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Modernist designs in the Chicagoland area, from a home on the Fox River to a residence that uses passive solar energy.Read More

After an impressive Week 4 victory, the Chicago Bears felt mighty good about themselves on both sides of the ball. The offense woke up from an embarrassing loss a week ago, which was at the hands of head coach Matt Nagy’s play calling and failure to scheme around the strengths of Justin Fields. Well, the […] Chicago Bears: Matt Nagy is an arrogant, narrow-minded buffoon – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

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Dirksen Federal Courthouse, 219 S. Dearborn St. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times | Sun-Times Media

Justin Hines has been described by the feds as one of the largest agents for the massive, international gambling ring once run by Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice.

A man described by the feds as one of the largest agents for a massive, international gambling ring pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to his role in the conspiracy.

Justin Hines, 42, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall and faces sentencing Jan. 7. He is the latest person to plead guilty to allegations revolving around the ring run by Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice.

Several of the eight people charged along with Hines and DelGiudice in a February 2020 gambling indictment have already been sentenced. Charges are still pending against two defendants, Keith Benson and Vasilios Prassas.

The defendants charged in that and a handful of related cases have mostly avoided prison time. Just two of the seven sentenced so far, Chicago Police Officer Nicholas Stella and bookie Gregory Paloian, have been given time behind bars. U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow gave Paloian until August 2022 to report to prison for health reasons.

Another defendant, Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher, was pardoned in January by then-President Donald Trump.

DelGiudice pleaded guilty in February but has not been sentenced.

The indictment that charged Hines, DelGiudice and the others alleged that DelGiudice recruited Hines and most of their fellow defendants to work as agents for the gambling ring. DelGiudice ran it through the website unclemicksports.com, paying a company in Costa Rica $10,000 a month for use of the site.

Hines told DelGiudice on Dec. 14, 2018, he had 10 “guys” who lose $15,000 a year, according to the indictment. Hines also told a gambler by text message he was “down 1450” on Dec. 27, 2018, it said.

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The historic colonnades of old Soldier Field are reflected in the glass exterior of the then-newly renovated stadium in 2003. But one expert on stadiums says even back then, it was “economically obsolete before the concrete dried.” Now, nearly 20 years later, the Chicago Bears are eyeing a move to the suburbs. | Associated Press

The team has flirted with potential relocation sites across the Chicago area for decades, but the freshly acquired turf at the shuttered Arlington International Racecourse suddenly seems like a realistic destination.

Three months ago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot cavalierly dismissed the Bears decision to put in a bid to buy the Arlington Heights International Racecourse property as the same old negotiating ploy.

But the agreement the Bears signed last week to purchase the 326-acre racecourse site for $197.2 million makes it abundantly clear that this time, on this site, the McCaskey family is playing for keeps.

“It’s gonna take a while, but this one is going to happen,” said veteran sportswriter Lester Munson. “This is not boy-who-cried wolf. This is not posturing. This is not negotiation. This is going to be a transaction that will transform the family asset.”

Chicago-based sports marketing expert Marc Ganis has advised numerous NFL teams on their stadium financing. He has closely followed the Bears stadium saga for decades, including former President Michael McCaskey’s past flirtations with sites in Gary, Indiana, Hoffman Estates, Aurora, the Near West Side and the ill-fated McDome project near McCormick Place.

Ganis ticked off a laundry list of factors that make this time different.

Paving the way

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Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, pictured last month.

There are now multiple examples of NFL teams that have bankrolled new stadiums either completely on their own or with only a “modest” public contribution: SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles ($5.5 billion); Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas ($1.9 billion); New York’s MetLife Stadium ($1.7 billion) and AT&T Stadium in Dallas ($1.85 billion).

“The Bears are able to follow in the footsteps of those teams in what to build, how to build it, how to finance it, how to market it. They will also walk in their footsteps on the NFL’s contributions and participation. The NFL’s financing program for new stadiums was $50 million to $100 million. It’s now $350 million,” Ganis said.

“And the financing market against the revenue streams the Bears would apply to get a loan to build a stadium are now well-known, well-documented and accepted by the marketplace. What might have been $150 million or $200 million before is now $600 million. The Rams alone — not counting the Chargers [who also play at SoFi] — have sold over $600 million in seat licenses. You get more and you pay more.”

When Michael McCaskey was attempting to play the suburbs against the city 25 years ago, the family-owned business that is the Bears franchise was valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. Today, the Bears are worth well over $4 billion.

“It’s the kind of valuation that would make, even conservative as the McCaskeys are, more comfortable taking on the financial responsibilities of developing a new stadium,” Ganis said.

