We’re doomed, but no reason to get upsetNeil Steinbergon August 10, 2021 at 7:31 pm

Robert Frost wondered whether the world will end in fire, or in ice.

While fire is clearly winning, I believe the world really ends through cowardice. Though “cowardice” isn’t the right word; the exact term is hard to put a finger on. “Denialism,” maybe. Head-in-the-sandism. The human tendency to see a hole in the ground, understand it is there in our path, then fall in it anyway, eyes open, because this is the route we always take, and we’ll be damned if we’re going to deviate. We’re no sidesteppers!

Long before people were denying the usefulness of masks or refusing life-saving vaccines, they were pooh-poohing global warming. It isn’t happening or, if it is, it’s caused by natural shifts. Not by people, oh no no no, we wouldn’t wreck our world through carelessness. Since it’s not our fault, there’s nothing we can do to stop it. Nobody actually pounds the floor with their fists and whines, “We don’t wanna! Doing stuff is hard!” But that is the general tone.

The past few years we’ve seen a series of heat waves, brutal droughts, record floods, massive storms. A gathering drumbeat of doom so loud even some Republicans suspect there might be something going on. The latest shoe dropped Monday, a report from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Where to begin?

“All is lost,” is not a phrase you see much in professional journalism, even in the negative, “not all is lost,” used in Monday’s New York Times, trying to focus on the dwindling hope that a hotter planet, with melting ice sheets and rising seas might yet be mitigated. Though even that optimism is yanked away in the headline: “A HOTTER FUTURE IS NOW INEVITABLE, A U.N. REPORT SAYS.”

What is odd, to me, is that the same people denying climate change also crave upheaval. They’ll quote the Book of Revelations and announce the world is ending, based on nothing. But let the world’s scientists join hands and chant, “Yes, the world is indeed ending, at least as the cool green place we’ve known and loved,” and suddenly they’re covering their ears and humming. Then what’s with all the stockpiled weaponry? The freeze-dried food? Geez, climate change ought to be your dream come true.

I decided to read the report itself, rather than just reports of the report.

Formally titled “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis” the report has a blue cover and is … ah … 3,949 pages long. Quite a lot, really. Well, let’s begin. “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.”

The United Nations report, issued Aug. 7, spends 3,949 pages documenting what people are all to willing to dismiss with a shrug.

Stop right there. See, that’s the problem. It is NOT unequivocal, not unmistakable, not undeniable. People have been equivocating, mistaking and denying it for years. Not based on facts, mind you. But facts are not necessary, either for forming opinions or public policy. Fear is all that’s needed. Thus you have the governor of Florida telling the president, as he did this week, that diseased immigrants are bringing COVID into the country. Not his the-bullets-will-not-harm-us masking policies.

And “cryosphere”? Where has that been all my life? The word actually means the frozen parts of the planet, glaciers and ice caps and such. But isn’t it a perfect term for the piercing wail of eternal right wing grievance? I’ve said it before, nobody cries like a bully. But really, I wish just once they could grasp how pathetic all this oh-poor-me-I’m-a-victim poopy baby act is to people who aren’t collapsed in a corner, terrified. I mean, I fully see and understand that the planet is entering a grim crisis phase that will last the rest of my life. And I’m not particularly upset.

Why? Several reasons. First, it’s done now, as the report concludes. Second, it’s utterly out of my hands, other than this little squeak here. Third, I realize that predicting doom goes back to the Bible. Yet here we are.

Finally, are people not part of nature? Blaming ourselves for wrecking the planet separates humanity as Lords of Creation. We don’t blame the dinosaurs and prehistoric plants for dying and creating coal beds. Why blame ourselves for digging up the coal up and burning it? Because our brains are slightly bigger? Obviously not big enough.

We’re doomed, but no reason to get upsetNeil Steinbergon August 10, 2021 at 7:31 pm Read More »

‘Code red’ — UN scientists warn of worsening global warmingSeth Borenstein | AP Science Writeron August 10, 2021 at 6:57 pm

Earth is getting so hot that temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past a level of warming that world leaders have sought to prevent, according to a report released Monday that the United Nations called a “code red for humanity.”

“It’s just guaranteed that it’s going to get worse,” said report co-author Linda Mearns, a senior climate scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research. “Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.”

But scientists also eased back a bit on the likelihood of the absolute worst climate catastrophes.

The authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which calls climate change clearly human-caused and “unequivocal” and “an established fact,” makes more precise and warmer forecasts for the 21st century than it did the last time it was issued, in 2013.

