I went to see – with an anticipation years in the making – Body Worlds, an exhibit that features the skinned, flayed and plastinated bodies of humans who donated their corporal selves to a fellow named Gunther van Hagens. It is at once medically informative and voyeuristically exhibitionist.

The first half of the exhibit discusses the human body, how it changes, why we break down over the  years, and shows a variety of bones and body parts, including a display of fetuses. That was  the first sign I might not be totally enamored with Body Worlds, which I’ve long wanted to see, and have missed numerous times in Chicago and Kansas City.

Actually, the first sign was the plastinated human holding his skin. Yes, the man was holding his skin like a cloak.

To be honest, I did learn a lot in this first part of the exhibit, but I began to feel queasy as I saw more and more mutilated bodies on display. The second half of the exhibit had my queasy and the sight of things, but also at how the bodies were presented.

See van Hagens is known as an anatomist, but I’d also call him an antagonist. There are well documented controversies surrounding Body Worlds and van Hagens, including a plastinated sculpture he made of two people having sex. The exhibit seemed to move from information to exhibitionist, with a woman baring her breasts (the rest of her was all muscle) on a balance beam, two guys playing hockey and another pair of men playing football. It weirded me out, I think because it felt like someone was enacting a creepy fantasy by making these skinned humans do whatever he wanted. If anything, it made me think, which I suppose is what art should do. But is Body Worlds art?

There seemed to be little medical reasoning for showing two plastinated men playing hockey. The woman spliced in three while pedaling felt wrong. I fully understand that these people authorized van Hagens to do what he pleases with their bodies, but I wonder if they knew they would be turned into entertainment, rather than a learning tool.

Without further ado:

USA Today features two ads for Chase, which take up a skbox and part of the right rail.

The Wall Street  Journal is running an ad for MB Financial.

The New York Times features an ad for Fage Yogurt.

The Los Angeles Times: a somewhat local ad for a portrait studio, and one for Zoozag.com, which appears to be some sort of social network meets Craigslist:

The Washington Post has a skybox ad for Sprint, and in-house ads for its politics and China coverage. Interesting.

New York Daily News: Lots and lots of ads. There’s one urging you to vote, another promoting the Daily News, another for Deal of the Day, and … oh no. One for a wrinkle cream used by a Chicago mom! Noooo!

Houston Chronicle: A local energy company. Legit.

Philly.com (Inquirier and Daily News): Toro snowblowers and local property for auction.

Denver Post: The Denver Rescue Mission, Key Bank and Denver Daily Deals (which just makes it above the fold). Pretty much all local. Very nice.

Detroit Free Press: Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan and Kroger.

Dallas Morning News: Hobby Lobby, Young Frankenstein and Wal-Mart.

Chicago Tribune: United Airlines

Chicago Sun-Times: Kaplan University and an ad urging readers to vote (Democrat)

Kansas City Star: Bancability.com (not totally sure what that is, but it appears to work with a network of local banks), and McDonald’s.

It’s a very unscientific look, but most of these ads aren’t specifically local. Some have a national reach, others offer readers very little. I’m glad I didn’t find these awful network ads populating the sites, but again, I did find them on the Daily News’ site, and one of these sites had one of them earlier.

That’s it. A pretty quick, non-insightful post. Maybe one of these days I’ll figure out to format pictures on my blog. Good night.

Now this ad is on the website of a very reputable newspaper, albeit one that has seen its ad revenue drop in recent years, like all other papers.

Here’s the kicker: THE LINK IS BROKEN.

The space where this ad sits, in the top right corner of the site, is prime real estate. Real estate which could go to a valuable local advertiser, or perhaps one that will pay for the privilege, which I suspect this advertiser, Blink New Media, does not.

Ridiculous.

Through public records and news reports, we can identify or at least have an intelligent guess about who most of these people are. Can you help fill in the blanks?

Already we know that Oglesby, arrested Monday afternoon for various corruption charges, is the owner of CGC Communications, a small PR firm that helped with Stroger’s campaign’s publicity efforts during the primary campaign.

So, let’s go through the proffer and have a go at it. Characters are listed in order of appearance.

“Individual A,” identified later as the agent who was tapped to run CGC in Oglesby’s absence, as well as the affairs of Arrei Management, an alleged shell company. Without having the Arrei contract, it’s not totally clear who this person is.

“Public Official B” is described as the executive director of the county’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM), who signed a vendor justification letter on CGC’s behalf on Feb. 24, 2010. That’s David Ramos, whose department had federal grant money to help with flood relief.

