By Steve Rhodes

“Something was wrong with the little girl,” NPR Illinois reports.

That was clear by the time she was 10 years old. She raged often and was sometimes sullen. By the time she was 13, she was missing school because her anxiety was so severe. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is marked by periods of depression and irritability interrupted by extreme highs.
“We used to refer to her as Jekyll and Hyde before actually we had any idea of anything,” said the girl’s mother, who we are calling Jane because she has asked that we not use her name or her daughter’s.
And when the girl was 14, her parents split up and the family’s financial situation meant they were reliant on Medicaid for insurance. For Jane, that meant her daughter was on a waiting list for a year.

For the zillionth time: We ration health care in this country – to those who can afford it. And the more you can afford, the better care you get. It’s that simple. And that immoral.

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Posted on May 30, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

Lori Lightfoot had a good day today.
Not so much Alds. Ed Burke, Patrick Daley Thompson and Ray Lopez, nor Robert Mueller and Donald Trump.
Let’s take a look.

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Posted on May 29, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

“At least 37 people were shot, five fatally, throughout Chicago on Memorial Day weekend as severe storms kept people indoors for the holiday and 1,200 officers were added to patrol the streets,” the Tribune reports.

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Posted on May 28, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

For completists, there was no column on Thursday.
“As Boeing takes steps to get its embattled 737 MAX aircraft up and flying again, investigations and lawsuits continue to pile up in the aftermath of October’s Lion Air Flight 610 crash and March’s Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 accident, taking a total of 346 lives. The crisis has caused frustrated stakeholders and corporate governance experts to question both the makeup of the board, and how they’re responding – placing a collection of people who are used to operating in inner sanctums under intense scrutiny and pressure,” Fortune writes.
“The main question: Is the board at least partially to blame?”
Spoiler Alert: Yes. Duh.
But the answer is actually more interesting – in a bad way – than that.

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Posted on May 23, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

1. Make It A Michelada.
I had one last night (at Mi Tocaya Antojeria) and wondered where it had been my whole life. As the friend I was dining with put it, it’s like a Bloody Mary only with beer (and spicier). We went with the Modelo, which I would recommend.

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Posted on May 22, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

Just coined a term for all the bullshit Rahm legacy building the media has been doing: Rahmaganda.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) May 20, 2019

There’s never an egg-timer around when you need one.

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Posted on May 21, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

Lori Lightfoot was sworn-in as mayor of Chicago today. Beachwood Labs sent over this special, on-scene report of the inauguration festivities:
* Ceremonial removal of a finger.
* The traditional transfer of fucks to give.
* The traditional transfer of the nuclear football containing the TIF codes.
* The traditional aldermanic perp walk.

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Posted on May 20, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

Let’s take a look around the landscape.
1. Today’s Worst Person In Chicago Is Opening A New Restaurant Tonight With The City’s Second-Most Expensive Tasting Menu, And That’s Not Even Why He’s So Awful.

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Posted on May 16, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

“A new United Nations report projecting the extinction of one-eighth of all animal and plant species should rattle the cages of any remaining skeptics regarding climate change and the central role humans have played in Earth’s accelerating destruction,” Kathleen Parker writes for the Washington Post.
“The report is by far the most depressing and frightening bit of news among an exhausting list of dire predictions and seemingly incessant fire alarms, including threatened increases to U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, market plunges, North Korea’s missile tests and President Trump’s affronts to the Constitution. Just when you thought you couldn’t take any more.
“Finding out that 1 million species face extinction without radical corrective changes in human behavior is akin to finding out you have a fatal disease. One day you have a thousand problems; the next, you have just one. Nothing in today’s headlines compares to the catastrophic potential posed by climate change and the decimating effects of careless consumerism around the globe.”
She’s right, of course. But I will soldier on – and I don’t mean that in a flip way. I mean that in a “I gave up on humanity a long time ago and there’s nothing left to do but wait for the utter catastrophes that will cause untold suffering by tracking our demise on all fronts for the aliens to discover and learn from one day” kind of way.

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Posted on May 15, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

Start thread here.

Among other countervailing facts, Lori Lightfoot says she’s been shown by the outgoing administration that the city’s pension liabilities are worse than the public has been told, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/V7LaEgazYs

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) May 14, 2019

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Posted on May 14, 2019