lundi 31 mai 2010

Thank Tommy for the Rain

  • At least 12 people were reported shot and three of those victims died from their injuries following separate shooting incidents throughout the city.

    The shootings started Sunday afternoon and continued into Monday morning on the South, Southwest, West and North Sides.

.... Tommy Skilling rides to the rescue and brings on a mix of showers, lightning and storms to wash away the lion's share of the mayhem.

And here's a laugher:
  • No one is in custody for any of the shootings. Wentworth Area, Calumet Area, Belmont Area, Harrison Area and Grand Area detectives are investigating.
Gee, that's Area 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Looks like a sweep!

Tragicomedy

Maybe it isn't the guns at all? Maybe it's just people with no sense of proportion, moral compass or little voice inside that says, "Maybe this isn't such a good idea"
  • Three women were shot -- one was seriously wounded -- while walking down the street with “new” male companions early Monday on the Far South Side, police said.

    The victims are between the ages of 23 and 27 and were walking with male companions at 131 W. 113th Pl. about 12:20 a.m. when the incident occurred, according to police.

    The shooters who all are acquainted with the women, apparently didn't like the fact they were walking with “new” men and began firing, according to police.

    Police said the gunmen were “probably” trying to harm the men, but wounded the women instead.

  • A man who was shot dead by someone he had been playing dice with after an argument in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side Sunday night.

    The man was shot in the chest about 11 p.m. near the intersection of 61st and Bishop streets, police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said.

    A Wentworth Area detective sergeant identified the victim as Larry Marble, and said he was playing dice or a game of chance with another person when a disagreement erupted between the two over the game.

    The gunman "got mad" and shot Marble several times about the body, according to the sergeant who did not have a description of the assailant immediately.

Actually, no it isn't. What the hell is wrong with people today? Don't answer that.

Only on the South Side

  • An off-duty police officer was sitting on his porch with his wife on South Leavett and West 90th when they saw a 30-year-old man break into a car. When the officer attempted to make an arrest, a short scuffle happened.

    The man allegedly threatened the officer, saying, ''I know where you live now and I'll come back and kill you.'' The suspect also threatened to injure the officer's wife.

    The suspect managed to break free and began running toward nearby woods, shedding clothing in the meantime. A police sergeant spotted the suspect at South Western and West 90th, and the man was apprehended.

    The suspect is facing charges of burglary and aggravated assault to a peace officer, the Morgan Park district desk sergeant said.

    As police were making the arrest at 1:13 a.m., a drunken motorist driving a 2004 Ford Escape plowed into a police car at the scene. The force of the impact caused that car to hit another squad car head-on, injuring a police sergeant.

    Among his charges, Paul Daniels, 26, of South Holland, was cited with two counts of driving under the influence. As police responded to that crash, a male driver told police his male passenger had been shot at South Western Avenue and West 79th Street.

That was truly a bad set of coincidence. Best wishes to the injured sergeant.

Mystery Solved - Sort Of

Hillbuzz is having a field day with this one.

The registered owner info popped up there, here and a couple of other blogs. TheExpiredMeter opines this might be a mistake - there is no signage designating a "No Parking Zone," but the yellow line on the curb is usually indicative of some sort of restriction (distance from hydrant, crosswalk, etc.) Now here's another twist:
  • Hop over to the City of Chicago "Pay Parking Tickets On-line" site;

  • Enter the plate and last name (X550474 - Davis);

  • Scan the list of tickets issued
Out of 30 tickets issued over 2 years, 18 are listed as "dismissed." 60% of tickets beaten - not bad. We haven't heard of a dismissal rate that high since the judges stopped taking bribe money at Traffic Court.

Also, the last ticket issued was late in 2009. Nothing since. It certainly lends credence to the allegation made by a Traffic Aide that her hand-held ticket writer has that plate labeled as "Do Not Write." Hillbuzz blog did numerous walk-bys and took a bunch of photos of the car still parked illegally over the past day or two. It must be nice to be that clouted that you can just create your own parking spots.

