CWB Chicago, who and what is that, exactly?
9-29-2022 (issue No. 55)
An earlier edition of this newsletter was mistakenly sent to paid subscribers only! Apologies.
Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above.
This week
News and Views — hot takes on hot stories
An online discussion about the hijab in light of the deadly violence in Iran
Land of Linkin’ — Where I tell readers where to go
Human composting — an update
The Weekly Schmich — Mary shares a poem on autumn by May Sarton
A promo for “The Mincing Rascals” podcast — with special guest A.D. Quig
Re:Tweets — this week’s finalists
Tune of the Week — Jim Post’s “Mighty Big River”
Last week’s winning tweet
I also offered an all-politics poll and the winner was:
Read all the entries from last week here.
Scroll down to read this week’s nominees or click here to vote in the new poll.
Come out, come out, CWBChicago!
Just about every news outlet in town has cited or shared video from the website CWBChicago when reporting on crime. The site doggedly reports on violence and curates troubling and often graphic video of disturbances. Browse around for a few moments, though, and you’ll notice that CWBChicago stories carry no bylines, and the publication has no directory.
It’s unconventional to unheard of for an important news site to operate under such a cloak of anonymity.
And perhaps the desire for secrecy was understandable in the early days. “Crime In Wrigleyville and Boystown (CWB),” was the creation of five residents of that North Side area who got together in early 2013 to publicize crime statistics in their neighborhoods that they felt police were downplaying or ignoring altogether.
From the “our history” portion of their site:
We knew from city data that robberies in our neighborhood had been soaring to record highs for three consecutive years. Yet public officials and police representatives at CAPS meetings continually said that crime was going down. …
The response to our work was incredible. Readers showed up in droves at CAPS meetings, demanding to be told the truth. False stories from aldermen and even the police department were exposed for what they were.
And, most importantly, the city not only admitted to there being a street crime problem in Wrigleyville and Boystown, but the police department took corrective action.
Five citizens on a crusade to counter the Chicago Police Department narrative? Yeah, you can see why they might want to stay anonymous.
But since then, the site has expanded its reach to cover crime throughout the city and has become much more than a data-adjustment effort. It’s pretty much all mayhem all the time, fleshing out crime reports and counting the number of felony suspects out on bail rearrested for allegedly trying to kill or shoot someone else.
In critically evaluating the site, Delia Corridon of the Chicago Justice Project took note of the tally referenced above and wrote:
The purpose of this count is to build specific evidence against the movement for bail reform within the criminal justice system. In general, coverage of crime and the justice system by CWBChicago does not account for social circumstances or consider the context that gives way to these incidents.
My view is that keeping score of such crimes is an exhortation to judges and prosecutors to do better when evaluating the risks posed by felony suspects. “Bail reform” — the elimination of cash bail — isn’t responsible for the number because it won’t go into effect until next year. And straight crime reporting seldom delves into the “social circumstances” that give rise to acts of violence, so it’s captious to cite that as a flaw.
John Greenfield, co-editor of Streetsblog Chicago and a Chicago Reader columnist, has for years been scrapping online with CWBChicago, implying that it has racist roots because it was created to cover an “affluent, majority-white area and, among other things, advocate for more policing” to quell activity by “Queer POC youth from the South and West sides (who) were drawn to Boystown as a safe haven.”
Greenfield referred to it as “a website that is largely covered with mugshots of Black and brown people.”
CWBChicago is, indeed, fond of posting mugshots, but I don’t know if the proportion of Black and Hispanic arrestees pictured is or is not in line with the overall proportion of Black and Hispanic arrestees.
Others have complained that the site is run by those with police ties, that in some cases it leaves out relevant information, and that any such relentless focus on crime is intended to stir up fear and anger in the voting public rather than simply to inform.
It’s supported at least in part by reader donations and advertising. I don’t know if the site has other sources of income or if its staff has grown beyond the original five citizen reporters. I also don’t know what the sociopolitical agenda of the site is, if any.
