Chicago is the home of Saul Alinsky—style community organizing. Now you can get that kind of training and turn around and move your neighborhood and community forward. The Community Renewal Society’s flagship three-day training identifies key organizing principles, how values influence those principles and how you can become an effective organizer and leader. Civic...
Continued >>

A news report from Sarah Ostman, AustinTalks.org For Austin residents whose homes flooded in the July 23 storm, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is, President Barack Obama has declared Cook County a federal disaster area, opening the floodgates, so to speak, for clean-up dollars from Washington, D.C. The bad news is,...
Continued >>

Naming a stretch of Pulaski Road, “Honorary Casimir Pulaski Way” is redundant and pretty silly. Naming a stretch of Chicago pavement in honor of ace reporter Carlos Hernandez Gomez, 36, who died in last January is appropriate. In a city with “Vito Marzullo Way,” honest citizens deserve to have a street named after an...
Continued >>

A news report from Mike Fourcher, Center Square Journal Last night Ravenswood Bank, 2300 W. Lawrence Ave., was taken over by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and put into the receivership of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Ravenswood’s doors opened again this morning as branches of Northbrook Bank and Trust Company, a division...
Continued >>

According to the Illinois Board of Elections website, Aldermen Solis and Munoz--Aldermen of Chicago's two coal-firing neighborhoods in Pilsen and Little Village--have taken a total of approximately $75,000 in contributions from Midwest Generation over the last 9 years—since 2001 Midwest has contributed nearly 1.34 million to various Chicago political campaigns.
Continued >>

A news report from Lorraine Swanson, Lake Effect News Two former political workers for Ald. Berny Stone (50th) were sentenced to jail terms after both were found guilty on multiple misdemeanor counts of attempted mutilation of voting materials and attempted absentee ballot violations stemming from the 2007 aldermanic election in the 50th Ward. Anish Eapen,...
Continued >>

Sixty-two members of the Illinois General Assembly broke the law over the course of six years by awarding free tuition to the state’s public universities to 122 college students who didn’t live in the right legislative district. The state lawmakers – several of whom serve in leadership positions – violated the law they had...
Continued >>

A news report from Lorraine Swanson, Lake Effect News There’s a stiff sea breeze blowing across the Land of Lincoln from an auditorium at Loyola University off the shore of Lake Michigan on a day when former-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s balls suddenly receded up into his underpants. About a hundred, average, everyday folks from across...
Continued >>

Update on this story: Chris Drew will be back in court at 26th and California, room 602 on Friday  at 10 a.m. Drew will be printing and giving away art patches that afternoon at Chicago Critical Mass from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Picasso Plaza, on the West Side of the building in the...
Continued >>

A news report from Lake Effect News If you’re mad as hell about fraud and corruption, and sick of the government wasting your money, you don’t have to take it anymore. The Better Government Association is hosting two Citizen Watchdog Training sessions from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on July 20 and July 27. Both sessions are...
Continued >>