Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Wednesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

CTU Strike Notebook 3 is in progress. Previously:
* CTU Strike Notebook 1: Everyone Is Bullshitting You.
* CTU Strike Notebook 2: Media Misframing.
Also, I’ll deal with the mayor’s proposed budget tomorrow.
Meanwhile . . .


Hemp Harvest
“Illinois farmers bet big on hemp this season, the first in which it was legal to grow the crop,” the Tribune reports.
“But growing hemp – a cousin of the marijuana plant known for its use in foods, fibers and the wildly popular CBD products – proved risky. Farmers had to learn on the fly about a crop that hadn’t been grown in Illinois soil for generations, and many with successful harvests are struggling to find a market for it.”
What went wrong? Farming is farming regardless of the crop.
“Mother Nature was the main antagonist this year. Historic rains and flooding drowned many young plants. Some farmers lost all their hemp.”
That sucks, and I’m not being sarcastic. It really does.
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“So far, about 520 farmers have reported to the state that they have hemp to harvest. The state doesn’t keep data on the size of the crop or how the plants fared.”
Seems like they should!
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“Nationally, it’s still too early in the harvest to know how well crops did and how CBD hemp prices will be affected, said Erica Stark, executive director of the National Hemp Association. CBD hemp prices vary, based on the amount of CBD, or cannabidiol, the plant contains, and it can be hard to predict at planting time what it will sell for, come harvest.

“There was a whole lot of talk about how much the market was going to flood this year because of so many new people and the expansion of acreage,” she said. “But I don’t think there were as many successful acres harvested as anticipated.”

Go read the rest, it’s really interesting and we meet a bunch of Illinois hemp farmers and hear their stories.
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While We’re On The Hemp Beat . . .
* “Some Indiana farmers have started harvesting their first legal crop of hemp without knowing for certain whether it will prove to be lucrative,” AP reports.
Sounds familiar!
* “Dale Weed jumped at the opportunity to grow industrial hemp on his upstate New York farm, but he didn’t think the demand for his crop would be so high among thieves,” WHAM-TV reports, via ABC7 Chicago for some reason.
(Oh, look, the cast of The Facts of Life is reportedly reuniting for a holiday special! Okay, you got me, ABC7 website.)
Anyway . . .
“Weed believes people are stealing his hemp plants because they think they’re marijuana, which looks and smells the same.”
* Hemp Industry Daily: Indiana Hemp Processor Expanding Operations To Meet Demand.
So the market is still shaking out, which only makes sense since it is in its infancy.
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Quantum Leap
“Top experts in quantum technology from around the globe will gather at the University of Chicago on [Friday] to discuss the future of quantum information science and strategies to build a quantum workforce,” the Chicago Citizen notes.
I don’t know what a quantum workforce is, but it probably requires employees to be in two places at once.
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(Don’t we already have those? They’re called Amazon warehouse workers. Ha ha ha, sorry.)
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Localizing Ukrainegate!
“When two business associates of Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, were arrested this month on charges that they funneled foreign money into U.S. elections, federal prosecutors working on a different case in Chicago took note,” the Washington Post reports.
“The investigators had previously come across the two men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, as they pursued a long-standing case against a Ukrainian gas tycoon accused of bribery, according to two people familiar with the matter. They, like others interviewed regarding the case, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing litigation.
“The Chicago prosecutors reached out to their counterparts in New York, where the foreign money charges had been brought, to offer assistance, the people said.
“Parnas had been working as an interpreter for the lawyers of the tycoon, Dmytro Firtash, since late July. Chicago prosecutors suspect there might be a broader relationship among Firtash, Parnas and Fruman, the people familiar with the matter said.”
Indeed.
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You’ll have to click through for the rest of it, but I’ll add this here:
“Firtash was charged in Chicago in 2013, accused of bribing Indian officials related to mining interests in that country. He was arrested in Austria the following year at the request of American officials, but released on $172 million bond and has been living in Vienna ever since while he has fought extradition.”
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New on the Beachwood today . . .
How Wisconsin (And Illinois) Cracked The Vaping Crisis
“It’s a tale of teamwork, communication and long-serving public health officials tapping into their networks in an era of limited public health funding, diminished public health infrastructure and high turnover.”
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How Trump Turned The VA Over To A Comic Titan
To the detriment of veterans everywhere.
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Take Back Shaq
“Rather than attend the police chiefs convention in Chicago, where Shaq will hand out tens of thousands of dollars of Amazon Ring surveillance hardware to police officers from around the country, we’d like to offer the basketball legend a chance to talk to privacy experts about the damage these devices can do.”
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ChicagoReddit

Keep Odd Obsession Movies Alive! from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Coach “C”lifford “A”yers “3”rd (@coachca3) on


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ChicagoTube
“Friends of the Chicago River is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2019. Sparked by a 1979 magazine cover story lamenting the Chicago River as ‘friendless,’ the non-profit organization is involved in policy making, on-the-ground projects such as land restoration and animal habitat creation, and education. All that and more in this video produced with Daily Planet Productions of Chicago for the 2019 Thiess International Riverprize.”

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BeachBook
The Most Bullshit Health And Wellness Fads Of The Decade.

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TweetWood
A sampling of the delight and disgust you can find @BeachwoodReport.


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The Beachwood Ha-Ha Line: Clinton-Dix, really?

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Posted on October 23, 2019