Results tagged “joemoore”

• Rev. Al Sharpton is the latest activist to get involved in the Fenger High School fray.
• Police revealed more details today in the murders of Ruby and Milton McClendon.
• Ald. Joe Moore (49th) plans to allow constituents to vote on how the ward will spend $1 million on infrastructure projects.

Following a course similar to previous transparency ordinances that he's proposed, 1st Ward Alderman Manny Flores, along with Leslie Hairston (5th), Eugene Schulter (47th) and Joe Moore (49th), introduced the long awaited Olympics oversight ordinance (PDF). City Hall introduced a competing proposal that would put two aldermen on the organizing committee for the games if Chicago wins the 2016 bid. Flores's ordinance establishes three levels of oversight, including a City Council oversight committee and authority for the city's inspector general to monitor the games. The Flores ordinance also requires Olympic committee members who earn more than $50,000 to publicly disclose their financial dealings with the games.

According to the Reader's Mick Dumke, Ald. Joe Moore (49th) sent out an email to constituents this morning informing them that the hearings on the Great Meter Debacle will commence this Thursday, July 2nd. This considering the City has already announced plans to spend some of the money made from the deal.

On Wednesday, a bevy of new parking meter boxes across downtown stopped working, leading to free parking for many. Yesterday, Mayor Daley blamed it all on the media a computer glitch, acknowledging frustration with the new system: "Let's be realistic, everybody's frustrated about what took place [Wednesday], the glitch that took place." But some elected officials were more vocal in the frustration.

Just a few weeks ago, the Chicago Reader brought us the terrific and comprehensive look at Mayor Daley's controversial parking meter privatization plan. Now, the Reader's Mike Dumke brings word that several aldermen aren't too pleased with what was uncovered. According to Dumke, Ald. Joe Moore (49th) and four other aldermen are planning to introduce a resolution this week that will call for hearings to examine the process by which the agreement was made. Dumke points out that Moore and two other sponsors of the resolution - Ald. Ric Munoz (22nd) and Ald. Manny Flores (1st) - all voted for the deal initially. Moore told The Reader, “It’s a vote I’ve come to regret. I don’t know if we can overturn the agreement, but certainly we can shed light on the implementation of it, which has been abysmal. I think this was a consequence of the rush to get this through.”

From today's Tribune: Alderman Tom "Sticky Buns" Tunney, citing opposition from the restaurant industry (of which he's a member as owner of Ann Sather's) intends to force a vote on repealing the ridiculous-but-upheld-in-court foie gras ban. "We think we have the votes to (repeal) it," Tunney told the Trib.

Judge Joan Lefkow handed 28 aldermen their asses today, denying their request to force the City to disclose the names of the police officers accused of brutality. Lefkow said that the case is currently being appealed (busy day at the 7th Circuit), but if the aldermen want to sue the City, they can. Have you been wondering which 28 aldermen signed the petition? We sure have. We called Manny Flores's office and were told there...

Undeniable proof that cops actually are cracking down on drivers who disregard the cell phone ban: Alderman Tom Tunney got a ticket for talking on his cell phone while driving.

Around 9:42 this morning, an armed robber, believed to be male, attempted to rob a First Commercial Bank branch at 6945 N. Clark St. According to the Tribune, something went wrong and the robbery escalated to a hostage situation. The hostages were freed around 1:30 p.m.; none of them were harmed. No one is saying whether the gunman is still in the bank, or has been arrested.

A little over a year ago we collectively sighed with relief when Ald. Joe Moore of the 49th Ward persuaded city councilmen to decide, in a 48-to-1 vote, to ban the sale of foie gras, those delicious fatty livers of geese and ducks. We sighed not because we were happy, but because there was so much talk about it at the time, even we got tired of the whole debate. But the issue just wouldn't...

Outside.in, the aggregator of all things in neighborhoods across the country, recently tallied their numbers of neighborhood specific blogging and released the top 10 "bloggiest" neighborhoods in the country. Coming in at number 5 was Rogers Park/North Howard. Outside.in describes the neighborhood as, "Located in one of the last remaining pockets of poverty in Chicago's North Side, it‘s home to a culturally diverse group of residents that have very mixed feelings about the rapid gentrification."...

This election has been one of the most significant in recent memory. With seven new aldermen set to take office in May, including the wife of Jesse Jackson Jr. in the 7th Ward, the stage is set for a new power struggle in Chicago. This year, more than any other, saw the city's labor movement — especially the service-sector unions — flex their political muscle. The result? A record-low turnout in the mayoral vote, and...

Now that all the aldermanic candidates are rested and refreshed, and the runoffs are coming quickly upon us, there is a renewed sense of hatred and mudslinging in the wards that are still contested this year. In the 49th Ward, Alderman Joe Moore is pointing to the $60,000 that his opponent Don Gordon took from money manager David Herro of Harris Associates, a major Wal-Mart stock-holder. While connecting those dots requires a bit of a...

With most of Tuesday's election settled around the city, 24 candidates are gearing up for the special election April 17. The big story that is coming out of this vote is the role that unions played in this election. Of the twelve runoffs, five were candidates that were endorsed by the Chicago Federation of Labor. Two are union members; Leroy Jones in the 21st is a member of SEIU Local 73, and Toni Foulkes is...

