By Steve Rhodes

Chicagoland needs an antidote, and we’re on it!
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I’ll be on Beachwood Radio this weekend with the Angry Aussie discussing the latest episode; look for it in this space on Saturday evening.
Coke Fiend
“A former Mississippi sharecropper who landed millions of dollars in contracts from the city of Chicago was sentenced Thursday to 17 months in prison for his role in a minority-contracting scandal that involved sewer deals held by a company whose investors secretly included then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s son and nephew,” the Sun-Times reports.
“Jesse Brunt, 77, the owner of Brunt Bros. Transfer, had pleaded guilty more than a year ago to mail fraud, admitting the trucking company’s role in the city deals was a sham.
“The black Chicago businessman admitted Brunt Bros. acted as a minority front in sewer deals with City Hall beginning with Kenny Industrial Services, owned by the clout-heavy Kenny family, and continued when their business was taken over in 2003 by a company owned in part by Daley’s son Patrick Daley and nephew Robert G. Vanecko.”
Here’s the kicker:
“Daley’s son and nephew weren’t charged in the scheme and were never interviewed by investigators, Brunt’s attorney Jeffrey Steinback said in court Thursday.”
Chicagoland!

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Posted on March 14, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“Mayor Rahm Emanuel is counting on speed cameras installed around Chicago schools and parks to bankroll $70 million worth of children’s programs this year,” Fran Spielman “reports” for the Sun-Times.
I guess she doesn’t read the Tribune.

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Posted on March 13, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“Some of the city’s high schools are shrinking. In fact, some are shrinking so dramatically, it’s questionable whether students are getting access to a basic education,” Linda Lutton reports for WBEZ.
I’m going to excerpt at length, but go read and/or listen to the whole thing.

Take the Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy on the city’s West Side, where students have spent much of this year without key teachers.
If you ask seniors Kendale Brice and Janiqua Johnson to list the teachers they’re missing at Austin Business, it sounds like they’re reading from a job board:
“We need a music teacher,” Kendale says.
“We need a Spanish teacher,” Janiqua adds.
“Last year we didn’t have a Spanish teacher, so we had to take Spanish online,” Kendale says.
“We need a science teacher – which is biology and forensic science,” says Janiqua. “We need an English teacher for juniors and seniors.”
Keyshawn Fields, a junior slated to take the ACT exam next month, says he had a biology teacher “for maybe three weeks at the beginning of the year, then she was gone.” Music and Spanish – requirements for graduation – are offered online only, students say.
“It’s hard, because sometimes some students (are) physical learners – like, they need to be in person with a teacher, and that doesn’t help being online,” says senior Moeisha Webb, who’s in the online music class.
WBEZ interviewed a dozen students at Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy, and all of them told the same story. Their core courses in English and science have been taught mostly by substitutes this year – sometimes a different substitute every day – meaning no homework, and often no classwork. One student said students are passed automatically since there are no teachers.

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Posted on March 12, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“Earlier this year, New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman published The Loudest Voice in the Room, a strongly critical biography of Roger Ailes,” Bob Somerby writes at his Daily Howler blog.
“In January, Sherman discussed the book with Jane Hall as part of C-Span’s After Words series. We watched their discussion two weekends ago.
“Late in the hour, Sherman and Hall discussed the nature of propaganda, especially as practiced by Fox. Sherman’s description was basic but interesting.”
Click through for the passage, I’m going to jump ahead.

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Posted on March 11, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

Docu-series or docu-wank? See what Tuffy and the Angry Aussie think on Cracking The Chicagoland Code.
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See also: Previous Podcasts.
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Note: We’re just at the very rough beginning of building our Beachwood Radio network. If you’d like to contribute and/or have ideas for our podcasts, drop me a line.

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Posted on March 10, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“Thursday night’s premiere of the Robert Redford-produced Chicagoland didn’t give CNN the primetime boost it was looking for in terms of ratings,” Lori Rackl reports for the Sun-Times.
“The docuseries debut finished third among cable news networks nationally in total viewers for the 9 to 10 p.m. (Central) hour.”
Which just goes to show, if you run something against Rahm – anything – he finishes last.
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“In fact,” Wopular notes, “it came a distant third in terms of total viewership compared to its cable news time-slot rivals. The debut Thursday of the cable news network’s heavily promoted eight-part documentary series drew 227,000 viewers among adults 25-54 with 629,000 total viewers.”
By comparison, Rahm won election in 2011 with 323,546 votes.
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Nielsen did not provide numbers for how many viewers were journalists.
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UFC Fight Night 35 on Fox Sports 1 – Rockhold vs. Philippou – also pulled 629,000 total viewers. So there’s that.

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Posted on March 8, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

Did the media blow the story of Arthur Bishop, the short-lived director of the state Department of Children and Family Services?
I take a look in The Sad Saga of Arthur Bishop.

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Posted on March 7, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“This was the second debate in two nights and the third in a week – and it showed. Piling on the debates at the end of a campaign isn’t very constructive, and often sets up counter-productive dynamics,” I write today in Tweeting The WGN GOP Debate.
“For example, when there is a clear frontrunner, as there is in the case of Bruce Rauner, the dynamic becomes ‘attack the frontrunner.’ And then the media equation becomes ‘did anyone land a knockout blow’ and by that time we’ve drifted far from reality because the veracity of the attacks matter little when a sense of inevitability sets in.
“So here’s an idea: Schedule debates at the beginning, middle and end of the campaign. You’re welcome!”
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“I mean, you might as well say ‘Please give us your answer on clouting your daughter into Payton again’ . . . ‘Please tell us why you won’t release the report again’ . . . ‘Please tell us why you cut that ad for Barack Obama again’ . . . ‘Please tell us about your business problems again’ . . . Advance the ball, please.”

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Posted on March 6, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“Rutherford’s been exposed, Brady isn’t really cosmopolitan enough to run the nation’s fifth-largest state, Rauner is a phony baloney rich enough to buy the nomination and Dillard is the classic Edgar-Ryan-Thompson candidate except for his inability to run a campaign.”
– Me, in Tweeting The NBC5 GOP Debate.

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Posted on March 5, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“Sneed is told senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett is dating Ahmad Rashad , the four-times-married sportscaster who was once a wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings.”
And by “told,” she means – once again – that she read about it in a dozen other places.
Sneed does acknowledge near the end of the item that “Last year, the New York Post tipped that Jarrett and Rashad, who has five children and multiple stepchildren, were seeing each other,” but nonetheless cites a “Sneed source” for her observation that Rashad “began quietly ‘seeing’ Jarrett, 57, last year.”
The Post item was last November, the Beachwood is told.
Another Beachwood source who would only agree to be identifed as “Google” tells the Beachwood that Rashad is “secretly” dating Jarrett, and that Rashad converted to Islam 42 years ago, as noted by Sneed because, well, that’s what a “source” told her. It’s not like she just read it somewhere ugly.

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Posted on March 4, 2014