QUOTE OF THE DAY
CBS Local: Four Maywood Firefighters Suspended Over Refusal To Remove American Flag Decals
Four Maywood firefighters have been relieved of duty, and more could be suspended Wednesday, for refusing to remove American flag decals from their helmets and lockers.
The four refused to comply with an order issued last week by Chief Craig Bronaugh to remove all stickers from their helmets and lockers. The four drew the line when it came to the flag decals.
A representative from Service Employees International Union Local 73, which represents the firefighters, met for an hour with Chief Bronaugh Tuesday afternoon, with the union hoping Chief Bronaugh would modify his order. Instead, he ordered the firefighters sent homeimmediately, pending disciplinary action.
Chicago Tribune: Maywood fire chief says patriotic sticker controversy blown out of proportion
Maywood’s fire chief said the controversy over his order to have all patriotic and personal stickers removed from firefighters’ helmets and lockers — including American flags and 9/11 memorials — was blown out of proportion.
Chief Craig Bronaugh Jr. said Wednesday that four firefighters who were sent home for defying the order may return to work.
“After review, I made a decision to put a department-issued flag on every locker,” Bronaugh said at a news conference outside department headquarters. “I want everyone to be clear: There was never an issue of disposing of the flag.”
Forest Park Review: Police and fire pension funds report $200,000 shortfall
Forest Park’s police and fire pension systems took a hit this year because a simple actuarial change recalculated how long safety personnel can be expected to live. Actuary Timothy W. Sharpe, of west suburban Geneva, changed one element of his calculations last year, revealing a $104,000 shortfall in the police pension fund and a $94,000 shortfall in the fire pension fund.
That money was added to the village’s tax appropriation levy in July, boosting property taxes in town by about $200,000.
The change came when Sharpe switched last year from a 1971 mortality table to a new table that more accurately reflected the lifespans of police officers and firefighters living in 2000.
New York Post: ER visits skyrocket under ObamaCare
More people newly insured by Medicaid under ObamaCare are seeking treatment in hospital emergency rooms — one of the most expensive medical settings, a study released Monday concludes.
The analysis by the Colorado Hospital Association found that the average number of ER visits in states that expanded Medicaid increased by 5.6 percent, when the second quarter of this year was compared with the same period in 2013.
The increase was more than three times larger than experienced by hospitals in states that did not expand.
Washington Post: D.C. is the Wild West when enforcing tickets for traffic violators
In Washington, D.C., where issuing traffic citations is a $179 million-a-year business, drivers get speeding tickets for violations they don’t commit and for vehicles they’ve never owned.
Those are among the findings in a 115-page audit of the three city agencies that issued nearly 2.5 million parking and traffic tickets in fiscal 2013, according to a withering report issued Monday by the D.C. inspector general.
The report portrays the District as the Wild West of traffic enforcement when compared with neighboring jurisdictions and the states, with a shortage of regulations, a legion of ticket writers often confused about the rules, “arbitrary” decision-making about who gets some speed-camera tickets and parking-meter monitors who get called on the carpet if they don’t write enough tickets.
Chicago Tribune: Ex-CEO of red light camera company pleads not guilty in bribery case
The former CEO of Chicago’s fired red light camera vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., pleaded not guilty today to federal charges she helped orchestrate a decade-long $2 million bribery scheme to win and grow the largest automated traffic enforcement program in the nation.
Karen Finley, 54, of Cave Creek, Ariz., is accused of conspiring to funnel cash, lavish vacation trips, and even an Arizona condominium to now-retired city transportation manager John Bills.
In the 16-count indictment handed down last month, Finley is charged with hiring longtime Bills’ friend Martin O’Malley as a Redflex consultant in Chicago as a conduit for the bribes. The Tribune has reported that O’Malley is cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation and will eventually enter a guilty plea.
Wall Street Journal: America’s Challenge: Growth That Works for All
Reviewing Henry Kissinger‘s latest book, “World Order,” former Secretary of StateHillary Clinton writes that “America, at its best, is a problem-solving nation.” This is true, especially when the problems we solve are the most important ones we face.
Over the next decade, there is one overriding challenge—recreating an economy in which growth works for everyone, not just a favored few. If we solve that problem, we can sustain a generous social order at home and our role as the guarantor of peace and security abroad. If we fail, much that we have taken for granted since the end of World War II will be at risk.
Recent reports underscore the extent of the challenge. Although the August jobs report showed unemployment ticking down to 6.1%, long-term trends continued to point in the wrong direction. The employment-to-population ratio is lower than it was at the official end of the Great Recession in mid-2009. The labor-force participation rate dropped to 62.8%, the lowest since the late 1970s.
