Now Michael Scott is dead, and the video has surfaced in three parts on YouTube, under the heading "Selling Out the Community."

Earlier this week Cook County sheriff Tom Dart and several of the top corrections officials at the Cook County Jail were sued in federal court by an inmate named Kenneth Simmons Mays. In a handwritten complaint he filed on his own, Mays alleges that on October 28 he was stabbed in the mouth by another inmate wielding a homemade shank, left by guards to fend for himself, provided inadequate medical care, and then placed back in the same maximum-security tier where he was attacked.

"I'm fearful of my life," Mays writes. "I'm stress and depress."

He's seeking $2.6 million in damages.

It was a striking example of how mainstream it's suddenly become to call for reform in the mayor's $500 million-a-year tax increment financing program.

For four years he’s been the butt of jokes, the topic of scathing editorials, and the symbol of government waste for angry Cook County taxpayers. Sometimes he deserves it and sometimes he's a straw man. And now, with his political fortunes waning, Stroger appears to have decided that the only way to eke out reelection is by focusing on mobilizing his base in the black community. This may be a practical move, but it ensures that even if he does survive the Democratic primary in February, it's unlikely that he'll be able to govern as effectively as he has the last three years—and as you might have noticed, that bar isn't terribly high.

Of course, as with every thing else with the TIF program, it's all a little complicated, so let's break it down a little bit.

"We made some key mistakes in how we analyzed the agreement" the first time, says Rob Sadowsky, the group’s executive director. "But it gave us an opportunity to step back and have a dialogue with the city."

Today, she withdrew from the race.

"To be perfectly frank, I think it’s just a lack of marketing about what [TIFs] do and account for," Daley said. "We just have to show, with better marketing, we have to show what the benefits to the community are."

The mayor said that the special taxing districts, which freeze the amount of property taxes collected within a given geographic area for up to 23 years and set them aside for local improvements, have allowed the city to build new police stations, fire stations and libraries.

THAT'S NOT WHAT TIFS ARE FOR. THAT'S SORT OF THE PROBLEM.

My annual analysis of who pays what (I know, I'm an incurable geek) illustrates what Assessor Jim Houlihan has been saying for the last several years: residents on the south and west sides are seeing the greatest leaps in their assessments, so they're getting the biggest jumps in their bills.

Hey, no one said this stuff is fair. In fact, when you look at how it's affecting some of our esteemed public servants, you'll have to agree it's fairer for some more than others.

"By the time the City Council's Finance Committee got around to officially approving the . . . deal—a $400 million Loop redevelopment project—almost all of the aldermen had gone home for the weekend. . . . Not that full aldermanic attendance would have changed the outcome. The project . . . had all the trappings of a done deal."

Most aldermen I spoke with after the mayor’s somber, half-hour budget address said they didn’t like the idea of using the meter reserve funds, but they bought the mayor’s argument that it was the only viable way to maintain core city functions like policing and garbage collection without a major tax hike.

A close look at the city's payroll records shows that over the last year and a half the Daley administration has been forced to shed scores of jobs responsible for core service delivery such as policing, criminal investigations, emergency communications, traffic control, garbage pickup, tree trimming, airport security, and public health care.

So even though they've taken all kinds of hell for hastily approving the parking meter deal, most are glad to have the cash from it, some of which will go toward keeping the city afloat in 2010, as it did this year. "Whether we like the agreement or not, the meters are something of a saving grace for plugging this deficit," 44th Ward alderman Tom Tunney told me the other day. "I don't like the idea of using our capital assets to pay for operating deficits, but this is a tough time."

It's not hard to imagine Mayor Daley using that same argument to push another privatization deal in the coming months, or the City Council bitching and moaning as it goes along.

That's why a few aldermen introduced an ordinance today that would try to protect the council from the specter of its own rubber-stamping proclivities.

This money comes on top of $15.4 million in assistance the city gave United just two years ago to move its corporate headquarters and at least 325 jobs from Elk Grove Village to 77 W. Wacker.

“Chicago was a world-class city before today’s decision, and Chicago will be a world-class city tomorrow. Although disappointment hangs in the air, this is not the time for regret, but rather to see opportunity in the incredible work that was done across Chicago over the past months.

"We now have the chance to move forward, free of the demands of the IOC, but equipped with plans that can address the real problems Chicagoans face on a daily basis. Chicago is now armed with an organizing capability never seen before, and an opportunity to continue the momentum and create better schools, more efficient transportation, and safer streets."

Here's my translation:

"I was driving down 57th Street headed to Washington Park when I got a call from a friend telling me Chicago had lost its bid for the 2016 Olympics.

"I honked my horn, rolled down the window, and let out a whoop of joy.

Meanwhile, the Chicago City Council’s police and fire committee met this afternoon to discuss an ordinance that would impose fines on the owners of dogs that bark too long and too loud.

The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating, as it does all police shootings. But the incident wasn't the only recent outbreak of violence in that area: in the last month, police have received reports of 27 batteries, 8 robberies, and4 weapons violations.

Last night, when I went down to the area for its monthly community policing meeting, lots of people around there seemed to be on edge.