Police hunt killer of Gage Park dad

Rear-ended, pushed two blocks by pickup truck

By Tim Hadac

Managing Editor

Southwest Chicago Post

Police have opened a homicide investigation into the traffic-related death of a Gage Park man early Sunday morning, but they are not yet saying if they think the killer knew the victim—or if the crime was a road-rage incident between strangers.

Eduardo A. Pena, 21, died at 4:44 a.m. at Stroger Hospital, about 2½ hours after his 1998 Ford Ranger was rammed behind by a black pickup truck near 55^th and Kedzie and pushed two blocks south—where it hit a tree near 57^th and Kedzie.

The driver of the pickup truck sped away and is not in custody. On Friday, October 27, CPD released video of the start of the incident. It shows both vehicles at the stoplight at 55th and Kedzie, facing south. The video clip ends with the pickup truck ramming Pena's vehicle.

Pena was extricated from his mangled vehicle by paramedics.

He leaves behind a wife and year-old child, according to relatives who have organized an online GoFundMe campaign to pay for his funeral expenses. As of Tuesday afternoon, seven people donated a total of $1,340 toward the $7,000 goal.

Pena’s cousin, Klarissa Lopez, said the homicide “breaks my heart into millions of pieces,” and she has publicly appealed for witnesses to share information.

“Please, if anyone knows anything, come forward!” she wrote in a Facebook post. “To drag a man two whole blocks and then to leave him to die...you're a special kind of sick and u deserve to rot in prison. I pray every minute they live, their conscience hunts their minds

The fatal clash began steps away from the entrance to St. Gall Church, where parishioners outside Mass last Sunday expressed shock and sadness.

“There is already so much evil in the world. Do we need more?" asked Josefina Parada, mentioning the funeral service held for a Gage Park family in the church in 2015, after they were slain in a home near 57^th and California. “There’s so much to live for. Why are people killing each other?”

Maria Rodrigues-Campos said the killing illustrates “why I don’t drive at night. There are too many young drivers—hotheads—out on the road at night. You look at them the wrong way and who knows? Maybe you’re the one they’re running off the road.”

Pedro Ortiz said he is confident that police will be able to find the killer.

“With so many video cameras around these days, you know some camera somewhere has footage of that pickup truck making a getaway, he said. “Plus you know police will be looking for that truck, which has damage no other truck in the city has. Just a matter of time.”

Those with useful information to share are encouraged to call CPD Area Central detectives at (312) 747-8380.

Pena with his infant son, from a photo posted publicly by his relatives.

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Pumpkin Jamboree Parade 2017

Stempien VFW Post Collecting Clothing, Household Items, More for Needy Vets

Members of the PFC Ted Stempien VFW Post 8821 will

conduct their semi-annual clothing drive from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Saturday, October 28 at the post, 5104 S. Archer.

Donations of clothing will be accepted and later taken to the Jesse Brown VA Hospital, where they will be distributed to needy and homeless veterans.

Also part of the "day of change," as post members are calling it, will be speakers on personal health care and suicide prevention.

Breakfast will be served at the event. Donations of “household goods” will be accepted and shared with “veterans who have recently found housing but have no possessions to their name, other than what they can carry on their backs,” a post representative said.

For more information, contact post Commander Mike DeRoss at (773) 403-3789.

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Midway Homeowners Call Out Rahm

Fed up with Aviation Department, want mayor to step in

By Tim Hadac
Managing Editor
Southwest Chicago Post

Midway area homeowners organizing themselves to fight the

Chicago Department of Aviation had no plans to expand their battle, but that is what happened at a public meeting Monday night.

Angry residents called out Mayor Rahm Emanuel, something they have not done before, at least publicly.

“We need Mayor Emanuel to let us know what he is personally doing to answer our concerns…the same concerns that our aldermen have relayed to Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans on several occasions,” said Anne Prevenas, a founding member of the newly formed Midway Defective Window Recipients non-profit group. “He has been silent. We want that to end.”

She made her remarks at MDWR’s first public event, a strategy meeting held in the gymnasium at West Lawn Park. About 100 Southwest Side men and women attended—more than anticipated, as Park District workers scrambled to set up extra rows of folding chairs to accommodate the people lined up at the registration table.

Echoing Prevenas’ view was Chrysler Village homeowner Pam Zidarich, who said that the Chicago Department of Aviation “has put us through hell with their delays and their lies.

