Will Ed Burke be ultimate beneficiary of Solis “snitching” to the G-men?

Perhaps it’s the ultimate evidence of how superficial some people can be when they determine just who to cast a ballot for, but there’s a part of me that wonders if the recent reports of 25^th Ward Alderman Dan Solis will ultimately work (at least in the short term) to the benefit of Edward M. Burke.

SOLIS: Cooperating to cover own tracks

Burke, of course, is the half-a-century member of the City Council who now is the target of federal investigators who are digging into all sorts of political corruption. It seems much of the evidence they’ve accumulated against Burke comes from Solis.

IN THE FORM of Solis wearing wiretaps for the FBI so that he could get close to Burke and allow “G-men” to catch him on tape in the act of saying something self-incriminating.

Reports of Solis engaging in such activity with the FBI (as part of a deal by which they’ll agree to lesser criminal charges for things that Danny has done) came out this past week, and the reaction of many aldermen was shock, if not outright contempt, that one of their own would try to cover up his behind at the expense of a council colleague.

I’ve seen a lot of people quoting the ideals of organized crime, as expressed in films such as “Goodfellas” or “The Godfather” – the ideal of omerta and keeping silent about what one really knows.

Which to my mindset almost sounds like the real comparison ought to be to street gang culture and the idea of “don’t snitch,” particularly to law enforcement.

ALL OF WHICH means I can easily envision people wanting to think of Danny Solis or anybody like him as somehow worthy of retribution. How can “we” act in a way to make it up to Ed Burke?

Which makes me wonder if Solis’ Mexican-American ethnic origins will wind up coming into factor. Because Burke is the guy who’s facing all these allegations of his own alleged corrupt behavior at a time when he’s facing a re-election challenge.

With his challengers being people of Mexican ethnic origins themselves who are basing their campaigns against Burke on the idea that it’s time to dump the Irish guy whose ward is now an overwhelming (nearly 80 percent) Latino majority population.

BURKE: Could he become sympathetic figure?

I have no doubt that the non-Latino voters in that district will be motivated by the idea of keeping things the way they are. Will there also now be added an angry overtone of turning out in force on Election Day to keep those Latino voters from gaining any influence?

IT’S A STUPID, shallow and completely superficial line of logic. But it’s also something that would totally be in character with Chicago’s neighborhood mindset.

A Latino like Solis gets fingered as a significant part of FBI investigators and their case against the all-powerful, long-time alderman who had the influence to tell mayors what they ought to do within city government.

So now, the voters will think it somehow just to take it out on the three aldermanic candidates of Latino origins themselves who (as they probably see it) have the nerve to think they can run against Burke for his City Council post.

Combine it with the mindset of those such as the Fraternal Order of Police, which recently voted to endorse Burke’s re-election bid in the Feb. 26 municipal elections, and the significant campaign stash that Burke has accumulated for his own benefit – and I can easily see how Burke’s legal predicament can be overcome.

THAT IS, FOR now. Because it’s very likely that any effort to get an indictment against Burke with criminal charges more serious than the current allegations that he tried to shake down a Burger King franchise owner in his neighborhood will come up following the election process.

Burke could easily get re-elected, then indicted, before we reach the peak of the baseball season this summer.

So while I personally have an interest in the growth of Latino political empowerment and would be intrigued by changing ethnic demographics playing a role in Burke’s political downfall, I’m skeptical.

It’s more likely that ethnicity will somehow benefit Burke in the short-term – and that fact could wind up being most embarrassing to Chicago.

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EXTRA: 85 years since 'massacre,' yet I just want to watch Marilyn Monroe

It has been 85 years since the violent outburst in a garage at 2121 N. Clark St. that we now think of as the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. Yet all I can think of on this Friday is Marilyn Monroe.

Yes, the curvaceous beauty to whom all Hollywood glamour for all time invariably gets compared.

A PART OF me wants to pull out my copy of “Some Like It Hot” and pop it in the DVD player.

Let’s not forget that the film starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon was set largely on board a passenger train and in Miami Beach. But it started in Chicago with their two musician characters inadvertently witnessing the grisly killings.

Hence, they have to get out of town before they’re killed off. So naturally, they dress up as women, get hired by an all-girl band (Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators) and wind up encountering Sugar (played by Monroe).

