The [Thursday] Papers

UPDATE 2:54 P.M.: Friday Night With John Callaway will feature an interview with recently departed Chicago Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski this week. You can see an excerpt tonight on Chicago Tonight.

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Gov. Baloneyvich
"The confusing controversy over Gov. Rod Blagojevich's decision to give $1 million in state assistance following the Pilgrim Baptist Church fire has a new twist - the founder of the private Chicago school that got the money is contradicting the governor's statement about what happened," the Tribune reports.

Will the last person in the state who hasn't been lied to by the governor turn the lights out?

Top Doc
"While on the county payroll, a top urologist at Cook County Hospital solicited nearly $1 million from drug companies over the last decade for his private foundation," the Sun-Times reports. "Dr. Paul S. Ray's pitch was that the money would go toward medical research and education. But most of the money hasn't gone to health care at all. Instead, Ray invested it - mostly in Tony Rezko."

Tony Rezko, the Keyser Soze of Illinois politics.

Obamalympics
"Sen. Barack Obama's campaign will be among the TV sponsors of NBC Universal's Olympics coverage. In the first significant network-TV buy of any presidential candidate in at least 16 years, the Obama campaign has taken a $5 million package of Olympics spots that includes network TV as well as cable ads," Ad Age reports.

A) He'll also compete in the pole vault.
B) In return, the IOC will add a sixth "O" to its logo.
C) Doctors warn that HDTV owners could suffer radiation burns from the unprecedented collision of hype.

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Meanwhile, First Read has a compilation of Obama overseas frenzy links, including "blow-out" coverage from Der Spiegel.

Prince of Blindness
Bob Novak says he didn't see the pedestrian he hit with his car on Wednesday.

The bicyclist-witness who chased Novak down says otherwise.

"The guy is sort of splayed into the windshield," David Bono tells Politico.

"Bono said that the pedestrian, who was crossing the street on a 'Walk' signal and was in the crosswalk, rolled off the windshield and that Novak then made a right into the service lane of K Street. 'This car is speeding away. What's going through my mind is, you just can't hit a pedestrian and drive away,' Bono said.

"He said he chased Novak half a block down K Street, finally caught up with him and then put his bike in front of the car to block it and called 911. Traffic immediately backed up, horns blaring, until commuters behind Novak backed up so he could pull over.

"Bono said that throughout, Novak 'keeps trying to get away. He keeps trying to go.' He said he vaguely recognized the longtime political reporter and columnist as a news personality but could not precisely place him.

"Finally, Bono said, Novak put his head out the window of his car and motioned him over. Bono said he told him that you can't hit a pedestrian and just drive away. He quoted Novak as responding: 'I didn't see him there.'"

Daley News
"News media too often portray communities as crime-ridden, Mayor Daley told journalists at McCormick Place on Wednesday," the Sun-Times reports (third item).

Instead, they should ignore those communities and focus on downtown, he advised.

"'Don't look at the politician," Daley said.

Nothing to see here.

"Look at the journalists and what they are reporting continuously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Um, like what they are reporting about politicians?

"You have to be able to balance."

Deceit with shamelessness, that is.

"WLS-Channel 7's Linda Yu, co-host of the UNITY '08 ceremony, responded: 'Thank you for the reminder.'"

And then she bent over and said, "Thank you, sir, may I have another."

Todd Squad
Todd Stroger is doing a "damn good job," and McDonald's is lovin' it!

Blaming Bartman
I knew Steve Bartman was back in the news when we saw a little traffic spike for "Go Blame It On Bartman."

Saving Holtzman
"Like so many who worked with him, I respected and loved Jerry Holtzman," Michael Davis writes. "That may explain the pain of awakening Tuesday morning to read his obituary posted on the Tribune's Web site. The story suggested Jerry had been run out of the Sun-Times in 1981, into the welcoming arms of the Tribune. It implied he had been a victim of neglect at the hands of know-nothing editors on Wabash Avenue.

"While it's true Jerry was shunted aside in the mid-1970s by sports editor Lewis Grizzard, within a few years his career bounced back as if he had Flubber on his heels."

Meanwhile, the Reader's Ted Cox writes that "[T]he world is a diminished place with the death of Jerome Holtzman, but the press box not so much. And if you think I'm being unnecessarily hard on the journalistic dead, just be glad I didn't have access to a blog when Steve Neal died."

Wrigley On Ice
Take Me Outside To The Hawks Game.

Holdout Hester
Sure, he's holding out, but we still believe The Hester Man Can!

The Beachwood Tip Line: Panning for gold.