Chicago - A message from the station manager

The Weekend Desk Report

By Steve Rhodes

For completists, there was no column on Friday. Thank you to everyone who came out for Joe’s memorial on Thursday night. It was just what he would have wanted.
On the campaign trail . . .


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Shouldn’t John be covering the next mayor’s race in Western Springs, where he has lived for nearly three decades, as far as I can determine? The fact is, Chicago is not his city to save.


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“In the biggest third-party advertising blitz of the Chicago mayoral campaign, an independent political committee that isn’t required to disclose its donors is spending $714,000 on television ads against Bill Daley,” the Tribune reports.

With his high name recognition and a field-leading war chest of more than $7.2 million, Daley has become a target for criticism from rival candidates and union interests who seek to tie him with big business interests and former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
On Friday, an independent political committee called Fight Back for a Better Tomorrow began airing an attack ad on Daley, who in between long corporate careers served as White House chief of staff to former President Barack Obama and U.S. Commerce Secretary under former President Bill Clinton.
The political committee shares a Countryside address with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150. A spokesman for the Operating Engineers said it wasn’t the local’s ad, although the union supports its message. He deferred questions about donors and amounts of donations to the PAC.

It would be nice if the Operating Engineers would just tell the truth. That’s one way to distinguish themselves from their chief nemesis.
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That’s another $1 million.


Ken Griffin has decided – quite emphatically – that the candidate whose views most align with his is Bill Daley.
Crain’s, too, has decided that Bill Daley is the candidate who will do the most for corporate Chicago.
The Tribune, similarly, has decided that Bill Daley is the candidate who will keep downtown a gleaming urban paradise hospitable to America’s corporations – and the candidate most likely to slash the pensions of working people who had no hand in creating the so-called pension crisis, which is really a pension scandal created by people like Bill Daley and those who support him.
In other words, Griffin, Crain’s, the Tribune and the rest of Daley’s few but immensely rich contributors like Chicago just the way it is, the way it’s always been.
Just so we’re clear.
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If Bill Daley knew how to reduce Chicago’s crime by 75 percent over four years, you’d think he would have told us about it a long time ago.


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Meanwhile . . .


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It’s also arguably not.


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New on the Beachwood . . .
Beachwood Sports Radio: Good Ship Cubs Runs Aground
Go Brew Crew! Plus: Surging Blackhawks Still In Last Place; Accidental White Sox Segment; Bulls Have 12.5 Percent Chance Of Righting Their Ship; Ramblers Puttering Toward Valley Tournament; It’s The DePaul Blue Demons And The Duke Blue Devils; and Jones Prep 17-Year-Old Signs With Chicago Fire.
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Weekend ChicagoReddit

Jerry Joyce for mayor? from r/chicago


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Weekend ChicagoGram


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Weekend ChicagoTube
Phase 3 Artifacts/Art Chicago | Chuck E. Cheese’s Illinois

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Weekend BeachBook
Ryan Adams The Tip Of An Indie Music Iceberg.

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Weekend TweetWood
A non-campaign sampling.


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The Weekend Desk McRibTipLine: Regressive.

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Posted on February 16, 2019