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« December 2019 | Main | February 2020 » January 31, 2020The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #289: In The Wake Of SportsKobe Bryant's Brand. Plus: The Kris Bryant Boondoggle; In The Wake Of The Tribune; Coach Getting Wobbly On The 49ers; Goodnight Sweet Bears Prince; Baker's Baloney: Cubs Not Following Rhodes' Offseason Blueprint At All; Coach Went To A Bulls Game; Illinois Women's Basketball Teams Kicking Ass All Over The Place; The Bobby Shuttleworth Era Begins!; and AAU's Pullman Play.
- SHOW NOTES * 289. 10: Kobe Bryant's Brand. * Rhodes: As one person tweeted, "I will mourn the loss of Kobe Bryant and feel bad for his family while also remembering that the man got away with rape and that the woman he assaulted is now going to have to re-live the horror of it all over again as media and cruel people attack her and venerate him." In The [Monday] Papers. * Wemple: The Washington Post's Misguided Suspension Of Felicia Sonmez Over Kobe Bryant Tweets. * Coffman: "The whole world needs to be a little more judgemental. You drop off a couple letters and what's the word? Judgement." 15:36: The Kris Bryant Boondoggle. * The Cubs did it, but apparently it's not impeachable. * Wittenmyer vs. Nightengale. 'No Ill Will Whatsoever:' Kris Bryant Focused On Season After Losing Grievance Against Cubs. vs. Kris Bryant Reportedly Believes Cubs 'Openly Lied' During Hearing. +
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- * As of November 2019, Michael Bloomberg was the 14th-richest person in the world, with a net worth estimated at $58 billion. 26:48: In The Wake Of The Tribune. * We won't have David Haugh's column to kick around anymore. 29:24: Coach Getting Wobbly On The 49ers. * Mahomes too good. "Patrick Lavon Mahomes, Sr. (born August 9, 1970) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball from 1992 to 2003 for the Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs, and Pittsburgh Pirates. He also pitched in two seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, 1997 and 1998, for the Yokohama Bay Stars. He most recently played for the Grand Prairie Air Hogs of the independent American Association in 2009. He is the father of NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes." 33:25: The 12th Annual (More Or Less) Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Show Prop Bet: Shakira & JLo Edition. * Natasha: "Look, we've all got bigger fish to fry right now and we can do it over the embers of a once-promising democracy, but dammit, JLo got screwed." * "Out of Sight is a 1998 American crime comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Frank, adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name." 38:57: Bears Appear To Bid Goodnight To Their Sweet Prince. * Sign Cornerback Deemed Top CFL Free Agent. 40:35: White Sox Sit On Their Hands For Another Week! 42:11: Baker's Baloney.
* Sandoval: "Do you have a bologna company or something innocuous?" * Apparently Joe Espada didn't have enough bologna. 46:18: Cubs Not Following Rhodes' Offseason Blueprint At All. * Go Reds? 50:56: Dylan Strome Alert. 51:30: Coach Went To A Bulls Game. * Zach LaVine is close to an All-Star bid, maybe will get cigar. 52:33: Illinois Women's Basketball Teams Are Kicking Ass All Over The Place. * DePaul women: 19-2 * Northwestern women: 18-3 * Loyola women: 13-5 * Chicago State women: 13-7 * Illinois women: 10-10 * UIC women: 3-18 1:03:55: The Bobby Shuttleworth Era Begins! 1:04:30: AAU's Pullman Play. - STOPPAGE: 7:09 - For archives and other Beachwood shows, see The Beachwood Radio Network. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:53 PM | Permalink The [Friday] PapersI doubt this will be corrected because it's just not what they do.
Classic Fran. * And what a needless embargo for the papers to agree to. Really? I've run out of ways to register my disgust. If you don't understand why this is wrong, send me some money and I'll come to your house and explain it. - Chicago Fire Festival "Fire Department Coffee and the Fire Department both feature logos that consist of the letters D, F and C intertwined in a stylized monogram, which is likely to confuse consumers into thinking the city has endorsed or sponsored the business, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday."
It definitely looks like a rip-off, but I doubt customers will be confused. The Chicago Fire Department operating a chain of coffee shops across the state? C'mon. The company is run by firefighters, though, and they clearly pilfered the logo. - New on the Beachwood today . . . The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #289: In The Wake Of Sports * Same Old NFL: League Abuses Trademark To Shut Down New York Jets Parody Store - ChicagoGram - ChicagoTube Sy Smith at City Winery on Tuesday night. - BeachBook White Nationalist State Department Official Still Active In Hate Movement. * These Images Show The Sun's Surface In Greater Detail Than Ever Before. * The Nightmare Of Facebook Listing Your Butthole As A Place. - TweetWood
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- The Beachwood Tip Line: Just friends. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 8:36 AM | Permalink Same Old NFL: League Abuses Trademark To Shut Down New York Jets Parody StoreThe National Football League seems to be gunning for a spot in our Hall of Shame by setting a record for all-time career TDs - no, not touchdowns, but takedowns. We've written before about the NFL's crusade against anyone who dares use the words "Super Bowl" to talk about, well, the Super Bowl. But the NFL's trademark bullying doesn't end there. One of the NFL's latest victims is Zach Berger, a New Yorker who sells merchandise for frustrated New York Jets fans through a website called Same Old Jets Store. Most of Berger's products feature a parody version of the Jets' logo, modified to say "SAME OLD JETS" - a phrase that's been used for decades to criticize the team's performance and express fans' sense of inevitable disappointment. His other products include "MAKE THE JETS GREAT AGAIN" hats and clothing that says "SELL THE TEAM" in a font similar to one used on Jets merchandise. But if you're a cynical Jets fan in need of new gear, you're out of luck for now. Earlier this month, the NFL contacted Shopify, the platform Berger uses for his store, and claimed that every item sold by Same Old Jets Store infringes its trademarks. The NFL didn't even bother to identify which trademarks were supposedly infringed by which products - its formulaic notice just asserted trademark rights in the names and logos for the NFL and all 32 of its teams, then identified every product listing as "infringing content." The league's only explanation for its complaint was an obvious copy-and-paste job that parrots a legal test for trademark infringement, claiming consumers are likely to believe the gear was put out or approved by the NFL. Seriously? The idea that consumers would think the NFL is selling official merchandise that mocks the Jets (using a phrase the team's owner has called "disrespectful"), or says "SELL THE TEAM," is ridiculous. On top of that, Berger's parodies of the Jets' logo and merchandise are protected by the First Amendment and trademark's nominative fair use doctrine, which protects your right to use someone else's trademark to refer to the trademark owner or its products. (Nominative fair use, by the way, is also why you can call the Super Bowl "the Super Bowl.") Disappointingly, Shopify responded to the infringement complaint by taking down Berger's listings, without questioning the NFL's absurd claims or giving Berger a chance to respond. Even worse, when Berger contacted Shopify and explained why the NFL's complaint was baseless, Shopify simply stated that it had forwarded Berger's message to the NFL and would not restore the listings "until this matter is resolved between the parties." More than a week later, the NFL has yet to respond - which isn't surprising, since Shopify already did exactly what the NFL wanted. It's disappointing that the NFL continues to use bogus trademark claims to get its way. It's also disappointing that Shopify seems uninterested in standing up for the rights of its users. We hope that both will come to their senses. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:16 AM | Permalink January 30, 2020The [Thursday] Papers"Interim Chicago police Superintendent Charlie Beck unveiled a massive restructuring Thursday that will move hundreds of detectives and narcotics and gang officers from specialized units to police districts in a bid to bring added resources and better coordination to combating violence," the Tribune reports. "The reorganization also creates a new office to carry out policing reforms required by a federal consent decree - headed by the highest-ranking African American woman in the department's history." If history is any guide, hundreds of officers will be moved back to specialized units in a few years to better combat violence. But creating a new office to carry out reforms required by the consent decree is probably a good thing, though ultimately it will be up to the new permanent chief and the rank-and-file to embrace reform. One thing is for certain, though: Beck is not merely a caretaker police chief. To some degree, at least, he's a reformer who is sympatico with Mayor Lori Lightfoot and he's laying the groundwork for the next chief that should get some difficult decisions out of the way and smooth the path for his successor (who just might end up being his pal Sean Malinowski). *
* More . . . "To overhaul training and enact other reforms, Beck created an Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, appointing as its head Barbara West, the first African-American woman to ascend this high in the department. "The reform office will be placed at the very top of the department organization structure with the Office of Operations, which will spearhead the effort to continue to tamp down violence after three consecutive years of declines in shootings and homicides. That office will be led by First Deputy Superintendent Anthony Riccio." West is often named on media shortlists of potential chiefs. Riccio is most recently known as the guy who pissed off Lightfoot last summer for going on vacation after she had cancelled time off department brass, though it turned out the trip was pre-paid and pre-approved. - Meanwhile . . . Garry McCannabis Shouldn't every mention of McCarthy come with the appellation "disgraced," as in "disgraced former Chicago police chief Garry McCarthy?" After all, he is the only person in the known universe to leave two departments under federal consent decrees for widespread civil rights violations. * Anyway . . . "MOCA Modern Cannabis, which is in a race with three other companies to open a dispensary in a small area of River North, brought McCarthy on as a security consultant to advise on measures for their planned dispensary at 216 W. Ohio St., located a few blocks from where McCarthy lives." MOCA's Logan Square location is the one that was burgled for 200 large a few days after legalization, as Block Club notes. Also . . . "[McCarthy] aims to help MOCA as they work to open the dispensary in River North, working with Michael Chasen, a retired police detective and MOCA's chief security officer." Chasen's name is familiar to reporters who often found him on the other end of their phone calls to his Area, among other things. And . . . "McCarthy said it was an easy decision to consult given that he worked to decriminalize cannabis in both Chicago and Newark, where he also served as top cop . . . News reports from the time paint a murkier picture." Thank you for saying so, and not letting him get away with such a claim unvetted. You can click through for the picture those news reports painted. - Busting Black Migration Myths "A new report from the University of Illinois at Chicago busts some of those myths. Instead it finds a much more complicated story: black population trends in Chicago are strongly correlated to racial inequities in the city - and the pattern goes back decades." - Surveilling Bridgeview "A journalist by profession, Boundaoui said she needed to know why her community was being tracked so in 2016, she submitted questions through a Freedom of Information Act request to the FBI. Eventually, she received more than 33,000 heavily redacted documents that contained more than 500 names of people and organizations from Muslim communities around the country . . . "In late December, the FBI acknowledged having about 40,000 more documents related to the operation that it hadn't initially released. At the agency's normal processing rate of 500 pages per month, according to an affidavit by Hardy, the first release of these pages to Boundaoui would be in March of this year." - New on the Beachwood today . . . Soda Taxes Work * The 12th Annual (More Or Less) Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Show Prop Bet: Shakira & JLo Edition * Why Public Wi-Fi Is A Lot Safer Than You Think - ChicagoReddit Found: brown knitted hat with fur pompom near Wacker and Stetson. Distinctive pattern. from r/chicago - ChicagoGram - ChicagoTube The Soul Avengers at Martyrs' on Monday night. - BeachBook When Ghost Kitchens Become Mysterious Grubhub Listings. I call them Gruber. * Afternoon Of The Pawnbrokers. - TweetWood
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- The Beachwood Wing Line: Fly right. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 10:02 AM | Permalink Soda Taxes WorkThis year's Australian of the Year, Dr James Muecke, is an eye specialist with a clear vision. He wants to change the way the world looks at sugar and the debilitating consequences of diabetes, which include blindness. Muecke is pushing for Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government to enact a tax on sugary drinks to help make that a reality. Such a tax would increase the price of soft drinks, juices and other sugary drinks by around 20%. The money raised could be used to fund health promotion programs around the country. The evidence backing his calls is strong. Don't Believe The MythsSeveral governments around the world have adopted taxes on sugary drinks in recent years. The evidence is clear: they work. Last year, a summary of 17 studies found health taxes on sugary drinks implemented in Berkeley and other places in the United States, Mexico, Chile, France and Spain reduced both purchases and consumption of sugary drinks. Read more: A sugary drinks tax could recoup some of the costs of obesity while preventing it Reliable evidence from around the world tells us a 10% tax reduces sugary drink intakes by around 10%. The United Kingdom soft drink tax has also been making headlines recently. Since its introduction, the amount of sugar in drinks has decreased by almost 30%, and six of 10 leading drink companies have dropped the sugar content of more than 50% of their drinks. In Australia, modelling studies have shown a 20% health tax on sugary drinks is likely to save almost $2 billion in health care costs over the lifetime of the population by preventing diet-related diseases like diabetes, heart disease and several cancers. This is over and above the cost benefits of preventing dental health issues linked to consumption of sugary drinks. Most of the health benefits (nearly 50%) would occur among those living in the lowest socioeconomic circumstances. A 20% health tax on sugary drinks would also raise over $600 million to invest back into the health of Australians. So What's The Problem?The soft drink industry uses every trick in the book to try to convince politicians a tax on sugary drinks is bad policy. Here are our responses to some common arguments against these taxes: Myth 1: Sugary drink taxes unfairly disadvantage the poor. It's true people on lower incomes would feel the pinch from higher prices on sugary drinks. A 20% tax on sugary drinks in Australia would cost people from low socioeconomic households about $35 extra per year. But this is just $4 higher than the cost to the wealthiest households. Read more: Australian sugary drinks tax could prevent thousands of heart attacks and strokes and save 1,600 lives Importantly, poorer households are likely to get the biggest health benefits and long-term health care savings. What's more, the money raised from the tax could be targeted towards reducing health inequalities. Myth 2: Sugary drink taxes would result in job losses. Multiple studies have shown no job losses resulted from taxes on sugar drinks in Mexico and the United States. This is in contrast to some industry-sponsored studies that try to make the case otherwise. In Australia, job losses from such a tax are likely to be minimal. The total demand for drinks by Australian manufacturers is unlikely to change substantially because consumers would likely switch from sugary drinks to other product lines, such as bottled water and artificially sweetened drinks. Myth 3: People don't support health taxes on sugary drinks. There is widespread support for a tax on sugary drinks from major health and consumer groups in Australia. In addition, a national survey conducted in 2017 showed 77% of Australians supported a tax on sugary drinks, if the proceeds were used to fund obesity prevention. Myth 4: People will just swap to other unhealthy products, so a tax is useless. Taxes, or levies, can be designed to avoid substitution to unhealthy products by covering a broad range of sugary drink options, including soft drinks, energy drinks and sports drinks. Read more: Sweet power: the politics of sugar, sugary drinks and poor nutrition in Australia There is also evidence that shows people switch to water in response to sugary drinks taxes. Myth 5: There's no evidence sugary drink taxes reduce obesity or diabetes. Because of the multiple drivers of obesity, it's difficult to isolate the impact of a single measure. Indeed, we need a comprehensive policy approach to address the problem. That's why Muecke is calling for a tax on sugary drinks alongside improved food labeling and marketing regulations. Towards Better Food PoliciesThe Morrison government has previously and repeatedly rejected pushes for a tax on sugary drinks. Read more: Sugary drinks tax is working - now it's time to target cakes, biscuits and snacks But Australian governments are currently developing a National Obesity Strategy, making it the ideal time to revisit this issue. We need to stop letting myths get in the way of evidence-backed health policies. Let's listen to Muecke - he who knows all too well the devastating effects of products packed full of sugar. Gary Sacks is an associate professor at Deakin University; Christina Zorbas is a PhD candidate at Deakin; and Kathryn Backholer is a senior research fellow at Deakin. This post is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. - Previously: * Cook County Repeal Of Soda Tax Was A Mortal Mistake. * The [Tuesday] Papers, February 20, 2018: "The beverage industry created 'Citizens for a More Affordable Cook County' in August. One purpose of the PAC: It was an unsubtle political threat hanging over the commissioners who did not support the repeal. * Where 'Yes! To Affordable Groceries' Really Means No to a Soda Tax. * Soda Industry Steals Page From Tobacco To Combat Taxes On Sugary Drinks. * Seattle Council Locks In Fund For Soda-Tax Revenue, Overriding Mayor Durkan's Veto. -
Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 4:15 AM | Permalink Why Public Wi-Fi Is A Lot Safer Than You ThinkIf you follow security on the Internet, you may have seen articles warning you to "beware of public Wi-Fi networks" in cafes, airports, hotels and other public places. But now, due to the widespread deployment of HTTPS encryption on most popular websites, advice to avoid public Wi-Fi is mostly out of date and applicable to a lot fewer people than it once was. The advice stems from the early days of the Internet, when most communication was not encrypted. At that time, if someone could snoop on your network communications - for instance, by sniffing packets from unencrypted Wi-Fi or by being the NSA - they could read your e-mail. They could also steal your passwords or your login cookies and impersonate you on your favorite sites. This was widely accepted as a risk of using the Internet. Sites that used HTTPS on all pages were safe, but such sites were vanishingly rare. However, starting in 2010 that all changed. Eric Butler released Firesheep, an easy-to-use demonstration of "sniffing" insecure HTTP to take over people's accounts. Site owners started to take note and realized they needed to implement HTTPS (the more secure, encrypted version of HTTP) for every page on their site. The timing was good: earlier that year, Google had turned on HTTPS by default for all Gmail users and reported that the costs to do so were quite low. Hardware and software had advanced to the point where encrypting web browsing was easy and cheap. However, practical deployment of HTTPS across the whole web took a long time. One big obstacle was the difficulty for webmasters and site administrators of buying and installing a certificate (a small file required in order to set up HTTPS). EFF helped launch Let's Encrypt, which makes certificates available for free, and we wrote Certbot, the easiest way to get a free certificate from Let's Encrypt and install it. Meanwhile, lots of site owners were changing their software and HTML in order to make the switch to HTTPS. There's been tremendous progress, and now 92% of web page loads from the United States use HTTPS. In other countries the percentage is somewhat lower - 80% in India, for example - but HTTPS still protects the large majority of pages visited. Sites with logins or sensitive data have been among the first to upgrade, so the vast majority of commercial, social networking, and other popular websites are now protected with HTTPS. There are still a few small information leaks: HTTPS protects the content of your communications, but not the metadata. So when you visit HTTPS sites, anyone along the communication path - from your ISP to the Internet backbone provider to the site's hosting provider - can see their domain names (e.g. wikipedia.org) and when you visit them. But these parties can't see the pages you visit on those sites (e.g. wikipedia.org/controversial-topic), your login name, or messages you send. They can see the sizes of pages you visit and the sizes of files you download or upload. When you use a public Wi-Fi network, people within range of it could choose to listen in. They'd be able to see that metadata, just as your ISP could see when you browse at home. If this is an acceptable risk for you, then you shouldn't worry about using public Wi-Fi. Similarly, if there is software with known security bugs on your computer or phone, and those bugs are specifically exploitable only on the local network, you might be at somewhat increased risk. The best defense is to always keep your software up to date so it has the latest bug fixes. What about the risk of governments scooping up signals from "open" public Wi-Fi that has no password? Governments that surveil people on the Internet often do it by listening in on upstream data, at the core routers of broadband providers and mobile phone companies. If that's the case, it means the same information is commonly visible to the government whether they sniff it from the air or from the wires. In general, using public Wi-Fi is a lot safer than it was in the early days of the Internet. With the widespread adoption of HTTPS, most major websites will be protected by the same encryption regardless of how you connect to them. There are plenty of things in life to worry about. You can cross "public Wi-Fi" off your list. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 3:30 AM | Permalink The 12th Annual (More Or Less) Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Show Prop Bet: Shakira & JLo EditionLook, we've all got bigger fish to fry right now and we can do it over the embers of a once-promising democracy, but dammit, JLo got screwed. Do I like JLo's music? No. Do I like her movies? Not really. Did I watch quite a few around the turn of the century because they played on long-haul flights and I traveled for work? Yes. Was she upstaged in Anaconda by Jon Voight's accent? I mean, who wasn't? Did l fall asleep during Out of Sight? I did. Did I still like it enough to watch The Wedding Planner? Uh-huh. Were she and Matthew McConaughey both charismatic and charming while playing horrible people? Yes. Was their chemistry so bad it felt like they were in different movies? Pretty much. Did I like The Wedding Planner enough to sit through Maid in Manhattan? Oh fuck no. Is that because it was too soon after Schindler's List to buy Ralph Fiennes as a traditional romantic lead? Yes. Is it still too soon? It is. Did he screw the pooch again with his genuinely unsettling portrayal of Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies? Yes he did, it will always be too soon, brilliant actor but no fucking thanks. Are we getting off topic here? Maybe. The point is, Jennifer Lopez has been out here singing and dancing and acting and being the person who most closely resembles Jennifer Lopez for a billion years now. She's done every kind of film you can imagine, from art house to biopic. She's made albums in two languages. She was 50% of the original celebrity portmanteau and one of the first fashion memes. And back in the fall, when she agreed to co-headline the Super Bowl halftime show, she was heading for her first Academy Award nomination. This Sunday was supposed to be a coronation, the final elevation of JLo from pop culture artifact to respected A-lister. Instead, she's going into the performance nursing the sting of an Oscar snub. She appears nowhere in the promos, having been relegated to a "special guest" of Shakira which . . . is totally fair, come on, Shakira is clearly the bigger musical star. I can't believe they were asking her to share the billing, what is she, Coldplay? Does a foreign-born act have to be Viagra years old to get a solo headlining spot? Anyway, back to JLo. On top of everything else, Netflix just dropped the Aaron Hernandez docuseries, so we can all feel profoundly uncomfortable for ever having enjoyed the soul-crushing torture porn known as NFL football. Plus, she's still engaged to ARod and, like, what's that portmanteau? JaLord? So yeah, should you happen to tune in around halftime this Sunday, spare a thought for JLo and the career-defining February she won't be having. I'm sure she'll be out there like the consummate pro she is, singing and dancing and acting like someone who isn't choking on the disrespect. Fuck the NFL for screwing over both Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, and also fuck the universe. Here are your official Super Bowl halftime prop bets. 1. What songs will Shakira perform solo? The song featured in the promo is "Whenever, Wherever." 2. Will JLo perform solo ala Missy Elliott or will she duet with Shakira ala Lenny Kravitz? Oh crap, they're going to make her sing the Beyonce part in 'Beautiful Liar," aren't they? 3. Is she going to perform any of her own songs? 4. How many costumes will Shakira and JLo combined wear? 5. Will there be any other surprise guests? - Post-game post-script: I'm not sure there's much to add, but I will say for a half-time show sponsored by a major soft drink manufacturer, JLo sure seemed thirsty. Also, to complete the record, I will note that two Reggaeton stars performed and neither was Pitbull, which I think we can all agree was a rare win for humanity. I'll add that Shakira performed with Bad Bunny, who is from Puerto Rico, while JLo performed with J Balvin from Colombia and I find that genuinely charming, like they were trying to pretend this wasn't a huge open-air diva fight to which JLo brought her crotch while Shakira brought a guitar, a backup band, a flipping drum set and several hundred adorable children. I'm not going to say who won (Shakira) but I'm pretty sure someone (Shakira) wound up clad in gold while some other basic Betty (not Shakira) wound up in silver. It was Shakira, guys. Shakira won. - Natasha Julius - Previously In Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Coverage: * The Who's 2010 Super Bowl Suckage. * Let's Not Get It Started And Say We Did: The 2011 Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Prop Bet. * The 2012 Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Bet: Madonna Edition. * The 2013 Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Bet: Beyoncé Knowles Edition. * Tweeting The 2014 Super Bowl Suckage: Bruno Mars & Red Hot Chili Peppers Edition. * The 2015 Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Prop Bet: Katy Perry Edition. * The 8th Annual (More Or Less) Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Show Prop Bet: Coldplay Edition. * The 9th Annual (More Or Less) Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Show Prop Bet: Lady Gaga Edition. * The 11th Annual (More Or Less) Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Show Prop Bet: Maroon 5 Edition. * 'I Just Couldn't Be a Sellout' | Why Rihanna Turned Down The Super Bowl Halftime Show. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:34 AM | Permalink January 29, 2020The [Wednesday] Papers"A Chicago Police training exercise next to Whitney Young High School caused the school to go on lockdown Tuesday during finals when students spotted a gunman outside, the school's principal told parents," Block Club Chicago reports. Apparently the school hadn't been told there would be a drill next door. "[Principal Joyce] Kenner, in an e-mail to parents, said three students spotted a gunman outside the school, under a nearby bridge. She then put the prestigious selective enrollment school on lockdown." Well, this is why they have drills! In the event of a real gunman, they'll notify the school! * "Chicago Police said they got a call of a man with a gun at 11:50 a.m. Tuesday in the 1300 block of West Jackson Avenue. Kellie Bartoli, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department, confirmed a training was taking place outside of the police academy, which sits next to the Whitney Young High School campus. In a way, you could say the system worked! Also, next time pick up the damn phone so you can ask the police flak some questions instead of just cutting-and-pasting her e-mailed statement. - Clearview Longview "Clearview AI, the Manhattan-based firm that developed the software, has come under fire after a lawsuit was filed in federal court in Chicago earlier this month seeking to halt the company's data collection and after the New York Times published a bombshell report detailing the privacy concerns its technology has brought to the fore." * "Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said facial recognition software like Clearview adds 'jet fuel' to the department's ability to identify and locate suspects." Jet fuel is one way to describe Clearview's capabilities. Here's another, via the Times: But without public scrutiny, more than 600 law enforcement agencies have started using Clearview in the past year, according to the company, which declined to provide a list. The computer code underlying its app, analyzed by The New York Times, includes programming language to pair it with augmented-reality glasses; users would potentially be able to identify every person they saw. The tool could identify activists at a protest or an attractive stranger on the subway, revealing not just their names but where they lived, what they did and whom they knew. Seems Mr. Ton-That likes his privacy! * But it gets worse: "While the company was dodging me, it was also monitoring me. At my request, a number of police officers had run my photo through the Clearview app. They soon received phone calls from company representatives asking if they were talking to the media - a sign that Clearview has the ability and, in this case, the appetite to monitor whom law enforcement is searching for." * Back to the Sun-Times: "Before she was elected Mayor last April, [Mayor Lori] Lightfoot told the ACLU of Illinois that she would go as far as to halt the use of the technology while convening a panel to investigate its use. "During this process I will place a moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology or its expansion absent an emergency situation arising from a legitimate law enforcement need," she wrote in an ACLU questionnaire. Work faster. * Maybe this technology could be rigged to warn schools when CPD is holding active shooter drills next door. - See also: Clearview's Face Surveillance Shows Why We Need a Strong Federal Consumer Privacy Law. - New on the Beachwood today . . . The 10 Least-Reported Humanitarian Crises Of 2019 * Baseball Furies * Atari Hotel Announced For Chicago So maybe you won't even be staying there, it will just seem like it! - ChicagoReddit The Year of Chicago Music Band Roster - deadline extended until Friday, Febraury 14, 2020, at 5pm CST from r/chicago - ChicagoGram - ChicagoTube Tate McRae at Schubas last Tuesday night. - BeachBook Miniaturist Perfectly Recreates Historic Interiors At A Staggering 1:12 Scale. * Can You Beat The Buffet? Let's Try! - TweetWood
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- The Beachwood Tattletale Line: Do tell. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 11:51 AM | Permalink The 10 Least-Reported Humanitarian Crises Of 2019Out of the top 10 most under-reported humanitarian crises in the world last year - many of them climate-related - nine were on the African continent, according to a new report. Madagascar had the least-reported crisis in the study - entitled "Suffering in Silence" - released Tuesday by CARE International, as 2.6 million people in the country are affected by chronic drought which has left more than 900,000 in immediate need of food assistance.
Out of 24 million online media articles examined by CARE International, just 612 reports were about the humanitarian emergency in Madagascar - and the country was just the most extreme example of the international community's neglect of the world's second-most populous continent.
"In 2019, over 51 million people suffered in 10 crises away from the public eye," the report says. "Although for the average person on Earth, life is better today than ever before, around 2% of the global population (160 million people) will require $28.8 billion in humanitarian assistance to survive. This is a fivefold increase of needs since 2007." With 80% of Madagascar's population engaged in agriculture, the climate crisis and resulting drought has caused damage to many families' livelihoods. Food shortages brought on by chronic drought conditions also led to Madagascar having the fourth-highest rate of malnutrition in the world, making it easier for diseases like measles to infect over 100,000 people in 2019.
CARE International noted that millions of people in Africa are "suffering in silence" even as the climate crisis gains more international attention, thanks to grassroots climate activists like Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion, and students all over the world - including across Africa - who have led climate marches over the past year. "The increased public attention for the global climate crisis is encouraging, but we must ensure that the conversation is not limited to the Global North and much-needed transformations there," said Sally Austin, head of emergency operations for CARE International. "It is shocking to see how little media reporting there is about human suffering related to global warming in the South, the lack of political action to address this injustice, and solutions applied to ease the burden for communities." Other crises in Africa that have been intensified by the climate crisis include Zambia's droughts, which left 2.3 million people in need of food assistance, and a mix of extreme drought and flooding in Kenya. In southern Africa, where Zambia lies, temperatures are rising at two times the global rate. The pattern has contributed to a sharp drop in wheat and maize crops as well as in safe drinking water in much of the country.
Daily life for many in Zambia illustrates what climate leaders mean when they warn that people in frontline communities - who have contributed the least to the climate crisis - are suffering the most. "The drought has placed additional hardships and risks on women as they cope with the changing climate," the report says. "For example, some women now report waking up as early as 3 a.m. in order to be the first to collect the scarce water available and then spend all day searching for food. Many have resorted to collecting whatever wild fruits they can find to feed their families." In Kenya, rainfall in 2019 was at least 20% below average, and as CARE International says, "When there is not too little rainfall, there is far too much." "Heavy rains displaced tens of thousands of people during the fall months and destroyed farmland and livestock," the report says. "This worsened an already dire food situation in the country."
North Korea is the only country on CARE's list that isn't in Africa; other underreported emergencies are taking place in Eritrea, Central African Republic, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, and the countries of the Lake Chad Basin - made up of Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon. None of the countries on the list were covered in more than about 9,000 media articles all over the world throughout 2019. Armed conflicts are major drivers of humanitarian crises in several African countries. CARE's report notes that the climate crisis is worsening political and economic instability across the continent. "We're seeing increasing linkages between the effects of man-made climate change and the longevity and complexity of humanitarian crises," said Austin. "From Madagascar to Lake Chad to North Korea, the majority of crises ranked in our report are partly a consequence of declining natural resources, increasing extreme weather events and global warming more broadly." The report notes that three of the least-reported crises in the world are also on the United Nations' list of the least-funded international emergencies. With this in mind, CARE says, media outlets and humanitarian groups can help to close the gaps by considering "reporting as a form of aid." "Crises that are neglected are also often the most underfunded and protracted," the report says. "With close links between public awareness and funding, it needs to be acknowledged that generating attention is a form of aid in itself. As such, humanitarian funding should include budget lines to raise public awareness, particularly in low-profile countries." This post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 10:37 AM | Permalink Baseball Furies"Baseball Furies is a documentary that explores the complex relationship between baseball, music, and artists who reject the cookie-cutter parameters of the American Dream."
- I couldn't find it this morning, but I thought I had written in the past (at least to friends and a few bewildered White Sox fans) about how the pre-gentrified Cubs were the team of choice among a large swath of the indie rock set. It wasn't so much their loserdom, but their loserdom within the context of the unique experience that was actually the real experience of baseball - day games, the red brick, the bleachers, the rooftops, Harry Caray, the rituals, the mythology - instead of the prepackaged corporate version of the game. It was authentic. The ineptitude of the team only made it all the more charming - which isn't to say we didn't want to win, but "Wait 'til next year!" was a rallying cry of undimmed hope in an alternate culture in which winning wasn't the only thing, or even a thing at all. I grew up in a Minneapolis suburb watching those games via WGN-TV, preferring to vicariously bask in the Wrigley Field sunshine beaming through my TV than to actually go outside and enjoy the sunshine outside my door. That's how I became a Cubs fan. Certainly those days are long gone, but I'm still a residual Cubs fan, or as I've been saying for a few years now, the Cubs are the team I follow. I don't like to use the word "fan" anymore. For one thing, team ownership has disgusted me for too long. For another, it's just not the same - which isn't to say I prefer losing to winning. I don't. But the truth is, I wouldn't mind either if I could have the old experience back. It's the kind of thing - like Wicker Park or Malort as an inside joke or, back then, grunge - that the mainstream, starting with the ad guys, grabs a hold of and strangles to death, shorning it of all social critique and turning it into fashion. But anyway, yes. "It's the perfect game," says Steve Albini. Steve Albini. And that's the flip side, trying to explain this to some "cool" anti-sports people who don't understand why or how I could follow sports as much as I do, though not nearly as much as I did as a kid. They sound like Buzz Osborne in the trailer: "I hate the people who play sports." Me too, mostly. But Buzz also loves baseball, as do I. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:23 AM | Permalink Atari Hotel Supposedly Coming To ChicagoAtari®, one of the world's most iconic consumer brands and entertainment producers, announced a deal Tuesday with GSD Group, a leading innovation and strategy agency, led by founder Shelly Murphy and partner Napoleon Smith III, to acquire the rights to build video game-themed Atari Hotels in the United States, with the first location breaking ground in Phoenix later this year. Atari, a trailblazer in the gaming industry, is pioneering an exciting new concept: a unique lodging experience combining the iconic brand with a one-of-a-kind video game-themed destination. Atari Hotels level up hotel entertainment with fully immersive experiences for every age and gaming ability, including the latest in VR and AR (Virtual and Augmented Reality). Select hotels will also feature state-of-the-art venues and studios to accommodate esports events. Hotel development and design is being led by Shelly Murphy's GSD Group and Napoleon Smith III, producer of the wildly successful Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film franchise reboot. True North Studio, a leading Phoenix-based real estate developer, currently working alongside GSD Group with Steve Wozniak's Woz Innovation Foundation, will develop the first Atari-branded hotel. More than 2.5 billion gamers across the world spent more than $152.1 billion on games in 2019 alone, an increase of 9.6% year on year. One of the most distinctive trends in gaming is gamers gravitating toward recognizable intellectual property. Atari Hotels will offer consumers exactly that, marrying the origins of gaming and the future of the booming industry into a fun and unique travel destination. "When creating this brand new hotel concept, we knew that Atari would be the perfect way to give guests the 'nostalgic and retro meets modern' look and feel we were going for. Let's face it, how cool will it be to stay inside an Atari?!" said Napoleon Smith III. The first of the Atari Hotels is planned to break ground in 2020 in Phoenix with initial additional hotels planned in Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose. About Atari - Atari Twitter . . .
