At the peril of veering from constant criticism of the Chicago Media, our editors have found reasons to cheer on our local publications on a variety of issues.

Here are 5 top examples of good reporting that made it through to publication, and even had follow-ups in some cases.

1) The CTA is in financial trouble. We not only know about it from 1st hand experience, all of the major media outlets carried stories about financial problems in our mass transit systems, an even considered a variety of proposals (including-gasp-higher fares) to fix the issue. Abstenteeism, lack of riders, muddy minded management, poorly planned capital projects all received at least a scrutinizing glance.

2) TIF District Mania. Ben Joravsky at the Chicago Reader has been accused of being obsessed with TIF districts: good for Ben. In Ben Joravsky and the Chicago Reader there is finally some oversight as to the huge budget holes caused by the TIF District Power grab. Crain’s has also picked up on it, and questions are being asked to why all this tax money is being taken off the table.

3) Senator Obama’s real estate career. In only a few short years, Senator Barack Obama was able to complete an amazing amount of poorly thought out real estate transactions with a variety of indicted developers. Public money, private profits, uninhabittable “affordable housing” all were shown in great detail by the Sun Times.

4) The Stroger’s. There isn’t much more about Stroger family business that that Chicago doesn’t know, given the constant media coverage of Todd Stroger’s hereditary assumption of the County Board presidency. When the Tribune published Stroger’s office phone numbers and encouraged citizens to call and express their opinion, Chicago reached a new and applaudable level of press activism.

5) Governor Blagojevich and his fundraisers. On his days off from real estate development with Sen. Obama, Tony Rezko (among others) worked very hard on raising money for our Governor, and establishing a market price for board appointements, tollway concession business, and hospital building permits. Hardworking yes-Legal no, as Patrick Fitzgerald has informed Blagojevich’s financial team. The trading is complex, but the information is all there in the SunTimes, Crain’s and The Tribune.