Who’s afraid of term limits?
Illinois and Chicago should make career lawmakers a thing of the past.
4 ways to break out of Illinois’ pension trap
Causes, costs, how to set the state free
View ReportEdward M. Burke
Corruption Watch: April 2015
April saw two major players in Illinois education ensnared in charges of cronyism, among more than 60 other corruption-related stories.
Feds approve powdered alcohol, Chicago moves to ban it
Chicago’s political priority list shouldn’t include addressing a new way to drink.
Police body cameras, ban on chokeholds may be coming to Chicago soon
City officials don’t get very much right. But if public pressure makes them act to ensure greater police transparency and more protection of individual rights, we may have good reason to be optimistic.
Illinois Supreme Court dismisses challenge to red-light cameras
In a strange turn of events, the Illinois Supreme Court on Nov. 20 dismissed a challenge to Chicago’s red-light camera program.
Illinois corruption watch, July 2014
The bad news keeps piling up for Illinoisans. Illinois Policy’s “corruption watch” blog series hit a new high in the month of July with nearly 100 corruption-related stories. Chicago and Springfield are the two cities most synonymous with the state’s corruption woes. Unsurprisingly, both cities dominated headlines with the top two corruption stories of the...
Pickle vs. City Hall: The fight to save Chicago’s horse-drawn carriages
For nearly 35 years, Larry Ortega has run his popular horse-drawn carriage business, Chicago Horse and Carriage Ltd. And for all the time he has been in business, Ortega and his staff have operated without a major incident, and demand continues to boom. But an ordinance proposed by Chicago Alderman Ed Burke would put an...
Is Chicago retreating from threats against Uber and ridesharing services?
At the beginning of this month, things weren’t looking good for “transportation network providers” such as Uber and Lyft in Chicago. On Feb. 5, Mayor Rahm Emanuel unveiled a proposed ordinance that would force these services to severely change the way they do business, if not leave the city entirely. That same day, aldermen Ed...
Aldermen want to ban horse-drawn carriages in Chicago
Following once again in New York City’s tradition of petty nanny statism, a new ordinance proposed by aldermen Edward Burke and Anthony Beale seeks to ban horse-drawn carriages in Chicago. The proposed ordinance would amend the municipal code to prohibit the renewal of carriage licenses, which would bring an end to the industry by the...
Banning the unknown – Chicago aldermen’s Styrofoam ban is just plain wrong
You’re not using Styrofoam. Not if you’re eating takeout, drinking a soda or chugging a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. These disposable food and beverage containers are made from polystyrene. Not Styrofoam. But the public has long confused these two products. (Disclaimer: my last post did not accurately represent Styrofoam, either.) Dow Chemical, the company that produces...