But I have come over the years to have confidence in the basic facts it lays out. If they’ve made any significant errors, I’m unaware of it.
I wrote Tuesday to Communications & News Affairs at the Chicago Police Department to ask if CWBChicago offered complete and accurate information, but I got no response.
On social media, Greenfield wrote:
The fact of the matter is CWBChicago should have a number you can call, they should publish a photo of the editor's face and provide a bio, and they should publish a mailing address. That's what responsible media outlets do.
So why do the people behind the CWBChicago crime blog essentially hide behind anonymity? In short, they're cowards. Gutless. Yellow-bellied. Chicken-hearted. Fraidy cats.
I report on crime all the time. Last year I did research that helped get a guy who allegedly assaulted cyclists arrested. I'm not a portrait in courage or anything, but at least I have the guts to be transparent about who I am and what I'm doing.
Earlier this week I emailed Tim Hecke, who identifies himself as the “managing partner” of the site when he responds to messages submitted through the “contact us” box at the site.
Hecke had declined my request for an interview in March, but I tried again: “I know you don't want to give interviews, but maybe you could tell me why you don't want to give interviews or reveal much about CWBChicago,” I wrote. “What's the hesitation? Can you tell me that much?”
His terse response, “I haven't heard a compelling reason to” grant an interview. “I have heard a lot of uncompelling reasons, however.”
The compelling reason is that accountability matters. CWBChicago began as a crusade to hold police accountable, and it strikes me as hypocritical, not cowardly, for the people behind the publication today not to be willing to held accountable for their work, as true journalists are.
Answer your critics and defend your work, not through anonymous social media accounts but in person. Come out from the shadows.
The interview invitation still stands.
News & Views
News: A measure to block members of the Chicago City Council from having second jobs that could conflict with their aldermanic duties has stalled.
View: I understand why members of the City Council would want to keep their outside gigs. They currently earn an annual aldermanic salary of between roughly $115,000 and $130,000, which is a decent living but less than what many of them could be earning in the private sector. And perhaps a more rigorous ethics ordinance more scrupulously enforced could prevent them from ever voting on any matter that might benefit their outside financial interest, no matter how tangentially.
But if you put the proposal, offered by Lincoln Square Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, and quickly consigned to the death pit of the rules committee — to the general electorate, I expect it would pass resoundingly.
News: President Biden announces new rule requiring airlines to disclose "true cost" of plane tickets .
View: Great! Now do gasoline prices.
News: The Illinois Supreme Court rules that two former state senators who voted to reject legislative pay raises have no right to claw them back now.
View: I’m thrilled, for I have nothing but contempt for former Democratic Sens. Mike Noland and James Clayborne.
In 2012, when sanctimoniously voting for a bill calling for members of the General Assembly to take furlough days and forgo the regular cost-of-living raise built into state law as a show of support and solidarity with the citizenry during tough economic times, then-Senate Majority Leader Clayborne of Belleville preened, “Rejecting this pay raise is the right thing to do at a time when so many people are struggling to make ends meet. As legislators, it’s wrong to ask our fellow Illinoisans to make responsible decisions if we are unwilling to do the same.”
Noland, from Elgin, was similarly oily: “The least we can do is cut our own pay again. I know most working families in Illinois are not seeing raises this year, so we shouldn’t either.”
But when they slithered back into private life (Noland in 2017, Clayborne in 2019), they sued Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza for the money they would have been paid had the measure they supported not passed.
Mendoza branded their effort as “shameless ... nasty …sick … disgraceful and selfish,” and noted that if applied retroactively to all affected lawmakers, such a repayment would cost taxpayers about $10 million.
Noland and Clayborne even won the first round in their disgraceful legal effort. But a unanimous Illinois Supreme Court shot them down last week, mostly because they filed their complaint too late.
