Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Isabel Funk

Grace Manor $40M affordable housing to begin after 25-year effort

2023-12-10T10:00:00-06:00

A rendering of the Grace Manor affordable housing project on Ogden Avenue in North Lawndale. Groundbreaking is scheduled for Monday

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Developers of a mixed-income complex in North Lawndale hope to inspire residents to return to a community where a lack of affordable housing has driven people away.

The six-story, 65-unit Grace Manor has been spearheaded by the Rev. Marvin Hunter, pastor of the nearby Grace Memorial Baptist Church.

The site, 3201-3423 W. Ogden Ave., was an underused police station parking lot. The building will have retail and commercial space on the ground floor.

“I believe that this building will become an anchor and it will start the beginning of positive development in this community,” Hunter said.

Of the 31 one-bedroom and 34 two-bedroom apartments, 19 units will be subsidized by the Chicago Housing Authority, according to CHA Chief Development Officer Ann McKenzie.

The $40 million project is part of Hunter’s 25-year effort to bring more housing to North Lawndale and is scheduled to break ground Monday. Hunter said much of that money is being reinvested in the community with local contractors and partners.

Ald. Monique Scott (24th) said Hunter and his partners worked hard to involve the community in the project.

“It’s bringing jobs to the community,” she said. “To build, we have young men that are from the community that are working on the project.”

The Rev. Marvin Hunter speaks at a press conference in February. He’s worked for more than two decades to bring more housing to the North Lawndale neighborhood.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Hunter’s nonprofit, Grace at Jerusalem CDC, partnered with Chicago-based East Lake Management and Burling Builders to develop Grace Manor. Grace at Jerusalem CDC will have a ground floor office in the building, providing services to “meet the people in the community at the points of their need.”

The project is expected to be complete by spring 2025, Hunter said.

The energy Hunter brought to the project and the community’s engagement with it were what most drew CHA to Grace Manor, McKenzie said.

“This was very community-led by the pastor, and Pastor Hunter never gave up hope,” she said.

The project began under then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot as part of Invest South/West, which sought to draw private investment to rebuild 10 neglected neighborhood commercial corridors.

In 2022, Lightfoot authorized the use of Multi-Family Housing Revenue Bonds, TIF funding and Multi-Family Loan Funds for the housing complex. Hunter said that when Lightfoot lost reelection, he worried a new mayor would put a stop to the project. Instead, he said the opposite happened.

“Brandon Johnson stepped in like a champion of housing,” Hunter said. “He saw this project, he believed in what the mission of it was.”

Grace Manor is an affordable housing complex being developed in North Lawndale.

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Scott said the Johnson administration’s support made it possible to close the deal. Since taking office, Scott said she has worked “tirelessly” to make sure this project was completed because lack of housing is the main issue residents bring to her.

Since 1990, the population of North Lawndale has decreased by about 26%, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Scott said lack of affordable housing is a major contributor to that loss.

“This is a way to bring back some residents and maintain the current residents that we have because so many people are looking for housing in this community,” Scott said.

She says she hopes the project will encourage more development in the community.

“Hopefully it’ll bring more developers to the community so that we can start to build and rebuild our community that hasn’t been invested in in over 60 years,” she said.

Hunter took inspiration from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who moved to an apartment in North Lawndale in 1966 to advocate for better and more affordable housing in Chicago and to draw attention to living conditions on the city’s West Side. King’s efforts eventually helped lead to Congress passing the Fair Housing Act in 1968.

Like Scott, Hunter, a lifelong North Lawndale resident, hopes Grace Manor will encourage others to invest in the community rather than leave.

“A lot of our young people go to good schools and they get a good education so they can leave this community and go live where they think good communities are,” he said. “I pray that this building will inspire people to come back.”

Man fatally shot near homeless encampment subject of political battle in West Loop

2023-12-07T18:28:46.047-06:00

A man was found shot and wounded early Thursday near the intersection of North Clinton Street and West Washington Boulevard in the West Loop. He later died. Ald. Bill Conway says the shooting was the result of a “drug deal gone bad.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Ald. Bill Conway (34th) and some of his West Loop constituents said they are alarmed but not surprised that a man was shot and killed in what Conway called a “magnet” area for violent crime and drugs near a homeless encampment early Thursday.

The 59-year-old man was found unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the chest in the 500 block of West Lake Street. Police say he was shot a quarter of a mile away in the 100 block of North Clinton Street about 1 a.m.

He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died, police said. Conway said initial information indicated the shooting resulted from a “drug deal gone bad.”

Police didn’t immediately confirm the circumstances behind the shooting.

The area where the man was shot is next to a homeless encampment under a viaduct that has been the subject of an ongoing dispute between Conway and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office.

The area gets heavy foot traffic from commuters, and neighbors said they’ve witnessed daytime drug-dealing and drug use.

Brendan Nyhan, 34, who lives across the street from the area where the shooting occurred, said he and his fiancée, Alexis Aria, 29, were awakened by gunfire and witnessed the aftermath of the shooting from their window.

