WBEZ | marijuana

Illinois Lt. Gov supports medical marijuana

Mon, 13 May 2013 07:51:00 -0500

Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon said she is in favor of a bill allowing the medical use of marijuana, explaining Sunday that testimony from seriously ill veterans and other patients helped change her mind.

"As a former prosecutor my first reaction was, 'I'm not interested in changing our laws on medical marijuana,'" she told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday.

But she said that after hearing from patients and reading up on the bill, she's convinced the regulations are strict enough.

Backers of the measure, which has cleared the Illinois House and awaits a Senate vote, have said the same thing.

The plan, touted as the strictest in the nation among states that have legalized medical marijuana, would authorize physicians to prescribe marijuana to patients with whom they have an existing relationship and who are living with at least one of more than 30 medical conditions, including cancer.

The proposal creates a framework for a pilot program that includes requiring patients and caregivers to undergo background checks. It also sets a 2.5-ounce limit per patient per purchase and sets out state-regulated dispensaries.

Supporters say marijuana can relieve continual pain without the detrimental side effects of prescription drugs. But opponents say the program could encourage recreational use, especially among teenagers.

The Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and the Illinois Sheriffs' Association are opposed to the measure, saying there's no sure way to figure out whether a motorist is driving under the influence of marijuana.

But Simon told the AP the bill is strict enough to prevent misuse.

"It does a good job of both getting medical marijuana to people who need and keeping it away from those who don't," she said.

Gov. Pat Quinn, a Chicago Democrat, has been noncommittal whether he would sign the bill, saying instead that he is open-minded to the idea.

Simon is weighing a run for another statewide office instead of seeking another term as lieutenant governor. The Carbondale Democrat declined Sunday to say which office she will run for, saying she will wait to see how other shape up.

Simon is likely choosing between Illinois' attorney general, comptroller or treasurer. In recent months, Simon has played up her law-related background and accomplishments including as a pro bono lawyer and prosecutor.

Her decision comes as the 2014 governor's race is heating up and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is weighing a possible challenge to Quinn.

Would legal pot hit Chicago gangs’ pocketbooks?

Wed, 01 May 2013 14:54:00 -0500

Elmhurst resident Siva Iyer read Sudhir Venkatesh’s pop academic book Gang Leader for a Day, which got him thinking about the economics and industrial side of marijuana.

The culture around weed has changed over the years, enough that Colorado and Washington have legalized the drug. Is Illinois on the verge of putting legalization to a test? Not likely, but it’s worth contemplating. Earlier this year the Illinois House passed a medical marijuana act. And the city of Chicago has decriminalized possession, a policy designed to free up police hours. Officers can now ticket for possession of fewer than 15 grams.

Iyer, who works in the pharmaceutical industry, wondered how gangs would make up for any lost income if — one day — weed were sold on store shelves.

So Iyer asked Curious City:

If Illinois legalizes marijuana, how could that affect the economics of the drug trade among gangs?

The short answer is: not much.

Iyer and I went to visit Midwest drug czar Jack Riley in a downtown federal building. Riley is Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Division for the Drug Enforcement Agency. The blunt-speaking agent described a “very toxic” and “profitable” relationship between Chicago street organizations and the Mexican cartels, but it doesn’t revolve around weed.

“If marijuana were to be legalized here,” Riley said, “it would in my opinion have virtually little or no effect on the income of gangs.”

Frankly, marijuana can be a logistical nightmare, Riley explained. It smells. It’s bulky. It’s hard to store. And it’s got a short shelf-life. That is, it’s the exact opposite of Chicago gangs’ and cartels’ actual drug of choice: heroin.

Here are the economics, according to Riley: A pound of decent-grade marijuana can run between $1,400-1,500. A kilo of cocaine sells for about $40,000. The real cash maker, Riley said, is the more compact heroin, which goes for $60,000 a kilo. He said it arrives from Mexico 90 percent pure and is sold at a purity of nine to 12 percent on the street after being cut and pumped with additives.

Riley said in the local drug trade, rival gangs collaborate these days over the dealing of heroin.

“They very seldom interacted with other gangs other than to fight. So their business relationships were siloed. If someone in that particular gang — we’ll talk about the Gangster Disciples — if somewhere in the GDs, [if] they didn’t have a connection to a Mexican source or supply, they simply couldn’t get the drugs,” Riley said. “Well now, as long as everyone’s making money from business, we do begin to see, for instance, the Gangster Disciples, the Latin Kings and other criminal organizations begin to work together.”

