"Comments Off" - Sum Total of Illinois Media Integrity re Pritzker Firing of Mark Konkol

When Dave McKinney of the Chicago Sun Timjes resigned, because then Sun Times owner's ties to then candidate Bruce Rauner and long-running he-said-she-said embroglio, the media locked shields like Vikings. 

That was then.

McKinney resigned following what he called “disturbing developments” after reporting a story critical of Rauner. In his resignation letter, he says the firewall protecting independent journalism was breached. Meanwhile, the Sun-Times abruptly brought back editorial endorsements, supporting its onetime owner Bruce Rauner without having interviewed either Rauner or Gov. Pat Quinn. 

Mark Konkol was cashiered by the same News Group currently owned by SEIU and run by Edwin Eisnedrath, after ten days and cover art that hair-lipped JB Pritzker and all of the beneficiaries of his . . .largesse.

This is now.

No media outrage.   No Emile Zola for Konkol's Dreyfuss.

• No, Neil Steinberg opaque ouvere.

• No Mark Brown nosing.

• No Eric Zorn squeak.

• No Carol Marin press conference.

Only Rober Feder bothered to report on the disgraceful treatment of a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter at the hand of in-the-tank management of Illinois' mercury spined  ink slingers.  You will no hissy-fitting columnist, objecting to the termination of Mark Konkol. 

Here is the best example of the mind-set of our in-the-tank Illinois media - Capitol Fax Blog. 

News aggregator and Progressive Democrat activist Rich Miller's Capitol Fax Blog lays out the corpse with yellow-bellied snark but dis-invites the mourners:

Konkol out at Chicago Reader after “tumultuous ten days”Saturday, Feb 17, 2018* The Chicago Reader has been suffering serious turmoil since its new executive editor Mark Konkol took over. Konkol fired the paper’s editor by phone just after the editor got off a plane returning from his honeymoon, killed the transportation writer’s respected column, nixed a couple of columns by longtime Reader columnist Ben Joravsky and lost another columnist after publishing a racist front page cartoon featuring JB Pritzker sitting on a black lawn jockey ornament. Word from inside was that the paper itself could be in peril.
Sun-Times Media owns the Reader and here’s its CEO Edwin Eisendrath…
I am announcing today the departure of Mark Konkol from the Reader. Mark came to the publication bringing great hope for a new direction and a new life to a storied brand. Sometimes things don’t work out as planned. A tumultuous ten days culminated in the publication of a Reader cover that we believe was not in line with either our vision for the Reader or that storied history. We wish Mark well.
While controversy is sometimes seen as part and parcel of the alternative weekly world, we believe it’s necessary in this instance to apologize to anyone who was offended by this week’s cover. The published cover in my view distracted from the publication as a whole.
The reporters at the Reader work hard to be great journalists. They can and will take on the toughest stories — including issues of race, injustice and people struggling to be heard.
We will put in place interim leadership and plan for the future.
* From the Reader’s own Twitter feed…
Ding dong the witch is dead! https://t.co/Npx1zAehpR— Chicago Reader (@Chicago_Reader) February 18, 2018
Ouch.
- Posted by Rich Miller   Comments Off        (emphasis my own) 

Comments Off!  Ouch. 

Illinois is fixed, to quote the brilliant Dan Proft.  Illinois is a rigged game.  The news media plays for one side - the side that is screwing voters; Bruce Rauner plays for that side. 

Mark Konkol paid the price for speaking out turn.   There are no and there will be no media types coming to Mark Konkol's defense.

His voice was silenced, because fair is, after all, fair. 

This is Illinois - a Banana Republic run by oligarchs. 

Take a GOP ballot and vote for Jeanne Ives. Unfix this sad State. 

re is not followed by a colon.  Re is lation for matter.  

Chicago Reader: As 'In-The-Tank' as 87 Unleaded, But More Gas

Guess who beefed about the cover art on last week's (it was editor Mark Konkol's, as well) Chicago Reader?

Could it be. . . .might it not portend . . .is it possible . . . is it plausible that JB Pritzker, the Progressive Democrat cash cow, was miffed, irked, vexed, put-out, or a tad nettled by the two-dimensional treatment of the audio-taped chat he had with imprisoned Illinois Governor, a one-time Cook County SJW ?

Mark Konkol is now free of an oppressive regime.  One of the best beat reporters and fair-minded pens in journalism was trampled by pygmies.

