Mary Stanek

Mary Stanek

Time for fajitas, carnitas and Corona

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By Mary Stanek

Your correspondent in Archer Heights and West Elsdon

3808 W. 57th Place •  (773) 284-7394

We celebrated Polish Constitution Day with some Polish food and beer early in the week. Now it’s time to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with maybe some fajitas, carnitas, tortillas and Corona.

It might be more popular in the United States than in Mexico since it has become a celebration of Mexican-American culture. The day actually commemorates the anniversary of Mexico’s victory over the second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla. It is not be confused with Mexican Independence Day.

Twenty-third Ward Ald. Silvana Tabares’ West Lawn office will now have “working family hours” on Mondays. Starting in May, the office at 3954 W. 63rd St. will have hours from 5 to 7 p.m. each Monday, if you have questions, suggestions or any concerns. This office is on 63rd street, but please note there is a parking lot in the rear.

MaryStanek 1

Mary Stanek

Operation Lifesaver, Inc. is a non-profit organization and nationally recognized leader of rail safety education. Sts. Bruno and Richard School thanked Joseph Chacon from OLI for presenting to the students with the safety and dangers of rail crossings and railroad right-of-way.

I’ve visited OLI’s website and some safety basics listed are as follows. Never walk on tracks, it is illegal trespassing and highly dangerous. Trains have the right of way 100% of the time. Cross train tracks only at designated pedestrian or roadway crossings. A freight train traveling 55 mph or more takes more than a mile to stop. Trains can’t stop quickly enough to avoid collision.

A very important community forum will be held at Kennedy High School, 56th and Narragansett. The topic is the Chicago Police Department Superintendent Search. Share your ideas about effective policing and make the Southwest Side heard. The meeting will be on Wednesday, May 10. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the forum starts at 6. This forum is one of several taking place throughout Chicago.

The Southwest Neighbors Walking Club has been started in the community. At Strohacker Park on Tuesdays and Thursdays the club will meet at 6:30 p.m. outside the field house. Clubs also meet at Archer and Pasteur Park, by the field house. Achieve a healthier lifestyle while getting to know your neighbors. If you are on social media, you can join the Southwest Neighbors Walking Club for more information.

Here on 57th Place, we sort of have our own little walking club around 4:30. That’s when a variety of the dogs are out for their walks as well. We usually join Sparky and his mom Nancy as well as meeting up with Cheese and a plethora of other canines. It’s good that everyone is coming out of the woodwork after the dark winter.

Happy Birthday wishes go to Sandra Ramirez on the 6th.

Local News

Kathy Headley

Bridget Ferriter, you will be missed

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Spread the loveBy Kathy Headley Your correspondent in Chicago Lawn and Marquette Manor 6610 S. Francisco • (773) 776-7778 Last week I had the sad experience of attending the funeral of a good friend, Bridget Ferriter. We were neighbors for more than 30 years. We did things long-time neighbors do, like pop over for coffee…

Mary Stanek

To receive City services, you must ask

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Spread the loveBy Mary Stanek Your correspondent in Archer Heights and West Elsdon 3808 W. 57th Place •  (773) 284-7394 The CHI311 website is the way to go, or a simple 311 phone call can help keep our neighborhoods clean and safe! To quote from an article written by Mike Kovac in the Archer Heights…

Peggy Zabicki

Winter Olympics bring back fun memories

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Spread the loveBy Peggy Zabicki Your correspondent in West Lawn 3633 W. 60th Place •  (773) 504-9327 Have you been watching the Winter Olympics? My favorite sport is figure skating. It is beautiful and athletic. The athletes are so inspiring. I love to watch all the sports. I remember my family gathering around the TV, watching the Olympics in the early…

GSWNH_KeithThornton_021122

Mayor ‘out of control,’ hero says

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Spread the lovePolice ranks ‘thousands’ short, dispatcher tells Scottsdale  By Tim Hadac It’s not every day that a City worker has the courage to attend a public meeting and call a mayor “out of control.” But Keith A. Thornton Jr. did exactly that earlier this week on the Southwest Side. A 911 dispatcher hailed as…

GSWNH_FrontPageBottom_021122

Rockie is the new kid on the block

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Spread the love While some folks see heavy snowfall and curse the skies, children across the Southwest Side seemed thrilled with last week’s winter windfall. Schools cancelled classes, and kids like 9-year-old Rosie Arroyo showed her creativity by working with her father, Raul, to build a snowman in front of their home near 49th and…

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi

Kaegi, legislators, advocates unveil affordable housing initiative

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Spread the loveFrom staff reports Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi was joined by state legislators and affordable housing advocates earlier this week to launch the Affordable Housing Special Assessment Program, a new form of property tax relief recently signed into law. Kaegi worked with legislative partners who passed the law last spring, including State Sens.…

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Lopez nixes dibs

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Spread the love While calling dibs on parking spaces in the winter is an informal tradition in the city, 15th Ward Ald. Raymond Lopez recently reminded his constituents in Back of the Yards, Brighton Park, Gage Park and West Englewood that no one may call dibs indefinitely. He instructed his Streets and Sanitation ward superintendent…

