Friends forever

March 31, 2010 at 3:30 pm · Filed under Ethnic Media in Chicago

It’s late in the afternoon so long sheets of papers are slowly threading through the old printing press. As they spill out, the newspaper is packed and readied for delivery, all 3,000 of them

This is tomorrow’s Draugas with news and pictures about Lithuania and Lithuanians in Chicago and in the same language, Lithuanian, since the day it began publishing in 1909 in Chicago.

On another floor in the newspaper’s building on the city’s Southwest side sit the newspaper’s bound volumes, the pages browned and crinkling, some as soft and fleeting as dust in the hand.

They are filled with the stories from when Lithuanians poured into Chicago at the start of the last century, building one of the largest communities outside of Lithuania.

Then it was called the Daily Draugas, or the Daily Friend.

Today, it is only Draugas, and Dalia Cidizikaite, its editor in chief, feels the presence of history as she puts out the five-day a week paper that some consider the world’s  longest continuing newspaper in Lithuanian and the only daily newspaper in Lithuanian outside the home country.

She edits. She writes – when she has time. She oversees the flow of stories about Lithuanian community events and the news as well about Lithuania. And when invitations come to attend Lithuanian community events, she rarely turns them down because she knows the importance of the paper’s presence.

In Lithuania she was a scholar and actress. Here, she still cares about acting but the newspaper takes so much of her time. Here, Lithuanians want to know what is happening, and they want others, she says, to know what they are doing.

Here, she says, “life is so rich. They really feel the community ties.”

So on another floor, amid piles of books and machinery and far from the bound volumes of disappearing news pages that told Lithunianian immigrants about the struggles of the small country they are bound to, here is tomorrow’s news in the language Lithuanians have refused to forget.

Just as it has been for the last 100 years.

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Estamos muy orgullosos por Chicago-We are very proud for Chicago

March 30, 2010 at 4:04 pm · Filed under Ethnic Media in Chicago, latino news media

As I count them, Chicago’s Latino news media collected more awards from the recent annual contest held by the National Association of Hispanic Publications than any other city.

And if I missed one or two, so what. We were up there.

All of which reminds me how lucky we are to have such a vibrant news media.

Here is the list:

http://www.box.net/shared/d79uxvtzhx

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What happens behind bars and other stories to follow

March 29, 2010 at 9:40 am · Filed under community reporting that matters

We write about crime but there is a world we often do not to tell about. This is the world of prisons and jails, a world with many more persons of color than their share of the population here in Chicago.

That’s why the John Howard Association is a good source for thinking about reports on prison conditions. But, more importantly, it is a way to open the door to think about those who go to prison.

I would check out their prison monitoring reports, and the videos about the people in Illinois’ prisons. It’s a doorway that needs to explored in print and on the air.

If anyone has used their reports, or done reporting on this and would like to share, please pass it along.

Steve

click here for a video

John Howard Association

http://www.john-howard.org/

So, too, let’s consider what’s happening to the community groups that serve folks in Chicago’s neighborhoods. Here’s a survey which predicts another drop in services from them. This too seems to be a pressing story.

http://www.nonprofitfinancefund.org/content.php?autoID=230#

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He will write and write no matter what

March 19, 2010 at 5:03 pm · Filed under African, the stories of immigrants outside of their home countries

By Angela Evans

Do you hear it? There is something in the trees, the rivers…They are asking something, pleading something. They are making a request. They are relentless.

They scream at 52 year-old Olawale Idreez to write. “Write!” And write he does.

The good-natured Nigerian publisher of Africa Today newspaper explained this drive in a poem he wrote that says, “If death did not proclaim me tomorrow, I will write. Why? Because everything around me is just begging me to write.”

It is this passion that fuels Olawale Idreez to write, laboring to sustain the struggling Africa Today newspaper in the face of adversity and delay.

Idreez moved to Chicago from Nigeria in 1980. He began his studies right away at Illinois Central College in Peoria, where he went to school for accounting before earning his Masters degree in political science from Northeastern University.

Finding His Voice in Chicago

It was during his time at Northeastern, about ’86-’87, that Idreez heard Harold Washington speak to the students during his run for re-election as mayor. Idreez found himself captivated by the political nature of Washington’s words and how well he spoke English. This experience is what motivated Idreez to switch from continuing his education in accounting to political science.

