The Official Chicago Discussion Thread

[the next guy]

Union officials agree to end Chicago teachers strike - chicagotribune.com

The Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates decided this afternoon to end the city’s first teacher strike in 25 years and return more than 350,000 students to the classroom Wednesday.

The voice vote was taken after some 800 delegates convened at a union meeting hall near Chinatown to discuss and debate a tentative contract. Union leaders had already signed off on the agreement with Chicago Public Schools.

"We said we couldn't solve all the problems. . .and it was time to suspend the strike," CTU President Karen Lewis said at a news conference after the vote.

“The issue is, we cannot get a perfect contract. There’s no such thing as a contract that will make all of us” happy, Lewis said.

But “do we stay on strike forever until every little thing we want can be gotten?” she said.

“I’m so thrilled that people are going back, all of our members are glad to be back with their kids. It’s a hard decision to make to go out, and for some people it's hard to make the decision to go back in,” Lewis said.

Delegates poured out of the union hall singing “Solidarity Forever.”

“I'm very excited. I miss my students. I'm relieved because I think this contract was better than what they offered,” said America Olmedo, who teaches fourth- and fifth-grade bilingual classes. “They tried to take everything away.”

Said Shay Porter, a teacher at the Henderson Academy elementary school: “We ignited the labor movement in Chicago.”

Parents shared their excitement.

Debi Lilly, a Lakeview resident, said she was thrilled her 3rd and 5th grader would be heading back to Hawthorne School Wednesday after missing seven days of classes.

“Thank goodness, thank goodness,” Lilly said enthusiastically. “Now I believe they’re putting the children first.”

While there still might be issues to work out between CTU and CPS, Lilly said she’s happy the teachers agreed to do it while the children are in school.

Lilly said she told her children the news right away and the family will be treating Tuesday night like it should be — a school night.

“We’ll be up early making lunches, packing backpacks and walking to school tomorrow,” Lilly said.

“I think it’s great,” said parent Jose Carlos as he ate dinner tonight. “To be honest, I think it’s great.”

His 5-year-old son attends Galileo Scholastic Academy of Math and Science, and Carlos has had to arrive to work late each day since the strike began so he can drop him off at a Children First site, which opens later than Galileo.

Earlier in the day, teachers on the picket line outside CPS headquarters were mostly optimistic that they would be back in school Wednesday morning.

"In our meetings yesterday, it's apparent we're optimistic that we will return," said Mary Mark, a CPS speech language pathologist, who fears that if the union is on strike much longer, support for the teachers will shift.

"We realize that by going out, we're diminishing our power, but on the other hand, we don't want to strike so long that we turn the tide of support. We all need to get back to work and the kids need to get back in school," Mark said.

At Manuel Perez Jr. Elementary School, parents worried about the strike's growing effect on their children, though they still voiced support for teachers.

"¡Rahm, escucha! ¡Estamos en la lucha!" several shouted in Spanish, meaning "Rahm, listen! We are in the fight!"

They also chanted, "¡Sí, se puede!" or "Yes, we can!"

The contract will now be submitted to a vote by the full membership of more than 25,000 teachers over the next few weeks.

The contract offer gives teachers, on average, a 17.6 percent pay raise over the next four years, as well as retaining other salary bumps for experience and pursuing a graduate degree.

The offer also includes tougher job evaluations where teachers are rated, in part, on how well their students performed on standardized tests and, for the first time, a re-hire pool for teachers who’ve been laid off because the district closed their schools.

The rocky road to a deal began before Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office on a reform agenda to transform the city’s public school system.

Shortly after arriving at City Hall, Emanuel authorized stripping teachers of the 4 percent raises awarded them in their previous contract and began a controversial push to lengthen CPS’ school day despite strong union opposition.

As the two sides worked for months to hammer out the details of a substantially revised teachers contract, CPS officials, led by Emanuel, and union leaders, led by Karen Lewis, engaged in a public relations war to win support for their side.

Emanuel accused teachers of failing Chicago’s students by choosing to strike over contract demands. Lewis labeled Emanuel a “bully” and a “liar” as he aggressively fought for reforms that, she said, undermined the union’s power.

“We have been belittled, bullied and betrayed by this administration. Our members feel demoralized,” Lewis said at a packed news conference in August.

CPS and the union reached a breakthrough last Friday when both sides agreed on a tentative framework for a new deal.

Teacher compensation, job security and performance evaluations were the three most critical, and hotly contested, pieces of the new contract. And when Lewis emerged from talks last Friday she said she was “very comfortable” with the agreement that had been reached and appeared confident union delegates would vote to end the strike over the weekend.

Lewis and union leadership were tasked with selling delegates on this tentative agreement Sunday night, but the deal was a hard sell. In a surprise move, delegates chose not to end the teachers strike until they could discuss the contract offer with their members.

The decision extended the teachers strike into a second week and brought a new wave of criticism from Emanuel and from many parents unhappy their children would remain out of school.

