By Steve Rhodes
Wilco is in the midst of a sold-out five-show residency at the Riv. Tuesday night’s show will be broadcast live on WXRT starting around 7:30 p.m.
Greg Kot has the set lists so far.
Cop Shop
On the surface, it’s hard not to like what new police chief Jody Weis just did.
“Police Supt. Jody Weis accepted the resignations of three of his top deputies and replaced two of them by dipping down into the ranks of district commanders,” the Sun-Times reported over the weekend.
Weis has also reportedly held closed-door meetings with rank-and-file officers without their supervisors present.
The moves take a little bit of the sting out of revelations like this one from Ald. Fredrenna Lyle in her newsletter to constituents.
“When [Weis] appeared before the Police and Fire Committee Monday afternoon, I had some very serious questions which he could not answer,” Lyle wrote in her newsletter, as the Reader’s Mick Dumke reports. “On Tues. and Weds. the Mayor’s Office provided me with most of the answers and I voted to confirm.”
48 Hours
“The rhetoric generated by members of the Chicago Police about how this new rule will damage their ability to solve crimes rings hollow,” Tracy Jake Siska writes at Chicago Justice. “This rule only brings the practices of the Chicago Police Department in line with precedent-setting US Supreme Court cases and recent findings by the US Court of Appeals. The Chicago Police attempted to bring this same distorted logic to the federal courts back in 1986 when they lost an identical class action lawsuit stemming from the same practices. At that time they informed the US Court of Appeals they had rewritten the general order ending the practice of holding suspects past 48 hours. The reality is they did not stop the practice.”
Murder Inc.
Siska also writes: “A recent report from Annie Sweeney in the Sun-Times details a statistic that Phil Cline never held a press conference to brag about the homicide clearance rates.
“According to the reporting in the Sun-Times the clearance rates for the last two years are around 37 percent. The media has missed the boat when it comes to reporting on this issue. With all the talk about improvements in crime rates little attention has been paid to the homicide clearance rates.”
Wonderland
Three stories you should read from the bottom up, because that’s where the news is buried.
1. “Obama And Edwards Meet, Minus Press.”
2. “Democrats’ Attacks On Business Heat Up.”
3. “‘Present’ Votes Emerging From The Past.”
Chet’s Debt
Walter Brzeski of Chicago suggests an appropriate punishment for Chet Coppock. (fourth letter)
Skid Rock
That’s my idea for naming a band that only plays Skid Row and Kid Rock covers.
Justice
Even if the lawyers who held the secret that would have freed an innocent man from prison would have been disbarred for violating attorney-client privilege, it would have been the right thing to do. Is their career more important than a man’s life? Principles mean nothing if you aren’t willing to sacrifice for them.
Body Bags
“The doctor behind the ‘Body Worlds’ exhibits that show cadavers in different poses says he has stopped using bodies from China for fear that some of them may be executed prisoners, ABC News reported on Friday.”
Presidential Seal
Remembering Reagan.
In Today’s Beachwood
* “So there you’ve got your West Coast den of inequity. Porn. Sin. The rape of the innocent hillbilly girls. But wait, there’s another, Midwestern modern-day Sodom much closer to home as well, as the porn star’s brother found out after he, too, up and left rural America and lit out for the Big City.”
– Don Jacobson, in “Chicago In Song: Truckin’ and Druggin’“
* “Gordon Ramsay can magically sharpen a dull carving knife by just thinking about it.”
– Julia Gray, in “The Kitchen Master“
* “The set-up of the [Daytona 500] has always seemed fundamentally flawed – the biggest race of the year on the first day of the season?”
– Jim Coffman, in “SportsMonday“
* “Campaign seconds will spar eagerly over what ‘option’ and ‘pledge’ mean. But researchers from government watchdog groups found a candidates’ forum from last November where Senator Obama answered with a firm ‘yes’ when asked if he would participate in public financing, should the Republican nominee do the same. He promised to ‘aggressively pursue’ this route.”
– The New York Times, as cited by me in “Dollars and Change”
*8 “Misguided Parents label kids as STUBBORN. Troy Dunn labels that same child with millionaire labels such as PERSISTENT, NON-CONFORMING and SELF CONFIDENT.”
– Rebellious Teens = Future Millionaires
How great is the Beachwood? Pretty great.
On Chicago’s side for two years!
The Beachwood Tip Line: Be great today.
Posted on February 18, 2008