Is this the NATO Summit legacy?

Terrorists? Or three guys who should never have moved to Bridgeport? Photographs provided by Chicago Police Department.

The NATO Summit held last month at McCormick Place convention center fizzled out to a whole lot of nothin’ when it came to civil disobedience – just the usual few people acting up in a large crowd and not the large-scale rioting that some feared.

Nonetheless, we have a “NATO Three” – as in a set of defendants whom prosecutors are going to hold up as the ultimate example of bad behavior resulting from the type of people who feel the need to complain about conditions around them.

RATHER THAN JUST accepting the status quo!

It seems like some people are so determined to have a story line from this year that parallels the insanity that cropped up back in 1968 and the following year with the trial of the ‘Chicago Seven” (or Eight, or Ten, or however you choose to count the people involved in the criminal conspiracy that wasn’t all those years ago).

That’s why we’re getting this “NATO Three” rhetoric, which seems determined to portray the element that was going to use the protest activity (which on the whole really was so mellow and low-key) as a cover for their own subversive plot to overthrow Chicago, and possibly the world!!!!!!

Insert the sinister-sounding cackling from a criminal mastermind at this point.

ALTHOUGH WHEN I read about this particular plot, it comes across as sounding like something that “Dr. Evil” from the Austin Powers films concocted up – just like his “Preparation H” and his demand for “One Millllion dollars” in those silly parodies of the James Bond series of films.

This plot has three men facing criminal indictment for putting together the mechanism to create Molotov cocktails – those crude explosives – that would have been used to attack police squad cars and district police stations, along with the campaign office of President Barack Obama and perhaps even the Ravenswood Manor home of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Of course, there are still those who insist that all the equipment that was confiscated when their Bridgeport neighborhood home/headquarters was raided was merely nothing more than beer-making equipment.

This raid created a stink when it took place in the days leading up to the NATO Summit, and it still smells.

LARGELY BECAUSE OF the fact that prosecutors are going out of their way to treat these defendants as though they were would-be terrorists being held at Guantanamo – no real charges, no trial, not much of a legal process, and unlike traditional prisoners of war, no sense that they’re going to be released when the war’s over.

I’m sure if they could get away with it, there are those who would want these three to be held indefinitely.

It seems they have been indicted, but this is the case where prosecutors refused to tell the defendants what charges they will face. They are not to be told until their next court hearing on July 2 – which is the date scheduled for arraignment.

Which literally means these three will be told in one instant what the charges against them are, and will be expected in the next instant to enter their plea of “not guilty” before being assigned to a trial judge.

IN FACT, THE Associated Press gets some bonus points (rare for a former Unipresser like myself to concede) for coming up this week with a copy of the indictment. This is very rare behavior, although I’m sure some people will think it adds to the sinister-ness of the overall case.

Perhaps learning that all three men face 11 charges each, ranging from the conspiracy to commit terrorism and material support for terrorism – along with more mundane charges such as attempted arson, solicitation to commit arson, conspiracy to commit arson and unlawful use of a weapon.

But the degree to which the legal process is working in bizarre ways (I have covered the courts in the Chicago area for more than two decades, and have never seen anything happen like this case) can’t help but create suspicions in my mind. Almost as though the crackpots who are complaining about a frame-up and conspiracy by law enforcement types might actually be correct this one time!

Sunshine, as in plenty of public disclosure, would go a long way toward convincing the masses that those people are off their rocker, and that there is some legitimacy to what is happening in the courts these days.

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EXTRA: Trash talk about trash disposal? Or, who follows trash?

My ego ran amok for a new minutes on Wednesday, as I was interviewed for the “Afternoon Shift” program on WBEZ-FM about an issue I have been writing about for a suburban daily newspaper – whether or not the Land and Lakes Company will be allowed to annex part of Chicago into suburban Dolton so they can operate a garbage landfill at 138^th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue for several more decades without having to comply with city restrictions against such landfills.

If you care, you can hear my summarization of the issue on the radio station’s website. Although in all honesty, I have to say that David Lee – a doctoral candidate at MIT who worked on a project that attached sensors to garbage so that its ultimate destination could be tracked – is more interesting to listen to.

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City vs. suburb – Are there troubled youth in Oak Lawn and Woodlawn?

