Tiny home village helps the homeless community in Los Angeleson July 16, 2021 at 11:11 am

I’ve Got The Hippy Shakes

Tiny home village helps the homeless community in Los Angeles

Tiny home village helps the homeless community in Los Angeleson July 16, 2021 at 11:11 am Read More »

‘Schmigadoon!’: Charm is bustin’ out all over in Apple TV+’s funny musical theater parodyRichard Roeperon July 16, 2021 at 10:30 am

No matter how beloved or acclaimed the movie, the self-proclaimed “Usual Gang of Idiots” at Mad Magazine always had a silly parody at the ready, whether it was “The Seven Itchy Years,” “The Sound of Money,” “The Oddfather,” “The Great Gasbag” “Harry Plodder and the Lamest of Sequels” or “The ScAvengers.”

If they had lampooned the Lerner and Loewe musical “Brigadoon,” they might well have called it “Schmigadoon!” Which is the corny/funny title of a six-episode musical comedy parody starring the eminently likable duo of Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong as a modern-day couple who find themselves trapped in an old-fashioned, early 20th century town where everything looks like a Broadway set, and the locals will break into song at the drop of a hat.

First two episodes available now on Apple TV+ with a new episode premiering each Friday through Aug. 13.

Series creators Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (“Despicable Me,” “The Secret Life of Pets”) have fashioned a slyly funny, sometimes sticky sweet and exceedingly charming endeavor that pokes fun at old-school musicals such as “Oklahoma!”, “The Music Man,” “Carousel” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” while also paying tribute to the genre. It’s reminiscent of Christopher Guest films such as “A Mighty Wind” and “Waiting for Guffman,” where there’s great affection for the very conventions that are being mined for comedy and social commentary.

Strong’s Melissa and Key’s Josh are woke, culturally sensitive, accomplished physicians who live in New York City and have reached that point in their relationship where one of them (Melissa) is ready for the next level of commitment, while the other (Josh) says things are just fine, and why don’t we just continue coasting along?

No chance. Melissa talks Josh into a couples retreat deep in the woods, where things go from unpromising to bad to worse as they bicker in the rain and get separated from the group and find themselves totally lost — at which point they stumble upon the town of Schmigadoon, a brightly colored, artificial-looking enclave where you can practically see the paint drying on the trees and the sky. Is this for real? Well, yes, in a “Pleasantville” kind of way.

The locals greet Melissa and Josh with a rousing, toe-tapping musical number, and Melissa voices her approval at the color-blind “casting.” (At this point, Melissa and Josh figure they’ve wandered into some sort of interactive-theater theme park attraction.)

Things get weirder when Melissa and Josh get to know the townsfolk, who certainly don’t seem to think they’re professional entertainers, and they start to wonder if they’ve passed through the portal into some sort of “Finian’s Rainbow” version of “The Twilight Zone” — but when they try to leave this cheerful but disturbingly odd place, they learn you can cross the bridge only with your one true love. When Josh and Melissa give it a go, they find themselves right back in the town of Schmigadoon.

Is it possible they’re not meant to be together? Can either or both find their one true love among the residents of this town?

And how long before somebody says something that acts as the cue for another musical number?

Melissa gets into the spirit and even does some dancing and singing of her own, while Josh practically injures himself rolling his eyes and represents those viewers who have little interest in musicals.

While Schmigadoon is indeed populated by a diverse group, there’s a not-so-subtle undercurrent of sexism, racism and homophobia permeating the town. Kristin Chenoweth is the powerful town prude, who heads a group of judgmental, conservative women. (Chenoweth’s “Trials and Tribulations” number is a fun takeoff on “Trouble in River City” from “The Music Man.”) Alan Cumming is Mayor Menlove, who is married but quite obviously gay. (That name might be a slight giveaway.)

Ariana DeBose is Emma Tate, a schoolteacher with a secret, while Dove Cameron is Betsy, an actual farmer’s daughter who pines for Josh even as her father skulks about while wielding his shotgun.

Oh, and here comes Jane Krakowski as the Countess, a character inspired by “The Sound of Music.”

Each episode begins with a flashback to New York City, filmed in more muted and realistic tones as learn more about the evolution of the relationship between Josh and Melissa. Then we’re once again plunged into the world of Schmigadoon, where Josh and Melissa each pursue possible new romances while wondering if they should get back together and try to figure their way out of this musical “Groundhog Day.”

Throughout the six episodes, Josh and Melissa come across as grounded characters who have no choice but to accept they’ve landed in this world of anachronistic artifice, and maybe the only way to escape is to really go with it and become part of the musical.

