Chicago Sun-Times

A gov watchdog’s own resolutions

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 06:28:07 -0500

Watchdogs make New Year’s resolutions too, so here’s how the Better Government Association can shine a brighter light on government and hold public officials more accountable in 2013: Elevate our role in the fight for pension reform, the state’s biggest single challenge. We can’t have good government as long as our overcommitted, underfunded pension system gobbles up an ever-increasing percentage of tax dollars and shortchanges everything else — schools, health care, human services and economic development. Pension reform, which also means outlawing scams perpetrated by insiders to improperly sweeten their own pensions, should be the top priority for state lawmakers …

Editorial: A better gaming bill

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:53:21 -0500

Illinois is closing in on a bill to expand casino gambling in a well-regulated way that could generate millions of dollars for cash-starved governments. For Chicago, which finally would get a casino of its own, that’s welcome news. On Wednesday, the state Senate passed a bill that included a number of safeguards and conditions sought by Gov. Pat Quinn, who vetoed two previous measures, most recently last August when he said that bill didn’t have strong enough regulatory oversight. This latest bill will be subject to continued negotiation as it passes through the House, but there’s hope the final result …

Editorial: Uneasy but necessary mix: girls and the Pill

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:00:04 -0500

No decision that features the words birth control, young girls and pregnancy is ever an easy one. But the Food and Drug Administration this week came pretty close to getting it right with new rules for the sale of the morning-after pill. The emergency contraception pill will be made available over-the-counter and to anyone 15 and older with identification. Until now, the Plan B One-Step pill — which can prevent pregnancy after intercourse and is not an “abortion pill,” despite claims otherwise by anti-abortionists — was available without a prescription only for ages 17 and up. It was kept behind …

Editorial: Madigan’s bill is best plan for fixing pensions

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:40:48 -0500

Eight weeks ago, under the headline “Make it happen, Mike,” we urged House Speaker Michael Madigan to lead the state toward passage, finally, of a comprehensive pension cost-cutting bill. On Tuesday, Madigan delivered. He took ownership of the most important issue confronting this state. Madigan filed a sweeping reform bill that’s expected to move in a way only a Madigan bill can: As of Wednesday morning, it had already passed a House committee 9-to-1. It will likely face a floor vote as early as Thursday. Madigan’s bill appears to be Illinois’ best shot at loosening the strangulation grip of a …

Editorial: Justice catches up with Crestwood water scheme

Wed, 01 May 2013 11:18:31 -0500

No one would expect their town to pump poisoned water into their homes just to save a few nickels. But that’s what happened in southwest suburban Crestwood for more than 20 years. Finally, justice is catching up. On Monday, a federal jury convicted the former head of the water department, Theresa Neubauer, for falsifying documents to cover up the scheme. The village’s former water operator, Frank Scaccia, previously pleaded guilty. Neubauer said she was just following orders. But, as Phil Kadner wrote in a Daily Southtown column Tuesday, that’s just another way of saying she was paid to look the …

Editorial: Meter savings welcome

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 02:19:23 -0500

By their nature, mayors like to cut ribbons on shiny new projects and keep their distance from inherited civic headaches. So give Rahm Emanuel credit for wrestling with the city’s disastrous parking meter mess, even though the improvements his legal team has extracted can’t fully offset the heavy costs residents will pay for 71 more years of the privatization deal. Under a proposed agreement announced Monday, the firm that took over the city’s meters, Chicago Parking Meters, has backed off its “aggressive” interpretation of how much money the city should pay the private company for meddling with existing parking spaces. …

Editorial: Mississippi River problems felt here

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 02:19:32 -0500

Chicago is used to thinking of itself as a city on a lake. But it’s also a city on the edge of the vast Mississippi River watershed, and it has a large stake in how well that watershed is managed. The recent flooding along the Des Plaines River was a reminder of the importance of wisely managing flood plains, water runoff and other issues that affect an entire watershed. And the problems on the Mississippi itself — locks were closed first due to drought and then to flooding — affect Chicago because river barge traffic links the city to deep-water …

Editorial: Top school a potential closure casualty

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 02:15:37 -0500

In theory, Chopin Elementary, a sturdy red-brick school in Humboldt Park, can easily absorb just about every kid from Lafayette Elementary, another under-enrolled school a few blocks away. But at what price? Too hefty of one, in our view. Chopin may be yet another casualty of the school system’s rush to close 53 under-enrolled grammar schools this summer and consolidate them with 55 others, affecting 30,000 students. A vote on the mergers is set for May 22, giving the schools CEO or the school board mere weeks to admit its mistakes, as with Lafayette and Chopin, and reverse course. Chopin …

