Out of “left field” or handing his seat to the “right”?

via [ NWI Times ]

Thomas National

via [ NWI Times ]

EAST CHICAGO | Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. is pushing to remove East Chicago Mayor George Pabey from his leadership of the citys Democratic precinct organization in the wake of Pabeys indictment on a public corruption charge.

McDermott, the Lake County Democratic chairman, said Tuesday morning, “I hope Mayor Pabey will step down. This is an important election cycle for Democrats, and George Pabey has bigger problems on his plate. He needs to worry about the criminal charges pending against him and voluntarily step aside.”

Damian Rico, a spokesman for Pabey, said Tuesday that Pabey didnt have an immediate response to McDermotts call to step down, saying it was the first he had heard of it.

“He hasnt had any communication with Tom McDermott. He doesnt feel comfortable commenting on that,” Rico said.

Political insiders sympathetic to Pabey, called McDermotts gambit a political power grab. McDermott and Pabey have been at odds for months. The two most recently backed rival candidates for county recorder, with McDermotts candidate, Michelle Fajman, winning over East Chicago City Councilwoman Myrna Maldonado, who Pabey had endorsed.

Read more…

Thomas Local

There is a lot to celebrate today.

via [ WBEZ - Chicago Public Radio ] Michael Puente

via [ NWI Times ] East Chicago Mayor George Pabey indicted

East Chicago Mayor George Pabey and an employee of the city’s engineering department have been indicted in Hammond federal court on criminal charges they conspired to use city property and services in a home that Pabey purchased in Gary’s Miller Beach neighborhood.

The four count indictment was announced Wednesday afternoon, and names the 59-year-old Pabey and Jose Angel Camacho, a 52-year-old supervisor in the city’s engineering department who is currently assigned to the East Chicago Marina.

Pabey and Camacho are expected to surrender and appear Thursday for an initial appearance in Hammond federal court.

“This is another indictment in the ongoing federal effort to investigate public corruption,” U.S. Attorney David Capp said. “Our office will continue to investigate allegations of corruption and we will follow the evidence wherever it leads.”

East Chicago spokesman Damian Rico said city officials wouldn’t comment Wednesday, and that Pabey would issue a statement mid-day Thursday.

Federal prosecutors allege that between October 2007 and August 2008 Pabey and Camacho conspired to use city employees and money to remodel and renovate the Gary home that Pabey owns at 8530 Locust Avenue.

Specifically, Pabey and Camacho used East Chicago employees to pour concrete, paint and complete general home improvements at the Locust Avenue house.

While performing the work, employees were paid by the City of East Chicago.

The indictment also alleges that Camacho used an engineering department account to purchase items for the Miller Beach residence, including bathtub fixtures, a 40-gallon gas heater and doors.

The purchases were billed to and paid for by the city, and East Chicago employees installed the items in the Miller Beach residence, prosecutors allege.

According to the indictment, Camacho later attempted to interfere with witnesses, and approached a city employee who worked at the Miller residence, telling them to investigators about his work at the home. Count 4 of the indictment alleges that Camacho approached another city employee and told that employee not to tell investigators anything about having worked at the Miller residence.

The indictment also seeks forfeiture of any property considered proceeds from the alleged criminal activity.

The case was investigated by the FBI, the IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General.

More to come?

Thomas Local

There is not doubt I tend to conflate the political economy on the southern shores of Lake Michigan with Israel’s occupation & settlement of Palestinian land. Granted there are significant limits to this comparison. Yet, it is clear the concentration of negative externalities attributable to our nation’s heavy industrial base seriously impairs our fence line communities and is very much a scar on the values of Democracy we hold dear. Simply put, Democracy does not exist here.

Existing Conditions:

• Arguably the most polluted waters in the country - the Indiana Harbor Shipping Canal (IHSC): The only waterway to fail all beneficial uses.
  • Joerse Beach: most contaminated beach in the Great Lakes and third most in the country.
• Arguably the most polluted air-shed in the country - Lake county indiana’s air-shed ranks as the 9th most polluted in the country (of 3140 counties) with the sources of pollution attributed to the three big industries concentrated on East Chicago’s lakefront - BP, Mittal Steel, and U.S. Steel.
• A Gated Industrial Community with >80% of East Chicago’s land-use is dedicated to heavy industry - ~50% of these industrial lands are out of productive use and considered contaminated, e.g., brownfields
  • 14% of East Chicago’s land-use is dedicated Residential - ~17% of these residential properties are apart of a superfund site.

