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Quick Hit
by Ashlee Rezin
4:46pm
Tue May 14

Workers, Aldermen Want Emanuel To Push Controversial O'Hare Contractor To Recognize Janitors' Desire For SEIU Representation (VIDEO) (UPDATED)

After more than 70 percent of O’Hare’s recently hired janitors voted in favor of SEIU* Local 1 union representation, a small group of workers gathered with supporting aldermen at City Hall Tuesday to urge Mayor Rahm Emanuel to push the contractor to recognize the union.

“In a climate where everybody is trying to figure out how to squeeze the bottom line, the only way to protect workers is to have union representation,” said Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) in an interview with Progress Illinois.

Munoz said contractors, such as the O’Hare janitors’ employer, United Maintenance, Inc., are “squeezing wages.”

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Quick Hit
by Ashlee Rezin
4:35pm
Tue May 14
4 comments

As Concealed Carry Legislative Deadline Looms, Debate Heats Up

An open and logistical discussion of budding concealed carry legislation in Illinois quickly turned into a heated debate between advocates from both sides of the issue Monday night at the Brother David Darst Center for Justice, Peace, Spirituality and Education.

A part of the organization’s quarterly speaker series, Mark Walsh, campaign director for the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV), came in to discuss the debate in Springfield surrounding concealed carry in Illinois.

As a representative of one of the state’s leading gun control advocacy groups, Walsh’s forum attracted individuals in firm disagreement with ICHV’s position.

“Our concern is that, in every community, more guns don’t make you safer,” Walsh said regarding ICHV’s opposition to a concealed carry law.

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Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
3:15pm
Tue May 14

Restoration Of Early Childhood Education Funding Is A Must, Say Community Groups & Parents (VIDEO)

Chicago-based community groups, parents and advocates for the state's most vulnerable children called on Illinois lawmakers to restore $25 million in funding for early childhood education at a gathering in Pilsen Tuesday morning.

About 100 parents and members of eight local community organizations, such as the Latino Policy Forum, Gads Hill Center and El Hogar del Niño, among others, plan to travel to Springfield Wednesday for a subject matter hearing on education funding cuts.

Gov. Pat Quinn's budget for fiscal year 2013 slashed $25 million from the Preschool for All program, which provides assistance for Illinois' most at-risk children.

“We believe that the state is going through a tough time financially, but the balance in the budget cannot be done on the back[s] of poor children," said Maricela Garcia, CEO of the Gads Hill Center. "The message tomorrow is going to be that we need to see the restoration of $25 million that [was] cut [from] the Early Childhood Education Block Grant last year." 

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Quick Hit
by Steven Ross Johnson
2:58pm
Tue May 14

Chicago Teachers Union To Ramp Up Protests Against Proposed School Closings (VIDEO)

Vowing to keep up the fight to stop a Chicago Public Schools’ proposal to close more than 50 schools, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis unveiled plans Monday for protests that will include three days of marches beginning this weekend.

Lewis, who was joined by parents as well as neighborhood and labor activists, held a press conference in front of William & Charles H. Mayo Elementary School on the city’s South Side.  Mayo is one of 54 schools slated for closure by CPS, but was one of 13 plans rejected last week by an independent panel of hearing officers.  

A final vote by the Chicago Board of Education is still needed for CPS to move forward with its plan, which if approved would be the country's largest number of closings by a single school district at one time. The Board of Education will vote on the proposal May 22.

Lewis, who has called for a moratorium on all school closings, said it is not too late for the Illinois General Assembly to intervene, adding that the CPS proposal would be detrimental to the education of many of the students the district claiims to be helping.

“They’re bad public policy,” Lewis said. “We have been looking at school closings for over 10 years, they have not improved education, will not improve education, and even though they say it over and over and over again, there is no proof.”

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Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
2:32pm
Tue May 14
1 comment

Chicago's 4th Ward Residents Call For More TIF Transparency, Accountability At Town Hall Meeting

The 11 tax increment financing, or TIF, districts in the 4th Ward took $5.6 million in property taxes from those living within the boundaries in 2011, the CivicLab revealed at TIF town hall meeting Monday night.

Four of those districts fall nearly 100 percent inside of the ward and had extracted about $42 million from property taxpayers since the start of the TIF program back in 1986 through 2011, said Tom Tresser, co-founder of the CivicLab and leader of the of volunteer-based TIF Illumination Project.

Monday’s TIF town hall was the CivicLab’s eighth community meeting. Tresser and other “TIF illuminators” are holding meetings across the city in an effort to raise awareness about Chicago’s economic development program. The CivicLab's project sets out to find what wards are TIF "winners" or "losers."

Craig Coleman, a 10-year resident of the 4th Ward, said Monday night was the first time he heard exactly how much property tax dollars local residents had kicked into the program. He raised concerns about the TIF program’s lack of accountability and transparency.

“I think it’s money off the books that should be put back on the books,” Coleman said in remarks after the meeting, held at Room 43 in Kenwood. “How do you change it, and does your alderman control this or ... who controls the law to change this? When it’s time for the mayoral elections, does it get swept under the rug like everything else?”

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Quick Hit
by Ashlee Rezin
12:23pm
Tue May 14

Abercrombie & Fitch's 'Exclusionary' Size Policy Draws Criticism, Triggers Protest (VIDEO)

The Abercrombie & Fitch Co.’s “exclusionary” policies are perpetuating a culture that over-emphasizes the importance of thinness and acceptance, according to a group of approximately 20 protesters who took their message to Chicago’s Water Tower Place Monday afternoon.

“Abercrombie & Fitch represents what’s wrong with our society because they are emphasizing ‘you have to look this way or you can’t wear this; you have to have washboard abs’ and many people end up feeling inferior and bad about themselves,” said Dr. Maria Rago, a clinical psychologist and vice president of the Naperville-based National Association of Anorexia Nervosa (ANAD).

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