* CN trains not aggravating traffic: report
Canadian National Railway Co. has filed its first monthly operating report on its controversial acquisition of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Co., showing minimal blocking of street crossings since it started rerouting some trains through the western suburbs instead of Chicago.
Trains blocked street crossings along EJ&E tracks 50 times for 10 minutes or more since Feb. 1, but CN noted that almost all of those delays were tied to trains that normally ran on EJ&E tracks before.
The report, which was required by the Surface Transportation Board as a condition for approving the takeover, said there were two blocked crossings averaging 29 minutes since March 11, when CN trains started running on EJ&E tracks.
* Whitaker defends hospital’s ER policy
The University of Chicago’s policy is not “dumping” poor patients, Whitaker said in response to a question from former State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka at City Club of Chicago luncheon Monday.
“You should not use the emergency department as the place to get primary care,” Whitaker said. “For some reason, this is controversial. Emergency rooms should be used for emergencies. I’m shocked we should be getting into debates about this. An emergency room visit is $1,000. A doctor’s visit is $100.”
If these patients are uninsured, other patients are paying the unnecessary extra $900 through higher insurance premiums, Whitaker said.
* How to avoid junky health insurance
* Retail sales fall unexpectedly in March
* US States Report Drop In Costs For Construction Projects
* Counties get stimulus cash for hardship assistance
* Local foodbanks poised for windfall
Food banks in Illinois will start receiving truckloads of supplies next month under funding provided by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, Sen. Dick Durbin said Monday during a visit to a Catholic Charities food bank in Des Plaines.
The act includes an additional $935 million in food stamp benefits for Illinois families. An average household of four people receiving food stamps will see an increase of $80 per month in benefits starting this month.
The act also provides more than $3 million for schools in Illinois to buy equipment to prepare meals for school lunch and breakfast programs; $6.3 million for soup kitchens and food pantries to purchase and distribute food through the Emergency Food Assistance Program; $3.7 million for senior meal programs; and $4.1 million for nonprofit and faith-based organizations to provide emergency food and shelter to meet the immediate needs of struggling individuals.
* Food banks to receive federal funding
Senator Durbin says local food banks are reporting a 30 percent increase in the number of people requesting help over last year.
* Postal Service food drive aims to shatter record
* Ill. ranks 8th in wind power
* Tribune to cut 90 more from newsroom
* Chicago Tribune planning for an ‘09 without revenue uptick
* The real killer of newspapers is still at large
At a Chicago “journalism town hall” in January, otherwise intelligent observers of the human condition sniffed at those uncouth practitioners of “amateur” news as not adhering to any sort of editorial standards, as if bigger papers and TV stations give credit to every community weekly from which they rip-and-read daily.
* ‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers
* Grads’ life choices foreclosed by debt
* Summer jobs in our uncertain times
* ArcelorMittal ditches plan to restart E. Chicago plant
Roughly 400 workers at ArcelorMittal’s East Chicago plant will be out of work, as the steel company has no plans to restart work at that facility.
The weak economy has forced the world’s largest steel company to idle operations indefinitely at its Indiana Harbor Long Carbon plant, part of a larger complex that employs thousands of workers.
* Would a payroll tax holiday boost the economy?
Under the bill offered by Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., and Rep. Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, employers and employees of businesses with 50 or fewer workers would pay no Social Security and Medicare taxes for six months. Currently, both employers and employees are required to pay the 6.2 percent Social Security tax and the 1.45 percent Medicare tax throughout the year.
* Schock: Benefits to free trade
* More cops to fight youth violence
Chicago police will beef up curfew enforcement and add more officers to its Mobile Strike Force in an effort to curb youth violence, top police and Chicago Public Schools officials said Monday.
* Weis cracking down on cops who drive drunk
* Weis Defends Efforts to Curb Cop DUIs
* Chicago cop charged in fatal DUI crash: Cop had no passes in past cases, Police Supt. Jody Weis says
* Bond is $500K for Chicago cop charged in DUI crash
* When lives are lost, bail seems so low
* Did this cop get a pass?