Yes, it’s total nonsense. Just the other day I stumbled across a Monroe documentary that said much of the humor of the film was in the preposterous notion that Monroe’s character would not be immediately able to tell that “Josephine” and “Daphne” were really men.

BUT IT DOES put a humorous touch to that ugly day. It certainly comes across as more entertaining than the 1967 film “The St. Valentine’s Day” massacre, which was a slightly-fictionalized take on what supposedly happened.

But one that got bogged down in so much factual matter that it becomes dreary at times. It gives evidence to the old cliché, “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”

That film certainly did.

When it comes to the latter film, what I most note is that it gave us Jason Robards as Capone – some nine years prior to giving us the award-winning performance as the Washington Post’s Ben Bradlee in “All the President’s Men.”

HE WENT FROM playing a man who later got busted by the Internal Revenue Service to being the man who helped take down a political hack of a president.

Interesting material. Although I’d still rather watch Monroe – who showed us her humor as well as her curves.

The real thing!

Even if it’s not, strictly speaking, a historic moment film. Although if there is a moment in Chicago history that I’d like to see someone try to make a film out of, it is the Chicago fire of October 1871.

I realize that 1937’s “In Old Chicago” starring Don Ameche already gave us one take. Yet I wonder what could be done now, with the additional knowledge we now have that acquits the reputation of the O’Leary family and with the visual technology that could make the burning down of nearly an entire city a true spectacle to watch.

COME TO THINK of it, I think I’d still rather see the interaction of Curtis and Lemmon in “Some Like It Hot.” It has its humorous moments.

And it also gave us what might well be the funniest ending line of a film (by comedian Joe E. Brown) ever when Lemmon’s “Daphne” character finally whips off his wig and reveals he’s a man.

“Well, nobody’s perfect!”

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A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): Life imitating art too closely for comfort?

“Maybe being a rebel in my family would have been selling patio furniture on Route 22.”

“Nobody takes it seriously, your honor. It’s the way we are. We got nothing better to do. We sit around talking.”

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Television may well just be fiction. Yet what should we think when its scenes become way too real?

Because when I heard of the in-court statement made Thursday by organized crime figure Arthur Rachel about why he risked so much while in his 70s age-wise to try to commit more criminal acts, I couldn’t help but remember a scene from the first season of The Sopranos.

COULD ACTOR JAMES Gandolfini’s “Tony Soprano” character have hit the nail on the head as to why many people feel compelled to get involved in the outfit (a.k.a., the mob, organized crime, the Mafia) and stay there.

For the record, the first line about being “a rebel” was Soprano explaining to his daughter, Meadow, why he didn’t try to pursue options in life other than following in the footsteps of his father and uncle.

The second line was what Rachel said during his sentencing hearing on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber when “da judge” asked him for a straight answer as to why an aging man who has spent a significant amount of his time incarcerated would even think of doing anything criminal.

Some people just seem incapable of conceiving any other life for themselves except for the rut in which they have landed.

IN FACT, WHAT may be the most troublesome part of Rachel’s ramble is his believe that, “What’s past is past.” As though we shouldn’t be concerning ourselves too much about anything he did.

So now Rachel gets his 104 months of time in a federal prison, of which he will have to do at least 88 months before he can be considered for early release. If he makes it (he’d be pushing nearly 90 by then) it will be a miracle.

Yet I can’t help but think the same attitude that we found all too entertaining a decade ago on television will ensure that the one-time jewel thief with organized crime connections already has a replacement in place – someone who probably equally feels their choices in life are inevitable.

What else is notable these days along the shores of Lake Michigan between Winnetka and Whiting, Ind.?

MO’ MONEY IN THE WORKS?: The minimum wage has come a long way since the days I worked jobs that legally paid it. I’m aging myself, but I recall the days of getting $3.35 an hour. Now, in Illinois, it is $8.25, and officials are considering measures that could eventually boost it to $10.55.

Which would be better than the measure being pushed by Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., for a federal minimum wage law -- $10 per hour, which is bound to tick off all those states who call themselves “pro-business” but are really more concerned with putting corporate interests ahead of workers.

