News: Bleader, Chicago Reader

Did you read about masturbation, Billy Joel, and Ronald McDonald?

Reader staff — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:25:00 -0500

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

• Jane Mayer's look at billionaire David Koch's chilling effect on public television and Daily Kos's follow-up report? (The latter, btw, appears to get some of the basic facts wrong.)…

Mayor Rahm's school board takes a big stand!

Ben Joravsky — Fri, 24 May 2013 07:37:00 -0500

At the risk of sounding naive, I was hoping that at least one of Mayor Emanuel's school board appointees might take a break from voting to close 50 schools and mention the $55 million the mayor wants to spend on his near-south-side hotel and basketball arena.

As you know, the board voted yesterday to close those schools on the grounds that the system's too broke to keep them open.…

During school-closing vote, Mayor Emanuel is heard but not seen

Mick Dumke — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:31:00 -0500

In the months before the Chicago Board of Education voted to close 50 schools next year, thousands of teachers, parents, and students pleaded for their schools to stay open during hearings and protests.

Journalists, meanwhile, tried to figure out if any of the shifting explanations for the plan were actually based in fact, since it was originally presented as a way to save money, then to improve school performance, then to cut the dropout rate.…

Did you read about food stamps, Stockholm, and Girls Gone Wild?

Reader staff — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:22:00 -0500

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• About "Why Food Stamp Use in Illinois Has Exploded"? —John Dunlevy

• That shootings cost each Chicago household an average of $2,500 a year?…

Tribune sued over Red Plum/Local Values

Michael Miner — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:16:00 -0500

My amiable dispute with the Tribune over Red Plum/Local Values, an advertising throwaway I did not welcome and did not read but did not know how to stop, has been taken to a new level by a litigious group of Chicago residents.

The 25 plaintiffs, represented by Logan Square attorney Michael Jaskula, filed suit this month in circuit court against the throwaway's codistributors, the Tribune and Valassis Communications of Michigan.…

What are you waiting for? Today's the last day to vote for Best of Chicago!

Tal Rosenberg — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:49:00 -0500

Last time, we told you that "May 22 will be here sooner than you think." Well—it's here: the last day voting is open in our annual Best of Chicago poll!…

Looks like Governor Quinn will have to save us from Mayor Rahm—again!

Ben Joravsky — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:54:00 -0500

Apparently, Governor Quinn hasn't "spoken to Mayor Emanuel in 10 days."

The governor recently revealed that tidbit in an interview with the Sun-Times editorial board.

My guess is that the mayor's in a snit 'cause the governor won't rubber-stamp his deal to set up a Chicago casino completely controlled by City Hall.…

Did you read about Anthony Weiner, the Obie Awards, and the Cleveland Cavaliers?

Reader staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:10:00 -0500

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• That former sexting congressman Anthony Weiner has jumped into the New York City mayoral race? —Mick Dumke

• That between 2000 and '08, U.S. aquifers dropped at a rate three times higher than any recorded in the 20th century?…

ArtPlace America ignites Great Chicago Fire Festival with $250,000 grant

Deanna Isaacs — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:33:00 -0500

Redmoon announced this week that Artplace America has awarded the spectacle troupe a $250,000 grant to help fund the first Great Chicago Fire Festival, to be held on the Chicago River in October 2014.

There's no mention in the announcement of previously revealed plans to build, float, and burn effigies representing the thing each Chicago neighborhood most wants to get rid of.…

Did you read about the Oklahoma tornado, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Phil Jackson?

Reader staff — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:01:00 -0500

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• That the Oklahoma tornado puts that state's senators in a sticky situation? —Tony Adler

• Farai Chideya writing in the Nation on how to solve journalism's class and color crisis?…

A look at immoderation on the pundit front

Michael Miner — Tue, 21 May 2013 07:58:00 -0500

King George III was no Hitler or Stalin, but because revolutions are glorified when they succeed we happily remember ours as a triumph over tyranny. That set a low bar for tyranny, and we still live with it.…

Remembering Chicago's great school boycott of 1963

Ben Joravsky — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:27:00 -0500

The city's all-powerful mayor was ignoring their pleas, so the public students of Chicago felt they had no choice but to walk out of school and march in protest.

