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GIFT GUIDE Your Guide to the Holidays INSIDE!
SPORTS
Dons move on Text for the teaser goes right here SEE PAGE 5
FORUM
Celebrating IL Obama’s political career in Illinois helped shape his presidency SEE PAGE 4
BUSINESS Dave Says Check cashing company not payday lender bad, but still not smart SEE PAGE 7
SPECIAL SECTION
HOLIDAY
NEWS
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2018 | BUGLENEWSPAPERS.COM
VILLAGE NEWS >> NILES
Niles voters increase control of ballots There will be more opportunities to place referenda on ballots by voters BY IGOR STUDENKOV For the Bugle @BugleNewspapers nweditor@buglenewspapers.com
Out of all of the referenda questions on the ballot throughout the Bugle’s coverage area, none had the bigger long-term impact than a binding referendum that will give Niles voters more opportunities to place referenda on the ballot – which was approved overwhelmingly by 77.6 percent of the Niles voters. Under state law, both municipal governments and area voters can place referenda on ballots in any election. However, there are only three slots available per election, and they get filled on first-come, first-file basis. Under the binding referendum introduced by local activist Joe Makula, if the Village of Niles Board of Trustees places one referendum on the ballot, it must wait until 180 days before the nearest election to place any more items. This will give Niles voters time to get the signatures needed to place
TREES: Your Community’s Best Investment
Mayor Maloney and City Attorney Adam Simon participated in the Chicago Region Trees Initiative video, TREES: Your Community’s Best Investment. The goal of the video is to spread awareness of the importance of pro-active tree maintenance to increase the benefits trees provide to the community. The Park Ridge Forestry Division continues to serve on the CRTI’s Tree Risk Assessment and Management work group. This group includes representatives from county, state and federal agencies, ComEd, the Morton Arboretum and local tree care companies and advocacy organizations. It is one of six work groups that specifically focuses on identifying the biggest risks
referenda on the two remaining slots, should they choose to. Makula submitted the referendum in response to the village board’s June 13, 2017 vote to fill all three referenda slots for the next two elections – which was criticized as a way to shut out voterinitiated referenda. In the run up to the vote, the Niles activist submitted several successful referenda – most notably, a referendum to take away Niles mayors’ power to fill trustee vacancies. While the three referenda on the March 20, 2018 referenda stayed on the ballot, the village couldn’t put the three referenda meant for the Nov. 6 ballot that far in advance. This gave Makula an opportunity to submit the latest referendum. As the result, both his referendum and two out of the three village advisory referenda made it onto the ballot. Both of those advisory referenda – a referendum encouraging village to work on modernizing the Niles Historical Society building and a referendum encourag-
to Chicago area trees including pests and disease, bio-mechanical tree failure, climate change and developing strategies to mitigate these potential threats.
2018 Annual Holiday Food Drive
firebadgeThe Firefighter’s Association of Morton Grove will be collecting non-perishable and unexpired food, purchasing children’s gifts and supplying one large meal item to local families in need this holiday season. Food donation barrels will be available for collection through December 10 at the following locations: MG Fire Department #4, 6250 Lincoln Village Hall, 6101 Capulina MG Civic Center, 6140 Dempster Moose Lodge, 6419 Chestnut MG Park District, 6834 Dempster
ing the village to work with its local school districts to enhance their school ratings – were approved by 56.38 percent and 83.86 percent, respectively. Other Referenda But Niles voters weren’t the only ones voting on binding referenda. Voters in Park Ridge, Des Plaines, unincorporated Maine Township and Maine Township portion of Niles approved a binding referendum allowing Maine Township High School District 207 to issue bonds to finance school improvements by 60.96 percent. Property owners whose homes are valued at $384,000 can expect to see their property taxes go up by $350. Maine Township residents also voted in favor of an advisory referendum that the township board placed on the ballot to gauge whether its constituents would oppose the reintroduction of the Cook County sweetened beverage tax. 72.59 percent of the voters to oppose such a move. Cook County Board and Illinois General Assembly Races While Chicago area as a whole saw changes as Democrats gained seats in all levels of government, it was the night of the status quo for
Monetary donations are also accepted at the MG Fire Department #4 location. Make checks payable to the Firefighter’s Association of Morton Grove. Help those less fortunate this holiday season. Questions call 847-470-5226
Niles West Inducted to PASCH Network
Posted on November 8, 2018 Niles West German students attend presentation for PASCHOn November 1, Niles West High School was inducted to the PASCH network, a highly selective group of schools that promote the teaching of the German language and which builds active and long-term links to Germany. PASCH is a German acronym for “Schools: Partners for the Future.” The Goethe Institut selected Niles West to be a PASCH school. On hand to present a plaque to Niles West Principal Dr. Jason Ness was the German Consul Herbert Quelle, along with Petra Roggel, Goethe-Institut Director,
this newspaper’s coverage area as incumbents on both sides of the aisle kept their seats. In Cook County Board’s 13th District, which includes Morton Grove and Niles Township portion of Niles, Democrat incumbent Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin won reelection against former Niles trustee and current Niles Township Republican Party committeeman Chris Hanusiak by a sizable margin, getting 75.1 percent of the vote. Hanusiak, who was seen campaigning near at the Niles-Maine Public Library on election day, told the Bugle that it was important to him to give Republican voters a choice. As previously reported by the Bugle, Suffredin was a major advocate for the beverage tax. Unlike in 2014, where he won the primary and the general election by default, this year he faced two primary challengers even before he got to the general election. Hanusaik told the Bugle that, as a committeeman, his big priority for the upcoming elections to ensure that all offices – including state offices – will have “qualified” Republican candidates.
