I am not sure why football was the sport chosen to represent America’s disregard for black people… I realize the symbolism of not standing for the anthem… but I do look forward to the half time show, and heard Rihanna will not be performing.

This reminded me of an idea I had a while back. My ex was a season ticket holder for the Bears, and loved football so I felt him best to pitch it. He declined. I like playing Madden… and I have now worked two College Football games on the sidelines… and those are my qualifications. Other than that, I am a Software Developer. Enough about me… on to the plan.

During the times the football is not on TV… I presume the stadium is empty. Not all the time, but some of it. At 61,500 people Bears Stadium is the third smallest in the NFL… Located in the South Loop, the zip code has a population of about 25,000 people according to what I just read on a real estate website.

So here is the idea… instead of just being our Colosseum… be our forum. Give each zip code a day to meet and discuss the issues they are currently facing. Loudly. Let people walk onto the fields and speak. Let people hear what they can do for each other.

Then tally it. If one man presents an idea, let others vote then and there what to do… let them speak if they are also being affected so that change may be shared amongst those that don’t speak up.

There are many people living in silos of desperation. Show them how powerful their voices truly are.

I was happy as a survivor to see that while I am in Raleigh… there is a breast cancer event at Soldier Field. So as to say… football is trying. They’ve got one of my causes… Let us see if they will tackle another.

Feel free to contact me for tech support, logistics, or a film crew :)) I’ll come visit.

All the best,

cutehotshot

 

“This conference is a very important gathering of leaders – nonprofit, faith-based,

	Marcia Griffin

government, mortgage and banking leaders,” says Griffin. “It’s crucial in order to elevate the issue of homeownership in general but also the financial stature of people of color specifically. This conference delivers new ideas to capture the millions of potential homebuyers who want to buy but need guidance and encouragement. The unique aspect of the conference will be a mixture of education and inspiration with a goal of establishing a synergy for partnerships,” Griffin says.

• Increase homeownership and financial success among low-to-moderate income people.
• Elevate the stature and increase the impact of government, nonprofit and for-profit housing and homeownership providers
• Create and strengthen public/private partnerships

• Affordable lending
• Increasing homeownership in low-to-moderate income communities
• Personal and professional leadership development
• Developing new public and private partnerships to further their mission and expand affordable housing
• Ways to reach more qualified homebuyers

• Non-Hispanic White householders was highest at 72.9 percent.
• Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander householders was second at 58.0 percent.
• Hispanic householders was at 46.2.
• Black householders was lowest at 41.6 percent.

SPRINGFIELD, IL – The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has confirmed the first human West Nile virus-related death in Illinois for 2018.  A LaSalle County resident over 65 years who became ill during the first part of August and tested positive for West Nile virus has died.

“Although we’re moving toward the end of summer, West Nile virus remains a risk until the first hard frost,” said IDPH Director Nirav D. Shah, M.D., J.D.  “It’s important for everyone to continue taking precautions like using insect repellent, wearing long sleeve shirts and pants, and staying indoors between dusk and dawn.”

Last year IDPH reported the first human West Nile virus death in Illinois on September 29, 2017. During 2017, there were 90 human West Nile virus cases, including eight deaths.  IDPH is currently reporting 22 human cases.  West Nile virus positive results in humans, birds, mosquitoes, and/or horses have been reported in 58 counties this year.

West Nile virus is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito.  Common symptoms include fever, nausea, headache and muscle aches.  Symptoms may last from a few days to a few weeks.  However, four out of five people infected with West Nile virus will not show any symptoms.  In rare cases, severe illness including meningitis or encephalitis, or even death, can occur.  People older than 50 and immunocompromised individuals are at higher risk for severe illness.

Remember to take some simple precautions to reduce the number of mosquitoes around your home and protect yourself from being bitten.

• Minimize being outdoors when mosquitoes transmitting West Nile virus are most active, especially between dusk and dawn.
• When outdoors, wear shoes and socks, long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, and apply insect repellent that contains DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus or IR 3535, according to label instructions.  Consult a physician before using repellents on infants.
• Eliminate all sources of standing water where mosquitoes can breed, such as old tires, buckets and other receptacles, or refresh the water in bird baths, flowerpots and wading pools every couple days.

