This past Sunday, Barack Obama gave a speech at the Vernon Park Church of God in Chicago in which he noted that the number of city schoolchildren killed in the last school year was higher than the number of soldiers from all of Illinois killed in Iraq over the same period. “From South Central L.A. to Newark, New Jersey, there’s an epidemic of violence that’s sickening the soul of this nation,” the Illinois senator told the crowd. “The violence is unacceptable and it’s got to stop.”

Obama didn’t invent this analogy. In June, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley made a similar point, comparing the annual toll of nationwide gun deaths to Iraq casualty figures, and wondering what happened to the outrage.

The United States Postal Inspection Service is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the shooting of a mail carrier in south suburban Calumet City.

A 21-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service was in a mail delivery truck at Hoxie and Wilson Avenues about 4 p.m. Wednesday when an armed man approached and demanded money, Postal Inspector Wanda Shipp said Thursday.

It’s always been my dream to live in a “big city” loft. When I lived in Los Angeles I would watch movies filmed in New York or Chicago featuring a hip character living in a super cool artsy loft. I would think to myself, “I have to experience living in a space like that!” Now, a few years and one unexpected career move later, I’m living in my Chicago loft dream come true.

In recent years, thousands of former suburban dwellers have turned in their daily commutes for a downtown Chicago neighborhood. Demand for quality living space has boomed, and loft living has become the rage. Old factories are being converted into some of the cities’ coolest living spaces.

Although not affiliated with the Grant Park festival, the Chicago Park District opens its parks each summer for free outdoor movies. Dubbing the event “Movies in the Park,” the lineup of films include “Happy Feet” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “Open Season.” Janette Kerr, program and event coordinator for the Chicago Park District, said most of the films are family-friendly and never R-rated.

“Chicago is so beautiful in the summertime,” Kerr said. “What better way to provide free programming than having movies in the park?”

But you don’t have to drive into Chicago to see a great movie outdoors. The “movie in the park” concept has become popular in several nearby suburban communities, including Elgin, Marengo and Dundee Township. The Crystal Lake Park District is showing movies this summer at the Main Beach Band Shell. At dusk tonight, the featured film is “How to Eat Fried Worms.”

Woodstock began offering movies at Emricson Park last year. On Sunday, the city will show “E.T.” The outdoor movie season will end Aug. 25 with “Charlotte’s Web.”

Sometimes I don’t let my children as far as the next house.” says Gregorio Gonzalez. Gonzalez is a self proclaimed former gang banger from the Humboldt park area of Chicago. “One of the worst neighborhoods you could be raised in.”

Two teenage boys were shot and wounded as they walked near a South Side elementary school Monday afternoon, police said.

The two boys — one 14, the other 15 — were walking in the 4500 block of South Champlain Avenue when a shooter riding in a car opened fire about 1:40 p.m., witnesses said.

The boys fled from the gunshots and fell in the common yard shared by residents of the apartment complex across the street from Woodson South Elementary School. The 14-year-old was in serious condition at University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital Monday night; the 15-year-old was in stable condition, police said.
…
The sound of gunshots terrified one mother, whose apartment faces the street where the boys were shot. The woman, who didn’t want her name used because she feared the gang activity of her Bronzeville neighborhood, said she ran for the front door when she heard the succession of shots. Her three young sons were playing in the yard outside, she said.

Last month, Schanna Gayden, 13, was killed while she stood in a Northwest Side school playground, and the mother feared her children could be the next victims of gang crossfire.