Detective Shaved Longcock

LET THE RIOTING BEGIN: Food stamp bills seek to PROHIBIT junk food being purchased with food stamps

2012-01-30T01:10:00.003-06:00

Florida legislation is the latest to prohibit shoppers from buying 'nonstaple, unhealthy foods' with federal aid. It's a trend driven by health concerns but also by tight budgets.
Reporting from Atlanta

Advertisement

Ronda Storms is a Republican state senator from Florida. She is also a mom who buys the groceries for her family of four.

A few months ago, Storms, 46, started noticing that some fellow shoppers were using federal food stamp money to purchase a lot of unhealthful junk. And it galled her — at a time when Florida was cutting Medicaid reimbursement rates, public school funding and jobs — that people were indulging in sugary, fatty, highly-processed treats on the public dime.

"If we're going to be cutting services across the board," she said, "then people can live without potato chips, without store-bought cookies, without their sodas."

That sense of unfairness, plus a concern about the health of needy children, is the motivation behind a bill Storms sponsored that would prohibit people from purchasing "nonstaple, unhealthy foods" with funds provided by the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The bill, which was approved 4 to 2 last week by a committee on child and elderly affairs that Storms chairs, is the latest in a flurry of recent statehouse efforts to restrict what shoppers can buy under the federal government's decades-old food stamp program.

It's a trend driven by anxiety about health — particularly the national obesity epidemic — but also, in some cases, by a renewed scrutiny of public benefits in a time of tight budgets and staggering want.

According to federal records, more than 46 million Americans are eating groceries bought with SNAP funds. In the last year, legislation seeking to restrict SNAP purchases was introduced in Illinois, Oregon, California, Vermont and Texas, though none was successful, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

That is in part because theU.S. Department of Agriculturehas been unwilling to issue further restrictions on food stamp purchases, beyond traditionally ineligible items such as alcohol, tobacco and "hot foods."

Last year, the USDA rejected New York City MayorMichael R. Bloomberg's "demonstration project" that would have prohibited soda purchases with food stamps. In 2004, it rejected a Minnesota plan to prohibit the purchase of soft drinks and candy.

In Florida, Storms' bill is being resisted by anti-hunger advocates, as well as Democrats like Sen. Audrey Gibson of Jacksonville, one of two lawmakers who voted against it Wednesday.

"It's like we're attacking poor people because they're poor, and because they're asking for some assistance," Gibson said.

But Storms noted that the other opponents had been the lobbyists for big business: the Corn Refiners of America, the Florida Beverage Assn., the Florida Petroleum Marketers and the Convenience Store Assn.

"Why is that? Because they know they are raking it in from food stamps," Storms said.

Nationwide, the pushback has come from a rather odd coalition of activist groups and the food industry. In July, a group that included the National Council of La Raza, the Snack Food Assn. and the Frozen Potato Products Institute issued a statement asking the federal government to "preserve food choice" for the poor.

One key objection raised by the coalition — an objection the USDA echoed in its denial of New York's demonstration project — is the possibility that further restrictions might lead to further stigma. Feeling ashamed or uncomfortable about being on public assistance, advocates believe, may deter people from signing up for food aid. Alleviating such discomfort is one reason SNAP recipients now use electronic benefit cards similar to debit cards, instead of the old paper stamps, which easily identified shoppers on public assistance.

"This business of being treated differently is a big piece of it for us," said Ellen Vollinger, legal director for the Food Research and Action Center in Washington. "It's a big step backward, to the age of paper coupons."

Agriculture Department officials, in a 2007 paper, identified other "serious" problems with the idea of restricting unhealthful foods. Keeping tabs on hundreds of thousands of American food products would be costly and complicated.

Moreover, they argued, there are no "clear standards" for what constitutes healthful food: by some measurements, diet soda, which is low in calories and sugar, could be considered "healthier" than orange juice.

The USDA has also explored the link between SNAP and obesity. A 2008 report found "some evidence" to suggest that food stamp participation increased body mass index, and might contribute to obesity in non-elderly women, though not in children, the elderly and non-elderly men.

Washington is looking for other ways to encourage healthful eating among the poor: In Hampden County, Mass., a federal pilot program is kicking 30 cents on every dollar back to SNAP participants when they buy fruits and vegetables with their benefit cards.

It's like a bad joke: Colored man charged with impersonating a Chicago police officer...WHERE? Where else, a DOUGHNUT SHOP!

2012-01-29T21:54:00.002-06:00

Chicago man is accused of impersonating a cop as well as kidnapping and robbing a man at local doughnut restaurant

A Chicago man impersonating a police officer kidnapped another man from a South Side doughnut shop this week and stole his money and DVDs before releasing him, prosecutors said.

Douglas Martin, 45, is charged with kidnapping with a weapon, armed robbery and impersonating a police officer. Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas ordered him held on $850,000 bond Sunday.

On Wednesday, Martin approached a 33-year-old man who was carrying a portable DVD player and DVDs in a doughnut shop in the Roseland neighborhood, prosecutors said. Martin had a badge and a gun, and he told the man he was to be cited for some kind of violation, prosecutors said.

Martin, of the 300 block of East 119th Street, led the man to a van, and another man drove the group a few blocks before the man was robbed of possessions that included the DVDs and $70 and ordered out, according to a police report.

Martin was arrested Friday a few blocks from the doughnut shop.

Illegal Beaner Victor Ozuna charged after barricade on NW Side of the Sanctuary City of Chicago

2012-01-29T20:57:00.002-06:00

19-year-old Chicago man who was armed with a knife and barricaded himself inside his Northwest Side apartment on Saturday was charged with attacking a police officer, officials said.

Victor Ozuna residing in a free Section 8 government apartment in the 3400 block of West Sunnyside Avenue was charged with aggravated assault of a peace officer, a felony, police said.

Ozuna was ordered held without bail today, according to the Cook County Sheriff's office.

Ozuna was arrested Saturday after police were called to a domestic situation that escalated into a barricade situation at the man's home.

Police responded at 2:17 p.m. to the home and the situation escalated. At about 2:35 p.m. the Hostage Barricade Terrorist Unit responded to the scene, police said.

During the incident a police officer had fired a shot at Ozuna, who had a knife, but did not strike him, police said.

Illegal Beaner Santa Ana Zuloaga-Campuzano: Pisses on the floor of the Chicago police station while playing air piano & singing!

2012-01-29T20:49:00.004-06:00

After police found him asleep and surrounded by empty beer cans in an SUV that was obstructing traffic, a Chicago man urinated on the police station floor and then entertained himself by singing loudly and playing air piano, prosecutors said.

The man told Chicago officers his performance, which also involved rattling his handcuffs against a police station bench, sounded good, according to a police report.

Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas ordered Santa Ana Zuloaga-Campuzano, 30, held on $10,000 bond Sunday. He is charged with aggravated driving under the influence and various traffic offenses.

When officers encountered Zuloaga-Campuzano early Sunday, he was sleeping in a 2002 Ford Expedition that was stopped in the median of 115th Street at South Doty Avenue in the Riverdale neighborhood, according to a police report.

The vehicle was littered with empty beer cans, and Zuloaga-Campuzano mumbled, belched and laughed as he talked with officers, authorities said.

He admitted he had drank eight beers, three shots of tequila and three shots of cognac, according to the police report.

Zuloaga-Campuzano told officers he went to sleep so he wouldn’t hurt anyone, police reported. Asked to submit to a breath test, he refused, asking, “What’s the point? I know I’m drunk,” according to a police report.

Taken to the Calumet District police station, he urinated on the floor, sang loudly and kneeled as he pretended to play piano, prosecutors said.

Would hate to be the paper car on this accident... At least 10 killed and dozens injured in chain reaction vehicle crash in Florida

2012-01-29T17:33:00.004-06:00

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A long line of cars and trucks collided one after another early Sunday on a dark Florida highway so shrouded in haze and smoke that drivers were instantly blinded. At least 10 people were killed.

When rescuers first arrived, they could only listen for screams and moans because the poor visibility made it difficult to find victims in wreckage that was strewn for nearly a mile, police said.

Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup south of Gainesville on Interstate 75, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire that may have been intentionally set. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame.

Steven R. Camps of Gainesville said he and some friends were driving home several hours before dawn when they were drawn into the pileup.

"You could hear cars hitting each other. People were crying. People were screaming. It was crazy," he said. "If I could give you an idea of what it looked like, I would say it looked like the end of world."

Photographs of the scene taken hours later revealed an aftermath that resembled a Hollywood disaster movie. Twisted, burned-out vehicles were scattered across the pavement, with smoke still rising from the wreckage.

Cars appeared to have smashed into the big rigs and, in one case, a motor home. Some cars were crushed beneath the heavier trucks.

Reporters who were allowed to view the site saw bodies still inside a burned-out Grand Prix. One tractor-trailer was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo area. And the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts.

Before Camps hit the fog bank, a friend who was driving ahead of him in a separate vehicle called to warn of the road conditions. The friend said he had just seen an accident and warned Camps to be careful as he approached the Paynes Prairie area just south of Gainesville.

A short time later, Camps said traffic stopped along the northbound lanes.

"You couldn't see anything. People were pulling off the road," he said.

Camps said he began talking about the road conditions to a man in the car stopped next to them when another vehicle hit the man's car.

The man's vehicle was crushed under a semi-truck stopped in front of them. Camps said his car was hit twice, but he and another friend were able to jump out. They took cover in the grass on the shoulder of the road.

All around them, cars and trucks were on fire, and they could hear explosions as the vehicles burned.

"It was happening on both sides of the road, so there was nowhere to go. It blew my mind," he said, explaining that the scene "looked like someone was picking up cars and throwing them."

At least 18 people were taken to a hospital.

All six lanes of the interstate — which runs virtually the entire length of Florida — remained closed Sunday afternoon as investigators surveyed the site and firefighters put out the last of the flames.

It was not clear when the highway would reopen because part of the road melted, police said.

At some point before the pileup, police briefly closed the highway because of the fog and smoke. The road was reopened when visibility improved.

Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Patrick Riordan said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash.

Traffic was being diverted onto U.S. 301 and State Road 27, Riordan said.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Forest Service said the fire began Saturday, and investigators were trying to determine whether the blaze had been intentionally set. She said there were no controlled burns in the area and no lightning.

Ludie Bond also said the fire had burned 62 acres and was contained but still burning Sunday. A similar fire nearby has been burning since mid-November because the dried vegetation is so thick and deep. No homes are threatened.

Four years ago, heavy fog and smoke were blamed for another serious crash.

In January 2008, four people were killed and 38 injured in a series of similar crashes on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. More than 70 vehicles were involved in those crashes, including one pileup that involved 40 vehicles.

Most men get "stabbed" in the ass after leaving a Wrigleyville bar... This one got stabbed by a homo illegal beaner with a knife!

2012-01-29T13:54:00.002-06:00

A 24-year-old man is hospitalized after being stabbed by a man who seemingly was about to give the victim a hug outside of a Wrigleyville dance bar early this morning, police said.

The victim was on his cell phone outside of Deuces and The Diamond Club, 3505 N. Clark St., when the incident happened, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan.

The victim and the offender had a verbal altercation in the bathroom of the dance club about 45 minutes before the attack occurred, said Sullivan.

At about 1:10 a.m., the victim was on his phone when the offender appeared to give the victim a hug but instead stabbed the man twice in the back and once in the upper left arm, Sullivan said.

"This guy came up, and was going to give him a hug," said Sullivan. "He said, 'Hey what's up,' then stabbed him."

The victim was taken in serious-to-critical condition to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Sullivan said. The man's current condition was not available.

After the stabbing, the suspect fled.

The offender is described as a Hispanic man with a dark complexion. He is between 5 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall, between 185 and 190 pounds, and had long black hair in a pony tail. The man had brown eyes and wore glasses, police said.

FBI seeks man who robbed 9 N. Side banks "Wicker Park Link Card Bandit"

2012-01-29T13:50:00.003-06:00

A man dubbed "The Wicker Park Bandit" after being suspected of robbing eight North Side banks struck again late Saturday morning on the Northwest Side.

A Chase bank branch in the Roscoe Village neighborhood on the 3500 block of North Western Avenue was robbed about 11:37 a.m. Saturday, officials said.

The man walked into the bank and handed the teller a note where he indicated that he was armed and that he was robbing the bank, Chicago police said.

The teller handed the man an undisclosed amount of cash before the man fled, police said.

The FBI described the man as black, between the ages of 20 to 30, standing 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall. Police said he had a goatee and was wearing a black skull cap, black hooded sweatshirt and black pants.

The bandit is thought to be responsible for eight previous robberies including the North Community Bank branch at 2335 N. Clark St. on Dec. 20; the PNC Bank branch at 4400 N. Broadway on Dec. 22; the Chase Bank branch at 1350 N. Wells St. on Dec. 30; the North Community Bank branch at 1555 N. Damen Ave. on Jan. 6; the North Community Branch at 1600 W. Chicago Ave. on Jan. 6; the Chase Bank branch at 1200 N. State Parkway on Jan. 9; the North Community Bank branch at 448 N. Wells St. on Jan. 16 and the Chase Bank branch at 71 W. Chicago Ave. on Jan 21., the FBI said.

No one was injured, police said.

A reward is being offered to anyone with information about his identity or whereabouts. Anyone with information should contact the FBI Chicago office at (312) 421-6700.

Interesting Headline: Inmate arrested for trespassing after refusing to leave jail cell

2012-01-29T09:20:00.001-06:00

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- Most people can't wait to leave jail, but one northern Arizona inmate has been charged with trespassing after refusing to leave the Coconino County lockup.

Coconino County Sheriff's Office spokesman Gerry Blair says 44-year-old Martin Batieni Kombate was arrested in Flagstaff last week for trespassing and was scheduled for release Monday on his own recognizance on the charge.

But when detention officers from the sheriff's office showed up to escort him out, Kombate allegedly said he wasn't leaving and was staying because he couldn't find his wallet.

Blair tells The Associated Press that Kombate was disorderly in a jail cell, would not leave, so the police were called and Kombate was arrested.

Blair says Kombate remains in jail.

Hat Trick of accidents - Next 3 postings involve accidents - 5 escape watery ditch in rollover crash near Posen

2012-01-29T09:12:00.002-06:00

Five people were injured this morning when they escaped a vehicle that landed in a watery ditch near Posen.

The rollover crash happened about 5:15 a.m. on Interstate Highway 57 near mile marker 349 outside of south suburban Posen, according to Illinois State Police.

According to preliminary reports, the vehicle rolled over in the northbound lanes and landed in a ditch on the right side of the road, police said.

The occupants were able to escape by climbing through the vehicle's windows, police said.

Five people were taken to an area hospital but their injuries were thought to be non-life threatening. Police said they were being observed for hypothermia.

Timothy Kreiss "falls" out of the van his father is driving on Dan Ryan.... Timothy was 55 just like the speed his father was driving

2012-01-29T09:10:00.002-06:00

A man died after tumbling from the van his father was driving late this afternoon on the Dan Ryan expressway, according to authorities.

Timothy Kreiss, 55, was found in the express lanes near 45th Street about 4:30 p.m. and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, according to Illinois State Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Kreiss, of Oak Park, was pronounced dead at 4:57 p.m. at the hospital, a spokesman for the medical examiner’s office said.

It’s unclear why the man left the vehicle, but State Police Trooper James Gawel said no other vehicles were involved.

Police didn’t know how fast the van was traveling when the man exited.

Kreiss’ father was driving and he was the only other person in the vehicle, Gawel said.

2 seriously injured in Far South Side traffic crash

2012-01-29T09:07:00.003-06:00

Hard to drive, talk on the cell phone, roll a blunt and drink from a 40 ounce bottle all at once...

Photo: The aftermath of a 3-car accident today at the intersection of 106th Street and Ewing Avenue in Chicago

Two people were seriously injured in a traffic crash this morning on the city's Far South Side, officials said.

Chicago Fire Department paramedics responded about 7:30 a.m. to a call of a traffic crash on the 10500 block of South Ewing, according to fire media information.

Two people were taken in serious-to-critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Their ages and genders were not immediately available, officials said.

Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said it was 3-car accident but had no other details.

Twin sister of murder victim Holly Staker charged with attempted robbery

2012-01-29T08:55:00.002-06:00

The troubled twin sister of Holly Staker, the Waukegan girl murdered in 1992, is being held in the Lake County Jail on a charge of attempted aggravated robbery.

Heather Staker, 31, went into a cigarette shop Wednesday and tried to rob it, but instead was overpowered by a clerk and held for police, sources said. Waukegan Police Chief Dan Greathouse, though, declined Friday to release any information on the arrest.

“The family has been through enough at this time,” Greathouse said through a spokesman.

Holly Staker was 11 when she was raped and killed Aug. 17, 1992, in the Waukegan apartment where she was baby-sitting two younger children.

Juan Rivera, who lived near the apartment, was convicted three times of the murder and spent 19 years in prison for the crime before finally being released this year because DNA evidence found in Holly’s body did not match him.

Heather Staker has struggled with addiction, been convicted of petty crimes and at least one felony. She has served time in prison. Her 4-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son are being raised by her mother, who lives in Wisconsin.

She recently told reporters she and her boyfriend were having financial difficulties, and she still owed a lot of money for medical bills because of a stroke and brain surgery four years ago.

And she said she still believes Rivera is guilty of her sister’s murder.

“I need closure,” she said, “I need to know what happened, exactly what (Holly) went through. Before I even knew she was dead, I knew she was dead. I felt it.”

She remains in the jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Dougherty bank robbers get busted trying to escape from jail....Lee Grace Dougherty became even more famous when her nude pics hit the web....

2012-01-29T00:40:00.003-06:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE Lee Grace Dougherty's NUDE PHOTOS

DENVER (AP) — One of three siblings who was part of a multistate crime spree and nationwide manhunt planned to escape from a Colorado jail with his sister, telling the FBI in a letter that he had enjoyed his stay, authorities said in a document released Friday.

Dylan Dougherty, 26, got out of his cell in Walsenburg, Colo., and wrote a note to his sister telling her he was going to break her out of jail, officials said. Dylan Dougherty is now being held at the Pueblo County Jail, some 45 miles north of the jail in Walsenburg where he was being held, along with his two siblings.

Dougherty's attorney, Cobea Becker did not immediately return phone messages.

During a Jan. 10 search, deputies found a homemade knife and letter to the FBI in his cell, according to an arrest affidavit.

Deputies also discovered that a panel in Dougherty's cell that allows access to the plumbing had been tampered with, as had the insulation just inside. A deputy followed the plumbing to the ceiling and discovered footprints in there, and in the female section of the jail, a letter addressed to his sister, Lee Grace Dougherty, 29, who was being held in that area.

Dylan Dougherty told his sister he planned to subdue the guards, steal their keys and escape with her. The note stated that when the FBI received the letter, he would be long gone from the Huerfano County Jail and he would leave the tools he used to escape behind, authorities said.

"I have enjoyed staying here, so don't take any of this personal," investigators quote the note as saying.

The letter to his sister said she should "have all her personal belongings ready, and that Dylan was going to get in through the ceiling to the control room where the detention staff are, and drop down on them," according to the affidavit. "He stated he would then tie them up and take the keys from them, and then they would just walk out."

Dylan Dougherty's was able to move around so freely in the ceiling that he was able to pass the note to his sister. Deputies discovered the note in the pod where she is being held, Huerfano County Sheriff Bruce Newman said.

"He's the first one who has ever gotten into one (an access panel)," Newman said. "All you can do is go from cell to cell. You can't escape from there."

