CHICAGO — Here's what we're reading today.
Senior Citizens Who Play Euchre for Toilet Paper Told to Stop: The Indiana Gaming commission is targeting a senior center's thrice weekly game of Euchre, where folks pay $2.50 to play for about 3 hours, and then get prizes such as toilet paper and boxes of cookies. The games are considered illegal gambling, Indianapolis Star reports. About 50 players are involved in the gambling group, including an 88 year-old Muncie woman whose daughter said, "It gives them some excitement."
Bucking the Trend: There's money to be made in Chicago's neighborhoods, even in poorer ones. Senior editor Andrew Herrmann is reading a pair of Chicago Reporter pieces that look at how those economies work. Businessman Becker Muzeau says he makes $180,000 to $200,000 annually in Woodlawn offering a range of services including tax prep and computer repairs. Says Ald. Willie Cochran (20th) of small businessmen: "If they offer the right product they are successful, but they have to get around the philosophy that black neighborhoods or minority neighborhoods that are deprived are not worthy to be invested in." Reporter staffer Adeshina Emmanuel, a former DNAinfo staffer, also has an interesting look at Family Dollar, a national chain which has 83 stores in the city. The average Family Dollar in the U.S. generates about $1.3 million in annual revenue.
Rethinking Bill Cosby: A New York Times cover story sheds new light on the once revered comedian, who used a sore back as an excuse to get a prescription for quaaludes in the 1970s and then admitted to drugging women and having sex with them. Over the course of four days in 2005, Bill Cosby shared details of his affairs with women in a deposition to defend himself in a case which was later settled. "Even as Mr. Cosby denied he was a sexual predator who assaulted many women, he presented himself in the deposition as an unapologetic, cavalier playboy, someone who used a combination of fame, apparent concern and powerful sedatives in a calculated pursuit of young women — a profile at odds with the popular image he so long enjoyed, that of father figure and public moralist," says writers Graham Bowley and Sydney Ember. Read the entire story here.
Chicago's Nightcrawler: Chicago Magazine rides along with Chicago's real life nightcrawler, Pauley LaPointe, who may have been the inspiration for 2014's Nightcrawler featuring Jake Gyllenhaal. LaPointe recalls a time in 2008 when he was at a crime scene shooting video to later sell to local tv outlets when shots from an assault rife sprayed all around him. LaPointe's clips from crime scenes usually go for between $150 to $300, but his biggest haul was $5,000, according to the profile. A photo of LaPointe in the drivers seat of his Ford Crown Vic uploading footage from a laptop looks straight out of the movie.
Chicago Investigator Fired For Finding Police Shootings Unjustified: For most of his career as a supervisor with Chicago's Independent Police Review Authority, Lorenzo Davis received great performance reviews, according to WBEZ. But when the former Chicago police commander said some shootings were not justified, he was fired and accused of having a "clear bias against police" and not being a team player, WBEZ reports.
“They have shot people dead when they did not have to shoot,” Davis told WBEZ. “They were not in reasonable fear for their lives. The evidence shows that the officer knew, or should have known, that the person who they shot was not armed or did not pose a threat to them or could have been apprehended by means short of deadly force.” Since 2007, IPRA has only found one shooting out of 400 to be unjustified.
Everything New Is Old Again: Oooh, look, another "30 Under 30" list, this one, courtesy of Zagat, giving jumpy claps to neophytes of Chicago's culinary scene. Yawn. Nothing against the likely deserving honorees, but just once reporter Patty Wetli would like to see a publication raise the bar. How about "60 Over 60" or "80 Over 80"? Success by 30, kind of not all that unexpected; continued creativity and drive when your peers are kicking back on Social Security — impressive. Case in point: Norman Lloyd, currently stealing scenes in Amy Schumer's "Trainwreck." While pretty much every reviewer has fallen over backwards in praise of 30-year-old LeBron James' supporting turn, nary a one has mentioned the casting of the 100-year-old Lloyd. Not a typo. Lloyd was old as dirt in the '80s when he starred in "St. Elsewhere" and he's not only still alive, he's still working. How 'bout some jumpy claps for that.
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