Although Idreez imagined himself as a well-to-do politician, it was this academic path that steered his love towards writing through the work he put into his thesis. He fell in love with the craft of writing and followed his heart forward from there.

Idreez is a smartly dressed man, who chuckles easily and speaks pointedly about what he believes in.  He was involved with the production of two papers post-college: The African Voice and Afrik. He also took a job at The Celebrity International magazine. Although he enjoyed freelancing for these publications, he hoped that instead of writing for other people he could begin his own publication, and one day would.

Idreez’s family in Nigeria used to tease him about wanting to be a journalist, because his English has never been very good. People also told him he would make more money pursuing a career in accounting. But Idreez had his mind set on being a writer- nothing else.

He compares this experience to a Bible passage that says a prophet is not without honor except in his own house or hometown. Although initially his family didn’t agree with his decision, they’ve not only grown to support him- but also write him letters requesting that Idreez write letters to the government of their state in Nigeria, and focus more of his work on African happenings.

Idreez says he just laughs. “Whatever you do in life, if you persevere- then people have no choice to see that and respect what you’re doing.”

The most difficult aspect of what he does is struggling to overcome the financial woes that threaten his journalism dream.

Idreez admits that when he started Africa Today, which prints and distributes about 2000 copies per issue throughout various Chicago neighborhoods, he zealously believed in what he was doing. So much so, he was shortsighted about financial planning. He funded the paper with all of his own money, which he realizes now, was a mistake.

A Struggle To Survive

And since Africa Today is a free monthly newspaper, it relies on advertisers to provide the primary funding. If Idreez does not come up with the money personally, or advertisers do not pay him- then publishing is interrupted. This has been a recurrent problem for the paper, sometimes delaying publication by 3-4 months.

What Idreez lacks in financial support, he makes up for with unrivaled ardor and inspiration. In addition to his vision of financial emancipation and one day turning the paper into a daily, he also has plans to publish a book about his various life experiences and observations.

“My vision is very, very big but people have already told me that I should take one day at a time…I know it’s going to take a lot of work, but the good news is my brain is like a computer brain. Everything in brain is like writing, writing, writing- I just want to write.”

Angela Evans is a Community Media Workshop Intern

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Reporting on immigration-the ethnic news media’s job

March 18, 2010 at 3:30 pm · Filed under Immigrant Stories, community reporting that matters, on immigration as a public policy issue

Day after day the story about immigrants is the story about immigration reform. The recent demonstration by undocumented students here showed that.

It is a powerful story of fear and courage and uncertainty.

Watch this audio slide show of the demonstration here in Chicago and tell me if you don’t agree. It is by Peter Holderness

http://www.peterholderness.com/iyjl/index.html

So the job for the ethnic news media now is to cover these developments, and to explain where they are going and what they may result in.

What will happen to these students? Are they truly the parallel story to the freedom riders of the 1960s’ in the American South?

Can you stay with this story by telling about one person, one group, one family over time?

The students’ coming out is a prelude to the march this Sunday, March 21, by thousands of groups to push for immigration reform in Washington.

As many as 6,000 persons in Illinois are expected to take part and this a story in itself. They are leaving on Saturday on dozens of buses, a scene that could easily become part of a longer story.

Who are these people? What are their hopes? What is different about immigration reform today in 2010 in terms of expectations of the average person?

These are the contacts for the march;

Catherine Salgado, 312.332.7360 x 235 or 630.362.6202 (mobile)

Salvador Cervantes, 312.593.6411 (mobile)

Kere Picon, 815.621.8065 (for details on buses & logistics)

If you write or broadcast anything let me know,

Stephen

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You should read these stories

March 12, 2010 at 4:44 pm · Filed under community reporting that matters

The top of the page headline screams, “African American Seniors Being Led to the Slaughter.”

Then in bright red ink, the major headline declares,”West Siders Being  Victimized as Attorney General Tries to Crack Down on Home Improvement Scammers.”

In extensive detail and pictures, the story goes on to talk about the elderly West Side residents who allegedly have been scammed into home repair and mortgage scams that reportedly have wrongly taken thousands of dollars out of their pockets.

