Blog Question

Would you like to see the casino buses come back to Chatham and park in front of the new library site now under construction along 79Th Street between King Drive and Vernon Avenue? Leave your comments on the comment line.

Gun that killed cop bought in Miss. in scheme run by student

The gun that killed Chicago police Officer Thomas Wortham IV in May was purchased in Mississippi as part of a weapons trafficking scheme organized by a college student, authorities said Thursday.

Quawi Gates, 27, a student at a Mississippi college, was sentenced this week to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to two counts of gun trafficking there, federal and local law enforcement officials said.

Chicago police and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they made the connection to Wortham's slaying after Gates was implicated in a scheme that involved buying guns in Mississippi and allegedly selling them to the Gangster Disciples street gang in Chicago, authorities said.

Four firearms have been recovered in Chicago, authorities said.

At his sentencing hearing in Mississippi on Wednesday, prosecutors presented evidence that Gates also trafficked the gun used to kill Wortham, said ATF spokesman Todd Reichert.

Chicago police Cmdr. Keith Calloway, who was Wortham's supervisor at the time of his killing, attended that hearing to make sure the judge understood that Wortham, a member of the Army National Guard who served in Iraq, was a good man.

"I told the judge it was evil and unconscionable that ... somebody would be providing weapons to these gangbangers," Calloway said Thursday.

Police Superintendent Jody Weis added during a news conference Thursday that Gates' actions "put countless lives in jeopardy and directly contributed to the murder of one of the finest officers to ever wear the Chicago Police Department uniform."

Wortham, 30, who was assigned to the Englewood district, was shot outside his parents' house during an attempted robbery.

Four men approached Wortham as he left the Chatham home and tried to steal his motorcycle. Wortham and his father, Thomas Wortham III, exchanged gunfire with the four, killing one of them. The other three have been charged with murder.

Gates, an Englewood native, attended a magnet elementary school before graduating from Bogan High School in 2002.

His younger brother Quawim Gates, 25, said he looked up to him as a father figure.

"The person that they're describing, who they're characterizing, I don't even know who that person is," he said.

Annual Labor Day Outdoor Cookout at the Chatham Food Market

Stop by for the annual Labor Day Outdoor Cookout, from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m., Saturday, September 4, 2010, with great grocery shopping at Chatham Food Market, 327 East 79Th Street in the heart of the Chatham retail strip!

Blog Question

At a recent CAPCC Monthly Meeting it was announced that a hotel will not be built on a site in Sub-Area I. What do you think should be built? Another hotel proposal? Leave your comments on the comment line.

New Tip in Michael Bailey Case, According to Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis

Chicago police said Wednesday that detectives are investigating a new tip in to the shooting death of Chicago police officer Michael Bailey, who was gunned down outside his Park Manor home just over a month ago. See this clip from CBS 2 Chicago:

http://cbs2chicago.com/video/?id=73713@wbbm.dayport.com

And from ABC7 Chicago:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=7630494&pid=7629519

Man gets 10 years for trafficking gun used to kill officer

A 27-year-old man responsible for the illegal purchase of a gun used in the slaying of Chicago Police Officer Thomas Wortham IV in May was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in a firearms trafficking scheme involving weapons brought from Mississippi to Chicago, authorities said today.

Quawi Gates of the 2100 block of West 71st Street in Chicago pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting another to cause a federal firearms dealer to keep false records, according to a news release from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Four guns bought by straw purchasers for Gates in Mississippi were confiscated in violent crimes in the Chicago area in the hands of Gangster Disciple street gang members, the release stated.

One of the four guns was used in Wortham's slaying on May 19 outside his parents' home in the Chatham neighborhood, according to the ATF. Gates did not take part in the shooting itself.

Gates was sentenced in federal court in Mississippi. His prison time will be followed by three years of supervised release. He will also be ordered to pay a special assessment fee of $200.

See the WGN9 report:

http://www.wgntv.com/search/wgntv-gun-used-in-cops-murder-linked-to-trafficking-case-aug25,0,2282350.story

SPECIAL REPORT: Feds Seize ShoreBank: Branches will reopen as Urban Partnership Bank; Shore Bank Seized by FDIC, Will Re-open Saturday

Shutterstock

On Friday, ShoreBank, the South Side bank known for its community lending, was seized by the Feds. Its assets were turned over to its management team and will be reopened as Urban Partnership Bank, the Sun-Times is reporting.

Urban Partnership Bank "has indicated that they will maintain ShoreBank's focus of providing loan and deposit products and services to individuals and small- to mid-sized businesses, with a special emphasis on the underserved" neighborhoods, according to a fact sheet issued by the FDIC, according to the paper.

Most of ShoreBank's $2.14 billion in assets was acquired.

ShoreBank's 15 branches will reopen Saturday morning as branches of Urban Partnership Bank and will get a new board of directors. ATM debit cards and checks can be used as usual.

ShoreBank has become renowned nationally for its support of low-income borrowers. According to a report the bank filed, during the first six months of this year, the bank lost $39.6 million and lost $119 million in all of 2009, partly due to bad loans to apartment buildings.

Federal regulators on Friday seized ShoreBank, the fabled South Side bank known for its community lending, and turned its good assets back over to its management team to be reopened as Urban Partnership Bank

It is the 15th bank in the state closed this year because of the recession.

Those regulators walked into ShoreBanks' busiest branch, located at 79th and Cottage Grove and took it over.

A spokesperson said customers should not be worried about their money, but some people we talked to hope the new bank will continue to extend loans to people in the neighborhood.

Some people said ShoreBank would help when other banks would say "no."

