Heroins surge. These never ending cycles.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/nyregion/heroins-new-hometown-in-staten-island.html?from=homepage

Hazardous Mold at 2456 east 72nd street chicago illegal construction work

Black mold and severely shoddy construction work which was unfinished at the first floor unit at 2456 east 72nd street chicago Illinois 60649, south shore.
The work was shoddy done by Fred Billings who is now in federal prison for bank fraud. I purchased the unit in November of 2010 from Wheeler Dealer llc. I was told repeatedly by Wheeler Dealer representitive Tim that the condo was a new rehab and that it was done. Tim repeated the same words to me over and over again that "the house only needs $1500 from Home Depot". I told Tim I was moving foster children from Maryville Academy into the house and that I could not afford to do rehab work. He hid from me mold and slime in the back basement and mildew in the back bathroom. The windows are newer but cheap and completely defective. The house has no insulation in the walls nor does it have any plastic liner to stop cold air movement. Tim told me to just hook up sinks and toilets and it was good to go. What I soon learned was that the plumbing was completely destroyed from freezing. I trusted Tim from Wheeler Dealer and I sadly learned he completely misrepresented the house. I trusted Tim so much that I agreed to buy the condo from him for the full asking price because he kept congratulating me on the nice new condo I was buying. I could never get the condo approved by the state for my foster children to live there and lost over 21,000 in state money that was to be used to care for the children I took in from Maryville Academy.
I also could never heat the house because Fred Billings (the crimibal who did the shoddy construction on 2456 e 72 nd st.) Never paid the huge gas bills he got while rehabbing the building. The gas company disconnected the ebtire piping system from the building and have refused to bring service in. It was suggested by a gas company representative for me to beg them and bring at least 10 thousand dollars to them for a deposit and then maybe it could be re hooked up. I tried using 15 1500 watt heaters to heat 80 percent of the first floor and the temperature would only rise to 48 degrees in the winter when it was 20 degrees outside.
The old heating unit was a radiator system which was torn out of the building and the new system put in was a cheap shoddy system that is inadequate. Wheeler Dealer is also affiliated with Premiere Mortgage.
I had to abandon the house most of the time because it was and still is uninhabitable. I lost over 41,000 dollars from this deception. The front hallway sweats with big water droplets every spring from all the moisture accumulating in the house. The hallway smells badly of mildew in the warm season and the wood floor under the basement unit is molding.

Howie Mandel and his OCD. "Don't touch me" is the neame of his new book

Reprinted here for your educational and support purposes.
Sideshow: Howie Mandel's big deal is OCD

By Tirdad Derakhshani

Inquirer Staff Writer
"I'm not in control of my own mind. It goes places, and I cannot bring it back. The best description is that I feel incredibly busy in my own mind. . . . That busyness is sometimes torturous." So writes Howie Mandel in his memoir, Here's the Deal: Don't Touch Me, which details his lifelong struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The Deal or No Deal host tells USA Today his germ phobia can be debilitating: "The difference between you and me is that even when I wash my hands, I can't get it out of my mind that they're not clean. I have to go back to the sink; I can't even continue with my day."

Mandel says his family has been incredibly supportive. "My wife [Terry] and kids [Jackie, 25, Alex, 20, and Riley, 17] have had to cope throughout the years with my idiosyncrasies. It's a tightrope. All of us have gone through therapy. . . . But even with all that support and love, it's still incredibly hard, sometimes terrifying and dark." Don't Touch Me was released yesterday http://lincolnparkcarpetcleaners.com

