By The Weekend Desk B Team
Natasha Julius is getting some well-deserved rest today after being thoroughly exhausted by Chicago’s professional baseball teams. Here are the stories the Weekend Desk is watching.
New White Sox Drinking Game Announced
Take a gulp every time someone says the Minnesota Twins are “in their heads.”
See also: Nick Blackburn Got Blown Up, The Twins Win Anyway Because It’s The White Sox
Ed Burke Less Secure – Or Is He?
“Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy Friday announced plans to reduce or eliminate city-funded security for city officials, including for powerful Ald. Ed Burke,” the Sun-Times reports.
“After completing a review, it has been determined that the officials who have security paid for by the city require less or no protection,” McCarthy said in a written statement released Friday afternoon. “Most of the police officers will go back on the street at a savings of $650,000 to the taxpayers.”
“The security details for Burke and City Treasurer Stephanie Neely will both be ‘reduced,’ according to the McCarthy’s office, but the statement did not say by how much.
“‘We can’t discuss that – it’s a security issue,’ a spokeswoman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.”
Sometimes the punch lines write themselves.
Quinn Spin
“In Illinois, we always believed in working together as a team and not kicking somebody in the shins,” Patsy Quinn said when his Wisconsin counterpart, um, kicked public employees in the shins.
Now Quinn is doing the kicking.
See also: AFSCME Sues To Enforce State Employee Raises
Arby’s Now Wendy’s
“Wendy’s/Arby’s Group on Tuesday said it completed the sale of Arby’s Restaurant Group to Atlanta-based private equity firm Roark Capital Group, and dropped the roast beef sandwich chain from its name,” USA Today reports.
Separately, Ripley’s notes that there are still about 3,600 Arby’s restaurants on the planet.
Mission Almost Accomplished
“Defense secretary Leon E. Panetta, who arrived in Kabul on Saturday, said the United States was ‘within reach of strategically defeating al-Qaeda’ and that the American focus had narrowed to capturing or killing 10 to 20 crucial leaders of the terrorist group in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen,” the New York Times reports.
And by “capturing” he means “killing.”
Weekend Getaway
What’s really occupying Natasha’s time this weekend.
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The Weekend Desk Tip Line: Par for the course.
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The CAN TV Weekend Report
Community Forum: Occupation of La Casita
Community Forum is on location at Whittier Elementary School in Pilsen to hear from the Whittier Parents Committee about the ongoing struggle with CPS to preserve and renovate the community field house.
Saturday, July 9 at 7:30 p.m. on CAN TV21
30 min
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The Poetry Center of Chicago: Tony Fitzpatrick and Marc Smith
The Poetry Center of Chicago’s 38th Annual reading series features poet Tom Fitzpatrick alongside Marc Smith, the local founder of the slam poetry movement.
Saturday, July 9 at 10:30 p.m. on CAN TV21
51 min
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We’re Still Here: Changing Definitions of Identity in Chicago
The Chicago Cultural Alliance hosts a conversation on how the cultural identities of Chicago’s ethnic communities form and change from one generation to the next.
Sunday, July 10 at 9:00 a.m. on CAN TV21
1 hr 3 min
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Zephyr Dance: Unmasking
Zephyr Dance Company presents Unmaking, a preview of movement experiments and dance sketches by artistic director Michelle Kranicke.
Sunday, July 10 at 12:30 p.m. on CAN TV21
50 min
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NIU Fine Arts Center: New Dialogue of Korean American Artists
Visiting curator Sun H. Choi discusses the New Dialogue exhibit and how it connects the diverse histories and artistic styles of the participating artists.
Sunday, July 10 at 6 p.m. on CAN TV19
1 hr
Posted on July 9, 2011