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Andy Shaw: Quotes worth sharing from Abner Mikva
Follow @@andyshawbga After President Barack Obama celebrated Abner Mikva’s distinguished career in 2014 with a Medal of Freedom award, we featured Mikva in our “BGA Good Government Spotlight” series...
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Andy Shaw: A failure by CPD to follow a law
Follow @andyshawbga We recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the federal Freedom of Information Act, landmark legislation that opened U.S. government records to the public and spawned state FOIA...
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Shaw: Mayor, Council allies play games to get him his way
Follow @andyshawbga The City of Chicago has an excellent vehicle for gauging public opinion on important policy issues: Advisory referendums — questions that appear on an election ballot, along with...
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Andy Shaw: State government belongs to the people, not pols
Follow @Andyshawbga The election machinery in Illinois was broken in more places than Humpty Dumpty after his great fall until recently, when our elected state leaders began to embrace a few reforms...
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Andy Shaw: Lollapalooza gave Chicago a good feeling
Follow @Andyshawbga They rolled into the Loop in waves on buses and trains from city and suburbs, teens and young adults of every size and shape, wearing T-shirts, tank tops and cutoffs, walking east...
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Shaw: Good life, hard time for Blagojevich
Follow @andyshawbga After sitting through the emotional resentencing of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich last week, I began to reminisce about the dramatic rise and fall of the talented but fatally flawed...
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Shaw: City hurting for reforms in gun, cop crises
Follow @andyshawbga The year 2016 has been a tragic, heartbreaking and infuriating one of shocking and deeply disturbing headlines and pictures depicting an epidemic of gun violence and a law...
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Andy Shaw: Who needs a park board when City Hall calls the shots?
Follow @Andyshawbga Recent stories about Chicago parks and airports spark a memory with a message. Maria Saldana got blindsided on the morning of March 31, 2003, when she turned on the news and saw the...
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Andy Shaw: A Labor Day tense with talk of a teachers strike
Follow @Andyshawbga I’ve always approached Labor Day with mixed feelings. Upside, when I was young: A holiday featuring fun, food and family. Downside: A carefree summer of baseball and hanging out...
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Andy Shaw: Elections matter beyond the horse races
Follow @andyshawbga “Elections Matter.” That’s the theme of this week’s annual Better Government Association luncheon, and the timing couldn’t be better. We’re into the home stretch of a critically...
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Andy Shaw: Consolidation vote is one government bright spot
Follow @andyshawbga Those of us who promote good government for a living are having a hard time maintaining an upbeat attitude these days. On Thursday night Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel laid out an...
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Andy Shaw: City Hall inches closer to real police reform
Follow @Andyshawbga Is the Fifth Floor of City Hall finally ready for police reform? After numerous delays the signs are encouraging, based on recent reports outlining significant changes in Mayor Rahm...
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Andy Shaw: Keep fighting to give your vote real power in Illinois
Follow @Andyshawbga The cantankerous Greek philosopher-cynic Diogenes gained notoriety by carrying a lantern through the streets of Athens in search of an honest man. He never found one, and it’s fair...
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Andy Shaw: Playing dodge ball in candidate questionnaires
Follow @Andyshawbga After the recent Town Hall debate, commentators mentioned Donald Trump standing near Hillary Clinton as she spoke, calling it “lurking” or “looming.” Debates feature positioning of...
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Shaw: Thumbs down to ‘Safe Roads’ amendment
Follow @andyshawbga By the time Robert Frost’s most famous poem, “The Road Not Taken,” was published in 1916, Illinois was becoming one of the most successful and innovative states in the country. The...
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Andy Shaw: ‘Nobody owns the message anymore’
Follow @andyshawbga I’ve spent a lot of post-election hours asking friends and colleagues to reflect on what happened Election night — how the polls and pundits got it so wrong when their predictions...
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Shaw: City Hall ‘allergic as ever’ to transparency
Follow @andyshawbga So many public officials, so much secrecy — where to begin? How about the Laquan McDonald shooting video, reluctantly released by the city of Chicago in response to a court order a...
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Shaw: Little progress since release of Laquan McDonald video
Follow @andyshawbga How much have Chicago Police Department procedures, attitudes and relations with minority communities changed since City Hall reluctantly released the Laquan McDonald shooting video...
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Shaw: City launches bag tax with hot air
Follow @andyshawbga Ever since the Richard M. Daley administration blew through a billion dollar profit from the sale of the city’s parking meters in a nanosecond, sticking drivers with skyrocketing...
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Shaw: A plea for transparency from Foxx, Mendoza
Follow @andyshawbga Illinois government made history last week, and not for what you might have expected, like a new record for unpaid bills, underfunded pensions, unresolved budgets or an...
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Andy Shaw: A holiday civics lessons on why Illinois is going bust
Follow @andyshawbga The warring factions in Springfield created “working groups,” conducted “subject matter” hearings and held “negotiating sessions” on and off for nearly two years, but they still...
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Andy Shaw: New plan to save Illinois takes ‘courage and patience’
Follow @andyshawbga To be continued. That’s how I ended last week’s column, which looked at how the Illinois Constitution divides budget responsibilities — annual spending and revenue decisions —...
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Andy Shaw: No more hiding public business in private emails
Follow @andyshawbga It’s nice to end a year on a high note, and the Better Government Association’s settlement of a private email dispute with the Emanuel administration certainly qualifies. The...
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Andy Shaw: Again and again, public officials resist ethics rules
Follow @andyshawbga In this dystopian era of hyper-partisan politics, many of our elected leaders on both sides of the aisle share a common bane: Those pesky and intrusive watchdogs they grudgingly...
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Andy Shaw: To curb Chicago gun violence, look closely at NY plan
Follow @andyshawbga Before Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson acknowledged a couple weeks ago that he’s dealing with some challenging medical issues, his top priority was legislative approval of...
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