News: Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vows to try to repeal the Biden-approved funding for an increase in Internal Revenue Service agents if Republicans take back Congress.
View: So the party of law and order is now staunchly behind insurrectionists, a former president who mishandles classified documents and tax cheats? Got it.
News: John Gibbs, a candidate for the U.S. House in Michigan, once railed against giving women the right to vote, arguing that America has "suffered" since women's suffrage.
View: Gibbs’ candidacy in a district that includes Grand Rapids is a compelling test of the Democrats’ strategy of helping the wackiest Republicans win their primary elections in hopes that they’ll be easy to beat in November. As CNN reports, Gibbs was boosted by commercials paid for by Democrats that stressed his strongly conservative views, ostensibly to attack him but actually to motivate right-wingers to vote for him. He narrowly edged Rep. Peter Meijer, who was one of the few Republicans in the House who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump.
Was the Democratic effort a dirty trick that will backfire by installing another Republican extremist in Congress? Or will it serve to elect Democrat Hillary Scholten, who lost to Meijer by 6 percentage points two years ago?
We’ll know in a little less than six weeks.
News: The Robert R. McCormick Foundation announced a $7.5 million investment in Block Club Chicago, Capitol News Illinois, Injustice Watch and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.
View: This is an excellent development. The ongoing recognition in the philanthropic community that journalism is a key to civic health and can thrive with outside support is cheering. I subscribe to Block Club Chicago — which is getting a $1.6 million grant to fund investigative reporting — and you should, too.
If the online publication does say so itself, “In four years, Block Club has transformed from scrappy startup to one of the most-read news organizations in Chicago by being responsive to the city’s neighborhoods, publishing more than a dozen stories daily from every corner of the city.”
Symbolism and the hijab, an online dialogue
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and CAIR’s national strategic communications director, is a particularly thoughtful voice in the area.
In 2006, he and I engaged in a lengthy online discussion about the violent response in the Islamic world to cartoon depictions of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. So I wrote to him earlier this week to ask about the violent government response to anti-hijab protests in Iran in which more than 75 protesters have reportedly been killed, and whether he thought that religious head coverings for women had become a toxic symbol.
Eric Zorn:
Protesters in Iran are inflamed by the fact that 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in custody after having been arrested by the Guidance Patrol (commonly known as the “morality police”) for wearing an insufficient hijab.
I recognize that many women around the world wear the hijab proudly and as a symbol of pride in their heritage and faith. But the question I have, as a Westerner, is why, under all the current circumstances, the mandatory headscarf for women should not be seen as a symbol of a patriarchal theocracy in which women have diminished rights and status? What is your view of the women in Iran who are defiantly removing their hijabs and flinging them into the fire? Can this symbol survive its association with brutal, oppressive sexism? Should it?
Ahmed Rehab:
The hijab itself is not a symbol of oppression, tyranny, or patriarchy. Denying women the right to dress as they choose is.
In Islam, women (and men) are granted the right to freedom of conscience and with it the freedom of religious practice, and there are many Muslim women around the world who wear the hijab as a personal choice, and many who do not wear it as a personal choice. For most women who choose to wear the hijab, for them it is an act of devotion to God as well as rebellion against and liberation from cultural expectations and pressures that demand female sexualization.
In my family, my mother and one sister wear it, and my wife and another sister do not. This difference in dress choice is quite personal and has never been so much as a notable topic of conversation let alone debate in my family; our family experience is typical of most Muslim societies.
Iran and Afghanistan are two of the exceptions to the norm where there are laws mandating what women wear, in this case denying women the choice not to wear the hijab.
Another exception in the opposite sense is France where Muslim women are denied the choice to wear a hijab should they wish to attend public school. Both sets of laws are oppressive, since as I mentioned they are removing personal choice and forcing a woman to dress a certain way. The oppression is in the compulsion and not the hijab or lack thereof.
