We can’t get enough of the two-bite shrimp cakes at this BYOB Vietnamese spot in Uptown.Read More

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A new report from Joe Ferguson, the city’s now-departed inspector general, documents another round of misbehavior and worse by city employees. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times file

Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s 12-year run as Chicago’s top watchdog ended Friday. His final quarterly report, released Monday, includes details on a city employee who tried to sneak a firearm through an airport checkpoint.

A city employee without a valid FOID card or concealed carry permit who tried to pass through a security checkpoint at O’Hare Airport with a loaded, semi-automatic firearm.

A Chicago firefighter-EMT who used Facebook to spew racial hatred against minorities.

Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s extraordinary, 12-year run as Chicago’s top watchdog ended Friday. But his final quarterly report, released Monday, includes a range of wrongdoing, just like other reports issued during Ferguson’s three terms in office.

As always, the accused employees are not identified — the report notes only their positions and departments, summaries of the behavior, and the punishment recommended and meted out.

Still, the summaries raise eyebrows:

o A fleet services assistant for the city’s Department of Assets, Information and Services “carried a loaded semi-automatic firearm” into O’Hare and tried to pass through security with the weapon in a carry-on backpack before boarding a flight to New York City’s LaGuardia Airport. The employee was also carrying an “empty badge wallet and a pair of handcuffs” in the backpack.

Not only did the employee in question no possess a valid FOID or concealed carry license, but the investigation also revealed the employee “had previously applied for an FOID, but was denied due to prior criminal convictions,” the report states.

“Without a valid FOID card, the fleet services assistant could not lawfully acquire or possess firearms or firearms ammunition,” the report states.

“In order to circumvent the FOID card provisions, the fleet services assistant made separate purchases of the required parts to assemble a fully-functional firearm … .”

Associated Press file photo
A security checkpoint sign at O’Hare International Airport. A city employee was reprimanded after they tried to pass by security at that airport with a loaded semi-automatic weapon on a backpack that they intended to carry on a flight to New York. The employee also was carrying a pair of handcuffs, according to the final quarterly report from Inspector General Joe Ferguson, whose tenure in that office ended Friday.

Ferguson recommended the employee be fired and placed on the city’s do-not-hire list.

Instead, the employee received only a written reprimand — despite being arrested and pleading guilty to a felony. They were sentenced to two years’ probation on Sept. 21.

“We were not given permission to terminate because, according to the Law Department, under the Il. Human Rights Act, it is illegal to take an adverse employment action against an employee who has committed a crime off-duty unless the department can articulate a substantial relationship between the criminal offense and the employee’s job title,” the report states.

o A firefighter-EMT who made “multiple racist and offensive comments” in posts on their own Facebook page and on a Facebook post made by a “member of the public.”

Four years ago, a housecleaning triggered by racist, sexist and homophobic emails in the Department of Water Management flushed out then-Water Management Commissioner Barrett Murphy.

Ferguson uncovered those hate-filled emails while investigating allegations that now-former District Superintendent Paul Hansen had used his city email account to sell guns.

The Facebook posts by the firefighter-EMT — on their own Facebook page and in response to a post by a member of the public the firefighter-EMT did not know — were similarly hateful.

“The comments mocked the member of the public’s mother’s parenting skills, assumed that the member of the public and other commenters on the post were welfare recipients and suggested that one of the commenters ‘take their ass back over the border,'” the report states.

“The posts were particularly directed at Black people, presenting stereotypes equating them with criminality and welfare … . The firefighter-EMT also derided and insulted an Asian reporter by calling her a false name and writing in a mock imitation dialect. The firefighter-EMT seemingly issued praise for violence, advocating for shooting an individual in Kenosha and posting a cartoon depicting a driver hitting protesters with a car.”

The firefighter-EMT was further accused of drawing “attention to their employment multiple times” by mentioning they “had to go to work and that they had a ‘real job,'” the report states. The firefighter-EMT’s Facebook profile included a photo of the employee and their child dressed in “CFD paraphernalia.”

