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7 killed, 39 others wounded in weekend gun violence in Chicago that included two mass shootingsSun-Times Wireon August 23, 2021 at 1:52 pm

At least seven people were killed and 39 others were wounded in weekend gun violence in Chicago that included two mass shootings.

— One of the fatal attacks occurred outside a gas station Saturday morning in Austin on the West Side.

A man, 52, and two women, 62 and 24, were with about 20 other people in the 5100 block of West Madison Street when someone in a black Dodge Charger opened fire about 2:55 a.m., according to Chicago Police.

The man suffered gunshot wounds to the head and leg, the 62-year-old to the head, abdomen and lower backside, and the 24-year-old to the back, police said.

The 62-year-old was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital ,where she died, police said. The 52-year-old was taken to the hospital in critical condition, police said.

The 24-year-old went to Stroger Hospital and was listed in critical condition, police said.

— Later that day, a man was killed in West Garfield Park. The 34-year-old was in a parked car in the 3900 block of West Jackson Boulevard when someone fired shots about 2:05 p.m., police said.

He was shot in the neck and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. He hasn’t been identified.

— Hours later in Back of the Yards, a gunman approached a 19-year-old man in the 4700 block of South Wolcott Avenue and opened fire about 6:40 p.m., Chicago police said.

Israel L. Luna was hit in the chest and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he died, police said.

— Minutes later in Marquette Park, a man was killed and another was critically wounded when someone fired at their car in the 3000 block of West 65th Street about 7 p.m., police said. The driver crashed into a nearby parked car.

Sergio Ochoa, 30, was shot in the head and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

A 36-year-old man was struck in the shoulder and was transported to Holy Cross Hospital in critical condition, police said.

— Around 9:10 p.m. in Calumet Heights, one person was killed and five others wounded when two gunmen opened fire in a parking lot in the 1600 block of East 87th Place, police said.

A 39-year-old man was struck in the abdomen and went to Jackson Park Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. He hasn’t been identified. Another man, 40, was shot in the back and leg and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, police said. Another 39-year old man was struck in the ankle and was transported to the hospital in fair condition.

A fourth man, 32, was shot in the leg and went to Trinity Hospital in good condition, police said.

A 44-year-old woman was struck in the leg and went to the University of Chicago Medical Center in fair condition, police said.

The sixth person, 25, was shot in the arm and also went to Trinity Hospital.

— About four hours later, one person was killed and four others wounded in another mass shooting, this one on the West Side. Officers responded to a call about 1 a.m. in the 3400 block of West Lake Street and discovered five people — four males and a female — shot, police said.

Marcus Edwards, 29, was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

A 17-year-old boy was shot in the shoulder and an 18-year-old woman was wounded in the torso, police said. They were both taken to Stroger where the boy was in fair condition and the woman in serious condition, police said.

A 34-year-old man was shot in the arm and a 28-year-old in the arm and chest, police said. They were both taken to Mount Sinai where they were listed in fair condition, police said.

At least 28 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago between 5 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday.

Last weekend, 56 people were shot, eight fatally, in Chicago.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

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7 killed, 39 others wounded in weekend gun violence in Chicago that included two mass shootingsSun-Times Wireon August 23, 2021 at 1:52 pm Read More »

Getting 3,000th hit is next goal Tigers slugger Miguel CabreraAssociated Presson August 23, 2021 at 2:40 pm

TORONTO — Miguel Cabrera celebrated with his teammates on the Detroit Tigers. He took a curtain call on the road. He paid tribute to his family, his team and his native country.

It was quite a day, even for one of baseball’s most accomplished sluggers.

Cabrera became the 28th major leaguer to hit 500 home runs, reaching the milestone in the sixth inning Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The 38-year-old Cabrera connected on a 1-1 pitch from left-hander Steven Matz, sending the ball over the scoreboard in right-center field. Measured at 400 feet, the homer tied it at 1.

Many of the 14,685 fans at Rogers Centre rose for a standing ovation as Cabrera rounded the bases. After celebrating with his teammates, he came out of the dugout to accept a curtain call, taking off his helmet and bowing to the crowd behind Detroit’s dugout.

Cabrera, who won the Triple Crown and the first of back-to-back MVP awards in 2012, is the first Venezuelan to hit 500 homers. He is hoping to become the first hitter to reach 500 homers and 3,000 hits in the same season.

