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Isabel’s morning briefing
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Here you go…
* Sun-Times | Ex-top aide to Madigan kept the former House speaker’s lawyer informed about meeting with FBI agents, prosecutors say: Details about the case against Timothy Mapes were revealed in a 65-page document filed by prosecutors early Tuesday morning, four weeks ahead of Mapes’ trial on perjury and attempted obstruction of justice charges. * Center Square | Illinois law prohibits landlords from refusing to rent or sell property to undocumented migrant: Illinois landlords will soon be required to rent or sell property to undocumented migrants. Beginning Jan. 1, 2024, protections go into place in the Illinois Human Rights Act for housing regarding immigration status and discriminatory advertising. The law will add immigration status as a protected class. * Sun-Times | Residents, organizations weigh in on preliminary Cook County 2024 budget: The preliminary budget shows a projected gap of $85.6 million for next year. At a public hearing, speakers representing various organizations advocated for continued funding of their programs. * Tribune | Fired NU coach Pat Fitzgerald exploring breach-of-contract claims, lawyer Dan Webb says: “Northwestern University made some unusual, bizarre decisions in the past week that seriously have damaged Pat Fitzgerald’s reputation,” attorney Dan Webb told the Tribune. The university initially handed Fitzgerald a two-week unpaid suspension after an outside investigation that confirmed hazing among teammates but did not implicate Fitzgerald. Then on Monday, Fitzgerald was ousted altogether. * Tribune | Northwestern University had many anti-hazing tools in place before the football scandal. So what went wrong?: Northwestern University’s anti-hazing policies and prevention tools are extensive, including an online hazing education course all incoming undergraduates are required to complete during their first term of enrollment. * Chicago Mag | As the city spends millions of dollars to house bused-in migrants, many Black residents worry about getting pushed aside again: “No one should be surprised over tension between migrants and Black Americans,” says Adrian Norman, a member of the Black leadership network Project 21, which is affiliated with the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research. “There are destabilized communities across the entire country that have produced horrible outcomes for Black folks for decades, and there is a case to be made that those communities should be prioritized over individuals who forced their way into the country unlawfully.” * ABC Chicago | Alderman calls on COPA to expedite investigation into CPD, migrants: ‘We have to resolve this’: The Fraternal Order of Police, the union that represents the rank-and-file police officers, is questioning the validity of the allegations, suggesting that if there was anything to them, the suspected officers would have been taken off the streets pending the investigation. * Tribune | Arlington Heights downtown area needs a distinct identity, especially if Bears come to town, merchants say: Group members at a July 10 Village Board committee meeting said they’d formed the alliance to improve the village downtown overall and support its growth as an entertainment destination. Many downtown business owners have been discussing how to maintain and grow the central business district with village officials since the onset of the pandemic, which led to the village’s outdoor dining and entertainment program Arlington Alfresco. * Tribune | Former Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin sells Western Springs home for $1M: The Durkins previously tried selling the house several times. They first listed it in 2018 for $1.15 million and reduced it to $1.05 million and then to just under $1 million before taking it off the market late that year. They then had it on the market for several months in 2021 at $1.19 million. Finally, they relisted it in March for $1.09 million, and the house went under contract within two weeks. * Jim Dey | Cash continues to pour into Illinois’ coffers: “The record levels of revenue are despite the volatility of General Funds receipts throughout much of FY 2023. Through the first two-thirds of the fiscal year, General Funds base revenues were $2.2 billion above” FY 22’s level, reported Eric Noggle, revenue manager for the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting & Accountability * CBS Chicago | Amid worker shortage, Chicago hotels want to be able to hire migrants more easily: Leyva said other Chicago hotels are struggling to hire for housekeeping roles. If only some of the rooms get cleaned, not all the rooms can be available. That means lost hotel revenue and less hotel tax for the city. * CBS Chicago | After several years Chicago’s water arc is still off, so when will the fountain be back on?: “It should be alive. It should flow,” said Centennial Fountain architect Dirk Lohan. The water was flowing here since 1989 but it came to a halt in 2020. Broken and in need of repair, it’s been off ever since. * Sun-Times | One of stars of Lightfoot’s cabinet moving on: Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara announced her resignation Tuesday after a four-year sprint that included leading Chicago through a pandemic that shined an even more glaring light on the city’s 120,000-unit shortage of affordable housing. * Tribune | City Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara leaving Mayor Johnson’s administration: Novara announced her resignation Tuesday after leading the department for four years and through a time when the city saw mounting concerns over gentrification and homelessness as well as a pandemic. She was appointed in 2019 by then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot after serving as vice president of the Metropolitan Planning Council. * Tribune | Wrigley Field in the mix to host the 2025 All-Star Game — its 1st since 1990 — MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred says: The Chicago Cubs haven’t held the Midsummer Classic at their historic ballpark since 1990, with all but two teams — the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays — hosting since then. Six teams have received two All-Star Games in that span: the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, Cleveland Guardians, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers. * Chicago Mag | The Bear Understands That Chicago Makes Room for Class and Comfort: This season makes explicit the ways in which people like Carmy, who’ve endured family trauma, fall into this work environment. The sixth episode of this season, “Fishes,” takes us in flashback to a dinner in the Berzatto family home. We meet Carmy and Natalie’s mother Donna, an alcoholic with a borderline personality disorder who is staging an elaborate Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve for a full house of family and friends. Between forensic shots of tomato-sauce-shmutzed timers screaming like harpies, we spend a grueling hour in this domestic hellscape. If the terse and claustrophobic “Review” from the first season was like Das Boot with sweet or hot peppers, “Fishes” is more like the overstuffed metaverse of Everything Everywhere All At Once collapsed into a black hole of family dysfunction. * Sun-Times | Jamie Foxx, out of view for months, resurfaces on Chicago River boat: The public outing comes two months after his daughter Corinne Foxx revealed Foxx is out of the hospital and recovering at home following a medical complication.
