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Valuable coupons Comments, questions and suggestions about articles in this section are welcome. Write: Phil Jurik, bureau chief 18450 Crossing Drive, Suite A Tinley Park, IL 60477 Call: 708-342-5600 Fax: 708-342-2790 Or e-mail: How to contact us By Hal Dardick Tribune staff reporter An Illinois Democrat running for Congress on Tuesday called on his probable Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, to return $35,000 in campaign contributions from entities linked to two burgeoning congressional scandals. congressman is tied, directly or indirectly, to every fundraising scandal that has come out in the last said John Pavich, who is unopposed in the March primary for the 11th District seat Weller has held since 1994.

Weller spokesman Chris Kennedy called attempt to link Weller to scandals buffeting the GOP-controlled House while campaign manager noted the congressman is not being investigated and would not return the funds. is really a very calculated attempt to smear a congressman, to link national scandals to a said Steve Shearer, the campaign manager. Pavich noted Weller agreed to donate to charity a $500 contribution he received directly from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who last week pleaded guilty to engaging in a conspiracy to defraud Indian tribes of more than $20 million through a secret kickback arrangement. campaign and a political action committee he runs also received $15,000 from Indian tribes represented by Abra- moff, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog group. U.S.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who received $69,000 in contributions from Abramoff and his clients, and other Illinois congressmen who received lesser amounts, last week said they would donate those funds. Pavich also called on Weller to donate $20,000 that The Hill, a Washington, D.C.-based political publication, said he received from unindicted co-conspirators of former Rep. Randy Cunningham, a California Republican who pleaded guilty in November to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. Pavich called the $35,000 and said other Republicans bent over to return contributions from the same donors. Shearer said Weller would reevaluate his decision on the $35,000 if either the unindicted co-conspirators or Indian tribes were proven to have taken part in wrongdoing.

And Kennedy said Weller met Jack Abramoff and certainly never took any action on his Kennedy on Tuesday also explained why Weller used $1,640 of his own money to reimburse a lobbying firm where Abramoff once worked for a 1999 trip to two Indian reservations in Louisiana and Mississippi. He visited those reservations at the request of former U.S. Rep. David Funderburk (R- N.C.), and thought the tribes had paid for the trip, Kennedy said. As soon as he confirmed otherwise, he repaid the money from his own pocket, he said.

Foe pressures Weller to return funds Pavich says $35,000 is linked to scandals By Gerry Doyle Tribune staff reporter A fire Monday night in Gary reduced a Frank Lloyd Wright home to a tattered collection of seared stucco and timber. The destruction of the home at 600 Fillmore St. marked the fourth Wright building wrecked in the last 18 months. In November 2004, a Wright house was bulldozed in Michigan, the first such home destroyed by any means since the early 1970s. In September 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged two Gulf Coast bungalows Wright helped fashion.

On Monday in Gary, firefighters were called to the scene of the blaze at about 8:30 p.m. When they left two hours later, there much left standing. No one was hurt. The building is vacant, making arson the most likely cause, officials said. The Gary Police Department and fire investigators are searching for the source of the fire.

The 90-year-old structure, named the Wynant House after its first owner, embodied an important part of philosophy, preservationists said. It was the result of a marketing method called American System-Built Houses, a collaboration between Wright and homebuilder Richards Co. of Wisconsin. The idea, said Ron Scherubel, director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, was to provide high-style housing that middle-class families could afford. client could actually go to this company and have them construct a house based on Scherubel said, adding that there are only 11 such homes left, including the one in Gary.

quality materials. He just designed it in a very economical The Wynant House is the only surviving example of model D101, said the program director, Audra Dye. It came with the bells and such as high-quality mantels and cornices, Dye said. The American Heritage Home Trust of Olympia, bought the house in 1999, intending to renovate it. But that effort stalled and the home was sold again, this time to an Illinois man.

Eve Johnson of the American Heritage Home Trust said she had not heard from the current owner since the fire. The angular, two-story house sits amid a neighborhood dominated by battered ranch-style single-family homes. The blocks around the home are dotted with vacant lots and boarded-up buildings. Multistory houses whose former grandness is obscured by layers of grime sit empty, shattered windows looking out over overgrown lawns. On Tuesday, the Wynant House was no longer a house.

Roofless, its interior was filled with fallen beams and bricks. From the front sidewalk on Fil- lmore, the back alley could be seen through what once was the living room, kitchen and dining room. Neighbor Jean Griffin has lived three doors down from the house since 1987. She said the house has been vacant the entire time, although workers began renovating it this summer. been just an eyesore for Griffin said.

She said she first noticed the fire when emergency vehicles began to arrive at the corner of Fillmore and 6th Avenue. By then, flames and sparks already were shooting up, she said. The man Johnson said is the owner, David Muhammad, could not be reached for comment. The gutting of the home represents the loss of a unique piece of American and architectural history, Scherubel said. view any loss as a significant he said.

really was one of our high-priority Rebuilding on top of the Wynant twisted skeleton would be difficultbut not impossible, he said. can be redone. enough of the exterior structure there that with the right amount of money, you could rebuild Scherubel said. But now, almost at ground zero in terms of Tribune photo by Milbert O. Brown The house at 600 Fillmore St.

in Gary is the fourth Wright-designed structure to be destroyed in the last year and a half. A conservation agency once had plans to renovate the home. Fire guts Wright building in Gary House was vacant; police suspect arson Photo courtesy of the Indiana Department of National Resources By 2002, the Wynant House, built in 1916, had been vacant for many years and was in need of major work..