‘Heroic efforts not enough’

Ah, she died.

Phoenix police Sgt. Ricardo Frausto happened to be kicking around at the station when the call came in: Car accident, 153rd Street and Ninth Avenue.

He’d been to the chief’s monthly breakfast meeting, and though he wasn’t on duty Friday, he was still at the police department about 1:30 p.m.

Then the passer-by calling 911 said the words that set him off: The car is underwater.

The 33-year-old ran to his own car and tore over to the corner where the Rupari Food Services plant sits, he told reporters late Friday afternoon, shivering in a light jacket, his left hand clinging to his bandaged right one.

At the grassy corner, the chain-link fence had been smashed, its poles crumpled and lying flat. And in the retention pond, a deep murky pool, he saw a gray car submerged.

Frausto ignored the chilly drizzle. He shucked his coat and his shoes. He stripped off his clothes and threw away his gun. Frausto grabbed a baton, and in briefs and an undershirt, he dove into the water.

The Navy had taught Frausto how to swim, how to hold his breath, how to manage under the water.

So he broke the car’s back window and tried to get at the lady in the driver’s seat. A few minutes later, someone else jumped in, too. They felt the lady’s hand but couldn’t get her free. Then the divers came in their ice water suits to protect them from the 40-degree water.

“You’ve done enough,” the divers told him.

It was South Holland firefighters who ultimately pulled Helen Wallace, 87, out of the retention pond after breaking the front window of her silver Buick and cutting her seat belt, South Holland Fire Chief Don Bettenhausen said.

A Phoenix resident known to be religious, she was driving near her home in the 600 block of 153rd Street, not far from the mayor’s house, when something happened near the Phoenix-South Holland border.

Maybe her car’s hood popped up, Phoenix Police Chief Mel Davis said at the scene. Maybe something happened with her health, he guessed. No skid marks showed on the asphalt so it’s likely she didn’t hit the brakes before crashing through the fence, up the embankment and into the scummy water.

She wasn’t breathing when she was pulled out, officials said. She didn’t have a pulse. She had spent multiple minutes in the pond.

Responders performed CPR on the scene and were able to get her heart beating again.

Then they rushed her to Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey. She died Saturday afternoon at the hospital in Harvey, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Some ladies from the Daniel Chapel AME Zion Church rushed to the pond Friday and were stunned to recognize their friend’s car. They had just seen her at Wednesday morning Bible study.

They heard that a lady had been fished out and resuscitated.

“I pray it’s not her,” Dorothy Allen said.

They left before finding out for sure.

Officer Gerald Shives said he was the second officer on the scene but did not dive in.

“I could hear the lady screaming, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying,” Shives said. “I was trying to tell her to get into the back seat.’’

Frausto will be nominated for a life-saving award, Davis said.

But Frausto, still shivering, still clutching his cut-up hand, was intent on finding the name of the firefighter who jumped in right after him, and happily, finally did: Charles Smith.

By the end of the day, some 75 firefighters, divers, police and other emergency rescue workers had congregated at the rescue scene, from Hazel Crest and Oak Forest and as far away as Frankfort and Lynwood. Davis was grateful for the help, which just showed up in his town of about 2,000.

As neighbors chatted and snapped photos, officials dragged the car out of the pond, its hood popped up and its windows broken.

And they used sonar and more divers to scan the pond. Initial reports said two people had been in the car. They wanted to make sure the water at the Rupari Food Services plant, 15600 Wentworth Ave., South Holland, was clear.

Frausto spoke with Wallace’s family at the hospital but never got to meet the woman he pulled from the water. On Saturday, he still was recovering from the cuts he suffered in the water and grateful to all the authorities who came to help.

“It does feel pretty bad,” Frausto said. “It’s part of the job sometimes. I wish it had turned out better, but it didn’t.”

Contributing: Sun-Times Media, Victoria Johnson, Joe Biesk

As published in the SouthtownStar, April 3, 2011, final edition.

