Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Since June 1, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos’ net worth has grown over $5B and now totals $141.9B, according to the Forbes World’s Billionaires list.
To put it another way, Jeff Bezos’s net worth in the last 18 days has grown by more than double the amount Chicago is offering in tax breaks to land Amazon’s “second headquarters.”
In fact, Bezos is making so much money that the only way he can figure out how to spend it is to launch it into space.


Maybe we’ve got the incentives all wrong. We need to come up with a list of of really expensive projects Bezos can spend his money on, not ways to help him save money. He’s got so much money in the bank it’s stressing him out!
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Seemingly related: Chicago’s “incentive package” for Amazon is more than twice as much as Elon Musk says he’ll need to spend to build his high-speed express doohickey to O’Hare.
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Note: Yes, I get that Chicago’s offer to Amazon includes state tax breaks as well. Just accept the shorthand so I don’t have to keep writing “Chicago and Illinois.”
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Let It Ride
“After the U.S. Supreme Court tossed a federal ban on sports betting last month, a Chicago-based casino operator is touting favorable odds of cashing in,” Crain’s reported earlier this month.
“Rush Street Gaming, the Neil Bluhm co-owned operator of the Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, points to New Jersey, where it has penetrated online gambling faster than expected
“It credits a customized tech platform – the only U.S.-based gaming firm to build its own, giving it a ‘huge advantage’ over competitors licensing technology from vendors, it says.
“‘We have a sportsbook that’s ready to launch,’ says Greg Carlin, CEO of Rush Street. Its interactive unit is outgrowing space at 900 N. Michigan Ave. and is looking for larger quarters in the Loop.”
We, for one, would like to welcome our new sportsbook overlords.
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Foxconn Job
“The Gurnee village board joined the county by raising the alarm that the proposed $10 billion Foxconn manufacturing plant in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, will significantly harm flooding in the village,” the Daily Herald reports.
“The village board unanimously passed a resolution urging Wisconsin to enforce environmental regulations on the project.”
Get in line.
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“Wisconsin officials lured Foxconn – the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of smartphones, computers and other technology products – to their state with a $3 billion incentive package last year.”
Hey, you could build three Hyperloops to O’Hare with that kind of money! Or, if you’re Jeff Bezos, you could just sit around for 18 days and watch it magically appear.
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“One of the terms of that deal was that it waived some environmental requirements.
“Gurnee Mayor Kristina Kovarik said she is concerned that they haven’t seen any sort of stormwater management plan for the project, which is set to break ground later this month.
“Kovarik said the project will turn hundreds or thousands of acres of farmland into impermeable surface that if not properly managed could increase the amount of rain that runs down the Des Plaines River.”
Y’all shouldn’t have moved there knowing there could one day be a Foxconn nearby! Just like people who live near the airport (which you’ll soon be able to get to very, very quickly from the Loop) and complain about the noise . . .
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Forced Family Separation: How You Can Help
A starter list from the Texas Tribune.
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New on the Beachwood today . . .
The Acoustic Cool Breeze Pot Head Test
Illinois’ Men of a Certain Age crew blows their mind in Los Angeles’s new world of legal recreational marijuana.
kush.jpg
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ChicagoGram


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ChicagoTube
Lake Street Funk.

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TweetWood
A sampling.


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The Beachwood Tronc Line: Time is short.

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Posted on June 19, 2018