If I have the numbers correct, 71 people were shot in Chicago last weekend, with 9 people killed. Yet we continue to hear politicians talk about how sad they are and spew political rhetoric. Organizations want to hold more peace marches, which accomplish nothing.
A good solution would be to let the police be the police. The practice of stopping and frisking works. The politicians just need to look at the locations where this happens, and stop constantly playing the race card.
Joey Battaglia, retired police officer, Southwest Side
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Enforce fireworks ban
Fireworks start going off in Chicago on about Memorial Day and continue through at least July 5. If fireworks are illegal in the city, why are people allowed to use them with impunity? Enforce the law or take it off the books.
John Ibarra, Little Village
Know the past to move ahead
In his column about the need for a more truthfully teaching of American history, Neil Steinberg was preaching to the choir. People have forgotten that we put children in school to expand their minds, not to limit the information given to them.
The Republican Party thinks it can erase history. Wrong. And we’re paying a price for that now as people continue to avoid the realities of our past. Understanding our past should make our future clearer. Let’s not continue to go backward.
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and opened the way for his immediate release from prison Wednesday in a stunning reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as “America’s Dad,” ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby.
Cosby, 83, has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence after being found guilty of drugging and violating Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era.
Cosby was arrested in 2015, when a district attorney armed with newly unsealed evidence — the comic’s damaging deposition testimony in a lawsuit brought by Constand — brought charges against him days before the 12-year statute of limitations ran out.
But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that District Attorney Kevin Steele, who made the decision to arrest Cosby, was obligated to stand by his predecessor’s promise not to charge Cosby. There was no evidence that promise was ever put in writing.
Justice David Wecht, writing for a split court, said Cosby had relied on the former prosecutor’s decision not to charge him when the comedian later gave his potentially incriminating testimony in the Constand’s civil case.
The court said that overturning the conviction, and barring any further prosecution, “is the only remedy that comports with society’s reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system.”
A Cosby spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Nor did a Steele representative, Constand or her lawyer.
The trial judge allowed five other accusers to testify at the trial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s to establish what prosecutors said was a pattern of behavior on his part.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices voiced concern not just about sex assault cases, but what they saw as the judiciary’s increasing tendency to allow testimony that crosses the line into character attacks. The law allows the testimony only in limited cases, including to show a crime pattern so specific it serves to identify the perpetrator.
But the court declined to say whether five other accusers should have been allowed to testify, considering it moot given their ruling on Cosby’s claim that he should not have been prosecuted in the first place.
In New York, the judge presiding over last year’s trial of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, whose case had sparked the explosion of the #MeToo movement in 2017, let four other accusers testify. Weinstein was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He is now facing separate charges in California.
In May, Cosby was denied paroled after refusing to participate in sex offender programs behind bars. He has long said he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing even if it means serving the full 10-year sentence.
Prosecutors said Cosby repeatedly used his fame and “family man” persona to manipulate young women, holding himself out as a mentor before betraying them.
Cosby, a groundbreaking Black actor who grew up in public housing in Philadelphia, made a fortune estimated at $400 million during his 50 years in the entertainment industry. His trademark clean comedy fueled popular TV shows, books and standup acts.
He fell from favor in his later years as he lectured the Black community about family values, but was attempting a comeback when he was arrested.
The AP does not typically identify sexual assault victims without their permission, which Constand has granted.
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Follow Maryclaire Dale on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Maryclairedale
To say it’s been awhile is an understatement. So glad we are making our way out of this pandemic and I hope everyone is staying safe. As we are starting to go out again this summer, I’ve noticed a big trend is wearing multiple necklace strands at once.
The big company making a magnetized necklace clasp is called Necklet. They charge about $40 for their product which I think is ridiculous. I’ve been looking for a dupe for this product and finally found it at a company called Pura Vida. They are known for affordable jewelry and they also have a great commitment to give proceeds back to the environment.
Here is the link to the Pura Vida clasp. It is only $10 and works really well. I love that it comes in different metals as well.
Young professional living and working in “the 7th most expensive city in the world.” Chicago can be expensive, but I always look for ways to save. My motto is: “If it’s free, it’s me.”
The Titanic is disappearing. The iconic ocean liner that was sunk by an iceberg is now slowly succumbing to metal-eating bacteria: holes pervade the wreckage, the crow’s nest is already gone and the railing of the ship’s iconic bow could collapse at any time.
