Archive for May, 2009
Oct 24, 2008 10:34 am US/Central
Chicago Beats New York, Los Angeles In Murders.
Barack Obama’s Home town and former state senator of Illinois.
Police Supt. Jody Weis To Take Hot City Council Hot Seat
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Chicago is the Second City in nickname and the third in population, but when it comes to murder, the city has the dubious distinction of being second to no city in America.
As CBS 2’s Mike Puccinelli reports, the Chicago Sun-Times pointed out on Friday that Chicago has seen 426 homicides this year through Tuesday, compared with 417 in New York and 302 in Los Angeles.
At the end of 1998, Chicago made international headlines as the U.S. “murder capital” after surpassing New York’s homicide totals for the first time ever. Chicago shed that dubious distinction when murders plummeted over the last decade.
There are more than 8 million people in New York, compared to slightly under 3 million in Chicago. The population of Los Angeles exceeds that of Chicago by more than 800,000.
Murder is also up, at a lower rate, in New York.
The alarming statistics were expected to come up on Friday when Police Supt. Jody Weis once again appeared before the City Council to address a crime rate that many believe has spun out of control. He appeared at a City Council budget hearing, which began at 10 a.m.
Weis, a career FBI agent, took office this year with a mandate to clean up the department in the wake of several scandals. But murders have risen, and arrests have fallen, on his watch.
Back in July, Weis addressed the media after being grilled by the Council on the subject.
“I don’t mind tough questions,” Weis said in July, not long after a shooting erupted on the streets of the Loop as crowds were leaving the annual Grant Park fireworks show. “The City of Chicago has the right to ask tough questions, especially when our crime is up nearly 13 percent.”
Under tough questioning at a Council hearing that month, Weis suggested there was a “degree of timidness” among officers afraid of having lawsuits and citizen complaints filed against them.
At the hearing Friday, Weis may highlight what police view as a different problem: Officers have spent nearly 5,000 hours filling out inventory forms in the first nine months of 2008. “We’d rather they be on the street,” said Beatrice Cuello, deputy superintendent of patrol.
Last year, the Cook County sheriff, who runs the jail, stopped inventorying arrestees’ property. Under an agreement with the Police Department, cops took over the task.
“It’s not our responsibility,” said Steve Patterson, a spokesman for Sheriff Tom Dart. “We had an entire room filled with property.
Chicago is on pace to exceed 500 murders by the end of the year, but that number is far short of even approaching a record. In every year between 1991 and 1994, there were more than 900 homicides in the city, peaking in 1992 with 943 murders. The standing record for homicides in Chicago dates back to 1974, when there were 970 murders.
CBS 2’s Mike Puccinelli and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Duration : 0:1:38
150 Beijing 2008 Olympic medalists at the Oprah Show in Millenium Park in Chicago on September 3 2008. Kobe Bryant shaking my hand and U.S.A. Basketball team signing my friend’s lakers jersey
Duration : 0:2:38
‘All that jazz’ opening song from the 2002 Chicago musical/movie
Duration : 0:4:49
Selecting a new home in Chicago, Illinois is not an easy task considering all the things you should have in mind and the amount of properties available. This article focuses on some of the facts, tips and steps that you must be aware of when selecting a new home. Chicago has great new homes to select from in many different communities. When buying a new home, it is vital to evaluate the different locations, amenities and options.
Selecting a new home in Chicago first starts with selecting the area where you want to live. Chicago’s suburban real estate market is as vibrant as it is in city itself. But selecting the location is not just an address, it’s everything from the quality of the soil under your feet to the view of the sunset from your back porch or balcony. Having an idea of how long you plan to stay there is also helpful when making the final decision. After choosing a community or neighborhood in which to search for a new home, most people ask several typical questions like how close is the home to the office, or to local schools. And of course, the most important question of all: Can we afford it?