Newman said the ceiling bumps into cinderblocks. As for Dougherty's plan to drop down into the control center, Newman said that area is enclosed by cinderblocks and not accessible from the ceiling.

"We've repaired the access panel and double locked them," Newman said.

The Doughertys and their brother, Ryan Dougherty, 22, were captured in southern Colorado on Aug. 10 after a chase, capping a nationwide search. All three had been held at the tiny jail that can hold up to 34 inmates in five pods that have two to four cells each. It was opened in 1989, Newman said.

Ryan Dougherty and Lee Grace Dougherty remain at the jail. Newman said there are no plans to move them elsewhere.

"With Dylan being the instigator of this and his being caught, the major part of this threat is gone," Newman said. "We're really a lot more alert and watching them a lot closer now."

Newman said there was some concern with holding all three in the same jail, adding that guards took stepped up security measures that included more impromptu searches — called shakedowns —of Dylan's Doughtery's cell that uncovered the plan.

The three siblings are accused of robbing a Valdosta, Ga., bank and firing at a police officer in Zephyrhills, Fla., who was chasing their car when one of the suspects began shooting at his cruiser, disabling it, the FBI said.

In the Colorado chase, shots were fired at officers before the suspects' car rolled and crashed into a guardrail, authorities said.

Lee Grace Dougherty is set to go on trial Feb. 21 on attempted second-degree murder, assault and other charges related to the chase.

The brothers were granted a stay in proceedings until Monday, so federal and Florida prosecutors can decide how to proceed in the case.

In addition to charges stemming from the crime spree, Dylan Dougherty faces counts of conspiracy to escape and possession of contraband for the escape plan discovered during the search, authorities said.

During a September hearing, a Colorado Springs detective testified that Ryan Daugherty, the youngest of the three, told him that they hatched a plan to rob a bank and take the money to flee to Mexico.

Ryan Dougherty had just been sentenced to register as a sex offender for a conviction of sending sexually explicit text messages to an 11-year-old girl.

The siblings' mother, Barbara Bell of East Palatka, Fla., told The Associated Press in August that her son was discouraged by the terms of his probation and feared the conviction would prohibit him from seeing his newborn son.

Authorities in Florida said all three siblings had been living together in Lacoochee, Fla., about 45 miles northeast of Tampa, and each had a criminal record. Lee Dougherty has charges pending against her in Florida for hit and run and had previously been charged with battery. Stanley Dougherty had been charged with marijuana possession.

Santa Maria CA Police Officer under investigation for sexual misconduct shot & killed by fellow officer

2012-01-29T00:36:00.002-06:00

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Authorities say a police officer under investigation for sexual misconduct with a minor was shot and killed by fellow officers trying to arrest him on California's central coast.

Santa Maria police Chief Danny Macagni said in a statement that the officer was on duty early Saturday when officers were sent to arrest him. Macagni says he physically resisted, then fired his gun.

Macagni says an officer coming to help the arresting officers shot him once, and he was declared dead at a hospital. No one else was hurt.

The chief says the dead officer, a four-year department veteran, had just learned of the internal investigation of an alleged relationship with a 17-year-old girl, and had to be arrested immediately.

The officer's name has been withheld until family is notified.

This is only the begining... Magazine Calls Occupiers To Come To Chicago In ‘Tradition of’ 1968 Rioters

2012-01-28T20:00:00.001-06:00

Adbusters, the radical, Vancouver-based anti-consumerist magazine, credited by many media outlets for launching the Occupy Wall Street protests, has put out an ad calling for 50,000 protestors to “Occupy” the G8 summit in May. And they are not calling for peaceful protest.

The Adbusters ad shows a picture of policemen beating up a defenseless protestor, and comes with the caption: “In the Tradition of the Chicago 8.” The Chicago 8 were radicals who incited riots in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic convention. The 1968 convention unrest became so legendary that the band Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young) wrote a song about it called “Chicago.” The “tradition” of the Chicago 8 included calling for displays of public fornication and attacking police.

According to the official statement of Adbusters (titled Tactical Briefing #25), “On May 1, 50,000 people from all over the world will flock to Chicago, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month. With a bit of luck, we’ll pull off the biggest multinational occupation of a summit meeting the world has ever seen.”

The ad threatens to shut down the economy if their demands are not met: “And if they don’t listen … if they ignore us and put our demands on the back burner like they’ve done so many times before … then, with Gandhian ferocity, we’ll flashmob the streets, shut down stock exchanges, campuses, corporate headquarters and cities across the globe … we’ll make the price of doing business as usual too much to bear.”

So the same group that called for the Occupy Wall Street protests in the first place is now calling for protestors to shut down the entire economic system of a city if their demands are not met, in the tradition of people who brought us the 1968 Democratic convention riots.

The claim that the Occupy Movement is composed of peaceful protestors seeking constructive and meaningful change stopped being credible long ago.

LAPD detective arrested on suspicion of grand theft - turned in by a fellow detective. In the old days he would have just said, "Where's my cut?"

2012-01-28T17:50:00.002-06:00

A Los Angeles Police Department detective assigned to the gang and narcotics division was arrested Friday and charged with grand theft, the LAPD said.

Det. Ramon Alvarez, a 27-year veteran of the department, was involved in serving an arrest warrant Friday at a suspected narcotics location when a fellow detective saw him taking money from the site, according to a statement released by the department.

The detective immediately notified his supervisor, and Alvarez's vehicle was searched at the scene. Money believed to be the property of the drug suspect was found inside, according to the statement. Alvarez was arrested by the internal affairs criminal investigation division.

"I am extremely disturbed and shocked by the arrest, but heartened by the actions of the detective who immediately reported what appeared to be criminal behavior," said Police Chief Charlie Beck.

Bail was set at $20,000. Alvarez has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of both the criminal and administrative investigations.

"The arrest of an LAPD officer and a classmate is shocking and very disappointing," Tyler Izen, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said in a statement. "We expect law enforcement officers to hold themselves to the highest moral standards in their professional and personal lives, making the news doubly upsetting."

G8/Nato Chicago Pre-Game...The enemy is already using YouTube to get the masses rioting against the police.....

2012-01-28T17:48:00.000-06:00

2 People Shot inside Chicago colored food store - Western Food Mart "We Accept Link" 6504 S. Western Ave

2012-01-28T17:15:00.003-06:00

Two people were injured after a shooting occurred at a grocery store on the South Side, officials said.

The shooting happened shortly after 1 p.m. at 6504 S. Western Ave., police and fire officials said.

The address is listed as the Western Food Market.

According to preliminary information, two men walked into the store when they were shot, police said.

One of the men was shot in the buttocks and the second man was shot in the wrist, police said.

After the shooting, the offenders fled in a black pickup truck and traveled eastbound on 67th Street, police said.

One of the men was taken in serious-to-critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center and the second person was taken to Holy Cross Hospital, fire officials said.

Chicago Police SWAT TEAM respond to barricade situation on Northwest Side

2012-01-28T17:12:00.002-06:00

Above Photo: Chicago police responded to a domestic-related incident on the 3400 block of West Sunnyside Avenue today, police said. The incident escalated into a barricade situation. A person was arrested but no injuries were reported.

Chicago police were called to a domestic situation that escalated into a barricade situation on the Northwest Side this afternoon, and although police fired a shot at a man with a knife the situation ended without any injuries, police said.

Police responded at 2:17 p.m. to a domestic situation at a home on the 3400 block of West Sunnyside Avenue, said Police News Affairs.

The situation escalated and at about 2:35 p.m. the Hostage Barricade Terrorist Unit responded to the scene, police said. During the incident a police officer had fired a shot at the offender, who had a knife, but did not strike the person, police said.

Fire paramedic personnel had been called to the scene as a precaution but their services were not needed and they were later released from the scene as of about 2:45 p.m., according to a spokesman for fire media.

The incident concluded with police officials making an arrest. No injuries were reported, police said.

Probably a honor student turning his life around - Man hospitalized after being shot, flipping his car on I-80

2012-01-28T10:50:00.000-06:00

A man is hospitalized today after he crashed his car on Interstate Highway 80 in Northwest Indiana after being shot in the head by someone riding in another vehicle, police said.

The victim, a 31-year-old man from East Chicago, suffered a gunshot wound in his left temple and was taken to Northlake Methodist Hospital in Gary, according to an e-mailed news release from Sgt. Ann Wojas of the Indiana State Police. The release did not give a condition for the man, but said he was unconscious and is being transferred to another, unspecified hospital.

According to the news release, the man was driving a 1985 Buick LeSabre southbound on Cline Avenue near Michigan Street/5th Avenue in Hammond about 3:43 a.m. this morning when he and a passenger, identified as a 24-year-old woman from East Chicago, saw a slow-moving red or maroon Dodge Durango in the left lane. The passenger told police that both the front and rear windows on the vehicle were down and that they considered that unusual.

The Durango continued to slow and the driver of the LeSabre chose to pass it before eventually getting on I-80 eastbound, the release said. The passenger told police that the Durango then pulled alongside the driver's side of the LeSabre, which was in the right lane, and she heard one shot before the driver lost control of the LeSabre.

The Buick first veered right, hit a concrete barrier wall on the outer shoulder, then rolled over onto its roof and hit the wall again, the release said. The passenger and driver escaped the vehicle and were being sheltered in another vehicle when police arrived, police said. The driver of the other vehicle, which had stopped to check on the condition of the two people in the LeSabre, did not see the shooting or the crash, police said.

Like the driver, the passenger was transported to Northlake Methodist Hospital, where she was treated and released.

Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting or the accident to call the Indiana State Police at (219) 696-6242.

Do you remember the Railroad Cop Howard Morgan who shot it out with Chicago police years ago? He was finally convicted in that shooting.

2012-01-28T09:56:00.003-06:00

Paul Huebl of Crime File News has the posting up. Click here to read the posting regarding this former Chicago cop turned Railroad Cop and then shot it out with the Chicago cops.

or use this link:

http://www.crimefilenews.com/2012/01/former-chicago-cop-convicted-of-trying.html

Cicero mayor’s nephew Joseph M. Terrana stole beer using Official Cicero car: cops

2012-01-28T09:36:00.001-06:00

The nephew of Cicero Town President Larry Dominick has been arrested for allegedly stealing $287.54 worth of beer from a Jewel in Stickney on two separate days by wheeling it in a cart out to his Town of Cicero car in the grocery store parking lot, police said.

When he was arrested on Thursday, the nephew, Joseph M. Terrana, 41, was wearing an official Town of Cicero municipal jacket.

He told police he was on his break from his Town of Cicero job — he’s a part-time driver for senior citizens and others in need in town.

It’s at least the fifth time Terrana has been arrested. He’s been convicted three times, including twice for theft.

Terrana, in fact, was still on probation the first time he was hired by the Town of Cicero in April 2007 as a garbage man.

Terrana was hired just a few months after his aunt, Elizabeth, married Larry Dominick.

Terrana was on two years of probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor theft in 2005 for stealing Glade candles, Corona beer, Red Bull, Gatorade and Pepto Bismol from a Jewel in Arlington Heights.

Corona is apparently one of Terrana’s beers of choice, because that was one of the brands he is accused of stealing from the Jewel in Stickney, police said. He also picked up some Tecate, some Negro Modelo and some laundry detergent.

In September 2009, Terrana was forced to resign from his Cicero garbage man job for alleged improprieties. The town won’t give specifics.

In February 2010, Terrana was fired from another job, this time working for the Cicero and Berwyn high school district as a janitor, after testing positive for having five illegal substances in his system, school records show.

In January 2011, the Town of Cicero hired him back as a part-time driver at $12 an hour.

The hiring came even after Terrana had repeatedly failed to mention the extent of his criminal record on both of his town job applications, records show.

As of Friday, Terrana was keeping his Town of Cicero job — with no discipline, Cicero town spokesman Ray Hanania indicated.

Hanania wrote in a statement that the criminal charges against Terrana — which Terrana denies — are being investigated by the town’s inspector general.

“President Dominick is not involved in the case at all. Any decision about Terrana’s status will be based on the results of the IG’s investigation. No action has been taken against him pending the investigation,” Hanania wrote.

When Terrana was arrested Thursday, Stickney police were waiting for him in the parking lot, thanks to some good police work.

Terrana had been spotted on a store surveillance camera about 6:40 p.m. Tuesday allegedly stealing some beer and taking it to his car, which appeared to have Town of Cicero lettering. Terrana took off and wasn’t arrested, police said.

On Thursday, Stickney officers saw what appeared to be the same Town of Cicero car in the Jewel parking lot, so they waited to see what would happen.

About 4:50 p.m., police saw Terrana allegedly wheeling out $149.82 worth of Corona and Negro Modelo, authorities said.

Given Terrana’s criminal background, Stickney police asked the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office to approve felony charges but were denied, authorities said.

Terrana was charged with two counts of misdemeanor retail theft.

It’s unclear how close Terrana is to his uncle, Larry Dominick.

But when police asked Terrana where he lived, he gave the Cicero town president’s home address, authorities said.

Drunken Parolee Beaner Armando Gutierez shoots himself in the leg... Mad the gun instructions weren't in Spanish also!

2012-01-28T09:32:00.001-06:00

A felon on parole for a 2010 gun conviction shot himself in the leg late Friday night, police said.

Police said Armando Gutierez, 25, lied about the incident and was then charged with felony disorderly conduct for lying to police and violating his parole.

Police were looking to charge him with unlawful use of a weapon but couldn't find his gun, according to a department source.

Gutierez told responding officers someone shot at him from across the street while he was standing near his home on the 1000 block of North Christiana Avenue about 8 p.m.

He was taken to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, where he changed his story and told police he accidentally shot himself, police said.

He was arrested and taken into custody after being treated for his wound and is expected in bond court Saturday.

Gutierez was previously convicted for unlawful use of a weapon by a gang member and sentenced to three years in prison on July 16, 2010, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records.

He was paroled on Sept. 23, 2011, according to IDOC.

Dad (Brent King) honored by FBI for helping change law after daughter's murder (Chelsea King)

2012-01-28T09:23:00.002-06:00

Chelsea's Light Foundation raises scholarship money for teens committed to public service

Photo: Naperville resident Brent King received the Director's Community Leadership Award from the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the University Club of Chicago on Friday for his efforts to help pass a law in California toughening punishment for violent sexual predators who target minors. King's 17-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted and murdered by a registered sex offender in San Diego in 2010.

When he found his missing daughter's car at the top of a desolate San Diego running trail two years ago, an increasingly desperate Brent King acted on instinct.

"You have no idea the feeling you have as a parent when you see your daughter's car, you see her phone in the car and you look behind you and you see a running trail, and you don't know where she is," King said. "So you start running down that trail calling her name."

There were no answers. Five days later, Chelsea King, 17, a high school senior who had been accepted to about a dozen colleges, played the French horn and ran cross country, was found murdered and sexually assaulted.

The tragedy brought King, his wife and their teenage son back to Naperville, where they had once lived, to the comfort of a Midwestern town.

But King's grief also drove him to act, he said, to try to find a way to prevent another family from ever feeling his pain.

In his daughter's honor, King pushed for tougher California sentencing laws for sexual predators who target minors. He and his wife launched charities and programs in their daughter's name, picking causes that reflected what she cared about most.

On Friday, King was recognized by FBI officials in Chicago for his public safety efforts.

"He is a quiet man with a huge heart," said agent Robert Grant, in charge of Chicago's FBI office, as he introduced King at a luncheon Friday at the University Club downtown. "… One individual taking the steps to make a difference."

"I am doing what I think anybody that absolutely loves their children would do," King told the Tribune.

Under "Chelsea's Law," violent sex offenders in California who target minors face life without parole on conviction. Chelsea's killer had sexually assaulted a 13-year-old neighbor of his before killing a 14-year-old and King.

"These are the types of criminals who don't readily change," Grant said.

King is hoping that more states will pass Chelsea's Law and expressed interest in examining how to strengthen sexual predator laws in Illinois.

Through Chelsea's Light Foundation, King created scholarships for teenagers who are committed to public service, about which Chelsea was passionate. The organization also developed a peer counseling program in her name because she was involved in that at her San Diego high school.

In the meantime, King and his family are settling back into Naperville, where they lived for about a decade before work took them to Southern California a few years ago.

Even though King and his wife are native Californians, the family decided to leave San Diego after Chelsea's murder. Naperville called them back, he said.

"I think it's a Midwest-type of thing. It's just very comfortable."

At least 12 Colored Folks Shot & Wounded in overnight Chicago Shootings

2012-01-28T09:06:00.003-06:00

Shootings wound 10-year-old girl, 11 others, across city

At least 12 people were wounded by gunfire in 11 separate incidents since about 8 p.m. Friday night on the city's South and West sides, according to Chicago police.

A 10-year-old girl was shot in the leg and suffered a graze wound after a bullet went through her window on the 1100 block of North Keystone Avenue, police said. She was treated at the scene about 1:40 a.m. Saturday, police said.

Two men, whose ages and conditions weren't known, were each shot in the leg on the 1300 block of West 15th Street, police said. The University Village shooting happened about 2:10 a.m. Saturday, police said.

About two blocks away at about 12:30 a.m., an 18-year-old male was shot in the chest on the 1300 block of South Throop Street by a male in his late teens or early 20s wearing a dark hoodie and black facemask, according to Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli.

The offender, who fired multiple shots, fled on foot southbound on Throop, Mirabelli said; the victim got in a car and drove himself to the University of Illinois Medical Center and is in good condition.

A man was shot in the foot in the Back of the Yards neighborhood just after midnight, on the 5200 block of South Wood Street, police said. It's not clear how old he was.
One man was shot in the shoulder about 11:20 p.m. Friday in the Little Village neighborhood and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition. Police found him near the intersection of Cermak Road and Christiana Avenue, but it's not clear why he was shot. His age wasn't available.

Another man was shot in the arm about 10:20 p.m. on the 5700 block of South Hamlin Avenue, but additional information about that shooting wasn't immediately available.

About 9 p.m. a 25-year-old man was shot on the 5900 block of Lawndale Avenue, police said. He was taken to Holy Cross Hospital in good condition with a gunshot wound to the back, police said.

Just before 9 p.m., a man was shot near 63rd and Rockwell Streets, police said. The 20-year-old was shot in the arm and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where his condition had stabilized, police said.

On the Far South Side at 8:03 p.m., someone shot a 31-year-old man in the side and arm in the 8900 block of South Escanaba Avenue, according to police News Affairs Officer Daniel O'Brien. The victim was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition had been stabilized, O'Brien said. The shooter has not been arrested.

About the same time in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, a 25-year-old man shot himself in the left leg in the 1000 block of North Christiana Avenue, according to police. He was taken to Stroger Hospital where his condition was not life-threatening, according to the lieutenant.

In Englewood at 7:49 p.m., police were called to the 1300 block of West 61st Street where they found someone had shot a 20-year-old man, according to O'Brien. The man was taken in an unknown condition to Stroger Hospital, according to O'Brien.

Hanover Park Negro Dewaun Tate gets 35 years for killing white woman during robbery - The good news? His afro may be back in style by then!

2012-01-27T23:33:00.004-06:00

Photo: Booking photo of Dewaun Tate

A Hanover Park man who stabbed a grandmother to death during an armed robbery at a convenience store was sentenced today to 35 years in prison.

Dewaun Tate, 21, had pleaded guilty last year to one count of first-degree murder for the November 2008 attack on Vatsala Thakkar at the Dollar Plus store in Hanover Park where Thakkar, a 56-year-old immigrant from India, worked as a cashier.

Thakkar, who was a doctor in her native country, had taken the job to help pay family expenses, her husband, Vishnu Thakkar, wrote in a victim impact statement.

