By Steve Rhodes

For completists, there was no column on Tuesday.
“Chicago Public Schools is planning to take on more than 100 construction projects in the next year. On that lengthy list is a curious project: ‘New Southside High School Construction,'” Becky Vevea reports for WBEZ.
“The cost? $75 million. The location? To be determined. But several sources familiar with the district’s capital planning confirmed to WBEZ that officials want the school in Englewood and are considering consolidating several existing neighborhood high schools due to low enrollment.”
So building a new high school in Englewood is really a way to close high schools in Englewood.

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Posted on December 21, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

“A men’s homeless shelter on Chicago’s North Side is scheduled to close days before Christmas, and staff members are reckoning with the reality that many participants lack options as the weather turns dangerously cold,” WBEZ reports.
“North Side Housing and Supportive Services’ Interim Housing Program for Men, at the Preston Bradley Center in the Uptown neighborhood, aims to close its doors for good Dec. 23.”

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Posted on December 19, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

“Minister Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam, spoke from a podium draped in the red, black and green of the Pan-African flag, a symbol of black pride,” AP reports.

It was the week after Donald Trump won the presidency. The result had delighted a new generation of white supremacists, and Farrakhan was analyzing the political landscape.
In a speech before the State of the Black World Conference in New Jersey, he warned, “The white man is going to push. He’s putting in place the very thing that will limit the freedom of others.” Then he pointed to the crowd, smiled and said, “That’s what you needed,” as motivation to finally separate from whites.
“My message to Mr. Trump: Push it real good,” Farrakhan said, building to a roar that drew applause and cheers. “Push it so good that black people say, ‘I’m outta here. I can’t take it no more.'”

Once more unto the breach, dear friends . . .

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Posted on December 18, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

“The DeVry University for-profit college chain and its Downers Grove-based parent company are paying $100 million to settle a federal lawsuit accusing the school of misleading students in ads about the success of its graduates,” AP reports.
“The Federal Trade Commission had sued DeVry, which is one of the nation’s largest for-profit college chains, in January.”

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Posted on December 16, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

“In the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind, the Tribune tested 255 pharmacies to see how often stores would dispense dangerous drug pairs without warning patients. Fifty-two percent of the pharmacies sold the medications without mentioning the potential interaction, striking evidence of an industrywide failure that places millions of consumers at risk.
“CVS, the nation’s largest pharmacy retailer by store count, had the highest failure rate of any chain in the Tribune tests, dispensing the medications with no warning 63 percent of the time. Walgreens, one of CVS’ main competitors, had the lowest failure rate at 30 percent – but that’s still missing nearly 1 in 3 interactions.”

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Posted on December 15, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

News broke this morning that the feds have indicted Ald. Willie Cochran (20th).
Score another one for the Beachwood Bookmaking Bureau. Jason Ervin, you’re up next!

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Posted on December 14, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

“Rob Sherman, who died over the weekend in a crash of his small plane in Marengo, operated a business helping people build aircraft from kits,” the Sun-Times reports.

But the 63-year-old was better known as a colorful political activist and Green Party candidate – some might say gadfly – who called journalists and introduced himself as “Rob Sherman, your favorite atheist.”
At one time, he had license plates that spelled out ATHEIST.
Though he came in for derision as a self-promoter, he challenged the use of government-sponsored Christmas creches and displays and anything he perceived as a co-mingling of church and state.

Rob Sherman did God’s work – if there was a God.

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Posted on December 13, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

“A Chicago police sergeant who shot an apparently unarmed man last month – his second fatal shooting in three years – might have been fired years ago, but that disciplinary case fell through the cracks for reasons the Police Department cannot explain, the Tribune has learned.
“Chief police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Superintendent Eddie Johnson has ordered that an audit be done to try to figure out why the internal investigation of Sgt. John Poulos was never completed.
“Multiple sources told the Tribune that the allegation against Poulos was serious enough for the Police Department to consider moving to fire him well before the two fatal shootings, but it was a mystery why he was never disciplined at all.

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Posted on December 12, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

“The judge overseeing the murder case against Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke grilled a city lawyer Thursday over whether her request to keep some 240,000 e-mails from public view violated Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s pledge to be more transparent,” the Tribune reports.
“The sharply worded questions from Judge Vincent Gaughan led Lisette Mojica, an assistant corporation counsel, to finally admit that as far as she knew, Emanuel hadn’t been consulted.
“As is his practice, Gaughan then went into his chambers for closed-door discussions with lawyers in the hot-button case that lasted nearly 50 minutes.
“After returning to court, Gaughan said a tentative arrangement had been reached over the disputed e-mails, but he said he was not going to reveal the details because it had not been finalized.”
*

The city is asking a judge for secrecy for 240K emails in the #LaquanMcDonald case. Here’s Judge Gaughan’s response https://t.co/S4LfOtZ4l5 pic.twitter.com/vxonqO10QK

— WBEZ (@WBEZ) December 8, 2016

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Posted on December 10, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

“Chicago Public Schools’ inspector general told the school board Wednesday that the district has stalled his investigation of a possible ethics violation involving its top lawyer by invoking attorney-client privilege,” the Tribune reports.
“Inspector General Nicholas Schuler’s office had been looking into whether a $250,000 contract awarded to Jenner & Block, the law firm where CPS general counsel Ronald Marmer was formerly a partner, amounted to a breach of the school board’s ethics policy. In a March 30 disclosure statement, Marmer acknowledged he receives severance payments from the firm.
“Schuler complained during the public comment portion of Wednesday’s board meeting that ‘the board’s assertion of privilege is preventing my office from accessing relevant documents and interviewing attorneys who likely have information pertinent to the investigation.'”
So, just to be clear: CPS’s inspector general went to the school board meeting yesterday in order to use the public comment period to lob his accusation.

All 60 slots filled for public speakers today. #50 particularly interesting- the @CPSOIG Nicholas Schuler re: “attorney client privilege”

— Lauren FitzPatrick (@bylaurenfitz) December 7, 2016

That, my friends, exhibits a certain level of frustration – and a desire to embarrass board members while making sure a story that first broke in July stays in the news. You might call it chutzpah. I call it awesome.

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Posted on December 8, 2016