By Steve Rhodes
Michael Scott, this is your life!
And this is what inevitably happens when you are a loyal Daley soldier – you get rich, you get enmeshed in scandal, and maybe you even get imprisoned.
But you do get rich.
“A member of Mayor Richard Daley’s team working to bring the Olympics to Chicago has quietly arranged to develop city-owned land near a park that would be transformed for the 2016 Summer Games, potentially positioning himself to cash in if the Games come here,” the Tribune reports.
“Developer Michael Scott Sr., an early member of the mayor’s Olympic committee, leads a group planning a residential and commercial project on lots kitty-corner from the proposed Douglas Park sporting venues, a location where land values could jump if the city gets the Olympics.
“The plan – which would include a Nike store – already has gotten crucial support from the local alderman, who has set aside the lots for Scott and his group.”
Scott, as you’ll recall, is also the president of the school board.
All roads lead through Michael Scott!
Developer, Olympic committee member, school board chief, mayoral pal . . . there must be a million ways to cash in on that nexus. Paging Muckety!
“Scott’s designs on the public land are sure to reinforce concerns of residents that it’s the mayor’s friends who would benefit from Daley bringing the 2016 Olympics to the city.”
Ya think?
As Helen Hunt said in Twister, this thing has just begun!
“The story is a familiar one in Daley’s administration, where City Hall insiders have personally profited from even the most civic-minded of projects, from recycling garbage to building Millennium Park.”
And the kicker:
“The development team includes six West Side ministers, some of whom are politically connected.”
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Every base covered!
Michael Scott, you are today’s winner of our new So Chicago Award.
Scott, of course, says he’s done nothing wrong.
But the Tribune commendably recalls this:
“In May, he asked all of the city’s school principals to form plans to promote the Olympics.”
An event that he would personally profit from!
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Here’s the Trib graphic.
Principal Interest
“In addition, information emerged Thursday about the unusual role School Board President Michael Scott – one of Mayor Daley’s most trusted lieutenants – played in quashing one application to a coveted selective-enrollment high school,” the Sun-Times reports.
“In such schools – many of them among the highest-scoring in the state, principals get to sidestep admission tests, grades and attendance data and handpick up to five percent of their students.”
Now who could have possibly thought that was a good idea?
No, seriously, who thought that up? Who signed off on it? How was it implemented?
Marina City Revival
Then and now with Mike and Linda Chunko.
Mayor Moneybags
Think the city’s broke? Think again.
Pritzkers Go Public
Family feud to benefit investors.
Trustees Take The Fall
But they’re the least of the bad actors.
Arlington Million Day
“This year, the wiseguys are figuring one of the big American three of Einstein, Presious Passion and Gio Ponti won’t get beat,” our man on the rail Thomas Chambers writes. “One of the biggest appeals to Million Day is the invasion of the foreigners and they always run well on grass, it’s what they do.”
Karma Cashiering
“The assistant manager frequently arrives late for work, yet disparages other employees behind their backs. He does not supervise the Lazy Cashier,” writes Jerome Haller in today’s installment of I Am A Security Guard. “Instead he dumps more work on the Nice Cashier and another worker I call the Cool Cashier. I watched him squirm, figuring he had it coming.”
Bloodshot Briefing
“Bloodshot alum Neko Case, who is playing Lolla on Sunday, is the label’s only connection to the ‘palooza,” Matt Harness writes.
“But Elia Einhorn and his Scotland Yard Gospel Choir will be playing a little-known private show for industry folks, including some of the Lolla bands, at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Hard Rock Hotel. SYGC, which arranged for some of their fans to join them at the intimate show, has a new album out Sept. 15.”
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And don’t forget our Lolla preview.
Hughesville
John Hughes only made one great movie – The Breakfast Club. Sixteen Candles is overrated, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off has many nice moments but is better in concept than execution, and I have no desire to ever see Home Alone.
But The Breakfast Club . . .
There are a few aspects to the movie I can – and do – argue with. But those are matters for critical discussion available only to a film deserving such debate.
To me, that is John Hughes’s masterpiece – and truly the only decent performance in Judd Nelson’s otherwise wretched career.
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Original Trailer
Family Guy
JC Penney Commercial
American Dad
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I hate that frickin’ song though. But screws do fall out every day.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Smoke up, Johnny.
Posted on August 7, 2009