Federal bureaucracy, red tape – is that the key to thwarting sanctuary cities?

It has long been the conservative ideologue manner for dealing with abortion – a medical procedure they’re determined to view as criminal, but which sensible people do not.

Just another step in Trump's efforts … 

They have their similar-minded elected officials push for policies and regulations that make a person’s ability to obtain the procedure so much of a burden that it effectively makes it impossible for many women to obtain – even if it remains in the law books.

IT SEEMS THAT the ideologues are taking a similar approach to immigration; specifically to the notion of Sanctuary Cities. As in the concept that federal immigration officials ought to do their own work in enforcing federal policies that are overly harsh, and shouldn’t be able to draft local law enforcement into doing their leg work.

It seems they’re once again trying to mess with the federal funds that many local police departments rely upon to fund their efforts. Almost as though they’re saying cities are free to declare themselves sanctuaries from the ideological nonsense that has taken over our federal immigration policies.

But those cities can count on being messed with in ways that it will make it difficult, if not impossible, to do the jobs that actually are within their listed responsibilities.

That certainly is happening in Chicago, where on Friday the city felt compelled to file a lawsuit yet again against the U.S. government for messing with the funds the Chicago Police Department expect to get. And that, in fact, every police department gets.

EXCEPT THAT IN this Age of Trump, officials want to withhold as their way of pressuring Chicago into accepting a more intolerant attitude toward “all those foreigners” whom they’re determined to believe are the root cause of all the problems our society faces.

Because once again, Chicago is being forced to fight for its share of the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant funds – a program that has become a significant part of the federal government’s efforts to help bolster local law enforcement.

Which is something that President Donald J. Trump always claims he’s interested in doing whenever he goes on yet another of his nonsensical rants about how messed up he thinks Chicago is.

… to bully Chicago and Rahm Emanuel into submission

But yet what does he actually do? Trump has talks with singer Kanye West about a whole lot of nonsensical babble, while messing with the funding that might help local police to do more in addressing crime.

THIS PARTICULAR ISSUE is pathetic in so many ways – largely because it occurred a year ago.

Chicago had to take legal action in order to get its share of grant monies, and a U.S. District judge wound up ruling in the city’s favor that federal demands requiring city and Cook County jail officials notify them of every inmate they were holding who had questionable immigration status were not sufficient cause for the feds to withhold some $2 million from the Chicago Police Department.

Yet it seems the Justice Department is once again refusing to cough up the cash, as city officials still have yet to receive the letter confirming that they’ll get the money this year.

As though officials in this Age of Trump have decided they don’t want to pay attention to any court order. They’re going to persist in pursuing their ideologically-motivated policies whose long-range intent are to make certain people feel so unwelcome in this country that they’ll want to leave.

ALMOST LIKE THAT “self-deporting” nonsense talk that came up during the presidential campaign of 2012. It’s as if this goes beyond anything that Trump says or thinks, and has become a part of the Republican platform for addressing the issue.

Ought to think before rants about bullying

Ignore those people who won’t do what they’re told, and maybe they’ll just give up.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes the courts to issue an order forcing the federal government to cough up Chicago’s share of the proceeds. It’s not like there’s anything new this year that didn’t apply last year.

As for whether the same nonsense will occur again next year, most likely it will. That may be the ultimate reason that strong turnout come Nov. 6 (and again in 2020) is so important – perhaps the so-called “silent majority” needs to be reminded their guy got 3 million fewer votes in 2016 – and that they’re really a loud-mouthed minority whose ideological bigotry doesn’t belong in the 21^st Century.

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EXTRA: Can we truly get justice for Emmett Till all these years later?

I have to admit to being curious to learn what the “new information” is that could seriously make the Justice Department think it worth their time to reopen the investigation into the 1955 slaying of Emmett Till – the Chicago kid who was visiting family in racially-segregated Mississippi and managed to offend the local racial mores.

Still waiting, some 63 years later

The Associated Press reported Thursday on a Congressional report from March indicating that the Till slaying is officially up for investigation again.

WHAT STRIKES ME as odd about this is the timing – we’re now in the Age of Trump where the last thing you’d expect anybody to be doing is to dredge up an old criminal case that goes a long way to showing how the concept of “Make America Great Again” is a crock.

