By Steve Rhodes

Whoa. Does Mayor Richard M. Daley really think those who support the big-box ordinance are racists whose motivation is to screw black people out of shopping options?
“It was all right for the North and Southwest Sides to get big boxes before this,” Daley thundered on Tuesday in defense of his veto of the ordinance. “All the sudden, when we talk about economic development in the black community, there’s something wrong.”
The papers played it straight, as if this was a reasonable position. “Daley: Race Spurred Big-Box Effort,” the Sun-Times headline reads. “Not An Issue Until Stores Went To Black Areas?” the paper wondered in its subhead.
The headline on the Tribune‘s report: “Daley Sees Race In ‘Big Box’ Debate.”
This shouldn’t be left to pass. The mayor is accusing an awful lot of people of being racists – approximately 84 percent of the city’s registered voters – in an election year.

Read More

Posted on September 13, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

News reports continue to refer to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s characterization of allegations against him and his administration that political favors were exchanged for campaign contributions as “triple hearsay.”
Indeed, that’s exactly the line a Blagojevich spokesperson fed me last fall when I wrote this Chicago magazine story about disgraced Democratic domo Joe Cari:
“This whole thing is speculation based on what Joe Cari says he heard from Stuart Levine about whoever these officials and associates are, so it’s already third- and fourth-person by the time it’s reported in the plea agreement,” says Abby Ottenhoff. Blagojevich himself issued a flat-out denial in September, saying, “This is not how we operate.”
What I wrote next doesn’t seem to have registered, perhaps because it was lawyered – improperly in my view – to death.
“But Chicago has learned that Cari has told federal investigators that Stuart Levine was not his only source of information on the purported campaign fundraising scheme – that others in or close to the Blagojevich administration also spoke of using state boards to raise money. Cari himself is said to have claimed that he was offered a board seat in exchange for campaign contributions.”
All I can say is that the combination of Stuart Levine’s cooperation and what Cari has told federal investigators does not add up to a very good situation for Blagojevich.

Read More

Posted on September 12, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

1. 1,825 days later.
2. If beef stew and squealing tires in the rain is all that is left in the quiver of George Ryan apologists like Rob Warden, the former pharmacist from Kankakee ought to start training for the prison dispensary.
3. “In one of the counts [federal judge Rebecca] Pallmeyer dismissed, Ryan had been accused of a supposed role in a fraud committed by Arthur ‘Ron’ Swanson, who collected a $50,000 fee in 2001 from a Downstate town to lobby for locating a prison there. In fact, the decision to locate the prison there had already been made – and Swanson knew it. At Ryan’s trial, however, the government produced not a shred of evidence that Ryan knew of Swanson’s fraud,” Warden writes in his beef stew piece.
Warden leaves out the not inconsequential fact that Ryan was the one who told Swanson the confidential information about which town had been chosen for the prison.
Warden cites two counts that Pallmeyer threw out – despite the jury’s decision to convict on them – as proof that the jury failed to do its job honestly. He conveniently ignores convictions on the other 16 counts that Pallmeyer let stand.

Read More

Posted on September 11, 2006

By Natasha Julius

Sure, there’s a million crazy stories out there this week, but we want to focus on what’s really important. That’s right, baby: Football is back! Here are a few of the official Beachwood Reporter Weekend Desk NFL season predictions.
1. We know they’re both going to retire, but the smart money says Tony Blair will pack it in well before Brett Favre, and with a lot less sturm und drang.

Read More

Posted on September 9, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

NEWSBREAK: “Sudan President Agrees To Release Tribune Journalist Salopek”
And now, back to The Papers.
*
It’s Islamic fascism day on the commentary pages of our great metropolitan papers. Here’s a user guide.
* “The Term ‘Islamic Fascist’ May Not Be Popular, But It’s Accurate,” by Steve Huntley. Huntley is already the Sun-Times editorial page editor. Apparently he also needs the additional forum of an Op-Ed column to get his urgent views out to the public. “What will he do next,” a Beachwood reader asks,”start writing letters to the editor too?”
“Yes, It’s Fascism – And It’s Islamic,” by Victor Davis Hanson, who is making a strong run for Most Boring Right-Wing Columnist Ever.
* “Fearful Words For Young Muslim,” by Azam Nizamuddin, a lawyer and adjunct professor of religion and theology at Elmhurst College, whose argument is so soft you wonder if the Tribune set it up this way on purpose.
* “Defending Christian Fascism,” by the True Christian Church of Christ, and featuring Ann “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity” Coulter. (There wasn’t room for this one in some editions.)

