By Steve Rhodes
Just catching up with this Washington Post article, via The May Report:
“It takes a while for most start-up companies to gain the confidence of a U.S. congressman and the promise of federal funds. But last year, a small Illinois company accomplished its goal in 16 days with the help of Rep. Peter J. Visclosky, a little-known Indiana Democrat who sits on the House committee that funds the Pentagon.
“In rapid succession, the three-employee technology firm, NanoSonix, filed its incorporation papers in Skokie, Ill., and hired a Washington lobbying firm, K&L Gates, which boasted to clients of its close relationship with Visclosky. A week later, Visclosky wrote a letter of support for a $2.4 million earmark for NanoSonix from the House Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee.”
Wow. Sixteen days from incorporation to a $2.4 million federal earmark. I’ve been going about this all wrong.

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Posted on November 12, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
1. Are Cook County Dems fucking with Tom Tresser?
2. Illinois’ Fugliest Political Web Sites.
3. “Most baby boomers: white, married, went to college.”
And the vast majority of them never marched for civil rights or against the Vietnam War, nor attended Woodstock, despite what the media has been trying to tell you for the last couple of decades.

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Posted on November 11, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
Just as news organizations face the question of whether to allow free advertising into their news reports by referring to the U.S. Cellular Fields and the Tostitos Fiesta Bowls of our world, the Chicago media in particular faces a question when referring to the Independent Police Review Authority.
The Independent Police Review Authority used to be called the Office of Professional Standards, until Mayor Richard M. Daley reconstituted the office after complaints about OPS became too much to politically bear.
But there is nothing “independent” about IPRA. The mayor hires its chief administrator.

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Posted on November 10, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
This town’s sportswriters are never better than when the team or teams they are following become an abject embarrassment. So if you are pained by the wrong turn the Bears have suddenly taken this season, at least enjoy the writing.
* “Two-and-a-half seasons removed from their Super Bowl appearance, the Bears are who they never imagined they would be – just another mediocre football team,” Brad Biggs writes.

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Posted on November 9, 2009

By Natasha Julius
A bum ankle isn’t going to stop us from covering all the key stories this weekend.
Market Update
Due to the latest figures on U.S. unemployment, we have been forced to shed 10.2% of the words in this week’s

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Posted on November 7, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
In a digital world galore filled with voice recognition software, high definition television, tweets, texts, onboard car computers that know when you’ve been in an accident, GPS baby strollers and instantaneous communication methods never dreamed of on most planets visited by the Enterprise, you’d think we could avoid 11-digit dialing.
Isn’t there an app for that?

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Posted on November 6, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
Terrific news today for the Beachwood and other similar projects around town. We would like to express our gratitude to the Chicago Community Trust. From the CCT:
The Chicago Community Trust Announces Community News Matters Award Recipients
Innovative program to spur the growth of new sources of high quality local news and information about the Chicago region selects 12 award winners
November 5, 2009, Chicago – The Chicago Community Trust, our region’s community foundation, today announced 12 recipients of $500,000 in awards under an innovative new program, Community News Matters, to spur the growth of new sources of quality local news and information about the Chicago region.
The award winners were selected from among 86 requests, totaling $5.7 million.
“The response to this program demonstrates without a doubt that the Chicago region is loaded with talented people and smart organizations determined to find new ways to serve the public’s information needs in these times of enormous change in the media landscape,” said Terry Mazany, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Trust. “The Chicago area has become a real laboratory for development of the future for community news and information.”

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Posted on November 5, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
“More than $4.7 million in federal stimulus aid so far has been funneled to schools in North Chicago, and state and federal officials say that money has saved the jobs of 473 teachers,” the Tribune reports.
“Problem is, the district employs only 290 teachers.”
Beachwood readers – through ProPublica reporting posted on our Politics page – already know that the stimulus numbers touted by the Obama administration are bunk.

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Posted on November 4, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
Let’s just state it plainly: The mayor is a liar.
But he plays dumb with the best of ’em.
*
Journalist convention somehow prevents traditional reporters from calling the mayor a liar. Maybe he “misleads” at best, or makes “conflicting” statements, or is not just “not entirely accurate.”
But if you believe in objectivity, you have to report that the mayor is not just a liar, but a serial liar because that’s what the objective facts show. To say otherwise is to subjectively spin – out of cowardice.

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Posted on November 3, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
1. “Cutler plays the part of the infuriating adolescent so well it sometimes drives foes to absolute distraction,” our very own Jim Coffman writes in SportsMonday.
2. Remember when things got so bad with Block 37 the city tried to rename it 108 North State Street? Is it too late to just put the ice rink back? Or maybe turn it into a piece of urban realism by sticking a giant fork about this big in it . . . because it stopped being funny a long time ago. Now it’s just gruesome.

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Posted on November 2, 2009