Fergalicious
Black Eyed Peas
Luda and the DTP Crew!
(Minus Shawnna:)
Photo Credit: Wire Image
: 20102010
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, concert, live, ludacris, performancePerformance reviews, shawnna, the black eyed peas, windy city
For 34 games, the Havana girls basketball team hadn’t played like it was starting four sophomores and a junior.
But Monday night, in the Class 1A Jacksonville Supersectional, the Ducks ran into a veteran Jacksonville Routt squad, and their youth was exposed in a 54-47 overtime loss.
“That had to be it,’’ Havana coach Jerry Wilson said about the Rockets’ experience taking over. “Because we made a couple of really bad decisions to open the overtime.”
In fact, the Havana possession chart in the extra period at Illinois College looked like this: two missed shots, turnover, two missed shots, turnover, miss, turnover, layup.
Meanwhile, Routt was taking advantage of Havana’s foul trouble. Routt senior forward Morgan Eilering took it right at Havana’s Macy Brown, who was nursing four fouls, and scored easily on a turnaround jumper. Later, Brown could only watch as Routt senior Katie Lindsey powered in a pair of layups.
Lindsey scored five in the overtime, 10 in the fourth quarter and a game-high 23 overall to lead her team to the state semifinals. Routt (27-6) plays Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City at 12:15 p.m. Friday at Redbird Arena in Normal. The winner plays Saturday for the state title, and the loser plays for third place.
“Coming into the fourth, I hadn’t really contributed and I knew I had to step up,” Lindsey said. “Early in the fourth, we got a couple of nice passes to get the offense going, and everything flowed from there.”
Lindsey also was trying to make up for a ghastly mistake at the end of regulation. With her team leading 45-43 and 14.5 seconds left, Lindsey inbounded the ball under the far basket. But her pass went directly to Havana freshman Kelsey Snowden.
“I was so furious with myself when I did that,” Lindsey said. “I knew I had to make up for it.”
Snowden dribbled into the frontcourt, dished to Brown and headed for the right baseline. Brown drove the lane and found Snowden wide open for a 10-footer that forced overtime.
“I was really pleased with some of the things that Snowden did,” Wilson said. “But overall, I think our youth showed tonight.”
Turnovers and free throws plagued Havana. The Ducks turned over the ball 30 times and finished 8-for-20 from the free-throw line.
“Fundamentally, we just didn’t play very well, and that’s what disappoints me the most,” Wilson said. “We turned the ball over, we didn’t box out, we didn’t trail people into the lane, all things we did at the start of the year but have really struggled with recently.”
The loss to Routt marks the second successive supersectional loss for Havana (30-5) — both in overtime. Havana dropped a 69-62 double-OT decision to Brimfield in 2009.
“I don’t really have an answer,” said Wilson, who also said assistant coach Scott Meyers had a good point.
“He said the last game we played really hard and really well was against Knoxville, and that was in January,’’ Wilson said. “We kind of saw it coming and tried everything we could to stop it, but we couldn’t do it.”
Ben Diggle can be reached at 686-3214 or bdiggle@pjstar.com.
Read the original article from Journal Star.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services
The ChicagoChicago reviews City Council granted landmark status today to the former homes of several famed African-American writers — as well as to a library and a former museum — for their contributions to the city’s Black Renaissance Literary Movement in the mid-20th century.
The Lorraine Hansberry House, 6140 S. Rhodes Ave., was home to the author of the acclaimed play “A Raisin in the Sun.”
The drama was inspired in part by her experiences in that home: Her family’s three-year legal battle for the right to live in the predominantly white neighborhood culminated in 1940 with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped end racially discriminatory housing covenants in the city.
The Gwendolyn Brooks House, 7428 S. Evans Ave., was built in 1890 and was home to the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, author and professor for more than four decades.
The Richard Wright House, 4831 S. Vincennes Ave., was home to the author of “Native Son.” Wright lived on the second floor of the brick two-flat from 1929 to 1932.
The Griffiths-Burroughs House, 3806 S. Michigan Ave., was the first home of the DuSable Museum of African-American History.
The George Cleveland Hall Branch Library, 4801 S. Michigan Ave, helped foster the work of many local writers.
Landmarks designated by the city are protected from significant alterations and are eligible for preservation incentives, according to the city’s Department of Zoning and Land Use Planning.
The ChicagoChicago reviews City Council granted landmark status today to the former homes of several famed African-American writers — as well as to a library and a former museum — for their contributions to the city’s Black Renaissance Literary Movement in the mid-20th century.
The Lorraine Hansberry House, 6140 S. Rhodes Ave., was home to the author of the acclaimed play “A Raisin in the Sun.”
The drama was inspired in part by her experiences in that home: Her family’s three-year legal battle for the right to live in the predominantly white neighborhood culminated in 1940 with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped end racially discriminatory housing covenants in the city.
The Gwendolyn Brooks House, 7428 S. Evans Ave., was built in 1890 and was home to the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, author and professor for more than four decades.
The Richard Wright House, 4831 S. Vincennes Ave., was home to the author of “Native Son.” Wright lived on the second floor of the brick two-flat from 1929 to 1932.
The Griffiths-Burroughs House, 3806 S. Michigan Ave., was the first home of the DuSable Museum of African-American History.
The George Cleveland Hall Branch Library, 4801 S. Michigan Ave, helped foster the work of many local writers.
Landmarks designated by the city are protected from significant alterations and are eligible for preservation incentives, according to the city’s Department of Zoning and Land Use Planning.
The ChicagoChicago reviews City Council granted landmark status today to the former homes of several famed African-American writers — as well as to a library and a former museum — for their contributions to the city’s Black Renaissance Literary Movement in the mid-20th century.
The Lorraine Hansberry House, 6140 S. Rhodes Ave., was home to the author of the acclaimed play “A Raisin in the Sun.”
The drama was inspired in part by her experiences in that home: Her family’s three-year legal battle for the right to live in the predominantly white neighborhood culminated in 1940 with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped end racially discriminatory housing covenants in the city.
