The Engelhardt family. Those stabbed to death in 2009 were father Alan (top left), daughter Laura (center) and grandmother Marlene Gacek (not pictured). Mother Shelly is at top right, and Amanda and and Jeff are in front. | Courtesy ABC7

Article Extras

Updated: July 20, 2011 2:15AM

The first police officer to enter the Hoffman Estates home where three people were fatally stabbed in 2009 described finding a nightmarish scene that included blood-covered floors and bodies clustered together.

In the midst of the carnage, Sgt. Michael Brady said he saw a distraught Marie Engelhardt trying to comfort her dying, 18-year-old granddaughter, Laura Engelhardt.

“She was holding Laura’s hand. She was consoling her,” Brady testified Tuesday.

He and other Hoffman Estates officers provided graphic testimony during a hearing for triple-murder suspect D’Andre Howard, who is seeking to prevent statements he allegedly made to police from being used as evidence.

The violence erupted early on April 17, 2009, after Howard quarreled with his fiancee, 23-year-old Amanda Engelhardt, in her parents’ home, then tied up and later stabbed her relatives, authorities contend.

Howard, now 23, is accused of killing Amanda’s younger sister, Laura Engelhardt, a senior at Conant High School; her father, Alan Engelhardt, 57; and her grandmother, Marlene Gacek, 73. He’s also charged with attacking her mother, Shelly Engelhardt, who was badly injured but survived her stab wounds.

Amanda Engelhardt and the 8-month-old daughter she had with Howard were unharmed, as was Marie Engelhardt, 85.

Howard was lying injured in the den when police arrived at the home, but admitted he stabbed Laura Engelhardt, Brady testified.

“I took the knife away from her, I stabbed her,” Brady said, recounting what Howard purportedly told him.

Howard allegedly brandished a butcher knife during the quarrel, then tied up several of the women, authorities have said.

He was stabbed by Laura after he untied her, but took away the knife and allegedly stabbed her and other family members, authorities said.

Laura Engelhardt regained consciousness long enough to identify Howard — whom she called by his nickname, “Dre” — as her attacker, Brady and Officer Michael Turman testified.

“I asked who stabbed her. She told me ‘Dre,’ Brady said. “I asked who stabbed everybody else. She said ‘Dre.’ ”

Howard later gave a videotaped statement to police implicating himself in the slayings, authorities said.

Howard is attempting to bar his statements as evidence, saying he wasn’t read his rights and that police continued to question him after he asked for a lawyer.

Tyler Jones, 20 months, and Jennifer Anton, her 25-year-old nanny. The two were part of a group of people hit by a city worker who was drunk driving on Saturday, May 21. Anton was critically injured.

Updated: July 20, 2011 2:15AM

That noon hour in May on a Gold Coast sidewalk remains “crystal clear” in Jennifer Anton’s mind.

In a matter of seconds, the 25-year-old nanny went from pushing a stroller with her charge, 20-month-old Tyler, safely tucked inside — to jettisoning the toddler and carriage away after noticing a group looking back at her in “shock” as she glimpsed a “white flash’’ as a pickup truck careened toward them.

“It was so fast and then all the sudden I was face down on the sidewalk, on top of another gentleman and the truck was on top of me and us,” said Anton, speaking for the first time Tuesday about the May 21 crash.

Her actions during the incident led some to call her a hero for saving the toddler, but she has since gone through 11 surgeries and is now wheelchair-bound as she heals from multiple broken bones.

After about 15 bystanders worked to lift the truck off of her and another man, “I kept asking, ‘Where’s the baby? Is she OK?’ ” Anton recalled during a press conference at the downtown offices of Corboy Demetrio, which is representing her in a civil lawsuit against Chicago and the truck’s driver, Dwight Washington. The city Streets Sanitation worker also has been charged with drunken driving in connection with the crash.

Even as the pain — and proportion — of her injuries became more and more evident that day, she was able to tell a firefighter the girl’s name, her mother’s name and that a phone number had been keyed into a cell phone in the child’s stroller.

“When they flipped me over, rolled me over to get on to the board, I could just feel that I was broken, I could feel that the bones . . . were not whole,” she said. “But I continued to ask about Tyler.”

Anton, who had been living in Lake View before the crash, became emotional Tuesday as she talked about Tyler’s visits to her in the hospital, including last Thursday at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

“It’s been, you know . . . ” she said, choking up, “really good. . . . I’ve been with the family since she was born, and she and I are really close. So it was really good to see her. She hadn’t forgotten me.”

Washington, 61, and the city face additional lawsuits filed by several others injured the day he drove the city Ford F-150 pickup onto the sidewalk. Authorities said he had an open bottle of EJ Brandy next to him and his blood-alcohol level was .183, more than twice the legal limit for driving.

“It’s disgusting, you know, I mean it’s, it’s horrible,” said Anton’s mom, Kathy, of Kansas City, of the allegations against Washington. “People just don’t think. My god . . . how could he be that drunk at 12:20 in the afternoon, you know, while you’re working?”

While the prognosis for Anton is good, her mother says it will take years before she is fully recovered, and she’ll need hip replacements.

And her family is struggling with how to pay the medical bills after Anton turns 26 in November and goes off family insurance. Anton’s friends have set up a fund at Chase Bank to help defray medical and other expenses.

Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne, shown last year, triggered a City Council rebellion last year by switching to a grid system. | Scott Stewart~Sun-Times

It looks like one of former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s favorite trouble-shooters will be the first to leave Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s cabinet.

Sources said Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne — an ally of Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), the mayor’s City Council floor leader — is preparing to retire from city government around Labor Day even as the city’s third-largest department faces a host of changes that threaten to alienate Chicago aldermen.

Earlier this week, Byrne stood at Emanuel’s side as the mayor announced a “managed competition” between private recycling contractors and city employees that, over time, will deliver suburban-style curbside recycling to 359,000 Chicago households without it.

The recycling contracts set the stage for the city to set up a similar competition for normal refuse collection, following through on Emanuel’s campaign promise to cut the city’s annual tab for garbage collection by as much as $65 million.

Last year, Byrne triggered a City Council rebellion by stripping aldermen of their exclusive control of street sweepers and switching to a grid system that divided Chicago into 33 same-sized chunks.

Now, Streets and San is inviting a similar rebellion by asking consultants to “assist in the switch from a ward-based to a grid-based routing system” for routine garbage collection.

“The consultant will develop an optimized route system for residential collection services in order to create balanced routes” that create an “equitable workload for route drivers,” according to a document distributed by the mayor’s office.

Aldermen are dead-set against the idea. They’re determined to maintain control over housekeeping and snow removal services that are an alderman’s bread and butter.

“Every ward now has their own trucks. That gives us the ability to clean up lots and do different things instead of having laborers sit around doing nothing in between loads,” said Ald. Anthony Beale (9th).

“It’s also about having that personal touch with your ward superintendent being familiar with your ward and your residents. If you go to a grid system, you lose that personal touch. Same thing with snow removal. When those trucks go inside, ward superintendents know what streets need small equipment and what streets don’t. With a grid system, you lose all of that. Nobody will know who to call.”

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) noted that, in a ward-by-ward system, problems with Streets and San services “can be dealt with the same day.” Under a grid system, residents would be “at the mercy of the 311 system, which is not always the most reliable or responsive,” he said.

“I’m very concerned that it will affect the quality of service delivery,” Moore said.

Chris Mather, Emanuel’s communications director, said: “We are conducting an assessment to determine how to provide residents with the best garbage collection services for the best price and we will work closely with the city council to achieve that goal.”

Byrne is the former Chicago Police officer and longtime Daley favorite summoned to City Hall in 2005 to clean up a Transportation Department hard hit by the Hired Truck and missing asphalt scandals.

Four years later, Byrne was shifted to Streets and San to replace longtime Commissioner Michael Picardi, who was swept out after complaints of lavish snow removal spending, lax field supervision and allegations of continued personnel abuses.

Earlier this year, Byrne was under fire for the Blizzard of 2011 fiasco that shut down Lake Shore Drive. A few months later, he was forced to make dramatic cutbacks in forestry and rodent control services as Streets and San struggled to sweep the streets and pick up garbage amid a two-year hiring freeze and chronic absenteeism.

The grid system is not the only impending controversy at Streets and San.

An independent arbitrator has joined Laborers Union Local 1001 in questioning how private recycling contractors “could realistically expect to produce the same level of service” with one-employee crews working 28 routes, compared to 45 routes with two-employee crews currently used by the city.

“There is a potential for a public relations nightmare if this privatization does not provide the same level of service now provided by city crews,” the arbitrator wrote.

Police investigate after a teenager was killed and two others were wounded near South Parnell Avenue and West 70th Street in an afternoon shooting in the Englewood neighborhood on Tuesday, July 19, 2011. | Scott Stewart~Sun-Times

Article Extras

Updated: July 20, 2011 6:36AM

They call Arthur Bridgeford “Pops,” “the ladies’ man,” the friendly old guy who sits on his Englewood porch in a sagging teal recliner, enjoying a smoke and waving at passersby.

Tuesday afternoon, Bridgeford’s recliner sat empty. A balled-up bloody shirt lay a few feet away on the porch.

Bridgeford, 87, was the lucky one. A bullet grazed Bridgeford’s right arm as he sat on his porch when someone opened fire about 4 p.m. Tuesday near South Parnell and West 70th. The same gunfire took the life of an 18-year-old man and left a 17-year-old boy with a bullet in his abdomen, police said.

The bullets came during what appears to have been a drive-by shooting, but Bridgeford likely was not the intended target, authorities said. The medical examiner’s office confirmed the death of Theadore Thomas. He was shot in the chest and back just outside Bridgeford’s home. The 17-year-old was hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said. Police said the shooter fled the scene.

Kimberly Carter, Bridgeford’s daughter, said her father has lived at the same address on Parnell Avenue all of his life, and she said it made no sense that an old man would not be safe sitting on his own porch, minding his own business.

“That’s just ridiculous,” Carter said Tuesday evening.

Carter said she was inside her father’s house when the gunfire began, and she said she did not get a look at the shooter.

Farther north on Parnell, drops of blood led to another porch, where the 17-year-old victim collapsed. Cassandra Hobbs, 23, lives next door to that home.

Hobbs said her 5-year-old daughter and two nieces had just gone outside to play in the sprinklers when they ran back inside five minutes later, yelling: “They’re out there shooting! Call 911!”

Hobbs said she stepped outside and saw a man with dreadlocks and wearing a white T-shirt staggering up the steps to her neighbor’s house. The man was clutching his side and bleeding profusely, Hobbs said.

A few moments later, a woman came out, Hobbs said. The woman saw the injured man and started yelling, “My baby got shot! My baby got shot!”

Hobbs said she knows neither the woman nor the man she saw bleeding on the porch.

Hobbs fumed when she talked about the kind of indifference that would make someone open fire on a street with kids playing. “When you see kids outside, what makes you shoot?” she said. “It don’t make no sense, and that’s what makes me angry.”

David Briddle’s lawsuit alleges defamation and false arrest. The lawsuit accuses Naperville Police of boosting DUI arrests to gain recognition and other benefits — whether or not the motorists are guilty. | Richard A. Chapman~Sun-Times

Article Extras

Updated: July 20, 2011 8:46AM

Tennis instructor David Briddle says he was treated like a criminal even after he tested negative for alcohol after a drunken-driving stop in Naperville over the Memorial Day weekend.

