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August 31, 2016

The [Wednesday] Papers

Mark Brown has another column for the Sun-Times today on the law clerk fired for pretending to be a judge who is just months ahead of actually becoming a judge, which I wrote about Tuesday. I just want to show you one part and remind you that it's 2016:

Northwestern law professor Stephen Lubet, a judicial ethics expert who offered a fairly harsh assessment of the two women's conduct in my initial column on this subject, has since softened a bit.

Lubet now says this matter shouldn't cost them their judicial careers.

Now let me tweak that a bit:

Northwestern law professor Stephen Lubet, a judicial ethics expert who offered a fairly harsh assessment of the two women's conduct in my initial column on this subject, has since softened a bit.

Lubet now says this matter shouldn't cost them their judicial careers.

See the difference? I mean, readers might be wondering.

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Also, maybe a phone call to Lubet to ask about his change of heart.

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The Trib does this a lot too, in lieu of linking from the text of articles:

The problem? The "Related" links are often not placed anywhere near the place that tells readers what it is referring to - the actual words in the text! It's like randomly sprinkling footnotes throughout an article.

And that system only really allows for one, maybe two, links. It's a newspaper convention - For more, see Page 3!

Finally, as I've written repeatedly for more than a decade, using links in one's work changes the narrative structure of that work, and thus the writer's mindset when writing. For the better, I might add. Way better.

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In other words, Brown and his colleagues are still writing for a newspaper instead of a website. It's collective slow-motion suicide, a profession stubbornly gorging on cyanide day after day after day while the antidote sits on the shelf.

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It's so depressing having to address these basics at this late juncture in the game. But that's where we're (still) at.

No-Show Boats
"This year's Venetian Night boat parade has been canceled because of a lack of participants but a fireworks show will still be held, according to a Navy Pier official," the Tribune reports.

Did they burn all the boats or something? I seem to remember something like that.

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Best Venetian Night boat ever.

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Meanwhile, Venetian Night was a success last weekend in Watertown, Wisconsin, but you need a subscription to read about it.

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Teen Concussion Rate Rising Significantly
Increased participation in sports or increased awareness?

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BeachBook

Obamacare Is Faltering For One Simple Reason: Profit.

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Checking The Math On The Pentagon's ISIS Body Counts.

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Illinois Sues Controversial Drug Maker Over Deceptive Marketing Practices.

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'We Are Chicago' Trailer.

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TweetWood

YouTube-famous: Arizona couple follows up on why they fled Chicago https://t.co/EzyV9pyCGI via @azcentral | #Braelin

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 31, 2016

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@BillRuthhart While on subject of Rahm Emanuel press ops, recall McDonald video released day before Thanksgving & McDonald emails on NYE.

— Bill Ruthhart (@BillRuthhart) August 30, 2016

Statement from Mayor Emanuel on Police Accountability Ordinance pic.twitter.com/jwgBGyjJyP

— ChicagosMayor (@ChicagosMayor) August 30, 2016

#CPD denied #ChicagoTonight Freedom of Information request for Inspector General's report on Laquan McDonald cops, saying report is 'exempt'

— Paris Schutz (@paschutz) August 30, 2016

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Ben Joravsky's story about one of the city's best teachers illustrate's Rahm's insane mismanagement of CPS:https://t.co/hRGcaA4la0

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 31, 2016

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As long as Tribune Tower is in the news today, here's my feature on the Sun-Times Building, now Trump Tower. https://t.co/u0t0sgsVqw

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 30, 2016

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: No mas, por favor.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 8:34 AM | Permalink

Teen Concussion Rate Rising Significantly

The number of Americans diagnosed with concussions is growing, most significantly in adolescents, according to researchers at UC San Francisco. They recommend that adolescents be prioritized for ongoing work in concussion education, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

The new findings appear online in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine.

"Our study evaluated a large cross-section of the U.S. population," said lead author Alan Zhang, MD, UCSF Health orthopaedic surgeon. "We were surprised to see that the increase in concussion cases over the past few years mainly were from adolescent patients aged 10 to 19."

Concussions are a form of mild traumatic brain injury resulting in transient functional and biochemical changes in the brain. They can lead to time lost from sports, work and school, as well as significant medical costs.

Though symptoms resolve in most concussion patients within weeks, some patients' symptoms last for months, including depression, headache, dizziness and fogginess. Neuroimaging and neuropathological studies also suggest there may be chronic structural abnormalities in the brain following multiple concussions.

Recent studies have shown an increase in traumatic brain injuries diagnosed in many U.S. emergency departments. Smaller cohort studies of pediatric and high school athletes also have indicated a rise in concussions for certain sports, such as football and girls' soccer. However, this is the first study to assess trends in concussion diagnoses across the general U.S. population in various age groups.

In this study, Zhang and his colleagues evaluated the health records of 8,828,248 members of Humana Inc., a large private payer insurance group. Patients under age 65 who were diagnosed with a concussion between 2007-2014 were categorized by year of diagnosis, age group, sex, concussion classification, and health care setting of diagnosis (emergency department or physician's office).

Overall, 43,884 patients were diagnosed with a concussion, with 55 percent being male. The highest incidence was in the 15-19 age group at 16.5 concussions per 1,000 patients, followed by ages 10-14 at 10.5, 20-24 at 5.2 and 5-9 at 3.5.

The study found that 56 percent of concussions were diagnosed in the emergency department, 29 percent in a physician's office, and the remainder in urgent care or inpatient settings. As such, outpatient clinicians should have the same confidence and competence to manage concussion cases as emergency physicians, Zhang said.

A 60 percent increase in concussions occurred from 2007 to 2014 (3,529 to 8,217), with the largest growth in ages 10-14 at 143 percent and 15-19 at 87 percent. Based on classification, 29 percent of concussions were associated with some loss of consciousness.

A possible explanation for the significant number of adolescent concussions is increased participation in sports, said Zhang, MD, who is also assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at UCSF. It also may be reflective of an improved awareness for the injury by patients, parents, coaches, sports medical staff and treating physicians.

For example, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "HEADS UP" initiative has caused numerous states such as California to alter guidelines for youth concussion treatment.

Many medical centers also are establishing specialty clinics to address this, which could be contributing to the increased awareness. At UCSF, the Sports Concussion Program evaluates and treats athletes who have suffered a sports-related concussion. The team includes experts from sports medicine, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neuropsychology and neurology. Their combined expertise allows for evaluation, diagnosis and management of athletes with sports concussions, helping them safely recover and return to sports.

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Previously:

* Bob Probert's Broken Brain.

* NFL Players Killing Themselves Because They Miss Football So Much.

* The College Football Report: Dementia Pugilistica.

* Blackhawks Playing Head Games.

* Jay Cutler Should Consider Retiring.

* Dislike: Friday Night Tykes.

* Hurt And Be Hurt: The Lessons Of Youth Sports.

* Chicago Soccer Player Patrick Grange Had CTE.

* Sony Softened Concussion To Placate NFL.

* Ultra-Realistic Madden To Simulate Game's Debilitating Concussions.

* Dear Football: I'm Breaking Up With You.

* Dead College Football Player's Brain Leaves Clues Of Concussions' Toll On Brain.

* More Bad Concussion News For Young Football Players.

* NFL Tried To Fix Concussion Study.

* The Week In Concussions: Another Enforcer Down.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:26 AM | Permalink

August 30, 2016

The [Tuesday] Papers

"A law clerk running for judge who was allowed to make rulings from the bench earlier this month has been fired, according to a statement from the Office of the Chief Judge of Cook County," the Sun-Times reports.

That should free her up for campaigning. https://t.co/kP2TwtzAbU

— Daniel Schell (@thedanielschell) August 30, 2016

If only . . .

Law clerk accused of pretending to be judge is fired (but she is running unopposed for election to become a judge) https://t.co/ILCmExbHEX

— Robert Loerzel (@robertloerzel) August 30, 2016

Goodnight, everybody!

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Back to the Sun-Times:

"Chief Judge Timothy Evans suspended Rhonda Crawford without pay Aug. 17, about a week after she was accused of making rulings in two cases from the bench in Markham. She was then fired Aug. 26, according to Tuesday's statement."

Well at least now she has a record to run on.

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"Cook County Judge Valarie E. Turner, who allegedly allowed Crawford - running for judge in the November election - to put on her robe and make the rulings, has since been reassigned to non-courtroom duties."

The "E" stands for "Extrajudicial."

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Wait, she still has a job?

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"A spokesman for Evans said the Aug. 11 incident involved Crawford presiding in 'two minor traffic tickets - one for driving with no insurance and another for driving on the median' . . . both cases in which Crawford had ruled would be heard again by another judge."

Maybe the defendants should be given the option to keep their rulings or roll the dice with a real judge.

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According to the Tribune, "Documents show one case was continued, while the other was dismissed when the officer failed to appear in court."

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"[T]he incident raised questions about the judgment of any lawyers who took part in the cases knowing that Crawford is not a judge, as well as the conduct of any clerks, courtroom deputies or other county employees who regularly work with Turner in her courtroom," the Tribune reported earlier this month.

In other words, why didn't anyone in the courtroom that day speak up?

Well, someone did . . . sort of. The Tribune reported a day after wondering:

Mario Lozano knew something was not quite right.

A 28-year veteran of the Cook County sheriff's office, Deputy Lozano had stepped out of Judge Valarie Turner's lower-level courtroom at the Markham Courthouse for a moment to answer a question from a member of the public. When he stepped back in, a sheriff's official said, a lawyer named Rhonda Crawford was wearing a judge's robe and presiding over traffic cases, though she is not a judge.

Turner "was still in the courtroom standing behind attorney Crawford," said Cara Smith, a chief policy officer for the sheriff. In all, Crawford handled two or three traffic cases from the south suburban village of Dolton in the 20 minutes she was on the bench Aug. 11.

Lozano took note of the moment and documented it in an internal memo, which was obtained by the Tribune. Smith, who said she was speaking on Lozano's behalf, provided a fuller account of what he observed.

The sheriff's office did not report what happened to Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans, who now faces an embarrassing scandal because of the incident and the fact that one of two key figures - Crawford - is a law clerk/staff attorney in his office. The sheriff's office, Smith said, did not report the incident because it did not know if Turner and Crawford were participating in a training program or some other approved activity.

Several outlets have reported that Crawford was "shadowing" Turner that day as a sort of training for her new, upcoming job, so folks in the courtroom may have been confused.

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Also:

A clerk from the office of Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown was in the courtroom too. But a spokeswoman for Brown, Jalyne Strong-Shaw, would not say Thursday if the unidentified clerk reported the incident to a supervisor or if the office reported it to the chief judge.

Dennis Gianopolus, the village prosecutor for Dolton, said one of his associates, Luciano Panici Jr., was in Turner's courtroom that day handling traffic cases. But Gianopolus, who maintains a private practice as well as representing municipalities, declined to comment further.

Panici, the son of a veteran Cook County judge and a 2009 law school graduate, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

As near as I can tell, it took six days for the incident to become public - which doesn't tell us who knew what when.

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From Mark Brown for the Sun-Times:

"Turner, 59, is no novice. She was elected to the Cook County bench in 2002 and has twice won retention. Her current term expires in 2020.

She has good credentials, too. Prior to becoming a judge, Turner worked two years as an assistant U.S. attorney and six years at Kirkland & Ellis. She received her law degree from the University of Chicago.

"No comment. Have a good day," Turner told me Wednesday when I contacted her by phone.

Meanwhile, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office has opened a criminal investigation into the matter. Hey, maybe Turner will be tried in Crawford's courtroom! That would be the most Chicago conclusion to this affair possible - well, short of a brown paper bag filled with cash exchanging hands somewhere.

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Back to Brown:

During the campaign, Crawford described herself as a staff attorney for the Cook County Circuit Court and assigned as a law clerk in the Markham courthouse. That makes Evans her boss.

With no opponent in the November election, Crawford is certainly expected to win the office. But she and other new judges won't be sworn in until December and have no authority until they are.

Crawford received 47 percent of the vote to beat out two other candidates in the primary despite being rated "not recommended" by all of the major bar groups after she declined to participate in their evaluation process. She defeated the Democratic Party's endorsed candidate.

That's a bit of a glitch in the narrative; I figured she was a Burke and/or Madigan tool for sure. She must have some base of support; the Trib says she "handily" beat her two opponents in the March primary. More on that next . . .

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The Tribune outlines the larger problem in an editorial:

Crawford isn't just a wannabe judge, she's a gonnabe judge.

Nice.

She's unopposed in the 1st Judicial Subcircuit race on the Nov. 8 ballot.

One-party rule isn't good for anyone - including the one party.

But voters should have had reservations about Crawford before now. She got a unanimous "thumbs down" from a dozen local bar associations before the March primary. That's because she refused to participate in the rigorous evaluations conducted by the Chicago Council of Lawyers, the Chicago Bar Association and others.

There are always a handful of candidates who don't seek the bar associations' stamp of approval. Why? They're not qualified, so they won't get it. Or they've been clouted onto the ballot, so they don't need it. Or both.

If they get past voters the first time, they're generally home free. Every six years, they stand for retention. It's been 26 years since a sitting judge failed to get the 60 percent "yes" vote required to stay on the bench. So if you think Evans ought to just go ahead and fire Turner for her ethical lapse, think again. He can't.

And voters probably won't. They've given judges a pass over far more egregious behavior. In 2012, Judge Cynthia Brim was retained even though she was banned from the courthouse and awaiting trial, charged with battering a deputy sheriff outside the Daley Center. She pleaded insanity and was found not guilty. In 2014, the Illinois Courts Commission removed her from the bench.

Bar associations had recommended a "no" vote for Brim in 2000, 2006 and 2012. Voters retained her every time.

There are more than 400 judges in Cook County. But unless you have reason to appear before one of them - say, for a traffic ticket - then you likely know little about their fitness for the job. You know even less about a first-time candidate like Crawford. That's why the bar association ratings are so valuable. A candidate who ducks them doesn't deserve your vote.

Here's what we do know about Crawford: She's been a lawyer since 2003 and has clerked for the judges in the Markham courthouse since 2011. She got 47 percent of the vote in a three-way Democratic primary, ousting the judge who'd been appointed to the vacant seat two years earlier by the Illinois Supreme Court.

She's following the path of her mentor. Turner skipped the bar association screenings in 2002 and still managed to collect 57 percent of the primary vote, beating two others, including an experienced and highly respected associate judge. Republicans, as usual, didn't field a candidate. So Turner coasted through the general election unopposed.

So Turner and Crawford both refused to appear before the bar groups.

Voters, pay attention: This is not the way to fill a $188,000-a-year job. That's what Turner makes for presiding over a municipal courtroom. It's what Crawford, who currently earns less than $57,000 a year, will make once she's sworn in.

So yes, she's eager to rap that gavel. It's a little late to wonder if she's fit to do so.

There's got to be a better way.

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The Sun-Times also weighed in with an editorial, offering a possible (short-term) solution:

Turner showed such a blatant disrespect and disregard for the law by allowing a non-judge to act as a judge that it's hard to imagine how she could be allowed to return to the bench.

We hope the Judicial Inquiry Board, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office all open expedited investigations into the matter.

Turner will be presiding over weddings, deciding if litigants qualify to have filing fees waived in civil cases, and performing other administrative tasks as assigned, according to a spokesman for Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans.

In addition, the executive committee has assigned her to an Illinois Supreme Court Peer Mentoring Program.

Well, she certainly has an aptitude for it.

If [Crawford] doesn't voluntarily drop out of the race, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission could ask the Illinois Supreme Court for a rule to show cause why her law license should not be suspended until further order. Such an order would block her from serving as judge.

The paper suggests then that the parties could select replacement candidates for a write-in campaign.

Otherwise, we have the specter of someone fired as law clerk becoming a judge a few months later. Take this job and shove it, Evans, I'm gonna have my own law clerk!

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One person oddly defends the pair, calling Turner "smart" and saying she has "served honorably." The incident should not be career-killers for either, he says in a Tribune Op-Ed piece.

That person is Steven Lubet - a Northwestern University law professor who specializes in legal and judicial ethics.

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Even worse is that Lubet's piece appeared just days after telling the Trib for a news article what an ethical quagmire the situation created.

[Lubet] pointed to several rules of professional conduct for judges and lawyers that Turner and Crawford might have violated when Crawford took the bench.

"The alleged conduct presents multiple violations of the ethics rules for both judges and lawyers that prohibit any conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice," Lubet said. "Any judge or lawyer should know that only judges can rule on cases, and it's plainly wrong for a non-judge to sit on the bench in a robe and rule on cases."

Also, isn't it plainly unethical to skip the bar groups' interviews? It's stunning professional and public disregard. We shouldn't be surprised at the results we get from people who don't care - or who find such evaluations obstacles to their ambition.

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Would you want to appear before either of these two? I would not. Credibility shattered.

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The Guaranteed Rate EPL
Employing the White Sox strategy in the English Premier League. In this week's installment of Breakfast In America.

The Weekend In Chicago Rock
Featuring: The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, Bruce Springsteen, Blue Oyster Cult, Wild Belle, Ryley Walker, The Flat Five, Envy On The Coast, John Fogerty, Ace Frehley, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Enuff Z'nuff, Train, Seal, and Richard Vain.

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BeachBook

Traders Discuss Data Superhighway Between Chicago And Japan.

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TweetWood
A sampling.

Oh, there's news on the @chicagotribune site. Finding it is part of the "experience." pic.twitter.com/nI2Yxxa5bf

— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) August 30, 2016

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Rhymefest to both robber and cops dangerously close to "Don't you know who I am?" https://t.co/EBbL0dBQkj

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 30, 2016

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Matt Spiegel and Jason Goff of The Score were just asked on-air, "Who's running the city of #Chicago?" Both answered: "A bad mayor."

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 30, 2016

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"Red Barchetta, it's coming true!" - Tim Willette pic.twitter.com/frQP6rLO7l

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 29, 2016

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Redlight scandal figure John Bills sentenced to 10 years of being David Kidwell's butler. #RestorativeJustice

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 29, 2016

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Hmmmmmmm wonder if this would've been written in @washingtonpost if the gender roles were reversed... pic.twitter.com/quIq93IZyV

— Jenny Kutner (@jennykutner) August 29, 2016

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: One website at a time.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 1:57 PM | Permalink

The Weekend In Chicago Rock

You shoulda been there.

1. The Grasshopper Lies Heavy at Subterranean on Sunday night.

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2. Bruce Springsteen at the big Chicago hockey arena on Sunday night.

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3. Blue Oyster Cult at Skokie's Backlot Bash on Friday night.

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4. Wild Belle at the Metro on Friday night.

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5. Ryley Walker at the Empty Bottle on Thursday night.

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6. The Flat Five at the Green Mill on Saturday night.

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7. Envy On The Coast at Bottom Lounge on Saturday night.

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8. John Fogerty at Ravinia on Thursday night.

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9. Ace Frehley at the House of Blues on Friday night.

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10. Ronnie Baker Brooks at FitzGerald's in Berwyn on Saturday night.

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11. Enuff Z'nuff at House of Blues on Friday night.

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12. Train at Ravinia on Saturday night.

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13. Seal at Ravinia on Sunday night.

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Catching up with . . .

Richard Vain at the Empty Bottle on August 11th.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 10:21 AM | Permalink

Breakfast In America: The Guaranteed Rate EPL

Last week the Chicago White Sox announced a name change to their pedestrian field. Apparently, the mountain of cash lessened concerns about tying the club's image to an economic sector with a pretty bad image.

The good news is that the White Sox will have more money to spend on free agents. And when I say free agents, I mean more 30-some-year-old retreads who want one more chance at glory - or one last payday.

In the English Premier League, clubs are preparing for Wednesday's closing of the transfer window, after which teams cannot sign a new player until January. Some clubs have a mountain of cash. Some clubs have cash from selling players days and weeks earlier. Still others are called Hull City and even though they have six points in three games, the current owners are trying to sell the club and they don't want to spend any money.

The good news is that there is time to monetize something, anything, to pay for a new player by Wednesday. By following the White Sox's example, here are some ideas:

Southampton: Approach Liverpool's sponsors for similar deals. Overcome the apparent conflict of interest by rightly pointing out that half the team will be sold to Liverpool anyway.

Chelsea: Have Russian owner Roman Abramovich's Russian IT department hack and blackmail Chelsea Clinton.

Everton: Start a GoFundMe page reminding England that rival city Manchester supports two elite teams and the only way to defeat Manchester's douchiness is to make Everton financially superior.

Middlesborough: Use red and white colors to sell "Make Middlesborough Great Again" hats in recognition of their 1976 Anglo-Scottish Cup victory. Remember, the effort is totally not a dog whistle to white supremacists because anybody can be proud of Anglos.

Arsenal: Bottle supporter rage directed to an obviously dysfunctional ownership and market it to the U.S. voter so they realize the rage should be directed to an obviously dysfunctional Congress.

AFC Bournemouth: Partner with Spirit Airlines to create a fee program including a £10 "ticket handling charge" to those who don't check in from home, a £20 "scarf handling charge" for scarves over 12 inches long, and a £30 "cherry handling charge" for cherries.

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Beachwood Sabermetrics: Based on all historical data available from the beginning of time, if you don't beat Crystal Palace, you better beat the team that aspires to finish 15th every year.

Brunch Special: All you can eat goals: The restaurant is closed for an international break.

Population of the Cherry Nation: Seven, same as two weeks ago. Me, my high school friend who lives in Montana, the new Bournemouth signing American Emerson Hyndman (whose home kit is sponsored by us ), a guy in Florida, and three guys from a Facebook AFCB fan page.

Sugar in the Cherry Kool-Aid: Like actual Kool-Aid, you don't expect one ice cube to keep your drink cool for 90 minutes. When you do that, the Kool-Aid to sugar ratio becomes diluted and you watch your team score on inspired football over 20 minutes and play defensive, crap football for 70, only to give up the equalizer in stoppage time. Then the tepid Kool-Aid mixture gets thrown at the TV.

Percent Sugar in the Cherry Kool-Aid: This Week: 45%. Last Week: 55%.

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Previously in Breakfast In America:
* Which EPL Team Are You?

* Know Your Terminology.

* Lowest Common Denominator™.

* Recruitment Do's And Don'ts.

* Aboard The Dethloon Express.

* Race To The Bottom.

* My Aunt's Nuts.

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Breakfast In America on Facebook.

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Eric Emery is our man on the EPL and the EPT. He welcomes your comments.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:53 AM | Permalink

August 29, 2016

The [Monday] Papers

"A bus company the Chicago Public Schools fired more than two years ago, accusing it of overbilling taxpayers at least $1.5 million, has since gotten deals worth more than $500,000 from another city agency, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show," Dan Mihalopoulos reports.

"Chicago Park District officials signed two contracts with Jewel's Bus Co. totaling more than $541,000 to bus students to and from camps at dozens of parks this summer."

Maybe they thought it was a Mariano's now.

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I know, that was cheap. I spent too much time trying to craft a Jewels joke and finally had to go with something.

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But seriously, maybe the park district just didn't now about Jewel's past.

"The park district hired the company - which has found support from the Rev. Jesse Jackson - even after receiving letters from a school official warning about the problems CPS had with the company."

Oh.

"We uncovered a great deal of illegal activity by Jewel's Bus Co," Paul Osland, who recently left his post as CPS' chief facilities officer, wrote in March. "I anticipate that the issues with Jewel's will end up in the public eye and I would hate to see [the park district] embarrassed."

No worry, there - the park district is incapable of embarrassment.

"[P]arks spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner says officials decided they had 'reasonable assurance that the CPD is paying only for services completed in compliance with the contract requirements.

"'The payment terms of the CPS contract were substantially different and did not apply to the park district's payment structure,' she says."

I don't have any idea what that means, but I know it doesn't mean, "We're embarrassed."

Jessica Maxey-Faulkner, you are Today's Worst Person In Chicago.

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This makes Jessica a two-time winner. The first time was for this, on June 11, 2015:

In a small protest and news conference before Wednesday night's park board meeting, some residents questioned why the Park District waived a $937,500 rental fee to use Grant Park and nearby parkland for the recent NFL draft, when that money could have helped keep the Humboldt Park Beach open this summer," the Tribune reported.

"Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said the two matters were unrelated, adding the NFL draft offered free programs and activities for people who attended.

"It's apples and oranges," Maxey-Faulkner said. "It's not a waiver. It's a partnership."

Every time I call it a partnership, you call it a waiver. And every time I call it a waiver, you call it a partnership . . .

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Another Maxey-Faulkner appearance on the Beachwood, from July 1, 2013, about Live Nation's contract with the city:

"This blog reported on the questionable aspects of that deal on May 30. At that time, Park District Spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner had failed for seven weeks to provide interviews with parks officials or answer questions about the deal.

"Another month later, the public information officer still has not answered questions submitted in writing or provided the requested interviews with parks officials."

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Back to the Sun-Times:

"CPS records show Osland wrote in 2014 that he found Jewel's 'did not own or operate sufficient buses, nor did it employ a sufficient number of drivers that would be required to operate all of the alleged first routes for which it billed the board.'"

That probably seemed normal to CPS, which, after all, doesn't have enough books to supply to its students. I mean, sufficiency is not a metric with which they are strict about.

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"Jewel's, based on the Far South Side, had been one of CPS' major contractors for student bus services, paid more than $75 million by the Chicago Board of Education during the 11 years before being dumped in July 2014."

See, they did have enough buses to drive that money to the bank. That's the only bar you have to jump in Chicago.

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"The company had a rocky relationship with CPS long before the overbilling allegations. In 2010, CPS officials accused Jewel's of using vans, rather than buses, to transport children, even though its contract didn't allow that."

Were they catering vans?

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Go read the rest - there's really too much good stuff for me to elucidate here. Feature players include Jesse Jackson Sr. and Ald. Carrie Austin. Letters were written, phone calls were made, campaign donations were deposited.

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FYI: Jewel's Bus Co. has a party room.

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The Weekend In Chicago Rock
Is in pre-production.

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Meant To Muzzle
Corporate Whistleblower Settlements Could Violate SEC Rules.

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From the Beachwood sports desk . . .

Chili Sell-Off
The White Sox's new direction? Online mortgages.

Onesies & Wine Cork
Cubs jump the shark at best time of season.

Bearly There
Starters need final exhibition game.

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BeachBook

Physicist Who Made Wondrous Discovery Dies.

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Great Lakes Take Savage Toll On Swimmers.

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Inside The World's Biggest Record Collection.

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The Chomsky Puzzle: Piecing Together A Celebrity Scientist.

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Subscribe And Save On Amazon? Don't Count On It.

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TweetWood
A sampling.

Only possible if news organizations agree to be managed.

City Hall managing the news optics for #Rahm @wlsam890 pic.twitter.com/5veM4VSCXG

— Bill Cameron (@billjcameron) August 29, 2016

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I can't hear you over the sound of David Duke praising Trump as "the next step."

By mocking Trump as loudly as you can, do you drown out thoughts that #Hillary used government to leverage #ClintonCash slush fund ?

— John Kass (@John_Kass) August 29, 2016

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Surging Sox have earned Robin Ventura a new contract https://t.co/VK5NWk6L5w via @suntimes Telander, in May

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 29, 2016

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So . . . seek another lender?

Stephen said Guaranteed Rate and the #WhiteSox are "very similar in commitment to quality."

— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) August 28, 2016

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Hardee's still exists. pic.twitter.com/Oc8ZmLH1L4

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 28, 2016

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North Jersey Media staffers jittery under new owner Gannett https://t.co/xPLNLE98US via @nypost Update your resumes, troncsters!

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 28, 2016

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: Resume ready.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:36 PM | Permalink

Meant To Muzzle: Corporate Whistleblower Settlements Could Violate SEC Rules

WASHINGTON - Wells Fargo, Advanced Micro Devices and Fifth Third Bank have in recent years agreed to settlement deals that seek to muzzle former employees in ways that some lawyers said could violate U.S. whistleblower protection laws.

Five lawyers, including three who represent whistleblowers, said that the settlements appear aimed at blocking workers from airing their concerns and contain similarities to those used by other companies that ran afoul of government rules.

The deals by Wells Fargo, AMD, and Fifth Third Bank were among a dozen such corporate settlements reached between 2012 and 2015 that were reviewed by Reuters.