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- Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:16 AM | Permalink January 28, 2020The Mad Gasser Of MattoonIn 1944, a bizarre criminal assaulted the small town of Mattoon, Illinois. Victims reported smelling a strange odor in their bedrooms before being overcome with nausea and paralysis. The mad gasser vanished after 10 days, leaving residents to wonder whether he had ever existed at all.
- "This case has long been cited in college psychology classes as a perfect example of mass hysteria. Occurring during World War II, when so many men were off fighting and so many women were left alone, the gassings have been explained away as the product of paranoia, panic, and delirium," Illinois Times reported in 2003. "But [author Scott] Maruna dispels this idea, giving credence to many who came forward to report a smell coming through their windows at night, and in some cases seeing a shadowy figure running into the darkness." * "[Maruna] claims Farley Llewellyn, town outcast and son of a grocery store owner, was responsible. Maruna wrote in a 2003 book that Llewellyn wanted revenge on Mattoon residents who had ostracized him for being homosexual," Belt noted in 2015. * "There's a bit of a problem with that theory though; police were watching [Llewellyn] and he was safely tucked up at home when some of the attacks occurred. That's countered by the argument that there were copycats," Exemplore said last August. * Jon Hansen took a crack at the case for WGN Radio last November. * Which brings us right up to this week:
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- Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 7:43 AM | Permalink Goop's Bunk Science, Now On NetflixFor years, experts have said that Goop, the wellness and lifestyle brand founded by the actor and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow, markets pseudoscience and overblown cures. And for years, despite the criticism, Goop has just kept growing. Now the company, which was valued at $250 million in 2018, seems poised to reach an even larger audience. Earlier this month, Goop announced details of three new ventures: a distribution partnership with the cosmetics giant Sephora; a "wellness experience at sea" with Celebrity Cruises; and - to the chagrin of many science advocates - a six-part series on Netflix, the streaming service with more than 150 million subscribers. The Netflix show features Paltrow and colleagues exploring a range of alternative healing practices, including energy healing, exorcism, and sessions with psychic mediums. "What we try to do at Goop is to explore ideas that may seem out there, or too scary," Elise Loehnen, the company's chief content officer, explains in the series trailer, which also boasts that the show will feature risky and unregulated treatments. "We're here one time, one life," Paltrow exudes in the trailer, reflecting her signature embrace-new-ideas attitude. "How can we really milk the shit out of this?" The backlash was immediate. On Twitter, many doctors and scientists questioned why Netflix would partner with Goop.
Some upset Netflix customers announced that they had cancelled their subscriptions. "I'm frustrated that Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop and their pseudoscientific empire is being given a platform," Timothy Caulfield, a professor of health law and science policy at the University of Alberta in Canada and a longtime Goop critic, told Undark. Medical disinformation can have serious consequences, and it can spread quickly online. But Goop's continued success raises question about how experts should effectively respond to questionable information - and about what it is, exactly, that Goop is selling to its many fans. Wellness Summits & Italian Silk Shirts Paltrow, who won an Academy Award for her performance in the film Shakespeare in Love, started Goop in 2008. Originally a newsletter highlighting some of Paltrow's favorite recipes and lifestyle tips, the company grew quickly. Today, Goop publishes content on a popular website, hosts pricey wellness summits, and has launched pop-up stores in major cities. Its content is often a little tongue-in-cheek - one video series, called "Yep! You Can Drink That!" features a Goop editor wandering around Los Angeles sipping things like camel milk and bone broth - and targeted toward affluent, health-conscious women. On Goop's website, customers can buy makeup, candles, cookbooks, or a $650 Italian silk shirt. The company sells supplements with names like "Why am I so effing tired?" (loaded with B-vitamins, a month's supply of 30 pill packs costs $90), along with an $84 "amethyst crystal-infused water bottle" that helps "you tap into your own intuition." At times, these claims have gotten the company into trouble. In 2017, after Goop claimed that women could experience numerous health benefits by inserting a $66 piece of jade into their vaginas, the California Food, Drug, and Medical Device Task Force investigated the company for unsubstantiated claims about that and other products, resulting in a $145,000 settlement. These kinds of claims - and prices - have invited skepticism, anger, and outright mockery from many critics. In particular, Jen Gunter, an OB-GYN and author, has built a large public following through her sharp, informed, and often viral takedowns of Goop's statements about women's health, which she has described as "a load of garbage." Sometimes, though, it can seem as if the backlash simply fuels the Goop brand. A 2018 New York Times profile noted that Paltrow, in speaking to a group of Harvard Business School students, said of such "cultural firestorms:" "I can monetize those eyeballs." Indeed, the cycle may sound familiar to observers of the 21st-century digital media landscape: a celebrity (in this case, Paltrow) makes a statement. In interviews and on social media, experts clamor to explain why that statement is misleading, false, or dangerous. Instead of apologizing, the celebrity rebukes the critics and doubles down on the claim - and in return receives a publicity boost, as well the aura of edginess that comes from controversy. Recently, Paltrow has expressed regret about some of Goop's past actions. "We made a few mistakes back in the early days," she told CNBC in a segment that aired last week, adding that the company had recently started its own science and regulatory team that will allow Goop to back up its health claims - or clarify when content is "just for your entertainment." But in statements and interviews, Paltrow and Goop have defended their exploration of unconventional treatments, often referencing the long history of establishment medical authorities ignoring or downplaying women's experiences. "I think the reason why Goop has become as popular as it has become, is because women feel largely ignored when it comes to talking to their doctors about how they're feeling," Paltrow told CNBC. "They are wanting to check out alternative ways of healing, and having autonomy over their own health and their own selves and their own sexuality and their own relationships." That claim has not satisfied Goop's critics. "Giving women misinformation and disinformation about their health under the guise of empowerment is not feminism," Gunter wrote on Twitter last week. "It is the patriarchy." Celebrities Facilitating Bunk For some of Goop's fans, perhaps these kinds of condemnations seem beside the point. Goop has emerged at a time when for many Americans - and especially affluent Americans - health is not simply about curing ailments, but about fine-tuning the body, optimizing performance, exploring new lifestyles, and even achieving ecstatic experiences. A large wellness industry has emerged to meet those desires, often drawing on practices that seem edgy, exotic, or simply weird. And that industry has been fueled by celebrities. In many cases, for holistic medicine practices, "the personal anecdote seems just as powerful as citing a peer-reviewed study," said Chelsea Platt, a sociologist at Park University in Missouri who studies wellness culture. Anecdotes and narrative, Platt added, are especially powerful "when you have Gwyneth Paltrow or Kourtney Kardashian or someone telling you, 'Oh, this is my daily routine, this is what works for me.'" Platt does worry about the message that companies like Goop may be sending to many people - and her concerns are about class, and about broader conceptions of what it means to be healthy. Goop, after all, offers a vision of wellness that's also very expensive. "It's creating yet another marker of what counts as a healthy lifestyle and a healthy body, and further connects what it means to make moral, healthy choices to a certain type of consumption and commodification," Platt said. "It narrows who is able to achieve this." And yet, while these and other criticisms of the Goop machine achieve rapid currency each time Paltrow and her colleagues announce a new partnership, or introduce a product that strains credulity, it's unclear if the pushback achieves anything - or even, perhaps, gives Goop added momentum. I ran this question by Caulfield, who has been tracking Paltrow's health-related statements for close to a decade, and who published, in 2015, a book on medical misinformation and celebrity culture titled Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything? Since then, of course, Paltrow's platform has only grown. "In the short term you may be facilitating bunk - you're spreading it - but I think it's important to correct the record," Caulfield said, citing research on how to effectively respond to misinformation. "Long term, I still think it's important to make sure that what's scientifically accurate is out there." The tone, though, can matter. "It's not effective to just mock and make satire," Caulfield said. "I think I'm guilty of that sometimes." And yet, when he first started commenting on Paltrow publicly, Caulfield said, people would often react with annoyance, telling him to leave her alone and suggesting that her ideas were kooky but harmless. "Nobody says that anymore," he said. "There is this growing recognition that the spread of misinformation is serious." This post originally appeared on Undark. - See also: * Truth in Advertising: Up Close With Some Goopy Claims. * Ars Technica: Goop's Netflix trailer: Paltrow Sinks Into A Vagina, Spews Pseudoscience. * USA Today via Sun-Times: Gwyneth Paltrow's New Goop Lab Show Is Delightfully Wacky. -
Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 6:57 AM | Permalink The [Tuesday] Papers1. "Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has endorsed Rep. Bobby Rush in his re-election campaign," Shia Kapos reports for her Politico Illinois Playbook. Flashback: Preckwinkle Stands Behind Bobby Rush - Even After Racially Inflammatory Remarks. Also: Bobby Rush sucks. 2. How Ken Griffin Became A Multi-Billionaire Business Titan. "In 1987, while many of his classmates at Harvard were out partying and living the stereotypical college life, a student named Ken Griffin was already focused on building his future. The 19-year-old was busy developing the skills and laying the groundwork for what would eventually become a financial empire, amongst the largest such firms in the world. His setup was Spartan and ordinary by most standards, composed of a telephone, a personal computer and a fax machine (eventually enhanced by a satellite dish he placed on the roof of his dorm), but his ambition was anything but modest," Maxim says. "Raising $265,000 that included money from his mother, grandmother and two other investors, Griffin sought opportunities to profit off the convertible bonds market. Despite these humble beginnings, it didn't take long for Griffin to get noticed by the financial community." I'm not sure how raising $265,000 from his mother, grandmother and "two other investors" qualifies as "humble beginnings," but you do you, Maxim. * P.S.: $265,000 in 1987 dollars is about $600,000 today. * One of those "other investors" was his dentist, according to the New York Times. * That same Times article says his father was a project manager for General Electric, though it's also been reported that his father was a building supplies executive, which could be the same thing. Which isn't to say he's merely a silver spooner - he obviously is a math whiz, though one who decided to use his powers for evil. But enough of the humble beginnings. 3. Red Light District. "Former state Sen. Martin Sandoval pleaded guilty Tuesday to a bribery charge and agreed to cooperate in a burgeoning, widespread probe of public corruption that has sent shock waves from Chicago's City Hall to Springfield," the Tribune reports. "During the lengthy hearing in federal court, Sandoval admitted soliciting multiple payments from a red-light camera company for acting as its 'protector' in the state Senate." * This thread by the Sun-Times's Jon Seidel nicely captures the details.
* My favorite Sandoval is Hope. My god, what a talent. 4. Let's Active. "On Tuesday, [ActiveCampaign] announced the closing of its $100 million Series B. This is among the largest Series B funding rounds in Chicago, according to data from Crunchbase, and comes over three years after ActiveCampaign raised its Series A," Built In Chicago says. "ActiveCampaign has created a customer experience automation platform that helps businesses automate their marketing efforts across social platforms, e-mail, messaging, chat and text, with hundreds of integrations and pre-defined automations." I must confess I had never hard of ActiveCampaign - which was founded in 2003 - before today's headlines. And yet, more than 90,000 companies worldwide reportedly use their platform! You can start your free, 14-day trial here and give it a whirl. * This is not an endorsement. Something tells me it's evil. Let me know! 5. U of Jewels. "Less than a year after opening, the Jewel-Osco in Woodlawn has a new owner: the University of Chicago," Crain's reports. Huh? Are they expanding the econ department or something? "A venture connected to the university paid $19.8 million in November for the 48,000-square-foot grocery-and-drug store at 61st and Cottage Grove Avenue, according to a deed filed with Cook County. The venture acquired the store from the developers that built it, Chicago-based DL3 Realty and Wilmette-based Terraco Real Estate. The University of Chicago considered the Jewel-Osco "an important community asset and decided to purchase the property to ensure that it remains locally controlled rather than going to a national buyer," university spokesman Jeremy Manier wrote in an e-mail. First, for the zillionth time, pick up the damn phone. Second, I don't get it. Why does the University of Chicago care who owns the store and why do they want to own it? Answers not forthcoming! * "Yet the deal still needed a subsidy to work out. DL3 and Terraco financed the Jewel-Osco project, which cost more than $20 million, with $11.5 million in New Markets Tax Credits acquired by Northern Trust." Is that a public subsidy? "New Markets Tax Credits are federal income tax credits used to encourage private investment in low-income communities around the United States," according to tax firm Baker Tilly. So federal tax credits were used to help a private university buy a grocery store. Something is missing here. 6. Lori Is A Cop. "Though Mayor Lori Lightfoot believes the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park will be a 'tremendous' asset for Chicago, she is charting a more activist role in addressing concerns of local residents, telling the Chicago Sun-Times ex-Mayor Rahm Emanuel was too eager to please the Obama Foundation," Lynn Sweet reports. "I think the city of Chicago in the prior administration, essentially said, 'Come, whatever you want you get.' That's not who I am," Lightfoot said . . . Bobby Rush, who endorsed Bill Daley for mayor before turning to Preckwinkle, could not be reached for comment. * Lightfoot probably won't go as far as I'd like to see her go forcing concessions out of the Obama Foundation - in fact, I don't much like the project as a whole at all to begin with - but she won't hand them the keys to the city the way Rahm did either. Same to developers on the whole. 7. Carol Stream. "Carol Stream was the namesake of the DuPage County village developed by her father, Jay," the Tribune reports. A Wheaton native who spent all of her adult life in Arizona, she returned periodically to Carol Stream, which today has a population of 40,000. So Carol Stream is named after a person and not a stream? What's next, no buffalo in Buffalo Grove? Oh. * "Stream's final visit to the suburb was in 2010. "In 2008, my family had a chance to visit her and her mother and brother at their house in Paradise Valley, and she was warm, funny and clever, and she was very interested in what happened in Carol Stream," said Carol Stream village trustee Rick Gieser. "She was very, very proud of the fact that the town was named after her. She was disappointed that Glenbard North High School (in Carol Stream) was not named for her, and I reminded her that an elementary school also is named after her and she said, 'I want both.'" For all your achievements as a namesake. * TIL: Glenbard is a portmanteau of Glen Ellyn and Lombard. 8. UIC Receives Archives Of Chicago's First Hospice. "AIDS patients were a particular focus for the hospice, and in 1992 it partnered with Chicago House, a residential center that provided patients with end-of-life care." 9. The EITC And Minimum Wage Work Together To Reduce Poverty And Raise Incomes. Duh. 10. McDonald's Doubles Down On Chicken For Breakfast. - New on the Beachwood today . . . Goop's Pseudoscience Now On Netflix * The Mad Gasser Of Mattoon - ChicagoReddit Send Valentine's Day cards to sick kids at Lurie Children's Hospital from r/chicago - ChicagoGram - ChicagoTube "Chicago" / Martin Taylor - BeachBook Leaked Documents Expose The Secretive Market For Your Web Browsing Data. * 50 Surprising Facts About Bubble Wrap. * Iconic Songs Played By Musicians Around The World. - TweetWood
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Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:24 AM | Permalink January 27, 2020Why Your Zodiac Sign Is WrongI was born a Capricorn (please don't judge me), but the Sun was in the middle of Sagittarius when I was born. As a professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Illinois, I am often asked about the difference between astrology and astronomy. The practice of astrology, which predicts one's fate and fortune based on the positions of the Sun, Moon, stars and planets, dates back to ancient times. It was intermingled with the science of astronomy back then - in fact, many astronomers of old made scientific observations that are valuable even today. But once Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo realized the planets orbit the Sun, rather than the Earth, and Newton discovered the physical laws behind their behavior, astrology and astronomy split, never to be reunited. The science of astronomy is now at odds with one of the basic organizing principles in astrology - the dates of the zodiac. The Constellations Of The ZodiacOver the course of a year, the Sun appears to pass through a belt of sky containing 12 ancient constellations, or groupings, of stars. They are collectively called the zodiac and consist almost entirely of animal figures, like the ram (Aries), crab (Cancer) and lion (Leo). It is a disappointment to many that the constellations only rarely look like what they represent. How could they, since they are truly random scatterings of stars? They are meant to represent, not to portray.
Although the constellations of the zodiac, which date back to Mesopotamia or before, may seem definitive, they are only one example of those produced by the various cultures of the world, all of which had their own, frequently very different, notions of how the sky is constructed. The Incas, for example, made constellations not from stars, but from the dark patches in the Milky Way. The number of constellations in the Western zodiac comes from the cycles of the Moon, which orbits the Earth 12.4 times a year. Roughly speaking, the Sun appears against a different constellation every new Moon, the stars forming a distant backdrop to the Sun. Though the stars are not visible during daytime, you can know what constellation the Sun is in by looking at the nighttime sky. There you will see the opposite constellation.
