Small Progress

At this point, we'll take any good news we can get:

• A gravely wounded Chicago police officer, shot in the face during the same hospital ambush that killed his partner John Bartholomew, is showing signs of improvement, the police union president told the Sun-Times Wednesday.

  Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said earlier this week it was “going to take a miracle” for the surviving officer to recover from his injuries. “It’s very bad. It’s extremely critical. It’s not good,” he said at the time.

  But the outlook has improved since then, to the point where there’s at least a glimmer of hope for the wounded officer.

  “There has been some positive physical reactions from the officer in the hospital. I don’t want to say alertness, but I was informed that he was breathing on his own for a little while yesterday. That’s a positive sign,” Catanzara said. “He did seem to have some reaction to conversation around him yesterday. So those are all [reasons to] keep praying and hope for the best, positive signs that he comes out of this on the other side, positively.”

It's still going to take a series of miracles, but every miraculous journey starts with a single step.

Godspeed Officer.