Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
“Suburbia in Wrigleyville?”
Sure. Why should that neighborhood be any different than the rest of Chicago?
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Same story: “End Of A ‘Hip’ Hood?”
Is the Sun-Times the squarest paper on the planet?
If Wrigleyville is hip, that was a mini-skirt Sarah Palin was wearing the other night.
Posted on May 14, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
“Sneed hears the bottom half of a man’s body found in Arlington Heights on April 16, and the top half of a man’s body found last week in Lions Woods Forest Preserve near Des Plaines might be the same person.”
Or it might not!
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The first stop on the Tribune’s “not-the-usual-suspects Chicago tour“?
The Green Mill.
I’ll just meet you at the Sears Tower after stopping at Wrigley Field.
Posted on May 13, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
Several folks alerted me to Worldview’s report on Tuesday in which one expert mentioned hosting the Olympics as one contribution to Greece’s financial crisis.
“One interesting problem that has worsened the situation for Greece is the Olympics,” Ohio State political scientist professor Richard Gunther said.
“There was a tremendous investment in infrastructure preparing for the Athens Olympics in anticipation of huge increase in tourism that might offset some of those expenses.
“In actual fact, though, tourists stayed away from Greece during the Olympics because they thought there would be far too much in the way of traffic and inadequacy of hotel reservations etc, so Greece actually suffered a very bad economic year, certainly in terms of its tourism sector, at the same time that they had spent an outrageous amount of money in preparing for the Olympics, so this was one factor that contributed to the severity of the Greek crisis.”
Posted on May 12, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan once wrote that confirmation hearings are “a vapid and hollow charade, in which repetition of platitudes has replaced discussion of viewpoints and personal anecdotes have supplanted legal analysis. Such hearings serve little educative function, except perhaps to reinforce lessons of cynicism that citizens often glean from government.”
As Eric Zorn points out, Kagan has already retreated from that position lest it get in the way of advancing her career.
Posted on May 11, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
1. “In 1992, Ross Perot’s high-profile independent campaign siphoned Republican votes away from Bush and helped doom his re-election campaign against Democrat Bill Clinton,” Laura Washington writes today.
“Consumer and environmental gadfly Nader returned the favor in 2000, wreaking havoc on Democratic nominee Gore’s presidential dreams in the brutally contested 2000 presidential contest. Nader’s Green Party run helped bring us George W. Bush, America’s most disastrous president.”
Neither of these assertions are true.
Posted on May 10, 2010
By The Weekend Desk B Team
Natasha Julius left Beachwood HQ abruptly on Thursday and is reportedly in hiding. We’ll fill in until her situation is resolved.
Facebook Feed: John Kuczaj knew something was up yesterday when www.eTrade.com temporarily redirected to www.YouAreSoVeryFucked.com.
Market Update
Futures in Illinois leaders took a big tumble this week as the entire sector seemed to collapse under the weight of its own venality and cluelessness.
Posted on May 8, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
I’ve got a busy morning and it’s already been a clusterfuck of a week, so just a few things today and you can look for an expanded Weekend Desk Report tomorrow.
1. I’m proud to say that I’m pretty sure we’ve just posted the best review you’ll find anywhere in America of the Kentucky Derby weekend.
Our man on the rail, Thomas Chambers, beautifully fulfills a big part of our mission here – and at Agony & Ivy – by bringing you the unvarnished truth about something we love and hate to see tarnished by ego, greed and power plays. (Which side in these great dramas are really the immature ones?)
Posted on May 7, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
“One of the city’s most persistent and troubling scandals reaches federal court Thursday when jury selection begins in the trial of Jon Burge, the former Chicago police detective accused of overseeing the torture of suspects,” the Tribune reports.
“For nearly two decades, Burge and his detectives allegedly sent dozens of men to prison on the basis of coerced confessions, deepening bitterness between police and minorities and helping inspire former Gov. George Ryan to reject capital punishment and empty the state’s death row.”
Posted on May 6, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
1. I’m not quite sure which shell the ball is under, but my instinct is that the state would be better off making a deal with Scott Lee Cohen’s pawn shop than accepting ComEd’s offer.
2. “Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) lost a pair of major airlines and seven other law clients last year, but picked up a dozen new ones and still has 34 clients that did business with the city or other local government agencies, according to his annual ethics statement,” Fran Spielman reports.
“But, like so many other Americans, the City Council’s Finance Committee chairman had a tough year for investments in 2009.”
Ed Burke: Just like you and I.
Posted on May 5, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
Luis Gutierrez is on the griddle.
“The FBI has interviewed City Hall employees and Chicago aldermen about U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez’s ties to a corrupt developer, according to records and interviews that raise new questions about the congressman amid an ongoing federal investigation,” the Tribune reports.
“A former alderman convicted in the investigation told FBI agents that Gutierrez boasted of helping his longtime political supporter Calvin Boender obtain a lucrative zoning change for a development on the city’s West Side. Another alderman told agents this year she thought Gutierrez was going to buy a home in the development.
“And several city planners told investigators they were stunned by the highly unusual intervention of a congressman in a local zoning matter.”
Posted on May 4, 2010
