-By Warner Todd Huston
As the Daley years wound down, Chicago’s public schools teachers were handed an automatic 4 percent raise across the board that was supposed to take effect next year. However, that largess from the taxpayers has just been rescinded by a unanimous vote of the Chicago Public Schools board.
Citing the $712 million budget deficit, the CPS announced that the automatic, meritless raise was simply unjustifiable.
In a statement, schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard said, “I have the utmost respect and admiration for teachers and all that they do for our children. But today’s board action was taken in response to the massive financial crisis facing our system. My team is now tasked with developing a balanced budget and presenting it to the Board and the public in August and our promise remains to minimize any impacts on the classroom and our kids.”
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Chicago Teachers Losing Their Raises”
Rahm Emanuel is now officially sworn in as Chicago’s 46th mayor so we can now officially swear at him. Of course, we all know that today’s ceremony was merely a formality as he was anointed mayor months ago the second that Mayor Daley announced the end of his long reign of fiscal irresponsibility in the Windy City.
Let’s say your job is as a traveling salesman or a construction worker and you work at different locations throughout the year. Wouldn’t it be nice to get your own free chauffeur service to get back and forth to work? That way you could just drive yourself to one location a day and then have your chauffeur take you back and forth to your work site. Nice, huh? Well, apparently that is what’s going on in Chicago for city worker union members and taxpayer’s are paying $18 million a year for this union perk.
WGN AM 720 radio is one of the biggest radio stations in the country. It is traditionally one of Chicago’s most listened to radio stations and commonly tunes in as Chicago’s number one station. At least for the past few decades, WGN radio has also been the leading liberal station in the city. One thing WGN is not, however, is either edgy or independent of thought where it concerns Chicago’s ruling class. As a rule WGN is soldout all down the line to whomever is “the” Chicago guy. 
Interesting news, here, of the newest endorsement for Chicago Mayor. Congressman Luis Gutierrez has officially endorsed Gery Chico for Mayor. This is a big “get” for Chico.