On the surface, it sounds nice. A new joint effort by Chicago municipal and Cook County governments to create a program that will help find summer jobs for troubled youths.

The Cook County Board gave its approval Tuesday to just such a venture, supporting a payment of $145,000 by the county toward the Chicago city government’s One Summer Chicago program.

YET THERE ARE those people who are wondering if county officials were too quick on the draw to offer their support for a joint venture. Because that particular program is meant to keep city kids busy during the summer months.

And the documentation provided to government officials seems to indicate that all that was happening is that the county was going to provide some extra money for this city-based program.

What about all those suburban kids? Which really doesn’t fit the old stereotype any more.

Anybody venturing into a place like Calumet City these days (I pick that town because I lived there as a kid, and it's the place I identify as being from -- even if I haven't lived there in years) might not see much of a distinction between that south suburb and an inner city neighborhood (particularly if their own impressions are too anchored in old “Good Times” reruns and not reality).

AS FOR THE difference between suburban Oak Lawn and the Woodlawn neighborhood?

There are some. But there are young people all the way around who could use some help in finding something constructive to do.

If it turns out that the county board has supported an expanded effort that will erase the lines between city and suburb, then perhaps this vote they took (all “ayes” and no “nays,” although some county commissioners found reasons to grouse) will mean something.

Otherwise, I can’t help but wonder if the county got hoodwinked. Suckered. Played. Or whatever other term you prefer to use for being conned out of some cash that could have gone toward something better.

THIS HAD THE potential to turn into a classic “city vs. suburb” brawl at the county board. Except that the political reality is that so many city districts spill over into suburban areas.

There are few political people who are purely one, or the other.

I’m sure many of these commissioners can claim to have benefitted the city portions of their districts, even if the benefits to their suburban portions aren’t quite as clear.

For the record, the program in question is meant to benefit about 178,000 young people who have been labeled “at risk.” I’m not sure exactly how that determination is made.

BUT IT SEEMS to imply youths who could wind up causing some trouble during the summer months – if nothing positive is put before them.

That is why in some cases the “something positive” is a summer job – usually something with some minor physical labor that will put them out in the summer heat. But that we hope they will someday recall as an activity that “built character.”

Although I remember my own summer jobs from back when I was that age, and I say all that character-building is “bunk.” I did it for the money. I’m sure these young people will say the same thing.

The part that really has me wondering is the fact that not everybody who gets included in this program gets a job. Some people will be put into a “recreational program” of sorts. An “opportunity,” as described by county government officials.

MAYBE IT WILL be some sort of fun activity they will remember fondly.

Although a part of me thinks it sounds way too vague. And it makes me appreciate the logic behind Commissioner William Beavers, who was the lone county board member to vote against this funding.

“What’s an opportunity?,” asked Beavers, while shrugging his shoulders.

Nobody could give him a straight answer.

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Sox/Cubs; it may be season like this that sets rivalry’s true significance

I’m not sure what to make of the six ballgames being played this season between the Chicago White Sox and their dreaded opposition, the Chicago Cubs.



Another chapter in the 112-years-and-still-going story of Sox versus Cubs is being written this week. Photograph provided by state of Illinois.



Perhaps the scheduling says all that needs to be said. The three games held earlier this season at Wrigley Field were played at the exact moments that the NATO Summit was in Chicago – and there were people who had to cope with all the extra security measures throughout the city just to get to a ballgame.

THE THREE BALLGAMES being played now at U.S. Cellular Field are on weekdays (not weekends, which always manage to result in smaller crowds), and at a time when the weather has reached excessive temperatures.

There are those who believe Monday is likely to be the hottest day of 2012.

So people (many of whom have to work Tuesday morning) were asked Monday night to show up on the Sout’ Side to sweat like crazy just to see the White Sox beat up on the Cubs.

Or perhaps the Cubs can manage to pull off a lone victory during the 21^st Century equivalent of the City Series of old.

ALTHOUGH I SUSPECT Cubs fans are going to consider their victory to be Dayan Viciedo being struck out by Kerry Wood – who was so enamored with one final moment of tiny glory that he immediately retired after that ballgame.

In short, in the ongoing saga of South Side versus North, as exemplified by our city’s professional baseball clubs, it doesn’t seem that 2012 is going to add many great anecdotes.

Or will it?

