A teen was wounded in a shooting on the Near West Side on Monday evening, Chicago police said.
The boy, 16, was shot in the torso in the 1900 block of West Ogden Avenue at 5:34 p.m., police said. He took himself to Stroger Hospital, where he was in serious condition.
The shooting occurred about 20 minutes after a 51-year-old man was fatally shot about a mile away in the 2000 block of West Randolph Street.
No one is in custody.
Rodessa Barrett Porter’s crystalline soprano spun filigrees in the music of the Barrett Sisters, who gave goosebumps to audiences while giving glory to God.
Mrs. Porter, the last living member of the gospel trio, died Monday, according to social media posts from family members. It was the day after her 94th birthday.
“My heart is sad and our family chain is broken again,” cousin Ron Barrett posted on Facebook on Monday.
The sisters sang together for 70 years and became global stars after their radiant, rousing performance in the documentary “Say Amen, Somebody.”
Rodessa Barrett Porter (left) with her sisters Delois Barrett Campbell and Billie Barrett Greenbey in George T. Nierenberg’s documentary “Say Amen, Somebody.”
Mrs. Porter was one of a handful of people left with direct ties to Thomas A. Dorsey, the father of gospel music. She and her sisters — Delois Barrett Campbell and Billie Barrett Greenbey — used to listen to him at Chicago’s Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church.
They learned from him and gospel queen Mahalia Jackson, who lived near the Barretts on the South Side. “They were both in walking distance,” Mrs. Porter told the Sun-Times.
The Barrett Sisters were featured in the documentary “Say Amen, Somebody.”
“They were one of the last generation connected to the first,” said famed gospel singer and composer Richard Smallwood of Washington, D.C.
When Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert reviewed “Say Amen, Somebody” in 1983, he called it “the most joyful movie I’ve seen in a very long time.”
The music of Mrs. Porter and her sisters was the soundtrack in many churchgoing homes. People played their records on home stereos, enjoyed them on the radio and watched them Sunday mornings on WLS-TV’s “Jubilee Showcase.” Jennifer Hudson listened to the Barrett Sisters when she was growing up.
In 1964, the Barrett Sisters performed at Sam Cooke’s Chicago memorial. In 1983, they appeared with Curtis Mayfield to promote Harold Washington’s campaign for mayor. They sang at Cook County Jail and before the president of Zaire and Swedish royalty, Mrs. Porter said.
Their sound was joyful; their stage presence, electric. The Barrett Sisters shifted with ease from smooth, swooping harmony to a raw, rollicking sound that made people stamp their feet and throw up their hands. When the “Sweet Sisters of Zion” sang softly, they sounded as if harp strings had been incarnated in human form.
“You feel uplift when you listen to their music,” said Pam Morris-Walton, host of a Sunday gospel music show on WVON 1690-AM.
They wore gleaming ensembles designed by Campbell’s husband, the Rev. Frank Campbell. At concerts, “when the curtain would open, you just saw class, first class,” said Pastor John F. Hannah of Chicago’s New Life Covenant Church. “The long gowns, the eyelashes, the nails. Before they opened their mouths, they commanded the attention of the room. … We were able to see glamour on the gospel stage.”
Mrs. Porter, who spent 20 years as choir director at Liberty Baptist Church, was an entertaining raconteur. She used to talk of how she and her sisters loved popular music, especially the harmonizing of the Andrews Sisters.
At one point, she informed her deacon father, Lonnie Barrett, “I want to be an Etta James,” she told the Sun-Times. “He said, ‘Oh, no, you’re not going to be an Etta James. You’re going to be a gospel singer.’”
She said she started singing in the 1940s with her sisters at Morning Star Baptist Church. “They sang together for so long, they just became like as one,” Smallwood said. “Their voices were angelic.”
With Campbell as the musical anchor, “Billie would do the alto ‘scoop’ and Rodessa would do the high hoot: ‘hoo-hoo-hoo,’ ” said Bob Marovich, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Gospel Music and host of “Gospel Memories” on WLUW-FM (88.7).