The companies each struck deals with departing workers that limit the employees' ability to receive money arising from any government investigations into their former employers.

Some language in the settlements could run afoul of rules adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2011 that generally bar corporate attempts to muzzle whistleblowers, the lawyers said.

A Wells Fargo spokeswoman declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Advanced Micro Devices. A spokesman for Fifth Third said the agreement "speaks for itself" and that the company "takes seriously" its obligation to comply with all "relevant laws." A SEC spokeswoman declined to comment.

Since 2015, the SEC has brought four cases targeting specific types of so-called whistleblower gag orders, such as confidentiality agreements that bar employees from discussing internal wrongdoing.

That followed its adoption of rules designed to encourage people to come forward with tips about possible corporate wrongdoing. The rules protect whistleblowers from retaliation and ban companies from taking any action that could "impede an individual from communicating directly" with the SEC, including through confidentiality agreements.

The SEC says the program has awarded more than $85 million to 32 whistleblowers.

This month, the agency announced civil charges against two companies that required outgoing employees to waive their rights to recover government whistleblower awards in severance agreements.

Those companies, Health Net, now part of Centene Corp., and BlueLinx Holdings, settled without admitting or denying liability and each paid six-figure fines.

Jordan Thomas, a lawyer at Labaton Sucharow who represents whistleblowers, said the language used in the Fifth Third, Wells Fargo and Advanced Micro Devices settlements is designed to discourage whistleblowers from reporting corporate misbehavior.

As in the Health Net and BlueLinx cases, all three settlements contain language restricting the employees from collecting any money resulting from a government investigation or legal proceeding.

"I believe the SEC would be troubled by this," Thomas said.

David Marshall, an attorney with Katz, Marshall & Banks who also represents whistleblowers, agreed. "It is a device that is intended to impede," he said.

However, Jonathan Tuttle, an attorney at Debevoise & Plimpton who represents companies, said some of the settlements could pass legal muster as they can be interpreted to limit employees from receiving additional personal injury damages, rather than whistleblower awards handed out by the SEC.

SETTLEMENT SAMPLE

The former employees who signed the settlements all claimed they were terminated or faced other actions after blowing the whistle about alleged securities fraud or other types of corporate misconduct. At least two of the employees had raised their concerns internally. The settlements came about after those employees filed complaints about company retaliation with the U.S. Department of Labor.

The agreements were obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by Reuters and by University of Nebraska law professor and interim dean Richard Moberly.

About half of them, including the ones used by Wells Fargo, Advanced Micro Devices and Fifth Third Bank, contained restrictions on would-be whistleblowers that are similar to those cited in prior SEC enforcement actions.

Some of the other settlements did not contain such restrictions or did not involve publicly-traded companies covered by the SEC's rules.

In the Fifth Third Bank case, the company settled in December 2014 with former employee Joseph Kremer, who claimed he was fired after informing the company of concerns that investors were being misled about the management of certain funds.

Fifth Third settled with Kremer for an undisclosed sum without admitting wrongdoing and Kremer's complaint was dismissed by the Department of Labor. Kremer could not be reached for comment.

The settlement states that while Kremer is permitted to participate in government investigations, he is prohibited "to the maximum extent permitted by law" from recovering "any individual monetary relief or other individual remedies."

The Health Net settlement ran afoul of SEC rules despite using the same phrase "to the maximum extent permitted by law" in waiving the employee's right to a financial award.

The Wells Fargo settlement, reached in September 2015, involved a former bank teller named Birinder Kaur Shankar who claimed she was harassed and fired after complaining internally about what she alleged was unethical behavior toward customers.

The deal stipulated that she could speak with the SEC, but she had to waive "the right, if any, to recover any monetary or other individual relief of any sort whatsoever" arising from an investigation "except for any individual relief that cannot be waived as a matter of law."

In the deal, Wells Fargo denied that it took improper action. The Labor Department dismissed Shankar's complaint. Shankar declined to comment, citing the confidentiality provisions in the settlement.

The AMD settlement, struck in December 2012 between the semiconductor company and whistleblower Hishaam Mahmood required him to waive relief awarded by "any governmental agency."

It also required him to affirm to AMD he has not filed a charge with any other agency besides the SEC.

This line, some attorneys said, could run afoul of the SEC's rules because the regulator prohibits companies from forcing employees to notify company attorneys about their communications with the government.

The nature of Mahmood's complaint could not be determined. In the settlement, AMD denied wrongdoing, and the complaint was dismissed. Mahmood could not immediately be located for comment.

Tuttle said that employment agreements which require employees to disclose if they have filed complaints or claims with other government agencies could be problematic and probably should be tweaked to avoid any misunderstanding.

He added that most such settlements have traditionally been drafted by employment attorneys, rather than by securities attorneys who pay attention to "every syllable that is uttered by the SEC."

"I think people are learning," he said.

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Additional reporting by Brian Grow in Atlanta.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 9:48 AM | Permalink

SportsMonday: Bearly There

Who decided that under no circumstances should starters play in the final NFL exhibition games? And who made that guy king?

This is another instance of dim-witted groupthink among American sports media. It has become an ironclad assumption: Football teams must not allow their starters to play in the fourth exhibition game.

If ever a team needed to think for itself, it is the 2016 Bears. Who could possibly surmise that this team's offense is so ready for the regular season that it shouldn't have its starters play at least several series' at Cleveland on Thursday night? That would be their best opportunity to practice against a foe that is trying to do damage. We don't really think that happens during intrasquad practices, do we?

And it isn't as though the Bears defense is much better. Somehow the Bears convinced themselves that because Adrian Amos hadn't been terrible last season, he would be the anchor of the safety corps and they would just fill in with scrubs around him and everything would be fine.

Except Amos played all year last year without making any damn plays - no interceptions, no fumbles forced, no big hits, nothing.

Surely no one was surprised that Kansas City quarterback Alex Smith was able to complete a pass to a tight end whenever he wanted on Saturday. The vast majority of those completions came against over-matched safeties. The Bears' secondary has suffered some injuries, especially the cornerbacks led by Kyle Fuller. But the projected starting safeties were out there in force Saturday afternoon.

The lowlight was analyst Jim Miller telling us what a difference it would have made if defensive back Bryce Callahan hadn't been sidelined. He did that despite the fact that it was only two weeks prior that we watched Callahan get torched by Denver's Demaryius Thomas for the easiest deep touchdown you will ever see. Come on!

Meanwhile, I don't think Jay Cutler even targeted a tight end during any of the first-string (we think) offense's woeful six possessions against the Chiefs. Yes, Zach Miller is out due to a concussion, but if there is any single position on a football roster where a team must have depth, it is at tight end. No players are more exposed to big hits and expected to make more wrenching, physical blocks.

And yet, the Bears gave away their best tight end for a draft pick before the season started. And another thing: Hey Jay, it sure wasn't a shocker to watch you make sure all onlookers knew that last incompletion in the vicinity of Kevin White was Kevin White's fault.

It will take exactly, what, a quarter, for Bad Jay to return if the offense struggles out of the gate when the real games start. And Cutler already has to be experiencing flashbacks to the times when Lovie Smith tried to convince him that Devin Hester could be a No. 1 receiver. While Bears brass was trying to pump up Hester's receiving skills, Cutler was watching him screw up routes and quickly determining that he couldn't be trusted. Let's hope he has a little more patience with White.

Cutler's gestures making it clear to everyone that White had run the wrong route were especially disappointing because, earlier in the game, it had been Cutler's lousy passes that had stopped more drives than receivers' miscues.

Actually, the single worst play of the day had to be the Alshon Jeffery second-quarter drop of the deep crossing pass that hit him in both hands and, given how open he was, could have resulted in a huge gain that would have put the Bears in scoring positon just when they needed to be. A few more of those and Jeffery might have to reconsider wearing those Mickey Mouse gloves that he loves so much.

After the Patriots exhibition game, I admitted to the tiniest bit of optimism and actually allowed myself to believe that the Bears might win more than four games this regular season. After the Chiefs debacle, I'm headed in the other direction along with a huge portion of Bears fandom.

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Jim "Coach" Coffman appears here (almost) every Monday. He welcomes your comments.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 8:57 AM | Permalink

Onesies & Wine Cork

Okay, people. I hate to break it to you, but we may be really close to the best part of this season. This stretch run now should be just great to watch as fans. Just think about it.

Once the Cubs clinch this thing, the games will feel different, kind of meaningless actually. There will be super wacky lineups and kids coming up from the minors when the rosters expand in September and all of that.

Uncle Joe is going to sift through the roster to get the best combo of players for the playoffs. And they would already have the clinched the division - so it just won't matter.

And then once we all get to the playoffs, that is where the hand-wringing and pacing, drinking, cursing, etc., really begins.

And while that is certainly interesting and entertaining, you can't really call it "fun."

So it won't really be fun after they clinch and it won't really be fun in the playoffs themselves. That means this is it. Now. This is going to be the best the season gets. The games still matter and even if they lose a couple it's really OK. So it's just freewheeling fun time and it's going to end soon, people.

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The Week in Review: The Cubs went 4-2 for the week, taking three from the hapless Padres and losing two (heartbreakers) of three to the Dodgers. Boy, did the Cubs look like five times better than that Padres team, yuck.

The Week in Preview: The boys in blue come home for three against the Pirates and four against the Giants. Expect another 5-2 week for the Cubs. They are pitching too good right now for much to go wrong. But that can go away in a hurry, except it shouldn't in this case. What?

Musical Outfielders: And no, we aren't talking about Matt Szczur playing the French horn. The big news is that Jason Heyward is back to playing again after he was benched and after Uncle Joe said he wasn't going to bench him, and then benched him. Heyward responded by looking decent this week - not great, but decent. As for left field, Jorge Soler got three starts, Kris Bryant got two, and Ben Zobrist got one.

Weird thing about this whole moving everyone around deal is that Bryant will win the MVP as a third baseman and not play much of third in the playoffs, as the Cubs' best lineup is probably Baez at third and Bryant in left.

Joe's probably known this since last season, and has moved the chess pieces around to make it happen in the playoffs without anyone thinking anything different about it.

Former Annoying Cub of the Week: Milton Bradley was a Cub in 2009. Despite having a fun name that makes people think about the fun bard games you played as a kid, he was a real turd of a person. Last we heard, he was still appealing his domestic violence convictions.

Current Annoying Cub of the Week: Time to go down the line a bit and call out Miggy Montero. Miggy isn't going to make my hate list anytime soon (though you never know) but he has super underperformed this season. He's the third-highest paid dude on the roster at $14 million. And what he's capable of doing for getting paid that much is kinda getting annoying. I mean, the Cubs' fourth-highest salary this season is Edwin Jackson, who isn't even on the team anymore. But in fairness to Edwin, he at least helped the Cubs win a game this week by pitching horribly (or normally?) against them. Which is a bit more than what Miggy can say lately.

Mad(don) Scientist: The onesies are back!

Has Big Poppa Joe jumped the shark? Seems like he's losing a bit off the ol' fastball and the ridiculousness. Although, he could just be busy selling all sorts of his own t-shirts. OK, sure, it's like for charity and all (right?) but enough. And it's really not all that clever.

Kubs Kalender: It's Wine Cork Sunglasses Night at the ballpark this Tuesday as the Cubs take on the Pirates. You know, I've heard of beer goggles, but not wine glasses - um, I mean, wine cork sunglasses.

Beachwood Sabermetrics: A complex algorithm performed by The Cub Factor staff using all historical data made available by Major League Baseball has determined that the Padres are terrible.

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Marty Gangler is The Cub Factor. He welcomes your comments.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 8:27 AM | Permalink

Chili Sell-Off

Let's skip ahead for a moment to the 2017 baseball season.

With two box seat tickets in his pocket, the Old Man tells his wife, "We're going to the G-spot tonight."

"Aw, Honey," she responds, "I'm too tired, and I have to get up early tomorrow."

"Not that G-spot," he says. "I mean the ballgame. Sox Park. Quintana's pitching and it's Luke Appling Bobblehead Night."

"Thank God," she exhales. "I thought you meant the other G-spot."

Let's hope the name change that Sox management announced last week for the stadium at 35th and Bill Veeck Drive turns out to be the season's final weirdness from this fluttering franchise, as it attempts to move forward instead of standing pat, or, heaven forbid, continuing on its downward spiral.

The new name, Guaranteed Rate Field, is confusing enough - how many Sox fans had heard of this company until five days ago? - but worse yet is the spin that people like Jerry Reinsdorf and marketing director Brooks Boyer have created to explain the erasure of what has been known as U.S. Cellular Field, or The Cell, for the last 13 years.

"We are pleased to find, in Guaranteed Rate, a new naming rights partner founded in Chicago by Chicagoans, which shares our commitment to the city and to our fans," Reinsdorf was quoted as saying in the team's press release, referring to the company which has been in business for all of 16 years - and was founded by a rich kid from Oak Brook.

Just how does Guaranteed Rate have a commitment - aside from cold, hard cash - to me and other folks who have supported the White Sox for far longer than the past 16 years?

When CEO Victor Ciardelli was asked if he was a Sox fan, he said, "I'm a Chicago fan."

In addition, if I'm correctly understanding the company's website, of the $18 billion in home loans the tech-savvy firm made in 2015, a good portion of them were accomplished online. For all anyone knows, they could be located in Nova Scotia; they boast they have 175 offices spread among all 50 states.

Headquarters is "nestled in a tree-lined neighborhood on Chicago's North Side." Isn't that where the other Chicago baseball team plays? It appears to be a chic start-up with "a really cool office environment" that includes a Mardi Gras party and a chili cook-off, both of which should make all Sox fans rest easier.

"When you use words that we use often like pride, passion and tradition, especially when it comes to the Chicago market . . . you love to find marketing partners that share that same enthusiasm for those three things," Boyer said in the press release.

Tradition? Sixteen years? How honest and refreshing would Boyer sound if he simply stated, "Guaranteed Rate was willing to pay much more than the $68 million that U.S. Cellular forked over since 2003. That was nice. It covered Jose Abreu's six-year deal, but this deal brings in many more dollars, which will help us sign players and improve the ballpark."

Ciardelli, wearing jeans, of course, and a Sox jersey, was interviewed during the Sox-Phillies telecast Wednesday night, disclosing that his company didn't go looking for naming rights to anything. The Sox came looking for him, according to Ciardelli.

Apparently the phone rang, initiating negotiations to etch Guaranteed Rate Field on the exterior facade behind home plate. ABC News reported that the price tag for the naming rights could run as much as $100 million.

Ciardelli's adrenalin must have been in ample supply Wednesday when he threw out the first pitch prior to the Sox bowing to the Phillies. He heaved a looping slow ball far over the head of Chris Sale. Later, as Steve Stone and Jason Benetti dutifully held a mic in front of him, Ciardelli gushed more than once how "thrilled and excited" he was to be associated with the White Sox.

Ciardelli appears to be a bright fellow. Mortgage Executive magazine named him CEO of the Year in 2013, and he received the same award the next year from the Illinois Technology Association.

Only Ciardelli and his advisors know how they gauged the financial and publicity benefits of spending millions to slap his company's name on a stadium occupied by a losing team that outdraws only four other big league clubs. While Sox fans everywhere ridiculed the announcement last week, the name, Guaranteed Rate, immediately became identifiable to those very same people, myself included. Isn't that what naming rights are all about?

Despite the instant name recognition, there appear to be risks involved. The team on the other side of town figures to be among baseball's elite for the foreseeable future and, judging from Sox general manager Rick Hahn's comments last week, it appears that Ciardelli's new partner may be planning to unload its established athletes for a bevy of prospects. A series of 90- or 100-loss seasons could be on the horizon. Maybe "scared and nervous" would be more appropriate than "thrilled and excited."

U.S. Cellular, the nation's fifth largest wireless carrier, sold off a number of its Midwestern markets, including Chicago, to Sprint in 2013, although the company's headquarters continue to be near O'Hare. While Sox Park has been the most notable of their named stadia, U.S. Cellular's name also is on five smaller venues throughout the country.

Has that been good for business? Dating back to March 2014, the company had lost subscribers for 15 consecutive quarters. Without U.S. Cellular Field, business might have been worse. Maybe Ciardelli knows.

The Sox are heralding the fact that their new partner, like their old one, is Chicago-based. Well, so is McDonald's, Allstate, Boeing, Walgreens, Northern Trust, Brunswick, Groupon, Smurfit-Stone Container and dozens of others. Wouldn't you just love to know why an online mortgage company was targeted? Must have been those chili cook-offs that sealed the deal.

Furthermore, the Sox have a laudable track record of financial support for inner city youth baseball, children's medical care, educational programs, and much more. Wouldn't it have been a statement of commitment to the city and the community in which the ballpark is located if a minority-owned company's name would have replaced U.S. Cellular?

As it is, this latest development ranks right beside Adam LaRoche's walkout and Chris Sale's scissors in attracting national derision for the South Siders in the past six months. Guaranteed Rate's logo is a red arrow pointing downward. That may work well in the mortgage biz. For a ballclub, it's rather ominous. Especially this ballclub.

Up Arrows
Meanwhile, back on the field, after taking three-of-four from the Mariners over the weekend, the Sox closed out their nine-game homestand with six wins. Despite being out of post-season contention long ago, the ballclub now has won nine of its last 15 games. However, like Hawk Harrelson is fond of saying, "Don't tell me what you hit, tell me when you hit it," which is especially apropos of this recent rally. The White Sox may not be quitters, but let's face it: these games are virtually meaningless.

The pitching trio of Sale, Jose Quintana, and Carlos Rodon highlighted the homestand, accounting for 43 1/3 innings on a yield of just 29 hits and an ERA of 1.45. James Shields managed to muck things up when he took the mound, and Miguel Gonzalez remains disabled, but any of the Big Three is capable of keeping the Sox competitive.

Jose Abreu has continued his late-season resurgence, raising his slash to .285/.342/.796. The power also has returned as the first baseman has clubbed seven homers this month to raise his total to 18.

Rookie shortstop Tim Anderson has hiked his average above .280, raising hopes that the team has a player of the future who gets on base, has some pop - he has seven home runs in 67 games - and speed to burn.

And Avisail Garcia is hitting the ball better than at any time in parts of four seasons on the South Side. After spending two weeks on the DL, Avi returned last week. He had a monster game on Saturday in a 9-3 drubbing of Seattle, hitting a long home run and collecting two other hits.

Hahn's trade of catcher Dioner Navarro back to Toronto in exchange for a promising minor league pitcher over the weekend opens up a spot for Rule 5 draftee Omar Narvaez, who figures to play regularly between now and the end of the season. Narvaez has been a consistent contact hitter who has struck out just seven times in 50 plate appearances. In Navarro's abbreviated tenure with the Sox, he hit a weak .210, continuing the team's catching woes since A.J. Pierzynski departed four years ago.

Hahn indicated last week that we will quickly know the team's plan soon after the season ends. That either means that players like Sale, Quintana and Melky Cabrera will be sent elsewhere in exchange for young prospects, or he will make strategic moves to shore up an ineffective bullpen while holding onto his Big Three. In all probability, Hahn will wave Robin Ventura goodbye and name a new manager.

The team's new partner guarantees a mortgage rate. I'd much rather have a guarantee of a ballclub playing for a spot in the playoffs instead of trying to finish .500.

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Former Bill Veeck bar buddy Roger Wallenstein is our White Sox correspondent. He welcomes your comments.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 7:14 AM | Permalink

August 28, 2016

The Weekend Desk Report

"From the time that Mr. Montgomery arrived in Chicago, two months ago, with a few corn pictures, Chicago art circles have been thrilled as they never were thrilled before."

That's your weekend read, from the downstate Bloomington Pantagraph.

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Beachwood Photo Booth: Daily Double
A Chicago reflection.

The Week In Chicago Rock
Featuring: Hockey Dad, Buffy Saint-Marie, Glenn Hughes, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Rotten Sound, Eric Roberson, Flesh Panthers, Comm to Black, The Everscathed, Elephant Revival, Mandolin Orange, Omni, and Sweet Knives.

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From the Beachwood sports desk . . .

TrackNotes: Touting The Travers
"Many fine horses have been beaten here," our very own Tom Chambers writes, "most notably, Man o' War, by Upset. It was so monumental, the word upset became part of the sporting lexicon."

Fantasy Fix Draft Guide Pt. 4: Throwing Deep
Guess who just missed.

Our Rio Roundup
Greed, doping, misogyny.

Beachwood Sports Radio: Guaranteed Grate
White Sox do the impossible: become even more unlikable. Plus: Cubs vs. the Calendar; Bears Lower Bar; Blackhawks Miss Target; and Reflections On Rio.

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The Sound Opinions Weekend Listening Report: "What goes into writing a hit song? Sound Opinions takes a look at the world of professional songwriting, from The Righteous Brothers to Beyoncé. Jim and Greg talk with legendary Brill Building songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil about their decades-long career. Then they talk with Ryan Tedder about penning songs for Adele and Taylor Swift. Plus, a review of the long-awaited new album from Frank Ocean."

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Weekend BeachBook

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Weekend TweetWood

When your gov only recognizes the human rights of its own citizens it's basically a backward way of saying everyone else is less than human.

— Amie Stepanovich (@astepanovich) August 26, 2016

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Really? I think *everyone* is more frustrated than you. pic.twitter.com/xtoYs26gvk

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 28, 2016

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#Bears Mike Imrem, Daily Herald: pic.twitter.com/CvXNXkQdIr

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 27, 2016

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The Weekend Desk Tronc Line: Air, land and sea.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 11:26 AM | Permalink

August 27, 2016

TrackNotes: Touting The Travers

You know that forest and trees thing?

TrackNotes will wax, but how many are really watching these races?

Just imagine how many people hang on every word a Carmelo Anthony spews when, in the end, it doesn't amount to a hill of unsoaked and unsalted beans.

It can be lonely on the Thoroughbred beat, with reminders every Monday morning. "Did you see California Chrome?" While that name rings a faint bell, it's always no, they wide-eyed with the Cubs. Pavlovian preparation for the Bears. "Nine wins and no playoffs, again," they say. I say four wins, tops, and think to myself how programmed Chicagoans are to the Bears, and why Las Vegas makes so much money off of them.

Millions of people missed what American Pharoah did last year. But Week Nine of the Atlanta Falcons' season was analyzed into an autopsy.

I was downtown Friday when a horse carriage went by ferrying a happy couple with the biggest smiles on their faces I think I have ever seen. They were in their own world.

In my typical smart-ass manner, I shouted "It's American Pharoah!" to the chestnut horse and his driver. The man on the reins let out a hearty laugh. Even though he sure as hell should know who American Pharoah is, it was still gratifying to have an in, a wink, a fellow traveler. But I still would love for more people to see the greatness in these horses and jockeys that I see.

Three bright young ladies hopped on the bar chairs and one said, "I really love hockey." "Me too." "Me too!" There is hope. I said to them that it seems to me that young ladies who watch a little hockey really do seem to enjoy it, get into it, and become knowledgeable about it. But I would have been tossed out if I had started preaching about the 'Chromes, or the Songbirds or Frosteds or 'Pharoahs.

So if you are at all interested, today is Travers Day at The Spa, wonderful Saratoga.

The stakes is named after William Travers who was, simply and deeply, involved in racing. He was a pioneer in establishing a race track at Saratoga, where rich people and folks not so rich came to vacation or seek the healing of its clean springs.

Oh, and his horse, Kentucky, won the first Travers Stakes, when the Civil War was still raging, in 1864. Nothing, not even horse racing, is religion to me. That wasn't the first horse racing in America, but I'll agree if you want to start the book of Genesis there.

As is the democracy of any track or racebook or OTB I've ever been to, back then, the eyes were always on the prize and assembling the best trainers, horses and jockeys was the ultimate priority. In the Travers, African-American riders like Isaac Burns Murphy won with Falsetto in 1879 and Alonzo Clayton rode Azra in 1892. Horse, jockey, trip. It's all that matters, then and now.

Man o' War (1920), Jim Dandy (1930), Granville (1936), Triple Crown winner Whirlaway (1941), Native Dancer (1953), Alydar (1978), Forty Niner (1988), Easy Goer (1989). In my time, Medaglia d'Oro (2002), Flower Alley (2005), Bernardini (2006). Alpha and Golden Ticket dead-heated in 2012.

This is such a singular race, you win it and they pull out the old cliche: They can't ever take it away from you.

In fact, you "win" a boat! Hit the wire first, and they paint a canoe with your stable colors and moor it in the infield lake. Holy Song of Hiawatha!

Saratoga has been dubbed the Graveyard of Champions. Many other fine horses have been beaten here, but the notables are Man o' War, by Upset. It was so monumental, the word upset became part of the sporting lexicon¹. Jim Dandy pulled off the 100-1 over Gallant Fox. Secretariat got beat by Onion here. H. Allen Jerkens earned a reputation for such upsets, although winning five straight Belmont Stakes' was pretty cool too. Rachel Alexandra lost here. In an overlooked gesture of sportsmanship, Ahmed Zayat brought American Pharoah here last year and was . . . beaten in a funky pace in the Travers.

It's not like you need a backstory, it's the Travers, the 147th, after all, but there always seems to be one.

This year, on an ultimate stage, we will find out just how good Exaggerator is. Why? Because he will be running one of the biggest races of his life on a dry track.

OTB Red would say "don't matter." But you have to contemplate as the son of Curlin has won his biggest races only on mud or in slop. Delta Jackpot, Santa Anita Derby, Preakness Stakes. Haskell last out.

But looky here. He won his first two on the dry loam, including the Saratoga Special, 53 weeks ago. Three-to-one morning line: if you get that, take it all day.

If you've been hibernating since the first Sunday in May, you'll wonder if this is a spinoff, a Good Times, of this year's Kentucky Derby.

Besides Exaggerator, you've got Destin, touted today by some, who finished sixth in Louisville. Creator, winner of the Belmont, ran into a mugging for 13th in the Derby. Gun Runner was third. Tellingly, he contended, but couldn't control the Derby, losing to Nyquist and Exaggerator.

Gun Runner won the Matt Winn over nobody at Churchill Downs in between, and then finished fifth in the Haskell last out. A lot of people really want to like him, but I don't need the disappointment.

I will declare this right now. Laoban, who crafted and exploited a totally verklempt pace and race in the Jim Dandy, will not get my backing and won't win. Risky business, I know, but I don't like him and he won't get the 10 furlongs.

Bob Baffert's American Freedom? Needs another step up after a fine second in the Haskell, to Exaggerator, but he's been training lights out. Working at Del Mar, he jumped in the Little Deuce Coupe, throwing away his blinkers somewhere along the way and rolled into a 6-1 morning line. At that price, I'll have fun fun fun.

Everybody's waiting for Governor Malibu to bust out, and after the Jim Dandy debacle, why not? 12-1 Morning line. Everybody's waiting for Destin to bust out, winning last in the Tampa Bay Derby. This is the Globe Theater of summer stock, so now's the time, big boy.

Trainer Chad Brown is hotter than the hot springs at this meet, becoming a really hot act on our racing shew. So you have to look at Gift Box, two off the layoff, an angle he's already won at, and who finished a good second in the Curlin last out.

And Connect, son of Curlin, won the Curlin in wire fashion and graduated into triple digit Beyer Speed Figure territory. Trainer? Chad Brown.

Dandruff? No, just scratching my head over Creator. Bobby Flay's only a minority owner, but he gets all the heat lamps, and Creator did win the Belmont, after all. But other than the Arkansas Derby, over others who are off the map, what have we got here? He threw in a non-competitive sixth clunker in the Jim Dandy, enough so that you wonder if there is something wrong.

Who does TrackNotes (notice the third-person thing there?) like?

I'll, oops, have to include Exaggerator. Because with the way this season is going, it's shaping up to be the Day the Earth Stood Still at the Breeders' Cup, and this would be precious. And at 3-1? Yo.

I may do a big exacta and a bit smaller trifecta with American Freedom, Exaggerator, Gift Box, Connect, Governor Malibu and Arrogate (Bob Baffert, Mike Smith, three in a row, Unbridled and Distorted Humor at the Sunday table, 10-1 or more).