Eric Zorn:
I agree that compulsions and prohibitions are both oppressive. But in Iran, the compulsion is resulting in actual bloodshed, yet you seem to want to both-sides this question.
In 2015, Muslim writers Asra Q. Nomani and Hala Arafa published “As Muslim women, we actually ask you not to wear the hijab in the name of interfaith solidarity,” a Washington Post op-ed that said in part:
To us, the “hijab”is a symbol of an interpretation of Islam we reject that believes that women are a sexual distraction to men, who are weak, and thus must not be tempted by the sight of our hair. We don’t buy it. This ideology promotes a social attitude that absolves men of sexually harassing women and puts the onus on the victim to protect herself by covering up. ... Do not wear a headscarf in “solidarity” with the ideology that most silences us, equating our bodies with “honor.” Stand with us instead with moral courage against the ideology of Islamism that demands we cover our hair.
I understand that you disagree with their interpretation, but do you see that all this killing in Iran in an effort to impose modesty inevitably alters the symbolism of the hijab and that wearing it can be seen as a symbol of approval of the theology that in some places demands it? Do you agree that the symbol has been appropriated by the world's worst religious tyrants, and reclaiming it now will be difficult?
Ahmed Rehab:
You seem to be approaching this issue from a point of bias, your personal belief that the hijab itself is oppressive. And you seem to want to point to this incident of violent government abuse as a validation of your bias.
But again, your logic lacks depth.
Remind yourself: It is government abuse that is oppressive, not the hijab. If Iran or Russia forces a segment of its population to relocate, is migration abusive or forced migration? It is not migration or hijab that is the issue, but force and compulsion that is the real issue.
If on the other hand, the hijab is worn voluntarily by a woman as a matter of personal choice and conscience, you cannot argue that it is inherently oppressive, unless like Asra Nomani, you think your personal views should be enforced on other people.
Denying a Muslim woman (or any woman) the right to personal choice is infantilizing and oppressive; you should not do it, Asra Nomani should not do it, Iran should not do it, the Taliban should not do it, France should not do it — it is really not such a hard concept to comprehend. The argument is clear: Forcing a woman to wear or not wear something is wrong.
If you do it by law like in Iran or France, it is governmental abuse. If you do it violently like the aforementioned case in Iran, it is violent governmental abuse. This is incomprehensible and condemnable to me as a Muslim. Where is the confusion?
Eric Zorn:
I've touched on related topics for years and I haven't written anything negative about the hijab.
In fact, in 2019 I wrote a column supporting a Muslim woman from Rockford who had filed a federal civil rights suit against the office of Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White over its policies pertaining to the wearing of religious head coverings in driver’s license photographs. I wrote that it was "ridiculous that the state maintains any form of this bizarre, unnecessary prejudice against head coverings."
So it's not that. It's whether you feel this high-profile and very disturbing set of incidents in Iran has tainted the symbolism of the hijab in the eyes of the world, and I think I understand your answer is a strong no.
Last word to you.
Ahmed Rehab:
Yes, the answer is a strong no.
A yes would victimize women twice.
The disturbing set of incidents in Iran have not tainted the hijab or Muslim women; rather, it has tainted the Iranian government, as it should. Iran’s forceful and in this case violent usurpation of a woman’s right to choose is condemnable.
Meanwhile, the hundreds of millions of Muslim females who willingly choose to cover their bodies as a personal choice have nothing to apologize for, and their personal choice is certainly not “tainted” as a result of one government’s abuse that they have no hand in.
Only in the eyes of those who are lazy enough to monolithize Muslims would there be a tendency to conflate and confuse issues. This conflation of course happens frequently in some quarters of the West and is the bedrock of Western Islamophobia.
