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The Chicago Blackhawks started the season 1-9-2 before firing Jeremy Colliton. Now, since naming Derek King as the interim head coach, they have gone 2-0-0 against the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins who are both pretty good teams. Now, they have a chance to turn that two-game win streak into a string of wins. It […] Chicago Blackhawks: A chance for a string of wins is here – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

Rocky (Sylvester Stallone, left) lands a blow against Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) in “Rocky IV.” | MGM

The silly robot’s gone and Creed puts up a better fight in the revised version, called ‘Rocky Vs. Drago’

By the time writer-director-star Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky IV” was released on Nov. 27, 1985, the franchise (and its creator) had gone from gritty, rough-hewn underdog to widely beloved, highly polished, a little too slick and squarely in the mainstream.

The edge was gone. The story had grown stale. The montages felt like parodies of montages.

Still, Rocky’s fan base continued to grow. “Rocky IV” opened to a non-summer record box office of nearly $32 million ($80 million in today’s dollars) and held the record for the most successful sports movie of all time until “The Blind Side” in 2009, and to this day remains the most successful entry in the “Rocky” franchise.

Had I reviewed “Rocky IV” upon its release, I would have given it three stars and cited highlights such as the fabulously over-the-top James Brown “Living in America” number, the genuinely shocking fate of Apollo Creed — and the addition of Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago, who ranks second only to Carl Weathers’ Apollo as the most memorable of all of Rocky’s opponents through the decades.

The downside? The cringe-inducing, saccharine subplot about Burt Young’s Paulie receiving a robot named Sico as a birthday present and becoming best friends with the contraption. Ugh. That robot is to the “Rocky” franchise what Jar Jar Binks is to “Star Wars.” Dramatically more troubling was the harsh manner in which Apollo’s death was handled in the so-called exhibition bout against Drago in Vegas. From the opening bell, Drago pummels Apollo into a bloody pulp, resulting in an ignominious exit for one of the great figures in franchise history.

During the pandemic, the now 75-year-old Stallone found himself looking for a solo project, so he went back into the editing room to deliver a fresh and quite different cut, with some 40 minutes of the original film removed and 42 minutes of material added. “Rocky IV: Rocky v. Drago” has erased all traces of the robot from the story and excised some light-banter scenes while extending Apollo’s funeral scene and also fleshing out the Apollo-Drago confrontation to balance the action and show Apollo valiantly standing up to Drago, at least for a while, thus giving him a more noble demise.

“Rocky v. Drago” opens with a longer version of the recap of key events from “Rocky III,” including Apollo offering to become Rocky’s manager and get him that “Eye of the Tiger,” and Rocky’s triumphant rematch against Mr. T’s Clubber Lang. Early in “Rocky IV,” we’re introduced to the Russian amateur boxer Ivan “Siberian Express” Drago (Lundgren), who has to come to America seeking an exhibition match against Rocky Balboa. Drago’s team, including his gold medalist swimmer wife Ludmilla Vobet Drago (Brigitte Nielsen), invite the press to a training session in which dozens of white-coated lab technicians monitoring all manner of cutting-edge technology oversee Drago’s training session. Is this guy going to the moon?

After Apollo convinces a reluctant Rocky to let Apollo fight the Russian amateur boxer Ivan Drago, with Rocky in his corner — “I’m asking you, as a friend, stand in my corner, just this one last time” — we’re soon off to Vegas, with the Hardest Working Man in Show Business performing the show-stopping “Living in America” while Apollo, dressed as Uncle Sam, joins in a typically gauche, glossy, garish, American display of debauchery, all while Drago looks on with steely-eyed disdain.

Uh-oh. Looks like one of these boxers is taking this much more seriously than the other.

With the late great Stu Nahan (the real-life sports commentator who provided the ringside commentary for each of the first six “Rocky” films) guiding us through the action, the one-sided “exhibition” is handled more like a real fight in the recut, with Apollo landing some legitimate shots in the first round and looking fit and alert before Drago starts pounding Apollo with punishing body shots and direct hits to the head that send Creed sprawling to the canvas. In the second round, Drago unleashes a frenzy of fury on Apollo, knocking him unconscious while Nahan exclaims, “What started out as a joke has turned out to be a disaster!” and Drago coolly says, “If he dies, he dies.”

Ooh, that Drago is the worst!

In the subsequent funeral sequence, Stallone has added a moving speech by Tony Burton’s Tony “Duke” Evers, who was Apollo’s longtime cornerman and eventually joined Rocky’s team. (The relationship between Talia Shire’s Adrian and Rocky also seems to have more precedence in the recut; my God that woman suffered through a lot for her love of the big lug.)

MGM
A flashily attired Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) joins in as James Brown sings “Living in America.”

