By Steve Rhodes
I am no longer contributing to NBCChicago.com and I feel obliged to tell readers why. It’s also a tale that needs to be told in any case.
I was going to start this column this way:
“Tribune Company never interfered with my work after they bought Chicago magazine when I was working in part as an online media critic there. I had to work for NBC Universal for that to happen.”
But to bend over backwards to be fair to Tribune Company, I’m still not certain whether that happened – despite being told so on two occasions by two people. Let me explain.

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Posted on December 21, 2009

By Natasha Julius
The Weekend Desk is signing off for 2009 as next week marks the annual Feast of the Blessed Retail Relics. Today we take a look at the stories that might catch our wary eye in the New Year.
The Bachelympic Games
As Vancouver basks in the gleaming white glow of next year’s televised pageant, perhaps Chicago mayor Richard Daley will finally realize that pathetically flaunting yourself in an attempt to beat other desperate cities is hardly the way to earn the world’s respect. Besides, if his agent can get him on Dancing with the Stars he might just wind up America’s Sweetheart.

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Posted on December 19, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
Mayor Richard M. Daley is just livid that city workers in his employ are less likely to report wrongdoing than workers in other cities, according to a survey by his own Office of Compliance.
“This is unacceptable anyplace in my administration,” he said.
And then he called on his imprisoned former patronage chief Robert Sorich to finally come clean and spill.

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Posted on December 18, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
“A consulting firm headed by former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr.’s stepson John Sterling has been paid more than $787,000 under a Cook County contract funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, despite failing to provide required weekly reports – for 21 months,” Carol Marin and Don Moseley report.
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“Retired Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, the political godfather of President Obama, is mounting a formidable effort to re-elect embattled Cook County Board President Todd Stroger,” Sneed reports.
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Just sayin’.

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Posted on December 17, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
I’ve got a lot of things going on, so I’m going to take a day off from the column. But we do have some new Beachwood material:
* We’re glad to have our former What I Watched Last Night writer Pat Bataillon back on our pages. He returns with The CTA Chronicles: That Smell.
Feel free to submit your own tale for this feature. We’d also like to see readers submissions for The Chili Chronicles and The Salad Bar Series.
In fact, most of our regular features are open for submissions.

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Posted on December 16, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
Danny Solis, the 25th Ward alderman who recently replaced Bill Banks as chairman of the zoning committee, got an amazing letter to the editor published in the Tribune this morning. Let’s take a look.
“Chicago recently celebrated the opening of the retail component of Block 37,” Solis writes. “The long-vacant block, located across from the former Marshall Field’s State Street flagship, continues to be a flash point of competing views on real estate development and the role of government.
“Block 37 is a shining example of what government and business can accomplish together. When the city first acquired Block 37 in 1989, State Street had lost its patina as one of the world’s best shopping districts. At the time, State Street was at risk of becoming vacant. City leaders needed to make difficult choices.”
Yes, Block 37 is a shining example of what government and business can accomplish together. It only took 20 years to open a store there!

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Posted on December 15, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
“Requests for questions in writing rather than face-to-face interviews are cropping up more and more,” Carol Marin wrote in her Sun-Times column on Sunday.
“Written Q&A’s violate NBC policy because, among other things, they don’t allow for follow-up questions. And they don’t allow a viewer to see, hear, or judge the quality of either the question or the response.
“That, of course, is the point.”

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Posted on December 14, 2009

By The Weekend Desk B Team
Weekend Desk Editor Natasha Julius is on assignment in Copenhagen, Oslo, and Kabul. The B Team is reporting from Wicker Park.
International Affairs Desk Report
Whatever You Do, Don’t Take the Al-Qaeda No. 3 Gig.

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Posted on December 12, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
1. This weekend on Sound Opinions: The best albums of 2009 according to Kot and DeRo. (You can find DeRo’s picks here.)
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Kot’s best shows of 2009.
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DeRo’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Holiday Gift Guide.

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Posted on December 11, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
“There’s this thing that’s bleeping golden,” Phil Kadner writes. “It’s called the public trust. Unfortunately, politicians in this state don’t seem to put the same value on it that I do.”
Has anything really changed in the year since Rod Blagojevich was arrested?
Kadner doesn’t think so, and it’s hard to argue with him.

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Posted on December 10, 2009