Remember a few weeks ago when there were conflicting media reports pertaining to the numbers the City's Department of Revenue was throwing out in regards to higher revenues from parking tickets? In October, the Dept. cited a jump in revenue to the tune of $7 million from January to August of 2009 over the same time period in 2008. But some claimed that revenue jump was due to the parking ticket amnesty program during the first quarter of '09 that encouraged people to pay outstanding tickets with no fear of additional penalties. 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 ›

It's been an up-and-down week for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid. First, the good news: Chicago came one step closer to hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics today when, as expected, it was announced as one of the four finalists to host the games, officially becoming a Candidate City and entering the international phase of the bidding process, along with Rio, Madrid, and Tokyo. [] Final, more detailed bids are due from the short-listed cities by February 12, 2009, with the final vote happening on October 2, 2009. In addition, Chicago can now add the Olympic rings to its logo, though we still prefer the original torch logo. A celebration is planned for Friday at 11:30 a.m. in Dayley Plaza. more ›