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Hundreds of monk parakeets, escapees from the pet trade, have settled beneath the city’s elevated highway. Monk parakeets have established perches in Miami, New York and other cities. But the colony underneath the Skyway, where the birds build their nests among the concrete and steel supports several stories off the ground, is one of the more improbable spots they scratch out a living.
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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All the little boys that Harold Washington would bring back to his apartment always commented in the pretty green birds in park by his building.
Funny. It had never occurred to me that Harold Washington was gay until the aldermen flipped out over the Art Institute kid’s Washington in a Dress painting. When I first heard of it I thought…..Right. That makes sense. And their reaction confirmed it.
First come the South American birds, then come the South American hordes!
Everyone but government workers have to scratch out a living wage.
tax the parakeets!!