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Chicago mayor and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday that he had been assured "that heads are rolling" over the technical problems plaguing the ObamaCare website. “I have all the confidence and I — and all the assurance that heads are rolling and they're spinning right now to fix the problem," Emanuel told CNN. Emanuel said that the president's focus was fixing the technical issues underlying the ObamaCare website. Users have been unable to open accounts and purchase insurance on the portal, which was billed by the administration as the easiest way for uninsured consumers to...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to deep-six a stealth City Council account that some aldermen used to put family members, campaign operatives and those with political baggage on the public payroll without detection until the Tribune exposed the practice. The $1.3 million secret fund, which dates back decades at City Hall, is zeroed out in the 2014 budget proposal the mayor unveiled Wednesday. The change, however, will save only about $6,000. That's because the money is being spent to create a council office of financial analysis and to beef up regular aldermanic expense accounts — which some aldermen also have used...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has $5 million in his reelection campaign coffers more than a year out from the filing deadline, but with lagging poll numbers, the sharks are starting to smell blood in the water. Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis, a longtime vocal critic, says Emanuel is vulnerable, and believes he'll need every penny of his campaign war chest to win another term. "I believe there's this notion that if you have a lot of money that you can overwhelm your opponents and we don't believe that. We believe that the number of people going to vote is what's...

In some cash-strapped Chicago schools, no resource can be taken for granted -- not even toilet paper. Nicholas Sposato, alderman of Chicago’s 36th ward, recently held a toilet paper drive for the schools in his community.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel condemned a Thursday night shooting on Chicago’s South Side that wounded 13 people, including a three-year-old boy. “Senseless and brazen acts of violence have no place in Chicago and betray all that we stand for,” said Obama’s former chief of staff in the first of a series of tweets Friday morning. “The perpetrators of this crime will be brought to justice and prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Emanuel added. Witnesses said several gunmen fired at least 20 shots at a group on basketball courts, according to NBC News’s Chicago affiliate. The station said...

Semecha Nunn tried hard to talk about her 3-year-old grandson, one of 13 people shot as neighbors played basketball in Cornell Square Park in the Back of the Yards Thursday night. "They need to stop, they need to stop," Nunn said, the last word coming out as almost a shreik as she closed her eyes and collapsed crying. Witnesses told police a gray sedan pulled up to the park around 10:15 p.m. and two men started firing in the 1800 block of West 51st Street. Related Photos: 3-year-old Deonta' Howard More New City crime » Raw video: 13 shot in...

(...) “It was preposterous to the people I knew then to think Obama was going to keep his gay life secret,” said Kevin DuJan, who was a gossip columnist in Chicago for various blogs when Obama was living in the city as a community organizer and later a state senator. (...) He pointed to Obama’s association with convicted Chicago real estate magnate Tony Rezko, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and Rev. Wright. “Obama was a dirty politician that the media never wanted to vet – that’s what concerned me about Obama,” (...) “President Obama and his chief of staff...

Rep. Deborah Mell appointed to father's Chicago council The Associated Press Last update Jul 24, 2013 @ 03:48 PM CHICAGO -- State Rep. Deborah Mell was sworn in as a Chicago city council member Wednesday, hours after Mayor Rahm Emanuel named her as a replacement for her father after facing a politically awkward predicament. In a largely-expected move, Mell was sworn in Wednesday to the 33rd Ward seat that her father, Dick Mell, held for nearly 40 years. The powerful Democratic lawmaker, who has spoken glowingly of the good old days of Chicago patronage politics, pushed for his daughter's selection...

The woeful state of Chicago Public Schools' finances, which has led to teacher and staff layoffs and criticism about budget priorities, will bring protesters to today's monthly Board of Education meeting and to City Hall. **SNIP** CTU President Karen Lewis said in a statement that the blame for layoffs and school closings isn't with pensions but rather the district's "heavily financed corporate school reform agenda." The union and other critics have blasted city spending on DePaul's basketball arena and privately run schools like charters. "It is time CPS ended its reign of error and got back into the business of...

City officials acknowledged Tuesday that Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plans to update the city's assault weapons ban and toughen penalties for some firearms violations near schools will have only limited impact on the gun violence plaguing parts of Chicago. That didn't stop the ordinances from advancing despite complaints from some aldermen that the measures don't go far enough. The Emanuel administration is pushing through the changes after the General Assembly's passage of a statewide concealed carry law and amid criticism he has been getting from parents of children who will have to walk through violent neighborhoods this fall because he closed...

