A Chicago Fire Department ladder truck. A new report says the department still has not made recommended changes that would help it accurately measure its response time. | Sun-Times file

Departing Inspector General Joe Ferguson says the Chicago Fire Department still hasn’t implemented changes he first recommended years ago that would allow it to accurately measure emergency response times.

Eight years after Inspector General Joe Ferguson sounded the first alarm, the Chicago Fire Department still has not implemented the changes necessary to accurately measure response times to fire and medical emergencies.

“It is unfortunate that the issues OIG identified in 2013 and 2015..still pose the very same concerns in 2021. Had OIG’s previous recommendations been considered and the necessary operational changes put into place years ago, CFD and the City would be in a better place today, meeting state and national standards and following best practices,” Ferguson was quoted as saying in press release that accompanied his audit, issued in his last week on the job.

“Without performance management strategies in place, CFD has no way to determine if there is an increase in productivity or a decrease in errors. The Department is unable to determine what’s being done well or what needs to be improved. Performance and operational evaluations are important in any City agency, but most especially one tasked with responding to those in distress.”

In 2013, Ferguson concluded the fire department did not meet the National Fire Protection Association’s standards for emergency response times and that its internal reports “lacked the elements necessary to accurately assess” the veracity of CFD’s claim s that it was exceeding national standards.

Two years later, Ferguson issued a follow-up report that reached similar conclusions.

On Tuesday — just three days before he ends his 12-year run as city government’s top watchdog, Ferguson released a second comprehensive audit concluding CFD:

o Still does not produce annual department-wide reports that would allow it to evaluate emergency response times.

o Does not measure “turnout and travel time as separate components of response time,'” does not use “industry-standard percentile measures” and has not set goals for turnout or travel time at the “industry standard 90th percentile.”

(Turnout time begins when first responders press a button at the firehouse acknowledging an emergency call was received. The travel time phase begins when they press another button inside their vehicles to show they are en route and ends when the same button is pressed upon arrival at the scene. )

o Documented its overall EMS response time goal as required by state law, but has not done the same for fire response goals.

o Still uses data that is “not adequate to allow reliable measurement” of emergency response times.

Only 75.2% of the 937,446 emergency events between Jan. 1, 2018 and Nov. 30, 2020 “included data for all categories necessary to calculate turnout and travel times for the first arriving unit,” the audit states.

The National Fire Protection Association standard for turnout and travel combined for fire emergencies is five minutes and 20 seconds. The NFPA standard for EMS response times is five minutes.

The association recommends that fire departments strive to ensure at least 90% of EMS responses achieve a turnout time of 60 seconds or less and a travel time of 240 second or less.

Ferguson recommended that CFD management begin issuing annual reports on emergency response times and “establish and document department-wide turnout, travel and total response time goals at the 90th percentile” for both fire and medical emergencies.

“If CFD management believes the NFPA recommended turnout and travel times are unachievable in Chicago, they should conduct a systematic evaluation of local factors affecting response times and set reasonable goals for turnout, travel and total response times accordingly,” the second audit states.

The report further recommended that CFD: “identify, monitor and remedy the cause of gaps in its data” and consider hiring an internal data specialist to improve data quality.

CFD is now led by newly-appointed Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt, the first woman and third African American ever to lead the department, one long known as a bastion of white males.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Chicago Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt addresses new paramedics during their graduation ceremony at Navy Pier in September.

Under her leadership, Ferguson said he is “encouraged” and hopeful that CFD will confront the longstanding issues with “more urgency” and take “corrective actions.”

That faith was underscored by Holt’s commitment to: ask Urban Labs at the University of Chicago to help the department analyze response time performance; hire “additional data analytics staff”; vow to analyze data to identify “causative factors and/or trends and perform a complete and reliable measure of response time by each component piece.”

Along with the second audit, Ferguson released a set of online dashboards that document the 1.22 million emergency service events since Jan. 1, 2018 by ward, ZIP code, community area and type of emergency.

