By Steve Rhodes
Just a brief word about the award we shared on Monday. I don’t know if he knows this, but the idea for the project actually came from Mick Dumke of the Reader. He had written a couple of posts about city council committee meetings without quorums that caught my attention. I asked Jay Stewart of the Better Government Association if this meant that a whole slew of city ordinances could be declared invalid. Jay had been thinking about this issue as well, it turned out, and the project was born. We went to Suzanne McBride of Columbia College with our idea because the year before we teamed with her and her class to produce an award-winning investigation. Now we consider it an annual thing.

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Posted on April 14, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
BREAKING 12:32 P.M.: We’re very pleased to report that a joint investigation by Chicago Talks and The Beachwood Reporter has won the Society of Professional Journalism’s 2008 national award for online investigative reporting by an independent media outlet. The investigation found that the committees of Chicago’s City Council routinely acted on measures without a quorum, without a record of testimony by those appearing before the committees, and even without records of attendance by city councilmen themselves. This project could not have been possible without the generous assistance of Jay Stewart and the Better Government Association. I’ll have a little bit more tomorrow.
–
The [Monday] Papers
Is every major Chicago team playoff-bound?
Is everything we thought we knew about the Cubs wrong?
Are the White Sox good, bad or ugly?

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Posted on April 13, 2009

By Natasha Julius
On this holiday weekend, we’ll stay on top of all the vital confectionary news that seems to have gripped the city.
Change Watch
Markets were somewhat indifferent this week to local retailers’ attempts to clear out an embarrassing backlog. After all, it’s not like they’re going to cut production any time soon.

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Posted on April 11, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
1. This has been making the rounds, so maybe you’ve already seen it, but an example of the complete and total ignorance we’re up against.
2. “ESPNChicago.com only has a counter and a promotional video up, but on Monday, the site will go live for the Chicago Cubs home opener,” paid Content reports. “The sites will be aligned with the expanded ESPNRadio.com and will also have a mobile version as well. The site will be staffed by a mix of former Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times sports reporters and columnists, as well as existing ESPN (NYSE: DIS) staffers. The Disney-owned sports publisher has been very aggressive lately about refining its web presence, including allowing for ad insertions for live college basketball videos streams last month. In January, ESPN.com completed a year-long overhaul of its website, with improved video and search functions.”

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Posted on April 10, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
What a terrible job of public relations our new parking meter overlords have done.
I had this thought when I approached one of their workers last night. I must confess that at first I thought he was The Parking Ticket Geek.
Hey, are you The Parking Ticket Geek? I asked.
No.
You’re not The Parking Ticket Geek? I said.
Now, I’ve seen The Parking Ticket Geek on TV, so I know what he looks like. And I’ve frequently corresponded with him via e-mail. And I learned his real identity this week and it turns out I know him.
But last night I just figured he didn’t want to be publicly identified.

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Posted on April 9, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
“One superlative or cheery word followed another.
“Vibrant. Outstanding. Highly professional. Excellent. Beautiful. Pleased. Fantastic. Energetic. Dynamic.
“Listening to the top two officials of the International Olympic Committee’s evaluation commission deliver a relentlessly upbeat assessment of its trip to Chicago, you would think there is no need for them to visit the other three finalists for the 2016 Summer Olympics.”
– Philip Hersh, “IOC Evaluators Like Chicago’s Bid”
Now, Philip Hersh is a veteran reporter specializing in international sports who knows more about the Olympics in his littlest fingernail than I’ll ever know, but I’m willing to make a guarantee I have far more confidence in than the city’s pledge that they won’t have to tap their taxpayer reserve to cover the financial losses of hosting the Games: IOC members will issue just as cheery assessments in Tokyo, Rio and Madrid.

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Posted on April 8, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
Just a few programming notes. Not only have we upgraded our Movable Type publishing system to the latest, snazziest version, but over the weekend we moved to our fantastic new web host, Hosting Matters.
Because of the transition, some of you may have seen Saturday’s edition of the Beachwood instead of Monday’s edition at times yesterday. I’ll leave the Monday edition appended below to today’s column.
Our tech issues and other pending matters have left me in need of a day off from columning. But I’d like to point out the fantastic new material we have elsewhere on the Beachwood today, and I’ve already made a few posts at NBCChicago.com this morning.

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Posted on April 7, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
In its current print edition, the Reader celebrates the 100th anniversary of Nelson Algren’s birth with the publication of “Entrapment,” a previously unpublished work now collected with a few others in Entrapment and Other Writings.
Don DeLillo and Willem Dafoe will be among the luminaries giving Algren readings tonight at the Steppenwolf; a slide show by Art Shay is also a featured attraction.
On Sunday the Tribune’s Rick Kogan also marked the publication of Entrapment and Algren’s anniversary.

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Posted on April 6, 2009

By Natasha Julius
Oh, keep your pants on. We’ll still be watching the news that matters.
Change Watch
In a welcome sign that, at last, a new era of responsibility has dawned, Wall Street admitted this week that there’s more wealth to share when less people have access to it. Just ask the federal government.

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Posted on April 4, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
To tell you the truth, there is less than I thought there would be in the still-massive indictment of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and five other power brokers. The indictment runs 75 pages; I had predicted it would top 100. Oh well. There’s probably more to come.
Let’s take a look.
* “If true, it’s a chilling tale of public corruption in Illinois,” the Sun-Times writes today. “Entering office on the heels of a major scandal by his predecessor, the now ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich is accused of committing crooked acts in office before a jury was even picked in the federal corruption trial of former Gov. George Ryan.”
Nice, although I think he’s accused of committing crooked acts even before he took office. Or at least conspiring to.

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Posted on April 3, 2009