Sun Times Layoffs

:::suppressed laughter:::

• Thirty employees of the Chicago Sun-Times (CST)—around 20% of its payroll—have agreed to resign after accepting buyout terms ownership offered them, according to a report published online by the paper Tuesday evening.

  The Sun-Times’ David Roeder said most of the cuts consist of writers and editors, many of which have decades of experience with the paper.

Of the listed layoffs/buyouts, the only ones we recognize are Telander (sports), Morrissey (sports) and Sneed (gossip).

We keep anticipating either a merger with the Trib or one of the papers going under. The legacy media is thisclose to useless anyway.

Interesting Lawsuit

This will be a "must follow" for us:

• The family of an 11-year-old Chicago boy murdered last year by his mother’s ex-boyfriend the day after he was released from prison is suing the state — including the embattled Prisoner Review Board and Illinois Department of Corrections— for negligence.

We would add Fata$$ to the lawsuit since he appoints the Review Board people, and appoints the IDOC administration, too.

• Jayden Perkins, an accomplished young dancer, was stabbed to death last March while his mother, Laterria Smith, sustained “multiple life-threatening stab wounds to her neck, back, and chest while desperately trying to protect her children,” according to one of the lawsuits she filed last week. Smith was pregnant at the time, while her then-5-year-old son witnessed the stabbing.

  Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the attack last week, Smith filed a pair of complaints — one against the PRB in the Illinois Court of Claims and another in Cook County Circuit Court. The latter lawsuit names not only the PRB, but also its former chair and another member who resigned after the murder, plus an executive director appointed in the aftermath.

  Additionally, the suit names IDOC, its acting director, the city of Chicago, the Chicago Police Department, Cook County, its Sheriff’s Department and elected sheriff. The filing claims that together, the defendants represented a system that failed to prevent Jayden’s death.

As we recall, the murdered stated to anyone who would listen that he was going to kill her and the IDOC, Parole people, and Review Board refused to hold him in custody. A judge actually refused an Order of Protection saying it wasn't an emergency, because the offender was currently in custody....but was due to be released at any moment because that seems to be IDOC's only function - emptying prisons.

Suing CPD seems a stretch as we can only take action regarding active court orders (which weren't issued by the other parties) or arresting someone in the act of a crime. But Conehead will likely pay out just because burning taxpayer money is his only function.

It would almost be a comedy of errors, except for the dead kid.

More Yoyo

CWB is building on the clusterfuck that is Yoyo's promotion:

• Talley was never accused of being involved in the incident, other than loaning her car to a relative. However, CPD’s superintendent at the time, David Brown, benched all of the officers who arrested Miles that day without providing a public explanation.

  CWBChicago later reported exclusively that Miles was also the “John Doe” who provided incorrect information to Chicago cops that resulted in the infamous mistaken raid on Anjanette Young’s home.

  Now, Talley will become Snelling’s top aide, responsible for the department’s day-to-day operations. The post has been vacant since the last “first,” Eric Carter, retired in the spring of 2023.

We recall speculating at the time that anyone who had their car impounded for dope that they (claim) had no idea was in the possession of someone else in the car, suddenly had grounds for an appeal of sorts.

And the dumbass move by Texas Brownie putting the arresting officers in desk duty with no evidence of wrongdoing....aside from catching a family member of the head of IAD family. 

A number of commentators are pointing out Yoyo's ties to the Ervin crime family - Melissa's scandal-plagued reign over at the City Treasurers Office and Aldercreature Jason's litany of disasters including the stripper-in-the-office incident and the crackhouse he owned in the suburbs. 

If the dope in Yoyo's car had been cocaine, we would have wondered if her niece was headed to or from Maywood.

Delayed Stat

It was the bad guy who died by the way....it just took a month:

• A man who allegedly robbed a 68-year-old woman of $3 in February and was tackled by the woman’s son has died after suffering a gunshot wound during the scuffle.

  Isiah Matthews, 58, died Wednesday, March 12 of complications from a gunshot wound, according to an autopsy by the Cook County medical examiner’s office. His death was ruled a homicide.