She was the seventh of 10 children born to Lonnie Barrett and his wife, Susie. But one baby died within a month. Three other siblings died from tuberculosis in the 1930s and 1940s. The losses strengthened the family’s reliance on prayer and church, Mrs. Porter said. She went to McCosh grade school and graduated in 1949 from Englewood High School.
Her older sisters had been singing with Johnnie Mae Hudson in a group known as the Barrett and Hudson Singers, Marovich said. After Hudson died, Mrs. Porter joined her sisters. They began recording together in the early 1960s. Two crowd favorites were “I’ll Fly Away” and “Jesus Loves Me.”
They experienced many hardships on the road, Mrs. Porter told the Sun-Times. In the South, “there were places we couldn’t stay and there were restaurants [where] we couldn’t eat,” she said. “There were times we would do concerts and didn’t get paid at all.”
But as their fame grew, they toured the world, including Australia, England, Fiji, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland. In 1983, they performed on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.” In 1991, the sisters were featured on Patti LaBelle’s special “Going Home to Gospel.”
Patti LaBelle (second from left) with the Barrett Sisters (L-R): Rodessa, Delois and Billie. The group appeared on the 1991 WTTW-TV special “Going Home to Gospel” with LaBelle.
Once, in Europe, her husband, Lee, and a brother-in-law surprised the sisters with a hometown treat, Mrs. Porter said in an interview with the Rev. Harold E. Bailey of the Harold Bailey Singers.
”My husband brought us some Lem’s barbecue,” she said. “He brought it all the way to Europe and they warmed it up for us. And we had a good time talking and laughing and eating with Lem’s barbecue.”
Her husband preceded her in death. She had five children, 15 grandchildren and many great- and great-great grandchildren.
Mrs. Porter always remembered their rocky entry to South Africa during the apartheid era. She told the Sun-Times how a stern airport official grilled the Barrett Sisters on the purpose of their visit.
Mrs. Porter said, “We came to sing to you, tell you about our God.’”
But the man snapped, ‘Your God? What color’s your God?’ ”
“I said, ‘the same color as yours ’ ” she said. “ ‘OK, go on,’” he said.
“We went on through. We went on through.”
The Barrett Sisters: (L-R) Rodessa Barrett Porter, Delois Barrett Campbell and Billie Barrett Greenbey.
Contributing: Violet Miller
A man was killed in a shooting on the Near West Side on Monday evening, Chicago police said.
The man, 51, was near the street in the 2000 block of West Randolph Street at 5:28 p.m. when he was shot several times, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he later died.
No one is in custody.
MINNEAPOLIS — Forced to choose between starting a rookie who might be able to help the Bears next year and a veteran who won’t, the Bears put third-round pick Kiran Amegadjie at left tackle Monday night.
They knew his first start would be a trial by fire: playing in a loud stadium against the league’s most aggressive blitz defense.
‘I’m sure he’ll have his rookie moments,” general manager Ryan Poles on the team’s official ESPN1000 pregame show. “But he’s a guy who’s resilient who will continue to fight as the game goes on.”
It didn’t take long for Amegadjie to prove the first part right. Midway through the first quarter, Amegadjie was beat around the end by edge rusher Jonathan Greenard, who sacked quarterback Caleb Williams and forced a fumble that teammate Blake Cashman returned 17 yards.
Amegadjie, who had quad surgery 14 months ago while at Yale and wasn’t cleared to practice until midway through training camp, had played only 58 offensive snaps before Monday.
The Hinsdale Central alum’s promotion came on short notice. Starting left tackle Braxton Jones reported concussion symptoms Sunday that Poles reiterated Monday stemmed from the 49ers game. Poles wasn’t concerned that he was harmed in practice, saying the Bears don’t have a lot of “high-intensity movements” during the week this late in the season.
