The Latest: Tributes pour in for politician Abner Mikva


              FILE - In this July 6, 2009, file photo, former Illinois U.S. Rep. and Judge Abner Mikva appears in Chicago. Mikva, a former congressman, Illinois legislator, federal appellate judge and presidential adviser, died Monday, July 4, 2016. He was 90 years old. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)
FILE - In this July 6, 2009, file photo, former Illinois U.S. Rep. and Judge Abner Mikva appears in Chicago. Mikva, a former congressman, Illinois legislator, federal appellate judge and presidential adviser, died Monday, July 4, 2016. He was 90 years old. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

CHICAGO (AP) - The Latest on the death of Abner Mikva (all times local):

10 a.m.

Colleagues, friends and family members are paying tribute to Abner Mikva, a former Illinois congressman and judge who died Monday at age 90.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin says he regarded Mikva as his "North Star for integrity, independence and progressive values." Durbin says Mikva's "record of public service was proof that the good guys can win without selling their souls."

Steven Cohen, who is married to Mikva's oldest of three daughters, Mary, says his father-in-law was diagnosed with bladder cancer several months ago, but remained "strong and active" until a couple of weeks ago. Cohen says the family thinks it is "fitting he died on the Fourth of July" because he was a "true patriot and had a flair for doing things in a historic way."

Cohen says he'll always remember Mikva's optimism during a close race for Congress in 1974. As the election returns came in and the family waited nervously, Mikva never wavered in optimism and belief in "democracy in action."

___

9 a.m.

Abner Mikva, a former congressman, Illinois legislator, federal appellate judge and presidential adviser, has died. He was 90.

Brian Brady, the head of Mikva Challenge, a leadership organization Mikva founded, says Mikva died Monday in hospice care at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Brady says he learned of the death from Mikva's daughters.

Mikva, a liberal voice and stalwart of Illinois' political landscape for decades, was most recently active in pushing for the U.S. Senate to consider the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

Mikva often told of how he initially tried to get involved in Chicago politics but was told: "We don't want nobody nobody sent."

Brady calls Mikva "the ideal public servant" who was saddened by growing bitter animosity between the parties in Washington.

Upcoming Events