But there are also some other things potential buyers must consider when selecting a new home. They should investigate the future infrastructural plans in the chosen Chicago neighborhood and try to foresee how those changes can affect their life. Further more, prospective buyers should recognize that services and costs in the new location differ significantly from those in their old neighborhood. It is important to remember that communities in Chicago change rapidly and it is in your best interest to know as much as possible about potential changes before making a purchase.
The city of Chicago has many housing options ranging from single family homes to investment homes, luxury high rise condominiums, townhouses or even homes for rent. The suburbs have developed both commercial as well as residential real estate at a tremendous pace. A large number of residential and commercial properties are always available for sale or purchase in Chicago’s suburban areas like Lake, Kane, DeKalb, DuPage, and Will counties.
New homes offer better windows, efficient heating and cooling equipment, superior air filtration systems and insulation, all adding to your energy efficiency, in comparison to homes built 20 years ago. New homes are structured to meet today’s more strict safety codes that give new homeowners an unmatched level of protection. If you buy a new home still under construction, you can decide on the color scheme, appliances and other design characteristics to suit your taste.
When selecting the home, check the builder: do they build quality homes? What’s their reputation, and what do others say about them? Other things to consider are the type and size of the home you want. Define how much funds you have available. How will you finance it? Then you can start the search. Use the internet, as there are plenty of websites selling Chicago homes and real estate properties.
Dave Badge
http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/selecting-a-new-home-in-chicago-59821.html
How mortgage scams snare unsuspecting sellers
Don’t jump at a contract offer that involves a kickback of the overage to the buyer at closing. Chances are the buyer wants an inflated price on the property so he can take the additional money and run without every making the first payment.
Why should it matter? If a buyer buys your house for the full appraised value and he gets a mortgage for that amount, what difference does it make to me as the seller if I only sold it to him for less than the amount he mortgaged?
The sales price and the mortgage amount are two different things. ( Source : Mortgage 1
You won’t be on the hook if your “buyer” obtains a mortgage at an inflated appraisal. That’s between him and the lender.
But you could be charged with conspiracy or perhaps as an accessory to a crime if you knowingly sell a property at far more than it is worth and then hand the overage over to the “buyer” at closing or shortly thereafter. The authorities say any seller who does that has to be considered an accomplice because he had to know something is not right. Either that or the seller is a complete and utter nincompoop.
The buyer in this case may or may not obtain a mortgage on the property in question. Sometimes the bad guys are satisfied with the overage, but most often they must obtain a mortgage or they won’t have the money to buy the house. So they get a loan at the inflated price — using a faulty appraisal — pay you what you want and take the rest. Then, they either skedaddle without ever making a payment or they turn around and resell the place to an unsuspecting buyer and take off with even more cash in their pockets.
These guys are sneaky. The latest scheme is called “shotgunning” in which a property owner applies for several home equity loans with multiple lenders at the same time.
In one recent documented case, a would-be borrower applied with three different lenders over a 48-hour period. Because the lenders did not all report to the same credit bureau, none were aware the same owner had simultaneously applied elsewhere as well. Fortunately, the folks at the First American Title Insurance Co. noticed the attempted sham when they received multiple title orders on the same property and notified the lenders of the suspicious activity before they funded the loans.
This owner was not deterred, however. A few days later, the title company noticed two more orders on the same property with two new lenders and was able to alert them in time to avert a loss.
Lenders weren’t so lucky in dealing with a ring of con artists who managed to obtain 10 mortgages totaling more than $1 million on a Chicago area condominium with a market value of roughly $125,000, according to First American’s valuation model. The loan applications were made over a three-week period via lender Web sites and call centers, not in person. And because of the delay between the dates the loans were closed and the dates the liens were filed in the county courthouse, none of the lenders knew of the other liens when they were making their underwriting decisions.
Lenders take it on the chin in cases like these, but legitimate borrowers also pay a price because lenders recoup these costs in the form of higher loan rates and fees, just like retailers add the cost of shoplifting to the prices they charge everyone.