The Sinaloa Cartel uses Chicago as a hub to distribute throughout the Midwest. The cartel’s equivalent of a CEO is El Chapo Guzman and he’s Chicago’s Public Enemy No. 1. The last criminal bestowed with that title was Al Capone.

Riley said Mexican cartels still do the majority of trafficking of marijuana, but higher grades of marijuana arrive from the Pacific Northwest and Canada. At this point there’s reason to suspect that — even if Illinois tokers could buy legal weed from corner stores — these folks would still stay in business.

“Regardless of what we did on the legalization side, it would never eliminate the black market,” Riley said.

I interviewed a guy who sells weed in the Chicago area. (For obvious legal reasons, he didn’t want me to use his name.) He agrees with Riley and added, “If they legalize it, I feel they gonna take all the good sh*t off the market and make it super expensive and sell all the bad sh*t for the legal consumption. I like it the way it is now.”

He calls Mexican weed “regular weed,” lacking the potency of domestic marijuana. He said his weed comes from California and is known on the street as “loud,” which is a pun on the loud smell and signals that it was grown via hydroponics.

If Illinois legalizes marijuana, he said, the government would certainly tax the drug. But he explained that dealers already deal with a drug hierarchy and a tax of sorts: The weed connect sells to a middleman, who is charged a tax. That middleman might want to make $200 on the package, so he’ll “tax” the next dealer.

But as the marijuana dealer I interviewed said, “I can kind of deal with that than the government.”

Natalie Moore is a WBEZ reporter. Follow her @natalieymoore.

Reporter's Notebook: If Illinois legalizes marijuana, how could that affect the economics of the drug trade among gangs?

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:06:00 -0500

Curious City is a news-gathering experiment designed to satisfy the public's curiosity. People submit questions, vote for their favorites, and WBEZ reports out the winning questions in real time, on Facebook, Twitter and the timeline above.

Siva Iyer from Elmhurt asked: If Illinois legalizes marijuana, how could that affect the economics of the drug trade among gangs? WBEZ reporter Natalie Moore investigates.

Where do you think we should start this investigation? How would you answer this? Comment below!

Manti Te'o hoax: Sports reporting's best ... and worst

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 05:00:00 -0600

SPORTS REPORTING'S BEST ... AND WORST. Deadspin's revelation that the girlfriend of Notre Dame flinebacker Manti Te'o didn't die -- and, in fact, never lived -- is the result of reporting "better than almost anything you’ll see on any media site," according to Sports Media Guy Brian Moritz. But he says it shines a spotlight on the worst of others' work.
* Which news organizations swallowed the hoax? The Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times make a list compiled by SB Nation.
* Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick calls it a "sophisticated hoax perpetrated for reasons we can't fully understand. ... Manti was the victim."
* John Kass: "Swarbrick is the same mealy-mouthed bureaucrat who defended the football program after student videographer Declan Sullivan ... was sent into that scissor lift in the high wind and died when it collapsed in October 2010."
* CNN: Dead girlfriend tweeted last night.

'HOW SHAMELESS DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO DO THAT?' Politico's Roger Simon (member of the Illini Media Alumni Hall of Fame) poses that question to the NRA for its video "twisting the Secret Service protection of the president’s children to aid those who make a fortune by manufacturing and selling guns."
* Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show": 10 years ago, NRA-allied representative passed law that limited the government's ability to do what the NRA now says it wants the government to do.
* Republican Party chair calls Obama's plan -- the biggest gun-control push in generations -- an "executive power grab."
* Cook County gun reporting law wins board president's backing.

HIGH EXPECATIONS ... LOWERED. Although aldermen who backed decriminalizing marijuana possession in Chicago predicted the city could take in as much as $7 million dollars a year from tickets, a WBEZ investigation finds the take since the change took effect in August more like $98,000. Bonus: Map shows 2012 pot arrests and tickets issued.

WHO WANTS TO BE AN ALDERMAN? Mayor Emanuel says he's taking online applications to replace Sandi Jackson.
* But privately, Jackson says she's picking her own replacement.