Editorial: Make videotaping the law for interrogations

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:09:18 -0500

The Illinois Senate advanced the cause of justice Thursday by unanimously approving a bill that would allow videotaped police interrogations in all felony cases to be used in court. The bill doesn’t go far enough — video recording of interrogations in all serious crimes should be required — but it will close an illogical loophole that allows felony defendants who aren’t accused of homicide to keep recordings of their interrogations out of court. As the law stands, police are permitted to electronically record interrogations in non-homicide felony cases, but the Illinois eavesdropping statute requires that the suspect give permission before …

Editorial: UNO can blame UNO

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:09:09 -0500

Juan Rangel, chief executive officer of the state’s largest charter school operator, is absolutely correct when he points out that hundreds of children will be affected if his latest charter school doesn’t open as scheduled in September because of funding violations. But Rangel’s outfit, the United Neighborhood Organization, is entirely to blame if the school does not open on time, and it is UNO’s job to get things straightened out. Much of UNO’s funding, including for the new $25 million Soccer Academy Charter High School at 5050 S. Homan Ave., comes from a $98 million state grant. Three grant agreements …

Editorial: Why we don’t give up on gun law fixes

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:23:29 -0500

A lawsuit filed this week on behalf of a slain Chicago Police officer cuts to the heart of the gun reforms most needed in America: universal background checks and a crackdown on “straw purchasers,” or people with clean records who buy firearms for people who can’t. In a tragedy that shocked the city, Thomas E. Wortham IV was murdered outside his parents’ Chatham home in 2010 by gang members trying to steal his motorcycle. How those gang members got those guns illustrates why we need to fix our gun laws. According to the lawsuit filed in a Mississippi federal district …

Editorial: In Syria, U.S. must wait

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:23:38 -0500

An essential piece of the Syrian chemical weapons puzzle fell into place Thursday. The White House for the first time said the Syrian government has likely used chemical weapons against rebel forces, joining Israel, France and Great Britain in asserting evidence of the use of such weapons. But the White House refused to take a next step — possibly military action — despite President Barack Obama’s threat last summer of unspecified action were the “red line” of chemical weapons use crossed. The White House said it still needed “credible and corroborated facts” before choosing a course of action. The U.S. …

Editorial: Level sales tax playing field

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:32:02 -0500

Online retailing has made a mess of sales taxes in America. States get short-changed on revenue that is legally due, and brick-and-mortar stores suffer when they have to collect taxes on goods their online competitors are peddling tax-free. Capping a two-year effort by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the U.S. Senate has a chance to inject some sanity here. The eminently fair Marketplace Fairness Act would require online businesses to collect taxes that are legally due and fork them over. A Senate vote could come as early as Thursday, and a House vote would be next. The law would replace a …

Editorial: Why close my school?

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:31:54 -0500

The 9-year-old in the dashing red tie and navy suit could barely see over the podium at the Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, but no one missed his message about his beloved school, which is on the chopping block: “Why are you closing Garvey when it has everything you say you want a school to have?” Asean Johnson said with poise and confidence beyond his years. He held up a recent Sun-Times editorial, which noted that Garvey already has all the extras — including a well-stocked library and computer lab — that CPS has promised students at Mount Vernon, …

Editorial: Kids, don’t take part in CPS boycott

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 02:21:30 -0500

If you are a junior in the Chicago Public Schools, you know where you belong on Wednesday: At school, taking a state-mandated test called the PSAE. Love standardized testing or hate it, love Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s school policies or hate them, all juniors belong in school on Wednesday taking day two of the PSAE. A student boycott is planned — and the threat is serious enough to rattle CPS leaders. Letters went home to juniors Monday and Tuesday, and all parents of juniors received a robocall, reminding them how important the test results are to each student’s future. So why …

Editorial: Don’t let bombings slow immigration reform

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:19:32 -0500

One brother was 16 years old and the other just 8 when they came to America with their parents. Yet Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) thinks there must be some way our nation could have pegged Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as future terrorists, slammed shut the doors of immigration, and spared us the agony of the Boston Marathon bombings. Maybe customs agents should have used tarot cards. This is nothing but a ploy by Paul and others to slow progress in Washington toward passage of a long-overdue bipartisan plan for immigration reform. They are stirring up the anti-immigrant Know Nothing crowd …