By Steve Rhodes

The Papers is taking the day off but please enjoy the vast array of incredibly high quality content throughout the site, including new posts today such as George Ofman’s “Zambrano Will Never Learn” and the latest hilarious episode of Slacker P.I.
Posting through the holiday weekend will be sporadic – so check back often!
You can also browse through the Papers archive to get your fill – the stories of political and media malfeasance don’t really change – and track us on Facebook and on Twitter.
And don’t forget Agony & Ivy, which is still a work-in-progress but already delivering insight and wit.

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Posted on July 1, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

1. “Reversing his recent position on the dangers of an extraterrestrial invasion, eminent theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said today that the planet is in no such peril anymore because aliens are ‘no longer interested’ in invading Earth,” Andy Borowitz reports.
“‘Assuming that aliens have been monitoring Earth for the past month in preparation for an invasion, they’ve probably figured out it’s no longer worth the trip,’ Dr. Hawking said.”
2. The Yahoo! Style Guide.

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Posted on June 30, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

1. The [Burge] Papers.
2. The Tribune’s graphic this morning called “Tracking Killings Before And After Chicago’s Handgun Ban” is all very interesting, but does it tell us anything?
According to the Trib’s artwork, the city’s firearms-related murder rate was 15.7 in 1970 and 14.4 in 2008. The handgun ban went into effect in 1982. So it worked a little! Or did it?
Similarly, the firearms-related murder rate rose from 18.3 in 1980 to 21.6 in 1990. So it didn’t work at all! Or did it?
It is facile to suggest, as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and others do, that ongoing handgun violence in the city proves the ban hasn’t “worked.”

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Posted on June 29, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Jurors in the Jon Burge trial are expected to resume deliberating today after failing to reach a decision in more than eight hours of discussion on Thursday and Friday, AP reports.
The Tribune noted on Sunday that regardless of the verdict, Burge will remain in some legal jeopardy.
“Burge still faces a federal civil rights lawsuit against him by Darrell Cannon, who accused detectives under Burge’s command of staging a mock execution and shocking him in the genitals with a cattle prod during a 1983 interrogation until he falsely confessed to murder,” the paper reported on page 16.

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Posted on June 28, 2010

By Natasha Julius

Staying on top of the news this weekend so you don’t have to. Among the stories we’re following:
1. Much like the leaking BP oil well, you can’t stop Carlos Zambrano from spouting off, and you can’t even hope to contain him.

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Posted on June 26, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

In closing arguments on Thursday, “Burge’s lawyer described the abuse allegations from deceased convicted cop killer Andrew Wilson and four other career criminals as ‘pathological,’ ‘nonsense’ and ‘garbage,’ the Sun-Times reports.
“But federal prosecutors stressed that Burge’s accusers were backed up by the testimony of friends, former defense lawyers, doctors and nurses,” the Tribune reports.
I don’t have any doubt that Jon Burge tortured scores of men in Area 2, nor that he has committed perjury. But I’d say reasonable doubt lays the odds of a conviction at 50-50.

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Posted on June 25, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

With a one-day break in the Jon Burge trial, I direct you to John Conroy’s 2007 story, “The Meter’s Still Running and the Mayor’s Still Mum.”
Subhead: “Since 2003 the city has paid some $7 million in legal fees to fight five police torture lawsuits it probably can’t win. The latest turn in this saga involves a secret settlement agreement designed to protect Daley.”

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Posted on June 24, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Who cares if a decorated Chicago police commander tortured dozens – if not more – of African American men, some of whom wrongly ended up on Death Row, when our former governor is caught on tape musing about trading a U.S. Senate seat for the ambassadorship to India? Don’t be such a downer! Blago is fun! Burge is a drag.
That’s pretty much where we’re at as we await closing arguments on Thursday in a story the mainstream media has only sporadically showed interest in – and then only years after the evidence began to mount (“House of Screams” was published in 1990 – 20 years ago – and it remains poorly read and even more poorly understood in our city’s newsrooms.)
This is what happens when news is defined in large measure by its entertainment quotient. If I had a nickel for every time I heard a reporter describe how much fun it was to work in a town with such brazen political schemes, I’d be richer than any one of Mayor Daley’s closest pals. Fun? You have to live here, too. It’s disgusting.

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Posted on June 23, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

A so-called jailhouse informant testified on Monday in the Jon Burge trial that a former cellmate admitted making up abuse charges against the former Chicago police commander and encouraged others to do so to jump on a gravy train that would surely include book and movie deals.
Given the paucity of interest in Burge over the years by the media, it’s hard to believe anyone would think Hollywood was calling. Ricky Shaw’s credibility was soon destroyed.
“During cross examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Weisman pointed out that Shaw has been disciplined for lying at the various prisons he has been incarcerated in across the United States,” the Sun-Times reports. “In 2000, he was reprimanded for giving false information to an employee, telling officers about a hit that never panned out, Weisman said.

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Posted on June 22, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

A few more things I learned from John Conroy about Jon Burge’s testimony last week that the dailies didn’t tell me:
* “[Burge] recalled what seemed minor aspects of cases, casually mentioning, for example, that when Andrew Wilson was arrested, there was a mail carrier in the station who had provided information. (He left out a detail or two in that account: The postal worker was Doris Miller, 45, a neighbor of the Wilsons’, who had never been arrested before, and who later testified that she had been handcuffed to a windowsill in an interview room, was denied access to a toilet for about 14 hours, and ultimately had to relieve herself in an ashtray in front of a man also confined in the room.)”

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Posted on June 21, 2010