The [Wednesday] Papers

I'm not ignoring the Jonylah Watkins tragedy, I just don't have anything original to say about it at this point.

And there's no good way to segue out of that into the rest of the column, but I trust you can handle the jarring transition.

Bad Luck of the Draw
"Federal jury selection for African-American elected official William Beavers hit a surprising and unusual snag Tuesday as soon as the panel of 50 prospective jurors walked into U.S. District Judge James Zagel's courtroom," the Tribune reports.

"There was not one African-American male in the randomly-selected group, prompting strong commentary from Beavers' defense team and a request that the pool be dismissed."

Well, that seems odd. But the jury poll was randomly selected, so I suppose that might happen every once in awhile.

Outside court, Beavers' attorneys called the process "rigged."

Oh. Really?

"I've been trying cases down here 52 years. I have never seen a case where I represented a black (male) defendant and they sent out 50 jurors, 50! 50 jurors! And not one single black man," said a highly agitated Sam Adam Sr. "Now don't tell me that was an accident."

So out of all the cases Adam has tried in 52 years, this is the one the powers-that-be decided to rig. Huh.

"Some place in this so-called federal system," he said, "this was all rigged."

The so-called federal system? You mean like this?

Or maybe Adam just wants folks who do get on the jury to believe that his client is guilty of a vengeful conspiracy.

That's always the last defense of a political scoundrel.

Dream Police
"Deals to bring a Cheap Trick-themed night club and a circus-cabaret dinner theater to Motor Row have fizzled, a double blow to the city's plan to turn the strip west of McCormick Place into an entertainment district," Crain's reports.

This strikes me as a bit underplayed - the Cheap Trick venture got a lot of hype when it was first announced (and even since then). At the same time, this is likely just the first bit of the news apple; let's see what kind of pick-up it gets.

Upon Further Review
"An independent review of the Voting Section in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has found a 'disappointing lack of professionalism' by many of the career and political employees over the last two administrations, including a polarizing culture that has prompted many staffers to vent their frustrations by sending personal emails and blog postings filled with epithets," the Los Angeles Times reports.

The so-called civil rights division, that is. It's almost like it's rigged.

Dousing Housing
"According to the Census Bureau, residential construction spending jumped 16.8 percent in 2012 over 2011, while housing starts closed out the year at their highest level since 2008," Chicago Agent magazine notes,

"Yet, even though construction firms have stepped up their hiring to meet this new demand - indeed, the 28,000 new construction jobs in January accounted for nearly a fifth of all the jobs created that month - construction payrolls, according to USA Today, are unchanged from 2010 at 5.5 million.

"The reason? Builders cannot find the right workers for the jobs at hand."

Smelling Like Rose
Citing a source in-the-know, Chicago sports broadcast maven David Kaplan out-and-out said on Sports Talk Live the other night that Derrick Rose was lying when the Bulls star said Sunday that he wasn't ready to return to the floor because his hamstrings were on fire.

Just like his grades and test scores were once on fire.

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"It's all mental for Derrick Rose now," Mark Potash writes for the Sun-Times

Indeed.

Starlin Castro vs. Alexei Ramirez
See where they stand in Fantasy Fix: Top 3Bs & SSs.

Egg Day!
At the Milwaukee County Zoo.

QT Programming Note
I'm disappointed to report that QT will no longer appear on the Beachwood.

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The Beachwood Tip Line: Cheap and tricky.

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