It’s simple, really.

All Northwestern quarterback Hunter Johnson has to be this season is everything he wasn’t the last time he got a crack at starting for the Wildcats.

Remember 2019? The Wildcats prefer to forget it. They were 3-9 that season, and at the heart of the matter was a quarterback misery-go-round.

Johnson began as the starter but didn’t make it to halftime of the opener at Stanford before being pulled. Even after backup TJ Green was lost for the season with an injury in that same game, Johnson made only four more starts. In the last of those, against Minnesota, he was yanked after attempting two passes.

It was cruel, unusual and absolutely necessary.

Johnson completed just 46.3% of his pass attempts in 2019, and that may have been his best-looking stat. Four QBs played in all, none of them well enough to keep coach Pat Fitzgerald from bringing in a graduate transfer for 2020. Ex-Indiana starter Peyton Ramsey changed everything with a blend of general competence and clutch throws — just like that, the Wildcats won the Big Ten West for the second time in three years.

But now, the QB questions are back. A big one was answered Tuesday when Fitzgerald named Johnson, a 23-year-old senior, his starter for the Sept. 3 opener against Michigan State. This lands as a surprise, transfer Ryan Hilinski — a former starter at South Carolina — having been commonly considered the favorite heading into camp.

That’s another way of saying Johnson had become commonly overlooked. Forgotten about, even, by some.

It was a heck of a fall for a player who signed with Clemson as a five-star recruit — ESPN’s No. 1-ranked QB in the country — and was the Tigers’ second-stringer as a true freshman in 2017. Johnson fell to third string in 2018 with incumbent Kelly Bryant back and a fresh-faced kid named Trevor Lawrence now in the mix.

OK, so Clemson wasn’t going to work out. But then Johnson couldn’t make it happen at Northwestern, either?

“I’m really proud of Hunter, with everything he’s been through, to step up and earn a starting job,” Fitzgerald said.

“I think it’s been a challenge. I think he’s been through a lot, and I think he’s grown and learned a ton. When he’s confident and lets his talent go out there, it’s [still] as good as we’ve had.”

As Fitzgerald agrees, Hilinski and Andrew Marty had better stay ready. For now, the coach is calling Johnson the one “who we felt could lead us to winning a Big Ten championship.”

That would be hard to pull off under even the best of circumstances, but Johnson will break the huddle with the Big Ten’s least-experienced offense in terms of statistical production. Even before some bad news confirmed Tuesday — that expected No. 1 running back Cam Porter will miss the season after a non-contact injury in camp — the Wildcats were set to return only 29% of their offensive production from the 2020 team. That ranked 127th out of 130 FBS teams, according to ESPN.

Kind of scary, right? None of Fitzgerald’s previous 15 Northwestern teams needed a QB it could count on more than this one. Maybe Johnson will turn out to be that guy after all.

JUST SAYIN’

About that chip that permanently resides on Fitzgerald’s shoulder?

You’d have one, too, if your teams were as routinely scoffed at in the summer as his.

Take the Cleveland.com poll of 34 Big Ten media members that yielded 29 first-place votes for Wisconsin and five first-place votes for Iowa in the West. According to my math, that’s zero for the school that repped the division in the league title game in Indianapolis in two of the last three seasons.

“Maybe some clickbait,” Fitzgerald said. “I don’t know.”

Full disclosure: I voted in the poll and picked the Wildcats third behind — wait for it — Wisconsin and Iowa. Look, I never claimed to be special.

o Hey, look, College Football Playoff odds are in my email inbox. According to Betonline, the biggest favorite to make the four-team field is Clemson. Next, in order: Alabama, Ohio State and Oklahoma.

All together now: Yawn.

o Illinois basketball coach Brad Underwood showed a Hereford heifer at the State Fair over the weekend. I know this because I saw a video of it on Twitter accompanied by the words “Illinois basketball coach Brad Underwood showed a Hereford heifer at the State Fair over the weekend.”

Three questions from me:

1. There’s really an Illinois State Fair? I always assumed my Uncle Cletus used it as a euphemism for “going to the bar.”

2. Where is Hereford? One hopes there are some good hoops recruits there.

3. And downstate Illini types think the disconnect with Chicago is our fault?

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LES CAYES, Haiti — Haitian officials raised the death toll from a deadly weekend earthquake by more than 500 on Tuesday after Tropical Storm Grace forced a temporary halt to search and rescue efforts, a delay that fed growing anger and frustration among thousands who were left homeless.

