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When he was hired to be the next Chicago Bears head coach in the spring of 2018, Matt Nagy was coming off a season in which he called plays for an offense that had ranked 6th in points for, 5th in total yards, 7th in passing yards, and 9th in rushing yards. However, since his […] Chicago Bears: It is time to change what they look for in a head coach – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

Jon Batiste performs during the Global Citizen festival on Sept. 25, 2021 in New York. Batiste received 11 Grammy nominations on Tuesday. | AP

Jay-Z, who was nominated for three Grammys on Tuesday, now has the most nominations of all time with 83. The 23-time Grammy-winning rapper moved past Quincy Jones, who has been nominated 80 times.

Jon Batiste might be the Grammys biggest surprise: The multi-genre performer and recent Oscar winner made such an impression on voters that he scored the most nominations with 11 on Tuesday.

Batiste earned an album of the year nod for “We Are” along with record of the year with “Freedom,” a feel-good ode to the city of New Orleans. His nominations span several genres including R&B, jazz, American roots music, classical and music video.

Justin Bieber, Doja Cat and H.E.R. each came away with the second-most nominations with eight by the time the Recording Academy was done announcing its nominees for its Jan. 31 show. Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo both had seven nods.

Along with Batiste’s surprise domination, another shock was The Weeknd nabbing three nominations after the pop star claimed he would not allow his label to submit his music. Earlier this year, he angrily slammed the Grammys, calling them “corrupt” after he received zero nominations despite 2020’s biggest single, “Blinding Lights.”

Even though The Weeknd said he would boycott future Grammys, he still became a nominee for his work on album of the year projects, including Doja Cat’s deluxe edition “Planet Her” and Kanye West’s “Donda.” His third nomination was for his appearance on West’s single “Hurricane,” which also features Lil Baby.

“What I like is the fact that no one is thinking about what happened before, what was the controversy, what was the noise, or where was this artist making music last year,” said Harvey Mason jr., the Recording Academy’s CEO. He said voters focused on the “excellence of music” while considering nominees like Batiste and Kacey Musgraves, whose work also crosses over into different categories.

“The voters are truly evaluating music and not getting caught up in the reputations of any other outside noise or any history of artists,” he continued. “With that in mind, I think they’re voting for things that they are acknowledging as excellence.”

Mason said he was pleased with the new peer-driven voting system after seeing the list of nominees. He instituted the 10-3 initiative — which allows the academy’s more than 11,000 members to vote for up to 10 categories in three genres. All voters can vote for the top four awards.

The new system replaced the anonymous nominations review committee — a group that determined the contenders for key awards. Some claimed committee members favored projects based on personal relationships and promoted projects they favored and worked on.

Harvey knows the new voting system might not be perfect at first, but he believes the initiative will produce fair results in the long run.

“I know we didn’t get every single one perfect,” Harvey said. “I know there will be some people that feel left out or that we missed a nomination here or there. That makes me sad because I don’t want anybody to have that feeling. But I do feel like we’re heading in the right direction. I’m pleased with the way our voters did the work.”

For the first time, the academy expanded the number of nominees in the general field categories from eight to 10. The change impacts categories such as record, album, song of the year and best new artist.

Harvey said the academy increased slots in the general field categories after seeing an uptick voting participation over the past year along with the acceptance of new membership invitations and a high number of more than 21,730 entries submitted for Grammy consideration.

“We thought the timing was right,” he said. “We saw an opportunity to do what the academy does — which is to highlight music, highlight the industry and highlight excellence in a bigger way. With the change in our voting structure, we don’t have the nomination review committee. This gives our voters an opportunity to have their voice heard, but also gives them a chance to have a bigger pool to draw from when it comes time to that one winner that takes home the Grammy.”

Other album of the year nominees include: Bieber’s “Justice (Triple Chucks Deluxe),” Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever,” West’s “Donda,” Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga’s “Love for Sale,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour,” Taylor Swift’s “evermore” and Lil Nas X’s “MONTERO.”

Batiste, the bandleader of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” picked up a bid in the best score soundtrack for visual media category for his work on Pixar’s “Soul,” which won him an Oscar for best score earlier this year. Coming into Tuesday, he had three Grammy nominations but no wins yet.

Batiste will compete for record of the year against a bevy of candidates including Bennett & Gaga’s “I Get a Kick Out of You,” ABBA’s “I Still Have Faith in You,” Bieber’s “Peaches” featuring Daniel Caesar and Giveon, Brandi Carlile’s “Right on Time,” Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” with SZA, Lil Nas X’s “MONTERO (Call Me by Your Name),” Rodrigo’s “drivers license,” Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever” and “Leave The Door Open” by Silk Sonic — the super duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak.

