I just spoke with Jeannette Knowley, former co-owner of Port O' Call -- "the best night spot downtown" by many people's reckoning -- about the news that she and husband Kent have reached a settlement with the federal government for their condemned bar.%uFFFDThey%uFFFDwere forced to make%uFFFDway for a new courthouse. The Shubrick Building that once housed Port O' Call had been appraised at $5.4 million but they'll get $7.5 million, or thereabouts.

---

"The settlement happened a long time ago," was%uFFFDJeanette's first reaction. "A couple of months ago."

Jeanette did not say that Tribune reporter Pamela Manson was wrong about anything, only that the story gives the impression the settlement is news, but to Jeanette, it's totally olds. She said the numbers Manson reported were "approximately correct."

Well, it was news to us.

Jeanette wouldn't comment on the story at all.

"Our deal is we don't want any more press with this thing," she said. "We're still in negotiations on other issues."

This column by John Saltas from February will get you caught up.%uFFFD The photo on the right of the lifeless Shubrick was taken by Bill Frost this morning.