Victor Yehling

Two inmates and a forensic anthropologist testified Wednesday in the murder-kidnap trial of Jack Daniel McCullough, accused in the disappearance and death of little Maria Ridulph in Sycamore nearly 55 years ago.

The inmates told slightly different – but not necessarily contradictory – stories of McCullough’s jailhouse conversations about his case, and the scientist explained how she found evidence of deep cutting wounds on the skelton of the 7-year-old victim.

Playmate recalls the last time she saw Maria Ridulph

Three half sisters of accused murderer Jack Daniels McCullough testified for the prosecution Tuesday in the 55-year-old disappearance and death of little Maria Ridulph. Two contradicted their parents’ statement that the accused was home that fateful night, and one recalled their mother’s deathbed declaration about the case.

They were preceded on the stand by Kathy Sigman Chapman, Maria’s playmate on Tuesday evening, December 3, 1957. A member of the prosecution team brought her to the witness stand before the session started. Chapman – with close-cropped grey hair and wearing a dark skirted suit – tested the chair, looked around, chatted briefly with the court stenographer, then smiled and stepped away.

Medical providers are still processing today's long U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the federal health care law.  They see positives and negatives in the coming expansion of health care. Doctors and hospitals agree getting health coverage for more people is a good thing.

Several citizen action groups will hold a rally in Daley Plaza at 5 p.m. today praising the Supreme Court ruling as a “profound victory for American consumers.”

“With this seminal Supreme Court decision, the constitutional debate over the law ended and the quest toward affordable and accessible healthcare moved triumphantly forward,” according to a statement from Citizen Action/Illinois.

Initial accounts from various news organizations on the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to uphold most of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act were vague and sometimes confusing at best today.

Apparently trying to be first with the big news, CNN trumpeted that the individual mandate for everyone to have health insurance had been overturned. It later backed off the announcement as more of the opinions and statements were read in court.

Other news organizations held back for more and then proclaimed the mandate had been upheld as a tax.