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* I just “love” ledes like this…
E-mails and other records of Dr. Eric Whitaker — one of President Obama’s best friends — have been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Eleven grafs down, we get this crucial bit of information…
Nothing in the subpoenas suggests Whitaker or Golden are targets of the investigation, and a spokesman for the two said they have not been subpoenaed personally or questioned by authorities.
But it’s a juicy lede, so therefore it runs.
* The Tribune editorial board must’ve swallowed hard before they ran their Sunday edit about some of the decent things the General Assembly has accomplished this session. I kid. Maybe they are starting to abandon their breathless rants. Oh. Wait. I forgot to read the lede…
They squandered months when they could have restructured state spending, dropped the ball on ethics reforms, and cruelly stymied a voucher program that would have offered hope to 30,000 kids languishing in Chicago’s worst schools. But lawmakers settled other issues in their ultimately failed rush to end their session three weeks early.
* While keeping my fingers crossed that I’m not accidentally “pulling a Brady,” I do not believe I have ever written this phrase since it is so tired and hackneyed…
This much is certain:
I checked the Google and didn’t see violations on my part, but that doesn’t cover the subscription portion.
* Maybe a little too thorough?…
As confirmed by multiple sources Friday afternoon – including his own office – the Illinois governor will take part Monday morning in a labor rally planned outside the LyondellBasell plant on U.S. 6. He is scheduled to speak at 10 a.m.
* The headline is self-promotional nonsense…
House sends controversial banking bill to Gov. Quinn
It was only “controversial” because the Trib made a mountain out of an ant hill last week. Actually, it wasn’t even that.
* How many people really remember this?…
Last year the state eliminated the food tax break for candy and soft drinks and caught hell for it from those who thought lawmakers were playing nanny.
I doubt anybody is up in arms about this today.
* Ummm…
Those most adamantly opposed to term limits keep building a stronger case for them than any proponent could muster.
I sure hope the League of Women Voters doesn’t take up that constitutional amendment push. It’ll be a sure-fire loser.
* Oy…
In [Metra Director Phil Pagano’s] pocket was found a final mocking gesture flipped at the organization that was about to humiliate him:
It was a Metra manual on how to handle service disruptions in the event of a suicide.
* Roundup…
* McPier and more
* McCormick reform package sent to Gov. Quinn
* McPier Overhaul Awaits Governor’s Signature
* Launch real reform with legal bribery
* Our View: State phone law set for 21st century, so long as consumers protected: Though the bill passed unanimously in the Legislature - mostly in the hope it will provide more jobs and investment - the Citizens Utility Board and the AARP remain opposed, fearing that rural parts of downstate will be left behind in favor of wiring Chicagoland, and that land-line rates will end up spiking. Indeed, the phone companies managed to get dropped a pre-existing mandate that at least 90 percent of downstate have access to broadband, though they pledge to follow through anyway since it’s arguably in their interest to build their customer base.
* DuPage eyes payback for state
* House sends controversial banking bill to Gov. Quinn
* Senate sends nursing home reforms to governor’s desk
* Advocates: Nursing home bill would raise standards
* Questions linger over telecom overhaul
* Illiana Expressway Moving Ahead
* Legislative wrapup
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, May 10, 10 @ 11:50 am
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Service manual…. I think suicide by train is a thoroughly rotten thing to do. It makes an uninvolved stranger who is just doing his job the instrument of your death. That person then has to live with it. If you feel you absolutely must kill yourself (which I would strongly discourage, even for the rotten) because your criminal activities are being found out, then leave innocent bystanders out of it.
Comment by Excessively Rabid Monday, May 10, 10 @ 12:03 pm
==I doubt anybody is up in arms about this today.==
Some of the commenters in “Stupid Quote of the Month” are pretty ticked about the snack tax, but too mellow to organize against it…
Comment by Vote Quimby! Monday, May 10, 10 @ 12:05 pm
Re: LyondellBasell plant in Grundy County.
First off, this whole issue is over what is called a “turnaround”. It is period where major improvements, repairs, and cleaning are performed while the plant is basically not in operation.
Estimated completion date is the end of June, 2010.
