chicagotribune--2020-08-31--Column: The GOP of Honest Abe is not the GOP of Lying Trump

The GOP decided that it could best defeat Johnson with the Southern strategy , designed to play on the anger @ @ @ @ @ to desegregate the South .
It was the height of the civil rights movement , @ @ @ @ @ white voters would be so eager to protect their Jim Crow laws that they would @ @ @ @ @ Goldwater .

President Donald Trump speaks on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention. (Alex Brandon/AP)
During the past two weeks, both political parties made their case for why African Americans should stand with them in November. The difference is that Democrats can’t win without the Black vote. Republicans just pretend as though they care.
Regardless of how much Donald Trump claims to have done for African Americans, he isn’t going to get a substantial share of the Black vote in November. He garnered only about 8% in 2016, and it’s unlikely he will get much more this time.
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Trump’s racist tweets and divisive rhetoric aren’t the only reasons African Americans won’t vote for him. Blacks have a long history of disdain for the GOP.
The bad blood wasn’t always there. A century ago, most African Americans never would have considered voting for a Democrat. For decades, the party of Abraham Lincoln had the Black vote — at least those who were allowed to vote — bound so tight that only an act of political adultery could split their union.
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Turns out, race was the wedge issue that caused them to go their separate ways. But Republicans don’t want to talk about that.
They prefer to remind Black people of all the wonderful things the GOP did for them during the post-slavery era. They’d like African Americans to forget the unfair policies they have put in place to hold Blacks back over the last half-century.
Speaking at the GOP’s national convention last week, Clarence Henderson, an African American who participated in the 1960 Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina, said Blacks don’t know their history if they don’t understand why he is a Trump-supporting Republican.
Then he threw out a few common GOP talking points: Republicans passed the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery, the 14th Amendment that gave Blacks citizenship and the 15th Amendment that gave freed Black men the right to vote.
That’s all true. The Republican Party was the torchbearer for those landmark pieces of legislation in the 1800s. The GOP acts as thought Black people ought to still feel indebted to them for what they did 150 years ago.
The contemporary GOP bears no semblance to the Republican Party of Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells and Sen. Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African American to serve in either branch of Congress.
To conflate the early GOP with the party of Trump is deceitful. Most African Americans are smart enough to know when they’re being fed a line.
Black voters aren’t really beholden to any party. When the GOP stopped supporting issues that were in the best interest of African Americans, Black voters walked away. They follow policies, not people.
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The switchover occurred in 1936 when Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt was reelected with 71% of the Black vote, largely on the strength of his New Deal economic plan, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
Democrats were able to seal the bond in 1964, when Republicans chose Barry Goldwater, a staunch opponent of the Civil Rights Act, to oppose President Lyndon Johnson.
The GOP decided that it could best defeat Johnson with the Southern strategy, designed to play on the anger of whites who opposed efforts to desegregate the South. It was the height of the civil rights movement, and the GOP gambled that white voters would be so eager to protect their Jim Crow laws that they would turn out in force for Goldwater.
Goldwater lost the election, but the damage was done. In effect, Republicans abandoned the Black vote in favor of the Southern white vote. Black voters reciprocated by leaving the Republican Party en masse.
The Voting Rights Act was Johnson’s signature legislation, along with his premier social program — the War on Poverty. After Johnson signed the civil rights bill, Southern segregationist legislators, known as Dixiecrats, left the Democratic Party for good and found a welcome home on the Republican side. Their Southern white constituency followed them to the GOP, where they still reside.
Republicans are severely underestimating the political savvy of Black voters if they think Trump can woo them back with a bunch of lies. Yes, African American unemployment reached its lowest point on record prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the downward trend began in 2011 during Barack Obama’s tenure.
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African American unemployment peaked at 16.8% in March 2010 in the aftermath of the recession caused by George W. Bush and the Republicans. By the time Obama left office in January 2017, Black unemployment was 7.7%. The incremental dips under Trump pale in comparison with the 9-percentage-point drop under Obama.
It’s ludicrous for Trump to say that he’s “done more for the African American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln,” and refuse to stand with Blacks against police brutality.
Only a narcissist would think that Blacks would support a president who encourages voter suppression and courts white supremacists.
Lincoln certainly deserves credit for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves in the Confederate states. But let’s be honest about how he and many early Republicans actually felt about Black people.
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Lincoln believed that slavery was morally wrong, but he did not think that Blacks deserved the same political rights as whites. When running for the U.S. Senate in 1858, Lincoln made it clear during a debate in Illinois that he opposed giving Blacks the right to vote.
The modern GOP hasn’t veered far from that position.
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Republicans are delusional if they think African Americans will turn out for the same party that tried to block the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and 55 years later is trying to get rid of what little remains of it.
Regardless of the praise that a handful of Black people poured onto Trump during the GOP convention last week, most African Americans weren’t impressed.
There’s a name for Black people who align with the enemy to bring down their race. I don’t have to say it. I suspect you know what it is.
dglanton@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @dahleeng


chicagotribune--2020-08-31--5 people shot, 1 fatally, outside restaurant in Morgan Park, Chicago police say

A 44-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach and buttock , according to police , and a 32-year-old @ @ @ @ @ each shot in the thigh .
The three were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center @ @ @ @ @ police said .
A 30-year-old woman was shot in the foot and was taken to @ @ @ @ @ Center in good condition , police said .

William Lee, Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas, Morgan Greene

Police officers work at the scene where five people were shot, one fatally, at Lumes Pancake House in the 11600 block of South Western Avenue on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020, in Chicago's Morgan Park neighborhood. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Diners were lunching under a tent at Lumes Pancake House on the Far Southwest Side on a bright Sunday afternoon when a white Audi pulled into the parking lot and three gunmen got out.
Walking into the tent, they aimed at a table where three women and two men sat and fired at least 40 times before jumping back into the car and speeding off, according to Chicago police.
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As the Audi fled south on Western Avenue, someone ran from the tent and fired. He also fled the scene and a gun was found in a yard nearby,” police said.
Witnesses described a frantic scene under the tent, where a man lay dying and four others were wounded around 1:50 p.m. Several said the restaurant in the 11600 block of South Western Avenue is a popular Sunday destination for families leaving church.
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Chicago police officers work at the scene where five people were shot, one fatally, at Lumes Pancake House in the 11600 block of South Western Avenue on Sunday, Aug. 30, in the Morgan Park neighborhood. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)
“This is senseless,” said Tawana Jackson, whose cousin was having breakfast with her husband and grandchild when the shooting started.
“Her grandbaby is sitting with her there, 2 months old. And y’all shoot when you see a 2-month-old baby? That’s outrageous,” Jackson said. “You kind of get used to it, you see it every day on the news. These babies, they don’t care.”
Chicago police said Devon Welsh, the 31-year-old man who was killed, was shot multiple times and apparently was “targeted” by the gunmen. “They stood over him after he was shot,” said Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said.
Police gave no motive and reported no arrests.
Four other people were wounded: A 44-year-old woman shot in the stomach and buttocks and a 32-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man shot in the thigh were stabilized at Advocate Christ Medical Center. A 30-year-old woman was shot in the foot and was taken to Little Company of Mary Medical Center in good condition, police said.
A woman at the scene said the man killed was her nephew, and his brother was fatally shot last year. He was having a meal with the mother of his 3-month-old daughter and the child, said the woman, who didn’t want to be identified.
“He was a cool guy, got along with a lot of people. (He) always joked around,” she said. “A lot of people loved him. I’m not saying he was perfect, but he was a good one.”
Lumes cook Martin Puente said the shots set off panic inside the tent.
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“I’ve never seen anything (like this) before,” said Puente, 26, an employee for four months. “There was a lot of people running around in the restaurant.”
The shooting was an attack on Sunday morning rituals that start with church and end with a meal, the Rev. Donovan Price told reporters across the street from the restaurant.
“This place is a staple. Sunday afternoon, Sunday morning brunch is a staple,” Price said. “Our staples are being taken away and our traditions are being taken away.
“And slowly, but surely, our hope is being taken away,” he added.
Community activist Andrew Holmes pleaded with witnesses to come forward and help investigators.
“Someone’s grandmother could have been sitting there. Little kids could have been sitting there, and they do come here,” he said. “Why jump out of a car and fire a weapon in the first place?”
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wlee@chicagotribune.com
jgorner@chicagotribune.com
mgreene@chicagotribune.com
kdouglas@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-31--Remembered as a ‘journalistic whirling dervish,’ former Tribune correspondent William R. Neikirk die

Remembered as a ‘journalistic whirling dervish,’ former Tribune correspondent William R. Neikirk dies at 82

“ He was a wonderful journalist , ” said former Tribune editor Jim Squires , who hired Neikirk in 1974 @ @ @ @ @ ’ s Washington bureau chief .
“ There was a time when we were in @ @ @ @ @ Neikirk had the best sources and the best grasp of the American economy of anybody @ @ @ @ @ the nation ’ s premier economics writer , and it was because he was not @ @ @ @ @ but because he was also such a great guy — everybody liked him and trusted @ @ @ @ @ with anybody he wanted .
”