Briddle, 52, of west suburban Glen Ellyn, was released without charges after blowing 0.0 on a Breathalyzer test. But he was still fingerprinted, his mug shot was taken — and news of his arrest was provided to a local newspaper.

“It was ridiculous, embarrassing,” said Briddle, who works in the Naperville area. “People know about it, but they don’t even know how to broach it.”

On Tuesday, Briddle sued Naperville Police Officer Timothy Curran and the city of Naperville in federal court, claiming he was defamed and subjected to a false arrest.

The lawsuit, filed by attorney Kathleen Zellner, also accuses the police department of boosting DUI arrests to gain recognition and other benefits — whether or not the motorists are guilty.

With 621 last year, Naperville ranked No. 2 in DUI arrests among Illinois cities other than Chicago, according to the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists. Curran is listed by the Illinois Department of Transportation as one of the state’s top DUI enforcers with more than 100 arrests since 2001.

But Sgt. Gregg Bell, spokesman for the Naperville Police Department, scoffed at the suggestion that officers would falsely arrest motorists to pump up the city’s DUI statistics.

“Anytime you make a DUI or drug-related arrest, you are off the street for two or three hours, minimum,” Bell said. “You are not going to do this just so you can release the guy. If an officer makes an arrest for DUI, he is basing it on probable cause.”

Curran had probable cause to stop Briddle and arrest him for DUI, Bell said.

Bell, however, said the police department shouldn’t have provided information about Briddle’s May 30 arrest to the media.

“When a person is arrested without charges, 99.9 percent of the time we don’t release that information,” Bell said.

Bell said he provided information that Briddle was “arrested for DUI and later released without charges.”

On June 1, the Naperville Sun — a sister paper of the Chicago Sun-Times — reported that Briddle was “charged” with DUI.

According to the arrest report, Briddle was driving a white Mercedes in the 1100 block of Ogden when he was stopped shortly after 1:30 a.m. on May 30 for driving under the speed limit and weaving in his lane.

Curran said he noticed an empty wine glass and a cocktail glass in the car’s cup holders. He said he smelled alcohol on Briddle and noticed his eyes were glassy.

Briddle told the officer he drank four or five beers, finishing the last one about an hour before the stop, according to the arrest report. Briddle failed several field-sobriety tests and was arrested for DUI, the arrest report said.

At the police station, Briddle submitted to a Breathalyzer test which showed a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.0 percent. The legal limit for driving in Illinois is .08 percent.

Briddle said he was never told he was weaving and believes he passed the field-sobriety tests, although he admits touching his heel to the ground once during a foot-raising test.

Briddle said he is particularly upset that he was forced to complete the arrest process — including fingerprinting and having a mug shot taken — before he was released without charges or towing fees.

“They said they needed to arrest me completely in order to unarrest me,” he said. “That didn’t feel right to me.”

Donald Ramsell, a prominent DUI defense attorney, said there could have been more pressure than usual for Naperville officers to make DUI arrests on May 30 because it was during the Memorial Day weekend.

Ramsell was not surprised that a sober person was snared in Naperville’s DUI net.

“The law encourages the police to take anybody with the slightest hint of alcohol and arrest them and make them submit to chemical testing,” he said. “The idea is to ferret out the innocent people later. That sounds like what happened here.”

But he was shocked that Briddle’s arrest information was given to the media.

“Normally, people who undergo that situation, and there are a lot of them, don’t have their arrest information released to the public,” Ramsell said. “It’s not because they’re trying to protect the individual. They’re trying to protect the police officer. If the guy was 0.0, the officer did a poor job investigating the case at the scene.”

Inspector General Joseph Ferguson

Updated: July 19, 2011 8:17PM

A former high-ranking city of Chicago employee who continues to cash in on city contracts even after testifying in federal court about his role in a scheme to rig hiring and promotions at City Hall.

A not-for-profit corporation that allegedly forged bank letters in a failed attempt to secure a $1 million city subsidy.

A high-ranking city Department of Water Management employee driven to job sites after a DUI bust that stripped him of his driver’s license.

And a city “Snow Command” chief who was recommended for firing — but stayed on the payroll — after using city employees to perform his personal errands on city time.

Those are among the cases investigated in the past three months by city of Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson.

Though the names of city workers and contractors weren’t listed in Ferguson’s latest quarterly report, sources said the contractor who acknowledged rigging hiring was John Kosiba, a former city water management commissioner.

In 2006, Kosiba was the highest-ranking city official to testify at the corruption trial that culminated with the conviction of Robert Sorich, who was Mayor Richard M. Daley’s patronage chief.

Ferguson noted that Kosiba acknowledged under oath that he “falsified interview ratings forms and requests to hire” as part of a long-running scheme to rig city hiring and promotions to reward the Hispanic Democratic Organization and other pro-Daley armies of political workers.

Ferguson said he recommended that Kosiba be declared “ineligible to do business with the city” but that didn’t happen and his office “is taking steps to seek a further review of this matter.”

Kosiba — who couldn’t be reached for comment — is now chief operating officer of Span Tech, a city contractor that manages O’Hare Airport’s international terminal.

The identify of the non-profit accused of fraud involving tax-increment financing fraud wasn’t known, but City Hall is moving to “permanently” bar the organization from getting city contracts, according to Ferguson. He said it forged “two letters purportedly from major lending institutions” and provided them to the city in a failed effort to “fraudulently obtain” a $1 million city subsidy.

Though the application was rejected by the city’s Department of Housing and Economic Development, that agency reported the matter to the city Law Department rather than to the inspector general, which is required by city ordinance, Ferguson noted.

Ferguson said that when he suggested specific “investigative techniques” to gather evidence for criminal prosecution, top officials in the Housing and Economic Development “initially agreed but changed their minds at the last second.” That effectively eliminating the possibility that the matter could be pursued criminally, the inspector general wrote.

In another case, previously reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, Ferguson wrote that he wanted the city’s $142,464-a-year Snow Command chief, Bobby Richardson, fired for ordering his underlings to pick up and deliver cigars and keep his personal car washed and filled with gas. Instead, Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne suspended Richardson for 25 days but let him keep his job.

Byrne also ordered 10-day suspensions for two other employees who were chauffeured to and from work and a three-day suspension for one of the city workers who did the driving.

And Byrne discontinued a so-called “shuttle program” that had long allowed designated city workers to park at a city facility in the Loop and be shuttled to City Hall by a city employee.

City Hall sources identified Paul Hansen, son of former Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th), as the water management employee whose supervisors bent the rules and allowed him to keep working even after losing his driver’s license for an extended period of time as a result of an off-duty DUI.

The quarterly report also talks about several cases new allegations of alleged minority contracting fraud and about the case of a Department of Finance employee who resigned shortly after the inspector general discovered that the worker was living in a south suburb — a violation of the city’s residency requirement.

Updated: July 19, 2011 7:19PM

LONDON (AP) — A protester rushed at Rupert Murdoch as he gave testimony to British lawmakers Tuesday, setting off a scuffle and spattering Murdoch with what appeared to be white foam in a foil pie dish in a shocking interruption of a hearing into the phone hacking scandal that’s rocked the media baron’s global empire.

After more than two hours of testimony, a man in a plaid shirt appeared to run toward Murdoch before being struck by his wife Wendi Deng.

Police in the back of the committee room were holding an apparently handcuffed man with white foam covering his face and shirt. The foam also appeared to have hit Murdoch’s suit.

Earlier, Murdoch appeared by turns vague, truculent, sharp and concise as he appeared alongside his son and deputy, James, calling the parliamentary inquisition “the most humble day of my career” but refusing to take responsibility for the crisis that has swept from a tabloid newspaper through the top levels of Britain’s police and even to the prime minister’s office.

Murdoch, 80, said he was “shocked, appalled and ashamed” at the hacking of the phone of a murdered schoolgirl by his now-shuttered News of the World tabloid.

But he quibbled with a suggestion that criminality had been endemic at the tabloid and said he had seen no evidence that victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack and their relatives were targeted by any of his papers.

“Endemic is a very hard, a very wide ranging word,” Murdoch said. “I also have to be very careful not to prejudice the course of justice that is taking place now.”

Murdoch said he was not responsible for the hacking scandal, and denied his company was guilty of willful blindness over hacking.

He laid blame on “the people I trusted but they blame maybe the people that they trusted.”

Two of Murdoch’s top executives, Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton, have resigned over the scandal — something Murdoch said was a matter of regret.

“I’ve worked with Mr Hinton for 52 years and I would trust him with my life,” he said.

Murdoch also told the committee that he didn’t believe the FBI had uncovered any evidence of hacking of Sept. 11 victims in a recently launched inquiry.

He said he lost sight of News of the World because it is such a small part of his company and spoke to the editor of the paper only around once a month, talking more with the editor of the Sunday Times in Britain and the Wall Street Journal in the U.S.

The value of the Murdochs’ News Corp. added around $1.5 billion while they were being grilled, trading 3.8 percent higher at $15.54. The stock has taken a battering over the past couple of weeks, shedding around 17 percent of its value, or around $8 billion.

James Murdoch apologized for the scandal, telling British lawmakers that “these actions do not live up to the standards our company aspires to.”

The younger Murdoch said the company acted as swiftly and transparently as possible. Rupert Murdoch acknowledged, however, that he did not investigate after the Murdochs’ former U.K. newspaper chief, Rebekah Brooks, told parliament years ago that the News of the World had paid police officers for information.

Asked by lawmakers why there was no investigation, he said: “I didn’t know of it.”

He says the News of the World “is less than 1 percent” of his News Corp., which employs 53,000 people.

Murdoch also said he was not informed that his company had paid out big sums — 700,000 pounds ($1.1 million) in one case — to settle lawsuits by phone hacking victims.

James Murdoch said his father became aware of the settlement “in 2009 after a newspaper report. It was a confidential settlement.”

He said a civil case of that nature and size would be dealt with by the executives in the country involved — in this case himself, as head of News Corp.’s European and Asian operations.

James Murdoch said news organizations need to put a stronger emphasis on ethics in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, telling lawmakers that “we do need to think in this country more forcefully and thoughtfully about our journalistic ethics.”

Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendi Deng and News Corp. executive Joel Klein, who is overseeing an internal investigation into the wrongdoing, sat behind him as he spoke.

The elder Murdoch denied that the closure of the News of the World was motivated by financial considerations, saying he shut it because of the criminal allegations.

There has been speculation that Murdoch wanted to close the Sunday newspaper in order to merge its operations with the six-days-a-week Sun, which some have speculated will relaunch as a seven-day publication.

Politicians also pushed for details about the Murdochs’ ties to Prime Minister David Cameron and other members of the British political establishment.

In a separate hearing, lawmakers questioned London police about reports that officers took bribes from journalists to provide inside information for tabloid scoops and to ask why the force decided to shut down an earlier phone hacking probe after charging only two people.

Detectives reopened the case earlier this year and are looking at a potential 3,700 victims.

The scandal has prompted the resignation and subsequent arrest of Brooks and the resignation of Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton, sunk the Murdochs’ dream of taking full control of lucrative satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting and raised questions about his control of his global media empire.

