Sunday links.

Former alderman Dick Simpson and should-have-been-mayor Miguel del Valle appear on my favorite local news of the week show, Chicago Newsroom with my favorite host Ken Davis. And I say that not just because I’ve been on the show. The longer school day is one of the topics.

Charles Blow says, “Not just jobs. Good jobs.” Unfortunately he also thinks we have to choose between good jobs here or good jobs abroad. Why is it that so many Democratic liberals see everything as a war?

Houston schools are what Rahm aspires to? The Texas Monthly says they’re a disaster. H/T to my bro.

In Fort Greene, Brooklyn, parents sue a charter school to pay rent for the space they use in a public school building.

Sacrificial kids and grandmas.

They want to put a Wal-Mart in my Logan Square neighborhood. In Wisconsin, the Walton’s were major contributors to Scott Walker and his legislative posse that increased state aid to private schools and slashed funding for public schools. And attacked teacher unions. Keep the creep out of my neighborhood.

But eventually policy-makers must decide whether they will throw their weight behind corporate or local solutions to the grocery gap. The future of the burgeoning local food movement may hinge on whether cities decide to let Walmart in, says Big Box Swindle author Mitchell. If Walmart is able to replicate the dominance it has in suburban and certain metro areas, it may stop local food systems from developing, she warns.

“The larger the presence of Walmart in grocery markets in cities, the fewer opportunities there are for anything else,” she says. That means the chain could prevent the creation of new small businesses. “Starting a small retail store in your neighborhood or getting a job at a factory that is a union job have been two of the really important pathways into the middle class, and those avenues are being cut off by Walmart,” she says. Bridget Huber, The Nation.