Astrology suggests that each sign of the zodiac fits neatly into a 30-degree slice of sky - which multiplied by 12 adds up to 360 degrees. In actuality, this is not the case, as the constellations vary a great deal in shape and size. For example, the Sun passes through the constellation Scorpio in just five days, but takes 38 days to pass through Taurus. This is one of the reasons astrological signs do not line up with the constellations of the zodiac. Precession Of The EquinoxesThe main reason astrological signs fail to line up with the zodiac, though, is a wobble in the Earth's rotational axis called precession. As a result of its rotation, the Earth bulges slightly at the equator, not unlike how a skater's skirt fans out as she spins. The gravity of the Moon and Sun pull on the bulge, which causes the Earth to wobble like a top. The wobble causes the Earth's axis, which is the center line around which it rotates, to swing in a slow circle over the course of 25,800 years. This movement alters the view of the zodiac from Earth, making the constellations appear to slide to the east, roughly a degree per human lifetime. Though slow, precession was discovered with the naked eye by Hipparchus of Nicaea around 150 B.C. In ancient times, the vernal equinox - or the first day of spring - was in Aries. Due to precession, it moved into Pisces around 100 B.C., where it is now and will remain until A.D. 2700, when it will move into Aquarius and so on. Over the course of 25,800 years, it will eventually return to Aries and the cycle will begin again. As a game, astrology and its predictions of fate and personality can be fun. However the subject has no basis in science. It is to science what the game Monopoly is to the real estate market. Astrology diverts attention away from the very real influences of the planets - primarily their gravitational effects on one another that cause real changes in the shapes, sizes and tilts of their orbits. On Earth, such changes likely caused past ice ages. Direct collisions between Earth and celestial bodies can cause very rapid changes, such as the impact of an asteroid off the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago that had global effects including the disappearance of dinosaurs and the rise of mammals. Astronomical studies will eventually allow the prediction of such events, while astrological predictions will get you absolutely nowhere. James Kaler is a professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. -
Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 4:12 AM | Permalink The [Monday] Papers"The luxury helicopter that crashed Sunday morning in California, killing all nine people on board including former NBA star Kobe Bryant, was once owned by the state of Illinois," Ben Orner reports for Capitol News Illinois. What a weird, local twist. * "The Sikorsky S-76B helicopter was built in 1991, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's aircraft registry. The state of Illinois used it from 2007 to 2015, according to helicopter information database Helis. Under the direction of former Gov. Bruce Rauner, the state sold the helicopter along with four other surplus aircraft in 2015 for $2.5 million. Rauner said selling the aircraft "also avoided an additional $1 million in inspections and repairs," according to an Associated Press story after the sales. Ultimately, this isn't meaningful at all. It's just . . . weird. Kobe Commentary That doesn't make his death any less of a shock, but I'm almost as shocked at the outpouring of statements from certain quarters that ignore his ignominy - especially while praising his apparently sincere dedication to women's sports (perhaps that came about not only because of his daughter but to make amends for his past?). It strikes me as awfully tone deaf. I had to search Twitter for "Kobe" and "rape" to see if I was the only one who remembered the case. To wit:
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* And then there are the recalls of legacy-burnishing stories of how he "rebuilt" his life, as if his victim didn't need to rebuild her life.
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* The New York Times obit, "Kobe Bryant's Brilliant and Complicated Legacy," seemed like it would strike the right tone. Bryant, who died with his daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash on Sunday, was an unquestioned basketball great, but his legacy is not so straightforward. It didn't. The sexual assault doesn't appear until the 17th paragraph of a 24-paragraph piece. And then it only gets that one paragraph - without so much as a link to a summary of the case, the findings, his "apology." Instead, Bryant is cast as "the central and enduring figure in one of the most gripping soap operas in modern professional team sports," apparently for the tension between him and Shaquille O'Neal and not, for example, the rape case (nor buying his wife a $4 million ring as a peace-offering to save his marriage, which remains vulgar as hell). * With all due respect and sorrow, there is more to life than sports and celebrity. We all have lives of worth. The woman in Colorado, wherever she is now, has a life of worth, one perhaps irretrievably damaged by our star. Let us stand up for her now, too. * What happened Sunday was stunning and sad, and much of the grief absolutely genuine. But I also find a portion of the public mourning by public people to be performative and offensive. It would be different if Kobe more fully came clean and more fully accepted the consequences of his actions. He didn't. - New on the Beachwood . . . Why Your Zodiac Sign Is Wrong - ChicagoReddit DuSable High School basketball team, 1962. from r/chicago - ChicagoGram - ChicagoTube Old Style The #1 Beer in Wisconsin and Chicago (1982) - TweetWood
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- The Beachwood Loose Lips Line: Sink ships. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 3:25 AM | Permalink January 25, 2020TrackNotes: Mucho DespicableI did worse(!) than Rosie. Sat down just in time to see Zulu Alpha win the Pegasus Turf at 12-1 or so. $176 Exacta and nearly $900 Trifecta. The Pegasus was just what we thought it would be. Chalk 3-1 Mucho Gusto way outside in the gate, 2019 Eclipse Award winner as top jock Irad Ortiz, Jr. sent him and crafted the win. Why not? With these pretenders, what are they going to say? Look out for . . . Oh, just GO! They said afterward he's booked for the Dubai World Cup. Can't wait. NBC had a goofy crew, trying to make more of this race than it was. Jerry Bailey stayed well within the confines of this race itself, as its own entity, not calling it a premier pantheon race. The main guy said, "You win this race, and you are right in the running for horse of the year . . . [One Mississippi] . . . at the end of the year." This is where TrackNotes raises voice at the TV: "C'MON!" Eddie Olczyk reached with Diamond Oops, who finished fourth in a race past his distance, but I had him too. Gulfstream is despicable. On the turf course, there were at least five pairs of starting gate tire ruts, which is incriminating evidence the track is mismeasured. Multiple starting points and finish lines. The turf course looked bad, and it was clear they don't use plywood or masonite under the gate wheels to eliminate the disfiguration. Horses can and often are spooked by those tracks, which are a whole lighter color; they often jump over them by instinct. The Gulfstream grandstand and clubhouse are jokes, even on television. This is absolutely no disrespect to a local institution we love, but Gulfstream looks no bigger than a three-hole Danley Garage. Which is true, I've heard, because they robbed racing enjoyment square footage for the casino and the shopping mall. If it's Barbie's I Married A Wiseguy Racetrack Fun Set, perfect. Otherwise, no. And the Pegasus World Cup Invitational will have to pay for the illusion of racing romance and meaning in the future. There's another name for that. - Tom Chambers is our man on the rail. He welcomes your comments. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 7:13 PM | Permalink The Weekend Desk Report1. Loverboy Works For The Weekend At The Genesee On Saturday. Somebody turn Mike Reno loose already. 2. Patrick Kane The Star Of The Show At All-Star Game, Despite Blues Fans' Displeasure. Or maybe because of! 3. Jordan Brand Unveils Its Chicago-Themed NBA All-Star Jerseys. Come with pockets to hold your chips, though no place to store your bile. 4. RPM Seafood's Menu Brings Casual Luxury To Chicago's Riverfront. Wear a three-piece sport coat. * Alternate: Black loosened-tie only. 5. I will not be making a coronavirus joke. First, it's serious. Second, all the jokes have already been made and I'm already having a humor hangover. 6. At first I though this said, "How To Watch The OCD League," which would be quite a different thing. 7. Legal weed continues to spur headlines and articles I never thought I'd see in the Tribune. Something is wrong with that, though. People needed chic weed-inspired housewares to make their spaces look dope before the law changed, ya know. Or is weed's target legal market now more closely aligned with the Trib's? 8. Chicago Area Under Winter Weather Advisory. Isn't the Chicago area inherently under a winter weather advisory all winter? 9. U of C Alum Helps Unlock Clues to Giant Squid's Mysterious Ways. Is the answer the free market? 10. Schaumburg Taking New Approach To Preserving Historic Architecture. It's now willing to leave its borders to find any? - New on the Beachwood . . . The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #288: Comical Cons * TrackNotes: Death, Destruction & The Pegasus Adding . . . TrackNotes: Mucho Despicable * Trump Screws Consumers * Breaking The Two-Party Doom Loop * Meet OANN's New Chief White House Conspiracist * Recall! Amity Ground Beef - Weekend ChicagoReddit Taken at the Chicago Brown Line stop from r/chicago - Weekend ChicagoGram - Weekend ChicagoTube "25 or 6 to 4" / The Peanuts Gang - Weekend TweetWood
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- The Weekend Desk Canned Beer Line: The sound of freshness. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 11:36 AM | Permalink January 24, 2020Trump Eviscerates Consumer ProtectionsOn Friday the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a policy statement attempting to narrow the federal law that prohibits abusive financial acts and practices by banks, debt collectors, payday lenders, and other consumer finance companies. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis Congress enacted a statute that prohibits abusive acts or practices in consumer finance. Current federal law prohibits taking unreasonable advantage of consumers who do not have the ability to protect themselves or lack an understanding of the risks in complicated financial contracts. "Today's policy statement attempts to rewrite federal law without authorization from Congress or a court order," said Christopher Peterson, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America. "The new policy statement fabricates a 'good faith' exception that lets businesses engaging in abusive practices off the hook for financial penalties when they claim violations of the law were unintentional." The policy also imposes a new cost-benefit framework on law enforcement that will slow investigations and create an artificial barrier to protecting the public. "Every American consumer deserves law enforcement that is creative and flexible enough to protect them from abusive financial practices," Peterson said. "Today's decision will embolden debt collectors, payday lenders, and other finance companies to be more reckless and indifferent to the welfare of their customers. "This policy will make it easier for the banking industry to insert tricks and traps in their contracts with the public. Under the Trump Administration, our consumer protection agency is protecting payday lenders, debt collectors, and credit reporting agencies instead of consumers. And, sadly, our federal consumer protection officials issued this unpopular and unlawful statement on a Friday afternoon, hoping that the public will not notice." - See also: * Housing Wire: CFPB Now Taking Friendlier Approach To Financial Abuses. * CNBC: The Supreme Court Could Upend Consumer Financial Protection As We Know It. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 7:33 PM | Permalink Recall! Amity Raw Ground Beef ProductsAmity Packing Company of Chicago is recalling approximately 2,020 pounds of raw ground beef products that may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically clear, thin pliable plastic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Friday. The raw ground beef items were produced on Jan. 6, 2020. The following products are subject to recall: 1-lb. VACUUM-PACKED, packages containing "Pre 95% LEAN/5% FAT GROUND BEEF" with lot code "0060," case code "11402" and USE/FREEZE BY date of "01/31/2020" on the product label. The products subject to recall bear establishment number "EST. 6916" printed on the right, front side of the package. These items were shipped to retail locations in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The problem was discovered after Pre Brands received two consumer complaints reporting findings of clear, thin pliable plastic in raw ground beef. There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider. FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers' refrigerators or freezers. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase. FSIS routinely conducts recall effectiveness checks to verify recalling firms notify their customers of the recall and that steps are taken to make certain that the product is no longer available to consumers. Consumers with questions about the recall can contact Pre Brands at (844) 773-3663. Members of the media with questions about the recall can contact Nicole Schumacher, Pre Brands' chief marketing officer, at (312) 837-3812 or at NSchumacher@eatpre.com. Consumers with food safety questions can call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) or live chat via Ask USDA from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday. Consumers can also browse food safety messages at Ask USDA or send a question via e-mail to MPHotline@usda.gov. For consumers that need to report a problem with a meat, poultry, or egg product, the online Electronic Consumer Complaint Monitoring System can be accessed 24 hours a day at https://foodcomplaint.fsis.usda.gov/eCCF/. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 6:42 PM | Permalink The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #288: Comical ConsRickey and Ricketts. Plus: The Houston Asterisks; The Green Bay Packers Are Not In The Super Bowl; The Byzantine Bears; The Blackhawks Might Be Back!; Is Zach LaVine An All-Star?; Bulls Attendance Finally Rightsizing; Illinois Hoops It Up!; and TrackNotes: Death, Destruction & The Pegasus.
- SHOW NOTES * 288. * Coffman: "We were promised change!" * Rutter: "Tom Ricketts is irritating not because he's rich, but because he's greedy." 1:52: The Houston Asterisks. * Black Jack McDowell:
* The Daily Beast: Did This Notorious Internet Troll Dupe MLB Fans And Players Into Believing A New Astros Conspiracy? * Whit Merrifield: "Jose Altuve took my spot." * Star Tribune: Five Twins Potentially Impacted By Astros Sign-Stealing Scandal. * AP: Metrodome Superintendent Admits To Adjusting Ventilation System. * Wall Street Journal: Was The '51 Giants Comeback A Miracle, Or Did They Simply Steal The Pennant? * Coach picked 'em, to his everlasting shame. * Coach leans Niners, Rhodes leans Chiefs. 23:08: The Byzantine Bears. * Vikas A. of North Potomac, Md., writes to Brad Biggs: Matt Nagy is the head coach who designs and calls offensive plays. Bill Lazor is the offensive coordinator who doesn't design or call plays. Dave Ragone is passing-game coordinator but not the run-game coordinator. John DeFilippo coaches the QBs, who are the primary component of the passing game, and Juan Castillo coaches the O-line, an important component to the passing and running game. Am I the only one whose head is spinning from confusion? I'm concerned that with so many cooks in the kitchen the meal is going to be a total mess. Has a current or former team employed such an organizational structure with success, and if not, why should we believe the Bears can pull it off? Click through to see Biggs' answer. * Raheem Mostert appeared in two games for the Bears in 2016 and did not get a carry or a reception. 32:35: White Sox Con! * "Starring" Rickey Rentamanager. * Coach is correct: Luis Rojas is the son of Felipe Alou and the half-brother of Moisés Alou. 42:57: A Different Kind Of Cubs Con. * Rosenthal: What To Know About The Marquee Network. 50:45: The Blackhawks Might Be Back! * Five-game winning streak before dropping game to Panthers this week. "Signing little-known Czech forward Dominik Kubalik last May to a one-year, $925,000 contract looks genius. The 24-year-old (whose rights were acquired from the Kings last season) is a dark horse Calder Trophy candidate, with 21 goals through 49 games." * ESPN's Midseason Analytics Awards: "The John Gibson Award - "Criteria: Given to the goalie who does everything humanly possible to carry his team to victory on a nightly basis, despite getting nothing resembling help from the players who are supposed to be defending in front of him. Honoring the +53.4 goals above average that John Gibson saved from 2016 to 2019 (the second-best rate, behind Sergei Bobrovsky, among all goalies in that span), ultimately netting Gibson a grand total of one third-place vote for the Vezina Trophy - because the team in front of him wasn't good enough to get him enough wins. "Winner: Robin Lehner, Chicago Blackhawks" 56:15: Is Zach LaVine An All-Star? * Coach: No. * Rhodes: No. * David Kaplan: Yes. 59:24: Bulls Attendance Finally Rightsizing.
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- 1:00:30: Illinois Hoops It Up! Loyola Women:
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- 1:07:15: TrackNotes: Death, Destruction & The Pegasus. - STOPPAGE: 11:58 - For archives and other Beachwood shows, see The Beachwood Radio Network. - - 1. From Tom Chambers: Pegasus World Cup Invitational to-day is in Florida. The Dubai World Cup in late March is the climax of the Dubai World Cup Carnival, United Arab Emirates. There's also a Japan World Cup. The Breeders' Cup World Championships aren't that worldly. BC is like hoping the Queen, or even Charles runs, but they send Harry, the permanent third-stringer. The Arlington International Festival of Racing is very similar. Knockabout English or Irish benchwarmers visit. The British accents are irresistible. Back when, I thought what a stupid name for the Pegasus. "World Cup" is both pretentious and lazy branding. Invitational implies exclusivity. It's probably more like a phone call: "Wanna run?" You not only landed on the best of this bunch, you even know Dubai's race exists! Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 1:36 PM | Permalink Meet One America News Network's New Chief White House CorrespondentOne America News Network ("OAN") has announced that Chanel Rion will lead OAN's White House coverage as the network's Chief White House Correspondent. "We're delighted to have Chanel lead our White House coverage. She's fully engaged in the news cycle and not afraid to ask the tough questions," stated Robert Herring, Sr., CEO of One America News Network. "Chanel has garnered a large following amongst OAN viewers." Ms. Rion has been instrumental in One America News's coverage of President Trump's re-election campaign, the White House, and US National Security. She has taken her reporting and investigative efforts globally - reporting from the North/South Korean border; Kyiv, Ukraine; and Budapest, Hungary.