FREE CALLS, COURTESY OF FACEBOOK. As of this week, Facebook's Messenger app for iPhone has acquired a button that lets you call other Messenger app users free over Wi-Fi and cellular networks.
* Metra set to experiment with Wi-Fi on commuter trains.

DIG THIS. Construction projects can reveal archaeological keys to Chicago's past. A WBEZ Curious City report reveals some of what's turned up.

A FRACKING BRIGHT LIGHT. NPR's Robert Krulwich examines a phenomenon that makes the North Dakota skies rival the Aurora Borealis.

ANNOUNCEMENTS.
* Study up. Tomorrow brings WBEZ Meyerson News Quiz No. 2. Last week's is here.
* Soundtrack for preparation of this edition: All Over The World: The Very Best Of ELO on Rdio.com.

Has the idea of ticketing pot gone up in smoke?

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 05:00:00 -0600

Did Chicago’s change in its marijuana law work?

That’s what the Chicago’s City Council and Mayor Rahm Emanuel will have to ask themselves as the tally of last year’s “pot tickets” trickled in last week.

If you don’t follow Chicago’s highly-scrutinized politics of pot, let’s rewind. Back in June 2012, City Council voted 43 to 3 to effectively decriminalize the possession of small amounts of pot. So, by August of last year, Chicago police had the option of treating such possession as a ticketable offense — not just an arrestable one.

Backers hailed the change as a way to divert police resources to where they're most needed.

“I commend the City Council for passing this ordinance that will hold people accountable while freeing up police officers to focus their time and efforts on crime prevention,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement, issued after the law’s passage.

If you don’t follow the logic, here’s the rationale for the policy change.

In 2011 the Chicago Police Department tallied 95,774 arrests for an estimated 350,374 crimes, which ranged from murders and shootings to burglaries and assaults, according to city data. That same year, the Chicago Police Department made 20,082 arrests for possession of cannabis for amounts under 30 grams. In other words, nearly one out of every five arrests made by Chicago cops that year involved possession of small amounts of pot.

Aldermen and others argued that the sheer number of pot arrests distracted the department from the city’s ongoing battle against violence. They also weren’t happy that pot arrests disproportionately swept up black youth. In a scathing editorial, Ald. Joe Moreno (1st) claimed “White people smoke marijuana as much as black and Latino people, yet 78% of those arrested in Chicago are minorities. 90% of those convicted are minorities.”

And, there was another argument: Ticketing weed-smokers could both save and raise some serious cash.

On the savings front, proponents of decriminalizing pot-possession pointed to the cost of arresting and prosecuting offenders. The Chicago Reader reported that Cook County spent nearly $78 million on arrests and prosecutions. All that for questionable results, as the conviction rate was abysmal, even by Mayor Emanuel’s own admission.

“We cannot afford to take our officers off the streets for hours at a time only to see over 80 percent of the marijuana cases dismissed in court,” the mayor said after aldermen passed the ticketing amendment last year.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy estimated that the new ordinance would free up more than 20,000 hours of police time each year, the equivalent of about $1 million in savings, the Chicago Tribune reported.

In that same article, the Chicago Tribune said the mayor’s office refused to give an estimate on ticket revenues, but City Hall stressed savings in man-hours and cops’ overtime. The paper, using 2011 data, estimated the city stood to raise anywhere from $4.5 million to $9 million. Alderman Danny Solis (25th) was one of the bill’s sponsors, and argued that the city could take in as much as $7 million.

So, as City Hall looked through its crystal ball last summer, it saw a seemingly small change in local pot policy accomplishing quite a bit: the policy would free cops to do more important work, it would put a dent in violence, and it would boost city coffers.

But now that real data are trickling in about the policy, maybe that vision was unrealistic.

The tally

Two sources have been tracking the number of tickets issued for cannabis since last August. The first — the Department of Administrative Hearings — is tasked with handling citations, including ones issued for possession of cannabis. Responding to a WBEZ Freedom of Information Act request, that department said there were 380 tickets issued for cannabis in 2012 between the time the law went into effect and Dec. 31. The other source — the Chicago Police Department — said that total stands at 395.

The Department of Administrative Hearings was not immediately available, but here’s a stab at clearing up the discrepancy. The CPD figures are more up to date than those available from DAH (via FOIA) or the city’s data portal site, as the police can access records that contain more refined categories. However, we use the figure of 380 because — as the police department says — after a ticket is issued, tracking is actually up to DAH.

