Anyone See the Link?

Story A:

• Mayor Daley today questioned why union leaders hell bent on preventing Wal-Mart from expanding in Chicago have allowed suburban Wal-Marts to ring the city without saying a word.

  But, the mayor flatly declared that Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) doesn't stand a prayer in his quest to pass an amended redevelopment agreement that would allow Wal-Mart to build it's second Chicago store -- and first super-center that sells groceries -- at a former Chatham industrial site at 83rd and Stewart.

Story B:

• Jewel-Osco announced today it will slash prices up to 20 percent on thousands of products to help budget-conscious and strapped shoppers.

  A Jewel-Osco spokeswoman acknowledged that Chicago was chosen for the so-called "Big Relief Price Cut" program because of the market's "competitive environment," among other factors. Jewel-Osco has been feeling pressure from the openings of new local Wal-Mart stores that sell groceries.

So Wal-Mart isn't allowed to open stores in the city due to union pressure, even as they open stores all around suburbia, which in turn is driving long time Chicago icons Jewel-Osco (and Dominick's we're sure) to post 20% cuts just to attract customers.

We already do all our shopping out of the city. When we can, we do it out of Cook County, too. And the above articles are merely tens of thousands of others doing exactly the same thing with their wallets.

Yield to Pedestrians

Did anyone catch the TV footage?

• Chicago police ticketed 18 motorists who didn't slow down for pedestrians -- really plainclothes police -- as part of the city's first crosswalk enforcement initiative of the year today.

  The motorists -- who city officials said had plenty of warning -- were stopped traveling northbound on Nagle Avenue at Peterson Avenue.

Are these are uncontrolled intersections with painted crosswalks? State law is very clear that cars will stop for a pedestrian in the roadway in these types of crosswalks, but if you're crossing against the light on foot, that's illegal.

In any case, the TV footage showed that these cars were flying. Really moving. We're sure they picked out the most egregious examples, but they were grabbing them two and three at a time. For $500 per ticket. And we're sure there are supervisors on scene to make sure each and every ticket is issued.

The next event is planned as follows:

• The next crosswalk enforcement will occur Saturday. Police will be monitoring drivers at 119th and Stewart at 8 a.m., 103rd and South Prairie at 10:30 a.m. and 86th and Commercial at 1 p.m.
  

Daley Rejects Tax Relief

We can see that he never studied Econ 101:

• Mayor Richard Daley says he opposes plans to roll back city revenue raising efforts, but does say he believes a City Income Tax, like the 3% levy in New York City, would be a disaster.
  
  Daley rejected aldermanic calls for a 30 day waiting period for any more asset sales like the Skyway or Parking Meters.
  
  [...] He also rejected calls for an end to the 4 dollar a month head tax on each city employee and said he'd oppose any plans for a weekend moratorium on the 3-dollar a car parking tax.
  
  Asked what he thought about the idea of an income tax for Chicago, Mayor Daley says he's always opposed such a plan and still does. He said it would change the course of the city. He said it would be a disaster.

Rolling back some taxes, especially the "head tax" would bring businesses back to the city. Suspending the parking tax would bring in weekend shoppers. The only thing he's close to correct on is the disaster a city income tax would be. And notice that he's completely against any aldermanic interference (review) on his king-like ability to sell city assets at the drop of a hat.

Now why is he listening to this advice and not the advice we gave him a year ago that the "bottled water tax" would be a disaster; the property tax hikes in the middle of a housing slump was stupid; and why couldn't his brother put the breaks on the Toddler's sales tax hike that has led to business not only fleeing the city, but leaving the county as well and townships holding actual secession votes? And winning them.

Copa Libertadores: River eliminado

En una cancha vacía y ante un equipo ya eliminado (Nacional de Paraguay), Ríver pierde por goleada y sale de Paraguay eliminado en primera fase para dejar el lugar vacante a San Martín de Porres (Perú).

Mientras los medios reproducen ocurrencias dirigenciales, Ríver sigue dando pena en las canchas y un equipo sin alma, sin fibra y sin fútbol vuelve a golpear las puertas de la realidad.

Hasta que el cuerpo arbitral (Leonardo Gaciba, Brasil) inventara dos ridículos y equilibrantes penales sobre el final del primer tiempo (1-1) el partido se encaminaba hacia un temerario empate. En el segundo tiempo Ríver dio señales de ambición y Buonanotte, como única señal viva, era quien llevaba la insinuación. Pero su expulsión (´60), a raíz de una torpe infracción fundada en la carencia de contención de un mediocampo muerto, pareció torcer el partido definitivamente.

