To non-Chicagoans…indeed tourists from throughout the world… Daley’s tenure has seemed exemplary and show-biz-like. During the nation’s boom times, he transformed the city, making it a vibrant center of the Midwest. City streets are festooned with plants and flowers ala Paris. For many Chicagoans, he was the country’s living embodiment that taxpayer-paid “bread and circuses” that made the rulers of ancient Rome popular. He re-did Chicago’s front yard with Millennium Park albeit with massive public overruns. He demolished the housing projects his father built for the poor, scattering …

Here are some things to ponder in Chicago. What has happened to a city that gives gangbangers publicity? What kind of a move is it for the Superintendent of Police to call for a summit meeting with leaders of these punks?

The rule used to be that, when reporting on gang violence, reporters wouldn’t mention the name of the gangs involved. Gangs like to read about themselves and, to make it into the newspapers or onto radio and television would be great for them. They’d use it …

Midst all the civilization-threatening crises of the past month or two, a confluence of seemingly disparate events brings to what is left of my mind the diseased saliency of our society’s codes of silence, whether adhered to by private citizens or by the police themselves.

The old mob used to call it “omerta,” believed to be among the cultural norms in Sicily—but I’m not trying to stir up ethnic stereotypes here.
Consider some of the recent events:
–Chicago’s top cop Jody Weis makes regular pleas to folks in high-crime neighborhoods to bring information …

Some say prayers from a community are more powerful than those of an individual. Jesus said, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am there.”

Last Friday night over a thousand of Chicago’s Irish Americans gathered at Local 399 Union Headquarters to rally around the family of a young Belfast woman who needs our help.
A baseball bat-wielding coward viciously attacked Natasha McShane and her friend Stacey Jurich in the early hours of April 23rd on the streets of Bucktown.
Left for dead by the gangbanger and his female accomplice, the …

Barack Obama has exploited his youthful stint as a Chicago community organizer at every stage of his political career. As someone who had worked for grassroots “change,” he said, he was a different kind of politician, one who could translate people’s hopes into reality. The media lapped up this conceit, presenting Obama’s organizing experience as a meaningful qualification for the Oval Office.

This past September, a cell-phone video of Chicago students beating a fellow teen to death coursed over the airwaves and across the Internet. None of the news outlets that …

Yesterday Maurice Clemmons, the only suspect in the cold-blooded shooting deaths of 4 police officers in Washington state, was himself killed during an attempt by a police officer to apprehend him.
But former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee’s political future may have died at the same time. That’s because Maurice Clemmons was serving a 108-year-sentence on 5 felony convictions for armed robbery when then-Governor Huckabee commuted his sentence in 2000.   This allowed him to be considered for parole, which he received the following year.  (Without Huckabee’s clemency, he would have remained …

Police investigating the death of Chicago school board president Michael Scott say initial reports from the scene indicate Scott shot himself in the head along the banks of the Chicago River.
Scott’s family had reported him missing on Sunday. Police used his cell phone to locate his body and his car behind the Chicago Apparel Center at 350 N. Orleans along the north branch of the river early this morning.
He apparently fell forward after shooting himself, and the gun was found near the body, the sources say.
While police sources say it …

What’s going on America?  What’s going on when an Army Major, who’s been making anti American rants for over a year, isn’t called out by the Army or dismissed with a dishonorable discharge?  What’s going on when that Major, who became a psychiatrist while in the army, can have numerous fellow soldiers complain about his counseling sessions – justifying suicide bombings – yet see nothing officially written up?  What’s going on when the FBI separately investigates the actions of this Major, finds he has contacts with an Imam who fled …

With an All-Star Cast meeting at the Four Season featuring Fr. Pfleger, Arne Duncan, Mayor Daley, Jody Weiss, Ron Huberman expect nothing to come from the latest crusade against youth violence.
Here’s NBC5
Asked specifically if the group would be meeting with students and parents at Fenger, Daley demurred. “Oh I don’t know about that,” he said.
Meanwhile, community leaders are livid.
“President Obama fueled up Air Force One to fly to Copenhagen to try to win the Olympics.  Why can’t he fuel up a Greyhound bus and come here?” asked Jackson.
“The Mayor and President want …

The weekend before last at CBS reported that at least 15 people were shot and wounded in one night-seven of them in a single incident on Chicago’s West Side.
Police were called to the scene of a shooting at Walnu and Holman Blvd. at 10:43 p.m. on the night of July 29 where seven people were shot according to Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford. He said that six people were initially hospitalized in critical condition and one adult man was taken in stable condition after suffering a graze wound. In …