So as you know I can’t stand Waka Flocka LAME!

And this incident is really sad, how is it that we

can not come together without our children

being hurt in the process.

HipHop Wire Reports:

Police in Gary, Indiana were called to the scene of a concert headlined by Waka Flocka Flame Friday after a fight broke out leaving 8 people shot and injured.

As previously reported, Waka got into a fight of his own Thursday at a popular Atlanta clothing store with members of Young Jeezy’s entourage that left him with his eye blackened.

Now police report that things almost turned deadly at one of his concerts in the Midwest.

Source

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By Chris Kuc
 

VANCOUVER — The United States’ women’s hockey team will be playing for the gold medal.

The U.S. team hammered Sweden 9-1 on Monday in the semifinals of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

Monique LaMoureux scored three goals and six other Americans scored, while Jessie Vetter made 11 saves to pick up the win in goal.

The U.S. team, which has outscored its first four opponents by a combined 40-2, will play the winner of the other semifinal between Canada and Finland for the gold medal Thursday.

Photo: Caitlin Catow (8) celebrates her goal with Angelo Ruggiero (4) during the U.S. team’s 9-1 victory Monday over Sweden. (Alex Livesey/Getty)

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NEW YORK (AP) — A delusional fan who unleashed his crude fantasies about Ashanti in a battery of text messages to her mother was sentenced Thursday to two years in jail, though his judge rued not being able to send him to psychological treatment instead.
A downcast Devar Hurd said he didn’t mean to annoy or alarm the Grammy Award-winning R&B singer and her family when he sent the messages. Some included photos of his genitals and a picture of the family’s Long Island home with a comment about stopping by to visit.
“My intent was not to harm,” he told the judge. “I always wish the best for (Ashanti).”
Hurd, 31, was convicted in December of stalking and aggravated harassment. Ashanti’s mother and manager, Tina Douglas, said she was glad to see the case closed with his sentencing.
“We’re really so glad to have this behind us, and we feel justice has been served,” she said through a spokeswoman.
Douglas told jurors the messages disgusted her and spurred her to hire extra security personnel. One message envisioned Hurd someday living with the multiplatinum-selling singer; another said his mental state “is very fragile with all this.”
Hurd said the messages were intended as friendly repartee, “sex texting” and jokes, and he didn’t think Douglas would mind them.
The would-be rapper from Griffith, Ind., didn’t raise any psychiatric issues during his trial, where he gave jurors a lengthy account of what he described as a friendship and brewing business relationship with Douglas.
She said she didn’t know Hurd and told him to leave her alone, to no avail.
After Hurd was convicted, doctors diagnosed him as having a delusional disorder, Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber said. But months of efforts to arrange probation with mental-health treatment were unsuccessful, in part because Hurd has nowhere to live in New York, Farber said.
He gave Hurd the maximum possible sentence for the misdemeanor offenses, noting the fear Douglas said she felt because of the messages. Farber recommended psychiatric treatment for Hurd in jail.
“It’s obvious to me that you need to get help,” the judge said.
Prosecutors, who pushed for the maximum sentence, said Hurd should be held responsible for his explicit text-message blitz despite his psychological problems.
“Even if he believes that Ashanti was in love with him, his conduct was not that of a man wooing a woman. He was not sending her flowers,” but rather barraging her mother with messages any parent would find objectionable, Assistant District Attorney Carolina Holderness said.
Hurd has been jailed since his July arrest, time that will count toward his sentence.
Ashanti didn’t testify at the trial, and no one in her family attended Hurd’s sentencing.
Raised in Glen Cove, N.Y., Ashanti signed her first record deal at 14. She has recorded hits including “Foolish” and “Only U.”
She also has acted in such films as “Coach Carter” and “John Tucker Must Die” and starred as Dorothy in an off-Broadway revival of “The Wiz” this summer.

Technorati Tags: Arrest, Ashanti, Assistant District, B Singer, battery, brewing business, business relationship, Carolina Holderness, Carter, crude, delusional, delusional disorder, devar, Dorothy, Douglas, downcast, extra security, Family, fan, Glen Cove, Grammy award, Griffith, Hurd, Ind., Jail, John Tucker Must, judge, justice thomas, Justice Thomas Farber, lengthy account, Long Island, Manhattan, manhattan state, maximum, mental health treatment, misdemeanor offenses, mom, mother, N.Y., New York, psychiatric issues, psychological treatment, repartee, sentence, sentencing, singer, stalker, state, state supreme court, supreme court justice, text, thomas farber, Thursday, Tina Douglas, treatment, trial

UPDATE: Police said tonight that Patrycia Bochmulski returned home. No further details were released.

ChicagoChicago reviews police said tonight they are looking for a 16-year-old girl last seen a week ago at Prosser High School in the city’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood.

Patrycia Bochmulski, of the 5400 block of West Addison Street, was spotted at Prosser at noon on Thursday, police said in a missing persons alert.

Patrycia is described in the alert as Caucasian, 5-foot-4, 130 pounds, with a fair complexion, green eyes and brown hair.

She was wearing a black jacket, black T-shirt and blue jeans, police said.

Anyone with information about Patrycia’s whereabouts should call the Grand Central Area’s Special Victims Unit at 312-746-8365.

–Jeff Finkelman

Technorati Tags: 16 Year Old Girl, Addison Street, Alert, Belmont, belmont cragin, block, blue jeans, Bochmulski, brown hair, Caucasian, Central Area, chicago, Chicago Police, Chicago, IL, city, Cragin, fair complexion, Finkelman, girl, green eyes, High, home, Jeff Finkelman, missing girl, missing persons, neighborhood, News, noon, old girl, Patrycia, photo, Police, Prosser, Prosser High School, school, special victims unit, Street, T-SHIRT, Thursday, Tonight, Update, Updated, week, West Addison

City health inspectors used bleach to destroy hundreds of pounds of frozen fruit puree and threw out other food in a West Town kitchen on Thursday night, citing not safety violations but a lack of proper licensing.