The Till death (he was severely beaten and his body dumped in a lake with hopes that his remains would never be uncovered) was one that motivated many people into realizing there was something wrong with the segregationist ways of old.

Even though I suspect the kind of people who look kindly upon the Donald Trump campaign theme think we lost something significant in our society when those ways of old were diminished.

It may be the kind of people who will try arguing that two men went on trial for the Till killing (both were acquitted by all-white juries inclined to look favorably on them).

AS THINGS STAND now, Justice Department officials admit they have suspects as to who killed Till – but they’re all dead. Nobody’s going to go to prison for what happened to Emmett.

Priorities; Yankees more important!

So what realistically comes of reopening the investigation?

There could be some value to forcing our society at-large to face up to what happened. Because it’s all too easy for the passage of time to dim the view of the atrocities of that era.

Besides, perhaps the sensibilities of the ‘past’ need to become publicly offended before we can truly move on as a society from the taint of our history.

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Is anyone big-enough to handle the ego-trip that is one-time Bright One?

It seems there are people whose egos are bloated enough that they’re willing to come up with cash to take on the financial obligations of publishing the Chicago Sun-Times.

Will Sun-Times columnists become 21st Century take on the "Men from 10" of one-tine Voice of Labor?

The cost is the price of being able to say one is a big-shot and a publisher of a “Major Metro Daily” newspaper in the Second City.

BECAUSE LOOKING AT the various reports about groups and individuals wishing to make a bid to purchase the newspaper, the ego factor seems to be the unifying point.

There’s that old cliché about, “Never Argue With A Man Who Buys Ink By The Barrel.” It seems there are those who think that being “that man” will mean everybody will be forced to listen to their perspectives on issues.

That’s about the only way from a purely objective sense that buying the Chicago Sun-Times makes any sense.

Crain’s Chicago Business reported that the family of billionaire Neil Bluhm is interested in making a bid for the newspaper. Bluhm is one of the wealthiest men in this country, and ranks third most wealthy in Illinois. Which would be interesting considering that the number one most wealthy in this state is Ken Griffin – the man who has been a significant financial backer of Gov. Bruce Rauner.

COULD IT BE Bluhm think he can use the pages of the city’s Number Two paper to challenge the governor? Could he think this is the cheaper route to gain influence rather than running for governor – as is billionaire J.B. Pritzker?

There also was the report by long-time local media writer Robert Feder who said that hedge fund manager Thane Ritchie (who has made past bids for publications such as Newsweek and also was a political supporter of Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot’s third-party political fantasies) is interested in the Sun-Times – along with former 43^rd Ward Alderman Edwin Eisendrath.

Once an alderman, Eisendrath now a publisher?

The one-time Lincoln Park neighborhood representative in the City Council who later served as a Chicago-based administrator for the Department of Housing and Urban Development back during the Bill Clinton presidency thinks that being the boss at the one-time Bright One is the way to get public influence.

Although what catches my eye about his alleged bid is that it’s not his money being put forth. He’s putting together a group that would gain the bulk of its funding from the Chicago Federation of Labor.

Bluth ego big enough for Sun-Times?

CONSIDERING HOW MUCH organized labor opposed Rauner’s bid for governor in 2014 and has been disgusted with how apathetic in its opposition to the governor the Sun-Times has become, I don’t doubt they would want to turn it into a hard-core voice in opposition to the Rauner vision of “reform” for Illinois.

Yes, I could see a younger generation ranting about the “bias” that such a pairing would result in. Although considering how many conservative ideologues are trying to buy their own newsgathering organizations so as to spread their take on issues, perhaps this is merely the other side engaging in similar tactics.

As for the older generations, it could be seen as a return to the world of local media. Since the Chicago Federation of Labor was the one-time, long-time owner of WCFL-AM – which used to openly boast of itself as the “Voice of Labor” just as WGN-AM was the broadcast partner of the alleged “World’s Greatest Newspaper.”

tronc Tower types watching ego maneuvers

Of course, WCFL turned rock ‘n’ roll back in the 1960s and was once a heavy-hitter on the local radio scene. “Super-CFL,” it used to call itself, which inspired Capitol Fax newsletter publisher Rich Miller to joke Monday about the Sun-Times becoming, “Super CS-T, the Voice of Labor!”

BUT THE CHICAGO Federation of Labor has been out of the local media scene since 1978 when they sold the radio station, which has gone through a few changes and has evolved into WMVP, the all-sports talk station at AM 1000.

