chicagotribune--2020-08-10--The Spin: Looting in Chicago and the political blame-game | Economic fallout from D.C. stalemate ove

The Spin: Looting in Chicago and the political blame-game | Economic fallout from D.C. stalemate over COVID relief | Campaign finance loophole

Asked whether he agreed with the Minneapolis fed chief ’ s call to shutdown the economy to bring COVID-19 under @ @ @ @ @ “ I think a very strong program like that would have the opportunity to get @ @ @ @ @ , but it would come at quite a lot of hardship for small businesses , @ @ @ @ @ It would require tremendous fiscal support .
If the , you know , national U.S. @ @ @ @ @ that , I think we could knock down the virus ’ spread .
... What @ @ @ @ @ so that people feel good about going back to work .
They feel safe .
@ @ @ @ @ retail establishments and enjoy leisure and hospitality and activities , put more people back to @ @ @ @ @ could work , I ’ m not optimistic that that would be actually adopted .
@

Not long after the looting and violence ended in downtown Chicago this morning, our elected leaders got in front of microphones and television cameras and started pointing the finger — in some cases at each other.
Downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins laid partial blame at the feet of Mayor Lori Lightfoot and police Superintendent David Brown for the violence and property damage in his ward overnight, drawing an angry response from the mayor.
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For their parts, Lightfoot and Brown pointedly called on the prosecutor’s office — run by mayoral political ally Kim Foxx — and Cook County judges to hold offenders responsible for criminal acts, suggesting that wasn’t the case when similar scenes played out earlier this summer after the Minnesota police killing of George Floyd. That drew a sharp response from Foxx.
Foxx’s comments follow a new Tribune report that found her tenure running the Cook County state’s attorney’s office has overseen a drop in felony cases involving charges of murder and other serious offenses at a higher rate than her predecessor.
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The blame game didn’t end at the city limits. Republican House Minority Leader Jim Durkin took a vague swipe at Democrats in power in state government, issuing a statement: “It is time to bring in the National Guard and accept any and all federal assistance to stop the chaos that is destroying our state. No more excuses. No more failures.” Republican Senate leader Bill Brady echoed that sentiment on Twitter.
The mayor said she talked with Gov. J.B. Pritzker, whose family home isn’t too far from where the violence unfolded downtown, and they agreed there’s no need for a National Guard response. But she used the moment for a preemptive strike at President Donald Trump, a Republican, who frequently criticizes Democratic leadership in Chicago for the city’s trouble with violent crime.
Welcome to The Spin.
A Chicago Police officer walks past Macy's on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago after the store and others in the area were looted early Monday Aug. 10, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
What happened: Hundreds of people swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores, confronting police and at one point exchanging gunfire with officers, authorities said. Read the full Tribune story here.
What prompted it: City officials said the seeds for the violent crime spree were sown on social media Sunday afternoon following an officer involved shooting in the Englewood neighborhood. Officers shot and wounded a 20-year-old man Sunday after he fired shots at them while being chased, authorities said. My Tribune colleagues have the story here.
Data point: A civilian and private security guard were shot and wounded in the unrest, more than 100 people were arrested, 13 officers were injured, including a sergeant who was hit by a bottle, according to police.
Police Superintendent David Brown said “This was not an organized protest,” Brown said. “Rather this was an incident of pure criminality. This was an act of violence against our police officers and against our city.”
Mayor Lightfoot doubled down, saying this wasn’t some kind of protest protected by the First Amendment: “What occurred in our downtown and surrounding communities was abject criminal behavior, pure and simple. And, there cannot be any excuse for it. Period.”
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During a news conference later in the morning, Gov. Pritzker said, “These were criminals — people who broke in, and were shooting at people. We had 13, I believe, 13 Chicago police officers who were injured last night. This is criminal activity and those criminals need to be held accountable.”
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Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, in 2019. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
The Tribune’s Gregory Pratt, John Byrne and Jamie Munks offer a snapshot of the finger-pointing in this piece.
Ald. Brian Hopkins, who said he was on Michigan Avenue from midnight to 4 a.m., described a scene in which officers were overwhelmed by looters and apparently did not have much of a plan, my Tribune colleagues reported. He criticized Lightfoot for failing to develop an effective strategy following looting incidents in May and June.
“The real question today is, where was the strategy? What was the decision making at the highest levels?” Hopkins said. “That means the police superintendent and the mayor, who’s a very hands-on mayor when it comes to these kinds of decisions.”
Lightfoot fired back, saying, “Alderman Hopkins has a penchant for letting his mouth run before he actually gets the facts I don’t think there’s any reason for me to say anything further — our Police Department got the intelligence acted on it’ (and) quickly (brought) 400 officers downtown.”
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Southwest Side Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, also criticized Lightfoot, Brown and Foxx, saying, “This is a failure of leadership. A failure of law enforcement & state’s attorney not on the same page.”
Not waiting around for President Trump to take aim at Chicago — one of his favorite targets — over the unrest the mayor has fought President Donald Trump’s insistence that federal troops are the best way to restore order in troubled American cities and said she doesn’t need military assistance now.
“We do not need federal troops in Chicago. Period. Full stop,” she said, a clear reference to federal agents dispatched to Portland where protests and law enforcement clashed. “I’m sure the president will have his way with this incident, but I’m calling upon him to do the things that we do need, we need common sense gun control.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot at City Hall in Chicago on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
During a news conference this morning, both Lightfoot and police Superintendent Brown implicitly criticized Foxx and the court system, saying there weren’t consequences for looters earlier this summer when the city saw unrest over the Minneapolis police killing of a handcuffed George Floyd.
“I call upon our state’s attorney and courts to make sure that these individuals who are arrested and those who come are held accountable, put your best people on this,” the mayor told reporters during a morning news conference.
The mayor vs. the media: Lightfoot, who endorsed Foxx for reelection, became angry when asked follow-up questions about Foxx’s handling of cases and told a reporter not to bait her.
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“What we’re saying is, as a result of what happened last night, there have to be consequences,” Lightfoot said. “We’ve got teams of people that are aggressively out there identifying the people responsible, looking at the plates, and we’re going to bring them to justice.
“But when we do make those arrests, our expectation is that this is going to be treated with the level of seriousness it should be. Period,” she said. “Don’t try to bait us, mischaracterize, pit one against the other, we’re not playing that. We’re in a serious situation here and we need a serious response. That’s what we’re saying.”
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx greets U.S. Rep. Danny Davis on Thursday, June 4, 2020 during an event in the Austin neighborhood. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune) (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
The night of looting and violence comes as a Tribune analysis found that during her first three years as Cook County’s top prosecutor, Foxx’s office dropped all charges against 29.9% of felony defendants, a dramatic increase over her predecessor, the Tribune found. For the last three years of Anita Alvarez’s tenure, the rate was 19.4%, the Tribune notes in a new report. You can read the deep dive here.
My Tribune colleagues write: “In an interview, Foxx did not dispute the Tribune’s findings but said her office’s higher rate of dropped felony cases gives an incomplete picture of her commitment to keeping the public safe. She said her office has dismissed cases against low-level, nonviolent offenders so prosecutors can concentrate on crimes of violence.
“However, the Tribune found that Foxx’s higher rates of dropped cases included people accused of murder, shooting another person, sex crimes, and attacks on police officers — as well as serious drug offenses that for decades have driven much of Chicago’s street violence.” Read the full story here
Election factor: Having defeated three challengers in the Democratic primary in March, Foxx, 48, faces former Cook County Judge Patrick O’Brien in the November general election.
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O’Brien pounced on the findings: “Cook County residents deserve better than Kim Foxx. Her entire tenure in the state’s attorney’s office has been a miserable failure,” he said in a statement. “From not prosecuting those who do the most harm to our community to her role in the Jussie Smollet case, Cook County residents know that the time is now to fire Kim Foxx and bring in new leadership at the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.”
House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President Don Harmon in Springfield on Jan. 29, 2020. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
One of the biggest items in a decade-old legislative package established “statewide limits on campaign contributions, a measure Illinois was one of the last states to adopt,” according to a Better Government Association report from Sandy Bergo and Chuck Neubauer.
The players: “House Speaker Michael Madigan, who sponsored the legislation, hailed it as a way to ‘help restore public confidence in Illinois government,’ ” Bergo and Neubauer write. “State Sen. Don Harmon, the Democratic sponsor in the Senate, praised it for enacting ‘historic contribution caps, real disclosure requirements and strict enforcement measures.'
“But years later, Madigan and Harmon are using a controversial loophole written into the reform bill to raise millions of dollars above the limits the legislation set. Their Republican colleagues have also blown past the limits, as all four men have collected a combined $44 million more than the contribution limits allow, a Better Government Association examination shows.”
The Tribune reported about the loophole in a 2009 story about then-Gov. Pat Quinn signing the measure into law, noting that Democratic and GOP leaders in both chambers would be allowed to spend unlimited sums of money from their special leadership campaign accounts on individual legislators in highly competitive general election races.
While good government types shake their head at the news, the four leaders in the House and Senate are unapologetic about taking advantage of it and explain it in the just-published BGA story here.
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Rauner joins board of Jeb Bush’s pro-school choice organization
Former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has joined the board of directors for the Florida-based pro-school choice group ExcelinEd, founded by fellow Republican Jeb Bush, the onetime Florida governor.
Rauner, who lost his bid for reelection in 2018 to Pritzker, has long backed school choice efforts, including a voucher system. His signature 2017 education package aimed for that but ended up inking a compromise plan that offered a private school tuition scholarship tax credit.
Bush founded the organization in 2008.
“Gov. Rauner is a bold champion for students and their success,” Bush said in statement.
“I am excited about the decades of public policy, business and philanthropic leadership he brings to our board, “Bush said.
Dark clouds and heavy rain sweep over the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Aug. 3, 2020, as Tropical Storm Isaias pushes toward the Mid-Atlantic coast. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Consumer confidence is key to getting the economy back on track and the stalemate in Congress over a new coronavirus bailout package is a “very important and unfortunate development,” Charles Evans, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said on CBS’ “Face The Nation” on Sunday morning.
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‘We’ve not got control over the virus’: Host Margaret Brennan asked Evans about the effect on the economy and he said, “I would say that fiscal policy has been unbelievably important in supporting the economy during the downturn that we’ve been experiencing. The economy closed down in March and April and fiscal policy swung into action very quickly with the CARES Act. And that’s helped ensure that people could stay at home, be safe, pay their rent, increase food security, all kinds of things for vulnerable populations. And now that continues to be important because we’ve not got control over the virus spread. I think that public confidence is really important and another support package is really incredibly important.”
President Trump issued an executive order that provides a lifeline to the unemployed and businesses but doesn’t address funding for local government — and that could trigger more layoffs: “States have to balance their budgets,” Evans told Brennan. “They are experiencing reduced tax revenues. And so there will be employment reductions. State and local governments account for about 10% of employment in the United States. And so that’s really another leg down, I think. Trump’s order would defer payroll taxes for employers and extend supplemental federal unemployment benefit to the tune of $400 weekly — down from $600 weekly — but some governors were balking over his directive to have states kick in 25% of that money or $100 because they can’t afford it.”
Asked whether he agreed with the Minneapolis fed chief’s call to shutdown the economy to bring COVID-19 under control, Evans said: “I think a very strong program like that would have the opportunity to get on top of the virus, but it would come at quite a lot of hardship for small businesses,” Evans said. “It would require tremendous fiscal support. If the, you know, national U.S. government were willing to do that, I think we could knock down the virus’ spread. ... What we need is public confidence so that people feel good about going back to work. They feel safe. They can go out to retail establishments and enjoy leisure and hospitality and activities, put more people back to work. So while that could work, I’m not optimistic that that would be actually adopted.”
ICYMI: Montrose Harbor blocked by police, fence after Mayor Lightfoot shuts down large beach party that violated coronavirus restrictions: Read the Tribune story here.
Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.
Twitter @byldonovan