“It's very frustrating,” parent Humberto Ramirez said Sunday. “We all kind of put everything on hold in finding different ways to watch the kids and keep them entertained. It's been very, very frustrating, especially knowing that (last week) they were close, that they were simply going to be putting it to a vote.”

Emanuel increased the pressure on the union by taking them to court. On Monday morning, city attorneys sought an injunction in Cook County to force an end to the strike. A hearing on the matter was set for Wednesday if schools did not reopen.

 

[606onit]

 

[Art Barr]

Another thwarted home invasion another day!

when i was fifteen i was at home.
when my parents were not there during the day.
while i was at home alone from school
a group of eight guys, attempted to invade my home.

back then, chicago had no gun laws.

so i grabbed the nine, the walther ppk model.

when they were coming through the windows upstairs in my bedroom and ran them off.
i called the police, pops and a neighbor for help.
my neighbor followed the guys and found where they were.
when the cops came. i went with them in an unmarked car and pointed them out.
they were all apprehended and i had to id and testify against them, as a minor.
then they went to jail.

twenty years later:


i am thirty five now,...
it is the same fall like conditions.
i have been in this home since may 2o11.

i know i am being watched

this home i took over. the woman who was previously here, and gave me this home.
left because she was the victim of a home invasion and raped by multiple attackers.

i was given the home when i fell upon hard times.

she said she gave it to me because i was the only guy who made her feel safe.
i knew this to be true.'
as when we were lovers, never committals.

she was always scared to go home.

plus, she said she felt unsafe in the home afterwards.

just like when my baby mom's was stabbed over seventy times with nine mortal stab wounds by her crazy psycho bf after me. she left the property, as well as my bm did after her near brush with death and violence.

so because the vibes were not right for her, she fled and bestowed the property to me.

i knew she was under duress when i met her.
as she gave off post traumatic shock symptoms, and signs.
like previous lovers of mine who endured being victimized and rape.

so here i am in this house,...

i thought but knew a home invasion or kick doh could happen, at anytime from these past experiences.
being in this home, i know. someone could be watching me. albeit difficult, but still i can be watched.

no, fukk that,.....i am being watched.
i know i am being watched.
i know i am under surveillance,...........

so i am always ready to run a drill in this home.

sleep is uncomfortable,...as i have to sleep in microfiber long cargo shorts.
different from the ones i posted but you get the idea.

i have known i was under watch since august/september of last year.

when i let a former friend stay here with a large collection of pure bred american blue brindle pittbulls, shipped from california.
as routinely they would bark at intruders in proximity of the home.

they do not bark, unless someone has entered the proximity of this property.

namely the gangway or gating to the property.

i know for sure i am being watched because one night a car pulls up in the driveway.

with his highbeams pointed directly into the house and makes a move on the property.

i leave the back entrance,....with the alpha matriarch bluenose brindle pittbull, chi chi.

the pittbull with fire,........


art barr

 

[Art Barr]

CHI-CHI : THE GUARDIAN


I take chi-chi and quietly hit the back entrance and come up the gangway in all black.
i burst through the side gste with chi chi in tow,....
vocally engaging the intruder...
i tell him he is trespassing and to leave.
he talks shyt,....i should have let chi chi go.

i do not know why i did not.
maybe it was the fear of all the backend redtape.

i should have let her go, because i could have stopped the issue right then and there.

the guy sees chi chi and high tails it out of dodge,...
i did not get the license plate as he cut his lights off and it was an old model sedan.

from that move i felt i knew he was experienced in some form of activity.

i regret not letting chi-chi go, that day.

art barr

 

[Art Barr]

THE WEEK OF LABOR DAY
63o pm

i have the window open and was banging some music, but i heard the gangway gate swing open. i turn off my music and wait.

i hear someone acting like they are a serviceman creeping on the property.
he appears at my back window with me in it and i surprise him.
i say you are trespassing,..he says he is with the bank.

i say it is 630pm,..banks do not operate this late and the lender for this home is not a bank. you need to leave,..he says he is a locksmith and is coming in, in a threatening manner. i say, try me,....bytch!! i run to the door waiting after shutting the window in his face. i note his face and build,..some ol dame dash in shape military airforce build boxer type, maybe krav. no real training in the arts,..so i get confident about the encounter if possible.
he runs off,...i do not call the police.

