Here are some of the top stories of the week from Chicago and beyond (Sunday, June 11 through Friday, June 16).
Gunman from Illinois shoots GOP congressman at Virginia baseball practice
A home inspector from Belleville, Illinois, opened fire with a rifle at Republican lawmakers as they practiced for a charity baseball game in Alexandria, Va., on Wednesday, injuring House GOP Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and four others.
The shooter, who police identified as James Hodgkinson, 66, was shot by police after a gun battle at the scene and later died, authorities said.
Scalise underwent surgery for a wound to his hip. Two Capitol officers suffered minor injuries and two other men were injured.
Police say the gunman had been living in his van in the area and had grievances against President Donald Trump and Republicans, belonging to a Facebook group called “Terminate the Republican Party.” He had been a volunteer for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign last year.
Downstate Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis said he was up at bat when he heard a loud noise, then a colleague saying, “Run, he’s got a gun.” Davis, who was not injured, blamed the shooting on the “hateful” tone of politics in the country, reports Katherine Skiba.
Illinois Reps. John Shimkus and Darin LaHood are on the GOP team’s baseball roster, but were not at the practice.
In Belleville, a quiet town outside St. Louis, Hodgkinson’s former attorney remembered him “as a very irascible, angry little man, but not somebody I would expect to do something like this.”
Residents say he showed flashes of anger and violence and in 2006 was charged with a domestic assault involving a gun and more recently a neighbor called police to report that he was shooting his rifle at trees on his property, report David Heinzman, Jeff Coen and Christy Gutowski.
Hodgkinson was known for expressing his left-leaning views in letters to the editor of the local newspaper, at an Occupy Wall Street protest, on social media and in calls and messages to his congressman.
The attack would have been worse, congressman said, without Scalise’s security detail at the scene. But in today’s political environment, many rank-and-file legislators are reconsidering their security needs, seeing an increase in death threats, reports the Los Angeles Times’ Lisa Mascaro.
Trump decried the “brutal assault,” praised Capitol Police officers and urged unity.
“We may have our differences, but we do well in times like these to remember that everyone who serves in our nation’s capital is here because, above all, they love our country,” Trump said. “We can all agree that we are blessed to be Americans, that our children deserve to grow up in a nation of safety and peace and that we are strongest when we are unified and when we work together for the common good.”
On Thursday, Hodgkinson’s wife, Suzanne, told reporters she “couldn’t believe it” when she heard what he had done and that she was “sorry that he did this,” reports Gutowski.
Suzanne Hodgkinson’s Facebook page was inundated with more than 1,200 comments, some making personal attacks and others offering sympathy, reports Leonor Vivanco.
Scalise was still listed in critical condition, but improving, on Thursday as authorities tracked Hodgkinson’s path to Virginia. His colleagues, including some from Illinois, played the charity baseball game in his honor in a show of bipartisanship.
Trump wasn’t under investigation, but he is now
Special Counsel Robert Mueller probe into Russia’s role in the 2016 election has widened to examine whether President Donald Trump attempted to obstruct justice, the Washington Post reported.
Trump had received private assurances from former FBI Director James Comey that he wasn’t personally under investigation, but that changed after Trump fired him, officials said.
The obstruction investigation began on May 9, days after Comey was fired, officials said, and it continues under Mueller.
On Thursday, Trump lashed out at the reports he was under scrutiny, tweeting about witch hunts, Hillary Clinton and an investigation led by “some very bad and conflicted people,” while Vice President Mike Pence obtained a private lawyer.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that Mueller is also investigating the finances and business dealings of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Sessions mum on talks with Trump
Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified at a Senate hearing on Tuesday and repeatedly declined to answer questions about his private conversations with President Donald Trump in a series of testy exchanges.
Sessions confirmed some elements of former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony a week earlier and contradicted others.
He adamantly denied having any conversations with Russian officials about “any type of interference” in the 2016 presidential election.
Sessions denied four major allegations against him but also contradicted himself several times and invoked executive privilege often, even though only the president can do that.
In other nation and world news:
London high-rise fire: An overnight fire at a 24-story apartment tower in London on Wednesday killed at least 30 people and injured 74 others as some desperate residents were forced to throw small children out of windows to people on the sidewalk.
UPS workplace shooting: A UPS employee killed three workers and then himself at a San Francisco package delivery facility. Two other employees were injured in the attack, police said.
North Korea releases American: North Korea released an Ohio man, Otto Warmbier, who had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in the country for stealing a propaganda sign. The college student has been in a coma since March and doctors on Thursday said he has severe brain damage but they don’t know the cause.
Flint water crisis charges: Five people, including the director of the Health and Human Services Department were charged with involuntary manslaughter, all accused in the death of a man who contracted Legionnaires’ disease because of Flint’s lead-contaminated water.
