A week’s worth of developing stories, odd events, and signs of the times, culled from the desks, inboxes, and wandering eyes of the editors
Prepare to Strike?
Insert your chosen cliché about history repeating itself here, because the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is considering another strike, and this is not a drill. As the city’s budget woes continue, CPS CEO Forrest Claypool warned in a Tribune op-ed on Sunday about the danger of “drastic cuts” for CPS teachers and classrooms if they don’t receive the remaining $480 million they are counting on for the budget from Springfield. In response to the threat of such cuts, the CTU announced that on Thursday they will hold a “practice vote” on whether to hold a strike, and president Karen Lewis has asked members to start saving money in case a strike does happen next year. If the CTU does eventually call for a strike, seventy-five percent of members would have to approve it in a formal vote—hence the need for a practice round to gauge support. While Claypool and CPS are putting the onus on Springfield to figure this out and deliver the big bucks, the CTU accused CPS in an October 30 blog post of failing to take responsibility for its own role in the crisis; the post argued they could have pursued measures such as asking for a property tax referendum, or avoided other actions the CTU considers missteps, such as charter expansion. In any case, don’t underestimate the CTU’s willingness to take this to a strike. As Lewis asked reporters, “Do they think we’re bluffing?”
Other Fish to Fry
Here are the facts: amid the stalemate on Illinois’ four-month-overdue 2016 budget, the City Council signed off on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s city budget, which includes a record $589 million property tax hike. In return, Governor Bruce Rauner bought some dead fish that will apparently soon make its way to Emanuel’s doorstep, a pointed reference to the old “Emanuel-sent-a-dead-fish-to-a-pollster-in-1988” chestnut, itself a pointed reference to a scene in The Godfather. Now, here are the other facts: Rauner and Emanuel have long been good friends, even sharing a Montana getaway in 2010, where they were photographed toting expensive bottles of Napa Valley red wine. Rauner bought the dead fish at Paulina Market in Lincoln Park, and the “dead fish” was in fact a pair of plastic-wrapped tuna steaks—less an insult than a potential meal. Seared tuna is known to go well with rosé or Pinot noir. Word’s out on whether or not Rauner also bought Paulina’s “Butcher your arms around me” apron.
Hillary Comes Home
Democratic presidential frontrunner and Chicago native Hillary Clinton spent no more than a few hours in Chicago on Monday, but she likely collected enough cash to make the trip worthwhile. Clinton, born at the Loop’s former Edgewater Hospital and raised in Park Ridge, dashed around the city to three different “fundraising conversations” on Monday. She headlined a lunch at the home of Invenergy CEO Michael Polsky where tickets went for $2,700, albeit after arriving more than an hour late. But she also used the trip to highlight issues of racial justice and gun violence, meeting with the mother of slain Ferguson teen Michael Brown and family members of several other youths who died in high-profile shootings. Her many return trips to the city are understandable, given how deep the pockets of some Chicagoans have proven to be. According to WGN 9 News, Clinton had raised more $2.6 million in Illinois as of September 30. Chicago may be the place from which to start locking down the Prairie State.