N06, Bobbie Steele beaten like a crack baby in foster care

Sun-Times (Fran Spielman):

The complex political deal calls for [Alderman William] Beavers, powerful chairman of the City Council's Budget Committee, to replace John Stroger as county commissioner and for Todd Stroger to replace his father as president of the board, where he would have no vote. Until the election, John Stroger would remain in office. If Beavers wins the seat, he would resign as 7th Ward alderman on the condition that Mayor Daley appoint his daughter to replace him....

Beavers, 71, has long made known his desire to retire and install his daughter--now his chief of staff--as his successor.

The Capitol Fax Blog has a round-up of commentary from the Sun-Times, Trib and Mary Mitchell.

County Commissioner Bobbie Steele is a hack who cares little government efficiency and providing quality services. She’ll play the race card to get Black voters to toe-the-line even when reform would improve services for those same Black voters.

But Steele is getting treated unfairly by Ald. William Beavers and the rest of the Stroger machine. Beavers is attacking Steele for being too ambitious and jockeying to become County Board President.

Let’s look at this through the prism of insiders and outsiders. Beavers and Ald. Todd Stroger, the insiders, have been privately jockeying to advance their careers behind the scenes while piously pledging all sorts of bullshit and lies about hoping John Stroger will return to his duties as County Board President.

Beavers and Todd Stroger could do this because they controlled the information about John Stroger’s health. And they were the ones who declared what was and wasn’t appropriate. “Silly Bobbie, our jockeying for power is appropriate; your jockeying for power proves you are not ‘the one’.”

Any claims that the South Side Black Democrats would have treated the Westside Blacks any better if Westsiders behaved with more reverence for the Stroger family is bullshit. Bill Beavers and Todd Stroger were going to take care of themselves, their blood family and then their political organizations. There never was going to be any crumbs for the Westsiders under the Beavers/T. Stroger plan.

In some ways Bobbie Steele, the outsider, is the perfect person to play the chump for the Westside. Steele lacks intellect or political savvy making it easy for the Beavers/T. Stroger team to put her on the defensive.

Beavers and T. Stroger may have beaten Steele like a crack baby in foster care, but the Beavers/Stroger couldn’t treat Ald. Ed Smith or Congressman Danny Davis like they have treated Steele. Smith and Davis avoided the trap by being astute enough to see the game was stacked in favor of the Southsiders—at least at this point.

But if Beavers fails to deliver the Democratic committeeman votes he claims to have (but probably doesn’t) look for a Westsider to emerge as the candidate to replace John Stroger on the ballot. And when a Westsider emerges as a serious candidate, it won’t be Bobbie Steele.

CRIME, Forest Park not happy with summer school [D209]

Proviso Township High Schools has its summer school at PMSA in Forest Park. The Village of Forest Park isn't happy about the extra demand for police services. See Forest Park Review (Seth Stern).

Comments?

GOV, Proviso Township looking to buy property for new HQ

Last night the Proviso Township board discussed acquiring a new property in Broadview to serve as the new township office. All Proviso Township services would be consolidated to one location.

N06, replacing John Stroger on the ballot

According the Alderman William Beavers Cook County Board President John Stroger wants his son Todd to replace him on the ballot in November.
Sun-Times (Deanda Bellandi, AP):

"President Stroger is not resigning from his position as president of the county board. He intends to serve out his term," said Beavers, who spoke with Stroger on Sunday. Stroger's term ends in December.

A letter outlining the plan could be delivered as soon as Wednesday to Democratic party officials, Beavers said. Party officials will then decide whether to put Todd Stroger or another candidate on the ballot.

Why is this statement being made through a third party? Why isn't Stroger making it? What are the odds Beavers is claiming Stroger is saying things that he isn't really saying?

HOUSING, most affordable communities

Center for Neighborhood Technology rated Forest Park as the most affordable community. See CBS2.

According to the new index, the most affordable cities and villages in the region for households earning $20,000 to $50,000 are Forest Park, Chicago, Hometown, Harwood Heights, Oak Park, Cicero, Norridge, North Riverside, Rosemont and Elmwood Park.

The analysis takes into account transportation and housing costs.

GOV, Forest Park library discusses spending [FP]

From CUinFP:

The Forest Park Library holds a meeting today, Tuesday, June 27, 7:00 in the Austin Room at the Library to discuss their budget and spending habits.

The library will be asking voters to pass a tax increase referendum in November. This board meeting will serve to educate interested citizens about the Forest Park Library's fiscal situation and history.

ETHNICITY, Donnie,Chris and Brie rants about ethnicity

Yesterday at 5:35 PM Donnie,Chris and Brie posted:

[UPDATE: the passage was plagiarized from White Camelia Knights.]

If D, C & B reads this I have a few questions.

1. What is the definition of "White"? How has it changed over time? Are Catholics "White"? What about Muslims? Jews? Arabs? Chinese?
2. What do you see as evidence that there are racial battles across America? What is the evidence these battles are getting worse?
3. What about the Constitution makes it a "White" Christian document? How would it be different if Jews, atheists, deists, Blacks, Mexicans and Chinese participated in writing it?
4. What is the evidence non-"Whites" are going to reject the Constitution? Aside from the Bush administration and its supporters, who has been pushing to ignore or repeal portions of the Constitution?
5. Do you read Proviso Probe? In the discussions about Disrict 209's shortcomings as a school district, has anybody said anything that sounds like "blame Whitey"?
6. What is your evidence that government serves to transfer wealth from "White" taxpayers to non-"White" communities? To what extent is this any different that what all societies do to tax the wealthy to pay for certain charity of social services for the poor?
7. Can you remotely paint a scenario where the Nation of Islam or similar organization took over the U.S. government and enslaved "Whites"? How is this scenario not evidence that you are regurgitating the rhetoric of a crackpot?
8. Cops continue to abuse and violate the rights of citizens, especially ethnic minorities. Should Blacks, Latinos and Arabs enjoy the protections of the Constitution?
9. Are you saying that Whites, Blacks and Latinos could work together more effectively to overthrow the corrupt federal government if U.S. society was segregated?
10. What is your evidence that Black on "White" crime is increasing? Most Blacks in prison are there for Black-on-Black crime, victimless crime or erroneous prosecution. BTW, isn't violent crime down?
11. How is "racial equality" causing the deterioration of civilization? What do you propose as an alternative to "racial equality"? And would it be consistent with the Constitution?

ECON, what if you had a billion dollars

At Soapblox Chicago I started a discussion about philosophies of charitable giving.

SPORT/MEDIA, White Sox and Jay Mariotti

I listened to some of yesterday's White Sox game on the radio. The White Sox came back from being down 9-1 to force the game to extra innings. Tadahito Iguchi hit a three-run home run in the seventh and a grand slam in the ninth.

No matter how many runs the White Sox are down, the current team can cover the difference. The hitting in the starting line-up and off the bench is incredible.

And I'll bet when the post-season comes around the starting pitchers will be able to turn-up their games and deliver some great starts.

Yesterday, as I cleaned house in preparation for hosting the writing group I belong to, I listened to sports talk radio. The White Sox had won their last nine games, so naturally the talk was all about White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen calling Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti "a fucking fag".

Guillen shouldn't have used the word "fag". But it seems a little disconnected from reality how we (Americans) attach so much importance to epithets but so little to actual actions. We have national policies in place that have large numbers of Black men in the criminal justice system, but hey, our politicians never say, "nigger".

One of the claims made by the talk show host was that Mariotti couldn't avoid writing about the incident. I mostly disagree.

I was sued for defamation by Emanuel "Chris" Welch, the president fo the District 209 school board, for defamation. My lawyers asked me to minimize writing about the lawsuit to avoid the perception that I was milking it for publicity.

Generally, I don't write about developments in the case, because I'm trying to do the honorable thing.

Mariotti is a professional asshole. Part of his thing is getting under the skin of pro-sports people. Mariotti is clearly milking Guillen's poor word choice for the maximum amount of publicity.

Someone who was really concerned that Guillen become more appreciative of the issues facing gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people would probably want to have a private meeting to discuss things with Guillen. Or arrange for some mutually respected third party to meet with Guillen and increase his awareness.

But the way Mariotti is approaching this shows a certain insensitivity on his part. Mariotti's actions demonstrate indifference to actually increasing awareness. For Mariotti, it's all about Mariotti.

[UPDATE: I should have checked the blogs before writing this entry.
Temple Stark wrote:

Would I enjoy time spent with Guillen? Probably not, but honest words are always preferable to faking outrage. Or faking stupidity. Mariotti, yes, gets paid to have an opinion. And apparently has called Guillen plenty oif names in his column, "Mafia guy" and "gang member" are two that Guillen picked out. And there's nothing wrong with someone calling that opinion a pile of horse manure.

And Deadspin wrote:

Jay Mariotti’s column is reading like a “Penthouse” letter to the men he covers. Yeah, he’s not letting this go away.

]

CRIME, CeaseFire walk [M]

From Maywood CeaseFire:

Please join Maywood CeaseFire, local clergy and community volunteers on Saturday, June 24, 2006, 8:P at 15th Ave & OAk for a community response walk. A young male was the victim of gun violence in front of 125 S. Oak on Tuesday 6/20/06 at approx. 7:30P. This community and CeaseFire needs your help. This is the 29th victim of gun violence this year. Pass the word.

Jan Bolling
Maywood CeaseFire
708-450-8401 or 708-256-2766

BUS, La Grange Park restaurant gets mixed reviews [LP]

D's Little Italy, 9 E. 31st St., La Grange Park has gotten mixed reviews at Metromix.

Have you eaten there? What do you think of it?

ENVIR, clean-up Forest Park [FP]

Announcement from Citizens United in Forest Park:

Hi there,

--just a reminder about CUinFPs gateway clean up this
Saturday, the 24th. The weather looks favorable and
good company is guaranteed! We plan to meet at 9 AM
at Harlem and Harrison. From there, some folks will
head over to the I-290 entrance/exit ramps on
Desplaines. We plan to finish by 11:00 AM.

If you plan to join us, please bring gloves and a rake
(if you have one). The village is providing vests,
pokers and trash bags.

Hope to see you Saturday in our efforts to beautify
Forest Park. Oh yes, feel free to bring additional
helpers.

Thanks,
Gloria Backman

KLEPT, Mario Dal Cerro arrested by the feds [MP]

Sun-Times (Steve Warmbir):

An employee of a security company owned by Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo told a restaurant owner to lie about the chief getting part of the weekly fee the company charged, prosecutors alleged Tuesday.

The employee, Mario Dal Cerro, 38, was charged Tuesday with trying to impede a criminal investigation -- the first arrest in the ongoing probe of Scavo's security companies being conducted by Cook County and federal prosecutors.

The Cook County State's Attorney is involved in the investigation? Umm... why? Past reporting has mentioned other federal agencies, like Department of Labor being involved, but IIRC this is the first mention of local law enforcement being involved.

If I advised the U.S. Attorney on the case, I'd tell him that Devine's office has a friendly relationship with the players involved. The best reason to involve Devine's people is to set-up a sting to find out which of Devine's people are more cooperative with the law breakers than the law enforcers.

What tips and rumors have you heard about the investigation? Got any predictions for how this is going to unfold?

OPEN, speak your piece (or conflict?)

Anything in the weekly papers catch your eye?

Forest Park Review
Pioneer Press
Riverside/Brookfield Landmark
Suburban Life

Anti-War demonstration 5th & Roosevelt in Maywood [M]

Voices for Creative Nonviolence is organizing an anti-war walk from Springfield to North Chicago. Here's the schedule and route.

Here's the reason for the walk:

Walk for Justice

Join Voices for Creative Nonviolence this summer as we challenge the wars in Iraq and Israel-Palestine and the criminal injustice system in Illinois.

For 30 days we will walk through our country’s heartland, calling for:

* An end to the U.S. occupation of and war in Iraq, with the immediate withdrawal of all members of the U.S. military from Iraq.
* No military action against Iran. No punitive economic sanctions which harm Iranian citizens.
* Quality health care and benefits for veterans whom our country chose to place in harms way-and quality health care for all living in the U.S.

The walk will be in Proviso Township on Thursday (tomorrow).

4:30 to 6:30 p.m. — Hines VA Vigil, Kathy Kelly and the Voices Walkers, 5th and Roosevelt Rd, Maywood. followed by a potluck barbeque and swim at 203 Parkview, Riverside, IL

To get involved, contact Laurel Lambert Schmidt, llambertschmidt circled "a" yahoo spot com.

ADMIN, quoting from sources

The Fair Use Doctrine allows people to quote from copyrighted material. Here's how it works for blogging.

Keep quotes to two paragraphs. For long documents (longer than standard newspaper articles) you can quote up to four paragraphs.