It shows the greatest overall number of emergency events recorded and the highest rate of events was in the West Side’s 28th Ward, with 62,902 calls in a ward with 56,045 people. The highest number of emergencies were recorded in three downtown ZIP codes: 60602, 60603, 60604.

The greatest number of overdose and gunshot related events by community area were recorded on the West Side. Community areas on the West and South sides racked up the highest rate of gunshot events per 100,000 people.

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Sgt. Angela Salgado (left) and Officer Pete Gurskis were awarded officers of the month for their efforts to stop a knife-wielding man last year. | Mark Capapas/Sun-Times

A man with a 10-inch butcher knife was shot to death last year by Chicago police after he stabbed an officer and a civilian.

Three Chicago police officers were honored by the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation for shooting and killing a knife-wielding man last year who was “intent to kill,” the officers said.

The incident, which happened at near 49th Street and Lavergne Avenue near Midway Airport in September 2020, was recorded on body-camera footage and shows a man, later identified as 34-year-old Shaon Jermy Ochea Warner, refusing to comply with officers’ orders to “put your hands up.”

The video also shows Warner walking toward Sgt. Angela Salgado with a plastic bag in his hand. Salgado tases him, Warner falls to the ground with the bag dropping to his side and revealing Warner holding onto 10-inch butcher knife.

“I knew that he just wasn’t going to listen to what we were telling him to do, and I knew this was going to have to end up the way I didn’t want it to end up, but there was no other choice. It was life or death,” Officer Pete Gurskis recalled.

Gurskis, along with Salgado and Officer Richard Johnson had received a call of aggravated battery with a knife.

COPA
Video of the shooting, released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, shows the knife-wielding man charging at Sgt. Salgado.

As Warner held onto the knife, Gurskis yells, “Put the f—— knife down, drop the f——knife!” Despite being tased, Warner springs to his feet and charges at Salgado. Footage then shows Warner grabbing her vest and thrusting the knife at her multiple times, puncturing her police vest, and once stabbing her in the lower abdomen.

In the video, Salgado can be heard screaming for help.

“It was probably the scariest night of my life,” she said Tuesday. “I’m just so grateful for these guys saving my life, because he wasn’t going to stop.”

While Warner stabbed at Salgado, Gurskis and Johnson fire a total of 21 bullets at Warner, records show. Gurskis fired 12 times; Johnson, who has since retired, fired nine.

“We didn’t want it to go this way, but it just happened,” Gurskis told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Mark Capapas/Sun-Times
Officer Pete Gurskis said he had “no other choice” but to use deadly force on the man.

Warner had stabbed one man in the hand and attempted to stab two others before police arrived at the scene, the officers said.

“The guy that he stabbed in the hand, his hand was filleted open,” Gurskis said. “You see the tendons and all that stuff in the hands. It wasn’t just the scrape of the knife. He was intent on trying to kill somebody that night.”

Philip Cline, executive director of the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, awarded the three officers “officer of the month” for risking their lives to “stop a dangerous knife-wielding offender from injuring other citizens,” he said.

“She’s a very lucky lady,” he said of Salgado.

Mark Capapas/Sun-Times
Salgado said the incident was “the scariest night of her life.”

Gurskis and Salgado said, above all else, people should listen to police officers’ commands.

“Just listen to what we tell you to do and things will de-escalate real simple by themselves,” Gurskis said. “We don’t have to do this, but people just don’t want to listen.”

Salgado said she and her partners’ actions were simply just another day on the job.

“This is something that we do every day,” she said. “We know that our lives are in danger every day we put on this uniform, and I’m just lucky that God was on my side that night.”

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Sirloin kebabs on a bed of orzo. | Cattlemen’s Beef Board

Thinking ahead to your next few meals? Here are some main dishes and sides to try.

