Evanston news elsewhere

Friends and admirers know Lorraine Hairston Morton as the fiery, exuberant and youthful mayor of Evanston. They have no idea how old she is. Morton, who is retiring this year, will turn 90 on Dec. 8. "She's never told me that," said Darlene Francellno, who has been the mayor's secretary for 11 years.

The Evanston Township High School auditorium was packed Monday night as parents, students and teachers gathered for an open forum on the school's controversial mixed-level classes.

The special meeting of the District 202 Board of Education was the latest in a string of meetings and forums focused on the elimination of honors English for seniors.

For the past two years, the Evanston City Council has been searching for ways to make up a $140 million shortfall in the police and fire pension funds without cutting services. The aldermen have raised the gasoline tax, parking fees and the cost for obtaining a license to sell tobacco.

"No dollars for hate!"

That's what protesters chanted as they marched up and down the street outside Century Theatres, 1715 Maple Ave., on Saturday night. Armed with pride flags, picket signs and banners, about 400 people came to protest a $9,999 donation that Cinemark CEO Alan Stock made to the Yes on 8 campaign.

Sheridan Road, taxes and Wendy's.

Those topics, in that order, were among the issues discussed at the first "Ask the Aldermen" event Thursday night.

Alds. Cheryl Wollin (1st) and Elizabeth Tisdahl (7th) spent more than an hour fielding questions from 18 Northwestern students at the forum, sponsored by the Associated Student Government and intended to recur quarterly.

Facing the stress of the upcoming budget season, aldermen are debating the feasibility of implementing certain aspects of the previously approved Lakefront Master Plan.

At the Jan. 22 council meeting, aldermen voted unanimously in favor of the plan, which would add restrooms and concessions to four lakefront locations as well as a bike path running parallel to the beach.

A man was robbed at gunpoint Wednesday afternoon by a group of men in a white van, police said.

The victim was standing near the rear of Century Theatres, 1715 Maple Ave., when the van pulled up next to him, Evanston Police Department Cmdr. Tom Guenther said.

Five years ago, Dick Clark started taking classes at Studio 211 in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center. The Chicago Public Schools teacher, who works with high school students at risk of dropping out, wanted to try something new and be around others his age doing the same thing.

Residents of 749 and 751 Sherman Ave. called the police after they returned home to find their front doors forced open, Evanston Police Cmdr. Tom Guenther said.

While discussion about the future of Evanston's 100-year-old Civic Center continues, City Clerk Rodney Greene sees a daily reminder of the building's deteriorating condition inside his office.

"You can see how bad it is just by looking at it," Greene said, pointing to the yellowing, damaged walls.

Now that the first flurries of snow have settled, local business owners and managers are bracing themselves for the frigid winds that will keep potential customers huddling near a hearth instead of strolling down a shopping aisle - and the economy has no coat to offer.

A mural featuring musicians, instruments and vinyl records in front of a purple sky is the dominant feature of Evanston's Boocoo, a cultural center at 1823 Church St.

Students, along with older patrons, trickle in as school lets out. Everyone sits at one of the many music-themed tables - each tabletop featuring a variety of CD covers from genres ranging from classic rock to soul to rap - and sets about doing whatever they have come to do.

A man demanded money from a Northwestern student and his friend early Monday morning, a university statement said.

The attacker approached a male NU student and his female friend near the corner of Foster Street and Maple Avenue at about 1:15 a.m., according to the statement.

To cut or not to cut - that was the question at Monday's City Council budget workshop, where aldermen sparred over several budgeted programs in the Capital Improvement Plan, including a running path and four new public restrooms at beach entrances.

These projects, proposed as part of a "Lakefront Master Plan," would cost more than $8 million.

After months of negotiating, Evanston/Skokie School District 65 board members voted unanimously to approve a four-year teachers' contract at their meeting Monday night.

The ratification marks the end of negotiations that began in the spring. Teachers have continued to operate under the old contract since it expired in August.

The play just wouldn't have been the same if the toilet hadn't flushed.

Communication senior Michael Kessler brought Amsterdam's Red Light District to Evanston's Cafe Ambrosia Friday and Saturday with "Red Light Winter," an Adam Rapp play that Kessler staged independent of any Northwestern student theater groups.

The Thanksgiving story that most Americans know didn't actually happen.

"It's just a morale-booster based upon a myth that never happened," said John Low, the executive director for the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian and a Potawatomi Indian. "The only feast that comes close to the first Thanksgiving was a celebration over the massacre of Pequot Indian women and children by pilgrims.

A Northwestern student was attacked Wednesday night, university officials said.
The student was walking into her home in the 1700 block of Hinman Avenue at about 6:30 p.m. when she was approached from behind by a man described as "approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall and medium build, wearing a white jacket and gloves" in a statement released late
Wednesday night.

Police arrested a man at the Davis Street Metra station Tuesday morning for trespassing on the train tracks and hitting a conductor, Evanston Police Department Cmdr. Tom Guenther said.

Slave forts in Ghana. A Nazi concentration camp in Poland. The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.

Chicago native Jane Fulton Alt has taken her photography around the world to address "universal issues of how we treat one another."

The artist, who moved to Evanston 30 years ago, said she uses her photographs as metaphors, drawing on her background as a clinical social worker.