The spat over alleged municipal tax scams developing between RTA, the City of Chicago and a pair of towns far down the I-55 corridor isn't just another Illinois embarrassment; it impacts your public transportation rides. more ›

Eight legislators saw the best and worst of the city's transit on a tour led by the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee to show the need for a multi-billion dollar program to upgrade and maintain the transit system on Friday. more ›

Courtesy of our sister site DCist comes the news that D.C.'s mass transit system, Metro, is issuing special commemorative SmarTrip passes (similar to CTA's Chicago Card) for Obama's upcoming inauguration. This has us wondering if the CTA can think of a way to one up D.C. Maybe relabeling all Orange lines with the signature Obama "O"? more ›

Back in the day, Chicagoans didn't get around on the CTA. They got around on the Surface Lines, which operated mass transit in the city from 1913-1927. And Robert Loerzel found a transfer recently in an old, used book. So cool. (click for original size) more ›

• Drew Peterson Watch: the Cowardly Lion's attorney says a racy message recently found on missing wife Stacy's phone is proof that she was having an affair, and ran off.
• The mini Wrigley Field formerly at the New City YMCA is being relocated to Humboldt Park.
• If you're a Streets and San worker around 53rd and Union, be careful that woman you offer money for sex isn't an undercover officer.
• Kanye West, blogger.

The Illinois House passed the mass transit funding bill--with Blagojevich's seniors-ride-free amendment--61-47 this afternoon. Now it's headed to the Senate. Cross your fingers. [Trib, CBS 2 ] more ›

Let’s just get it done. Let’s pass it. They have to pass this legislation…with the change. Everybody will accept that. Who cares? Let’s just pass this legislation. That’s how important it is.

In the continuing soap opera that is our state's budget crisis, Governor Rod Blagojevich made a visit to Rev. James Meeks's south side mega-church, House of Hope Sunday to drum up support for his proposal of free rides for seniors on the region's mass transit system. Besides being pastor of the church, Meeks is also an Illinois State Senator, and is often allied with the governor. more ›

Illinois state legislators are at it again today, after yesterday's close-but-no-cigar attempts to resolve the transit funding crisis. The House passed a sales-tax increase plan yesterday, but it fell one vote sort in the Senate; those so-and-sos are going to give it another go today because three of them abstained (courteously?) yesterday. more ›

yesterday that if the General Assembly sent him a transit bill that included a sales tax increase, he wouldn't veto it. Blagojevich has vowed since the beginning of the budget debacle to veto any sale tax increase to fund mass transit. more ›

Ex-CTA head Frank Kruesi broke his era of silence just in time to disavow any responsibility for the clusterfuck of mismanagement, power jockeying and buck-passing also known as the transit funding crisis, telling the Sun-Times "I made the decisions that I thought were right at the time. I don't think anything is gained by going back and rehashing things." Because learning from the past is for assholes. more ›

With Governor Blagojevich's gambling go-to guy under indictment and state lawmakers struggling to figure out if they can trust him with expanded gambling, (and trying to decide how they'll split the pie up among themselves), that other guy in the state's executive branch, Lt Governor Pat Quinn, called for a statewide referendum on gambling yesterday. more ›

Transit funding has stalled yet again, this time with the added bonus of absurdity: Blagojevich wasn't even in Springfield during the special session vote. No, he was at the Blackhawks game. The vote was 57-53 in favor of the moving gasoline money around plan--except the bill needed 71 votes to pass. And even if it had passed, Emil Jones had said it would die in the senate. So what we're looking at is a... more ›

Well, it wouldn't be a real week if we didn't have a least one troubling post about the state of the CTA, so here goes: One-fourth of the buses are 16 years old, and one-fifth of the tracks are "slow-zones." And it would cost $6 billion to fix this. Recall that the CTA budget has two sections: Capital and Operating. Most of the Doomsday talk is about operating costs, which means we've all been... more ›

With his approval rating on par with President Bush and the state languishing without capital funding, Rod Blagojevich sent a letter (PDF) to the four legislative leaders yesterday, inviting them to a "leaders' meeting" in his office this morning. Referencing the mass transit band-aid issued last week, he urged lawmakers to put aside their differences and work with him to fix infrastructure and transit problems in the state. Although nobody believes much of anything Blago... more ›

Say it with us now: Wah, wah, wah! Keep taking the quick fix and you know what you get in the end? A deeper hole, an angry ridership and more time for G-Rod and Mike Madigan to plan their cage match. We know you’re in a fix, Hubie. It’s everywhere we look. And believe us, we want to help. What gets our goat is your caving to the measly handouts that the General Assembly dole out like so much loose change. Please, stick by your “no Band-Aids” propaganda. A little pain now will avoid a world of hurt later. more ›