Algo huele mal en Alemania


31.05.2010 - Calígula - En noviembre pasado (2009), Alemania quedó conmocionada y en shock por el suicidio de Robert Enke (32), que se dejó arrollar por un tren en su barrio de Hannover.

Entonces arquero del Hannover y convocado por Joachim Löw para defender el arco de la selección germana, Robert dejó una carta disculpas por la decisión.

Sufría depresiones clínicas (desde 2003) que se agudizaron con la muerte de su hija Lara de dos años (2006) después de muchas operaciones infructuosas por su mal cardíaco congénito.

“Tenía pánico de perder el fútbol y de perder a Leila, contó Teresa (viuda), pensamos que con amor lo superaríamos.”

Había estado por primera vez en tratamiento, tras su paso por el Barcelona y el Fenerbahce, porque padecía un miedo patológico al fracaso. En su primer partido con el equipo, los hinchas lo abuchearon y le tiraron todo tipo de objetos… eso lo marcó negativamente.

No había estado en varios partidos internacionales, supuestamente por una infección intestinal, y tampoco había sido convocado por Löw para el amistoso contra Chile ni el posterior partido contra Costa de Marfil, cuatro días después.

Joachim Löw (DT) y Michael Ballack (capitán se la selección, que conocía a Robert desde los 13 años), junto a Teresa, encabezaron el cortejo fúnebre que fue multitudinario.

                                              .     .     .     .     .     .     .


En enero de 2010, a días de cumplir sus 28 años, Simon Rolfes abandona la concentración de la selección alemana -convocada para un test de rendimiento físico- y se le diagnostica una lesión de cápsula (rodilla) que le deja una remota posibilidad de estar a punto para el Mundial.

Rolfes formó al lado de Michael Ballack el doble pivote de la selección alemana en el partido clave de la eliminatoria mundialista ante Rusia y se perfilaba como titular en Sudáfrica.

La lesión de Rolfes se produce menos de una semana después de que Löw le comunicara al veterano Torsten Frings, jugador que juega en esa posición, que no contaba con él para el Mundial.


El 20 de abril (2009), René Adler (arquero del Bayern Leverkusen) sufre una fractura de costilla frente al Borussia Dortmund y es baja para el próximo partido de su club contra el “Hannover”.
Los médicos del Leverkusen afirman que la lesión no requiere operación y después de un tiempo, René vuelve a los entrenamientos. Joachim Low lo convoca 9 veces seguidas para el arco de la selección pero el 4 de mayo el dolor le dijo basta: “Fue la decisión más difícil que tome en mi vida - dijo Adler - pero hubiera sido irresponsable ante mi club, ante la selección y ante mi mismo jugar el Mundial sin operarme”. 



El 17 de mayo (2010) la Federación Alemana de Fútbol (DFB) informa que Michael Ballack, símbolo-capitán alemán y amigo de infancia de Robert Enke, se dobló el pie al ser víctima de una fuerte entrada por parte del germano-ghanés Kevin-Prince Boateng a los 37 minutos del partido que jugaron Chelsea y Portsmouth (1-0) por la final de la Copa inglesa.

Luego de una resonancia, el médico del Bayern Munich, Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, afirma que la entrada de Boateng y el posterior movimiento de Ballack, le significaron un desgarro total del ligamento interno y uno parcial del ligamento de la sindesmosis del tobillo derecho, que implican no menos de dos meses de recuperación (un mes de yeso mas dos semanas de calzado especial) sin contar la rehabilitación.


El 25 de mayo (2010) la Federación Alemana de Fútbol (DFB) informa que Christian Traesch (22), centrocampista del Stuttgart, se lesiona durante el partido amistoso de 60 minutos que la selección alemana disputara (4-0) con la formación del Sued Tirol, de la segunda división germana.
Más tarde la DFB confirma su baja mundialista certificando que padece, al igual que  Michael Ballack, una seria lesión en su tobillo.