Thakkar said he and his wife worked different shifts so they could better care for their adult son, who is disabled from brain surgery.

“What will I do for the rest of my life without her?” Thakkar wrote.

The couple’s eldest child, Tejal Sheth, gave birth to the Thakkars’ first grandchild the week before Vatsala was murdered, Sheth told DuPage County Judge George Bakalis.

Authorities alleged that a neighborhood resident named Jerry Lockhart, 43, convinced Tate and a 15-year-old named Seneca Berry to rob the store.

While Tate distracted Thakkar in a far corner of the store, Berry stole $130 from the cash register, police alleged.

Thakkar, however, saw the theft and began to run toward the front of the store, but Tate stabbed her twice in the back with a knife, according to authorities, who found her body in the front parking lot.

Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Pawl asked the judge to impose a 50-year sentence on Tate, who was 17 at the time of the offense and had a juvenile record.

His lawyer, public defender Brett Cummins, said a 22-year sentence was appropriate.

Tate, Cummins said, was born with cocaine in his system and is mildly mentally retarded.

He was removed from his birth home at 6 and placed with a foster family, which later adopted him.

“His overall history shows disrespect for the law,” Bakalis said. “But it’s hard to think a 17-year-old has no rehabilitative potential.”

Lockhart was found guilty of murder and received a 30-year sentence. Berry, who cooperated with authorities, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for armed robbery.

At least $18 MILLION TAX DOLLARS STOLEN but nobody goes to prison... But Blago gets hammered and never took a penny

2012-01-27T22:24:00.002-06:00

Illinois State investigators say DCFS contract fraud could be worse than known

State ethics investigators say they may never know the full extent of an alleged contracting scheme that they say cost taxpayers at least $18 million and led to last year’s resignation of the head of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

The comments came during a legislative hearing Friday examining a probe that found numerous violations by George E. Smith, who held various state contracts across a number of agencies, including DCFS.

The state executive inspector general’s office accused Smith of forging documents, presentingfalse information about grant funds for after-school services, submitting budgets that allowed him to conceal funds, and accepting payments he was not entitled to receive.

But Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza said the wrongdoing may go further, as the state only investigated contracts Smith held dating back to 2008. Smith has been doing businesses with the state since 1986.

“This investigation could literally have taken us another year-and-a-half or two to uncover,” Meza told House lawmakers. “There had to be a point at our office where we decided that we thought that even though we did not fully uncover every piece of misconduct that Dr. Smith may have engaged in, we had to issue the report.”

Pressed if it was possible that more than $18 million in tax dollars were misspent, Meza said, “I think that’s a fair statement…we may never know.”

The Illinois attorney general’s office is investigating in an attempt to recoup some of the money, and federal grand jury subpoenas have named some of Smith's companies among records sought from state agencies, including Diversified Behavioral Comprehensive Care.

Meza said the investigation’s scope was limited partly because agencies are only required to keep documents for three years, a timeline lawmakers said they will push to extend.

Legislators also said they will also seek changes to the state’s Ethics Act, which prevents many cases of wrongdoing by state workers from being made public. The allegations against Smith’s were laid out in a report that contended former DCFS director Erwin McEwen failed to properly oversee grants. McEwen and Smith are longtime friends, and McEwen eventually refused to cooperate with investigators.

Under the law, reports are made public if it leads to an employee being fired or being suspended for three or more days. McEwen resigned, but a lower-level employee was suspended for five days, leading to the report’s release by the Executive Ethics Commission.

The commission could have redacted the majority of the report not dealing with the suspended employee, but decided to make the findings public.

Lawmakers also lashed out against Gov. Pat Quinn for not firing McEwen when the administration received the initial report last May. Instead, McEwen was allowed to stay on the state payroll through September.

Quinn general counsel John Schomberg said the administration wanted to give McEwen “due process” and “provide for additional transition time” as it searched for a replacement.

Schomberg said ethics laws also placed the governor’s office “between a rock and a hard place” because if they fired McEwen, they were not allowed to say why until the report was made public.

It was an argument Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, found lacking.

“What does one have to do to get fired working for Gov. Quinn?” Franks said. “If it was the private sector you would have opened yourself up to lawsuits for absolutely negligence. And I think that’s what’s happened here.”

Just boys being boys.... Secret Service to probe bullet-riddled Obama image

2012-01-27T20:26:00.002-06:00

'We respect the right of free speech and expression but we certainly have the right and obligation to speak to individuals to determine what their intent is,' Secret Service says

A photograph showing a group of men with guns posing with a bullet-riddled T-shirt containing an image of Barack Obama's face is to be investigated by the Secret Service, a spokesman confirmed to NBC News.

The New York Times reported that the picture showed seven young men, four with weapons, one of whom was holding a T-shirt with the president's face on it, above the word "HOPE." The T-shirt was covered in holes and gashes.

The Times said the photograph was posted on the Facebook page of a Peoria, Ariz., police officer, Sgt. Pat Shearer, on Jan. 20.

"We are aware of it. Anytime information is brought to our attention that a group or individual expresses an unusual interest in one of our protectees, we conduct the appropriate follow-up," Secret Service spokesman Max Milien told NBC News.

"We respect the right of free speech and expression but we certainly have the right and obligation to speak to individuals to determine what their intent is," he added. "We treat anything (any potential threat) seriously. We can't dismiss anything."

'Administrative investigation'
Jay A. Davies, a police spokesman, told the Times in an email that "an administrative investigation into any possible policy violations on the part of our employee" was being carried out.

The paper added that the photograph also appeared on the Facebook page of someone in the picture, who was identified as a Peoria high school student.

Shearer, who said he would sacrifice his life for President Barack Obama, told ABC15 that he didn't "think that them shooting up the T-shirt was a big deal."

"I think it was more of a political statement obviously," he added. "It’s not like they were going to go out and shoot the president.”

Notorious police figure from Mexico's 'dirty war' dies

2012-01-27T18:32:00.002-06:00

DSLC News REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- The arrest in 2004 of former police commander Miguel Nazar Haro stirred hopes that a top official would finally be held accountable for the killings and disappearances of leftist dissidents during Mexico's so-called "dirty war."

But Nazar was quickly freed by a sympathetic judge. When he died Thursday night, so did any chance that he might shed light on the events that still haunt Mexican society -- much less be punished for any role in them (link in Spanish).

"He was never judged. ... All hope is lost," Rosario Ibarra de Piedra told CNN's Spanish-language service (link in Spanish). Ibarra's son Jesus Piedra disappeared shortly after his abduction by police in 1975. A 21-year-old medical student at the time, he had joined an urban guerrilla cell in protest over the massacre of students by government security forces. (His mother is today a senator.)

Piedra is one of an estimated 500 activists who vanished while in police custody between the late 1960s and the early '80s. Nazar was accused by survivors of directing tortures and killings, and indicted in 2003 in the Piedra disappearance.

Detained briefly under house arrest, Nazar was freed by a court. Vows by prosecutors at the time to overturn the court's decision never came to anything.

Nazar, who was 87, died at his home in Mexico City of a combination of illnesses and had been depressed over the recent death of his wife, family members told Mexican media. In an interview six years ago with El Universal newspaper, he denied knowing anything about the Piedra case and was dismissive about massacres in 1968 and '71.

"There were no crimes," he said defiantly. "There was a confrontation of police against subversives and criminals."

Villa Park career criminal Negro accused of beating white cashier during robbery

2012-01-27T18:24:00.002-06:00

A Villa Park man is being held on $200,000 bail after a robbery at a vitamin store during which an employee was forced into a bathroom, ordered to disrobe and beaten, police said Friday.

Jermany Gates, 23, is accused of entering the shop’s unmarked storefront in the 700 block of North Westmore Avenue about 4:16 p.m. Thursday and demanding cash from the female employee who was working alone, Villa Park police said.

After the robber collected an undisclosed amount of cash, the woman was forced into the bathroom and instructed to take off her clothes, police said.

When she refused, the robber tried to remove her clothes, “hitting her with fists and kicking her,” said Det. Sgt. Dan McCann of the Villa Park police. He fled when two customers entered the store, McCann said.

Gates is charged with robbery, aggravated battery and unlawful restraint, all felonies, police said.

He was arrested at his home, in the 900 block of West North Avenue, after being identified by the two customers, police said.

The victim was taken to Adventist GlenOaks Hospital in Glendale Heights for treatment before she was transferred to Loyola Medical Center, police said.

Charges were filed against Gates early Friday morning, police said.

Manhunt expands for suspect in three-state crime spree, over a dozen crimes

2012-01-27T18:22:00.001-06:00

New photos were released today of a suspect wanted for five robberies, four frauds and four armed bank robberies -- including one in south suburban Lansing earlier this month.

The man is suspected of robbing four banks at gunpoint in Munster and South Bend, Ind., a U.S. Bank branch on Jan. 9 in Lansing, and in Toledo, Ohio, according to a release from the Indiana FBI.

He also is suspected in five other robberies and in four frauds for using stolen credit cards during a crime spree that started Dec. 18, the release said.

New photos released today show the suspect during his most recent heist – a bank robbery Thursday afternoon in Toledo, Ohio -- and older photos show him in the Munster robbery.

He is described as a black man in his 40s or 50s who was wearing light colored jeans, tan work boots, aviator sunglasses and a blue or black winter-type toboggan hat during yesterday’s robbery, the release said.

The suspect uses a car that is believed to be a 2010-2011 white Nissan Maxima with a sunroof and Illinois license plates. It may have a crack in its rear, driver’s side taillight, the release said.

The crimes have all occurred near I-80/94, and anyone with information is urged to contact the FBI’s Indianapolis Division, 317-595-4000.

Strangers help Linette Kossow chase down robbery suspect: 'I was tired of being a victim due to colored people'

2012-01-27T17:36:00.003-06:00

Photo: Linette Kossow, seen in the Chicago Loop today, chased down a robber who snatched her wallet on a CTA bus. The thief was more than twice her size and half her age, but with the help of a couple of bystanders she cornered him and then delivered a religious scolding.

Linette Kossow had just boarded the 36/Broadway bus in the Loop and was rifling through her bag for coupons when a man behind her reached over her shoulder, snatched her wallet and bolted out the rear door.

Kossow hesitated for just a second before ditching her bag and running after the robber.

“I was screaming as loud as I could, ‘Hey, stop him!’” Kossow said Friday afternoon, hours after the episode. “I kept saying, 'Call 9-1-1!' "

Kossow was soon joined by a security guard and together they chased the man as he zigzagged down the streets and cut around corners, finally catching up to him.

“I grabbed him and said, ‘God wants you to give me back my wallet. Please give me back my wallet, I need it.’”

But he slipped away and the chase continued -- soon joined by a homeless man. The suspect ducked into the lobby of a building, and Kossow said she got close enough to bear-hug him and again plead for her wallet.

But the suspect ran off again, but he didn't very far. The group was able to corner him in an alley off Wabash near Superior and keep him there until officers arrived. As the squad car pulled up, the suspect was handing the wallet over to Kossow.

“The security guard said, ‘All right, man, that’s it now. You’re done. You’re not getting away with this,’ ” Kossow said.

Kossow said she hugged the strangers who helped her and gave them the cash in her wallet, which also contained a $500 check for her mother.

Kossow, who recently had her home burglarized and her e-mail hacked, said she would do it all over again. “I was tired of being a victim,” she said. “I was just frustrated. I just snapped. I was so determined.”

The suspect, Jenar Sanders, 18, was charged with felony theft and violation of a condition of bail from a previous arrest, according to police. He was ordered held on $100,000 bail. His attorney said Sanders is a senior at South Shore High School.

Near North District Officer Jose Torres said he and his partner Officer Robert Michalski arrived around 12:30 a.m. just as Sanders was handing over the wallet. "He had tried to go up some stairs at the back of a building but couldn’t get away," Torres said. "He was giving up.”

One police official called Kossow lucky. "She grabbed him. She was lucky this guy wasn’t a violent guy. They had him in an alley without an exit. He’s a fairly substantial man.”

Sanders is 6-foot-3 and weighs 270 pounds, according to police. The woman is 5-foot-8 and a little more than half his weight, police said.

Sanders had been charged with misdemeanor criminal damage to property earlier this month, prosecutors said. He also has an outstanding order of protection against him.

The criminal damage to property charge was lodged after Sanders’ landlord called the police on him for allegedly kicking in doors and destroying other property at the apartment building where he lives with his mother, according to court records.

The landlord, Ernest Kennedy, said he also obtained an order of protection against Sanders effective until Feb. 6. Kennedy said Sanders never threatened him with violence but he did not want to take any chances.

It's official, it's now the largest Negro Pile in the world! Illinois sends state agencies in to investigate Cook Co. Morgue

2012-01-27T16:53:00.003-06:00

The Illinois Department of Labor said Friday it’s investigating complaints about “worker safety issues” at the Cook County medical examiner’s office, days after the Sun-Times reported bodies were piling up there.

Employees have complained about health hazards there as bodily fluids covered the floor of a corpse cooler.

“The Illinois Department of Labor is currently investigating the situation involving workers at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office,” Anjali Julka, a state labor department spokeswoman said.

The Labor Department received an anonymous alert about potential problems earlier this month, Julka said. Since 2010, the state agency has received five complaints about alleged problems at the morgue but details on those investigations were not available Friday.

The state labor department has investigative authority over public sector workplace safety issues.

On Thursday, Preckwinkle announced an overhaul of operations at the morgue and said staffers would likely be fired as a result once a series of investigations into the office is complete. She didn’t say whether Dr. Nancy Jones, the chief medical examiner, would be among those shown the door. Preckwinkle has been critical of Jones’ managing of the office and even hinted she’s interested in firing her.

Morgue staffers told the Sun-Times in mid-January that bodies were being stacked atop each other in blue, plastic tarps against a wall of the storage cooler. One source called the situation “sacrilegious.” Another source said that while roughly 300 is the capacity for the cooler — just under 400 adults and about 100 babies and fetuses were in the cooler.

Jones told the Sun-Times earlier this month the 500 number was too high but that it was definitely over capacity.

Allison Rexin, Rachael Michelozzi, and Michelle Burleson wanted to do a three-way lesbo act in the outfield at Wrigley Field...instead they got busted

2012-01-27T16:47:00.002-06:00

Three carpet munchers were charged with trespassing after they sneaked into Wrigley Field early this morning and refused to leave, police said.

A stadium security guard saw Allison Rexin, Rachael Michelozzi, and Michelle Burleson enter the stadium through an area under construction and then sit on the field, according to a police report.

The guard asked them to leave but they refused, so the guard called Town Hall District police. Officers arrested the women at about 12:15 a.m., the report said.

Rexin, 27, and Michelozzi, 28, live in the 700 block of West Brompton Avenue, police said, while Burleson, 31, lives in Redford Township in Michigan. They were each charged with one count of criminal trespass, police said.

It was not known why they went onto the field.

CTA and METRA a haven for BLACK CRIMINALS to prey on the passengers - Photos of suspects in Metra station robbery

2012-01-27T16:44:00.004-06:00

Two men with handguns robbed a group of people waiting in a South Side Metra station last week, and police today released surveillance photos of the suspects.

At 1:38 p.m. on Jan. 19 the two robbers entered the Metra train station on the 800 block of East 95th Street, displayed handguns, ordered everyone onto the floor and demanded their money and valuables, police said.

The photos released by police show the robbers and the victims, with the afternoon sunlight streaming through the windows.

Police provide the same general description for both suspects: black men, 18-25, 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-9, and 155-165 pounds.

One suspect was wearing a black puffy winter vest, light brown sweat shirt and a light brown baseball cap, while the other was wearing beige pants and a black hooded sweat jacket, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Calumet Area detectives at 312-747-8273 or email area2tip@Chicagopolice.org.

Want to feel even older? 'Welcome Back Kotter' Actor "Juan Epstein" Dies At 60 - Not the teacher but one of the students was 60 years old already!

2012-01-27T15:00:00.003-06:00

Photo: Robert Hegyes - Then and Recently

"Welcome Back Kotter" actor Robert Hegyes has died. According to New Jersey's The Star-Ledger, he was 60 years old.

The Star-Ledger reports he suffered an apparent heart attack in his New Jersey home on Thursday morning.

Hegyes is best known for playing Juan Epstein on "Welcome Back Kotter," the 1970s sitcom, which starred John Travolta and Gabe Kaplan. He appeared in all four seasons of the sitcom and joined most of his fellow Sweathogs at the "Welcome Back Kotter" reunion held at the 2011 TV Land Awards. After "Kotter," Hegyes went on to co-star in "Cagney and Lacey" as Detective Manny Esposito. His other TV work includes an episode of "The Love Boat," "NewsRadio" and "CHiPS."

Hegyes' last credited role was in the 2002 movie "Hip, Edgy, Sexy, Cool."

His brother Mark told The Star-Ledger that Robert was retired, but still talked about being involved in local arts efforts. "He always had these great schemes, »

Illegal Beaner Andy Zepeda was rushed back from California to Illinois just to die in a Sanctuary State of Illinois....

2012-01-27T11:47:00.005-06:00

Undocumented worker dies days after family rushed cross country to bring him home to be with his fellow undocumented worker family members. - The California Hospital was throwing him to the curb because he had no insurance and no money...

Andy Zepeda — the 44-year-old former Auroran whose family made an emergency cross-country road trip to bring him back from California this week so he could die at home — died at 12:05 a.m. Friday at his parents’ home in Montgomery.

“Andy finished his first journey ... and is now on his next journey,” said Pinky Zepeda, Andy’s uncle, who said he died “with all his family around him.”

For 32 hours straight, Andy’s brother Domonick and sisters Theresa and Rose, along with cousin Cindy Gonzales Martinez, drove non-stop from Palm Springs, where Andy had worked as a concierge until he became gravely ill.

Andy fell from a ladder while hanging Christmas decorations at the California hotel in December. When he didn’t feel better weeks later, he returned to the doctor and discovered he was in the final stages of liver failure.

Told he had two to five days to live, Andy asked his mother Christina (Pat) and father Andy Sr. to bring him back to Aurora to die.

Because Andy was unable to fly, his large family back in the western suburbs immediately jumped into action in a quest to get him home before he died.

Funeral arrangements are pending, but a memorial will be at Dieterle Memorial Home.

Andy had no insurance, so family and friends are holding a benefit featuring take-out and sit-down Tejano food from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the VFW, 106 W. Indian Trail in Aurora. For more information, call Pinky Zepeda at (630) 742-6811.

The Andy Zepeda Benefit Fund has been established c/o Cindy Edwards, Old Second National Bank, 1200 Douglas Road, Oswego, IL 60543.

MORE CTA CRIME: Woman corners colored robber, tells him 'God didn't want him to steal her wallet'

2012-01-27T11:44:00.002-06:00

A woman chased down a robber more than twice her size and half her age, cornering him and even delivering a religious scolding, after he snatched her wallet on a CTA bus in the Loop early this morning, police said.

“She kept telling him God didn’t want him to steal her wallet,” a police source said, reading from a report.

The 50-year-old woman was riding the bus just after midnight when Jenar Sanders, 18 and towering over her by nearly a foot, got on at Randolph and State streets, police said. Sanders grabbed her wallet from her purse and jumped off the bus at Huron and State streets, police said.

The woman chased after Sanders, screaming and alerting others as she ran down the street. As she passed the Omni Hotel, a hotel staff member called police, according to the report. The CTA bus driver also notified police.

Sanders ended up in an alley off Superior Street between Wabash Avenue and Rush Street, surrounded by the victim and others who had joined the chase, police said.

A homeless man who was among those who helped chase the suspect told Sanders after he was cornered, “I’m homeless and even I wouldn’t take a wallet,” according to police.