So long Bernie Mac! You will be missed. Thanks for the laughs

Bernie mac died today and I really liked him. He was funny and seemed to be a great man of character. I'm so sorry.
Actor, comedian and exasperated dad Mac dies at 50
By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer Sat Aug 9, 4:25 PM ET
Bernie Mac blended style, authority and a touch of self-aware bluster to make audiences laugh as well as connect with him. For Mac, who died Saturday at age 50, it was a winning mix, delivering him from a poor childhood to stardom as a standup comedian, in films including the casino heist caper "Ocean's Eleven" and his acclaimed sitcom "The Bernie Mac Show."
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Though his comedy drew on tough experiences as a black man, he had mainstream appeal — befitting inspiration he found in a wide range of humorists: Harpo Marx as well as Moms Mabley; squeaky-clean Red Skelton, but also the raw Redd Foxx.
Mac died Saturday morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital, his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles. She said no other details were available.
"The world just got a little less funny," said "Oceans" co-star George Clooney.
Don Cheadle, another member of the "Oceans" gang, concurred: "This is a very sad day for many of us who knew and loved Bernie. He brought so much joy to so many. He will be missed, but heaven just got funnier."
Mac suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005. He recently was hospitalized and treated for pneumonia, which his publicist said was not related to the disease.
Recently, Mac's brand of comedy caught him flack when he was heckled during a surprise appearance at a July fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate and fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama.
Toward the end of a 10-minute standup routine, Mac joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity, and used occasional crude language. Obama took the stage about 15 minutes later, implored Mac to "clean up your act next time," then let him off the hook, adding: "By the way, I'm just messing with you, man."
Even so, Obama's campaign later issued a rebuke, saying the senator "doesn't condone these statements and believes what was said was inappropriate."
But despite controversy or difficulties, in his words, Mac was always a performer.
"Wherever I am, I have to play," he said in 2002. "I have to put on a good show."
Mac worked his way to Hollywood success from an impoverished upbringing on Chicago's South Side. He began doing standup as a child, telling jokes for spare change on subways, and his film career started with a small role as a club doorman in the Damon Wayans comedy "Mo' Money" in 1992. In 1996, he appeared in the Spike Lee drama "Get on the Bus."
He was one of "The Original Kings of Comedy" in the 2000 documentary of that title that brought a new generation of black standup comedy stars to a wider audience.
"The majority of his core fan base will remember that when they paid their money to see Bernie Mac ... he gave them their money's worth," Steve Harvey, one of his co-stars in "Original Kings," told CNN on Saturday.
Mac went on to star in the hugely popular "Ocean's Eleven" franchise with Brad Pitt and George Clooney, playing a gaming-table dealer who was in on the heist. Carl Reiner, who also appeared in the "Ocean's" films, said Saturday he was "in utter shock" because he thought Mac's health was improving.
"He was just so alive," Reiner said. "I can't believe he's gone."
Mac and Ashton Kutcher topped the box office in 2005's "Guess Who," a comedy remake of the classic Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn drama "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" Mac played the dad who's shocked that his daughter is marrying a white man.
Mac also had starring roles in "Bad Santa," "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Transformers."
But his career and comic identity were forged in television.
In the late 1990s, he had a recurring role in "Moesha," the UPN network comedy starring pop star Brandy. The critical and popular acclaim came after he landed his own Fox television series "The Bernie Mac Show," about a child-averse couple who suddenly are saddled with three children.
Mac mined laughs from the universal frustrations of parenting, often breaking the "fourth wall" to address the camera throughout the series that aired from 2001 to 2006. "C'mon, America," implored Mac, in character as the put-upon dad. "When I say I wanna kill those kids, YOU know what I mean."
The series won a Peabody Award in 2002, and Mac was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy. In real life, he was "the king of his household" — very much like his character on that series, his daughter, Je'niece Childress, told The Associated Press on Saturday.
"But television handcuffs you, man," he said in a 2001 Associated Press interview before the show had premiered. "Now everyone telling me what I CAN'T do, what I CAN say, what I SHOULD do, and asking, `Are blacks gonna be mad at you? Are whites gonna accept you?'"
He also was nominated for a Grammy award for best comedy album in 2001 along with his "The Original Kings of Comedy" co-stars Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Cedric The Entertainer.
Chicago music producer Carolyn Albritton said she was Bernie Mac's first manager, having met him in 1991 at Chicago's Cotton Club where she hosted an open-mike night. He was an immediate hit, Albritton said Saturday, and he asked her to help guide his career.
"From very early on I thought he was destined for success," Albritton said. "He never lost track of where he came from, and he'd often use real life experiences, his family, his friends, in his routine. After he made it, he stayed a very humble man. His family was the most important thing in the world to him."
In 2007, Mac told David Letterman on CBS' "Late Show" that he planned to retire soon.
"I'm going to still do my producing, my films, but I want to enjoy my life a little bit," Mac told Letterman. "I missed a lot of things, you know. I was a street performer for two years. I went into clubs in 1977."
Mac was born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough on Oct. 5, 1957, in Chicago. He grew up on the city's South Side, living with his mother and grandparents. His grandfather was the deacon of a Baptist church.
In his 2004 memoir, "Maybe You Never Cry Again," Mac wrote about having a poor childhood — eating bologna for dinner — and a strict, no-nonsense upbringing.
"I came from a place where there wasn't a lot of joy," Mac told the AP in 2001. "I decided to try to make other people laugh when there wasn't a lot of things to laugh about."
Mac's mother died of cancer when he was 16. In his book, Mac said she was a support for him and told him he would surprise everyone when he grew up.
"Woman believed in me," he wrote. "She believed in me long before I believed."
Mac's death Saturday coincided with the annual Bud Billiken Parade in Chicago, a major event in the predominantly black South Side that the comedian had previously attended.
"It's truly the passing of one of our favorite sons," said Paula Robinson, president of the Black Metropolis National Heritage Area. "He was extremely innovative in putting his life experiences in comedic form and doing it without vulgarity.
"He was an ambassador of Chicago's black community, and the national black community at large."
___
Associated Press writers F.N. D'Alessio, Daniel J. Yovich, Caryn Rousseau and Carla K. Johnson in Chicago contributed to this report.

