The [Wednesday] Papers

1. "Peabody Energy, one of the state's largest coal mine operators, soon could be in bankruptcy, but regulators are allowing it to meet future cleanup obligations with a promise rather than a bond," Crain's reports.

What could possibly go wrong?

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Previously in Peabody:

* Bankruptcy Lawyers Strip Cash From Indiana Coal Miners' Health Insurance.

* Impact: Plan To Divert $18 Million From The Health Insurance Of Retired Indiana Coal Miners To Pay Bankruptcy Lawyers Is Dead.

* Big Company Spins Off New Company. Loads It Up With 8,400 Retirees. New Company Goes Bankrupt. Retirees Lose Benefits.

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2. Governor Statues Put On Hold.

Impact! Our very own Ed Hammer broke the story here.

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3. University Of Chicago Professor Resigns During Sexual Harassment Investigation.

"[He] probably shouldn't have been hired in the first place: before [he] moved to Chicago, members of the faculty received anonymous e-mails warning that he had been accused of sexual harassment or misconduct while he was at Princeton and the University of North Carolina."

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4. "Mayor Rahm Emanuel was accused Tuesday of playing hide the ball with Northwest Side residents bombarded by O'Hare Airport jet noise," the Sun-Times reports.

He sure didn't hide the gall.

Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st) demanded to know why Emanuel made no mention of the $1.3 billion deal he had cut with major airlines to build the final runway at O'Hare when he met just two days before that deal was announced with the anti-noise Fair Allocation in Runways Coalition.

During the long-awaited City Hall meeting, Emanuel ruled out saving two diagonal runways slated for demolition that FAIR wants the city to keep and use at night and during off-peak hours to soften the blow of dramatic O'Hare flight-path changes that hit in October 2013.

Using the diagonals at those times would help avoid repeatedly bombarding the same neighborhoods with jet noise. As many as 63,000 Chicago area residents a month have complained about the new barrage of noise since the flight path changes, FAIR contends.

Instead of being up-front about the runway deal he was about to announce, Emanuel slammed the door on saving the diagonal runways without explaining why.

"He just said, 'No,'" Napolitano said. "I would have said, 'You know what? This is already in place. There's money already allocated. And I would have said, 'We've got a deal, but let's see what we can work out. Let's see what we can figure out.'"

Here's the gall part:

On Friday night, Napolitano got a call from the mayor's office inviting him to attend Sunday's announcement on the runway deal.

Napolitano ignored the invite, according to the Sun-Times. I wonder if he should have gone, though, and made a scene. Or at least asked the mayor right there in front of the TV cameras why he essentially lied to his constituents.

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The mayor's office issued a statement to the Sun-Times about how much the mayor cares about the people of Chicago and, of course, the Sun-Times inserted it into the story. That reminded me of this recent Facebook post - check out the first comment:

Well, Scott, you're the paper's political editor, why do you keep publishing them?

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5. The 8th Annual (More Or Less) Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Show Prop Bet: Coldplay Edition.

"This is a bad pick, and not just because Coldplay sucks. It's a bad pick because Coldplay couldn't possibly be less relevant to this year's Super Bowl. They're neither influential enough nor classic enough to matter to anyone. They're the 40-ish divorced suburban dad of contemporary music, and honestly, that guy sucks. He's all weird scientific non-sequiturs and pee-stained sloppiness. Who wants to sit and listen to 'Fix You' in the middle of a football game? And make no mistake, they are going to play 'Fix You' because that is exactly what 40-ish divorced suburban dads do."

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6. Sex Museums, Dick Puppets & Winning Elections.

"While I was in graduate school in Chicago, I wanted to think about the relationship between objects, spaces, and people coming into their sexual identities and sexual repertoires. And so I started to think about sex museums . . . "

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7. Blue Ridge, Chicago.

Sounds like us to me.

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8. Monster Roster: Existentialist Art In Postwar Chicago.

Group of postwar artists established the first unique Chicago style.

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BeachBook

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TweetWood
A sampling.

Media now engaged in quantum punditry: Every possible interpretation of #IowaCaucus results posited with equal confidence.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) February 2, 2016

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Horrible track record earns Punxsutawney Phil cable-news gig.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) February 2, 2016

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Hillary Clinton favorite to win Super Bowl coin toss.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) February 2, 2016

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#PunxsutawneyPhil did not see his shadow; therefore six more hours of #GroundhogDay jokes on Twitter.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) February 2, 2016

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Don't you mean Sprin'field? https://t.co/W75W72Z09e

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) February 3, 2016

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Tuesday Trivia: Ken Dunkin was named Ken Dunking before playing footsie with Gov. Rauner.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) February 2, 2016

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A1: $502,500.00 in 2 contribs to Friends of Ken Dunkin. https://t.co/68G0Td3wud

— Trib IL CampaignCash (@ILCampaignCash) February 2, 2016

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Bruce Rauner threatens to take over CPS, establish Right to Homework zones.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) February 3, 2016

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The *structural problem* is Illinois' flat tax. Period, end of story.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) February 3, 2016

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The Beachwood Tip Line: Structured settlement.

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