Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
Well that was a helluva task force, wasn’t it? I’m not sure what’s more surprising – what they said or the fact that they said it. I’ll have more in the coming days.
UPDATE: 8:13 P.M.: Yeah, this is as far as I got today. I’ll be back on Friday – but not right away in the morning because we’re recording The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour at 9:15 a.m. So, whenever, after that.
Posted on April 14, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
“For nearly two decades, when Chicago’s police brought people under arrest to their detentions and interrogations warehouse, not even the vast majority of the police force knew where they were, according to an internal memo acquired by the Guardian,” the Guardian reports.
Right: Like a black site.
“Homan Square, a warehouse complex headquartering narcotics, vice and intelligence units for the Chicago police, has also served as a secretive facility for detaining and interrogating thousands of people without providing access to attorneys and with little way for their loved ones to find them. Records documenting the presence of someone at Homan Square, especially while they are there, have existed largely outside Chicago police’s electronic records system.
“Now, documents and evidence from senior officers have for the first time disclosed detailed official accounts of how police based at the unit were able to operate – and how it was almost impossible to tell who was being held inside.”
Those would be the “disappeared.”
Posted on April 13, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
“It has been a decade since [Jamie] Galvan’s mysterious death in custody at Homan Square. His family feels frozen in time. An official autopsy report concluded that Galvan, who had been arrested for selling cocaine, had died after ingesting narcotics. Family and friends arrested alongside Galvan, backed by independent forensic evidence, tell a different story,” the Guardian reports today.
“Galvan’s official autopsy contrasts in significant ways with an independent one the family ordered as part of a failed police brutality lawsuit. Chicago police even gave the media the wrong place of his death.
“But a Guardian transparency lawsuit has revealed Galvan as the second person known to have died in police custody at Homan Square.”
Posted on April 12, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
“Internal documents from the Chicago police department show that officers used physical force on at least 14 men already in custody at the warehouse known as Homan Square,” the Guardian reports.
“Police used punches, knee strikes, elbow strikes, slaps, wrist twists, baton blows and Tasers at Homan Square, according to documents released to the Guardian in the course of its transparency lawsuit about the warehouse. The new information contradicts an official denial about treatment of prisoners at the facility.”
Posted on April 11, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
“Political dysfunction has deadlocked a national DREAM Act that would, among other things, make federal loans available to some undocumented students and make it easier for states to charge them lower in-state tuition at public universities and colleges. But an increasing number of states have already extended those benefits, and even added scholarship support,” the Hechinger Report reports.
“At least six states – California and Texas being the largest – provide some financial aid to undocumented students who meet various criteria. Some public universities in others, such as Hawaii, Illinois and Minnesota, offer aid that’s paid for by private sources. In states without explicit policies, some colleges quietly create their own ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ rules.”
We’re carrying the whole article this weekend, so please see “While Federal DREAM Act Stalls, Some Public Universities Already Welcome The Undocumented.”
Posted on April 9, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
The Guardian has had 20m page views to #panamapapers articles this week. Thank you @b_obermayer @f_obermaier and @RyleGerard
— Juliette Garside (@JulietteGarside) April 8, 2016
Posted on April 8, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
“For months, federal authorities have hinted at the motive behind the hush-money payments former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has admitted to making: the sexual abuse of a teenage boy when Hastert was still a suburban high school teacher and wrestling coach,” the Tribune reports.
“But now, a Tribune investigation has uncovered new details of the case – at least four people have made what law enforcement sources say are credible allegations of sexual abuse against Hastert.”
A dogged piece of reporting that was absolutely necessary – as I understand it, sexual abusers rarely have just one victim. Read the whole thing.
Posted on April 7, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
In January, the Tribune published a giddy story headlined “White Sox Believe Scoreboard Project ‘Will Change Game Experience.'”
On Tuesday, the “centerpiece” of the project was unveiled – and the giddy Tribune was there.
But Baseball Prospectus’s White Sox correspondent Chris Lamberti has a different, more important take today:
Posted on April 6, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
Ticket sales were just announced for Andrew Dice Clay, who is scheduled to appear at the Copernicus Center on June 18. Which gives me a good reason to re-up Andrew Dice Trump . . .
Posted on April 5, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
First, about that wacky weekend weather: It was perfectly normal. Please file away for next year.
April snow “hardly unheard of.” https://t.co/NWKoKouH5P
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) April 2, 2016
*
“Chicago gets snow in April most years.” https://t.co/JxW7CjIKop
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) April 2, 2016
… often accompanied by strong, gusty northeast winds and thunder and lightning.”
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) April 2, 2016
Posted on April 4, 2016
