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* Press Release: U.S. Court rules pharmacists must have right of conscience respected

* More Illinois schools fall short of goals

The likely culprit is a higher standard. In 2007, 55 percent of students in a school, along with each subgroup — including racial and ethnic groups and special education students — had to perform at grade level. It was 47.5 percent last year.

By 2014, the No Child law expects all students to be at grade level. To get there, Illinois began with a modest goal in 2003 of 40 percent and increased it every other year. Starting in 2007, the target goes up every year.

* 896 Illinois schools miss rising U.S. standards

* Suburban teacher discontent spreads with contract rejection

* Doctor backed to face Durbin

One GOP strategist who asked not to be identified credited Sauerberg for genuinely wanting to make the daunting run against Durbin, a two-term senator who is the second-ranking member in the chamber’s Democratic leadership. Rallying around Sauerberg allows the party to move forward to focus on three open-seat congressional races in the state that had been held by Republicans, the strategist said.

Federal campaign finance reports show Durbin with more than $6.6 million in cash on hand after raising more than $800,000 in the three-month period that ended Sept. 30. Sauerberg reported $170,137 in cash on hand after raising $65,750 in the previous quarter. Sauerberg had previously lent is campaign $250,000.

* Brady to chair Illinois campaign for Fred Thompson

* Smoking on beaches, playgrounds likely to be banned by city parks; more here

* Police probe alderman’s wireless phone citation

* Jesse Jackson Jr: Don’t accept Daley’s taxes

It seems as if Daley, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger and Gov. Rod Blagojevich are in a race to see who can raise your taxes the highest.

The city’s “corruption tax” is something I tried to calculate when I was exploring a run for mayor in 2006. While an exact figure is impossible to pinpoint, I conservatively estimated that the tax exceeded $1.5 billion in recent years — including $300 million for the do-nothing hired truckers; $500 million for illegal hiring under the Shakman decree; well over $100 million in fraudulent “minority” contracts to white-owned businessmen; and at least $25 million in legal fees and settlements for police torture cases. And that’s just scratching the surface.

* Stroger open to outside control of health system

* Cook Co. taxes could quickly add up for local families

* Chicago Public Radio: Cook Co. Board revisits tax hikes

* Kadner: Raise those taxes in Cook Co.

Raise all the taxes, I say.

And then Cook County voters may finally rise up in righteous indignation and vote against Stroger and all the political hacks who have demonstrated their complete disdain and contempt for taxpaying citizens.

It was the poorest of the poor who helped put Stroger in office.

They felt he was getting bad press. Many called it racism.

Since that time, Stroger has not only cut services that benefit some of the neediest folks in Cook County, but he has continued to pad the county payroll with friends and relatives.

* Stroger in no hurry on health system

In the other ear are politicians and hangers-on urging him to think twice about giving up control of 7,000 jobs and millions of dollars in contracts at a hospital system long seen as ground zero of the county patronage dumping ground.

On Tuesday, Stroger offered only tepid support — and a request for more time — for a proposal that would take control of the $745 million-a-year health system away from Stroger and the 17-member board.

* Experts: Remove hospitals from county oversight

* Long time Kendall Co. leader will step down

posted by Paul Richardson
Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 8:50 am

Comments

Is Kadner trying to ignite a race war?

Geez guy…get a grip.

Comment by Johnny USA Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 8:56 am
Is it so surprising that so many Chicago public schools are failing. The chicago public schools have the shortest school day and shortest school year on avg in the whole country. Any talk of more tax money for the schools should be based on longer school days and school years. Ohh wait the Chicago teachers union wont hear of it 5 1/2 hours is to long a day to work already and having the whole summer off plus a spring break and a christmas break plus every holiday. The reason the chicago schools fail is that the kids arent in school enough and the teachers like it that way.

Comment by left behind Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 9:35 am
The disgruntlement of the suburban teachers has led to the rejection by U-46 union of a raise of 6.4% in the first year of the new contract.

Comment by Truthful James Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 9:42 am
Todd Stroger and his management team haven’t got a clue. I haard a presntation last evening by a Cook County Commisioner who described a budget briefing given to him by Stroger and his key people earlier this week. The briefing sounded very much like the Abbott and Costello “Who’s on First” routine.Suffice it to say that not much meaningful budget information was presented to the Commissioner.

Comment by Captain America Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 9:44 am
Speaking of scams, here is what the Treasury Sec. said yesterday:
Mr. Paulson said that “a first and important step” is to identify struggling borrowers early, steer them to mortgage counselors “and find a sustainable mortgage solution.”