THURSDAY
09-20-2o12
11am

i am awoke out of my sleep by someone on my property coming throughed't the brush, and gangway gate.
my former friend with the pittbulls no longer stays with me.

immestediately, i get on my shoes and my voodoo combat gloves, my pitchfork, and my best grassroots weapon, the end of a metal crutch. plus the end of a pair of hedge shears i hae made into a shank. i can not use a nelson, or my swords in my home cause it isn't registered and if the cops get called.

i go to jail, for gun law violation and weapons violation.
so theoretically i can not even really protect my home.
so the intruder has law on his side from a technicality.

i hear tinkering at my door and then, loud banging with hammer.
he is using a wedge kick doh, lock trick to enter and will destroy my trimmer, doorway lockin system and sanctity of my home.

i grab my pitchfork and unlatch the door and his toola and wedges fly out of his hand into my home from the force of the door. i appear in all black with my pitchfork in my left hand.

he backs away i shut the door and lock it.

he continues to try to get in.
i call the police,...

the police catch him and a detain him. then they come to my door.
i tell the cops what happened.
they say since he did not enter your home it is not home invasion.
plus there is no charges to press.

they let him go.

DAMN!!!

now, i am really fukked cause now,....
next time i have ti let this nikka break in to kill him and this is the third time him or someone has come by.

FRIDAY
o9-21-2o11

someone comes by again,...
in the dark, and i run them off with the sight of me in my mask and the pitchfork.


DAMN,..why did i not let chi-chi go when i had the chance.

i hate chicago!!
i can not even hit this dude under normal real circumstances and to hurt him.
with no redtape,..he has to forcibly enter the home.

this is bullshyt,.......
anothe day another thwarted home invasion....






art barr

 

[The God Poster]

Breh tell me why I was on 63rd n King a few weeks back. Just got some mcdonalds. Bout to I start driving and notice they messed my order. So I pull over to make sure I wasnt tweekin.

Tell me why some african crackhead bytch comes up to my passenger door opens it and says "sexi man let me suck that dyck"

So I just spazzed out on some bytch get the fukk away from my door shyt.
Man I was so caught off guard I just drove home wasnt even hungry no more.

 

[Art Barr]

Breh tell me why I was on 63rd n King a few weeks back. Just got some mcdonalds. Bout to I start driving and notice they messed my order. So I pull over to make sure I wasnt tweekin.

Tell me why some african crackhead bytch comes up to my passenger door opens it and says "sexi man let me suck that dyck"

So I just spazzed out on some bytch get the fukk away from my door shyt.
Man I was so caught off guard I just drove home wasnt even hungry no more.

she probably would have set you up, at the motel.
if you was silly enough to go.
just the audacity of her opening your door, was some bullshyt to begin with.


shyt cray around, here.....breh-breh!!

art barr

 

[god shamgod]

This art barr kid needs to condense them posts.What da fukk wrong wit you nikka.I gotta scroll like a mutha fukka

 

[BlvdBrawler]

Thinking of buying an investment property in Chicago. Thoughts?

 

[Soundbwoy]

if it was posted by art barr

 

[CashmereThoughts]

Breh tell me why I was on 63rd n King a few weeks back. Just got some mcdonalds. Bout to I start driving and notice they messed my order. So I pull over to make sure I wasnt tweekin.

Tell me why some african crackhead bytch comes up to my passenger door opens it and says "sexi man let me suck that dyck"

So I just spazzed out on some bytch get the fukk away from my door shyt.
Man I was so caught off guard I just drove home wasnt even hungry no more.

but what did that mouf do?

 

[the next guy]

Saturday's CSO concert canceled after musicians strike - chicagotribune.com

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra performance this evening at Symphony Center has been canceled because musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have gone on strike, officials said.

The concert at Symphony Center was to begin at 8 p.m. but was canceled after musicians went on strike, according to a press release issued by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association.

According to the organization, the previous collective bargaining agreement expired at midnight on Sept. 16, 2012.

Musicians and management had previously agreed to begin the 2012/13 season this week, as they continued the contract negotiations that began this summer, officials said.

Officials said rehearsals and concerts took place as scheduled earlier this week. However, during today’s meeting, the musicians left the negotiating table and proceeded to strike, officials said.

Bassist Stephen Lester, chairman of the Orchestra Members Committee, which negotiates the musicians contracts, was with fellow musicians setting up a picket line outside the Symphony Center’s Adams Street entrance Saturday night.

“We were negotiating all day today after having negotiated many times,” Lester said. “We’ve been doing a lot of negotiating. There was movement, but there remained serious economic issues that were not being addressed by the association. They were trying to force us into a concessionary contract, reducing our benefits and making it difficult for the orchestra to pay for health care and keep our basic standard of life.”

 

[Art Barr]

This art barr kid needs to condense them posts.What da fukk wrong wit you nikka.I gotta scroll like a mutha fukka

fukk you,.......
length is subjective



art barr

 

[Art Barr]

if it was posted by art barr

i am glad too.
as i have done more shyt in your city than you lil nikka.

ol got tabled, and your feelings still hurt bytch nikka...


art barr

 

[ajkamkel]

got out of class early today, went downtown to do a lil shopping...ran into an old friend treated me to some Weber grill
half slab of ribs, garlic mashed potatos, grilled corn on a cob and some pretzel rolls with cheddar butter(not pictured)

Have anyone ever been to Blackie's on canal? Ive been wanting to try that place for years...

Blackies have great burgers