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Illinois will take a first step toward reducing the use of firefighting foam containing harmful “forever chemicals” under a bill signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker Friday.

The measure aims to curb the use of one source of PFAS chemicals that are tied to a host of health threats, largely through a limitation on using the foam for anything other than emergencies. Fire departments that want to conduct emergency drills or test the foam have to take precautions that prevent the chemicals from reaching waterways through sewer systems, for instance.

The bill, a compromise between environmental groups, an association of fire chiefs and industry groups, does not restrict any use in an emergency. The foam is used for serious industrial fires like those that can occur at a refinery, chemical plant or another source of flammable liquids.

Separately, state officials found more than 100 drinking water systems across Illinois with some PFAS contamination, the Sun-Times recently reported. The chemicals are used in a number of products, from stain-resistant clothing to non-stick pans.

Environmentalists called the reduction a first step.

“This new law is a foothold in moving Illinois in the right direction on one of the most frightening threats to our clean water,” Iyana Simba, city programs director at the Illinois Environmental Council said in an emailed statement.

Business groups originally opposed the bill, saying deadlines initially proposed would phase out an effective product before a comparable one was created, said Mark Denzler, chief executive of the Illinois Manufacturers Association.

Local fire departments used to train often with PFAS foam but began using alternatives for those drills largely because of the cost of using the specialty foam on anything other than a true disaster, said John Buckley, who works on legislative issues for the Illinois Fire Chief Association.

In addition to limiting the foam’s use in training exercises, departments will be required to report to the state any discharge or disposal of the product.

A Chicago Fire Department spokesman said he wasn’t able to quantify how much foam the city uses or stockpiles but said the department will adhere to the required documentation.

Brett Chase’s reporting on the environment and public health is made possible by a grant from The Chicago Community Trust.

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The teen boy was on the sidewalk Monday in the 200 block of West Pershing Road when a dark-colored vehicle pulled up and and someone from inside fired shots.

By

Sun-Times Wire

Aug 9, 2021, 6:12pm CDT

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It had been almost exactly 30 years since I’d seen my favorite gorgon. I’d left him where he lived, on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, in the bottom half of Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment. His name is Charon, and he is charged with herding damned souls across the Styx–with a snarl that’s the stuff of nightmares. Charon, a monstrous embodiment of an Old Testament afterlife, has haunted me since I visited the Sistine Chapel in 1991.

I never imagined the Ferryman and I would next meet in the husk of an abandoned Sears deep in western suburbia. But there he (?), was, horrific as ever, part of an immersive exhibit that allows visitors to see both Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment and the magnificent frescoes of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, all from a vantage point that’s nearly impossible to achieve if you visit the art in their Vatican home.

At the Vatican, you have to elbow and push like a linebacker to get within eyeshot of Charon. In the old Sears, you can see him in all his otherworldly context. He’s one of some 400 characters in the massive painting; some being swept up into heaven and others cast down into Hell. All are depicted in SEE Global Entertainment’s pragmatically titled “Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel,” an exhibit large enough to fill a big-box store.

Among abandoned mannequin plinths and forgotten dressing room mirrors, you’ll find The Last Judgment as well as frescoes from the chapel ceiling transformed into walls of tapestry-sized, high-resolution images. An audio guide provides insight and context to the art. A word about religion: far from pandering to his audience, Michelangelo embedded his paintings with the 16th-century version of Easter eggs. Portraits of those who antagonized him and those he loved can be spotted throughout his art. And while the frescoes show a cinematic visual depiction of various tales of the Old Testament, there are also the sibyls: images of the female divine, oracles from ancient Greece.

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Viewers wandering the cavernous space will encounter a gallery of biblical terrors. (Judith beheading Holofernes is deeply satisfying and The Flood will give you nightmares, especially given recent events in Germany and China.) But there are wonders too: God literally shows His ass in The Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants and the Delphic Sibyl originates the art of the side-eye when her oracle reading is interrupted.

