By Steve Rhodes
Programming Note: I’m scheduled to appear on the NBC5 morning news tomorrow (Tuesday) at 6:15 a.m. to discuss the Indiana and North Carolina primaries. If you’re awake – or just coming in – please tune in. Feel free to send comments to Division Street.
1. Victoria, Texas, is getting an indie record shop.
2. A 5-year-old Does Lou Piniella.
3. Is this any less crazy than anything Jeremiah Wright ever said?
4. The Dance Movie Blogathon is off to a rousing start over at Ferdy on Films.
5. A faithful Beachwood reader writes:
“As I type this, the fifth most popular story on the Trib site is titled ‘Increased Tension Surfaces’. What do you think this story is about?
“A) The presidential race in Indiana
“B) The state budget negotiations in Springfield
“C) Wrangling in the Chicago City Council over the Children’s Museum
“D) Horse racing and the death of Eight Belles
“It’s really a great headline; they ought to make a point of using it every few weeks or so. But if you want the answer, click here.”
6. The lien was lifted in March 2007, but when Deputy Gov. Louanner Peters joined the Blagojevich administration in 2003, she owed $21,548 in federal taxes, the Sun-Times reports.
Normally it would be hard to know just what to make of this without knowing the full circumstances, but consider:
“In the mid-1990s, Peters chaired the Washington Convention Authority in Washington, D.C. But she faced criticism in a government audit for allegedly misusing the agency’s credit card to buy personal items, for which she later reimbursed the authority, according to published reports.”
I wonder where I could get hired if I had a federal tax lien plus the abuse of my employers’ credit card on my resume.
The Sun-Times notes that deputy chief of staff Steven Guerra also has a ($33,954) federal tax lien, and state transportation official Calvin Giles, a former state representative, owes more than $80,000 in election fines.
7. “The promises to maintain Wrigley as a stand-alone business unit and preserve its civic and charitable involvement are included in the contract terms of the merger agreement, which was filed this week with Securities and Exchange Commission,” the Tribune reports. “Yet there is no specific language in the contract that calls for Mars to maintain Wrigley’s headquarters in Chicago.”
Bob Reed of BusinessWeek Chicago sees darkness ahead:
“Shut down the headquarters of Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. (WWY). Convert the landmark Wrigley Building into condos. Tear the Wrigley name off the Chicago Cubs’ ballpark. Close the corporate wallet to local nonprofits. Fire a whole lot of people. This is the future many Chicagoans saw on learning that after 117 years here, the Wrigley family’s company had been sold to Mars for $23 billion, to create the world’s biggest candy producer. Holy cow.
“Don’t worry, Bill Wrigley assured one and all. The company’s executive chairman and great-grandson of its founder insisted that the only thing that is changing is the owners; everything else would remain as it has long been . . . I’ll wager a king-size Milky Way bar that in a few years, Chicago won’t recognize the old Wrigley as it is downgraded into just another regional office of a giant corporation based someplace else. Why the skepticism? For one, the deal itself will force this outcome. For another, previous takeovers of age-old companies by out-of-towners have all ended this way.”
8. The Wrigley Building as the new Children’s Museum!
9. Speaking of the Children’s Museum, check out this Google map of where the board of directors so anxious to serve “all of Chicago” live.
10. Via Blair Kamin:
“Speaking of the Children’s Museum battle, the Union League Club of Chicago on Tuesday will hold a forum featuring two principals in the debate: Jennifer Farrington, the museum’s president and chief executive officer, and Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), who has defied Mayor Richard M. Daley in opposing the museum’s plan. The public is welcome. The discussion will start at 8 a.m. at the club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd. You can sign up by calling 312-435-5946. Cost is $20 per person. The event begins with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. The club promises that adjournment will occur no later than 9:30 a.m. The club has not taken a position on the controversy.”
11. Barack Obama reiterated over the weekend that Jeremiah Wright is not the person he thought he was for the last 20 years and asked voters not to hold his failed judgement against him. “This is one element of a much larger track record,” he said.
For example, Tony Rezko isn’t the person he thought he was either.
12. You’ll never guess who is playing for European League power Maccabi Tel Aviv.
13. Beachwood Baseball:
* “Foul Balls is one of our most favorite Chicago sports blogs in the world, but Fornelli’s take on the Sox at AOL is a little premature,” our very own Ricky O’Donnell writes in The White Sox Report.
* “Is Lou Piniella stupid?” our very own Marty Gangler writes in The Cub Factor. “Your closer is the third-best reliever on the team and you keep trotting out Alfonso Soriano when you should be trying to get rid of him. And those things aren’t too smart.”
14. From Beachwood reader Brian Alves:
“In your Obama-Wright comments you seem to be neglecting a very obvious issue which is that believing in conspiracies is very American. Millions of people now seem to be believe that vaccinations cause retardation and their attitude and agitation threatens to undue decades of progress against disease. Not to mention the millions that think that the govt was involved in the murder of JFK (an idea seemingly held only by whites – blacks really don’t care), that we never landed on the moon, and on and on. It would be nice to see a candidate run for President and renounce all religion with regard to its intersection with government but you and I will not live long enough to see that day.”
15. De-Spindled.
The Beachwood Tip Line: Undercover.
Posted on May 5, 2008