The Gwendolyn Brooks House, 7428 S. Evans Ave., was built in 1890 and was home to the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, author and professor for more than four decades.
The Richard Wright House, 4831 S. Vincennes Ave., was home to the author of “Native Son.” Wright lived on the second floor of the brick two-flat from 1929 to 1932.
The Griffiths-Burroughs House, 3806 S. Michigan Ave., was the first home of the DuSable Museum of African-American History.
The George Cleveland Hall Branch Library, 4801 S. Michigan Ave, helped foster the work of many local writers.
Landmarks designated by the city are protected from significant alterations and are eligible for preservation incentives, according to the city’s Department of Zoning and Land Use Planning.
The ChicagoChicago reviews City Council granted landmark status today to the former homes of several famed African-American writers — as well as to a library and a former museum — for their contributions to the city’s Black Renaissance Literary Movement in the mid-20th century.
The Lorraine Hansberry House, 6140 S. Rhodes Ave., was home to the author of the acclaimed play “A Raisin in the Sun.”
The drama was inspired in part by her experiences in that home: Her family’s three-year legal battle for the right to live in the predominantly white neighborhood culminated in 1940 with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped end racially discriminatory housing covenants in the city.
The Gwendolyn Brooks House, 7428 S. Evans Ave., was built in 1890 and was home to the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, author and professor for more than four decades.
The Richard Wright House, 4831 S. Vincennes Ave., was home to the author of “Native Son.” Wright lived on the second floor of the brick two-flat from 1929 to 1932.
The Griffiths-Burroughs House, 3806 S. Michigan Ave., was the first home of the DuSable Museum of African-American History.
The George Cleveland Hall Branch Library, 4801 S. Michigan Ave, helped foster the work of many local writers.
Landmarks designated by the city are protected from significant alterations and are eligible for preservation incentives, according to the city’s Department of Zoning and Land Use Planning.
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Monthly soul dance party Windy City Soul Club stomped us into February properly with a dazzling set from Danny’s soul night regular and the city’s authority on Midwest funk, Dante Carfanga. Carfanga unleashed floor-filling gems from his hard-won collection but kept close to the WCSC’s preference for Northern Soul’s faster tunes and joyous vocals. Dancers got a chance to hear rarely played soul vinyl and the mood overall was frisky and upbeat—not too mention favorably gender balanced for a social outing in Chicago.
Photos: Meg Gustafson
As yet another ChicagoChicago reviews alderman admitted to being a crook, Mayor Richard Daley dusted off a 20-year-old idea on Monday and proposed giving the city’s inspector general the power to investigate City Council members.
When Daley created the inspector general’s office in 1989, aldermen overwhelmingly voted to exclude themselves from being investigated by the new office. The inspector general can investigate any part of city government, aldermen said, except aldermen.
Daley said Monday he decided to act now after his council ally, Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers, pleaded guilty in federal court last week to accepting bribes for aiding a developer, becoming the 29th alderman convicted of crimes since 1972.
“I think after the Carothers issue, people are losing confidence in government,” Daley said. “It broke the camel’s back.”
Daley’s proposed ordinance is sure to rankle many aldermen — concerned over an incursion by an already powerful mayor and worried about political witch hunts.
Daley’s actions Monday also could help the mayor move closer to ending federal court oversight of the scandal-plagued system for hiring city workers. The proposal, which Daley plans to introduce at Wednesday’s council meeting, would dramatically shift power between City Hall watchdogs.
The mayor conceded he made a mistake by giving oversight of city hiring to the Office of Compliance he created in 2007. In an about-face, Daley is proposing moving those duties to the inspector general.
Ald. Bernard Stone, 50th, said Daley can give hiring oversight to whomever he wants but Stone said he’s against the inspector general investigating aldermen. Stone had accused the previous inspector general of overstepping his bounds when an investigation led to the prosecution of Stone’s ward superintendent.
“The executive branch should not be able to oversee the legislative branch because the executive branch can use it to blackmail the legislative branch,” Stone said. “That’s the same thing J. Edgar Hoover did to Congress.”
Stone said the fact that 29 aldermen have been convicted shows there’s no need for more scrutiny. “Law enforcement is doing an excellent job in sending crooked aldermen to jail,” he said. “Why do we need someone to duplicate that?”
Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st, said he doesn’t know yet if he’ll support Daley’s proposal.
Brookins echoed Stone. “It seems like everyone is doing a great job,” Brookins said. “A friend of mine in the FBI says they have our seating chart and all 50 of our pictures.”
Many aldermen have long opposed the notion of the inspector general peeking into their affairs. Similar efforts last year by aldermen didn’t have the mayor’s backing and died in committee.
Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, who got 11 aldermen to join his failed proposal last year, predicted Daley would succeed where he had failed. “His winning percentage is close to one thousand,” Moore said.
Moore said voters are fed up and angry over government scandals. “The mayor continues to struggle with abuses in hiring,” he said. “And we have another alderman going off to jail.”
Daley’s proposal would punish city workers and contractors who fail to report corrupt activity. It also calls for the office’s investigative reports — which are currently secret — to be posted on the Internet, minus the names of those involved.
Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, who though he is appointed by the mayor is considered more independent than the compliance office, supported the expansion of his powers.
“The proposal announced by the mayor … constitutes a watershed moment in the history of the city,” Ferguson said. “This proposal comes to grips with core structural reforms necessary to root out patronage and corruption in the city of Chicago.”
In a January report, Ferguson said “the dangers of political hiring remain real and constant” and complained that a city ordinance barred him from investigating aldermen. He said that has prevented him from looking into a November Tribune article detailing how aldermen had put family members, campaign operatives and others with political connections on a stealth taxpayer-funded payroll.
City Hall is operating under a decades-long consent decree aimed at keeping politics out of most personnel decisions. A federal judge appointed a monitor in 2005 to oversee hiring after federal authorities accused Daley’s patronage chief and others of circumventing that decree by rigging hiring to reward the mayor’s political allies with jobs, promotions and overtime.
