Mayor Daley is taking credit this afternoon for an audit into the mileage reports of the Fire Department's Fire Prevention Bureau. The audit conducted by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, showed that nearly 80 percent of the bureau's 108 drivers falsified mileage claims that Ferguson estimates cost taxpayers "thousands of dollars" in 2009 alone. 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 ›

Days after Mayor Daley invited everyone in the entire world down to Grant Park for Tuesday's Obamapalooza, the City is now saying people will be turned away if things get too crowded. Ray Orozco, executive director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said, “If Grant Park reaches capacity, people will be turned around. This is for public safety.” According to Crain's:

On-street parking will be banned between the lake and the Kennedy Expressway, from the river south to Cermak Road (22nd Street) after Tuesday’s rush hour.

Intermittent “rolling” closures are likely on Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Avenue, and sections of Balbo and Columbus drives will be shut as early as Saturday. Buses will not be allowed to drop off passengers on Michigan Avenue.

Anyone with a ticket to the party should enter on Congress, walk east to Columbus and then south. Anyone else will be turned north on Columbus, until the park reaches capacity.

It seems like just yesterday we were talking about Daley's public support of under-fire Police Superintendent Jody Weis...because it was. Behind closed doors, however, it's a different story entirely. Mayor Daley reportedly raked Weis over the coals in a closed door meeting over the alleged mistakes made during the Taste that led to violence and the overall rise in the city's violent crime this year. One source told the Sun-Times, "It wasn't quiet."

Weis was "searching for reasons other than police work" for the violence and, what patrons have called, an "intimidating atmosphere" at this year's Taste that threatens to destroy a marquee event and burst Daley's Olympic bubble. "He was trying to say, 'We did everything we could' to control the problems. The response [from Daley] was, 'Like hell,'" the source said.

"OEMC has always been in charge of disaster scenes," the mayor said, arguing that the embattled Weis would focus on "terrorism and other issues." more ›