Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 1-3

Chicago Tribune Section 1 Saturday, December 31, 2016 3 (f liicaua tribune CHICAGOLAND Protesters gathered outside the Chicago Club on Friday. The state GOP chairman said Illinois Republicans have Pence visit stirs Loop Vice president-elect misses Rauner at fundraiser Illinois band going to inauguration Obama planning Chicago speech Jan. 10 farewell address will likely be open to public Associated Press President Barack Obama will give his farewell speech on Jan. 10 in Chicago. Coming 10 days before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in as Democrats cede the White House to Republicans, Obama's hometown address is expected to serve as his closing words to the nation as president.

The appearance will be open to the public and followed by a "family reunion" for alumni of Obama's former campaigns, according to a save-the-date notice sent to Obama alumni and obtained by The Associated Press. The White House has not confirmed Obama's speech or trip to Chicago. Ahead of the speech, Obama and Democratic lawmakers next week will meet to try to forge a common strategy to prevent Republicans from destroying the president's signature health care law. On Wednesday morning, Obama travels to the Capitol for the meeting with House and Senate Democrats, according to an invitation sent to lawmakers. The White House is casting it as an effort to unite Democrats behind a plan to protect the law, known as die Affordable Care Act, before Republicans have a chance to settle on their own plan for repealing it.

Democrats are on edge over the future of the ACA, given the GOP's disdain for "Obamacare" and Trump's vows to gut it. Though Republicans are united behind the notion of repealing the law, they're split over how best to replace it. Some want to strip out unpopular provisions while leaving others intact, while other Republicans prefer a start-from-scratch approach. It's that lack of unanimity among Republicans that Obama and Democrats hope can be exploited, if they can lay the groundwork before Trump takes office. To that end, Obama also planned to answer questions about the future of the health care law next Friday during a lives-treamed event at Blair House, just across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.

Initially stunned by the defeat of Hillary Clinton, Democrats are now trying to organize a counterattack to preserve the ACA, among the most significant expansions of the social safety net since Medicare and Medicaid were created 50 years ago. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has urged her lawmakers to make health care their focus at the start of the year. Since the ACA passed, about 20 million people have gained coverage and the uninsured rate has dropped to a historic low of around 9 percent. Some of the coverage gains are due to employers offering jobs with health care in a stronger economy, but most experts mainly credit Obama's law. view that about 140 band members will perform.

He said his musicians comprise one of the country's largest Christian marching bands. "God has been taking us places and so we're going and performing," he said. Its signature parade tune is "Chicago Tribune March," he said. In 2009, Bowling and his wife, Jill, purchased a Trump Tower condo for more than $1 million, according to the Cook County recorder of deeds, and put the property in a trust in 2015. In March 2015, the Bowlings bought a more expensive Trump Tower condo, a 46th floor unit, for $2 million, records show.

Jill Bowling gave $800 to Trump's campaign last September, Federal Election Commission records show. In 2015 and 2016 she gave a total of $2,100 to GOP presidential hopeful Ben Carson, now Trump's pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, records show. John Bowling said Friday in the email exchange that the university "takes no political stand and does not endorse any candidate or party." "Thus, from our point of view the inauguration is not a political event but a civil ceremony celebrating the transfer of power. I am pleased our students will have the opportunity to participate in a historic event," he said. kskibachicagotribune.com By Bill Ruthhart Chicago Tribune Vice President-elect Mike Pence appeared at a Chicago fundraiser Friday where the Illinois GOP hoped to raise as much as $1 million for the Republican National Committee.

On the host committee for the fundraiser were some of Illinois' most prominent Republicans, including Gov. Bruce Rauner, seven of the eight Illinois GOP congressmen and Ron Gid-witz, a businessman who led President-elect Donald Trump's Illinois campaign fundraising effort The Indiana governor arrived in the Loop shordy before 11 am. and entered the Chicago Club through a back door not visible from the barricaded sidewalks in front of the building. Pence was not greeted by protesters, although they arrived later while he was inside. Illinois Republican Chairman Tim Schneider said a fractured state party during the primary season has since coalesced around Trump and Pence.

"Chicago is the hub of the Midwest and it's also very close to his roots in Indiana, so he can draw from those folks who are supporters from Indiana," said Schneider, a Cook County commissioner, of Pence's visit to the city. "I think we have a great number of supporters here in Chicago who believe in this new Trump -Pence administration, and that's why they're here." Not listed as part of the host committee were U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and U.S. Rep.

Robert Dold of Kenilworth, who distanced them hit; hunt on PHIL VELASQUEZCHICAGO TRIBUNE coalesced around Trump and Pence. protest selves from Trump but ultimately lost their re-election bids last month. Rauner has been reluctant to even say Trump's name, which didn't stop Democrats from cobbling together a TV attack ad during the fall attempting to link the governor to the GOP standard bearer. Rauner confirmed that he has spoken to Trump since the election. Rauner did not attend the event, however, as he had traveled out West with his family.

About 150 protesters gathered at Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street. Many of them waved signs that read "We say no to racism, sexism war!" Among the chants they repeated: "Our bodies, our lives, our right to decide!" and "Racist, sexist, anti-gay! Mike Pence go away!" and "No Trump, no Pence! No KKK! No fascist USA!" There was, however, a Trump supporter who responded to the chants through a megaphone of his own. The man, who only would identify himself by the fake name "Alexander Hamilton," was approached by a handful of demonstrators who screamed and cursed at him as a Chicago police officer watched nearby. "Donald Trump will make America great again!" the man chanted over and over again. A Republican official indicated the fundraiser was expected to raise $500,000 to $1 million.