Ginger-peachy pork tenderloin

Makes 8 servings

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 25 to 30 minutes; standing time: 5 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 teaspoons less-sodium seasoned salt

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 pork tenderloins (1 pound each)

1/2 cup all-fruit or sugar-free peach preserves

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon ground ginger

Heat oven to 425 degrees. In a small bowl, mix seasoned salt and thyme. Rub evenly over pork. Place on a rack coated with cooking spray in a foil-lined roasting pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 150 degrees. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix preserves, Worcestershire sauce and ginger. Spoon over pork during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Remove from oven; carefully tent with foil and let stand 5 minutes. Slice and serve.

Per serving: 158 calories, 22 grams protein, 3 grams fat (17% calories from fat), 1 gram saturated fat, 10 grams carbohydrate, 61 milligrams cholesterol, 266 milligrams sodium, no fiber.

Carb count: 0.5.

Chickpea and tomato curry

Makes 4 servings

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: about 15 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced

1 tablespoon curry powder

2 (15-ounce) cans reduced-sodium chickpeas, rinsed

2 cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes, with liquid

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Plain yogurt for garnish, if desired

Heat oil in a Dutch oven on medium heat. Add onion, garlic, ginger and curry powder; cook 5 minutes or until the onions are softened. Stir in chickpeas and tomatoes; heat to boiling. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cilantro, juice and salt. Garnish each serving with yogurt, if desired, and serve.

Per serving: 330 calories, 15 grams protein, 5 grams fat (15% calories from fat), 0.5 gram saturated fat, 53 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 816 milligrams sodium, 13 grams fiber.

Carb count: 3.5.

Pork tenderloin with ginger-peachy glaze

Servings: makes 4 servings

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes, plus pasta

1 boneless beef top sirloin steak, cut 1 inch thick (1 pound)

2 green, red or yellow bell peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)

1 tablespoon prepared Italian dressing

2 teaspoons minced garlic

For the orzo:

1 cup uncooked orzo pasta, cooked according to package directions

2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or parsley leaves

2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons olive oil

Coarse salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

Soak 8 (8-inch) bamboo skewers in water 10 minutes; drain. Cut beef steak into 1 1/4-inch pieces. Toss beef and bell peppers with basil, dressing and garlic in large bowl. Alternately thread beef and peppers onto skewers. Toss orzo ingredients in medium bowl; keep warm. Place kebabs on grill over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, about 11 to 15 minutes for medium-rare to medium doneness, turning occasionally (or 13 to 16 minutes over medium heat on preheated gas grill). Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over orzo mixture.

Per serving: 341 calories, 28 grams protein, 9 grams fat (23% calories from fat), 2.4 grams saturated fat, 36 grams carbohydrate, 58 milligrams cholesterol, 131 milligrams sodium, 2 grams fiber.

Carb count: 2.5.

In a 4-quart or larger slow cooker, combine 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts (cubed), 2 (15-ounce) cans rinsed reduced-sodium white beans, 2 (14.5-ounce) cans drained diced tomatoes with jalapeno peppers (or other spicy tomatoes) and 1 cup frozen (thawed) corn. Mix together 1 (1.25-ounce) package slow-cooker chili seasoning mix and 1 cup unsalted chicken broth until blended and add to cooker. Cover and cook 6 hours on low. Serve over cornbread squares, from mix

Bean-and-veggie wraps

Heat 4 (6- to 8-inch) flour tortillas as directed. In a large, nonstick skillet on medium heat, cook 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms about 5 minutes or until they lose their moisture. Stir in 1 (15-ounce) can rinsed reduced-sodium black beans; heat through. Stir in 4 cups fresh spinach leaves; remove from heat. Divide bean mixture among tortillas. Sprinkle with 1 cup shredded 50% light cheddar cheese. Fold one end of each tortilla about 1 inch over filling; fold right and left sides over folded end, overlapping. Fold remaining end down. Open mouth; eat.

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Two men were charged in connection with a shootout with an off-duty Harvey police officer on Oct. 9, 2021. | Adobe Stock Photo

The officer’s 2020 Honda had numerous bullet holes in its windshield but the officer was not injured.

Two men are accused of sparking a shootout with an off-duty police officer in south suburban Harvey over the weekend.

Johnathan Andrews Jr., 25, is charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and violating parole, Harvey Police said in a statement. Jonheym Andrews, 19, is charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

The officer was in uniform driving to work about 6 p.m. Saturday near 154th and Wood streets when he saw a Ford Fusion being driven erratically, police said.

Someone inside the Ford started shooting at him in traffic, and the officer returned fire, police said.

The Ford then ran a red light and struck an SUV, police said. The officer’s 2020 Honda had numerous bullet holes in its windshield but the officer was not injured.

Johnathan Andrews and Jonheym Andrews were identified as the suspects and were later arrested after initially fleeing the scene of the shooting, police said.

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Bears safety Tashaun Gipson celebrates on Sunday. | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Getty Images

Two weeks ago, the Bears were the biggest disaster in the NFL. Two wins later, they’re not even in the top three.

Two weeks ago, the Bears were the biggest disaster in the NFL.

Two wins later, they’re not even in the top three.

How they got from calling emergency meetings after the Browns debacle to determine their starting quarterback, offensive scheme and play-caller to playing the Packers for first place in the NFC North on Sunday shows just how week-to-week the NFL can be.

The last two victories weren’t a referendum on the Bears — the Lions remain winless, the Raiders reeling — and upcoming games against the Packers and Buccaneers will be a truer test. But the past two weeks have definitely steadied the franchise.

“Obviously we put some bad tape on film in the beginning of the year,” safety Tashaun Gipson said Tuesday. “Once we kind of settled down, everybody kind of homed in. We were playing our brand of football, offensively, defensively and on special teams. And once it’s clicking in this league — it’s a momentum league. Once you get that momentum, the ball is rolling, man. You feel like you can beat anybody, you can play with anybody. And that’s the phase that we’re in right now.”

If the old baseball axiom that momentum is tomorrow’s starting pitcher transfers to football, the Bears are in trouble: quarterback Aaron Rodgers is coming to town Sunday. But the Bears think they’re catching the Packers at a good time.

“The timing of this matchup is very perfect,” Gipson said. “I think we’re hitting our stride, they’re playing good football, so it’s going to be good-on-good obviously. We’re excited about that matchup. … You can’t be in this building and not feel the sense of this rivalry with Green Bay.”

After the Bears gained only 47 yards on 42 plays against the Browns, guard Cody Whitehair said he noticed a “shift, mentally — the team just taking ownership of what we put on the field.” That started in practice two weeks ago, he said.

“I think we knew what we put against the Browns was not us — and we didn’t want to go down that slope,” he said. “I just think it was everybody collectively getting involved and saying ‘Let’s turn this thing around.'”

Asked to describe the shift, Whitehair settled on a phrase.

“The relentless effort to try and get things right,” he said.

Gipson has been on teams unable to pull out of tailspins — he played for a three-win Browns squad and a three-win Jaguars team. In Cleveland, his teams won four games one season, and five in another. He pointed to the Bears’ experience — at the start of the season, they had the NFL’s oldest team — as one reason he thought things would improve.

“Nobody’s panicking, man,” he said. “Yeah, we put out some bad football, but we understand the guys that we have. And we’re mature enough to understand this is a long season. … . Little things we can clean up right now, obviously — but we’re catching our stride. And it’s exciting for us.”

After he emerged from an ear-shattering locker room Sunday in Las Vegas, safety Eddie Jackson pointed to the resilience of the team.

“Guys lock in, we block out all the noise and we rally around each other and continue to fight,” he said. “That’s probably the most special thing about the type of group we have on defense is we continue to fight.

“When things don’t go good, we don’t blame or point a finger. We put our head down and we continue to fight and continue to go out there and compete and make plays.”

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A man was shot Oct. 12, 2021, in West Rogers Park. | Sun-Times file

The 38-year-old was outside about 8:40 a.m. in the 6500 block of North Washtenaw Avenue when someone opened fire, striking him in the head, Chicago police said.

A man was shot and critically wounded Tuesday morning in West Rogers Park on the North Side.

The 38-year-old was outside about 8:40 a.m. in the 6500 block of North Washtenaw Avenue when someone opened fire, striking him in the head, Chicago police said.

He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he was in critical condition, police said.

The alleged attacker was taken into custody, police said.

Area three detectives are investigating.

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Jon Gruden stepped down as coach of the Raiders on Monday night. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Gruden is hardly an isolated case. Shocking as the crude and hateful language that Gruden used in emails was, anyone who has followed the NFL even just a little knows there is surely more where this came from.

Jon Gruden was right when he said Sunday that he doesn’t have an “ounce of racism” in him. It was more like a metric ton. Along with misogyny, homophobia and every other brand of bigotry.

Getting rid of Gruden — if you believe he “resigned,” I’ve got a bridge to sell you — was easy. But Gruden is hardly an isolated case. Shocking as the crude and hateful language that Gruden used in emails was, anyone who has followed the NFL even just a little knows there is surely more where this came from.

“This is not about an email as much as it is about a pervasive belief by some that people who look like me can be treated as less,” DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the NFL Players Association, said in a cryptic series of Tweets on Monday night that, within a few hours, made a whole lot more sense.

“The powerful in our business have to embrace that football itself has to be better, as opposed to making excuses to maintain the status quo.”

And therein lies the problem.

Too many of the NFL’s powers that be — owners, executives, the league office, coaches, media partners — still believe that straight, white men have the only world view that matters. They don’t see Black people, women, the LGBTQ+ community or other marginalized groups as equals, and they’re sure as hell not going to treat them as such.

Oh, they’ll say the right things in public to avoid being criticized for the Neanderthals they are, some even giving lip service to the NFL’s window-dressing efforts to promote equality. But behind closed doors, in their private conversations and chummy emails, they reveal who they really are.

Late Houston Texans owner Robert McNair once described players who were protesting racial injustice as “inmates running the prison.” Women who worked for and covered the Washington Football Team described a toxic atmosphere where they were objectified and demeaned by repeated sexual harassment.

And I’ve lost count of how many team owners have turned blind eyes to players credibly accused of domestic abuse because, as Bears chairman George McCaskey said, “much like anybody else who has a bias in this situation — there’s a certain amount of discounting in what they have to say.”

It should not go unnoticed that the emails that were Gruden’s undoing were uncovered during the investigation into the dumpster fire at the Washington Football Team — an investigation the NFL has tried mightily to bury.

The league has refused to release any of Beth Wilkinson’s detailed findings and, in contrast to previous NFL investigations, told her to present them verbally rather than in a written report. Paper trails, as we’ve seen the past few days, have an uncomfortable way of surfacing.

As for any specific accusations made, including one against now kinda, sorta, not really banished WFT owner Daniel Snyder, the NFL has declared the topic off-limits.

No wonder, then, that Gruden thought he could escape accountability for emails sent when he was working as a television analyst.

He shut down questions Sunday about the Wall Street Journal report of his racist description of Smith, and did so again Monday. Raiders owner Mark Davis, who was so hellbent on hiring Gruden in 2018 that he essentially ignored the Rooney Rule and apparently did little if any vetting of him, was still dithering until the New York Times forced his hand.

The Times reported that casual misogyny and homophobia were a regular part of Gruden’s vocabulary in emails to NFL executives and friends. He called NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a “clueless antifootball (homophobic slur),” and mocked his efforts to make the game safer.

Gruden criticized the Rams for drafting Michael Sam, who is openly gay, and players who protested racial injustice. He disparaged Congressional efforts to force the Washington Football Team to abandon its previous, racist nickname. When he was sent a sexist meme of a female referee, Gruden responded, “Nice job roger.”