Ayer, 30 de mayo (2010), la DFB sale a confirmar la baja del defensor Heiko Westermann (27) para la Copa Mundial de la FIFA Sudáfrica 2010 tras la rotura del escafoides de su pie izquierdo (empeine) en el encuentro amistoso que la selección alemana jugó contra Hungría el último sábado.
Alemania ya había resuelto el partido con goles de Lukas Podolski (´5 penal), Mario Gómez (´69) y Cacau (´73) pero a falta de dos minutos para la finalización, cayó Westermann.


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Mourinho presentado en Real Madrid.


31.05.2010 - WIlde - Jorge Valdano presentó a José Mourinho como nuevo entrenador del Real Madrid por un contrato de unión de cuatro años.

"No puedo prometer que vayamos a llegar lejos en la Champions, fútbol es fútbol. Lo que puedo prometer es que el Real Madrid no es cabeza de serie, pero en el momento del sorteo el miedo no será nuestro sino de quien tenga que jugar con el Real Madrid.”

"El fútbol es más que una táctica o un entrenamiento. El fútbol se juega con un grupo de hombres diferentes que trabajan juntos y forman una familia, el club es nuestra segunda familia. Para conseguir esto hay que tener mucha empatía.”

"Soy un entrenador que adapta su filosofía a la plantilla que tiene, intento sacar lo mejor de mis jugadores. Normalmente, los jugadores después de trabajar conmigo están revalorizados gracias al trabajo que realizaron conmigo.”

"No soy un provocador, soy un trabajador y quiero respeto.”

“Inter necesita un entrenador cualificado. Espero que sea un técnico inteligente. Tendrá suerte porque le regalo de ganar tres títulos: Supercopa de Italia, de Europa e Intercontinental."

"He jugado una final de UEFA y dos de Champions. Ganamos las tres y marcamos ocho goles en las finales. Cuando se repite una mentira, para personas inteligentes será una mentira. Para los demás será una verdad"

"Una cosa es organización de juego y otra juego defensivo. Cuando un equipo es organizado defiende muy bien, jugar con jugadores de ataque y defender bien".

"No siento una presión diferente por estar en el Real Madrid"

MOURINHO SE DESPIDE DE MATERAZZI
30 FRASES DE MOURINHO
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Tapa nº 156.


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dimanche 30 mai 2010

Memorial Day


Especially with having lost an officer who served not only this city, but our country. Remember our veterans, past present and future.

Five Years!

Yes, once again, it's that time of year - Our Birthday! Five years blogging, five years of sarcasm, silliness, commentary and insanity. And once again, it's time for us to thank everyone who makes it all possible - you, the readers. Without your visits (over 9.9 million!), without your page views (almost 19 million!!), none of this would exist.

A special thanks to J-Fled and the policy group - your continued torturing of statistical data, insane management changes and slow organizational murder of the once proud Chicago Police Department provides us a constant source of amusement and material.

And a very special thanks to Mike Masters Masters Masters, who has spent thousands of visits and countless hours surfing our comment threads from home, work and Blackberry, looking for those elusive mentions that keep dozens of IAD investigators busy with pointless CR investigations.

And we finally get to wear one of these on our blog uniform:


A 5-year service bar, something we hope that certain superintendents and their hangers-on will never get an opportunity to wear. Again, we thank you all.

22 Shot, 1 Dead in Quiet Weekend

And by quiet, we mean it was quiet on the "indoor homicide" front. Outside, it was a bloody freaking mess:
  • At least 22 people were wounded in shootings around Chicago roughly between noon Saturday and noon Sunday, including a man who died Sunday morning after he was shot in the head, police said.

    Nearly half of the 15 separate shootings appear to be gang-related, including the fatal incident, Chicago police Superintendent Jody Weis said Sunday. At least two of the other victims have refused to cooperate with police, "which makes the job of our detectives ... far more difficult," Weis said.

