Chicago Daily Observer

I don’t know Amy Jacobson. Never met her, never watched her while she was reporting on Chicago TV, haven’t spoken with her lawyer, or her bosses, or her friends.

But reading about her in the newspapers lately, listening to the pub gossip around here – and there’s been plenty of that – I think she’s getting a professional shiv.

She’s the one, you’ll recall, who was fired from the NBC affiliate here and is suing the local CBS TV station for a million dollars. She’s claiming that a tape CBS aired of her in a bathing suit at the home of a potential news source in July 2007 subjected her to “enormous public humiliation and disgrace”.

Well, I guess it did. I saw that silly tape only because it aired again, and then again, and yet again on local news last year. I check local TV news ... Read More...

I don’t think a lot of folks were all that serious about an Illinois Constitutional Convention until the established powers gathered to squelch the idea.

Here is the full list of the special interests:

AFL-CIO Illinois
American Insurance Association
Center for Tax and Budget Accountability
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
Citizen Action Illinois
Illinois Association of Convenience Stores
Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools
Illinois Association of School Administrators
Illinois Association of School Personnel Administrators
Illinois Business RoundTable
Illinois Civil Justice League
Illinois Education Association
Illinois Farm Bureau
Illinois Federation of Teachers
Illinois Manufacturers Association
Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association
Illinois Retail Merchants Association
Illinois Retired Teachers Association
Illinois State Chamber of Commerce
Illinois Teachers Retirement System
Illinois Trial Lawyers Association
League of Women Voters of Illinois
National ... Read More...

Confidence in the economy is very low. Oil prices are very high. Stock prices are falling. Financial companies are losing money…some are failing. The government is busy bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, creating “stimulus,” establishing new lending facilities, and cutting interest rates. With all of this happening at the same time, it’s not surprising that some people are questioning the basic underpinnings of capitalism. Trust in free markets seems to be falling and the idea of “market failure’ is gaining ground.
For example, United Airlines just sent an open letter to all its customers asking them to join in a protest against “market speculation,” which it says is driving up oil prices. At the same time, politicians are demanding more regulation of financial institutions.
A running theme is that if only the government had been more active in the first place, these problems could have been ... Read More...