The second half of the film is still heavy on the training montages and the snippets of key moments from previous “Rocky” movies, as we see Drago using all the latest technology to prepare, while Rocky cuts logs, heaves rocks and pulls Paulie on a sled in the snow like a crazed Alaskan Malamute. (On the soundtrack, Survivor’s “Burning Heart,” with the lyrics: “Seems our freedom’s up, against the ropes, does the crowd understand, is it East versus West, or man against man?” Great question!)

As for the climactic showdown between Rocky and Drago in Moscow, with Rocky wearing Apollo’s famous red-white-and-blue trunks … the fight seems more dramatically impactful, more in keeping with the first Rocky-Apollo fight from the original. (At just over 14 minutes, the bout has about two minutes more screen time in this go-round.) Of course, both fighters endure more punishment than mere mortals could ever sustain in the ring, and yes, it’s insanely over the top when Rocky begins to win over the Russians as he triumphs over Drago — followed by Rocky’s speech about how two guys killing each other in the ring is better than 20 million killing each other and “If I can change, and you can change, everybody can change.”

We’re still working on that last bit, Rocko.

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Some of the Chicago Park District IDs that Eric Fischer had over the years. He was fired Nov. 2 from his $100,000-a-year job as the district’s aquatics boss, accused of ignoring a teenage lifeguard’s complaint about abusive behavior that named his daughter among her hazers. | Brian Ernst / Sun-Times

Eric Fischer, one in a family of lifeguards, started with a glamor gig at Oak Street Beach. He was fired after being accused of ignoring a complaint involving one of his daughters, also a lifeguard at Oak Street Beach.

The man at the center of a Chicago Park District scandal over complaints by lifeguards of abusive behavior and sexual harassment by more senior lifeguards started his career with a little lie.

The son of a popular Southwest Side lifeguard, Eric Fischer fudged his age on an application to be a lifeguard in 1983, saying he’d already finished two years at St. Laurence High School when actually he was just 13 years old.

For his first assignment, he lucked into a glamor gig, working at Oak Street Beach, where his father also had worked.

For Fischer, who rose to captain of the Oak Street lifeguards before moving up to head all park district aquatics programs, lifeguarding has been the family business. Besides his father, his children also landed coveted gigs at Oak Street Beach.

As lifeguards there, the youngest Fischers had to memorize the same expletive-filled “fight song” adapted from a ditty said to have been brought home from the Navy by an older Fischer relative.

If rookie lifeguards forgot the words, they’d face humiliating punishments from more senior colleagues. To help make sure they didn’t, the song was posted on a wall in the lifeguards’ room. It starts like this:

C— s—–, m—–f—–, Eat a bag of s—

C— bag, d—– bag, bite your mother’s t–

We’re the best lifeguards, all the others s—

Oak Street, Oak Street, Rah rah f—.

The brazen profanity led the father of a teenage lifeguard to complain to his friend Michael Kelly, then the parks superintendent, in August 2019. The man’s daughter, a lifeguard assigned to Oak Street, was appalled to have to chant those words during morning pushups. Her father emailed the superintendent, asking him to remove the lyrics from the wall “before press or somebody runs with it,” advising park bosses to “get on it quietly.”

The rest of what the father and his wife told the superintendent about the sexual harassment, hazing and shoving he said their daughter faced at work ultimately would lead, several investigations later, to the end of Fischer’s Chicago Park District career.

Fischer, 51, was fired Nov. 2 from his $100,000-a-year job, accused of ignoring the complaint by that teenage lifeguard, who named his daughter among her hazers and said she’d been shoved into a wall, called profane and sexually degrading names by coworkers and left alone for hours at her post for refusing to take part in their drinking parties and on-the-job drug use.

Also booted were Adam Bueling, the aquatics manager who inherited Fischer’s former post as beaches and pool manager, and Alonzo Williams, Fischer’s boss.

The high-level terminations came after the release of a 43-page report by a former federal prosecutor hired to investigate whether parks managers protected lifeguards who reported abusive treatment of lifeguards by their more senior colleagues.

Tyler LaRiviere / Sun-Times
Attorney Valarie Hays speaks at a news conference at Jesse White Park after her law firm conducted an investigation into the Chicago Park District’s handling of sexual harassment and other other misconduct by lifeguards.

The investigation found that Fischer, as assistant director of recreation, “failed to take any corrective actions” — such as reporting the abuse the teenager from Oak Street described in a February 2020 email to him.

Fischer — who didn’t respond to interview requests — told investigators he didn’t see her message for months.

Investigators also questioned whether Fischer’s daughter’s being accused of handing out Jell-O shots to underage rookie lifeguards at an after-hours initiation prompted the superintendent to have his aides conduct an internal investigation rather than turning it over to the park district’s inspector general until after a second lifeguard came forward with more graphic complaints that were passed on to Kelly by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office.