Sun Times News Group CEO and former Chicago Alderman and one-time candidate for mayor, Edwin Eisendrath, immediately cashiered Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and short-time editor of the Chicago Reader, Mark Konkol and issued these weasel words -

A tumultuous ten days culminated in the publication of a Reader cover that we believe was not in line with either our vision for the Reader or that storied history. We wish Mark well.
"While controversy is sometimes seen as part and parcel of the alternative-weekly world, we believe it's necessary in this instance to apologize to anyone who was offended by this week's cover. The published cover in my view distracted from the publication as a whole.

In his view. In Edwin Eisendrath's view. . . . after calls from JB and the Progressive beneficiaries of his large ass, I mean Largesse.

Edwin Eisendrath tolerates insults to  Mount Greenwood, because the "Upside Down" hood is 'part and parcel of the alternative weekly world."

Last month this same cage-liner published an insult to every person living in the Mount Greenwood (18,357 people and 6,416 households in Mount Greenwood), but Edwin Eisnedrath was  less than outraged by the shoddy journalism and tepid moralilty to be found in the prose of still-employed Josh Malooley. So bad is it that Wikipedia won't even list it as a reference to the neighborhood.

Josh Malooley has a pay check and Mark Konkol must file with Illinois Department of Employment Services for the swell $749.00 bi-weekly dole ( limited to 26 weeks).

Well Chicago readers know that the alternative weekly bilge in the Chicago Readers is bought and paid for by SNG ( SEIU) and JB Pritzker.  The Reader bows deeply to its over-lords.

Mark Konkol is a free man!

The Reader is bought and paid for propaganda like the Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune.

Edwin, from this member of the reading community and the 18,000 + people your rag vilifies, Mount Greenwood,  a neighborhood with deep roots in the Ubs In Horto!



Stay just the way you are!

Billy Thurber? Jimmy Ayres? It's a Whimsical Terrorist Reading His Own Whimiscal Thoughts

The Whimsical Weathermen Bill and his Odious Old Lady.


I love DNA.com Chicago.  DNA.com features Pulitzer Prize winning Mark Konkol  one of the very few authentic Chicago writers in the local media.  Along with John Kass, Steve Rhodes, Natasha Korecki, Dan Mihalopoulos, Steve Metsch, and Kate Grossman, Konkol respects the people who live in this city and not just the tonier denizens of  metro power-communities like Winnetka, Evanston, Hyde Park, Oak Park and Lakeview. The balance of the crew aboard this Chicago neighborhood news aggregater is pretty much solid - I especially like  Wendell Hudson ( Gresham etal) Casey Cora ( Canaryville and Erica Demerest ( Pilsen).  A very few ink-slingers give me the vapors and miseries, Lawd, Lawd!

One howler is the chap who covers Hyde Park - home of humorless Humanists and the prickly Progressive.  Hyde Park is a cool neighborhood with great dining and dancing, as well as intellectual jungle jims where coffee or beer can lubricate quality talk between persons who actually know something besides their place in the front of the line.

The neighborhood is not generally plagued with crime despite the disposable income available to ne'er-do - wells in the corduroy, or denim britches of both gender afoot. Rather the neighborhood is blemished with blow-hards who tend to be radical Progressives. Convicted Alderman Larry Bloom'd here and abouts until his two big-hearted meat hooks snagged some swag in between Larry's Rage Against the Machine landed Larry in Oxford Federal Pen. Toni Preckwinkle, Barbara Flynn-Currie, and,of course, Dr. Quentin Young the Guru of the Marxist Progressive Democrat sway enormous clout over the city, county, state and nation from this 'hood.

A tad north of Hyde Park is Kenwood kind of like Morgan Park is to Beverly in the real world.  In Kenwood resides President Obama's clout and chinaman - Bill Ayers, SDS/Weatherman Veteran/ Educational Ghost Payroller (Ret.)/ Commie Snake-Oil Shill and Cubana de Aviación frequent flier - he is even believed to have penned both of Barack H. Obama's autobiographies.  Bill Ayers - the Barney Google of Terror.This fatuous dope gets far too much attention and I only wish to point out the rather flawed work of a small cognomen in the DNA.com Chicago wheel - Ted Cox - accent grave on the Ted.

