South Side community honors slain officer, who fought against neighborhood violence

UPDATE: Shoulder to shoulder with their eyes to the ground, dozens of children performed garbage pick-up duty in chilly Nat King Cole Park Saturday morning, wrapping up the first "Peace in the Park After Dark" slumber party.

Legislators woo deep-pocket donors with golf, basketball, bourbon-tasting events and more

House Democrat Melissa Bean invited donors to the glimmering Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago in July. The gathering, her fourth annual "Chi-Town Weekend," came with a suggested campaign contribution of $2,400 to $5,000.

The Chicago Bears owe their name to the Chicago Cubs . The idea was that the brawny, upstart footballers were physically larger than Cubs — they were as big as Bears. Now the Chicago Bears are the biggest sports team in town. But it didn't begin that way.

Downers Grove South showdown over clothing raises recurring issues

Spirit Day arrived Friday at Downers Grove South High School with less of a cheer and more of a thud. In fact, it almost became protest day.

Garage attack linked to drugs

Four men shot-execution style on a quiet block in Chicago's West Lawn neighborhood were targets of a drug-related attack, police said Friday.

Class-action suit: U.S. mercenaries were behind Croatian offensive in Balkan War

Zivka Mijic doesn't burden people with her troubles — which would be impractical anyway, unless the other person spoke Serbian — but she does want the tragic story of what brought her family to a Chicago suburb told in federal court.

With just two months to go, the 2010 campaign for Illinois governor is kicking into high gear.

A search was under way Saturday evening for a gunman who reportedly attacked a woman as she opened a school early Saturday morning.

The family of a man struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver earlier in the week is pleading for the public's help.

Police say they have a suspect in a shooting that killed Chicago public school student earlier in the week.

Rough waters on Lake Michigan may have contributed to the apparent drowning of a Chicago man.

The National Weather Service has issued a Rip Current Warning because conditions along the shore of Lake Michigan could be dangerous this weekend.

Judge allows release without bond.


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Alien rock gets named after Wisconsin town where it fell.


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Police will be enforcing impaired driving and seat belt laws.


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Destinee E. Clementi, 18, faces up to 40 years in prison.


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Alcohol not believed to be factor in crash that involved four cars, including a taxi.


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Officers were shot Wednesday while executing search warrant.


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Craigslist appears to have surrendered in a legal fight over erotic ads posted on its website, shutting down its adult services section Saturday and replacing it with a black bar that simply says "censored."

A man standing on the corner and a convenience store employee were wounded during a Saturday morning shooting in the Roseland neighborhood.

No matter what uniform Manny Ramirez wears to Fenway Park, he keeps on hitting. The slugger the Chicago White Sox hope will help them to the playoffs singled twice in a 3-1 win over the Boston Red Sox in the opener of a day-night doubleheader Saturday. In June, Ramirez returned to his former stadium with the Los Angeles Dodgers and went 5 for 12 with a solo homer in a three-game series.

Carlos Zambrano was yelling and pumping his arms, looking as if he might go into another full-fledged meltdown.Instead, he kept his composure. He also kept a good run going. Zambrano passed Kerry Wood on the Cubs' strikeouts list, Starlin Castro became the club's first rookie in 66 years with six straight multi-hit games and Chicago beat the New York Mets 5-3 on Saturday.

After stumbling for a half, Missouri distanced itself from a distressing preseason. Blaine Gabbert rallied the Tigers from a 10-point deficit with two touchdown passes and Carl Gettis made a leaping one-handed interception and downed a punt at the 1 in the fourth quarter of a 23-13 opening victory over Illinois on Saturday.

Imagine heading to a Catholic school on a Saturday morning, thinking it's one of the safest places to be. But this Saturday, a Catholic school in Burbank was a crime scene, crawling with SWAT team members and police investigators after a school volunteer was attacked by a masked gunman.

