By Steve Rhodes
1. Wow, Tribune Company is really in trouble.
2. Not a good day for Mara Georges, who as corporation counsel is the city’s top lawyer. Georges is also a Mayor Daley loyalist who has been on the stand for a couple days in the ongoing City Hall job-rigging corruption trial. On Wednesday, defense lawyer Thomas Anthony Durkin questioned her about the city’s hiring of Andy Ryan, a 19-year-old son of a union official, as a building inspector.
“During cross-examination on Wednesday, Georges did not directly respond when Durkin asked whether she knew if Intergovernmental Affairs played a role in Ryan’s hiring,” the Tribune ‘s account reports.
“‘It would depend on what you mean by ‘played a role,’ she said.”
Georges has frustrated reporters for years with this kind of slipperiness in service of her see-no-evil routine.
Now it’s on display in a federal courtroom.
“Also Wednesday,” the Sun-Times reported, “Georges finished testimony but revised a critical element under defense questioning.
“On Tuesday, Georges said she was unaware of allegations of irregularities in city hiring until the FBI raided IGA offices last year.
“But she grudgingly acknowledged she was aware of possible irregularities in the 2004 hiring of [Ryan].
“‘Perhaps I was aware there was an allegation, yes,’ she said.”
3. The Schaumburg Space Needle.
4. “Ever had the hinged top of a ketchup bottle snap off in your hand? The inappropriate use of polymers results in early failure, which can be frustrating to manufacturers and consumers alike.”
Avoiding the Stigma of Cheap and Broken Products
Presented By:
Crispin Hales PhD, CEng.
Hales & Gooch Ltd.
Mtrl/Wrkshp/Chcg
Materialization
June 22-23
Institute of Design – IIT
5. The latest installment in our “Is Our Mayor A Child?” series:
“If the suburban area can have them, why can’t the city have ’em? That’s the thing I don’t understand . . . why is it OK in the suburban area, OK in Indiana, OK in Michigan, OK all in Cook County, all in Lake County, Will County? But, when it comes to Chicago, it is very controversial.”
And just what has the mayor so mystified about the ways of the world? Wal-Mart.
“Daley also said he is puzzled by the unions’ opposition,” the Sun-Times reports. “The unions build these [stores] . . . Why would they build ’em if they were so bad?”
Richard M. Daley, Smartest Boy on Earth.
6. Or is he? The law firm of Daley’s brother Michael represented Wal-Mart on its successful West Side zoning change.
7. The latest installment in our “Is Our Mayor A Child? Series:
“John Stroger is president of the County Board today whether you like it or not.”
8. Ellie says that when sex is a problem, it’s usually a symptom of what really needs to be talked about.
9. The name change of Bronco Billy Park to Broncho Billy Park qualifies as news at the Sun-Times.
10. The Sun-Times once again vainly trying to compete with the Tribune.
11. This believer’s selling all his Left Behind books on Craigslist. Does he know something we don’t?
Left Behind Series
Reply to: sale-171452954@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-06-14, 10:59AM CDT
I have the following Left Behind Series books for sale:
Paperback
Tribulation Force – $3
Soul Harvest – $3
Soul Harvest – $3
Left Behind – $3
The Indwelling – $3
Left Behind – $3
Left Behind – $3
Left Behind – $3
Hardcover
Tribulation Force – $4
Assassins – $4
Apollyon – $4
Nicolae – $4
Glorious Appearing – $4
Soul Harvest – $4
All of the books are in very good condition.
Serious replies only. Pick up in Des Plaines.
– Tim Willette
12. If you guys don’t donate more money to The Beachwood Reporter, I may have to take this job with The Jerry Springer Show. (Spotted by Dan Dorfman)
13. My landlord has a letter-to-the-editor in today’s Sun-Times and it’s not about me or my loud music. Its the second letter, following this one. Both are about important under-reported stories.
14. I still wanna drive the Zamboni. Yes, I do.
15. The former chief education officer of the Chicago Public Schools, Cozette Buckney, is in hot water in Philadelphia, where she has been working for former Chicago schools chief Paul Vallas, while maintaining her home here.
16. The executive editor of Kankakee’s Daily Journal blogs.
Found via this Wisch List post about the Daily Journal accidentally publishing this joke caption: “Some random clownbag pitcher with stupid-looking hair prepares to hurl meat during a game between some team I can’t identify and another team called the ‘Cats. I also have no idea when this game was played.”
17. You never ask me what’s on the flip side.
18. The sharks are circling in L.A.
19. This is our money they’re talking about.
20. The Sun-Times front-page headline, “Ex-Cub Rick Monday Still Fighting For Flag,” pre-supposes that outlawing flag burning is a more patriotic act than defending the values the flag stands for.
21. The Paper.
Posted on June 15, 2006