I’m on my way to the Beachwood Bucktown Bureau for another Weekend at Benny’s.
Tales of adventure to come.
Posted on May 24, 2018
The [Wednesday] Papers
The [Tuesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“Despite Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s promise that mass school closings in 2013 would lead to a ‘brighter future,”‘ Chicago students didn’t benefit academically and on average their performance suffered, particularly in math, according to a University of Chicago Consortium on School Research study released on Tuesday,” Sarah Karp reports for WBEZ.
“The groundbreaking study goes on to report that for students and teachers, the transition was traumatic and chaotic.”
And yet, the People Who Told You So and seem to always tell us so will remain marginalized by the Establishment That’s Always Wrong (Or Lying) and it’s Media Arm.
Remember this the next time – probably today! – the mayor and his commentariat moralize about accountability.
Posted on May 22, 2018
The [Monday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
For completists, there was no Weekend Desk Report.
The Beachwood covers the Royal Wedding the only journalistically responsible way:
Throwback Saturday: pic.twitter.com/cPEk81omaE
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) May 19, 2018
Posted on May 21, 2018
The [Friday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“The State of Illinois regularly keep prisoners with disabilities beyond their release dates because of inadequate options for housing – though it’s difficult to know exactly how often, because the Department of Corrections said they don’t track that number,” WBEZ reports.
“A WBEZ review of facilities on a corrections department’s housing list found many did not accept people with a disability, including psychiatric disabilities. Equip for Equality, a disability rights advocacy group, said the situation could be a violation of laws meant to protect people from discrimination – and costs the state more money than placing people in the community.”
Posted on May 18, 2018
The [Thursday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“U.S. prosecutors filed a criminal charge Wednesday against the CEO of Bumble Bee Foods as part of an ongoing investigation into price fixing in the packaged seafood industry,” AP reports.
Oh, Bumble Bee . . . you could’ve been the Good Guy Tuna Company.
Posted on May 17, 2018
The [Wednesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
It was a particularly egregious day of lying on Tuesday.
Our star practitioners of were at the top of their game.
Bruce Rauner opened the festivities claiming that Minnesota is “struggling like we are,” as a way to evade the inescapable fact that the economic model of that state has vastly outperformed Midwest cohorts Wisconsin and Indiana, the states Rauner looks to as examples of prosperous right-wing governance. The governor simply refuses to let the facts get in the way of his ideology.
Posted on May 16, 2018
The [Tuesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“Supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies can get absurdly huge, sometimes reaching masses billions of times greater than our Sun,” George Dvorsky writes for Gizmodo.
“The rate at which black holes grow can vary, but Australian astronomers have detected one such object with an unusually intense appetite, making it the fastest-growing black hole ever detected in the observable universe.”
This is the kind of news I wish would get more attention. I mean, my god!
Posted on May 15, 2018
The [Monday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
From Governor Bruce Rauner’s amendatory veto of a bill passed by the General Assembly designed to institute a 72-hour waiting period before purchase of an assault weapon could be completed:
[A]nyone who deliberately kills a law enforcement officer or is a mass murderer deserves the death penalty. There are legitimate reasons for concern about the death penalty, reasons that I take seriously. Chief among those concerns is the alarming number of people who have been convicted by juries “beyond a reasonable doubt” and sentenced to death, but were later exonerated based on DNA or other evidence demonstrating that the jury convicted the wrong person. Consequently, the only morally justifiable standard of proof in a death penalty case is “beyond all doubt.” This standard would apply not only at trial but also on appeal. There is ample evidence that juries and judges are more likely to sentence black men to death than others, resulting in obvious bias based on race and gender. If a person is justly convicted beyond all doubt of a crime for which death is deserved by a carefully crafted definition, then the only sentence objectively consistent with the demands of justice is death. For these reasons and in the interest of justice in cases of mass murder or murder of a police officer, I am exercising my amendatory veto authority to submit to the General Assembly a statute creating the offense of “death penalty murder,” which would: 1) apply only to persons whose crime is so heinous as to clearly deserve to be executed; 2) require that any doubt regarding identification and guilt be resolved in favor of the accused both at trial and on appeal; and 3) provide that the only authorized sentence for death penalty murder is death, with a safety valve for those for whom the death penalty would be manifestly unjust, such as those with intellectual disability.
Yikes.
Posted on May 14, 2018
The Weekend Desk Report
By Steve Rhodes
“As a consumer, Reese Mathers is living the dream, according to the testimonials left on websites of businesses across the globe,” Matthew Walberg reports for the Tribune.
The clothes always fit perfectly. The business advice was really helpful. The couples massage was relaxing and romantic.
But as a writer of online reviews for businesses in Chicago and around the world, Reese appears to be stuck in a bit of a rut.
“Two thumbs up,” Mathers wrote in her review on the website for Dependable Flooring in Brunswick, Ga. “If you’re in need of an honest, professional and reliable Flooring Service, then look no further than Dependable Flooring. I’ve relied on the service providers from Dependable Flooring on numerous occasions and have yet to be disappointed.”
Reese wrote the same thing for AJ Truck Wash in Summit, Ill.
And for RYT Builders, a construction company in the Philippines.
And also for The Water Smith, a water treatment company in Chuluota, Fla.
In fact, a quick web search of Mathers’ name and the phrase “two thumbs up” returns page after page of results showing Mathers’ ubiquitous praise on company websites.
You’ll have to click through to find out what’s going on – and it’s almost certainly not what you think.
Posted on May 12, 2018