By Steve Rhodes

“Last December off-duty Chicago police officers reportedly attacked four businessmen in a bar, leaving one in need of reconstructive surgery and another with four broken ribs,” John Conroy wrote in the Reader last month. “In February off-duty officer Anthony Abbate beat up a young female bartender who declined to serve him any more drinks. Both incidents were recorded by security cameras.
“Outgoing police superintendent Phil Cline said he was ‘disgusted’ by the assaults. He said what dismayed him wasn’t just the beatings but also how the attackers were subsequently protected by the department. Commanders kept the offenders in the December incident on active duty for months, even after seeing the recording. In videotape of February’s incident, Abbate can be seen repeatedly punching and kicking bartender Karolina Obrycka, yet he was only charged with a misdemeanor till the state’s attorney’s office brought more serious charges. A police captain ordered his men to harass the media who came to cover Abbate’s first court hearing.
“‘I won’t tolerate any misconduct. If it comes to a criminal nature, we’ll arrest you. If somebody tries to shield Officer Abbate, or any other officer accused of misconduct, then they’re going to have to pay the consequences for it,’ Cline said after that hearing. But this isn’t anything Cline hasn’t seen before.

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Posted on May 21, 2007

By Natasha Julius

Despite a few minor sticking points, we’re ready to present a unified front on the key stories this weekend.
Market Report
Investor confidence sagged this week as the resignation of Paul Wolfowitz from the World Bank failed to boost share prices in Government Credibility. Analysts, however, pointed to poor performance data from the Montana State Legislature, which continues to defend marriage against the perceived threat of homosexuality while exposing its soft underbelly to greedy straight people. No wonder potential shareholders are confused.

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Posted on May 19, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

“Somehow Guillen is above .500 with a team that doesn’t hit and has been outscored by 13 runs,” the Tribune’s Phil Rogers writes in his “All-City Team” preview of the Cubs-Sox series that begins today.
“Piniella, meanwhile, is below .500 with a team that has outscored its opponents by 26 runs. Bill James’ Pythagorean standings had the Cubs only gone game behind Milwaukee after Wednesday but the real standings show a gap of seven games after Thursday. So far Piniella isn’t having as much of an impact in his first season in Chicago as his predecessor, Dusty Baker, did in his.”
Ouch.
Dusty in the Wind
The Beachwood’s very own Cub Factor, in fact, has determined that Dusty Baker would be managing this team very differently from Lou Piniella – but with the same result.
Look for a new Cub Factor on Monday for insight on this weekend’s series that you won’t find anywhere else. The Cub Factor, the world’s best Cubs column, brought to you exclusively by The Beachwood Reporter. Tell your friends all about it.
Crosstown Expressions
“Sox, Cubs Fans Urged To Take CTA.”
By each other. Things have gotten mean.

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Posted on May 18, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

“Who started the bar fight that landed three Chicago cops in jail?” the Sun-Times asks at the beginning of its news report about an incident last December at the Jefferson Tap & Grille in the West Loop.
Three of six officers allegedly involved in the fight with other bar patrons have been charged and appeared in court on Wednesday. Revelations of the scrap, coming on the heels of the internationally televised surveillance video of a separate incident involving an off-duty Chicago police officer beating up petite female bartender, led to the announcement that police chief Phil Cline would retire/resign later this year. Cline has acknowledged he was slow to act in the Jefferson Tap case.
“Sources close to the cops claim a drunken patron poked fun at one of the officers, Paul Powers, for crying over his dad’s death,” the Sun-Times account says.
“But at their bond hearing Wednesday, prosecutors countered that ‘in interviews and grand jury testimony, not a single witness among the victims, bar personnel and other uncharged officers has stated that the victims taunted or mocked the defendant officers.”

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Posted on May 17, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

“Dr. Everett Righteous, founder and leader of the MMM (The Majority for Musical Morality), became influential in American politics through the use of his own cable TV network. He spoke about the evils of rock ‘n’ roll music, and how its permissive attitudes were responsible for the moral and economic decline of America. He was charismatic, entertaining, and above all, he understood the media.”
Bet you didn’t know Styx’s 1983 Kilroy Was Here was about Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority.
Falwell is dead, but his influence lives on.

