Chicago Daily Observer

The Department of Homeland Security sued the state of Illinois on Monday to block a recently enacted state law that prevents Illinois employers from participating in a new federal citizenship verification program.

Illinois was one of five states with high illegal immigrant populations chosen to launch the federal government’s new “E-Verify” program, a free Web site that allows employers to check whether a job applicant’s Social Security number is valid

Earl Gardner lounged on the street near his home just west of downtown Chicago, a 24-ounce can of Crazy Stallion beer in his hand.

A mile away, police Officer Al Garbauski slid a computer mouse to maneuver a camera that was perched a block from Gardner. Zooming in tight, Garbauski saw malt liquor meet mouth and sent an officer to arrest Gardner for drinking in public.

“I didn’t appreciate it, not one bit,” the 55-year-old Gardner said the other day. “The liquor store was closed when I got out (of custody).”

It might seem like a steep expenditure of police resources for a small-time arrest, but Chicago authorities say busts like this serve a higher purpose. They let everyone know that police are watching as the city’s 560 anti-crime cameras look in on the toughest street corners, a strategy intended to deter small-time and big-time crime alike.

You’re a stakeholder in a multibillion-dollar enterprise.

Every year, you cut a check. Every year, you give more. Some years, you give much more—even if you live in the same house, work the same job, pull down the same pay.

Like it or not, you’re a contributor to big business—the big business of Illinois public schools.

This multi-part Daily Herald series will help you understand the financial side of your investment.

Other people do—people with a stake in the dollars and cents of public schools. Teachers. Unions.
Superintendents. Lobbyists and lawyers. Consultants of all sorts.

In short, people with a lot to gain from maximizing revenue for public schools. Most of these stakeholders have a plan to tweak, update or completely overhaul the way Illinois funds its schools.

The Illinois Education Association has called for a constitutional amendment to increase the state contribution to public schools.

The Illinois Federation ... Read More...

Far from Conveying Freedom, His Group Gives a Whiff of Decadent Self-Indulgence

For one with a long history of conservative Republican political participation…and mine goes back to the 1952 presidential campaign of Robert Taft…the rally Saturday afternoon at the Hyatt-Regency hotel celebrating Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) could not have been a greater shock. Taft, son of the 27th president, was constitutionally (and this word is used advisably) unable to demagogue. His message of hoped-for return to the policies of the past did not contain many personal incentives. In place of entitlements he advocated work, instead of farm subsidies he emphasized the free market. He accepted Social Security and few other accoutrements of the corporate state but not many. He opposed expansion of the size of government, soaking the rich, a multiplicity of federal alphabetical agencies that robbed personal initiative.. He preached the hard lessons of fiscal rectitude. Most particularly ... Read More...

“Which would be harder for you to survive without for three days, oil or clean water?” —Cameron Davis, President of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Davis has managed in one sentence to capture the essence of the debate over whether BP should be allowed to slightly increase discharges of ammonia and suspended particulate matter into Lake Michigan as part of a $3.8 billion expansion of its northwestern Indiana refinery.

For Davis, and so many others, the issue is one of absolutes: Do you want clean water or oil?

In real life, that’s not the choice we face. Choices are not so absolute, but the opponents who have bashed BP, the state of Indiana and the U.S. EPA for approving the expansion plans would have it so. Either or. Black or white. Good or evil.

With a single question, which he posed in his response to the Chicago Daily ... Read More...