Jackson introduced a bill this past week calling for the federal minimum wage increase – just as he promised he would last month at various events, including a labor rally on the East Side neighborhood that paid tribute to the 10 people who were killed during picketing outside the now-former Republic Steel plant.

The worker in me says “good luck” to Jackson’s effort, which I’m sure will provoke a political brawl that may make the Republic Steel dust-up look like some love taps by the time this is all over.

WHO OWES WHOM?: There have been countless reports coming out of the sports sections and broadcasts in recent weeks – Chicago White Sox attendance stinks.

A team that is in first place in its division as we approach mid-season is barely getting 20,000 people into their stadium per game. White Sox fans should be ashamed of themselves for not supporting the ballclub better.

Which is a batch of bull (not Bulls)! I’ve never understood the belief that a ballclub is somehow entitled to capacity crowds for every ballgame. Teams that can draw well should thank their lucky stars for those moments, and not act as though it is the order of the world.

The reality is that attendance depends heavily on season ticket sales. After last season’s disaster, many White Sox fans cancelled their packages. That is the factor holding back the crowds this season. Now if this season’s good play doesn’t give them a boost for 2013, then there may be a legitimate issue.

Until then, just pipe down and enjoy the ballgame.

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Tuition waivers cause trouble, even when state legislators follow the rules

It’s that time of year. The 177 members of the Illinois General Assembly have used their long-time legislative perk that allows them to grant full-tuition waivers to would-be students however they see fit.

SANDOVAL: A staffer's gaffe?



It is a perk that has been in place since 1905, and there are some legislators who will engage in self-righteous rhetoric about how all they’re doing is enabling young people to attend a university.

IT IS OUR legislators, hard at work, while doing something that will benefit our society for decades into the future. Education, they’ll say, is the key to improving our future.

If you think I’m laying it on a little bit thick, it is because I see the potential for so many things to go wrong when you create a program for which there are no rules – other than whatever ones the legislators themselves want to impose on themselves.

Even when we have legislators trying to do “the right thing,” things can go wrong.

The Chicago Sun-Times gave us a report this week of the latest gaffe related to the tuition waiver perk. The perpetrator, so to speak, is state Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Cicero.

NOW IN ALL fairness, Sandoval didn’t give a tuition waiver to the kid of a prominent campaign contributor, or grant his waiver to someone as a favor done for another legislator – who would now owe Sandoval something in return.

The blatant horror stories were not repeated. Although the fact that the words “organized crime” are being bandied about will make it sound worse.

For it seems that one of the eight people to whom Sandoval is giving a full-tuition waiver to for the 2011-12 academic year is Michael A. Giorango – who wants to use the waiver to attend Illinois State University in Normal.

GIORANGO: Will son have to pay tuition?



The “problem” is that Giorango’s father, also named Michael Giorango, is more commonly known to mob buffs as “Jaws.” The father currently is doing prison time for charges related to bookmaking, prostitution and failure to file income tax returns.

WHICH MEANS EVERYBODY, particularly those who get off on mob stories, will want to presume that Sandoval is somehow connected to organized crime. That there just had to be some direct connection between the two men. What, we’re going to wonder, did the Outfit do for Sandoval that he repaid them by giving a mob boss’ kid a free year of college?

Not that there’s any proof of truth to anything in that last paragraph.

In fact, the Sun-Times has Sandoval saying he never med Giorango’s kid, has no desire to meet him, and that it was one of his legislative staffers (who has since lost his job) who got confused and inadvertently approved the younger Giorango for the tuition waiver.

That latter part does have a certain ring of truth to it.

FOR MANY LEGISLATORS in recent years attempt to distance themselves from the horror stories involving political conflicts of interest of the past.

They create special committees that actually review the applicants and attempt to pick the people who have the best academic credentials. In many cases, the only time the legislator has any contact with the students is at some sort of reception at which they all get their picture taken together.

In short, the legislator takes all the credit for letting somebody go to college without having to pay tuition. But if something goes wrong, he gets deniability.

So maybe Sandoval is telling the truth that he had no prior contact with Giorango, the younger. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on that point.

BUT HE DOES deserve some derision for the fact that he tried to weasel out of the incident by trying to rescind the tuition waiver – once he found out who Giorango actually was.