Because, personally, I’m inclined to believe that a real rivalry is one where the fans of the two ball clubs care about the outcome even if it has no real bearing on anything significant.

NO PENNANT RACE is at stake (although there are those people who will argue the White Sox’ chances of winning their division title is bolstered by the fact that they’re getting to beat up on the Cubs for six games).

It’s purely about the bragging rights, which will mean the fans of both ball clubs will be able to let loose with their most irrational hang-ups.

A rivalry at its most pure.

Keep in mind that I consider there to be a difference between a “rivalry” and a “significant series.” The latter is a set of games between two teams that are actually fighting it out for something during the season.

THOSE MOMENTS WILL get intense. But they’re not rivalry.

Take, for example, the Chicago White Sox versus the Minnesota Twins – which in the past decade were ballgames that always meant something because the two teams were always at the top of the pile of teams trying to win the American League central division. Or I can remember when I was a kid and everybody claimed that Los Angeles Dodgers versus Cincinnati Reds were a “rivalry.”

Yet there’s nothing about those teams or those cities that really engenders any sense of distaste or dislike, or a need to brawl.

If that were a rivalry, there’d still be a sense of battle. There isn’t. Those games are just a few more played every season – no more important than games against the Kansas City Royals. It’s not Chicago Cubs versus St. Louis Cardinals – and never will be.

BUT WHEN IT comes to the games played between White Sox and Cubs, those take on a meaning – regardless of who is fighting whom for a pennant race or how many people actually show up at the ballpark.

Personally, I haven’t been to a White Sox versus Cubs game since 1999 – and don’t think I would ever go to one again (I just don’t care about beating the Cubs, everybody does it) on account of all the extra ding-dongs who turn out at the ballpark for the games.

But it doesn’t change the fact that if the Cubs can actually manage to win two of the three ballgames played this week, I’m sure it would give Cubs fans something to gloat about. We likely wouldn’t hear the end of it – even if the White Sox manage to win their division and the Cubs finish in dead last place in their own.

It would easily be the highlight of the Cubs ’12 season,

IF ANYTHING WE’RE getting to see the character of the White Sox/Cubs rivalry at its most pure – in that it’s not getting all bogged down in a whole lot of other trivial detail being played up to bolster the marketing departments of both ball clubs.

Those people who argue that the games don't matter as much, and should be cut back to perhaps one three-game series per year are missing the point. Then again, they probably grew up in Phoenix or Denver and are trying to adapt to Chicago ways, but just haven't caught on in full!

There may also be one other benefit for those people who bother to show up at U.S. Cellular Field through Wednesday – the heat may well let them burn off a few pounds, just by sitting back at the ballpark and watching the most interesting sport known to man.

That is, assuming they’re not just putting it right back on with all the Polish sausage and beer and other overpriced edibles they’re consuming!

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Add Tobolski to list including Madigan, Burkes of white pols from Latino areas

A part of me wonders if the Cook County Board is on to something when it comes to dealing with the growing Latino population – which accounts for 29 percent of Chicago’s official population and about one-fifth of the metropolitan area’s people.

TOBOLSKI: The new "Latino" pol



For when the City Council and the Illinois General Assembly went through their redistricting processes to draw boundaries for their wards and districts for the upcoming decade, the end result were maps that left Latino activists feeling that the population growth was not reflected.

YET THE COOK County Board is set to approve a map when they meet Tuesday that adds another district meant to elect a Latino public official – potentially boosting the number of Latinos on the 17-member county board from two to three.

Commissioners Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Edwin Reyes could soon have another of their ethnic brethren as a colleague on the board. Or maybe not.

To achieve that goal, the people who spent the past few months reviewing population trends in Cook County altered the district meant to represent the inner western suburbs (the ones right along the Chicago/suburban border).

There are growing numbers of Latino residents just about everywhere, but the town of Cicero that once was considered the home of the offspring of Al Capone is now overwhelmingly a Mexican-American town. Some 84 percent of its population falls into that category.

SO COUNTY OFFICIALS drew a map that centered the district around Cicero, using its overwhelming ethnic population as an anchor to create a district rigged to bolster the chances of another Latino official getting picked – some 56 percent of its people of voting age are Latino.

That is an increase from the old district that will cease to exist after Tuesday. Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski of suburban McCook got elected in 2010 in a district that was 41 percent Latino people of voting age.

