Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Kara Spak2016-12-22T10:22:00-06:00https://chicago.suntimes.com/authors/kara-spak/rss2016-12-22T10:22:00-06:002019-04-15T22:34:27-05:00Opinion: A Jeopardy! winner and the triumph of the human spirit
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Cindy Stowell, shown here with “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek, won six games while struggling with colon cancer. She died before the episodes aired. / Photo courtesy of Jeopardy Productions, Inc. via AP)</p></figcaption></div>
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<p>Texas for $400.</p><p>What is Mad Men for $200?</p><p>Sports No-Nos for $1,000.</p><p>Or how about this “Jeopardy!” clue:</p><p>What is the heartbreaking, bittersweet, magnificent triumph of the human spirit for $103,803?</p><p>It is to be found in something so ordinary, like soft-spoken Cindy Stowell ringing in repeatedly on “Jeopardy!,” answering clue after clue.</p><p>Except the one person who was not watching was Cindy.</p><p>Stowell, a science content developer from Austin, died December 5, a week before her shows started to air, from Stage IV colon cancer. Before her audition for “Jeopardy!”, she emailed Maggie Speak, a “Jeopardy!” contestant producer.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<p>“Do you have any idea how long it typically takes between an in-person interview, and the taping date?” Cindy wrote, according to the “Jeopardy!” web site. “I ask because I just found out that I don’t have too much longer to live. The doctor’s best guess is about 6 months.”</p><p>I won five games on “Jeopardy!” in 2010, when I was a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times. The newsroom management sprung for pizza, and everyone tuned in to watch. Like Cindy, appearing on the show was the fulfillment of an odd little dream I had carried since I was a kid. Being there in the newsroom to watch with friends was among the highlights.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center><div class="Enhancement-item">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jeopardy! contestant Cindy Stowell passed away prior to her shows’ airings. Here is her Jeopardy! story, in her own words. <a href="https://t.co/MYFzJfxpAJ">pic.twitter.com/MYFzJfxpAJ</a></p>— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jeopardy/status/811783346820788224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2016</a></blockquote>
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</div></div><p>Playing “Jeopardy!” was one of the most exhilarating, intense experiences I’ve ever had. You fly to Los Angeles, wake up early to catch a “Jeopardy!” shuttle from the hotel, play several practice rounds and then tape, if you’re lucky, up to five shows in one day. Cindy’s boyfriend said she played on painkillers, with a fever. To watch her you would never know. She just looks like she is having a great time.</p><p>Cindy won six games, finally defeated only on Wednesday, and I’m not surprised. Maggie Speak and the other contestant coordinators wouldn’t put anyone on there out of sympathy. They are producing television and they want a good game. Cindy gave that, and so much more. She racked up more than $103,803, which she had pledged to the non-profit Cancer Research Institute.</p><p>Winning money on the show is great, but the camaraderie among those who play the game is better. I’m still in regular contact with the group I played with during the 2011 Tournament of Champions, a two-week “Jeopardy!” competition pitting the top-scoring players against each other (Cindy would have qualified for the upcoming tournament). There’s a Chicago “Jeopardy!” players group that meets for bar trivia, and a Women of Jeopardy group. Cindy was also in Learned League, an invite-only online trivia competition played by many former “Jeopardy!” players, including Ken Jennings.</p><p>Now, members of all these “Jeopardy!” groups are participating in a viral “Cindy Stowell Challenge” where they are donating money, in Cindy’s honor, to the Cancer Research Institute, a non-profit dedicated to using the immune system to conquer cancer. Some former contestants are donating $100 per game, others are donating $1 for every clue they get right, $2 for every Daily Double and then doubling the amount if they get Final Jeopardy correct.</p><p>As of Wednesday, more than $7,000 had been donated to the Cancer Research Institute, her charity of choice, in her honor.