“It’s scary,” Nyhan said. “I’ve seen multiple other dead bodies from overdoses, not just related to violence. Constantly, people are loaded onto ambulances here. I see drug deals every day, I see drug use out in the open every day.”

During a Thursday afternoon news conference at Lake and Clinton streets, Conway said he asked the mayor to address safety concerns in the area in October, but he was only offered help in exchange for votes on two of the mayor’s proposals before the City Council.

Conway said previous plans to remove the encampment were halted after Conway didn’t vote the way the mayor wanted.

“I walk through these viaducts every day with my 4-year-old daughter, and I see overt drug-dealing in these tents, and there was a plan in place to remove them,” he said.

Conway’s colleague Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) said “we had two wards coordinating this effort, and yet in the blink of an eye, the mayor’s office decided to cancel this, I believe, as political retribution for my colleague. It’s completely and totally unacceptable.”

“I walk through these viaducts every day with my 4-year-old daughter, and I see overt drug-dealing in these tents, and there was a plan in place to remove them,” Ald. Bill Conway said. Conway, at right, was joined by Ald. Brendan Reilly at a Thursday news conference in the West Loop.

Isabel Funk/Sun-Times

In mid-November, about 1,500 residents signed a petition submitted to the mayor’s office asking for help.

Louise Perrin, 67, was one of those who signed the petition. She has lived in the area for 10 years and said she moved there, in part, because of its safety.

“In such a short period of time, it has turned from an area where you felt safe walking around anytime of the day or night, to now, personally, even in broad daylight I will not walk through the viaducts,” Perrin said.

Michael Valdez, who works in the nearby Ogilvie Transportation Center, at 500 W. Madison St., said the disruptions have been worse recently than at any other time in the 11 years he’s worked there.

“I’ve seen [the area] up and coming,” Valdez told the Sun-Times. “The stuff that’s been happening, it’s never been like this.”

Dave Gelfand, who’s been a property manager of a nearby building for 15 years, said that in the last year and a half, he’s noticed more violence and crime.

“There’s been homeless in this area for a long, long time,” he said. “It’s been a sad situation, but it’s never been the point of where people are walking around, literally, fearing for their lives.”

Maracella Hernandez, who also works in Ogilvie, said employees look out for each other and make sure people are safe on their commute home.

“We have security, but from what we understand, they can only do so much,” Hernandez said.

Conway said the situation was bound to turn deadly if it’s not properly addressed.

“This tragic, fatal shooting was predictable, inevitable and likely avoidable based on the trajectory of crime and recent events we’ve seen in this area,” Conway said.

Area 3 detectives are investigating the homicide. No arrests have been made.

Lincoln Park Zoo Francois’ Langur declared cancer-free

2023-12-05T17:27:20.059-06:00

Zhang underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor last year. His species is endangered.

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A Francois’ langur from Lincoln Park Zoo has been declared cancer-free after undergoing surgery to remove a malignant tumor from the roof of his mouth.

The monkey’s recovery could have implications for the whole species and other surgeries that require animal hospitalization.

These types of primates are characterized by their long tails and orange fur at birth that turns to black with a white stripe as they grow into adults. Francois’ langurs, which can be found in the wild from southwestern China to northeastern Vietnam, are an endangered species, according to the zoo.

In January 2022, during a routine health exam, Dr. Kathryn Gamble, director of veterinary medicine at the zoo, noticed the tumor in 10-year-old Zhang’s mouth.

“When I opened his mouth, I realized that the entire roof of his mouth was one giant cancer, and it occurred to me that I probably was seeing it at a much earlier stage than it had ever been seen before, because he had no outward signs,” she said. “He also appeared to everyone to be very healthy.”

Gamble and a veterinary resident discovered about 10 years ago that this species appears predisposed to a certain oral cancer, although it had never been identified early enough to take action. They informed a national program that manages and advises on the Francois’ langur population in the U.S. and started looking for signs of the cancer during animal checkups.

She said his mouth “looked almost normal,” but because she was prepared for it, she was able to identify the cancer.

After a week in the hospital, Zhang, a Francois’ langur, was able to return to his family group.

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Gamble consulted with veterinarians and medical professionals and contacted Dr. Kerstin Stenson, director of the head and neck cancer program at Rush University Medical Center. Stenson said her main concerns after examining Zhang were pain management, technical differences and whether the surgery would affect his social interactions.

“Anatomy is not exactly the same, but the landmarks are the same,” she said. “I didn’t think there’d be a lot of blood loss, but can a langur get a blood transfusion? You know, all of these different things that I would think about for a human and see how they applied to a langur.”

They scheduled the surgery for May 2022, and Gamble’s main concern then was how to explain surgery to a monkey — or at least, how to care for the postoperative langur.

While she obviously couldn’t communicate with Zhang, Gamble took a multistep approach to manage his pain and reduce his anxiety. She said the success of this approach, involving a combination of three kinds of pain management, was one of the most exciting findings.

“We felt that we had done a most excellent job at not necessarily communicating to him, but preventing him from having any anxiety about anything more than being, ‘Why am I in the hospital?” she said.

