When you're Chicago's longest serving mayor, you're going to have your ups and downs. But a mayor is only as good as the people he surrounds himself with. Daley had a cast of criminals around him, but he had some good people too. Fran Spielman of the Sun Times highlights the best and worst of the king's men. more ›

The Rahmformer sat down with Sun-Times City Hall reporter Fran Spielman for an interview in yesterday's paper that covered a litany of topics, including his recorded conversations with Rod Blagojevich, possible opposition to his mayoral campaign and his infamous abrasive personality. "When asked, what's in it for the governor, I'm the one [who] said, "All you're gonna get is thanks and appreciation,'" Emanuel told Spielman. "Then, you also know how the governor then responded to that." more ›

We mentioned it briefly in last night's Extra, Extra, but we'll take a bit more time to look at what happened as Mayor Daley parted ways with City Hall Chief-of-Staff Paul Volpe. Volpe was named to the post just a little over a year ago, in December 2008, to replace Lori Healy who headed over to Chicago 2016. Now, Volpe, who is described as the architect behind the Parking Meter lease, is heading to the CTA to take over as budget director. Speaking on Volpe's shift yesterday, Daley denied it was a demotion over the fall-out from the Parking Meter lease which, as we all know, has been anything but smooth. In fact, Daley, calling Volpe, "an incredible public servant," put most of the blame on himself: “The meter transaction was a good financial transaction. ... It was the implementation after the transaction that got us into difficulty, I’ll be very frank, with the public. All of us bear [the blame]. I’ll take it myself. First and foremost me — not anybody else." more ›

Mayor Daley spent a little quality time with our favorite City Hall reporter, Fran Spielman from the Sun-Times, to reassure jittery Chicagoans that they won't have to worry about having to foot the bill for the IOC's summer sports extravaganza, should Chicago get the 2016 Summer Games. “They have been very, very fiscally responsible in regards to their presentation. I really believe that. Unless … ,” Daley told Spielman, before ominously leaving his sentence unfinished. “An earthquake or something or a tornado,” he responded when pressed for an answer. more ›

We had a nice spit take while drinking our morning coffee and reading the front-page headline of the Sun-Times. The headline accompanying Fran Spielman's story about His Elective Majesty's advice to Senator Barack Obama in the wake of his win in the Iowa Caucuses was to "always be the underdog." more ›

The Chicago City Council held off on voting on a controversial ban on urban chickens yesterday. Since urban chickens are all the rage, it seems like a perfect time to ban them, right? Southwest Side Alderman Lona Lane (18th), who proposed the ban, said she didn't know why the vote on the ban was held up. Maybe it is, as the Sun-TImes suggests, because Mayor Daley has a thing for urban poultry: "Let's be realistic,"... more ›

If you'd like to witness the next time Mayor Daley is at a loss for adjectives, but can't find time in your schedule to go see him speak on the issues live, Chicago Public Radio's got your back. The audio isn't the best on the reporters, but pump up the volume on WBEZ's website to hear the Q&A portion of Daley's press conferences, which the station will be posting as a supplement to regular City... more ›

We already know we're under surveillance ... well, pretty much all the time. But it looks like the City may be adding some more robot overlords in the near future: City Hall is looking for companies to provide high-res cameras to be attached to street sweepers to photograph illegally parked cars. The cameras would capture a pic of your license plate, and you'd get a ticket in the mail. Most street sweeping tickets are $50.... more ›

We noticed a short Fran Spielman piece today reminding us about Daley's globe-trotting and found something we didn't expect — bikes! When we first read about Paris's new bicycle initiative, Velib, we salivated. The city peppered the city with more than 20,000 heavy-duty rental bikes in an effort to become a city of bikes. The program almost seems too good to be true. The bikes can be rented from 750 stations throughout the city, free... more ›

Now that we've gone 21 days since legislators approved a budget, Governor Blagojevich is starting to talk like he really will veto parts of the bill. You may remember his promise to cut $500 million in pork and special projects from the bill, and to move money around to cover his universal health plan. According to the Associated Press, there's no shortage of ludicrous and silly spending in this budget, including hosting a sister city... more ›

According to an unnamed "top official," the Sun-Times reported yesterday that Wal-Mart is prepared to build as many as five South Side supercenters in six to twelve months, maybe sooner, but is also scouting sites in neighboring wards in case local aldermen resist. "We're making an active effort to speak with [the local] aldermen. We can't move forward without them. If it is proven in the near future they're not interested — maybe they don't... more ›

Seriously, guys, Burton Natarus is not on Chicago's City Council anymore, but it's not like he's dead. Eugene Schulter and Walter Burnett must have banked on his promise to spend the summer kayaking, however, because it didn't take them a hot minute to go after one of the cornerstones of his legacy: dogs, their shit and people who eat around it. Schulter re-introduced a stalled ordinance ("Seriously, guys, I haven't even walked out of the... more ›

Although Chicagoist would never advocate you go all Niles Crane on us, you might want to bring a clean handkerchief with you the next time you dine out, to check for dust and polish the cutlery. Fran Spielman writes in the Sun-Times today that Chicago has only 46 Health Department sanitarians and 12 supervisors to keep 15,500 restaurants in compliance with health code regulations, prompting aldermen to question just how efficiently those inspectors are doing... more ›

We admit: The time that Alderman Burt Natarus said that there should be a speed limit for tour boats on the Chicago River because when he is in his kayak they nearly tip him over with their wake, we laughed. In fact, we probably would pay good money to see a lot of he and his fellow alderpeople's antics. But we were flabbergasted and just plain pissed off when we heard those fat cats were... more ›

Last week Andrew Velasquez, the city's emergency management executive director, announced his plans to write a city ordinance giving city traffic aides permission to ticket jaywalkers and individuals that cross against "Don't Walk" signs in the Loop. A number of aldermen denounced the idea saying, among other things, it isn't practical and that a crackdown shouldn't focus on pedestrians in the Loop but on reckless drivers throughout the entire city. In her article today about... more ›

Chicagoist is really hurting today—it's been a long week, and somehow those hours between lunch and going home on a Friday afternoon just drag. We're going to give up on trying to weave these stories together into a coherent post and just throw some stuff out there, "bullet stizz." • The 3rd Annual International Festival for Cinema of the Deaf is this weekend. The Chicago Institute for the Moving Image is hosting the festival, which... more ›