Today in Chicago History: White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle throws a perfect game
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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
1877: A rail strike that started in West Virginia grew into a national struggle between industrialists and workers, with Chicago a hotbed of the dispute. Workers demanding the eight-hour day clashed violently with police, militia and even U.S. infantry.
The Chicago Times noted that the largely immigrant mob included women — 'Bohemian Amazons' wielding clubs in their 'brawny arms.' The more heavily armed authorities killed 30 protesters in the fighting, which included an incident known as 'The Battle of the Viaduct' because it occurred at a viaduct at 16th and Halsted streets.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: From horseless carriages to cougars, revisiting the Chicago Auto Show1903: E. Pfennig, a Chicago physician, bought Ford's first Model A for $850. His check, deposited July 15, helped the new company, whose finances were $223.65 at the time.
1922: The Lincoln Park Boat Club swept the top rowing events in the first annual Chicago Water Carnival, which was sponsored by the Tribune.
1925: Chicago's Union Station held its grand opening.
There were formal and casual dining facilities, staffed by the famed Harvey Girls, who waited on tables in what is considered the nation's first restaurant chain at train stations across the country.
The Woman's Waiting Room had stairs leading down to a nursery. A doctor, a nurse and a matron were present at all times.
There were two jail cells for offenders being taken to prison, a morgue for travelers who died on a train and a chapel for those feeling spiritually needy. One hospital handled customers' medical emergencies. Another cared for railroad employees.
1975: The City Council passed 'Burke's Law,' an ordinance proposed by the 14th Ward alderman that outlawed nudity in massage parlors. The nickname was inspired by a popular television detective show from that time.
Arlington International Racecourse: History of one of the 'world's most beautiful racetracks'1981: Gov. James Thompson signed a bill into law allowing wagering on out-of-state races. Arlington Park became the first Illinois track to use the new bill when it simulcast the Travelers Stakes late that summer.
2009: Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle threw a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays. The White Sox won 5-0. It was also the 18th perfect game in major-league history.
White Sox pitchers have thrown more no-hitters than any other American League team.
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Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Remembering the Dave Matthews Band bus incident, 21 years later
The first time the Dave Matthews Band swung through the Chicago area during the summer of 2004, the group played a sold-out, 2½-hour set at the Tweeter Center (now Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre) in Tinley Park. 'Although his whiny high notes often sounded like air seeping from a leaky mattress, Matthews punctuated his springy vocals with scat phrases and mumbles that had female fans shrieking,' Bob Gendron wrote about the performance. The band's return visit on Aug. 8, 2004, would also elicit shrieking — but not for its music. What happened on — and under — the Kinzie Street Bridge on the North Branch of the Chicago River two decades ago is now local lore. Here's how the Tribune reported the infamous 'bus incident.' People enjoying one of the city's top tourist attractions, the Chicago Architecture Foundation's river cruise aboard Chicago's Little Lady, took a direct hit when a luxury coach stopped on the Kinzie Street Bridge and expelled 800 pounds of liquid lavatory waste just as the tour boat passed below it. The substance oozed through the bridge's metal grating, dousing two-thirds of the vessel's 120 passengers with a foul-smelling, brownish-yellow slurry that ruined their clothes and made several of them sick. Five people were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for testing. All 120 passengers were given refunds on their $25 tickets. Witnesses told police they saw a long black tour bus dump the liquid waste. One witness gave Chicago police an Oregon license plate number that belonged to the 2003 Monaco Royale Coach driven by Jerry Fitzpatrick, who had been Matthews' tour bus driver for three years at the time. Fitzpatrick confirmed he was in Chicago with Matthews, whose band played the second of two shows at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin later that night. But the driver said he was parked in front of The Peninsula, 108 E. Superior St., when the waste rained down from the bridge several blocks away. 'There is no way I could be responsible for that. I haven't emptied the tank for days. Besides, we are very cautious about how we do that sort of thing,' Fitzpatrick told the Tribune from downstate Effingham. 'This band is very environmentally conscious.' To bolster his case, Fitzpatrick coaxed Sgt. Paul Gardner of the Effingham Police Department to inspect the bus. He then gave Gardner his cell phone to tell a reporter that the tank was nearly full. 