The story on the front page of the Garfield-Lawndale Voice on March 3rd was full of people talking about the problem, talking about what needs to be done, talking about the state agencies that have helped them or as well, have not helped them. It was full of indignation and fury and a sense that this kind of scam shouldn’t happen in the neighborhood.

Just when I had given up hope that local newspapers would keep the issue alive along came this story and it quickly picked my optimism that this is what the ethnic news media is good at – defending the folks it talks for.

But I should come clean. My faith wasn’t really lacking. Nope, before I saw this article in the Voice, which has to get online soon, I had seen a story on March 8 in Hoy about  female immigrants. It had been planned ahead so that it would appear on the International Day for Women.

What made this story by Leticia Espinosa so good was that it mixed enough humanity with statistics to tell us about an issue that matters: how to make sure that that there is a way for female immigrants to find a place for themselves today. And one number from the report by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, struck me: 87 percent of the Latinas who are not U.S. citizens cannot speak English or know very little. The message: they want to serve their families and their community and they need help to do so.

Stephen

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Chicago’s Ethnic Radio: Keeping the Roots Alive

March 6, 2010 at 5:00 pm · Filed under Ethnic Media in Chicago, ethnic radio, story telling

You are driving up Western and stop at the redlight at Devon and look at the folks in the next car. 

Wonder what they are listening to on radio?

Or, say, you are wandering along West Belmont and there’s a storekeeper staring into space and listening to a radio station.

I’ll bet they are listening to voices that remind them of places very close to them. I’ll bet they are listening to an ethnic radio station. I know I have three preset stations in Spanish and I switch constantly.

But Chicago is a global city and the languages uttered in the air can make you feel like you are spinning around this earth.

Here’s a well-written and enlightening story about ethnic radio in Chicago from Northwestern’s School of Journalism:

click on the url for the full story.

Stephen

A trip back to the homeland – in a dozen languages – right on your Chicago radio dial

by Taras E. Berezowsky
March 04, 2010

Graph: Taras E. Berezowsky/MEDILL

Chicago has a greater proportion of multi-ethnic stations than New York or Los Angeles.

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Soaking the Poor at Tax Time

March 4, 2010 at 6:09 pm · Filed under economic and consumer reporting

You see the signs everywhere: Why Wait ? Get Your Tax Refund Now.

But there’s a good reason to wait and there’s a very good reason why this is a story that the immigrant and minority news media needs to do before April 15.

That’s because large numbers of the working poor are the ones who take these so-called refunds which are really loans.  The rate of black taxpayers who use these loans is also quite high as the following story details.

So, here is a story by Curtis Black of the Community Media Workshop that you are free to publish, but please acknowledge his byline, or use it to guide you to your own story.

by Curtis Black
Community Media Workshop

With tax season underway, there’s lots going on with tax refund anticipation loans (RALs), including stepped up regulation and expanded support for free volunteer tax assistance programs which offer alternatives.

Consumer advocates continue to press for the elimination of refund loans, calling them a predatory financial product.  “They’re a high-cost credit product, they’re not necessary, and they primarily target low-wealth people and communities of color,” said Katie Buitrago of the Woodstock Institute.

RALs are “wealth-draining products,” she said.

A Woodstock report issued in January found that Illinois taxpayers who pay “hundreds of dollars to receive their own money a few days earlier” spent $114 million on RALs in 2006, Buitrago said.

Filers in African-American communities are more than three times more likely to use RALs than others, according to the study.  That’s in line with extensive evidence that “high-cost lenders tend to concentrate in communities of color,” Buitrago said.

Early last month, Woodstock joined with consumer advocacy groups across the country to call on the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to enforce guidelines issued in 2007 holding banks that issue RALs responsible for the training and advertising of tax preparers who supply them with customers.

Concerns included misleading and deceptive marketing and a high volume of inaccurate returns.

On February 18, OCC announced a new policy statement (pdf) and a consumer advisory on tax refund products.  The policy statement requires banks to ensure that tax preparers provide customers with statements itemizing RAL fees and explaining that RALs are loans which must be repaid even if returns are smaller than anticipated; that RALs can “substantially reduce [earned income tax credit] benefits”; and that alternatives to RALs, including electronic filing and direct deposit, are available.