It may be a first in Chicago, a campout against violence. Friday night in Nat King Cole Park in the Chatham neighborhood about fifty kids, parents, police and others are sleeping out under the stars

The 2010 March of Dimes Chicago Chef of the Year Award will be presented to White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford. Emcees for the evening are Fox Chicago?s Amy Freeze and Robin Robinson.
 

Phinneius Banks was charged for the murder of a Chinatown resident, Xiaohong Song, who was strangled in the early morning on July 3 during a robbery .

Gov. Pat Quinn has named Gladyse Taylor, assistant director from the Department of Corrections, to be its new acting chief.

Chicago Public School students who show up for the first day of classes next Tuesday will find more than new classmates and teachers awaiting them.

Bridget Polaski, of Romeoville, was brought in for questioning Aug. 26 as Romeoville police investigated car vandalism. Police kept her cell phone as part of the investigation, but Polaski fears nude photos on her the phone will be misused.

Two men were shot outside a convenience store in the Fernwood neighborhood on the Far South Side late this morning, police said.

A man in his 40s who suffered a gunshot wound to at least one leg was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center for treatment following the shooting in the 100 block of West 107th Street just before noon, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez.

Another man was in good condition at Roseland Hospital with a graze wound to the back and a gunshot wound to one leg, Perez said.

According to preliminary information posted on the police major incident log, a gunman got out of a vehicle and shot at the two men before getting back into the vehicle and fleeing.

The man shot in the thigh is 48 while the man in good condition was 20, and both the condition of both men had been stabilized.

The two men were in front of a convenience store in that block when they were shot, police said. Gallery Foods is listed at 10701 S. Wentworth Avenue in that block.

No one was in custody in the shootings, which were being investigated by Calumet Area detectives.

-- Staff report

A 24-year-old female passenger on a motorcycle was pronounced dead after an accident in west suburban Lyons this morning, officials said.

Lissette Concole of the 8100 block of West 46th Street in Lyons was pronounced dead at 11:30 a.m. at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, according to a spokesman with the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The accident happened at about 4:23 a.m. on the 4000 block of South First Avenue at Sauk Creek, according to a press release issued by Lyons police.

Officials said police, along with the Lyons Fire Department, responded to the accident and took several people to area hospitals.

Lyons police and officials from the Cook County Sheriff's police reconstruction unit are investigating. First Avenue was temporary closed in both directions but has since reopened, officials said.

--Carlos Sadovi

A 26-year-old Chicago man missing since Friday evening in Lake Michigan is presumed drowned, and rescue crews are searching the water near St. Joseph, Mich., to recover his body, officials said this afternoon.

According to an update at about 3:30 p.m. by Lincoln Charter Township police and fire department officials, patrols and surveillance are continuing near Waverland Path on the southern end of the township shoreline.

Officials said they are searching to "recover the body of Timothy Horvath, 26, a swimmer presumed drowned."

At about 1 p.m. Coast Guard officials ceased their search operation as high waves and strong currents hampered recovery efforts, officials said.

Officials said Horvath was vacationing in Michigan with two friends, brothers Sean and Robert Finnerman, who live in Lincolnwood. They took a small rubber raft into choppy lake waters off Michigan's Lincoln Charter Township Friday afternoon, police said.

"At one point the swimmers became separated from their raft and the two brothers managed to follow it back to shore, however the third man was seemingly caught in the current and was observed moving out into the lake," police said in statement.

When emergency crews arrived on the scene, they could not find any sign of the man and rescue efforts were limited due to very high winds and strong rip currents, police said. 

Horvath's older sister Aubree Ross said family and friends have been streaming into their parent's Northwest Side home today, trying to get the latest details about her brother. She said she recently introduced her brother to her 3-week-old son, Patrick.

"It's been unreal. I don't want say if it's a dream or nightmare. I just don't know what it is," she said.

She said her brother grew up in Skokie and was in Michigan with the Finnerman brothers, who he had known since kindergarten. She said the three of them had "such a free spirit" and were constantly together playing sports and socializing. She said that her brother believed he was "infallible."

"He was probably thinking how awesome it would be to go out on the raft and be in the waves," she said. "He's a real free spirit and takes on any challenge that comes his way."