  Matthews was shot on Feb. 18 about 2:30 p.m. in the 5000 block of West Congress Parkway during the robbery of a 68-year-old woman who had parked and was trying to get out of her car, police and the medical examiner’s office said.

  While holding a gun, Matthews approached the victim’s driver’s side door, forced it open and announced a robbery, according to a police report. After allegedly grabbing $3 from the woman, her relatives found out and chased Matthews, ending with a scuffle between the victim’s 38-year-old son and Matthews, the report said.

We would assume that the gunshot wound was inflicted in a struggle over the firearm:

• When officers arrived they placed Matthews, who suffered a gunshot wound in the left leg during the fight, into custody after the 68-year-old woman identified him as the robber, the report said.

  According to the report, no one the scene “admitted” to hearing a gunshot round or discharging rounds at Matthews, who was initially taken to Stroger Hospital but later transferred to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, police said.

Regardless, the robber got what he deserved and the victim's family saved the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. From all of us here - Thank you.

Yoyo

Who writes this crap?

• First Deputy Superintendent - Yolanda Talley
  First Deputy Superintendent Yolanda Talley, a 30-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, will now serve as second-in-command within CPD. She brings a wealth of experience, leadership and dedication to this historic role, becoming the first woman to hold the position of First Deputy Superintendent in the Department's history. Most recently serving as Chief of the Bureau of Internal Affairs, First Deputy Superintendent Talley oversaw all internal investigations within CPD, consent decree compliance efforts related to accountability and transparency, and the Department's recruitment initiatives. During her tenure as Chief and Deputy Chief, she spearheaded the Department's Recruitment and Retention efforts, ensuring a strong and diverse workforce for the future. Her distinguished career includes roles in the Bureau of Patrol, where she served as Deputy Chief of Area 1, and as Commander of the 015th (Austin) District. In these roles, she worked tirelessly to strengthen community relationships and reduce violence. Earlier in her career, First Deputy Superintendent Talley served as a Watch Operations Lieutenant, Sergeant in the 007th (Englewood) District, in the Narcotics Section of the then Bureau of Organized Crime and in the Human Resources Division. She also served as an undercover narcotics officer and member of the DEA/HIDTA Task Force. First Deputy Superintendent Talley is a member of International Association of Chiefs of Police and a graduate of Northwestern University's School of Police Staff and Command. She holds a master's degree in forensic psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.  Additionally, she currently serves as President of the St. Jude Police League, further demonstrating her commitment to service and community.

Nothing about her niece bragging about how "my auntie is probably your boss" when she got pulled over with a high ranking gang banger and a bunch of heroin in Yoyo's Lexus? (Sun Times coverage here) Or about the scandals of the Confidential Section at BIA? Or how the top spots are rapidly filling with people who couldn't pass a single promotional exam high enough to make it on their own? (remember, upon retirement, these micro-brains are stealing massive pension bumps based on politics, not earning it).

If Rumor Central is to be believed, Larritorious wanted nothing to do with this move - he didn't choose his First, but then again, who does? The First Deputy is supposed to run the day-to-day operations at the behest of the mayor while the supernintendo does photo ops. That formula hasn't been followed since John Thomas was in the spot and that was after Townsend ran it for a couple of supernintendos.

Interesting times ahead as various Yoyo scandals are revealed. 

The rest of the changes:

• Executive Director of Constitutional Policing and Reform – Allyson Clark-Deputy
  
  Chief of the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform – Ralph Cruz
  
  Deputy Chief of Area 4 – Andre Parham
  
  Commander of the Investigative Response Team – Patrick Kinney
  
  Commander of the 011th (Harrison) District_– Johnny E. Tate Jr.
  
  Commander of 002nd (Wentworth) District_– Herbert Williams III
  
  Commander of the Alternate Response Section – Davina F. Ward
  
  Deputy Director of the Office of Analysis and Evaluation – Noé Flores
  

Another Dead One

The former ShotSpotter neighborhoods are getting quite the reputation:

• Chicago police officers on routine patrol found a murder victim lying dead in Lawndale overnight. Investigators were unable to immediately identify the victim, but a CPD media statement said he appeared to be “approximately teenage.” (Update: Family members told media outlets the boy was 13 years old.)

