January 2010

Preckwinkle rallies North Siders, Stroger defends tax hike

By Admin on January 31, 2010

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger today took his defense of the county sales tax increase to black churches on the last weekend of the Democratic primary campaign. He wasn’t alone on the church campaign route today, as all four Democratic candidates tried to stoke voter excitement before Tuesday’s election.

Weis: ‘Nothing uncommon’ about Scott call to Daley press aide

By Admin on January 31, 2010

Chicago police Supt. Jody Weis said today there was nothing unusual about a phone call Mayor Daley’s press secretary had with Michael Scott the day before the Chicago Board of Education president committed suicide.

“We took a long time making a call on that case because we wanted to be sure we didn’t miss anything,” Weis said. “And that case was investigated very very thoroughly. That phone call, there was nothing uncommon in it. We looked at it from a sense [of:] ‘Is there anything in there that might have been a clue that Michael felt threatened, that he was not acting normal?’ , and there wasn’t.”

On Saturday, Daley’s press secretary, Jacquelyn Heard told the Tribune she called Scott the morning of Nov. 15 and made an appointment to meet with him the next morning to talk about his use of a district-issued credit card. But Scott’s body was found early the next morning near a River North bridge, before his scheduled meeting with Heard. Police found Scott’s body with a single gunshot wound to the head.

On Sunday, Weis asked that questions about Scott’s death end so his family can begin to heal.

“There’s really nothing else out there in terms of what we were looking at, and that was, was there anything to indicate that there was any foul play involved with his tragic suicide, and there wasn’t. And we felt very comfortable about that. So there’s really nothing more to tell. … We’re very comfortable with the conclusion that we made. …”

“Some of the questions that are out there, we’ll never know. … We just have to accept that those questions, unfortunately, will go to the grave with Michael, so we just have to realize we don’t know why he did what he did, but we do know that it was a suicide and there’s no foul play involved. Case closed.”

–Kristen Schorsch

Southwest Side woman dies after being beaten

By Admin on January 31, 2010

Sandra Viramontes, 30, died in her mother’s arms Sunday morning at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, weeks after a grisly beating police said was delivered at the hands of her husband.

Viramontes, of the 5700 block of South Rutherford Avenue in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood, leaves her two children, Luis Jr.,6, and Lindsey, 2, in the care of Estela Rincon, her mother.

“How do you tell a 6-year-old, ‘Your mother’s not coming back? ‘ ” Rincon asked. The children are “all I have left of my daughter.”
Viramontes was hospitalized Jan. 10 after being attacked by her
husband, Luis Viramontes, 31, in the Rutherford Avenue residence,
Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak said.

Viramontes’ large family had been keeping vigil by her bedside since
she was taken to the hospital and was there when she passed away, said
Rincon. She said she had her daughter taken off life-support.

“I was with her,” Rincon said. “She died in my arms.”

Rincon said her daughter was bruised virtually from head to toe, with
blackened eyes and a swollen nose. Doctors told her family the injuries
to the young woman’s brain were not survivable so they decided to
withdraw life support, her mother said.

“She was badly beaten up,” Rincon said. Trauma physicians told the
family “they’d never seen anybody get a beating like that before,” she
said.

Luis Viramontes has been charged with aggravated domestic battery and
attempted murder, according to court records. He turned himself over to
police on Jan. 13, Kubiak said.

Luis Viramontes’ stepfather, Pablo Garcia, said the young man’s family
is having trouble reconciling the charges against him with what they
know about his personality.

“He’s always been real gentle,” Garcia said.

His stepson “couldn’t even sleep” after his wife was hospitalized,
crying nonstop, Garcia said. “We’re all feeling bad about it.”

But Rincon said the signs were building for months that something was awry in the Viramontes’ home.

Rincon said her son-in-law had begun isolating his wife from the
outside world, forcing Sandra to quit her job at Wal-Mart. Starting
last summer, her mother said, Luis began preventing her from
communicating with her family.

“He would not let me talk to her,” she said. “He would not let her come to my house.”

When Rincon would drop by her daughter’s house unexpectedly, she said
Luis would eavesdrop on conversations and cut visits short. Efforts to
intercede were fruitless, Rincon said.

“I kept telling her, leave him,” her mother said. But her daughter only
responded that she couldn’t. “She was scared of him. He just had to
stare at her and she would be scared.”