The policy also bans marketing using terms like “rapid refund” that obscure the fact that RALs are loans.

Woodstock welcomed the policy statement and called for aggressive enforcement of its provisions.  The group reiterated its call for a cap on RAL interest rates, and urged the OCC to prevent other banks from entering the field — and to “convene a meeting of RAL lenders, regulators, and advocates to discuss an orderly exit of banks from this market following the 2010 tax season,” according to a statement provided by Buitrago.

Two national banks currently provide RALs:  HSBC, which finances loans through H&R Block, and JPMorgan Chase, which offers loans through 13,000 independent tax preparers.  A California bank which financed most of Jackson Hewitt’s RALs was barred from the business by OCC last year.

Buitrago said meetings last year with JPMorgan revealed that the bank was not abiding by the 2007 guidelines.

Last November the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation barred consumer installment lenders from offering RALs and required currency exchanges, payday lenders and pawnshops to apply to IDFPR for licenses to handle RALs.  Spokesperson Sue Hofer said there have been inquiries from businesses about the new requirements, but she had no information about requests for licenses.

Announcing the crackdown, Governor Quinn said the goal was “to limit access to these predatory loans.”

Woodstock has recommended that “fringe preparers” be barred from issuing RALs, noting that they offer the highest-cost loans, often featuring extensive add-on fees for administrative tasks.

In another regulatory development, the IRS recently announced that starting next year, it will begin requiring paid tax preparers to register, fulfill training and competency testing requirements, and abide by a code of ethics.  The agency will also establish a national data base to track tax preparers.

Unlike paid preparers, volunteers at free community-based tax assistance centers undergo annual training and certification exams, said Jackie Lynn Coleman of the National Community Tax Coalition.  In Illinois, free volunteer assistance for low-income families is available from the Center for Economic Progress throughout Chicago and in 30 communities statewide.

In many cases there are bank and credit union partners onsite who will help set up low- and no-cost savings and checking accounts to facilitate direct transfer of returns, said Raisa Allaire of CEP.

With a focus on maximizing use of the earned income tax credit, CEP helped 33,000 Illinois families obtain $52 million in refunds last year.

Some observers anticipate an increase in RAL use by economically-strapped taxpayers.  Coleman said economic pressures can cut both ways.   She said she was hearing about volunteer assistance sites “bursting at the seams.”

“People are refusing to use paid preparers because they really need the additional dollars,” she said.  “They’re willing to wait, even willing to come back” if a volunteer site is full.

Since last year, a new federal grant program has assisted volunteer tax assistance programs with outreach to neglected communities.  CEP has used the funds to reach out to rural and disabled populations, she said.

Still, free volunteer tax preparation sites serve a small fraction of taxpayers.  In Chicago in 2006, about 60 percent of taxpayers used paid preparers, according to IRS figures provided by CEP; for recipients of the earned income tax credit, whose returns can be even more complicated, the figure was almost 73 percent.  Not quite 3 percent of EITC recipients used volunteer preparers.

CEP has increased its volunteer base; it’s up to 2,100 statewide, up 200 from last year, Coleman said.  “That’s not the case everywhere,” she said.  NCTC has launched a national volunteer engagement drive.

One reason low-income taxpayers, including EITC recipients, are more likely to use RALs is because they can be used to cover upfront fees from paid preparers.

When it comes to the EITC, that undercuts the economic stimulus provided by what advocates call the most effective anti-poverty program going.  Congress recognized this last year by increasing payments to larger families and expanding eligibility standards for single taxpayers as part of the recovery act.

Each year RALs take nearly $800 million nationally that could help low-income families — and be spent in local economies – and sends it back to Wall Street.  But with growing awareness, stiffer regulation and greater access to alternatives, the future of this product may be limited.

Indeed, according to one report, tighter bank credit means RALs are taking longer to process – sometimes up to three weeks – “eliminat[ing] the incentive to take them out in the first place.”

MAR 1, 2010 0

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“All I Kept Saying Was They Better Hope I Die,” a story of a gangfigher

March 3, 2010 at 12:22 pm · Filed under Latino newspapers, community reporting that matters

We  journalists tell stories and the ones that often click with us are those that show life’s turns.

And when the turns land someone on the better side of things, they are usually the most compelling.

