You know it’s winter in Chicago when the news reporters break out the parkas

You know it’s winter in Chicago when the news reporters break out the parkas
AP/file
You know it’s winter in Chicago when the news reporters break out the parkas
AP/file

You know it’s winter in Chicago when the news reporters break out the parkas

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Ah, it’s that time of the year! You know the snow is coming when you see general assignment reporters strewn about local overspasses with new parkas and Burberry hats.

Shut the door, man (AP)

The local media must know that snow is a ratings spike. Both major papers told us about the snow all day yesterday (top story!) and there have been a million morning check-ins with live reporters. See, we need general assignment reporters to tell us that it’s snowing, because otherwise we just wouldn’t know.

Okay, on to more pressing news. The President messed up traffic yesterday.

Today on Eight Forty-Eight: Man, we got a good show. Jodi Kantor is on the show today talking about her book, “The Obamas.” She’s made a few headlines with the new book and today we get our crack at her, namely talking about the Chicago stuff. Should be awesome. I’m excited to have her on the show. And she’ll be interviewed by Steve Edwards, who is starting his new show in a couple weeks.

Then we decided to get Carol Felsenthal up in here to talk about the process of writing the tell-all book, since she had written a few. It turns out that it isn’t all roses and sunshine. People get mad and hold grudges and make it hard for journalists to do their work.

And then…snow. I’m excited to see how this one goes. No experts. No city officials. It’s Tony Sarabia talking to Chicagoans about their feelings of winter and snow. Not necessarily a call-in. For instance, Richard Steele will be in-studio talking about his perspective of snow and it’s relationship to the South Side. And then Jerome McDonnell (host of Worldview) will be on as well, talking about snow and the biker. He bikes to work. And he hates when you shovel your driveway on the street. That, plus Mike Brockway (Parking Geek) talking about what happens when you get towed or snowed in. 

Some stories we aren’t covering today but were discussed:

The Chicago Ward re-map is pretty close to being figured out. Our web team has been doing great work on showing you competing re-maps and even giving you the tools to build your own grid. Nobody can win here. For instance, Lincoln Park is the latest neighborhood to raise concerns. The neighborhood will be split into a few different wards (according to one map). Go figure. 2012 and Lincoln Park is the loser.

Watchdog alert! Lobbyists are all over Illinois politics.

John Lucas (the III) took over last night for injured MVP Derrick Rose and led the Bulls to a big win over the Washington Wizards at the UC. Who is this guy? And will he stick with the Bulls? Well, the story in the papers were more about how much he shoots. But there’s something to this guy’s story. We’ll see. And yes, Scalabrine got in the game, and yes, the fans ironically cheered for him. I’ll bet he hates it.