By Steve Rhodes
“A Polish woman will step off an airplane in Chicago on Monday afternoon with a legal visa in her hand, coming back to live in the United States four years after her deportation sundered her family, in a rare case of the return of an immigrant who was expelled,” the New York Times reports.
“The woman, Janina Wasilewski, was deported in 2007 after living for 18 years in the Chicago suburbs. Several applications she had filed to become a legal resident became hopelessly tangled in the immigration courts and were finally denied. She left behind her husband, Tony, also a Polish immigrant, but with his agreement she took their son, Brian, an American citizen, who was 6.
“The Wasilewski family became one of the nation’s most visible examples of the impact of deportation, just as the pace of removals has accelerated under the Obama administration, to nearly 800,000 over the last two years. Images of the scene when Mrs. Wasilewski left from O’Hare Airport in June 2007 were circulated widely, with her husband gripping her and their son and weeping as he begged them not to cry.”
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“In a bid to remake the enforcement of federal immigration laws, the Obama administration is deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants and auditing hundreds of businesses that blithely hire undocumented workers,” the Washington Post reported a year ago.
“The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency expects to deport about 400,000 people this fiscal year, nearly 10 percent above the Bush administration’s 2008 total and 25 percent more than were deported in 2007. The pace of company audits has roughly quadrupled since President George W. Bush’s final year in office.”
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“A researcher at the University of Chicago has words of caution regarding the Illinois Dream Act,” KMOX in St. Louis reports.
“Roberto Gonzales, a professor in the School of Social Service Administration, studied students who immigrated to the U.S. illegally as children with their parents. Those who went to college did fine academically, but job prospects that make use of their degrees are dim without legal status . . .
“Gonzales says the solution is the federal DREAM Act, which confers legal status to individuals who came to the country with their parents before age 16 and either enroll in college or enlist in the military. It has been debated in Congress for 10 years, but has not passed.”
Jackson on Obama
“In an interview with SPIEGEL, civil rights activist and Baptist minister Jesse Jackson discusses Black America’s frustration with Barack Obama and the president’s failure to anticipate the Republicans’ tenacious will to ‘destroy’ him.”
Catching Up With Lukas Verzbicas
“Less than a month ago, former Sandburg High School runner Lukas Verzbicas joined a short list of American athletes to run a sub four-minute mile while still in high school,” WTTW reported in July. “He’s the only Illinois high schooler to have ever done it.”
The Chicago Way
“This is Chicago,” Mr. Quigley said, “and when you are flying blind with hundreds of millions of dollars, bad things can happen.”
Lolla Dollas
“Two aldermen with close ties to Chicago’s music scene are demanding that the City Council investigate the tax-and competition-free sweetheart deal that keeps Lollapalooza in Grant Park through 2018,” Jim DeRogatis reports.
Chalk Talk
“The Nosek family behind Keson Industries didn’t think that starting the business in their home in Berwyn more than 40 years ago would one day save the lives of our troops in Afghanistan in the 21st century,” the Daily Herald reports. “But chalk has a way of doing that.”
Cup Canvas
“Sharpie’s latest campaign features coffee-cup artist Cheeming Boey and his masterpieces,” DesignTAXI reports.
Recession, Inc.
“The foreclosure crisis has meant billions lost, lives devastated, and neighborhoods perforated with vacant homes. It’s also meant boom times for some businesses,” Dan Weissmann reports for WBEZ. “Like the ones that clear out foreclosed houses, board ’em up, and keep the grass cut.”
Hell’s Kitchen
“When Chicago’s Edenic Soy and Tofu needed a kitchen to shoot a “how-to” video last June, it turned to its Twitter followers to find one,” Food Safety News reports. “And no wonder, considering the state of its own plumbing.”
Ridiculous Bears
Come on, Bears. Acknowledge the obvious!
U.S. Treasurer To Sign Currency in Rosemont!
Get it while it lasts.
Straight Outta Naperville
Bookstore of the Year.
Even Winning Is Losing For The Cubs
Screwing up in reverse.
Lolla Plus
The Weekend in Chicago Rock.
Are White Sox Fans Pathetic?
I would tend to say Yes, but our very own Roger Wallenstein argues they are merely “discerning.”
Programming Note
Seeing as how it’s Monday, I’m back behind the bar at the venerable Beachwood Inn tonight, slinging cold Old Styles in a downgraded America. Our jukebox, however, is still AAA.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Discerning.
Posted on August 8, 2011