A Chicago Tribune correspondent who was based in Washington, D.C., for more than 30 years, William R. Neikirk was an expert at explaining economics and complex financial issues to readers.
Neikirk, who won numerous awards, put his skills as a reporter to use in the political realm as well, covering the administrations of both President Jimmy Carter and President Bill Clinton, including the latter’s impeachment trial.
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“He was a wonderful journalist,” said former Tribune editor Jim Squires, who hired Neikirk in 1974 when Squires was the paper’s Washington bureau chief. “There was a time when we were in the Washington bureau when Bill Neikirk had the best sources and the best grasp of the American economy of anybody writing. He really became the nation’s premier economics writer, and it was because he was not only such a great journalist but because he was also such a great guy — everybody liked him and trusted him. He got interviews with anybody he wanted.”
Former Washington, D.C.-based Chicago Tribune correspondent William R. Neikirk in an undated photo. (Family photo)
Neikirk, 82, died of complications from dementia and from COVID-19 on Aug. 27 at his home, said his wife of almost 60 years, Ruth. A longtime Arlington, Virginia, resident, Neikirk had suffered from dementia since 2013, she said.
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Born and raised in rural Irvine, Kentucky, Neikirk earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky in 1960. During college, Neikirk worked part time as a busboy at a department-store cafeteria, and it was there that he met his future wife, Transylvania University student Ruth Ann Clary. The couple married in September 1960.
Neikirk initially had thought he would pursue a career as an electrical engineer, but he changed his mind after landing a part-time job in college covering high school basketball — a great love of his — for the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper. He changed his major to journalism, and after graduating, he joined The Associated Press.
Neikirk was a state capital correspondent in Frankfort, Kentucky, from 1961 until 1966, when he shifted to working from the AP’s offices in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 1967, he covered the “Mississippi Burning” trial in Meridian, Mississippi, which saw seven men convicted of a Ku Klux Klan plot to murder three civil rights workers.
In 1970, Neikirk moved to the AP’s Washington bureau, where he began work as an economics correspondent. The Tribune hired him in 1974 as a national economics writer, and he added duties as a columnist in 1980. He also briefly covered the Carter administration in 1977.
Neikirk became the Washington bureau’s news editor in 1983. Five years later, he moved to Chicago to become the Tribune’s associate managing editor of financial news.
After three years in that role, Neikirk returned to the Washington bureau in 1991 as a senior writer. That same year, Clarence Page, now a Tribune columnist, transferred from the paper’s Chicago headquarters to the Washington bureau.
“Bill helped me to learn about Washington, and he was a terrific reporter and one with a really broad expertise on how Washington works as well as Wall Street,” Page said. “He also was very generous with his expertise and assistance and at times would step in and help manage bureau affairs.”
Neikirk became the Tribune’s White House correspondent in 1994.
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“He was a treasured colleague who could write like the wind on the tightest of deadlines, and do so with the sophistication of some unusually accessible and esteemed academic,” recalled former Tribune managing editor James Warren, who was the paper’s Washington bureau chief from 1993 until 2001. “He combined the best of wire service speed, a fabulous Rolodex and a truly down-to-earth sensibility. ... In a pre-internet world, he was a 24/7 journalistic whirling dervish whose copy was as clean as a whistle. And more important, he was a decent and fun man.”
CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford, a Tribune reporter from 1987 until 2006, recalled working alongside Neikirk in the Tribune’s Washington bureau, starting in 1994.
“I was a 20-something-year-old reporter when the Tribune sent me to Washington, nervous and pretty overwhelmed, and to my eternal gratitude, there was Bill, teaching by example,” she said. “I thought he knew everything, but I soon saw he always thought he had more to learn. He was so curious and interested in the stories and people he was covering.”
Neikirk’s coverage of the Clinton administration included scoring an August 1996 sit-down with Clinton in the White House dining room just before the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. After that interview, Neikirk wrote that “as (Clinton) comes to the city still identified with the lingering stain from the turbulent 1968 Democratic convention, marked by street clashes between Chicago police and anti-Vietnam War demonstrators, Clinton said his party ‘has gone a long way toward burying the ghosts of Chicago’” and that Clinton had said he recalled the 1968 convention “like it was yesterday” and had “ached” over what he had seen.
In 1998, Neikirk transitioned from being the Tribune’s White House correspondent to being its chief Washington correspondent. He continued to cover the presidency, including co-authoring the Tribune’s February 1999 front-page article on Clinton’s acquittal in his impeachment trial.
In 2007, Neikirk was elected president of Washington’s celebrated Gridiron Club, where he served for a customary one-year term.
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He retired from the Tribune in 2008 after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Neikirk wrote two nonfiction books and one novel. In 1984, he co-authored “The Work Revolution: How High-tech Is Sweeping Away Old Jobs and Industries and Creating New Ones in New Places,” and three years later, he wrote “Volcker: Portrait of the Money Man,” about former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
In the late 1990s, Neikirk began writing a novel, “The Copperhead Club,” on a yellow legal pad and on his laptop computer while commuting to work on the Washington Metro. The novel — a thriller based in Washington and in Neikirk’s native Kentucky — was published in hardcover in 2015.
Neikirk’s numerous awards for reporting and writing included the prestigious Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for a 1978 series co-authored with then-Tribune reporter R.C. Longworth.
Neikirk’s 1979 series on “The Changing American Worker,” also co-authored with Longworth, was awarded first prize in University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business’ John Hancock Awards for Excellence Program and earned the Media Award for Economic Understanding from Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.
Neikirk also was honored with the White House Correspondents’ Association’s Merriman Smith Award in 1995 for his work as a White House correspondent.
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Neikirk and his wife had “a storybook romance,” said Art Pine, a retired Washington-based journalist and longtime friend.
“Bill and Ruth were in love through their entire 59 years of marriage,” he said. “Besides being a first-rate journalist, Bill was always a devoted family man who was very decent and thoughtful in his dealings with people, ready to help anyone when the opportunity came up.”
In addition to his wife, Neikirk is survived by two sons, John and Greg; a daughter, Christa; and two grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held in Arlington as soon as it is feasible.
An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect date for the beginning of James Warren’s tenure as the Tribune’s Washington bureau chief.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.


chicagotribune--2020-09-01--Coast Guard, Chicago police still searching for man who fell off boat into Monroe Harbor

Chicago police divers joined the Chicago Fire Department at 6:40 p.m. Sunday in Monroe Harbor to search for the man @ @ @ @ @ falling from the boat , according to police .
It wasn ’ t clear how @ @ @ @ @ the water before they had to call off the search for the night .
The @ @ @ @ @ officials said .

Family and friends of a person who reportedly fell into Lake Michigan wait and watch as a police boat and police helicopter resume their search near 500 S. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago on Aug. 31, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
A 32-year-old man who apparently fell off a boat and into Monroe Harbor Sunday had failed to resurface by early Monday evening.
Chicago police divers joined the Chicago Fire Department at 6:40 p.m. Sunday in Monroe Harbor to search for the man who failed to resurface after falling from the boat, according to police. It wasn’t clear how long dive teams were in the water before they had to call off the search for the night. The search resumed Monday morning, officials said.
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Person in the Water at Monroe Harbor 400 E Monroe. Reports of a person in the water after falling from a boat. CFD/CPD on scene, divers in the water. Update to follow 4-1-8. — Chicago Fire Media (@CFDMedia) August 30, 2020
Fire officials provided updates Sunday on the search on social media. In a post about 40 minutes after divers from the Fire Department launched the search, a department representative said Fire Department “divers are out of the water,” and added they would continue to search from a boat using “search cameras.”
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Then, about 8 p.m., the department suggested it was unlikely the man would be located alive.
“After (an) extensive search the event has been transitioned to a recovery,” it said.
Fire officials said police and the U.S. Coast Guard would continue to spearhead “search operations.”
Update to the search, After extensive search the event has been transitioned to a recovery. CPD and the USCG will continue search operations. It is reported that the victim is an adult male in his 30’s. NFI 4-1-8. — Chicago Fire Media (@CFDMedia) August 31, 2020
kdouglas@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @312BreakingNews


chicagotribune--2020-09-01--Chicago passes 500 homicides, on track for one of the most violent years in decades

The officers who were shot Sunday were part of the response teams that the department deployed this summer to bring @ @ @ @ @ the high number of shootings weekend after weekend , Brown said homicides are actually down @ @ @ @ @ he sent the teams into neighborhoods the end of July .
Shootings are down 18 @ @ @ @ @ weeks , compared with the six weeks before the teams were activated .