The fruit — apples, plums, raspberries, pears, blueberries and peaches from local growers harvested and frozen last summer — belonged to pastry chef Flora Lazar, who valued it at thousands of dollars.

Lazar had rented space for her business, Flora Confections, at Kitchen ChicagoChicago reviews, a shared cooking facility for small artisan bakers, candymakers and caterers. A second business, the caterer Sunday Dinner Club, said it lost more than $1,000 in discarded cassoulet, granola bars and baking supplies.

Both businesses said they have sought licenses from the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection to operate at the kitchen, 324 N. Leavitt St. At first, they said, they were told multiple business licenses could not be issued to the same address.

Two weeks ago, the department issued a cease-and-desist order to the firms and said they could apply for the licenses. Spokeswoman Efrat Stein said it has had a consistent policy on shared kitchens since August.

The companies applied, paid the fees and invited the Chicago Department of Health inspectors. Lazar said they didn’t know the inspectors would destroy any food that appeared to have been cooked, processed or opened before they arrived.

Lazar, who had planned to use the purees to make fruit gelees for Valentine’s Day, tried to give the fruit to her son, but an inspector called in the Chicago Police Department to intervene. The bags of fruit were then slashed open and treated with bleach.

“We didn’t know how the food would be handled after it left so we could not allow it to be moved,” said Frances Guichard, food protection director at the health department.

“This puts me out of business for six months,” Lazar said after losing the “irreplaceable” fruit. “I have done everything by the rules. Instead of making the food at home, which I could easily do, I sought out and rented space in a licensed kitchen. When [the city] finally said we could apply for a separate license, I did that. I paid my $600 and invited the inspectors here today.”

Kitchen Chicago owner Alexis Leverenz said the city’s rules seem to penalize small businesses like hers. Each time a renter applies to work in her kitchen, the health department inspects it again. Even Chicago’s busiest restaurants may be inspected just once a year.

Even harsher, she said, is the department’s threat to fine all of her clients if they find any one of them has committed a violation. “That’s like giving everyone in the car their own ticket when a driver is stopped by the police,” she said.

“Businesses like ours are good for the city,” Leverenz said. “We have launched successful, well-loved businesses, created jobs and gotten people out of their unlicensed home kitchens. By making it so difficult they are sending people back home to work instead of going to a licensed facilities like ours.”

Stein said “shared kitchen space is a great concept and … we want to see them all licensed as quickly as possible.”

Leverenz said the inspectors told her they would return Monday and that no food remaining in her kitchen was to be touched before then.

–Monica Eng

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Vowing that he would not let protesters or threats stop him from talking about the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, attorney Marc Falkoff told an audience at McHenry Community College Thursday night that many of the detainees were innocent men imprisoned without evidence.

Falkoff added that there are some genuine terrorists at the prison, but it also houses “scores of men who are entirely innocent.”

The controversial Northern Illinois University law professor was forced to defend himself against some heated questions about his free legal work on behalf of the detainees and his publication of a book of poetry by 17 of them.  “Poems From Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak” was published in 2007.

“What have you done for our military people who have been fighting?” asked Mary Alger of Crystal LakeThe Crystal Lake reviews.
 
Falkoff said he donates to the Disabled Veterans of America and defended the poetry book, saying it was important that Americans know the detainees are human beings.
 
Her husband, Joe Alger, a member of the Patriot Guard, a motorcycle group that volunteers as escorts at the funerals of service members killed in action, would have none of Falkoff’s explanations.

“Every family who has had someone killed in action that I’ve talked to feels this is an affront to them,” said Alger, a military veteran.

Alger and his group held posters and American flags in a demonstration outside the center before Falkoff’s talk, but college security officers made them put the materials away before they could enter the building.

An extra security detail of Crystal Lake police officers stood by and escorted one woman from the auditorium after she continued to interrupt Falkoff while he tried to answer her questions.
 
In response to a question from Joe Alger, Falkoff said he would continue to speak out about the legal issues at Guantanamo, where 172 prisoners remain. The prison at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba once held 779 detainees.
  
“I am not going to  bow to a mob that is trying to keep me from talking about important issues,” said Falkoff.  The retort brought applause from the audience of about 150.

Sean McCormick, a 20-year-old student who attended the talk as an assignment for a sociology class, said it was an enlightening experience.
 
“I wasn’t educated about (Guantanamo) and I learned a lot about it tonight,” said McCormick. “I think the protesters had some good points, but I thought they were disrespectful.”

At a reception after the talk, Falkoff, flanked by police officers, said he has received numerous threats against him and his family.
 
“My wife is out of her mind that someone is going to throw something at me or shoot me,” said Falkoff.
 
His appearance was sponsored by the Student Peace Action Network, McHenry County Pax Christi and the McHenry County Peace Coalition.

–George Houde

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Gov. Pat Quinn takes questions about his new running mate, Scott Lee Cohen at news conference. (Alex Garcia/Tribune)

Gov. Pat Quinn finally won the Democratic governor nomination Thursday, only to find himself trying to dump a running mate who has been accused of abusing women, failing to pay child support and spending lavishly on extramarital affairs.

While Quinn suggested that Scott Lee Cohen drop out for the good of the Democratic Party, the pawnbroker and political neophyte vowed to continue as a lieutenant governor candidate after voters nominated him Tuesday.

“My honesty and integrity in putting it out there is the best thing that could happen to the party,” Cohen told the Tribune.