Rupert Murdoch is eager to stop the crisis from spreading to the United States, where many of his most lucrative assets — including the Fox TV network, 20th Century Fox film studio, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — are based.

London’s departing police chief revealed that 10 of the 45 press officers in his department used to work for News International, but he denied there are any improper links between the force and Murdoch’s media empire.

“I understand that there are 10 members of the (Department of Public Affairs) staff who have worked in News International in the past, in some cases journalists, in some cases undertaking work experience with the organization,” Paul Stephenson said.

News International is the British newspaper division of Murdoch’s global News Corp.

Stephenson denied wrongdoing, or knowing the News of the World was engaged in phone hacking — but acknowledged that in retrospect he was embarrassed the force had hired Neil Wallis, a former executive of the paper, as a PR consultant.

After being asked about his relationship with Wallis, who was arrested last week, Stephenson said he had “no reason to connect Wallis with phone hacking” when he was hired for the part-time job in 2009.

He said now that the scale of phone hacking at the paper has emerged, it’s “embarrassing” that Wallis worked for the police.

Stephenson announced his resignation Sunday, saying allegations about his contacts with Murdoch’s News International were a distraction from his job.

He was followed out the door by assistant commissioner John Yates, who gave evidence before the hotly anticipated appearance by the Murdochs. Yates has denied wrongdoing and said that, with the benefit of hindsight, he would have re-opened an inquiry into electronic eavesdropping of voicemail messages.

London’s Metropolitan Police force said Tuesday it had asked a watchdog to investigate its head of public affairs over the scandal — the fifth senior police official being investigated. The Independent Police Complaints Commission will look at Dick Fedorcio’s role in hiring a former News of the World executive as an adviser to the police.

Members of the public and journalists lined up hours ahead of time in hope of a spot in the small committee room, which holds about 40 people. More will be able to watch in an overspill room, and Britain’s TV news channels are anticipating high ratings for the appearance.

Murdoch’s car was mobbed by photographers as he arrived three hours before the hearing. The Range Rover quickly drove off, returning returned to Parliament about half an hour before the hearing was due to start.

Cameron cut short a visit to Africa and is expected to return to Britain for an emergency session Wednesday of Parliament on the scandal.

A former News of the World reporter, Sean Hoare, who helped blow the whistle on the scandal, was found dead Monday in his home. Police said the death was “unexplained” but is not being treated as suspicious. A post-mortem was being conducted Tuesday. Hoare was in his late forties.

Brooks’ spokesman, David Wilson, said police had been handed a bag containing a laptop and papers that belong to her husband, former racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks. Wilson said the bag did not contain anything related to the phone hacking scandal and he expected police to return it soon.

The bag was found dumped in an underground parking lot near the couple’s home on Monday, but it was unclear how exactly it got there. Wilson said Tuesday that a friend of Charlie Brooks had meant to drop the bag off, but he would say only he left it in the “wrong place.”

In New York, News Corp. appointed commercial lawyer Anthony Grabiner to run its Management and Standards Committee, which will deal with the scandal. But News Corp. board member Thomas Perkins told The Associated Press that the 80-year-old Murdoch has the full support of the company’s board of directors, and it was not considering elevating Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey to replace Murdoch as CEO of News Corp.

Britain’s Independent Police Complaints Commission also is looking into the phone hacking and police bribery claims, including one that Yates inappropriately helped get a job for the daughter of Wallis. Wallis has been arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications.

London police also confirmed that they once employed a second former News of the World employee besides Wallis. Alex Marunchak had been employed as a Ukrainian language interpreter with access to highly sensitive police information between 1980 and 2000, the Metropolitan Police said.

The police force said it recognized “that this may cause concern and that some professions may be incompatible with the role of an interpreter,” adding that the matter will be looked into.

Meanwhile, Internet hackers took aim at Murdoch late Monday, defacing the sites of his other U.K. tabloid, The Sun, and shutting down website of The Times of London. Visitors to The Sun website were redirected to a page featuring a story saying Murdoch’s dead body had been found in his garden.

Internet hacking collective Lulz Security took responsibility for that hacking attack via Twitter, calling it a successful part of “Murdoch Meltdown Monday.”

Lulz Security, which has previously claimed hacks on major entertainment companies, FBI partner organizations and the CIA, hinted that more was yet to come, saying “This is only the beginning.”

It later took credit for shutting down News International’s corporate website. Another hacking collective known as Anonymous claimed the cyberattack on The Times’ website.

——

Danica Kirka and Bob Barr contributed to this report.

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://twitter.com/JillLawless

Alen Nicholas and Jef Johnson of bronzeville before the ‘Unions in the Park’ the cities celebration of the first day of civil unions in Illinois, officiated by volunteer judges. Thursday, June 02, 2011 | Brian Jackson~Sun-Times

Updated: July 19, 2011 4:55AM

More than 800 civil union licenses were issued in Cook County through the end of June, the first month civil union licenses were issued in Illinois.

June 1, the day a new law kicked in granting gays and lesbians some of the same rights as married couples, was the busiest day with 209 licenses issued, according to statistics released Monday by Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office.

The remainder of the month, an average of 30 licenses were issued daily for a monthlong total of 831. In addition to the licenses issued in June, 125 couples obtained civil union licenses through Friday, July 15.

“It’s thrilling to see so many happy couples getting licenses and celebrating their relationships,” Orr said in a statement. “My office is dedicated to making this milestone special for each and every couple.”

Statewide numbers were not immediately available through the Illinois Department of Public Health’s vital statistics office.

But Equality Illinois, a gay and lesbian rights group, has been tracking numbers for each county in Illinois, and by the end of June calculated that statewide 1,618 civil union licenses had been issued. Illinois will become just the sixth state to recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships.

The group provided the following figures for civil union licenses issued in June in suburban and other area counties: DuPage, 83; Grundy, 1; Kane, 48; Kankakee, 17; Kendall, 16; Lake, 52; McHenry, 25, and Will, 72.

A closer look at the Cook County demographics tracked by the clerk’s office shows 65 percent of the couples who took out applications live in Chicago. But suburban couples were definitely part of the equation, representing 68 different municipalities. Here’s a sampling: 35 couples from Evanston took out licenses, followed by 24 in Oak Park, eight in Berwyn, seven in Homewood, six in Arlington Heights and four in Matteson.

Women edged out men in the numbers game: female couples took out 428 licenses or 51.5 percent while men took out 357 or 43 percent of the licenses. Opposite-sex couples accounted for 46 of the licenses or 5.5 percent.

Some other statistics:

◆ The oldest applicant for a civil union license was 93.

◆ The racial diversity of couples was clear. At least one partner was Hispanic in 13 percent of female unions and 15 percent of male unions, while at least one partner was African-American in 22 percent of female unions and 10 percent of male unions.

The county clerk’s office collected more than $37,000 through July 15 in new revenues from civil union application fees, civil union certificates and duplicate copies of records.

The Cook County clerk’s office issued 3,592 marriage licenses in June. Gov. Pat Quinn signed the law in January, and it kicked in June 1. While it doesn’t alter state law recognizing marriage as being between a man and woman, it affords gays and lesbians new rights involving their partners regarding hospital visits, health-care decision-making and the disposal of remains and estates.

Updated: July 19, 2011 2:10AM

A Skokie man who posed as an attorney and handled more than 60 cases without a law degree was sentenced Monday to two years in prison.

Tahir Malik, 47, was ordered behind bars after he pleaded guilty to forgery and impersonation of a lawyer before Cook County Judge Dennis Porter, according to a court clerk.

The convicted felon was arrested in December when staff at the Skokie courthouse grew suspicious of him and discovered he was never licensed to practice law.

“No one suspected anything for years because he did everything right — except obtain a law degree,” Sheriff Tom Dart said at the time.

Malik was tied to more than 60 cases, including traffic court, mortgage foreclosures and low-level criminal cases at the Skokie and Bridgeview courthouses, and at the Daley Center, along with hearings of various city boards, the sheriff’s office said.

Malik on Monday said that many of his clients never paid him for his services, a court worker said. Investigators believe he charged $500 to $4,500 cash per case.

Malik was previously convicted of burglary and served time in prison. His rap sheet also includes theft, shoplifting and criminal trespass charges, authorities said.

Michele Guzick is assisted by her husband, Mark, as she turns to leave the hole that she fell into. | Keith Hale~Sun-Times

Article Extras

Updated: July 19, 2011 2:38AM

Michele Guzick was mowing the parkway grass in front of her Clearing home on July 9 when she felt the earth collapsing beneath her feet like quick sand.

Before she knew it, the 43-year-old oral surgical nurse had fallen into a hole up to her knees. Only the lawn mower prevented her from falling deeper into the 30-inch-deep hole on the parkway side of the curb near an apparently collapsing catch basin.

Both ankles, her right knee and left wrist are severely sprained, with torn knee and ankle ligaments suspected, pending an MRI later this week. She can’t drive. She’s been out of work for a week. She’s expected to miss at least two weeks more.

Now, Guzick is demanding to know why the shifting parkway soil in the 6800 block of West 63rd Place — which she said she reported to the city’s 311 non-emergency system two weeks before the accident — did not trigger an emergency repair.

In fact, Guzick said it was only after the accident — when her husband contacted Ald. Mike Zalewski (23rd) — that the city put construction saw horses over the hole so nobody else could fall in. The hole still hasn’t been filled.

“I am completely outraged. They city has totally failed. After calling 311 and telling them there were children at risk, they did absolutely nothing,” said Guzick, who moved in six weeks ago and has two young children, ages 6 and 7.

“It looks like the [catch basin] is collapsing on the street side and the ground is collapsing on the curb side. It looks like it’s been washing out for years, but you couldn’t tell because the grass was covering it.”

After falling, Guzick recalled letting out a blood-curdling scream.

“I was scared to death. My heart just stopped. I thought I was gonna die,” she said.

“I just remember everything collapsing around me. I felt like I was going deeper and deeper and deeper. The lawn mower was still going. I thought it was gonna come down on top of me. As it turned out, the lawn mower saved me. It was so heavy and so big, it gave me something to hold onto.”

Water Management spokesman Tom LaPorte said the pair of 311 calls that Guzick said she placed before the accident did not trigger an immediate repair because the system has no record of them.

“We heard about this on Friday. We got a report about a hole in the parkway associated with a catch basin outlet from Ald. Zalewski’s office. We investigated it that day and scheduled it for repair this week,” LaPorte said.

“We’re told that one of our customers hurt her ankle while doing lawn work. We’re very sorry to hear this and have tried to reach her by phone to express our concern.”

LaPorte noted that Chicago has 240,000 catch basins and 4,400 miles of sewer mains. A few years ago, several harsh winters left a backlog of thousands of outstanding catch basin repairs. The current backlog is 1300 catch basins and 500 outlet pipes that lead toward the sewer.

“It’s an old system. There’s also corrosion that can be caused by chemicals in the street,” LaPorte said.

Zalewski said he has little doubt that Guzick called 311 before the accident, even though the system has no record of the calls.

“Sometimes, the calls from 311 may not get to the operating departments. That’s something that definitely has to be looked at,” he said.

As for the dangerous parkway hole, the alderman said, “It’s a growing problem. The infrastructure of the city is getting old. You’re starting to see sewers and catch basins dropping in, potholes and streets needing repair. Without the ability to fix these problems quickly, that’s one of the problems we’re facing.”

