By Steve Rhodes

“The John Hancock Center could be getting a new owner – and maybe even a new name,” the Tribune reports.
“Chicago-based developer Hearn Co. plans to put the North Michigan Avenue tower’s office space and parking garage up for sale, possibly by late summer, company President and CEO Stephen Hearn said.”
*
Sneed reporting for the Sun-Times exactly one year ago:
“As Sneed exclusively reported last year, Hearn Co., which owns the commercial portion of the John Hancock Center – was pitching proposals that could include a naming-rights deal because the John Hancock company no longer owned the building.”
So this is the third annual renaming report, right? Just sayin’.
*
The joke I was going to make today about it is the same one I made a year ago, so just go to the item Signature Building.

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Posted on May 19, 2017

By Steve Rhodes

I’ve got a full day ahead, so no proper column.
ICYMI: Michael Ferro is giving us all tronchitis.

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Posted on May 18, 2017

By Steve Rhodes

“There is, as my colleague David Brooks wrote Tuesday, a basic childishness to the man who now occupies the presidency. That is the simplest way of understanding what has come tumbling into light in the last few days: The presidency now has kinglike qualities, and we have a child upon the throne,” Ross Douthat writes for the New York Times.
This hasn’t just come tumbling into the light, it’s been right in front of us the whole time. Donald Trump built much of his campaign around attacking his opponents with childish nicknames such as “Crooked Hillary” and gleefully repeating gibes such as naming Clinton and Barack Obama the “co-MVPs” of ISIS.
To write now of the man’s essential childishness as a revelation is to have slept through the whole campaign.
At least the media is no longer waiting for Trump to “pivot.”

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Posted on May 17, 2017

By Steve Rhodes

I wish I had time today – boy, do I! – to get to the Tronc bid to acquire Wrapports, owner of the Sun-Times and the Reader, but I don’t. So I’ll just leave you with this reminder of that infamous Tronc training video.
Ooops, it’s gone!
Hopefully tomorrow I can piece something together. In the meantime, here’s some other stuff.

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Posted on May 16, 2017

By Steve Rhodes

Just now catching up with last week’s Sun-Times report “For J.B. Pritzker, Mansion’s Disrepair Has Saved $230K In Taxes.”
I recommend clicking through to read the whole thing; I won’t summarize the basic gist of it here, so go do that first. I just want to point out the parts that really caught my eye about this billionaire behaving badly.

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Posted on May 15, 2017

By Steve Rhodes

So the song I’m posting here used to be on the Beachwood jukebox, two different selections, “This Beat Goes On” and “Switchin’ to Glide.” Only amateurs failed to play both, and in the right order. Those who didn’t do it right were roundly jeered.
And because it was two different selections, there was a pause in between each section. Those of us who sang along – meaning every regular in the place – knew when the pause came, and for just how long it lasted. It was a thing of beauty. This is what life is about, people.

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Posted on May 12, 2017

By Steve Rhodes

“Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday would not say why he didn’t reveal the extent of Chicago Public Schools’ money woes sooner, instead blaming state government for the problem,” the Tribune reports.
If only the state didn’t sew my mouth shut, I could have alerted everybody!
“The mayor’s attempted blame-shifting came a day after Chicago Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown told reporters CPS is owed $467 million in state school aid held up by the budget impasse. That’s on top of $215 million in state pension assistance Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed late last year.”
Four hundred sixty-seven million here, $215 there, and pretty soon we’re talking real money.

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Posted on May 11, 2017

By Steve Rhodes

This FBI Director has sought for years to jail me on account of my political activities. If I can oppose his firing, so can you. https://t.co/zUp5kquy8q

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) May 9, 2017

Set aside politics: every American should condemn such political interference in the Bureau’s work. https://t.co/hROwSMg1vd

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) May 9, 2017

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Posted on May 10, 2017

By Steve Rhodes

Let’s interact with the news, shall we?
1. When Chicago Cops Moonlight, No One Is Watching.
“CPD has the weakest oversight of secondary employment of any of the nation’s 50 largest local and county law enforcement agencies, according to a Chicago Reporter review of agency policies. CPD is the only one of the 50 departments that does not require its officers to get permission to work a second job.”
Why is that important?
“The lack of oversight exposes the city to potentially costly misconduct lawsuits when things go wrong.”
And this being Planet Earth, and this being Chicago in particular, things go wrong.

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Posted on May 9, 2017

By Steve Rhodes

Made In Chicago: Prick Blades.

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Posted on May 8, 2017