WBEZ | Politics

Springfield unlikely to stop Chicago school closings as teachers had hoped

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:04:00 -0500

Some members of the Chicago Teachers Union were hoping state lawmakers would slow down the process of closing dozens of Chicago schools.
Illinois State Sen. William Delgado introduced a bill that would put a one-year moratorium on closing any Chicago schools.

He’s a Democrat who represents parts of the city’s Northwest Side and chairs the Education Committee in the State Senate. A few weeks ago, he got a hearing for his bill addressing the school closings. But the only way he could get the needed support for his bill was to use a parliamentary move essentially removing all the language, what’s called a shell bill. Then, down the road, new language could be added.

Since that hearing, Delgado hasn’t heard anything from other lawmakers.

“This is the hottest button issue in the City of Chicago. I was very disappointed that other legislators that have communities being directly impacted were not running me over to get on that bill,” Delgado said Thursday.

Meantime, another bill addressing the school closings introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives has yet to be called for a hearing.

Delgado said with a week left before legislators adjourn for the summer, he doesn’t see Springfield being a factor in slowing down the school closings.

Tony Arnold covers Illinois politics for WBEZ. Follow him @tonyjarnold.

Pritzker faces few tough questions at Senate hearing

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:56:00 -0500

Chicago businesswoman and current Commerce secretary nominee Penny Pritzker faced few tough questions at her Senate hearing Thursday. Pritzker, a long-time friend of and fundraiser for President Barack Obama, was nominated to the post earlier this month.

Pritzker seemed prepared for the two-hour hearing, answering a questions on topics including cyber security, job creation, manufacturing, travel and the fishing industry.

"The calls you’ll get will be about fish," Alaska Senator Mark Begich (D) told Pritzker. "You will think they’re about trade and agreements and tourism - it’s gonna be about fish."

Pritzker was expected to face tough questioning on a few issues. Her family owned 50 percent of the Superior Bank of Chicago, which failed after losing millions of dollars on risky mortgage loans to borrowers with bad credit. Republican Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the ranking member on the committee, was the only senator to inquire about Pritzker’s role in the bank’s collapse.

"Unfortunately, when problems arose, my uncle had recently passed away," Pritzker responded, saying she was never an officer of the bank or involved in management. "I stepped in on behalf of the 50 percent ownership of my family to try and salvage the situation."

Pritzker said after the bank failed, she went to the FDIC herself, and her family voluntarily agreed to pay $450 million.

When Thune asked Pritzker what she’d say to the depositors affected by the bank’s failure, she responded that she regretted the outcome of the bank.

"I feel very badly about that," she added.

Pritzker was also questioned about her family’s offshore trusts, an issue that was expected to be a point of conflict at the hearing.

"I am the beneficiary of off-shore family trusts that were set up when I was a little girl," Pritzker said. "I didn’t create them. I don’t direct them. I don’t control them. I have asked the trustee to remove themselves and appoint a US trustee."

Rocky relations between labor unions and the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, where Pritzker is a board member, barely entered the questioning. Union members of Unite Here in Chicago have protested Pritzker’s nomination over low wages.

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) mentioned the back and forth between the union and hotel management in her questioning, but didn’t directly ask Pritzker about her role.

Pritzker was introduced at the hearing by both Illinois U.S. Senators Mark Kirk and Dick Durbin. Kirk was reportedly on the fence at first about Pritzker’s nomination, but came out with his endorsement earlier this week.

"I see her as a voice for business that the president will have to heed," Kirk told the committee Thursday.

Pritzker’s nomination still has to face the full Senate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Lauren Chooljian is a WBEZ’s Morning Producer/Reporter. Follow her @laurenchooljian.

Woman who loses to Trump: No regrets

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:40:00 -0500

An 87-year-old woman who lost her civil case against Donald Trump says she's glad she took the "Apprentice" star to court even though a jury in Chicago ended up deciding against her.

The federal jury returned with a finding Thursday against Jacqueline Goldberg. The Evanston woman told reporters later she hoped her lawsuit "exposed Trump for what he is" and dissuades others from investing with him.

