Pint-sized sluggers in the town of Atwood, Ill., may have one of America’s best-selling firearms to thank when they step up to the plate this summer: The local youth baseball league is raffling an AR-15 rifle to raise funds for new equipment.

The response has been “tremendous,” said Charidy Butcher, co-owner of the Atwood Armory shop, which donated the gun for auction.  “I’ve gotten calls from every state in the country.”

The Rock River Arms Tactical Operator 2 AR-15 rifle that her store has put up was made by an Illinois firearms manufacturer, Butcher said. “It’s one of the hottest on the market right now,” she said. “They’re almost impossible to get your hands on.”

The raffle has already raised about $1,600 in two days, Butcher said – far outpacing last year’s raffle, which raised just $10.

"That's not counting the hundreds upon hundreds of people who have called in asking how they can send in their check for the raffle," Butcher said.

The most successful fundraiser in recent memory raised only $600, the league commissioner said.

“I’m loving it,” said Atwood-Hammond league commissioner Steven McClain. “A lot of people are saying it’s a political stunt, but it’s not.”

The team league is not affiliated with the Little League International, McClain said. Between 100 and 150 children participate in the league every year, he said.

“We’re not funded by anybody,” McClain said. “We don’t have any outside funds. We knock on doors to get sponsors from our local businesses and we’re self-sufficient.”

The rural town of Atwood had a population of about 1,200 in 2011, according to census statistics.

Both McClain and Butcher said they have young children who play ball in the league. All proceeds from the auction will go directly to the youth league, Butcher said.

Whoever holds the winning ticket will have to undergo a full background check, according to local NBC affiliate WAND.

(AP Photo/Courtesy Golfmanna)

Golfers look into a sinkhole on March 8 that opened up under golfer Mark Mihal on the 14th hole of a golf course in Waterloo, Ill. Mihal was hoisted out safely with a rope.

ST. LOUIS - Suddenly being swallowed up by the earth on a golf course's fairway drove a wedge between Mark Mihal and a stellar round.

The 43-year-old mortgage broker was counting his blessings Tuesday and nursing a dislocated shoulder sustained four days earlier when he tumbled into an 18-foot deep sinkhole on the 14th hole of the Annbriar Golf Club near Waterloo, Ill., just southeast of St. Louis.

C.A. Schmidt / golfmanna.com via AP

Mark Mihal, 43, a mortgage broker, fell into a sinkhole during a golf outing on Friday.

Friends managed to hoist Mihal to safety with a rope after about 20 minutes. But the experience gave him quite a fright, particularly following the much-publicized recent death of a man in Florida who died when his bedroom fell into a sinkhole. That man's body hasn't been found.

"I feel lucky just to come out of it with a shoulder injury, falling that far and not knowing what I was going to hit," Mihal, from the St. Louis suburb of Creve Coeur, told The Associated Press before heading off to learn whether he'll need surgery. "It was absolutely crazy."

Mihal said it was a real downer on what had been a fine outing.

With winter finally nearing an end, "it was the first day to get to play in a long time," he said. "So I wasn't expecting too much."

Golfing with buddies, Mihal was waiting to hit his third shot, some 100 yards from the pin on the par 5, when he noticed a bathtub-looking indentation about knee deep just behind him on the fairway. At just one over par for the round, the golfer with a 6 handicap was on a roll.

Mihal remarked about how awkward it would be to hit out of the odd depression, and then walked over to give it a closer look and took one step onto it.

"It didn't look unstable," he said. "And then I was gone. I was just freefalling. It felt like forever, but it was just a second or two, and I didn't know what I was going to hit. And all I saw was darkness."

Friends 'thought it was some crazy magic trick'
His golfing buddies didn't see him vanish into the earth but noticed he wasn't visible, figuring he had tripped and fallen out of sight down a hill. But one of them heard Mihal's moans and went to investigate.

"He just thought it was some crazy magic trick or something," Mihal said.