Two officers arrested Sanders at 12:35 a.m. as he was being cornered by the group, police said.

Police said the woman chased Sanders just short of a mile. Though the woman had Sanders within her reach and grabbed at him at one point, police said he didn’t try to hit her.

“The woman’s lucky," a police source said. "She grabbed him. She was lucky this guy wasn’t a violent guy. They had him in an alley without an exit. He’s a fairly substantial man.”

Sanders is 6-foot-3 and weighs 270 pounds, according to police. The woman is 5-foot-8 and a little more than half his weight, police said.

Authorities say Sanders admitted to the crime and was charged with theft.

How much for your children...I want to buy your children....Statue dedicated to children who died stolen from Lincolnwood school

2012-01-27T11:33:00.004-06:00

Photos: The upper photo shows what the statues looked like before being stolen, bottom photo shows the empty bench after the statues were stolen.

A memorial statue to its students who died young has been stolen from the grounds of a Lincolnwood elementary school.

"It is with much sadness to report that the beautiful statue of two children reading on a bench in front of Todd Hall (the school) has been stolen," the Lincolnwood District 74 school said on its website. "This statue represented the Todd Hall Wall of Courage in memory of the children that fought hard for their much too short lives.

"Our Todd Hall children saved their pennies to have this statue created to honor their fellow classmates."

The statue, which depicts two children reading a book on a bench, was stolen sometime between 1 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Monday when a school employee arriving for work noticed it missing, Lincolnwood Police Lt. Mark Brines said.

The bench, bolted into cement in front of the school at 3925 W. Lunt Ave., was left behind.

The statue was valued at about $750 and may have been stolen by someone looking to sell it for scrap.

The memorial was dedicated in May 2004 following the deaths of two students who died of cancer the previous year. There are also plaques for four other children on the memorial.

Anyone with information is asked to call Lincolnwood police at 847-673-2167.

Teenage Wildebeest Danielle McClinton bites Chicago cop's hand at Al Raby School for Community & Environment - Should he go for Raby Shots?

2012-01-27T10:03:00.000-06:00

Photo: Teenage Wildebeest Danielle McClinton, I wants to be a blondie... (Chicago police)

A brawl that erupted in the lunchroom of an East Garfield Park neighborhood high school today left four female students under arrest and the Chicago Police officer who tried to break it up bitten in the hand.

About 12:30 p.m. a bunch of students began fighting in the lunchroom at Al Raby School for Community and Environment, 3545 W. Fulton Blvd., according to Harrison District Police Lt. John Andrews.

When the lone Chicago Police officer assigned to the school intervened to try to break it up, the dispute escalated and she was bitten in the right hand three times, allegedly by a 17-year-old girl who was involved in the fight, the lieutenant said.

Her partner was outside the school in a squad car and was able to come to her aid after she had signaled she needed help.

Four female students were arrested and taken to the Harrison District station where authorities are considering charging the 17-year-old as an adult with aggravated battery to a police officer, while the others are expected to be cited as juveniles with mob action, according to the lieutenant.

The officer’s wounds are “relatively minor" and not considered life-threatening, according to Andrews.

It was not immediately known what the fight was about, but it involved something that occurred on Wednesday.

And now the weather forecast with Ms. Shavedpunany

2012-01-27T01:58:00.000-06:00

It's a Detective Shavedlongcock Musical Break... Tonight it is sexy women with great voices!

2012-01-27T01:26:00.003-06:00

I saved the best for last...By far the sexiest woman ever to record a song...The one and only Miss Karen Carpenter. I love you Karen!

Joshua Merritt IS FULL OF BULLSHIT... Fuck this piece of lying shit!

2012-01-27T00:57:00.004-06:00

CLICK HERE FOR THE PANDERING NEWS VIDEO

Had to flee or 'I might be dead, I pissed and shit in my panties...,' victim says of racial attack - Cops: 3 white teens put noose around black teen's neck

Joshua Merritt said he had no reason to be suspicious when one of his friends texted him, asking him to hang out with two other teenagers they both knew.

But after Merritt, 17, arrived at the home of one of the boys in Chicago’s East Beverly neighborhood Dec. 23, he realized his friends weren’t simply looking to have a good time.

The three teens, who are white, allegedly put a noose around the neck of Merritt, who is black, and hurled racial epithets at him before one of the boys held a knife to his throat and threatened to kill him, police and Merritt said Thursday.

The teens were apparently upset about Merritt’s relationship with one of the boys’ female cousins, police said.

“I feel they were being serious, and that if I didn’t get out of the house when I did, I might not even be here,” Merritt said Thursday, sitting on a couch in his family’s living room in the city’s Morgan Park neighborhood. “I might be dead.”

Two of the alleged attackers, ages 17 and 18, were charged Jan. 10 with committing a hate crime, unlawful restraint and battery, police said.

One of those teens, Matthew Herrmann, 18, of the 4200 block of West 126th Street in Alsip, was charged as an adult, police said. He is free on bond, according to court records. The 17-year-old was charged as a juvenile.

The third alleged attacker, 16, was charged as a juvenile with committing a hate crime, unlawful restraint, aggravated battery and aggravated assault for allegedly pulling a knife in the incident, police said.

The attack occurred at the 16-year-old’s home in the 1600 block of West 100th Place, police said.

His mother holds an administrative position in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, prompting Cook County prosecutors to request that the case against the boy be handled by the Illinois attorney general’s office to avoid a conflict of interest, said Tandra Simonton, spokeswoman for Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Lisa Madigan said that request is still under review.

Merritt said he and the 16-year-old’s cousin were friends but were not dating. He said he went to the 16-year-old boy’s house after one of the teens invited him over.

Merritt, a senior at Brother Rice High School, said everything seemed normal when he first arrived.

He said he and the others were talking about music before the others started using racist terms, including the N-word, against him.

Then one of the teens approached from behind and slipped a rope fashioned into a noose around his neck, he said.

After getting out of the noose, Merritt and police said he tried to escape, but the others blocked the doors.

“I couldn’t believe that they were doing this,” said Merritt, wearing a maroon Brother Rice jacket over his white shirt and black tie. “I just (felt) trapped inside there.”

The situation seemed to calm down a bit, Merritt said. He said he told the others, “Guys, stop. Please. This isn’t funny.”

That’s when one of the teens put the noose around his neck a second time, he said.

The attack stopped when one of the teens got a phone call, giving Merritt a chance to leave, he said.

But after he got to the street, Merritt said, the 16-year-old allegedly held a knife to him and threatened to kill him if he spoke to the boy’s cousin again.

No one answered the door at the 16-year-old’s home Thursday evening. The boy attends Morgan Park High School, Merritt and police said.

A man who answered the door at the house listed as Herrmann’s home in court records said he didn’t know Herrmann.

Herrmann graduated from Brother Rice last year, and the 17-year-old suspect is a student there, authorities said.

A school official told WGN-TV that the boy had been removed from the school, but it wasn’t clear if he had been suspended or expelled.

Merritt, who hopes to study graphic design after graduating, said he has never been harassed because of his race before and that they the incident doesn’t change his perception of his high school.

“I would just like to say that Brother Rice really does try to instill love for other people and tolerance, and that these people don’t represent Brother Rice,” he said. “They didn’t receive the message.”

Jody Weis now with the Chicago Crime Commission unveils new 'Gang Book' for cops

2012-01-27T00:26:00.003-06:00

Social media Web sites have become popular mechanisms by which gang members carry out their illegal activity.

This trend is explored in the Chicago Crime Commission Gang Book, which also highlights profiles, colors and other identifiers of 70 of the most prominent street gangs in Chicago, a city that is estimated to have more than 68,000 gang members, according to a news release about the book.

Released Thursday, the book also details maps of areas designated as gang territory, and the gangs’ old “manifestos” outlining their original laws and current negligence of them, the release stated.

The book was “developed as a training tool to be used by enforcement, parents, educators and business owners who may know little about street gangs operating in the city and suburbs,” Jody Weis, president of the commission, said in the release.

The book also includes data from a 2011 Chicago Crime Commission Survey of Gang and Drug Activity. One-hundred-seventy police agencies in the Chicago area participated in the survey, which found that graffiti, burglaries and drug-related activity are the most common crimes committed by gang members in the suburbs, the release stated.

It also stated that the survey revealed the Latin Kings, Gangster Disciples, Sureno 13s, Maniac Latin Disciples and Vice Lords are the top five most active gangs within the jurisdictions of the 170 police agencies.

As for Chicago, “many residents of the city live and work within feet of a gang’s operations,” stated Weis, a former Chicago police superintendent. “Gangs constitute an entire sector of Chicago’s population, yet even the law enforcement organizations that watch them daily cannot precisely gauge the extent of their presence.

“Gangs’ mode of operation exists fully apart from civil society, yet the repercussions of their gun- and drug-related activities directly affect society’s well-being.”

---------------------------------------

Detective Shavedlongcock is surprised the book didn't look like this???

Edward Taube was as blind as a bat but...'Such a nice guy' killed by bus in west suburb

2012-01-26T21:02:00.002-06:00

A man was hit by a Pace bus and killed early this afternoon near the border of Oak Park and Forest Park in the western suburbs, authorities said.

The man, identified as Edward Taube of Forest Park, was hit near Madison Street and Harlem Avenue by a No. 318/North Avenue bus about 12:15 p.m., said Patrick Wilmot, a spokesman for Pace Suburban Bus Service.

Oak Park Police said in a news release that the bus was turning from eastbound Madison onto northbound Harlem.

Taube was crossing Harlem west along the north side of Madison when he was hit, police said. He came in contact with part of the rear of the bus and then was run over, Wilmot said.

Emergency crews found him about 8 feet north of the crosswalk with severe leg trauma and significant loss of blood, police said.

Taube, of the 300 block of Des Plaines Avenue, was declared dead at 12:52 p.m. at Loyola University Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Odessa Wynn, Taube’s neighbor, said she’d been close with him for the four years she’d lived in the same Forest Park apartment complex, and called him “Ed.”

“He was my good friend,” Wynn said. “I’d always cook for him – chili, soup, muffins – and bring it down to his apartment. I was always looking out for him. We were like family.”

Of all the meals she shared with Taube, Wynn said muffins and potato pie were his favorites.

“He’d request three muffins when he knew I was making them,” Wynn said. “Always three.”

Wynn said Taube had a quiet nature but was funny and friendly once you got to know him.

“He loved to go shopping, so we’d go to Jewel or Walgreens together,” Wynn said. “I always had fun talking with him. He was such a nice guy.”

73 year old aging Chicago mobster takes a chance with trial and loses: Guilty of racketeering

2012-01-26T20:59:00.002-06:00

Photo: Chicago Mob Connected Arthur Rachel leaves the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Thursday.

A 73-year-old reputed Chicago mobster was found guilty this morning of federal charges of conspiracy and racketeering for plotting to rob an armored car and a break-in at the home of deceased member of the Chicago Outfit.

Arthur Rachel, a reputed mobster and longtime confidant of Joseph Scalise, sat stone-faced as U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber handed down his decision.

Leinenweber convicted Rachel on three of four counts against him. He acquitted him on one weapons count.

Scalise, 73, and another defendant in the plot, Robert Pullia, 70, pleaded guilty to the same charges last week. Rachel opted to go to trial before Leinenweber.

Rachel and Scalise were convicted three decades ago in the theft of the 45-carat Marlborough Diamond from a London store. Both were sentenced to 14 years in a British prison. The diamond was never recovered.

In the current case, the defendants’ ages grabbed attention, but prosecutors noted that the plots involved guns and said the elder status of the three would not have prevented them from hurting people.

“It only takes one functioning finger to pull a trigger on a gun,” said Asst. U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu, who prosecuted the case, after the verdict. “These men were dedicated to hurting other people. The fact that they were old wasn’t a barrier to them committing a crime.”

Get Well To All: Two teen girls, sheriff deputy injured when school bus, squad car crash in Lake County

2012-01-26T20:57:00.001-06:00

An 11-year-old girl bumped her head and 12-year-old girl suffered a cut above her eye when a sheriff’s squad car collided with a school bus with 42 kids aboard near Round Lake this afternoon.

The deputy suffered cuts and a broken hand.

The wreck occurred about 4 p.m. as the Lake County sheriff’s deputy was on his way to a domestic call and had the lights and sirens activated while westbound on Illinois 60 near Round Lake, according to a release from the Lake County Sheriff’s office.

The deputy went into the eastbound lanes of Illinois 60 while trying to pass traffic, but as he approached Blackhawk Trail, a Fremont School District No. 79 full-sized bus that was westbound on Illinois 60 turned in front of him and they collided, the release said.

A 12-year-old girl suffered a cut above her eye and received three stitches at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, while the other child had a bump on her head and was also taken to Condell, the release said. Both were treated and released.

Deputy Jakub Klatka, 26, a 4-year-veteran, broke his left hand, suffered a cut to the back of the head that required three stitches and a cut to the front of the head that required five stitches.

The rest of the kids were taken home by another bus and the bus driver, a 41-yer-old woman, was not hurt, the release said.

BREAKING NEWS: GUILTY ALL COUNTS - Jury ready to announce verdict in trial of man accused of killing on duty Chicago Police Officer Nathaniel Taylor

2012-01-26T16:03:00.003-06:00

In a courtroom filled with family, friends and fellow police officers Lamar Cooper was found GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS in the murder of on-duty police officer Nate Taylor!

Thanks to Jr. Reporter S.R.

A verdict has been reached in the trial of Lamar Cooper, who is charged in the 2008 murder of Chicago police Officer Nathaniel Taylor, court officials said.

It is expected to be announced in Judge Nicholas Ford’s courtroom at about 4 p.m. The jury deliberated for less than two hours.

Earlier today, in closing arguments before a courtroom packed with hundreds of police officers and other spectators, prosecutors said the reputed drug kingpin fatally shot Taylor as he tried to serve a search warrant because he saw the police as the enemy and was bent on staying out of jail.

Cooper, 40, is charged with first-degree murder in Taylor’s September 2008 slaying. Prosecutors said the suspect shot Taylor in the head and chest in an “ambush” as the officer approached Cooper in his car outside his home in the 7900 block of South Clyde Avenue.

Cooper's attorneys argued that on the darkened street that early-Sunday morning, their client did not realize the plainclothes Taylor was a police officer and fired in self-defense in what he thought was an armed robbery.

“As a drug dealer in the streets of Chicago, he knew his life was always one step away from being over because people wanted his money or his turf or both,” Assistant Public Defender LaFarrell Moffett told jurors.

Assistant State’s Attorney James McKay ridiculed that theory in his rebuttal argument, saying it was “in the job description” of any successful drug dealer to know how police operate, including that narcotics officers often wear street clothes.

McKay said that even if Cooper did not see Taylor’s police star around his neck, he could have just driven away, called 911 or fired a warning shot if he thought he was about to be robbed.

“This was a sneak attack by this drug dealer on one of our heroes,” McKay said, walking over to the defense table and pointing at Cooper, who kept his eyes down and scribbled notes on a pad. “He didn’t want to go to jail. It’s real simple. It’s what criminals think about every day.

Added benches were brought into Judge Nicholas Ford’s courtroom to try to accommodate the overflow crowd trying to hear the closing arguments. Ford allowed the courtroom doors to remain open so dozens more police officers could hear the lawyers. Chicago police Supt. Garry McCarthy and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez sat in the front row.

In his argument, Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Sexton asked jurors to reject the notion that Cooper was somehow a victim. He held up evidence found in Cooper’s heavily fortified home, including loaded guns, police scanners, a bulletproof vest, cash and bag of cocaine found in a basement freezer, right next to a box of children’s popsicles.

“Not only is he a drug dealer, he is a successful drug dealer,” Sexton said. “Why? Because he knows his enemy... He knows the police.”

The jury began deliberating about 1:45 p.m.

Jean-Claude Mas, the Frenchman, arrested for bad fake boobs

2012-01-26T15:51:00.002-06:00

French breast implant boss arrested

MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - Jean-Claude Mas, the Frenchman who sparked a global health scare by selling substandard breast implants, was arrested on Thursday as Marseille prosecutors build a case against him for manslaughter.

In the first arrests since the two-year-old scandal made headlines worldwide in December, Mas and a second executive at his now defunct company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) were seized at their homes in southern France shortly after dawn.

The detention could lead within hours to Mas being placed under formal investigation on suspicion of manslaughter and causing bodily harm. That could in due course lead to criminal charges, which would carry longer sentences than those he now faces in a fraud case expected to be tried around October.

Women who have been campaigning against PIP since French authorities banned its products nearly two years ago welcomed the move as giving them a sense that the law was now in action:

"It's been too long," said Murielle Ajellio, who heads an association for women with implants. Up to now, she said: "You feel like you're fighting against the wind."

French authorities have been criticized for being slow to react to a case that has sown fear among tens of thousands of women who carry PIP implants. French inspectors ordered them off the market in March 2010, due to concerns over their quality.

But only last month did officials in Paris recommend their surgical removal, drawing attention to the problem for patients worldwide who had been fitted with products from the company, which was at one time the third biggest global supplier.

Lawyers for women in France who have filed complaints over PIP implants welcomed the arrests and said there must be no escaping justice for the 72-year-old Mas, who has been quoted as deriding those suing him as being motivated only by money.

"This is a comfort for the victims," said Laurent Gaudon, whose clients are pursuing PIP and surgeons who used its implants for fraud. "It's the feeling that justice is advancing and they have not been forgotten. It's the assurance that the guilty are at last going to be held accountable."

Philippe Courtois, who represents 1,300 people with PIP implants, said Mas should not be freed pending any trial.

Mas and PIP's former chief executive Claude Couty were questioned at home, as police conducted searches. They were then moved to police custody in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, under the orders of prosecutor Jacques Dallest.

SUBSTANDARD SILICONE

PIP enjoyed years of success with international sales, but behind the scenes employees, and Mas himself, have admitted to hiding from certification agencies the fact they were using cheap, industrial silicone, not approved for medical use.

Health authorities in France and elsewhere have stressed that PIP's products carry no proven link to cancer, but surgeons report that they have abnormally high rupture rates. Responses to the problem have varied among different foreign authorities.

Thursday's arrests follow an investigation opened in Marseille, close to PIP's former premises, on December 8 after the death from cancer in 2010 of a woman with PIP implants.

Mas and Couty can be held for up to 48 hours while a judge decides whether to open a formal probe and, if so, what bail conditions, if any, to set.

A trial date could be years away, given the extent of inquiry required, but the graver manslaughter case could make it harder for Mas to avoid appearing in court later this year on other charges of fraud and deception.

That latter case targets half a dozen former PIP executives and could also carry prison terms for them of several years. It has dragged on as investigators have had to quiz up to 2,700 women who have filed complaints over PIP implants.

Mas, who sold some 300,000 implants around the world, has acknowledged that he used unapproved silicone but dismissed fears that it constituted a health risk.

Earlier in January, leaks from a police document showed Mas admitting to lying about the quality of PIP's implants and describing the women filing complaints against him as just seeking money. The comments sparked public anger against him.

PIP closed down in March 2010 after regulators discovered it was using a non-approved, industrial silicone gel, and pulled its implants off the market.

Last month, the French government advised women with PIP implants to have them removed, and said it would pay for the operations in France, sparking alarm around the world.

Officials in several other countries, including Britain and Brazil, have asked women to visit their doctors for checks.

France has called for tighter European Union regulations on medical devices in wake of the PIP affair, saying suppliers of prosthetics should require the same sort of authorization as manufacturers of prescription medicines.

