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Daley appears to break promise on cop hiring; City air is filled with toxin

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* For whatever reason. the Sun-Times focuses today’s “Daley’s 1,000 layoffs” story on possibly reduced garbage pickups, which if you scroll down in the piece probably won’t happn anywayl.

Here’s the more important item…

The 3,000 vacancies to be eliminated include: 329 sworn Chicago Police officers; 424 non-sworn police employees; 12 sworn firefighters, and 10 non-sworn fire employees.

* The Tribune has been all over the problems associated with the problem of current police vacancies…

With retirements, firings and resignations, the department is down 250 officers and could be down more than 400 officers by the end of the year, said Mark Donahue, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, the union representing patrol officers. The department has lost about 375 officers and hired only 125 since the beginning of the year, Donahue said.

* On Saturday the mayor said he was working to hire more Chicago cops.

Apparently, hizzoner’s statement is now inoperative.

* Chicago is facing a $420 million budget hole, but…

The 1,000 layoffs are expected to save $100 million.

* There could be a whole lot more pain on the way, but stuff like this has to irritate Chicago police officers…

A battle is brewing over a request by CTA President Ron Huberman to change his pension status. Huberman is a former Chicago police officer. He has angered other officers with a new application for police pension benefits.

* This ain’t helping relations much, either…

A Chicago police detective who was beaten while off-duty on Chicago’s North Side over a week ago is reacting to the news that the man accused of beating him will not face a more serious charge. […]

Detective Amato and others believe the charges should be more serious because the attack was against a police officer. The police officer’s alleged attacker, 27-year-old John Jasas remains free after attending court last week, where a judge refused to charge him with attacking a police officer. That follows a decision by the state’s attorney’s office to file what is “perceived” as a lesser felony because, they say, Detective Amato was off duty. The veteran cop counters, saying a Chicago police officer is “always” on duty.

Beaten Chicago Police Detective Steve Amato left court feeling assaulted all over again. Not only was the man accused of attacking him not charged with battering a police officer, but the hearing the 18-year police department veteran was told to attend Monday morning took place last week without him or his testimony.

* Meanwhile, Chicago Public Radio has a story about a toxic chemical saturating Chicago’s air…

The University of Iowa professor looked at air samples from all over Chicago, and found the chemical in about 90 percent of them. She says the source is a mystery. It looks a lot like a byproduct of paints, but it’s not concentrated near, say, paint factories.

HORNBUCKLE: It’s so ubiquitous that I almost wonder if it’s released from paint after the paint is applied to buildings and streets and walls. I don’t know.

PCBs have been linked to cancer and neurological problems. The government banned manufacture of PCBs, but Hornbuckle says PCB-11 isn’t manufactured. That means the ban may not apply.

* Background…

Historically, PCB11 is one of 209 compounds manufactured between the late 1920s and the 1970s. The report noted that they were primarily marketed as mixtures called Aroclors by chemical companies until U.S. production ceased in the late 1970s. The distribution of PCB11 throughout residential areas of Chicago suggests that the compound is a past or current component of consumer paint products.

* Health effects…

Health Effects related to pcb-11: Birth or developmental effects, Brain and nervous system, Cancer, Endocrine system, Immune system (including sensitization and allergies), Persistent and bioaccumulative, Reproduction and fertility

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Sep 30, 08 @ 10:07 am

Comments

What a great city for the Olympics.

Comment by Paulie Tuesday, Sep 30, 08 @ 10:23 am
The story about the beaten police officer I saw over at 2nd City Cop. I think it’s messed up. That police officer deserves better than how the State’s Attorney office handled this case!

Comment by Levois Tuesday, Sep 30, 08 @ 10:26 am
That smoke you see billowing from the 5th Floor at City Hall is actually steam coming out of Mayor Daley’s ears about the Huberman police pension bump request.

With everything else going on with the cops, having his golden child spouting silly reasons on camera why he should get more money out of the police pension fund was the last thing Daley needed.

Huberman must have been stunned when he saw the Fox Cameras at the pension hearing. He shouldn’t have been; he must know how much he is disliked by some of the old bulls for his fast-track rise to deputy sup and other less-enlightened reasons. That was called a sting, Mr. Huberman.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Sep 30, 08 @ 10:29 am
Huberman’s Hubris. BOGGLE.

Comment by Ravenswood Right Winger Tuesday, Sep 30, 08 @ 10:40 am
Quite the tactical error by Huberman. He’d slowly developed some goodwill during his short tenure, and may have lost all of it in one fell swoop.

The CTA is in a state of perpetual disrepair, and regularly begs and screams for billions from Springfield.

While 1,000+ city jobs are on the verge of being axed, crime is rampant, and the CPD is sans contract for over a year, the 30-something CTA chief with a salary approaching $200k per year is attempting to sweeten his pension benefits.

Oy.

Comment by The Doc Tuesday, Sep 30, 08 @ 10:55 am
The air also causes politicians to be corupt, inept!!!

Comment by He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint Tuesday, Sep 30, 08 @ 11:03 am
Daley doesnt care about rising crime or his golden boy trying to shake down an underfunded pension fund that city hall has refused to make it’s required contributions to. No Daley is going on his 4th or 5th foriegn trip soon. It sure must be nice to run the city into the ground and then go on vacation when its time to layoff the actual workers

Comment by fed up Tuesday, Sep 30, 08 @ 11:36 am
When will someone investigate Daley’s slush fund, otherwise known as the TIFs? How many more tens or hundreds of millions of our tax dollars must be flushed away by the continued corruption by this administration?

Comment by fedup dem Tuesday, Sep 30, 08 @ 12:35 pm
And what’s the funded status of the coppers’ pension fund?

Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, Sep 30, 08 @ 1:38 pm
The veteran cop counters, saying a Chicago police officer is “always” on duty.

Even when they are drunk in bars putting the beat down on patrons?

Comment by Quadly Tuesday, Sep 30, 08 @ 4:51 pm