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- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 8:04 am:
===Fired NU coach Pat Fitzgerald exploring breach-of-contract claims, lawyer Dan Webb says:===
Have at it. Go crazy, can’t wait to see/read the depositions on racist and sexualized hazing that went on for years…
Rick Telander has a nice piece in the Sun Times that is a must read for perspective.
Like this lil shot and chaser…
===If this is what they do in the military — and Fitz loved the jarhead look, the Army allusions, the SEAL training, the camouflage, etc. — then join a military branch and go for it.===
Fitzgerald was ALWAYS a bad dude… and like all bullies sunshine was the disinfectant
Bless the student newspaper for making a difference to protect students, and student athletes where the administration first failed.
Link;
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/7/10/23790656/clueless-nu-finally-gets-it-right-and-did-what-it-had-to-do-fire-fitzgerald
- Flyin'Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 8:20 am:
As was noted by an ESPN talking head yesterday, anyone else getting a tip of the iceberg feel about this Northwestern fiasco?
- Torco Sign - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 8:24 am:
While prevalent, contrary to what some knuckleheads believe, you don’t actually need hazing to be a good sport team. There are positive exercises to do out in the open. Or you can do nothing. Lots of sports teams, similar to other groups, succeed despite members not being great friends.
- JoanP - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 8:30 am:
= Northwestern University made some unusual, bizarre decisions in the past week that seriously have damaged Pat Fitzgerald’s reputation =
I think he’s done a pretty good job of that himself.
If Fitzgerald is smart, he’ll take his severance and go quietly.
- Amalia - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 8:33 am:
see that Dan Proft and Amy are in on the attack of the university saying that a class on some sexual issues is ok but the hazing….
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 8:33 am:
===that seriously have damaged Pat Fitzgerald’s reputation===
Just wait for the depositionS… plural.
Yep. Go quietly, go be an assistant coach somewhere, get rehabbed to circle back as a head coach. The industry of coaching takes care of its own… but why make yourself more vilified with sworn statements that Fitzgerald is a bad guy?
- Stormsw7706 - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 8:37 am:
Mr. Norman is missing the boat. Helping immigrants doesn’t undermine Black progress. That’s an argument you might hear from whites talking about black progress. Both are wrong and pretty offensive.
- Dutch - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 8:48 am:
Does this apply to legal and illegal immigrants
- Lincoln Lad - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 8:50 am:
Mr. Mapes - Take a plea… you want to spend as little time in jail as you can. You made a mistake out of a sense of loyalty. OK - but don’t go to jail for it. Plead and cooperate.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 9:03 am:
There was a thing where MJM was a “Michael Corleone” type of piper of politics, and loyalty, and “his people”, but the thing with all that, be it a book or film on a character like Michael, the Michael Madigan that is real and being loyal as Mapes is/was means real prison time, and there’s no “fast forward years later”, those days in prison are real.
You can’t be a victim to questioning when immunity was offered, and you choose loyalty over truth.
The old ways are dying, dead, and buried. Cell phones, emails, video surveillance, the actual technology of investigation makes the meme “never talk in the phone” seems so silly now
It’s not that it’s a new world, it’s that the old world is over
- Homebody - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 9:12 am:
== see that Dan Proft and Amy are in on the attack of the university saying that a class on some sexual issues is ok but the hazing…. ==
As usual, certain conservatives can’t understand consent. This isn’t even particularly nuanced(banned punctuation) It would be like comparing stabbing someone with a class on how to perform surgery.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 9:22 am:
=* Tribune | Northwestern University had many anti-hazing tools in place before the football scandal. So what went wrong?=
People. People went wrong.