Ms. Rion most recently led and produced the One America News Investigates' three-part series featuring investigations centered in Ukraine with special guest Rudy Giuliani. The One America News Investigates programs exposed Hunter Biden's corruption and money laundering activities and former US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch's perjury before Congress and the American people. Most recently, via Twitter, Ms. Rion is believed to be the first journalist to report Ukrainian Flight 752 over Iran was shot down by Iranian forces despite the Iranian government's initial claims of mechanical issues. On Sunday, October 27, 2019, Ms. Rion provided coverage of President Trump's address to the world announcing that US Forces eliminated ISIS Leadership. Ms. Rion asked the President if the pull-out of US troops in Syria the prior month was strategically tied to the raid on ISIS leadership. The President's response included, "It's a great question and you're doing a great job." Chanel Rion is a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in International Relations. - See also: * Politico: 'Stunning Piece Of Propaganda:' Journalists Blast One America News Series. * Wonkette: What Is Up With Chanel Rion, Traditional Dinner-Making Fiancée Of Courtland Sykes? - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 1:55 AM | Permalink The Case For Multiparty DemocracyExcerpt adapted from Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America by Lee Drutman. Today, American parties are more united internally around competing visions of national identity than any time since the Civil War. This division defines national partisan conflict and communicates to voters what is important. And because it is binary, it communicates only two, irreconcilable options. Voting means endorsing one of these visions, either implicitly or explicitly. A vote with reservations counts the same as a vote without reservations. An enthusiastic vote for Trump's anti-immigration policies counts the same as a hesitant vote against Clinton. A multiparty system in America would not collapse such thinking into reductionist binary generalizations. It would offer more options across the spectrum and give voters more ability to see nuance and shades of gray. A ranked-choice voting system, where voters could order their preferences, would add even more precision and nuance to elections. All societies have some social divisions - across religion, geography, education, class, and so on. When some of those identities point in one political direction and some point in other directions, we are less likely to approach partisan politics in us-versus-them terms and more likely to be broadly tolerant of the other side(s). But when the major social group identities all line up with one big partisan division, partisan conflict reduces all issues into a single us-against-them dimension. This is when politics turns toxic. In a multiparty system, it's a lot less likely (though not impossible) for all the relevant social divisions to cumulate on a single partisan dimension. It's more likely for some groups to be allies on certain issues and enemies on other issues. In a multiparty system, it's less likely for politics to collapse into binary conflict when the political landscape communicates more complex, multifaceted choices. In a multiparty system, there is no "lesser of three evils" or "lesser of four evils" campaign strategy. Say you're running in a five-party race. Going hard after another candidate or party is a risky strategy. You might both get dragged down, since there's often a "backlash effect" when a candidate or party goes negative. And since parties need to form governing coalitions after the election, overly nasty pre-election fighting can make post-election negotiations challenging. In short, negative campaigning is a riskier and more complicated strategy in multiparty systems. This is especially true when ranked-choice voting is involved, since parties and candidates are also competing to be voters' second and third choices. Certainly, some negative campaigning occurs in all democracies. But multiparty democracies experience less. And to be sure, some negative campaigning is necessary for political accountability. A cross-partisan love fest would leave voters unclear of the alternatives and the differences, and with little basis on which to choose. Negative campaigning often involves surfacing details about candidates' voting records and public statements, information that is relevant for voters. But while it can certainly energize and engage voters, too much negative campaigning also "tends to reduce feelings of political efficacy, trust in government, and perhaps even satisfaction with government itself." It makes partisans more resentful of each other. It supplies increasingly vicious attacks for voters to repeat and internalize (e.g., "Lock Her Up"). Toxic two-party politics creates a uniquely fertile ground for negative campaigning to spiral out of control, leaving resentful, distrustful voters in its wake. In multiparty systems, campaigns also tend to be more policy-focused. That's because in a more crowded field, parties look for clearer policy spaces that distinguish them from each other. Moreover, as smaller tents, parties have fewer internal differences to navigate. In a two-party system, specific agreement is harder within parties (since they have to be broader coalitions). So parties emphasize vague but grand promises and values, and they especially focus energy on the shortcomings and the alleged extremism of the other party as a way to distract from their own internal fights. In multiparty democracies with proportional electoral systems, parties rarely win outright legislative majorities. Parties do not campaign as the "true majority," and partisan voters do not perceive themselves as the true majority. Citizens vote for parties expecting they will form coalitions in government and then compromise to make policy. No party expects to gain total power to enact its agenda if only it holds out and wins the next election. In multiparty democracies with proportional electoral systems, parties also do not make grand electoral promises about what they will do in power. They understand that governing requires a multiparty coalition, and what they can achieve will depend on the coalition that forms. They can only promise to advocate for particular policies and values, which leads to less overpromising. In a two-party system, parties are campaigning for control of government. This leads to rampant overpromising. And in American politics, it also leads to disappointment. Anti-majoritarian political institutions make it difficult for narrow majorities to succeed. If voters learn what politics should be about through electoral campaigns, multiparty and two-party democracy communicate different messages. Multiparty democracy communicates that democracy is about building coalitions and alliances. Two-party democracy communicates that democracy is about the true majority triumphing. Lee Drutman is a senior fellow in the Political Reform program at New America. - Drutman: "Breaking The Two-Party Doom Loop" on C-SPAN last September: - See also: * The New Yorker: Can Ranked-Choice Voting Save American Democracy? * Politico: How To Fix Polarization: Multimember House Districts. - Plus: Unlock Congress. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:54 AM | Permalink January 23, 2020TrackNotes: Death, Destruction & The PegasusLemmetellyasomethin'. This horse racing game is really rough, and that does not include the bad beat bets. In this installment, pay attention up top, because I may not be in the mood to elaborate the crap in the scroll down. Spinning into 2020, there's nothing that even suggests the new season will be any better than any other year, or even any good. There's only one thing we know for sure: All of today's optimism or tomorrow's joy will halo from the horses themselves, nobody else. Locally, our own racing palace - and I mean that - Arlington Park, this minute exists in a netherworld that evil corporations almost always universally create. You could say that Churchill Downs Inc., the confessed hater of horse racing, is strangling AP to death, but it's more like, and sadistically as painful as, a prolonged oxygen deprivation. Where the depraved murderer enjoys varying the grip to inflict more misery through the momentary deceptions of hope. When the cops ask why, "I had to erase my past." Picture it this way: There is a big asteroid out in the solar system, shaped just like an oval wrecking ball, heading directly, for wont of a landmark, the Metra station between Arlington Heights and Palatine. Probably a little more than two years out, but don't expect a date or time in advance. Pond-rippling out, horses are still dying at Santa Anita, the land of milk and honey, a place where politicians and people are both adept and apt to ban the game. The family holiday letter tardily arrived just today. Our beloved Empire Maker passed just days ago. Although at 20 you could say he had a full life, he was still making babies for the very highly respectable fee of $85,000 per. He was the son of the great Unbridled, the 1990 champion who won the Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic that year. Empire Maker won $1,985,800 on the track in four high-profile races (Florida Derby, Wood Memorial, Jim Dandy) including the 2003 Belmont Stakes, where he turned tables in Funny Cide's Triple Crown bid after Placing to 'Cide in that year's Derby. He was the sire of Emollient, Bodemeister and the great filly/mare Royal Delta. But you may remember him from such progeny as Pioneerof the Nile, who begat sensational American Pharoah, himself named top sire in this freshman year at Breeding U. But there was also bad news about Uncle El-Ahmed and cousin Justin. It looks like their money problems may have caught up with them for good as their Zayat Stables went into receivership amid ugly tales of unpaid bills and clandestine asset liquidation, including breeding rights shares of 'Pharaoh. Ahmed doesn't sound hopeful. "I am ready if needed to walk away and give you the keys and full control (of the stable's assets) if that is what you want," the e-mail (to creditors) said, according to the suit. While a puzzle that $287 million from Egyptian beer couldn't go farther, we'll keep great memories phorever of 'Pharoah! So it's off to the races! Well, OK. But we've got the haughtily-titled Pegasus World Cup Invitational (9 furlongs, 1-1/8 miles, dirt), from underachieving Gulfstream Park, Hallandale, Florida. Its $3,000,000 purse allows this Grade II-level-maybe race to hang on as a Grade I. There's proof. The race already came a clunker when it was announced Thursday that 7-5 favorite Omaha Beach was scratched because of swelling in one of his legs. Winner of five of his last six, he was getting faster and faster, and had just won the Malibu Stakes Dec. 28 by a goosebumpy three lengths. And Hall of Fame rider Mike Smith rode the steed into history, passing HOF'er Jerry Bailey for the most Grade I wins ever: 217. Also for Saturday, Spun to Run, who bested 'Beach in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, was scratched from the race with a skin rash. The race might be better for betting, but it will probably depend on which horse is on its best mettle. Pure darts handicapping. It's disappointing. I firmly believe Omaha Beach was the most talented horse in America in 2019. But he had a hard time getting to the gate. On the eve of the Derby, the pre-race favorite was found to have an entrapped epiglottis, a (minor) tissue obstruction of his windpipe. And he missed the Del Mar meet with a virus but roared back with a spectacular gut job in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship. Watch that finish and you will see Jose Ortiz taking the whip to Shancelot while Smith is merely race riding 'Beach as he glides the rail for the win. That, racing fans, is ultimate horse heart on display. Omaha Beach has also been one of the most versatile horses, winning at distances from six to nine furlongs, fast and sloppy. Nice, huh? But it's early closure as Omaha Beach will never run competitively again. A very little history on the Pegasus. With a $1 million entry fee, cuttable by owners into shares, the very first mention of the race for January 2017 said winner-take-all. But that didn't last as a more traditional purse structure took hold. Arrogate won, notably beating California Chrome, who was eased up perhaps because of the chicane at the start which may have caused an injury. Gulfstream's rebuilt track already mismeasured, it uses a run-up in timing, meaning some yards are run before the clock starts! Naturally, the first Pegasus was mistimed, the clock and individual GPS disagreeing. This happens at Gulfstream ALL THE TIME. These kinds of races practically start on the first turn. The race was more formful in 2018, with a beefed up $16 million purse, helped along by track ownership buying three entry slots, like the TV station buying Bears tickets to avoid the blackout. Gun Runner won. The purse plunged last year to $7 million, City of Light winning in the slop. The $3 mil this year is horribly out of scale with the quality of Saturday's race. As new years and new decades don't take their shapes until months or years in, the Pegasus is really a remnant of the last year's racing season. 2020's field is Grade II through slim name recognition at best, this year by two horses who won't even run. Only two of the remaining horses won their last race - Grade IIIs - with the others noticeably worse. There's no Omaha Beach or Spun to Run or Maximum Security in this race. The Pegasus Turf will be a more well-rounded race. Tune in on the big peacock NBC, 3:30. It's all for the best, though, as I won't be butt-hugging the couch the whole day. I'll be Pulling a Rosie and joining the festivities later. Seems like the way to go. - Tom Chambers is our man on the rail. He welcomes your comments. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 11:01 PM | Permalink The [Thursday] Papers"At a time when leading legislators' private side jobs are increasingly under scrutiny, newly elevated state Senate President Don Harmon will step down as a partner at the law firm Burke Burns & Pinelli, Ltd. to focus full-time on his new leadership position," WTTW reports. The Beachwood gets results! (See "Oak Park Lawyer Gets Big Side Job.") * "Harmon told Chicago Tonight on Wednesday he met with the firm's founding partner Mary Patricia Burns on Tuesday to discuss his exit. "We began the discussion of me stepping away from the practice in order to devote more time to the Senate presidency," said Harmon, a Democrat who represents Illinois' 39th District, which covers parts of Oak Park. "We're working out all those details but I've recognized that I just don't have the time capacity to be a good senate president and to practice law the way I practiced it." So it's about time, not the myriad conflicts of interest. That doesn't exactly signal a new era in ethics. I would've preferred Harmon acknowledging that at the least, legislators' side jobs are a bad look, and at the most, we all know it's a dirty business that has hardened voters' cynicism, hobbled democracy and made for bad government. So let's call it a half-step, at best. * Via the Sun-Times: "I was very careful to manage the conflicts, and my firm was incredibly committed to making sure I had the chance to maintain my integrity," Harmon told WTTW. "The simple fact of the matter is I just don't have the time to be a good Senate president and live up to my responsibilities to my partners and my clients." To which Rich Miller at Capitol Fax replied: "The headline of that article was nonsense, by the way. "Illinois Senate President Don Harmon 'stepping away' from law firm job amid conflict of interest scrutiny." Somebody does the right thing for a change and that's the response? Yeah, that'll encourage more of this sort of behavior." But Harmon didn't stay he stepped away from his law firm because it was the right thing to do - he clearly said he simply wouldn't have the time to continue practicing law as the state senate president. In fact, if Harmon was stepping away to do the right thing, as Miller presumes, he would've done so before now. So his motive may be time or, more likely, because (particularly at the moment) it's a bad look. Neither of those constitutes being the right thing to do. (And the notion that the Sun-Times headline would discourage others from doing the same is silly and backwards.) - Juice WRLD "The rapper, whose real name was Jarad A. Higgins, died on Dec. 8 as a result of oxycodone and codeine toxicity, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said. He was 21. "The autopsy findings corroborate law enforcement accounts that Mr. Higgins had gone into convulsions while officers searched a private jet that had been carrying the hip-hop star for drugs and guns." * "The raid turned up 70 pounds of marijuana in 41 vacuum-sealed bags and six bottles of liquid prescription codeine cough syrup that were hidden in unmarked luggage, according to the authorities, who said they were tipped off about the drugs." - Previously in the Beachwood: Remembering Juice WRLD. - See also: * XXL: Juice Wrld's Family Releases First Statement Since Rapper's Death. * TheThings: Eminem Song Shatters Records And Immortalizes Juice WRLD. - Peddling Pot "The men and women, some ex-felons, have turned to Tio 'Mr. Ceasefire' Hardiman, executive director of Violence Interrupters, to assist them in their quest to secure permits, just like food vendors, to distribute and sell marijuana legally in their neighborhoods." This is amusing yet common sensical, though ultimately the social equity piece of the current cannabis law has been worked out over years and seems well thought-out. - ChicagoReddit What messes up the CTA bus tracker? from r/chicago - ChicagoGram - ChicagoTube Austeros de Durango - Andamos Por Chicago - TweetWood
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- The Beachwood Script Line: Go off. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:37 AM | Permalink January 22, 2020The [Wednesday] Papers
In fact, journalists do a disservice to citizens by continuing to namecheck Rush as a former Black Panther, which gives him some progressive cred he doesn't deserve but cloaks him in a patina of righteousness. His former Black Panthership became irrelevant a long time ago. * See also: The [Bobby Rush] Papers. And there's been a lot more since that post; just use the search bar. * It just shows the power that narrative and branding have over journalists. The identifiers for Rush should have been updated a long time ago. * "Rush is the first Congressional Black Caucus member to back the former New York mayor and says he's doing so because of Bloomberg's vow to invest in African American communities," Shia Kapos writes for her Politico Illinois Playbook. "I feel connected to him on a range of issues," Rush told Playbook, ticking off gun prevention, the environment, job security and even trade with China. But it's Bloomberg's focus on boosting economic opportunity that prompted him to endorse. Okay, that's pure folly. Why let him get away with it unchallenged? 1. Rush feels "connected" to Bloomberg on issues including gun prevention, the environment, job security and even trade with China. How in the world does Bloomberg's stance on those issues set him apart from virtually every other Democratic who is running? 2. None of the other candidates have pledged to provide more businesses, jobs, home ownership and investment in the African-American community? Pure bunk. In fact, Bloomberg's record on that score is even more fraught than Pete Buttigieg's. To wit, from the Beachwood earlier this month: "Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is the 8th-richest person on the planet with a fortune estimated at $57.1 billion. His wealth has spared him from doing any fundraising for his presidential campaign. He will spend at least $150 million on television and internet ads. He has a $10 million ad that will air during the Super Bowl," Erick Johnson writes for the Crusader. There's more; go read it. * At least Kapos included this: "This isn't the first time Rush has backed a wealthy, white guy. Recall he stood up for Bill Daley during the first round of last year's mayoral race in Chicago." So let's put the Black Panther piece to bed. * Meanwhile, one of Rush's opponents, who has appeared in some national press, appears to be making a lot of shit up. ↓
↓ — Aaron Gettinger (@aarondgettinger) January 21, 2020 - None of Gad's problematic claims appear this morning's Q&A with the Sun-Times. The paper does, however, ask if climate change is real. You might as well as if gravity is real. The science is proven. Continuing to ask candidates that, instead of asking what they would do about it, only gives oxygen to debunked deniers. * If the Q&A was, as I suspect, in writing and filled out days (or even weeks) ago, it's still incumbent on the paper to update as developments warrant. I'd say in this case developments warrant. - Park Place Really? Maybe the track isn't for sale, per se, but I hear selling the real estate for development is a done deal. - ChicagoReddit Do you think it'd be overkill to wear a surgical face mask through O'Hare? from r/chicago - ChicagoGram - ChicagoTube Heilung at the Riv on Monday night. - TweetWood
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- The Beachwood Treyf Line: Beer blessed. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 2:24 AM | Permalink January 21, 2020The [Tuesday] PapersThe big news over the weekend in Illinois politics was the election of Oak Park Democrat Don Harmon to the state senate presidency, replacing the retiring John Cullerton. Harmon defeated Maywood Democrat Kimberly Lightford. Lightford was (and remains) the senate majority leader. Harmon had been the assistant majority leader, so in a sense he leaped over his colleague to get the top job. Also:
* I must confess, I didn't know (Son of) Emil Jones had the power to be a player. But apparently he was the one who brought the votes over to Harmon in the second round of voting to crown him king. According to Tina Sfondeles at the Sun-Times, Jones may have been exercising a grudge with layers of irony that put the white guy in over the black gal. Kimberly Lightford's vote for a white candidate for Illinois Senate president over a fellow African American politician - 11 years ago - may have helped cost her this year's Senate president's job on Sunday. Now, just because Lightfood suspects she was "betrayed" doesn't mean she was. Doesn't mean she wasn't, either. For example: Reached Sunday night, the elder Jones denied he got involved in the race or that his son voted for Harmon over bad blood. So we supported the white guy, just like she did back then! "Reached Sunday evening, Jones III said he told Lightford on Friday night he would support Harmon. He also told her he would resign as co-chair of the Illinois Senate Black Caucus." Why resign from the caucus? Because he no longer represents black interests? Jones III denied that he voted for Harmon over any bad blood. I don't know what this means. Her ship was sinking and she should've reached out to him? Didn't she? * What's sad, of course, is that Jones didn't offer up, at least in this account (or the reporter didn't ask for), his supposed real reason for supporting Harmon. If it wasn't bad blood, what was it? * And then:
