Shortshanks Fills Budget Gap

That $80 million hole just became a $46 million surplus, right?

• City officials announced today that the $2.5 billion deal to lease Midway Airport to a private operator will not be completed.

  "The company cannot secure the financing needed," said Gene Saffold, Mayor Richard Daley's chief financial officer.

• The city will keep a $126 million down payment that the prospective Midway operator had paid already, Saffold said.

So if Shortshanks can pull this kind of non-deal off a few times this year and next, he'll be able to afford his precious Olympics, his three dozen bodyguards, another hundred Tahoes and maybe a 6% raise for the Police and Fire Departments.

Maybe he can even buy out J-Fed.