A Cook County jury awarded $66 million Friday to the family of a mother of four who died in 2019 after plastic surgery.
Idalia Corcoles, a 39-year-old wife and mom, bled to death after being negligently treated at plastic surgeon Ayoub Sayeg’s clinic, where she had gone for liposuction and what is commonly known as a “tummy tuck,” according to her family’s attorneys with Clifford Law Offices.
The firm said the $66.262 million may be the largest-ever medical-malpractice judgment against a plastic surgeon in Illinois. The award came after a weeklong trial before Judge John Ehrlich at the Daley Center.
“This family should be celebrating the holidays with their healthy wife and mother,” Craig Squillace, a Clifford Law Offices partner, said in a news release. “Instead, it is another Christmas without the person who meant so much to all of them.”
According to the law firm, Sayeg testified that he never saw Corcoles after the operation, while she was bleeding internally for hours, which resulted in a cardiac arrest and ultimately her death.
“The jury obviously is sending a clear message that Dr. Sayeg is not a professional and there is serious consideration if he should even be holding a medical license,” Bradley Cosgrove, another Clifford partner, said in the release.
Young Turks co-founder Cenk Uygur praised a Turning Point USA conference for being “more welcoming” to him than Democrats.
Uygur joined TPUSA
leader Charlie Kirk on stage in Phoenix, Arizona at the organization’s annual AmericaFest 2024 conference. Footage from the event shows the progressive media pundit receiving a standing ovation.
WOW! The crowd at America Fest just gave Cenk Uygur a standing ovation to welcome him.
Never in my life did I think this would be happening. Respect to Cenk for showing up. pic.twitter.com/QEpSBj95o7
During his on-stage interview with Kirk, Uygur noted that Republicans do “a great job of coalescing” and are more “welcoming” to other political groups than Democrats. Uygur has criticized Democratic leaders, including Kamala Harris, following Donald Trump’s victory in the November election for not reaching out to independent voters with a populist message.
He also encouraged Democrats to “unify” and stop attacking “one another.” Uygur then said older Democratic voters need to stop watching cable news because “they’re trying to get you to vote for corruption.”
Wasnt expecting Cenk and Charlie Kirk having a friendly conversation:
“You do a couple things well. You work together well and you’re more welcoming, if I’m being honest…..if you agree with MAGA 5%… welcome, come join us. On the left if you disagree 5%, they go, get out of… pic.twitter.com/UKHIimC93e
CENK: You guys do a great job of coalescing. Okay, So you do a couple of things, well. You work together well, and you’re more welcoming, if I’m being honest.
KIRK: We’re glad Cenk’s here. Right, everybody?
[CROWD CHEERS]
CENK: And a lot of people on the left know this as well. If you agree with MAGA 5%, the answer you get is welcome, right? Come join us right? On the left if you disagree 5%, they go, get out of here. You’re a right winger. You’re a fascist. Right? But if you push enough people out and you guys welcome enough people in, eventually you win the popular vote. That’s what I warn them about. And that’s what happened, right?
[CROWD CHEERS]
CENK: So, look, I proposed simple rules, the three rules of the Internet. Rule number one. When we disagree, we fight. There’s nothing wrong with that right now. New rule number two is afterwards, we must have a beer together. Okay. And and rule number three is, for God’s sake, when we agree, let’s unite. So for the left. We have too much division. We almost never unify. I don’t mean with the right. I mean internally. The left loves to attack one another. I love you guys on the left. I love you. But every once in a while, when we get a yes, when we agree. Can we please unite? And the second thing we need is for the old I’m being honest. And on average, not everyone, of course, but for the older Democratic voters. Please turn off your television sets there. They’re lying to you. They’re tricking you. They’re trying to get you to vote for corruption. They’re trying to get you to vote for policies you don’t even want. So if we can do those two things, then we’ll be in great shape.
The Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox paired up for a trade
for the second time in a little more than a week.
The White Sox acquired left-handed reliever Cam Booser from the Red Sox on Saturday afternoon for minor-league right-hander Yhoiker Fajardo.
Booser, 32, went 2-3 with a 3.38 ERA, one save and 43 strikeouts in 43 relief appearances for the Red Sox in 2024, his first season in the majors.
He spent 2013-17 in the Minnesota Twins minor-league system and, after some time as a carpenter, according to The Associated Press
, played independent baseball in 2021 with the Chicago Dogs. His 2022 included time in the Arizona Diamondback farm system and independent baseball in Lancaster, Pa.
