Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 1-6

6 CHICAGO TRIBUNE SECTION1 METRO STATE rom the street, the gray-stone building in the 1300 block of South California Avenue is deceiving. It appears woefully two- dimensional, lacking in depth, color and contrast. But on the inside, the real picture unfolds. This is Jamal Place, a nonprofit group home for now a casualty of what Gov. Rod Blagojevich calls his slashing of pork from the budget.

Jamal Place has been here since 1995 when Ann Deuel, a blond, blue- eyed woman from the suburbs, decided to renovate a three-flat and start a group home. She had worked for years with troubled teens in for-profit psychiatric hospitals, but she and her colleagues wanted to help state wards who may not have had equal access to quality therapy and academic intervention. immediately struck by how big and colorful it is in Jamal Place. On the second floor five young men sit in a living area, watching television, playing video games. They stand to shake my hand before determining whose dorm room is presentable enough for me to see.

It turns out that the teen with the tablet of drawings that combine lovely portraits with sketches of crucifixes and streetscapes replete with handguns. The typical child here is between 11 and 17 and arrives after the foster-care system has almost literally wrung him out. the type of kid who entered the system having experienced cruel and heinous things, which eventually bred behavioral or emotional problems so severe that he has been bounced from home to home, sometimes up to 35 times. These young men are often the most difficult to save. a point when you look in a eyes and you know that never going to be anything to pull him says Deuel.

try to get to them before that look Last week, the pen came down like a hammer on this house and other group and residential homes around the state. Jamal Place lost $100,000. Other agencies that cater to the elderly, the disabled also lost out. Deuel says she understands that finalizing a budget after several contentious weeks of haggling may be paramount for those in Springfield. may be a boat line of thinking, but the boat is says Deuel.

care still absorbs most of the kids. We have the fewest kids, but they are the most challenged and Agencies that run residential and group homes across the state have been working withless money for years with a more seriously complicated group of youth. Deuel says that for Jamal Place, fundraising used to pay for extras, such as sending the boys to private schoolsor taking them on vacations so they might explore worldbeyond their North Lawndale community. Now the fundraising dollars will have to go toward plugging the deficit in the $1.8 million budget. Jamal Place is young compared to other agencies.

(Deuel also runs a transitional living program for men 17 to 21 years old.) The agency have a huge endowment. It have a hundred years of philanthropy to tide it over. we got a 3 percent increase last year, it was the first time in over an eight-year she says. afford to give the staff the raises they Over the years, Jamal Place has served more than 115 boys, many staying for years, rather than a few months at a time. Deuel says that while about 40 percent of state wards graduate from high school, here the average is about 83 percent.

The stories are varied; a few have not fared well, but many have. Last week, one called to say he and his brother had just closed on a house; another recently received a job promotion; others lead lives that are modest but, honest and thriving. still believe in our says Deuel. long as people of integrity, having the kids be our main focus, we believe that God let us The state, however, is another story. Slashing budget shrinks hope for boys in need Last week, the pen came down like a hammer on Jamal Place.

Potentially dangerous pavement blowouts that began occurring on Midway busiest runway shortly after repairs four months ago are prompting Chicago offi- cials to redo all of the work as a safety precaution. Some 129 epoxy-based patches installed on Runway 31 Center in April will be replaced during an intensive 56- hour reconstruction operation next week, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation The runway will be shut down about 10 p.m. Sept. 10 and reopen early Sept. 13, officials said.

Airline passengers booking flights at Midway might want to avoid traveling Sept. 11 and 12, when only one airstrip that the big planes use, Runway 22 Left, will be in operation. The 31 Center repairs are being done on a Tuesday and a Wednesday, traditionally the least busy travel days. Midway officials said passengers are not likely to experience any work-related delays, but getting in and out of Midway this summer has been more difficult than in years past. Air-traffic delays at Midway were up 50 percent from June through August, compared with the same period in 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration reported Friday.

Meanwhile, air-traffic delays at International Airport declined 4 percent this summer compared with last summer, the FAA said. An airport consultant working at Midway is investigating what caused some of the 129 pavement patches to fail, but officials are focusing on problems that occurred during the work in April, performed by Rossi Contractors of Northlake under a $60,000 contract. primary source seems to be issues with the said Erin the managing deputy aviation commissioner at Midway. the patches are removed we will be able to see WITH JON HILKEVITCH runway do-over PLEASE SEE MIDWAY, PAGE7 Marathon work slated to replace 129 patches By Lindsay Kishter Tribune staff reporter A little luck and a bit of trickery got farmer Harold Wilken through his first years growing organic feed without pesticides. By luck, he planted the red clover next to the corn; Japanese beetles that typically feed on corn silks were more attracted to the clover blossom.

A careful alfalfa, corn, soybeans, helped too. beetles learned to lay their eggs in soybean stubble so they would be there for the corn the next he said. confuse These are the kinds of blessings that farmers rely on during what can be a tumultuous process: a transition to organic farming. Three years ago, Wilken began converting 94 acres of farmland in Danforth, just south of Kankakee, but this harvest is the first time he will see the premium prices that organic feed and vegetables can pull in. The U.S.

