By Steve Rhodes

Ben Joravsky appeared on Chicago Tonight last night with Diana Ferguson, the chief financial officer of Chicago Public Schools, to discuss Joravsky’s Reader article about CPS CEO Ron Huberman and other higher-ups taking pay raises while screaming bloody budget murder. Phil Ponce moderated. Let’s take a look. Excerpts edited for clarity.
Ferguson: It’s really important to set the record straight. Ron Huberman has not received a salary increase since he walked in the door. The only change has been a decrease, through furloughs, unpaid days . . . the only change will be a decrease of approximately six percent.

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Posted on April 9, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

I finally got a chance last night to read Ben Joravsky’s week-old (sorry!) cover story in the Reader about CPS CEO Ron Huberman and other top personnel taking raises even as they put the screws to teachers, classrooms and schools – in other words, kids – while proclaiming The End Is Near due to horrific budget problems.
Well, one thing you can say about Huberman is that he’s running the schools as a business.
In the private sector, CEOs and their executives – as well as managers on down the line – get rewarded handsomely for firing people to “right-size” their budgets.

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Posted on April 8, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“It is 4 o’clock on a Wednesday, and the wide halls of Lafayette Elementary echo with competing melodies from cellos, violas and violins engaged in orchestra practice,” writes Catalyst’s Dominique Baser.
“Lafayette’s sprawling campus is home to one of the largest elementary school orchestras in the city, but its students only fill a third of the building. That’s about to change, when 300 students from the Chicago High School for the Arts move in and begin sharing the campus in September.
“The School Board has approved the move of ChiArts, a Renaissance 2010 school and the city’s only public high school for the arts. In fall 2009, the school opened at a temporary location on the South Side, but officials say Lafayette, in East Humboldt Park, will be its permanent home.
“Staff members from both of the schools say they are excited about the merger. But some activists in the surrounding neighborhood are not. Their complaint is familiar among grassroots groups that question the impact of the district’s Renaissance 2010 plan: Another new school moves in, but is not designed to serve neighborhood children first.”

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Posted on April 7, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“Turner Field has one of the largest high-definition video displays in the world, measuring nearly 80 feet high, but umpire Marvin Hudson never looked at it,” Carrie Muskat reports at MLB.com.
“It was the sixth inning Monday when the Cubs needed Hudson to take a peek. They had closed to 8-5 against the Atlanta Braves thanks to Aramis Ramirez’s two-run homer in the third. He singled to open the sixth and Marlon Byrd then lofted a ball to deep left-center. Atlanta’s Nate McLouth made what looked like a diving catch to Hudson. But it wasn’t.”
No, it wasn’t.
“Replays clearly showed McLouth did drop the ball, which is what Ramirez saw and why he advanced to second base. Byrd thought McLouth caught it. Ramirez was doubled off 8-6-3, and instead of having runners at first and second, the Cubs had two outs in the sixth.”
Now, if we lived in the world we so often pretend to live in, McLouth would have simply told the truth to the nearest umpire. After all, don’t those involved in athletics go on and on about how playing sports is character-building?

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Posted on April 6, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

No column today, but a few other treats.
* Our very own Andrew Reilly is back today with his weekly White Sox Report, and I dare say it’s the best piece of sportswriting in the nation today, even if he’s wrong about the Twins’ rotation. Writeth Andrew:
“Mark Kotsay batting fifth. Alex Rios coming off an absolutely Swisherian season. All the optimism in the world suggesting Andruw Jones will, at best, get on base 30 percent of the time. The oldest player in the American League backing up the most reckless. Mark Teahen replacing Gordon Beckham replacing Chris Getz. Their best players in decline, their eventual best not yet there, and the whole thing just reeking of another season spent envying the competition. But it’s only April, so let’s not yet dwell on things which might not happen.”

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Posted on April 5, 2010

By Natasha Julius

We’re not trying to be unethical or anything, but if you voted for Obama seek your weekend news somewhere else.
Market Update
The need to count ourselves spurred a heartening recovery in the job market last month. Those concerned that the upturn is temporary should take heart; analysts suggest by the time the 2010 census ends, a lot more people will be needed to creatively count the unemployed.

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Posted on April 3, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Not a lot of time this morning, so just a few quick items.
1. The Top 10 April Fools’ Day Fake News Items For 2010. My favorite might be Google Translate . . . For Animals.
2. Another list – compiled by Ad Age – includes Coldplay Perfume.
3. Sharon Osbourne on Rod Blagojevich: “He is absolutely crazy. He is insane. Completely self-obsessed, insane. He talks like a typical politician. Backtracks all the time.”
And did I mention insane?

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Posted on April 2, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“Nearly 10 percent of the inmates in Illinois’ juvenile prisons have essentially completed their sentences – in some cases more than a year ago – but are stuck behind bars because they have no place to go, state records show,” the Tribune reports.
“Many of the youths are being held longer in one of the state’s eight juvenile prisons because officials cannot find an appropriate placement in a transitional living program or other kind of facility. Others are still in prison because officials found the homes of families or friends to be unacceptable, or because families simply refuse to take them back, according to records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.”

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Posted on April 1, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

1. Okay, already, Blago can’t type. But has anybody stopped to ask: How did he write his book?
2. Geez, I have an almost all-volunteer staff and no resources to do proper background checks but I still Google everyone who comes my way. Give me a call, Cook County, I can help out at reasonable rates.

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Posted on March 31, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“The Denver attorney hired by Mayor Daley to oversee city hiring only to be stripped of that responsibility resigned Monday, joining the long list of outsiders chewed up by Chicago’s unique brand of politics,” the Sun-Times reports.
It’s not that Anthony Boswell didn’t adjust quickly to the Chicago Way, though.
“Boswell’s name also turned up on a list of clout-heavy Chicagoans seeking to get their kids into elite Chicago Public Schools. His son and daughter went from the waiting list to being admitted to Mark Sheridan Elementary Math and Science Academy in time for the 2008-09 school year.”

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Posted on March 30, 2010