Chicago -
By Natasha Julius
We’ll try not to get bleary-eyed and fall asleep on the watch this weekend.
Market Update
Critics responded with skepticism to presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s proposal to flood the market with new consumers, pointing out that each $5,000 birthday grant will probably be worth around $17.50 at maturity.
Posted on September 29, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
So much for “cops on the dots.”
As reported in the Tribune today, the Chicago Police Department’s Special Operations Section – created as the centerpiece of the mayor’s strategy to fight an embarrassingly high murder rate – is a disaster.
Seven SOS officers have already been charged with false arrests, robbing and kidnapping in what is described by the Tribune today as a “widening state and federal probe.”
For more than a year insiders have buzzed about a unit drenched in massive scandal.
On Wednesday, SOS officer Jerome Finnigan was charged in a murder-for-hire scheme whose intended target was a former SOS officer cooperating in the probe.
And then today, this:
Posted on September 28, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
Editor’s Note: I’m not going to have time for a column this morning, but we’ve got new posts this morning in several sections. Please consult Today’s Beachwood to your right for details.
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The [Wednesday] Papers
Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz is dead.
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Playoff Putsch
Aren’t the Cubs violating the Tribune Company’s code of ethics by offering members of the city council – and state legislators from the Wrigleyville area – a special deal on playoff tickets?
Posted on September 27, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
BREAKING THIS A.M.: Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz is dead.
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Playoff Putsch
Aren’t the Cubs violating the Tribune Company’s code of ethics by offering members of the city council – and state legislators from the Wrigleyville area – a special deal on playoff tickets?
Posted on September 26, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
I have cable, so this doesn’t affect me personally, but isn’t it an outrage that Cubs playoff games – should they actually come to fruition – won’t be on free, broadcast TV?
Not everyone has cable; I have friends who simply cannot afford it. And – memo to Mayor Daley – think of the kids. Really.
Posted on September 25, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
1. The fan poll at the Bears official website asks which of these was the most disappointing aspect of last night’s loss to the Cowboys: the return game, the second-half defense, or turnovers. Apparently, like everyone else, the Bears fan poll has determined that Rex Grossman is not an option.
2. Looks like Cubs fans picked the wrong week to quit smoking.
3. “The Chicago Children’s Museum, at the center of a political firestorm, stands to get more than $1 million a year in taxpayer money by moving to Grant Park,” Crain’s reports.
You mean it’s not about the children?
Posted on September 24, 2007
By Natasha Julius
We regret to announce that, after the loss of our appeal, the Weekend Desk has been stripped of its archive.
Market Update
At least three of the Four Horsemen are now out the motherfuckin’ barn. Shit’s bad, people.
Posted on September 22, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
Wow. The outpouring of opposition to the Chicago Children’s Museum’s proposed move to Grant Park has been astounding. I’d like to think the hullabaloo is backlash to a mayor whose racial comments finally went too far. On the other hand, Richard M. Daley pulled the same stunt when it came to the Big Box ordinance and there wasn’t a peep.
What explains it?
Posted on September 21, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
Now comes Gigi Pritzker Pucker calling the “loudest voices” opposing the move of the Chicago Children’s Museum to Grant Park racist.
Note to Gigi: If there are racist voices in this debate, they are surely the quietest – not counting the voices of you and the mayor. The loudest voices belong to Ald. Brendan Reilly, the Tribune editorial board, and various civic defenders of a free and open Grant Park.
And truthfully, it doesn’t matter much what the residents along East Randolph think. This isn’t about traffic, no matter what their parochial concerns. Mayor Daley is right about one thing: Grant Park belongs to us all. That means that by tradition it isn’t to be siphoned off to the mayor’s pals.
Posted on September 20, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
Editor’s Note: If you’re visiting due to the AP story, Please Stop Believin’ is here, The Cub Factor is here, and Beachwood Sports is here.
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Donald Jacobsen lives at 400 East Randolph – in close proximity to the Grant Park location now being debated as a possible future home of the Chicago Children’s Museum.
On Tuesday, the mayor once again made a spectacle of himself and Jacobsen delivered his verdict to the Sun-Times: “The mayor is nuts.”
You think?
“Daley again went unhinged,” the Tribune editorial page says this morning, describing the mayor’s latest hideous display as a “bizarre eruption” and “a foolish and irresponsible rant.” (Eric Zorn has a partial transcript here.)
That gives the mayor too much credit; makes it sound like this is an unusual departure from Daley’s typically reasonable and civil manner.
Just get into town?
Posted on September 19, 2007