Hardly.

Getting panicky and knowing his shoulder "was busted," Mihal assessed his dilemma in pitch darkness as he rested on a mound of mud, wondering if the ground would give way more and send him deeper into the pit.

"I was looking around, clinging to the mud pile, trying to see if there was a way out," he said. "At that point, I started yelling, "I need a ladder and a rope, and you guys need to get me out of here."'

A ladder that was hustled to the scene was too short, and Mihal's damaged shoulder crimped his ability to climb.

"At some point, I said, `I need to get out of here. Now,"' Mihal recalled.

One of his golf partners, a real-estate agent, made his way into the hole, converted his sweater into a splint for Mihal and tied a rope around his friend, who was pulled to safety.

"I felt fortunate I didn't break both legs, or worse," Mihal said.

While disturbing, such sinkholes aren't uncommon in southwestern Illinois, where old underground mines frequently cause the earth to settle. In Mihal's case, the sinkhole's culprit was subsurface limestone that dissolves from acidic rainwater, snowmelt and carbon dioxide, eventually causing the ground to collapse, said Sam Panno, a senior geochemist with the Illinois State Geological Survey.

That region "is riddled with sinkholes," with as many as 15,000 recorded, Panno said.

The one Mihal survived has him debating whether returning to Annbriar is a long shot.

"It's a great course. I love the course," Mihal said, having played Annbriar a couple dozen times over the past decade. "But I would have a tough time probably walking down that hole again."

The 20-year-old course proclaims on its website that "each year new golfers are tested by our challenging 18 holes of golf."

There's no mention of its newest - and most challenging - hole.

Slideshow: Striking sinkholes: Earth opens up

Luis Echeverria / AP

A look at some of the most amazing sinkholes around the world.

Launch slideshow

The biggest winter storm to hit the Chicago area in two years may have proved too much for a northwest suburban banquet hall.

A portion of the roof of Cafe La Cave in Des Plaines caved in just before 1 p.m. Tuesday. Snow poured into one wing of the building as the roof gave way overnight, leaving a gaping hole at the banquet hall's southwest corner.  

Des Plaines Fire Department officials said no one was in the building at the time, and no injuries were reported. The building department is scheduled to inspect the structure Wednesday.

For more, visit NBCChicago.com

The banquet hall, located not far from O'Hare International Airport, is a family owned business that hosts weddings as well as a big Easter brunch.

Cafe La Cave owner Kim Sutter said the roof collapsed over their Baby Grand Ballroom.

Owenr Gus Sutter said a graduation dinner celebration for Worsham College for 300 people was planned for Wednesday night.

"Thank God there wasn't an event going on," Gus Sutter said. "[The roof] is just a thing. A thing that can be replaced."

A Chicago man who died the day after he collected on a $1 million scratch-off lottery ticket was killed by cyanide poisoning, a medical examiner ruled Friday, confirming an earlier finding.

The announcement shed no further light on the death of the man, Urooj Khan. Authorities dug up his body last month in hopes of learning more, but the tissue had decomposed too badly to yield any additional clues, the medical examiner said.

Dr. Stephen Cina, medical examiner for Cook County, said that blood tests after the exhumation confirmed the finding. He also told reporters that he could not conclude how the cyanide was administered. It can be swallowed, inhaled or injected.

Coronary artery disease was ruled a contributing factor after examiners found an artery 75 percent blocked, Cina said.

Khan, an Indian immigrant, came to Chicago in the 1980s and opened his own dry-cleaning shop in 2004. He owned three by the time of his death, in addition to five condominiums that he rented out.

He bought the lottery ticket at a Chicago 7-Eleven last June, scratched it off and said later that he was so giddy at what he found that he tipped the clerk $100.

Illinois Lottery via Reuters

Urooj Khan of Chicago is pictured holding his winning $1 million lottery ticket in this photo from the Illinois Lottery.

