Thursday items

I couldn't make up my mind which of these items should either be posted here or I would like to have posted one of these over at the Sixth Ward. Anyway, I've just decided to do these two stories here and be done with it. I might go into depth with one of them later. So here's one!

ITRS seeks to dismiss Chicago Board of Ed suit - Crain's

Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, Springfield, Thursday filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit by the Chicago Board of Education against the state of Illinois, claiming that unequal treatment in funding was shortchanging the $12.8 billion Chicago Public School Teachers’ Pension and Retirement Fund.

The $41.7 billion Illinois teachers fund, in the 14-page motion filed in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago, argues “there is a rational basis for the distinct funding mechanisms applicable to TRS and CTPF” and notes “the General Assembly enacted two separate teachers pension statutes, one for Chicago teachers and the other for teachers in the rest of the state.”

“TRS is a state entity while CTPF is not, and the Chicago Board of Education has tax mechanisms that are unavailable to TRS,” according to an Illinois Teachers statement about the motion, adding “the Chicago public school system is large enough to oversee and to fund its own teacher pension system, while other districts in the state required a centralized and mandatory state funding mechanism to do so.”

Well, I think I can see where the beef is here apparently there is an overlap in between the city pension system and the state's. I should note that the state constitution allows for pensions of public employees and some have a problem with that provision and seek to change that.

Daley plans meetings on violence - Crain's

Well it's great to know that the mayor is on the case and I would say that he's not doing a bad thing by meeting with religious leaders, police, schools and social service agencies. Unfortunately this might be the solution that's likely to come out of it...

Daley is a strong proponent of gun control and says access to guns is the problem. He says people are settling their differences with guns. But the mayor says the recent violence isn't tarnishing Chicago's reputation.

The solution will continue to be gun control and it certainly will be because that's what these other officials will demand. I wish someone there might be able to argue something different to the mayor, unfortunately I wish I could account for how likely that will be. Oh and I have to question how could this violence not tarnish Chicago's reputation. It only shows that in making the streets safer that the city has some work to do.