Grace battered southwestern Haiti, which was hit hardest by Saturday’s quake, and officials warned some areas could get 15 inches of rain before the storm moved on. Intermittent rain fell in the earthquake-damaged city of Les Caves and in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the Civil Protection Agency raised the death toll to 1,941 and the number of injured to 9,900, many of whom have had to wait for medical help lying outside in wilting heat.

The devastation is centered on the country’s southwestern area, where health care has reached capacity and people have lost homes and loved ones.

Patience was running out in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation. Haitians already were struggling with the coronavirus, gang violence, worsening poverty and the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moise when the quake hit.

Bodies continued to be pulled from the rubble, and the smell of death hung heavily over a pancaked, three-story apartment building. A simple bed sheet covered the body of a 3-year-old girl that firefighters had found an hour earlier.

Neighbor Joseph Boyer, 53, said he knew the girl’s family.

“The mother and father are in the hospital, but all three kids died,” he said. The bodies of the other two siblings were found earlier.

Illustrating the lack of government presence, volunteer firefighters from the nearby city of Cap-Hatien had left the body out in the rain because police have to be present before a body can be taken away.

Another neighbor, James Luxama, 24, repeated a popular rumor at many disaster scenes, saying that someone was sending text messages for help from inside the rubble. But Luxama had not personally seen or received such a message.

A throng of angry, shouting men gathered in front of the collapsed building, a sign that patience was running out for people who have waited days for help from the government.

“The photographers come through, the press, but we have no tarps for our roofs,” said one man, who refused to give his name.

The head of Haiti’s office of civil protection, Jerry Chandler, acknowledged the situation. Earthquake assessments had to be paused because of the heavy rain, “and people are getting aggressive,” Chandler said Tuesday.

Some children were orphaned in the quake and some youngsters were starting to go hungry, said Carl-Henry Petit-Frere, a field manager for Save the Children, which said in a statement that it was distributing what it could to people living on the streets without protection from the wind and rain.

“I see children crying on the street, people asking us for food, but we are low on food ourselves as well,” Petit-Frere said, adding that children were warned not to go into houses because they could collapse. “The organizations that are here are doing what they can, but we need more supplies. Food, clean water and shelter are needed most, and we need them fast.”

About 20 soldiers finally showed up to help rescuers at the collapsed apartment building.

Prior to that, the only help that arrived was from poorly equipped volunteers.

“All we have are sledgehammers and hands. That’s the plan,” said Canadian volunteer Randy Lodder, director of the Adoration Christian School in Haiti.

Sarah Charles, assistant administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, said its disaster response teams were forced to suspend operations as the storm arrived Monday, but members were back Tuesday to assess its impact and continue helping.

“We do not anticipate that the death toll related to this earthquake will be anywhere near the 2010 earthquake, where more than 200,000 people were killed,” Charles told reporters.

The scale of the damage also was not as severe as that earthquake, she said, adding: “That’s not what we’re seeing on the ground right now.”

In a statement, the U.S. military’s Southern Command said it was moving eight helicopters from Honduras to Haiti and that seven U.S. Coast Guard cutters were en route to support the USAID team. Two cutters already are there along with two Coast Guard helicopters and U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft that are taking aerial images of earthquake devastated areas, the statement said.

The effort was being mounted “to provide the kind of emergency response that is necessary in a human tragedy and catastrophe like this,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House.

John Morrison, public information officer for the Fairfax Co. (Virginia) Urban Search and Rescue, said its team was still trying to find survivors. Two U.S. Coast Guard helicopters had ferried searchers to six stricken communities on Monday.

“The team reports that food, health care services, safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation and shelter are all priority needs,” Morrison said. He also noted, “we have not yet found any signs of persons alive trapped in buildings.”

The rain and wind raised the threat of mudslides and flash flooding as Grace slowly passed over southwestern Haiti’s Tiburon Peninsula before heading toward Jamaica and southeastern Cuba. Forecasters said it could become a hurricane before hitting Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

Officials said the magnitude 7.2 earthquake destroyed more than 7,000 homes and damaged nearly 5,000, leaving about 30,000 families homeless. Hospitals, schools, offices and churches also were demolished or badly damaged.

In the village of Bonne Fin, a one-hour drive from from Les Cayes on dirt roads, the mountaintop Hospital Lumiere illustrated the anguish and complexity of Haiti’s medical crisis and dire need for outside help.

No one died or was injured at the hospital when the quake hit, but the operating rooms partially collapsed.

Through cracks in a wall, Dr. Frantz Codio could see three glistening anesthesia machines he needed to perform orthopedic operations on broken bones. But he could not get to them because the building’s cement floor was leaning at a crazy angle — in some places just 3 or 4 feet (0.9 meters to 1.2 meters) above where it used to be.

Despite warnings not to go inside the structure, Codio did so on Sunday and pulled one of the machines out.

“People said, ‘Don’t go in there, it’s too dangerous,’ but I had God with me,” Codio said.

Etzer Emile, a Haitian economist and professor at Quisqueya University, a private institution in Port-au-Prince, said the earthquake will almost certainly result in more long-term poverty for Haiti’s struggling southwestern region.

Political instability and gang criminality along the southern roads into the region have particularly hobbled economic activity in recent years.

“The earthquake has just given a fatal blow to a regional economy already on its knees for about 2 1/2 years” Emile said.

___

Associated Press writers Trenton Daniel in New York and Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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Since training camp opened with safety Eddie Jackson on the non-football injury list with a hamstring issue, the Bears’ defense has yet to be at full strength in its quest to regain its lost glory.

That doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon. With linebackers Roquan Smith, Danny Trevathan and Robert Quinn already out, defensive end Akiem Hicks was a mysterious absentee Tuesday after leaving practice during warm-ups.

Hicks’ departure occurred after coach Matt Nagy addressed the media Tuesday morning. And the Bears did not divulge any information about Hicks’ absence after practice. Nagy was seen talking to head trainer Andre Tucker on the practice field after Hicks left, then had what looked like an extended serious conversation with general manager Ryan Pace, presumably about Hicks’ situation. Nagy will next meet the media Wednesday morning.

Hicks is the eighth defensive starter to miss practice this training camp — including cornerback Desmond Trufant, who is battling Kindle Vildor for the starting job. Smith (groin) has been out since Aug. 7. Trevathan (knee) has been out since Aug. 10.

Previously, Jackson missed 12 days at the start of camp. Nose tackle Eddie Goldman missed 10 days while on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Safety Tashaun Gipson missed two weeks with a groin injury. Quinn missed nine days with a back issue, returned on Aug. 12 and played seven snaps in the preseason opener against the Dolphins on Saturday. But he suffered an ankle injury and has missed practice the last two days.

Nagy said he was not worried about Smith’s extended absence, with the season opener not until Sept. 12. “No news is probably good news with him,” Nagy said.

The Bears have generally been unfazed by the defensive injuries. None of them appears to be serious. There’s still more than three weeks before the opener. It’s a veteran defense that has a base of continuity with first-year coordinator Sean Desai, a Vic Fangio disciple. And the depth appears strong, with defensive end Angelo Blackson, linebackers Christian Jones and Alec Ogletree filling in and Vildor starting in place of Trufant at corner.

The Bears even remain upbeat about Quinn, who already has been sidelined by two injuries as he attempts to atone for a disappointing first season.

“I’m not concerned about him,” Nagy said, “because he had a really good start to the camp — when he got here with the rookies he was looking really good and he’s making plays. It’s football and you get banged up here or there. We want to make sure we’re smart, get him to Week 1.”

Second-year linebacker Travis Gipson, who played 35 snaps against the Dolphins, is next in line after Quinn. He’s unproven, though he has shown improvement from last season.

“Trevis has grown up tremendously as far as just fundamental things,” outside linebacker Khalil Mack said. “Playing the run a little more physical, definitely getting off the ball and playing the pass. He’s doing the small things very well. But it’s up to him to take that next leap.”

While it might be disconcerting that key players such as Smith and Trevathan are still not practicing, the Bears are taking a cautious approach with all their injured players, with an eye on the opener against the Rams on Sept. 12.

Jackson returned Aug. 10, but did not play in the preseason opener last Saturday. Goldman returned Aug. 12, but also did not play against the Dolphins. But both were fully active in practice Wednesday. But it remains to be seen how much they’ll play in the preseason.

“It’s great to get Eddie back,” Nagy said. “Conditioning-wise — no worries, no issues at all. He’s been great. For all of these guys … you’re always making sure you’re careful a little bit with the reps — who plays, how long they play — because you want to have him Week 1.”

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Jersey advertisements are coming to the NHL.

The league will allow teams to put sponsor patches on jerseys beginning with the 2022-23 season after the board of governors unanimously approved the move, according to a person with knowledge of a memo sent this week. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the league had not announced the decision.

The NHL added helmet ads last season, which largely allowed teams to make sponsors whole during the pandemic for previously negotiated agreements.

League officials, including Commissioner Gary Bettman, had said the next step of going to jersey ads would have to be at a value that’s worthwhile in hockey, a sport that has long prioritized the front of the “sweater.” Sportico first reported the addition of jersey ads, saying they can be up to 3.5×3 inches.

The New Jersey Devils, Washington Capitals and Nashville Predators were the first teams to unveil helmet ads last December. Each struck a deal done with the company that sponsors the naming rights for its arena.

The NBA began selling jersey sponsorships in 2017-18, when Nike became the league’s official apparel company. The program has brought in well over $150 million in revenue.

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LOS ANGELES — A woman seeking a five-year restraining order against Trevor Bauer testified Tuesday that her horror grew as bruises emerged and her pain surged the day after a sexual encounter in which she said the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher choked her into unconsciousness and punched her repeatedly.

The 27-year-old said she sent Bauer a picture of herself after returning home to San Diego.

“I could not believe what my face looked like,” she said under a second day of questioning from her attorney in Los Angeles Superior Court. “I wanted him to know what he’d done to me.”

Bauer, who has said through representatives that everything that happened between the two was wholly consensual, replied in a text message, “damn girl, are you OK?”

The woman said she was just as frightened of the social consequences as the physical ones, and was at first determined to tell no one else.

“I knew how that was going to to go,” she testified. “That situation paints me as the slut. I didn’t want the story to go anywhere.”

But a visit with her best friend, who was “mortified’ by how she looked, convinced her to seek medical help. She would end up in a hospital emergency room, she said, which led to visits from a social worker, her parents and police, who are still investigating three months later.

Bauer’s attorney Shawn Holley began cross-examining the woman late Tuesday morning and was likely to continue for the rest of the day at the hearing that is expected to last most of the week and is scheduled to include testimony from Bauer.

Holley suggested with her early questions that the woman’s declaration seeking the order contained many lies of omission.

Holley said during her opening statement Monday that the woman gave Bauer every indication she consented to the treatment she received during the two nights they spent together in April and May at the pitcher’s home in Pasadena.

Bauer, 30, was placed on paid administrative leave on July 2 by Major League Baseball, and the status has been extended through Friday. MLB says it is conducting its own investigation and Bauer could face punishment under baseball’s domestic violence policy.

On Monday, the woman talked about beginning to exchange messages with Bauer when she tagged him in an Instagram post while he was pitching against her hometown Padres in April, and described the two visits she made to his home in Pasadena. Both included sex that began as consensual but grew violent well beyond her comfort, she said.

On Tuesday, she discussed the aftermath of the second visit, in which according to her testimony Bauer had punched her in the face and vagina, and left bruises on her gums, around her eyes and behind her ears.

She said she was frightened at what Bauer might have done to her while she was unconscious. In text messages and a phone call she made to him for Pasadena police to record, he said that he only punched her in the buttocks during that time.

She described an hours-long sexual assault exam that she said was terribly traumatic and physically painful.

And she said she received daily messages from Bauer expressing his concern.

“Here for you if you want to talk,” one read.

“I feel so bad that this happened,” another said.

He offered to send her groceries while she was recovering at home, or otherwise help.

The woman said she appreciated his acknowledgement at first.

“It felt good to hear that he felt bad,” she said.

But she found the messages increasingly disconcerting, and she worried that he knew she had talked to police.

“I felt like he was saying these things so I would shut up,” she testified.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault.

Bauer agreed to a $102 million, three-year contract to join his hometown Dodgers earlier this year after winning his first Cy Young with the Cincinnati Reds last season.

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KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban vowed Tuesday to respect women’s rights, forgive those who fought them and ensure Afghanistan does not become a haven for terrorists as part of a publicity blitz aimed at reassuring world powers and a fearful population.

