Substance returns to cyberspace after week-long ordeal of cybersabotage
Thanks to the patience of Substance staff and readers and the technical expertise of Dan Schmidt, Substance finally returned to its presence in cyberspace on the morning of June 18, 2012. Over the coming six days, a number of articles that had been queued will be posted here, as well as new articles covering the events that begin today (starting with the commentary to the left regarding the attack by Sun-Times gossip columnist Michael Sneed on the Chicago Teachers Union, which appeared on Sunday, June 17, 2012).
The June 2012 print edition of Substance was being mailed on the same day to the usual Substance subscribers, as well as to a list of 6,400 teachers at one-third of the city's public schools. The mailing list that enabled Substance to provide this print edition to that large a group of people was created by using public information. The names of all Chicago Teachers Union members at each of the schools were provided by the Board of Education as part of the Board's "Position File," effective as of February 15, 2012. Despite the sabotage of most "transparency" by the public schools administration of Rahm Emanuel, the Position File has been obtained by Substance, usually after repeated requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The names of the schools were part of the information. The addresses of the schools were obtained from the Board of Education's annual calendar, despite the fact that some of the information being provided by the Board has become inaccurate or outdated. (The Board's calendar and directory of public schools for the 2011 - 2012 school year was privatized, with each page containing an ad for Peoples Gas, which produced the calendar).
