Saturday coffee.
Indigenous Chicago cuisine. Yesterday’s humidity is gone and it is a beautiful Saturday morning in Chicago. Half the Brooklyn family contingent is in town, including my grandkids. Yesterday we introduced the grandchildren to indigenous Chicago food: A Chicago hotdog at the Weiner’s Circle on Clark Street. I overlooked their decision to eschew the pickle spear, tomato, fluorescent green pickle r
I stand with the IEA and with the NCAE.
AUGUST 3, 2013
North Carolina Moral Monday protest in June.
I’ve always been a proud member of the Illinois Education Association.
Never prouder than this week to read their statement in support of our brothers and sisters in North Carolina.
The president, vice president and executive director of the North Carolina Association of Educators were arrested Monday as they protested massive changes passed by the state legislature aimed to weaken the state’s education system and NCAE.
The three, along with several NCAE members, were taking part in a Moral Monday demonstration.
The Illinois Education Association supports NCAE and its leaders in trying to fight for the rights of its members and for public education in their state.
In North Carolina, teacher tenure has been stripped, vouchers are being
AUGUST 3, 2013
North Carolina Moral Monday protest in June.
I’ve always been a proud member of the Illinois Education Association.
Never prouder than this week to read their statement in support of our brothers and sisters in North Carolina.
The president, vice president and executive director of the North Carolina Association of Educators were arrested Monday as they protested massive changes passed by the state legislature aimed to weaken the state’s education system and NCAE.The three, along with several NCAE members, were taking part in a Moral Monday demonstration.The Illinois Education Association supports NCAE and its leaders in trying to fight for the rights of its members and for public education in their state.In North Carolina, teacher tenure has been stripped, vouchers are being
YESTERDAY
Grassroots activists marched a letter up to Lisa Madigan’s office demanding that she investigate the TIF surplus. Media is absent.
Tim Furman reports that the media was absent to day. ”t was just me and Progress Illinois and some guy from Univision who clearly didn’t know how to operate his camera. So… nobody will see this stuff unless we (meaning you) put it out there.” Please post these videos widely. These folks have something important to say. Tom Tresser, TIF Illumination Project. Karen Zaccor, Northside Action For Ju
The Dodger’s Yasiel Puig may have homered to beat the Cubs yesterday, but the Cubs still won and the kids still lose.
The Dodgers beat the Cubs yesterday off a bunch of homers, including one by the electrifying Cuban, Yasiel Puig. The Cubs still won big time. With a big tax break from the City. Like their north side neighbor, DePaul University, the Cubs have a friend in City Hall. DePaul is getting a 100 million dollar taxpayer subsidy for a south side basketball arena, announced by the Mayor the week he annou
AUG 01
The smoking gun. In this video, the Civic Committee’s Ty Fahner admits he colluded with the bond rating agencies to destroy Illinois pensions.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHV2Gte4aWw&feature=youtu.be] Thanks to Tim Furman for providing this video segment. There is nothing the fat cats in Illinois won’t do to destroy public employee pensions. The Civic Committee’s Ty Fahner demonstrated this when he spoke to a gathering of the Chicago Union League Club last month. Fahner openly admits that he colluded with the bond rating agencies
Won’t you please come to Chicago. ALEC will be there. August 8th.
You pick up a rock and shine a light. The bugs scatter. Until a few years ago, nobody heard of ALEC. The American Legislative Exchange Council. I first heard of them during the Battle in Madison where Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker carried out the ALEC agenda in taking away collective bargaining rights for teachers and other state employees. Not that the media had done any investigation of this
From the writers. Diane Ravitch on Karen Lewis.
By Diane Ravitch. I never heard of Karen Lewis until she was elected president of the Chicago Teachers Union as an upstart in September 2010, overturning the established leadership. I was intrigued and decided that I wanted to meet this woman. As it happened, I had a speaking engagement in Detroit in late September and was supposed to fly from Detroit to Los Angeles. When i visited Chicago in the
JUL 31
From the writers. Jersey Jazzman on Anthony Weiner.
Barbara Morgan. Barbara Morgan is the press person for the beleaguered NY mayoral candidate, Anthony Weiner. Yesterday she got into internet trouble for calling a former Weiner go-fer a “twat.” But Morgan has a resume that involves New Jersey education. That’s is where ed blogger Jersey Jazzman picks up the story. Chris Cerf, New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education, promoted Barbara Morgan to NJ
Doesn’t the Illinois Constitution contain the pension clause?