That could be a headline ripped from today's pages, as students join parents and teachers to protest Mayor Emanuel's decision to close 54 public schools.…

Did you read about ketamine, Tumblr, and the New York Times?

Reader staff — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:01:00 -0500

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• That the gap between the 1 percent and the 99 percent is only half the story? —Steve Bogira

• That in addition to going through phone records of the AP, the Obama administration searched the personal e-mails of a Fox News reporter?…

Did you read about Eric Holder, the Village Voice, and The Third Coast?

Reader staff — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:18:00 -0500

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• About why more women don't run for office? —Tal Rosenberg

• That on top of everything else, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was under fire this week for continuing to authorize marijuana prosecutions?…

Doing it wrong on guns, Chicago-style

Ben Joravsky — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:59:00 -0500

I was up late the other night, reading "Addicted to Guns", my man Mick Dumke's latest feature on crime and violence in Chicago.

It should be mandatory reading for everyone.…

Before Obama's enemies came down on him he was catching it from his friends

Michael Miner — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:37:00 -0500

President Obama is getting hammered. He's been called out for the sins of the IRS in looking too hard and too exclusively at organizations whose applications for tax-exempt status contained red-flag language such as "tea party" or "patriots."…

Did you read about David Simon, Dan Brown, and KFC in Gaza?

Reader staff — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:19:00 -0500

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• That the IRS "scandal" is being blown way out of proportion, based on the evidence so far? —Steve Bogira

• The letter, signed by 52 news organizations, protesting the Department of Justice's secret subpoena of Associated Press telephone records?…

Red Plum forever! Whether Tribune subscribers like it or not.

Michael Miner — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:30:00 -0500

On the Red Plum front, things are looking up.

On Tuesday I blogged about my difficulties in getting the Tribune to stop delivering its advertising throwaway, Red Plum/Local Values, to my house.…

Mayor Rahm's Chicago—in black and white

Ben Joravsky — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:49:00 -0500

If your only knowledge of Chicago was based on the contrasting attitudes of white and black voters toward Mayor Emanuel's educational policies, you'd think that this was a highly segregated, deeply divided city with two distinct ways of viewing the same thing.

Oh, wait—that's what we are!

How else to explain the fact that Sunday's Tribune poll shows that 51 percent of white people approve of the mayor's school closing policies?

Whereas 77 percent of black Chicagoans disapprove of them.…

Did you read about Floyd Mayweather, Shane MacGowan, and Bea Arthur Naked?

Reader staff — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:04:00 -0500

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• That America's new oligarchs live in Silicon Valley? —Tal Rosenberg

• About why the Red Line is so slow on the south side?…

Without le Carré, would we have The Americans?

Michael Miner — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:48:00 -0500

When my book group met a couple of weeks ago, we decided to take on John le Carré's latest, A Delicate Truth—and for purposes of comparison, because his latest has received mixed reviews, the book that made him famous, 1964's The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. We don't normally assign ourselves two books at a time, but then we don't normally read authors whose newest novels are their "latest."…

Did you read about the IRS, Terrence Malick, and foodies?

Reader staff — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:03:00 -0500

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• This defense of the IRS employees who scrutinized Tea Partiers who wanted tax breaks? —Steve Bogira

• Or see this video about the distribution of wealth in the United States?…

Red Plum/Local Values, the ad rag that keeps coming

Michael Miner — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:23:00 -0500

Grit. Tenacity.…

Did you read about Malcolm Shabazz, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Gwyneth Paltrow?

Reader staff — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:54:00 -0500

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• That carbon dioxide has reached a level not seen on the earth in at least three million years? —Steve Bogira

• About the latest in money laundering?…

ATMs: Automated Theft Machines

Steve Bogira — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:00:00 -0500

Be kind to your ATM today. The machines have been going through withdrawal lately, more than they're used to.…