Additional information about West Nile virus can be found on the IDPH website.

Schools must have democratic oversight from elected, representative school board – the path forward to provide transparency and accountability that protects students from harm, says union.

CHICAGO, IL—The CPS released a report on system-wide failures to protect students from sexual abuse – an appalling example of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s failed control our schools. CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey issued the following statement in response to the report’s deeply troubling findings:

“Rahm Emanuel and his hand-picked school bosses have failed repeatedly to protect schoolchildren from harm,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey. “Emanuel’s hand-picked administrators and board of education have repeatedly rebuffed our efforts to establish an independent task force to address this issue, just as CPS has repeatedly bungled its efforts in re-fingerprinting educators.

“Our primary responsibility as educators is to ensure the safety of our students – a responsibility the mayor has undermined. Instead, Emanuel has closed nearly a hundred schools, slashed school budgets, robbed our school communities of veteran educators and created a dangerous shortage of social workers, clinical psychologists, counselors and certified school nurses. These are exactly the professionals best equipped to train students and staff to be alert to potential abuse, and to identify and address any threats to students. Our teachers, clinicians and paraprofessionals struggle under mayoral control—a school regime that has repeatedly covered up and concealed threats to student safety, whether that is rodent-infested buildings or sexual predators. Our schools and our students are little more than pawns in the mayor’s endless racket to enhance his political stature – a distorted agenda that has created what today’s report calls “costly changes”, and an inconsistent, dangerous culture in our schools that undercuts our students’ very safety and trust in our school communities.

“Rahm Emanuel owns this crisis – and he owns every single crisis our school district has confronted since he took over in 2011. His failed leadership of our schools must end, and the people of this city must be granted what they have repeatedly demanded – an elected, representative school board that is accountable, transparent and committed first, foremost and always to the wellbeing of our students and their school communities, rather than the mayor’s political fortunes.”

From: Chicago Teachers Union

Number of children accessing pre-K has fallen by 18% since Emanuel took office – more than twice the rate of decline of student enrollment in CPS.

CHICAGO, IL — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel promised today to guarantee early childhood education for Chicago children – a day after damning news that the CPS Inspector General found a wave of contract steering at Chicago Public Schools. Emanuel has repeatedly promised to expand early childhood programming since he took office – even though participation has declined by almost 20%.

Emanuel’s campaign promise comes on the heels of a report a week ago that busted CPS for giving families in the city’s richest neighborhood special priority access to free, all-day preschool services, locking out the children of poorer families from the coveted Montessori program.

“For seven years, Emanuel has issued a stream of misleading press releases about early childhood programs,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey. ”The real facts are that early childhood education has been in decline since Emanuel took control of CPS – and the remaining programs have been grossly under-resourced.”

In 2014, in the midst of a heated re-election campaign, Emanuel announced a $17 million “social impact” bond program to fund early childhood education, a move that was widely criticized for potentially doubling the return to investors – and the program costs to taxpayers. Loan investors included Goldman Sachs and the Pritzker Family Foundation.

“We need preschool access for ALL of our children – from the earliest ages,” said Sharkey. “But Emanuel has consistently failed to deliver on his endless promises. Instead, under his rule, the number of children receiving pre-school services has nosedived, from almost 24,000 when he took office to fewer than 20,000 today. That drop is more than twice as high as the drop in our overall student body for the same period.”

In 2011, 8,157 three-year-olds and 15,548 four-year-olds were enrolled in pre-k services in CPS. This year, that number fell to 6,670 three-year-olds and 12,771 four-year-olds – with the decline accelerating in the wake of Emanuel’s mass closings of schools in 2013. Many of those closed schools hosted pre-k programs. Overall, the number of children receiving pre-k services has fallen by 18% since Emanuel took office, while the number of students enrolled in CPS schools overall has fallen by 8% during the same time period.