* To wit: "State Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, is one of the most powerful people in Springfield, talked about as a possible future president of the Illinois Senate," the Sun-Times reported in March 2017. "He's also a partner in a Chicago law firm that's been paid more than $9 million in the past five years for doing legal work for state agencies, government workers' pension funds and local governments whose citizens he represents in the Senate, a Chicago Sun-Times examination has found. "That covers work done for more than 20 government bodies, including the city of Chicago, Cook County, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the agency that owns McCormick Place and Navy Pier." Look, public officials should not be allowed to have side jobs - or to make their elected offices their side job. Or to essentially combine them into a racket. It's that simple. Don't like the salary? Don't run. * "The firm - Burke Burns & Pinelli - has done work for agencies whose budgets Harmon votes on, including the Illinois Department of Transportation, and government pension funds regulated by Harmon and his fellow legislators, as well as the village of Rosemont, one of the suburbs he represents in the Illinois Senate, according to records and interviews. "His firm also worked on applications for millions of dollars in five state grants that went to Cinespace Chicago Film Studios - where TV shows including Chicago P.D. and Chicago Fire are shot. The state money included a $10 million grant that Gov. Bruce Rauner ordered the West Side studio to repay in 2015 after the Sun-Times reported that the money was supposed to buy property for an expansion, but the land owners said they weren't going to sell." Click through to read the rest if you want; it's a very familiar script to those who follow Illinois politics. * "Mary Patricia Burns, the majority owner of the law firm, didn't respond to a call and emails seeking comment." If Harmon derived no financial benefit from the firm's dealings with government agencies - and the firm didn't derive benefit from Harmon's position - why would Burns be afraid to talk? Defend your guy! * "Harmon - who once worked as deputy legal counsel to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago - was elected to the state Senate in 2002. At the time, he was a lawyer with the firm Mayer Brown LLP, where he 'practiced corporate banking and municipal law,' according to the online biography on his law firm's website. In 2005, he joined his current firm, where he is one of seven partners but says he 'has no ownership interest.' "As president pro tempore of the Illinois Senate, Harmon is among the top leaders of the legislative chamber, whose members are part-time and typically also hold other jobs. Harmon's yearly pay as a state senator is $78,163. "He says his law firm salary is less than that but won't say how much he makes." That doesn't sound right. "Asked whether he gets any additional compensation beside salary, Harmon would say only that his total pay from Burke Burns & Pinelli is less than the governor's $177,412-a-year salary - the cap on his pay under Illinois ethics law because his firm gets state business." Aha. * "Eric Herman, a spokesman for Cinespace, says Burke Burns & Pinelli was hired in 2010 'because they have a great reputation.'" Perhaps because they employed the state senate's future president! Eric Herman is a former Sun-Times reporter, and therefore Today's Worst Person in Illinois. * I looked through the Beachwood vault and was surprised to find that Lightford's name has never appeared in these pages. I thought for sure I had dinged her for ridiculous behavior typical of someone holding her spot in the political universe, but no. Harmon, on the other hand, is a different story. Rich Miller and his Capitol Fax Blog readers have selected Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) as the state's best legislator. * By the way, that same Beachwood column led with this: "A consulting firm headed by former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr.'s stepson John Sterling has been paid more than $787,000 under a Cook County contract funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, despite failing to provide required weekly reports - for 21 months," Carol Marin and Don Moseley report. * "Leading legislative fauxgressive Don Harmon - once voted the state's best legislator by Rich Miller and his Capitol Fax readers - also comes out pretty stinky. There's a lot more there, so click through. After all, the piece is called "UNO, Law Firm In Harmony." * So I had to chuckle when I saw this Crain's headline: "Can This Oak Park lawyer Tame Springfield's Culture Of Corruption?" Only if he starts with himself! * P.S.: Getting far less attention than the ministrations of Jones et al: "Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, is the new Senate president, thanks, in large part, to a group of moderate suburban and downstate Democrats who quietly supported him in his monthslong rise to the head of the chamber," Capitol News Illinois reports. "The group, calling itself the 'X Caucus' is made up of 'approximately 10 to 12' members depending on the issue, said Democratic Tinley Park Sen. Michael Hastings." - New on the Beachwood . . . Mansplaining To A Millionaire * SportsMonday: The Blackhawks Might Be Back! - ChicagoReddit Is there any chance I can get an entry construction job? from r/chicago - ChicagoGram - ChicagoTube The Towertop of Chicago. - BeachBook 1977 Chicago Comic Con. - TweetWood
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- The Beachwood Resist Line: Name those editors. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 8:36 AM | Permalink Mansplaining To A MillionaireChicago Cubs fans booed the team owner last weekend, and he had no idea why. Wut? Wait. Why, he wondered, and I'm not kidding. At the risk of the obvious, I shall Mansplain to Tom how this works. At the moment boos cascaded upon him, he was wearing a shirt with an open collar. That proved he was just one of the guys. You normally don't boo one of the guys. Still, they booed him lustily at the annual Cubs Convention, and he seemed crestfallen. When your crest falls, it's not a good day for a rich guy's gusto. The fact that Tom Ricketts is worth about $900 million seems a fact to which he applies no self-reflection. Here, I'll help. The loot is in a family trust, but he spends it how he wants. He pretends that a pile of money makes no real difference to him or anyone else. But $900 million apparently does not make you a Man Of The Common Folk if that's your goal. Tom Ricketts has other flaws, too. He's dull. He has a round, dull head. That's an unhelpful combination for a celebrity. What he came to sell - a new cable TV package to benefit himself - met with loud disagreement. The Cubs fans reacted as if Tom Ricketts is a bad person. I know, Tom. You're a swell guy. It's not that having a lot of money makes you a Bad Person. But it does not make you a Good Person, either. That's the equation that affluence cannot buy and perhaps confuses Tom Ricketts the most. Being rich does not prove anything for good or ill, though human experience does suggest that being rich is a terrible burden to being a good person. Tom Ricketts is irritating not because he's rich, but because he's greedy. And he's dull. As for money, he wants more. He needs more. His greed is presumptive. That's not just an opinion. He has arranged his public life for this goal, and he cannot flee the consequences. If you like the Cubs, he wants more of your money for that privilege. He lives in a world defined by "more," though someone has suggested to him that he is a celebrity. This is an enormously erroneous perception. He is mostly a dull person with lots of money. Team executive VP Theo Epstein works nearly as hard at his Gee Whiz I'm An Average Palooka schtick because his net worth is a mere $25 million. Club GM Jed Hoyer's pile of simoleons is less apparent to the naked eye, though he did pay $3.1 million for a 7,400-square-foot, six-bedroom Ravenswood home last summer. Even Cubs manager David Ross has a pile of $11 million. He only looks like the guy working the third shift at a Ford assembly plant. Nope. He's part of the most wealthy 0.000001 percent of people on the planet. Baseball been berry, berry good to me. This does not mean that collective Cubs management is a pack of fat hyenas, but it does mean their sensory perception is limited. Their eyesight will tend not to see average lives because those are invisible to them. Guys who buy Maseratis with pocket change do not understand guys who buy Fords on the six-year loan plan. The best they can do is pretend to be regular people as a marketing device. Vast piles of dough don't turn people into miserable cretins, but it can make them indifferent to lives they do not share, or see very frequently. Your life, my life. Different animals. They can't help it. So Tom Ricketts came to the annual Cubs Convention to tell his fraternal Common Folk that he had come up with a way to be even more flush with cash. It was a new way to make all those people in the convention hall pay for watching the Cubs on cable TV. The Common Folk knew all about this plan even before Ricketts explained to them again with slow, clear words as if they all were Lenny Small in Of Mice and Me or small furry pets. So he Millionaire Mansplained the deal to the assembled proletariat. Boooooo, they all said to the crestfallen Tom. He seemed puzzled in a way that guys with $900 million in the bank seldom are. They hire people to be puzzled for them. The Ricketts family has a new cable TV deal because Tom With An Open Collar can survive only for so long on $900 million while he waits for his really rich father to croak and leave Tom with several billion dollars more. Maybe having $900 million does not automatically signal a deep personality disorder. But it can make a person mistake what they do (making money selling balcony tickets to a double feature) with some grand improvement of the human condition Tom Terrific sells a product. People like the product, though he didn't invent it. He just owns the method of manufacture these days. He might as well be a door-to-door Fuller Brush franchisee. He sells a thing that someone owned before he was born, and someone else will own after he dies. He seems competent at selling, but even the most mentally incapable owners of the team made lots of money selling tickets. Hawking pot-scrubbing implements on the street corner does not make Tom Ricketts a special person. Customers love the pot scrubbers, but not him. This is a distinction he seems not to have intuited before the Cubs Convention affirmed the distaste. Ricketts has many skills, chiefly that he's mostly managed not to gag on the silver spoon that came with his birth certificate. His life is devoted to making his pile of $900 million ever higher. But he has a limitation, and it daunts him. Confuses him. He's unloved. The Cubs are beloved by their fans for reasons I cannot always understand, but the team's owners have never been beloved, a fact owners have often found disconcerting. But even one-time plunderer and walking yeast infection Sam Zell was never confused why fans thought him to be a reprehensible infection. Cubs fans barely tolerate the owners, even in the rare good days of the team. In that regard, the Cubs' new "Marquee" network is a barely disguised money grab to make fans pay for what used to be free. The plan also makes the Ricketts family even richer. This is the main industry of being rich. Rich people - I have been designated to be their official spokesperson - consider this getting-richer-at-your-expense transaction to be the natural grist of social machinery. Guys with $900 million in the bank do not sense why that plan irritates people who drive compact models of Chevies and Fords. But it does. So, Tom, this message is for you and only you: Boooooooooo! Don't take it personally. - David Rutter is the former publisher/editor of the Lake County News-Sun, and more importantly, the former author of the Beachwood's late, great "The Week In WTF" column. He welcomes your comments. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:31 AM | Permalink January 20, 2020SportsMonday: The Blackhawks Might Be Back!The Blackhawks have done it. They have won five in a row. Their reward? They have pulled within three points of the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. Is that all, you say? Well, it is a lot better than where they were when they started the streak. Another reward? The Hawks (54 points in 50 games) have put a little space between themselves and Western Conference Central Division bottom-feeders the Predators (51 in 47) and Wild (50 in 48). Emphasis on "little." The current streak was the bare minimum needed for the team to reassert themselves as at least peripheral contenders for the playoffs this year. The bottom line is they will probably need yet another similar streak to move up to "probable playoff participant" status. One other quick note on the Blackhawks' record after their latest triumph, a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday: With the win, the Hawks improved to 24-20-6 overall. That would have been fine when the letter at the top of the third column was "T," standing for ties. But that third column hasn't been ties for a long time now. The letters at the top of that column are now "OTL," which is, of course, short for "overtime losses." It should actually be "overtime and shootout losses" but no biggie. In other words, the Hawks are actually still two games below .500, with 24 wins and 26 total losses (yes, the overtime losses are worth a point, but they are still losses!). Let's start to make that change. Or we could just stop referring to winning percentages in this context. After all, hockey (and soccer for that matter) standings have always been about teams' total points, and they continue to be. Oh, and the first tiebreaker is total wins. The teams that are tied for the final two playoff spots in the Western Conference after Sunday's action are the Pacific Division's Coyotes and Golden Knights, who have both totaled 57 points in 51 games. Remember that in the NHL, divisions still matter in playoff standings (as opposed to the NBA, which should just list their standings by conference at this point). The Blues (68), Avalanche (60) and Dallas Stars (58), have the top spots in the Hawks' Central Division. and the top three in each division in the NHL make the playoffs no matter how their point totals compare to teams in other divisions. Still, it isn't just that the Hawks have won five in a row; it is that they have taken their overall performance to a significantly higher level in their last two games. On Saturday in Toronto, under the bright lights of Hockey Night in Canada, the Hawks dominated the Maple Leafs 6-2 behind great performances from Jonathan Toews (two goals, two assists) and Dominik Kubalik (the same) capped off by one of the goals of the year: Then on Sunday, the Hawks recorded the win over the Jets. One last note about the standings by the way: Winnipeg is tied with the Hawks at 54 but has played one fewer game. Sunday's thriller featured Patrick Kane recording his 1,000th career point with the second assist on Brandon Saad's slam dunk third-period goal:
The Jets, whose power play ranks among the top 10 in the NHL, never did score with the man advantage. The bottom line is, the Hawks have come a long way and they have a long way to go. One other column in the expanded standings in goal differential: the top team in the Central Division, the defending Stanley Cup champs St. Louis Blues (wow does it suck to write that), are a plus-24. The Hawks are -5. How about the next modest goal is to get that number at least back to zero? - Jim "Coach" Coffman welcomes your comments. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 10:25 AM | Permalink January 19, 2020The Weekend Desk ReportStill on the hunt for a new living space - I've had a couple close calls but no deal sealed. Reach out if you know of something and/or someone looking for a roommate. - Rent Bent "In 2019, rents have increased a modest 1.4 percent year-over-year. Chicago's median two-bedroom rent now is $1,285, compared with the national average of $1,192, reports a new survey by Apartment List, a national apartment research firm. "However, tenants leasing in hot lakefront and downtown neighborhoods easily will pay $2,500 to $3,000 a month for a swank two-bedroom layout in a newer, amenity-filled high-rise." * "Many professional apartment management companies have stopped taking refundable security deposits, mostly to avoid the massive bookkeeping work to compute the tenant's tiny annual interest earnings of 0.01 percent as required by the Chicago Landlord Tenant Ordinance. The annual interest payment typically costs a landlord only a few cents a year per unit, but it is an accounting nightmare for major management firms. Imagine sending out 20 cent checks to thousands of tenants every year. The cost of the postage stamp would exceed the interest payment. "Significant application, move-in, and pet fees generally have replaced security deposits in the downtown rental apartment markets. Application fees range from about $80 to $100 per renter. Non-refundable move-in fees start at about $350 and go to $500. Some landlords also charge move-out fees." Security deposits were supposed to be used to motivate renters to keep an apartment in good shape, lest they end up having to pay for the repairs. They were not intended to generate revenue. But apparently that's not how landlords see it - are they really such an accounting nightmare? C'mon - and now they just take your money as a move-in fee for the cost of . . . you moving in? It's a rip-off, plain and simple. Intended Consequences Here we go! "Residential developers worry the panel is a first step in the city's push to strengthen a Chicago ordinance requiring them to include affordable apartments or condominiums in their projects. And they'll be relying heavily in the coming months on a familiar argument: that tougher regulations would be counterproductive, discouraging rather than encouraging the creation of housing in the city." Tougher regulations certainly wouldn't prevent the creation of more affordable housing in the city. If they discourage the development of more unaffordable housing, so be it - though I doubt developers would simply stop building. That's how they make money. * By the way, why characterize the rules as "tougher" instead of, say, "fairer?" * Anyway . . . "City housing officials say there's not much data to support that conclusion [that "tougher" rules will discourage development]. But many developers say the current rules, last revised in 2015, already have had a negative impact. "All they do is restrict development," says Jim Letchinger, founder and CEO of Chicago-based JDL Development. Data, please. * "With the [Affordable Requirements Ordinance], [Lightfoot's] challenge is finding the regulatory sweet spot: the optimal level of regulation that produces more affordable housing without depressing development." But I thought the city just said there is no data to support the notion that regulation that produces more affordable housing produces development. * Also: Maybe it's good to develop more affordable housing while "depressing" development overall! Maybe that's the sweet spot! * "Developers have never been the most sympathetic bunch, and they certainly aren't these days. They've profited from one of the biggest apartment booms in decades, charging high rents and selling projects for much more than they cost to build. But rising prices for construction materials and labor have cut into profit margins, and raising money for new projects is getting harder amid concerns about rising property taxes, they say." So it's not enough that developers have been raking in the dough for years at historic levels; now we have to insure that "rising prices for construction materials and labor" don't cut into those hefty profit margins and they make just a little bit less? Also, rising prices for construction materials means that companies who produce those materials either have to cover their own rising costs or are trying to increase their own margins. Why should we favor developers over them? Further, rising labor costs means that laborers - real people with real families - are making more money, though probably not considerably more. Is that a bad thing? Maybe they haven't been getting a fair wage all this time considering how much developers have been making in a historic building boom. Let's not just frame this as developers vs. people who need affordable homes - though that should be enough. * "For developers, the economics are simple: If the government makes something less profitable to produce, businesses will make less of it. Typically, government regulations reduce profits by imposing higher costs on businesses. But the ARO depresses profits by decreasing the rental revenue a building can generate, sometimes by so much that a developer won't move forward." Yeah, not so much. Do auto companies produce fewer cars because the government imposes standards such as, "This car will not blow up when you turn the key?" Do food companies produce less food because the government requires the food not be poisoned? If the answer to those questions are Yes, so be it. I suspect that answer is No because of supply-and-demand and greed - folks in business still want to make money. * Also, what of the cost imposed on government (and society in general) of a lack of affordable housing? Or perhaps developers are suggesting that affordable housing is the government's business, and they are more than willing to pay taxes (along with everyone else) to see to it that it gets built and our people are adequately housed. I would go along with that! Just make sure the subsidized housing is, um, contained within market-built housing so as to not repeat the horrors of stacking poor people on top of each other Oh, wait, that's what we're trying to do in the first place! (And by the way, "affordable housing" isn't just for the poor; it's for all of us who aren't rich.) * "A couple of years ago, Chicago developer David 'Buzz' Ruttenberg was drawing up plans for a 40-plus-unit condo project on Orleans Street on the Near North Side. But Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, who represents the neighborhood, wouldn't approve the plans unless 20 percent of the units were classified as affordable, Ruttenberg says. "We couldn't afford it, so we took a pass," says Ruttenberg, chairman emeritus of Belgravia Group. I did a quick search this morning and couldn't find more on this deal, but I'd like to have it vetted before it's repeated. I did find plenty of deals Ruttenberg did in conjunction with Burnett. I suspect "couldn't afford it" means "couldn't make as much money as we wanted to," but so be it. What would Ruttenberg have the city do? If the market was building enough affordable housing on its own, the city wouldn't have to impose any regulations on developers to do so. * By the way, if you haven't figured it out already, Ruttenberg is a millionaire. - State TV
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- New on the Beachwood . . . The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #287: The Houston Asterisks - ChicagoReddit Wanting to move to Chicago to work in a Michelin star restaurant any advice on making that feasible? from r/chicago - Weekend ChicagoGram - Weekend ChicagoTube The Handcuffs at Montrose Saloon last Sunday night. - Weekend BeachBook ↓ Catholic Church Shields $2 Billion In Assets To Limit Abuse Payouts; Surely Going To Hell. + In God We Trust, But Which One? * At The Bottom Of The Sea, They Wait To Feast On Alligators. The true nature of nature. - Weekend TweetWood
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- The Weekend Report Rip & Tip Line: Conscious conscience. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 8:45 AM | Permalink January 17, 2020The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #287: The Houston AsterisksThe rules were clear. Plus: Pathetic Playoff Picks; Louisiana State's Universe; Bye Bye Bourbonnais; Is Jonathan Toews Back?; Bulls Midseason Report: It's The Underachieving That Stands Out; Red Star Rachel; Klopas Is Back; and Illinois Starts To Hoop It Up.