Fischer, his wife and his daughter did not respond to interview requests.

Kelly resigned from his $230,000-a-year post as parks superintendent in October.

Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times
Michael Kelly, then the Chicago Park District’s superintendent, at an August news conference at which he defended his handling of the lifeguard scandal. In October, facing firing, he resigned.

That was hours after Lightfoot urged that Kelly, 50, be fired, saying: “The culture of sexual abuse, harassment, and coercion that has become pervasive within the district’s aquatics department lifeguard program under his leadership, combined with the superintendent’s lack of urgency or accountability as new facts have come to light, is unacceptable.”

The parks’ interim inspector general and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx continue to investigate.

“It’s shocking to learn how long this disgraceful conduct seems to have existed,” Avis LaVelle, then the park board’s president, said in announcing the firings and issuing apologies to victims.

Tyler LaRiviere / Sun-Times
Avis LaVelle resigned as president of the Chicago Park District board amid pressure over what allies of Mayor Lori Lightfoot called her “tone-deaf” response to the accusations from lifeguards at city beaches and pools of abusive behavior and sexual harassment by more senior lifeguards.

LaVelle ended up another casualty of the scandal, resigning Wednesday amid pressure over what allies of Lightfoot called her “tone-deaf” response to the allegations from lifeguards at city beaches and pools of abusive behavior and sexual harassment by more senior lifeguards.

Of the park district employees disciplined, Fischer had the longest parks career by far, beginning at 13 on famed Oak Street Beach.

Tucked in a crook of DuSable Lake Shore Drive, the popular beach has long drawn many of the beautiful people. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was the go-to beach for Playboy models, with what was then the Playboy Building just across the way and Hugh Hefner’s mansion also nearby.

“1000 N Lakeshore Drive. Center of the Universe,” reads the “OakStGuards” Instagram account. “A beach of legacy and tradition.”

Three generations of Fischers are part of that tradition.

Eric Fischer grew up on the Southwest Side, the oldest of Arthur and Joyce Fischer’s three sons.

Art Fischer was a Chicago firefighter who, while assigned to the Chicago Fire Department’s Air Sea Rescue Marine Unit in 1982, was hurt on the job badly enough to warrant a city payment toward his medical bills. Long before that, he became a Chicago Park District “junior laborer” in 1955, making $1 an hour at age 11. He started as a lifeguard the summer he was 18.

His titles changed from natatorium instructor — what the park district calls its year-round lifeguards — to beach manager the summer little Eric was 3 and to senior lifeguard the one summer in 1980 when his wife briefly held a lifeguarding job, too.

Al Podgorski / Sun-Times file
Eric Fischer doing swimming instruction in 2014.

Eric Fischer learned to swim at Curie High School through a park district program, he told the Chicago Tribune in 1991. And he played water polo, a sport his father refereed.

Park records don’t detail Fischer’s parents’ assignments, but former guards remember Art Fischer staffing Oak Street and Calumet beaches and Curie High’s pool, often with his son.

When Eric Fischer landed his summer lifeguard job in 1983, he made $5.45 an hour. Though he was underage, his application said he was 16, and, under education, listed St. Laurence, starting in 1981. The park district blacked out his date of birth, citing privacy restrictions.

He stuck with that birthdate until 1991, fixing it before applying for a year-round lifeguarding job.

When he was 18, his father was killed in a crash on the Stevenson Expressway. He’d pulled his van over to the side of the expressway shortly before midnight on May 12, 1988, and a car hit it. At his wake, an honor guard of lifeguards stood by his casket.

Eric Fischer went to Loyola University Chicago on an aquatics scholarship, playing water polo on its nationally ranked team until the school dropped the sport.

He became a natatorium instructor in 1994.

Fischer married into an even bigger parks family in 1995. His wife, then Wendy Sarna, worked as a lifeguard for three summers in the late 1980s while her father Joe Sarna was the park district’s supervisor of recreation. After 30 years with the district, he left in 1987 for the mayor’s office of special events, where Mayor Richard M. Daley tapped him in the 1990s to be the city’s sport fishing coordinator.

In 2000, now having a baby daughter, Fischer was promoted to acting beaches and pools manager when famed lifeguard Joe Pecoraro retired after 51 years.

Pecoraro’s permanent replacement made Fischer assistant manager of beaches and pools in 2001 and handed Fischer and another male parks employee the duties of Erin Joyce, the park district’s only female supervisor in the administrative office, according to a gender-discrimination lawsuit she filed against the park district.

Joyce said in her suit she was demoted in 2002 to a lower-paying job after her bosses found out she participated in an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation. In support of her demotion, park district officials presented a letter Fischer wrote describing Joyce as insubordinate, unprofessional, deceitful and not deserving of a promotion or raise. Joyce declined to comment.

