Rahm Emanuel isn’t happy with Moody’s Investors Service, so he’s trying to make the rating agency go away. Emanuel’s administration disclosed Tuesday that the mayor formally asked Moody’s to withdraw all of the city ratings. The disclosure came ahead of investor meetings set for this week. Moody’s declined. Comment: A reminder that ratings agencies are prostitutes, but they are forced prostitutes. If they try to be honest they’ll be whipped, and certainly won’t get hired. If you don’t know how this business works, see the movie The Big Short.

The U.S. Justice Department will conclude in a report to be released Friday that the Chicago Police Department displayed a pattern and practice of violating residents’ constitutional rights over years, a law enforcement official said Wednesday.

“I’ve come to understand that Chicago, and its surrounding areas, have become hell on Earth for any thinking person with a modicum of self-respect. This has become an insane, dangerous, soul-destroying place, and I’ve had enough.”

The intersection of Harlem Avenue and Cermak Road, a “citation supernova,” has generated more than $20.7 million in red-light camera citations since the start of 2014. Comment: Fellow victims of some of these know they are little more than  drive-by, random tax shots hitting you.

In 2016 alone, the seventeen North Riverside retired firefighters collected at least $1.154 million in benefits– nearly as much in a single year as they all saved combined during their careers.

More than a year after a stampede of clout players put forward proposals, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration still has not closed a deal on a major planned revamping of Midway Airport’s concessions.

Chicago is conducting a full court press with investors this week to promote its budget and pension funding gains ahead of a $1.16 billion general obligation sale. Even if investors downplay the city’s own looming fiscal pressures, its spread penalties next week could suffer from fallout from the Chicago Public Schools’ fiscal woes and the state government’s political dysfunction, market participants said.