By Steve Rhodes
1. The Bears cheated on their winning play.
2. “I keep saying to myself, ‘Death is a celebration.'”
–The first line of dialogue of the only feature film directed by Norman Mailer
3. I’ll be at the fifth anniversary birthday bash of the PH improv group tonight at the Lakeshore Theater (3175 North Broadway). Stop by if you get a chance, I’ll be handing out some Beachwood door prizes. The event is free, by the way. Doors open at 7 p.m.
4. “[Allison] Davis and his partners – including his sons Jared and Cullen – have gotten more than $100 million in taxpayer subsidies to build and rehabilitate more than 1,500 apartments and homes, primarily for the poor,” the Sun-Times reported on Sunday.
“As Davis has become one of City Hall’s favored developers in the last 10 years, he also has become a major political player. He has donated more than $400,000 to dozens of political campaign funds. His top beneficiaries include Daley, Blagojevich and Sen. Barack Obama, who worked for several years as an attorney in Davis’ law firm.
“The evolution of Davis from City Hall critic to insider might seem unusual, but not to old friends and associates.
“‘Does any of that surprise me? No,’ said Robert Bennett, former dean of the Northwestern University Law School, who has known Davis since high school. ‘He’s an ambitious guy. He likes to make money.'”
5. Davis was also, until last January, a mayoral appointee to the Chicago Plan Commission. And, coincidentally, “Davis has forged strong ties to the Daley family, doing deals with one of the mayor’s nephews and giving legal business to Daley & George, mayoral brother Michael Daley’s law firm.”
6. Also, just coincidentally:
“Six years ago . . . .[Davis] got two city blocks of free land to build homes in the Woodlawn neighborhood. And the biggest, most expensive house went to Davis’ son.”
7. “Davis, 68, declined repeated interview requests for this story,” the Sun-Times noted. “His spokesman asked that questions be submitted in writing.”
Allison Davis, you are today’s Worst Person in Chicago.
8. Allison Davis is a de facto public official whose evasions should not be tolerated lightly. Seems a whole lot of folk are learning how easy it is to dodge the press; the press has to make refusal to answer questions an option more painful than facing reporters. In Davis’s case, instead of agreeing to submit written questions, perhaps the Sun-Times should have told Davis to fuck off and published its unanswered questions on the front page.
9. Running a close second in today’s Worst Person in Chicago sweepstakes is former state Rep. Calvin Giles, who was hired by the Blagojevich administration to an $84,996 job despite owing taxpayers more than $80,000 in fines for violating election rules.
Giles also refused to answer questions.
“I’m no longer an elected official at this time,” Giles said. “I’m just a private citizen.”
Not!
Calvin Giles is a public official on a public payroll. Plus, he owes us money.
10. “Dan White, the election board’s executive director, said the agency would like to collect the $80,250 that Giles’ fund owes, but it has not gotten cooperation from Blagojevich’s administration,” the Sun-Times notes.
“Election officials had sought help from the state Revenue Department to collect unpaid fines imposed against Giles and other election-fine scofflaws.
“‘They said very simply that they didn’t think it was in the best interest of the state to take on these fines,’ said White, who has asked Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office for an opinion on the matter.”
Rod Blagojevich continues to rock the system.
11. “Giles’ strategy on his current election-fine troubles might simply be to wait them out. Giles’ campaign fund was dissolved in February, and state law calls for election fines to be zeroed out should candidates not seek office for two years. That means Giles would have to sit out elections through February 2009 to avoid having to pay the state any money.”
So, actually, Giles would be an idiot to pay up. The system works.
12. “Can A Relationship Work When A Woman Earns More? Power, Money and the Opposite Sex. A Special Report with Anna Davlantes.”
Tonight on NBC5 “News.”
13. Breaking news: Voting against the mayor’s budget is allowed by law! In Open Letter.
14. “For more than two decades, Emmis Communications’ alternative rock WKQX-FM (101.1) has been marketing itself as ‘Q101,'” Robert Feder wrote last week (second item). “As of this week, it’s switched to ‘Q101.1.’ What gives?
“‘It just can’t hurt to be clear about your digital position,’ said Tisa LaSorte, brand manager of Q101.1.”
Yes, all these years scads of potential listeners have just missed finding the station on the dial.
Plus, technically the frequency is really 101.145837854093785.
15. The Beachwood’s very own Jim Coffman thinks Rocky Wirtz oughta bring back the glow puck for televised home games.
16. Coffman also has another fine installment of Bear Monday.
17. The Beachwood’s very own Dan Zapruder Phillips gets the Led out.
18. The view from Oakland of the Bears’ winning play.
The Beachwood Tip Line: Sexy like Rexy.
Posted on November 12, 2007