Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“A person familiar with the police investigation of Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane tells The Associated Press that it involves something that happened between the player and a woman in her 20s.
“The person spoke on condition of anonymity Monday because authorities have not revealed any details of the investigation being conducted by Hamburg police.”
How is this even news.
Why is the source leaking this particular factoid.
The source wouldn’t say anything more substantive?
#Journalism.


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The Score’s Dan Bernstein on Monday again referenced how well the Blackhawks have heretofore managed to sell through the media the image of a clean, corruption- and sleaze-free organization to the public despite an underlying secret reality.
“Anyone who is connected has heard all kinds of stuff,” he said.
Bernstein has dropped hints like this – including talk of ice girls and Patrick Sharp – for the last year, and I wish he would put up or shut up. Tell us what the fuck has been going on – if it’s newsworthy – or stop dropping self-serving teases that seem designed only to remind us that you are “connected.”
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Meanwhile: Which Is The Bigger Joke, Sports Mockery Or DNAinfo Chicago?
Gov. Raunervich
“Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday took a stern position against any members of his administration using personal e-mail to conduct government business,” the Sun-Times reports.

“We have a very firm policy. We say: no personal e-mail if you’re serving in the administration,” Rauner said. “Don’t use personal e-mail for any government business whatsoever.”

“Yet Rauner’s hand-picked, $250,000-a-year education secretary Beth Purvis has used private e-mail to communicate with outside consultants about education policy in Illinois – and the governor’s administration for months refused to make the exchanges public.
“In fact, the governor’s office initially denied a May Freedom of Information request by the Chicago Sun-Times. When the paper appealed, Rauner’s office then advocated extensively in a seven-page argument to the Illinois Attorney General’s office against the release of such e-mails. Attorneys further argued that employees’ private e-mails are not subject to freedom of information laws.”
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Look, you should click through and read the whole maddening article. But also remember what I’ve said repeatedly in this space: I’ve never seen a gubernatorial campaign as wholly disingenuous as the campaign Bruce Rauner ran. He lied with impunity, flipped and flopped more than a fish in a boat, and delivered daily hypocrises without a care – and the media by-and-large let him. And now he’s governing just as he campaigned.
CPS’s Special Budget
“CPS released its 2015-2016 budget, and began issuing nearly 1,500 pink slips to teachers, support staff and other employees in the district,” Catalyst reports.
“In addition, teachers say the district has quietly shut down the Montefiore Specialty School despite a five-year moratorium on school closings.”
WTF?

Last week CPS quietly closed Montefiore Speciality School on the Near West Side, teachers and union officials say. Montefiore serves male students with severe to profound emotional disorders.
CPS did not respond to questions Monday about whether it had shuttered Montefiore or any other specialty school.
District officials had previously assured that there would be no additional school closures for five years after the historic school closures of 2013.
Teachers learned of the closure last Thursday in phone conversation with the school’s assistant principal. Staff had been anxious about the possibility of a closure since last year, when Montefiore got into trouble for allowing VICE Media to film an eight-part series called Last Chance High at the school, potentially violating students’ privacy rights.
In addition, the number of students at the school has been falling for years, from 52 in the 2009-2010 school year to 26 last fall. CPS made $1.4 million in capital improvements to the building in 2013.
“They stopped allowing other schools to send kids there and it’s something they’ve been doing for a really long time,” said Kristine Mayle, CTU financial secretary and a former special education teacher. “There are teachers out in the district that have been trying to send students out to the school and have been blocked.”

Adding context:


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Back to Catalyst:
“But as had been announced earlier this summer, schools that serve large populations of students with special needs or physical disabilities are among the schools seeing the biggest reduction in funding – and positions.”
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I know this might sound crazy, but it seems to me that the most vulnerable should be protected first when it comes to budget cuts . . . so start whacking away at Payton Prep first and save the Montefiores of the world for last. But what do I know.
College Kops
“During a press conference Wednesday announcing the indictment of a University of Cincinnati police officer for murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man, the prosecuting attorney questioned whether colleges should employ police officers at all,” the Chicago Reporter reports.

“I don’t think a university should be in the policing business,” Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters said flatly, after announcing the indictment.

“Yet nationwide, more than two-thirds of colleges and universities with 2,500 or more students employ sworn, armed police officers, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report. More than 90 percent of public universities and nearly 40 percent of private universities have sworn police officers who have full arrest powers; most employ sworn officers who also are armed.
“In the Chicago area, 13 of the 23 colleges and universities with 2,500 or more students have sworn police officers, according to a Reporter analysis of the BJS survey data. The data are a little old – the survey covers the 2011-2012 academic year – but they provide the most comprehensive and current look at the activities of campus police.”
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The (Awesome) Pentecostals Of Chicago
A helluva choir, straight outta Alsip.
The Pentecostal Dude’s Late-Night Talk Show
Dan Willis is Just Sayin’.
Chicago Navy Commander’s Continuing Promise
Giving it up Sean McKay.
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BeachBook
* Wow, The Geek Bar Sucks.
* NYT: Jets Hope Brandon Marshall’s Catches Fix A Snag.
* 1973 WMAQ-TV Editorial: Beef About It.
The Butchers’ Union should not dictate deli times!
* Serbfest Chicago 2015.
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TweetWood
A sampling.


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The Beachwood Tip Line: Trumpolicious.

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Posted on August 11, 2015