The firefighter-EMT was fired and placed on the do-not-hire list, but has filed a grievance.

o A truck driver for the city’s Department of Aviation who posted a photo to their Facebook account “holding a handgun with the message, ‘Proud Boys, KKK or any of you other hate-mongers. We ready. Bring that foolishness this way, if you want to.'”

The employee said the photo was “staged” in a public bathroom at a Menards store and uploaded while the driver was off-duty. But the photo was taken after the driver “was alleged to have referred to several of their colleagues” in a break room as “the Klan or KKK,” the report states.

After being made aware of the Facebook posts, several of the driver’s colleagues alerted bosses “of their fear” that the accused employee “might be seeking to harm them with a firearm,” the report states.

The motor truck driver was fired on Sept. 21, but has appealed. A hearing before the Human Resources board is pending.

Other allegations in the report:

o A now-fired aviation department operating engineer owned and operated a printing company that did business for the city, including printing work for “several aldermen.”

o A now-fired administrative assistant for the city’s Law Department filed a fraudulent unemployment insurance claim in an attempt to receive jobless benefits while gainfully employed.

o A contractor employee who has since been discharged pocketed a $100 bribe in exchange for “not towing the individual’s booted vehicle.”

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Orlando (Liam Quealy, left) serenades his disguised love interest Rosalind (Lakeisha Renee) in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Beatles music-infused production of “As You Like It.” | Liz Lauren

This technicolor jukebox musical is set in the ’60s and highlights a winning combination of the Beatles’ greatest hits with humor.

“As You Like It,” now playing at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, contains the famous words “All the world’s a stage,” beginning the monologue, referred to as “7 Ages of Man,” which tracks the progression of life from cradle to grave. As the most frequently produced playwright in the English-speaking world, Shakespeare’s works continuously seek reinvention to maintain modern relevance, even as the palatability of societal norms in the text age poorly. Much like the later ages of man, these reinventions often take an irreverent and joyous return toward childhood.

The Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Beatles-themed rendition of “As You Like It” is exactly that — joyous and irreverent, and entirely in the spirit of the Bard. Conceived and adapted by Daniel Cloran for the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, and directed by Cloran here in Chicago, this technicolor jukebox musical is set in the ’60s and highlights a winning combination of the Beatles’ greatest hits with humor. Audiences are eager for light-hearted entertainment, and this delivers, in an environment that encourages public safety — vaccine cards and IDs are checked at the door.

The play opens in a boxing ring, in an homage to professional WWE wrestling, which was conceived in the ’60s. While it’s entertaining to watch the actors bouncing around on the ropes, the top rope unfortunately blocks the faces of some of the shorter actors, depending on where you are seated.

Liam Quealy plays a charming and spunky Orlando, who takes to the road with his senior manservant Adam, portrayed warmly by Steven Pringle. Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to Orlando, his new love Rosalind, (a bright and peppy Lakeisha Renee) has been banished from the court and decides to run away disguised as a man named Ganymede, along with her favorite cousin Celia (played by a hilariously spirited Melanie Brezill.)

It turns out that the music of the Beatles perfectly complements the rom-com feel of “As You Like It.” The driving beat from the live band onstage propels the storytelling forward, giving the show a concert vibe, though the sound level could stand to be raised. The Beatles’ rock, and the softer volume, left some well-executed numbers sounding unnecessarily hollow. However, that didn’t stop the eager and engaged audience from singing the iconic high notes on songs like “I Saw Her Standing There” when the cast did not.

Liz Lauren
Cousins and best friends Rosalind (Lakeisha Renee, left) and Celia (Melanie Brezill) stick together in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of “As You Like It,” adapted and directed by Daryl Cloran.

Comedy and rock ‘n’ roll aside, pastoral themes of renewal and care resonate deeply against the backdrop of COVID-19. The aforementioned “7 Ages of Man” monologue (delivered by an outstanding and frenetic Deborah Hay as Jacques), is bookended with two touching scenes evoking compassion for youth and age, guided expertly by an outstanding Kevin Gudhahl as Duke Senior. May we all find such understanding in these troubling times. The relationship between Celia and Rosalind provides sweet commentary on sisterhood and loyalty.

The show isn’t perfect; the second act lags, and several of Rosalind’s solos feel perfunctory and could use additional creative scaffolding. While some of the songs gain deeper meaning from the context of the play, some feel shoehorned in. Having said that, every song is excellently executed. “When I’m 64” is sung by LaChrisa Grandberry as Audrey, and her showstopper voice, paired with the absolutely hilarious Kayvon Khoshkam as Touchstone, creates a dynamic duo of laughs. A beautiful version of “Let It Be” with a touching a cappella segment is stellar, as is a top-notch version of “As My Guitar Gently Weeps” sung by the golden voice of Austin Eckert playing Amiens. Some of the gender roles in the text have aged as well as spoiled milk, yet the cotton-candy frothiness of the concept provides a huge spoonful of sugar to help the sexism go down. A hilarious performance of “Something” by Heidi Kettenring as Phoebe deadlifts an awkward role reversal off of the page, and through some witchery, makes it sparkle.

“As You Like It” is a rollicking good time, and a wonderfully lighthearted show. Though purists may frown at the commerciality of the jukebox musical form, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, (along with their colleagues at Black Ensemble Theater) has figured out that in order to keep audiences returning and happy, all you need is love — and music and laughter.

Liz Lauren
The company of “As You Like It,” presented by Chicago Shakespeare Theater in the Courtyard Theater on Navy Pier.

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Former Gen. Colin Powell (Ret.) onstage at A Capitol Fourth concert at the U.S. Capitol, West Lawn in 2016. | Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Capital Concerts

Powell’s family says he died of complications from COVID-19. He was 84.

WASHIINGTON — Colin Powell, who served Democratic and Republican presidents in war and peace but whose sterling reputation was forever stained by his faulty claims to justify the U.S. war in Iraq, died Monday of COVID-19 complications. He was 84.

A veteran of the Vietnam War, Powell rose to the rank of four-star general and in 1989 became the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In that role he oversaw the U.S. invasion of Panama and later the U.S. invasion of Kuwait to oust the Iraqi army in 1991.

But his legacy was marred when, in 2003, he went before the U.N. Security Council as secretary of state and made the case for U.S. war against Iraq at a moment of great international skepticism. He cited faulty information claiming Saddam Hussein had secretly stashed weapons of mass destruction. Iraq’s claims that it had no such weapons represented “a web of lies,” he told the world body.

In announcing his death on social media, Powell’s family said he had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father and grandfather and a great American,” the family said. Powell had been treated at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Peggy Cifrino, Powell’s longtime aide, said he had been treated over the past few years for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. The Powell family’s social media post did not address whether Powell had any underlying illnesses.

Multiple myeloma impairs the body’s ability to fight infection, and studies have shown that those cancer patients don’t get as much protection from the COVID-19 vaccines as healthier people.

Powell was the first American official to publicly lay the blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network and made a lightning trip to Pakistan in October, 2001 to demand that then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf cooperate with the United States in going after the Afghanistan-based group, which also had a presence in Pakistan, where bin Laden was later killed.

As President George W. Bush’s first secretary of state, Powell led a State Department that was dubious of the military and intelligence communities’ conviction that Saddam Hussein possessed or was developing weapons of mass destruction. And yet, despite his reservations, he presented the administration’s case that Saddam indeed posed a major regional and global threat in a speech to the UN Security Council in the run-up to the war.

That speech, replete with his display of a vial of what he said could have been a biological weapon, was later derided as a low-point in Powell’s career, although he had removed some elements that he deemed to have been based on poor intelligence assessments.

Bush said Monday that he and former first lady Laura Bush were “deeply saddened” by Powell’s death.

“He was a great public servant” and “widely respected at home and abroad,” Bush said. “And most important, Colin was a family man and a friend. Laura and I send Alma and their children our sincere condolences as they remember the life of a great man.”

Powell gained national prominence under Republican presidents and considered a presidential bid of his own, but ultimately moved away from the party. He endorsed Democrats in the last four presidential elections, starting with former President Barack Obama. He emerged as a vocal Donald Trump critic in recent years, describing Trump as “a national disgrace” who should have been removed from office through impeachment. Following the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, Powell said he no longer considers himself a Republican.

Powell rose from a childhood in a fraying New York neighborhood to become the nation’s chief diplomat. “Mine is the story of a black kid of no early promise from an immigrant family of limited means who was raised in the South Bronx,” he wrote in his 1995 autobiography “My American Journey.”

At City College, Powell discovered the ROTC. When he put on his first uniform, “I liked what I saw,” he wrote.

He joined the Army and in 1962 he was one of more than 16,000 military advisers sent to South Vietnam by President John F. Kennedy. A series of promotions led to the Pentagon and assignment as a military assistant to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, who became his unofficial sponsor. He later became commander of the Army’s 5th Corps in Germany and later was national security assistant to President Ronald Reagan.

During his term as Joint Chiefs chairman, his approach to war became known as the Powell Doctrine, which held that the United States should only commit forces in a conflict if it has clear and achievable objectives with public support, sufficient firepower and a strategy for ending the war.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a retired Army general and the first Black Pentagon chief, said the news of Powell’s death left “a hole in my heart.”

“The world lost one of the greatest leaders that we have ever witnessed,” Austin said while traveling in Europe. “Alma lost a great husband and the family lost a tremendous father and I lost a tremendous personal friend and mentor.

Condoleezza Rice, Powell’s successor at State and the department’s first black female secretary, praised him as “a trusted colleague and a dear friend through some very challenging times.”

Powell’s appearances at the United Nations as secretary of state, including his Iraq speech, were often accompanied by fond reminiscing of his childhood in the city, where he grew up the child of Jamaican immigrants who got one of his first jobs at the Pepsi-Cola bottling plant directly across the East River from the UN headquarters.

Powell maintained, in a 2012 interview with The Associated Press, that on balance, U.S. succeeded in Iraq.

“I think we had a lot of successes,” Powell said. “Iraq’s terrible dictator is gone.” Saddam was captured by U.S. forces while hiding out in northern Iraq in December 2003 and later executed by the Iraqi government. But the insurgency grew, and the war dragged on far longer than had been foreseen. Obama pulled U.S. troops out of Iraq in 2011, but he sent advisers back in 2014 after the Islamic State group swept into the country from Syria and captured large swaths of Iraqi territory.

AP writer Steve Peoples and AP medical writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.

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Sky GM/head coach James Wade, center, celebrates with Candice Parker, right, and Kahleah Copper after winning the WNBA championship at Wintrust Arena. | Paul Beaty/AP

The celebration will be held sometime Tuesday, the mayor said.

There’s going to be another party at Millennium Park.

The city’s celebration of the Sky’s WNBA championship will be sometime Tuesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday morning in an appearance on The Score. No other details were available.

This will be the first championship celebration since the Cubs won the World Series in 2016 and the Blackhawks last Stanley Cup victory in 2015.

The Sky rallied in the fourth quarter Sunday to defeat the Phoenix Mercury 80-74 in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals at Wintrust Arena.

“This one is so sweet,” the Sky’s Candace Parker — who played high school basketball at Naperville Central — said after the game. “To do it with this group. I love this group, I love this team. And to do it here at home, it was just supposed to be.

“It was just an amazing feeling to be from here and see so many people in the stands that have been supporting you since you started. It’s just a moment where you just have to really take it in.”

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Coach Brad Underwood’s Illinois team is ranked No. 11 in the Associated Press preseason men’s basketball poll. | Sarah Stier/Getty Images

The Big Ten and SEC have a national-best five ranked teams each. The Big Ten has No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 Michigan, No. 11 Illinois, No. 17 Ohio State and No. 21 Maryland.

