By Steve Rhodes

The Papers will return on Tuesday, as will the rest of the Beachwood.
But for those who need their Cubs fix . . .
* “And they all stood and applauded,” our very own Jim Coffman writes in SportsMonday. “Alfonso Soriano had homered, doubled and then homered again, giving him four home runs in three days as he almost single-handedly led the Cubs to three straight wins over the Diamondbacks. As he strode to the plate for his fourth at-bat of the day Sunday, the Cub fans all jumped to their feet and gave him an extended ovation. And wasn’t that nice – slightly disconcerting, but nice.”

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Posted on May 3, 2010

By Natasha Julius

Don your goofiest hat and pull up a couple of mint juleps, it’s time to watch exploited workers labor in intolerable conditions!
Special Kentucky Derby Edition
With the biggest name definitively ruled out of the proceedings, it’s kind of hard to pick a front runner. Here’s how we handicap the best of the rest.

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Posted on May 1, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“Weis has four cops who confronted Ardelean after he’d been drinking at a bar and miraculously didn’t detect any alcohol or notice anything else,” the Tribune says today. “He needs to call them in, one by one, and decide for himself what really happened. And then he needs to make his findings public.”
Agreed. But Weis doesn’t seem so inclined.

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Posted on April 30, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

John Kass sheds more light today on the curious case of Chicago cop John Ardelean.
“At 3 a.m. on Thanksgiving 2007, Ardelean’s car collided with another vehicle at Damen and Oakdale avenues, in Ardelean’s Belmont Police District. Killed were Michael Flores and his friend Erick Lagunas, 21,” Kass writes.
“Before the crash, Ardelean had spent hours in a River North bar, the Martini Ranch. According to the bartender at the preliminary hearing, Ardelean drank two beers, a rum and coke and a shot of tequila. There were several other shots, but the bartender said they were plain shots of water.”

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Posted on April 29, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’ . . .
“Video footage from the Martini Ranch Bar showed the officer downing shots just minutes before the crash between [Chicago police officer John] Ardelean’s SUV and a sedan carrying [Miguel] Flores and [Erick] Lagunas at the intersection of Damen and Wellington in Roscoe Village,” the Sun-Times reports.
“But Ardelean’s attorney, Tom Needham, challenged his arrest because two fellow officers and a sergeant from the Belmont district station where he works and a paramedic said he didn’t appear intoxicated at the accident scene.
“Prosecutors implied that the officers turned a blind eye.
“Ardelean wasn’t arrested or given a Breathalyzer test until seven hours after the crash, when the officers’ supervisor, Lt. John Magruder, said he noticed Ardelean had bloodshot eyes, smelled of booze and ‘was walking kind of funny with a limp or something.”’

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Posted on April 28, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

1. Roger Ebert and the Sex Pistols: Who knew?
2. Hawks HiLites: Vancouver is next.
3. The Clown Prince of Chicago Kiddie TV: Part One.
4. Meet Chicago’s Google Geeks: Happier than you are.

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Posted on April 27, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

It’s hard to see the latest call for the National Guard to quell violence on Chicago’s streets as anything but grandstanding.
State Reps. LaShawn Ford and John Fritchey (soon to be a member of the Cook County board unless it turns out he’s a pawnbroker with a hinky past) called a press conference on Sunday to maximize their media hit today, but they don’t appear to have talked to the governor, the mayor or the police chief about their “plan.”

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Posted on April 26, 2010

By Natasha Julius

Oh, what the hell? We’ll go ahead and run for governor too. Just as soon as we finish filing this report.
Market Update
The Dow, NASDAQ and S&P all finished another strong week, surging to new 2010 highs. And yet, despite this apparent wealth, none of the exchanges will owe a cent of taxes this year.

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Posted on April 24, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“Rod Blagojevich finally made good on a promise: He put President Barack Obama right in the middle of Blagojevich’s own political corruption case,” John Kass writes today.
Indeed.
But as you might guess, the defense strategy is a bit convoluted. Or at least it may not be what it seems.

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Posted on April 23, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

This isn’t the most important story in the news today, but it’s so poorly executed that it could serve as a good lesson for the kids out there.
“A $119,184-a-year deputy commissioner charged with providing shelter and emergency services for Chicago’s homeless has resigned after getting into an accident in a city car while allegedly driving drunk,” Fran Spielman reports in the Sun-Times in a story promoted on its front page.

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Posted on April 22, 2010