‘Blue Island parks commissioner dies’

A Blue Island Park District commissioner and longtime aide to state Rep. Robert Rita died Friday night at age 69, Rita said Monday.

Lifelong Blue Island resident Joanne M. Ring answered phones, smoothed over disputes and handled all kinds of constituent services, said Rita (D-Blue Island).

Once you got her attention, she persisted until she had an answer for you, Rita said.

“She was the kind of person that didn’t leave until the job was done, no matter whether it was answering phones or answering letters or emailing,” he said.

With a friend, Ring walked the few blocks home from her campaign office Friday evening after making campaign calls and collapsed in her kitchen, Rita said. She had been in good health, so her death came as a shock, he said. The mother of four’s husband died about a year ago.

“She loved this job, and I think that’s what kept her mind busy,” Rita said. “She never took a day off.”

Ring had worked for Rita’s father, John Rita, when he was Blue Island’s mayor. In the 1980s, she ran for alderman in Blue Island. She started with the younger Rita as a volunteer, then became a paid staffer.

Ring was appointed to the Park District in the spring of 2010 to fill a two-year seat vacated in April 2009, Park District president Fred Bilotto said.

“She was bugging a few of the members of the board for a while to get more involved,” he said.

Once sworn in, she focused on programs for children and senior citizens, he said.

“Cooking was a passion for her and she pushed that,” Bilotto said. “She wanted to start cooking programs at the park district, and she really didn’t like alcohol policies in effect. She wanted to limit the alcohol served at certain parties.”

Ring was not among the select public employees who were carousing on park district property last June when a 26-year-old Calumet Township trustee was found in the bottom of Memorial Pool. She had only been in office a few months time when Carlos Salgado drowned during the late-night party.

Visitation is 2 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Hickey Memorial Chapel, 2429 W. 127th St., Blue Island, followed by a funeral service. Burial will be private.

Ring is survived by her four children and three grandchildren.

For more information, call the funeral home at (708) 388-1636.

Ring, who was appointed to her two-year-seat last spring to fill a vacancy, will remain on the April 5 ballot, said Courtney Greve, a spokeswoman for Cook County Clerk David orr. If she wins, the park board would follow state rules in filling the seat, Greve said.

As published in the SouthtownStar, March 22, 2011.

‘State owes $128M to area agencies, firms’

By Lauren FitzPatrick and Michael Drakulich

To try to persuade state leaders to refinance Illinois’ $8.75 billion debt, Gov. Pat Quinn on Thursday released records showing the state has a backlog of $128 million in unpaid bills to vendors and public agencies in nine Southland House districts.

The largest IOUs are held by municipalities and school districts. But private doctors and contractors, service agencies and transportation companies have been waiting for checks from the state for months.

They range from 2 cents owed to a Dolton woman to $13 million owed to the Bloom Township school treasury.

To plug the budget hole, Quinn wants to refinance the debt into a lump sum that would cut checks promptly to vendors, spokesman George Sweeney said. Taxpayers would repay the lump sum over 14 years, he said.

“By delaying our bills, we’ve ended up (paying) a lot,” Sweeney said, referring to a 1 percent fee tacked onto bills the state pays late.

Quinn released the data — a statewide snapshot from Feb. 4 — to try to pressure lawmakers to vote for the bill.

Some, such as state Rep. Renee Kosel (R-New Lenox), have opposed any kind of borrowing to repay debt. Kosel said Quinn only released the list to build support for his borrowing plan, which GOP legislators oppose.

“Where is his (Quinn) plan to make sure we never get into this mess again? I see ‘Give me more, give me more,’ and nothing to get us out of this mess,” she said.

Kosel said Quinn’s list, which showed vendors in her House district awaiting almost $11 million, was inaccurate. It missed some vendors and incorrectly included others, she said.

“If you’re going to do something like this, take the care to be accurate,” she said.

Kosel also questioned the amounts listed for vendors.

According to the list, the state owes Trinity Services $17.70. But Kosel said the nonprofit agency, which helps the disabled, may be owed more than $1 million.