Following a lightning offensive across Afghanistan that saw many cities fall to the insurgents without a fight, the Taliban have sought to portray themselves as more moderate than when they imposed a strict form of Islamic rule in the late 1990s. But many Afghans remain skeptical — and thousands have raced to the airport, desperate to flee the country.

Older generations remember the Taliban’s previous rule, when they largely confined women to their homes, banned television and music, and held public executions. A U.S.-led invasion drove them from power months after the 9/11 attacks, which al-Qaida had orchestrated from Afghanistan while being sheltered by the Taliban.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s longtime spokesman, emerged from the shadows Tuesday in his first-ever public appearance to address those concerns at a news conference.

He promised the Taliban would honor women’s rights within the norms of Islamic law, without elaborating. The Taliban have encouraged women to return to work and have allowed girls to return to school, handing out Islamic headscarves at the door. A female news anchor interviewed a Taliban official Monday in a TV studio.

The treatment of women varies widely across the Muslim world and sometimes even within the same country, with rural areas tending to be far more conservative. Some Muslim countries, including neighboring Pakistan, have had female prime ministers, while ultraconservative Saudi Arabia only recently allowed women to drive.

Mujahid also said the Taliban would not allow Afghanistan to be used as a base for attacking other countries, as it was in the years before 9/11. That assurance was part of a 2020 peace deal reached between the Taliban and the Trump administration that paved the way for the American withdrawal.

The Pentagon said U.S. commanders are communicating with the Taliban as they work to evacuate thousands of people through Kabul’s international airport. It said the Taliban have taken no hostile actions there.

Mujahid reiterated that the Taliban have offered full amnesty to Afghans who worked for the U.S. and the Western-backed government, saying “nobody will go to their doors to ask why they helped.” He said private media should “remain independent” but that journalists “should not work against national values.”

Kabul, the capital, has remained calm as the Taliban patrol its streets. But many remain fearful after prisons and armories emptied out during the insurgents’ sweep across the country.

Kabul residents say groups of armed men have been going door-to-door seeking out individuals who worked with the ousted government and security forces, but it was unclear if the gunmen were Taliban or criminals posing as militants. Mujahid blamed the security breakdown on the former government, saying the Taliban only entered Kabul in order to restore law and order after the police melted away.

A broadcaster in Afghanistan said she was hiding at a relative’s house, too frightened to return home much less go to work. She said she and other women do not believe the Taliban have changed their ways. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety.

A group of women wearing Islamic headscarves demonstrated briefly in Kabul, holding signs demanding the Taliban not “eliminate women” from public life.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. and other governments will not simply take the Taliban at their word when it comes to women’s rights.

“Like I’ve said all along, this is not about trust. This is about verify,” Sullivan said at a White House briefing. “And we’ll see what the Taliban end up doing in the days and weeks ahead, and when I say we, I mean the entire international community.”

Whatever their true intentions, the Taliban have an interest in projecting moderation to prevent the international community from isolating their government, as it did in the 1990s.

The European Union said it was suspending development assistance to Afghanistan until the political situation is more clear but that it would consider boosting humanitarian aid.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the Taliban must respect U.N. Security Council resolutions and human rights to earn access to some 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in development funds earmarked through 2024.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Britain might provide up to 10% more humanitarian aid, but the the Taliban would not get any money previously earmarked for security.

Evacuation flights resumed after being suspended on Monday, when thousands of people rushed the airport. In shocking scenes captured on video, some clung to a plane as it took off and then fell to their deaths. At least seven people died in the airport chaos, U.S. officials said.

On Tuesday, the Taliban entered the civilian half of the airport, firing into the air to drive out around 500 people there, said an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to brief journalists.

The Taliban appeared to be trying to control the crowd rather than prevent people from leaving. A video circulating online showed the Taliban supervising the orderly departure of dozens of foreigners.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul, now operating from the military side of the airport, urged Americans to register online for evacuation but not to come to the airport before being contacted.

The German Foreign Ministry said a first German military transport plane landed in Kabul but took off with only seven people on board due to the chaos. Another left later with 125 people.

U.S. President Joe Biden has defended his decision to end America’s longest war, blaming the rapid Taliban takeover on Afghanistan’s Western-backed government and security forces. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg echoed that assessment, while saying the alliance must investigate the flaws in its efforts to train the Afghan military.

Talks continued Tuesday between the Taliban and several Afghan politicians, including former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, who once headed the country’s negotiating council. The Taliban have said they want to form an “inclusive, Islamic government.”

The talks focused on how a Taliban-dominated government would operate given the changes in Afghanistan over the last 20 years, rather than just dividing up ministries, officials with knowledge of the negotiations said on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks.

A top Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arrived in Kandahar on Tuesday night from Qatar, potentially signaling a deal is close at hand.

The vice president of the ousted government, meanwhile, tweeted that he was the country’s “legitimate” caretaker president. Amrullah Saleh said that under the constitution, he should be in charge because President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country.

___

Faiez reported from Istanbul, Gannon from Guelph, Canada, and Krauss from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Tameem Akhgar in Istanbul, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, Pan Pylas in London, and Aya Batrawy in Dubai contributed to this report.

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Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be mostly sunny with a high near 84 degrees. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low around 70. Tomorrow is expected to be partly sunny with a 30% chance of thunderstorms and a high near 85.

Top story

City announces indoor mask mandate to take effect Friday

Facing rising coronavirus case numbers, Chicago officials today announced plans to impose an indoor mask mandate again starting Friday.

Before making the announcement this afternoon, city officials noted that Chicago’s average daily case count was now at 400. Just days before the Lollapalooza music festival in Grant Park, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she would not hesitate to return to a mask mandate if Chicago’s daily rate of coronavirus cases was “consistently going over” 200.

Chicago’s numbers highlight a concerning statewide trend as all but four of the state’s 102 counties are in the CDC’s “high transmission” category. Three of the other four checked in one level below that, the “substantial transmission” category.

Earlier this month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a statewide mask requirement for schools. The Democratic governor hasn’t provided an end date for when students, teachers and staff would be able to ditch the face coverings, saying “this virus tends to have cycles to it and variants” and the face coverings are one way to keep people “safe and healthy in our schools.”

Fran Spielman and Madeline Kenney have more on the new mandate here.

More news you need

Dozens gathered yesterday to mourn 70-year-old Yvonne Ruzich, who was killed earlier in the day by two gunmen while she was seated in her car. Chicago police today released photos of the suspects in Ruzich’s killing and asked for help in identifying them.

A growing number of Chicago-area theater companies will require audiences to wear masks and show proof of vaccination, or negative COVID-19 test results, to gain entry to participating venues. The protocols will be in effect Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.

A Chicago pharmacist has been charged with selling authentic COVID-19 vaccine cards on eBay, federal authorities said. He allegedly sold 125 cards to 11 different buyers for a total of more than $1,200, according to the feds.

Four members of former House Speaker Mike Madigan’s inner circle could face trial late in 2022 for their alleged roles in the ComEd bribery scandal. What’s still unclear is whether new allegations might surface in the case by then.

Zelda Sands, an accomplished composer who managed the offices of Sam Cooke’s record and publishing companies, died Saturday in her Hollywood apartment at 92. “One of the last links to one of Chicago’s greatest singers has died,” Maureen O’Donnell writes of Sands.

Executives from a Phoenix-based pot firm joined U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly and other officials today to break ground on a massive new cultivation center in Matteson. Kelly framed the new facility, which will eventually support hundreds of jobs, as Matteson’s latest effort to “wholeheartedly embrace the future.”

A bright one

J.T.’s Genuine Sandwich Shop owner explains his deep connection to restaurant’s signature breaded pork tenderloin sandwich

Chris Cunningham always dreamt of opening a restaurant that specializes in Midwest sandwiches. When the opportunity arose in the fall of 2019 to make that vision a reality, he knew there was one item he definitely had to include on the menu: a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich.

Cunningham, the do-it-all owner of J.T.’s Genuine Sandwich Shop in Irving Park, grew up on those sandwiches — a staple on most diner menus around the Quad Cities and in Indiana. However, when he moved to Chicago almost two decades ago, he had a hard time finding a place that could satisfy his childhood craving.

Christopher Cunningham is the owner of J.T.’s Genuine Sandwich Shop. Brian Rich/Sun-Times

So, he took matters into his own hands, creating a recipe that replicated the sandwich he remembered from his youth.

“We were making the tenderloins in our backyard because we couldn’t find them anywhere,” he said.