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Man charged with killing ex-girlfriend’s 12-year-old daughter
A man who was just released from prison, where he was for attacking his then-girlfriend, was charged Monday with stabbing and beating to death the woman’s 12-year-old daughter, report Peter Nickeas and Jeremy Gorner.
John Singleton, 31, is accused of killing Alexis Stubbs on Sunday night in the Sheridan Park neighborhood. He had been at the apartment most of the day, but the girl’s mother called 911 that night when he wouldn’t leave. The woman and the girl left the apartment to wait for police but the girl went back into the building to talk to a neighbor when she was attacked with a hammer and a knife, police said.
Singleton was arrested about six hours later, said police, who tracked his cellphone and found him hiding in a portable toilet.
Singleton, who was ordered held without bail on Tuesday, texted the woman after the slaying, telling her, “See wat u made me do … u gon pay for this,” reports Megan Crepeau.
Berrios defends property tax assessments after Tribune series
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios said a Tribune investigation, which detailed how property taxes under his watch were error-prone and benefited the wealthy over the poor, was misleading, report Jason Grotto and Ray Long.
Berrios, who declined to be interviewed for the Tribune series, “The Tax Divide,” offered no evidence to show the county’s system as a whole is accurate and fair.
Berrios said he can assure “each and every homeowner in Cook County that their assessment is as fair and accurate as possible, based on their market conditions and the sales in their neighborhood.”
He brought Richard Borst, an industry expert who works for a company that holds $65 million in county contracts, to his news conference. Borst accused the Tribune of not providing technical details on its analysis, which, in fact, it did. Borst then acknowledged he had not seen that analysis.
You can read the Tribune’s three-part series here.
Chicago property tax bills going up 10 percent
In addition to property tax bills not always being fair, the average Chicago property tax bill is going up about 10 percent this year after tax hikes to pay for police, fire and teacher pensions, reports Hal Dardick.
Homeowners in suburban Cook County will fare better, with the average bill doing up anywhere from 3.9 percent to 6.5 percent.
Chicago photos in the news
In other Chicago-area news:
Violent week: Police said two men stabbed each other Tuesday in a domestic dispute at North Avenue Beach, reports Tony Briscoe. It was the second violent incident on Chicago beaches in three nights. On Sunday, two boys were shot at 31st Street Beach on the South Side, reports Gregory Pratt. On Thursday, a 78-year-old man walking with his son was shot to death in West Englewood, reports Peter Nickeas, and another man was wounded on Michigan Avenue near Millennium Park, report Deanese Williams-Harris and Tony Briscoe. On Friday, two girls, ages 7 and 13, were shot on the playground of Warren Elementary School on the South Side. Their injuries weren’t considered life-threatending.
Lawsuit over police reform: A group of civil rights lawyers and organizations filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday to force federal court supervision of the Chicago Police Department, a form of oversight that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has backed away from, reports Dan Hinkel.
Explosion rattles neighborhood: An explosion damaged about 80 homes in a Marengo neighborhood on Sunday, leaving 19 uninhabitable. Fortunately, there were only a few minor injuries, authorities said, thanks in part to some heroic neighbors who helped a mother and daughter get out of a home that was engulfed in flames, reports Amanda Marrazzo.
No budget, no Powerball: Pressure to end a two-year-long budget stalemate intensified as Gov. Bruce Rauner called lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special session, report Kim Geiger and Rick Pearson. Lottery officials said if a deal isn’t reached by the end of the month, Illinois residents won’t be able to buy Powerball and Mega Millions tickets, report Matthew Walberg and Angie Leventis Lourgos.
YouTube star charged: Austin Jones, a pop singer from Bloomingdale who has more than 500,000 subscribers on YouTube, was charged with child pornography after being accused of coercing two girls to send him sexually explicit videos, reports Jason Meisner.
High art, high-rise clash: Some residents in Streeterville say the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a bad neighbor, leaving mechanical equipment on its rooftop within eyesight of condo dwellers and damaging a nearby park, reports Leonor Vivanco.
Interstate shooting: A man who fired multiple rounds into a car on a Wisconsin interstate, killing a Buffalo Grove woman, was found guilty of reckless homicide but not mentally responsible for the crimes and was committed to the state’s Department of Health Services supervision for the next 40 years.
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Cubs draft son of Charleston shooting victim
The Cubs drafted Charleston Southern outfielder Chris Singleton in the 19th round of the Major League amateur draft. Singleton is the son of Sharonda Singleton, one of nine people killed in the South Carolina church shooting two years ago, reports Mark Gonzales.
The Cubs are aware of his back story, but don’t want his baseball skills to get lost in that, making clear they consider him “almost like a top-10 caliber talent.”