Bill Ayers is the product of a powerful home chock full of money - cash, bonds, dividends, investments, trusts and I'll bet more gold coins than William Devane.  Ayers Pappy - Old Tom - was a Commonwealth Edison CEO and Chicago's utility, charity, civic and political, boards-man.  I know some revolutionaries and even a couple of devout Communists and they are sweet generous and self effacing people from whom one could expect the loan of a generator when Com Ed goes out.  Old Tom and his kid strike me as the types who call the cops on Trick 'R Treaters at the stroke of 6PM.  The real revolutionaries worked in Northern Ireland and Nicaragua and one never hears much about their guerrilla days.  Ayers never shuts up.  Covering this clown is Ted Cox.

International House at University of Chicago - has a seating capacity for 300-400 persons.  Bill is reported to have attracted 100, which in crowd reporting gets a bemused nod of 'Sure. . .sure.'  Ayers Zippo'd Kerry, Obama, Clinton and Henry Kissinger and dys-informed the gathering on Syria, Libya and Dylan.  Ted listened and filtered Chicago's Own Billy Ayers through . . .now, get this . . .James Thurber

The reading part of the evening, from "Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident," a sequel to his earlier "Fugitive Days" about his time underground with antiwar radicals the Weathermen, tended to be humorous, ironic and self-deprecating, as Ayers' writing also displays an air of whimsical imagination reminiscent of James Thurber.
Ayers writes of being in a seminar with his students in 2008 when they began watching the debate in which he was dragged into the campaign as a "domestic terrorist" who had supported Barack Obama in his early political ventures. One student turned to him and said, "Oh my God, that guy has the same name as yours."

Pokkatah, Pokkatah, pokka . . .What???  Whimsical Billy?  Whimsy is Ogden Nash.  Bill Ayers is a political sideshow and rhetorical chicken choker.  Ayers is a hillbilly grifter, so obvious in his dress, speech, deportment and pretensions ( Rilke?  Really?),  that he resembles the old cartoon-snake-oiler Barney Google. Even Slate hates Ayers books.

Beacon Press will publish Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident. It’s billed as a sequel to Fugitive Days, Ayers’ 2001 Weather Underground memoir, which at the time was the most “self-indulgent and morally clueless” memoir Slate’s Tim Noah had ever read. (This was several years before Eat Pray Love.) I liked Fugitive Days a little more than that, and Ayers was kind enough to sign a copy for me after some of my college friends and I annoyed him at one of the 2001 readings.

Fugitive Days and Ayers’ post-9/11 book tour were streaked with humility. Ayers had done something wrong, and he admitted it, but he did it for the right cause. Public Enemy, by contrast, is a memoir of score-settling, against a cast of extremely stupid (according to Ayers) critics. To hear Ayers tell it, since 2001 he’s been victimized and pilloried and misunderstood by a succession of idiots.

Guerrillas don't cry!  There's no crying in Bolivarista World Revolution!

Ted Cox finds the dope whimsical!   How about CCCP's own Thurber, Beria, Ted? What a scamp.   Now, that lad could kick up a swell Beriozka.  Ted is probably a pretty good guy, who just wants a neighbor to feel good.

Ted, Bill Ayers is a talentless, wealthy, but talentless dope hooked up for life to an odious hag of a cheerleader.  Now, she is dangerous.

Ted, Bernardine Dohrn is not whimsical. This is 

Lil JoJo Mourners and Gang-Banger Funerals at Mt. Hope Cemetery

The late Lil Jojo, BDG (dec.)

Yesterday, I paid  a very uncomfortable visit to my doctor at the office on 103th & Pulaski - the fruits of aging and subsequent taxes on the Hickey Meat Bag.  Another such intimate visit scheduled for morning of Monday Sept. 24th and I could not be more pleased.

I am a healthy 59 year old, for no Godly reason at all, but somethings really make my soul sour.  This summer Leo High School buried a freshman, Antonio Davis, who had been murdered by gangsters at 75th & Union, because he bore a resemblance to a thirty-something dope dealer.  Dan McGrath helped the family - Leo paid for the grave site and enlisted the Great Leak Family to cover the burial.  Leo Parents Club paid for an conducted the repast at Leo High School for 400 people.  All of this was done with dignity, grace and respect.  Nearly, every day of the week kids are killed by thugs.

Sometimes, not nearly often enough, a thug catches a round or two, or twelve.  Bothers me not at all; however the celebration of thugs for a thug corpse bothers me no end.  Here are some photos by the Chicago Sun Times Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Konkol who took the time to cover one of the seemingly endless Gang-banger ( Black Gangster Disciple (BGD) funeral in my neighborhood.  God Bless you, Mark! God Bless all Chicago Police Officers!






On the way home, after dropping off the prescription order at CVS.  I noticed a police or media helicopter hovering over what appeared to be Mt. Hope Cemetery from  115th & toward 111th Street east to Talman.  That could only mean that the much anticipated funeral of Rap Artiste and Gang Songster the late Lil JoJo, BGD (dec.) had impacted on the neighborhood.



CPD had scores of Lil JoJo mourners lined up at Kean Gas at 111th & Talman for weapons searches after shooting up the nieighborhood in celebration of the departed Lil Jojo.

That morning, having picked up my twelve Bronzeville and Canaryville Leo Men, I was regaled with yarns and snappy comments on the demise of the young Rap Star Ascendant.  I told the guys to knock off the commentary and say a short prayer.  " Remember, this kid has a mother and family."

We are all going to ground.  However, most of us live our lives and conduct ourselves according to the will of God, because we believe that what we do in life will ride with us into eternity.  That is the only way one can live a happy life.  The poor stupid kid going to Mt. Hope with a number of holes in him would be celebrated by other stupid people in a manner equally as stupid.  They are unhappy people.  One can not be stupid and happy.  One can laugh, act out, fire the 9 out of car windows, smoke blunts, guzzle 40s, offend and violate the sorrow of a family, but they can not be happy.

Mt. Hope Cemetery was an old Dutch burial ground.  The only real man on the 1919 White Sox Team, Buck Weaver, is buried at Mt. Hope.  Buck Weaver received the exact same punishment from that unctious hypocrite Judge Kennesaw Landis as those meted out to the disgracefully ignorant and greedy Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other scandalous Sox.  Buck Weaver was pure, never took a dime; but knew of the larceny and refused to kop a plea.  Buck Weaver was a stand-up guy and he died beloved and mourned by thousands of his neighbors in St. Sabina Parish. Buck Weaver was a Protestant buried from a Catholic funeral home.

Sadly, Mt. Hope has become the final resting place of street lice -Gang Bangers -murderers, felons and thugs.  To be sure every person should have grave - Mt. Hope is the urban Boot Hill.

As I headed up Kedzie toward 111th, I noticed that a great number of blue strobes were a blinking and racing to 115th & Kedzie.  The L'l JoJo mourners must be up to the standard of mischief associated with burial at Mt. Hope -gunfire, racists taunts to Cracker homeowners, threats to toddlers,  the tossing of empty 40s on well-kepy lawns and Crown Royal and Bumpy Face jugs shattered on sidewalks, driveways and streets, and very high speed threats to pedestrians - "#$%^ Y'all, Bidches! WOOOUP! WOOOUP!"

This urban cultural exchange takes place almost daily.

My neighbors are angry. They are not considered worthy of advocacy because they are white, Catholic and ethnic.  The meme being "That is what they deserve for being White Flight Bigots"  That is Evanston-speak - Lake County Lingo - Oak Park Oratory. It has nothing to do with truth.

Today, people in my neighborhood will meet at Kennedy Park on Western Ave. - Alderman Matt O'Shea of the 19th Ward has been positively heroic and out-front in condemning this blight on the community from the many manifestations and enclaves of Gang-banger Culture.  This is not a black v. white flight bigot issue.  This neighborhood is diverse though largely white and Catholic.  My neighbors are African Americans who fled Gresham, Grand Crossing, Englewood and Roseland.  They are neighbors who care for their children and their property.

The owners of Mt. Hope have seemed to dodge any and all responsibility for the Gang Parades to Glory. The cemetery is static - it don't move, of course.

Someone must wear the jacket and take fiduciary responsibility for the clientele.  The owners of the E2 Nightclub certainly did.  They got fines and jail time as I recall and E-2 did not have wheels on it.

What is the responsibility of the Funeral Directors*?  They are contracted.  I know I buried a few loved ones. The problem seems to lie with the funeral procession once it departs form its funeral home and passes through the gates of Mt. Hope.

Here is a funeral director cop-out clause that should be challenged mightily -

This Section 6 shall not apply if the death, personal injury, or property damage allegedly arose from the negligent acts or omissions in the operation of a vehicle by the funeral director, funeral home, funeral escort, or their employees or agents. The operator of a vehicle in a funeral procession shall not be deemed to be an agent of the funeral director, funeral home, or funeral escort unless such operator is an employee of the funeral director, funeral home, or funeral escort and is acting in the course of their employment, or unless the operator was retained as an independent contractor of the funeral director, funeral home, or funeral escort and is performing services thereto.

Perhaps, lawyers in our community should form a coalition and bring suit against any and all funeral directors who make a mockery of mourning, while taking the corpse to Mt. Hope.

NFDA Model Funeral Procession Statute

Section 101-01. Definitions

1. “Funeral director” and “funeral home” shall have the same meanings set forth in Sections _____ - ______ of the State Code*.
2. “Funeral procession” means two or more vehicles accompanying the body or the cremated remains of a deceased person, in the daylight hours, including a funeral lead vehicle or a funeral escort vehicle.
3. “Funeral lead vehicle” means any motor vehicle, including a funeral hearse, properly equipped pursuant to subsection 101-02(a), leading and facilitating the movement of a funeral procession.
4. “Funeral escort” means a person or entity that provides escort services for funeral processions, including, but not limited to law enforcement personnel and agencies.
5. “Funeral escort vehicle” means any motor vehicle properly equipped pursuant to Section 101-02 and which escorts a funeral procession.

Section 101-02. Equipment

1. All non-law enforcement funeral escort vehicles and funeral lead vehicles shall be equipped with at least one lighted rotating or oscillating lamp exhibiting an [amber]** light or lens visible under normal atmospheric conditions for a distance of at least 500 feet from the front of the vehicle. A funeral escort vehicle or a funeral lead vehicle may illuminate a rotating or oscillating [amber]** light only when the vehicle is in use in a funeral procession.
2. Any law enforcement funeral escort vehicle may be equipped with a red, blue, or amber flashing light which meet the criteria established in subsection (a) of this Section.

________________________
* Those sections from the state funeral licensing statute that define “funeral director” and “funeral home” would be inserted here.

**States may substitute red, blue or purple lights for amber lights.

Section 101-03. Driving in Funeral Procession

1. Operators of vehicles in a funeral procession must exercise due care when participating in a funeral procession.
2. A vehicle in a funeral procession shall follow the preceding vehicle in the funeral procession as closely as is practicable and safe. Any ordinance, law, or regulation requiring that motor vehicles be operated to allow sufficient space between them to enable another vehicle to enter and occupy that space without danger shall not be applicable to vehicles in a funeral procession.
3. The operator of a motor vehicle in a funeral procession may not drive the vehicle at a speed greater than:
   1. 55 miles per hour on a highway where the posted speed limit is 55 miles per hour or more; or
   2. 5 miles per hour below the posted speed limit on other streets or road.
4. A vehicle being operated in any funeral procession must have its headlights and tail lights illuminated.
5. The turn signals must be flashing simultaneously as warning lights on a vehicle that is the first vehicle in a funeral procession and which the operator has reason to believe is the last vehicle in the funeral procession.

Section 101-04. Funeral Procession Right-of-Way

1. Except as provided in subsection (d) of this Section, pedestrians and operators of all vehicles shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle which is part of a funeral procession being led by a funeral escort vehicle or a funeral lead vehicle.
2. Whenever the funeral escort vehicle or funeral lead vehicle in a funeral procession lawfully enters an intersection, either by reason of a traffic control device or at the direction of law enforcement personnel, the remaining vehicles in the funeral procession may continue to follow the funeral lead vehicle through the intersection despite any traffic control devices or right-of-way provisions of State or local ordinances, provided the operator of each vehicle exercises reasonable care toward any other vehicle or pedestrian on the roadway.
3. Except as provided in subsection (d) of this Section, an operator of a funeral escort vehicle may direct the operators of other vehicles in a funeral procession to proceed through an intersection or to make turns or other movements despite any traffic control device. The operator of a funeral escort vehicle may direct and control the operators of vehicles not in a funeral procession, including those in or approaching an intersection, to stop, proceed, or make turns or other movements without regard to a traffic control device. Funeral escort vehicles may exceed the speed limit by 15 miles per hour when overtaking the funeral procession to direct traffic at the next intersection.
4. Funeral processions shall have the right-of-way at intersections regardless of traffic control devices, subject to the following conditions and exceptions:
   1. Operators of vehicles in a funeral procession shall yield the right-of-way to an approaching emergency vehicle giving an audible or visible signal;
   2. Operators of vehicles in a funeral procession shall yield the right-of-way when directed to do so by law enforcement personnel; and
   3. Operators of vehicles in a funeral procession must exercise due care when participating in a funeral procession.

