Reporter who speaks Truth To Power by investigating waste, fraud and corruption.
- I like to cover Breaking News stories, politics, government, crime, justice. Pretty much anything other than entertainment/Hollywood. I’ve covered news stories all over the Chicagoland area: Politics, sports, breaking local news, festivals, music, schools, covid, elections, brutality/BLM protests.
- I’ve been doing reporting/journalism for quite a while, have an enormous desire to speak truth to power and inform people. I’ve met dozens of other journos and political leaders, but never seem to get taken seriously, despite my education and body of work. Hoping going to DePaul can assist with this.
- Blogging or writing for websites & social media has been many: WordPress, WIX, GoDaddy, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, podcasts (I’m on iHeart, Google, Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, et. al. as Liberal Patriot). I have written over 150 multi- media articles for Patch.com since 2017. Also have linked those articles to the videos made to a YouTube channel NewsMan1967 I maintained until frustration took over and I deleted that channel. I did write for NewsBreak the app, with 89 followers, 300k impressions and over 100k views before I tired of their tyrannical ways. I’ve produced over 1000 videos pertaining to news and commentary, many of which are on YouTube and were converted to podcasts. I use our basement bar and greenscreen with camera and lighting to produce professional, newsroom looking backgrounds which to report on daily and weekly news stories.
First Assignment: Analyze News Piece
- Include responses to the following prompts in your analysis:
- What is the theme of this story? The theme is of a car accident. How do the photos and other elements support this theme? The photos are of the accident scene, so readers can see what happened.
- Does the story have a narrative? Not really, I don’t believe. If so, is it structured chronologically or some other way? The photos were taken in chronological order as they were taken. If it is not a narrative, what structure does the journalist use to organize the story? The structure is photos, text and a recorded video with audio link to explain the situation in it’s entirely to readers.
- How do the photos and text or other elements complement one another? The photos show the accident scene, and the text compliments this by explaining who is who and what is what in the photos.
- What photos are most memorable? The ones of the crashed cars and ems crew. What makes them memorable? They show the scene and the impact damage of the cars, plus the scope of the ems responders with 8 vehicles on scene.
- What emotions are communicated through the photos? If there are any emotions, those would depend on the readers state of mind and how they emote accordingly. How do they show interaction or relationships? The crash scene shows the interaction between the two crashed vehicles.
- What makes this story worth emulating as a journalist? It’s an example of being on one’s toes as you never know where a news story will present itself and you need to be ready, willing and able to jump in and get the job done.
Second Assignment: Attend Media Event
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Washington, D.C. chapter and SPJ Freelancer Leader Board Met Friday Via Zoom for their Weekly Meeting.
The Meeting was conducted virtually via a Zoom link and several members were in attendance where journalistic issues were discussed.
Several SPJ members were in attendance, including Christi Harlan, Joel Whitaker, Hazel Becker, Dina Weinstein, & Marian Tucker.
The groups Facebook link is here
Their main website is: https://www.spj.org
The first order of business was to introduce everyone, especially the new attendee, who was me. A quick introduction & bio was given and then members proposed topics to discuss. Where to find freelance work was a topic of discussion as was what the rate of pay for published articles was. $25-$50 seemed to be the consensus.
Most important themes were independent journalist issue like press freedoms, getting paid for stories, journos being harassed by lawyers, licensing rights.
How to pitch particular stories was brought up, how to handle reporting and writing the particular story you’ve chosen. Quill is a site that can be used by independent journos and SJP has a Legal Defense Fund if independent journalists are accused of illegal activity.
A major topic was how an independent journalist had written an article, and the editor had added some pictures, then the journalist is getting letters from a company called PicRights, based Switzerland, demanding $1500 in compensation. Christi Harlen suggested an expose of the law firm behind the requests as independent journos cannot be held liable for pictures and licensing issues when an editor uses those pictures.
Midterm Assignment: Audio Interview
The theme of the podcast interview is I’m interviewing a local businesswoman, asking her about her choices of education, and how that choice has paid off for her professionally.
My name is Steven Mark Tobin, I’m conducting the interview. Maria Aguilar is the interviewee, who runs her own company for independent consulting for doing hair transplant work with various doctors offices across the USA.
My audio interview Podcast with her is located below:
https://anchor.fm/steve-tobin0/episodes/smt-midterm-e1e3eph
Photography Exercise: A tale of two malls: Dempster St. mall in Morton Grove, IL
These pictures tell the story of the old mall at the corner of Dempster and Waukegan roads in Morton Grove, IL and the newly built development, named Sawmill Station Mall at the same location.
