-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
On June 30, Mike Flannery, political editor of Fox 32-Chicago, will retire after 50 years on the beat. He sat down with the Sun-Times, where he got his start, to reminisce about his storied career and the “blind spots” of the Chicago mayors he has covered.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Too bad, he’s a class act and an equal opportunity offender-he calls out politicians of both parties who are screw ups. I can’t read the article, but loved the man for unbiased reporting over the years. Most reporters lean so far to the left their heads are at about 7 o’clock on a clock face.
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The Flannery Fired Up show could be good but it’s so short, once you take out for all the commercials (about 15 min), it’s a joke. And pathetically there’s no other political coverage on broadcast tv other than npr/Chicago Tonight, which leans very left
Bummer. Flannery has been among the very few in Illinois media who gave a fair place to voices like Wirepoints’.