Chicago Daily Observer

A hearty congratulations to our colleagues over at the Chicago Tribune who 25 minutes ago published the fact that Governor Blagojevich has suffered a “thwart” in Cook County Court.

After a mere 7 months of unreported court proceedings the Trib found the space this evening to note that our governor was in a fairly messy court case that drug the Comptroller, Attorney General, the Secretary of State, a Republican Gubernatorial Candidate from 2006 through Cook and Sangamon County Courts systems.

Constitutional and day to day operational issues were at stake in the case, so it was imperative to the Tribune to not cover the story whatsoever until after Judge Epstein made a ruling.

Courageously, the Tribune was able to refrain from mentioning the lead plantiff in the case, Richard Caro, and a co-plantiff Ron Gidwitz, as to avoid any important facts which might identify involvement in the case.

No word ... Read More...

Judge James Epstein has issued a preliminary injunction immediately enjoining Illinois Healthcare and Family Services expanded FamilyCare program.

The injunction was denied with respect to the expansion of the Free Breast & Cervical Cancer screening program in a narrowly worded decision.

Riverside attorney Richard Caro and business leader Ron Gidwitz have led the case against Governor Blagojevich in Cook County Court.

If these remarks had been made in a debate toward the end of the 2008 campaign they would have constituted the “events, my dear boy, events” cited by Harold MacMillan that can derail all but certain electoral victories. Since they were delivered early in April, they will not be fatal. But at the very least they are a healthful blast of cold air that wipes away the public relations fog that has surrounded the base of the Obama pedestal…allowing us to imagine the lofty intellectual that stands thereupon.

Make no mistake, Columbia’s and Harvard’s Obama is a gifted man, a bright one and a rather suave prose stylist, having written his own two autobiographies. And an ivy league elitist. As one who went there to teach when I was nearly fifty, with philosophy formed, I was happily impervious even though I frequented the Harvard faculty lounge where the conversational lion ... Read More...

Earlier this month Seattle mayor Greg Nickels proposed slapping a 20-cent tax on disposable plastic shopping bags as a way to encourage retailers and shoppers to switch to reusable alternatives. Meanwhile, Chicago’s approach to plastic bag problems is alternately being characterized as a great first step and a missed opportunity.

Governments around the world have been working to reduce litter, cleanup costs, resource waste, and ecosystem damage caused by plastic bags, in most cases by implementing bans or heavy taxes on them. In Chicago, 39th Ward alderman Margaret Laurino has convened meetings with environmental advocates and business leaders to try to come up with a city ordinance mandating that they be recycled.