Section 101-05. Vehicles not in Funeral Procession

The operator of a vehicle that is not part of a funeral procession may not:

1. Drive between the vehicles forming a funeral procession while they are in motion except when authorized to do so by law enforcement personnel or when driving an authorized emergency vehicle emitting an audible or visible signal.
2. Join a funeral procession to secure the right-of-way as granted by Section 101-04.
3. Pass a funeral procession on a multiple lane highway on the funeral procession’s right side unless the funeral procession is in the farthest left lane.
4. Enter an intersection, even if the operator is facing a green traffic control signal, when a funeral procession is proceeding through a red traffic control signal at the intersection as permitted under Section 101-04, unless the operator can so without crossing the path of the funeral procession. If the red signal changes to green while the funeral procession is within the intersection, the operator of the vehicle facing a green signal may proceed subject to the right-of-way of a vehicle participating in a funeral procession.

Section 101-06. Liability

1. Liability for any death, personal injury or property damage suffered by any person in a funeral procession shall not be imposed upon the funeral director, funeral home, funeral escort or their employees or agents if the funeral procession was operating in compliance with Sections 101-01 through 101-04 or would have been operating in such compliance but for the operator or operators of one or more vehicles in the funeral procession not exercising due care as required by subsections 101-03(a) and 101-04(d)(iii).
2. Liability for any death, personal injury or property damage that results from, is caused by, or arises out of any action or inaction of any operator of a vehicle in a funeral procession under the control of a funeral director, funeral home, funeral escort or their employees or agents shall not be imposed upon such funeral director, funeral home, funeral escort or their employees or agents if the funeral procession was operating in compliance with Sections 101-01 through 101-04 or would have been operating in such compliance but for the operator or operators of one or more vehicles in the funeral procession not exercising due care as required by subsections 101.03(a) and 101-04(d)(iii).
3. This Section 6 shall not apply if the death, personal injury, or property damage allegedly arose from the negligent acts or omissions in the operation of a vehicle by the funeral director, funeral home, funeral escort, or their employees or agents. The operator of a vehicle in a funeral procession shall not be deemed to be an agent of the funeral director, funeral home, or funeral escort unless such operator is an employee of the funeral director, funeral home, or funeral escort and is acting in the course of their employment, or unless the operator was retained as an independent contractor of the funeral director, funeral home, or funeral escort and is performing services thereto.
4. This Section 6 does not create a new cause of action or substantive legal rights against any funeral director, funeral home, funeral escort, or their employees or agents. This section does not affect any immunities from civil liability or defenses established by another section of the State Code or any immunities from civil liabilities or defenses available at common law to which a funeral director, funeral home, funeral escort, or their employees or agents may be entitled.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/15144333-418/tensions-erupt-at-wake-for-slain-teen-rapper-lil-jojo.html
http://www.nfda.org/government-relations-/model-laws-and-best-practices/254.html

Mark Konkol Deserves "Noble Prize!" Konkol Kicked the G and Charged Up a Disabled Marine's Neighbors.

Aimee Zmysly and Yuriy Zmysly have friends, neighbors and Americans from all over the continent in their corner and now, at long last, the Federal Government for which Yuriy fought.

Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Konkol of the Chicago Sun Times got the ball rolling on April 4, 2010 with a story of Yuriy and Aimee's strength and love for one another. Mark Konkol, like his colleagues Natasha Korecki and Tim Novack, is a pitbull on a story.

This is great. What is greater happens to be the response of members of the VFW, American Legion, Windy City Veterans, and the good people who stepped up to help the young Marine and his bride.

Due to red-tape, I hope, Yuriy was denied disability benefits. Last year, Jim McMahon, Second City Cop, Detective Shaved and other blogs put out a call to help the Zmysly Family. The other local media ran stories too. Benefits were held and dollars poured in to help the young couple.

Now, the young couple has received their first check from the United States government.

