Blogs

I don't have anything groundbreaking to say about the "Event Promoters" ordinance Chicago is considering, except to ask one question: How will the steps outlined in the ordinance prevent another tragedy like E2 from happening?

21 clubgoers were trampled to death in 2003 when people tried to flee amid a fight in the E2 club in Chicago; many of the club's exits were locked or barred. Now, how charging promoters $500 to $2000 for a license -- on top of $300,000 in liability insurance -- is supposed to stop a crowd from panicking is beyond me.

A Springfield media company scheduled a “Rally for Common Sense” tomorrow outside the Capitol. For those not following state government on a minute-by-minute basis, here’s a rundown of why that might be a good idea. There’s two weeks left in the scheduled spring session, legislative leaders remain in personal political gridlock, there’s open class warfare among Senate Democrats, the current budget is $750 million in the red, next year’s budget is worse off, state auditors say more than $1 billion in health care bill payments are being pushed back weeks in order to make the books look better than they are AND the political world awaits a verdict in a corruption case involving the governor’s top political fundraiser.

While waiting for tonight's game against Shawn Estes and the Padres (I remember that Dusty liked Estes' ability to "get out of trouble," forgetting that to get out of trouble, you had to get into trouble). Because a few of you asked, I asked Lou yesterday about Carlos Marmol's usage patterns. Marmol, the Cubs' prized reliever, threw in three straight games over the weekend, including one in which the Cubs were up 7-2. Marmol came into the May 3 game at St. Louis with the Cubs up 9-3. Marmol didn't work between the third and the ninth, but I did ask Lou about the appearances with big leads.

Harper College, the Palatine-based community college, has sought in recent years to begin offering four-year degrees, a plan that has other community colleges and the state’s four-year schools running for the hills (and their local lawmakers). The four-year schools fear an erosion of students and dollars. The community colleges fear Harper will upset the state’s financial applecart and the backlash from the big schools won’t be good for the community colleges. But Harper has persisted, flying in out-of-state officials to testify before lawmakers, hiring politically connected lobbyists and generally upping its presence at the Capitol. So far, they’ve had little success. But the path is indicative of the way things work, or don’t work, in Springfield.

OK, White Sox fans. You make the call. In case you missed Monday night's Sox-Angels game, let's go to the bottom of the fifth inning. With the White Sox holding a 4-2 lead, Los Angeles' first two hitters reach on infield singles and are sacrificed up a base. That brings Vladimir Guerrero to the plate. What to do? Intentional walk, right? Manager Ozzie Guillen opts to pitch to the all-star slugger, and Sox starter Mark Buehrle's plan of attack is to "pitch around'' Guerrero. The first pitch is a ball, and the second one is well inside. No matter, Guerrero clubs it to left field for a 3-run homer and the Angels go on to win. Baseball is a competitive game, but sometimes it's just better to have the catcher stick out his arm four straight times and go get the next hitter.

Mom, I thought you would really, really like this.

"The X-Files: I Want to Believe" opens July 25.

At the risk of sounding like I'm 92 instead of 29, they just don't make 'em like they used to.

The 20 minutes I saw of "Back to the Future" on HBO this morning made me long for the movie summers of old, when pesky things like comedy, ingenuity and characters kept getting in the way of all those visual effects. "BTTF," which began as an absolutely perfect screenplay by Bob Gale and director Robert Zemeckis, was joined that summer by "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," "Weird Science," "The Goonies," "Cocoon" and "St. Elmo's Fire."

That's the question the Cubs are asking themselves right now. My Cubs people tell me they're having a healthy internal debate on whether to take a chance on center fielder Jim Edmonds, cut loose by the Padres. The Cubs will wait to see if Edmonds clears waivers, just as they did with Reed Johnson in spring training.

The question is whether Pat Quinn will leave.

NOTE: As you may have noticed, I like to write about "Lost." I will never spoil anything in a headline or an opening paragraph, but beware of spoilers all the same anytime my favorite TV show happens to come up.

I am back from a weekend in Minneapolis, one of my favorite of all cities, where I visited friends, enjoyed a Premium Grain Belt or two (or 5 or 10), and finally bought that Johan Santana Twins jersey. (What? He doesn't play there anymore? Ah, whatever.)

Some things I learned while there: