Prosecutors have dropped charges against a 17-year-old accused of killing three people outside a South Side bakery in November, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office announced January 20, 2012. Nicko Grayson is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. (Chicago Police Department)
Nicko Grayson was accused of killing three people Nov. 5, including a young mother who had just returned to a car with a cake for her 2-year-old daughter’s birthday.
Prosecutors had said on Nov. 5, 2011, that Grayson, wearing black pants and a black hoodie, ran up to her car, reached in and kept firing, killing Chanda Thompson, 21; Cortez Champion; and another passenger, Shawn Russell.
Grayson was charged Nov. 7 with the murders.
Thompson was hit in the neck and back, and the two men were shot in the head and back as they sat in a parking lot in the 400 block of East 87th Street near A Piece of Cake Bakery shortly after 5 p.m.
“While the charges against Grayson were brought in good faith based on witness accounts and identifications, additional information has developed during the ongoing investigation that warranted dismissal of the murder charges against Grayson at this time,” a statement from the State’s Attorney’s office said.
“The murders of Cortez Champion, Shawn Russell and Chanda Thompson remain a continuing investigation being conducted by the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.”
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
St. Patrick's Day at the Chatham Food Market!!!
It's about time for St. Patrick's Day with great food and delicious candies from the Chatham Food Market. And don't forget that Delicatessen in German means "an abundance of good food." You can find that abundance of great food for St. Patrick's Day at the delicatessen at Chatham Food Market, 327 East 79Th Street. http://www.chathamfoods.com/
MacArthur Foundation to help 2 local groups expand Nearly $3 million in grants headed to Community Development Corp., Business and Professional Peopl
Jack Markowski is president of Community Investment Corp., which helps redevelop vacant buildings in struggling Chicago neighborhoods. The organization is receiving a $2 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation. (E. Jason Wambsgans, Chicago Tribune / December 22, 2011)
One Chicago group that's determined to repopulate the city's vacant buildings and another that largely works behind the scenes to effect social change have been tapped by the MacArthur Foundation to receive almost $3 million in funding.
Community Investment Corp. and Business and Professional People for the Public Interest are among 15 organizations in six countries, and the only Illinois groups, to be named recipients of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.
The grants, which ranged from $350,000 to $2.5 million, are not intended to reward past accomplishments but to help organizations continue their success, said Robert Gallucci, MacArthur's president. "This is, fundamentally at its core, institution-building," he said. "They can be helped by an infusion of funds that will help them become more stable and durable but they've already demonstrated what they're capable of doing."
The recipients are all groups previously funded by MacArthur. The difference is the grants do not have to be repaid and their use is not directed to a specific project. Being a recipient of a MacArthur grant also should increase their public visibility and potential to attract additional investment.
Community Investment Corp., which is receiving a $2 million grant, already is visible in the struggling Chicago neighborhoods where it works. Since 2003, it has assisted with the redevelopment of 3,000 affordable rental units in 186 Chicago buildings.
The organization will use the funds to expand its troubled buildings initiative, a program in which it purchases or becomes a receiver for vacant buildings and then sells them to new owners while at the same time helping finance the buildings' renovation. Jack Markowski, the group's president, said the work will be concentrated in the nine neighborhoods targeted by the city for foreclosure prevention: Humboldt Park, Chatham, Chicago Lawn, West Woodlawn, Auburn Gresham, West Pullman, Belmont Cragin, Englewood and Grand Boulevard.
"It's going to allow us to be more aggressive in our acquisition of properties," Markowski said. "We can go out and take a chance on a property that we might not have."
MacArthur has been a "stalwart" funder of Business and Professional People for the Public Interest for many years, according to Executive Director E. Hoy McConnell II, who says the group is receiving $750,000 in recognition of its impact on the issues surrounding urban poverty in the Chicago area.
"We try to work closely with those people who are influencing policy and try to really persuade them of a different point of view than they might have going in," he said.
The group plans to use the funds to create an endowed fellowship to attract young lawyers and policy specialists as well as to establish a two-year visiting fellowship in urban poverty strategies.
One Chicago group that's determined to repopulate the city's vacant buildings and another that largely works behind the scenes to effect social change have been tapped by the MacArthur Foundation to receive almost $3 million in funding.
Community Investment Corp. and Business and Professional People for the Public Interest are among 15 organizations in six countries, and the only Illinois groups, to be named recipients of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.
The grants, which ranged from $350,000 to $2.5 million, are not intended to reward past accomplishments but to help organizations continue their success, said Robert Gallucci, MacArthur's president. "This is, fundamentally at its core, institution-building," he said. "They can be helped by an infusion of funds that will help them become more stable and durable but they've already demonstrated what they're capable of doing."
The recipients are all groups previously funded by MacArthur. The difference is the grants do not have to be repaid and their use is not directed to a specific project. Being a recipient of a MacArthur grant also should increase their public visibility and potential to attract additional investment.
Community Investment Corp., which is receiving a $2 million grant, already is visible in the struggling Chicago neighborhoods where it works. Since 2003, it has assisted with the redevelopment of 3,000 affordable rental units in 186 Chicago buildings.
The organization will use the funds to expand its troubled buildings initiative, a program in which it purchases or becomes a receiver for vacant buildings and then sells them to new owners while at the same time helping finance the buildings' renovation. Jack Markowski, the group's president, said the work will be concentrated in the nine neighborhoods targeted by the city for foreclosure prevention: Humboldt Park, Chatham, Chicago Lawn, West Woodlawn, Auburn Gresham, West Pullman, Belmont Cragin, Englewood and Grand Boulevard.
"It's going to allow us to be more aggressive in our acquisition of properties," Markowski said. "We can go out and take a chance on a property that we might not have."
MacArthur has been a "stalwart" funder of Business and Professional People for the Public Interest for many years, according to Executive Director E. Hoy McConnell II, who says the group is receiving $750,000 in recognition of its impact on the issues surrounding urban poverty in the Chicago area.
"We try to work closely with those people who are influencing policy and try to really persuade them of a different point of view than they might have going in," he said.
The group plans to use the funds to create an endowed fellowship to attract young lawyers and policy specialists as well as to establish a two-year visiting fellowship in urban poverty strategies.
Friday, February 10, 2012
NEW New Library Hours
The Whitney Young branch of the Chicago Public Library at 7901 South Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Drive now has new hours effective February 6, 2012 effective immediately:
Sunday: CLOSED
Monday: 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Tuesday: 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Wednesday: 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday: 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Friday-Saturday: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday: CLOSED
Monday: 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Tuesday: 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Wednesday: 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday: 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Friday-Saturday: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday, February 3, 2012
Valentine's Day is a Great Day to be at the Chatham Food Market!!!
Remember your sweetheart with great food and delicious candies from the Chatham Food Market. And don't forget that Delicatessen in German means "an abundance of good food." You can find that abundance of great food for St. Valentine's Day at the delicatessen at Chatham Food Market, 327 East 79Th Street. http://www.chathamfoods.com/
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