago has fallen flat.

  After declaring that Chicago’s premier lakefront festival would “always be free,” Daley on Tuesday rejected a lone bidder’s revised proposal to charge a $10 admission fee to the Taste.

  Celebrate Chicago LLC initially proposed a $20 entrance fee with $10 rebated to patrons in the form of food and beverage tickets. The proposed fee was cut in half to appease Daley, but it was not enough.

• Despite $7 million in losses over the last three years, the city now plans to keep the Taste and six other lakefront festivals in-house.

Gee, giant piles of cash flowing through unmonitored counting rooms - why would the city even think of privatizing something like that? If it wasn't making some connected individuals some serious coin, it wouldn't exist in Chicago.

Rahm Plays Hardball

Nice to see Rahmbo is already jumping in with both feet:

• In the ongoing argument over what “luxury” services would be taxed under Emanuel’s sales tax proposal, Chico held a news conference Monday to complain the tax would put neighborhood gyms out of business.

  But the first neighborhood gym that Chico tried to hold his news conference at cancelled at the last minute after getting a call from the Emanuel campaign, Chico said. […]

  Chico’s campaign scrambled to line up the second gym, in West Town. Then the Emanuel campaign called that gym. But owner Sharone Aharon told the caller he planned to let Chico do his news conference there anyway.

And does anyone doubt that if he wins, Rahm won't be sending out teams of building inspectors and such to hassle businesses that provided a forum for dissent? That displayed opponents' signs? That endorsed anyone other than the anointed one? We fully expect the FOP Hall to be visited by inspectors and shut down on some made up pretext, and that's before the next round of contract negotiations and Springfield battles to be fought.

Changes Confirmed

Our eyes & ears at HQ come through again:

• exempt moves
  
  Deloughry is acting c/o of 17
  
  kirby is the actor d/s bureau of prof standards(brust old job)
  
  brian murphy is the actor d/s bureau of admin services(okeefes old job)
  
  price is the acting general counsel and
  
  mealer is reassigned as the commander of intelligence
  
  basically daley told weis, fuck you and your promotions. Deoughery is only the actor until they can promote staples.

As posted here over a week ago. And what are we down to - 30 days for J-Fled?

Homicides Up 20%?

Looks like January might have been a bad month for J-Fled and the Crystal Ball Unit. Not only did they fail to predict a single shooting, robbery or homicide, a number of comments are reporting homicides climbed over 20% for January compared to last year.

Who has the numbers?

On the plus side, we're sure they are going to attempt to claim credit for any drop in crime due to 20 inches of snow dumped on Chicago if they can.

Braun Throwing Election?

Call us crazy, but Braun's recent misstep reeks of a manufactured moment:

• Carol Moseley Braun is in trouble for publicly busting out the kind of insult that Rahm Emanuel only uses in private.
  
  During Sunday afternoon’s debate at Trinity United Church of Christ -- Jeremiah Wright’s old congregation -- Moseley Braun told Patricia Watkins, “the reason you didn’t know where I was for the last 20 years, ’cause you were strung out on crack.”
  
  The crowd hooted. Miguel del Valle and Gery Chico looked mortified. (Emanuel, who refuses to participate in community forums, was absent.) Soon after, Moseley Braun left the sanctuary, fleeing in her SUV.

Braun is a supposedly seasoned political campaigner. There are certain things you don't just say out loud, like open yourself up to a libel suit in front of potential voters.

Depending on the poll you follow, she's either second of third in the rankings. Now she commits a political misstep of immense proportions in front of a live audience? Where are more of these citizens going to decide to cast their votes now?

Did Rahm and Shortshanks just pull the trigger on Carol's suicide vest?

Haymaker Burglar Sentenced

A small measure of justice for Sgt. Haymaker:

• A lookout in the burglary connected to Chicago Police Sgt. Alan Haymaker’s death has been sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison.

  Larry Brown, 29, received the sentence Friday after he pleaded guilty to one count of burglary in Skokie, according to [...] a Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office spokesman.

  Brown, of Markham, kept watch while his accomplices threw a car battery through the window of Consolidated Communications, 3176 N. Clark, and stole thousands of dollars worth of mobile phones last year, prosecutors said.

Another subject is awaiting trial for the actual burglary.

Blizzard Watch

Snow! In Chicago!! In January!!!

• If you thought the East Coast had it bad last week, brace yourself for the huge storm forecast to overtake the Chicago area this week.

  The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard watch starting Tuesday afternoon for much of Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana.

  All told, forecasters expect at least 8 inches in northern central Illinois, and at least 18 inches in the northeast and eastern central parts of the state. Accumulations of at least 18 inches could register in Northwest Indiana and reach 24 inches in some areas

OK, so it's a bunch of snow. At least Shortshanks has been saving salt and cutting back on Streets and San overtime for the past two years. So there should be plenty of both to go around and keep the city up and running, right?

On the other hand, he could just "Bilandic" the whole thing since he's not facing re-election. One last "screw you all" to the serfs.

Ridiculous Comment

People say the darnedest things. From the comments:

• OT: yesterday in 018, the roving mob was out again,...an officer came on the air and asked the Sgt. if he could just lock them all up for mob action,....the response....just observe them for now, and let them know we are here.....so the tact teams just "were around the area"....THIS IS WHY THEY DO WHAT THEY DO.....no more old school bosses that would just say..."LOCK THEIR ASSES UP"....how come this doesn't happen in the faster districts?....cause they know that they will be LOCKED UP....

Asked a Sergeant if he could lock them up? A number of other readers took this commentator to task:

• Hey mr. "no more bosses with balls": does that mean the sgt had the coppers balls locked up in his trunk. Maybe the officer could have dusted off his own set of balls and locked them the fuck up like a real copper instead of trying to look for special dispensation first. This attitude is what's wrong with the department! You are given a car, a gun and arrest powers and you've got to ask permission to make an arrest. I can picture the testimony now: but officer why did you arrest my clients? " because my sgt. said to". So you observed no crime occur?
  
  Get the point yet?
  
  We all have the power to arrest, if you observe a crime being committed, do something about it! You don't have to ask for permission. And if they haven't done anything or you think they are suspicious, nothing says you can't do a field interview/ contact card. At least then we know who the hell they are then.
  
  
• Seriously, you have to come on the air to ask permission to lock someone up? You must be one of those guys that has to front a Sgt. off on every call too. Man up and make a decision officer. If you see someone break a law lock them up, if you don't know the law, stay off the street!
  
  
• How about being the fucking POLICE!!!! Why do you need your Sgt. approval to lock their asses up?? Are you not smart enough to find PC on them for something, give me a fucking break---Be the Police or go back to where the fuck you came from.

We understand not wanting to stick your neck out for this administration, but that doesn't mean putting your head in the sand.