Each of five scenarios for the future, based on how much carbon emissions are cut, passes the more stringent of two thresholds set in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. World leaders agreed then to try to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above levels in the late 19th century because problems mount quickly after that. The world has already warmed nearly 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since then.

Under each scenario, the report said, the world will cross the 1.5-degree-Celsius warming mark in the 2030s, earlier than some past predictions. Warming has ramped up in recent years, data shows.

“Our report shows that we need to be prepared for going into that level of warming in the coming decades. But we can avoid further levels of warming by acting on greenhouse gas emissions,” said report co-chair Valerie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at France’s Laboratory of Climate and Environment Sciences at the University of Paris-Saclay.

In three scenarios, the world will also likely exceed 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times — the less stringent Paris goal — with far worse heat waves, droughts and flood-inducing downpours unless there are deep emissions cuts, the report said.

“This report tells us that recent changes in the climate are widespread, rapid and intensifying, unprecedented in thousands of years,” said IPCC Vice Chair Ko Barrett, senior climate adviser for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In this file photo dated Friday, Aug. 6, 2021, a man watches as wildfires approach Kochyli beach near Limni village on the island of Evia, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Athens, Greece. — A man watches last week as wildfires approach Kochyli beach near Limni village on the island of Evia, about 100 miles north of Athens, Greece.

With crucial international climate negotiations coming up in Scotland in November, world leaders said the report is causing them to try harder to cut carbon pollution. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called it “a stark reminder.”

The 3,000-plus-page report from 234 scientists said warming is already accelerating sea level rise and worsening extremes such as heat waves, droughts, floods and storms. Tropical cyclones are getting stronger and wetter, while Arctic sea ice is dwindling in the summer and permafrost is thawing. All of these trends will get worse, the report said.

For example, the kind of heat wave that used to happen only once every 50 years now happens once a decade, and if the world warms another degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), it will happen twice every seven years, the report said.

As the planet warms, places will get hit more not just by extreme weather but by multiple climate disasters at once, the report said. That’s like what’s now happening in the Western U.S., where heat waves, drought and wildfires compound the damage, Mearns said. Extreme heat is also driving massive fires in Greece and Turkey.

Some harm from climate change — dwindling ice sheets, rising sea levels and changes in the oceans as they lose oxygen and become more acidic — is “irreversible for centuries to millennia,” the report said.

The world is “locked in” to 15 to 30 centimeters (6 to 12 inches) of sea level rise by mid-century, said report co-author Bob Kopp of Rutgers University.

Scientists have issued this message for more than three decades, but the world hasn’t listened, said United Nations Environment Program Executive Director Inger Andersen.

For the first time, the report offers an interactive atlas for people to see what has happened and may happen to where they live.

Nearly all warming that has happened on Earth can be blamed on emissions of heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. At most, natural forces or simple randomness can explain one- or two-tenths of a degree of warming, the report said.

Plastic and other trash that got washed ashore on the Arabian Sea coast in Mumbai, India, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. — Plastic and other trash washed ashore on the Arabian Sea coast in Mumbai, India, this week.

The report described five different future scenarios based on how much the world reduces carbon emissions. They are: a future with incredibly large and quick pollution cuts; another with intense pollution cuts but not quite as massive; a scenario with moderate emission cuts; a fourth scenario where current plans to make small pollution reductions continue; and a fifth possible future involving continued increases in carbon pollution.

In five previous reports, the world was on that final hottest path, often nicknamed “business as usual.” But this time, the world is somewhere between the moderate path and the small pollution reductions scenario because of progress to curb climate change, said report co-author Claudia Tebaldi, a scientist at the U.S. Pacific Northwest National Lab.

While calling the report “a code red for humanity,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres kept a sliver of hope that world leaders could still somehow prevent 1.5 degrees of warming, which he said is “perilously close.”

Alok Sharma, the president of the upcoming climate negotiations in Scotland, urged leaders to do more so they can “credibly say that we have kept 1.5 degrees alive.”

“Anything we can do to limit, to slow down, is going to pay off,” Tebaldi said. “And if we cannot get to 1.5, it’s probably going to be painful, but it’s better not to give up.”

In the report’s worst-case scenario, the world could be around 3.3 degrees Celsius (5.9 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than now by the end of the century. But that scenario looks increasingly unlikely, said report co-author and climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, climate change director of the Breakthrough Institute.

