Mortgage lenders including Bank of America, Citi, PNC and Wells Fargo will meet homeowners and provide information on obtaining loan modifications. Those planning to complete a loan modification application are urged to bring the following items:

• Most recent pay stubs (2 months) for all wage earners/household members with income
• If receiving government benefits, current award letter (including unemployment benefits)
• If receiving child support, copy of current court order and proof of payments
• Most recent bank statements (2 months)
• Most recent W-2s for all sources of income
• Most recent federal tax returns (2 years)
• Complete & accurate budget
• Letter explaining reason for default/inability to afford current mortgage payments
• Recent utility bills
• Recent mortgage statement
• Recent Homeowner Association Assessment (if applicable)
• Recent property tax bill
• Homeowners insurance declaration page.

The “Help for Homeowners” Mortgage Resource Fair will be held Saturday, May 19, 2012, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Attorney General’s Office, 500 South Second St., Springfield, IL 

More information on this free event can be obtained by calling the Attorney General’s Homeowners Referral Helpline at 1-866-544-7151.

Tom Cross

House Republican Leader

SPRINGFIELD, IL – As the General Assembly begins the final weeks of session before scheduled adjournment on May 31, the “big two” – pension and Medicaid reform – have dominated discussions throughout the state. I understand and respect the concerns of everyone who has participated in these discussions – including and especially those of you who have taken the time to call or write me with your feedback.

Over the years, every chance we get, Illinois House Republicans have been talking about enacting these reforms in order to get our state back on sound financial footing.

Now is a time to come together and put partisan, regional, and economic differences aside in order to achieve a meaningful and fair solution to the challenge imposed by the two 800-pound gorillas in the room – soaring pension and Medicaid costs. 

Governor Quinn should be commended for offering his suggestions on these major initiatives, but the fact that these problems have being building for years should be lost on no one. While it is promising to finally see Democrat leaders willing to accept the challenge of working with us to solve these twin crises, we should not have had to wait until reaching the brink of financial collapse before making long-overdue structural repairs, especially with regard to public pensions.

On this issue, House Republicans have framed the discussion.  Over the past two years, we’ve laid the groundwork. If you look at our pension proposal as compared to Governor Quinn’s recent plan, the end goals are the same:  restore fiscal solvency, ensure current and future retiree benefits are available, and stabilize the budget.  These are not new concepts or radical ideas; they are the fiscal reality we face. 

While differences remain and details must still be ironed out in order to find consensus on a fair solution moving forward, I wanted to take this moment to underscore the importance of this moment. The next two weeks will determine the course of our future in the State of Illinois across a wide range of issues.

We all share the same stake in the future. Now we must all share in the responsibility to make the difficult but necessary decisions to secure that future for our kids and grandkids.

Sincerely,

Tom Cross

House Republican Leader

State Representative, 84^th District

Historic Capital Press Club elects new president, leadership team 

WASHINGTON, D.C.  - Award-winning journalist Hazel Trice Edney, editor-in-chief of the Trice Edney News Wire and President/CEO of Trice Edney Communications LLC, has been elected president of the historic Capital Press Club.

Edney, a veteran reporter, who is also former editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service and BlackPressUSA.com, was elected by the CPC board April 19. She took office May 1.  

“I nominated Hazel Trice Edney because she is able to be the proactive advocate for communications professionals of color needed in the DC area,” says CPC President Emeritus Derrick Kenny, owner of Bold American Marketing. “She boasts a stellar track record as a seasoned journalist and has earned numerous awards. In addition, she has the proven ability to manage a non-profit communications organization, educate young communications professionals, motivate volunteers and establish partnerships with valued corporations and newsmakers. She is ideal for this office. She has the vision, strength, integrity and faith that are needed to move CPC forward into the future.”

The new leadership team also includes First Vice President Robyn Wilkes, Director of Communications, Greater Washington Urban League; Second Vice President Sherrie Edwards-Lassister, Senior Account Manager, Campbell and Company; Treasurer Joan Davion of The Davion Group; Immediate Past President Nyree Wright, Senior Vice President, MSLGROUP Americas; and Kenny, who is also Digital Media Manager, Montgomery CountyOffice of Cable and Broadband Services.