Pam Zidarich

“If Rahm Emanuel found out that he had these defective and possibly toxic windows in his house—and if a member of his family was diagnosed with cancer or a respiratory condition--you can be sure that the Department of Aviation would respond in the blink of an eye to put things right quickly and completely,” she continued. “That’s the kind of response we want and deserve, but it’s been almost exactly the opposite from the bureaucrats at the Department of Aviation—and those people report to Rahm.”

A request for comment from the Mayor’s Office was not answered earlier this week.

Background

The defective windows and doors have been provided to homeowners near Midway and O’Hare in recent years through the Chicago Department of Aviation’s Residential Sound Insulation Program, an initiative designed to improve the quality of life for people living near the airports by reducing jet-engine noise in their homes.

Anne Prevenas

Homeowner concern over RSIP windows and doors was first reported exclusively by the Southwest News-Herald in early June, with a number of front-page follow-ups as the story developed over the summer. Prevenas said she first learned of the issue from a story in the Southwest News-Herald.

While the large majority of the more than 10,000 RSIP homeowners near Midway have not voiced complaints, a small minority—about 250 households--report that their windows and doors are emitting foul-smelling fumes. Homeowners, some of whom have been diagnosed with cancer in recent years, are highly concerned that the fumes may be toxic—causing or at least exacerbating their serious illness, and possibly having long-term, negative effects on the health of their children.

It appears that years of exposure to heat and sunlight may be breaking down the materials used in the manufacture of the windows and frames. One of those materials is polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a known carcinogen banned in some countries outside the U.S.

Also Monday

In attendance Monday night were 13th Ward Ald. Marty

Alderman Zalewski (left) and Alderman Quinn.

Quinn and 23rd Ward Ald. Michael R. Zalewski, both of whom have publicly criticized the Department of Aviation and pressured it to take steps to resolve the concerns to the satisfaction of local homeowners. They were applauded by homeowners for their efforts and expressions of support.

Not in attendance Monday night but also praised by homeowners for their efforts were U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-3rd), Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-22nd), 14th Ward Ald. and City Council Committee on Finance Chairman Edward M. Burke, and 15th Ward Ald. Raymond Lopez.

Only a handful of children were present at Monday’s meeting, but several homeowners, including mothers with infants and toddlers at home, expressed concern and fear that the RSIP fumes in their homes could be damaging the brain and motor-skill development of their sons and daughters.

Prevenas called up her nephews, Nathan, 13, and Noah, 10, as an example of what she said is at stake. The boys have lived in a Chrysler Village home since 2005, with RSIP windows installed in 2006. The windows have turned out to be defective and are emitting fumes.

She told the audience that she wants to know why the boys “are constantly plagued with respiratory symptoms, why they have to take massive amounts of prescription medications, why they’re sick all the time, why they’re at the doctor’s office all the time, and why they’re experiencing progressively worsening symptoms as they get older.

“These boys deserve an answer,” she continued, her voice cracking as she looked at the boys, “and we’re going to get it for you guys.”

Zidarich likened the RSIP situation to environmental scandals in suburban Crestwood, as well as Flint, Mich., where the negligence and dishonesty of elected and appointed officials were shown to have damaged the health of the people they were entrusted to serve.

She encouraged the homeowners at the meeting to be

patient and persistent in a fight she said will drag on into 2018. MDWR’s next step is to hire an independent, accredited environmental firm to conduct in-home air quality tests next year.

CDA’s contractor is doing a small sample of indoor air right now, but MDWR homeowners say they are skeptical that those government-funded tests will provide an accurate picture of what is actually in the fumes emitted.

MDWR plans to stay in touch and update local homeowners via email and Facebook, as well as through announcements to the Southwest Chicago Post, Southwest News-Herald and other news organizations.

Video below:

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For now, it's a kind of free-for-all

Opinion by John T. "Red" Ryan

JUST WHEN IT seemed that politics and elections would be off center stage for at least a little breather, we find that the first term for Governor, Bruce Rauner, will be up with the inauguration of the next administration sometime in January, 2019. This next 4 years could be filled by Rauner, or by whoever else wins it.  Bringing us to that point of this next term will be the March 20, 2018 Democratic and Republican Primaries; which will be followed by the General Election of November 6, 2018. That certainly would appear to be a lot of politicking ahead but it doesn't even take into account the long days and weeks of campaigning, debating and near constant bombardment of the airwaves with those political ads. 