His ex-wife, Debra York-Cohen, appeared with him Thursday as part of a media blitz aimed at repairing his image. York-Cohen said she stood by allegations she made during the couple’s divorce, but that Cohen’s bad behavior took place when he was using steroids.

“It was a short period of time, and it’s certainly not something that the people of Illinois need to be concerned with,” York-Cohen said.

But new disclosures showed that even as Cohen was spending more than $2 million of his own money to run TV and radio ads for his campaign, his ex-wife in December was accusing him in court of being $54,000 behind in child support payments. Cohen and his ex-wife declined to discuss the ongoing case.

The latest details came after the Tribune reported Wednesday that police and court records from an October 2005 incident show that Cohen’s then-girlfriend alleged he put a knife to her throat and pushed her head against a wall. Public records show that the woman, his 24-year-old girlfriend at the time, pleaded guilty to prostitution that same month.

The misdemeanor charges against Cohen were later dropped when the woman did not show up for court. Cohen also denied allegations he physically assaulted her and used a knife.

Cohen said Thursday he didn’t know the woman was a prostitute and met her when he got a “straight massage” at the Eden Spa.

But a Glenview police report indicates his ex-girlfriend freely told an undercover officer posing as a massage customer that women there performed sex acts for money. The April 2005 report detailed a sexual act that Cohen’s ex-girlfriend performed for $150, then told the undercover officer that the spa operator “is well-aware of what the girls are doing.”

Fearful Cohen could drag down Illinois Democrats in the November election, Quinn said the candidate has “an obligation to step aside” if he can’t suitably explain himself to voters — a sentiment echoed by other Democratic leaders.

Some top Democrats are giving Cohen room to maneuver as he weighs his options. That’s partly out of necessity — there’s no legal avenue for the party to remove Cohen as the lieutenant governor nominee.

So for now, they wait.

“We think there’ll be enough political pressure placed on him, enough media pressure surrounding his past, that he will drop out,” said one ChicagoChicago reviews Democrat who spent more than 20 minutes Thursday with lawmakers discussing the Cohen issue.

For his part, Cohen left himself an out.

“If the people of Illinois decided they don’t want me as their lieutenant governor, I would consider it at that point,” Cohen said on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight.” “Time will tell.”

Still, Cohen maintained that his candidacy is “a strength for the party.”

“I’m the guy that’s going to help the governor to come up with these creative ways to bring in revenue,” he said.

As Cohen sought to set the record straight, documents from his 2005 divorce case portrayed a troubled marriage. They show that York-Cohen accused him of abusive behavior, including choking her.

“Over the past year my husband has been taking injectable anabolic steroids, including but not limited to Winstrol, Creatine, and Steen, and as a result he has an erratic, explosive temper,” York-Cohen said in a petition for an order of protection. She described rages at their children and his admission to several affairs, and alleged he tried to force himself on her sexually.

Cohen responded to some of the allegations in his petition to visit his children during the couple’s separation.

“Although I may have taken steroids and or performance enhancing drugs in the past I have not utilized any of these drugs in the last two weeks. … Although from time to time I have screamed and yelled at my children, that is my parenting style and my prerogative. I have never abused my children, I have never hurt my children and I have never done any harm to them,” Cohen said, according to the records.

On Thursday, Cohen told the Tribune he obtained the steroids without a prescription. He said he got them through friends.

The whole storm has the potential to be a disaster for Democrats in the fall campaign as they try to keep their tenuous hold on state government after the scandal that led to ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s ouster.

“I think as a party that is coming off of the impeachment of a governor and trying to lead a state in difficult financial times, the last thing we need are unnecessary distractions,” said state Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago. “You’re not going to find somebody who thinks this is a good thing unless it’s a Republican.”

Indeed, the situation became yet another card for Republicans to play, even though their governor contest remains undecided. Minutes after Cohen vowed to stay on the ticket, some Republicans were calling on Democratic candidates to disavow Cohen.

Late Thursday, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias, who heads the statewide ticket, called on Cohen to step down.

Democratic leaders acknowledged that the revelations about Cohen represent a grave situation for the ticket. At the same time, they also said they weren’t panicking and that the early primary date gives them time to work out a solution.

Steve Brown, spokesman for state Democratic Chairman Michael Madigan, the House speaker, said he viewed the Cohen disclosures to be a “radically different situation” from the 1986 primary debacle when Democratic voters nominated two followers of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche for lieutenant governor and secretary of state.

That forced governor candidate Adlai E. Stevenson III to flee the Democratic ticket and form a third party. He lost.

Instead, Democratic leaders said the Cohen disclosures are more akin to the 2004 Republican U.S. Senate primary. Nominee Jack Ryan quit because of damaging divorce-file disclosures involving his former wife, actress Jeri Lynn Ryan.

If Cohen drops out, the 38-member Democratic State Central Committee would select a replacement.

Quinn, who earlier in the day had received the news that primary opponent Dan Hynes was conceding their tight primary race, said he had spoken with Madigan about the process for finding a new lieutenant governor nominee should Cohen step down.

“In those circumstances, then the state central committee has to come together and they have to select a replacement,” Quinn said. “Any of those who are interested in vying for something will have to wait.”

Cohen’s victory caught many Democrats off guard.

The 44-year-old divorced father of four won in large part because his self-financed campaign dumped thousands of direct-mail pieces and scores of television commercials late in the race that showed him hosting job fairs for the unemployed. Although he only garnered 212,900 votes, it helped him defeat more established opponents, including state Rep. Art Turner and state Sens. Rickey Hendon and Terry Link.

With Democratic power brokers focused on local races for governor, Cook County Board president or Senate, the lesser-known lieutenant governor’s race slipped well under the radar.

