A 75-year-old felon previously convicted of two 1970s murders has been charged with killing a man outside an assisted living facility in East Garfield Park earlier this week.

Why Bernard Barry shot 42-year-old Tyran Evans on Monday was not immediately clear, Cook County prosecutors said.

But an assistant public defender pointed out in court Wednesday that “this may be a self-defense situation.”

Barry was sitting in the driver’s seat of a parked car with another person outside the facility where he used to live in the 300 block of North California Avenue when Evans approached on a bicycle around 3 p.m. and told Barry to “get out,” Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said.

As Evans swung his fist at Barry, Barry fired his handgun, striking Evans once in the arm, Murphy said. The bullet pierced through Evans’ arm and into the right side of his body.

When Evans fell to the ground, Barry got out of the car, moved Evans’ bike to the rear of the car and began to drive away, Murphy said. Barry then halted briefly, allowing his passenger to exit the vehicle. He then allegedly drove off.

An employee at the assisted living facility heard the shots and called 911, prosecutors said. The worker saw Evans on the ground and Barry in the car, recognizing him as a former resident, Murphy said.

Evans later died at Stroger Hospital.

Chicago police

Barry allegedly got rid of the murder weapon and was taken into custody by a SWAT team at his home shortly after. Three spent cartridge casings were recovered from Barry’s car, Murphy said.

Barry told detectives conflicting accounts of what happened, but indicated at one point that Evans was trying to carjack him, Murphy said.

Judge Arthur Wesley Willis said he took the possible self-defense argument into account, but noted that Barry never called 911 and fled from the scene.

“Had he done so, this court would be thinking completely differently,” Willis said before ordering Barry held without bail.

Barry was sentenced to eight years in prison after he was convicted of murder in 1970, Murphy said.

According to news reports at the time, a man with the same name as Barry was convicted in the death of Chicago Police Officer Erwin Jackson. Jackson, 33, was accidentally shot by his partner during a scuffle with Barry at a West Side bar while the officers tried to disarm him in 1969, reports said.

Barry was convicted in another murder in 1975 and sentenced to 90 years in prison, Murphy said.

News reports said a man that shared Barry’s name and age was initially charged with two murders in the mid 70s and that Chicago police said he was a suspect in two additional murders.

Those articles also noted that Barry was sentenced to a year in prison for shooting the helmet off the head of a Chicago police officer in 1968 during “racial disturbances.”

A spokeswoman for state’s attorney’s office did not have additional information about Barry’s decades-old murder convictions and could not confirm the information in the news reports.

Murphy said Barry was discharged from parole last August for a 2005 conviction for aggravated discharge of a firearm.

Barry, a construction worker, suffers from emphysema and had part of his lung removed as a result, his assistant public defender said. The senior citizen has a son but is estranged from him, the defense attorney added.

Evans was scheduled to stand trial in July on attempted murder and aggravated battery charges.

Chicago police would not release details for the 2019 case. But Evans’ attorney Dawn Projansky told the Chicago Sun-Times that an intoxicated person had attacked Evans while he was in a car with his significant other.

“I felt we were going to win that case,” Projansky said. “He was defending himself and others.”

Projansky didn’t believe Evans’ murder was related to his pending case.

“Not even remotely,” she said.

Barry is expected back in court June 9.

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RIGBY, Idaho — When a student opened fire at an Idaho middle school, teacher Krista Gneiting directed children to safety, rushed to help a wounded victim and then calmly disarmed the sixth-grade shooter, hugging and consoling the girl until police arrived.

Parents credited the math teacher’s display of compassion with saving lives. While two students and the school custodian were shot May 6, all three survived, and the gunfire was over within minutes. Gneiting’s family says bravery and empathy are just part of who she is.

In an interview with ABC News that aired Wednesday, Gneiting said she was preparing her Rigby Middle School students for their final exams when she heard the first gunshot down the hall. She looked outside her classroom and saw the custodian lying on the floor. She heard two more shots as she closed the door.

“So I just told my students, ‘We are going to leave, we’re going to run to the high school, you’re going to run hard, you’re not going to look back and now is the time to get up and go,'” Gneiting said in the interview shown on “Good Morning America.”