Borrowers have a lot more at stake in another form of shotgunning, this one involving multiple sales of the same house. In this case, the same “owner” — who may not be the rightful owner at all — “sells” the same property simultaneously to several unsuspecting buyers.
When each buyer uses a different lender and title company, this highly orchestrated scheme is “virtually impossible to detect,” says Jeffrey Taylor, managing director of Digital Risk in Dallas. Ultimately, of course, it’s the title companies that take it on the chin, but buyers also pay dearly in the form of massive litigation and lost opportunities.
Authorities believe the Chicago scheme is being repeated over and over again by an organized group of foreign criminals. They use the sham as an exit strategy when they decide to leave the United States and return to their homeland. After living here long enough to develop solid credentials and credit records, they buy the houses or condos using all cash obtained by illegal means. Then, after living in them free-and-clear for a couple of years, they apply for a bunch of loans based on the equity they have in their houses.
“It’s the ‘fraud of the year.’” says Paul Doman of First American’s Lenders Advantage Equity division. “They can pull in excess of a million dollars out of the home, enough so that they can live a good life back wherever they came from.”
The First American executive reports that the title business is trying to put a stop to this and other schemes by forming a consortium in which applications for title searches are run through each other’s systems. That way, multiple applications on the same property can be spotted in advance rather than after the fact.
Tom Cruse
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/how-mortgage-scams-snare-unsuspecting-sellers-94586.html
http://www.meczyklaw.com
The attorneys at the law firm of Meczyk Goldberg in Chicago Illinois are students of the art of advocacy. They never give up and are always working hard for ways to improve their trial techniques. Call 312-332-2853 today.
Duration : 0:1:23
Special report by Mark Saxenmeyer of Fox News Chicago about children being left without required bus transportation as special needs students of the Chicago Public School system in 2008.
Duration : 0:4:47
Chicago, Arlington House, Sunday, October 23, 2005, 6:25 am
After being appropriately prepped as a result of our visit to the Chicago Cultural Center we decided to head off yesterday to visit the Pullman Historic District, a planned industrial and residential community dating back to the 1880s, on Chicago’s South Side.
In order to get there we took the red line all the way to the end and then connected onto the 111 bus. What was very interesting to note was that the population on Chicago’s south side is predominantly black, as much of the black population from the US South had migrated northwards after the 2nd World War. Actually Chicago was known as one of the most racially segregated cities, and today, with the demolition of many of the bleak urban housing projects, the city is attempting to create more integration between its black and white population.
The Pullman Historic District is the manifestation of a very interesting social experiment: It was built between 1880 and 1884 as a planned model industrial town by George M. Pullman for the Pullman Palace Car Company. George Pullman (1831 to 1897) arrived on the scene with a design for the Pullman sleeping carriage which he originally developed to carry the dead body of Abraham Lincoln to his funeral. As a result the Pullman Sleeping Car Company was established and a whole town was built around the business and named after its originator.
We went to the Visitor Center and saw an 18-minute movie that described George Pullman and his ambitious plans for his development of a model community, a total environment, that he intended to be superior to that available to the working class elsewhere. By so doing, he hoped to avoid strikes, attract the most skilled workers and attain greater productivity as a result of the better health and spirit of his employees.
To achieve his vision, George Pullman hired Solon S. Beaman, landscape architect Nathan F. Barrett and civil engineer, Benzette Williams. The town was constructed by Pullman employees, using local red clay from Lake Calumet and component parts that were produced in the Pullman factory. This project is one of the first examples of industrial technology and mass production in large-scale housing. The town was a complete planned community and included schools, a library and hotel all run by the company.
Pullman’s large Arcade building (now demolished and the present location of the Visitor Center) featured a restaurant, a bank, a library, a post office, a theater, and numerous shops. It was a forerunner of the modern shopping center. The town was completely self-contained. Pullman residents enjoyed the manmade Lake Vista and plenty of parks and promenades, features typically missing from Chicago’s working-class neighbourhoods.
