"Every time I saw him, he was Alex."
So said Joe Stith, a Chicago Heights police officer for 17 1/2 years, remembering his former high school buddy Alex Lopez, on the untimely death of the 44-year-old mayor.
The quote is from an excellent article at the Southtown Star.
Rest In Peace, Mayor Lopez.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Lopez family, and the city of Chicago Heights.
The Late Late Show Theme Song
Written by Craig Ferguson
It’s hard to stay up
It’s been a long, Long Day
And you got the sandman at the door
But hang on, leave the TV on
And let’s do it anyway
It’s ok
You can always sleep through work tomorrow, OK?
Hey hey
Tomorrow’s just your future yesterday
Listen to the LLS theme song at CBS.com.
Love the guy.
Chicago Heights Mayor Alex Lopez died this evening of an apparent heart attack according to a press release from Attorney T.J. Somer, corporate counsel for the municipality. Lopez, 44, was city’s first Latino and minority mayor:
It is with great sorrow that I must announce that at 6:39 p.m., this date, Mayor Alex Lopez, 44, Mayor of the City of Chicago Heights, Illinois was pronounced dead after collapsing from what is believed to be a heart attack. Mayor Lopez was with his daughter watching a basketball practice at the time of the collapse, and was transported to St. James Hospital, Chicago Heights, unresponsive.
Mayor Lopez was appointed to the office of Mayor in July of 2008 to fill the vacancy of the former Mayor Anthony DeLuca. He thereby became the first Latino and minority Mayor in the history of Chicago Heights. Mayor Lopez is survived by his Wife, Sandra and two children.
We ask that you please respect the family’s privacy as they attempt to endure this tragic ordeal. The City will follow up with further information regarding services and arrangements as it becomes available.
T.J. Somer
Corporation Counsel
City of Chicago Heights
The Steelers improved their preseason record to 2-0 with a 24-17 win over the New York Giants at the New Meadowlands Stadium.
“A lot of things we can get better at and we could have done better tonight,” said Coach Mike Tomlin. “That is what the preseason and the remainder of the preseason is about. We intend to work on a lot of things in those areas.”
Ben Roethlisberger started the game for the Steelers getting his first playing time of the preseason. Roethlisberger completed six of eight passes for 76 yards, one interception and a passer rating of 64.6.
“The first time out for him I thought he did some nice things,” said Tomlin. “He moved us. It was a good start.”
Roethlisberger played 20 snaps, which Tomlin was pleased with the time for it being his first outing.
“For the first time out, he got what he would have gotten had it been like last week under normal circumstances and the starters going out playing for his first time out,” said Tomlin. “That was our intention. He probably got a little more than that because one of those drives ended in an interception and we weren’t going to let him walk off like that. He got a decent amount of work. It was good for him. We will see where we go from here.”
10:18 PM – Robbie Gould’s 25-yard field goal drew the Bears to within 27-17 with 9:21 left in the fourth quarter. Desmond Clark had a big grin on his face after a successful snap on the kick.
10:30 PM – Dan LeFevour’s overthrown pass was intercepted by safety Stevie Brown, who returned it 46 yards to the Bears’ 9-yard line. The turnover led to Swayze Waters’ 28-yard field goal, widening the Raiders’ lead to 30-17 with 5:12 left in the fourth quarter.
10:36 PM – Brad Maynard just had a punt blocked out of the end zone for a safety for the second straight week as Slade "Don’t Call Me Chuck" Norris blew past Juaquin Iglesias and blocked the punt. That makes the score 32-17. Well … I’m heading down to the field to do post-game interviews. Thanks for following along with the blog. Stay logged onto ChicagoBears.com for expanded game coverage.
Just reporting.
But the Steelers’ writer is a better reporter.
Yup.
Just sayin’.
Who are these Americans obsessing over the falsehood that Barack Obama is a Muslim? And how can we remain silent as the right wing continues to twist the word "Muslim" into a pejorative?
In the midst of the last presidential election, I spoke with friends of mine who are Muslim. They were understandably disappointed with the rhetoric of those "accusing" then-Senator Barack Obama of being a Muslim. They were equally disappointed with Barack Obama’s vehement denials. What would they have preferred him say? Something like this: "No, I am not a Muslim, but Islam is a beautiful religion, and why should it matter if I was?"
