Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Morning Shorts

Posted in:

Illinois

* Wave of shootings leaves seven dead in 12 hours

The carnage pushed the city’s murder toll to 97 so far this year, up from 81 by this date last year.

* Schmich: Violence puts chill on a city heating up

* Public defenders face latest challenges in budget shortfall

* Graffiti-fighting blasted

Since Daley created the Graffiti Blasters program in 1993, city workers have erased or painted over nearly 2 million graffiti tags, Streets & San spokesman Matt Smith says. At a total price tag of about $9 million a year, that means it’s costing Chicago taxpayers about $76 a blast.

But with City Hall groaning under the weight of a record budget deficit, graffiti removal has declined every month since last October — which also happens to be when the city lost its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

* Illinois line among fastest growing for Amtrak

“It’s anybody you might see driving on (Interstate) 55. It’s business travelers, it’s leisure travelers,” said Marc Magliari, a spokesman for Amtrak in Chicago.

* City wins arbitration over police pay raise

Rank and file officers will get an average raise of 2 percent each year for the next five years. However, that is less than the offer Mayor Daley pulled off the negotiating table more than one year ago when the police union pushed for more.

Police officers have been working without a contract since June 2007.

* City police getting just 2% raise under arbitrator’s ruling

Police had been offered 16% over five years during bargaining a couple of years ago, but refused it. Mr. Daley withdrew the offer in 2009 as the economy soured and the matter went to arbitration.

* Chicago police raises to average 2 percent as City Hall wins arbitration

* Chicago’s Police Union Says Wage Increase Should Be Higher

* Daley brushes off police union criticism on new contract

* Houlihan puts Stroger’s cousin on assessor payroll

Donna Dunnings will be paid $79,000 a year to run the Cook County Stimulus and Revitalization Project, which provides funds to help developers return to the tax rolls properties they buy with large delinquent property tax bills, said Eric Herman, spokesman for Assessor James Houlihan.

* Daley orders audit for city’s insurance rolls

The last time the city conducted a health insurance audit, roughly 5,700 people suspected of being falsely listed as dependents of city employees were cut off.

* New city watchdog: Employees rigged hiring, failed to disclose free trip

* City watches as Denver rolls out bike-sharing program

* Des Plaines casino under way

* Quincy Googletown USA

* Decatur woos Google’s fiber optic test

* [Carbondale] City cuts don’t sit well with some

* SIUC taking over St. Louis Journalism Review

* FV Labor News sues competing publication

* White Sox landlord Perri Irmer on sports, ‘The Good Wife’ and Steve Harvey

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 19, 10 @ 8:16 am

Comments

== Wave of shootings leaves seven dead in 12 hours ==

Blago must carry the blame here. He cut state funding for the violence interrupters program.

Comment by Jenna Monday, Apr 19, 10 @ 8:45 am
You’re missing a fairly significant story involving a state owned SUV over the weekend. Don’t ya think?

Comment by Logical Thinker Monday, Apr 19, 10 @ 8:51 am
Relax, people, these items might be the main topics of later entries.

Comment by Independent Monday, Apr 19, 10 @ 8:53 am
Independent is right. Take a breath.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Apr 19, 10 @ 9:05 am
Swell to see Houlihan doing Todd Stroger’s cousin as a favor as they’re both leaving office.

Comment by Ravenswood Right Winger Monday, Apr 19, 10 @ 9:22 am
I am forever astounded how Daley gets away with what he does. He has generated positive press by announcing an insurance audit that is long overdue.

20 years ago, when the City last monitored the insurance rolls. they kicked off 5700 people. Of course, Daley’s response is to not do it for another 20 years. Which means City taxpayers have been paying 20 years worth of premiums.

After discovering such waste 20 years ago, you would think this would be an annual event that reviews new insured that go on the books. Instead, we will have decades old fraud uncovered tallying in the millions-and Daley will get lauded for it. He is a truly remarkable.

Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Monday, Apr 19, 10 @ 10:19 am
While the bike sharing programs are warm and fuzzy, real life experience show that it is a financial failure.

A review of the vaunted Paris system shows that bikes are stolen by the hundreds and transported all over europe and asia. Reports show losses due to theft at 15%+ annually. When you add vandalism, maintenance and overhead, each bicycle on the road represents thousands of dollars per year of overhead. Who will bear the costs of liability in litigious America?

Who will pay the costs?

Comment by Plutocrat03 Monday, Apr 19, 10 @ 10:34 am
Jenna, that program was way too expensive.

Comment by Amalia Monday, Apr 19, 10 @ 11:05 am
Here we were talking about cloud computing and Google is considering placing server farms in caves down in Quincy.

Comment by Squideshi Monday, Apr 19, 10 @ 1:56 pm