December 9, 2008
News of Town
Filed by Bil at 10:22 am under Politics, The Media
It’s only Tuesday, and look what’s happened:
- Tribune Company files for bankruptcy protection.
- IL Gov. Rod Blagojevich arrested on federal corruption charges.
If you are awake in Chicago, neither one of these is particularly surprising. Something else that’s not surprising: it was a lot easier to find a story about the Tribune Company bankruptcy filing on the Boston Globe’s website than on the Chicago Tribune’s. Hmm…
I don’t really have anything especially interesting to say at this point in time, but I will certainly be following both these stories as they develop. Blagojevich’s arrest will probably be good for the state in many ways, but the immediate and long-term effects are uncertain. I’m not sure who will replace him as governor, and I have a feeling this will be a hot topic in the next gubernatorial election. (Luckily, the Green Party is automatically on the ballot, so resources can be better used toward actual campaigning. Seriously, people, vote Green in local elections. Seriously.)
As for the Tribune filing Chapter 11…well, I do love the Cubs and I have no idea what this means for old Wrigley Field. My own day job company is partly owned by the Tribune, but we have been assured by our CEO that our company is actually a source of income for the Tribune, not a drain, so there won’t be any effects on our operations. Still, though, you can never be certain.
More to come as these unfold.
“I’ve got this thing and it’s (expletive) golden,” he said of his authority to appoint Obama’s replacement, “and I’m just not giving it up for (expletive) nothing. I’m not gonna do it.”
Thanks, AP!
It’s been funny to be the Illinois representative here during all of this. When I found out he’d been arrested, I hadn’t even found out why and it still didn’t surprise me.
To follow up:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-12-10-corruptstates_N.htm?se=yahoorefer
This is a USA Today article that claims Illinois is not the most corrupt state — North Dakota is. This measure is taken by number of corruption convictions per 100,000 residents.
The counter-argument is that Illinois likely has far more corrupt officials than have actually been convicted. Just because one cog gets arrested does not mean the whole machine breaks down.