“Public Official C,” described as strongly suggesting other public officials sign off on various contracts steered by Oglesby. The proffer describes this person at a Stroger “media representative.” It’s pretty clear this is Gene Mullins, who was identified this summer as directing contracts towards his cousin. Fox Chicago News also identified Mullins as “C” today.

“Communications Contractor A.” This is a tough one, which I don’t have pinned down yet. This contractor was supposed to do outreach for DSHEM with regards to flood relief.

“Individual C,” who was issued sequential checks in March, April and May from a CGC account worth $3,020, $1,060 and $530. Unknown.

“Individual B” and “Individual D.” They are CGC employees, who received funds from an account investigators ID’d as CGC payroll. “B” earned bi-weekly checks of $1,090, and “D” earned bi-weekly checks of $700. “B” is possibly Tesa Anewishki, CGC’s director of strategy, and the woman who offered a proposal for Arrei as it sought the county contract, according to news reports, or Jenni Johnson, an account executive whose signature is on a PowerPoint presentation given to to county offiicals. She left the firm in the spring as more shady contracts were revealed. The other is clearly a CGC employee, but I’m not certain who exactly it is. I have an inkling, but not enough proof to publish the name.

“Public Official D,” described as a Stroger PR staff member reporting to Mullins. This is Chris Geovanis, who complained to investigators of CGC taking credit for work she did publicizing flood relief. ABC7 had an interesting report featuring her comments, and called her a “whistleblower.” She told reporters Tuesday she’d been served with a subpoena and was looking forward to cooperating.

“Public Official G,” described as executive director of the Department of Environmental Control. This is Kevin Givens. He signed a justification letter for Arrei Management, a company previously owned by Oglesby, which prosecutors allege she set up as a front to launder money.

“Public Official H,” who signed a purchase order requesting county comptroller Constance Kravitz issue Arrei a check. It’s unclear who this is.

“Communications Contractor B,” with whom Mullins pressured Givens to contract. It’s unclear to me which company this is. Both “B” and Arrei were paid on March 26, the same day Mullins asked Givens to contract with them.

“Individual E,” identified as the agent who incorporated Arrei Events Planners – evidently the same company as Arrei Management – for Oglesby. Public records show this to a Tyrone Blackshear.

“Individual F,” identified by prosecutors as the manager of Arrei, who didn’t know much about the company or its operations. Public records and news reports show this is Mark Carter, the pro-Stroger activist who passed out the notoriously offensive fliers reaming Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, Mayor Richard M. Daley and more during the primary campaign.

Strangely the proffer includes nothing for Public Officials A, E or F.

The criminal complaint centers on CGC and Arrei, and doesn’t even touch the numerous 24/9 contracts issued in April to about 10 other companies, including both members of the rap duo Dude ‘n’ Em, best known for their owe to transfats, the ballad, “McDonald’s.”

We’ll see what happens in the next few days. I expect more people to get caught up in this. If you can fill in the blanks, leave a comment. They’re moderated, and all comments are considered confidential.

So sayeth the Tribune:

Oglesby is charged with theft of government property, a class X felony punishable by six to 30 years upon conviction. She’s also charged with felony counts of money laundering and official misconduct.

It was a shocking (maybe) conclusion to an ignominious tenure on the fifth floor of the County Building. Her very presence in the Stroger administration was puzzling, given her background as a publicist for rappers and athletes. Then there was the consistent strain of news gushing out of the County Building, each one chronicling another shady contract designed to escape the scrutiny of county commissioners. There’s been no word yet (as of Monday night) from the Stroger administration, which is formulating a response.

Carla Oglesby is taken in to custody (WGN)

Let’s recap Oglesby’s rise to the corridors of Cook County power – and her various failures, embarrassments and alleged crimes.

In December, her PR firm, CGC Communications, was retained by Stroger as he sought to win the Democratic primary. He lost badly, and his bid for reelection was not helped by CGC, which relied on an insular PR strategy, which isolated the media and targeted Stroger’s base. I chronicled the communications failures when I covered the race for the Chicago Current.

In February, shortly after Stroger was trounced by Chicago Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, MWRD President Terry O’Brien and Clerk Dorothy Brown, he hired Oglesby as his deputy chief of staff, a post that the administration paid about $116,000. Later officials would say she actually made $120,000.

