By Steve Rhodes

1. Joey the Clown Lombardo sentenced to life. Here’s the profile of Lombardo I wrote for Chicago magazine in 2005.
2. Lombardo’s alibi in the murder of Danny Seifert has always been that he was reporting a lost wallet to police when Seifert was killed. A little too perfect.
On Monday, Lombardo wielded a police report placing him at the station as a last-ditch plea.
“In the report, a Chicago Police officer stated Lombardo approached him in [a pancake house] to report his wallet had been stolen from the glove box of his car while he’d been having breakfast,” Mark Brown writes.
As if Joey the Clown Lombardo would ever leave his wallet in a glove box.
COMMENT 2:00 P.M.: From Beachwood reader Mark:
So those commercials were true – mobsters really do go to Denny’s.

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Posted on February 3, 2009

By Steve Rhodes

“Your job as a congressman is to represent the people, not simply to be accountable to Mayor Daley and take what he says as gospel.”
My Lord, who dared to say such a thing in public?
State Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago), at a forum on Sunday for candidates to replace Rahm Emanuel (D-Daley) in Congress.
Here’s more from the Fighting Fifth!

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Posted on February 2, 2009

By Natasha Julius

The Weekend Desk: cheerful, earnest, cooperative, frank and honest. We ask for your prayers at this trying time.
Market Update
Finally, some good news out of Iceland. Sure, inflation is skyrocketing and they’re about to be strong-armed into the EU. However, early reports indicate the island nation is about to overtake the United States in the highly-competitive Progressive Government Leader index.

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Posted on January 31, 2009

By Steve Rhodes

UPDATE 2:33 P.M.: Still no column but I’d like to call your attention to a few other fine new Beachwood offerings.
* The Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Bracket! Just posted. You can enter and win prizes!
* The Five Dumbest Ideas of the Week.
* Political Odds updated. Not new, but updated.
* Ferdy on Blago. Forget Ebert’s crappy political columns, we’ll take Ferdy.

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Posted on January 30, 2009

By Steve Rhodes

From Beachwood reader Joe:
The cop kid was discovered to be a fake when the patrol car rolled in to the 7-11 and the regular beat cop ordered a coffee, black, and the kid asked for a hot chocolate with whipped cream and “some of them rainbow sprinkles.”
Meanwhile, officials are scrambling to explain how a 14-year-old boy became governor.

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Posted on January 29, 2009

By Steve Rhodes

An abbreviated column again today as I’ll be live-blogging the impeachment trial once more over at NBCChicago.com. My minders are really happy about the traffic, so come on over and give me another boost. Plus, it’s the least boring, most entertaining live-blog of the impeachment trial going. Here’s what we’ve done so far.
* Blogging Blago Live Day One
* Blogging Blago Live Day Two.
Also new on the Beachwood today:
* Blago, Greta and Rachel in What I Watched Last Night.
In other news . . .

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Posted on January 28, 2009

By Steve Rhodes

I won’t have a Papers column today, but I’ll be live-blogging Blago’s impeachment trial at NBCChicago.com. You should find a highly visible link to it on the home page. The proceedings start at 10 a.m.; today we expect to hear from FBI agent Dan Cain and from the governor himself – on tape.
We also have some new offerings elsewhere on the Beachwood today:
* Senator Oprah
* Huberman’s CPS
* What I Watched Last Night: Blago on Larry King
* Only one more showing of Killer Poet at the Siskel Center on Thursday. “It has a strong Chicago connection – the showing I attended on Sunday was packed,” our very own Marilyn Ferdinand reports. Here is her review. And the trailer:

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Read those, send them to your friends, then join me at NBCChicago.com. You can add your own commentary to the live-blog.

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Posted on January 27, 2009

By Steve Rhodes

Geez, you gotta get up pretty early in the morning to keep up with our impeached governor these days. He’s already appeared on Today and Good Morning America. The View is next, with Larry King Live tonight.
* “On the Today show, the Illinois governor also likens himself to Nelson Mandela,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Well, that makes sense. Mandela could tell him how to pass the time during a long prison bid.

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Posted on January 26, 2009

By Natasha Julius

We find ourselves, dear readers, once again staring into the abyss as we reach the weekend of Super Bore Sunday. Is it just us, or does the abyss seem a lot closer this year than it did a year ago?
Never fear. Our patented Distraction List is here to see you through the dark times. Here are our top suggestions to get you to the Big Game. Assuming, of course, you want to get there.

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Posted on January 24, 2009

By Steve Rhodes

BREAKING: Blago to give press conference at 2 p.m. A Beachwood door prize to any reader who correctly predicts which poet he recites.
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LIVE-BLOGGING BLAGO . . .
* It’s all about keeping him out of prison at this point. But will the jury pool remember when the trial won’t happen for two years?
* Contest entries so far include Emerson, Poe, and Henley (“Invictus“).

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Posted on January 23, 2009