Gonzaga carried a No. 1 ranking all last season before falling a win short of becoming college basketball’s first unbeaten national champion in 45 years.

Mark Few’s Bulldogs start this season in the same position, hoping to complete that final step this time around.

The Zags were the runaway top choice in The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball preseason poll released Monday. They earned 55 of 63 first-place votes to easily outdistance No. 2 UCLA, which earned the other eight. Kansas, Villanova and Texas rounded out the top five, while reigning national champion Baylor checked in at No. 8.

The Zags have accomplished just about every milestone possible in 23 years under Few other than cutting down the nets on the final Monday night of the season. They came close to completing the first unbeaten run since 1976 last year with a wire-to-wire No. 1 team, only to fall to the Bears in a one-sided final in Indianapolis.

Now they’ll try again.

“It is quite an honor to be selected preseason No. 1 for the second consecutive year,” Few said in a statement to the AP. “Our returning players realize the challenge of playing up to that level all year and look forward to it.”

Gonzaga lost AP All-Americans Corey Kispert and Jalen Suggs to the NBA, but second-team selection Drew Timme (19.0 points, 7.0 rebounds) and starting guard Andrew Nembhard return. The Zags also bring in a top recruiting class featuring the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit in 7-footer Chet Holmgren and a five-star guard in Hunter Sallis.

Going back to the 2019-20 season, the Zags have now been ranked in the top three for 32 straight polls, with 22 of those at No. 1.

THE TOP TIER

Second-year coach Mick Cronin has UCLA on a fast climb.

Leading scorer Johnny Juzang (16.0 ppg) headlines a Bruins roster that returns nearly intact after last year’s run from the First Four to the Final Four, where they lost to Gonzaga on a halfcourt shot in an overtime classic.

They are starting with their first top-10 preseason ranking since 2009 and their first top-10 ranking in any AP poll since spending 13 weeks there during the 2016-17 season.

“If we taught anybody anything last year,” Cronin said this month, “your seed or your ranking does not matter come tournament time.”

Kansas has the program’s 10th straight preseason top-10 ranking, followed by the Wildcats and Longhorns, who open their first season under Chris Beard with the program’s highest preseason ranking since 2010.

THE CHAMPS

Baylor has a second straight top-10 preseason ranking despite losing four starters from last year’s title winner, including AP All-Americans Jared Butler and Davion Mitchell. The Bears will try to join Duke (1991-92) and Florida (2006-07) as the only schools to win consecutive titles since UCLA’s run of seven straight from 1967-73.

“As we’ve talked with our team,,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said, “we have a unique opportunity.”

BLUEBLOODS BACK?

Duke and Kentucky are starting with their typically high rankings after seasons unlike many in their tradition-rich histories.

The ninth-ranked Blue Devils are playing the final season under retiring Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski. They’re coming off a 13-11 season that included missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1995.

The 10th-ranked Wildcats are right behind them after a 9-16 season, the program’s first losing record since 1988-89.

Then there’s North Carolina, which made the NCAA Tournament but was inconsistent all season and out of the Top 25 before Christmas. The Tar Heels open at No. 19 in their first season under Hubert Davis, promoted after the retirement of Hall of Famer Roy Williams in April.

WELCOME BACK

St. Bonaventure is ranked for the first time in more than five decades. The Bonnies from the Atlantic 10 are No. 23, marking the first time they have been ranked since January 1971. That season was also the last time the program was ranked in the preseason (No. 20).

CONFERENCE WATCH

The Big Ten and Southeastern conferences have a national-best five ranked teams each.

The Big Ten has No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 Michigan, No. 11 Illinois, No. 17 Ohio State and No. 21 Maryland. The SEC has No. 14 Alabama, No. 16 Arkansas, No. 18 Tennessee and No. 22 Auburn joining Kentucky.