There was little media coverage or public scrutiny of the candidates for a job that carries little political power but is just a heartbeat — or an impeachment — away from being the state’s chief executive. Even his opponents never made a large issue of it.

Cohen argues the public shouldn’t either.

“Everybody makes mistakes, and that’s what happened to me,” Cohen said. “It has no bearing on me leading the people of Illinois.”

Tribune reporters David Kidwell, Robert Becker, Ray Long, Michelle Manchir, Rick Pearson and Stacy St. Clair contributed to this report.

–David Heinzmann, John Chase and Monique Garcia

Click HERE for a WGN-TV report on this story.

Technorati Tags: Alex Garcia, bad behavior, behavior, candidate, chicago, child, child support payments, couple, court, Court Records, Debra York-, democratic governor, democratic party, disclosures, divorce, ex-wife, extramarital affairs, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Governor, governor candidate, illinois, lee cohen, lieutenant, lieutenant governor, Lt Gov, mate, media blitz, Misdemeanor Charges, Nbsp, News, News Conference, part, party, Pat, Pat Quinn, pawnbroker, photo, Politics, Quinn, radio ads, running mate, Scott Lee Cohen, support, Thursday, time, Tribune, Updated, using steroids, video, wife debra, woman

After the discovery of the body of a resident at the Leaning Tower YMCA in Niles, village police officer William Christie reached out to the man’s sister, offered to clean out the room and later even sent her $274 in cash he said he found among the possessions.

But Christie’s gestures didn’t turn out to be so magnanimous, authorities charged Thursday.

Instead, the veteran officer had himself pocketed about $1,700, including more than $500 in coins he carted off in a cardboard box from the dead man’s room, the charges alleged.

Investigators captured the theft on a video camera hidden in the YMCA room, authorities said. YMCA staffers had grown suspicious and alerted Niles police after Christie attempted to access the room repeatedly in the days after the resident’s death. In a sting operation, police had even added marked bills to the stash left by the resident.

Christie, 48, a Niles officer for 27 years, surrendered to authorities Thursday at the Skokie Courthouse on theft and official misconduct charges following an investigation by his own department and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. He was released after posting 10 percent of $50,000 bail. His attorney, Terry Sullivan, declined to comment.

“We take these types of allegations very seriously,” Niles Police Chief Dean Strzelecki said in a telephone interview. “If we had not acted immediately, (the money) would have been all gone.”

Christie resigned from the department in late November, just a day before Strzelecki was expected to present evidence of the theft to the village’s police and fire board.

Court records show that Christie was facing severe financial difficulties. Last March a bank moved to foreclose on his $680,000 Niles house, saying he and his wife hadn’t made a mortgage payment for almost a year. That lawsuit is still ongoing in Cook County Circuit Court.

In mid-2008 Christie and his wife filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. He reported more than $750,000 in liabilities, including $81,000 in credit-card debt. His mortgage payment totaled $3,742 a month, according to the records, and he said he and his wife had only $20 cash in hand.

Police and prosecutors declined to release the name of the resident whose decomposed body was discovered Nov. 9 at the YMCA at 6300 W. Touhy Ave. in Niles, but records from the Cook County medical examiner’s office identified him as Larry Pollak, 57. An autopsy determined he had died of cardiovascular disease.

On the night Pollak was found, authorities alleged, Christie made an odd request. He told YMCA staff that he would be off-duty for the next three days but that if anyone wanted to gain entry to the room, he should be notified immediately. He provided his personal cell phone number and told employees to keep the room sealed.

But the only one trying to enter Pollak’s room was Christie himself, even after he’d been instructed to withdraw from the routine death investigation, Strzelecki said. On Nov. 17, YMCA staffers called Christie’s supervisor, saying something was strange about the officer’s repeated attempts to enter Pollak’s apartment.

“He’d been told to let the detectives handle it and then the Y called,” Strzelecki said. “That kind of raised everybody’s suspicions.”

The next day, Nov. 18, investigators hid a video camera in the room and tallied how much cash had been left behind by Pollak, according to the charges. They found more than $1,000 in coins and an additional $768 in currency. Investigators added an additional $355 in marked bills.

They didn’t have to wait long, authorities said. Later that same day, Christie entered the room and was caught on the covert camera emptying numerous containers of coins into a cardboard box, they said.

The next day, video at a credit union allegedly captured Christie carrying a cardboard box. Records at the credit union showed he deposited $501.27 in coins in the morning and cashed an additional $40.49 in coins later that day.

He later mailed $274 to Pollak’s sister in California, telling her that was all the money he found, authorities said.

–Matthew Walberg

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Bond for a 57-year-old Arlington Heights man accused of having child pornography on his computer was set at $100,000 in Cook County Circuit Court Thursday.

Larry Moser, of the 600 block of west Burning Tree Lane, was charged in Rolling Meadows branch court with aggravated child pornography.

Moser identified himself to authorities as an insurance industry executive, but he is also an Illinois High School Association referee, officials from the Cook County sheriff’s office said.

Assistant State’s Attorney Bill Cotter said Moser was arrested Wednesday following a joint, two-month investigation by the Cook County sheriff and the FBI.  Police seized Moser’s computers in December and found 100 pictures of children under 13 posed in sexual acts, including some who were infants, Cotter said.

When he turned himself in Wednesday, he told investigators he wants to be a “crusader against child pornography,” the sheriff’s office said.

“Proper protocol has been followed in this situation,” IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman said in a prepared statement. “The individual who was suspended today had not been charged with any crimes until [today] and was not a registered sex offender, nor did he have any previous record. The IHSA has never received any complaints concerning his conduct while acting as an IHSA official.”