homelessness can happen to anyone, and for many reasons

Former NBA Player Joe Pace Goes From Glory to Homeless Shelter
Saturday, May 17, 2008
'


AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Joshua Trujillo
May 7: Laura Ditsch, right, chats with former NBA champion Joe Pace in front of the Family and Adult Service Center where he now spends his nights.
SEATTLE — Once the tables have been moved out of the way and the floor has been mopped, Joe Pace grabs a tan mattress off a stack, slides it into a corner and beds down at the Family and Adult Service Center on Third Avenue.
His feet hang over the edge of the mat, so he rolls up a blanket to support them. He shares the room with 60 people. He pays $3 a night for this privilege.
Thirty years ago next month, Pace slept in one of Seattle's finest hotels, though he can't remember which one, as a visiting pro basketball player for the Washington Bullets, sharing in an NBA championship won in this city at the expense of the Sonics.
A snack bar, room service and chocolate left on the pillow are no longer an option for this 6-foot-10 man, who is homeless in Seattle.
"Sometimes I don't want to wake up, I'm so sad," he said. "Sometimes I wake up crying and say, 'What did I do to be like this?"'
Instead of becoming a millionaire, Pace, 54, frequents the Millionair Club, another downtown facility for the destitute that provides meals and job leads. He sits at the front door as a security guard from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., wearing a gold badge and clutching a black walkie-talkie. He performs this chore more for something to do than as a source of income, regularly limping outside for cigarette breaks.
/**/

