Recapping NATO Summit in Chicago: One Year Ago
Last year, Chicago hosted the NATO summit. Our reporters were there, live and on the ground. Many of our reporters will be graduating this week and so we pause to showcase their fine work. NATO stories and coverage was pulled together by Professor Teresa Puente and Steve Franklin in a special topics class. Look back [...]
May Day march in Chicago focuses on immigration reform
Carl Rosen, a worker for the United Electrical Workers was one of hundreds of people who participated in a May Day march in downtown Chicago on May 1, calling for immigration reform. “We need to legalize the status of the 11 million undocumented workers that are here because otherwise they are being used to drive [...]
Chicago LGBTQ library set to open soon in new location in Rogers Park
In a move lasting nine months longer than anticipated and raising uncertainties, one of the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ libraries finally transitioned from Andersonville to Rogers Park on April 30. The Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, which holds collections of gay and lesbian history and hosts programs like theater groups and poetry readings, traded their West Granville [...]
Workers, Immigrant Rights Advocates Prepare For May Day Rally In Chicago (VIDEO) | Progress Illinois
Every day 1,100 people in the country are deported and families are ripped apart. Progress Illinois’ Ellyn Fortino writes about how workers and immigrant rights advocates are getting ready for May Day 2013 Progress Illinois chatted with SEIU Local 1 member Lourdes Gonzalez who plans to march today; she echoed Arreola’s argument: Today’s rally begins [...]
ASAM professionals say no such thing as ‘medical marijuana’
Doctors would have no way to prescribe accurate doses of legalized marijuana if an Illinois bill passes allowing pot to be sold for medicinal purposes, a group of medical professionals said Thursday. Doctors from the American Society of Addiction Medicine, a professional society made up of more than 3,000 members, said marijuana is unstable, unpredictable, [...]
City starts construction on second housing project for veterans
Gov. Pat Quinn joined local leaders and volunteers on Thursday in breaking ground on a new housing development in Chicago for female veterans with children, the second of its kind dedicated to serving homeless veterans in the city. The complex will be built on 2.3 acres of land at 61st and Halsted streets in the [...]
Opinion: Who do they think they are?
Do our Representatives in Congress represent “the people” or the NRA? Ever since the 1999 Columbine Massacre in Littleton, Colorado, gun violence has escalated universally. Therefore, we should have Universal Background Checks on gun sales that are consistent with gun violence. “We the people” re-elected President Obama and sent him to Washington with a clear agenda [...]
Art=Ammo joins families in protest against gun violence in Chicago
Mothers of young victims affected by gun violence, along with Art=Ammo (Artists Against Gun Violence) came together in the Chicago downtown area to honor their loved ones during a silent demonstration in April. The group created an artistic display in an effort to protest gun violence in the city underneath the Picasso display outside of the Daley Center [...]
State lawmaker questions ALL KIDS program after audit
With the state finances reeling, one lawmaker is exploring how much money could be saved by restricting access to state healthcare benefits for undocumented immigrants. The potentially explosive issue already has come under scrutiny following a state audit that showed as many as 75 percent of the children covered under the state’s ALL KIDS program were [...]
Legislators consider extending insurance coverage for Illinois dependents
Erin Watson, a 23-year-old Chicago native getting a business degree from Fordham University in New York, said she hopes to get a job with good health insurance after graduation, but added that if she doesn’t get one, she worries she will not be able to afford insurance. “It’d be helpful to have the extra money [...]
Ward remap problems with space and timing
An ongoing effort by a West Side church to close an unpopular hotel, which neighbors say attracts prostitutes and drug dealers, Tuesday found itself at the center of a redistricting debate over who represents whom in the aftermath of a city remap. Parishioners from Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church told members of the City Council’s [...]
Editorial: Guantanamo detainees hungering for justice
Dozens of men held indefinitely at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay are on a hunger strike, a non-violent form of resistance to injustice used famously by Mahatma Ghandi in the fight for Indian independence and Bobby Sands in opposing British rule over Northern Ireland. Now, the United States is the target of a hunger [...]
Federal cuts to take away meals for Illinois seniors
Andy Laterza’s heart functions at only 15 percent. The 81-year-old Chicagoan’s reliance on home-delivered foods is much greater that his wife’s, who also suffers from congestive heart failure. Because of the federal sequester, the Laterzas could see their weekend meals taken away, leaving them fending for themselves. “My husband’s not doing so good,” said Ann [...]
Chicago group rallies for stricter gun control laws
Dozens of people rallied in front of the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago last month to ask the Illinois Attorney General to fight a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the state’s concealed gun ban. The rally was sponsored by the Stop Concealed Carry Coalition, a group fighting for stricter gun laws. Lee Goodman, a [...]
The Iraq War: 10 years later
In the 10 years since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, interest in the collections at Chicago’s Pritzker Military Library has grown, even if the media are paying less attention to the story. Teri Embrey, chief librarian, said the collection has especially grown over the last few years because veterans have been able to distance themselves [...]
Company looking for help designing videogames that highlight tax inequities
Guerilla game designers, here is your chance to show you skills and do it in time for April Fool’s Day. Game-developers and/or graphic designers are needed to help create online videogames that challenges Wall St. banks, dirty energy companies, and telecom giants. Launch is scheduled for the window before Tax Day. CONCEPT: classic Space Invaders [...]
Financial assistance for energy utility bills could be cut
The $150 Jacqueline Platania receives twice a year to help offset her electricity bill is at risk of getting reduced in the future due to state budget cuts. Her Lincoln Park apartment is government funded, she said, and living off Social Security is not easy. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, [...]
