2 / CITIZEN / Chatham Southeast / Week of June 1, 2016
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1 ICC Approves $18.5 million in Settlements with Peoples Gas
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he Illinois Commerce Peoples admits the omitted Commission (ICC) has information was material to approved two landmark the Commission’s oversight and settlements under which regulation of Peoples and the $18.5 million will be AMRP, pursuant to the Public paid to customers of Peoples Gas Utilities Act. The ICC approved (Peoples) and the State of Illinois the Integrys/WEC merger on June by Peoples and its parent company, 24, 2015 and company officials Integrys Energy apprised the ICC of Group (Integrys), the revised estimate on which is owned by July 27, 2015. WEC Energy Group A $7.5 million Inc. (WEC). settlement resolves the The settlements ICC’s investigation. total $18.5 million In this agreement, the and resolve companies will pay investigations into $4 million into the statements made Public Utilities Fund “Obviously, by representatives and $500,000 into of Peoples, Integrys the General Revenue the conduct and WEC before Fund. $3 million the Commission will be dedicated to of utility concerning the Peoples’ “Share the employees who Warmth” fund, a estimated longterm cost of the program that provides were involved Accelerated Main heating grants to Replacement in this matter is limited and fixedProgram (AMRP). income households. deplorable.” As part of the A related $11 settlement, officials million settlement with Peoples and resolves the Illinois Integrys admit Attorney General’s information was investigation. The omitted, namely the preliminary company will pay $10 million in cost estimate indicating the AMRP rebates to all of Peoples’ customers would cost more than $8 billion, and $1 million to reconnect and from their discussion of the AMRP forgive outstanding debt to lowat the ICC’s May 20, 2015 open income customers who have had meeting. their gas disconnected.
ICC Chairman Brien Sheahan condemned the company employees responsible for omitting the information from the Commission. “Obviously, the conduct of utility employees who were involved in this matter is deplorable,” Sheahan said. “The Commission always expects that employees of entities who appear before the Commission will do so with honesty and integrity. When they fail to do so, there will be significant consequences.” ICC Executive Director Cholly Smith said the settlement serves as a deterrent.“This settlement is unprecedented in its scope as this law has not been enforced by the Commission or a court since it was first enacted in 2003,” said ICC Executive Director Cholly Smith, citing Section 5-202.1 of the Public Utilities Act, 220 ILCS 5/5-202.1, regarding misrepresentations to the Commission. “It sends a strong message that the ICC will not tolerate attempts to impede the regulatory process. This action protects the integrity of that process.” The Commission vote was 4-1. Commissioner Miguel del Valle cast the dissenting vote. Consumer refunds will begin within 90 days of today’s Commission approval. The company’s payments to the State of Illinois are to be made within 10 days of this action.
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Travis Kalanick, co-founder and CEO of Uber, in 2013 Photo by: Heisenberg Media
Locals Decry Lack of Taxi Service in Chicago in New TV Ad
Chicagoans are speaking out about their love of Uber in a new TV and digital campaign. The new TV ad, which recently went up on Chicago broadcast and cable stations, highlights new data from the City of Chicago that shows Uber and Lyft providing 10 times the number of rides to and from underserved neighborhoods as taxi over the last six months. “I remember the days… Even if a cab stopped for me…he’d say, get out of my cab. I’m not going to the South Side,” said one Chicago resident in the spot. According to Uber, more than 100,000 Chicagoans have signed a petition against Ald. Anthony Beale’s (9th) ordinance to greatly restrict ridesharing. Beale’s ordinance would make it nearly twice as expensive to get a ride, and put up new, unnecessary barriers for ridesharing drivers, Uber said in the release.
NHS East Chatham Revitalization Program Ending Soon Continued from page 1
Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) has been working and helping to rejuvenate communities throughout the Chicago land area for more than 35 years. Deborah Moore, Director of Neighborhood Strategy and Planning says NHS has been working to rebuild communities like East Chatham for years, but soon the East Chatham area program will end. “NHS is a neighborhood revitalization organization that is committed to helping homeowners and strengthening neighborhood throughout Chicago.” In conjunction with the city’s Micro-Market Recovery Program, NHS is working to reinvest and rejuvenate the East Chatham community (east of Cottage Grove Ave.) When the Micro-Market Recovery program was first launched more than 4 years ago, the city identified target zones that would start to see interventions. These are communities that have higher rates of foreclosures, abandoned buildings and vacant lots. The
city wanted to partner with local groups and get vacant buildings into the hands of responsible nonprofit organizations that would develop them into new homes and apartments for residents. Neighborhood Housing Services is a nonprofit housing organization and one of the first nonprofit lending institutions, they along with the Community Investment Corporation, a leader in the multifamily rehab lending industry, are working to turn the community around. Since its’ start in 1975, NHS has served more than 219,000 families throughout Chicago. The organization has issued loans through its corporate lending arm, Neighborhood Lending Services. More than $597 million dollars has been loaned to borrowers to buy, fix, or keep their homes. NHS has saved more than 800 homes from foreclosure and offer foreclosure counseling and home buyer education classes. For buyers who are interested in purchasing
a property, but who may not know where to start, NHS can help every step of the way with the goal of increasing home ownership. NHS wants residents to return and live, rent and purchase homes in communities it serves. Although there is grant money to support programs in targeted areas, the deadline is quickly approaching for the East Chatham area program which ends this year. Buyers must be prepared to close on their homes by the deadline date in order to qualify for any of the incentives. One condition of the program is that any multifamily property that’s purchased must be owner-occupied. “When owners live in the community with other residents, they’re invested in the success of that community,” said Moore. For More information on the East Chatham revitalization initiative, call NHS at 773-329-4010 or visit www. NHSchicago.org .