Stenson said the surgery went smoothly.

“The surgery was technically feasible; there weren’t any immediate complications from the surgery, but the management of him afterward was the most critical,” she said.

Within two hours of surgery, the langur was already eating, and after a week in the hospital, he returned to his family group.

Zhang, a Francois’ langur, undergoes surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from the roof of his mouth. His doctor took a multistep approach to manage his pain and reduce his anxiety post-operation.

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To help Zhang recover, Gamble kept him under 24/7 care with keepers he knew and a vet on duty at all times. Zhang spent much of the time resting, and Gamble said the keepers kept up with enrichment activities to keep him entertained when he was awake. She also allowed him up to two hours per day of cartoons or movies.

“Zhang really liked nature movies; he really liked birds,” she said. “He enjoyed that, and we also had the keeperstalk to him as well, again, trying to make it as much of a normal routine as possible.”

Zhang had a second surgery in May to encourage tissue regrowth, and on Friday, he was officially pronounced cancer-free.

Gamble said her approach to managing his pain has been one of the most significant results to share with the veterinary community.

“Sometimes we can get held back by, ‘Oh my gosh, we can’t communicate this to him, so is it appropriate to ask him to go through that discomfort?’ And I feel like the answer is yes,” she said.

The surgery’s success means with early detection, these langurs can be saved, she added.

“It could have been missed again if you weren’t looking for it. … If we do find it earlier, we can actually do something about it and preserve these animals,” she said.

Federal proposal to cap how fast cars can go gets mixed reaction from Chicagoans

2023-12-01T14:15:28.34-06:00

Kelly Ryan, left, Nancy Ryan and their son Matt Ryan all support vehicles coming with technology aiming to reduce speeding.

Isabel Funk/Sun-Times

It’s becoming a familiar experience for many drivers to hear their cars beeping if they drift out of their lane or turn on a blinker when another car is too close. Some cars even brake automatically to avoid a collision.

Now, the government agency focused on highway safety wants to do more. The National Transportation Safety Board recommended last month that automakers, at a minimum, be required to install systems that warn drivers who speed. More advanced driver-assistance technology might actively prevent a car from speeding. While cars with these systems have been on the road for years, the NTSB is looking to make them a standard for all vehicles.

The recommendations aim to reduce the number of speed-related deaths on U.S. roadways, which currently make up about one-third of all driving deaths. Some drivers and privacy groups are wary of the systems, though, because they use GPS to track cars’ locations in real time.

Nancy Ryan likes the idea of requiring these systems.

“When we come into Chicago, it’s like a racetrack out there,” said Ryan, who is from Denver but whose son attends the University of Chicago and lives in Evanston. “We’ll be going 5 miles an hour over, [but] it’s like we’re standing still.”

Ryan, 60, drives an electric car that gives her a warning when she exceeds the speed limit. The car also has other driver-assistance technologies, such as automatic braking. Though it might take drivers time to get used to these assistance systems, they are useful, she said.

“There’s a reason those speed limits are there, because they weren’t at some point,” she said. “... We can remember when there weren’t seatbelts. Now we can’t imagine getting in a car and not buckling.”

Her son, Matt Ryan, 33, also thinks requiring these systems would benefit roadways.

“American motorists have no business going the speeds that they’ve been going,” he said. “There is a narrative around freedom and libertarianism ... that tell a story about how ‘If I can’t go 110 miles an hour in a personally-owned vehicle, that that’s tyranny.’ And I think that that’s an unfortunate state of affairs.”

Other drivers aren’t as convinced.

Coleman Connolly, 27, of Edgewater doesn’t like the idea of giving up the option of stepping on the gas.

“I don’t love anything that restricts your ability to get out of a situation,” Connolly said. “Because there are situations ... where it can be dangerous. You have to get around, you have to move out of the way from something to avoid getting hurt yourself.”

Erik Bonilla, 25, of Elk Grove Village, said his primary concern is about what kinds of data and personal information are gathered and stored with these systems are in place.

“My first question would be how they would implement this with privacy in mind,” he said. “So how much information is being collected ... by manufacturers about the [owner’s] vehicle? By the government about the owner of the vehicle?”

The NTSB on Nov. 14 proposed that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sets the minimum safety standards for cars sold in the U.S., require all new vehicles to have intelligent speed assist technology, at a minimum warning drivers when they exceed speed limits.

More active systems, which could be installed on vehicles of repeat speeding offenders, would slow down a speeding car. These systems typically have options for a driver to override them if necessary.

The recommendation comes after an investigation of a Las Vegas crash involving a speeding impaired driver that killed nine early last year.

The National Transportation Safety Board is recommending all new vehicles have speed limiting technology installed.

Jean Lachat/Sun-Times file

High-speed crashes on the rise in U.S., Illinois

Speeding-related crashes resulted in 12,330 deaths in 2021, an increase of 8% from 2020 and the largest number of deaths since 2007, according to the NHTSA. That number has been on the rise since 2018.