The breaded pork tenderloin sandwich — a favorite in his household — quickly became a top seller at J.T.’s Genuine Sandwich Shop.

The secret to making the sandwich, Cunningham said, is in the process.

More from the latest installment of Madeline Kenney’s Dishin’ on the Dish series here.

From the press box

Your daily question ?

When you think back to some of your hardest days during the pandemic, what’s something that got you through?

Reply to this email (please include your first name and where you live) and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: It’s time to start harvesting vegetables planted in the spring. Which ones have you been enjoying from your garden? Here’s what some of you said…

“So far just cherry tomatoes and beefsteak tomatoes, green peppers are still growing.” — Maureen Dombrowski

“Tomatoes, jalapenos and bell peppers.” — Russell Miller

“Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and celery.” — Gerry Fritz Ryan

“Potatoes and tomatoes.” — Dawn Bench

Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

Sign up here to get the Afternoon Edition in your inbox every day.

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Listening to the Cubs on WSCR was once a nightly ritual for me, along with drinking a can of Old Style. I gave up on the Cubs during the team’s 11-game losing streak earlier this summer (although I continue to drink Old Style). It was too dismaying, especially when they lost to the Brewers. As the smaller of two Lake Michigan metropolises with Algonquin names, Milwaukee should never be able to claim superiority over Chicago in anything.

I started listening to the Cubs again last weekend, just to hear how bad the post-purge team is. At first, they sounded promising. On Saturday, against the Marlins, the Cubs were on the brink of breaking their latest losing streak. In the top of the 8th inning, some guy I’d never heard of (Frank Schwindel) hit a three-run double, putting the Cubs up 4-3. Then, in the bottom of the 8th, another guy I’d never heard of (Sergio Alcantara) committed two errors at shortstop, allowing the Marlins to take a 5-4 lead.

“That’s… not what you want to see,” announcer Pat Hughes remarked. Hughes works for the Cubs, so understatement is the only way to express his dismay at the horrors he’s been witnessing on the diamond.

On paper, the 2021 Cubs will not go down in history as one of the worst teams in baseball history. Even if they lose all 41 of their remaining games, they would finish with a record of 52-110. That’s not as bad as the 2003 Tigers (43-119), the 1962 Mets (40-120), or the 2018 Orioles (47-115). Fangraphs projects them to go 17-24 the rest of the way, a .409 winning percentage, to finish at 63-93.

Even that would be a remarkable collapse for a team tied for first place in the National League Central as late as June 24. But those were the Cubs of Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and Craig Kimbrel. The Cubs of August—the Cubs of Alcantara, Michael Rucker, Matt Duffy, Ryan Meisinger, and a bunch of other spare parts who started this season in the minor leagues, and will probably be headed back there, if they don’t end up in the Korean Baseball Organization—may, in fact, be the worst team ever fielded by a major league franchise.

One of the beauties of baseball is that if you can’t find a statistic to back up an assertion, you can always invent one. Here’s what makes me think these Cubs are the worst ever. Since the July 30 trade deadline, the Cubs have been outscored 126-63. In those 15 games, the Cubs have generated 33.5 percent of the total runs, during which time the Cubs are 2-14. None of the abovementioned losers even approached that level of incompetence at the basic functions of a baseball team: scoring runs and preventing them. The Tigers scored 39 percent of the runs in their games, the Mets 39 percent, and the Orioles 41 percent. I had to go all the way back to 1899 to find a team outscored as badly as the current Cubs: the legendary 20-134 Cleveland Spiders, who recorded a deficit of 1252-529, for a 29.7 percentage.

The pitching staff’s Earned Run Average since the trade deadline is 7.79. That’s more than a run higher than the all-time record of 6.71 set by the 1930 Philadelphia Phillies, and nearly a run-and-a-half higher than the second worst, the 1996 Detroit Tigers, at 6.38.

The historically bad team these Cubs most resemble is the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics, a squad Sports Illustrated called “the worst team in the history of major U.S. pro sports.” The Athletics went from the World Series to a 36-117 record in just two seasons, after owner/manager Connie Mack got rid of five future Hall of Famers—Eddie Plank, Chief Bender, Home Run Baker, Herb Pennock and Eddie Collins. Attendance was down at Shibe Park, and the newly-formed Federal League was offering big salaries, so Mack could no longer afford to pay his superstars. (Even the losers who replaced them did better than the current Cubs, scoring 36.5 percent of the runs in their games.)

