Results tagged “suntimes”

The sale of the Sun-Times Media Group, parent to the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of smaller papers, to a group headed by James Tyree is now complete. The $26.5 million deal is made up by $5 million paid by the group plus the assumption of the STMG's $21.5 million in liabilities. The new partnership will be called Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC. The Sun-Times reports the other members of the group are businessman Kevin Flynn; real estate executives Andrew Agostini, Ed Heil and Ed Ross; insurance executive William Parrillo; his brother, attorney Robert Parrillo; Chicago Blackhawks owner and property and liquor magnate W. Rockwell "Rocky" Wirtz; and Mesirow executives Michael Mackey, Richard Price and Bruce Young. Said Tyree of the sale:

Mayor Daley's budget for 2010 has been presented and, as expected, there were no new taxes but lots of cuts. There will also be much taken from the parking meter lease fund. In fact, by this time next year, don't expect much to be left from the $1.15 billion/75-year deal, the deal we may have gotten hosed on. Having already spent $400 million of that money this year, according to the Tribune, Daley is looking to spend an additional $600 million of that money in 2010. We're no math geniuses and even we know that doesn't leave a whole heck of a lot left in the pot for the remaining 70+ years of the lease, something that concerned Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) earlier this week. All told, Daley claims that there will still be around $700 million left in reserve funds - the combination of the Skyway and parking meter leases - next year. A cut in the city's tourism budget also raised eyebrows. And besides the cuts to entertainment and furlough days for non-union employees and elimination of vacant jobs, there are smaller cuts, too, such as the scaling back of the city's recycling program.

Crain's Chicago reported today that two more names have emerged as investors in the yet-to-be-finalized purchase of the Sun-Times. Businessmen Kevin Flynn (casino owner and CEO of Emerald Ventures, Inc.) and William Parrillo, Sr. (chairman of Safeway Insurance Co.) are reported to be among the group that has served up as much as $5 million in an attempt to revive the struggling newspaper.

It seems that the Sun-Times sale to James Tyree isn't quite a done deal yet. While the group's largest union, the Chicago Newspaper Guild, agreed to terms along with the expectation that two others would follow suit, there's one union that hasn't even scheduled a vote on the matter. The six member Chicago Typographical Union No. 16 is in no rush to approve anything. Said union president Steve Berman, "I can't sign a document that gives the company the ability to discharge my people without any assurances...we're not running to vote on this one." The Tribune has more on the matter.

• A barricade situation on the city's West Side was peacefully resolved this afternoon.
• An off-duty Chicago Police officer was killed in an early morning car crash on the Kennedy Expressway.
• Kirk Dillard got an endorsement in his race for governor from former governor Jim Edgar.

Last month, the members of the Chicago Newspaper Guild voted down a proposal by James Tyree, a deal with the devil which would have gutted the union in exchange for his buying the bankrupt media group. Late yesterday afternoon it was announced that the guild had reached an agreement with Tyree, in spite of his claims that he would withdraw his bid and that the "concessions are an absolute prerequisite from all 18 collective bargaining units for a proposed sale." While the agreement, which the membership voted on yesterday afternoon and evening, means significant pay cuts, Jim Newton, chair of the Waukegan Unit of the Guild said that the agreement "demonstrate[s] our commitment to [the paper] and our craft.... We look forward to helping this new venture not only maintain but improve our presence in the local and regional media market."

Ah, 1994. I was a sophomore in high school, doing my best to cultivate a bitchin’ head of long hair to as better ‘bang to the new Divine Intervention album from Slayer. Heidi Fleiss was in the news (for the first time). Waterworld was already getting bad press for its high cost. Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold still made the gossip column. Trade rumors for Scottie Pippen were a-flyin’. All was right with the world. Olympically, we were all still high on the ’92 Dream Team and they were still kicking ass in the World Championship of Basketball in Toronto that summer. But one story in the Sun-Times by Steve Tucker from way back then got our attention - featuring a prescient lede:

Unionized workers from the Sun-Times approved a motion that rejects concessions set by management to pave the way for the sale of the Sun-Times Media Group to businessman James Tyree by a vote of 83-22. According to the Trib, "Management has said the concessions are an absolute prerequisite from all 18 collective bargaining units for a proposed sale of parent Sun-Times Media Group." In spite of a memo sent earlier Tuesday by Chairman Jeremy Halbreich, reminding employees that a rejection of the concessions would mean a withdrawal of the bid, it seems Tyree isn't giving up on his bid. He told the Sun-Times:

• The latest parking meter issue has Mayor Daley annoyed, calling the issue "unacceptable."
• The Sun-Times' union workers will shortly assemble to vote on concessions requested in Jim Tyree's bid for the paper's parent company. A smaller paper in the STMG family - the Post-Tribune - voted against the concessions last night.
• The IHSA has reinstated all levels of football at North Chicago High School after the program was suspended following a brawl with Simeon High earlier this month.

• He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.
• The Sun-Times looks into a fence that cost taxpayers over $45,000 but seems to have benefited Ald. Ed Burke (14th) the most by keeping those damn kids with their rock'n'roll music off his lawn.
• Jackie Heard, Mayor Daley's press secretary, is not amused with media reports suggesting she rented a house to drug dealers.

Wow. Judging by this story appearing on the front page of the Sun-Times' website - pictured right - it seems like we've come a long way from those heady mid-June days when both the Cubs and Sox still had a shot at the post-season. College football kicks off tonight and the NFL follows suit in a week, so we suppose the story makes sense.

Sun-Times colleague Lynn Sweet is reporting that columnist/pundit Robert Novak has lost his battle with brain cancer and passed away early this morning at the age of 78. Novak, a Joliet native, had been with the Sun-Times since 1966. Novak’s wife, Geraldine, told Sweet, “He was someone who loved being a journalist, love journalism and loved his country and loved his family."

The Sun-Times is reporting today that the city and the FOP have reached a deal to let veteran officers retire at 55 instead of 60, in an effort to save as much cash as humanly possible. Cops retiring at the new lower-age cutoff would take a "staggered payout" of their comp time, whereas previously, older police retiring at 60 would otherwise be charged co-pays until Medicare kicked in at 65.

Far be it for us - of all sites - to pick on another site for a tech glitch. That's not what we're doing here, promise. We're routinely chasing the goats out of the tech closet where they've been chewing wires and causing general havoc for us. But when we just stumbled across this mix-up on the Sun-Times, juxtaposing the upcoming Sox-Cubs series with a brewing Daley family feud seemed almost...appropriate? A picture of Daley and nephew Robert Vanecko with text that talks about short-term memory issues...Are we way off or are we on to something here? Just wondering...

Finally. Someone from one of the two major newspaper in town has come out as opposed to the city's 2016 Olympic bid and it happens to be one of the higher profile sports writers. Of course, we've expressed our qualms about the bid here and The Reader's Ben Joravsky has also been all over the bid and the TIF entanglement therein. But it seems with the Parking Meter Debacle continuing, Telander has had enough.

Maybe Senator Burris shouldn't be so relaxed about the release of a taped conversation between him and the governor's brother. The Sun-Times' Natasha Korecki is reporting this afternoon that caught on tape is Burris - before the senate appointment - promising to write the governor a campaign check of $1,500, but Burris attorney contends it was not pay-for-play.

     

Chicago's journalism elite gathered together Thursday afternoon for yet another group therapy session, this time bringing Carl Bernstein and our beloved editor-in-chief, Marcus Gilmer, into the mix. Covering a sweeping range of topics, the central theme was the future of the news industry. Conclusion? Doom. Oh, and there's no agreeing on life-saving measures. It wasn't that we didn't have the most brilliant minds of the old guard in the conference room at the Newberry Library for the IFC's Make Media Matter series - Bernstein was joined by editors Gerould Kern (Chicago Tribune), Donald Hayner (Chicago Sun-Times), Tran Ha (RedEye) WBBM-TV news director Jeff Kiernan, columnist/editor/host Carol Marin and WVON's Cliff Kelley - it's just that the old guard doesn't know what's going to happen and the new guard, represented only by Marcus and Ha, can't predict the future of their industry.

If there's one things Cubs can get excited about this Spring, it's the emergence of Ryan Theriot as a power force to be reckoned with. As of today, Theriot is tied for second on the team with five homers and 17 RBIs, plus he boasts a .297 avg, a .372 slugging, and he is tied for first on the team with 38 hits. All five home runs this season have come in May and he only hit one all of last year. But at least one Chicago sportswriter is murmuring with concern.