Is this the return of local labor and its “voice” to the Chicago scene? Or are they likely to get out-bid by one of the other rich guys with egos run amok?

Although I did notice one report hinting that it might not be enough for someone to offer more money, and that the Justice Department’s anti-trust division may well decide to stay with the offer made last month for the Chicago Tribune to take over control of the Sun-Times – considering that Sun-Times management already relies on Tribune resources to print and distribute the physical product.

That might be the “nightmare” scenario for news consumers AND for the Chicago News Guild, both of which want to see a Sun-Times that remains separate of the Chicago Tribune. But whether anyone has a big-enough ego to take on the potential nightmare scenario of actually trying to run the Sun-Times remains to be seen.

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What are we spending that money on?

People who are hoping for dramatic changes in the way the Chicago Police Department operates must truly be feeling depressed following a pair of reports published in the daily newspapers on Tuesday.

It seems that some $4.5 million has been spent on legal and consulting fees due to actions being taken in response to the 2014 shooting death of a teenager on the South Side by a police officer. The Chicago Sun-Times reports the figures likely will continue to rise in coming months.

THOSE CONSULTANTS AND attorneys were supposed to be coming up with new means and procedures by which the city’s police could operate in ways that would be more respectful of the populace.

Yet these legal actions also go contrary to the sentiments of the new attorney general. Jeff Sessions, who is the appointee of President Donald J. Trump, has made it clear he thinks our police department ought to have fewer restrictions placed on it.

He certainly isn’t going to have any kind of monitor placed over the department, not even if that monitor were someone appointed by him.

Because for as much as Trump likes to rant and rage about crime in Chicago being out of control, I doubt he wants to be put into a position where he’d be responsible for trying to find a solution to the problems of urban violence.

WHICH AREN’T REALLY any more out of control in Chicago than they are anywhere else in the nation.

And the general solution offered up by conservative ideologues to such problems?

It usually is something similar to the way that comedian/actor Redd Foxx’ “Fred Sanford” character would deal with bills that he didn’t have the money to pay. He’d put them back in the mail box, and pretend he never saw them in the first place.

So the fact that law firms and law enforcement consultants are managing to collect millions of dollars in Chicago taxpayer funds out of a dream that they will find some solution to getting the city’s homicide rate to drop back to the levels it was at a few years ago? It just seems like money that could have been better spent elsewhere.

BUT THIS WASN’T the only negative report that turned up this week. The Chicago Tribune looked into the results of the Chicago Police Academy – which would like us to think it provides rigorous training that gives our city some of the finest law enforcement officers in the land.

In fact, they claim to put prospective recruits through an intense screening process that weeds out many interested persons who might want to wear the uniform of a Chicago Police officer.

But once you get in, it seems you’re virtually a shoo-in to pass and get a job. The newspaper found that some 97 percent of people accepted to the Police Academy wound up graduating.

By comparison, some 86 percent of people graduating is more the average, according to a Justice Department study of about 600 police academies across the country.

THE TRIBUNE ALSO pointed out that in Los Angeles, as many as 25 percent of police academy students don’t finish – although in many cases that is because applicants change their minds and drop out voluntarily.

Who’s to say just how rigorous the training for a Chicago police officer truly is? It reminds me of a moment from that 1987 film where actor Kevin Costner gave us his take on Eliot Ness and “The Untouchables” where he and actor Sean Connery’s Malone character were interviewing a would-be cop who stuttered his way through some questioning, causing Connery/Malone to respond, “There goes the next chief of police.”

I’d like to think that was just a cheap-shot gag in a decades-old film. Although with such new findings, who’s to say that our city’s future officers will be the “best and brightest” we’d like to think we could attract.

Then again, with so many other funds going to pay for studies that likely will never be turned to for use, who’s to say what the future of law enforcement is here – largely because we seem determined to let the political gamesmanship set policy rather than what would truly be beneficial to the people at-large.

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Times change; not always for better

Friday is the day that Justice Department officials are supposed to issue a report detailing its investigations of constitutional violations within the Chicago Police Department, yet there are those people who are looking to one week ahead when it comes to changes in police policy.
 

Feds to offer suggestions for improved police relations

Federal officials have been doing their own review of the condition that some say result in our city’s police officers being overly aggressive in performing their duties, particularly with regard to those individuals of African-American persuasions.

