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* FDA relied heavily on BPA lobby

As federal regulators hold fast to their claim that a chemical in baby bottles is safe, e-mails obtained by the Journal Sentinel show that they relied on chemical industry lobbyists to examine bisphenol A’s risks, track legislation to ban it and even monitor press coverage.

In one instance, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s deputy director sought information from the BPA industry’s chief lobbyist to discredit a Japanese study that found it caused miscarriages in workers who were exposed to it. This was before government scientists even had a chance to review the study.

* Asthma Program Targets Landlords

Almost a quarter of children in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood have asthma. That’s about twice the national average. A hospital in the neighborhood is taking a novel approach to the problem. It’s pressuring some landlords to clean up conditions that can trigger asthma.

* Chicago program addresses rising asthma rates with preventive measures

* S. Illinois still in uproar over storm

“A lot of times you can simply run the tree limbs through a chipper and dispose of the debris quickly,” Land said. “There were 100-year-old oak trees that were uprooted, with root balls that would fill up a dump truck. I say that if we can get all of the debris cleaned up by December, it will be a pretty good Christmas present.”

* 2 veteran auto dealers vow to keep rolling

* Wind could power 60,000 Illinois homes in 2010

A Chicago company plans to build a $400 million-plus wind farm that would stretch across two eastern Illinois counties.

Invenergy LLC says it has deals with property owners to erect up to 133 wind turbines on 28,000 acres in Champaign and Vermilion counties.

* CTA avoids fare hikes by using capital funds to balance budget

The CTA will transfer almost $129 million in cash originally earmarked for station fixups and new buses to help fill $155 million budget hole this year.

* More federal dollars could be headed here, LaHood says

* U.S. Sec. LaHood wants “czar” to run Midwest high-speed rail bid

* RTA seeks $3 million for new bus batteries

* Alderman Destroys Public Art

The mural was a painting of three Chicago Police Department blue light camera’s that you see on light posts in high crime areas. The Chicago Police logo is on the cameras but then the artist also painted Jesus on one post, a deer head on another, and a skull on the third camera. What the mural is supposed to mean is anyone’s guess. Angeles agrees that it’s a rather inscrutable work of art but he liked it and he says he feels bad for the artist.

* Charter Schools are Redefining What’s in a Union Contract

Teachers at three Chicago charter schools are on a course to become the first unionized charter teachers in the city. They still have legal hurdles to overcome. But if they get to negotiate a contract, it’s likely to look dramatically different than traditional teacher union contracts.

* Chicago police measure morale with survey

The department and UIC are promising that those who participate in the survey won’t be identified, although they will have to input a code to allow the department to measure responses by years of service and unit.

Though the FOP helped draft the survey, Dougherty said the union hasn’t endorsed the survey for its members because it wasn’t allowed to take part in the collection of the surveys.

* City adds parking zone number to new vehicle stickers

* City will never hire her, but Circuit Court clerk has

As long as she lives, Patricia Fasula can never work for the City of Chicago.

That was her punishment for filing bogus documents to convince city officials that she — and not her husband — owned and operated Patricia Trucking, one of several “women-owned businesses” in the city’s scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program.

But Fasula is still a $58,816-a-year accountant for Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, where she was working when she and her husband set up their trucking company out of their Bridgeport home.

Similarly, Fasula’s husband, John Fasula — who had told the Chicago Sun-Times he helped run the trucking company — still works for the CTA, where he makes $89,705 a year as manager of grounds maintenance. He was working for the CTA when the Hired Truck scandal erupted five years ago, and officials of the transit agency seized his computer then to see if he was running the trucking company from his CTA office.

* Mayor Daley doesn’t expect affordable-housing subsidies to be repaid

“That’s all over the country where you could sell [affordable] housing. We changed that,” he said. “Every [affordable housing] development, all developments did it in the country. That is not acceptable.”

Daley said the federal government should impose similar restrictions nationally.

* The fate of Stroger’s tax

The County Board recently voted 12-3 to kill the tax hike. Board President Todd Stroger vetoed that action. And on Tuesday the board is scheduled to decide whether to override his veto.

–That veto override is the Tuesday vote that matters most. Stroger’s allies on the board don’t want you to believe that. They want you to think they’re swell compromisers: As part of their ceaseless effort to confuse this discussion and confound the public will, they’re offering a slow-mo alternative that would phase out the tax gradually. Don’t fall for this. The moment the 2010 election is over and the heat from victimized taxpayers subsides, they’ll surely try to undo any phase-out. In the meantime, they won’t have to do the necessary streamlining of county government. Why? Because your tax dollars will still be washing through their door by the hundreds of millions.

* Stroger interview on tax lien still leaves questions

Asked why he hadn’t set up a payment plan earlier, Stroger replied, “Sometimes things slip through your fingers.”

