Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Gov. Pritzker set aside about ten minutes for interviews with some political reporters last week,” Rich Miller notes at Capitol Fax.
And we’re seeing a spate of reporters from various news organizations produce stories from those 10-minute interviews.
But let me just say something: 10 minutes?
Please. You’ve been had.


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The governor could’ve given an hour to five reporters one day and still had time to work half a shift.
Then maybe next month choose another five reporters.
Or, hell, do it once a week.
Ten-minute interviews are designed to give the appearance of access while only providing enough time to spew out talking points and let a reporter get in one or two of the most shallow questions on their list. It’s not a serious effort to engage the press – though the press laps it up. The TV stations will probably bill their interviews as exclusives, which to them means nobody else was on the line or in the room when an official answered a question, even if the official answered the same question to a dozen others.
It’s just PR, though we’re already seeing stories framed around innocuous statements because no news organization has the guts to say there’s nothing here, let’s not publish or telecast anything.
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Sources And Methods
“As some pot buyers in Illinois are finding their store shelves bare, state regulators have notified shops across the state they are investigating apparent violations of a rule meant to prevent stockpiling marijuana from a single grower and ensure that retailers are operating on an equal playing field,” the Sun-Times reports.
“Just over a week after recreational pot sales kicked off statewide, regulators sent a letter saying they were aware of violations and investigating whether stores were sourcing more than 40% of their product from one grower. The law is aimed at preventing pot growers from entering into exclusive agreements with specific shops and making sure all stores have a diversity of products from different sources.”
Geez, we can’t go a single week of legal pot in Illinois without breaking the rules.
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“The warning comes as some dispensaries grappling with the pervasive supply shortage said they were worried that some companies that own both dispensaries and cultivation sites were trying to control the market by limiting product available to competitors . . .

[State Sen. Heather Steans (Chicago-D)] said independent dispensaries have reported seeing a dropoff in deliveries from GTI and Cresco Labs, a pair of multi-state operators based in River North that run multiple grow operations and dispensaries across Illinois.
“I’ve gotten some specific numbers from some dispensaries, and it’s a dramatic change in what product they’re getting from [GTI and Cresco],” she said. “That concerns me greatly.”
Jason Erkes, Cresco’s chief communications officer, said the dispensary made deliveries to every shop that had orders with the company on Wednesday and Thursday. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the warning letter from IDFPR.
“There’s a shortage of product,” Erkes said. “There’s nothing to deliver to anybody.”
Last week, as many Chicago pot shops were forced to close their doors to recreational buyers due to supply issues, Erkes downplayed the effects of the shortage on his company.
“There are no product supply shortages – just a shortage of state-approved employees to help efficiently service the hundreds of people that have been showing up every day to make their first legal cannabis purchase in Illinois,” Erkes said.

Jason Erkes, you are Today’s Worst Person in Illinois.
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Pot Strong
“Workers at Cresco Labs marijuana grow facility in Joliet are voting on whether to unionize Tuesday, two weeks after recreational weed sales started in Illinois,” the Tribune reports.
“One hundred of the roughly 130 workers at the facility are eligible to vote to join the United Food & Commercial Workers union, said Zach Koutsky, legislative and political director for Local 881 UFCW.
“The workers want higher wages, lower health care costs, more respect on the job and other requests, Koutsky said.”
One week in and the recreational pot industry has truly arrived in Illinois.
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Plus: Teamsters wanna get you high. Check out the logo/pin.


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According to the Trib, the results of the union vote are due in tonight.
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Martwick Is A Cop
According to Second City Cop, the FOP has endorsed Robert Martwick.
You might remember Martwick, a property tax appeals lawyer who moonlights as a state representative senator, from the catalyzing moment he provided Lori Lightfoot during her campaign for mayor.
The irony is that a certain faction of Preckwinkle dead-enders liked (and still like) to say during the campaign that “Lori is a cop” because of her work as a federal prosecutor, as head of the CPD’s office of professional standards, and as president of the Chicago Police Board. Perhaps her work at OEMC and as the chair of the police reform task force was also not to their liking.
And yet, the FOP won’t be endorsing Lightfoot anytime soon.
They sure do like one of Preckwinkle’s chief allies, though.
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New on today’s Beachwood . . .
Coffman: The Rules Were Clear
And now the Astros are (rightly) facing the consequences.
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ChicagoReddit

King Day Festival: Tomorrow Is Today | The Art Institute of Chicago – January 20th Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – Free with admission from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram


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ChicagoTube
“The Hopes, The Dreams, The Tears” / The Bushes (Chicago, 1969)

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BeachBook
The First Fast Food Restaurant To Add A Dark Meat Option Will Win The Chicken Sandwich War.

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TweetWood
A sampling of the delight and disgust you can find @BeachwoodReport.


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This is still going on – just like undisclosed conflicts from Op-Ed authors. This is an easy fix, people! If the media wanted to fix it.


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He could be a hero, but no.


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The deficit will matter again when a Democrat becomes president.


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The Beachwood Tip Line: Dust and broom.

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Posted on January 14, 2020