The city’s data portal site only lists pot possessions for amounts greater or less than 30 grams, and does not differentiate arrests made for persons possessing under 15 grams, the amount the ordinance sets as the limit that the police can issue tickets.

(The map below details locations of arrests for pot possessions as well as the locations for tickets issued.)

2012 Pot arrests for 30 grams or less

2012 tickets issued for cannabis under 15 grams

Regardless, how do the numbers stack up compared to City Hall’s stated goals?

Right now, it looks like city's got some catching up to do when it comes to replacing marijuana arrests with marijuana tickets. Of all police actions relating to possessing small amounts of pot, just 2 percent are from tickets, while the other 98 percent stem from arrests.

Administrative judges found that 138 of those 380 issued tickets came to nothing, meaning the people ticketed were ultimately held not liable, and the fines were dropped.

The bottom line is that the city’s coffers didn’t exactly swell, as the tickets that did stick netted just $98,000.

Pot arrests did plunge after the law went into effect, but there wasn’t a one-for-one replacement of tickets for arrests. As if by an occult hand, marijuana arrests had been going down (on average, 2 to 4 percent per month) in Chicago prior to the City Council’s change in policy. However, one estimate puts the drop in pot possession arrests in August 2012 at nearly 45 percent, compared to the same month in other years.

“Since the ordinance went into effect, arrests for possession of 10 grams or less of cannabis accounted for a total of 4,745 arrests and the issuance of 395 administrative notices of violations (ANOVs), as compared to 7,772 arrests for the time frame 4 August through 23 December 2011,” said the police department’s Melissa Stratton.

That’s a drop of 3,027 arrests year-over-year for that period. But, again, DAH only dealt with 380 tickets by the end of 2012.

The policy on the ground

The shortfall in marijuana tickets is likely due to how the new policy was implemented. Shortly after the law’s passage, the police department issued a special order (related to the alternative cannabis enforcement program) that laid out how to issue tickets. The gist was that cops could issue tickets in some circumstances, but make arrests in others.

“Our officers enforce the marijuana law as part of their daily duties. While issuing a citation for marijuana possession under 10 grams saves time for our officers, in certain situations our officers are required to make a physical arrest,” said Melissa Stratton, Director of News Affairs at the Chicago Police Department.

The amendment that makes pot-ticketing possible in the first place spans three pages, but the CPD special order comprises nine. One page details “aggravating factors” that could lead to an arrest.

The first is whether subjects are “in the act of smoking cannabis.” This means residents caught in the act get the cuffs instead of getting a ticket. Other factors that bump possession from a ticket to an arrest include driving while under the influence. Smoking on school grounds, in parks and at beaches will also get you arrested.

Stratton said the presence of personal identification makes a difference, too. Tickets require subjects to present ID. If a subject doesn’t have one, he or she is arrested instead.

And, the amount of pot involved matters, too. Exactly how much will bump an infraction from a ticket to an arrest? Anything over 15 grams. For comparison, consider that a typical joint weighs between 0.2 and 0.8 grams. A little arithmetic suggests somebody could carry the equivalent of 15-20 joints and still be under 15 grams.

But, again, arrest rates suggest officers aren't making the most of their power to bump some ticketable infractions into arrests. The reason may be that cops are just opting to make fewer arrests, albeit surreptitiously, as reported by the Chicago Reader’s Mick Dumke last October.

“The numbers suggest that at first some officers tried the ticketing process. In the first week of the new policy, 27 tickets were issued citywide. By week six, though, the number had fallen to eight,” he wrote then.

Is this what City Council wanted?

Chicago’s not racking up that many pot-related tickets, but in some ways aldermen are getting one thing they hoped for: police seem to be easing back on pot arrests.

However, the change in policy promised more than that. Recall that idea of distraction; if police would only spend less time chasing weed-tokers, they could spend more time fighting violent crime.

That remains to be seen. Murders continued to climb after the close of 2012’s long, hot summer of violence and, by year’s end, the homicide tally reached a recent high of 507. Shootings were up, too.

Gun shootings, or aggravated batteries with a firearm, reached 1,737 in 2011. Police made 148 shootings-related arrests, leaving the arrest rate for that year at 8.5 percent.