“We have an immediate need to see more loan modifications and refinancing and other flexibility,” Mr. Paulson said. “For many families, this will be the only viable solution.”

Citing recent surveys showing that as many as half of the borrowers who have gone into foreclosure never had prior discussions with mortgage counselors, Mr. Paulson said, “That must change; early intervention is critical.”

Counseling….that almost happended in IL until the predatory lender post boy Blaggo suspended a law. Another red letter day for IL.

Comment by Reddbyrd Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 10:11 am
J-USA,

Race war? Isn’t that a little strong? Besides, when you vote for someone based solely on the color of his or her skin, you reap what you sow. Based on the rhetoric and vote totals from that election, I don’t think Kadner is off the mark.

Comment by Snidely Whiplash Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 10:41 am
Brady chairing Thompson’s Illinois campaign? They couldn’t get anyone else? Really? Thompson’s campaign must be sagging.

Comment by Shallow Pool Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 10:51 am
Rich,

You really should remove or at least change the title of that first link in this section. The headline states that a court has ruled. The link is to a press release from the interest group fighting the governor that says absolutely nothing about any ruling by any court. Honestly, I’m not sure why Paul thought that belonged in his normally first rate morning short links list.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 11:14 am
Judge Scott issued another ruling, this time in the Vandersand case against Walmart. She held : 1) pharmacists are covered by the Right of Conscience Act; 2) pharmacists are “health care personnel” under the Act; 3) pharmacists are involved in “health care services” under the Act. Thus, in one fell swoop, she dispensed with (no pun intended) not only Walmart’s defenses in that case, but also Walgreens’ defenses in both the Madison and Kane County cases.

That is what it referrs to.

Comment by Pat Collins Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 11:53 am
Not sure we’re you’re pulling that from Pat as it’s not in the press release on the link. I guess it’s just a poorly written release that doesn’t mention what is referred to in the headline.

Thanks for the clarification and thanks Rich for changing the title of the link.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 12:00 pm
The only thing that could be worse than Daley would be Jesse Jackson Jr.

Comment by wallace Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 12:11 pm
Left: Summers off? A typical teacher works 50 to 60 hours per week (minimum) during the school year (class prep, grading, meetings, etc.) The summer could be considered comp time except for the class prep and professional development.

I challenge anyone to teach 30 kids to read when 2/3 or more of those kids receive little, if any, encouragement from parents or community and negative pressure from their peers. Maybe if education were valued as much as sports we would see some improvement. (It was hard enough for me to teach two kids to read.)

Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 12:57 pm
pot that alot of prep time for a about 5 hours of class time a day. Face it teachers are paid a full time salary for what amounts to a little more than a part time job. Less than six hours a day and more tha 4 months of vacation time. What is the reason for Chicago having the shortest school day and shortest school year. Its an out of control union that rewards teachers for being lazy. The chicago teachers union is doing to chicagos children what the autoworkers union did to the aoutomotive industry. Destroying them and the future so they dont have to work more than 5 1/2 hours a day.

Comment by left behind Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 2:03 pm
Left: An hour of prep outside of class for every hour in class is a MINIMUM.

There is a nice, long description of the job here: http://www.nettally.com/palmk/TeacherHours.html

Example for college profs recommends 2 to 3 hours outside of class for each hour in: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/newsletters0607/newsletter9.html

If you really think it’s full-time pay for a part time job, you should become a teacher.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 4:56 pm
If you want to do the math yourself, picture that 5.5 hour day as six 50 minute classes with 5 minutes in between. In each class you have 25-30 students, if you spend 2 minutes per student grading papers, thats 50-60 minutes, that’s one hour per course before you prepare for the next day’s lessons. So the grading alone will take 6 hours for that day. (BTW, I imagine if a teacher only spent 2 minutes grading your child’s work, you would be very upset.)

Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 5:29 pm
whats the reason for Chicago having the shortest school day and school year. New York schools have a longer day and longer year. It sad when the teachers union is part of the problem and not part of the answer. why isnt three months off a year enough instead of four?

Comment by left behind Wednesday, Oct 17, 07 @ 10:08 pm
In the two states, the mandated day length and the year are both the same.

New York schools are required to have 176 days of attendance, 4 in-service days and 25-27.5 hours per week.
http://stateaid.nysed.gov/attendance/attendance_memo.htm

Illinois schools are required to have 176 days of attendance, 4 in-service days, and 25 hours per week (5 hours per day).
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/funding/pdf/ps_guidelines.pdf

Comment by Pot calling kettle Thursday, Oct 18, 07 @ 9:15 am