US Congressman Barney Frank: After 60 years of sucking & fucking strange men it's time for me to marry one!

2012-01-26T14:55:00.003-06:00

Photo: Gay ass rangers Barney Frank and Jim Ready... Barney says Jombo is always READY!

Retiring Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank (D) will marry his longtime partner Jim Ready of Maine, NBC News reports. An aide to the congressman says the wedding will be in his home state.

A wedding date has not been announced nor are there details of the proposal.

In 1987, Frank became the first ever openly gay member of Congress, and is now one of three. In November, Frank announced his intention to not seek re-election in 2012 after he finishes his 16th term in the seat, citing redistricting as the reason.

Gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, as well as several other states, including New Hampshire, New York, Iowa, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., and Vermont. Civil unions for same-sex couples are allowed in Rhode Island.

Frank has long been a lightning rod in Washington, known for his characteristically blunt commentary. He's been a favorite target of conservative Republicans, most recently former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who suggested in his campaigning for president that Frank be jailed for his role in crafting policies that, Gingrich claims, led to the housing crisis.

NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly's son Greg accused of rape

2012-01-26T14:05:00.001-06:00

PHOTO: NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and his son Greg

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE NEWS VIDEO

The New York police chief's son, who is an anchorman on the local Fox TV affiliate, is under investigation after a woman accused him of rape, his attorney and the news station said Thursday.

Greg Kelly, the son of Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, did not appear in his usual anchor's chair on "Good Day New York" on Thursday. Co-anchors at WNYW attributed his absence to local media reports saying that the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., had been asked to look into accusations that Kelly raped a woman in October.

Kelly's lawyer, Andrew Lankler, confirmed the probe and in a short statement said his client "strenuously denies any wrongdoing."

"Mr. Kelly is aware that the New York County district attorney's office is conducting an investigation. Mr. Kelly strenuously denies any wrongdoing of any kind, and is cooperating fully with the district attorney's investigation. We know that the district attorney's investigation will prove Mr. Kelly's innocence," the statement emailed to the Los Angeles Times and other news organizations read.

Kelly, 43, is a longtime New York-based journalist who has covered the White House and the Iraq war, according to his biography. He also spent nine years as a U.S. Marine fighter pilot; his missions included enforcing a United Nations-imposed no-fly zone over Iraq.

Local media reported that a woman claimed to have met Kelly on the evening of Oct. 8, had drinks at the South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan, and then went to her office. It was there that the assault is alleged to have occurred.

Cook County board chief announces 'overhaul' of morgue due to nobody picking up dead black bodies

2012-01-26T13:41:00.002-06:00

Saying she was "disturbed and disappointed and discouraged," Cook County board president Toni Preckwinkle promised to "overhaul" the medical examiner's office -- and fire some workers -- because of crowded conditions in the morgue.

"I've been as disturbed, discouraged and disappointed by the information that's come to my attention at the medical examiner's office as many of you," Preckwinkle said following a tour of the facility today. "I expect there will be some people that lose their jobs."

But for now, Medical Examiner Nancy Jones does not appear to be in jeopardy of being fired, though Preckwinkle was measured in her support of the county's top forensic pathologist. Jones was not present at the press conference in the lobby of the morgue.

"I think Dr. Jones is a fine physician and what we're looking at is the operations of this office and those are separate issues," she said. "Dr. Jones is the medical examiner and she will continue to be the medical examiner. . .She is in her office and she is at work and, frankly, I think it's appropriate that I answer these questions."

Preckwinkle said key staff from the county's Bureau of Administration found that, last week, 363 bodies were being stored in a cooler designed to hold 300. Since then, burials have brought that number down to about 300.

Preckwinkle told the news conference at the West Side office that there would now be daily inspections at the morgue's cooler. She also said "new technology" will be used to better identify relatives of the dead brought to the office.

The board president also said the morgue will institute time limits on how long the bodies of indigent people are stored, how long the facility will hold remains for families trying to collect funds for burial, and will also institute new training standards and procedures for staff, along with a disciplinary process.

News reports in the last weeks have cited workers complaining that the morgue was storing nearly 500 bodies in a cooler designed to hold about half that number.

Jones has said that figure was too high, but said the number of bodies two weeks ago was more than 300. She said her office was trying to reduce the number as quickly as possible. Last week, about 100 were buried.

"We were over capacity, which is why last week we had been trying to arrange a county burial for that Friday but were unable to do so because the cemetery already had several private burials scheduled for that day and was unable to accommodate us," Jones told the Tribune last week. "Our morgue population fluctuates every single day, and this particular incident was an anomaly that occurred because last summer the state cut public funding for indigent burials."

Last summer, the state suspended a program that paid funeral homes about $1,600 per person to help defray the cost of burial for the destitute. The funding was restored this year, but in the interim, many funeral homes stopped accepting the remains of the indigent, requiring the morgue to store more bodies.

Jones said the increase put further pressure on the morgue, which must store bodies for at least three months while state and federal officials try to determine whether the deceased had assets to cover burial or whether they are veterans who qualify for military burial.

RE: Alicia Myles - You got to love the PANDERING Chicago Tribune.... UNFUCKING-BELIEVABLE

2012-01-26T09:20:00.002-06:00

TRIBUNE HEADLINE:
"Mom faced uphill battle even before blaze killed 2 of her children - Kids were trying to heat pizza on stove, fire officials say"

Really... She's on her 4th welfare child, no means of support, no man in her life and she was struggling? She should be arrested! The little kids are trying to cook a fucking frozen pizza on the open flames of the stove at 3 AM because Miss Welfare mommy didn't feed them.....

Maybe tell this asshole to keep her legs closed and not pump out a welfare check baby every year!

Alicia Myles was already struggling before a deadly fire tore through her apartment on Chicago's Far South Side early Tuesday, killing her 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son, her family said.

Myles, 25, was trying to raise a 6-year-old son and her two youngest children in their subsidized one-bedroom apartment without support from the fathers, her relatives said. Myles' grandmother cares for her 5-year-old daughter, and Myles is due to give birth to another child in about two months, they said.

The state Department of Children and Family Services has opened five investigations involving Myles' family since 2006 but never sought to have her children removed from her care, a spokesman said.

Details of Myles' background emerged Wednesday as investigators pieced together what they said was an accidental fire that started when her 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter tried to heat a pizza on the stove around 3 a.m.

"Alicia is a good person," her mother, Katherina Myles-Cooper, said Tuesday. "While she wasn't perfect, she was doing the best she could to be a mom to her children."

Chicago police said Wednesday that they have not opened a criminal investigation into the fire. Investigators found no evidence that Myles was impaired when the fire began, Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.

Fire investigators interviewed Myles, her 6-year-old son and a neighbor who kicked down their door in the 300 block of East 130th Street and learned that the fire started after the boy and his 3-year-old sister told Myles they were hungry, Langford said.

Myles told the children to heat up a pizza and went back to sleep, but the children put the pizza on top of a stove top burner instead of inside the oven, Langford said. The burner caused the pizza box to catch fire, he said.

The boy grabbed the box but suffered a burn to his thumb and dropped it on the floor, where the fire spread, Langford said. Investigators also found a burned shoe, suggesting one of the children used it to try to snuff out the flames, he said.

Myles told investigators she was awakened by a smoke alarm. The neighbor told investigators he smelled smoke, called 911 and then kicked down the door to Myles' apartment, Langford said. Myles ran out with her son a moment later, screaming that her babies were still inside, he said.

A tow truck driver who was working in the neighborhood and a Chicago police sergeant who was on patrol nearby arrived a short time later and tried to find the children inside the burning apartment but were turned away by the raging flames and thick smoke.

After firefighters extinguished the flames, they found the 1-year-old, Jeremiah Myles, in his crib, and the 3-year-old, Destiny Myles, on the bedroom floor, Langford said. Both died from carbon monoxide intoxication and inhalation of smoke and soot, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Myles suffered smoke inhalation, but she was released from Roseland Community Hospital on Tuesday night, a hospital official said.

DCFS has arranged for her 6-year-old son to be temporarily cared for by a relative, agency spokesman Kendall Marlowe said.

DCFS substantiated neglect allegations against Myles in 2006 and 2008, Marlowe said. The department received another allegation against Myles on Nov. 28, but that investigation is pending, he said.

The department also substantiated allegations of abuse against two of Myles' boyfriends, one in 2009 and another in 2011, Marlowe said.

The department offered "supportive services" to the family, he said.

"This family has been deeply challenged over the years, but there is nothing in the past that would have predicted an apartment fire raging in the middle of the night," Marlowe said.

Myles' family said she has lost everything.

"She was a single mother trying her best," her mother said.

Surprise! Oak Forest man Fred Niekamp finally gets his World War II medals

2012-01-26T09:09:00.002-06:00

Photo: Surrounded by relatives Tina Niekamp (from left), Peggy Forthman and Barbara Steinkuller, World War II veteran Fred Niekamp talks at Papa's Pizza during a meeting of the Oak Forest Veterans Commission.

Fred Niekamp served in World War II and raised eight kids with his wife Betsy.

But his daughter Peggy Forthman knew the Oak Forest man wouldn’t be acting like a grizzled veteran who had seen it all when family, friends and fellow veterans surprised him Tuesday night with the medals he had earned from the war but never collected.

“He’s going to cry,” Forthman said.

In a surprise ceremony held in his honor at Papa’s Pizza in Oak Forest, Niekamp, 87, was presented with a Good Conduct Medal, a Victory Medal WWII, an American Theatre Ribbon, a European African Middle Eastern Theatre Ribbon with 5 Bronze Battle Stars, and a Ruptured Duck WWII Award — awards he earned in battle more than 60 years ago.

So many soldiers were discharged simultaneously after World War II that there was a backlog for medals. Soldiers were told to wait a few months and then contact the government to begin the process of getting their awards.

But Niekamp, like many soldiers, became consumed with family and civilian life again, and the awards were not a priority for him.

“It never bothered me to not get the medals,” he said, “because I know that others gave so much more.”

Still, he never forgot his war experiences, and he wasn’t quiet about them, either.

“The family all knows what their father went through,” said Tom Wallace, a son-in-law of Niekamp.

They also knew how important his time in the service was to him, so they decided to surprise him this year by getting the medals he deserved.

After completing the necessary steps to obtaim them, the family had Wallace contact a friend, Oak Forest Veterans Commission Chariman Craig Miller, to ask him to organize a presentation event.

“I was absolutely honored by the request,” Miller said. “It was an absolute blessing.”

Patsy Wallace said her father had told the kids his war stories. She recalled a particularly moving episode about how Niekamp and two other soldiers escaped being captured by German troops while behind enemy lines.

“He was rescued by a little boy in Belgium named Freddie, who hid him on the third floor of his family’s home,” she said.

The three soldiers were holed up in the home in Hamoir, Belgium, for a week while a battle was being waged practically right outside the front door. They later were able to safely rejoin their company.

Tuesday’s ceremony gives Niekamp another story to tell, and he is to be similarly recognized by the Oak Forest City Council with a proclamation at its Feb. 14 meeting.

“I’m just glad he’s finally able to get what he deserves,” Tom Niekamp said.

“He’s a great dad, and we’re very proud of him,” Forthman said.

Family members set up the surprise by telling Niekamp the event was to honor numerous World War II veterans. Miller then asked all the veterans to come up front, but began speaking about one individual who had not been properly honored. Another veteran then talked about Niekamp’s Belgium experience and how he was welcomed back there and given a key to the city in 1985.

Then came the surprise medals presentation, and Miller called for a long overdue round of applause.

“I didn’t have the slightest idea,” Niekamp said. “They didn’t tell me about tonight.”

He said people forget that soldiers also are mothers, sons, fathers and husbands.

But, he said, “God takes care of fools sometimes, and those who take care of us.”

Illinois gun licenses rose by 6 percent last year as the next civil war is approaching

2012-01-26T08:58:00.002-06:00

The number of people licensed to own guns in Illinois increased 6.1 percent last year, according to new figures from state police.

More than 78,000 licenses were issued in 2011 and nearly 1.4 million people had firearms identification cards as of Jan. 1, 2011, compared to more than 1.3 million on Jan. 1, 2010. Illinois residents must have a card to possess or purchase firearms.

"That is a pretty big increase," said Mark Walsh, campaign director of the Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Walsh attributed the increase to the end of a handgun ban in Chicago, where the number of people with firearms cards increased by 16 percent last year.

Democratic state Rep. Brandon Phelps of Harrisburg said the increase may have come after concealed-carry legislation was approved in bordering Wisconsin.

"That may have gotten people thinking Illinois will be next," Phelps said.

Phelps sponsored a proposal last year that would have legalized concealed weapons in Illinois. However it failed passage in the Illinois House, and Gov. Pat Quinn had said he would veto the measure. Currently only Illinois and the District of Columbia prohibit the concealed carrying of weapons.

Todd Vandermyde, the National Rifle Association lobbyist in Illinois, said the concealed-carry issue along with economic instability may be the cause for the increase.

"You can't put it on any one issue," Vandermyde said.

Sounds like Bullshit to me.... White teens accused of hate crime against colored student - Victim and one offender are Brother Rice Students

2012-01-26T08:51:00.002-06:00

Photo: Booking photo for Matthew Herrmann, 18

Three teenagers were charged with a hate crime after they allegedly attacked another youth at a home on the South Side in December — putting a noose around his neck, threatening him with a knife and calling him a racial epithet, police said Wednesday.

The victim, who is 17, and one of the alleged attackers are both students at Brother Rice High School on the South Side, police said. The accused are all white — ranging in age from 16 to 18 — and the victim is black, police said.

The incident happened Dec. 23, when the victim went to the home of one of the accused in the 1600 block of W. 100th Place, police said. It was unclear why the victim went to the home, but police said the attack stemmed from his relationship with “one of the offenders’ family members,” police said.

The victim told police that during the attack, the teens twice put a noose around his neck, threatened him with a knife, used the N-word and refused to let him leave the house. The victim was eventually able to escape.

In an interview with Fox Chicago News, the victim said one attacker threatened him with a knife and told him “stop talking to my cousin, you are annoying her; if you don’t stop, I’m going to kill you.”

The teens were charged Jan. 10, police said. Two have been charged in juvenile court. The third, Matthew Herrmann, 18, is charged as an adult.

Defense rests after calling no witnesses in trial of man accused of slaying Police Officer Nate Taylor

2012-01-25T14:21:00.004-06:00

Photo: The Rev. Dan Brandt of the Chicago police chaplain's unit says a prayer during a vigil outside court Tuesday for slain police Officer Nathaniel Taylor Jr.

Attorneys for a man on trial for the murder of Chicago police Officer Nathaniel Taylor rested their case today without putting on any evidence.

Lamar Cooper answered “yes” quietly when Judge Nicholas Ford asked a series of questions to make sure that his decision to not testify was made without pressure from his attorneys.

Cooper, 40, is charged with first-degree murder in the September 2008 slaying of Taylor, 39, a narcotics officer who was attempting to serve a warrant on Cooper to search his residence.

Prosecutors said the alleged drug dealer fatally shot Taylor in the head and chest as the officer approached his car.

Cooper's attorneys told jurors in opening statements that their client did not realize the plainclothes Taylor was a police officer and fired in self-defense in what he thought was an armed robbery.

Taylor's partner returned fire and wounded Cooper nine times.

Earlier today, Cook County prosecutors rested their case after presenting more than 20 witnesses over the last three days.

DSLC ALL CALL MESSAGE # 2012-45
Closing arguments are scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday in Room 702
PLEASE ATTEND THESE CLOSING ARGUMENTS

Colored Boy drop kicks his kitten.... Only a pussy like Percy Love would kick a kitten!

2012-01-25T13:04:00.003-06:00

A Southwest Side man has been charged with animal cruelty after kicking his kitten like a football, police said.

Officers saw Percy Love, 22, take a running start and kick his black kitten Monday afternoon, sending the kitten 15 to 18 feet into the air, according to a police report.

Love then placed both his arms up in the air as if to signal a "field goal," and began laughing, the report stated.

When the officers moved to arrest Love, he told them, "This is my cat, Nightmare. He is tough, we play like that all the time -- it's just a cat," the report said. The incident happened in the 6200 block of South Campbell Avenue.

The kitten was taken to the city's Animal Care and Control agency, the report said.

Love, of the 6500 block of South Maplewood Avenue, was charged with animal cruelty, police said.

Animal Care and Control spokeswoman Cherie Travis said the kitten, less than a year old, did not suffer life-threatening injuries but vets were taking x-rays today.

During a hearing Tuesday, the city agency was given ownership of the kitten, Travis said. "He's a very friendly cat," Travis said. "Hopefully he'll be up for adoption soon."

Love was ordered held on $50,000 bail.

Shane Diaz rip roaring drunk when he tore his head off while speeding on snowmobile

2012-01-25T09:28:00.002-06:00

A 39-year-old Volo man who died in a snowmobile accident in Wauconda Friday night had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit, authorities said.

Shane Diaz died when he struck a cable fence near Illinois Route 176 and Fairfield Road in Wauconda, according to a toxicology report released Tuesday by the Lake County coroner.

Lake County Forest Preserve police said Diaz and a "companion" were traveling through Lakewood Forest Preserve in an area not marked for snowmobiles. He hit a cable gate separating a farm field from preserve land, police said.

The other rider wasn't hurt.

Skeletal remains of at least 2 people found in rural McHenry County

2012-01-25T09:16:00.002-06:00

BULL VALLEY, IL – Officers from several police agencies are scouring two properties in the 1500 block of Cherry Valley Road in Bull Valley, where the skeletal remains of two human beings have been located, Bull Valley Police Chief and Village Administrator Rich Vance said.

“Right now, we’re conducting an investigation,” he said this morning. “We found some skeletal remains yesterday.”

Bull Valley Police, along with officers from the McHenry County Sherrif’s Office, city of McHenry and others are on the scene, Vance said.

No information on who located the remains, how long police believe they have been there, the gender of the deceased or whether they were buried or above ground was immediately available.

“That’s all of the information I can share with you at this point,” Vance said. “Once we conduct a search, I’ll have more information.”

Authorities: Babbitt MN police officer shoots man after child stabbed

2012-01-25T09:00:00.003-06:00

A Babbitt police officer shot a man Tuesday night after a 911 call about a young girl being stabbed on Ash Boulevard, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.

A Babbitt police officer shot a man who emerged from a home Tuesday evening with a child he had stabbed, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office reported.

According to a police report, a 911 call came in to the Babbitt Police office at 5:18 p.m. about a disturbance on Ash Boulevard. The officer who responded reported that a male suspect with a knife emerged from a home with the 3-year-old. The officer shot the suspect after calling for backup.

The man, 27, and the child were brought to a hospital in Ely. The man was later airlifted to Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth. The baby was kept at Ely-Bloomenson Hospital in Ely.

Officers remained on the scene after 11 p.m. Tuesday with interviews of officers and witnesses. Babbitt Police turned the investigation over to St. Louis County and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. A Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputy and Ely police also responded.

TV Actor James Farentino dies at 73; prolific TV actor

2012-01-25T08:55:00.003-06:00

James Farentino was best known for his TV work, with nearly 100 credits. His private life was sometimes as dramatic as his roles.

Actor James Farentino, whose private life was sometimes as dramatic as the roles he played in theater and on television, died Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 73 and had suffered from a lengthy illness, said family spokesman Bob Palmer.

Best known for his TV work, Farentino was one of the last contract performers with Universal Studios in the 1960s. His nearly 100 roles included recurring appearances in such series as "The Bold Ones: The Lawyers," "Dynasty," "Blue Thunder" and "Police Story."

