Eight people were arrested Monday during a protest at Obama's 2012 campaign headquarters. The rally, organized by social justice and anti-war group Catholic Workers, was the first organized demonstration -- and the first instance of arrests -- relating to the NATO counter-protests. It was small (just over two dozen participants assailed security and stormed the campaign headquarters and read a statement inside) but set a tone for actions later this week in asserting that the president and Democratic Party are protest targets alongside NATO generals and corporations like Boeing, who receive large government defense contracts.

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According to a report from the Guardian's Adam Gabbatt, in recent months the Chicago police have spent over $1 million on riot equipment, and are preparing to use a controversial LRAD (long-range acoustic device) -- a sound cannon designed to cause extreme pain to those in its path.

The Chicago Police Department is pitching the LRAD largely as a means to communicate with large crowds:

"This is simply a risk management tool, as the public will receive clear information regarding public safety messages and any orders provided by police," Chicago Police spokeswoman Melissa Stratton told the Guardian.

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Chicagoans have already endured the notorious 75-year lease of their parking meters to a consortium headed by Morgan Stanley. That sale promulgated a system wherein the public is held hostage by private finance, due largely to the inclusion of arcane legal stipulations like “non-compete clauses” and “compensation events” in the language of the contract.

Ellen Danin, writing in the Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy relates that: “Chicagoans learned about compensation events when CBS reported that the city’s parking meter contract required reimbursement for events like repairing streets. Public records showed that in the first quarter of 2009, the city was liable to the parking meter contractor for more than $106,000 in lost income during the slow months for street repair and street closings for festivals, parades, and holidays, as well as repairs and maintenance. At that rate, it is not unreasonable to predict that Chicago will owe roughly $500,000 a year to the private contractor.”

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Then there's the backdrop: Chicago, the site of the notorious 1968 Democratic National Convention and police riot. The city of Barack Obama's election night rally in 2008 -- when a politician could still pull off a slogan like "hope" and it didn't seem to everyone like a cruel joke. And, as of this month, a Chicago where protest rules and punishments for dissent are stricter than ever, thanks to ordinances recently passed through the city council.

"The ordinances, combined with Chicago's history of spying on political activists, do not bode well for how the City will treat protesters at the upcoming G-8/NATO summits," Heidi Boghosian, director of the National Lawyers Guild, told Salon.

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The former White House chief of staff took the oath of office at downtown's Millennium Park, one of the signature accomplishments in Daley's efforts to transform Chicago from an industrial hub into a gleaming global tourist destination. He planned to head to City Hall later to the fifth-floor office that was Daley's lair for 22 years.

"We must face the truth," Emanuel said in his inaugural speech. "It is time to take on the challenges that threaten the very future of our city: the quality of our schools, the safety of our streets, the cost and effectiveness of city government, and the urgent need to create the jobs of the future."

"The decisions we make in the next two or three years will determine what Chicago will look like in the next 20 or 30."

Emanuel inherits a city with big financial problems. His transition team predicted a $700 million budget shortfall next year, but because of some controversial decisions by Daley -- most notably the push to privatize parking meters -- he has limited ways to pay for school improvements or repair the city's aging infrastructure.

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Emanuel was sworn in during a morning inauguration ceremony at the popular downtown Millennium Park, one of the signature accomplishments in Daley's efforts to transform the city. Emanuel later planned to head over to City Hall and, for the first time since he was elected in February, walk into the fifth-floor office that was Daley's lair for 22 years.

"We must face the truth," Emanuel said in his inaugural speech. "It is time to take on the challenges that threaten the very future of our city: the quality of our schools, the safety of our streets, the cost and effectiveness of city government, and the urgent need to create the jobs of the future right here in Chicago."

"The decisions we make in the next two or three years will determine what Chicago will look like in the next 20 or 30."

Emanuel's swearing-in completes an interesting role swap between City Hall and the White House: Emanuel's replacement as Obama's chief of staff is the outgoing mayor's younger brother, William Daley.

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The Springs, as we call it here in the square state, has made national headlines as a Republican bastion with an unwavering commitment to the old tax-cuts-and-budget-cuts theory of growth. During the recession, that has resulted in both comparatively low property tax rates and in darkened street lights, cuts to police and firefighting forces, and an end to basic municipal services.