- SHOW NOTES * 287. :37: Astros Asshats. * Coffman: The Rules Were Clear. * Wallenstein: Tech In, Garbage Out. * LA City Council To Ask MLB To Award World Series Trophies To Dodgers. * Plaschke: For Three Years We Wondered, And Now We Know. * Yu Garbage:
* Rosenthal: Jessica Mendoza Just Gave ESPN A New Reason To Dump Her When She Criticized The Whistleblower In The Astros Cheating Scandal. * Coffman: An eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind! 22:06: Pathetic Playoff Picks. * Stop the pundits before they predict again! * Don't dismiss the Titans. * Russell Wilson is elite. * P.S.: NFL still recycling white guys. 36:16: Louisiana State's Universe.
40:36: Bye Bye Bourbonnais & Other Bears Bits. * The Truth About The New Halas Hall. * Lake Forest to get needed economic boost. * Rhodes: "I can't decide if I care or not." * Minor Lazor. * Jimbo Covert and Ed Sprinkle. * Duke Slater and Alex Karras. * Kyle Long:
* Marshawn Lynch:
55:56: White Sox Offseason Finally Over. 57:05: Cubs Offseason Never Got Started. 1:02:01: Is Jonathan Toews Back? * Greenfield: Yes. * Coffman: No. 1:03:27: Bulls Midseason Report: It's The Underachievement That Stands Out. * Just as it was at the quarter pole. 1:03:57: Red Star Rachel. 1:04:13: Klopas Is Back. 1:04:43: Illinois Starting To Hoop It Up. * Loyola women started out 9-0, now 12-3. * Northwestern women upset No. 15 Indiana in OT after late rally. * Loyola men beat SIU, have won four of five. * No. 14 Villanova squeaks past DePaul men in OT. - STOPPAGE: 6:21 - For archives and other Beachwood shows, see The Beachwood Radio Network. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 12:53 PM | Permalink January 16, 2020The [Thursday] PapersSo a tooth saga that started in August finally (hopefully) ended yesterday when they just pulled that sucker out, and by "they" I mean my favorite dentist of the five who ultimately looked at the thing (six if you count the supervisor of a UIC dentistry student). I had never had a tooth pulled before, and I was surprised at how quickly it went. Like, bim boom bam. Gone. I was prescribed painkillers - Tylenol 3, which has codeine in it, and 800mg ibuprofens, which I call superprofens - but the thing is, there's no pain. And this, I've learned, is not unusual. Often, once the tooth is gone, the pain is gone too, for the pain was in the tooth. I'm on antibiotics - for the third time since this wonderful journey began - because the gum is still infected. Other than that, I'm back to my normal state of crappiness, and I can start eating like a normal person again, though there is now a hole at the very back of my lower left rack of teeth. Maybe I'll store stuff there, or insert a Bluetooth something or other. Or maybe the government already has . . . * I'd show you a picture of the tooth, but they didn't let me keep it. Apparently it was hazardous medical waste. - Council Was Lit I'm not quite sure about that, but it was A Moment. Lightfoot had stood silent while aldermen hashed out whether to study set-aside contracts for LGBTQ business owners. The mayor proposed the plan but got pushback from minority aldermen concerned it could cut into contracts that people of color and women were trying to get. You'll have to click through to get the goods. * "Lightfoot criticized the tenor of the aldermen's questions, which included Burnett during a committee hearing about the ordinance on Tuesday invoking the Adam Sandler film I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, in which two straight firefighters pretend to be gay so one can earn health benefits." * "Ald. Maria Hadden (49th), the only gay black woman on the City Council, said she doesn't know whether to react with anger or laughter to the debate, which included Ald. Walter Burnett's reference to a 2007 Adam Sandler comedy about two New York City firefighters who pretend to be gay to secure medical benefits for a child. "We've got to do better, you guys. Being afraid is never an excuse to dismiss" a legitimate concern about discrimination, Hadden said. Also: "Ald. David Moore (17th) demanded the roll call and cast the only 'no' vote." Huh. I wonder why. "Ald. David Moore (17th) said his questions about the study were not answered sufficiently when the measure was approved in committee earlier this week. "I want to make sure that the policy is right, and right now I'm not feeling that the policy is right, because I don't want to even hurt the very people that we're trying to help," he said. How so? After all, this is about conducting a study, not implementing a policy. * Previously from David Moore, when he and others tried to delay the legalization of recreational pot in Chicago either out of ignorance about how the social equity piece works (see the item Pot Shots) or for the purpose of political grandstanding, via CBS2 Chicago: Ald. David Moore (17th) - who voted for the delay - was so incensed by the fact the Black Caucus did not stand united in favor of the ordinance, he said he was resigning from the Black Caucus. * I wasn't able to determine this morning if Moore is a Preckwinkle dead-ender, though I did find this from the Daily Line in 2017: "Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has tapped John Roberson as her new director of external affairs - the person who serves as go-between with outside and community groups. Roberson, who has a long history in the Daley administration, replaces Jonathan Buckner. Roberson's previous gig was as chief of staff to Ald. David Moore (17)." * Moore is a member of the progressive caucus, and as far as I can tell seems to have a progressive agenda. He has also been relatively outspoken about minority contracts, once telling the Sun-Times that his aldermanic role model was Pat Dowell, "because of her commitment to getting contracts for African-American businesses." * It's great that Moore is such a fierce advocate for contract equity, but not so great that he can be so misguided and myopic in that pursuit. * Also, a reminder that Mayor Lori Lightfoot is not only gay but African American. Seems relevant, somehow. Lipinski & Labor "Multiple sources report that the Illinois AFL-CIO late Wednesday chose to endorse Lipinski over rivals Marie Newman and Rush Darwish in the March Democratic primary by a margin of roughly 20 out of 1,000 votes cast by the trade group's affiliated unions." * I don't know how AFL-CIO voting works, but does that mean that Lipinski beat his nearest rival but had fewer votes than Newman and Darwish combined - in other words, his opponents split the vote? * "The action came even though the Chicago Federation of Labor dumped Lipinski, recommending that labor remain neutral in the contest after backing Lipinski against Newman in 2018. The Illinois AFL-CIO usually - but not always - follows the recommendations of the CFL in Chicago area contests . . . "Other sources tell me that the race has caused increased consternation among labor groups, with Service Employees International Union strongly pushing Newman but more conservative trade unions and AFSME preferring the incumbent." Yup. * "In related news, CFL announced that it backs Kim Foxx for reelection as state's attorney and county tax appeals Commissioner Michael Cabonargi for clerk of the circuit court. "The organization was neutral four years ago when Foxx unseated then-incumbent Anita Alvarez." I wonder: Is it Foxx's policies or her incumbency that won them over? Oberweis's Overbite "Oberweis, from Sugar Grove, is in a seven-way Republican primary for the 14th Congressional District seat held by freshman Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill." He's also at least a seven-time loser who keeps trying to buy his way into higher office, right? * Here's Oberweis's telling of the Lorance saga, via press release: Jim Oberweis is hosting several events with 1st Lt. Clint Lorance who was just recently pardoned by President Donald Trump after serving time in Fort Leavenworth military prison for alleged war crimes. Now, here's the truth, first via Wikipedia and its sourced footnotes: "Clint Allen Lorance (born December 13, 1984) is a former Army officer previously commissioned as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army who in August 2013 was found guilty on two counts of second-degree murder for ordering soldiers in his platoon to open fire at three men on a motorcycle in southern Afghanistan in July 2012 . . . "He was confined in the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas until he was fully pardoned and ordered released by President Donald Trump, on November 15, 2019 . . . "At the end of a three-day trial, Lorance was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder, obstruction of justice, and other charges 'related to a pattern of threatening and intimidating actions toward Afghans' as the platoon's leader. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, forfeiture of all pay, and dismissal from the Army . . . "On January 5, 2015, the Commanding General of the 82nd Airborne Division, Major General Richard Clarke, completed a review and upheld Lorance's conviction." Now, from Lorance's own platoon: "Though many members of the platoon have never publicly expressed their views of the case, nine came forward to testify against Mr. Lorance at his trial, and in interviews several have contradicted Mr. Lorance's account of a split-second decision to protect his troops. The picture those soldiers paint is of a young lieutenant who, during just three days in command, ordered soldiers to fire repeatedly on unarmed Afghans, tried to falsify reports in order to cover up his actions and so alienated and outraged his troops that they refused to follow orders and turned him in." * Also, it just occurred to me: Does Oberweis mean Overwhite? Don't answer that, I'm just going to believe it does. - ChicagoReddit Anyone have experience dealing with huge bills after towing? from r/chicago - ChicagoGram - ChicagoTube Chicago Sound Art. - TweetWood
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- The Beachwood Snip Line: Snip it real good. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 9:04 AM | Permalink January 15, 2020The [Wednesday] Papers
- New on the Beachwood . . . Corrupt IOC Bans Protests * The Constitution & Lying * United's New Carhartts * Tech In, Garbage Out * The Fall Of 1987 - ChicagoReddit Nonprofit looking for stories of people having trouble finding/keeping affordable housing due to pets from r/chicago - ChicagoGram - ChicagoTube "Maquina 501" / Paraiso Tropical, in Chicago - TweetWood
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* From everything I've read, I highly doubt he said it, fwiw.
