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Monday, May 15, 2023

Inauguration Day - City of Chicago

 A new city council, a new mayor, in addition to the incumbent treasurer and clerk get sworn into office today. Check out the live feed from our WLS-TV. [VIDEO]


Saturday, May 6, 2023

District maps for an ELECTED Chicago School Board.

Board of Education
 

I saw a communication about this months ago via State Sen. Elgie Sims.

Both the State House and State Senate has released maps for the public with regards to the elected Chicago Board of Education. h/t CapFax

Here's the map from the Illinois Senate so that you can see where your home will sit as far as who you might vote for in the future. There's a link the Illinois House of Representatives site however as I click through it seems the House is only linking to the Senate's map.

The school board districts must be drawn by July 1, 2023. According to the redistricting site of the Illinois Senate

In 2021, the Senate and House passed House Bill 2908, which creates a fully elected school board for Chicago Public Schools that will be in effect as of January 15, 2027.

Starting January 15, 2025, a two-year hybrid period begins, with 10 members being elected to four-year terms, 10 members being appointed by the mayor to two-year terms, and the board president being appointed by the mayor for a two-year term.

Starting January 15, 2027, when the mayor-appointed terms expire, the 10 members and the elected at-large member will be elected to four-year terms.

The General Assembly must comply to the July 1, 2023 deadline to draw Chicago school board districts, which must be consistent with the Illinois Voting Rights Act.

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

WGN News: Man critical after being stabbed following altercation at 95th Street

 

[VIDEO] Yikes! Be careful out there on the Red Line.

WGN reports:

The stabbing happened on a Red Line train in the 0-100 block of West 95th Street around 11:50 p.m. Tuesday.

According to police, a 28-year-old man was in a physical altercation with a 21-year-old man on a train, when the 21-year-old took out a knife and began stabbing the 28-year-old.

The victim sustained multiple stab wounds to the stomach, head and arms and was transported to Christ Hospital in critical condition.

Police said the offender also sustained lacerations to the hands and was transported to the same hospital in good condition.

Monday, May 1, 2023

Lori Lightfoot says she's done with electoral politics #ChiMayor23

 

[VIDEO] In her interview with ABC 7 since her first round loss in February in her re-election bid for mayor she brushes aside her combative style as why she lost in the first round. Though she does admit there are many things she could've done differently. She even stated if she could get 4000 votes across Black Chicago she'd still be mayor.

Now I saw some speculation on Twitter about her possibly running for Cook County State's Attorney and Lightfoot was a federal prosecutor. Some might say she was a better prosecutor than mayor - which well that's the truth. Some might say she might go back to the Justice Department perhaps even become Chicago's US Attorney although I don't know if there is a vacancy there.

Regardless she did state that she's done with electoral politics. Is it safe to say she won't run for office ever again?

BTW, I forgot to note in reference to the State's Attorney that last week Kim Foxx stated that she will not run for re-election next year. So that position is now an "open seat"! 

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Tucker Carlson: Democrats are stoking racial violence

 

[VIDEO] Perhaps some of you in this audience is watching FOX News and some of you probably are no fans of Tucker Carlson. However, I did want to share this monologue with you all. This aired on his TV program last night.

And he connects the chaos that occurred in Chicago both downtown - near Millennium Park - and near 31st Street on the south side with chaos going on around America (shown in above video is the chaotic scene at a gas station in Compton, California). It just shows how the eyes are on Chicago and especially since the DNC will have their convention here next summer. If this is already going on now, can they handle the potential chaos of the Democrat National Convention? There will be protests and of course another concern could be rowdy youth converging in one place.

This is something that perhaps the mayor to be Brandon Johnson could get ahead of except as you see here, his own words in an interview during 2020 could be used against him. Ahh which could've been used against him in the recent mayoral race except well perhaps not very effectively and he's going to be mayor for the next four years.

I want to have optimism that as Tucker states Mayor-elect Johnson isn't an ideologue. His way with words, his ability to talk is probably an improvement over Mayor Lightfoot who seemed to refuse to call out the chaos in downtown this past weekend for what it is.

Regardless it's amazing that this story has wings. Shots fired in the loop. Young people fighting each other in the streets. Youth running around disrupting traffic. A young couple being assaulted by said youth. A car burning in the middle of a street. Young people jumping up and down on top of anything from a CTA bus to a car. It's a shame.

So while our new mayor doesn't seem to condone the looting he still doesn't want to condemn the young people whom people say lack opportunities in their communities. I'd be curious how he intends to provide those young people opportunities. Whether jobs, educational, recreational, or even just services to address whatever is going on at home.

With the DNC coming to the city next year, the eyes will be on the Windy City. The new mayor needs to take control and not make excuses for this unfortunate behavior.