Police said a sixth-grade girl brought the handgun in her backpack and shot two people inside the school and one outside. All three were wounded in their limbs and released from the hospital within a few days.

Gneiting said she was trying to help one of the students who had been shot when she saw the girl holding the gun. She told the wounded student to stay still and approached the sixth-grader.

“It was a little girl, and my brain couldn’t quite grasp that,” she said. “I just knew when I saw that gun, I had to get the gun.”

She asked the girl, “Are you the shooter?” and then walked closer, putting her hand on the child’s arm and sliding it down to the gun.

“I just slowly pulled the gun out of her hand, and she allowed me to. She didn’t give it to me, but she didn’t fight,” Gneiting said. “And then after I got the gun, I just pulled her into a hug because I thought, this little girl has a mom somewhere that doesn’t realize she’s having a breakdown and she’s hurting people.”

Gneiting held the girl, consoling her until police arrived.

“After a while, the girl started talking to me, and I could tell she was very unhappy,” Gneiting said. “I just kept hugging her and loving her and trying to let her know that we’re going to get through this together. I do believe that my being there helped her because she calmed down.”

Once police got there, Gneiting told the girl that an officer would need to put her in handcuffs, and the child complied.

“She didn’t respond, she just let him. He was very gentle and very kind, and he just went ahead and took her and put her in the police car,” she said.

The girl has been charged in the shooting, but because juvenile court proceedings are kept sealed in Idaho, neither her name nor the nature of the charges has been released.

Gneiting’s brother-in-law, Layne Gneiting, said that when he first heard about the shooting, he thought Krista Gneiting’s inner “mother bear” had sprung into action to protect the students. He soon realized it was another side of her strong parental instinct.

“Krista is a born mother,” Layne Gneiting wrote in a Facebook post shortly after the shooting. “Mess with her kids she’ll rip you apart. Need a hug she’ll hold you for hours, mingling her tears with yours … Determination pushed her to act, but tenderness and motherly love — not force — lifted the gun from the girl’s hands to hers.”

Krista Gneiting, meanwhile, said she hopes people can forgive the girl and help her get the support she needs.

“She is just barely starting in life and she just needs some help. Everybody makes mistakes,” she told ABC News. “I think we need to make sure we get her help and get her back into where she loves herself so that she can function in society.”

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NEW YORK — More than a year after coronavirus shutdowns sent “the city that never sleeps” into a fitful slumber, New York could be wide awake again this summer.

Starting Wednesday, vaccinated New Yorkers could shed their masks in most situations, and restaurants, stores, gyms and many other businesses could go back to full capacity if they ascertain that all patrons have been inoculated.

Subways resumed running round-the-clock this week. Midnight curfews for bars and restaurants will be gone by month’s end. Broadway tickets are on sale again, though the curtain won’t rise on any shows until September.

Officials say now is New York’s moment to shake off the image of a city brought to its knees by the virus last spring — a recovery poignantly rendered on the latest cover of The New Yorker magazine. It shows a giant door part-open to the city skyline, letting in a ray of light.

Is the Big Apple back to its old, brash self?

“Maybe 75%. … It’s definitely coming back to life,” said Mark Kumar, 24, a personal trainer.

But Ameen Deen, 63, said: “A full sense of normalcy is not going to come any time soon. There’s far too many deaths. There’s too much suffering. There’s too much inequality.”

Last spring, the biggest city in America was also the nation’s deadliest coronavirus hotspot, the site of over 21,000 deaths in just two months. Black and Hispanic patients have died at markedly higher rates than whites and Asian Americans.

Hospitals overflowed with patients and corpses. Refrigerated trailers served as temporary morgues, and tents were set up in Central Park as a COVID-19 ward. New York’s hectic streets fell quiet, save for ambulance sirens and nightly bursts of cheering from apartment windows for health care workers.

After a year of ebbs, surges, reopenings and closings, the city hopes vaccinations are turning the tide for good. About 48% of residents have had at least one dose so far. Deaths have amounted to about two dozen a day in recent weeks, and new cases and hospitalizations have plummeted from a wintertime wave.

Large swaths of the country and world are also moving toward normal after a crisis blamed for 3.4 million deaths globally, including more than 587,000 in the U.S.

Las Vegas casinos are returning to 100% capacity and no social distancing requirements. Disneyland in California opened up late last month after being shuttered for more than 400 days. Massachusetts this week announced that all virus restrictions will expire Memorial Day weekend.

Summer music festivals like Lollapalooza are back on, the Indy 500 is bracing for more than 100,000 fans, and the federal government says fully vaccinated adults no longer need to wear masks.

France opened back up on Wednesday as well, with the Eiffel Tower, Parisian cafes and cinemas and the Louvre bringing back visitors for the first time in months.

In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio has declared it the “summer of New York City.”

As the mask requirement eased statewide Wednesday, businesses grappled with enforcing different rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Fitness studio chain SLT planned to start checking vaccine cards Thursday to determine who could work out unmasked.

Still, founder Amanda Freeman applauded the change — “The only complicated part of this is that it’s complicated,” she said.

Some people bared their faces on the city’s streets, while others still wore masks.

City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams urged people to keep masking up, at least indoors.

“We don’t want to put people who haven’t yet received the vaccine in a position where they could become stigmatized or pressured for not wearing a mask,” he said.

There are other signs New York is regaining its bustle. Some 80,000 city employees returned to their offices at least part time this month; others already were working in person.

Subway and commuter rail ridership is averaging about 40% of normal after plunging to 10% last spring, when the subway system began closing for several hours overnight for the first time in its more than 115-year history.

Shakeem Brown, an artist and delivery person who works late in Manhattan, spent up to three hours a night commuting back to his Queens apartment before 24/7 service resumed Monday. Brown, 26, said it’s “refreshing” to see things opening up.

At e’s Bar on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, “we feel the energy” of social life ramping up, co-owner Erin Bellard said. “People are so excited to be out.”

Still, receipts at the bar and grill have been down about 35% because of pandemic restrictions on hours and capacity, she said. The impending end of the midnight curfew will give the bar two more crucial hours, and the owners are considering whether to regain full capacity by requiring vaccinations.

From other vantage points, “normal” looks farther off.

The sidewalks and skyscrapers of midtown Manhattan, for instance, are still noticeably empty. Big corporate employers largely aren’t looking to bring more workers back until fall, and only if they feel it’s safe, said Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a major employers group.

“Shutting down was easy. Reopening is hard,” Wylde said. “All the employers say that there still is fear and some resistance to coming back.”

Besides virus fears, companies and workers are wondering about safety, she said.

Crime in the city has become a growing source of concern, but it’s a complicated picture. Murders, shootings, felony assaults and auto thefts rose in the first four months of this year compared with the same period in pre-pandemic 2019, but robberies and grand larcenies fell. So did crime in the transit system, probably because of the drop in ridership.

Brandon Goldgrub returned to his midtown office in July, but just in the last few weeks, he has noticed the sidewalks seem a bit crowded again.

“Now I feel it’s a lot more normal,” said Goldgrub, 30, a property manager.

Visiting from Tallahassee, Florida, Jessica Souva looked around midtown and felt hopeful about the city where she used to live.

“All we heard, elsewhere in the country, was that New York was a ghost town, and this doesn’t feel like that,” said Souva, 47. “It feels like a city in transition.”

___

Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.

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The U.S. government said no to Gov. Kristi Noem’s argument that it’s patriotic to allow a fireworks show there. Now, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is fighting her efforts.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s lawsuit against the federal government over a Fourth of July fireworks display she wants to put on at Mount Rushmore once again this summer has reignited tensions between Noem and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

The tribe has moved to join the lawsuit in opposition to Noem, who’s asking a federal judge to order the National Park Service to allow the fireworks display, like one held at Mount Rushmore last year.

The Republican governor sued the U.S. Department of Interior last month after the park service denied the state’s application for the event this year. It pointed to safety concerns and objections from local tribes.

The tribal lawsuit touches on a century-old dispute over ownership and control of the Black Hills, which include Mount Rushmore. In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the land was taken from tribes in violation of treaty agreements and offered them a monetary payment.

Now, in the lawsuit over Noem’s hoped-for fireworks show at Mount Rushmore, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Steve Vance, the tribe’s historic preservation officer, argue that they should be allowed to take part in the lawsuit because the land on which Mount Rushmore sits is “our most sacred site — the Heart of Everything That Is.”

“The fact that this event could be forced upon us in our sacred lands despite our clear opposition to the event traumatizes us as a people and inflicts grief upon us,” the tribe and Vance argue in court documents. “To us, allowing this event to occur again is a colonial attack on one of our most sacred places.”

In a court filing in response to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe’s request to join the lawsuit, Noem argues that the tribe doesn’t have any legal standing in what she termed a “state-federal dispute.” Her lawyers say the fireworks display wouldn’t hinder the tribe’s religious or free speech rights.

When Noem filed the lawsuit, she argued that patriotism was a reason to allow the fireworks show at Mount Rushmore.

Chief Judge Roberto Lange of the federal district court of South Dakota hasn’t ruled on whether the tribe can join the suit. He indicated he’ll decide by June 2 whether to issue a preliminary injunction to force the National Park Service to allow the fireworks display.

Last year, Noem threatened to sue over coronavirus checkpoints the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe set up to keep unnecessary visitors off its reservation during the pandemic. Noem backed down.

South Dakota also sued the tribe for changing speed-limit signs on a state highway that runs through the reservation.

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1. Tulips are blooming. Playgrounds are bustling. Spring has officially arrived in Chicago! Which means your favorite local farmers markets are back in business, offering top-notch produce at great prices. So skip the crowds at Whole Foods and spend your Saturday morning perusing some of these amazing farmer’s markets around Chicago. 

Logan Square Farmers Market

3107 W. Logan Blvd., Chicago, 60647

Located right on Logan Boulevard between Milwaukee and Whipple, this popular neighborhood market is always poppin’. They’re open on Sundays from 9AM to 3PM, now through October 31st. Just a heads up, LSFM has designated 9AM to 10AM as a shopping hour for high-risk populations. And don’t forget your face mask! 

Green City Market

Lincoln Park: 1817 N Clark St.

West Loop: 115 S Sangamon St

For 19 years, Green City Market has been Chicago’s largest year-round sustainable farmers market. Their vendor list is extensive with farmers from all over the area slinging quality dairy, meats, and produce. The farmers market in Lincoln Park runs now through October, every Wednesday and Saturday from 7am to 1pm. The West Loop location opens in June through October, every Saturday from 8am to 1pm. 

Andersonville Farmers Market

1500 W Catalpa Ave, Chicago, IL 60640

After 12 seasons, this popular Edgewater farmers market is back and operating as a hybrid market, with onsite shopping as well as an online market. Stop by to check out vendors like Andersonville Fine Foods, River Valley Ranch, Hillside Orchards, and much more! Open Wednesdays from 3pm to 7pm, now through October 20.

Northcenter Farmers Market 

4100 N. Damen, Chicago, IL 60618

As one of the oldest farmers markets in Chicago, Northcenter has a roster of wonderful vendors providing produce, pastries and much more. Check out their newly-renovated Town Square on Saturdays starting June 5 through October 30, 8am to 1pm. Inventory tends to sell out early so try to get there before 11am. And, of course, don’t forget to mask up.

Englewood City Market

1219 W. 76th St., Chicago, IL 60620

Located on the South Side of Chicago, this friendly neighborhood farmers market offers a delicious sampling of organic produce, dairy, jams, bread, and more. Mark your calendars, ECM opens July 17 and runs through September 18 from 10am to 2pm. 

For more Farmers Market goodness in Chicago, check out this helpful schedule!

Farmer’s Markets Chicago Featured Image Credit: Bild von Martin Winkler auf Pixabay 

The post 5 Best Farmer’s Markets in Chicago You Must Hit Up This Spring appeared first on UrbanMatter.

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The two have had other moments of tension over the years, and their current differences over the war in Gaza create a challenge that President Joe Biden was trying mightily to avoid.

President Joe Biden’s efforts to persuade Benjamin Netanyahu to halt military strikes against Hamas in Gaza are plunging the two leaders into a difficult early test of the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

The two have had other moments of tension over the years, and their current differences over the war in Gaza create a challenge that Biden was trying mightily to avoid.

Biden told Netanyahu in a telephone call Wednesday that he expected “significant de-escalation” of the fighting by day’s end, according to the White House. But the prime minister came right back with a public declaration that he was “determined to continue” the Gaza operation “until its objective is achieved.”

Netanyahu did allow that he “greatly appreciates the support of the American president,” but said nonetheless that Israel would push ahead.

This is not where Biden had hoped to expend his time and energy.

Early in Biden’s term, foreign policy has taken a back seat. The president has tried to avoid getting bogged down in an interminable effort to establish an elusive Mideast peace that many of his White House predecessors have dedicated precious time to without much success.

This is not the first time Biden and Netanyahu have been publicly at odds.

As vice president, Biden kept Netanyahu waiting for a dinner meeting after the Israeli leader embarrassed President Barack Obama by approving the construction of 1,600 new apartments in disputed east Jerusalem in the middle of Biden’s 2010 visit to Israel.

Netanyahu sought to patch up hurt feelings at the dinner. But after the meal, Biden admonished the prime minister in a statement, saying the move undermined a U.S. effort to persuade the Palestinians to resume peace talks.

Later, Obama and Netanyahu’s relationship cratered as White House aides questioned the Israeli’s willingness to find accommodations with Palestinians and Sunni Arab countries to build a lasting peace in the region. Netanyahu, for his part, was furious about White House efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran.

Amid the tension between Obama and Netanyahu, Biden went out of his way during a 2014 speech before the Jewish Federations of North America to say that he and Netanyahu were “still buddies,” albeit with a somewhat complicated relationship. Biden noted that he had once inscribed a photo for Netanyahu with “Bibi I don’t agree with a damn thing you say but I love you.’”

In late 2019, during a question and answer session with voters on the campaign trail, Biden called Netanyahu “counterproductive” and an “extreme right” leader. But he also accused Palestinian leaders of “fomenting” the conflict and “baiting everyone who is Jewish.” And he suggested that some on the U.S. political left give the Palestinian Authority “a pass” when criticizing Israeli leadership.

Netanyahu had a notably better relationship with President Donald Trump, whom he praised for moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and brokering a normalization of relations between Israel and Gulf neighbors Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates as well as Morocco and Sudan.

Biden’s call on Netanyahu to de-escalate the fighting came as political and international pressure mounted on the U.S. president to intervene more forcefully to push for an end to the hostilities. Biden, until Wednesday, had avoided pressing Israel more directly and publicly for a cease-fire, or conveying that level of urgency for ending Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas in the thickly populated Gaza Strip.

His administration has relied instead on what officials described as “quiet, intensive” diplomacy, including quashing a U.N. Security Council statement that would have addressed a cease-fire. The administration’s handling opened a divide between Biden and some Democratic lawmakers, dozens of whom have called for a cease-fire.

Egypt and some others have worked without success to broker a halt to fighting, while Hamas officials indicated publicly they would keep up their rocket barrages into Israel as long as Israel continued airstrikes.

Netanyahu, in his statement, made clear he had no plans to immediately wind down Israeli strikes targeting Hamas leaders and supply tunnels in Gaza, a 25-mile by 6-mile strip of territory that is home to more than 2 million people.

“With every passing day we are striking at more of the terrorist organizations’ capabilities, targeting more senior commanders, toppling more terrorist buildings and hitting more weaponry stockpiles,” Netanyahu said.

The White House did not respond directly to Netanyahu’s statement but said top Biden advisers continued to be in “hour by hour” contact with their Israeli counterparts.

Biden’s relationship with Netanyahu could be further complicated for the president by a shifting tide on Israel among some congressional Democrats. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has called Israel an “apartheid state,” and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has labeled Israeli airstrikes “terrorism.” Biden, during a visit to a Michigan on Tuesday, had an animated conversation about the ongoing fighting with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who has family in the West Bank. Tlaib had pressed Biden to call for a cease-fire.

Soon after Netanyahu announced he planned to continue operations, Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin introduced a resolution opposing the sale of $735 million in military weaponry to Israel that’s already been approved by the Biden administration.

The fighting, the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence since 2014, has killed at least 219 Palestinians and 12 people in Israel.

Top Biden administration officials have stressed to the Israelis in recent days that time is not on their side as international objections mount to their operations and domestic pressure builds on Biden, according to a person familiar with the ongoing discussions,

—-

Associated Press Writer Alexandra Jaffe in New London, Connecticut, contributed reporting.

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