Emanuel has also been criticized by parents and advocates for creating an ‘enrollment’ process that is cumbersome, difficult to navigate and poorly organized, often thwarting parents with older children in a school from registering their little ones in early childhood programs at that same school. Last summer, Emanuel’s CPS administrators moved to lay off almost 40 school workers who helped parents enroll their children in early childhood programs. While over half of those workers have been hired back, many did not return to their responsibilities to facilitate pre-k enrollment.

While CPS has won over $1 billion in new funds since 2015, mayor continues to bilk taxpayers and deny vital resources to classrooms, students.

CHICAGO, IL—The Illinois legislature passed a new state budget – with CPS scheduled to receive a significant portion of the additional education funding in the bill.

“We’re demanding that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel put those funds into classrooms and educational needs,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey. “Those funds must go to support special education and staffing to reduce classroom sizes, CPS’ contractually promised sustainable community schools pilot project that Emanuel has been dragging his heels on implementing, and other critical front-line educational needs. Anything less is a betrayal of our students, their parents and our city.”

CPS has received more than $1 billion in additional annual revenue since the 2015-16 school year. It would cost CPS $10 million – a tiny fraction of its annual budget – to fund the Sustainable Community Schools pilot project it agreed to deploy in its most recent CTU contract, yet Emanuel’s school officials continue to slow-walk implementation. The project is designed to provide under-resourced school communities with trauma supports, wrap-around services, educational programming and community engagement that builds rich learning environments and a pathway to lifelong success for students.

Emanuel’s hand-picked CPS officials said earlier this year that they would provide $60 million to hold schools harmless on budget cuts related to enrollment declines for the coming school year. But schools began reporting big cuts to budgets and staff after CPS issued budgets last month. Emanuel’s school officials have also continued to ignore the very needs that the new state funding formula is designed to remedy – including a dire shortage of counselors, social workers and support for wrap-around services for low-income students, who make up the bulk of Chicago’s public school population.

Emanuel has touted his support for early childhood education since he was elected, and has expanded free, full-day pre-K in the city’s wealthiest neighborhood. But Wednesday, he said it would take 3-4 years to implement his newly announced expansion of early childhood education, which will only serve 4-year-olds. While Emanuel promised to provide $175 million to support that pre-K expansion, he’s failed to identify new revenue to fund his promise. Last month, CPS forked over a $1.1 million payment to Goldman Sachs and its fellow ‘social impact bond’ investors, part of the repayment of a $17 million bond that was supposed to expand early childhood education – particularly for low-income children. The bond could potentially double the return to investors – at taxpayer expense.

But enrollment in pre-K programs has fallen by 18% since Emanuel took office, including a sharp drop in enrollment in the last two years.

Emanuel has closed more than 60 schools, but failed to provide evidence of savings from the closures, while students impacted by those closures suffer from worse educational outcomes. Emanuel has refused to support progressive revenue sources, denied funds for trauma-related services and class size reduction, and purged thousands of veteran Black educators from CPS.

“For seven years, Emanuel has spent precious public education dollars on whatever he wants – including hundreds of millions on private contracts and insider deals that have failed our students and bilked taxpayers,” said Sharkey. “This mayor has consistently rejected the appeals of parents, educators and neighborhood residents for desperately needed support for our students and our schools. Instead, he’s eagerly chased headlines with his endless failed promises, and ignored the harm that his education policies have had on our children. He’s exacerbated education inequality for our schoolchildren, and his failed control of our schools must end. We demand that he put these new funds into our classrooms and our students’ futures. And we demand that he end his obstruction of state legislation that would allow Chicagoans to elect their own school board – a representative school board that can provide our schools with the accountability, transparency and ethical governance that we deserve.”

AFSCME People Committee Endorses Pritzker for Governor

The AFSCME PEOPLE Committee voted unanimously to endorse J.B. Pritzker for governor and Juliana Stratton for lieutenant governor. The PEOPLE Committee, comprised of rank-and-file union members from every part of the state, met April 27 to follow up on a resolution unanimously adopted at AFSCME Council 31’s biennial convention last October which committed our organization to work to defeat Bruce Rauner.

