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* Lawsuits cost city $136 mil. last year

* City wants to end Shakman decree

Mayor Richard Daley’s administration believes it has cleaned up the city’s corrupt hiring system and early next year will seek to end court oversight of its personnel practices, his top lawyer told aldermen Thursday.

Mara Georges said she plans to tell a federal judge that the city is in “substantial compliance” with the decades-long Shakman decree, the legal threshold for getting out from under court control. Georges’ brief comment came during a question and answer session with a City Council budget committee.

The Daley administration has longed chafed about its hiring system being under the scrutiny of court-appointed monitor Noelle Brennan. She was named to the position in August 2005 after authorities arrested Daley’s patronage chief and others on charges they rigged the hiring system to reward the mayor’s political allies with jobs and promotions.

* Stroger rehires county commissioner’s brother as primary election looms

* Alvarez wrongly takes on student journalists

* Rigging the test

And it gets worse: Schools aren’t even testing many 11th graders who wouldn’t perform well. As the Tribune recently reported, school districts across the state use a loophole that allows them to liberally define who is a high school junior. The Tribune found that 20 percent of sophomores in the state didn’t advance to junior status last year.

Voila! You’re not a junior, you don’t take the test! And the school’s results aren’t weighed down.

* Recession allows City Hall to drop hourly rates paid to outside lawyers

* Compromised Care: West Side nursing home probed after death

Psychotic felon fatally beat dementia patient at facility with numerous reports of violence, records show

* Warehouse Workers Lose Jobs After Unionizing

About 70 workers at a vacuum-cleaner warehouse in Will County are losing their jobs. The vacuum company says it’s because a contract for their services is ending. The workers say it’s because they joined a union and complained about their pay and conditions.

* Temp Agency Defends Warehouse Dismissals

A firm that supplies labor for a southwest suburban warehouse is disputing a claim that it’s firing workers because they petitioned for a union.

* Company moving headquarters, 100 jobs to Illinois

* Durbin to address unemployment issue

* Higher disability tied to obesity

* Swine flu has sickened 22 million

* Illinois begins new road safety program

* Bad growing season haunts farmers

Rainy spring, cool summer shrink pumpkins

* Motorola considers shrinking to just 2-way radios, barcode scanners

* Blackhawks’ value soars 26% in one year

According to a Forbes magazine report released this week, the NHL had its most profitable year in 2008-09 and team values rose $3 million to an average of $223 million.

The Hawks, however, increased in value the most. They had ranked 14th in 2007-08, with a value of $205 million. Last year, their value climbed to $258 million — a whopping 26 percent increase. So, the Hawks now rank seventh in financial value among the 30 NHL teams.

* Stringing the Holiday Lights on the Illinois State Capitol - Nov 12, 2009


posted by Mike Murray
Friday, Nov 13, 09 @ 9:05 am

Comments

  1. Mike managed to make it through his birthday and still get up in time to post the shorts by 9AM?

    Comment by Obamarama Friday, Nov 13, 09 @ 9:14 am

  2. I think it was very politically saavy fro Dan Hynes to get Doc Walls into the govs race. Anybody who doubts his ability to be politically saavy simply needs to remember where dan comes from — Tom Hynes and the 19th Ward.

    Comment by Anon Friday, Nov 13, 09 @ 9:16 am

  3. Great little video by the SJR. The capitol building really is a treasure, as are many of the old courthouses around the state. DeKalb and Rock Island county’s come to mind.

    Comment by wordslinger Friday, Nov 13, 09 @ 9:37 am

  4. I’m happy for the Hawks, but now it makes it more expensive for me to buy them.

    Comment by Scooby Friday, Nov 13, 09 @ 9:40 am

  5. TJ Salsman, you rock! Great music and outstanding film! Thanks for the view.

    Comment by Fan of CapFax Friday, Nov 13, 09 @ 9:45 am

  6. why doesn’t the city of chicago just continue to ignore the shakman decree?

    Comment by Will County Woman Friday, Nov 13, 09 @ 12:35 pm

  7. WCW, good point. lol

    Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Nov 13, 09 @ 12:39 pm

  8. Anon,

    Anyone who has paid any attention to Dock Walls knows he needs no one to push him into quixotic runs for higher office.

    Comment by JonShibleyFan Friday, Nov 13, 09 @ 1:11 pm

  9. re: nursing homes & mentally ill
    apart from the obvious cases where attacks have occured, I’m not so sure nursing homes are giving a full accounting of incidents involving mentally ill criminals attacking other elderly and infirm patients. I think as a matter of business they wouldn’t want to report problems.

    When one story hits, one has to believe that there are many more like it that just haven’t made the light of day yet or at all.

    As science becomes more sophisticated I wonder if many of these “mentally” ill criminals will be reclassified or reconsidered more appropriately as emotionally ill instead.

    I think the advocates of the mentally ill operate under antiquated notions, as do advocates of juvenile justice, those who cling to the kid is salvageable arguments, and women’s issues etc.

    brian dugan is a perfect example. He wants to claim “mental” illness as his reasons for his criminal deeds, he, like so many other like him have the mental wherewithall to knowingly do the harm that they do to others. They have a callous and cruel indiffernece toward people, which to me suggests that their problems are of an emtional nature rather than mental. To me it seems that their emtional detached natures fuel their wanton cruel and callous criminal behaviors. The jury was right to sentence him to death because at his age he is so emtionally damaged that there is no hope for him.

    The following link appears in the news tabs section: http://www.truthout.org/1113093
    I could not disagree with the advocates of the mentally ill and state senator heather steans more, as quoted in this nursing home related story.

    Comment by Will County Woman Friday, Nov 13, 09 @ 2:08 pm

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