We do have a question though. This incident is going to cause some head scratching at HQ:
  • At 8:11 p.m., a 47-year-old man who is possibly homeless, was shot in the right arm while standing on the street on the 29200 [sic] block of North Milwaukee Avenue, a Shakespeare district police captain said. He was taken to Norwegian-American Hospital in “stable” condition. The suspect fled on foot and no one was in custody Sunday.
If he's homeless (or apartment-less as our Patrol Specialist used to say - he didn't earn a house), his "outdoors" is effectively his "indoors," even if it's a box, underpass or bridge, and is his shooting therefore "preventable" under the new J-Fled reporting system?

And remember, every barbecue shooting Monday falls into the "outdoor" category. Watch yourselves as the beer starts flowing around noon and continues well into the night.

Texas-Sized "Whoops!"

  • Like the old song goes, one of these things is not like the other...

    However, remind a police officer in Corpus Christi, Texas of those famed Cookie Monster lyrics and they're likely to give you an annoyed look.

    That's because a recently discovered cache of plants, initially pegged by officials speaking to local news as "one of the largest marijuana plant seizures in the police department's history," turned out to be a relatively common prairie flower of little significance.

    Texas officers ultimately spent hours laboring to tag and remove up to 400 plants from a city park, discovering only after a battery of tests that they had been sweating over mere Horse Mint, a member of the mint family -- effectively turning their ambitious drug bust into mere yard work.

On the plus side, the park looked damn good after they were done,. And at least four "illegal immigrant" groundskeepers had to return home that day.

Ban Bikes, Rodeos

One death is too many, right Shortshanks?
  • A Dolton man died Sunday morning after falling from his bicycle during the Bike the Drive event in Chicago, authorities said.

    Witnesses told police that the man — identified as Larry Williams, 54, of the 14800 block of East Evers Street — was on the northbound side of the 2300 block of North Lake Shore Drive just before 8 a.m. when he fell, Chicago police Officer Dan O'Brien said.

    Williams was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about a half-hour later, the Cook County medical examiner's office said.

    It was unclear what caused Williams' fall or his death. Police did not know if he was wearing a helmet. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.
On the other hand, when bikes are outlawed, only outlaws will have bikes.

And then this....because one arm is too many:
  • A man believed to be participating in a rodeo in an unincorporated area of Will County near Lockport on Sunday suffered a serious injury to his arm, which appeared to be severed, a fire official said.

    The man was conscious and talking to rescuers as he was taken from 18249 S. Briggs St. to Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet about 5:30 p.m., Lockport Fire Protection District battalion Chief John Kure said.

    Though the arm was still attached to the man's body, it was not immediately known whether the arm would be saved, Kure said, adding he did not know the circumstances surrounding the injury.
Next, the government will ban foie gras, transfats, salt and all sorts tasty goodies. Oh wait, they're doing that already.

Sudáfrica 2010


EL MUNDIAL EN LA PELOTA NO DOBLA
















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La ropa de Maradona

30.05.2010 - Wilde - La cruzada para trajear a Diego empezó hace algo más de un mes atrás. Los organizadores se propusieron juntar 10000 personas que apoyen la causa, entregarle un traje a Diego para que lo use en al menos un partido de Sudáfrica y luego subastarlo a beneficio de la provincia de Chaco.

Pero Diego, hasta ahora, sólo se vistió de gala para la sesión de fotos oficiales. A pedido de Maradona, quien se contactó personalmente con Federico Alvarez Castillo, el equipo de Etiqueta Negra trabajó dos meses con las medidas de cada uno de los 23 elegidos (más cuerpo técnico) para garantizar un acabado perfecto (incluso se vieron corridas para ajustar los dobladillos de Diego Milito y Walter Samuel, últimos en llegar).