Department of Agriculture requires three years without pesticides, herbicides or synthetic fertilizers before it will grant the coveted organic seal. a period of trial and error, and the workload can double long before the profits do. But the difficulty curbed a climb in certifications. As of Jan. 2, the USDA had certified 286 producers and handlers in Illinois, 171 of those being farmers, compared with 131 a year before.

Wilken farmed conventionally for 20 years before his landlord proposed going organic to keep pesticides from where the grandchildren played. Wilken now has 800 acres in transition. Wilken, cheeks flushed from hard work and sunshine, said he feels like he finally found his calling in organic farming. soil fertility is going up. The soil is more or tillable, he said.

ground is just so much more But his calling requires him to spend more time in the fields than ever before. do two weeks of your field in spring and two weeks of your field in fall and have an outside job like a lot of said Terra Brockman, director of The Land Connection, a resource for organic farmers. a sunup- to-sundown kind of job, so you count your hours. You do it because what you love to conventional corn and soybean producers, who work the majority of the farmland, typically alternate crops, killing off weeds and pests chemically and restoring fertility to the soil with synthetic fertilizers. For organic farmers, a whole different said Dan Anderson, organic research and outreach specialist for the University of Illinois Extension.

have to think about farming in a totally different way and relearn how to Anderson said. of that learning curve, the yield usually goes To control weeds, Wilken will till between the rows up to four times during the summer. He chops his 300 acres of hay three times a season, which cuts out weeds too. Farmers also use cover crops, plants they harvest but that deprive weeds of sunshine and increase soil fer- tility, Anderson said. For pests and rodents, natural predators are invited to the farmland, he said.

Farmers will sometimes buy ladybugs to feast on the aphids, or wasps to pick out beetles. A careful rotation, though, is the main ingredient for good farming. Wheat breaks up the soil and makes the transition easier because it has few pest issues, Wilken said. Alfalfa hay has far-reaching roots that sink nitrogen into the soil, usually the job of the fertilizer sprays. Plus, it disrupts pest cycles.

the same rotation that Tribune photos by Alex Garcia Harold Wilken, who is cultivating a bean field near Downstate Danforth, is one of a growing number of farmers who have switched to organic methods. Ross Wilken, son, has partnered with his dad to meet the growing demand for organic produce. PLEASE SEE ORGANIC, PAGE7 Organic farming is gaining traction More farmers reap green by growing premium produce, meat By Hal Dardick and Jo Napolitano Tribune staff reporters As tips diminish in the search for missing Plainfield mother Lisa Stebic, police are planning a summit with Will County prosecutors to map their next step in the case, officials said. One option is to subpoena two young among the last people who saw their mother before she seemingly vanished four months appear before a grand jury, the officials said. law allows this office to bring the children before the grand said Charles Pelkie, spokesman for Atty.

James Glasgow. remain keenly interested in interviewing the Police and prosecutors said they would rather spare the children, who are 11 and 12, the trauma of appearing before a grand jury. But they also said estranged husband, Craig, denied further access to his children after brief, cursory interviews shortly after their mother went missing April 30. That same day, Lisa Stebic mailed her attorney a petition seeking to evict Craig Stebic from their home on the 13200 block of Red Star Drive as part of their divorce proceedings. Police in July said they believed she fell victim to foul play and declared Craig Stebic a person of interest, citing his in their investigation.

They said he twice refused requests to allow his children to be interviewed at the Will County Advocacy Center. Nine days into the probe, he rejected further police interviews of him or his children unless his attorney was present. Craig Stebic had let police into his home on two prior occasions, once for a cursory search. His attorney, Dion Davi, last month said the children were traumatized by a late-night search-warrant execution on their home in the early part of the investigation, and Davi questioned whether police had their best interests at heart. Davi could not be reached for comment on the latest developments.

Craig Stebic did not return a call to his home. During the summit, to be held sometime this week, police and prosecutors, including Glasgow, will review evi- dence collected in the case, authorities said. That includes scores of interviews and forensic evidence. Meanwhile, police still are actively pursuing the investigation, said Plainfield Deputy Chief Mark Eiting. focused on the people who last saw Lisa, and that would be Craig and the he said.

Police said Craig Stebic told them the children were out buying candy about 6:30 p.m. when his wife vanished. Police said he told them he was out in the back yard and assumed she had gone to work out. Laurrie Bingenheimer, Lisa friend and neighbor, said Lisa often went to work out or take a walk to avoid Craig when he came home from work. Bingenheimer also said it was highly unlikely that Lisa would have allowed her children to go buy candy, because she was a health enthusiast who tried to teach her children the importance of good nutrition.

Although the couple continued to live in the same house, they talking to each other by the end of summer 2006, Bingenheimer said. As the relationship continued to deteriorate, she said, Craig Stebic called his estranged wife names, causing the children to disrespect her. As a result, Lisa Stebic took her daughter for counseling, she added. Stebic was preparing her children for the divorce, and her son told her he would miss seeing his father after school, Authorities to shift strategy on Stebic case PLEASE SEE STEBIC, PAGE7 Dawn Turner Trice Product: CTMAIN PubDate: 09-03-2007 Zone: MW Edition: HD Page: 1-6 User: krickard Time: Color: CMYK.