</p><p>“Her determination, luck, and generosity are so inspiring,” said Brian Brewer, Cancer Research Institute spokesman. “Our staff has been cheering her amazing performance. We believe, as Cindy, did that research is the only way to get to cures for all cancers. We will ensure that her winnings will support the most promising cancer immunotherapy research.”</p><p>Cancer is dark, among the darkest parts of life. No one’s life is not touched at some point by the disease, and the holidays bring out the memories of those who didn’t make it, more than any other time of the year.</p><p>Little did we guess that during this holiday season, one of the brightest lights would come from “Jeopardy!”</p><p><i> Kara Spak is a 5-time “Jeopardy!” champion who lives in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood. Her fee for writing this column will be donated to the Cancer Research Institute in Cindy Stowell’s memory.</i></p><p><i>Follow the Editorial Board on Twitter: </i><a class="Link" href="https://twitter.com/csteditorials" target="_blank" ><i>Follow @csteditorials</i></a></p><p><a class="Link" href="https://twitter.com/CSTeditorials" target="_blank" ><i>Tweets by @CSTeditorials</i></a></p><p><i>Send letters to letters@suntimes.com</i><br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/12/22/18344251/opinion-a-jeopardy-winner-and-the-triumph-of-the-human-spiritKara Spak2013-12-04T06:07:41-06:002019-05-11T07:27:55-05:00Mayor Rahm Emanuel leans in, writes daughters a letter - Chicago
<p> (Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his daughters Ilana (right) and Leah watch the band Chicago perform at the Petrillo Band Shell during his 2011 inaugural weekend. Sun-Times file photo)</p><p><a class="Link" href="http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mayor/supp_info/about_the_mayor.html" target="_blank" >Mayor Rahm Emanuel</a> has started his Father’s Day celebration early, penning a letter to his daughters Leah and Ilana as part of an online essay collection published by <a class="Link" href="http://www.time.com/time/" target="_blank" >“Time” </a>magazine and <a class="Link" href="http://leanin.org/" target="_blank" >Lean In</a>, the foundation started by <a class="Link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheryl_Sandberg" target="_blank" >Facebook COO Sheryl Sandburg</a> to empower more women to crack the C-suite or otherwise realize their career and family ambitions.</p><p>Emanuel joins reality star/Olympic gold medalist <a class="Link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Jenner" target="_blank" >Bruce Jenner</a>, New York City <a class="Link" href="http://www.mikebloomberg.com/" target="_blank" >Mayor Michael Bloomberg</a>, <a class="Link" href="http://www.bonjovi.com/" target="_blank" >Bon Jovi</a> guitarist <a class="Link" href="http://richiesambora.com/" target="_blank" >Richie Sambora</a> and actor <a class="Link" href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000160/" target="_blank" >Ethan Hawke</a>, among others, in writing the letters, which can be found <a class="Link" href="http://ideas.time.com/letters-from-dad/" target="_blank" >here</a>.</p><p>While Emanuel’s three kids (he also has a son, Zach, with <a class="Link" href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/17013850-418/chicagos-first-lady-amy-rule-gives-inaugural-interview-to-promote-jobs-program.html" target="_blank" >wife Amy Rule</a>) occasionally pop up at public events, they don’t speak. According to his letter, at the dinner table, his daughters are free to go mano a mano with the mayor and often do.</p><p>“I cherish the time we spend together, even during our Friday night dinners where you share with me everything I have done wrong for the week,” he writes. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. The way you speak up and hold strong views is part of a long Emanuel tradition that I am sure you will continue.”</p><p>Emanuel previously got defensive when asked about where his children were going to school, telling <a class="Link" href="http://www.nbcchicago.com/on-air/about-us/Mary-Ann_Ahern.html" target="_blank" >NBC 5’s Mary Ann Ahern</a> they are not in a “public position” in a clip seen<a class="Link" href="http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/When-Rahms-Temper-Made-a-Comeback-125919838.html" target="_blank" > here</a>. He apparently has somewhat softened his stance, letting the world know that the pair of University of Chicago Lab School students are “smart, fearless, independent young women, who fill your father with pride each and every day.”</p><p>“Our family has a great tradition of strong, trailblazing women,” he writes in his touching ode to girl power. “You are already among them.”</p><p>Emanuel wrote the letter before leaving Friday for a father-daughter trip to Israel to celebrate Leah’s bat mitzvah. That’s something he did with Ilana for her bat mitzvah and Zach for his bar mitzvah. Leah’s actual bat mitzvah service was held earlier this month in Washington D.C.</p><p>(Contributing: Fran Spielman)<br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2013/12/4/18567556/mayor-rahm-emanuel-leans-in-writes-daughters-a-letterKara Spak2013-11-19T19:21:49-06:002019-05-09T11:15:35-05:00Sting to speak at Printers Row Lit Fest - Chicago
