Chicago Daily Observer

Brutal storms hit Northern Illinois Thursday, knocking down massive trees, and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of customers in Cook and Lake County. Heroic and commendable efforts were made by the many utility crews and emergency workers that rose to the occasion, working double shifts to restore electric service and remove trees from roadways. All around, the normal routine is returning and neighborhoods are being tidied up to their pre-storm level.

Which brings up the question, what was the pre-storm level? In the 21st century, throughout much of Chicago (excluding the Loop), most of the suburbs, and the entire rural Illinois, nearly all electric lines are strung between utility poles, much as they have been for over 100 years, despite a massive increase in home electrification and amperage load, and improved construction techniques. Despite huge technological advances in every other industry, our electric delivery is stuck with an early ... Read More...

DEMOCRATS made earmark reform a campaign issue in 2006 — and a reality in 2007 — because earmarks were at the heart of corruption scandals in Washington. Democrats never promised to eliminate earmarks. We promised to reform them.

There is no joy in Jesuitville today, or less of it than a week ago when another Rev. Donald McGuire sexual-abuse victim filed suit. This one is not proven as victim, like those who testified in McGuire’s conviction last year in Wisconsin, but far more recently abused – 1999 to 2003 – per the complaint, and in Cook County, coming well under the statutory limitation, which heretofore has ruled prosecution out here.

The Jesuits heard the accusation, by a 21-year-old college student, in January and informed the office of Loyola Academy alumnus and state’s attorney Dick Devine soon afterward, they say. This was news to the state’s attorney’s people, who say they learned from complainants’ lawyers only this week.

t was also news to the Wisconsin court where McGuire was sentenced to seven years in prison and 20 years probation. If Wisconsin had known about the accusation, a prosecutor said, ... Read More...

A Huge Victory In Illinois…

The employment contracts of public employees, even if they are contained within a personnel file, are public records under Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act, Illinois’ 4th District Appellate Court has ruled.

Do you know who Kamisha Block is?
Why should you?
How about Zandra Worthy-Walker, Princess Samuels, or Alicia Birchett (mother of three young boys)? They are Iraq war dead from the month of August, Iraq female war dead, that is. They join the other 81 American servicewomen who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan since the start of the American invasion.
That’s right, 85: more than five times the American female death toll for the whole of the Vietnam War. When the number passes 100, will anyone outside the families of the fallen notice? Doubtful.

I wager that most Americans are unaware that the United States Government assigns women to de facto combat duty. Those who are aware would declare that women should be free to choose whether or not they serve under fire. “It’s a woman’s choice.” Sound familiar?

As in the case ... Read More...

He may go down as Illinois’ slighter variant of the late Louisiana governor Earl Long.

Gov. Blagojevich has vetoed, among other things, a measly 3% cost-of-living raise for the most essential workers in public services…not the nurses and physicians…but the workers who dispense the most menial—yet most essential—services…from sanitation to personally treating the handicapped, the chronically ill, the mentally indigent, those suffering from addiction and other forms of physical abuse. He has saved $3 million out of an estimated $60 billion in services…$3 million to pay these people…$3 million he calls “pork”—all the while rewarding himself and the legislature with hefty pay raises.

The pain meted out to people whom the poor depend on for services comes from a governor who wants to build a monument to himself by setting up a magnificent-conceived universal health care program. To do it he has vowed to force the recalcitrant legislature, run by ... Read More...

The door at my local Blockbuster video store is labeled “entrance.” Right below, for Latinos who might be puzzled, appears the word “entrada.” Over at the local Home Depot, the word “electrico” appears on a large overhead banner, in case any Spanish-speaking customer can’t read the other word there: “electrical.”

‘We will be in Iraq in some way for nine to 10 years,’ ” Schakowsky read carefully. She had added her own translation: “Keep the train running for a few months, and then stretch it out. Just enough progress to justify more time.”

Jan Schackowsky’s trip to Iraq is profiled in the Washington Post.