Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich (left, with quarterback Tom Brady), is expected to be in the running for a head coaching job after this season. | Jason Behnken/AP Photos

With the 4-9 Bears expected to fire coach Matt Nagy after four seasons, one big question in particular looms: Do they have the right guy to find the right guy?

Should the Bears get the jump on everyone else to hire Byron Leftwich or Eric Bieniemy as their next head coach? Should they hire Ryan Day? Or Brian Daboll? Or Josh McDaniels? Or Todd Bowles? Or Luke Fickell? Or Pat Fitzgerald? Or Jim Harbaugh?

Who knows?

That’s not a rhetorical question. Who actually knows?

With the firing of Matt Nagy apparently fait accompli, speculation is rampant about the Bears’ next head coach. And much of it stems from resume-based/coaching-tree projections that may or may not translate to success at Halas Hall.

How much of Leftwich’s success with the Buccaneers is due to having the greatest quarterback of all time? What is Bieniemy’s actual impact on the Chiefs’ offense, with Andy Reid running that show? Did Day make Justin Fields a great quarterback, or did Fields make Day a great offensive coordinator?

Daboll’s resume as a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator in the NFL is a litany of mediocrity — Chad Pennington, Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson, Matt Moore, Matt Cassel and one of Brett Favre’s worst seasons. But Josh Allen blossoms under him and Daboll is a hot head coaching candidate? Why did it take this long to find out?

Whether you’e speculating from the outside or actually making the pick from the inside, finding the right coach is a dicey proposition — especially with the cloud of dysfunction that hovers over Halas Hall. Do McDaniels, Bowles or Leslie Frazier need the second chance that Bill Belichick got? Is Kellen Moore the next Sean Payton? Does Nathaniel Hackett have more to do with the Packers’ success than anyone thinks?

Who knows? I don’t. But I do know this: The guy who picks the next coach should have the same intuition about coaches as the guy who hired Reid as the Eagles head coach when Reid was a quarterbacks coach who had never played quarterback. Or the guy who hired Mike Tomlin as the Steelers’ head coach when Tomlin had been mostly a secondary coach in the NFL, except for one season as a defensive coordinator with the Vikings.

Therein likes the problem for the Bears: Do they have the right guy to pick the right guy? General manager Ryan Pace has a dubious record on big decisions. He’s 0-3 with quarterbacks — with the verdict on Justin Fields still out standing. And he’s 0-1-1 with head coaches (0-2 to many Bears observers, but John Fox was a marriage-of-convenience during a teardown/rebuild stage, so his three-year tenure wasn’t the failure that Nagy has been.)

Pace hasn’t shown the type of intuition the Bears need — not that he couldn’t get it right the third time. (Many of the best hires in the NFL are more luck than genius.) But the clean-house option that brings in a new GM has its own inherent problem, with chairman George McCaskey and president Ted Phillips at the top: Do the Bears have the right guys to find the right guy to find the right guy? Ugh. Nobody said being a Bears fan was easy.

2. Are McCaskey and Phillips paying attention to the Chicago sports scene? Both the Blackhawks and Bulls have reversed recent fortunes with a house-cleaning level of change, eliciting a renewed excitement among their fan bases.

The Bulls in particular have prospered from the hiring of Arturas Karnisovas to replace favorite-son John Paxson as vice-president of basketball operations. The Bulls rotation has included eight players who were on eight different teams a year ago — and under Billy Donovan have gained immediate chemistry.

It’s one thing to get the players, but knowing what fits and getting the right coach has made all the difference.

3. With the Bears’ 45-30 loss to the Packers on Sunday night at Lambeau Field, Matt Nagy’s record against Green Bay dropped to 1-7 — 0-4 at Lambeau. But Nagy still is 13-9 (.591) overall against the NFC North, because he’s 12-2 against the Lions (7-1) and Vikings (5-1).

That’s the second-best record in the division of any coach since Mike Ditka, behind Lovie Smith (32-22, .593). And Nagy will even eclipse Lovie if the Bears sweep the Vikings in the final month of the season.

4. The List: Bears coaches vs. the Packers in the Brett Favre/Aaron Rodgers era: Matt Nagy (1-7), John Fox (1-5), Marc Trestman (1-3), Lovie Smith (8-10), Dick Jauron (2-8), Dave Wannstedt (1-11), Mike Ditka (1-1).