If this was bigotry bingo, Gruden would have had almost every square covered. His attitudes are disgusting, reprehensible and, considering Carl Nassib, the NFL’s first active player who is openly gay, plays for the Raiders, terrifying.

“I’m sorry,” Gruden said in a statement the Raiders posted on Twitter, “I never meant to hurt anyone.”

More like he never considered he was hurting anyone, so assured was he of his superiority to anyone who doesn’t look and love like him.

But Gruden is, sadly, not alone. Not in this country, and certainly not in the NFL.

Read more at usatoday.com

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When people gambling, they have fun losing their money, writes Phil Kadner. It’s not like having the government collect taxes. | AP Photos

People complain about taxes. But you never hear anyone complain about the government’s rake from gambling, whether that be at casinos, the lottery or sports betting.

I bet I have seen 1,000 commercials for legal sports books in Illinois since the start of the baseball season.

I’m not complaining. It just seems strange. I can remember when baseball officials let it be known they wouldn’t tolerate sports gambling. That was why the team owners created the position of baseball commissioner following the Chicago Black Sox scandal in 1919, when Sox players took bribes from professional gamblers to throw the World Series.

Years passed and Pete Rose, one of the greatest hitters of all time, was accused of betting on baseball games and banished forever from the game. He is not in the Hall of Fame. I don’t think you can even say his name in Cooperstown.

Let me make it clear that I am not averse to gambling, although I am bothered more than I thought I would be by the appearance of gorgeous spokeswomen in short skirts urging old men like me to wager their Social Security checks. The commercial pitch may be aimed at young men and even women, but I always think the commercials are talking directly to me.

I’m in favor of gambling. Especially, legalized gambling.

Billions of dollars are wagered on sports each year and now that government can get a percentage of the take, it’s a wonderful thing.

I appreciate the irony because I would wager that 82% of the people betting online complain about their taxes. Income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes, it really doesn’t matter, people hate paying taxes.

They will tell you they can’t afford to pay any more taxes and that government just wastes the money feeding poor people and educating their young.

But you never hear anyone complain about the government’s rake from gambling, whether that be at horse tracks, casinos, the lottery, or sports betting. There are even cute little “gambling cafes” in neighborhood strip malls for your convenience.

People who can’t spare another dollar for public schools, police departments, road repairs and Social Security are suddenly so flush with money they don’t even care how the government spends its share of the revenue, so long as they’re getting points on their favorite team.

People have fun losing their money. It’s not like having the government collect taxes.

In fact, if you took all the money Americans spend on gambling and illegal drugs, you might have enough to fund universal health care for every person in the country.

And that makes me think of marijuana and how the folks on Wall Street are investing billions of dollars betting on the growth of corporate cultivated hemp in the U.S. and Canada.

Many years back, I saw Cook County police raid a marijuana patch in the middle of the forest preserves. They caught the fellow tending the field, who had been sleeping under a rain parka propped up by a tree limb. He had been living for weeks on cans of beans.

He spoke no English and the police estimated his age at 15 or 16. It was common for drug cartels to bring these kids up from Mexico, dump them off in a field and leave them there until the marijuana crop was ready for harvesting.

Now there are corporations developing marijuana fields and people highly skilled in agriculture in charge of the crops. They’re paying hard cash for government licenses and creating jobs for taxpaying citizens.

The suckers are high and happy, and they never think about the government sticking its hand in their pockets.

Heck, I would love to see DraftKings posters hanging on the state Capitol Building and video poker games in the corridors of Chicago’s City Hall. People hate their government, don’t trust their leaders, but gleefully give away money for a spin at the wheel or a roll of the dice.

Democracy may survive. But I don’t like the odds.

[email protected]

Send letters to [email protected].

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A budtender explains the effects of combining indica and sativa.Read More