He joined the Red Sox organization in 2023, appearing in 48 games at Triple-A Worcester. He made his major-league debut on April 19, 2024, against the Pittsburgh Pirates. At 31 years, 351 days, Booser became the oldest Red Sox player to debut since Tommy Fine in 1947 (excluding those who had previously competed in Japan).
Booser in September was recognized as the Lou Gorman Award winner, given annually to a Red Sox minor-league player who has demonstrated dedication and perseverance in overcoming obstacles while working his way to the major-league team.
Fajardo went 1-4 with a 3.91 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 13 starts with the Dominican Summer League White Sox last season. The White Sox originally signed Fajardo, 18, as an international free agent on Feb. 20, 2024.
The White Sox made a major trade with the Red Sox earlier this month, sending left-hander Garrett Crochet
to Boston on Dec.11 for four minor-league prospects: in catcher Kyle Teel, outfielder Braden Montgomery, infielder Chase Meidroth and right-handed pitcher Wikelman Gonzalez.
To make room for Booser on the 40-man roster, the White Sox designated outfielder Corey Julks
for assignment. Julks, 28, had a .214 average with seven doubles, three home runs and 14 RBIs in 66 games after being acquired in a trade with the Houston Astros on May 15
.
With Saturday’s moves, the White Sox 40-man roster remains at 40.
The Chicago Blackhawks rallied with three goals in the third period but couldn’t overcome past mistakes in a 6-4 loss to the host Calgary Flames on Saturday at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Tyler Bertuzzi sparked the rally with two goals in the third, and he assisted on the Hawks’ first goal, by Connor Bedard in the second. But five Flames goals in the first two periods made for a tough hill to climb, snapping the Hawks’ three-game winning streak.
The Hawks got off on the wrong foot, allowing a short-handed goal by Jonathan Huberdeau, assisted by Blake Coleman. Nazem Kadri followed up in the first with a score off Kevin Korchinski’s turnover.
Huberdeau, Coleman, Matt Coronato and Connor Zary each had a goal and an assist.
Zary’s goal in the second came 28 seconds after Bedard’s, taking some steam out of the Hawks after they had pulled within 2-1.
The game was underscored by a bit of controversy.
Martin Pospisil hit Bedard in the head during the first period, and Bedard looked around for the referees to make a call that never came.
Perhaps Bedard’s teammates didn’t see the play at the time, but Pospisil’s infraction in the second period didn’t escape them.
Pospisil roughed Frank Nazar with a forearm that made Nazar’s head whiplash back. Ryan Donato raced over, flung off his gloves, pulled Pospisil’s head down and started raining uppercuts.
Bertuzzi said of Pospisil: “That’s just how he plays. A couple good hits. Obviously we reacted the way we should. But, no, he’s playing hard.”
It seemed like a lifetime ago, but in truth it had been only 11 months since coaches Chris Collins and Chris Holtmann last hooked up at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Collins’ Northwestern team walloped Holtmann’s Ohio State Buckeyes by 25 points on a cold, late-January night in Evanston en route to the Wildcats’ second straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
Holtmann, meanwhile, was on his way out the door — fired by Ohio State five games later with four years remaining on his contract. He wound up in a most unlikely location, at the Lincoln Park school whose basketball glory days were so long ago only Baby Boomers remember the particulars.
Saturday’s coaching reunion was a chance for Holtmann to show the Blue Demons’ early-season success was no mirage. But after spotting DePaul the first basket of the afternoon, the Wildcats ripped off a 20-0 run and cruised to an 84-64 nonconference win.
Eighteen DePaul turnovers, many leading to easy transition baskets, were the obvious difference in the game.
“We need to get better and we will,” Holtmann said. “Trust me, we will.”
Faith in DePaul basketball has been in short supply for quite a while, so forgive Blue Demons fans if they need to see improvement before taking the new coach’s word for it.
Nick Martinelli (23 points) and Brooks Barnhizer (21 points, 12 rebounds) led Northwestern, while Jacob Meyer paced DePaul with 18 points. Barnhizer was named the game’s MVP, an award late radio personality Les Grobstein helped champion when the rivalry between the local programs was a relatively big deal.
Collins said it was still a “big game” to his players and believes the four local schools — including Loyola and UIC — are as strong collectively as Chicago has seen in years.
NU and DePaul have been heading in opposite directions for the last decade, basically switching identities since Collins turned around the Wildcats program.
