Felsenthal Files

04/04/11

Solis Announces Lead Pollution Ordinance on Day Before Election; Morfin Cries Foul

Alderman Danny Solis, in a runoff tomorrow for the 25th Ward seat, sent out a press release today announcing that he had drafted an anti-lead pollution ordinance requiring any “facility emitting lead at levels that are higher than... EPA standards... [to] cease operations immediately.” The release states that “new information” about “high lead levels” impacting a Pilsen elementary school prompted him to act...

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04/01/11

Toxic Lead in Pilsen—and Just Days Before the Solis-Morfin Runoff

The front-page story in the Chicago Tribune today about toxic lead found in Pilsen has to strike fear into the hearts of the neighborhood’s parents. And it can’t be good news for 25th Ward Alderman Danny Solis, either, as he is caught in a runoff with activist Cuahutémoc “Témoc” Morfin. Tribune reporter Michael Hawthorne writes that a monitor placed...

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03/29/11

Danny Solis: The Establishment Candidate, but Campaigning like a Rookie

Danny Solis, 61, and a grandfather, is running in his fifth—and least fun—election for alderman. Appointed in the 25th Ward on the Near West Side by Mayor Daley in 1996, Solis finds himself in his first runoff—against a tenacious, much younger opponent, Cuahutémoc “Témoc” Morfin, 39. (For details on the race, see my interview with Morfin. Solis is a machine stalwart...

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03/25/11

An Uphill Runoff for Cuahutémoc 'Témoc' Morfin in the 25th Ward

Cuahutémoc “Témoc” Morfin is making his second run at unseating incumbent Danny Solis in the 25th Ward, which encompasses parts of the Near West Side—Pilsen, Chinatown, University Village, Little Italy and Tri-Taylor. Morfin, 39, who also challenged Solis in 2007, managed to force the 61-year-old alderman into a runoff...

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03/23/11

Rush Limbaugh Mistakes Educator Eleanor Kaye Wilson for the Obamas' Nanny

"'The First Lady looked stunning, as always, as she stepped down the jet in a textured frock along with her husband and her two daughters,' her mother, and the nanny," Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday on his radio show, reading from an article he called "pathetic." The words "her mother, and the nanny," were added by the talk-show host—they were not in the story from which he quoted...

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03/21/11

'N’DIGO' Publisher Hermene Hartman: Loyalty Not One of Obama’s Qualities

In a face-to-face interview Thursday afternoon, Hermene Hartman, publisher and editor in chief of N’DIGO, a local weekly that focuses on “the black urban agenda,” said she has felt neglected by President Obama since he left Chicago for the White House...

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03/15/11

Did Rahm Emanuel Have a Role in O'Hare Expansion?

Yesterday, when lame-duck mayor Richard M. Daley finally got some of what he wanted in the building of a new runway and a new air traffic control tower at O’Hare, he got to take center stage. But people who follow city politics saw the hand of Rahm Emanuel, who has an old friend in Ray LaHood, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation...

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03/10/11

Tom Carey, Adviser to Carol Moseley Braun, Weighs in on Her Campaign

Tom Carey, 56, has been working for candidates here—from Rich Daley to John Stroger—since he was 25. One day in January, the political strategist received a call from a local lawyer who was volunteering for Carol Moseley Braun. The man told Carey he would pick him up to take him to a meeting, but didn’t say with whom. Carey was soon in the Hyde Park home of Moseley Braun, talking politics with the woman who, at the time, was hoping for a runoff with Rahm Emanuel...

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03/07/11

Coming Soon: A New Generation of African-American Candidates?

Hermene Hartman, publisher and editor in chief of N’DIGO, angered some members of her African-American community when she endorsed Rahm Emanuel over Carol Moseley Braun. She told me recently that the black political/business/religious leaders who selected Moseley Braun had better move aside, or, at least, rethink their strategy. “We are not training people to run for office,” she laments. Her case in point: LeAlan Jones...

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03/04/11

Rahm to Meet with Farrakhan and Anti-Defamation League? No Way, Says ADL Rep

ABC7’s Chuck Goudie reported Wednesday the possibility of a coming together between the Jewish community and the Nation of Islam’s Minister Louis Farrakhan. “The Anti-Defamation League seems open to a meeting with Farrakhan and Chicago mayor-elect Emanuel,” Goudie said. The ADL’s regional director, Lonnie Nasatir, said that’s not so. Nasatir told me today...

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