Here is the start of such a story from the latest issue of EXTRA by Stella Nichols, one of our interns. It is about a life of trouble that has turned out okay. It’s a story that has meaning for the community that EXTRA is talking to and a story that reminds us why we count on the news media to connect us with the places where we live.

For the rest of the story go to EXTRA, http://www.extranews.net

Stephen

by Stella Nichols

John Vergara grew up inChicago’s Humboldt Park community,where gangs, drug dealingand violence were simply part ofthe norm.

Although he has made it a point to forget his past and the mistakes he’s made, having his tattoos removed has been anotherstep in his new life.

“I’m still in the process of gettingthese removed. Laser surgery hurts so bad, 10 times more thanthe tattoo itself, but I have to doit,” said Vergara, as he pointed to one of the many tattoos that engulf his body. “I try not to thinkabout it. I’m not that person anymore,”Vergara said.

“Everything I do now is to prove to my son[that] I’m a good dad.”Vergara was inducted into oneof the area’s most notorious gangs when he was only 13 yearsold.“There was nothing else to do,”said Vergara, 36, who now works with community groups in aneffort to keep Latino youths away from gangs.

“It was too dangerous to play in basketball courtsand there were no recreational centers. [There were] no role models whatsoever.”Surpassing gang life and jail time Vergara’s life revolved around the gang. A typical day in his life involved liquor, girls, drug dealingand handling more money in aweek than most teenagers see in a year.

“If I knew when I was 14 what Iknow now, I’d be really rich,”Vergara said.By his early teenage years,Vergara had witnessed more strifeand pain than most people. At 15,he was shot three times by a rivalgang member, suffering injuries inhis arm, stomach and shoulder.“I couldn’t care less aboutdying. I just wanted revenge,”Vergara said. “That was the beginningof me picking up a gun.”

From then on, Vergara’s troubles only worsened.When he was 16, he was convictedof several severe crimes and was sentenced to life in prison.

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We Thank Chicago for Bringing Us the Oscars Tonight

March 1, 2010 at 9:18 pm · Filed under darn good writing

Before we hand out these statues tonight, we want to stop and say a few word about where these shining Oscars come from – Chicago.

That’s right, the statues that millions of people around the world are ogling were born at the R.S. Owens & Co. factory on Chicago’s Northside. They have been made there for the last 27 years.

And this year’s statues, going to the world’s most talented artists of the movie screen, come from the talented hands of workers like Jorge Marroquin, who is orginally from Quatemala and who is the production boss at this highly talented factory.

These statues were pressed and shined and polished to a wonderful gleam, passing through the hands of many, many of whom came to the U.S. from Mexico, among them Martin Vega, originally of Michoacan and Alvaro Lando, who comes from Guerrero and Josefina Godea whose roots go back to San Luis Potosi.

Sounds heart-warming enough for an award winning documentary, doesn’t it?

Well, the facts are right. They were spelled out last week in a wonderful two page spread with photos in Hoy. If only somebody in Hollywood would say a few such words for the folks who bring Oscar to life.

But it not too late to give an update to a story that will provide a very humane grounding for an event that has its eyes stuck on the heavens.

http://tinyurl.com/ylqoboz

Oscar Avila had another compelling first page piece last week on the front page of the Trib about the separate worlds of Chicago’s restaurants: white up front and black or Latino outback.  But his story followed an equally powerful and personal piece written by Fabiola Pomareda in La Raza about the abuses Latinos suffer in our restaurants.

Antonio Olivo also did a wonderfully humane piece in the Trib about how Iraqi refugees and others, among them Bosnians who remember their days in such terrible plight, who have come to help the latest refugees. It is a story that needs to be told again and again in Chicago’s Arab news media, where it will most certainly have the greatest resonance.

But this is a story about refugees in a strange land and at a tough time and it’s a story almost any immigrant community will want to embrace.

The tragedy of the hollowing out of Chicago’s newspapers is the lack of reporters from Chicago’s mainstream papers on the ground in Haiti. They relied on others words. But Richard Muhammad, editor of the Final Call was there, and wrote both articles and an editor’s note about what he found.

He wrote: “The reality is simply incredible as is the resilience of the Haitian people.”

saludos, Stephen

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