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* Sun-Times seeks $1.8M in exec payouts after sale
* Chicago to Get Two New Harbors
The Public Building Commission approved moving ahead with the designs and construction. Rob Rejman with the Park District says the new harbors will hold more than a thousand boats.
* Vision for fully open lakefront put into action plan
* Chicago Lakefront Plan Laid Out
The Friends of the Parks plan would seem a shoe-in. Chicago controls about 80 percent of its 30-mile lakefront, but transforming the last four miles into park or bike paths could become a political headache.
* Lawyers charged in $7-billion tax fraud
* Chicago area hits 100 bank robberies for year
* Demolition Nears for Chicago Hospital
Preservationists are trying to convince the city to save several buildings that world-famous architect, Walter Gropius, had a hand in designing.
City spokeswoman Molly Sullivan says the plan is still to tear them down and build the Olympic Village.
* Illinois joins effort to update school curriculums:
Illinois joins effort to update school curriculums: Illinois has joined a list of 13 states in a project designed to make public-school curriculums and teaching methods more relevant to today’s world, the Illinois State Board of Education announced Tuesday.
* Daley aide: no tickets until parking meter issues resolved
Chicago’s embattled parking meter contractor still isn’t writing parking tickets to augment city enforcement and won’t until myriad problems that have plagued the transition are fully resolved, a top mayoral aide said Tuesday.
“We haven’t even had the discussion on when they’re gonna resume. . . . [It won’t happen] until we are comfortable. . . . Our concern is making sure they focus their efforts and resources on putting pay-and-displays in and making sure they’re operating well.”
* Mayor Daley to meet with labor goups in attempt to avert layoffs
“It’s worth a try. It’s one last-ditch effort to find a resolution, so he doesn’t even have to cause people anxiety by sending out layoff notices,” she said.
But, Heard reiterated what the mayor has been saying for weeks: With city revenues continuing their steady decline, Daley is in no position to offer union leaders a two-year, no-layoff guarantee in exchange for cost-cutting concessions.
* Budget cuts to cost 1,000 CPS jobs
Up to 1,000 Chicago Public Schools non-classroom employees will lose their jobs this year under a reorganization to save $100 million.
About half the layoffs will hit central office — 27 percent of employees there — in the next two weeks, while another 500 will be cut from citywide positions over the next year, sources said.
* Unions to talk to city about budget shortfall
Davlin warned late last month, only three months into the city fiscal year, that city finances were heading sharply into the red. In an op-ed article published in Sunday’s State Journal-Register, Davlin disclosed that the projected deficit is $7 million to $9 million.
* Peoria City Council Faces Projected Budget Shortfall
* Council previews options to patch budget deficit
* Firefighters feel the crunch: Lifesaving equipment hard to come by
* Weak budgets, high prices may prevent purchase of lifesaving gear
* Daley nephew confirms he’ll exit firm
* Daleys’ family feud clear sign of high stakes
But their revelation that the city started leasing the space in October 2007, one month before they bought the building, only makes anyone with knowledge of real estate time frames more suspicious about the arrangement. At this point, I start with the presumption that the lease was done for the benefit of the Vanecko group until the city can prove it wasn’t.
That’s the price the Daley family has to pay for going down this road in the first place.
* All not so clear in Daley’s ‘transparent’ city
Inspector General Hoffman, meanwhile, sought information from the city pension boards about the Vanecko and Davis deal. The pension boards in question, some of whose members are city officials, wouldn’t answer, refusing to respond to a Hoffman subpoena. That’s when Hoffman brought in the feds and lowered a larger subpoena boom on them.
That shouldn’t have been necessary. Those pension funds, those city officials and all those stonewalling city departments should have been as transparent as the mayor claims he is.
* Chicago may bar trucking contractor from future business
* Madigan: Crestwood lied about tainted well
Citing Scaccia’s letter and other documents, Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday that accuses Crestwood officials of lying more than 120 times about their secret use of a community well contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals. The suit outlines a systematic coverup of Crestwood’s routine use of its tainted well and provides more details about actions first publicly revealed by the Tribune in April.
“Crestwood officials violated the public’s trust and the laws designed to protect public health,” Madigan said in a statement. “Through this lawsuit, we are seeking to hold these officials accountable for their conduct and to make sure that this does not happen again in Illinois.”
* Attorney General Sues Crestwood
* Madigan sues Crestwood, Stranczeks and former water official
* Crestwood lawsuit an indictment of IEPA
* Patti’s ride The Blago beat . . .
* Blagojevich to be in The Second City show
* Hawaii archives holds mystery Lincoln document
That proclamation was the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s official warning to rebellious Southern states to return to the Union within three months or face military emancipation of their slaves.
posted by Mike Murray
Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 8:38 am
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usually I do not support bankrupt companies paying the execs who helped drive them into that position bonuses; but the Sun Times raises an excellent point, basically they will pay the bonus only if they can get a certain price, which translates too if a buyer thinks it is worth more because of the management team.
Also the sun times managers were not responsible for a lot of the troubled finacials which were created by the owner. SO I would support the request.
Comment by Ghost Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 8:46 am
How many non-classroom employees does the CPS have.
We periodically hear about cuts in this employee population (many of which probably never actually happen) but no matter how many they cut, there always seem to be tens of thousands more paper pushers still employed.
Despite all the talk of streamlining, CPS still seems to be bureaucrat heaven.
Comment by Cassandra Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 9:01 am
God bless Inspector General Hoffman. Great idea, having the feds subpoena the pension funds.
Comment by Ravenswood Right Winger Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 9:14 am
All the columns about Daley and his nephew seem to buy into the fact that the Mayor told Vanecko to get out of the business 2 years ago. My question, then why invest 68 mil. in City pension funds in his company? If you want the kid out-don’t give him the money. Will there ever be a day when smart folk like Carol Marin and Mark Brown figure out they are being lied to by this guy.
Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 9:37 am
Way to go Chicago. You are getting ready to lay off employees, there is a demand for workers to take time off without pay, but don’t worry you will soon have a nice spiffy new place to park the boat you no longer can afford to own.
The waiting list for a boat slip/dock is the shortest in years, so what does the city want to do? Spend 100 million dollars, yes that is around 100K per spot for more spaces. what is the ROI on that? How many years of 3K/ per year fees will it take to recoup the money? Can’t you think of a better place to put that stimulus cash?
Oh yeah, having the Olympics in Chicago will not cost the taxpayers a dime…..
Comment by Plutocrat03 Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 10:09 am
Bobby V’s going to be a real hit around the campfire at the Daley compound in Michigan this summer.
Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 10:40 am
Daley has hundreds of millions of property tax money hidden away in TIF funds and over 1 Billion in a rainy day fund yet he wants to layoff workers. Mayor its raining outside time to stop hoarding tax money for your olympics where you claim no tax money will be used and get back to the job of running the city.
Comment by fed up Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 11:35 am
word, Bobby V shouldn’t get too close to the campfire. Terrible accident, you know. Ditto with waterskiing.
Comment by Arthur Andersen Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 2:35 pm
or horse back riding.
Comment by Bill Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 3:40 pm
Bill, you mean like Nick Lococo?
Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 3:47 pm
no way…rubbing Vanecko out will just make Daley look even more complicit…
Comment by Anonymous45 Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 4:07 pm
Yep. RIP.
Comment by Bill Wednesday, Jun 10, 09 @ 4:25 pm