The Daily Northwestern — Nov. 04, 2011

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The Daily Northwestern Serving the University and Evanston Since 1881

Inside: CLASS IN SESSION

Friday, November 4, 2011

DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM

Revenge of the Alamo

Online Roundtable: Are any of the DAILY staffers bold enough to pick NU? www.dailynorthwestern.com

Campus

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NU’s ‘It Gets Better’ puts on its first campus fundraiser.

City

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Two-year police effort yields major gang member arrests.

Forum

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Forum debates education By Tanner Maxwell

the daily northwestern

Maeve Wall Vegetarian could be a good choice

Firing Squads DAILY staffers whine about meal plans and Occupy haters.

Sports

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For second straight day, a Nittany Lions team ends a Wildcats’ season

Weather Friday

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By Safiya Merchant

the daily northwestern

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Monday

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Tuesday

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Three men are scheduled to be released from Illinois prisons this week after being exonerated of a 1991 rape and murder Thursday with the help of Northwestern Law School’s Center on Wrongful Convictions and other legal advocacy groups. Robert Taylor, James Harden and Jonathan Barr are represented by the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, the New York Innocence Project and the University of Chicago Exoneration Project, respectively. All three agencies worked to prove the innocence of their clients, who have each been incarcerated for more than 10 years.

City denies ‘Brothel’ FOIA Illinois Realtors rep’s request for overoccupancy citations list rejected By Marshall Cohen

the daily northwestern

/The Daily Northwestern

Triple team: Sen. Jeff Shoenberg and State Reps. Robyn Gabel and Daniel Biss helped moderate Thursday’s forum.

can see how their issues relate to the next one.” Each legislator introduced a single topic: Schoenberg brought up health care, Gabel talked about the importance of early childhood education and Biss discussed improvements in workforce development. Afterward, attendees were able to ask questions and offer

suggestions to promote better opportunities for children. Several attendees specifically discussed initiatives to improve health and education among children. Some brought up initiatives by Evanston-based groups like the YMCA and United Way to educate parents about obesity and See FORUM, page 6

Three exonerated, Center for Wrongful Convictions helped

Sunday

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State legislators emphasized early childhood education, student health care and workforce development during a free forum Thursday night at the District 65 administration center. The public discussion, orginally slated for 7 to 8:30 p.m., ran long as more than 40 attendees weighed in on the topics at hand. State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) and State Reps. Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston) and Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) joined members of the Legislative Task Force of District 65 and 202 to moderate the forum. The meeting stemmed from an similar forum held by legislators in July to discuss the same topics. Bob Hewer, co-chair of the task force, said the goals of the meeting were to generate ideas for legislators to create discussion in the nation’s capitol. “The goal here was really about assembling a parade,” he said. “They (legislators) can be a lot more effective if we can align a number of coalitions who are interested in particular issues and

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Saturday

Classifieds Crossword Sudoku

Courtesy of Daily archives

Putting the past behind them: It’s been more than a decade since Nebraska defeated Northwestern 66-17 in the 2000 Alamo Bowl. In their first year of Big Ten football, the Huskers are rolling through conference foes, and the Wildcats hope to get revenge by ruining Nebraska’s Rose Bowl hopes.

It’s an absolutely horrible thing that the state of Illinois has done to these children. Rob Warden,

Executive director of Center for Wrongful Convictions According to a press release from the New York Innocence Project, the State’s Attorney Office in Illinois will soon move to “vacate the convictions” of Robert Lee Veal and Shainne Sharp, who were also falsely accused of the crime. “We’re certainly delighted that basically five innocent teenagers have been absolved of a horrible crime,” said Rob Warden, the executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions.

Cateresa Matthews, a 14-yearold Rosa Parks Middle School student went missing in Dixmoor, Ill. on Nov. 19, 1991. Nineteen days later, her body was found, and authorities discovered she had been raped and shot in the mouth, according to the press release. Almost a year after the grisly murder, Illinois State Police questioned a student from the same school, then-15-year-old See CONVICTIONS, page 5

City Clerk Rodney Greene said Thursday the city might have acted “fraudulently” by denying a Freedom of Information Act request for a list of all residences under investigation of building code violations. The request asked the city to apply the same standards it did in releasing to Northwestern last month a list of nearly 50 student residencies being investigated for that same reason. “If the list was given to Northwestern, and a second person asked for that same list with the same criteria and it was not given to the requester, then that would be a fraudulent answer,” said Greene, whose office handles FOIA requests. “If one entity did receive it with no problems and another entity didn’t get it, then that’s a lie and a fraudulent statement.” The list, made public Oct. 3 , contained 52 residences under investigation, 49 of which were properties rented by Northwestern students, Dean of Students Burgwell Howard told Northwestern News Network. Steve Griffin, the city’s director of community and economic development, told The Daily last month the information came from public records and was released after NU officials asked for it. “They requested it, and we gave it to them,” Griffin said. “They’re all public record. We just made the public record available.” Griffin confirmed this statement Thursday. Howard Handler, government affairs director of

When we can’t access information, we can’t discuss the issues freely and honestly. Howard Handler,

Govt. affairs director of the Illinois Association of Realtors the Illinois Association of Realtors, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the city a day after the city released the list. He asked for “a list of all open building and/or overcrowding cases under investigation by the City of Evanston … using the same standards employed in releasing the recent list of 52 properties to Northwestern University,” according to the official filing that he provided to The Daily. Handler’s request was not granted, and he claims “the city broke the law” by declining to provide him with the already released content and more. “Mr. Griffin said this was public information,” Handler said. “So I thought, if this is public, let’s see the extent that the city is investing properties that are not just focused on the ones that serve students.” Griffin said he was “not aware of that request at all” but that the request “sounds like a report that would need to be generated.” He declined further comment. The city denied Handler’s request in a letter Oct. 12 — eight days after he formally filed the paperwork See FOIA, page 5


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