5. Red Flag Dept.: Nagy disputed the notion that the Packers out-foxed the Bears to get Davante Adams away from cornerback Jaylon Johnson — though Adams clearly was more productive when matched up against any defender other than Johnson.

But Nagy had no answer to the gist of the question: If the Packers can scheme to get Adams the ball, why can’t the Bears scheme to get Allen Robinson the ball? Robinson had two receptions for 14 yards against the Packers.

“They’re both really, really good wide receivers, and … you see [Darnell] Mooney and A-Rob didn’t have many targets [11 total]. But there were play calls where they were supposed to get the ball and they didn’t for different reasons.

“We’re trying at times. You’ve got to be able to work around how you do that and when you do — and that’s part of the growing process for all of us and Justin [Fields] too.”

6. Giving rookie left tackle Teven Jenkins experience in the final few games already looks shaky after Jenkins struggled in his NFL debut on offense against the Packers. Jenkins had four penalties — two false starts and two holding calls — and allowed a strip/sack of Justin Fields, with the Packers recovering the fumble.

Jenkins, though, was in a tough spot — replacing injured starter Jason Peters in the first quarter against the Packers on the road. He might be better with a full week to prepare, physically and mentally.

Rookie right tackle Larry Borom is holding his own, but starting two rookie tackles is a rarity in the NFL. The Packers did it with left tackle Chad Clifton and right tackle Mark Tauscher in the final 10 games of the 2000 season (and went 7-3 in a non-playoff 9-7 season).

But Clifton and Tauscher — who ended up playing the next 10 years together — were protecting veteran Brett Favre, who was adept at minimizing their mistakes. Two rookie tackles with a rookie quarterback — even one as mobile as Fields — is a little more risky.

7. Fields’ incomplete pass to tight end Cole Kmet just past the goal line in the first quarter epitomized the failure of the Nagy offense. The throw could have been more accurate. And Kmet could have made a tough catch. But they did not connect and the Bears settled for three points instead of seven.

Kmet’s production has increased this season (43 receptions, 419 yards, though no touchdowns), but his ceiling seems to get lower every time out — at least in this offense.

8. Bits & Pieces: Jakeem Grant’s 97-yard punt return touchdown was the longest in franchise history (Johnny Bailey had a 95-yard return in 1990) and tied for the fifth longest in the NFL in the last 20 years. … Rasul Douglas’ pick-6 against Fields was the first against the Bears since Alec Ogletree returned a Chase Daniel interception eight yards for the Giants in 2018. … Cairo Santos (19-of-22) and ex-Bears Brian Johnson (9-of-9) and Eddy Pinerio (3-of-3 for the Jets on Sunday) are a combined 31-of-34 on field goals this season, with one of Santos’ misses from 65 yards. … The Bears scored 24 or more points in a quarter against the Packers for only the second time in franchise history. They scored 28 in the second quarter of a 61-7 rout in 1980 at Soldier Field.

9. Josh McCown Ex-Bears Player of the Week: Buccaneers wide receiver Breshad Perriman, who spent nine weeks on the Bears’ roster without getting into a game, turned a six-yard pass from Tom Brady into a 58-yard touchdown in overtime to give the Buccaneers a 33-27 victory over the Bills.

The Buccaneers signed Perriman to their practice squad three days after the Bears released him on Nov. 7.

10. Bear-ometer: 6-11 — vs. Vikings (W); at Seahawks (L); vs. Giants (W); at Vikings (L).

Read More

Read More

In this screen grab from video, Brooklyn Center police Commander Garett Flesland testifies as Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu presides over court Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, in the trial of former Brooklyn Center police Officer Kim Potter in the April 11, 2021, death of Daunte Wright, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. | AP

Daunte Wright, 20, was killed April 11 after being pulled over in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror. Kim Potter, 49, is charged with manslaughter.

MINNEAPOLIS — The suburban Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright with her handgun when she said she meant to use her Taser was fully trained in her department’s policies on the proper use of force, including the stun guns, a police commander testified Tuesday.

Kim Potter, who resigned two days after she shot Wright, was trained on policies as they evolved during her 26-year career and repeatedly signed documents acknowledging the policies, Brooklyn Center Police Commander Garett Flesland testified.