La ropa diseñada por EN consiste en: ambo sastre dos botones contrastado tejido 84% lana – 16% mohair super s de Lanificio Vitale Barberis Canónico Italia, camisa formal blanca en poplin 100% algodón título 120 de Cottonificio Albini (Italia), corbata de satén 100% seda natural finita en color gris perla, cinturón formal negro de cuero vacuno box argentino, zapatos negros en 100% cuero vacuno argentino.

Durante la sesión fue que Diego le confesó a Castillo, quien acudió como Armani a la concentración inglesa de 2006, que estaba pensando ponerse el traje en los partidos en lugar del clásico (y bielsista) equipo de gimnasia: “Si llego a ganar un partido con el traje te juro que no me lo saco más”.


De hacerlo, Diego dará por cumplido el pedido del grupo “Un traje para Diego” (reunió 4000 seguidores al momento de la partida a Sudáfrica), que incluso publica un juego para vestirlo.

No obstante, la contracara de la labor solidaria se manifiesta a través de Luciana Salazar, quién tomó un guante maradoniano y avisó, vía twitter, que “Diego, si Argentina gana me sumo con vos en el obelisco”.


En un reportaje por radio FM Metro con Perros de la Calle, el programa de Andy Kusnetzoff, un periodista español le preguntó a Maradona qué promesa haría si ganara la Copa: "Me pongo en bolas y salgo a recorrer el obelisco”. (ver vídeo)
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samedi 29 mai 2010

Todas las mascotas de Mundiales.


30.05.2010 - Calígula - En 1966 Inglaterra incorpora a Willie (león), elemento de marketing y consumo, como primera mascota mundial. México continúa la línea diferenciándose con Juanito, para 1970, la primera mascota humana de sombrero originario. Los alemanes duplicaron la apuesta creando a Tip y Tap (las dos Alemanias?) para 1974. Los argentinos (1978) no se esmeraron demasiado y copiaron, en forma de Gauchito, al Juanito mexicano del 70. España (pos franquista) presentó a su lamentable Naranjito para 1982. México se vio obligado a cambiar de mascota para 1986: Pique (un ají) salió elegido entre mas de 600 diseños. Los italianos crearon a Ciao para 1990 cambiando un poco el concepto. Estados Unidos presentó a Striker (perro) para 1994 (Warner Bross). Footix (gallo) representó los días de Francia 98 (su nombre salió de una encuesta con casi 20.000 opiniones) y fue diseñado por Fabrice Pialot. Los Spheriks de Corea y Japón llegaron de Atmozone, un planeta imaginario en el que se juega a un deporte similar al fútbol llamado Atmoball y donde existe una academia en la que estos seres aprenden a crear una buena atmósfera deportiva. Ato, director de la academia, y los alumnos Nik y Kaz viajaron hasta el Mundial 2002 para velar por el cumplimiento de la deportividad en el terreno de juego. Y Goleo VI viene a suplantar a los viejos Tip y Tap del 74 para Alemania 2006, bajo diseño de Henson Company, creador de los personajes de Plaza Sésamo. El león tenía una pelota inteligente llamada Pillie y su melena estaba hecha de pelos de llamas criadas en una estancia de Las Acequias, Río Cuarto, Córdoba (Argentina).

Para Sudafrica 2010: Andries Odendaal (Ciudad del Cabo) creó a Zakumi (leopardo): “ZA”, por Sudafrica, y “kumi”, una traduccion de “diez” en varios idiomas africanos.

Aldercreature Brainstorm

  • Hispanic aldermen pushing for a boycott of all things Arizona to protest that state's controversial immigration law might hit a red light.

    Chicago's 189 red-light cameras were installed by Arizona-based Redflex Traffic Systems, which put in the cameras and road sensors. It also operates the software and mails out the $100 tickets along with photographic evidence of the alleged red-light running.

    In 2008, the Daley administration signed a five-year, $52 million contract with Redflex that cut the cost of each camera system from $100,000 to $24,500. It also included maintenance for cameras installed after Oct. 22, 2008.

