Chicago Sun-Times

Cornell Park no stranger to violence

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 02:15:36 -0500

Changing times, changing crimes, but guns still rule. On the evening of Sept. 19, five alleged gang-bangers, aided by an AK-47-style rifle, were involved in an attack that sprayed bullets into a crowd at Cornell Square Park, according to charges filed last week by Cook County prosecutors. They wounded 13 innocent people, including a three-year-old child, in retaliation for an earlier shooting. That mass assault in Chicago garnered international headlines. It also triggered a life-changing memory for my friend, Donna Norkus. Two days after the shooting, Donna sent me an email to let me know it wasn’t the first time …

Fat Nag takes ‘SNAP Challenge’

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 02:14:48 -0500

For years The Fat Nag, yours truly, has been nudging, cajoling, pleading, that we all get the fat off. Obesity rates in America are through the roof. “The fat is killing us,” is her mantra. Last week, the Nag was challenged to reconsider her crusade — by taking the SNAP Challenge. SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps. Every September community leaders, politicians and journalists take on the SNAP Challenge. For one week, I pledged to limit my personal spending for food to the standard SNAP allotment for one week. In Illinois, that’s about $35 a …

For once, diplomacy winning over war

Mon, 16 Sep 2013 02:15:29 -0500

‘It’ll be OK, Sis. I’m out now.” Last December, those were sweet words of comfort to my eager ear. Today, they echo fears, mine and many others, as America awaits another run-up to war. Drew’s words. You may remember my regular tales of the long duty of Sergeant First Class Andrew Washington Jr., my younger brother and an Army lifer. Drew did multiple tours: to Afghanistan in 2002, in Iraq in 2003. He returned unscathed. He was one of the lucky ones. While he was enlisted, I was always on tenterhooks, awaiting the next word of “deployment,” that awful bureaucratic …

Kids need to know why Owens matters

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 02:16:12 -0500

It’s bad enough that some Chicago neighborhoods have become nationally known ‘‘food deserts.’’ Now our schools are turning into ‘‘culture deserts.’’ That sentiment came last week from a reader in response to my column on a burgeoning controversy over the elimination of the name ‘‘Jesse Owens’’ from an elementary school on the city’s far South Side. My concerned correspondents have taken to email, Facebook and Twitter to protest the decision. It’s nice to know that in the face of pending military action in Syria, bloodshed on the streets of Chicago, and endemic political corruption, people still care about little things …

‘Jesse Owens’ is a name worth keeping around

Mon, 02 Sep 2013 02:12:59 -0500

The Jesse Owens Community Academy elementary school is now called “Gompers South,” becoming another casualty of the Chicago Board of Education’s decision to close 50 public schools this fall.

Roseland area seeking a turnaround

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 06:12:41 -0500

One of every two African-American men from Chicago’s South Side will die before the age of 64. One of three black women will face that fate. In Chicago, 3,200 more blacks than whites die every year. Those dire statistics hung in the air last Monday night at a town hall meeting in Roseland, on the city’s far South Side. But the resilient people behind the numbers were determined to turn them around. The meeting was inspired by the plight of Roseland Community Hospital, a neighborhood linchpin and last resort for the sick and poor. It’s easy for some to ignore …

Raoul for gov? Spoiler, not winner

Fri, 20 Sep 2013 06:11:52 -0500

For a Democrat, the black vote in the 2014 gubernatorial primary is crucial. In the two-way contest between Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Bill Daley, the former White House chief of staff/banker, there is no contest. The Daley name carries no water with African-American voters. We have been the horse pulling the plow for Quinn. He can’t win without black folks. Set match point. Game over. But now, speculation is building that a late-entry challenge could thwart Quinn’s re-nomination hopes. Talk is cheap. These days, Illinois is full of talk about State Sen. Kwame Raoul, who is seriously considering getting …

Senate panel votes to authorize force in Syria

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 15:40:21 -0500

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate panel has voted to give President Barack Obama the authority to use military force against Syria in response to a deadly chemical weapons attack. The vote Wednesday was 10-7, with one senator voting present. The full Senate is expected to vote on the measure next week. The resolution would permit Obama to order a limited military mission against Syria, as long as it doesn’t exceed 90 days and involves no American troops on the ground for combat operations. The Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez, and the panel’s top Republican, Sen. …