'One of the strangest requests I've ever had, that's for sure,' Gardner said. A publicist for the band issued a statement the next night saying the group's management had 'determined that all of the buses on our tour were parked at the time of this incident.' Chicago police, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago all began investigations. After a two-week investigation into the incident that prompted outrage from Chicago's mayor and snickering from late-night television hosts, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan accused the band and driver Stefan A. Wohl of illegally dumping the foul-smelling muck into the river and creating a public nuisance. A three-count civil complaint, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, sought $70,000 in fines and an evaluation of the band's waste disposal practices. Surveillance cameras at neighborhood businesses helped Madigan's investigators and Chicago police detectives trace the bus to Wohl, a Texas man who was identified in the complaint as one of five drivers for the Dave Matthews Band, authorities said. Wohl was driving to pick up a band member at a Michigan Avenue hotel when the bus crossed the Kinzie Street bridge, according to the three-count civil complaint filed in Cook County Circuit Court. 'This incident may be unique, but that does not lessen the environmental or public health risks posed by the release of at least 800 pounds of liquid human waste into a busy waterway and onto a crowded tour boat,' Madigan said in a statement. 'This situation clearly demonstrates the environmental and public health problems that can occur when laws are ignored. This act was not only offensive, it was illegal.' Nancy Todor, an Elmhurst resident whose 43rd birthday was ruined when she got caught in the rain of waste, said a $70,000 fine seemed like an inadequate punishment for the band. In November 2004, Todor became the first boat passenger to file a lawsuit against the band. Perhaps, she said, Matthews should perform a concert for the sullied boat customers. Holly Agra, co-owner of the tour boat, said the incident was an abrupt departure from the usual glowing media coverage of one of the city's most popular tourist attractions. 'We can't afford to have our image damaged,' Agra said recently. 'We don't want this sticking on us for the rest of our careers.' Chicago police shared video captured by a security camera at the East Bank Club, the time-stamped image shows a black and silver bus crossing the Kinzie Street bridge at 1:18 p.m. Aug. 8, 2004. The camera did not record the soaking. But the videotape showed that no other bus crossed the bridge for 15 minutes before or after, Belmont Area Cmdr. Michael Chasen said during the news conference. 'Clearly, this is the bus that discharged that fluid,' Chasen said. Mayor Richard M. Daley said city officials also could file criminal charges, though the offense likely would be considered a misdemeanor. 'The action of illegally dumping in the Chicago River is absolutely unacceptable,' said Daley, who nonetheless described the rock group as a 'very good band.' Days later, the band responded to the allegations by stating it had cooperated fully with Chicago authorities, providing access to drivers and tour management, license plate numbers for the five tour buses and photographs, and offering to supply DNA evidence to determine if the group is responsible. Two months after that, the band donated $50,000 each to Friends of the Chicago River and the Chicago Park District. Two months after he was charged with reckless conduct and discharge of contaminants to cause water pollution, Wohl pleaded guilty to emptying his bus's septic tank over the Chicago River. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation, 150 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine, which would be donated to the Friends of the Chicago River. Speaking after the hearing, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Robert Egan, who negotiated the plea deal, said he was satisfied with Wohl's punishment even though it did not include jail time. 'I have been in touch with many of the people who were on the boat, and none of them suffered any lasting health effects,' Egan said, though many threw out the clothing they were wearing that day and said their cars became soiled on their drive home. About a month before the band performed in Chicago again, the Dave Matthews Band agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a state lawsuit. The fine would go into a fund for environmental education projects. The group also agreed to keep records for the next five years detailing where and when the waste tanks on its tour buses are emptied while in Illinois. In return, the band was allowed to avoid admitting guilt in court. And it won a provision intended to make it more difficult for the tour boat operator and at least one passenger on the ill-fated cruise to use the settlement in their own lawsuits against the band. 'This settlement is reasonable and appropriate given the public and environmental health threats caused by this foul incident,' Madigan said in a statement. A new Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies flavor of Ben and Jerry's ice cream featured packaging encouraging fans to 'lick global warming.' Thanks for reading!