He died in July, at 46, one day after the state of Illinois cut him a check for $424,449, his winnings on the ticket after he chose a one-time payment and after subtracting taxes. He threw up blood the same day, a relative said.

The medical examiner first ruled that Khan had died from natural causes. Six months later, authorities said they had conducted further tests — at the request of a relative they did not name — and determined it was cyanide poisoning.

Since Khan’s death, his widow has battled with his brother and sister over control of his estate, including the winnings, documents published by NBCChicago.com show. The widow, Shabana Ansari, denies removing money from the estate.

Ansari told The Associated Press last month that her husband had no enemies.

“I was shattered. I can’t believe he’s no longer with me,” she said.

Police are still investigating.

Cina said that “non-specific residue” was also found in Khan’s stomach. He said that it was possible cyanide had seeped into the tissue as well, but that cyanide has a short half-life and might have dissipated past the point of detection.

RELATED:

$1 million lottery winner fatally poisoned by cyanide
Lottery winner killed by cyanide was immigrant, family man

This story was originally published on Fri Mar 1, 2013 12:34 PM EST

An Illinois grocer was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in federal prison Monday for defrauding government and nutrition programs.

Khaled Saleh, 48, the owner of Sunset Food Market in Waukegan was charged with illegally exchanging cash with customers using food stamp cards and nutrition coupons during an undercover investigation.

Saleh was sentenced to 30 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle.

Saleh, along with his wife, Fatima Saleh, 37, acquired more than $844,000 by paying customers approximately half the value in cash for goods purchased at other stores using their benefits.

They then re-sold the same items in their store at a substantially higher price.

During the investigation, an agent with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, exchanged food stamp benefits for cash and used benefits to purchase formula at a discount store, which he then re-sold for half the price in cash to the Salehs on several occasions.

Read more from NBCChicago.com

The couple was arrested in May 2011 and both pleaded guilty last August to conspiracy to defraud government programs.

The government forfeited $391,616 in cash and bank account funds that were seized from the Salehs, and Khaled Saleh was ordered to pay $453,013 in restitution for the remaining balance.

Sentencing for Fatima Saleh has been postponed to March 22.

Cook County Sheriff's Department

Elaine Cook, 51, was charged with aggravated domestic battery for allegedly biting off part of her boyfriend's tongue during an argument on Valentine's Day.

An Illinois woman was arrested after allegedly biting off a large piece of her boyfriend's tongue following a domestic dispute on Valentine's Day. 

Police say Elaine Cook of Skokie, Ill., and her boyfriend of 10 months went out last week for Valentine's Day, returned to her apartment and got into a fight. 

Cook reportedly asked him to leave her apartment, but he wanted to end the argument.

"He told her they should stop fighting and went to kiss her," Assistant State's Attorney Eve Reilly told the Chicago Sun-Times, "and she bit off a large portion of his tongue."

Reilly said Cook's boyfriend ran to the sink bleeding. Cook followed him and threw the tongue on the counter. He put the piece into a bag of ice, and then he and Cook's roommate called 911.

The boyfriend was rushed to Evanston Hospital, Reilly said, but doctors could not reattach the tongue because of inadequate blood supply, the Sun-Times reported.

In the days following the maiming, the 47-year-old boyfriend, who asked not to be identified, said he was in a lot of pain. 

“Obviously, talking is not the best thing to do right now,” the man told the Sun-Times. “[But] at least I can talk. It’s just sad. The whole thing."

Court records show Cook was arrested Friday, and Cook County Judge Israel Desierto ordered her to be held Sunday in lieu of $100,000 bail. 

Her boyfriend, who said he has "a lot of mixed feelings," said he didn't want to see Cook's life ruined by going to jail. 

"It makes me sick to my stomach that she's sitting in jail right now, but it's just out of my hands," said the man. "I have to focus on getting better now."

Cook is due back in court on Wednesday.