Events culminated the morning of Jan. 10, when Rincon said she got an
8:45 a.m. phone call from her son-in-law saying the two had fought
eight hours previously and that her daughter needed medical attention.

She arrived at the couples’ home 10 minutes later, she said, to find
her daughter lying in bed, barely breathing and unconscious. Luis was
not home, but Rincon said she yelled at a relative who was standing
close by, “staring” at her daughter.

“Call the ambulance!” she remembered shouting. “What are you standing there for?”

She rode with emergency medical technicians to the hospital and sat by
Sandra’s side, she said, but Luis Viramontes did not arrive until that
night. When he did, Rincon said, he told her that his mother, sister
and niece had cleaned the bedroom where Sandra had been lying
unconscious for an unknown length of time.

Rincon said she’s furious that it took so long to get care for her
bruised and bloodied daughter. “If (someone) would’ve called earlier,
she might have had a chance,” Rincon said doctors told her.

Rincon said her daughter, one of seven siblings, was a giving person
who adored her children, and that she and her husband had been
boyfriend and girlfriend since 8th grade. She said the two had a big
wedding in September.

“She made friends real easy,” Rincon said of her daughter. “She’s one of these people that likes to help other people.”

Officials said a decision on whether to upgrade charges in Sandra
Viramontes’ death won’t come until the medical examiner’s office has
ruled. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday, according to the Cook County
medical examiner’s office.

Viramontes appeared in bond court shortly after being charged and was
denied bond, according to court records. A request to reduce bond was
later granted on Jan. 20, in the amount of $500,000, with the proviso
that he wear an electronic monitoring device, according to Sandra
Viramontes’ family. Court records indicate he posted bond.

Police confirmed that Viramontes was in custody today.

Rincon said she hopes justice will be served in the case but is still haunted by what could have been done.

“I think this could have all been prevented,” she said.

Georgia Garvey, Carlos Sadovi, and Deanese Williams-Harris

10 US Baptists detained trying to take 33 children from quake zone across border

By Admin on January 31, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Ten U.S. Baptists detained trying to take 33 children out of earthquake-shattered Haiti without government permission say they were just trying to do the right thing, applying Christian principles to save Haitian children.

Updates from the Pro Bowl

By Admin on January 31, 2010

The action starts at 6:20 p.m. tonight.

Cops look to see if prior dispute led to man’s shooting death

By Admin on January 31, 2010

Investigators today are looking into whether some sort of dispute at a Southeast Side lounge led to the early-morning shooting of a 24-year-old man, officials said.

About 3:30 a.m., police received a report of gunfire in the 8200 block of South Chappel Avenue. The victim, Lytony Dawson, 24, was sitting in a vehicle and was shot in the chest. Dawson, whose address was listed in the 6500 block of South Maplewood Avenue, was then driven by an acquaintance to Provident Hospital, where he was eventually pronounced dead.

Although no motive has been established in the slaying, Chicago Police Officer Robert Perez said detectives were looking into whether an earlier dispute that may have involved the victim contributed to his death.

Perez, a police spokesman, could not specify when the dispute happened but said it took place at a lounge not far from where the shooting occurred.

No one was in custody this afternoon and Perez had no description of the gunman.

– Deanese Williams-Harris and Jeremy Gorner

Oprah’s present to herself: Springer spaniel pups

By Admin on January 31, 2010

Democratic Senate candidates warn of GOP tide

By Admin on January 31, 2010

Trying to stem any Republican tide from hitting Illinois, Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate rallied supporters today with a similar battle cry that voters need to nominate the best candidate on Tuesday or risk losing the seat once held by Barack Obama.

At events for both David Hoffman and rival Alexi Giannoulias, the recent GOP Senate victory in Massachusetts was cited as a cautionary tale for why Democrats can’t be complacent in picking a nominee for the fall campaign.

Notre Dame adds 3 recruits

By Admin on January 31, 2010

Less chaos in Haiti food lines as int’l groups focus efforts on women, elderly

By Admin on January 31, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The 79-year-old woman with a 55-pound bag of rice perched on her head gingerly descended concrete steps Sunday and passed it off to her daughter-in-law — who quickly disappeared behind the faded leopard-print sheets that are the walls of their makeshift home on the crowded turf of Haiti’s National Stadium.