Cook County may raise the sales tax next week, and the fight over how to manage those finances is heating back up. Todd Stroger, who has been noncommittal in his support of the increase until now, called for the special board meeting Monday to consider raising the county sales tax 266 percent, from .75 percent to 2.75 percent, in an attempt to cover a projected budget shortfall of $307 million next year. Opponents were quick... more ›

The Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center site is being considered for redevelopment as the Olympic Village, moving the proposed site west off the lakefront. Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler Inc. has already received bids on the land, which Medline Industries Inc., Michael Reese's parent company, is trying to unload. The hospital is in discussions with Cook County to form a potential partnership, although no formal agreement has been reached yet. Among the benefits of moving... more ›

Just as a cloud of gloom began to set in over the carless masses of Chicago, a ray of hope came as the State Senate has been called into session on Monday. While a spokesman for Senate President Emil Jones would only say that the session would include discussion of the "transit issue," Sen. John Cullerton, (D-Chicago) told Crain's that he thinks they are going to take up the same bill that Julie Hamos was... more ›

Bad news hit the Chicagoist offices late yesterday afternoon as word came through that SB572 — the bill that would have raised sales taxes in Cook County and the five surrounding "collar" counties, as well as the real estate tax in Chicago, to help fund regional transit — failed to reach a "supermajority" of 71 votes in the Illinois House. Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston), sponsor of the bill, halted voting and placed it on the... more ›

On Wednesday, the Illinois House Committee on Mass Transit approved legislation that would enable the RTA to fund the CTA, Metra and Pace and prevent service cuts and fare hikes across the board. The Illinois House Committee on Mass Transit approved a transit funding and reform proposal by a 15-4 vote. The House is expected to convene to vote on the proposal next week. This bill comes after the RTA announced that a "doomsday" scenario... more ›

The Illinois State Budget Fight just got weirder. Governor Rod Blagojevich quietly filed suit in Sangamon County Friday against House Speaker Michael Madigan, attempting to force the Speaker to hold special sessions when he calls them. "It is imperative that (the governor's authority to call special sessions) is preserved and honored," Rebecca Rausch, a spokeswoman for the governor wrote in an e-mail to the State Journal Register. "After lawmakers failed to follow the governor's special... more ›

Mayor Daley and the rest of his Getalong Gang took their Olympic show on the road yesterday, heading to Rio de Janeiro to the Pan American Games, sort of a regional Olympics. Daley and company are hoping to learn a few lessons from an actual large-scale event, rather than just what they might envision on their drawing board. It won't be a carnival for the boys behind the bid, however, after the USOC issued a... more ›

Now that Blago's $7.6 billion tax plan has crashed and burned in the state legislature, he's doing a total 180, embracing expanded gambling in Illinois to try and cope with a state budget that is in serious trouble. The legislation, backed by Emil Jones, would expanding gambling in Illinois to include three riverboat licenses for Waukegan, the south suburbs and an as-yet undetermined point within an eight-mile radius of O'Hare Airport. As part of... more ›

It's been a while since a blotter, eh? Let's get right into it, shall we? A Calumet City man was denied bond after being arrested for beating his girlfriend's 4-year-old son to death. Cameron Smith was found dead Thursday in the apartment that he shared with his 7- and 8-year old siblings, as well as 23-year-old Donell Parker. Parker was in charge of the kids since their mother and Parker's girlfriend, Sgt. Lavada Smith, was... more ›

"travelling travel" via smussyolay. more ›

While we won't get into Chicago's homeless situation, we have to believe the city's vagrants are 97% responsible for the tantalizing aroma of urine that permeates our street corners and mass transit system (the other 3% is made up of drunk bar patrons). While we try to look away, we can't help but be smacked in the face by that indefinable musky pungency that carries in the cool morning air. Since apparently everyone is... more ›

"Suet...not just for birds anymore.." via photoshopabuser. more ›

This week, Chicago welcomed the U.S. Olympic Committee's evaluation commission to town to take a look at our facilities and plans as part of our bid for the 2016 Summer Games. With the USOC having already narrowed their list to Chicago and Los Angeles, the USOC's visits to the two towns this month will help them chose which candidate city to present to the International Olympic Committee when they convene their board meeting on April... more ›

One provision of President Bush's proposed budget could affect Chicagoans and city-dwellers all over the country. Bush is proposing a "congestion initiative" that would award federal grants to cities and states for building toll systems that charge drivers new or increased tolls for traveling in and out of cities during peak times. Congestion pricing could take the form of "cordon tolls," charges to enter the city proper, or monthly/annual fees for using High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV)... more ›