During his early days on the force, 30-year-old, rookie Chicago police officer, Scott Tracz, was described by colleagues as an "upbeat" cop who had always dreamed of becoming a police officer to help people in his city. That is, until he sat in a black sports car outside his girlfriend's suburban house late last year, put his gun to his head and took his own life. Per Reuters:
Signing $60 million for a book contract, and rolling out on the speech circuit at $400k a pop is enough to inspire former US presidents with creative ways how to be remembered by future generations. Take former President Obama for example, who together with Michelle, are in their hometown Chicago this week and offered the city its first peek of the future Obama Presidential Center, which will be built on a 200,000-square-foot campus in Jackson Park on Chicago's South Side
Unlike Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanual, Baltimore’s mayor is basically begging for help from the FBI as her city's murder rate spirals out of control ahead of what is typically the most violent months of the year. Per CBS Baltimore:
“I’m calling on all the assistance we can possibly get because I can’t imagine going into our summer months with our crime rate where it is today, what that’s going to look like by the end of the summer,” says Mayor Catherine Pugh.
“Murder is out of control,” says Pugh.
Shortly after Barack Obama delivered his first (free) speech today since leaving the White House in Chicago before an invitation-only crowd of college students, community organizers and other fans, Fox News' Charlie Gasparino reports that in what may be his first paid speaking arrangement, Obama will be paid $400,000 to speak at Cantor Fitzgerald's healthcare conference this September, setting the benchmark for how much an hour of the former president's time will cost going forward.
Chicago's pension funds, along with several other large public pensions around the country, are in serious trouble (we recently discussed the destruction awaiting our financial markets here: "Are Collapsing Pensions "About To Bring Hell To America"?").
The problem is that the pending doom surrounding these massive public pension obligations often get clouded over by complicated actuarial math with a plan's funded status heavily influenced by discount rates applied to future liability streams.