Chicago -
By Natasha Julius
Hey, you know a really great way to get young people excited about your newspaper? Insult them right in the headline.
Market Update
You thought overlooking a fraudulent girlfriend was bad? Try overlooking a fraudulent economic system.
Posted on January 19, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
Talk to me, people.
1. Someone please tell me how Chief Keef’s lyrics are relevant to whether his participation in a Pitchfork video in which he fires a handgun given to him at a gun range constitutes violation of his probation.
Posted on January 18, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
Seth Meyers won the Internet on Wednesday – and it was very competitive:
These Te’o jokes are all very funny but let’s all try and remember that a person who never existed is dead.
— Seth Meyers (@sethmeyers21) January 16, 2013
Posted on January 17, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
“The City Council Finance Committee [Tuesday] endorsed spending $32.7 million to settle two police misconduct cases, including what may be the single largest payment of its kind in city history,” the Tribune reports.
“The larger settlement, now set for a Thursday vote of the full council, is for $22.5 million to the family of Christina Eilman. She was left severely and permanently disabled nearly seven years ago after plummeting from a seventh-floor window of a vacant apartment at a public housing complex.”
This was not unexpected. But what committee chair Ed Burke said was.
Posted on January 16, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
“Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy held a news conference Monday in which his department ‘put on display several of the firearms seized . . . during the first two weeks of 2013,’ according to a police news release,” the Tribune reports.
“But that wasn’t exactly the case.
“A police spokeswoman said McCarthy had hoped to display 25 weapons from among the more than 300 seized since Jan. 1 – but in fact the ones shown were from last year. Some dated from last summer, according to inventory tags on the weapons.”
Doh!
“Reporters attending the news conference at the Gresham district station, 7808 S. Halsted St., noticed the inventory tags, and McCarthy was asked about them. He said the guns weren’t the actual ones seized in 2013, but were ‘representative’ of them.”
That’s okay, our prisons are full of people who aren’t actually the real killers, but representative of them.
Posted on January 15, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
“Getting ‘real information’ to people on the World Wide Web is 13-year-old Aaron Swartz’s job,” the Tribune reported in June 2000.
“He’s tired of all the banner ads, the sponsorships and other miscellaneous ‘junk’ hogging the screens.
“‘That’s not what the Internet was made for. It was based on open standards and freedom, not ads,’ said Swartz of Highland Park, the youngest of 10 finalists in the annual Arsdigita Foundation Teen Web Site Contest.”
Swartz went on to be a key developer of RSS web content syndication, a co-founder of Reddit and a leading activist for the freedom of information, but despite his global status as a computer prodigy and Internet thought leader, he never appeared again in the Tribune until Sunday’s report of his suicide.
Posted on January 14, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
“After weeks of rumors and equally strenuous denials, Sandi Jackson resigned as Chicago’s 7th Ward alderman Friday, the latest chapter in the stunning, scandal-laced downfall of what had been one of the city’s most prominent and powerful political duos,” the Tribune reports.
We’ll have more on this in the days to come, but for now, let’s turn to the Beachwood Twitter feed:
Posted on January 12, 2013
By Steve RhodesI
‘ll be on WBEZ’s Morning Shift this morning discussing the week’s news with Achy Obejas and host Tony Sarabia. I have some other obligations to tend to as well, so chances are there won’t be a Papers column today. Our fabulous and lovely weekend desk editor Natasha Julius is sick and experiencing, among other things, “weaponized uber-snot,” so if she doesn’t turn things around in the next 24 hours I’ll use the Weekend Desk Report to catch up on what I’m missing today. (She doesn’t have the flu, by the way, just . . . something else.)
Our fine Beachwood contributors are still hard at work, however. Here’s what we do have today:
Posted on January 11, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
Let’s break down a few stories that appear in today’s papers and fail, in my view, to meet minimum standards of publication.
1. Lottery Death.
“The father-in-law of Urooj Khan – the million-dollar lottery winner who died of cyanide poisoning weeks later – allegedly owed more than $120,000 in back taxes, a debt that led the Internal Revenue Service to place liens on Khan’s Far North Side house almost two years ago, according to records obtained by the Tribune,” the paper reports.
This troubles me. Not the father-in-law, but including this information in an article to show that he may have had a motive to commit murder. So?
Posted on January 10, 2013
By Steve Rhodes
Totally not in order of importance.
1. Beer Brawl.
“There’s a battle brewing at 5 Rabbit Cerveceria Inc. as co-founder Andres Araya has sued co-founder Isaac Showaki, alleging defamation,” Crain’s reports.
“The two started the Chicago microbrewery in 2011 and quickly gained a following among craft beer lovers. Seems that a power struggle came to a head as production and recognition grew.”
Posted on January 9, 2013