NBC, 3:30. You'll also see other races, imagine that. It's a huge stakes day at The Spa. Watch today, and you'll have legit street cred on Breeders' Cup Day.

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1. This might not be true.

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Tom Chambers is our man on the rail. He welcomes your comments.

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Addendum:

Those darned three-year-olds!

But that's part of the bargain, the magilla. The way.

Arrogate, with many American lower jaws on the floor, turned in a performance to be talked about forever in winning the 147th Travers Stakes, perhaps the colonies' most prestigious race. It was scintillating. The Bob Baffert trainee just powered it.

How much scint? At 1:59.36, Arrogate topped the 2:00 flat record of 1979's General Assembly. Doesn't seem like much, but that is a lot.

With Mike Smith aboard - how good is this Hall of Famer? - Arrogate ran :23.23 and :46.84 in the first two fractions. That's very fast, but not suicidal. It was a very fast, sustained effort and that's how you break the record at one of America's oldest tracks.

Laoban and another Baffert trainee, American Freedom, led early, very early and not for long. Exaggerator "broke" dead last, a tellingly dead last. Stay there, there will be another day.

As fast as you please, Arrogate used the final turn, he in the tight two lane, to slingshot to a blink-of-the-eye five-length lead. Then, he piled on, in a nice way, because these horses don't think the way we do.

In the post-race saddle interview, Mike Smith, wearing those same silks as with Zenyatta, said, "He reminds me of his father. Just like his father (Unbridled's Song [Unbridled]). I had trouble getting him stopped."

Smith said the rep on the horse was immaturity, talented but green.

As is it's wont, the racing press portrayed this Travers as some sort of redemption for Baffert, whose American Pharoah lost this race a year ago. But Baffert did not shy away from talking about it.

"Last year, you could have poured me out of a shot glass," Baffert said. "We were dejected."

You say Baffert should know better, but he knows. He's all in. Baffert loves these horses, emotional commitments be damned.

"I think the fans (now there's a concept!) will remember watching a horse like this, because I know, when I see performances like this, they're very rare."

Read the chart. This the throwback to when race results, or details, were not instantaneous. And the chart writer had to nail it, with few words.

Arrogate paid $25.40, $12.60 and $8.40. American Freedom (keep an eye on him) placed and Gun Runner showed. The exacta paid $134.50. If you must know, I had the winner and the exacta. Baffert, Smith, a horse foaled running, great works? Yeah.

Reinvention not welcome, it is one of the oldest races in the land, history intact, the people in the game honor it. The only thing new about it is the horse and the jockey adding important layers to the tradition.

Just like Arrogate and Mike Smith did, just yesterday.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:53 AM | Permalink

August 26, 2016

The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #116: Guaranteed Grate

White Sox do the impossible: become even more unlikable. Plus: Cubs vs. the Calendar; Bears Lower Bar; Blackhawks Miss Target; and our Rio 2016 Roundup.

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SHOW NOTES

* 116.

:41: White Sox Do The Impossible: Become Even More Unlikable.

BREAKING: White Sox reveal new logo for "Crying Jordan Park". #BetterSoxStadiumNames pic.twitter.com/90eTLjlKVA

— Not Rizzo (@notARizzo) August 25, 2016

* Ostrowski: Power Struggle Within The Sox Isn't Evident.

24:31: Cubs vs. the Calendar.

* Rosenbloom: Russell And Baez: A Glove Story.

* Mooney: How Soon Before Cubs Make Baez An Everyday Player?

"You're seeing a lot of progress," Maddon said. "Who knows if by playing sporadically this is becoming more part of who he is? As opposed to playing every day, maybe getting caught in the trap of not hitting well, whatever, and all of a sudden he takes it on defense. It's natural progression. He's an everyday player, there's no question, in maybe a couple years."

The Geek Department and scouting reports will ultimately influence where Baez plays, because Maddon wants him wherever the ball will most likely be hit most often. When Jon Lester pitches, that can mean Baez starting at third base and Kris Bryant moving to the outfield.

Fagerstrom: Willson Contreras Has Developed Into An Everyday Catcher.

42:39: Bears Lower Bar.

* Bobby Hoying.

52:46: Blackhawks Miss Out On Free Agent Target Jimmy Vesey.

54:42: Rio 2016: Beachwood Roundup.

* Matthew Centrowitz First U.S. Athlete To Win Olympic 1500m Since Last Cubs World Championship.

* Plus: Hope Solo Grinds Coach Coffman's Gears.

* And: Ryan Lochte Ruins It For Everyone.

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STOPPAGE: 3:12

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For archives and other Beachwood shows, see The Beachwood Radio Network.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 3:09 PM | Permalink

The Week In Chicago Rock

You shoulda been there.

1. Hockey Dad at the Empty Bottle on Tuesday night.

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2. Buffy Saint-Marie at City Winery on Wednesday night.

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3. Glenn Hughes at Reggies on Thursday night.

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4. Joanne Shaw Taylor at Reggies on Thursday night.

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5. Rotten Sound at Reggies on Monday night.

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6. Eric Roberson at City Winery on Thursday night.

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Catching up with . . .

Flesh Panthers at the Logan Monument last Saturday.

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Comm to Black at the Logan Monument last Saturday.

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The Everscathed at Reggies last Friday night.

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Elephant Revival at Millennium Park on August 18th.

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Mandolin Orange at Millennium Park on August 18th.

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Omni at the Empty Bottle on August 16th.

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Sweet Knives at the Empty Bottle on August 11th.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 10:13 AM | Permalink

Beachwood Photo Booth: Daily Double

Reflecting Chicago.

(ENLARGE FOR PROPER VIEWING)

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More Chicago photography from Helene Smith.

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Helene on Twitter!

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Meet Helene!

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Stationery, iPhone cases, hoodies.

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Listen to Helene talk about Photo Booth; starts at 57:54.

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Previously:
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Man Grilling
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Yum Yum Donuts
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Father's Day
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Vintage Airmaster
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Time
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Window Shade
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Illinois Slayer
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Fire Escape
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Golden Nugget
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Hollywood, Chicago
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Flag Man.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Van In Flames.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Fluid Power Automation.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Corn Dog.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Stop The Killing Car.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Backyard.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: A to Z Things.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Swedish Diner.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Rothschild Liquors.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Silos.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Wires.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Orange Garden.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Irving Park Guy.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Pigeons.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: O'Lanagan's.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: For Rent.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Marie's Pizza & Liquors.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Mori Milk.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: American Breakfast.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: A Chicago Christmas Postcard.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Holiday Harold's.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Family Fun.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Snow Bike.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Nativity Scene.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Old Warsaw.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Deluxe Cleaners.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Marie's Golden Cue.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Die Another Day.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Sears Key Shop.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Window Dressing.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Jeri's Grill.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Barry's Drugs.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Liberty.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Kitchen.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Golden Specials.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: We Won The Cup.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Bartender Man.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Blue Plane Blues.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Finest Quality.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Family Guy.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Girls Wanted.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Skokie Savanna.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Signpost.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Old Man And The Tree.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Street Fleet.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Citgo Story.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Fantasy Hair Design.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Garage.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Clark Stop.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Pole Position.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Window Dressing.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Geometry.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Found Love.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Fill In The Blank.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Vacuums Of The Night.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Dumpster Still Life.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Wagon Master.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Intersecting West Rogers Park.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Penn-Dutchman Antiques.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Cow Patrol.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Backstage Chicago.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Skully Bungalow.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Francisco Frankenstein.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Long Cool Heat.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Smokers' Mast.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Big Fat Phone.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Happy Day.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Alley Men.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Holiday Show!
* Beachwood Photo Booth: You've Got Mailbox.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Broken Window Theory.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Dali Logan.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Svengoolie.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Horner Park Hot Dogs.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Cubs Rehab.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: 20th Century Schizoid Man.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Men On Vans.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Penn-Dutchman Is Done.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Snowy Lincoln.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Waiting Room.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Avondale Chicken.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Winter's End.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: The Friendly Skies.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Boyhood Buzzer Beater.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: J Date.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: International Window Lady.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Shanghai Inn.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Open For Business.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Andersonville Unplugged.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: 3-Flat.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Evanston Turkey.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicagolandia.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Eat At Odge's.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Deitch Pharmacy.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Sud-Z Bubble.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Bands Wanted!
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Belmont Tavern.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Superheroic San Luis Freeze.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Evanston Oasis.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Lyndale Food & Jewelry.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Lincoln Tap.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Book Window.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Alco Dude.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Ballin Drugs.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Don't Worry, Be Cookie.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Four Trey.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: The Office.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: America From Inside The Golden Nugget In Ravenswood.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Cellphone Repair.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Boots 'N' Grill.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Sunrise Strip.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: At The Corner Of Glad And Happy.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Uptown Autumn Night.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Diner.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Mid-Century Modern Halloween.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Autumn Station Wagon.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Betty's & Nick's.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Ohio House Impact.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: End School Zone.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Portage Park Peek-A-Boo.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: South Side Sundown.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Susie's Drive-Thru.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Holiday Ham.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Food & Liquor, Milhouse.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: O'Hare Blue Line Man.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Schwing!
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Ad Deluxe.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Jesus At The Drive-In.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: The Tanks Of Avondale.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Conveyance Belt.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Bonk.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Esquire In The Night.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Nick's Meat Market.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Keep Havin A Good Day.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Knock Knock.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Man At Marie's.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Bonneville.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Logan Bags.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Stairwell.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Blue Velvet.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Court Is In Session.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: DLER ALKY.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Railyards Rush Hour.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Stop Killing People.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: America, Summer 2016, Part 1.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Greystone Chicago.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: You Are Beautiful.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Auto Part Overlords.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Bearground.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: America, Summer 2016, Part 2.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Skyway Sculpture.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: The Dome Car.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Hello, St. Joe.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Revolution Books.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Driveway.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Proceed To Checkout.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Summer Ghost.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 3:17 AM | Permalink

Rio 2016: The Beachwood Roundup

Here's a collection of our Rio 2016 posts, all in one place.

* A Plea: Make Jousting An Olympic Sport.

* Does Practice Make An Olympian? No.

* U.S. Ping Pong Prodigy Ready For Rio.

* On Eve Of Olympics, Top Investigator Details Secret Efforts To Undermine Russian Doping Probe.

* Chicago 2016 Spokesman, Now With USOC, Assures Us That Multimillion Dollar Donation From Scandal-Tainted Businessman Had Nothing To Do With Exclusive Rio Ticketing Contract.

* The Surprising Places The 5 New Olympic Sports Announced For Tokyo 2020 Could Lead Us.

* Competitive Climbing Could Reach Olympic Level.

* Tokyo 2020 Olympics Beset By Corruption Investigations.

* The Pie Olympics.

* How Do Olympic Athletes Pay The Electric Bill?

* Match-Fixing Allegations Now Hit Wrestling.

* How Do Archers Resist Firing Arrows At Everyone In The Spectator's Gallery.

* NBC Sells $1 Billion In Ads For Rio Olympics.

* WGN-TV's Pat Tomasulo Reports On The Olympics International Athletic Competition Run By One Of The Most Corrupt Organizations In The World.

* When USA Gymnastics Turned A Blind Eye To Sexual Abuse.

* How The IOC Effectively Maintains A Gag Order On Nonsponsors Of The Olympics.

* Sexism In Olympics Coverage.

* With Skateboarding's Inclusion In Tokyo 2020, A Once-Marginalized Subculture Enters The Spotlight.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:59 AM | Permalink

August 25, 2016

The 2016 Fantasy Fix Football Draft Guide Pt. 4: Throwing Deep

QBs are getting drafted later than ever. Just last season, there were arguments to take Andrew Luck in the first round, but look where that got you.

This season, the emphasis is all on top-tier WRs. When you have one or two of those, the thinking goes, grab the best RB you can find. Then, maybe in the fourth round, take a QB . . . unless you want to go WR or RB again.

Here are my top 20 QBs:

1. Cam Newton, CAR

Magnificent 2015 fantasy output - 45 total TDs, 3,837 yards passing, 636 rushing - makes this an easy choice over a couple guys I might trust a little more. If anyone can repeat, Cam can, and maybe with even more passing yards.

2. Aaron Rodgers, GB

Last year's 3,821 passing yards was a career low for a full season of play, though blame the porous O-line (46 sacks, second most of his career) and inconsistent WRs. His 32 TDs, eight INTs were typical output, so expect more of that with a rebound in passing yards.

3. Russell Wilson, SEA

Reached 4,000-plus yards passing for the first time in his career, 35 pass TDs, 553 yards rushing. Expected more ground game, but his passing feats happened in spite of untested and underachieving receivers, except for late blooming WR Doug Baldwin.

4. Andrew Luck, IND

Everyone put his mistake-prone, injury-marred 2015 in the books as a fluke. There's a little risk, and no one will take him in the first round - or even the first three rounds - like last year, but guessing 2016's TD tally will be closer to 2014's 40 than 2015's 15.

5. Drew Brees, NO

2015 pass yardage of 4,870 was his lowest since 2010, and 32 pass TDs lowest since 2007, but who wouldn't take that? This season, he has maturing pass targets, including top 20 WR Brandin Cooks, WR Willie Snead, TE Coby Fleener and RBs Mark Ingram and C.J. Spiller.

6. Carson Palmer, ARI

Has the best WR rotation of any QB, making him a pretty safe bet even ahead of Brees or Luck. His 4,671 yards and 35 pass TDs last year both could show a little improvement, though sometimes an injury concern, and don't expect rushing points from him.

7. Philip Rivers, SD

Huge yardage pace last year ran off the rails amid receiver injuries. Career-high 4,792 yards good for second among QBs, 29 TDs, 13 INTs. Sacked 40 times, and if that comes down, he could reach 5,000 yards if everyone stays healthy, though INTs can be a problem.

8. Ben Roethlisberger, PIT

Injuries are still a problem, and limited him to 12 games. Still, just under 4,000 yards passing, 21 TDs made him a fantasy star most weeks he played. Even 16 INTs did little damage to his week-to-week fantasy points. Take him, but then draft a good backup.

9. Tom Brady, NE

He'll miss four games, but again should have a huge chip on his shoulder. Last year he played angry and collected 4,770 yards with 39 total TDs (three rushing) and just seven INTs. Just sayin'. Although he did have a few un-Brady-like games and slowed down late.

10. Blake Bortles, JAC

Talented receivers and a lot of passing while playing from behind helped him to 4,400-plus yards and 35 TDs, but also a league-leading 18 INTs. He'll be better overall this year, but JAC may have tightened up defense enough that 35 TDs could be hard to repeat.

11. Eli Manning, NYG

After much hype in the 2015 preseason, a few big games saved him from being a bust. 4,400-plus yards 35 TDs, 14 INTs look pretty good now, but 14 of those TDs came in three games, including a 6-TD shootout against Brees. A volatile fantasy starter.

12. Kirk Cousins, WAS

Real mix of hyping and dissing around the Barrington-born QB, but along with Russell Wilson, he was the only other QB to have at least one TD pass in every game last year, and he had three games of four TD passes with no INTs. Came on strong late last year.

13. Tyrod Taylor, BUF

Breakout buzz around him after a 2015 season of 24 total TDs (four rushing), just six INTs and 3,000-plus yards passing in 14 games. He did have three games of three TDs and no INTs, and the key stat that could move him up: 568 yards rushing.

14. Andy Dalton, CIN

Halted by injury in Week 13, and 3,250 yards, 25 TDs and seven INTs suggest he would have had a career-best year. But with thinner receiver ranks to start the season, a lot of his stats will depend on connecting frequently with top WR A.J. Green.

15. Jameis Winston, TAM

Trying to resist hype that suggests he's already a QB-1. 4,000-plus yards passing for a rookie was impressive, and everyone sees a fantasy freak in his 5-TD, 0-INT game against PHI last year, but the rest of the season he had 17 TDs, 15 INTs. Still learning.

16. Matt Ryan, ATL

Consistent yardage producer with five straight seasons of 4,500-plus, but still throws too many INTs (16 last year), and despite rich receiver talent, he managed only 21 TDs last season. If he find the end zone more often, he's a borderline QB-1.

17. Derek Carr, OAK

32 TDs, 13 INTs is a fantastic ratio to see this low, and finished just shy of 4,000 yards passing, but 21 of his TDs came in the first eight weeks and he faltered the rest of the way. Certainly not a bad bet if for some reason you wait until late rounds to pick a QB.

18. Matthew Stafford, DET

Incredible second half of 19 TDs, two INTs saved his season (13 TDs, 11 INTs to that point). The Cooter offense (that would be OC Jim Bob) made him super efficient, but his HoF WR retired, and Cooter's fast, safe offense could limit his fantasy points.

19. Tony Romo, DAL

Another injury-marred season in 2015, and he wasn't good in his four starts after expectations were high. Probability of injury is the main reason I have him this low, though certainly worth a gamble as a QB-2 who may still have big games left in him.

20. Marcus Mariota, TEN

In 12 games his rookie year, he had 2,818 yards, 21 total TDs (two rushing), 10 INTs for a really bad team. This year, TEN should be better, he'll have at least one better receiver than last year in Rishard Matthews, and may even run more often.

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Just missed: Jay Cutler, CHI

Unloved as usual, Cutler actually did make fantasy noise last season as a popular bye week replacement, and his 11 INTs were a career-low for a full season (yay!). Total yardage under 3,700 yards was pretty boring, but WRs Alshon Jeffery and Kevin White could give him fantasy relevance.

Sleeper: Trevor Siemian, DEN

Just like we all expected, a Northwestern QB drafted No. 250 in the 7th round of the 2015 draft could be the Broncos' replacement for Peyton Manning . . . Wait, what? DEN is reportedly down on Mark Sanchez and giving Siemian every chance to claim the starting job, which would connect him with talented receivers that make him a safe fantasy play, though maybe not a points magnet.

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Previously:
* Part 1: The Top 20: New World Order.

* Part 2: Year of the Zero RB.

* Part 3: Embrace The Targets.

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Disco Danny O'Shea is our man in fantasyland. He welcomes your comments.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 1:06 PM | Permalink

Guaranteed Rate Field Is Already A Laughingstock

Chicago hasn't seen a tweetstorm like this since Tronc.

#WhiteSox end naming rights deal with US Cellular, stadium to be renamed Guaranteed Rate Field starting in 2017.

— WLSAM890 (@wlsam890) August 24, 2016

Could this franchise get any more unlikable?

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.@GuaranteedRate Everybody hates you.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 24, 2016

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They're with them.

Here's the logo for Guaranteed Rate. *Insert White Sox/down arrow joke here* pic.twitter.com/tJOCkeWGzG

— Tom Cooper (@CSNCoop) August 24, 2016

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I believe we will.

So what will we actually call Sox park? The "Grate?"

— Dan Bernstein (@dan_bernstein) August 24, 2016

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Breaking: Donald Trump says he could rename The Cell better in a week.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 24, 2016

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The big PR coup would be for the #WhiteSox to name it Marshall Field.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 24, 2016

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Paisley Park vs. Guaranteed Rate Park. Discuss. https://t.co/f86kWUBbLm

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 24, 2016

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BREAKING: White Sox reveal new logo for "Crying Jordan Park". #BetterSoxStadiumNames pic.twitter.com/90eTLjlKVA

— Not Rizzo (@notARizzo) August 25, 2016

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Dad Is Taking Us To White Castle After The Game To Sober Up Before Driving Back To The Suburbs Park #BetterSoxStadiumNames

— kevin house (@kevin_house) August 24, 2016

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Ty Pennington Park #BetterSoxStadiumNames pic.twitter.com/sldhbfo2bB

— Bill Ruthhart (@BillRuthhart) August 24, 2016

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Acting Mayor Eugene Sawyer Field #BetterSoxStadiumNames @nick_digilio @nickdshow

— Bernie (@Jr_Demogekko) August 25, 2016

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The Empty Place on 35th Street #BetterSoxStadiumNames

— Drunk Kris Bryant (@DrunKrisBryant) August 25, 2016

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Rigley Field because they can't get a W get it get it get it #BetterSoxStadiumNames

— Matt (@mattsayssports) August 25, 2016

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BREAKING: Still Soldier Field. pic.twitter.com/vGWA3PLNc3

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) August 24, 2016

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Guaranteed fate.https://t.co/vPuKBxYMma

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 24, 2016

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This one, though, is the best hands-down:

Guaranteed Rate ordered to pay $25M in alleged loan diversion scheme https://t.co/iUFWBBDFGB

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 24, 2016

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 6:09 AM | Permalink

The [Thursday] Papers

"Police Board President Lori Lightfoot argued Wednesday for increased training and changes to both the police contract and to the way police supervisors are chosen to restore public trust in the Chicago Police Department shattered by the police shooting of Laquan McDonald," the Sun-Times reports.

Let's be clear: What Lightfoot said made eminent sense, but it wasn't anything she hasn't said before. So a better lead would say "Lightfoot reiterated . . . "

Also, the shooting of Laquan McDonald wasn't what "shattered" public trust in the CPD; it was the tipping point (some would say the straw that broke the camel's back) of a series of incidents that no longer could be ignored by City Hall.

So, really, this lead needs to be rewritten (or better edited).

Moving on:

"Lightfoot laid out an ambitious and costly reform agenda . . . "

"Costly" is in the eye of the beholding reporter - who's to say Lightfoot's reform agenda is costly? Maybe it's actually cheap. In fact, Lightfoot makes the point later in the article that the settlement money the city is paying out, as well as other costs to the city of a police department lacking credibility. So why is the Sun-Times calling it costly? Have they done an analysis? Have they calculated the cost to the total police budget? Where is the paper's threshold?

Further:

" . . . while testifying at the second and final subject matter hearing on Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to abolish the Independent Police Review Authority and replace it with a new multi-layered system of police accountability."

That's just factually wrong. These hearings haven't been on Emanuel's plan because the aldermen who called them - the Progressive Caucus - haven't seen Emanuel's plan.

Members of @ProgressiveChi ask Mayor's Office for police reform ordinance language ahead of expected September vote: https://t.co/7kfk8puwLA

— The Daily Line (@thedailylinechi) August 24, 2016

The mayor's plan has been taking shape behind closed doors, despite repeated pledges of transparency and a new way of doing business. This is exactly right:

I understand that Rahm is having *closed door * meetings with politicians, pastors & unnamed "community activists" re: police oversight.

— #DontForgetFlint (@prisonculture) August 23, 2016

Finally:

"After Wednesday's hearing, Lightfoot was asked whether she has any interest in running for mayor in 2019. Her ambitious agenda sounded like it came from a mayoral hopeful."

How does an agenda for police reform sound like an ambitious mayoral agenda? Does it include a position on property taxes, TIFs, economic development, the schools, transportation, public health?

"Unequivocally no," she said. "I am not running for mayor."

Perhaps the Sun-Times was reacting to the Tribune's assertion that Lightfoot had "coyly left the door open" on Tuesday night to a mayoral run.

If so, just say it. If not, explain the basis of the question - i.e., "Lightfoot's aggressive approach about police reform, combined with her obvious smarts and articulate public persona, have led reporters, public officials, political consultants and civic leaders to wonder whether she'd make for a strong mayoral candidate - especially at a time when Rahm Emanuel's future looks unsettled. But Lightfoot said Wednesday, 'I am not running for mayor. Unequivocally no.'"

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This is the angle the Tribune chose for its account of the hearing:

"Mayor Rahm Emanuel's top appointee to the civilian agency that rules on police misconduct cases reiterated her call Wednesday for City Hall to make changes to the police union's contract, singling out a long-standing requirement that citizens sign sworn affidavits to make a complaint."

Reiterated! Thank you! I hadn't even seen this account when I suggested using that word. I'm reading along as I'm writing.

Continuing:

"Lightfoot made her comments during a City Council committee hearing on police accountability as aldermen and the mayor are crafting an ordinance to replace the Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates alleged police misconduct and shootings, and to establish an inspector general within the Police Department."

Emphasis mine, because I would take issue with the notion that this is a cooperative venture. From what I understand, this is a top-down venture, as nearly everything is with this mayor. And as I've shown, the aldermen haven't even seen the draft of the mayor's ordinance - the mayor's ordinance - though he's been buttonholing various community members in private to ensure their support.

In fact, the backstory on the journey this and other police reform efforts have taken this year is a fascinating, if not depressing, tale of cynical posturing, factionalism, backbiting, and, most importantly, a true failure to seize the moment before us. Paging the city's assignment desks!

*

Now, here is how the Trib handles the mayoral bit - in a weird aside:

"Lightfoot, who's been in the spotlight lately but shut the door on a possible mayoral run Wednesday, also pointed to other task force recommendations, including a call for more training to deal with crises that often involve mentally ill people, a revival of community-oriented policing and the need for racial reconciliation."

There's no link, of course, though the Trib unhelpfully includes the article it is referring to as "Related" content on its site. The paper seems philosophically opposed to including links in the actual stories themselves, which is beyond baffling.

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Also noteworthy:

"30 bullets into a paper target" is abt the only annual training cops get after graduation-Lori Lightfoot @wlsam890 pic.twitter.com/T7deTsrglU

— Bill Cameron (@billjcameron) August 24, 2016

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Lightfoot says negotiation of police contracts should be more public. Process has been "purely transactional", an exchange of chits.

— The Daily Line (@thedailylinechi) August 24, 2016

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"Hoping to get to place where public & media don't have to FOIA to get info about important police events" -Lori Lightfoot to council cmmte.

— Ben Bradley (@BenBradleyABC7) August 24, 2016

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Maybe it's a meaningless detail but Lori Lightfoot testifying to @ChiCouncil subcommittee consisting entirely of men pic.twitter.com/8YfUmmgzld

— Ted Cox (@tedcoxchicago) August 24, 2016

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IPRA chief Sharon Fairley say independence and dedicated, guaranteed funding is critical to success of whatever agency replaces IPRA.

— Fran Spielman (@fspielman) August 24, 2016

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Ald Pat O'Connor asks Sharon Fairley, head of IPRA, if she sees issues with police contract. Fairley quips back, "how long have you got"

— Lauren Chooljian (@laurenchooljian) August 24, 2016

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Sharon Fairley, chief ofChicago cop oversight calls for end of using comp time to serve misconduct suspensions.

— Hal Dardick (@ReporterHal) August 24, 2016

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Guaranteed Rate Bait
So y'all probably know by now that the White Sox have signed a new naming rights deal for their stadium (it's not a ballpark, sadly) with Chicago-based mortgage firm Guaranteed Rate. I've gathered all the best tweets about it here.

I also dug up this Trib article, from March. To wit:

Chicago-based Guaranteed Rate was ordered to pay more than $25 million in damages for an alleged corporate espionage scheme that seems straight out of the play Glengarry Glen Ross, with an employee diverting hundreds of loan applications from a rival mortgage company.

Glengauranteed!

A California jury this week found that Guaranteed Rate and loan officer Benjamin Anderson defrauded his former employer, Mount Olympus Mortgage, by downloading and transferring more than 200 active loan files and personal financial data on 900 borrowers before switching firms nearly two years ago.

"It was quite an elaborate scheme," said Chad Hummel, a Los Angeles-based partner with Sidley Austin who represented Mount Olympus Mortgage. "He transferred all of the data without our consent or any of the customers' consent."

Guaranteed Rate, of course, denied the allegations, before and after the jury's verdict.

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"Founded in 2000 by Victor Ciardelli, Guaranteed Rate is one of the 10 largest home lenders in the U.S., funding $18 billion in loans last year, according to the company."

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From the Trib in 2014:

Ciardelli, son of a lawyer and a homemaker, was raised in Oak Brook and attended Montini Catholic High School, where he excelled at doing exactly the opposite of what was expected of him, even if, deep down, he wanted to do it.

"I was always very much like I wanted to be, who I wanted to be, and if you didn't like it, too bad," he said. "I was smart enough to know how to graduate and do nothing. I had this crazy opinion of myself. I (was) an idiot. Total idiot."

He finished high school with, as he recalls, the second-to-lowest GPA of his graduating class. Ciardelli, ambitious and with no reputation to protect, made a new start at Columbia College in mid-Missouri.

"All the other kids were partying and going nuts," he said. "I'd done that for four years. I got it together and ended up doing incredibly well in college. My drive really started from that point."