Goldberg claimed Trump offered her a profit-sharing plan at Chicago's Trump International Hotel & Tower if she bought condos there. She says he reneged after committing to buy.

Trump's attorneys argued Goldberg signed a contract allowing Trump to change the terms.

Asked what advice she'd give others who do decide to invest with Trump, she responded, "Read the contract carefully."

U.S. Rep. Quigley floats bill to curb bird building collisions

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:44:00 -0500

When Columbia College called on Gensler to restore a historic Michigan Avenue façade, the design team put a bird on it.

They had previously discussed Chicago’s problem with bird collisions — due to the city’s location amid many major migratory routes, Chicago’s skyline kills more birds than any other in the country — but abandoned the idea of plastering a classic Michigan Avenue address with conspicuous bird decals. Instead of dots and lines comprising the frit pattern, they asked, what about stylized bird pictograms?

“At first we were just playing with it, but it turned out to be a really functional, practical way of depicting the image of the old building,” said the firm’s Chicago design leader Elva Rubio.

The goal, Rubio said, was to create an abstracted “ghost” image of the building’s original terra cotta facade using a pattern of pixels.

“Your eye doesn’t even catch the bird,” Rubio said.

But they hope the pattern will catch the eyes of migrating birds. Gensler’s own windows in the nearby Carson Pirie Scott building served as the test kitchen, playing host to more than 50 mock-ups refined using a computational program developed in-house.

U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) wants to require all federal buildings to explore such bird-safe materials and design features. The Federal Bird-Safe Buildings Act, introduced Wednesday, calls for each federal public building constructed, acquired, or altered by the General Services Administration to “incorporate, to the maximum extent possible, bird-safe building materials and design features.”

As “the nation's largest landlord,” the GSA could make a dent on the considerable problem of bird collisions. The American Bird Conservancy estimates between 300 million and one billion birds, both resident and migratory, die each year after hurtling into buildings.

Quigley’s office said birding generates some $4.4 billion in federal tax revenues, and is responsible for roughly 670,000 jobs. The new bill, which follows an ill-fated 2011 measure by the same name, has been deemed cost-neutral by the Congressional Budget Office.

When he was a Cook County Commissioner, Quigley sponsored legislation in 2008 that codified bird-friendly building guidelines. Quigley, who taught environmental policy at Loyola University and bikes to work at the Capitol, recently gained a seat on the influential House Appropriations Committee.

“I’m in a good position to help at the worst possible time,” he told scientists at the Chicago Botanic Garden during a “climate tour” of the Chicago area earlier this month. Climate science deniers have obstructed environmental legislation, he said, so far squandering Congress' chance to address the global problem through legislation.

“I’m convinced that if it didn’t agree with their policy subset,” Quigley said later during that tour, “[the people I serve with] wouldn’t believe in gravity.”

As Lori Rotenberk wrote for Grist, birds appear to be migrating sooner and even getting smaller — possibly adaptations to global warming. The source of that data? A library of bird carcasses recovered by the Chicago Bird Collisison Monitors.

Chris Bentley writes about the environment for WBEZ. Follow him @cementley.

Gay rights groups bristle at being excluded from immigration bill

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:33:00 -0500

Some Illinois gay rights advocates say they feel betrayed by their Democratic allies because same-sex couples aren’t legally recognized in an immigration overhaul bill that’s headed to the floor of the U.S. Senate next month.

The provision to recognize so-called bi-national same-sex couples was dropped from the bill at the last minute on Tuesday, just before it was approved, 13 to 5, by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Some Senate Republicans had warned the amendment would sink the larger immigration bill. That apparently prompted some Democrats who traditionally back gay rights issues, including Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, to urge his colleagues to leave the language relating to gay couples out of the bill.

"I believe in my heart of hearts that what you're doing is the right and just thing," Durbin said at Tuesday’s hearing. "But I believe this is the wrong moment, that this is the wrong bill."