Cue the next number!

‘Schmigadoon!’: Charm is bustin’ out all over in Apple TV+’s funny musical theater parodyRichard Roeperon July 16, 2021 at 10:30 am Read More »

‘Big mystery box’ revealed South Side man’s long-secret World War II near-death odysseyStefano Espositoon July 16, 2021 at 10:30 am

As the B-17 bomber lumbered toward the west coast of France, Jim Wilschke crouched in the plane’s plexiglass nose, preparing to drop a 5,000-pound payload on a pen of Nazi U-boats — including one that would become a star attraction at the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Flying Fortress was at the rear of the U.S. air squadron. It was a precarious position to be in even in the best of times because it made it an easy target for German fighter planes.

Then, one of the aircraft’s four engines died. The plane began to lag behind.

Like jackals pouncing on a wounded antelope, the Germans swooped in. Machine-gun fire and cannon shells tore through the fuselage, the plane filled with smoke, and soon the bailout alarm sounded.

Wilschke, a native South Sider, grabbed his parachute. He squeezed through an escape hatch. And he jumped.

The story of what happened during the next six months — of Wilschke’s and another American airman’s life on the run in Nazi-occupied France — was one that almost no one heard. These were Wilschke’s secrets, tucked away in a “big mystery box” and rarely spoken of, maybe for the same reason it took him nearly 40 years to board another plane.

Now, that long-secret story has been turned into a book, “Bud’s Jacket,” written by his niece Barbara Wojcik, originally from Hinsdale and now living in Minnesota.

Wojcik traveled to France to meet many of the families who concealed her uncle — in the back of a hay wagon, in attics, barns and a dugout hidden deep in the woods.

Barbara Wojcik with her husband Jim Wojcik, who helped her finish the book after her cancer spread.

And she did so just after she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer, which since has spread to her brain and lungs. The cancer spurred her to finish the book, which she did with the help of her husband Jim Wojcik.

“I wouldn’t say it was a good thing, but it really did say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get this thing out the door, or it’s never going to get done,’ ” she says.

James “Bud” Wilschke was a stocky kid who played center on the Hirsch High School football team. He spent summers flipping hamburgers and working as a Chicago parks lifeguard on Lake Michigan.

A young James “Bud” Wilschke in his summer days as a lifeguard.

And he danced the jitterbug with Rosemary Crandell, his sweetheart.

Before leaving for Europe and the war, he proposed. But they didn’t get married, according to Wojcik, because he worried about leaving his young bride a widow.

Young Rosemary and James “Bud” Wilschke in 1944.

Wojcik unearthed Wilschke’s story — much of it, anyway — from the box that the war hero left his son Jim when he died in 2001.

“I never heard a thing about it,” says Jim Wilschke, 74, who lives in Geneva.

The son was only too happy to hand over the box for Wojcik to root through. In it, she found old wartime photographs and newspaper clippings from the era, among things.

She also found the long-held secrets of how he nearly died and of how he survived.

After Bud Wilschke bailed out of the burning plane on May 17, 1943, he dropped into a field in northern France, hit his head on a fence post and passed out. When he came to, he found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

“He asked me whether I was German or English,” Wilschke wrote in the official “escape and evasion” report he would later file for the U.S. government. “When I told him that I was American, he seemed very happy. … He led me to a barn some distance away and gave me some cider. Then he put me in a wagon, covered me with straw and left.”

Of the 10 crew members aboard Wilschke’s B-17, just four survived. Two were immediately captured by German soldiers. They were held for the rest of the war in prisoner-of-war camps.

A plaque in France listing who from James “Bud” Wilschke’s squadron were killed, got captured or avoided capture.

The French farmer who discovered Wilschke exchanged his American flight uniform for civilian clothes.

Over time, through whispered conversations, Wilschke learned that Bob Neil, the aircraft’s radio man, also survived. The French helpers brought the two men together again, fed them and kept them hidden from the Germans — aid that put them at great risk.

A French farmhouse where James “Bud” Wilschke hid in a loft after he bailed from his B-17 bomber on May 17, 1943.

“All males who come to the aid, either directly or indirectly, of the crews or enemy aircraft coming down in parachutes, or having made a forced landing, helps in their escape, hides them or comes to their aid in any fashion, will be shot on the spot,” read a German notice posted around France at the time.

Wilschke and Neil spent the next six months trekking across France, often at night — sometimes walking 20 miles or more in a day.