Back when I was a student at Los Angeles City College we had a lot of characters around campus. It was 1967. It was Hollywood. California. There were a lot of characters. Everywhere. There was a hippy-freak (damn, I can’t remember his name) who went around campus singing his one composition: “Merry-go, merry-go, merry-go round. Beep, beep beep.” It had a tune, but it kind of works no matter how y
Tony at the Red Line Tap.
“Tony.” “Klonsky. Have a nice trip?” I sat down at the bar and turned to Marty. “Did you order that organic Seizoen Bretta for me?” “Just came in,” said Marty. “Listen. It’s not easy ordering that stuff from Portland. You’re lucky I have my contacts.” “Organic?” said Tony. “Special brettanomyces yeast gives it an added dryness and crisp complexity. Each bottle is conditioned with pear juice for
JUL 30
From the writers: What would Jose Vilson say upon meeting Jonah Edelman?
By Jose Vilson. For some reason, I always get myself into situations where I see someone whose policies may completely destroy public education for all. It’s like Mario where some of the evildoers are worth stomping on and others will ruin your whole set up. So I keep my game face on, because they’re probably used to protesters 500-people deep at their faces like, “Did you have to do my kids’ sch
Glen Brown writes a different letter.
Glen Brown. Photo: Fred Klonsky Illinois Legislator: “We write to inform you that [if and when you pass pension reform] we will file a lawsuit challenging [your unconstitutional actions, for they are] purely political, [opportunistic] and an unconstitutional attempt to coerce [public employees] to comply with [your] demands. “This matter is of fundamental constitutional importance, as [pension
MadiganCullerton call on legislators to defend THEIR constitution. Not OURS.
Dear Fellow Legislator: As you know, Governor Quinn took unprecedented action when he used the line item veto to eliminate General Assembly members’ salaries for the entire year. This action was purely political and an unconstitutional attempt to coerce the legislature to comply with his demands. We write to inform you that later today we will file a lawsuit challenging Governor Quinn’s uncons
Hold the date. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky speaks to SORE.
It took some time. When I retired a year ago June I joined IEA Retired and was assigned to the Skokie chapter. Those who retired ahead of me laughed when I told them. “There is no IEA Retired Skokie chapter,” they said. That seemed a little crazy since I knew there were hundreds of dues paying members in the near north suburbs that were living in or had taught in the area covered by the Regional I
Mayor Madigan?
As the Sun-Times rumor monger Michael Sneed would say, it is no secret that there is no love lost between Rahm Emanuel and former-Mayor Richard Daley the younger. And it is just as obvious that the Sneed item about CTU President Karen Lewis having lunch with Richie at Gibson’s at was leaked by the Daley people. Speaking on behalf of the old Machine families, Richie wants the message sent that
TRS Trustee Bob Lyons. Investment returns.
TRS board of trustee member Bob Lyons represents retirees. He shares the latest information of TRS investment returns. For the most part our investment gains for the past fiscal year were known by July 1, but compiling the final returns from our private equity and real estate investments takes more time. Our dear friends at the Illinois Policy Institute made a FIOA request asking for our latest
Back to work?
Some of you may laugh at the idea of taking a vacation from retirement. But that’s what I did. Anne, her sister and brother-in-law (our frequent travel companions) and I just got back last night from twelve days on the road through the Olympic Peninsula, Seattle, Portland and the San Juan Islands. It is fantastically beautiful country. Although we rented a car, our total mileage was only 350 mile
JUL 29
The in box. Mike Klonsky on the latest from my stalker, Kyle Olson.
From Mike Klonsky’s Small Talk. Right-wing Loony Tunes. EAG’s Kyle Olson always appears on FOX in front of a faux bookcase. As if… Right-wing loony Kyle Olson is at it again. You might remember Kyle as a guy who has made a career out of stalking teacher union activists, like my brother. You might also remember him and his EAG group for backing Rahm during the teachers’ strike. Olson is a shade to
JUL 28
Joravsky on Rahm and pensions.
Ben Joravsky in the Reader: Now that the cuts are official, Emanuel is blaming them on the teachers—or at least the $400 million contribution he has to make to the teachers’ dastardly pension system. Speaking of cynicism. As pretty much everyone concedes, the major cause of the so-called pension crisis is that neither Mayor Emanuel nor Mayor Daley before him made payments to the pension fund that