Latest news with #Weger
Chicago Tribune
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Daywatch: Effort to require Chicago businesses install security cameras gets pushback
Good morning, Chicago. An effort to require Chicago businesses to install surveillance cameras started with a City Council majority but is now seeing its support wither. West Side Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, had sign-on from 28 aldermen last week when she introduced legislation requiring public-facing businesses to put in security cameras. But several sponsoring aldermen who say they misunderstood the ordinance at first are now backing away from it. 'It raises a concern that neighbors have about what could become a surveillance state,' said former co-sponsor Ald. Andre Vasquez, who cited federal government efforts to access data. Read the full story from the Tribune's Jake Sheridan. Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including why the release of materials related to the investigation into the friendly fire shooting death of Chicago police Officer Krystal Rivera has been delayed, a former Blackhawk elected to the Hall of Fame and what Liza Colón-Zayas and Lionel Boyce of 'The Bear' told us about Season 4, their favorite spots around the city and off-camera culinary training. Today's eNewspaper edition | Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to be holding today after a rocky start, giving rise to cautious hope that it could lead to a long-term peace agreement even as Tehran insists it will not give up its nuclear program. Despite his long claims of innocence, Chester Weger lived six decades in prison after confessing to the haunting 1960 Starved Rock State Park murders of three suburban Chicago women who were attacked during a hike in broad daylight. Dubbed the infamous 'Starved Rock Killer,' Weger finally won his freedom more than five years ago and lived a quiet life while making occasional appearances in court to try to overturn his conviction. A LaSalle County judge had denied Weger's post-conviction petition June 18. Just days later, on Sunday, 86-year-old Weger died of cancer, still with the stigma of having a murder conviction staining his record. He died in Kansas City, surrounded by his family, his attorney Andy Hale said. A judge has barred the release of video and other materials related to the investigation into the friendly fire shooting death of Chicago police Officer Krystal Rivera, a move that came after the Cook County state's attorney's office asked that the information be shielded from public records requests. Rivera, 36, a four-year veteran of the department, was mistakenly shot and killed by a fellow officer on June 5 after a confrontation with an armed suspect. Advocate Health Care may proceed with a plan to replace Advocate Trinity Hospital with a new, much smaller hospital on the South Side of Chicago, state regulators decided yesterday, after more than a dozen community members and leaders spoke out in support of the project. More than two years after forming an ad hoc committee to augment affordable housing, DuPage County is taking a new approach to incentivizing low-cost development. The county is establishing a land bank. Authorized by the DuPage County Board last month, it will essentially put county-owned surplus land on reserve for future affordable housing projects. Defenseman Duncan Keith, winner of three Stanley Cup championships with the Chicago Blackhawks, was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame yesterday in his first year of eligibility. In addition to forming a formidable tandem with defensive partner Brent Seabrook, Keith was an offensive X-factor for the Hawks. He broke out with 14 goals and 55 assists during the 2009-10 season, when he won the first of two Norris Trophies (also 2013-14) as the NHL's top defenseman. Ben Brown's inconsistency the last two months suggested it was a matter of when, not if, the Chicago Cubs would send the right-hander to the minors to get on track. That time arrived yesterday when the Cubs optioned Brown to Triple-A Iowa and activated reliever Porter Hodge from the injured list. When viewers first meet Liza Colón-Zayas' character on 'The Bear,' she has an icy front — reluctant to adapt to the ways of Jeremy Allen White's Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto, who's trying to breathe new, more organized life into his family's restaurant, The Original Beef of Chicagoland. It's mayhem, exacerbated by some of the longtime staff's unwillingness to see their own potential. But soon, Tina Marrero starts paying attention to the good that can come from being open to change. All 10 episodes of Season 4 are streaming on Hulu and Disney+ today. The Tribune spoke with Colón-Zayas ahead of the new season. Before filming Season 1 of the FX hit 'The Bear,' actor Lionel Boyce was sent to stage at Elske in Chicago's West Loop. In preparation for his role as Marcus, breadmaker for The Original Beef of Chicagoland and soon-to-be budding pastry chef when the restaurant reopens as its titular name in Season 3, Boyce was tasked with learning from real-world chefs to emulate one on camera. Boyce said it was easier to stage (culinary lingo for 'intern') back when the actors could more easily fly under the radar. But that didn't always work in everyone's favor, he laughed. Much like his character, Boyce is mild-mannered, kind and effortlessly funny. He spoke with enthusiasm and thoughtful detail about his training as an actor to portray a pastry chef, staging at restaurants and learning skills and techniques to help launch him into new heights. The newspaper has existed in one form or another in this part of southeastern Kansas since 1880, three years after the town was founded around the discovery of lead in the area. Its current iteration is the result of a 1945 merger between The Galena Times Republican and The Galena Sentinel. Eighteen years ago, Smith was working at an area restaurant when a friend asked if she was interested in a career change. The friend's brother owned the newspaper, then called the Sentinel-Times, and needed to replace the departing editor. She had no journalism experience. Still, she took the job. Read the series:
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Yahoo
Man known as ‘Starved Rock Killer,' who long fought for his freedom, dies of cancer
Despite his long claims of innocence, Chester Weger lived six decades in prison after confessing to the haunting 1960 Starved Rock State Park murders of three suburban Chicago women who were attacked during a hike in broad daylight. Dubbed the infamous 'Starved Rock Killer,' Weger finally won his freedom more than five years ago and lived a quiet life while making occasional appearances in court to try to overturn his conviction. A LaSalle County judge had denied Weger's post-conviction petition June 18. Just days later, on Sunday, 86-year-old Weger died of cancer, still with the stigma of having a murder conviction staining his record. He died in Kansas City, surrounded by his family, his attorney Andy Hale said. 'Chester fought until the end to clear his name,' Hale said. 'We are deeply saddened that Chester's legacy is marred by this unjust conviction.' Hale, who described Weger as 'humble, generous and kind,' pledged to continue his efforts. Hale said, 'Chester has been such an inspiration to me and it was an honor to represent him. … The injustice he suffered during his lifetime is unimaginable.' Weger was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the fatal beating of Lillian Oetting, 50, in March 1960 at the scenic park near Utica. Her remains were found in St. Louis Canyon along with the brutalized bodies of Frances Murphy, 47, and Mildred Lindquist, 50. Timeline: The March 1960 Starved Rock murders and convicted killer Chester Weger's release from prison The three friends, all from Riverside, were on a short vacation to escape the winter doldrums when, within hours of their arrival, they were attacked during a hike in the canyon, a popular attraction framed by a scenic waterfall and 100-foot wall. Prosecutors, citing Weger's life sentence, opted against trying him in the other two women's deaths and an unrelated 1959 rape in a nearby state park that Weger also denies committing. For months after the killings, police had followed Weger, a young lodge dishwasher who had fished and hiked in the park most of his life. Investigators had focused on Weger early on after lodge employees reported seeing scratches on his face, but he passed several lie-detector tests. Authorities believed twine used to bind the women came from the lodge kitchen. Investigators interviewed him several times, including during an all-night interrogation. He confessed early on Nov. 17, 1960. Prosecutors later argued that Weger killed the women with a frozen tree branch during a botched robbery attempt. They said Weger knew things only the killer could have known, such as the fact that a red-and-white airplane flew over the canyon the day of the murders. Detectives later confirmed that detail by checking the flight logs at a local airport. But Weger has long maintained investigators fed him those details. He recanted his confession by the time of his trial. His attorneys have argued his confession was coerced, a product of police misconduct. More than six decades later, conspiracy theories and morbid fascination still surround the case. The murders occurred before modern DNA testing and other forensic advances, and Weger has offered various alibis over the years, including during a prison interview with the Tribune. His attorneys, Hale and Celeste Stack, continued post-conviction efforts, arguing the Chicago mob was likely behind the murders. The Illinois Prisoner Review Board had denied Weger's parole requests for decades. The panel finally allowed for his release in early 2020, citing his age and decades of incarceration, after the trial's lead prosecutor, Anthony Raccuglia, who long urged the board to keep Weger behind bars, died months earlier at 85. When Weger finally emerged from the Pinckneyville Correctional Center gates in southern Illinois, he was a balding grandfather with dentures and a list of ailments that include asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. That day, he told the Tribune he would continue his fight to clear his name. 'They ruined my life,' he said minutes after leaving prison in February 2020. '(They) locked me up for 60 years for something I've never done.' Several of the victims' grandchildren, still convinced of his guilt, opposed his release at the time. They said the decades-old crime reverberates still. 'The legacy of this murder has impacted all of the generations alive today,' Kathy Etz, one of Murphy's granddaughters, told the Tribune in 2020. cmgutowski@
