Monday afternoon the Illinois Senate did what, just a week ago, seemed to be the impossible: they approved the state ethics bill. The legislation, which passed 55-0, prohibits those who have $50,000 or more worth of business with the state from making contributions to individuals running for statewide office. Just as the House did earlier this month, the Senate overrode the governor's attempts to insert additional conditions to the bill, which were largely aimed at......

If you've ever found yourself at a cocktail party (or in a voting booth) with your head spinning over the names and connections of the veritable cornucopia of candidates that come up for (re)election periodically, independent political consultant (and former Chicagoist politics writer) Mike Fourcher and local public interest attorney Jay Paul Deratany have just the solution: CloutWiki. An ongoing volunteer effort, the website is the product of thousands of hours of research (and hundreds......

The fight between longtime Bridgeport staple Jimbo's lounge and landlords Ray and Donna DeGrazia took an unexpected twist when recent court filings indicated that the DeGrazias had reached an oral agreement to replace Jimbo's with a John Barleycorn. Barleycorn owner Sam Sanchez eventually backed out of the deal due to the continuing court battles and twists involving Jimbo's protracted eviction, which even owners Jimbo and Joyce Levato admitted is ultimately an academic conclusion. Still,......

Movies in Grant Park photo by JVoves The Chicago Children's Museum is moving ahead with plans to build its new facilities in Grant Park, despite serious objections from what appears to be everyone who's not the Children's Museum or Mayor Daley. We can put the Sun-Times on the list of organizations that are against the move. Today's editorial says that "[b]uilding a children's museum in Grant Park is still a bad idea," before trotting......

U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen, who has been overseeing the City of Chicago's compliance with hiring, awarded $3.6 million in fees to the lawyers who have been working on the matter for over a decade. Calling their work exemplary, Anderson pointed out that “without the expertise and efforts of plaintiff’s counsel, the plaintiffs likely would not have achieved any recovery,” according to the Tribune. Attorney Michael Shakman has been fighting the city in court over......

While Obama was busy winning Mississippi last night, Crain's Chicago Business was busy wondering what an Obama presidency might mean for Chicago. "The person who's president is going to take care of his home state," former Illinois Democratic Party Chairman Gary LaPaille told Crain's. Olympic dreams, funding for capital projects, the economic well-being of local businesses and the future of corruption-buster US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald are all on the list of local issues that could......

Second City Cop...

Unlike so many political figures in Chicago, Tony Rezko didn't come from a background steeped in ward politics and clout. In fact, after he finished his degrees at IIT, did what most new immigrants to Chicago do: he got a job. In 1984, Rezko went to work for Crucial Concessions, owned by Jabir Herbert Muhammad, former manager of boxer Muhammad Ali, and son of Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam. Crucial Concessions had......

The sweetheart deal negotiated by the investors of Park Grill and the Park District has been covered before. But a good story is worth repeating, so we'll remind you, the taxpayer, what you're paying for at Park Grill: - garbage collection - their gas bill - half of the restaurant's construction costs (an estimated $4.2 million). Oh, they also don't pay real estate taxes. Faced with such insurmountable odds, Park Grill's investors are finally starting......