Also, you need to clearly identify the source and provide a link to the original material. If you don't know how to create a link, just include the URL.

POL, the Chicago clout list

Earlier the media reported on a short clout list that purported to come from the Blagojevich administration.

Now a long clout list has emerged in the trial of Robert Sorich, Mayor Richard M. Daley's former patronage chief. See Sun-Times (Steve Warmbir, Fran Spielman, Mark J. Konkol and Tim Novak).

One can have a debate about what role patronage should play in political hirings. What jobs should be filled by professional civil servants? How does one keep the politicians from seeding the nominally non-political jobs with political partisans?

These questions aren't easy to answer.

But the Daley administration fails on one point that's ancient. About 3,800 years ago Hammurabi came up with a legal reform that held that the rules should be published so everybody could know how society worked. This innovation is commonly called Hammurabi's Code.

If getting a job with the City of Chicago, Cook County or the State of Illinois is going to require sponsorship from a political boss, please explain the system in writing. Quit fucking around those of us naive enough to respond to job postings.

I take it somewhat personally because I did get screwed on a State of Illinois job. I applied to investigate discrimination at the Department of Human Rights. I appeared to have all the qualifications. Since I was a veteran, I thought I had a good chance at getting the job. Illinois has absolute veteran preference. If a qualified veterans applies, s/he gets the job.

I didn't get the job. Know why? The employment agency refused to give me the test required for the job. I was told my application would be kept on file for a year and if there were any openings, I'd be called. (BTW, this was back when the Republicans controlled state government.)

So, forgive me for being a little testy about Secretary of State Jesse White and political operative Dominic Longo claiming all their candidates were "qualified". I was qualified too, but I didn't get the job.

So, if the pre-requisite for getting a government job is sponsorship, let's put it all out in the open. Who are the gatekeepers? Whose ring needs to be kissed to get a government job?

ED, James Smith criticizes the educational system

I have invited a few people to be guest writers and commentators on Proviso Probe. I hope they are informative and stimulate discussion.

The first contributor is James T. Smith, who ran for State Senate in the Democratic Primary against Sen. Kimberly Lightford.

Who Loves Black Children?

I have come to the conclusion, that even in 2006, that no one loves Black children. Whether from indifference or overt hatred the effect has been the same, and Successful Black Children are an endangered species in our society. To prove my case on need only look at Proviso School District – 209 where 3,224 its 4,791 students are Black 70-80% of these Black children are functioning below grade level.

Who cares where we lay the blame? For once we find whose at fault if we don’t fix this problem then we will continue to find the escalation of crime, taxes and “Business Flight” from our community. For decades the “Miseducation of the Negro” has been occurred with little attention paid to it, but now we are all suffering from it if only by the taxes we pay and the lower property values we face when institutions like Cabrini Green, which warehoused these problems, where torn down by the son of their architect, and their inhabitants scattered throughout the state.

Fixing the problem is not as hard as it sounds, because contrary to popular belief Black children are no less intelligent than any other race. America won with the Brown v. Topeka decision, but it didn’t change the lot Black Children have in public education. For entities like Proviso School District 209 and Chicago Public School District 299 are not about the education of children. These “Systems” are about jobs and contracts. There is no other business in America that would allow its employees to operate at a better than 70% failure rate in the provision of its services. By all accounts Proviso Township H.S. School District-209 failed to use more than $55,433,644, of Proviso Township property tax dollars, appropriately in the 2003-2004 school year, and in Chicago we are talking billions that go to waste every year.

Last week the front page of the Sun-Times, showed a grinning Jesse Jackson and Arnie Duncan swimming in a pool that fell into disrepair under their watch. Our government continues to resupply contracts and jobs to those who are part of a failing system. Ask them to show you the money and they will point where they sent it, but I want accountability in their spending of our money.

The problem can be fixed, by institutions like Outward Bound and their Expeditionary Learning Program, and by collaborating to find and implement best practices in education through our institutions of higher learning. The Constitution of the State of Illinois, requires our government to educate all children to their capacity, therefore we must build an educational community that does just that. We don’t need resources for there are others who successfully educate children for less than we use, but we do need to reallocate the existing resources to entities who will do the job. If they cant do the job we fire them and find someone who can.

PO-PO, Bellwood fire

Pioneer Press (David Pollard) (there are a number of pictures):

Six people were injured, two seriously, in a five-alarm fire in Bellwood Wednesday morning.