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Today, the feed's creator has revealed himself to The Atlantic as Dan Sinker, founder of the now-defunct zine Punk Planet and journalism professor at Columbia College in Chicago. The Atlantic has published a fascinating article about Sinker, and the meaning of one of the most compelling Twitter odysseys we've yet to see from the new medium.

Said Alexis Madrigal in The Atlantic:

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Emanuel, who overwhelmed the race with truckloads of money and friends in high places from Washington to Hollywood, will take control of a city in deep financial trouble with problems ranging from an understaffed police department to underperforming schools.

On Tuesday, Emanuel won 55 percent of the vote, easily outdistancing former Chicago schools president Gery Chico, who had 24 percent, and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and City Clerk Miguel del Valle, who each had 9 percent. He succeeds Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is retiring after 22 years in office as the longest-serving mayor in Chicago's history.

But the city he inherits, though perhaps more beautiful than ever after years of extensive urban improvements, is in financial straits that it hasn't seen since before Daley's father, Mayor Richard J. Daley, came to power in the 1950s.

"Not since the Great Depression have the finances of the city been this precarious," said Dominic Pacyga, a historian and author of "Chicago: A Biography." The city's next budget deficit could again exceed $500 million, mostly the result of reduced tax revenue from the recession, and could reach $1 billion if the city properly funds its pension system.

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At issue is whether President Obama's ex-chief of staff manages to secure an outright majority in the preliminary election being conducted today; polls have shown him running around the 50 percent mark. If he clears that hurdle when the ballots are tallied tonight, the game will end on the spot.

If he falls short, there will be a runoff between Emanuel and the second-place finisher, who figures to be Gery Chico, the former chief of staff to outgoing Mayor Richard Daley. While it's theoretically possible that Chico (or Carol Moseley Braun or Miguel del Valle, each of whom might also place second) could corral all of the non-Emanuel voters and overtake him in the runoff, such a scenario is extremely unlikely. In reality, the only major obstacle to Emanuel's coronation was the issue of his residency, which was finally resolved in his favor several weeks ago.

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The six candidates spent Tuesday morning still pushing for votes, shaking hands with surprised commuters and diner-goers and pleading their cases for why they should be picked to succeed the retiring Daley, who will leave office this spring after 22 years on the job.

"This is a critical election for the future of the city of Chicago. We're at a crossroads," front-runner Rahm Emanuel said as he greeted commuters at a South Side train station.

The campaign began last fall when Daley -- with his wife ailing, six terms under his belt, and a future of fiscal challenges facing Chicago -- announced he wouldn't seek re-election.

The candidates who rushed in to fill that void included Emanuel, President Barack Obama's former chief of staff; former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun; former Chicago public schools president Gery Chico; and City Clerk Miguel del Valle.

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Thursday's decision revives the campaign of the former White House chief of staff who was thrown off the Feb. 22 ballot by an Illinois appellate court for not meeting a residency requirement because he hadn't lived in Chicago for a year before the race.

Emanuel lived for nearly two years in Washington working for President Barack Obama until he moved back to Chicago in October to run for mayor.

In their appeal to the state's high court, Emanuel's attorneys called the appellate court decision "one of the most far-reaching election law rulings ever" issued by an Illinois court.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Rahm Emanuel pushed on with his campaign Thursday, including attending a planned a televised debate. But the real debate over his chances of becoming Chicago's next mayor went on behind closed doors.

If Illinois' highest court does not restore the former White House chief of staff to the ballot, Emanuel's other options such as a write-in campaign or an appeal to the federal courts appeared less promising.

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Emanuel has asked the court to overturn a lower ruling that threw him off the ballot because he had not lived in the city for a year. His attorneys called Monday's decision "squarely inconsistent" with previous rulings on the issue.

The high court's order appeared to buy some time for Emanuel. The Chicago Board of Elections had said it would begin printing ballots without his name as early as Tuesday, with the election less than a month away. Absentee ballots were to be sent out within days.

Messages left for election officials were not immediately returned.

There was also no immediate word on whether the high court would hear Emanuel's appeal or when the justices would decide whether to accept it.

"I'm confident in the argument we're making about the fact that I never lost my residency," Emanuel said Tuesday at a campaign stop where he picked up an endorsement from the Teamsters Joint Council.

