The good news is those numbers could have been higher had Emanuel not cut back on the security details for both Daley and Burke. more ›

Richard Daley showed he hasn't lost his touch for righteous indignation. more ›

Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson dropped a bombshell in his latest report today. more ›

Mayor Emanuel doubled down on his contention that his predecessor's security detail is "transitional and temporary" and would be looked at again at the end of summer. more ›

A man who yelled an obscenity directed at Mayor Daley on his last day in city hall is now facing more serious charges with regards to his initial arrest. more ›

"Honorary Oprah Winfrey Way" hasn't been formally approved yet. more ›

And here we thought former Mayor Daley would prefer a quiet retirement. He's having no problem lining up gigs in his post-mayoral career. more ›

Mayor Emanuel's administration wil release a report detailing when Lake Shore Drive should be shut down the next time this city gets a blizzard like the Blizzaster. more ›

Mayor Daley is expected to announce today his appointment to U of C's Harris School of Public Policy Studies more ›

As Mayor Richard Daley wraps up his reign over the city let's take a moment to see what he's contributed to the music scene. We tried to be as positive as we could but once we started looking back, it ain't too pretty. more ›

Throughout his mayoral tenure, Richard Daley has taken lengths to downplay his ties to the Duff family, even as he accepted campaign contributions from them and the Duffs wound up raking in major coin as a result of their connections to His Elective Majesty, to the tune of $100 million. more ›

Friday we wrote of the Walter E. Smithe farewell tribute commercial for Mayor Daley, "the journalists who participated in this circle jerk should have erred on the side of objectivity and not done this." Time Out Chicago's Robert Feder was even more succinct and took the reporters and anchors who participated in the commercial to task for the doubly egregious sins of being in a commercial and, in Feder's words, "shamelessly kissing Mayor Richard M. Daley’s ass." more ›

One of the actual bits of business conducted during Mayor Daley's final City Council meeting earlier this week was a proposal to allow Goose Island to sell concessions during concerts at Millennium Park. more ›

Mayor-elect Emanuel intensified his defense of Jean-Claude Brizard as his choice for CEO of Chicago Public Schools yesterday. Emanuel specifically said that a federal discrimination lawsuit filed against Brizard during his time as head of the Rochester Public School District doesn't shake his confidence in him, because former CPS CEO Arne Duncan (now Secretary of Education) faced a similar lawsuit. more ›

Mayor-elect Emanuel continued with his flurry of pre-inaugural moves by announcing yesterday that he'll be combining the Departments of Fleet Management and General Services and named David Reynolds to head the new department. Reynolds, a former deputy environmental commissioner currently working as vice-president of real estate services for the Illinois Facilities Fund, will be charged with fulfilling Emanuel's stated intention to save the city $5 million his first year in office by switching the city's vehicle fleet to more fuel-efficient vehicles and reducing the size of the city's vehicle fleet. Emanuel's decision to put the city's vehicle fleet, building management and city lease negotiations under one roof is a 180 degree sea change from Mayor Daley's proposals to privatize city services such as fleet management. more ›

Mayor Daley took time out of his farewell tour of all 50 wards yesterday to talk about a recent trip to China he took recently and the relationships Chicago has with China he helped forge during his time in office. more ›

A former cop who was part of the original investigation into the 2004 death of David Koschman told the Sun-Times that Richard "R.J." Vanecko, the Daley relative who threw the punch that killed Koschman, should have been charged in the crime, but that a combination of factors not related to politics prevented that. more ›

The owners of Park Grill in Millennium Park have a sweetheart deal with the Park District — a concession arrangement $275,000 and 4 percent of their gross receipts that frees them from paying gas, water, garbage, and property tax bills, with taxpayers footing the bill for half of the restaurant's construction costs. So why are they looking at getting out of the restaurant business now? more ›

Like Terry Mazany at the Chicago Public Schools, Interim Police Superintendent Terry Hillard appears to be busting some rump to leave the Police Department in a good condition for when Mayor-elect Emanuel takes office in May. Hillard is reported to be chipping away at some of the changes implemented by his predecessor, Jody Weis. Among Hillard's reversals are changes to the central command structure within the police department and moving police officers from specialized units and putting them on the street. more ›