Do you think your police department has a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol?

Think again.

Many suburban Chicago departments actually have clauses in their union contracts which prevent any kind of discipline for officers with substantial amounts of alcohol in their systems -- even those nearing the state definition of legally drunk, an investigation by the Better Government Association and NBC Chicago reveals.

Read original story, watch video on NBCChicago.com

"I worry about it every day," said Sam Pulia, the mayor of west suburban Westchester, Ill.

Pulia, himself a former Westchester police officer, tried unsuccessfully to stop ratification of his department’s union contract which only allows discipline against officers when they hit an alcohol level of .05.

"I could argue that you are half-drunk," Pulia said. "I still believe that police officers are held to a higher standard."

Pulia argues that no one with alcohol in their systems should be driving a squad car or carrying a gun. And he thinks it sends the wrong message to officers to set a number which could be perceived as an allowable limit.

Westchester is not alone. Other Illinois police officers in Forest Park, Glendale Heights, and South Barrington also have a limit of .05. In Elmwood Park and Oak Park, the limit is the state definition of legally drunk: .08 or higher.

NBCChicago.com

Click to see enlarged image.

"I think it places the city at great risk," said Walter Zalisko, a retired police chief who now runs Police Management Consultants International in Fort Myers, Fla. "Zero would be the wise choice, that you can’t have any alcohol."

But how much alcohol really is too much? Although the Illinois State Police and Cook County Sheriff have set their limits at zero, many police departments say they believe some low limits must be built in to allow for incidentals such as a glass of wine at dinner before the overnight shift or even a shot of cough medicine.

"People who are more used to drinking will have less impairment," said Dr. David Zich of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. "However, we still believe in subtle testing, that there really is no safe level at which no impairment occurs."

Indeed, Zich says scores of studies have indicated that even at lower blood alcohol levels, some kind of impairment occurs -- especially regarding drowsiness, tasks requiring divided attention, or "tracking" activities, which would include driving a car.

"There have literally been hundreds of studies since the 1950s," Zich said. "Even at low levels, you cannot reliably perform without impairment."

James Fell agrees. Fell is a senior research scientist for the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Calverton, Md., and he says "impairment, and especially impairment for driving, starts at the first drink."

Fell’s organization conducted a study which found drivers 21 and older, with a blood alcohol level of .02 to .049, were three to four times more likely to be involved in a fatal single-vehicle crash.

Even the state’s own definition of "legally drunk" seems to be in the minority, when compared to other nations around the world. Among countries responding to a World Health Organization study, 28 percent set their blood alcohol content (BAC) limit at zero to .03. Another 39 percent set limits between .04 and .06. Only 26 percent of the nations surveyed have adopted higher limits.

While Pulia expressed outrage at his community’s standard, his police chief insisted that even if she can’t discipline an officer for blood alcohol levels below .05, she won’t let them get in a squad car.

"We’ve never had a problem," said chief April Padalik. "We would follow policy and procedure, and that employee would be removed from duty."

Padalik indicated the officer would be sent home. Pulia said he found that idea encouraging, but that he still believed such officers should be disciplined.

"Paying someone a salary for being sent home for consuming alcohol certainly does not sit well with me or the public who ultimately bear the costs," he said. "Alcohol/drugs and cops don’t mix."

Officials in Oak Park and Elmwood Park, where the limit was set at .08, insist they likewise would not tolerate an officer with lower levels of alcohol, even if they can’t discipline him for showing up at work in an impaired condition.

"If those test results come in in anything greater than zero, we are not going to put that officer on the street," said Paul Volpe, the Elmwood Park Village Manager. "We have a zero tolerance policy."

Volpe said the officer would likely be put on desk duty.

The Chicago Police Department sets its blood alcohol limit at .02. This week, the City of Chicago agreed to a $4.1 million settlement, payable to the family of a man shot by a police officer who reportedly had been drinking prior to his shift.