Daley has said he plans to ask the court this year to end oversight, arguing that the city was in “substantial compliance,” a legal threshold for ending court involvement.
Michael Shakman, the lawyer whose lawsuit 40 years ago resulted in the Shakman decree governing city hiring and firing, said Daley had taken a step in the right direction but more needs to be done.
The city still needs to complete its hiring plan, which would set in place the process by which new employees get hired, based on merit or by lottery and not based on whom they know politically. Shakman said the Daley administration also needs to tackle the issue of contract workers who function as city employees in apparent violation of hiring rules.
Shakman also called for Daley to get rid of Anthony Boswell, the head of the compliance office. “No one has any confidence in Boswell,” he said. “I don’t, the monitor doesn’t, and it’s clear the mayor doesn’t. He’s got to go.”
Boswell could not be reached for comment Monday, and his lawyer declined to comment. Daley refused Monday to answer questions about Boswell’s future.
Ferguson and Boswell also have tangled. Ferguson last month concluded that Boswell and his top deputy mishandled a 2008 sexual harassment complaint from an intern at the 911 center. Ferguson said the two men repeatedly disregarded city policies and showed favoritism toward the 911 supervisor by trying to find him another city job and a new intern.
He recommended to Daley that the men be suspended for at least 30 days. The top deputy resigned his post.
Boswell’s lawyer, Jamie Wareham, has said the inspector general’s investigation was politically motivated by the desire to take over many of Boswell’s duties. Wareham said it was a “classic Chicago power grab.”
–Hal Dardick and Todd Lighty
Authorities today identified a Stickney man as the person found strangled and beaten in the city’s Little Village neighborhood over the weekend.
An autopsy performed this morning determined that Luis Rodriguez, 25, died of strangulation and blunt head trauma in an assault and the death was classified a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Rodriguez’s body was discovered in an alley at about 6:45 a.m. Sunday in the 3000 block of South Christiana Avenue, ChicagoChicago reviews police said. He suffered from obvious trauma to his head and upper body, police said. Rodriguez, of the 4000 block of Oak Park Avenue in Stickney, was pronounced dead at 9:15 a.m., a medical examiner’s spokesman said.
Police today had no new details on the case, adding that no arrests had been made.
UPDATE: Police said tonight that Patrycia Bochmulski returned home. No further details were released.
ChicagoChicago reviews police said tonight they are looking for a 16-year-old girl last seen a week ago at Prosser High School in the city’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood.
Patrycia Bochmulski, of the 5400 block of West Addison Street, was spotted at Prosser at noon on Thursday, police said in a missing persons alert.
Patrycia is described in the alert as Caucasian, 5-foot-4, 130 pounds, with a fair complexion, green eyes and brown hair.
She was wearing a black jacket, black T-shirt and blue jeans, police said.
Anyone with information about Patrycia’s whereabouts should call the Grand Central Area’s Special Victims Unit at 312-746-8365.
A man was found fatally beaten Sunday morning in an alley in the city’s Little Village neighborhood.
The unidentified victim was discovered at about 6:45 a.m. Sunday in the 3000 block of South Christiana Avenue, ChicagoChicago reviews police said.
The victim, described as a man between 20 and 30 years old, appeared to have suffered trauma to his head and upper body, police said in a news release.
No arrests had been made, police said.
An autopsy is scheduled for Monday morning, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Facing stalled negotiations with union officials on how to resolve a major budget deficit, the ChicagoChicago reviews Transit Authority began implementing major service cuts today for the first time in more than a decade.
Joe Ramos, 65, said the delays already impacted him when he left his job on the south side at 3:30 a.m. He said he had to wait two hours for his bus near 44th and Wallace St., doubling the normal time.
The delay meant he didn’t get to his home at Cottage Grove and 72nd Street until 6 a.m.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Ramos.
Jamika Bivens, 14, said the delays will really impact her school schedule as well as daily life. Bivens, of the South SideSouth Side reviews, was waiting for the No. 29 bus on 69th and State Street.
“You’re going to be out too long and then it’s going to make you late for your destination,” said Bivens.
On the eve of service cuts today, Mayor Richard Daley voiced concern on Saturday that union members would rather accept 1,100 layoffs than agree to pay cuts, unpaid days off or other concessions.
“They said most of their members would agree that people be laid off, unfortunately,” said Daley, after he brought CTA and union officials to City Hall on Friday to try and restart negotiations.
On the North Side, Erin Bell, 28, was waiting with her daughter Emma, 6, on their way to a childrens’ birthday party and they were already delayed.
“We’re already late,” said Bell, adding they had been waiting 20 minutes for the No. 77 Belmont bus.
Bell, of Roscoe Village, said she had heard about the cutbacks but forgot they were to take effect today.
“I hope we don’t miss cake time,” said Emma.
The greatest impact of the service cuts will be felt Monday, the first work day since 119 bus routes and seven of the eight rail lines began operating less frequently, CTA President Richard Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez urged riders to plan their Monday commutes in advance to ensure they have enough time to reach their destinations.
As a general guideline, rail customers can expect an additional minute or two for trains to arrive during rush hour, while bus riders should expect an additional two to five minutes between buses, CTA said.
“Although the increments seem minor, there will be a significant difference in the length of a customer’s commute,” Rodriguez said. “Both buses and trains will fill up faster as a result of the service decrease, particularly during peak service hours, and riders may be forced to wait for multiple vehicles to pass before being able to board.”
CTA closely monitored routes from its control center Sunday and said there were “no serious problems related to service reduction,” according to CTA Chairman Terry Peterson.
Robert Kelly, president of the CTA’s rail union, said over the weekend that members historically have taken a hard line against concessions. He plans to met with members this week to present them with the CTA’s position and hopes an agreement can be reached within the next seven to 10 days.