The town of Pullman was a model of financial efficiency. Pullman demanded that the company return an 8-percent profit and the town return a 6-percent profit. A huge engine pumped sewage from the town to a nearby Pullman-owned farm, where it was used as fertilizer for produce that would be sold back in the town.
George Pullman maintained ultimate control over the town, even restricting workers’ access to alcohol, as the Hotel Florence only sold alcohol to out-of-town visitors. Resentment towards this paternalistic despot started to build. Misfortune struck with the decline of the Pullman car’s success which forced George to slash wages. Workers responded with a strike, fuelled by Pullman’s failure to reduce grocery costs and rent, but George simply fired them. The situation deteriorated as railway workers refused to handle Pullman cars and President Cleveland had to intervene, sending federal troops to the scene. The workers were forced to sign documentation declaring that they wouldn’t join a union.
Although the strike collapsed, George Pullman’s model for handling the “labour problem” had failed. Pullman had prided himself on his paternalistic approach with his workers, and he could not see how his heavy-handed methods had resulted in this worker rebellion. Criticized and scorned, Pullman died a bitter man in 1897.
In 1898, the Illinois Supreme Court ordered the Pullman Company to sell the non-industrial land in the neighborhood to its inhabitants, determining that the Pullman Palace Car Company did not have the proper authority to provide nonmanufacturing services such as renting property. Finally, residents could buy their homes.
Robert T. Lincoln, the son of President Lincoln, became head of the company after Pullman’s death and simplified its name to the Pullman Company. The Pullman Company continued to produce its famous cars at 111th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. But with the explosion of automobile ownership, rail passenger traffic went into rapid decline. In 1957, Pullman Incorporated closed its plant in the neighborhood.
Only three years later, the city of Chicago included Pullman on a list of “blighted and deteriorating areas” that required clearance and redevelopment. Residents responded by forming the Pullman Civic Organization and began working to gain landmark status. The Historic Pullman Foundation, which formed in 1973, helps ensure the area’s preservation and restoration by sponsoring various events such as neighborhood walking tours, annual house tours, Sunday brunch at the Florence Hotel, and presentations at the Pullman Visitor Center.
In many ways the housing development was ahead of its time. Each building, most of them townhouses, had gas and water, complete sanitary facilities and abundant quantities of sunlight and fresh air, which was a rarity at that time, when the working class was mostly housed in squalid tenements. Originally the town of Pullman housed about 12,000 people while today it still has a population of about 2,000, with an ethnically and economically mixed background.
Other famous buildings on the Pullman grounds include the Hotel Florence, named after Pullman’s favourite daughter. It opened in 1881 as a hospitality showcase for visitors to George Pullman’s perfect town and originally had 50 rooms, a dining room, a billiard room, a parlor and the only bar in Pullman. The Historic Pullman Foundation managed to save the hotel from demolition and today the hotel is closed to the public while it is undergoing a capital improvement program to restore it for use with the State Historic Site.
The Pullman Clock Tower and Administration Building was built in 1880 for the executive offices of the Pullman Palace Car Company, at the time one of the most beautiful industrial complexes in the United States. In 1998 the Clock Tower and Administration Building were seriously damaged by a fire set by an arsonist. Since then the building has been stabilized and the restored Clock Tower was put back on just a few days before our visit. Future use of the site is currently being debated by a task force institute by Chicago Mayor Daley and Illinois Governor Ryan.
Another interesting building located on the Pullman Historic District is the Queen Anne-style Market Hall which was built in 1881. The Market provided a venue for fresh fruits, meats and other goods. The original market was destroyed by fire in 1892 and a new market was built on the existing foundation. The market is surrounded by four colonnaded circular apartment buildings that were built with the new Market Hall in 1893. Unfortunately the Market Hall Building was destroyed by fire in 1973 and today it awaits restoration.