The fire brought in more than 15 area fire departments to fight the blaze at Universal Form Clamp Company of Chicago, 840 S. 25th Ave., a concrete manufacturing company. Smoke billowed from the top rear of the building, which has oils and flammable solvents on the premises.

I recently received report of a Melrose Park business that keeps a large number of tires on the premises. The source considers these tires a fire hazard and suspects the Village of Melrose Park is not enforcing the applicable code issues.

Are village employees enforcing the fire code laws and other statutes designed to prevent serious mishaps?

PO-PO, Maywood's new chief of police [M]

Village of Maywood press release:

Maywood Appoints New Police Chief
First African American Woman to Command the Police Force in This Western Suburb

Maywood, Illinois - June 14, 2006 - Mayor Henderson Yarbrough, Sr., of Maywood, Illinois, announced the appointment of Ms. Elvia P. Williams as the Village's new Police Chief. The Maywood Village Board approved a two-year contract with Williams at its June 14, 2006, meeting. She will take command on July 17, 2006.

Williams has served in law enforcement for over 18 years, moving up through the ranks from patrol officer to Investigations Captain. She currently holds the latter position with the Eugene, Oregon, Police Department. She also served as Patrol Captain and Operations Support Captain in Eugene. Williams began her career as a police officer with the City of Newport News, Virginia.

Williams has a Master's degree in counseling from Hampton University and a Bachelor's degree in Applied Psychology from Loyola University-Chicago. She is working toward her doctorate in Urban Studies. In addition to working in law enforcement, she teaches courses in Criminal Justice at the Academy and Community College levels. A sample of her relevant experience includes supervising and managing civilian and sworn employees, leading her department's Racial Profiling Taskforce, teaching Ethics in Law Enforcement for her department, and working with diverse communities to form positive relationships between the police department and the people it serves.

"I am very excited about Ms. Williams coming to Maywood," said Mayor Yarbrough, "and proud of the process we used to select her. It is a good example of how this administration is living up to its promise to conduct business in a fair and honest manner. The result of our efforts is a Police Chief who will bring Maywoodians and our police force together to make this a better community for everyone."

As Maywood Village Manager, Robert L. Nelis, Sr., had the responsibility of choosing William from a field of candidates. "I picked her because I think she has the best combination of training, experience, expertise and personality for Maywood," Nelis said. "My mandate from the Village Board is to professionalize the operations of the Village so that it works better for everyone. Elvia Williams is a real professional. She brings fresh approaches that will contribute not just to a better Police Department, but also to a better Village."

The Village of Maywood was incorporated as a municipality on October 22, 1881 and is Celebrating its 125th anniversary, this Western suburb is located four miles west of Chicago, Illinois. Maywood has a population of 27,000; 70% African American, 15 % Latino, and 15% white. Congress designated Maywood the Village of Eternal Light to honor the soldiers from Maywood who died on the Bataan death march. Maywood's officials boast about its diversity, pointing out that the Village has a long history of welcoming everyone when other suburbs actively turned them away. Come Grow with us. Visit Maywood, Illinois on the internet: www.maywood-il.org.

CONTACT: Robert L Nelis, Sr., Village Manager

OFFICE: 708-450-6301

CONTACT: Elvia Williams, New Police Chief

CELL PHONE: 541-520-2512 (Pacific Standard Time)

Comments?

CRIME, $25,000 reward [OP]

Wednesday Journal (Bill Dwyer) reports the family has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer of UIC professor Peter D’Agostino.

In the comments feel free to speculate of the motive for killing a history professor who did ground breaking research on the Catholic Church. See Wednesday Journal (Bob Skolnik).

OPEN, what's on your mind?

Later I hope to write about Net Neutrality. And the meeting of the Proviso Democratic Organization.

What's local and important to you?

ED, Thornton North student barred from graduation

Sun-Times (Kate N. Grossman) wrote about the Thornton North student who has been arrested for non-compliance with the school's graduation procedure.

Earlier Sun-Times (Maudlyne Ihejirika) reported:

Instead of celebrating her big day, she spent the evening at the Calumet City police station being fingerprinted and photographed because Principal Dwayne E. Evans, the Cosey family claims, was angry someone had let her into the ceremony after the doors were locked.

Dwayne Evans formerly was principal (or was it asst principal?) at Proviso East.

