Chicago Daily Observer

Joined by leaders from the immigrant community, Aldermen George Cardenas of the 12th Ward and Manny Flores of the 1st Ward today introduced a resolution for the Chicago City Council that condemns the increasingly venomous tone of the national immigration debate and reaffirms the City’s support for sensible solution for the immigration issue.

“Throughout our history, Chicago has welcomed immigrants from around the world, including my own family,” said Alderman Cardenas at a City Hall press conference announcing the resolution. “Our city was built by immigrants, and has respected the contributions that immigrants have made and will continue to make. Unfortunately, the overall climate surrounding the immigration issue has turned more and more ugly, fed in particular by cable news. It’s time that our city took a stand against the hateful rhetoric.”

For a long time, the Supreme Court did its best to avoid the implications of the Second Amendment’s reference to “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” Its decision today is a constitutional landmark, a triumph for individual freedom and a tribute to the power of ideas.

The decision is the long-awaited result of an intellectual revolution in the legal academy. A generation ago, law professors generally regarded the idea of an individual right to own guns as a dangerous anachonrism.

Barack Obama, the US presidential candidate, has become embroiled in the long-running battle between the United Food & Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) and Tesco over union recognition.

Mr Obama has written to Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy urging him to engage with the union.

The letter is not the first time that the senator and Democratic nominee has raised the issue of union recognition at Fresh & Easy, Tesco’s US convenience chain. In November 2007 he wrote to Fresh & Easy chief executive Tim Mason.

Court Affirms Right to Own Guns
The Supreme Court struck down a District of Columbia handgun ban and affirmed Americans’ rights to own firearms in the court’s first definitive pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history

On Tuesday Cardenas and aldermen Manny Flores and Toni Preckwinkle were flanked by activists from the Illinois Coalition for Immigration and Refugee Rights when they announced a City Council resolution condemning what Flores called the “race-baiting” portrayal of immigrants by right-wing TV news personalities.

Like all resolutions, this one is nonbinding—it functions as an official statement of outrage but doesn’t actually do anything about the issue.

Fair enough—legislative bodies at every level of government pass resolutions mostly so they can tell their backers they did. And in this case, no one in the room was willing to argue that Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly, and Glenn Beck don’t misrepresent immigrants. Cardenas and his colleagues even appeared to have answers for skeptical reporters.

Tribune Tower, the neo-Gothic landmark that adorns Michigan Avenue near the Chicago River, is on the market.

Tribune Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Sam Zell said Wednesday that he is exploring options for maximizing the value of the headquarters building, which houses the Chicago Tribune, as well as the Los Angeles Times’ home, Times Mirror Square.

Zell, who engineered the $8.2 billion deal that took media giant Tribune Co. private in December, would use proceeds from a transaction to pay down debt—if the price is right. He is asking a number of real estate firms for ideas on how to capitalize on the Tribune and Times properties. Requests for proposals went out Wednesday morning, one source said.

In July 2004, state pension board member Allison S. Davis voted to turn over as much as $100 million in state workers’ retirement cash to an investment management firm.

Months after it won the lucrative deal at Davis’ urging, that investment firm hired Davis.

RREEF America REIT II Inc. agreed to pay the Chicago developer $30,000 a year to take a part-time post on its board of directors, even as Davis continued to serve on the Illinois State Board of Investment.