Illinois had the fourth highest number of speeding-related fatalities in 2021, with 487, or 37% of all traffic deaths in the state.

Among the NTSB’s recommendations was a reiteration of one from 2017 that the NHTSA incentivize these technologies by including them in its new car safety assessment.

In 2022, NHTSA requested public feedback but has not yet taken that step. A spokesperson told the Sun-Times it “always welcomes NTSB’s input and carefully reviews it.”

Kristin Poland, deputy director of NTSB’s Office of Highway Safety, emphasized these systems are meant to assist drivers by providing them with more information.

“If something suddenly happens, whether that’s a deer jumping out in front of you or a child running across the street, when you’re speeding there’s just less time for you to take evasive action,” she said. “If you do crash and you’re at a higher speed, the consequences of that crash are much higher.”

A spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois encouraged measures be taken to avoid concerns shared by drivers like Bonilla — that these systems could be used to track personal data.

“Tools like this technology allow for government to track someone’s movements with ease — simply because an individual is driving a car,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “We should take steps to ensure that any proposal aimed at public safety or personal convenience does not become a tool for surveillance and tracking.”

Speed limits already displayed on many apps drivers use

Jessica Cicchino, vice president of research for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, suggested these features are meant to address a worsening problem.

“We’ve really seen more drivers on the road doing riskier behaviors, including speeding,” she said. “It’s something that we really need to get a handle on.”

Cars race down North Clark Street near West Hubbard Street in the River North neighborhood.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times file

Cicchino added that some cars on the road are already using variations of this technology. Drivers using Google Maps for directions may also be used to the app displaying the local speed limit and issuing speeding warnings.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade association and lobby group for vehicle manufacturing companies, expressed support for a more holistic approach to reducing speeding.

“While vehicle technology can play a role, we’ve advocated for a continued emphasis on transportation policies that focus on driver education and awareness, strong laws and law enforcement, and infrastructure investment — and funding to support these safety initiatives,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said normalizing intelligent speed assist technologies is a priority as drivers aren’t yet comfortable with them.

“When you’re introducing a new safety concept to the public and they have no knowledge of it, it can be an obstacle that has to be overcome,” she said. “We’re trying to get it out there so that people are like, ‘Oh, yeah, this works well. I want this in my car. I want this in the car that my teenagers are driving.’”

In the European Union, all cars will be required to have speeding warning systems starting in July.

Shaun Kildare, senior research director of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said requiring this technology is an important equity concern to ensure safety isn’t a matter of cost.

“By making it standard,” he said, “you make sure that all boats are lifted, that everyone gets the exact same level of protection.”

Chicago CRED receives $21 million grant from Sue Ling Gin Foundation

2023-11-29T20:32:11.622-06:00

Chicago CRED Co-Founder and former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan congratulates Jordan Body during Chicago CRED’s graduation ceremony outside the South Shore Cultural Center in August.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Community violence intervention program Chicago CRED announced Tuesday it received a $21 million grant from the Sue Ling Gin Foundation, allowing it to expand its efforts to reduce gun violence in Chicago.

Chicago CRED, founded by former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, works primarily on the South and West sides to reduce violence through a holistic approach, including life coaching, outreach and job training.

Duncan said the grant will allow Chicago CRED to scale its work in North Lawndale and Roseland and expand to more neighborhoods.

“I was honestly pretty emotional,” Duncan said. “I would say this is the hardest work I’ve ever done. It’s the most heartbreaking but it’s also the most inspiring and meaningful.”

Sue Ling Gin, who passed away in 2014, was a Chicago-based entrepreneur, philanthropist and businesswoman who founded airline catering company Flying Food Group and served on the boards of several nonprofit and civic organizations.

Peter Cunningham, a spokesperson for Chicago CRED, said receiving the grant is “hugely affirming” of the nonprofit’s work.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Duncan said Chicago CRED’s success is proven, citing a recent study from Northwestern University, which found that people who completed the violence intervention program were 73% less likely to be arrested for a violent crime in the years following enrollment.

Bob Hamada, co-trustee of the Sue Ling Gin Foundation, said this grant is the largest one the foundation has given. The foundation has been active for about a year, and chose to focus on gun violence to honor Gin’s commitment to improving the city, Hamada said.

Chicago CRED was a natural choice from there, he added.

“We talked to a number of leaders in this field of gun violence reduction, and everybody mentioned Arne Duncan, and CRED, as major innovators and doers in this domain,” Hamada said.

Hamada, who knew Gin personally, said the grant also honors her life and work because Duncan has characteristics similar to her.

“He’s a passionate Chicagoan just like she is,” he said. “I found that very intriguing, how CRED, Arne Duncan and Sue Gin had very, very similar goals.”

Duncan said he had been in communication with the foundation seriously since about August and was encouraged to apply for a grant.

He described the funds as “transformational” for their work.

“It’s not inevitable that Chicago be so horribly impacted by gun violence,” Duncan said. “We can do better, we must do better, and they’re stepping up in a big way.”