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With the election on Feb. 22, Emanuel is now excluded from the ballot unless his appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court is successful. (Which actually seems unlikely.)

I'm no huge fan of Emanuel, who pioneered cashing in on years of "public service" in a Democratic administration with a shameless stopover to become a millionaire in the finance industry, and who then helped make a complete mess of the Obama administration's first two years, but this is still silly. The man has spent most of his life in Chicago, and taking a job in D.C. for a couple of years shouldn't disqualify him from running for mayor any more than being from Boston makes Mike Bloomberg unqualified to lead New York. If the good people of Chicago are dumb enough to want to make Emanuel their leader, they should have that right.

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While the former White House chief of staff hopes Clinton can persuade voters to cast their ballots for him Feb. 22, a former mayoral contender has warned that Clinton is risking his popular standing with the African American community by backing Emanuel rather than a black candidate.

Clinton is scheduled to appear with Emanuel at the Chicago Cultural Center Tuesday morning. The candidate touted the visit in his campaign mailings over the weekend, mixed with an appeal for campaign donations.

"I'm honored to have President Clinton's support," Emanuel told supporters in the e-mail on Sunday. "I'm excited to show President Clinton the great Chicagoans who've made this campaign possible."

Emanuel is among about a dozen names on the mayoral ballot. Three of his rivals, former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, former schools president Gery Chico and City Clerk Miguel del Valle, have emphasized their deep city roots while claiming Emanuel is more of a Washington insider. Braun has the support of many black leaders in the city, while Chico picked up the endorsement of Congressman Luis Gutierrez this month.

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Lori Halpin spoke to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners one day after Emanuel did in a hearing over the residency challenges to his bid for the city's top job.

Halpin told a hearing officer that she has never seen any of the 100 boxes or some of the other valuable family possessions that Emanuel has said were left behind, including in a locked area of the home's basement.

Emanuel testified Tuesday about belongings in his home, including his wife's wedding dress, clothes his children wore home from the hospital just after they were born, family china and others to defend himself against allegations that he forfeited his Chicago residency when he leased his home and moved to Washington.

But Halpin said she was unaware of any items like that being left in the house.

"I have never found anything locked in the house," Halpin said.

She said the Emanuels did leave some items behind including a piano, their master bed, an old couch, TV and an old cassette player.

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Emanuel stood next to Obama as the president gave him a high-profile send-off in the East Room Friday. Obama called him "an incomparable leader of our staff, and one who we are going to miss very much."

The setting was a measure of the president's esteem for his exiting chief of staff. He called it a "bittersweet moment," adding that "we could not have accomplished what we accomplished without Rahm's leadership."

Emanuel's replacement, at least for the interim, is Obama senior adviser Pete Rouse, who also stood at Obama's side at the East Room.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is making official what has been clear for days: Rahm Emanuel, the relentless enforcer of his agenda as White House chief of staff, is resigning. The job Emanuel wants now is mayor of Chicago, where his next fierce political fight awaits.

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Pete Rouse, 64, now one of Obama's senior advisers and his former chief of staff in the Senate, doesn't have Emanuel's larger-than-life personality or taste for colorful invective and aggressive political combat.

Instead he's a highly knowledgeable insider who's spent decades quietly advising top officials and, unlike Emanuel, rarely talks to the media.

Obama on Friday is expected to announce that Emanuel is leaving and that Rouse will replace him on an interim basis until the president decides on a new permanent chief, which could ultimately be Rouse. Emanuel is departing to run for a job he has long wanted, Chicago mayor.

Rouse has gained the respect and trust of key lawmakers during three decades on Capitol Hill, where he sometimes was referred to as the 101st Senator during years serving as chief of staff to former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle.

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Emanuel obsesses about the New York Times, and stays in contact with a dozen or more reporters each week. Rouse knows many reporters, but he is not a schmoozer, an information trader, or likely to return late night e-mails with provocative subject headings. He won't be as accessible to the White House press corps, or to parts of it, as Emanuel was. Rouse does not share Emanuel's conviction that the White House must govern principally through the Times.

Rouse is Pete Rouse, the probable interim chief of staff. He is, apparently, not as much of a moron as Rahm Emanuel, who is under the impression that rich white coastal Democrats are the only segment of the base worth appeasing -- because they're the only people in this great big country that care what the Times says.

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