When I look at the impact our nation’s heavy industrial base has had on the local populations, culture, land, air, water and biology in my community, I see a misapplication of rights and justice - environmental justice. This prompts me to identify the problems with the fragmented pattern of land use, populations, and the expression of political will seen in the mapping of Palestinian lands.

From the [ American Friends Service Committee ]

via [ Matthew Yglesias ]

One of the lessons I took away from the Carter controversy was that the use of the term “apartheid” seems to shut down people’s critical faculties and make them defensive. So I generally prefer to set it aside. The point is that there’s a political system in the West Bank where the Jewish residents have the right to vote, have privileged access to water, have exclusive access to some roadways, have privileged rights to travel, etc., none of which are shared by the non-Jewish residents. You can call it what you like, but it’s not democracy.

Thomas International

via [ Matthew Yglesias ]

Thomas National

via [ NY Times ] “Guantanamo Reunion, by Way of BBC” by Brian Stelter

New to Facebook, Brandon Neely was searching the site for acquaintances in 2008 when he typed in the names of some of the detainees he had guarded during his tenure as a prison guard at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Captor and Captives Meet Post Guantánamo - NYTimes.com.

Thomas International

via [ Democracy Now ]

Thomas International

From what I can gather from Frontline’s documentary is that the Afghanistan War is as much about managing agrarian market forces as it is about battling an insurgency. A problem I see is in this short piece is that America is once again relying solely on forces trained to deliver and manage overwhelming violence. Granted they are trying to put on their best face for the local farmers, but it is not ringing true.

This may sound ridiculous, but it appears to me that America would be more effective if it relied more on cultural agents that were similar to the small Afghan farmers and villagers - a kind of peace corp. I realize America has classified this region as a war zone, but for locals it is home, and to a certain extent life goes on normally, so it ought not to be crazy to suggest using a normalizing force that they can identify with and gain trust in more quickly.

America is a complex culture. It has many people and farmers with similar lifestyles as these people. I suggest sending in a peaceful force of agrarian faiths including Muslims. The Mennonite Central Committee immediately comes to mind, and there are many more organizations doing similar work. Many of these groups have been doing this kind of work for decades throughout the world. I am thinking of the Mennonites because central to their faith is the doctrine of pacifism. In areas of conflict this makes them honest agents of good faith. They are also known to build relationships through concrete hands-on work to address basic human needs such as water and food supply.

Thomas International, National

Steve Clemen’s article is about the best articulated piece I’ve read today on Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Obama’s ‘unclenched fist’ won the prize

Cynics will say that Oslo was jealous that Copenhagen, Denmark, scored a visit from President Obama, and giving him a Nobel was the only way to get him to Norway.

But the Nobel Committee’s decision to make Obama the only sitting U.S. president since Woodrow Wilson to receive the Nobel Peace Prize shows the committee’s clear-headed assessment that Obama’s “unclenched fist” approach to dealing with the world’s most thuggish leaders has had a constructive, systemic impact on the world’s expectations of itself.

Obama has helped citizens all around the world — including in the United States — to want a world beyond the mess we have today in the Middle East and South Asia. They want a world where America is benign and positive, and where other leaders help in supporting the struggles of their people for better lives rather than securing themselves through crude power.

Commentary: Obama’s ‘unclenched fist’ won the prize - CNN.com.

Ruffled Feathers
I went looking for a media clip that treated Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize as news and not something to spin suspicion, or asked if he deserved it. I had to resort to a foreign news outlet - ITN news out of the UK.

Thomas International

[ Ameristar ]

This post is mostly for local consumption as they are well aware of the issues surrounding Casino Funds. Like many, I am not an advocate for casinos, but surprisingly the success of the entertainment and gaming market in East Chicago is a clear indication that East Chicago is a viable host for markets other than heavy industry.

At Issue: Where Casino Funds are committed

Background: At the time the gaming application was being drafted the community, viewing the political establishment as corrupt, were unwilling to approve a gaming permit in East Chicago if local politicians had total control over the funds. Thus the creation of a not-for-profit foundation was included in the agreement. Today Mayor Pabey is seeking total control over casino funds, and spending millions of dollars on Republican lawyers to do so.