Shaped by their daily interaction with Illinois businesses as well as their own personal experiences, commercial real estate brokers cite pension reform and taxes among the most critically important issues facing the State of Illinois, according to a recent survey of the Northern Illinois Commercial Association of Realtors.
“The State of Illinois is in a very challenging position, a precarious time right now, with many issues and challenges significantly impacting the business community’s ability to grow and expand in Illinois,” said William Caton, President, Caton Commercial Group and the 2014 President of NICAR. “With an election looming and so much at stake, we felt it was important to take the pulse of commercial real estate professionals so that our concerns might somehow be addressed.”
Caton added that the survey is part of a bigger, broader initiative that will culminate on September 11 in a forum bringing together members of the Illinois legislature and the commercial real estate community.
Fix: Catching a Lyft, The Rising Popularity of Ridesharing
Also known as carpooling, lift sharing, and covoiturage, among other names, ridesharing has a longer history than the automobile. But sharing the expense of getting from one spot to another gained prominence during World War II, when gas rationing limited car trips, and again in the 1970s with both the oil and energy crises.
Ridesharing is a broad term and can even include instances when family members share rides. Generally, however, ridesharing is associated with sharing a trip to work. In the 21st century, ridesharing has gotten a makeover, as social media, smartphones, apps, and online services link people in need of a ride with people offering one. This hybrid service has been referred to as real-time ridesharing, dynamic ridesharing, dynamic carpooling, instant ridesharing, and novo ridesharing.
Huffington Post: We Can Put An End to Pay to Play
What is Pay to Play? Commonly held, pay to play is a form of getting a special deal because you paid someone off. Usually this is an indirect transaction, because of clear legal guidelines, and so creative ways are devised around long-standing common-sense laws prohibiting politicians from taking bribes. For instance, when Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was asked to testify in his corruption trial as to who gave him a lavish Rolex watch, the governor artfully suggested, “from Santa.”
But while the McDonnell tragicomedy may be the stuff of Lifetime movies, the reality is, there is not much difference from a first family taking goods to endorse a company than when a candidate for office takes thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from those who expect a personal return. And since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision removed limits to outside spending in elections, the TV ads that dominate political campaigns are basically unregulated as far as spending or disclosing who is paying for them. As we have already seen with Super PAC sugar daddies like Sheldon Adleson, one billionaire with a bug up his ass can get presidential aspirants pirouetting.
And so it is with anticipation that we witness an historical event this week in the Senate, where a debate was held over introducing an amendment to the Constitution that would undo some of the shock waves from Citizens United. Scheduled to be brought to cloture by Sen. Harry Reid on Friday, the Democracy For All Amendmentis a tag-team of amendments introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern in the House and by Sen. Mark Udall in the Senate. Down the road, this would then have to clear the House of Representatives, where it is sure to pass like a kidney stone.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago City Council backs watchdog swap — with a string attached
More than two-thirds of the Chicago City Council is on board with a plan to give the city’s top watchdog the power to investigate aldermen — with at least one string attached.
Inspector General Joseph Ferguson would get the same powers he now has to look at allegations of wrongdoing in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration, except the office would not be able to start investigations into aldermen based on anonymous complaints.
The proposal had the mayor and several aldermen lauding the long-stalled reform. While some aldermen said Ferguson had agreed to the plan, the inspector general was noticeably silent Wednesday. The proposal is still being reviewed and Ferguson will have no comment “at this time,” a spokeswoman said.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago Park District Board expands smoking ban to parks, harbors
The Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners unanimously voted Wednesday to ban smoking from Chicago’s parks and harbors. The measure takes effect immediately.
The move expands a ban on smoking at Chicago’s beaches, playgrounds and parks district buildings that has been in effect since 2007.
It also comes just days before the three-day Riot Fest music festival this weekend at Humboldt Park. Temporary signage conveying the ban should be in place by then, a Park District spokeswoman said.
CNBC: The global crowdfunding money machine
It’s no secret that crowdfunding is a fast-growing movement, but did you know its success leads back to the 2008 financial crisis? A report by the World Bank, issued late last year, credits the crisis as one of the main catalysts to spur interest in crowdfunding, as more traditional forms of equity to establish new businesses became harder to get.
Since then, the numbers have spoken for themselves. Up until now, most people have focused on the figures for specific projects (like the $10.2 million Pebble raised on Kickstarter) or the price tag that some of those projects have commanded in their post-crowdfunding days—i.e. Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of Oculus.
The Crowdfunding Centre, which has collected data from roughly 125,000 crowdfunded projects worldwide, recently issued a major data analysis of the fundraising practice during the first quarter of 2014. The study, the most recent data available, gives a clear look at just how big crowdfunding has become and offers some insight as to how far it still has to go.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