The Bears chose Amegadjie to start instead of Larry Borom, who filled in for Jones at left tackle for two games this year. Borom is in the final year of his contract.
Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson — of “Fail Mary” fame — recorded his first interception since Week 1 when he picked off Sam Darnold’s pass on fourth-and-3 heave from the Bears’ 23 in the second quarter. The quarterback escaped pressure and lofted a pass toward two receivers. Stevenson intercepted the pass and returned it for a yard. Had he knocked it to the ground, though, the Bears would have started their drive seven yards farther down the field.
• The Vikings debuted their “Winter Warrior” uniforms — a white helmet, a white jersey with purple numbers trimmed in silver, and white pants with a purple stripe inside a thicker silver stripe. It marked the first time the Vikings had ever worn white helmets.
They brought in a special guest to celebrate the “icy” uniforms: rapper Vanilla Ice, who performed at halftime.
• The Bears don’t have a single player ranked in the top 10 at their position in Pro Bowl fan voting.
• Former Vikings receivers Cris Carter and Jake Reed, the team’s honorary captains, carried a purple Randy Moss jersey out for the coin toss. Moss revealed last week he had surgery to treat bile duct cancer.
• Bears defensive end Darrell Taylor was fined $16,883 for hitting quarterback Brock Purdy in the head last week, for which he was flagged.
Former Bears quarterback Justin Fields played exactly one snap Sunday. It would take a dramatic turn of events for the Bears to have their compensation for him upgraded.
The Bears traded Fields to the Steelers in March for a sixth-round pick that would turn into a fourth-rounder were Fields to play at least 51% of the Steelers’ snaps.
After beginning the season as the starter, Fields was replaced by quarterback Russell Wilson after six starts and has played just 13 snaps since.
The Bears’ sixth-round draft pick figures to be cemented Saturday when the Steelers play the Ravens. The Steelers are on pace to run 1,131 plays this year, an average of 66.5 per game. Another full game would get Wilson to about 590 snaps, roughly 52% of 1,131.
Fields is in the final year of his rookie contract and is set to become a free agent at the end of the season.
In a set of appointments that round out Chicago’s new 21-member Board of Education, Mayor Brandon Johnson tapped a group of mostly community organizers and activists and kept all but two of his current school board members.
The mayor’s 11 seats represent a majority of the school board and solidify his strong influence over Chicago Public Schools for the next two years. Johnson named 10 members Monday and said an 11th is still being vetted.
They join the 10 others who were chosen by voters in Chicago’s first-ever school board elections in November. Four of those elected members were endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union — the mayor’s staunch allies who helped vault him into office. That puts 15 out of 21 seats in the mayor’s ideological corner.
“Here’s what I look for: People who actually love and believe in public education,” Johnson said at a news conference Monday after the City Council passed the second budget of his term.
Johnson said he wanted board members who “understand the urgency” of President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for the U.S. Department of Education, which many advocates have said could harm public schools. He said it was important to him that board members care for families, who he said have been neglected, and teachers, who he said face unfair attacks. And Johnson indicated his board appointees should direct the school district to take on a disputed pension payment for non-teacher CPS employees.
The mayor had a bit of a puzzle when choosing appointees. By law, he had to choose people who live on the opposite side of their school board district as the elected members. The board president could be from anywhere in the city. Monday was the deadline to announce his picks.
Johnson’s 11 appointees are led by new school board president Sean Harden, a consulting executive who worked as an executive assistant to former Mayor Richard M. Daley in the mid 2000s, then for CPS as deputy CEO for community affairs from 2009 to 2011 under then-schools chief Ron Huberman. Since then, he has been involved in real estate development, community revitalization and workforce development organizations.
Harden was announced as a board member and sworn in last week during the final school board meeting of the year, but he was not named the new board president until Monday.
“Each of these leaders brings a unique perspective and an unrelenting commitment to the success of Chicago’s students,” Harden said in a statement released by the mayor’s office. “Together, we will prioritize equity, amplify community voices and create opportunities that unlock the potential of every child in our city.”
