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The first attack happened around 8:25 p.m. Saturday when a man was attacked after parking his motor scooter near the Northwestern University campus in Streeterville. The man had parked on the 300 block of East Chicago Avenue across the street from Wieboldt Hall when a group of 15 to 20 men, all approximately 16 to 20 years old and black, approached him, according to an alert from the university. One of them threw a baseball at the victim’s face and knocked him to the ground, the alert said. Several others from the group punched and hit him several times. The...

ndiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said he plans to fight former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick's attempt to escape his $108 million debt to the state. Pastrick filed for bankruptcy last week, about 10 months after a federal judge sided in favor of Indiana's lawsuit against Pastrick and his co-defendants for their role in the sidewalks-for-votes fraud scheme and ordered the judgment. The state has been trying to collect ever since and filed a motion last week asking for the seizure of his personal property at his Ogden Dunes home and a storage locker in Portage. U.S. District Judge Christopher...

EAST CHICAGO — A bomb explosion on Cline Avenue near Interstate 94 rocked the area Wednesday night and tied up traffic for hours. No injuries from the blast were reported. Police were notified of a possible bomb in the back of a car about 7:45 p.m. at Cline Avenue north of Columbus Avenue. Authorities cleared the expressway and the surrounding area before attempting to detonate the device about 9 p.m. Lake County police were still gathering information late Wednesday. Police spokesman Mike Higgins said East Chicago police received a call about a domestic disturbance involving a weapon. During a traffic...

Links not updated yet, this was just announced on 97.1 Talk FM. The Chief of Police and his assistant/deputy are in FBI Custody. There is to be a press confrence at 2:30 to announce the details. All indications is that this is in regard to an investigation into Voter Fraud that began immediately after the November presidential election.

OXFORD, Wis. (AP) The former Indiana Democratic Party chairman arrived at a federal prison in Wisconsin today. Peter Manous will serve a 27-month sentence for defrauding a union pension fund in a ten (M) million dollar land deal. Manous pleaded guilty in April to eight federal charges, including conspiracy, lying to federal investigators and obstruction of justice. The former chairman admitted in court that he took a 200-thousand dollar kickback to help broker the deal in which a carpenters union bought some land for a housing development. Manous was an attorney for the union.

EAST CHICAGO (AP) Residents in East Chicago have an extra hour to vote in today's Democratic mayoral primary. Judge Steven King ordered that all polling places remain open until 8 p-m. King also ordered that voting continue in Precinct 14 until 9:30 tonight because an inspector assigned to the precinct didn't show up this morning, causing the poll to open late. King indicated in his order that he extended voting hours to prevent the possibility of voters being disenfranchised. The primary is being rerun after the state Supreme Court threw out last year's results because of widespread corruption. Mayor Robert...

Witness unveils campaign tactics PUBLIC CORRUPTION: Former Pastrick worker testifies paving projects were part of vote-buying effort. BY BILL DOLAN, Times Staff Writer This story ran on nwitimes.com on Friday, October 22, 2004 12:15 AM CDT SOUTH BEND -- A veteran of East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick's campaigns gave a federal jury a lesson Thursday in the city's hardball politics. Byron Florence testified he helped win re-election for Pastrick and City Councilman Frank Kollintzas in 1999 by directing free concrete to city residents in return for their support Florence said he also disenfranchised anti-Pastrick voters by luring them into illegally...

October 20, 2004 — One week from tonight, a new primary will be held in the race for mayor of East Chicago, Indiana. A new primary was ordered after evidence of wrongdoing surfaced with absentee ballots. Now, it looks like more East Chicago voters plan to cast their ballots in person this time around. When the East Chicago mayoral primary is re-run next Tuesday, there will be half as many absentee ballots as were cast in the scandal-ridden election in 2003. In that first primary, disputed absentee ballots were the difference for longtime incumbent Robert Pastrick. So, with fewer absentee...

Concrete connection? EAST CHICAGO: Prosecutors say sidewalks, driveways paved way for votes in 1999 primary. BY BILL DOLAN Times Staff Writer This story ran on nwitimes.com on Sunday, October 3, 2004 12:04 AM CDT EAST CHICAGO -- Federal prosecutors said City Councilman Frank Kollintzas delivered on his campaign promises in 1999 even when it meant breaking the law. Kollintzas, the 4th District Democrat, allegedly knocked on Hope Cortez's door while campaigning for re-election five years ago and pledged to cover her whole back yard in concrete if she wanted. City contractors sent to her home allegedly couldn't believe their ears...

Feds: Pastrick tied to sidewalks-for-votes scheme COURTS: E.C. Sidewalk 6 trial documents allege conspiracy was widespread. BY BILL DOLAN Times Staff Writer This story ran on nwitimes.com on Friday, October 1, 2004 12:10 AM CDT EAST CHICAGO -- Federal prosecutors named Mayor Robert Pastrick and 14 political allies as unindicted co-conspirators in the 1999 sidewalk scandal that allegedly transformed $20 million in public money into concrete and votes for their re-election. The U.S. attorney's office filed a 44-page document this week that provides a preview of the government's effort to prove six city officials who go on trial Monday in...

PUBLIC CORRUPTION: Residents say Stiglich campaign workers bought votes with cash, crack BY BILL DOLAN Times Staff Writer This story ran on nwitimes.com on Thursday, September 30, 2004 12:04 AM CDT EAST CHICAGO -- Allegations that votes were purchased with crack cocaine and money in the city's 1999 mayoral election were made public Wednesday. More than a dozen East Chicago residents told Lake County police detectives five years ago about violations of state election laws involving absentee ballots cast in their name for Stephen R. "Bob" Stiglich, who was challenging Mayor Robert Pastrick. Lake County Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez ordered...

(Hammond-AP) -- The son of long-time East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick pleaded guilty today to making kickbacks in a corruption scandal. Kevin Pastrick filed a petition in U-S District Court to change his earlier innocent plea to guilty on seven counts in an indictment. As part of the deal, federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of the range Pastrick faces on the counts. Pastrick is a real estate developer. The indictment says he got a 600-thousand-dollar commission from a 1999 land deal. He allegedly paid a 200-thousand dollar kickback to former state Democratic Party Chairman...

(South Bend-AP) -- Former state Democratic Party Chairman Peter Manous has pleaded guilty to eight federal charges. He has also agreed to cooperate with the U-S Attorney's office in its investigation of a ten (m) million-dollar land deal involving a union pension trust fund. Manous, Kevin Pastrick and union official Gerry Nannenga were indicted in September. Pastrick allegedly received a 600-thousand-dollar commission from the sale and paid a 200-thousand-dollar kickback to Manous, who was the union's attorney and agent. Patstrick also was accused of making another kickback to Nannenga, who was the executive treasurer-secretary of the Indiana Regional Council of...