Recognition of a same-sex relationship in federal immigration law would mean that marriage or civil unions could be grounds to grant legal status to an immigrant spouse, or to prevent their deportation. Federal law currently defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, although the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing the issue.

Its exclusion from the Senate bill, after months of lobbying lawmakers, prompted a backlash from Illinois gay rights advocates.

“My initial reaction is anger. Anger that, again, we get scapegoated,” said Julio Rodriguez, chair of the LGBTQ Immigrant Rights Coalition of Chicago.

“That’s not only a tragedy, but I think it’s a sad statement on the part of our allies, and the relationships that I think we believed that we had,” Rodriguez said.

Despite the setback, activists will continue to lobby lawmakers to include recognition for gay couples in a later amendment to the bill in the Democrat-led U.S. Senate, said Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of Equality Illinois, the state’s largest gay rights advocacy group.

“This is the right bill and this is the right time,” Cherkasov said Wednesday. “You know, this is a comprehensive immigration reform. This could be the only chance we have in a decade, if not in a generation, to fix all the problems of our broken immigration system.”

The pressure from gay rights groups puts Illinois’ two senators in a difficult political position. Durbin is a liberal Democrat who has traditionally enjoyed support from the gay rights community, and Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk recently bucked his own party to announce his support for same-sex marriage.

But Durbin didn’t immediately respond to WBEZ’s interview request Wednesday. And Kirk’s office declined to comment on whether he supports recognition of same-sex couples, saying that he’s still reviewing the bill.

The news comes as a blow to the estimated 267,000 gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, according to one recent study.

The lack of legal recognition puts that group in limbo, said Phillip Knoll, a 31-year-old Chicagoan who has been dating his boyfriend, who came to the United States from Singapore on a student visa, for the last five years. The legal uncertainty makes it hard to plan for their future together, Knoll said.

“It’s weird to have to consider whether or not you’re able to make the sort of decision that’s really personal, and that something political has to happen first,” Knoll said. “I think that’s an odd way to think of yourself.”

Still, Knoll said he and his partner remain optimistic that they’ll stay together geographically. But down the road, Knoll said his boyfriend’s immigration status could affect their decision to marry – or even to leave the U.S.

“And it would feel like getting pushed out, right?” Knoll said.” I think it would feel like we were not welcome in the country [where] I was born, and in a country that he’s been welcome as a student. Why can’t he stay and contribute?”

Alex Keefe is a WBEZ political reporter. Follow him @akeefe

The South Side before the Dan Ryan

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:42:00 -0500

Do you or your family members remember the South Side before the Dan Ryan Expressway was built? We want stories of what life was like on the ground in the neighborhoods surrounding the expressway changed the city forever. (Where exactly is the Dan Ryan? Check out page 10 of this traffic decoder map to see the span of it)

Please call and leave us a message with your memories: 1-888-789-7752. Your voice and story may end up on our airwaves!

Stumped about what to say? Here are a few suggestions to get your juices flowing, but feel free to share whatever story you’d like.

How did the Dan Ryan change your experience of your neighborhood?
Was it a convenience or inconvenience?
Did anything particularly good or bad result from its construction?
Do you recall any businesses razed or neighbors dislocated because of the construction? If so — what were they?
What do you remember thinking about the new highway at the time? Was it exciting or a pain?
Are there any places that are no longer around because of the construction that you particularly miss? How did your neighbors or friends feel about the Dan Ryan?

This story will air on Wednesday, June 5, during The Afternoon Shift. It’s part of a special collaboration between Curious City and the University of Chicago. We’re working with the students in a class called “Buildings as Evidence” to answer six questions about Chicago and this is one of them.

You can see how this group has been approaching their investigation and what they’ve found so far via their reporter’s notebook below:

Track the progress of the other investigations done by the University of Chicago class below:

Their findings will be posted on WBEZ.org in early June.

Keep up with all things Curious City via Twitter. Follow us @WBEZCuriousCity.