<p> (Credit: Ravinia Festival)</p><p>Grammy-award winning musician Sting was recently added to the lineup for next month’s <a class="Link" href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/printersrowlitfest/" target="_blank" >Printers Row Lit Fest</a>. He’s speaking on the same weekend he was previously scheduled to be in town for two concerts at Ravinia.</p><p>The former <a class="Link" href="www.thepolice.com" target="_blank" >Police</a> frontman will be part of a Saturday, June 8 discussion about Narrative 4, described on co-founder <a class="Link" href="http://colummccann.com" target="_blank" >Colum McCann’s</a> website as “A brand new literary charity – a Global Forum for Young Storytellers.” Other founding members are Lisa Consiglio and Luis Urrea. <a class="Link" href="www.narrative4.com" target="_blank" >Narrative 4</a> launches in New York City on May 31.</p><p>Sting will be part of a “discussion about the launch of the organization and its “How to Be a Man” initiative,” according to the <a class="Link" href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/printersrowlitfest/" target="_blank" >Printer’s Row Lit Fest website</a>. The site also has information about when, where and how to see Sting.</p><p><a class="Link" href="http://www.ravinia.org/ViewDate.aspx?show=556" target="_blank" >Sting’s June 7 and 8 concerts</a> at Ravinia are sold out.<br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/2013/11/19/18556177/sting-to-speak-at-printers-row-lit-festKara Spak2012-01-11T09:54:00-06:002019-05-06T13:47:09-05:00Bond denied for 2 charged with murder of officer
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Chicago Police Officer Clifton Lewis</p></figcaption></div>
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<p>Two men were ordered held without bond Saturday for the murder of Chicago Police Officer Clifton Lewis, while Chicago Police brass vowed that anyone else involved will be brought to justice.</p><p>Tyrone Clay, 29, of the 5100 block of west Huron, and Edgardo Colon, 34, of the 5600 block of west Grand, were charged with first-degree murder of a peace officer as well as murder while in the commission of an armed robbery.</p><p>The two were arrested in little more than a week since the Dec. 29 fatal shooting of Lewis, who was working a second job as a security officer at M & M Quick Foods, 1201 N. Austin. The two appeared in bond court Saturday before Cook County Criminal Court Judge Laura Sullivan.</p><p>Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney John Dillon told the judge that Colon was the get-away driver in the convenience store robbery, and that Clay was one of two armed and masked men who burst into the store that evening.</p><p>The two were part of a group of at least four suspects believed involved in committing the robbery, during which the suspects hoped to steal more than $10,000 in lottery proceeds, sources said.</p><p>Prosecutors said both Colon and Clay gave detectives videotaped statements implicating themselves in Lewis’ murder.</p><p>Colon told detectives he heard Clay or the other accomplice say, “He was a f***ing cop. I saw his badge” upon entering the get-away car after the robbery, according to prosecutors.</p><p>Later, at a press conference held at the Austin District headquarters where Lewis worked, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez joined Police Supt. Garry McCarthy and lead detectives to talk about the case.</p><p>Neither Alvarez nor McCarthy would comment on the suspect who entered the store with Clay, nor would they comment on a fourth individual who was questioned and released.</p><p>While his department felt some relief after the arrests, they will not rest until all suspects who conspired to commit the crime are caught, the superintendent said, confirming that police believe a street gang was involved, but that the motive was robbery and nothing else.</p><p>“I’m not sure who are gang members in this particular case, but I do know that this case revolves around Spanish Cobras. And I can assure that group accountability is going to be pursued vigorously and there will be fall-out,” McCarthy said. “We’re going to take care of business with that.”