Montini inducted Ciardelli into its Hall of Fame - showing that schools only care what you do later, especially if you are donor potential. Continuing:

In 1992, at age 25, Ciardelli started Guaranteed Financial Mortgage Services Inc. He struggled.

It was like "growing a business on mud," he said. "I didn't have any foundation, any substance. I didn't have a better value proposition to give to my customers, my loan officers and my referral partners. Loan officers would leave, and I would get new ones. Real estate agents would leave, and I would get new ones. There was no culture."

What he did do right, though, was identify the most active Chicago real estate agents and make inroads with them. Among them was Sean Conlon, who at the time was a top producer for Koenig & Strey.

"He was so enthusiastic," Conlon recalled. "He'd be calling; he'd want to drop in. I could call him at midnight, and he'd answer. Did I think he was going to do something fairly exceptional? Yes, I did. He just had that X factor."

Ciardelli retooled his business model in 2000 and called the new company Guaranteed Rate, focusing on the "value proposition." Customers get low rates because of low overhead and automated systems; real estate agents get help with their marketing; and employees get the training, technology and work environment to thrive and grow the business.

If only the White Sox had a value proposition.

Eventually, Ciardelli hopes to build a completely digital mortgage product for customers who don't want or need human interaction.

Part of the plan to move the company forward is to make it a nationally known brand. Last fall, the company hired Olson as its first public relations and advertising agency of record and this year undertook its first national television advertising campaign, a $10 million effort featuring Ty Pennington.

Ciardelli wanted the commercials to be sophisticated, warm, fuzzy and focused on the brand. He appreciated the agency's work, but two days before filming, he saw the campaign and hated it, thinking the commercials emphasized humor and Pennington rather than Guaranteed Rate.

So he's really enjoying the response to his naming rights deal about now.

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Finally:

[Ciardelli has a] 47-foot boat named Guaranteed Fun, and a rum-based drink, the Guarantini, which is trademarked.

And will soon be available at Guaranteed Rate Field, presumably.

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UPDATE: Missed this from Crain's, 2012:

[H]e started his own mortgage brokerage before launching Guaranteed Rate in 1999 with $2.5 million in equity from family and friends.

Aha. That's what I call a value proposition.

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Gawker Killer Peter Thiel Is Coming To Chicago
To help us reconsider the American Dream.

How Delaware Kept America Safe For Corporate Secrecy
With an assist from a cowering Obama.

Portrait Of Poor Pembroke
One of the nation's most impovershed communities is in Kankakee County and is the subject of a new book.

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BeachBook

The Brianna and Jaelin Walking Tour.

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TweetWood

You know they're gonna get a reality TV show. They're the next Speidi.

Braelin™️ have gone international: https://t.co/aPnX88bMOT

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 25, 2016

Previously: God Has A Plan For This Insufferable House-Flipping Couple That Doesn't Include Living In Chicago.

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: Guarantinied.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 2:44 AM | Permalink

Portrait Of A Remarkable African-American Town In Northern Illinois

With a population of about 2,000, Pembroke Township, one of the largest rural, black communities north of the Mason-Dixon Line, sits in an isolated corner of Kankakee County, 65 miles south of Chicago.

It is also one of the poorest places in the nation.

Many black farmers from the South came to this area during the Great Migration; finding Chicago to be overcrowded and inhospitable, they were able to buy land in the township at low prices. The poor soil made it nearly impossible to establish profitable farms, however, and economic prosperity has eluded the region ever since.

Pembroke: A Rural, Black Community on the Illinois Dunes chronicles the history of this inimitable township and shows the author's personal transformation through his experiences with Pembroke and its people. A native of nearby Kankakee, author Dave Baron first traveled to Pembroke on a church service trip at age 15 and saw real poverty firsthand, but he also discovered a community possessing grace and purpose.

Baron begins each chapter with a personal narrative from his initial trip to Pembroke. He covers the early history of the area, explaining how the unique black oak savanna ecosystem was created and describing early residents, including Potawatomi tribes and white fur traders. He introduces readers to Pap and Mary Tetter, Pembroke's first black residents, who - according to local lore - assisted fugitives on the Underground Railroad; details the town's wild years, when taverns offered liquor, drugs, and prostitution; discusses the many churches of Pembroke and the nearby high school where, in spite of sometimes strained relations, Pembroke's black students have learned alongside white students of a neighboring community since well before Brown v. Board of Education; outlines efforts by conservation groups to preserve Pembroke's rare black oak savannas; and analyzes obstacles to and failed attempts at economic development in Pembroke, as well as recent efforts, including organic farms and a sustainable living movement, which may yet bring some prosperity.

Based on research, interviews with residents, and the author's own experiences during many return trips to Pembroke, this book - part social, cultural, legal, environmental, and political history and part memoir - profiles a number of the colorful, longtime residents and considers what has enabled Pembroke to survive despite a lack of economic opportunities. Although Pembroke has a reputation for violence and vice, Baron reveals a township with a rich and varied history and a vibrant culture.

Author
Dave Baron is a constitutional litigator for the City of Chicago, with a degree in political science and economics from the University of Notre Dame and a juris doctor from Harvard Law School. He has been involved in a number of groups dedicated to improving race relations and combating poverty.

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See also:
* Chicago: The Ongoing Poverty Of Pembroke, Illinois.

* The Illinois Steward: Pembroke Township: The Lost Corner of the Kankakee Sands.

* International Business Times: Deep Poverty In The U.S.: The Case Of Pembroke, Illinois.

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AP on Pembroke, 2011:

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:31 AM | Permalink

At Roosevelt University | The American Dream Reconsidered

What does the American Dream mean today?

That's the topic of a major conference Roosevelt University will be hosting Sept. 12-15 in Chicago.

At more than a dozen lectures and discussions, leading American scholars, activists and entrepreneurs will analyze the American Dream and how it affects millennials, education, health care, real estate, immigration, politics and more.

"The American Dream is about every individual who aspires to achieve more in life," said Ali Malekzadeh, president of Roosevelt University and a native of Iran. "Understanding our national ethos of democracy and equality has never more urgent. At the American Dream Reconsidered Conference, we will present many viewpoints on what it means to be an American in these challenging times."

The conference, sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, McDonald's Corporation and other organizations, also celebrates Malekzadeh's first year in office. It is being held in lieu of formal and expensive presidential installation ceremonies commonly held on university campuses. Instead, Malekzadeh has led an effort to discuss the future of the American Dream and initiate a new scholarship program for six outstanding Roosevelt students.

Among the highlights of the first annual American Dream Reconsidered Conference are:

• A conversation with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel on "The American Dream - Globalization, Technology and Progress." (Sept. 13, 12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.)
• A lecture by Pedro Noguera, distinguished professor of education at UCLA, on "The Five Principles of Courageous Leadership to Guide Achievement of Every Student." (Sept. 12 , 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., Roosevelt's Goodman Center)
• A panel discussion on "The Current State of the American Dream" featuring John W. Rogers Jr., founder and CEO of Ariel Investments; Melissa Bean, Midwest chair of JP Morgan Chase and former member of the U.S. Congress; Rabbi Abie Ingber, executive director of the Center for Interfaith Community Engagement at Xavier University; and Malekzadeh. (Sept. 14, 9:30 p.m. - 10:45 a.m.)
• "A Conversation on Justice, Race and the American Dream" with Martha C. Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund distinguished service professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago, and Jelani Cobb, professor of journalism at Columbia University and staff writer at the New Yorker. (Sept. 13, 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.)
• "A Conversation on Community Leadership and Social Justice," moderated by Samuel Betances, and including Tom Burrell, founder of Burrell Communications; Gloria Castillo, president and CEO of Chicago United; Father Michael Pfleger, St. Sabina's Church; Dana Suskind, University of Chicago Medicine and founder of the Thirty Million Words Initiative; and Omar Yamini, activist and author. (Sept. 12, 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.)

Other panel discussions during the week focus on: immigration (Sept. 14, 2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.); the Affordable Care Act, (Sept. 13, 9:30a.m. to 11 a.m.); the 2016 presidential election (Sept. 14, 4:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.); real estate (Sept. 13, 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.; and Corporate America (Sept. 14, 4:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.).

There is also a film on millennials created by undergraduate students.

On the last day of the conference, Thursday, Sept. 15, Roosevelt will award BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois American Dream Scholarships to outstanding Roosevelt students.

The university community will also participate in the American Dream Service Day, when students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the university will volunteer at 30 nonprofit organizations throughout the Chicago area.

Roosevelt University, home of the American Dream Reconsidered Conference, was founded in 1945 to protest discriminatory racial and religious college admission quotas, and remains dedicated to providing access to higher education for all qualified students.

"Education is the key to achieving the American Dream," Malekzadeh said. "That's why Roosevelt is hosting this conference."

The American Dream Reconsidered Conference is free and open to the public; however reservations are requested.

For more details and to register, visit: www.Roosevelt.edu/americandream.

The conference will be centered at Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:14 AM | Permalink

August 24, 2016

How Delaware Kept America Safe For Corporate Secrecy

DOVER, Delaware - In 2009, a global coalition was pressing governments to lift the veil on corporate secrecy. Its members - U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, influential senators, international law enforcement agencies, anti-corruption activists and major American allies - presented a formidable front in their campaign against money laundering and tax evasion.

The United States, championing the cause abroad, was also pursuing legislation for stronger disclosure rules at home.

Then along came Jeffrey Bullock, the newly appointed secretary of state for Delaware.

His tiny East Coast state was in crisis, heading toward an $800 million budget deficit. Delaware's second-biggest biggest source of revenue was fees from few-questions-asked company registrations and other corporate services. That cash cow was in danger.

A proposed U.S. law would have required states to track the true owners of the companies they register. The global pushback against shell companies was threatening to dim Delaware's longstanding appeal as a secretive corporate domicile.

Seven years later, the proposed law continues to languish, thanks in part to Bullock. He was neither the first nor the only official to take up the fight, but became a leader in defending the status quo as worldwide support for change gained traction. It's as easy as ever to register a company in Delaware with scant disclosure of the real owner, making the state a magnet for anonymous shell companies that law enforcement says can be used to avoid taxes, launder money from drug-trafficking or conceal terrorist financing.

"We're viewed as hypocrites," said Carl Levin, the now-retired Michigan senator who sponsored the legislation and an advocate of corporate transparency in his 36 years on Capitol Hill. "We go after tax havens and people who launder money . . . but then we become a haven."

His bill received fresh support this month, in a letter from a coalition of the world's largest banks to U.S. lawmakers. The legislation's prospects remain unclear.

Delaware, meanwhile, is doing much better. Since Bullock started his job, the number of companies registered in Delaware has jumped 34 percent, to 1,181,000 as of last year. Revenue from the state's corporations unit surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time in 2015. In 2010, the state budget deficit was $800 million; as of this July, it was zero. Rising fee income from registrations, which surged during Bullock's tenure, helped plug the gap.

Even before Bullock was appointed, officials from several states were working to address the growing sentiment against corporate secrecy. And Delaware took some steps to curb secrecy, such as tightening oversight of "registered agents," third parties who act on behalf of companies. But Bullock helped outmaneuver foes of the status quo by tapping his political connections, drumming up support among other states and hiring a Washington lobbying firm.

In an interview, Bullock said corporate secrecy in the United States is a problem and that law enforcement needs tools to uncover the identities of company owners. He opposed past efforts to deal with the problem, he said, because they would have placed undue burdens on individual states. The federal government, not states, should be responsible for making the system more transparent, he said.

THE COST OF OPACITY

Leaving states to collect ownership information, Bullock said, could leave weak links in the system by creating a patchwork of different approaches and financial resources for collecting those details.

"And criminals can find the weakest link," he said.

The vast majority of Delaware-registered companies are legitimate enterprises. More than 50 percent of all U.S. publicly traded companies and 66 percent of the Fortune 500 call Delaware home, according to the Delaware Division of Corporations.

Still, the opacity championed by Delaware and other states has allowed some notorious criminals to carry out their deeds and hide ill-gotten gains.

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff laundered money defrauded from clients through a Delaware shell company run by a lifeguard out of a beach house. Mexico cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman allegedly used a Delaware-based tequila business to launder drug money. Former Zambia strongman Frederick Chiluba siphoned off millions from state coffers into Delaware shell companies. The list goes on.

Bullock's reach extends into the offices of his counterparts in other states who, at Delaware's direction, lobby their U.S. representatives to fight transparency, said Heather Lowe, director of government affairs at Global Financial Integrity, an anti-corruption advocacy group in Washington, D.C. Bullock's influence is "astoundingly frustrating," Lowe said.

It's impossible for authorities to determine exactly how much dirty money is tucked away in havens. Based on an analysis of International Monetary Fund data, Global Financial Integrity says that roughly $1.1 trillion in illicit funds were transferred out of developing countries in 2013.

WHERE COMPANIES WANT TO BE

Corporate America has long favored Delaware as a domicile because of statutes that give directors broad discretion in how they run companies, a dedicated court for corporate disputes that dates to 1792, and a business-friendly legislature. Delaware was the first state to let stockholders limit the liability of corporate directors.

Delaware is also one of the world's easiest places to set up a company. The state charges as little as $90 to register a limited liability corporation, or LLC. All that's needed is the name of a registered agent, which can be bought from an outside company for $50. Approximately 200 agents represent Delaware's 1.2 million companies. "Form Your Delaware Company in Just Minutes," touts the website for one of them, Harvard Business Services Inc.

When law enforcement officials, or anyone else, search Delaware's corporate registry online to see who owns a company, all they get is the name and address of the agent. The true owner, also known as the beneficial owner, doesn't have to be disclosed.

The Corporations Division of Delaware's Department of State comprises a warren of cubicles in the basement of a government building in Dover, the state capital. The division's 111 employees man two shifts, working until midnight to accommodate urgent corporate filings. For $1,000, the office will vet a corporate registration application in an hour, taking requests as late as 9 p.m.

Bullock was raised in Claymont, a steel town whose fortunes fell with the collapse of the U.S. steel industry. He came up in local politics, landing a gig as chief of staff to then-Governor Tom Carper in the 1990s. Delaware's current governor, Jack Markell, appointed Bullock secretary of state in 2009.

It was a bleak time for Delaware, in the wake of the global financial crisis. By 2010, the state's budget was deep in the red. State leaders were wrestling with the equally unappealing prospects of deep spending cuts and steep tax hikes.

Worse, Delaware's corporate registry franchise, its biggest revenue driver after personal income tax, was in jeopardy.

AMERICA THE OUTLIER

In 2006, the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, a group of some three dozen nations formed to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, noted "significant shortcomings" in the United States. The group declared Washington "non-compliant" in four of 40 categories for anti-money-laundering compliance. Among the failures: Authorities could not obtain timely information about a company's real owners, FATF said.

The task force demanded that the United States fix the problem. For Washington, which was pressing allies to crack down on terror financing, it was an embarrassing critique.

The same year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Congress's auditing arm, concluded that federal law made it too easy for individuals to anonymously form companies. Delaware was a favored destination for such companies, the report said.

As anti-secrecy momentum built, Senator Levin and then-Senator Barack Obama joined forces with Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota to make it tougher to register new companies without identifying the owners.

They issued a bill in 2008 that would pare back secrecy laws in Delaware and other states by forcing them to collect information about the true owners of companies, thereby making the facts more accessible to law enforcement.

In 2009, the Department of Justice, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Manhattan District Attorney's office each testified to a Senate committee that corporate secrecy was a growing problem and impeding law enforcement.

CHAMPIONING THE CAUSE

By then, Bullock had been appointed secretary of state. Trim and friendly, he became a popular figure, tasked with praising the state's founders in speeches on "Delaware Day" and flanking the governor at bill-signing ceremonies.

He pursued a weightier agenda behind the scenes. By May 2009, he had hired Washington lobbying firm Peck Madigan Jones to sway lawmakers and administration officials against Levin's bill. One of the partners, Jonathon Jones, had served as Governor Carper's chief of staff after Bullock. Bullock is the only secretary of state in the country with a taxpayer-funded lobbying firm, according to lobbying disclosures.

Bullock said the firm's main role was to lobby on the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reforms. Peck Madigan didn't return calls seeking comment.

Bullock then hit back against FATF, the multinational group that had slammed Delaware as a secrecy haven.

He co-wrote a Sept. 16, 2011, letter to FATF on behalf of the National Association of Secretaries of State in which he called the group's recommendations "impractical," warning it not to meddle with "the core principle of Constitutional state sovereignty." Such letters from association leaders are not unusual, a NASS spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Levin made a tactical misstep. He introduced his bill in the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, where an influential member was Delaware Senator Tom Carper - Bullock's old chum and former boss.

The bill was the subject of two hearings in 2009, tying it up for six months. Carper testified against it, saying states shouldn't be burdened with more work.

"I have long believed it should be easier for law enforcement to access identity information about criminals who manipulate our corporate laws," Carper said in a statement to Reuters. But new rules to ease access should preserve "a nurturing" business environment, he said.

STUCK IN THE SENATE

Levin reintroduced a more detailed bill in late 2011 with ramped-up identification checks. The Treasury endorsed it.

This time, according to a former congressional staffer, Carper pressed Senator Joe Lieberman, the committee chairman, to let the bill languish. When the bill was scheduled for a markup, the final step before going to the full Senate for debate and a possible vote, it never came to pass, the staffer said.

Lieberman, in an e-mail, said Carper and other committee senators voiced concerns about the bill. "It was my impression that they were hearing from their states' secretaries," Lieberman said. Lieberman said he asked the senators to compromise. "They tried but were never able to find the sweet spot of an agreement. And that's where it ended," said Lieberman, now a lawyer in private practice.

In June 2013, pressure rose on Washington to act. The Group of Eight industrialized nations issued a declaration demanding that members curtail anonymous shell companies. The plan called for creating ownership registries to aid authorities. That month, President Obama issued a national plan to address the G8 concerns, including a call for the Treasury Department and other agencies to back measures against anonymous shells.

Levin retooled his bill yet again in August 2013. It had yet to make it to the Senate floor for debate, five years after it was introduced. This time, he crafted it for consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee, hoping for a better reception.

By then, NASS, where Bullock had become a dominant voice, was pushing a counterproposal. It advocated addressing the issue by relying on information the Internal Revenue Service collects from companies.

That wouldn't work, critics said. The IRS has long restricted the information it gives law enforcement, they said. Further, the IRS requires only that companies register "responsible parties," a term that could include anyone - even a lawyer duty-bound to hide the real owner's identity.

"[It] was a cover to oppose a bill that's presumably aimed at the true owners of corporations," Levin told Reuters. "It's a dodge."

AGENTS FOR CHANGE

NASS spokeswoman Kay Stimson said the IRS collects the same kind of information described in the Levin bill. Law enforcement officials, she said, have told NASS that the IRS data is sufficient.

In 2013, two retired FBI special agents took up the cause against secrecy, serving as unofficial spokespeople for active agents. Dennis Lormel and Theodore Greenberg, with decades of experience working anti-money laundering cases between them, visited Bullock in his offices in mid-2013.

Too often, they told Bullock, the FBI's trail went cold at the addresses of Delaware incorporation agents. Sometimes that happened when foreign law enforcement agencies sought FBI assistance chasing the money trail of a suspected criminal. Such cases, they said, frayed relations with foreign agencies, which were expected to cough up the goods whenever the FBI was hunting terrorist cash flow.

The two agents walked Bullock through a form and protocols used by banks in Switzerland, long one of the world's most secretive financial hubs. If Delaware could simply meet the same minimal transparency standards as the Swiss, everyone would be happy.

Bullock told them Delaware would not tighten requirements because companies would flee to other states with lax laws, according to the agents. Bullock told them the resulting blow to the state treasury could harm his chances of winning higher office, the agents said.

"I was pleasantly surprised that he was at least being honest," Lormel said.

Bullock said he didn't recall all the details of his meeting with the former FBI agents. He said he does not have future political aspirations.

"The anonymity that is possible when using shell companies can lead to difficulties in federal investigations," an FBI spokeswoman said. She declined to comment on the legislation.

AN ALTERNATIVE PLAN

That July, NASS held its annual convention in Anchorage, Alaska. A report about shell companies, prepared in part by Bullock's office, was circulated among the group's shell company task force. It discussed, among other things, IRS changes that could simplify collecting ownership details.

Afterward, other secretaries of state, including Vermont's James Condos, entered the fray. Condos was a critical link to Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Levin's bill would soon be pending.

Levin's bill "would leave companies, especially small businesses, with additional costly and confusing layers of bureaucratic red tape," Condos wrote in an Aug. 8, 2013, letter to Leahy, days after returning from Anchorage. The bill never left the Judiciary Committee.

Condos said that Bullock did not encourage him to write to Leahy.

Bullock and NASS say he didn't play the lead in rallying opposition to Levin's bill. The cause had been taken up much earlier by officials in other states, he said, and by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Bar Association. NASS says secretaries of state have unanimously opposed Levin's legislation from the start.

"This issue was already hot and heavy when I entered the scene," he said.

By 2014, some Delawareans were growing concerned about the state's reputation as a secrecy haven. A group of state legislators began circulating a draft public letter opposing Bullock and supporting Levin's bill.

REBELLION AT HOME

Bullock tried to quash the letter before it went public. "I am writing to urge you to not sign on," he wrote in an e-mail to state Representative Paul Baumbach on July 10, 2014. To "support this kind of legislation sends the wrong message to the 1,050,000 legal entities incorporated in Delaware," he said.

Baumbach signed anyway. He said he has stopped following the issue.

Bullock told Reuters that he e-mailed the lawmakers out of concern that the registration business would simply move to other states if Delaware changed policies unilaterally.

Thirty-one of Delaware's 62 elected state legislators signed the letter opposing Bullock and supporting Levin's bill. "Taking action will help . . . ensure that individuals cannot use our state's incorporation laws for illicit purposes," the legislators wrote.

The resistance failed. In March 2014, a senior U.S. Treasury official told Lormel, the former FBI agent, that the Obama administration was conceding defeat. There was too much opposition to the bill.

A month later, an item on the White House blog reported Obama's support for the alternative proposal centering on IRS data.

Asked about the change of tack, a senior administration official said: "The Obama administration wants to work with Congress to pass meaningful legislation that would require companies to know and report accurate 'beneficial ownership' information at the time of a company's creation, so that the information can be made available to law enforcement."

Lormel, the former FBI agent, said the IRS approach may yield some useful information for law enforcement, but noted that identities of real owners might still be missing.

LEVIN AND LIMBO

Levin retired in 2014. Other legislators took up his cause. Similar bills have struggled to gain traction.

In May, the U.S. Treasury unveiled a new rule that, starting in 2018, will require banks to more thoroughly vet the real owners of potential corporate customers. Levin says the Treasury's definition of beneficial owner is loose and allows the reporting of managers instead of actual owners.

On July 14, Delaware's Senator Carper introduced yet another alternative - a bill that would codify the IRS approach supported by Bullock.

This legislation, crafted by Bullock's office and Delaware's senators, would require every U.S. company to get an IRS identification number. Companies would provide "responsible party" information to the IRS that law enforcement officers could use in money-laundering and terrorism cases, according to the bill.

The bill also outlines a new process for federal law enforcement to obtain that information from the IRS, a step that has required a court order and often led to dead ends.

Proponents of transparency think it falls short. "These are half-measures that largely serve to deflect political opposition rather than tackle the problem," said Mark Hays, a senior adviser at Global Witness, an anti-corruption group.

Two days after Carper introduced the bill, Bullock unveiled it at a NASS conference in Nashville, Tennessee. He suggested the bill would help cast secretaries of state in a more positive light after years of fighting the Levin bill.

"I know how people portray us," Bullock told the conclave. "I don't want to be against things, I want to be for things."

Additional reporting by Francisco Vara-Orta in Columbia, Missouri.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 3:18 PM | Permalink

The [Wednesday] Papers

My laptop is back. I'm readjusting.

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Here's some reporting from today's Board of Ed meeting. Read it and weep.

Very odd that @ClaypoolCPS says budget doesn't harm c/rsm. See the red here? pic.twitter.com/klQ8Z2Uef4

— Raise Your Hand (@ILRaiseYourHand) August 24, 2016

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Here's some elementary red- these are cuts @ClaypoolCPS. Why say this isn't happening? pic.twitter.com/3mzCI0J2rz

— Raise Your Hand (@ILRaiseYourHand) August 24, 2016

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#CPSboard Frank Clark only asks questions that make CPS look good. This time: Please repeat those good test score results.

— Lauren FitzPatrick (@bylaurenfitz) August 24, 2016

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Rules are for principals and teachers we want to fire.

Note: CPS is required by state law to release capital plan by May 1 ever year. Officials have been skirting that rule... #cpsboard

— WBEZeducation (@WBEZeducation) August 24, 2016

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How much from the tooth fairy?

Claypool still contends budget is balanced. It depends on $215M from state and $31M from CTU. Neither funds yet secure.

— Lauren FitzPatrick (@bylaurenfitz) August 24, 2016

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We're right here, Forrest. We can see the charts.

Claypool says CPS closed deficit "without harming classrooms"... #cpsboard

— WBEZeducation (@WBEZeducation) August 24, 2016

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Clark, #cpsboard pres, asks "Will children be safe when school starts?" prefaced by "I know the answer, but i want you to tell the public"

— WBEZeducation (@WBEZeducation) August 24, 2016

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Clark "I agree there's a credibility gap." Laughter from audience. "Ok, let's proceed."

— Lauren FitzPatrick (@bylaurenfitz) August 24, 2016

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Clark is working hard to silence critics who've signed up, taken time off work or found childcare to speak for just 2 minutes to #CPSboard.

— Lauren FitzPatrick (@bylaurenfitz) August 24, 2016

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Clark reminds audience (haven't spoken yet, but he's assuming they'll talk about TIF) that TIF is a one-time revenue source. #cpsboard

— WBEZeducation (@WBEZeducation) August 24, 2016

... unlike one-time solutions like $215M pension help from Springfield...

— Lauren FitzPatrick (@bylaurenfitz) August 24, 2016

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You could say the same for Rahm's property tax rebate.

Avg Chicago homeowner paying an extra $245 this year on a $250K house. Here's another Clark Q: $245 = how much per day? $.67.

— Lauren FitzPatrick (@bylaurenfitz) August 24, 2016

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It's that time when people ask #CPSBoard members questions and they say nothing.

— Lauren FitzPatrick (@bylaurenfitz) August 24, 2016

*

In luxury, believe me.

Speaker says Claypool's continued claim of no cuts to classrooms is wrong. "It's hard to imagine how you sleep at night" she says. #cpsboard

— WBEZeducation (@WBEZeducation) August 24, 2016

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Forrest Claypool and Frank Clark, you are Today's Worst People In Chicago.

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BeachBook

Inquiry: NYPD Broke Surveillance Rules After 9/11.

*

Aleppo's Dying Children And Shattered Health System.

*

Twenty Years Later, Poverty Is Up But Architects Of 'Welfare Reform' Have No Regrets, Because They Are Very Bad People.

-

TweetWood
A sampling.

Comcast Still Not Quite Sure If Its $70 Gigabit Offer In Chicago Actually Exists https://t.co/dmao3MHtyp

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 24, 2016

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Troncastic!

Chicago Tribune website is getting really Sun-Timesy. I get about 30 seconds to read a story before it freezes my entire computer.

— Ben Finfer (@BenFinfer) August 23, 2016

*

Sometimes you're a real buzzkill, Snopes.

https://t.co/7mjgCMiCJV

— snopes.com (@snopes) August 23, 2016

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: The Champagne of tronc lines.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 11:54 AM | Permalink

August 23, 2016

East Chicago Is Toxic

"Some environmental law experts say the national attention on Flint may have finally ignited action in East Chicago, Indiana, where residents finally learned the scope of the issues with their soil just two weeks ago. The EPA office responsible for East Chicago, Region 5, is the same one that oversaw Flint, Michigan's contaminated water system."

Assignment Desk: EPA Region 5 is based in Chicago. Perhaps a full review is warranted.

"The unfolding health emergency in East Chicago is a window into a larger environmental justice crisis playing out in neighborhoods across the country. And the historically minority, lower-income residents will suffer the consequences."

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East Chicago, Indiana.