www.thechicagocitizen.com • 51 years of serving the Black community
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Gifted Boy Helps Boost Accessibility of African-American Children’s Literature
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ost African-American parents understand how challenging it can be to find books for black children and statistics from Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) attests to this. CCBC receives most of the trade books published annually in the United States. In 1985, only 18 of the 2,500 trade books that were published were written by African Americans. Although this number has improved over the decades, statistics still indicate that there is still a diversity gap when it comes to children’s book. CCBC’s 2015 statistics revealed that of all the children’s books received by the Center, only 7.59% featured people of color. Little Buzz Book Club is on a mission to promote books about people of color including African and Caribbean culture. The Little Buzz character was inspired by the Founder’s six-year-old son, Qadar. At the age of two, Qadar taught himself how to read. He has a rare condition known as hyperlexia - a natural ability to decode and understand words without the ability to speak in conversation. Qadar had a hard time communicating with others but eventually began to mimic conversations he read in the books. As a result, he has developed a love for reading and enjoys putting himself inside of books. When asked about the motivation to start the subscription box, Sharif-Harris said: “I was disappointed that I had such a difficult time finding books for my son. Then I realized there were millions of other moms who wanted to inspire their children with stories about characters that looked like them as well.” Little Buzz Book Club is the first subscription box that focuses on literature featuring children of color. For this reason it has been generating a buzz among the African-American and Caribbean communities. The club has more than
Gifted Boy Inspires Subscription Box Boosting Accessibility of African-American Children’s Literature.
33,000 Facebook fans and the number of satisfied subscribers continues to grow. One parent commented: “Asiri was so happy to get her subscription box. It was the first time she did work on her own. Great investment!” The subscription box is affordable and features two plans - one for preschoolers and the other for young readers’ ages 4-10 years old. The pre-school subscription box is available for $14.95 and the young reader subscription box for $18.95. For further details or to start a subscription, visit: http:// www.littlebuzzbookclub.com.
CITIZEN / Chatham Southeast / Week of June 1, 2016 / 3
Size Ranking of Historically Black Colleges/ Universities Released AffordableSchools.net, a college rankings site centering on unique and affordable academic programs, recently released its newest college rankings list, featuring the 25 Largest HBCU Bachelor’s Colleges by Enrollment. The top three schools on the AffordableSchools.net’s rankings list are: (1) North Carolina A & T State University (Greensboro, North Carolina); (2) Howard University (Washington, District of Columbia); (3) Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (Tallahassee, Florida), aka Florida A & M. The complete list of all 25 U.S. colleges and universities, in alphabetical order , can be found on AffordableSchools.net. “HBCU institutions have a very important role in American higher education,” said Raj Dash, the article’s lead researcher. “The ranks of alumni of HBCUs have produced many successful African-Americans in all walks of life -- politics, writing, acting, music, education, hospitality, general business, law and others. In the latter category is Howard University (#2 on our list) alumni Thurgood Marshall, the first “HBCU African-American to sit on the Supreme Court as a Justice. institutions “Even more importantly, the have a very Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is named after him -- a fund important role that promotes education at public in American HBCUs. The rankings article highlights higher 22 public and three private, nonprofit HBCUs -- most of which are members education.” of the TMCF. We’ve added our standard discovery features, including custom map, scrollable lists, interactive charts and per-school statistics dashboard, to help compare the set of ranked schools, for anyone who is searching for a suitable HBCU institution, or simply has an interest. This is the first in a small series exploring bachelor’s-granting HBCU colleges.” Rankings for this list were compiled with data from NCES (National Center for Education Statistics), a bureau of the Dept. of Education (http://nces.ed.gov/). We queried for HBCU institutions that grant bachelor’s degrees, filtered out schools in U.S. protectorate nations such as Guam and Puerto Rico, then sorted the remaining schools by the total student enrollment figures (grad and undergrad) -- from the most recently recorded information at time of writing. The largest 25 schools made this list, which is part of our ongoing series of “top 25” bachelor’s colleges, exploring various niches. Similar niche rankings will be published at AffordableSchools (http://www.affordableschools. net) -- an independent college search and rankings site with a focus on affordable colleges and programs -- on a regular basis.
ComEd: 52,000 Customer Interruptions Caused by Foil Balloons Warm weather brings outdoor parties for graduations, birthdays and weddings. However, ComEd is warning that events like these can lead to power outages when foil balloons, also known as Mylar balloons, from those festivities come into contact with power lines. When a foil balloon contacts a power line or a part of substation equipment, its metallic properties can cause a surge of electricity that can, in turn, cause the equipment to short-circuit. And the spark could lead
to a power outage or fire. Foil balloons were the cause of more than 7,000 customer interruptions in April and more than 52,000 customer interruptions in 2015. To help reduce foil balloon-related power outages ComEd is advising customers to: Keep balloons tethered at all times and attached to weights. Properly dispose of foil balloons by puncturing the balloon to release helium that otherwise could cause
the balloon to float away. NEVER touch a power line. Do not attempt to retrieve a balloon or toy that is entangled in an overhead power line. For assistance, call ComEd at 1-800-EDISON-1 (800-334-7661). Always assume power lines are live and keep yourself, your belongings and anything you are carrying at least 10 feet away from power lines. ComEd customers can learn about more safety tips for the season by visiting ComEd.com.
www.thechicagocitizen.com • 51 years of serving the Black community