Chicago Daily Observer

The upstart and lower-fare Virgin Airlines’ plans to initiate service at O’Hare Airport, and thus bring competition, more jobs and economic development to the Chicago area, appears jeopardized by the sweetheart deal between the Daley administration and the legacy airlines that control the airport.

Which raises the question: When will someone, especially in the business community that is so dependent on air travel, finally get mad on the lunatic ways of O’Hare Airport.

Virgin Airlines, which provides international service from both coasts, has been planning a major expansion into America’s heartland, with O’Hare as its base. But it has been stymied because it has been unable to lease gates at the airport, even though more than enough are sitting idle. Virgin said it will have to decide in a few weeks whether to cancel its O’Hare plans and look for another alternative. Meaning, I assume, another Midwest city in which ... Read More...

Here is the roundtable discussion of Illinois Politics with Tom Roeser, Jeff Berkowitz, and Charlie Johnson, from the WLS-AM 890 show “Shootout”

The interactivity takes over about 45 minutes into the show, with Illinois Senate Republican Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) calling in.

HT: Jeff Berkowitz

Chicago can’t bulldoze any of the 554 homes and businesses it owns in Bensenville for 30 days, a DuPage County judge ruled Monday.

The city can’t even begin preparing those properties for demolition during that time, Judge Kenneth Popejoy said, handing Chicago a setback as he granted the emergency request for a delay filed by Bensenville officials.

Chicago won a major victory last week when Popejoy agreed to lift a yearlong injunction that had blocked it from demolishing homes and businesses in the western suburb to make room for a massive, $15 billion expansion of O’Hare Airport.

Join Chicago Daily Observer Editor in Chief, Tom Roeser as he hosts Political Shootout with local TV host Jeff Berkowitz and Benesenville Mayor John Geils tonight live on WLS-AM 890 at 8PM Central Time.

O’Hare Expansion, local poltics, maybe even the Olympics will be in play.

You can also listen on the internet by following the below links.

Ah, Bensenville, glorious Bensenville—it’s become my home away from home since I realized that Mayor Daley intended to plow over about 15 percent of it to make way for another one of his Great Ideas, in this case the O’Hare Modernization Program. Before our green mayor is done he will have spent well over $15 billion expanding O’Hare just in time for the collapse of the airline industry. Hey, how’s that for planning?