Timing

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Arlington International Racecourse at 2200 Euclid Ave.

Ganis called the 326-acre site that houses the now-shuttered Arlington International Racecourse “the perfect site” for a new Bears stadium.

“There’s plenty of land to do real estate development to help offset some of the cost of the stadium in a friendly governmental jurisdiction … right on a highway used to accommodating tens of thousands of people in the heart of their fan base north and west of the city. And for those right in the city, you can take a train and be dropped off right outside the door,” Ganis said. “The Bears understood that and they actually went to the NFL before they even put in a bid on the land to make sure they had the available cash to pay for it. The NFL granted that.”

Had the Arlington site become available early on in the Bears’ lease at Soldier Field, a move to the suburbs may not have been possible. The early-out penalty might have been too high. But, the Bears’ contract with the Chicago Park District reduces that penalty over time. It’s now $86.9 million. The payment would be closer to $55 million if they stick around until 2029, or less than $12 million if they break the lease with a year to go.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Bears fans cheer on their team on Sunday against the Lions. A new stadium in Arlington Heights would be closer for many fans in the team base, some observers say, and those in the city can take a Metra right to the Arlington International Racecourse property.

Sports betting controversy

Tensions between the Bears and Park District are nothing new. The team and its landlord have been arguing over the sorry state of Soldier Field turf, for example, since the very beginning. But the most recent controversy over sports betting at Soldier Field was higher stakes.

“When the Illinois Legislature included the ability to have sports books adjacent to sports facilities with the approval of the landlord, that should have been a win-win for everybody. But the Bears still couldn’t get the Park District to focus on it,” Ganis said.

“There’s a toxicity that is unprecedented. That certainly plays a role in, ‘Do we want to control our own destiny, or do we want to go ask the public sector and the leadership for their assistance?'”

Munson said the importance of the sports betting stalemate cannot be overstated.

“The Park District is gonna fight them on gambling. … Mayor Lightfoot said on the ‘Mully & Haugh Show’ that she had to protect the downtown casino at the expense of the Bears at Soldier Field” and that she cannot do anything that would ‘cannibalize’ casino revenue,” Munson said. “The Bears have made their deal with the Des Plaines casino and, at Arlington Park, they can maximize the gambling revenue. The economics of the gambling have changed the entire economy of the NFL.”

Generational change

Sun-Times file
Virginia McCaskey (center) with Patrick McCaskey (left) and Michael McCaskey, pictured in 2009.

Munson added yet another item to Ganis’ list: the “generational” change in the McCaskey family, whose matriarch is 98-year-old Virginia McCaskey.

She is the daughter of Bears founder George Halas Sr. and the mother of Bears President George McCaskey.

“This is it. The family is at a turning point. … They know that they can double the value of the family asset by building a stadium like SoFi or like Allegiant. The revenue streams that would be available from this are phenomenal. When they add gambling to it, it becomes almost incomprehensible the kind of money they will be able to put together,” Munson said.

“They cannot maximize their profits without controlling their own stadium. They can’t do anything at Soldier Field. It’s too small. They know it’s impossible on the lakefront. Maybe finally, under the leadership of George, they have figured out that this is the one course that they have that will give them value that, either they can keep when she dies, or divide up among the siblings or sell when she dies.”

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Thousands flock to Soldier Field before the Chicago Bears take on the Detroit Lions on Sunday.

When the Bears chose the path-of-least-political-resistance by signing the 30-year lease at a renovated Soldier Field, the McCaskey family was in a different place under Michael McCaskey’s very different leadership.

“I can recall Mayor Daley expressing his frustration on dealing with Michael. The deal that they put together was one out of desperation — not out of any sense of investment or planning for the family’s future,” Munson said. “And then, the fact that Arlington Park actually closed and is now available, they figured out they just cannot pass this up. Those acres up there are priceless. The acreage is perfect for a stadium and more.”

Who’s paying for it?

Both Munson and Ganis believe the Bears and their development and ownership partners can finance their own stadium. They expect government help to be confined to infrastructure, perhaps through tax increment financing and bonding capacity to reduce interest rates.

Insurance magnate Patrick Ryan Sr. and businessman Andrew McKenna purchased 19.6% of the Bears from the Halas children during a highly-publicized family feud decades ago. Ryan and McKenna could not be reached for comment.

But the political appetite to throw more public dollars at the team — with taxpayers on the still on the hook for debt from the 2002 renovation that will amount to more than $600 million by the time it’s paid off a decade from now — has seemed lacking so far.

Both Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes have been noncommittal on the issue, while a handful of state lawmakers have moved to block any public funding for a new stadium.

“The Bears certainly don’t want to put a lot of their own money into this,” said University of Chicago economics Prof. Allen Sanderson. “But people can make dumb decisions, and that’s the big unknown here.”

Contributing: Mitchell Armentrout

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
The Bears take on the Lions on Sunday at Soldier Field. The stadium’s renovation, completed in 2003, improved sightlines and gave the team more pricey seats and suites to sell, but it reduced overall capacity. Buy as the economics of the National Football League continue to change, some observers say, Soldier Field becomes less and less attractive long-term for a team that can make a lot more money off a new facility in Arlington Heights.Read More

People sit on the street near the 1200 block of North Mason Avenue in the Austin neighborhood, where a person was fatally shot and two were injured, Friday morning, Oct. 1, 2021. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

The suspects are members of two warring factions of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang who allegedly shot it out Friday morning in the 1200 block of North Mason Avenue, where more than 70 shell casings were found.

Five men linked to a deadly gang-related shootout Friday in Austin were released from custody after prosecutors declined to charge each of them with a pair of felonies, including first-degree murder, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

The brazen mid-morning gunfight, which left one shooter dead and two of the suspects wounded, stemmed from an internal dispute between two factions of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang, according to an internal police report and a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation.

The source said police sought to charge all five suspects with murder and aggravated battery. By Sunday morning, a Chicago police spokeswoman acknowledged the suspects had “been released without charges.”

In a statement later Sunday, Cristina Villareal, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, explained that prosecutors had “determined that the evidence was insufficient to meet our burden of proof to approve felony charges.” Police officials agreed with the decision, Villareal added.

While she wouldn’t specify what other evidence prosecutors needed to file charges, the police report acknowledged that victims of the shootout weren’t cooperating with investigators.

But the report also framed the state’s attorney’s office’s decision to decline charges in a different light: “Mutual combatants was cited as the reason for the rejection.” Mutual combat is a legal term used to define a fight or struggle that two parties willingly engage in.

Last week, Cook County prosecutors came under fire after reportedly making a similar argument after a teenager was stabbed to death during a fight in suburban Schaumburg. The family of the victim, 18-year-old Manuel Porties Jr., later told WGN that prosecutors specifically said they weren’t charging the 17-year-old suspect with murder because the fatal fight amounted to mutual combat.

Meanwhile, as the city grapples with a spate of rolling shootouts that have erupted over the past week, the law enforcement source raised concerns that the rejection could encourage more brash violence. Much like those shootouts, the narrative of Saturday’s gun battle in Austin was reminiscent of an action movie scene.

“It’s just like the Wild West,” the source said of the exchange of gunfire in the violence-plagued neighborhood on the West Side.

Over 70 shell casings, a torched car and a SWAT situation

About 10:30 a.m., two Dodge Chargers driven by members of the Body Snatchers faction of the Four Corner Hustlers drove to the 1200 block of North Mason Avenue and exchanged words with members of the gang’s Jack Boys set, according to the source and the police report.

After circling the block and coming back, at least three individuals jumped out of the Chargers and began to shoot into a brick house using handguns equipped with “switches” that made the weapons fully automatic, noted the source and report. Members of the Jack Boys who were inside the home then began firing back.

Two of the Body Snatchers were left wounded, including an unidentified 32-year-old man who was later pronounced dead at a hospital, according to the report and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. A 29-year-old man aligned with the Jack Boys was also struck.

While the source confirmed over 70 shell casings were found outside the home, that likely doesn’t reflect the number of shots that were fired from inside.

The gunfight, which was caught on a police POD camera, came to a halt when a police cruiser pulled up to the block, according to the report and the source. The Body Snatchers then fled in the Chargers, leaving their fatally wounded accomplice behind.

One of the cars was later “found engulfed in flames nearby,” the report states. The other was used to drop off the non-fatal gunshot victim at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, where it was later spotted by local police.

During a brief chase, the 20-year-old driver crashed and he was taken into custody, according to the source and the report. An AK-47 assault rifle was found in the car, though police don’t believe it was used in the shooting.

Both Chargers were likely stolen, according to the source, who said one car had a “dealer plate” and the other had no license plates at all.

Those affiliated with the Jack Boys, meanwhile, refused to leave the home on Mason, causing a standoff that required a SWAT team to respond, the source said.

Police looked to charge three Jack Boys who were eventually taken into custody, including the man who was shot, the source said. Investigators also sought charges against two members of the Body Snatchers — the driver who crashed the Charger and the 20-year-old man he took to West Suburban.

The Sun-Times isn’t naming the suspects because they haven’t been charged with any crime.

