Articles by 420 Times

Kitty Kurth joins T.J. O'Hara to discuss Joe Biden's potential presidential run, how he might be challenged, and by whom. They also discuss a few political issues that are specific to Chicago but that have national implications: Jussie Smollett's prosecution (or lack thereof) and the mayoral race that was the first ever contested between two black women, Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle. Kitty is the President of Kurth Lampe Worldwide. She's a public relations and political strategist of nati...

If all sides are declaring victory in the California Supreme Court’s pension ruling on Monday, it’s because the decision had a little something for all the combatants in the state’s pension wars. In a much-anticipated decision, the high court upheld a major rollback initiated during Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration—a reform that rescinded a long tradition that had allowed public employees to collect bigger pensions by inflating their years of service. Brown put an end to that tradition—known i...

San Diego, Calif.- After more than 25 years of political and communications strategy, Jason Cabel Roe has confirmed to IVN that he is all but leaving politics. Roe says he "does not plan to be active in 2020 except for Gaspar," a reference to San Diego County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar, who will be on the 2020 November ballot. The nationally recognized strategist has won numerous awards for his work on campaigns and advising candidates for President, Congress, Governor, and state and local offi...

It’s like déjà vu all over again: City Hall insiders asking politicians to leap before they look. This time it’s proposals backed by the YIMBY (“yes in my back yard”) movement to lift height limits and eliminate parking requirements in order to promote even more high-density residential development, beyond what the law already allows. Due consideration has not been given to the YIMBY proposals’ potential negative consequences, and there certainly has not been sufficient community input.  No se...

The state of our Union is both hopeful and broken, strong and fragile. By our very nature, Americans lean toward optimism. Our pioneering history drives us toward problem solving; our go-to strategies aim for forward progress. Our fierce independence feeds our demands for individual rights and liberties. We derive strength from our Constitutional intentions and protections. These values and qualities inspire the world and shape our expectations for fairness and justice. At the same time, Ameri...

Over the past year or so there has been quite a bit of 'jawboning' over the mayor's dream to create a CCA aka Community Choice Aggregation to address the issue of reducing CO2 in the atmosphere by only powering our homes and businesses with renewable energy. Our current energy provider, SDG&E, is reportedly now using renewables for as much as 45% of the energy supplied to their marketplace and the state has mandated that to be 100% by the year 2045, or just ten years later than the city's Clima...

Many of us now see the connections between severe weather and new disease patterns. More destructive and more frequent floods, fires, droughts, hurricanes and blizzards can no longer be ignored. Also recognized, changing weather brings new patterns of insects and diseases. Mosquitoes moving north, ticks and Lyme disease spreading west, polio-like illnesses, ancient bacteria in defrosting tundra and everywhere the health impacts of poorly stored or unethically distributed chemicals and toxins. S...

Like most everyone else, I am thrilled to see a new Congress that looks more like America than ever before. I am lifted by their new energy and commitment. I am delighted that their first shared effort was a sit-in protest demanding action on climate change, held inside the U.S. House of Representatives and the office of the Democratic Party leader. I pray for the success of the freshman class of 2018. The key is whether Republicans and Democrats can get past hating each other to solve problems...

I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I am an independent who believes that at this moment of partisan dysfunction and division that the health of American democracy depends on the capacity of the American people to come together, to grow and to develop. While the media is saturating us with a focus on the results of who won and who lost in the midterm elections, my attention is drawn to signs of the emergence of a bottom up nonpartisan developmental politic in our country that breaks throu...