Those making the maximum $33,400 contribution got a round-table and photo with Pence, while those contributing $10,000 got a photo with him. bruthhartchicagotribune.com Twitter BillRuthhart for gunmen and divisive, relatives said. Carl's daughter Bobbie, who with her mother and two siblings had been tied up in a bedroom closet the day of the murder, committed suicide in 2009 after a lifetime of substance abuse, relatives said. Wykel blamed her death on the murder. "I believe I lost my sister because she knew that her mother killed her father," Wykel said.

Kirby said the case was difficult but resulted in a conviction and a sense of justice for Gaimari's family. "It wasn't a DNA case. It wasn't a forensic case," he said. "We hit the pavement, went to six different states to interview witnesses, and spent about 900 hours on it. It's not over." John Gaimari, brother of Carl, said Thursday outside the courtroom there is still fear among family members.

He did not want his photo published. "They shot my brother. Those two guys are still out there," he said. George Houde is a freelance reporter. By Katherine Skiba Chicago Tribune WASHINGTON The Tiger Marching Band from Olivet Naz-arene University will perform in the inaugural parade Jan.

20 after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, it was announced Friday. The Illinois school was among 40 organizations on an initial list of parade participants named by the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Olivet Nazarene, located in Bourbonnais about 50 miles south of Chicago's Loop, is a Christian liberal arts university theologically grounded in the Wesleyan tradition. Sports fans know its campus as the home of the Chicago Bears summer training camp but the school's mascot is a tiger. The university's president, John Bowling, and his wife have purchased two condos in the Trump International Hotel Tower in Chicago in recent years, Cook County records show.

She donated to Trump's campaign. John Bowling, responding to Tribune questions, said Friday by email that he has never met Trump or any of his relatives and that he "made no contact regarding the invitation" given to his university's band. Bowling declined to talk about the condo purchases. Matthew Stratton, 39, university director of athletic bands, said Friday in a telephone inter Wife gets 30 By George Houde Chicago Tribune This week's sentencing of a woman who plotted to have her husband killed nearly four decades ago in the basement of their spacious Inverness home did not bring an end to the murder case. The hunt continues for the two men who carried out the shooting death of Carl Gaimari during a staged home invasion in 1979.

But authorities say they may be closing in. "We're still very actively pursuing leads," said Mike Kirby, a detective with the Inverness Police Department. "We're anticipating further arrests in this matter." Gaimari's wife, Jacque-lyn Greco, 69, was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison after being convicted in October of first-degree murder by a Cook County jury. The lead prosecutor, Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Ethan Holland, said the trial has raised awareness of the case. "Since we have promising which pursuing," The until ago ness That conviction was a kill a Chicago account money acquire her soybean death, After ended, new one future Greco, officer, Sam the hour of and later, years in 79 Greco 15, timony.

that children, chain was difficult older He married Jacquelyn August The Gaimaris had four and the of events particularly for the girls, Becky, the trial, received leads, we will be Holland said. murder remained a puzzle five years when Inver more than 100 homicide investigations with the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force. "It wasn't a home invasion. It looked like the suspects were familiar with the scene, knew where his guns were." In the file, the detectives found a Barrington police report stating that a family member had called and said Jacquelyn Greco had something to do with the murder. The detectives followed that thread, which led to a recorded phone conversation between Greco and her sister, Elsie Fry, in which Greco implicated herself in the murder.

The recording was a major piece of evidence at the trial, and Fry testified for the prosecution. Jacquelyn and Sam Greco divorced in 1990. Sam Greco, who has not been charged in connection with Gaimari's death, is retired from the Chicago Police Department, lives on the city's Northwest Side and is in poor health, authorities said. For Gaimari's family, the murder was devastating and Bobbie, 13. "We learned Sam Greco was moving in.

That was devastating," Becky Wykel, the daughter, now 52, testified. By 1981, the investigation hit a dead end and the file eventually came to rest in the basement of the Bar-rington Police Department, the agency that covered Inverness at the time. After Inverness formed its own police department, Kirby and fellow detective Bill Stutzman began reviewing the cold case in 2011 and thought it sounded odd. For one thing, Kirby noted, the intruders left behind Gaimari's handguns, which they used to kill him. They tucked one into the crook of his arm as he lay dying on a couch.

"When I first read over the file, that's what struck me," said Kirby, a veteran of police began re-examining evidence. led to the arrest and of Greco formerly Jacquelyn Gaimari. Prosecutors said money factor in the plot to Gaimari. That included Board of Trade with $250,426 in it, that Greco tried to the morning after 34-year-old husband, a trader, was shot to trial testimony revealed. Gaimari's life his wife started a with her lover and husband, Sam a Chicago police authorities said.

Greco showed up at Gaimari house on Turkey Trail Road within an the April 30 murder moved in a few days according to trial tes MORE FOR NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIBERS Already getting the Tribune in print? Your subscription comes with Unlimited Digital Access to chicagotribune.com and the eNewspaper. Activate your account: chicagotribune.com activate.