COMMENTARY: Chicago CRED members on their experiences building a school in Senegal

Chicago’s winter overnight parking ban starts Friday

2023-11-28T14:17:57.49-06:00

Chicago’s winter overnight parking ban goes into effect at 3 a.m. Friday.

Sun-Times file

Chicago’s winter overnight parking ban will go into effect Friday morning, which means cars parked on bus routes and main roads will be towed regardless of snow.

The citywide ban affects 107 miles of streets and will be in effect nightly from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. until April 1. Drivers can visit chicagoshovels.org to check which routes are affected.

Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Cole Stallard said the ban is a safety issue. He said it keeps routes clear for emergency vehicles, public transportation and snowplows, which are unable to fully plow and salt roads when cars are left parked.

“We have close to 500,000 people that use the CTA bus line with another 300,000 that are on our CTA trains, and we get close to a million people a week coming into the city,” Stallard said. “So that’s a whole lot of people, and we have to keep these main streets moving on top of emergency vehicles.”

Cars parked on designated streets, which have permanent signs alerting drivers of the ban, will be towed to either Pound 2 at 10301 S. Doty Ave., or Pound 6 at 701 N. Sacramento Ave. Violators will also receive a minimum $150 towing fee, a $60 ticket and a storage fee of $25 per day.

Stallard said the department is working hard to spread the word about the ban and has been putting up flyers along the routes.

About 65 vehicles are towed each day, he said.

“Those first few nights when it happens to be on a weekend per se, that’s when it’s our highest,” he said. “Be patient with us and look out for those signs and it just allows us to do our job.”

Chicago’s parking meter deal keeps on giving — for private investors, not taxpayers

Black Panthers’ legacy, image at issue in feud over historic sites

2023-11-24T09:33:46.75-06:00

Members of the Black Panther Party march in the Loop in October 1969.

Sun-Times file photo

An effort to memorialize the Illinois Black Panther Party has exposed a divide over how to preserve its legacy — and who should tell its story.

At the heart of the conflict is an effort to add the history of the Illinois chapter of the party to the National Register of Historic Places. The listing would note several locations crucial to the group’s history, including many in the Chicago area.

The Black Panther Party, founded in the 1960s, grew out of the Black Power movement and provided services such as free breakfast and free health care around the country. The FBI, however, considered it a violent, gang-like organization and launched a counterintelligence program against it.

Supporters say adding the history to the National Register would highlight the group’s importance. Opponents argue it would perpetuate a slanted portrayal of the group.

“Our purpose is to make the Illinois chapter an official part of the state’s history,” said Leila Wills, who spearheaded the project and collected letters of support from more than 20 former Black Panthers, including party co-founder Bobby Rush, who later served in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing a Chicago-area district for three decades.

Not among the supporters, however, is Fred Hampton Jr., chairman of the Black Panther Party Cubs. Hampton Jr. is the son of former Black Panther leader Fred Hampton Sr., who was assassinated during a 1969 raid led by Chicago police and orchestrated by FBI counterintelligence efforts.

Hampton Jr. led a coalition opposed to the National Register recognition, saying misinformation spread by the FBI has damaged the party’s legacy. This project would further that harm, he said, because its leaders lack respect for the Black Panthers’ history.

“This is not their story to tell,” he said. “We come from a community that prefers a demolished truth, as opposed to a structured lie.”

Members of the special grand jury empaneled to investigate the fatal shootings of Fred Hampton Sr. and Mark Clark during a Chicago police raid in 1969 are shown in December 1970 after viewing the house at 2337 W. Monroe St. where the shootings occurred.

Sun-Times file photo

A state advisory council voted unanimously late last month to approve the nomination effort, after a Chicago commission chose in early October not to comment on the project due to the concerns raised by Hampton Jr. and his supporters.

The National Park Service, which makes the final call on accepting or rejecting the nomination, received the proposal Nov. 8 and has until Dec. 26 to respond, according to James Gabbert, a historian for the National Register.

The National Register proposal, in the works for three years, includes a report on the history of the Black Panther Party and a survey of eligible properties supporters believe could be considered for the register if the owners express interest.

While this kind of listing does not directly add any sites to the National Register, it “serves as a basis for evaluating the National Register eligibility of related properties,” according to the guidance for submitting a listing. National Register listings are evaluated for their association with historically significant events or people, or their architectural importance. Proposals are first considered by the state before being sent for final approval from the Park Service.

Some sites listed in the survey:

• The Church of the Epiphany, also known as the People’s Church, now the Epiphany Center for the Arts, where the party operated its Free Breakfast for Children program, held rallies and hosted Hampton Sr.’s last meeting. While already on the register for other reasons, the church, 201 S. Ashland Ave., also would be included under this new listing.

• Truevine Missionary Baptist Church, then St. Bartholomew Church, where the group also operated its Free Breakfast for Children program.

• First Baptist Church of Melrose Park, where Hampton Sr.’s funeral was held.