Chicago Tribune
24-06-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Man known as ‘Starved Rock Killer,' who long fought for his freedom, dies of cancer
Despite his long claims of innocence, Chester Weger lived six decades in prison after confessing to the haunting 1960 Starved Rock State Park murders of three suburban Chicago women who were attacked during a hike in broad daylight. Dubbed the infamous 'Starved Rock Killer,' Weger finally won his freedom more than five years ago and lived a quiet life while making occasional appearances in court to try to overturn his conviction. A LaSalle County judge had denied Weger's post-conviction petition June 18. Just days later, on Sunday, 86-year-old Weger died of cancer, still with the stigma of having a murder conviction staining his record. He died in Kansas City, surrounded by his family, his attorney Andy Hale said. 'Chester fought until the end to clear his name,' Hale said. 'We are deeply saddened that Chester's legacy is marred by this unjust conviction.' Hale, who described Weger as 'humble, generous and kind,' pledged to continue his efforts. Hale said, 'Chester has been such an inspiration to me and it was an honor to represent him. … The injustice he suffered during his lifetime is unimaginable.' Weger was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the fatal beating of Lillian Oetting, 50, in March 1960 at the scenic park near Utica. Her remains were found in St. Louis Canyon along with the brutalized bodies of Frances Murphy, 47, and Mildred Lindquist, 50. Timeline: The March 1960 Starved Rock murders and convicted killer Chester Weger's release from prisonThe three friends, all from Riverside, were on a short vacation to escape the winter doldrums when, within hours of their arrival, they were attacked during a hike in the canyon, a popular attraction framed by a scenic waterfall and 100-foot wall. Prosecutors, citing Weger's life sentence, opted against trying him in the other two women's deaths and an unrelated 1959 rape in a nearby state park that Weger also denies committing. For months after the killings, police had followed Weger, a young lodge dishwasher who had fished and hiked in the park most of his life. Investigators had focused on Weger early on after lodge employees reported seeing scratches on his face, but he passed several lie-detector tests. Authorities believed twine used to bind the women came from the lodge kitchen. Investigators interviewed him several times, including during an all-night interrogation. He confessed early on Nov. 17, 1960. Prosecutors later argued that Weger killed the women with a frozen tree branch during a botched robbery attempt. They said Weger knew things only the killer could have known, such as the fact that a red-and-white airplane flew over the canyon the day of the murders. Detectives later confirmed that detail by checking the flight logs at a local airport. But Weger has long maintained investigators fed him those details. He recanted his confession by the time of his trial. His attorneys have argued his confession was coerced, a product of police misconduct. More than six decades later, conspiracy theories and morbid fascination still surround the case. The murders occurred before modern DNA testing and other forensic advances, and Weger has offered various alibis over the years, including during a prison interview with the Tribune. His attorneys, Hale and Celeste Stack, continued post-conviction efforts, arguing the Chicago mob was likely behind the murders. The Illinois Prisoner Review Board had denied Weger's parole requests for decades. The panel finally allowed for his release in early 2020, citing his age and decades of incarceration, after the trial's lead prosecutor, Anthony Raccuglia, who long urged the board to keep Weger behind bars, died months earlier at 85. When Weger finally emerged from the Pinckneyville Correctional Center gates in southern Illinois, he was a balding grandfather with dentures and a list of ailments that include asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. That day, he told the Tribune he would continue his fight to clear his name. 'They ruined my life,' he said minutes after leaving prison in February 2020. '(They) locked me up for 60 years for something I've never done.' Several of the victims' grandchildren, still convinced of his guilt, opposed his release at the time. They said the decades-old crime reverberates still. 'The legacy of this murder has impacted all of the generations alive today,' Kathy Etz, one of Murphy's granddaughters, told the Tribune in 2020.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
