By Steve Rhodes
The Tribune editorial board endorsed Mayor Daley on Sunday, sentencing us to four more years of the paper chastisising voters for not expressing their outrage over corruption at the polls.
For more on the non-existent mayoral campaign, see The [Daley ’07] Papers.
1. So Mike Downey obviously would have no problem with ads being inserted into his column.
2. In between drooling over Barack Obama, Neil Steinberg warns that “On this Presidents Day, we should honor our country by girding ourselves against the appeal of charismatic leaders.”
3. Can the secret of weight loss be found in the Bible? An investigative report by Nesita Kwan, tonight on the Channel 5 news.
4. Vinnie Barbarino at the Woodfield Mall.
5. Patti Blagojevich “earns” about $86,000 in Tony Rezko-orchestrated real estate deals. Rezko submits names to the governor of pals he wants appointed to state boards and commissions. The Blagojevichs hire a Rezko company for a $90,000 home renovation project – for which Patti Blagojevich is listed as the general contractor.
“Where’s there a conflict?” asks the governor’s spokeswoman, Abby Ottenhoff.
6. “Most homeowners wouldn’t pay over $90,000 to renovate a 14-by-20 family room,” Ottenhoff says.
Exactly.
7. “Without coffee, I can’t guarantee I would be properly groomed,” says Paige Wiser, who nonetheless senses a coffee backlash has begun.
8. Funny story. I was at a downtown hotel family restaurant over the weekend and the coffee was remarkably good. I asked what it was. “Folger’s.”
Then again, I prefer Dunkin’ Donuts coffee to Starbucks – not just for cultural reasons, but because I prefer the taste of liquid donuts to burnt bark.
9. “The Tribune‘s look at Illinois’ schools proposed strategies to improve education in Illinois,” Dan Nagle of Normal writes. “Not one of those strategies addresses the real problem of poor school performance, which is poverty – and not poverty-stricken schools but poverty-stricken families.”
10. In Thursday’s column, I excerpted this from the Tribune: “[CTA Chairwoman Carole] Brown complained that she saw four CTA buses broken down on the street, with passengers inside, while she was driving home from work on Tuesday,” with a link to the story strategically placed on “while she was driving home home from work.”
In the comment section of this posting on her blog, Brown says: “Sorry to disappoint everyone, but I did not drive to or from work on Tuesday. As I have said many times, I take the bus to and from work several times a week, depending on my travel schedule.”
11. Waiting for the bus.
12. I think the key to Timothy McCarthy reporting to jail is in the middle of this story: “But four days before he left for prison, McCarthy made a stop downtown. He testified with immunity Feb. 8 before a grand jury.”
13. Jennifer Hunter finds South Carolina to be a state of deep contradictions. Unlike any other state in the union that has given birth to both lefties and righties, or has racial rifts.
14. “This is just flabbergasting. People should not be in the position of choosing between keeping warm or buying medicine and food.”
– Robert Butler, mayor of Marion, Ill., in a New York Times story on Saturday about electricity rate hikes
15. Curtis Lawrence returned from Obama’s speech in Springfield yearning for Al Sharpton.
16. A Week In Review discussion about snow removal.
Laurence Holmes of The Score: Where I live, on the South Side, I thought it was awful . . . a lot of the main streets weren’t clear . . . I thought it was despicable . . . Bronzeville, Kenwood, Hyde Park . . .
Jon Hilkevitch of the Trib: I thought they did a good job.
Joel Weisman: Were you just on different streets?
Holmes: We saw it coming, that’s why I was surprised . . . 47th Street, 55th Street, these are not little artery streets . . .
Andy Shaw of Ch. 7: It was the highest level of removal since ’99 . . . the additional cost of Phase Three [level removal], I’m not sure we’ve got our money’s worth.
17. Obama has endorsed Joe Moore.
“Joe understands that outside forces affect the quality of life in his community. That’s why he isn’t afraid to take on the big fights – for a living wage and against the War in Iraq. I’m proud to join my many friends in the 49th Ward in supporting Joe Moore for re-election to the Chicago City Council.”
Moore’s campaign says: “Obama has only endorsed in a very few select aldermanic races in Chicago, making Obama’s endorsement all the more significant.”
18. Daley has endorsed Burt Natarus; Forrest Claypool is endorsing the challenger, Brendan Reilly.
19. I’ve always wondered why I couldn’t read city council stories like this in the Tribune or Sun-Times.
20. “Only five of the city’s 50 aldermen declined to help Mayor Richard Daley’s re-election campaign do the political dirty work of collecting nominating signatures,” the Trib reports.
“According to campaign, the five dissenters were Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th), Freddrenna Lyle (6th), Ricardo Munoz (22nd), Toni Preckwinckle (4th) and Joe Moore (49th).”
21.The Los Angeles Times‘s coverage of troubles at Tribune Company has certainly been better than what we’ve seen out of the Chicago media.
22. Also on Week in Review, Andy Shaw said that in light of the Oswego crash last week, the state should look at raising the driving age. You know, the crash where the driver was 23.
The Beachwood Tip Line: No ID, no problem.
Posted on February 19, 2007