Detectives wanted to charge the Body Snatchers affiliates with the killing of their slain accomplice under Illinois’ controversial felony murder rule, which allows a defendant to be convicted of first-degree murder if they commit certain felonies that ultimately lead to another person’s death.

The rule was recently curtailed in the sweeping criminal justice reform bill signed in February by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, but attorneys on Sunday agreed the gang members could still potentially be charged under the revised language.

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Justin Fields got his first two NFL starts the last two weeks. Will he get a third in Las Vegas on Sunday? | Nam Y. Huh/AP

Andy Dalton was out with a knee injury the last two games, but there’s a good chance he’ll be healthy enough to play Sunday against the Raiders.

Bears coach Matt Nagy said he will evaluate quarterback Andy Dalton’s knee injury Monday and Tuesday before making a decision on whether he or Justin Fields will start against the Raiders on Sunday.

“The next two days are going to tell us a lot,” Nagy said. “We’ll update you on Wednesday.”

If Dalton is healthy by Wednesday, which is the start of the practice week, Nagy said he will be the starter. He reiterated that Dalton is first on the depth chart, followed by Fields and Nick Foles.

Last week, Nagy’s decision dragged all the way to Saturday as he held out hope Dalton would recover enough to play. The Bears ruled him out the night before the game and went with Fields in their 24-14 win over the Lions.

Dalton exited after a game and a half when he injured his knee against the Bengals. He completed 73.5% of his passes for 262 yards with a touchdown and an interception for an 83.9 passer rating.

Fields replaced him near halftime of the Bengals game and held on for a win. His starting debut came Week 3 in Cleveland, and the Bears were a total disaster in their 26-6 loss.

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What we saw from the Chicago Bears offense on Sunday was unlike anything we have seen in recent years, and hopefully, this type of game plan is here to stay. Head coach Matt Nagy confirmed after the game that offensive coordinator Bill Lazor handled play-calling duties against the Lions, which was clear to Bears fans […] Chicago Bears: Shocking numbers prove Bill Lazor must keep calling plays – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

Sun-Times file photo

A 17-year-old boy was one of the homicide victims. Four other teens were injured.

At least three people were killed and 42 others were wounded — including four teens — across Chicago over the weekend.

The weekend was significantly less deadly than the last, when 10 people were killed and 58 others wounded across the city.

The first homicide this weekend left a 17-year-old boy dead in a Rosemoor home on the Far South Side. Martinus M. King was shot by someone in a basement around 6:10 p.m. Saturday in the 100 block of East 107th Street, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He was struck multiple times and taken to Christ Medical in Oak Lawn, where he died less than an hour later. Police reported no arrest.
Saturday night, a man was fatally shot in Burnside on the Far South Side. Police found Edward Hudson, 44, lying outside with a gunshot wound to the chest in the 600 block of East 92nd Place about 10:40 p.m., authorities said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sunday afternoon, a man was killed in a drive-by shooting in Lawndale on the West Side. The man, 43, was standing in front of an apartment building about 3 p.m. in the 3400 block of West Douglas Boulevard when a light-colored car pulled up and someone from inside opened fire, police said. He was struck in the head and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His name hasn’t been released.

Triple shootings on Near North Side, Gresham

About 3:35 a.m. Sunday, two men, 23 and 46, and a 29-year-old woman were in the 1200 block of North Dearborn Street when gunfire erupted, police said. The 46-year-old was struck in his head, the 23-year-old in his foot and the 29-year-old shot in the foot and grazed in the leg, police said. The older man was critically wounded, while the other two had wounds that were not life-threatening.
Three more people were wounded in a shooting Monday morning in Gresham on the South Side. The men were standing in a street about 2:35 a.m. in the 8800 block of South Parnell Avenue when they were struck by gunfire, police said. The men, ages 27, 28 and 33, were treated at hospitals.

Four teens wounded

Early Saturday, a teen was in the 2900 block of North Halsted Street when he was shot in the back, police said. The boy, 16, walked into Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition, police said.
On Friday, two other teens were wounded in a shooting in Austin on the West Side. They were walking about 5 p.m. in the 300 block of North Pine Avenue when someone opened fire, police said. A 17-year-old boy was struck in the foot, and a 16-year-old boy was struck in the shoulder, police said. They were both in good condition.
A teen was shot and wounded Sunday morning in West Garfield Park on the West Side. The 16-year-old was a traffic light about 4:10 a.m. in the 300 block of North Hamlin Avenue when a dark-colored car stopped next to him and someone inside opened fire, striking him in the left calf, police said. The boy’s condition was stabilized.

At least 32 others were wounded in shootings across the city from 5 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday.

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