“In the past the membership has said, ‘Don’t give up nothing,’ ” Kelly said. “I can tell you we don’t give up nothing without getting something. That’s negotiating.”
Even if the union agrees, the changes won’t come in time to push back the changes which commuters already had to grapple with today. Rodriguez warned riders to expect longer wait times and more crowded buses and trains.
CTA buses and trains will not run as often and some buses will not run as late into the night. Passengers should plan for longer waits between buses on 119 of 150 CTA bus routes, as well as on seven rail lines. Forty-one bus routes will have shorter hours and nine express routes will be eliminated.
CTA riders are advised to check transitchicago.com when making travel plans.
In addition, two dozen Pace suburban bus routes will be eliminated or operate with reduced service starting Monday to save money.
– Georgia Garvey , Kristen Mack and staff
CTA officials expressed hope today that service cuts scheduled to go into effect on Sunday will be rolled back but made ready by shutting down one of the agency’s oldest bus barns and decommissioning a number of older buses.
The cuts, effective Sunday, will result in bus service being reduced by almost one-fifth, and train operations seeing a 9 percent reduction. About 1,100 CTA employees will be laid off.
“Riders should expect to experience longer wait times, particularly during rush periods, and more crowded buses and trains,” CTA Board President Richard Rodriguez said in a news conference today.
Rodriguez said that a meeting Friday night involving Mayor Richard Daley, CTA officials and union officials helped bring the sides together and may pave the way for progress that could reverse the cuts. Restoring them, however, would take a week or more once they are effective, officials have said.
(For a story about Friday’s meeting, click HERE; a CTA page detailing cuts is HERE; RedEye has more coverage of the situation HERE.)
“We had a very good meeting with the mayor. It provided an opportunity for both sides to clear the air, re-ignite the discussion,” Rodriguez said.
CTA officials said that in the meeting they gave union officials their ideas and asked union officials to return with their cost-saving ideas. They are now waiting for the union to come back.
The press conference today publicized the closing of the Archer Avenue CTA bus garage and the retiring of older buses in the garage. The 21 routes out of the Archer garage are being redistributed among the 7 remaining garages, Rodriguez said.
The Archer garage is 103 years old, one of the oldest in the CTA system, Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez today defended the level of cutbacks hitting CTA upper management.
“The party we’re really hoping will help us out here is the union,” Rodriguez said.
The cost-cutting moves mark the first major service cuts since 1998.
Even when a deal is reached between CTA management and the transit agency’s labor unions on the more than $95 million in savings needed to close the budget shortfall, it could take a week or longer to re-assign laid-off employees and get buses and trains back on normal schedules, officials said.
CTA officials and union leaders pledged to begin fresh talks after meeting for several hours in Daley’s City Hall office Friday afternoon.
– Dan Simmons and staff
CTA service cuts are set to begin Sunday after a last-minute negotiation session called Friday by Mayor Richard Daley failed to bring a resolution.
As feared by public transit commuters, bus service will be cut by almost one-fifth, and train operations will undergo a 9 percent reduction. About 1,100 CTA employees will be laid off.
“There wasn’t really any new” proposals discussed during a meeting led by the mayor, said Terry Peterson, CTA board chairman. “But I think the reality of 1,000 people not being at work might have helped drive home the message that this is real.”
The cost-cutting moves mark the first major service cuts since 1998.
CTA riders will feel the full impact of the cuts starting with Monday morning’s rush period. There will be fewer trains and buses, and they will be more crowded. Hours of service also will be slashed.
Even when a deal is reached between CTA management and the transit agency’s labor unions to come up with more than $95 million in savings to close the budget shortfall, it could take a week or longer to reassign laid-off employees and get buses and trains back on normal schedules, officials said.
CTA officials and union leaders pledged to begin fresh talks after meeting in Daley’s City Hall office Friday afternoon for several hours.
Until the mayor summoned both sides to the negotiating table, CTA officials and union leaders had argued mainly over the legality of the CTA’s layoff list. UnionThe Union reviews leaders said management officials ignored their proposals to cut costs, while CTA executives countered that the union never offered an idea.
The reality of service cuts and the accompanying layoffs taking place in the middle of winter — and the resulting public anger — may be enough to spur new initiatives or some acceptance by the unions of what the CTA put on the table.
The transit agency laid out a menu of options to help eliminate what originally was a $300 million budget deficit for 2010. They included deferring union wage increases that are covered under the current contract, requiring employees to take a certain number of unpaid days off, and cost savings in health care and other areas.
Daley’s message to union leaders was that it was critical to avoid laying off workers when the economy is weak, Peterson said.
Less than two hours before the meeting, union leaders offered the first details on a proposal they floated a week ago to save $90.6 million.
Talks will now begin from scratch, said Darrell Jefferson, president of the CTA bus drivers union.
He said Daley mostly served to facilitate the talks and did not offer a plan. Daley mostly helped thaw the icy relations between the sides, he said, and that helped clear the air so substantive talks could begin.
Robert Kelly, president of the CTA rail workers union, said he hoped the job and service cuts could be reversed “in seven to 10 days.”
He also wondered why Daley did not get involved sooner.
“I don’t think you should wait until the eleventh hour,” Kelly said.
–Jon Hilkevitch and John Byrne
City health inspectors used bleach to destroy hundreds of pounds of frozen fruit puree and threw out other food in a West Town kitchen on Thursday night, citing not safety violations but a lack of proper licensing.
The fruit — apples, plums, raspberries, pears, blueberries and peaches from local growers harvested and frozen last summer — belonged to pastry chef Flora Lazar, who valued it at thousands of dollars.
Lazar had rented space for her business, Flora Confections, at Kitchen ChicagoChicago reviews, a shared cooking facility for small artisan bakers, candymakers and caterers. A second business, the caterer Sunday Dinner Club, said it lost more than $1,000 in discarded cassoulet, granola bars and baking supplies.