Rules are meant to serve a greater good. Sometimes it makes sense to bend the rules for the greater good. What was the harm done by letting the student arrive late? What is the harm to the school and its leaders by having this public feud? How do you weigh these consequences against each other?

BTW, who saw the Chicago Tribune (Jodi S. Cohen and Greg Burns) article "Can you teach a person ethics?"?

DePaul University professor Laura Hartman begins her business ethics class by talking about a train on a path to hit five people. By pushing a button, the train would veer off track and hit a different person instead, but only one.

"Do you hit the button?" she asks the undergraduates.

The example used bothered me because it doesn't relate to the real world ethical decisions people have to make. Almost all real world ethical decisions are easy in a classroom.

Do you do the right thing and risk your personal position and status within an organization or do you go along with the injustice and continue to get paid and receive health benefits for your family?

In the classroom, everybody can get this question right.

But the student who can provide the most articulate answer to the unanswerable question may be the next slick, but crooked politician.

GOV, Forest Park "divorce" from D209? [FP, D209]

I've already gotten a couple comments on my column in this week's Forest Park Review.

In part of the column I call for state law to be changed so that Forest Park is encouraged to get involved in District 209, but if that involvement doesn't bare fruit then Forest Park can get a divorce from District 209.

Currently Illinois law requires that for Forest Park to secede from District 209, we need to show there will be no adverse financial effect on the district. Well, of course there will be an adverse effect on the district. We’re paying four times our share!

Forest Park should work within District 209 to improve all three high schools, but at some point, if District 209 hasn’t improved substantially, Forest Park should be granted a divorce. If District 209 continues to sabotage the education of students, why should Forest Park be forced to participate?

On Forest Park dot com justaparker wrote:

Nyberg, do you think you are on to something new here? The high school has been an issue for the last 20 years! Where have you been? If you think you can just get in someones face and get us out then do it. I think you even know it is not that easy, if it was I think the residents of Forest Park would have done it.

Has Mayor Calderone made the case that Forest Park is being victimized by unscrupulous politicians at District 209? Has he made the case that State's Attorney Dick Devine is failing to enforce the law at D209?

In the past Forest Park's position on District 209 looked like, "We don't want our kids going to school with the Blacks." People outside Forest Park weren't particularly sympathetic with this position.

Forest Park needs to make the case that District 209 is broken. We'll work with other members of the district in trying to fix the schools, but if we're playing by the rules and the corrupt and incompetent stay in power then eventually we get to strike out on our own.

Unfortunately, Calderone can't make the case that Ron Serpico, Eugene Moore and Chris Welch are undermining the education of D209 students through their political ways. He can't make this case because the political predators are Calderone allies.

Personally, I like Tony Calderone. And if it weren't for the issues in the police department and District 209, I could see the case for re-electing him.

But how much better would Forest Park be with a quality high school system?

ENVIR, workday in Thatcher Woods

The ecology in our Forest Preserves is out of whack. Most of the local Forest Preserve property should be Oak savannah or flood plains. There are invasive species. The Thatcher Woods Restoration Project exists to help restore the local ecology. It's a bunch of volunteers.

If you want to join them, Saturday is a workday.

Saturday, June 10, 2006 at 9:00 AM

Meet at Thatcher & Washington in River Forest

The group will be removing Buckthorn and Garlic Mustard, both invasive species.

Contact Victor Guarino, victor.guarino circled "a" sbcglobal spot net, for more info.

GOV, calling all Forest Park bar owners [FP]

While at a local drinking establishment, I heard from a patron (confirmed by bar tender) that the state has called a meeting of all Forest Park bar owners for Thursday evening to discuss underage drinking. The penalty for non-attendance is having your bar closed for one month.

As far as I know the state doesn't have a role in enforcing drinking age issues, but I don't know that the state doesn't do this either.

Anybody have the 411 on this?

Proviso Dems plan meeting

The Proviso Township Democratic Organization Meeting will be held Thursday June, 8th at 7:00pm at 2301 W. Roosevelt Road Broadview, IL 60155.

Contact Jnell Blanco, jennybee_123 circled "a" yahoo spot c0m if you plan to attend.

N06, Steele won't replace Stroger, yet

This morning the Sun-Times (Steve Patterson) blared that Commissioner Bobbie Steele would replace Stroger as President of the County Board.

But it didn't happen. See NBC-5.

Comments? Insights?