    But the "proprietary nature of the technology" kept the city from including operations and maintenance for the 136 original camera systems. That's why Redflex has a separate five-year, $32 million contract just to maintain those 136.

We'd love to see these aldercreatures attempt to void a signed, sealed and delivered contract. And a boycott that would only cut Chicago money. Brilliant! And once again, the left-tards on the City Council demonstrate they haven't even read the 20-page Arizona law that only reflects United States law that has been in existence since World War II.

These people are morons.

Judges Re-Assigned

Fox News investigation revealed judges leaving early:
  • Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans has reassigned four judges in response to a FOX Chicago News/Better Government Association investigation into courtroom work habits.

    The investigation found the judges leaving their assigned courtrooms well before the 4pm out time ordered by Evans two years ago. One judge, Gloria Chevere, was found soaking up the sun in her backyard at 2pm on a day when her court call ended early.

    "I do not want any unacceptable behavior of a few judges to undermine the credibility and integrity of our entire system of justice," Evans said in a statement.

We have to wonder, only four? Either Fox wasn't trying that hard or the BGA is operating, like everyone else, shorthanded. If the courts are that underutilized, it's time to cut the number of judges and courtrooms.

A Mystery!

Now remember, you can't use Department resources - they track those things and you could get in trouble. But maybe someone knows what the deal is with this:
  • So, considering all of this, we’ve noticed a BMW parked illegally in Boystown every Friday and Saturday night for the past several months — and it never gets ticketed for parking in a yellow curbed no parking zone.

  • But, two weeks ago, we witnessed two CPM meter maids working Halsted and saw the two approach the BMW, with one of them clearly being a trainee. The lead meter maid looked directly at the BMW, so that shot down the theory CPM can’t see that car. It did not vanish before our very eyes into BizarroWorld. The trainee started to write a ticket for being parked in the no parking yellow curb zone, but the other CPM agent stopped him, and we clearly heard the woman say to her subordinate, “No, you can’t ticket THAT car, stop filling that out”.

  • “I know that should get a ticket, but she won’t let me. I’m not allowed to write up that car, but I asked her, and she won’t tell me why,” is what the trainee told us. “I don’t know why I’m not allowed to write up that car, but she punched the license number into her box and it came up DO NOT WRITE”.
So the million dollar question is, "How do we get on that list in the parking ticket printer?" Imagine the connection there. Go read the article for all the details.

Serial Killer Caught?

Wow, we talk about a bunch of bodies being found in abandoned buildings over the past few years, point out that a serial killer may be on the loose on the south side again and 10 days later, there's DNA matches and an arrest:
  • A DNA match has led to the arrest of a man police have called the No. 1 suspect in the strangulation murders of three women in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side.

    The 24-year-old suspect, who lives on the South Side, was arrested Thursday outside his home, police said. As of late Saturday morning, the man has not been charged.

Not charged? We heard Anita's people want to interview the victims before approving charges. In any event, sounds like a good job by the CPD members involved.

Clearance Rate "Dips"

The article limits itself to a single mention of the Chicago clearance rate, instead lumping all of Cook County into a single category and comparing it to others:
  • In Cook County, only about one third of murders since 1980 have been solved, according to a Scripps Howard News Service study of crime records provided by the FBI. Police solved only 35 percent of the murders in Chicago in 2008, the FBI records show.

    "We'd expect that -- with more police officers, more scientific tools likes DNA analysis and more computerized records -- we'd be clearing more homicides now with more resources," said Bill Hagmaier, executive director of the International Homicide Investigators Association and retired chief of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. "But the clearance rates have fallen drastically."

"more police officers"? In what fantasy-land is this former feeb living? We're seeing layoffs across the board and hiring freezes to keep manpower down. And in just the past three years, the CPD alone is short around what? 400 detectives? And there hasn't been a class promoted off the existing list in over 2.5 years. We won't even go into the hatchet being taken to overtime budgets.

That clearance rate isn't going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

Planteles argentinos en los Mundiales.

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