Fire Chief arrested

Bank robbed in Cairo

CAIRO, Ill. (AP) _ Illinois State Police have identified two female employees killed during a southern Illinois bank robbery.

Authorities on Friday said 52-year-old Anita J. Grace of Olive Branch and 52-year-old Nita J. Smith of Wickliffe, Kentucky, died in the Thursday robbery. A third, 23-year-old female employee was not identified but reported to be in critical condition.

Authorities say a suspect approached the women as the bank was closing. They say he forced them back inside the bank where Cairo police found the victims. All suffered stab wounds.

Jury sides with Anheuser Busch in pay discrimination trial

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – A verdict was reached in the Francine Katz discrimination lawsuit against AB-Inbev.

Moments ago, the jury found in favor of AB-Inbev meaning Francine Katz lost her case. The jury voted 9-3.

Katz sued for discrimination saying the environment at Anheuser Busch was more like a “boy’s club locker room.”

Even though she made millions of dollars at the company she says male executives with the same duties made much more.

Cubs think by changing the color of it's sign might help break the goat curse

Wrigley Field’s famous red marquee is being painted green and gold as part of the ballpark’s 100th anniversary celebrations.

The marquee was installed in 1934 and at that time, its colors were similar to “mallard green” with a “french quarter gold” trim.

The sign will display these colors for the Cubs’ homestand against the Brewers and Yankees running from Friday to Wednesday.

Once these series’ end, the marquee will return to red and white.

The sign was originally green and gold then painted red and white then purple.
None of which helped the Cubs.

by Taboola

NFL Ghetto Chimp Aaron Hernandez indicted on murder charges

BOSTON — Former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez has been indicted on murder charges in a 2012 double slaying in Boston.

Boston police spokeswoman Neva Coakley confirmed the indictment Thursday. Hernandez is already being held without bail after pleading not guilty to murder in the unrelated death of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd last year.

In the 2012 case, victims Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado were shot as they sat in a car in Boston’s South End. Police have said they were shot by someone who drove up alongside in an SUV and opened fire.

Boston police have written in an affidavit there is probable cause to believe Hernandez was driving a vehicle used in the shooting and “may have been the shooter.”

Hernandez’s lawyers did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital under a federal audit

Federal auditors need to look at the White House and Springfield Illinois but instead they are here.  Federal auditors descended on Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital on Wednesday, just one day after a CBS News report alleging manipulation of waiting lists for patient care.

These "secret waiting lists," a whistleblower told CBS News, make the numbers look better and allow hospital executives to collect bonus money.

"Employees are coming to me from all over the hospital, from outpatient, inpatient, surgery, radiology," said Germaine Clarno, VA social worker and employee representative, suggesting that the practice is widespread.

The hospital reports that it provides medical care to more than 50,000 Chicago-area veterans in a year.

According to Clarno, this is how the scam works: When a veteran calls the hospital for an appointment, the veteran is placed on the secret list. An actual appointment in the computer would not be booked until an opening would arise within a 14-day window.

Clarno told CBS she believes people are faking the wait-time data to receive bonuses.

CBS first reported on problems at VA hospitals when another whistleblower, Dr. Same Foote, revealed efforts to conceal delays in care at a facility in Phoenix where as many as 40 military veterans may have died while awaiting treatment.

Eric Shinseki, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, has been under fire ever since the scandal broke earlier this year. CNN revealed that top management in Phoenix was aware of the elaborate scandal. Shinseki will testify before Congress on Thursday about the delays.

Now the scandal has reached Chicago, and federal investigators reportedly are looking into facilities in Wyoming, Colorado and Texas, too. A spokesman said this is part of a nationwide review ordered by Shinseki.

In Chicago, hospital director Joan Ricard released a statement to the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday saying she “received no evidence or specific facts about data manipulation” at Hines.

Ricard said the information Clarno brought to her attention was not a "secret waiting list" but was “a performance improvement tool.”

Veterans told CBS News that appointments in Chicago take much longer than 14 days.

"It can be anywhere between one, two, three, four months," said Paul Rodriguez, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, who sees several doctors at Hines.

Lawyer takes on Illinois Update

None of the politicians we emailed answered and we will be submitting a foia to ISP