The picture was different in 2012. The city saw 1,884 such incidents last year, but police made just 93 shooting-related arrests, with an attendant arrest rate of 4.9 percent.

The mayor's office deferred to the police department for comment on the tickets. Calls to several aldermen were also not returned.

It may be ironic that a City Hall that meticulously tracks — and often touts — numbers related to garbage pickups, snow-zone towing and other minutia hasn’t weighed in on whether its major change in drug policy has made the city safer or richer.

Pot-ticketing plan clears committee

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:32:00 -0500

A City Council committee has passed an ordinance that would allow police officers to write tickets for small amounts of marijuana, but some aldermen have lingering concerns.

After hours of questions and criticsm Thursday, 13 aldermen voted to pass an amended version of the original proposal. Alderman Nicholas Sposato (36th) was the only no vote. Police Superintendant Garry McCarthy and other members of the police department testified at the meeting, pressing upon aldermen the importance of having more latitude when dealing with marijuana possession.

McCarthy said he wasn't suprised at the depth of questioning over the ordinance, but he wanted to make sure aldermen knew the facts.

"This is not letting go of those things that we know reduce crime," he said. "I'm a big believer in the broken windows theory of policing where affecting those little things affects the big things. Because the way that the system is designed right now, it's not achieiving that end. We're not fixing broken windows by locking people up for low-level marijuana offesnes when nine out of 10 of them are not being pursued in court."

But some aldermen were still concerned that giving out tickets for 15 grams or less of marijuana would send the wrong message to Chicago youth.

"Even though you say we're not legalizing, it's sending the message that it's okay," said Ald. Emma Mitts (37th).

Alderman Danny Solis (25th), sponsor of the bill, tried to reconcile this by allowing an amendment that arrests - not tickets - would be used for violations on school grounds or in a public park. And police officials say anyone under 17 caught with marijuana would also be arrested.

But there were still many more objections. Alderman Anthony Beale (9th) was one of many aldermen concerned over the amount of pot in the ordinance. Beale said he also had a problem with potential fines.

"If you only have one joint, why should it be a $250-500 dollar fine, why can't it be a $50 fine?" he said.

Alderman Pat Dowell (3rd) said she felt rushed to make a decision.

"You know, the mayor took nice months to make his decision, I really feel we need more time," she said.

Alderman Brendan Reilly (42nd) isn't even on the Public Safety Committee, but he showed up anyway.

"To those folks that have concerns, I'd respectfully submit that this actually will do a lot more to keep our neighborhoods safe," he said.

But in the end, the measure passed with a clear majority. The ordinance faces a full City Council vote next week.

That time Mayor Daley 'threatened' Mick Dumke — and other stories from The Reader's political reporter

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:01:47 -0500

In this episode of the Interview Show, Chicago Reader political reporter Mick Dumke talks the politics — and racial bias — of marijuana arrests in Chicago, Mayor Emanuel's fierce grip on power and the infamous incident when former Mayor Daley expressed his desire to shove a gun up in his ass.

The next Interview Show is this Friday, April 6, with actor Brian Dennehy, rapper King Louie, Chicago Opera Theater general director Brian Dennehy and more. At The Hideout, 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Worldview 3.20.12

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:50:00 -0500

The "war on drugs" has been raging for three decades. Few would argue it's working. With the cartels’ grip on Mexico and drug violence spiking in Central America, many Latin American leaders are fed up. In a few weeks, leaders plan to gather in Guatemala to discuss proposals to legalize drugs. Meanwhile, on a trip to Mexico and Honduras this month, Vice President Biden said the U.S. welcomed the debate, but reiterated its opposition to the idea. Today, Worldview debates the issues surrounding drug legalization in the U.S. and Latin America with Johanna Mendelson Forman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, and Laura Carlsen, director of the Americas Center at the Center for International Policy in Mexico City. Call and weigh in at 312-923-9239.

Frank Main investigates the ins and outs of Chicago's marijuana culture

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:56:00 -0500

Chicago Ald. Danny Solis introduced an ordinance to decriminalize marijuana possession this week. If the legislation passed, people caught carrying a small amount of the drug would pay a fine rather than face arrest. However, possession only represented one part of the overall marijuana economy in Chicago. The city has become a drug trafficking hub for cartels operating out of Mexico and medical marijuana growers out West also got in on the action. Chicago Sun-Times reporter Frank Main has been investigating marijuana in Chicago in a four-part series. He joined Eight Forty-Eight to talk about his reporting. Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Sun-Times reporter Frank Main’s third installment in his series on marijuana was out Thursday.

