Sneed: State troopers already helping out at request of Chicago cops
By Michael Sneed September 25, 2013 9:56PM
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy talks to reporters Friday about the Sept. 19 shooting that injured 13 — including a 3-year-old boy — at a Back of the Yards park. | M. Spencer Green~AP
Article Extras
Updated: September 26, 2013 2:17AM
The cop shop . . .
No way! No how!
Hmmm. That was Chicago top cop Garry McCarthy’s response Monday to Gov. Pat Quinn’s offer of state police help to quell gang violence following Friday’s shooting at a Back of the Yards park — which left 13 people wounded, including a 3-year-old boy.
Well, that’s a surprise.
◆ The backshot: Sneed hears that over the last three years, the Illinois State Police — under the leadership of Hiram Grau, a former first deputy Chicago police superintendent — have been quietly providing targeted reinforcement as requested by Chicago Police, according to a top Sneed source.
◆ The upshot: According to the source, the Illinois State Police sent a small team of state troopers to the Englewood neighborhood this month. And other Chicago neighborhoods where state troopers have been deployed include Woodlawn, Lawndale, Austin and Garfield Park.
So . . . what’s up?
Run ’em . . .
Saddam’s foe: Retired Marine Lt. Col. Paul Schimpf, who describes himself as the lead American attorney adviser to Iraqi prosecutors in the Saddam Hussein trial, has a new target in his gunsight: Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
◆ Translation: Schimpf, who claims his mentorship to the Iraqi prosecution induced Saddam’s confession that he ordered the Iraqi executions, will announce Thursday he is running for Illinois attorney general as a Republican. He lives in Downstate Waterloo. Appropriate location historically, huh?
A sad note . . .
The death of Bishop Timothy J. Lyne, 94, the vicar for senior priests who died peacefully Wednesday morning at his home at Holy Name Cathedral, signals the end of a chapter in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Chicago. A retired auxiliary bishop, he served before the decades of clerical upheaval. “He was a priest’s priest and a bishop’s bishop,” said Ald. Ed Burke, a close friend.
◆ The Lyne legacy: Burke described him as a cherished friend to politicians and civic leaders and a powerful champion of the poor and dispossessed. “He was strong yet kind, tough yet graceful, he was son of an immigrant Irish policeman and a true product of Chicago’s neighborhoods,” Burke said. “Throughout his pastoral life, he never lost the common man’s touch or wisdom.”
The Daley news . . .
Former gubernatorial candidate Bill Daley is losing no time regaining footing among the power elite. Sneed is told he was recently hobnobbing in New York and Washington, D.C. — and had penciled in a sitdown with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
Is Yellen jellin’?
A further sign Janet Yellen will become the first female chief of the Federal Reserve: She just postponed her Oct. 1 speech at the Economic Club of Chicago. “No reason to take a chance of putting a foot in one’s mouth when her appointment is imminent,” said a top source.
$$$$ . . .
O man, Oman! Sneed is told that actress Phylicia “The Cosby Show” Rashad, who was honored Sunday by the Primo Center for Women and Girls during a fund-raiser in Lake Bluff, was so moved by the cause — the education and support of homeless women — she bid $50,000 during the live auction for a stay at a French chateau and a trip to the Middle Eastern country of Oman!
Sneedlings . . .
Bravo! Congrats to WTTW producers Jamie Ceaser and V.J. McAleer on being nominated for an Emmy by the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences — for their sharp knife in editing the verrrry long “Insanity Retrial of Mary Todd Lincoln,” a production of the Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission and the Abe Lincoln Library. . . . Condolences to the family of retired Chicago Sun-Times city editor Dick Mitchell, who died Wednesday morning. Mitchell, who suffered from emphysema, was adored by many Sun-Times staffers. He was 67. . . Thursday’s birthdays: Olivia Newton-John, 65; Serena Williams, 32; James Caviezel, 45; Christina Milian, 32; Linda Hamilton, 57, and Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men, 41.
