Chicago News
-
NOV 14, 2018
UNLOCKED
Julia Kuo, for Pro Publica IllinoisAfter he was charged in January with burglary, D’Angelo Springer had a decision to make.
Springer, 24, had been pulled over after running a stop sign in Kankakee County. He was giving a ride to an acquaintance, who had an arrest warrant in a neighboring county. When officers searched the car, according to police reports, they found a checkbook behind the passenger seat that had been taken in a car break-in. Springer denied he was involved, but he was charged with felony burglary, which could have sent him to prison. -
-
-
Mayor Rahm Emanuel continued his fight to reduce the number of teens vaping, announcing a new round of legal action. The Chicago Teachers Union will hold its first mayoral candidate forum Nov. 19 — but don’t expect to see nearly two dozen candidates at the forum. Aldermen have a full slate of committees set for Tuesday, and will consider a new management agreement for the hotel on the grounds of O’Hare International Airport.
-
Landmark designations for Tribune Tower and the historic YMCA/YWCA building on the city’s West Side both easily passed the Zoning Committee Friday, as did a zoning change in East Andersonville designed to prevent pricey three-story condominiums from replacing two-flats and pricing out renters.
-
Cook County commissioners will start an extended business week by honoring several of their own during Tuesday’s meeting, including Medical Examiner Dr. Ponni Arunkumar and retiring county fixtures — Assessor Joe Berrios, Deputy Assessor Thomas Jaconetty and Clerk David Orr.
-
Two female volunteers collecting signatures outside a West Side polling place Friday accused a man associated with 28th Ward Ald. Jason Ervin’s organization of assaulting them on Election Day and stealing signed nominating petitions for one of the alderman’s challengers.
Justina Winfrey, left, a candidate for 28th Ward alderman, and Loukessa Hawkins, said a man associated with 28th Ald. Jason Ervin's campaign assaulted Hawkins and another volunteer and stole signed petition sheets. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
At a City Hall news conference, Loukessa Hawkins said she was collecting signatures for 28th Ward aldermanic candidate Justina L. Winfrey outside Spencer Technology Academy, 214 N. Lavergne Ave., when a man grabbed a half-filled petition sheet from her and several completed sheets and pamphlets from another volunteer.
“I put my clipboard and things I was holding to my chest and he began to snatch them out of my hand,” Hawkins said. “So, we were wrestling and I was like you’re not going to take my stuff and he said, ‘Gimme this ‘s’ and he snatched it down, hurting my thumb, and took it.”
Hawkins filed a police report after the incident that took place at noon on Tuesday.
“This was a direct violation of my rights,” Hawkins said, adding that she wants to see the man who assaulted her charged with a crime — as well as anyone who directed him to interfere with her efforts to get Winfrey on the ballot. “This is not how politics in Chicago should work.”
Everyone who works for Ervin’s “organization is routinely directed to be respectful and dignified in their dealings with the community,” said Tom Bowen, a spokesman for Ervin’s campaign. "We have no idea what happened here, we do not condone any violence of any sort in politics."
Hawkins posted pictures of the man who assaulted her on her Facebook page, and Bowen said the man worked for Ervin’s organization more than two years ago.
“He has not [worked for the Ervin organization] since and won't be in the future," Ervin said.
Hawkins and the other volunteer called police and filed a report, which alleges “that as they were getting petitions signed for candidates, an unknown male offender took their petitions from them and fled scene,” according to a statement from Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Laura Amezaga. “Officers toured the area to locate the offender with negative results.”
Winfrey said she was appalled that her volunteers were assaulted.
“This was a violent act toward two women in front of a school while students were in the building,” Winfrey said. “I want justice to be served.”Also running for 28th Ward alderman are Beverly Miles and Miguel Bautista. Bautista joined Winfrey at Friday’s news conference to decry all forms of political intimidation. -
State Rep. LaShawn Ford — who just won re-election to represent the West Side of Chicago in the Illinois House — announced he will run for mayor. Already announced mayoral candidate Gery Chico marked the start of the municipal election campaign in earnest, with the cycle’s first ad. In addition, the Rules Committee will try again to find a home for three questions aldermen would like to see on February ballots. With Judge
-
City Council’s License Committee approved a new wine and dessert bar in Ald. Danny Solis’ 25th ward, a virtual reality bar in the 47th Ward, beer sales at a new craft brewery incubator on Milwaukee Avenue in Ald. Proco Joe Moreno’s 1st ward and packaged liquor sales at the new Twisted Hippo brewery in Ald. Deb Mell’s 33rd ward.
-
-
Abdelnasser Rashid, the young Our Revolution member and only Muslim candidate to run for the Cook County board, acknowledged Wednesday morning that his bid to unseat Cook County Republican Party Chairman Comm. Sean Morrison (R-17) had fallen short.
Cook County Board Comm. Sean Morrison (R-17), left, defeated challenger Abdelnasser Rashid. [Submitted] -
Tribune Tower. [Flickr/Luke Gordon]
A polling place in March 2018. [A.D. Quig/The Daily Line]
