chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Joe Biden met with Jacob Blake’s family in Milwaukee, then with community members in Kenosha: ‘This

Joe Biden met with Jacob Blake’s family in Milwaukee, then with community members in Kenosha: ‘This is not who we are’

“ We have yet to see action .
I was always raised to go off action and not words because @ @ @ @ @ down every single time .
And the action we want are hold these officers accountable @ @ @ @ @ we get held accountable to .
If I was that officer , I would be @ @ @ @ @ right now , ” she said in reference to the Blake shooting .

Bill Ruthhart, Rick Pearson, Genevieve Bookwalter

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks as he meets with members of the community at Grace Lutheran Church in Kenosha, Sept. 3, 2020. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)
KENOSHA, Wis. — Making a rare campaign trip to Wisconsin on Thursday, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spoke by phone with paralyzed police shooting victim Jacob Blake and met with his family before heading to riot-torn Kenosha, where he urged the country to seize the moment and confront 400 years of institutional racism in America.
“I think we’ve reached an inflection point in American history. I honest to God believe we have an enormous opportunity — that the screen, the curtain’s been pulled back on just what’s going on in the country, to do a lot of really positive things,” Biden told a group of community residents at a Kenosha church just a few blocks from where several businesses burned during the violent unrest following Blake’s shooting.
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“People are beginning to figure out who we are as a country. This is not who we are. This is not who we are,” Biden said of the violence in Kenosha and other cities. “I am not pessimistic. I am optimistic about the opportunity if we seize it.”
The former vice president, speaking through a mask, lashed out at President Donald Trump’s rhetoric for fueling racial division, contending it was a diversionary tactic by the president to avoid focus on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which he said has caused more than 180,000 deaths and led to a weakened economy, mass unemployment and business closures.
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“I thought you could defeat hate. Hate only hides. It only hides,” he said of Trump’s rhetoric. “And when someone in authority breathes oxygen under that rock, it legitimizes those folks to come on out, come out from under the rocks.”
Biden’s visit occurred two days after Trump visited Kenosha to deliver his law-and-order reelection message while saying he didn’t believe law enforcement is systemically racist and contended that those protesting for structural changes were ignoring those Americans who want safety.
For Biden, Thursday’s trip was a test of the former vice president’s efforts to portray himself as an empathetic leader in contrast to the brash style of the Republican incumbent.
After arriving in Milwaukee, Biden met privately for an hour in an airport building with the family of Blake, the 29-year-old Black man who was paralyzed after being shot in the back by a white Kenosha police officer last month. During the visit with Blake’s father, two sisters, brother and members of his legal team, Biden spoke by phone to Blake, who was moved out of an intensive care unit a day earlier. Blake’s mother also joined the meeting with Biden by phone.
Biden later recounted moments from the 15-minute call with Blake.
“He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him, how, whether he walked again or not, he was not going to give up,” the former vice president said.
Biden said his takeaway from the meeting with the family was the “overwhelming sense of resilience and optimism to the kind of response that they’re getting.” He said Blake’s mother told him that she was “praying for Jacob, but I’m praying for the policeman as well. I’m praying that things change.”
Inside Kenosha’s Grace Lutheran Church, Biden listened to a handful of speakers from among about two dozen community members who were gathered, and kept masked and socially distanced. The group included a firefighter, members of the law enforcement community, business owners, and union members and activists.
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Seeking to contrast himself with Trump, Biden repeated the story of how he decided to get into the presidential contest after watching Trump’s reaction to white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, being confronted by demonstrators, including one who was killed.
“He said there were very fine people on both sides. No president has ever said anything like that,” Biden said. “Not all his fault, but it legitimatizes the dark side of human nature. And what it did, it also exposed what had not been paid enough attention to — the underlying racism that is institutionalized in the United States. Still exists. Has existed for 400 years.”
Biden also sought to emphasize his support for peaceful protest versus violent looting and rioting.
“ ‘Protesting is protesting,’ my buddy John Lewis used to say,” Biden said, referring to the late civil rights icon and congressman.
“But none of it justifies looting, burning or anything else. So regardless how angry you are, if you loot or you burn you should be held accountable as someone who did anything else. Period. It just cannot be tolerated across the board.”
Biden spoke frequently of the work of the previous administration where he served as vice president under the nation’s first Black president, Barack Obama. He called for increasing the nation’s minimum wage, moving prison from punishment to reform, more affordable housing, better school funding to equalize educational opportunity, making it easier for minorities to get loans for startup businesses and establishing a commission on law enforcement.
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“There’s a lot we’re able to do. The public is ready to do these things. I promise you,” he said.
Black Lives Matter activists raise hands and chant "don't shoot" as they walk on 60th Street near Grace Lutheran Church before Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's arrival in Kenosha on Sept. 3, 2020. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Among those speaking to Biden was Porsche Bennett, an organizer for Black Lives Activists Kenosha. Rather than read from a piece of paper in her hand, she instead told Biden, “I have to give you the truth of the people and the truth of the matter is we are heavily angry.”
“We protest to get our voices heard. We protest to show that not just Blacks are tired of what’s going on,” Bennett said, citing a diversity of support.
“We have yet to see action. I was always raised to go off action and not words because you’ll be let down every single time. And the action we want are hold these officers accountable to the same things that we get held accountable to. If I was that officer, I would be in the Kenosha County jail right now,” she said in reference to the Blake shooting.
Biden said that while he’s long supported efforts to help the African American community, “I can’t understand what it’s like to walk out the door, or send my son out the door or my daughter and worry about just because they’re Black they may not come back.”
While campaign events are usually heavily scripted, the Biden campaign said it did not provide the activist a script to read from and suggested it came from the local Black Lives Matter organization.
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As Biden spoke inside the church, Blake’s uncle, Justin Blake, addressed the crowd gathered outside and said the family would continue to push for a criminal indictment of Rusten Sheskey, the Kenosha police officer who shot his nephew. Biden has said he believed charges against the officer should be filed.
Justin Blake also used the moment to call for not only police reform, but also reparations for African Americans and more investments in struggling minority communities.
“I want to talk about why we don’t have jobs, why there’s no money, why we continue to live in poverty when we built this country. In 2020, systemic racism is over, white privilege is over,” Blake said to cheers. “We can grow as a people, we can grow together and not apart. We believe Vice President Biden is going to be part of that healing.”
Raven Spence puts up a yard sign for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden near the Grace Lutheran Church on Sept. 3, 2020, in Kenosha. (Morry Gash / AP)
Sitting outside the church, Glendora Cunningham sat in the shade in a yellow lawn chair hoping to catch a glimpse of the former vice president from a side street near the church’s back exit.
Cunningham, 62, said she long has admired Biden and the work he did during the Obama administration, and said she always loyally votes for Democrats. She said she hopes Biden gets elected so that the White House once again will offer a message of unity for the nation.
“Trump’s not for us. He’s for his rich friends. He’s not for the poor, he’s not for the poor. He’s really not for anyone other than himself,” Cunningham, a Kenosha resident, said. “I just hope Vice President Biden will bring peace to the world, because it’s all about love. We need to get everyone in this country back together.”
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She called the Blake shooting “terrible” and said it was clear from the video “that they didn’t have to pull on his shirt, tug him and then shoot him.” Cunningham also criticized Trump for not even mentioning Blake’s name during his visit to Kenosha earlier this week.
“The president didn’t personally meet with the family. That is wrong,” she said. “That makes a difference when you do that as president, show some sympathy. I’m glad Biden did it.”
During the president’s visit to Kenosha on Tuesday, he pledged law and order as a counter to “reckless far-left politicians” who “push the destructive message that our nation and our law enforcement are oppressive or racists.”
“I think people are calling for structural change, and then you can take the people of Kenosha that aren’t here and that you won’t see and that aren’t protesting. But they want change also. They want law and order. That’s the change they want,” Trump said Tuesday.
He continued that theme in a campaign rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Thursday night, accusing Biden of staying quiet throughout the summer as “rioters viciously attacked law enforcement and Democrat-run cities.” He reiterated his offer to send in the National Guard help to cities that ask for it and again took credit for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ decision to deploy the National Guard. Trump said Evers “took a while” to make the decision.
“The National Guard’s fantastic. I went to see them two days ago. Biden went there today, there was nobody there. There was nobody there. ... I was gonna say, ‘Hey, listen, we ended that problem.’”
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Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee on Sept. 3, 2020. (Carolyn Kaster / AP)
As Biden made the trip to Wisconsin, his campaign debuted a new one-minute ad in the state, as well as in Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, featuring the candidate with running mate Sen. Kamala Harris and aimed at addressing police violence against Black people.
“We have to let people know that we not only understand their struggle, but they understand the fact that they deserve to be treated with dignity. They’ve got to know we’re listening,” Biden says in the ad.
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“We can’t turn away. Now is the time for racial justice,” he said. “I believe with every fiber in my being we have such an opportunity now to change people’s lives for the better. It’s about who we are, what we believe and, maybe most importantly, who we want to be.”
In the ad, Harris called for creation of a national standard on use of force “and conditioning federal funds for police departments on adoption of that standard.” She also called for reining in the legal doctrine of qualified immunity that helps shield police officers in cases of accountability.
But as the Biden-Harris team sought to tie federal funding to police to use of force, Trump sought to put “on notice” cities with what he considered to be unchecked violence by threatening federal funding for “anarchist jurisdictions.” He specifically named Seattle; Portland, Oregon; New York; and Washington.
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Trump, in a memo, said “it is imperative that the federal government review the use of federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in America’s cities.”
The memo also called for Attorney General Bill Barr to begin “identifying anarchist jurisdictions” and to publish a list of state and local jurisdictions that have “permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract these criminal activities.”
The Kenosha visit marks Biden’s first campaign appearance in the Midwest since a Detroit rally on March 9, the night before the Michigan primary. Following his victory there, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated in the U.S., leaving Biden to cancel rallies and campaign virtually in Illinois and Wisconsin before Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race.
Biden finished the trip at a backyard event in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, where he discussed his plans for school safety amid the pandemic.
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chicagotribune--2020-09-03--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what happened Sept. 3 with COVID-19 in the Chicago area

“ Frankly , we ’ ve had enough of it , ” the messages read .
“ We ’ re @ @ @ @ @ we actually love dogs and each day we make it a priority to send each @ @ @ @ @ safe about their visit — simple as that .
You may have different thoughts on @ @ @ @ @ s fine , but while you ’ re here , it ’ s our rules @ @ @ @ @ got our backs turned , you can help us by politely addressing your fellow humans @ @ @ @ @ and then reaching out to us if things escalate ) .
”

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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)
Illinois health officials on Thursday announced 1,360 new known cases of COVID-19 and 25 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 240,003 and the statewide death toll to 8,115 since the start of the pandemic. Officials also reported 40,795 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 4.4%.
A lack of vitamin D may be associated with a higher risk for getting COVID-19, according to newly published research out of the University of Chicago. Patients with untreated vitamin D deficiencies were nearly twice as likely to test positive for COVID-19 as patients with sufficient levels of the vitamin, according to the research, which was published Thursday in the journal JAMA Network Open.
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Meanwhile, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported a spike in positive COVID-19 cases among undergraduate students, saying the infections are tied to large parties and gatherings over the weekend, according to a media release.
About 780 new cases have been identified since classes began Aug. 24, said Martin Burke, a chemistry professor leading the school’s testing program, during a Wednesday afternoon news conference, correcting a previous figure released by the school that said more than 400 cases had been identified.
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Here’s what’s happening Thursday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
5:19 p.m.: Indiana virus caution urged as IU seeks fraternity closures
Indiana health officials are warning residents to take coronavirus precautions seriously over the Labor Day weekend, even as new statewide COVID-19 risk ratings show most counties have minimal or moderate virus spread.
Indiana University officials have asked all 40 fraternity and sorority houses on its Bloomington campus to shut down because high rates of coronavirus infections, but say they have no authority to force them to close.
Read more here. —Post-Tribune
4 p.m.: Chicago homeless shelter creates remote-learning spaces for kids living there and seeks donations
One little girl grinned as she showed off her new Elsa backpack. Another girl crafted a green nameplate for the desk that will be hers for remote learning. Both were checking out the spaces where they’ll learn online when school starts Tuesday.
For months, the children at the Sylvia Center have been sharing just one room with each of their families.
Sylvia Center is one of the homeless shelters run by Cornerstone Community Outreach. Right now, said program supervisor Amanda Learmond, it houses families that include about 25 children, from elementary age to high school.
The children have already been constricted by staying in the shelter, she said, where they must wear masks as soon as they step outside of their room. They feel stuck, and they feel bored.
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Read more here. —Alison Bowen
3:58 p.m.: A vaccine by November? Dr. Fauci says it’s unlikely, but ‘not impossible.’
Could the U.S. really see a coronavirus vaccine before Election Day?
A letter from federal health officials instructing states to be ready to begin distributing a vaccine by Nov. 1 — two days before the election — has been met, not with exhilaration, but with suspicion among some public health experts, who wonder whether the Trump administration is hyping the possibility or intends to rush approval for political gain.
The skepticism comes amid growing questions about the scientific credibility of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and their vulnerability to political pressure from President Donald Trump.
Read more here. —Associated Press
1:42 p.m.: American Airlines chops 83,000 flights from its October schedule
American Airlines has cut 83,000 domestic flights from its October schedule during the last two weeks even as it holds onto hope that another round of federal stimulus grants could save jobs and service to some cities.
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Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines has cut its global schedule by 55% from a year ago for the October month, the company confirmed, including a 48% decrease in domestic flying as the COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of letting up and passengers show little eagerness to return to the skies.
Read more here. —Dallas Morning News
12:57 p.m.: ‘You get to feel so desperate’: Thousands of Americans not getting enough unemployment aid to qualify for extra $300
The administration rolled out the new $300-a-week benefit, using money from a $44 billion disaster relief fund, after Congress and the White House failed to agree to extend the $600 payment. It was initially announced as $400, but that included an additional $100 from state funds that almost no states are providing.
Yet because of a raft of restrictions and bureaucratic hurdles, more than 1 million of the unemployed won’t receive that $300 check, and their financial struggles will deepen. Many were low-paid workers whose state unemployment aid falls below the $100 weekly threshold. That stands to widen the inequalities that disproportionately hurt Black and Latino workers, who are more likely to work in low-wage jobs.
Some gig and contract workers won’t qualify, either. What’s more, the Trump administration’s program requires the unemployed to certify that their job loss stemmed from the coronavirus — a provision that could trip up many. And the disaster relief money that is funding the new benefit could run dry in coming weeks.
Read more here. —Associated Press
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12:07 p.m.: 1,360 new known COVID-19 cases and 25 more deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Thursday announced 1,360 new known cases of COVID-19 and 25 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 240,003 and the statewide death toll to 8,115 since the start of the pandemic. Officials also reported 40,795 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 4.4%.
—Chicago Tribune staff
10:14 a.m.: Lack of vitamin D might increase risk for COVID-19, University of Chicago researchers find
A lack of vitamin D may be associated with a higher risk for getting COVID-19, according to newly published research out of the University of Chicago.
Researchers looked at 489 patients tested for COVID-19 at University of Chicago Medicine between March 3 and April 10, whose vitamin D levels had been measured within a year of being tested for COVID-19.
Patients with untreated vitamin D deficiencies were nearly twice as likely to test positive for COVID-19 as patients with sufficient levels of the vitamin, according to the research, which was published Thursday in the journal JAMA Network Open. The findings were reported earlier this year before the study was officially published.
Read more here. —Lisa Schencker
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9:35 a.m.: Stimulus check updates: Mitch McConnell raises new doubts on Congress getting COVID-19 relief done
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed doubts about whether Congress can get a deal on another pandemic relief package when lawmakers return to Washington after a monthlong recess, despite the Trump administration’s push for a quick, targeted stimulus.
“I don’t know if there will be another package in the next few weeks or not,” McConnell said at an event at a hospital in his home state of Kentucky. He said that talks between top administration officials and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi haven’t been fruitful, and that any embrace of bipartisanship in the Capitol has “descended” as the fall elections near.
His comments come a day after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testified to Congress that parts of the U.S. economy urgently need additional fiscal stimulus to fully rebound from the COVID-19 crisis. Mnuchin told a House panel the most important thing is “that we deliver some relief quickly to the American workers impacted by this.”
Read more here. —Bloomberg News
8:30 a.m.: New US unemployment claims fall below 1 million, but layoffs remain elevated
The number of laid-off Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to roughly 880,000 last week, a sign of possible improvement but evidence that the viral pandemic keeps forcing many businesses to slash jobs.
The latest figures, released Thursday by the Labor Department, suggest that nearly six months after the eruption of the coronavirus, the economy is still struggling to sustain a recovery and rebuild a job market that was devastated by the recession. In the previous week, more than 1 million had sought jobless aid.
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All told, the government said that 13.3 million people are continuing to receive traditional jobless benefits, up from 1.7 million a year ago.
Read more here. —Associated Press
6:55 a.m.: Illinois attorney general warns of robocalls discouraging voting by mail during coronavirus pandemic
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office Thursday morning warned voters that robocalls with false information targeting state residents are trying to discourage people from voting by mail.
The robocalls come after the state expanded voting by mail in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The recorded robocalls falsely claim that people who vote by mail will have their information shared. Among the claims are that voter information will be shared with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help track people for a mandatory vaccine program, shared with police to find people with outstanding warrants and shared with creditors.
“Many Illinois residents will opt to vote by mail as we all take precautions to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the spread of COVID-19,” Raoul said in the release. “We have already seen efforts to discourage people from voting by mail, and it is likely that those efforts will intensify as the November election approaches.”
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—Chicago Tribune staff
6 a.m.: For some CPS employees, the school year is already off to a rough start, even before classes begin Tuesday
The windowless conference room with poor air circulation was hardly an upgrade from the cramped office where Chicago Public Schools clerk Ramona Rojas was initially assigned when she returned to work last week.
In the main school office, nothing stood between Rojas and the maskless people who kept coming in even after she taped signs to the walls.
The school supplied three masks and two buckets of disinfectant wipes, but those can only protect her from so many virus particles. With her stress levels rising, Rojas said she took her laptop and moved to the conference room at the suggestion of her principal.
Rojas, a clerk at Prussing Elementary in Jefferson Park, is also a grandmother, has asthma and lost two relatives to the coronavirus. So she doesn’t take it lightly that CPS employees like herself who are returning to work in school buildings comply with health and safety guidelines and receive the protections they need. Meanwhile, students resume remote learning Tuesday.
“I felt like I was not being supported. I felt like everybody was looking at me like I was doing something wrong,” Rojas said.
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The Chicago Teachers Union has been fielding complaints from members around the city as they return to schools. Cases like Rojas’ raise the question of what to do when a co-worker is not following the rules, whether they are employed by CPS or staffed by a third party.
Read more here. —Hannah Leone
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 from Wednesday related to COVID-19.


chicagotribune--2020-09-03--Column: Emmett Till house takes first step toward landmark status as questions are raised about its

Column: Emmett Till house takes first step toward landmark status as questions are raised about its future

Several commissioners said the property is likely to become a pilgrimage site of African American history .
Others raised the @ @ @ @ @ become a house museum .
Maurice Cox , the city ’ s planning commissioner , @ @ @ @ @ survey of significant sites in African American and Latino history so owners know they ’ @ @ @ @ @ property .

The Commission on Chicago Landmarks unanimously approved a staff recommendation that the red brick two-flat at 6427 S. St. Lawrence Ave. where Emmett Till once lived be granted preliminary landmark status. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
The Chicago house of Emmett Till, whose brutal murder in Mississippi helped spark the civil rights movement, took the first step Thursday toward becoming an official city landmark as questions arose about the owner’s plans for the building.
The Commission on Chicago Landmarks unanimously approved a staff recommendation that the red brick two-flat at 6427 S. St. Lawrence Ave. be granted preliminary landmark status. That begins a multistep process that would protect the building from significant changes or demolition.
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The vote came days after the 65th anniversary of Till’s murder on Aug. 28, 1955. Till, who was 14 at the time of his death, lived with his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, in a three-bedroom apartment on the house’s second floor.
Till’s mother chose an open-casket funeral to show mourners, and the world, the horror and violence her son endured.
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The property’s owner, Blake McCreight of Express Property Solutions of Chicago, told the commission that he supports landmark status and promised to meet with community members to turn the home into something “way bigger than an income-producing property.”
[ Remembering slain teen Emmett Till in his hometown of Chicago via civil rights tourism and a mobile app ]
When McCreight bought the house, he said, he was not aware Till and his mother had lived there. He told commissioners he does not have a plan for the property.
Several commissioners said the property is likely to become a pilgrimage site of African American history. Others raised the possibility that the two-flat could become a house museum. Maurice Cox, the city’s planning commissioner, proposed the city do a survey of significant sites in African American and Latino history so owners know they’re buying a historically important property.
The City Council has final say on landmark status.
Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
bkamin@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BlairKamin


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--Chicago police fatally shoot man on Southwest Side

The sergeant involved in the shooting and other officers who responded to the scene were all uniformed Chicago Lawn district @ @ @ @ @ Additional details about the identification of the sergeant and other officers were not immediately available @

Police work the scene where an officer shot a man in the 5000 block of West 50th Street in Vittum Park on Sep. 5, 2020, in Chicago. Police say the man had a knife and lunged toward an officer. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
A man who stabbed someone and then allegedly stabbed a Chicago police officer in the vest was fatally shot by officers trying to arrest him on the Southwest Side early Saturday, police said.
The identity of the dead man had not been made public yet Saturday afternoon.
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Chicago Lawn District officers were called to the 4900 block of South Lavergne Avenue in the Vittum Park neighborhood about 1:40 a.m. for a call of a person stabbed.
The victim, a man, gave police a description of the suspect, and while officers were still speaking to him, a man approached a supervisor and allegedly stabbed the officer in the vest with a knife, according to Chicago police spokesman Sgt. Al Stinites, who spoke to reporters at the scene early Saturday, and Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) spokesman Ephraim Eaddy.
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Police spokesman Tom Ahern confirmed that was the same man who stabbed the victim.
During a struggle, the sergeant deployed a Taser, which hit the man, but he removed the prongs and lunged toward the sergeant with a knife. That’s when “additional units” fired shots at the man, who was dead on the scene, Stinitis said.
Police work the scene where an officer shot a man in the 5000 block of West 50th Street in Vittum Park on Sep. 5, 2020, in Chicago. Police say the man had a knife and lunged toward an officer. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
It was unclear how many shots were fired and how many times the man was struck.
COPA, which is investigating the incident to determine if the use of deadly force is in accordance with the Chicago Police Department’s policy, released a statement that said two officers fired shots that hit the man.
According to COPA, the initial stabbing incident happened at 49th Street and LaCrosse Avenue while the suspect was found nearby at 49th and Lavergne, where he was Tased and then shot after “continuing to attack” officers, all of whom were wearing body cameras, with a knife as they were trying to take him into custody.
COPA INVESTIGATES FATAL OFFICER INVOLVED SHOOTING NEAR 49th & LAVERGNE. pic.twitter.com/ptpSrm3x8B — COPA (@ChicagoCOPA) September 5, 2020
COPA will release all body-worn camera and third-party video, 911 calls, report and other material evidence “at the earliest point possible without compromise of the administrative investigation and no later than 60 days from the incident.”
The initial stabbing victim was taken to a hospital, but further information about him was not given.
Preliminary Statement on Police Involved Shooting in the 5000 block of W. 50th St. #ChicagoPolice pic.twitter.com/XLl82cfSUm — Tom Ahern (@TomAhernCPD) September 5, 2020
Police recovered a knife, and three officers who were involved in the shooting, who were taken to a hospital for observation, will be placed on routine administrative duties for 30 days.
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pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @paigexfry


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--Four police shootings in Chicago in two months, but no video released on any of them.  Is it taking

Four police shootings in Chicago in two months, but no video released on any of them.  Is it taking too long for the public to see what happened?

“ I think it speaks to the fact that there might be some other consideration that could mean the video @ @ @ @ @ , ” she said .
“ At least having that process within a time certain @ @ @ @ @ , that allows the release where possible , then at least there is much more @ @ @ @ @ the city .

The family of Miguel Vega — father Miguel Vega Sr., from left, mother Maria Vega and brother Erik Vega — speak with members of the news media near the intersection of 18th Street and Blue Island Avenue on Oct. 1, 2020, in Chicago. Miguel Vega was fatally shot by police on Aug. 31 on the 1300 block of West 19th Street. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
After facing withering criticism for withholding video of the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald five years ago, the city of Chicago created what it billed as one of the first written policies that guaranteed release of footage of officers using force.
For the first time, it set up a deadline — 60 days — for making video and other evidence available to the public. Even critics hailed it as an unprecedented shift toward transparency.
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Now some are questioning if the policy is strong enough to restore public trust.
From Chicago’s top cop to the mother of a man fatally shot by police, there is concern that it takes too long to get crucial images and information to the public. There have been at least five people shot by on-duty Chicago cops since July, two of them fatally, yet no video has been released from any of them in a summer when in other cities it has brought closer scrutiny of police actions.
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“When you are talking about, especially, an officer-involved shooting, a community and a city are going to want to have answers,” said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, an expert on policing and technology for the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan think tank based at the New York University School of Law.
“The longer it takes, the more distrust and suspicion a police department is buying itself,” she added. “So 60 days of a community not knowing what happened, and not having access, just seems like a long time to foment frustration.”
‘We’re trying to build trust’
It took a judge’s order for Chicago to finally release video of a white police officer shooting McDonald, a Black teen, 16 times and killing him on Oct. 20, 2014. City officials had repeatedly denied requests for the video until an independent journalist filed a lawsuit to have the footage made public.
The video was released a year after the shooting and sparked immediate condemnation and sustained protests. The officer, Jason Van Dyke, was later convicted of second-degree murder.
In the fallout, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel formed the Police Accountability Task Force that eventually came up with the 60-day release policy. Lori Lightfoot, then the president of the Chicago Police Board, headed the effort.
Before, there had been no set requirements for the department to roll out video from police shootings. Now, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability was to release video as it investigated police use of force and allegations of officer misconduct.
After the policy was put into place, the Emanuel administration posted evidence from more than 100 pending investigations of police shootings and other use-of-force incidents involving cops. COPA regularly updates its site with video from new incidents.
The 60-day window was aimed at striking a balance between timely release to the public and preserving the integrity of COPA investigations, which involve interviewing witnesses and evidence collection, including police department videos, as well as video from cameras at private homes and businesses.
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A request for a further 30-day delay can be made by a law enforcement agency. Other cases are withheld if a state law or a court order prohibits the release.
Video from cameras worn by officers or dashboard cameras mounted in squad cars is in the possession of the Police Department, which has on rare occasions released it on its own.
Just this week, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown said quicker releases of video could help restore confidence in some communities. “We’re trying to build trust,” he said Monday. “So the sooner we can get the body camera out, I’m more inclined to get it out sooner rather than later.”
Chicago police Superintendent David Brown arrives at a crime scene in the 300 block of North Central Avenue where people were shot on Aug. 19, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Brown made his comments a day after officers shot a 19-year-old West Side man after he allegedly wounded two other officers. The next day, Chicago police from the Near West patrol district shot and killed 26-year-old Miguel Vega on a Pilsen street after shots were fired at the officers as they got out of their unmarked car, police said.
Vega’s mother called for the release of any video of the incident, saying she did not believe the police version and that officials refused to answer questions.
“I want to see those videos of the officers’ body cameras,” Maria Vega demanded hours after her son died. “I want answers from the police and justice for my son. If my son was at fault, I’ll accept it, but it doesn’t make sense right now.”
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Days later, Chicago police shot and killed another man, this time on the Southwest Side after police say he lunged at officers with a knife after being hit with a Taser. The department’s preliminary statement did not say how many officers fired or how many shots were fired. The man died at the scene. No officers were hurt.
‘There has to be communication’
Karen Sheley, director of the Police Practices Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said the transparency provided by release of videos is what many civilians have sought for years.
“People who have been impacted by police violence have been concerned about police narratives for decades,” Sheley said. “We are, as a larger community, much more focused and becoming aware of too many of those narratives.”
Since Chicago created its policy, other police departments have moved toward an immediate review process, including New Orleans, which provides footage to state and federal prosecutors within 48 hours and then conducts an internal department review of the video.
Within seven days, the department’s Public Integrity Bureau must give the police chief a written recommendation on whether to release any video. The chief has 48 hours to act.
Although such policies don’t always guarantee release of videos within a certain time frame, they set up a process that the public can understand, Levinson-Waldman said.
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“I think it speaks to the fact that there might be some other consideration that could mean the video is not appropriate to release,” she said. “At least having that process within a time certain, that is fairly short, that allows the release where possible, then at least there is much more information to the community or the city.
“I think having that process in place, where there has to be communication, is significant,” Levinson-Waldman added.
Chicago is more in line with the Los Angeles Police Department, which created a policy in 2018 that mandates release of relevant video within 45 days of the incident.
COPA, in response to questions from the Tribune about the need for a 60-day window, said it was committed to completing a full investigation — including interviews with all witnesses and review of all video — before any release.
The agency noted it has released video ahead of the 60-day period. But a Tribune review of two years of cases on the COPA website showed that most were posted on or just prior to the 60-day deadline.
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Sheley, from the ACLU, questioned why it consistently takes COPA 60 days to complete the work, and said this is further reason for the entire process to be reviewed.
“Memories recede over time. I would hope they are getting those interviews done in the first few days,” she said. “To have a consistent policy of 60 days for everybody suggests there is a delay with the interviews. ... We are definitely at a point where that policy needs to be looked at.
“I would say, yes, that is a long period for the public to wait for valuable information,” Sheley said.
University of Chicago law professor Craig Futterman, who specializes in police accountability issues, believes COPA should release videos within days. He said the release should happen at least within 48 hours but no longer than 14 days from the time of the incident.
“The justification for ongoing secrecy with respect to just factual information about what happened on a scene gets pretty close to zero,” said Futterman. “Information ought to be made available promptly.”
That was the approach taken this past week by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who released bodycam footage less than a day after an officer shot and wounded a man in Chicago.
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The footage included images and sound from the bodycam of one of two officers present during the shooting, so it was not complete. The suspect is seen running from an officer. He then passes a second officer, who says, “Hold on, hey, hey.”
The suspect keeps running with what appears to be a gun in his hand. Several shots are heard and the suspect falls. According to the sheriff’s office, the other officer fired the shots. The next day, more footage was released from the bodycams of both officers, this time showing what preceded the shooting.
Dart’s office said in a statement afterward that there is no official policy on release of video evidence, but that the “standing practice” has been to release as much footage as they can in an effort to be “transparent and accountable.”
Partial footage was released initially to “provide as much information as quickly as possible so that the public can have a clear picture of how events unfolded.”
Chicago police have been met by criticism when they have released video soon after a shooting.
The case that drew the sharpest rebuke was the July 2018 fatal shooting of 37-year-old Harith Augustus by a Chicago police officer, which led to violent clashes between officers and protesters.
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Then-Superintendent Eddie Johnson released a snippet of video from an officer’s bodycam in an effort to calm the disturbances. “I have an obligation to this city, to the community and to these police officers to make sure this city is safe and calm,” Johnson told reporters at the time.
But the video, made available less than a day after the shooting, was under a minute and had no sound. Any verbal exchanges between Augustus and police were not captured.
The video appeared to show Augustus break away from officers and move his hand toward his waistband, where he had a holstered gun. That’s when an officer opened fire, striking Augustus as he appeared to run away, according to the video.
This led COPA’s chief administrator, Sydney Roberts, to write Johnson a scathing letter.
“This piecemeal and arguably narrative-driven video release breeds suspicions, which may ultimately undermine COPA’s ability to successfully investigate allegations of misconduct and officer-involved shootings — an outcome inconsistent with the city’s efforts at reform,” Roberts wrote to Johnson.
“The department electing to release video in an effort to quell public concern in this instance has the real potential to undermine the accountability process by establishing a dangerous precedent in which video is released only when it serves to justify the actions of Department members,” it added. “That would be a step backward, not forward, for Chicago’s transparency efforts.”
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Days after Brown talked about a quicker release of video, he released a statement Thursday supporting the current policy and referring further questions to COPA.
“As COPA is responsible for the collection and release of all evidence and materials related to an investigation, we will defer further questions on the video release policy to that department,” it read.
Chicago Tribune’s Laura Presa Rodriguez contributed.
jgorner@chicagotribune.com
asweeney@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--4-year-old boy and woman injured in Gresham shooting, police say

Neighbors , who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation , said they have had issues with @ @ @ @ @ occurred .
The majority of the people who live on the block are retirees and @ @ @ @ @ the neighbors on the corner are renters who moved in about three years ago .

Officers walk between two homes at the scene where a 4-year-old boy and 18-year-old woman were shot late Friday night in the 8600 block of South Honore Street during the Labor Day weekend Saturday Sep. 5, 2020 in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
A 4-year-old boy and an 18-year-old were injured in a shooting Friday night on the Far South Side, according to Chicago police.
The shooting occurred around 11:30 p.m. in the 8600 block of South Honore Street in the Gresham neighborhood, police said. The woman and child were standing outside when a man inside a passing black Dodge Challenger fired shots at them.
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The boy was shot in the leg and taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park in good condition, police said.
The woman was shot in the lower backside and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in good condition, police said.
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Police examine a car at the scene where a 4-year-old boy and an 18-year-old woman were shot late Friday night in the 8600 block of South Honore Street during the Labor Day weekend on Sep. 5, 2020, in Chicago.
The victims were likely not the intended target, police said. No arrests have been made.
Crime scene tape stretched across the one-way residential street. At least 15 evidence markers were placed on the road and sidewalk. At least one sedan inside the scene had bullet holes.
Neighbors, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation, said they have had issues with the house where the shooting occurred. The majority of the people who live on the block are retirees and own their homes, but the neighbors on the corner are renters who moved in about three years ago.
The president of the block club tried to talk to the residents of the home shortly after they moved in about the block’s rules, but they were resistant and rude, neighbors said.
“It’s been a mess ever since,” a neighbor said.
“I want them to leave tomorrow,” another said.
The day before the shooting, neighbors said people were outside the home playing music late into the night and about six young kids were outside playing. The police came after a neighbor called for a noise disturbance, neighbors said.
One neighbor who has lived on the block for more than 25 years said this was the first shooting that she’s known to occur on the block since she’s moved in. There are shootings on nearby blocks, but not there, she said.
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“It’s terrible,” she said. “We’ve never had this kind of action.”
Neighbors said they heard eight to 10 consecutive shots. One neighbor came outside after she heard the shots, and said she saw someone carrying a child who looked limp and cried out for someone to call an ambulance.
“It’s a tragedy, but they’re hanging outside of their house like no shame — like it’s just another day,” she said.
Another neighbor also said that everyone on the block knows one another except for the house on the corner where the shooting occurred. Neighbors don’t know much about them and keep their distance, but the neighbor said he had recently brought them over some of his old children bikes because he often saw young kids out front.
pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @paigexfry


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--Former ComEd VP charged with bribery conspiracy in scheme to sway House Speaker Michael Madigan

Marquez , who has homes in Chicago and Arizona , has not responded to repeated attempts by the Tribune to @ @ @ @ @ Tribune reporter went to his condo building in the South Loop in August 2019 , @ @ @ @ @ desk said he hadn ’ t seen Marquez in weeks .
A reporter visited Marquez @ @ @ @ @ the financial district that same day , but was told by an employee that Marquez @ @ @ @ @ ”

A former vice president for ComEd was charged Friday with bribery conspiracy alleging he helped orchestrate a scheme to pay political allies of powerful Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan to influence legislation in Springfield that would benefit the utility.
Fidel Marquez, a longtime lobbyist and former senior vice president of governmental affairs at ComEd, was charged in a one-count criminal information made public late Friday.
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Marquez was the first person to be charged in the ongoing investigation of an elaborate bribery scheme aimed at influencing legislation in Springfield by making payments to Madigan associates and approved lobbyists, some of whom did little or no actual work for the company.
ComEd was charged with bribery in July and has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the government, agreeing to pay a record $200 million fine and cooperate with investigators in exchange for the charges being dropped in three years.
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Defendants who are charged via criminal information — as opposed to grand jury indictment — likely intend to plead guilty. Neither Marquez nor his attorney could immediately be reached for comment.
Madigan, the nation’s longest-serving speaker and Illinois Democratic Party chairman, has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged.
The four-page information against Marquez alleged that from 2011 to 2019, he conspired with others to corruptly solicit jobs, contracts and monetary payments for the benefit of Madigan — identified as Public Official A — and his associates with the intent of influencing legislation beneficial to ComEd.
Specifically, on July 30, 2018, Marquez directed a $37,500 payment to Company 1, “a substantial portion of which was intended for associates of (Madigan),” the information stated.
The Chicago Tribune reported last year that Marquez was a focus of the federal investigation, as is former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, who abruptly retired last year. Pramaggiore has not been charged. A Pramaggiore spokesman has said that she “has done nothing wrong and any inference to the contrary is misguided and false.”
Prosecutors have said ComEd’s scheme began around 2011 — when key regulatory matters were before the Illinois House that Madigan controls — and continued through last year.
Many of the illegal payments allegedly were arranged by downstate lobbyist Michael McClain, a key confidant and adviser at the center of the probe, according to court records. McClain also has not been charged.
One example cited in ComEd’s deferred prosecution agreement involved a man identified as “Consultant 1,” who allegedly was speaking to a ComEd executive identified by the Tribune as Marquez. The consultant said he believed McClain had spoken to Madigan about the payments, saying the money was “to keep (Public Official A) happy (and) I think it’s worth it, because you’d hear otherwise,” prosecutors alleged.
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Records show ComEd tried to clean up its lobbying operation in the midst of the investigation last year. One of those departing was Marquez. ComEd officially announced it on Sept. 23, saying only that Marquez was “retiring after 39 years of service.”
Marquez, who has homes in Chicago and Arizona, has not responded to repeated attempts by the Tribune to reach him. When a Tribune reporter went to his condo building in the South Loop in August 2019, a manager at the security desk said he hadn’t seen Marquez in weeks. A reporter visited Marquez’s lobbying office in the financial district that same day, but was told by an employee that Marquez was “on leave.”
In all, prosecutors put a value of at least $150 million on the legislative benefits ComEd received. The federal court documents specifically noted the 2011 passage of the Energy Infrastructure and Modernization Act, which “helped improve ComEd’s financial stability” by establishing rate guidelines and a smart grid overhaul.
A spokeswoman for Madigan, meanwhile, has said the speaker “has never made a legislative decision with improper motives and has engaged in no wrongdoing here.”
ComEd has publicly apologized for its actions, but the company also has denied the scheme meant customers were unfairly charged.
Meanwhile, the investigation appears to go well beyond ComEd. In a subpoena sent to Madigan’s office on the day the ComEd charges were announced, authorities sought records related to AT&T, Walgreens and Rush University Medical Center. The subpoena also sought records related to Madigan’s political organization and law firm, as well as former state lawmakers and current or former Chicago aldermen.
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The Tribune reported in July that AT&T had also been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors in relation to its Springfield lobbying. Records show that AT&T used several of the same former Madigan staffers and ex-Democratic state representatives as ComEd did for its lobbying.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--Death Row inmate set free after 37 years

Each year , the U.S. spends an astounding $ 100 billion on beer .
Between pints over brunch and after-work sessions , beer holds a prominent place in the American lifestyle , comprising 85 % of the country ’ s alcoholic beverage market .
But the obsession with beer does n't stop with the average consumer , as sharing a round of brews has come to epitomize comradery , celebration , or just simple enjoyment across the worlds of entertainment , politics , sports , and business .
Over the last few decades , the beer landscape has evolved considerably @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the consolidation of major brands .
In 2018 , America had over 7,000 breweries producing almost 195 million barrels of beer .
This wasn ’ t always the case .
In fact , as recently as the 1970s , many beer lovers feared that big brewers would completely dominate the industry with their cheap , flavorless lagers and that America ’ s best beer-making days were long behind it .
Those little producers , the craft and microbreweries , saved the industry and made America ’ s beer industry the largest and most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a craft brewery is defined as making less than 6 million barrels per year and a microbrewery produces less than 15,000 barrels annually .
To help understand how these changes impact average beer drinks , Stacker analyzed average price data for 16-ounce malt beverages from 1995 to 2020 along with CPI changes from 1952 to 1995 for at-home consumption of beer , ale , and other malt beverages , both provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics ( BLS ) .
The national CPI was used to adjust for inflation , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of breweries each year from the Brewer 's Association was added in to complete the analysis .
Read on to rediscover a time where you could get a refreshing pint for under a quarter—and you had to work a little harder to find a brewery to call your own .

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 16 Renaldo Hudson, 56, released from Danville Correctional Center earlier in the day, reaches out to hug his attorney, Jenny Soble, upon arriving at Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago on Sept. 2, 2020. He spent 37 years in prison and Gov. J.B. Pritzker granted him clemency. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
Renaldo Hudson, 56, was released from Danville Correctional Center on Sept. 2, 2020, after Gov. J.B. Pritzker granted his clemency petition. Pritzker has granted clemency to about 50 inmates since the pandemic began, including more than a dozen murderers. Hudson is a former death row inmate convicted of the June 6, 1983, murder of an elderly neighbor, Folke Petersen, 72, who was stabbed more than 60 times during a robbery. Hudson was 19 at the time.


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--The Rev. Leon Finney Jr., longtime South Side activist and developer, dies

Finney led The Woodlawn Organization and its development arm , the Woodlawn Community Development Corp .
The Woodlawn Organization became @ @ @ @ @ built a network of social programs , but in the last decade came increasingly under @ @ @ @ @ the use of some of the millions of dollars of public funds the development group @ @ @ @ @ of misusing public housing funds , including using government money for private pursuits .

Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, is greeted by the Rev. Leon Finney Jr., right, during a community barbecue in support of the Obama Presidential Center, at Leon's BBQ and Grill on June 14, 2019, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
The Rev. Leon Finney Jr., a longtime South Side pastor and activist, who came to prominence in the 1960s by fighting slumlords and helping guard the Woodlawn neighborhood against University of Chicago expansion plans, died Friday at the University of Chicago Medical Center, a longtime friend said.
He was 82.
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Founder of The Woodlawn Organization, Finney made his name opposing the encroachment of the University of Chicago on areas south of the Midway Plaisance.
The Rev. Leon Finney Jr. gives a tour of the Woodlawn neighborhood on Dec. 9, 2011. He pointed to several projects, such as a residential housing development on East 63rd Street that he and the Woodlawn Organization helped bring to the area in the last several decades. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush described Finney as an “organizer’s organizer” who was on the front line of change.
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“Dr. Finney’s life and legacy have left his fingerprints on the throttle of change in our city, state, and nation,” the Democratic congressman said in a statement.
Rush, who was taught by Finney at McCormick Theological Seminary, credited Finney for training countless Black pastors after establishing an African American leadership program at the institution.
“He was an absolute friend and an inspiration,” he said. “I alone, with countless others, are in mourning due to his transition, but we all remain committed to furthering his life’s pursuit.”
When thousands of residents fled Woodlawn after fires ravaged the neighborhood in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Finney worked to develop a revitalization plan to help restore the community.
“I think his biggest contribution to the society was his skills as a community organizer,” Jim Montgomery, Finney’s cousin, said.
“He developed the template on how to organize a poor community.”
Rikki Jones, Cook County Democrat Women president and founder of Christ Apostolic Church, called Finney “a great community man” for the Woodlawn neighborhood.
“His death took me by surprise,” she said.
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Jones explained that in recent weeks she was unable to reach him. “That was not in his character, to not get back with you. He never stayed out of the loop. He was always in the middle of everything.”
Jones recounted working with Finney and mentioned the late Mayor Harold Washington’s campaign, noting Finney’s love of politics.
She hopes someone will pick up where Finney left off, someone who cares and loves the community as sincerely as Finney, she said.
Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, is greeted by the Rev. Leon Finney during a community barbecue in support of the Obama Presidential Center at Leon's BBQ and Grill on June 14, 2019, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
A native of Louise, Mississippi, Finney took pride in being a protege of both radical organizer Saul Alinsky and Bishop Arthur Brazier, pastor of the Apostolic Church of God, the founder of The Woodlawn Organization.
Finney led The Woodlawn Organization and its development arm, the Woodlawn Community Development Corp. The Woodlawn Organization became a national model as it built a network of social programs, but in the last decade came increasingly under scrutiny because of questions about the use of some of the millions of dollars of public funds the development group controlled. He was accused of misusing public housing funds, including using government money for private pursuits.
Finney earned three master’s degrees and two Ph.D.s, including a doctorate of theology from McCormick Theological Seminary.
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After serving as a Marine in the 1960s, Finney worked as a commercial paper trader for the First National Bank of Chicago, then as executive director of The Woodlawn Organization, often known by the acronym TWO, by the late 1960s.
Finney went on to become the pastor of three churches, including the Christ Apostolic Church, which later took over and restored the Metropolitan Church in Bronzeville and became the Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church.
Finney had a long-standing career in Chicago politics.
He sat on the city planning commission for more than 30 years. He served as the chair of the Chicago State University Board of Trustees for years, and in the 1980s, he was a Chicago Housing Authority board member for five years.
“Leon is one of those leaders of the community who was busier than anyone I ever encountered,” Montgomery said.
“I, like everyone else, will absolutely miss him.”
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Tribune reporter Javonte Anderson contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Update: Death of 3-year-old girl on West Side ruled homicide

She was discovered in bed by Chicago Fire Department paramedics and police who were called to a home in the @ @ @ @ @ Avenue at 12:36 a.m. , according to Chicago police .

The death of a 3-year-old girl who was found unresponsive in bed early Friday in the South Austin neighborhood has been ruled a homicide, officials said.
An autopsy Friday determined that Lehlani Edwards died of multiple injuries from child abuse, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
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She was discovered in bed by Chicago Fire Department paramedics and police who were called to a home in the 1000 block of North Lockwood Avenue at 12:36 a.m., according to Chicago police.
According to police, Lehlani, who was being cared for by her mother’s friend, suffered bruising and scratches “throughout” her body.
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Lehlani was pronounced dead at 1:21 a.m. at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, according to the medical examiner.
Jassen Strokosch, of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, said they are investigating as well but did not have further information immediately.
Area Four detectives are investigating.
rsobol@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-06--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what’s happening this Labor Day weekend in the Chicago area

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what’s happening this Labor Day weekend in the Chicago area with COVID-19

The statement , which has not yet been finalized , is meant to reassure the public that the companies will @ @ @ @ @ of vaccines under political pressure from the Trump administration .
President Donald Trump has pushed @ @ @ @ @ available by October — just before the presidential election — and a growing number of @ @ @ @ @ health experts have expressed concern over what they see as a pattern of political arm-twisting @ @ @ @ @ its efforts to combat the virus .

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)
Heading into the Labor Day weekend, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview this week that Illinois and a half-dozen other states with increasing COVID-19 numbers are at risk for a surge in cases over the holiday, according to a Bloomberg report.
On Monday, Illinois health officials announced 1,381 new known cases of COVID-19 and eight additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 250,961 and the statewide death toll to 8,179 since the start of the pandemic.
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This comes days after a significant slowdown in the agency’s test reporting earlier last week led to a backlog that resulted in a unusually high daily count on Friday of both newly diagnosed cases, 5,368, and tests, 149,273.
Additionally, Lake County landed on the Illinois Department of Public Health weekly coronavirus warning list on Friday, one of 29 counties the state put on alert leading into Labor Day weekend.
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Suburban Cook County was not on the weekly list, though it had been a week earlier.
Here’s what’s happening this holiday weekend with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
Monday
‘It’s just sad’: On Navy Pier’s final day until spring, patrons and merchants rue another COVID-19 shutdown
On the surface, it was just another Labor Day at Navy Pier.
Crowds wandered the 3,300-foot-long strip with ice cream cones or dog leashes in their hands, enjoying a brisk northerly breeze that etched whitecaps onto the surface of Lake Michigan and kept the temperature pleasantly mild.
But a closer look revealed the crowd was nowhere near as thick as it normally would be. Numerous restaurants were closed, while others served just a handful of patrons. Some of the massive tour boats that normally would be circling the lake floated idly without a passenger or crew member in sight.
So it went on the last day Navy Pier was open before shutting down — again — in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of Illinois’ most popular tourist attractions, the pier closed from mid-March to June, but even after its reopening, attendance has been only 15% of its normal level, spokeswoman Payal Patel said.
That prompted Navy Pier officials to suspend operations once more until spring. The exact date remains undetermined and could be moved up if a vaccine comes online earlier than expected, Patel said.
“We are remaining fluid and will take each day as it comes,” she said.
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Read more here. —John Keilman
The Summer of COVID-19 ends with US health officials worried about another surge following Labor Day
The Lost Summer of 2020 drew to a close Monday with many big Labor Day gatherings canceled across the U.S. and health authorities pleading with people to keep their distance from others so as not to cause another coronavirus surge like the one that followed Memorial Day.
Downtown Atlanta was quiet as the 85,000 or so people who come dressed as their favorite superheroes or sci-fi characters for the annual Dragon Con convention met online instead. Huge football stadiums at places like Ohio State and the University of Texas sat empty. Many Labor Day parades marking the unofficial end of summer were called off, and masks were usually required at the few that went on.
“Please, please do not make the same mistakes we all made on Memorial Day weekend. Wear your masks, watch your distance and wash your hands,” said Dr. Raul Pino, state health director in Orange County, Florida, which includes the Orlando area.
The U.S. had about 1.6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases around Memorial Day, before backyard parties and other gatherings contributed to a summertime surge. It now has more than 6.2 million cases, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University. Deaths from the virus more than doubled over the summer to nearly 190,000.
Read more here. —Associated Press
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Hopes fading for COVID-19 relief deal as Congress returns
At least there won’t be a government shutdown.
But as lawmakers straggle back to Washington for an abbreviated preelection session, hopes are dimming for another coronavirus relief bill — or much else.
Talks between top Democrats and the Trump administration broke off last month and remain off track, with the bipartisan unity that drove almost $3 trillion in COVID-19 rescue legislation into law this spring replaced by toxic partisanship and a return to Washington dysfunction.
Expectations in July and August that a fifth bipartisan pandemic response bill would eventually be birthed despite increased obstacles has been replaced by genuine pessimism. Recent COVID-related conversations among key players have led to nothing.
Read more here. —Associated Press
1,381 new known COVID-19 cases, 8 additional deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Monday announced 1,381 new known cases of COVID-19 and eight additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 250,961 and the statewide death toll to 8,179 since the start of the pandemic.
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—Chicago Tribune staff
From death row to model inmate, Renaldo Hudson set free after 37 years. ‘I was preparing to die. I wasn’t preparing for this moment.’
Nearly four decades ago, 19-year-old Renaldo Hudson talked his way into the South Side apartment of a retired carpenter under the guise of fixing a broken light fixture.
Instead, in a drug-fueled robbery plot, Hudson stabbed the elderly man dozens of times, then set his apartment ablaze to hide what he had done. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to die, a punishment later commuted to life without the possibility of parole.
As time passed, the violent, angry teenager grew into a model prisoner and mentor to other inmates. A grade school dropout unable to read or write when he entered prison, Hudson created a statewide essay contest that resulted in a book, started a prison newspaper and helped develop other rehabilitative programs. Three years ago, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Christian studies.
His road to redemption began when he still was on death row and culminated last Wednesday when, at 56, he walked out of a medium-security prison in downstate Illinois and became a free man for the first time since 1983. Gov. J.B. Pritzker commuted Hudson’s life sentence to time served in the latest round of executive clemency decisions since the COVID-19 public health crisis began.
Read more here. —Christy Gutowski
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Teaching to empty classrooms: For some educators, giving lessons from school to students watching from home ‘helps it look and feel more normal’
When school districts across the Chicago area scuttled plans to reopen school buildings, officials said the last-minute shift to remote learning was imperative to ensure the health and safety of students and teachers.
Many teachers unions applauded the shift, saying that bringing students and teachers together for in-person instruction could be dangerous and even deadly. But the pivot to remote learning was unpopular among many parents who’d hoped for classrooms to reopen. Some parents — as well as President Donald Trump — suggested teachers should be considered essential workers and should instruct from their school buildings.
Now, in some suburban districts, the new school year has begun with a different kind of remote learning: The students are still at home, but the majority of teachers are back in the classroom.
Read more here. —Karen Ann Cullotta
Nick Cordero, Broadway star who died of coronavirus, remembered during emotional memorial
Nick Cordero, the Broadway actor who died in July of coronavirus at the age of 41, was remembered Sunday as a mega-talent with a commanding presence and husky baritone, who remained humble about his many successes when not taking center stage.
The Tony-nominated star of “Bullets Over Broadway,” “The Toxic Avenger” and “Waitress” was honored at a special memorial tribute that streamed on Broadway on Demand. The spiritual center of Cordero’s work life may be closed, but for two hours, at least, members of the showbiz community gathered virtually to celebrate Cordero’s life with songs from the musicals he appeared in and personal remembrances of a promising career cut short.
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Read more here. —Variety
Sunday
1,403 new known COVID-19 cases, 5 additional deaths reported
On Sunday, Illinois health officials announced 1,403 new known cases of COVID-19 and 5 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 249,580 and the statewide death toll to 8,171 since the start of the pandemic.
—Chicago Tribune staff
From wake-up calls to wellness checks, how CPS is trying to make sure no child is left disconnected as remote learning resumes Tuesday
From exhausting phone trees and dropping off Chromebooks to calling police for wellness checks, social workers, counselors and other support staff in Chicago Public Schools have gone to great lengths to track down students who aren’t connecting with their schools during remote learning.
With a new school year starting remotely on Tuesday, school communities are redoubling their efforts, while also figuring out how to build new relationships virtually with incoming kindergartners and high school freshmen.
Read more here. —Hannah Leone
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Saturday
Competing drug companies plan joint statement on vaccine safety, pledging not to prematurely release treatments
A group of drug companies competing with one another to be among the first to develop coronavirus vaccines are planning to pledge early next week that they will not release any vaccines that do not follow rigorous efficacy and safety standards, according to representatives of three of the companies.
The statement, which has not yet been finalized, is meant to reassure the public that the companies will not seek a premature approval of vaccines under political pressure from the Trump administration. President Donald Trump has pushed for a vaccine to be available by October — just before the presidential election — and a growing number of scientists, regulators and public health experts have expressed concern over what they see as a pattern of political arm-twisting by the Trump administration in its efforts to combat the virus.
Read more here. —The New York Times
2,806 new known COVID-19 cases, 23 additional deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Saturday announced 2,806 new known cases of COVID-19 and 23 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 248,177 and the statewide death toll to 8,166 since the start of the pandemic.
It is unclear if the previously reported backlog from earlier in the week affected the number of new known coronavirus infections reported Saturday.
—Chicago Tribune staff
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Northeastern University dismisses 11 students who gathered in same hotel room, violating social distance rules, and won’t refund tuition
Northeastern University said Friday it has dismissed 11 freshman students for the fall semester for violating campus social distancing guidelines after they were discovered in the same hotel room.
The students were given 24 hours to leave the Boston campus and were ordered to undergo COVID-19 tests, the university said in a statement. It said any who test positive would be moved into isolated wellness housing rather than sent home, to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Northeastern said the 11 people, whose names were not released, were part of an international experience for first-year students. It said they were among more than 800 students housed in two-person rooms at the Westin Hotel not far from the main campus.
Read more here. —Associated Press


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--Biker returns to Winnetka pier, this time to a welcome

Riders said they showed up to make clear that they , the mostly white North Shore citizens , don ’ @ @ @ @ @ by Irene Donoshaytis of Northfield , who appeared in court this week facing a class @ @ @ @ @ .
Winnetka has about 12,500 residents .
Ninety percent are white ; census data from @ @ @ @ @ Black residents at zero because there are so few .
Neighboring Northfield , with about @ @ @ @ @ the same .
Glencoe too ; about 1 % of the roughly 8,900 residents are @ @

Otis Campbell, center left, leads a group of bicyclists to Tower Road Beach, Sept. 5, 2020, in Winnetka. About 75 bicyclists rode with Campbell from the Tower Road Boat Launch in Northfield to Tower Road Beach as a gesture of solidarity, after an Aug. 17 incident when Campbell was harassed and threatened by area resident Irene Donoshaytis for being at the beach pier with friends following a 15-mile bicycle ride. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Friendly people at Saturday’s bike ride kept saying, “Welcome.”
In truth, Otis Campbell didn’t feel unwelcome, even after a white woman — who was arrested and later charged with a hate crime — accosted him on the Winnetka pier where he and friends ended a long bike ride on Aug. 17. In the now widely circulated video Campbell took of the encounter, the woman tells him to “go back to where you’re from.” He lives in Skokie.
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“I went to Niles North,” the 25-year-old said on Saturday, standing among a crowd of cyclists gathered to ride with him to the pier and make the point that Campbell, and Black people generally, are welcome in Winnetka. He regularly rides his Schwinn through the North Shore suburbs. He has a specialty sneaker business, has a background in computers and likes anime.
One white woman insisting he wasn’t welcome did not make him question what he believed about himself or his belonging, he said. He thinks she made some assumptions about him, perhaps. But she didn’t even know him.
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When one of the organizers of the welcome ride, meant to be a message of anti-racism, told Campbell, “Welcome back to Tower Road,” he laughed. He’d already been back on rides.
“I honestly never intended to not go back. There was never any type of animosity against Winnetka or anybody from the North Shore or any white person in general. It was just one instance. I’m taking it as a little hiccup in the world of Otis at the moment,” Campbell said the day before the ride.
Holding a microphone set up to kick things off on Saturday, he told cyclists: “All your Black friends get judged every day. This happened. Now is the time to stand up against it.”
Otis Campbell uses a microphone and speaker to thank supporters and friends after a bicycle ride to Tower Road Beach on Sept. 5, 2020, in Winnetka. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
By the time riders took off on the trail toward the pier, there were more than 75 of them. Some carried posters meant for onlookers. One said, “Not a Racist? Great! COME JOIN US.”
Dozens more waited at the pier. Natalie Anthony, who lives on the east side of Glenview, saw the video Campbell took at the pier a couple of weeks ago and messaged him directly on Twitter to say she’d like to ride with him. It grew from there as a group of her friends helped organize the ride; she’d never done something like that before.
“I’m raising mixed-race kids on the North Shore,” she said. Explaining that she initially wasn’t sure how to take action, she said that liking anti-racist messages on Facebook didn’t feel like enough. “I can get off the couch and show I care.”
Riders said they showed up to make clear that they, the mostly white North Shore citizens, don’t share the views expressed by Irene Donoshaytis of Northfield, who appeared in court this week facing a class 4 felony hate crime charge. Winnetka has about 12,500 residents. Ninety percent are white; census data from 2018 registers the percentage of Black residents at zero because there are so few. Neighboring Northfield, with about 5,500 residents, is about the same. Glencoe too; about 1% of the roughly 8,900 residents are Black.
“There are a lot of folks on the North Shore who don’t feel welcome here, don’t feel like they belong, and there are a lot of people who make people feel like they don’t belong,” said Patrick Hanley, a Winnetka community activist who has spent the summer helping organize anti-racism walks and Zoom seminars about racism. He helped with the bike ride too. “White folks have a hard time contextualizing Black people being in the north suburbs.”
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Hanley talked about a man who lives in Winnetka and works at a coffee shop. People are friendly to him there. But when he was out in the community walking his dog, he was met with stares, somehow out of place and less welcome.
Supporters of Otis Campbell raise signs at a rally after a bicycle ride to Tower Road Beach on Sept. 5, 2020, in Winnetka. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Ami Desai Das, a physician and community activist also from the east side of Glenview who was helping lead the ride, told the group of cyclists preparing to ride a story of her friend’s recent experience being confronted in an ice cream shop.
“A prominent white lawyer comes up to her and says, stop speaking Spanish,” she said. “We can’t let that happen again and again and again.”
Not all racism involves a white woman screaming at a Black man that he doesn’t belong in her neighborhood. Even as she leads school diversity and equity committees, and talks about racist language and the experiences of people of color in her community, Desai Das said she regularly encounters people who don’t believe racism still exists.
Saturday’s organizers and riders came because they do.
It was about “just showing up and saying we have a voice, to show there are more of us than those disgusting people who don’t create an inclusive environment,” Karl Bilimoria said.
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A couple of miles from the Tower Road Boat Launch, where the group began, as the ride neared the pier where Campbell had been told he wasn’t welcome, girls and boys smiled and held signs that said, “Welcome Otis and Friends.”
As he and his friend prepared to begin the route, Campbell said again that he never felt unwelcome. But with so many more riders there than he expected with a “Welcome” message, he said his heart was racing.
“All this is love,” he said.


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital da

COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital data in your area

Among the metrics ( see below ) tracked under guidelines set by Gov .
J.B. Pritzker are the percentage of @ @ @ @ @ , the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19-like illnesses , and the capacity of hospitals @ @ @ @ @ state will decide how much or how little to restrict activities based on these metrics @

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
To assess how different parts of Illinois are handling the COVID-19 pandemic, officials look at the state through the 11 regions of Emergency Medical Services. The city of Chicago is one region, for example, and the rest of Cook County is another.
Among the metrics (see below) tracked under guidelines set by Gov. J.B. Pritzker are the percentage of coronavirus tests that return positive, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19-like illnesses, and the capacity of hospitals to take in new patients.The state will decide how much or how little to restrict activities based on these metrics. (Cases, deaths and tests data is as of Dec. 31).
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus.
• Other Chicago, suburbs and Illinois COVID-19 metrics.
• See how the governor’s plan to manage the regions works.
Source: Illinois Department of Public Health
Created by the Chicago Tribune dataviz team. On Twitter @chitribgraphics


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood

Search below by street address , ZIP code or city , then click on the map to see the number @ @ @ @ @ state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or fewer .

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
Illinois releases the number of positive COVID-19 cases by ZIP code daily. The map below shows the cumulative cases for each area as well as other analysis of the data.
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Tracking daily Illinois coronavirus deaths, cases and tests.
Search below by street address, ZIP code or city, then click on the map to see the number of confirmed and probable cases. The state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or fewer.
Data as of June 10.
The map search tool above works best in Chrome or Firefox and may not perform consistently in Internet Explorer.
Note: Because of a coding error this map was displaying the incorrect rates for new cases in the last 7 days per 100,000 people — the issue should now be resolved.. The Tribune adjusted the data shown on the map below to focus on new cases, those the state tracked in the last 7 seven days. The totals for the entire pandemic are still available, but in the pop-up after tapping or clicking on a ZIP.


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 23 new deaths, 2,806 new confirmed cases and 61,935 new test resu

Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 23 new deaths, 2,806 new confirmed cases and 61,935 new test results

Illinois announced 2,806 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Saturday for a total of 248,177 .
The state also announced 23 @ @ @ @ @ of 8,166 and 61,935 new test results for a total of 4.37 million .

Johns Hopkins University & Medicine tracked coronavirus cases, deaths and test totals from Jan. 22, 2020 through March 10, 2023, but is no longer providing this data. These charts will no longer be updated.
Check the Illinois Department of Public Health for the most up-to-date data for Illinois.
[ Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus ]
Can’t see these charts? Go here.


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--1 dead, 12 wounded, including 4-year-old boy, in shootings as Labor Day weekend begins

The victim , 28 , was shot in the abdomen during an argument involving a group of people .
An @ @ @ @ @ out a weapon and fired in the group ’ s direction , striking the victim @ @ @ @ @ Mount Sinai Hospital , where his condition had stabilized , police said .