Jay-Z, who was nominated for three Grammys on Tuesday, now has the most nominations of all time with 83. The 23-time Grammy-winning rapper moved past Quincy Jones, who has been nominated 80 times.

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Matt Nagy is 31-27 as Bears head coach. | Getty

Including the playoffs, the Bears have scored 20 or fewer points in 29 of Nagy’s 60 games as coach.

Matt Nagy shot down the notion that the Bears have fired him as head coach effective after the upcoming Thanksgiving game against the Lions.

A report from suburban news website Patch.com stirred a frenzy Tuesday morning with a report that Bears chairman George McCaskey had already informed Nagy that he would be fired after the Lions game.

“That is not accurate,” Nagy said Tuesday.

In more than a century of ownership, the family has never fired a head coach during a season.

Nagy would not answer repeated questions about whether he is assured of coaching the rest of the season.

Nagy goes into the Lions game with a 31-27 record, but he is 19-23 over the last three seasons. The team sits 3-7 and the offense — Nagy’s supposed specialty — is 29th in scoring (16.3 points per game), 31st in yards per play (4.9), 30th in passer rating (75.1) and ninth in yards per rush (4.6).

They are one of four teams that has yet to score 30 points and are coming off an embarrassing 16-13 loss to the Ravens at home in a game that was littered with Nagy’s poor decisions.

Nagy, who had the best record through 38 games (25-13) of any Bears coach since George Halas, went 12-4 in his debut season and won Coach of the Year. The Bears captured the NFC North for their first playoff berth since 2010, though the season ended on kicker Cody Parkey’s double-doink as the Eagles knocked them out 16-15.

Since then, the offense has been abysmal. Over the 2019 through ’21 seasons, the Bears have scored the sixth-fewest points in the NFL.

When asked Monday if he could defend his work, Nagy tried to steer the attention back to the Lions game.

“The only thing that we can do is keep playing and keep coaching and keep doing everything we can to win,” he said. “That’s it. You know what I mean?

“We want to win every game, but we’ve got to understand how we’re getting calloused right now. And at the same point in time, you stick to your core values, which is just believing in one another and continuing to fight. That’s all we can do. You know, that’s what I know this team will do.”

McCaskey admitted in January that bringing Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace back for another season was unpopular, but did it anyway. He said he needed to see “progress” from both men.

“I think all four of us will know whether there’s been sufficient improvement or sufficient progress to continue past 2021,” McCaskey said, including team president Ted Phillips in the discussion.

It would be nearly impossible to claim there has been progress this season under Nagy, who heard chants of, “Fire Nagy,” and, “Nagy sucks,” late in the Ravens game.

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A person was shot on the Dan Ryan Expressway Nov. 23, 2021. | Sun-Times file photo

A man who suffered a gunshot wound in the incident was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, officials said.

A person was wounded in a shooting Tuesday morning on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

Authorities responded to the shooting about 11:55 a.m. in the northbound lanes of Interstate 94 near 84th Street, according to Illinois State Police.

A man who suffered a gunshot wound in the incident was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago fire officials said. His injuries were not considered-life threatening, state police said.

Illinois State Police asked anyone with information on the shooting to call 847-294-4400.

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There were no immediate reports of injuries from the fire that damaged Delia’s Kitchen, 1034 Lake St. in Oak Park, though some buildings were evacuated and roads were closed. | Manny Ramos/Sun-Times

There were no immediate reports of injuries from the fire at a building that houses Delia’s Kitchen at 1034 Lake St.

An extra-alarm fire damaged a popular restaurant in Oak Park Tuesday morning and forced the evacuation of surrounding buildings.

Firefighters were called to 1034 Lake St. around 9:30 a.m., according to the Oak Park Fire Department. Delia’s Kitchen is located in the building.

Lake Street was shut down for several blocks as firefighters worked on the blaze, officials said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

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Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski makes her final rebuttal before the jury begins deliberations in the trial of William “Roddie” Bryan, Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael, charged with the February 2020 death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, at the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga., Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021. | AP

“You can’t claim self-defense if you are the unjustified aggressor,” Linda Dunikoski told jurors in her final closing arguments. “Who started this? It wasn’t Ahmaud Arbery.”

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The case of three white men charged with murder in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery went to the jury Tuesday after a nearly two-week trial in which prosecutors argued that the defendants provoked the fatal confrontation and defense attorneys insisted their clients acted in self-defense.

“You can’t claim self-defense if you are the unjustified aggressor,” Linda Dunikoski told jurors in her final closing arguments. “Who started this? It wasn’t Ahmaud Arbery.”