and Anja Schmitt, Deputy Director of Goethe-Institut. After the presentation, German students were treated to an exciting show by science entertainer Joachim Hecker. Speaking in both German and English, Hecker endeared himself to the crowd with his offbeat demonstrations, as well as his refrain: “I don’t like science. I love science!” Attending Niles West PASCH presentationJoining the PASCH network affords Niles West German students and faculty lifechanging opportunities at no cost to the district, including all expensepaid student travel nationally and internationally, participation in special events, including projects, activities and cultural events hosted or sponsored by the Goethe Institut, teacher trainings and workshops, materials and resources. The network also provides the opportunity to participate in the global learning exchange platform called pasch.net, which connects PASCH German programs in over 100 different countries worldwide. The science show was one example of the events sponsored
“No more empty spaces on the ballot,” he said. In the 14th District, which includes the remaining portions of Niles and most of Park Ridge and unincorporated Maine Township, Republican incumbent Peter Silvestri prevailed against Democrat challenger Frank McPartin, albeit by a closer margin, winning 52.11 percent of the vote. On state level, state representative Marty Moylan (D-55th) held off a challenge by Republican Marily Smolenski, getting 55.18 percent of the vote. Further east, state representative John D’Amico (D-15) held off Republican challenger Amenad Biela by a slightly larger margin, getting 57.38 percent of the vote. Representatives Lou Lang (D-16) and Micheal McAulife (R-20) didn’t face any opponents in their respective races, winning by default. The one non-incumbent on the ballot, state representative Laura Fine (D-17), ran for the Illinois Senate 9th District seat, which was held by Daniel Biss until he decided to run for governor. She faced off against Republican Joan Lasonde, getting 71.55 percent of the vote.
by the PASCH network. Earlier this summer, six Niles West German students were awarded scholarships for summer study programs through the school’s PASCH connection via the Goethe Institut. All travel, room and board, and program fees were completely covered. PASCH also sponsored four students and a teacher to participate in the German Academic Triathlon in Estes Park, CO this fall, as well scholarships to attend a Theatre Workshop held in Texas. D219 German teacher Josef Neumayer led the effort to apply for the recognition. He said, when the designation was first announced, “We are incredibly honored to be chosen as a PASCH school. This PASCH designation is by far the highest honor our German program has achieved in the history of Niles West. The opportunities for intercultural learning and collaboration will undoubtedly change the lives of countless Niles West German students in the years to come.”
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Obama’s political career in Illinois helped shape his presidency BY CHRIS KAERGARD OF THE JOURNAL STAR A decade ago, he claimed victory in the presidential campaign from Grant Park in Chicago. He announced his run — and later his running mate — on ground trod by Abraham Lincoln at the Old State Capitol. And, yes, he also quoted Ronald Reagan on occasion. Like the first two, Barack Obama wasn’t born here, but chose to live in Illinois and make his reputation within these borders. While his post-presidency may not — at least for now — feature a Chicago address, his time in Chicago and its politics helped clarify his presidential character to the world, and prepare him for the task. So, too, did the world under the Capitol dome in Springfield, and his time representing a state that boasts Fortune 500 corporations, industrial laborers, suburban families, downstate farmers and many others. “I think coming from an industrial, agricultural state with a lot of cultural diversity was such a great learning experience for him,” says Ray LaHood, Obama’s former secretary of transportation. That experience started in Chicago, and it began at a fortuitous moment. The diagnosis from an end-of-presidency analysis by Chicago magazine points to Obama’s arrival on the Windy City scene at the right time, during the mayoralty of Harold Washington, and his growth in the political world during the election and term of Sen. Carol Moseley Braun — two trailblazing African-American politicians. Obama himself noted much the same about the connection to Washington’s era, writing in “Dreams of My Father” that his election as the city’s first African-American mayor “had given (the) people a new idea of themselves. Or maybe it was an old idea, born of a simpler time. Harold was something they still held in common: like my idea of organizing, he held out an offer of collective redemption.” His nature as something of an outsider — at least not someone raised from birth in Chicago’s political culture — also may have helped Obama. “A traditional Chicago pol, tainted by