• Six more confirmed cases of Swine Flu have the grand total in the state of Illinois up to *drumroll* .... Nine.
• Meanwhile, Governor Quinn echoed the sentiment of common sense in saying that riding public transit did not pose any additional health risks.
• Chicago Public Schools and the teachers' union are squaring off over potential changes to the retirement plan.

• We had this pop up about a dozen times in the inbox today: Google Map used to track Swine Flu.
• The Tribune takes a look at the new modern wing at the Art Institute, due to open in a few weeks and the possible ramifications of the new admission hike.
• Speaking of the Trib, Crain's is reporting today that circulation for the paper in the six months ranging from October '08 through March '09 is down 7.4 percent, while the Sun-Times also saw a drop, but a far smaller one of 0.04 percent. The decline for the Trib was right at about the national average of 7.1 percent.

The Sun-Times is reporting that Jewel-Osco is cutting prices up to 20 percent on thousands of products to assist shoppers on tight incomes and bargain hunters. [Sun-Times]

The other day, the Sun-Times shone a light on local actor and former football hero Daniel Sunjata, who has scored a gig on FX's acclaimed "Rescue Me." In a dazzling display of burying the lede, it took the S-T over a thousand words to get to the meat of the profile, which they then downplay as much as humanly possible - Sunjata is a 9/11 Truther. You know, the "9/11 was an inside job" guys, who continue to believe in an overwhelming governmental conspiracy to bring the nation to war.

• Hot on the heels of L2O's Beard nomination, Laurent Gras offers recommendations for cookware, appliances, spices and other kitchen essentials for the home cook over. The $279 brick toaster oven with convection from Cuisinart pictured above is among those listed. Also oin the list, a Pasquini Livia 90 semi-auto espresso machine ($1975 at Amazon.com). [men.style.com]
• Sun-Times food editor Janet Rausa Fuller also has some gadget recommendations, but at a more reasonable price range. [Sun-Times]
• Last week it was Pat Bruno, this week Helen Rosner casts a critical glare at Steve Dolinsky. [WBEZ, MP Chicago]

We still read newspapers, oh yes we do, indeed. So we were happy to find, while reading last Friday's Sun-Times, that restaurant critic Pat Bruno had an opinion of Café Bionda much in line with ours. We also have a good memory and thought, "Hadn't Bruno reviewed Bionda before?"

Time released its list of 10 Most Endangered Newspapers in America yesterday, and The Sun-Times came in at number 7 on the list. With newspapers nationwide feeling the pain of this economy is it possible we'll only read the Sun-Times online? The Sun-Times Media Group is currently trading at 3 cents per share, and that along with recent staff changes don't bode well for the future of the paper.

We're not quite sure what to make of the news that the Sun-Times has started putting out a short version you can download and print. Called the "P.M. Edition," you can download it here (it's in PDF format) and print it out and staple it together for the train ride home, we suppose. Each day goes live around 4 p.m. and the 10 page report features things like capsule news, stock updates, pop culture articles, and crossword and sudoku puzzles. Yep, sounds like a poor man's RedEye to us.

Sun-Times Media Group Inc has announced organizational and management changes. They are hoping these changes will help the ailing company to cut costs. The changes announced include new publishers for the suburban papers and new duties for the current publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Sun-Times wants to know what we, the sports fans of Chicago, think about the state of atheletics in town in their Chicago Sports Fan Survey. Their in-depth survey asks readers to answer about fifty questions about their favorite teams and players, sports media, and in-depth issues surrounding each of our five major pro teams. Let 'em know how you rank the teams, which ones are on the right or wrong track, and your job approval for local coaches and GMs. No mention of when or how they'll release the findings.

• Chicago Police are investigating what seems to be a serial rapist terrorizing the Bucktown neighborhood after another attack of a woman leaving the Western Ave. Blue Line stop.
• Former pro-wrestling star Verne Gagne is in hot water after a man he threw to the ground in a nursing home died as a result of the incident.
• On the eve of the 10th anniversary of Gene Siskel's death, former partner-in-criticism Roger Ebert gives a heartfelt remembrance of Siskel.

It's been a busy day for Sen. Roland Burris, or at least in the press. Here's (most of) what's happened.