Northwestern, renowned for losing, made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2017, and after playing in the tournament the last two years Collins has significantly raised expectations for the onetime dregs of the conference. Not making it to March Madness in 2025 would now be considered a disappointing season by alumni.
DePaul, the onetime Cinderella-turned-national power in the late 1970s and early ’80s, last made the NCAA Tournament in 2004 and is coming off a 3-29 season, the worst in the school’s 102-year history. There’s nowhere for the Demons to go but up.
Ohio State gave Holtmann a $12.8 million buyout, which would be enough for most of us to lounge in Cabo for a while before even considering a return to work. Holtmann instead took the DePaul opening, a decision that befuddled anyone who has paid attention to the program’s plight over the last few decades. For Holtmann, it was simply a matter of staying occupied.
DePaul coach Chris Holtmann looks on in the second half against Northwestern on Dec. 21, 2024, at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
“I’m kind of an (expletive) when I’m bored,” Holtmann explained to CBSsports.com.
“I don’t have enough hobbies. I just think I can be irritable. … For me, I don’t know how I’d be not having a team, not having a purpose for a year. And if there’s a couple opportunities, or an opportunity that kind of grabs my heart, then I need to take advantage of that.”
The transfer portal facilitated a roster cleansing, and Holtmann’s 8-2 start with a team filled with 3-point shooters brought cautious optimism to DePaul’s campus.
But DePaul still hasn’t won a game in Big East play in nearly two years, since a one-point win over Xavier on Jan. 18, 2023. And a 28-point loss at St. John’s on Tuesday
looked like more of the same.
The Blue Demons could’ve cashed it in after Saturday’s inauspicious start, in which they trailed 20-2 after six minutes and watched the Wildcats convert inside at will, going 9-for-9 from the field.
“Turnovers all night,” Holtmann said. “We just gave them bucket after bucket after bucket.”
Northwestern hit 12 of its first 13 attempts and built a 19-point lead, but DePaul clawed back and trailed only 37-27 at the half despite committing 14 turnovers.
The Demons still made Northwestern sweat a little, pulling within eight with a little more than three minutes left. But the Wildcats pulled away again and turned it into a rout, as Martinelli sank three straight jumpers and Barnhizer slammed one home. Holtmann called Barnhizer a future NBA player, and Collins agreed.
“Why wouldn’t you want someone like that on your team, at any level?” Collins said.
DePaul (8-4) has one more nonconference game next Saturday against Loyola-Maryland before returning to Big East play on Jan. 1 at Wintrust Arena, facing two-time defending national champion UConn. It’s unlikely the Blue Demons will break their 34-game Big East regular-season losing streak against the No. 11 Huskies.
But sooner or later it has to end. Just ask the Chicago White Sox. Who knows? DePaul might even end its conference streak before the Bears end their skid.
Holtmann said he’s looking for “growth” and doesn’t want anyone to to be “consumed” by the Big East streak.
“They want it so badly, I want it so badly for my AD,” Holtmann said. “But it’s really my job to focus on figuring out how to solve some of these issues we need to get better at and keeping our guys focused on getting better and growing. … We’re trying to establish something here in Year One in terms of competitiveness and how we’ve played. I think we’ve done that. Now we need to answer some of these challenges in front of us.”
Northwestern coach Chris Collins yells at a referee in the second half against DePaul on Dec. 21, 2024, at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
NU, which lost a heartbreaker to Iowa in its Big Ten opener
on Josh Dix’ game-ending 3-pointer, then upset Illinois on Dec. 6, resumes conference play Jan. 2 at Penn State before back-to-back games at No. 16 Purdue and against No. 20 Michigan State at Welsh-Ryan.
“Let me enjoy my Christmas, Paul,” Collins replied when I reminded him of the tough start to the new year.
Collins added it’s a “unique team” that he’s still learning about. Getting everyone more involved will take time, but he likes what he has seen.
“I feel like we’re improving,” he said. “I felt it was a real step forward today. … You have to keep getting better. Our league is too good, coaches are too good.”
Northwestern should contend again with Barnhizer and Martinelli as the centerpieces, while DePaul might be able to be more competitive with better ballhandling.
Grobstein would’ve just been happy to see a couple of Chicago basketball programs making things interesting again.
Prosecutors urged a federal judge to reject a request from a defendant convicted for participation in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to attend Trump’s inauguration.
Musk is the world’s richest man, owns one of its biggest communications platforms and is increasingly politically active. Washington is seeing how potent a blend that is.