Tobolski himself admits his district has changed substantially, although he has been smart enough not to complain about it in public. Because he likely plans to seek re-election, and doesn’t have plans to move (since he is a lifelong McCook resident whose parents had their own local political ties).

Tobolski is going to have to show that he can appeal to Latinos, as well as other people. If he can, then more power to him. Because nowhere in electoral politics are there any guarantees.

NOT EVEN THAT a district with a majority Latino population will get a Latino official to represent them, even though Garcia – a former alderman and state senator – says of the proposed county map, “the creation of new Latino-majority districts in this case provides new opportunities for the community to exert itself.”

But Tobolski still has the benefits of incumbency, bolstered by the tendencies of the Latino voter bloc to not turn out in as strong of numbers as other segments of the electorate.

The county board is going to boast on Tuesday how they boosted the number of Latinos who will serve amongst them. But they may have done more for incumbent preservation than anything else.

It could be more like the City Council or the state Legislature, where officials such as 14^th Ward Alderman Edward Burke or Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, were given safe districts on the city’s Southwest Side – even though they have large numbers of Latino voters living within them.

THAT CERTAINLY WOULD put Tobolski in an exclusive club, if he manages to get re-elected when his current term ends following the 2014 election cycle.

Perhaps Tobolski could be like Burke’s brother, Dan, a state representative, who has gone out of his way during his time in the Illinois House of Representatives to include himself in Latino Caucus activities so that he has a clue about what is happening “back home” in his district. Even though some activists view Burke’s activities as laughable and inadequate, I’ll acknowledge it as an effort.

The trick will be to see which officials will be willing to make the effort, and which ones will merely think that it is the “duty” of the new residents to adapt to the way that the old (and now, often, former) residents wanted things done.

Because if that turns out to be the case, then the political story of the 2010s is going to be the number of long-time politicos who got dumped by a growing Latino electorate interested in the new way of doing things – rather than hearing political stories about the “glory” days of the Daleys.

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Shouldn’t we be more offended if the police weren’t at the Jarrett wedding?

I had so desperately wanted this weblog to be a Jarrett wedding-free zone on the Internet.

JARRETT: Plans wedding w/ world watching



I was determined not to get all excited about the idea of the daughter of White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett (a long-time Obama ally with her own ties to Richard M. Daley) getting married on Saturday.

EVEN IF IT means that President Barack Obama will be back in Chicago. Or we have the prospects of Jarrett snubbing Mayor Rahm Emanuel (the two didn’t like each other much when they both worked at the White House) by not inviting him to the wedding (Rahm’s out-of-town this weekend).

Or any of the other nonsense that is going to involve a couple of hundred politically-connected people from the scene in which Chicago and Washington are intertwined these days.

It’s cute. It’s fluff. But personally, I have never met Laura Jarrett or fiancé Tony Balkissoon. I’m not wishing her ill-will by any means. I just don’t care about them getting married. It’s their business.

Yet it seems that the ideologues are using Chicago Sun-Times gossip columnist these days to spread nasty little tidbits that are supposed to get us all offended at the Obamas for being a part of this “elitist” scene and think that we should punish them with a ballot cast for Mitt Romney come Nov. 6.

OF COURSE, THE truth of the matter is that the people who really feel this way are probably more jealous of the fact that they weren’t invited and aren’t a part of this scene. Which strikes me as being petty and absurd.

But now, we’re getting those infamous Sneed scoops picked up and turned from dung to news – particularly the report she had on Friday in the Sun-Times that had somewhere in the area of 200 police officers being assigned to duty in the Kenwood neighborhood to maintain security.

OBAMA: What gift did he give?



Which means they’ll being doing tasks meant to ensure that this wedding doesn’t get out of hand and get out of control – or more realistically that some nut case doesn’t decide for himself that he can “make his bones,” so to speak, by crashing the wedding and making a scene.

Which would be easy to do if not handled properly. Because this is going to be a backyard wedding at Jarrett’s home, followed up with a barbecue at another neighbor’s house.

AND LET’S NOT forget that the Obamas’ Chicago residence is on the same block.

Sneed (actually, the people who are feeding her tidbits of information) are trying to create the image of taxpayer dollars being used to reduce police officers to the level of private security.

Or maybe valets! Can’t you envision Superintendent Garry McCarthy in full dress uniform, being reduced to the role of parking cars?

