In the ongoing feud over a continuing care retirement center at 10024 S. Central Park Ave., the city's Plan Commission voted Thursday to approve the 212-unit building despite objections from Evergreen Park officials and residents.

The Chicago City Council has yet to vote on the issue, though, setting the stage for a possible showdown at City Hall by neighboring Evergreen Park officials and residents.

The five-storey Mount Greenwood facility would be operated by the Sisters of Mercy on property adjacent to the campuses of Saint Xavier University and Mother McAuley High School.

Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip announced Monday that the Justice Department has pledged $2 million through its Anti-Gang Initiative to help fight gangs in the Chicago area. The funding is designed to assist community groups in their own grassroots anti-gang efforts in addition to increased law enforcement and programs that help parolees return to their communities.

In mid-July two men were killed in apparently unrelated shootings in Beverly and Morgan Park. Police are investigating the shootings.

By Whitney Jackson
Medill Reports - Chicago

Chicago's new blue-cart recycling program, which will see the carts roll into all of the city's wards by 2011, is a step in the right direction, according to environmentalists, city alderman and independent waste management experts.

But better communication by the city is needed before residents will shed their distrust of recycling in Chicago, critics say. On the heels of the discredited blue-bag program, a storm of impatience is brewing.

Chicago drivers may be getting the boot sooner than they thought under a new parking violation proposal at City Hall.

Just two unpaid parking tickets soon could get you booted. What do you think about that?

Chicago could be one of the first cities in the nation to give double duty to its fleet of street sweepers now that the mayor has proposed an ordinance that would approve the use of cameras to identify parking scofflaws.

The city is considering a three-year contract worth $7.2 million that would allow Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), one of the nation's largest parking enforcement services, to conduct image verification of potential violators. The city would issue $50 tickets to violators.

State Representatives Kevin Joyce (D-35th) and Jim Brosnahan (D-36th), along with state Sen. Ed Maloney (D-18th), have co-sponsored legislation in the Illinois House that would provide incentives to Illinois nursing educators.

The bill would allocate $2 million for scholarships to nurses through the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The legislation highlights a “critical shortage of nursing faculty” in nursing education, said Kay Thurn, interim dean at Saint Xavier University's School of Nursing.

By Maude Standish
Medill Reports-Chicago

Chicago residents overwhelmingly felt frustrated by Rev. Jesse Jackson's statements that presidential candidate Barack Obama was "talking down to black people." Jackson's remarks came after Obama gave a speech calling for more parental responsibility in the black community. Jackson, unaware that the camera was rolling in a television studio, also whispered "I want to cut his nuts out."

She's known for her steadfast support for sterilizing pit bulls, but now Ald. Virginia Rugai is taking her campaign against dangerous pets even further.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Rugai and Ald. Ed Burke (14th) have teamed up to introduce an ordinance that would require all dog and cat owners living in Chicago to spay or neuter their pets within six months of taking responsibility for the animal.