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas

Property tax bills due soon, Pappas says

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Spread the loveFrom staff reports Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas recently mailed nearly 1.8 million Tax Year 2021 First Installment property tax bills. Payments are due March 1, 2022. The First Installment is 55% of the previous year’s total tax. Exemptions that can reduce a property owner’s taxes are applied to the Second Installment bill.…

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Scout Sunday at St. Mary Star of the Sea

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Spread the love Members of Boy Scout Troop 1441, sponsored by the St. Mary Star of the Sea Holy Name Society, as well as their families, attended Mass last weekend at St. Mary’s on what is traditionally Scout Sunday in churches across America. It also signals the start of a month of celebration in recognition…

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush

Rush wants fair shake for independent auto repair shops

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Spread the loveFrom staff reports A proposed law designed to preserve consumer access to high quality, affordable vehicle repair was introduced recently by U.S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-1st). The Right to Equitable and Professional Auto Industry Repair (REPAIR) Act (HR 6570) would ensure that vehicle owners and independent repair shops have equal access to…

Neighbors

Lawmakers pass on oversight vote for Pritzker’s prison closure, rebuild plan

Lawmakers pass on oversight vote for Pritzker’s prison closure, rebuild plan

By HANNAH MEISEL & DILPREET RAJU Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – For the last two decades, each time a governor has moved to close a large state-run facility like a prison or mental health center, a legislative oversight panel has voted on the plan. That changed on Friday – at least for now –…

‘We don’t really know what we’re voting on,’ top Dem says of Pritzker’s prison plan

‘We don’t really know what we’re voting on,’ top Dem says of Pritzker’s prison plan

By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com LINCOLN – On the eve of a scheduled vote to advise Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration on plans to close and rebuild a pair of dilapidated state prisons, hundreds filed into a junior high school gymnasium Thursday evening clad in matching green T-shirts. Printed on the shirts was a…

Illinois child tax credit: who gets it, how much is it?

Illinois child tax credit: who gets it, how much is it?

By ANDREW ADAMS Capitol News Illinois aadams@capitolnewsillinois.com In the final hours of their spring legislative session, Illinois lawmakers approved a tax credit of up to about $300 for families with young children.  The credit is available to Illinoisans with children under age 12 who qualify for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC. Although…

Members of House speaker’s staff sue over ongoing unionization conflict

Members of House speaker’s staff sue over ongoing unionization conflict

By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – Members of a would-be union representing staffers in House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s office filed suit against their boss on Friday, asking a Cook County judge to force recognition of the union. The Illinois Legislative Staff Association, which formed in the fall of 2022, claims Welch’s…

Elections board urged to dismiss complaint that Bailey illegally coordinated in 2022 campaign

Elections board urged to dismiss complaint that Bailey illegally coordinated in 2022 campaign

By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com A hearing officer is recommending the Illinois State Board of Elections dismiss a complaint that alleged conservative radio host and political operative Dan Proft illegally coordinated with former Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey during his 2022 campaign for governor. Proft, a one-time gubernatorial candidate himself, is behind an…

Communities, commission push Pritzker admin for more prison plan details

Communities, commission push Pritzker admin for more prison plan details

By DILPREET RAJU Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com Jimmy Soto spent more than 42 years wrongfully imprisoned in Illinois Department of Corrections facilities. In 2020, he was moved to the “F-House” at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, a condemned unit, not because he was being punished, but because it was where the facility was housing individuals…

Judge blocks law that would have banned newly slated candidates from ballot

Judge blocks law that would have banned newly slated candidates from ballot

By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com A Sangamon County judge on Wednesday blocked the Illinois State Board of Elections from enforcing a new law that would have prevented certain General Assembly candidates who didn’t run in the March primary from getting on the November ballot. The move doesn’t void the bill in its entirety,…

“No Schoolers”: How Illinois’ hands-off approach to homeschooling leaves children at risk

“No Schoolers”: How Illinois’ hands-off approach to homeschooling leaves children at risk

By BETH HUNDSDORFER  & MOLLY PARKER  CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS investigations@capitolnewsillinois.com This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Capitol News Illinois. It was on L.J.’s 11th birthday, in December 2022, that child welfare workers finally took him away. They arrived at his central Illinois home to investigate an abuse allegation and decided…

Brushing off concerns of overspending, Pritzker signs $53.1 billion state budget

Brushing off concerns of overspending, Pritzker signs $53.1 billion state budget

By ANDREW ADAMS JERRY NOWICKI & HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com CHICAGO – Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday signed the state’s $53.1 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, the largest in state history.  The signing caps months of work – and tension – among top Democratic leaders in Springfield and within the…

Stalled bills: ‘Dignity in Pay Act,’ Prisoner Review Board changes fail to move

Stalled bills: ‘Dignity in Pay Act,’ Prisoner Review Board changes fail to move

By ALEX ABBEDUTO,  COLE LONGCOR & DILPREET RAJU Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com A bill eliminating the subminimum wage for workers with disabilities failed to pass the General Assembly ahead of its May adjournment, although sponsors say they hope to pass it when lawmakers return in the fall. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938…