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Chicago resident living in shadows of Obama Presidential Center reveal chaos caused by years-long construction
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CHICAGO – A man who has lived on Chicago’s South Side for 18 years and now lives in the shadow of the newly opened Barack Obama Presidential Center described to Fox News Digital the havoc he says the years-long construction project wreaked on his housing complex.
Akoma Amanze is a local cab driver who lives in Jackson Park Terrace, a low-income housing community directly across the street from the 19.3 acre campus dedicated to the 44th president.
Over the weekend, while thousands of people from across the country — celebrities and ordinary folks alike — swarmed the area to visit Obama’s new campus that features a museum, library, gardens and recreational activities, Amanze and other residents took in the spectacle.
But Amanze told Fox News Digital the buzz across the street was nothing new. While he made it very clear that he supports Obama, and described living at Jackson Park Terrace as a «very good experience,» Amanze and others in his complex dealt with massive headaches caused by the construction.
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Jackson Park Terrace resident Akoma Amnaze speaks with Fox News Digital from his housing complex across the street from the Obama Presidential Center on June 19, 2026. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)
He described the construction process, which began in 2021, as «sometimes very, very disturbing.»
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«He’s my man, and I’m excited that this site is here» said Amanze, referring to Obama, «but as a resident, there has been a lot of things [that] have stopped us here.»
The Barack Obama Presidential Center towers over Jackson Park Terrace, a low-income housing complex across the street, on June 20, 2026. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)
«On two occasions, my apartment flooded while they were digging the lower level of that project,» he said. «Two times. And I had to deal with the ramifications of that twice. Those ramifications were that all my apartment was flooded, and I had to throw away everything on the floor. Boxes, papers, clothes, I had to throw them away.»
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He said he had to suck the water out of his home himself, and then clean the entire mess up himself. Despite the destruction, according to Amanze, neither the complex’s management nor representatives from the Obama Center offered to help deal with the fallout, financially or otherwise.
A sign outside Jackson Park Terrace, a low-income housing community across the street from the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Photo taken on June 20, 2026. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)
Then there was the reverberation from the digging, he said.
«Sometimes, you stay in bed or in the apartment, [and] the digging — sometimes when they were digging deep— [it] would be shaking your bed,» he said. «I had that experience all through the construction.»
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Across the street used to be a community park where Amanze said he «more or less raised all [his] children.»
The Barack Obama Presidential Center towers over Jackson Park Terrace, a low-income housing complex on Chicago’s South Side, on June 20, 2026. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)
«In fact, my last child, that is 14 today, there used to be a favorite swing on that park where I took him every time he starts crying or he starts showing signs of stress,» Amanze said. «I take him there, and I put him on that swing, and I swing him up and down, and then he will fall asleep, and then I bring him back home.»
The park is gone now, but Amanze is not bitter.
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«When things are happening that you do not have the power to stop, you just have to learn to live with it,» he said. «I just learned to live with it. I’m not upset. I’m excited that my brother Obama was able to establish something this big in my neighborhood. At least in my mind, I’m a part of the history.»
barack obama, chicago, local, housing, parks, politics
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Federal appeals court clears way for DeSantis-backed law restricting children at some drag shows
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A divided federal appeals court cleared the way for Florida to enforce a Gov. Ron DeSantis-backed law restricting children from certain sexually explicit live performances, including drag performances the state argues are obscene for minors.
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled Tuesday 8-5 that Orlando restaurant Hamburger Mary’s had not shown it was likely to succeed in its First and Fourteenth Amendment challenge to Florida’s Protection of Children Act.
The court vacated the preliminary injunction in full and sent the case back to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida for further proceedings. The ruling clears the way for enforcement, though Hamburger Mary’s could still seek additional review.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier celebrated the decision in a post on X.
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Florida AG James Uthmeier, center, touted Tuesday’s decision in a post on X. (Rich Pope/Getty Images, File)
«Huge victory for our team at the 11th Circuit! After 3 years of litigation, the full court affirmed the constitutionality of Florida’s ban on children attending sexualized drag shows,» Uthmeier wrote.
The law makes it a misdemeanor to «knowingly admit a child to an adult live performance,» according to the court’s opinion.
The law defines an «adult live performance» as a live show that «depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities … lewd conduct, or the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts» and that also predominantly appeals to a «prurient, shameful, or morbid interest,» is «patently offensive» for the age of the child present and, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for that child’s age.
Writing for the court, Judge Andrew Brasher called the law «a straightforward regulation of obscenity.»
«Preventing children from attending adult live performances obscene for them is rationally related to Florida’s interest in safeguarding the well-being of minors,» Brasher wrote.
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A drag performer in Miami. (Getty Images, File)
The majority rejected Hamburger Mary’s arguments that the terms «lewd» and «the age of the child present» made the law unconstitutionally vague or overly broad.
Brasher wrote that Florida Supreme Court precedent limits the meaning of «lewd» to sexual conduct. He also wrote that all three parts of the law’s obscenity test must be met before a performance is prohibited.
The majority also ruled that using an age-variable standard did not make the law unconstitutional on its face.
Eight judges agreed that Hamburger Mary’s was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its constitutional claims. Six judges joined Brasher’s opinion in full, while Judges Kevin Newsom and Britt Grant joined all but the section addressing universal injunctions.
