pic via Chicago Tribune
DALEY NEWS
Mayor Daley started his Tuesday at Westinghouse High School, welcoming public school students back for the start of the 2009-2010 school year. Westinghouse was not a coincidental choice. It is one of two dozen new or transformed schools opening this fall and will no doubt be another factor in judging the success or failure of the mayor's CPS overhaul.
Also a factor will be whether officials can curb the number of students killed by violence. Last week, CPS chief Ron Huberman unveiled a $30-million plan targeting the most at-risk students and schools. The initiative takes a refreshing step back from zero tolerance and invests more in counseling, jobs training and security. As promising a plan as it is, the question remains how this will be paid for if CPS is running a $475-million deficit and faces one next year almost twice as much. Stay tuned.
The mayor ended the day with the German American Day reception, but not before paying a visit to his favorite Oscar-nominated actress/talk show host whose name begins with the letter O. No, not Olivia de Havilland. Daley and his wife Maggie stopped by the Michigan Avenue fiesta for Oprah Winfrey's show and did not have to wait 15 hours to get killer seats.
DALEY CHATTER
If Daley started dancing before the Black Eyed Peas took the stage, it was because the City Council's Finance Committee moved the city one step closer to agreeing to the International Olympic Committee's host-city contract - aka: cap-free public spending. The measure moves to a vote before the full City Council tomorrow.
The deal includes an agreement to provide quarterly financial reports and the addition of two aldermen to the organizing committee that would replace Chicago 2016, if Chicago is the winning city.
The aldermen chosen?
10th Ward Ald. Ed Burke and 34th Ward Ald. Carrie Austin.
Yes, the same Ald. Burke who, the Sun-Times reports, spent $45,000 in taxpayer money on a fence and sidewalk to keep nearby high school students off his property. And, yes, that would be the same Ald. Austin who was one of ten aldermen who clouted their children into well-paid summer jobs with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
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