The Epiphany Center for the Arts stands at 201 S. Ashland Ave. When it was known as the Church of the Epiphany, it was where the Illinois Black Panther Party held rallies and operated its Free Breakfast for Children program. It’s also where Fred Hampton Sr. led his last Black Panther meeting before he was assassinated.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Some locations, including the former chapter headquarters and the site of a free health clinic, already have been demolished.

To compile the research for the proposal, Wills interviewed more than 30 former members.

“It is important to include the historical significance of the ongoing struggle of the Black Panther Party throughout the United States as a voice for parity and justice. The struggle of Black People to overcome racism is a reality that must be told, addressed and ended before we can move forward as a nation,” former member Wanda Ross wrote in her letter of support.

Truevine Missionary Baptist Church sits at 6720 S. Stewart Ave. in the Englewood neighborhood.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Wills’ parents were both party members, volunteering in the breakfast program and other efforts. She said talking with her parents about these places, especially those that no longer exist, motivated her to work on this issue.

Adding a site to the National Register is primarily a state-level process but requires approval from the National Park Service. Local governments with historic preservation programs, such as Chicago, can provide a comment but are not required to.

A National Register listing doesn’t prevent demolition or restrict what owners can otherwise do with a property. But it does protect a site from negative impacts from state and federal projects, said Andrew Heckencamp, the National Register coordinator for the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office. Once a state nominates a site, he said, it would be “extremely rare” not to make the list.

Still, Wills said, documenting the Black Panther history to these sites is important to create resources to help educators and researchers.

Wills will begin the second phase of her project to document and preserve the Panthers’ history, placing markers at the former sites of some important structures, to preserve that history “for when none of us are here anymore.”

Bill Hampton, brother of slain Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton Sr., reads a statement during a December 1974 news conference. With him are Fannie Clark, mother of Mark Clark, who also was killed in a 1969 Chicago police raid, and other members of Clark’s family.

Sun-Times file photo

Wills said Hampton Jr. and his mother never responded to numerous requests to discuss the project or offer feedback. In 2019, they worked together on landmarking Hampton Sr.’s childhood home in west suburban Maywood. That status, approved by the village in April 2022, prevents demolition. The building is now a museum dedicated to Hampton Sr. Working on that project and researching the chapter inspired Wills to work on the National Register project.

“Everything I’m doing now, I did for the Hampton House,” she said. “That’s when I first, myself, really researched the work of the chapter, meaning by location. I didn’t know that their work was so extensive through the state of Illinois.”

Wills said Hampton Jr. cites “nothing but trigger words, emotional appeals and innuendo” for why he opposes what she’s doing.

Hampton Jr. said, “The prime players who have been pushing for this acknowledgment of the historical sites of the Black Panther Party have, ironically, expressed a disdain, a hatred for the Black Panther Party.”

He added he has “no doubt” giving these sites historic recognition would further spread misinformation, and the party is still working to undo the harms it already has suffered through “nefarious intent and naiveté.”

The former home of Illinois Black Panther chairman Fred Hampton Sr. at 804 S. 17th Ave in Maywood.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

But Wills said her research has been driven by firsthand accounts from former members themselves, who have also read and reviewed every section of the proposal, rather than relying solely on media. She is continuing to make updates based on their edits and requires multiple members to corroborate facts.

“There’s so many intricacies with the context and the smear campaign that the party has been under for the last 50 years. It is true that the FBI planted material in the press for years, decades, so all of those are land mines that you have to avoid,” Wills said.

Founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, the party was a reaction to widespread poverty, police violence and lack of economic and educational opportunities Black people in America faced.

The group spread across the U.S., demanding self-determination for the Black community, decent housing, education on Black history and an end to police brutality. It organized armed self-defense groups to combat police violence and also formed “survival programs” targeting food access, health care and other necessities.

Leila Wills said the Free Breakfast for Children program was one of the Black Panther Party’s most important.

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During the Panthers’ active years, the FBI used counterintelligence tactics so extreme that years later, the agency apologized for “wrongful uses of power.”

Wills said she wants people to know how significant the Panthers’ impact was.

“The breakfast program was not just confronting hunger, it was also a medical issue, because the children were not healthy,” she said. It “showed the commitment that the party had to the people and to the poor.”

Documents in the FBI’s files show it considered the Panthers an extremist organization that advocated the use of violence to overthrow the U.S. government. Countering that FBI portrayal is what motivates Hampton Jr. now.

“The history of the Black Panther Party, it still remains under attack,” Hampton Jr. said.

Fred Hampton Jr. speaks during a rally in Civic Center Park in downtown Kenosha, six days after Jacob Blake was shot in his back by a police officer in the Wisconsin city, on Aug. 29, 2020.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file

But supporters of Wills’ project said they, too, want to correct a false version of the Panthers’ history.

Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, said the project provides an opportunity “to acknowledge the great accomplishments of the Black Panther Party.”

Miller previously worked on the designation of the Church of the Epiphany. Amending that site’s listing to include the church’s history with the Black Panther Party was something they “couldn’t talk about” during the preliminary report for the site, he said.

“I think it’s wonderful now that we’re in an age and a place where we can talk about all of these histories and share them,” Miller said.