That statement itself would have been twisted by the right. "Obama loves Islam! Obama said it doesn’t matter if he’s Muslim!"
Candidates today are between a rock and a hard place sometimes.
Today, however, the tail wags the dog again. Just as the right tried to turn the word "Catholic" into a pejorative when John F. Kennedy ran for president, the right is working overtime to do the same with the word "Muslim." Everyone knows what happened on 9-11, but what happened was not Muslim, any more than the Crusades were Christian acts of love. In any group of human beings, you will find 95% to 99% of the people who are fine to excellent. You will also find as much as 5% who are either a**holes or criminals. No matter where they are, this 5% will work to pervert their environment for their own sick reasons.
Today, this 5% of the GOP is working overtime and has succeeded in scaring up to 20% of the right wing into believing that Muslims as a whole are people to be feared, and that Barack Obama is a Muslim.
Two recently released polls show that an increasing number of Americans believe the falsehood that President Obama is a Muslim. According to the Pew Research Center, 60 percent of people who believe this false claim cite the media as the source of that information — and, indeed, the right-wing media have incessantly promoted this lie.
Pew: Nearly "one-in-five Americans" now say Obama is a Muslim. On August 18, the Pew Research Center released a survey on Obama and religion, conducted in early August. The poll found that "nearly one-in-five Americans (18%) now say Obama is a Muslim, up from 11% in March 2009," while "[o]nly about one-third of adults (34%) say Obama is a Christian, down sharply from 48% in 2009." The survey also found that "43% say they do not know what Obama’s religion is." Pew went on to state: "The view that Obama is a Muslim is more widespread among his political opponents than among his backers."
This "view" that Obama is a Muslim is "more widespread among his political opponents than among his backers" because this argument is simply ugly politics, at the expense of Muslims and everything good that America stands for.
The GOP should be ashamed.
Okay, so take some points away from me for sensational headlines.
But, still, the Chicago Tribune, the only newspaper I faithfully subscribed to at the University of Notre Dame in the 80s, remains in trouble.
The Tribune Co.’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy has unraveled in the wake of an independent report concluding that talks leading up to the company’s 2007 leveraged buyout bordered on fraud, attorneys said Friday.
The report released last month by a court-appointed examiner forced Tribune and its creditors to rethink a settlement agreement that formed the basis of its reorganization plan.
Under Tribune’s plan, JPMorgan Chase and distressed-debt specialist Angelo, Gordon & Co. would have been among the new owners of the company’s media properties, which include the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, other daily newspapers and 20 broadcast stations.
But attorneys told Delaware bankruptcy judge Kevin Carey on Friday that JPMorgan and Angelo Gordon had dropped out of the agreement, and that talks on a consensual reorganization plan had broken down.
"The debtor has tried mightily to bring the parties together," Tribune attorney James Conlan. "That has not happened."
Conlan also confirmed that Tribune had not been party to separate negotiations among its creditors.
The Tribune Co. sent a memo to employees saying the restructuring plan “is moving more slowly and has become noisier than we had hoped.” The memo, signed by Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels and Chief Operating Officer Gerry Spector, noted that all of the Tribune Co.’s media businesses are profitable, and that the company’s monthly operating report for July will show that its financial results are strong.
The memo thanked employees for their creativity, innovation and dedication, and urged them not to get distracted.
Look: I hope the paper survives. And I hope the news industry finally gets the guts to lock down its online content for subscribers only. Free online content is the killer, right now.
I hated it when the Pittsburgh Press went under. I really did. Even though I delivered the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from age 13 through the end of high school.
Competition is good. Competition is healthy. And I don’t want to be left with just one news company for the Chicagoland area.
But then, if they all go under, we’ll always have ENEWSPF.
I’m just sayin’.
Big day in Matteson, and for Dr. Blondean Davis.
The Southland College Preparatory High School is open for business.
Typical high school students wait four years before they march across stage, shake hands with the principal and accept that piece of paper that can make or break a future. The 125 students who opened Southland College Preparatory Charter High School on Thursday did it on the first day of the ninth grade.
