Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Thursday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“There is a 19-year-old black man in Illinois who has no idea of the role he is playing in this election,” the New York Times reports. “He is sure he is going to vote for Donald J. Trump.

And he has been held up as proof by conservatives – including outlets like Breitbart News and The New York Post – that Mr. Trump is excelling among black voters. He has even played a modest role in shifting entire polling aggregates, like the Real Clear Politics average, toward Mr. Trump.
How? He’s a panelist on the U.S.C. Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Daybreak poll, which has emerged as the biggest polling outlier of the presidential campaign. Despite falling behind by double digits in some national surveys, Mr. Trump has generally led in the U.S.C./LAT poll. He held the lead for a full month until Wednesday, when Hillary Clinton took a nominal lead.
Our Trump-supporting friend in Illinois is a surprisingly big part of the reason. In some polls, he’s weighted as much as 30 times more than the average respondent, and as much as 300 times more than the least-weighted respondent.
Alone, he has been enough to put Mr. Trump in double digits of support among black voters. He can improve Mr. Trump’s margin by 1 point in the survey, even though he is one of around 3,000 panelists.

Assignment Desk, activate! Find that dude.
Also, go read the rest and ponder, again, the outsized, aggravating and reckless use of polls in our elections.
Naperboo
“Naperville once seemed a rich opportunity for homebuilders eager to sell a four-bedroom, quarter-acre slice of the American Dream for $700,000 and up,” veteran real estate reporter Dennis Rodkin writes for Crain’s in the beautifully designed, deeply reported “A Modern Ghost Town.”
“Then, in 2006, the bottom fell out, and Ashwood Park – only one-third built – ground to a near-halt. Ten years after the crash, it’s still a monument to the limits of suburban sprawl.”
Recommended.
Geofeedyatothecops
“A Chicago-based tech company has been helping law enforcement agencies target protesters, according to a new investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union of California,” WBEZ reports.
*
Geofeedia. They’re hiring!
*
“Leadership.”
*
“Twitter has cut off Chicago-based Geofeedia’s access to its data, in the wake of a report from the American Civil Liberties Union that law enforcement has been monitoring activists and protesters using social media data collected by the startup,” the Tribune reports.

Geofeedia CEO Phil Harris said in an emailed statement that the company is committed to the principles of personal privacy and has clear policies in place to “prevent the inappropriate use of our software.
“That said, we understand, given the ever-changing nature of digital technology, that we must continue to work to build on these critical protections of civil rights,” the statement said. “Geofeedia will continue to engage with key civil liberty stakeholders, including the ACLU, and the law enforcement community to make sure that we do everything in our power to support the security of the American people and the protection of personal freedoms.”

That sounds good, but Geofeedia reportedly marketed its product to law enforcement agencies nationwide “to target activists of color.” My God.
*
Facebook and Instagram have also cut off Geofeedia.
*
Around the country . . .
“Its products allow law enforcement to pinpoint social media users to their exact location, pull private information from personal pages, monitor emojis and even run facial recognition on protesters,” the New York Daily News reports.
“Police in Baltimore and around the nation have come under fire recently for using tech tools for surveillance, and the issue came up again this week after the American Civil Liberties Union highlighted the Police Department’s use of an aggregator called Geofeedia,” WBAL-TV reports.
“Social media monitor used in St. Louis under scrutiny for ties to police surveillance,” the St. Louis Business Journal reports.
“The e-mail went on to tout the platform’s Geofeed Streamer, which representatives called ‘unique’ and useful for tracking protests like the ones ‘we covered [in] Ferguson/Mike Brown nationally with great success,'” the Atlanta Black Star reports.
–
How Fidelity’s Owners Screw Investors
Firm’s family gets first crack at investment opportunities.
–
The Blue & Orange Kool-Aid Report: Cap And Trade
“Ah, doin’ it with the ex. Feels icky at first, but they know what you like.”
–
Chicago Casting Call: Alec Baldwin’s Match Game!
“The dictionary calls a group of geese a gaggle. The tabloids call a group of Baldwin brothers a ______.”
–
BeachBook
The Landlord’s Guide To Gentrifying NYC.

*
Did Donald Trump Cheat On His Social Security And Medicare Taxes? (Hint: Almost Certainly).

*
Corn Mazes Help Keep Family Farms Afloat.

–
TweetWood


–
The Beachwood Tronc Line: Subterranean, homesick and blue.

Permalink

Posted on October 13, 2016