Aldermen Edward Burke and Brendan Reilly wrote a letter to AFSCME Council 31 executive director Henry Bayer that suggested the labor union forgo a proposed 3.5 percent pay raise this year. They said doing so could restore most of the jobs lost by library employees and reopen libraries on Mondays. more ›

The good news is those numbers could have been higher had Emanuel not cut back on the security details for both Daley and Burke. more ›

City Council's stand against the Chicago Teachers Union on the subject of a longer school day is seen by some as more than a token gesture intended to curry favor with the mayor. more ›

Gov. Quinn appointed Jennifer Burke, daughter of 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke and Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, to the Illinois Pollution Control Board yesterday, a position with a salary of $117,043. more ›

Mayor Emanuel doubled down on his contention that his predecessor's security detail is "transitional and temporary" and would be looked at again at the end of summer. more ›

By cutting security detail for several top officials, new "Top Cop" McCarthy cut costs by $650,000 and likely pissed off Ald. Ed Burke. more ›

The loss of Black residents to the suburbs and an increase in the Hispanic population means something has to give when the ward remaps begin. more ›

Ed Burke says only a city hearing can remove his security detail. (Neener neener neener.) more ›

The powerful alderman doesn't think the Park District should simply vote on the Adler Planetarium's proposed admission fee hikes without a public hearing. The irony is rich, isn't it? more ›

Mayor Emanuel scored his first legislative victory yesterday. In the process, a veteran alderman also emerged as a new force on the Council floor. more ›

Some of you expressed curiosity that Mayor Daley's final City Council meeting might tackle some tough city business. We'll just call you eternal optimists, instead of "silly." Though Ald. Ed Burke did propose a measure in today's meeting requiring cell phones contain a special feature built into them allowing parents to block their kids from what called an "epidemic" of teens texting while driving, much of the session was reserved for what 30th Ward Ald. Ariel Reboyras called the "resolution of all resolutions" - two hours of praise for the outgoing Elective Majesty. The aldermen even pooled their allowances together and gave Daley a parting gift of a crystal bowl engraved with the city seal, the start and end dates of Daley's time in office and the names of the 129 City Council members with whom he served. (We don't know if there were asterisks next to those who were indicted.) more ›

Last week Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed reported that Mayor-elect Emanuel and 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke have had a series of meetings recently and in the interests of making peace with each other before Emanuel is sworn in next month. It looks as though Burke's position as chairman of the Finance Committee is safe. But with a $1.2 billion budget deficit to tackle, it seems as though both men agree that the number of City Council committees needs to be cut. more ›

Mayor-elect Emanuel isn't the only City Hall player trying to influence next month's aldermanic runoff elections. 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke is making good on a promise to dip into the $8 million he has in three campaign funds to donate to runoff elections. According to Chicago News Co-Op, Burke is funneling donations to aldermen he's backing through a political action committee he controls called The Burnham Committee. more ›

Meet Timothy Hercog, readers. This unemployed man was arrested and charged with intimidation of a public official today. The public official who is the source of Hercog's rancor? 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke. 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 ›

"Aren't we beyond that? Women have minds of their own. We have spouses in every kind of business." more ›

The Rahm Emanuel campaign has announced a rally for 5 p.m. at the Chicago Board Options Exchange of Elections to protest the Illinois Appellate Court's decision to have him tossed from the ballot. more ›

The powerful 14th Ward Alderman gets into semantics when asked who he'd endorse for mayor. more ›

Barring a sudden and steep decrease in the average price of a gallon of gas, the city will start adding a $1 fuel surcharge as of midnight Monday. Happy New Year! more ›

We know that City Council has been a rubber stamp for MayDay throughout his time in office. One of the reasons for that is because, whenever they do leave the circle and take a look around, they approve ordinances without much discussion or ordinances that should not have been discussed in the first place. more ›

We all have that one relative in our family who's reached an age where he feels he can speak his mind whenever he wants because he feels he's earned it simply by living as long as he has. 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 ›

The Lieutenant Governor's office isn't the only potential endangered specie: styrofoam's day of reckoning may be near if Alderman Ed Burke (14th) gets his wish. Burke proposed an ordinance that would ban all use of styrofoam in the city. Burke was inspired to introduce the bill after learning Chicago Public Schools use and throw out 35 million styrofoam lunch trays in a year. He told the Sun-Times: more ›

With the Olympics out of the way and Mayor Daley's imposed delay on a vote over the proposed second Wal-Mart store in Chicago, 21st Ward Alderman Howard Brookins has decided it's time to up the ante on bringing the global mega-retailer into his neighborhood. Setting a stuffed hound in front of 14th Ward Ald. and Chairman of the council's Finance Committee Ed Burke, Brookins vowed to "hound" Burke until the issue was brought to a vote. “Not after 40 years,” Burke said. “Woof, woof.” more ›

• He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.
• The Sun-Times looks into a fence that cost taxpayers over $45,000 but seems to have benefited Ald. Ed Burke (14th) the most by keeping those damn kids with their rock'n'roll music off his lawn.
• Jackie Heard, Mayor Daley's press secretary, is not amused with media reports suggesting she rented a house to drug dealers.

Wal-Mart certainly raised the stakes this week in its bid to open a second store in the city. But the results of the push-poll notwithstanding, setting up shop in Chatham may not be the slam dunk the Arkansas-based mega-retailer thinks it will be. That's because, as the city council was passing the buck on the Wal-Mart vote by sending it from the Rules Committee to the Finance Committee, committee chair Alderman Ed Burke (of the 14th Ward) told the Sun-Times that Wal-Mart would have to step up to the plate to play ball in Chicago. more ›

• Wow, if you can't trust a fine city steward like Ald. Ed Burke to not be involved in shady dealings, who can you trust?
• This sounds like a plot from an episode of Rescue Me -- a 23rd Battalion Chief on the South Side is being investigated after he allegedly slept through a fire.
• And this sounds ripped from Nip/Tuck -- car dealer and ubiquitous TV ad presence Bob ROOOHRman is suing a plastic surgeon for "stealing" his wife. Life imitates FX.

So with all the controversy over the parking meter privatization, we shouldn't really be that surprised by the fact Ald. Burke canceled the scheduled City Council hearing on the meters. [via Gapers Block] more ›

A slightly reduced admission fee increase for the Art Institute of Chicago. After weeks of huffing and puffing from Ald. Ed Burke, the Chicago Park District Board, who sets the admission price, voted to increase adult admission from $12 to $16 instead of the proposed $18 and students/seniors admission from $8 to $10. One added bonus: they also raised the age limit for free child admission from 12 years to 14 years. [AP via WBBM] more ›