Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 25

Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, May 4, 1988 Section 2 3 Citysuburbs Bill for mandatory Illinois car insurance dies again Thompson last year vetoed similar legislation because it did not have an adequate financing source. Thompson did not specify how the additional revenues should be raised. Voters in November will decide at least one proposed amendment to the state Constitution. The Senate, on a 56-1 vote, approved a proposal to reduce the state's constitutional residency requirement to 30 days from 6 months to conform with a decade-old decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

measure, defeated the mandatory auto insurance bill 6-5. That defeat came on the same afternoon that an identical bill passed the House Transportation Committee 24-4. This marks the 17th consecutive year that the legislature has debated mandatory automobile insurance legislation, and Edgar has been hopeful that growing grassroots support would put it over the top. The House has passed mandatory automobile insurance in the past, but the heavily lobbied Senate Insurance Committee has become its traditional burial ground. "This issue is not going to go away," Edgar told reporters after the Senate committee's vote.

"People in Illinois want a law that says motorists have to have "Compulsory insurance is designed to punish violators," Strauss said. "It does nothing to compensate you if you're the victim of an uninsured driver." In another major victory for the insurance industry, the Senate Insurance Committee also defeated a bill that would have required insurance companies to get approval from the Illinois Department of Insurance for rate increases and decreases of 10 percent or more. In other legislative action Tuesday: Gov. James Thompson again called on the legislature to approve a revolving loan fund to raise $70 million to match federal funding for a program to aid 226 Illinois communities that face a July 1 deadline to comply with congressional standards for waste-water treatment About 2 million of the state's 7 million registered vehicles are uninsured, and their numbers are growing, according to statistics by the Illinois Department of Insurance. About 34 percent of the vehicles in Chicago, or 371,197, are uninsured, according to the statistics.

About 24 percent of vehicles Downstate, or more than 1.2 million, are uninsured. Illinois is one of only 11 states that do not have a mandatory automobile insurance law, Edgar said. Under the bills, motorists would be required to carry proof that they have a minimal amount of automobile insurance. Police could ask for proof of insurance during traffic stops, and Edgar's office would conduct random checks of vehicles registered with 2 Calumet City officers in probe I jf pl I if T' tm -j "El Sol la Luna" entry in the Art of the Madonna Church at 718 W. Adams St.

The church held a competition is displayed in Old St. Patrick's search for a contemporary Madonna and Child. Madonna art is talk of town By John O'Brien and Rob Karwath Two Calumet City police officers are under investigation by a federal grand jury for ties to a convicted south suburban drug dealer who is identified by the federal government as a major drug supplier and tax cheat, sources familiar with the case say. The officers, 14-year veterans Lt. Henry Urbanek and Officer Russell Larson, acknowledge their friendships with the suspect, Samuel Mann, who federal officials say based his drug business in, Calumet City.

And Calumet City Mayor Robert Stefaniak says he has been given details of an ongoing federal investigation into his city's Police Department. The officers say they were subpoenaed last year by a federal grand jury in Chicago to produce photographs of themselves and their fingerprints, but not to testify. The officers also submitted handwriting samples, sources said. Larson's former girlfriend, Donna Janus, an assistant city clerk in Calumet City, also was subpoenaed. Her lawyer, Kathryn Farmer, said Tuesday that Janus did not testify, but is "complying as fully as she can" with the subpoena.

The officers maintain that they aren't targets of the investigation, in spite of their friendships with Mann, 44, formerly of south suburban Crete, whose criminal history includes seven convictions for car theft and drug offenses in Illinois and Indiana. "Urbanek and I have never been targets of this investigation; there is nothing to it," Larson said. Larson said he and Mann have been acquainted for "many years." But he said, "I did not know anything about his business. I knew he used to be a car thief." One of Mann's lawyers, Edward penson, said Mann is aware of the investigation, which he said is in "a very active stage." But Gcnson said Mann knows nothing about federal accusations that he is a drug dealer and a tax cheat, as alleged in court papers in 1986. Mann is employed as an ironworker on high-rise construction projects, Gcnson said.