Dr. Susan Rife, an Orland Park physician on the list for $55, believes that figure is much too low. Her office bills the state for Medicaid patients, and the state is at least six months behind in paying, she said.

“It’s why doctors are refusing patients on public aid,” Rife said. “My office does not take any new patients who are on public aid. Now, if circumstances change with my current patients, we make accommodations.”

Rife said she would be in favor of the state borrowing to pay its vendors but only if it wasn’t from the federal government.

Some 640 Southland creditors were owed $500 or less from the state. About 290 of those are owed $100 or less, but 25 towns and school districts each still await $1 million or more in state payments, according to the SouthtownStar’s analysis.

Barb Damron, Mokena’s finance director, said the state owes the village $399,080, a little less than Quinn’s estimated $477,000. She said the state’s been working to get up to date, making two payments this month, two in January and two last July.

“At one point, they were going four or five months behind, and now they’re about three months behind,” Damron said. “It seems like they’re making an attempt.”

Keith Pain, superintendent in Summit Hill School District 161, said his district has received no money this year, primarily for special education and transportation.

“They have an obligation to the kids in the state of Illinois and their education,” he said of the state.

The Arc of Illinois, a Frankfort organization that helps families get adequate services and care for their disabled relatives, is owed about $318,500.

The Arc executive director Tony Paulauski said the non-profit has cut staff from 14 to seven, and it would be able to hire back staff if it gets its state funds. He favors Quinn’s plan to borrow.

“We’ve been in favor of this since last spring. Delayed payments is the most talked-about issue among human service providers,” he said.

Small-business owner Gennaro Giuntoli said he overpaid his state tax a few years in a row on his A & G Amusements business for a total of about $8,600.

“They acknowledged the overpayment, but they have not been able to come up with the funds to repay the money,” he said. “We’ve been waiting roughly a year for it.”

Contributing: Victoria Johnson

Memo: Fact Box: House District Amount unpaid
37 $25,203,363.00
29 $21,336,220.05
35 $18,268,979.74
80 $17,949,341.23
85 $16,983,864.84
81 $10,785,835.50
38 $8,193,419.03
36 $6,615,098.98
28 $3,013,263.33

As published in the SouthtownStar, Feb. 25, 2011, on page 4.

D-I-B-S!

I’m totally calling it.

Lookit what I made today.

Two-ish hours with a shovel. Dug my car IN to a spot of unbroken snow. See?

That is unbroken. Also plowed in a little.

Poor Mister’s out there now, finishing my shoddy work. Apparently I did it wrong. Too much torque or something.

All afternoon, I had this line in my brain.

“D, m%#&@( f*$&^), D!”

Only my D stood for dibs, not for radio batteries.

I did not think awful racial things while I worked, though.

Promise.

Well, dang, Mary!

Had I know this was going to be our last assignment together for the SouthtownStar…

No, I’d have done nothing different. We always rocked it.

I have to find the clip where she got chased from a scene by Harvey police. Shot super photos of the menacing crowd, too.

So sorry to see you go, Carol, too. No ladies left in photo now and you’re good ones.

Good luck, girl. I will miss your furtive reporting skills.

‘Chicago Ridge’s ‘Broom Woman’ dies’

Poor Eleanor.

I met her once in person, in the lobby of the Chicago Ridge police station, while hunting down the chief for something else several years ago. I remember mentioning her to him, he explained the deal and that was it.

When I went out to report this story, popping into small businesses and convenience stores, I was struck by how very upset people were. Though not everyone knew Eleanor Benbow’s name, they knew of her and recognized her and cried when I was the one to break the news.

Who cries for a dirty, haggard, homeless woman when she disappears from the streets of Chicago Ridge and the face of the earth?

The folks who gave her scraps of food, cups of coffee and the occasional dollar bill. The kind souls who took her in at night. The sons and brother who couldn’t keep her from living on the streets.

Who mourns the death of the Broom Woman?

Everyone who knew her.

Eleanor Benbow died Oct. 7 of colon cancer at age 59. She had surgery in March at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn to have tumors removed.

