By Steve Rhodes
Beachwood weekend podcasts are in post-production!
Posted on July 25, 2014
The [Thursday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“Despite constant complaints from the press corps and promises from White House officials, access to the president continues to be limited in ways not seen in previous administrations,” Politico reports.
“The constantly repeated line that they’re running the ‘most transparent administration in history’ tends to prompt snickers. Halfway through Obama’s West Coast swing, it’s tipping toward outrage.”
Posted on July 23, 2014
The [Wednesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“The Newark police department will be put under a monitor, the Justice Department announced Tuesday as it issued a report alleging that as many as 75 percent of police stops in New Jersey’s largest city over the last several years were not legally justified,” NBC 4 New York reports.
“The investigation began in 2011 and the Justice Department reviewed thousands of police documents and interviewed officers and commanders as well as residents in drafting the report.”
In other words, the investigation began just as Newark Police Chief Garry McCarthy was packing his bags for Chicago.
Posted on July 23, 2014
The [Tuesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“The Emanuel administration is willing to meet at least one demand of sleepless residents affected by changes in jet noise patterns at O’Hare International Airport by installing more noise monitors in Chicago and several suburbs, officials are expected to announce Tuesday,” the Tribune reports.
“The locations of eight new noise monitors have not yet been selected, but they will be deployed ‘as soon as possible’ to collect data on existing and future flight paths near the airport, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.
“Of the 32 permanent monitors in service, only two are in Chicago, officials said.
“‘We need to better understand the impact,’ Emanuel said in a written statement Monday to the Tribune.”
Did he write his statement with an ink-dipped quill and then send it over via courier, where it was unrolled outside the Tower and read by a town crier?
Posted on July 22, 2014
The [Monday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“In one of his last acts before retiring from the Chicago Police Department, Supt. Phil Cline refused to discipline a detective who had submitted fraudulent documents to City Hall so he could operate a valet company that parked cars at Rush Street nightspots, newly obtained records show,” the Sun-Times reports.
“Detective Frank S. Esposito ‘committed acts of consumer fraud and deceptive practices,’ an investigation by the police Internal Affairs Division found. Internal affairs recommended Cline suspend Esposito for 30 days.
“Instead, Cline decided not to punish Esposito at all. Cline and Esposito are friends, and Cline was in Esposito’s wedding party.”
Posted on July 21, 2014
The Weekend Desk Report
The [Friday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“Thousands of Chicago drivers have been tagged with $100 red light fines they did not deserve, targeted by robotic cameras during a series of sudden spikes in tickets that city officials say they cannot explain, a Tribune investigation has found.
“The Tribune’s analysis of more than 4 million tickets issued since 2007 and a deeper probe of individual cases revealed clear evidence that the deviations in Chicago’s network of 380 cameras were caused by faulty equipment, human tinkering or both.
“Chicago transportation officials say they had no knowledge of the wild swings in ticketing until they were told by the Tribune – even though City Hall legally required the camera vendor to watch for the slightest anomaly in ticketing patterns every day. Many of the spikes lasted weeks.”
Set aside some time to dig into this exhaustive report.
Posted on July 18, 2014
The [Thursday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“With a probe of Gov. Pat Quinn’s troubled anti-violence grant program on the table Wednesday, a panel of state lawmakers spent eight hours bickering at a hearing that proved long on election-year antics and short on revelations,” the Tribune reports.
“They talked over each other. They lobbed accusations. And they even differed on when to break for lunch and who should run the meeting.
“When it was all over, they’d agreed on one just one thing: putting online for public perusal thousands of documents related to the Democratic governor’s Neighborhood Recovery Initiative. Left unresolved, however, was whether and when seven key witnesses would testify about what they did while working on a $54.5 million program launched four years ago to funnel money to predominantly Democratic areas of Chicago and the south suburbs as Quinn was locked in a tough election battle.”
Posted on July 17, 2014
The [Wednesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle declared Tuesday that she won’t run for mayor, leaving union and community groups angry over Chicago’s violent crime, school closings and teetering finances searching for a credible candidate to take on Mayor Rahm Emanuel next year,” the Tribune reports.
“The decision is a boost to Emanuel’s bid for a second term and ensures he won’t have to square off against a popular, countywide elected official capable of uniting disparate voters from the South and West Sides with lakefront liberals.”
The attention shown to the possibility of a Preckwinkle campaign shows just how strong of a candidate she would have been – maybe even the favorite. Which shows just how broadly the city is dissatisfied with Emanuel.
Posted on July 16, 2014
The [Tuesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“Karen Lewis’ potential bid for Chicago Mayor has moved beyond just a thought – it’s an ‘organic,’ growing movement, the fiery Chicago Teachers Union president said,” the Sun-Times reports.
“Lewis revealed on Monday she already has an unofficial exploratory committee in the works, a chairperson has been named and her camp is working to have a representative in each of the city’s 77 neighborhoods.”
Hmm. An “unofficial” exploratory committee is “in the works.” And her camp is “working” to have a representative in each neighborhood.
That’s not the same as having any of those things.
Posted on July 15, 2014