Police block off a street near Jackson and Keeler near the scene where two Harrison District patrol officers were wounded by gunfire late Monday night. | Courtesy of Rosemary Sobol

Updated: July 19, 2011 8:07AM

Two Chicago Police officers were wounded in a Monday night shooting on the West Side. Police are speaking to a person of interest in connection with the shooting early Tuesday, sources said.

One male officer suffered a wound to the head and the bullet was lodged behind his left ear. The other male officer had a graze wound to the head and also was shot in the arm in an alley about 10:45 p.m. near South Karlov and West Gladys, said Police Supt. Garry McCarthy Tuesday morning in a news conference at Stroger Hospital.

The shooting happened after two Harrison District patrol officers, both age 29, observed what they thought was a drug transaction, police said. The officers, who work the midnight shift, got out of their vehicle and went into an alley on Karlov Avenue between Jackson Boulevard and Adams Street.

One of the suspects in the apparent transaction then shot the officers and fled westbound on foot, police said.

At least one officer returned fire but is unclear if anyone was hit, McCarthy said.

More than one person is being questioned about the incident but police wouldn’t say if the shooter is among them, police said.

Sources said police have identified a person of interest in the case, who is in police custody early Tuesday. Detectives declined to confirm whether anyone was in custody.

The officer with a bullet behind his ear has been an officer for four years, while the officer has been with the department for three years, McCarthy said.

The officers injured were described as “hard workers,” according to a police source.

Following the shooting, the entire area was surrounded by police, including a helicopter hovering on the scene. Officers are searching area gangways and alleys for evidence.

“Violence is increasing” in the city and there has been at least five involved police shootings in the last 72 hours, said Pat Camden, spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police.

Carlos Weeden, spokesman for the Independent Police Review Authority, said the agency investigates when a person is shot by police. Since no one was shot by police the IPRA was not on the scene and were not investigating, Weeden said.

An 18-year-old man was later shot and killed by police early Tuesday on the South Side after he pointed a gun at police officers who saw him shoot two other men.

Parise R. Mercer, Jr., 18, of the 9000 block of South Marshfield Avenue, was pronounced dead at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn at 1:48 a.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

Mercer was shot by police on the 9200 block of South Justine Street, according to the medical examiner’s office.

The Morgan Park District officers were patrolling in the area of 9100 block of South Ashland Avenue about 12:55 a.m. when they saw a male shoot two other male victims, according to a police News Affairs statement.

The gunman immediately fled the scene with officers in pursuit, the statement said. During the chase, the gunman pointed a weapon in the direction of the officers, who opened fire, striking the suspect.

No officers were injured and a weapon was recovered at the scene, the statement said.

The suspect was taken to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead, the release said. The two people shot earlier on Ashland Avenue were taken to an area hospital.

This is the sixth police-involved shooting with in the last 72 hours, Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden said.

“It looks like police are under siege,” Camden said. “If offenders are shooting at police, what are they doing to the average citizen?”

Grand opening of the new Rivers Casino in DesPlaines brought thousands to be part of the history making day. | Al Podgorski~Chicago Sun-Times

Updated: July 19, 2011 2:08AM

Legalized casino gambling arrived at long last in Cook County on Monday, and proof of the pent-up demand could be found in the lines both inside and outside the new Rivers Casino in Des Plaines.

So many people wanted to check out the new gambling palace, in fact, that casino management ended up advising potential guests to “consider delaying their visit” after the facility’s parking lots were overwhelmed and traffic was paralyzed along River Road for hours at midday.

The situation got so bad that police in the adjacent village of Rosemont — where the late-former Mayor Don Stephens was thwarted in his epic battle to host this same casino license — had to step in to help direct traffic. Rosemont police also erected barricades to keep casino patrons from sneaking into private parking lots of Rosemont businesses.

Many of those who found parking had to wait outside in Monday’s brutal heat for a chance to get into the casino, which temporarily limited entry for crowd control.

Once inside, lots of those same patrons chose to stand in another long line to get a “rewards” card that would track their bets in exchange for discounts and other benefits.

Then all they had to do was find an open gambling machine, a challenge in itself with three times more gamblers in the building than gaming positions.

If I’m making it sound like a flop, I don’t want to mislead you. While some of the people with whom I spoke were definitely disillusioned, others reasonably chalked it up to normal opening-day growing pains.

Of course, how any particular person rated their experience probably depended a great deal on whether they won or lost money.

Getting in her car afterward, Diane Gardner of Austin told me she wouldn’t be coming back after dropping $400 in the dollar slots in about 90 minutes.

“They don’t pay out,” she complained.

But Danny Eison of Blue Island was in a good mood when I found him counting his money. He was breaking even at that point.

“I’ll be coming, if I can get in,” Eison said, referring to the wait that he expects to ease up soon enough.

Most of the early arrivals were only too happy to have an opportunity to plunk down their money in what nearly everybody seems to agree is the nicest gambling facility Illinois has to offer.

Plus, it’s close — close enough that many of those I met said they will stop taking their money across the border to the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond or the Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee.

Debbie, from West Allis, Wis., said she plans to start gambling in Des Plaines instead of Milwaukee.

“I’m sick of Potawatomi,” she said.

But when I asked for her last name, she declined, worried her remarks might cause her to lose her rewards points at Potawatomi.

Still, the prospect of stealing customers from out-of-state casinos is like the sound of a slot machine hitting the jackpot to state officials who have foregone the revenue from this license since the Silver Eagle riverboat in East Dubuque closed in July 1997.

In the 15 years since, efforts to move the license to Rosemont bogged down in litigation amidst allegations of organized crime influence and secret dealings involving Stephens and principals of the prior licenseholder, Emerald Casino.

Even after the Illinois Gaming Board reopened the license to bids in the summer of 2008, it took three years for Chicago real estate developer Neil Bluhm and his Midwest Gaming and Entertainment to clear regulatory hurdles and get the place open.

“We had staying power and optimism,” said Bluhm, whose own pursuit of a gambling license for this site dates back 10 years.

“It was worth the wait,” he added.

Among the notable attendees for Monday’s ribbon cutting were Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie, longtime sponsor of gambling expansion bills and Rosemont’s new mayor, Bradley Stephens.

In introducing his Rosemont counterpart, Des Plaines Mayor Marty Moylan seemed to get in a little dig.

“I’ve got one word for Brad Stephens,” he said, “Cha-ching.”

Despite Monday’s traffic hassles, Rosemont is hoping the casino will bring extra cha-ching for its 7,000 hotel rooms and the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. But you have to believe it’s bittersweet for Stephens to see the casino open across the street from his town.

The big question in the Illinois gambling world these days is whether Gov. Pat Quinn will approve legislation that clears the way for a three-fold expansion of casino gambling in the state — including the first in Chicago.

The Des Plaines lesson is that it could be a while before we see another new casino.

Alen Nicholas and Jef Johnson of bronzeville before the ‘Unions in the Park’ the cities celebration of the first day of civil unions in Illinois, officiated by volunteer judges. Thursday, June 02, 2011 | Brian Jackson~Sun-Times

Updated: July 18, 2011 8:43PM

More than 800 civil union licenses were issued in Cook County through the end of June, the first month civil union licenses were issued in Illinois.

June 1, the day a new law kicked in granting gays and lesbians some of the same rights as married couples, was the busiest day with 209 licenses issued, according to statistics released Monday by Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office.

The remainder of the month, an average of 30 licenses were issued daily for a monthlong total of 831. In addition to the licenses issued in June, 125 couples obtained civil union licenses through Friday, July 15.

“It’s thrilling to see so many happy couples getting licenses and celebrating their relationships,” Orr said in a statement. “My office is dedicated to making this milestone special for each and every couple.”

Statewide numbers were not immediately available through the Illinois Department of Public Health’s vital statistics office.

But Equality Illinois, a gay and lesbian rights group, has been tracking numbers for each county in Illinois, and by the end of June calculated that statewide 1,618 civil union licenses had been issued. Illinois will become just the sixth state to recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships.

The group provided the following figures for civil union licenses issued in June in suburban and other area counties: DuPage, 83; Grundy, 1; Kane, 48; Kankakee, 17; Kendall, 16; Lake, 52; McHenry, 25, and Will, 72.

A closer look at the Cook County demographics tracked by the clerk’s office shows 65 percent of the couples who took out applications live in Chicago. But suburban couples were definitely part of the equation, representing 68 different municipalities. Here’s a sampling: 35 couples from Evanston took out licenses, followed by 24 in Oak Park, eight in Berwyn, seven in Homewood, six in Arlington Heights and four in Matteson.

Women edged out men in the numbers game: female couples took out 428 licenses or 51.5 percent while men took out 357 or 43 percent of the licenses. Opposite-sex couples accounted for 46 of the licenses or 5.5 percent.

Some other statistics:

◆ The oldest applicant for a civil union license was 93.

◆ The racial diversity of couples was clear. At least one partner was Hispanic in 13 percent of female unions and 15 percent of male unions, while at least one partner was African-American in 22 percent of female unions and 10 percent of male unions.

The county clerk’s office collected more than $37,000 through July 15 in new revenues from civil union application fees, civil union certificates and duplicate copies of records.

The Cook County clerk’s office issued 3,592 marriage licenses in June. Gov. Pat Quinn signed the law in January, and it kicked in June 1. While it doesn’t alter state law recognizing marriage as being between a man and woman, it affords gays and lesbians new rights involving their partners regarding hospital visits, health-care decision-making and the disposal of remains and estates.

What’s wrong with checking eligibility for Medicaid, Sen. Mark Kirk, Rep. Judy Biggert and state of Illinois officials are asking.

The federal government is refusing to allow a new process passed by bi-partisan majorities in Illinois that requires medical patients here to show that they live in Illinois and earn little enough to qualify for Medicaid.

Ending Medicaid payments to people who live out-of-state or who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid would free up money for the low-income families it is intended for, Kirk and Biggert said.

That argument won over leadership of the Republican and Democratic caucuses in Springfield. Republican Rep. Patti Bellock of Westmont and Democrat Barbara Flynn Currie of Chicago moved the bill, which Gov. Quinn signed into law.

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich had dropped the requirement for people to provide two pay stubs to prove they live in Illinois and met the income requirements, Kirk said Monday. That proved an expensive gift from Illinois to out-of-state and higher-earning patients.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent Illinois officials a letter June 24 — a week before the new rules were to take effect — saying the federal health care reform law prohibits states from dropping people from Medicaid eligibility.

They think Illinois’ rule-change violates that law. Illinois officials say it does not.

“You can’t change eligibility, so whatever high level Rod put us at we’re stuck with,” Kirk said. The government’s refusal to allow Illinois’ new rule “defies common sense. This won’t change eligibility — it just checks eligibility.”

Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services were not immediately available for comment.

Kirk and Biggert sent letters and are working on legislation in their respective chambers to defend Illinois’ rules, they said.

The state’s Healthcare and Family Services Department has been negotiating with the government, which has told them they should instead try to use existing electronic databases, such as Secretary of State records to verify eligibility.

Director Julie Hamos said that could solve part of the problem but would not be as good a solution as requiring the proof covered under the state’s law. She welcomed Kirk’s and Biggert’s efforts.

“I certainly don’t mind them appealing to a higher level than we can appeal it to,” Hamos said.

Hamos said the changes could save the state $1 million a year. Kirk put the number much higher.

The new rule does not ask people about citizenship, only about whether they reside in Illinois, Kirk said.

A 40-year-old homeless man was ordered held without bail for allegedly murdering an elderly man who befriended him and gave him shelter.

Last summer, Stanley Letkiewicz allowed Gilbert Feliciano to stay in the basement of his home, in exchange for his assistance with chores.

But the 94-year-old World War II veteran asked Feliciano to leave when Feliciano stole from him in August 2010, Cook County prosecutors said.

That September, Feliciano approached Letkiewicz and demanded $40 while the senior citizen was taking out the trash at his home in the 2800 block of North Long, Assistant State’s Attorney Jamie Santini said.

When Letkiewicz refused, Feliciano forced him inside the home, threw him on a bed and beat him before swiping $100 from Letkiewicz’s wallet, Santini said.

Letkiewicz contacted police and identified Feliciano as his attacker but he was never apprehended.

A month later on Oct. 13, Letkiewicz was found by a neighbor trapped under a dresser and severely beaten on his bedroom floor with blood coming out of his mouth and his eyes swollen shut, authorities said.

Letkiewicz again identified Feliciano as the man who assaulted him, Santini said.

Letkiewicz suffered a left orbital fracture, fractured nose and bleeding of the brain. He died from his injuries on Nov. 23.

Feliciano, who was wanted on an arrest warrant for the murder, had fled to Ohio.

He was arrested Sunday in the basement of a residence in the 5300 block of West Deming Place.

Feliciano apparently returned to Illinois after his mother passed away, Santini said.

Rupert Murdoch leaves his London home Monday July 18, 2011. Murdoch and his son James Murdoch are to be grilled by a parliamentary committee of British lawmakers Tuesday over the phone hacking scandal. (AP Photo/Steve Parsons/PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT NO SALES NO ARCHIVE

Article Extras

Updated: July 18, 2011 2:31PM

LONDON (AP) — Police say Sean Hoare, the whistleblower reporter who alleged widespread hacking at the News of the World, has been found dead.

Police said Hoare’s death at his home in England was not considered to be suspicious, according to Britain’s Press Association news agency.

Hoare was quoted by The New York Times as saying that phone-hacking was widely used and even encouraged at the News of the World tabloid under then-editor Andy Coulson.

Coulson — who most recently served as Prime Minister David Cameron’s communications chief, was arrested as part of the widening investigation into phone hacking and police corruption.

Dmitry Smirnov, 20, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Jitka Vesel, 36, of Westmont in Oak Brook on April 13, 2010. Supplied photo

Updated: July 18, 2011 8:46PM

A Canadian man charged with methodically stalking and murdering a former girlfriend after first researching whether Illinois has the death penalty did something spontaneous Monday — he told a DuPage County judge he wants to plead guilty.

But the announcement by 21-year-old Dmitry Smirnov was so surprising neither Judge Blanche Fawell nor prosecutors were ready to immediately accept his guilty plea.

Smirnov told his attorney only moments before his DuPage County court appearance that he wanted to admit to the April 13 shooting, a move that could send him to prison for life.

“I advised him not to do this, but he doesn’t have to take my advice,” Assistant Public Defender Steve Dalton said.

Prosecutors asked for more time to notify relatives of Smirnov’s alleged victim, 36-year-old Jitka Vesel, whom authorities said briefly dated Smirnov in 2008.

Fawell rescheduled Smirnov’s hearing until Friday, though Dalton plans to meet with him before then to further discuss his legal options.

A guilty plea at this stage of such a serious case is unusual, Dalton said.

Veteran prosecutor David Bayer said he can’t recall a case in which a murder defendant publicly announced in court that he wanted to plead guilty.

“Not that I’ve handled,” Bayer said.

Smirnov, who lived near Vancouver, British Columbia, allegedly researched Illinois law to determine that the state had abolished the death penalty before he drove to the Chicago area.

He allegedly glued a GPS tracking device to Vesel’s car and followed her for several days before ambushing her as she left her job at a Czech fraternal organization in Oak Brook.

Smirnov is being held without bond in the DuPage County Jail.

A Coast Guard cutter looms behind sailboats competing in the 103rd Race to Mackinac on Lake Michigan Saturday, July 16, 2011, in Chicago. | John J. Kim~Sun-Times

The Race to Mackinac

*Don’t let the spelling fool you — it’s pronounced Mack-in-naw.

*At 333 miles, from Chicago to the Round Island Channel off Mackinac Island, Mich., it’s one of the longest fresh water races in the world.

*First run in 1898, it’s also the oldest. It has been run every year since 1921.

*Just five boats competed in the first race, won in 51 hours by the yacht Vanenna. This year, 355 entered.

*Chicago mayor William Hale Thompson’s 81-foot schooner Valmore won three straight races from 1908-1910.

*Multi-millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett — who died in a plane crash in 2007 — completed the race in a record 18 hours, 50 minutes in 1998 in the America’s Cup catamaran “Stars and Stripes.”

*Walt Disney’s nephew Roy E. Disney set a single hull record of 23 hours 30 minutes and 34 seconds with the yacht Pyewacket in 2002.

*The race is for amateurs. Winners get a plaque, a flag and “bragging rights.”

*Boats are handicapped according to size and class, so that the largest can compete directly with the smallest.

*Sailors who’ve completed 25 Mackinac races are called “Island Goats.” Michigan man John Nedeau has completed a record 63 races.

*Billionaire Ted Turner taunted the sailing gods before the 1970 race by calling Lake Michigan a “mill pond.” He was forced to eat his words after hurricane-force winds allowed only 79 of 167 starters to finish.

Related Documents

 Map showing site of accident

Article Extras

Updated: July 18, 2011 7:06PM

Between them the crew of eight had completed the famous race across Lake Michigan countless times.

They knew the storm was coming and had done all the right things to prepare.

But when a 65 mile-an-hour gust of wind capsized their 35-foot yacht, the WingNuts, in six-foot waves shortly after midnight Monday during the Chicago to Mackinac race, there was nothing they could do to save their skipper and his girlfriend.

Safety lines designed to keep the crew aboard may have trapped Mark Morley, 51, and Suzanne Bickel, 40, underwater once the boat flipped, the six survivors said. The couple’s bodies were recovered near North Fox Island off the Michigan coast seven hours later by Coast Guard divers.

Only a quick rescue by competitors racing in another yacht, the Sociable, prevented the first fatal sailing accident in the race’s 113-year history from an even more tragic conclusion.

The yacht’s six other crew members — Chicago architect Lee Purcell, 46, and five others from Michigan — sent a GPS alert to the Coast Guard and clung to the upturned hull of the boat for 20 minutes in their life vests before they were saved, relatives said. Two of them had personal locating beacons, according to Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Adam Saurin.

The disaster brought back terrible memories for Purcell’s mother, Alice Pugh, of Michigan City, Ind. She said her husband, who was also named Lee Purcell and also was a keen sailor, drowned in Lake Michigan in a boating accident before their son was born.

“It was a close call for me,” she said, adding that her son had called her at 6 a.m. to tell her he was OK but “pretty shook-up.”

Her son grew up on Lake Michigan and couldn’t be dissuaded from sailing, she said.

“You can’t discourage someone if it’s what you love to do and you think you have everything under control,” Pugh said.

Purcell had crewed for several years on WingNuts, which was owned by a group of four friends from Michigan, and had entered several Mackinac races previously, she said. He had been on the lake in heavy storms before, she said.

Morley and Bickel — both of Saginaw, Mich. — were experienced sailors, according to the Chicago Yacht Club, which has organized the race since 1898, and every year since 1921. Morley had 44 years of sailing experience, including more than 20 Chicago-to-Mackinac races and 85 qualifying races, and Bickel had recently sailed across the Atlantic and had sailed in two previous Chicago-to-Mackinac Races, with 16 qualifying races.

Chip Cummings, whose 16-year-old son C.J. Cummings, of Grandville, Mich., was one of the rescued crew members, said the WingNuts was overcome by sudden strong winds and waves that flipped it. All of the crew members were clipped on to the boat to prevent them from being lost overboard when the ship flipped, he said.

Chip Cummings said Steven Morley, 15, the skipper’s nephew, was able to unclip C.J. Cummings from the upturned boat and swim to safety, but Mark Morley and Bickel remained tied on and trapped underneath.

It’s not clear if they were knocked unconscious when the boat capsized, he said.

The survivors are “all healthy but very tired after their ordeal,” Cummings said. It was his son’s first time in the race.

The other rescued sailors were Mark Morley’s brother Peter Morley, 47, John Dent, 50, and Stan Dent, 51.

They released a statement saying they were “indebted to the crew of the Sociable and are heartbroken over the loss of their crewmembers, Mark and Suzanne.”

Ten other boats abandoned the race and came to the WingNuts aid after the Sociable’s crew radioed for help, according to the yacht club.

Adam Hollerbach, who sailed aboard the 70-foot vessel Details, said that boat reached Mackinac Island’s harbor just as the storm unleashed its fury, with wildly shifting gusts, lightning bolts and stinging hail.

“It was among the nastiest, if not the nastiest, that I’ve seen,” said Hollerbach, 33, of Detroit.

Racers were in a somber mood as they arrived at the island and learned of the WingNuts’ fate, he said.

“You know that it could have been you,” Hollerbach said.

Joseph S. Haas, the commodore of the Chicago Yacht Club, said the race organizers “express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the crew of WingNuts. The crew of this boat exemplified the spirit of the Chicago-Mac that is steeped in tradition of family, friends and passion for the water.”

The 333-mile race from just off Navy Pier to Mackinac Island is the oldest annual freshwater distance race in the world. An estimated 3,500 crewmembers on 355 boats participated.

In 1970, more than half of the yachts participating in the race took refuge from northerly winds gusting at more than 60 miles an hour.

In 1937, only eight of 42 boats finished because of high winds.

Contributing: AP, Sun-Times Media.

A Coast Guard cutter looms behind sailboats competing in the 103rd Race to Mackinac on Lake Michigan Saturday, July 16, 2011, in Chicago. | John J. Kim~Sun-Times

Article Extras

Updated: July 18, 2011 9:30AM

(CHARLEVOIX, Mich.) U.S. Coast Guard divers recovered the bodies of two people — who may be the boaters who went missing after a sailboat participating in the Chicago Yacht Club’s Race to Mackinac capsized in stormy conditions near North Fox Island — in northern Lake Michigan Monday morning.

About 7:45 a.m. Monday a Coast Guard dive team recovered the bodies of two people “in between Beaver and Fox islands, off the northwest Michigan coastline,” according to a Coast Guard spokesman.

The Coast Guard spokesman would not disclose the genders of the two bodies that were recovered, pending notification of family. The Coast Guard also was not releasing the names of the missing people Monday morning.

The Coast Guard was notified about 12:20 a.m. Monday that a 35-foot sailboat had capsized in the waters southeast of North Fox Island in northern Lake Michigan, according to Coast Guard Public Affairs officer Lt. Adam Saurin.

Six people from the eight-member crew of the sailing vessel Wing Nut from Saginaw, Mich. were pulled from the water by crewmembers of the sailing vessel Sociable, which was also involved in the race, according to Saurin.

A rescue helicopter from Traverse City as well as a cutter and dive team from the Charlevoix Coast Guard Station were deployed in the search, Saurin said.

Thunderstorms and waves of 4- to 6-feet as well as wind gusts of up to 60 mph were reported at the time the boat capsized, according to Saurin.

All six people who were pulled from the water were wearing life jackets and two of the people had personal locating beacons, Suarin said. It is not known if the two people missing were also wearing life jackets.

The six people rescued were taken to Charlevoix Area Hospital, according to the lieutenant.

The Race to Mackinac is a 333-mile race from just off Navy Pier to Mackinac Island and is the oldest annual freshwater distance race in the world, according to the race’s website.

An estimated 3,500 crewmembers on 355 boats are participated in the race, the website said.

Updated: July 17, 2011 9:30PM

A 13-year-old girl stole her brother’s sport-utility vehicle and crashed into the back of a CTA bus, injuring nine people including a child Sunday morning on the Northwest Side, police said.

The crash, which also involved three cars, occurred at 10:47 a.m. in the 4800 block of West Diversey, police said. Five of the nine people injured were occupants of the CTA bus, police said.

The child was taken to Children’s Memorial Hospital in an unidentified condition, officials said.

Three others were seriously hurt, while five others were in fair and good condition at three different hospitals: Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center, Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, and Norwegian-American Hospital, officials said.

Updated: July 18, 2011 12:54AM

After almost a week in the dark, ComEd restored power early Sunday to all its customers.

An estimated 850,000 customers lost power after a storm struck Chicago July 11, said ComEd spokesman Tony Hernendez.

The final customers had their power restored shortly after 7:30 a.m.

Cost estimates were not available as of press time.

“We’re still working the final numbers — how many poles, how many miles of wire have to be replaced,” Hernendez said.

This was the largest storm restoration effort on record for ComEd, according to ComEd.

A Wheeling man accused of sexually assaulting his son’s young friend for a four-year period a decade ago was ordered held on bail of $250,000 Sunday by a Cook County judge.

Reuven “Randy” Bogoff, 59, — charged with predatory criminal sexual assault and criminal sexual assault — allegedly abused the boy between 1999-2003 at his former Chicago home in the 2800 block of West Estes.

The boy, now 22, then between ages 11 and 15, came to police with the allegations last month, court records show. Bogoff was free on bail for another alleged criminal sexual assault dating to the mid-1990s when he was re-arrested last week, prosecutors said.

Bogoff, wearing a yellow shirt, glasses and a beard in court, shook his head repeatedly as the new allegations were detailed in court on Sunday.

His attorney, Kevin Rosner, said Bogoff had deep roots in Skokie’s Orthodox Jewish community and convinced Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesel to let him leave the state to continue his job as a traveling salesman for Electro Industries if he makes bail.

But the judge warned him not to have contact with anyone under the age of 18 except his daughter if he is released.

Article Extras

Updated: July 17, 2011 10:44AM

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Casey Anthony walked out of jail a free woman under heavy guard early Sunday, facing shouts of “baby killer” from a heckling crowd only days after a nation in rapt attention watched as she was acquitted of murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

The 25-year-old woman, who had spent years in the spotlight’s glare including two months of nationally televised trial proceedings, swiftly boarded an SUV and rode out of public view, her destination unknown as new questions unfolded as to what her future would hold.

Wearing a hot pink Polo T-shirt, blue jeans and sneakers, Anthony walked briskly from the Orlando area jail at 12:14 a.m. with her attorney, Jose Baez, at her side.

Her hair in a bun, a somber-looking Anthony quietly said “thank you” to a deputy sheriff waiting to escort her outside, and then strode with Baez to the vehicle as two deputies armed with semi-automatic rifles walked behind. Baez held the back door, she climbed in and the SUV drove off amid camera light flashes.

As Anthony’s SUV left the jail’s parking lot, the crowd of more than 100 people surged against the orange plastic police barricades and some yelled “You suck!” Mounted patrolmen and police cruisers blocked the street outside the jail so Anthony’s vehicle could drive onto a nearby highway ramp unobstructed.

“A baby killer was just set free!” Bree Thornton, 39, shouted at the passing SUV.

Anthony had a handful of supporters in the crowd, including one man who carried a “Casey, will you marry me” sign.

But her backers — at the jail and across the country — appeared to be vastly outnumbered by her critics.

When Anthony was acquitted July 5 of murder in the death of her toddler, hundreds of thousands of people captivated by the case — and doubtful of her credibility — poured their rage into postings on the micro-blogging site Twitter and on Facebook, which has an “I Hate Casey Anthony” group. Those and other social media sites provided a platform and a vast audience for a decibel level of vitriol seldom seen before.

Anthony’s legal team said on Friday it had received an emailed death threat with a manipulated photo showing their 25-year-old client with a bullet hole in her forehead.

Since her acquittal on murder charges, Anthony had been finishing her four-year sentence for telling investigators several lies, including an early claim that Caylee was kidnapped by a nonexistent nanny. With credit for the nearly three years she’d spent in jail since August 2008 and good behavior, she had only days remaining when she was sentenced July 7.

Early Sunday, news helicopters followed the SUV to a covered parking garage at an Orlando office building where one of her attorneys, Cheney Mason, has offices. The SUV didn’t re-emerge, and it could not been seen in the darkness if Anthony was in any of the cars that appeared in the area.

A short time later, amid the crush of media attention, there was police activity as two vehicles pulled up to a twin-engine private jet at Orlando Executive Airport but no one saw Anthony get out and onto the plane. That plane took off shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday for Ohio, the home state of Anthony’s parents. But an official there said that aircraft was only carrying golfers back from a Florida vacation.

Anthony, it seemed, had vanished into the night.

Baez and jail officials declined to say where Anthony would go next.

After three years behind bars, Anthony was given $537.68 in cash from her jail account to begin her new life.

For nearly two months, the murder trial of Casey Anthony was a living entity. It breathed daily across the nation’s television airwaves, then was reinforced nightly on cable TV programs that dissected every word uttered in the courtroom and fueled speculation on her fate.

Baez, in a brief statement to reporters, signaled a new chapter was opening in the Casey Anthony case.

“It is my hope that Casey Anthony can receive the counseling and treatment she needs to move forward with the rest of her life,” Baez said in the statement.

Certainly, she still faces anger and ire around the nation that brought tight security for Sunday’s release.

“This release had an unusual amount of security so, therefore, in that sense, it would not be a normal release,” Orange County Jail spokesman Allen Moore said. “We have made every effort to not provide any special treatment for her. She’s been treated like every other inmate.”

Moore said there were no known threats received at the jail. Yet officials had a number of contingency plans in place, including plans in case shots were fired as she was being released.

The crowd included about a half-dozen, sign-carrying protesters who had gathered despite a drenching thunderstorm Saturday night. Before Anthony’s release, the evening took on a feel of New Year’s Eve as spectators checked their watches regularly and announced how many minutes until midnight. Onlookers had varied reactions to her release.

“She is safer in jail than she is out here,” said Mike Quiroz, who drove from Miami to spend his 22nd birthday outside the jail. “She better watch her butt. She is known all over the world.”

Lamar Jordan said he felt a pit in his stomach when he saw Anthony walking free.

“The fact that she is being let out, the fact that it is her child and she didn’t say what happened, made me sick,” Jordan said.

Not all of those who gathered condemned the 25-year-old.

“I’m for Casey,” said Kizzy Smith, of Orlando. “She was proven innocent. At the end of the day, Caylee is at peace. We’re the ones who are in an uproar.”

Outraged lawmakers in several states responded by proposing so-called Caylee’s laws that would allow authorities to prosecute parents who don’t quickly report missing children.

And many still speculate about what really happened to Caylee, whose remains were found in December 2008 near the home Casey Anthony shared with her parents: Was she suffocated with duct tape by her mother, as prosecutors argued? Or did she drown in an accident that snowballed out of control, as defense attorneys contended?

Now that she is free, it’s not clear where Anthony will stay or what she will do next.

Her relationship with her parents, George and Cindy, has been strained since defense attorneys accused George Anthony of molesting Casey when she was young. Baez argued during trial that the alleged abuse resulted in psychological issues that caused her to lie and act without apparent remorse after Caylee’s death.

Defense attorneys also said George Anthony made Caylee’s death look like a homicide after the girl accidentally drowned in the family pool. But defense attorneys never called witnesses to support their claims.

George Anthony has adamantly denied covering up his granddaughter’s death or molesting Casey Anthony when she was a child.

Prosecutors alleged that Anthony suffocated her daughter with duct tape because motherhood interfered with her desire for a carefree life of partying with friends and spending time with her boyfriend. However, some jurors have told various media outlets that the state didn’t prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt as required for a conviction — though some have said they believe she bears some responsibility in the case.

Updated: July 17, 2011 8:40PM

Officers fatally shot an armed man who reportedly was using a female as a hostage in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side about 12:40 a.m. Sunday.

It was the second fatal police-involved shooting in less than nine hours. A fatal police-involved shooting occurred at 52 N. Parkside Ave., according to the Independent Police Review Authority. Lynell Hawkins, 32, of 836 N. Trumbull Ave., was pronounced dead at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. The Austin neighborhood shooting happened about 4:20 p.m. Saturday.

In the Gresham District shooting, tactical officers responded to a “man with a gun” call in the 8000 block of South Ashland Avenue, according to a statement from police. When they got to the scene, officers encountered a large crowd, where they saw the offender struggling with another person.

The officers intervened and observed the man with a handgun in his waistband. A struggle ensued between the officers and the man, during which the man pointed the weapon in the officers’ direction. An officer then shot the man, who was fatally wounded, the statement said.

The person shot and killed as Niko Husband, 19, of an unidentified address, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

Andrea Stoutenborough, a spokeswoman for the Independent Police Review Authority,which investigates all police-involved shootings, said a weapon was recovered.

Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden said the shooting happened outside a social club at 8004 S. Ashland Ave. As officers went to investigate a report of a male with a gun they saw a group of people coming out of the social club — one of them a male with his arm around the neck of a female. The man was using her as a shield, according to Camden.

Officers intervened and shot the man and as they attempted to pull the woman away from him when they saw the man reaching for a gun in his waistband as he went to the ground, according to Camden, who did not have information on the condition of the female.

Unconfirmed dispatch reports indicated another person involved in the incident was Tazered.

In the earlier shooting, Austin District police officers were in the area of West Madison Street and South Parkside Avenue when witnesses who heard gunshots fired in the area flagged them down, according to a police News Affairs release. Officers found a vehicle that matched the description given by the witnesses and someone fled on foot from the vehicle. As officers pursued on foot, the person pointed a weapon and fired gunshots, police said.

According to authorities, officers fired shots that struck the suspect.

A weapon was recovered and IPRA is investigating.

Camden of the Fraternal Order of Police said the officer saw a man running with a gun and began pursuing on foot near Washington Street and Parkside Avenue. The suspect began firing at the officer who did not return fire at the time because a mother and child were present.

The officer followed the suspect up the stairs of a 12-unit apartment building and told the suspect to drop his gun, Camden said. The suspect refused and at the top of the third-floor stairs, he pointed his weapon at the officer, who then shot the man.