"I'm hearbroken. It's just like losing a family member because I've been knowing them ever since 1996 and they've always been friendly and take care of customers," said one ShoreBank customer while watching watching regulators go in and out of the bank.

"I've been banking here for 15 years. Some of my friends ask me about buying a house or starting a business. They want to get loans and they do here," another ShoreBank customer said.

Regulators said a lot of those loans ultimately did in ShoreBank.

All of ShoreBanks' branches in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland will re-open under new management Saturday morning.

ShoreBank started out as "South Shore Bank" back in the 1970's. It was one of very few banks that would extend credit to low income families, mostly on the south side so they could buy their first homes or start a business. The problem for ShoreBank was making so-called jumbo loans to people buying multi-unit apartment complexes.

ShoreBank had more than a year to raise $150 million to save it. That failed, so now the bank is called Urban Partnership Bank. Whichever name is on the door, regulators say deposits are safe.

"They money is fully protected. The transaction the FDIC entered with Urban Partnership Bank, the new bank here, the way it was structured, all deposits were taken over by all the new banks whether you had five dollars or five hundred thousand dollars. David Barr, spokesman with FDIC said.

The new owners say whatever business customers had at ShoreBank will continue under Urban Partnership Bank. They have deep roots in Chicago. The new CEO is a former executive at the old First Chicago Bank which is now Chase.

ShoreBank, the South Side lender that carved out a national reputation by successfully lending in low-income urban neighborhoods for three decades, was seized by regulators Friday after an extraordinary rescue effort featuring the nation’s largest financial firms fell short.

But all was not lost for the neighborhoods ShoreBank has served for more than three decades.

The new management of the bank, led by former First Chicago Corp. senior executive David Vitale, acquired $1.54 billion in deposits and most of ShoreBank’s $2.14 billion in assets from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and will reopen ShoreBank’s 15 branches in the Chicago area, Cleveland and Detroit Saturday morning as Urban Partnership Bank.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. agreed to share losses on $1.41 billion of those assets. The management-led buyout team agreed to pay a 0.5% premium for the deposits and received an asset discount of $146 million.

For the FDIC, the estimated hit to its insurance fund from the failure will be $367.7 million.

In a special news release, the FDIC said the team was the only bidder for the bank and its bid saved the federal fund set aside for bank failures between $250 million and $334 million over a plain liquidation of the bank.

Backing Mr. Vitale and his team were many of the same financial giants — like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. — that had committed $150 million in fresh equity to ShoreBank in the spring to try to forestall the failure.

Other investors highlighted by the FDIC were Bank of America Corp., American Express Co., Harris N.A., General Electric Co.’s equity investments arm, PNC Investment Corp., State Farm Insurance Cos., Wells Fargo & Co., Key Community Development Corp., Citigroup Inc., the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The FDIC emphasized that it went through its normal bidding procedure for ShoreBank, whose Wall Street bailout has provoked a firestorm on the political right because of suspicions that the Obama administration strong-armed the big financial houses into supporting ShoreBank. The administration has consistently denied that.

Urban Partnership will pursue much of the same mission that drove the founders of ShoreBank when they acquired the old South Shore National Bank in 1973 with the plan to invest in rehabbing the housing stock of the middle-class neighborhood that at the time had been hurt badly by white flight.

ShoreBank was profitable for most of its existence until it was swamped by an avalanche of bad loans in the worst recession since the 1930s.

The failure marks a severely disappointing cap to the careers of ShoreBank co-founders Ronald Grzywinski and Mary Houghton, who earned national acclaim from the likes of President Bill Clinton for demonstrating that banks could earn profits while lending in the inner city. Both left the bank earlier this year, as Mr. Vitale, 63, a longtime resident of Hyde Park on the city’s South Side, agreed in the spring to lead the rescue effort.

The FDIC noted that the board and executives “who presided during the deterioration of the condition of the institution will not be retained.”

Mr. Vitale will serve as chairman of Urban Partnership Bank, while his longtime lieutenant and former First Chicago colleague, William Farrow, will be president and CEO.

It’s unclear whether there will be any role for current ShoreBank CEO George Surgeon, a more than 30-year veteran of the bank who agreed to take over its leadership nearly a year ago. A spokesman for the bank said he didn’t know what Mr. Surgeon’s future role might be.

In a release, Mr. Vitale said, “Urban Partnership Bank will provide access to financial services and support to distressed neighborhoods in order to help transform distressed neighborhoods into strong, stable communities.”

None of ShoreBank's new leadership was available for comment Friday evening.

Given the severity of ShoreBank’s loan losses — the $2-billion-asset bank suffered a net loss of over $100 million last year — it’s remarkable that a bank dedicated to carrying on its work is emerging from the wreckage. Lenders in far better shape that have gone through the FDIC’s failure process generally have been absorbed into larger banks.

To be determined later: What happens with the assets other than the Chicago-based bank, which are held by holding company ShoreBank Corp., the spokesman said. They include several non-profits, an international for-profit subsidiary that fosters micro-lending in poor countries and Ilwaco, Wash.-based ShoreBank Pacific, a separately chartered lender catering to “green” businesses.

ShoreBank Pacific CEO David Williams last spring said he was in talks with outside buyers in the event that ShoreBank failed. He didn’t return a call Friday requesting comment.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/Feds-Seize-ShoreBank-101219834.html#ixzz0xFqpSsp1

Also:
http://cbs2chicago.com/video/?id=73636@wbbm.dayport.com

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=7621839&pid=7621555

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/shore-bank-seized-by-fdic-will-re-open-saturday