Neil spoke a little French. So it was his job to find food.

Wilschke read maps. So he helped them on their journey south in search of the Pyrenees, where they hoped to cross into neutral Spain.

“To the best of my recollection, we stayed with 27 families during our six-month stay,” Wilschke wrote.

The Americans were frequently right under the Nazis’ noses. One time, Wojcik writes, they were hiding in a hay cart when a German officer stopped the driver and asked for a ride. He was about to hop in the back when the driver urged him to come up front because, he said, the hay was full of spiders.

Back in Chicago, Wilschke’s fiancee received a letter about the B-17 bailout from an officer in Wilschke’s squadron.

“This is a hard letter for me to write and I know just as hard for you to receive. … I know all ten parachutes opened, which means all the crew got down to the ground alright,” Allan P. Walker wrote.

A newspaper report listed James Wilschke among the missing in action in World War II.

Officially considered missing in action, Wilschke couldn’t risk writing to his fiancee to let her know he was alive.

“The chance of that being intercepted [made it] too dangerous,” Wojcik said.

In November 1943, Wilschke and Neil — along with four other Americans, some Jewish, some French soldiers — hiked the ice-scabbed trails of the Pyrenees and on into Spain, where they were jailed for several weeks before being released and making it to England.

Wilschke sent Rosemary a telegraph. It read simply: “Write me at my old APO” — Army Post Office address — “and set the wedding for February — Jim.”

James “Bud” Wilschke (left) and Bob Neil.

Wilschke and Neil, who was from Providence, Rhode Island, each returned to a hero’s welcome. In a city desperate for some good news, Wilschke’s imminent wedding made all of the Chicago newspapers.

“Air Hero Returns to Get his Girl,” read The Chicago Sun headline Jan. 17, 1944.

This photo from the wedding of Lt. James “Bud” Wilschke and Rosemary Crandall made the front page of The Chicago Sun on Jan. 17, 1944.

The couple raised five children on the South Side and later in Clarendon Hills. Wilschke went to work for Illinois Bell, staying with the phone company for 30 years.

After his own personal tickertape parade, Neil was at a bar in Rhode Island, where he made a vow, according to his daughter Linda Hollis, 74, who lives in Cape Coral, Florida.

” ‘I’m going to marry the first girl I dance with,’ which happened to be my mother,” Hollis says.

He spent the rest of his life dealing with “survivor’s guilt,” according to Hollis. Only when he’d had a drink or two did the story about his time in France trickle out, she says.

James “Bud” Wilschke and Rosemary Wilschke.

In May 1983, Wilschke finally got on a plane, with his wife, to go to France for the 40th anniversary of his year in hiding.

He returned to the places he’d once known.

To the field where he’d landed after bailing out.

To the place where he’d been hidden in a cart, where he’d had a shotgun pointed at his face.

The farmer he met that day was no longer alive.

But his son still lived in the farmhouse. He told Wilschke he had a surprise gift for him.

The son handed Wilschke, who was in his 60s then, his original flight jacket.

James “Bud” Wilschke’s original flight jacket was lost for decades after the South Side airman bailed out of his burning B-17 bomber and hid from the Nazis for six months during World War II. When he finally returned to France and to the farm where he was rescued, the son of the farmer had a surprise waiting for him: his jacket.

It brought Wilschke to tears, Wojcik writes.

Wilschke moved in retirement to Pompano Beach, Florida, north of Fort Lauderdale. He died at his home there on Oct. 1, 2001.

‘Big mystery box’ revealed South Side man’s long-secret World War II near-death odysseyStefano Espositoon July 16, 2021 at 10:30 am Read More »

8 shot, 2 fatally, in Chicago ThursdaySun-Times Wireon July 16, 2021 at 10:34 am

Two people were killed and at least six others wounded in shootings citywide Thursday.

A 27-year-old man was shot and killed while riding a Divvy bicycle in Gresham on the South Side.

A gunman approached on foot and shot the man in the 7700 Block of South Seeley Avenue around 2:40 p.m., Chicago Police said. He was struck several times and taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died, police said.

Another man was fatally shot early Thursday in Lawndale on the West Side — the second person killed in the neighborhood in less than a day.

Officers responding to calls of gunfire found him lying next to a vehicle around 2:40 a.m. in the 1400 block of South Avers Avenue, police said.

Anthony Patrick, 25, had gunshot wounds to his chest and neck, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

In nonfatal shootings, a 19-year-old man was wounded in an attack in Brainerd on the South Side.

The man was walking about 9:40 p.m. in the 9300 block of South Elizabeth Street when two male suspects got out of a gray Toyota and fired shots, police said. He was struck in the leg and suffered graze wounds to the face and chest, police said. Paramedics transported him to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in good condition.

A 22-year-old man was shot in Stoney Island Park on the South Side.

He was outside in the 8300 block of South Constance Avenue about 9:25 p.m. when he heard several shots and felt pain, police said. He was struck in the buttocks and taken to Trinity Hospital in good condition.

Another man was shot Friday evening near the Robert Taylor Homes.

About 7 p.m., the 20-year-old was walking outside in the 4300 block of South State Street when he was shot by someone in a dark-colored vehicle, police said. He suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition.

Thursday afternoon, a 22-year-old man was shot in Avalon Park on the South Side.

He was walking down the street about 1:30 p.m. in the 7900 block of South Kimbark Avenue when a dark-colored SUV approached, called his name, then exited and fired shots, police said. The man was struck in the right side of the body and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition, police said.

Two women were shot early Thursday morning during a fight in Humboldt Park on the Northwest Side.

About 2:55 a.m., the women, 22 and 25, were at a party in the 3800 block of West Chicago Avenue when they were shot after a male fired shots during a fight, police said. One of the women was standing outside and the other was inside when shots were fired.

The 22-year-old woman was struck in the leg and the older woman was struck in the thigh, police said. They were both taken to Stroger Hospital, where they are in good condition.

Two people were killed and 27 others were wounded by gunfire in Chicago Wednesday, a day that saw two mass shootings, one in Gresham and the other in West Garfield Park.

8 shot, 2 fatally, in Chicago ThursdaySun-Times Wireon July 16, 2021 at 10:34 am Read More »

Police Board votes to fire officer involved in chase preceding crash that killed off-duty cop, civilianTom Schubaon July 16, 2021 at 2:35 am

The Chicago Police Board voted Thursday to fire an officer for brazenly pursuing an off-duty cop before he was involved in a high-speed crash that left him and another driver dead.

In a 7-0 decision, members of the board agreed to dismiss Officer Jamie Jawor for her role in the chase that preceded the fatal collision in June 2017. One board member recused herself.

The board noted in a written decision that Jawor failed to use lights or sirens as she drove over 100 miles per hour in an unmarked police vehicle while trailing Officer Taylor Clark through the West Side.

Clark, who was 32 and had recently finished work, ran a red light during the chase and crashed into a vehicle driven by 27-year-old Chequita Adams near the intersection of Roosevelt Road and Kostner Avenue. Both were killed.

Jawor “violated the law and Department rules and policy by driving at a very high rate of speed, at one point exceeding 100 m.p.h., on a city street on which there were other vehicular traffic and pedestrians,” the board wrote. “In so doing, [Jawor] endangered the lives of pedestrians and persons in the vehicles she passed.”

As a result, the board ruled that allowing Jawor to return to duty as a police officer would pose “an unacceptable risk to public safety.” She had been suspended without pay.

Jawor and her partner were pursuing Clark because his Jeep Cherokee matched the description of another vehicle linked to an earlier carjacking. However, that vehicle had been recovered weeks before the collision, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability found.

Jawor’s attorney, Jim McKay, declined comment.

The crash has already come at an enormous cost to taxpayers. In 2019, the city settled a lawsuit filed by Adams’ family for nearly $5 million. Another suit brought by Clark’s family is pending in Cook County court.

The case was initially sent to the Police Board after former Supt. Eddie Johnson disagreed with COPA’s assertion that Jawor should be fired, though Supt. David Brown later supported her dismissal last August.

Brown, however, suffered a loss in another high-profile case Thursday in which he disagreed with COPA’s disciplinary recommendations.

COPA previously suggested discipline for eight officers involved in the fatal police shooting of Harith Augustus in July 2018. Brown proposed lighter consequences for two officers COPA sought to have suspended.

COPA recommended a 60-day suspension for Officer Megan Fleming, charged with making physical contact with Augustus without justification, failing to activate her body-worn camera in a timely manner and failing to discuss the shooting with another police official. A 30 day-suspension was also recommended for Lt. Davina Ward in connection to allegations she failed to separate Fleming from another officer and ensure they didn’t communicate with each other.

Brown instead called for a 10-day suspension for Fleming and a reprimand for Ward. But on Thursday, board member Matthew Crowl ultimately ruled to uphold COPA’s recommendations.

Police Board votes to fire officer involved in chase preceding crash that killed off-duty cop, civilianTom Schubaon July 16, 2021 at 2:35 am Read More »

Cubs trade Joc Pederson to the BravesRussell Dorseyon July 16, 2021 at 12:47 am

It was only a matter of time before the Cubs started making moves ahead of the trade deadline after their downward spiral to end the first half. They got an early start on Thursday, trading outfielder Joc Pederson to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for minor-league first baseman Bryce Ball.

Pederson signed a one-year, $7 million deal with the Cubs this winter and was essentially the replacement for longtime outfielder Kyle Schwarber, who was non-tendered at the end of last season.

The 29-year-old outfielder served as primarily as the Cubs’ leadoff hitter in 2021, slashing .230/.300/.418 with 11 homers and 39 RBIs in 39 games this season.

Ball, 23, was a 24th round pick in the 2019 MLB Draft and the No. 12 prospect in Braves’ system according to MLB Pipeline. Ball was slashing .207/.354/.396 with six homers and 30 RBIs at Advanced-A Rome this season.

More trades are likely to follow in the coming weeks as the Cubs, who are eight games back in the NL Central, appear to be starting a long-awaited retool.

Cubs trade Joc Pederson to the BravesRussell Dorseyon July 16, 2021 at 12:47 am Read More »

Dems need to do better job of speaking to votersGene Lyonson July 16, 2021 at 12:54 am

There’s no doubt that left-wing culture warriors have done great harm to the Democratic cause. Some of it is mere foolishness. I’ve never forgotten being chided at a college talk several years ago for using the word “murderess” to describe a character in my book “Widow’s Web” who shot her husband in his sleep and later orchestrated a plot to kill her defense lawyer’s wife.

“Murderess,” one professor said, was unacceptably “gendered” language. To quibble about it would have been pointlessly distracting. Even so, I’ve wondered about it ever since. After all, is “murderer” an honorific?

In-depth political coverage, sports analysis, entertainment reviews and cultural commentary.

But it’s when cant touches upon real-world concerns that the trouble starts. Consider the phrase “Defund the Police.” Has there ever been a dumber, more politically maladroit slogan in American political history? Worse even than Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables.”

Far worse, actually. Clinton’s remark merely convinced people that she was a snob. Rhetoric about doing away with cops made voters think that liberal Democrats inhabit a different planet. In an interview with VOX, veteran political operative James Carville put it this way: “Maybe tweeting that we should abolish the police isn’t the smartest thing to do because almost … no one wants to do that.”

Words matter, Carville insists. “You ever get the sense that people in faculty lounges in fancy colleges use a different language than ordinary people? They come up with a word like ‘Latinx.’ … Or they use a phrase like ‘communities of color.’ I don’t know anyone who speaks like that. I don’t know anyone who lives in a ‘community of color’…. This is not how voters talk. And doing it anyway is a signal that you’re talking one language and the people you want to vote for you are speaking another language.”

In the real world, for example, people wake up to headlines like these, which arrived in my inbox as I composed the preceding paragraph: “UAMS officer kills gun-wielding man”; “Police ID man fatally shot at apartment complex”; and “15-year-old arrested in killing of Jacksonville man.”

One medium-sized southern city; one ordinary weekday in July.

Abolish the police? In which solar system, pray tell?

So no, what with homicide rates rising sharply nationwide, I was not surprised to see Eric Adams, a Black former NYPD captain who campaigned on making New Yorkers feel safe and restoring confidence in the city’s police, winning a Democratic primary that makes him the city’s de facto mayor-elect.

“The debate around policing has been reduced to a false choice,” Adams declared. “You are either with police, or you are against them. That is simply wrong because we are all for safety. We need the NYPD — we just need them to be better.”

Whether or not Adams can deliver, that’s exactly how Democrats should be talking. Also, contrary to a lot of loose rhetoric, it’s all about the guns. Property crimes — burglary and theft — are actually decreasing in many places. Gun battles between rival gangs and drive-by shootings of innocent bystanders are way up.

Opinion This Week

A weekly overview of opinions, analysis and commentary on issues affecting Chicago, Illinois and our nation by outside contributors, Sun-Times readers and the CST Editorial Board.

Although you’ve not heard about it in the national news, something else that happened in my backyard has convinced me that ordinary people are hungry for change. In the farming community of Lonoke, Arkansas, roughly 35 miles northeast of Little Rock, a sheriff’s deputy shot a 17-year-old white kid named Hunter Brittain to death during a 3 a.m. traffic stop. The boy was unarmed and had no criminal history. He’d been working late to fix his uncle’s truck transmission.

