Chicago -
By Natasha Julius
Don’t worry; it takes more than a panicky military dictator to keep us from the weekend beat.
Market Update
Not a great week to be poor. Not really a great week to be rich, either. Oh wait . . . yes it is.
Posted on November 3, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
1. Chris Lynch from West Rogers Park has the answer!
“Regarding the F-bomb on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight, I was watching the show when Phil Ponce was interviewing a representative from the Chicago Humanities Festival. As the two talked about high culture, audio could be heard from an angry male voice saying, ‘What’s with all these fucking seating charts?’ (Approximately.) Since I hve TiVo, I instantly replayed this, thinking I was hearing things, or that it came from someone talking in another room of my house. But no, I was right. I thought the only ‘F’ word that WTTW cared about was Fundraising.”
Posted on November 2, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
“The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama was launched with the help of more positive press coverage than any other candidate – Republican or Democrat – running for the White House,” Lynn Sweet writes today.
Perhaps more positive press coverage than any candidate in history.
“While Hillary Clinton may have gotten the most press, she did not get the most favorable,” says a study cited by Sweet.
“The findings help explain a component of the Obama phenomenon – how a lawmaker with two years in the Senate within a matter of months became a front-running White House contender,” Sweet writes.
And, according to the study, it wasn’t even close.
Posted on November 1, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
Please take some time today to analyze how evil we here at the Beachwood are, as well as the presidential candidates, state and local officeholders, and various corporate media entities.
Haunts
* Haunted Chicago.
* Haunted Illinois.
* Haunting us.
* Haunted America.
Haunting Me
How beautiful this New York Times essay about My So-Called Life is.
Posted on October 31, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
This is far more important to Chicago’s chances of landing the 2016 Olympics than missing boxers or botched ambulance runs – the underplayed part of the Chicago Marathon debacle:
“Chicago has the ingredients for developing a world-class transportation system, but unless reinvestment begins promptly, the city may have few mass-transit services left when the 2016 Olympics are held, federal lawmakers warned Monday,” the Tribune reported this morning atop its front page.
Posted on October 30, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
1. Chicago is another Detroit. In Bear Monday, our new weekly feature recapping each Sunday’s debacle from here through the rest of the season.
2. The Sun-Times laments this morning the fact that three boxers in town for the World Championships are missing because it might hurt Chicago’s chances of landing the 2016 Olympics.
What?
If I understand correctly, the boxers – two from Uganda and one from Armenia – have escaped to freedom. Way to go!
Shouldn’t we be cheering that?
Posted on October 29, 2007
By Natasha Julius
It’s good to be back at the Weekend Desk, where we’ve been gloriously phony since 2006.
Market Update
Mortgage lending giant Countrywide Financial has announced plans to salvage $1.2 billion in potential bad debts by accepting payments in 10W-40. Meanwhile, experts estimate that their current uncomfortable vacant homes analogy will stop being funny by late second-quarter 2008.
Posted on October 27, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
“After he lost another appeal Thursday, former Gov. George Ryan’s dimming hope for a new trial now relies on a forceful dissenting opinion – joined by one of the nation’s most influential judges – that called his six-month trial far too long and ‘a travesty,'” the Tribune reports this morning.
Indeed, the 6-3 ruling by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejecting Ryan’s appeal came with a blistering dissent lead by legal iconoclast Richard Posner.
What is so odd about it is it’s focus on the length of the trial, heretofore not an issue.
Posted on October 26, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
Editor’s Note: The Papers will not appear today while I attend to other business, but there is new material elsewhere on the site. Look around! The Papers will return tomorrow.
*
The [Wednesday] Papers
The Tribune offers an excellent primer this morning atop its front page about how the city works – and what we mean by terms like “corruption tax” and “insider deals.” And you better believe Mayor Richard M. Daley is right in the middle of it.
“Mayor Richard Daley took an hourlong boat ride on the Chicago River in fall 1997 and came back with a vision of improving the riverfront in the city’s neighborhoods,” Laurie Cohen and Todd Lighty report.
“Just about that time, Thomas DiPiazza, an ally of Daley’s, also took an interest in the riverfront, buying a highly contaminated piece of land that was slated to become a public park under the mayor’s plan.
“Nearly 10 years later, the park still has not opened, but DiPiazza’s real estate investment has paid off handsomely, according to a Tribune investigation.
Posted on October 25, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
The Tribune offers an excellent primer this morning atop its front page about how the city works – and what we mean by terms like “corruption tax” and “insider deals.” And you better believe Mayor Richard M. Daley is right in the middle of it.
“Mayor Richard Daley took an hourlong boat ride on the Chicago River in fall 1997 and came back with a vision of improving the riverfront in the city’s neighborhoods,” Laurie Cohen and Todd Lighty report.
“Just about that time, Thomas DiPiazza, an ally of Daley’s, also took an interest in the riverfront, buying a highly contaminated piece of land that was slated to become a public park under the mayor’s plan.
“Nearly 10 years later, the park still has not opened, but DiPiazza’s real estate investment has paid off handsomely, according to a Tribune investigation.
Posted on October 24, 2007