In addition to Harden, four current board members are keeping their seats: Longtime teacher and former CTU staffer Debby Pope from the North Side’s 2nd District; political consultant Michilla Blaise from the West Side’s District 5; labor and grassroots organizer Frank Niles Thomas in District 9 on the Far South Side; and community organizer Olga Bautista from the Southeast Side’s District 10. Mary Gardner and Rafael Yañez are leaving the board.
The mayor filled out the rest of his appointees with Ed Bannon, a longtime member of Dever Elementary’s Local School Council who ran for alderperson against Ald. Nick Sposato (38th) in 2023. Norma Rios-Sierra is a Logan Square artist, activist and parent. Pastor Emma Lozano is a prominent immigration activist who described herself as a “champion for bilingual education” in the mayor’s office’s press release.
Karen Zaccor is one of two newly appointed members who had run an unsuccessful CTU-endorsed bid for an elected seat. Zaccor finished second among six candidates in a crowded race to represent the 4th District, which encompasses communities along the north lakefront. Zaccor just retired from teaching this past June after 28 years in the classroom.
Appointee Anusha Thotakura lost the race to represent District 6, which stretches all the way from some Near North Side neighborhoods into the South Side. On the campaign trail, Thotakura touted her time as a math teacher in California. Since then she has worked for progressive organizations in Chicago and is currently the director for Citizen Action Illinois, a progressive policy advocacy coalition.
At 26, Thotakura will likely be the youngest member of the board and the only Asian American. She lives in the West Town neighborhood.
Ahead of the announcement, some 140 parents organized by the advocacy group Kids First Chicago sent a letter to the mayor asking that he make sure the racial makeup of the board — the appointees together with the elected members — reflects the students in the district, who are nearly 90% Black and Latino.
In the end, seven of the 21 are white, six are Black, seven are Latino and one is Asian American.
Connor Bedard is usually the youngest guy in a hockey rink, but on Monday the Blackhawks’ rising star was the seasoned vet as he celebrated the opening of an outdoor ball hockey rink alongside students in Little Village on the Southwest Side.
The 19-year-old jumped in with John Spry Community School Students and members of the True Value Boys and Girls Club of Chicago, 2950 W. 25th St., for some pickup games and drills after the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the rink, which sits in a courtyard between the two buildings.
“As we celebrate this exciting new space for young people, we are also recognizing that it’s more than a sports court and it’s more than a beautiful area for youth and family to gather,” said Sara Guderyahn, executive director of the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation. “For the Chicago Blackhawks, this really is a long-term commitment to the West Side of Chicago. It represents the opportunity for youth to grow, learn and connect with each other.”
The project was a joint effort between the Blackhawks and the NHL. The rink is painted in black and red Blackhawks colors. There is a Blackhawks-themed mural by Chicago-based street artist Sentrock, whose real name is Joseph Perez, behind the rink. The artwork features girls and boys wearing Blackhawks-inspired jerseys, playing hockey outdoors.
A new ball hockey rink in a shared courtyard between John Spry Community School and the True Value Boys and Girls Club of Chicago opened in Little Village. The renovated space also features an outdoor seating area with picnic tables.
Emmanuel Camarillo/Sun-Times
The renovated space also features an outdoor seating area with picnic tables. The space was previously the site of a miniature soccer field opened by the Chicago Fire in 2016.
Jaime Faulkner, president of business operations with the Chicago Blackhawks, said the team has always had strong connections to the West Side because the team plays there and many of its employees live in the area.
“Our ties here in the West Side are real and long term,” she said.
Several dozen students sat in the audience wearing shirts with the Blackhawks logo on them, eager to get their hands on the hockey sticks and try their hands at the sport. Several students and teachers were wearing flannel tops and bottoms as it was pajama day at school.
The school’s principal said the project will allow kids in the community to spend more time outside and learn a sport like hockey, which she said was still somewhat unknown in the predominantly Latino neighborhood.