I have long argued that the decentralized nature of the nominations means that American parties are not especially disciplined. By this, I mean that the capacity of party leadership to force conformity on votes in the legislature is limited by the fact that party leadership does not fully control membership in the party.
In more disciplined party systems the ability of leadership to stop members of the party from using its label at the next election is a way to force party members to either toe the line or lose their seat. In the US, candidates enter the party by their own choice by filing paperwork at the local level to compete in nominating elections, i.e., primaries. Win the primary and the Republican or Democratic label is yours and, often because of the noncompetitive nature of US general elections, it could mean capturing the seat as well.
As a result, returning to the House or Senate typically requires winning the primary. And usually, incumbents do quite well in such contests, if anything because they almost always have a substantial money and name-recognition advantage. There is always some fear of being “primaried” by being challenged by a well-known and/or well-funded opponent. But this is normally a very ad hoc threat.
This appears to be changing, at least for the GOP. There appears to be a growing centralization of this threat funded by Elon Musk.
I was already planning to write about this phenomenon as it pertains to the Hegseth nomination, but then last night I saw that Trump wanted to stop the spending bill in Congress and threatened to primary any Republican who voted for it (see, via the AP, Trump threatens Republicans who support funding measure will ‘be Primaried’
). This morning I woke up to hear that that the bill is now on hold.
Again, the notion that individual members of Congress might face a serious primary challenge is not new. And Trump threatening to endorse a challenger in such a scenario is also not new. What appears to be new is the notion of a coordinated/centralized threat of this nature to force party discipline on specific votes in the legislature via the deployment of Musk-funded PACs and siccing the right-win mob on individual members of Congress. The threat of Musk funding primary challenges has been in the air since the election, but this week there was already evidence it was becoming reality.
Specifically, I would note the case of Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA). Ernst appeared to be a likely holdout on the Hegseth SecDef vote. She had the moral high ground as the first female combat veteran elected to Congress and also was known as a champion who fought against sexual harassment/abuse in the military. She appeared poised to vote against Hegseth and then the Trump machine unleashed a media and advertising campaign against her and there was a clear threat of a primary challenge. Ernst is up for re-election in 2026.
Some prominent Trump activists, including Charlie Kirk and Stephen K. Bannon, the right-wing strategist, pushed to recruit Kari Lake, the former Republican candidate for governor of Arizona who grew up in Iowa, as a potential challenger to Ms. Ernst.
Setting aside the moral failing one could assert that is on display here by Ernst, this is Trump demonstrating a substantial amount of power, and it is a combination of his standing in the party, but also the power of Musk’s money. The inclusion of a billionaire willing to spend millions of dollars to get a single vote in the Senate is a game-changer in a way that solidifies Trump’s grip on the GOP.
It may be that the media blitz, and commensurate constituent pressure it likely generated, is more the issue than the primary threat at this stage, but the willingness to engage in such a media blitz over this one vote is a gauntlet being thrown. If Trump’s allies have the ability to coordinate a media campaign this quickly and easily over Hegseth (and demonstrate their willingness to spend) it is certainly enough to make the primary threat feel more concrete.
I have argued that the nomination of problematic and unqualified individuals to very important jobs was going to be a test of Trump’s power and a measurement of where the Senate GOP was. Ernst’s willingness to vote for Hegseth is a triumph for Trump and a failure of leadership and independence for the Senate GOP.
It may well be that the ability to coordinate these kinds of attacks will instill party discipline. A disturbing element of this is the simple fact that this discipline would not be because of a party unified around ideology or a governing philosophy linked to long-standing voter feedback. No, this would be a discipline driven by fear of Elon Musk’s bank account and his willingness to fund Trump’s whims.
This is not a healthy development for American politics and is yet another sign of the rising power of oligarchs in American politics.
One of the threats of Trump 2.0 was that he would empower fringe actors who could do a lot of damage. Well, Musk is both being empowered by Trump and is also empowering him.
On balance, I think that more disciplined parties are better for democratic competition because it creates a stronger, clearer signal as to what the party stands for. But what we are seeing here is the personalization of one of the parties via piles of cash.
Maybe all this is bluster, but if members of Congress capitulate, it is effective bluster. It will be interesting and telling to see if the primary threat continues to be dangled over the heads of congressional Republicans and how much it controls their behavior.
The longer-term question will be how much will billionaire influencers like Musk continue this kind of political role. I fear that we are seeing a significant shift toward direct oligarchic power in our elections which is not healthy in the least.
