Chicago Defender

Cook County seizes more than 80 illegal guns

Cook County Sheriff Tom (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)\

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says an effort to take illegal guns off the street has resulted in the seizure of 83 guns in the last seven weeks.

Dart said Tuesday that the newly formed Sheriff's Gun Suppression Unit also has recovered thousands of rounds of ammunition and more than 100 revoked Firearm Owners Identification cards. Dart has proposed state gun legislation that would reform and strengthen enforcement of the state's FOID card system.

The weapons seized add to the thousands of weapons that Chicago's police department takes off the street every year.

Legal fight settled over Chicago parking meters

Chicagoans will soon be getting a break on parking fees — at least on Sundays. Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office announced today the private company that runs the city's parking spaces has agreed to stop charging for parking in Chicago's neighborhoods on Sundays. The mayor's office says the city and Chicago Parking Meters LLC have settled legal disputes over the parking meter contract. The City Council approved a 75-year contract with the company in 2008. In return, the city got $1.1 billion.(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Monday that he was able to tweak a deal to privatize the city's parking meters that has proven to be a national embarrassment even as he acknowledged that the city is stuck for the next 71 years with a contract he inherited and despises.

"We cannot make this bad deal go away and make it into a good one," the mayor said at a City Hall news conference of the $1.15 billion, 75-year deal reached in 2008 by predecessor Richard M. Daley that led to Chicago having the most expensive parking in the country. "But I think we did make it a little less bad for the next seven decades."

Emanuel, who called his proposal an effort to "make a little lemonade out of a big lemon," said he was able to secure from Chicago Parking Meters LLC an agreement to stop charging for parking in the city's residential neighborhoods on Sundays. But to get that concession, Emanuel had to give one: Metered parking hours will be extended an hour until 10 p.m., as well as an additional three hours in the trendy near North Side.

Emanuel has been embroiled in a battle over tens of millions of dollars Chicago Parking Meters LLC has contended the city owes for revenue lost when streets are closed for festivals and other reasons.

On Monday, he said the company has agreed to settle for much less than it has demanded. Under the agreement, the city will settle invoices totaling $49 million for a two-year period that ended March 31 for a total of $8.9 million. The difference of about $20 million a year will total more than $1 billion over the life of the contract, Emanuel said.

"I literally have millions of dollars of unpaid bills sitting on my desk that I have refused to pay," the mayor said. "The company now knows that I'm a different type of mayor, this is a different administration and Chicago has a different way of doing business."

The mayor said he will submit the proposal to the City Council, which must approve it to go into effect.

Chicago residents said the tradeoff won't help them much, but they don't blame the current mayor.

"It's going to make things even more of a frustration," said marketing executive Brian Hull, 30, envisioning feeding a meter during a late night party.

"It's good and bad," said trader Pat Skelton, 54. "If I want to come down and eat, I'm going to pay more, but if my son comes over (to visit him in Wrigleyville) he won't have to worry about (paying on Sunday)."

Both men said the mayor was trying to make the best of a bad situation he inherited.

And for all his tough talk, Emanuel admitted Monday this was the best he could do with a poorly negotiated deal that never should have been struck. It left Chicago with the most expensive meter parking in the United States — $6.50 an hour in the downtown business district. And, perhaps worst of all, the city has already spent all but a fraction of the $1.15 billion that was supposed to last decades.

"We spent all of the money so we can't buy ourselves out of this deal," Emanuel said.

The company, which leases the city's 36,000 metered spaces, said it was pleased with the mayor's proposal.

"In the best interests of the people of Chicago, CPM collaborated with the administration and believes that our willingness to work with the City demonstrates our desire to provide the most efficient and technologically advanced parking meter system possible for the City of Chicago," the company said Monday in a statement.

Conspicuously absent Monday was any mention of Daley. Emanuel, while taking the City Council to task for voting to approve the deal in just three days, did not mention Daley by name during his statement. He left the press briefing room without taking questions.

Daley has defended the deal, saying that had he not made it, Chicago would have been forced to raise taxes and eliminate many services.

Daley was traveling on Monday, according to his law office, and could not be reached for comment.

Illinois AG seeks extension on gun-permit appeal 


SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court Monday for more time to decide whether to appeal a court's ruling that the state's ban on the public possession of firearms is unconstitutional.

A petition seeking a 30-day extension — until June 24 — argued that the December ruling by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals conflicted with several other rulings on guns, including a federal appeals court's finding on New York's restrictive concealed carry law. The Supreme Court announced earlier this month it would not hear an appeal of that case.

The 7th Circuit called Illinois' prohibition on the carrying of concealed firearms unconstitutional and ordered lawmakers to remedy the problem by June 9.

Legislators continue to argue about what the law should say. Madigan has until May 23 to decide on an appeal to the high court.

"No decision has been made yet in terms of what our next steps will be," Madigan spokeswoman Natalie Bauer said. "But the attorney general will make a final decision partly based on a very careful review of a draft petition."