Also, none of the other coaches on staff were dismissed? If it is possible, that may be the oddest development yet.
- Lincoln Lad - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 9:33 am:
Does MJM feel any remorse as he watches loyal lieutenants face prison rather than betray him? If I were one of them, I’d like to know that there is at least some remorse on behalf of ‘himself’. Clearly the belief that they’ll beat this somehow has to have faded.
- Amalia - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 9:33 am:
@Homebody, great analogy. looked up the roster of the team. there’s a Uihlein on it.
- Dirty Red - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 9:53 am:
Who does Dan Webb’s press these days? Quite a call out in that Tribune headline.
- Ducky LaMoore - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 11:07 am:
“ If Fitzgerald is smart, he’ll take his severance and go quietly.”
I somewhat disagree. Fitzgerald was suspended for two weeks. That was the university’s punishment for what he had done. With no new allegations, they fired him. If there was documentation of his suspension as punishment from the investigation, then his firing was unwarranted. He would be owed the full amount. And he should try to get it. Because as furious as I am at him, the board and administration has my focus. They have handled this unimaginably poorly.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 11:08 am:
===With no new allegations===
1) You don’t know that; 2) Firing someone for cause because he did not know about awful things going on right in front of him is valid.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 11:15 am:
- Ducky LaMoore -
Please refer to the university’s statement for the change in status.
Also, if Fitzgerald wants to work again, sooner than later, more information that will be used to show Fitzgerald’s failures and toxic culture will not help.
It’s the difference between coaching in a Power 5 conference or in the “MAC conference”, and that’s not a put down, that’s honesty to the two stages and their differences.
I’d read Telander and his framing of Fitzgerald and what was.
- Lincoln Lad - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 11:20 am:
Why isn’t Northwestern better than all this? The cheerleader scandal… the baseball coach… Fitzgerald… This is a great and proud institution, how does it get all this so terribly wrong and handle it all so incredibly poorly?
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 11:42 am:
The credit, lest we forget, is to the NU Student Newspaper that didn’t let a “Friday News Dump” deter them from reporting on and applying pressure to the Administration.
Students protecting students when a coach promoted heinous hazing and only suffered a suspension… that’s powerful journalism
- Hannibal Lecter - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 11:54 am:
=== Why isn’t Northwestern better than all this? The cheerleader scandal… the baseball coach… Fitzgerald… This is a great and proud institution, how does it get all this so terribly wrong and handle it all so incredibly poorly? ===
Because college athletics is the tail that wags the dog for most universities in this country. It makes so much money that most administrations generally let the AD and highly paid coaches handle everything.
- Hannibal Lecter - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 11:55 am:
=== The credit, lest we forget, is to the NU Student Newspaper that didn’t let a “Friday News Dump” deter them from reporting on and applying pressure to the Administration. ===
Willy, don’t forget that NU has one of the more robust journalism programs in the country. Just saying.
- Politix - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 12:17 pm:
=Because as furious as I am at him, the board and administration has my focus.=
Cool. For everyone else, the focus is on the victims and protecting future players. The last thing the world needed was another arrogant football coach, another coach refusing to be accountable, another complicit youth “leader.” It’s rampant and makes me fearful for my son who plays football.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 12:18 pm:
=The credit, lest we forget, is to the NU Student Newspaper that didn’t let a “Friday News Dump” deter them from reporting on and applying pressure to the Administration.=
While I am a bit of a cynic when it comes to the sensibilities of today’s college student, this group got it right. And did some real journalistic work, unlike most news organizations today.
I remember when I was an undergrad at NIU and the student newspaper’s investigation led to the ouster of the school president. IIRC, he spent in excess of $100k on painting and decorating the president’s house in the early 1980’s.
- cermak_rd - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 12:51 pm:
TIL, you could previously refuse to sell your home to someone based on immigration status. I have never heard of this and am pretty sure I have heard of people selling property to people who don’t even live in the US.
I honestly thought it was just a process of everyone enters an offer and the buyer picks the highest one regardless.
- Cool Papa Bell - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 3:32 pm:
= The Bear =
I stopped reading because I haven’t seen all of season 2 yet. First - the show is terrific.
The acting and cast and writing is amazing. So far season 2 is better than the first (The start of season one is so harsh and frenetic is not an “easy’ watch). If you haven’t seen it please check it out.
The show is an amazing love letter to Chicago and hard working real people. The way music is incorporated into the show is second to none.
- Ducky LaMoore - Wednesday, Jul 12, 23 @ 7:09 pm:
“ 1) You don’t know that”
Very true. I don’t know that. But the university should have. They hired a high-priced attorney to conduct an investigation. If a student reporter can dig up more dirt than that attorney, it’s on them. And they should pay for it.