“We are a lot less likely to get lucky and end up with less warming than we thought,” Hausfather said. “At the same time, the odds of ending up in a much worse place than we expected if we do reduce our emissions are notably lower.”

In this file photo dated Monday, July 19, 2021, a woman looks at cars and homes damaged after torrential rain caused flooding in Liege, Belgium. — Torrential rain caused flooding in Liege, Belgium, in July, causing massive damage.

The report also said ultra-catastrophic disasters — commonly called “tipping points,” like ice sheet collapses and the abrupt slowdown of ocean currents — are “low likelihood” but cannot be ruled out. The much talked-about shutdown of Atlantic ocean currents, which would trigger massive weather shifts, is something that’s unlikely to happen in this century, Kopp said.

A “major advance” in the understanding of how fast the world warms with each ton of carbon dioxide emitted allowed scientists to be far more precise in the scenarios in this report, Mason-Delmotte said.

In a new move, scientists emphasized how cutting airborne levels of methane — a powerful but short-lived gas that has soared to record levels — could help curb short-term warming. Lots of methane the atmosphere comes from leaks of natural gas, a major power source. Livestock also produces large amounts of the gas, a good chunk of it in cattle burps.

More than 100 countries have made informal pledges to achieve “net zero” human-caused carbon dioxide emissions sometime around mid-century, which will be a key part of the negotiations in Scotland. The report said those commitments are essential.

“It is still possible to forestall many of the most dire impacts,” Barrett said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

‘Code red’ — UN scientists warn of worsening global warmingSeth Borenstein | AP Science Writeron August 10, 2021 at 6:57 pm Read More »

Opportunity knocks, and Alec Ogletree answersMark Potashon August 10, 2021 at 7:48 pm

Out of football since being cut by the Jets last September, former Rams and Giants linebacker Alec Ogletree was visiting his buddy Robert Quinn at Halas Hall earlier this month — watching Quinn’s sister, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, win a gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics.

“Just was gonna be here for a couple days and then go back to Georgia,” Ogletree said. “My agent called me and asked me where I was at. I said, ‘I’m in Chicago.’ He’s like, ‘Uh, don’t leave. They want to sign you.’

“Just right timing, I would say. I’m appreciative of the opportunity to come in here and still get a chance to play and show them I can still be here.”

Ogletree already has made the most of the opportunity. He had an interception in his first practice with the Bears last Thursday, then three on Friday, one on Saturday and one more on Sunday to give him six interceptions in four practices. Ogletree is a long way from proving he deserves a roster spot — he was signed only after reserves Josh Woods (quadriceps), Joel Iyiegbuniwe (hamstring) and Christian Jones (COVID-19 list) missed practice time. But he’s taken a giant first step by getting the attention of the coaching staff.

“He’s doing great,” Bears coach Matt Nagy said. “What a credit to him to come in here and we’re down on some numbers at inside linebacker and all he is doing is making plays. You can’t ask for more than that.”

Ogletree, a first round draft pick by the Rams in 2013, started seven seasons in the NFL before his career stalled. The Giants cut him after the 2019 season. The Jets signed Ogletree during Week 1 last year but cut him after two games. He was all but out of football before the Bears called.

“You’re a free agent and you’re just out there in the market and — especially with COVID and stuff now, things are a lot different than they were before,” Ogletree said. “It’s definitely a lot of unknowns — and when you have that, you can have a bad thoughts. But you just have to keep the faith and keep believing that you are special and you can do it and given the right opportunity, the right chance, things can work out for you.”

In that regard, Ogletree couldn’t have asked for a much better opportunity. he joins a Bears defense with a Bears’ defense that has plenty of playmakers. And with starting inside linebackers Roquan Smith (groin) and Danny Trevathan (knee) not practicing Tuesday, Ogletree was getting first-team reps with Jones.

“It inspires me to come here and do my part,” Ogletree said. “You have guys that have been around, make plays, that are big-time players in this league. For me, it’s about playing at the same standard as those guys, doing my part and making sure I’m ready to go. It’s been a little [while] since I’ve had a front like that. But it’s definitely inspiring.”

Ogletree, who turns 30 on September 25, feels he still has it (“I’m like a good wine. I feel like I get better with age.”). And like any player in his position, he’s motivated to prove disbelievers wrong.

“At a certain point, you have little bit of pride, and that’s one of the things I learned this offseason,” he said. “You’ve done things in this league — good, bad, whatever — but it’s what can you do for me now?