SFD data shows fewest opioid incidents since 2017; people call for more Narcan stations
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The Springfield Fire Department issued its latest annual report, which has data that shows SFD responded to the least number of opioid incident calls since they began tracking that data in 2018. SFD gave out 185 Narcan kits in 2024, a 268% increase from 2023, when they responded to 282 opioid incidents. Ozarks First spoke to two people who have had to use Narcan for a drug overdose, and while they say it's not just SFD handing out kits, the effort is saving lives. 'I would not be here if there wasn't Narcan stations across town,' Laura Weger says as she discusses her sobriety. 'I'm dead set to stay sober this time.' Weger was revived with two doses of Narcan several months ago, and that's when she used that revival to revive her life. 'I laid there for two days and I still came out of it. I didn't just come right out of it. I literally lay there motionless for two days. When I did come out of it, everything was on autopilot and I immediately got sick and it was hard to understand everything for a while, but that that was my eye opener. That's when I decided [to get clean], and I walked 17 and a half miles to get into inpatient care,' Weger said. Weger says sometimes people don't call for help before working with Narcan but does believe the number of overdose have gone down overall. 'They think, 'I don't want to get in trouble. I have this on me. I have that on me, I have warrants',' Weger said. 'Lives are being saved.' Rusty Williams tells Ozarks First he's been revived 15 times with Narcan, some by first responders, and says that motivated him to turn his life around. 'I had broken bones and was prescribed opiates legally by a doctor. Once those ran out, I wanted more. Started experimenting with street opiates, switching over to heroin and eventually to fentanyl,' Williams said. 'I got involved in a recovery program called Broken Branches. Now, I'm a leader there, but I started to see how it affected my family and my friends, and eventually just kind of got tired of it. Sick and tired and wanted something different, and now I have ten months in recovery.' He says it makes sense the number of incidents are down, because there are more kits on the streets. 'I think they are responding to fewer because people are readily have access to naloxone. I know for myself personally, at one time I was in the middle of an overdose in the passenger seat of a vehicle, I went to Walgreens and had to come up with $130 to get the dose. Now I can go there and get it for free,' Williams said. 'I'm starting to see more people are just keeping it in their backpacks, in their car, having it with them, handing it out. I've been saved with it and I've also saved other people with it.' Weger and Williams believe Narcan stations should be more present in town, and more kits should be on the streets, and potentially save more lives. 'I think is extremely important, not only in my personal life, but what I see in the community for people to just have more awareness on naloxone in general, even people that don't struggle with addiction or will necessarily even know anyone, I feel like they can keep a kit in their car or give them out to people where they think they might be needed,' Williams said. 'I think we should have access to it at gas stations, on the counters, the library and anywhere that people may come and go,' Williams added. 'I feel like we should have access to it because once the life is saved, that person then has a chance to change their life, reunite with their family, and be a productive member in the community.' 'I think it's not just the fire department or even places like [Better Life in Recovery] that we hand out, like hundreds of hundreds like there's boxes coming in and there's a free station right outside. If you check it like once a week, you'll see that it's emptied and then we refill it. Like even in our meetings, like people are coming up and they're getting handfuls,' Weger said. 'We need more awareness, we need education. I think if they if they don't keep handing it out, you know, then there's going to be a lot more people die.' Weger's desire for more kits on the streets also stems from her friend who passed away, unable to get help during an overdose. 'I lost my best friend that way. Nobody identified her. They didn't call the cops. They didn't call the ambulance. They didn't call nothing. They let her die, and she could have been saved. She could have, but people are uneducated and they did not have the resources and nobody had Narcan.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
