Headlines about the Asian Carp invading the Great Lakes would be easy to dismiss as just another weird fish story. After all, the aquatic predators can grow big enough to capsize a bass boat. But as the Chicago News Cooperative‘s David Greising and Daniel Libit report in Sunday’s Chicago pages of the New York Times, carp from the Far East may end up doing the people of Chicago and the Midwest a huge favor. Efforts to keep the voracious fish from swimming into Lake Michigan and devouring the plankton that sustains all things aquatic may wind up being good for the economy.
David Greising came to the CNC as a keen observer of business and finance, both as a columnist and chief business correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and as a bureau chief at Business Week magazine. He also worked for the Chicago Sun-Times and logged some time at the old City News Bureau. David grew up in Park Ridge and now lives in Evanston. Daniel Libit is fast becoming a familiar name to readers of the Chicago pages even though he just got to the city after a stint as a reporter in Washington D.C. at Politico, the political newspaper and website in the nation’s capitol. Together they report on elements of the fish story that you might not have heard from those who suggest the only way to beat the carp is to catch, cook and eat them.
Fresh from a couple of days in New York judging candidates for the Pulitzer Prize, CNC Columnist Jim Warren takes a look at how the faculty and staff at the University of Illinois at Chicago plans to use one of four furlough days mandated for the rest of the school year. They’ve organized a rally and campaign to make state officials accountable for a state budget mess that left the university with a $500 million IOU from Springfield. As long as everyone is talking about accountability, our intrepid columnist wants to know who will hold the professors accountable for what their students learn during a semester.
So what do you get when you mix 50 artists with 50 aldermen? CNC culture writer Jessica Reaves has the answer: A lot of portraits for the Aldermen Project, an idea from Lauri Apple and Jeremy Scheuch. Ms. Apple and Mr. Scheuch, two Chicago artists, have no idea of what to expect March 19 at the Johalla Projects Gallery in Wicker Park when the worlds or art and politics mix. A majority of the City Council is cooperating with the project, including the 14th Ward’s Ed Burke. And what about those who don’t go along? Once again, Jessica has the answer.
The CNC’s City Hall duo, Dan Mihalopoulos and Katie Fretland, filed the Pulse dispatch for Sunday. Dan reports that Todd Stroger, the former head of the Cook County Board, quietly resigned from a key post less than a month after he lost the Democratic primary to retain his seat. Katie reports that the wrought-iron fence boys are at it again.
The Chicago News Cooperative produces two pages of Chicago news on Friday and Sunday for the Midwest edition of The New York Times. Operating out of our offices on the north end of the Loop, CNC reporters and editors strive to provide solid public service journalism for Times readers in Chicago. If you’d like to learn more about us, please visit us at www.chicagonewscoop.org. The current edition of the American Journalism Review also has an article on the CNC.
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