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--CPS will reduce funding for school resource officers by half and won’t pay for police while schools

CPS will reduce funding for school resource officers by half and won’t pay for police while schools are closed for remote learning

Jackson said the change in funding “ is just one of the many reforms that we are implementing for this @ @ @ @ @ can ’ t talk about why it didn ’ t happen last year versus this @ @ @ @ @ have made it clear that we are committed to improving this program going forward and @ @ @ @ @ is much more precise and there is more transparency .
”

With the campaign to end school police only gaining traction since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Chicago Public Schools introduced a budget Monday that would cut in half funding for school-based officers.
CPS had a $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department for the previous school year. But in the coming year, the school district will no longer pay $7.5 million for 48 officers on mobile school units and will receive at least $10.5 million in credit for remote learning days, when officers aren’t assigned to schools, according to CPS budget documents.
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CPS CEO Janice Jackson said the cost will be prorated based on the number of days of in-school instruction. Remote learning will continue in CPS for at least the first quarter of the school year.
Last school year, the CPD program included mobile patrol officers who could respond to criminal activity around schools that didn’t have assigned officers but otherwise were on neighborhood patrol. “Given these broader public safety responsibilities, CPS will no longer pay for these officers,” according to the district.
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Jackson said the change in funding “is just one of the many reforms that we are implementing for this upcoming school year. I can’t talk about why it didn’t happen last year versus this year. I think we have made it clear that we are committed to improving this program going forward and making sure that the spending is much more precise and there is more transparency.”
The cost of last school year’s CPD contract has also been reduced by $15 million to account for remote days in which officers were not assigned to schools, according to CPS.
The total cost of the new agreement will also depend on how many schools vote to keep officers. CPS asked Local School Councils to vote on whether to retain officers at individual schools before the Aug. 26 Chicago Board of Education meeting, when the board is expected to vote on a new contract with the Police Department.
Meanwhile, CPS is still working on wrangling accurate information on LSC votes.
Of 72 district-run schools that had police officers last year, Northside College Prep was the first to remove them. Others that followed suit include Roberto Clemente Community Academy, Benito Juarez Community Academy, John Hancock College Prep, Back of the Yards College Prep, Roosevelt High School and Lane Tech, the district’s biggest high school with more than 4,000 students.
In a 9-3 vote, Lane Tech’s principal sided with four parents, two community members, a student and a teacher, while two parent representatives and a staff member voted to keep them.
Back of the Yards’ student newspaper, The Maroon, on Monday reported the 6-5 LSC vote to remove officers.
Sharing the news of Roosevelt’s 6-3 vote Tuesday, Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, 33rd, tweeted, “I couldn’t be prouder of my amazing HS and my community.”
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Roosevelt HS has voted 6-3 to remove SRO’s from the school.
I couldn’t be prouder of my amazing HS and my community. — Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez 🌹 (@RossanaFor33) August 11, 2020
Kelvyn Park High School in Belmont Gardens also voted to remove officers, but at 5-1, it lacked the seven-member quorum needed to make a vote binding.
More than 30 schools have voted to keep having officers, including several others that lacked quorum, according to CPS. Votes without quorums are considered advisory, and principals and network chiefs will have the final say, according to CPS.
Several LSC votes were scheduled for Tuesday, including Mather High School, where 17-year-old Caleb Reed pushed for the removal of police as a student until weeks ago, when he was fatally shot. At a June 9 news conference, Reed had shared his experience of being arrested for not having an ID at a school basketball game.
In defending the use of school-based officers, CPS and city officials have focused heavily on the fact that Local School Councils get final say. Those opposed to school policing, including the Chicago Teachers Union, have argued that it’s a false choice when LSCs aren’t presented with alternatives for spending the money that pays for the officers. The Board of Education voted 4-3 in June to keep the current, $33 million agreement with CPD, which expires this month.
Even for schools voting to stay in the program, the officers won’t report to schools during remote learning, the district said last week.
As for the months when schools were closed because of COVID-19 in the spring, a spokesman said the district is “working with the city to conduct a reconciliation of costs for the 2019-20 school year.”
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After the police killing of George Floyd, several protests in Chicago focused on the defunding of police in Chicago schools, including this one in June in the Loop. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
CPS’ decision to continue remote learning for the start of the new school year came up Thursday night at Hancock College Prep, where Local School Council members met on Zoom and voted 6-4 not to retain their officers.
“We need to consider, especially now during the remote learning world where we don’t have students in the building, getting an opportunity to train our security staff to be ready for when students return,” said Principal Vanessa Puentes. That could include providing crisis and first-aid training, she said.
“This vote is not necessarily going to change the Board of Ed vote,” she said. “I do think that this vote is standing in solidarity with a lot of what our students in our community are saying right now and it is something we can control at the Local School Council level.”
Puentes, all three teacher and staff representatives, and both community members on the council voted to remove officers, while all four parent representatives voted to keep them. No student council member was present.
Though more than an hour of public comment and discussion preceded the vote, members acknowledged no town hall meeting had taken place. In light of that, teacher representative Froylan Jimenez asked for flexibility with the usual two-minute limit for each public comment.
Hancock Dean Mildred Garcia, who graduated from Clemente in 2007, said she remembers days when police would wait outside her high school, like they were ready to arrest students. She formed her belief that officers did not belong in schools, but never thought she’d see that change. Then last month, Clemente’s LSC voted 9-1 to remove police.
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Garcia’s approach to restorative justice does not involve police, she said. She wants students to feel safe and empowered.
“Change is scary and it takes time,“ Garcia said. “... We talk about making schools more equitable for Black and brown students and today we have the opportunity to do that.”
Mayra Gutierrez, a rising senior at Hancock, said it’s important to consider the unknown histories each student has with police in addition to the known histories of the school’s two officers, who have accumulated many misconduct allegations.
Some students have been traumatized and emotionally scarred, fearful for their lives, Gutierrez said.
Teacher Cristen Chapman said it was notable that many of the supporters for school-based officers have cited concerns about external factors such as school shootings. For those cases, staff can call 911, and even if the school’s officers aren’t doing harm, they’re also not adding value, she said.
But Sandra Diaz, the parent of an incoming sophomore, asked the council to consider keeping officers.
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“Having a police officer in our school grounds gives us as parents peace of mind,” Diaz said.
During a lockdown in 2018, she liked knowing that an officer was inside the school, and reasoned they had a faster response time than officers stationed off campus. While agreeing that other programs need resources, Diaz said removing officers won’t guarantee that happens.
A parent on the LSC, Janine Brzezicki, had similar concerns about safety in life-threatening situations that go beyond the traditional scope of security guards. “There are accusations of unprofessionalism and evil people in all professions,” Brzezicki said. “I believe the Chicago Police Department has been an asset.”
Puentes said while it was a difficult decision, she cast her “no” vote as someone who manages millions of dollars, has listened to students and teachers, and who wants to be true to the people who trust her with their children as well as to the work of the school’s race and equity team.
hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Charges added for man held in 2019 deaths of Lake County teens

Kerner loaded the bodies into a Honda Civic that belonged to Lanham ’ s stepfather , Silva told police , @ @ @ @ @ towels in a white trash bag .
Kerner handed him the gun , which was @ @ @ @ @ Silva wrapped the gun in the towel and placed it in the trash bag with @ @ @ @ @ state .

The co-defendant in a murder case involving two West Lake County teenagers allegedly killed after a drug deal gone bad now faces additional felony counts of attempted robbery.
Porter Superior Court Judge Roger Bradford entered preliminary pleas of not guilty for John Silva II, 19, of Hamlet, during a brief Monday court hearing.
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Silva was charged May 22 with two counts of murder in the perpetration of a robbery in the Feb. 25, 2019 deaths of Thomas Grill, 18, of Cedar Lake, and Molley Lanham, 19, of St. John and is being held at the jail without bond.
Connor Kerner (Porter County Sheriffs Dept. / P / Chicago Tribune)
Connor Kerner, 19, of the 100 block of Kinsale, Valparaiso, remains at the Porter County Jail without bond on two counts of murder and additional felony counts of intimidation and arson in the case. Kerner, arrested in the days after the alleged crimes, has pleaded not guilty.
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The latest counts against Silva are Level 2 felonies. Those charges carry a sentence of 10 to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The murder charges carry a sentence of 45 to 65 years in prison each.
Ken Elwood, Silva’s attorney, said he continues to work through discovery with prosecutors.
“Obviously it’s a very unique case,” he said, noting the time lag between the alleged crime and when charges were filed against his client.
Thomas Grill, 18, of Cedar Lake and Molley Lanham, 19, of St. John. (Provided by St. John Police)
Bradford set a pretrial hearing for 9 a.m. Aug. 31 for Silva on all of the counts he is facing.
According to charging documents, video surveillance at Valparaiso High School captured Silva and Kerner leaving the building at 10:16 a.m. on Feb. 25, 2019, after exchanging texts on an encrypted message app about what appears to be a drug deal.
Silva, according to the documents, told police he and Kerner left the high school in Kerner’s Jeep Grand Cherokee and traveled to Kerner’s grandparents’ home in Hebron to meet with Grill and Lanham.
Silva told police he turned off his location services on his cellphone settings when he and Kerner got in the Jeep to go to Hebron.
“Silva stated he observed Kerner retrieve a black handgun from the Jeep’s glove compartment before they entered the house,” documents state.
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Silva took a seat in the basement and a short time later, he heard Kerner meeting with two people upstairs.
“Silva then stated that he heard six shots and Connor Kerner called for him, saying, ‘John, John,’” documents state.
Silva ran upstairs and entered the garage, where he saw Lanham lying motionless face down. He saw Grill near the man door to the garage, lying face down but still alive and making noises.
“Silva stated that Kerner gave him microfiber towels to start wiping up blood, which he did. He advised that he observed Kerner grab a wrench and his back swing prior to striking Thomas (Grill),” documents state.
Kerner loaded the bodies into a Honda Civic that belonged to Lanham’s stepfather, Silva told police, while he placed the bloody towels in a white trash bag. Kerner handed him the gun, which was placed on a towel and Silva wrapped the gun in the towel and placed it in the trash bag with the bloody towels, documents state.
Silva took the trash bag to the Jeep and noticed blood on his sleeve cuffs and his shoe and waited in the Jeep until Kerner joined him and they left.
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Kerner burned the Honda Civic in a wooded area not far from his grandparents’ home, court documents have said, and later told an informant about the crime, as well as showing her the wooded area where the car was. She later reported the murders to police.
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Paraplegic nursing home resident charged in fatal shooting at Homewood long-term care facility

He was paralyzed from the waist down in 2014 , after being sprayed with gunfire while standing at the intersection @ @ @ @ @ Drive , according to an archived Chicago Tribune article .
One of the 13 bullets @ @ @ @ @ spinal cord and left him confined to a wheelchair , according to the article .

A 32-year-old resident of a long-term care facility in Homewood was charged Sunday in the shooting death of another resident.
Maurice McMullen, who is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair, is charged with killing William H. Foster, 77, early Saturday morning at the South Suburban Rehabilitation Center, police said.
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He appeared in bond court Sunday and was ordered held without bond, court records show.
Maurice McMullen, 32 (Cook County sheriff's office)
Homewood police responded to a report of shots fired at the skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility, 19000 Halsted Street, just after 3 a.m. Saturday and learned a resident had been shot, police said in a statement.
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The victim, later identified as Foster, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died a short time later.
McMullen was taken into custody at the rehabilitation center following the shooting and charged the next day.
Homewood police declined to release any further information about the shooting, so it’s not clear what motivated it or where at the rehabilitation center it occurred.
The facility’s administrator did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the shooting.
Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said the Nursing Home Care Act does not specifically address weapons at long-term care facilities, but that individual facilities are required to enact policies to keep residents safe.
Such policies may dictate whether residents or staff can leave the facility and return with a firearm or include written contracts with residents prohibiting them from bringing firearms onto the property, she said.
An employee code of conduct on South Suburban Rehabilitation Center’s website does not address the permissibility of weapons on the premises and the consulting firm that wrote the policy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >
Illinois law prohibits anyone from carrying a concealed weapon into a nursing home.
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It’s not clear how McMullen, a convicted felon, gained access to a weapon nor whether employees of the rehabilitation center knew he possessed one.
He was paralyzed from the waist down in 2014, after being sprayed with gunfire while standing at the intersection of 64th Street and King Drive, according to an archived Chicago Tribune article. One of the 13 bullets that struck him damaged his spinal cord and left him confined to a wheelchair, according to the article.
The Tribune reported in 2014 that upon McMullen’s discharge from the hospital he planned to resume taking classes at the community college where he had been enrolled prior to being shot.
It’s not clear how long he has resided at the rehabilitation center in Homewood.
zkoeske@tribpub.com
Twitter @ZakKoeske


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Aftermath of looting in downtown Chicago: 13 cops injured, 2 people shot, more than 100 arrests, Mag

Aftermath of looting in downtown Chicago: 13 cops injured, 2 people shot, more than 100 arrests, Mag Mile trashed

“ I don ’ t care , I do not care , whatever justification was given for this , ” @ @ @ @ @ is no justification for criminal behavior , ever .
You have no right to take @ @ @ @ @ others .
Our residents deserve to be safe .
Our businesses deserve to understand and @ @ @ @ @ their property and their employees .
Our police officers deserve to be able to do @ @ @ @ @ worry about shots being fired , projectiles being thrown , and being maced .
This @ @ @ @ @ .
”

Paige Fry, Jeremy Gorner, Gregory Pratt, Megan Crepeau, Stacy St. Clair, Claire Hao

Hundreds of people swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores and confronting police after officers shot a suspect in Englewood hours earlier.
The mayhem marked the second time since late May that the city’s upscale shopping district has been targeted by looters amid unrest, reigniting the debate over policing as city leaders continued to point fingers and downtown again was shut down overnight heading to Tuesday.
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As businesses owners boarded up shops and braced for the possibility of additional looting, some cautioned against simplifying the situation or blaming any single issue.
“It’s not just people looting,” said Patsy Mullins, whose Gold Coast store, Accessorize, was completely emptied. “Let’s dig to the root of the problem, let’s not look at the surface. ... We need to get to the bottom of this. Otherwise, well, this problem will never be solved and it will continue again and again.”
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City officials said the seeds for the crime spree were sown on social media Sunday afternoon, after officers shot and wounded a 20-year-old man who allegedly had fled and fired shots at them.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday decried “a false rumor on social media” that police officers killed a 15-year-old boy. That led residents to clash with police officers in Englewood and prompted calls to head toward downtown.
A Chicago police officer walks past Macy's on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago after the store and others in the area were looted early on Aug. 10, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
The looting began around midnight, with people streaming in and out of high-end stores. Some could be seen throwing merchandise into a rental truck and other large vehicles before driving away.
“This was not an organized protest,” Chicago police Superintendent David Brown said. “Rather, this was an incident of pure criminality. This was an act of violence against our police officers and against our city.”
Black Lives Matter Chicago, which protested outside a Near South Side police precinct Monday night, blasted Lightfoot for accepting the police version of events and not doing more to institute reforms. The organization suggested the man was right to flee authorities, given the department’s history of racism and abusive tactics.
“In a predictable and unfortunate move, she did not take this time to criticize her officers for shooting yet another Black man,” the organization’s statement read. “Lightfoot instead spent her time attacking ‘looters.’ The mayor clearly has not learned anything since May, and she would be wise to understand that the people will keep rising up until the CPD is abolished and our Black communities are fully invested in.”
Workers clean up merchandise boxes outside the Best Buy store on North Avenue in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood following looting on Aug. 10, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
More than 100 people have been arrested so far, according to Chicago police. At least three appeared in bond court Monday, including a 25-year-old Joliet man who police say threw a brick at them while trying to break into the Burberry store on North Michigan Avenue.
Thirteen officers were injured during the mayhem, authorities said. A civilian and private security guard were shot and wounded.
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In the wake of the unrest, shattered glass, broken mannequins, toiletries and shoe boxes littered the city’s toniest streets. Many store owners worried how they would survive the latest turmoil amid the pandemic and with insurance claims still unpaid from the previous looting spree.
“I just don’t know what the next move is going to be,” said Mullins, the accessory store owner. “I’m out of work. They’ve destroyed everything, they’ve taken all the merchandise that I have to sell. This requires an investment of money to rebuild and replenish.”
It took police officers roughly four hours to get downtown under control, leading to a political blame game and calls for the Illinois National Guard to once again help quell unrest in the country’s third-largest city.
Downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins, who said he was on Michigan Avenue from midnight to 4 a.m., described a scene in which officers were overwhelmed by looters and apparently did not have much of a plan for restoring order. He criticized Lightfoot for failing to develop an effective strategy following looting incidents in May and June.
“The real question today is, where was the strategy? What was the decision making at the highest levels?” said Hopkins, 2nd. “That means the police superintendent and the mayor, who’s a very hands-on mayor when it comes to these kinds of decisions.”
Chicago police keep watch outside a looted and damaged Apple Store at North and Clybourn avenues following early morning looting and violence Aug. 10, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
The Black Lives Matter movement released a statement suggesting Lightfoot should not be surprised by the Magnificent Mile being targeted, given Chicago politicians have long valued protecting the high-rent area while poorer neighborhoods have suffered from disinvestment and neglect.
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“Over the past few months, too many people — disproportionately Black and Brown — have lost their jobs, lost their income, lost their homes, and lost their lives as the city has done nothing and the Chicago elite have profited,” the organization’s statement read. “When protesters attack high-end retail stores that are owned by the wealthy and service the wealthy, that is not ‘our’ city and has never been meant for us.”
Police shooting unfolds
The violent stretch began Sunday afternoon, when the Police Department’s newly created community safety team responded to a call about man with a gun in the Englewood neighborhood, authorities said. Officers found a man walking east on 57th Street and Racine Avenue matching the physical description and attempted to stop him, police said.
The man, later identified as 20-year-old Latrell Allen of Chicago, fled, leading to a foot chase by officers. Authorities said Allen shot at the officers during the chase and two officers returned fire.
Allen, who was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder and unlawful use of a weapon, authorities said.
Chicago police investigate shootings that occurred in the early morning of Aug. 10, 2020, as sporadic looting occurred in Downtown Chicago. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Outside Allen’s Aberdeen Street home, his mother, Latricsa, received a rundown from a neighbor of the prior day’s events that ended with her son shot five times.
The mother’s voice raised as neighbor Tenisha Caldwell cast doubt on much of the police version of events. Caldwell said she watched from her front porch as an officer fired gunshots at the fleeing man. She also told Latricsa Allen that her son tried to give up before shots were fired.
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Allen expressed relief that her eldest son was expected to survive his five bullet wounds, each bullet having missed a vital organ.
“He said, ‘Mama, I’m all right,’” she recounted. “He said, ‘Mama I love you.’ I said, ‘I love you, too.’ He said, ‘Mama, they shot me. They shot me five times.’”
Allen said her son denied having a gun, though police posted a photo of a gun they said they found at the scene.
The community safety team officers were not wearing body cameras, meaning there may not be video to either support or challenge the department’s account. When pressed by the Tribune to explain the lack of video, a Police Department spokesman said those officers don’t wear cameras despite the team’s stated mission of intervening in Chicago’s most violent areas.
The Civilian Office Police Accountability, the city agency that investigates officer-involved shootings, said surveillance cameras showed “the pursuit of a man matching the description of the person (believed) to be in possession of a firearm.” Those recordings were not released. COPA also issued a public plea Monday for anyone with video or information about the shooting to come forward.
The lack of immediate, independent corroboration drew skepticism from several community groups, including Black Lives Matter Chicago.
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More than an hour after the Sunday shooting, police and witnesses said a crowd of about 30 people faced off against officers holding a police line near 56th and Aberdeen. Police said a man among the crowd stoked the group’s anger by passing along misinformation, including that police shot a teenage boy. During a scuffle, one officer was hit with pepper spray and a second officer suffered a minor shoulder injury.
A large number of officers cordoned off streets in nearly every direction until the mood of the crowd cooled off. But by that time, Brown said, messages began appearing on social media encouraging people to head downtown.
The officers had stopped several people on Lake Street near Michigan Avenue when shots were fired from a passing car around 4:30 a.m., nearly five hours into the widespread vandalism, police spokesman Tom Ahern said. No officers were shot, but a squad car was hit, he said. It was not known if anyone in the gunman’s car was shot.
Shortly after midnight, the looting began as people darted through broken store windows and doors along Michigan Avenue carrying shopping bags full of merchandise. Cars dropped off more people as the crowd grew.
One woman with shopping bags in her hands fell on the sidewalk as an officer was chasing her. Another woman appeared to have been pepper-sprayed. A rock was thrown at a squad car.
Brad Stein, center, hands Jason Knudsen, general manager of Binny's, expensive bottles of Champagne and wine they are removing from the store in River North in case of additional looting. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Blame game begins
The scene was reminiscent of the looting that occurred more than two months ago amid the response to the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. On Monday, both Lightfoot and Brown implicitly criticized Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, saying there weren’t consequences for looters earlier this summer.
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Lightfoot, who endorsed Foxx for reelection, became angry when asked follow-up questions about Foxx’s handling of cases and told a reporter not to bait her.
“What we’re saying is, as a result of what happened last night, there have to be consequences,” Lightfoot said. “We’ve got teams of people that are aggressively out there identifying the people responsible, looking at the plates, and we’re going to bring them to justice.
“But when we do make those arrests, our expectation is that this is going to be treated with the level of seriousness it should be. Period,” she said. “Don’t try to bait us, mischaracterize, pit one against the other, we’re not playing that. We’re in a serious situation here and we need a serious response. That’s what we’re saying.”
Foxx pushed back with her own news conference a few hours later, insisting the cause of the unrest cannot be conflated with her office’s response to protests earlier this year. She encouraged prosecutors to dismiss misdemeanor charges — and felony charges, in certain cases — related to the protests, but said her office approved charges for the vast majority of looting-related felony arrests in the unrest earlier this summer.
Those cases are making their way through the courts, slowed by both the pandemic and typical pace of the Cook County justice system.
In denouncing the looting and promising to be tough on those responsible, Foxx said the situation also must be viewed amid the backdrop of a global health crisis, record unemployment and nationwide protests against systemic racism.
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“The reality is that as we seek to figure out what is happening in what is truly an unprecedented summer, it requires us to ask tough questions, to do deep deliberation and to put all hands on deck. All hands on deck means that rather than standing and pointing fingers, we work together.”
The idea that a lax criminal justice system alone paved the way for the looting oversimplifies the situation, said David Stovall, a professor of African American studies and criminology, law and justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
If the Sunday police shooting did touch off the reaction, then the decades of a strained relationship between police and the community has to be considered too.
Stovall said those who engaged in the looting are potentially reacting to that history and demonstrating their lack of trust in law enforcement. It’s not surprising that they questioned those official facts and then decided to “strike back,” he said.
“If we’re going to get hit, then we are going to strike back at the spaces that hurt you the most,” Stovall said, describing the mindset.
The looting seemed to be centered in Streeterville and on North Michigan Avenue, but some was reported on State Street in the Loop and on the Near North Side. Police appeared to be getting things under control by 4 a.m., though some vandalism continued into the daylight hours.
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The CTA suspended train and bus service into downtown during the morning rush, while Illinois State Police blocked off ramps from expressways. Bridges across the Chicago River were raised, except for the one on LaSalle Street for emergency vehicles. City officials said they will restrict access to the downtown from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. for the time being.
Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin called for the National Guard to be brought in. The Guard was used to help enforce street closures during looting in early June, marking the first time in more than a half century that a Chicago mayor had asked for the Guard’s help in quelling unrest.
“Once again, Illinois government has failed to protect its residents and businesses,” said Durkin, a Western Springs legislator. “It is time to bring in the National Guard and accept any and all federal assistance to stop the chaos that is destroying our state. No more excuses. No more failures.”
The Illinois National Guard has not received any requests for support at this time.
Lightfoot, who has fought President Donald Trump’s insistence that federal troops are the best way to restore order in troubled American cities, said she will not seek military assistance.
“No, we do not need federal troops in Chicago, period, full stop,” Lightfoot said. “I’m sure the president will have his way with this incident, but I’m calling upon him to do the things that we do need (such as gun control).”


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--South suburban retail districts close following Chicago looting

Homewood Mayor Rich Hofeld said police contacted businesses along Halsted and told them to close after getting information of a @ @ @ @ @ deemed credible .
No incidents had been reported as of Monday afternoon , he said @

Access to a Walmart store on Halsted Street in Homewood is blocked as businesses along the busy retail corridor were ordered to temporarily close Monday. (Mike Nolan / Daily Southtown)
Some south suburban retail areas either voluntarily closed Monday or were ordered closed following looting in Chicago.
The River Oaks mall in Calumet City and Chicago Ridge Mall posted notices that they were temporarily closing.
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Chicago Ridge Mall said the closing was “due to activity in the area and out of an abundance of caution.”
Businesses along a busy retail corridor in Homewood closed as of early Monday afternoon, with municipal vehicles and concrete blocks in place to block access to businesses lining both sides of Halsted Street.
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A Cook County Department of Homeland Security vehicle blocks access Monday to businesses along Halsted Street in Homewood. (Mike Nolan / Daily Southtown)
The closings mirrored those that followed after initial protests and demonstrations in the Chicago area following the death of George Floyd, allegedly at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >
Highway exit ramps were closed at locations in the south suburbs on Interstate 80/94 and the Bishop Ford Freeway, and all on and off ramps from Halsted to I-80 were blocked.
Lansing police said that exit ramps from eastbound and westbound I-80/94 to Torrence Avenue were closed as a precaution, but traffic from Torrence is able to access the highway ramps.
Exits from the northbound and southbound Bishop Ford to westbound 159th Street were closed, as were ramps at 147th Street at I-57, according to state police.
Homewood Mayor Rich Hofeld said police contacted businesses along Halsted and told them to close after getting information of a potential looting threat that was deemed credible. No incidents had been reported as of Monday afternoon, he said.
Hofeld said he spoke with managers of several big-box stores who concurred with the decision, and the mayor said that businesses would be allowed to reopen by noon Tuesday.
“We want to protect our citizenry and our businesses,” he said.
mnolan@tribpub.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Overnight on the Magnificent Mile: Timeline of what Tribune reporters saw

Thirteen officers were injured during the unrest , including a sergeant who was hit by a bottle .
A civilian @ @ @ @ @ shot and wounded .
It took police officers roughly four hours to get the downtown @ @ @ @ @ more about what happened here .

More than 100 people were arrested early Monday following looting and vandalism through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago.
City officials said the seeds for the violent crime spree were sown on social media Sunday afternoon following an officer involved shooting in the Englewood neighborhood. Officers shot and wounded a 20-year-old man Sunday after he fired shots at them while being chased, authorities said.
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The man was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center and is expected to survive, according to police.
Thirteen officers were injured during the unrest, including a sergeant who was hit by a bottle. A civilian and private security guard were shot and wounded. It took police officers roughly four hours to get the downtown back under control. Read more about what happened here.
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Below tweets from Chicago Tribune reporters and photographers who covered the unrest.


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Downtown businesses on edge after this morning’s looting, vandalism. ‘I feel like we are under attac

Downtown businesses on edge after this morning’s looting, vandalism. ‘I feel like we are under attack.’

Businesses that have business interruption insurance should also be able to recover lost income resulting from the inability to operate @ @ @ @ @ % of businesses have that coverage , according to the association .
Unlike the big @ @ @ @ @ of income losses due to COVID-19 , insurers are unlikely to reject claims related to @ @ @ @ @ results from physical damage to property .

Lauren Zumbach, Ally Marotti, Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz, Ryan Ori

Damaged windows at the Zara store following early morning looting in downtown Chicago on Aug. 10, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Downtown business owners still struggling during the coronavirus pandemic were scrambling to board up broken windows and take stock of damage after a wave of vandalism and looting early Monday morning.
For some, it was the second time this summer, following an earlier wave of looting that took place during the unrest that followed George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May.
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Jewelry and gift shop Crosell & Co. had reopened less than a week ago, then looters struck the store two blocks west of Michigan Avenue again Monday morning.
City officials “have to get ahold of the city again,” said owner Dianne Crosell, standing in front of her shop’s smashed double-paned glass door Monday morning. “I feel like we are under attack and under siege.”
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Shards of glass littered the sidewalk, and the sound of hammering as nearby businesses were boarded up echoed off the buildings. The damage wasn’t as extensive as it was in late May, when looters broke in through a window and took most of her inventory.
Still, it’s hard to rebuild again, Crosell said.
Dianne Crosell, owner of Crosell & Co., speaks about the damage to her shop following early morning looting and violence in Chicago, on Aug. 10, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
After the pandemic shutdown, her store was open for only about a week before the looting in May forced her to close again. Even if she was open, her customers, many of whom are tourists, aren’t downtown shopping as much because of the pandemic, she said.
“If this keeps happening, why is anyone going to stay?” she said. “They’re ruining the city of Chicago.”
All down the Magnificent Mile, broken glass littered the sidewalk and people stopped to take pictures of the damage.
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A crew of workers were cleaning up Water Tower Place just before 11 a.m. Macy’s windows were smashed, and a MAC makeup counter had been pilfered. A broken bottle of foundation was smeared on the floor, and lip glosses and makeup brushes lay scattered.
Hardly any merchandise remained on the shelves at Pandora. Empty shoe boxes were scattered on the floor. Men in masks worked to board up the windows outside, as workers inside cleaned items and broken glass off the ground.
The damage extended to other neighborhoods. In the Gold Coast, high-end retailers that line Rush Street were being boarded up Monday. At Dior, Versace and Giorgio Armani, windows that weren’t boarded up were shattered. Northwestern Memorial Hospital rescheduled some patient appointments as a precaution, according to a hospital statement.
‘The sad thing is, we’re getting used to this’
Bars and restaurants in the River North and Near North neighborhoods saw break-ins too. At both Portillo’s and Jojo’s Shake Bar, cleaning crews fled shortly before crowds broke in.
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“They just shattered everything,” said Robbie Schloss, owner of Jojo’s Shake Bar, standing in the sidewalk in front of his store. “They started by hopping the bar and stealing booze.”
The restaurant was set to reopen just after noon, only an hour later than normal. Jojo’s had plywood ready to go from the unrest in late May. It was not broken into then, but had to shut down for safety.
“The sad thing is, we’re getting used to this, so we have protocol,” he said.
Portillo’s planned to remain closed Monday, though employees scheduled to work would still be paid, said spokeswoman Sara Wirth.
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Binny’s Beverage Depot employees spent Monday morning cleaning up heavily damaged stores, a little more than two months after the stores were damaged during the unrest that followed Floyd’s death.
“We’re getting a little too comfortable with the rapid response to incidents like this,” Binny’s Vice President Bradley Stein said from the store near Clybourn Avenue that was strewn with broken glass, cigars and other debris. “This is not something we want to become proficient in.”
Bradley Stein, a vice president with Binny's, vacuums up shards of glass and spilled wine after looters broke in and took expensive bottles of champagne and wine from the River North location on Aug. 10, 2020. Three stores were looted. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
The previous break-in created close to $1 million in property damage and theft, Stein estimated. He said it was too early to know the extent of Monday’s looting, but extensive damage included shattered glass inside and outside the store, and included the rare and collectible room, where bottles valued as high as $15,000 are stored.
“It kind of took us by surprise,” Stein said. “It was very targeted. They definitely knew what they wanted. We’re making the assumption these guys had been here before. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same crew from the first time.”
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The 50,000-square-foot store near Clybourn is one of the largest and highest-grossing among the family-owned company’s 42 stores, all in Illinois. Binny’s stores in the South Loop and River North also were damaged, Stein said.
Apple, Best Buy and Ulta Beauty stores were among several other businesses on and around Clybourn that were damaged. Ulta stores on Michigan Avenue and in the South Loop and Wicker Park were also hit, and all Chicago-area locations closed Monday as the company assessed the damage, spokeswoman Eileen Ziesemer said.
Insurance likely to cover claims
Insurance should cover the damage caused by the looting as well as stolen merchandise. Virtually all business owners and commercial property policies cover riots, civil commotion and vandalism, according to the Insurance Information Institute, an industry association.
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Businesses that have business interruption insurance should also be able to recover lost income resulting from the inability to operate, though only about 40% of businesses have that coverage, according to the association. Unlike the big court battles brewing over coverage of income losses due to COVID-19, insurers are unlikely to reject claims related to looting as long as it results from physical damage to property.
The civil unrest that erupted earlier this summer is estimated to have caused $500 million to $900 million in insured losses, according to the association, and is on track to be one of the costliest events of civil disorder in years. By comparison, the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles caused $775 million in insured losses, or $1.4 billion in today’s dollars.
Still, insurance is not a panacea for affected businesses. Many small businesses don’t have insurance, or high deductibles or inadequate coverage may prevent relief.
Even if insurance covers damage from looting, many businesses are already reeling from the impact of the pandemic, especially in the Loop, where shuttered offices deprived stores of their usual daytime customers.
‘It’s definitely a setback’
Damage on State Street and Wabash Avenue Monday morning didn’t appear to be as extensive as what the area sustained in late May, when about 50 businesses had storefront windows smashed, said Michael Edwards, president and CEO of the Chicago Loop Alliance.
CBD Kratom and the neighboring Mrs. Fields cookies had broken windows, and across the street at Macy’s Chicago flagship, which was also looted earlier this summer, boards covered the doors.
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Block 37, Foot Locker, Nando’s Peri-Peri, Staples, Target and Wedding Bands also sustained damage, according to Chicago Loop Alliance.
The two waves of property damage have been an extra blow, Edwards said. The first came as restaurants and nonessential retail shops were preparing to reopen to customers. Now, the vandalism and restrictions on evening access to the downtown could further delay officegoers’ return to the downtown.
“It’s definitely a setback. It just puts businesses, property owners, and shoppers on edge,” Edwards said.
Pedestrian activity in the Loop is still down about 70% compared with the same period last year as many people continue working from home, Edwards said.
“We really thought we had turned the corner, and we were seeing people coming back to offices again,” said Kevin Purcell, president of leasing and management services at MB Real Estate. His firm manages 20 million square feet of commercial buildings in downtown Chicago.
If workers continue to stay away, “more of these retailers will suffer,” he said.
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Many of the hardest-hit stores have been large national chains, but property owners and managers worry that repeated break-ins will cause retailers of all types to rethink their presence downtown, Purcell said.
Farzin Parang, executive director of BOMA/Chicago, an association of 240 downtown buildings, on the other hand, said it’s too soon to say whether Monday morning’s incidents will have a significant impact on efforts to revive the downtown economy from the coronavirus pandemic.
“These have been unpredictable, sporadic events,” Parang said. “It’s hard to say whether that impacts people’s behaviors long term.”
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Chicago Tribune’s Javonte Anderson and Lisa Schencker contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Motorcylist offered witness $100 to not call police after crash: police

He later told police he was a passenger on the motorcycle and a woman , 43 , of Hebron , @ @ @ @ @ told police she and Caudill had been drinking at a Valparaiso bar and Caudill was @ @ @ @ @ the way to Caudill ’ s residence .
When Caudill turned on to County Road @ @ @ @ @ control of the motorcycle and crashed on the north side of the roadway .

A Valparaiso area man faces an assortment of charges after the crash of his motorcycle Sunday night injured his passenger and he allegedly offered a witness $100 not to call the police and to give him a ride home before hiding behind trees near the scene.
Deputies with the Porter County Sheriff’s Department were called around 6:40 p.m. Sunday to Indiana 149 and County Road 600 North for a motorcycle crash, according to a report.
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Witnesses told police the driver of the motorcycle had fled westbound on foot and was seen hiding behind some trees. Police searching the area found a man matching that description hiding in the trees west of the accident.
David Caudill, 53, of the 600 block of Old Forge Road, told police he’d been walking down the roadway and had seen the accident and reportedly became “extremely verbally abusive” towards officers at the scene.
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He later told police he was a passenger on the motorcycle and a woman, 43, of Hebron, was driving. The woman told police she and Caudill had been drinking at a Valparaiso bar and Caudill was driving when they were on the way to Caudill’s residence. When Caudill turned on to County Road 600 North, he lost control of the motorcycle and crashed on the north side of the roadway.
The woman was transported to Porter Regional Hospital for injuries she sustained in the crash.
A witness who was behind the motorcycle told police Caudill was driving and told police Caudill “had offered him a $100 to drive (Caudill) home and asked (the witness) not to call the police.”
Police arrested Caudill on preliminary charges including a felony count of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury and misdemeanor counts of operating while intoxicated endangering a person; leaving the scene of an accident; and operating while intoxicated.
Police transported Caudill to Porter County Jail after taking him to Porter Regional Hospital for a blood draw.
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Latest lawsuit against House Speaker Michael Madigan, ComEd seeks $450 million in penalties over all

Latest lawsuit against House Speaker Michael Madigan, ComEd seeks $450 million in penalties over alleged bribery scheme

“ We apologize for the past conduct that did not live up to our values and have made significant improvements @ @ @ @ @ ensure that nothing like it ever happens again , ” spokesman Paul Elsberg said in @ @ @ @ @ filed in July .
“ The improper conduct described in the deferred prosecution agreement , @ @ @ @ @ that consumers were harmed by the legislation that was passed in Illinois .
”

A proposed class-action lawsuit filed in federal court Monday alleged House Speaker Michael Madigan and ComEd engaged in a racketeering conspiracy aimed at pushing through state legislation favorable to the power company in exchange for bribes.
The suit filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of several Commonwealth Edison customers seeks up to $450 million in damages as well as “immediate injunctive relief” barring Madigan from participating in legislative activities involving ComEd and removing him as chair of the Illinois Democratic Party.
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The action marked the third lawsuit to be filed since ComEd was charged last month with running an elaborate bribery scheme aimed at influencing legislation in Springfield by making payments to a cabal of Madigan associates and approved lobbyists, some of whom did little or no actual work for the company.
In a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors, ComEd has agreed to pay a record $200 million fine and cooperate in the ongoing investigation. If the agreement is fulfilled, the charges against the company would be dropped in 2023.
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Madigan, who was identified in the charges as Public Official A, has not been charged with wrongdoing.
According to ComEd’s agreement with the government, the fine cannot be raised through rate hikes. The deal, however, does not require ComEd to reimburse customers for any additional money received because of the scheme — an omission that several civil cases brought in recent weeks aim to address.
“We filed our civil RICO case now to protect Illinois ratepayers from further damage by Michael Madigan — in both his capacity as Speaker and as Chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois — and also to get our clients back the damages they have suffered from ComEd’s and Madigan’s bribery scheme,” plaintiffs’ attorney Stuart Chanen said in a statement.
In addition to Madigan, the suit names as defendants former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, Jay Doherty, the longtime president of the City Club of Chicago who served as on of ComEd’s chief lobbyists, and former Chicago Ald. Michael Zalewski, who was allegedly given payouts by the company as part of the scheme.
The suit was filed as a class action, meaning it seeks to include a large percentage of ComEd customers during the time period established by prosecutors.
The lawsuit also lists former ComEd executives John Hooker and Fidel Marquez as defendants.
No one named in the suit other than ComEd has been criminally charged.
ComEd has publicly apologized for its actions, but the company denies the scheme meant customers were unfairly charged. To the contrary, a utility spokesman said last month, the company has increased reliability by 70% since 2012 and customers’ bills are lower now than they were nearly a decade ago because of legislation passed by the Illinois General Assembly.
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“We apologize for the past conduct that did not live up to our values and have made significant improvements to our compliance practices to ensure that nothing like it ever happens again,” spokesman Paul Elsberg said in response to an earlier lawsuit filed in July. “The improper conduct described in the deferred prosecution agreement, however, does not mean that consumers were harmed by the legislation that was passed in Illinois.”
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.
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.”
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Naperville increasing police presence downtown after looting in Chicago

Naperville police as of Monday afternoon do not have any intelligence saying there will be any protests or looting in @ @ @ @ @ Marshall said that can change and the department is prepared to react .

Naperville is increasing its police presence in the downtown area for the rest of the week following the looting and unrest in downtown Chicago, Police Chief Bob Marshall said.
Marked vehicles and uniformed police officers will be in place to “make the downtown community feel safe,” Marshall said.
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The stepped-up police efforts began Monday. While police do not have any information indicating protests or looting might occur here, the department wants to be ready to act should that change, he said.
“We are well prepared based on experience in the last couple months,” Marshall said. “People will see additional police cars and additional officers if they’re downtown tonight.”
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No problems were reported Monday night, city spokeswoman Kelley Munch said.
Naperville did experience downtown looting and destruction on June 1 following peaceful protests. Dozens of businesses were vandalized and burglarized, and one man launched an explosive device toward an armored police vehicle.
Police monitor social media and stay in contact with state and local government officials to pick up information on criminal activity that might be in the works for Naperville or other western suburbs, Marshall said.
That said, not all criminal activity is advertised on social media so it’s important that residents report suspicious activity, he said.
“We’re still encouraging people, if you see suspicious activity, say something,” Marshall said.
The unrest in downtown Chicago involved smashed windows, looted businesses and police confrontations involving hundreds of people. It resulted in 13 police officers being injured and more than 100 arrests, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown said.
Naperville had already increased the police presence in the downtown area Thursdays through Saturdays after receiving numerous complaints about vehicles with screeching tires and loud exhaust systems and drivers racing up and down ramps in the city’s parking garages.
“Not only will we be showing an enhanced presence (this week) based on what happened in Chicago, but officers will still address some of those (excessive noise) complaints,” Marshall said.
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ehegarty@tribpub.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--3 men charged with murder in shooting death of Evanston man at his own birthday party, prosecutors s

3 men charged with murder in shooting death of Evanston man at his own birthday party, prosecutors say

Witnesses saw both Green and Tyree Hooper , both wearing cloth COVID-19 protection masks , walk toward Williams and stand @ @ @ @ @ , boxing him in , according to prosecutors .
The men stopped Williams from getting @ @ @ @ @ the car and both drew handguns with extended clips , prosecutors said .
They both @ @ @ @ @ , hitting him in the neck , torso and arms , prosecutors said .