“Newsrooms across America are shrinking. That means the numbers of Black journalists in the newsrooms are diminishing while the numbers of injustices facing African-Americans are increasing,” said Edney, who has reported for the Black Press for more than 25 years. “In addition to the destructive forces of racism in our communities, we also see its economic impact on our media outlets. This climate reveals that this organization of Black media professionals is just as necessary and just as relevant as ever. The Capital Press Club will not shrink from the front lines in the war for justice and equality for others as well as ourselves.”  

It was 44 years ago that the Capital Press Club was established as the National Press Club refused to accept African-American members. As it approaches its 70th Anniversary in two years, The Capital Press Club exists to unite communications professionals of color through professional development, networking, new business opportunities and entrepreneurship, and issues advocacy. Its diverse membership of journalists, marketing, public relations, advertising and communications professionals from all disciplines is dedicated to maintaining superior standards of ethics, promoting cooperative business competition, and addressing the recruitment and retention of qualified minority communications professionals.

Biography of Hazel Trice Edney

Award-winning veteran journalist Hazel Trice Edney is president & CEO of Trice Edney Communications and editor-in-chief of Trice Edney News Wire. She is former Editor-in-Chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service and Blackpressusa.com and former interim executive director of the NNPA Foundation.

Edney is also an adjunct professor of journalism at Howard University. She has taught Reporting & Writing, Writing for the Media and the Freshman Seminar Class of Annenberg honor students. She is also the Entrepreneur in Residence at Howard’s John H. Johnson School of Communications’ CERRC (Communications Entrepreneurship Research and Resource Center), where she teaches students how to become business owners.

A native of Louisa, Va., she was the first Black woman inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame. She covered Capitol Hill, the White House and national electoral politics for NNPA from Sept. 2000 to Sept. 2010, including as an investigative reporter in NNPA’s NorthStar Investigative Reporting Program.

Edney has a Master’s Degree from the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she was awarded the William S. Wasserman Jr. Fellowship on the Press, Politics and Public Policy for her journalistic impact while reporting for the Richmond Afro-American and subsequently the Richmond Free Press. She is also a 2006 graduate of Harvard’s KSG Women and Power Executive Leadership program.

She was a 1999-2000 congressional fellow, sponsored by the American Political Science Association. In the nine-month fellowship for journalists, she served as a legislative aid in the personal office of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Her journalism awards also include the 2011 New America Media Career Achievement Award; a fellowship at the Annenberg Institute for Justice in Journalism at the University of Southern California; the prestigious Lincoln University Unity Award in Media for economics writing; the coveted Tisdale Award, named for crusading Black Press editor the late Charles Tisdale of the Jackson Advocate; and a string of NNPA Merit Awards, including NNPA First Place Feature Story Merit Award 1990 for her final interview with Virginia death row inmate Wilbert Lee Evans, published in the Afro.

Her professional media appearances have included the Tavis Smiley Show; CNN; C-Span, Bishop T.D. Jakes’ Potter’s Touch; The Al Sharpton Show; George on the Hill; Washington Watch with Roland Martin; Rhythm and News; the Joe Madison Show and the Washington Journal. Hazel was named “2008 Role Model” by the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education and a “2010 Phenomenal Woman” by the Phenomenal Women’s Alliance. She was also featured as a “Living Legend” on Tom Joyner’s BlackAmericaWeb.com in February 2011. In addition to building the Trice Edney News Wire, Hazel is currently writing her personal memoir. She can be reached at Hazel@triceedneywire.com or 202-291-9310.

Maternity wards must encourage breast-feeding, provide resources for new moms

SPRINGFIELD, IL – State Senator Kwame Raoul (D-13^th) has secured passage of legislation requiring hospitals to adopt policies that encourage breast-feeding, allowing the use of infant formula only when medically necessary or when the mother prefers not to breast-feed.

“The consumption of breast milk by infants – especially in the first few days of life – is correlated with positive health outcomes, both in the short term and throughout the child’s life,” Sen. Raoul said. “Hospitals, of all places, should make breast-feeding an easy choice for a new mother, providing her with the information and resources she needs to get started.”

House Bill 4968 states that obstetric and neonatal wards in hospitals should continue to make formula available for infants when breast-feeding is medically inadvisable, the baby is not receiving sufficient nutrients or calories from breast milk alone, or the mother does not wish to breast-feed. A hospital’s infant feeding policy must include providing instruction in the safe preparation and storage of formula when it is used.

