Chicago Daily Observer

Much good has resulted since Illinois lawmakers joined 35 other states and placed limits on medical damage awards three years ago. Doctors no longer flee the state in droves, and health care is more accessible. But if the trial lawyers prevail in a case heard by the Illinois Supreme Court recently, those trends could be reversed.

In 2005 the state General Assembly passed a law that capped medical malpractice jury awards for pain and suffering at $500,000 against doctors and $1 million against hospitals. At the time, the state’s medical litigation climate was one of the nation’s worst; jury awards soared. Between 1998 and 2003, damage awards for pain and suffering in Cook County (Chicago) grew by 247%.

If it’s Sunday, it must be worship time at the Temple of Obama, at least at the Chicago Tribune. Today the top of the front page has a picture of Barack and Michelle embracing. The headline is: “White House romances: Obamas’ affection is notable among presidential pairs.” Page 4 carries the story, also shown on the Trib’s Web site with the headline “Scenes from Obamas’ love story.” We learn:

Over the last two years the future first couple has made a practice of sharing such small, intimate moments on the grandest of stages, whether trading fist bumps, whispering “I love you” or stealing quick kisses on the campaign trail

In the weeks since Mr Obama’s election, Chicago – a city used to proclaiming its global status while often measuring up short next to New York and Los Angeles – has been basking in the international spotlight. The president-elect’s victory celebration in Grant Park showcased its handsome skyline, parkland and lakefront to millions all round the world. His transition team is based in the city, attracting a global media circus. Many of his appointments have come from Chicago’s political elite.

Chicago has not lacked promoters. Since he was elected 20 years ago, Mayor Richard Daley has been an energetic salesman for the city and there are several organisations dedicated to raising Chicago’s profile internationally. In the past, that has often involved dispelling its reputation as a gritty, industrial, crime-ridden urban sprawl. Mr Obama’s worldwide popularity has given the publicists a new song to sing.

Chicago forks over more money in lawsuits—especially lawsuits against the police—than LA, Houston, Phoenix, Philly, and Dallas put together.

In January, after years of legal and political battles, the city agreed to pay $19.8 million to settle lawsuits by four men who were tortured by police under former commander Jon Burge. Signing off on the deal, aldermen condemned the abusive officers and hoped aloud that the settlements would let the police department start a new era. “I’m glad this is over,” said the Fifth Ward’s Leslie Hairston. “It’s definitely a black eye on Chicago and on our history. But it’s also an opportunity for us to get a chance to turn the page.”

Conservatives shouldn’t chortle too much over the beginning appointments made by Barack Obama, jibing that they are re-treads from retaining George W. Bush’s secretary of defense Bob Gates to picking Hillary Clinton for secretary of state, recycling Paul Volcker (an original Jimmy Carter appointment) to plucking up Larry Summers and making him a White House adviser. I had feared from the outset that the appointments would be denizens of the Harvard or University of Chicago faculty lounges…theorists with no experience whatever, similar to those Franklin Roosevelt picked and who paralyzed the recovery.

I would damn sight rather be governed by Bob Gates as defense chief, Paul Volcker as head of an economic commission and Larry Summers than some of the names who were suggested. At any rate, Obama will turn leftward in time…which will upset us all: with appointments to the federal bench and regulatory agencies.

Sometimes conservatives bother me…as ... Read More...

Before her death, Barack Obama’s grandmother in Hawaii gave his campaign $2,300, which is precisely $2,300 more than Obama himself donated to his $639 million, record-breaking war chest.

And in this practice, Obama is in good company. Buried in federal election records is a curious fact: Candidates often don’t financially support their own campaigns.

Records show that John McCain, he of the seven houses, did not donate to his presidential campaign. Neither did Sarah Palin. Joe Biden didn’t chip in for his own national run either. Mayor Richard Daley also has a closed wallet when it comes to funding his or anybody else’s campaign.

Does anyone remember when advertisements for the Christmas retail blitz began after Thanksgiving? Now, it seems that the holiday shopping season begins immediately after Halloween. Someday, I am afraid that the nonstop commercials will start airing following Labor Day.

In a more innocent time, we contented ourselves during the long winters of our discontent with such wonderful gifts as board games. The names of companies such as Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, or the Chicago based game manufacturer, Cadaco, were familiar to all of us as children. We did not need game chips and electronics to while away the hours in solitary confinement as seems to be the case for youngsters today. Board games required group participation and some of the games were actually educational.

The coming administration may seek to ban “Monopoly” for promoting capitalism, but the game managed to teach one how to count money. Given the current economic ... Read More...

If I don’t look fast, my suburban garbage truck will have come and gone without my noticing. And unlike in Chicago, which has three people working each truck, my scavenger service has only one—the driver.

