Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
BREAKING: New stocking stuffers in the Beachwood Novelties store!
* A limited edition Beachwood Reporter “Throw the First Punch” t-shirt. Be the first – and possibly only – person on your block to own one!
* The famous Flying Saucer “Andrew” t-shirt. Featuring Beachwood correspondent Andrew “The Angry Aussie of Humboldt Park” Kingsford.
Posted on December 17, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
Dick Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Democratically-controlled United States Senate, tells WBEZ that the president’s tax cut bill “doesn’t help the economy. It adds to the deficit, and it basically says the people who are the most well-off in America don’t have to share any kind of sacrifice in these tough times.”
So naturally, he’s voting for it.
Posted on December 16, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
“Wal-Mart said earlier this week that they don’t have plans to move into a space in the densely populated East Lakeview neighborhood, but now there is word they might be eyeing another site in a Bucktown area corridor that is already loaded with big-box stores,” CBS2 reports.
I have a feeling that over the course of the next year nearly every neighborhood in Chicago will be terrorized by rumors and reports of a Walmart moving in. Some of them may even be true.
Posted on December 15, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
Thanks to to everyone who made it out to the Beachwood Inn last night – particularly our senior sports correspondent Jim “Coach” Coffman, whose impressive jukebox run put an even bigger smile on my face than this:
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Unfortunately, this bus driver is no longer working for the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District.
Posted on December 14, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
1. The Trib’s photo gallery from Soldier Field yesterday.
*
4screens’ photostream on Flickr.
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Contemplating a mitten fire.
Posted on December 13, 2010
By Natasha Julius
It doesn’t matter how brutal the weather gets, you won’t catch us heading south.
Market Update
We don’t need extensive research to tell us Illinois is a tough place to retire. We can just ask our governors.
Posted on December 11, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
This is why I hate pols like Toni Preckwinkle more than pols like Joe Berrios – whom I despise. Berrios actually believes that there is nothing wrong with the way he operates – or he simply doesn’t care. But he doesn’t hide who he is.
Preckwinkle, on the other hand, knows better. She believes differently. She fights – however meekly – against everything that Berrios stands for. But when she needs a heavy, she turns a blind eye.
I’m not sure there are any real reformers in Illinois politics, but there sure are a lot of fake ones.
Posted on December 10, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
This is shaping up to be a very tough month for me in terms of time, energy and money for a variety of reasons so there’s a lot I haven’t gotten to and probably won’t get to until January, including the mayoral campaign. And, of course, I have a lot to say about our president. All in due time. For now, though, isn’t this kind of perfect?
And so far all health care reform and credit card reform have done is hurt us working folk. This guy is killing me.
Posted on December 9, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
1. We’re all George W. Bush now.
2. “Alinea, one of only two Chicago restaurants to get a three-star Michelin rating, is getting another award, this time for the most decadence,” Fox Chicago News reports.
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From the Beachwood, May 2008:
“I find this kind of cheffery and consumption decadent and even immoral – there are no limits to the luxuries we can gloriously bathe ourselves as we refine our tastes evermore while huge swaths of the world go hungry – but read for yourself and see if you are offended somehow by dehydrated bacon wrapped in apple leather swinging from a metal contraption.”
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Which in part prompted this response from the Reader’s Martha Bayne and my ensuing response to her.
Posted on December 8, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
“Metra’s longtime chief was supporting two other households in addition to his own, leaving his wife with staggering debts after he took his life, according to a lawyer for Phil Pagano’s widow,” the Tribune reports.
“James Mullally, who represents Barbara Pagano, made the disclosure in federal bankruptcy court last week, claiming that she was left with more than $1 million in debts.
“Saying he didn’t want to get involved in ‘innuendo and hearsay,’ Mullally said that ‘in addition to the household in Crystal Lake . . . Pagano had not one, but two additional households, one in Palatine and one in downtown Chicago,’ according to a court transcript.
“It wasn’t known who belonged to those households. Mullally on Monday declined to provide any names or details. Nor would he say if Barbara Pagano had determined who might belong to the ‘other households.'”
Posted on December 7, 2010