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Posted on May 16, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

Dick Durbin, Illinois’ senior United States senator – you know, the one who isn’t Barack Obama – took to the well of the Senate recently and gave what some, including myself, considered an astounding speech about how the information he was given before the Iraq War as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee differed from what the administration was telling the public. Durbin appeared to be saying members of the Intelligence Committee knew the administration was lying but remained duty-bound by their committee vows of secrecy to not inform the country that we were being led to war on false premises.
Durbin’s dilemma has since been discussed in a variety of forums, including the Tribune’s Washington, D.C., blog, in radio interviews featuring Durbin himself, in the conservative press, and the liberal blogosphere.
Today, the Tribune publishes Durbin’s response to a Dennis Byrne column last week as a letter to the editor in which Durbin says that, contrary to Byrne’s claim, this is the ninth time he has spoken about this issue on the Senate floor – that he’s not just springing this on us right now.

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Posted on May 15, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

1. The Mount Lou Alert System is now on yellow. Heightened concern is warranted. Pressure is expected to build throughout the week with an eruption by Saturday.
2. I’ll admit I was wrong about Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis when Jim Hendry admits he was wrong about the outfield and infield.
3. “Team scouts believe Soriano could smoothly make the transition from left field to center field and be an upgrade defensively over the weak-armed Juan Pierre,” the Sun-Times reported last November.
The same scouts who didn’t believe in Ryan Theriot.
4. So maybe, um, fire the scouts?
5. Sun-Times front page on Saturday: “Honors Student Slain On CTA Bus.”
Would it be less tragic if the victim was a C student? Or how about “Failing Student Slain On CTA Bus”?

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Posted on May 14, 2007

By Natasha Julius

The Weekend Desk got a little lost on the way to Vegas last week. Thank goodness we made it back in time to keep tabs on the really massive stories unfolding before us.
Market Update
There was a massive shake-up in the Baseless Suburban Panic index this week as blue-chip earners including Immigration and Racial Diversity saw their earnings siphoned off by innovative newcomer Sidewalks. While the impressive opening had investors itching to buy in, analysts predict Childhood Obesity will emerge as the long-term winner.

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Posted on May 12, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

Lots to catch up with today, from the indictment of Fast Eddie Vrdolyak to the total humiliation of possibly the nation’s worst governor (ours) to why the Brewers are better than the Cubs. And of course, this column wouldn’t be complete without another Olympic lie told by the mayor and, truly, most important of all, his continued evasion of questions about police torture he appears to have known about all along.
1. The Tribune lays it out quite nicely on its front page.
“Edward R. Vrdolyak was given the name ‘Fast Eddie’ for his wheeling and dealing in politics and real estate, but it also described his ability to stay ahead of the packs of investigators and regulators who so frequently poked their noses into his business.
“On Thursday, the U.S. attorney announced that the former City Hall powerhouse now shared a distinction with other legendary Chicago politicians: a federal indictment.
“Though long and legally complicated, the indictment ultimately describes a simple local act – Vrdolyak allegedly got a contract where the fix was in, agreeing to kick back a taste to the connected official who steered the deal his way.”
I’m not sure it could be said any better.

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Posted on May 11, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

Last night the news broke on NBC that a group of congressional Republicans had confronted President Bush about the war in an extraordinary White House meeting.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Tonight we’re also able to report new and exclusive details on the politics of the war in Iraq, specifically involving President Bush and members of his own party. For that we are joined by our Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert. What do we know?
TIM RUSSERT: Brian, all eyes on the Republican Party. How long will they support the president’s position on the Iraq war? Yesterday may have been a defining pivotal moment. At 2:30 in the afternoon in the private quarters of the White House, the Salarium room, 11 Republican congressmen had a private meeting with the President, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, the chief political adviser Karl Rove and the White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and others. It was headed by Mark Kirk of Illinois and Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania.
It was, in the words of one of the parties, the “most unvarnished conversation they’ve ever had with the president.” Another member said he has met with three presidents and never has been so candid. They told the president, and one said, “My district is prepared for defeat. We need candor, we need honesty, Mr. President.” The president responded, “I don’t want to pass this off to another president. I don’t want to pass this off, particularly, to a Democratic president,” underscoring he understood how serious the situation was. Brian, the Republican congressman then went on to say, “The word about the war and its progress cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There is no longer any credibility. It has to come from Gen. Petraeus.”
The meeting lasted an hour and 15 minutes and was, in the words of one, “remarkable for the bluntness and no-holds-barred honesty in the message delivered by all these Republican congressmen.”

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Posted on May 10, 2007