Serving Poor Kids in a Wealthy Neighborhood

In the heart of Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood North Avenue Day Nursery (NADN) is trying to stay relevant and viable, providing care to children from low-income families, like they’ve always done, and by attracting the neighborhoods new, more affluent families.

“We’re still serving the low-income families that we always have,” said Executive Director of the nursery for the last 11 years, Steven Koll, “but by creating a blend of market-rate children with these other kids; we’re creating a unique blend, reflective of the wider-world.”

Tags: Chicago, early childhood education, Education, Humboldt PArk, North Avenue Day Care, Nursery, West Town, Wicker Park

Death to Recidivism: Chicago Not-For-Profit Struggles to Find a Path to Success

Chicago based not-for-profit, Tabula Rasa, received their 501(c)(3) status a year and half ago and have since been struggling to get noticed. They believe when people start paying attention they will be able to get the necessary dollars to assist one of this city’s neediest populations.

Tags: Blank Slate, Chicago, Education, Illinois, Mentors, Not-For-Profit, School, Young Offenders

Chicago Resident; Rahm Emanuel: Three Days of Legal Confusion and Press Consensus

When the Illinois Appellate Court ruled on January 24, 2011 that Rahm Emanuel did not meet the residency requirement and was therefore ineligible to run for Chicago Mayor a consensus of objection in the established Chicago print media erupted.

One day after the appellate court announced its ruling, the Illinois Supreme Court filed an injunction to stop Emanuel’s name from being removed from any ballots that were going to be printed. On January 27, three days after the appellate court decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Emanuel did, in fact, fulfill the residency requirement to be able to run for Mayor.

Tags: Carol Marin, Chicago, Chicago Mayor, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, Ed Burke, Eric Zorn, Illinois, John Kass, Law, Mark Brown, Mary Mitchell, Rahm Emanuel, Residency, Supreme Court

Christina Aguilera; whoops!

Aguilera’s cardinal sin during perhaps the most patriotic Superbowl show ever continues to attract controversy.

The faux pas committee herself reacted with grave seriousness. She said, “I got so lost in the moment of the song that I lost my place. I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through.”

All was right with Fox’s “America is the best country ever broadcast” from the full reading of the declaration of independence to the slow-mo shots of old glory flickering in the breeze, until Aguilera stepped up and got lost in the moment of love for her country.

Tags: America, Christina Aguilera, Lame, National Anthem, Rosanne Barr, Steven Tyler, Superbowl

Chicago Aldermen: more than ever before

Democracy seems to be energetic in Chicago’s 24th Ward this election cycle. Voters in this North Lawndale/Garfield Park community will be able to choose between 18 candidates for Alderman when they go to the polls in 21 days.

The February 22nd Chicago Municipal Elections are the most significant in a generation, not just because Chicago will elect a new Mayor for the first time in 22 years, but more candidates than ever before have decided to run for office, to be one of the 50 Alderman that make up the Chicago City Council.

According to the Board of Elections 351 people filed signatures to be able to run for Alderman this year. From this large number 242 people have survived petition challenges to become candidates. In 2007, 175 candidates ran for Alderman.

Tags: 24th Ward, Alderman, Candidates for Alderman, Chicago, Chicago Mayor, Election, politics, Sharon Dixon

Reporting on the motive of a spree-killer; what’s the point?

Since Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords was shot point blank in the head last week, the news media has been consumed by the motive of the “accused” shooter, 22 year old, Jared Lee Loughner, who actually managed to kill 6 people that day.

What motivates a monster?

Reporting on motive is not only ethically problematic, but redundant. No one but Loughner knows his motive (if he knows it himself). Everything else is just assumption, speculation and (very cynically) filler.

One doesn’t actually need to do any reporting to talk about Loughner’s motive. They can just talk. Of course opinion has always had a place in journalism, and in today’s omnipresent journalism it’s pervasive to the point of excess, but, in the end speculation is really nothing more than a literal definition of a waste of time.

Gossip is pointless and ideally should have no place in a journalism that seeks to educate and improve the citizenry it claims to serve. If your viewer/listener/reader learns nothing; why even bother?

Tags: ABC, Arizona, Bodies, Coverage, Drowning Pool, Gabrielle Giffords, Gun Control, Jared Lee Loughner, Journalism, News, Socially Responsible, The Washington Post, The Week

Oprah on her OWN: Conquering a niche market

At noon on January 1, this year, Oprah Winfrey launched her own cable channel.

The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) replaced the Discovery Health Channel and is a joint venture between Discovery Communications and Oprah’s Harpo Productions.

Oprah Winfrey knows who her viewers are and, more importantly, who they aspire to be.