Progress Illinois

Over the weekend, the Sun-Times' Fran Spielman summed up the incredible amount of work awaiting Chicago Mayor Richard Daley now that his Olympics obsession has faded:

After spending his political capital on the Olympics at the expense
of higher priorities, the ...

After Chicago lost its bid for the 2016 Olympics, author Amy Dean expressed skepticism that the benefits of the proposed development projects would have ever reached the city's working people.

No one expected Chicago 2016 to get booted in the first round of Olympics bidding this morning in Copenhagen.  But that's what happened:

Chicago has been eliminated in the first round of International
Olympic Committee voting, and Tokyo was eliminated in the second ...

As Media Matters documented yesterday, "the conservative media have opened a new front from which to attack
President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama's support of Chicago's
bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics: smearing the city as unfit to
host the Olympic Games, ...

The Reader's Mick Dumke said all that can really be said about yesterday's Chicago City Council meeting.  In a string of glowing speeches, alderman after alderman blessed the Olympics host city agreement -- which exposes taxpayers to unlimited financial liability if the 2016 ...

The City Council's Finance Committee signed off
on an ordinance today that would provide the 2016 Olympic Bid Committee
with a taxpayer-funded blank check if Chicago indeed lands the 2016
games and exceeds its privately-funded budget. In what Ald. Manny
Flores (1st Ward) ...

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will pick the host of the 2016 Olympics in less than a month. With the bid process now entering the home stretch, it's been a busy week in Olympics-related news. Flores' Oversight Ordinance Back in June, Ald. Manny Flores ...

This month, Tribune business columnist David Greising has written two pieces urging more disclosure on the part of Chicago's Olympic bid committee and, in doing so, spurred a lengthy editorial from his paper on the topic.  On Friday, he appeared on Chicago Tonight's "...

In recent weeks, we've watched Tribune business columnist David Greising wake up to the idea that, if Chicago wins the 2016 Olympic bid, it could become just the latest venue for closed-door cronyism, corruption, and mismanagement.  More specifically, Greising has urged Mayor ...

In today's paper, Tribune business columnist David Griesing whacks
the Chicago 2016 bid committee for being so discreet about their
Olympic fundraising and explains to the public why they don't have to
accept the shroud of secrecy. A choice excerpt:

Now, [bid
...