Sorry. But I just can’t share the outrage. I think this type of rhetoric is just too nonsensical to take seriously. A part of me is critical of anyone who pays it any mind for even one moment.

IT’S NOT THAT I care much about the Obamas personally. It’s just that this is a very unusual event for a U.S. president to attend. But that means it is an event at which a U.S. president will be present.

Which means the security measures are going to be extreme. Personally, 200 police officers sounds light. But if that’s all officials think will be needed to supplement the security measures of the Secret Service, then so be it.

I’ll trust the law enforcement types to be experts on such matters.

EMANUEL: Rare when mayor not invited



Seriously, though. What would you find to be more outrageous?

THE CONCEPT OF police officers in the Kenwood neighborhood or nearby Hyde Park keeping an eye open for any suspicious activity that happens to occur in the area?

Or the idea that someone slipped into the wedding and was able to make a threat on a U.S. president’s life or well-being, all because somebody has ideological hang-ups and would have preferred to have those officers assigned elsewhere?

Like it or not, this is the president. Anywhere he goes brings about a certain level of insanity that must be accommodated. If that concept bothers you, then I think we have to wonder more about your state of mind than anything else!

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Wave of the transit future?

There might be one plus to the overhaul the Chicago Transit Authority plans to do to that train line that runs down the middle of the Dan Ryan Expressway – it could be the act that forces transit officials from city and suburb to figure out how their systems should work together.

Because the way the system is set up now is so oriented to, perhaps, the first third of the 20^th Century – rather than the way the world really works these days.

AT A TIME when some officials think we should be encouraging people to use mass transit more often, we have to accept the fact that the current layout makes such use way too impractical.

There have been times I have lived in city neighborhoods that were laid out in ways where it was utterly practical to rely on the el trains and buses to get around – along with the occasional taxicab.

I can see how some people are able to get through life without an automobile. A part of me wishes I could do that now.

Instead, I keep an aging automobile running because I don’t want the payment of a new car, and the idea of not having any car would keep me completely isolated. Because I’m living these days in a place where I’d be cut off from certain parts of the world.

EVEN THOUGH I live these days just a few blocks (an easy walk) from a Metra commuter station on the Rock Island line that runs from LaSalle Street station to Joliet’s Union Station – where in theory I can catch the Amtrak train that could take me to Springfield, St. Louis or point further on.

Some people don’t even have that much access.

City vs. suburb needs to end....

Which is why I was glad to see the Chicago Sun-Times report on Thursday that has the CTA and Metra trying to figure out how their lines can cooperate. Perhaps some people who now rely on that “red” line train from 95^th Street north to downtown can use a Metra Electric train just to the east to be able to make their commute to work when the CTA line is shut down for a major overhaul.

Because the idea that a system meant to get around Chicago proper and another meant to take people from suburbs to downtown just misses the point.



... for good of metropolitan area



MORE PEOPLE FROM suburban areas might be willing to use mass transit if they could more easily get to locations around Chicago – rather than having to take the trip all the way downtown, then try to figure out how to get to whatever neighborhood they want to go to via the CTA.

And let’s be honest. There are holes in the CTA system. I don’t see any el trains that go to the Hyde Park neighborhood. There, the Metra trains that happen to pass through get used for local transportation needs when they make their stops around 51^st, 55^th and 59^th streets.

Or you can take the fact that el trains only go as far south as 95^th Street – even though the Chicago city limit is largely 119^th Street, and dips as far south as 138^th Street in some points.

That’s a large swath of city ignored by the CTA (to the point where those residents have grown up expecting nothing in the way of mass transit, even though their tax dollars have to pay for it).

FOR THOSE CITY residents who have reasons to venture into suburban communities, life can be just as complicated – unless their business happens to be limited to specific communities like Evanston, Oak Park or Cicero.

Life doesn’t end at those communities right on the city border.

So as CTA officials try to figure out how they can use Metra trains to help their riders cope with the shutdown period next year, perhaps they can also engage in the kind of talks that could someday see us have a truly legitimate metropolitan transit system.

For the fact is that the Chicago area continues to grow (Peotone isn’t really as isolated a community as third airport opponents would like to think it is). Mass transit is going to have to grow along with it if we’re going to be able to go anywhere.

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