By Steve Rhodes

“Will Quinn advocate keeping the income tax hike? Aide won’t say,” Sun-Times reporter Dave McKinney tweeted Tuesday.
Well, your paper’s political reporter just had an “exclusive” interview with the governor, maybe she should have asked!
Instead, we got questions such as this: “People say don’t underestimate Pat Quinn. What do you say to that?”
See also the item Exclusive 101 in Monday’s column. Look at my first two suggested questions. You had him right there.

Read More

Posted on March 26, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

Making sense of the tweets of Ald. George Cardenas often requires special decoder glasses, and this one is no exception:

These particular jobs require lots of training and def more experience than a year on the job! Trains are no joke http://t.co/Ru0BJt6AY2

— George Cardenas (@georgeacardenas) March 25, 2014

I don’t get it. You should have more than a year on the job before getting the job? Training should last more than a year?
This particular operator was working the graveyard shift, which I’m guessing is what happens when you start out. Seems like an appropriate training ground for newbies. You’ve gotta get your own train sometime. And experience does not appear to be a factor in the investigation – unless the driver hasn’t learned the tricks to staying awake on the job.
There is this, however.

Read More

Posted on March 25, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

Campaigns are almost always referendums on incumbents, but in the case of Rauner vs. Quinn, it’s a referendum on Rauner. I explain in Beachwood Podcast No. 6, after our discussion of the latest episode of Chicagoland.
*
Planning and production of a new, separate podcast, The Beachwood Radio Hour, is underway. This show will be a Beachwood week-in-review more tightly focused on Chicago and Beachwood content, while the current podcast while roam more broadly including overseas. If you’re interested in helping the new show, drop me a line.

Read More

Posted on March 24, 2014

By Natasha Julius

You wouldn’t dare penalize the Weekend Desk for taking a couple of days off. After all, it’s vital to maintain a friendly relationship with your weekend service provider.
Market Update
Here’s a solid bet: you aren’t going to get a billion dollars anytime soon. Unless you already have a billion dollars.

Read More

Posted on March 22, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“Parents at a Chicago elementary school are irate after their children were questioned at school Thursday by CPS officials investigating their teachers,” Linda Lutton reports for WBEZ.
“The district is looking into potential ‘teacher misconduct’ around recent boycotts of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test.”
And hopefully an inspector general is looking into potential “administrative misconduct” over these interviews.

Read More

Posted on March 21, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

My series of notebooks on this week’s primary will continue on Friday. In the meantime, the Political Odds have been updated to reflect recent developments.
Tax Sham
“The Regional Transportation Authority has gone back to court in its still-expanding war against alleged sales-tax havens that operate on the periphery of the agency’s area,” Greg Hinz reports for Crain’s.
“In an action filed late yesterday in Cook County Circuit Court, the RTA names far-suburban Genoa, Savanna and Morris and three fuel-oil companies that it says have agreed to work together to avoid paying the agency’s regional sales taxes by locating ‘sham sales offices’ in the towns and the rebating a portion of what is paid back to the companies.”
I’d like to know what Bruce Rauner thinks about this – and about the plethora of tax-dodging strategies. Sound business or deplorable behavior in need of hammerin’ and shakin’?

Read More

Posted on March 20, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

From Primary 2014 Notebook 2: Reporting Rauner:

“First-time candidate Bruce Rauner eked out a surprisingly narrow victory over state Sen. Kirk Dillard for the Republican governor nomination in Tuesday’s primary as Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn launched an early TV attack ad against his wealthy challenger,” the Tribune reports.
Surprising only to those who believed the polls. For example, the Beachwood Bookmaking Bureau never wavered from placing Dillard atop the leader board – though we certainly should have downgraded the sliding Bill Brady had we updated the board since its last, Feb. 28 posting.
In fact, one has to wonder how much the polls showing Rauner with a 20-point lead affected the race. Were potential Dillard voters discouraged? Were wavering voters persuaded to “go with the winner?” What about the impact of the cynical punditry that kept insisting the election was a lock? And what about the overall media performance that delivered Rauner gobs of attention – not all of it positive, to be sure – while the other campaigns were left begging?
As I’ve said before, Rauner’s money didn’t just buy saturating advertising, but saturating reporting. And yet, we’re left with a candidate who was allowed to dodge just about every issue and outright dodge reporters – even on Election Night.
When the pundits do their analyses of what happened and why, I’m sure they’ll leave themselves out of the equation. But we all know media coverage impacts campaigns. If it doesn’t, why bother?

Click through for the rest.

Read More

Posted on March 19, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

In the first of my primary notebooks: Russell Brand, Bruce Rauner and the Trib edit board. Guess which one I like best?
Digital Delusion
“Along the banks of the Mahoning River in the struggling Ohio steel town of Youngstown sits a once-abandoned furniture warehouse that has been converted into a sleek new laboratory,” Reuters reports.
“Inside is a Silicon Valley-style workspace complete with open meeting areas and colorful stools. Several 3-D printers hum in the background, while engineers type computer codes that tell the machines how to create objects by layering materials.
“The lab, called America Makes, is the first in a series of so-called ‘manufacturing innovation hubs’ that President Barack Obama has launched with the promise that they could revitalize America’s industrial sector and spur jobs growth in downtrodden communities like Youngstown.
“Seven more hubs are planned by the end of the year, including projects in Chicago, Detroit and Raleigh, North Carolina, that will follow the Youngstown model of bringing together businesses, non-profits and universities to pursue technological breakthroughs.
“But after more than a year of operation, the Youngstown hub underscores the challenges facing Obama’s goal of ensuring ‘a steady stream of good jobs into the 21st century,’ as he put it in remarks at a White House event last month.”
That’s putting it kindly.

Read More

Posted on March 18, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“A daughter of Mr. Rauner attended Walter Payton College Preparatory High School, one of Chicago’s most coveted selective-enrollment public high schools, though the family had access to a top suburban public high school,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Rauner later donated $250,000 to a Payton-related foundation. The contribution came a year and a half after Mr. Rauner’s daughter was admitted, a campaign aide noted, and the Rauners have a long history of giving to the Chicago Public Schools, among other organizations.”
What an odd story by the Times; the contribution was suspicious but the main point of controversy in this episode was Rauner picking up the phone and calling then-CPS CEO Arne Duncan, now the U.S. Secretary of Education, to clout his daughter in.

Read More

Posted on March 17, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

Weekend Desk Editor Natasha Julius is on an assignment of world import but promises to return next week and be twice as funny as she would have been today.
–
Beachwood Podcast No. 5
This week Tuffy and the Angry Aussie return to Chicagoland to deconstruct Episode 2. Then we talk a little speed camera action and give lip service to Tuesday’s primary.

Read More

Posted on March 15, 2014