Marche Wilburn, a six year-old girl who
drowned at Lake Street beach in Gary, IN. | Jean Lachat~Sun-Times

Updated: July 17, 2011 7:54PM

Six-year-old Marche Wilburn and her siblings were thrilled when their mom surprised them by telling them she was taking them to the beach Saturday night.

But joy turned to tragedy a short time later, when the little girl’s body was found in Lake Michigan at Lake Street beach in Gary, the victim of a drowning.

Taking the kids wasn’t initially a part of the plan, said her mother, Robbins resident Toshia Donerson-Wilburn. She said she and her girlfriends once a month make plans to spend a day together, but this time they decided to bring the children along.

“They were really excited,” said Donerson-Wilburn, whose other children are ages 12, 9 and 8.

In all, the group of nine kids and eight adults arrived at the beach around 4 p.m. The beach was crowded because of an air show that had taken place earlier, Donerson-Wilburn said. The kids were all having a great time the first couple of hours.

Then, Donerson-Wilburn said she became concerned when some of the kids started venturing farther out in the water than she liked, and she walked out to the water to tell them to come closer in. Then she looked along the beach and didn’t see Marche. Donerson-Wilburn said she told a fireman on a jet ski her daughter was missing and was wearing a pink Minnie Mouse swimsuit. Donerson-Wilburn didn’t think Marche was in the water, but rather lost along the beach. The fireman and her girlfriends looked on the beach but couldn’t find her, she said, and she then told a police officer on a Moped her daughter was missing.

“They made everybody get out of the water, and they closed the beach,” she said. “They went in. It was not even like two minutes they found her, and she wasn’t that far in. She was limp.”

Gary police said medics performed CPR on Marche and she was taken to Methodist Hospitals Northlake campus in Gary, where she was pronounced dead.

Donerson-Wilburn, who said she didn’t realize life guards weren’t on duty at the beach after 6 p.m., said she thinks Marche, who didn’t know how to swim, may have tried to follow the other taller kids out in the water, tripped and panicked. She said she wouldn’t have allowed her kids in the water if she’d known lifeguards weren’t on duty.

“She was a very, very happy child,” she said as she reflected on Marche’s short life. “She was always smiling. She was never sad, never. She had a bubbly personality. She loved to talk. She’d have a story every time she came from school or camp. She loved to play with her Barbie dolls and her Barbie house.”

Marche just completed kindergarten and was to attend first grade at Childs Elementary School in Robbins next month.

Contributing: Post-Tribune, Sun-Times Media Wire

Updated: July 17, 2011 8:18PM

Ninety-two police officers from administrative positions and some new recruits will be placed on street beats, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police Dept. Supt. Garry McCarthy announced Sunday during a press conference at a Far South Side park.

The conference started at 1:30 p.m. at Palmer Park, 201 East 111th Street.

The move will enhance police officers’ capacity to protect the streets and build strong relationships with community members in the neighborhoods they serve, according to a statement from police News Affairs.

Of these 92 officers, 53 are graduated recruits from the Chicago Police Academy.

“Successful policing begins with the beat officers who earn the trust of the communities they serve, shift by shift and patrol by patrol,’’ said Mayor Emanuel in the statement.

“These police recruits have made that commitment to our residents, and are ready to join officers in Chicago’s neighborhoods to help make every community a safe place to work, play, learn and build a life.’’

Starting July 21st, the 53 Probationary Police Officers, who graduated from the Police Academy last spring, will be deployed to districts 4, 6, 8, 10, 15 and 24. In addition to those officer, CPD will redeploy officers from administrative positions throughout the department, the statement said.

These officers, including five sergeants, will begin July 21st in districts 1,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,15,18,22,23 and 24. This is the third group of officers to be redeployed to communities since Mayor Emanuel took office in May.

On May 24th, Mayor Emanuel announced that 500 police officers would be redeployed to the beat. Those officers came primarily from the Mobile Strike Force and Targeted Response Units, and were sent to districts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, and 15.

On June 12th, the Mayor announced the shifting of 150 officers from administrative positions across every bureau of the department. Those officers were sent to districts 2, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25.

(FILES) A picture dated May 9, 2010 shows Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani in Cairo. The head of Sharm el-Sheikh hospital, where Mubarak is being treated, denied on July 17, 2011 that the ex-strongman had gone into a coma, in comments that came after Mubarak’s lawyer said earlier in the day that his client was in “a full coma after his health suddenly deteriorated.” AFP PHOTO/KHALED DESOUKI (Photo credit should read KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Article Extras

Updated: July 17, 2011 3:04PM

CAIRO (AP) — Hosni Mubarak’s lawyer said Sunday that the ousted Egyptian president suffered a stroke and is in a coma. However a top medical official with knowledge of his condition denied the report and said Mubarak was stable.

Mubarak, 83, has been in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh since April under arrest on charges he ordered the killings of protesters during Egypt’s uprising. He is said to be suffering from heart trouble.

“The president had a sudden stroke,” said the lawyer Farid el-Deeb. “Doctors are trying to bring him to consciousness. He is in a total coma,” he told The Associated Press.

However, a senior medical official in the hospital where Mubarak is held said his condition had not worsened. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Mubarak is set to face trial in August on charges he ordered the killings of protesters during the 18-day uprising that ousted him on Feb. 11. A conviction could carry the death penalty and activists suspect his lawyer may be using health problems as a ruse to sway public opinion and perhaps even win amnesty.

Protesters have camped for more than a week in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, demanding a public trial for Mubarak and other regime officials accused of complicity in killing protesters.

El-Deeb has made other claims recently about Mubarak’s deteriorating health that were also denied by senior medical officials.

Mubarak was treated last year for cancer in his gallbladder and pancreas, and el-Deeb said last month that he may be suffering a recurrence that spread to his stomach.

However, two senior Egyptian medical officials — one of them the head of Mubarak’s team of doctors — said at the time he did not have the disease.

Ever since Mubarak traveled to Germany early last year for medical treatment, it has been widely rumored that he has cancer. But his health was a closely guarded secret, and the cancer was never spoken of publicly until recently.

El-Deeb claimed last month that Mubarak underwent “critical surgery” in Heidelberg, Germany, last year to remove his gallbladder and part of his pancreas, which were cancerous.

At the time, he called Mubarak’s condition “horrible” and said the former leader “doesn’t eat and he loses consciousness quite often.”

Mubarak has lived in Sharm since his ouster.

Mubarak’s purported health issues have complicated efforts to bring him to trial. He was hospitalized on the day prosecutors trying to build a case against him sought to question the former leader for the first time.

Prosecutors have questioned him in the hospital, but an order to transfer him to a Cairo prison during the investigation was overturned on the grounds that the prison health facilities were inadequate to treat him. A report by a government-appointed panel of physicians determined in May that Mubarak is too ill to be held in prison while awaiting trial.

That report said Mubarak was suffering from heart troubles and confirmed he had “tumors” in his pancreas removed. But it did not specify whether the tumors were malignant. It also said that Mubarak can’t leave his bed without assistance.

Reports about Mubarak’s health are a highly politicized issue because his trial is unprecedented in the history of modern Egypt.

Youth groups have warned that granting Mubarak amnesty would only spark a new revolution.

In May, an Egyptian paper ran an unconfirmed report that the Egyptian military rulers were considering doing just that in return for an apology to the nation for any wrongdoing.

The report sparked a public outcry and a mass protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square — the epicenter of the Egyptian revolution. That forced the country’s military rulers to issue a denial and distance themselves from Mubarak’s trial.

Mubarak has been charged with conspiring with the former security chief and other senior police officers — already on trial in a criminal court — “to commit premeditated murder, along with attempted murder of those who participated in the peaceful protests around Egypt.”

The charges say Mubarak and the other officials were involved in “inciting some policemen and officers to shoot the victims, running some of them over to kill them, and terrorizing others.”

At least 846 protesters were killed during the revolt.

Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, have been held in Cairo’s Tora prison since mid-April while they are investigated on charges ranging from corruption and squandering public funds to ordering the violent suppression of anti-government demonstrations.

For years, Mubarak’s health was a tightly guarded secret, and each flare-up threw the country into uncertainty because there was no clear successor.

Following Mubarak’s surgery in Germany last year, Egypt’s government said that doctors removed benign tumors from his gallbladder. Egyptian state TV also broadcast footage of Mubarak speaking to his doctors in an attempt to assure Egyptians that his condition was stable.

The president’s health was such a taboo topic that in 2008, the editor in chief of an Egyptian daily was sentenced to two months in prison on charges of insulting Mubarak after he reported about the president’s health. Mubarak later pardoned him.

Updated: July 17, 2011 2:23AM

Glenview Police are investigating the homicide of longtime village resident Mercedes Iverson, 86, at a nursing home.

The incident that led to Iverson’s death Thursday happened over a week ago, and the Cook County Medical Examiner ruled Friday that her death was a homicide .

An assault by another nursing home resident was involved in her death, the medical examiner said.

Officials at Maryhaven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 1700 E. Lake Ave., weren’t certain what happened between Iverson and another patient in the nursing home’s dementia unit.

“Within the past couple of weeks, an unfortunate incident occurred in a private room” in the section of the nursing home that handles patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, said Brian Crawford, a spokesman for Resurrection Health Care, which runs Maryhaven.

Iverson did not recover from her injuries and was moved to hospice care at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where she died Thursday. The medical examiner’s office said Friday that her death was caused by craniocerebral injuries from an assault and heart disease.

“We reported the incident to all the proper authorities as soon as we became aware of it,” Crawford said. “The Illinois Department of Public Health came out and did an investigation. We did our own investigation.”

State investigators did not find any fault with Maryhaven’s handling of the incident, Crawford said. Officials with the department could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Glenview police said they would have no comment on the case before Monday.

Jack Ludford works to start a generator Saturday as he and his wife, Rose Ann, wait for power to be restored to their Lake Villa home. | Keith Hale~Sun-Times

Updated: July 17, 2011 2:24AM

As the last 5,000 ComEd customers waited to have their power restored Saturday — five days after major storms left 850,000 in the dark — some were still smarting because it has taken so long.

“The businesses got their power back long before we did,” said Don Sutton, 59, whose home in unincorporated Venetian Village in Lake County went back on line Friday night. Most of those who had to wait for electricity until late in the week — or still had no power Saturday — were in Lake County.

“I’m not happy with their performance. I don’t think they care very much about the people who pay their bills,” he said.

ComEd President and CEO Frank Clark said the 5,000 homes without power in towns including Gurnee, Zion and Lindenhurst would be restored by Saturday night.

Though several businesses in nearby Lindenhurst got their power back Tuesday night, they still suffered financial losses and other hardships.

Falling debris caused “substantial damage” at RJ’s eatery, where wind-tossed trees littered the restaurant’s patio, manager Kelli Clark said. She estimated the restaurant lost thousands of dollars in income because it was closed until power was restored Tuesday night.

At the CVS in Lindenhurst, “We were one of the first ones back on,” manager Rick Turko said, but the store lost $3,000 to $5,000 worth of dairy products because power was out.

Some Lake Villa still without power Saturday were taking it in stride. “Your patience runs very thin,” said Rose Ann Ludford, 78.

