'Tis the Christmas Season, a Season of Joy and Good Cheer and Great Food at the Chatham Food Market!!!

Make sure you stock up on fresh produce and great meats and poultry for the Christmas and New Year's holiday season with great grocery shopping at Chatham Food Market, 327 East 79Th Street in the heart of the Chatham retail strip! http://www.chathamfoods.com/

Hey, A Very Great Idea!!!

How about pop-up stores in Chatham that sell specialty and high-end goods for the holiday seasons, say for six months or so before folding up their tents, to fill up the vacant storefronts along 79Th and 75Th Streets and Cottage Grove Avenue in Chatham! Leave your comments on the comment line.

Blog Question

Being that riff-raft are any number of police-involved, court-involved, formerly incarcerated youth and young adults, 16-39 who do damage to public and private property and residents of the neighborhood, usually with no conscience, care or shame, what do you think should be done about the riff-raft problem in Chatham? Leave your comments on the comment line.

Cops: Parolee accused in cop killing wanted to avoid arrest

Determined to avoid arrest on a burglary charge, a teenage parolee shot and killed the victim of the break-in and the Chicago police evidence technician investigating the crime, police charged Monday.

"It's unfathomable. It's just unbelievable," said Calumet Area Cmdr. Keith Calloway. "It's just so egregious you can't put words to it."

Police said Timothy Herring, 19, on parole after an armed robbery conviction, returned to an alley in the 8100 block of South Burnham Avenue about an hour and a half after he allegedly broke into a customized Ford Mustang GT on Friday.

He allegedly gunned down Michael Flisk, a 20-year officer, and car owner Stephen Peters, who once worked as an officer for the Chicago Housing Authority.

Neither Flisk nor Peters -- who was armed with his own handgun because he feared the thief would return -- had a chance to defend themselves, police said.

Chicago police officers and evidence technicians share memories of their Officer Michael Flisk Monday. (Zbigniew Bzdak/ Chicago Tribune)

"The subject simply did not want to be caught for doing a burglary," Calloway said at a news conference to announce two counts of first-degree murder against Herring. "He's already on parole as it was and didn't want to be apprehended for doing (a) ... burglary."

Peters' mother said her son reported the burglary to police Friday, then found some car parts in an alley trash can. Suspecting the burglar planned to return for the parts, he retrieved a gun from his mother's house and went to the garage, Laura Peters said. Moments later, she said, she heard shots and looked outside her kitchen window to see her son lying in the alley.

Herring, who lived across the alley from the Peters' home, was charged Monday in an unrelated shooting in June in addition to the fatal shooting of Flisk and Peters.

Physical evidence -- including ballistics evidence that tied the June shooting to the double murder -- has also been recovered, law-enforcement sources said. He was not charged earlier with the June shooting because the victim refused to cooperate and the investigation could not move forward, the sources said.

A second man, Timothy Willis, 22, was charged Monday with obstruction of justice and unlawful possession of a firearm. According to law-enforcement sources, Willis allegedly concealed the murder weapon from authorities in the days after the double homicide.

Flisk, 46, who was married and the father of four, was the second officer shot to death in just a week and the fifth overall since May. A sixth officer -- a sergeant -- was killed in a car crash in February while responding to a burglary, making it one of the more violent years for Chicago police in recent decades.

Peters was an Army veteran and was working as a lineman at AT&T. He was married and had three children.

"When we say everybody in the neighborhood liked Steve, we are not exaggerating," said his father, Robert Peters. "He was a genuinely good guy. (Herring) either didn't know him or he didn't care."

Earlier Monday, before the charges were announced, Flisk's co-workers talked to reporters about an officer they said was skilled and modest. He was known for thoroughly scouring crime scenes for fingerprints, often pausing to try to imagine the scene as the criminal saw it to better figure out where clues might be left.

Flisk, who came from a family of Chicago police officers, was going to be recognized by the department in coming days for his efforts to solve a burglary pattern in the Beverly neighborhood, they said.

"Mike was a great policeman, a great evidence technician," said Officer John Zalewski. "He would always make you laugh. He always had a great story ... and he really loved his family and was a great man."

The Peters family spent the day beginning to make arrangements for their son's funeral. News that a suspect was caught encouraged the family, which credited the swift actions of police.

"I figured they were going to get whoever this person was because of all of the evidence that was left behind," Robert Peters said. "It would be just a matter of catching up to him."