For more than six years, Aimee Zmysly has been the unpaid caretaker for her husband, Yuriy Zmysly, who suffered a brain injury during routine surgery at a military hospital in North Carolina after surviving tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Marine Corps. He was left disabled, unable to see, walk or talk.

Now, thanks to a new federal law that the Oak Lawn couple helped spur the passage of, caregivers for severely disabled veterans can get a stipend from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Aimee Zmysly’s first check arrived about two weeks ago. It was for $3,541.26.

For Aimee Zmysly, 25, the money was more than just a $12-an-hour subsidy for giving up a career of her own to take care of her husband full-time. It was also validation.

“It’s good to be recognized for what I’ve been doing and other people have been doing for years,” she said.

“The whole reason why I take care of Yuriy, and have given up a lot, is because I wanted him home. He doesn’t belong in a hospital or a nursing home. It’s a hard job to do, especially when you are husband and wife, and you have all these roles — caregiver, wife and friend. It gets overwhelming.”

Mark Konkol was dogged. He wrote a series of articles and not "an" article to keep the story alive as the noble gent writes today - leaving his own part in the saga unmentioned.

In April 2010, the Zmyslys were living in a tiny room in Aimee’s parents’ house when “Aimee and Yuriy: A Love Story” appeared on the front page of a Sunday edition of the Chicago Sun-Times.

When the government notified Yuriy Zmysly it had declared him “medically retired” from the Marines, that sharply reduced his benefits, leaving the couple unable to afford the care he needed.

Touched by their story and in some cases angry about how the government had treated the couple, Sun-Times readers made sure the next chapter in their life story would be a happier one by contributing to an effort by the not-for-profit organization Salute Inc. to help the Zmyslys. As a result, last September, nearly five years to the day since they’d met, Aimee and Yuriy Zmysly moved in to a newly renovated and fully furnished house.

Click my post title for the Konkol archives on this saga.


With all of the puffed-up egos, agenda-driven hacks, and iconic bullies in journalism, Mark Konkol stands out as a guy who does his job with humility as well as a great human heart. That is nobility.

Chicago Sun Times Gets It Right - Chicago is a Thug Comfort Zone

Chicago Sun Times Mark Konkol and Frank Main have presented a nearly perfect picture of Chicago's Homicide horrors - Chicago is a Thug Comfort Zone. This is nearly complete, but missing in this otherwise fine article is Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers who have made targeting police officers and the City of Chicago for litigation. Loevy and Loevy, G. Flint Taylor and the entire anti-Law Enforcement Industry at Northwestern University.

“The certainty of punishment is very, very low in Chicago, and that’s going to embolden people,” said defense attorney Thomas Needham, who was a top legal adviser to former police Supt. Terry Hillard. “It’s going to lead to less fear by the people who are going to consider shooting. That’s very alarming.”

There is the street testimony -

So far, not one accused shooter has been convicted of pulling the trigger during those deadly 59 hours from April 18-20 of that year, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.

Only one suspected triggerman — a convicted armed robber caught with the AK-47 he allegedly used to blow away his boss — is in jail awaiting trial.

Three other victims said they know who shot them but refused to testify. And after Gamble took the witness stand against the guy who he says shot him, a judge ruled Gamble wasn’t credible because of his criminal record and found the suspect not guilty.

Six murders from that 2008 weekend remain unsolved. And time’s running out to catch the bad guys who shot 29 other people that weekend because there’s a three-year statute of limitations on aggravated batteries with firearms.

Odds are, most of those cases will remain unsolved. The Chicago Police Department’s batting average for catching shooters has fallen to an alarmingly low level.

Well done Chicago Sun Times, especially the always on target Mark Konkol! This is a start.

Justice for Two Women Savagely Beaten in Bucktown? Call Ald. Scott Waguespack

During the attack, Jurich was struck in the back of the head and dazed, her mother said. She stumbled and the attacker went after McShane, striking her in the head two or three times. McShane crumpled to the ground unconscious in a pool of blood.

When Jurich tried to help McShane, the robber struck Jurich in the head again, her mother said. Jurich knew she needed to escape and screamed for a cabbie to stop his taxi, but the man saw the blood on her clothes and kept going. A second cabbie then stopped and called 911. That’s when Jurich passed out.

This afternoon, Jurich was lucid and able to speak to her mother, although she was having seizures. “The doctors are keeping a close watch on her,” her mother said. . . .The robber was black; 27 to 34; 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-9; and wore a tan or light colored hooded sweatshirt, police said.

