12 dead in Alabama due to Claudette, including 10 childrenAssociated Presson June 20, 2021 at 7:01 pm

The National Hurricane Center declared Claudette organized enough to qualify as a named storm early Saturday. | AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Ten people, including nine children, were killed Saturday in a 15-vehicle crash about 35 miles south of Montgomery on Interstate 65.

ATLANTA — Tropical Depression Claudette claimed 12 lives in Alabama as the storm swept across the southeastern U.S., causing flash flooding and spurring tornadoes that destroyed dozens of homes.

Ten people, including nine children, were killed Saturday in a 15-vehicle crash about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Montgomery on Interstate 65, according to Butler County Coroner Wayne Garlock.

He said the vehicles likely hydroplaned on wet roads, with eight children, ages 4 to 17, killed in a van belonging to a youth ranch operated by the Alabama Sheriffs Association for abused or neglected children. Two people died in a separate vehicle, Garlock told local news outlets — 29-year-old Cody Fox and 9-month-old Ariana Fox, both of Marion County, Tennessee.

Multiple people were also injured.

Meanwhile, a 24-year-old man and a 3-year-old boy were killed when a tree fell on their house just outside the Tuscaloosa city limits Saturday, Capt. Marty Sellers of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit told The Tuscaloosa News.

The deaths occurred as drenching rains pelted northern Alabama and Georgia late Saturday. As much as 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain was reported earlier from Claudette along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Flash flood watches were posted Sunday for northern Georgia, most of South Carolina, the North Carolina coast, parts of southeast Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. A tropical storm warning was in effect in North Carolina from the Little River Inlet to the town of Duck on the Outer Banks. A tropical storm watch was issued from South Santee River, South Carolina, to the Little River Inlet, forecasters said.

The eight children killed in the van were returning to a youth ranch operated by the Alabama Sheriffs Association near Camp Hill, northeast of Montgomery, from a week at the beach in Gulf Shores, youth ranches CEO Michael Smith told The Associated Press. The van caught fire after the wreck. Candice Gulley, the director of the Tallapoosa County ranch, was rescued and was hospitalized in Montgomery, Smith said. Her condition wasn’t immediately available. At least one of the dead was Gulley’s child, Smith said.

“This is the worst tragedy I’ve been a part of in my life,” said Smith, who was driving Sunday to Camp Hill to talk to the remaining residents, who had returned from Gulf Shores in a separate van and did not see the wreck.

“Words cannot explain what I saw,” Smith said of the accident site, which he visited Saturday. “We love these girls like they’re our own children.”

Garlock said the location of the wreck is “notorious” for hydroplaning, as the northbound highway curves down a hill to a small creek. Traffic on that stretch of I-65 is usually filled with vacationers driving to and from Gulf of Mexico beaches on summer weekends.

“Butler County has had one of the most terrible traffic accidents,” county Sheriff Danny Bond wrote on Facebook, adding: “I believe is the worst ever in our county.”

The Tallapoosa County school system said counselors would be available Sunday at Reeltown High School, where some of the ranch residents were students. Smith said the ranch, which is Christian-based, would likely have a memorial service later, asking for prayers as he began to cry.

Gulley, the lone survivor from the van, had worked with children for years, beginning when she and her husband were house parents at the ranch for seven years.

“During those years, there have been 74 girls that have come through our house and called us mom and dad,” she told the Opelika-Auburn News in August 2019. She said she then became a relief parent, working on fundraising and being involved in the community, before she became the ranch director.

Top winds from Claudette remained near 30 mph (45 kph) on Sunday. National Hurricane Center forecasters predicted it would strengthen back to tropical storm status Monday over eastern North Carolina before heading out to sea in the Atlantic Ocean.

The center of Claudette’s disorganized circulation was located about 15 miles (20 kilometers) east-northeast of Atlanta on Sunday morning. It was moving east-northeast at 17 mph (28 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.

More than 20 people were rescued Saturday by boat due to flooding in Northport, Alabama, WVUA-TV reported. The Tuscaloosa County Emergency Management Agency tweeted that local Red Cross volunteers were on hand to help those who were affected. A shelter was opened in Northport.

Claudette was declared organized enough to qualify as a named tropical storm early Saturday morning, after the storm’s center of circulation had come ashore southwest of New Orleans.

Shortly after landfall, a suspected tornado spurred by the storm demolished or badly damaged at least 50 homes in a small town in Alabama, just north of the Florida border.

Sheriff Heath Jackson in Escambia County said a mobile home park was “pretty much leveled,” by trees toppled onto houses and winds that ripped the roof off a high school gym. Most of the damage was done in or near the towns of Brewton and East Brewton, about 48 miles (77 kilometers) north of Pensacola, Florida.

“It kind of affected everybody,” Jackson said. “But with those mobile homes being built so close together it can take a toll on them a lot more than it can on houses that are spread apart.”

Tornadoes were also reported in southwest Georgia.

Damage from the storm was also felt in north Florida, where winds — in some cases reaching 85 mph (137 kph) — caused an 18-wheeler to flip on its side.

The storm also dumped flooding rains Saturday north of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana and along the Mississippi coast, inundating streets and, in some areas, pushing water into homes. Later, the storm was drenching the Florida Panhandle and, well inland, a broad expanse of Alabama.

Forecasters said the system could still dump 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) of rain in the region, with isolated accumulations of 8 inches (20 centimeters) possible.

Separately, Tropical Storm Dolores made landfall on Mexico’s west coast with near-hurricane force. As of Sunday morning, it had dissipated over Mexico. Its remnants had maximum sustained winds of 25 mph (35 kph), and it was centered about 170 miles (275 kilometers) east of Mazatlan, Mexico.

___

Forliti reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press reporters Kevin McGill in New Orleans, Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Kelli Kennedy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.

12 dead in Alabama due to Claudette, including 10 childrenAssociated Presson June 20, 2021 at 7:01 pm Read More »

Person shot in LoopSun-Times Wireon June 20, 2021 at 7:43 pm

A person was wounded in a shooting June 20, 2021, in the Loop. | Sun-Times file photo

Authorities responded about 1:55 p.m. to the 100 block of West Adams Street and located a female with a gunshot wound, Chicago fire officials said.

A person was wounded in a shooting Sunday in the Loop.

Authorities responded about 1:55 p.m. to the 100 block of West Adams Street and located a female with a gunshot wound, Chicago fire officials said.

She was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, officials said. Her condition was not immediately known.

Chicago police didn’t immediately release details, but said Adams was closed between Clark and LaSalle streets for the investigation.

The shooting comes a day after a woman died in a stabbing blocks away in an area close to the old Chicago Main Post office and Union Station.

The woman was walking about 4 p.m. in the 400 block of South Wacker Drive when a man stabbed her in her upper back, police said. She was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

At a news conference after the attack, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said “crime is down downtown” when asked what he would say to people to work in and visit the Loop.

“Overall crime is down downtown. But one crime is too many. And we take every one of those crimes … very seriously,” he said.

Person shot in LoopSun-Times Wireon June 20, 2021 at 7:43 pm Read More »

One little story of what it was like to be a woman reporter 40 years ago (a pregnant one)on June 20, 2021 at 5:01 pm

Mom, I Think I’m Poignant!

One little story of what it was like to be a woman reporter 40 years ago (a pregnant one)

One little story of what it was like to be a woman reporter 40 years ago (a pregnant one)on June 20, 2021 at 5:01 pm Read More »

45 shot, 5 fatally, since Friday evening in ChicagoSun-Times Wireon June 20, 2021 at 2:05 pm

Chicago police work the scene where three people were shot including one killed in the 5400 block of South Bishop St in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, Friday, June 18, 2021. — Chicago police work the scene where three people were shot, one fatally, in the 5400 block of South Bishop Street in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, Friday, June 18, 2021. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Time

A woman was killed and two other people injured, including a 15-year-old boy, in a shooting Friday night in Back of the Yards.

At least five people have been killed and 40 others wounded in shootings across Chicago since Friday evening.

In the most recent fatal attack, a man was shot dead while driving in Humboldt Park early Sunday.

The 21-year-old was driving a Jeep about 1:40 a.m. in the 3100 block of West Augusta Boulevard when a car pulled up next to him and someone inside fired shots, Chicago police said.

The man was shot in the head, police said. A passenger in the Jeep drove him to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Less than an hour earlier, a woman was fatally shot in Bucktown on the Northwest Side.

She was riding in a vehicle about 1 a.m. in the 2100 block of North Oakley Avenue when another vehicle drove up alongside and someone inside opened fire, striking the woman, police said. The 32-year-old was dropped off at Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

A man was killed and a woman was critically wounded in a shooting June 19, 2021, in Humboldt Park.

Humboldt Park saw another fatal shooting Saturday night.

About 9:15 p.m., a man and a woman were ambushed in the 3200 block of West Division Street by three gunmen who fired shots at them, police said. The man, 24, was rushed to Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The 25-year-old woman was struck in the neck and rushed to Stroger Hospital in critical condition.

Friday night, a woman was killed and two other people injured, including a 15-year-old boy, in a shooting in Back of the Yards.

The group was standing on the sidewalk about 7:30 p.m. in the 5400 block of South Bishop Street when a male shot them from an unknown distance, Chicago police said.

The woman, 28, was shot in the head and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was pronounced, police said.

The teen boy was struck in the leg and taken to the same hospital in good condition, police said. The man, 31, suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder and was treated and released on scene.

Also Friday, a 31-year-old man was killed in a drive-by shooting in Parkway Gardens on the South Side.

About 5:20 p.m, the man was on the sidewalk near 64th Street and King Drive when a light-colored vehicle pulled up and someone inside began firing shots at him, police said.

He suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was pronounced dead, police said.

In nonfatal shootings, three men were shot Friday in the East Side neighborhood.

The shooting happened in the 10000 block of South Indianapolis Avenue just after 8 p.m., according to police. The men were traveling eastbound on Indianapolis when they heard several shots.

An 18-year-old man was shot in the buttocks and another man, 21, suffered a gunshot wound to the right arm, police said. Both men were transported to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where their conditions were stabilized.

A third man, 22, was struck in the leg and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where his condition was also stabilized, police said.

At least 34 others were wounded in citywide shootings since 5 p.m. Friday.

Last weekend, three people were killed and 43 others wounded in incidents of gun violence across Chicago.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

45 shot, 5 fatally, since Friday evening in ChicagoSun-Times Wireon June 20, 2021 at 2:05 pm Read More »

Woman killed in Bucktown shootingSun-Times Wireon June 20, 2021 at 1:11 pm

A woman was shot dead June 20, 2021, in Bucktown. | Adobe Stock Photo

She was riding in a vehicle about 1 a.m. in the 2100 block of North Oakley Avenue when a vehicle drove up alongside and opened fire, Chicago police said.

A woman was fatally shot Sunday in Bucktown on the Northwest Side.

She was riding in a vehicle about 1 a.m. in the 2100 block of North Oakley Avenue when another vehicle drove up alongside and someone inside opened fire, striking the woman, Chicago police said.

The 32-year-old was dropped off at Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, police said.

No arrests have been made. Area Five detectives are investigating.

Woman killed in Bucktown shootingSun-Times Wireon June 20, 2021 at 1:11 pm Read More »

Man killed in Humboldt Park drive-bySun-Times Wireon June 20, 2021 at 12:21 pm

A man was killed in a shooting June 20, 2021 in Humboldt Park.

He was driving a Jeep about 1:40 a.m. in the 3100 block of West Augusta Boulevard when a car pulled up next to him and someone from inside fired shots.

A 21-year-old man was killed in a drive-by shooting early Monday in Humboldt Park.

He was driving a Jeep about 1:40 a.m. in the 3100 block of West Augusta Boulevard when a car pulled up next to him and someone from inside fired shots, Chicago police said.

The man was shot in the head, police said. A passenger in the Jeep drove him to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

He hasn’t been identified.

No one is in custody as Area Three detectives investigate.

Man killed in Humboldt Park drive-bySun-Times Wireon June 20, 2021 at 12:21 pm Read More »

Missed opportunity to get elected school board rightLetters to the Editoron June 20, 2021 at 12:48 pm

Supporters of a fully elected Chicago school board demonstrate outside City Hall on March 3, 2021. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

What measures were taken to ensure that property taxes won’t be hiked again by this new board?

Though many people are celebrating the passage of a bill in Springfield to create a fully elected school board for Chicago, I’m struggling with the many unanswered questions. Key among them is the question of who will the board actually represent? Will it represent the Chicago Teacher’s Union, whose members will be allowed to run for seats? Will it represent only those Chicagoans who can afford to high cost of a campaign to run for the board?

That certainly wouldn’t be a board that represents the families of the children who attend the Chicago Public Schools.

I’m also left wondering what measures will be taken to ensure that property taxes won’t be hiked again, which is one of the easiest ways for school boards to raised money. Without the guaranteed support of City of Chicago funding, there could be a $500 million hole in the school system’s budget. Surely, that burden will be passed on to taxpayers.

While the idea of an elected school board has some appeal, a bill more thoughtful than the one just passed would have had much more appeal.

Erica Salem, former CPS parent, Lakeview

SEND LETTERS TO: [email protected]. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be approximately 350 words or less.

What about rigged legislatures?

In Jacob Sullum’s recent screed of a column discussing the “dangers” of giving governors too much power during the pandemic, I missed any reference to our neighbors to the north, Wisconsin. Sullum wasn’t interested in mentioning that the opposite of this problem — a governor with strong powers — is a legislature that abuses its power. And in a politically rigged state like Wisconsin, there is simply no hope of voting the abusers out of power.

At least when you give governors power, they face a referendum each Election Day on how they used or abused that power. Just ask Bruce Rauner of Illinois.

Don Anderson, Oak Park

Decide DuSable Drive by referendum

It is understandable and commendable that a number of Chicago aldermen wish to rename Lake Shore Drive in honor of Jean Baptiste Point DuSable. Other than a high school, a museum and a few other places, DuSable is barely recognized for being the first non-indigenous resident of Chicago. Certainly, DuSable deserves better.

On the other hand, is it appropriate for the City Council to rename Lake Shore Drive, a name that is internationally recognized and loved by thousands of Chicagoans? Instead of the City Council making this call, Chicagoans themselves should decide, by referendum, whether the name should be changed.

Thomas Mackin, Rogers Park

I fell for Chicago along Lake Shore Drive

I came to the United States from Peru in the 1960s to study architecture at the University of Nebraska. One of the first things I was told to do was go to Chicago and ride along Lake Shore Drive and admire the architecture from all the world-famous architects. I did just that. And after taking that first ride, I took an architectural tour by boat in Lake Michigan — again along the route of Lake Shore Drive.

I then promised myself that after graduation I would come to Chicago to live. I would make Chicago my home.

I have now lived in the Chicago area for more than 50 years. Please do not rename Lake Shore Drive.

Robert Mendez, Glen Ellyn

Slavery persisted after Juneteenth

I enjoyed the story about Juneteenth in Friday’s paper. Very informative and inspirational. As a lifelong American, I am delighted that the end of slavery is being celebrated in an official way.

I was also delighted to see the word “portmanteau” used. Nice writing.

I thought the last two paragraphs, though, perpetuated a common misconception. Slavery remained alive and legal in certain parts of the United States until December of 1865, when the 13th Amendment took effect. The Texas slaves were among the last freed, but they were not the last, missing that mark by nearly 6 months.

Mark Anderson, Park Ridge

Throw the ball, Rodgers

Professional football is a game, but more importantly it’s a business. And it is the responsibility of a team’s management to keep that business viable by making decisions for the overall good of the organization. With that in mind, the Green Bay Packers made a decision to draft a franchise quarterback in Jordan Love out of Utah State, much to the chagrin of 37-year-old Aaron Rodgers. He’s miffed because he wasn’t involved in the hiring process.

Rodgers has to remember that he is a player, a highly paid quarterback. Management should manage, and Rodgers should throw the ball.

John Livaich, Oak Lawn

Missed opportunity to get elected school board rightLetters to the Editoron June 20, 2021 at 12:48 pm Read More »

Man critically hurt in Chatham shootingSun-Times Wireon June 20, 2021 at 12:49 pm

A man was shot June 20, 2021 in Chatham. | Sun-Times file photo

The man was getting inside his vehicle about 4 a.m. in the 7600 block of South Vernon Avenue when a woman he knows approached him and fired a shot.

A man was critically wounded in a shooting early Sunday in Chatham on the South Side.

The man was getting inside his vehicle about 4 a.m. in the 7600 block of South Vernon Avenue when a woman he knows approached him and fired a shot, Chicago police said.

She shot him in the abdomen and left the scene, police said.

The man, 35, got inside his vehicle and drove to the 7500 block of South Eberhart Avenue, where he crashed into a parked car, police said.

Paramendics arrived and transported him to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, police said.

No one is in custody as Area Two detectives investigate.

Man critically hurt in Chatham shootingSun-Times Wireon June 20, 2021 at 12:49 pm Read More »

Water help, or hazard? Flotation vests for young kids popular but have come under fireon June 20, 2021 at 11:45 am

The mothers say they bought the “puddle jumper” children’s swim aids to keep their children safe in the water.

Colorful and buoyant, they’re produced by an array of manufacturers under various names, including the Original Puddle Jumper and Splash Jammer.

Now, Nicole Hughes says, she wishes she had never seen one.

“We genuinely thought that was the best thing to do,” says Hughes, a writing teacher who says she always put her 3-year-old son Levi in the one-piece, wraparound floatie for his chest and upper arms whenever he was in a swimming pool.

On a family vacation in 2018, Levi drowned.

His mother says the floatie vests teach young children to be upright and vertical in the water — the wrong body position for learning how to back float or swim. And by making it effortless to bob around, chin above water and arms unmoving, the devices leave little kids feeling like they can independently swim, even though they can’t, she says.

Levi had his off when he drowned.

Levi Hughes loved his wraparound flotation device, but Nicole Hughes believes it gave her 3-year-old son a false sense of confidence. He drowned in 2018 on a family vacation.

The day he died in June 2018, Hughes, who lives in Tennessee, was with her husband, children and friends at a rented beach house on vacation. Five families were there, including 12 adults — half of them doctors — and 17 kids. The group had played in the pool earlier and was waiting to go crab hunting when Levi, now out of his floatie vest, came over to his mom. She split a brownie, gave him half and kissed his head.

Hughes has relived the next moments endlessly. She closed a bag of chips, threw something away, put the other half of the brownie in her mouth — “it was less than a minute, it was so fast” — and realized Levi was gone.

She looked out at the pool and saw him — his bright yellow T-shirt visible from the deep end.

She and another adult leapt in and pulled Levi out. The group, which included five cardiothoracic anesthesiology physicians, got his pulse back before an ambulance came, but Levi died.

Hughes and other parents of young kids who’ve drowned are warning against using the popular flotation devices their kids always wore — until they accidentally entered the water without one.

Some of the floaties are labeled “U.S. Coast Guard-approved.” Hughes says that leads parents to think the government has evaluated them as a “learn-to-swim” aid, as some are marketed. In fact, the Coast Guard rates flotation devices only for their functionality on vessels in open water.

Nicole Hughes holding her son Levi on a beach outing.

A spokeswoman for Newell Brands’ Original Puddle Jumper says the devices “are carefully and thoughtfully engineered and tested to U.S. Coast Guard requirements to offer the maximum comfort, flexibility, range of motion and in-water safety and stability for children” and, “when properly used, helping to protect children learning to swim.”

She says they shouldn’t be relied on, though, in place of adult supervision, swim survival lessons and safety education.

A spokeswoman for Speedo USA, the manufacturer of the Splash Jammer brand devices, says: “We have the deepest sympathy with anyone who has dealt with the tragedy of a youth drowning. All our flotation devices are thoroughly tested by independent industry experts and are U.S. Coast Guard-approved. Learning to swim starts with feeling confident in and around water, and flotation devices can support this important first step.”

The American Red Cross recommends that young children experience time in the water with hands-on adult supervision — and no floaties.

It also advises that Coast Guard-approved life jackets, not puddle jumpers, “be worn … when it is play time — especially if the child is relying on a flotation device for safety.”

Dr. Ben Hoffman, who chairs the Itasca-based American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention, says “it’s hard to find fault” with the products’ buoyancy but that calling them learn-to-swim aids is a stretch.

Hoffman says there’s no solid research on whether they promote or impede swimming skills: “We just don’t know.”

But Lisa Zarda, executive director of the United States Swim School Association, advises parents to avoid them.

“Kids get so used to the puddle jumpers that they think they can jump in the pool, and they’ll be just fine,” Zarda says.

Groups involved with drowning prevention say multiple safety steps are necessary to protect kids from drowning, which is the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children 1 to 4 years old, responsible between 2008 and 2018 for the deaths of 4,645 children in that age range nationally.

That multi-layered approach to child water safety includes having four-sided fencing around pools, with latches and alarms, and always having a watchful adult there when kids are swimming.

Experts say child drownings are usually silent deaths and can happen in as little as 20 seconds.

Christi Brown, a Texas mother whose 3-year-old son drowned in 2016, says her group, the Judah Brown Project, has heard from numerous families who believe their children’s faithful use of flotation vests predisposed them to drowning.

