Articles labeled: chicago

The missing children of the Chicago woman found dead in her apartment last week have been spotted at a store in Arkansas with their father. But unfortunately they were not stopped, and police think the group has probably already made their way to Mexico. So yeah, good luck getting them back now.

“I believe they are being taken care of,” [Chicago Police Area 5 Cmdr. Joseph] Salemme said of the minors.

A no-bond arrest warrant has been issued for Casanova for child abduction. No other charges have been filed against him, police said.

Garcia, 30, was found murdered in her home Monday. Police said they think Casanova picked up the children after classes at Yates Elementary, even though an order of protection barred him from entering the school.

Casanova is driving a 2002 silver gray Dodge Dakota, possibly with Illinois license plate 86196H, Salemme said.

A mother who went missing last week was found dead in her Chicago home yesterday — a victim of a suspected homicide. Her three young children are still missing and an Amber alert has been issued as the family suspects another family member of taking them.

MT hopes that these children are found quickly and safe.

The woman, identified as Sophia Garcia, 30, was found dead at about noon, with a plastic bag over her head in the 1700 block of North Harding Avenue, officials said. Public records identify the woman as Sofia Garcia.

“The family hadn’t heard from [the mother or her children], so they found her at the home and called police,” said Chicago Police Officer JoAnn Taylor.

She said the mother’s death is being investigated as a homicide.

An Amber Alert was issued Monday for her three children, according to Illinois State Police.

Fernando Casanova, 11, Karla Casanova, 7, and Oscar Casanova, 6, were apparently last seen when released from Yates Elementary School, 1839 N. Richmond St., at about 2:30 p.m. Friday, police said.

Brianna Jeffries, a 4-year-old with a “rare cancerlike condition”, is amongst the thousands of people in Illinois alone that is waiting for an organ transplant. She’s been hoping to receive a liver transplant for 6 months now, and without one her health is likely to continue to deteriorate. That’s why we here at MT urge people and their families to become organ donors — someday you might be able to save a life like Brianna’s, and provide a “miracle”.

Brianna has a rare cancerlike condition that ultimately destroyed the bile ducts in her liver. Without them, Brianna’s liver can’t absorb fat from the food she eats, leaving her chronically malnourished.

A liver transplant would allow her to grow to a normal height and weight. But Brianna can’t get one until complications from her illness — Langerhans cell histiocytosis — can be brought under control.

As sick as she is, it’s hard to see Brianna as anything other than a lively preschooler who likes “Dora the Explorer,” drawing pictures and singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” to all who will listen.

“She’s definitely the life of the floor,” Brianna’s mom, Veronica Jeffries, said while watching her daughter chat with nurses at the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital.

Tommy Christopher Cox, 32, was convicted last November for selling an Atlanta boy for sex in Chicago hotel rooms. Yesterday Cox was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

In October, Cox pleaded guilty to possessing more than 800 stolen credit-card numbers that he used to rent hotel rooms in Chicago at which he would host parties and sell the boy for sex.

Cox’s attorney, Gal Pissetzky, asked the judge for a 5-year sentence, while prosecutors sought up to 15 1/2 years. Pissetzky said his client plans to appeal.

A Chicago man reported his car stolen Monday night, and told police that his 2-year-old son was inside. The police later learned he lied about the abduction, and placed the man into custody. Our armchair theory is that the guy thought the cops would make a better effort to find his car if an endangered child was involved…

The boy’s father told police he had left his 1986 four-door Buick Century running about 9:30 p.m. at the station in the 8700 block of South Cottage Avenue when someone jumped into the vehicle and sped off west on East 87th Street. But police early this morning said although the car was stolen, the toddler was never inside it.

The 24-year-old father is now in custody and likely will be charged with filing a false police report, police said. Meanwhile, the person who stole the vehicle remained at large.

About midnight, the toddler was found safe and unharmed in a residence in the 8800 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, said Officer Amina Greer.

A teacher in Lombard, Illinois, a western Chicago suburb, was arrested Thursday morning on battery charges for “inappropriately touching a student.” So, like in a pervy way? But would that fall under battery? We need some more details, people, help us out!

Robert Johnson, 43, of the 8100 block of Ripple Ridge Drive in Darien is being held at the DuPage County Jail after being arrested and charged with battery Tuesday, according to a release from the DuPage County Sheriff’s office.

Johnson, a teacher at Montini Catholic High School at 19W070 16th St. in unincorporated Lombard, is accused of battering a student during a class on Feb. 19, the release said.

Police are saying only that the incident was related to “inappropriate touching involving a juvenile,” according to Dawn Domrose, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.

Carla Poole of Minneapolis, Minnesota has now been formally charged with the murder of Demond Reed. Demond, who was only 4 years old, was in Poole’s custody (she’s a family member) because his father had been incarcerated a month earlier. Poole allegedly beat Demond because he soiled his pants. Our heart is absolutely breaking right now for Demond, who obviously went through a lot of grief in his brief time in this world.

Poole is being held in Hennepin County Jail on $1 million bail.

According to a police documents, some of Poole’s children witnessed the beating of Demond Reed. An affidavit says one child told police Demond had a seizure and began to vomit, but Poole refused to call for help because she was afraid.

On Sunday, police found the 4-year-old’s body in a trash bag on the 3100 block of Morgan Ave. N. Demond Reed disappeared last Wednesday from a Minneapolis home while staying in the company of a family acquaintance.