The holy writ in Chicago is that you can’t have just one, and therein lies one of the reasons that Mayor Richard M. Daley’s city is in such awful financial shape: Chicago’s government doesn’t exist for the benefit of those who pay for it; it’s purpose is to feather the nest of the people who run it.

How better to explain the recently approved $6-billion city budget that had to levy new taxes to eliminate a $469 million deficit? Of course, Chicago attempted to blame the sagging economy for the shortfall—and that’s surely part of it—but the bigger part is the waste and corruption built into the Machine.

Consider the deal that requires three-man crews ... Read More...

Despite attracting millions of new contributors to his campaign, President-elect Barack Obama received about the same percentage of his total political funds from small donors as President Bush did in 2004, according to a study released today by the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute.

The analysis undercuts Obama’s claim that his supporters “changed the way campaigns are funded” by reducing the influence of special-interest givers.

“The myth is that money from small donors dominated Barack Obama’s finances,” said Michael Malbin, the institute’s executive director. “The reality of Obama’s fundraising was impressive, but the reality does not match the myth.”

f you are of a certain age…as I am…you can readily see even now the definite similarities between Barack Obama’s ascension to the presidency and the 12 years of Franklin Roosevelt. I’m a geezer expert on FDR’s influence on this country: he was the only president I knew in my entire life, from kindergartener to high school senior. Like Obama, FDR depended on the support of a largely adulatory media. He tried to socialize the economy in fruitless experiments while liberals cheered his “decisiveness” and good intentions…notwithstanding that he “solved” unemployment only when we went to World War II. Could it happen again?

From 1933 to 1945 the Hyde Park country squire in the White House who (a) single-handedly commanded the media (except it seemed for the Chicago Tribune and the Hearst press ) and (b) experimented with the economy. Nothing…utterly nothing…worked in the long run until 1941 ... Read More...

If Illinois were a country, it would be Iceland.

That’s the country whose high-flying economy collapsed recently, the first to fail in the global economic slump. Crowds, angry at the government’s failure to prevent the crisis, have taken to the streets and called for an immediate election.

Don’t expect any mobs to show up in Illinois demanding the expulsion of our government for Illinois’ fiscal mess. Illinois voters are so tolerant that the government could sell the state to the Outfit for a box of trinkets and no one would notice. Illinois voters have no reason to feel smug about letting conditions get as far out of hand as they did in Iceland.

The New York Mets and Citigroup Inc said on Friday the naming rights deal the struggling banking giant has for the baseball team’s new ballpark remains in place.

The 20-year deal, announced two years ago, was reported to be a record $400 million and entailed naming the new stadium Citi Field after it opened in 2009 in the New York borough of Queens, adjacent to the team’s old home, Shea Stadium.

“There is no change in regard to Citi’s commitment to the new ballpark,” Mets spokesman Jay Horowitz said in an email.

Citigroup spokesman Steve Silverman said: “We remain committed to our relationship with the Mets. It’s an important marketing priority for us.”

Just call him Grandpa Wackadoodle.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright—a former pastor to Barack Obama who drew controversy to the president-elect’s campaign when short clips of his sermons circulated this year—said in a radio interview Monday that he and his family found escape from the death threats and “salivated” media hordes by keeping a sense of humor.

That meant Wright laughed when his granddaughter brought him a New York Times column that labeled him a “wackadoodle.” He and his wife joked about the nickname.

Rose Keefe pours on the gas from the first sentence. ‘As Jacob Goldberg rounded the corner of Forty-ninth Street and Madison Avenue, the last person he expected to encounter on the bustling sidewalk was his old partner in crime, Harry Smith. Jacob considered himself to be a hard-working and law-abiding citizen these days, but his teenage years had included some wilder moments, and Harry had been an instigator of most of them. Seeing him now aroused portions of nostalgia and uneasiness.’

Rose Keefe writes vigorous prose when her razor-sharp mind cuts through layers of fat-headed assumptions. Everyone assumed that Dion ‘Dean’ O’Banion, the beer baron gunned down by Johnny Torrio’s thugs in a Chicago Flower shop was an off- the –boat Irish mobster; that George ‘Bugs’ Moran was an Irish American hitter whose north side mob challenged Al Capone and inspired ... Read More...

Word came in the final hour of trading on Friday that President-elect Obama would tap New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner to be his Treasury Secretary. One hour later the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up roughly 500 points.

Part of the spike was due to the removal of uncertainty, but we think part of the gain was also due to who Obama picked. As president at the NY Fed, Geithner is already completely up to speed on the issues surrounding the financial market turmoil rocking the US. He will need no “on-the-job” training. In addition, the new SecTreas is known for his excellent managerial skills and humility, a rare combination.

Perhaps most importantly, he will enter his new job with a comprehensive understanding of how the department functions, having worked his way up from being a mid-level civil servant in the early 1990s under President Bush to ... Read More...