Well, another municipal election has come in Chicago, and in many wards (but not all) it's gone. As expected, Richard M. Daley sailed to re-election, set to eclipse his father as the Chicago's longest-serving mayor, in spite of Ben Joravsky's best efforts. At the time of this writing, a few things are clear: there will be a few runoffs this year, including Madeline Haithcock - Bob Fioretti (2nd), Dorothy Tillman - Pat Dowell (3rd), Shirley...

You remember back in November, when the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce announced that it was going to develop some clout of its own. Claiming that they wanted to make sure they could protect their interests and take out aldermen that threatened those interests, they had announced that they were going to build their own political machine, including having employees of their members canvass neighborhoods. Now it seems that the ghost of corruption past has found...

Well, it's been an interesting couple weeks for CTA watchers. We won't touch another argument about operating budgets with a ten-foot pole, but there really have been a lot of interesting, hilarious, and downright upsetting news regarding the agency lately. Really, the best (and worst) has been the RTA movie snafu. A rather embarassed head of the Regional Transit Authority apologized today for a video that was shown to Metra officials last week that was...

If you're like us (and we bet you are — hell, you're reading the damned site) you surf the net all day. And when you surf the net all day, some pretty neat things come across your desk. We stumbled across this yesterday. It seems that the CTA Tattler scooped your star political writer here at Chicagoist (not that we do any real reporting, anyway), with a piece about 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore's resolution...

While we were busy obsessing over Ward politics and aldermanic races, all kinds of newsworthy events happened in the spectator sport of local Chicago politics. Lets take a look back at the week so far: Todd Stroger is asking Cook County's elected officials for budget cuts, in an attempt to trim the deficit. Facing a nearly $500 million shortfall, Stroger is asking Sheriff Tom Dart, State's Attorney Dick Devine, and Clerk of the Court Dorothy...

The Chicago Tribune is reporting today on plans by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce to transform itself into a piece of the machine. Citing recent developments in the city council, such as the passage of the Big Box Ordinance, the Chamber wants to make sure that its interests aren't threatented. By taking down Aldermen that work against their interests. The most shocking part of the plan isn't that business feels it needs to protect its...

We've gone round and about the blue bag debacle many times, but it's back. And just in time, too, because Chicagoist was just at a party this weekend where recycling came up *again.* Seriously. Did we do it, did they do it? Why? Why not? Was it all really a scam? Why did you have to buy blue bags? Did anyone notice that the Tribune came in a blue bag and that sometimes Dominick's and...

Mayor Daley put up a proverbial middle finger in the face of all the lah-dee-dahing about him losing his grip on City Council today and vetoed the Big Box ordinance. The controversial ordinance, which aldermen approved at the end of July would raise the minimum wage mammoth retailers like Target and Wal-Mart would have to pay employees in the city.

Chalk up Michael Tsonton and Copper Blue as the second restaurant accused of serving banned foie gras. Unlike Block 44, however, Tsonton may also be guilty of trying to parse the English language as a way around the ban. As vocal as Tsonton has been opposing the ban, it's surprising that one of his restaurants wasn't the first cited for violating it.

We hope that everyone who wanted a final slice of foie gras got some before the city’s ban on the delicacy went into effect yesterday. There were some restaurants that decided to serve it in defiance of the ordinance (mainly bandwagon jumpers who had never served the dish prior to the ban, but see the frivolous nature behind the ban). We spent last night at home, watching Alderman Joe Moore on “Chicago Tonight”, who refused to let common sense get in the way of politics and bureaucracy, defending the ban. If City Council could only only turn this can-do spirit on enforcing the Shakman decree, removing ghost employees from the payroll, and finding a solution, other than soft asphalt, to fixing that pothole in Pilsen that nearly swallowed our bicycle whole last week. Still, it's nice to see Alderman Moore stick to his guns, even if he's only carrying empty water pistols.

Chicagoist is sometimes a bad judge of character. Sometimes we meet someone new and are too quick to like them. Too quick to marvel in their awesomeness, only to be eventually let down when we realize they’re not so perfect, and really kind of a schmuck. That’s how we feel about Target right about now.

The Tribune released a report today on a pretty interesting map they recently “acquired” (found under their doorway, got from the man smoking a cigarette in the alley—potato, potahto). This map essentially provided a list of the people with the most clout in Chicago—a lot of whom have been namedropped in federal court this week.

You know, in some ways, Chicagoist is awfully glad that there is some resolution now to the foie gras ban, no matter how much we love the suckers. We're so tired of talking about it.

Today the New York Times published an article detailing Mayor Daley’ recent corruption woes and the resulting decrease in power and influence he has over those serving in the City Council:

Even though it has been proven to us beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mayor Daley’s beloved blue bag recycling program is little more than a blue plastic sheen over a big steaming pile of favoritism and kickbacks, there are three garbage cans in our kitchen: one for garbage, and two lined with blue bags. One for plastic/metal, and one for paper.