By John Kass

October 18, 2022

Award winning journalist Anna Davlantes joins Jeff Carlin and me on The Chicago Way podcast.

With carjacking and violent crime spiking, with Mayor Lori Lightfoot issuing ridiculous Tik Tok karaoke videos as Gov. J. B. Pritzker and compliant media tell us to just forget and be happy and stick our heads in the sand.

We hope you tune in. To listen to The Chicago Way podcast, just click on the links provided in this free bonus column.

In the podcast I mention Davlantes’ award-winning stories gave me some great column ideas back in the day. One was about Northbrook high school girls and powder-puff hazing, Anna’s story went national (and viral), the parents were caught up in the drama of shame, and it reminded me of how I broke my father’s heart when I was a high school senior when I was arrested for smoking pot.

I begged my dad to talk about it, and he was stone cold and silent. He wouldn’t talk to his pot smoking son. I begged him.

We were outside, he was having his morning coffee on the patio. He gave me a water glass. He said break it in a million pieces on the ground, then glue all those pieces together so that and the glass looked as if it had never been broken, and when I had accomplished this, I could talk to him.

The other story was about Anna and the Chicago Outfit and the grimy town of Bridgeview. The mob had threatened her. She called me for some help.

We met at the Billy Goat Tavern to talk about it over breakfast. Yeah, they had a great breakfast at the Goat.

“I remember you were so fearless about calling out known mob members and at that time the mob had so much more power than it does now, and I thought gosh how could he do this,” Davlantes said on The Chicago Way. “…And then I find myself in a situation and this guy threatens me with a gun and I thought ‘Oh my God!’  He knows where I live. And I came to you how do I protect myself, I’m a single woman living on my own I’m not sure how I can handle this…”

We talked.

The secret? Sunshine.

Anna, Jeff and I talk of that, and of the not-so ‘Safe-T Act,’ of carjacking sprees with rifles carried on the Dan Ryan, of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

Anna and I both liked Lightfoot once. She hasn’t given up on the mayor. I certainly have given up.

And we also talk about something that incites the passion no matter your politics:

It is an evil thing or a good thing to give out Candy Korn on Halloween?

Listen to The Chicago Way podcast. And subscribe to johnkassnews.com

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