By Steve Rhodes

“A nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley will stand trial Feb. 18 for involuntary manslaughter in the death of David Koschman,” the Sun-Time reports.
Will he? That’s certainly the trial date given to Richard Vanecko, but isn’t there a good chance he never sees in the inside of a courtroom? My guess is that he pleads out. Gets some combination of probation and community service.
The evidence is likely to be compelling: Vanecko threw the punch that killed Koschman. That’s incontrovertible, isn’t it? Now, he certainly didn’t intend to end the man’s life, but that’s why the charge is involuntary manslaughter and not murder.

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Posted on September 25, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“The Chicago-based evangelical Moody Bible Institute has dropped its ban on alcohol and tobacco consumption by its 600-some faculty and staff, including for those who work in its radio and publishing arms,” the Religion News Service reports.
“The change in August reflected a desire to create a ‘high trust environment that emphasizes values, not rules,’ said spokeswoman Christine Gorz. Employees must adhere to all ‘biblical absolutes,’ Gorz said, but on issues where the Bible is not clear, Moody leaves it to employees’ conscience.”

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Posted on September 24, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“Martin Cabrera Jr. is out, but he’s still in,” Dan Mihalopoulos writes for the Sun-Times in a pretty awesome lead.
What makes it work so well, of course, is that it has the benefit of being true.
“The investment banker who was brought in to oversee reforms at Chicago’s scandal-scarred United Neighborhood Organization, the state’s largest charter-school operator, didn’t last four months before stepping down recently as UNO’s board chairman, citing unspecified differences over the group’s ‘philosophy and mission.’
“But Cabrera retains close ties to politicians including Mayor Rahm Emanuel and powerful Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) – both big supporters of UNO and its embattled chief executive, Juan Rangel.
“Cabrera has built and maintained especially strong ties to Burke as Cabrera Capital Markets, the Chicago financial services firm Cabrera founded, has enjoyed multimillion-dollar growth, getting a cut of deals involving billions of dollars as a bond underwriter for city and state agencies and major governments across Illinois and nationwide.”
Click through for the rest of the story.

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Posted on September 23, 2013

By Natasha Julius

We’re an altogether different kind of hack.
Market Update
Not even 200 points for a looming government shutdown? It’s like they’re all just going through the motions now.

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Posted on September 21, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

Here’s raw video from AP from the scene of the Cornell Square Park shooting last night.

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Posted on September 20, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“Mayor Rahm Emanuel is moving to take back the broad authority he gave one of the city’s top financial aides to buy insurance in the wake of his former comptroller’s federal indictment in an alleged kickback scheme tied to his old job in Ohio,” the Tribune reports.
“Shortly after taking office, Emanuel pushed a measure through the City Council allowing then-Comptroller Amer Ahmad to buy insurance without putting the business out to bid.”
Why?

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Posted on September 19, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“Beanie Babies creator Ty Warner has agreed to plead guilty to federal tax evasion and pay a fine of more than $53 million for failing to report money he earned in a secret account offshore, the government said this morning,” Crain’s reports.
Just two days ago we learned that Warner is the 209th most wealthy American, with a net worth of $2.6 billion. Apparently that just wasn’t enough.
“The government alleges Mr. Warner ‘went to great lengths’ to hide from the IRS and his accountants more than $3.1 million in foreign income ‘generated in a secret Swiss account,’ Gary Shapiro, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said in the statement.”

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Posted on September 18, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

The Papers will have to return on Wednesday because, like Bill Daley, I underestimated the enormity of the task.
(Bill Daley, Surrender Monkey.)
Unlike Bill Daley, I will return to the arena, where the critic’s face is also marred by dust and sweat and blood from striving valiantly, despite what every pol who quotes Teddy Roosevelt says.
Bill Daley is rich (net worth: $28.7 million). He has sacrificed nothing. His forays into public service were for himself and, maybe, his party, not for us. He’s not exactly returning to the private sector to work for a soup kitchen or a food bank; he’ll go back to serving the interests of America’s wealthiest. (Just like Rahm Emanuel did when he left “public service.”)

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Posted on September 17, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“Bill Gates retained his spot atop the Forbes 400 richest Americans, a list that is becoming decidedly more wealthy,” Reuters reports.
“The annual Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans list showed that total wealth climbed 19 percent in the last year to $2.02 trillion, up from $1.7 trillion, with an average net worth per individual of $5 billion, up from $ 4.2 billion in 2012. It now takes $1.3 billion in assets just to get on the list.”
It’s not just the rich getting richer, it’s the richest.

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Posted on September 16, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“President Obama and his aides were surprised this month by the strength of public opposition to their call for military action against Syria,” Doyle McManus writes for the Los Angeles Times.
A) I’m sure they viewed missile strikes as no different, really, than drone strikes. What’s the big deal?
And in a sense, that’s understandable. The public has accepted the drone war, though favorable polling isn’t surprising when framed with questions like “Do you support drone strikes against terrorists” instead of “Do you support drone strikes against teenagers and funeral-goers whose names we don’t even know and aren’t suspected of any particular wrongdoing.”
B) It’s one thing to strike in Pakistan, where the drone wars began and we’ve long been enmeshed as part of the Afghan-Iraq wars, and Yemen, which few Americans can find on a map, but striking Syria would be starting a new war, not one inherited from George W. Bush.

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Posted on September 14, 2013