CHICAGO — Here's what we're reading before escaping for the weekend.
Not-So-Smart Investing: How does someone blow through $100 million? Chicago native, Mount Carmel H.S. grad and former NBA player Antoine Walker knows. "My story is sad," Walker tells CNN. "I thought I was set for the rest of my life." The ways the three-time All-Star burned through cash are numerous: cars, jewelry, homes, gambling. (The story doesn't mention it, but he was also robbed here twice, losing his Mercedes and a $55,000 watch.) Gifts for friends were also a problem: "I ended up being an open ATM throughout my career." Mostly, though, he blames the Great Recession and its effect on his Walker Ventures, a Chicago-based real estate investment company. He's now employed by Morgan Stanley, working with highly-paid athletes to help them avoid his fate. One piece of advice: Learn the word "no," especially when it comes to family. Senior editor Andrew Herrmann thinks that's good advice even for us non-millionaires.
Pooping Cyclist Blamed for 73-acre Wildfire in Idaho: A cyclist who burned soiled toilet paper after relieving himself in a ravine could face a fine as a result of a massive wildfire that started when a bit of ember blew into dry grass and quickly "spread out of control," NBC News reports. "I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go," a Federal Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman told a local TV news station. In case you are curious, as reporter Alisa Hauser was, human waste should be buried or removed from fire-prone areas. Or, as the fire dispatch center put it, "pack it in, pack it out."
Lean Which Way, Again?: Reporter Heather Cherone — who has two young daughters — is reading the New York Times' take on two surveys that found young women are engineering their careers to be flexible enough to handle having a baby and managing childcare. While fascinating, the surveys focus mostly on graduates of the most prestigious colleges — like Chicago woman Yi Gu who has a 10-month-old son —who have the ability to negotiate flexible work hours and locations with their bosses. And the fact that the article doesn't mention these kids' fathers until the very end — a literal afterthought — is infuriating and only reinforces the notion that it is up to mothers to make compromises in order to hang on to their careers by their fingernails.
Ald. O'Shea Part of new Chicago Infastructure Trust Team: Ald. Matt O'Shea (19th) is part of an "almost-all-new board" for the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, according to a report in Crain's Chicago Business. The Trust was founded in 2012 as a way to tackle expensive infrastructure projects by attracting new capital from unions and other private-sector interests, the Crain's article states. Author Greg Hinz suggests that the restructuring may be a result of initially high expectations and disappointing results. Reporter Howard Ludwig wonders if the addition of O'Shea will bring much needed improvements to residents of Beverly, Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
