By Steve Rhodes
Cubs Clinch! Shout it from the rooftops. The obstructed view rooftops!
Posted on September 16, 2016
The [Thursday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“Battery maker Duracell is opening an office downtown today, bringing over 60 executive jobs to Chicago,” Crain’s reports.
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel is to make the announcement today.”
I’m not going to say it’s a bad thing that Duracell is moving some executive jobs here, but if you look at the big picture, it’s not necessarily a good thing, either. Here’s why:
Posted on September 15, 2016
The [Wednesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
I have a bunch of errands to do today, so no time for a proper column. But I’m pleased to announce that our parody songmeister Tom Latourette is back with a Cubs epic, “My Cubs (I’m Not Betting Against . . . ). A lot of golden lines in there – and some fine vocal performances!
Posted on September 14, 2016
The [Tuesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“Lisseth Perez did not graduate at the top of her class from Chicago’s Hancock College Prep in 2015, but she worked hard to earn As and Bs. The grades, combined with an average ACT score, were good enough to get her into a half-dozen universities. But Perez had to turn down all those acceptances,” Melissa Sanchez reports for Catalyst.
“Even with scholarships, she and her parents couldn’t afford to pay for her education, let alone for room and board if she wanted to study outside of Chicago. And unlike most low-income students, Perez can’t access federal or state financial aid or loans because she is undocumented.”
Not so in “a half-dozen other states” that “allow undocumented students to tap into public financial aid.”
Go read the rest, this is a really good – if infuriating – piece of work.
Posted on September 13, 2016
The [Monday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
This portion of the column will return on Tuesday.
–
Chicago Magic Lounge
New take on a lost tradition.
Electionland
“Historically, newsrooms have focused on covering the outcome of Election Day, relegating voting snafus to be followed up later, if at all. Instead, we’re announcing Electionland, a project to cover voting access and other problems in real time.”
Posted on September 12, 2016
The Weekend Desk Report
By Steve Rhodes
Cubs beat writer Gordon Wittenmyer writes for the Sun-Times that the Houston Astros’ decision to take Mark Appel over Kris Bryant with the top pick in the 2013 draft teaches a lesson in the merits of drafting position players over pitchers, who are presumably more at risk for injury.
The way Bryant landed in the Cubs’ lap is indeed often cited as yet another example of Theo Epstein’s genius.
But Wittenmyer also reports this often-ignored fact:
Posted on September 10, 2016
The [Thursday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
All the action is on Twitter today – 24 hours of Donald Trump, Matt Lauer, Rahm Emanuel, John Kass, and the nation’s shittiest journalists.
Posted on September 8, 2016
The [Wednesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
“An unprecedented analysis by the Chicago Tribune of every police shooting from 2010 through 2015 . . . found that foot chases played a role in more than a third of the 235 cases that ended with someone wounded or killed,” the paper reports.
“About half of the pursuits began routinely – as police attempted to stop or question people for curfew violations, public drinking, thefts, disturbance calls or other minor offenses, the Tribune found. According to the analysis, nearly a quarter of those killed by police during foot chases were struck only in the back, a factor often cited later in civil rights lawsuits questioning the threat actually posed to officers.”
This is good work. Go read it.
Posted on September 7, 2016
The [Tuesday] Papers
By Steve Rhodes
I can only imagine that Mick Dumke drew Labor Day duty at the Sun-Times and some crap-ass editor made him go in search of a Donald Trump supporter in the city’s tourist district. Because, um, 34,038 Chicagoans voted for Trump in the Republican presidential primary here last spring, which Trump won. They live among us – and they’ve actually been named in the press!
Look, here’s one who started a Facebook group!
And from the Tribune in July:
“A week before accepting the Republican presidential nomination in Cleveland, businessman Donald Trump comes to Chicago on Tuesday to collect more than $1 million in campaign fundraising help . . . The Chicago lunch fundraiser has been organized by businessman Ronald Gidwitz, who has assumed the title of Trump Victory Illinois finance chairman.”
Maybe give him a call and arrange to meet him downtown!
Just sayin’, let’s not pretend they are nowhere to be found in our “liberal” city.
Posted on September 6, 2016
The Weekend Desk Report
By Steve Rhodes
“U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush has filed a complaint saying he was racially profiled by Chicago police after two officers pulled him over while driving on the South Side in August, according to police sources and city records,” the Tribune reports.
“According to the sources, the Wentworth District officers were running plates while on patrol on Aug. 4 because of a rash of vehicle thefts in the Bronzeville neighborhood.
“The officers ran the plate on Rush’s Lexus and were told it was registered to a Cadillac, the sources said. The officers then stopped Rush shortly before 3 p.m. in the 4700 block of South King Drive, according to the sources and city records obtained by the Tribune through a Freedom of Information Act request.”
Okay, you can click through to read the rest for the whys and wherefores (seems the cops made a mistake interpreting Rush’s license plate, ha ha), but this is the part that caught my eye:
Posted on September 3, 2016