I’d respect the senator from Cicero if he had just stuck by his committee’s decision. One can legitimately argue that the younger Giorango has no criminal record, hasn’t done anything wrong, and should have the chance to get ahead in life.

If he actually had the academic credentials to qualify for a legislative waiver, then so be it. Although the Sun-Times reported that Giorango’s application for a tuition waiver did not include a transcript or any kind of essay to show off his skills. So who’s to say why someone, somewhere along the process thought he was worthy of the perk.

Which is quite a perk. Each year, every single senator and representative in Illinois is entitled to give one full, four-year tuition waiver to a University of Illinois student and another to a student at any other state university in Illinois.

BUT MANY LEGISLATORS prefer to split the waivers up into four, one-year waivers to the University of Illinois and four more to other state universities. Why only get credit for sending two kids to college when you can get credit for sending eight kids?

Which means the waivers, despite all the high-minded rhetoric about enabling young people to go to college, are really about boosting the egos of the individual legislators.

So excuse me for getting a chuckle at Sandoval’s expense. If he had just paid a little closer attention to what was being done in his name, he’d be getting all the glory this week.

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Not a good day for the Catholic church

On the day that attorneys for Rod Blagojevich made their closing statements in the former Illinois governor’s corruption trial, I couldn’t help but be more captivated by a pair of other criminal defendants in the news.

They’re completely separate cases, and not in any way connected to each other. I’m sure there are some who will be grossly offended that I will mention them in the same commentary.

BUT YOU HAVE to admit. Any day you get a pair of Catholic priests in the news, it becomes intriguing. Particularly when it is due to the fact that “men of the cloth” are just as capable of doing wrong as anyone else.

Before those of you who like to rant about the Catholic church being filled with pedophile priests get yourselves all worked up, I’d say “Relax.” We’re not talking about anything related to sex in any remote way.

One priest now facing criminal charges is accused of actions that supposedly allowed an incarcerated organized crime figure to try to cover up some of his personal wealth.

The other priest wasn’t limiting his gambling to any kind of church-sponsored Bingo night or charity-type pseudo-casino.

IF ANYTHING, IT was Rev. John Regan who caught my attention more. He is a pastor at St. Walter Parish in suburban Roselle, and officials with the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office say he was using church funds whenever he would go to the casinos in Elgin and Joliet.

Prosecutors say that during a three-year period, he managed to take about $300,000 from the church, according to the Chicago Tribune.

He entered his “guilty” plea on Thursday to theft over $100,000, and could get up to 15 years in prison (although probation also is an option) when he is sentenced in mid-August. Parishioners are expected to get their chance to speak their outrage at that time.

Regan wouldn’t say anything to the reporter-types who showed up for his appearance in court. But prosecutors say he managed to work his funding by taking money from the collection plates circulated during parish services and depositing it into a special bank account he created for the church.

WITH ACCESS TO that account, prosecutors say he either wrote checks from that account into his personal bank account. Or, they say, there were times when he used the special account’s ATM card to withdraw money while at the casinos.

Perhaps those people who want to ban ATMs at casinos have a point. I only hope that Regan wasn’t ever wearing his clerical collar while he was at the casinos. I’d hate to think that a priest was somehow invoking the thought of a holy privilege, thinking that God himself might bless his gambling efforts.

But I also want to believe that Regan is the exception. I don’t think there are that many priests who would take it upon themselves to use the collection plate gatherings to try to come up with enough money to “buy baby a new pair of shoes” – so to speak.

I also want to believe that a lot of priests would have a problem with the idea of one of their colleagues working to slip things secretly out of prison.

BUT THAT IS what federal prosecutors say was happening with Eugene Klein, who was working at the medical center of the prison in Springfield, Mo., when he met Frank Calabrese, Sr. – who is serving a life prison term for his involvement in Outfit activities.

Because of his incarceration, federal officials restrict Calabrese’s contact with the outside world. It is meant to limit his ability to influence criminal activity in the outside world.

It is because of his religious duties that Klein was among the few people Calabrese was allowed to see. Prosecutors say that Klein went too far in terms of priest/parishioner privacy. They say that earlier this year, Klein learned of a Stradivarius-made violin he had at a home in Wisconsin.