“Bruce Rauner has caused conflict, refused to compromise and can’t be trusted. Working families are unquestionably worse off now than when he took office,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said.

“Repairing the damage done by Rauner is a big job. Illinois needs leaders like J.B. and Juliana who will bring people together and who care about working families,” Lynch said. “They’ve taken the time to travel the state and to listen to working people. They know the importance of public services and they value the women and men who provide those services in our communities every day. We look forward to working with J.B. and Juliana to rebuild our state.”

“I’m honored to have the support of AFSCME and the tens of thousands of workers it represents in Illinois,” Pritzker said. “While Bruce Rauner undercuts our workers and attacks their families at every chance, I will restore the respect our public service workers deserve. I will defend collective bargaining rights for our unions and protect hard earned pensions. With the support of AFSCME members throughout Illinois, we will build on our statewide, grassroots campaign that is ready to put Springfield back on the side of working families and get our state back on track.”

Union members on the committee shared their views on the endorsement of Pritzker and Stratton.

“Everybody who works for a living has been harmed by Bruce Rauner. We need someone who will sit down with everyone and come up with solutions that are fair,” said Garry Cacciapaglia, a water plant operator in Rockford. “J.B. has already gone out and built bonds with many different groups all over the state. We’re excited to stand together to beat Bruce Rauner.”

“For working people tired of the last three-plus years of Bruce Rauner attacking us and never being on our side, J.B. Pritzker will bring dramatic and welcome change. For state employees, I believe J.B. will be someone who’s open and willing to work together and treat us fairly,” said Stephen Mittons, a child protective investigator in Chicago. “J.B. has a progressive platform to raise the revenue Illinois needs from those who can afford it.”

“Bruce Rauner starved universities, doing incalculable damage to university employees and the students we serve. We need a governor who will prioritize higher education,” said Ellen Larrimore, an archivist at Northeastern Illinois University. “I know that J.B. Pritzker believes in funding public higher education and understands the important role it plays in our state.”

“Under Rauner we’ve had to fight just to get a living wage. He doesn’t understand the work we do and never walked in our shoes,” said Yolanda Woods, a caregiver for children with disabilities in Springfield. “We need someone like J.B. Pritzker who’s compassionate enough to take the time and understand a single mother who works two jobs and still can’t make ends meet. We need someone who’s willing to stand up for what’s right and get the job done.”

SPRINGFIELD, IL – With more than 13 million children nationwide living in food insecure homes, a measure supported by state Rep. Mary E. Flowers, D-Chicago, and state Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, aims to end childhood hunger in schools throughout the state of Illinois.

“Children are the innocent ones in these situations, so none of them deserve to go through their days hungry because their parents are struggling to afford lunch at school,” said Flowers. “If a child were in a home and were hungry from not eating adequately, the parents would immediately be arrested and have the children taken from them. This measure holds both parents and schools accountable for keeping children nourished. It ensures that children have the nutrition needed at school to take on their day, grow and develop to their best selves.”

Harper and Flowers are a chief co-sponsor and co-sponsor of Senate Bill 2428, respectively. The measure creates the “Hunger-Free Students’ Bill of Rights Act.” Under the act, meals are required to be given to children regardless of their ability to pay. This will ensure that children have the nutrition to be successful and focused. The act also prevents food shaming of students who cannot afford lunch to ensure they aren’t alienated.

“No child across Illinois should go to school on an empty stomach,” said Harper. “If our children are our future, then they deserve to be well-nourished and taken care of by their parents, teachers and schools to reach their full potential. Providing them with school meals they need will make students more productive and focused on doing the best they can each day.”

Flowers represents the 31st District, which includes portions of the Auburn-Gresham community in Chicago, Oak Lawn, Chicago Ridge, Countryside and others. For more information, please contact Rep. Flowers’ constituent service office at 773-471-5200 or email her at maryeflowers@ilga.gov.