For both Wills and Hampton Jr., the Black Panthers’ commitment to the community is what stands out.

“The Black Panther Party, contrary to so many incorrect narratives,” Hampton Jr. said, “was birthed out of love, out of love for the people.”

Sites included in proposed National Register listing

Bobby Rush (center), Illinois Black Panther Party coordinator, speaks at an October 1972 news conference where he denounced the acquittal of Cook County State’s Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan and 13 co-defendants on conspiracy charges related to the 1969 police raid in which two Black Panther leaders were killed. Flanking Rush are Harold Bell (left) and Ronald Satchel, two survivors of the raid. Rush later served in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Sun-Times file photo

William Hampton (from left), brother of slain Illinois Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton Sr., the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Black Panther Party official Bobby Rush and Renault Robinson, president of the Afro American Patrolmen’s League, are shown at a December 1969 news conference at the Capitol Theatre in Chicago.

Sun-Times file photo

How the Shedd Aquarium feeds the animals, including Rockhopper penguins

2023-11-22T17:09:32.582-06:00

A Rockhopper penguin chick, born earlier this year.

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People worried about eating more than they planned this Thanksgiving should take a hint from the Shedd Aquarium’s Rockhopper penguins.

These penguins, which eat primarily herring and capelin fish, are natural self-regulators and stop eating when they’ve had their fill. Once they have eaten enough calories to support their activity level, these penguins’ meal is finished.

“Penguins eat what they need to survive,” said Lauren O’Neill, a trainer on the Shedd animal care team. “I wish I self-regulated on Thanksgiving because I always eat too much, and I absolutely regret it later, so that is definitely something that I will try to take away when I am indulging in my family’s Thanksgiving.”

As humans prepare for their Thanksgiving feast on Thursday, the animals have been enjoying their own fishy snacks. O’Neill said everything the Shedd feeds its animals is sustainably caught, so the animals have a varying diet depending on what fishers can catch.

The Shedd has nine Rockhoppers, and two of its original penguins, Wellington and Magdalena, have resided there since the exhibition opened in 1991 and are now among the oldest penguins in U.S. zoos and aquariums. In July, a new chick hatched to parents Edward and Annie.

Feeding the Rockhoppers every day takes about 10 pounds of fish, with each bird eating five to 12 fish twice a day, O’Neill said.

“They’ll eat a certain amount of fish; their bodies kind of let them know they’ve had enough, and then they’ll just walk away from the feed, or sometimes they’ll hang out just to sit in our laps,” O’Neill said. “They might just be hanging there, you might offer them a fish, and they just don’t eat it. They’re just there to have some snuggles.”

Like families with their own holiday traditions, many of the Shedd’s animals have unique methods of feeding. Sea otters, like the Shedd’s Copper and Watson, use rocks and other tough surfaces to crack open hard shellfish. Clouded archerfish spit water at their prey and can leap up to 11 inches out of the water to catch insects.

Rockhopper penguins at the Shedd Aquarium are self-regulators, only eating as much as they need.

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Mystery respiratory illness sickens dogs; here’s what vets say to do

2023-11-21T19:03:23.832-06:00

Dr. Amanda Schnitker, a veterinarian, sits with her dog at her home office Tuesday. Schnitker, hospital director of Uptown Animal Hospital and Companion River North, said her hospitals saw two cases last month that were likely related to mystery illness.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Local veterinarians are urging dog owners to monitor their pets for respiratory symptoms, keep them up to date on vaccines and avoid boarding them this holiday season as cases of a mystery illness rise.

Vets in at least 12 states, including Oregon, Colorado and New Hampshire, have been reporting cases of an unknown upper respiratory illness that has been unresponsive to antibiotics.

While typically mild to moderate, it can lead to complications such as pneumonia and in some cases even death, according to Dr. Kelly Cairns, vice president of medical excellence and education for Thrive Pet Healthcare and a board member of the Chicago Veterinary Medicine Association.

“We don’t know what’s causing this particular respiratory illness in dogs because all of the things that we commonly would test for — different viruses and bacteria — most of these cases are proving to be negative,” she said.

Dogs typically show such symptoms as coughing, sneezing and discharge from the eyes or nose. Cairns said in some cases these symptoms can continue for six to eight weeks.

Dr. Kelly Cairns said pet parents should be extra vigilant about their dogs, but the illness is no cause for panic.

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Juvenile and geriatric dogs, and those with preexisting conditions, are at higher risk. Flat-faced dogs such as pugs, French bulldogs and boxers also tend to have worse effects from respiratory illnesses generally, according to Dr. Amanda Schnitker, hospital director of Uptown Animal Hospital and Companion River North.

Schnitker said her hospitals saw two cases last month that were likely related to this illness, with one puppy being placed in 24-hour care to receive supplemental oxygen in order to recover. She said numbers in Illinois seem lower than other areas of the country, but that she’s expecting them to climb.

“It’s on everybody’s radar,” Schnitker said, adding that she’s “extremely concerned.”