Grant wrote separately that the court did not need to rule on the scope of the injunction after deciding that Hamburger Mary’s was unlikely to succeed on the merits.
Five judges dissented.
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A drag queen performs onstage in Miami. (Getty Images, File)
Judge Robin Rosenbaum argued that the law forces venues to guess which performances are suitable for children of different ages while exposing operators to criminal penalties, fines and the possible loss of a business license.
«Today our Court embraces mess-around-and-find-out (‘MAFO’) First Amendment jurisprudence,» Rosenbaum wrote.
She argued that the law could chill protected speech by forcing businesses to risk prosecution before learning how officials would apply it.
Rosenbaum also argued that the statute effectively imposes strict liability over a child’s age and could expose violators to jail, fines and the loss of a business license.
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People take in a drag performance in Orlando, Fla. (Getty Images, File)
She wrote that the law «wields a Titanic-sized iceberg of chilling power against protected speech.»
Judge Nancy Abudu filed a separate dissent focused on the law’s legislative history.
Abudu argued that comments from the law’s supporters, along with warnings from legislative staff, supported Hamburger Mary’s claim that the measure would chill protected drag performances.
The majority rejected that argument, writing that courts generally do not strike down an otherwise constitutional law based on an alleged improper legislative motive.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks with reporters at the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images, File)
The majority also wrote that nothing in the law targets performances simply because they feature drag.
Hamburger Mary’s filed the lawsuit in 2023 after Florida enacted the measure.
The restaurant said it had previously hosted Sunday drag performances advertised as family-friendly but canceled those shows and barred minors from its other performances because it feared enforcement.
A federal district judge initially issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law. A divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit affirmed that decision before the full court agreed to rehear the case.
DeSantis’ and Uthmeier’s offices, as well as the ACLU of Florida, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
florida, first amendment, federal courts, federal judges, ron desantis, legislation, politics
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Estados Unidos cancela la visa de la embajadora de Brasil en un nuevo roce diplomático
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Expresidente de Colombia tildó a Daniel Ortega de delincuente y criminal durante un acto de la Cepal
El expresidente colombiano Iván Duque calificó este martes a Daniel Ortega de “delincuente” y “criminal” durante la presentación de un informe de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), que vincula el desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe con el fortalecimiento de la democracia y las instituciones.
El documento, titulado Rupturas y oportunidades: propuestas para que América Latina y el Caribe prospere en la nueva era geopolítica, advierte que la región enfrenta un escenario marcado por la competencia geopolítica, la erosión democrática y el debilitamiento del multilateralismo.
Según Centroamérica 360, el informe plantea que el fortalecimiento institucional es una condición indispensable para el desarrollo regional.
Duque intervino en la presentación del estudio como copresidente de la comisión convocada por la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, junto con la expresidenta chilena Michelle Bachelet. Al referirse a Nicaragua, dijo que el país encarna el caso contrario al modelo que propone el informe.
“Nicaragua es todo menos eso; no es una democracia, es una dictadura opresora, con una centralización de todos los poderes y, por lo tanto, una pérdida absoluta de confianza y de interés de inversionistas que vean oportunidades de negocio en ese país”, expresó Duque.
El exmandatario colombiano endureció su posición al mencionar de forma directa al político nicaragüense. “Creo que Daniel Ortega es un delincuente, es un criminal y yo espero que Daniel Ortega encuentre su futuro en la justicia, que es lo que le corresponde”, afirmó Duque.
La publicación también consignó que Duque reclamó una respuesta de la justicia internacional por las violaciones a los derechos humanos que atribuyó al régimen nicaragüense. Denunció encarcelamientos, torturas y expulsiones de opositores por defender libremente sus ideas.
“Lo que ha hecho con las personas que han sido llevadas a la cárcel, torturadas y expulsadas por defender libremente sus ideas demuestra que no tiene cabida bajo ningún prisma de legalidad”, añadió el exmandatario colombiano.
Ese señalamiento se inscribió en una idea central del informe de la CEPAL: la región solo podrá aprovechar sus recursos estratégicos y fortalecer su posición internacional si cuenta con instituciones sólidas, gobernanza efectiva y Estados capaces de generar confianza. La tesis del documento vincula desarrollo, estabilidad democrática y capacidad de atraer inversión.
Duque sostuvo además que Nicaragua tiene un amplio potencial económico y social, pero afirmó que ese desarrollo dependerá de la recuperación del orden democrático. Su planteamiento conectó la situación interna del país con una de las conclusiones de fondo del estudio presentado por la comisión regional.
“Espero que Nicaragua recupere el orden democrático y recupere el potencial que tiene en muchísimos sectores, y que ese potencial se base en la solidez de sus instituciones, en la confianza, en la seguridad y en valores compartidos, entre ellos el valor de la defensa irrestricta de la libertad”, indicó el colombiano.
La comisión que elaboró el informe fue convocada para examinar los desafíos geopolíticos de América Latina y el Caribe en la actual etapa internacional. Entre sus conclusiones, sostiene que la prosperidad regional exige instituciones democráticas fuertes, gobernanza eficaz y marcos estatales que ofrezcan confianza pública y previsibilidad.
Nicaragua,Daniel Ortega,Dictadura,Colombia,Iván Duque
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