In 2004, Fischer was named assistant manager of beaches and pools. In 2012, he was promoted to manager of Chicago’s 24 beaches and 92 pools.

“I manage one of the largest Lifeguard Services in the world,” he said on his application for the job. “I have worked my way up through our agency while continually improving myself as a public servant.”

In April 2019, he was promoted to assistant director of recreation.

That was shortly before the teenage lifeguard whose complaint ended his career would later say she was called sexually degrading names, pushed around and punished when she objected.

The lifeguard, then 17, later emailed her bosses that, at an alcohol-fueled initiation, Eric Fischer’s daughter Kelly Fischer passed around Jell-O shots.

Kelly Fischer, now 23, couldn’t be reached. She had put in four summers at Oak Street, the last with her father listed as her supervisor.

She was gone by 2019, but her siblings remained. Kate Fischer, now 20, worked at Oak Street Beach in 2017 and later at North Avenue Beach.

Zachary Fischer got his first Chicago lifeguard job in 2019, when he’d just finished 10th grade and was about to turn 16. Park district paperwork doesn’t show where he landed. But he requested Oak Street.

READ PARKS INVESTIGATION REPORT

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One person was killed and a 1-year-old boy among 11 others wounded in citywide shootings Thursday. | Sun-Times file

A 1-year-old boy was grazed in the head and two adults were critically wounded in a shooting Thursday afternoon in Chatham on the South Side.

One person was killed and a 1-year-old boy and two teens were among 11 others wounded by gunfire in Chicago Thursday.

The fatal shooting happened just before 2 p.m. in Pullman when an 18-year-old man was shot on the left side of his body by someone attempting to carjack him in the 900 block of East 98th Street, Chicago police said. The shooter then fled the scene in the teen’s silver equinox, police said. The teen was taken to Trinity Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. He has not yet been identified.
Less than an hour earlier, a 1-year-old boy was grazed in the head and two adults were critically wounded outside a Shell Gas station around 1:25 p.m. in the 7400 block of South State Street, police said. The 1-year-old inside a car was grazed in his head, police said. Paramedics took him to Comer Children’s Hospital in fair condition. Inside another car, two men were shot in the chest, police said. The men, 18 and 28, went to the University of Chicago Medical Center and were listed in critical condition.
Two teens were wounded in a shooting in Humboldt Park on the Northwest Side. The boys, 15 and 17, were in a car about 10:35 p.m. in the 1200 block of North Kedzie Avenue when they were wounded by gunfire, police said. The older boy was struck in the leg, and the younger one grazed in his leg, police said. Both were taken to Norwegian Hospital, where they were listed in good condition, police said.

At least six others were wounded in Chicago shootings Thursday.

Five people were shot, two fatally Wednesday in Chicago.

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Carmen Collins “had a very versatile fashion look that could do high fashion or could do the everyday person,” photographer Tom Styrkowicz said. | Tom Styrkowicz

She appeared in ads for Fashion Fair cosmetics, Jewel Food Stores, Greyhound buses and Illinois Bell, in Mademoiselle and Ebony and on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show.’

Carmen Collins’ face could be seen almost everywhere in Chicago in the 1970s.

Her sleek and polished beauty was the highlight of high-fashion magazine spreads for clothing, makeup and hair-care products. She appeared in Mademoiselle and waved to the crowds from a float in the 1975 Bud Billiken Parade.

Like other often-booked models, Ms. Collins had the ability to metamorphose. She could tone down her elegance for ads for things like groceries or telephones.

Ms. Collins, 69, who had lung cancer, died Oct. 21 at Avondale Estates nursing care in Elgin, according to her son Christopher.

She was a student at Harlan High School when she decided modeling would be her ticket to make money and see the world.

“That’s what she wanted to do even before we graduated,” her friend Alice Germane said.

Young Carmen was inspired by Beverly Johnson, the first Black model on the cover of Vogue, in 1974.

The year before, Ms. Collins registered with the Shirley Hamilton agency on Michigan Avenue. At the height of her career, she made $150 an hour, said Lynne Hamilton, co-owner of the agency.

“She was so professional and glamorous,” Hamilton said, “and very nice.”

Ms. Collins knew modeling was risky as a long-term career. So she built a career in real estate, becoming managing broker and supervising agents at her Schaumburg business, which she named Star Track Enterprise Realty after her favorite TV show, “Star Trek.”

“She specialized in people that were typically told, ‘You won’t get a home,’ ” said her son Jonathan.

“She would send them to loan offices or different programs being sponsored by the city that would allow them to straighten up their credit or accumulate enough money for a down payment,” said Germane, who followed her into real estate.

“It was mainly to support her kids and to help other people,” her son Aric said of her move into real estate.

