fuckyeahhockey:

Tribute to Boston

“We are like you. We know that sports are often the ties that hold us together, that give us a way to talk about the things we care about when other words fail. We know sports can be fun — even in losing. Boys, do we know. We know that anybody who says it doesn’t matter whether the Cubs or Sox are in the World Series so long as it’s a Chicago team isn’t truly a fan of either team. We know. But on Monday, we were reminded again how fragile it all can be. The explosions and injuries and death at a world-class sporting event such as the Boston Marathon makes us heartsick. As much as it is anathema for a Chicago fan to root for any other town — especially Beantown and all of its championship rings — here we are. Hang in there, Boston.”

(via Boston)

(Source: alvosejk)

kylebetts:

Official image released by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office after the Illinois Senate passed marriage equality legislation on Valentine’s Day.

apsies:

The Chicago Teachers Union on strike.

(Source: miggylol)

“With No Contract Deal by Deadline in Chicago, Teachers Will Strike”

Union leaders for this city’s public schooltechers said that they would strike on Monday morning after negotiations ended late Sunday with no contract agreement between the union and the nation’s third largest school system. which have been locked for months in a dispute over wages, job security and teacher evaluations.

“We do not want a strike,” David J. Vitale, president of the Chicago Board of Education, said late Sunday as he left the negotiations, which he described as extraordinarily difficult and “perhaps the most unbelievable process that I’ve ever been through.”

A user’s guide to the Chicago NATO summit

What does NATO really need to get out of this summit? It depends on what side of the ocean you are on. The Europeans will be looking at their pocketbooks and hammering out how they can pool resources and improve their military capabilities as they spend less on their militaries.

But, as the primary leader in the war in Afghanistan, the United States needs to have the alliance come together and hammer out details on what it wants the future of Afghanistan to look like.

The strategic partnership agreement signed by Afghanistan and the United States last month was nothing more than an outline, and U.S. officials have said they will use the summit to start defining what they want this relationship to look like.

As the 2014 deadline for the war in Afghanistan to end draws nearer, the United States and NATO need to use these two days to figure out how a post-NATO Afghanistan will look and how it will be paid for.