By Natasha Julius
So for this holiday weekend, you’ll pay more for diminished health? Maybe they should call this holiday Illinois Day.
Market Update
Must be nice to be Marriott, huh?
Posted on May 24, 2014
The [Friday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
If you’ve been reading this space the last couple of days, you know I’m just trying to make it through this month in one piece. Then the Papers will return in full. Still, a lot to offer:
New In Juvey
From kangaroo courts to Canadian coat fires, this week’s review of juvenile justice in the news.
Gun Violence Research
Dems push to re-start it.
Posted on May 23, 2014
The [Thursday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
Like I said yesterday, I’m totally squeezed between now and the end of the month. So no Papers column again today – and so much I’m missing, I know – but a full Beachwood elsewhere on the site and, of course, a social media presence that does half the job (thought not all, I know) of the Papers anyway.
Posted on May 22, 2014
The [Wednesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
I have a reporting project coming to a head and I’m also moving at the end of the month, so things may get spotty for the next 10 days. At least there’s social media.
BeachBook
* RedFlex Caught Using Violation Calculator In Virginia.
Red light camera vendor uses a spreadsheet to calculate profit based on engineering deficiencies such as short yellow time.
And:
Redflex Traffic Systems uses a special spreadsheet to calculate precisely how much profit a city can expect from red light cameras on an intersection-by-intersection basis.
Posted on May 21, 2014
The [Tuesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“In an era when some U.S. Olympic athletes have turned to crowd source funding to pay for their training, the top brass at the U.S. Olympic Committee is doing better than ever financially,” the Tribune reports.
“In 2013, nine USOC officials earned more than $200,000 in base salary, up from seven people a year earlier, and seven had total compensation of more than $300,000, according to the USOC 2013 tax filing made public Monday.
“Atop the list is chief executive Scott Blackmun, whose base salary and bonuses for the last two years total approximately $2 million.”
So a national version of the Illinois High School Association, as documented by the Sun-Times.
Posted on May 20, 2014
The [Monday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“A group representing city and suburban homeowners seeking relief from increasing airplane noise called today for Chicago Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino to resign or for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to fire her,” the Tribune reports.
I doubt that’s gonna happen, but Rahm needs to give her a swift kick in the butt.
Posted on May 19, 2014
The Weekend Desk Report
By Steve Rhodes
This week’s Beachwood Radio Hour is already up, complete with Show Notes. I have a vision (again), people: That the future of true multimedia involves reading, listening and watching at the same time. With our BRH Show Notes, you can do just that!
It doesn’t always have to be so integrated; it could simply mean that – if you turn on the tool to do so – when you scroll over a quote you actually hear the person saying it, for just one example. Or see the person saying it.
Or when you listen to sports radio online, you can actually see video of the highlights they are talking about as they talk about them. That sort of thing.
There could be music corollaries, too. Even weather and traffic. Think it through.
And of course, with serious and investigative news, a more sophisticated package.
If history is any guide, I’ll get nowhere with this idea and wind up broke in senior public housing, only to find douchebags getting rich off a crappy version of it five to 10 years from now.
This week’s segments include:
Posted on May 17, 2014
The [Friday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“Spurring Republican outrage, the Democratic-led Illinois House passed more than $38 billion worth of spending bills Thursday without a clear-cut way to pay for it all,” the Sun-Times reports.
Democrats should be outraged too. Are they even capable of self-loathing anymore?
House Speaker Michael Madigan has decided to pass a set of spending bills that essentially assume the temporary tax increase set to expire will be extended – even though he doesn’t appear to have the votes to make that so.
It’s a fascinating political maneuver in that it will force even members of his own caucus to go back and publicly strip items out of those bills if they don’t agree to the tax extension which would fund them.
That’s why he “invoked a rare parliamentary maneuver that blocks the spending bills from being sent to the Senate, keeping them under House control.”
Those bills will need to be amended if the tax gambit fails. It will become clear which legislators to blame for the resulting cuts.
In effect, Madigan has turned the budget-making process upside-down to put the screws to holdouts willing to let the tax hike lapse.
Absolutely brilliant politics, but absolutely horrid governance.
Posted on May 16, 2014
The [Thursday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“The former head of Chicago’s red light camera program was arrested Wednesday in a $2 million bribery scandal and charged by federal prosecutors with plotting to steer the contract to Redflex Traffic Systems before the first ticket was ever issued in 2003,” the Tribune reports.
“John Bills, the former transportation official who managed the red light contract until 2011, coached Redflex officials in a series of clandestine meetings and helped them grow their program into the largest in the country, authorities alleged. In return, they said, Bills received hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash spent on a vacation home, a boat and a Mercedes convertible, along with dozens of trips and a condominium near the company’s Arizona headquarters.
“The single bribery charge against Bills puts him at the center of sweeping allegations in a scandal that by size alone ranks among the largest in Chicago’s notorious history of corruption.”
I wonder who will read John Bills’ induction speech into the Chicago Way Hall of Fame.
Posted on May 15, 2014