* Weis Adding Officers to New SOS Unit
* CTA: 19 routes to be added CTA Bus Tracker Web site
* Three votes short after 34 years in office
With all of the precincts counted, after 34 years in office, it looks as though James P. Petkus is three votes shy of getting re-elected to the Oak Forest Park District board.
* Sports biz round-up: Where are the Sox on MLB Network? Hawks ratings, Golf Makeover
A press release says the MLB Netowrk will showcase 24 or 30 teams in the first seven weeks. A Thursday night Cubs-Cardinals game is slated for May 21.
However, the White Sox are among the teams missing from the early MLB Network broadcasts. Sox fans are very sensitive, so yes, we feel slighted.
The Blackhawks set a ratings record for a Chicago regional sports network this year. They averaged 1.26 rating (more than 44,000 households per game) on Comcast SportsNet. The previous high for the Hawks was a 1.06 rating for the 1996-97 on SportsChannel.
This year’s rating on CSN was a 100% increase over last year’s 0.63 average. CSN is counting on even bigger numbers during its coverage of the Hawks in the playoffs
* Cubs sale may drag on past May
The sale of the Chicago Cubs baseball team could drag on past May as the Ricketts family arranges financing for its $900 million bid and works for Major League Baseball’s approval.
Officials with Tribune Co, which is selling the team, its storied home park of Wrigley Field and a 25 percent stake in a local sports TV network, had originally hoped to have the deal done in May.
“They are being optimistic, frankly, despite good intentions all the way around,” said a person with knowledge of the sale who was not authorized to speak on the matter.
- train111 - Tuesday, Apr 14, 09 @ 9:33 am:
Sure CN’s traffic report is going to look good. So far they’ve only shifted 1 train in each direction daily over to the former EJ&E tracks. The infrastructure isn’t in place to shift over the 15 trains per day they were talking about, and it probably will not be in place for several years, so expect a gradual changeover. (Far cry from Barrington’s continous whining about 2 mile long stack trains from Prince Rupert totally blocking up the entire place–West Suburban politicians have a difficult time discerning fantasy from reality when it comes rail operations IMHO. (Fear tactics drummed out by ill-informed politicians trying to convince voters that they are looking out for them–say it isn’t so!)
I also believe the recession–which has dropped Canadian rail traffic by a quarter (that’s where alot of these trains are coming from) has slowed the changeover to using the ‘J’ as well.
Sorry for all the rambling
train111
- wndycty - Tuesday, Apr 14, 09 @ 9:38 am:
So Judy is faking concern for poor people in an effort to relaunch her political career? Dr. Whitaker make a simple yet effective argument, treating non emergency patients in emergency rooms drives health care costs up. If we are going to solve our countries health care problems then we need to control costs. But who cares Judy challenges the president’s good friend and gets her name in the paper, that is all that matters.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Apr 14, 09 @ 10:04 am:
Looks like Judy is taking a partisan wack at the Obama crew at U of C to get some publicity. Who knew trying to set up a system where non-emergency care would be routed to clinics rather than emergency rooms was controversial?
You know, taxpayers and those already paying through the nose for insurance are picking up the tab on most of those unnecessary emergency room visits.
It reminds me of a fascinating story in The New Yorker a few years ago about Murray the Million Dollar Drunk in Reno. He was a homeless ex-Marine who would drink and fall down a lot, necessitating emergency room visits over the years amounting to more than a million dollars.
The Bush Administration, in a pilot program based on compassion and economics, started handing out apartment keys and paying the rent for some chrnoically homeless people. The idea was that providing the apartments was not only a moral imperative, but less expensive in the long run.
Here’s a link to the article.
http://www.gladwell.com/pdf/murray.pdf
- YOUTH VIOLENCE - Tuesday, Apr 14, 09 @ 5:31 pm:
More cops to fight youth violence? I’m thinking maybe the Juvenile Justice legsliative chair person Annazette Collins can arrange some boxing classes for them right after their gun class.