Both businesses said they have sought licenses from the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection to operate at the kitchen, 324 N. Leavitt St. At first, they said, they were told multiple business licenses could not be issued to the same address.
Two weeks ago, the department issued a cease-and-desist order to the firms and said they could apply for the licenses. Spokeswoman Efrat Stein said it has had a consistent policy on shared kitchens since August.
The companies applied, paid the fees and invited the Chicago Department of Health inspectors. Lazar said they didn’t know the inspectors would destroy any food that appeared to have been cooked, processed or opened before they arrived.
Lazar, who had planned to use the purees to make fruit gelees for Valentine’s Day, tried to give the fruit to her son, but an inspector called in the Chicago Police Department to intervene. The bags of fruit were then slashed open and treated with bleach.
“We didn’t know how the food would be handled after it left so we could not allow it to be moved,” said Frances Guichard, food protection director at the health department.
“This puts me out of business for six months,” Lazar said after losing the “irreplaceable” fruit. “I have done everything by the rules. Instead of making the food at home, which I could easily do, I sought out and rented space in a licensed kitchen. When [the city] finally said we could apply for a separate license, I did that. I paid my $600 and invited the inspectors here today.”
Kitchen Chicago owner Alexis Leverenz said the city’s rules seem to penalize small businesses like hers. Each time a renter applies to work in her kitchen, the health department inspects it again. Even Chicago’s busiest restaurants may be inspected just once a year.
Even harsher, she said, is the department’s threat to fine all of her clients if they find any one of them has committed a violation. “That’s like giving everyone in the car their own ticket when a driver is stopped by the police,” she said.
“Businesses like ours are good for the city,” Leverenz said. “We have launched successful, well-loved businesses, created jobs and gotten people out of their unlicensed home kitchens. By making it so difficult they are sending people back home to work instead of going to a licensed facilities like ours.”
Stein said “shared kitchen space is a great concept and … we want to see them all licensed as quickly as possible.”
Leverenz said the inspectors told her they would return Monday and that no food remaining in her kitchen was to be touched before then.
A man and woman were fatally shot tonight as they sat inside of a parked vehicle in the city’s Gresham neighborhood.
The victims were sitting in the parked vehicle in the 8500 block of South Morgan Street at about 7:10 p.m. when the offender pulled along side them and opened fire, ChicagoChicago reviews police said.
Both victims were rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where they were each pronounced dead. One of the victims was identified as Maryrosa Green, 44, of the 1200 block of West 72nd Street, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The second victim, described only as a man in his 20s, remained unidentified late Tuesday.
The gunman fled in an unknown direction. Police hadn’t made any arrests in the double slaying. Investigators said they weren’t sure what the relationship was between the victims or the possible motive.
This shooting was the second and third fatalities to occur in the Gresham neighborhood Tuesday.
Roads were slippery this morning as light snow was falling across the ChicagoChicago reviews area. A number of accidents were reported across the metropolitan area.
The city sent out 175 of its snow-fighting trucks at 2:30 a.m. in anticipation that below-freezing temperatures could cause some morning rush hour problems.
In northwest Indiana, all southbound lanes of Interstate Highway 65 at U.S. Highway 30 were blocked by an accident. There were multiple crashes on a five-mile stretch from south of U.S. 30 to the 248 mile marker near U.S. 231.
In Elgin, an accident closed U.S. 20 between Plank and Switzer roads.
Significant snow accumulations throughout the day aren’t expected. The National Weather Service is predicting a total of about 2 inches in the far north and northwest suburbs, with about an inch in the southwest suburbs and northwest Indiana. Today’s highs are forecast to be in the lower 30s.
There also will be a chance of flurries this evening.
–Staff report
A police chase that apparently began this morning in Rockford ended in ChicagoChicago reviews’s Noble Square neighborhood, officials said.
At about 3:15 a.m., Illinois State Police reported that a suspect, who led Rockford police on a chase, was apprehended at Division and Noble streets.
Officers from the Chicago Police Department assisted in the arrest, said News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro.
Alfaro said Rockford police chased the suspect into the city, along with Illinois State Police.
Check back for details.
A 17-year-old boy was shot and killed this afternoon in the city’s West Humboldt Park neighborhood, ChicagoChicago reviews police said.
Police believe the teen’s killers chased him down before shooting him, authorities said.
Killed was Ramone Washington, of the 700 block of South Karlov Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
A neighbor called police to report screaming followed by shooting near the 1100 block of North Keystone Avenue just after 1:40 p.m., police said.
Authorities found the Washington’s body in the 1100 block of North Karlov Avenue. He suffered gunshot wounds to his left and right hips, as well as underneath his right arm, with the bullet penetrating his heart, police spokeswoman Gabrielle Lesniak said.
Washington was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, a medical examiner’s spokesman said. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.
Descriptions of the two gunmen weren’t available.
A 17-year-old boy was shot and killed this afternoon in the city’s West Humboldt Park neighborhood, ChicagoChicago reviews police said.
Police believe the teen’s killers chased him down before shooting him, authorities said.
Killed was Ramone Washington, of the 700 block of South Karlov Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
A neighbor called police to report screaming followed by shooting near the 1100 block of North Keystone Avenue just after 1:40 p.m., police said.
Authorities found the Washington’s body in the 1100 block of North Karlov Avenue. He suffered gunshot wounds to his left and right hips, as well as underneath his right arm, with the bullet penetrating his heart, police spokeswoman Gabrielle Lesniak said.
Washington was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, a medical examiner’s spokesman said. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.
Descriptions of the two gunmen weren’t available.
Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers, left, leaves the Dirksen Federal Building today with his attorney Jeff Steinback, right, after pleading guilty to federal bribery and tax charges. (Chris Walker/ ChicagoChicago reviews Tribune)
The booming preacher’s voice he often used to staunchly defend Mayor Richard Daley’s policies at City Hall was missing today as a stone-faced Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers quietly pleaded guilty in federal court to bribery and tax charges, bringing to 29 the number of aldermen — his father included — to be convicted over the last four decades.