Land of Linkin’
Yeah, sure, admittedly, it’s pure clickbait and they did it six years ago, but Rolling Stone’s new “The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time” is a fun list. The top five: 1. “The Sopranos”; 2. “The Simpsons”; 3. “Breaking Bad”; 4. “The Wire”; 5. “Fleabag.” I loved “Fleabag” very much, but putting it ahead of “Seinfeld”? The omission of “The Cosby Show,” “Roseanne” and “Louie” due to their problematic stars is notable. And the omission of “This Is Us” is unpardonable. Let the furious bickering begin!
Block Club Chicago reports that retiring Ald. Tom Tunney is circulating mayoral nominating petitions. Keep track of the entrants in the February 2023 election at my Chicago Mayoral Scoreboard page.
“Chicago Public Square: I built it for free, and you can do the same” is the transcript of a speech delivered in Oak Park last week by Charlie Meyerson, founder and proprietor of Chicago Public Square, a daily newsletter filled with informative links.
David Byrnes of Courthouse News Service sums up the latest as well as the previous legal efforts to overturn the terrible parking meter sell-off deal engineered by then- Mayor Richard M. Daley.
Axios Chicago dives into the exorbitant fees tacked onto the exorbitant ticket prices at the new Museum of Ice Cream. Those service fees are up to $11.37 per person on top of ticket prices as high as $44 a person.
In “An unsung hero of our Supreme Court,” retired University of Illinois at Chicago School of Law professor Timothy P. O’Neill makes the case for celebrating former Justice David Souter who “did his duty and then retired to rural life.”
A new commercial for Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker attacks the curriculum in a school run by his Republican opponent, state Sen. Darren Bailey. The spot claims children are taught that “dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the Earth at the same time,” for example.
Summary of Provisions in Illinois House Bill 3653: Criminal Justice Omnibus Bill from the Civic Federation is a very readable, very thorough summary of the controversial SAFE-T Act that changes procedures in the criminal justice system.
“Axios Employees Instructed To Use Axios Funds To Buy Six Copies Each Of Axios Founders’ Dumb Book” in Defector includes snippets from scathing reviews of “Smart Brevity” such as, “Anyone who expects a book about writing to be, you know, well written will be flummoxed by the clanking prose.”
Another site aiming to fill the coverage gap left by the retirement of legendary media columnist Robert Feder is Terence Henderson’s “TDogMedia.” Last week, I linked readers to Rick Kaempfer’s weekly “Media Notebook” blog.
I came across a transcript of the 2015 interview on Irish TV in which British actor Stephen Fry, an atheist, answered the question of what he’d say to God at the Pearly Gates if it turned out he was wrong: “Bone cancer in children? What's that about? How dare you! How dare you create a world where there is such misery that is not our fault? It's not right. It is utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world that is so full of injustice and pain?” Here is one response from a believer.
Aaron Blake’s Washington Post article, “‘Impeachable whatever’: GOP floats impeaching Biden for ... something” outlines the vapidity of the Republican Party’s “payback” attitude toward presidential impeachment as evidenced by the numerous empty threats from elected leaders.
The Picayune Sentinel on the air: On Thursdays at 4:30 p.m., WCPT-AM 820 host Joan Esposito and I chat about ideas raised in the new issue. The listen-live link is here.
The Picayune Sentinel preview: Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. I talk with WGN-AM 720 host John Williams about what’s making news and likely to be grist for the PS mill. The WGN listen-live link is here.
Human composting, an update
The Los Angeles Times reports:
California will begin allowing an alternative burial method known as human composting in 2027, under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on (Sept. 18).
Assembly Bill 351 by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) will create a state regulatory process for natural organic reduction, a method in which human remains naturally decompose over a 30-to-45-day period after being placed in a steel vessel and buried in wood chips, alfalfa and other biodegradable materials. The nutrient-dense soil created by the process can then be returned to families or donated to conservation land.
California will be the fifth state — after Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Vermont — to permit what some providers artfully call “terramation.” (I’m a champion of the idea and gave you background on it in PS-19.)