Police Superintendent David Brown stands with Chicago police officers and University of Chicago police as they take part in a new community policing initiative July 10. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
Barely a month into his job as Chicago’s top cop, David Brown described his “moonshot”: a year when there would be fewer than 300 homicides in the city.
When Brown took the podium Monday for his usual news conference on weekend violence, the city had recorded more than 500 homicides this year, putting it on pace with 2016 when Chicago was hit with a spike of violence not seen in decades.
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Brown, now more than four months into his tenure, did not mention the grim milestone while talking to reporters. He also did not dwell on the toll from the weekend: at least 10 people killed and 40 others wounded by gun violence that included a mass shooting at a pancake house on the Far Southwest Side. A man died and four others were wounded as diners with children scattered.
In a little more than three hours beginning around 2 a.m. Sunday, Chicago police responded to 10 separate shootings, including three homicides and an attack on two officers who exchanged gunfire with an armed teen. All three were wounded.
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Chicago police officers work at the scene where six people were shot, one fatally, at Lumes Pancake House Aug. 30, 2020, in the Morgan Park neighborhood. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Brown said 51 Chicago police officers have been shot at this year and 10 of them have been hit. Asked if cops were being targeted, Brown replied, “I think there’s more than a suggestion that people are seeking to do harm to cops.”
The officers who were shot Sunday were part of the response teams that the department deployed this summer to bring violence under control. Despite the high number of shootings weekend after weekend, Brown said homicides are actually down by about 50% since he sent the teams into neighborhoods the end of July. Shootings are down 18% over the last six weeks, compared with the six weeks before the teams were activated.
“That reorganization began at my four-week point,” Brown said. “I realized that we weren’t aligned with what was happening on the ground given, not only the pandemic, but the George Floyd incident in Minneapolis and the increase in violence.”
At the time of the deployment, the city was on track to be the most violent since 2016, when there were nearly 780 homicides, the most since 796 were recorded in 1996. Monday’s latest figures show that trend hasn’t changed.
The Police Department recorded 505 homicides as of the end of Sunday. That’s about the same as was logged as of this time in 2016, according to data kept by the Tribune. At least 4,330 people were shot in all of 2016. Other grim statistics from that year: deadliest month in 23 years, deadliest day in 13 years.
So far this year, 2,703 people have been shot, according to department records. That’s a big jump from last year, when there were 333 homicides at this time and 1,734 people shot, according to the department.
ssherry@chicagotribune.com
jgorner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-01--Hinsdale accountant gets 16 1/2 years in federal prison in $80 million fraud scheme; victims include

Hinsdale accountant gets 16 1/2 years in federal prison in $80 million fraud scheme; victims included Chicago Blackhawks stars

In handing down the sentence Monday , U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood said Issa ’ s misconduct was “ startling @ @ @ @ @ that he would not have been able to carry out the schemes without first gaining @ @ @ @ @ ” of his victims .

Sultan Issa leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Jan. 10, 2020. Prosecutors say Issa stole more than $72 million over a seven-year period. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
A Hinsdale accountant was sentenced Monday to 16 1/2 years in federal prison for swindling tens of millions of dollars from a wealthy Chicago-area family and other investors — including three ex-Chicago Blackhawks stars — and blowing the money on homes, luxury cars and private jets.
In all, prosecutors say Sultan Issa, 46, stole more than $72 million over a seven-year period in one of the most brazen and heartless fraud schemes in recent Chicago memory.
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For years, Issa served as the personal accountant for banker and philanthropist Roger Weston, a life trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago, where a wing of the museum bears his name.
Issa, who pleaded guilty in January to one count of wire fraud, admitted he began embezzling from the family’s funds in 2010 by forging signatures to gain control of assets and providing banks with fraudulent documents to secure millions of dollars in loans for himself.
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Issa also admitted to stealing millions more from individual investors, including $500,000 from a widow who trusted him to invest funds from her dead husband’s estate.
Most of the individual investors who lost money in Issa’s scams were not identified in court records. Several sources with knowledge of the case, however, told the Chicago Tribune those victims included ex-Blackhawks players Marian Hossa, Bryan Bickell and Tomas Kopecky.
It was not clear how Issa convinced the hockey stars to invest, but records show he had a relationship with the team through his charity foundation. A 2014 item in Hinsdale magazine showed Hossa and Bickell standing with Issa and his family during a food drive at Issa’s now-shuttered Lamborghini dealership.
In handing down the sentence Monday, U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood said Issa’s misconduct was “startling” in its breadth and that he would not have been able to carry out the schemes without first gaining the “trust and affection” of his victims.
The judge also noted that Issa had a nice home and family and seemed to have kept stealing just so he could have “more and more toys.”
“There doesn’t seem to have been any motive here except greed,” Wood said.
In a tearful statement to the court, Issa said he was “overwhelmingly ashamed” of his actions.
“I just don’t recognize that man as myself,” Issa said. “I now recognize that I lost my soul. I lost all sense of respect and human decency.”
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Issa, who has been seeing a psychiatrist and is taking daily prescription medication to treat his anxiety and depression, also asked the judge for leniency, saying he’s been working steadily for more than a year and making payments each week into a restitution fund for his victims.
Prosecutors had sought up to 25 years behind bars.
Monday’s sentencing capped a nearly six-hour hearing that played out over two days. Earlier this month, several members of the Weston family testified about the heartache and sense of betrayal that Issa has left them with — in addition to drained bank accounts, ruined retirement plans and damage to the family’s reputation.
Roger Weston, 77, said that Issa was a master of making people like and trust him.
“It’s what Sultan does best,” Weston said. “If you steal from family and people who trust you the most, you are the worst kind of evil in the world.”
For more than seven years, ending in October 2017, Issa regularly lied to Weston about the status of the family’s assets and cooked the books to make it look like investments were earning money, according to Issa’s plea agreement.
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One of the accounts Issa stole from was a trust fund that Weston had set up explicitly to pay for his mother’s treatment while she was “suffering from an incapacitating illness,” the plea deal said.
Instead, Issa was using tens of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains to buy 25 residential properties in Illinois, Montana, Michigan and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, as well as two private jets, four yachts, about 60 firearms, and numerous watches and jewelry, according to the plea agreement.
Among the Chicago properties Issa bought during the scheme were three condos in the Trump Tower in Chicago, real estate records show. The shell company he set up to purchase them was called Combover LLC — an apparent jab at President Donald Trump’s hairstyle.
The plea agreement said Issa sank another $15 million in stolen funds to pay expenses for Global Luxury Imports, a dealership he owned in Burr Ridge that sold Lamborghinis and other luxury vehicles. According to a 2012 news release, the dealership housed the bulletproof 1979 Rolls-Royce that Princess Diana and Prince Charles used during visits to Washington, D.C., in the 1980s.
The dealership has since closed, records show.
The charges also alleged Issa used his position to solicit at least another $8.8 million from individual investors by claiming he would invest their money in legitimate opportunities.
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In April 2016, prosecutors said, Issa convinced a widow to give him $500,000 to invest even though he knew she “was unusually vulnerable due to the recent loss of her husband.” Instead, Issa used the funds “in furtherance of his ongoing scheme to defraud,” according to the plea deal.
Weston, from Winnetka, sold Lisle-based GreatBanc to Charter One for $180 million, according to reports in Crain’s Chicago Business. A collector of Asian art, Weston became a life trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009 and has donated many pieces to the museum.
Weston sued Issa in Cook County Circuit Court in 2018 seeking $100 million in damages, court records show. Weston claimed in a separate lawsuit that Issa forged his name on bank documents as collateral to obtain a $5 million loan using antique Chinese ceramics and other artwork owned by Weston. The lawsuits are pending.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-01--Chicago family lawyer charged with sexually attacking a client and two associates at law firm

The criminal charges accuse Pasulka of sexually assaulting a female lawyer at his firm several times over a six-year period @ @ @ @ @ said Pasulka would call the women into his office and remind her that he had @ @ @ @ @ career if she ever complained publicly .

A prominent Chicago family attorney has been charged with sexually attacking a client and two associates at his law firm.
David Pasulka, 61, is accused of sexually assaulting one of the associates at least five times in the firm’s offices, prosecutors said in court Monday.
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He’s also charged with inappropriately touching another associate more than 60 times, and sexually abusing a client after telling her she would need to “do a little extra” in order to gain custody of her children.
Pasulka faces one count of criminal sexual assault, one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of criminal sexual abuse. A judge ordered Pasulka held on $10,000 bond, rejecting prosecutors’ argument that he be denied bail.
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The allegations against Pasulka were made public late July in a complaint filed by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.
Pasulka was taken off Cook County’s list of approved court-appointed child representatives by the presiding judge of the Domestic Relations Division, according to an internal email provided by the Office of the Chief Judge.
Grace Dickler also suspended Pasulka’s participation in any other of the division’s court committees.
The criminal charges accuse Pasulka of sexually assaulting a female lawyer at his firm several times over a six-year period beginning in 2012. Prosecutors said Pasulka would call the women into his office and remind her that he had the power to hurt her career if she ever complained publicly.
Another female lawyer at the firm said she was subjected many times to fondling, rubbing and touching while at work between 2015 and 2017.
In the third case, Pasulka allegedly demanded sex in return for a favorable custody recommendation in March of 2017.
Pasulka had been appointed to represent two children in a divorce case. During a private meeting with the children’s mother, Pasulka began inappropriately touching her, prosecutors said.
Pasulka told her she needed to be a “good girl” and “do a little extra” if she wanted custody of her children, prosecutors said. He then told the mother to return to the office that evening.
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Instead, the mother told her own attorney that Pasulka had inappropriately touched her and, four days later, she reported the incident to police.
ssherry@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-01--Former SafeSpeed executive who wore FBI wire charged with bribery conspiracy involving Oak Lawn red-

Former SafeSpeed executive who wore FBI wire charged with bribery conspiracy involving Oak Lawn red-light camera scheme

Sandoval also admitted in the plea agreement that he first agreed in 2016 to receive $ 20,000 in annual campaign @ @ @ @ @ for his official support in Springfield .
Campaign finance records show that in September 2016 @ @ @ @ @ fund got a $ 10,000 donation from Triad Consulting Services , a firm run by @ @ @ @ @ followed three weeks later by a $ 10,000 donation made by SafeSpeed itself .

