By Steve Rhodes
“The Minnesota Twins have been chasing the Chicago White Sox most of the season in a tight AL Central race,” AP reports.
“Well, it’s come down to the final week, and the young Twins are busy showing the White Sox how to thrive in the clutch.”
Debate Bait
“[I]f the debate is to go ahead as planned the candidates should abandon the foreign policy theme and debate the economy,” the Minnesota Daily editorial page argues.
“While the argument that it’s important the two presidential nominees should show voters what they would do through action, instead of telling them, there would be nothing to show at 9 p.m. on a Friday night . . .
“Furthermore, there’s a grave necessity now for voters to evaluate the candidates on the economy . . . A moderator like Jim Lehrer should help cut through vapid campaign rhetoric and educate voters on how both the flaws and advantages will play out in a dangerously unstable and intertwined global economy.”
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I actually saw Newt Gingrich float this idea first.
Cop Shop
“The Chicago Police department is down hundreds of officers despite pledges by City Hall to boost the force to combat growing violent crime, police union and department officials confirmed Wednesday,” the Tribune reports.
“Police Supt. Jody Weis, facing criticism over rising homicide rates, promised aldermen to expand the department by 75 officers as part of an effort to put more officers on the street. But City Hall has not approved department requests to hire enough officers to keep up with retirements and other attrition.
“Mayor Richard Daley has said the city must reduce personnel costs in the face of a dismal economy and a gaping budget hole but has not specified where the cuts could be made at this point.”
Okay, shouldn’t public safety be the last place to make cuts to solve a budget crisis?
I know times are tough, but couldn’t we all do with, say, a decrease in street-cleaning and garbage pick-up before putting fewer police officers on the street?
Chicago doesn’t have enough cops as it is. This seems to me to be last resort territory.
It Breeds!
“City won’t push to extend expiring Loop TIF district,” the Sun-Times reports.
“Gerald Roper, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, said he hopes to bring civic groups together for meetings with the Daley administration about what ‘son of TIF’ will look like.”
It will look like Father TIF, only grow to be even bigger and richer!
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How about a TIF district drawn around police headquarters so more cops can be hired?
Silent Signal
“Mayor Daley on Wednesday urged state Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) not to rain on the Cubs parade – by having 6,000 protesters ring Wrigley Field during next week’s opening playoff game to call attention to the school funding disparity between rich and poor districts,” the Sun-Times reports.
Suggests holding protest where nobody will notice.
“People are getting tired of it. Everybody knows the inequity. We’ve been talking about it for a long time.”
Isn’t that good enough for you, Meeks? What more do you want?
“This is nothing new. I don’t know why you’re finally writing about it now.”
I mean, up to now I can’t think of a single article the newspapers have published about school funding inequities! Why do you have such a bug up your ass all of a sudden?
“”Daley said he’s not worried that the Meeks protest would damage Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics by embarrassing the city on national television.
“‘People are [more] interested in baseball,’ he said.”
Wow. I’d like to hear him tell the parents of Chicago public schoolchildren that.
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Memo to CPD: Maybe officers should ring Wrigley Field in protest of shortchanged ranks.
No Tickets For You!
“Thousands of Cubs and White Sox playoff tickets were sent out Wednesday, and chances are (a) you didn’t get any, and (b) you’re wondering who the [bleep] did,” the Tribune reports.
“Both teams made fewer tickets available to the public this year than they did the previous times they were in the playoffs (last year for the Cubs, 2005 for the Sox), yet even as your odds of gaining access to the postseason are lower than ever, you can look online and find thousands of tickets for sale – albeit often for prices that seem more appropriate for an around-the-world luxury cruise than a baseball game.”
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Okay, I see a coalition forming . . . schoolkids, cops, baseball fans . . . all shut out of Wrigley Field. And suddenly, a reform party is born!
Pricking Palin
“Barack Obama and his team were caught off guard by John McCain’s suspension of his campaign and his call to delay the first presidential debate so he could return to Capitol Hill to work on the financial crisis – just as they were surprised when McCain tapped little-known Sarah Palin as his running mate,” Lynn Sweet reports.
I have a hard time believing the Obama campaign was unaware of the “little-known” governor of Alaska. As I’ve noted before, a study by Columbia Journalism Review found Palin was the seventh-most mentioned potential pick among pre-convention media speculation, and she had been the subject over the years of stories in such little-known publications as the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today.
Bears Report
Eric Emery is out of pocket this week and unlikely to file his Over/Under and Kool-Aid Report, so we’ll fill the void with a Bears preview from Super Die Hard.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: In all seasons.
Posted on September 25, 2008