Details are scant, because the state police have kept their investigation close, although a special prosecutor has been appointed. And the deputy never turned on his body camera, for which he’s been fired. Nightly protests began outside the sheriff’s department, growing steadily more intense. His family likened young Brittain to Minneapolis murder victim George Floyd. Even Little Rock media, however, showed limited interest.

Until the Rev. Al Sharpton showed up in town to preach Hunter Brittain’s funeral, along with Ben Crump, George Floyd’s attorney — virtually the only Black faces among hundreds of mourners.

Sharpton referenced a can of antifreeze the victim held as he died. “We’ve been frozen in our race; we’ve been frozen in our own class,” he said to thunderous applause. “I believe today Hunter is calling to us. It’s time for some antifreeze.”

I’ve got my reservations about Sharpton, but the symbolism of his appearing was impossible to ignore: Americans are ready to talk.

Send letters to [email protected]

Dems need to do better job of speaking to votersGene Lyonson July 16, 2021 at 12:54 am Read More »

Pritzker signs ban on interrogators lying to minors, other criminal justice reforms intended to usher in ‘new era of public safety’Rachel Hintonon July 16, 2021 at 1:12 am

Investigators are barred from deceiving minors during police interrogations under a bill Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Thursday, one piece of legislation in a package aimed at advancing “the rights of some of our most vulnerable” in the state’s criminal justice system.

“Together, this package of initiatives moves us closer to a holistic criminal justice system, one that builds confidence and trust in a system that has done harm to too many people for too long,” Pritzker said at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law.

Terrill Swift, one of the so-called “Englewood Four” accused of the rape and murder of Nina Glover in 1994, said police lied to him and his family — first about where they were taking him, then about the crime and his connection to the three others convicted of the killing.

Swift was 17 at the time. He spent 15 1/2 years in prison before he was exonerated.

“This bill, I truly believe, could have saved my life,” Swift said, choking up. “When it was first brought to me, it touched me in the sense that it could have saved my life.”

Terrill Swift, wrongly accused of the rape and murder in 1994, speaks at a news conference on Thursday. — Terrill Swift, one of the so-called “Englewood Four” wrongly accused of the rape and murder in 1994, speaks at a news conference at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law on Thursday.

Pritzker signed three other pieces of legislation addressing parts of the criminal justice system, measures that:

o Allow state’s attorneys to petition a court to re-sentence someone whose original sentence “no longer advances the interests of justice.”

o Bar anything said or done during a restorative justice hearing — hearings between defendants and victims designed to repair the harm caused by the crime — from being used against someone in court unless that protection is waived.

o Create a re-sentencing task force to study ways to reduce the state’s prison population through re-sentencing motions.

Flanked by supporters, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs criminal justice legislation at Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law, barring the use of deceptive interrogation practices with minors and allowing county prosecutors the ability to petition to resentence someone, Thursday morning, July 15, 2021. — Flanked by supporters, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs criminal justice reforms into law Thursday at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx told the Chicago Sun-Times her office collaborated with the Innocence Project and For the People to draft the legislation banning the use of deceptive practices during the interrogation of minors and the bill that would allow county prosecutors to seek new sentences for offenders.

“It’s important for us to not just have proactive policies, but to go back and look at some of the harms that were caused by the things that happened before we got here,” Foxx said of the criminal justice reforms signed into law Thursday.

“We had so many wrongful convictions, particularly of youth, that were predicated on these practices of lying to children, where the science … tells us about their susceptibility to those types of practices and the damage that can be done,” Foxx said.

“When we convict people who are not the people who have done the actual crime, it not only robs them of their lives, from their families and from their communities, it also allows the people who’ve actually committed the crimes to go free.”

Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx speaks at a news conference at Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law, Thursday morning, as Gov. J.B. Pritzker looks on. — Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx speaks at a news conference at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law, Thursday morning, as Gov. J.B. Pritzker looks on.

State Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, called the package of criminal justice legislation “a major step in the right direction.”

“We must not waste the potential of our fellow neighbors by locking them up and throwing away the key,” said Peters, a lead sponsor on all of the pieces of legislation signed Thursday.

“We see systemic failures over and over again. We’re promised public safety, and yet it seems like it’s something we chase over and over again,” Peters said. “Chicago sports teams have better draft records than tough-on-crime policies have on providing safety. It is time that we move towards a new era of public safety — public safety for all, public safety by the people, public safety that belongs to us.”