Sounds like a Hate Crime to me.


Two young girls ( white and one an Irish citizen) were savagely beaten by a black man. Why these two?

Well, the traditional story line and doctrinal parsing for any and all black on white crime is Crime of Opportunity. Opportunity Knocks only when 'a goofy-looking white boy' with a heart condition can stand a pipe beating, two white girls walking home unescorted from a trendy bar need the added special societal emphasis of a bat when the scared would give the savage their money anyway in Bucktown - 32nd Ward Scott Waguespack - an earnest young Progressive stamped as an "Ain't He Great" by the Progressive Brahmin's, or an elderly white man with his daughter crosses 35th Street for a hot dog before a White Sox Game. Then, there is the time honored Crime of Opportunity tactic of the swarm - get six to ten proud young men and prowl around a solitary Bev Rat with a St. Rita T-Shirt and attack on signal.

My son was savagely beaten on two occasions only a few blocks from my house. On both occasions, world weary cops-black CPD police officers and solid professionals by the way - said this would be viewed as a Crime of Economic Opportunity. You see a St. Rita High School kid is a plutocrat in this post racial America.He's a tough, husky lad and took the swarming beat down by between six and seven black youths with fatalistic good humor -"Must have been my Turn, Dad." Indeed, my boy, I was stomped on the Damen Avenue bus between 63rd and 76th by the jubilant graduates of Lindbloom High School decades ago.

The savage assault on these two girls must not go without our lighting fire under the Progressive Rump of Smiling Scott Waugespack - I will make a call to Scott and ask him why he has yet to make a statement and to demand that this be treated as a Hate Crime. I expect that I will be treated to dead air from Scott followed by a series of idiotic columns by the usual suspects -Mary Mitchell, Eric Zorn and Mark Brown blaming the attack by a savage who happens to be black on the policies of George W. Bush.

I love Bucktown and Wicker Park - smart, artistic and joyful. I hope more artistic types would move out our way - but with this savagery taking place up there, maybe they just might chose a neighborhood that is home to Chicago Police Officers and neighbors infused with a culture of watching out for one another. I hope that bastard Cab Driver gets identified!

Start dialing up Scott! I did and got a recording -I'll send Scott a link to this post as well. Just got to let Scott know how I feel.

Huge Hat Tip to Detective Shaved on the thought to call Alderman Scott Waguespack!

South Side Irish Parade - Lazarus Come Forth!

A solid well done to Chicago Police and Fore Departments and the Liquor Commission!

Yesterday's neighbrhood events were untroubled, because Commander Mike Kuemeth and the officers of the 22nd Police District and Chicago Fire Department specialists worked with Illinois Liqour Commissioners to prevent any all idiocies.

The neighborhood enjoyed a good day - not a great one.

The South Side Parade should march again. Chicago Sun Times writer Mark Konkol, a solid guy and an honest journalist sought out two solid Parade Advocates - James "Skinny" Sheahan, long-time Chicago Special Events Director and Renaissance Man Mike Houlihan concerning the resusitation of this great family event.

Quoth Houli and Skinny:

Born on St. Patrick's Day in 1979, she would be 31 years this Wednesday. 31 years. I'm almost twice as old as that.
When I was 31, well, I acted like a goof sometimes myself. But nobody said, "He got drunk and embarrassed us, let's kill him."
No they didn't. They believed in me. They saw the potential for something greater in me and never withdrew their love and support.
But South Side Paddy ... Well, is SHE really dead?
You've got to listen to the rest: SouthSideIrishParadeeulogy.WMA

By the way, James "Skinny" Sheahan -- Mayor Daley's former parade czar -- predicts the parade will be back next year. Why?
Because without it, Beverly is Irish, but "boring."

More from Skinny Sheahan via the great Mark Konkol

"I'm sure the parade will be back because we need a parade. Beverly's still Irish, but [without the parade] it's very boring," Sheahan said. "Listen, I was in charge of every parade in Chicago for 10 years. I've seen more parades than anybody in the world except for Mayor Daley, OK. This was a great, great parade. Two percent of people at the parade were goofballs, that's a fact. But the parade will be back. They'll have a heart attack when they read that, but I don't care."

Let's revive the South Side Irish Parade! If the spirit is still in the bones, save the wake.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2102550,CST-NWS-stpats15.article