We need to make a correction on an earlier story we ran. We inadvertently ran a picture of Democrat Dennis DeConcini of Arizona while talking about Senator David Durenberger of Minnesota. We apologize for that error.
Battled NAACP Director Benjamin Chavis says a dispute over sexual harassment by a second former employee has been resolved. Chavis made the announcement on the eve of the annual board meeting where critics are calling for his ouster. Mark Mooney has more.
A second woman to allege sexual harassment and discrimination charges against Benjamin Chavis surfaced at NAACP headquarters in Baltimore. Susan Tisdale, a former NAACP employee, came to try to clear the name of her former boss.
I am here to publicly state the employment concerns I have with Dr. Chavis and the NAACP have been mutually and fully resolved without any monetary compensation or promise of monetary compensation.
Earlier this month Chavis said a $300,000 out of court settlement with another employee, Mary Stanzel, was over breach of employment, not sex harassment. But with all the bad publicity, some board members are now openly talking of removing Chavis as executive director.
There is an orchestrated campaign to defame the NAACP, to defame me, and to defame my leadership.
Legal documents reportedly indicate that Tisdale did make charges of harassment against Chavis. Chavis blamed some board members for leaking internal documents to the press as part of a smear campaign.
Many experts agree that all the political intrigue at the top is hurting the historic civil rights organization.
Yet Chavis says that this weekend's annual NAACP meeting here, he intends to expose board members who he says in effect attempted a coup d'etat.
The meeting comes a day before Chavis holds a second African American summit in Baltimore, yet another reason some older NAACP members wouldn't mind if he's ousted.
The summit has been a black-only affair that's rankled mainstream members who believe Chavis is moving away from the founding goals of racial integration.
In Baltimore, Mark Mooney, WGN News.
The Chicago chapter of the NAACP is calling on Chavis to resign, saying they no longer have confidence he can lead the organization.
The Justice Department is coming to the aid of President Clinton in his fight against sexual harassment charges.
Former Arkansas employee Paula Jones claims her career suffered after she refused sexual advances from Clinton, who was Arkansas governor at the time.
In a 25-page brief, Justice Department lawyers ask that the case be put on hold until after Mr. Clinton leaves office.
They say trying the case now would detract from Mr. Clinton's performance as president.
And reports that the first DNA test to look for O.J. Simpson's blood has turned up negative.
The blood sample came from Ronald Goldman's shoe. Simpson is accused of killing Goldman and ex-wife Nicole Simpson.
Word on the blood test comes from unidentified sources. The result could weaken the prosecution's case against Simpson.
In other developments, Simpson's defense attorneys targeted Detective Mark Fuhrman in a new motion.
Fuhrman found the bloody glove at Simpson's estate.
The motion portrays the investigator as a racist who tries to frame African Americans.
And Simpson's friend Al Cowlings reportedly had a lot of money with him as he drove Simpson during a televised police chase.
But his attorney says the money was to help Simpson settle affairs, not to help him flee.
And a federal appeals court has ruled that two former Los Angeles police officers convicted in the beating of Rodney King were sentenced too lightly.
The San Francisco court said that Stacey Kuhn and Lawrence Powell must be re-sentenced.
Kuhn and Powell both got sentences of two-and-a-half years, well below federal guidelines for the offense.
The district judge in the case reduced the sentences for several reasons, including that the officers had been provoked by King.
In downstate Illinois, friends and family tonight are remembering the seven young victims at a house fire in Carbondale earlier this week.
Mourners crowded into a church for the funeral of the children who died in the fire Sunday while left home alone.
They ranged in age from five months to seven years.
A separate funeral was held Wednesday for another one of the victims.
Authorities say they will announce Monday whether charges will be filed against the mother who left those children alone, allegedly to go dancing.
Well, wicked weather strikes the Chicago area.
Tom Skilling's on Storm Watch.
You'll have the latest coming up in this forecast.
And this is Rich King in sports.
The Bears say goodbye to Platteville, plus an inside look at life on the LPGA Tour a bit later on.
And WGN News continues for Oakbrook, Riverdale and your part of Chicagoland.
Done.
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Hey, man!
Meteorologist Tom Skilling with Chicago's seven-day forecast and weather flight.
Coming up next on WGN News.
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You're watching Chicago's very own WGN News.
And welcome back to WGN News. I'm Steve Sanders.
And I'm Jackie Bangin for Alison Payne.
All right, Tom Skilling, did we skirt that one?
Busy night. Yeah, we missed it in Chicago.
I mean, we've had gusty winds and lots of lightning and thunder during the evening, but no tornadoes,
the way they did say out in DeKalb where a tornado reportedly touched down,
funnel clouds in Ogle County, tornadoes reported down around Peoria tonight, and lots of lightning.
