Unlike the federal government, the city can’t run in the red. Unfortunately for Rahm Emanuel, he has to close the gap by the end of fiscal year 2012. more ›

A $6.5 million grant awarded to the charity run by Maggie Daley is receiving scrutiny for its timing - four days before her husband left office. more ›

The Sun-Times does a good job of encapsulating the nearly 20-year legal fight between City Hall and the city's "only full liquor and topless bar." more ›

Walking away from your job with a check for more than $76,000 in unused vacation pay trumps never being accepted by your co-workers. more ›

The city followed up on making the salaries of all city employees public by listing all 2011 city government appropriations online, line by line. more ›

Well this is a surprise. And a welcome one. more ›

Mayor Emanuel's order to stop using city-issued credit cards was prompted by the expenses racked up by high-ranking officials within the Chicago Housing Authority, including CEO Lewis Jordan. more ›

Mayor Daley's final City Council meeting is now underway. You can view the live stream from the City Clerk's website. We'll have a recap of some of the more choice quotes later. more ›

Mayor-elect Emanuel continued with his flurry of pre-inaugural moves by announcing yesterday that he'll be combining the Departments of Fleet Management and General Services and named David Reynolds to head the new department. Reynolds, a former deputy environmental commissioner currently working as vice-president of real estate services for the Illinois Facilities Fund, will be charged with fulfilling Emanuel's stated intention to save the city $5 million his first year in office by switching the city's vehicle fleet to more fuel-efficient vehicles and reducing the size of the city's vehicle fleet. Emanuel's decision to put the city's vehicle fleet, building management and city lease negotiations under one roof is a 180 degree sea change from Mayor Daley's proposals to privatize city services such as fleet management. more ›

We wonder if city Inspector General Joe Ferguson wakes up every morning cursing having to go into work. The man who heads the city department charged with rooting out waste, corruption and mismanagement in city government and improving its effectiveness and efficiency must have to look at his job as a Sisyphean endeavor some days. more ›

Mayor-elect Emanuel announced today that, after consideration and meeting with his transition committee, he will uphold the residency rule requiring city workers to live within the city limits. In doing so, Emanuel came close to repeating the "servants" campaign ad gaffe that gave Gery Chico a faint glimmer of hope in last month's election. 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 ›

“They cannot be a rubber stamp. That’s unacceptable. The challenges are too big. They can’t be what they were in the last few years. They don’t want it. The city doesn’t want it. ... I was a former legislator. I don’t want it." more ›

A reminder: if you plan on voting early for next week's election, the deadline for early voting is 5 p.m. today. If you can't reach any of the 51 sites throughout the city that are open for early voters, you have to wait until Tuesday. more ›

The Tribune had an interesting article today following up on Rahm Emanuel's tweak at 14th Ward Alderman Ed Burke during Monday night's debate on WTTW. The Tribune quotes numerous unnamed aldermen and Emanuel staffers as saying his comments were a warning to Burke that he's willing pick a fight with the second most powerful man at City Hall. more ›

There was drama both mild and heavy at last night's mayoral debate on WTTW. Candidates Patricia Van Pelt Watkins and William "Dock" Walls sat in the Channel 11 lobby, demanding equal time and a presence at the debate. Carol Moseley Braun showed up with moments to spare before the debate commenced. Possibly the biggest surprise of the night was the mention of 14th Ward Alderman Ed Burke's name. The powerful Finance Committee chair is in Gery Chico's corner, although he formally hasn't endorsed Chico. But that didn't stop the candidates, particularly Rahm Emanuel, from saying that, if elected, Burke would have to relinquish not only his ever present police detail, but some political power. more ›

In an attempt to stem the tide of criticism over his "service" ad, Rahm Emanuel said that he would put an end to furlough days if elected mayor. more ›

With a week left before the polls open, two questions remain in the mayoral race. Who will come in second to Rahm Emanuel? And will that second place finisher be able to force an April runoff with Emanuel? Gery Chico seems like the most likely of the major candidates to be able to pull this off. He's found a bullet point issue to attack Emanuel with "the Rahm Tax" and has been repeating it ad nauseam in campaign ads, mailers and even a website. As we mentioned last week, Chico will keep beating people over the head with this so long as Emanuel refuses to define those "luxury items" that would be subject to his proposed tax swap, in exchange for a 20 percent decrease in the city's portion of the sales tax, hoping that our collective Pavlovian negative response toward the word "tax" will sway undecideds in his favor. If that doesn't work, Chico's already shown that he's shameless enough to use the "he isn't from Chicago" argument. more ›

