Bringing the War Back Home, Courtesy of the Chicago Police Department: “Black Site” Used in Chicago; Local Press 'Uninterested'An explosive article about CPD’s use of a “black site” to hide, isolate and sometimes torture people in Chicago has just been published by Stuart Ackerman of “The Guardian” newspaper. (The full article is at . . . | Article | |
BOARDWATCH: 'The Board’s pro-business policy of moving essential health services to the private sector is not in the best interests of Chicago’s school children...' Nurses' testimony highlights dangers of privatization obsession of Rahm's appointed Board of Education.[Editor's Note: Below is the written testimony prepared for presentation at the February 25, 2015 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education by veteran CPS nurse Helen Ramirez Odell. Not only did the Board members . . . | Article | |  |
BOARDWATCH: Veterans for Peace continues to remind Rahm's Board of Education of the obscenity of CPS militarism[Editor's Note: The following statement was delivered to the February 25, 2015 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education by Arny Stieber, a Vietnam veteran, who has repeatedly spoken at Board meetings in opposition to . . . | Article | |  |
Barack Obama's hypocrisy -- and ignorance of Chicago and union history -- was fully exposed as Rahm Emanuel is defeated. Even with the massive support -- and even a 'Bro Hug' from Obama -- Rahm was forced into a runoff scheduled for April 7.In no local election in American history has the President of the United States come down from his throne to tout the candidacy of one candidates as did Barack Obama during the month before the . . . | Article | |  |
BOARDWATCH: Chicago Board of Education meeting of February 25, 2015 continued the Board's privatization and charter school policies despite the verdicts of the February 24 municipal election against Rahm Emanuel and the massive vote for an elected school board!The Chicago Board of Education held its monthly meeting on Wednesday, February 25, 2015, at 42 West Madison Street, the old Sears Loop Store, at the "Garden Level", which is now the small Board Meeting . . . | Article | |  |
RAHMWATCH: Mayor saves city from minor snowfall, orders all out effort to make sure every side street is plowed this time -- while making sure the TV cameras are watching him at Snow Command...Not wanting to have the news reports once again showing that Chicago's side streets were left unplowed while the mayor's block and those of powerful city officials were cleared, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel stood on . . . | Article | |  |
Rahm rejected... Chicago's mayor faces runoff despite massive corporate media and money blitzes... Mayor's millions and Hollywood propagandists fail to offset citizens' rage against 'Mayor One Percent'Despite unprecedented support from the President of the United States and a campaign that spent more than $15 million to elect him, Chicago's neoliberal mayor, Rahm Emanuel, will face the end of his political career . . . | Article | |  |
CTU and community organizations celebrate victory forcing Rahm in to runoff, while preparing for April 7 defeat of Rahm and 'Rahmunism'By the early morning hours of February 25, 2015, the Chicago Teachers Union and the majority of the others backing the candidacy of Jesus "Chuy" Garcia began preparing for the election campaign to defeat Rahm . . . | Article | |
Elected school board referendum shows 90 percent want the elected school boardDespite the tricks played by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his allies (especially Alderman Joe Moore) to block a major referendum on the elected school board in 2011, in 2015 the voting on the elected school . . . | Article | |  |
The arc of Justice? A look back at a mere four years at the Chicago Board of Education and in Chicago's public schoolsThe Chicago municipal elections are Feb 24, 2015. Don't we all hope that the "arc of educational justice" is bending away from corporate rule toward democracy? Don't we hope Rahm Emanuel has to face a . . . | Article | |  |
The beginning of the most expensive municipal election in Chicago history... More than 50 mailings to one home in the 45th Ward during build up to the February 24 voting as Rahm and Rahm's surrogates try every slander to defeat a Progressive Caucus leaderThere were days when our mailbox received four mailings on the upcoming municipal election. By February 23, after both my wife and I had voted early, our home had received 51 pieces of mail about . . . | Article | |  |
Will Guzzardi versus Rauner's budget immorality[Editor's Note: The statement below is the response of State Rep will Guzzardi to the budget speech by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner. Rauner's complete speech, which we reported on last week at substancenews.net, can be . . . | Article | |  |
Early voting ends today -- February 21, 2015 -- so here are the locations of the 51 early voting sitesFebruary 21, 2015, is the final day for early voting in Chicago. Election Day is February 24, 2015 (Tuesday, as usual) and voters are able to vote early. Voters don't need a reason or excuse . . . | Article | |  |
Four of the five Mayoral Candidates Respond to Questionnaire Regarding Bi-lingual Education in CPS Schools— Mayor 1% Doesn’t Respond— Parent Mentors from Four Schools Discuss its ImportanceParent Mentors—people who work in schools to support students and teachers—in programs sponsored by the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) on the Northwest Side of Chicago got four of the five mayoral candidates to respond . . . | Article | |  |
Fierce and angry responses to Rauner's budget speech as Illinois's billionaire gov'nor practices droppin' his final 'g's' while tryin' to sound like just another guy...Anyone who listened to Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner's budget speech, as it was delivered (as I did) had to want to scream at the invocation of the memory of Abraham Lincoln, and Rauner's obscene attempt . . . | Article | |  |
Is it time to renew the 'nature versus nurture' debate? If so, can its beginning start with a discussion of keeping score by talking about 'smart people' and others....'For better or worse, rightfully or wrongfully, “intelligence” is the elephant in the classroom...'No one will claim that Michael Jordan or Jahil Ochafor are not "gifted" as athletes specifically at least for playing basketball. And yet when it comes to discussing whether human children are endowed by virtue . . . | Article | |  |
It's almost over... for the mail delivery person who will be on Workers Compensation from lugging the anti (_______, fill in the blanks) ads from the Rahm people and Rahm's clones... to the materials asking for a vote for the candidates, from ward to City Hall... February 24, 2015 is ELECTION DAY!Everyone in Chicago knows that the weekend before an election is the key time to complete your canvass (for your candidates), prepare your GOTV workers, tell the "minuses" on your canvass that the voting is . . . | Article | |  |
'Social Movement Unionism', 'Social Justice Unionism,' or some other understanding... Disentangling Theoretical Confusion within the Global Labor Movement[Editor's Note: With the recent decision by the Washington Post, not generally a friend of labor unions, to feature a lengthy essay by Milwaukee's Bob Peterson, and the attempts by some in the Chicago Teachers . . . | Article | |  |
DFER -- 'Democrats for Education Reform' -- is pouring millions of dishonest dollars into negative campaigning against City Council progressives like 45th Ward Alderman John ArenaIt's been about five years since the multi-million-dollar group calling itself "Democrats for Education Reform" (DFER) first began, and almost as many years since the group first arrived in Illinois. DFER propagandists for charter schools . . . | Article | |  |
We Need Syriza in Illinois... When a millionaire governor decrees austerity, it’s time for the left to step up.[The following article by Jane McAlevey has been published in The Nation, February 16, 2015 and is reprinted here with permission of the author. Jane McAlevey's book ("Raising Expectations and Raising Hell, my Decade Fighting . . . | Article | |  |
