Vallas urges City Council to flex its muscle to stop Emanuel’s pension bonds
Vallas likened the pension bonds plan to “mortgaging your home and future paychecks to pay off your credit cards.”
The Hardest-Working Paper in America
Fran Spielman has been covering and analyzing Chicago mayors and city government since Richard J. Daley. Her City Hall beats have included Mayors Michael Bilandic, Jane Byrne, Harold Washington, Eugene Sawyer, Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel.
Spielman joined the Sun-Times in 1985 after ten years at Chicago radio station WIND. When owner Westinghouse Broadcasting sold the station, she saw the opportunity to pursue her primary journalistic goal to work for a major newspaper.
She had started at WIND right out of Northwestern University--as a sports reporter, morning news producer, then full-time reporter--after covering football, basketball and tennis for the Daily Northwestern.
During her decade in radio, Spielman freelanced for the Chicago Daily News, at Crain’s Chicago Business, for “The Chicago Bear Report” and as a principle anchor and reporter of Channel 11’s Emmy Award winning sports show, “Time Out”.
Spielman is a member of the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame. In 2009, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Headline Club. A decade earlier, Spielman received the Dante Award from the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans.
Black Lives Matter, other activists demand changes to police consent decree
Among the demands is requiring officers to file a report every time they point a gun or Taser at someone — or even observe a colleague using force.
Chicago hotel workers to take strike authorization vote Wednesday
Employees at 30 Chicago hotels will take a strike authorization vote Wednesday that threatens to ground local tourism industry, at least temporarily.
After weekend with no murders, Supt. Johnson vows to keep extra cops ‘out there’
Mayor Rahm Emanuel applauded Johnson for “getting on something immediately quick” and “making adjustments” in police tactics.
Alderman demands city stop letting rescue groups ‘cherry-pick’ purebred dogs
Ald. Ray Lopez said of the 14,000 dogs processed by the city last year, 8,000 were went to rescue groups given dibs on purebred or “premium” animals.
Johnson denies his officers violated welcoming city ordinance
“They collected fake T-shirts and hats,” Solis said. “Don’t we have a lot of crime going on? Gang bangers and drug dealers? And we need to do this?”
Mayoral challenger Lori Lightfoot brands city violence a ‘public health crisis’
“We don’t need another riverwalk when we have neighborhoods literally crying out for the smallest crumbs,” Lightfoot said.
Ja’Mal Green celebrates 23rd birthday with fundraiser for mayoral campaign
A new biographical video shows Green walking through trash-filled neighborhood streets and staring at a shuttered, still-vacant school.
Rauner now says former buddy Rahm is ‘corrupt’ and has ‘got to go’
An Emanuel spokesman quickly shot back, calling the comments “high praise from the man named the worst governor in America.”
Chicago using donated microchip scanners to relieve overcrowding at city pound
If the animal has a microchip, a city worker can scan the lost pet where it is found and return it to its owner and never set foot in the pound.
Chicago fire commissioner awaits his fate as he nears mandatory retirement age
Jose Santiago will turn 63 before the City Council reconvenes in September, when a vote could be taken on an ordinance permitting him to stay on.
FOP ties weekend violence to ‘war on police’ that includes consent decree
It’s the latest effort by the powerful police union to attack a proposed consent decree that would mean much greater oversight of cops.
State orders on-site safety inspection of auxiliary police training facility
A complaint alleges the building has inadequate ventilation, temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, roach and rodent infestations and high lead levels.
Alderman rejects temporary fix, wants cops moved permanently to troubled areas
Ald. Anthony Beale said the reallocation Supt. Eddie Johnson promised in 2016 can be accomplished without putting North Side police districts at risk.
Emanuel accused of ‘victim shaming’ for talking values and character after crime
“Scolding the African-American community for the ills of what’s happening in those communities is not only not helpful. It’s not correct.”