Moser’s next court date is March 25.

– George Houde

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A day after state Rep. Monique Davis, D-ChicagoChicago reviews, pledged to return a $25,000 statue owned by Chicago State University, “Defiance” had a new home on the 4th floor of the college’s library.

Two Chicago State employees with a hand truck carried the bronze statue out of Davis’ office Thursday night, hours after she held a news conference to explain how she obtained the piece of artwork, according to university spokeswoman Felicia Horton.

Davis said her boyfriend, who bought the statue with state money when he worked at a financial aid agency on campus, heard after the program was closed down that the statue had been warehoused. He took the statue to Davis’ office.

On Friday, the statue stood in a sun-lit reading area that many administrators, students and university guests pass through.

Students said they welcomed the statue, which portrays a life-size, shackled female slave, half disrobed so buyers could inspect the merchandise.

“I’m sure it’ll draw a lot of attention,” said Charles Jackson III, a 23-year-old junior majoring in African-American studies. “We don’t know too much about our past because a lot of it was lost. This makes me proud.”

“It shows how far we’ve come but it also shows how much further we have to go,” said Menisha Archie, a 30-year-old junior nursing student. “She was whipped and stripped down naked, and now there are women dancing voluntarily naked in videos. A lot of women should come and see this.”

Gabrielle Toth, a librarian and assistant professor, thought the statue looked “fantastic.”

“A library is a place for intellectual activity, not merely for silence,” she said. “She has a lot to say to us. We need to listen and discuss.”

– Daarel Burnette II

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A virus known for spreading in close quarters is the likely cause of an unusually high number of student absences this week at a Warren Township High School campus in Gurnee, Lake County Health Department officials said today.

“We believe, based on what was reported, it is gastroenteritis caused by some kind of virus, most likely norovirus,” said Victor Plotkin, Lake County Health Department epidemiologist.

About 230 students were absent Friday, and 45 were sent home with gastrointestinal symptoms from the school’s O’Plaine campus at 500 N. O’Plaine Road, Warren Township High School District 121 spokeswoman Carolyn Waller said. The building houses mostly freshmen and sophomores.

The school’s Almond Road Campus in Gurnee is not affected.

More than 200 students called in sick or were sent home on Thursday, including one who was treated in a hospital emergency room for dehydration and released the same day, Plotkin said. Eight of the school’s 200 teachers were sick on Thursday.

Noroviruses, which are highly contagious, are easily passed through human contact, said Shawn Cesario, nurse epidemiologist for the Lake County Health Department. The illness typically lasts two to three days.

Health Department officials said they are not recommending closing the school at this time, but will continue to monitor daily the number of student absences.

Similar outbreaks are common during the late fall and winter months, officials said. The county Health Department fields three to four reports a year in schools and five to six in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. The outbreak at Warren is the second reported this season.

To minimize further spreading of the virus, officials recommend washing hands and food thoroughly, sanitizing infected areas with bleach and washing contaminated clothing, sheets and towels.

District 121 officials also noted that students stricken with the illness should avoid contact with others.

“If they are feeling sick, please stay home,” Waller said. “If they’re feeling OK, they need to come to school.”

–Andrea L. Brown

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A woman is suing Metra, claiming she was injured when a toilet on one its trains “exploded.”

Julianna Mandernach says she boarded the Rock Island line train on Jan. 29 last year and used one of the restrooms.
“Upon flushing said toilet, the contents of the toilet exploded out of
the toilet and splattered the plaintiff, resulting in injuries to the
plaintiff.”

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Cook County, contends that Metra “should
have known that the toilet was in need of replacement or repair.”

Read the complaint at Chicago Bar-Tender.

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A woman is suing Metra, claiming she was injured when a toilet on one its trains “exploded.”

Julianna Mandernach says she boarded the Rock Island line train on Jan. 29 last year and used one of the restrooms.
“Upon flushing said toilet, the contents of the toilet exploded out of
the toilet and splattered the plaintiff, resulting in injuries to the
plaintiff.”

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Cook County, contends that Metra “should
have known that the toilet was in need of replacement or repair.”

Read the complaint at Chicago Bar-Tender.

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Investigators at the scene of the police-involved shooting (Jeremy Gorner/ChicagoChicago reviews Tribune) 

Chicago police on narcotics surveillance shot and seriously wounded a man who allegedly pointed a gun at them late Thursday night in the South SideSouth Side reviews’s Bronzeville neighborhood.

About 11 p.m., gang enforcement officers on narcotics surveillance in the 3800 block of South Michigan Avenue saw a man hand a gun and a bag of drugs to another person in a vehicle, police said.

The officers pulled the vehicle over a short time later in the 4500 block of South Michigan and approached on foot, announcing who they were. Police said the man then pointed his gun at the officers, prompting them to open fire.

The man, in his 30s, was in police custody at Stroger Hospital this morning in serious condition with a neck wound. He had not been charged as of this morning. Police said they confiscated a gun and some drugs.

The Independent Police Review Authority, which probes shootings involving Chicago police officers, was investigating.

–Jeremy Gorner

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Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday turned to a former buildings commissioner to follow Michael Scott as ChicagoChicago reviews Board of Education president, continuing his trend of dipping into a pool of trusted problem solvers to fill high-profile posts.

The mayor called the appointment of Mary Richardson-Lowry “bittersweet,” recalling his long friendship with Scott, who died in November of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

One of Richardson-Lowry’s first orders of business is to review school district spending.

Scott had been the subject of an internal investigation that included his use of his taxpayer-paid credit card for thousands of dollars in meals, travel and other expenses. The Tribune previously has disclosed that Scott improperly used his board credit card to pay for a trip last fall to Copenhagen to lobby for Daley’s failed bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“I’d ask Mary to immediately get on top of this so all our taxpayers see that they are all protected,” Daley said at a City Hall news conference to introduce Richardson-Lowry.

