By Steve Rhodes
I’m too overwhelmed with projects, proposals, finances, disorganization, fatigue, hunger, poverty and frustration to write a column today. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a few treats for you.
* I believe I’ve been derelict in pointing readers to Beachwood legal correspondent Sam Singer’s take on replacing David Souter.
“For those keeping score, Elena Kagan has more ‘plus factors’ in her column than either of the two favorites,” Singer writes.
I think Ann Claire Williams would be a fairly unassailable pick, but Obama might have already drawn from the Chicago well too many times for the nation to stomach.

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Posted on May 19, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
1. “Khabibulin could have been better against the Red Wings on Sunday, but the primary problem is the guys immediately in front of him, and the forwards who are too often failing to fully fulfill defensive responsibilities,” our very own Jim Coffman writes in SportsMonday.
2. “From the moment the puck was dropped you could sense that the Detroit Red Wings were going to win the opening game of the Eastern Conference finals,” David writes at Hockeylicio.us. “The Chicago Blackhawks came out flying with the same youthful energy that has carried them through out the playoffs. There was one problem, the Red Wings were ready for them. That same energy that carried them, dissipated as the game went on.”
3. “Five City of Chicago pension funds have paid Mayor Daley’s nephew Robert Vanecko and his business partner Allison S. Davis more than $2.7 million to manage real estate investments since 2006,” Tim Novak reports in the Sun-Times. “So far, Vanecko and Davis are the only ones who’ve made any money on the deal.”

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Posted on May 18, 2009

By Natasha Julius
Dear Blackhawks Fans:
You are absolutely correct; Detroit sucks.
Much as I would love to defend the playground of my ill-spent youth, Detroit is a bone-thin city strapped to the bloated carcass of a dead industry. Its problems are painfully well-documented, from business exodus to crumbling infrastructure with every symptom of urban blight in between. Its remaining citizens live in worthless homes and receive thread-bare services from a city government so corrupt it would make a Daley blush. It is an American tragedy, to be dissected in the breakfast nooks of its antagonistic suburbs and fretted over at the dinner parties of more fortunate cities.

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Posted on May 16, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
1. Is Chicago The Most Ironic City Ever?
2. Rick Kaempfer writes:
“Got a ticket last night. $50 freaking dollars. And I was there only two minutes after the meter expired. Meter expired 9:18. Ticket written 9:19. Rick gets back to his car 9:20.”
I wonder if you can get screwed for $25 a minute on Craigslist.
3. The Reader’s story about Bucky Badger did not disappoint. This is the part that really caught my eye, though.

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Posted on May 15, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
As longtime readers have probably surmised, I still have warm and fuzzy feelings about the University of Minnesota, where I earned my undergraduate degree in journalism and worked at The Minnesota Daily.
But – like a lot of people – my favorite college campus of all-time is the awesome grounds of the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
I’ve seen Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Notre Dame, the University of Michigan, the University of Florida, and probably a dozen other campuses, but Wisconsin takes them all.
That’s why I root for the Badgers when I’m not rooting for the Gophers.
And that’s why I can’t wait to read this story.

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Posted on May 14, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
“A three-month investigation of the CTA found that 41 percent of the handicap-accessible train stations could not be fully used by customers in wheelchairs, calling into question whether the nation’s second-largest mass transit system is doing what it should for hundreds of thousands of disabled Chicagoans,” Kaitlyn McAvoy reports in just one of a nine-story package.
From one of the others:
“Five of the CTA’s 10 busiest train stations cannot accommodate a customer in a wheelchair, and that’s perfectly legal under the nearly 20-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act,” Eli Kaberon reports. “Just four of the 10 elevated stations in and around the Loop – the CTA’s hub that hundreds of thousands of people pass through each day – are equipped with elevators, while the other six Loop stations, including Quincy and Adams & Wabash, two of the city’s 15 busiest stations, are not accessible.

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Posted on May 13, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
Stay tuned, folks, we’ll be posting a terrific investigative project involving the CTA – reported by our favorite Columbia College class – sometime around 1 p.m. today.
UPDATE: And here it is:
* INVESTIGATION: The Inaccessible CTA.
“A three-month investigation of the CTA found that 41 percent of the handicap-accessible train stations could not be fully used by customers in wheelchairs, calling into question whether the nation’s second-largest mass transit system is doing what it should for hundreds of thousands of disabled Chicagoans,” Kaitlyn McAvoy reports.
* SIDEBAR: Disabled And Downtown On The CTA.
“Five of the CTA’s 10 busiest train stations cannot accommodate a customer in a wheelchair, and that’s perfectly legal under the nearly 20-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act,” Eli Kaberon reports. “Just four of the 10 elevated stations in and around the Loop – the CTA’s hub that hundreds of thousands of people pass through each day – are equipped with elevators, while the other six Loop stations, including Quincy and Adams & Wabash, two of the city’s 15 busiest stations, are not accessible.
–
Meanwhile, here’s what else we have today:
* A Hawks Hat Trick. On to the conference finals.
* Introducing our new series of salad bar reviews. First up: La Villa, where the sneeze guard is adequate without being intrusive.
* “I dig honky tonk songs about that place between diminished and extinguished capacity,” Beachwood tapster Brian Page writes of his More Booze compilation featured in today’s Playlist.
* Policing the pols. In our Ready For Reform series.
* Join The Beachwood Book Club!

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Posted on May 12, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
1. “A potentially critical difference between this game and Game 3 of the series in Chicago early last week is there is only one day between the previous game and tonight’s clash,” our very own Jim Coffman writes in SportsMonday. “There were two days between Games 2 and 3 and that extra time was filled with people telling the Hawks how good they are as the home team relaxed in comfortable home environs. The resulting let-down was not surprising.”
2. Cinco De Porno.

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Posted on May 11, 2009

By Natasha Julius
Don’t let the reports of confusion and collapse fool you. The international criminal resistance is still a threat. We’ll stay vigilant for you.
Change Watch
As a key Change indice cracks the triple digits this weekend, it looks like most investors still favor the same old crap.

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Posted on May 9, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
I hate promoting my TV appearances because I don’t really like the idea of people actually watching me; I can’t bear to do it myself. Some shows don’t really play to my strengths. But if I don’t do it, all sorts of folks get mad so . . . you are hereby notified that I’ll be on Joel Weisman’s Week in Review tonight (WTTW, 7 p.m.).
Among the topics discussed: Drew Peterson, Todd Stroger, and Manny Ramirez.
Here’s my tease: Stick around for the whole thing and you’ll see me credit one of my views to Neil Steinberg.
Now, on to the news.

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Posted on May 8, 2009