Now, periodic showers and storms continue in the area,
but the big wild card this weekend will be what effect this upper low that's settling down across the area will have.
This may act to hold at least some intervals of showers in here tomorrow.
Even though it may end, we may get a peek at the sun in the morning.
They may redevelop as the day goes on and last into part of tomorrow night.
Then Sunday, as the day goes on, we'll clear out.
Weather watches are down in Chicago, but out from Michigan, Indiana, and there's a tornado watch still downstate.
Here's the storm cluster that blows up, and you see that V formation that is so typical
as the ice crystals blow off the tops of the clouds that produce violent weather,
which we animate now over the last six hours.
It blew up in Wisconsin, swept down across the Chicago area, and now is settling southward,
and you can see there are still heavy cells.
Rainfall up to the time the Doppler radar at Romeoville went down in this green area was up around three inches and more,
so there were some exceedingly heavy rains, even though lighter amounts have swept into Chicago,
and all the winds are converging on a storm in our area.
But here's the setup tonight that leads us to believe that maybe the rain is not totally over,
even though there may be a break in it tonight.
There'll be a low and a buckling jet stream that sends a wave in that lifts the air behind this low,
which is coming in on the cooler northerly winds of tomorrow afternoon and night,
so we could get some showers, even though the violent weather will move off to the east,
and so too will the heavy rains tomorrow, from all indications.
Weather flight shows this big stack of clouds.
These things were up to 63,000 feet tall when they came through the area,
and even at this hour tonight, we're reporting 50,000-foot tops down through the south suburban areas.
Here's an animation, though, of the line of storms today going by,
and this vague area of cloudiness holding back here is that upper air low that's to settle down across the area
and perhaps reinstitute some showers by tomorrow afternoon and evening after they kind of thin out tonight,
though there's still a chance of a thunderstorm tonight and tomorrow in some scattered areas.
Here's the cooler air that comes in a little wedge down into the Midwest,
so tomorrow night in particular, you're going to notice those winds running down the lake and into the city
and really cooling things off.
But the northerly flow that brings the cool air in for tomorrow night and Sunday
should already by Sunday afternoon and Monday be starting to lift out,
and a little bulge of warmer air will be coming in next week,
so this cool air is not going to last forever.
Here's a unique view of Hurricane Chris starting as a tropical storm.
This is a four-day animation as the storm starts turning northward,
away from the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, heading up more toward Bermuda.
This is the latest view, and you can see it's kind of a diffuse-looking little storm.
Chris, as it turns out, will track like this over the weekend.
It's a minimal hurricane with 75 mile-per-hour winds,
but it comes at the beginning of the height of hurricane season,
and we do want to promote again our three-part special report,
The Hurricane, Greatest Storm on Earth, which begins on our WGN Morning News
on its debut day of Tuesday, September 6, 7 o'clock in the morning right here on WGN.
Join us, and we have a half-hour version of the hurricane program coming up, too.
It's in the 70s around the city now. The water temperature is at 70.
Waves there will be one to two feet tomorrow higher tomorrow night.
Southwest winds, high humidity at a heat index of 68.
Seven-day forecast on the update. So is our weather picture.
That's coming up as well, but here's the short-term forecast now for Chicago.
Showers and thunderstorms will scatter.
They're heavy still in areas south of the city, humid with clouds breaking later tonight,
but there's still a chance of less numerous storms later tonight.
Lows down to 67 south-southwest winds because the front isn't through until daybreak tomorrow.
During the day tomorrow, clouding over after maybe a peak of the sun in the morning,
cooler in the afternoon, scattered showers and thunderstorms may occur, and a high tomorrow of 76.
Best chance of rains in the afternoon or at night.
Southwest to northwest winds tomorrow.
Scattered showers, though, will thin out late tomorrow night. Cloudy, breezy, cooler.
Winds turn north right down the lake and into the city, so it'll be 58 on the cooler areas
around Chicago and 63 in the city.
And on Sunday, you may start with some clouds and sprinkles early in the day,
but we'll clear out, be breezy and pleasant in the afternoon,
and have high of 78 degrees, a little bit cooler at the lakefront,
but that is an ideal temperature spread if these showers don't mess up your weekend plans,
and they won't be all-day things.
Okay, sounds like a good one. Thanks, Tom.
Good to know. Well, can a mineral protect you from AIDS? That story is coming up.
Also, suspicions denied that newborns contracted the AIDS virus from another baby.
But coming up next, Congressman Mel Reynolds indicted on sex charges.
We will talk live to an expert about the charges and the congressman's political future.
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