By Steve Rhodes
“Six years after Mayor Richard Daley launched a bold initiative to close down and remake failing schools, Renaissance 2010 has done little to improve the educational performance of the city’s school system, according to a Tribune analysis of 2009 state test data,” the Tribune reports.
“Scores from the elementary schools created under Renaissance 2010 are nearly identical to the city average, and scores at the remade high schools are below the already abysmal city average, the analysis found.”

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Posted on January 18, 2010

By Natasha Julius
Well, dang. All of our plans completely fell through, so it looks like we’ll be watching the news again this weekend.
Market Update
Turns out the era of ill-advised corporate bailouts for troubled assets isn’t quite over yet.

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Posted on January 16, 2010

By Steve Rhodes
1. God bless Mark Grace.
2. From Pat Quinn’s State of the State address: “[My father] taught me always to work hard, treat people with dignity, don’t call people names, be honest and trustworthy. That, to me, is what Illinois is all about, our state, the Land of Lincoln. The people of our state, they’re the best of the best. We’re the pride of our nation. We can accomplish great things if we work together.”
We’re the pride of the nation? In what universe? Doesn’t Quinn watch TV? Has his staff kept him in the dark about just how he became governor?

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Posted on January 15, 2010

By Steve Rhodes
I wish Pat Quinn would have just said the state of the state is stupid.
*
The sex industry isn’t impressed either.

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Posted on January 14, 2010

By Steve Rhodes
“You’re kidding me, right?” Mark Brown writes today. “The Chicago Police Department is going to reopen its investigation of a 70-year-old gangland murder because a powerful alderman thinks the victim, crooked lawyer Edward J. O’Hare, didn’t get enough credit for his role in helping bring down Al Capone?
“We’re going to do this at a time when Chicago Police are crying out for more manpower to deal with the daily crush of crime, not to mention a backlog of hundreds and hundreds of other unsolved murders from the department’s cold case files in which the perpetrators might actually still be alive and walking the streets?
“Incredible as it seems, that’s exactly what emerged Tuesday from a meeting of the city’s Police and Fire Committee, orchestrated to that end by the only guy who could pull it off, Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th).”
Read my mind.

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Posted on January 13, 2010

By Steve Rhodes
Mary Mitchell now: “Reid is under attack for saying privately in 2008 that then-Sen. Barack Obama would be a successful black presidential candidate because of his ‘light-skinned’ appearance and because he doesn’t speak with a ‘Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.’ Frankly, a lot of African Americans must have yawned.”
Mary Mitchell then: “Geraldine Ferraro still doesn’t get it. On Wednesday, Ferraro was forced to resign from Sen. Hillary Clinton’s finance committee after remarks she made about Sen. Barack Obama were widely interpreted as being racist. Here’s what Ferraro said:
“‘If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman [of any color] he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.'”

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Posted on January 12, 2010

By Steve Rhodes
1. R.I.P., Frank “Claim-Jumper” Rios. Guest Book here.
2. Connect the dots, people.
ITEM: China Becomes Biggest Exporter.
ITEM: Toxic Metal In Kids’ Jewelry From China.
Did it ever occur to anyone that China is taking over the world by poisoning the children of its enemies?
*
Plus, that debt thingy. Which gets scarier by the day.

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Posted on January 11, 2010

By Natasha Julius
It’s a new year, and the stories just keep getting bigger.
Market Update
Looks like the Road to Recovery in 2010 will be paved with Doritos, polished with Dove and lubricated with Bud Light. Who the hell needs Pepsi? That sounds like a party!

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Posted on January 9, 2010

By Steve Rhodes
Too many things going on at once. I’ll come back on Monday with a full column. In the meantime, we do have some new offerings today:
* The Robbie Fulks File. Lives in the rough part of Wilmette, works in the rough part of Gurnee, writes songs the whole world ought to be singing.

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Posted on January 8, 2010

By Steve Rhodes
It’s been a busier re-entry week than I expected so I only have time for a short column today. We’ll get everything cranked back up to full speed around here soon enough.
1. When the Sun-Times first reported this fairly weak tale of a scorned lover, I couldn’t quite figure out what made it newsworthy outside of the fact that she has some association with WGN.
But the woman’s blogging on the subject is phenomenal. I’ll leave it to you decide just how. For best results, start with the linked entry and proceed to each “newer post.” (Thanks, Matt)
UPDATE 10:41 A.M.: Looks like she’s taken down the posts that generated so much interest – too much interest for her tastes. “[S]pare me the interest in what’s going on in the life of another,” she writes. Stop reading my blog!

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Posted on January 7, 2010