Chicago Daily Observer

On Tuesday Cardenas and aldermen Manny Flores and Toni Preckwinkle were flanked by activists from the Illinois Coalition for Immigration and Refugee Rights when they announced a City Council resolution condemning what Flores called the “race-baiting” portrayal of immigrants by right-wing TV news personalities.

Like all resolutions, this one is nonbinding—it functions as an official statement of outrage but doesn’t actually do anything about the issue.

Fair enough—legislative bodies at every level of government pass resolutions mostly so they can tell their backers they did. And in this case, no one in the room was willing to argue that Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly, and Glenn Beck don’t misrepresent immigrants. Cardenas and his colleagues even appeared to have answers for skeptical reporters.

Among Hispanic politicians in Chicago and Cook County, there’s no dispute that U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-4) is Numero Uno. Gutierrez is likely to run for mayor on 2011, whether or not his on-again, off-again ally, Rich Daley, retires.
Gutierrez, age 54, rescinded his announced retirement in 2008 after concluding that, as a former congressman, he would forfeit his visibility, power base, and fundraising capability. Also, his successor in the 4th district would become an instant mayoral contender, thereby undercutting Gutierrez.
There’s plenty of dispute as to who’s Numero Dos – Number Two – among Hispanic politicians. The upcoming 2008 Democratic primaries feature plenty of contests between various protégés and allies of assorted Hispanic politicians, all of whom are jockeying to expand their power bases and/or undermine their rivals, all with a view to running for mayor, or running for an open 4th District congressional seat.
If ... Read More...

After pretty much exhausting the subject of Free Newspaper
Distribution Wednesday with a rousing session on Bruno Behrend’s
Extreme Wisdom on AM1120 discussing the Chicago Ban, syndicating a few
articles and answering emails to follow up on the story, I was pleased
to see that WTTW Chicago Tonight, and Phil Ponce also thought Freedom
of the Press to be a worthy topic for discussion for a civic affairs
program.

Alderman Manny Flores who was one of the co-authors of the ban, Ordinance 10–8-272,
and Ron Roenigk, publisher of the free publications Inside and Inside
Lincoln Park appeared to cheerfully disagree about the Ordinance,
while Phil Ponce lobbed happy questions about how this can be settled
in a way that both parties are happy. Mr. Roenigk rightly noted that
he would not be happy until the ordinance was completely ... Read More...