the alliances and the dealmaking of the city’s shady political culture, could never succeed on a national stage,” the piece notes. Most people know Obama’s thumbnail-sketch biography: community organizer, president of the Harvard Law Review, state legislator, U.S. senator, president. But one initiative that gets less attention now is one that helped propel him to local fame. After law school and before the Legislature, during those few years of private legal practice that fly under the radar, Obama led a major voter registration drive — the biggest in Chicago history to that point. Project Vote put more than 125,000 more voters on the rolls in 1992, many of them minorities, and it got people talking about a possible political future for him. Weeks later, the man whose 2008 presidential candidacy would later be credited with spikes in minority and youth voting said in a Chicago magazine story on the registration effort, “I think it’s fair to say we reinvigorated a slumbering constituency. We got people to take notice.” That’s one of many themes he later took to a national campaign and the presidency that were first sounded in the Windy City. When he first ran for the Legislature, he said this about his organizing efforts in a 1995 interview with the Chicago Reader: “In America, we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know, we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams, are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations.” And this, too, in the Chicago Reader, from a man whose presidential campaigns grew leaders from the grass roots. “Three major doubts have been raised,” he said. The first is whether in today’s political environment — with its emphasis on media and money — a grass-roots movement can even be created. Will people still answer the call of participatory politics? “Second,” Obama said, “many believe that the country is too racially polarized to build the kind of multiracial coali-
tions necessary to bring about massive economic change. “Third, is it possible for those of us working through the Democratic Party to figure out ways to use the political process to create jobs for our communities?” Other experiences along the way also helped him develop beyond those early days – not only living in a city “with its politics 24-7,” but the personalities that it contains helped prepare him for that world, LaHood says. So, too, did his single loss, taking on U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush for a seat in Congress in 2000. “I think the fact that ... he lost his election in the congressional race was probably as good a lesson as you can learn in politics on what to do and what not to do,” LaHood said. “That was, while probably painful, a good lesson for him to learn.” So was learning about the state that exists beyond the borders of Cook County. Once in the Senate, Obama got to know lawmakers from all corners of the state, including Sen. Denny Jacobs in the Quad Cities and Sen. George Shadid from Peoria. “He learned a lot from George Shadid and central Illinois – and I’m sure that was true of all senators,” LaHood says, pointing to the reunion Obama staged with former colleagues after a valedictory visit to the Illinois Legislature late in his term to visit with longtime pals under the dome. Some of those friendships made it easier to run for U.S. Senate, already having an understanding of downstate interests and priorities. And geographic proximity helped when he turned his eyes to the presidency. “When he started running for president, you didn’t have to show him where Davenport was, having represented the Quad Cities. Or Muscatine, having been to Quincy,” LaHood says. One more legacy, too, that Obama took from his adopted state and his early political career. He and LaHood played golf earlier this year, and the latter says that Obama’s love of the links developed in the statehouse. On slow session days, LaHood relates that the young senator noticed colleagues clearing out of the Capitol in the late afternoon, and learned that many were adjourning to golf courses in town. So he took up the sport himself.
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BUSINESS + REAL ESTATE TA K E 5 M I N U T E S FOR YOURSELF!
NEWS ABOUT LOCAL BUSINESSES IN YOUR COMMUNITY THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2018 | BUGLENEWSPAPERS.COM
DAVE SAYS
Wait on the honeymoon? Dear Dave: My fiancé and I are getting married in three weeks, but he lost his job as an experienced HVAC technician at a hospital a few days ago. Do you think we should still go on a honeymoon, or wait until things are more stable? I’m on Baby Step 3 of your plan, and I make $56,000 a year. I also have $7,000 in an emergency fund. He was making $64,000 a year, and he’s on Baby Step 2 with about $10,000 in car debt remaining. We have $3,000 already set aside for the trip, plus another $2,000 we were planning to put toward fixing up his place. — Corina Dear Corina: First, congratulations on your upcoming wedding! I hope you two will have long and happy lives together. Usually, I’m not a big fan of spending when someone loses a job. But I think your situation is a little different than most. You’re both serious about dumping debt and getting control of your finances. Plus, you’re working together, and you’ve already got a nice chunk of cash parked in the bank. That tells me you’re both wise enough to know the importance of saving.
