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Articles Posted by rellimpank

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  • Do Chicago a favor, don't let Rahm win Tuesday

    02/22/2015 6:40:30 AM PST · by rellimpank · 25 replies
    Chicago Tribune ^ | 22 feb 2015 | John Kass
    Chicago really doesn't need a presidential temple of worship masquerading as a presidential library, or a fancy downtown college basketball palace, or a Star Wars museum on the lakefront. And downtown doesn't need a big casino, either, not even a glitzy one with monstrous video billboards depicting the giant, pitiless eyes of the mayor staring down at those from the neighborhoods who dared to look up. Downtown has been getting quite a bit of attention, and though it might be nice to have all these things, (or not) — they aren't vital to the future of Chicago. But there is...
  • Bruce Rauner, unions and Illinois taxpayers

    02/14/2015 5:50:31 AM PST · by rellimpank · 1 replies
    Chicago Tribune ^ | 14 feb 2015
    You could conclude from the hot political bombast across frigid Illinois that Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to destroy public sector labor unions, starving them of fees from state workers. Or you could conclude that Rauner wants to end what he calls a corrupt bargain between unions and Springfield politicians that's crushing taxpayers. As the governor and organized labor square off, their battle to control the narrative — their battle for your approval, really — is ferocious. Rauner on Monday issued an executive order to free state employees who don't belong to unions from paying fees that support union operations. He...
  • Rauner takes dead aim at unions

    02/11/2015 6:03:58 AM PST · by rellimpank · 16 replies
    Chicago Tribune ^ | 11 feb2015 | Eric Zorn
    WHEREAS Gov. Bruce Rauner issued a sweeping executive order Monday "respecting state employees' freedom of speech," and WHEREAS this order began with 26 "Whereas ..." paragraphs, many of which mistily invoked the violated rights of public sector workers who are now "forced against their will" to fund "activities to which they object," and WHEREAS our patience for hand-waving, smoke screens and general rhetorical folderol is limited ... THEREFORE let's cut the rubbish. Rauner's order isn't animated by empathy or some fastidious concern with constitutional fine points. It's animated by a desire to put public employee unions into a death spiral,...
  • Rauner reveals face he tried to hide from voters — the anti-union ideologue one (barf alert)

    02/10/2015 5:16:14 AM PST · by rellimpank · 4 replies
    Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 10 few 2015 | Mark Brown
    And so it begins. Gov. Bruce Rauner fired his first shot Monday in his campaign to give all Illinois workers the right to choose to work for less money. Rauner’s legally dubious executive order relieving state employees of the requirement they pay union dues was a loud declaration the new governor aims to restore Illinois to prosperity — by undercutting the organizing power of its work force. The governor’s initial targeting of public employee unions was no surprise given his election rhetoric, but his use of an executive order to impose his will seemed to catch everyone off guard. “I...
  • In Illinois, concealed carry of guns has quiet first year; expansion sought

    02/04/2015 6:39:47 AM PST · by rellimpank · 4 replies
    Chicago Tribune ^ | 04 feb 2015 | Robert McCoppin and Lizzie Johnson
    Keith Hearn was getting out of his car in front of his home in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood when, as he tells it, police pulled up and told him he had committed a minor traffic offense. Hearn, 34, has a concealed-carry license and said he voluntarily told the officers he had a handgun on him. Nonetheless, he said officers arrested him and took him to their station, claiming his gun was partly showing. After checking, he said, police found the concealed-carry law allows a gun to be "mostly" concealed, and let him go without charges. "I was disgusted," Hearn said....
  • Wisconsin concealed-carry permit applications slowing but still strong

    02/04/2015 6:23:30 AM PST · by rellimpank · 7 replies
    Milwaukee J-S ^ | 04 feb 2015 | Bruce Vielmetti
    Wisconsin residents continue to seek and obtain licenses to carry concealed guns, submitting more than 37,000 applications in 2014, the third full year after concealed carry was approved, according to a report released Tuesday. Nearly 34,000 were issued permits, raising the total number in Wisconsin to 242,488, according to an annual report from the Department of Justice. More than 500 applications were rejected because the applicants were not legally qualified to carry a gun, much less have a concealed carry permit, according to the report. The reasons for rejection included applicants with a felony conviction, having been found mentally incompetent...
  • Chicago needs a champion in the fight against guns (barf alert)