“It’s something special for my country, for my family, to be able to do this,” he said after Detroit’s 5-3 victory. “I’m really happy.”

Jeimer Candelario, who was on deck, was the first teammate to celebrate with Cabrera.

“When he hit that ball, I knew something special was about to happen and history was about to happen,” Candelario said. “For me, being a part of that is a blessing. It helped us to win a ballgame, too.”

Cabrera’s 500th home run was hit No. 2,955 of his career, and he can reach that 3,000 milestone this year, too, if he can stay healthy and average one hit per game. Only six players have 3,000 hits and 500 homers: Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Rafael Palmeiro, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Eddie Murray.

His pursuit of these big numbers has become a bright spot for a Detroit team that finally seems to be emerging from a difficult rebuild, approaching a .500 record.

Cabrera is the sixth player born outside the United States to reach 500 homers. He joins Pujols, Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, who reached the mark in 2015 and was the last to pull off the feat before Cabrera.

He is also the first player to reach the mark in a Tigers uniform.

“So proud for him and his family, and a career accomplishment so rare you may never get to be a part of this again,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “We have no idea who the next person can be to pass this big number.”

In 2012, Cabrera became the first player in 45 years to win the Triple Crown by leading the league in batting average, home runs, and RBIs.

When Cabrera made his major league debut with the Marlins in 2003, he was just 20 years old. He helped them win the World Series that year.

The Tigers acquired him in a trade with the Marlins in 2007, a year after losing the World Series to St. Louis, in the hopes that he would help them win a world championship for the first time since 1984.

However, the Tigers have never won it all with the slugging superstar. They lost in the 2012 World Series to San Francisco and later in the decade went into a rebuilding mode that bottomed out with 310 losses between 2017-19.

Cabrera’s hitting and his jovial on-field demeanor made him popular in Detroit, but his production has dipped significantly in recent years as age and injuries caught up with him.

While other Tigers such as superstar pitcher Justin Verlander were traded away, Cabrera’s declining value and huge contract made him difficult to move. His 500th homer was his 13th this season, his highest total since 2017.

Although Cabrera was in striking distance of both the home run and hit milestones when the season started, no one knew how those pursuits would go because of his recent struggles at the plate. He homered on opening day in the snow, but by the All-Star break, he had gone deep just seven times and there were doubts he could pull off the feat this year.

He has picked up the pace since then, hitting six home runs and reaching 500 with time to spare in 2021.

Cabrera is just behind Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, who ranks 27th on the career list with 504 home runs.

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Getting 3,000th hit is next goal Tigers slugger Miguel CabreraAssociated Presson August 23, 2021 at 2:40 pm Read More »

Boo hoo. Fox won’t run an anti-Trump ad. How does it feel?on August 23, 2021 at 2:29 pm

The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor

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Boo hoo. Fox won’t run an anti-Trump ad. How does it feel?on August 23, 2021 at 2:29 pm Read More »

Celebrate National Waffle Day with Nature’s Path Envirokidz’on August 23, 2021 at 2:21 pm

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On the Market: A Piece of Oz HistoryLynette Smithon August 23, 2021 at 1:19 pm

From the outside, the Donohue Building, an 1883 red-brick fortress at 727 South Dearborn Street, just looks like an especially excellent example of Chicago’s famed Romanesque architecture. But the Printers Row edifice is also a treasure-trove of firsts: It was the first building with a timber infrastructure constructed after the Great Chicago Fire; the first structure in the country to include a sprinkler system; and home to one of two original publishers of the children’s classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

In 1979, it was also Chicago’s first factory converted into residential condos. “It’s the grandaddy of loft spaces,” says Susan Dickman, a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago. The penthouse, which Dickman is representing, is listed for $1.175 million. Owners Nancy and Bruce Johnson are downsizing from their 3,500-square-foot, three-bedroom corner unit now that Bruce is retiring.

The Land of Oz is exactly what comes to mind upon entering the couple’s home. A vaulted 40-by-20-foot skylight serves as the condo’s centerpiece, flooding the living room with natural light. The Johnsons installed the modern dome in place of the original industrial skylight. Climb a spiral staircase to a door in the side of the dome and you’ll find a private 3,100-square-foot rooftop with 360-degree views of the city.

The office and library both feature expansive built-in bookshelves. Exposed brick reminds you it was a factory, too. But alongside the charm are plenty of modern comforts, including a steam shower, walk-in closets, and a garage parking spot (for an extra fee). All together now: There’s no place like this home.

