Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“For nearly a decade, Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts has lived in a 5,000-square-foot North Shore house nestled on a meticulously landscaped lot complete with a Japanese-style garden,” the Tribune reports.
“It’s a showcase Wilmette home a short walk from Lake Michigan. But it’s not the home that Ricketts, who also is finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, has been paying taxes on.
“Instead, records show, Ricketts pays property taxes based on the value of the much older and smaller house that he tore down to make way for the new one, providing him with a huge discount likely totaling tens of thousands of dollars over the years.”


Well, I’m sure that’s just a paperwork error. After all, with everything he’s got going on – from cheating his own company on camera to propping up a serial cheater – he can hardly be expected to stay on top of his property taxes. Let’s not make him out to be a criminal.
“State law required Ricketts to notify the assessor that he had built a new home in 2010, but a spokesman for the assessor’s office said there’s no record that Ricketts ever did.”
Oh.
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“Ricketts declined to be interviewed and did not answer a list of questions the Tribune submitted via e-mail. Spokesman Brian Baker issued a statement.

“When Mr. Ricketts purchased property in Wilmette more than 10 years ago, he filed all necessary paperwork to build a new home,” the statement reads. “Later, he retained a real estate attorney to assist with issues regarding his real estate taxes and assumed everyone involved had the correct information. If a mistake was made, he will work in good faith to fix it.”

In my book, if a news subject refuses to answer questions, you do not accept a statement from a spokesman – especially one making as much money as Brian Baker for his work with a dark money group whose raison d’etre is better stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
But I digress.
“The tax attorney, veteran Chicago lawyer James FortCamp of Seyfarth Shaw, did not return a message seeking comment or respond to a list of e-mailed questions.”
Link mine, because don’t we want to see what this bastard looks like?
(FortCamp’s central boast on his bio: “Mr. FortCamp obtained a $1 million tax refund on a substantial corporate complex, a $400,000 tax refund on a significant downtown office building, and successfully appealed the valuation for a Fortune 500 company’s corporate headquarters, resulting in an annual real estate tax savings of $690,000.” Good job, Jim!)
I’m also not fond of sending news subjects lists of questions. That’s generally frowned upon.
But again, I digress.
“Even as Ricketts and his wife – anti-tax and free market advocate Sylvie Légère – benefited from the property tax savings, Légère wrote to Wilmette school board officials lamenting the village’s high property tax burden and urged them to avoid another increase.”
Link mine, because I thought you should know that “Someone once told her that we judge a community by its ability to care for its most vulnerable members.”
Well, Todd is the most vulnerable member of the Ricketts family, so maybe that’s what that is about.
Also, Légère is “passionate about impact of public policy on human flourishing and freedom.”
At least her own family’s flourishing and freedom.
“Ricketts is a member of a billionaire family that secured an $8.5 million county historic renovation property tax break for its rehab of Wrigley Field. That project also is in line to receive more than $100 million in federal tax credits.”
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Click through for the rest of the nitty gritty.
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Hey, look: ToddMRicketts.com.
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Todd Ricketts vs. Todd Stroger. Discuss.
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To the peanut gallery:


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Finally . . .


Twitter polls only allow four choices, so I stuck to the children and left out Joe. But Joe, definitely, is the worst. It all starts with him.
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New on the Beachwood today . . .
‘If Grandma Is On the Table, No One Will Blink at the Price’ | A Former Drug Company Manager Explains Industry Price-Setting
Former Eli Lilly exec gives up the goods.
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Being Twista
The life and times of a Chicago rap pioneer.
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Frat Beer Backs Women’s Soccer
It’s a start.
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Chicago Jerk & Seafood Music Fest
The festival called, and they’re running out of you!
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Dear Women’s Soccer: Don’t Be Cricket
Keep yourself on pay-TV, no matter how much money you’re offered not to.
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The Ordeal Of The Jungle
The race-related rise and fall of the Chicago Federation of Labor.
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ChicagoReddit

Portillos:/ from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram


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ChicagoTube
John Sebastian at City Winery on Monday night.

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BeachBook
The Billionaire Co-Founder Of Home Depot Plans On Donating Up To 90% Of His $5.9 Billion Fortune, And Trump’s 2020 Campaign Will Be One Of The Beneficiaries.

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It’s The Cars, Not The Cows.

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Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts Would Like A White House Invitation To Decline.

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TweetWood
A sampling.


Graydon Carter is right when he says the allegations didn’t fit into the general thrust of the story, but the answer wasn’t to just ignore the allegations, it was to change the thrust of the story.
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Garth Brooks to open “Dive Bar Tour” at venue that isn’t a dive bar.


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The cover-up is right in front of us.


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The Beachwood McRibTipLine: Minimum gauge.

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Posted on July 9, 2019