The felony conviction capped a stunning fall for Carothers, who admitted his guilt in exchange for a 28-month prison term. Carothers was that rare alderman who agreed to work undercover for federal authorities, wearing a wire and secretly recording other public officials and businessmen. Next month he is scheduled to testify at the trial of a developer accused of providing Carothers with $40,000 in home improvements for backing a controversial project in his 29th Ward.
His plea agreement revealed he also took thousands of dollars in cash from others who wanted his help.
Carothers, an alderman since 1999, immediately tendered his resignation Monday in a letter to Daley.
“Please keep me and my family in your prayers,” he wrote. “It has indeed been a pleasure serving with you and other members of the Chicago City Council.”
Even on a City Council full of strong personalities, Carothers, 55, was known as a bit of a political bully and had the bluster to match his sizable frame. Ever a Daley defender, he spoke on the council floor with the assuredness of colleagues with decades more experience and was not above belittling those who did not side with the mayor.
“He certainly was a caricature of the West SideWest Side reviews ward boss,” said Ald. Joe Moore, 49th. “Watching him in action was sort of like watching a film clip from 40 years ago. He did not change with the times. He had the typical approach of the stereotypical politician — sort of a ‘what’s in it for me’ attitude.”
His guilty plea came 27 years after his father, William, a former alderman, was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for strikingly similar behavior — trying to extort as much as $32,500 worth of remodeling work at his ward office in exchange for permits needed for a hospital expansion.
“This is the first father-son case we’ve had among the aldermen,” said Dick Simpson, a former alderman himself who is a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Carothers also becomes the first sitting Chicago alderman in the last quarter century to agree to testify in court as part of a criminal plea deal, according to records kept by Simpson’s department at UIC. Two former aldermen have previously made such agreements, those records indicate.
In pleading guilty Monday, Carothers admitted he had personally profited by backing zoning changes for a controversial project sought by developer Calvin Boender. The work at Carothers’ home included fresh coats of paint inside and outside as well as new windows, security doors and central air conditioning, authorities said.
Carothers paid for none of the work, according to court records, and Boender never sent a bill.
He pleaded guilty to one count of failing to report the home improvements on his income tax return and to one count of corruptly accepting items of value for supporting a zoning change for the project. No sentencing date was set to allow him to complete his cooperation.
Carothers’ written plea deal also provided fresh details about how the alderman lined his pockets through other allegedly corrupt dealings with developers and with the organizer of a neighborhood carnival.
When the undisclosed carnival organizer needed city permits and wanted to use public park facilities in Carothers’ ward, the organizer told the alderman that “something was in it” for his support. Starting in 2004, the organizer paid $10,000 to Carothers for backing two carnival events.
In another allegedly corrupt dealing, an undisclosed developer handed over envelopes stuffed with $15,500 in cash to Carothers in exchange for the alderman’s support for a potential development, according to the plea agreement.
Sources told the Tribune that the developer was John Thomas, who was convicted of federal fraud and money-laundering charges in New York in 2004 and became an undercover FBI mole in an investigation into political corruption and real estate crimes. The payments were made from November 2006 through January 2007 during a series of meeting with Carothers.
But for reasons not made clear in his plea agreement, Carothers “became uncomfortable” and repaid the money with a check from his campaign fund.
Thomas, reached by telephone Monday, declined to talk about the FBI sting on Carothers or any aspect of the investigation.
“I wish him the best,” Thomas said. “I have moved on from the past.”
But it is the alleged bribery by Boender that is at the center of the case. Neither Boender nor his lawyers could be reached Monday for comment.
Boender’s coziness with Carothers and other politicians who supported his controversial Galewood Yards development was highlighted in the Tribune’s “Neighborhoods for Sale” series in 2008. The stories documented how aldermen — who have dictatorial control over what is built in their wards — pulled in millions of dollars in campaign donations from deep-pocketed developers seeking favorable zoning changes.
Boender has developed projects throughout Chicago and is well-known to a number of the city’s more influential politicians. He has contributed generously to political campaigns, including to U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Ald. Ed Burke, 14th. He held a 2007 fundraiser in his home for Burke’s wife, Illinois Supreme Court JusticeDark Justice reviews Anne Burke.
Where other developers had failed, Boender found success at Galewood Yards, a 50-acre former rail yard on the city’s West Side. He bought the vacant industrial property in 2000 and drew up plans for a commercial and residential project.
The city’s Planning Department staff opposed rezoning the property, pointing out the Daley administration’s policy is to preserve dwindling industrial areas to promote manufacturing and jobs. Its resistance over Boender’s Galewood Yards culminated in summer 2004 in a behind-the-scenes meeting at which city planners told Daley they opposed the project.
When Boender was told his site would be part of a planned manufacturing district, he allegedly angrily responded to a city employee that he had “a deal” with Carothers to have the land rezoned for a more lucrative residential project, according to a government court filing Monday.
Over the next few months, Carothers met with planning staffers and other public officials to seek their backing for Boender’s project.
After one council meeting, a city employee told Carothers they needed to talk about the project and show the mayor some progress on the site as a manufacturing area, prosecutors said in the Monday filing.
“You don’t need to talk to Mayor Daley, you don’t need to talk to anybody,” Carothers allegedly said in response. “I know what I’m going to do in my ward.”
Boender and the city eventually reached a compromise in 2005. Land west of Central Avenue would be sold to the Laborers UnionThe Union reviews for a training center. The land east of Central Avenue would be rezoned to allow Boender to build a 14-screen movie theater and a nearly $60 million residential development of 187 single-family homes, townhouses and condos.
Carothers pushed for Boender’s project at every key legislative turn. He wrote an official letter of support to the planning staff, spoke before the Chicago Plan Commission, addressed the council’s Zoning Committee and in March 2006 voted in favor of a council ordinance to rezone the land.
Carothers, at one public meeting, talked about Galewood’s tough journey and the economic impact that the project would have.