Born Feb. 24, 1938, in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son of a clothing designer trained for the stage at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before launching his career with a 1961 Broadway appearance in "Night of the Iguana." His film roles included "The Pad and How to Use It" (1966), "Me, Natalie" (1969) and "The Final Countdown" (1980). His most recent credit was in the 2006 TV movie "Drive/II."

Farentino was married and divorced three times. He is survived by his fourth wife, Stella, whom he married in 1994, and by two sons, David and Saverio.

In 1992, he teamed up with one of his ex-wives, Michele Lee, for the TV movie "When No One Would Listen," a drama involving an abusive husband played by Farentino.

But it was his relationship with ex-girlfriend Tina Sinatra that earned him headlines and briefly derailed his acting career.

In 1994 Farentino pleaded no contest to stalking singer Frank Sinatra's youngest daughter after being charged with 24 misdemeanor counts of stalking, making harassing phone calls and violating a restraining order to stay away from her. The pair had previously had a stormy, five-year off-and-on relationship.

Farentino was placed on 36 months' probation and ordered to undergo psychiatric and alcohol counseling.

He later acknowledged that the fallout from those charges resulted in his being cast in clunkers such as 2001's "Women of the Night."

"The roles started to get smaller and smaller with less value, and it was like, 'What am I doing here?' " he told The Times in a 2003 interview.

"My behavior was appalling — feeling so hurt and rejected that I was the victim when I really wasn't. So you inflict your pain on someone else to make them identify with you."

Farentino complained that studio executives marginalized him after the stalking case. "There are people in this business that for years said, 'He's an alcoholic. He's a drunk. He stalked Tina.' Clamps were put on me in many ways," he said to The Times.

His comeback came in a role in a 2003 Geffen Playhouse production of "Boy Gets Girl."

Ironically, the play's story line centered on a character who is stalked by a spurned admirer.

Marcus Patillo & his buddy went to stick up the Rally's Restaurant... Employee shot him dead like the dog he was....

2012-01-25T08:47:00.002-06:00

As one robber allegedly grabbed an employee and the other brandished an Uzi-type weapon, a Rally’s co-worker took quick action, firing at the would-be criminals inside the Gary store early Jan. 11, officials said.

The pair ran west, their alleged robbery attempt foiled.

One of the suspects was found dead in a nearby vacant lot the next afternoon. He had been shot and allegedly killed by the Rally’s worker, investigators learned.

The results of the investigation are with the Lake County prosecutor, who will likely determine the Rally’s worker was justified in his actions.

Police declined to identify the employee.

“He feared for his life and that of his co-worker,” Gary police spokesman Sgt. Nelson Otano said.

The body of Marcus Patillo, 24, of 5800 block of Massachusetts St., Merrillville, was found in a weedy lot west of the restaurant. Police believe Patillo and his accomplice ran that direction after the worker shot at them. Patillo was pronounced dead at the scene around 12 hours after they entered the business through an unlocked employee entrance at 2:30 a.m. Jan. 11.

Workers were closing for the night when the men entered, restrained one employee and demanded cash.

Police said the restaurant’s service door, located on the east side of the building, did not lock properly and employees had reported the problem more than once.

The door opens adjacent to the drive-through lane and the lack of security was not a secret, Otano said.

Repairs were made subsequent to the shooting, police said.

Patillo was serving a five-year probation in Lake County after it was transferred from New Madrid County in Missouri in 2009. He was convicted there of possession of marijuana, court records show.

Otano said Detective Alex Jones is continuing his investigation into the incident.

2 black breeders shot by Chicago High School for the Arts, 521 East 35th St.

2012-01-25T08:41:00.002-06:00

Two teenage girls suffered minor gunshot wounds Tuesday evening near a Bronzeville performing arts high school, Chicago police said this morning.

The girls, ages 14 and 16, were walking with a group in the 500 block of East 35th Street at about 6:40 p.m. when they heard gunshots and realized they had been hit, police said, citing early reports.

The 14-year-old was shot in the ankle, while the older girl suffered a graze wound to her calf, police said.

Both were taken to Mercy Hospital where they were treated and released.

No arrests had been made as of this morning.

The shooting happened near the Chicago High School for the Arts, 521 East 35th St., the site of the old Doolittle Primary School.

Police didn't say whether the victims were students at the school. School officials weren't available this morning, they were home cleaning their guns.

3 Colored boys belonging to the BIG LIPS CLUB do a Norwood Park home invasion...Chicago's Norwood Park? That fell to the colored folks too?

2012-01-25T08:36:00.003-06:00

PHOTO: Demarco Felton (from left), Jordan Michael Scott and Scott Edwards (Chicago Police Department)

Charges have been filed against three men who police say kicked their way into a Northwest Side home earlier this week while the couple living there was still at home, police said this morning.

Chicago police officers who responded to a burglary-in-progress call were able to arrive in time at the Norwood Park West neighborhood home in the 5800 block of North
Oconto Avenue to arrest all three suspects.

At about 7:30 p.m. Monday, three men began kicking the front and a rear door of the residence while a couple was inside, police said in a news release.

The residents weren't injured.

The men, Demarcos Felton, 27, and Scott Edwards, 22, both of the 5100 block of West Crystal Street, and Jordan Michael Scott, 21, of suburban Berkley, were each charged with one count of attempted residential burglary after the homeowner wet the lips of these suspects and pushed their faces against the wall till they were stuck to the wall like super glue.

All three are expected to appear in bond court later today.

Official: Force downtown retail stores to up security for NATO and G-8 Summits - Have downtown businesses let employees work at home that week too

2012-01-25T02:39:00.002-06:00

Stores on State Street and North Michigan Avenue should have security outside their doors during the NATO and G-8 Summits — and downtown companies should offer their employees the option of working from home — to avoid conflicts with thousands of protesters, a business leader warned Tuesday.

Jerry Roper, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, said businesses need to plan ahead and prepare for the worst in the event the demonstrations turn ugly during the summits May 19-21.

“If places need to be evacuated, you’ve got to know where to tell your employees to gather. The same things you would focus on for a disaster like the [1992] Loop flood have to be put in place for an event like this,” Roper said.

“It’s an unknown to us. In some cases, people are alarmed. We need to get valuable information out to them instead of panicking at the last minute.”

Roper said he expects retailers on State Street and North Michigan Avenue to have “24-hour security on the street” to discourage “people coming in to disrupt our city” and to “give customers a feeling of security.”

Board-up services need to be placed on standby in the event windows are broken, as they were during the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, when protesters caused more than $2 million in damage, he said.

Downtown companies should also offer their skittish employees the option of working from home to avoid commuting hassles, no big deal in the age of laptops and cell phones, he said.

Lori Healey, executive director of the NATO and G-8 Host Committee, insisted that it is too soon to give downtown businesses any advice about the $40 million-to-$65 million event expected to turn the world spotlight on Chicago.

“It is four months away. So many things could change. There have been no logistical plans released. Until that time, I’m not going to make any pronouncements about what the business community should and should not do,” Healey said Tuesday.

As Chicago convention business continues to fall... Let's milk the tourists even more! Tourists may pay 11% more to rent cars at Chicago airports

2012-01-25T02:33:00.002-06:00

Photo: A row of rental cars are parked below a sign for Hertz Corp. at Denver International Airport Monday September 12, 2005. Ford Motor Co. may sell Hertz Corp., the largest U.S. car-rental company, to buyout investors including Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Inc. and Carlyle Group for about $15 billion to raise cash for its unprofitable North American auto business, people familiar with the matter said.

O’Hare and Midway Airport passengers would pay 11.1 percent more to rent a car — on top of the $8 and $3.75 fees respectively imposed last year to bankroll rental car campuses at the two airports—under a surprise proposal by an influential alderman.

Ald. Michael Zalewski (23rd), chairman of the City Council’s Aviation Committee, said the “concession recovery fee” would allow rental car companies to recoup costs paid to the city for the right to operate at O’Hare and Midway.

Ten percent of the revenues would go the companies. The remaining 1.1 percent—roughly $1.2 million-a-year—would go to the city to be used on airport projects of the city’s choosing, the alderman said.

“It won’t affect city residents. Ninety-nine percent of the people who rent cars are from out of town,” Zalewski said.

Hertz spokesman Richard Broome said the pass-through fee is a matter of fairness — for rental car companies and for Chicagoans.

“Chicago residents already pay these concession fees when they travel around the country and rent cars. Now, the people who fly into Chicago from elsewhere will also pay these fees. All this does is bring O’Hare and Midway into line with every other airport in the country,” he said.

Broome said he is not concerned that the 11.1 percent fee — on top of the $8 and $3.75 fees at O’Hare and Midway respectively imposed last year — would hurt business.

“Many other cities have these types of add-ons. Customers who look at their car rental bills always see these charges. It’s is not a deterrent to renting cars,” he said.

Enterprise currently charges customers a base fee of $85.92-a-day to rent an economy car and $114.84-a-day when taxes and fees are tacked on.

The new 11.1 percent would be tacked onto the base rate. That would amount to a daily fee of $9.53 for an economy car, $15.63 for a standard SUV and $16.19 for a mini-van or premium car.

Last year, the City Council approved then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s plan to add $8 to the cost of renting a car at O’Hare to bankroll a $393 million facility that will consolidate airport rental car companies into a central location to make way for new runways. A $3.75 fee was imposed at Midway.

At the time, officials described the $8 “customer facility charge” as a starting point and said the O’Hare fee would go higher if the people mover system was extended to the new rental car campus instead of simply consolidating the companies’ shuttle bus operations.

Last fall, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration awarded a contract that appears to set the stage for an even higher rental car fee at O’Hare.

The city hired a consultant to design a new five-level economy parking structure at the southeast corner of Mannheim and Zemke Roads that would be shared by rental cars and public parking.

The $7.1 million contract calls for Transystems Corp. to draft detailed plans and “probable construction costs” for a parking structure with convenient access to an existing Metra station and “a new station for an extended” airport people mover system.

Sneed Exclusive: Chicago Police shake-up

2012-01-25T02:29:00.002-06:00

Sneed hears a massive shake-up in the Chicago Police Department’s Youth Division is coming.

◆To wit: “Getting kids to stay out of crime is imperative,” Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthytells Sneed.

◆Upshot: “We have an entire cadre of people involved with working with kids, and it’s critical to a holistic approach to reducing crime and helping resolve the gang problem,” he added.

◆The stats: CPD Youth division chief Robert Hargesheimer, who has just been made commander of the 22nd district (Morgan park/Beverly) — has been replaced by CPD Bomb and Arson commander Gene Roy, “who is assessing youth investigations in the interim,” said police spokesman Melissa Stratton. ("This is Kevin!" will be in charge of Robert's promotional party)

◆Backpat shot: McCarthy praised Hargesheimer for his “exemplary work.” He added: “Moving people into a district command can be a rite of passage to deputy chief.”

Daley's Longtime Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey "Resigns" - Rahm hires Brian "Deepthroat" Bannon from San Francisco

2012-01-25T00:51:00.003-06:00

Photo: Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey introduces the book, "The Adventures of Augie March" by Saul Bellow, as part of the city's One Book, One Chicago program in August, 2011.

With the city's public library system in transition, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is replacing longtime Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey with a technology-focused administrator from the West Coast.

Brian Bannon, chief information officer for San Francisco's public libraries, will take over in Chicago in March.

The change at the top comes amid labor unrest and budget cuts at the city's libraries under Emanuel.

Dempsey's resignation after 18 years at the helm follows a tumultuous few months that saw Chicago's 76 branch libraries briefly shut their doors on Mondays because the Emanuel administration and the union representing most library employees could not reach agreement on a plan to keep them open by having librarians work six days each week.

Last weekend, Emanuel and Dempsey announced that 65 part-time union workers would be rehired to staff the branches most Monday afternoons. That move will return the libraries to a six-day schedule without requiring the approval of union leadership.

That came after Emanuel laid off 172 union employees to save more than $3 million in his 2012 budget.

The staff cuts required the branches be open eight fewer hours per week. Aldermen criticized the reduction, and Dempsey confirmed their fears at a City Council budget hearing on the Emanuel plan.

"So reduced access to books, circulation will drop, visitorship will drop, access to computers will drop ... all of that will be impacted," Dempsey said in October.

Back then, the Emanuel administration said the alternative plan put forward was to close a handful of library branches, but the mayor preferred spreading the pain. Closing branches also would have been more politically difficult.

On Tuesday, Dempsey said she never suggested closing branches. She also is leaving without publicly criticizing Emanuel, saying she was "grateful to the mayor" for rehiring some of the clerical staff. The recent upheaval played no part in her decision to retire, she said. "It was the right time for me," Dempsey said.

Dempsey was hired by Mayor Richard Daley in 1994, and her long tenure stood out in an administration where frequent turnover was the norm. On Dempsey's watch, 44 new libraries were built, and several others were renovated.

But in recent years, the city's prolonged economic slump has cut into the system Dempsey oversees.

Branch library hours were reduced in 2010 because Dempsey said overworked employees were exhausted trying to restock shelves and perform other basic tasks. Recently, Dempsey and other library administrators have helped sort books. "I'm looking forward to spending more time with my very patient husband, who has shared me with the people of Chicago," Dempsey said.

Bob Wislow, chairman of the Chicago Public Library Foundation, said Dempsey's legacy will be the way she reimagined the library space "as a platform for community involvement and 21st-century technology."

Wislow also praised the choice of Bannon to take Chicago libraries "to the next level."

Bannon, 37, spearheads online initiatives and other computer-based learning programs in the San Francisco system. He also worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and in the Seattle library system.

"At the core, it's about connecting people with information of value to them," Bannon said. "The physical space of libraries have transitioned more into community anchors."

AFSCME Local 31 director Henry Bayer lauded Dempsey for her hard work and said he hopes Bannon will advocate restoring full library hours.

Emanuel also will recommend Linda Johnson Rice, the chairman of Johnson Publishing, to serve as library board president.

Not enough cash to finish state projects, Madigan warns... Madigan and Daley stole it all....

2012-01-24T21:20:00.002-06:00

Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan warned Tuesday that Illinois' much-hyped public works program may run out of money before all of the promised construction projects can be completed.

Making a rare public speaking appearance Tuesday at Elmhurst College, Madigan said the main problem is the state has yet to launch video gambling at bars, restaurants and truck stops. That was a key funding source for the $31 billion building program Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law in 2009.

"We did a capital bill two or three or four years ago and the (revenue) estimates that we used in that bill are not coming true," Madigan said. "Bottom line, we won't have enough money to do everything that we said we would do in the bill."

Madigan noted it's also taking longer than expected for the state to reap additional money through online lottery sales, which are still months away after recent federal government approval.

Quinn's budget office sought to downplay the possibility that construction dollars might dry up, even as it acknowledged lawmakers may need to act if video gambling fails to come online sooner rather than later.

Spokeswoman Kelly Kraft said there is enough money to "continue the program into the foreseeable future" and added the administration has been careful to balance issuing bonds to pay for projects with available funds.

"It's no secret that gaming revenues have not materialized as projected," Kraft said.

Video gambling is expected to bring in anywhere from $288 million to $534 million for the construction program, according to an analysis by the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. The more communities that opt out of video gambling, the less money. Chicago hasn't signed on. Regulators have said they expect machines could go live by the end of the year.

Madigan said he would support putting more money into the construction fund, but posed a familiar question amid the state's ongoing budget woes: "Where do you find the money to pay for it?

Meanwhile, Madigan said lawmakers should prepare for more tough choices as they begin to craft a new spending plan this spring. The solution to the state's money problems will have to come from disciplined spending and cutting over several years, Madigan said.

The speaker asked vendors owed billions of dollars by the state to "bear with us" as the state's financial house is put back in order.

Madigan would not offer a prediction about the future of gambling, including whether Chicago would get the casino Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants, saying there are so many interests it's difficult to find an agreement.

The speaker also was asked to give his insight on the various governors he has served with over the years, dating back to Republican Richard Ogilvie some 40 years ago. Madigan said he was "just a young person" under Ogilvie and "maybe met him once."

Madigan called former Republican Gov. James Thompson "intelligent" and a "quick learner" who was "very flexible" when it came to getting things done, while Republican Gov. Jim Edgar was "a little more strident" and willing to engage in protracted negotiations to get what he wanted. Madigan said imprisoned Republican Gov. George Ryan was skilled at "identifying problems and fashioning solutions."

The speaker described his relationship with soon-to-be-imprisoned ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich as "confrontation from beginning to end." The speaker said he "became a target" as fellow Democrat Blagojevich was less concerned about sound policy decisions than "what he was going to do later in life."

As for Quinn, Madigan says the current governor is "very well-intentioned" and the two have "been able to work through our problems and differences."

Wrongfully imprisoned Illegal Alien from Chicago wins $25 million in damages - Represented by Loevy & Loevy

2012-01-24T21:16:00.002-06:00

Federal jury award comes after arrest at 13 and 16 years in prison
Photo: Attorney Jon Loevy, left, and Thaddeus Jimenez, who won a $25 million jury verdict for a wrongful conviction, speak Tuesday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago.

Thaddeus Jimenez was just 13 when he was arrested for the 1993 murder of an older teenager on Chicago's Northwest Side, but after serving more than 16 years in prison, he was exonerated and released from prison in May 2009.

On Tuesday, a federal jury Tuesday awarded Jimenez $25 million in damages, believed to be one of the biggest verdicts of its kind in Chicago.

If the verdict holds up on appeal, the city of Chicago would be on the hook for the $25 million, said attorney Jon Loevy.

Loevy said police detectives pressured witnesses to say Jimenez was the killer when he wasn't. Not long after he was charged in the slaying, the real killer confessed to the crime on audiotape, Loevy said, but when that evidence was brought to the attention of prosecutors at the time, they sided with the police.

Years later, lawyers and students from the Northwestern University Bluhn Center on Wrongful Convictions and other attorneys reinvestigated Jimenez's conviction and found that two key witnesses recanted their original claims that he was the gunman. The state's attorney's office then agreed to reopen the case.

On the day that Jimenez was released from prison, prosecutors charged Juan Carlos Torres in the murder of Eric Morro. He has yet to go to trial.

"The state's attorney's office … recognized an injustice had occurred and they corrected it," Loevy said. "They deserve a ton of credit for reopening the case … taking an honest look at it and correcting an injustice."

Loevy said Jimenez has been working at a restaurant and trying to "acclimate to life without prison."

"He's trying to figure out what to do for the rest of his life," he said.

First sexy Heather Locklear was rushed to the hospital.... Now Paramedics rush to Demi Moore's home; star being treated

2012-01-24T20:44:00.002-06:00

Actress Demi Moore was receiving medical treatment Tuesday after paramedics rushed to her home near Benedict Canyon on Monday night.

Details of her condition were not clear. But a source familiar with the case said Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics were called to the home and treated a patient there.

[Updated at 6:30 p.m.: In a statement to the Ministry of Gossip, a Moore spokesperson said: "Because of the stresses in her life right now, Demi has chosen to seek professional assistance to treat her exhaustion and improve her overall health. She looks forward to getting well and is grateful for the support of her family and friends."]

Moore, who recently starred in the movie "Margin Call," announced last fall that she was ending her marriage to actor Ashton Kutcher.

Capt. Jamie Moore of the Los Angeles Fire Department would only say paramedics responded to a call on the block where Demi Moore lives.

Colored Sauk Village police chief Robert Fox back on the job - You can't fired a black man! You be sued!

2012-01-24T20:40:00.001-06:00

A day after Sauk Village trustees changed the locks at the police station to keep him out, Police Chief Robert Fox was back at work Tuesday.