She recuperated a few weeks in an Oak Lawn nursing home, hit the streets again and returned in early October to the nursing home, where she died.

A memorial visitation service will be held at Schmaedeke Funeral Home in Worth, 10701 S. Harlem Ave., from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday.

‘They embraced her’

Eleanor had lived on the streets for decades. Her belongings, including an ever-present broom, traveled with her in a shopping cart.

“A lot of people, I think, were scared of her until they got to know her,” said Linda Dawson, who runs the Worth Snack Shop, one of Eleanor’s regular haunts. “Once they met her and found that she wasn’t this lunatic, they embraced her.”

Some customers opened their wallets for her. One particular gentleman always left a dollar next to Eleanor when they were in the restaurant at the same time. He cried at the news of her death, Dawson said.

Those who complained about her filth, her smell got a piece of Dawson’s mind.

“She was a human, and she deserved as much respect as the next person,” Dawson said.

Judy Mleczko also counted on Eleanor while working shifts at the Am Pm convenience store, at all hours, by herself, on Harlem Avenue.

“She was truly a genuine person. She was just herself, you know what I mean? There’s nobody like Eleanor,” she said. “I never felt alone because I knew Eleanor was close by.”

Those closest to her, such as her brother, Jim Benbow, called her Ellie.

“A professional survivor,” Benbow, of Oak Lawn, described his younger sister.

Whether because of stubbornness or mental illness, Eleanor refused to be caged in.

One of her sons took her to live with him and his wife in West Virginia several years ago, her brother said.

The son worked as a trucker and left on a run. When he called his wife two days later, he heard the news: Eleanor had bolted.

“She beat him back to Chicago,” her brother said. “I intentionally put her in a nursing home on the North Side so she wouldn’t run away.

“She was back before I was. She’d get it in her mind that she wasn’t going anywhere, and she wouldn’t.”

Taking care of herself

Eleanor Benbow was born in Joliet in 1951 and grew up in Chicago Ridge. The eldest of three girls, she lived with her mother, Rose. Police knew them well, responding to calls about fights between Rose and Eleanor.

She told police one winter in the 1980s that she was sleeping in a washer at the laundromat just so they’d arrest her and let her sleep in a warm jail cell.

She married, had two sons and later divorced.

Eleanor’s family tried for years in vain to keep her under shelter.

Only she wanted to be left alone in the outdoors.

“For the last 15 years or so, we fought with her to get her into different places off the streets, but she wouldn’t,” her brother said. “I’d say, ‘I’m putting you in a home for your own good.’ And she would say, ‘No, you’re not.’ “

In the last few years, she relented to check herself in to a nursing home or other facility when the temperatures dropped but left as soon as it warmed up.

She insisted she preferred taking care of herself that way to life in trailers or rented apartments. She kept a post office box for her Social Security check and cooked her own food over fires she’d build in the woods.

Shops like the PK Pantry on 107th Street paid her a few bucks for sweeping the sidewalk or parking lot or handed over free coffee, manager Mike Salameh said.

“At the White Castle, they’d give her some money, (told her) ‘Stay in a hotel, take a shower,’ (and) she was like, ‘No no, I don’t want nothing,’ ” he said. “I feel sorry for her. She didn’t accept from anybody.”

Tim Baldermann made space in the lobby of the Chicago Ridge police station for Eleanor to stay or sleep back when he was police chief.

People complained to him. She was dirty. She talked to herself. The vestibule stank when she was in.

But she stayed out of people’s way in the public building, he said.

“I thought it was inhuman not to allow her to stay there,” he said.

She never asked for help, she told a reporter from the Daily Southtown in 2005 as he followed her on her rounds.

“I take care of myself,” she said.

Published in the SouthtownStar, Oct. 15, 2010, on page 4.

It’s an honor just to be nominated

Right?

Right.

I went Scorsese at Friday’s Lisagor awards. Zero for two. Lost to a SouthtownStar colleague, then with another SouthtownStar colleague to the Daily Herald.