I tweeted the news from California at state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, who last term was the chief sponsor along with 27 co-sponsors of a bill to allow the practice in Illinois. That bill died, but Cassidy tweeted back at me, “We’re going to be ready with a new version for next session & I’m hopeful for its chances!”
Mary Schmich: ‘Mellow and acute’
My former colleague Mary Schmich posts occasional column-like entries on Facebook. Here, reprinted with permission, is her most recent offering:
A friend who recently lost her mother sent me a beautiful poem by May Sarton called "Autumn Sonata." It's about love and loss, which is to say about change and learning to live with grief. My friend particularly liked the description of autumn, and grief, as "mellow and acute."
As for the photo, I took it a couple of days ago at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It feels more like summer in full crescendo than autumn, but this time of year the two are fused. Mellow and acute.
Here's the poem:
Autumn Sonata
If I can let you go as trees let go
Their leaves, so casually, one by one;
If I can come to know what they do know,
That fall is the release, the consummation,
Then fear of time and the uncertain fruit
Would not distemper the great lucid skies
This strangest autumn, mellow and acute.
If I can take the dark with open eyes
And call it seasonal, not harsh or strange
(For love itself may need a time of sleep),
And, treelike, stand unmoved before the change,
Lose what I lose to keep what I can keep,
The strong root still alive under the snow,
Love will endure - if I can let you go.
~May SartonMinced Words
A.D. Quig, who covers Cook County government, City Hall and the Obama Presidential Center for the Tribune, joined host John Williams and me for this week’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals.” We discussed the latest in the governor’s race, power struggles at City Hall, great TV shows and more. Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Or bookmark this page. If you’re not a podcast listener, you can now hear an edited version of the show at 8 p.m. most Saturday evenings on WGN-AM 720.
Re: Tweets
In Tuesday’s paid-subscriber editions, I present my favorite tweets that rely on visual humor and so can’t be included in the classic Tweet of the Week contest in which the template for the poll does not allow the use of images. Subscribers vote for their favorite, and I post the winner here every Thursday:
I’m unable to determine who originated this one.
The new nominees for Tweet of the Week:
When cooking for a date for the first time I use plenty of garlic so we can get the whole "vampire/not a vampire" question out of the way. — @JohnLyonTweets
Dinosaur: “I'll take my chances.” Asteroid Insurance Salesman: “I think you’re making a big mistake.” — @Cpin42
If Facebook has taught me anything it’s that there is a reason we lose touch with people. — @Shade510
No one ever actually circles back do they? The joke’s on me isn’t it? —@theregoesrichie
Going to start responding to every tweet with, "When will you acknowledge our son?"— @MayorOfAsstown
When a kid says, "Daddy, I want mommy" that's the kid version of "I'd like to speak to your supervisor.”— @LIFEISJOURKNEE
Sometimes, for fun, I like to walk up to someone and ask if the seat next to them is taken. If they say no, I just walk away. — @sixfootcandy
Occasionally I’ll look at the cat and pity him for not being able to enjoy a coffee, but then I catch him licking his own genitals and wonder who’s the real loser here? — @Gupton68
In California, after 15 weeks, the fetus is given a podcast. — @ConanOBrien
Living on an upstate farm sounded great until people started dropping off their dead pets. — @WoodyLuvsCoffee
I didn’t include the one just below because I’ve been trying to segregate political tweets into a separate poll, and though there is nothing funny about Hurricane Ian, I did find this one timely and amusing:
I didn’t include this one either — maybe I should have? — but it’s spot on:
Vote here in the poll. For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here.
Tune of the Week
Illinois folk singer Jim Post died earlier this month at age 82. Maureen O’Donnell’s three-page obituary in the Chicago Sun-Times and Rick Kogan’s valedictory in the Chicago Tribune reminded me of my favorite song of Post’s, the opening number on his 1996 album, “Mark Twain & the Laughing River.”