“It took a long time to bring this together,” he said. “I think when it’s done, that it will be said that this is one of the greatest projects you’ve seen in Chicago in some time.”
The zoning change had another, more personal economic impact. Prosecutors said that change meant an extra $3 million in Boender’s pockets.
Others benefitted as well, according to court records filed Monday. Boender hired Carothers’ brother, Anthony, for security at Galewood Yards. The records also state that Red Seal Development Corp., Boender’s partners in the project, employed Ald. Emma Mitts’ daughter as a laborer and used Gutierrez’s sister-in-law to sell real estate.
“After Mr. Carothers found out that Mr. Gutierrez’s sister-in-law was working for Red Seal, Mr. Carothers became upset and wondered why Red Seal could not be working with his brother,” according to the records.
Gutierrez, who had lobbied the mayor to support Boender’s project, has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
As part of his cooperation with the government, Carothers has secretly worn a wire in corruption investigations. Prosecutors have been mum about what other shady arrangements Carothers has been involved in, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Fox told U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow Jr. during the plea hearing that the alderman has been helpful in “at least two matters.”
Chief on the minds of many at City Hall on Monday was Boender’s trial scheduled to begin March 8, however. His lawyers last fall subpoenaed 10 current and former aldermen to testify about their knowledge of how the city approved Boender’s Galewood Yards development. Corporation Counsel Mara Georges last week filed a motion with the court trying to keep the aldermen from having to testify by claiming legislative immunity, a protection often sought in civil suits.
The motion noted that five of the aldermen were members of the city’s Zoning Committee who had voted on the zoning change for Galewood Yards. Former Ald. William J.P. Banks was chairman and Aldermen Ed Burke, Eugene Schulter, Ed Smith and Bernard Stone were members.
It was unclear why the other five aldermen — Mitts, Walter Burnett, Ricardo Munoz, Patrick J. O’Connor and Helen Shiller — were also subpoenaed to testify at the trial.
Meanwhile, one of Carothers’ lawyers, Jeffrey Steinback, said Carothers was pleading guilty Monday in part to try to set things right.
“I haven’t yet met a perfect human being. I doubt in my lifetime that I will,” Steinback said. “People engage in activities that they regret. I know that this is something that Ike regrets deeply.”
– Jeff Coen, Todd Lighty and Hal Dardick
Click HERE for a WGN-TV report on this story.
Mayor Richard Daley angrily denied Saturday that his longtime friend Michael Scott’s suicide was related to an investigation into the ChicagoChicago reviews school board president’s use of a district-issued credit card or a City Hall meeting set up to talk about the probe.
The denial marked the first time the Daley administration publicly acknowledged that top aide Jacquelyn Heard had scheduled the meeting with Scott about the credit card inquiry for the day Scott was found dead in November of what was ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
At the time, Daley said little about the hours before Scott’s death. Police also denied media attempts to get more information about their investigation of Scott’s suicide.
Behind the scenes, however, the mayor’s office told police about the meeting Heard had set up with Scott to discuss the probe by the Chicago Public Schools inspector general into Scott’s use of a taxpayer-funded credit card to pay for travel, meals, gifts and artwork.
Saturday’s disclosure adds a new element of controversy to the mysterious Scott story.
Before Scott’s death, the Tribune sought records about his use of the credit card to pay for a 2016 Olympics bid trip to Copenhagen.
The Tribune also published several stories last year related to Scott’s key role on Chicago’s Olympic committee and the real estate dealings of his company.
And earlier this month, the Tribune reported investigators from the inspector general’s office were scheduled to interview Scott on Nov. 20, four days after he died.
On Saturday, Heard said she called Scott the morning of Nov. 15 and made an appointment to meet the next morning with Scott to talk about district Inspector General James Sullivan’s ongoing inquiry.
But before that meeting could take place, Chicago police found Scott’s body in shallow water near a River North bridge. Later, authorities declared Scott died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Daley insisted Saturday that the series of events are unconnected.
“It had nothing to do with it. It had nothing to do with it,” the mayor said at a news conference after he dedicated a new senior citizen housing development in the Kelvyn Park neighborhood. “They’re trying to say that Michael Scott committed suicide over that. I mean, you people are just – I guess you want to dig him out of the grave or something. It had nothing to do with it. If you could predict why someone committed suicide, you’d be the greatest psychiatrist in the world. It had nothing to do with Michael’s death, suicide.”
The mayor also chastised the media, saying reporters are acting irresponsibly while trying to ascribe motives to Scott’s actions. The Sun-Times first reported Heard’s scheduled meeting with Scott.
“You people wish it had something to do with his suicide. I think you’re trying to throw him over the ridge or something, over the mountain,” Daley told reporters.
But he also insisted Scott would have been made to answer for any credit card irregularities.
“The credit card, that’s all it was. It wasn’t much, when you look at it,” Daley said. “But, again, that doesn’t — I don’t condone it. He can be accountable. If he was lying, he’d be accountable for it.”
Heard said her conversation with Scott the day before his death was “routine.” The credit card investigation was in its early stages, Heard said, and Scott did not seem at all worried about meeting the next day to discuss it.
“I didn’t know if anything that I was hearing was true. . . . I didn’t detect anything about him that could lead me to believe he had any concern about anything,” Heard said.
Chicago police declared Scott’s death a suicide based largely on physical evidence. No note was ever recovered. And since making the ruling, Supt. Jody Weis has maintained that police do not know — and might not ever know — what led to his decision.
A law enforcement source said Saturday that Scott also had recently gotten word that he had lost a consulting job.
But neither the Heard conversation nor the loss of the job was enough to suggest this might have contributed to his suicide, the source said.
Tribune reporter Hal Dardick contributed.
–John Byrne and Annie Sweeney
The City of ChicagoChicago reviews says it’s offering free tax preparation help for eligible individuals at several sites throughout the city.
City officials also urge eligible residents to apply for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. The idea is to help those who are struggling in the recession.