A) State law applies to all cities with gaming and commits:

1. 5% of gaming taxes to be paid to the City
2. a “head tax” of $1.00 for each boat visitor to be paid to the City

B) The final agreement negotiated with the gaming operator over and beyond state statue commits:

1. the gamer to pay an additional 1% gaming revenue to the City
2. the gamer to pay an additional 2% gaming revenue to two non-profit foundations known as the Foundations of East Chicago (FEC)
3. the gamer to pay an additional 1% gaming revenue to Second Century Corp, a for-profit org.

.

On August 27, 2009 the NWI Times ran this editorial.

OUR OPINION: GIVE EAST CHICAGO THE SAME KIND OF ARRANGEMENT OTHER CASINO HOST CITIES HAVE INSTEAD OF DIVERTING MUCH OF THE REVENUE TO THE NONPROFIT FOUNDATIONS OF EAST CHICAGO AND THE FOR-PROFIT SECOND CENTURY CORP

For the vast majority of the Time’s audience, on first blush, this argument appears to be common sense. But for those who are well aware of East Chicago politics, they can see plainly how the Times is manufacturing public opinion around the taking of community focused funds from this enormously impoverished community. In the editorial the Times employs a rhetorical slight of hand switching “A” with “B” (from above) and expecting their average reader not to know the difference. The following is my response to the above editorial. It was sent to the Times as a Letter-to-the-editor. Doug Ross, the Times editorial page editor, requested I revise the letter down to 200 words, which I did. The letter was never published, so I’m publishing here.

Your editorial concerning the East Chicago gaming funds is counterfactual to the evidence you present and the conclusions you make.

You acknowledge that “Each Hoosier city hosting a casino has its own agreement for how the city should benefit from the casino,” It then follows that each city has a “unique” agreement through which casinos enter into to provide more than the taxes they are required. The amounts and the manner in which Indiana casinos have agreed to pay beyond their statutory share vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and just as important, those amounts may be paid directly to charitable organizations or to governmental organizations. In East Chicago, the casino pays its agreed amounts both to the City and private organizations, as is the case in several other Indiana gaming jurisdictions.

It is not unusual for businesses to set up non-profit organizations for distributing charitable contributions. In fact the RDA is based on the same model as the foundations of East Chicago. Both are non-profit organizations funded by casino funds. The difference is the Foundations of East Chicago distributes their funds within the community the casino resides, while the RDA redistributes their funds throughout the region.

Additionally, you fail to acknowledge your own critical editorial entitled “Mayor Pabey, tear down that wall of secrecy,” 3/22/09, where you draw attention to the City’s lack of public disclosure of information, to the community or the press. Similarly, members of the Common Council have not received information, and have resorted to lawsuits.

This situation merits a comparison between the foundations of East Chicago and the city on how casino funds have been managed and spent. Contrary to the Foundation of East Chicago, which has held several open public meetings attended by more than 200 residents to plan out the use of their funds, the city has never held such a meeting. And upon review of receipts of city casino funds, attained through Indiana Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request by the Indiana State Gaming Commission, reveals many questionable expenditures including but not limited to a $20,000 legal settlement by the law department, headed by the Mayor’s cousin, Carmen Fernandez, to the Mayor’s other cousin William Pabey for pleading guilty of theft at the casino.

I would like to believe the NWI Time’s editorial staff is capable of coming to conclusions that are consistent and supported by evidence they present.

<End Notes>
45% of the casino was originally owned by a group of investors called Waterfront Entertainment and Development Inc. This group had 13 original investors, including Mayor Pabey. Article

Additionally, the State Board of Account’s 2005 Annual Financial Review of the City of East Chicago cites the Pabey Administration for spending $1.5 million in gaming funds without budget approval (page 48). (900k pdf) - View Document

“Upon review of expenditures from both funds, amounts were being spent prior to the budgets being approved. As of October 31 2005, $9,832,551 was spent from the Gaming Special Revenue Fund. At this date, the City has an appropriation in the amount of $5,000,000, and had prior year encumbrances totaling $3,292,088; thus, the City had spent $1,540,463 over what had been appropriated to that date.

