News
Friday, May 25, 2012
$$$ Politics News Should Tamms be saved for the jobs?
Posted by Steve Bogira on 05.25.12 at 02:24 PM
- katerha
- The decision on Tamms, the Illinois supermax, is imminent
This is the unspoken argument of legislators who want to save Tamms, the supermax at the southern tip of Illinois. Governor Pat Quinn has proposed closing Tamms—not for humanitarian reasons, but to save the state money. Most of the Tamms inmates would be moved to maximum-security prisons, where housing them would be cheaper. There's been legislative opposition to Quinn's proposal, however, because guards would lose their jobs. The verdict is imminent.
Representative Brandon Phelps, a downstate Democrat, this week proposed converting Tamms to a regular prison in order to keep it open. As the Southern Illinoisan reported Wednesday, this plan would "appease" those who believe the prison should be closed because the long-term isolation that inmates are subjected to "purportedly causes mental illness." Phelps has made clear he's more concerned about the jobs than the mental illness: "My main deal right now is to keep Tamms open, whether it's just a super-max or regular facility, because southern Illinois cannot afford to lose those jobs or that revenue." Phelps's proposal is unlikely to fly because of the retooling costs.
Vacation Week Politics News A weekend in the Quad Cities: bridges, pols, taco pizza
Posted by Kate Schmidt on 05.25.12 at 07:57 AM
Behind Our Scenes Media Politics Clout City News Working for the Sun-Times—just like Mike Royko!
Posted by Ben Joravsky on 05.25.12 at 06:54 AM
- Asher Klein
- The view from the new break room
Yes, yes—copyboy. The girls of that trade were called "copygirls." As you can see, the 70s were not a particularly politically correct time.
My job mainly consisted of hanging around the newsroom, waiting for an editor to bellow out: "Copy!"
At which point, I'd run over and do as instructed. Like: "Get me a corned beef on rye at Al's deli!" Or: "Shut the fuck up and stand here while I figure out what I want you to do!"
Ah, the glory days of journalism.
Sad to say, the job—as fun as it was—didn't last forever.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Media News Times-Picayune scales back, but can an iPad produce the same intimacy?
Posted by Michael Miner on 05.24.12 at 02:52 PM
Said the citation:
"In 'Ruin and Recovery,' the Times-Picayune cast a wide net to answer the hundreds of questions facing New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Looking for clues about what the city could do next, the newspaper sent teams of reporters to other locales that had coped with natural disasters, including four U.S. cities, Japan, and the Netherlands.
"What resulted was a series of articles about regrouping and rebuilding. In reporting on successes in other places, the newspaper also lit a fire under its own city. One headline read: 'Grand plans can't happen unless a fractured city rises to the challenge.'
"Not only did the Times-Picayune report on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — it did so after evacuating its offices and setting up shop elsewhere in the state. Many of the newspaper's reporters and editors also lost their homes."
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Behind Our Scenes Media News Wrapports buys the Reader
Posted by Michael Miner on 05.23.12 at 10:46 AM
The Wrapports news release has CEO Timothy Knight calling the Reader “one of the most distinctive voices in the Chicago news community.” It has Brad Bulkley, the Dallas investment banker who brokered the sale for Atalaya Capital Management, pleased “to have been able to place this highly regarded Chicago institution into such capable hands.” In 2007 the Reader was sold by its founders to Creative Loafing Inc., which declared bankruptcy a year later. CLI emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 with Atalaya controlling it. “Fortunately, Atalaya gave us the flexibility to identify the ideal successor,” Bulkley continues.
Grammar Media News Commady, of errors
Posted by Steve Bogira on 05.23.12 at 10:24 AM
Yagoda wrote the book, The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing so he knows from commas. ICE, an acronym he suggests may help you avoid the error in this sentence.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Broken News Tamms prison employees getting pink slips
Posted by Sam Worley on 05.22.12 at 03:04 PM
- -Tripp-
- Pat Quinn
Quinn's plans received support from the prison watchdog group the John Howard Association, which cited the adverse effects that confinement at Tamms has on inmates' mental health. In a new report the JHA writes, "Most inmates spend 23 to 24 hours alone in their cells without social interaction, human contact, or sensory stimulation. This state of isolation can extend for months, years or indefinitely. Some Tamms inmates have spent more than a decade in this isolation . . . In observing, visiting, and communicating with Tamms inmates, JHA found evidence of inmates suffering deleterious effects to their mental and physical health related to long-term isolation."
Shameless SEO Politics News Protest and performance at NATO
Posted by Marc Monaghan on 05.22.12 at 11:35 AM
- Marc Monaghan
- Follow the tweets
Slideshow after the jump.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Media News It's not Chicago's fault if protest is photogenic
Posted by Michael Miner on 05.21.12 at 03:01 PM
My thesis was that the Chicago media were fixating on the possibility that protesters by the thousands would run amok in the streets. They were ready to cover mayhem—but not to cover the major international event taking place whether bedlam occurs or not. As Chicago became a global city, I proposed, Chicago journalism lowered its horizons and became parochial.
On Saturday I strolled the couple of blocks from our house to Rahm Emanuel's because I knew that in the name of decent local funding for mental heath, protesters intended to mass in the street where he lives and raise their voices. It was an approximately perfect May afternoon, the phalanx of police guarding the mayor's lawn (which he'd had cut to camera-ready length the day before) had arrived by bicycle, and the media presence was overwhelming. Among the large contingent of curious burghers from the hood who milled about, few disagreed with the proposition that decent mental health spending is worth raising one's voice over.
Dim the Lights News A smattering of NATO protest Missed Connections
Posted by Sam Worley on 05.21.12 at 12:48 PM
- Mikasi
- Lovers without borders
cops at protest
"you were the hot cop who put me in flexcuffs.....maybe we can do it privately?"
MC with 2,500 nurses
"Oh, Nurse!
"Occupy me!
"Just kidding."
Girl at Bradley Manning booth at today's protest
"You seemed like a really nice person — more mature than some of the others there — but I think you thought I was a cop."