An editorial in today's Sun-Times is calling for an independent investigation into the death of David Koschman. Koschman died in 2004 from injuries sustained by a single punch after getting into an altercation with a group of Division Street revelers that included Richard "R.J." Vanecko, a nephew of Mayor Daley. Charges were never brought up in the case, even though the county medical examiner declared Koschman's death a homicide. After the Sun-times started looking into the case, a reinvestigation by Chicago Police seemed to indicate that Vanecko threw the punch that killed Koschman, but they closed the case "exceptionally." more ›

The tribune is reporting that the Daley Administration has reached a deal with United and American Airlines to continue building new runways at O'Hare Airport. The deal is a coup for Daley in that it puts an end to the lawsuit filed by the two airlines to stop the project, which is part of the O'Hare expansion. more ›

Looks like Mayor Daley is making one last round of municipal beautification before leaving office. The Daley Administration signed a $2.5 million deal with Big Belly Solar to add more solar-powered trash compactors to the Central Business District. Up to 400 of the bins, which hold five times the amount of trash as a regular trash can and contain a sensor to let the city know when it's full, could soon be gracing the areas of downtown where pedestrian traffic is heaviest. more ›

Jody Weis stepped down as Police Superintendent yesterday, the final day of a $310,000-per-year contract he signed in 2008. Weis, had requested a written contract extension to stay on as Superintendent through the end of Richard Daley's mayoral reign. But Daley was unwilling to offer it; the contract extension would have required City Council approval. more ›

In what is a stunning turn of events, NBC Chicago is reporting that Police Superintendent Jody Weis is set to leave his post at the end of the day. more ›

It's nice to be a Democrat in Illinois with an ability to raise campaign funds. The Sun-Times reports today that 31 of the top 50 war chests in the state are controlled by Democrats, led by Rahm Emanuel's $8.3 million fund for the Countdown to Rahmageddon. But a majority of that was raised before the state's new campaign fundraising laws kicked in at the beginning of 2011. Since then, Gery Chico has managed to keep pace with Emanuel in the fundraising department. Emanuel has raised $1.5 million this year; Chico $1.1 million. Emanuel's having to return campaign money from Jimmy John's executives didn't help matters. Chico's total war chest is just over $2 million. more ›

Two University of Illinois at Chicago professors contend in a study that the "miracle" of reform of Chicago Public Schools under Mayor Daley instead widened the gap between white, African American, and Hispanic students and created a "two-tier" public school system. more ›

If Mayor Daley thinks you said something wrong, you probably did. May Day took some time yesterday to rebuke a comment made earlier in the week by Jim Sweeney, a union leader with Operating Engineers Local 150. Sweeney called Rahm Emanuel a "Wall Street Judas" who collected "bags of silver" while helping pass NAFTA through Congress. Daley said Sweeney's comment was anti-Semitic (Emanuel is Jewish) and that the tone of the campaign should not be lowered. more ›

For the thirty-eight years he has dedicated his life to political office, twenty-two of them were invested as Mayor. Positions of public and political service are roles in our society of great honor yet of even greater duty. Decisions made by any of us impact our lives through the resulting effects. Often one effect will lead to another like a row of tumbling dominoes interchanging the rolls of cause and effect. The effects caused by public figures... specifically political figures have the percussive factor of forever. Far past any term of office impact exponentially grows. While Chicago has surpassed Daniel Burnham's 100 year plan his impact is felt every moment by every Chicagoan. Mayor Daley's dedication and work for Chicago will be seen, felt, and experienced through out our infrastructure and our lives. Impact of this immensity reverberates forever. more ›

When it comes to fighting for tougher gun control measures, Mayor Daley isn't taking a lame duck approach. Daley proposed four new state criminal laws yesterday intended at curbing gun violence, promised to fight legislation that would restrict the ability of cities from enacting gun-control measures, and promised to continue the fight for tighter gun-control legislation once he leaves office. more ›

In an attempt to stem the tide of criticism over his "service" ad, Rahm Emanuel said that he would put an end to furlough days if elected mayor. more ›