Racing against the inevitable, an undersea exploration company’s expedition to the site of the wreckage could start this week, beginning what’s expected to be an annual chronicling of the ship’s deterioration. With the help of wealthy tourists, experts hope to learn more about the vessel as well as the underwater ecosystem that shipwrecks spawn.
“The ocean is taking this thing, and we need to document it before it all disappears or becomes unrecognizable,” Stockton Rush, president of OceanGate Expeditions, said Friday from a ship headed to the North Atlantic wreck site.
In this April 10, 1912 file photo the Titanic leaves Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage. AP
The 109-year-old ocean liner is being battered by deep-sea currents and bacteria that consumes hundreds of pounds of iron a day. Some have predicted the ship could vanish in a matter of decades as holes yawn in the hull and sections disintegrate.
Since the ship’s 1985 discovery, the 100-foot (30-meter) forward mast has collapsed. The crow’s nest from which a lookout shouted, “Iceberg, right ahead!” disappeared. And the poop deck, where passengers crowded as the ship sank, folded under itself.
The gymnasium near the grand staircase has fallen in. And a 2019 expedition discovered that the captain’s haunting bathtub, which became visible after the outer wall of the captain’s cabin fell away, is gone.
“At some point you would expect the railing on the bow, which is very iconic, to have collapsed,” Rush said.
The company has outfitted its carbon fiber-and-titanium submersible with high-definition cameras and multi-beam sonar equipment, Rush said. Charting the decomposition can help scientists predict the fate of other deep-sea wrecks, including those that sank during the world wars.
OceanGate also plans to document the site’s sea life, such as crabs and corals. Hundreds of species have only been seen at the wreck, Rush said.
Another focus will be the debris field and its artifacts. David Concannon, an OceanGate adviser who’s been involved in various Titanic expeditions, said he once followed a trail “of light debris and small personal effects like shoes and luggage” for 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).
The expedition includes archaeologists and marine biologists. But OceanGate is also bringing roughly 40 people who paid to come along. They’ll take turns operating sonar equipment and performing other tasks in the five-person submersible.
They’re funding the expedition by spending anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 apiece.
“Somebody paid $28 million to go with Blue Origin to space, not even the moon,” said Renata Rojas, 53, of Hoboken, New Jersey. “This is cheap in comparison.”
Obsessed with the Titanic since she was a kid, Rojas said she started studying oceanography in hopes of one day discovering the wreck. But it was found the same year, prompting her to pursue a career in banking instead.
“I kind of need to see it with my own eyes to know that it’s really real,” she said.
Bill Sauder, a Titanic historian who previously managed research for the company that owns the ship’s salvage rights, said he doubts the expedition will discover “anything that’s front-page news.” But he said it will improve the world’s understanding of the wreck’s layout and debris field. For instance, he’d like confirmation regarding where he believes the ship’s dog kennels are.
OceanGate will not take anything from the site, making this expedition far less controversial than the now-scuttled plans by another firm to retrieve the Titanic’s radio.
RMS Titanic, the company that owns the wreck’s salvage rights, wanted to exhibit the radio equipment because it had broadcast the Titanic’s distress calls. But the proposal sparked a court battle last year with the U.S. government. It said the expedition would break federal law and a pact with Britain to leave the wreck undisturbed because it’s a grave site.
All but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew died after the ship struck an iceberg in 1912.
The court battle ended after the firm indefinitely delayed its plans because of complications brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. But it’s possible that not everyone will approve of this next mission.
In 2003, Ed Kamuda, then the president of the Titanic Historical Society, told The Associated Press that human activity, including tourism and expeditions, needs to be limited. He said the site should be a simple maritime memorial and left alone.
“Let nature take back what is hers,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time before it’s a brown stain and a collection of pig iron on the ocean floor.”
Nearly 16 months into the pandemic, COVID-19 is still finding insidious new ways to invade and devastate the human body.
Front of mind for public health officials in Chicago and beyond is the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which already accounts for more than 20% of new cases across the United States and “is likely to be our dominant strain here in the next couple of months,” Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Tuesday.
Overall case counts have bottomed out across Illinois as 69% of eligible residents have gotten at least one vaccine dose, but Gov. J.B. Pritzker is pleading for remaining unvaccinated residents to get a life-saving jab because Delta surges in other countries “are a harbinger of what could happen here.”
It’s hard to say how bad a wave of Delta variant cases could get, but experts say the solution is simple: get more shots into arms.