Aldermen want to decriminalize pot - media rushes to find stock photos

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:01:00 -0500

Hmmm, should I go with the silhouette smoking a joint stock photo?

Or just go with the generic marijuana plant?

Or heck, I'll just show a couple hippies at Woodstock:

The City Council is going to vote on decriminalizing pot. Not in the "hey, smoke em if you got em" decriminalization, but more of a here's an orange ticket for your weed posession instead of a weekend trip to County. The aldermen are pushing this through, although the mayor and police chief are a bit mum (they are open to it, but need to see how it would work). It's like an episode of The Wire, but in Chicago over dime bags. The best part of this story was the trip down memory lane. The Sun-Times went back into the archives to get then-Mayor Daley's take on decriminalizing pot:

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley embraced the idea of issuing tickets for minor pot violations in 2004, only to ridicule the County Board five years later for voting to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
“People say you cannot smoke. ... They said, ‘Please don’t smoke.’ Now, everybody’s saying, ‘Let’s all smoke marijuana.’ After a while, you wonder where America is going,” Daley said at the time.
“Pretty soon, the headline [will be], ‘Let’s bring cigarettes back. It makes people feel calmer, quieter, relaxing.’ ... We said you cannot smoke cigarettes. Cigarette-smoking is bad for you. Now all the sudden, marijuana smoking is good for you. Can we take Lucky Strikes, mix ‘em together and say, ‘Smoking is coming back in the United States?’ ”

B story: Interesting, JPMorgan will NOT charge for debit cards in the future. This on the heels of Bank of America's announcement that they WILL charge $5 a month for debit card use. Man, it makes you wish for the glory days of Corus bank. Or at least LaSalle. I want my bank to be named after my city. That's all I ask. And for a British female voice to greet me at the ATM.

C story: Today is the anniversary of the assassination of Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison. See, this is when politicians needed police details. The dude who killed Harrison just knocked on his door and went back to his study and shot him.

D story: What is happening at the Department of Cultural Affairs? Gospel Fest is back, but not in Grant Park. Then there is talk about the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture getting put back into Cultural Affairs and Special Events, after Daley split it all up. Let me get this straight: Daley takes the Cultural Affairs department and the Mayor's Office of Special Events and merges them. Then he takes most of the department's programming away and gives it to a new office (Tourism). Lois Weisberg quits and sounds off in the press. The new boss (Weisberg's deputy) orders an audit of the situation and decides to undo most of it and restructure the office. So, does everyone get their job back? It's like a shell game on the train, folks.

E story: If you missed it yesterday, I gave you the worst ways to get a ticket in Chicago. If you discover a dead body and fail to report it? $200 fine.

Weather: This is about right for Halloween, right? Is it going to rain on Monday? Don't rain on Monday.

Sports: This will be the first time a World Series has gone to Game 7 since 2002. That was the year that the Angels won over Dusty Baker's Giants. And it was that off-season that the Cubs stole him away. Could that happen with LaRussa? Or perhaps Pujols? Whatever happens this off-season, tonight is must watch baseball. What a great season.

Also, don't look now - but the Chicago Blackhawks have put together a blazing start. Could it be that playing into April (not June) helps a team the next year? Perhaps.

And here come the columns about the Bears management after the sudden release of safety Chris Harris. Best quote was from D.J. Moore, who was sort of asked if he was worried about talking too much (since that's what Harris was rumored to have done):

"I don't worry about nothing but my girlfriend, make sure she isn't cheating on me," he said. "Other than that, I'm good. That's the only thing that would dent my ego."

Kicker: Greta Johnsen is our new weekend anchor at WBEZ. She will be starting this week. So when you listen to your weekly dose of Car Talk and Wait! Wait!, turn it up! There's a new voice joining you for breakfast! Greta comes from Alaska, which seems to be the best state in the union for public radio employees (Gabe Spitzer and Ashley Gross are from there). Can't wait to listen Greta! Here's her photo. I give this to you because I always hear from you that it is weird to find out what somebody looks like after you've listened to them. So here's what she looks like BEFORE you listen to her.