Indiana Code 36-4-8-2 states in part:
“Money may be paid out of the city treasury only on warrant of the city fiscal officer. Unless a statue provides otherwise, the fiscal officer may draw a warrent against a fund of the city only if:

(1) an appropriation has been made for that purpose and the appropriation is not exhausted;…”

</End Notes>

Thomas East Chicago, Local

Lawrence Wilkerson looks at Shirley Anne Warshaw’s new book The Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney. This is a comprehensive rendering of the Cheney’s evisceration of the country’s regulatory system, where my Governor, Mitch Daniel’s appears in a supporting role and referred to as ”Dick Cheney’s Dick Cheney.”  This portrait gives the moniker “My Man Mitch” a whole new meaning.

via [ The Washington Note ]

Whether oil, gas, forestry, mining, fisheries, national parks, clean air, pharmaceuticals, food, endangered species - you name it - Cheney was the kingpin in the dismantling of relevant oversight and regulation.

Cheney managed this principally by putting into the regulatory or oversight positions within the executive branch of our government, people who either hailed from long service in the industry or field they were overseeing or regulating, or who had lobbied for that industry or field for long years, or a combination of the two.

Not content to have CEQ, EPA, the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Interior at his beck and call, Cheney went after the real seat of executive power - the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The OMB was the ultimate reviewer of all proposed regulatory changes. Its director, Mitch Daniels, as Warshaw points out, was referred to as “Dick Cheney’s Dick Cheney.” Daniels, coming from the huge pharmaceutical company Eli Lily, knew big business. Sean O’Keefe, another Cheney man, was OMB’s deputy. And with John Graham and, later, Susan Dudley in the key regulatory positions at OMB, Cheney had a winning hand. Graham at Harvard and Dudley at George Mason University had both made names in risk management analysis concerning industrial pollution and corporate malfeasance that were shamefully full of holes but extremely pro-business.

In the case of Dudley, the analyses were underwritten by such sponsors as ExxonMobil and BP Amoco. From their positions in OMB’s office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Graham and Dudley gave Cheney the ultimate power to oversee and check if necessary almost everyone in the bureaucracy concerned with regulation-writing.

The Washington Note

A Local Impact
National policies are not abstractions when your community sits on the worlds greatest fresh water resource managed by several international treaties and is the home to three of the largest, wealthiest, and to a measurable degree dirtiest multinational industries; BP, ArcelorMittal, and US Steel. This is how policies have location with real effects. The legacy of Cheney’s energy task force and environmental policies continue today unopposed, and this has a real negative effect for East Chicago.

East Chicago is the site of BP’s Canadian Crude project. The BP project is GROUND ZERO for concentrating highly negative environmental impacts in a poor minority community while directing benefits elsewhere.

Recently BP convened the “Good Government Initiative,” essentially cutting-off political opposition to there project while simultaneously walking behind the public process to extract a tax abatement from East Chicago without a single public hearing. BP also effectively pushed through a flawed NPDES permit without a single political eyebrow raised, editorial written, or an environmental group objecting in Indiana. Instead of calling foul regional leaders, including the regional news paper - NWI Times, rallied behind BP against out-of-state opposition, by citing the bad environmental stewardship of others.

Thomas National, State

Although, I don’t know all the facts behind Yosi Sergant’s resignation, I’m reluctant to come to his defense like I would for Van Jones. I am simply not a fan of his work with Shepard Fairey on the HOPE poster.

From "Guerrillero Heroico" to Jim Fitzpatrick's "Che Guervara" to fake Warhol

Steven Mcdonald’s article “Yosi Sergant and the Art of Change: The Publicist Behind Shepard Fairey’s Obama Hope Posters ” offers some insight in to Yosi Sergant and his work.

via [ Atlantic Wire ]

The Atlantic follows the Yosi Sergant story from offensive conference call to resignation.

The communications director for the National Endowment for the Arts, Yosi Sergant, resigned Thursday, a month after becoming the target of conservative ire for suggesting in a conference call that NEA-funded artists use their work to support the Obama administration. Specifically, Sargent asked artists “to pick something, whether it’s health care, education, the environment,” and apply their “artistic creative communities’ utilities and bring them to the table.” Conservative bloggers, including an artist who participated in the call, considered this government propagandizing and a misuse of NEA funds. A brief history:

[ Read More ]

Thomas National

August 15, 2009 Pittsburg, Pa: Netroots Nation. 

