Rahm Emanuel vs. Librarians

It's a battle royal as Chicago faces budget cuts.

From a piece on NBC Chicago...

Chicago's libraries previously got short shrift from former Mayor Richard Daley, who cut hours and jobs in previous budgets.

“My libraries are very heavily used," said Ald. John Arena (45th). "At a time like this older people and low-income residents use the library for their internet, to look for jobs. Overall, the cuts are just too extreme."

Emanuel said in his budget speech earlier this month that he worked to keep neighborhood branches open because he values them. But librarians and even parents say it's not enough.

“We think this is not the place to find savings," said Julie Samson, a Portage Park mother. "It just deprives so many families and children of such a safe place to learn and have fun.”

Greta Lindall, 5, echoed her mom's words. "I like that we can go to the library and borrow books and bring them back. I really like the Laura [Ingalls Wilder] books.”

Schwarzenneger to Publish Memoir?

Totally.

From a piece in the New York Times...

Now Mr. Schwarzenegger, 64, is promising to write about his experiences in a memoir, expected to land in bookstores in October 2012.

Simon & Schuster announced on Thursday that it had acquired world rights to Mr. Schwarzenegger’s book, tentatively titled “Total Recall.”

How much Mr. Schwarzenegger will tell about his life is unknown. Simon & Schuster said the book would discuss Mr. Schwarzenegger’s early journey to the United States and his careers in bodybuilding, moviemaking and politics.

5 Essential Books about 9/11

The list, care of the Los Angeles Times.

The Guardian takes note of 20 best 9/11 books.

What's Obama Been Reading?

Here's a list of books he's read since 2008. Enjoy!

With Newspapers Dying Off Is the Political Cartoon That Far Behind?

The Washington Post takes a stand that political cartoons still matter.

From the article...

Stephen Hess is forever optimistic about the American editorial cartoon. He believes in the power of the pictorial commentary and speaks with a faith so unshakeable that one wonders whether he even realizes that there now seem to be more major-league baseball teams than there are major-league cartoonists working full time for a daily metropolitan newspaper. Has this scholar spent so many hours rummaging through musty archives — tracking his way back to what he calls the first American editorial cartoon, Benjamin Franklin’s “Don’t Tread on Me” rattlesnake woodcut — that he hasn’t fully grasped just how many pink-slipped political cartoonists have been trod upon?

Hess can’t help it. Even as the marketplace changes, he believes in the creative and commercial ingenuity of the American political cartoonist.

“I’m not only trying to honor our political cartoonists,” Hess tells Comic Riffs, “but also to note the problems that exist now in editorial cartooning, which has been so tied in with daily print journalism. They’re in trouble. But at the same time — with the Internet — it could be a turning point.”