Seems that Chicago's Foie Gras ban may not be set in stone after all.
The Chicago Sun reports that City Alderman Ed Burke, with the support of several colleagues on the city council's Health Committee, quietly slipped a repeal of the Foie Gras ban into the agenda of this week's meeting. It wasn't brought up for a vote, but the move so angered the committee chair, Ed Smith, that he sent a letter of resignation to Mayor Richard Daley saying that he would leave his position if it ever did. Daley accepted the provisional resignation, pointing out that he believes the repeal will happen sooner or later.
To be fair, Alderman Smith is no Joe Moore, and he is apparently more upset about what amounts to an end run around his authority as chair, rather than defending the Foie Gras ban. However, he's also a long-time foe of the Mayor, so he'll be getting no support from City Hall in his efforts to preserve his vision of legislative etiquette.
FoieBlog hasn't been so happy since we discovered a restaurant serving Foie Gras stuffed Rabbit Loin near our HQ (review to come.) Kudos to our new favorite politician, Ed Burke. Chicago could have easily let this law live on the books with little enforcement like one of those wacky laws you hear about not being able to dance with a chicken in the presence of a kindergarten teacher (or something like that), but clearly there's been enough of a vocal and active opposition to the ban that city legislators now realize they need to serve the people and business of Chicago and not some whiners from Watkins Glen, NY (We're looking at you, Farm Sanctuary.)
FoieBlog urges our Windy City readers to keep up the phone calls and e-mails. The only lost cause is the one that you let be.
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