Chi Trib, the lumbering behemoth of Chicago journalism, pursued further the story of Judge Holderman vs. U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzg is not cooperating with the investigation, as he accuses others, says Trib, p. 1, under the head, "This time, allegations aimed at prosecutor: Judge says Fitzgerald's office stalling probe of aide's alleged violations."

But don’t all prosecutors accuse others of not cooperating? That’s not their job? But this one "has received national attention for aggressively investigating the leak to a reporter of the identity of a CIA agent," we read in 7th ‘graph. Currently beleaguered MainStreamMedia (MSM) does not like this, and it’s on the mind of reporters and editors if not of readers. Instead, why not, in ‘graph 7 or earlier something like: Fitzg "is making Chicago and Cook County prosecutorial history by pursuing corruption among elected officials"?

This would, I think, represent what’s in the minds of most readers, rather than the Valerie Plame case in Washington, which is thought to threaten freedom of the presses for those who own them.

Additionally, a recurring Chi Trib stylistic quirk turns up here: We are told early on that Holderman is respected but has a temper problem. That generic statement is unsupported until the end of the story, when we are filled in nicely about the temper, or more precisely temperament, problem – but are not satisfied as to his being respected. Why not early on, at first reference to his temper problem, lay in quick reference to the 1999 Council of Lawyers complaint, the late fill-in?

This from today's Wall St. Journal makes a very important point, that free markets erase poverty better than government social programs. It undercuts leftist thinking but also puts Catholic "preferential option for the poor" in a different light than usual:

Policy makers who pay lip service to fighting poverty would do well to grasp the link between economic freedom and prosperity. This year the Index [of free economies worldwide] finds that the freest economies have a per-capita income of $29,219, more than twice that of the "mostly free" at $12,839, and more than four times that of the "mostly unfree." Put simply, misery has a cure and its name is economic freedom.

See The Fire Ant Gazette for this quote plus commentary.

The Volokh Conspiracy has us figured, I fear:

When I lived in New Haven and watched the New York TV news, I was struck by the different assumptions about city problems in NY compared to Chicago. In Chicago, the mayor takes the credit and blame for everything, and the news media assume that the mayor should stop every major strike, even private sector ones. In Chicago, the mayor is "Big Daddy." While one, of course, sees some of the same in New York, there is still a significant difference of degree. New York being less provincial than Chicago, sometimes the news media actually assume that New York City departmental personnel are responsible [or treat major local events as being outside the local government's scope of responsibilty].