In perhaps a very poor choice of words, looking back, Stroger said Oglesby “understands the initiatives and opportunities to which my administration is committed, and is dedicated to joining me in doing all we can to support policy and programs that help the people of Cook County.”

It was just days after she was hired that one of the first shady contracts was fast-tracked for payment. Oglesby pushed through at $24,975 contract to her own firm, CGC Communications. What’s worse is that it escaped the scrutiny of commissioners, who must sign off on contracts worth $25,000 or more. And it was far from the last. This was first reported in April by the Sun-Times and Fox Chicago News.

She was suspended for five days, and Stroger chided her for steering the contract to her own company, which she had vowed not to take a paycheck from during her employment with the county.

Yes, the crooked contracts kept coming. Rappers, ex-felons and friends got a cut of the county. The oddest was when a firm called Arrei Management, a firm purportedly run by West Side activist Mark Carter (he of Soldiers for Stroger, the n-bomb dropping fellas who passed out offensive fliers equating Preckwinkle with Aunt Jemima and detailing an Irish cabal). Arrei used to be owned by…Carla  Oglesby. What address did Carter use? Carla Oglesby’s former UPS box address, the same one she used while dodging child support payments from a previous relationship in New Jersey.

One has to wonder what qualifications rappers have to spread the word about composting. Arrei was incorporated in Illinois by Tesa Anewishki, an executive at CGC. And Jenni Johnson, another CGC staffer, signed tax documents for another firm that arose out of nowhere.

Questions existed as to whether any work was done. Meanwhile, Oglesby returned amidst investigations by the county’s independent inspector general and the state’s attorney, defending herself and declaring her innocence.

Still, the contracts – or at least news or them – kept coming.

One that was never reported involved a marketing firm called Lavender B Media. The company was contracted to do PR work surrounding the county’s department of environment’s conservation initiatives. You can read the whole contract and series of documents here.

But here’s the thing: Lavender B’s principal, LaQuita Broughton, sent the county a proposal dated March 15, 2010. She sent an invoice for $24,995 on the same day. So she requested to be paid before the proposal was even accepted. How do we know that? The county agreed to pay Broughton on April 2, one day after Oglesby requested Lavender B be awarded the contract. (I reached out to Broughton, Oglesby and Gene Mullins, Stroger’s point person on all Oglesby requests in July, but was unable to reach them despite repeated attempts.)

What’s more, Lavender B, a marketing and public relations company has no website. Seriously? I don’t know what kind of self-respecting company selling yarn, let along peddling PR services, doesn’t have a website in this day and age.

It often takes weeks or months for such agreements and checks to move forward. The Oglesby contracts had an interesting way of yielding fast cash.

So now Oglesby has been arrested. I wouldn’t be surprised if more names from the past few months join her in the shackles of shame. There’s a lot of layers which have yet to be explored. Commissioner Larry Suffredin told Fox Chicago News that he expects more dominoes to fall.

It’s a strange end to this saga, which, like Greek tragedies, is fraught with greed, jealousy, retribution and comeuppance. And the fact that all this was happening under Stroger’s nose calls into question everything he’s done. He never condemned Oglesby, only going as far to suspend her and to call the CGC contract a “no-no.” How can taxpayers trust his judgment – if they ever did – when when someone this close to him was allegedly operating a contract shell game?

Voters will have an opportunity to pick a new president in November. Let’s hope the next one takes heed of the conflicts of interest that are leaving a stink in the County Building.

That’s right: In one day, the Tribune sold nearly 7,500 subscriptions to its Sunday edition. Now, that’s a tiny piece of the hundreds of thousands of subscriptions it already has, but it’s pretty darn good for one day. The Washington Post had a good day, too.

Print publications striking deals with Groupon is becoming a booming business in the world of dead trees. I’m about to fall asleep, so I don’t have the energy to analyze this solid Nieman Lab piece - which does a great job of analysis itself – so I’ll leave it to you to read (for now, at least). The bottom line: Groupon’s getting subscribers…but the key is to hold onto them for the long haul.

In other news, it looks like Groupon and McClatchy newspapers have begun a partnership, offering daily deals in the chain’s 28 markets.

I completely agree with this statement (emphasis mine):

Newspapers, not the Web and Google, still have a real connection in local neighborhoods and businesses, so why not make use of that connection to promote business on the Web?

If you make it fun and interesting, and make sure the deals are actually worth it, you — the newspaper company — can be providing a real consumer service to your readers. So, in my view, I think you’ll see Groupon really start to find success in hitting up local news sites and blogs across the U.S.