State Rep. Justin Slaughter, D-Chicago, who was a lead sponsor on the bills in the House. said no matter where people fall on the criminal justice reform spectrum, “we can all agree that innocent people should not be serving time in prison.”

Swift said while the new law will likely help minors avoid a situation like the one he faced, there is still work to be done to decrease wrongful convictions.

“The reality is, I can’t get what I lost back,” Swift said.

“We don’t need another Terrill Swift, Michael Saunders … this happens so much and it’s something that needs to change. Granted, this bill passing is a great step, but we still have so much work to do.”

Pritzker signs ban on interrogators lying to minors, other criminal justice reforms intended to usher in ‘new era of public safety’Rachel Hintonon July 16, 2021 at 1:12 am Read More »

Mom struggles to get answers from cops about murdered son. ‘They just think Myron is another Black kid who just got slain in the street, and that’s not my baby.’Mohammad Samraon July 16, 2021 at 12:03 am

Myron Richardson lost three members of his family over the last four years — his father, his grandmother and his sister. Now, his family is mourning his loss.

Last week, the 19-year-old was found dead in the trunk of a burning car on the Far South Side with a gunshot wound to his head. That’s all his family knows about his murder.

They called a detective nearly half a dozen times to follow up on the case and were unable to reach him, they say. Another time, a supervisor hung up on them, according to the family. It was only after the Sun-Times called police that a detective visited them this week.

Still, he had nothing new to say.

Myron Richardson was found shot in the head in the trunk of a burning car July 6 on the Far South Side. His family says they can no longer reach the detective working on his case.

“I just want to know what happened to him,” Carmela Richardson, Myron’s mother, said through tears. “They just think Myron is another Black kid who just got slain in the street, and that’s not my baby,” she said through tears.

“He was raised to be a good man,” she continued. “I talked to my son every day. I told him I love him, he was a good big brother, good boyfriend…they don’t know who Myron was … We have to let them know who my baby was.”

The body of her son was found after someone reported a car fire around 10:30 p.m. July 6. Emergency crews responded to the 12100 block of South Doty Avenue, near the Bishop Ford Expressway, and found Richardson’s burned body in the trunk of the car. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

An autopsy showed he died of a gunshot wound to his head, and his death was ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Police report no one in custody.

Richardson’s mother said she spoke with a Chicago police detective for over an hour on July 8, two days after her son’s death. The Richardson family said they tried to reach him at least five times in the days that followed, but were either left on hold for up to half an hour or were hung up on.

“I took it personal because Myron is my son,” Richardson said. “It wasn’t personal; they don’t know who Myron is.”

Richardson’s frustration came to a head on July 10 when she said she called for the detective and spoke to an official who told her, “I don’t have time for this” and hung up.

A police spokesman told the Sun-Times he would check with the detective, then later said the department would have no comment at all on Richardson’s complaint. By that evening, however, a detective showed up at Richardson’s home.

Carmela Richardson, 39, sits on the couch with her six remaining children, ranging in ages from 1 to 17, while holding a photograph of her oldest son, whose obituary she would prepare to write later in the evening in the family's West Pullman neighborhood home, Wednesday night, July 14, 2021. Carmela Richardson's 19-year-old son Myron Richardson's body was found shot in the head in the trunk of a burning car July 6 not far from their home on the Far South Side. — Carmela Richardson, 39, sits on the couch with her six remaining children, ranging in ages from 1 to 17, while holding a photograph of her oldest son, whose obituary she would prepare to write later in the evening in the family’s West Pullman neighborhood home, Wednesday night, July 14, 2021. Carmela Richardson’s 19-year-old son Myron Richardson’s body was found shot in the head in the trunk of a burning car July 6 not far from their home on the Far South Side.

The detective had nothing new to report, she said, but acknowledged Richardson should not have had to wait so long to hear back from him.

“He (the detective) said he’d been off and the department cell phone with the number he gave me was dead,” Richardson said, “I feel like the communication could’ve been better … I just feel like even if he was off, I should’ve been notified of that…it might’ve been four days to them but it was an eternity to us.”

The Richardsons are not alone in searching for information about the death of their loved ones. Chicago police have reported 362 homicides so far this year, but arrests have only been made in 68 cases, according to public data.

“So many people get killed in Chicago, and they just don’t seem like they care,” Myron’s aunt, Jeanetta Richardson, 40, said. “I can only imagine how overwhelmed the police must be, but you got parents out here that don’t care and you got parents out here that do care, and the ones that do care, I feel like you should at least give them a little bit of peace and do your part of your job.”

