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Why citizens hate public sector unions

Every once in a while the Lovely Mrs. Gekko will tell me that some of her coworkers are grumbling about a union at her work place.

For about the fifth time I simply say "Pick the worst emplyee on your floor. Those will be your co workers afer the union gets in."

If the union wants to know why they're losing support from the public it allegedly works for. They may want to consider this............


Nelson Hamm, who lives in Devou Park, says he was sitting on his couch Thursday afternoon when he noticed his 3-year-old Golden Retriever, Nala, run up to the mail truck.

"He started up and I said, ‘get outta there Nala, get outta there,' and he started up over her, but he couldn't get all the way over her head and neck," said Hamm, "He backed down and went up again and couldn't get over her, then he backed up a third time and the tires were spinning and smoke was coming out of her neck."

At first, Hamm thought Nala was okay.

"She got up and I thought, ‘My God she's alright,' but she wasn't," said Hamm. "She came inside the door, fell on the floor and I kissed her nose and she licked me and dropped dead."

Hamm said the mailman went up the street and went about his business like nothing happened. "My buddy who he delivered some stuff to said, ‘Did you see how fast that guy was going?' and I said, ‘Yea, I saw him,'" said Hamm. "He said, ‘I wonder why?' and I said, ‘I know why. My dog's laying there dead in the house."

The postal inspector in Covington is investigating the matter, but told Hamm's neighbors that the carrier admitted to running over the dog. The carrier told his boss that he saw the dog go back inside the house and didn't realize the dog had died.


Here's what you can bank on. This guy's union will protect him to no ends and he won't miss one day's pay.

And they'll all wonder why people don't think they deserve the pensions they're getting.

Life in "Progress" State - Illinois edition

Illinois lawmakers have found a way to whittle $1.3 billion from state government’s massive backlog of unpaid bills, but it comes too late for The Counseling Center of Lake View.

The Chicago nonprofit, a mental health services provider, shut down at the end of April, waiting on about $200,000 in state money.

Anticipating an annual summer stall in the already-slow payments and eroded by years of cuts in state funding, Executive Director Sharon Kayser said the agency opted to close and find new places for 400 clients rather than continue to slowly fade away.

“It’s really hard to put together a budget and run a business with that level of uncertainty. Payments, they typically stop around May and don’t pick up again until September,” she said Thursday as she tied up the center’s loose ends. “It was only going to get worse.”

Across Illinois, the now $8.5 billion backlog has become a fact of life for people doing business with the state. 

As The Associated Press reported in a series last fall, the state has turned to a deliberate policy of not paying billions of dollars in bills for months at a time, creating a cycle of hardship and sacrifice for residents and businesses helping the state carry out some of its most crucial tasks.

Public schools, as of late May, are waiting on $562 million, social services $329 million and Medicaid $944 million, according to the state Comptroller’s Office. While the damage has been extreme for Illinoisans like Kayser, others have found ways to deal with what they call the new normal, such as service cuts and funding from other sources, including the federal government, private grants and donations.

More......

Life in "Progress" City - Chicago

How are conservatives responsible for this............

Another weekend of shootings in Chicago had claimed six lives and wounded dozens more as of Sunday evening, police said. The shootings occurred from late Friday afternoon through Sunday across the city. About 40 people suffered non-fatal gunshot wounds in just 22 incidents during the weekend, according to a Tribune tally.

Two people were killed in shootings from Saturday night into Sunday morning. Police officials on Sunday were still compiling a list of confirmed shootings and victims during the hectic overnight period that saw officers in some districts racing from one shooting to another.

One fatality, a 16-year-old boy, died after being shot on the porch of his Southwest Side home about 8 p.m. Saturday, police said. Joseph Briggs, of the 6100 block of South Rockwell Street, was pronounced dead at 1:40 a.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Also killed overnight was Donnell Smith, 50, who was shot in the stomach about 2:20 a.m. Sunday in the 7500 block of South Drexel Avenue in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. Smith, of the 8100 block of South Talman Avenue, was first taken to Jackson Park Hospital before being transferred to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County where he was pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m., according to the medical examiner's office.

It's a good thing Chicago has tough gun laws. Otherwise, someone might get shot.

More...........

From the party of the little guy

A billionaire Chicago family that has donated and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for President Obama got a deal from the federal government to avoid paying all of a $460 million settlement it agreed to in the 2001 failure of a Chicago-area bank it owned, while 1,400 former depositors are still owed more than $10 million in lost savings.

And now, 11 years later, the prospect that any of the depositors will get their money back is bleak.

The Pritzker family, which made its fortune in hotels and manufacturing, agreed to a $460 million settlement offer in December 2001 to avoid sanctions and civil lawsuits in the failure of Superior Bank in Hinsdale, Ill.

But after paying $316 million of the interest-free debt, the family quietly struck a deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) in June 2011 to discount the balance in return for paying off the debt early.

“We have been stiffed again,” said Fran Sweet, 67, a depositor still owed $70,000. “It is a lot to lose. We are not wealthy people. We are white-collar and blue-collar workers who saved this money, [or] thought we saved this money.”

More....

"Fine?"