A product of the Compton, Calif., public school system, Richardson-Lowry, 53, said she would call on her experience succeeding in that tough city to help guide her in dealing with the high rates of poverty and violence Chicago schoolchildren face.

“I grew up in an environment where I had to walk through gang territories to get to school. I know what that’s like,” Richardson-Lowry said.

“We have to work hard to provide the best possible classroom opportunities for children within the school system,” she added. “And when we do that and create, to the extent possible within our experience, some safe environment, everything is possible.”

Richardson-Lowry began her city career in 1987 as an assistant corporation counsel, then worked as a senior supervising attorney and an assistant to Daley before taking over the Buildings Department in 1998.

Her tenure was marked by a series of deadly building accidents. Glass from a cracked window at the CNA Tower killed a woman in 1999. Scaffolding broke at the John Hancock Building shortly before Richardson-Lowry left in 2002, killing three people in cars below.

Educators offered a mixed reaction Thursday.

“Schools are not McDonald’s, and children are not hamburgers. This is not a corporate enterprise designed to maximize profit,” said Rico Gutstein, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Education. “What it should be is a system that is committed to the full human potential of educating its students.”

But with educators, such as Chief Education Officer Barbara Eason-Watkins, helping make the education decisions, others said it’s more important to have an effective manager running the board.

“She’s been a part of the administration in the past as a buildings commissioner, so she knows the inner workings of City Hall and the vision that the mayor has for the city,” said Juan Rangel, executive director of the United Neighborhood Organization, the city’s largest charter schools operator.

Richardson-Lowry’s multiple positions with the administration mirror the careers of many lieutenants Daley has called on repeatedly to fill top spots at City Hall.

Scott wore several hats for the mayor, serving as Chicago Park District president and on boards for the Regional Transportation Authority and Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, as well as twice heading the school board.

Gery Chico was Daley’s chief of staff and school board president and now is park board president. And school district CEO Ron Huberman previously headed the CTA and the city Office of Emergency Management and Communications, in addition to serving as Daley’s chief of staff.

Tribune reporter Todd Lighty contributed to this report.

–John Byrne and Azam Ahmed

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A partner in a ChicagoChicago reviews web radio sports show has pleaded guilty to swindling as many as 250 investors out of more than $6 million in a Ponzi scheme that guaranteed risk-free monthly returns of at least 10 percent.

David Hernandez appeared before U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman on Thursday and pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud. He could get up to 14 years in prison under federal guidelines.

Hernandez fled downstate and attempted to commit suicide after the scheme was exposed.

He was one of two men who in early 2009 launched ChicagoSportsWebio.com — a now defunct online radio show with popular host Mike North. North has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

– Associated Press

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INDIANAPOLIS — Deadbeat parents who win big at Indiana casinos would have to give some of that cash to their children under a bill that has cleared the state Senate.

The Senate voted unanimously Thursday for the bill to withhold gambling winnings from parents who owe back child support and win more than $1,200 on slot machines or different amounts on other winnings.
Indiana casinos don’t like the proposal, saying it would cause a
two-minute delay on casino floors while winners’ names are checked
against an electronic list of people owing child support.

But Gov. Mitch Daniels and other supporters say helping single parents
collect child support is more important than any minor inconvenience to
casinos.

– Associated Press

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ROME — A fugitive Indiana doctor accused of fraud and malpractice will probably be extradited to the United States in the next few days, Italian officials said Thursday.

Mark Weinberger was arrested last month near Italy’s border with France as he hid on a snowy mountain, more than five years after he disappeared from Merrillville, Ind. as allegations mounted concerning his medical practice in Indiana. On Thursday, a court in Turin sent documentation to the U.S. State Department asking for officers to come to Italy and take charge of Weinberger, said Ernesto di Carlo, an official at the court.

The doctor didn’t fight the U.S. extradition request and the Italian court approved it last month.

Weinberger remains in the prison ward of Turin’s Molinette hospital, where he was taken after stabbing himself in the neck as he was taken into custody. His injuries were not life-threatening.

Weinberger, of Merrillville, Ind., was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2006 on 22 counts of fraud for allegedly scheming to bill insurance companies for procedures that were not needed or never performed.

In addition, Weinberger faces about 300 civil claims filed by patients, his Merrillville attorney James Hough has said.

He was discovered after a mountain guide tipped off authorities that he was in Val Ferret, living in a tent with high-tech mountain survival gear.

Police in the nearby town of Aosta, said Thursday they initially feared the man might be a terrorist.

“It was the first thought that came into our head, but it lasted only an hour,” said Col. Guido Di Vita, of the Carabinieri paramilitary police. “We thought: what is this guy doing on the mountain? Is he a terrorist?”

– Associated Press

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Illinois’ plans for high-speed passenger trains, designed to transform rail into a preferred transportation option and create jobs, will move forward on a slower track than some officials had anticipated.

The setback will become official on Thursday when President Barack Obama is scheduled to announce $8 billion in economic stimulus grants for the states to develop 13 high-speed rail corridors linking major cities and the rural areas between them.

Illinois will receive about $1.23 billion, according to the White House.

The decision places Illinois behind California, which is slated to receive $2.34 billion to begin building 220-mph passenger service between Los Angeles and San Francisco; and Florida, which will receive $1.25 billion to develop a high-speed route connecting Tampa, Orlando and Miami, officials said.

Illinois officials, from Gov. Pat Quinn to lawmakers chairing key transportation committees in the General Assembly, had been increasingly optimistic in the run-up to the decision that Illinois would receive between $2 billion and $2.5 billion to start 110-mph passenger service in a few years from ChicagoChicago reviews to St. Louis, Detroit, Milwaukee and other Midwest cities.

