I mean, who else could have come up with such a creative way for Chicago to run out of cash right after he leaves office?
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is scheduled to detail the city's record budget shortfall on Wednesday. He's expected to announce plans to partially fill the $655 million defecit with money from leasing the city's parking meters and Skyway.
Dick Simpson heads the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He says it makes sense to use some of the money in reserves, but a lot of the cash meant to last the city decades has been used up in a few years.
Ah, the parking meter lease. Good deal, there.
Today is the Chicago Marathon, and the weather is perfect—for watching it. The runners hope the temperature stays below 21°C, but it's creeping up.
No matter: here are the lead runners passing through Lincoln Park about an hour and a half ago:
Even more fun is when the great mass of runners stampede through, like these folks running a four-hour pace:
Let's hope it stays cool for them.
Update, 9:40 am: Defending champion Sammy Wajiru just won the men's race.
I regret my headline from Tuesday. Apparently, the man committed suicide:
The young man who died in a pipe bomb explosion Tuesday in Evanston committed suicide after a nearly lifelong fight with depression, his family said Wednesday.
"We are devastated that our beloved son, Colin Dalebroux, lost his 15-year battle with depression," the family said in a statement from their home in Madison, Wis. "We know that Colin committed suicide."
It's one thing if he had died trying to hurt other people; quite a different thing if, as is the case, he took his own life.
This caught my eye this morning only because it occurred directly across the street from where I lived during most of 2007. Parker used to chase tennis balls in the tennis courts right near the scene:
A man walking his dog this morning near an Evanston middle school discovered a decapitated body, perhaps the result of a pipe bomb explosion, and some hours later police destroyed what they suspected was an explosive device in the vicinity.
He said his dog led him to the body of a shirtless man whose head was missing and whose legs were folded behind him. A shopping bag lay nearby, and there was a strong odor of what he thought was gunpowder.
The body was near tennis courts, between a fence and a pine tree, he said.
On returning home, he said neighbors told him they had heard a loud explosion between 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. He said police told him they had come out earlier to investigate the sound of the explosion but were unable to find anything at that time.
Ew.
The Economist has picked up on Daley's departure:
After Mr Daley privatised the city’s parking meters, drivers filled coin slots with glue and docile aldermen briefly located their spines. Last year Mr Daley struggled to close a budget gap. This summer just 31% of Chicagoans thought he should seek re-election.
So who will succeed Mr Daley? The most promising contender may be Mr Emanuel. Whoever the replacement, he is unlikely to bring the dramatic changes that characterised the Daley era. But a new leader is overdue. “Simply put,” Mr Daley said, “it’s time.”
And the Guardian:
Speculation in Chicago and Washington DC quickly turned to [President Obama's chief of staff Rahm] Emanuel, who has long made public his interest in the job – while the timing could not be better from the White House's point of view. With a crushing defeat in the US midterm elections looming, the need for Obama to reshuffle his senior staff after November was growing.
Emanuel refused to comment on the speculation, saying in a statement: "While Mayor Daley surprised me today with his decision to not run for re-election, I have never been surprised by his leadership, dedication and tireless work on behalf of the city and the people of Chicago."
Note that Emanuel was my Congressman until being named Obama's chief of staff in November 2008, and he maintains a permanent residence in the city.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley will not run for re-election next spring:
Daley's public approval rating had dipped recently, with a Tribune poll earlier this summer showing that more than half of Chicago voters said they don't want to see him re-elected.
The poll found only 37 percent of city voters approve of the job Daley is doing as mayor, compared with 47 percent who disapprove. Moreover, a record-low 31 percent said they want to see Daley re-elected, compared with 53 percent who don't want him to win another term.
The mayor's administration has been buffeted by a spate of summer violence, a weak economy and a high-profile failure to land the 2016 Olympics. Dissatisfaction abounds, the survey found, over Daley's handling of the crime problem, his efforts to rein in government corruption and his backing of a controversial long-term parking meter system lease.
This isn't a big surprise, as President Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has hinted he wants the job—which he would never do without knowing for sure Daley was stepping down.
(Morton's Steakhouse, the best in Chicago, has portraits of the city's mayors going back to Daley's father.)
India became independent from the U.K. on 15 August 1947. Happy birthday!
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And because blogs are traditionally self-absorbed, I'll point out India has hot, sticky weather much like what we've had in Chicago this summer. We've had 35 consecutive days with dewpoints over 22°C. Bleah.
The Chicago Tribune's Tim Skilling asks, "Sick of the Heat"? YES, dammit:
A heat advisory continues for most of the Chicagoland area today along with an excessive heat warning for Cook County. This is the second straight day with highs in the 90s and tomorrow should extend that steamy streak to three days. The combination of heat and humidity will make it feel like 98 to 105 degrees today.
This level of heat can be dangerous, so when can you tell if the heat is making you sick?
He goes on to discuss heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke. But even absent those problems, the heat is definitely making me sick. Chicago has had 18 days in a row over 32°C; I haven't had my windows open all month; and today we set a new weather record, 43 consecutive days over 27°C.
It's much worse in Europe:
Russia’s record heat wave may already have taken 15,000 lives and cost the economy $15 billion as fires and drought ravage the country.
At least 7,000 people have probably died in Moscow as a result of the heat, and the nationwide death toll is likely to be at least twice that figure, according to Jeff Masters, co- founder of Weather Underground, a 15-year-old Internet weather service that gathers information from around the world.
Good thing this is just a fluke, and has nothing to do with anthropogenic climate change, which is a myth concocted by a conspiracy of liberal kabals.
Usually G#, but today C# or possibly even Db.[1,2]
I've had a raspy voice and a strange ability to hit bass notes the last few days, and the weather is why:
The heat and plentiful rain of recent weeks has led to a bumper crop of mold spores--and never more so than on Friday. Loyola Gottlieb Hospital's mold count, produced by Dr. Joseph Leija and his staff, surged to a five-year high--and nearly to "alert" levels Friday. The count was 49,789 spores per cubic meter--alerts are issued when the mold counts reach 50,000.
A mammoth plume of wildfire smoke, extending thousands of miles from Canada's arctic circle south into the Midwest and east to Pennsylvania, remained draped across the Chicago area, lending skies here a hazy appearance and producing yet another evening of eye-catching sunsets Friday night.
Somke, mold, heat, humidity: fun times in Chicago. (Have I mentioned how much I'm looking forward to October?)
[1] Apologies to Prof. Peter Schickele at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople.
[2] Historically, in most musical temperaments, the note C# is actually sharp of Db. The proof is very long and I'm lazy.