The prosecution got the final word because it carries the burden of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutors and defense attorneys spent hours on Monday delivering closing arguments that spilled into a second day.

Dunikoski spent two hours Tuesday morning hammering at defense attorneys’ attempts to blame the 25-year-old Black man for his own death. Defense attorneys said Arbery lashed out violently with his fists to resist a lawful citizen’s arrest by the defendants.

Dunikoski said Arbery’s pursuers had “no badge, no uniform, no authority” and were “just some strange guys in a white pickup truck.” And she cited their own words to police immediately after the shooting, when they said they saw Arbery running but were unsure if he had committed a crime.

“You can’t make a citizen’s arrest because someone’s running down the street and you have no idea what they did wrong,” Dunikoski said.

Once the prosecution wrapped up, Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley gave instructions to the disproportionately white jury on how to apply the law before the panel started deliberations at the Glynn County courthouse in the port city of Brunswick.

Arbery’s killing became part of a larger national reckoning on racial injustice after a graphic video of his death leaked online two months later.

Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael grabbed guns and pursued Arbery in a pickup truck after spotting him running through their subdivision on Feb. 23, 2020. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the chase and recorded the video of Travis McMichael opening fire as Arbery threw punches and grabbed for McMichael’s shotgun.

No one was charged in the killing until Bryan’s video leaked and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police. All three men are charged with murder and other offenses.

Dunikoski said Tuesday that the McMichaels and Bryan threatened Arbery both with their pickup trucks and by pointing a shotgun at him before the final confrontation in which Arbery threw punches and grabbed for the gun.

She noted that Bryan told police he used his truck to run Arbery into a ditch and cut off his route, while Greg McMichael told officers they had him “trapped like a rat.” The actions of both men, she said, directly contributed to Arbery’s death.

“It doesn’t matter who actually pulled the trigger,” Dunikoski said. “Under the law, they’re all guilty.”

She also said there was no evidence Arbery had committed crimes in the defendants’ neighborhood. She said he was never seen stealing anything the five times he was recorded by security cameras in an unfinished home under construction from which he was seen running.

“You’ve got lumber, you’ve got all this stuff,” Dunikoski said. “Mr. Arbery never shows up with a bag. He doesn’t pull up with a U-haul. … All he does is wander around for a few minutes and then leave.”

The prosecutor told jurors someone can only make a citizen’s arrest in “emergency situations” where a crime is happening “right then and there.”

Defense attorneys objected to Dunikoski’s explanation of citizen’s arrest because they contend the McMichaels had reason to suspect Arbery had stolen items from the home. They said the owner discovered the items missing before he installed security cameras.

“This is a misstatement of the law and the argument is improper,” Franklin Hogue, an attorney for Greg McMichael, told the judge. “There’s no way we can fix it” before the jury, he said, because defense attorneys finished their closing arguments Monday.

Attorney Jason Sheffield said his client, Travis McMichael, fired his shotgun in self-defense after Arbery charged at him, threw punches and tried to grab the weapon. Sheffield called Arbery’s death a tragedy, but one that was his own fault.

Attorneys for the other two defendants blamed Arbery as well. Laura Hogue, an attorney for Greg McMichael, said Arbery “chose to fight.” Kevin Gough, who represents Bryan, questioned why Arbery didn’t call for help if he was in danger.

“Maybe that’s because Mr. Arbery doesn’t want help,” Gough said.

Arbery had enrolled at a technical college and was preparing at the time to study to become an electrician like his uncles.

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Andy Dalton will start the Thanksgiving Day game against the Lions. | Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Rookie Justin Fields, though, remains at the top of the Bears’ depth chart whenever he’s healthy, head coach Matt Nagy said Tuesday.

Veteran quarterback Andy Dalton will start Thursday’s game against the Lions. Rookie Justin Fields, though, remains at the top of the Bears’ depth chart whenever he’s healthy, head coach Matt Nagy said Tuesday.

Fields hurt his ribs in Sunday’s loss to the Ravens. He was replaced by Dalton, who had taken only three snaps since Week 2, and completed 11-of-23 passes for 201 yards and two touchdowns. He finished with a passer rating of 107.3.

“We’re fortunate to have Andy Dalton,” offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said.

Nagy was quicker to name Fields the starter than he was earlier this season, when he insisted that Dalton was atop his depth chart even after he suffered a bone bruise in his knee against the Bengals.

With Fields likely out Thursday, third-stringer Nick Foles figures to suit up for the first time since Dalton was hurt. Foles has yet to take a snap for the Bears this season.

Fields sitting Thursday isn’t surprising; the benefit of giving him an extra 10 days to rest his ribs for the Dec. 5 game against the Cardinals outweighed rushing him back.