Court documents contend that Klein then passed along the information to other people, who would then try to get that violin out of the house without federal officials learning of it.

BECAUSE THE MOMENT that federal officials learned of an object of value in Calabrese’s possession, they would want to confiscate it and auction it off – with the money going toward the $4.4 million in restitution he is expected to pay.

I’m sure Klein on some level believed he was ministering to Calabrese and thought his involvement was to gain his confidence. But prosecutors say Klein also attended meetings in suburban Barrington where he allegedly passed along information to others related to the efforts to gain possession of the violin – which has a value in the “millions” of dollars.

Now, he faces two criminal charges that could get him prison terms of up to five years each, along with fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Which could make him an even sadder case than Regan, and could have Catholics praying that their priests don’t get tainted by the pair.

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Heart attack gets Curtis where “Spats” Columbo couldn’t all those decades ago

There have been many attempts throughout the years to use the Feb. 14, 1929 slayings of seven men at a Lincoln Park neighborhood garage on film and television. Yet I have to admit that my favorite take on the “St. Valentine” massacre by the Capone mob was a silly little farce that showed us just how ugly of women actors Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon would have made.

I’m referring to the 1959 film “Some Like It Hot,” which I must admit was the thought that popped into my mind when I learned that Curtis died this week at his home near Las Vegas. He was 85. Funeral services will be held Monday.

THAT WAS THE comedy that had Curtis and Lemmon playing the part of down-on-their-luck musicians who, while on their way to get a car so they could get to Urbana so they could play at a University of Illinois frat party, happen to witness the slaying of the seven men.

Which had mob boss “Spats” Columbo (played by the legendary actor George Raft, who made a career of playing gangsters) put out a hit on both of them. The film, then, tells the story of the wacky antics they resort to so as to avoid getting gunned down by gangsters.

That included joining an all-girl band (Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopaters), joining them on board a train ride to Florida where they play at a resort. It is there that Curtis in drag meets up with Marilyn Monroe’s “Sugar Kane,” whom even all these decades later remains as sexy a presence as ever. Although anyone who dismisses her as an untalented actress has never seen this film.

This could have easily been a forgettable film about a lecherous perv stuck wearing a dress. Instead, it becomes a laughable farce. Personally, it is a film I pop into the DVD player whenever I need a chuckle.

AS FOR THOSE who think “Caddyshack” is a funny film for the ages, I’d argue that you have never watched “Some Like It Hot.” If you had (and if you have any sense), you’d realize how over-rated that film has become.

Now I know that this film offers nothing in the way of fact or history in terms of telling of Chicago back in the 1920s, or the famous slaying at 2122 N. Clark St. Of course, a lot of the films that put on pretentions of telling us the “true” story manage to mix in fictional elements – including 1967 self-titled film directed by Roger Corman (and starring actor Jason Robards, which always makes me wonder when did Ben Bradlee become Al Capone?).

In fact, it is only those first few minutes that are even set in a fictional Chicago. Once their train leaves Union Station, the rest of the film is either train-set or Florida set.

But it is because of that, I think, that the film remains entertaining all these years later – instead of deteriorating into a period piece that becomes unwatchable in the 21^st Century (which is pretty much what I think of the 1931 film, “The Front Page”).

NOW I KNOW that Curtis’ career consists of much more than this one film released 51 years ago. I’m sure there are those who will claim that his performance as Joe/Josephine/Junior was not even the highlight of his career.

But like I wrote earlier, it was the film I thought of when hearing of Curtis’ demise. Considering that “Some Like It Hot” was chosen in 2000 as the greatest comedy of all-time by the American Film Institute, I can’t be alone with my sentiment.

So there is a part of me that now wants to give another viewing to the film, which in my opinion has the funniest final line of dialogue of any film ever.

Actor Joe E. Brown’s Osgood Fielding III telling Lemmon’s “Daphne” that “Nobody’s perfect” in response to his revelation that they can’t get married because she’s really “a man” never fails to crack me up.

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Names fade from local news scene

Charles Flowers and Harry Aleman.

For anyone who has followed the Second City’s local news scene in recent years, those are a pair of names that keep cropping up because of their alleged activities. Not that many people would think of the two as a natural pairing.