A Cook County Circuit Court judge sided with Mayor Lewis Towers in a lawsuit regarding the mayor’s appointment of Fox. After the hearing, which he attended, Fox said he was headed to work to “serve the black folks.”

“Policing doesn’t change because of the (court decision),” Fox said. “That’s politics. Policing stays the same.”

Fox, whom Towers appointed in November, still has no salary and no contract, and trustees have said the village doesn’t have the money to pay a full-time police chief.

“Towers went out and appointed an outside person with no money from the village, and he put that person in that position and now he wants us to pay for him,” Trustee Derrick Burgess said. “Where do you want to get this money from?”

But Trustee David Hanks said he would support the court’s decision.

Hanks and Burgess had confronted Fox on Monday at the police station, asking him to leave because they believed his appointed term had expired. Hanks defended those actions after Tuesday’s ruling.

“It was nothing against the mayor or the chief,” Hanks said. “Chief Fox is a leader, and he should have stepped down while waiting for courts to rule, to show villages employees that they are obligated to follow the laws and ordinances of this community.”

After Fox was appointed without board approval, the board crafted a local law limiting Towers’ appointment powers to two 30-day periods. Towers sued to have the law rescinded. Meanwhile, Fox’s second 30-day period expired Sunday, and trustees ordered the change of locks to keep him out of the police department after he left for lunch Monday.

Towers’ attorney, John Murphy, said Tuesday’s ruling by Cook County Circuit Judge Kathleen Pantle makes it clear that Fox is the chief.

“Hopefully, the locks will come off,” he said. “The wheels of government, especially at the local government, have to turn all the time, not once every two weeks when the board meets.”

Towers said it was “nonsense” that trustees locked Fox out of the station prior to the judge’s decision. Now that a ruling has been made, he urged them to formally approve his candidate and pay him.

“They continue to stall the progress of the village,” Towers said. “We’re not moving forward at all.”

Although the board never approved a salary for Fox, he was issued a $4,600 check last month at the mayor’s request. The board responded by putting Treasurer Genorise Carmichael and village manager Henrietta Turner on paid administrative leave for a week for paying him.

Carmichael and Turner have returned to their jobs. Fox never cashed the check and has not been issued another, according to both sides.

Fox previously suggested the village board was squabbling over his contract because Towers didn’t appoint the board’s preferred candidate, Tim Holevis, who was acting chief at the time.

Holevis, who was bumped back to sergeant, had been acting chief since May 2010, when former police chief and current Country Club Hills Ald. Frank Martin was fired.

Martin was the village’s first black police chief. But his tenure lasted less than six months as he was fired in the wake of a lawsuit filed by three officers, including Holevis, alleging racial discrimination in the department’s hiring practices.

“We have a lot of wounds and I’m hoping this village can heal,” Burgess said. “I’m hoping that will happen.”

Navy Pier closes White Tiger exhibit - Because no Black Tigers were offered employment

2012-01-24T20:32:00.002-06:00

Navy Pier abruptly closed its "royal white tigers" exhibit this afternoon after I alerted pier officials that the U.S. Department of Agriculture was revoking the owner's exhibition license.

The USDA alleges health and safety violations, saying Marcus Cook's company ZooCats "wilfully violated" the Animal Welfare Act. There's no indication that Navy Pier acted improperly -- in fact, the exhibit passed an inspection there Monday. The USDA action instead involves long-running allegations that the exhibit treated the tigers improperly and may have endangered spectators.

Cook, the exhibit owner, blames USDA bureaucrats, saying they have a militant animal rights political agenda.

The license revocation was set for mid-February, but pier officials told the Tribune they had decided to close the traveling exhibit right away.

More details upcoming in John Kass' column.

18-year-old illegal beaner student from Marie Skłodowska-Curie High School ran over by a semi-truck - Student was listening to loud Mariachi music

2012-01-24T20:15:00.006-06:00

Police suspects the loud headphones student was wearing contributed to this pedestrian/truck accident

A witness told police the student was wearing headphones and did not yield to the truck when he was hit about 11:10 a.m. in the 5000 block of South Pulaski Road, according to a law enforcement source.

The student was pinned under the truck and suffered a dislocated hip and facial lacerations, the source said. A CTA bus was traveling behind the truck, according to the source.

The youth was taken in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, according to Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines.

Chicago Public School officials said the victim is a 12th grade student at the high school and was hit during his lunch period.

The student's aunt, Gloria Rodriguez, said she had been in contact with her nephew's parents, who were at the hospital where the boy was in surgery as of 4:30 p.m.

“His face is broken and his jaw,’’ she said. “He had a lot of dislocations on his knee, lower foot and hip,’’ said his aunt, who added that no one had been able to talk to him yet to find out what happened.

His aunt said the accident occurred around the time as he normally would have been going home for lunch since he lives near the school.

“It was shocking, this is something he does every day.’’

Elmhurst Police shoot dogs during attack at Government Section 8 Residence

2012-01-24T13:36:00.001-06:00

Police officers shot and killed two dogs Monday to stop an attack at an Elmhurst residence that hospitalized two people, police said Tuesday.

“The dogs were killed,” Elmhurst Interim Police Chief Dominic Panico said.

The offers were responding to a report of the dogs attacking two people in a home on the 600 block of North Kenilworth Avenue, police said.

Police were called to the home at 4:57 p.m. One dog, described as a pit bull by police, was still biting one of the victims, who was covered in blood when police arrived, according to a police report. An officer used his service revolver to shoot the dog.

Another dog, also described as a pit bull, was loose on the property and moved aggressively toward another officer, who shot the dog with his service shot gun, police said.

One victim was transported to Elmhurst Hospital. The other, who suffered more serious injuries, was taken to Loyola Medical Center.

Panico said he did not have any information on what led the dogs to attack the people.

Retard Kristopher Klimala charged with killing Village Idiot Linear Caballero after argument who gives the best gay blow job

2012-01-24T12:30:00.000-06:00

Photo: Kristopher Klimala and Linear Caballero

A 19-year-old Little Village man was charged with the fatal stabbing of a graffiti writer at a Logan Square intersection over the weekend, Chicago police said this morning.

Kristopher Klimala, of the 2000 block of South Western Avenue, was charged with first-degree murder in the Saturday night slaying of Linear Caballero, according to police.

Caballero was a passenger in his girlfriend's car at a traffic light at the corner of Armitage and Western avenues at about 6 p.m., when Klimala -- whom police identified as the knifeman -- began quarreling about who gives the best man to man blow job with the man and tried to drag him out of the car, police said.

The two struggled before Caballero was stabbed in the neck and leg, police said. Caballero's girlfriend drove him to St. Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center before he was transferred to Stroger Hospital, where he later died.

Caballero was a graffiti writer who loved to roam the streets of Chicago leaving his mark on buildings, said Ramon Ureste, who was Caballero's adopted grandfather.

Just after the stabbing, Ureste told the Tribune that his grandson's killer, a fellow graffiti writer, had come by his home Friday and threatened Caballero with a knife, though Caballero didn't take the threat seriously.

It wasn't clear what sparked the conflict between both men.

Klimala has several minor arrests and at least two misdemeanor convictions in recent years and was accused last fall of threatening someone with a weapon, according to court records.

Klimala is expected to appear before a judge later today.

3 Black Boys rob white CTA passenger... A continuous trend on Chicago public transportation

2012-01-24T11:55:00.002-06:00

Three colored youths followed a white Red Line commuter and robbed him Monday night in the South Loop, police said.

About 8 p.m., officers were called to Cullerton Street and Wabash Avenue after the victim told police three suspects followed him after he’d gotten off a Red Line traian and then robbed him of his cell phone, his wallet and backpack, according to police.

After the robbery, the suspects fled west on Cullerton, police said.

The age of the victim was not immediately known.

Swayed by a psychologist, jury frees 'monster' who attacks again

2012-01-24T11:07:00.001-06:00

In October 2003, a King County jury had to decide if repeat rapist Curtis Thompson should be freed from prison or committed to a sex-predator lockup on McNeil Island. Persuaded by the words of forensic psychologist Theodore Donaldson, the jurors set Thompson free. But 10 months later, he attacked four more women, killing one.

Hours after falling asleep on a hot Seattle August night in 2004, Bernadette McDonald thought she was having a nightmare.

Feeling suffocated, she gasped for air. But a tall, strange man standing over her had already pressed a bleach-soaked sock against her mouth.

McDonald, 29, struggled but the intruder overpowered her. He tied McDonald down and raped her.

Just 10 months earlier in a King County courtroom, a defense expert told jurors that the same man, Curtis Thompson, a repeat rapist facing civil commitment, most likely wouldn't attack another woman. The jury had to decide if Thompson, 44, set to be released from prison, was so dangerous that he needed to be confined to the state's lockup facility on McNeil Island for sex predators.

Persuaded by the words of forensic psychologist Theodore Donaldson, the jurors decided Thompson did not meet the criteria for civil commitment, which would have allowed the state to detain him indefinitely. Instead the jury set him free.

Donaldson would be horrifically wrong with his predictions.

And McDonald wouldn't be the only victim: During his 2004 rampage, Thompson killed a 45-year-old woman and attacked two other women.

The Thompson case is an example of what can go wrong with civil-commitment cases, a process that hinges on the words of dueling forensic psychologists who are paid to sway the jury.

"It's the kind of case that haunts a prosecutor — that I think haunts anybody," said David Hackett, King County prosecutor in charge of civil commitments.

McDonald, speaking publicly for the first time about the 2004 rape, recently told The Times:

"He should have been civilly committed," she said. "I truly think he's evil and a monster."

A good prisoner

Thompson first started shoplifting and car prowling in Seattle at age 10. By his teens, he was carrying weapons, using drugs and sexually abusing family members.

By his 20s, he had committed 40 burglaries. He also began breaking into women's homes at night, threatening them with a gun or knife. He covered their faces with pillows while raping them.

When arrested, Thompson told police he was "afraid that he might kill his next victim," court documents show. He was convicted in 1985 of raping four women and sent to prison.

He served 17 years and was about to be released. In 2002, a psychologist for the state evaluated him and said he was too dangerous to be set free and met the criteria for civil commitment. King County prosecutors filed paperwork and a jury trial was set.

The linchpins of commitment cases are the psychological experts hired by the prosecution and defense to evaluate the offender. They give the jury a glimpse into the sex offender's mind, describe any mental disorders and explain the statistics and tools used to predict his likelihood of committing new sex crimes.

On paper, Thompson was a good prisoner. While detained, he made leather belts and purses and had no serious fights. He also became a member of Jehovah's Witnesses and said his newfound faith would stop him from reoffending.

At Thompson's commitment trial, jurors heard experts give two completely different interpretations of Thompson's mental status and his risk of recidivism.

Forensic psychologist Amy Phenix was hired by King County prosecutors to interview and evaluate Thompson. She determined he was a sexual sadist — someone who got sexually excited by hurting a person. She explained to jurors that Thompson was more likely than not (more than 50 percent) to commit another sexually violent crime, one of the criteria required for civil commitment.

To help her calculate his risk, Phenix turned to the Static 99, a 10-question assessment tool. It grouped Thompson with offenders who had a recidivism rate of about 40 percent, lower than the standard of "more likely than not."

But Phenix said the Static 99 could not take into account several factors that pushed Thompson into a higher danger level: his extreme hostility toward women, his refusal to participate in treatment and his high level of sexual deviancy.

Psychologist Donaldson, who was relatively new to the Washington civil-commitment scene, was hired by Thompson's lawyers. Donaldson worked only for the defense and rarely determined that offenders should be confined beyond prison. He had been fired from a California mental-health department contract to evaluate offenders for civil commitment, a fact jurors learned when Donaldson was on the stand.

Donaldson testified that some of Thompson's actions could be construed as sadistic because he had blindfolded, cut and choked his rape victims. But Donaldson, who had interviewed Thompson for two hours, still didn't consider him to be a sexual sadist and therefore didn't meet criteria required for commitment.

In his psychological evaluation, Donaldson gave credence to Thompson's own words. He believed Thompson when he said he "never got off on hurting" the women and that he never fantasized about it.

"Although there is some mixed evidence regarding Mr. Thompson's ability to control his sexual behavior at this time, in my opinion, there is absolutely no evidence that he currently suffers such a condition," Donaldson stated. "This is based on the observation that Mr. Thompson has not committed a sex offense in well over 17 years."

The reason Thompson hadn't raped a woman in 17 years was because he was in prison.

Donaldson said he wasn't concerned that Thompson refused to attend any sex-offender treatment while incarcerated. "In Mr. Thompson's case, whether he has received treatment or not, it appears quite evident that whatever drove Mr. Thompson to sex offenses in 1985 is, at this point in his life, in remission," he stated.

During the trial jurors saw a calm and clean-cut Thompson, wearing a collared shirt, sweater and khakis. On the stand he explained that he raped women because "I saw no hope in the future, and I wondered why it looked like people in society were happy and had purpose in their lives, and I didn't have any of that at the time."

Thompson testified his perspective on life changed once he became a Jehovah's Witness in prison. He claimed he was now mentally, spiritually and physically healthy.

At the end of the three-week trial, jurors determined Thompson didn't meet criteria for civil commitment. It was the first time a jury had taken such action in Washington since its commitment law passed in 1990. Thompson was released and he moved into his mom's home in North Seattle.

"He was not a nice guy but he didn't have a mental abnormality," Donaldson said recently. "The jury bought it." He said he wouldn't have done anything differently.

Under attack

On Aug. 16, 2004, Bernadette McDonald started her day at work, then went for a run and stopped at the grocery store. Her day ended with dinner and wine with friends on the patio at her Seattle apartment.

She went to bed about midnight.

At 2 a.m. Thompson broke in her kitchen window. Then he tried to suffocate her as he demanded money.

"I kept my wits about me ... and assessed the situation," McDonald said.

She grabbed a lamp on the nightstand and hit him on the head. But he overpowered her and tied her up.

Thompson threatened to kill her if she wasn't quiet.

She remained silent as he drenched her in bleach.

"Are you stuck up?" she recalls him yelling.

After Thompson raped her, McDonald said, he anxiously paced the apartment. He poured bleach on the sheets and stripped the bed. Then he threw the bedding in the apartment complex's washing machine. That terrified her.

"I knew he was trying to destroy evidence," she said.

McDonald said he kept asking her, "What am I going to do with you?"

She begged him not to kill her and recalls him laughing at times during the two-hour attack.

In an attempt to get him to leave, she told Thompson her car was parked nearby. McDonald said he became flustered, grabbed her car keys and drove off. She went to neighbors for help.

About one week later, Thompson broke into a studio apartment in the Bryant neighborhood, just blocks from where he lived. Deborah Byars, a mother of two grown children, was inside. Thompson choked the 45-year-old with a telephone cord as she fought back.

He repeatedly stabbed her in the neck and chest with a flat-head screwdriver, according to court documents.

That same day, Thompson trapped two women in an apartment building elevator in a nearby neighborhood. He attacked them and forced one to take off her shirt. Another woman saw the attack and called 911. When police arrived, Thompson assaulted two officers before they were able to handcuff him.

Byars' body wasn't discovered for three days.

Freedom cut short

The Curtis Thompson case continues to haunt the King County prosecutor's office. Fearing a repeat of that tragedy, it took action against a sex offender who was released in 2010 after a jury here found he didn't meet criteria for civil commitment.

James Brigham, 45, had served time for first-degree rape and admitted to trying to rape six other women.

Within days of his release, Brigham broke several conditions of his community supervision, and admitted to viewing and masturbating to porn on his cellphone. He was arrested at the Kent library where he had used a public computer to view sexually suggestive websites.

Concerned that Brigham's inappropriate behavior would lead to him finding new victims, King County prosecutors filed another petition for commitment against him.

"He used his claim of being reformed to avoid commitment," Hackett explained. "Later he's doing ... the very behaviors he told the jury would result in him finding a new victim."

Last month, weeks before his trial was to start, Brigham agreed to be committed.

Five life sentences

The Thompson case still angers families and reminds others just how fortunate they are to be alive.

Looking back, Phenix, the prosecution expert, said she tried to convey how dangerous Thompson was to the community.

"This information is very difficult for jurors to fully grasp and understand," she said. "People tend to want to think other people are good or changed — that's human nature."

Richard Warner, one of Thompson's lawyers, said jurors understood the unreliability of risk-assessment tools and the difficulty in proving he was a threat.

"The system worked," he said. "The state didn't meet its burden."

But Warner also said he never thought Thompson would sexually reoffend, and has empathy for the victims.

Thompson is now serving five life sentences for the murder, rape and burglaries.

Nanci Newhall, Byars' sister, is outraged at Donaldson and the jury for setting Thompson free. "I was beside myself," she said. "Why did they let him out?"

For those opposed to civil commitment, Newhall has a strong message:

"Walk a mile in my shoes and the other people that have gone through this, see if they still feel the same. I'm all for fairness and civil liberties ... but that doesn't mean you let a psychopath out."

McDonald doesn't blame the jurors. "I don't know what I would have done if I was a juror and presented with the same information," she said.

McDonald decided to share her story to embolden other victims to have a voice. She was determined that the rape wouldn't destroy her. With the support of family and friends and counseling, she feels healed and rarely thinks about that night.

"I'm not bitter," she said. "I'm thankful I'm alive and survived it."

Sen. John Kerry comes up with a good cover story after a black transvestite whore beats his ass....

2012-01-24T10:58:00.002-06:00

NHL teams have visited the White House for years after winning the Stanley Cup, but it's a safe bet that never before has a Senator shown up more beaten and broken than the hockey players.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) was part of the ceremony honoring the Boston Bruins 2011 Stanley Cup win, appearing like he had just come from a knock-down, drag-out ruckus.

Kerry, 68, suffered two black eyes and a broken nose during a "friendly game of hockey" with family and buddies over the Christmas break, according to TheHill.com. If that's the result of a friendly game, we don't want to be a part of an unfriendly one.

“He must feel like Mitt Romney after South Carolina,” Kerry spokeswoman Whitney Smith told the Boston Globe when confirming the injury. Mitt Romney lost the South Carolina primary vote last weekend after a surprise surge by GOP rival Newt Gingrich.

When asked by a reporter from the Boston Globe, Kerry, who plays forward and right wing, wouldn't rat out who slammed him with a stick to cause the injuries.

Sauk Village trustees lock black police chief out — literally - Probably not the 1st time he has been evicted....

2012-01-24T10:49:00.001-06:00

PHOTO: Trustees David Hanks (second from right) and Derrick Burgess (far right) present Robert Fox (second from left) papers containing an ordinance removing him from the building as temporary police chief at the police department Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, in Sauk Village. Sgt. Rebecca Sailsbery (far left) stands nearby.

He has no salary or contract. A memo from village officials says he no longer is in charge. And while he was at lunch Monday, the locks on the police department doors were changed to keep him out.

Despite all of this, Sauk Village Police Chief Robert Fox still planned to show up for work Tuesday, one day after two trustees ordered him to leave the station during an angry confrontation.

“I took an oath to serve and protect and I plan to follow it to the end,” Fox said.

The unusual actions are the result of a power struggle between Mayor Lewis Towers and a majority of the village board.

Towers appointed Fox to the top cop position, without board approval, in November. The board then passed a law limiting Towers’ appointment powers to two 30-day periods, which they said expired Saturday for Fox. Towers has filed a lawsuit to rescind the law.

The board never approved a salary or contract for Fox, either, and after a $4,600 check was issued to Fox last month at the mayor’s request, the board put Treasurer Genorise Carmichael and village manager Henrietta Turner on paid administrative leave for a week for paying him.

Carmichael and Turner have returned to their jobs. Fox never cashed the check and has not been issued another, according to both sides.