Tyree Hooper, from left, Ronald Green and Terrence Hooper were charged with first-degree murder in an Evanston shooting that killed Andrew Williams on July 26. (Evanston Police Department)
Three men have been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of an Evanston resident at his own birthday party last month, prosecutors said Sunday.
Ronald Green, 23, Tyree Hooper, 22, and Terrence Hooper, 23, were arrested Friday and charged in the July 26 murder of Evanston resident Andrew Williams, 29. The defendants appeared in Cook County bond court Sunday where a judge ordered all three held without bail.
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On the day he died, Williams was walking from his home to his friend’s car around 3 p.m. to buy ice for his birthday party, prosecutors said. The car was parked in front of Williams’ house in the 1900 block of Hartrey Avenue.
Green and Tyree Hooper walked up from Foster Street, where Terrance Hooper had dropped them off while driving his silver Nissan Altima, according to prosecutors. Hooper was the registered owner of the car, which had its front license plate removed and rear license plate obscured, according to prosecutors.
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Private surveillance video showed the silver sedan driving down Foster Street about two minutes before gunshots were reported about a block away at Williams’ house, according to prosecutors.
Witnesses saw both Green and Tyree Hooper, both wearing cloth COVID-19 protection masks, walk toward Williams and stand in front and behind him, boxing him in, according to prosecutors. The men stopped Williams from getting into the passenger side of the car and both drew handguns with extended clips, prosecutors said. They both fired multiple shots at Williams, hitting him in the neck, torso and arms, prosecutors said.
Williams fell backward onto the ground, having suffered five gunshot wounds, according to the prosecutors. Spent shell casings were recovered on the sidewalk and street near the body. Williams was taken to Evanston Hospital and died there.
After the shooting, Green and Tyree Hooper then ran back toward Foster Street where they got back into the silver Nissan that Terrence Hooper was driving, according to the prosecutors. The three men then returned to a Ramada hotel in Wheeling, which is where had they convened before the shooting, prosecutors said.
The daytime shooting at a birthday party is “as brazen as I’ve seen in 20 years of being here,” said Evanston Police Commander Brian Henry said.
Green, Tyree Hooper and Terrance Hooper are ABM gang members that are feuding with D Block gang members, according to prosecutors. Williams is friends with members of D Block, prosecutors said.
All three defendants are previously from Evanston, confirmed Henry. Green now lives on the 1700 block of Central Street. Tyree and Terrence Hooper now live in the 2800 block of 223rd Place, Sauk Village.
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Green was found with a handgun under the driver’s seat of the car he was driving when he was arrested and Hooper was found with a handgun in his pants, according to prosecutors.
The defendants were not together when they were arrested, Henry said. Two were arrested in Chicago and one in Sauk Village. He declined to comment on who was arrested where.
The arrests were made by Evanston police with the help of Chicago police, Sauk Village police and members of the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force, according to an Evanston Police Department news release.
Green was previously charged with aggravated battery and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, while Terrence Hooper was also previously charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, prosecutors said.
The shooting death of Andrew Williams was the third Evanston homicide over four days in late July. Arrests have not yet been made in the July 25 shooting deaths of Deashawn Turner, 21, in the 2200 block of Emerson Street; or Brian Carrion, 20, near the CTA Howard Street Red Line station on July 23.
Chicago Tribune reporter William Lee contributed.
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gbookwalter@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Munster closes Calumet Avenue as looting precaution: police

Munster Police spokesman Lt. John Peirick said in a release Monday afternoon that “ out of an abundance of caution @ @ @ @ @ close off northbound Calumet Avenue at Ridge Road and Calumet Avenue at River Drive in @ @ @ @ @ notice.
” The town opted to follow the leads of Calumet City , Illinois ; @ @ @ @ @ after the two municipalities received information that looters could be heading their way , Peirick @ @

Looting in Chicago Sunday night into Monday morning put one Illinois-bordering Northwest Indiana town into lockdown mode again after several days in early June at the height of the police brutality protests.
Munster Police spokesman Lt. John Peirick said in a release Monday afternoon that “out of an abundance of caution,” the town would close off northbound Calumet Avenue at Ridge Road and Calumet Avenue at River Drive in both directions “until further notice.” The town opted to follow the leads of Calumet City, Illinois; and Lansing, Illinois, after the two municipalities received information that looters could be heading their way, Peirick said.
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As of Monday afternoon, Munster Police, along with the giant stone wall across Calumet Avenue before the Interstate 80-94 exit ramps, would handle any problems that showed up, Peirick said in an email. Neighboring departments, however, along with the Lake County Sheriff’s Department and the Indiana State Police would be called in if needed, he said.
The City of Hammond, on the other hand, hadn’t closed its borders, Hammond Police spokesman Lt. Steve Kellogg said Monday afternoon. Neither had the Town of Highland, police spokesman Lt. John Banasiak said, though the department would be increasing patrol units during afternoon and evening hours.
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Whiting Police Detective Capt. Sam Abner said the city wasn’t expecting any problems, especially since the city doesn’t have any big-box stores. As such, the department would continue normally, he said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--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--2020-08-10--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--2020-08-10--Illinois coronavirus graphs: 7,637 deaths, 195,399 confirmed cases and 3.1 million tests

• How are Illinois regions doing ?
Check our daily charts on where each region stands on positivity rate and @ @ @ @ @ .

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--2020-08-10--Judge rejects former South Haven church youth pastor’s plea deal on sex charges

The boy reportedly notified the church about inappropriate communications he had with McGehee via cellphone and the pastor “ informed @ @ @ @ @ coming to him with the issue and to keep it on the ‘ down low @ @ @ @ @ ( McGehee ) in a lot of trouble , ” documents state .
Other church @ @ @ @ @ boy not to tell people what had been occurring .

An expected sentencing for a former youth pastor at a South Haven church who allegedly had an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old boy and filed a plea agreement to a single lesser charge went awry Monday when a Porter Superior Court Judge rejected the plea agreement.
“It’s going to be brief,” Porter Superior Court Judge Roger Bradford said at the start of court. “I will not accept any plea that does not include sex offender registration.”
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Jeffrey McGehee, 32, of Portage, was charged in June 2018 with felony counts of sexual misconduct with a child; vicarious sexual gratification; child solicitation; and possession of child pornography.
McGehee was the youth leader at the Church of Jesus Christ, 791 Juniper Road.
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According to a plea agreement filed July 6, McGehee agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of dissemination of material harmful to minors, with the stipulation the rest of the charges against him be dropped.
McGehee admitted that between Jan. 1, 2017, and Jan. 17, 2018, he sent naked pictures of himself and a video of himself masturbating to the boy, according to that document.
The proposed sentence rejected by Bradford was 12 months in Porter County Jail suspended and served on probation.
“Naturally we were disappointed that we didn’t get the case concluded today,” said McGehee’s attorney, Bob Harper. “In the next few days I’ll be talking to my client and to the Lake County Prosecutor to see if we can possible still work this case out.”
Keith Anderson, a deputy prosecutor with the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office, is serving as special prosecutor for the case because of a conflict of interest with the Porter County Prosecutor’s Office.
Another hearing in the case has been scheduled for Sept. 14.
According to charging documents, police learned of the relationship between McGehee and the boy after being forwarded a report from the state’s Department of Child Services, because that agency was going to investigate.
McGehee ran a summer youth camp for the South Haven church and sister churches, according to the document, and the boy attended the camp as well as playing in the church band with McGehee.
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The boy reportedly notified the church about inappropriate communications he had with McGehee via cellphone and the pastor “informed him he was smart for coming to him with the issue and to keep it on the ‘down low’ because it could get (McGehee) in a lot of trouble,” documents state. Other church members also repeatedly told the boy not to tell people what had been occurring.
The cellphone exchanges reportedly included videos and pictures, according to the documents. McGehee also allegedly cornered the boy in a bathroom stall at a Hobart health club for physical contact until the boy left because he told McGehee he was uncomfortable, among other physical contact.
The pastor, reportedly McGehee’s father-in-law, was charged with failing to report the alleged abuse; that case was dismissed in December.
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Four killed in early Sunday morning car crash in River Forest; driver remains hospitalized

“ Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased , ” River Forest police Chief James O @ @ @ @ @ statement .
“ The investigation is still ongoing and we would ask anyone with information @ @ @ @ @ our detective unit at 708-366-7125 .
”

A pedestrian visits the makeshift memorial located along Harlem Avenue just south of Lake Street in River Forest where four people were killed following a car crash Aug. 9. (Steve Schering / Pioneer Press)
Authorities say four occupants of a car were killed when the car crashed into a planter, light pole and a building along Harlem Avenue in River Forest, and police say the cause of the crash remains under investigation.
According to a release from River Forest police, five people were in the car when it crashed in the 400 block of Harlem Avenue, just south of Lake Street, at about 12:49 a.m. Sunday.
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A makeshift memorial is set up along Harlem Avenue just south of Lake Street in River Forest where four people were killed following a car crash Aug. 9. (Steve Schering / Pioneer Press)
After hitting a planter and a light pole, the car hit the outer wall of a closed Starbucks store, 7201 Lake St., police said.
Two of the occupants of the car were pronounced dead on the scene, police said. Two other occupants needed emergency medical care and were taken to local hospitals, where they later died, police said.
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By Monday evening, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office had ruled all four deaths as accidental.
The medical examiner identified one of the victims as Wendy Salgado, 20, who died at 2:19 a.m. of blunt force injuries of the head due to a motor vehicle striking fixed objects.
The other victims were identified as Javier Martinez, 20, who was pronounced dead at 2:19 a.m., Christian Isidro, 21, who was pronounced dead at 1:25 a.m. and Astrid Reyes, 19, who was pronounced dead at 3:04 a.m. The cause of death for each victim was multiple injuries due to a motor vehicle striking fixed objects, the medical examiner ruled.
According to police, the person who was driving the car is also hospitalized. An update on the driver’s condition was not available as of press time.
A makeshift memorial is set up along Harlem Avenue just south of Lake Street in River Forest where four people were killed following a car crash Aug. 9. (Steve Schering / Pioneer Press)
River Forest police were assisted by officers from Oak Park and Forest Park, and emergency medical assistance was provided by the River Forest and Oak Park fire departments in the aftermath of the crash. The West Suburban Major Crimes Task Force’s crash team was called out to assist with the investigation.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased,” River Forest police Chief James O’Shea said in a statement. “The investigation is still ongoing and we would ask anyone with information about the case to contact our detective unit at 708-366-7125.”
When asked Monday morning for additional information about the incident, O’Shea referred Pioneer Press to the department’s previously issued press release, which can be found here.
sschering@pioneerlocal.com
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Twitter: @steveschering