Boo.

Boo because it meant I didn’t get to call up my vets and soldier mamas with good news.

But the best part of the night was the lifetime achievement tribute to Phil Kadner.

Made being part of the SS tables a total blast. Like what I imagine being part of the Illinois delegation at the DNC may have been like.

And we had a funny video, too. I’ll find a link sooner or later.

Don’t understand why I still can’t embed video code

Or figure out a better way to link to mp3′s without going through the old youTube.

“Breaking” news: it’s a recession

UPDATE: Site working. Here’s the link to NBER’s release.

Oh really? Economic turmoil is all of a sudden news? 

I tried to click on the NBER web site to see what they are reporting. As of noon-ish Dec. 1, the server’s down. Guess most of America had the same idea as me — who in heck are these people that just figured it out now?

December 1, 2008 

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The NBER – a private, nonprofit research organization — said its group of academic economists who determine business cycles met and decided that the U.S. recession began last December.

The White House commented on the news that a second downturn has officially begun on President George W. Bush’s watch without ever actually using the word ”recession,” a term the president and his aides have repeatedly avoided. Instead, spokesman Tony Fratto remarked upon the fact that NBER ”determines the start and end dates of business cycles.”

”What’s important is what is being done about it,” Fratto said. ”The most important things we can do for the economy right now are to return the financial and credit markets to normal, and to continue to make progress in housing, and that’s where we’ll continue to focus.”

Many economists believe the current downturn will last until the middle of 2009, and will be the most severe slump since the 1981-82 recession.

By one benchmark, a recession occurs whenever the gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, declines for two consecutive quarters. However, the NBER’s dating committee uses broader and more precise measures.

The GDP did contract by 0.2 percent at an annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2007. However, that drop was followed by a 0.9 percent rate of increase in the first quarter and a 2.8 percent spurt in the second quarter, when the economy was boosted by the distribution of millions of economic stimulus payments.

However, employment, one of the measurements tracked by the NBER, has been falling since January.

The GDP turned negative again in the July-September quarter of this year, falling at an annual rate of 0.5 percent. Many economists believe the GDP is falling in the current quarter at an even sharper rate of 4 percent, and that the economy won’t begin to rebound until late 2009.

In a news release, the NBER said its cycle dating committee held a telephone conference call on Friday and made the determination on when the recession began. Founded in 1920, the NBER has more than 1,000 university professors and researchers who act as bureau associates, studying how the economy works

The NBER decision means that the economic expansion lasted from November 2001 until December 2007. Economic expansions peak and recessions begin in the same month, according to the NBER’s dating methods.

The decision on the recession means that during the eight years that Bush has been in office, the country has seen two recessions. The first downturn lasted from March 2001 until November of that year.

Pink Slip Club: Even a Pulitzer can’t guarantee a reporting job

From The Reader’s Michael Miner in a post here:

On Wednesday the Tribune‘s editor, Gerould Kern, and associate managing editor for national news Joycelyn Winnecke dropped in on the Washington bureau and laid (John) Crewdson off. They also laid off national correspondents Bay Fang and Stephen Hedges, national security correspondent Aamer Madhani, and, I’m told, a fifth Washington staffer who worked part-time.

At the same time, I hear, eight Washington staffers from the Los Angeles Times lost their jobs too.

As Chicago’s own Barack Obama prepares to move into the White House, Tribune journalistic talent is in increasingly short supply in Washington. Bureau chief Michael Tackett resigned last summer, and acting chief Naftali Bendavid quit the other day and is heading to the Wall Street Journal. Last week the Tribune Company appointedCissy Baker vice president of a consolidated Washington bureau serving the Tribune,the LA Times, and the rest of the company’s newspaper, broadcasting, and new media operations. Since 2003 she’d been a vice president of Tribune Broadcasting.

Crewdson won a Pulitzer in 1981 for his reporting while at The New York Times on illegal immigration. Hurry up and read his DC stuff for the Tribune here before they take it down.