A former executive for a red-light camera company who wore a wire for the FBI as part of a sprawling public corruption investigation was charged Monday with bribery conspiracy in an alleged scheme to get cameras installed in Oak Lawn.
The one-count criminal information alleges that Omar Maani, who was co-owner of clout-heavy SafeSpeed LLC, conspired with longtime political operative Patrick Doherty and another sales agent for the company to pay $4,000 in bribes in exchange for the official support of an Oak Lawn trustee to add cameras at additional intersections.
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In May 2017, Doherty called Maani and said he was going to pay the relative, “just on the chance of, uh, if we can get the other (cameras) in Oak Lawn and get (the trustee) on our side,” the charge alleged.
Defendants who are charged via a criminal information — as opposed to a grand jury indictment — typically plan to plead guilty. An arraignment in federal court was scheduled for Friday. Maani’s attorney had no immediate comment.
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The charges mark the first official identification of Maani, a Burr Ridge businessman who was one of SafeSpeed’s founders and biggest rainmakers, as the FBI’s cooperating source, though the Tribune and other media outlets previously had identified him.
Maani’s cooperation with federal authorities already has led to charges against a number of Democratic politicians and power players, including Doherty, Crestwood Mayor Louis Presta, and then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval.
In late January, Sandoval pleaded guilty to bribery and tax charges. He admitted to taking at least $70,000 in government-supplied cash from Maani in return for acting as its “protector” in the state Senate.
Sandoval also admitted in the plea agreement that he first agreed in 2016 to receive $20,000 in annual campaign contributions from SafeSpeed in exchange for his official support in Springfield. Campaign finance records show that in September 2016, Sandoval’s campaign fund got a $10,000 donation from Triad Consulting Services, a firm run by SafeSpeed CEO Nikki Zollar, followed three weeks later by a $10,000 donation made by SafeSpeed itself.
Zollar and SafeSpeed have denied any wrongdoing, saying the $20,000 in donations were legal campaign contributions.
After Doherty was charged in February in the Oak Lawn bribery red-light camera case, SafeSpeed released a statement saying Doherty was not a SafeSpeed employee, but an “independent contractor” recruited by Maani to consult on sales.
“Mr. Doherty had no authority to take actions to bind the company, let alone engage in criminal behavior,” the statement read. “SafeSpeed never authorized Mr. Doherty or anyone else to engage in the alleged criminal behavior described in the indictment.”
In a statement Monday, SafeSpeed said Maani was acting without the company’s knowledge and has “not been active in the business for a substantial period of time.”
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“SafeSpeed is as offended as anyone by what Omar Maani did,” the statement released through a spokeswoman read. “His alleged conduct has and will continue to set SafeSpeed back.”
Doherty, 64, also served as chief of staff to former Cook County Commissioner and McCook Mayor Jeff Tobolski.
Tobolski was charged earlier this month with extortion and filing a false tax return in a separate alleged scheme. He’s due to be arraigned in federal court on Tuesday.
Maani’s name first surfaced in the ongoing federal investigation last fall when the FBI executed search warrants on Sandoval’s office as well as village buildings in Lyons and McCook. Records showed agents seized evidence on Maani and his development firm, Presidio Capital, which has built government-subsidized housing in nearby Summit and Cicero.
The charges against Maani and Doherty center on a scheme to renew SafeSpeed’s camera contract in Oak Lawn, where the company had been since 2014, and increase the number of intersections the deal covered.
In a recorded phone call in May 2017, Doherty told the other SafeSpeed agent he’d pay the trustee’s close relative the money “if it’s going to get us the job,” according to the indictment filed against Doherty.
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“I’ll just pay it,” Doherty allegedly said on the call. “Just make sure we get the, make sure we get the f------ thing, the contract.”
The payments were going to be doled out to the relative in $500 installments over a period of eight weeks, according to the Doherty indictment. To hide the purpose of the bribes, the money would come from a company where Doherty was a manager.
On June 13, 2017, the FBI recorded Doherty on a cellphone call telling the trustee’s relative, “It’s not like I need ya,” but that he’d pay the money anyway, according to the charges.
Two days later, Doherty cut the relative a $500 check for the first installment, the indictment alleged. The charges do not state whether the rest of the money was ever paid.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-01--R. Kelly attorneys say he was attacked in jail, argue again for his release

Kelly , 53 , faces two federal indictments in two states on charges related to sexual abuse .
He has @ @ @ @ @ his arrest in July 2019 .
Federal prosecutors in Chicago accuse him of conspiring to @ @ @ @ @ trial in Cook County by paying off witnesses and victims to change their stories .
@ @ @ @ @ and his co-defendants paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover child sex tapes before @ @ @ @ @ of prosecutors .

A courtroom sketch shows defense attorneys Ashley Cohen, from left, and Jennifer Bonjean with singer R. Kelly at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Sept. 14, 2022. (Cheryl Cook / Chicago Tribune)
A federal detainee with “f--- the feds” tattooed on his face got into R. Kelly’s cell while the singer was sleeping and stomped on his head repeatedly, according to a court filing from Kelly’s attorneys that once again argues for his release.
General population is not safe for Kelly, his attorneys argue, and thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic there is little chance he goes to trial anytime soon.
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“Only in a Third World nation could somebody be held, indefinitely, without the possibility of going to trial. It is un-American. It is illegal,” his attorney Steven Greenberg wrote. “If Mr. Kelly cannot be provided with a trial, at a minimum he should be able to await that trial in a less restrictive environment.”
Kelly, 53, faces two federal indictments in two states on charges related to sexual abuse. He has been held without bond since his arrest in July 2019. Federal prosecutors in Chicago accuse him of conspiring to rig his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by paying off witnesses and victims to change their stories. The indictment also alleged Kelly and his co-defendants paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover child sex tapes before they fell into the hands of prosecutors.
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In addition, the longtime R&B superstar faces racketeering conspiracy charges in U.S. District Court in New York alleging he identified underage girls attending his concerts and groomed them for later sexual abuse.
Kelly’s supporters have sometimes demonstrated in front of the downtown jail where Kelly is being held, Greenberg said, and when that occurs the facility goes on lockdown — making Kelly’s fellow inmates angry at him, he argues in the filing.
Kelly’s attorneys have repeatedly argued for his release on bond and been repeatedly rejected. Even if a judge in Chicago granted the most recent request, Kelly has also been ordered held without bond on the charges in New York, so he would still remain in custody pending an appeal before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Kelly also faces charges of sexual abuse and sexual assault in Cook County, and charges in Minnesota related to solicitation.
He has repeatedly denied all the accusations against him.
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-31--$10 million bail for man charged with shooting 2 Chicago police officers on West Side

So far this year , 10 Chicago police officers have been shot in the city and 41 more have been @ @ @ @ @ Brown , who attributed the number to an overall “ sense of lawlessness ” among @ @ @ @ @ said the number of times officers have been fired on is evidence that “ people @ @ @ @ @ to cops .
”

William Lee, Sophie Sherry, Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas

Moments before he shot two Chicago police officers and was himself wounded during a running shootout with another officer, a South Austin man first tried evading a traffic stop by hiding in the car trunk, authorities said
But during a bail hearing Monday, prosecutors said Jeffon Williams’ trick didn’t work and through tinted glass, officers working on the summer mobile team spotted a handgun in plain view inside the white Chevy Impala.
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Williams, 19, is accused of exchanging gunfire with police following an early Sunday morning traffic stop in the 3300 block of West Polk Street in the Homan Square neighborhood. One of the wounded officers was released from the hospital, while the second remained hospitalized following surgery, prosecutors told a judge.
Williams, who also remained hospitalized from gunshot wounds to the leg and arm, faces multiple charges of attempted first-degree murder of a police officer. Circuit Judge John Lyke Jr. ordered him held in lieu of a $10 million cash bail.
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Jeffon Williams has been charged with attempted first-degree murder and other felonies, according to authorities. (Chicago Police Department)
During an audio-only hearing broadcast on YouTube, prosecutors described a dramatic sequence of events that included the suspect hiding in the trunk before being pulled from the car, struggling with four officers and shooting two of them. The incident ended when he fell to ground, wounded during a gunbattle with a fifth officer.
Some of the action, including video of Williams allegedly shooting at that officer as he closed within 15 feet, was captured on police body camera, prosecutors said.
Authorities said the uniformed officers began following the Chevy Impala Williams was driving about 2:30 a.m. after noticing it didn’t have a visible front license plate. Police initially said officers stopped a vehicle because it matched the description from a call about a “person with a gun.”
After Williams pulled the car into a private residential road near Polk Street early Sunday, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said he tried to conceal himself inside the Impala’s trunk through its back seat.
Officers said the car looked empty, but using flashlights to look through the heavily tinted window, they could see a semi-automatic gun and extended magazine on the car’s center console, Murphy said. Williams then “scrambled” out of the trunk into the car’s front seat, but refused numerous orders to get out, Murphy said.
One of the officers used a baton the break a car window and two officers arriving to assist, helped pull Williams from the car. But Williams allegedly managed to grab the gun before being pulled out, prosecutors said.
“That’s when things escalate,” Chicago police Chief of Detectives Brendan Deehinan said during a morning news conference to announce the charges. “The officers have to make a split-second decision; he’s near the gun, he’s not complying, he is refusing to come out of the car.”
All four officers struggled with Williams on the ground for 12 seconds before he was able to pull free and fire three shots, prosecutors said. One of the officers was struck twice, with one bullet missing his heart, but piercing his colon, Murphy told the court. He remained in a hospital Monday.
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“One bullet went across his upper torso and another bullet went in, hit his arm,” Superintendent David Brown said at the news conference. “He is still being treated in the hospital for either more tests and/or surgeries in order to get him back up on his feet and back home for further recovery.”
The second officer was treated for a gunshot wound to the shoulder and released, authorities said.
A fifth officer arriving to the scene as backup heard the gunshots as he hopped a fence to the private road, Murphy said. Two other officers ducked for cover as gunshots whizzed around them.
The unidentified officer saw a gun in the suspect’s hand and fired several shots at him, Murphy said. Williams allegedly fired three shots back at the officer as he ran from the scene but fell injured with the gun dropping to his side.
Williams has two pending felony cases in Cook County and two in DuPage County, as well as juvenile convictions, Murphy said. Williams’ court-appointed attorneys reserved mitigation until his release from the hospital.
In ordering Williams held on $10 million cash bail, the judge called the officer who avoided gunshots as he chased Williams down a “hero.” “(The officer) was able to apparently dodge bullets and still continued to go after this person who showed utter disregard for any person, any human being from what I heard,” Lyke said.
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So far this year, 10 Chicago police officers have been shot in the city and 41 more have been fired upon, according to Brown, who attributed the number to an overall “sense of lawlessness” among “violent offenders.” Brown said the number of times officers have been fired on is evidence that “people are seeking to do harm to cops.”
“Violent offenders have acted with impunity much more than we’ve seen in the past so far this year,” Brown said. “We’re hypervigilant anyway as the profession, but when officers are shot here and other parts of the country it makes us even more concerned about the safety of our officers.”
Officials plan to release body camera footage as soon as possible, in coordination with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, to prevent the spread of misinformation, Brown said.
wlee@chicagotribune.com
ssherry@chicagotribune.com
kdouglas@chicagotribune.com
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Twitter SophiePSherry
Twitter @312BreakingNews