"You are not only going to enter, you are going to graduate from college. That is the promise of Southland. That is our commitment to you," Southland CEO Blondean Davis told the students.
"You’re going to have this tangible thing called a quality education," Davis told the class Thursday. "You’re going to think about how, on the first day of Southland, (you) began this transformation."
Earlier in the day, Southland staffers cheered as the students from the Chicago-area’s only suburban charter high school spilled out of school buses. And as beaming parents snapped pictures of embarrassed students, some teenagers admitted they had reservations.
Southland has no football team, no mascot, no school colors. None of them envisioned freshman year would take place inside of Huth Middle School -the school’s temporary home while a larger building in Richton Park is renovated. And there is, of course, the issue of the mandatory uniforms and a school day that lasts until 5 p.m.
In short, it’s not what they pictured when they imagined their first day of high school.
While some private schools may be nervously watching this experiment, they needn’t worry much. Charter schools, by law, must admit students by lottery, randomly, not by ability, grades, or any other mechanism. Top student may still apply to Marian Catholic, the private college prep. school closest to this charter, or any others.
Best of luck to the students at the new charter!
As the nation still struggles to emerge from the Bush Recession and avoid a double-dip, we discover yet another industry suffering: restaurants (…and why, by the way, are my conservative friends hoping for a double-dip, exactly? They’re not rich, and they’re likely to end up in tents with the rest of us if we do double-dip. Are they that eager to see Obama and America fail???)
.
With consumers and businesses keeping a lid on expenses, more and more small and mid-size restaurants are throwing in their dish towels and closing up shop.
Southern California lost nearly a thousand more restaurants than it gained during the 12 months that ended in March, representing a net 2% drop that was twice the national average, according to the New York research firm NPD Group.
Nearly all the closings were among independently owned restaurants: small, family businesses that just couldn’t hold on as customers held back. Earlier in the year restaurants reported modest increases in business, but the jumps in sales were too little too late for many.
"We were going in reverse," said Ken Rausch, who last month made the wrenching decision to close his family’s 65-year-old San Gabriel Valley restaurant, Edward’s Steakhouse. The restaurant had weathered previous recessions, but this downturn drained the family’s resources — and showed few signs of letting up, Rausch said.
Other well-known haunts have also succumbed: Orso on 3rd Street near Robertson Boulevard, a trattoria popular with the entertainment crowd, closed last winter after a nearby movie studio laid off a big chunk of its employees; across the nation, Koo Koo Roo, Bennigan’s, Bakers Square, Tony Roma’s and other chains have shut dozens of locations.
Even in good times, the restaurant business is a difficult one. Many close simply because they fall out of fashion or favor, and most run on slim margins. But this downturn seems especially brutal.
We’ve lost a few in the south Chicagoland area, but many have survived, some developing creative ways to stay afloat. The Big Apple Pancake House in Chicago Heights opened its table tops to advertising.
I know: we eat too much in Chicago already. Still, it’s good to know that many places here have survived.
Still, nationwide, the trend is not good.
I’ll be George W., King of the "have-mores," is eating well, though.
The mouth that won’t stop gabbing is starting another media blitz as the Summer of Blagojevich continues.
Beginning a weekend media blitz, Rod Blagojevich said this morning he will not take any plea deal from prosecutors, accused them of trying to criminalize political horse-trading and emphasized repeatedly that he had not been convicted of any of the corruption charges against him.
And he said the lone jury holdout against convicting him on major corruption counts confirmed his faith in God.
"I’ve always had a deep and abiding faith in God," he said on the "Today" show. "And when I look at that, it just confirms ‘Praise God.’ And I certainly thank her for her good judgment.
"If we put on a defense, I think we probably would have been acquitted" on every count, he added.
He continued to insist he had done nothing wrong, saying prosecutors had captured him on tape only discussing "possibilities" with lawyers and political advisers. "Political horse-trading …. this is what they are trying to criminalize," he said.He accused prosecutors of hypocrisy, saying they frequently make deals with convicted felons. "The very thing they charge me with, they should charge themselves with," he said.