At about 1 p.m. Monday, Trustees Derrick Burgess and David Hanks told Fox he needed to leave the police station. Fox declined, saying Towers — and not the trustees — had the authority to make that call.

Burgess pressed the matter, saying, “You’re not God.”

The trustees asked nearby police officers to remove Fox, but the officers did not respond.

Fox then got into his police car and left, saying he was “going out to lunch” and promising to return.

“This is all hoopla. Let the judge handle it,” Fox said, referring to the suit Towers filed last month in Cook County Circuit Court challenging the limitations to his appointment powers. A ruling is expected this month.

After Fox left, the trustees had all the locks changed at the police department.

Fox said he returned to the station later in the day and found out about the changed locks when he telephoned an officer inside. Fox said he planned to get a set of keys Monday night from Towers so he could show up and attend meetings Tuesday morning.

“You say, ‘Chief, why do you stay?’ ” Fox said to a reporter. “It’s the principle. The principle is the mayor looked at my resume, my qualifications, my prior jobs and experience and said I’d be a good fit for department, and I feel I am. Now I get here and some trustees disagree with that.”

Fox claimed the trustees lacked the executive powers to remove him from his position.

“That’s outside of their checks and balances,” Fox said.

Burgess disputed that Fox returned to the station after lunch. He said Turner, the village manager, has been told to collect all village-owned property from Fox on Tuesday.

“He won’t be acting as chief, and I don’t know what meetings he’ll be going to,” Burgess said. “We don’t recognize him as a chief.”

Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Counsel Assistant Director Ralph Nikischer, who was at the police station Monday, doesn’t want officers caught in the middle of the political fight.

“My feeling is the politicians need to iron this out,” he said.

Chicago Police Dept. Sgt. Mike Saladino in failed fire rescue: 'All I could think of was my daughters at home'

2012-01-24T10:46:00.000-06:00

Photo: Chicago Police Dept. Sgt. Mike Saladino after being released from MetroSouth Medical Center for smoke inhalation.

A Chicago police officer described this morning how he crawled on his hands and knees in a futile attempt to rescue two young children who died in a Far South Side apartment fire early this morning.

"People are screaming 'My baby's in there' ... saying the kids are in the back (of the apartment), but there were flames just shooting everywhere," said Calumet District Sgt. Mike Saladino, an 11-year department veteran.

Outside of MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island, where he was treated for smoke inhalation and a minor knee injury, Saladino said he was on routine patrol about 3:15 a.m. when he heard the fire call only two blocks away.

Upon arriving, he found a tow truck driver—-there to repossess a car—-had already smashed open the apartment door that fire officials later said was either locked or jammed.

Both men worked together to try to find the children, but were driven back by intense flames and blinding smoke, Saladino said.

"We were on our hands and knees trying to get back there," he said.

During his frantic search, Saladino said he had but one constant, chilling thought.

"All I could think about were (my) twin daughters at home. They're a year-and-a-half almost," he said. "All I could think was, 'What if it was them?'"

Saladino said after the fire was put out, he couldn’t bring himself to look at the two tiny bodies as they were taken away on carts from the charred shell of their residence.

"I feel terrible for the family. It's a terrible situation for anybody," he said.

Killed in the blaze were Destiney Myles, 3, and her brother Jeremiah, 1. Fire officials said the fire apparently was the result of their 6-year-old brother cooking in the kitchen. He escaped harm. The children’s pregnant mother also got out but was in serious condition at Roseland Community Hospital.

Saladino heaped praise on the tow truck driver, who he said had risked his life before Saladino arrived.

"He was there on his own and went in by himself," Saladino said. "I showed up to help him."

Despite his injuries and the emotional scars of not being able to save the children, Saladino said he would do the same thing again without hesitation.

"That's what we signed up for--that's what we do," the sergeant said. "At the time, I'm not thinking about me, I'm thinking about them. We're there to help people who can't help themselves.

"If I wasn't willing to do that, then I wound up in the wrong profession."

Chicago Cops: Woman fatally shot during quarrel with boyfriend - January murder totals are up double digits compared to last year

2012-01-24T10:26:00.002-06:00

A 39-year-old woman was shot and killed this morning by her boyfriend while the pair argued at an Englewood home on the city's South Side, Chicago police said.

The shooting happened about 1 a.m. in the 5600 block of South Perry Avenue, police said, citing early reports.

During the heated quarrel, the unidentified man shot the woman in the head and fled, police said. The woman, whose identity wasn't immediately released, was dead at the scene.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the woman lived at the residence where she was slain.

Officers summoned Wentworth Area detectives, who remained at the scene gathering details and hoping to catch the gunman, who remained at-large, police said.

At least 16 people were killed last year in domestic-related incidents in Chicago, according to police statistics through late December. In recent years, 2007 had the most domestic violence homicides, with 44.

2 children die in Far South Side fire - 6 year old was cooking food at 3:15 in the morning....

2012-01-24T10:21:00.002-06:00

Photo: An apartment fire this morning claimed the lives of Jeremiah Myles, 1, top right, and his 3-year-old sister, Destiny Myles.

Two young children were killed in an early morning apartment fire on the Far South Side after their 6-year-old brother started a fire while cooking in the kitchen, officials say.

The 6-year-old and his pregnant mother were able to make it out but "there was a problem with the door" and she couldn't get back in, Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. A police sergeant and a tow truck driver tried to reach the children but couldn't, he said.

Firefighters found 3-year-old Destiney Myles on the floor of the one-bedroom apartment and 1-year-old Jeremiah Myles in his crib, said Fire Department spokesman Sean Flynn. The children were identified by relatives.

The fire broke out in the three-story Concordia Place complex at 319 E. 130th St. around 3:15 a.m. as the 6-year-old "was fixing something on the stove," Langford said. His mother, Alicia Myles, was awakened by a smoke alarm and got out of the apartment with the 6-year-old, he said.

"There was a problem with her getting back in, there was a problem with the door," Langford said, adding that fire officials were not sure if the door automatically locked behind her or jammed.

Myles' mother, Katherina Myles-Cooper, said Alicia "tried to save the other two and she passed out twice and they told her she couldn't go back in."

The sergeant and the tow truck driver then forced their way into the apartment, Langford said.

"The sergeant hurt his shoulder, apparently ramming the door," Langford said. "The tow truck driver had a fire extinguisher and tried to put the fire out."

But heavy smoke and flames drove them back, he said.

The distraught mother -- who relatives say is seven months pregnant -- was taken to Roseland Community Hospital. She suffered smoke inhalation and was reported in serious but stable condition. She was expected to survive as was her unborn child, they said.

The sergeant suffered smoke inhalation and was taken to MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island. The tow truck driver was sent there as well for observation.

By the time firefighters arrived, flames were shooting out of the front and rear of the apartment, said Deputy District Fire Chief Bob McKee. Langford said the complex was set back from the road, and fire trucks had to travel nearly a mile over speed bumps to reach the blaze.

A neighbor who lives across the street said she ran outside and heard the children's mother screaming for help.

"She was screaming when I got over here .... saying her kids, her kids," the woman told WGN-TV. "She wanted her kids. I didn't see the kids."

Myles-Cooper said she was sleeping when she got a call telling her about the fire. "I was trying to keep calm, not thinking the worst," she said, shaking her head, tears in her eyes. "It's tragic, just tragic.

"Words can't express it, words just can't express it. They were just babies," she added.

Alicia is “a young single mom doing the best she could to be a mother to her children,” Myles-Cooper said. “She keeps saying her kids are gone, not one but two. She’s been asking God why?”

The 6-year-old doesn't seem to realize what happened, she said. When a relative told him his brother and sister had died in the fire, he asked: “When are they going to come back alive?”

“He doesn’t know he’s not going to see them anymore, he doesn’t fully understand,” Myles-Cooper said.

The family has lived in the apartment for three years, she said. And for the last two years, Alicia had been asking for a bigger unit than the one bedroom.

UPDATE: Once again the DSLC News Crew is up in the air flying to a new assignment.... Posting might be slightly delayed over the next 72 hrs.....

2012-01-23T23:52:00.001-06:00

The DSLC News crew arrived safely in Chicago despite dense fog late last night... We now have thousands of e-mails to go through... and a little catching up on local news stories...

Thank You

Jan 19, 2012
For the safety and security of the DSLC investigative news reporters... Our current destination cannot be disclosed.

We can share the following with our loyal viewers and readers....

The DSLC News Crew will be away from the Chicago home based until late Sunday.

DSLC will continue to post timely postings but some breaking news items might be slightly delayed.

Chicago Heights police seek help identifying dead white woman found in snow

2012-01-23T23:17:00.000-06:00

Chicago Heights police are seeking help identifying the body of a white female who was found dead in the snow Friday afternoon near an abandoned house in the 1300 block of Otto Boulevard.

Sgt. Thomas Rogers said she was wearing a black Balmoral T-shirt and underwear, and it appeared her navel had been pierced at one time. There were no signs of foul play, he said.

Police responded to a call about 1:30 p.m. Friday about a female lying facedown next to a residential garage. The body was half-covered with snow and showed no signs of life, police said.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office said the cause of death is undetermined, pending the police investigation. The medical examiner’s office described the woman as being in her 20s.

The Illinois State Police crime scene unit was called in to process the scene, and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force is assisting Chicago Heights police detectives with the death investigation, police said.

Get ready to become a TV star! TV Cameras coming to Illinois court rooms

2012-01-23T23:13:00.002-06:00

SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Supreme Court will open up trial courts to cameras, handing news broadcasters a major victory in a 29-year battle to bring high-profile trials to the masses.

“The Supreme Court plans an announcement [Tuesday] dealing with cameras in the courtroom on an experimental basis,” said Joseph Tybor, a spokesman for the state’s high court.

The matter has been a high priority for Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride, who has pushed the issue during his stint heading the seven-member court.

It was not immediately clear of the impact on Cook County’s court system, and Tybor would confirm no other elements of the announcement.

However, a source familiar with the matter indicated the court’s edict would set up a process by which the state’s 23 circuits could petition the Supreme Court to allow cameras to record proceedings.

Arguments before the state’s appellate courts and the Supreme Court have been allowed since 1983, but television and radio broadcasters have been stymied at the trial court level since then.

One top journalism expert characterized the move by the Illinois high court as a victory for the public, whose only real glimpse into what transpires in courtrooms is through popular television programs.

“Putting cameras in the courtroom and allowing the public to know firsthand what’s going on allows them to see how the court system works and to understand in real life what the judicial system does, rather than depending on ‘Law and Order,’ ‘Perry Mason,’ or ‘L.A. Law,’ ” said Al Tompkins, a senior faculty member at the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism center.

The news media currently is not allowed to use cameras and tape recorders in federal courts, which meant that Illinoisans could not see or hear the historic proceedings that resulted in federal felony convictions against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

In December, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) joined Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in introducing legislation to require televising U.S. Supreme Court proceedings.

City watchdog accuses Emanuel administration of stymying probes

2012-01-23T23:11:00.001-06:00

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and some of his handpicked department heads were accused Monday of tying the hands of Chicago’s corruption-fighting inspector general.

Inspector General Joe Ferguson once again used his quarterly report to complain about impediments to his job. Only this time, he offered new evidence involving his efforts to clean up the city’s rigged hiring system.

“In an increasing number of investigations [some that concern Shakman], both the Law and other city departments have been shielding documents and communications from the IGO based on a claim of attorney-client privilege,” Ferguson wrote.

“This office needs complete and unfiltered information. Without it, the IGO’s ability to thwart corruption, waste and mismanagement is impaired and the city itself is worse off.”

The inspector general noted that withholding documents runs counter to both city ordinance and an agreed order in the long-running Shakman case. Without “unfettered access,” Emanuel may be hardpressed to “credibly claim” that he deserves to get out from under the Shakman decree and the constraints of a federal monitor, Ferguson wrote.

The inspector general reiterated his long-standing complaint that Emanuel has adopted “wholesale” the legal position that former Mayor Richard M. Daley staked out in a dispute over access to information and documents in the hands of the city’s Law Department.

The controversy stems from an unprecedented lawsuit filed by the inspector general demanding that the Law Department turn over documents vital to the investigation of how former top Daley aide Charles Bowen was awarded a $100,000 sole source contract with the Chicago Police Department.

But, Ferguson also offered new examples of roadblocks thrown in his investigative path.

Despite Ferguson’s recommendation for a 20-day suspension, Fire Commissioner Robert Hoff decided to issue an oral reprimand to a battalion chief who, the inspector general claims, “recklessly exposed the city to liability over a period of two years” by allowing his adult son to sleep at the firehouse and travel with him in an official city vehicle responding to emergency calls.”

And the Department of Streets and Sanitation ordered “pre-emptive discipline”— a one-day suspension never served — against a ward superintendent accused of taking down campaign signs and storing the incumbent alderman’s signs at a city facility to be returned later while discarding opponents signs. The preemptive strike wasted “significant amount of [Ferguson’s] scarce” investigative resources, the inspector general wrote.

Deputy mayoral press secretary Jennifer Hoyle countered that the Emanuel administration is “committed to the highest ethical standards in government” — and that Ferguson’s report makes that clear.

“The report notes numerous instances where the city reported misconduct to the inspector general’s office voluntarily, worked closely with the IG and followed the IG’s disciplinary recommendations,” Hoyle said.

“The report also notes favorably that the city has filed three hiring plans in recent months — for police, fire and a revised plan for senior managers — and that the IG’s office was spared the budget cuts that other departments faced and has substantial resources to fill 16 vacancies.”

Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford insisted that the oral reprimand for the battalion chief was justified by the policy of progressive discipline outlined in the firefighters union contract.

Other new cases of wrongdoing outlined in the inspector general’s quarterly report include:

†A foreman of sewer cleaners who resigned to avoid being fired after being videotaped selling counterfeit movies at a Water Management facility.

† A Public Health nurse who resigned to avoid being fired after falsely claiming that she made 17 home health visits over a three-day period when she actually made only three. The nurse was accused of shopping at Target or staying at her mother’s home on city time.

† A tree trimmer slapped with a 20-day suspension for allegedly taking computerized ethics training for three Streets and San co-workers.

† A company that could be permanently barred from doing business with the city — and forced to reimburse Chicago taxpayers — for using a minority sub-contractor as a “pass-through” to falsely claim compliance with minority set-aside requirements on its contract to soundproof homes near O’Hare and Midway Airports.

† A building inspector who resigned to avoid being fired for allegedly giving “preferential treatment” to a building owner by “initiating and coordinating contact between” the owner and an expediter “in order to remediate building code violations.”

Emanuel campaigned on a promise to give Ferguson power to investigate the Chicago Park District and Public Building Commission and more resources, including a guaranteed, one-tenth of one percent of the city’s annual budget.

The promise was pivotal to winning the endorsement of former Inspector General David Hoffman, whose investigations were, at times, undermined by Daley.

For all his haste to race through his transition report, Emanuel has failed to deliver on all of those promises.

Under questioning, Emanuel has repeatedly acknowledged falling short of his campaign promises. But, he has argued that the inspector general’s office has been insulated from budget cuts that have “dramatically reduced” every other city department.

Trial begins for man accused of killing Chicago Police officer Nate Taylor in 2008

2012-01-23T23:09:00.001-06:00

The pair of narcotics officers were waiting for the drug dealer to come home so they could serve him with a warrant to search his house, thinking they could avoid entering the home guarded by dogs where children slept, one testified Monday morning.

“It’d be easier for us to catch him coming in the house,” Officer Lemornet Miller told jurors at the start of Lamar Cooper’s murder trial. “We would stop him and hope he cooperated for the safety of his kids and anyone else in the household.”

Only when they approached Cooper’s car in front of the house around 7 a.m. on Sept. 28, 2008, shots rang out and Miller’s partner, Officer Nathaniel Taylor Jr., was hit in his chest and head. Miller fired back 10 times, wounding Cooper in the car.

“I could see his face. I could see a little grin on his face,” Miller said. “I kept shooting, walking and shooting.”

Then he ran to his bleeding partner lying on the sidewalk.

“I can hear him breathing, I can hear his rasping breathing,” Miller, 39, said, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “At the top of his head, I could see brain matter sticking out of his head.

“I kept talking to him, telling him he was going to be all right.”

Taylor, a 39-year-old husband and father to a little girl, died later that evening at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

Cooper, now 40, is on trial on charges of first-degree murder and three counts of possessing controlled substances for the drugs police found in his house in the 7900 block of South Clyde.

Jurors will not hear that he already served a prison sentence for the attempted murder of another Chicago Police officer in 1990, nor that he had faced the death penalty in Taylor’s murder before the state banned capital punishment last year.

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez briefly joined Taylor’s family and uniformed officers who packed the benches of Judge Nicholas Ford’s courtroom.

Taylor’s colleagues later searched Cooper’s home and found two more guns, a crossbow and arrows, stashes of cocaine and marijuana, and records leading to safe deposit boxes at a local bank containing some $260,000 in cash, Assistant State’s Attorney James McKay said during opening statements. They also found police scanners and a bulletproof vest, he said, all tools of a drug dealer.

Paramedics trying to revive Cooper found two baggies of cocaine in his mouth, McKay said.

Police found Taylor’s service gun next to him on the pavement, McKay continued.

“It had never been fired,” McKay said. “Cooper never gave him the chance.”

Acknowledging Cooper was a drug dealer, his attorney, Susan Smith, said he who believed he was about to get robbed on a dark morning outside his house.

“He’s got drugs on him, he’s got money on him, he’s got his house keys on him. Inside his house are three things more precious to him — his wife and kids,” she said.

He didn’t know he was shooting at a police officer, she said. Sitting in his parked car, Cooper didn’t hear the officer identify himself. And in a red T-shirt and jeans, Taylor wore nothing bearing a CPD logo.

“The sole identification he had on — and you will decide if he did — was a star in a starholder,” she told jurors. “If you judge this case fairly, you’ll find Lamar Cooper acted in self defense.”

When black & brown mix... It's always turns to shit! 4 charged, including victim, after drug-related home invasion

2012-01-23T23:03:00.003-06:00

Photo: Left to right: Jason Street a.k.a. Dickhead, Darius Franklin a.k.a. Shithead, Juan Terrazas a.k.a. Beanhead, and Nick Patel a.k.a. Camelhead were charged following a Lakeview neighborhood home invasion that police say was drug-related.

Three men who forced their way into a Lakeview home at gunpoint were arrested and one of the six victims was behind bars, as well, after a drug-related home invasion Sunday night, police said.

At about 10:15 p.m., three masked men rang the doorbell of a home in the 3200 block of North Kenmore Avenue and when someone answered the door, they forced their way inside, police said.

"Where’s the weed?" they asked as they ordered the two women and four men inside to the floor at gunpointand demanding jewelry, police said. One of the victims was struck on the head with a gun.

But someone called 911, bringing officers to the home and prompting one of the home invaders to jump out a window and flee through an alley while the two others hid upstairs in a closet, police said.

Officers chased down the fleeing suspect identifified as Juan Terrazas, 23, of the 8900 block of Robin Drive in Des Plaines. He was arrested in the 3200 block of North Sheffield Avenue, according to police.

Darius Franklin, 22, of the 8600 block of Trumbull Avenue in Skokie and Jason Street, 33, of the 900 block of North Waller Avenue on the West Side were also arrested.

All three men have been charged with one count of each of armed home invasion, a Class X felony, police said.

A resident of the home, Nick Patel, 20, was charged with possession of a controlled substance after police found 300 grams of cannabis in the home worth about $4,800, police said.

All four men, including the victim, are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, police said.

No one was injured and a handgun and marijuana were recovered from the scene.