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- The Beachwood Tip Line: Within your reach. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 2:08 PM | Permalink January 14, 2020New United Carhartt Uniforms Hit The "Runway" Right On Time For WinterCustomers are seeing a new look on United Airlines runways. Welcoming the new year, United is debuting new uniforms designed by Carhartt Company Gear exclusively for the airline's 28,000 Technical Operations, Ramp Service and Catering Operations employees. CCG worked directly with United employees for nearly three years to create a collection of uniform pieces that deliver hard-working designs that stand up to the unique demands of their jobs. "This is more than a fashion statement for United Airlines," said Kate Gebo, executive vice president of Human Resources and Labor Relations at United Airlines. "This highly inclusive design process reflects how highly we value the input of our employees and union leadership. Every day all over the globe our employees on the ground are facing the coldest colds and the hottest hots. Through our partnership with Carhartt - the leader in workwear - we've confidently created a uniform collection enabling our employees to look good and feel good while continuing to deliver the best service for our customers." Approximately 1,000 employees from both domestic and international operations participated in focus groups and "wear tests" where their input was used to enhance garment features and functionality. The Carhartt collection includes over 50 pieces, each designed to address our below-wing workforce's specific needs, like bottoms with custom-design pockets to fit wands and other tools, color-blocking on hi-visibility gear to address dirt and grime and fabrics designed to address the wide range of climate conditions across our system. As a part of this effort, Carhartt also put an emphasis on the women's collection, ensuring these employees have garments that have both proper fit and function. These various design elements and options created will help employees perform safely and efficiently. "Carhartt Company Gear offers one of the most comprehensive and innovative workwear solutions in the marketplace and our relationship with United is a testament to our custom product offering," said Andi Donovan, senior vice president of Carhartt Company Gear. "Our goal is to work collaboratively with companies to outfit their entire operation with the best gear that fits their specific needs and based on the feedback we've received from those on the front lines at United, the new uniforms are working hard for each and every one of them." The uniform refresh is part of a larger effort to revamp all United uniforms for more than 75,000 employees. Each decision with United's uniform design partners - Tracy Reese, Brooks Brothers and Carhartt - has been driven by employee feedback, with a focus on high quality fabrics, improved breathability and overall enhanced fit. The next step in this cohesive collection will be to complete a second wear test before revealing final designs from Brooks Brothers and Tracy Reese for flight attendants, pilots, and customer service representatives. United expects to share more information in Summer 2020. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 9:29 PM | Permalink Olympics Warns Athletes That Kneeling, Fist-Raising And Other Political Actions Will Be Banned At The Tokyo 2020 GamesThe International Olympic Committee - long a swirling cesspool of corruption, censorship, and reputation-laundering for repressive regimes - has attained a new low, issuing guidance to athletes competing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that no political protests will be tolerated, specifically banning kneeling or raising fists. Protests by Olympians - particularly Black Americans - have made political history, from the raised fists of John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Mexico City Games (with Peter Norman standing in solidarity) to Jesse Owens' thwarting of Hitler's propaganda dreams for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. "So the IOC is doubling down on the disgraceful treatment of athletes in 1968?" asked Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The IOC expelled Smith and Carlos in 1968. The update comes less than five months after the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee reprimanded U.S. athletes Race Imboden and Gwen Berry for their act of protest at the medal podium. Imboden kneeled to protest "the multiple shortcomings of the country I hold so dear to my heart" including "a president who spreads hate," and Berry protested social injustice in America. The IOC announced the guidelines for Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter on Thursday. Among the specific actions (pdf) now banned: * Displaying any political messaging, including signs or armbands * Gestures of a political nature, like a hand gesture or kneeling * Refusal to follow the Ceremonies protocol "When an individual makes their grievances, however legitimate, more important than the feelings of their competitors and the competition itself, the unity and harmony as well as the celebration of sport and human accomplishment are diminished," the guidelines read. The new rules still allow athletes to express their views on social media and in interviews and at press conferences, the new document states. Failure to abide by the guidelines will result in the athlete's action being evaluated by their "respective National Olympic Committee, International Federation, and the IOC, and disciplinary action will be taken on a case-by-case basis as necessary." Critics pointed to the fact that while the new document asserts that the podium and playing field must be a politics-free zone, the IOC itself is not politically neutral. "The truth is, it's not the mixing of politics and sports that [IOC president Thomas] Bach and the IOC don't like," Nancy Armour opined for USA Today. "It's the mixing of politics they don't like with sports." It's just fine for Bach to lobby for the issues he finds important. Or to foster good relationships with world leaders who might someday bankrupt their economies in exchange for sparkling venues, five-star hotels, and Olympic traffic lanes that allow IOC members to avoid the general populace on the roads and in the airports. That the types of protest now barred appear to take specific aim at black athletes wasn't lost on other critics either. Advocacy group People for the American Way rejected the new guidelines in a Twitter thread Friday that drew attention to an Op-Ed published at HuffPost in 2017 by Diallo Brooks, the group's director of outreach and public engagement. "The right to raise our voices, make a speech, march in a rally, or take a knee in protest - whether in front of a government building or a football field - is at the heart of what it means to live in a free country," wrote Brooks. "Young men of color who play sports are more than just entertainers, and they should not be penalized for speaking out peacefully against injustice," he wrote. "They must be allowed to have a voice. And when their voices are threatened, we have to raise our own and stand with them." This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 6:55 PM | Permalink Tech In, Garbage OutWe called him Pickles, although I never knew why. It might have been his last name. He was a kind old gentleman, positioned behind home plate shielded by one of those balloon chest protectors. He worked alone, calling not only balls and strikes but also the bases for Little and Pony League games of my youth. One evening there was a close play at second base that challenged the eyesight of Pickles, who never strayed much from his post behind the plate. Before making a decision, he meticulously strolled toward the center of the diamond to summon the baserunner and the second baseman. The infielder claimed he put the tag on the kid before he reached the base. Turning to the runner, Pickles inquired about the veracity of this initial testimony. In that age of innocence, and because Pickles was an adult whom kids respected, the youngster reported that he was, indeed, out. He jogged toward the bench with a clean conscience without even a whisper of protest from coaches or parents in the stands. Upon learning of the penalties levied against the Houston Astros for stealing signs en route to their World Series championship in 2017, the image of that honesty and truthfulness so many years ago bubbled up to the surface. Of course, our big league heroes of the times even then were engaged in various acts of trickery and treachery like stealing signs the old fashioned way. However, we kids were far removed from that, being focused on the rudiments of the game. This latest scandal, a modern day version of what major league ballplayers have been doing for more than a century, is predictable and exactly what MLB deserves. Things might have been more palpable if, say, the Royals or Marlins - losers of more than 100 games last season - had been caught red-handed. Who would have cared? But the world champions, who most probably would have defeated the Dodgers anyway, is an entirely different matter. So here we are in a world of publicized and celebrated high tech, when every time the first baseman so much as scratches his crotch, it's embedded in the towers of data collected by organizations intent on getting a competitive edge. MLB worships this glut of information. Every telecast is increasingly chock full of sabermetrics, launch angles, spin rates, spray charts and thousands of other tidbits documented by Amazon Web Services (AWS), FanGraphs, Baseball Prospectus, and numerous other information centers. Should we be surprised that the fellas in the dugout, with plenty of time to plot and scheme, engaged the computers and cameras to devise communication about the upcoming pitch to their hitters? The logical question is, "What took them so long?" What's interesting about the investigation of the Astros is that the "what did they know and when did they know it?" mystery was easily solved. Pitcher Mike Fiers, who started 28 games and was 8-10 with a 5.22 ERA for the '17 Astros, disclosed in November in an article in The Athletic that the team was unlawfully stealing signs. Apparently Carlos Beltran, among the personnel that MLB questioned, had zero notion of a cover-up. Without much encouragement, he described the plot to the interrogators. Beltran was the team's primary designated hitter in 2017 and was named manager of the Mets right after last season. Surprisingly, Beltran, being a player at the time, seems exempt from any punishment. Apparently the Commissioner puts the onus on the manager and front office for stopping and/or reporting cheating. Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who was a coach with the Astros and knew about and aided the scheme, is also out, as is Astros manager A.J. Hinch, who, along with general manager Jeff Luhnow, was suspended for this season and then quickly fired by Astros owner Jim Crane. So in less than two months, the Commissioner's office completed interviews and fact-finding and issued punishments this week. You have to wonder what's taking so long for Kris Bryant's grievance about service time. He has a very credible case, about as clear as the sign stealing debacle. I guess that's what happens when agents and lawyers are involved. The suffocating irony of this latest scandal is that the information was relayed to the hitter via garbage cans, which have been around for years. Pounding on one with a bat meant an off-speed pitch was coming. No pounding indicated a heater was in the works. MLB.TV showed a clip from September, 2017 of a game in Houston when White Sox reliever Danny Farquhar was facing the Astros' Evan Gattis to lead off the eighth inning. After Gattis fouled off a few pitches, Farquhar stopped his windup and summoned catcher Kevan Smith to the mound. Farquhar might not have been the greatest relief pitcher we've ever seen, but he may have been one of the smartest. He quickly realized that the garbage can pounding (or lack thereof) was telegraphing his deliveries. He and Smith made adjustments; Gattis struck out; and Farquhar retired the next two hitters for a perfect inning. The Sox won the game 3-1 against the eventual champions. Catchers and pitchers always use a different set of signs with a runner on second base so that the hitter isn't getting prompts from his teammate. There's nothing illegal about the runner trying to help the hitter, and we all know that there have been coaches like Joe Nossek whose specialty was solving the opponents' signs. Nossek always had a job, serving five different clubs including two stints (1984-86, 1991-2003) with the White Sox. There are other acts of trickery which are part of the game. The hidden ball trick rarely is successful, but when it works, everyone except the victim gets a real kick out of it. Pitchers who have mastered the art of balking without getting caught create a big advantage for holding on runners and limiting stolen bases. A first baseman who fakes a throw back to the pitcher on a routine pick off occasionally gets the runner stepping off the base. Gaylord Perry made a Hall of Fame career by throwing an illegal pitch. Other pitchers were not above adding "foreign" substances to baseballs. Conversely, consider golf, a game where players have been known to call penalties on themselves. It happens fairly frequently on the PGA tour. For weekend hackers, guys who cheat usually have a difficult time getting a foursome. Of course, baseball is very different. Even the jargon includes hints of treachery. When the middle infielders in a potential double play situation take a few steps closer to second base, it's known as "cheating." Or a centerfielder "cheats" toward left or right depending on what pitch is being thrown. What's a bit puzzling with the Astros' situation is that the players, manager and coaches knew that using the garbage-can technology was prohibited. I'm not naïve enough to think they wouldn't consider breaking the rules, but players come and go, Fiers among them. Once he got to Detroit, he didn't hesitate to spill the beans to help his Tiger teammates. In addition, all the players belong to the same union. Maybe the Astros were helping themselves, but you could argue that they were jeopardizing their union comrades on the opposing teams. This will not be a popular argument, but now that there are ingenious (or not) methods for things like stealing signs, what if everything was legal? It would make each team adjust in new and modern ways by devising undetectable communication systems between pitchers and catchers like Danny Farquhar did a few years ago. This will not be the last time ballclubs bend or break the rules. Teams need to be savvy and defensive. If not, it's their own fault. Or baseball could employ the Pickles method. A guy strokes a 450-foot home run, and as he crosses the plate, the ump asks him if he knew what pitch was coming. Good luck with that one. - Former Bill Veeck bar buddy Roger Wallenstein is our White Sox correspondent. He welcomes your comments. - 1. From Alan C. Heineman: Great column! One of the main points I'd make in all this is that there's a bright line between what is expressly forbidden by the rules of MLB and what may be "okay" edge-getting. Thus, Gaylord Perry, who made a HOF career out of self-admittedly violating an explicit rule, should be deleted from the HOF - at least until Bonds, Clemens and others who (probably) took steroids are admitted. Whereas Rose, who not only violated what is arguably the First Commandment - thou shalt not consort with gamblers on baseball - but may well have shaved runs to win bets for himself and/or his associates should never, ever, ever be cleared. Sign-stealing by human means is not forbidden; everyone in baseball is aware that this can happen without penalty. Was there an explicit rule that tech can't be used for that purpose? Case closed. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 5:50 PM | Permalink The Fall Of 1987LOS ANGELES - Based on his viewpoint that the historic contributions of the Hip-Hop generation has largely been ignored by popular culture, actor and comedian Doug E. Doug has released his first novel, titled The Fall of 1987, which tells the dramatic story of a young Black man investigating the mysterious death of his brother during the rise of the Hip-Hop genre. "I noticed that there was little attention paid to my generation in media," said Doug. "Mythmakers and storytellers go on and on about the World War II generation - the so-called 'Greatest Generation.' The achievements of the Civil Rights generation are chronicled with due heroism and some complexity. Now, we are launching into the voices and perspectives of the Millennials and Gen Y." Doug wants to lead an effort to preserve the experiences of the Hip-Hop generation and their impact on the world. "This book is a step toward dealing with complexity of life in the Post-Civil Rights era amidst the highly destructive crack epidemic and the dawn of mass incarceration," Doug said. "Our voices are desperately needed right now during this highly charged political climate where we can have a greater and decisive social impact." The Fall of 1987 centers on 19-year-old Joe Thomas Jr., who decides to piece together the stories told to him about the last days of his brother's life to solve his murder. While trying to solve the "case," Joe examines the forces and events that shaped his life and caused the break-up of his family. But will Snake, a dangerous drug kingpin and former employer, let him move on with his life? Doug's book will be available on Amazon on Wednesday, January 15. About Doug E. Doug Doug's entrée into film began when he spoke one line in Spike Lee's film Mo' Better Blues. He is well-known to movie viewers for his starring role as the spirited pushcart operator turned bobsled racer in the feature film Cool Runnings. Audiences also recognize Doug for his roles as a ne'er do well in Hangin' with the Homeboys, for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actor; class comedian in Class Act; a soldier enlisted for an unusual duty in Operation Dumbo Drop; an ill-fated high school student in Dr. Giggles; and the hilarious FBI agent in That Darn Cat. In the Warner Brothers science-fiction comedy Eight Legged Freaks, Doug portrayed a paranoid small-town radio host with visions of an alien invasion. In the animated DreamWorks film Shark Tale, he is the voice of Bernie the jellyfish. - Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 3:38 PM | Permalink Can The Constitution Stop The Government From Lying To The Public?When regular people lie, sometimes their lies are detected, sometimes they're not. Legally speaking, sometimes they're protected by the First Amendment - and sometimes not, like when they commit fraud or perjury. But what about when government officials lie? I take up this question in my recent book, The Government's Speech and the Constitution. It's not that surprising that public servants lie - they are human, after all. But when an agency or official backed by the power and resources of the government tells a lie, it sometimes causes harm that only the government can inflict. My research found that lies by government officials can violate the Constitution in several different ways, especially when those lies deprive people of their rights. Clear ViolationsConsider, for instance, police officers who falsely tell a suspect that they have a search warrant, or falsely say that the government will take the suspect's child away if the suspect doesn't waive his or her constitutional rights to a lawyer or against self-incrimination. These lies violate constitutional protections provided in the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments. If the government jails, taxes or fines people because it disagrees with what they say, it violates the First Amendment. And under some circumstances, the government can silence dissent just as effectively through its lies that encourage employers and other third parties to punish the government's critics. During the 1950s and 1960s, for example, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission spread damaging falsehoods to the employers, friends and neighbors of citizens who spoke out against segregation. As a federal court found decades later, the agency "harassed individuals who assisted organizations promoting desegregation or voter registration. In some instances, the commission would suggest job actions to employers, who would fire the targeted moderate or activist." And some lawsuits have accused government officials of misrepresenting how dangerous a person was when putting them on a no-fly list. Some judges have expressed concern about whether the government's no-fly listing procedures are rigorous enough to justify restricting a person's freedom to travel. Spreading Distrust And UncertaintyBut in other situations, it can be difficult to find a direct connection between the government's speech and the loss of an individual right. Think of government officials' lies about their own misconduct, or their colleagues', to avoid political and legal accountability - like the many lies told about the Vietnam War by Lyndon Johnson's administration, as revealed by the Pentagon Papers.
Those sorts of lies are part of what I've called "the government's manufacture of doubt." These include the government's falsehoods that seek to distract the public from efforts to discover the truth. For instance, in response to growing concerns about his campaign's connections to Russia, President Donald Trump claimed that former President Barack Obama had wiretapped him during the campaign, even though the Department of Justice confirmed that no evidence supported that claim. Decades earlier, in the 1950s, Sen. Joseph McCarthy sought both media attention and political gain through outrageous and often unfounded claims that contributed to a culture of fear in the country. When public officials speak in these ways, they undermine public trust and frustrate the public's ability to hold the government accountable for its performance. But they don't necessarily violate any particular person's constitutional rights, making lawsuits challenging at best. In other words, just because the government's lies hurt us does not always mean that they violate the Constitution. What Else Can People Do?There are other important options for protecting the public from the government's lies. Whistleblowers can help uncover the government's falsehoods and other misconduct. Recall FBI Associate Director Mark Felt, Watergate's "Deep Throat" source for the Washington Post's investigation, and Army Sgt. Joseph Darby, who revealed the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. And lawmakers can enact, and lawyers can help enforce, laws that protect whistleblowers who expose government lies. Legislatures and agencies can exercise their oversight powers to hold other government officials accountable for their lies. For example, Senate hearings led Sen. McCarthy's colleagues to formally condemn his conduct as "contrary to senatorial traditions and . . . ethics."
In addition, the press can seek documents and information to check the government's claims, and the public can protest and vote against those in power who lie. Public outrage over the government's lies about the war in Vietnam, for example, contributed to Lyndon Johnson's 1968 decision not to seek reelection. Similarly, the public's disapproval of government officials' lies to cover up the Watergate scandal helped lead to Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation. It can be hard to prevent government officials from lying, and difficult to hold them accountable when they do. But the tools available for doing just that include not only the Constitution but also persistent pushback from other government officials, the press and the people themselves. Helen Norton is the Rothgerber Chair in Constitutional Law at the University of Colorado-Boulder. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. -
Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 3:14 PM | Permalink The [Tuesday] Papers"Gov. Pritzker set aside about ten minutes for interviews with some political reporters last week," Rich Miller notes at Capitol Fax. And we're seeing a spate of reporters from various news organizations produce stories from those 10-minute interviews. But let me just say something: 10 minutes? Please. You've been had. * The governor could've given an hour to five reporters one day and still had time to work half a shift. Then maybe next month choose another five reporters. Or, hell, do it once a week. Ten-minute interviews are designed to give the appearance of access while only providing enough time to spew out talking points and let a reporter get in one or two of the most shallow questions on their list. It's not a serious effort to engage the press - though the press laps it up. The TV stations will probably bill their interviews as exclusives, which to them means nobody else was on the line or in the room when an official answered a question, even if the official answered the same question to a dozen others. It's just PR, though we're already seeing stories framed around innocuous statements because no news organization has the guts to say there's nothing here, let's not publish or telecast anything. - Sources And Methods "Just over a week after recreational pot sales kicked off statewide, regulators sent a letter saying they were aware of violations and investigating whether stores were sourcing more than 40% of their product from one grower. The law is aimed at preventing pot growers from entering into exclusive agreements with specific shops and making sure all stores have a diversity of products from different sources." Geez, we can't go a single week of legal pot in Illinois without breaking the rules. * "The warning comes as some dispensaries grappling with the pervasive supply shortage said they were worried that some companies that own both dispensaries and cultivation sites were trying to control the market by limiting product available to competitors . . . [State Sen. Heather Steans (Chicago-D)] said independent dispensaries have reported seeing a dropoff in deliveries from GTI and Cresco Labs, a pair of multi-state operators based in River North that run multiple grow operations and dispensaries across Illinois. Jason Erkes, you are Today's Worst Person in Illinois. - Pot Strong "One hundred of the roughly 130 workers at the facility are eligible to vote to join the United Food & Commercial Workers union, said Zach Koutsky, legislative and political director for Local 881 UFCW. "The workers want higher wages, lower health care costs, more respect on the job and other requests, Koutsky said." One week in and the recreational pot industry has truly arrived in Illinois. * Plus: Teamsters wanna get you high. Check out the logo/pin.
* According to the Trib, the results of the union vote are due in tonight. - Martwick Is A Cop You might remember Martwick, a property tax appeals lawyer who moonlights as a state The irony is that a certain faction of Preckwinkle dead-enders liked (and still like) to say during the campaign that "Lori is a cop" because of her work as a federal prosecutor, as head of the CPD's office of professional standards, and as president of the Chicago Police Board. Perhaps her work at OEMC and as the chair of the police reform task force was also not to their liking. And yet, the FOP won't be endorsing Lightfoot anytime soon. They sure do like one of Preckwinkle's chief allies, though. - New on today's Beachwood . . . Coffman: The Rules Were Clear - ChicagoReddit King Day Festival: Tomorrow Is Today | The Art Institute of Chicago - January 20th Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Free with admission from r/chicago - ChicagoGram - ChicagoTube "The Hopes, The Dreams, The Tears" / The Bushes (Chicago, 1969) - BeachBook The First Fast Food Restaurant To Add A Dark Meat Option Will Win The Chicken Sandwich War. - TweetWood
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* He could be a hero, but no. — Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) January 14, 2020 * The deficit will matter again when a Democrat becomes president.
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- The Beachwood Tip Line: Dust and broom. Posted by Beachwood Reporter at 11:05 AM | Permalink Sports
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