Is Occupy Chicago morphing into an instantly-appearing crowd of protesters with the agility and flexibility to protest almost anywhere and grab media attention? There’s some evidence that, denied permanent access to Grant Park, the Chicago Occupy group has spent less time and currency fighting for a “home” and is focusing on specific events and issues. Joe Macare (In These Times) has been writing about this and other OC matters, and he joins our panel this week.

Mike Flannery (Fox Chicago News) recaps his Excellent Adventure, as he spent the day in Springfield for a legislative special session that gave Chicago red light cameras, but failed to grapple with pension reform. There was also that spectacular last-minute collapse in the House of support for tax breaks for CME and Sears. Flannery says that since Speaker Madigan represents CME professionally, he had to recuse himself, and without his leadership support for the measure vanished.

There’s also lots of drama in the City Council as aldermen battle behind closed doors to find a way of remapping the city that acknowledges huge population shifts but also protects the most important thing of all – their own jobs.  Hal Dardick says there’s been a lot of yelling in the past few days.

The big dustup over school restructurings and closings – and one last discussion about the legacy of Maggie Daley.