AS OF THIS writing, we have several candidates and potential candidates on the Democrat side. Most prominent in the news and in the Madison Avenue world of Advertising are the incumbent Republican,  Governor Bruce Rauner (himself) and Democrats Christopher Kennedy and J.B. Pritzker. Of these two Democrats (there are several other possibles), only Kennedy has held any public office; with that being the non-elected, appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the University of Illinois. Kennedy is the son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of the late John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States.

THE EXPERIENCE OF J.B. Pritzker includes no elected office or public service; but rather extensive experience and successes in the private sector. Born as "Jay Robert" Pritzker, he got his underclass degree from Duke University and his Law degree from Northwestern University. He has operated a private investment firm right here locally, in Chicago. 

IF ONE WERE to judge just who is running and how the still distant Illinois Gubernatorial race is going by the volume of political advertisements on the television stations, you'd conclude that it was a Pritzker vs. Rauner match-up. The airwaves are filled with minute spot pitches for getting your vote by both of these two men. As of the time of this writing, we've seen not hide nor hair of any commercials for Christopher Kennedy, nor any other candidate, regardless of party affiliation. The mode of attack demonstrated in both men's approach is very unusual and oddly enough, quite similar. 

IN THE SEVERAL commercial spots offered by the Pritzger camp, the theme is that of painting him as a reformer. He is the guy you want and we need in Springfield. According to their campaign's message, Illinois needs a good "house-cleaning" and Pritzker is your man for the job. The one central flaw in the whole operation here is that their campaign both blames and attacks the incumbent Governor Rauner's administration; which has not yet hit the three year mark. The true target of any political attacks should be those who have run both the State Senate and the State House of Representatives for the past 40 or 50 years.

OUR CURRENT STATE  Chief Executive, Bruce Rauner, much like J.B. Pritzker, has a background in business. Following his graduation from Dartmouth College and receiving an MBA from Harvard University, he got into investment banking, while at the same time serving without salary for Chicago tourism and for improvement of public education. 

THE ONE GREAT flaw and potential Achilles Heel in the Rauner campaign for re-election as Governor lies in internal conflict within his own party. Whereas the incumbent Governor paints himself as a "reformer", he doesn't align himself with President Trump; who is also bent on "draining the swamp" of Washington, D.C. Much like so many in the G.O.P., he distances himself from "the Donald"; even recently refusing to discuss who he had supported in the2016 Presidential Election. If Bruce had any intestinal fortitude, he'd own up to Republicanism and to the Trump administration. 

UNTIL SUCH TIME we have a sort of "free for all" and nonsensical brawl of reformer vs. reformer fighting for the Governor's mansion.

NOTE: We have to take this time to examine that word "Gubernatorial" which is the adjective form of "Governor". We wonder how it acquired such a dramatically different spelling. After all, we're taught that a "Guber" was a peanut; so does this mean that a Governor should "work for peanuts? 

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John T. “Red” Ryan is a retired Chicago police officer and Garfield Ridge resident. 

Halloween Party for the Kids!

And the winner is...Scottsdale!

By Joan Hadac

Editor and Publisher

Southwest Chicago Post

When I heard that a small group of determined people in the

Scottsdale neighborhood were struggling with their first-ever attempt to organize a charity 5K run/walk, I thought well, even if they attract 30 or 40 participants--hey, it's a decent start, something to build on.

Well, the first-ever Scottsdale 5K trick or Trot Walk and Run went off today at 83rd and Kostner, starting and ending at the St. Bede Parish grounds.

But it wasn't 30 or 40 people. Some 105 men, women and children had registered in advance, bolstered by about 20 day-of registrants.

Impressive, I'd say!

Congratulations to the winner, Scottsdale resident Tim Cummings--as well as everyone else who ran or walked (or even pedaled, as two women did).

Congrats and thanks, as well, to event chairman Jason Huff and all those who volunteered their time, talent, brains and brawn. You make St. Bede Parish and the Scottsdale neighborhood one of the best places in Chicago!

Thanks, too, to 18th Ward Alderman Derrick Curtis, who was there at the start of the event, even though he was feeling under the weather. He left a bit early, so he's not in the photos we shot, but he was there when it counted. That's leadership...

In no particular order, here are some photos we shot at the event. Enjoy...

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