The first picture is of the old mall as it existed up until spring of 2019, when it was shut down due Morton Grove declaring it a blight and levying significant fines against the owners of the development.
The remaining four pictures are of the new development, which took nearly two years to complete and has had stores open since summer of 2021.
Final Project: Multimedia & Interview
March 15, 2022
A Tale of Two Tax Stories within Skokie
The Village of Skokie Board of Trustees recently passed, via 6-1 votes, two controversial measures which were met with public & media opposition. The two measures will generate increased tax revenue for the village, but many Skokie residents are not happy with the Boards decisions.
Skokie Board member James Johnson spoke with me about the recent controversial decisions which caused a public and journalistic outcry. My interview with Skokie Board member James Thompson revealed his rationale for voting against the two latest proposals involving Carvana & Old Orchard Mall. He was the only Board member to vote no on the two proposed initiatives for Skokie and its residents. He discussed that the Carvana issue was one of the most heavily community involved issues he’s presided over, as residents showed up and were passionate about the car tower structure being dangerous to migratory birds.
Additionally, I spoke with Skokie resident Eric Badofsky who gave me trustee Johnson’s contact information as well as some background information on the stories and meetings that took place, and I attempted to talk to another Skokie resident but to no avail as we did not connect.
The Skokie Village Board consists of 7 members, who vote on all manner of matters relating to Village activities such as taxes, zoning, logistics, public services, government contracts and jobs. Recently, there have been two very contentious issues before the Board that have caused a good deal of opposition, both from the public & media outlets like the Chicago Tribune, Sun Times and Pioneer Press, which wrote editorials on the matter. At one of the board meetings, things got so heated between a Board member and a member of the public that the Board member actually turned his chair and back to the public while that person was addressing the Board.
Source: Skokie Village Website
The first fact to divulge is that the Village of Skokie gets a majority of its revenue from sales taxes, not property taxes, so Skokie it very much reliant on tax revenue to keep governmental processes running. This fact was given to me by Trustee Thompson during our interview, which I conducted on Friday, March 11, via a Zoom meeting I setup. Keeping tax revenues up helps Skokie keep property taxes down, so in essence, people who buy from Carvana and Old Orchard Mall, who do not live in Skokie, help support Skokie residents by helping to keep property taxes from rising.
The first order of business is to talk about the Carvana car tower, which will possibly be as high as 14 stories, a glass tower for cars, next to the Skokie Holocaust Museum, the woods, and I94. This particular project was met with rather fierce public outcry; mainly due to the claim the 14 story glass car tower would endanger birds on their migratory routes.
One proposed petition site on Change.org addressed the issue: https://www.change.org/p/tell-skokie-it-must-protect-migratory-birds?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=f70c4220-d934-11e4-8ee1-8fb4e2f56f86
The Chicago Audubon Society also opposed the effort to build the Carvana tower: https://www.chicagoaudubon.org/blog/2021/12/5/act-now-proposed-carvana-tower-in-skokie-poses-threat-to-resident-and-migratory-birds
There were two Skokie Board meetings which addressed and votes taken on the proposed Carvana car tower, February 7 & February 22, 2022 in which the issue was brought up, debated and citizens raised objections to the project. Citizens brought signs to protest the proposed car tower; local media were present to cover the event. The resolution ultimately passed on a 6-1 vote, and is now official that the Carvana tower will be built as planned.
Source: Eric Badofsky, Skokie resident who attended the meeting.
Source: Eric Badofsky, Skokie resident who attended the meeting.
Source: Skokie Village Website
During my Zoom meeting with Trustee Johnson, he reiterated to me that he was the only Board member who opposed the Carvana project, which fell on a 6-1 vote in favor of the project. Mr. Johnson felt that the Carvana tower was not in the best interests of the residents of Skokie, despite the projected tax revenue of approximately 8.9 Million dollars over the next ten years. This tax revenue number was given to Skokie by Carvana, and has not been independently verified nor is it guaranteed.
The location for the Carvana car tower is at Calvin R. Sutker Grove, which is adjacent to I94, the Skokie Holocaust Museum and a large, sprawling glass apartment/condo complex known as the Otima.
The links below are my videos taken on location in Skokie, IL
Trustee Johnson informed me that now that the location and project are set in stone, so to speak, the only thing left is for Carvana to decide on the time table for ground breaking and construction. What remains to be seen is if any residents or groups will attempt to shut the project down thru any legal moves or if there will be any kind of protests logged at the site once the build dates become public knowledge.