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2018 | BUGLENEWSPAPERS.COM
FOOTBALL
DONS
ADVANCE
Notre Dame advances to Class 5A state semifinals; Loyola rambles past Maine South Notre Dame handed Antioch its first loss of the season and advances to the Class 5A state Semifinals with a 17-10 win. Ty Gavin, who has been nursing an injury he suffered in week eight of the regular season, topped 100 yards on 24 carries and found the end zone twice. The Dons move to 10-2 on the season and will host undefeated their first semifinal appearance since 1989 at 3 p.m. in Niles. The 10 wins is the most by a Notre Dame team in at least 25 years. The last time the Dons reached the semifinals, they advanced to state, falling to Mt. Carmel in the Class 5A title game. Notre Dame is one of four members of the East Suburban Catholic Conference still alive in the playoffs, joining Joliet Catholic Academy (Class 5A), Nazareth Academy (7A) and Marist (8A). • In the Class 8A semifinal, Maine South and Loyola Academy met for the seventh time in the 45year history of the IHSA state football tournament. Each had won three times coming in. In this one, Loyola (9-3) totally shutdown the high-powered Hawk attack and won 17-0. The last time the Hawks (10-2), were shutout, was again by Loyola in a 2013 second-round game, 350. The first half was a titanic defensive struggle as the Ramblers led 3-0 at halftime. The Hawks were
only able to muster two first downs and 45 yards of total offense. With 7:44 left in the third quarter, Rambler quarterback Jack Fallon (15 of 28, 165 yards, TD, 2 INT) found senior wide receiver, Rory Boors (6 catches, 81 yards, TD) from 16 yards out, to give the Ramblers a 10-0 lead. Maine South quarterback Cole Dow (2 for-10, 19 yards) was replaced by senior Bobby Inserra (3 for 7, 41 yards, INT), after the Ramblers grabbed the 10-0 lead. Inserra connected with junior wide receiver Danny Lazic for a 22-yard gain and drove the Hawks deep into Loyola territory. The Rambler defense rose up and turned the Hawks away on downs. With 10:40 left in the contest Loyola senior linebacker Jake Gonzales intercepted a Inserra pass and returned it 30 yards to the Hawk eight yard-line. Senior Mike Gavic (16 carries, 54 yards, TD) would crash in from the one, for a 17-0 Rambler lead with.9:12 left in the game. The Hawks were held to 24 yards rushing and 57 yards passing for 81 yards of total offense. The 2018 Hawk season was another successful season, with the Hawks’ Central Suburban League South Championship, their 17th in the last 18 seasons. Also another Elite 8 advancement, in the Class 8A playoffs. Maine South, head football coach, Dave Inserra, summed up the season, when he talked with,
FILE PHOTO
Notre Dame advanced to the state semifinals for the first time since 1989 when it placed second in Class 5A. The Dons look to repeat with a win over Cary-Grove Saturday. the tear-streaked, Maine South Hawks’ football team, after the game. “It really hurts right now because each and everyone of you, worked so very hard for us, to win
a state championship, this season,” Inserra said. “It didn’t happen but we still had a great season. I am so proud of all of you and it was a pleasure coaching you. A state championship, a semifinal
appearance and a quarterfinal appearance. Not too bad of a career for our seniors. We will go forward.” -Drake Skleba reported on Maine South
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LEGAL LISTINGS
S TAY I N F O R M E D W I T H L E G A L L I S T I N G S THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2018 | BUGLENEWSPAPERS.COM
FOREST PRESERVES OF COOK COUNTY
Preserve restoration benefits land, animals, people Throughout the Forest Preserves of Cook County, plants, animals and insects are preparing for colder months ahead. And while winter may mean hibernation for some, the Forest Preserves remain bustling with opportunities to enjoy nature. There are numerous special events and programs during November, as well as plenty of ways to get outside, including hiking, volunteering, camping and biking. In this issue readers will hear from one of the Forest Preserves’ burn bosses, the leader of a crew during prescribed burn seasons. Elliot Medina, senior resource technician in the Resource Management Department, has been performing prescribed burns with the Forest Preserves for eight years. He talks about the variables that go into prescribed burning, and why this ecological management technique is so beneficial to the landscape. Readers will also learn about a continued partnership between the Forest Preserves and Friends of the Chicago River, which has been restoring vital breeding habitats for turtles in the preserves. Last month representatives from Friends, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and our Resource Management Department affixed transmitters to the shells of 20 stinkpot, snapping and painted turtles before they were released back into the wild. The transmitters allow researchers to track the turtles and understand if they’re using the restored lands. Finally, read about the ribboncutting at our Deer Grove East Interpretive Trail. The trail was completed in partnership with Chicago-based Openlands and includes interpretive elements such as signage and seating at four nodes celebrating different nature themes. Be sure to plan a visit to Deer Grove to walk the trail. Don’t forget that the Forest Preserves’ 2019 picnic and special event permits go on sale beginning November 15. The public can purchase permits online, or stop in the Forest Preserves’ General Headquarters or Dan Ryan Woods Visitor Center. Learn more about permits at fpdcc.com/permits. We hope to see you in the Preserves! Toni Preckwinkle, President Forest Preserves of Cook County
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