The jury selection for Blagojevich trial II: Electric Boogaloo is starting today. Blagojevich continued to push his story all around mainstream media circles. If you don’t remember the first trial, may I suggest you listen to this awesome montage (put together by cubicle-mate Rob Wildeboer) summing it up in 246 seconds.

Or you can watch this Blagojevich verdict video we did for our CityRoom web-series:

We resort to covering his trial because he won’t give WBEZ interviews. Why? Our audience won’t make their jury.

B story: Ah. What time is it? Oh my lord, I fell asleep for the past 7 years. What have I missed!? Is Forrest Claypool running the CHA still? Or wait, did he move to the Park District? No? Oh, it’s the CTA now? Claypool must be doing something right. He keeps getting appointed to run city things.

TOTALLY UNRESEARCHED THEORY OF THE DAY: Daley can’t give his old staff any preferential treatment or appointments because everyone is watching. But what would stop the new mayor from helping out the old guard? My theory will get more traction when Frank Kreusi, Ron Huberman and David Mosena are appointed next week.

And Claypool helped found David Axelrod’s political consulting firm. Axelrod got Barack Obama elected President. Axelrod went to the White House. Claypool lost to Joe Berrios. So here comes Rahm Emanuel to pay it back/forward. Although, some would say running the CTA would be more punishment than payback.

I, for one, am looking forward to Forrest’s tenure at the CTA. I hope it’s dramatic. Richard Rodriguez was way too subdued. I’m looking for my CTA chief to be waaaay more Huberman. More threats, more posturing, more new bus announcements (please tell your congressman we are broke. Thank you for riding the CTA).

C story: I want to publicly apologize to Tyler Hansbrough. Yesterday I did a post wrapping up the Bulls/Pacers game. And in those observations, I called out Hansbrough for not being a looker. In all seriousness, that was pretty low. Who am I to be calling out people for their looks? If he’s a thug or an annoying player on the court (which he is), then fine. But to focus on his looks or call him ugly is pretty immature. And I recognize that. I apologize Tyler. Now that I’ve apologized, will you please tell me why you choose to wear your hair that way? Okay, wait. Not going to start up again. I apologized, let’s leave it at that.

Weather: That storm was wild last night. Sorry if anyone got flooded out. In other weather news, my iPhone says it is supposed to be 70 next Monday.

Sports: The Blackhawks showed up last night and put a beatdown on Vancouver and superstar goalie Roberto Luongo. The Hawks scored 7 goals in game 4 to avoid elimination on their home court. More importantly, they showed some fire! They were tough and precise. The series now shifts back to Vancouver for Game 5. The Canucks lead the series 3-1 and need to close the series out soon. It’s hockey afterall, which is the sport that trademarked the 3-0 comeback.

Bears and Packers will not kick off the season. Instead, they will play Christmas night. Late in the season, for all the marbles. I mean, if there is a season.

And don’t look now, but the Sox have dropped six in a row.

Kicker: Just a really quick funny story…

We have a new Subaru that we are driving around, wrapped in our WBEZ logo. We are giving it away at the end of the summer. And while we have it, we’ve been encouraged to drive it places when covering news or events. One of our reporters took the car out to cover something the other morning on the North Side. When stopped at a light, another car pulled up next to our car and started yelling. He then rolled down the window and spit on the car. It wasn’t because of the reporter’s driving. It was because they didn’t like NPR. Awesome.