Pace spends the rest of his afternoons riding on buses, using a disabled passenger pass he bought for $8. He is afforded this right because he has degenerative disks in his back and is in need of surgery he can't afford on both knees. He takes trips to Woodinville and Tacoma, simply to kill time.
Then it's back to his homeless shelter. Pace usually is asleep by 8:30 or 9 p.m.
"NBA players are all looked at as millionaires, but a lot of guys back in those days didn't make it, and Joe is one of them," said Zaid Abdul-Aziz, a former Sonics forward. "The image of them as big, opulent people isn't always true. They take a fall sometimes."
Of all the things Pace longs for, the simple pleasure of soaking in a hot bathtub ranks near the very top. There have been the rare moments when he has paid for a hotel room just to turn on the water and give his aching, middle-aged body some needed relief. It beats the homeless shelter showers he considers risky at best in regards to good hygiene, especially when barefoot.
For that matter, he doesn't shake hands or exchange high-fives anymore with people he encounters in a similar situation, and he's friendly enough. Repeated colds and congested lungs have forced him to adopt this policy. Fist bumps are much healthier.
"That hand could have 5,000 germs on it," he said unapologetically.
Pace rode a bus to Seattle in 2002 on impulse after wandering aimlessly through his hometown of New Brunswick, N.J., and Baltimore, Charlotte and Atlanta for a decade, unable to thrive without basketball.
"It's where I played my last NBA game," he said of his current city. "It was like I can't do nothing wrong here."
Pace spent just two seasons in the league, appearing in 88 games for Washington, including a pair of playoff contests against the Sonics, drawing mop-up duty in Game 2 and Game 6 of the finals. He was paid $35,000 each year. The Bullets drafted him in the second round, as the 31st player overall, envisioning the big man as a future replacement for center Wesley Unseld.
The pros became enamored with Pace after he led Baltimore-based Coppin State to the 1976 NAIA championship and was named most valuable player, supplying 43 points, 12 rebounds and six blocked shots in a 96-91 title-game victory over Henderson State (Ark.).
"He was a very explosive, athletic player," said former Sonics center James Donaldson. "He could jump all day."
Impatient with his NBA progress — and unwittingly leaving himself one season shy of a receiving a pension — Pace took his game overseas. He got a good look at the rest of the world over the next 12 years. He played in Italy, Venezuela, Mexico, Panama, England, the Philippines and Argentina.
He was married twice, fathering a child each with American and Argentine spouses. He bought a Buenos Aires convenience store and sent money home to family members who never had much.
He became homeless after injuries and a haze of drugs and alcohol. Everything came undone for Pace in Argentina when he dunked and landed on his back, crashing to the floor when a guy grabbed his legs.
"I think they sent him in there to take me out," Pace said. "My legs went numb. I stayed in bed for eight months."
His problems multiplied after botched back surgery, a case of gangrene and the break-up of his second marriage. He left South America in poor health and without basketball or any other livelihood to count on.
"My wife said she wasn't going to stay married to a cripple who couldn't play basketball anymore," he said. "We had to close the store and there was no money. Her family was saying, 'Why don't you get rid of that bum?"'
Back in the States, Pace had few prospects. He started abusing alcohol and drugs, and eventually was forced to go through rehabilitation. He sold his NBA championship ring for $1,000 to a Baltimore pawnshop, his biggest regret. He started bouncing from city to city.
He's still living on the edge in Seattle. He receives a monthly $600 permanent disability check. He has $2 in a bank account. His name is on a long waiting list for subsidized housing.
"He's my baby," said Selina Daniels, a Family and Adult Service Center administrator. "My job is to try and help him obtain permanent housing. He's trying to do something but it's hard. You just can't take life for granted. We're all one paycheck from being homeless."
In recent weeks, the NBA Retired Players Association has publicized Pace's dire situation to its members, collecting clothing, toiletries and other nonperishable donations for him. The man wears a size 44 coat and 18 shoe, according to the organization's Web site.
Mitch Kupchak, Los Angeles Lakers general manager, has provided clothing and gift certificates to his former Bullets teammate and calls him a couple of times a month. Others have chipped in with coats and shoes.
Abdul-Aziz and Donaldson have stopped in to see him. Vester Marshall Jr., another former Sonics player and ordained minister, has been supportive.
Meantime, Pace rolls out his tan mattress every night. The makeshift bed is hard. The floor is cold. His mood is flat. He has significant hypertension and liver problems. He's trying his best to stay hopeful, to make a difficult comeback.
He's a long way from the NBA, though KeyArena, a place he used to frequent in uniform when it was the Coliseum, is less than a mile away.
"I'm surprised I'm still alive," Pace said. "I guess there's a purpose in life."