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The neighborhood is bounded by the Calumet River on the north and west, Lake Michigan on the east and Egger’s Grove on the south.Read More

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace has spent his entire tenure hiding from the media, but now, more than ever, he should come out and face the music or lose whatever little credibility he has left. Pace is currently in his seventh season and heading into a Thanksgiving matchup against the Detroit Lions sits 45-61. […] Chicago Bears: The ‘Hermit of Halas Hall’ must stop hiding – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski makes her final rebuttal before the jury begins deliberations in the trial of William “Roddie” Bryan, Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael, charged with the February 2020 death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, at the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga., Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021. | AP

“You can’t claim self-defense if you are the unjustified aggressor,” Linda Dunikoski told jurors in her final closing arguments. “Who started this? It wasn’t Ahmaud Arbery.”

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The case of three white men charged with murder in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery went to a jury Tuesday after a 13-day trial in which prosecutors argued the defendants provoked a confrontation with the 25-year-old Black man and defense attorneys said their clients acted in self-defense.

“You can’t claim self-defense if you are the unjustified aggressor,” Linda Dunikoski told jurors in her final closing arguments. “Who started this? It wasn’t Ahmaud Arbery.”

The prosecution gets the final word because it carries the burden of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutors and defense attorneys spent hours on Monday delivering closing arguments that spilled into a second day.

Dunikoski spent two hours Tuesday morning hammering at defense attorneys’ attempts to blame Arbery for his own death. The defense attorneys said Arbery lashed out violently with his fists to resist a lawful citizen’s arrest by the defendants.

Dunikoski said Arbery’s pursuers had “no badge, no uniform, no authority” and were “just some strange guys in a white pickup truck.” And she cited their own words to police immediately after the shooting: that they saw Arbery running but were unsure if he had committed a crime.

“You can’t make a citizen’s arrest because someone’s running down the street and you have no idea what they did wrong,” Dunikoski said.

Once the prosecution wrapped up, Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley began giving instructions to the disproportionately white jury on how to apply the law before it can start deliberations at the Glynn County courthouse in the port city of Brunswick.

Arbery’s killing became part of a larger national reckoning on racial injustice after a graphic video of his death leaked online two months later.

The McMichaels grabbed guns and pursued Arbery in a pickup truck after spotting him running through their subdivision on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan joined the chase and recorded the video of Travis McMichael opening fire as Arbery threw punches and grabbed for McMichael’s shotgun.

No one was charged in the killing until Bryan’s video leaked and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police. All three men are charged with murder and other offenses.

Dunikoski said Tuesday that the McMichaels and Bryan threatened Arbery both with their pickup trucks and by pointing a shotgun at him before the final confrontation in which Arbery threw punches and grabbed for the gun.

She noted that Bryan told police he used his truck to run Arbery into a ditch and cut off his route, while Greg McMichael told officers they had him “trapped like a rat.” The actions of both men, she said, directly contributed to Arbery’s death.

“It doesn’t matter who actually pulled the trigger,” Dunikoski said. “Under the law, they’re all guilty.”

She also said there was no evidence Arbery had committed crimes in the defendants’ neighborhood. She said he was never seen stealing anything the five times he was recorded by security cameras in an unfinished home under construction from which he was seen running.

“You’ve got lumber, you’ve got all this stuff,” Dunikoski said. “Mr. Arbery never shows up with a bag. He doesn’t pull up with a U-haul. … All he does is wander around for a few minutes and then leave.”

The prosecutor told jurors someone can only make a citizen’s arrest in “emergency situations” where a crime is happening “right then and there.”

Defense attorneys objected to Dunikoski’s explanation of citizen’s arrest because they contend the McMichaels had reason to suspect Arbery had stolen items from the home. They said the owner discovered the items missing before he installed security cameras.

“This is a misstatement of the law and the argument is improper,” Franklin Hogue, an attorney for Greg McMichael, told the judge. “There’s no way we can fix it” before the jury, he said, because defense attorneys finished their closing arguments Monday.

Attorney Jason Sheffield said his client, Travis McMichael, fired his shotgun in self-defense after Arbery charged at him, threw punches and tried to grab the weapon. Sheffield called Arbery’s death a tragedy, but one that was his own fault.

Attorneys for the other two defendants blamed Arbery as well. Laura Hogue, an attorney for Greg McMichael, said Arbery “chose to fight.” Kevin Gough, who represents Bryan, questioned why Arbery didn’t call for help if he was in danger.

“Maybe that’s because Mr. Arbery doesn’t want help,” Gough said.

Arbery had enrolled at a technical college and was preparing at the time to study to become an electrician like his uncles.

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