Neighbors said Herring lived with his grandfather. He was on electronic monitoring and had been ordered into substance-abuse counseling as a condition of his parole for the armed robbery conviction, according to state records.

He was arrested at the home Saturday evening.

Robert Peters said he wasn't surprised that Herring was from the neighborhood because he suspected the burglar had to know about his son's customized car.

"Who else would know he had it in the garage with all the contraptions on it?" he said.

Police said visitation for Flisk will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Brady and Gill Funeral Home, 2929 W. 87th St., Evergreen Park. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel, 7740 S. Western Ave., Chicago.

See from Chicago Breaking News and WGN-TV: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/11/teen-parolee-charged-with-killing-chicago-cop-former-cha-officer.html

Slain SWAT officer remembered for 'always coming to the rescue'

Chicago Police officers head to the wake for Chicago Police Officer David Blake at A.R. Leak Funeral Home on the South Side. (Heather Charles/Chicago Tribune)

David Blake was the ultimate partner, an aggressive Chicago police officer yet gentle friend who loved a good road trip and a solid hit on the football field, friends and colleagues said today.

"Dave was always the guy that's coming to the rescue," said Sean Davis, one of Blake's former partners.

Hundreds of people attended a wake Sunday for Blake, a SWAT team member who was on the force for 15 years.

Blake, 45, was found Nov. 22 dead with multiple gunshot wounds inside his SUV in the 2900 block of West Seipp Street, several miles from his home. A cigarette was dangling from his mouth.

The vehicle's windows were up, suggesting the shots were fired from inside, several sources have told the Tribune.

No one is in custody, and police continue to investigate, authorities said.

Blake was laid to rest wearing his olive green SWAT uniform, his helmet nearby. Inside Leak and Sons Funeral Homes in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood, photos on display captured Blake's various experiences on the force.

The officers weren't only grieving for Blake. He was one of two Chicago police officers killed last week and the sixth to die violently this year.

"When you go out every day, you don't know if you're coming back," said Carmelena Dunson, a retired Chicago police officer. "It's frightening. It's frustrating. We all are devastated when we have one of our own killed."

Amidst the pain, friends and colleagues described Blake's close friendships. He taught a fellow officer how to ride a motorcycle and, having a knack for photography, snapped prom pictures for a friend's daughter.

Samuel Jones, Blake's running back and special teams coach on the Chicago Enforcers, the police department's football team, said despite his age, Blake could still pummel with force on the field.

Strong and swift, Blake was known to run after assailants and have them in handcuffs before other officers arrived on the scene, said Samuel Kendrick, a close friend who vacationed with Blake and was on various police teams with him for 13 years.

"Dave was a great guy who did not deserve to go the way he did," Kendrick said, his eyes welling with tears.

Blog Question

Do you think with all of the shootings in and around Chatham that the National Guard will finally come in along 79Th Street (the police chase involving the shooting of Michael Flisk included more than 20 blue and white squad cars)?

Burris joins mayoral circus

Bounced out of the U.S. Senate, Roland Burris, a Chatham resident, landed in the middle of the race for Chicago mayor Monday when a group of supporters filed petitions to place him on the ballot just before the deadline.

The last time Burris heeded the siren's call of a draft movement for mayor, he got less than 40 percent against Mayor Richard Daley in 1995. When Burris said he might be drafted in 2008 for the U.S. Senate, Gov. Rod Blagojevich made him his controversial choice to fill the former seat of President Barack Obama.

It was unclear whether Burris would actually run this time, but his tentative step into a field of 20 candidates for mayor was the final act in a circus on the last day to enter the Feb. 22 city elections.

Burris' supporters said they delivered nearly 20,000 signatures. Chicagoan Toni Randle, a longtime Burris friend, said the outgoing senator knew of the efforts and wouldn't promise to run -- but he didn't stop it either.

"He kind of chuckled and said if this is what the community wants to do then by all means go for it," Randle said. "I think he will eventually bow to the will of the people. If the people want Roland Burris to be mayor then he will run for mayor."

Burris signed the statement of candidacy that was filed with the petitions and is weighing whether to run, a spokeswoman confirmed. Burris did not return telephone calls for comment.

Burris, 73, has faced nearly two years of controversy since accepting the Senate appointment from Blagojevich after the then-governor was charged with peddling the seat for personal and political gain.