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Highwood butcher pleads guilty to running multimillion-dollar sports bookmaking business

In 2008 , Poeta told Kass he wasn ’ t a bookie , just a go-between .
“ I ’ @ @ @ @ @ him up , ” Poeta said of Resnick .
“ I hooked him up with @ @ @ @ @ When he got too big for them , I hooked him up with guys in @ @ @ @ @ a go-between .
He would take checks to me .
And I would cash them @ @ @ @ @ want checks .
”

A North Shore butcher pleaded guilty Monday to running an illegal sports bookmaking operation that raked in millions of dollars from bettors over a four-year period.
Dominic Poeta, 63, who for years has run Poeta’s Italian Food Mart in Highwood, pleaded guilty to one count each of illegal bookmaking and filing a false tax return. Poeta faces up to three years in prison and has agreed to pay nearly $1.4 million in penalties to the IRS.
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Poeta admitted in his plea agreement with prosecutors that from 2014 to 2018, he used offshore betting websites based in the Caribbean to process millions of dollars in sports wagers and did not report the income on his tax returns.
In 2016 alone, Poeta failed to report $984,000 in gambling income, listing only $81,000 in proceeds from his meat market on his 2017 tax return to the IRS, his plea stated.
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Poeta, of Highland Park, is free on bond and appeared via a video link before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly. He was scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 4.
Poeta spoke only briefly during the 30-minute hearing, telling the judge he was a high school graduate who has been in the grocery and butcher business for 50 years. Asked if he was in good health, Poeta said, “Aches and pains, but I’m fine.”
The case against Poeta was not the first time he appeared in federal court in connection with gambling allegations.
In 2008, he was accused in a civil case by the feds of being a bookie who accepted $647,211 in checks for gambling debts.
The judge at that time ruled that Poeta had to pay all the money back to the government for accepting bets by Chicago’s infamous check-kiter and wacky author, Adam Resnick, Tribune columnist John Kass wrote in 2008.
Resnick, Kass wrote, “was previously convicted of helping swindle a Chicago bank out of $10 million and gambling it away, hanging out on Rush Street with Outfit types, the politicians, the bar owners, cops and collectors who make their point by tenderizing your face like a veal cutlet. Poeta was given the alias “Luciano ‘Lucky’ Petrelli” in Resnick’s book about it all, ‘Bust.’ "
In 2008, Poeta told Kass he wasn’t a bookie, just a go-between. “I’m the guy who hooked him up,” Poeta said of Resnick. “I hooked him up with guys in our area. When he got too big for them, I hooked him up with guys in Vegas. I was just a go-between. He would take checks to me. And I would cash them. They didn’t want checks.”
Reached by phone at his market after he was charged last month, Poeta said the previous case had nothing to do with his current situation.
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“That was something else. I just happened to be involved with a guy who was gambling. I was caught in the middle of this,’' Poeta said.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Column: Trump signs worthless coronavirus executive orders while Americans choose stupidity over com

Column: Trump signs worthless coronavirus executive orders while Americans choose stupidity over commonsense

Trump ’ s benefit comes via executive order and not through Congress , so states would need a new system @ @ @ @ @ , which could take months to develop .
Oh , and the pool of money @ @ @ @ @ if distributed among the roughly 30 million people currently unemployed , will run out in @ @ @ @

As President Donald Trump and his cavalcade of Republican lemming impersonators work overtime to keep America No. 1 in coronavirus cases and pandemic ineptitude, the rest of the world is taking notice, with many shaking their heads and saying, “Wow, that country has really let itself go.”
The prototypical bullheaded American response to criticism from a non-American is: “Who cares what you think?” The last thing we want is some European’s effete observations dulling our finely honed sense of superiority.
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But with more than 5 million confirmed coronavirus cases, more than 162,000 COVID-19 deaths and a federal response more chaotic than a blind cat in a cage full of canaries, American hubris is quite literally killing us.
Beyond the pandemic’s death toll, the virus has clobbered the economy, unemployment is at about 10% and, with COVID-19 anything but contained and flu season approaching, it’s a sure bet huge swaths of the country will be shut down again.
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Dr. David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and head of a team seeking treatments for COVID-19, told The Associated Press: “There’s no national strategy, no national leadership, and there’s no urging for the public to act in unison and carry out the measures together. That’s what it takes, and we have completely abandoned that as a nation.”
Sounds bad when you put it that way. But it’s true.
Last week a photo of a crowded Georgia high school hallway went viral, as it showed no social distancing and hardly any masks. The school reacted by suspending the poor student who shot the photo. On Sunday, we learned nine coronavirus cases had been confirmed at the school and it’s being shut down for a least a couple days.
Here in Chicago, the mayor had to put fencing up at Montrose Beach after a crowd of overzealous disease vectors held a weekend party that didn’t appear to include masks, social distancing or cognizance of a pandemic.
Tens of thousands of motorcycle lovers gathered in Sturgis, South Dakota, over the weekend to prove they could do something more irresponsible than riding without a helmet.
And schools in Chicago and other parts of the country will remain online this fall in large part because many Americans were too desperate to get back to barhopping or too stubborn to put small pieces of cloth over their pie holes.
It’s as if we were told, as a nation, not to stick our face in the fan and we just kept doing it until our nose was lopped off.
Augmenting this newfound status as a global disaster is our president and his administration, a collection of opportunistic ignoramuses skilled only at taking bad situations and making them measurably worse.
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Trump continues to downplay the virus, wears a mask one day then questions mask efficacy the next and promises vaccines and treatments with the trustworthiness of a door-to-door salesman hocking magazine subscriptions, elixirs and Orlando timeshares.
Over the weekend, the president issued several executive orders, all of which, if you read them, sound like something Jared Kushner wrote on the back of a cocktail napkin that Donald Trump Jr. then used to wipe beer foam and Doritos dust off his face.
Unemployed workers were getting an additional $600 per week from the federal government, but that benefit ended. With Democrats pushing to continue the benefit and Republicans suggesting the unemployed were living lavish on such a fancy perk, Trump stepped in, probably unconstitutionally, and said people on unemployment will get an extra $400 a week
But only $300 of that will come from the federal government. States, most of which currently lack money, have to provide the extra $100 or their unemployed residents get nothing extra.
Trump’s benefit comes via executive order and not through Congress, so states would need a new system to deliver the additional money, which could take months to develop. Oh, and the pool of money Trump plans to use, if distributed among the roughly 30 million people currently unemployed, will run out in about five weeks.
Other than all those things that render Trump’s order an ineffectual con, it’s a great plan.
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Another of his orders suspends the payroll tax. Normally, employees pay 6.2% of their pay to Social Security and 1.45% to Medicare.
Not having to pay that sounds great for working people, but the word “suspends” is not the same as “waives.” You’ll pay the tax eventually, and because those taxes help fund Medicare and Social Security, if you don’t pay them, those two popular programs suffer.
It’s robbing Grandpa Peter to pay Paul for a few months, after which the government either takes Paul’s pay back or gives grandpa a cardboard box to live in.
There are no simple solutions to this country’s deadly dilemma, but there is one step that would make a significant difference: People need to acknowledge this is a mess and stop acting surprised when dumb actions lead to bad outcomes.
The whole world has faced this virus, and other wealthy nations like us have struggled mightily. But even those that struggled learned from their mistakes, and their situations improved.
We can’t believe rugged individualism or a long-standing belief in American exceptionalism will defeat this virus, anymore than we can bring the 162,000 souls it has taken back to life.
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People in other countries are shocked that America — the mighty United States! — could fail this spectacularly. We ignore their reaction at our own peril.
The only truly American thing we can do right now is admit that American stupidity is prevailing over American common sense.
We should feel embarrassed.
And we should want to come together and get things right.
rhuppke@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Watch live: Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx holds press conference after looting in downtown C

Watch live: Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx holds press conference after looting in downtown Chicago

Cook County State ’ s Attorney Kim Foxx is expected to hold a press conference to address looting in downtown @ @ @ @ @ .
Get the latest updates here and read the Tribune ’ s analysis of Foxx @ @ @ @ @ cases .

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