River da pena: porque no se sabe a qué juega, porque sus jugadores se paran muy mal en la cancha, porque no relevan, porque no confluyen, porque no tienen alma (jugadores como Abelairas, Sambueza, Domingo y Falcao no tienen un nivel técnico a la altura). Rosales repartiendo el balón desde el círculo central o Ahumada perdiendo pelotas ignotas son estampas estratégicas.
De nada sirvió el tiro libre que Gallardo colgó del ángulo (´81). Ríver, humillado, ya se había comido 4: era previsible.

NACIONAL: Ignacio Don, Ricardo Mazacotte, Raúl Piris, Herminio Miranda, Gustavo Noguera, Ramón Cáceres, Inca, Marcos Riveros, Guillermo Beltrán (Julio Ortellado, 80), Fabio Escobar (Jorge Núñez, 62)y Hebert Arriola (Carlos Ruiz, 67).

RIVER PLATE: Daniel Vega, Danilo Gerlo, Gustavo Cabral (Mauro Rosales, 69), Nicolás Sánchez, Paulo Ferrari, Oscar Ahumada, Nicolás Domingo (Matías Abelairas, 45), Rubens Sambueza (Marcelo Gallardo, 69), Radamel Falcao, Cristian Fabbiani y Diego Buonanotte.

RELACIONADO:
Acaban de abrir en FACEBOOK el grupo 10000 PERSONAS PARA QUE RIVER NO JUEGUE MAS PARTIDOS INTERNACIONALES.
AFICHES XENEIZES (TM)

Puede fallar (vol.6)

Hace tiempo que a los arqueros los hacen en el arte de jugar con los pies pero acaso la nueva requisitoria reste en el uso de la cabeza o de los brazos.

Hace otro tiempo que se hacen a los defensores en el arte de jugar con la cara o la cruz.

Four Dead Wednesday Night

Let's see...

• warm weather approaching - check
• manpower stretched to the limit - check
• weekend - wait a minute...it's Wednesday night?

And look what happens:

• A motorist was shot in the back of his head and killed Wednesday night as he drove into an intersection in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, officials said.

  Robert Murray, believed to be in his 20s, was shot shortly before his vehicle crashed into another vehicle at West 70th and South Sangamon Streets. Police said it wasn't immediately clear if the person who shot him was inside or outside the car.

• Two men were slain Wednesday in separate shootings not far from each other on the West Side, officials said.
  
  Willie Parker, 38, was shot by at least one occupant of a passing vehicle about 5:45 p.m. in the 1000 block of North Monticello Avenue, officials said.
  
  
  [...] More than eight hours earlier, 24-year-old Juan Hernandez, of Cicero, was shot in the 4400 block of West Augusta Boulevard.
  

• A 37-year-old Chicago man was shot and killed while changing a tire Wednesday night at a South Side gas station, officials said.

  Lamont Johnson, of the 7800 block of South Calumet Avenue, pulled up in his vehicle to a Marathon gas station near East 79th Street and South King Drive about 10:10 p.m.

What the hell? Did J-Fed's pet unit have the night off? Because there's no way that the Districts can be staffed this inadequately. J-Fed said we're up to strength.

So who are you going to believe - a superintendent who has no idea about big city policing but says everything is hunky-dory...

...or the dead bodies showing up at the morgue on a cool Wednesday night?

New Search Rules

Expect a Legal Bulletin on this one shortly.

• The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a ruling that modifies the search incident to arrest doctrine, rejecting a broad reading of New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454 (1981). In Arizona v. Gant, — U.S. —, 2009 WL 1045962, the Court overturned the search incident to arrest of Rodney Gant’s car after Gant was arrested for driving with a suspended license, handcuffed and secured in the back of a patrol car. With several officers at the scene, officers found cocaine in Gant’s car during the search incident to the driver license arrest.

  The Court held that a search of the passenger compartment of a vehicle following an arrest is allowed “only if [1] the arrestee is within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search or [2] it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest. When these justifications are absent, a search of an arrestee's vehicle will be unreasonable unless police obtain a warrant or show that another exception to the warrant requirement applies.”

Some details will need to be hammered out and interpreted, but what we're reading is that once you remove a subject from anything that he could possibly reach in the vehicle, the vehicle becomes off limits to a certain extent, especially in the case of traffic law violations.

Be aware that something may have changed. We aren't sure this is an earth-shattering change, but it's another procedural hurdle to clear.