The [Thursday] Papers

"Chicago spends more on police misconduct lawsuits per officer than any other major U.S. city - more than $210 million from 2012 to 2015," Jonah Newman reports for the Chicago Reporter.

"Now, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration says the city cannot begin to analyze those lawsuits for patterns of police misconduct until after the U.S. Department of Justice completes its investigation of the Police Department, a decision a former DOJ official calls 'not only unnecessary, but unproductive.'"

That former DOJ official? Jonathan M. Smith, who oversaw the department's investigation of Ferguson, Missouri after the death of Michael Brown there.

"The former chief of the DOJ section responsible for investigating police departments said the city's choice to delay analyzing police misconduct lawsuits goes against the advice the federal agency gives to cities under investigation.

"There is no reason to wait to implement those things that can be changed now," said Jonathan M. Smith, who ran the special litigation section of the civil rights division at DOJ from 2010 to 2015.

So Rahm is like, let's wait until the DOJ is done with their investigation, and the DOJ is like, hey, don't wait for us!

"Smith said DOJ does not expect cities to wait until their investigations are complete - which can sometimes take years - before taking steps toward police reform. To the contrary, he said, the department encourages cities under investigation to correct problematic policies and practices as soon as they are brought to light."

Which is also why a caretaker police chief wasn't necessary when the time was ripe for a reformer.

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My guess is that Rahm would rather wait for the DOJ on just about all things reform so he can pin the blame on them for changes that will alienate the Neanderthal bloc of the police force. At the same time, in front of certain audiences, he'll take credit for reforms he resists. He's still trying to thread the political needle.

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Reporting Catalyst
The invaluable education publication Catalyst is merging with the Chicago Reporter.

"For over 40 years, The Reporter has covered issues through the lens of race and inequality," Catalyst editor Lorraine Forte writes.

"Much of the dialogue around quality education intersects with discussions of race and class, especially as schools and districts become more diverse. And education is an important rung on the ladder of equal opportunity. For these reasons, the decision by our parent organization, Community Renewal Society, to merge its publications makes sense.

"Because of the merger, this issue will be the last print issue of Catalyst. We will continue to publish our reporting online at catalyst-chicago.org until the merger is final in 2017 and education becomes part of The Reporter's mission-driven reporting on race and inequality."

I don't know if there's more to the story of the merger, or what that more could be (guessing financial considerations), but I do know that, like so many others, I have immense respect for both publications. I fear something - or a lot of things - will be lost, but I hope for the best.

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Peter Nickeas vs. Ja'mal Green
See @BeachwoodReport for commentary and discussion about why Black Lives Matter and many of their allies are so angry with the Tribune and its overnight police reporter.

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P.S.:

Is this Constitutional? pic.twitter.com/ri3DTiTrvf

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) July 13, 2016

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The Banks Of Belize
"What's happening in the Caribbean is part of a larger saga, in which tighter banking controls are prompting the world's top financial institutions to avoid not just known terrorist groups but also cash remittance services, charities, foreign embassies, and other classes of customers, many of whom have no role in criminal activity. That conflict threatens global goals of providing financial access to the world's poor."

The Momentum Of Baseball Cards
"The study looked at about 38,000 cards issued from 1948 to 1996, measured by price data through a third-party valuation service for the 72 months to the end of 1996. As such it captures a specific period in the history of baseball cards, as a kind of bubble-like interest in collecting rose and peaked in the 1990s, punctuated by what Chicago-based author on the matter Dave Jamieson calls the 'great crash of '94.'"

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BeachBook

Rahm's Missed Opportunities To Integrate CPS.

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White Woman Walking Around South Side Apologizing To Black America.

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TweetWood
A sampling.

Copspeak: Seven Ways Journalists Use Police Jargon to Obscure the Truth - https://t.co/c9Rlxlktfl

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) July 13, 2016

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Lollapalooza VIP tickets include mini-spa treatments, food catered by Big Star, Publican. https://t.co/fU4EPWePDM | #AltRockNation

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) July 14, 2016

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: Save a tronc, take a tronc.

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