Emmanuel Camarillo/Sun-Times
Claudia Peralta, principal of the school, said the project will allow kids in the community to spend more time outside and learn a sport like hockey, which she said was still somewhat unknown in the predominantly Latino neighborhood.
“We are grateful for this opportunity which provides our students with more outdoor space, resources and a variety of different opportunities,” Peralta said. “Our school community is also very thrilled to be able to engage in a variety of outdoor opportunities along with new outdoor seating as well.”
The opening of the outdoor rink is one of several events taking place in the city over the next several days ahead of the NHL Winter Classic on Dec. 31, when the Blackhawks will host the St. Louis Blues at Wrigley Field.
Brian Jennings, senior executive vice president of marketing and chief branding officer for the NHL, said the rink will help new generations learn about and expand the game of hockey.
“The ability to give these kids this outdoor space is really critical, and the league is committed to that because it’s important to not just learn about the sport of hockey but to be outside and to have some fun with each other because it’s a great, great game,” he said.
Blackhawks star Connor Bedard plays a game with students at the opening of a new ball hockey rink.
Emmanuel Camarillo/Sun-Times
Convicted former state Rep. Edward “Eddie” Acevedo briefly took the witness stand Monday and contradicted prosecutors’ claim that he did no work for thousands of dollars he was paid by two utilities allegedly trying to bribe former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan.
But that apparently differed from what the onetime assistant majority leader previously told authorities and a grand jury. Acevedo told jurors Monday that he couldn’t remember his past comments. He also admitted he’s been prosecuted for tax evasion and wasn’t happy about it.
And he forgot his eyeglasses — a move that seemed to annoy U.S. District Judge John Blakey so much that he threatened Acevedo with contempt if he forgot them again on Tuesday, when his testimony is expected to resume.
“I’ll buy him a pair of glasses and bring it myself,” Acevedo’s attorney, Gabrielle Sansonetti, assured the judge.
In short, Acevedo seemed just as troublesome as predicted in his first 30 minutes on the witness stand in Madigan’s trial. Defense attorneys have warned that Acevedo’s testimony would come at the feds’ “own peril,” but prosecutors have not been deterred.
Madigan is on trial for an alleged racketeering conspiracy, and Acevedo plays a key role in two schemes outlined in the 117-page indictment handed up against Madigan and his longtime ally, Michael McClain. Acevedo has been described to jurors in multiple trials as being “loose-lipped,” belligerent and having a drinking problem.
But this is the first time the former legislative leader has taken the witness stand. Blakey compelled him to testify, ordering that nothing he says can be used against him unless he fails to tell the truth.
The judge also overruled concerns from defense attorneys. Sansonetti says Acevedo has dementia, and Madigan’s attorneys have said his testimony will “be an absolute mishmash on the facts.”
Acevedo again used a walker as he entered the courtroom Monday. Unlike former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis — another high-profile witness who testified against Madigan — the path Acevedo chose to the witness stand took him right by his fellow Southwest Side Democrat’s seat at a defense table.
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan walks out of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Thursday.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file
Acevedo had his back to the courtroom gallery at the time, but Madigan could be seen training his narrowed eyes on Acevedo as his former ally walked slowly by.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu began questioning Acevedo by confirming he once served as a Chicago police officer. Acevedo, 61, told jurors he takes medication for epilepsy and suffers seizures. He also said he has high blood pressure and congestive heart failure — but assured the prosecutor he was lucid and capable of testifying.
Acevedo asked Bhachu to repeat several questions — and he turned his face often to try to hear better.
“I don’t have my glasses but I will do my best,” Acevedo said when asked to look at a transcript of his grand jury testimony. A frustrated Blakey implored him to take a closer look.
“Why don’t you move your face closer to the screen and let me know if you can see that, and if you can’t, let me know,” Blakey said.
Acevedo told the judge he’d rushed out of his house and left his glasses behind. But he said the blurry glimpses of his past testimony failed to refresh his memory.
