The [Wednesday] Papers

"After she had been viciously beaten by a patron she knew as 'Tony,' bartender Karolina Obrycka made it clear to the Chicago police officers responding to her 911 call that she believed her attacker was the 'police.' She then wrote down his last name - or how she thought it was spelled - on a scrap of paper and pointed out that security cameras at the Northwest Side bar had likely captured the attack," the Tribune reports.

"Yet none of that wound up in the officers' report. On Tuesday, Obrycka's lawyer grilled Officer Peter Masheimer about the missing details as he testified at a trial stemming from a lawsuit she brought against the city of Chicago and Anthony Abbate, the off-duty cop convicted of attacking her.

"Masheimer testified he did not include the alleged offender's name or the security camera in the report because it was 'speculation and assumption,' because Obrycka got the information secondhand."

May I remind you, Officer Masheimer, that you're under oath.

So let me rephrase: Your explanation is that you're a crappy police officer?

See also:
* Chicago Cops Just Make Stuff Up, 2 Say

* Chicago Police Review Agency Formed To Replace Previous Inept Chicago Police Review Agency Just As Sucky

Bank of White America
"Do banks take better care of foreclosed property in white neighborhoods than in minority communities? A fair housing coalition says they do," Consumer Affairs reports.

"The coalition, made up of the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), the HOPE Fair Housing Center, the South Suburban Housing Center, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council and the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana announced a federal housing discrimination complaint against Bank of America Corporation.

"The complaint alleges that an undercover investigation found that Bank of America maintains and markets foreclosed homes in white neighborhoods in a much better manner than in black and Latino neighborhoods in Chicago, Milwaukee and Indianapolis."

Field of Memes
"'If you build it, he will come,' has never been more true then when Ray Kinsella built that drive-thru liquor store on his second farm, in Illinois," Walk Off HBP comments on Deadspin.

The Sun-Times Website . . .
. . . is broken this morning. Apparently new hire Jenny McCarthy persuaded them to remove their anti-virus software.

Seasonal Aisle
Christian Rock is back again, like it is every year, and heroin is a growing problem in the suburbs, just like it has been since at least the mid-90s, when I reported on this perennial trend for Newsweek.

Next: Where are the real men? And did you know they're wearing suits again?

*

Comment from Eric Zorn:

Don't forget . . . The home-delivery milkman is (back/fading into history). Are drive-in movie theaters (enjoying a resurgence/doomed)? (with obligatory Last Picture Show reference in the headline). LSD is back. The return of the push lawn-mower.

Walmart's Cold Heart
"A lawsuit filed Monday accuses Wal-Mart Stores and two staffing agencies of requiring temporary employees to show up early for work, stay late and work through lunch at the world's largest retailer," the New York Times reports.

"The proposed class action, filed in a Chicago federal court, claimed that Wal-Mart and the agencies violated minimum wage and overtime laws, potentially affecting several hundred temporary workers in the Chicago area."

Walmart's lawyers, by the way, also show up early, stay late and work through lunch.

Schock Treatment
"The youngest and arguably the hottest member of Congress, Aaron Schock (R-IL), appeared at a Romney-Ryan event in Davenport, IA today and in remarks said: 'We'd like to give Chicago to Canada. We were going to make them another state but I decided if we give them to Canada they can have all of their free health care and all the subsidies that they want,'" Chicago Pride reports.

Aaron Schock, you not only just got my vote but I'd like to volunteer for your campaign.

QT: Nearing The Finish Line
Rebutting is not refuting.

Honoring A True Illinois Hero
Russ Sonneveld helped put George Ryan in prison - and paid a price.

The Maxwell Street Birthday Blues Jam
Celebrating 100 years - and it wasn't even on Maxwell Street.

Afghanistan Unplugged
And on Joliet Community TV.

Dummy: A Memoir
By an autistic former Chicago drug dealer.

Is Cam A Sham?
In Fantasy Fix.

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