ONE IS A suburban Chicago schools official who allegedly used his position to enrich himself, while the other is a member of what federal government junkies like to think of as “LCN,” but which normal people would describe as organized crime or the outfit (or the Mafia if they've watched "The Untouchables" with Robert DeNiro too many times).

But what makes them a pairing is that their best days are behind them. Both of them literally this weekend dropped off the face of the public policy earth.

Aleman is the so-called gangster – a man who is known among mob-watchers as being someone who was used whenever “the mob” wanted someone killed. Because of allegations of bribery, Aleman managed to avoid prison for decades.

But eventually, federal prosecutors became ambitious enough to conduct a second trial for Aleman, even though it technically violated his right to be free of “double jeopardy” – as in not being accused twice of the same crime.

THEY GOT THEIR conviction, and that is why Aleman finally went to prison in 1997 for a 1972 crime for which he had been acquitted (it’s not a true acquittal, the courts decided, if it was obtained through payoffs to a judge).

Aleman has been a continuing tale, his name cropping up throughout the years – usually as a sickly-humorous tale of how strong a hold “the outfit” had over the judicial system in Chicago even in contemporary times.

Some people literally would tell the story with a little chuckle about how a mobster managed to get one over on the courts – who theoretically were supposed to be protecting the interests of the people, as in us. Even after Aleman was finally convicted and sent to prison, some people found “amusement” (perhaps in the same way that Joe Pesci’s mob character from “Goodfellas” was a “funny guy”) in the fact that Aleman was able to remain free for so long – even though everybody within law enforcement “knew” who committed the crimes, even if if couldn’t be proven.

But now, Aleman and his tales have come to an end. The inmate at the Hill Correctional Center near Galesburg died Saturday afternoon. Officials say there was nothing particularly suspicious about the circumstances surrounding his death.

NO PRISON FIGHTS or vendettas. No possibility that a corrupt guard did something funky to the inmate. He was 71 and at the end he had cancer. Some people might think Aleman lived a long, full life under the circumstances.

In Aleman’s case, he got to spend the bulk of it outside of prison, even though mobwatchers and others who like to turn the ugliness of organized crime into overly-romanticized tales say that Aleman’s whole life was filled with acts of violence.

It’s not like the September 1972 shotgun shooting of Teamsters steward William Logan was an isolated incident within his life.

Also coming to an end this weekend – although in a different sense – is the saga of Charles Flowers, who for many years was superintendent of the Cook County Regional Office of Education.

THAT OFFICE WAS supposed to handle tasks such as ensuring that teachers within suburban Cook County school districts were properly certified, overseeing training programs for school bus drivers and and conducting the background checks on people who have jobs within the suburban school districts.

It was thought that having one agency for the more than 140 elementary and high school districts in the 128 towns that comprise suburban Cook County was more efficient than requiring each and every school district to do these duties on their own.

Yet throughout the years, the stories have been told of the often-inane bureaucracy within the agency that made the performance of such duties extremely difficult and a drawn-out process. There even were the rumors repeated in whispers throughout the years that the reason the office was not more efficiently run was because it would have cut into the schemes by which Flowers and his allies were personally enriching themselves.

Those rumors gained credence back in January when prosecutors came down with an indictment against Flowers. The charges are theft and official misconduct. Prosecutors claim that Flowers’ management style cost taxpayers more than $400,000 during the past two years, and they’re claiming it was not ineptitude that caused the losses.

IN ALL FAIRNESS, these are merely allegations. Flowers will get his day in court, and could potentially manage to be acquitted of all charges. But whether he just wants to focus on his eventual criminal trial or whether he felt there was something to the charges, Flowers earlier this month resigned his post.

There won’t be a successor. For Gov. Pat Quinn, the master of using Sunday press conferences to gain attention for himself, scheduled a public appearance this Sunday – during which he formally signed into law a measure that abolishes the regional schools superintendent for Cook County.

Flowers’ job died this weekend, as did Aleman himself. It is nice to know that these ongoing stories have reached their end, and that someday soon we will reach the point where most people will hear those names and won’t have a clue as to whom either one was.

Now if we could only resolve the decades-long saga of locating and building a third airport for the Chicago metro area, that would be perfect.

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