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See also:

* Indianapolis Star: East Chicago Lead Pollution 'A Potential Catastrophe.'

* Washington Post: East Chicago Children Have Lead In Their Blood From Contaminated Dirt. Is This The Next Flint?

* Rutter: Human Suffering In East Chicago.

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The Gary Post-Tribune has been on the story too.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 8:00 AM | Permalink

Sports Betting Spotlight: Chicago Bears

Tip: Always bet John Fox against the spread on the road.

Featuring Chicago native Chuck Esposito, Station Casino sportsbook director.

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See also: Seven Questions For Sportsbook Director Chuck Esposito.

Excerpt:

"I've taken a seven-figure bet before. And I was smiling at the end of that one! It was a Super Bowl - the Bears-Colts game [in 2007]. Funny story: I'm from Chicago, and my whole family was rooting for the Bears to win. Unfortunately, they didn't, and my daughter called me and she was upset, and I was like, 'That's OK, honey. We made a lot of money today.' [Laughs.] You can't have a favorite team in this industry, that's for sure."

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 5:51 AM | Permalink

The [Tuesday] Papers

"At an administrative hearing Monday morning, a Cook County official doubled down on a controversial position that the Reader first reported on last week: she explained to attorneys for two Chicago venues that live performances of rock, country, rap, and electronic music do not constitute 'music' or 'culture' by the county's standards," the Reader reports.

"This is more than a cultural debate, though, because these definitions affect which small Chicago venues are entitled to an exemption from the county's 3 percent amusement tax on cover and ticket charges. Anita Richardson, a hearing officer appointed by the county's Department of Administrative Hearings, seemed to be arguing this morning that only small venues that book chamber orchestras, symphony orchestras, or operas should be entitled to the tax break - those relying instead on 'rap music, country music, and rock 'n' roll' in addition to electronic music and DJ performances should have to pay.

"Rap music, country music, and rock 'n' roll" do not fall under the purview of "fine art," she explained.

Anita Richardson, you are Today's Worst Person In Chicago.

*

Plus, how fine is this?

-

Programming Note
My laptop has been given a clean bill of health, though we won't really know until I put it to the test. Should be back in my possession tonight or tomorrow night. Our national nightmare is almost over.

-

East Chicago Is Toxic
The next of many Flints.

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Toxic for decades. Systemic failure by industry, regulators, politicians & not just on lead. https://t.co/MUmx0pmm52 https://t.co/Lm2NplbNep

— Tracy Maple (@tracycopygrrrl) August 23, 2016

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The Best, Most Incredible Cosplay Of Wizard World Chicago 2016
Bigger and better.

Sports Betting Spotlight: Chicago Bears
Tip: Take John Fox against the spread on the road.

Here Comes Skateboarding
The DNA of the Olympic ideal.

Progressive Pie
Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups.

The Weekend In Chicago Rock
Featuring: The Goddamn Jets, Blue Mud, Vivian Green, X, The Cosmic Dead, Bodybag, Winkler Mill, Pidgin, House Boat, Pidgin, Yes, The Go Gos, Neurosis, Pearl Jam, and Wilco.

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Never forget:

Jeff Tweedy Oughta Be Ashamed.

Jeff Tweedy (D-Rahm) Has Broken Our Hearts.

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Has anyone ever asked Tweedy about this? Does he have any regrets? Does he still support Rahm?

-

BeachBook

Uncovering A $1 Billion Deal To Detain Unauthorized Immigrants.

*

Marvin Glass, Toy Designer (1972).

*

KFC Gives Away Chicken-Scented Sunscreen.

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TweetWood
A sampling.

Chicago magazine had to include a black kid for diversity, so they made him the nerd: pic.twitter.com/ueXXvF1tKE

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 23, 2016

.@BeachwoodReport WBEZ: #CPS is 45.6% Latino; 39.6% Black; 9.5% White; 3.6% Asian.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 23, 2016

Also, they picked a fictional suburban school for their concept, just sayin'.

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: Mess with the bull.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 2:33 AM | Permalink

The Weekend In Chicago Rock

You shoulda been there.

1. The Goddamn Jets at the Burlington on Saturday night.

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2. Blue Mud at the Metro on Saturday night.

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3. Vivian Green at City Winery on Saturday night.

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4. X at the Metro on Friday night.

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5. The Cosmic Dead at Reggies on Thursday night.

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6. Winkler Mill at the House of Blues on Friday night.

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7. Bodybag at Livewire on Friday night.

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8. House Boat at Quenchers on Sunday night.

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9. The Go Gos at Ravinia on Friday night.

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10. Yes at Copernicus on Saturday night.

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11. Pearl Jam at Wrigley Field on Saturday night.

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12. Wilco at Millennium Park on Sunday night.

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Catching up with . . .

Pidgin at Reggies last Saturday night.

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Neurosis at Thalia Hall on August 3rd.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:38 AM | Permalink

With Skateboarding's Inclusion In Tokyo 2020, A Once-Marginalized Subculture Enters The Spotlight

On Aug. 6, skateboarding was added to the list of new sports for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Now six million skateboarders in the United States - plus millions abroad - will have a global platform to promote skateboarding as a cross-cultural community that possesses a set of shared values.

Though skateboarding culture has often been thought of as the home of unruly, unlawful, anti-establishment youth, the sport may actually communicate the Olympic ideal to millions of millennials who haven't been tuning into the Olympic Games.

Neftali Williams

As someone with 20 years of experience in the skateboarding industry - and as the teacher of a course on skateboarding culture at the University of Southern California - I've seen how the sport can promote diversity, identity, youth empowerment and global citizenship.

Diversity In Its DNA

In the International Olympic Committee's own words, "The mission of the IOC is to not only ensure the celebration of the Olympic Games, but to also encourage the regular practice of sport by all people in society, regardless of sex, age, social background or economic status."

Since its earliest days, skateboarding has advanced these ideals in myriad ways, and a range of ethnicities and experiences make up the DNA of skateboarding culture.

In the 1970s, a group of surfers dedicated to the Zeypher surf-shop in Santa Monica, California - who came to be known as the Z-boys family - developed an aggressive style that was necessary to surf the dilapidated, defunct Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica.

In between waves, the group would explore and experiment with their skateboards. Soon, the motley crew completely transformed skateboarding from a toy plank with wheels to a vehicle of athletic and artistic expression.

During the drought-plagued summers of 1970s California, many swimming pools - a symbol of both commercial success and excess - were drained to save water. Where some might see blight and abandonment, the Z-boys and their peers saw opportunity: The emptied swimming pool became the first unofficial skate park, a concrete canvas to hone one's skills and experiment with daring new tricks.

mallix/flickr/CC BY-NC-ND

The Z-boys crew also represented the changing ethnic makeup of young Americans.

Early pioneers included Tony Alva, a skater and surfer of Mexican and Dutch descent, and Japanese-American female skater Peggy Oki. (Both have been inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame.)

During the 1980s, legendary Z-boys skater Stacy Peralta promoted the careers of skateboarding luminaries Steve Caballero, who was Japanese and Mexican-American, Tommy Guerrero, who was Filipino-Chilean and Portuguese-American, Salman Agah, of Azerbaijani and Iranian descent, and African-American Ray Barbee. According to Transworld Skateboarding Magazine, all are among the most influential skaters of all time.

Meanwhile, Peralta's most well-known prodigy, Tony Hawk, continues this model of inclusion in his wildly popular video game franchise Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, which has reached over $1 billion in sales. The game has featured female star Elissa Steamer and African-American pro skater and owner of Axion sneakers Kareem Campbell as playable characters.

Learning To Make Do

Importantly, skateboarding remains affordable and accessible. A skateboard generally costs between $65 and $125, and within the community there's an ethos of conserving equipment. For example, the skateboarding company Element's No Board Left Behind project is a green initiative that repurposes used skateboards for kids in need.

There's a similar commitment to repurposing urban spaces. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, Praca das Aguas was a public park that was rarely used. But in 2010, local skater Tulio de la Oliviera took the initiative to build the first skateable structures in the park.

Over time, the entire Sao Paulo skate community contributed cement for ramps and ledges without the help of the government or a nongovernmental organization. Today, Pracas das Aquas remains a free public space for everyone. It's also fertile ground for training the next generation of Brazilian skateboarding Olympians.

Contrast this with traditional sports, like swimming and tennis, which require expensive equipment, lessons and training facilities. Skateboarding also doesn't require a formal coach, falling perfectly within the IOC's desire to be inclusive, regardless of class or economic status.

Bridging Cultures

Today, there are a number of skateboarding NGOs that seek to use skateboarding as a way to empower youth or promote gender equity.

The NGO Skatistan has brought skateboarding to war-torn Afghanistan, where the sport is used as a vehicle to educate and empower male and female youth. Meanwhile, pro skater Amelia Brodka's annual skateboarding event "Exposure" seeks to bring together females skaters from around the world.

In my own research, I've documented thriving skateboarding communities in Brazil, Cuba, Switzerland and South Africa. Some of this work was on display during the John F. Kennedy Center's celebration of skateboarding culture, "Finding A Line," in May 2015.

Most recently, via the U.S. State Department's SportsUnited program, I became the first skateboarding U.S. Sports Envoy to the Netherlands. There I worked with Syrian refugee youths who had been granted asylum in the Netherlands and the Dutch and foreign children of the International School. Using skateboarding, we created shared experience between the two communities.

Why It Took So Long

Skateboarding's unique culture isn't based solely on competition. It's also about the individual skater's identity and his or her contributions to the skateboarding community.

Similar to jazz, skateboarders may play within an "ensemble" (i.e., their local crew). But they're judged on the spirit and style in which they've inspired others to express themselves and become better skaters. In this, skateboarding represents the idealized dream of sport: to create a global community with a shared identity.

But skateboarding's Olympic arrival has been slow, and there are two main reasons: initial apathy among the skateboarding community and the IOC requirement that the sport establishes formal governance.

In fact, there's a contingent that doesn't believe skateboarding should ever enter the Olympics: over 5,000 skateboarders signed an online petition denouncing the move.

Because skateboarders see their sport as an opportunity for individual expression, they believe governing bodies and rigid guidelines betray the ethos of the culture. As the petition states, "Olympic recognition will not do justice to the purity, individuality and uniqueness of skateboarding culture . . . [and] viewers of the Olympic games will not be interested in skateboarding."

There's real anxiety over the idea that, by joining the Olympics, a subculture that has long been a conduit for self-expression could be "going mainstream" and, in the process, lose its authenticity. When snowboarding was first rolled out as an Olympic sport in 1998, it was bungled on a number of fronts. Some snowboarders boycotted. Others became roiled in controversy after testing positive for marijuana. For these reasons, many skateboarders are wary of being brought into the Olympic fold.

For the IOC's part, the decision could be strategic. Olympic TV viewera have become older and older (the median age for London 2012 was 48; for Sochi 2014 it was 55), and the decision to include skateboarding was probably influenced by a desire to attract younger demographics.

When announcing the new sports for Tokyo 2020, which also include softball and karate, IOC president Thomas Bach said in a statement, "We want to take sport to the youth. With the many options that young people have, we cannot expect any more that they will come automatically to us. We have to go to them."

He added that skateboarding and the other sports are "an innovative combination of established and emerging, youth-focused events that . . . will add to the legacy of the Tokyo Games."

Anxieties aside, as someone who has seen what skateboarding can mean to the children of Cuba, Brazil, South Africa, Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands, I believe skateboarding can exist within the Olympic structure. The key, of course, is that any sort of governing bodies or guidelines doesn't homogenize the community or the sport, and that revenue-sharing from the Olympics is directed back into skateboarding communities, so this healthy, supportive culture can thrive.

If all goes well, skateboarding culture will continue to flourish under the Olympics banner, helping the Olympic Games become more diverse, inclusive and accessible.

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Neftalie Williams is a lecturer at the University of Southern California. This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:20 AM | Permalink

August 22, 2016

The Best, Most Incredible Cosplay Of Wizard World Chicago 2016

The weekend in Rosemont left this YouTuber "highly impressed."

"Bigger and better."

"Awesome."

Check out his video of the best cosplayers:

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From Greg Boozell:

See Greg's Flickr gallery here.

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Wizard World Chicago Rule #1: Always wear comfortable shoes. pic.twitter.com/iHV1VzoKTT

— Wizard World (@WizardWorld) August 18, 2016

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A ghostly ghoul at Wizard World Chicago pic.twitter.com/wmxkPbpqgv

— The Horror Museum (@horrormuseum) August 18, 2016

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Like my t-shirt? @WizardWorld #Chicago #Hulk See what's in the box at https://t.co/JNwff5RBhT! pic.twitter.com/3TbijaVGrS

— Lou Ferrigno (@LouFerrigno) August 18, 2016

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Back to the Future panel, with Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson.

*

Carrie Fisher.

*

X-Files panel with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 3:58 PM | Permalink

The [Monday] Papers

"The Chicago Police Board has fired 12 officers in the year that Lori Lightfoot has headed it," the Sun-Times reports. "Only twice in any year between 2006 and 2015 has the board fired more officers than that."

The Sun-Times says this is evidence that the police board under Lightfoot is "tougher" than it has been in the past - something Lightfoot also argues. And perhaps that's true - without examining the nature of the cases that have come before her this year and those that have come before the board in the past, I can't be sure. After all, the two years between 2006 and 2015 were also anomalies.

But what I really find odd is this:

Lightfoot was asked whether she believes past police boards were part of a "code of silence" that Emanuel has acknowledged exists in the Chicago Police Department.

"I don't believe that to be true knowing who the board members were. Everybody who served on this board over the years has taken their job very seriously," she said.

Well, you don't get to say that your board is doing a much better job than previous boards while stating that previous boards did their jobs just fine.

Obviously, previous police boards failed to do their job properly. There is an abundance of evidence to show it. That's why Lightfoot was sent over there to clean the place up.

And then this caveat from Lightfoot: "But we are clearly in a very different time."

A time when the police board is expected to take its job more seriously?

We are "in a different time" only because the police accountability system, including its final destination, the police board, has utterly failed.

And in no time should it have been acceptable for that system to let bad and/or corrupt police officers skate. The rules don't change according to how the political winds are blowing - only the behavior of people who don't take their responsibilities seriously.

*

That includes the mayor, for whom the times apparently haven't changed sufficiently:

"In addition to being the final arbiter on police misconduct cases, the board is also charged with conducting a nationwide search for a new police superintendent. Earlier this year, the board went through that process, only to have Emanuel reject all three names and choose insider Johnson, who did not apply for the job.

"The end-run around the board prompted three members to resign: Claudia Valenzuela, Melissa Ballate and William Conlon. None returned messages seeking comment. There are two vacancies on the nine-member board."

Lightfoot, on the departures, in June:

"We went through a long process to identify three candidates for police superintendent that got rejected. That started people thinking about whether they wanted to serve . . . And there are people who believe if you are associated with the mayor, you have no legitimacy."

Or, perhaps, Rahm destroyed any legitimacy they thought they had.

*

The departed:

Claudia Valenzuela, detention project director at the National Immigrant Justice Center.

Melissa Ballate, president of Blue Daring.

William Conlon, former federal prosecutor.

-

From the Beachwood sports desk . . .

The Cub Factor: Marty's Hate List
See it!

The White Sox Report: Rick's Picks
Have any of Hahn's deals really worked out?

TrackNotes: Inverted Arlington
Even the Million can't thrill him.

-

Programming Note
Still making do on a borrowed laptop, so not operating at full capacity. Should find out today whether my MacBook can be saved from absorbing a bit of the High Life (Hey, Miller, sponsor me a new computer!); otherwise I will transplant the hard drive, which has been saved, into another unit.

-

BeachBook

Deutsche Bank Whistleblower Turns Down $16.5 Million Payout To Show Industry Problem.

*

Lawmakers Overseeing Wall Street Given Bigger, More Favorable Loans Than Others.

*

The Dark Side Of Local.

*

California Crime Initiative Leads To Lowest Arrest Rate In State's History.

-

TweetWood
A sampling.

Reminder: #wilco raised money for rahm.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 22, 2016

See: Jeff Tweedy Oughta Be Ashamed; Jeff Tweedy (D-Rahm) Has Broken Our Hearts.

*

Doesn't this invalidate his whole enterprise?

.@NateSilver538 says on @ReliableSources that he can see both Trump or Clinton winning. Don't take current polls at face values.

— Herb Scribner (@HerbScribner) August 21, 2016

Plus:

Accept as fact if you don't believe he has a monetary interest in driving traffic to his site in the next 2.5 months https://t.co/12n2g7dV9f

— Jason Martin (@jmart181) August 22, 2016

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In Context: Violent Crime In #Chicago Has Been Steadily Falling Since 1991 https://t.co/tGcPC6L3tX More media coverage doesn't = more crime

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 21, 2016

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: In context.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 4:14 AM | Permalink

Marty's Hate List

It appears the Cubs have shifted into "Yeah, it's pretty much over" mode.

In seemingly precautionary moves, they put John Lackey, Hector Rondon and Chris Coghlan on the DL and gave starts to Trevor Cahill and Mike Montgomery.

That's playoff prep, not stretch drive.

Of course, in true Joe "Magic" Maddon fashion, the Cubs won both the Cahill and Montgomery starts, and even more Maddon fashion, Cahill relieved Montgomery in his game.

But the Cubs did lose their first series since the All-Star break this week, including blowing a 5-1 lead against a really not-that-great Rockie team.

But do we really care anymore? Because I, too, am in "Yeah, it's pretty much over" mode. And I think you should feel the same way as well.

Oh sure, the Cub could conceivably epically still blow this thing and not make the playoffs, but the chances of that happening are slimmer than Chris Sale. So we might as well just enjoy the last six weeks and start the playoff prep. Get out your calendar and cancel all October engagements.

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Week in Review: The Cubs went 5-2 for the week, which including two Cahill Ws. If you were still wondering if this was a special year, there you go. Trevor Cahill got two wins this week. Cahill. He won twice. In the same week. And was dynamite. Cahill. Dude.

Week in Preview: The boys in blue stay out West as they hit San Diego and Los Angeles for three each. Finally a week of late West Coast finals and sleepily watching the Cubs as you go to bed. Oh, and the grounds crew has to re-sod the outfield after Pearl Jam played Wrigley while the team was away.

Musical Outfielders: And no we aren't talking about Matt Szczur playing the French horn. Maddon gave Jason Heyward the weekend off in Colorado to think about what he's done. In fact, Maddon was so intent on Heyward not getting an at-bat that he put Travis Wood in left field during Sunday's rout and let Wood come to the plate. He got a hit, boosting his average to .222. Heyward is hitting .225.

Former Annoying Cub of the Week: Tommy La Stella finally reported - to AA. But he's still a former Cub as he is not on the big league club. But he's on his way and his former and future teammates are preparing to make him less annoying.

Current Annoying Cub of the Week: So, I talk Cub baseball at work from time to time with my co-workers. And they've figured out that there are some current and former Cub players that I don't particularly like. One day after getting a cup of coffee I came back to my desk to see a Marty Hate list. I must have rambled on about this guy or that guy through the season and one guy I work with seemed to be paying a bit of attention. The list changes every couple weeks. Here it is currently:

Mad(don) Scientist: First, Big Poppa Joe said he wasn't going to bench Heyward because just because he stunk, then he benched him for an entire series - in the most hitter-friendly major-league ballpark that has ever existed. Maddon works in mysterious ways.

Kubs Kalender: It's Biotech All-Stars Day in San Diego on Tuesday, which is just about the worst promotion ever. But it's also Taco Tuesday at the ballpark, sponsored by Cholula Hot Sauce. So San Diego is Even Steven.

Beachwood Sabermetrics: A complex algorithm performed by The Cub Factor staff using all historical data made available by Major League Baseball has determined that the Eddie Vedder Cub song is a bit much.

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Marty Gangler is The Cub Factor. He welcomes your comments.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 1:49 AM | Permalink

Rick's Picks

To rebuild or not to rebuild? That is the question.

If the White Sox do rebuild - or whatever you wish to call it - the experience will be a new one for a franchise which has had other sub-.500 stretches that are very reminiscent of the current situation. A fourth consecutive losing season seems likely even after the Sox won two-of-three over the weekend against the Oakland A's, a club even more in limbo than the local contingent. Losing twice in a three-game set earlier in the week in Cleveland resulted in another 3-3 week, not exactly what's needed as the fellows hope to at least break even for the season.

Perhaps the closest the franchise has come to sacrificing the present for the future occurred at the trade deadline in 1989, when fan favorite and 10-year Sox veteran Harold Baines was traded to Texas for infielder Scott Fletcher, minor league pitcher Wilson Alvarez, and a skinny rookie named Sammy Sosa.

That '89 team went on to finish with 92 losses under manager Jeff Torborg, who was in his first season as the Sox skipper. In the previous three campaigns, the team never won more than 77 games.

In today's world, the move to swap Baines for a solid but not outstanding infielder and two unproven prospects might be construed as a sign of rebuilding. However, the losing ceased immediately as the very next season the club rebounded to post a 94-68 ledger, good for second place in the West Division of the American League. Without the expanded playoff format, the Sox went home feeling just fine about their marked improvement.

So how did it happen? Fletcher became the everyday second baseman, teaming with Ozzie Guillen for a sterling double-play combination. Center fielder Lance Johnson, injured for much of the 1989 season, played in almost every game, batted leadoff, got on base, stole a bunch of bases, and patrolled the outfield as well as anyone. With Carlton Fisk behind the plate, the team was strong up the middle. Righthander Jack McDowell won 14 games after bouncing between Comiskey Park and Triple-A the previous season while trying to remain healthy.

Simply put, it was a combination of health, luck, and better play. A rebuild it was not.

Let's also point out that nary an eyebrow would be raised if the contract of manager Robin Ventura is not renewed after this season. In the past, a fresh face in the dugout has accounted for improvement, such as when Chuck Tanner assumed the reins in 1971 after the club lost 106 games the season before. Tanner's first team improved to 79-83 and with the arrival of Dick Allen a year later, the Sox challenged Oakland in the West Division, finishing second with 87 wins.

A young Tony LaRussa got his first managerial job at age 34 during the 1979 season when the under-financed franchise recognized a bargain and the potential of LaRussa, who would go on to win more games than any manager not named Connie Mack or John J. McGraw. Only the South Side Hitmen of 1977 finished above .500 in the years 1975-80. As LaRussa was earning his chops, the team showed steady improvement, winning 99 games and the Division title in 1983.

Hence White Sox history discloses that given an astute choice, changing the team's manager can make a difference. Hahn's managerial decision will be the most intriguing development of the offseason.

Sox fans have every right to debate the wisdom of Hahn's trades and signings since he was named general manager almost four years ago. However, it's folly to suggest that the guy hasn't made an attempt to improve this often aimless franchise. He's had some poor luck and arguably false expectations, but he is not averse to bartering for and signing players if he feels they can improve his ballclub.

Adam Dunn - whom Hahn helped sign for four years at $56 million - had already been in a Sox uniform for two seasons when Hahn became GM, but the Big Donkey is a prime example of plans gone awry. Not only was Dunn one of the most productive power hitters in the National League for 10 seasons, but he also brought over a .250 lifetime batting average. In almost four seasons with the Sox, he hit a slew of home runs, but he also slumped to .202. Who could have predicted that?

Same with Todd Frazier, whom Hahn procured last winter in a three-team deal that cost the Sox Trayce Thompson, Micah Johnson, and pitcher Frankie Montas. While Frazier has hit 31 home runs and leads the team in RBI with 76, he has performed much like Dunn, hitting .212 - compared to .257 in five National League seasons - after collecting three hits Sunday to help Jose Quintana reach 10 victories for the first time in his career.

Frazier also had an on-base percentage of .312 before coming to the White Sox. That number has diminished to .295 this season.

Did Hahn make an intelligent move getting Frazier? We'll have to wait another season to find out. Maybe Frazier will bounce back, and he does provide the best defense at third base since Joe Crede. But he'll need to hit higher than .151 with runners in scoring position and simply get on base more often to make the deal appear worthwhile.

Meanwhile, the trio that Hahn swapped for Frazier has been hampered by injuries in the cases of Thompson and Montas, who actually has moved on to Oakland in a deadline trade a month ago, while Johnson has spent the season in the minors.

Innumerable players have been released to free agency during Hahn's reign. He bid farewell to guys like Gordon Beckham, Tyler Flowers, Alexei Ramirez, and Jeff Samardzija. The Sox miss none of them.

Speaking of Samardzija, in an attempt to improve for 2015, Hahn sent shortstop Marcus Semien, catcher Josh Phegley, pitcher Chris Bassitt and minor-leaguer Rangel Ravelo to Oakland for the Notre Dame product, who had gone 7-13 in 2014, splitting time between the Cubs and the A's. But Samardzija's sparkling ERA of 2.99 ERA in 219-plus innings made the deal look like a reasonable risk. Who knew that Samardzija would often look like James Shields for much of last season? Well, maybe not that bad, but 11-13 and a 4.96 ERA impressed no one.

As for the quartet Hahn exchanged, Phegley very well could be the Sox regular catcher today, although beating out Dioner Navarro and Alex Avila doesn't require a Pudge Rodriguez. Phegley has been hampered by injuries this season, having had knee surgery last month. Bassitt also quickly went to the DL. He's rehabbing from Tommy John surgery that he underwent last May. Ravelo is in Triple-A, slashing .260/.320/.395.

Semien has become the A's regular shortstop and looked flashy at times at The Cell over the weekend. So far this season he's made 16 errors, a noticeable improvement over the 35 he committed last year. And he's belted 23 home runs to go along with his respectable slash of .240/.302/.748.

Hahn no doubt made the deal knowing that the Sox shortstop of the future would be Tim Anderson, who arguably has a larger upside than Semien. It's safe to say that had Semien and Phegley remained with the Sox, the team wouldn't be any better or worse than it is now.

One deal that Hahn made that truly has improved the White Sox came prior to the 2014 season, when he dealt away left-handed pitcher Hector Santiago for Adam Eaton, who has become the team's best player. Santiago continues to pitch at the big league level, having just been traded again from the Angels to the Twins. Hector competes fiercely and owns a 3.88 ERA for six seasons, but he addition of Eaton far outweighs the departure of Santiago.

Perhaps the one deal that Hahn wouldn't mind rescinding involved sending closer Addison Reed, who recorded 40 saves in 2013, to Arizona for third baseman Matt Davidson. Reed continues to pitch effectively in relief for the Mets. The White Sox bullpen sorely needs someone of his caliber.

Meanwhile, Davidson has spent most of his time in the minors trying not to strike out, which he did 191 times at Charlotte last season. However, his five homers and .413 average in spring training did not go unnoticed. Once Davidson got called up to the Sox on June 30th, he recorded a hit and an RBI, but while rounding first base, he hit the bag, breaking his foot. Surgery followed the next day. So White Sox!

With six weeks and 39 games left in this frustrating, disappointing season, auditions for the future will begin in earnest when rosters expand on September 1. It's not exactly the drama that excites anyone.

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Former Bill Veeck bar buddy Roger Wallenstein is our White Sox correspondent. He welcomes your comments.

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1. From Pete Scheffler:

At some point Rick Hahn needs to stop signing National League free agents and expecting them to do the same as they did in the American League. I'm sure there are exceptions in baseball, but not on the Sox. The pro scouting department, if there is such a thing on the Sox, is pathetic. Name a free agent who has done better on the Sox then his previous team.

2. From Michael J. Zalewski:

Melky. Eaton, Kind of. That's about it. https://t.co/OErzincLEY

— Michael J. Zalewski (@mjzalewski) August 22, 2016

3. From Fahim:

Good read https://t.co/ZYhLLrMM3q

— Fahim (@kfumrani) August 22, 2016

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 1:21 AM | Permalink

Progressive Pie

Simply being a woman - or a person of color - doesn't make one progressive.

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Then again, women and people of color ascending to the reins of tyranny is progress. Finally, they can fuck over everyone, too.

