What we're reading (and listening to) today:
Don't invite 'em item: When Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy's "listening tour" of the neighborhoods was announced in April it was touted by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as a way to "build trust." But the tour has drawn complaints by some for its approach: the meetings are not widely publicized and the media has been shut out. (A DNAinfo reporter was turned away from a stop in Dunning last month.)
Chicago Deputy Police chief of community policing Eric Washington told WBEZ's "Morning Shift" that "these events are not meant to be a town hall meeting" and that the host community organizations are given the responsibility for who to invite. Said Washington: "We're not handpicking the audience. We leave that to the host who they select to bring into those meetings." As for the press, he said, "we're not hiding anything" but that the media would "hinder" discussion.
Arthur Jackson, a retired officer in the Cook County sheriff's department now associated with Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Morgan Park, said on the show that one issue that came up in a meeting he attended was the "notion that police officers are locked up in their cars as they drive through the community — the perception is that this is the occupation force." Washington responded that the department has told officers that outreach is part of their job, "not just getting into the car and go[ing] from call to call."
Eat by Whenever: It's hard watching someone throw out food that looks perfectly good because they read some tiny stamped date on the box. Bloomberg breaks down what those "best by" labels really mean. It turns out they don't mean much of anything. Sam Cholke is reading the story and adding it to the long list of reasons why claims that he eats garbage are false.
Tale of the tape: If you're enjoying the TV play-by-play of Mike "Doc" Emrick during the Blackhawks games (as senior editor Andrew Herrmann is) you may like this interview with one of Emrick's inspirations: Bob Chase, who has been doing the games of the minor league Fort Wayne Komets for 62 years. Chase tells Sports Illustrated that, even at 89 years old, he still enjoys the travel: “I always sit in the left front seat of the bus and at the beginning of the season, the new players will look at me and think, ‘Who is this old codger?’ A couple of weeks later when they find out who I am, one of the supreme compliments for me is when they don’t call me Mr. Chase anymore. They call me ‘Chaser.’ In the hockey vernacular, that’s when I know I’ve made it.”
The Trib had a good profile of Emrick recently in which the broadcaster revealed he has been writing snail mail letters to all the people who've helped him over the years.
Mike "Doc" Emrick of NBC Sports got together last year with one of his inspirations, Bob Chase, the voice of the Fort Wayne Komets. [Fort Wayne Komets]
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
