Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
Things got away from me today. Back tomorrow.
–
Planet X At The Adler
It’s a whole new universe, folks!
Memoir Wars
Rock drummer dude vs. Kristin Cavallari.
The Jay Williams Story
Broken Dreams, Broken Leg, Oprah & ESPN.
Posted on January 21, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
“Republican legislative leaders on Wednesday are expected to unveil proposals to allow Chicago Public Schools to declare bankruptcy and to put the financially struggling school district under state supervision, sources said Tuesday,” the Tribune reports.
“It’s the latest move as Gov. Bruce Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emanuel continue to play the blame game over CPS’ $480 million budget shortfall that threatens layoffs and has led to heavy borrowing to keep the state’s largest school district afloat.
“House Republican leader Jim Durkin and Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno are scheduled to unveil the proposals at a Wednesday morning news conference.”
I could be wrong, but it’s hard not to see this as a ham-handed negotiating tactic designed to put pressure on Emanuel and House Speaker Michael Madigan to cut a deal. The problem is that doubling down by introducing a hostile, extreme proposal is exactly the wrong thing this situation needs right now; essentially Republicans are making a threat that will almost certainly prove empty. This is a time for carrots, not sticks. Unfortunately, the governor does not seem to have that tactic – otherwise known as governing – in his toolkit.
Posted on January 20, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
How much of Chicago is under investigation right now? Not enough!, I write for The Youth Project. Check it out, share, comment, etc.
Posted on January 19, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
On April 8, 1967, the Chicago Tribune ran this “Guest Editorial” from the Cincinnati Enquirer:
The unctuous Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been something of a hindrance to the civil rights movement since he was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. Since the award, he has specialized in speaking in Olympian tones, rather than addressing himself to the practicalities of the civil rights movement.
However, he quite definitely crossed the line when he lent himself and his prestige to an “anti-Viet Nam War” rally in Chicago.
“This war,” he said sonorously, “is a blasphemy against all that America stands for.
“We are arrogant in not allowing young nations to go thru the same growing pains of turbulence and revolution that characterized our history. We must combine the fervor of the civil rights movement with the peace movement. We must demonstrate, teach, and preach until the very foundations of our nation are shaken.”
What Mr. King means by this he alone knows, but it would seem he is calling for a revolution – certainly he wants to fuse the civil rights movement with favor of the pro-Communist North Viet Nam aggression.
What arrant nonsense it is for Mr. King to say: “We are arrogant in not allowing young nations to go thru the same growing pains of turbulence and revolution that characterized our history.”
Does he really equate a communist take-over with “growing pains”? Is being a victim of aggression something we should “allow young nations” to experience, as if it were part of a process of maturity?
Communists took part in some early phases of the civil rights movement, certainly not to help the Negro but to create as much dissension as possible, and the promises they made were about as valid as those made by Germany in World War I when it sought to enlist Mexican support by promising Mexico the southwestern part of the United States.
Posted on January 18, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
“Seconds after a Chicago police officer opened fire on him as he ran from a South Side traffic stop, 17-year-old Cedrick Chatman had collapsed in the street when the officer’s partner approached to take him into custody,” the Tribune reports.
“I give up. I’m shot,” Chatman said to Officer Lou Toth, according to Toth’s statement to investigators at the scene.
A bullet had struck Chatman in the right side, pierced his heart and lodged in his spine. He died on the way to a hospital.
The detail of Chatman’s last words was included in hundreds of pages of investigative records released by the city Friday that laid out how Chatman’s suspected involvement in a violent robbery and carjacking ended with his fatal shooting less than a mile away.
The documents – which included detectives’ reports from the scene, autopsy results, inventory logs, lineups and transcripts of witness interviews – show that Officer Kevin Fry consistently told investigators he saw Chatman turn with a dark object in his hand as he ran full speed across the busy South Shore neighborhood intersection in the early afternoon.
“Officer Fry said he believed that the object was a handgun and he was in fear of his partner’s life, as Toth was in close proximity to the offender,” said an incident report documenting Fry’s initial interview with detectives. The object turned out to be a black iPhone box.
Why would someone point an iPhone box at a police officer?
Posted on January 16, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
I thought this photo of a police officer standing with a boot on the dying Cedrick Chatman . . .
. . . paired well with this photo of a black man who at least survived his encounter as a trophy:
Posted on January 15, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
Well, Twitter’s done it again. Just like they did in August, Twitter changed its embed code in such a way, without warning, so as to cause embeds to widen beyond the breaking point of my pages and, presumably, the pages of many others on the Internet.
So right now, any page on the Beachwood with an embed code is kronked. That’s a lot of them. In August, they found a solution for folks like me. Now I’m back on the case. If they don’t fix it, I’m utterly fucked.
So I’m placing this unfinished column here now as a placeholder for the real thing so I don’t have to look at my wrecked front page anymore. Let’s hope this problem is solved soon. Until it is, I won’t be embedding any new tweets on the site – but I will be posting as usual otherwise, including a real Papers column later this morning. below.
In the meantime, let’s take this opportunity to let Beachwood reader Paul DiGiulio tell a few jokes.
Posted on January 14, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
“More city leaders and activists are deciding to reject an invitation from the mayor’s office to attend the city’s 29th Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Breakfast,” NBC Chicago reports.
Bishop James Dukes will also not be attending, saying: “I don’t think that it’s time for us to have this Kumbaya breakfast without having a sit-down talk.”
“We’re not entertaining any of the mayor’s efforts to pacify,” said activist Jedidiah Brown, who also turned down the invitation. “We don’t want breakfast, we want justice. We don’t want pancakes and eggs we want resources.”
The mayor has even lost one of his biggest campaign endorsers:
Tired of MLK being “pimped”, Rev. @MichaelPfleger won’t attend @RahmEmanuel‘s prayer breakfast Monday. #ouch
— Charles Thomas (@CThomasABC7) January 13, 2016
Posted on January 12, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
1. I have a new podcast in the hopper – on the Laquan McDonald e-mails – but I’m still working on the Show Notes.
The Beachwood Radio Hour #70: What The Laquan McDonald E-Mails Really Show.
First and foremost, the e-mails show how Rahm’s media shop manipulates outwitted reporters. Also: How City Hall spun settlement negotiations over the release of the infamous video, and allegations of witness coercion. With Show Notes.
2. #ConfessYourUnpopularOpinion: I was not a huge Bowie fan.
3. Our very own Jim “Coach” Coffman does not like the Bears’ offensive coordinator hire.
Posted on January 12, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
Programming Note: I’ll be out most of the day on Monday, but I’ll do some posting upon my return.
–
“The rowdy, boisterous events that have come to define and propel Trump’s presidential campaign are usually not the ones he holds in early voting states such as Iowa or New Hampshire,” the Washington Post reports.
“Instead, he is increasingly defined by the rallies held in cities that rarely see presidential candidates this early in the process, if ever. They are also often places that are struggling: Mobile, Ala., where the unemployment rate is still higher than the national and state rates; Springfield, Ill., where the manufacturing industry has yet to recover from the recession; and Beaumont, Tex., which is worrying over the effects of low gas prices.”
Posted on January 9, 2016