The Greenstone Church, located centrally in the Pullman Historic District, has an exterior facade of serpentine stone quarried in Pennsylvania. The sanctuary is unchanged with the exception of the chancel arrangements. All of the cherry wood is original. Today the church is still occupied by a Methodist congregation.
The visit to the Pullman Historic District was very interesting. It taught us about a different time of ultimate laissez-faire capitalism, industrial growth and immigration, labour unrest, urban planning, architecture and the ultimate failure of a rather unique social experiment.
Susanne Pacher
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/hello-from-chicago-part-5-a-visit-to-the-pullman-historic-district-98529.html
What if Barack Obamas most important radical connection has been hiding in plain sight all along? Obama has had an intimate and long-term ociation with the ociation of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), the largest radical group in America. If I told you Obama had close ties with MoveOn.org or Code Pink, youd know what I was talking about. Acorn is at least as radical as these better-known groups, arguably more so. Yet because Acorn works locally, in carefully selected urban areas, its national profile is lower. Acorn likes it that way. And so, Id wager, does Barack Obama.
Obama Meets Acorn
What has Barack Obama got to do with all this? Plenty. Lets begin with Obamas pre-law school days as a community organizer in Chicago. Few people have a clear idea of just what a community organizer does. A Los Angeles Times piece on Obamas early Chicago days opens with the touching story of his efforts to build a partnership with Chicagos Friends of the Parks, so that parents in a blighted neighborhood could have an inviting spot for their kids to play. This is the image of Obamas organizing were supposed to hold. Its far from the whole story, however. As the L. A. Times puts it, Obamas task was to help far South Side residents press for improvement in their communities. Part of Obamas work, it would appear, was to organize demonstrations, much in the mold of radical groups like Acorn.
Although the L. A. Times piece is generally positive, it does press Obamas organizing tales on certain points. Some claim that Obamas book, Dreams from My Father, exaggerates his accomplishments in spearheading an asbestos cleanup at a low-income housing project. Obama, these critics say, denies due credit to Hazel Johnson, an activist who claims she was the one who actually discovered the asbestos problem and led the efforts to resolve it. Read carefully, the L. A. Times story leans toward confirming this complaint against Obama, yet the storys emphasis is to affirm Obamas important role in the battle. Speaking up in defense of Obama on the asbestos issue is Madeleine Talbot, who at the time was a leader at Chicago Acorn. Talbot, we learn, was so impressed by Obamas organizing skills that she invited him to help train her own staff.
And what exactly was Talbots work with Acorn? Talbot turns out to have been a key leader of that attempt by Acorn to storm the chicago city council (during a living-wage debate). While Sol Stern mentions this story in passing, the details are worth a look: On July 31, 1997, six people were arrested as 200 Acorn protesters tried to storm the chicago city council session. According to the Chicago Daily Herald, Acorn demonstrators pushed over the metal detector and table used to screen visitors, backed police against the doors to the council chamber, and blocked late-arriving aldermen and city staff from entering the session.
Reading the Herald article, you might think Acorns demonstrators had simply lost patience after being denied entry to the gallery at a packed meeting. Yet the full story points in a different direction. This was not an overreaction by frustrated followers who couldnt get into a meeting (there were plenty of protestors already in the gallery), but almost certainly a deliberate bit of what radicals call direct action, orchestrated by Acorns Madeleine Talbot. As Talbot was led away handcuffed, charged with mob action and disorderly conduct, she explicitly justified her actions in storming the meeting. This was the woman who first drew Obama into his alliance with Acorn, and whose staff Obama helped train.
Duration : 0:9:50
Feb. 6, 2009; Police and Fire Committee meeting of the chicago city council. Alderman Isaac Carothers questions police officials regarding computers stolen from police headquarters.
Duration : 0:7:19