Although the lien filed by the IRS read “Area: Business/self-employed,” Stroger told Kelley his family has no other outside income or job other than his job with the county and his wife’s job at the Illinois secretary of state’s office.

Stroger said he would not release tax forms and said other officials who do, like Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, are doing more than they’re required.

“I think they’re making a mistake. It’s really none of your business,” said Stroger.

* Time for Preckwinkle to finish off Stroger

* One-third of Illinois inmates get tattoos

posted by Mike Murray
Monday, May 18, 09 @ 9:42 am

Comments

Outstanding job by the Sun-Times in the University Village series. The gang’s all there, and they’re all getting fat from insider deals on the taxpayer dime.

The series shows where the real money is made — and what’s really in need of reform.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, May 18, 09 @ 10:03 am
Yet another poorly sourced article on a scientific issue. By relying on the NRDC as a primary source and using vague insinuation, reporters are tapping into the public’s distrust of business and government in one fell swoop.

The FDA doses no direct science on its own and at best can do a statistical review of available data sets so see if the problems asserted actually exist. We also know that a number of previously touted retrospective studies show problems where there really are none.

If the FDA is guilty for faulty judgement for relying on industry supported tests, the reporters are guilty of the same faulty judgement by relying on a biased source in the name of the NRDC.

Comment by Plutocrat03 Monday, May 18, 09 @ 10:10 am
When a business starts to use its capital budget to fund continuing operations stockholders run for the exits.

What the CTA is doing simply sets the stage for a bunch o whining about needing more money because the infrastructure is crumbling.

In private industry the leadership would be canned.

Comment by Plutocrat03 Monday, May 18, 09 @ 10:16 am
===In private industry the leadership would be canned.===

Yeah. We’ve seen so many banking/investment co. CEOs resign or fired in recent months.

Please. In the private world, the bosses would receive a multi million dollar pension bump.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, May 18, 09 @ 10:17 am
==Yeah. We’ve seen so many banking/investment co. CEOs resign or fired in recent months. ==

Apples to oranges, of course.

An argument saying slop in the government sector is OK because there is slop in the private sector is laughable.

Comment by Leroy Monday, May 18, 09 @ 10:21 am
CTA problem is simple - operations (i.e., employees) are unionized and can strike. capital (i.e., the equipment) is not and cannot.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, May 18, 09 @ 10:26 am
===An argument saying slop in the government sector is OK because there is slop in the private sector is laughable.===

That’s not what I wrote. There was no excusing “slop” anywhere in that comment.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, May 18, 09 @ 10:30 am
The nobility and efficiency of the private sector argument is a wee bit out of touch, isn’t it?

Comment by wordslinger Monday, May 18, 09 @ 10:41 am
No sympathy for Stroger, but the interview missed a fairly obvious explanation. When he took money out of his deferred comp plan, he was subject to income tax AND to a 10% penalty. If he and his wife have no outside income, and just have their salaries from which taxes are withheld, it might never have occurred to them that they should make estimated tax payments or that they would owe a huge amount when they filed their return. People get caught like this all the time — and the late payment penalties and interest just compound the problem of getting caught up.

Comment by Anon Monday, May 18, 09 @ 10:47 am
Prewinkle-get in the race, split the AfAm vote. That is not a reason to avoid the race.

Go after landlords? Novel idea until they complain that they need to increase rent to justify (basic) upkeep.

Comment by Wumpus Monday, May 18, 09 @ 10:54 am
Anon 10:47- you should have stopped your comment at “No sympathy for Stroger”…

Comment by DuPage Dave Monday, May 18, 09 @ 11:47 am
In the private sector, companies simply abandon their capital expenses here and ship them to Mexico, India, or elsewhere. The CTA’s infrastructure, along with Metra’s and Pace’s, is part of our transportation infrastructure — just like roads, highways, tollways, airports, etc., which should be considered as a whole.

Privatized public transportation hasn’t been profitable for almost 90 years. Every other country in the world that has and maintains modern public transit systems understands this. We get what we pay for, just like we get the government we deserve.

Comment by Nort'sider Monday, May 18, 09 @ 12:15 pm
The problems is that we do pay for public services through the nose and we don’t get them.

The fact is that even if too late, CEOs and leadership jobs have been lost due to mismanagement, lost opportunities and substandard performance. I would argue that the Boards of Directors should be more diligent and more aggressive if dumping bad performers.

Private enterprise goes out of business without capital. If they run out of money, they should die and something new will rise and fill the market void. (can you tell I am not a fan of the multi-billion dollar bailouts?) Government simply makes weepy eyes and paraded a few unfortunate souls to justify their insatiable appetite for money. The MSM buy that claptrap every time.

Government by its nature has no interest in reorganizing itself to provide more/better services per dollar spent. As a matter of fact they are incentivized to be inefficient at the same time they offer to add more services. It is the perfect positive feedback loop.

Comment by Plutocrat03 Monday, May 18, 09 @ 1:01 pm