Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
1. The Cubs Are The Best Team In Baseball.
“In fact, when you look at this, it seems like it shouldn’t even be a debate.”
2. How The White House Lost On The Cadillac Tax.
“Not only was it slated to raise $91 billion over 10 years, but it also was supposed to ensure the law reined in health care spending and did not blow a hole in the deficit.”
Posted on December 17, 2015
By Steve Rhodes
“Detainees, legal advocates and activists testified on Tuesday at the first public hearing to examine Homan Square, the Chicago police interrogation facility exposed by the Guardian and falling under renewed scrutiny amid intense examination of the city’s law enforcement officials,” the Guardian reports.
“Police department officials were invited to attend Tuesday’s hearing of the county commissioners.”
Police department officials declined that invitation – but, as a matter of course, did issue a statement:
We have been clear about this for many months. The allegations regarding Homan square and CPD’s operations there are completely false, and even a number of independent experts and lawyers have discounted the claims,” said spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
Translation: Even the Chicago media says it’s not true – and they didn’t even bother asking us questions!
“But seven people who were either detained or involved in exposing the detentions testified instead, for more than an hour of answers meant to push the city closer toward shuttering the West Side facility,” notes the Guardian, which has produced more than two dozen articles about Homan Square and is currently engaged in a FOIA lawsuit with the city over documents relate to the facility.
Posted on December 16, 2015
By Steve Rhodes
I’m working on a lot of stuff, people. Including a wealth of misreporting and unfounded commentary on the Laquan McDonald case. Plus, the top row of letters on my keyboard have become as unreliable as Pat Camden’s statements at crime scenes. And the site went down for a couple hours this morning due to server issues. So this is all you get.
Posted on December 15, 2015
By Steve Rhodes
“Two weeks before the release of video in Laquan McDonald’s shooting thrust the issue of Chicago police brutality into the national spotlight, Priscilla Price sat in a nearly empty Cook County courtroom as a jury found that a cop had killed her 19-year-old son without justification in 2011,” the Tribune reports.
“Price’s sense of relief was short-lived, however. In a controversial move, the judge overseeing the case negated the jury’s award of $3.5 million in damages and instead found in favor of the city. It turned out that the jury, in answering a written question as part of its verdict, had found that the officer had a reasonable belief that his life was in danger when he opened fire.
Posted on December 14, 2015
By Steve Rhodes
For completists, there was no Friday Papers.
“Field Museum employee taking memberships at the door pocketed $900,000 in cash over seven years and is being investigated by federal authorities, museum executives said Friday,” the Tribune reports.
“Disclosure of the alleged theft was made in a federally mandated tax report the natural history institution filed earlier this month.”
I know stories like this ought to discourage the rest of us from indulging in such schemes, but I must admit my first thought is often to wonder if I could devise a way to commit such an act and get away with it. I suppose that’s how the criminal mind works.
Posted on December 12, 2015
By Steve Rhodes
Again, working on more cop stuff today – and taking care of some personal business.
For my real-time commentary on Rahm’s speech yesterday, see @BeachwoodReport.
Also, when you’ve lost Ronnie Woo-Woo, you’ve lost the city:
He takes the mic “Mayor should go” #RonnieWooWoo #Rahm pic.twitter.com/vF82NIXj2e
— Mary Ann Ahern (@MaryAnnAhernNBC) December 10, 2015
Posted on December 10, 2015
By Steve Rhodes
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel will take the rare step Wednesday of delivering a speech on Chicago’s woeful police misconduct record to the City Council, which has approved hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements for victims of police brutality while demanding little change in how the department operates,” the Tribune reports.
Finally, a chance to hear what the mayor has to say about all this! And without a media filter! #MakeItStop
Posted on December 9, 2015
By Steve Rhodes
I’m working on more cop stuff. Maybe tonight, we’ll see.
Meanwhile:
* CPD’s History Of Failed Reform.
Check out the headlines!
Posted on December 8, 2015
By Steve Rhodes
I don’t recall ever following as fast a moving news story with as many moving parts as the events surrounding the Laquan McDonald case since these last two weeks.
Just this morning, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would conduct a pattern-and-practices investigation of the Chicago Police Department, the CPD’s chief of detectives resigned, and Anita Alvarez announced that her office would bring no charges against a Chicago police officer in the related-by-nature case of Ronnie Johnson. Last night, Rahm fired his hand-picked chief of the Independent Police Review Authority.
Rahm has a press conference scheduled for 3 p.m. today; he has also announced he will deliver a special message to the city council at its Wednesday meeting.
I still have material I want to write up from the Black Friday protests, but how long ago goes that seem now?
Posted on December 7, 2015
By Steve Rhodes
On the same day that Rahm Emanuel executed a Friday news dump of hundreds pages of documents in the Laquan McDonald case, the mayor placed the same Op-Ed in both the Tribune and Sun-Times.
Shame on those papers for – once again – participating in Rahm’s cynical media manipulations. It’s not as if Rahm hasn’t had ample forums to express his views on the case. You need to give him an even bigger megaphone?
Worse, the Op-Ed isn’t vetted, and is filled with misleading assertions no reporter, editor or news organization should allow to get past them. And this isn’t the first time – the papers have long seemed enamored with unverified press releases from elected officials posing as opinion pieces, perhaps because they feel they get some reflected gravitas from the people they clearly hold in high esteem despite what their news pages tell them every day.
Today in particular, I hope the editors of the Tribune and Sun-Times are embarrassed by allowing Rahm to play them by recognizing that his Op-Ed was timed to coincide with the release of damning documents that places his future in grave danger.
Rahm being forced to resign has to now be considered a real possibility. His Op-Ed is reminiscent of Garry McCarthy’s media appearances on the morning of the day he was fired – furiously spinning to maintain credibility and keep his job. I don’t know if he can. He, now, is the distraction.
Posted on December 5, 2015