Tagged with large legal debts and no campaign money, Burris declined to run for the Senate seat. He is about to be replaced by Republican Sen.-elect Mark Kirk, who won the Nov. 2 general election and a court-ordered special election to finish the last weeks of Obama's term.

While a Burris run seems unlikely, his candidacy could alter the political math among the top tier of contenders for mayor, which in addition to Meeks and Emanuel includes former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, former Chicago Board of Education President Gery Chico, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and City Clerk Miguel del Valle.

City election officials said the mayoral field is the largest in more than 50 years. But it almost certainly will shrink. Every candidate's petitions are subject to challenges and it's likely many will be contested by the Nov. 30 deadline. A minimum of 12,500 signatures of registered Chicago voters are required.

Challenges will be heard by the election board in December, though any decisions will be subject to appeal in the courts. The election board also can toss candidates if their petitions clearly do not conform to the law.

Fire kills boy, 5, also injures 3 kids, 2 women in Park Manor

Police are investigating the cause of a house fire early this morning on the South Side that killed a 5-year-old boy and seriously injured three other children and two women.

A fire department spokesman said there were no signs of foul play in the blaze.

The fire broke out around 11:30 p.m. in a 2½-story brick home in the 6900 block of South Wabash Avenue in the Park Manor neighborhood.

An emergency medical plan was called, sending several ambulances to the blaze before it was brought under control around 12:20 a.m. today, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Joe Roccasalva.

All the victims lived on the first floor, police said. A family had just moved out of the second floor.

Christand Densmore, 5, was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

A boy and girl between the ages of 2 and 4 were taken in critical condition to Comer Children's Hospital, Roccasalva said. A girl who appeared to be 7 was taken in serious condition to Saint Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center.

A woman was taken in serious condition to Saint Bernard and another woman was taken in critical condition to University of Chicago Hospitals, Roccasalva said. At least one of the women was in her 60s, he said.

At 3:45 a.m., an elderly woman was transferred to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, police said.

$10,000 reward in slayings of cop, ex-CHA officer

The scene this afternoon in the South Chicago neighborhood, where a Chicago police officer was shot. (Terrence Antonio James/ Tribune photo) MORE PHOTOS

Police are offering a $10,000 reward as they investigate the deaths of a Chicago police evidence technician and a former CHA officer who were gunned down Friday afternoon while the police officer was investigating a burglary in a South Chicago alley.

It is the fifth time in six months that a Chicago police officer has been shot and killed -- and the second time in just a week.

Michael Flisk, 46, was two months from celebrating 20 years on the job and had a wife and four children, according to Supt. Jody Weis. Three of his siblings are also on the force.

"It's surreal. Even when I was told, it didn't resonate," said Flisk's sister-in-law, Gina Flisk.

"He was the one who kind of smoothed everything over with everybody,'' she said. "He wasn't the oldest, but he was the one who kind of took care of making everybody happy."

The former CHA officer was identified by family members as Stephen Peters, 44, who was married with three sons.

"He was a good guy, hard-working. He loved his family," said his sister Pamela Reed, who added that he was a car aficionado known as " Superman'' in a Mustang car club.

Reed said her mother heard four shots from inside her home -- in two different bursts -- then looked out the window. "She saw my brother lying out in the alley dead," Reed said.

Peters called police just after noon after discovering that someone had broken into his Mustang GT in a garage in the 8100 block of South Burnham Avenue on Friday afternoon.

Flisk, in uniform and driving a marked squad car, was dispatched about half an hour later. Residents said they heard gunshots about 1:30 p.m. Arriving minutes later, officers found Flisk and Peters lying in the alley mortally wounded.

What happened in that hour is unclear.

In the aftermath of the shootings, Chicago police sealed off the South Chicago neighborhood with crime scene tape and squad cars and began an aggressive search of alleys and trash bins, using dogs.

SWAT officers and tactical teams -- some carrying M4 rifles -- swarmed the area. Motorists and pedestrians were stopped and questioned or asked for identification.

"We will squeeze that neighborhood, and we will find the people who did this,'' a visibly tense Supt. Jody Weis said outside Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Stunned shoppers on Black Friday stared as a line of squad cars escorted Flisk's body from Northwestern Memorial Hospital on the Near North Side to the Cook County medical examiner's office on the Near West Side.

Officers cried in the cold night outside the morgue.