</p><p>Deputy Chief Dean Andrews of the department’s Detective Bureau said several weapons have been recovered during the investigation, and are being processed by the crime lab’s forensic unit to determine whether they were used in the robbery. Lewis’ weapon has not yet been recovered, he said.</p><p>The family of one of the suspects maintained his innocence.</p><p>“My son is innocent,” Clay’s mother, Lovetta Jones, said after the bond hearing. Clay’s family said they don’t believe Clay even knew Colon, and Clay’s mother described her son as mentally slow. “He plays video games all day,” the mother said, adding that her son is not agile enough to have committed the crime, having suffered injuries to his leg in a 2010 car collision that killed a friend.</p><p>“They better go get this police shooter before he kills again,” Clay’s mother said.</p><p>Clay’s fiancee, Adelina Rodriguez, 26, said Chicago Police burst into the couple’s basement apartment on Thursday and took her and Clay, along with Clay’s childhood friend and that friend’s girlfriend to a police station for questioning. “I had three cops on top of me,” Rodriguez said.</p><p>Rodriguez described Clay as a homebody who was trying to clean up his criminal past. “He’s always at home,” she said. “He didn’t go nowhere that day [of Lewis’ murder].”</p><p>Colon’s attorney declined to comment on the case.</p><p>Prosecutors said Colon was in a car that was stopped Tuesday for making an improper turn, and police then found a .357-caliber handgun with two live rounds in his car.</p><p>Colon was ordered held without bond Friday on the unrelated gun charge. Sources said that traffic stop by tactical officers was the key to solving Lewis’ murder.</p><p>Prosecutors said in court Saturday that Colon, Clay and two other “co-offenders” came up with the plan to rob the convenience store. They planned that Colon would drive them to and from M&M Quick Foods and act as a police lookout. Clay and another offender, armed and masked, entered and robbed the store, prosecutors said. It was Clay who obtained the two weapons, they said.</p><p>Lewis announced he was a Chicago Police officer and fired a shot before being shot multiple times in the abdomen and three times in the back, prosecutors said. According to sources, one of the robbers opened fire on Lewis with a TEC-9 semiautomatic weapon with a high-capacity clip.</p><p>According to prosecutors, a store employee who hid behind a counter and was struck by bullet fragments told police he heard Lewis tell the robbers that he was a police officer before being shot.</p><p>After Lewis was shot, Clay took about $670 from the cash register, and the second, unknown offender took Lewis’ service weapon, before the two ran out to a car where Colon was waiting, prosecutors said.</p><p>Colon has a lengthy criminal record stretching back to 1997, including convictions for unlawful use of a weapon, burglary, obstruction of justice and the manufacture and delivery of cannabis. When arrested Tuesday, he was on parole for a 2007 home invasion with a firearm, for which he was sentenced to six years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.</p><p>His co-defendant, Clay, was convicted in 2004 of unlawful use of a weapon and received probation, but was sentenced to 30 months in the state prison system for twice violating probation. He also received six months conditional discharge for cannabis possession in 2011.</p><p>Lewis was buried Thursday after a funeral with honors.<br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2012/1/11/18532231/bond-denied-for-2-charged-with-murder-of-officerKara SpakFrank Mainand Tina Sfondeles Sun-times Reporters2008-06-14T00:00:03-05:002019-04-16T03:02:28-05:00R. Kelly found not guilty on all 14 counts against him
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>R. Kelly arrives at court in June 2008. | Sun-Times file</p></figcaption></div>