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Appeals court sends back case tied to embattled police detective for an evidentiary hearing
In November of 1987, a leader of Chicago's notorious Black Souls gang purportedly ordered a hit on rival drug dealers, so a group armed with Uzis gunned down two teenagers on Chicago's West Side. The alleged getaway driver Kevin Murray was convicted at trial and the case faded into the annals of Chicago history, until it reemerged amid allegations of torture against former Chicago police Det. Kriston Kato. Nearly the state's whole case was based on Murray's alleged confession, court documents say. The problem? Murray – as early as his first appearance in court in 1988 – claimed that Kato and his partner John Summerville beat the admission out of him. Now, an Illinois appeals court has sent the case back to a trial judge for an evidentiary hearing, finding that Judge David Carlson improperly dismissed Murray's torture-related petition while calling the entire statute that governs such claims a 'terrible law.' The appeal once again raises the specter of police torture that hangs over numerous Cook County post-conviction matters and spotlights the Illinois law that allowed defendants who allege police torture to potentially have another crack at litigating their criminal cases. Kato, who is married to Cook County Judge Mary Margaret Brosnahan, is named in a number of post-conviction cases that accuse him of beating defendants to secure confessions. Summerville, his partner in the Murray case, was convicted in 1993 of sexually abusing female arrestees. Attempts by the Tribune to reach Kato and Summerville were unsuccessful. At the heart of Murray's appeal is the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission, known as TIRC, which was established by state law in 2009 after the measure was championed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, then a state senator. The commission was created in the wake of claims of torture perpetrated by notorious ex-CPD Cmdr. Jon Burge, in order to review them and refer those it finds credible to judges for a hearing. 'It's an incredibly important tool that the legislature created to try to root out some of this misconduct that has existed for far too long,' Murray's attorney Karl Leonard said. The case Murray's case traces back to the killings of Brian Fowler, 17, and DeJuan Buck, 16, which happened, according to a news report with chilling detail, after the pair were lined up against the back wall of a house in the 3300 block of West Fulton Street and shot in the head. The murders were allegedly ordered by notorious gang leader Sam McKay, the appeals court decision said, and police eventually honed in on a gang member, Tyrone Washington, as a suspect. Washington – who also has said he was beaten by Kato and Summerville – implicated Murray as the getaway driver. Murray, though, has consistently maintained his innocence. He said the detectives 'slapped him in the head, hit him on his neck, punched and kneed him in the stomach, punched him in the ribs, and kicked him in the leg, groin, and chest' until he confessed, according to torture commission documents. When coming to its decision, the torture commission laid out several factors that it found weighed both for and against Murray's claim of innocence, according to the appellate court opinion. For one, the commission said, Murray downplayed his association with the Black Souls gang at trial, but later admitted that it was McKay who sent a lawyer to represent him. And another: An emergency medical technician testified that he did not observe any bruises after Murray's arrest. But the commission also noted that Murray's attorney did testify to observing bruises and that the technician's exam was 'admittedly limited.' Murray also raised his claims early, during his first court appearance, then remained consistent ever since, even testifying to it at his trial, the commission found. Washington, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, later signed an affidavit that said he implicated Murray as the getaway driver because Murray 'was messing around with [his] girlfriend,' the appellate opinion said. As far as he knew, Washington said, Murray was selling drugs at his assigned spot during the murders. Finally, in a particularly damning detail, the appeals court noted, at least three people involved in Murray's case ultimately landed in trouble with criminal cases themselves. The trial judge was Thomas Maloney, who was arrested for taking bribes to fix cases in the infamous Operation Graylord case. Summerville is now a convicted sex offender. And, more minorly, Murray's first attorney was also convicted of a misdemeanor tax issue. 'The evidence pulls in opposite directions, and nearly everyone's credibility is at issue,' the opinion says. '(Murray's) claim cannot be summarily dismissed without an evidentiary hearing.' A 'fair day in court' So weighing all the pieces, the appellate court determined that Murray should get a real evidentiary hearing, despite the 2023 dismissal from the trial judge – a disappointment for Murray that came after a long, winding journey. In 2017, the commission found Murray's claims credible and referred the case back to the courts. It meant a chance to air his claims in court for a shot at release from prison. But in a move that was criticized at the time, special prosecutors pushed back against Murray's petition by taking aim at the statute itself, arguing it was unconstitutional. Carlson, a Will County judge appointed to the case due to Kato's marital connection to the Cook County judiciary, declined to strike down the law but said it 'skirts very closely to the edge of constitutionality.' In an opinion last week, a three-justice panel disagreed. 'We will not wade through all the details of the circuit court's open-ended and disparaging excursus into the TIRC Act,' the opinion read, noting that Carlson had referred to the matter as 'insane.' 'Instead, we focus on the specific complaints that, to our eye, led the circuit court to dismiss the TIRC claim on the merits, for a lack of evidentiary support, in what was ostensibly a ruling on the legality of the TIRC referral process itself.' Carlson had decided that his own evaluation of the case served, in effect, as an evidentiary hearing and thus dismissed the matter. 'It was, in a word, bonkers,' Leonard said. 'He gives this lengthy exposition on why the torture commission and torture commission statute are problematic to him … he declines to actually hold it unconstitutional but then in the next breath says we're holding the evidentiary hearing right now inside of my imagination.' Carlson, who did not respond to a request for comment, has since left the bench and another judge has been assigned to the case. With the reversal of Carlson's decision, Murray will soon be back in court. Now 60, he has been incarcerated for around 37 years. Most of his family has since died, his attorney said, and his primary means of support is a cousin. 'Kevin has been saying since day one, since before anybody else was accusing Kato of misconduct, … this happened to me,' Leonard said. 'I think he's relieved that he's finally going to get that fair date in court but incredibly frustrated that he's still in prison decades later.'