The ACC is next up with four, with No. 20 Florida State and No. 25 Virginia joining Duke and UNC. The Big 12 has its Kansas-Texas-Baylor trio, while the Pac-12 (UCLA and No. 13 Oregon), Big East (Villanova and No. 24 Connecticut) and American Athletic Conference (No. 12 Memphis and No. 15 Houston) are the others with multiple Top 25 teams.

WATCH LIST

The top unranked teams are all from power conferences, headlined by Michigan State as the leading vote-getter. Next up is Indiana under first-year coach Mike Woodson, Southern California and Arizona under new coach Tommy Lloyd.

THE TOP 25

1. Gonzaga

2. UCLA

3. Kansas

4. Villanova

5. Texas

6. Michigan

7. Purdue

8. Baylor

9. Duke

10. Kentucky

11. Illinois

12. Memphis

13. Oregon

14. Alabama

15. Houston

16. Arkansas

17. Ohio State

18. Tennessee

19. North Carolina

20. Florida State

21. Maryland

22. Auburn

23. St. Bonaventure

24. Connecticut

25. Virginia

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The toddler was seated in the back of a parked car Sunday evening when gunfire rang out and struck him and a 25-year-old man standing outside the car, Joliet police said.

A 2-year-old boy was wounded Sunday evening in a double shooting in Joliet in the southwest suburbs.

The toddler was seated in the back of a parked car when gunfire rang out and struck him and a 25-year-old man standing outside the car, Joliet police said in a statement.

The boy was struck in his ankle and the man in his chest and arm, police said. They drove themselves to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox and were expected to survive.

The shooting happened around 6:45 p.m. in the 1200 block of Luther Avenue.

Police did not release more details.

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Community activists huddle and pray with a student Monday morning at Michele Clark Academic Prep High School on the West Side. | Stefano Esposito/Sun-Times

Kierra Moore, who dreamed of playing in the WNBA, was fatally shot Oct. 14.

Tristan Smith hopes to some day play in the NBA, and he understands it will take a tremendous effort to make it.

What makes no sense to the 10th grader is how someone with a similar dream, who was putting in the work, could be gunned down — hers now only a what-might-have-been story.

“That’s crazy because you can put so much work in and put so much effort to reach your dream and get it cut short off of something like that,” Smith said.

Smith was among the dozens of students who streamed into Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School on the West Side Monday. About two dozen community activists, including pastor Ira Acree, greeted them, hoping to ease the pain of losing their classmate, Kierra Moore, who, family said, was destined to play in the WNBA.

The 16-year-old was shot and killed Oct. 14 while standing with a group of people in Lawndale, according to police, who said the gunfire came from gunmen in a black car around 11:30 p.m. in the 3100 block of West Polk Street.

Moore was hit several times and died at Mount Sinai Hospital. Family insisted that Moore was not with a group of people when she was killed. Moore was with her twin sister in a rideshare car that was blocked by another vehicle, her family have said.

Some students huddled with Acree and his group in prayer Monday. Others walked into school, appearing dazed — perhaps from the unwelcome spotlight or from trying to process the tragedy.

“I know these kids are traumatized, I know they are just in another place, having to deal with such an awful, unnecessary death of someone who was a leader, who had a pathway out of poverty,” Acree said. “So we’re here to support them, if it’s just nothing but standing with them with a smile and letting them know it’s going to be alright.”

Counselors have been on hand to help students struggling with their emotions, school administrators said. And then to remind them that there is hope in education.

“We know that if we can get them off to college, then they can see a different tomorrow,” said Donovan Robinson, the school’s director of students.

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$130K Ald. Raymond Lopez is nicknamed Showpez for his grandstanding style. Most Chicagoans probably appreciated the show Lopez made of turning down the City Council’s latest pay increase, which raises the top aldermanic salary to $130,000. “How can anyone who continued making 6 figures during the most tumultuous time in recent history justify a 5.5% … Read moreRead More