By Steve Rhodes

If Fran Spielman’s analysis is to be believed – and that’s a big “If,” given her tendency to channel City Hall sources used to using her to message their own agenda – Tom Ricketts has nobody to blame but himself for the morass the Wrigley Field negotiations have become.
Ricketts, it should be remembered, has racked up a horrible track record as a deal-maker since day one with the Cubs. Whatever skills he might have had as a stock broker tutored by his rich daddy (“Ricketts spent one summer early in life working at TD Ameritrade, giving customers stock quotes over the phone. This was his only work experience with the company before being invited to join as a director later in life,” his footnoted Wikipedia entry says) clearly have not transferred to the tricky management challenge of running one of the most storied (and unique) franchises in sports history – in one of the trickiest political environments in the country.

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Posted on April 11, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

From Linda Lutton’s Facebook page:
“Michelle Obama is stopping by Harper High School today!! I can’t get press credentials to go, and neither can Alex Kotlowitz.”
Lutton and Kotlowitz, of course, were reporters on the WBEZ project that brought Harper High to the nation’s attention.
“Just the White House press pool and some preselected local reporters,” Lutton writes.
She’s not mad about it, but I am.
The chosen few should go to bat for their colleagues, whose work inspired the visit.

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Posted on April 10, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Sunday told more than 1,000 people that good parenting and aggressive policing are key to solving Chicago’s gun violence problems,” the Tribune reports.
“At the annual conference for the Council on Foundations, a nonprofit association of more than 1,700 foundations, Emanuel said police officers will be saturating high-crime areas of Chicago, and the city will help expand a mentoring program for young minority men.

“I say it’s the four P’s … policing, prevention, penalties and parenting,” he told the crowd as they ate lunch at the Hilton Chicago. “You’re going to be as strong as the weakest link in that chain.”

A faithful Beachwood reader thinks Rahm meant to say the six P’s: policing, prevention, penalties, parenting, pensions and privatization.

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Posted on April 9, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

Where have you gone, Lee Elia? A lonely Cubs fan turns his eyes to you.
–
The Final Cut
Roger Ebert On Meryl Streep As Margaret Thatcher.
*
Elvis Costello On Margaret Thatcher vs. Barack Obama On Margaret Thatcher.

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Posted on April 8, 2013

By Natasha Julius

Sorry for the delay, the Weekend Desk computers are also in a permanent slow zone.
Market Report
Apparently the last 100 years of scientific and social progress has also been sequestered.

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Posted on April 6, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

His late turn to political commentary notwithstanding, Roger Ebert was someone we could all agree on. Last of the giants in Chicago journalism.
Our very own J.J. Tindall gives tribute in his own, inimitable way.

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Posted on April 5, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

The Tribune editorial board is doubling down* on disingenuousness. It’s not a good look.**
Having already been called out for its faulty handling of data in an editorial pushing – yet again – the expansion of charter schools, it is now denying the irrefutable facts reported (most extensively and impressively by WBEZ) elsewhere that destroys their major premise: that 19,000 Chicago Public Schools students are on charter school waiting lists. The reported truth: Not even close.

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Posted on April 4, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

Sorry, no column today. But I encourage you to follow the school closings debate on Twitter – CPS board meeting today as well as city council hearing. I’ll be making witty and trenchant remarks there.
New on the rest of the site today:
* Local Music Notebook: Hip Hop For Peace, Crawdaddy & Calendar Guys.
* Sports: The Wolves Held A Wine Tasting.

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Posted on April 3, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“Charter schools are expanding in Chicago, even as the district is closing schools due to declining enrollment,” WBEZ reports.
“Chicago Public Schools officials explain the seeming contradiction by citing a large demand for charter schools. Charter advocates and even the Chicago Tribune editorial board say 19,000 kids are on charter school waiting lists in the city.
“There’s just one problem with that number: it’s not accurate. It significantly overstates demand.”
Significantly.

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Posted on April 2, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“Disgraced Chicago Police torturer Jon Burge has had his appeal against a perjury conviction rejected,” the Sun-Times reports.
“And the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals noted the ‘irony’ of the 65-year-old former cop complaining about his conviction – calling him a ‘liar’ responsible for ‘decades of abuse that is unquestionably horrific.'”

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Posted on April 1, 2013