Flisk was the sixth Chicago police officer to die violently this year. A sergeant died in a car crash in February while responding to a burglary. Since May, four other officers -- all off-duty -- had been gunned down.

The latest of those killings took place just four days earlier when Officer David Blake was found slain in his SUV. No arrests have been made in that killing.

A longtime officer who heads up the patrol officers union called 2010 the deadliest year for Chicago cops in recent memory.

"There hasn't been a year this bad since the 1960s," said Mark Donahue, president of the Fraternal Order of Police. Officers "are just trying to cope."

Flisk's job as an evidence technician is one of the unheralded but critical roles in the department. Technicians arrive at a scene -- often alone -- after a crime has been committed to comb for evidence that could lead to an arrest. They rarely get the accolades when their work helps solve murders, rapes and even burglaries.

But the job usually keeps them from the front-line danger many officers face daily.

"It was supposed to keep him safer,'' neighbor Pauline Lewellyn, sobbing in her Beverly kitchen, said of his promotion to evidence technician 3½ years ago.

A plainclothes officer walking to his unmarked car from the morgue said the latest slaying of a officer has stunned the department.

"This was out of nowhere," said the officer, who did not give his name. "They're targeting us like (anyone) out there. I don't know if this was just opportunistic or what.

"They feel like if they can hurt one of us they can get us to slow down, lay off them. But that's not going to happen. This is going to light the fire in us."

An officer climbing into a squad car marked Forensic Investigation said he was an evidence technician like Flisk. Though the officer said he didn't know Flisk, he choked up as he remarked that the veteran officer likely would have had his last meal with his own family at Thanksgiving.

"You thank God that he had that meal with his family," he said, pausing to pull off his glasses to wipe tears from his eyes. "This hurts, you know?"

A colleague of Flisk, who was in the same evidence technician class, described him as a "really quiet guy. A really nice guy."

The officer said many of the fingerprints Flisk inventoried at crime scenes, especially burglaries, would lead to a suspect's identity.

"You can tell he was great because he had so many hits," the colleague said.

Flisk came from a family that dedicated their lives to public safety. All but one of Flisk's four siblings were also Chicago police officers. Their father, also named Michael, retired after about three decades with the Chicago Fire Department.

In his home in the Beverly neighborhood on the Southwest Side, Flisk was a neighbor who fixed cars and organized block parties. He was a regular at his son's baseball games. He "wore his heart on his sleeve," one neighbor said.

Gina Flisk said her children looked up to their Uncle Mike. When she told her daughter, she said, "I'm like a turtle and Uncle Mike was my shell, and now that he's gone, a part of me is missing."

On the officer's block in Beverly, neighbors came to his home to pay their condolences.

"He was one of the nicest guys you would ever meet," said Virginia Espinola, who lives a couple of doors down from the officer. "He was very calm, laid-back and quiet."

Espinola said that when she heard from another neighbor that the officer had been shot, it took her breath away.

"I just didn't believe it at first," she said. "He was one of the last guys you could have imagined this happening to."

The officer was very involved in the community, she said, organizing block parties with his wife and fixing cars for his neighbors. Espinola's son Matthew said he plays baseball with a teenage son of the officer and described the officer as "an involved father."

"He was at every game," Matthew Espinola said.

Another neighbor, Tricia Fitzgerald, was walking on the sidewalk near the officer's home, crying. She said the officer's wife bought him a Harley-Davidson motorcycle last Christmas.

Gina Flisk said his sons walked his Harley down the street on Christmas day for him last year.

Asked how she would remember him, she said, "You picture him on his motorcycle on a warm day."

She said he and his wife were very supportive of each other. "They're the couple, in my opinion, that you wanted to be like" Gina Flisk said. "They're the family that you wanted to be like. They were a good balance."

The other victim, Peters, had recently been working at AT&T after serving as a CHA police officer. He was in the U.S. Army and attended Chicago Vocational Academy High School.

Reed said her brother loved cars.

Neighbors on the block where Peters and Flisk were killed said it has been plagued with violence.

Johnny Walker said someone tried to steal his truck from of his garage recently. He said there's been a lot of burglaries around his home for the last several months.

"It's bad. It's dangerous. Breaking into houses, that's all they want to do," said Walker, 67, "Everyday, somebody's breaking in."

Walker said shootings are also common. "In the summer," he said, "you couldn't sit out front."

The Chicago Police Memorial Foundation is offering the $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer or killers.