chicagotribune--2020-08-31--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 1,668 new known COVID-19 cases and 7 additional deaths reported as

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 1,668 new known COVID-19 cases and 7 additional deaths reported as Lightfoot says Chicago faces over a billion-dollar shortfall in ‘pandemic budget’

As the news rolled out , bar and restaurant owners began expressing their frustration with the eye-catching potential fines .
@ @ @ @ @ was more leeway or some sort of warning system before the city levied a fine @ @ @ @ @ .
However , very few wanted to speak publicly about it , for fear of @ @ @ @ @ and punished for speaking out .

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Citing the “catastrophic collapse of our local and national economy” due to COVID-19 and damage to local businesses from civil unrest, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday laid out a $1.2 billion budget shortfall for 2021 — what she called Chicago’s “pandemic budget.”
Filling the historic deficit will likely require personnel cuts and could lead to layoffs, while the mayor promised to use a TIF surplus and consider a possible computer lease tax as other potential measures. Lightfoot made no mention of a possible property tax hike in her prepared remarks.
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Asked afterward for specifics about cuts or taxes, Lightfoot said that “all options are on the table,” though property taxes and job cuts are at the back of her list.
And facing a resurgence of the coronavirus in the suburbs around Chicago, Cook County officials are launching a digital ad campaign to push the necessity of wearing a mask, officials announced days after the region was placed on a state COVID-19 warning list.
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In addition to launching the “Mask Up Cook County” campaign, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle also warned of the potential for further restrictions should the rise in cases, which she said was driven by young people, not ebb.
On Monday, Illinois public health officials announced 1,668 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 7 deaths. Overall, Illinois has reported 235,023 cases, including 8,026 deaths.
Here’s what’s happening Monday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
6:48 p.m.: ‘I thanked the Creator.’ Man wins freedom after COVID-19 delays, philosophical change on teenage sentences
A man once sentenced to life in prison for murder as a teenager won his freedom Monday after serving 26 years behind bars — including a monthslong series of delays that kept him locked up during the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
LaRon Warren said he “almost broke down” as the judge reduced his sentence.
“I thanked the Creator. I said a silent prayer and thanked him,” Warren told the Tribune. He recalled his late mother, who advocated for sentencing reforms. “I know my mom was sitting beside the Creator rejoicing.”
Warren, 44, was convicted in the murder of Ebony Higgins, a pregnant teen who was shot dead on Easter Sunday in 1994. At the time, Warren was 17 and on bond for a different murder charge from the year before in what court documents describe as a drug deal gone bad.
Warren’s release is the result of an evolution in how the legal system thinks about young people who commit serious crimes like murder.
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Read more here. —Ray Long and Megan Crepeau
6:02 p.m.: Deerfield to issue $50 fine - as last resort - for not wearing face coverings amid COVID-19
Deerfield village trustees have approved a plan to fine those who go against the mayor’s emergency declaration enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a $50 penalty for not wearing a face covering.
Mayor Harriet Rosenthal’s declaration was originally enacted in March and subsequently extended and amended to include a requirement that residents wear face masks when out in public.
“From our perspective we sense the increasing need for this tool as an interim step,” Village Manager Kent Street said of the recent addition of fines for scofflaws.
Under the ordinance, those who refuse to wear a mask can be issued a compliance ticket for $50. If the ticket is not paid within 10 days of issuance, the fine increases to $100. Also, those ticketed can request a day in court if they wish to contest the ticket.
Read more here. —Alicia Fabbre
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4:19 p.m.: Big Ten reveals the vote count that resulted in fall football being postponed
Now it can be told.
The Big Ten really, truly did take a vote before scrapping fall football, and the result was 11-3. Sources told the Tribune that Ohio State, Nebraska and Iowa dissented.
The conference opted to reveal the 11-3 vote Monday by filing a brief in response to the lawsuit brought by eight Nebraska players, who allege that the Big Ten is in breach of contract by not following its governing documents.
The lawsuit sought transparency on the vote and alleged the Big Ten’s decision was based on flawed medical information.
The Big Ten has countered by saying conference bylaws require a 60% vote of university presidents and chancellors and that 11-3 represents a 78.6% tally.
The conference cited in the brief “ongoing health concerns” that could imperil not only players, but also coaches, staff and referees. The conference relied on counsel from the Big Ten’s task force for emerging infectious diseases and sports medicine committee, as stated in its Aug. 11 announcement that it was postponing all fall sports.
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Read more here. —Teddy Greenstein
3:39 p.m.: American, Delta follow United lead, ditch $200 ticket-change fees for US travel
This could be the final boarding call for the $200 ticket-change fee that has enraged so many U.S. airline travelers over the past decade.
Delta Air Lines and American Airlines said Monday that they are dropping the fee on most tickets for domestic flights, copying United Airlines’ move one day earlier.
Southwest Airlines didn’t levy change fees to start with, so Monday’s announcements mean that the four biggest U.S. carriers will have roughly similar policies.
Read more here. —Associated Press
2:15 p.m.: A Zoom Thanksgiving? COVID-19 summer could give way to a bleaker fall
As the Summer of COVID draws to a close, many experts fear an even bleaker fall and suggest that American families should start planning for Thanksgiving by Zoom.
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Because of the many uncertainties, public health scientists say it’s easier to forecast the weather on Thanksgiving Day than to predict how the U.S. coronavirus crisis will play out this autumn. But school reopenings, holiday travel and more indoor activity because of colder weather could all separately increase transmission of the virus and combine in ways that could multiply the threat, they say.
Here’s one way it could go: As more schools open for in-person instruction and more college students return to campuses, small clusters of cases could widen into outbreaks in late September. Public fatigue over mask rules and other restrictions could stymie efforts to slow these infections.
A few weeks later, widening outbreaks could start to strain hospitals. If a bad flu season peaks in October, as happened in 2009, the pressure on the health care system could result in higher daily death tolls from the coronavirus.
Read more here. —Associated Press
1:56 p.m.: Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announces ‘Mask Up Cook County’ campaign as suburbs ‘second surge’ of coronavirus
Facing a resurgence of the coronavirus in the suburbs around Chicago, Cook County officials are launching a digital ad campaign to push the necessity of wearing a mask, officials announced days after the region was placed on a state COVID-19 warning list.
In addition to launching the “Mask Up Cook County” campaign, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle also warned of the potential for further restrictions should the rise in cases, which she said was driven by young people, not ebb.
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“This has been a challenging year for everybody,” Preckwinkle said. “You know the challenge isn’t over. … Young adults must, must continue to be vigilant and wearing masks and not partaking in high risk or large group activities.”
Read more here. —Alice Yin
1:45 p.m.: Chicago buildings will be lit in red to spotlight need for arts industry pandemic relief
Buildings across Chicago and the nation will be lit in red Tuesday night to dramatize the urgent need for financial relief in the arts and other live events industries.
Chicago Theatre, the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier, the Aragon Ballroom and Allstate Arena in Rosemont are among the local spots scheduled to take part in the Red Alert campaign, which will light the buildings from 9 p.m. to midnight.
The display, organized by entertainment industry volunteers, is meant to bring pressure on Congress to pass the RESTART Act that would help companies that make live events get through the near total collapse of their business in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read more here. —Steve Johnson
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1:26 p.m.: Citing ‘catastrophic collapse’ of economy, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says Chicago faces $1.2 billion shortfall in 2021 ‘pandemic budget’
Citing the “catastrophic collapse of our local and national economy” due to COVID-19 and damage to local businesses from civil unrest, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday laid out a $1.2 billion budget shortfall for 2021 -- what she called Chicago’s “pandemic budget.”
Filling the historic deficit will likely require personnel cuts and could lead to layoffs, while the mayor promised to use a TIF surplus and consider a possible computer lease tax as other potential measures. Lightfoot made no mention of a possible property tax hike in her prepared remarks.
Asked afterward for specifics about cuts or taxes, Lightfoot said that “all options are on the table,” though property taxes and job cuts are at the back of her list.
Read more here. —John Byrne and Gregory Pratt
12:56 p.m.: ‘It feels like we’re blocked at every turn’: With threats of $10,000 fines for COVID-19 violations, some restaurants say the punishment doesn’t fit the crime
As with so many aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there had to be a learning curve for Chicago restaurants and bars as they reopened in early June — something the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection emphasized at the time.
Guidelines changed on a near-weekly basis, with outdoor-only dining quickly expanding to conditional indoor dining. Cocktails initially could not be ordered for pickup and delivery, but then they could. In July, the city abruptly rolled back indoor service for bars. Just last week, mask requirements changed.
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But right before the July Fourth weekend, the city made it clear: the grace period was over, and establishments faced fines up to $10,000 and potential closure if they didn’t comply with restrictions.
As the news rolled out, bar and restaurant owners began expressing their frustration with the eye-catching potential fines. Many said they wished there was more leeway or some sort of warning system before the city levied a fine that could financially devastate them. However, very few wanted to speak publicly about it, for fear of being targeted by enforcement agents and punished for speaking out.
For some, flying under the radar is their best bet at staying open and making ends meet, they said — especially with investigators looking to enforce guidelines.
Read more here. —Grace Wong
12:06 p.m.: 1,668 new known COVID-19 cases, 7 additional deaths
The state Department of Public Health announced 1,668 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 7 deaths. Overall, Illinois has reported 235,023 cases, including 8,026 deaths.
—Chicago Tribune staff
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11:20 a.m.: Need to get your driver’s license renewed? Be prepared to wait — maybe for hours — or take advantage of extended deadlines
As the COVID-19 pandemic changes traditional business practices, the dreaded wait at the secretary of state’s office has gotten longer — much longer — with more customers in line because of social distancing guidelines and the backlog from offices being closed during the pandemic shutdown.
Read more here. —Jessica Villagomez
9:26 a.m.: Iowa’s coronavirus numbers varied widely this weekend because of website issue
The numbers on Iowa’s online coronavirus tracker varied widely this weekend because of a maintenance problem with the site.
The Iowa Department of Public Health reported Saturday morning that 1,108 Iowans had died from COVID-19. Later in the day, the number of deaths fell to 894 before rebounding Saturday evening to 1,109.
Several other key statistics also fluctuated on the state website Saturday. For instance, the number of cases of coronavirus dropped from 63,122 to 51,183 before being restored after 9 p.m. Saturday.
Read more here. —Associated Press
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9:19 a.m.: Lower gas tax revenue due to coronavirus pandemic may delay some Illinois road construction projects
Some Illinois road construction projects scheduled to be completed this year could be delayed until next year because of lower-than-anticipated gas tax revenues during the coronavirus pandemic.
State Transportation Department Secretary Omer Osman said the department hasn’t yet assessed how many projects might be pushed back, the State Journal-Register reported. He told lawmakers during a Senate Transportation Committee hearing Thursday that the department will prioritize projects related to safety improvements.
Read more here. —Associated Press
6 a.m.: Anxious foster parents say it’s not the right time to switch fragile kids into new managed care plan
The state is set to roll out a new managed health care plan for thousands of foster children on Tuesday amid concerns from some caregivers and child welfare advocates who question whether the for-profit company that runs the plan has built a provider network that is adequate to handle the population’s unique needs.
Many of the children and teens require specialized services because of their medical conditions or trauma they have experienced. Parents and advocates argue the launch is poorly timed given the coronavirus pandemic and the stresses that crisis has put on families, the health care industry and the government.
Read more here. —Christy Gutowski
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6 a.m.: United Airlines says it will drop ticket-change fees for U.S. travel
United Airlines says it listened to customers and is dropping an unpopular $200 fee for most people who change a ticket for travel within the United States.
“When we hear from customers about where we can improve, getting rid of fees is often the top request,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in a video posted Sunday.
United’s move will put pressure on American Airlines and Delta Air Lines to drop their change fees, also $200 on domestic travel. Delta and American said they are waiving change fees for travel affected by the virus through the year’s end. Southwest Airlines does not charge change fees, a policy which its CEO says has helped it gain more business.
The moves come as United and other airlines try desperately to lure people back to flying despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. U.S. air travel has recovered modestly since April, but passenger traffic remains down about 70% from a year ago.
The four largest U.S. airlines lost a combined $10 billion from April through June. Airlines shared $25 billion in federal payroll aid under pandemic relief legislation and are lobbying for $25 billion more.
United has warned 36,000 employees that they could be furloughed in October. It received $5 billion in taxpayer money to keep workers on the payroll through September.
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Read more here. —Associated Press
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
In case you missed it
Here are five stories about COVID-19 from the weekend:


chicagotribune--2020-08-31--‘In the last month alone, we cut the murder rate in Chicago in half.’ When Trump talks about Chicago

‘In the last month alone, we cut the murder rate in Chicago in half.’ When Trump talks about Chicago, we track it.

Since becoming president Trump has returned the theme frequently bashing the city in Tweets and interviews .
It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ .
In a 2016 interview with Fox ’ s Sean Hannity Trump said : “ @ @ @ @ @ have big investments in Chicago , and I think it ’ s a great city @ @

Chicago and its violence have been a frequent subject of President Donald Trump’s attention. It was a common campaign thread Trump used to hammer Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama and now Joe Biden.
Since becoming president Trump has returned the theme frequently bashing the city in Tweets and interviews. It’s not all vinegar, though. In a 2016 interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity Trump said: “I love Chicago. I have big investments in Chicago, and I think it’s a great city.”
Here are Trump’s mentions of Chicago — and the state of Illinois — with annotations where appropriate.


chicagotribune--2020-08-31--‘I thanked the Creator.’ Man wins freedom after COVID-19 delays, philosophical change on teenage sen

‘I thanked the Creator.’ Man wins freedom after COVID-19 delays, philosophical change on teenage sentences

“ At first , I wanted the defendant to get help , ” Higgins ’ mother wrote .
“ I @ @ @ @ @ child of God , this is what I should feel , but the more I @ @ @ @ @ the angrier I got .
...
He needs to be punished for what he ’ @ @ @ @ @ Ebony and her baby of their lives , he ’ s robbed me of my @ @ @ @ @ and my mother of her grandchild and great-grandchild .
”