  Nobody called 911 to report shots fired in the area before the boy was found shot in the head in the backyard of a home in the 1500 block of South Kildare around 2:10 a.m. Shell casings were lying nearby.

As we've said, we didn't really like the technology that much, but it worked most of the time. It probably has improved over with increased usage and monitoring. 

But the 'hood doesn't care enough to even call in shots fired....and it's merely entertainment because of the embarrassment it dishes out to Conehead, aldercreatures and their voters.

More Decarceration!

Democrats did so well in the national elections this past November that they're going to double down on all the policies that led them such a monumental victory:

• There's trouble ahead for New Yorkers distressed about crime levels.

  New York City's Democratic establishment, including leading mayoral candidates and the City Council majority, are determined to downsize or eliminate the city's jails altogether. They've drunk the decarceration Kool-Aid -- and they're convinced that jails do more harm than good. But the facts prove them wrong.

  Prisons keep the rest of us safe, because criminals behind bars can't commit more crimes.

Oh. But we thought that New York, San Francisco, LA and the Illinois the Safe-T Act kept everyone....you know....safe. And that "low bail, no bail" policy was working wonders across Cook County. All those Soros-funded prosecutors working diligently to keep criminals out of those dangerous prisons.

They think this is a winning message on a national level.

Mayor 3%

That three-percent discount Conehead is looking for from city vendors is actually his upcoming approval rating.

Also, we didn't make this meme - it was forwarded to us by a couple people who found it on the X/Twitter accounts of a few different people, one of which is titled SecondCityCop - which is NOT associated with us in any way:

But we do wish we had thought of it because it's hilarious.

What isn't hilarious is how quickly Conehead is driving the final nails into the Chicago coffin. You notice he didn't ask for three-percent cuts in government spending? Or three percent manpower cuts? Or maybe shutting down the aldercreature annual million-plus-dollar spending accounts?

How about cutting three-percent of his bodyguard detail?

What about his handlers over at the CTU - maybe dropping their salary demands down to three percent from nine or closing down three-percent of the under-populated schools or raising their pension contributions from two-percent to three (even though every other city employee pays around nine percent....bring that up next time they whine about "fair shares).

Someone else sent us this as a fundraising opportunity:

While raising money, the city can ruin the health of workers so they don't drain the pensions or they die off quicker.

Really Bad Rumor (UPDATE)

Someone left their gun in a bathroom at 26th Street. No one stole it or shot someone with it, so it's a routine suspension.

Someone else got arrested for Domestic Violence. It's a yawner, so it'll be a routine suspension after a year at Callback.

Someone's personal vehicle was being used to deliver heroin by a niece and her high ranking gang banger boyfriend....no charges, no impound, no demotion, and she was allowed to keep her job as the head Internal Affairs, running railroad jobs on all sorts of politically undesirable Officers while burying other investigations on politically connected Officers.

And according to a few commentators, they're going to make her First Deputy today??? We're hoping against hope that this isn't true.

Is this why all those exempts left the past few months? They saw this train wreck and they wanted to get away as quick as possible? 

UPDATE: Ta-da!

PPP Conviction

This is something we guess:

• Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office secured a guilty plea from former state employee Ravonn Hankins, 34, of Chicago, for PPP loan fraud. A Cook County judge sentenced him to second-chance probation and community service.

  As reported by the Illinois Attorney General's Office, Hankins, while working at the Illinois State Police, made a not-so-legal move by applying for a PPP loan close to $14,582 for a ghost of a catering business. Hankins even sought loan forgiveness before being caught but has since repaid the funds.

  "I will continue to ensure government employees who exploited pandemic assistance programs to line their own pockets are held accountable," Raoul stated.

  Dozens of cases have been processed by Raoul's Public Integrity Bureau, spearheaded by Assistant Attorney General Haley Bookhout. Cases brought to light so far have revealed a pandemic plague of PPP loan fraud. Hankins was sentenced yesterday to two years of second-chance probation and 30 hours of community service.

No word if he was put on a "do not hire" list and the article claims Kwame has prosecuted "dozens" of cases. Anyone have his win/loss record or how much tax payer money has been returned to the state or federal treasuries?