NBCChicago.com

Click to see enlarged image.

Robert Ray / AP file

Rita Crundwell, former comptroller for Dixon, Ill., leaving federal court in May 2013. Crundwell was sentenced Thursday to nearly 20 years in prison.

A former bookkeeper for a cash-strapped Illinois city, who admitted embezzling $53 million to finance a lavish lifestyle centered on prize-winning horses, was sentenced Thursday to almost 20 years in prison.

Rita Crundwell, 60, wept as she apologized to the city of Dixon, which couldn't even get its rusted dump trucks replaced or cut grass at the cemetery while its funds were being diverted to a secret account she controlled for two decades, NBCChicago.com reported.

Crundwell pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud in connection with the scheme. Her lawyer asked for a more lenient sentence of 13 to 16 years, but the judge wasn't in a forgiving mood.

“You showed a much greater passion for the welfare of your horses than you did for the people of Dixon who you represented,” U.S. District Judge Philip Reinhard said as he shaved just five months off the maximum sentence of 20 years.

The breath-taking theft underwrote Crundwell's extravagances: two horse farms that produced 52 world champions, a $2 million motor home, a Ford Thunderbird convertible and $340,000 worth of jewelry.

She sobbed as she left the courtroom -- after a parade of municipal officials testified about she stonily rebuffed their requests for funds with the claim that Dixon, the boyhood home of Ronald Reagan, just didn’t have the money.

The small city, in farm country about two hours from Chicago, had to borrow $3 million to pay its bills.

“She saw city employees every day that gone over two years without raises because of her theft,” Mayor Jim Burke said.

Agency head Michael Stichter recounted how Crundwell rejected his requests for equipment and told him, "If you knew where a money tree was, I'd be willing to get you a dump truck."

Prosecutors say Crundwell raided Dixon's coffers by creating phony invoices for bogus supplies and services. She used city funds to pay the "bills," and the money went into an account that she had set up under an official-sounding name.

When she took a long vacation in 2011, her replacement uncovered the irregularities and the FBI was brought in. In recent months, the feds have been auctioning off her assets to reimburse the city.

But the city won’t recover most of what was lost, and Crundwell’s greed is still costing the government money: the U.S. Marshals service has already spent $1.7 million to care for her beloved horses.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Thu Feb 14, 2013 1:46 PM EST

CHICAGO - Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and relatives of victims of fatal shootings in Chicago urged President Barack Obama on Saturday to come back to his hometown and address the gun violence plaguing the city.

Before a march on the city's South Side, Jackson, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said America's third most populous city needed more help than Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police superintendent Garry McCarthy could offer.

"When the president shows up, it shows ultimate national seriousness," said Jackson, a Chicago resident. He also called for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help patrol the streets of Chicago.

Gun violence in Chicago has been in the national spotlight over the past year, with 506 murders in 2012, an increase of 17 percent from the previous year. As of Thursday, there were 42 homicides and 157 shootings so far this year, according to Chicago police.

The issue received new urgency with the killing this week of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, an honors student who performed with her high school band at Obama's inauguration on January 21.

News of her death near Obama's old home in the Kenwood neighborhood came before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings on gun control on Wednesday. Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney, has said the Obamas are praying for Pendleton's family.

Anita Crittenden, who lost a nephew to gun violence last year, said Obama, by coming to Chicago, would "get the leaders to think and step up and make some changes."

A petition posted on the White House's "We the People" website calls for Obama and his family to attend Pendleton's funeral on February 9. The petition must have at least 100,000 signatures to receive an official response from the White House.

Jackson led nearly 150 people on a march from Martin Luther King Jr. College Prep High School, where Pendleton was a student, to the park where she died a few blocks away.

"My greatest fear about the gun violence in Chicago is that we're adjusting to it," he said.

Police said Pendleton was shot to death on Tuesday as she and her friends were shielding themselves from rain under a canopy in the park. Police have called it a case of mistaken identity and are offering a $40,000 award for information leading to her killer.