The Chicago Disorder Preservation Society is a group that seeks to commemorate the unique culture of Chicago politics. To that end, they've created a set of wooden nickels honoring those candidates that filed mayoral petitions to commemorate what has become a historic and eventful mayoral election. more ›

In about 40 minutes Windy Citizen is hosting a Q&A with Chicago News Co-Op's Dan Mihalopoulos about the ins and outs of being a reporter covering City Hall. The question portion of the Q&A consists of submissions from Windy Citizen users, in a unique crowdsourcing experiment. more ›

ABC7 released a poll last night showing that Rahm Emanuel's lead in the mayoral race has expanded, suggesting that if the election were held today the former White House chief of staff would have enough support of the electorate to avoid an April runoff. Of the 600 respondents to the poll, Emanuel was favored by 54 percent. Gery Chico was a distant second at 14 percent, Miguel del Valle at 8 percent and Carol Moseley Braun at 6 percent. None of the three major challengers to Emanuel outpolled undecided voters. more ›

Even though the bid to privatize Taste of Chicago and other city festivals by Celebrate Chicago LLC went out with a whimper thanks to the proposal to charge an admission to Chicago's largest display of gluttony, Mayor Daley isn't done looking for a private bidder to run the festival. With a little more than four months before Taste is scheduled to open, that's really cutting things close. more ›

Gery Chico has the distinction of being the first mayoral candidate to launch an attack ad with the video below pouncing on Rahm Emanuel's proposed tax plan. more ›

While Miguel del Valle tries to move past "undecided" in the polls and Carol Moseley Braun considers paying her staff in tea and organic food, Rahm Emanuel and Gery Chico's latest campaign ads up the ante in their respective campaigns as to why each is the man for the job. There's also some unintentional comedy in each. more ›

For A Better Chicago, political action committee run by Mayor Daley's former campaign manager Greg Goldner, announced its list of aldermanic endorsements this week. Only three of the endorsements are for non-incumbents: Genita Robinson (challenging 2nd Ward Alderman Bob Fioretti), William “Will” Burns (running against 4th Ward Alderman Shirley Newsome), and Debra Silverstein (facing Bernie Stone in the 50th Ward). more ›

Here's a budding politician with a residency issue not named Rahm Emanuel. Meet Sylvester "Junebug" Hendricks, a self-styled "Obamaican" (that's a Republican who supports Barack Obama) who's made a habit in recent years in running for various offices. Currently, Hendricks is looking to run for 5th Ward Alderman against incumbent Leslie Hairston. The only thing holding Hendircks back is a permanent address; he's homeless. more ›

The next time we say mayoral politics in Chicago is predictable, please remind us of Monday. In the space of a few hundred words in a court ruling, we've gone from following what seemed like an inevitable coronation to having an actual mayoral race. It cannot be stressed too much how tight of a corner Rahm Emanuel's been painted into by Monday's decision by the Illinois Appellate Court to toss him from the mayoral ballot. His campaign is in a dire situation, especially if the state Supreme Court decides to uphold the Appellate Court's decision. Kevin looked at Emanuel's options yesterday. For the media, it was the shot in the arm this mayoral race was looking for. The big question is: who benefits the most if Rahm's name is removed from the ballot? more ›

Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Jim Allen told the AP late Monday that two million ballots will be printed without Rahm Emanuel's name on them. He says ballots are already being proofed and could begin printing today. Allen said that they waited for the appellate court's ruling to place the order, which will be handled by Lake County Press in Waukegan. Board of Election Chairman Langdon Neal said in a conference call with the press that “ink will hit the paper” this morning. more ›

Rahm Emanuel and Gery Chico aren't the only candidates who've been busy raising money for their respective campaigns. The 235 candidates for the city's 43 contested ward elections next month have raised $5.6 million so far, according to campaign finance filings. Among some of the more hotly contested races where money seems to be going include the 7th Ward, where Sandi Jackson and Darcel Beavers are squaring off again. They and three other candidates have raised $82,000. 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waugespack has raised $63,000 for his re-election campaign. And 19th Ward Democratic committeeman has raised over $200,000 to replace the retiring Alderman Ginger Rugai. more ›

Whoa. We repeat: WHOA!!!! The Illinois Appellate Court has tossed Rahm Emanuel off the ballot for next month's mayoral election, reversing last month's decision by a lower court. more ›