Read More

Posted on September 8, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

George Ryan, the former Kankakee pharmacist, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison on Wednesday. See my take in The [Ryan] Papers.
Jr.
Jesse Jackson Jr. put the chances of his running for mayor at 75 percent, which means I’ll have to rejigger The Political Odds today.
I don’t think it’s a secret to those who have read this column that I think Jr. is a pretty sharp guy. I saw an extended excerpt of the press conference he held outside his South Side home yesterday and found it hard not to be impressed.
Not so fond of “listening tours,” but I suspect Jackson will spend a fair amount of time on the North Side assessing whether he can make a citywide campaign.
The homefront appears secure.
“He’s passionate about Chicago and it’s time he brings that passion home to Chicago,” Sandi Jackson said, according to a report today in the Defender.

Read More

Posted on September 7, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

Former Gov. George Ryan will be sentenced today. This says it all.
By Georges
George Ryan’s favorable rating among Illinois residents is 35 percent, the Southern Illinoisan reports. George W. Bush’s favorable rating among Illinois residents is 32 percent. (via Capitol Fax Blog)
Katie Cakes
All you need to know about Katie Couric’s debut as anchor of the CBS Evening News is that Marianne Murciano told the Sun-Times, “I’m really happy that I saw what Suri looks like.”
Big Time
Though my favorite Katie Cake was when she informed New York Times columnist Tom Friedman that the Taliban were back “in a big way.”
Couric also directed viewers to the CBS News website to catch up on the, um, news. Then she returned to the show.

Read More

Posted on September 6, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

1. Our world today.
2. Ald. Shirley Coleman (16th), who is also a reverend, did not return calls to the Sun-Times for its story about her financial relationship with a real estate consultant accused of fraud in several civil lawsuits. Coleman apparently asked What Would Jesus Do? and He said, “No comment.”
3. The Beachwood Reporter‘s exclusive that Richard M. Daley is running for re-election was finally picked up by another media outlet, though the BR wasn’t credited. “Mayor Daley is still pretending that he hasn’t decided to run for a sixth term, but he’s in – either that or new campaign manager Terry Peterson just stepped down from his job as CHA chief for nothing,” the Sun-Times editorial page says today.
Wonder how long it will take for the Sun-Times news pages to break the story.
Meanwhile, the Tribune is pretending its still in the dark, too. A caption under a photo of the mayor on Monday said: “The million-dollar question is whether Mayor Richard M. Daley will run for re-election.”
Really? For 50 cents I already read in the Tribunethat the mayor has tapped Peterson to run his re-election campaign, even if the paper refused to acknowledge that this means there is a campaign.
Even The New York Times last week refused to state the truth without the mayor’s blessing.
“Mr. Daley declined this week to say whether he would seek a sixth term, despite indications that his political supporters were organizing for another campaign,” the Times said.
Indications? He hired a campaign manager! And it’s not as if political supporters are organizing without his direction.
You don’t need the mayor to officially announce the sky is blue to make it true.

Read More

Posted on September 5, 2006

By Natasha Julius

Special Updates Edition
The Weekend Desk is taking a couple of days off to observe the federally-mandated death throes of summer. To help you pass the time this long weekend, we present timely updates on our major stories – and fantasy leagues – from the past six months. The Weekend Desk will resume normal publication next, um, weekend. The Papers will return Tuesday.
World Walletball Championships
We haven’t been paying much attention to the World Basketball Championships, but given the recent history of such events, is anyone surprised to see the Euro once again beating up on the rest of the world?

Read More

Posted on September 1, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

1. Life at Work.
2. “Tehran Residents Fear Their Nation On Verge Of Being Pariah.” Finally, common ground.
3. Isn’t George W. Bush making a huge mistake by inflating the threat, scope, and standing of al-Qaeda and its ilk? I mean, should we really turn this into the greatest ideological battle of the 21st century? That’s just even more of an invitation than the war in Iraq to actually coalesce a united enemy against us that otherwise would remain scattered and disjointed. He’s issuing a call to action for the other side! And thus, George W. Bush is the world’s biggest threat not only to our security but to everyone else’s. I wonder if the papers in Iran are reporting “Washington Residents Fear Their Nation On Verge Of Being Pariah.”

Read More

Posted on September 1, 2006