Demond Reed, a 4-year-old Chicago boy living with his cousin in Minneapolis, was reported missing last Wednesday. Upon further investigation, Minneapolis police actually found Desmond’s body inside the house where he was staying:

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office is trying to determine how and when Demond died, but police say they’re investigating it as a homicide.

His grandmother, Charmon Brown of the Chicago area, told KSTP-TV she had trusted the cousin to take care of Demond, but that the cousin had hurt the boy, and would not admit it at first.

Brown told the station she realized something was wrong when the boy disappeared Wednesday and the cousin couldn’t tell a straight story about what happened.

The cousin has been arrested but not yet formally charged. Demond was placed in his cousin’s custody after his father was arrested last month on an unrelated case.

Last August, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signed into law a “teen driving bill“, intended to reduce the number of high school kids killed each year behind the wheel. The measure includes extending the learning permit phase, driving curfews, limits on the number of people in the car, and something that is causing consternation amongst a group of high schools, six hours of district provided driver’s education. Nineteen high schools in Illinois are seeking a waiver from the requirement, stating that providing that extra level of instruction is cost prohibitive:

Abiding by the six-hour rule could cost each school district hundreds of thousands of dollars more, and state officials who had promised to fund those higher costs have yet to secure the money.

So the schools are asking for permission from the General Assembly to skirt the law. Apart from concerns over additional costs, school representatives contend that their driver’s education programs are effective just the way they are.

“I don’t think anyone has a problem with what’s behind the law,” said Scott Eggerding, director of curriculum and instruction at Lyons Township High School, one of the schools seeking a waiver. “It’s just a question of how do we do it so that we can offer the best experience for our students.”

I think one of the reasons why this story breaks my heart so much is because the mother allegedly left two little boys on a subway, but took her small daughter with her. It makes me think that the mother didn’t want them because they were boys, although I’m sure there is a lot to the story.

Leaving your toddler and preschooler on a Chicago subway is dangerous for so many reasons. Someone could have abducted them or they could have wondered onto a platform and fallen on the tracks. It just makes me want to scoop up ‘em and take ‘em home with me.

Chicago Police on Saturday were searching for a 24-year-old mother of three who allegedly left two of her children on the CTA Red Line on Thursday night, fleeing with the third child.

Police released a surveillance tape showing the woman, identified as Sharmaine Nicole Smith, possibly of Minnesota, leaving the 63rd Street station about 6:40 p.m. Thursday, a little girl on her hip.

Left behind were two boys, Isaiah Taylor, 6, and Angelo Gemerson, 4. Riders turned them over to CTA personnel at the 69th Street station.

Doing the math real quick — YIKES!

Celia’s mother, Leticia Magee, always warned her to never get pregnant. It would complicate things, she said.

Leticia is a grandmother at 29. She was 13 — a seventh-grader — and living in Chicago when she gave birth to her oldest child.

She lived with her grandmother and named the baby after her: Celia.

She always urged Celia to tell her if she was having sex so she could arrange birth control for her.

But when Celia did tell her, it was too late. They found out during a doctor’s appointment that she was already pregnant.

“I cried,” Leticia said. “I was upset.”

For those that scoff or dismiss ADHD as a viable diagnosis, now there are brain scans that show nero-biological differences. One reason ADHD children may seem immature is because important, key “mature” brain functions are about 3 years behind.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Children and teenagers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have developmental delays of up to three years in some regions of the brain, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

“The sequence in which different parts of the brain matured in the kids with ADHD was exactly the same as in healthy kids. It’s just that everything was delayed by a couple of years,” said Dr. Philip Shaw National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health.

Shaw said the delays are most pronounced in regions of the brain that are important for controlling thought, attention and planning.

Shia LaBeouf, that lovable star of “Transformers” and “Even Stevens” whose name nobody knows how to pronounce, was in Chicago over the weekend, and apparently felt a need to stop into the Windy City’s favorite drug store, Walgreens, at 2:30 in the morning. For some unknown reason security asked him to leave, and LaBeouf refused which led to the trespassing charge:

Shia LaBeouf, who starred in “Disturbia” and “Transformers,” and stars in the upcoming Indiana Jones sequel, was arrested about 2:25 a.m. at the store at 757 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago police spokesman Marcel Bright said.

A security guard summoned police after LaBeouf refused several commands to leave the store, Bright said.

The guard signed a complaint against the actor, who was cited on a misdemeanor count of trespassing.

You know, I like wandering around Walgreen’s aisles as much as the next person, but not so much that I would refuse to leave. Doesn’t Shia have people that can make a decongestant run for him?

Seems to be a rash of parents banning books lately. The latest target? The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.

Nick Cortesi, who has a 2nd grader and a kindergartner at Kinzie, said school officials should remove the book because of its inappropriate content and adult themes.

“I’ll be dammed if they are going to be reading this filth,” Cortes said. “The issue is over whether it’s age-appropriate. What about the parents who are tax payers? Have we no say?”

That’s a bit of interesting logic. So the parents that don’t object to the book are not tax payers? And why do I have the feeling that Mr. Cortesi hasn’t even read the book? Fortunately for the students’ education, their principal is a bit more reasonable:

At the meeting, [John H. Kinzie Elementary School] Principal Sean Egan told about 50 parents who showed up in the school’s cafeteria that he had informed public school administrators about their concerns and was told that officials thought the book was appropriate reading material.

“I don’t tell you how to run your family,” Egan told parents. “I support my teachers.”

The objecting parents are complaining that their rights are being violated. That’s a laugh — what about the community’s right to not have school curriculums dictated by a handful of prudes?