By The Weekend Desk B Team

Weekend Desk editor Natasha Julius is on a mission of national import. She will return in May.
Wolf Bait
“A wide assortment of cleaning supplies were stolen from a shed in the 200 block of South Chicago Avenue on Thursday, Kankakee police reported,” the Daily Journal there reports. “Locks were cut to gain access. Stolen were 192 rolls of paper towels, 16 bottles of bleach, 8 bottles of lime buster, 5 cartons of lotion, 200 face towels, 20 cans of air freshener, 25 bottles of antibacterial soap and 16 boxes of laundry detergent.”
Thankfully, police have a suspect in custody.

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Posted on April 21, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

I’ve got friends in town from Brooklyn – former Chicagoans including the designer of this site! – and we’re heading to breakfast at the awesome Flying Saucer in Humboldt Park so the Beachwood will be delayed today. I do have one post up – The Week in Chicago Rock. Lots of good stuff there. More later.
Yeah, the column’s just not going to happen today. But here’s some other great stuff we have for you:
* Remembering Levon Helm in Chicago: He just played here last month and had played at a variety of Chicago venues in recent years. We have the video.

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Posted on April 20, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“Glimpses of a plan to slash spending on the state’s health care program for the poor emerged Wednesday, with preliminary ideas ranging from eliminating a discount prescription program for seniors to stricter eligibility requirements that would leave thousands without health care coverage,” the Tribune reports.
“One program on the list for possible elimination is Illinois Cares Rx, which provides discount drug coverage for 180,000 low-income seniors and people with disabilities across Illinois.
“Also under consideration is limiting eligibility for adults enrolled in the Family Care health insurance program, which charges small co-pays and monthly premiums for services ranging from doctor visits to dental care and prescription drugs. If guidelines are changed, more than 26,000 people would no longer qualify for coverage.”

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Posted on April 19, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“Where do you start to try to understand and write about a city you barely know, one that’s bigger than some countries?” writes Pulitzer Prize-winning Mary Schmich today, reflecting upon her newfound status as one of America’s preeminent commentators.
“On a chilly afternoon in the April I arrived, I sat in a Coffee Chicago with a yellow pad and tried to answer the question. I wrote down things like: Go out. Get to know people. Introduce Chicago people to each other. Make the city visible. Make it feel like a small town. Stories!”
Really? She actually got out a yellow pad to figure out how to do her job? And wrote down things like “Go out. Get to know people.”?
My God. Stories!

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Posted on April 18, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

For those who saw my earlier note, I’m actually going to post this column first and then resume working on our other posts for the rest of the site today because that’s taking quite some time. And now on to the news . . .
I haven’t been this stunned about a Pulitzer Prize winner since, well, last year when the Sun-Times won for a wholly flawed series on crime. (I never got around to that exposition, but maybe I can return to it later this week.)
Actually, I’m never stunned, just bummed out, because the Pulitzers are almost as bad as the Grammy’s (and not quite as bad as the local Lisagors) when it comes to rewarding the profession’s best. I mean, consider who’s doing the judging.
As Jack Shafer once wrote for Slate:
“As a judge of other, lesser journalistic contests, I can tell you that it’s a good thing the winners are chosen in private rather than under the scrutiny of C-SPAN’s cameras. There’s no real science or even fairness behind the picking of winners and losers, with the prizes handed out according to a formula composed of one part log-rolling, two parts merit, three parts ‘we owe him one,’ and four parts random distribution.”
So with a slightly heavy heart, let’s take a look at the Pulitzer Prize-winning Mary Schmich, now ordained as one of the best in the business – ever.

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Posted on April 17, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

Not sure if there will be a column today but here’s what else we have in any case:
* The Weekend in Chicago Rock: Huge.
* Chicagoetry: Sad Eyed Lady of the Northwoods.
* One Nation Under Sex: And under cover.

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Posted on April 16, 2012

By Natasha Julius

We had planned to make this Report 20 percent longer, but then we caved to parental pressure.
Market Update
In retrospect, it seems inevitable that some recent gains would evaporate once investors realized they were based on enormous piles of shit.

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Posted on April 14, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“If you’re the guy with the red mohawk and ‘viper piercings’ who attended the recent Megadeth/Motorhead concert at the Aragon Ballroom, there’s a woman with blue hair and black biker boots who has something for you: A Baby,” the Sun-Times reports.
“At least that’s the woman’s claim in a recent anonymous posting on Craigslist’s ‘Missed Connections’ section.”
Maybe it should have been posted in Made Connections!

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Posted on April 13, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“The Emanuel administration and the CTA engaged in private discussions on a $300 million no-bid contract with the maker of the transit agency’s new rail cars, but the talks collapsed amid disclosures about the poor quality of the company’s work, the Tribune has learned.
“CTA lawyers had been working to justify the unusual practice of awarding such a large contract without competitive bids, the transit agency said.”
Oy.

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Posted on April 12, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“Having previously decreed that all Chicago Public Schools students should spend 7 1/2 hours a day in school, Mayor Rahm Emanuel compromised with himself on Tuesday, decreeing that elementary school students could get by with 7 hours instead,” Mark Brown writes today for the Sun-Times.
“This was characterized by some as the mayor backing down or compromising with parents who believed Emanuel’s plan for a longer school day went too far.”
By “some,” Brown means his colleagues in the media, as we shall see.
“I suppose you could look at it that way, although just as likely is that the mayor had planned to settle on 7 hours all along.
“Emanuel campaigned on a longer school day. Emanuel will get a longer school day. The exact length of time was never as important as making good on his pledge to keep Chicago students in the classroom as much as students in the rest of the country.
“He does that, you may have noticed, pushing for more than he expects to receive in the end. That way he doesn’t have to play the bully who always gets his way like the last mayor. He’s the mayor who is equally in a hurry to get things done but still capable of listening, or so we are to conclude.”
By “we,” Brown means his colleagues in the media, as we shall see.

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Posted on April 11, 2012