Urban Decay: Decline In Obama's Chicago Clue To His Second Term

◼ Another weekend of violence in the president's hometown, now run by his former chief of staff. If you want to see the fruits of a presidential second term, look at the decline of his city. - IBD

...Chicago was the political incubator for a community organizer who would become president. It is where President Obama sat in the pews on Sunday listening to the liberation theology of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright for two decades. Its liberal academia provided an educational haven for the likes of the former bomb-wielding terrorist Weatherman William Ayers, who was host to Obama's first fund-raiser.

Now the wheels are wobbly, and Chicago has become one of those overtaxed and overregulated places where growth has stalled. Chicago doesn't work so well anymore, having succumbed to the consequences of decades of urban liberalism, and neither does the country to whom it gave Rahm Emanuel, White House adviser David Axelrod and President Obama...

Obama recently paid his hometown, where he maintains a residence, a visit. As Wayne Allyn Root, writing on FoxNews.com, noted, 35 were injured and seven killed in gun battles with the president home that weekend. Included in that violent mess was a 16-year-old girl. Three of the murder victims were killed in one hour on Sunday morning. It was the third weekend in a row with gunshot murders and injuries in the double digits....

◼ Study calls for probing of political corruption in more than 60 suburbs - Chicago tribune

The study counted about 1,200 separate taxing bodies in the Chicago region, including 540 in Cook County alone, which Blanchard said often operate with very little oversight.

The report identified six common patterns of corruption in the suburbs: officials with ties to organized crime; nepotism and patronage; police officers aiding criminals; kickbacks and bribes to public officials; large construction projects benefiting elected officials, their families and friends; and outright theft of public funds.

The study documented criminal convictions as reported by news media, as well as reports of what Simpson said were conflicts of interest.

As the most recent instance, Simpson cited a Tribune investigation this month that found the construction of a sports stadium in Bridgeview benefited political insiders while helping to nearly triple residents’ property tax bills.

◼ Chicago area pension plans in debt by $27.4 billion - Funds accrue $27.4 billion shortfall between 2001 and 2010 - Chicago Tribune

The debt from 10 Chicago-area pension plans swelled more than 600 percent to $27.4 billion between 2001 and 2010, according to a study released Monday by the nonpartisan Civic Federation. That's $8,993 for each man, woman and child in Chicago, according to the report.

The shortfall comes on top of more than $83 billion in unfunded pension liabilities at the state level, driving the cost up to nearly $15,000 per Chicagoan, the report shows.