Free Republic

A City Council committee took the first step Thursday toward approving legislation that outlines how the Obama Foundation can use Jackson Park and the Obama Presidential Center once it is built. And for the first time, the committee revealed language in the legislation that seeks to protect current homeowners and residents who live closest to the selected site. As part of their agreement, which the panel approved unanimously, the city will monitor property values and other indicators of demographic changes near the center site. If there are dramatic changes, the city will implement measures to keep residents in their homes,...

**SNIP** The federal lawsuit filed in May might seem a legal long shot, since the center is an ode to Obama, the city's favorite son. But Caplan's challenge forced the city last month to reveal that the Obama Center isn't quite the done deal that many Chicagoans think it is: The city hasn't reached key agreements or a lease with the foundation, and those pacts will require another new city ordinance to be passed sometime soon. "The City Council has yet to introduce, much less enact, an ordinance authorizing the construction and operation of the center," the city's corporation counsel,...

**SNIP** The lawsuit was filed on Monday, May 14 by “Protect Our Parks,” a nonprofit organization that seeks a court order to “bar the Park District and the City from approving the building of the Presidential Center and from conveying any interest in or control of the Jackson Park site to the Foundation.” In its complaint, Protect Our Parks accuses the Chicago Park District of an “institutional bait and switch.” The organization said the park district transferred public land to the Obama Foundation to house an official federal Obama Federal Library. But that purpose changed when Obama decided his center...

Chicago Obama library bids in trouble; foundation has 'major concerns' with U. of C. proposal Posted: 12/30/2014, 12:45pm | Lynn Sweet WASHINGTON — The Barack Obama Foundation has major problems with the University of Chicago bid for the Obama presidential library and museum and is uneasy about the bid from the University of Illinois at Chicago, leaving Columbia University in New York the front-runner for the project. A source close to the foundation told me that the University of Chicago bid is in jeopardy because it does not own — and has no definite path to acquiring at present —...

100 Blacks to be Honored for Influencing Clinton Career Thursday November 04, 2004 5:50pm Little Rock (AP) - Bill Clinton is a member of the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame and has been called "our first black president.'' Now, it's time to celebrate the black people who welcomed the former president into the fold. One hundred blacks who were "unsung heroes'' of Clinton's political success will be honored as a part of the festivities leading up to the November 18th opening of the Clinton Presidential Library. On November 16th as many as 1,000 people are expected to attend a reception...