China's CRRC wins $1.3 billion deal to supply Chicago rail cars

China's CRRC Corp has won a $1.31 billion order to build rail cars for Chicago, the city's transit authority said, marking the train maker's second major supplier deal in the United States. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) said on Wednesday that it had awarded the order to build 846 railcars to CRRC subsidiary CSR Sifang America, which had submitted the lowest bid. It did not name the other bidders.
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Burger King manager: Chicago cops erased shooting video

A Burger King manager who accuses Chicago police of erasing surveillance video in the case of a black teenager shot last year by a white officer says he has testified before a federal grand jury investigating the shooting.
It's not clear what that video might have shown, but the accusation of tampering has fueled the anger of protesters who say the city, the police and local prosecutors have mishandled the case.


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Chicago credit rating plummets to junk status following pension ruling

A major rating agency downgraded the city of Chicago's creditworthiness two notches to junk status, a move likely to increase the city's borrowing costs and make investors skittish as the financial world reacts to last week's Illinois Supreme Court ruling that bodes ill for city efforts to resolve its massive pension fund shortfall.
Moody's Investors Service downgraded the city's debt rating on bond issues backed by property, sales and fuel tax revenue to Ba1, one notch below investment grade, from Baa2, specifically citing last week's Supreme Court ruling on an attempt to cut state pension costs. Moody's calls the Ba1 rating "speculative," which many investors simply call "junk," meaning investments in them carry far greater risk of a loss.


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Puerto Rico exports its drug addicts to Chicago

It all started about a year ago when I began noticing more homeless men in the Chicago neighborhood where I work. Back of the Yards is a community that faces some of the city’s toughest problems: joblessness, crime, drug use.  Many of these men would be sitting in doorways or shuffling along, many times asking for money.  One day, I asked one of them: “Where are you from?” He told me a story that I later heard again and again and again.  The men told me they were from Puerto Rico. They were addicted to heroin and they ended up in Chicago because someone in Puerto Rico drove them to the airport and put them on a plane with a one-way ticket to Chicago. They were promised a great rehab place, with over-the-top services and plenty of medical staff. One of them is Angel, a short and dark-skinned man. He’s missing most of his top teeth. He said he came to Chicago from Puerto Rico seven years ago for help kicking a heroin addiction.

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Even Chicago is fed up! Furious black protesters call Obama ‘worst president ever elected’

Residents from Chicago’s South Side expressed frustration Friday over President Obama’s attention to prioritizing the illegal immigrant crisis at the border over their city’s escalating violence.  During a protest outside the Chicago Police Department some residents called for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy over their failure to address the violence – and even Obama’s as well, according to Rebel Pundit.  “Barack will go down as the worst president ever elected, Bill Clinton was the African-American President,” one resident told Rebel Pundit. “President Barack needs to pay attention to Chicago, if he cannot pay attention to Chicago and the African-American community, he needs to resign.”

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Al Sharpton's Chicago Town Hall Erupts into Revolt Against Machine Politics

On Thursday, a town hall meeting hosted by Al Sharpton and the National Action Network to address gun violence exploded into a revolt against “Chicago Machine” politics, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the aldermen in City Hall, with panel and audience members calling to vote out their elected officials.

One 82-year-old preacher even called for “Tea Party” style meetings in some of Chicago’s south side communities such as Altgeld Gardens and Trumbull Park.

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'Cairo On The Lake' Meets Concealed Carry In Illinois

Guns: Illinois has become the last state in the union to allow citizens their full Second Amendment rights, and officials in the murder capital of America worry about the consequences of citizens defending themselves.

Illinois' legislature on Tuesday voted to let gun owners carry concealed weapons. The action followed a violent and bloody Fourth of July weekend in President Obama's hometown during which 74 people were shot and 12 were killed.

Permission for concealed carry in Illinois was prompted by a ruling late last year by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. It found that Illinois' law, the most restrictive in the country, violated the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The court ultimately gave the state until July 9 to rewrite it.

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WSJ: Why Chicago Loves Portland

WALL STREET JOURNAL/OPINION, 2/2/2010 (Hat tip: Linda Bartcher) - Mayor Daley has his eye on jobs from high-tax Oregon: The bright idea comes from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who is looking to lure employers from Oregon after that state's voters approved a huge tax increase last week. The tax hike in Oregon "will help our economic development immediately. You'd better believe it," Hizzoner told the Chicago Sun Times late last week. "We'll be out in Oregon enticing corporations to relocate to Chicago." Read more at WSJ...
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AIM: Van Jones Mystery Solved?

ACCURACY IN MEDIA, 9/4/2009 by Cliff Kinkaid - The Obama Administration refuses to say how communist Van Jones was hired as the "Green Jobs Czar" and who recommended him. The administration refuses to say who knew what about his communist background. The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), where Jones is employed, told me, in response to a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, that it had no documents about his hiring or communist background. But some possible explanations for the mysterious appointment are now coming into focus. Read more at AIM... Read More......