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 announced he's replacing his current chief-of-staff, Paul Volpe. Volpe will probably best be remembered as the man behind the parking meter lease.
• Police continue to search for Shontell Davis, a missing 15-year-old.
• The dangers of ice flinging from vehicles on the road.

So apparently the news that unemployment around the nation is at its highest in 25 years isn't enough for City Hall. Mayor Daley's chief of staff Paul Volpe announced today that, not even a week into March, the city is already short $33 million for the year and the city could fall behind by as much as $200 million before we roll into 2010. Per the Trib's Clout Street: more ›

Mayor Richard Daley's chief of staff Paul Volpe by announcing more spending cuts and that more city job cuts will be likely.

The city will try to save $6 million by making a 3 percent reduction in spending on "non-personnel costs like commodities, materials, supplies and services" across city government, said top Daley aide Paul Volpe. more ›

In spite of the city's effort to tax the ever-loving shit out of anything and everything, a bad fourth quarter of 2008 means the city's revenues were off by over $30 million for the year. According to Chief Financial Officer Paul Volpe, Daley's new chief-of-staff, "We're some $31 million below what we actually thought." One precipitous drop came from real-estate transfer tax collections; instead of the $30 million the city expected to collect in the last quarter of 2008, it received only $20.5 million. And despite the seeming lack of side-street plowing, Volpe says the large amount of snow so far this winter required the city to spend $4.3 million more on plowing than had been planned. more ›

Amongst all the Blagojeviching, Mayor Daley has announced his new Chief of Staff: the city's chief financial officer, Paul Volpe. Volpe replaces Lori Healy who is leaving the position to take over as president of Chicago 2016. Daley also recently named Patricia Scudiero as the first commissioner of the new Zoning and Land Use Planning Department. more ›