By Meg White

By Allison Wright

Almost 10 percent of the campaign contributions Ald. William JP Banks (36th) received over a recent one-year period were used to pay for a 2007 Jaguar XJ.

Between July 2007 and June 2008, Banks received $134,425 in donations, according to campaign disclosure records. Of that money, $12,100 went toward the monthly lease on his Jaguar.

In November 2003, Banks put a deposit on a new luxury vehicle from Imperial Jaguar in Lake Bluff, Ill., of almost $2,000. The money came from his campaign contribution account, which is where the more than $1,000 monthly lease is also withdrawn.

This has some contributors wondering where their money is really going. For example, Belmont Funeral Home, one of Banks' larger contributors, donates thousands of dollars a year toward his campaign fund.

"I'm dumbfounded ... to say the least," said Mary Losacco, Belmont Funeral Home's office manager. "We always assumed here that he was using the money we gave him for campaigning."

By Melissa Paulik

Investigators enter what is supposed to be a church and find it is an office building. The address given for another religious group is an apartment with connections to a suspected terrorist organization.

These are two cases under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security that are categorized as “religious fraud” in the worker visa program.

“There are organizations that claim to be religious that bring people in on a religious visa to perform ministry work or something involving the church and they are … not doing something the visa requires them to do,” said Marilu Cabrera, regional media manager for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

To assess the situation, the agency reviewed the religious worker visa program. According to the July 2006 USCIS report, approximately 33 percent of the worker visa cases were fraudulent, or nearly 73 of the 220 cases.

Mary Elizabeth Medawar explores the health and workplace effects of secondhand smoke in and around Chicago in a recent video report. According to healthcare professionals, the effects of secondhand smoke can be severe. Because of the state-wide smoking ban that becomes effective Jan. 1, people in bars, restaurants and other public places will be safe from the toxic chemicals.

By Tom Smith 

The Service Employees International Union and its sympathizers fired a salvo at non-union employers at City Hall last week.  At issue is the treatment of home care workers who do light housekeeping, cooking and cleaning for clients of a West Side company.

S.E.I.U. Local 880 is working with aldermen Ed Smith (28th), Joe Moore (49th) and Sharon Dixon (24th) to increase pay and improve working conditions for home care providers employed at Family Home Service, Inc.

Ald. Smith introduced a resolution Oct. 31 that called for the city to stop funding for Family Home Service, Inc. for failing to meet state regulations and "engaging in a pattern of worker mistreatment."

"I reported neglect and unsafe conditions, but Home Service never investigated," said Family Service employee Deloris Williams at a press conference outside council chambers. Williams is one of 300 company employees, according to Local 880 spokeswoman Brynn Seibert.

By Jennifer T. Lacey

A South Side alderman blasted Mayor Daley's comments about the controversial Chicago Children's Museum move, saying the comments were "unconscionable."

Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) compared Daley's reaction to when she was fighting in City Council to pass a living wage ordinance. Daley is "wrong for trying to impose his will" upon Ald. Brendan Reilly (48th) and his constituents who oppose the move, she said.

The Navy Pier museum has been the center of a heated discussion since September when it was reported that Daley suggested race was a factor for residents' opposition toward the plans to build at Daley Bicentennial Plaza in Grant Park.

"I was in support of the living wage ordinance and what he did to that is the same thing he did here, which is to accuse the people of being racists," Preckwinle said. "So, this is old news as far as I'm concerned."

By Michael Pasternak

As critics continue to accuse opponents of the Chicago Children's Museum's proposed move to Daley Bicentennial Plaza in Grant Park of racism, some local residents say increased traffic, not race, is their biggest opposition to the move.

"I want my park. I want this area free and clear," said Elizabeth Dolinsky, who lives about a mile from Grant Park and takes her three-year-old daughter there each week. "I'm really hoping the museum won't come here at all."

However, Bob O'Neill, president of the Grant Park Conservancy, which is in favor of the museum's move from its current location at Navy Pier, says Grant Park does not only belong to residents like Dolinsky.

"We look at Grant Park as Chicago's park, not as one particular neighborhood's park," O'Neill said. "They are being selfish. They don't want the congestion. That's elitist, hypocritical and it's wrong."

A new site launched recently around citizen and media opposition to building a new Children's Museum in Grant Park. Check it out for yourself at http://savegrantpark.org/

By Michael Pasternak

Today for the first time in history, the Chicago City Council meeting can be seen live online. The council's Rules and Ethics Committee Wednesday passed a resolution allowing meetings of the full 50-member body to be broadcast, from the Finance Committee's Web site.

"It's about time," said Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) after the meeting. "People should know what we're doing."

Chicago City Council, which first introduced a resolution to broadcast its proceedings in 2004, joins New York, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and other U.S. cities that allow people to view city government proceedings.

By Michelle Diotallevi

The sun beat down on Carmen Agoyosilva outside a mock refugee camp in Chicago's Grant Park. In a few moments she would tour a Doctors Without Borders camp. Over the next hour, she would get a taste of what a refugee would endure. (See slides of the camp.)

Doctors Without Borders is an independent humanitarian organization that provides medical care to refugees around the world. In a year, the organization is sent out on over 4,700 aid assignments.