Judah Brown leaps into the water wearing a flotation vest. His mother Christi Brown says the device gave him a false sense of confidence and taught poor body positioning, which she believes put him at greater risk. He was 3 when he drowned, having gone in the water not wearing it.

Christi Brown became an advocate for drowning prevention after the death of her son Judah in 2016.

“The vertical position in the water is the drowning position,” Brown says.

Very young children, with their relatively large heads, can’t keep their chins above the water line even as their legs furiously cycle below, she says.

Jenny Bennett leans in to catch her toddler son Jackson, who loved to wear his floatie vest.

“They’re expending all that energy, and they’re not able to get up and get air,” Brown says.

Jenny Bennett is a registered nurse in Texas whose 18-month-old son Jackson loved to bob in his flotation vest with his family. He drowned in 2016 after quietly squeezing through a doggie door that was accidentally left unlocked. He wasn’t the vest.

Bennett would like to replace the prevailing “water baby” culture that praises floatie-wrapped toddlers.

“Our entire culture surrounding young children and water is all wrong,” says Bennett, who, as co-founder of the organization Parents Preventing Childhood Drowning, says she knows “at least 50” families who used the devices before experiencing a drowning.

Jenny Bennett is lying next to her 18-month-old son, Jackson, on a hospital bed after his drowning accident. He did not survive. — Jenny Bennett with Jackson in the hospital after his drowning accident. He did not survive.

Bennett, Brown and Hughes are advocates of what’s called Infant Swimming Resource — ISR — training, a series of 10-minute daily lessons for children as young as 6 months that teaches the “muscle memory” skill of floating on their backs.

Dominic Altobelli, 14 months old, gets an individualized back float lesson at CAST Water Safety Foundation's pool in Forest Park. — Dominic Altobelli, 14 months old, gets an individualized back float lesson at CAST Water Safety Foundation’s pool in Forest Park.

The idea is that, if a young child accidentally falls in, he’d float long enough for someone to notice and come to the rescue.

“They’re so much safer in the [back] float,” says Liz Huber, founder of the nonprofit CAST Water Safety Foundation in Forest Park, which last fall opened an ISR swim school.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says there’s no evidence that such infant swimming programs are beneficial.

But Kelly Wulf, who moved from Lake in the Hills to downstate O’Fallon, feels differently after enrolling her young twin daughters in a different ISR course.

“Within five weeks, it was amazing what they could do,” Wulf says. “They’re not drown-proof. This is just an added layer of protection.”

Water help, or hazard? Flotation vests for young kids popular but have come under fireon June 20, 2021 at 11:45 am Read More »

Chicago Blackhawks: 5 Boston Bruins free agents to steal this summeron June 20, 2021 at 11:00 am

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - APRIL 15: Taylor Hall #71 of the Boston Bruins skates against the New York Islanders during the third period at TD Garden on April 15, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Bruins defeat the Islanders 4-1. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) — BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – APRIL 15: Taylor Hall #71 of the Boston Bruins skates against the New York Islanders during the third period at TD Garden on April 15, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Bruins defeat the Islanders 4-1. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

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(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

The Chicago Blackhawks believe that they are going to be in contention next season. At least that is the direction that Stan Bowman wants us to believe that they are headed in. Regardless of what you think about that, there is no doubt that they are going to try and improve yet again in 2021-22. If they are to do that, they might look towards another Original Six franchise for some help.

The Chicago Blackhawks are going to be looking to add some players this offseason.

The Boston Bruins put out a good product year after year. No matter what, that team believes that they can win the Stanley Cup every single year and nobody blames them for it. With players like David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and Charlie McAvoy amongst others, it is hard to look at that roster and think they don’t have a chance.

There are going to be a few new names with that team next year. That is always to be expected when you have as many unrestricted free agents as the Bruins have. Of course, a few of them are going to resign but chances are that a few of them will make their way to a new team.

In fact, the Chicago Blackhawks would look really smart if they brought in anyone that came from the Boston Bruins organization. There are a lot of good names on the list that other teams are going to try and steal. If the Chicago Blackhawks were to try and take one of these Boston Bruins players, these are three that they might consider:

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Chicago Blackhawks: 5 Boston Bruins free agents to steal this summeron June 20, 2021 at 11:00 am Read More »

One little story of what it was like to be a woman reporter 40 years ago (a pregnant one)

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