By Steve Rhodes

United Airlines announced on Saturday that it would move its corporate headquarters from suburban Elk Grove Village to downtown Chicago.
The Chicago press hailed the move and practically slapped Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Mayor Richard M. Daley on their backs for once again proving our fair city superior to putative competitors Denver and San Francisco.
Reports out of those cities, however, make it clear that they were never really in the running. And that United Airlines took Chicago – and its media – for a ($7 million) ride.

Read More

Posted on July 17, 2006

By Natasha Julius

Don’t worry about us during this weekend’s dangerous heat warnings; we promise to avoid any strenuous activities, take frequent breaks, and of course, drink lots of fluid.
Market Update
All Civil Liberties markets ceased trading this week, due to strong suggestions that the end of the world was at hand.

Read More

Posted on July 14, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

1. At a city council meeting last year, Environmental Commissioner Sadhu Johnston was asked why Chicago was the only big city using the blue-bag recycling system. Oh, but we aren’t, Johnston said. There’s Columbus, Ohio.
Columbus announced this week that it was ditching its blue bags, just three months into a pilot program.
2. The Reader is eliminating Section Four, Lewis Lazare reports today (second item). The ads that made up the section will be stuffed into the rest of the paper. “By concentrating more ads in fewer sections,” Lazare writes, “the Reader will increase the ratio of advertising-to-editorial content, and reduce the number of printed pages.”
Sick of advertising clutter? Want your message seen clearly by a targeted audience? Contact me for more information.
3. The governor politicizes childrens’ health care.

Read More

Posted on July 14, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

With the cause of the Blue Line derailment still undetermined, the coverage is appropriately focusing on whether the CTA has an adequate emergency plan for its trains, and, even more so, how well it can communicate that plan to endangered passengers.
The early answers seem to be No and Not Well.
As Eric Zorn points out, communication has never been the CTA’s strong suit.
Neither has candor.

Read More

Posted on July 13, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

What with the Blue Line fire, the Robert Novak revelations, the All-Star game, and Mancow going off the air, it’s hard to know where to turn first. But – stick with me here – I’ll start with the latest test scores to come out of Chicago’s public schools.
They are at a record high.
And they are bullshit.

Read More

Posted on July 12, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

Mr. Peanut, one of America’s most beloved commercial icons, is getting a bit of a touch-up. The Planters people, promoting their centennial, is giving the public a chance to vote on whether to add a bow tie, cuff links, or a pocket watch to the already stately Peanut’s repertoire.
Or the public could vote to keep Peanut just the way he is.
Mr. Peanut was created by a 14-year-old boy in a contest in 1916, according to a report in today’s New York Times.
“According to the company, Mr. Peanut’s hat, monocle, cane and shoes symbolize fresh taste,” Wikipedia reports. “The gloves do not symbolize anything; Mr. Peanut simply likes them.”
Peanut even once ventured into the political arena, in a way.

Read More

Posted on July 11, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

The Monday papers are pretty barren, and maybe we all need a break from the Siege of City Hall and the Stroger Family Circus which have dominated the news lately anyway.
Then again, there’s always the governor.

Read More

Posted on July 10, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

Sifting through the aftermath of the City Hall hiring fraud verdict is a bit like traversing California in the 1840s – you can’t help but stumble upon some golden nuggets. (See also The [Patronage] Papers.)
For example, how deliciously telling is it that jurors found Mara Georges to be the least credible witness put on the stand? Not the old-school machine hacks that the defense tried to dirty up by suggesting their testimony was skewed by their immunity deals, but the corporation counsel – the city’s lawyer-in-chief (though she’s shown that her chief loyalty is to the mayor, not the city).
U.S. District Court judge David Coar also found Georges performance on the stand wanting, and another regrets taking her representations at face value of the city’s compliance with a federal hiring decree.
Three strikes and you’re out?
Also on the trail of the trial:
* Carol Marin continues to have misgivings about the prosecution, perhaps because she’s mistaking Robert Sorich for a mid-level mope instead of the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs that he was.
* John Kass says the prosecution is a sea-change for just that reason – the feds are going after the string-pullers, not the puppets.
* Mary Mitchell shows how the scandal reveals a lack of black clout at City Hall.
* Norman Chad reveals a lack of black clout on the nation’s sports pages.

Read More

Posted on July 10, 2006

By Natasha Julius

Man, do you remember when all we had to worry about was whether or not we should ask Iran to the prom? Good times.
Market Update
While the U.S. exchanges enjoyed a short week of trading due to the holiday, the bottom fell out of the Asian securities market. Despite repeated assurances from supposed experts it turns out long-range missile tests are a huge fucking deal after all.

Read More

Posted on July 7, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

Far more interesting at this point than the wholly-expected convictions in the City Hall hiring fraud trial is the looming question of just how far the continuing investigation will go.
In other words, should the mayor take advantage of early-bird booking rates and reserve a room right now in the federal pokey?

Read More

Posted on July 7, 2006