The Earned Income Tax Credit gives refunds up to about $5,600 to low-income working families. The cutoff income for the credit is just above $48,000 for families and for individuals it’s around $18,400.
Chicago has offered free tax preparations help for more than 10 years. Families who earned up to $50,000 last year and individuals who made up to $25,000 can get the help.
Last year the preparation sites returned more than $35 million to over 22,000 Chicago residents.
Click HERE for the City of Chicago Web site giving locations and details.
–The Associated Press
Traffic will be diverted away from Water Tower Place Saturday morning as a helicopter removes and then replaces a rooftop heating and cooling system, officials said.
Between about 7:30 a.m. and noon, streets surrounding the shopping center, including ChicagoChicago reviews Avenue, Pearson Street, Chestnut Street and parts of Dewitt Place, will be closed to traffic, said Katie Lindsay, a marketing manager at Water Tower Place.
Chicago police will direct traffic and the city will post message boards on Lake Shore Drive alerting motorists of detours.
The event was scheduled for the same time last weekend but the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the delay because of morning fog, Lindsay said.
Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday turned to a former buildings commissioner to follow Michael Scott as ChicagoChicago reviews Board of Education president, continuing his trend of dipping into a pool of trusted problem solvers to fill high-profile posts.
The mayor called the appointment of Mary Richardson-Lowry “bittersweet,” recalling his long friendship with Scott, who died in November of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
One of Richardson-Lowry’s first orders of business is to review school district spending.
Scott had been the subject of an internal investigation that included his use of his taxpayer-paid credit card for thousands of dollars in meals, travel and other expenses. The Tribune previously has disclosed that Scott improperly used his board credit card to pay for a trip last fall to Copenhagen to lobby for Daley’s failed bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
“I’d ask Mary to immediately get on top of this so all our taxpayers see that they are all protected,” Daley said at a City Hall news conference to introduce Richardson-Lowry.
A product of the Compton, Calif., public school system, Richardson-Lowry, 53, said she would call on her experience succeeding in that tough city to help guide her in dealing with the high rates of poverty and violence Chicago schoolchildren face.
“I grew up in an environment where I had to walk through gang territories to get to school. I know what that’s like,” Richardson-Lowry said.
“We have to work hard to provide the best possible classroom opportunities for children within the school system,” she added. “And when we do that and create, to the extent possible within our experience, some safe environment, everything is possible.”
Richardson-Lowry began her city career in 1987 as an assistant corporation counsel, then worked as a senior supervising attorney and an assistant to Daley before taking over the Buildings Department in 1998.
Her tenure was marked by a series of deadly building accidents. Glass from a cracked window at the CNA Tower killed a woman in 1999. Scaffolding broke at the John Hancock Building shortly before Richardson-Lowry left in 2002, killing three people in cars below.
Educators offered a mixed reaction Thursday.
“Schools are not McDonald’s, and children are not hamburgers. This is not a corporate enterprise designed to maximize profit,” said Rico Gutstein, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Education. “What it should be is a system that is committed to the full human potential of educating its students.”
But with educators, such as Chief Education Officer Barbara Eason-Watkins, helping make the education decisions, others said it’s more important to have an effective manager running the board.
“She’s been a part of the administration in the past as a buildings commissioner, so she knows the inner workings of City Hall and the vision that the mayor has for the city,” said Juan Rangel, executive director of the United Neighborhood Organization, the city’s largest charter schools operator.
Richardson-Lowry’s multiple positions with the administration mirror the careers of many lieutenants Daley has called on repeatedly to fill top spots at City Hall.
Scott wore several hats for the mayor, serving as Chicago Park District president and on boards for the Regional Transportation Authority and Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, as well as twice heading the school board.
Gery Chico was Daley’s chief of staff and school board president and now is park board president. And school district CEO Ron Huberman previously headed the CTA and the city Office of Emergency Management and Communications, in addition to serving as Daley’s chief of staff.
Tribune reporter Todd Lighty contributed to this report.
–John Byrne and Azam Ahmed
The two Democratic governor candidates today met face-to-face for the final time before Tuesday’s election, with Comptroller Dan Hynes coming under fire from both Gov. Pat Quinn and a radio host over a controversial TV ad featuring the late Mayor Harold Washington.
Appearing on the “Cliff Kelley Show” on WVON 1690-AM, the governor again accused Hynes of using decades-old footage of Washington, ChicagoChicago reviews’s first African-American mayor, criticizing Quinn to turn black voters against him.
The radio show host seized on that idea when he asked Hynes the purpose of the ad, in which Washington says in 1987 that he fired Quinn as City Hall revenue director because Quinn was more concerned with public relations than effective management.
“Was the intent to try to divide the black community or to draw votes from people who are racist and didn’t want Washington in office in the first place?” said Kelley, who frequently sided with Quinn.
Hynes countered that he ran the ad to “explain to people that the governor’s inability to solve problems and his lack of competence is not just a one-time situation.”
Quinn used the live radio show to again question Hynes’ involvement with his father’s 1987 mayoral bid against Washington. Tom Hynes, 19th Ward power broker, made his third-party bid at a time of great racial tension in Chicago politics.
“I’d rather lose the race for governor than divide the people of Illinois along race,” Quinn said. “That’s what my opponent is doing.”
Quinn also repeatedly ticked off the names of prominent black elected officials who have endorsed him to demonstrate his support in the African-American community, a key source of Democratic votes.
At times, Hynes appeared frustrated at the amount of time Quinn was given to respond to questions, at one point asking Kelley off-air if he could respond to a “10-minute monologue” Quinn gave on job creation. Kelley answered no, though Hynes later cut in.
Afterward, Quinn declared the exchange the “most substantive” discussion of issues yet. Asked if it was because he got more favorable air time, Quinn laughed before state Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, interjected.
“Well, he’s home here,” Trotter said. “No doubt about it.”
–Monique Garcia and David Heinzmann
Click HERE for a WGN-TV report on this story.
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