A current and former alderman are the latest examples in having friends in high places. more ›

Remember yesterday when 9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale put his foot down on the construction of the new Costco at 14th and Ashland because he feared the Illinois Medical District (and not the city) would be making money on the 2007 land swap that preceded it? Either Beale looked more closely at the numbers or someone more powerful than him in City Council told him to quit being a wet blanket, but he's alright with it today. more ›

9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale is considering stalling the proposed Costco on the Near West Side because the 2007 land swap the Daley Administration agreed to with the Illinois Medical District will deprive the city of more than $1 million annually in rental income. more ›

Unemployment is on the decline, employers are hiring again and it comes as no surprise that the above does not apply to Chicago’s South Side. The Chicago Reporter mapped out the number of jobs on a ward-by-ward basis and the top 10 with fewest jobs are located on the South Side. more ›

Interesting little note from former Chicagoisto Hunter Clauss over at Chicago News Co-Op about how veteran political consultant Delmarie Cobb is endorsing 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale for reelection, despite their diametrically opposite views about having a Wal-Mart in the Roseland neighborhood. more ›

Reacting to criticism about raising the minimum age limit for taking the police exam to 25, Police Superintendent Jody Weis struck a compromise that either is wise like Solomon or reeks of politics. more ›

By a unanimous vote, the Chicago City Council today approved a proposal for the city's second Wal-Mart to be built in the Pullman Park commercial development on the city's South Side. The approval comes after lengthy negotiations between the retail giant and labor leaders that created an agreement on living wages for workers at the new store, though the agreement only applies to this new store and not future Wal-Marts. The unanimous vote meant that several typically pro-union aldermen voted for approval with trepidation. From the Tribune's Clout Street: more ›

The Battle Over Wal-Mart in the City of Chicago has been delayed. For a few weeks, anyway. A vote by the City Council's Zoning Committee over a proposed new Wal-Mart in Pullman Park that was to happen today has been postponed until May 7. The vote was slated as a follow-up to last week's approval of the store by the City's Plan Commission but was postponed by Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) and Zoning Committee Chairman Danny Solis (25th). Beale has been an ardent supporter of the new Wal-Mart, saying last week, "We want to get people out of their homes and back to work. And if we don't find a new source of revenue here in the City of Chicago, we're going to be forced to lay more people off in the years to come." Beale claimed that he has the necessary votes to pass the plan, so why ask for a delay? He told the Sun-Times earlier this week: more ›

In a political move that should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody, Mayor Daley is all ready to re-open the Wal-Mart debate in Chicago, just in time for several contentious primaries that will be viewed as referendums on reform and incumbency in the area. “I am raising a political hot potato,” Daley said Wednesday. “These are very complex issues. They are completely different than they were three years ago.” Citing the high unemployment rate in the region, Daley painted a bleak picture for Chicago. “There’s no future jobs. People can’t get jobs. They’re not only being laid off, they’re being eliminated out of their companies,” Daley said before calling on Chicago’s unions and aldermen to sit down with Wal-Mart and negotiate a compromise that will lead to the successful operation of their stores in the city. 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale told the Tribune that there may be a private deal to allow Wal-Mart to build stores in Chicago, if they agree to certain wage standards, rumored to be around $11 an hour. "They're saying, OK, these are some of the provisions that will allow us to say 'OK, we will allow them to come in," Beale said. more ›

A controversial proposal by South Side aldermen Anthony Beale (9th) and John Pope (10th), which would give security guards who patrol three commercial strips the right to write tickets for minor violations such as parking, loitering, littering and graffiti, has caught the ear of both Mayor Daley and Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis. As Mayor Daley continues to tussle with the Fraternal Order of Police over contract negotiations and pay raises, he's expressing interest in the idea. more ›