    02/03/2015 5:53:21 AM PST · by rellimpank · 25 replies
    Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 03 feb 2015
    When the five men running to be mayor of Chicago sat down Friday with the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, they were at times eloquent in describing the social roots, such as a dearth of jobs and inadequate schools, of Chicago’s gun violence. But they often left us wondering just how serious they would be about getting rid of illegal guns. A good mayor must be able to pat his head and rub his stomach at the same time. He must be able and willing to attack the root causes of gun violence while also aggressively going after illegal guns. We...
  • Educators frustrated by Walker's comments about faculty work

    When Gov. Scott Walker remarked this week, while discussing proposed budget cuts to the UW System, that faculty and staff should be teaching more classes and doing more work, it bared one of the most enduring sources of friction in higher education. To listen to many university critics, the primary function of faculty members is that of a teacher in a classroom — someone who educates students in a model that is, in many respects, a continuation of high school. Working with students whose families may have saved for years and taken on significant debt to afford higher education is...
  • Enough with the fake service dogs and 'emotional support' pigs

    01/17/2015 5:57:02 AM PST · by rellimpank · 42 replies
    Chicago Tribune ^ | 17 jan 2015
    Frequent fliers offer up a silent prayer each time they board a plane: Please, God, don't let me be seated next to a gregarious blowhard or a crying baby. Soon enough, they might want to add, or a pig. In November, a woman and her "emotional support pig" were thrown off a USAirways flight after the 70-pound ham became disruptive — relieving itself in the aisle and grunting while the woman tried to stow her carry-on. That was a first for most passengers, we suspect. But it's not unusual any more to find all sorts of emotional support livestock in...
  • John Nichols: It is time to apply the rule of law to Dick Cheney (barf alert)

    12/30/2014 9:10:31 AM PST · by rellimpank · 10 replies
    Madison.com ^ | 30 dec 2014 | John Nichols
    Arizona Sen. John McCain, who during his time as a prisoner of war came to know something about the abuse of incarcerated combatants, provided the soundest assessment of the revelation that the United States abandoned its values and international standards in order to permit practices that the world knows as torture. “We gave up much in the expectation that torture would make us safer,” McCain said after the release of details from the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on Central Intelligence Agency abuses. “Too much.” McCain's calculation raises a question: If the United States has given up too much moral territory,...
  • No silver bullet solution to flying bullets

    12/30/2014 6:36:26 AM PST · by rellimpank · 33 replies
    Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 30 dec 2014
    When crimes rates drop for a year or two, nobody can really say why. It could be freakish good luck. When crime rates drop steadily for more than 20 years, as they have in Chicago and across the country, you might suspect the underlying forces driving the trend would become clear. But, in fact, the experts continue to scratch their heads. About all they can say for sure is that it’s complicated. No single factor, such as sending more people to prison, explains why crime rates have plummeted across the country. And, so it follows, we should be wary of...
  • Dividing Lines: Already polarized, Wisconsin's fault lines now wider

    12/28/2014 5:54:16 AM PST · by rellimpank · 58 replies
    Milwaukee J-S ^ | 28 dec 2014 | Craig Gilbert
    At first glance, Gov. Scott Walker’s re-election last month looks like a carbon copy of his victory four years earlier. He won the same kinds of voters. He won the same parts of the state. And he won with virtually the same share of the vote: 52.25% in 2010 and 52.26% in 2014. But on closer inspection, there is an important difference: Wisconsin is even more polarized today than it was four years ago. Based on almost everything we know about the Nov. 4 election, the state’s fault lines are deeper and more sharply defined, its voters are more divided...
  • Clerk: 'I wasn't scared' as gunbattle erupts with robbers, 7-Eleven staff

    12/27/2014 5:32:53 AM PST · by rellimpank · 8 replies
    Chicago Tribune ^ | 27dec 2014
    After an armed man pointed a gun at the head of 60-year-old convenience store clerk Ibrahim Rahmoun, he and his boss grabbed a gun and took action leading to an exchange of gunfire outside a Northwest Side 7-Eleven. “The guy shot two bullets at us,’’ Rahmoun said. “We shot back at them. We shot eight.’’ “I wasn’t scared. ... I don’t care, it doesn’t bother me. When you work the night shift, a lot of robberies happen’’ said Rahmoun, who was at the counter when two men entered the 7-Eleven at 2900 W. Montrose Ave. about 1:25 a.m. Friday and...
  • Bang: The troubled legacy of toy guns