“Where most realtors were interested in getting the biggest commission, she was excited about helping people get their first home,” said her brother Juan R. Leon, pastor of Lansing’s Mount Zion Center, who said he decided to devote his life to service because of his sister’s advice to spread good in the world.

Her friend Betty Garcia said Ms. Collins mentored her and other women in real estate. “If I can do it, you can do it,” she told Garcia, who works for Keller Williams Momentum Real Estate in Palatine.

She was born Carmen Leon, the daughter of Dolores and Raphael Leon. Growing up, she loved roller-skating in the gym at St. Sabina’s and at Art’s roller rink in Harvey. Germane said they’d circle the floor to the music of The Temptations, the Four Tops and James Brown’s “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.” Before school, they’d meet for 50-cent tea-and-toast breakfasts at the Hasty Tasty on 95th Street.

She sewed beautiful clothes, including her prom dress.

Provided
Carmen Collins (far left) in an ad for Ebony Fashion Fair and Greyhound Lines.

Ms. Collins started with hand modeling, graduating to ads for Fashion Fair cosmetics, Jewel Food Stores, Greyhound buses and Illinois Bell. She appeared in clothing catalogs and on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” relatives said.

Provided
Carmen Collins in an ad for Illinois Bell designer telephones.

Often, she was styled and shot by her brother-in-law, renowned photographer Ernest Collins.

Ernest Collins
Carmen Collins, styled and photographed for Ebony magazine in 1977 by her brother-in-law Ernest Collins. “It was on the boxes of Fashion Fair cosmetics and ended up on the billboard in Jamaica,” she said.

“When he got done with you,” Ms. Collins once said, “you looked like the most beautiful person in the world.”

In 1978, Ms. Collins decided to move her family to the northwest suburbs. They lived in Palatine and Hoffman Estates.

“She wanted to get out of the city,” her brother said, “for the sake of her boys.”

“She thought the schools would be better, safety, finances,” her son Christopher Collins said.

“She just wanted us to be happy and follow our dreams and to succeed,” her son Jonathan Collins said.

“We were the only Black kids around,” Christopher Collins said. “We heard the N-word.”

Jonathan Collins remembers “snowballs, [but] with chunks of ice, thrown at us at the bus stop.”

He said: “She sat us down and gave us an hour-long talk about defending yourself. She told us, ‘Stand up for yourself, and these kids will leave you alone.’ We went back feeling way more confident.”

Later, when they were adults, she’d say: “You gotta have a PMA — a positive mental attitude. Know what I mean, Jelly Bean?”

In addition to “Star Trek,” Ms. Collins loved sci-fi and alien movies like “Galaxy Quest,” “The Fifth Element,” “The Blob” and “Mars Attacks!”

Services have been held. In addition to her mother, sons and brother, Ms. Collins is survived by 13 grandchildren and her stepfather Curtis Smith.

Ernest Collins
Carmen Collins and her then-young sons (clockwise from front) Jonathan, Aric and Christopher.

“She would always say to me, ‘I just want you to be happy. I want you to be proud. Do your best,’ ” Aric Collins said. “She believed in us, and she believed in herself.”

Provided
Carmen Collins and her sons (from left) Christopher, Aric and Jonathan.

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Moon Alert

After 2 a.m. Chicago time, there are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions. The moon is in Pisces.

Aries (March 21-April 19)

People feel sympathetic to each other, which is why this is a good day to ask for a favor from someone, especially if you need to borrow money. It might be worth trying to get a mortgage or a loan from a bank. (Ya never know.)

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

You’re tuned in to the wants and needs of partners and close friends. Because of this sensitivity, you sense what they want and will, therefore, know how to relate to them. Someone might ask for your help. Possibly, you will ask for someone else’s help? (It’s a two-way street.)

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

You might be called upon to help a coworker or to work for someone. By all means, be helpful if you can because this is your best choice. People are idealistic, which is why they expect kindness and consideration from each other. (It’s a good thing.)

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

You’re in touch with your muse, which is why this is a productive day for those of you work in the arts or on creative projects. You will be more imaginative working with sports, and, certainly, working with children. Perfect day to socialize!

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)

A family member might need your help. Or you might need help from them? Either way, this is an ideal day for family members to help each other, because, after all, family is gold. (Sometimes a person simply needs a sympathetic ear to listen to them.)

