Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Mayor Rahm Emanuel [Monday] wouldn’t say why he spent taxpayer money on out-of-town trips in which he mixed city business with politics, but defended the travel expenses as legitimate.”
Saying why would be snitching.


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“Asked [Monday] why public money was being used for trip[s] where he conducted campaign work and how he reached decisions on when and when not to spend taxpayer money on travel, Emanuel did not directly answer the questions.”
It’s a matter of values.
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“The mayor’s office spent at least $325,000 on travel for Emanuel, staff members and the city’s Springfield lobbyists from when the mayor took office in May 2011 through the end of 2013, records showed. Emanuel’s administration has yet to respond to a Tribune request for the mayor’s travel expenses and official calendar for the first three months of 2014.”
Said Emanuel: “Nobody’s immune from accountability.”
Oh, that was from something else.
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Obviously I’m not drawing an equivalency between travel costs and homicides. I’m just saying (again) I find the rhetoric of “accountability” and the “no-snitch code” to be wanting.
Where is the accountability of draining poor neighborhoods via TIFs and redistributing that money to corporate benefactors?
Or of a school board and administration whose lies have become too numerous to list closing 50 schools in neighborhoods that need them most?
Finally, the idea that the real problem when it comes to the city’s violence is a lack of “values” among those who have been the most plundered and neglected is head-spinning.
And when it comes to the no-snitch code, I must have missed Emanuel’s call for R.J. Vanecko, his friends, the police and prosecutors to come clean. Unlike the residents of, say, Englewood, their families’ lives won’t be endangered by doing so.
Planet Rahm
“Sneed hears Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a cool new plan in the works.”
Oh, the mayor is using Sneed again to float an idea. Let’s listen in!
“It’s called air conditioning for every classroom in Chicago. To wit: Sneed is told Emanuel has now ordered the Chicago Public School system to add air conditioning to every classroom in the city that doesn’t have it . . . starting this summer.
“Backshot: Last year, at the mayor’s direction, air conditioning units were ordered for all 70 buildings incorporating students from schools that had to be closed.
“Upshot: Now, at the mayor’s direction, the 206 school buildings that do not have full air conditioning will get it within the next five years.”
So, if all goes according to plan, all CPS schools will have air conditioning by . . . 2019.
So much for the famously impatient Rahm.
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The Cub Factor: Ricky Sveum
Another manager who didn’t get the memo.
Black Power TV
Broadcasting While Black.
When The Benson Orchestra Ruled Chicago
House band for Capone’s Chiraq.
‘Paris Street: Rainy Day’ Not As Rainy As Thought
Restoration Changes Art Institute’s Impression.
Human Rights Orgs To Foreign Ministers: Stop Spying On Us
Response to fresh Snowden revelations.
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BeachBook
* Chicago Pen Maker Turns Battleship Deck Into Historic Mementos.
More than a decade since the original deck of the Battleship North Carolina was replaced, new products made from its materials are still popping up all over the country.
Chad Schumacher of Chicago-based Allegory Handcrafted Goods Co. recently hosted an online fundraiser to make 1,000 limited edition pens from original deck wood. The fundraiser closed in early April and exceeded its monetary goal, raising more than $26,000 rather than the anticipated $12,000.
* Oscar Mayer Classic Weiners May Be Classic Cheese Dogs Instead!
Kraft issues recall of 96,000 pounds of hot dogs.
* Elmhurst 8th-Grader Wants Cubs GM Job.
The jokes write themselves.
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TweetWood


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The Beachwood Tip Line: Accountable.

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Posted on April 22, 2014