By Katie Buitrago
The Tribune has introduced its new beta platform for local blogs. Here at the Beachwood’s Chicago Blog Review Desk, we’ll be taking a look at some of the new – and familiar – faces you can find there.
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Blog: Arresting Tales
Description: Stories from Joe the Cop
Substance: Joe the Cop, a 20-year veteran of a suburban police department, posts reflections on criminal activity, analyses of cop-related news, first-person accounts of policing and its attendant madness, helpful hints, and answers to civilian questions (hopefully this last feature will happen more often). I admit: before I stumbled across this blog, I went in with some assumptions. “Oh, a cop blog,” I thought. “Another furious blog with a defensive cop ranting about ‘cop haters’ every time someone protests police brutality or a police DUI.” Not so, my friends, and I am duly chastened. Joe the Cop is both thoughtful and thought-provoking and by no means supports police no matter what godawful thing they do. He, combined with Whet Moser, changed my mind a bit about the sentencing of Anthony Abbate.

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Posted on June 26, 2009

By Steve Rhodes

Chicago famously taught the late Tribune editorial writer Leanita McClain, the first African American to serve in that function at the paper, to hate white people, as she told the nation in the pages of the Washington Post in 1983.
McClain, who had suffered from depression through much of her life, committed suicide a year later.
The 25th anniversary of her death just passed us on May 30th. Here are a few links and comments that appeared around town, followed by excerpts from Gary Rivlin’s indispensable Fire On The Prairie about McClain’s frustrations inside (and out of) the Trib newsroom.
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– “Twenty five years ago today, I discovered that Leanita McClain, my friend and colleague, was dead,” writes former Trib colleague Monroe Anderson. “It was a suicide that came as no surprise to me. For more hours than I care to remember, I sat in her office at the Chicago Tribune joking, cajoling and questioning her repeated proclamation that she was going to kill herself.
“During these discussions, I’d asked why. ‘There are black women who’d give their right arm to be where you are,’ I’d argue.
“‘But, I’m not happy,’ she’d counter.”

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Posted on June 18, 2009

By Katie Buitrago
The Tribune has introduced its new beta platform for local blogs. Here at the Beachwood’s Chicago Blog Review Desk, we’ll be taking a look at some of the new – and familiar – faces you can find there.
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Blog: Parking Ticket Geek
Description: Information, advice, and fury over matters driving-related.
Substance: You may know the Parking Ticket Geek from his other home at The Expired Meter. Unlike CTA Tattler, which made the switch completely to ChicagoNow, The Expired Meter is still being updated with the same content as the new blog, for some reason. The Parking Ticket Geek follows parking-related news with incisive analysis, gives a weekly advice column on how to beat bogus parking tickets, and advises drivers on parts of town to avoid when big events are going on. It’s a great mix of public service announcement and scathing attacks on Chicago’s parking policies. The Geek points out hypocrisy and even does original reporting to dig up fascinating info that mainstream reporters are missing. The downfall of many a blog is that they’re just another aggregator, but the Parking Ticket Geek actually brings new content to the table. *golf clap*

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Posted on June 5, 2009