Police said anyone with information should call Calumet Area detectives at 312-747-8272, or place a confidential toll-free call to 888-976-7468.

Man shot in Chatham neighborhood dies

Police say a man who died from a gunshot wound to the stomach may have shot himself.

Cordarryl Williams, 22, was found unresponsive at about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday in the 500 block of East 80th Street in the Chatham neighborhood, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

He was taken in serious condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, but was later pronounced dead at 9:20 p.m., officials said.

Police said they were investigating whether the shooting was self-inflicted. They released no other details.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We, at ChathamNOW, wish all of our viewers a very Happy Thanksgiving! We urge you to wash your hands thoroughly before eating your feast due to the swine flu epidemic via H1N1. Don't eat too much, and see your for the holiday season! Have a very happy holiday weekend as your shopping spree begins hopefully with the businesses established in the Chatham neighborhood...do stop by and shop in your own neighborhood first! Don't forget to replace the batteries in your smoke and CO detectors!

Angel Tree Program

Chatham Food Market is partnering with the Salvation Army's Angel Tree Program. Angel Tree provides gifts and toys to Chicago's needy children. come in and pick up an Angel Tree Tag, and purchase your gift and return gift to the story by December 21. Chatham Food Market, 327 East 79Th Street, is open Sunday-Saturday, 7a.m. --12 midnight.

Former Shriver aide joins first lady's team

Chicago Breaking News: First lady Michelle Obama announced today that she is hiring a new communications director, Kristina Schake, a veteran Democratic political strategist and former aide to California first lady Maria Shriver.

Schake, who will begin work in December, will have two titles: special assistant to the president and communications director to the first lady.

"I'm thrilled to welcome Kristina to the team," Obama said in a statement. "Kristina brings a wealth of expertise that I know will make her a tremendous asset in the East Wing."

Meantime, Chicagoan Katie McCormick Lelyveld will continue in her role as Obama's press secretary, which will see her manage Obama's media outreach both in Washington and while the first lady is traveling. She joined Obama in 2007, an early hire.

In announcing Schake's hiring, Obama highlighted Schake's "extensive work" on child nutrition and community health issues as well as her upbringing in a military family. Schake's father served in Vietnam and her brother served in the first Gulf War.

Obama said the staffer would bring "invaluable insight to our work on childhood obesity and our efforts to support military families."

Schake, who is from the Los Angeles area, is the co-founder and a principal of Griffin Schake, a California-based public affairs and strategic communications firm.

She has helped major foundations, non-profits and civic leaders bring about critical social change through policy, legislative, social marketing and media initiatives, Obama's office said in a statement.

Schake for years was the senior communications strategist for Shriver, the Women's Conference and the California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities Initiative, the statement said.

Schake and her firm have championed stem cell research and early childhood education and helped change California's political landscape on renewable energy and civil rights, the statement said.

Before starting her firm, Schake directed the Governor's Summit on Obesity and was communications director for First 5 California, which provides education, health care, child care and nutrition programs for the state's youngest children.

A native Californian, Schake is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University. She replaces Camille Johnston, who in September joined the Siemens Corporation.

Chatham Food Market is the Place for the Feast of Thanksgiving!!!

Make sure you stock up on fresh produce for the fall season and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend with great grocery shopping at Chatham Food Market, 327 East 79Th Street in the heart of the Chatham retail strip! http://www.chathamfoods.com/
http://www.chathamfoods.com/our-ad.html

Chatham Restaurant Critique Review

Steve Dolinsky of ABC7 Chicago does a great review of several Chatham restaurants in our Chatham eatery critique....See and click this link: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=7800211

Here is his review: Healthy eateries popping up in Chicago The South and West Sides of the city have traditionally been home to soul food restaurants. Not exactly the healthiest options in town.

There's a restaurant group that is trying to change that reputation, by opening fast-casual restaurants in those same neighborhoods and with a much healthier approach.

If Rich Melman could do it on the North Side, why can't Quentin Love do it on the South and West Sides? The Chicago native doesn't offer beef or pork on his menus, and over the past year, he's assembled an impressive little collection of restaurants and bakeries. The key to success seems to be increased buying power, but also offering the community some healthier options for which it is thankful for especially this time of year.

In the Chatham neighborhood on the city's South Side, soul food dominates. Captain's Hard Time and Izola's are two pioneers along 79th Street. But there is another kind of restaurant taking root here, and it's called Quench.