July 9, 2013 Psaki Runs from Question About ‘Vanity Fair’ Benghazi Article Washington Free Beacon Staff State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked by a reporter to reconcile former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s famous Benghazi question with claims in a new Vanity Fair article Tuesday in a State Department press conference.Psaki’s response was a predictable State Department refrain, stating “this has been all addressed” by the Accountability Review Board before quickly moving on:REPORTER: And when Secretary Clinton famously asked about Benghazi, “was it because of guys out for a walk one night and decided they would go kill some...

While raising money for Bill Clinton (who signed the Defense of Marriage Act) in 1992, Rahm Emanuel proclaimed “Gays are the next Jews of fundraising.” I’m not 100 percent sure what he meant by that, but Democrats have certainly grabbed onto gay issues as a fundraising lever. Democrats today are using the gay marriage ruling as a way to raise money, my colleague Paul Bedard writes. Obama’s core network of fundraisers included many gay men and women who were also gay-marriage activists. I wrote on this after Obama spurred a fundraising boom by announcing his support for gay marriage.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel hopes to keep gunslingers away from public schools, buses and “safe passage” routes by creating a city ordinance with stiff fines for weapon offenses. The proposed ordinance comes on the heels of CPS’ closing of 49 elementary schools under a plan to tackle low enrollment. Most of the schools are on the West and South Sides.The closings have prompted CPS to expand the number of protected safe-passage routes that students take to school. Parents are concerned that their children will have to cross gang boundaries on their way to new schools. The ordinance, which the mayor intends...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to start reducing health insurance coverage next year for more than 30,000 retired city workers and begin shifting them to President Barack Obama's new federal system. The move is aimed at saving the city money Once the phaseout is complete, those retired workers would have to pay for their own health insurance or get subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. The city-subsidized coverage is particularly important to retired workers who aren't yet eligible for Medicare Henry Bayer, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, said the uncertainties of the...

THE TARGETING PAPER TRAIL BEGINS: Soon as they occupied the WH, Obama and the Chicago con artists (a) took control of the US Census; (b) Obama placed his COS Rahm Emanuel in control of the US Dept of the Treasury (the IRS). THE DOTS CONNECT Obama told voters "Tea Parties were a threat to democracy." His mouthpiece, Valerie Jarrett, said the O Team "would not forget" which Americans did not worship Obama. BACKSTORY WSJ REPORT--On Jan 20, 2009 Timothy Geithner was appointed Obama's Secy of the Treasury. But within three weeks, the obama White House tightened its grip on Treasury....

CHICAGO — Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave Rick Perry a Chicago-style greeting Monday, challenging the Texas governor to remember the reasons for his visit to Illinois — a jab at Perry's presidential debate forgetfulness. "I hope when he comes he remembers all three of his reasons," Emanuel said. "Because it will be a real test for him." Perry was in Illinois Monday to encourage businesses to move to Texas and was scheduled to address a Chicago business convention Tuesday. Emanuel made pointed reference to a campaign gaffe Perry committed while running for president. At a Republican debate late in 2011, Perry...

Almost exactly a year after Chicago's surging homicide rate caught the nation's attention, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy rolled out statistics Monday that showed a dramatic drop in the number of killings. At the same time, they tried to allay safety concerns in the wake of a weekend fight involving more than a dozen young people on the Magnificent Mile.

Seven people were injured in an overnight shooting at a record release party at a nightclub in Chicago's South Side Gresham neighborhood. Police said three men opened fire inside Mr. G's Supperclub on the 1500 block of West 87th Street around 1:15 a.m. A fight had started at the release party for a local rapper, police said, and three men pulled out handguns and fired into the crowd.A 19-year-old woman was struck and taken to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn. Six men, mostly in their 20s, were also wounded. Only one was transported by ambulance.

A prominent member of Chicago’s homosexual community claims Barack Obama’s participation in the “gay” bar and bathhouse scene was so well known that many who were aware of his lifestyle were shocked when he ran for president and finally won the White House. “It is common knowledge in the Chicago gay community that Obama actively visited the gay bars and bathhouses in Chicago while he was an Illinois state senator,” Madsen told WND. “Nobody who knew Obama in the gay bar scene thought he could possibly be president,” said DuJan. DuJan, founder and editor of the Hillary Clinton-supporting website HillBuzz.org,...