The [Monday] Papers

"Chicago Public Schools Board Vice President Jesse Ruiz, who in recent months has become the Board's most outspoken member, will be leaving that post at the end of the calendar year," Catalyst reports.

"Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office announced on Friday the appointment of Ruiz to the Board of Commissioners of the Chicago Park District, where the mayor is recommending that he be elected president by the other commissioners.

"Ruiz did not respond to messages on Friday afternoon.

"While technically a move up, Ruiz' transfer from the School Board to the Park District is being viewed by close observers as a demotion because of the lesser prominence of the Parks board."

Now here's the fun part:

Insiders say CEO Forrest Claypool and City Hall have been increasingly frustrated with some of Ruiz's lines of public questioning about charter schools and the need for more transparency.

We take this as politics as usual - especially around here - but the implications are profound. Ruiz has been removed from the school board for asking too many questions - which around here means more than zero - and his (apparent) desire for transparency.

1. If you haven't yet been convinced of the need for an elected school board, does this do it? If you are going to have a school board of puppets, why have one at all?

2. If you fell for Rahm Emanuel's campaign pledges to run a more transparent government, you've now been fooled twice. Shame on you.

3. If you believed the media's narrative about Saint Forrest Claypool, think again.

4. If you ever had any doubts that school board meetings are nothing but tightly scripted theater, those doubts should now be gone. Ruiz has been moved because he went off-script - ever so slightly. Bring on the understudy!

5. Is it really a demotion given that Ruiz now has a board presidency? Yes, unless the park district gets a mandate to close 50 parks - and even then. My guess is that the board presidency was a necessary political consolation prize to deflect criticism of Emanuel for lack of Latinos on the school board - and a strong enough message to Ruiz, who has always been an apparatchik longing for a political future, to stay in line.

Minding Marin
"Esteemed Chicago journalist Carol Marin is stepping down after 11 years as a columnist for the Sun-Times to join the faculty of DePaul University this spring," media blogger Robert Feder reports.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who got a chuckle out of this part of the story:

"[T]he Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence will be located in the Richard M. and Maggie C. Daley Building."

The Unbearable White Maleness Of Sports Media
Progress has been grudgingly slow - and it shows.

On a special edition of Beachwood Radio - with special guest Evan F. Moore.

SportsMonday: Meatball Mania
You can hear their distinctive cry across Chicago today.

Congressmen Read The Bible
Other ideas include breaking into a flash mob.

TV Reporter Going To Paris
Finally figures out what he wants to say.

Survivor Of Holiday Lighting Accident Shares His Story
Please take note of your surroundings before decorating outside.

The Weekend In Chicago Rock
Featuring: FUZZ, Acid Witch, Negative Scanner, The Dandy Warhols, Gerald Dowd with Dave Nelson, Jeff Tweedy, Glen Hansard & Aoife O'Donovan, DNCE, The Great Ache, Beach Slang, The Royal Concept, Watain, Mayhem, Odesza, Rick Ross, Between The Buried and Me, Silverstein, Britt Dignan, Moon Taxi, Heather Styka, Sue Fink, The Landmarks, Minor Wits, MELK, and Micachu and The Shapes.

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BeachBook

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TweetWood
A sampling.

Fire Breaks Out Inside John Hancock Building, Which Was Almost Named John Footpenis Building: https://t.co/can1zSu67L

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) November 22, 2015

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Now passengers are deciding who will board airplanes in the US based on religion? https://t.co/UWanmsTTyO pic.twitter.com/qQDjwS0ZaA

— Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) November 21, 2015

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I didn't believe this was accurate until I clicked on the link and listened... https://t.co/bFkyDiLGCw

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 23, 2015

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All media organizations that pretend to ban expression of opinions actually only ban certain opinions... https://t.co/hN3cElPMwl

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 23, 2015

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The Beachwood Tip Line: Stop pretending.

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