Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Thursday, Sep 9, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Owners: Merchandise Mart not for sale

The owners of the Merchandise Mart say the building is not for sale, despite reports over the weekend that they were looking for a buyer.

Crain’s Chicago Business had reported that Vornado Realty Trust wanted to sell the two-block, 25-story building.

* Tribune Co. names general counsel to chief restructuring post

* 2 firms make pitches for running Illinois Lottery

* Two firms make case to run Illinois Lottery

* Companies outline proposals to run Ill. lottery

* Two Finalists Vying to Manage the Illinois Lottery Make Their Case

* Appliance rebates Part II: Sept. 24

* Southtown Star: Local leaders fail would-be workers

* Navistar to move HQ to Lisle

* Navistar is reborn

* Navistar’s Headquarters Will Stay In Illinois

* Navistar move to boost company’s area workforce to 3,000

* Navistar Picks Lucent Lane for $110M HQ Move

* Navistar sets sights on Joliet, Lisle sites

* Navistar is reborn

* Navistar Stays in Northern Illinois

* Quinn: Navistar Keeping Good Jobs in Illinois

* Navistar plans leave Harvard out

* Navistar Makes It Official, HQ And More Consolidating in Chicago Area

* Navistar exit official

* White House names Asian carp czar

* Angry Daley rips community for not naming cop’s killer

One day after announcing his decision not to seek a seventh term, Daley lashed out at the code of silence that has prevented police from solving the July 18 murder of Chicago Police Officer Michael Bailey.

It happened during a City Council debate on a resolution honoring Bailey, the third Chicago Police officer killed during a two-month period.

The Bailey murder remains unsolved, despite reward money topping $130,000.

* EP honors slain Chicago cop who once served village

* Most Chicago violent crime numbers down

The city had five more homicides through the end of August than the year-earlier period, bringing the total number to 313. But that is still lower than the 338 homicides recorded through the end of August 2008. […]

Through August, robberies dropped by 14.1 percent, criminal sexual assaults dropped by 10.1 percent and aggravated batteries dropped by 6.1 percent.

“These numbers are unacceptable until they’re zero,” Assistant Superintendent James Jackson said at a news conference Friday.

* Murders down, but violence still plagues areas of city

Still, Chicago has remained a more violent place than New York or Los Angeles based on the ratio of crime to population. The mayor could never shake the image of Chicago as a haven for gangsters going back to the days of Al Capone. That image may have been one reason why Chicago lost its bid to host the Olympics in 2016 — even though winner Rio de Janeiro is far more harrowing in some areas.

* Quinn announces redo of I-80/Route178

* Quinn Announces $100 million for Illinois high-tech infrastructure

* Quinn announces $14.9 million Utica interchange

* Push For Road Money Hits Same Political Speed Bump

* White House Names Carp Czar, Testimony Over Fish Continues

* Anti-carp barriers have weaknesses: Corps

* Malpractice costs top $55 billion a year in U.S., Harvard study says

* Prison reform advocates lament Randle’s departure

* Grayslake allows village’s first wind turbines

* Naperville OKs tow fees for criminal offenses

* Naperville Dist. 203 support staff contract OK’d

* Elgin OKs pawnshops within city limits

* Elgin fire chief to bid farewell, again

* DuPage Housing Authority again will accept applications

* More details sought on Kane budget requests

* Start in sight for Lake County road projects

* Kane County circuit court clerk may be hit with lawsuit by next week

“Since the circuit clerk has signed the taxpayers up to spend tax dollars on private attorneys for her on the premise that she’s suing the taxpayers, let’s get on with it so we can better understand how to resolve this year-end budget dilemma,” McConnaughay said.

The comment came after yet another county board committee rejected Seyller’s request for a midyear, $555,000 cash infusion for her budget. The need for more money stems from the hiring of 14 employees over the past two years. Some of those hires replace employees who left. Others were new staff positions.

* Eureka College set to celebrate Reagan’s 100th

* Leaders focus on destination development

3 Comments

- Anonymous - Thursday, Sep 9, 10 @ 9:21 am:
Interesting article in Illinois Times regarding DOC director Mike Randle and his accompishments. Terrible than media, brady and quinn would only focus on early release. Illinois has lost only true professional correction reformer Illinois ever had. Hopefully the group of advocates who wrote the lettre to quinn will contine and even accelerate pushing for more reforms in DOC. we need them.

- Anonymous - Thursday, Sep 9, 10 @ 9:29 am:
The piece about Randle in Illinois Tiems is most interesting and timely. Randle is the only professional reformer DOC has ever had. Too bad qunn, brady and press didnt recognize major stepsbeing taken to reform DOC rather than focusing on one issue, early release and not even getting that right.
Hopefully this advocate group will continue to press for needed reform inDOC and press will pay attentiln

- moby - Thursday, Sep 9, 10 @ 12:31 pm:
hey anonymous — let’s just hope some real issues get taken up in the gubernatorial campaign: like the stubbornly high recidivism rate in Illinois, and the bloated prison population. Crime is down in Illinois and most everywhere else in the country, yet in this state we continue to lock people up — even for minor offenses — in record numbers. Other states have safely cut their prison populations and saved millions. Randle understood that this and tried to do something about it — and got sacked because of it. Beware Brady and the Law and Order vampires, howling for blood and drinking up our money.

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