The request from Madigan's solicitor general, Michael Scodro, contends that the December ruling about Illinois' ban created conflicts about whether the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms applies outside the home and if it does, what standards should govern it. It said there is also a question about a state's ability to respond to a lawsuit about the regulations.

And the request mentioned the New York case that the high court declined to consider. It said the December ruling on Illinois does not consider the New York court's determination that "the Legislature is 'far better equipped than the judiciary' to make sensitive public policy judgments" about carrying firearms.

New York has a restrictive "may issue" law, in which law enforcement has wide latitude to deny permits.

Gov. Pat Quinn, who favors strict controls on guns, has urged Madigan to appeal.

Bauer said even if there is an appeal, the Legislature must still meet the June 9 deadline, which is the date on which the federal court determined that, the unconstitutional concealed carry ban would expire. Without other action, widely permissive gun-toting rules would apply.

The extension also allows Madigan to consider what, if any, action the Legislature takes, Bauer said.

Lawmakers have wrangled over the issue, with divisions falling along geographical lines.

Chicago Democrats weary of street violence in the metropolis want restrictive rules governing where and when citizens may carry guns. Second Amendment devotees in the rest of the state, both Republican and Democrat, argue that police should issue permits to virtually anyone who passes background checks and acquires the requisite safety training.

Ill. Senator Raoul to offer version of gun-carry bill

Illinois Sen. Kwame Raoul (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — An Illinois state senator said Monday he will rework legislation allowing the carrying of concealed guns that emerged last week after concerns about extra levels of scrutiny for Chicago and Cook County, but he defended the proposal against complaints that it was more restrictive than first touted.

A copy of Sen. Kwame Raoul's proposed legislation that was obtained by The Associated Press indicates the plan would require an applicant to not only be free of a criminal record and pass a background check, but provide a "proper reason" for wanting to carry a gun and be "of good moral character."

Those are hallmarks of laws in states such as New York, where police have wide latitude to deny applications. But Raoul said it was lifted from neighboring Indiana, whose concealed carry law dates back decades.

The AP review of the Senate legislation came on the same day Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court for more time to decide on whether to challenge the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals' December decree that the state's concealed carry ban was unconstitutional.

The appeals court ordered state lawmakers to enact a law by June 9 allowing concealed carry. Madigan has until May 23 to decide on an appeal but is seeking a 30-day extension.

The issue has divided the state for years, as much along geographical lines as along political ones. Violence-weary Chicago Democrats believe more guns are not the answer and have proposed restrictive measures. Second Amendment devotees elsewhere in the state argue for permissive rules that grant gun-toting permits to virtually anyone who meets the requirements.

Raoul, a Chicago Democrat, advertised his proposal as a compromise. It recognized "sensitivities" of densely populated Chicago and Cook County, he said, by proposing local police be able to deny an "endorsement" to carry in those jurisdictions even if the Illinois State Police had approved an applicant's permit for the rest of the state.

Gun rights advocates pounced on the idea as too bureaucratic. They also argued Raoul was mistaken when he said that his legislation constituted a plan in which police had to provide a permit if an applicant passed a background check and acquired requisite safety training.

That's because Raoul's initial legislation would also require an applicant to provide state police with "a proper reason for carrying a firearm" and prove that he or she "is a responsible person of good moral character" whose permit would be "consistent with public safety."

"We just think that if you pass the background check, and you meet all the qualifications with the training, you should be able to get a concealed carry permit, no matter who you are," said Rep. Brandon Phelps, a Democrat from Harrisburg who is the House point person on concealed carry and a proponent of more permissive concealed carry law.

Raoul said a staff member told him that verbiage came from neighboring Indiana, which has been considered a conservative "shall issue" state for at least 25 years.

"I've never heard anybody characterize the state of Indiana as having a super-liberal approach to guns," Raoul said.

"Proper reason" is stated plainly in the Hoosier state's law: It is "for the defense of oneself or the state of Indiana."

Raoul said he envisions something similar in Illinois. A "threat," for example, could be as simple as an applicant stating that he or she feels unsafe because of the crime rate in the neighborhood.

Raoul said he might propose alternatives for colleagues to consider, such as a plan where state police make the decision but allow an opportunity for Chicago or Cook County police to object to, but not deny, a permit. That's along the lines of the Phelps' more permissive plan.

Legislative agreement on the issue — while elusive at the moment — plays into Madigan's petition to the Supreme Court asks for more time to consider an appeal.

"No decision has been made yet in terms of what our next steps will be," Madigan spokeswoman Natalie Bauer said. "But the attorney general will make a final decision partly based on a very careful review of a draft petition."

The request contends the ruling on Illinois' gun permits raised questions about whether the Second Amendment applies outside the home and if it does, what standards should govern it and how a state could respond to challenges to those standards.