Plans called for eventually investing in true high-speed travel that would boost train speeds to 220 mph and slash trip times, for example, on the Chicago-to-St. Louis route to under two hours, compared to  five-and-a-half hours currently. The move would for the first time give rail a clear edge over air travel for trips of 300 to 500 miles, experts said.

In its application to the Federal Railroad Administration, the Illinois Department of Transportation requested $4.5 billion of the $8 billion available nationwide.

“I wish the decision were made to concentrate a lot of money on Illinois, but the expectations were probably too high,” said U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., offered a different assessment of how Illinois fared in the competition for grants.

“At the end of the day, Chicago is still the rail hub of America, and it will be the high-speed rail hub of America,” Durbin said. “That is good for us, good for the communities that are nearby and good for people who work construction jobs.”

Durbin noted that separate grants will be awarded Thursday to Wisconsin. That state will get $823 million for a Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison high-speed rail project that eventually would extend to Minneapolis. Another $244 million will go to Michigan for the Chicago-Detroit corridor.

The $1.23 billion for Illinois breaks down as follows:

$1.1 billion to construct tracks, install signals, build stations and buy some locomotives and passenger coaches for 110 mph service between Alton, Ill., near St. Louis, to Dwight, Ill.

$133 million to build the Englewood flyover bridge near 63rd Street in Chicago. The flyover is intended to reduce delays by separating Metra Rock Island commuter trains from Amtrak and freight trains on one of the most congested rail junctions in the U.S.

$1.25 million to conduct an environmental impact study on a proposal to build a second set of tracks between Chicago and St. Louis to accommodate 110 mph trains.

IDOT and the UnionThe Union reviews Pacific Railroad have been working for years to upgrade track and signals for high-speed trains on a portion of the 284-mile route between Chicago and St. Louis. But so far only a small section near Springfield has been tested at speeds above Amtrak’s current maximum operating speed of 79 mph.

The federal funding was supposed to put the project and others on a fast track.

Illinois Transportation Secretary Gary Hannig said he’s pleased that about 15 percent of the total federal grants is coming to Illinois. He said it will be important to show early successes to draw passengers to high-speed trains.

“The money will create a significant number of jobs and provide us with a springboard to continue to build as the project moves forward,” Hannig said.

Aside from the federal grant, Illinois has committed $400 million for high-speed rail. But that’s a down payment.

Passage of federal surface transportation funding legislation coupled with more federal and state investments in high-speed rail will be needed to meet the goals of getting 110 mph service up and running within several years between Chicago and St. Louis, Detroit and Milwaukee, officials said.

The broader concept envisions a nine-state Midwest high-speed network, with its hub in Chicago. That plan may have been dealt a blow by the Obama administration’s decision to spread around the $8 billion rather than concentrate larger amounts of money on a few select projects, officials said.

–Jon Hilkevitch

Technorati Tags: administration, chicago, decision, flyover, hub, midwest, money, News, obama, passenger, project, rail, railroad, route, service, state, Thursday, track, traffic, transportation, travel, Updated

Freddie Mac plans to announce Thursday the opening of two help centers in ChicagoChicago reviews for homeowners who are delinquent on mortgages backed by the agency.

The pilot program won’t change what some consider a frustrating, laborious loan modification process, but it does offer consumers “a trusted intermediary who can walk them through [it],” said Dwight Robinson, Freddie Mac’s senior vice president of corporate relations and housing outreach.

Several hundred area borrowers are at least 31 days behind on their Freddie Mac-owned mortgages and possibly eligible for a loan modification.

Those homeowners, as well as others whose loan modification efforts have been unsuccessful, will be contacted by either Latin United Community Housing Association or Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago Inc. to receive financial counseling and other assistance.

“This gives us a chance to work with an investor to prevent foreclosures,” said Michael van Zalingen, director of homeownership services for Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago. “Before, the [loan] servicer always stood as an intermediary and we never got to talk to the guy behind the curtain.”

A recent report by the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, which includes Illinois, found that only four in 10 seriously delinquent borrowers are involved in efforts to resolve their problem mortgages.

The two borrower help centers are at Latin United Community Housing, 1152 N. Christiana Ave., on the city’s South SideSouth Side reviews, and at Neighborhood Housing Services’ office at 1279 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Freddie Mac also is testing the outreach program in Arizona, Washington, D.C., and California.

A similar effort by Fannie Mae, which holds more mortgages than Freddie Mac, may be in the works. Fannie Mae is “finalizing new initiatives with local housing counselors that will include dedicated staff and facilities in hard-hit markets,” spokeswoman Amy Bonitatibus said.

–Mary Ellen Podmolik

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Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 board members will vote Thursday on a budget plan that could cut 222 jobs to help eliminate a projected $16 million deficit.

According to the school district’s Web site, the proposal from Superintendent John Harper was presented at a Monday night Board of Education meeting and will be voted on at a special meeting 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium at Plainfield Central High School, 24120 W. Ft. Beggs Dr.

“What we are looking at financially is something this board has never seen,” school board member Eric Gallt said describing the magnitude of the proposed cuts.

About 250 parents showed up at Monday’s meeting to hear about the cuts. Many parents objected to the proposed cuts, noting it would eliminate gifted programs and a program that helps 1st grade students struggling with reading. Others objected to the possibility of losing the 5th grade band program and other cuts to the fine arts program.

“When it comes time to cut, we can’t start with academics,” said parent Larry Hug.

Harper’s proposal includes eliminating 222 full-time positions to save $11 million and slicing another $9.1 million in expenses. The proposal also includes about $890,000 in new revenues. The changes would go into effect for the 2010-11 school year.