“But we’re campers,” countered her husband, Jack, 80. He filled up a gas canister three times at $28 a pop to fuel a generator.

Some residents actually went camping or stayed in a hotel, neighbors said.

Cully LaFarge, a neighbor, spent much of her time without electricity gardening and visiting with friends.

“I think they’ve done a great job,” she said of ComEd. “Getting upset won’t make it any better.”

An off-duty Chicago police officer was arrested for striking another cop after police executed a search at a home she was at.

Police executed the warrant in the 5000 block of South Lacrosse Avenue at 8 p.m. Thursday. When police entered the home, police said they were confronted by the officer, 37, who struck one of them. Police arrested a man who lived at the home, Albert Quiroz, 42, and charged him with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. The officer, who was not identified, “has been relieved of her police powers pending the outcome of an internal investigation,’’ police said in a statement.

Philip Yea and Wendy Wong, of Morton Grove, hold their son Payton William Yea, the first baby born on New Year’s Day this year at Evanston Hospital. Nearly 30 percent fewer babies are born on Jan. 1 than on an average day. | STM

Related Documents

 Graph: Births, deaths in Cook County

Updated: July 17, 2011 2:24AM

Watch your back next February — especially during the middle of the month.

More people in Cook County die on Feb. 17 — an average of 147 — than on any other day of the year.

And don’t be surprised if this Sept. 8, you hear some good news: More babies in the county are born that day — 264 — than any other.

The data comes from a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of six years’ worth of vital statistics kept by the Cook County Clerk’s Office.

The numbers show that in Cook County, with a population of 5.2 million, an average of 224 babies are born each day. Meanwhile, 114 people die every day in the county.

There is, apparently, good reason why people hate Mondays: An average of 118 people die every Monday, more than any other day of the week. But Fridays, sadly, aren’t much better. Meanwhile, Tuesdays are the most common day to have a baby.

Hoping for a Christmas or New Year’s baby? That’s unlikely. The analysis shows that about 145 babies are born on Christmas every year — the lowest rate of any holiday. Despite the fame that comes with being the first baby born on New Year’s Day, nearly 30 percent fewer babies are born Jan. 1 than on an average day.

In contrast, many babies share a birthday with George Washington — or actually the President’s Day celebration of it.

There is some truth to the perception that people die around the holidays. Both New Year’s Day (124) and Christmas (120) see more deaths than on an average day and outpace all other holidays except President’s Day. December and January see more deaths than every month but March.

But that has more to do with the weather than anything else, experts said.

“All species have difficulty in the winter months — just for survival — and that includes humans,” said Sam Preston, an acclaimed demo­grapher, sociologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

That’s especially true with infectious diseases that can cause pneumonia or impair respiratory systems, he said. Plus, people aren’t getting outside in the winter to exercise, which would help boost the immune system. The elderly are particularly vulnerable.

Staying cooped up inside contributes to the problem, said Dr. Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch for the National Center for Health Statistics.

“You’ve got people congregating indoors where disease is more likely to be passed back and forth,” Anderson said. “In summer, people are outside and more spread out.”

While death rates used to swing more wildly, with the advent of the flu shots and improvements in medicine from the 1950s on, roughly 200,000 people die each month nationwide. Heart disease and cancer are the biggest killers, government statistics show.

While deaths peak in the winter months, summer is baby season in Cook County. July is the busiest month for births, followed by August and then June. But the day that averaged the most births between 2005 and 2010 was Sept. 8.

That could be because the holiday season starts at Halloween and continuing through December, Preston said.

“You have couples going out for parties during the holidays, they’re drinking and forget to use their contraceptive devices,” he said. Not to mention the nights start getting longer in fall and early winter.

In an era when deliveries are often scheduled in advance — when possible — the Sept. 8 peak also indicates that many families are missing the Sept. 1 cutoff that would enable their child to enroll in school earlier. Nor does there appear to be a significant spike in births the last week in August that would indicate parents were trying to have their children before that deadline.

There also doesn’t appear to be a spike in births during the last week of December — indicating that it’s a myth that couples try to schedule deliveries before the end of the year in time to get an extra child tax credit for the year.

Fred Barnes

Updated: July 17, 2011 2:24AM

A Ford Heights man died Saturday, five days after struggling with a man who was attempting to steal his bike.

Fred Barnes, 48, was coming back from a shopping trip about 9 p.m. Monday in Ford Heights when he saw the would-be thief, Ronald Wade, 18, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s office.

They struggled, and Wade put Barnes in a chokehold, beat him and threw him to the ground — causing severe head injuries, officials said.

“It’s senseless,” said Abel Barnes Jr., Fred’s older brother. “He was a nice person. He didn’t mess with anybody. All he wanted was his bike. Nobody should take another person’s life over a bike.”

Barnes’ mother, Loren, along with his brothers and sisters, decided to take him off life support Saturday, Abel Barnes said.

Wade, also of Ford Heights, was arrested Thursday and charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, the sheriff’s office said. Bond was set at $2 million Friday. Officials expect charges will be upgraded.

Barnes, an Arkansas native, had lived in Ford Heights since he was 5. He was a track star at Bloom Trail High School, his brother said.

Barnes worked as a butcher in the meat department at New Way Foods.

Ed Hooks and his dog Nugget pose for a photograph next to the bicycle memorial for Jepson Livingston, the victim of a hit and run crash in 2009, at the intersection of Diversey and Avers Avenue Thursday, July 7, 2011, in Chicago. Hooks said he would like to see the memorials removed after a certain time period instead of having them on display indefinitely. | John J. Kim~Sun-Times

Updated: July 16, 2011 10:18PM

Almost every day for the last 16 months, Ed Hooks has walked his dog Nugget past a painted white bike at the entrance to the North Side’s Kosciuszko Park.

It’s a memorial for Jepson Livingston, a 32-year-old man who died in 2009. Livingston was riding his bike on Diversey when he was struck by a van involved in a high-speed chase. The driver was arrested and charged with murder.

Hooks feels for Livingston’s family — he also lost a child too young. But he also believes there should be a time limit for memorials on public property, like the so-called “ghost bikes,’’ which he considers an unnecessary eyesore after spending countless months or even years in Chicago weather.

“I grieve for them,” he said of Livingston’s family. “I grieve with them. That has nothing to do with whether or not a painted white bicycle should be chained to a light post forever in my neighborhood. At a certain point, the family needs to go to the cemetery.”

But for Livingston’s family, the bike remains a source of comfort.

“When I go by the bike, I feel more at peace compared to the cemetery,” said Henrietta Livingston, Jepson Livingston’s mother.

The urban equivalent of flower-strewn crosses along rural highways, there are about a dozen ghost bikes on sidewalks around Chicago. Painted white and bearing a sign with the name of the dead cyclist, the bikes are meant to serve as a memorial and a warning for drivers and cyclists.

Ghost bikes meet the criteria of Chicago’s code for abandoned bikes. Purposefully stripped of parts, they cannot be ridden. They have not been moved in seven days — one ghost bike has been on Western since 2006. City code says abandoned bikes can be ticketed and then disposed of.

But Brian Steele, spokesman for Chicago’s Department of Transportation, said the city doesn’t move ghost bikes because officials don’t consider them abandoned but “important memorials.”

“If they do not infringe on the public way, or take up space that would be used by bicycles or pedestrians, [they] can be an important reminder of the impact on loved ones and our society when the rules are not followed by all modes, including the cyclists,” Steele said in an e-mail.

For Hooks, a gentle-speaking 65-year-old teacher, author and former actor, the bikes are a legitimate memorial, just like those that appear outside fatal crime scenes featuring candles and stuffed animals. The difference is that the crime memorials are short-lived, he said.

“I would not object to these ghost bikes being there,” he said. “I just think they should have an expiration date.”

His request for an honest neighborhood discussion about the issue at the website Everyblock led to anonymous cyclists calling him everything from insensitive to a bigot. He said he isn’t either, and has learned the hard way what the death of a child is like. His daughter Dagny was 21 when she accidentally overdosed on drugs in 2005 in Lake View.

“There is no closure for the death of a child,” he said. “It’s a crime against nature. Yet what’s the lesson from my daughter’s death — don’t mess around with drugs. It didn’t occur to me to go over [to Lake View] and put a sign up with her pictures and cover it with drug stuff and expect it to be there forever.”

Ghost bikes started in 2002 in St. Louis by a bike shop worker. Since then, the bikes have appeared in 22 countries and, in America, 37 states.

In Chicago, the bikes are put up and maintained by concerned cyclists. Some ghost bikes are maintained more carefully than others.

In Boston, the bikes are typically taken down within days by the city, said James McBride of MassBikes, a Boston-based bicycle advocacy organization.

“Some of the shorter-term ghost bikes that stay up, I know people get upset they got moved quickly,” he said.

Not all of the Chicago bikes are permanent. One placed near a West Side church was removed by church officials, said Howard Kaplan, who has helped install many ghost bikes. Another near a Walgreen’s on the North Side also didn’t stay up long, and a ghost bike at the Lincoln, Damen and Irving Park intersection has come and gone several times.

“When I work with the family [of the dead cyclist] to get one put up I tell them there’s no guarantee for how long it’s going to stay,” he said. “If it’s up for a year it’s a good run.”

Kaplan agrees with Hooks that there is no clear way to quantify how effective ghost bikes are as safety warnings. That doesn’t mean that they are not valuable, he said.

“I think it’s outrageous that you can’t ride a bike around the city without risking your life,” he said. “I think when a bicyclists is killed it should be noticed.”

Tony McCoy was shot and killed in the 1000 block of East 47th Street Saturday. After leaving church, Joyce Andrews saw the victim and knelt in prayer for “Tony, his family, community, the police and the shooter.” Saturday, July 16 , 2011. | John H. White~Sun-Times.

Article Extras

Updated: July 17, 2011 6:39AM

A Chicago Park District employee whose son was killed Saturday afternoon in Kenwood said he had no idea why his son, an athlete who planned to attend college in the fall, was shot.

“I’m at a loss,’’ Tony McCoy said Saturday evening, several hours after his son, Tony, 20, was gunned down at 1:15 p.m. near his apartment in the 1100 block of 47th Street.

Police said the block where he was killed has been fraught with gang conflicts for the last three or four months, and they warned there could be retaliation after Saturday’s attack.

But McCoy said the incident “wasn’t gang-related,’’ and he said his son was not in a gang.

His son planned to attend Parkland College, a community college in Champaign that many students attend in hopes of transferring to the University of Illinois, McCoy said.

When the victim’s mother arrived Saturday afternoon at the scene where her son died, she approached his body, which was a few feet away on the other side of a wrought- iron fence in a driveway off 47th.

She knelt down on the ground and wept. Police initially asked her to leave, but when they learned she was the victim’s mother, they left her alone.

McCoy arrived and approached his son’s body — but he collapsed in the street. He was treated by paramedics in an ambulance at the scene.

Joyce Andrews, who was leaving a nearby church with her daughter, saw the body and knelt in prayer on a curb between two police cars several feet from the body.

She said she was praying for “Tony, his family, community, the police and the shooter.’’

She said she had told her daughter earlier, “If I see another shooting, I’ll leave town.’’

As she left the scene, she pledged to leave the city by next year.

Other witnesses said there was another shooting in the same area two days ago.

No one was in custody in connection with the shooting late Saturday.