January 19, 2010 -- Researchers report that for the first time DNA of Asian carp has been found in Lake Michigan. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies quickly move to allay fears about the invasive species spawning on the balconies of River North high rises, saying that there is still no evidence that live carp have entered the lake. Major General John Peabody says, "The fact is that we don't know where the fish are. DNA tells us there is a presence in those areas and we've got to begin looking at whether we are getting false positives or negatives so we know what we're dealing with." Hours before the announcement the U. S. Supreme Court refuses to address the carp issue, rejecting Michigan's request for an injunction that would force Illinois to stop any sources of water that might flow into Lake Michigan.
January 19, 1970 – Judge Julius J. Hoffman rules in United States District Court that the conspiracy trial of the “Chicago 7” will be conducted seven days a week, beginning at the time of the decree. William Kuntsler, one of the defense attorneys for the individuals accused of conspiracy and inciting to riot during the 1968 Democratic convention, argues that the defense needs the weekends to continue to prepare its case. The decision to add Sunday court sessions in a trial that started on September 24 is made when Kuntsler protests Hoffman’s order on the previous day to add Saturdays to the court schedule to move the trial along. When the judge denies Kuntsler’s motion to end Saturday court sessions, Kuntsler then moves for the court to meet seven days a week, to which Hoffman agrees. It isn’t until February 18, 1970 that a verdict is returned with each of the seven defendants acquitted of conspiracy although two men are found guilty of crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot. While the jury is deliberating, Hoffman cites each defendant and the lawyers in the case with a number of contempt charges, carrying sentences from a few months to four years. On November 21,1972 all convictions are reversed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh District, and the contempt charges are dropped as well. The United States decides not to retry the case.
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| encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org |
January 19, 1903 – Illinois Telephone and Telegraph workers begin wiring downtown buildings for “automatic telephones” with 10,000 phones to be in operation by the First of May. A building at 191 Fifth Avenue – today’s Wells Street – will house five floors of switching equipment, making possible the elimination of party lines in the business section of the city and cutting the cost of telephone service by half. The maximum charge for office telephones will be $85 a year with a $50 charge for private residences. The phones will first be installed in all drug stores and other public places where “slot” telephones are placed. A customer who wishes to make a call will be charged five cents, payable to a store clerk. The business will get to keep the profit from all receipts that exceed the $85 yearly charge for the business. The president of the company says, “We are going to make telephoning cheap in Chicago – so cheap that I expect to see 250,000 phones in use here within ten years where there are now only 40,000 main line instruments. If we can realize the average amount which the gas company collects – which is about $3 a month a customer, I believe – if we can realize that much we will still make a better profit than the gas company for we will have no coal bill.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, January 18, 1903]
January 19, 1872 – A little over a year after Chicago is destroyed by fire, the Chicago Tribune reports on the progress being made at establishing a fire-proof ordinance within the city. The City Council, according to the article, is leaning toward a strict fire-proof ordinance within the center of the city, but seems inclined to exempt “that part of the South Division west of State and south of Twenty-fifth street, and west of Halsted street; all of the West Division south and west of Halsted, Rebecca, Throop, Twelfth, Reuben and Van Buren streets, and west of Western avenue … all of the West Division beyond Western avenue, north and west of Walnut and Reuben streets and Chicago avenue … in the North Division, all of the territory north and west of Chicago avenue, Wells street, and North avenue.” [Chicago Tribune, January 19, 1972] This plan, the article indicates, “surrounds the city, north, west, and south, with a cordon, several miles deep of wooden buildings.” The plan seems to take special care to avoid damaging the lucrative house-moving business, an industry the paper did not look upon with favor. “No man who erects a permanent building,” the article states, “can tell the day when there may not be backed in on each side of his building some old rotten tenement, to be rented out at extortionate rates for prostitution, gambling, or other equally disreputable business.” Contained within the ordinance, though, is a stipulation that whenever the owners of a majority of the ground on any block outside of the fire district shall so request, that block shall come under the provisions of the fire ordinance. The paper urges the legislators to go farther, to make it unlawful “to erect any wooden building, barn, or shed within 150 feet, in any direction, from a brick or stone building already erected.” The article ends with a plea to pass the legislation, “The passage of an ordinance prohibiting the erection hereafter of any wooden buildings in the city, with proper provision for the enforcement of the law, would be equal, in its financial effects, to the free loan of several millions of dollars. It would relieve this city of an enormous indirect tax, and would invite hither a large amount of capital for permanent investment, which will avoid us if we continue to be a city of shanties.”
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