Prosecutors say Acevedo was paid $22,500 by AT&T Illinois after leaving the Legislature in 2017, allegedly because AT&T was trying to influence Madigan as key legislation moved through Springfield. The feds say Acevedo did no work for the money.
Former state Rep. Edward “Eddie” Acevedo leaves the Dirksen Federal Courthouse last week.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Acevedo testified Monday that he told “anyone who would listen to me” — including Madigan — that he was looking for work as a lobbyist or consultant at the time. He acknowledged that, when AT&T offered him the money, he initially “told them I had frustration that other people were getting way higher wages than I was.”
But when Bhachu repeatedly tried to confirm with Acevedo that he did no work for the AT&T money, Acevedo insisted that “me and my sons were having our own meetings on the side” and “we worked on it together, me and my sons.”
Eventually, Acevedo acknowledged he did not create any “work product” on his own.
Acevedo and two of his sons served short prison sentences for cheating on their taxes in prosecutions related to the Madigan investigation.
When Bhachu asked Acevedo if he told authorities in 2019 that he’d never created any work product for AT&T, Acevedo told the prosecutor, “I don’t remember that, but if you say it, I must have said it.” When Bhachu insisted that he hadn’t done any work, Acevedo said, “Yes I did.”
“I told you,” Acevedo said. “I went to hearings. I went to meetings. And I would always fill in Steve Selcke on what was happening.”
Selcke was an AT&T lobbyist who previously testified in the trial of ex-AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza. Prosecutors have indicated they don’t plan to call him in Madigan’s trial, and defense attorneys say it’s because Selcke’s testimony was problematic.
Acevedo was also paid $120,000 in a similar scheme involving ComEd. That’s a topic prosecutors are likely to turn their attention to when Acevedo’s testimony resumes on Tuesday.
Almost three years after the city denied a controversial scrap metal operation’s bid to open on the Southeast Side, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration gave the OK to a similar polluting business, Sims Metal Management, to continue shredding cars, appliances and other junk at its longtime home in Pilsen.
Sims runs junked cars and other large items through massive shredding equipment that separates and salvages metal for resale. The process creates air pollution, and that’s been the focus of concern around the operation’s permit application since it was filed in December 2021.
Sims is the only car-shredding operation in Chicago, and community members sought to derail the company’s efforts to get a new permit from the city. Some called for a health impact study to determine if Sims and other nearby polluters in the industrial area of Pilsen are harming residents.
Sims has run afoul of federal and state pollution laws in the past.
The business at 2500 S. Paulina St. is in the process of building pollution-control equipment mandated by the state following a lawsuit. In 2021, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul sued Sims saying the business had not demonstrated it was reducing air pollution.
The company previously entered into a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to improve its pollution controls.
Sims was then required by EPA to install air monitors around its Pilsen operation in 2022.
Those air monitor results were monitored by the EPA, and city officials said the findings were considered as they decided the merits of Sims’ permit application.
“Emissions from Sims would not cause either short- or long-term health effects for the community near the facility,” the city has said, citing EPA findings.
The city has said it will require continued air monitoring. It previously publicly posted a “draft permit” for Sims.
The Sims outcome is much different than one for a similar metal scrapper.
In February 2022, the public health department of then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot rejected a permit application from the owner of the relocated and rebranded General Iron metal-shredding business. General Iron was moving from its longtime home in Lincoln Park, where neighbors complained about the pollution, smells and noise from the operation.
In a letter to General Iron’s owner, health officials said then that they found “the facility proposes to undertake an inherently dangerous activity in a vulnerable community.”
That fully built operation is standing idle at East 116th Street along the Calumet River. The company brought multiple lawsuits against the city over the matter. Two court cases are still pending.
Similar to the Southeast Side, Pilsen is also considered an “environmental justice” community, which refers to a low-income area that already is inundated with pollution and other social stressors that can have an effect on the health of residents.
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