Potter, 49, is charged with manslaughter in Wright’s death on April 11 after he was pulled over for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener dangling from his rear-view mirror. Video captured the moments when Wright pulled away from officers who were trying to arrest him on an outstanding warrant, with Potter shouting “I’ll tase you!” and then shooting Wright with her handgun.

Potter is white and Wright was Black, and his death set off several nights of angry protests in Brooklyn Center. It happened while a white former officer, Derek Chauvin, was on trial in nearby Minneapolis in George Floyd’s death.

The defense has called the shooting a horrific mistake, but has also asserted that Potter would have been within her rights to use deadly force on Wright because he might have dragged another officer, then-Sgt. Mychal Johnson, with his car.

Prosecutors introduced several documents Tuesday that Flesland testified showed Potter’s repeated certifications on Taser training, and her awareness of the warnings for their use — including a certification the month before Wright was shot.

On cross-examination, Potter attorney Earl Gray hammered away at her right to use force. He repeatedly described the situation as one in which Potter was trying to stop a wanted person who was trying to flee from the police and who could have put a fellow officer at risk of being dragged by a car.

“You’ve got to save that officer that’s laying over the seat, correct?” Gray asked.

“Yes,” Flesland said.

Later, when Gray asked Flesland what he thought of Potter, he said: “She’s a good cop. She’s a good person. She’s a friend. I have no concerns going to calls with her.” Prosecutors objected.

Flesland also testified that he and the police chief at the time had gone to Potter’s house the day of Wright’s shooting because “we had been told she had hurt herself.” That line of questioning was cut off after prosecutors objected.

Earlier Tuesday, Judge Regina Chu denied two motions filed by prosecutors. One was designed to limit the opinion of witnesses who are not testifying as experts. That came after Johnson, who is now a major in a sheriff’s office near Minneapolis, testified last week that Potter’s actions were authorized under state law. Johnson was not testifying as an expert on the police use of force.

“I’m not going to preclude any of the officers from testifying that, based upon their training and experience, that deadly force or use of Taser was appropriate under the circumstances,” Chu said.

She also denied prosecutors’ request to question police officers about union membership. They argued that Potter had roles in the union, including as president, that gave her an elevated level of respect among her coworkers. They wanted to ask officers about it so that jurors could evaluate any potential bias toward Potter.

Chu said she rejected the motion because Potter is no longer connected to the police union in any way and testifying witnesses “couldn’t possibly be biased to testify in her favor because of her position.”

Chu also ruled Tuesday that if Potter is convicted of one or both of the counts against her, she would preside over a separate trial to determine if there were aggravating factors that would allow Chu to give Potter a sentence above what the state’s guidelines suggest.

Prosecutors had been operating under the impression that these issues would be presented during this trial, but without the jury present, Gray said Potter had never agreed to that.

In order for Potter to be sentenced above what the guidelines suggest, prosecutors would have to prove there were aggravating factors; prosecutors allege that Potter’s conduct caused a danger to others and that she abused her position of authority.

Prosecutors presented evidence of these aggravating factors when they brought in testimony about injuries to Wright’s passenger and an occupant of the car that collided with Wright’s right after Potter shot him. Chu said Tuesday that this testimony was not prejudicial and could remain part of this case because evidence about the crash also relates to whether Potter’s use of force was reasonable.

Prosecutors on Monday put the differences between her handgun and her Taser on display for jurors, seeking to raise questions about how an experienced officer could confuse the weapons.

Sam McGinnis, a senior special agent with the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, highlighted the differences in the way they were holstered on Potter’s duty belt. He also noted the handgun’s weight — at about 2 pounds, more than twice that of the Taser — as well as differences in triggers, grips and safety mechanisms.

McGinnis also testified that the Taser has a laser and LED lights that display before it is fired, which he demonstrated for the jury, while the handgun does not, he said.

The case is being heard by a mostly white jury.

State sentencing guidelines call for just over seven years in prison upon conviction of first-degree manslaughter and four years for second-degree, though prosecutors have said they plan to push for longer sentences.

Read More

Eddie Goldman was put on the NFL’s reserve/COVID-19 list Tuesday. | Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Nose tackle Eddie Goldman is among the three.