That Ship Has Sailed

At least, that's what all the signs and rumors are pointing to:

• In a Hail Mary attempt to keep the Bears in Chicago, developers of the old Michael Reese Hospital site are going public with their dazzling plan to build a Bronzeville stadium and an adjacent mixed-use development — with a great lawn extending over Du Sable Lake Shore Drive all the way to Lake Michigan.

  Scott Goodman, principal of the Farpoint Development team that purchased the 48.6-acre site from the city, openly acknowledged that he has not met with the team, nor has he finalized the financing for either for the $3.2 billion dome or the $600 million in state money needed just to ready the site for development.

  Developed by architect Lamar Johnson, the striking renderings for a stadium and ancillary development at the Michael Reese site have been floating around behind the scenes for months. But Goodman refused to share them publicly for fear of alienating Bears President Kevin Warren.

  Sources said Goodman was warned if he did go public, it would nix any chance of persuading the Bears to take their Chicago sights off the lakefront parking lot south of Soldier Field and push them to the shuttered Arlington International Racecourse that they bought in 2022.

  Goodman said Friday his fear that the Bears could be as good as gone persuaded him to finally show his cards.

Even this guy thinks the Arlington Heights Bears is a done deal so he's dumping the facade of playing nice. 

The NFL Draft is scheduled for 24-26 April. The Bears move is expected to be announced shortly after. Word is that Conehead's approval rating will hit 2% that day.

Why Mention This?

You know how an idiot learns? Or a moron? Or a dog?

• by being made uncomfortable

Guess how a lib-tarded politician learns?

• see above

We don't know why Catanzara spends the first 80 seconds or so of his TGIF address (the first in a few weeks he admits) making excuses for state rep Davis's poorly thought out bill that would allow persons claiming mental illness to freely beat police officers and escape accountability, but he does. He also claims that one conversation and within two hours, Davis had the bill sent to the Rules Committee for quashing. We don't know the ins and outs of Springfield timetables, but that bill was up for over a day when we posted about it, CWB and Fox News gave it bigger play, and it gained two other co-sponsors in the intervening time frame before the Illinois Sheriff Association called Davis and made her uncomfortable.

No Officers have been accused of doxxing the rep. In fact no First Responders at all have been accused of anything except bringing attention to one of the dumbest bills we've ever seen to come out of Springfield. No one has even attempted to put anything in our comment section about Davis - not that we'd allow it anyway. We have first hand experience with the Department and Big Tech attempting to dox us.

So why the song and dance from Catanzara? It looked bad. He looks like he's making excuses and stretching the truth for Davis when the fact of the matter is:

• she proposed something dumb, 
• she roped in a couple other anti-police libtards, 
• she got exposed,
• she was made uncomfortable, 
• she backed off her position. 

We didn't make the rules. We have never and will never advocate for doxxing anyone because we know what the blowback might be. But one side pushes and pushes, and sometimes someone with less patience and tolerance might feel the need to ...remind... a pusher that the lines exist for a reason and you continue at your own peril. 

A "gentleman's agreement" only exists when both sides are being gentlemen. 

Nice Court System Evans

Another great bail story from CWB:

• A lengthy investigation by Chicago police detectives resulted in the arrest this week of a man believed to be responsible for eleven armed robberies, all targeting victims who were lured into traps via Facebook Marketplace ads.

  Marketplace meetups, where two parties who don’t know each other consummate the sale of online merchandise, can be risky. CPD invites people to complete online exchanges at their district police station to decrease the risk. But, as CWB reported last month, at least one recent police station rendezvous ended with robbery, too.

  In the latest development, prosecutors charged 19-year-old Emerson Watson, Jr., with robbing nearly a dozen people at gunpoint in six separate Marketplace meetings between September and December 2024. One victim was robbed of $8,000 in cash that he brought to buy an item offered for sale on Facebook. Others lost $2,800. One lost $1,500. Prosecutors said digital data, vehicle information, and other evidence point to Watson’s involvement.

  Watson was on juvenile probation for armed robbery when the holdups occurred, Judge Deidre Dyer said as she ordered him detained this week. Dyer concluded that the “scope and randomness of this crime presents a threat to all citizens.”

