Deborah L. Graham
Deborah L. Graham
Anti death penalty bill sponsor
In 2009, Representative Karen Yarbrough (D-7) sponsored House Bill 262 to abolish the death penalty in Illinois. In 2010, Senator Willie Delgado (D-2) did the same in the Illinois Senate (SB 3569).[1]
As of March 2009, the additional cosponsors were Barbara Flynn Currie (D-25), Arthur L. Turner (D-9), Harry Osterman (D-14), LaShawn Ford (D-8), Deborah Mell (D-40), Esther Golar (D-6), Julie Hamos (D-18), Constance A. Howard (D-34), Al Riley (D-38), Deborah L. Graham (D-78), Jehan A. Gordan (D-92), Annazette Collins (D-10), Mary E. Flowers (D-31), Cynthia Soto (D-28) and Robert Rita (D-28).[2],
Coalition to Save Community Banking
The Coalition to Save Community Banking is a group of several dozen metro Chicago organizations and individuals, including Chicago Democratic Socialists of America member Peg Strobel, that came together after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) seized the assets of a local community bank, Park National Bank (PNB) with two branches in Oak Park, Illinois, on October 30, 2009. PNB and eight sister banks (including several in California) were all owned by First Bank of Oak Park, Inc. (FBOP), which the FDIC then sold to US Bancorp, also known as US Bank. This seizure happened in the afternoon; that same morning, the Treasury Department awarded FBOP/PNB Initiatives (an affiliate of PNB) $50 million in federal "New Market Tax Credit" allocations to continue PNB's long-standing investment in under-resourced and minority communities. [3]
Accomplishments of the organization included;
- Rep. Luis Gutierrez (chair of the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit) held a Congressional hearing January 21 on the issue of FPOB/PNB and community banks. We sent more than 60 people to Washington.
- We gained the support of Rep. Danny Davis; Rep. Bobby Rush; State Sen. Don Harmon; David Pope, President of the Village Board, Oak Park; and State Rep. LaShawn Ford.
- Sponsored by Sen. Don Harmon, Senate Joint Resolution 81 has passed the Illinois Senate and moves to the Illinois House, where it is cosponsored by Karen Yarbrough, Angelo Saviano, Deborah L. Graham, LaShawn Ford, and Marlow H. Colvin. The resolution "urges the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee and the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs to continue hearings to investigate the FDIC's seizure of Park National Bank."
- December 16, 2009, the Chicago City Council joined with our coalition in demanding a Congressional hearing to investigate the seizure and sale of First Bank of Oak Park/Park National Bank and the repercussions for other community banks reinvesting in our communities. As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago aldermen condemned as "absurd, bordering on criminal" the federal government's decision to seize Park National Bank."
- Within a month of the seizure, community groups that comprise the Coalition delivered petitions with over 1,000 signatures to the D.C. office of Rep. Luis Gutierrez.[4]