MIGHTY MOUTH: The defense lawyer Sam Adam Jr. doesn’t merely argue cases—he performs, typically closing with an eruption of righteous indignation, and his clients (R. Kelly, for one) often walk free. Now Adam is set to strut and fret upon the brightly lit stage of former governor Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trial—and he aims to bring down the house
Edward “Eddie” Newman, who died Saturday at age 89, was, as his obituaries noted, the physician to some of Chicago’s most notable figures—including Mayor Richard M. Daley, real estate magnate Arthur Rubloff, and famed Chicago Bears quarterback…
HIT PARADE: No one knows when it started, but today, the walk-up song is as much a part of baseball as spitting
Lately, I’ve been talking a lot with Fred Beuttler, the deputy historian of the House of Representatives and a font of knowledge about that institution. Recently, we discussed one of my favorite subjects: Chicagoan Rahm Emanuel, the former congressman for the 5th District, now serving as chief of staff to President Obama. Beuttler speculates that…
In June’s letters: Thumbs-up and thumbs-down to our taste in hoods, tunes, and eats
June 2010: Joe Wigdahl, Kim Thornton, Marcia Froelke Coburn, Karin Horgan Sullivan, Bryan Smith
A recent Wall Street Journal story reported that Andy Goss, a former Army interrogator seeking the GOP nomination for a Congressional seat from Arizona, is proposing to cut congressional pay by 40 percent (salary is currently $174,000) and use the dollars saved to build a barracks on Capitol Hill. Four of the 19 members of the Illinois delegation go Goss one better: they sleep in their offices. All four are Chicago Democrats…
How Sam Adam Jr.’s plan for helping his client beat the rap: Let him blather.
How lovely for Carrie Zalewski and Lynne Sered. Governor Pat Quinn recently appointed the two women to plum jobs on state boards that pay six-figure annual salaries. Each woman appears to have solid credentials. But—in the kind of coincidence that seems to happen all too often in Illinois—each woman also has a powerful connection…
Many stories about Alexi Giannoulias, the candidate for the U.S. Senate seat once held by Barack Obama, mention that the two are basketball-playing buddies. Not recently: They haven’t played since Obama won the White House. In a phone interview, Alexi attributed this to the President’s busy schedule, but reports suggest that Obama’s advisers want their man…
