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Cease Fire is bolstering its efforts to reach women and girls like Rivera who are caught up in Chicago’s violent street life. The strategy marks a shift for the Chicago-based organization, which historically has worked with men, the primary offenders and victims of crime. Over the last five years, CeaseFire has doubled the number of female outreach workers as daily contacts with women grew, said Elena Quintana, director for evaluations. It also wants to increase its number of female “violence interrupters” — the workers who try to mediate street disputes before they turn deadly.

Deseree Rivera was 17 and knew her world of gangs and drugs was no place to raise her newborn daughter.  One day last year as she fed the baby, she whispered a pledge into her tiny ears.  “I promise I’m going to go back to school, go to college,” she said.  In that moment, Rivera finally decided to seek help from CeaseFire, an anti-violence program whose workers had been encouraging her for months to turn her life around.

July 17, 2009 11:53 AM

Cubs could possibly file bankruptcy? The positions of each potential buyer and their capabilities to purchase the team should not be affected by the filing, sources said.  Tribune Co. is in the midst of a reorganization under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing as the media concern struggles under a heavy debt load, poor economy and loss in revenue at its newspapers and television stations.  Reached this morning Tribune Co. spokesman Gary Weitman  “declined comment on the specifics of any potential transaction.”   The Chicago Cubs may consider a bankruptcy filing as part of closing the sale of the team, according to sources close to the major league ball club.  The National League ball club would be the first team in nearly four decades to do so. The move, first reported by Bloomberg News, comes as Cubs parent Tribune Co. works to sell the team. The pre-packaged bankruptcy under discussions by Cubs officials would be designed to clear the team of liabilities and make its sale easier, sources close to the team said. Any prepackaged filing by the Cubs could allow the team to re-emerge from bankruptcy in a very short time from weeks to a day or so, these sources said.  This month, Tribune Co. made progress on a deal to sell the Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field and other assets to the family of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts for about $900 million. The company continues to discuss a deal for the same assets with a group led by New York investor and former Chicagoan Marc Utay.

Source: Chicago Tribune