LaRon Warren stands in his single cell at the COVID-19 quarantine tier in the Cook County Jail on May 20. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
A man once sentenced to life in prison for murder as a teenager won his freedom Monday after serving 26 years behind bars — including a monthslong series of delays that kept him locked up during the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
LaRon Warren said he “almost broke down” as the judge reduced his sentence.
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“I thanked the Creator. I said a silent prayer and thanked him,” Warren told the Tribune. He recalled his late mother, who advocated for sentencing reforms. “I know my mom was sitting beside the Creator rejoicing.”
Warren, 44, was convicted in the murder of Ebony Higgins, a pregnant teen who was shot dead on Easter Sunday in 1994. At the time, Warren was 17 and free on bail for a murder charge from the year before in what court documents describe as a drug deal gone bad.
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Warren’s release is the result of an evolution in how the legal system thinks about young people who commit serious crimes such as murder.
Such prisoners may draw little sympathy outside of family and friends. But in 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juveniles are eligible for life in prison only if a judge finds there is no chance of rehabilitation. Illinois’ highest court also drew a bright line last year, saying any sentence longer than 40 years is the functional equivalent of life in prison for a minor.
On Monday, Cook County Judge Arthur Hill reduced Warren’s sentence to the maximum 40 years, citing “strong evidence of the probability of rehabilitation.” Warren is eligible for day-for-day credit, meaning he only has to serve half of that time. So Hill’s ruling effectively paves the way for Warren’s release.
“I’m so thankful to have a second chance and to be able to prove that I’m worthy of this second chance, and I’m going to make the best out of this second chance,” Warren said. “There’s a whole ’nother chapter to be wrote, and it’ll be based on my success.”
The complexities of COVID-19 may slow down Warren one more time. He needs to be tested, possibly wait one to five days for results, and then travel to the Stateville Correctional Center to complete paperwork. Assistant Public Defender Mark Douglass said it’s “absurd” Warren’s release will be further delayed.
About 70 of the roughly 100 Illinois inmates once sentenced to life without parole as juveniles have been resentenced following the state and federal court rulings, according to Shobha Mahadev, a clinical associate professor at Northwestern University Law School’s Children and Family Justice Center. Most have received shorter sentences, some have been freed, and a handful have been resentenced to life in prison again, Mahadev said.
In Warren’s case, by the time he was convicted in Higgins’ death, he already had been found guilty of the 1993 drug-deal homicide. He got 34 years in prison for that case, and with day-for-day credit he has finished that sentence. But the Higgins case was his second murder conviction, meaning a life sentence was mandatory.
Warren was on the cusp of a March 19 resentencing hearing when COVID-19 shut down the court system for months. He had to wait out the delay in Cook County Jail, which battled a significant outbreak of the virus. As of Sunday, there were 32 jail detainees who had tested positive; that is down sharply from a few months ago, when hundreds of detainees were diagnosed. Seven who had tested positive died at local hospitals.
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Warren got a resentencing hearing in July, and prosecutors submitted letters from Higgins’ mother and grandmother. They were the same statements presented in 1997, when Warren originally was sentenced to life in prison.
“At first, I wanted the defendant to get help,” Higgins’ mother wrote. “I thought because I am a child of God, this is what I should feel, but the more I found out about him, the angrier I got. ... He needs to be punished for what he’s done. He robbed Ebony and her baby of their lives, he’s robbed me of my only child and grandchild, and my mother of her grandchild and great-grandchild.”
In limiting sentences for young defendants, courts have reasoned that juveniles are more vulnerable to peer pressure, have little power to lift themselves out of circumstances that are conducive to crime, and tend to act irrationally and without a full understanding of risk.
In his ruling, Hill noted that none of those applied to Warren, who had a healthy upbringing and good family relationships. And, Hill wrote, there was no evidence of any “impetuosity and failure to appreciate risks and consequences.”
But Warren showed significant potential for rehabilitation, Hill noted, and his “ability to be returned to society as a useful, productive member.”
Northwestern’s Mahadev worried that delays in cases like that of Warren and others awaiting action still creates an urgent and dangerous matter during the pandemic.
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“The slowdown of these proceedings has put them in line for potential illness and death,” she said.
But Mahadev said she was “relieved and hopeful” to see courts are taking seriously the expanding body of case law that has stretched from the U.S. Supreme Court to the Illinois Supreme Court and the state’s appellate courts.
Last year, the Illinois Supreme Court considered the case of Dimitri Buffer, who was convicted of a murder he committed at age 16 in The Bush neighborhood on the South Side.
Buffer contended that his 50-year sentence was unconstitutional, since such a lengthy term is the functional equivalent of life in prison. The state’s highest court agreed, ruling that anything longer than 40 years for a juvenile effectively amounts to a life sentence.
Last week, a Cook County judge resentenced Buffer, who’s now 27, to a 25-year term.
Another man highlighted in a June Tribune story, LaBron Neal, had his life sentence vacated in July. Neal was 17 and in a gang when he shot and killed teens Terrance Mitchell and James Austin Campbell at a Carbondale trailer park in 1996. Neal is at Stateville as his resentencing plays out.
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As for Warren, he next plans to pursue a claim of innocence in the Higgins case. A 2016 appellate court decision cited affidavits from additional witnesses, not initially considered, that potentially could clear his name.
Chicago Tribune’s Stacy St. Clair contributed.
rlong@chicagotribune.com
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-31--The Spin: Controversy over Trump’s trip to Kenosha tomorrow; The Rev. Jesse Jackson is helping activ

The Spin: Controversy over Trump’s trip to Kenosha tomorrow; The Rev. Jesse Jackson is helping activists prepare | Mayor Lightfoot can’t rule out property tax hikes, layoffs to close next year’s expected $1.2 billion budget hole | Mayor’s mea culpa

The Rev .
Jackson , who heads the venerable African American social justice organization Rainbow/PUSH , has already traveled to @ @ @ @ @ today to meet with activists , said “ My concern is that the president is @ @ @ @ @ said if the president was there in an act of “ reconciliation ” it would @ @ @ @ @ far he ’ s backed law enforcement without speaking about the man who was shot @ @ @ @ @ ’ s parents .
And Jackson said the president has skirted questions about the killing @ @ @ @ @ allegedly shot by a 17-year-old vigilante from Antioch , a Trump backer who was at @ @ @ @ @ earlier this summer .