A man was fatally wounded and at least 12 people were injured, including a 4-year-old boy, in shootings since 5 p.m. Friday, Chicago police said.
The fatal attack happened at 11 p.m. and involved family members who were attending a party at a residence in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood. In that shooting, which left a 36-year-old man dead, a weapon was recovered at the scene, and the family member was in police custody while detectives continue to investigate, police said.
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The latest overnight shooting happened about 5:20 a.m. Saturday on the West Side in the 3600 block of West Augusta Boulevard in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, police said.
The victim, 28, was shot in the abdomen during an argument involving a group of people. An occupant of a vehicle pulled out a weapon and fired in the group’s direction, striking the victim. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition had stabilized, police said.
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Shortly after 4:35 a.m., a 34-year-old man was critically wounded in a shooting in the West Englewood neighborhood in the 1900 block West 74th Street.
The victim was driving when someone traveling in a white vehicle fired shots, striking him multiple times in the torso and arm. The victim then crashed into a parked vehicle on the same block, police said. He was taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
In other shootings:
About 4 a.m., officers responding to ShotSpotter technology discovered a 28-year-old man lying on the ground in the 3000 block of West 71st Street in the Marquette Park neighborhood. The man suffered a wound to the right foot and was taken to Holy Cross Hospital in good condition. Police said the victim was being uncooperative.
Shortly before 3 a.m., a 33-year-old man was shot in the Little Village neighborhood in the 4000 block of West 27th Street. Police said the victim was standing in an alley when a dark sedan approached and someone opened fire, hitting him in the right thigh. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was listed in good condition.
About 2:45 a.m., a 16-year-old girl was a passenger in a vehicle traveling in the 200 block of South Ashland Avenue when she heard shots and felt pain in her face. She was dropped off at Stroger Hospital, where she was listed in fair condition.
Shortly after 1:30 a.m., a 15-year-old boy was shot outside of a gas station in 1900 block of West Augusta Boulevard in the East Ukrainian Village. Police said the boy got into an argument with someone in the back seat of a white Dodge Magnum. Shots rang out. and the boy was struck in the arm and side, and was dropped off in serious condition to St. Mary’s Hospital.
About 1:25 a.m., officers saw a 51-year-old man being shot while he was sitting in his car in the 5500 block of South Wells Street in the Englewood neighborhood. He suffered a wound to his arm and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition. Two men were arrested at 75th Street and the Skyway by responding officers.
Shortly before 11:30 p.m. Friday, a 4-year-old boy and an 18-year-old woman were shot in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side. Both were in good condition, police said.
About 9:40 p.m., a 19-year-old man was shot in the first block of East 100th Place in the Roseland neighborhood. The man was walking on the sidewalk when a green-colored vehicle pulled up, and someone fired shots. He suffered wounds to the lower backside and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was listed in good condition, police said.
About 8:50 p.m., a 29-year-old man was shot in the 6300 block of South Wolcott Avenue in the West Englewood neighborhood. The man was on a scooter on the sidewalk when someone in a dark-colored vehicle drove by and fired shots. The victim suffered wounds to the back and right hand, and was taken to Advocate Trinity Hospital in serious condition, police said.
At 5:05 p.m. in the 500 block of South Clinton Street in a South Loop apartment, a 34-year-old man was shot in the leg during an incident that also brought SWAT members to the scene. The 34-year-old was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was listed in good condition.
In a separate incident, Chicago police fatally shot a stabbing suspect, after he allegedly plunged a knife into a Chicago police officer’s vest during a confrontation on the Southwest Side about 1:45 a.m. Saturday. It happened as Chicago Lawn District officers were called to the 4900 block of South Lavergne Avenue in the Vittum Park neighborhood for a call of a person stabbed.
dawilliams@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--Urbana police searching for man groping women in public near U. of I. campus: ‘Everyone has cameras.

Urbana police searching for man groping women in public near U. of I. campus: ‘Everyone has cameras. Please use them.’

“ Everyone has cameras .
Please use them , ” he said .
“ If you see something that doesn @ @ @ @ @ the street , take a picture , take a video that we could use to @ @ @ @ @ If you have surveillance videos on your residence , please contact us and let us @ @ @

Signs remind people to social distance and wear masks on the campus of the University of Illinois on July 7, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Police in Urbana have been looking for a man who is allegedly grabbing and slapping women’s buttocks in public areas.
The Urbana Police Department has been receiving groping reports since April 2019, unable to identify the offender, according to The News-Gazette in Champaign-Urbana. The reports stopped between Sept. 18 and March 25, but they picked back up with about 10 more since late March.
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Most of the reports appear to have come from near the University of Illinois campus in “neighborhoods with a lot of foot traffic, densely populated with students,” Lt. Dave Smysor said.
“It’s not a prank and not something we’re taking lightly,” Smysor said. “This isn’t like a hee-hee. It’s a criminal act. In my opinion, we’re moving past battery and moving toward sexual abuse, if you’re putting your fingers on people’s genitals.”
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Many victims have given similar descriptions of the offender, but details such as the man’s age and size have not been as consistent.
The suspect’s race and hairstyle is the same in almost all the reports, Smysor said: a Black man with dreadlocks or braids.
“Some of them have happened at 10 a.m., 2:45 p.m., 4 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 8 p.m., midnight. That’s what is making it so difficult,” Smysor said of police efforts to find the man.
Smysor said his department has coordinated with Champaign authorities and the University of Illinois police.
“Everyone has cameras. Please use them,” he said. “If you see something that doesn’t seem right on the street, take a picture, take a video that we could use to help identify this person. If you have surveillance videos on your residence, please contact us and let us know.”
A map of reported groping incidents can be found on The News-Gazette website.


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--Feds: Militia members face gun charges after traveling to Kenosha to see Trump, witness riots and po

Feds: Militia members face gun charges after traveling to Kenosha to see Trump, witness riots and possibly ‘pick people off’

Karmo told FBI agents he and Smith were part of the 417 Second Amendment Militia and planned next to go @ @ @ @ @ to see for themselves what was going on .
Karmo allegedly said that he would @ @ @ @ @ action ” if police were defunded .

Robert A. Cronkleton, The Kansas City Star

Supporters of President Donald Trump wait to see his motorcade pass through Kenosha, Wis., Sept. 1, 2020. (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times)
KANSAS CITY — Two southern Missouri men who said they traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to see President Donald Trump’s visit and proof of rioting face federal gun charges, according to a criminal complaint.
The U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin charged 40-year-old Michael M. Karmo and 33-year-old Cody E. Smith with illegally possessing firearms at a hotel near Kenosha, in Pleasant Prairie.
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Karmo told FBI agents he and Smith were part of the 417 Second Amendment Militia and planned next to go to Portland, Oregon, to see for themselves what was going on. Karmo allegedly said that he would be willing to “take action” if police were defunded.
Both men were prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition due to prior convictions. Karmo has prior felony convictions. Smith has a prior misdemeanor domestic battery conviction and acknowledged regular drug use, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
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A screenshot of an image Michael Karmo and Cody Smity allegedly sent before their arrest. (U.S. Attorney's Office/TNS)/TNS)
Karmo is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Smith is charged with aiding and abetting a felon’s possession of firearms and two counts of possession of firearms and ammunition by a prohibited person.
According to the complaint, the FBI arrested the two roommates from Hartville, Missouri, after law enforcement officials received a tip that the men had traveled to Kenosha armed with firearms allegedly to loot and possibly “pick people off.”
Karmo allegedly told a witness that he was going to Kenosha “with the intention of possibly using the firearms on people,” according to the complaint. The witness feared Karmo “was not in the right mindset to have a firearm” because of his increase in “conspiracy theory talks and other ‘crazy’ political talk.”
The tipster shared photos and text messages from Karmo that showed him holding a rifle with another man holding a shotgun. Karmo sent another photo of a rifle with a drum-style magazine in it with the message, “This is a game changer.”
Protests and violence erupted in the city after a Kenosha police officer shot 29-year-old Jacob Blake in the back seven times, leaving him paralyzed on Aug. 23.
The violence peaked the night of Aug. 25 when two protesters were shot and killed and another was injured. A teenager from Illinois, Kyle Rittenhouse, is facing homicide charges.
[ ‘Boogaloo Bois’ face terrorism charges in Minnesota for allegedly trying to sell silencers to Hamas, offering to be ‘mercenaries’ ]
The FBI had tracked Karmo and Smith and detained them about 7:40 p.m. Tuesday in a hotel parking lot.
After receiving consent to search the men’s 2019 Toyota Highlander and hotel room, the FBI found several firearms, a homemade silencer, magazines with ammunition, body armor and other items.
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According to the criminal complaint, the two men left two handguns locked in the glove compartment of their vehicle. After the rally, the men went back to their hotel, with plans to return to Kenosha that night, but FBI agents stopped them, the complaint says.
During questioning, Smith told the FBI they attended a rally for Trump outside a high school in Kenosha. Smith also said they wanted to see proof of rioting. Afterwards, they intended to travel to Detroit, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. Karmo told FBI agents he and Smith worked together and had been roommates for about four weeks.
Karmo denied owning any firearms and said he had not shot a gun for many years. He said Smith brought all of his guns. Karmo also claimed he never carried a pistol and that he only brought body armor and a drone on their trip.
The Associated Press contributed


chicagotribune--2020-09-05--Man fatally shot by a family member at party on Far South Side, police say

The shooting happened about 11 p.m. during a party at a residence in the 9900 block of South Van Vlissingen @ @ @ @ @ neighborhood .
Police said the man got into a verbal altercation with a male family @ @ @ @ @ weapon and shot him in the abdomen .

Police said a 36-year-old man was fatally wounded when he got into an argument with a family member who pulled out a gun and shot him Friday night on the Far South Side.
The shooting happened about 11 p.m. during a party at a residence in the 9900 block of South Van Vlissingen Road in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood. Police said the man got into a verbal altercation with a male family member who pulled out a weapon and shot him in the abdomen.
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He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he died from his injuries.
One person was taken into custody, and a weapon was recovered at the scene.