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On the Market: A Piece of Oz HistoryLynette Smithon August 23, 2021 at 1:19 pm Read More »

Chicago Bears: 3 players who deserve to stick on the rosterRyan Heckmanon August 23, 2021 at 1:36 pm

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Chicago Bears: Raiders asked about trading for this star playerRyan Heckmanon August 23, 2021 at 12:35 pm

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2020 Cook County And Chicago Property Tax Rates Explainedon August 23, 2021 at 12:30 pm

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Dick Vitale has advice on how to beat Melanomaon August 23, 2021 at 11:00 am

I’ve Got The Hippy Shakes

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New ‘Candyman’ director Nia DaCosta promises a version with ‘a lot more of the Black experience’Evan F. Mooreon August 23, 2021 at 10:30 am

Don’t call the new “Candyman” film a sequel.

A reboot? A remake?

Not in the least bit — try again.

The film’s director, Nia DaCosta, a Harlem, New York, native who grew up across the street from public housing, says she wanted to “reimagine” the legend of the original 1992 film. Widely regarded as one of the best horror movies of all time, it’s told from the perspective of graduate student Helen Lyle (played by Virginia Madsen), who went to the Cabrini-Green Homes, a housing project known for heartbreaking violence, neglect and gentrification, for her thesis research.

“It really started with” co-writers Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, DaCosta said. “They had a very strong idea that they wanted the film to be more expansive than a reboot or remake. If we’re going to do ‘Candyman,’ we should do more than just copy what was there before.

“When I came on, it was really important to me that we do more with the legend, and make it expansive. I think it was fun to me that we shoot the POV with less Helen, but a lot more of the Black experience.”

Children run along the Cabrini-Green Homes six months after Mayor Jane Byrne briefly moved in there in 1981 to bring attention to Cabrini’s troubles. John H. White/Sun-Times

“Candyman,” which opens Thursday in theaters, has themes encompassing race, police brutality, gentrification, cultural appropriation and the responsibility institutions have when it comes to public housing blight.

In one scene, an art director explaining the type of content audiences are interested in tells Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s character: “The South Side is played.”

The film also mentions the horrific 1997 case of a 9-year-old girl, then known as “Girl X,” who was raped, strangled, poisoned, and left for dead in a Cabrini-Green stairwell. Two months after the original film’s debut, 7-year-old Dantrell Davis was shot and killed by a sniper’s stray bullet as he walked to school with his mother.

“That line of exploiting racial pain in order to make art for white people was really what that was all about,” said DaCosta. “But also struggling with your own history, and how as an artist — or a person — do you reconcile it?”

While filming in Chicago, DaCosta took a walk around the area where the sprawling housing project once stood, and took in the fact that a Target now sits on the land.

“You’d see yuppies walking their dogs, and then a little further up a Target,” said DaCosta. “It is really interesting the amount of development that’s happened around the community that didn’t seem to be able to get into the community, which is part of what the movie is about.

“I think it informs why we knew it was imperative that we expand this beyond ‘Oh, this is one sort of evil demonic killer and his story happens in the 1800s.’ We just talked about the systemic issues. … It’s cyclical and every generation we have this violence, and it changes and it warps, and it shifts so it looks differently. It’s all part of our history. So it definitely informed why we said, ‘OK, we’re going to take this ‘Candyman’ legend and make it work for us a little bit more.’ “

Anthony (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) walks through the Cabrini Rowhouses in “Candyman.”Universal Pictures

DaCosta, who says Near North’s Marina City apartment buildings/condos are her favorite local filming location, also states the importance of surrounding the main cast — Emmy winner Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, and Colman Domingo — with local actors.

She says local actors Rebecca Spence (of Steppenwolf’s “Mary Page Marlowe”), and Carl Clemons-Hopkins (“Hacks” on HBO Max) are standout performers in the film.

“Chicago has a great wall of talent, and I was so impressed with everyone,” said DaCosta. “I think for me the [Chicago cast] added a certain level of authenticity because they were like if there’s something felt lost, they would correct it. That was so useful to have in the cast. … I think that’s a better way to do it.”

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New ‘Candyman’ director Nia DaCosta promises a version with ‘a lot more of the Black experience’Evan F. Mooreon August 23, 2021 at 10:30 am Read More »