NEWS REPORTS INDICATE there will likely be an “agreement in principle” that suggests things that can be done to alleviate public tensions toward police and improve relations overall.

But it is telling that this report is coming out the same week that Jeff Sessions, the senator from Alabama with a record of unenlightened racial attitudes, is in line to become the new Attorney General.

For Sessions, during confirmation hearings held this week in Washington, D.C., let it be known that he thinks law enforcement agencies are hemmed in too strictly. They’re not allowed to do their jobs!

To prove his point, he cited our very own Chicago. “Morale has been affected, and it has affected the crime rates … in Chicago,” he said, referring in part to the fact that the homicide tally for the Second City shot up significantly during 2016.

THIS ATTITUDE IS not surprising. Or at least it shouldn’t be, to those who are paying attention.

 

Will police listen to proposed change?

It has always been clear that the problem with police relations with the public, particularly with regards to black people, is that we don’t agree on what the problem is.

There also are those who are more than content with the idea of a police department that cracks down on certain individuals whom they want to believe are an inherent criminal element.

All this really means is this split is now reflected in our government entities. If anything, the Justice Department report that will be released is similar to the just over $1 billion federal grant that recently got approved for the Chicago Transit Authority.

 

Will a new chief executive alter perceptions?

IT WAS A last-ditch effort to provide something for Chicago before the goon squads of President-elect Donald J. Trump get to remove the “-elect” from that title and take over.

Pass something that could impose some form of restrictions – at least for the time being. Because police officials already are saying they think it wrong for Justice to try to do anything because of the change in presidential administrations taking effect just one week later.

Fraternal Order of Police President Dean Angelo told the Chicago Sun-Times he expects that future federal officials will dump anything that gets imposed on the rush this week.

“One administration is moving out. Another administration is moving in,” he said. “They have two different views on policing in urban America.

“TO JUMP TO any sort of an agreement or mandate at this early stage before anyone has eyes on it isn’t what we’d expect from this city or department,” said Angelo.

 

Will he be erased from our memory?

As if this is yet another issue where Trump and his gang will go out of their way to erase any semblance that Barack Obama and his presidential policies ever existed. Ignoring the majority that new view Obama favorably, combined with the 46 percent who actually voted for Trump -- because we all know that only the people in that latter group matter.

It may turn out that the Affordable Care Act, which Republican partisans began the process of trying to repeal just this week, will merely be the first of many changes motivated by the concept that if Obama favored something, it must be bad!

Which, to me, sounds almost like a Soviet-style rewriting of history. Perhaps that’s why Trump is so comfortable with Russian premier Vladimir Putin and their successors.

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Government meddling in other people’s business way too headache-inducing!

One of the reasons why I personally would never contemplate running for electoral office is the fact that I’d get stuck taking the blame for the screw-ups of other officials beneath me.

OBAMA: Does the president feel ...

While it may well be true that a public official is responsible for those who answer to him, I can’t help but wonder how much of the Tylenol Barack Obama is consuming these days.

FOR ONE RIGHT on top of the other, a pair of stories have cropped up that would have us think that Obama deserves to be thought of in the same class of people as J. Edgar Hoover or Richard Nixon – if not Joe McCarthy (not the Yankees manager version) himself.

The ideologues are getting all worked up over recent Washington Post reports about how the Internal Revenue Service was giving extra scrutiny to certain groups claiming tax-exempt status.

None of the groups ultimately was denied that status, but it seems they resented having so much attention paid to them. Particularly since many are politically-motivated groups whose desire is to promote candidates who push their conservative ideological thoughts on issues.

We’re hearing the screaming that the government is out to get them – although coming from these ideologues, I wonder if what they’re really upset about is that anyone would have the nerve to “scrooten” them (remember Mayor Daley, the second?).

MAYBE IT’S ONLY okay when their opposition is the one facing the scrutiny from the government?

Now I don’t mean to downplay the concept of the government turning into “big brother” and deciding to meddle into the private affairs of people. It is a serious problem, and Obama himself quickly joined in the gaggle of people criticizing the IRS.

Although I suspect he’s more upset about the fact that everybody on the ideological spectrum against him is going to blame this on him. He’s going to have to take the heat for this – particularly when the sympathetic leadership of the House of Representatives decides to hold hearings to give those voices a microphone and television camera to amplify their thoughts all the moreso.