    12/23/2014 6:11:20 AM PST · by rellimpank · 48 replies
    Washington Post ^ | 23 dec 2014 | Marc Fisher
    Two cops rush to the scene. “This sounds like a gun battle — over there!” one calls to his partner. They see the suspects: two little boys, wielding rifles. The police officers do not shoot. Rather, they examine the boys’ weapons and break into big smiles: “Hey, is it real?” one officer asks. “Looks like real,” his partner marvels. “And it sounds like real,” the first officer confirms. “Right — every shot!” says the announcer, because this is on television. It’s an ad, from 1967, for the Sound-O-Power M-16 military rifle, a big hit for Marx Toys at Christmas that...
  • Keeping the lead in: Efforts to thwart toxic ammo caught in political crosshairs

    12/21/2014 6:40:50 AM PST · by rellimpank · 17 replies
    Rapid City Journal ^ | 21 dec2014 | Seth Tupper
    Lead is malleable. Some opinions about lead ammunition are not. That’s what critics of lead bullets and shells are finding as they advocate a switch to nontoxic alternatives such as steel. In a fight reminiscent of the climate-change debate, evolving evidence of threats to the environment, wildlife and humans from lead ammo and tackle is facing a firing squad of politicians and special-interest groups. Caught in the crossfire are hunters and anglers. So is the Environmental Protection Agency, a favorite target of rural-state lawmakers like U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who is a co-chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. Thune...
  • Targeting "Assault Weapons" Again

    12/18/2014 5:34:24 AM PST · by rellimpank · 22 replies
    Townhall ^ | 18 dec 2014 | Steve Chapman
    The 1994 federal law banning "assault weapons" was a high point of the gun control movement and Bill Clinton's presidency. Signing the bill, he said it was the beginning of "our effort to restore safety and security to the people of this country." But something happened that he and his allies had not predicted: nothing. Duke University scholars Philip Cook and Kristin Goss, who are sympathetic to gun control efforts, assessed the ban in a book published this year and concluded, "There is no compelling evidence that it saved lives." A 2004 study led by Christopher Koper of the University...
  • Judge refuses to return gun to man involved in freeway shootout

    12/12/2014 6:10:17 AM PST · by rellimpank · 8 replies
    Milwaukee J-S ^ | 12 dec 2014 | Bruce Vielmetti
    One of two concealed gun permit holders involved in a rolling shootout down Milwaukee streets and freeways last year was turned down Thursday when he asked a judge to order the return of the gun seized after the incident. Roy Anthony Scott told police he was merely trying to escape from Eric Adamany, 29, and fired in self-defense. Scott was never charged in the June 2013 shootout. Adamany was, and his case of recklessly endangering safety is pending. Scott, also 29, was charged in September 2013 with being party to the crime of armed robbery at an auto-parts store three...
  • These Las Vegas businesswomen take their (gun)shots seriously

    12/06/2014 6:00:37 AM PST · by rellimpank · 5 replies
    VegasINC ^ | 06 dec 2014 | Ashley Oñoz-Wright
    Karissa Neff and Sara Shertz drive away from the hustle and bustle, down a lonely stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South until they reach their turn-off, a road where asphalt meets gravel. It’s late afternoon and their truck is loaded with about a dozen semi-automatic handguns, revolvers, and bolt action and high-powered rifles. A utopia for gun enthusiasts seeking outdoor target practice, the location near Sloan is barren isolation with a touch of lawlessness. Pockmarked by divots and peppered debris, the off-road stretch is lined with pickup trucks and empty ammunition shells. For the women of Gun Play Vegas, it’s...
  • Plain Talk: Giving up on a state headed to rock bottom (barf alert)

    12/05/2014 9:23:27 AM PST · by rellimpank · 38 replies
    Madison.com ^ | 05 dec 2014 | Dave Zweifel
    Steve Anderson and his wife Sally are planning to move to Minnesota. They have spent nearly all their lives living and working in Wisconsin, participating in civic projects, volunteering their time for worthy causes, and extolling the virtues of the state whenever the opportunity arose. But no more. In the past few years they've watched a state known for its enlightened government and political vibrancy turn into what Steve believes is a state headed to rock bottom, which, then again, might actually be good because it's only when an addict reaches rock bottom that he finally realizes he has to...
  • The coming right-to-work fight in Wisconsin

    12/05/2014 5:26:54 AM PST · by rellimpank · 18 replies
    Milwaukee J-S ^ | 05 dec 2014 | David D. Haynes
    Is Wisconsin better off with weaker unions? Some conservatives think so. Legislators will consider the question when right-to-work legislation is introduced early next year. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said members in his house would begin debate within weeks. But I think Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican leadership should tread carefully. There is scant evidence that right-to-work laws boost job creation; there is evidence that weaker unions hurt working people. And there is no doubt whatsoever that a fight over right to work in Wisconsin will be bloody. Remember Act 10? Under right-to-work laws, workers in unionized shops...