The Cubs overall took 25 pitchers in the draft and of their 41 picks, 29 were college players.
The Cubs took two pitchers with their picks in the first round and continued loading up on arms in the draft’s second day, reports Gonzales.
The White Sox took slugging college third baseman Jake Burger in the first round and took Libertyville catching prospect Evan Skoug on day two, reports Colleen Kane.
On day three, the Sox took some celebrity sons in the late rounds, including Riley Crean, the son of former Indiana coach Tom Crean, and Chance King, the son of longtime TV host Larry King, Kane reports.
In other sports news:
Golden title: Kevin Durant scored 39 points to lead the Golden State Warriors to a 129-120 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers to clinch the team’s second NBA title in three seasons on Monday.
Penguins or Blackhawks?: The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Nashville Predators to win their second straight Stanley Cup on Sunday, their third title in nine years. Chris Hine asks … have the Penguins been better over the past decade than the Blackhawks?
Sorry, Bears fans: Retired Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops may have bought a second home in Chicago, but he shot down rumors that he’s interested in coaching the Bears, reports Brad Biggs.
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Sears cuts 400 full-time jobs in Hoffman Estates
Sears Holding Corp. is eliminating 400 full-time jobs, mostly at its Hoffman Estates headquarters, reports Lauren Zumbach
Sears said it had already eliminated open positions and that the cuts and other actions taken have allowed the company to remove almost $1 billion from its cost structure.
Sears has cut its head count in Hoffman Estates by more than a third since 2011, when it received tax breaks to stay in the state.
In other business news:
Amazon buying Whole Foods: The online behemoth, seeking to expand its reach in groceries, is buying the chain, known for its organic and health food, in a deal valued at $13.7 billion.
CarShare crime: Enterprise CarShare told its Chicago customers it is canceling existing reservations and not taking new ones as a result of “vandalism, theft and fraud” affecting about 40 percent of its fleet, reports Blue Sky Innovation’s Cheryl V. Jackson.
Insurance talks: University of Chicago Medicine and UnitedHealthcare have been unable to reach a contract agreement, meaning about 8,000 UnitedHealthcare customers who see doctors at U. of C. may have to go elsewhere for care, reports Lisa Schencker.
Uber changes: The embattled rideshare company started a corporate overhaul on Tuesday, announcing CEO Travis Kalanick is taking an indefinite leave of absence and diminishing his power when he returns, among other changes. That same day, a board member resigned after interrupting fellow board member Arianna Huffington, to make an “inappropriate” joke that more women board members would mean “more talking” at meetings.
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Steppenwolf blasts Sun-Times critic’s review
Steppenwolf Theatre officials denounced a review of its play, “Pass Over,” by Chicago Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss, saying her review “revealed a deep-seated bigotry and a painful lack of understanding of this country’s historic racism,” reports Tracy Swartz.
The play follows two black men struggling to survive as they encounter a white man in their space. Weiss criticized the play’s “simplistic” portrayal of a “racist white cop” and said one white character was “condescending to Steppenwolf’s largely white ‘liberal’ audience.”
The review received a backlash online, with an online petition started calling for theaters to stop giving Weiss tickets to review their shows.
In other entertainment, lifestyles and dining news:
Bourbon County expands: Goose Island is regaining its swagger with plans for its most ambitious release yet for the Bourbon County family of craft beers, with seven offerings, reports Josh Noel. This follows a 2015 setback in which 4 of its 6 offerings were tainted with bacteria that led to souring.
Newberry facelift: Chicago’s Newberry Library is beginning an $11 million renovation of its first floor space, reports Steve Johnson.
Blue Door Farm to return: The Lincoln Park cafe and market that closed after only a year in 2015, will reopen next week in a bigger space on Halsted Street near Armitage Avenue, reports Nick Kindelsperger.
![A current administrator at the high school in Oak Park will be the principal of East Leyden High School starting next school year, Leyden High School District 212 officials announced. Julie Lam will start as head of the school, located in Franklin Park, as of July 1. But a SD212 spokeswoman told Pioneer Press that Lam is expected to work with outgoing Principal Dominic Manola “on a transition plan” and will likely be at the school ahead of that official start date. “We are incredibly excited to welcome Dr. Lam to the Leyden Family. Her vast experiences in the classroom […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/JHL-headshot-2023.jpg?w=263 "A current administrator at the high school in Oak Park will be the principal of East Leyden High School starting next school year, Leyden High School District 212 officials announced. Julie Lam will start as head of the school, located in Franklin Park, as of July 1. But a SD212 spokeswoman told Pioneer Press that Lam is expected to work with outgoing Principal Dominic Manola “on a transition plan” and will likely be at the school ahead of that official start date. “We are incredibly excited to welcome Dr. Lam to the Leyden Family. Her vast experiences in the classroom […]")