Someone could actually scratch out a living pointing out all the Cook County court f#$% ups that happen on a daily basis.....oh wait, someone is scratching out an existence - the CWB blog. If you aren't reading them daily, you aren't keeping up on the constant screwups in the "justice system." Youo certainly aren't going to find out about it from the legacy "media."

More Bad Law Proposals

Why are Illinois legislators such scumbags?

• Illinois lawmakers have been hard at work, developing legislative proposals that would, among other things, legalize “magic mushrooms,” give killers and rapists sentenced to life in prison the right to apply for parole, and allow registered child sex offenders to move 249 feet closer to grade schools.

  The Illinois Sheriff’s Association, which opposes the bills, highlighted the proposals on its Facebook page.

The CWB site has descriptions of all of the bills and names the scumbag proposing to embrace criminals over actual citizens, and they're exactly who you suppose they would be.

Who wants to legalize more drugs that wreck families and neighborhoods? democrats.

Who wants to let murderers and rapists a second (or third) chance? democrats.

Who actually wants child molesters to move close to children? democrats.

Who votes for these scumbag democrats? Morons.

A Discount?

Driving the city into the ground:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson is trying to put a 3% squeeze on city contractors, asking them to agree to reduce their prices by that amount on all invoices sent to the city to help Chicago get past “difficult economic times.”

  Chief Procurement Officer Sharla Roberts’ surprise request was sent this week to all main contractors doing business with the city. The letter does not describe the nature of the economic crisis and doesn’t say what, if any, repercussions there might be for companies that refuse the cost-cutting request.

  It states that “in light of the economic times,” the city “faces new challenges to reduce its costs and allocate resources in a way that accomplishes more with less” to maintain city services.

  The mayor’s request comes during what amounts to crunch time for the city and the Chicago Board of Education.

Given that the CTU is driving Chicago rapidly toward insolvency, now would be an excellent time for legislators in Springfield to stop proposing freedom to murderers, rapists, police attackers and child molesters, and do something positive for taxpayers:

• pass a law to make teachers on par with police and fire - that is to say "essential" and therefore ineligible to strike, holding children hostage for financial gain.

Time to say "No" and mean it.

Promotions, Demotions

We don't have names for all the spots - some may actually be duplicated - but this is what we've gotten:

• DC Nardo (A/4) demoted
  
  DC Jerome (demotion) is next with his 60 day suspension.
  
  Cmdr Parham to DC A/4
  
  Lt Kinney to Cmdr IRT
  
  INTERN Cmdr appointed in 014
  
  Cmdr Tate (006) to Cmdr Narcotics
  
  Cmdr Ward (011) to DC Street Dep
  
  Cmdr Wallace (Narc) to Cmdr 011
  
  Cmdr (002) to Const Policing
  
  Cmdr Cruz (124) to Dep Chief CompStat
  
  Tact Lt (002) to Cmdr 002
  
  Tact Lt (011) to Cmdr 006
  DC Adnardo Gutierrez dumped to LT

Fill in the blanks in the comments.

O'Hare Shooting Update

We'd swear that this was all made up, but the truth is sometimes even stranger than fiction:

• A wild shoot-out exposed the lack of license plate readers at O’Hare Airport, where gunmen fled in cars after wounding a self-proclaimed rapper, police sources say.

  “How is it that we don’t have those readers at the airport when we have them all over the city?” a police supervisor said, adding that such readers could have helped in the investigation.

Hope you didn't say that on camera, boss. 

It's a good question though - what with all the federal money available and airports being a favorite target of terrorists, you'd think that cameras would cover all possible angles and approaches to the terminals, access points, and the airfield itself.

Nope, and it took this early morning stupidity to reveal it:

• Nearly 60 shell casings were retrieved outside Terminal 2 after two rappers from Austin and their West Side companions deboarded a Spirit Airlines flight and got into a violent argument in baggage claim, leading to the shooting at 12:10 a.m. Wednesday.

  Chicago police officials haven’t announced a motive for the attack in the arrivals area on the lower level. But they know two separate groups stepped off a flight from Houston and made their way to baggage claim, where the quarrel between the rappers erupted, according to a police report and sources. Screaming expletives and throwing punches, the brawl escalated and moved into a vestibule before spilling into the street outside.