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Your ability to visualize and imagine things is heightened today. This will help those of you who write fiction, fantasy or are involved with teaching and making projections. However, you might also spend a lot of time daydreaming today. Oh well.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

If shopping today, you’ll be tempted to buy luxurious, gorgeous items. (Librans love beautiful things.) However, be careful in your financial transactions with others because you might overlook details. You might also be inclined to give away the farm. Know what you’re doing.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Your idealism is aroused today because the sun is in your sign dancing with Neptune. You will want to help others. You will be more interested in your spiritual needs, which is why you might explore metaphysical or spiritual subjects.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Today is the perfect day to enjoy quiet solitude. Make time to go off by yourself to think or meditate. (This will be a rewarding experience.) In fact, your increased sensitivity to the subtler aspects of the world around you might make you curious about ESP or mystical experiences.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

This is the perfect day for a heart-to-heart discussion with a friend or a member of a group because people feel gentle and more inclined to be frank and self-disclosing. Be open to listening to others; however, you don’t have to be a doormat. It’s important to have a healthy self-interest.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

You might make an appeal to someone in authority today — a boss, parent, teacher or a member of the police — because you want their help or their approval. Possibly, an authority figure will ask you for your help? This can go either way.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)

Today your appreciation of beauty is heightened, which is why you will enjoy seeing art galleries, museums and beautiful stores. Likewise, you might be attracted to elegant, profound ideas, especially from other cultures. You want to understand more about the mysteries of life.

If Your Birthday Is Today

Actress Anne Hathaway (1982) shares your birthday. You are a caring, considerate person who is sharp, clever and observant. You are a natural optimist with a positive outlook on life. You have a great imagination and will push for what you want. This year you are in the first year of a nine-year cycle, which means all things are possible to you. Be courageous and open any door!

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Two teens were wounded in a shooting Nov. 11 on the Northwest Side. | Sun-Times file photo

The boys, 15 and 17, were in a car about 10:35 p.m. in the 1200 block of North Kedzie Avenue when they were wounded by gunfire, police said.

Two teens were wounded in a shooting Thursday night in Humboldt Park on the Northwest Side.

The boys, 15 and 17, were in a car about 10:35 p.m. in the 1200 block of North Kedzie Avenue when they were wounded by gunfire, Chicago police said.

The older boy was struck in the leg, and the younger one grazed in his leg, police said.

Both were taken to Norwegian Hospital, where they were listed in good condition, police said.

No one was in custody.

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Former Blackhawks player Kyle Beach’s alleged 2010 sexual assault has started a league-wide firestorm this year. | Claus Andersen/Getty Images file photo

The Blackhawks, in a Thursday letter, called Beach’s lawyer’s initial financial demand “extraordinary.” But Beach’s lawyer says the Hawks won’t provide their own offer.

Settlement talks between the Blackhawks and former player Kyle Beach are off to a rocky start.

Beach’s lawyer, Susan Loggans, said Thursday she’s “disgusted” by the Hawks’ lack of “fair play” with their recent handling of Beach’s lawsuit, the centerpiece of the sexual assault scandal that has rocked the Hawks and the hockey world this year.

Just two weeks ago, when the Jenner & Block investigation confirmed many of the atrocious details Beach alleged in the lawsuit about his 2010 sexual assault at the hands of ex-video coach Brad Aldrich, Hawks CEO Danny Wirtz instructed team lawyers to reach a “fair resolution” in the lawsuit, which had been battled ferociously throughout the summer in court.

And indeed, Hawks lawyers and Loggans held opening settlement talks Nov. 2, then follow-up talks Nov. 5.

But in letters sent by Hawks lawyers Thursday and obtained by the Sun-Times, the Hawks called Loggans’ initial financial settlement demand “extraordinary,” saying it now “seems clear to us that we will be unable to resolve these differences through lawyer-to-lawyer discussions alone” based on the two parties’ “very different views.”

The Hawks requested the two parties agree to use a third-party mediator to determine a settlement — their second time requesting mediation, having also done so in a letter preceding the Nov. 2 talks. The Hawks, in the letter, offered to pay for the mediation and to make Danny Wirtz and chairman Rocky Wirtz present at it.

Loggans, however, remains staunchly opposed to mediation.

Loggans said she provided her initial settlement demand at the Hawks’ request, but the Hawks refused to provide their own initial settlement offer in return.

She declined to disclose her initial settlement demand publicly, but said it included the estimated earnings Beach would’ve made over a typical NHL career had he not been allegedly assaulted as a 20-year-old prospect. The Hawks were also upset by that fact, Loggans said.

The two sides also appear divided over their commitment to immediate settlement.

The Hawks, in the letter, again requested a 60-day stay in new court filings, calling it their “strong preference…to focus on the mediation process rather than litigation.”

Loggans said she’s not opposed to settlement in theory, but would nonetheless prefer to proceed to the discovery stage, where she believes evidence may surface that could suggest the Wirtz family knew about the alleged sexual assault in 2010 — something the Jenner & Block investigation found no evidence for. She called the stay a “stalling tactic.”

The Hawks currently face a court-mandated Nov. 30 deadline to either support or withdraw their pending motion to dismiss the case. That deadline is in place because Loggans herself filed a new amendment complaint in the lawsuit last week.

