By Steve Rhodes
You know, I still don’t have a firm grip on the Elvira Arellano situation. My instinct is that the authorities should let her go to Washington, D.C., to make her case, and then arrest her upon her return.
I’m pro-immigrant. I’m pro-illegal immigrant too. I tend toward the open borders end of things. But I’m also disgusted with the way American companies depend upon and exploit cheap illegal labor to the detriment of all workers.
Arellano’s particular case is complicated. Maybe an arrest after going to Washington would best put her in a position to more effectively pursue reform while accepting the current letter of the law the way figures of civil disobedience must.
Oscar the Clown
It was all just an act, Joey Lombardo says.
Golden Nugget
Lombardo denied Wednesday taking part in the 1974 murder of Daniel Seifert, his partner in a Bensenville fiberglass-molding company.
“[Lombardo said he] had an alibi: At the time of the murder of his good friend Danny Seifert, he was in the Chicago Police Shakespeare District station, filling out a report that his wallet had been stolen,” John Kass writes.
“What neither prosecutors nor Lombardo’s defense mentioned is that the commander of the Shakespeare District was the then-heroic cop William Hanhardt, who later and quite magically became chief of detectives, with so much clout he could make or break every cop on the police force.
“Where is Hanhardt these days? He’s in federal prison, serving a 12-year sentence for running an Outfit-sponsored jewelry heist ring with one of Lombardo’s co-defendants, Paul ‘The Indian” Schiro, who was also convicted of the jewelry robberies. When Lombardo’s Shakespeare District alibi came up, the Indian stared a hole in the floor.”
Special Forces
“The U.S. attorney’s office has joined the ongoing criminal probe of an elite squad of the Chicago Police Department, working with Cook County prosecutors to investigate why police officials did not stop rogue officers who allegedly robbed and kidnapped civilians over at least four years,” the Tribune reports.
Non-elite cops just beat the shit out of civilians in bars.
The New Math
“Count Of 24 Homeless Was Based On Just 12-Block Area.”
So instead of there being just 24 homeless people in all of downtown Chicago, there are actually two per block?
Silly String
“The headline [in the Sun-Times’s original story] left the impression that we believe there’s only 24 homeless people in all of downtown,” Acting Housing Commissioner Ellen Sahli told the paper. “That’s not what we believe. That’s not our contention. That’s just silly.”
You know, at this point I don’t know whether to credit silly contentions to the city or the Sun-Times.
Chicago Syndrome
“Beijing Launches ‘False News’ Crackdown.”
A) Will no longer accept Chicago City Hall press releases.
B) Officials will cut Sneed’s column out of all newspapers before distributing to citizens.
C) The Onion becomes only allowable American news source.
Judge Fudge
“U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan ruled Timothy Degnan, a former top Daley aide, and Degnan business associate Thomas DiPiazza do not belong as defendants [in a civil lawsuit against the city] because they are not public officials and do not have the power to make governmental decisions,” the Tribune reports.
Der-Yeghiayan must be new to town.
Toll Call
“The Illinois tollway hasn’t sent out violation notices for almost a year, allowing thousands of scofflaws to drive Chicago-area toll roads each day without paying missed tolls or a $20 fine per offense,” the Tribune reports.
Officials say they will recoup the lost money when they start sending out notices this month to catch up. But “the toll authority never will be able to recover the bank interest lost from not collecting fines as violations occurred,” the Trib notes.
Joey Lombardo never would have let it get this far.
*
The tollway generally collects about $15 million a year in fines, so you do the math to figure out the lost interest.
Elvis
Rick Kaempfer’s Media Notebook has ABC News video reporting Elvis’s death 30 years ago today, as well as BBC video from his funeral and Geraldo Rivera interviewing folks who were with him on his last day.
Bear Down!
Football is back – and so is Over/Under. See how many wins Eric Emery sees for the Bears this year.
Democracy in Progress
“Rumsfeld Quit Before ’06 Election.”
“In his four-paragraph resignation letter, which emerged after multiple Freedom of Information requests by The Associated Press, Rumsfeld does not mention the war in Iraq.”
You know, in a real democracy we wouldn’t have to file Freedom of Information requests to know what our government is up to. We too easily accept that politicians spin, lie, and withhold from the public that which we are entitled to know because that’s just how “the game” is played. Democracy is not a game.
Marketing Miss
Memo to the Sun-Times: I’m pretty sure you’re not going to sell more papers off the newsstand by with front-page claims such as “The Liveliest Editorials In Town” and “Our Editorials Are Better Than Theirs.”
Especially when it’s not true.
It just makes you look silly and desperate.
The Beachwood Tip Line: Your very own sanctuary.
Posted on August 16, 2007