President Donald Trump boards Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Aug. 1, 2019, for a trip to Andrews Air Force Base. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)
President Donald Trump heads to Kenosha tomorrow in a show of solidarity with law enforcement, little more than a week after a police officer shot a Black man in the back in an incident that was captured on video and beamed across the nation, prompting marches across the nation calling for racial justice.
Depending on who you talk to, the welcome mat is either being rolled out or up for the president in the lakefront city an hour’s drive north of Chicago.
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“The White House has been humbled by the outreach of individuals from Kenosha who have welcomed the president’s visit,” Judd Deere, a spokesman for the president, wrote in an emailed statement to The Spin. But The Associated Press reports that Wisconsin’s Democratic governor sent a letter to the Republican president asking him to reconsider, writing “I am concerned your presence will only hinder our healing”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who cut his teeth under the tutelage of Martin Luther King Jr., tells The Spin he’s traveling from Chicago to Kenosha today to meet with activists there about the impending presidential visit. His advice? Don’t march, just hold a prayer vigil at a park.
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“We don’t need the president using these peaceful marches as a prop” that’s taken out of context “and used in one of his campaign ads,” Jackson tells The Spin.
Crumbling roads that won’t be fixed immediately. Cuts to health care services for the poor. And Chicago homeowners, some strapped because of layoffs or illness tied to COVID-19, possibly having to shell out more for property taxes. From state to county to city government, that’s the domino effect of shutdown orders aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19 but also curbing tax revenues that keep the government’s engine running.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced today that this year’s budget shortfall — exacerbated by the pandemic and further strained by looting — has bloomed from $700 million to $800 million and that next year it will soar to an unprecedented $1.2 billion. That’s a $2 billion shortfall over two years.
As she looks to revenue sources — she hasn’t ruled out property tax hikes and says city government worker layoffs are also on the table — the mayor called for the state legislature to deliver the city its “fair share” of revenue pie while asking the federal government to provide more aid tied to the pandemic.
It’s not as easy as “ask and you shall receive” in a time of extreme political polarization — something the mayor acknowledged she has probably contributed to.
Welcome to The Spin.
President Donald Trump departs Air Force One after arriving in Charlotte, N.C., for a convention speech on Monday, Aug. 24, 2020. (Jessica Koscielniak/The Charlotte Observer/TNS)
The White House tells The Spin it’s an official visit — as opposed to a campaign stop. Nonetheless, he’s bringing his law-and-order message to a swing state that carried him to victory in 2016. He offered a preview today on Twitter: “I want to thank Law Enforcement and the National Guard. I will see you on Tuesday!”
A short time before that, he posted to social media — as he’s done before — “LAW & ORDER!”
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Trump humbled — With controversy unfolding almost immediately after the weekend announcement that Trump would travel to Kenosha, the president’s media team issued this statement: “The White House has been humbled by the outreach of individuals from Kenosha who have welcomed the president’s visit and are longing for leadership to support local law enforcement and businesses that have been vandalized,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in an email. “President Trump looks forward to visiting on Tuesday and helping this great city heal and rebuild.”
Kenosha leaders uneasy with Trump visit, aim to ensure safety: My Tribune colleagues have the story here.
Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden blasted the president, who has painted the former vice president as soft and crime and accused him of siding with looters who have turned up at otherwise peaceful protests: “Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting, it’s lawlessness, plain and simple,” Biden said. “And those who do it should be prosecuted. Violence will not bring change. It will only bring destruction. It’s wrong in every way.” The Associated Press has the story here.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who most recently has sparred with Trump over his efforts to blame leaders of Democrat-run cities for an uptick in violence as well as unrest that he’s conflated with protest marches, was asked during an unrelated news conference for her take.
“If I believed that he would come with a message of healing and unity, that would be one thing; but what we see from him over and over again — and particularly as part of his reelection bid — is to exploit tensions and division, and that’s the last thing that Kenosha needs, it’s the last thing that Wisconsin needs, and it’s the last thing that our region and our country need,” the mayor said during a news conference to talk about city finances.
The Rev. Jackson, who heads the venerable African American social justice organization Rainbow/PUSH, has already traveled to Kenosha once and is returning today to meet with activists, said “My concern is that the president is fueling the tension.” He said if the president was there in an act of “reconciliation” it would be different, but so far he’s backed law enforcement without speaking about the man who was shot by police or the man’s parents. And Jackson said the president has skirted questions about the killing of two protesters who were allegedly shot by a 17-year-old vigilante from Antioch, a Trump backer who was at a rally for the president earlier this summer.
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Chicago passes 500 homicides, on track for one of the most violent years in decades: The Tribune’s Sophie Sherry and Jeremy Gorner have the details here.
If I didn’t INSIST on having the National Guard activate and go into Kenosha, Wisconsin, there would be no Kenosha right now. Also, there would have been great death and injury. I want to thank Law Enforcement and the National Guard. I will see you on Tuesday! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2020
LAW & ORDER! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2020
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Mayor Rahm Emanuel arrives at the south air traffic control tower at O'Hare International Airport Monday, April 22, 2019, in Chicago. The south control tower has been awarded gold status. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Mapping it out: Rahm Emanuel, former Chicago mayor, one-time Democratic political operative, aide to President Bill Clinton and chief of staff to President Barack Obama, wrote a Washington Post opinion piece that examines, in part, the import of who sat out the last election and what it means this time around.
He notes how either side could gain ground and win the day: “The outcome of this election hinges on a handful of swing states. In Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, white working-class citizens constituted 67%, 62%, and 62% of nonvoters in the 2016 election, by one estimate some 4.8 million voters. That is the core threat Democrats now face. It means that the pool of potential new Trump voters is very deep.
Again, Rahm’s a Dem: “Fortunately, just as Trump has new voters to mobilize, Biden does as well. Since 2016, suburban women in swing states have stampeded into the Democratic Party. Older voters, for years a strength of the GOP, are likely to vote en masse for Biden. Latino voters could play an outsize role. And if the outcome of the South Carolina primary is indicative of enthusiasm in the Black community, the Democratic ticket will outperform its reach from 2016.”
Biden is resuming in-person events as his campaign expects the race to tighten after the conventions: “(A)s the candidates move beyond trouble-free conventions and into the final phase of the 2020 election season, both sides acknowledge the contest is tightening,” The Associated Press is reporting. “And after months of running an almost entirely virtual campaign because of the pandemic, Biden has decided to launch a new phase of in-person events to help blunt any Trump gains.” Read the full story here.
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Local politics: State Sen. Terry Link leaves Lake County Dem. post more than 2 weeks early - The Tribune’s Jamie Munks has the details here.
Former SafeSpeed exec who wore FBI wire charged with bribery conspiracy involving Oak Lawn red light camera scheme: The Burr Ridge businessman’s cooperation with federal authorities already has led to charges against a number of Democratic politicians and power playersMy Tribune colleague Jason Meisner has the details here.
Former Portage official owes city $16K: Indiana AG - Amy Lavalley has the details in this Post-Tribune piece.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot talks about the city budget at the Chicago Cultural Center on Aug. 31, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Lightfoot offered a ’we’re all in this together’ speech today at the Chicago Cultural Center in downtown Chicago where she delivered painful news: This year and next year combined, she’s got to come up with roughly $2 billion to fill budget holes opened up by the pandemic.
The 2020 math: An $800 million shortfall — “To close the gaping hole in her 2020 budget, Lightfoot said she plans to: leverage funding from the first round of federal (COVID-19 bailout) funds; authorize $200 million in debt refinancing and unspecified borrowing and order another round of unspecified cuts,” the Sun-Times’ Fran Spielman writes.
The 2021 math: A $1B-plus hole — property taxes and layoffs are a last resort: The Tribune’s John Byrne and Gregory Pratt write: “Filling the historic deficit will likely require personnel cuts and could lead to layoffs, while the mayor promised to use a TIF surplus and consider a possible computer lease tax as other potential measures. Lightfoot made no mention of a possible property tax hike in her prepared remarks.” But Byrne and Pratt go on to note: “Asked afterward for specifics about cuts or taxes, Lightfoot said that “all options are on the table,” though property taxes and job cuts are at the back of her list.”
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About those pensions: “In her speech, Lightfoot largely avoided discussion about the city’s rising pension costs aside from calling for state lawmakers to work together and solve the problem,” Pratt and Byrne write. “But alluding to the issue, Lightfoot pushed back against Republican critics who say the federal government shouldn’t help blue cities and states like Chicago and Illinois because their budget woes are ’a result of years of mismanagement.’” Read the Tribune story here and the Sun-Times story here.
You can sit in on a virtual public hearing about next year’s budget. For details, click here.
After federal probe forced Ald. Burke to surrender reins of Finance Committee, city saved $1M: audit — WTTW-Ch. 11′s ace reporter Heather Cherone has the details here.
FAA seeks to fine city of Chicago nearly $1.6M after jet skids off icy O’Hare runway: Read the AP story here.
Cook County Health plans to lay off more employees and close two South Side outpatient clinics, consolidating their operations elsewhere, before the end of the year in an attempt to cut spending during a pandemic that could inflict a projected $187 million budget deficit next year. The Tribune’s Alice Yin has the details here.
Lower gas tax revenue due to coronavirus pandemic may delay some Illinois road construction projects: Read the AP story here.
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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot releases the City's 2021 Budget Forecast, at the Chicago Cultural Center on Aug. 31, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
The mayor got a bit introspective today as she delivered the news about the eye-popping budget hole she’s got to fill and talked about the ugly state of politics right now. She even acknowledged she was part of the problem.
“I will tell you the thing that has me most concerned is increasingly, we seem to have lost the ability to talk to each other and our ability to work together toward common goals is becoming increasingly limited,” the mayor said during her afternoon address about the budget forecast. “The discussion has moved from ’how can we work together?’ to ’how can we score points?’ ” We are losing the ability to see other people’s perspectives. Too many of us ascribe the worst motives to anyone who does not agree with 100% of our beliefs.
“We need to change the tone of our discourse, and no better place to start than the process we will engage in together over our fiscal future.
“And when I say ’we,’ that includes me as well,” she said, adding at one point. “I need to push myself harder to work with people with whom I do not agree and who do not agree with me.” You can watch the full speech here.
Her comments come a week after Block Club Chicago’s Mina Bloom reported that some aldermen say Lightfoot Is shutting them out. So does this mean she and Ald. Ray Lopez, 15th, are about to have a truce? Stay tuned.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle at the Cook County medical examiner's office in Chicago on May 27, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Cook County Board President Toni Peckwinkle rolled out a new ’mask’ campaign to stem the spread of COVID-19, the Tribune’s Alice Yin reports. It comes days after Cook County was one of 30 counties slapped with a warning designation by the Illinois Department of Public Health regarding a swell in virus transmission; Chicago is a region unto itself and is not on the warning list. Read the full story here.
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Statewide, public health officials announced today 1,668 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and seven deaths, bringing Illinois’ total to 235,023 cases and 8,026 deaths. Four of the deaths were in Cook County.
Facing COVID-19 fines of up to $10K, some restaurants say punishment doesn’t fit crime: The Tribune’s Grace Wong has the story here.
Need to get your driver’s license renewed? Be prepared to wait – or take advantage of an extension: The increase comes after the offices were closed for two months during the beginning of the pandemic, the Tribune’s Jessica Villagomez writes in a new story here.
Chicago Building will be lit in red to spotlight need for arts industry pandemic relief: My Tribune colleague Steve Johnson has the details here.
Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.
Twitter @byldonovan


chicagotribune--2020-08-31--Abraham Lincoln impersonator accused of producing child pornography

Authorities also charged George Buss , 63 , with patronizing a prostitute following a six-month investigation that began in February @ @ @ @ @ news release .
Buss , who police said was arrested at his home , had @ @ @ @ @ of an annual reenactment of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debate in Freeport that had been set @ @ @ @ @ an event organizer .

Freeport resident George Buss plays Abraham Lincoln, waving as the American Duchess paddle-wheeler pulls away from Hannibal, Missouri, in 2018. Buss, 63, was charged Aug. 28, 2020, with child pornography video creation and patronizing a prostitute. (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)
A Freeport man who has spent decades performing as an Abraham Lincoln impersonator was arrested Friday on charges related to producing a child pornography video, according to officials.
Authorities also charged George Buss, 63, with patronizing a prostitute following a six-month investigation that began in February, according to a police news release. Buss, who police said was arrested at his home, had been scheduled to be part of an annual reenactment of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debate in Freeport that had been set for Saturday, according to an event organizer.
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George Buss, 63, of Freeport, Illinois, was charged Aug. 28, 2020, with child pornography video creation and patronizing a prostitute. (Stephenson County sheriff)
Tyler Dotson, 22, was charged in the same investigation with two separate counts of disseminating a child pornography video and prostitution, according to police.
Buss was ordered held on $200,000 bond and was being held Monday in the Stephenson County Jail, according to jail records. He appeared in court Monday and was set to appear in court again Sept. 10, according to court records.
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“The crimes George Buss stands accused of are heinous,” state Rep. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, said in a statement.
“I denounce him in the strongest of terms. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. May their voices be heard and may justice be quickly served.”
Buss has traveled around the country impersonating Lincoln, including reenactments of the Gettysburg Address at Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. In 1994, a series of reenactments including Buss, who started impersonating Lincoln about 30 years ago, was televised on C-SPAN.
Buss had been scheduled to be part of the annual debate reenactment that had been set for Saturday online, according to an email from the secretary of Freeport’s Lincoln-Douglas Society, Edward Finch.


Corrections and clarifications

Publishing information quickly and accurately is a central part of the Chicago Tribune ’ s news responsibility and a value @ @ @ @ @ .
Our editorial code of principles governs professional behavior and journalism standards .
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· An obituary Monday for Tribune correspondent William R. Neikirk misstated when James Warren became the Washington bureau chief. It was 1993.
· In early editions of the Sunday newspaper, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown was misidentified in a subheadline.
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· A story in the Aug. 16 Books section incorrectly named David McCullough as the author of “Washington: A Life.” That book was written by Ron Chernow, whose book “Hamilton” inspired the musical. McCullough’s book is “John Adams.”
The Tribune regrets the errors.
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Publishing information quickly and accurately is a central part of the Chicago Tribune’s news responsibility and a value shared in all our publications. Our editorial code of principles governs professional behavior and journalism standards. Everyone in our newsroom must agree to live up to this code of conduct. Download the file.
To report an error, fill out this form.