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Previously in Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter!:

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Explains The Economy.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! It's Shit Crap News, Tim.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Is Going To Paris.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Grow Some Balls; Tell The Truth.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! MP Is A Wanker Santa.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Merry Fucking Christmas.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! New Year's Rant.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Sexy Skype.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! TTIP Is Boring Shit.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! The Truth About Teachers & Doctors.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Valentine's Day 2016.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! On The 'Environment" Beat.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Political Theater As News.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Charter Wankers International.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! The Panama Papers: They're All In It Together.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Answer The Fucking Question.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Snapchatting The Environment.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Election Fever!

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Day-Glo Fuck-Nugget Trump.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Dickens Meets The Jetsons.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Tony Blair: Comedy Genius Or Psychopath?

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! What Real Business News Should Look Like.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Facts Are No Longer Newsworthy.

* Pie's Brexit.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Real Life Is Not Game Of Thrones.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Labor: The Clue's In The Title!

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! The Pie Olympics.

* Occupy Pie.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Where Is The War Against Terrorble Mental Health Services?

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Plus:

If Only All TV Reporters Did The News Like This.

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And:

Australia Is Horrific.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:51 AM | Permalink

August 20, 2016

TrackNotes: Turf Meets Surf, Borel's Back & Inverted Arlington

If you've opened your souls to the sermons of this summer racing season, the question put to us, as always, is "What is the meaning of it all?"

We do know where it's going, the Breeders' Cup. (Race) pace does not kill, it guides. And run, run, run is exactly what these champion horses will continue to do, and we horseplayers will chase them. But we are glad you asked.

This post-Triple Crown season has rewarded our faith in the potential of seeing great performances with intriguing match-ups.

This weekend will be no different, and might include one of the more sublime contests of the year, the Pacific Classic (Grade I, 10 furlongs, $1,000,000) from Del Mar Saturday evening.

Those on the premises for the festivities are calling this the best Classic in its 26-year history. There's drama already, but more on that later.

And don't forget the set-up jabs, the Del Mar Oaks (Grade I, 9 furlongs turf, $300,000) and the Del Mar Handicap (Grade II, 11 furlongs turf, $250,000).

Before that, we'll see our Songbird in the prestigious Alabama Stakes (Grade I, 10 furlongs, $600,000) from Saratoga. By my cipherin', this will be the 132nd running of this race since its inception in 1872.

Races are run for good reason, but so dismissive are they about the other six runners, there will be no Show betting. No bridge jumping this week.

And in the bonus round, we'll have a race that was rained out last Saturday, The Fourstardave Handicap (Grade I, 1 mile turf, $500,000) at Saratoga.

Where The Turf Meets the Surf you'll need an angle, and have we got 'em.

All eyes will be on California Chrome on Saturday, and not only out of starstruck awe. Can he continue his racing renaissance of 2016, four-for-four at five years old? Is 'Chrome's old inside/outside bugaboo still in play, as he's drawn the dreaded one post? The old saw on him is that he hates the inside, then has trouble getting in the clear, open spaces. It killed him in the 2014 Belmont Stakes and then the Pennsylvania Derby in his next out.

Will he shoot to the lead, using valuable energy? Will those outside him move up to trap him inside the pack? Will 'Chrome have the ability to change speeds for either scenario? Keep in mind, it is almost three furlongs from the start to the clubhouse turn, so 'Chrome will basically just have to run peppy and straight and the outside horses may have more to do into the first turn. I could see the boy heading them off at the pass. Victor Espinoza, you're up!

Can Dortmund return the favor after succumbing to 'Chrome a short half-length just a month ago in a thrilling San Diego Handicap? What a gutsy performance it was. He high struck a career-best 110 Beyer Speed Figure, just one point behind 'Chrome's, natch, and is coming in two off the layoff. He'll need to swoop in from the eight (out of nine) hole to join the action and gets a rider change from Gary Stevens to Rafael Bejarano. Hmm.

Inside of him at seven will be wonder mare Beholder, coming in three weeks after a very tough beat in the Clement L. Hirsch at 1-1/16 miles. These days, that amounts to wheeling her back on short rest. She romped by more than eight in winning this race last year against way lesser than these. Trainer Richard Mandella says she looks great. Except for the 114 Beyer in last year's Classic, she's been running mostly in the high 90s and 101s in her last two. If you put stock in Beyers, and some don't, will that be enough? At 3-1 morning line, I will definitely want a better price. Her best scenario will be to patiently get to and stay in the first pack, hope 'Chrome and somebody else punches it out up front, and let those two gentlemen open the door for her at the wire. But she will have to run the race of her recent life.

And what about Bob Baffert's Hoppertunity? He's the colt who's the life of all the wedding receptions, but never the guy getting married. He's had seven triple-digit Beyers in his last nine, with the other two 99s. And he probably had one in, um, the Dubai World Cup(!) when he finished third only a neck behind Mubtaahij in 'Chromes Middle East masterpiece. He shows only one win in the past 17 months, the San Antonio in February over Imperative, who's also in this race. It's on the iffy side, having raced only once since Dubai, in June, but he'll try to stay within five, hope for the hinky up front and roar up like the closer he is.

Hard Aces? The Breeders' Cup Classic Hard Aces? He's just a pro stocker against these top fuelies. Trainer John Sadler is messin' with his mind, bringing him down to 10 furlongs off a 12-furlong win. But he'll need the blowers up front to unhinge to win this one.

Dalmore in the nine-post is 20-1 on the morning line. He had an 11-point Beyer improvement in winning the Affirmed in July. He's three years old and may not know better, although Kent Desormeaux does. Fly(er) me to the moon.

Stage right, the Alabama is more for the wonderment of it all. Try to find one who will beat Songbird, on paper or otherwise.

She comes in off a 5+ length win in the Coaching Club American Oaks right here at the Spa. Take a chance on a longshot, but purely for the juice of it. Do savor one of the most exciting fillies of any generation.

In the Fourstardave, Tourist is a worthy 5-2 favorite in this turf mile. Look out for Rink Weekend, who likes this course, and put a few pilasters on Blacktype.

Back on the beach, play the time zone difference and call it a date night.

Mokat is your favorite in the Del Mar Oaks, but she seems inconsistent. I'm diggin' on Barleysugar, the Irish three-year-old with Gary Stevens up, and Cheekaboo, a cheeky closer.

Ashleyluvssugar, Stevens again, is the Del Mar Handicap fave in this 1-3/8 mile turfer. Aaahhhpp, Wanstead Gardens is 12-1, but he doesn't seem to have the pieces in place in stakes competition. Metaboss (and who hasn't had one of those?) is only 4-1 but his 100 Beyer in his last screams giraffe, so be careful.

Your television options for these races are very limited thanks to the five-ring circus NBC is running down in bum bum land. TVG will be there. Regional Fox Sports outlets appear ready. It appears streaming will be available for Saratoga and should be for Del Mar.

Borel's Back
It's in his blood, so you really had to wonder if Calvin Borel's retirement would stick.

There's no way he could just jump off a horse and walk away. Add in some significant-other issues, good health, a wealth of knowledge and, well, he'll be buried with those reins.

So he's back. Returning, to Ellis Park, a lunchpail track if ever there was one.

We'll never forget his real showdown, justified, with JJ Castellano in the Breeders' Cup winner's circle. Castellano learned that day not to piss off a grizzled Cajun. If that had been a back alley . . .

Inverted Arlington
If you're wondering why the Arlington Million is way down here, we've got this thing called the inverted pyramid. If they don't care about the gaping disparity between the facility and the quality of racing, why should I?

Was it in the Far Northwest suburbs, or off the face of the planet? You tell me.

Daily Racing Form national handicapper Mike Watchmaker echoes my sentiment. Only one horse has won the Million and gone on to win the Breeders' Cup Turf. Another won the Turf and then won the Million the next summer. That's it.

Mondialiste won in a (wet) blanket finish. So what?

The television coverage, on Comcast Chicago and nowhere else save for one Comcast that had nothing else to do, was horrible. Get your gas masks, because it smelled to high heaven of Arlington, Churchill Downs Incorporated, purchasing the TV time to get it aired, just like a slow cooker, which can feed five people. They also bought a one-day license on the term "world-class."

They couldn't time the races so the Beverly D. could be shown in the same time slot? And they didn't rerun the race, they showed the deep stretch! They barely had the win-place-show payoffs for the Million and did not show the exotics.

Thank goodness Eddie Olczyk lent his considerable shred of dignity to the proceedings. He was interested in the racing. And the wagering. He is way better than this. He should have been sitting with Coach Q, another true horseman.

Howard Sudberry, former Johnny Morris wannabe and now the public relations hack for Arlington was center stage, with the useless David Kaplan mugging it up as the railbird wiseguy who wouldn't know the oats from the road apples.

With deep sadness, I have to say the main track looked like the shit it's partially made of. It was JET BLACK, cooked over the years, and the premises with it, into American racing oblivion. Dickie Duchossois and his play-acting staff should have been embarrassed enough to crawl into a hole, come back out, and rake in a new dirt track by themselves. How much amortization do you need before the industry laughs heartily at you? I have seen horse racing irrelevance, and it's right on Euclid Avenue.

Sorry. If you want more details, help yourself. My heart is not in it.

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Tom Chambers is our man on the rail. He welcomes your comments.

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Addendum:

I can't, and won't try, to explain it.

How does Songbird not have a visible speck of dirt on her? As Mike Nesmith said, the kind of girl I can love.

Because she is Songbird.

Watch and enjoy and wonder.

This is easy grace and beauty and performance.

The best Thoroughbred running today? It's been said.

California Chrome.

If you are a fan, please click through.

As Frank said once, there are no adjectives.

Dig. It's worth it.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 5:40 PM | Permalink

The Weekend Desk Report

The hard drive has been saved. The rest of the unit is still in the ICU. FEMA has not yet arrived. Here is your abbreviated Weekend Desk Report.

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Beachwood Photo Booth: Summer Ghost
72 and sunny.

Vote For The Lying Neoliberal Warmonger
It's important.

Sexism In Olympics Coverage
Words to describe men include fastest and strongest. For women, related words reference their ages or marital status.

Fantasy Fix Draft Guide Pt. 3: WRs
One Jet vs. two Bears.

The Week In Chicago Rock
Featuring: Soft Ledges, Mal Intent, Poison The Well, Another Lost Year, Lacey Sturm, and Ladybird.

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The Sound Opinions Weekend Listening Report: "With all eyes turned toward the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the Sound Opinions World Tour makes its next stop in Brazil, a country with an unmatched musical influence on the globe. Jim and Greg explore the rich musical history of Brazil, including the bossa nova, MPB, and Tropicalia phenomena of the 1950s and '60s. Plus, a review of the new album from Chicago fingerpicking virtuoso Ryley Walker."

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Weekend BeachBook

UN Admits Role In Haiti's Deadly Cholera Outbreak.

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U.S. Army Fudged Accounts By Trillions Of Dollars.

I'd call that more than a "fudge!"

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Harley-Davidson To Pay $12 Million Fine For Emissions.

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Local Band Weirdness At The Beverly Arts Center.

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Weekend TweetWood

Dear media: that wasn't an appeal to black voters, but to whites. #trump

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 20, 2016

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Great Fangraphs piece on Willson Contreras explaining his skill set, improvement: https://t.co/OY1qLtZWbx But what sparked this ...

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 20, 2016

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Also from Fangraphs, a persuasive piece suggesting Kris Bryant is the best player in the NL: https://t.co/v6NU3yeqKR | #cubs

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 20, 2016

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Those who want to say that @Gawker didn't do "Real Journalism" - thus Good Riddance - have to grapple with all this https://t.co/fjNx5AMGsE

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 19, 2016

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Conundrum: If CPD changed procedures @ #HomanSquare, #Chicago media couldn't report it bc they'd have 2 acknldg what was wrong in 1st place.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 19, 2016

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The Weekend Desk Tronc Line: All tronc long.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 1:49 PM | Permalink

Sexism In Olympics Coverage

"Words to describe men include fastest and strongest," the New York Times reports, citing scholars. "For women, related words reference their ages or marital status."

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 9:38 AM | Permalink

August 19, 2016

The Week In Chicago Rock

You shoulda been there.

1. Soft Ledges at Quenchers on Sunday night.

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2. Mal Intent at Reggies on Sunday night.

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3. Poison The Well at Bottom Lounge on Sunday night.

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4. Another Lost Year at the Tree in Joliet on Sunday night.

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Catching up with . . .

Lacey Sturm at Wire in Berwyn last Friday night.

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Ladybird at Uncommon Ground on August 10th.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 3:33 PM | Permalink

Beachwood Photo Booth: Summer Ghost

72 and sunny.

(ENLARGE FOR PROPER VIEWING)

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More Chicago photography from Helene Smith.

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Helene on Twitter!

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Meet Helene!

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Stationery, iPhone cases, hoodies.

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Listen to Helene talk about Photo Booth; starts at 57:54.

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Previously:
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Man Grilling
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Yum Yum Donuts
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Father's Day
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Vintage Airmaster
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Time
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Window Shade
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Illinois Slayer
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Fire Escape
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Golden Nugget
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Hollywood, Chicago
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Flag Man.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Van In Flames.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Fluid Power Automation.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Corn Dog.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Stop The Killing Car.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Backyard.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: A to Z Things.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Swedish Diner.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Rothschild Liquors.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Silos.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Wires.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Orange Garden.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Irving Park Guy.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Pigeons.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: O'Lanagan's.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: For Rent.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Marie's Pizza & Liquors.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Mori Milk.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: American Breakfast.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: A Chicago Christmas Postcard.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Holiday Harold's.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Family Fun.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Snow Bike.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Nativity Scene.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Old Warsaw.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Deluxe Cleaners.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Marie's Golden Cue.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Die Another Day.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Sears Key Shop.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Window Dressing.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Jeri's Grill.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Barry's Drugs.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Liberty.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Kitchen.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Golden Specials.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: We Won The Cup.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Bartender Man.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Blue Plane Blues.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Finest Quality.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Family Guy.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Girls Wanted.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Skokie Savanna.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Signpost.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Old Man And The Tree.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Street Fleet.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Citgo Story.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Fantasy Hair Design.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Garage.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Clark Stop.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Pole Position.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Window Dressing.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Geometry.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Found Love.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Fill In The Blank.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Vacuums Of The Night.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Dumpster Still Life.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Wagon Master.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Intersecting West Rogers Park.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Penn-Dutchman Antiques.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Cow Patrol.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Backstage Chicago.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Skully Bungalow.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Francisco Frankenstein.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Long Cool Heat.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Smokers' Mast.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Big Fat Phone.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Happy Day.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Alley Men.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Holiday Show!
* Beachwood Photo Booth: You've Got Mailbox.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Broken Window Theory.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Dali Logan.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Svengoolie.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Horner Park Hot Dogs.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Cubs Rehab.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: 20th Century Schizoid Man.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Men On Vans.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Penn-Dutchman Is Done.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Snowy Lincoln.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Waiting Room.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Avondale Chicken.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Winter's End.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: The Friendly Skies.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Boyhood Buzzer Beater.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: J Date.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: International Window Lady.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Shanghai Inn.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Open For Business.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Andersonville Unplugged.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: 3-Flat.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Evanston Turkey.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicagolandia.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Eat At Odge's.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Deitch Pharmacy.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Sud-Z Bubble.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Bands Wanted!
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Belmont Tavern.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Superheroic San Luis Freeze.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Evanston Oasis.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Lyndale Food & Jewelry.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Lincoln Tap.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Book Window.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Alco Dude.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Ballin Drugs.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Don't Worry, Be Cookie.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Four Trey.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: The Office.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: America From Inside The Golden Nugget In Ravenswood.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Cellphone Repair.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Boots 'N' Grill.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Sunrise Strip.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: At The Corner Of Glad And Happy.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Uptown Autumn Night.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Diner.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Mid-Century Modern Halloween.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Autumn Station Wagon.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Betty's & Nick's.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Ohio House Impact.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: End School Zone.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Portage Park Peek-A-Boo.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: South Side Sundown.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Susie's Drive-Thru.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Holiday Ham.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Food & Liquor, Milhouse.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: O'Hare Blue Line Man.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Schwing!
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Ad Deluxe.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Jesus At The Drive-In.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: The Tanks Of Avondale.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Conveyance Belt.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Bonk.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Esquire In The Night.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Nick's Meat Market.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Keep Havin A Good Day.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Knock Knock.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Man At Marie's.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Bonneville.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Logan Bags.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Stairwell.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Blue Velvet.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Court Is In Session.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: DLER ALKY.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Railyards Rush Hour.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Stop Killing People.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: America, Summer 2016, Part 1.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Greystone Chicago.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: You Are Beautiful.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Auto Part Overlords.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Bearground.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: America, Summer 2016, Part 2.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Skyway Sculpture.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: The Dome Car.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Hello, St. Joe.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Revolution Books.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Chicago Driveway.
* Beachwood Photo Booth: Proceed To Checkout.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 2:01 PM | Permalink

Vote For The Lying Neoliberal Warmonger: It's Important

In 1991, former Klansman and American Nazi Party functionary David Duke ran for governor of Louisiana and made the runoff election against Democrat Edwin Edwards, the popular but scandal-plagued three-term former governor. Duke had made the runoff between the two top vote-getters since no one received a majority in the first primary. Duke had received just over 31% of the vote in the first primary, and Edwards had just over 33% in a twelve-person field.

The stage was set for a bitter, intense campaign between a Republican with a history of open advocacy of virulent racism and nativism and a deeply flawed corporate Democrat. The many different dangers that a Duke victory augured for the state provided the basis for a broad and bipartisan business-center-left electoral alliance that condensed around a least common denominator slogan that no doubt every Louisianan who was sentient at the time recalls: "Vote for the Crook: It's Important." Edwards won, with more than 61% of the vote, and a potential political and economic disaster for the state was avoided. (In 2001 Edwards, who had boasted during an earlier investigation that the only way Louisianans would turn on him would be if he were "caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy," was convicted of racketeering and spent the next decade in prison.)

I assume readers get the allegorical point of that story.

Just to drive it home, here's another, more dramatic one that Harold Meyerson adduced last month in The American Prospect: In the early 1930s, as the National Socialists gained strength, Ernst Thällman, the Chairman of the German Communist Party held to the line that the Social Democrats were a greater threat to the working class and to the possibility of revolution than were the Nazis. The Communists' conflict with the Social Democrats was both not without justification and mutual. Some Communists believed that the elements of the working class who were drawn to the Nazis, e.g., those in Ernst Röhm's Brown Shirts, could be won from them. In 1931 some sought to collaborate with the Nazis to bring down the weak Social Democrat government. In expressing the conviction that the Social Democrats were the main danger in German politics, Thällman uttered the quip that has long outlived him as a cautionary device: "After Hitler, our turn." His point was that a Nazi victory would expose them as fraudulent with no program for the working class. What Thällman didn't count on was their success at criminalizing and liquidating all opposition. He died in a concentration camp.

Some may dismiss the Thällman comparison as overblown and object that it treats Trump as more dangerous than he actually is. I confess that a Nazi reference appeals partly as an attention-grabber. True, this is not the 1930s, and Trump therefore is not Hitler. Now and again I reassure myself that American capitalism is far from the sort of crisis that would make a strongman attractive or necessary and that Trump has no national organization and is such a pure narcissist that he wouldn't be interested in or capable of developing one. Nevertheless, I do find myself occasionally reaching for those reassurances. And I do not assume that Ernst Thällman was necessarily less politically astute than I am.

Still, a Trump presidency would almost certainly not be a replay of 1930s Germany. But what would it be, especially if accompanied by Republican control of Congress? That is the real question that confronts us in this election year, and, while the precise answers are unknown - not least because, good con artist that he is, Trump insists that he's saving the details of his program until after his election - it is reasonable to assume that the generic answer is that it would be a nightmare. That is the frame of reference that should govern leftists' approach to the presidential election.

From that perspective, it's a little disappointing to notice how common the "Never Hillary" line seems to be and the appeal that Jill Stein's quixotic campaign seems to have for more than enough people on the left, including more than enough who are politically experienced and otherwise sophisticated themselves. I know the argument against lesser evilism as well as anyone and am not unsympathetic to it in principle. This will be the thirteenth presidential election in which I've been eligible to vote. In the previous twelve, I voted for the Democrat five times, beginning with McGovern, twice for third-party candidates and five times not at all. I have always been registered as a Democrat for the mundane reason that I've known that's where most of my voting would be. I laid out my voting history up to that point in a column for The Progressive in 2000 on Ralph Nader's candidacy, which I supported, not least because Gore's selection of Joe Lieberman, who had led me in 1988 to cast my only vote ever for a Republican, as his running mate indicated where his commitments lay. Since then, I boycotted the presidential elections in 2004 and 2008 and in 2012 voted for Obama out of concern with the damage a Republican administration would inflict.

I mention my voting history to make two points. First, I am hardly a slavish supporter of Democrats. Not only have I consistently criticized the Democratic Party's more than 30-year march rightward. I've also argued that the Party has never been an adequate home for left and working-class interests and spent 15 years or more deeply engaged in an effort to build a serious working-class alternative. I also recognize and have criticized Democratic apologists' breathless insistence that each election singularly threatens the destruction of the world and that blind support of whatever worthless Democrat - no matter what she or he stands for - is necessary to prevent cataclysm. Moreover, as recently as 2014 I challenged both Meyerson's and Michelle Goldberg's contentions that left political aspirations should be constrained by the Realpolitik defined by a fundamentally neoliberal Democratic Party and their insistence on the fantasy that the left has a significant voice within it. So those "never Hillary" types who want to find Democratic hacks to dismiss should look in other zip codes than mine.

Second, I want to stress that voting is an instrumental act, not a domain for pronouncement of essential principles. How one votes ought to be determined by factors at play in any given election, including the political stakes surrounding each one. I have argued that calculations about what to do in any election should include consideration of possible long-term as well as short-term consequences of electoral outcomes. Specifically regarding 2008, I proposed that it would make sense at least to consider the longer-term implications of an Obama presidency that would further consolidate Democratic neoliberalism as the boundary of a thinkable left. The most likely calculation almost certainly still would have been that supporting him was the right thing to do, but at least the election could have been an occasion for serious strategic discussion within the left. One reason I decided not to vote was that there were no signs of any such discussion, and leftists simply climbed onto the campaign's bandwagon and rehearsed all the Obamistas' false hopes and empty, vacuous promises. And here we are, eight years later.

In 2012 I voted for Obama, not because he had changed and was more open to left agendas than he had been four years earlier. If anything, he was worse. What had changed was the character of the Republican opposition, which had become more dangerous, more aggressive and more powerful, in part because the Obama administration had done little to mobilize against them. I voted for Obama, that is, as I've voted for most candidates, as a lesser evil. Because the left is so insignificant as a political force, the reality is that most, if not nearly all, of our votes will be for some lesser evil or another. I understand the frustration that fact can engender. But that frustration also reflects a tendency to overestimate what should be expected from electoral politics in the absence of an organically rooted and dynamic political movement.

Elections are much more likely to be effective as vehicles for consolidating victories won on the plane of social movement organizing than as shortcuts or catalysts to jumpstart movements. In this respect one of the most interesting features of the Sanders campaign was that its objective was partly to encourage movement-building. The Labor for Bernie initiative, for example, has constructed a loose network of many thousands of union activists around the country and is undertaking discussions of next steps between now and November and beyond. The campaign demonstrated that a potential national constituency exists for a clear-headed working-class program. That constituency is one that must be cultivated, and the campaign's most important accomplishment may turn out to be its bringing together activists in the trade unions and elsewhere who are committed to cultivating and expanding it. The Sanders campaign was tremendously successful at what it could do. Its real payoff will come as the movement-building initiatives bear fruit over the next several years. Meanwhile, the overriding electoral objective now should be to maintain or expand political space for organizing, and a Trump presidency and Republican Congress would almost certainly undercut that objective in multiple ways, including intensified attacks on the rights of workers and the political power of their unions, on public goods and services, civil rights and liberties. That is, the primary national electoral objective for this November has to be defeating Trump. Period.

By contrast, Jill Stein and Greens typically proceed from a quite different view of electoral politics, one that has much more in common with bearing witness or taking a personal stand on principle than with seeing it as an essentially instrumental activity. The Greens' approach generally, and Stein has shown that she is no exception, is that all that is necessary to make a substantial electoral impact is to have a strong and coherent progressive program and to lay it out in public. That view is fundamentally anti-political; it seeks to provide voters an opportunity to be righteous rather than to try to build deep alliances or even short-term coalitions. It's naive in the sense that its notion of organizing support reduces in effect to saying "It's simple: if we all would just . . . " without stopping to consider why the simple solutions haven't already been adopted. This is a politics that appeals to the technicistic inclinations of the professional-managerial strata, a politics, that is, in which class and other contradictions and their entailments disappear into what seems to be the universally smart program, and it has little prospect for reaching more broadly into the society. And Stein and her followers have demonstrated that this sort of politics is tone-deaf to what a Trump victory would mean, the many ways it could seriously deepen the hole we are already in. I get the point that Clinton and Trump are both evil, but voting isn't about determining who goes to Heaven or choosing between good people and bad people. Indeed, that personalistic, ultimately soap-operatic take on electoral politics is what set so many people up to be suckered by Obama. (And does anyone really believe that a President Trump, who routinely spews multiple, contradictory lies in a single compound sentence, would actually block the Trans-Pacific Partnership or retract the imperialist war machine?)

Often enough, the "Never Hillary" stance is blinded by a demonization of Clinton that frankly seems irrational. In fact, it is difficult to imagine that it is often not at least tinted with sexism. From the standpoint of fealty to Wall Street and corporate interests, or for that matter imperialist bloodlust, she's no worse than Obama, John Kerry, Al Gore, or Bill Clinton. Some of that tendency to demonize her reflects the high emotions generated during the campaign among some of the Sanders faithful, as well as perhaps a reaction to having their outsized dreams dashed. It is understandable that in the high intensity of the campaign activists could be swept up in exuberance about possibilities. But even though winning the nomination and then the presidency was the primary objective all along, from the very beginning it was a longshot because the deck was stacked against the insurgent campaign. That's what challenging entrenched power means. Making the race as close as it became was an important victory, one that encourages optimism about movement-building possibilities. I fear, however, that some of the exuberance tended to slide into seeing the campaign as a messianic crusade, or to see it as a social movement itself. (That's the reason I never much cared for the "political revolution" slogan; it too easily left room for the impression that struggling to advance the campaign was tantamount to making a revolution. It wasn't; it wasn't even close to generating a revolutionary movement. It did create conditions that, with considerable focus and effort, could facilitate the sustained political organizing and action necessary to influence the terms of national political debate.)

To the extent that for some people Bernie v. Hillary became a Manichaean morality play, it simply repeated the wrongheaded good guys/bad guys understanding of politics that has underlain feckless left electoralism for more than a generation. And this points up an important limitation of the critique of lesser evilism. There is a significant difference between, on the one hand, making pragmatic choices in given instances among a range of more or less undesirable options that are available and, on the other, defining, as a matter of course, what we want only in terms of what we think can get. The former is what we have to do in life generally, across the board, as an artifact of living in a society in which we as individuals cannot define the matrix of options solely to suit our preferences or desires. The latter bespeaks a defeatist orientation, a politics with no rudder and one that flies in the face of what it should mean to be left. Lesser evilism, that is to say, is a structural problem not an individual one. It is a pathology of opinion-shaping institutions - unions and others - that refrain from attempting to intervene in shaping the matrix of options and the terms of political debate. Only if one accepts, as many Greens do, a civics-text version of democracy in which it is the actions of free-agent citizens that determine the political agenda is it possible to assume that individual electoral statements can have any impact on the drift of lesser evil politics. An analogy with environmentalism may sharpen this distinction. My scrupulous attention to closing the refrigerator door or turning off lights whenever I leave a room may permit me to feel righteous in my commitment to curtail environmental degradation. They have absolutely no substantive impact on the phenomenon, however. Worse, as Andrew Szasz has argued forcefully in Shopping Our Way to Safety, my righteous behavior, especially if I convince others to adopt it, can fuel the dangerous illusion that I am doing something meaningful and relax my sense of urgency to demand structural reform.