Emanuel announced plans on Thursday to take 200 police officers now serving in administrative positions and deploy them on the streets.

"Hadiya wanted to make a difference in the world," said Shatira Wilks, a spokeswoman for the family, and cousin of Cleopatra Cowley, Pendleton's mother. "It's unfortunate that it would be like this, but we still hope that this can make a difference."

Not everyone participating in the march agreed that Obama should come home. Matthew McGill said the president should address the violence issue, but need not single out Chicago, "because what you see in Chicago happens in other cities as well." 

Cook County Sheriff via AP

Steven L. Robbins was serving a 60-year sentence for murder and weapons charges in Indiana before being mistakenly freed.

Police in two states and FBI agents on Thursday night were searching for a convicted murderer who was mistakenly released by Illinois authorities.

Steven L. Robbins, 44, who is serving a 60-year sentence for murder in Indiana, was mistakenly released Wednesday by Illinois authorities, officials from the Indiana Department of Corrections said.

Robbins was released from Indiana State Prison to appear in Cook County Circuit Court for drug charges on Tuesday, authorities said. Those charges against him were subsequently dropped.

But for reasons not known Thursday, Illinois authorities released him instead of returning him to the custody of Indiana officials.

"He walked out of Gate 5 [of the jail] and hasn’t been seen by authorities since," Cook County Sheriff's Department Frank Bilecki told the Chicago Sun-Times, referring to the jail’s main entrance and exit.

More news from NBCChicago.com

Robbins remained at large Thursday, and a warrant was issued for his arrest in both Indiana and Illinois, officials said.

Cook County officials acknowledged the mistake in a press release.

"[Sheriff Tom Dart] has ordered an investigation into the facts and circumstances regarding his court appearance and release from custody," the statement said.

Robbins is serving a 60-year sentence for murder and carrying a handgun without a license in Indiana, according to a release from the Indiana Department of Correction. His earliest projected release date was June 29, 2029.

Robbins is described as a black man who stands 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs about 190 pounds. He has a tattoo on the right side of his neck that says "Nicole," officials said.

Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts should dial 911 or call Crime Stoppers at 317-252-8477.

NBCChicago.com

A podiatrist accused of secretly recording community college wrestlers in a men's locker room may have dozens of other victims, authorities say.

Ninos Jando, 34, from Skokie, Illinois, was arraigned Wednesday in Michigan on three counts of capturing or distributing an image of an unclothed person. Court documents list three male victims in the case.

But authorities say what Jando was doing in that Michigan locker room was not an isolated event. There are reportedly dozens of videos of naked young men that were shot in dozens of locker rooms over nearly a dozen years.

"These images could be worldwide and affect these innocent victims for the rest of their lives," said prosecutor Timothy Maat.

So far, none of the victims reviewed by authorities appear to be underage, but they said there is still a lot of material to go through.

More stories from NBCChicago.com

Inside the doctor's car following his arrest Tuesday, police said they found six toiletry bags, eight cameras, three cell phones, a computer hard drive, a laptop computer and membership cards under several different names that gave him access to a variety of health clubs.

Investigators said they hope a GPS unit found inside the car will provide information as to where else Jando has been.

Jando has been arrested an accused of similar crimes in the Chicago area. At a St. Charles Xsport Fitness Center in 2009, an undercover police officer thought Jando was acting suspiciously in the locker room. A search at that time by St. Charles police uncovered 21 videos spanning six years, officials said.

No one could be reached for comment at the Jando family home in Skokie Wednesday night. The doctor has a published office address at Mobile Doctors on North Elston Avenue, and records indicate he's on the staff at Norwegian American Hospital on North Francisco. He also has a current Illinois license to practice podiatry.

Jando was ordered held on $200,000 bond. If he bails out, the judge has forbid him from leaving Michigan's Muskegon County.