By Steve Rhodes

It is the consensus today not only of the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board but the 100 Chicago area newspapers in the Sun-Times News Group that distractions are hazardous to drivers.
DOG BITES MAN
News You Already Have
Study: Distractions Cause Most Car Crashes (AP, 4/21)
Emotional Wiring Different In Men And Women (LiveScience.com, 4/20)
Americans Commute Longer, Farther Than Ever
(Reuters, 4/20)
Democrats: No Single Message Sums Us Up (AP, 4/20)

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Posted on April 26, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

Here’s something new we’ve learned from the now-released transcripts of closed sessions in Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer’s chambers down the stretch of the George Ryan trial: Pallmeyer screwed up. She should have kicked juror foreperson Sonja Chambers off the panel, even if that resulted in the mistrial that hardly anyone wanted to see. And for a reason that had nothing to do with her failure to disclose previous entanglements with the courts in a messy divorce and a civil lawsuit involving a furniture company, though that didn’t speak well of her either.
No, it was enough to boot Chambers because of her apparent conversations during the trial with Dennis the Coffee Guy, the one who called WLS-AM radio one day and said he had been talking to a juror about the case.
In closed sessions before Pallmeyer and lawyers from both sides of the case, Chambers denied discussing the trial with Dennis the Coffee Guy, whose full name is Dennis McLaughlin. (McLaughlin runs a coffee stand at the Lisle Metra train station that Chambers frequents.)
After reading the now-released transcripts of those sessions, excerpted at Change of Subject by Eric Zorn, it’s almost impossible to believe Chambers over McLaughlin.
Yet, that’s just what Pallmeyer did.

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Posted on April 25, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

The papers today are refreshingly absent of George Ryan juror news. Hey, even I could use a break.
But if you want to catch up on the weekend’s developments, please see The [Sunday] Papers and find out why I think judge Rebecca Pallmeyer seems naive, and why jury foreperson Sonja Chambers seems unbelievable in her varied explanations of why she didn’t answer truthfully on her jury questionnaire when it came to past legal entanglements.
And while you’re in our Papers archive, check out our Weekend Desk Reports, brought to you every, um, weekend by the fabulous Natasha Julius. If you’ve been missing them, they’re worth going back to.
Now on to The [Monday] Papers and some left over non-Ryan newsbits from the weekend.
Lost Landmark
A promo with a refreshingly strong come-on for an inside story is stripped across the top of the Chicago Tribune‘s front page today: “Just Deserts For Revamped Soldier Field: Architecture Critic Blair Kamin On The Lies And Liars That Cost The Landmark Its Status.”
And Kamin delivers, ferociously.

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Posted on April 24, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer unsealed 1,283 pages of transcripts on Friday documenting sessions she had in her chambers with lawyers in the George Ryan trial, ensuring that the saga involving jurors who did not disclose criminal backgrounds as asked when being considered for the panel would continue to dominate the news through the weekend.
To me, the sequence of events puts to rest conspiracy theories about prosecutors leaking juror backgrounds to the Chicago Tribune, which first revealed the anomalies, in order to get pro-Ryan jurors expelled, or, similarly, that defense lawyer Dan Webb knew all along about the jurors’ false answers and kept that information in his hip pocket ready to spring when it looked like things weren’t going his client’s way.
It all seems far too convoluted for either side to have gamed out that way.

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Posted on April 24, 2006

By Natasha Julius

White House shuffles, shoot-to-kill curfews, gubernatorial convictions . . . There’s a common thread here: None of them will make a difference! But they’re all in the news heading into the weekend and we’ll keep our eye out for developments while you take a load off.
One Tough Mother
Some of us here at Beachwood HQ we think Prince Charles of the United Kingdom is just ducky and, in this day and age when royal amiability is more vital than royal savvy, we think he’d make a swell king. His interests in this area were dealt a heavy blow, however, when his mother defiantly turned 80, still lean and fighting fit. At this point, Chuckles, we say give up the ghost.
Plunging Values
It’s too bad this guy doesn’t live in Chicago. We’ve got much better ways for him to flush his money down the toilet.

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Posted on April 22, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

You get the feeling that the Chicago Tribune, which got the ball rolling when it discovered criminal cases in the backgrounds of two jurors in the George Ryan trial who were then dismissed, would now just like to see the whole mess go away.
Once again, the paper today fails to see the mess surrounding the jurors in the trial of the now-convicted former governor as the biggest story of the day.
Instead, the Tribune goes with a story headlined “Ryan Jury Feels It’s On Trial Now” on the bottom of its front page, clearly outlining where its sympathies lie.

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Posted on April 21, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

Worst Jury Ever?
Let’s review.
1. Cynthia McFadden is removed from the George Ryan jury for not only sleeping but snoring during the trial, as well as doing crossword puzzles. During the trial. In the juror’s box.
2. Evelyn Ezell is removed for failing to disclose on her juror questionnaire that she had previously been charged with misdemeanor child neglect, assault, weapons possession and drug possession.
3. Robert Pavlick is removed for not disclosing numerous DUI arrests.
4. Sonja Chambers, juror foreperson, is not removed but discovered to have failed to disclose court filings in three counties related to her divorce and the seeking of orders of protection, as well as a civil lawsuit brought against her by a furniture company.
5. Kevin Rein is not removed but failed to disclose his 1980 arrest for hitting his pregnant 17-year-old sister, reportedly during an argument over cats.
6. Charles Svymbersky is not removed but failed to disclose his 1983 guilty plea for stealing a bike.
7. Raul Casino is not removed but failed to disclose his 1962 DUI arrest.
8. Jill DiMartino is not removed but admitted that after deliberations began she was questioned about the case by her daughter, friends, and co-workers.
Oy.
Is this typical of most juries? Or do we have a special collection of miscreants here?

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Posted on April 20, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

The George Ryan verdict continues to dominate the news, as it should. But the Chicago Tribune makes a strange choice today for its top front page story that seems to have more to do with its own ego and bid for a relatively tabloidish headline (relative to the Tribune) than obvious news judgement.
The Tribune seems awfully impressed with its less-than-impressive “INSIDE THE RYAN JURY ROOM” story (and yes, the headline is in all caps, across the top of the page).
But far from delivering a courtroom melodrama about the jury in one of the state’s most important trials ever, the story is a rather routine collection of juror reminiscences dressed up with an opening conceit that on the day after the trial ended, the jury room somehow looked like a movie set at the end of a shoot.
What, there were crumpled pages of a script strewn about and a broken director’s chair sitting forlornly in the corner?
No. There was a candy dish on “a side table” and, surprise, a dry-erase board and easel facing the head of an oval table.
Message to Tribune: Stop trying so hard to write.

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Posted on April 19, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

I almost hate to say I told you so. But I’m pretty sure I kinda did.
I watched Chicago Tonight‘s hour-long show last night on the George Ryan verdict and I was once again struck by how weak Dan Webb’s defense strategy was. That’s not to blame him necessarily–he didn’t have a lot to work with. But the media sure bought his talking points hook, line, and sinker, didn’t they?
Perhaps it was out of an “objective” need to “balance” each side of the case, but in so doing the media didn’t present a true picture of reality: That the evidence was heavily against Ryan.

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Posted on April 18, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

GEORGE RYAN GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS.
The Tribune and Sun-Times obviously have packages accessible via their home pages.
The Capitol Fax Blog also has a nice collection of links here.
ALSO: The Tribune is shut out of the Pulitzers. (It almost goes without saying that the Sun-Times was shut out too because it is so rarely in the running.)
And now on to today’s papers.

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Posted on April 17, 2006