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Daywatch: HUD drops housing discrimination complaint against Chicago
Good morning, Chicago. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is dropping its investigation into whether or not aldermanic prerogative, which typically gives Chicago aldermen the final word on zoning decisions in their ward, resulted in housing discrimination. In a letter HUD sent yesterday to the complaining parties, which was obtained by the Tribune, the agency said it was closing the case to instead focus on 'real concerns regarding fair housing.' 'It is the Department's policy to focus on the original understanding and enforcement of the law and therefore rightfully return such decisions on zoning, home building, and more, to local leaders who are directly responsible for those matters,' the letter says. 'HUD enforcement will continue to prioritize investigations of specific allegations of actual discrimination, rather than dictate or influence land use policy.' Read the full story from the Tribune's Lizzie Kane and Alice Yin. Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including what we know about yesterday's ground stop of United flights, what's on deck for the Cubs and White Sox and what to do this weekend. Today's eNewspaper edition | Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History United Airlines paused departures of flights nationwide yesterday evening due to an unspecified technology issue at the Chicago-based carrier. At about 9 p.m., the carrier in a statement said the technology issue had been resolved and that 'while we expect residual delays, our team is working to restore our normal operations.' The Chicago man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington outside a Jewish museum has been indicted on federal hate crime and murder charges, according to court documents unsealed yesterday. The indictment, filed in federal court in Washington, charges Elias Rodriguez with nine counts, including a hate crime resulting in death. The indictment also includes notice of special findings, which would allow the Justice Department to potentially pursue the death penalty. Gov. JB Pritzker emphasized his administration was closely coordinating with state and even local law enforcement to protect Texas House Democrats who fled to Illinois to stop a Republican congressional remap, especially after a bomb threat caused the lawmakers to be evacuated yesterday from their suburban hotel. The Department of Justice placed Chicago, Cook County, and the state of Illinois on its latest 'sanctuary jurisdiction list,' with Attorney General Pam Bondi promising to 'continue bringing litigation' against places the department says stand in the way of federal immigration enforcement. A Chicago police officer with a history of financial trouble has been indicted on federal bank fraud charges alleging he lied on loan paperwork tied to the purchase of three properties in 2019. Nine months after an Illinois appeals court called the circumstances surrounding the murder case against a Chicago man 'extraordinary' and reversed his convictions, his quest for an on-paper exoneration in the form of a certificate of innocence has been delayed after the Cook County state's attorney's office reassigned the case to outside prosecutors. Kevin Jackson, whose journey for release from prison in a 2001 murder case took many twists and turns, was in court Wednesday as Cook County Judge Erica Reddick granted a request by special prosecutor Fabio Valentini to give the state nearly two more months to respond to Jackson's petition for a certificate of innocence. Top Trump administration officials boast that a new state partnership to expand immigrant detention in Indiana will be the next so-called ' Alligator Alcatraz.' However, the agreement is already prompting backlash in the Midwest state, starting with its splashy 'Speedway Slammer' moniker. Here's a closer look at the agreement, the pushback and Indiana's role in the Trump agenda to aggressively detain and deport people in the country illegally. The Cubs head into an off day after avoiding a three-game sweep for the first time this season with a win in yesterday's series finale against the Cincinnati Reds. They head to St. Louis and then Toronto as they look to get the offense back on track. Meanwhile, the Sox haven't had much success against the American League Central (7-20). In the sci-fi comedy 'Demascus,' a man attending therapy tries a new technology that allows him to visit alternate versions of his life that exist in his subconscious in an effort to figure out why he's feeling so bleh, writes Tribune film and TV critic Nina Metz. But which version is closest to his real life? Actually, which one is his real life, anyway? The story premise sounds like Stephen King or M. Night Shyamalan material, though writer-director Zach Cregger has cited Paul Thomas Anderson's sprawling wonder 'Magnolia' as a chief inspiration. In the town of Maybrook, a terrible thing happened not long ago, the young narrator tells us. Seventeen students from schoolteacher Justine Gandy's third-grade class left their beds and their homes at 2:17 a.m. one night, running, arms outstretched, to a destination and a fate unknown, writes Tribune film critic Michael Phillips. Here are our picks for events in and around Chicago this weekend.