... something more like this these days?

But what makes it worse is that this has to crop up in the public ear at the same time that the Justice Department decides it has to resort to reporter-harassment in order to advance its criminal investigations.

THAT’S WHAT IS usually behind any incident where prosecutors decide they need to go after a reporter-type person’s notes or telephone records – they are unable to figure out a case by themselves, even though they have subpoena power.

In this case, the Associated Press learned that federal prosecutors had managed to get records of about 20 telephone lines – both at AP offices and, in some cases, the home telephone and personal cellphone lines of reporters.

It seems that a Central Intelligence Agency disruption of a plot to bomb an airliner became known, and someone was upset enough to want to punish someone – most likely whoever let it be known to reporter-types that this was going on.

Personally, I can appreciate how someone might be offended by having prosecutorial-minded people wading through lists of places one called on their telephone. Although if anyone tried subpoenaing my home phone records, all they’d really get is a list of which restaurants I patronize for carryout food.

BUT THERE’S THE greater principle at stake about some respect for privacy – which I suspect the ideologues facing what they see as harassment from the IRS oftentimes are not willing to respect for others.

It is why I am less than sympathetic – even though we may well have IRS agents who stepped across the line of decency in their investigatorial behavior. And a president wondering what he ever did so bad in life to deserve all the harassment he gets dumped on him on a daily basis!

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Is U.S. attorney post a reward for putting George Ryan in prison all those years?

It was intriguing to me to learn that both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times on Sunday reported about the likely person to become the new U.S. attorney for the Chicago area.

RYAN: Name back in the news

It seems that one of the prosecutors who handled the case that got former Gov. George Ryan convicted, and incarcerated, is now the front-runner to replace Patrick Fitzgerald – the U.S. attorney whose name will always be associated with putting Ryan away for all those years.

A PART OF me is sarcastic enough to dream of calling up Ryan and see if he has a reaction – just to see how irate a comment he would spew before hanging up on me!

But it would seem that Ryan is the plum in the resume of Zachary Fardon that him ahead of the other people who were supposedly in the running to replace Fitzgerald – who resigned the post last year.

It makes me wonder if the people who actually handled the prosecution of Rod Blagojevich are now going to be entitled to something resembling a promotion for the work they did in turning Milorod from a governor into a de facto history teacher of prison inmates who didn’t have the benefit of the same education that Blagojevich obtained during his lifetime.

But back to Ryan – who has tried to maintain a low profile since the day back in January when he was released from the federal work camp in Terre Haute, Ind., and spent just a couple of hours at a half-way house in Chicago before being allowed to return to his house near Kankakee.

I’M SURE HE isn’t pleased this morning seeing his name crop back into the newspapers and on their websites in conjunction with Fardon – who most recently has been an attorney in private practice with the Latham & Watkins law firm.

But in his career, he also has worked in the U.S. attorney’s offices based in Chicago and Nashville – reaching the level of the second-in-command in the “Music City” office before coming to the Second City office and having to handle the ordeal of prosecuting Ryan back in 2006.

BLAGOJEVICH: What reward for him?

To read the newspaper accounts, Fardon beat out Lori Lightfoot – who was another of four people who were supposedly the finalists in the process that will still take a few months to complete before there’s a new person working at the Dirksen Building who can go about calling himself the “USA” (as in U.S. attorney).

Lightfoot -- who could have been the first African-American woman to get the top federal prosecutorial post -- used to be with the police department’s Office of Professional Standards – the entity that is supposed to investigate Chicago’s police department to ensure that its officers behave in accordance with the law, but often gets denigrated for allegedly turning their head to instances of police malfeasance.

WHILE I’M SURE they handle many of the cases that come before them in a completely legitimate way, they also get much public grief for those few cases where it turns out that a police officer misbehaved and they were not as aggressive as they should have been in terms of discipline.

In fact, I already have stumbled across some Internet comment (anonymous, of course) claiming that anyone affiliated with city government in any way ought to be disqualified from the federal prosecutorial post that has become an unofficial watchdog over Chicago’s municipal government.

There is, however, one element we should keep in mind. Nothing truly is official when it comes to the courts or justice system until it is signed off on.