The lawyer for Urbanek and Larson, Barry Speyack, wrote to Mayor Stefaniak earlier this year, saying that federal authorities had exonerated his clients and that they should be considered for promotions. the state to make sure they are insured. Motorists would face a $500 fine and a two-month suspension of their vehicle registrations for a first offense. The law would take effect Jan. I 1990, and, in an attempt to make it more palatable to opponents, would expire in four years unless the legislature extends it.

Representatives of the insurance industry argued that making automobile insurance mandatory would not take uninsured motorists off the road, would be difficult to enforce and would result in rising premiums for all motorists. "Many people mistakenly believe that a compulsory law will protect the insured motorist that's simply not true," said Peter Strauss, regional manager for the Alliance of American Insurers in Schaumburg. Tnbuns photo by Chuck Berman The Richard Willenbrink painting of a nude woman whose naked child is clambering onto her lap had a stout defender in Donald Kuspit, professor of art history at the State University of New York in Stony Brook and one of the jurors of the competition. Kuspit said he thought it or an unusual display of 27 television screens arranged to look like a stained-glass window should have won, but he missed the final judging Friday. "I'm not putting the Hunt work down," he said.

"It's very subtle, but I'm not sure it has anything to say about the Madonna and Child in Chicago in the 20th Century. It's more of a distant allusion to the Virgin Mary." But somebody who had the best reason of all to criticize the winner and the other works came to their defense. Carol Dowd Brady of Chicago was one of the 387 or so artists whose works were rejected. "I'm very impressed not to have won," said the self-described feminist Catholic. "There's a wide variety of work with excellent technique and deep religious feeling." Ornithologist Mark Spreyer reports the first peregrine falcons to hatch in the state since 1951.

sence of natural predators, and, since peregrines nest on cliff ledges, skyscrapers were easy substitutes. In the early 1960s the pesticide DDT almost caused the extinction of peregrines east of the Mississippi River. Spreyer said that because these falcons arc high on the food chain, preying only on other birds, the DDT they were eating was concentrated. The pesticide made their egg shells so thin that they would break during nesting, he said. ,,1 I By Tim Franklin and Daniel Egler Chicago Tribune SPRINGFIELD Renewing what has become an annual ritual, the Illinois Senate Insurance Committee narrowly defeated a controversial bill Tuesday requiring all fnotor vehicle owners to buy insurance.

An identical measure won overwhelming approval from a House panel. Despite the Senate committee's vote, Secretary of State Jim Edgar, who has made the issue his No. 1 legislative priority, said he is still optimistic that mandatory automobile insurance will eventually pass this spring. The Senate Insurance Committee, under heavy lobbying by an insurance industry opposed to the Kids face amnesty deadline By Jean Davidson The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has filed amnesty applications on behalf of 37 immigrant children in state custody in the Chicago area, but 17 other youths are ineligible and could face deportation when they become adults, according to department officials. Hispanic community leaders, though, say there may be many more children eligible for legalization under federal law who have not been identified by the department.

The deadline to apply for legal status under the landrriark Immigration Reform and Control Act is midnight Wednesday. Luis Barrios, coordinator of Hispanic affairs for the child welfare agency, said that all eligible children have been identified, despite difficulty in securing documentation for children whose parents refuse to cooperate or cannot be found. The primary criterion for amnesty is residency qualified individuals must have entered the country illegally and lived in the United States since January, 1982. In addition to the 54 immigrant youths identified in Cook County, the department cares for 8 to 10 children who are illegal immigrants in other parts of the state, Barrios said. Most of the children are Mexican, but others come from Central and South America, Jamaica, Nigeria and Iran, he said.

The department cares for 1,044 Hispanic children statewide, with 823 in foster or other residential care in Cook County alone. In addition, DCFS monitors conditions for about 3,000 other Hispanic children in their homes in Cook County. "The system is not perfect, but we have done our best to identify all the children," Barrios said. In cases involving children in temporary state custody, "we have asked for the consent of parents to make application for the children." Put Ivan Medina, program director for Assocation House, a West Town social service agency, said he fears many children may have been passed over. "They missed three of the eight eligible children that we serve," Medina said.

