Group targets growth in city

First, he'll be taking questions at an early evening fundraiser for Junior Achievement, a nonprofit that teaches kids about business. About 100 people will attend the $10,000-ticket event, which is closed to the press, Junior Achievement of Chicago President Sandy Daffe said. Personal finance columnist and Junior Achievement board member Terry Savage will moderate.

CareerBuilder (which is part-owned by the Chicago Tribune's parent, Tribune Co.) donated $500,000 to Junior Achievement to sponsor the event, and in exchange its CEO, Matt Ferguson, and other company executives are getting a private, half-hour brainstorming session with Buffett before the Q-and-A period. Junior Achievement declined to release the event's location.

Later, Buffett will attend a $35,800-ticket fundraiser for President Barack Obama at the North Shore home of former Goldman Sachs investment banker Byron Trott, best known for helping arrange Buffett's $5 billion investment in Goldman during the financial crisis.

Expected attendees include: Mellody Hobson and John Rogers Jr. of Ariel Investments; real estate developer and casino owner Neil Bluhm and his son, Andy; Morningstar CEO Joe Mansueto; and Penny Pritzker.

Another political fundraiser

Attorney Manny Sanchez and Cabrera Capital Markets founder Martin Cabrera Jr. flew to Los Angeles earlier this week for a glitzy, celebrity-filled fundraiser for Obama at the home of actors Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith.

Sanchez, along with TV personality Giselle Fernandez, Puerto Rican attorney Andres Lopez and Texas architect Henry Munoz III, are the national co-chairs of the FuturoFund, Obama's group of Hispanic fundraisers. (Four years ago, it was called the Obama for America National Hispanic Leadership Council, which Sanchez co-chaired with Francisco "Frank" Sanchez.)

Manny Sanchez said the FuturoFund co-chairs had a private meeting with Obama at the fundraiser.

"We didn't hesitate to share with him that we were disappointed in the handling of the whole immigration issue," Sanchez said. "I think it's a civil rights issue, and the other side has really exploited the issue in a very ugly way, throwing Latinos under the bus."

Given his disappointment, I asked Sanchez why he was out raising money for the president again.

"The fact of the matter is when we look at what the alternative is, there is no alternative," he said, calling all but one of the Republican candidates "scary for Latinos."

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Melissa Harris can be reached at mmharris@tribune.com or 312-222-4582.

Twitter @chiconfidential