It’s Post at his lyrical, melodic and vocally gymnastic best. We played the cassette of “Mark Twain & the Laughing River” for our then-7-year-old until he had most of it memorized, and we cued up “Mighty Big River” to play as we drove across the Mississippi with him on a car trip out to Colorado.
I’d never heard Post’s one pop hit — “Reach Out Of The Darkness,” a sappy, 1960s flower-child anthem in which the chorus clearly says, “Reach out in the darkness” — nor had I heard his haunting "Three Soft Touches," Post was reportedly listening to that song as he slipped away in hospice care, and O’Donnell reprinted the lyrics in their entirety at the end of her obituary.
Consult the complete Tune of the Week archive!
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Here are the comments from the initial misfire posting of this issue: 10 Comments
Write a comment…
Wendy C
Sep 29
I agree with Ahmed Rehab, "force and compulsion that is the real issue", not religion or the hijab itself. It's government control of a woman's body, not unlike our current situation with the far right banning a woman's right to make her own medical decisions regarding abortion and contraception. The attempt to cloak these issues in religion is hypocrisy, rather it's a misogynistic attempt to degrade and punish women who dare to make their own choices.
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Steven K
Sep 29
Does that mean that you DON’T think that there is a strong religious component to the attempts to restrict abortion? And if there isn’t, and it’s all ascribable to misogyny, then why do women comprise the majority of people that identify as pro-life?
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Ann Hilton Fisher
Sep 29
It seems to me that the obvious answer to St. Peter's question is "well, I'll be damned." But thanks for including the nun's response as well.
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C Pittman
Sep 29
I love the Picayune Sentinel and read it first thing every Tuesday and Thursday! I also read CWB most days because it is the only place to get timely and factual news source on crime on the north side where I live and my kids and grandkids live. The accuracy of the reporting is fair game for criticism, but no one seems to be questioning that. The fact that Ms. Corridon and Mr. Greenfield want to brand CWB as racist just for informing citizens of the crimes being committed in their neighborhoods, along with proving that, contrary to what Judge Evens says, these lenient bond requirements and electronic monitoring are contributing to repeat felonies is reason enough for them not to grant interviews or publish under bylines. Don't shoot the messenger! CWB is contributing to an informed citizenry.
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Jim Strickler
Sep 29
Two small points to consider: I believe our governor prefers "JB" to "J.B." He apparently thinks of it as his name rather than his initials. Do you have a reason to use the periods?
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Eric Zorn
Sep 29
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It's newspaper/ Associated Press style in town Though if he does prefer it, I'd be fine with changing.
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Jim Strickler
Sep 30
His personal website (jbpritzker.com), the office of the governor's website (www2.illinois.gov), and his Facebook page all use JB. On to more important issues.
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Eric Zorn
Sep 30
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Oh no, I subscribe to Paige Wiser's motto, "Let's Make Too Much of It, Shall We?"
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Eric Zorn
Sep 30
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Just messaged Pritzker's press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh about this and she wrote back "We use JB without the periods!"
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Carl Vander Woude
Sep 29
I don’t have student debt but I believe in student debt forgiveness.
I can’t get pregnant but I believe abortion should be legal.
I’m straight and cis but I am pro same-sex marriage and trans rights.
Welcome to It’s Not Always About You 101.
Yeah, real funny. However, abortion and gay marriage, which is alright with me too, doesn’t cost me money... Student loan forgiveness will cost $400 BILLION per the CBO
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I am an atheist, but I will fight for free religious expression, including the right to wear the hijab or full body covering if they choose. However, Ahmed Rehab does not get to call me an Islamaphobe because I believe these are symbols of oppression. I am not a big fan of the Roman Catholic church,either, and its stance on women's reproductive rights, but I respect their right to hold the tenets of their faith. Respecting the right to choose, however, does not mean I have to respect the choice. Nomani is right and I am trying hard to resist the idea that Mr. Rehab is mansplaining.