The touring installation (there are other iterations of the show currently on display in San Antonio, Charlottesville, and Charleston) is the brainchild of Martin Biallas, who had a less-than-optimal experience trying to see the Sistine Chapel.

“It was unpleasant,” he recalls. “Long lines. And once you’re finally in after a six-hour wait, you’re rushed through. You’re surrounded by 2,000 other people. There’s 50 guards looking at you like if you’re even thinking about taking a picture, they’re going to tackle you. And the view–it’s almost like looking at a stamp, you’re so far away.”

He continues, “I wanted to make it all more accessible. I wanted this to look like you were walking right under the ceiling.”

Spectacle has captivated Biallas since 1975, when he arrived in the United States from West Germany as a student, just in time for this country’s Bicentennial fever. “It was just everywhere, the red, white, and blue, everyone was celebrating,” he says of the year positively drenched in showily performative patriotism.

More than 40 years later, Biallas’s resume is littered with outsized endeavors: He created “Star Trek–The Tour,” a 30th-anniversary international touring exhibition for Paramount; brought Egyptian sacred relics to the world via “Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures”; and created the “Titanic Official Movie Tour,” which opened at Wembley Stadium in 1999. He’s got designs on bringing a massive Banksy exhibit to life, and wants to “do something with American history,” eventually.

But back to (hello darkness) my old friend Charon. You can practically smell the sulfur as he raises his paddle to smash the skull of any lost soul who might try to escape. Michelangelo painted The Last Judgment between 1535 and 1541; the ceiling came much earlier, with the artist actually living in the scaffolding while he labored over it from 1508 to 1512.

“He was very secretive, kept things covered up,” Biallas says before telling an apocryphal story: “The Pope tried to get in to see it a few times, and Michelangelo would throw pieces of scaffolding at his head to make him leave.”

Visitors tend to initially gravitate toward the (arguably) most recognizable fresco, Biallas said.

“Of course the first thing people will try to spot is The Creation of Adam,” he says of the iconic image of a white-haired, buff, Old Testament God pointing toward Adam, their outstretched fingers sparking the creation of mankind.

“It’s a stunning, iconic image, but I was always more fascinated by The Last Judgment,” he continues. “It’s a perfect representation of our constant temptation, the battle between doing good and not. My dad was a Lutheran minister, so I learned a lot about the church and the bible growing up. But the painting was much more personal to me. I thought the message was timeless: so many things are not good for us or our world, yet we do them anyway,” he says.

“The Last Judgment is also the only place where Michelangelo put his self-portrait. He was like an early Hitchcock, giving himself this cameo.” (You can find the artist’s self-portrait in the flayed skin of St. Bartholomew.)

Among the ceiling frescoes, Biallas has his favorites.

“The image of God creating the sun and the planets. There’s one guy who is showing his rear end to everyone in that fresco and that’s God. Seriously. That’s a message,” he said.

Biallas is intent on figuring out a U.S. history installation, “. . . something that could take people from 1776 to today.” It’s a concept the Hannover native has been mulling since he experienced Bicentennial fever as an undergrad at the University of Michigan.

“When we were being raised (in Germany), we were raised without that kind of patriotism, because of Hitler and what he did in the name of nationalism. We couldn’t really be proud to be a German. So to me, it was fascinating how enthusiastic and devoted U.S. citizens were,” he says. “When I got my first car here, a Ford, I got a special Bicentennial license plate with it. It made me fall in love with this country.”

As for the gorgon, I pity him more than fear him. Of all the terrible jobs in the world, pushing people into a fiery pit has to be among the most terrible. I’ll have to come back in another 30 years to see if he has changed, again. v

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Patrick Williams gave himself about six days off when the 2020-21 regular season came to a conclusion.

In the eyes of the Bulls forward, that was more than enough for a summer vacation.

Then it was back to the Advocate Center, getting in the lab to once again add more to the game.

Did the second-year Williams look like a finished product in his Summer League debut on Monday? Not even close, and that’s what was scary about it as far as what opponents of the Bulls will have to deal with.

Still only 19, the No. 4 overall pick from the 2020 draft appeared confident in the 94-77 loss to New Orleans, had an improved ball-handling/play-making mentality, and maybe more importantly, was an aggressive presence on the offensive end, having no issues hunting his own shot.

At least in the first half.

The second half was a bit different, and much more frustrating, as Williams got passive, and had serious issues with ball security. Obviously, he’s still a work in progress.

Williams finished with 15 points, but that came on a 6-for-20 shooting game, including putting up 13 shots in the first half. There were only five games all of last season in which Williams shot 13 or more times for an entire contest.

He also had 10 rebounds, but did have five turnovers, as the game got away from the Bulls in the second half.

A second half in which Williams chose to be passenger over driver.

If there was a knock on Williams in his rookie campaign, it was just that. Too much talent to go through too many moments of playing passive basketball.

That was the message from Thad Young to Williams at the end of the season, and even though Young is now a Spur, the message carried weight.

It was Young who told the media of a private discussion he had with Williams at the end of the season, simply asking him, “Do you want to be great?”

“He said, ‘Yes, I do want to be great,’ ” Young said. “He asked, ‘What do I need to do to be great?’ ”

Young pointed out to Williams the regular-season finale in which there was no Zach LaVine or Nikola Vucevic available, and Milwaukee was switching smaller players onto the 6-foot-8 Williams.

Yet, he was accepting of it, rather than demanding the ball in the mismatch.

“If you want to be great that’s what the great players do,” Young said. “They impose their will on the game at all points in the game … he’s shown us and the Bulls fans so much in this first year of what he can be to the point where his standards should be set even higher next year, and he should want to be a top two or three guy on this team next year.”

He looked very much like the top guy in that first half, on both ends of the floor, insisting that the Pelicans made some adjustments on him in the second half, and it’s his job to learn how to adjust to that “on the fly.”

“Fatigue definitely sets in,” Williams said of his performance. “It’s a learning experience for sure. I’m just excited to go back, watch film, and get better.”

As for the rest of the Bulls that could push for a spot on the roster, 2020 second-round pick Marko Simonovic had a few moments, showing a physicality inside the paint on his way to 13 points and five rebounds, while point guard Devon Dotson led the Bulls with 16 points.

Chicago’s own Ayo Dosunmu, who the Bulls selected in the second round last month, struggled in his debut, going 2-for-8 and finishing with six points.

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Three teenage boys and a man were hurt in a shooting Monday afternoon in the Near North Side.

They were on the street about 3:30 p.m. when four people got out of a vehicle with guns and opened fire in the 1300 block of North Hudson Avenue, Chicago police said. The suspects then got back inside the vehicle and fled the scene, according to police.

Two boys, 16, were shot in the leg and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in fair condition, police said. A 14-year-old struck in the foot and transported in good condition to Laurie Children’s Hospital.

The man, 63, suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was stabilized, police said.

Crime tape blocked off a portion of Hudson with officiers concentrated around an entrance to the Marshall Fields Garden apartments.

“It’s crazy out here,” one woman said as she walked by the street.

No one is in custody as Area Three detectives investigate.

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Masks are back, some hospitals are filling up again, and there’s little question who’s causing the latest resurgence of COVID-19.

Unvaccinated Americans are rapidly becoming sick from the ultra-contagious delta variant, and they often get extremely ill. More than 97% of people hospitalized for he coronavirus in mid-July were unvaccinated, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s a tragically predictable outcome, leading some to unload their frustrations on the unvaccinated. High levels of infections among unvaccinated people increase the risk to everyone, and headline after headline has documented the ensuing rage of the vaccinated. Unvaccinated Americans have been called “arrogant,” “selfish” “stupid,” “idiots” and worse for refusing to get the shots.

Public health experts say such anger is understandable but unproductive. They worry that shaming and blaming the unvaccinated could backfire — entrenching their decision rather than persuading them to get the shots.

“If you’re going to call me an idiot … that isn’t encouragement,” says Stephanie McClure, an assistant professor of biocultural medical anthropology at the University of Alabama. “You usually don’t get anywhere by attacking people.”

Shaming and insulting people is “not a very effective way to promote adoption of a behavior,” says McClure, who leads the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, team for CommuniVax, a national alliance advocating for historically underserved Black, Indigenous and Latino populations amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As a primary care physician, Dr. Marlene Millen shares the exhaustion of the vaccinated as cases rise.

“I’m tired, I’m burnt out,” Millen says. “Lately, I’ve gotten to the end of my rope.”

But pointing fingers doesn’t help, says Millen, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Shedoesn’t like the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” moniker used by federal health authorities because it creates a gulf between vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Gleb Tsipursky, who has a doctorate in the history of behavioral science, also doesn’t like the term.

“You’re fixing them into these groups,” says Tsipursky, who is chief executive officer of Disaster Avoidance Experts and wrote a book about the risks of returning to the office amid a pandemic.

Though some Americans are actively anti-vaccine, many who haven’t gotten the shots are held back by factors that can be addressed, says Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health.

In an opinion piece for The Daily News in Newburyport, Massachusetts, McClure wrote that the term “vaccine hesitancy” can lump together the complex reasons some people haven’t gotten vaccinated. She says many people are afraid, misinformed or mistrustful of authorities.

McClure’s conversations with unvaccinated people have revealed some have misperceptions that can be corrected if someone takes the time to listen.

African Americans have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and feel the U.S. healthcare system doesn’t treat Blacks and whites equally, McClure says, which fuels mistrust. But insults, she says, are “not going to motivate you to think differently.”

She worries the frustration she sees among the vaccinated could be a precursor to dismissiveness, a sense of: “We might as well not try.”

“Then, people just stay in their camps,” she says.

Tsipursky says all major demographics of unvaccinated people don’t respond well to authorities telling them what to do. Blame and insults are particularly counterproductive when dealing with people who might see the vaccine as a political issue, he says. That tone creates a defensive response in which they are likely “lash out against authority,” he says — even if it puts them at a greater risk.

Tsipursky prefers positive language: Vaccinated people are doing their civic duty; they’re patriots; they’re protecting their families.

Millen says family members can make a big difference. It’s especially effective to limit in-person gatherings with unvaccinated family until they get the shots, she says.

She hopes Americans will have patience with one another, especially amid the deluge of news about the delta variant.

“I have a medical degree,” she says, “and I’m having trouble keeping up.”

Millen doesn’t want a simple message to get lost in that noise, which is: “The vaccines are working to prevent hospitalizations.”

Read more at USA Today.

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When Hassan Brewer stared at a woman at a West Garfield Park restaurant over the weekend, her boyfriend accosted him, Cook County prosecutors said Monday.

That confrontation led to a physical altercation between the two men and ended with 31-year-old Brewer allegedly opening fire, seriously wounding his rival.

The victim, 27, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious condition and underwent surgery over the weekend, authorities said.

His condition has since been upgraded to “good,” prosecutors said.

The man was waiting for his food with his girlfriend at the restaurant at 8:05 p.m. Saturday when he noticed Brewer gazing at his girlfriend, prosecutors said.

After the two exchanged words, Brewer pushed the man, who responded by punching Brewer in the face, prosecutors said.

Brewer eventually left the restaurant. But he returned moments later armed with a loaded gun, prosecutors said. Brewer allegedly went on to fire the weapon from the restaurant’s doorway, shooting the man at close range in the buttocks, back and thighs.

Brewer, who was shot in the arm by a restaurant security guard, then ran out of the business, prosecutors said.

He was arrested less than an hour later in the 1900 block of West Ogden Avenue, police said.

The fight and subsequent shooting was captured on surveillance video and the victim and his girlfriend identified Brewer as the shooter in a photo array, prosecutors said.

An assistant public defender pointed out that the security guard failed to identify Brewer and argued that Brewer opened fire to defend himself.

But Judge Charles Beach noted, “It’s not as though this was the heat of the moment thing. He left the restaurant and returned.”

Beach then ordered Brewer, a father of four, held without bail for attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm.

Brewer has three prior felony convictions, including a 2017 unlawful use of a weapon. Prosecutors said he was currently on parole for that conviction, although Brewer seemed to indicate his parole was over.

Brewer is expected back in court Aug. 16.

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Federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against an Indiana man who allegedly acted as the so-called straw purchaser of the handgun used in the weekend shooting of two Chicago police officers.

Jamel Danzy, 29, of Hammond, was arrested Sunday and is being held in federal custody pending a detention hearing set for Wednesday afternoon. His lawyer noted during a court hearing Monday that he has no criminal history. He is charged with conspiracy to violate federal firearm laws.

The weekend shooting took the life of Officer Ella French, 29, and left another officer in critical condition. The feds’ decision to swiftly file charges in connection with French’s death followed a visit last month by Attorney General Merrick Garland to Chicago, where he touted a new program meant to combat gun violence in Chicago and other cities.

That program is meant, in part, to target so-called straw-purchasers who use their clean records to help put guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. A federal judge recently handed an eight-month prison sentence to a straw-purchaser connected to a December 2019 mass shooting. Danzy faces a maximum of five years behind bars.

A 10-page criminal complaint filed against Danzy shows that investigators worked well into the night following the 9 p.m. shooting Saturday at 63rd and Bell Avenue — initiating a trace of the gun that killed French at 1:15 a.m. Sunday morning.

The criminal complaint alleges that the Honda CR-V stopped by the officers was registered to Danzy, though he was not present at the shooting. The complaint also says authorities traced the gun used to kill French to Danzy through the ATF National Tracing Center. Danzy allegedly purchased the gun from a licensed dealer in Hammond on March 18.

Federal agents approached Danzy on Sunday at a Munster restaurant where he works, according to the complaint. Danzy agreed to speak to the agents, and he initially told them his purchase of the gun was legitimate, according to the complaint. Eventually, the feds say he admitted he was lying and that he had bought the gun for someone he knew could not legally purchase it because of a criminal conviction.

Authorities say that person was convicted of felony theft in 2019 in Dane County, Wisconsin. He was sentenced to three years of probation.

That person was among those taken into custody following French’s shooting, according to the feds. That person was in possession of a Glock .22-caliber semi-automatic pistol, which the feds say was the gun used to kill French.

U.S. District Court records

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NEW YORK — After several delays, the first phase of the sex trafficking trial of R&B hitmaker R. Kelly started Monday with jury selection in New York City.

Lingering health threats caused by the coronavirus pandemic and a shakeup of Kelly’s defense team pushed the trial into the summer, nearly two years after he was charged with abusing women and girls for nearly two decades.

U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly began questioning potential jurors about whether they can keep an open mind about Kelly two years after he was charged with abusing women and girls for nearly two decades. She reminded them the defendant was presumed innocent and that they should not be influenced by any bad publicity Kelly has faced over the accusations.

The proceeding was being conducted amid pandemic precautions, restricting the press and the public to overflow courtrooms with video feeds. Much of the time, Kelly and potential jurors weren’t clearly visible on the feeds and the audio was often faint.

More screening was set for Tuesday. It was unclear how long the process will take.

Kelly, 54, has been locked up since he was indicted, mostly housed in a federal jail in Chicago. He was moved last month to the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to face trial in a case that’s further diminished his superstar status.

Last week, defense attorney Deveraux Cannick told a judge that Kelly needs to be measured for new clothing because he’s gained so much weight in jail. And he asked that court transcripts be provided at no cost because Kelly has been unable to work for two years, saying: “His funds are depleted.”

The Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling singer has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of leading an enterprise of managers, bodyguards and other employees who helped him recruit women and girls for sex. Federal prosecutors say the group selected victims at concerts and other venues and arranged for them to travel to see Kelly.

Defense lawyers have said Kelly’s alleged victims were groupies who turned up at his shows and made it known they “were dying to be with him.” They only started accusing him of abuse years later when public sentiment shifted in the #MeToo era, they said.

The trial had been expected to start earlier in the year. But opening statements were moved to Aug. 18 after Kelly fired his original lawyers.

Jurors are expected to hear testimony from several of his accusers. A judge has ruled that the women will only be referred to by their first names.

Prosecutors also are expected to offer evidence that Kelly schemed with others to pay for a fake ID for Aaliyah, a singer on the rise at 15 years old, in a secret ceremony in 1994.

Aaliyah is identified as “Jane Doe #1” in court papers because she was still a minor when Kelly began a sexual relationship with her and believed she had become pregnant, the papers say.

“As a result, in an effort to shield himself from criminal charges related to his illegal sexual relationship with Jane Doe #1, Kelly arranged to secretly marry her to prevent her from being compelled to testify against him in the future,” the papers say.

Aaliyah, whose full name was Aaliyah Dana Haughton, worked with Kelly, who wrote and produced her 1994 debut album, “Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number.” She died in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22.

The case is only part of the legal peril facing the singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly. He also has pleaded not guilty to sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota.

Kelly won multiple Grammys for “I Believe I Can Fly,” a 1996 song that became an inspirational anthem played at school graduations, weddings, advertisements and elsewhere.

Nearly a decade later, he began releasing what eventually became 22 musical chapters of “Trapped in the Closet,” a drama that spins a tale of sexual deceit and became a cult classic.

But Kelly has been trailed for decades by complaints and allegations about his sexual behavior, including a 2002 child pornography case in Chicago. He was acquitted in that case in 2008.

Scrutiny intensified again amid the #MeToo movement in recent years, with multiple women going public with accusations against the singer. The pressure intensified with the release of the Lifetime documentary “Surviving R. Kelly” in 2019.

Criminal charges soon followed.

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Federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against an Indiana man who allegedly acted as the so-called straw purchaser of the handgun used in the weekend shooting of two Chicago police officers.

Jamel Danzy, 29, of Hammond, was arrested Sunday and is being held in federal custody pending a detention hearing set for Wednesday afternoon. His lawyer noted during a court hearing Monday that he has no criminal history. He is charged with conspiracy to violate federal firearm laws.

Ella French, 29, was identified Sunday by the Chicago Police Department as the officer who was fatally shot in West Englewood while in the line of duty Saturday night. Her partner, who was also wounded during a traffic stop shortly after 9 p.m. at 63rd Street and Bell Avenue, remained in critical condition Sunday at the University of Chicago Medical Center, CPD Supt. David Brown said.

A criminal complaint alleges that the Honda CR-V stopped by the officers was registered to Danzy. It also says authorities traced the gun used to kill French to Danzy through the ATF National Tracing Center. Danzy allegedly purchased the gun from a licensed dealer in Hammond on March 18.

Federal agents approached Danzy on Sunday at a Munster restaurant where he works, according to the complaint. Danzy agreed to speak to the agents, and he initially told them his purchase of the gun was legitimate, according to the complaint. Eventually, the feds say he admitted he was lying and that he had bought the gun for someone he knew could not legally purchase it because of a criminal conviction.

That person was among those taken into custody following French’s shooting, according to the feds. That person was in possession of a Glock .22-caliber semi-automatic pistol, which the feds say was the gun used to kill French.

U.S. District Court records

Attorney General Merrick Garland visited Chicago last month to tout a new Justice Department program meant to combat gun violence in Chicago and in other cities across the country, in part, by targeting straw purchasers — people who use their clean records to help put guns in the hands of people who aren’t supposed to have them.

A few days after that visit, a federal judge handed down an eight-month prison sentence in a straw-purchasing case connected to a Dec. 22, 2019, mass shooting on the South Side.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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