Chicago -
By Natasha Julius
We would like to declare that the Weekend Desk is no longer a news source. We are now a news entertainment destination.
Market Update
Despite reclaiming a measure of financial respectability, BP suffered a blow this week as head of crude trading Henrik Wareborn resigned. Defending the decision not to replace Wareborn CEO Bob Dudley reportedly said, “Fuck him. Like we need that asshole to seem crude.”
Posted on November 20, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
“Trustees of Chicago’s failing public pension funds have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into highly speculative investments that not only have failed to realize outsize returns but also saddled them with underperforming, long-term assets that can’t be sold off, a Tribune investigation has found.”
What, they invested in Sam Zell’s Tribune?
Posted on November 18, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
“Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias’ family bank failed because it was heavy into real estate loans and couldn’t absorb the losses during the economic downtown, but management also pursued other strategies that made the institution vulnerable, according to a report Tuesday from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s inspector general’s office,” AP reports.
“The agency said the bank had an ‘aggressive growth strategy’ to pursue commercial real estate and construction loans but didn’t have good credit risk management practices to manage the loans and then couldn’t withstand the losses in a worsening economy.”
Jaws Giorango was not available for comment.
Posted on November 17, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
“Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts on Monday told the Tribune’s editorial board he doesn’t have a Plan B to come up with $200 million if the state rejects his proposal to borrow that money in a bond offering,” the paper reports.
Huh. I guess there’s nowhere else for the Ricketts’ to turn.
Oh, wait:
Posted on November 16, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
“The game was a classic set-up and the pivotal play 50 minutes in the making,” our very own Jim Coffman writes.
“In fact, the Bears had been laying the groundwork for Jay Cutler’s clinching fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Kellen Davis for months.”
*
The view from Minnesota, though, was of a three-phase failure against a lesser team. (Same link.)
Posted on November 15, 2010
By Natasha Julius
We’ll deal with the government; you’ve got enough to worry about.
–
1. But one winner won’t get into heaven.
Posted on November 13, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
1. I would love to see Alexi Giannoulias jump into the mayoral race just to see if Rahm Emanuel attacks him as a mob banker.
2. Stay classy, Todd.
3. Sick of the Ricketts’ yet?
Posted on November 12, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
“What’s black and white and read all over? Not the white pages, which is why regulators have begun granting telecommunications companies the go-ahead to stop mass-printing residential phone books, a musty fixture of Americans’ kitchen counters, refrigerator tops and junk drawers,” AP reports.
“If the white pages are nearing their end, then Emily Goodmann hopes the directories would be archived for historical, genealogical or sociological purposes.
“‘The telephone directory stands as the original sort of information network that not only worked as kind of a social network in a sense, but it served as one of the first information resources,’ said Goodmann, a doctoral student at Northwestern University who is writing her dissertation on the history of phone books as information technology. ‘It’s sort of heartbreaking . . . even though these books are essentially made to be destroyed.'”
Posted on November 11, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
“A Republican congressman hoping to chair the powerful House Energy Committee refers to the Bible and God on the issue of global warming,” the Daily Mail reports. (h/t: Capitol Fax)
That Republican congressman would be Illinois’ very own John Shimkus.
“Shimkus insists we shouldn’t concerned about the planet being destroyed because God promised Noah it wouldn’t happen again after the great flood.”
Posted on November 10, 2010