Saturday, April 15, 2023

Illinois Channel: Will Mayor-Elect Johnson IGNORE the Biggest Issue?

 

[VIDEO] Illinois Channel Director Terry Martin & Public Affairs host Jeff Berkowitz discuss mayor-elect Brandon Johnson. One question to ask if the mayor-to-be would ignore the issue of crime that most Chicagoans are worried about?

I see only that last-night there was some issues - most call it a melee or a mini-riot - near the 31st Street beach on Friday night. Most who commented on this via Twitter just joked that the Mayor-elect would sent social workers to this instead of a significant police presence.

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Chicago will host the 2024 DNC

 Well next year the Windy City will be host to the Democrat Nat'l Convention. This is hitting the wires today.

It has been in the news that Gov. Pritzker, Sen. Duckworth, and outgoing Mayor Lightfoot had been working on a bid to get the 2024 Democrat convention here in Chicago. It seems their work has been successful and perhaps it will be incoming Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson big opportunity to showcase the city he will soon be set to lead for the next four years.

CNBC:

The Democratic Party has chosen Chicago as the site of its 2024 convention.

President Joe Biden called Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to tell him about Chicago’s selection Tuesday morning before leaving for Ireland.

“Chicago is a great choice to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” Biden said in a statement. “Democrats will gather to showcase our historic progress including building an economy from the middle out and bottom up, not from the top down.”

The City of Big Shoulders last hosted a convention in 1996, when then-President Bill Clinton ran for re-election and Democrats helped make famous the “Macarena” dance.
...
“The last Chicago convention was a huge success. It makes sense to put the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024. Every facility where it will be located will be a union facility. Every hotel is a union hotel,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth told NBC News Thursday. “We are a state that guaranteed in multiple ways the right of women to have reproductive choice. And in fact, we are a beacon of hope and security for women’s health care from all of the states around us.”

Chicago was first viewed as a leading contender more than a year ago. But the DNC has a more troubled history in the city, when police brutality was on display at the 1968 Democratic convention. Thousands of Vietnam War protesters descended on the city in a wide-scale rebuke of the war. Police tear-gassed, dragged and beat demonstrators — images that were captured on television. That moment gave birth to a chant, “the whole world is watching,” signifying activism in the face of abusive authority.

The decision to choose Chicago came after deliberations and site visits from Democratic National Committee members. In recent months, the DNC viewed Chicago and Atlanta as the front-runners, with New York City remaining in the mix.

Part of me wishes the convention could be held at House of Hope in Pullman. Well one day there will be a major convention there with connections to the action in downtown. It's logical that the DNC will hold their convention at the United Center aka the Madhouse on Madison.

For those of you who are Republican or those Republicans who still exist in our great city, the GOP will host their nat'l convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It seems there will be focus on these Great Lake states (really Wisconsin, Michigan & Pennsylvania) which proved very pivotal in 2016 & 2020. 

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

WBEZ: Brandon Johnson will be Chicago’s next mayor #ChiMayor23

Brandon Johnson Mayor-elect

I hope he lives up to these words, a united city will be a great city.

Starting with little citywide name recognition, Johnson finished second in the first-round election in February to qualify for the runoff and rallied from behind in polls in the weeks before Tuesday’s vote.

“You know, they said this would never happen,” Johnson said in his victory speech before a raucous crowd. “If they didn’t know — now they know.”

Johnson said his win represented a victory for a “bold progressive movement” and would bring “the revival and resurrection of the city of Chicago.”

But he also immediately reached out to the many voters who did not pick him Tuesday: “I care about you. I value you. And I want to hear from you. I want to work with you. I will be the mayor for you too. This campaign has always been about building a better, stronger, safer Chicago for all the people of Chicago.”

Another piece of analysis:

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Brandon Johnson Mayor-elect #ChiMayor23

 

[VIDEO] Well as a casual observer Paul Vallas seemed to be very good on policy issues. Brandon Johnson was said to be a very good talker. 

Johnson had to answer for his comments with regards to "defund police" and Vallas had to answer for being a Republican.

Vallas was the top vote getter on February 28th and it seems polls favored him initially and then it seems Johnson seemed to gain some traction. Now he notes that the outgoing Mayor stated that he couldn't win and guess what he did tonight?

I didn't expect Vallas to concede, perhaps he'd wait for the mail in vote to be counted - it wouldn't have been counted tonight anyway. Of course that means that the numbers would have to justify Vallas holding out for all votes to be counted. And Vallas noting the division in the city, just decided to concede and move forward which is certainly necessary.

Well time to move forward a lot of serious issues that requires serious attention. Here's hoping we solve most of those issues in the next four years.