A medical district for Roseland??   Not so fast
posted 12-16-2011 1:45 p.m.

 
Let's get one thing straight at the start: I want Roseland to recover from its economic black hole and be able to offer good jobs to its residents. I'd love for it not to be the armpit of poverty that it's been for a few decades on the South Side of Chicago. It would be good for the people and good for the city. That said, I have to wonder what toxic waste filtered down into the drinking water there to make the local activists think that starting a medical district down there was the answer.

Gov. Quinn gave the community false hope, if you ask me, by making the designation official. But nobody's come up with the resources and commitments to make it real, and the likelihood that they will is poor. We'll see a functioning airport in Peotone before that happens.

Health reform debates during the Obama Administration’s first week
posted 1-28-2009 3:50 p.m.

 
In a week in which 10,000 jobs were lost in a single day, with more losses to come in the months ahead, the weak health care spending measures meant to cover more children and unemployed are already virtually moot. Unless Congress snaps to and suddenly realizes its gross underfunding, the monies intended to expand coverage won’t even give the states enough to maintain status quo. And the states aren’t waiting: they’re already cutting back.

There is a solution, but the Democrats would have to be uncommonly brave to take it on. And they’d have to push aside all but a mere handful of moderate conservative Republicans to get it done. The economic disaster is of great enough proportions to justify it; but that doesn’t mean the majority in the House and Senate will work up the nerve and twist enough moderate arms to get it done. And they're in too big of a hurry, as is the President.