The Hawks continue to believe their legal defenses against Beach’s lawsuit — the statute of limitations being the most prominent of those — are strong, but now feel a “moral inclination to attempt to resolve this matter on fair terms.”

Another NHL franchise, the Penguins, notably reached a settlement via a mediator just this Tuesday in a lawsuit alleging they negligently retained a minor-league coach who sexually assaulted another coach’s wife in 2018.

Counseling payment promised

Also in the Thursday letters, the Hawks promised to pay for all of Beach’s “reasonable past and future medical and counseling expenses” — particularly counseling — relating to the alleged sexual assault.

They offered the same to a man identified as “John Doe 2” — a former Michigan high school student whom Aldrich allegedly sexually assaulted in 2013 and whom Loggans also represents in another pending negligence lawsuit against the Hawks.

The issue of counseling payment was recently raised when TSN’s Rick Westhead reported NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told Doe 2’s mother that the NHL would not provide it.

Loggans said she doesn’t trust the Hawks’ intentions regarding this promise, either. She was angered by another part of the Hawks’ letter regarding Doe 2, which requested she turn over his “medical records, school transcripts, and income records.”

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SEIU Local 1 custodians protest outside of Chicago Public Schools headquarters this week demanding accountability for Aramark and CPS after failure to keep schools clean and safe. | Brian Rich/Sun-Times

Custodians says short-staffing, lack of supplies and mismanagement are to blame. CPS must hold custodial giant Aramark’s feet to the fire to fix the problems.

Like school custodian Maria Villegas, we’re frustrated.

Because, as Villegas said Wednesday in reference to yet more revelations about dirty Chicago schools, “Here we are, three years later, and it’s the same exact story.”

Villegas, a custodian at Sayre Elementary in Galewood on the Northwest Side, was among the custodial workers from schools across the city who spoke out publicly to blame dirty schools on short-staffing, a lack of cleaning supplies and mismanagement by custodial giant Aramark.

It is, indeed, deja vu all over again, as we wrote last week, following a report by the Sun-Times’ Lauren FitzPatrick and Nader Issa on Eberhart Elementary on the Southwest Side. Building conditions got so bad there — custodians on medical leave were never replaced with substitutes — that fed-up parents, staff and even some students stepped up to clean their school themselves.

Rodent droppings, overflowing garbage, smelly bathrooms with no toilet paper, cockroaches, on and on — we’ve heard the same complaints, ad nauseam, since 2018. That’s when FitzPatrick first reported so many schools had failed cleanliness audits that CPS halted the inspections. Many schools that passed did so because supervisors cheated.

Just as they did back then, custodial workers came forward with the same litany of issues that hampered their ability to do the job. In 2018, the facilities chief lost his job. His successor, brought in to fix the problem, was ousted just last week.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez says the district will hold itself accountable. The best way to do so is to hold Aramark’s feet closely to the fire.

Custodial workers should not have to spend their own money, as some apparently do, on cleaning supplies, mops and toilet paper so they can do their jobs as professionals.

We don’t doubt that labor shortages and supply-chain issues may play a role in the recent problems. But dirty schools, maddeningly, are nothing new.

“Over my 10 years,” a custodian at King High School said, “it has never been this bad.” (The custodians who protested this week are members of SEIU Local 1, which is a part of the Sun-Times ownership group.)

We continue to favor an outside, independent analysis to determine whether custodial privatization is worth the cost — at a price tag of nearly $1 billion since 2014 — and can be made more effective. Or, maybe it should be scrapped altogether.

Aramark is a multinational, Fortune 500 company that provides food and facilities services to some 500 school districts nationwide. It is the company’s job to figure it out.

If it can’t, CPS must turn elsewhere.

Send letters to [email protected]

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker, left, attends a news conference last month; Hedge fund founder Ken Griffin, right, speaks at a news conference n 2018. | Pat Nabong; Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file

After Ken Griffin’s backing of former GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner, Pritzker suggested the hedge fund mogul keep his checkbook closed: “I don’t think we want to give him a redo.” But Griffin fired back that the Democrat is “failing Chicagoans.” “What is his plan to address the spiral of death and violence and the mayhem in our streets?”

A day after the richest man in Illinois pledged to go “all in” to beat him, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday said Ken Griffin’s past support for Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner makes it clear the hedge fund billionaire doesn’t deserve a “redo.”

“I’ve spent the last three years undoing the damage that Ken Griffin and his governor did,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker told the Chicago Sun-Times that Griffin has shown “extremely poor judgment” backing Rauner, pointing to Illinois’ two-year budget impasse under the one-term governor, numerous credit downgrades and cuts to services.

Griffin has not named a specific candidate this time around, but said Wednesday he is “all in to support the candidate who will beat” Pritzker.

