Chicago -
By Natasha Julius
It’s kind of hard to keep up with all the headline makers, but we’ll do our best this weekend.
Change Watch
Innovation and Creativity saw small rallies this week, but markets remained largely ambivalent. Analysts note that investors are leery about backing new energy when Status Quo and Same Old Same Old have been such solid earners.
Posted on April 25, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
A lot to get to, so I’ll just dig right in in no particular order.
1. Big bold front page headline in the Sun-Times today: “One Stick-Up A Day On CTA.”
Yes, but is this good or bad? I mean, how does this compare to the non-CTA population? After all, crime is up everywhere.
Predictably, we never find out.
Posted on April 24, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
I’ll try to bat out a column later today, but truthfully I’ve got a lot on my plate and I might have to just make tomorrow’s column twice as good. In the meantime, here are today’s new Beachwood offerings from elsewhere on the site and my morning NBCChicago.com posts.
Posted on April 23, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
1. I was disappointed to learn that McRibIsBack.com is already taken, though it’s not being used.
2. “Just 11% Favor Seceding From The Union,” a Rasmussen Reports survey says.
Just 11%? Isn’t that the equivalent of, like, five states?
I bet we could name them, too.
3. The new Comcast Music Choice channel lineup.
Posted on April 22, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
Todd Stroger just keeps digging the hole deeper and deeper.
Last night, in a combative interview with Carol Marin on Chicago Tonight about the Tony Cole-Donna Dunnings fiasco, Stroger said “I’m sure employees get arrested all the time.”
That prompted Stroger’s office to issue a statement this morning essentially blaming the planet’s pesky human population for misinterpreting what Stroger meant – which still isn’t entirely clear.
I don’t want to repeat myself so you can read more over at NBCChicago.com in a post titled “Stroger: Worst. Hack. Ever.” The subhead is: “Cook County Board President’s incompetence is unrivaled.”
Posted on April 21, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
Today is the 10th anniversary of Columbine, and a New York Times review of Denver reporter Dave Cullen’s new book about the tragedy makes clear once again just how poorly the media does its job.
“Columbine is an excellent work of media criticism,” Jennifer Senior writes, “showing how legends become truths through continual citation.”
Sometimes the continual citation is simply the result of laziness; reporters read something somewhere and repeat it without checking it out themselves. Sometimes the continual citation is the work of media strategists and political consultants who pound embroidered and polished narratives about their clients into the soft heads of journalists – and similarly build false negative narratives about competitors.
Posted on April 20, 2009
By The Weekend Desk B Team
Natasha Julius is on assignment tracking down Ashton Kutcher to, um, put him out of our misery. And Larry King and Oprah if she has time. Here are the stories we’re following in the meantime this weekend.
Torture Talk
“President Barack Obama’s decision not to prosecute CIA interrogators who used waterboarding on terrorism suspects amounts to a breach of international law, the U.N. rapporteur on torture said,” Reuters reports.
Obama was not asked if Chicago police officers should be taken off the hook for alleged acts of torture under former commander Jon Burge, but we’ll keep you posted.
Posted on April 18, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
“More than 1,200 times last year, residents of the South Chicago and Gresham police districts called 911, and there was no ar available to respond,” the Sun-Times reports.
“In the Foster Avenue and Belmont districts, the same thing happened only 10 times.”
Longtime readers know that for a long time I have supported police beat realignment to, you know, assign officers according to where crime actually occurs instead of according to the wishes of clouty (white) aldermen. Is that really too much to ask?
Posted on April 17, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
First things first: I think everyone taking the Which Chicago Neighborhood Should You Live in quiz on Facebook should know that the app seems programmed to return “Edison Park” to everybody regardless of your answers.
Now on to the news.
Posted on April 16, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
I’ve been saving up some education stories – most of them culled from the work of Alexander Russo’s This Week In Education – and with Arne Duncan in town, now is as good a time as any to unleash them. Then we’ll get to today’s news and the 411 on this Friday’s party at the Beachwood.
Posted on April 15, 2009