  After someone in the melee called a “gun car,” its occupants jumped out and began firing an AK-47-type rifle and a 9mm gun at people on the sidewalk, a police source said.

A "gun car." Who knew that the rap industry had their own SORT cars patrolling the airports? And who'd have guessed that someone who flew in on Spirit Airlines would ever engage in anti-social type behavior?

Real nice airport there Conehead.

The Fleecing of Chicago

The Contrarian's Paul Vallas goes over some well trodden ground:

• Suing the City of Chicago for alleged police misconduct has become both a lucrative racket and drain on city finances. On Monday, a Chicago jury awarded $120 million in a wrongful conviction lawsuit to two plaintiffs, both of whom spent 16 years in prison. This amounts to paying each man approximately $4 million for each year behind bars. Just last August, another Chicago jury awarded $50 million to a man who had spent 10 years in prison before then State’s Attorney Kim Foxx agreed to the dismissal of charges against him. That settlement was equivalent to a whopping $5 million per year of custody.

  All three of those men were represented by a Chicago law firm that, in 2022, secured $42 million in settlements out of a total of $117 million Chicago paid out to litigants. Since 2000, Chicago has paid out $700 million in lawsuits to criminals, most of whom are guilty, for alleged police misconduct and lawyers representing the city got $138 million.

We say "well trodden ground" because Marty Preib was writing about this for years, in books and also on the Contrarian site, naming names, law firms and media whores who advocated for the release of guilty persons after witnesses died, moved out of state, or officers retired, etc. And with a willing accomplice in Crimesha, these scumbags were able to free assorted murderers via lies, omissions and perjured testimony. Someone in Crimesha's office even directed them to friendly law firms, who after securing their cut, undoubtedly made campaign contributions to assorted aldercreatures who had voted to approve "settlements."

"Fleecing" is the mildest description for the extortion and fraud that is still going on to this day.

And Another Dead One

Former ShotSpotter neighborhood, a sergeant hears the gunfire, other officers see vehicles fleeing the area, someone actually calls 911, and eight minutes later....:

• A man was found murdered in a West Side alley on Wednesday night, eight minutes after police officers in the area first heard the gunfire that killed him. Had Mayor Brandon Johnson not disconnected the neighborhood’s ShotSpotter network last September, the 31-year-old would likely have been found much sooner, thanks to the gunfire detection system’s pinpoint accuracy.

  A Chicago police sergeant on patrol reported hearing gunfire around 8:39 p.m. and guessed that it came from somewhere within Laramie, Cicero, Ferdinand, and Lake. Another officer saw a couple of vehicles speeding out of that box. A 911 caller reported gunfire near the 4900 block of West Kinzie. Another caller reported a chase between two cars and gunfire near Lavergne and Hubbard.

CWB blog says this is Number 36 Wounded and/or Dead in a ShotSpotter hood. That doesn't even count the ones that were just property damage or nothing got hit. 

Here a Tax, There a Tax

Once again, ZERO proposals to actually cut government spending and instead, create a new tax!

• As engines become more fuel efficient, and electric vehicles make greater inroads , Illinois faces an unexpected consequence — less funding for roads.

  The motor fuel tax helps pay for road, bridge and public transit improvements throughout Illinois. Now, though, vehicles require less gas — or no gas at all — so funding for infrastructure has taken a hit.

Golly, saving the environment sure gets expensive!

• On Illinois toll roads , drivers pay approximately seven cents per mile, according to Poulos. With a mileage-based system, drivers could expect to pay three to four cents per mile. That would come on top of any tolls already being paid, similar to the gas tax.

  [...]

  In Illinois, the charge likely wouldn’t raise enough revenue to allow eliminating the motor fuel tax.

Of course not. Illinois pols have never ever eliminated a tax. And with Fata$$ welcoming all sorts of illegals and tranny refugees, he's going to need every dime he can pry out of Illinois' shrinking tax base.

This is just "a study" at this point, but rest assured, with other blue state shitholes already doing it, you can expect it here shortly. 

You didn't expect them to tax bicyclists, did you?