The Bears added three more players to the NFL’s reserve/COVID-19 list, bringing their total to four in two days as the league deals with another wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nose tackle Eddie Goldman, who is unvaccinated, was put on the list Tuesday. So were two vaccinated players: starting cornerback Artie Burns and reserve outside linebacker Sam Kamara.

On Monday, the Bears put unvaccinated defensive end Mario Edwards Jr. on the list. Offensive tackle Elijah Wilkinson, another unvaccinated player, has been on it since late November.

Unvaccinated players who test positive must sit out for 10 days. If unvaccinated players are ruled close contacts, they must sit for five.

The Bears next play Monday night against the Vikings.

The NFL has faced an onslaught of positive tests over the past two days. Monday alone, 37 players league-wide were put on the list. ESPN reported that at least 25 would be added Tuesday.

In the face of a new wave, the NFL the NFL sent a memo to all teams late Monday requiring all players, coaches and staffers to receive a booster vaccine by Dec. 27. As of Dec. 2, 94.4 percent of all NFL players were vaccinated. Coaches are required to be vaccinated.

Read More

Accessing affordable and stable housing is becoming a serious concern for older adults as Cook County’s senior population continues to grow. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file

Today’s update is a 5-minute read that will brief you on the day’s biggest stories.

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be mostly cloudy with a high near 52 degrees. Tonight will be cloudy with scattered showers and a low around 49. Tomorrow will be cloudy with a 20% chance of rain and a high near 65 degrees.

Top story

Chicago’s older adult population growing, becoming rent burdened: report

Providing affordable housing in Cook County is becoming increasingly important with the rise over the past decade of financially vulnerable residents aged 65 and older, a new report concluded.

The report, by the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University, said the county gained nearly 80,000 older adult households between 2012 and 2019 — a 19.4% increase. The city accounted for nearly 45,000 of those households, while 35,000 live in suburban Cook County.

There are about 5.2 million people in Cook County, according to the latest U.S. Census figures. More than 776,000 of those residents are 65 or older.

The growth in the county’s older population follows a national trend of seniors as the fastest-growing age group. The growth is fueled by an aging Baby Boomer demographic, experts said.

Households headed by older adults are rapidly increasing among Black, Latino and Asian residents, the report found. Between 2012 and 2019 there was an 80% increase in older-adult Latino households, nearly 60% growth among Asian households and a 23% rise in Black households. That is significantly higher than the 9.2% increase in the numbers of older adult-headed households that identified as white.

Chicago’s older adult households are also largely lower income, with 35.4% of households earning less than 30% of an area’s median income, or “very low income,” the report states. That’s twice as many as those that live in suburban Cook County.

According to the report, most older adult households own their own properties countywide, but the share that rent is rapidly growing in the city. About 60% of the growing number of older adult households in Chicago is made up of Black and Latino renters, and the bulk of those are very low income.

That means nearly 60% of older adult renters in the city are cost-burdened, paying more than 30% of their income on rent alone.

Manny Ramos has more on the costs facing Chicago’s older population here.

More news you need

Former state Rep. Edward “Eddie” Acevedo pleaded guilty to tax evasion today, having been caught up in the yearslong federal investigation revolving around former House Speaker Michael Madigan. Acevedo admitted he failed as a self-employed consultant to keep sufficient accounting records, and he ultimately shorted the government by about $37,000 in taxes.

A Lincoln Park man who had his driver’s license suspended over a decade ago allegedly slammed into two women on the sidewalk, killing one of them in a Wrigleyville hit-and-run over the summer, county prosecutors said. Brett Dimick, 30, is being charged with running a stop sign and killing 27-year-old cancer survivor Sophie Elizabeth Allen before fleeing from the vehicle.

A 28-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder in connection with a stabbing in September in Logan Square — which police are connecting to two other attacks where a machete was used. He is also charged with one felony count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, police said.

Illinois moved closer to allowing midwifery to be a licensed profession today under legislation signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The legislation allows for midwives to go through a newly created licensing process to provide care before, during and after delivery that can be “life saving,” Pritzker said.

A City Council committee today endorsed a 297-unit residential development near O’Hare Airport that backers said would provide affordable options in a community where housing prices have escalated. The endorsement dealt a blow for Mayor Lori Lightfoot against aldermanic veto power over zoning in their wards.

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” is an innovative, exciting, funny and heart-tugging existential deep dive into the multi-verse, writes Richard Roeper in his three-star review of the new film. Opening in theaters Thursday, you can read Roeper’s full review of the superhero movie here.

A bright one

Candace Parker announces she is expecting a baby with wife

It’s hard to imagine how Candace Parker could top winning a WNBA championship in her hometown, but this afternoon she did. Parker announced via Instagram that she and her wife of two years, Anna Petrakova, are expecting their first child together.

“We’ve always dreamed of growing our family,” Parker wrote in her post. “It’s surreal that we now have a baby on the way! Lailaa is pumped to be a big sister.”

Parker has been candid about her desire to have more children over the last year.

She gave birth to her daughter, Lailaa, a year after being drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks with the first overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft. Parker has shared every moment of her career with her now 12-year-old daughter since.

Candace Parker/Instagram
Candace Parker shared via instagram that she and her wife, Anna (center) are expecting a baby in the new year.

Parker returned to the WNBA six weeks after Lailaa’s birth in May and that following January traveled to Russia for her overseas commitments. Her mother, Sara, traveled with her and was at every game with Lailaa. Parker would nurse her daughter at halftime.

Sara said in a past interview with the Sun-Times her daughter has played some of her best games on little to no sleep. When Parker won her second WNBA title in October, Lailaa was present for every game and celebratory moment. After beating the Phoenix Mercury in Game 4, 80-74, Parker thanked Lailaa in her championship post-game press conference.

“I have a picture of Lailaa in Minnesota [when we won the championship in 2016],” Parker said. “She’s yelling ‘Mom, we did it!’ I have that picture on my wall in the office. Before I decided to come here, I asked her if it was ok if I came to Chicago. She said, ‘I want another picture like that.’ It’s crazy because she came out to the court again and said ‘We did it.'”

“I owe everything I am to her.”

Annie Costabile has more on Parker’s big announcement here.

From the press box

While the downtime afforded by the Bulls’ COVID-19 postponements might help high-usage players like Zach LaVine and Lonzo Ball, others such as Coby White could definitely benefit from getting back on the court ASAP, Joe Cowley writes.
With four games to play in a lost season, Justin Fields will want to keep his teammates engaged and focused on growing toward bigger and better things in 2022, even if the coaching staff might be different.
This week’s Chicago-area high school basketball schedule.

Your daily question ?

Is “Elf on the Shelf” friend or foe to parents during the busy holiday season?

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: What’s your favorite holiday treat to make?

Here’s what some of you said…

“Ponche Navideno, which is also sometimes known as Ponche Mexicano, is a traditional Mexican fruit beverage.” — Omar Ramos

“The spritz cookies that my dad used to make.” — Linda Brons Douglas

“Prime rib — go big or go home, folks.” — Matthew Michel

“I make a butter cookie from my grandmother’s recipe(it’s about 100 years old) and sugar cookies I found in Tasha Tudor’s Christmas book back in the 70s. Real butter and sugar in both! So yummy! I only make them at Christmas.” — Beverly Hajek Cooper

“Bunuelos the best during the holiday season.” — Matilde Rosiles

“Ginger cookies or sugar cookies, from scratch.” — Patrea Curry

“Rum cake.” — Linda Leslie Arnold

“Arroz con dulce (Puerto Rican rice pudding)” — Elsie Poncena Cruz

“Reservations for dinner!” — Daun Heckler Cloos

Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

Sign up here to get the Afternoon Edition in your inbox every day.

Read More

A 27-year-old man was shot to death December 13, 2021 in Greater Grand Crossing. | Sun-Times file

The man was on the sidewalk about 1:50 p.m. in the 6400 block of South King Drive when he got into a physical fight with another male who pulled out gun and fired shots.

A 27-year-old man was fatally shot after a fight with another person Monday afternoon in Greater Grand Crossing.

The man was on the sidewalk about 1:50 p.m. in the 6400 block of South King Drive when he got into a physical fight with another male, Chicago police said.

The male pulled out a gun and shot him several times in the body, police said. He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

His name hasn’t been released.

No arrests were made.

Read More

Actor John Mohrlein, who was long an ensemble member at Chicago’s American Blues Theater. | Provided

Renowned as a character actor and ensemble artist, he’d play both Clarence, the angel, and the villainous Mr. Potter — in the American Blues Theater production.

Friends of actor John Mohrlein are saying an angel got his wings.

Mr. Mohrlein, who died Dec. 8 at 74, starred as the angel Clarence in Chicago’s second-longest-running holiday play: “It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!”

He’d switch seamlessly between the roles of Clarence and the angel’s opposite — the villainous Mr. Potter — in the American Blues Theater production. One of the city’s most skilled and well-liked character actors, Mr. Mohrlein appeared in the show for 19 of its 20 years.

“It’s like putting one shoe on and then the other shoe,” he said in a 2009 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. “Obviously, one has more than the other. I often wonder, ‘Why didn’t Potter get redeemed?’ “

“He did a great job,” said Dennis Zacek, artistic director emeritus of Victory Gardens Theater.

“The essence of the Chicago Theater movement was ‘ensemble,’ and John was one of the most positive and cohesive members of that ensemble,” said B.J. Jones, artistic director of Northlight Theatre. “Everyone loved Johnny. He was positive and supportive and a joy to be around.”

“He saw beauty in everyone and everything,” said Gwendolyn Whiteside, artistic director of American Blues Theater.

Echoing the “Wonderful Life” line about angels receiving their wings, Whiteside said of Mr. Mohrein: “Bells are ringing.”

He died of pancreatic cancer at home in Edgewater, where friends kept coming and going to care for him and to keep him company.

One of his visitors was Ian Paul Custer, who credits Mr. Mohrlein for his acting career. When Custer was starting out, his plans for a place to live in Chicago fell through, and he thought he’d have to return home to the suburbs and give up acting because he didn’t have a car.

But Mr. Mohrlein invited Custer to stay with him and his wife Jacqueline.

“All I had was my suitcase and my guitar,” Custer said. “You would go do a show, and you came home, and John and Jacque were making dinner for you. If it wasn’t giving you a place to stay, it was giving you a meal to eat. His generosity was never-ending.”

“He would take younger people under his wing,” said another friend, Daniel Wasmer, who said Mr. Mohrlein intervened when he was a victim of an assault on the lakefront. “I tell people he saved my life.”

Wasmer, a retired social worker, said the police suspected his attackers were angry about Edgewater residents reporting them for hanging out at a vacant building.

“They came up to a friend and me and started swinging,” Wasmer said. “I was knocked to the ground. One of the assailants was kicking me about the head. In the middle of all this, he stuck his head out the window and yelled at the assailants and scared them off.”

Young John attended St. Hilary grade school in Chicago before his family moved to Skokie, where he graduated from the old St. Lambert’s School. He attended St. George High School in Evanston and Loyola University Chicago.

In 1998, Mr. Morhlein was nominated for the Joseph Jefferson Awards — a Jeff, given for outstanding work in the theater in Chicago — for his performance in American Blues Theater’s “A Stone Carver.”

“He just had a way of tapping in, bringing himself to every role,” said Dawn Bach of the Chicago ensemble.

Provided
John Mohrlein (foreground) in a 1987 production of “The Hairy Ape” at American Blues Theater.

He also appeared in plays at the Goodman Theatre, Northlight Theatre and on TV’s “Crime Story,” “Early Edition” and “Fargo.”

Mr. Mohrlein also helped make ornate architectural metalwork at Matrix, a metal fabricating business started by his father George, according to his niece Dana Anderberg. He crafted his and his wife’s wedding rings there. After her death in — also from pancreatic cancer — in 2017, he wore both rings on a chain around his neck.

Mr. Mohrlein drove a Mini Cooper with more than 200,000 miles on it. A dapper dresser, he sported stylish glasses, scarves and jauntily tilted hats.

Joe Dempsey willo fill Mr. Mohrlein’s roles in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” according to the theater company.

In addition to his niece Dana, Mr. Mohrlein is survived by his brother George, nieces Lisa Omori and Alison Dhanani and nephew Glen.

Visitation is at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Lambert’s Catholic Church in Skokie, followed by an 11 a.m. funeral Mass there. A celebration of his life is planned for January, Dana Anderberg said.

Eight days before Mr. Mohrlein’s death, Chicago lost another actor associated with a holiday role. William J. Norris, who played Ebenezer Scrooge in the Goodman Theatre’s long-running “A Christmas Carol,” died Nov. 30 at 75.

“The curtain is closing on an era,” Zacek said.

Read More

In this July 20, 2017, file photo, former NFL football star O.J. Simpson appears via video for his parole hearing at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nevada. | AP

The 74-year-old former football hero and actor, acquitted California murder defendant and convicted Las Vegas armed robber was granted good behavior credits and discharged from parole effective Dec. 1.

LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson is a free man.

The 74-year-old former football hero and actor, acquitted California murder defendant and convicted Las Vegas armed robber was granted good behavior credits and discharged from parole effective Dec. 1, a day after a hearing before the Nevada Board of Parole, Nevada State Police spokeswoman Kim Yoko Smith said Tuesday.

“Mr. Simpson is a completely free man now,” said Malcolm LaVergne, Simpson’s lawyer in Las Vegas.

Simpson declined an immediate interview, his attorney said, and LaVergne declined to talk about Simpson’s future plans, including whether he intends to remain in Nevada.

He told parole officials before his release from prison on Oct. 1, 2017, that he planned to move to Florida.

He instead moved to a gated community in Las Vegas where he plays golf and frequently takes to Twitter to offer opinions about college and pro sports, especially football.

“Life is fine,” he told The Associated Press during a June 2019 interview.

Simpson was convicted by a jury in Las Vegas in October 2008 and served nine years in prison for leading five men, including two with guns, in a September 2007 confrontation with two sports collectibles dealers at a Las Vegas casino hotel.

Simpson insisted he only wanted to retrieve personal mementoes and items stolen from him following his acquittal in Los Angeles in the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

He had been scheduled for discharge from parole Feb. 9, but the parole board granted him about three months of good time credits.

Read More

Fox News host Laura Ingraham urged Donald Trump to call off the Jan. 6 insurrectionists because she thought it made him look bad. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Jan. 6 committee revelations remind us: Half the country doesn’t care and never will.

Sometimes I forget what country I’m living in.

We’re living in.

Because like you, I’ve been ignoring the national political stuff lately. Why? Just tired of it, I guess. And distracted. Between the brief window of Thanksgiving — 28 people for dinner at our house — and the unexpected warm weather, there was fun to be had. It was just too dreary to turn away from local life, blink hard, lean in, squint, and take a good hard close look at the proceedings out in Washington.

I’m sure I’m not alone here.

But the past couple of days … there’s the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection holding former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in criminal contempt for defying its subpoena. The panel’s releasing emails of various Fox News hosts urging Donald Trump to call off his mob.

“Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home,” Fox News incendiary Laura Ingraham texted Meadows. “This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.”

By “us” she didn’t mean the media. Nor did she mean Americans, generally. Ingraham meant die-hard Trump supporters like herself and Fox News. That night she led her newscast by suggesting that Antifa might be behind the insurrection.

Even Donald Trump Jr. urged his father to do something.

“We need an Oval address,” Donnie texted. “He has to lead now.”

But Trump was leading. Leading a mob into the Capitol to overturn the election he lost by 7 million votes.

So he stood by and smirked at the fire he set. When that didn’t work, he hammered the big lie of voter fraud. And most Republicans bought it.

A situation so hard to accept that it’s easy to forget. Easy for a moment, reading these texts, to fancy that maybe, possibly, we live in a nation where this would be a Significant Development. That those who stood with Trump over the past 49 weeks — not to mention for the past five years — might finally see exactly what the situation was: our democracy in peril. The president chuckling and waiting to see if his clown coup could overturn a free and fair election in the United States.

That maybe those who have tolerated our nation’s slide into totalitarianism, even encouraged it, might finally see the even greater peril we are in now.

So it took a moment to remember, the way you awake the day after something awful happened and there is a single second of sweet oblivion, then it all comes rushing back: we don’t live in that country. Not anymore. We live in a country, now and for the foreseeable future, where 40% of Americans believe literally any lie they are told to believe, any fiction they prefer to believe, whatever imaginary reality floats their boat.