“Breast-feeding is inexpensive and healthy for most mothers and babies,” Sen. Raoul said. “New mothers should know their hospital is supportive of breast-feeding, has committed not to supplement with formula without their permission unless medically necessary, and stands ready with sound information and guidance.”

The legislation requires hospitals to consider the recommendations of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, a project of the World Health Organization, when developing a policy on breast-feeding.

HB 4968 has passed both chambers and will become law once signed by the governor.

Club fees would help restore cuts to rape crisis centers

SPRINGFIELD, IL – With bipartisan support and agreement from victim advocates and the adult entertainment industry, strip clubs that permit alcohol would have two options to help restore funding to rape crisis centers under a bill passed 8-0 by the Senate Public Health Committee, Lt. Governor Sheila Simon said.

Strip club owners would choose to pay the state a $3 per patron surcharge on an annual basis or opt to pay a flat fee based on the taxable receipts they report to the Illinois Department of Revenue each year, under House Bill 1645 Amendment 3. Clubs that report taxable receipts of $2 million or more would pay $25,000 a year; clubs that report total receipts of $500,000 to $2 million would pay $15,000; and clubs that report total receipts of less than $500,000 would pay $5,000, according to the legislation.

The $3 surcharge and fee structure in House Bill 1645 Amendment 3 replaced the $5 per patron entrance fee proposed in an earlier bill. The new language was agreed to by rape crisis advocates, club owners and sponsor Sen. Toi Hutchinson (D-Chicago Heights). House Bill 1645 Amendment 3 now moves to the Senate for a vote.

“I am pleased all the interested parties came to the table with Sen. Hutchinson and my office and agreed on a common sense way to restore funding to rape crisis centers that have struggled to provide critical services to sexual assault survivors, school children and law enforcement agencies on ever-shrinking budgets,” Simon said.

“Substantial evidence links the consumption of alcohol at strip clubs to negative secondary effects, including sexual harassment, sexual assault and prostitution. This legislation will address the social ills and protect free expression. Clubs that do not want to pay the surcharge or fee can choose to stop permitting alcohol,” Simon added.

The newly generated revenue will go into the new Sexual Assault Services and Prevention Fund and be distributed by the Department of Human Services for community-based assistance to victims of sexual assault and sexual assault prevention.  There are at least 32 rape crisis centers – 10 in the Chicago-metro region and 22 in the non-metro area. State funding for the centers has decreased about 28 percent in the past five years.

Last year, the Texas Supreme Court upheld legislation that funded crisis centers through a $5 entrance fee at strip clubs that permit alcohol based on the correlation between alcohol, live nude dancing and negative secondary effects, such as sexual assault. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge of that decision, effectively opening the door for other cities and states to purse similar measures. California is among the states seeking legislation; it is considering a $10-per-patron fee.

Simon, a longtime domestic violence and women’s advocate, first voiced her support for Hutchinson’s legislation in February and testified in support of the amended legislation today. She visited rape crisis centers across the state this spring to call for a budget-neutral way to restore state funding.

Comptroller calls for coinciding cuts, slots at tracks

SPRINGFIELD, IL – Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka said she supports a proposed cigarette tax increase for Medicaid provided that it is tied to significant spending cuts and approval of a gaming expansion bill that includes a Chicago casino and slot machines at horse racing tracks.

The proposal offered by the state fiscal officer represents a compromise in the ongoing state budget and Medicaid negotiations.

“I am not inclined to support any tax or fee increases, but can back the cigarette tax provided that critical spending cuts are made and much-needed support of the horse racing industry is passed,” Topinka said. “Our biggest problem in this state is spending, and that has to be addressed. But the reality is that increased revenue also has to be a part of balancing the budget, and this compromise accomplishes that as well.”

The Governor and members of the General Assembly have been at odds over the proposed tax and gaming expansion. Republican legislators have opposed the cigarette tax, saying the state should focus solely on spending. At the same time, Gov. Pat Quinn has said he will not support gaming expansion legislation.

But given an estimated state bill backlog of $8.5 billion and the urgent need to pass Medicaid reform legislation, Topinka emphasized the importance of finding common ground.

“This is a common sense fiscal solution,” Topinka said. “And most importantly, it will provide important spending cuts and revenue enhancements to help put the state back on track to fiscal stability.”