"It's a no-beef, no-pork concept," said I Love Food Group founder Quentin Love. "Chicken, turkey, fish and vegetarian is our menu. We started off with five items. Now we have over 70 items on the menu, and we're helping the communities all over."

There are now a half-dozen Quench locations on the city's South and West Sides, plus a few other ancillary businesses, like the Brown Sugar Bakery, which have joined forces beneath the umbrella of the I Love Food Group. They've consolidated their buying power and brain power.

Vegetables are a priority, and they're all over the menu at Quench. In burritos, ground turkey is the star, as it is in a juicy, two-fisted burger. Catfish can be fried, but there's also sauteed tilapia -- a healthier option -- served with sauteed spinach and Cajun 'dirty' rice. Love says he's simply trying to fill a niche that's long-been forgotten in his neighborhood.

"There's not only a need for good food, there's a need for transitional food, meaning, making a transition for not a vegetarian diet, but right in the middle," said Love. "Getting away from things that create diabetes and a lot of issues in the black communities, we're trying to help balance that out."

This time of year, turkey and mashed potatoes are obviously common, but Love's customers know that this isn't just pandering to the season; they realize they can eat this way all year long if they so choose.

"So whatever that you'd have in the beef or the pork format, we have it into a different, healthier equivalent," Love said.

There are currently seven Quench locations in the city, including a brand new one in Calumet City.

In addition to the Brown Sugar Bakery, some of the other members of the I Love Food Group include Five Loaves Breakfast Cafe on 75th Street, Brother Tim's Vegetarian on 87th Street, and Soul Xpress on 71st Street.

Blog Question

What do you thing is the best way to clear up the riff-raft problem in Chatham: create new opportunities for new well-paying jobs or programs and activities for after-school and summer periods for youth? Leave your comment on the comment line.

Blog Question

Do you think the next new building project for Chatham should be a L.A. Fitness on the site of the former Rhodes Theater vacant lot at 79Th and Rhodes Avenue? Leave your comments on the comment line.

Library Wrap-Up

The demolition of the entire block lot for the new Whitney Young Branch of the Chicago Public Library (CPL) at 7901 South King Drive is now complete. It will be a one-story facility with an all-new prototype that looks like two stories but will cover more than 14,000 square feet (with a budget of $14,000,000.00) with enough room for a children's center and adult reference sections, and space for a parking lot, the library itself, and a reading garden and with an entrance facing King Drive. Top of the line and state of the art high technology facilities including 4G (4Th Generation) broadband and multiple access points for WI-FI and flat panel computers for children and adults will be offered in the new building. There will also be ample space for auditorium and artist presentations. The architect for the site will be selected by the Public Buildings Commission of Chicago by competitive bidding process. The contractor has not been chosen at this time. Once the Public Buildings Commission as decided on a final prototype, the Commissioner of the CPL will reach out to the Alderwoman of the 6Th Ward to call for public hearings on the architectural design for members of the community to discuss. Dates for such hearings have not yet been set. We strongly urge all of our residents, members, and viewers to write to the CPL Commissioner to express their views on having a 2-story structure, like the one for the Bucktown-Wicker Park branch (1701 N. Milwaukee Avenue) at: Chicago Public Library Commissioner's Office, 10N, 400 S. State Street, Chicago, IL 60605.

In farewell, Burris laments lack of blacks in Senate

As his controversial tenure nears its end, Sen. Roland Burris, a Chatham resident, gave a farewell address Thursday lamenting there will be no blacks at all in the next Senate.

"This is simply unacceptable," he said. "We can and we will and we must - do better."

He also noted that only six blacks have served in the Senate in the body's 221-year history.

The Illinois Democrat was appointed at the end of 2008 by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was accused of trying to sell the seat.

Burris, now 73, accepted the seat that had been Barack Obama's. Obama's election to the White House left two years remaining in the term.

Arriving in January 2009, Burris at first was turned away by the Senate, but his credentials later were found in order.

Almost precisely a year ago, he was admonished by a Senate ethics panel for giving "inconsistent, incomplete, and misleading" statements about the circumstances of his appointment. Blagojevich later was convicted on one felony count and is awaiting a retrial on 23 others.

Burris, giving an elaborate, 25-minute goodbye on the Senate floor, said that he stood in the chamber as the great-grandson of a man who was born into slavery "in an era when this Senate debated whether he and others like him were worthy of freedom, and equal treatment under the law."

