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February 2011
Foreclosed, Finished, and Flipped in Wicker Park
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $1.699 million
Sale Price: $1.475 million
The Property: The rectilinear components of this Wicker Park façade look pieced together as in a jigsaw puzzle—an apt analogy for the home’s piecemeal financial history... Read more
Tea Party for Chico, Donald Trump for Emanuel—What's the Difference?
By Carol Felsenthal
Rahm Emanuel and his surrogates have been pounding relentlessly on Gery Chico for accepting—sort of—the endorsement last month of the Chicago Tea Patriots, an offshoot of the main Chicago Tea Party group. But late last year, before a new campaign finance reform law kicked in, Donald Trump contributed $50,000 to Rahm’s campaign for mayor. This is the same Donald Trump who appeared in Washington earlier this month before the uber-right group... Read more
Joseph Berrios' Friends and Family Hiring Exposed Again
By David Bernstein
In case you missed it, last night WGN News at Nine aired another excellent investigative story about Cook County assessor Joe Berrios. It’s worth watching. The segment—reported by co-anchor Mark Suppelsa and Marsha Bartel—reveals how Berrios continues to put his family and close political friends on the assessor’s payroll, even while laying off 53 employees. In last night’s story, WGN reported that Berrios hired his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Vicki LaCalamita, to be his... Read more
Chicago Tops the Nation in Mortgage Fraud Risk
By Whet Moser
Not only does the city outrank all other metro areas in insurance fraud risk, one zip code in Englewood leads all others across the country. And it's the same area that was the focus of a Tribune investigation into mortgage fraud... in 2005. Read more