The district includes 30 schools from preschool to high school. It serves nearly 30,000 students in a 64-square-mile district that includes all or parts of Bolingbrook, Crest Hill, Joliet, Lockport, Naperville, Plainfield, and Romeoville along with portions of unincorporated Will and Kendall counties.

The job cuts would include seven administrative positions, about 132 certified positions (such as band instructors, deans and counselors), and about 82 non-certified positions (secretaries and campus monitors).

The budget cuts include restructuring some debt, 20 percent cuts in departmental and building budgets, and the elimination of summer school for kindergarten through 8th grade.

New revenues would come from increasing school and extracurricular fees. They would include a $50 a month increase in tuition for preschool at the Bonnie McBeth Learning Center, along with increasing activity fees from $39 to $50 for middle school students and from $61 to $120 for high school students.

The district said it expects a $16 million deficit in its operating fund at the end of the 2009-2010 school year and that it is required to file a plan with the state to eliminate that deficit by the end of the 2012-13 school year.

“This is a very difficult and sad time for District 202,” school board President Rod Westfall said in a press release. The district’s budget deficit is being caused by a drop in revenues and not by overspending, he asserted.

Parent Kristy Davey told board members she didn’t agree with everything they were considering but thanked them for their work in addressing the deficit.

School officials said the district’s explosive growth in recent years and the downturn in the economy and housing market have contributed to the district’s deficit. Westfall urged parents to lobby state lawmakers for changes in school funding.

– Alicia Fabbre and Staff report

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Cold weather is believed to have led to the death of a 61-year-old woman who was found in the Poplar Creek Forest Preserve in northwest suburban Streamwood, officials said.

But an autopsy conducted today on the body of a homeless man who been discovered frozen on ChicagoChicago reviews’s South SideSouth Side reviews was inconclusive.

Linda DeLeon, of the 7100 block of Krause Avenue of Streamwood, was found in the Poplar Creek Forest Preserve Thursday and was pronounced dead at 7:35 p.m., said a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

An autopsy determined that DeLeon died from hypothermia, exposure and heart problems, officials said. Officials have not ruled on the manner of her death.

Vincent Hampton, 52, who may be homeless, was found at 400 block of East 87th Street in Chicago and pronounced dead at 12:55 a.m. Friday., according to the spokesman.

The autopsy on Hampton was inconclusive and officials are conducting further tests to determine the cause of his death, according to the medical examiner’s office.

– Staff report

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WGN-TV anchorwoman Allison Payne has gone public with her 20-year fight against addiction, and believes there is no shame in acknowledging that she has had a drinking problem.

But Payne and WGN-Ch. 9 News Director Greg Caputo on Friday said that admission, which came as a passing mention during a Thursday newscast, was not the reason she was off the air for much of 2008. She and the station still attribute those absences to a series of mini-strokes and their lingering effects, including depression, for which she still receives treatment.

Drinking, Payne said Friday, “was not the issue when I was out sick. … My right hand was numb. I had no use of my right hand. They diagnosed me with mini-strokes.”

Read more on Tower Ticker at chicagotribune.com.

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FBI agents executed search warrants this week at five clinics associated with Dr. Gautam Gupta, known for his radio ads that air across ChicagoChicago reviews offering advice on weight loss, officials confirmed today.

The warrants were executed Thursday at all five of Gupta’s clinic locations, according to the FBI. Spokesman Ross Rice said agents visited clinic addresses in Chicago, Rockford, South Beloit, Arlington Heights and Naperville.

No information was immediately available on what agents were seeking, but Rice said there were no arrests made and no charges were filed.

A woman who answered the phone at Gupta’s main office in Rockford declined to comment on the warrants.

“We are open for business,” she said. “We are seeing patients. That’s all you need to know.”
 
– Jeff Coen and Hal Dardick

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After dinners of chicken and a night’s rest, dozens of Haitian refugees who took shelter on the West SideWest Side reviews will be on their way to relatives and friends all over the country today, officials at the shelter said Friday.

A Safe Haven Foundation Inc. has so far received about 200 Haitian evacuees, all of whom are U.S. citizens and are using ChicagoChicago reviews as a hub before reaching their final destinations elsewhere, said Brian Rowland, manager of the shelter.

The first group of  refugees arrived at the shelter at 2750 W.
Roosevelt Road on Wednesday night, and an additional group arrived
Thursday.  About 20 of the Haitians are already en route to New York,
where they have relatives waiting. Another 40 are scheduled to leave
for South Florida this afternoon, Rowland said.

Rowland said the latest group of refugees, which includes 41 children, are tired and eager to get in touch with their families.

Among the survivors, Joseph Avril  spoke about his peril at a news conference Friday.
Avril, a Florida native who was living in Haiti, said he walked for
three hours after the earthquake to reach his wife, Yvetha, and his two
children, Robert, 6, and Ella,2.

“I am dead mentally,” said Avril.

He plans to drop off his children with his mother in Miami on Saturday
and then return to Haiti to be with his wife, who is not an American
citizen.

The refugees will stay until arrangements can be made to get them to
family around the United States, said A Safe Haven Foundation vice
president Mark Mulroe.

A Safe Haven is accepting donations to help the next wave of arrivals. Information is available at www.asafehaven.com.

– Alejandra Cancino

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The media-supported drive Thursday by the American Red Cross of Greater ChicagoChicago reviews for Haiti earthquake victims raised a little more than $2.7 million, it was announced this morning.

The total may go slightly higher when online gifts are tallied, Red Cross officials said.

Chicago radio and television aired a steady stream of public service announcements encouraging people to call in with donations.

–Staff report

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