DURBIN: Has yet to make final say

Who’s to say that the “vetting” process (that both newspapers report is still ongoing) will come up with something about Fardon that will be construed as a negative?

I’M NOT SAYING there is such a thing, or that if something does turn up it won’t be something completely trivial and stupid that doesn’t deserve to be a disqualifier.

Even then, there’s always the possibility that the process will be bogged down in partisan politics. The Senate has to confirm any appointment that President Barack Obama makes with the consultation of Illinois’ two senators (Richard Durbin and Mark Kirk).

Which means that presuming we know now for sure who will be the U.S. attorney might be a risky bet. You might be safer betting on the Chicago Cubs to not completely embarrass themselves this season!

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Bring on the G-men? I don’t think so

In the quarter of a century that I have been observing and writing about electoral politics, I have developed a few “rules” for myself as to when to write off a candidate as a “Loser!”

Too much like Facebook? What do you think?!?

The first person to don a sombrero to try to get the Latino vote. The first person to complain, “My opponent won’t debate me.” And anyone who wants to rant and rage in generic terms about the “corrupt Chicago machine.”

THE LATTER ALWAYS means that they merely want to demonize their opposition, and can’t even come up with anything original to use against them.

So we get to hear venal tales of corruption, as though the (usually a) political no-name is somehow different and is the person who can save us from ourselves – even though they usually have no background or experience to indicate that they should be regarded in that context.

So it is with that “rule” in mind that I scoff at the e-mail message I received Sunday from Ernest B. Fenton’s campaign for Congress.

He’s one of the people who has dreams of replacing Jesse Jackson, Jr., on Capitol Hill, and he’s the one who has been using the Facebook logo in his campaign fliers – telling us we should “like” his campaign while using the Facebook “f” in a blue box to help spell out his last name.

PERSONALLY, IF I were the Facebook people, I would sue him for misusing their logo. I doubt they want his campaign dragging their image down, and I doubt he’s paying them any kind of fee for use of their logo.

But I’m not the Facebook people. I’m just a person who was born and raised (although I no longer live) in what is now the Illinois Second Congressional district. I have a personal interest in what has become of my “old neighborhood,” even though I won’t be casting a ballot on Tuesday.

Election gaining attention far outside the district

Fenton is the guy who tipped off reporter-types that he plans to make an announcement on Monday – one in which he wants the Justice Department to monitor the elections.

He’s convinced that it will be stolen away from him – on account of all that money spent by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s committee that is trying to undercut the National Rifle Association influence on politics.

AS THOUGH HE’D be at all significant in this campaign even if Bloomberg had done an Edith Bunker and stifled himself with regards to our special election.

Fenton claims, “The election is meant for the people and it should be decided by the people and not an outside source.” Yet his “solution” is to bring in an “outside source” to influence the election.

Could it be that Fenton just did a terrible job of trying to distinguish himself from the pack of just over a dozen people who want the Democratic Party nomination for the congressional seat? I say that because of all the candidate forums I attended, I cannot recall a single answer he gave to any question.

I know he was present, and my notes indicate he spoke. But there is nothing about him that we can’t find in any of the other candidates.

YET RATHER THAN acknowledge that he’s just one of the masses who didn’t attract any significant level of attention, he wants to rant and rage about corruption and how this election was “stolen” from him!

But without real details of corruption, it comes across more as sour grapes. I'd say that Republican candidate Paul McKinley is more ridiculous with his constant use of the phrase "corrupt Chicago machine" to answer every question, no matter what the topic. But nobody's seriously looking to the GOP for a new member of Congress in this election cycle.

Although I suspect that by writing this commentary, I have just played myself right into the Fenton campaign’s hands – he gets public attention that he otherwise wouldn’t be worthy of.

Not that I think it will matter much. The real “mood of the people” with regards to replacing Jackson in Congress is apathy. I suspect many people who voted for Jackson last year figured that someone better would come along in the special election that inevitably would have to be held.

NOW THAT WE’RE at the point of that special election, the field of candidates has been so big, so massive that it seems like a lot of deadwood – even amongst the so-called favorites.

Perhaps that’s the real reason that voter turnout for Tuesday is expected to be low.

So low that some are figuring it could take as few as 12,000 votes to win – presuming that only about one-fifth of the district’s registered voters actually bother to cast ballots.

What a shame. My old neighborhood deserves better!

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