Chicago Black Structure Decimated By The Daley Administration

Jessie Jackson jr. and sr. where are you?
reprinted from Chicago Suntimes
31 shot, 2 stabbed during weekend violence
April 20, 2008

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FROM STNG WIRE REPORTS
In an especially violent weekend, no less than 31 people have been shot in Chicago -- six fatally -- and two people have been stabbed since noon Friday. The shooting victims range in age from 12 to 65.
On Friday, 15 people were shot -- four fatally -- between noon Friday and midnight Saturday, police said.
» Click to enlarge image
Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis (right) speaks at a press conference about the number of shootings and stabbings that occurred in the city over the weekend. First Deputy Supt. James Jackson stands behind Weis. (Keith Hale/Sun-Times)
RELATED STORIESTeen charged with stabbing couple
About 7 p.m., Marcus Hendricks, 34, of Flossmoor, was fatally shot in the abdomen in the 700 block of West 115th Street and pronounced dead at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn at 8 p.m., said the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
Bennie Teague, 39, of the 6200 block of South Sacramento Avenue, was charged with one count of first-degree murder in Hendricks' death. He was also charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder for allegedly firing shots at responding officers. Police recovered an AK-47 assault rifle from the scene, police said.
About 9:30 p.m., two 18-year-old men were fatally shot in the 7500 block of South Phillips Avenue, authorities said. Killed were Melvin Thomas, of the 14900 block of Washington Avenue in Harvey, and Rhonell Savala, of the 9700 block of South Hoxie Avenue, the medical examiner’s office said. One of the men suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and back and the other was shot in the neck, police said.
Calumet Area detectives are investigating, but nobody is in custody Sunday.
About 10:50 p.m., Ricardo Sanchez, 65, of the 8400 block of South Exchange Avenue, was fatally shot outside his home in an attempted robbery, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at Christ Medical Center at 12:47 a.m. Saturday, the medical examiner’s office said.
Calumet Area detectives are investigating, but nobody is in custody Sunday.
The violence continued Saturday, as 13 more people were shot -- two fatally.
About 5:50 a.m. Saturday, Michael Giles, 26, of the 300 block of North Avers Avenue, was fatally shot in his home, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at 6:50 a.m. at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Harrison Area detectives are investigating, but nobody is in custody Sunday.
About 11:20 a.m., Raul Lemus, 28, of the 4600 block of South Talman Avenue, was fatally shot in the abdomen in an apparent gang-related shooting at an auto shop at 2520 W. 59th St., authorities said. He was pronounced dead at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County at 4:16 a.m. Sunday, the medical examiner’s office said.
Wentworth Area detectives are investigating, but nobody was in custody Sunday.
On Sunday, police have reported three shootings -- none of which were fatal -- and a stabbing that critically injured two people.
About 12:30 a.m., a 17-year-old man was shot in the left shoulder in the 6800 block of South Parnell Avenue in a drive-by shooting. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in good condition, police said.
About 2:30 a.m., a 24-year-old man was shot in the 1900 block of West Howard Street. An unknown gunman approached the man and shot him in the left thigh, police said. Hospital information was not available.
About 6 a.m., a man broke into an apartment in the 1900 block of West Winona Street and stabbed a man, 26, and woman, 30. Both people were taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition. The attacker is in custody, but charges have not been field as of Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
About 11:25 a.m., one person was shot in the ankle in the 2700 block of South Indiana Avenue and taken to Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in “stable” condition.
As the cities infrastructure is torn down to make room for ONLY the rich in Chicago the black communities are being left with no structure to keep them civil and humane. Rising costs in a city over taxed on purposed, cars booted from mass ticket campaigns and ALL black opposition and grass roots organizations bought off by the Daley Administration to back off and turn off. John Carcerano