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<p><i>Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the Chicago Sun-Times on June 14, 2008.</i></p><p>R. Kelly famously sang “I Believe I Can Fly.”</p><p>Friday afternoon, he broke down in tears as a Cook County jury let him walk.</p><p>In a dramatic verdict that appeared to stun even his own highly paid lawyers, the 41-year-old R&B star was cleared of all 14 counts of child pornography.</p><p>“Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus,” Kelly whispered as each not guilty verdict was read.</p><p>Now free to pursue his Grammy award-winning career, Kelly had faced up to 15 years behind bars if convicted.</p><p>Six years after he was charged with videotaping himself while he allegedly had sex with — and urinated on — his underage goddaughter at his former North Side home, a jury took a little more than seven hours over two days to acquit him.</p><p>Fifteen witnesses identified the alleged victim as the girl on the notorious 27-minute sex tape, and a dozen identified Kelly as the man, but the jury said they could not be sure.</p><p>The refusal of the alleged victim to testify for the state was key in their decision, jurors said. She was just 13 or 14 when the tape allegedly was made sometime between 1998 and 2000.</p><p>The relatively short deliberations after four weeks of testimony led many to think Kelly would be convicted. Moments before the verdict was announced, the star’s downcast attorney Sam Adam Jr. turned to Kelly, shaking his hand and somberly telling him, “We did everything we could.”</p><p>But an overcome Kelly dropped his head and began sobbing as the first “not guilty” was read shortly after 2 p.m. Friday, keeping it bowed for several minutes as he was cleared on each of the counts.</p><p>Sitting next to him, Adam exclaimed, “Yes!” dropping his jaw in shock and hugging Kelly, who dabbed the tears streaming down his face with a baby blue handkerchief.</p><p>Minutes later, Kelly walked out of the courthouse a free man, striding past TV and press cameras and into a jubilant crowd of 75 supporters, before speeding away in a chauffeured SUV.</p><p>“I love him!” one woman shouted. “I love him!”</p><p>Kelly did not comment, but a Kelly spokesman said the singer wanted to thank his fans “who stuck by him and supported him with such love.</p><p>“And most of all, he wants to thank God for giving him the strength to get through this.”</p><p>Jurors, who began their deliberations Thursday afternoon, said that though most of them believed Kelly was the man on the tape, it was harder to positively identify the girl.</p><p>At one point, as many as five of the 12 jurors had wanted to convict Kelly, they revealed at a press conference.</p><p>Kelly’s attorneys had alleged that the star was framed by his former protege, singer Stephanie “Sparkle” Edwards, the alleged victim’s aunt. Sparkle and part of the victim’s family had teamed up with two Kansas City men to fake the sex tape, Kelly’s team alleged, saying Sparkle wanted “money, money, money.”</p><p>Neither Kelly nor the alleged victim were on the tape, they contended, claiming that a mole on Kelly’s back did not appear on the man in the tape.</p><p>One juror, a woman in her 20s who is studying law enforcement, said, “Neither side proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt, but that’s why we had to go for not guilty.”</p><p>A series of rulings by Judge Vincent Gaughan meant that the jury did not learn of Kelly’s history with younger women.</p><p>That hidden background included Kelly’s secret marriage to the late R&B star Aaliyah when she was just 15, and his decision to settle lawsuits brought by three other underage girls.</p><p>At least one juror, a compliance officer who works with a downtown investment firm, said it might have been harder to acquit Kelly had he known about the star’s past. “I would have had to work harder” to vote for an acquittal, the man said.</p><p>A sullen Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine told reporters after the verdict that he has “no reservations” about his office having brought the Kelly case to trial.</p><p>“If we receive similar evidence today or tomorrow, we will bring that case,” Devine said.</p><p>The case began in 2002 when Chicago Sun-Times reporter and music critic Jim DeRogatis, who was sent the sex tape by an anonymous tipster, passed it on to police.</p><p>But Shauna Boliker, lead prosecutor on the case, said the lack of a witness willing to testify “absolutely did play a part” in the outcome.</p><p>“If we do anything with this prosecution, it shows the world how difficult this crime is to prosecute,” Boliker said.</p><p>As word of Kelly’s acquittal spread across the courthouse corridors and into the Cook County Jail next door, some lawyers, sheriff’s deputies and corrections officers celebrated loudly.</p><p>One courthouse veteran said he was looking forward to quieter days at 26th and California.</p><p>“Things will get back to normal around now,” said Ralph Ferro, a court clerk for 29 years. “The walls won’t be cleaned for 10 years, the floors will be dirty again — and I get my parking spot back.”<br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2008/6/14/18371330/r-kelly-found-not-guilty-on-all-14-counts-against-himKim JanssenStefano EspositoAbdon PallaschKara Spak