Closings arguments begin at Donald Trump trial

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:35:00 -0500

An attorney for an 87-year-old grandmother who accuses Donald Trump of cheating her in a condo deal has told jurors the "Apprentice" star lied on the witness stand.

The accusation came as closing arguments began Wednesday in the week-old trial in Chicago.

Plaintiff attorney Shelly Kulwin told jurors Trump stepped on the stand before them "to lie, evade and spout infomercials."

His voice rising, he portrayed the case as a battle between an honest woman and a powerful billionaire. He said only in other countries are the powerful guaranteed to prevail at trial. He boomed, "Not in America!"

Jacqueline Goldberg alleges that Trump cheated her when she bought properties at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago. Trump has denied the allegations.

Jurors will withdraw to deliberate later Wednesday.

Where was Rep. Aaron Schock at 25?

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:45:00 -0500

At 31, (soon-to-turn 32 in late May), Congressman Aaron Schock is the youngest participant of the Year 25 series.

It’s a designation he’s pretty used to. He was once the youngest Illinois state representative and school board president—at the same time.

At 25, Schock lived in an old house that was supposed to be condemned by the city of Peoria, Illinois.

But Schock bought it and flipped it himself when he finished college.

He was also a few years into his stint as an Illinois state rep, but that was only a part-time gig. Most of his days were spent in the private sector, working in real estate.

Schock says he had no idea as a 25-year-old that he’d live most of his days in Washington as a federal lawmaker. But as he told WBEZ’s Lauren Chooljian, he’s pleased with how things have turned out so far.

Lauren Chooljian is’ WBEZ’s Morning Producer/Reporter. Follow her @laurenchooljian.

More from this series

Dan Savage | Sen. Dick Durbin | Rick Bayless

Hate is in the air: LGBTQ setbacks

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:10:00 -0500

Sometimes, there are reminders. Indications that, yes, the arch of justice bends... and sometimes breaks. Here we are, poised maybe before the queer equivalent of the Dred Scott decision at the Supreme Court (if anybody was listening to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the University of Chicago law school a few weeks back, you know the court’s rulings on DOMA/Prop 8 are not going to be Brown) and hate—individual, societal, institutional—can still rear its gnarly head and wreck a life or two or three.

Consider:

*Earlier this month, a Texas judge enforced a so-called "morality clause" in the divorce decree between Carolyn Compton and her ex-husband, effectively destroying her current same-sex relationship. How’s that? Well, the clause, which is pretty common in Texas divorces though rarely enforced, demands that Compton—a grown woman—not be allowed to have anyone she’s dating or intimate with and who is not related by blood or marriage in her home after 9 p.m.

That’s right: the judge gave Compton, the mother of two, a curfew—and essentially forced her partner of three years, Page Price, to move out of the home they’ve shared. Why? Because the state of Texas’ laws not only ban same-sex marriage but affect collateral legalities, such as power of attorney, child custody, etc. In other words, Texas laws dictate pretty much every aspect of their private lives. The demand for the enforcement came from Compton’s former husband of 11 years, a man who’s been stalking and harassing her enough in the last few years to have earned a protective order and a guilty plea for criminal trespassing.

*Then there’s the case of Kaitlyn Hunt, a Florida high school senior who’s been charged with "lewd and lascivious battery of a child 12-16 years old." The story is best told by Hunt’s mother, who started a Facebook page in her daughter’s defense:

"Voted the student with ‘Most School Spirit’ by her peers, Kaitlyn was an active cheerleader, a basketball player, a camp counselor and cheering coach, and a medical assistant training to join the nursing program at Valencia College after graduation. She looked forward to a career helping others and a memorable final year of high school. At the beginning of the school year, Kaitlyn made friends with a 14-year-old freshmen girl in Sebastian River High's IB program who played varsity sports and took classes with upper classmen. The girls were peers in the same social circle, and as happens every day high schools across America, their friendship eventually developed into more. In September, shortly after Kaitlyn's 18th birthday, the girls began dating, and they eventually expressed their affection for one another in intimate ways.When the girls' basketball coach found out that two of her players were dating, she kicked Kaitlyn off the team and informed her girlfriend's parents that their daughter was in a same-sex relationship. The parents then conspired with police to entrap Kaitlyn and press charges.The police recorded a phone conversation between the two girls, who today are 18 and 15, in which they discussed their relationship. Kaitlyn was arrested and charged with two counts of felony lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12-16. Kaitlyn's girlfriend denies that Kaitlyn ever pressured her and is adamant that their relationship is entirely consensual, but her parents are out to destroy Kaitlyn's life. After two separate judges ruled that Kaitlyn could finish her senior year with her peers, her girlfriend's parents appealed to the Indian River County School Board, who expelled Kaitlyn and sent her to the alternative school."

One great thing going for Hunt: Her mom. Family support can make all the difference. But should a high school girl—a girl who was obviously a good and popular student—ever have to go through something like this?

*Lastly, there’s New York City. One of the safest, most accepting places for queer people. Or is it? Last Saturday, a fool with a gun put a bullet into Mark Carson’s face and shot him dead, just blocks from the iconic Stonewall Inn, site of one of Gay Liberation’s most well-known freedom riot. Let me be perfectly clear: this happened in the heart of Greenwich Village, where the sight of same-sex couples holding hands and being affectionate is as common as ... well, opposite sex couples. Fifteen hundred people marched in the Village Monday night chanting Carson’s name. But later that same night, Dan Contarino, another openly gay man, was bashed at Avenue D and 4th Street.

What’s going on here? An uncomfortable heat, hate’s penultimate gasp.

Illinois House committee OKs fracking regulatory bill

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:53:00 -0500

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A proposal that aims to create thousands of jobs in southern Illinois by kick-starting high-volume oil and gas drilling cleared a top committee Tuesday, sending it on to the House floor.

The House Executive Committee voted 11-0 to send the full House a bill meant to regulate hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," though it was unclear when the chamber would vote on it.

The measure has been touted by proponents as creating the nation's strictest fracking regulations, although opponents worry the practice could lead to water pollution.

Rep. John Bradley, the Marion Democrat who negotiated the bill with the industry, environmental groups and regulators, labeled the agreement among stakeholders as historic. He said the safety and environmental protections in the bill are unprecedented.

"I live in southern Illinois. I drink the water in southern Illinois. My children drink the water in southern Illinois. My neighbors drink the water in southern Illinois," Bradley told the members of the committee. "Our first and foremost ... effort, intent in everything we did and every negotiation we had, was first and foremost that we are going to protect the ground water in southern Illinois."

Fracking uses high-pressure mixtures of water, sand or gravel and chemicals to crack rock formations deep underground and release oil and natural gas.

Among the bill's requirements is that companies disclose fracking chemicals and test water before and after drilling. It also holds them liable for contamination.

But critics, who have called for a fracking moratorium, say there is no scientific proof the practice can be done safely. They say it could cause air and water pollution and deplete water resources.

"It's a model for anti-scientific decision making," said Sandra Steingraber, an Illinois native and founder of New Yorkers Against Fracking.

Steingraber, who testified on behalf of the Illinois Coalition for a Moratorium on Fracking, added that the practice "turns communities into industrial zones" and that the state is in such dire economic straits that it will be unable to enforce the regulations spelled out in the proposal.

Among the opponents of the bill who testified Tuesday was Josh Fox, director of the anti-fracking, Oscar-nominated documentary "Gasland."

After lawmakers voted on the regulatory proposal, several of the opponents in the audience yelled "shame, shame."

Energy companies, which already have leased hundreds of thousands of acres in southern Illinois, have been waiting for regulatory certainty before starting to drill. But there also is nothing on the books in Illinois to stop them. Bills to establish a two-year moratorium on the practice have languished in House and Senate committees.

Gov. Pat Quinn has been supportive of the bill throughout the negotiations. After the committee's vote, he said he hopes the bill "swiftly" passes through the General Assembly to "unlock the potential of thousands of jobs."