He blamed the lapses on department caseworkers and said, "Whether a kid gets legal status shouldn't depend on whether he has an active caseworker. There should have been a uniform system to identify these kids long ago." Virginia Martinez, legal counsel for Voices for Illinois Children, said she wants "some proof, some assurance that they have identified all the children and arc filing applications. "If they missed any children, these kids arc barred from applying after May 4," she said. "What is the remedy? They can't file a malpractice suit against DCFS." Officials of the Cook County public guardian's office, which filed suit against the department in February charging that the state had not acted on behalf of undocumented children, said the agency has since filed an application for all children identified. But the guardian's office brought to the attention of state authorities two children who had been passed over, said Thomas Grippando, a deputy guardian.

A major hurdle for immigrant children in state care was cleared in March, when the INS revised its policy to exempt foster children from a provision that declared ineligible individuals who are likely to be future charges of the state. Sen. Miguel dc Valle Chicago) also expressed concern that "there are additional cases out there that DC FS has not been able to identify. Who will accept responsibility for not having reached these kids?" Legislation prohibiting the con- sumption ot tooa or annKs on cni-cago Transit Authority vehicles, and those of other local mass transportation districts, was approved without a dissenting vote by the House and sent to the Senate. Violators would be subject to a fine of $100.

Asked about the investigation last week, Stefaniak declined to disclose details of a meeting he had in April with federal agents to discuss the case. But he said, "There is an ongoing investigation of police officers in Calumet City." In 1986, officials of the Internal Revenue Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration accused Mann of dealing drugs and violating federal income-tax laws when they seized $500,000 in assets they charged Mann had bought with drug money, including homes in Calumet City and nearby Dolton. Documents filed in 1986 charge that while Mann hadn't filed income-tax forms for four years, ending in 1985, he spent at least $483,000 in the period. Later in 1986, Mann pleaded guilty to violating his probation on an earlier conviction by selling cocaine to a police informant. He served a year in prison.

Urbanek blamed unnamed "enemies" within the department for leaking word of the grand jury action. He and Larson said the leaks were intended to deprive them of promotions. In an interview last fall, then-Police Chief James Shutoski said federal agents told him in 1986 that members of the Police Department were being investigated in connection with Mann, whom he referred to as "Sam the Man." Mann, who holds dual U.S. and Panamanian citizenship, is among a growing number of car thieves active in chop shops who have expanded their criminal activities to include drug trafficking, according to police and federal investigators. Another such figure was Eugene Bell, 40, of Crete, a convicted auto thief who was under investigation for drug dealing until April 24, when he was found strangled near a Miami farm.

Mann and Bell were former neighbors in Crete, and both shared a hobby: expensive speed boats, according to federal officials. Mann's 37-foot "cigarette" boat was among the items seized by federal agents in 1986. Other items seized included the residences in Dolton and Calumet City, a condominium in Florida and seven exotic cars. Investigators said Mann and Bell had been principal suppliers of cocaine in the south suburbs. Bell, whose nickname was "Yellow," maintained a yellow house in Crete, two yellow cars and was said by police to have tinted his cocaine with a yellow additive as a trademark.

slaying, found Daubcn's head and torso in a bedroom closet and his legs and arms in a garbage bag in the attic. Santoni contended that he acted in self defense after Daubcn made a homosexual advance at him. Daubcn had taken Santoni, then a ward of the state, into his home. But Assistant State's Any! Edward Snow, who prosecuted the case with Kip Owen, contended that Santoni had been involved in a homosexual relationship with Daubcn. The murder occurred when Daubcn objected to Santoni's romance with a girlfriend, Snow said.

Placck blamed the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for placing Santoni in a YMCA, where he met Daubcn. Santoni, who had been abandoned by his family at age 13 because of his drug and mental problems, had been diagnosed as in need of a strong, structured family life, Placck said. Santoni will receive credit for the last 10 years he has spent in the Illinois Department of Mental Health facility in Chester. At the earliest, he could be released from prison in 27Va years at age 54. By Stevenson Swanson One purpose of the Art of the Madonna competition at Old St.

Patrick's Church, its sponsors said, was to stimulate dialogue. It certainly got people talking. The winning work, two semi-abstract drawings by New York artist Bryan Hunt, and 16 runners-up went on display Tuesday night in the church's combination gym and art gallery, 718 W. Adams St. A jury of New York and Chicago art authorities chose the works out of more than 400 pieces of art -intended to offer a new image of the Madonna and Child.