It shouldn’t stop at Groupon. Heck, I’m sure McClatchy and other newspaper chains have some smart people on board. So why not figure out your own genius idea and take back the local market? That’s easy to say here in my mom’s basement my home, but there are untouched opportunities out there.

This Mashable write-up says it could help papers financially, but gives no details, nor does a corporate statement:

This particular partnership represents both a new distribution model for Groupon’s deeply discounted coupons, and an alternative revenue model for newspapers hoping to monetize their content online. Should the outsourced Groupon deals appeal to local news consumers, the new monetization strategy could help solve the some of the growing financial woes of newspaper companies while helping Groupon continue to grow and maintain its domination over other deal-a-day sites.

Back to the original point: Let’s hope these papers have better luck with subscriptions than some small businesses, who are losing money because of the popularity of their deals. Groupon typically takes 50 percent of the money made off the deals.

And this was just depressing to see. Tough luck, LA Newspaper Group:

The date is “TBD,” but other publishers should take note.

The Web is so important, and even though the ad model is up in the air, that doesn’t mean publishers should sit back and wait for something to happen. It’s about molding your own destiny, taking chances and forging a path for yourself.

Even if newspapers are not ignoring the Web, even if they’ve accepted it as the main vehicle for delivering breaking news and analysis, many papers still run websites that look like they’re straight out of the dark ages of the 1990s.

I think this is a turnoff to readers.

It’s about first impressions. If you are interviewing a job candidate who smells like last night’s jager shots and is wearing a crumpled suit, you have an idea of what you’re getting. If you see a Corvette with a peeling paint job, flat tires and a missing mirror, you have an idea of what you’re getting.

The same goes for newspapers that refuse to incorporate good design, interactivity, engagement and a user-friendly model for accessing the news.

It shows people that the Web is not important, that the website is a placeholder of sorts and that the online experience is not at the forefront of a strategy that absolutely must, has to, needs to embrace all the amazing things we have at our fingertips.

Users will migrate to other sites that provide news. They will dismiss you. They will leave you, and that is sad and scary.

These are my mid-day thoughts. That is all.

Writes Mashable:

Gowalla () users who follow USA Today and check in at major U.S. airports will receive airport and airline news and features from the news organization’s Travel section and online community.

Users can also embark on one of USA Today’s Trips, highlighting eight to ten destinations in ten major U.S. cities — New York, Seattle, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Boston, West L.A., Las Vegas, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. — curated by the company’s editorial staff.

Those who complete a Trip will receive a Jet Setter pin for their Gowalla Passport.

I think this is so cool, and it’s something local news organizations can use as a model. As I wrote a few weeks ago, there are major opportunities for collaboration with business and reader engagement. Maybe you’ll even make a buck or two. At the very least, you’re moving with the times and becoming a ubiquitous presence. And that’s important given the number of other options readers have.

If you know of any other news organizations with a similar partnership, please let me know in the comments section (besides the FT, WSJ and Duke Chronicle, that is).

In a related topic, I can see how Foursquare could be used for social good. But is THIS taking it a bit too far?

The most interesting part of the story for me was how the LA Times allows users to receive personalized news feeds. This is great for readers – and something I touched on the (totally amazing and insightful) white paper I probably mention too much – but I wonder if it is part of the dumbing down of society. Chicago Public Radio allowed readers to provide feedback on how they would like to see the station’s website set up in preparation for a redesign; these lessons can translate to everyday operations, in my opinion.

Here’s how LAT does it:

As newspaper Web sites use technology to learn more about readers’ habits, they are also developing new ways to persuade readers to tell them more about what they want. The Los Angeles Times features what it calls a “personality quiz” for readers on its Web site. The feature adds a spin to the personalization options that Web sites have offered for the last few years with a 17-question test that asks readers things like “What does success mean to you?” and has them pick from 12 photos. A few options include images of a wedding, a gleaming sports car and a man embracing a peasant child.

At the end of the quiz, readers are assigned a personality type like “dynamo,” who, as the quiz explains, is someone “always seeking new adventures that broaden your horizons and take you out of your comfort zone.” A customized news feed then appears each time a reader visits the Web site from the same computer.

“It helps me understand the readers in a way that I can’t with just the metrics,” said Sean Gallagher, managing editor for online operations at The Los Angeles Times, explaining that he now pairs sports articles with food articles because surveys have shown a correlation.