Diary of a Newspaper Hawk

One more reason not to gamble. Notice the headline, still up on Google News. Why would anyone trust a story by "Point-Spreads.com" anyway? Chicago 23, 21, 24, 24 -- 92 (Final) Miami 28, 20, 16, 15 -- 76 Miami Heat favored to win Game-Four vs. Chicago Bulls on Sunday Point-Spreads.com - 3 hours ago Ben Gordon scored 27 points ; Luol Deng added 24 points and 11 rebounds and Chicago used a 15-2 fourth-quarter run to seize control of a 104-96 victory over the Heat in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round series Friday night.

Gotta say I'm toasting nicely in this warm weather. Walking around Millennium Park, looking at the birds and sun bathers, I can't help but enjoy the day, and think about what's beyond the sunlight. I expect the warm weather will bring the salary girls out in fine form on Monday morning, all posing and frolicking for the policemen and project managers, looking for a raise. The News Is this news? It should be. CareFest 2007 . Something like over 1,000 people (1,200?) got together and worked out the kinks. They painted and pushed junk and furniture, and fixed broken things. I looked it up in the news and it seems they loaded a lot of time into this, and even had all the equipment and stuff donated. No Bible-thumping. Just doing the right thing. Not that believing what they believe is bad thing. Ain't this America? When a guy gets beaten down for telling someone what he believes is the day every bar, every church and every nursing home gets shut down. Drunk retired pastor...

Coffee and a few drinks with Bill today, soon. Not a moment too soon. Too much of not much at all has caused a need to get out. The News The news today is good. Very good. Loud mouth buffoon, Rosie O'Donnell, is leaving the View. While I never bother with the show, her crybaby rants will get less press time. I read papers, all day, all day. A Rosie-free day is a good day. Then, I can read about the Cubs' squandering games, something more upbeat. Her argument was that she was not pushed off, but could not agree on a contract. Good riddance. She was unwilling to commit to three years, she says, and could not see a future there beyond a year. I suspect O'Donnell is not a journalist, or a comedian. She's only an entertainer in the way we are entertained by a sour stomach. Not me. Her jealousy that Donald Trump has better money, better hair and better broads than her became famous, but that's probably ending. Her vitriolic racist and intolerant mouth-offs looked at first...

Spring is good. There's no getting around how nice it is, and I don't want to. This is why baseball is worth playing, frisbees are worth tossing. I'll be seeing Bill this week. His daughter at Virginia Tech is fine, but the events of the week, even after the murders, must have shaken her up. I have no idea what Billy Graham or Dr. Phil would say, but both would see that there's a better way. The News Boris Yeltsin, 1931-2007 That's it. Boris was 76. When he stepped down Putin stepped up. Too bad for Russia. But Boris. He was a drunk reformer who knew the media better than Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton combined.

News has a popular tone to it. Queen, the rock group once fronted by Freddy Mercury, did an album named after a British paper, "News of the World." The Beatles sang the lyrics, "I heard the news today, oh boy." Don McLean bleakly sang, "But February made me shiver With every paper I’d deliver. Bad news on the doorstep; I couldn't take one more step." The News DNA evidence to free Chicago man Springfield State Journal Register, IL - 10 hours ago CHICAGO - Jerry Miller spent 25 years behind bars for a rape he has long maintained he didn't commit. His fight to prove his innocence finally will pay off... This, to me, is big news. We all know there are two kinds of cops. The other kind is honest. With the jerks thugging around their weight to beat up barkeeps and the various racial charges going on, I can only wonder where the integrity is. I still don't. What I do know is one man, this time, this day, is, as they say, getting his day in court. An i...

Thinking about Bill's dilemma with his daughter at VA Tech caused me some distress. What would I do if she were my child? Go there? Get someone to pick her up? Buy her a ticket home? Doesn't matter, she's staying. The News "American Idol" Elimination: See Ya, Sanjaya! BuzzSugar.com - 1 hour ago - Sanjaya - he of the ponyhawk, the creepy smile and the possible deal with the devil - ended his "American Idol"... When this is news, and sites called "BuzzSugar" are we get our news, what has happened?

The daily news can cause for distresss. Either we read it passively, like a novel and forget it is news, or, we read it intensely, and forget the goodness around us. My friend Bill who runs a deli told me his daughter is at Virginia Tech. She is fine. He told me how he was frantic when he called and no one answered. Understandable. Now he knows better, and that she is hoping to remain with her friends and heal. What is healing in this case? I don't know. I think it has something to do with trust and love, and doing both. See the goodness around you. Love the one you're with, and be with the one you love. The News Sammy Sosa is playing against the White Sox tonight. He hit a homerun. All the homeruns in the world will cause me to respect him. The Sox lost, but the Rangers never won. Not with Sammy playing.

What do I say? This is one of those days I wish I didn't sell a lot of papers. I did. The news yesterday of some poor misguided kid, just 23, shooting up the Virginia Tech campus and killing, as of today, 33 people. I can't say anything. Read the news. Hug your kids. Pray for those impacted. This wasn't political. It was not a terrorist. It was a kid, barely old enough to be called an adult who lost control of whatever it is that stops us from doing these things. Motive? Cause? Does it matter? Almost three dozen are dead, and the school, no matter how things are resolve, spun, explained -- all that, is forever marked. Grades, careers, and other practical matters will be a mess. Tuition, jobs paying for tuition, and all that -- a mess too. And 33 dead. And families, friends are mourning. I'm sorry.

We need Dusty Baker back, not the loser coaching the Cubs now. Tonight's sunset as I drove down Rt 38, leaving a wedding reception at Epicurean Hungarian Restaurant in Hillside looked beautiful. Michael Jordan divorced. Too bad he couldn't keep his marriage together. No one looked at him as a man of integrity, with his gambling. The way he quit the Bulls to be with his family, only to join the Washington team looked insincere as well. Either way, MJ's wife cleaned out his wallet. The News The news is out. Chicago is in. LA is out. This just means Chicago will be up against big international cities, like Rome, for the Olympic chase. And where did I read this? On a Canadian site. Chicago picked over Los Angeles to submit US bid for 2016 Olympics Canada.com

On my beat, the corner where a major retail store lives and across from a massive office building, a lot of Chicago passes by. Some buy a paper, and others are merely en route to somewhere important. The one who might have it hardest on days of slush and snow is a well-dressed blind guy in his 50s. People handle blindness differently. For the person whose seeing is limited, he must navigate from here to there, with everything from buildings and curbs in his way, to loud mouth walkers who deserve the double socking of a two- fisted education, to well-meaning commuters who confuse him by not following expected walking patterns. The snow yesterday was no help. Everything changes. Sounds, water, traffic. I saw the blind man slip. He was not hurt, but his overcoat was messy. I don't know what he does for a living, but there's money it. He was dapper, with a smart briefcase. A lawyer? It doesn't matter. He fell. This is April, not February. God knows this, right? The News Chicag...