The [Friday] Papers

"Mayor Rahm Emanuel is giving sizeable pay raises to his personal staff - even as he continues to freeze the salaries of city department heads," the Sun-Times reports.

"Tucked away in Emanuel's proposed, 2017 budget is a new, $112,000-a-year assistant to the mayor and pay raises as high as 30 percent for existing members of the mayor's staff."

To be fair, we can all agree that members of the mayor's staff deserve a Cost of Living With Rahm Adjustment.

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"The overall budget for the mayor's office will rise by five percent - from $5.96 million this year to $6.28 million in 2017. That's even after there is only one addition to a mayor's office staff that currently includes 68 employees."

Hey, it's not cheap developing strategies to persuade the public that teachers should take a pay cut.

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"But, 45 members of Emanuel's staff are in line for pay raises, some of them sizeable increases."

If only they were in a union - then Rahm would be tightening their belts.

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"Emanuel's communications director Adam Collins [$138,002] made reference to Zopp, without mentioning her by name, in an e-mail to the Chicago Sun-Times defending the pay raises in the mayor's office."

They don't pay him enough to pick up the phone.

"'First, the overall headcount in the office has not changed. There were some new hires . . . and we made some structural changes in the office months ago to focus on neighborhoods and economic development,' Collins wrote.

"'The team here will continue to focus our work on expanding opportunity for every resident of Chicago, and investing in every neighborhood of Chicago.'"

With the money we have left over after paying ourselves.

"At the same time he's rewarding members of his own staff, Emanuel continues to freeze the pay of city department heads, most of them for the sixth straight budget."

This tells you something about the hierarchy at City Hall, where a press aide wields more power than . . . a department head.

"The lone exception is Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans. She remains the city's highest-paid public official with an annual salary of $300,000, compared to the $186,576 paid to her predecessor Rosemarie Andolino.

"The 61 percent pay raise helped lure the hard-charging Evans to Chicago from the nation's capital in May, 2015, where she served as vice president of engineering for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority."

To be fair, you had to offer a lot to lure an airports vice president in Washington to the far bigger and more prestigious top job in Chicago.

"Police Supt. Eddie Johnson, Emanuel's surprise pick to replace fired Supt. Garry McCarthy, ranks second among department heads.

"Johnson inherited the $260,004-a-year salary negotiated by McCarthy before Emanuel pulled the rug out from under his only superintendent in the unrelenting furor that followed release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video nearly a year ago."

So the aviation commissioner makes more than the police chief.

"The deputy chief of staff who fills the line item jumping by $30,012-a-year - to $185,004 a year - is Andrea Zopp."

To the Beachwood vault, May 21, 2015:

"Since those initial statements, however, Vitale has declined to comment further. So has Ruiz, who was named acting schools CEO after Byrd-Bennett took a leave of absence. The other board members who voted for the [SUPES] deals did not respond to Tribune inquiries or said little.

"I'd really rather not talk about it," said Andrea Zopp, a school board member and former prosecutor who last week announced her bid for the 2016 Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.

But Zopp's all-time greatest hit was this one:

This was CPS Board member Andrea Zopp's weekend after voting to close 50 schools http://t.co/J2NRxiHhnW #CPSClosings

— ChicagoTeachersUnion (@CTULocal1) May 28, 2013

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So, in summary:

"A handful of top mayoral aides received raises despite Chicago's tough economic times."

Oh, wait, that was from Rahm's first budget in 2011, and I'm sure every subsequent budget since.

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Beachwood Photo Booth: AAA Sales
Bonds and batteries.

Fact-Checking Trump & Clinton On The Billionaire's Tax Break
Misleading insinuations by both.

Brian Hoyer, Fantasy Darling
No contest vs. Cutler.

The Week In Chicago Rock
Featuring: Die Antwoord, Alestorm, Robert Plant, Nekrogoblikon, Aether Realm, Please The Trees, Midge Ure, Kishi Bashi, Nate Young, Andy Ortmann, Suicide Silence, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Ulla Anona, Carl Calm, Catfish & The Bottlemen, The Devil Wears Prada, Memphis May Fire, Like Moths To Flames, Coffin Screws, Sleight of Hand, and Squirrel Nut Zippers.

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BeachBook

FBI Releases Internal Dissents On 2013 Chicago Hubcap-Thief Shooting Incident.

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Why This Chicago Disability Group Is Suing Uber.

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The Chicago Cubs Are Baseball's Best-Smelling Team.

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U.S. Officials Repeatedly Failed To Heed Warnings About The Crooks In Afghanistan's Government.

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Chicago Blackhawks Kick Their Season Off With Boneheaded Own Goal.

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I Found A 1979 Postcard WIth An Evanston Postmark And This Is Its Story.

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TweetWood
A sampling.

Dusty Baker has now lost 9 straight games with a chance to clinch a playoff round.

That's the longest streak in MLB history. pic.twitter.com/NPRQdumsT3

— Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) October 14, 2016

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Dave Roberts out managed Dusty Baker. Wow.

— Lexie (@lexiebu) October 14, 2016

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NATS PARK SOUNDS VERY LOW ENERGY RIGHT NOW. WEAK PITCHING. CROOKED DUSTY CANNOT FIX. SAD!

— NOT BUSTER OLNEY (@TRIPPINGOLNEY) October 14, 2016

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: Low energy.

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