Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Morning shorts

Posted in:

Illinois

* Illinois makes domestic violence an automatic violation of parole

* Illinois should take lead in campus safety

* In Defense of the Chicago Children’s “museum”

1. The Chicago Children’s “museum” is not accredited by the American Association of Museums.

2. While many argue the “museum” is unique, it is one of only 15 in Illinois, including 9 in the Chicago area.

3. The Chicago Children’s “museum” ranks 31st in the country, according to Parents.com, far behind the children’s museums in Decatur & Bourbonnais and The Magic House in St. Louis. Just two slots below the Ollie Mae Moen Discovery Center in Waco, Texas.

* Children’s Museum, Option 1

Why those directors sit in silence while the reputation of their museum as a stellar citizen sinks—on their watch—is a mystery:

• Are the directors whose names grace the museum’s Web site there to direct its future? Or are they just complicit names on a list, doing a drowsy stint of civic service?

• Do they not comprehend how many longtime friends their self-aggrandizing lust for Grant Park is costing their museum?

• How can they defend to museum donors the cost of all their lobbying, advertising and public relations expenditures for the right to . . . seize a part of Grant Park?

* Museum leadership and board

* Daleys make less, give more

Maggie Daley cut her consulting work in half — bringing in just $50,000 compared with $100,000 in 2006. The Daleys combined made $238,190 after deferrals.

* RTA names new board members

* Election reform proposal stalled

* The simple, straightforward and self-evident case for a Con-Con

Under our current constitution, the Governor and legislative leaders have amassed so much power that a personal feud between them has completely gridlocked the entire state government.

* Gov. appoints head of new agency to negotiate electric rates

* Preservation agency picks Grimes to be new director

* Revenue rush just beginning

* Governors Gathering for Yale Climate Change Conference

* State looks to boost tax on Illinois oil producers

* Springfield tops 120,000

* For sale: ‘Car Kabob’ landmark

A towering sculpture of eight cars made famous in the movie “Wayne’s World” has been listed for sale on eBay.

posted by Kevin Fanning
Tuesday, Apr 15, 08 @ 6:45 am

Comments

How much for my big ball of twine?

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Apr 15, 08 @ 8:45 am
Check the size of the Children’s Museum Board. What could it possibly discuss/accomplish? I suspect a big donation gives you the honor.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Apr 15, 08 @ 9:33 am
I just want to ask a quick question. What has the Chicago Children’s Museum done to so greviously insult the people here?

Hiring a PR firm? Bad idea, but not a mortal insult.

Putting up the plans to build in Grant Park on their website before getting approval? Slightly arrogant, certainly. Worth being called a “museum,” I doubt it.

Is it a museum like the Field or the Art Institute? Certainly not. But neither is an Elementary School like Harvard. No one calls it a “school.”

Does the Board have rich, powerful people? Yes, so do the Boards of most well recognized places in Chicago.

So what did they do to make people hate them so much? Of course they want to move to Grant Park. Why wouldn’t they want to? They aren’t acting in some irrational way. They think moving to Grant Park is good for them and for Chicago. Other people disagree. Okay. Great, it’s a difference of opinions. So why is everyone acting like CCM ran over their collective mothers?

Comment by Chicago Law Student Tuesday, Apr 15, 08 @ 9:44 am
These campus shooters violated numerous gun laws already on the books. Passing more laws would not alter the outcome of past events or affect the outcome of future ones. Unless you look at passing the concealed carry law. It is possible that had that been in effect, the victim count could have been lessened.

Limiting the number of cartridges in a magazine will not affect anyone but new gun buyers as most of the guns out there now have larger magazines than that. I don’t believe there will be an exchange or a mis-nomered “buy-back” of them.

We need criminals charged with their crimes instead of plea bargained down and a prison system that treats prisoners as such. Obviously, our system of justice today is no deterrant to crime, that is what needs to be addressed.

Meanwhile, pass the concealed carry act and that will surely deter crime - which is what everyone is after, right?

Comment by Sahims2 Tuesday, Apr 15, 08 @ 9:52 am
Chicago “Law Student”,
It is because the people who live in the ward and the people who care about the park have made their opinions clear, and the people from the CCM don’t care.
That’s why people are angry.
Also, for a lot of us, Grant Park is OUR park. Every other neighborhood in the city has a place where the residents can put their kids on swings and let them run and play.
But people who live in this area (the east side of 42) really don’t. And now CCM and Daley want to take away the one bit of park area that we have and put a building on that land.
Want the CCM? Let’s pave over the park where your kids play and act like kids, and we will see how happy you are.
So yes, people who live in the area are angry.

Comment by Skeeter Tuesday, Apr 15, 08 @ 3:14 pm
Is Governor Hairdo going to the conference? Isn’t he afraid he’s going to be Spitzerized? Shining a lump of coal will not make it a diamond.

Comment by Disgusted Tuesday, Apr 15, 08 @ 5:59 pm
Skeeter,

I do understand most of that. Granted, I lived in the 42nd, and I had parks near my house that weren’t Grant Park. Also, except for those that live near Lincoln Park, no one else has a park the size of Grant Park.

Are you talking about that small part around the Field House? If I understand correctly, that is a little used area of Grant Park, and if it does seem like a private part of the park, that is used mostly by area residents, I completely understand. In fact, I would back your argument.

But. If you mean that all of Grant Park should be considered the small area park of the 42nd then you’re claiming too much land. This is what it seems like. I’m not necessarily saying it is the argument, but it seems to me like the residents of the 42nd are claiming all of Grant Park to themselves without any consideration to the nature of the centralized park that is open to everyone.

I’m glad you feel that Grant Park is your park, but surely not all of it? If so, I want a bigger park near my house. But again, if you mean that area of Grant Park that CCM specifically wants to move to, then you’re probably right, they shouldn’t move there.

Comment by Chicago Law Student Tuesday, Apr 15, 08 @ 10:39 pm
===but it seems to me like the residents of the 42nd are claiming all of Grant Park to themselves===

That isn’t what they’re saying at all. Not even close. Are you sure you’re a law student?

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Apr 15, 08 @ 11:31 pm