LyondellBasell is just coming out of bankruptcy, and has already closed their Chocolate Bayou “cracker” facility and several polymer plants in Europe. They shut down at least one major production line at the Grundy County facility.
If the polymer market doesn’t recover, there’s likely to have to be even more “adjustments” to the supply side.
Bottom line: The unions want to make times more difficult for LyondellBasell - well, just remember they have options also. And they don’t have to include an Illinois workforce.
Just sayin…
Comment by Judgment Day Is On The Way Monday, May 10, 10 @ 12:43 pm
The Pagano story is stranger than fiction and terribly said. Money, of the lack of “enough,” just drives some good people crazy.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, May 10, 10 @ 1:23 pm
Since you linked to John Kass’ column about Phil Pagano’s suicide, I must say how awfully rambling (more than usual) Kass was this week.
He talked about how Orlando Jones and Christopher Kelly were two suicides in a pattern of “buffers” as he called them. He talked about how Jones and Kelly took their own lives because they were taking the fall / being pushed and to protect their political sponsors. He talked about how Pagano and Michael Scott were part of the pattern too.
Yes, I know there are some strange similarities because they were all under investigation or indictment. But that’s where the similarities end. Did anyone every state that Phil Pagano killed himself to protect another politician? Michael Scott? No, but Kass loves to throw them in with the bunch and call it a pattern.
And nowhere did he talk about the half-dozen of Blago-confidants that have turned on him and are offering evidence against him (vs killing themselves to “buffer” him).
Kass’ conspiracy theories are so smoky and detached at this point that he doesn’t even know where allusion begins and the non seqitur ends.
Comment by siriusly Monday, May 10, 10 @ 2:30 pm
Capt Fax:
If you calculate teh three issues the Trib did not like and the three they did it looks likes the ILGA batted .500. That would get them to the Hall of Fame or into the lineup batting clean-up for the team that plays in the stadium they tried to get Blagoof to buy.
BTW the # of Kass comments suggests near record readship of the slop he served up on Pagano.
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, May 10, 10 @ 2:41 pm
I can just hear Whitaker say “It’s bleepin Golden” (as in Quin).
Comment by PaddyBonner Monday, May 10, 10 @ 2:54 pm
Speaking of the Trib here is another reminder for any listening to them for fiscal leadership( ya out there StateWideTom? NoTaxBill? CommandoKirk?)
Bankruptcy judge appoints examiner to look at Tribune buyout deal
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, May 10, 10 @ 2:56 pm
Trib news gets better…
Brentwood real estate broker Joan Gardner was suffering such excruciating pain with a swollen knee, months after a fall, that she was homebound, depressed and unable to work. Her doctor and orthopedic physical therapist encouraged her to have surgery, but Gardner declined because, “I’m stubborn and vain.” Instead, she decided to try something different.
Digging up a number her grocery clerk had given her, Gardner dialed Ken Klee, a UCLA law professor and prominent corporate bankruptcy lawyer who practices energy healing on the side. A seven-year student of more than half a dozen healing methods including reiki’s radiance technique, pranic healing and Theta Healing, Klee practices eight hours a week out of his Brentwood home office, stacked high with stones and crystals, massage table at the center.
Without touching her body or charging her a fee, Klee waved his hands over Gardner for three hours last December, channeling divine healing energy and helping her clear out anger and other blocks. The next day the swelling in Gardner’s knee was gone.
“I was in shock. It sounds probably crazy, but it’s the truth,” she said. “I feel like a million dollars, and I have since that day.”
Stories like Gardner’s raise eyebrows among those in the medical establishment and Klee’s academic colleagues. Once the provenance of faith healers, shamans, ancient and New Age mystics, however, energy healing is increasingly going mainstream.
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, May 10, 10 @ 3:08 pm
I agree, the Kass story about Pagano was pretty pathetic in its development. This is not a story about Chicago politics; it seems to be the story of a guy who put his heart and soul into an agency, by all accounts helped turn around its fortunes tremendously, took a few liberties there (no excuses from here), got called on the carpet (justifiably), and took it way too hard.
Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Monday, May 10, 10 @ 3:19 pm
I just want to say, that I’m not a fan of the Tribune putting an editorial on the front page as if it’s a regular article.
Comment by Taxmandan Monday, May 10, 10 @ 4:53 pm