She emphasized that vaccinations are especially important since certain respiratory vaccines offer protection against other illnesses and fully-vaccinated dogs have better responses.

“It’s on everybody’s radar,” Dr. Amanda Schnitker says of the mystery illness.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

“The Department’s Bureau of Animal Health and Welfare is aware of the emerging respiratory illness among dogs but is unable to point to any confirmatory testing or ongoing research related to treatment recommendations,” State Veterinarian Dr. Mark Ernst said in a written statement. The department “encourages the public to make sure animals are up to date on vaccinations and follow the guidance of local veterinarians.”

Dr. Erica Esser, medical director at the Streeterville location of West Loop Veterinary Care, urged people to monitor their dogs for symptoms and bring them in if they have concerns.

“Because our clients are so attuned with their dogs, they really can see very quickly if there is a change, and so that’s something that I want them to lean into, that close relationship they have,” she said.

She also recommended that humans with respiratory symptoms reduce contact with their pets. If a pet does become sick, vets recommend isolating it from any other animals.

To protect their pets, owners should also keep them away from settings with large groups of dogs such as groomers, dog parks, doggy day care and animal boarding providers, and avoid using communal water bowls.

“People travel, especially around vacation times, to go back home or visit friends,” said Dr. Byron De La Navarre, chief of staff at Animal House of Chicago. “Dogs travel with them, or dogs go into boarding facilities, or things like that, and that can then create issues.”

Dr. Byron De La Navarre, a veterinarian with Animal House of Chicago, is pictured Tuesday in the operating and research room of the Lincoln Square clinic. He says the cause of the illness remains unclear.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Time

Cairns said owners who can’t avoid boarding should have a discussion with boarding facilities about what safety measures are in place.

De La Navarre said it’s difficult to identify cases of the illness because the cause remains unclear, and as the weather gets colder, respiratory illnesses generally increase. He compared the mystery illness to COVID-19 in humans, saying most dogs will experience a mild case, while those with underlying conditions may have more severe responses.

“It’s just like with COVID again, and obviously you can’t make dogs wear masks, so you just have to avoid contact with other dogs,” he said.

Cairns urged people to be extra vigilant with their pets.

“There’s no cause for undue concern or panic, but we do want to be prudent in an abundance of caution to prevent the preventable and to keep our pets safe,” Cairns said.

Contributing: AP

‘Trouble in Toyland’ report adds water beads to list of dangerous toys before holiday shopping season

2023-11-17T14:29:25.66-06:00

A quarter, left, is used to show the size of water beads in its original size, bottom, and after it expands from being exposed to liquid.

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Chicagoans shopping for children this holiday season should be wary of smart toys and avoid buying water beads, according to a toy safety report released Thursday.

“For a child, especially a young child, there’s no wrong way for them to play with a toy. They’re meant to explore the toy, play with the toy however they want to. That’s how they learn and grow,” said Dev Gowda, deputy director of Chicago-based nonprofit Kids in Danger. “That’s why it’s very especially important that these toys are made safe and designed safely.”

Last year, 145,000 toy-related injuries were treated in children 12 and under at emergency rooms across the country, according to Alex Hoehn-Saric, chair of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Hoehn-Saric was joined by a panel of consumer watchdogs, medical personnel and toy safety experts, including Kids in Danger, for a news conference to share findings from the annual “Trouble in Toyland” report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

The report focused on warning parents and gift-givers of the dangers of water beads, which are small polymer crystals that expand to the size of a marble or golf ball when they come in contact with water or bodily fluids. Because of this, they can cause intestinal blockages and other hazards if swallowed.

At least one child has died of water bead-related issues, and between 2016 and 2022, 7,800 water bead injuries were treated in emergency rooms, according to Gowda.

Jerri Rose, an emergency medicine pediatrician in Cleveland, said water beads don’t show up on X-rays, making them extra difficult to identify as the source of a problem. ER departments have seen an increase in the number of water bead-related cases in recent years, she added.

“They’re the size of a sprinkle, so it’s even worse than confetti for New Year’s — they can get all over the house,” Gowda said. “We’ve had stories of families when they bought it for older kids, years later, years after the fact, a younger child found them in the house and ingested them and got very, very sick with life-altering injuries.”

Panelists at the conference also urged people to be cautious with purchasing smart toys, which may lack adequate security protocols or collect data about children that could be leaked in a data breach.

R.J. Cross, director of PIRG’s Don’t Sell My Data program, used a bluetooth karaoke microphone as an example, pointing out that anyone nearby could access the device through bluetooth and play audio for a child.

“For almost every kind of toy, someone somewhere has made a ‘smart’ version by adding in a tech component that may or may not need to be there,” Cross said.

She said smart toys that collect audio are safer if they require a button to be pressed rather than just listening all the time. Cross encouraged caution around toys with apps, as they are more likely to collect data.

The report also warned about the availability of recalled and counterfeit toys on online marketplaces, the dangers of swallowing button batteries and choking hazards in toys with small parts.

Safety recalls of children’s products reach highest level in nearly a decade: ‘A wakeup call’