By Steve Rhodes

“Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel is naming a corporate litigator known for representing tobacco companies and defending the closure of Meigs Field to be Chicago’s chief lawyer,” Greg Hinz reported for Crain’s in 2011.
“In an announcement scheduled for later today, Stephen Patton, 57, a senior litigation partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, is being tapped as corporation counsel.”
And yet, Rahm Emanuel said this week it was “not possible” the city’s law department was part of the Chicago Police Department’s “cover-up culture” despite what our own eyes just saw.
Patton, we recall today, has a proud history of defending the cover-uppers.

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Posted on January 8, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

I’m trying to put together a new podcast on the Laquan McDonald e-mails, so there won’t be a proper column today.
* Obama’s Gun Moves Unlikely To Affect Gang Violence.
Cook County study sheds doubt on impact.

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Posted on January 7, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

Rahm Emanuel’s political instincts may have served him well through most of his career, but they’ve proven no match for his deeply ingrained need to try to outsmart everyone around him, even as he fights for survival, as we saw once again yesterday. It’s killing him.
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday it’s ‘not possible’ that City Hall’s Law Department is part of the cover-up culture he’s acknowledged exists at the Chicago Police Department – a day after a federal judge ruled that a city lawyer intentionally concealed evidence in a trial over a fatal Chicago police shooting,” the Tribune reports.
“Emanuel also said it’s not necessary for the U.S. Department of Justice to add the Law Department to its investigation into the Police Department’s use of excessive force. And the mayor gave a vote of confidence to his top attorney, saying Stephen Patton would ensure the city’s legal team is operating “at the highest level that the public should expect.”

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Posted on January 6, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

The Papers will return on Wednesday. Chock full of other stuff.
* Random Review: Residence Inn O’Hare.
The staff poured beer and mingled.

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Posted on January 5, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

“Racial segregation in Chicago neighborhoods has declined as more African-Americans have opted to move to the suburbs and more whites and Latinos have moved into historically black communities, an analysis based on new census data shows,” the Tribune reports.
“But while some Chicago neighborhoods have become more racially diverse, the city remains one of the most segregated large cities in the country, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution who analyzed the data.
“Milwaukee ranks highest on the list of most segregated large cities and New York City ranks second, Frey’s data show. Chicago is third, and 76 percent of the city’s African-American population would have to move in order to achieve complete integration, the research shows.”
How many whites would have to move?

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Posted on January 4, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

We’re in holiday mode here through January 4th, which doesn’t mean there won’t be new material, because there will be. But it will appear more sporadically than usual.

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Posted on December 24, 2015

By Steve Rhodes

“After her teenage son died in a police-chase crash, Jondalyn Fields’ lawyers asked the Chicago Police Department for the videos from their cars and along the route to try to find out what happened,” the Tribune reports.
“While her lawsuit dragged on for six years, the city finally made a startling claim: Some of the videos it had long denied existed had been erased or recorded over.

“The city didn’t care – they were just, ‘Go away, go away, go away,'” said Fields, who last month won a $2.75 million verdict against the city from a Cook County jury.

Rahm Emanuel couldn’t be reached in Cuba for comment. Former police chief Garry McCarthy couldn’t be reached because he’s too busy leaking to patsy reporters about how Rahm was really the bad guy to come to the phone.

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Posted on December 23, 2015

By Steve Rhodes

Programming Note: I recorded two new Beachwood Radio Hours yesterday and hope to have each of them up on the site today they’re up! In the first one, I ended up talking about the Laquan McDonald case – including the media coverage – the whole time, so I did a second one on some other news as well as some musing about the Beachwood and its future, in light of Gapers Block going on hiatus.

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Posted on December 22, 2015

By Steve Rhodes

“It’s Donald Trump in Illinois,” Lynn Sweet reports for the Sun-Times.
“Trump, at 30 percent, is the top GOP presidential candidate in Illinois, according to a new poll, with double the points of Sens. Ted Cruz at 15 percent and Marco Rubio at 13 percent.”
Whoa, if true!
It’s not.

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Posted on December 21, 2015

By Steve Rhodes

For completists, there was no Friday Papers.
“Chi-Town Rising, a new New Year’s Eve event intended to boost winter tourism in the city, will be a smaller celebration than planned and the main attraction is no longer free to the public,” the Tribune reports.

It was my idea. Restrict it to a smaller, wealthier, group and you’re less likely to get heckled by activists https://t.co/ruGQsCsgf9

— VoldemortForMayor (@Voldemort4Mayor) December 19, 2015

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Posted on December 19, 2015