After Griffin’s backing of Rauner’s past campaigns with more than $36 million, Pritzker suggested the hedge fund mogul keep his checkbook closed.

“I don’t think we want to give him a redo,” the Democratic governor said.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file
Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks at the Thompson Center last year.

The founder and CEO of Chicago-based Citadel on Thursday elaborated on his criticism of Pritzker, arguing the Democrat is “failing Chicagoans.”

“What is his plan to address the spiral of death and violence and the mayhem in our streets?” Griffin asked after the governor essentially suggested he stay out of the race.

Pritzker talked to the Sun-Times about Griffin in an interview in which the governor largely reflected on his trip this week to the United Kingdom for COP26, the United Nation’s climate change conference.

Pritzker’s remarks follow comments Griffin made Wednesday at a New York Times business event where the founder and CEO of Chicago-based Citadel also discussed Pritzker, vowing to “make sure that if he runs again, that I am all in to support the candidate who will beat him.”

“He doesn’t deserve to be the governor of our state,” Griffin said, according to a report by Crain’s on Wednesday’s event.

Economic Club of Chicago/Youtube
Ken Griffin, founder & CEO of Citadel, speaks to the Economic Club of Chicago in October.

Griffin is worth an estimated $21 billion, according to Forbes, which ranked him the richest resident of Illinois as recently as last year.

Pritzker, worth $3.6 billion, according to Forbes, pumped $171 million of his personal fortune into his 2018 bid to oust Rauner, a Republican venture capitalist then finishing his first term as governor.

Pritzker’s campaign and the Democratic Party of Illinois shot back on Wednesday that after Griffin financed Rauner’s “disastrous tenure,” he now wants to pick “Bruce Rauner 2.0.”

This week’s war of words was sparked by an appearance Griffin made last month, telling the Economic Club of Chicago that he implored Pritzker to deploy the National Guard in Illinois after looting and civil unrest following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year.

Immediately after those remarks, a Pritzker spokeswoman disputed Griffin’s version of events and called him a “liar.”

The hedge fund founder cited that exchange Wednesday, according to Crain’s, saying, “It’s all about politics for him. It’s not about people.”

The Citadel founder and CEO said in a Thursday statement he “unequivocally” stands by his words.

“The Governor refused to deploy the National Guard last August and he is refusing now to address the violence and crime that plagues Chicago,” Griffin’s statement reads in part.

Griffin went on to say he’s “not perturbed by [Pritzker’s] ad hominem attacks” but he’s “outraged” by the governor’s “continued failure to address the fact that Chicago is becoming a city defined by violent crime.”

Since he spoke at the Economic Club of Chicago just five weeks ago, Griffin noted a “staggering” number of shootings and deaths which Pritzker “seems to accept … as normal in Chicago.”

Sun-Times records show at least 404 people were shot, and 77 shot and killed, in Chicago since Griffin’s Oct. 4 speech.

“What real response, new set of policies or new thinking has the Governor offered?” Griffin asked Thursday. “What is his plan to address the spiral of death and violence and the mayhem in our streets? How does he expect companies like Citadel to commit to Chicago when our employees are mugged at gunpoint and harassed as they come into work.

“The government’s most basic responsibility is to protect its citizens and the Governor is failing Chicagoans.”

Griffin still has not said whether he planned to weigh in during the GOP primary or wait until the party chooses a nominee from among the four Republicans already running — state Sen. Darren Bailey of Xenia, former state Sen. Paul Schimpf of Waterloo, suburban businessman Gary Rabine and venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan.

A Pritzker spokeswoman declined to respond to Griffin’s latest remarks, pointing to the governor’s comments from earlier Thursday.

In his interview with the Sun-Times, Pritzker said he’s “focused on delivering” for Illinoisans.

Top of mind on that topic was his just completed trip overseas for the climate conference, where the governor said he had two goals.

The first was to tout Illinois’ recently passed energy legislation and tax incentive package for electric vehicle manufacturers, and the second was to meet with companies and business leaders in the electric vehicle industry to attract them to Illinois.

Pritzker said the state’s location, workforce, transportation system — namely being a hub for major railroads — make Illinois “one of the most attractive in the country” for electric vehicle makers and the governor felt he and his team were “successful in planting seeds.”

Pritzker returned from his first overseas mission as governor Wednesday afternoon and characterized his time away as a “great trip overall.”

During his trip, Pritzker visited London, Edinburgh and Glasgow — where the climate conference was held — and met with dignitaries from other countries as well as representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and former President Barack Obama.

The conference placed Illinois “on a platform,” putting the state on the map for world leaders when it comes to climate change.

“This was an important marker for the state,” Pritzker said, adding that world leaders “now know who we are. … We offer a model for many of them, and that’s a big deal, especially in the effort to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”

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