Westfield Skokie Old Orchard Mall Gets Special Blighted Business District Designation
The second pressing issue that Trustee Johnson faced and voted nay on was the granting of a special business district status to the world famous Westfield Old Orchard Mall in Skokie. This is something that Skokie has never done before, so it was a first, and of course met with opinions within the media and community.
During my interview with Trustee Johnson, he explained the rationale behind the request for the business designation, the reasons for going along with the proposal as well as his reasons for voting against the proposed business district designation for Old Orchard Mall. A business designation is basically an area is drawn and within those boundaries, taxes can be raised to benefit the area and that area only. It’s like a TIFF but with sales tax revenue, not property tax revenue being affected.
With stores like Bloomingdale’s & Barnes & Noble Bookstore shuttered, as well as Nordstrom’s being nearly vacant, the owners of the mall, Westfield Development company, proposed to the Village Board that Skokie use the State law designed for creating a business district for ‘blighted areas’ for the Westfield Old Orchard Mall. The main reason is so Westfield can get tax assistance to absorb some of the costs of mall renovation, which have been estimated at as high as $84,000,000.
The business designation will be able to run for as long as 23 years and will allow Skokie to tack on an additional 1% in local sales tax that the Village will essentially funnel to the Westfield developers to the tune of approximately $5,000,000 over the first 8 years. The Board voted on the Old Orchard business district on 2/7 and 3/7, where the plan proposed by Westfield for the business district was finalized. The extra 1% sales tax that will be collected will initially go to Skokie, then back to Westfield, with specific legal requirements and limitations as to how the money can and will be used.
The Board has come under public & media scrutiny for its novel use of the Illinois law designed for creating a business district, which leaves local municipalities a wide berth of latitude to craft their code to serve their local interests best. A copy of the Illinois code is located online here:
According to Trustee Johnson, Westfield made a very well-rehearsed, business like sale pitch to the Board, expressing the reasons why the business designation should be approved, as well as the proposed renovations to happen at the mall, once the blighted district designation was approved.
Due to the fact that Skokie gets a majority of its revenue from sales taxes, not property taxes like many other villages, cities and towns, Skokie is highly sensitive to the influx or reduction of said tax revenues. The Westfield Old Orchard Mall provides up to 40% of Skokie’s’ tax revenue, so it was clear any proposal to generate additional tax revenue was going to be heard with ears and eyes wide open.
The basic tenant of the mall getting the ‘blighted’ business district designation is so Skokie can levy an additional 1% sales tax on all purchases made at Old Orchard. This modest increase will raise the overall tax rate to upwards of 14% at the mall, and raise a projected 5M in extra tax revenue over the next several years. Westfield has a legal agreement with the village whereby the additional tax revenue will be given to the Mall to help offset the costs of Westfield’s proposed renovation plans. Westfield has proposed spending upwards of $84,000,000 over the term of the business designation, which, by law, can extend up to as much as 23 years, but the expenditures and renovation are expected to be completed much sooner than that legal timeframe.
Westfield has proposed to do the new development in a manner that will bring more upscale businesses and clientele to the mall. Upgrading Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom’s, as well as adding a Tiffany store and Gucci store. The now shuttered Barnes & Noble Booksellers store will be re-apportioned into at least two stores as well. The high-end nature of the new development plans, according to Westfield, means that the additional 1% tax that shoppers will pay will generate good revenue of high-end purchases and with the designation only at Westfield, won’t affect Skokie residents as no smaller, mom and pop shops will be affected by the tax rate increase.
Trustee Johnson’s position on the proposal from Westfield was that if Westfield’s rosy proposal and predictions were to come to fruition, and all the renovation would lead to a more high-end mall with lots of higher end clientele spending lots of money, thus raising more tax revenue for Skokie, why did Westfield even need the business district designation in the first place as the money raised from that would not amount to a whole lot, when compared to the overall proposed expenditure level. The revenue raised for the Westfield renovation via the extra sales tax revenue, is only being raised by purchases done at the mall itself, so no other areas of Skokie are affected by any sales tax increase, which did make it more tempting to the Board and Mr. Johnson as well.
I’ve provided links herein to the pertinent Skokie information for those who want to delve further into these matters:
https://www.skokie.org/275/Budget-Comprehensive-Annual-Financial-Re
Steven Mark Tobin DePaul Portfolio 