Earlier today, a Coast Guard helicopter and boat set out at about 8:30 a.m. local time -- 7:30 a.m. Central Daylight Time -- to resume a search called off late Friday.

Friend James Janesku, 27, said Horvath graduated from Niles West High School in Skokie and has been helping at the Finnerman's father's Lincoln Park restaurant as the father recovered from injuries suffered in a car crash some months ago.

 He also worked at a bar in Evanston.

"I just feel sick," Janesku said. "I can't believe this is happening."

He said Horvath accompanied the Finnermans to their family's beach house in Michigan on Friday.

A local resident called 911 around 5 p.m. Central Daylight Time on Friday, which is about 6 p.m. local time, Coast Guard officials said.

The National Weather Service issued a rip current warning at 10 a.m. Friday, warning people to stay away from the lake, according to police.

During the early response, a Coast Guard helicopter and firefighters using jet-ski equipment searched the area.

Emergency responders continued searching into late Friday night but personnel were pulled back in the late hours.

The release from the Lincoln Charter Township police said the incident was first reported in the 7200 block of Waverland Path, in Stevensville, Mich., which is a private beach in the area.

--Cynthia Dizikes, John Byrne, and Daarel Burnette II

A 36-year-old Little Village man threw a window air conditioning unit at a Chicago police officer who had been trying to stop him from sexually assaulting a family member, Cook County prosecutors said today.

After two police officers entered the home where Marcelino Vega had been raping the woman Friday, he fought with them, hurling the appliance at one officer before they subdued him, prosecutors said.

Vega, of the 2900 block of West 25th Street, faces numerous charges, including sexual assault, resisting arrest, obstructing an officer and aggravated battery.

Chicago police said neither of the officers was seriously injured. The reported rape victim was treated and released from a local hospital, according to court records.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Ramon Ocasio set Vega's bond at $2 million Saturday.

Vega proclaimed his innocence.

"I never raped her," he said, through a court interpreter.

--Dan Hinkel

Text messages often are used to alert young people where to attend the latest party.

But a text message to the TXT2TIP program is being credited for Chicago police stopping a late-night "rave" in the Wicker Park area where one man was accused of holding a party where minors had alcohol.

After getting an anonymous tip through the TXT2TIP program Friday night, Shakespeare District officers disrupted an illegal "rave" party about 10:30 p.m. at an unlicensed storefront building on the 1600 block of North Milwaukee Avenue where alcohol was being served to about 50 to 75 people, mostly under 21, according to a news release.

Police said Ricardo Martinez, 25, of the 5300 block of South Austin Avenue, was responsible for the party but didn't have permission to be on the premises.

He was charged with criminal trespass and cited for holding a party with the proper license required for a public place of amusement, police said. Martinez was scheduled to appear in Branch 23 on Oct. 27.

"These types of unauthorized parties are a serious safety issue," Superintendent Jody P. Weis said in the release. "Overcrowding, aggressive behavior from excessive drinking, and other illegal activities often happening inside endanger lives."

--Staff report

A gang dispute over the right to sell drugs on a stretch of street in West Garfield Park motivated the killing of an 18-year-old high school student last week, Cook County prosecutors said today.

Alleged Black Souls gang member Sharod Pierce, 23, of the 3400 block of West Walnut Street remained jailed without bail on murder charges after a court hearing Saturday.

Prosecutors said Pierce approached Anthony Carter near his home in the 4000 block of West Jackson Boulevard early Tuesday and shot him several times with a handgun.

The Black Souls, Gangster Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers have been fighting over the block, prosecutors said. Carter's family members have denied he was in a gang.

Pierce turned himself in to police Wednesday night, said his lawyer, Brian S. Shields, affirming his client's innocence.

Shields said Pierce was nowhere near the shooting when it occurred. He suggested pressure to stop gang violence led police to arrest Pierce on "scant" evidence.

Pierce was scheduled to return to court on Sept. 7.

--Dan Hinkel