He said his rise to the Senate in some ways was a "remarkable testament to our nation's ability to correct the wrongs of generations past. To move always towards that 'more perfect Union.' "

But he said his presence, as the only black American senator "in a country as progressive and diverse as any on the planet," also was a "solemn reminder of how far we still yet have to go."

He said he could count "on the fingers of a single hand" the black senators who preceded him: Blanche Kelso Bruce and Hiram Revels of Mississippi, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, and Carol Moseley Braun and Obama of Burris' home state of Illinois.

"This is troubling in its own right," he said of the short list. Burris then noted that beginning in January, there will be no blacks at all.

Burris is expected to serve until Nov. 29 until Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, is sworn in to replace him. Kirk will assume a full, six-year term beginning in January.

A native of Centralia, Burris was the first African-American elected statewide in Illinois when, in 1978, he won the job of comptroller. He later served as Illinois attorney general, but lost several other bids for office, including for the Senate, governor and Chicago mayor.

Today, highlighting a long list of his accomplishments in the Senate, including among them the passage of health care reform, Burris joked that he may return to the Senate to vote to let gays and lesbians serve openly in the military.

"I'm from Chicago," he quipped. "I'll vote twice."

ABC7 Chicago has his remarks in their entirety: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=7796817

fancy dress costume

Blog Question

Do you think with the influx of Mexican-Americans into Chatham as the newest residents that St. Dorothy's School may have a majority Hispanic student body by 2016? Leave your comments on the comment line.

Cops: Man wounded after pointing gun at 2 officers

A man was shot and wounded by Chicago police in the East Chatham neighborhood on the South Side, authorities said.

Gresham District tactical officers were on "aggressive patrol" in an area known for drug and gang activity when they spotted "several individuals congregating" at about 11:20 p.m. Monday in the 800 block of East 87th Street, according to Police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer.

As the officers approached, they noticed one of the men was holding a gun and began chasing him, Greer said.

The man dropped the gun but then retrieved it, police said. An officer, "in fear for his life," fired at the man as he ran down an alley. The suspect encountered a second officer and aimed the gun at him, police said.

The officer fired and struck the suspect, police said. A gun was recovered at the scene, Greer said.

The man was shot once in the upper chest and was hospitalized in critical condition, a fire department spokesman said. No officer was hurt.

The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating.

In the Right Direction!

It is great to see the new PNC Bank branch at the corner of 87th and Cottage Grove...that is what Chatham needs...more branch banking!

Great Food is Fresh Food and You Can Get It at the Chatham Food Market!!!

Fight obesity and reach your target weight with a good serving of fresh produce. Make sure you stock up on fresh produce for the fall season and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend with great grocery shopping at Chatham Food Market, 327 East 79Th Street in the heart of the Chatham retail strip! http://www.chathamfoods.com/

City closes Chatham discount store

A discount store in Chatham was closed on November 4, 2010 after inspectors found overflowing garbage in its Dumpsters and more than two feet of waste water its basement.

Family Dollar, 8341 S. Cottage Grove Ave., was inspected after complaints about the East Chatham store, according to a news release from the city.

Inspectors found between two and four feet of water in the basement near the sump pump and garbage bins overflowing outside the store, according to the release.

The store "will have to correct all these problems, clean the place from top to bottom, and pass a full reinspection before they can get back to business," Josie Cruz, Deputy Commissioner of Streets & Sanitation's Bureau of Rodent Control, said in the release.

Library Demolition Razes Laundromat

The final demolition on the new Whitney Young library project has begun with the Laundromat being razed at 79th Street and Vernon Avenue. The lot was purchased by the Public Buildings Commission of Chicago on October 5, 2010. This razing allows for the core samples to be taken by the EPA in lieu of a federal grant being approved for cleanup of parcels adjacent to the existing library to enable future construction of a new "state of the art" library. It is the intent of the Public Building Commission of Chicago to apply for a U.S. EPA Brownfields grant on each of three parcels of land as an aid in cleaning up the affected parcels. A copy of the grant proposal is available for public review and comment at the Public Building Commission of Chicago, 50 W. Washington Street, Room 200, Chicago, IL 60602.

Welcome!!!

This is the new ChathamNOW blog covering the Chatham neighborhood, an enclave reaching from 75th Street to 87th Street and from State Street to Cottage Grove Avenue in Chicago.