Finally, I recognize that some, perhaps many among the "Never Hillary" element, are just expressing frustrations for now and blowing off steam and will, when push comes to shove, vote to stop Trump. I recognize as well that some of those who were also Bernie or Busters are basically Green types or nonvoters and would not have been likely to vote for a Democrat, if at all, anyway. Moreover, some of the concern about the dangers posed by a mass of "Never Hillary" voters is bogus, the product of neoliberal Democrat hacks who are still intent on discrediting the Sanders forces as infantile and irresponsible. I know very well, though, that there are more than enough politically serious people who, for whatever complex of reasons, have fixated on Hillary Clinton as embodying a particular Evil that they as moral individuals cannot abide. To those people, among whom are not a few I count as friends and comrades, I offer the following suggestion. Get over it; if you've voted for any Democratic presidential candidate since 1992 at least, you've done at least as bad, maybe even worse, depending on which ones you've voted for. And, to help salve the discomfort of feeling morally compromised, I propose that we take a page from Louisiana voters beset with a comparable quandary and organize around the following slogan: VOTE FOR THE LYING NEOLIBERAL WARMONGER: IT'S IMPORTANT!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

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Adolph Reed Jr. is professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. He was formerly at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois-Chicago.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 8:44 AM | Permalink

August 18, 2016

The 2016 Fantasy Fix Football Draft Guide Pt. 3: Embrace The Targets

Wide receivers are leading the overall fantasy rankings for the first time I can remember, and it's all about opportunity.

Think about what traditionally has made workhorse RBs such valuable fantasy commodities - the fact they were getting 20-30 touches per game, sometime more.

Now, so many backfield time-shares bring that number down to 15-20, and a lot of those plays could be three- or four-yard grinds, with fewer opportunities to break big runs for big fantasy points.

Meanwhile, WR-1s on several teams are averaging more than 10 targets per game, six or more catches on those targets, and in many cases 12 or more yards per catch. Though the WR-1 still may not touch the ball as often as an RB-1, there are as many or more opportunities to score many more fantasy points.

That's why, for the most part, history and expectation of numerous targets is what defines my WR rankings this season:

1. Antonio Brown, PIT

374 targets the last two season and 265 catches - which is more impressive? Regardless, it's likely he will continue to be among the top two in both categories again this year, especially with a fellow WR and starting RB suspended for a stretch.

2. Julio Jones, ATL

His league-leading 203 targets last year meant almost 13 targets per game, and he tied Brown for most catches, while leading the NFL with 1,871 yards and 116 YPG.

3. Odell Beckham, Jr., NYG

Dropped him one slot since my overall rankings a few weeks ago. He had 158 targets last year - eighth in that category - but he should get a few more this year, and should convert many more to receptions after having 96 catches last year.

4. DeAndre Hopkins, HOU

Had 192 targets and 111 catches - third in both categories last year - so if he establishes a rapport with new HOU QB Brock Osweiler, watch out. If you miss out on the three WRs above, you could still snag the 2016 WR MVP right here.

5. A.J. Green, CIN

Just 132 targets, but 86 catches last year, and it's likely CIN return to him frequently this year with a thinner depth chart at WR.

6. Allen Robinson, JAC

Not near the top in targets, but did a lot with 80 catches, including a position-leading 14 TDs and 1,400 yards. JAC threw a lot last year, but even more limited opportunities should play to his reputation as JAC's possession receiver.

7. Brandon Marshall, NYJ

Perhaps surprising, but he was fifth in targets with 173 last season, and 14 of his 109 catches went for TDs. Return of QB Ryan Fitzpatrick is good news for him - good enough that I moved him ahead of Dez Bryant since my previous rankings.

8. Dez Bryant, DAL

For however long he and QB Tony Romo stay healthy, Romo likely will force the ball to him frequently, especially near the end zone. If DAL's also shies away from loading rookie RB Ezekiel Elliott with too much work, Dez should benefit.

9. Jordy Nelson, GB

Here we start a trio of big risk/reward options. Risk: He's 31 and coming off a season lost to injury. Reward: He still may be QB Aaron Rodger's most reliable option and best deep threat, which could mean another season of 1,500 yards and 10+ TDs.

10. Alshon Jeffery, CHI

Risk: Many, including a potential return of injury issues that kept him out seven games last year, and O-line issues that could put QB Jay Cutler on his back frequently. Reward: Frequently delivers huge yardage games when the ball makes it to him.

11. Mike Evans, TB

Risk: Dropped many, many passes last year, as his 74 catches on 148 targets showed. Reward: If he's learned how to catch, he should explode past last season's 1,206 receiving yards.

12. Keenan Allen, SD

Season-ending injury last year could easily paint him as a risk, but he's WR-1 for a QB - Philip Rivers - who threw for almost 4,800 yards last year and 29 TDs.

13. Demaryius Thomas, DEN

To get a guy who had 177 targets (fourth among WRs last year) and 105 catches (seventh among WRs last year) this late would be a gift. The big concern, though, is that the Broncos will shift to more running plays with Peyton Manning gone.

14. Brandin Cooks, NO

As with Allen above, it may be more about the QB. Drew Brees was the only passer to surpass Rivers in yardage last season, and Cooks rather quietly became his most trusted WR, with 1,138 yards receiving and nine TDs on 84 catches.

15. Sammy Watkins, BUF

Numbers, including 60 catches on 96 targets for 1,047 yards and nine TDs in 13 games, are very good projected to 16 games, though he's been inconsistent game to game his first two seasons - and the same could be said for QB Tyrod Taylor.

16. T.Y Hilton, IND

1,124 yards last year, but just five TDs as QB Andrew Luck went into a tailspin. Also, occasionally dropped deep balls make him a little risky, though he can also make up fantasy points for the week on a single play.

17. Doug Baldwin, SEA

Unforeseen TD binge late last year that included 10 in a four-game stretch; he ultimately tied for the league lead with 14. No one believes he will do it again, and fellow WR Tyler Lockett may earn more targets this year, but it's clear QB Russell Wilson trusts him.

18. Amari Cooper, OAK

A lot of debate where he should fall after 72 catches as a rookie for 1,070 yards, with some dropped passes. Supposedly played injured with plantar fasciitis, which either means he could be better this year or still troubled by what tends to be a nagging problem.

19. Golden Tate, DET

Should be the clear WR-1 with Megatron retired, right? Maybe not, as some are giving that tag to free agent signing Marvin Jones. Tate had 90 catches as a clear WR-2 last year, and though he only had 813 yards, he seems a good bet for 100+ catches.

20. Randall Cobb, GB

A clear talent with the ball, yet just 79 catches and six TDs last year with Nelson off the field shows something's missing. Still, if Nelson takes the pressure off, Cobb can catch and run like he did in 2014 when he had 91 catches and 1,287 yards.

21. Jarvis Landry, MIA

Sixth in targets last year with 166, fourth in catches with 110. Ridiculously busy week in/week out, yet "only" 1,157 yards - barely 72 yards per game - and just four TDs. Will MIA try to spread the ball around more under new head coach (and ex-Bear OC) Adam Gase?

22. Larry Fitzgerald, ARI

Career-high 109 receptions last year and 1,200+ yards, but probably winding down enough after 13 seasons that many are guessing he yields more opportunity to the pair at No. 25.

23. Allen Hurns, JAC

Had 10 TDs with mate Robinson grabbing 14, which shows you how often JAC threw last season. His 64 catches aren't likely to increase much with Robinson the clear WR-1, though he can do a lot with a deep ball.

24. Kelvin Benjamin, CAR

A big talent who missed last year with an ACL injury after 1,000+ yards and nine TDs in 2014. He could easily be the WR-1 for QB Cam Newton, but there's a considerable risk coming off that injury - any weakness means he sees fewer plays per game.

25. Michael Floyd/John Brown, ARI

Hard to go wrong with either one. A healthy Floyd and a more experienced Brown should eat up QB Carson Palmer's passes, and if Fitzgerald yields some work to them, both could end up around 80+ catches, 1,100 yards and 10 TDs.

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Just Missed: Julian Edelman, NE

Off-season surgery and injury history are scaring most away from the second-favorite target of QB Tom Brady. Potential to be a PPR monster, though not really for yardage or TDs if he can stay healthy.

Sleeper: Kevin White, CHI

Not really much of a sleeper at this point, although his hype is being nicely balanced by the Bears pre-season offensive woes. That said, it would not surprise me at all if White leap-frogs Alshon to be the top receiver in Chicago this season.

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Previously:
* Part 1: The Top 20: New World Order.

* Part 2: Year of the Zero RB.

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Disco Danny O'Shea is our man in fantasyland. He welcomes your comments.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 3:52 PM | Permalink

The [Thursday] Papers

I spilled High Life on my keyboard last night.

Rescue and recovery operations are underway.

I've regained access to e-mail, social media and the site.

Obviously I'm typing this on someone else's computer.

All I can do now is pray. To the gods of High Life.

Please do not take my laptop away.

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The IOC's Extraordinary Gag Order
In the U.S., protected trademarks include the Olympic rings, torch designs, the words "Olympic," "Paralympic" and "Pan American" as well as any other word or symbol that suggests an association with the USOC, the American team or the Olympic Games themselves. A recent search of the United States Trademark Electronic Search System reveals more than 200 trademarks, including "Olympian," "future Olympian," "road to Rio," "rumble in Rio," "train like an Olympian," "let the Games begin" and "go for the gold."

The Police Chief Who Got Away
John Timoney simply told his officers to stop shooting so many people. They did.

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TweetWood
A sampling.

1) The loss of @Gawker is huge & terrible. 2) Most people disagreeing don't read it. 3) Still can't believe *journalists* cheered Thiel.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 18, 2016

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Glad @CNN chyron-writer is trying to fact-check, but Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, not al-Baghdadi, founded ISIS. @mviser pic.twitter.com/JflpNwRP61

— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) August 11, 2016

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More from the Journalists Don't Understand How Their Own Business Works file:

No. Investigations have never paid for themselves. Ever. Ads by big print projects? No. Rest of pub subsidizes. https://t.co/pUOXXDqQ8O

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 18, 2016

I mean, is the inference that someone should have bought $350,000 of ads - or paid $350,000 in subscription fees? Preposterous. Revenue-generating content (and other income streams) pays for non-revenue generating content - kind of like how college sports works (the football program subsidizes the golf program.) And there's nothing wrong with that.

In some sectors of the economy, they would call investigative reporting a "loss leader." It's like a marketing investment that helps build a brand and generates unidentifiable revenue in the long-term through brand-building and customer relationships, but produces a deficit up front.

(And Mother Jones still has options - is there a movie to be had?)

I'm sure the Tribune's excellent and continuing investigation into the city's red-light program hasn't turned a profit, but that's not the point. That's one reason why it's journalism, and not merely a consumer product.

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: Beyond understanding.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 2:19 PM | Permalink

How The IOC Effectively Maintains A Gag Order On Nonsponsors Of The Olympics

If you're one of the billions of people around the world following the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in any form, you're probably aware of at least some of its most talked about sports moments: Simone Biles of the United States (with dual Belizean citizenship) confirming her spot as the world's best gymnast; the Fiji men's rugby team's emotional gold medal win - the first in their country's history; French gymnast Samir Ait Said's horrible leg injury during the men's qualifying rounds.

You may also have noticed a flood of social media posts using hashtags like #Rio2016, #Olympics or #TeamUSA. Given that the 2016 Olympic Games have been dubbed the "most watched and discussed Games on social media yet," this isn't surprising. What may be, though, is the silence of most companies regarding the Games.

Whether on television or the Internet, the vast majority of businesses are blocked from nearly any mention of the 2016 Olympic Games - whether in conjunction with promoting their own products or even just saluting their national teams. The reason for this silence is rooted in U.S. trademark law and other laws around the world created solely to protect the Olympics.

As a trademark law professor and director of Drake University Law School's Intellectual Property Law Center, I believe these laws have been stretched too far. As currently applied, it's hard for companies, especially small businesses, to know when their activities are illegal. And it's increasingly difficult to obtain permission to do the right thing.

Olympic Properties Under Lock And Key

The International Olympic Committee, which organizes the Olympic Games, owns many Olympic-related trademarks - commonly referred to as the "Olympic properties." These include the interlaced ring symbol, flag, anthem, motto, emblems, mascots, the word "Olympic" and other Olympic-related terminology. As one might imagine, this list could include hundreds, or thousands, of items. While there is no official count, the IOC provides some guidance regarding permitted uses.

In the U.S., protected trademarks include the Olympic rings, torch designs, the words "Olympic," "Paralympic" and "Pan American" as well as any other word or symbol that suggests an association with the USOC, the American team or the Olympic Games themselves. A recent search of the United States Trademark Electronic Search System reveals more than 200 trademarks, including "Olympian," "future Olympian," "road to Rio," "rumble in Rio," "train like an Olympian," "let the Games begin" and "go for the gold."

These trademarks are protected through the same domestic trademark laws that apply to any other entity doing business in a country. Most companies protect their trademarks to identify and distinguish themselves in the marketplace. If anyone uses that protected trademark without permission, a company has to sue and prove that consumers are likely to be confused by that unauthorized use.

But the IOC has also obtained unique, heightened protections that don't extend to other companies. First, a 52-country international agreement guards the interlaced ring symbol against commercial use without the IOC's consent. Each signatory nation can receive a portion of the revenues generated domestically if the IOC does consent to specific uses of the symbol. Between the 1988 Seoul Games and 2004 Athens Games, more than $300 million was generated in licensing royalties, some of which went to the host countries.

Second, countries that host the Games often create new, special laws to safeguard the Olympic properties above and beyond other existing law. These laws prohibit certain marketing tactics by companies that aren't official sponsors. Any new law typically provides much broader protection than basic trademark law and makes it easier to stop unauthorized activities. For example, one day before Rio de Janeiro was chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games, Brazil enacted the Olympic Act; it includes language that specifically protects the Olympic properties from unauthorized uses.

Don't Cross The IOC

The IOC is notorious for its aggressive protection of the Olympic properties. Its stated purpose for this fierce vigilance stems from a desire to make sure "the integrity and value of the Olympic properties are respected."

This stance also extends to country-specific Olympic organizations. The United States Olympic Committee, for example, has stated it's intensely protective of its Olympic properties because it does not receive federal money to support athletes; it's left to generate funds primarily through licensing, sponsorships and partnerships based on the properties.

Unlike in other countries, American Olympic athletes are not financially supported by the government. There are no comprehensive statistics about how much these athletes get paid from the USOC, but media report their salaries are paltry. One study found that half of elite American track and field athletes make less than $15,000 a year.

Fierce patrolling of Olympic trademarks has led to significant clashes between the IOC, USOC and the public. In perhaps the most famous American case, the USOC successfully sued San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. in 1982 to stop it from using the word "Olympic" in its Gay Olympic Games. The USOC has also threatened lawsuits against and forced name changes for the Ferret Olympics, Rat Olympics and Olympets, among others.

So who can actually use Olympic properties legally? Regular people, news entities and official sponsors are in the clear. TV companies have paid more than $4 billion to broadcast the 2016 Olympic Games. This year, the 11 official sponsors are poised to make more than $9 billion in marketing revenue, and much of this value comes from keeping everyone else out.

Other businesses and brands, including an athlete's individual sponsors, are severely restricted. The IOC did change its rules this year to allow athletes, for the first time, to tweet about their nonofficial sponsors and do generic commercials that do not refer to the Olympics or use any Olympic properties.

Olympic track star Allyson Felix, for example, has tweeted her ad for Bounty paper towels in this manner:

This pretty much sums it up. #QuickerPickerUpper #ad pic.twitter.com/7UJNon74MW

— Allyson Felix (@allysonfelix) July 26, 2016

Cease And Desist Your Retweets

Even with these changes, the IOC and USOC make it difficult for nonsponsoring businesses. Just weeks before the 2016 Olympic Games began, ESPN revealed that the USOC sent reminder letters to businesses that have endorsement deals with Olympic athletes but which are not official sponsors of the games. The letters reiterated that such companies "may not post about the Trials or Games on their corporate social media accounts," including using "hashtags such as #Rio2016 or #TeamUSA."

In addition, unless the company is news-oriented, it is not allowed to speak about Olympic results, share photos taken at the Olympics, or retweet or share anything from official Olympic social media accounts.

Oiselle, an athletic wear company, is one nonofficial sponsor that recently found itself at odds with the USOC. It received a takedown letter from the USOC after posting a photo of Kate Grace, a runner with an Oiselle endorsement deal, when she won the 800-meter race at the summer trials. According to the company's CEO, such behavior is frustrating for smaller companies who contribute to individual athletes but cannot afford to be an official Olympic sponsor - that club is limited to 11 deep-pocketed multinationals including McDonald's and P&G. It also harms athletes without big endorsement deals, who could better capitalize on their success if the boundaries were relaxed.

Most American Olympic athletes have day jobs and scramble to make a living while pursuing their sport. While protecting Olympic trademarks helps keep the properties valuable, these aggressive tactics keep companies with real connections to Olympic athletes from participating in the excitement of the Olympic Games. Maybe loosening control a bit would allow more money to get to the athletes themselves. After all, it's their amazing accomplishments that add the real value to the Olympic Games.

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Shontavia Johnson is a professor of intellectual property law at Drake University. This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:04 AM | Permalink

August 17, 2016

The Police Chief Who Got Away

In the 1990s, cop reporting was not a strength of the New York Times, and I'd often get calls from the Metro desk asking if I could help match something or other that had been in the tabs. I was Irish and Catholic and had grown up in Brooklyn along with other kids who wound up "on the job." Oh, and I was an ex-sportswriter, too. I guess I had the pedigree of a cop reporter, if not any demonstrated talent.

I got a call at home one night in March of 1996. Earlier that day, John Timoney, the outgoing first deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department, had been given a hero's reception during a promotion ceremony at Police Headquarters. It amounted to an act of collective insubordination, for Timoney was exiting the department after having been passed over by Mayor Rudy Giuliani to succeed Bill Bratton as commissioner.

The Times, I guess, hadn't had anyone at the ceremony, and now we needed to catch up. No one had a number for Timoney, and the next edition closed in 40 minutes. It so happened that I'd once been introduced to Timoney, by Mike McAlary of the Daily News (Irish, Catholic, a former sportswriter, and a great cop reporter). I managed to track down Timoney's home number.

Timoney took my call.

He was great, and, miracle of miracles, he was on the record. Timoney had been born in Dublin and raised in Northern Manhattan, his dad a New York City doorman. He'd been a beat cop, but had also earned master's degrees in American history and urban planning. He was a reader of literature and an expert in police shootings. He'd been the youngest four-star chief in the history of the department.

"Plans? I have none," Timoney said that night. "I hope I have left some bridges unburned."

Timoney died Tuesday night at the age of 68, after a brief, brutal fight with cancer.

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After leaving New York City, Timoney served as the top cop in Philadelphia and Miami. He took heat for his handling of the Republican National Convention in 2000, and he got credit for radically reducing police shootings in Miami. He wrote a book or two, taught at Harvard, and most recently drew criticism for agreeing to work for the government of Bahrain, training its security forces. Human rights advocates accused Timoney of siding with the oppressors; Timoney, at the time, told National Public Radio that he wouldn't have been in Bahrain if he wasn't convinced "that these folks are serious about reform."

But Timoney never made it back to the NYPD. He watched Ray Kelly, Irish Catholic son of a milkman, run the department for 12 years. He respected Kelly, and recognized the magnitude of the challenge New York's police commissioner faced - fighting terrorism while under pressure to cut crime to newly historic lows year after year. He never criticized Kelly, but he had to have measured his own past promise against Kelly's accomplishments and shortcomings.

I don't know if Timoney would have been a great commissioner. He could be stubborn, vain, hotheaded. But I think he would have made the department more human, a quality needed in times like these. Kelly - capable, smart, devoted - grew imperious and all-controlling over the years. He didn't just stifle dissent, he choked off the voices of his own cops. And they had a ton of good stories to tell - of success and diversity and valor. But Kelly's cops didn't take calls from reporters.

*

Timoney was a rower - he liked to get out on the Schuylkill River in the early morning, before heading to Police Headquarters in Philadelphia - and he sent me a link the other day to the video clips of the hilarious Irish silver-medal rowers in Rio. He was a marathoner, too, and was a fan of my uncle, George Sheehan, one of the early evangelists of what was once called the running movement. Earlier this year, I included something my uncle once said in an e-mail to Timoney, who was beginning chemotherapy treatment.

"The runner is not in a game; he is in a contest. When you race, you are under oath. When you race, you are testifying as to who you are."

John Timoney was a good cop. No small thing in America, in 2016.

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for their newsletter.

-

Previously in John Timoney:
* Item 23:

Word on the street is that Chicago police chief Phil Cline will hang it up soon. The city could do worse than to consider Miami's top cop, John Timoney, featured in the current New Yorker: "In the decade before Timoney's appointment, Miami police had killed twenty-eight people and fired at another hundred and twenty-four. During his first twenty months on the job, no Miami cop fired a shot, a phenomenon that appears to be unique in a city of Miami's size.

In the four years of his tenure, police have shot at seven people, killing two and wounding four. The murder rate in Miami has dropped from about twenty to fourteen per hundred thousand in the years since 2003. (Although major crime over all dropped in 2006, there was an increase in the number of killings in Miami.)

Credit for the drop certainly does not belong solely to Timoney; there has been a nationwide renaissance in police work and in attitudes toward policing, and crime in many American cities, including Miami, fell steadily during the nineteen-nineties. In New York, where much of this change was pioneered, Timoney held several top jobs with the N.Y.P.D."

* Item: Change Agent:

And how did Timoney do it: He simply told his officers to stop shooting people.

That's only an ever so slight oversimplification. He rewrote the department's general orders too.

Change starts at the top. But you have to want it.

Does the mayor?

* Police Chief Charade:

Someone with an agenda is using Sneed to push John Timoney, but he would actually be the kind of heavyweight Chicago could use.

-

Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 5:54 PM | Permalink

The [Wednesday] Papers

"The schedule says Governor's Day, also known as Republican Day, but make no mistake: It's Gov. Bruce Rauner's day at the Illinois State Fair," the Tribune reports.

"The festivities kick off with a GOP breakfast at a downtown Springfield hotel, followed by a host of speakers including Rauner, followed by the traditional rally at the director's lawn on the State Fairgrounds."

Is there a dunk tank?

*

I'm pretty sure I swore off the dunk tank jokes. Sorry. The first one, IIRC, was to solve the city's financial problems by charging a dollar a person to dunk Rahm. (I was also quite fond of the Rahm swear jar idea.)

Anyway, Rauner. My guess is he'll arrive on his motorcycle. He'll wear a plaid shirt with that leather vest.

*

There's never an egg-timer around when you need one.

Gov. @BruceRauner arrives at the Director's Lawn for Gov's Day at the 2016 #ILStateFair. Let's Fix Illinois! #twill pic.twitter.com/l7j8jKWP4u

— IL Republican Party (@ilgop) August 17, 2016

*

"Gov. Bruce Rauner promised Wednesday that Republicans would outspend Democrats this fall in a GOP effort to reclaim the Illinois General Assembly," AP reports.

"This year, we're going to go toe-to-toe with them," Rauner told party county chairmen at an event starting the Illinois Republican Party Governor's Day at the Illinois State Fair. Rauner said Democrats have far outspent the GOP in recent elections, but "we're going to do better than they do. You'll see the biggest ground game ever for legislative races in Illinois."

Rauner's ground game vs. the Bears' ground game. Discuss.

*

I'll get us started: Neither has enough talent or experience to win.

-

UPDATE: Insufferable Couple Supports Trump!
More on erstwhile Chicago house-flippers Jaelin and Brittany White.

-

USA Gymnastics Ignored Sexual Abuse
Indianapolis Star reporters talk about their investigation, which found, among other things, that "the organization had policies on reporting sexual abuse that were likely to discourage people from speaking up."

-

BeachBook

This . . . is . . . something. Chicago Goes Hollywood 1982.

-

TweetWood
A sampling.

Agreed. And not by access, punditry/"analysis" or polls/predictions, but by simply examining the available record.

Beck co-host @WorldOfStu: "BuzzFeed has won the election. They have broken every significant story about this election"

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) August 17, 2016

*

Thank god for our adversarial media, really keepin' em honest pic.twitter.com/OVzZIzeDjb

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 17, 2016

*

Spotted by Tim Willette, from NY mag (https://t.co/tK4Or5QPyj): pic.twitter.com/sFRJPsMK7s

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 17, 2016

*

Giant White 25-Foot Trailer Parked In Driveway Tears Schaumburg Neighborhood Apart https://t.co/rTui4aIYdm

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 17, 2016

-

The Beachwood Tronc Line: You said tronc, heh-heh.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 11:36 AM | Permalink

When USA Gymnastics Turned A Blind Eye To Sexual Abuse

With the summer Olympics in full swing, three reporters at the Indianapolis Star have been investigating painful secrets kept by some of the nation's young gymnasts-in-training.

I talked with Marisa Kwiatkowski, Mark Alesia and Tim Evans about their incredible report on sexual misconduct by coaches affiliated with USA Gymnastics, the nonprofit responsible for developing the United States' gymnastics team for the Olympics and training thousands more children and young adults.

What the reporters discovered was that the organization had policies on reporting sexual abuse that were likely to discourage people from speaking up.

Here are a few highlights from our conversation:

On USA Gymnastics' policy of dismissing allegations of sexual abuse as hearsay unless they came directly from a victim or a victim's parents:

Kwiatkowski: "[W]hat legal and child welfare experts told us is that this policy flies in the face of best practice because often the victim doesn't want to put that in writing or go straight to authorities.

"They may tell a friend, or a trusted adult, or someone like that, but actually putting it in writing and sending it to the organization in some ways, experts told us, is a deterrent to reporting."

On USA Gymnastics' list of problem coaches:

Alesia: "USA Gymnastics started with, they call, a list of permanently ineligible members. We've just been calling it the banned coaches list. There are currently 107 people in that list, and it goes back to the 1990s.

"One of the things we did is we looked at this list as it was published in two USA Gymnastics publications that are available online going back to the '70s, and we plotted when some of these coaches started showing up on the list compared to when they were convicted.

"We found in numerous situations there were long lapses of time between when a person was convicted and when they showed up on this banned coaches list."

On a family's horror at realizing that their child was not a coach's first victim:

Evans: "[O]ne of the things that stood out the most to me was the comment that he could've been stopped long before he got to our town.

"That's kind of at the heart of it, and it's what we've seen looking at many other coaches, where they bounce from gym to gym.

"People either don't report them, or they get in trouble, and they quietly leave town and go to another a gym."

-

Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:01 AM | Permalink

August 16, 2016

God Has A Plan For This Insufferable House-Flipping Couple That Doesn't Include Living In Chicago

Reddit comments (300-plus) vs. YouTube comments (5,000-plus).

*

Her name was Brianna Joy until she married Jaelin White. Now it's Brianna White, which is just perfect. Paging Central Casting!

*

More about him: How An 18-Year-Old Kid With $180 Made More Than $33K In 60 Days In The Most Competitive Market In The Country.

*

"My name is Jaelin White, and I am an 18 year old entrepreneur out of Phoenix AZ. All of my life, I've felt obliged to live life as the past generations have. Go to school, get good grades, find a secure job as a doctor, and bask in my then guaranteed riches. It's too bad that system just isn't working anymore, and individuals are having to find a brand new outlet for fulfillment of the heart and wealth creation. With this newfound realization that I had to do things differently, I joined the industry of Network Marketing."

*

Elevator pitch: "I am a 19 year old Real Estate Investor who specializes in Real Estate Wholesaling. We do 3-5 deals a month and make as much as $80,000 per wholesale deal. My skills involve a specialization in lead generation and sales, which allow me to find off market deals and steep discounts in markets that are competitive. If you've been looking to expand or build your wholesaling operation, I would love to work with you."

*

Okay so for those of you who don't know, Jaelin and I moved to Chicago and the day we were getting settled in something bad happened...

— Brianna Joy White (@BriannaJoyWhite) August 1, 2016

Both of us are okay- it was just a super scary experience for us and caused us to move out of the place we had just moved into

— Brianna Joy White (@BriannaJoyWhite) August 1, 2016

*

Their insufferable story.

*

They got married last year while still in high school, after dating for two years. They dated for three months before kissing.

*

2 million views on Brianna's morning routine. (Her social media habits are worth noting, though, y'all.)