Syria resolution sets deadline, bars ground forces

Tue, 03 Sep 2013 20:07:16 -0500

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate resolution authorizing President Barack Obama to use military force against Syria would bar American ground troops for combat operations and set a deadline for any action. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the draft resolution that the Foreign Relations Committee will vote on Wednesday. The measure would set a time limit of 60 days and says the president can extend that for 30 days more with congressional approval. Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, chairman of the committee, and Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican, agreed on the measure late Tuesday. …

Politics rev up in dog days of summer

Fri, 13 Sep 2013 06:10:16 -0500

It’s mid-August, the traditional dog days of summer. Not this time around. Look for plenty of action in the never-never land of Illinois politics. From the Washington Beltway to Spring Patch to Crook (er, Cook) County, it’s going to be wild. First thing Wednesday morning, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., is expected to hand down sentences to a once-royal family of Chicago politics. Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and former Ald. Sandi Jackson will learn if, and for how long, they are going to the slammer. It’s been a long time coming. The personal stakes for the Jacksons …

Lawmakers begin to grapple with Syria question

Sun, 01 Sep 2013 11:02:10 -0500

Members of Congress, abruptly handed exactly the war powers many had demanded, grappled Saturday with whether to sign off on President Barack Obama’s plan to punish Syria for an alleged chemical weapons attack.

Why is Josina Morita running for reclamation board? ‘I care about water’

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 06:09:03 -0500

Board members are elected countywide and charged with processing and routing sewage waste and stormwater in Chicago and suburban Cook County. Political insiders call it a “down ballot” race. Way down. Yet, at least five aspirants are considering bids for three MWRD seats.

‘Fruitvale Station’ has parallels to Trayvon’s case

Fri, 30 Aug 2013 06:27:09 -0500

If you care about the traumas of America’s cities, you will remember Oscar Grant.

Jubilant Daley camp still faces uphill climb for governor

Fri, 23 Aug 2013 06:19:21 -0500

It’s gonna be Ugh-LEE. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has demurred. Her exit from the 2014 gubernatorial sweepstakes sets the stage for a mano a mano between Gov. Pat Quinn and William M. Daley. It’s a bitter bummer. A Madigan-Daley-Quinn triage would have been a windfall for the media, a raft of consultants, and political junkies like me. Madigan’s decision dismayed female Democrats eager to rally behind the state’s most accomplished and popular female politician. So it’s down to the two bald, old white guys. Again. Still, there’s still plenty of drama in store. Enter Quinn, a populist, honest incumbent …

Ald. Deb Mell? Not so fast, Rahm

Fri, 16 Aug 2013 06:09:54 -0500

It’s a triple threat. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is up against a trio of political tribulations as he mulls his appointment of a new alderman in the 33rd Ward. After 38 years, Ald. Dick Mell is retiring, and he is going out as only Mell can. On July 5 he announced his “departure” at a 90-minute press conference, waxing nostalgically about the good old days of running his ward as a patronage haven. He plans to hold onto his committeeman’s seat, and all the hack-ish benefits that accompany it. For old ward horses like Mell, the good old days are still …

Shoddy landlords costly to everyone

Fri, 09 Aug 2013 06:20:46 -0500

Decaying porches. Gaping holes in the ceiling. Mold running rampant. Rodents. Chicago Housing Authority residents may be moving on but not necessarily up. In 2009, LaWanda Dean left public housing in search of a better life. Instead, she ended up in a South Side apartment whose landlord has a history of poor maintenance. One day, the ceiling fell in. Who pays? All of us. Families like Dean’s are living in substandard conditions in Chicago’s most challenged communities, according to a new investigation by The Chicago Reporter. I am serving as the Reporter’s interim publisher. Angela Caputo tells Dean’s story and …

Public leads the Supreme Court on gay marriage

Fri, 02 Aug 2013 06:54:28 -0500

Even the Supreme Court of the United States gets it. The SCOTUS double thumbs-up for same-sex marriage shows even the justices understand that a vote for gay marriage is a vote for justice. Last Wednesday, in a two-fer for gay rights, the Supreme Court ruled that married, same-sex couples should receive the same federal benefits as their heterosexual counterparts. And the court declined to decide a California gay marriage case, effectively allowing same-sex marriages there. Legal arguments aside, they got the memo. In a scant few years, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and, yes, transgenders are rapidly gaining acceptance. Today, 55 percent …

US launches program to help Afghan women

Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:16:02 -0500

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Agency for International Development is launching a program to educate, train and empower at least 75,000 women between the ages of 18 to 30 in Afghanistan.