Here’s a quick rundown of the latest focus of the pandemic, why experts are so concerned about it, and what it means for Illinois residents:
Where did the Delta variant come from?
It was termed the B.1.617.2 variant when it was first detected late last year in India, where it now makes up the vast majority of cases in that nation’s ongoing, devastating surge.
It’s one of the thousands of variants of the virus that form through genetic mutation while the virus has replicated billions of times, according to Dr. Michael Angarone, an associate professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at Northwestern Medicine.
“As they replicate, that genetic material makes mistakes. It’s like if you type too fast, you’re going to miss a letter,” Angarone said.
Why is it dangerous?
Most variants are inconsequential, but some — like Delta — have proven to spread more easily. That’s what landed it on the list of several “variants of concern” highlighted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Delta variant is unique because its so-called spike proteins allow it to more strongly latch onto cells in the respiratory and circulatory systems, Angarone said.
The previously identified U.K. variant of the virus, which now makes up the majority of cases in the U.S., was about twice as infectious as the original form of the virus that swept the globe. The Delta variant could be up to 60% more infectious on top of that.
“It spreads so easily, even potentially outdoors,” said University of Chicago epidemiologist Dr. Emily Landon. “It’s a huge problem for unvaccinated individuals.”
Angarone said experts are most concerned about a variant springing from a variant, which hasn’t yet happened on a large scale. “That’s when you start to get big changes in how the virus operates — can it bypass the vaccine immunity?”
So do COVID-19 vaccines protect against the Delta variant?
Yes, though they’re slightly less effective against it. Research has shown the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are about 88% effective in preventing Delta cases, compared to 95% efficacy against the original strain of the virus. Another study suggested a similarly slight decrease in effectiveness for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“Either way, the vaccines are still going to help protect people from ending up in the hospital,” Landon said.
Does the Delta variant make people more sick?
Some research has suggested the strain causes more severe symptoms and potentially a new one — hearing loss — but that’s still being studied.
How many Delta cases have been detected in Illinois?
The Illinois Department of Public Health has identified 103 cases, but that’s only a sliver of the actual total. Just a small fraction of positive cases are evaluated to see if they’re a variant case. From that figure, experts can extrapolate that there are “way more cases,” Landon said, likely thousands.
“The question is, will it take a foothold? Probably, among unvaccinated individuals,” she said.
I’m fully vaccinated. Should I be worried?
Probably not, unless you’re in a largely unvaccinated community that sees a severe outbreak.
That means it’s unlikely there’ll be a massive statewide surge in cases like the early months of the pandemic, not to mention the vicious resurgence Illinois suffered last fall.
Dr. Emily Landon of the University of Chicago.Provided
“The vaccines are the walls that keep things contained,” Landon said. “But can one community become completely decimated by the Delta variant, in a neighborhood, in a church? Absolutely. Some areas are going to blow up. Will it overwhelm our health care system? Probably not.”
Angarone said even with the dangerous variants, COVID-19 will more likely end up “kind of like influenza, with a substantial number of people who get really sick, but nowhere near what we saw in early and mid periods of the pandemic.”
“What’s probably going to happen is we have enough immunity to protect most people, but see patches of outbreaks. But this pandemic has taught us that our crystal ball predictions are often wrong,” Angarone said.
How the Delta virus plays out in the U.K. over the next few weeks “will be telling,” he added.
I’ve already recovered from COVID-19. Should I be worried?
Very much so, if you’re not vaccinated. “These specific variants are especially suited to overcome immunity from a recovery,” Landon warned. “You’re certainly less protected.”
Does this mean I should keep masking up, even though the CDC has said it’s generally OK for fully vaccinated people to go maskless?
You’re not required to in Chicago or elsewhere in Illinois in most situations — but it couldn’t hurt.
The World Health Organization updated its guidance last week recommending vaccinated people keep wearing masks to help stem the Delta spread, but Arwady, Chicago’s health commissioner, said the city is sticking with the looser CDC guidelines because the virus is “in very good control locally, even with the Delta here.”
Landon said there’s “no black and white when it comes to prevention, but if we all wore masks inside, it would be much less likely to spread. I think wearing masks inside would be prudent right now. It’s probably not essential, but I wouldn’t throw away your mask yet. Keep thinking about your fellow man.”
What else should I do to help keep the Delta variant at bay?
The golden rules of the pandemic still stand.
“We have to use our sense of what we’re doing and who we’re going to be around,” Angarone said. “Wearing a mask and keeping distance — it’s still very helpful and will apply until we get this completely under control. And our most powerful tool is getting more people vaccinated.”
SURFSIDE, Florida — Four more bodies have been found in the rubble of a collapsed Florida condo tower, a fire official said Wednesday, raising the death toll in the disaster to 16 people.
Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah told family members at a morning briefing that rescuers found the bodies Tuesday night. He said relatives have not yet been identified.
In addition to the four bodies, crews also found other human remains. Rescuers were able to build a ramp for a crane to reach areas at the top of the pile they had not been access before, Jadallah said.
State Fire Marshal Jimmy Petronis described the ramp as “a Herculean effort” that would allow the use of more heavy equipment.
“Now you are able to leverage massive equipment to remove mass pieces of concrete that could lead to those incredible good news events,” Petronis told Miami television station WSVN.
More than 140 people are still unaccounted for.
The discovery of the bodies came the morning after Florida authorities asked the federal government for an additional rescue team to comb the rubble of the tower, a request that underscored the strenuous nature of the open-ended search for survivors in an area prone to tropical weather.
The possibility that severe weather in coming days could further stretch Florida’s search and rescue resources prompted state officials to ask the federal government for the additional team, Kevin Guthrie of the Florida Division of Emergency Management said Tuesday. Already, intermittent bad weather has caused temporary delays in the search.
Guthrie said the new team, which would likely come from Virginia, would be on hand if severe weather hits the area in coming days and allow crews that have been working at the site for days to rotate out. Authorities said it’s still a search-and-rescue operation, but no one has been found alive since hours after the collapse on Thursday.
“There are two areas of (possible storm) development out in the Atlantic, heading to the Caribbean. We have eight urban rescue teams in Florida. We talked about doing a relief,” Guthrie said at a news conference Tuesday night. “We have all the resources we need but we’re going to bring in another team. We want to rotate those out so we can get more resources out.”
The National Hurricane Center says two disorganized storm systems in the Atlantic have a chance of becoming tropical systems in the coming days, but it is unclear at this point whether they would pose a threat to the U.S.
Charles Cyrille of the Miami-Dade County Office of Emergency said 900 workers from 50 federal, state and local agencies were working seamlessly on the search.
Elected officials have pledged to conduct multiple investigations into the sudden collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South in Surfside last week.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said that she and her staff will meet with engineering, construction and geology experts, among others, to review building safety issues and develop recommendations “to ensure a tragedy like this will never, ever happen again.”
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she will pursue a grand jury investigation to examine factors and decisions that led to the collapse.
Gov. Ron DeSantis evoked a well-known military commitment to leave no one behind on the battlefield and pledged to do the same for the people still missing in the rubble.
“The way I look at it, as an old Navy guy, is when somebody is missing in action, in the military, you’re missing until you’re found. We don’t stop the search,” DeSantis said at a news conference Tuesday.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden planned to travel to Surfside on Thursday.
Work at the site has been deliberate and treacherous. The pancake collapse of the building left layer upon layer of intertwined debris, frustrating efforts to reach anyone who may have survived in a pocket of space.
Several members of an Israeli rescue team worked partly on hands and knees Tuesday over a small section of the rubble, digging with shovels, pickaxes and saws. They removed debris into buckets that were dumped into a metal construction bin, which was periodically lifted away by a crane. The crane then delivered an empty bin.
Late in the afternoon, rescue officials sounded a horn for a second time during the day’s work, signaling an approaching storm with lightning. Workers temporarily evacuated.
Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said the work has been extremely difficult, but “we’re out here 110%.”
“These are the times that are the most difficult,” Cominsky said. “We are here to do a job. We are here with a passion. Hopefully, we have some success.”
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Gomez Licon reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Kelli Kennedy in Miami, Bobby Caina Calvan in Tallahassee, Florida, and Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction Wednesday after finding an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case.
Cosby has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia. He had vowed to serve all 10 years rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand.
The 83-year-old Cosby, who was once beloved as “America’s Dad,” was convicted of drugging and molesting the Temple University employee at his suburban estate.
He was charged in late 2015, when a prosecutor armed with newly unsealed evidence — Cosby’s damaging deposition from her lawsuit — arrested him days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.
The trial judge had allowed just one other accuser to testify at Cosby’s first trial, when the jury deadlocked. However, he then allowed five other accusers to testify at the retrial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that testimony tainted the trial, even though a lower appeals court had found it appropriate to show a signature pattern of drugging and molesting women.
Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era, so the reversal could make prosecutors wary of calling other accusers in similar cases. The law on prior bad act testimony varies by state, though, and the ruling only holds sway in Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors did not immediately say if they would appeal or seek to try Cosby for a third time.
The justices voiced concern not just about sex assault cases, but what they saw as the judiciary’s increasing tendency to allow testimony that crosses the line into character attacks. The law allows the testimony only in limited cases, including to show a crime pattern so specific it serves to identify the perpetrator.
In New York, the judge presiding over last year’s trial of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, whose case had sparked the explosion of the #MeToo movement in 2017, let four other accusers testify. Weinstein was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He is now facing separate charges in California.
In Cosby’s case, one of his appellate lawyers said prosecutors put on vague evidence about the uncharged conduct, including Cosby’s own recollections in his deposition about giving women alcohol or quaaludes before sexual encounters.
“The presumption of innocence just didn’t exist for him,” Jennifer Bonjean, the lawyer, argued to the court in December.
In May, Cosby was denied paroled after refusing to participate in sex offender programs during his nearly three years in state prison. He has long said he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing even if it means serving the full 10-year sentence.
This is the first year he was eligible for parole under the three- to 10-year sentence handed down after his 2018 conviction.
Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt called the parole board decision “appalling.”
Prosecutors said Cosby repeatedly used his fame and “family man” persona to manipulate young women, holding himself out as a mentor before betraying them.
Cosby, a groundbreaking Black actor who grew up in public housing in Philadelphia, made a fortune estimated at $400 million during his 50 years in the entertainment industry. His trademark clean comedy and homespun wisdom fueled popular TV shows, books and standup acts.
He fell from favor in his later years as he lectured the Black community about family values, but was attempting a comeback when he was arrested.
“There was a built-in level of trust because of his status in the entertainment industry and because he held himself out as a public moralist,” Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Jappe, of suburban Montgomery County, argued to the justices.
Cosby had invited Constand to an estate he owns in Pennsylvania the night she said he drugged and sexually assaulted her.
Constand, a former professional basketball player who worked at his alma mater, went to police a year later. The other accusers knew Cosby through the entertainment industry and did not go to police.
The AP does not typically identify sexual assault victims without their permission, which Constand has granted.
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Follow Maryclaire Dale on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Maryclairedale
Jonathan Toews is one of the greatest players in the history of the Chicago Blackhawks. That is why it was devastating when we heard that he was going to be out for the 2020-21 short season. It was never really confirmed ever that he would miss the whole year, people just assumed it based on the length of the season and how things were described. It was really tough to see.
He was so good in the “return to play” bubble against the Edmonton Oilers which made you wonder even more what could be wrong with him. His performance was a big key in them getting past the Oilers and having a chance to face the Vegas Golden Knights. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for his encore.
Jonathan Toews and the ChicagoBlackhawks finally went public with everything.
On Wednesday morning, Jonathan Toews put a video on his social media pages giving a bit of an update. It was diagnosed as Chronic Immune Response Syndrome that kept him out for the entire year. It is tough to hear that he dealt with something like that but the good news is that he announced he will return this upcoming season.
I wasn’t too vocal about the things I went through this year. I appreciate the understanding and support and wanted to share this message on where I’m at. pic.twitter.com/3qgftKki10
It genuinely sounds like Jonathan Toews is excited to return to the United Center and play in front of all these fans. We assume that it will be rocking at 100 percent capacity for the first time since late 2019-20 before the pandemic. It should be very special for a lot of people to see Toews skating around ready to go. Seeing him post a video like this is incredible.
Toews is 33 years old and has two more years making 10.5 million against the salary cap. He isn’t really worth that type of salary anymore but the Hawks still desperately need him as their number one center during those two years. He still has a lot of great play left in him, make no mistake about it. It may take a minute to get his regular-season legs under him because he has been off for so long but if anyone can surprise some people, it’s Toews.
We don’t know what kind of hockey moves the Blackhawks are going to make this summer but making sure Jonathan Toews is comfortable should be a top priority. He deserves to be a part of a line that he feels comfortable driving with his abilities. After all that time off, you have to assume that he is putting in the work to reward the team for sticking with him.
It should be a lot of fun to watch him lead this young team. They have a lot of issues going on right now but Toews being healthy and ready to go is something to smile about. Not only is he one of the best in team history but in the history of the city.
Six months and one day after announcing his medical leave of absence, Jonathan Toews broke his silence Wednesday, giving Blackhawks fans news they’ve been longing to hear.
The Hawks captain disclosed he missed the entire 2020-21 Hawks season while dealing with Chronic Immune Response Syndrome (CIRS).
“There’s a lot of things that piled up, where my body just fell apart,” Toews said in a prerecorded interview he tweeted Wednesday. “I just couldn’t quite recover and my immune system was reacting to everything that I did — any kind of stress, anything that I would do throughout the day, there was always that stress response.
“I took some time, and that was the frustrating part — not really knowing when or how we were going to get over the hump. But thankfully [I have] a great support team of people that helped me through it, and [I] learned a lot about the stress I put on my body over the years.”
Toews is back skating with the Blackhawks at Fifth Third Arena this offseason and, while not definitively, indicated he plans to play this coming 2021-22 season.
“I’m excited to get back to the United Center and play and just go out there and have fun,” he said. “My best is going to come through.”
CIRS is relatively little-known condition in which biotoxins like bacteria and mold overgrow in the body and overload the immune system, according to the Virginia Center for Health Wellness. Difficult to identify due to its comprehensiveness, wide-ranging symptoms and lack of publicity, it is primary recognized and treated through alternative medicine.
Toews said on December 30, when announcing his departure, that he had “been experiencing symptoms that have left me feeling drained and lethargic.”
The Hawks and Toews himself were completely mum on his status from then on, with general manager Stan Bowman repeatedly insisting the Hawks weren’t withholding inside information. But wide-ranging rumors about Toews’ condition and frustration about his silence both ran wild among the fan base.
“I appreciate all the support,” Toews said Wednesday. “A lot of people were worried, and I definitely felt bad, to a certain degree, that people were that worried that they thought it was really serious. But in the back of my mind, I knew I’d get through it. It was just a matter of time.
“You talk about the things you appreciate and the things you maybe take for granted, but the No. 1 thing is I’ve had so many people across the hockey world…that have shown their support. The biggest thing is you realize there’s more life than hockey.”
Toews, who turned 33 in April, will provide much-needed experience, leadership and center help for the Hawks next season. Coach Jeremy Colliton did not name a replacement captain during Toews’ absence and relied on a ragtag group of centers — including defense-only David Kampf, converted wings Pius Suter and Philipp Kurashev and last-second signing Carl Soderberg — to fill the void.
But the timing of Toews’ video, just two days after the Hawks announced an investigation into sexual assault cover-up allegations over which they’re currently facing two lawsuits, somewhat overshadows the relief and joy.
Two men shot and killed a bank security guard in Gary and robbed nearly $10,000 to pay off bills of an amateur football team, according to federal prosecutors who say they are considering the death penalty.
When one of the suspects — an owner and coach of the Illini Panthers — was tracked down in Georgia days after the June 11 attack, he offered to “work off” the charges against him by becoming an FBI informant, a 17-page affidavit states.
Hailey Gist-Holden, 26, is facing charges of armed bank robbery, using a firearm during the robber, and causing death. A second suspect, James Anthony King Jr., 24, of Miami, Florida has been indicted on the same charges.
The two are accused of ambushing guard Richard Castellana as he was walking on the sidewalk outside First Midwest Bank and shooting him in the face.
Castellana, 55 — a retired Cook County sheriff’s deputy — “did not even see them before he was shot,” according to the federal complaint.
Gist-Holden and King walked into the bank, one demanding money from the teller while the other stood as a lookout, the complaint said. They made off with a total of $9,771.09.
King was tracked down in a nearby wooded area within hours. Police said they found a backpack with cash and a .40-caliber Glock handgun near where they caught King.
He told authorities that he was a player on the football team and that his coach was the one who shot Castellana, the complaint said.
Gist-Holden was arrested following a high-speed chase June 18 in Georgia after he crashed his car, the complaint said.
Gist-Holden was facing financial troubles: He couldn’t pay rent on his house in Gary or the hotel bill where team members were staying in Downers Grove, the complaint stated.
Acting U.S. Attorney Tina Nommay said her office will ask the U.S. Department of Justice for permission to seek the death penalty against one or both of the suspects.
She said such action would have to be approved by a committee of senior Justice Department officials in Washington, D.C. as well as the U.S. attorney general and his deputy.
Castellana had been a Cook County sheriff’s deputy for 35 years before retiring. He had lived in Tinley Park.
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