Thomas National

Wife Paid $2.1M to Serve on the Boards of Several Healthcare Companies

via [ Post-trib ]

INDIANAPOLIS — As a board member of several health care companies, Sen. Evan Bayh’s wife has collected lucrative payments from some of the same businesses that would be most impacted by Congress’ proposed overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

Bayh, D-Ind., contends that the $2.1 million his wife, Susan, earned by serving on the boards of public health care companies from 2006 to 2008 represents no conflict of interest

Read more

Bayh health firm ties studied :: Indiana/Politics/Elections :: Post-Tribune.

Thomas National

[ Max Blumenthal ] In Jerusalem on the eve of Obama’s speech in Cairo. 

Thomas International

via the [ Sunlight Foundation ]

“Vis-a-Visclosky: Or How I Learned to Take Campaign Contributions and Turn Them Into Earmarks”

It comes as no surprise that Indiana Democrat Pete Visclosky’s favorite word to say in Congress is “Indiana.” While staying out of the spotlight in Washington, he has been a champion for his Northwestern Indiana congressional district, bringing home millions of federal dollars to create jobs and win fans. Since the decline in manufacturing, new jobs have become essential for this Rult Belt region and Visclosky, from his position on the House Appropriations Committee, has sought to get as big a piece of the federal pie as he can for his constituents.

This hard work bringing home federal dollars has made Visclosky a national news name as his connection to a lobbying firm, the PMA Group, which represented many of the recipients of federal money earmarked by the congressman, has brought him under investigation by the FBI. In the past two weeks, Visclosky’s offices and campaign committess have been subpoenaed and he has reliquished control of the Energy & Water Appropriations Subcommittee to Rep. Ed Pastor.

All of this is due to the connection between campaign contributions flowing from the PMA Group and their clients to Visclosky’s campaigns and the millions of dollars in earmarks to PMA Group clients that Visclosky secured in his post on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

After studying campaign contribution data for 1998-2008 (compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics) and earmark data for FY2008 and FY2009 (from both Taxpayers for Common Sense and Legistorm), the connection between those PMA Group clients that contributed money to Visclosky’s campaigns and the earmarks they received is clearly evident. The visualization below — created by our terrific designer Kerry Mitchell — shows how connected the earmarks are to the receipt of campaign contributions. Click on the image for a larger version:

My problem here is that many of these earmarks went to benefit the political elite in the region and did not go into benefitting the citizens.

Thomas Regional

via [ The Independent ]

One strategy of an intelligent society to gain territory is to attempt to embed meaning and cultural significance in a particular place. This is what Israel is doing with plans for a Jewish Archaeological Theme Park in Palestinian territory. 

On the eve of President Obama’s visit to the Middle East and his speech in Cairo. Max Blumenthal propels himself again into the middle of (it). Like many of his video reports Max places himself in the middle of his opponents power celebrations with a fearful and driven edge in his voice he again struggles for composure on the issues. Some of this composure may come from editing. Regardless he relies on the tradition of a truth to power journalism, a tradition that may not be as well respected in other parts of the world, not that it is so respected here in the U.S. 

Video journalist Max Blumenthal talks to many in the Jewish settler movement who put it all out there. Winners of the Moskowitz Prize state frankly that they want to continue the ethnic cleansing of Occupied Territories — and young kids parrot the meme that Palestinians have no right to lands that are Israel’s holy lands.

This cult of land expropriators needs to be rolled back. I understand the realities that there are certain settlements that will remain part of Israel when a Palestinian state is created — but in a fair land swap.

But the expansion of settlements that “bingo tycoon” Irving Moskowitz keeps pushing is undermining the security interests of all parties in the region — particularly Israel’s.

Blumenthal’s work is some of the most vital and creative journalism out there today.

- Steve Clemens

Thomas International

Think Progress » Evan Bayh votes against a national renewable electricity standard that even Republicans supported.

This morning, Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) “was the only Democrat to oppose a renewable-energy requirement” that even some Republicans supported. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee “voted down an amendment offered by Republican Senator Jeff Sessions that would have removed the renewable electricity standard from the energy package the panel is currently debating” by a vote of 9 to 13. Even though the Energy Information Administration has found that a much stronger standard would only affect electricity prices in Indiana by 6 percent in 2026, Bayh argued Indiana would be hit hard:

Bayh said Indiana would be among the states that would bear a disproportionate share of the cost of meeting the requirement. He said a fairer system would be offering tax credits for producing power from renewable sources.

The standard of 15 percent renewable energy or efficiency gains by 2021 is significantly weaker than President Obama’s preferred standard of 25 percent by 2025. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) joined 11 Democrats in support of the standard, and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) did not vote.

I am having a problem with my senator. We have been fighting hard and long for a RES in Indiana to no avail, because out leaders have been so dependent on money from the old energy sector, and have consequent done a poor job preparing the state to address the issues of the coming decades.

This is one reason for cultivating a creative class, especially among the Political Elite - for that is apparently Evan Bayh only qualification. I think he ought to feel a little political blow back for these kinds of things.

Thomas National

via [ Slate ] Dairy of a 100-Year-Old Man by Leon Despres

A Haiku for My Doctors, Sept. 11, 2008

I have made my visit to my heart doctor. Last time he told me to come back in two months. Today, he says cheerfully: “You’re doing well. Come back in six months.”

Six months! That’s like getting a gold bond on my life. Not payable for six months, or later. I am exhilarated. I must rely on a whole set of physicians. Today’s lively medical send-off stimulates me to write a haiku with a modest pattern at the end:

I owe them all so very much,
My life and fun and sense of ease
And welcome freedom from disease
My…

Cardiologist
Dermatologist
Ophthalmologist

And my … me-di-cin-nal generalist.

Challenging the Daley Machine: A Chicago Alderman’s Memoir by Leon Despres
Book Review: Political war stories from a thorn in the side of Chicago’s famous Boss

In 1955, south-sider Leon Despres was elected to the Chicago City Council-the same year that Paddy Bauler famously uttered that “Chicago ain’t ready for reform.” Ready or not, Chicago got twenty years of reform efforts from Despres, one of the few independents in the council and the most liberal alderman in the city. His demand to cut out the corrupt sale of city driveway permits made him enemies from the very beginning. Over the years his crusades to ban discrimination, preserve Chicago landmark buildings, and gain equality for African-Americans-when Daley-beholden African-American council members refused to help-threw wrench after wrench into the Machine. And, not incidentally, changed the city. But Challenging the Daley Machine is more than a memoir. It’s a historical portrait of the way things were done under the Boss, when changing times and a changing city forced the Machine to confront the problems Despres championed. His battles against the seemingly monolithic Machine are also an inspiration to anyone who is facing long odds, but is convinced he/she is on the side of right.

[ Chicago Tribune ]

Over his 101 years, Leon Despres took artist Frida Kahlo to the movies, drove the first Mayor Daley to distraction, and fought a long and often lonely crusade for civil rights and political reform that saw African-Americans gain entry to the mayor’s office and the White House.

Despres, a former Chicago alderman, died of heart failure Wednesday in his Hyde Park apartment, said Kenan Heise, who collaborated with Despres on his 2005 memoir….

During his 20 years on the City Council, he lost many more battles than he won against Richard J. Daley and the Democratic machine. When the mayor lost patience with the 5th Ward alderman, he simply turned off Despres’ microphone, said William Singer, a North Side independent alderman in the 1970s.

Yet the city has moved closer to much of what Despres fought for — fair elections and an end to patronage and segregation. Singer said younger Chicagoans may not realize how much the best of the city today reflects Despres’ legacy.

“For those of us who followed him to the City Council, he taught us that it was important for us to raise the issues even if we were sure to lose,” said Singer, who also ran for mayor against Richard J. Daley

Read more: Leon Despres, 1908-2009: Chicago alderman challenged elder Mayor Daley — chicagotribune.com.

Thomas Regional

Matt Yglesias points me to the Root

I am also concerned:

In November 2008, less than one week after winning the votes of city dwellers by a margin of 28 points, President-elect Barack Obama announced he would reward them by creating the first-ever “White House Office of Urban Policy.” Like other new aspects of Obama’s executive branch, appointing a city czar was intended to fast-track communications among city governments, federal agencies and the White House. With great fanfare, Obama dispatched his friend and fellow Chicagoan Valerie Jarrett to tell America that he was making good on his campaign pledge to “stop seeing cities as the problem and start seeing them as the solution.”

The Root: What Happened to Obama’s Office of Urban Policy?

Thomas National, Urbanism