In the words of SI’s Jon Wertheim, “Mack trafficked in the let-’em-down-easy talk that will ring familiar to sports fans a century later. In order for the franchise to move forward, it’s time to embrace a youth movement…. It would be fiscally irresponsible for us to match your competing offers…. It isn’t personal; it’s just business. Mack offered a familiar trope to the media and the A’s fans too, reassuring them that the team was building for the future, that any short-term pain would be to the long-term benefit of the franchise.”

That sounds a lot like what Cubs owner Tom Ricketts told his fans after the team’s 2021 fire sale: “[W]e are building a new championship team and the fact is everything that happened last week really has accelerated that process.”

It took Mack a dozen years to fulfill his promise. From 1929 to 1931, the Athletics won three straight pennants, with Hall of Famers Lefty Grove, Mickey Cochrane and Jimmie Foxx beating out the Yankees of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig every time. They won two consecutive World Series, one at the expense of the Cubs. We can only hope such a mini-dynasty is in the Cubs’ future. In the meantime, anyone who jumped on the Cubs’ bandwagon in 2016 had better be prepared to suffer as much as Cub fans suffered in the century before that World Series championship. Or more.

If you can stand to listen, Pat Hughes is trying to put the best spin on this rebuilding summer. On Monday night, he awarded left fielder Patrick Wisdom the “Catch of the Day” for chasing down a flyball to end an 8-run seventh inning by the Reds, which led to a 14-5 defeat—their 12th in a row, surpassing the losing streak that initiated this fiasco. (All the relief pitchers in that game— Rucker, Meisinger, Dan Winkler, and Jake Jewell—have a negative Wins Above Replacement rating this season per Baseball Reference. Most were in Iowa before the trade deadline, and weren’t prepared to take the places of the real major leaguers the Cubs dealt away.)

“Nice to see guys playing hard no matter what the scoreboard says,” Hughes attaboy’d the losing team whose fortunes he is contractually obligated to narrate.

That’s the saddest thing about these Cubs. No matter how hard they play, they still can’t win.

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Facing rising coronavirus case numbers, Chicago public health officials did an about-face on Tuesday and announced a return to an indoor mask mandate some three months after lifting it.

Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said starting Friday face coverings will be required in Chicago stores, restaurants and other public spaces — for all people over the age of 2, regardless of the person’s vaccination status.

“There is a lot going on in COVID,” she said.

“With Chicago passing 400 cases per day we have save seen that metric pass into higher risk,” Arwady announced at a city hall news conference. “We are today announcing a new mandate … now as we cross 400, masks are required for all indoor settings.”

Arwady said she does not foresee further restrictions or business limits.

“Our goal is remain open but careful. Chicago now is at an average of 419 cases per day, and being consistently above 400 means that “masks are now required in indoor public settings in Chicago.”

Also at the news conference were the health department’s medical director, Dr. Geraldine Luna, and Kenneth J. Meyer, acting commissioner of the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Just days before the Lollapalooza music festival in Grant Park, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is saying she would not hesitate to return to a mask mandate if Chicago’s daily rate of coronavirus cases was “consistently going over” 200.

Chicago’s numbers highlights a concerning statewide trend as all but four of the state’s 102 counties are in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “high transmission” category. Three of the other four checked in one level below that, the “substantial transmission” category.

High transmission is defined as more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days or a test positivity rate exceeding 10% over that period.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday had warned “we are going to be in this a little while longer.”

“I’m talking about COVID-19 and the challenge that it brings to all of us,” Pritzker said. “We’re going to be dealing with this for some time, it’s clear because there are many people who aren’t yet vaccinated — and we want them to go get vaccinated as soon as possible — but the variants are also alive, well and moving across the world.”

Earlier this month, Pritzker issued a statewide mask requirement for schools. The Democratic governor hasn’t provided an end date for when students, teachers and staff would be able to ditch the face coverings, saying “this virus tends to have cycles to it and variants” and the face coverings are one way to keep people “safe and healthy in our schools.”

Chicagoans can request an in-home shot by calling (312) 746-4835. For help finding a dose in suburban Cook County, visit cookcountypublichealth.org or call (833) 308-1988. To find other Illinois providers, visit coronavirus.illinois.gov or call (833) 621-1284.

Contributing: Rachel Hinton

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