Don’t like COVID-19? Annoyed at wearing a mask? Irked at being told to get a shot? Simply proclaim that masks don’t work, that COVID isn’t real, the vaccines are poison.

Or do you love Trump? Because he’s … please remind me … so successful, yes, that’s it, such a successful businessman who didn’t really burn through all those billions of other people’s money, but rather was bold and brave and eager, ready to boldly, bravely denounce all those people you want to be free to hate again, Mexicans and Muslims and whomever. Who lets you work out on liberals all day, every day. As if the scorn of dupes in thrall to a traitor carries much weight with those trying to keep America a free place where citizens can vote and those votes matter.

Not to let the Democrats off the hook. It’s almost been a year. The low-level Jan. 6 insurrectionist mob has been swept up. But the leaders, Trump et al., should have been indicted long ago. Maybe that’s coming. The law crawls, I know that. But in a little more than a year the Republicans might take over the House and maybe the Senate, too, and all this stops. Time is not our friend.

Nor is truth, not really. Those who put stock in truth are in a sense deceived ourselves, because we assume, incorrectly, that because facts matter to us, they’re going to matter to everybody. And that obviously isn’t true. None of this has any effect on them, not now, not ever. Because once you start ignoring reality, the specifics of the reality being ignored don’t matter. It’s easy to forget that.

Read More

Guards Lonzo Ball and Zach LaVine were playing heavy minutes and were looking for a rest, so that’s why Bulls coach Billy Donovan felt the pause could “pay dividends” for a few on his roster. But there’s the other side of this, and players who didn’t need this week-long shutdown.

If Nikola Vucevic had an answer he would have offered it up.

That’s the state of the Bulls these days, however. A lot of questions and very few answers.

“I guess it’s part of the world we live in, this whole situation with Covid,” Vucevic said over the weekend. “A lot of it doesn’t make much sense right now. Obviously the scientists from around the world don’t have the answer, so I don’t. Some things are just weird.”

Little did Vucevic know at the time that things were about to get even weirder for the Bulls.

When he spoke in Miami there were seven of his teammates in the NBA’s coronavirus health and safety protocol. He himself was a month removed from that same protocol. By the time the Bulls landed back in Chicago from the two-game road trip and were about to start the week with a Monday practice, the number of his teammates that were in the protocol was up to 10.

By Monday afternoon, the NBA said enough was enough, postponing the Tuesday game with Detroit, as well as the Thursday game in Toronto. On Tuesday, they then moved the Sunday game with the Lakers from an afternoon tip-off at the United Center to a 7 pm tipoff.

That was standard procedure last season for many day games, with the league wanting to test the Bulls fully before playing Los Angeles, rather than having to get them up early in the morning for testing to make the 2:30 pm tip-off work.

Meanwhile, there’s still a basketball element to all of this for the Bulls. Specifically, which players has this pause really hurt?

For a guy like Vucevic, who has been searching for consistency and a rhythm on the offensive end, it was likely a gut-punch. Playing a drowning Pistons team that had lost 12 straight, might have been the perfect remedy for the center on pace to shoot a career-low 40.4% from the field.

Instead, Vucevic has more time off, and when play does resume he might have to deal with Anthony Davis if the Lakers use a smaller starting lineup that they rolled out last week.

Other Bulls hurt by the layoff:

Coby White – The guard was set to return on Tuesday, cleared of the protocol by all accounts. He could have definitely used the run.

Because of offseason shoulder surgery, White missed all summer activity, fall camp and has only played in nine of the 27 regular-season game. He was starting to get his minutes ramped up, and then went into the protocol.

So not only does White have to make sure his conditioning is back yet again, but also keep trying to hold off Ayo Dosunmu from taking his minutes because the fact is the rookie has simply played better than White as that combo guard off the bench.

The other downside for White was even if the Bulls are looking to shop him and get him elsewhere, more missed games means more missed film and scouting opportunities for interested teams.

DeMar DeRozan – The veteran has played like an MVP candidate all season, but was on a head-shaking roll before he went into the protocol. In his last five games before he was shut down, DeRozan averaged 28.4 points per game and did so by shooting 56% from the field.

Yes, he’s a veteran and knows how to take care of his body during pauses, but missing 14 days between dominating in Brooklyn and then playing the Lakers will really test how quickly he can get back in that zone.

Read More