At the exhibition, which continues until Sunday, were about 150 people: artists and critics in town for the Chicago International Art Exposition at Navy Pier, local artists and the gallery crowd, and parishioners of Old St. Pat's, the oldest church in Chicago. "I'm delighted that this dialogue between the church and the art world has started again," said best-selling author Rev. Andrew Greeley, who donated half of the $10,000 prize. "The idea was to be pluralistic and open, but all the finalists represent the mother love of God.

I think the jury did very well indeed." Others, well, did not share his view. J. Stuart Doyle of the Far South Side had already nicknamed the winning work, a combination of lines and colors that suggest a woman cradling a child, who seems to be holding a golden ball. "I call it Madonna Carcinoma," said Doyle, a hearty dissenter who had christened many of the other pieces in the room. "It looks like she has a large cancer." Thomas Zoroya's altar with an upside Madonna candle, skull candles and a Tarot card looked like it was made for "devil worship," he said.

But Zoroya was on hand to explain his work. "The upside-down Madonna is saying that the old ways don't work, that we're moving to a new age," he said. The runncrs-up include "The Case of Baby by Jill Bcdgood of Austin, whose table of Virgin Mary figurines with a test tube labeled "The father" suspended above them seemed to suggest that the Madonna was a surrogate mother. ish-white in color with yellow feet and beaks and healthy, pink mouths. Spreyer said he thinks the remaining egg probably was not fertilized and will not hatch.

The mother has been doing most of the brooding, Sprcycr said, but the father surveys the area from a perch on the north side of Sears Tower and will occasionally tend the nest. The father is one of three male falcons released in 1986 from University of Illinois in Chicago, Sprcycr said. He is cither Spots or Jingles, but definitely not Pacer, a bird who was found injured at Micgs Field in 1986. The band on the mother's leg indicates she is from either Minneapolis or the East Coast The baby falcons will begin to fly when they arc 42 to 45 days old, and that is when Spreyer said he will begin to worry about them. He said the first few flights can be treacherous, but it is the parents' responsibility to teach their chiklren.

"I want them to be successful, but on the other hand, I don't want to help them too much," Spreyer said. "I (eel kind of like a grandfather." He said the nesting program was started in cities because of the ab- Dismemberment slayer gets 65 years in prison Lords of the skyline nurture their nestlings on lofty ledge By Matt O'Connor A man convicted of beating his North Side roommate to death and then dismembering the body with a hacksaw was sentenced Tuesday to 65 years in prison. Prosecutors had sought life imprisonment for Edwin Santoni, who killed Daniel Daubcn in August, 1978, at age 17 at Daubcn'j apartment, 2508 N. Grecnvicw Ave. A mental disorder had kept Santoni unfit to stand trial until March, when a jury convicted him of the murder.

Reading from a handwritten statement, Santoni, now 27, said he had turned around his life to be a "productive and positive" person and pleaded for mercy from Cook County Criminal Court Judge Fred Suria Jr. He appeared relieved with Suria's sentence as he left the courtroom with his arms around his lawyer. Assistant Public Defender Marijane Placck. Santoni admitted to police that he struck Daubcn, 34, four times on the head with a pipe but did not recall dismembering the body. Police, alerted by neighbors to a horrible smell six days after the By Maria Hunt The city is a place where little wildlife can survive, yet the cold stone face of an office building has proved the perfect nesting place for the endangered species of peregrine falcons.

Two falcon chicks and one unhatched egg were discovered Monday on a 34th-floor ledge on the cast side of the Northern Building, 125 S. Wacker Dr. These are the first peregrine falcons to hatch in the state since 1951, according to Mark Sprcycr, coordinator of the Chicago Peregrine Release Program and an ornithologist at the Chicago Academy of Sciences. The three brown-and Mack-spotted eggs were noticed around April 22, Spreyer said. A week later, he said, he saw an egg fragment in the nesting area, but wasnt sure there were live chicks until Monday, when the mother moved from the ncsl.

Sprcycr thinks the eyases, as falcon chicks are called, are about 5 days old. "The babies look great. They're moving around and very active," said Dr. Peregrine WolfT, assistant veterinarian at Lincoln Park Zoo. She described them as being a grey-.