Carmela Richardson’s fiance, Prince Elston, 40, said he understands that police deal with victims’ families daily, “but there’s certain levels of respect people should have for one another, especially going through a time like this.”

Carmela Richardson said she hopes detectives understand her son was a good kid and will bring his killer to justice.

“He wasn’t that person, he didn’t live that life,” she said. “So now I have to let them know who Myron was…I just want to know what happened to him.”

Richardson played basketball for Morgan Park High School and enjoyed playing video games. He was the oldest of seven and was described by his aunt as “someone who lit up whatever room he was in.”

“My nephew always had this smile on his face,” she said. “He was a very, very happy guy, very respectful…even when he was in trouble, he was smiling.”

Richardson often bought his mother roses, knowing her love for them. For his service, the family plans to have roses to honor the tradition. “He was just a joy to be around,” his aunt said.

Carmela Richardson, 39, whose 19-year-old son Myron Richardson's body was found shot in the head in the trunk of a burning car July 6 on the Far South Side, poses for a portrait outside the family's West Pullman home, Wednesday evening, July 14, 2021. — Carmela Richardson, 39, whose 19-year-old son Myron Richardson’s body was found shot in the head in the trunk of a burning car July 6 on the Far South Side, poses for a portrait outside the family’s West Pullman home, Wednesday evening, July 14, 2021.

Mom struggles to get answers from cops about murdered son. ‘They just think Myron is another Black kid who just got slain in the street, and that’s not my baby.’Mohammad Samraon July 16, 2021 at 12:03 am Read More »

Cubs face the inevitability of change as second half loomsRussell Dorseyon July 15, 2021 at 10:56 pm

PHOENIX – The more things change, the more they stay the same. After a rollercoaster first half that saw the Cubs go from the bottom of the bottom of the NL Central to leading the division and then falling eight games back, they are exactly where many expected them to be.

The Cubs are in a precarious position with two weeks from the trade deadline. The team’s chances of getting into the postseason took a massive plunge after an 11-game losing streak and losing 13 of their last 16 games entering the All-Star break. They now sit fully on the seller’s side of the trade market.

“We were certainly fully on the buy side of this transaction, and everyone was calling about that,” Hoyer said last week. “And obviously people are now calling to see which players are available, so it’s a very different scenario than we expected. Life comes at you fast.”

It certainly does and over the next two weeks, it’s very likely the Cubs could begin departing with several of some or all of their biggest superstars, including Kris Bryant, Javy Baez, Anthony Rizzo.

While the team’s possible “reload” won’t likely be the massive teardown that many fans fear it will be, the shocking reality that this chapter of Chicago Cubs baseball is in its final days is a tough pill for many to swallow.

President Jed Hoyer has spoken over the last two weeks about looking at the big picture in terms of where the Cubs are as an organization and where they hope to be. The next two weeks leading to the trade deadline will have a massive effect on not only what the Cubs look like the rest of 2021, but give a guide into the direction that the team will be heading down over the next few years.

“When you’re in this moment and your playoff odds get into single digits at this time of the year, you have to keep one eye on the future and think about what moves you could potentially make that could help build the next year, the next great Cubs team,” Hoyer said.

What likely comes first for Hoyer is deciding what to do with the likes of Bryant, Baez and Rizzo, All three players will become free agents at the end of the season and after being unable to sign any of them to extensions last offseason and during the spring, there are contenders likely lining up calling about the services of the three All-Stars. Closer Craig Kimbrel is also a candidate to be moved.

But those moves are also not limited to four players and if the team is willing to take calls on them, nobody is untouchable.

The Cubs have been in the middle of rumors surrounding their biggest stars being traded for the last three years and each year, those rumors never came to fruition. But this season feels different, not only from the Cubs position in relation to the standings, but also because their core players are now within arms reach of free agency.

There’s an atmosphere of finality that has now hovered over the team for the last few weeks and that feeling will continue until there’s a resolution via trades or riding off into the sunset one final time with the team as currently assembled.

The second half is going to look different than fans have seen over the last six years, especially if names like Bryant, Baez or Rizzo are no longer wearing blue pinstripes.

Hoyer’s sentiments on the Cubs last month are true. Life does come at you fast. No one could have predicted that what was once considered one of, if not the best core in baseball would be on the verge of being broken up. But in baseball, the inevitability of change catches up to everyone and for the Cubs, that time has come.

Cubs face the inevitability of change as second half loomsRussell Dorseyon July 15, 2021 at 10:56 pm Read More »

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