Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Wednesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes


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Predictably, the Chicago media has missed a lot.
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Meanwhile . . .
“The City Council’s Committee on Public Safety will hold a virtual meeting at 11 a.m. Monday to consider Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s appointment of retired Dallas police chief David Brown as Chicago’s $260,044-a-year police superintendent,” the Sun-Times’s Fran Spielman reports.
“Lightfoot plans to introduce the Brown appointment at Wednesday’s virtual City Council meeting being held for the sole purpose of adopting emergency rules that allow aldermen to conduct substantive city business without meeting in person.
“That will set the stage for Monday’s confirmation hearing which, like the council meeting, will use Zoom video-conferencing.
“Normally, confirmation hearings for a new police superintendent are command performances for Chicago aldermen. They often drag on for hours with alderman asking tough and sometimes parochial questions about crime in their individual wards.”
Huh. I don’t remember such hearings being known for aldermen asking tough questions. I don’t remember any hearings being known for aldermen asking tough questions. Mayors Daley and Emanuel simply would not allow it.
But maybe I’m remembering wrong.
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“Brown, 59, retired as Dallas police chief in 2016 after a horrific year that saw five of his police officers gunned down in a downtown ambush.
“He made headlines – and generated controversy – when he gave the go-ahead to use an explosive-bearing, remote-controlled robot to kill the gunman.
“Which raises the question that Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus, plans to ask: Why did Brown essentially choose to execute the gunman when he could have chosen a less lethal option?”
I’m not saying that question isn’t worth asking, but if Ervin (and Spielman) read Brown’s book, he’d have his rationale – which clearly articulates why he didn’t think a less lethal option was available. It would have been valuable to include that in the article and even link to one of the dozens of pieces written about it at the time.
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“Noting that CPD superintendent and Chicago Public Schools CEO are ‘the two most high-profile things a mayor is judged on,’ Ervin said: ‘We should give deference to any mayor in their choices for those two top positions.'”
No, alderman. If these are the two most crucial hires a mayor makes, it’s up to you to provide the most stringent oversight you can muster.
And here I thought we were in for some tough questioning.
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New on the Beachwood . . .
Ultrarich Get Another Tax Break, Courtesy Of Coronavirus Relief
GOP provision almost wholly benefits millionaires and billionaires.
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His Shitty Athletic Career
Jim “Coach” Coffman tells the tale.
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Jonathan Pie On Lockdown, Pt. 4
Taking a shot every time Trump lies.
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Abolish Silicon Valley
Wendy Liu grows up.
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He Built A Guitar Out Of 1,200 Colored Pencils
And now he’s selling it for coronavirus charity.
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Early Impacts Of COVID-19 On The Pet Food Packaging Market
An increase in the number of pet adoptions is resulting in higher consumption of pet food.
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A World Without Sports
“The current sports stoppage is unprecedented. It touches every level of every game, in every country in the world, from the Olympics down to pick-up basketball.”
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ChicagoReddit

If you’re awake right now, take a step outside. It’s so quiet. from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram

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Sunset shadows | New Commute Learning to break between work and home. #artlife is feeling stuck

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ChicagoTube
Manila Bulletin: Chicago Plant Retools To Make COVID-19 Field Hospital Beds

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


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The Beachwood Q-Tip Line: Purge.

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Posted on April 15, 2020