*

She has 20,000 Twitter followers.

*

"I started out on YouTube about a year ago, recording a videos on my iPhone, not really knowing what I was doing - but all I knew that it was exactly what I wanted to do," she told JetSet for their Miss JetSet contest.

"Flash forward to this exact day, I am in New York with L'Oreal shooting a video with them, living out my dreams. I have a very girl-next-door kind of look and personality, but definitely a little more chic!"

-

UPDATE August 17: Jaelin is a Trump supporter!

From a comment he wrote to Guru Gossip:

"We weren't a wealthy family [he doesn't mention her family.] My mother works as a nurse and my dad stays at home with the kids. When you factor in the size of the family, we were under poverty lines. It's not to say we weren't taken care of - we definitely were. But I was never able to get the $100 pair of Nike's that everyone had. Nor was I able to wear a different pair of shorts for every day of the week. I really do apologize if I seem like I am obsessed with being wealthy and truly hope you don't blame Brianna for my actions/outlook.

"My reason for desiring wealth is to be able to take care of my family and not have to worry or fight about finances. I don't want to be some wild billionaire . . . But I do want to be able to provide for my family and be able to enjoy life to its fullest.

"I did see someone mention that I was probably raised by conservatives. Believe it or not- my parents are hardcore Bernie supporters . . . which I am most definitely okay with! I do support Trump - but I am one drop of water in an entire ocean."

-

Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:23 PM | Permalink

Song Of The Moment: Smack My Bitch Up

"The Chicago Cubs have fired a DJ who played The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' after reliever Aroldis Chapman left the mound against the St Louis Cardinals on Sunday," AP reports.

"Chapman served a 29-game suspension to begin the season under Major League Baseball's new domestic violence policy."

Oy. Let's take a look.

-

Artist: The Prodigy

Writer/Producer: Liam Howlett

Released: November 24, 1997

Length: 4:45

Album: The Fat of the Land

Charts: Reached No. 89 on the Billboard Hot 100

Mixmag: No. 3 dance record of all-time

*

Wikipedia: "Although the song wasn't as big a commercial success as their previous singles, it gained a cult following.

"The song caused considerable controversy because of its suggestive title and respective music video, which depicted scenes of drunken and drug-fueled sexual excess and violence."

*

Rock On The Net: "Time-Warner, Prodigy's parent company, was feeling the heat from the National Organization for Women (NOW) over the track. Although the tune's lyrics are few but repetitive ('Change my pitch up. Smack my bitch up'), NOW has stated that the lyrics are a ' . . . a dangerous and offensive message advocating violence against women.'

"Prodigy member Liam Howlett responded to the attacks by claiming that the song's lyrics are being misinterpreted: '[The song means] doing anything intensely, like being on stage - going for extreme manic energy.'

"The lyrics are also not a product of Prodigy's songwriting abilities, but are sampled from an Ultramagnetic MCs' track.

"Several radio stations defended the song's message, yet only play the track at night. The video for the song also featured women being pushed and images of injecting drugs. MTV only aired the video between 1 and 5 a.m. in order for mature viewers to see the 'groundbreaking' images.

"Walmart and Kmart later announced they would pull Prodigy's The Fat Of The Land off their shelves."

Songfacts: "The band took every opportunity to explain that the title is not to be taken literally, as it means to do something with vigor and intensity. The Prodigy didn't shy away from the controversy this song caused, and the resulting media attention gave their sales a boost . . .

"Howlett told Q magazine, June 2009: 'The Americans picked up on it and wanted to make out it was a song about violence. We thought we'd have a laugh with it and set out to make an extreme video. That's the one time we thought we'd be controversial.'"

*

Sarah Spain:

Chapman closes out the inning & at the inning break the Cubs play "Smack My Bitch Up." You gotta know better. C'mon.

— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) August 15, 2016

*

Pat Tomasulo:

Hey, I've got a better idea for how to punish that Cubs DJ who played the bad song. pic.twitter.com/jIyei43Se5

— Pat Tomasulo (@pattomasulo) August 16, 2016

*

Lyrics:

Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up
Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up
Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up
Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up
Smack my bitch up
Eaaaheeyheeaheyyyee
Aaahaaahaaaaaaaaaaahha
Eaaaheeyheeaheyyyee
Aaahhaaaaa
Aaahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Smack my bitch up
Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up
Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up

*

Video . . .

Official.

*

Live.

*

Major Lazer remix.

*

South Park.

-

Previously in Song of the Moment:
* Iron Man
* The Story of Bo Diddley
* Teach Your Children
* Dream Vacation
* When The Levee Breaks
* I Kissed A Girl
* Theme From Shaft
* Rocky Mountain High
* North to Alaska
* Barracuda
* Rainy Days and Mondays
* Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?
* Baby, It's Cold Outside
* Man in the Mirror
* Birthday Sex
* Rio
* My Sharona
* Alex Chilton
* Surfin' Bird
* By The Time I Get To Arizona
* Heaven and Hell
* Sunday Bloody Sunday
* Lawless One
* Tell It Like It Is
* The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
* Lake Shore Drive
* On, Wisconsin!
* Anarchy in the U.K.
* Ballad of a Thin Man
* White Riot
* Know Your Rights
* Chicago Teacher
* Youngstown
* Over The Cliff
* Almost Gone (The Ballad of Bradley Manning)
* Party at the NSA
* V.E.N.T.R.A.
* Plutocrat (The Ballad of Bruce Rauner)
* Fight The Power
* Baltimore
* Go, Cubs, Go!
* 16 Shots
* Black Superman

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Plus:
* Mayor 1%.
* Songs Of The Runoff.

-

See also:
* Songs of the Occupation: To Have And To Have Not
* Songs of the Occupation: Johnny 99

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 11:06 AM | Permalink

Why Black Lives Matter Should Take On Charter Schools

Black school systems are treated like black men and women in America. Urban schools are broken up, experimented upon and policed in efforts to improve them. The reformers expect students, teachers and parents to be grateful and accept test score growth in return, just as black communities were expected to be grateful when crime dropped even as incarceration rates rose.

But finally, the same voices decrying the unequal treatment of black communities by the criminal justice system are turning to the unequal treatment of black communities in school reform.

The Black Lives Matter collective - representing approximately 50 organizations - has now released an official platform titled A Vision for Black Lives. Its education section called for an end to the privatization of education and petitioned for more community control of schools. A list of demands included "a moratorium on charter schools and school closures." The NAACP also took a stand against charters at their annual national convention by approving a resolution that calls for a moratorium on the expansion of privately managed charters. It has yet to be approved by the national board.

Zero-tolerance policies in the criminal justice system are the first cousins of zero-tolerance policies in schools. African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites. African American public school students are suspended three times more than their white counterparts. So it's ironic many in the current reform movement actually believe they should be embraced by Black Lives Matter and the NAACP, even though many of the theories and practices many of us are fighting against in the criminal justice arena are still openly embraced by many charter schools: Sweating the small stuff, walking on white lines and no-tolerance discipline, all of which are not exclusive to charter schools, but have certainly characterized the sector.

What took black activists so long to turn their attention to how black lives are discounted in school reform? One reason: the imposition of charters - which have expanded much faster in cities versus suburban and rural areas - undermined the power of black communities to fight back.

Related: How education reform exacerbates sexism

The charter takeover of New Orleans is a case in point.

When I accepted a role to run a charter schools network in New Orleans, I hitched my wagon to an existing effort of the University of New Orleans to live up to its urban mission to build the capacity of its neighbors. Equipped with a college of education faculty, student-teachers and external support, UNO was positioned to uplift struggling schools in the neighborhood we shared - Gentilly. As the first organization under new takeover legislation to convert a traditional public school into a charter in 2004, the university agreed to return the school back to the New Orleans School District after five years with lessons learned. We were one of five charter schools that existed before the storm.

Hurricane Katrina upended this limited and careful foray into chartering public schools to see if it could improve outcomes. In the wake of the storm, the state legislature passed a bill (Act 35) which changed its earlier definition of an academically unacceptable school, allowing for a radical expansion of the number of charter schools in New Orleans. In September 2005, the board placed all school employees on disaster leave, meaning they would receive no pay or benefits until the schools reopened.

Then in December 2005, 7,500 school district employees were officially terminated; because of their varied evacuations, many did not receive official notification. Based on 2000 census data, nearly 5 percent of New Orleans blacks lost their jobs with that decision. On June 30, 2006, the UTNO collective bargaining agreement with the district expired, and the school board did not vote to renew the contract in a city with extensive union membership.

Related: Democratic political infighting over education pulls the rug out from under black families

In December 2007, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, and the Broad Foundation announced their plans to provide several grants for three years to New Schools for New Orleans, New Leaders for New Schools and Teach for America of Greater New Orleans. (The Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation have been among the many funders of The Hechinger Report.) Instead of fixing the teacher pipeline problem that existed before the storm, the decision to expand these organizations made it worse.

The percentage of white teachers and leaders who were less likely to stay in the city increased dramatically. The Louisiana Department of Education eventually lifted the five-year requirement to return schools to the originating district. Charters were there to stay, while the number of black educators in the city dropped more than 20 percentage points after Katrina.

A measured, local effort to improve schools was taken over by a national agenda.

The changes to the schools were just one strand in a web of pervasive, institutional racism that defined how black residents were treated in the effort to rebuild. Viable public housing was boarded up and not replaced with sufficient alternatives. Police officers shot six unarmed civilians on the New Orleans' Danzinger Bridge days after Hurricane Katrina. Low-income residents lost access to affordable health care when the public Charity Hospital closed. Moreover, one in seven black men are in prison or on parole in New Orleans.

Billions have been poured in the city to help bring it back and make it stronger than before the storm. However, ten years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has approximately 100,000 fewer black people, the majority of whom say the city has yet to recover. (Compared to the majority of white residents, who say it has.) Test scores may be up, but black residents are nearly as poor as pre-Katrina.

We are not going to fire, expel or replace our way to a healthy community. A more effective strategy is to build a power base for black community through quality black-led educational institutions. Charter schools can be part of the solution, but first education reformers need to take a hard look at how they operate in black communities and decide if they really believe black lives matter more than test score gain.

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.

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Previously by Andre Perry: Black And Brown Kids Don't Need To Learn 'Grit,' They Need Schools To Stop Being Racist.

-

Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 8:51 AM | Permalink

Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Where Is The War Against Terrorble Mental Health Services?

If the government is serious about our safety and about the country's security, surely they should be serious about our mental health care. But they're not serious about it.

-

Previously in Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter!:

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Explains The Economy.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! It's Shit Crap News, Tim.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Is Going To Paris.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Grow Some Balls; Tell The Truth.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! MP Is A Wanker Santa.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Merry Fucking Christmas.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! New Year's Rant.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Sexy Skype.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! TTIP Is Boring Shit.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! The Truth About Teachers & Doctors.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Valentine's Day 2016.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! On The 'Environment" Beat.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Political Theater As News.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Charter Wankers International.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! The Panama Papers: They're All In It Together.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Answer The Fucking Question.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Snapchatting The Environment.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Election Fever!

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Day-Glo Fuck-Nugget Trump.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Dickens Meets The Jetsons.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Tony Blair: Comedy Genius Or Psychopath?

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! What Real Business News Should Look Like.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Facts Are No Longer Newsworthy.

* Pie's Brexit.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Real Life Is Not Game Of Thrones.

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! Labor: The Clue's In The Title!

* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! The Pie Olympics.

* Occupy Pie.

-

Plus:

If Only All TV Reporters Did The News Like This.

-

And:

Australia Is Horrific.

-

Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 8:37 AM | Permalink

Four Faces Of Premier League Management

The Premier League is about to kick off and it is hotly tipped to be one of the most competitive in years. Interestingly, the talk has not centered on the star players, but instead on the raft of new managers appointed to win what is probably the most prized football league in the world.

The appointments of Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Antonio Conte, as well as Jürgen Klopp in the previous season, means that the Premier League now has four of the best coaches in Europe. And of course, they all have very different management styles.

How To Manage A Team

Mourinho, as with all great managers, understands that different people need different ways of being motivated. He figures that by getting to know his players, he will be able to manage them better.

Mourinho has said he doesn't have a "style" but adopts differing approaches based on the situation he operates in.

So if he is managing a well-established team which he expects to be at the "performing stage," he adopts a confrontational style of management with high demands and expectations.

But if his team is relatively young, inexperienced and in transition - known as the "forming stage," he adopts a less confrontational style where he nurtures the players and lets them learn their trade without the pressure of expectations.

Guardiola, on the other hand, has the same passion and commitment as Mourinho but adopts a different style based on total football philosophy which involves full commitment and immaculate preparation. Whereas Mourhino would go out of his way to get to understand players and therefore control them emotionally, Guardiola believes in educating players, letting them think for themselves, and allowing them certain freedoms once they have gained his trust.

He's viewed more as an interventionist rather than dictatorial coach. He's also a strategist, counting the great chess champion Garry Kasparov as a good friend.

He's not afraid to ostracize players if they do not buy into his philosophy, as Ronaldinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic soon discovered after their famous fallouts with the now Man City manager.

Conte however, is renowned for being an old fashioned type of manager, adopting a hardline approach with expectations of hard work, loyalty and a respectable public image.

Conte is similar to Guardiola in that he meticulously manages all aspects of footballers lives - particularly, dietary requirements.

Players he has managed have also pointed to the similarities between Conte and Alex Ferguson - not just in their fiery natures, but in their belief in complacency being a "disease."

He also uses an aggressive approach to team talks - there have been reports of players being singled out and objects thrown in changing rooms.

Klopp is probably the most different of all three managers. Whereas Mourinho, Guardiola and Conte understand the importance of managing upwards (the owners) as well as down (players and staff), Klopp is an individualist who invokes great loyalty and passion against adversity. In simple terms, he will challenge the board of directors just as much as those enemies outside of the club.

He is extremely frugal, preferring to buy conservatively, nurture talent and spend wisely.

He can be a fiery individual, mainly against other clubs and officials. But he is also known to be extremely charismatic, which he deploys in his management of players - who seem to fight until the final minute of every match.

Winning Formula?

Although Mourinho, Guardiola, Conte and Klopp all have different styles of speaking to their players, from distributing well-thought-out post-it notes to players (Mourhino), putting an arm around players (Guardiola), throwing water bottles (Conte) or bear-hugging a player (Klopp), they are all well aware of how important it is to communicate.

In the past, Conte has compared his management style to that of a good tailor; depending on the players you have available, and depending on their qualities, you have to put together a nice suit.

And all four managers understand that you must fully appreciate your resources and position before deciding on your strategy.

It is clear above all, that all four managers are fiercely competitive and try to instil this into their teams. With the start of the new season, Guardiola will plan obsessively to ensure his teams are ready to win. While Mourinho will agitate and cajole his players, and Conte will drive his men through grit and determination. Klopp, on the other hand, will create a band of brothers who will run every last minute for him.

So while there are many other great managers in the Premier League, it is clear that it will be the charismatic box-office managers who will dominate headings this season. And mark my words, it will be one of these four who will lift the Premier League trophy in May 2017.

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Jonathan Lord is a lecturer in human resource management and employment law at the University of Salford. This article was originally published on The Conversation.

-

See also: Breakfast In America: If The Season Ended Today . . .

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Comments welcome.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 7:43 AM | Permalink

Breakfast In America: My Aunt's Nuts

"If the season ended today . . . "

One of the silliest pastimes is to utter the words "If the season (or election) ended today, X would win."

American philosopher and old-timey crap QB punching bag Jim Rome once said, "If my aunt had nuts, she'd be my uncle."

But for some reason, if my aunt had nuts somebody would complain about him using the bathroom conforming to his gender identity.

But if the season did end today, Hull City, with their 13 fit senior players, would be in the Champions League next year (super unlikely) and AFC Bournemouth would be relegated.

And as I shared last week that will never happen with all metaphysical certainty.

Here are other things that would happen if the season ended today:

* Zlatan Ibrahimovic would have not said anything ridiculous this year.

* Arsenal's Arsene Wenger would have had his ties unflipped by Jose Mourinho.

• The Cubs would go directly to the playoffs, where they would lose.

• The White Sox would go directly home, where they would continue to tell themselves that "We are one 32-year-old retread away from post-season glory."

* Bears fans would not have had a chance to boo the team instead of booing the management.

* Hillary Clinton would still be able to use e-mail a little too well.

* And most importantly, we would not yet have to utter the words "President Donald Trump."

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Beachwood Sabermetrics: Based on all historical data available from the beginning of time, if you play defense it is best not to kick the ball to other team in a scoring position, twice.

Brunch Special: All you can eat goals. Leicester vs. Arsenal - Leicester seems disoriented, which usually leads to goals. Arsenal looks in midseason form in scoring, giving up, and probably throwing close games.

Population of the Cherry Nation: Seven, up one from last week. Me, my high school friend who lives in Montana, the new Bournemouth signing American Emerson Hyndman (whose home kit is sponsored by us), a guy in Florida, and a three guys from a Facebook AFCB fan page.

Sugar in the Cherry Kool-Aid: Like actual Kool-Aid, sometimes you invite a rich person over and all he does is complain about how much sugar is in his Kool-Aid. Sometimes you just have to realize you can't afford all that sugar.

Percent Sugar in the Cherry Kool-Aid: This Week: 55% Last Week: 60%

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Previously in Breakfast In America:
* Which EPL Team Are You?

* Know Your Terminology.

* Lowest Common Denominator™.

* Recruitment Do's And Don'ts.

* Aboard The Dethloon Express.

* Race To The Bottom.

-

Breakfast In America on Facebook.

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Eric Emery is our man on the EPL and the EPT. He welcomes your comments.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 4:21 AM | Permalink

The [Tuesday] Papers

"Chicago police officers' e-mails discussing the Laquan McDonald shooting can't be kept secret even though they were transmitted privately, a state official has decreed in what open-records advocates say is a solid step toward transparency on an issue that has roiled Illinois and reached as high as Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign," AP reports.

"The binding opinion last week by Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan follows quickly on a May Cook County Circuit Court ruling that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's e-mails about separate issues aren't automatically exempt from disclosure even though sent on private devices."

In other words, the public's business is the public's business, no matter how privately you try to conduct it.

In other other words, you can't dodge public records laws by conducting the public's business on private channels.

"The ruling determined that the Chicago Police Department improperly failed to search 12 officers' personal e-mail accounts for discussion of the October 2014 fatal shooting of McDonald, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer. Atlanta-based CNN appealed that omission to the public access counselor under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

"Among the officers whose e-mails CNN is seeking are Officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot McDonald 16 times, and Deputy Chief David McNaughton, who approved the report that the shooting was justified and who abruptly retired Monday."

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This ruling is good news - though it strikes me as problematic in seemingly allowing searches through private e-mail accounts merely to see if anything relevant to a request is in there. So if I file a FOIA seeking any correspondence between police officers on Topic X, the department must include in their search a review of cops' personal accounts?

I mean, I'm for that, but it will demand a protocol, no?

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Let's take a closer look at the case at hand. From the opinion - background of the back-and-forth between CNN, CPD and the AG's office:

"On January 28, 2016, Ms. Yager, on behalf of CNN, submitted a FOIA request to CPD seeking 'all e-mails related to Laquan McDonald from Police Department e-mail accounts and personal e-mail accounts where business was discussed' for 12 named CPD officers' for the date ranges of October 19 through October 24, 2014, and November 19 through November 29, 2015 . . .

"On June 1, 2016, CPD submitted a written response to this office. CPD explained that it had searched the CPD e-mail system for the 12 named officers for the requested time periods and the search resulted in 47 e-mails.

"CPD described some of the responsive e-mails as being 'News Clips' produced by CPD's Office of News Affairs that contained references to Laquan McDonald.

"According to CPD, 24 of the other e-mails were 12 identical copies of two CPD office-wide e-mails sent on November 24, 2015, and November 25, 2015, regarding the release of the dashboard camera video."

CNN's response, from the opinion:

"It appears that the Department only searched for e-mails on the officers' city-issued e-mail address, and not on any other platforms or devices, including personal e-mail accounts. Even if the Department does not retain control over personal e-mail or devices, it still has a duty to request copies of such communications that relate to the officer's public service role and/or in the performance of their government function."

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Continuing:

"Documentation provided by CPD with that submission indicates that the CPD e-mail accounts of the 12 named police officers were searched for the term 'Laquan McDonald.' Two searches were conducted, one for each of the specified time frames requested. CPD also confirmed that it had not conducted a search of personal e-mail accounts for responsive records, asserting that e-mails on those accounts are not 'public records.'"

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From the analysis section of the opinion, Madigan quotes the state's FOIA law:

"all records, reports, forms, writings, letters, memoranda, books, papers, maps, photographs, microfilms, cards, tapes, recordings, electronic data processing records, electronic communications, recorded information and all other documentary materials pertaining to the transaction of public business, regardless of physical form or characteristics, having been prepared by or for, or having been or being used by, received by, in the possession of, or under the control of any public body. (Emphasis added.)"

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Henry Kissinger shout-out:

"The court distinguished the United States Supreme Court's decision in Kissinger on the bases that former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger held the relevant records under a claim of right and that the State Department had ceded legal control of those records to him. Competitive Enterprise Institute, No. 15- 5128, 2016 WL 3606551, at * 2-3.

"In rejecting the agency' s argument that it lacked control of the records, the court emphasized that 'an agency always acts through its employees and officials. If one of them possesses what would otherwise be agency records, the records do not lose their agency character just because the official who possesses them takes them out the door.' (Emphasis added.)"

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On privacy:

"CPD also argued that the search of personal e-mail accounts would subject employees to unreasonable and unnecessary invasions of personal privacy. Section 7(1)( c) of
FOIA (5 ILCS 140/ 7(1)( c) (West 2015 Supp.)) exempts information from disclosure when disclosure would be an 'unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.' This provision, however, expressly provides that the 'disclosure of information that bears on the public duties of public employees and officials shall not be considered an invasion of personal privacy.'"

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Now we get to the meat of my slight hesitation:

"CPD has expressed concerns about invading its employees' personal privacy by conducting a search of their personal e-mail accounts. CPD, however, has taken no action to ascertain whether the CPD employees named in the FOIA request might possess responsive records.

"Although FOIA does not specifically describe the manner in which a public body is required to perform its search, an automated search of the entirety of a personal e-mail account using a search term is not necessarily required.

"Depending on the circumstances, ordering CPD officers to produce any responsive records may satisfy the requirement that CPD conduct a reasonable search."

Aha. Now, that's putting an awful lot of trust in those officers. This is where violating FOIA needs far, far stiffer penalties (and prosecutions) than currently exist. Even then, I'm not so sure this provision is sufficient. But we shall see.

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Song Of The Moment: Smack My Bitch Up
Eaaaheeyheeaheyyyee. We take a look.

God Has A Plan For This Insufferable House-Flipping Couple That Doesn't Include Living In Chicago
Straight outta Central Casting.

Madman With A Water Pistol
Where Is The War Against Terrorble Mental Health Services?

Why BLM Should Take On Charter Schools
It's ironic many in the education reform movement believe they should be embraced by Black Lives Matter, even though many of the theories and practices many of us are fighting against in the criminal justice arena are still openly embraced by many charter schools.

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From the Beachwood sports desk . . .

Breakfast In America: My Aunt's Nuts
If the English Premier League season ended today . . .

The Four Faces Of Premier League Management
These charismatic box-office managers will dominate headings this season - and one will lift the Premier League trophy in May 2017.

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BeachBook

8-Year-Old Chicago Boy Tackles Homelessness With 'Blessing Bags.'

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TweetWood
A sampling.

It's important not to forget what a true atrocity Guantanamo is https://t.co/XA0etxcTiT pic.twitter.com/ShoY2ID6hZ

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 16, 2016

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Truly one of the most desperate things I've ever seen in print. How did this get published?https://t.co/E66SIdxWDp pic.twitter.com/0MPk87pukK

— Matthew Bodner (@mattb0401) August 16, 2016

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I don't know how most people are able to keep their jobs in this business. Or rather, sadly, I do. https://t.co/Whw4hAnpG1

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 16, 2016

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this feels about right pic.twitter.com/Hhjqaz9Jon

— sam leo stecklow (@samstecky) August 16, 2016

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: About right.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 2:41 AM | Permalink

August 15, 2016

The [Monday] Papers

"A scathing assessment by the City of Chicago's inspector general is recommending that at least 10 officers involved in the Laquan McDonald case be fired or severely disciplined - a report that is sitting on the desk of Police Supt. Eddie Johnson, awaiting his action," the Sun-Times reports.

"Johnson is preparing to clean house, and among the first casualties is Deputy Chief David McNaughton, who retired on Friday, sources said."

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Wait, this just in:

Reforms yes, but "police are part of the solution & not to be ostracized as part of the problem." @wlsam890 pic.twitter.com/Q68XUX0ij9

— Bill Cameron (@billjcameron) August 15, 2016

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Back to our regularly scheduled programming:

"McNaughton signed off on the controversial McDonald report, which initially cleared Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke of any wrongdoing in fatally shooting McDonald. McNaughton wrote: 'Officer Van Dyke fired his weapon in fear of his life when the offender while armed with a knife continued to approach and refused all verbal direction.'"

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Presumably the IG's report will be made public any day now; from the looks of the Sun-Times article, they don't have it yet.

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Chicago Doctor Escapes Aleppo, Pleads For U.S. Aid
Northwestern University surgeon appeals to Obama, our consciences.

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From Shock Theatre To Svengoolie
Chicago horror book now in paperback.

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From the Beachwood sports desk . . .

J-Hey Worse Than Bullpen
In The Cub Factor.

Only Thing Missing Is Andy The Clown
In The White Sox Report.

How Do Archers Resist Firing Arrows At Everybody In The Spectator's Gallery?

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The Weekend In Chicago Rock
Featuring: Cherry Glazerr, Lala Lala, Mikal Cronin, Ignescent, '68, The Fall of Troy, The Pilfers, Shokker, Hepcat, Reggae Fest, Condemn The Hive, The Doobie Brothers, Toto, and Steven Tyler.

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BeachBook

The Daily Show: A Suspicious Police Shooting In Chicago.

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Half Of Wisconsin's Black Neighborhoods Are Jails.

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Trial By Jury Is Vanishing In America

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Andy Murray Had To Remind A TV Host That Venus And Serena Williams Exist.

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Meet Chicago's White House-Honored Intersex Activist.

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Patriots Using Shea McClellin In Fun, New Ways.

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Eyewitness News Opening, 1976.

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TweetWood
A sampling.

Up until now, it hasn't been time.

It's time to fact-check all the news https://t.co/hZ6ttle4vx via @poynter

— Omar Sofradzija @MSU (@omars81) August 15, 2016

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"Some journalists who think they have 10 years of experience actually have 10 years of one year of experience," a wise editor once told me.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 15, 2016

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#ImGonnaMissHim.

https://t.co/yACTk2BAkX pic.twitter.com/SJJx2qcyqp

— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) August 15, 2016

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The world's first confirmed, publicly-ID'd victim of NSA's #PRISM: a pro-democracy activist. https://t.co/C7GPiojhHT pic.twitter.com/GDvTDhyBHg

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) August 15, 2016

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: Thigh high.

Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 3:46 PM | Permalink

The Weekend In Chicago Rock

You shoulda been there.

1. Cherry Glazerr at Subterranean on Thursday night.

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2. Lala Lala at Subterranean on Thursday night.

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3. Mikal Cronin at Thalia Hall on Friday night.

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4. Ignescent at Wire in Berwyn on Friday night.

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5. '68 at Bottom Lounge on Saturday night.

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6. The Fall of Troy at Bottom Lounge on Saturday night.

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7. The Pilfers at Reggies on Friday night.

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8. Shokker at the Star Bar in Chicago Ridge on Friday night.

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9. Hepcat at Subterranean on Friday night.

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10. Akasha, Iration, Toots & The Maytals, Daby Toure, and Lee "Scratch Perry" at Reggae Fest in Addams Medill Park on Saturday.

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11. Condemn The Hive at Wire on Thursday night.

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12. The Doobie Brothers in Tinley Park on Saturday night.

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13. Toto at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles on Saturday night.

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14. Steven Tyler at the Chicago Theatre on Saturday night.

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Comments welcome.