“I kind of understood that, and it helped shape my mindset in terms of getting back in the league. I wanted to come in and show I can still do it. I never lost it. People can say different. But if I believe in myself, that’s all that matters to me.”

Opportunity knocks, and Alec Ogletree answersMark Potashon August 10, 2021 at 7:48 pm Read More »

Remembering Sally NemethDouglas Poston August 10, 2021 at 4:30 pm

Editor’s Note: Sally Nemeth, an early force in the growth of Chicago as a city that nurtures new plays, died on July 30 at age 62 in Los Angeles after a long illness. Though she had moved away from Chicago in 1995, her influence continues to be felt by those who worked with Nemeth here in the 1980s and 90s. Douglas Post wrote this remembrance and history of Nemeth’s work and that of the peers whose careers grew up around her.

As memory serves, the invitation came in the form of a letter with a graphic of green balloons coming out of a green typewriter. Sally Nemeth was asking if I wanted to be a part of the Chicago New Plays Festival Company, a collective of local playwrights and directors dedicated to the development and production of new work for the stage. Formed in 1984 by Sally, Steve Scott, and Linda Walsh Jenkins, the group would meet every few weeks in a rehearsal room at Lifeline Theatre where we would read and discuss this work, and our initial membership would include writers Anne McGravie, Scott McPherson, Nicholas A. Patricca, Nancy Rawles, David Rush, Linda, and Sally, who would be our leader.

Have I mentioned that I accepted this offer with eagerness and enthusiasm? Well, I did, and was immediately glad I had done so. This was a lovely and smart group of people to spend time with and talk through the issues of writing for the American theater. And Sally was the perfect host. She was serious, but not too serious. She was flexible when she needed to be, but also had a clear idea of where she wanted us to go. And she was a terrific writer.

The following year, we were asked to be a part of the Organic Greenhouse Project, a developmental wing of the Organic Theater Company that was dedicated to nurturing new work and theater artists. Other organizations that were invited to be part of this venture included City Lit Theater Company, specializing in literary adaptations; Red Key Productions, an acting ensemble; The Design Unit, a local design resource group; The Directors Group, a collective of area directors; Fanfire Productions, a company centered on women’s issues; and MinaSama-No, an Asian American troupe.

None of us had a permanent home, or even a semipermanent home, and so we would make use of the multifaceted building on Clark Street as a foundation while receiving access to the Organic’s rehearsal and performance spaces, as well as sets, lights, sound, and costumes. This proposition came to us courtesy of Tom Riccio, who was the new artistic director at this institution, and Sally wisely accepted, though I’m sure she ran it by us for review.

I should mention that Sally and Steve Scott, who headed up The Directors Group, had formed an alliance and so we had a team of interpreters of our texts as we advanced our mutual artistic interests. This team included Sydney Daniels, Kyle Donnelly, Steven Ivich, Kate Loewald, Mary Ellen McGarry, and Susan Padveen. We would often draw on them for their insights and work together whenever we could.

Approaching December of that year, Ron Falzone, who headed up the Greenhouse Project, let us know that there was space available for a full production on their second stage if we had something that could be put up fast. The Organic Lab Theater had 65 seats, a tiny light booth, and an even tinier dressing room, and I had a musical adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows that I felt was ready to go. Sally told me we had $2,500 in the bank. That was it. If we lost this money, we were starting from scratch. Somehow I talked her into letting me mount my show as an offering for the holiday season. It was very well-received and we doubled our investment. Sally thought she was the smartest producer in town and, to my way of thinking, she was. Simultaneously, another musical version of Grahame’s story opened on Broadway. It cost exactly a hundred times as much as ours and lost everything. Our show ran for four weeks. Theirs lasted four days.

Sally would go on to produce three alternating evenings of our one-acts and playlets called The Summer Shorts Festival. On Tuesdays and Fridays, audiences could see Nick Patricca’s The Dream Machine and Hail Mary; and David’s “Life” is Only 7 Points. On Wednesday and Saturdays, they could take in Sally’s Celestial Mechanics, Visions of Grandeur, Word Games, and Holding the Bag; Nancy’s A Spot in the Shade; and Anne’s Oona and the Oyster Girl. And on Thursdays and Sundays, they could attend Scott’s Scraped and my triptych Belongings and Longings. It was the summer of 1986 and we got to collaborate with many of our pals who were a part of The Directors Group. That winter we coproduced a revival of The Wind in the Willows with Bailiwick Repertory. Sally made sure that we also participated in the Organic Greenhouse’s All-Chicago Play Project, a marathon reading series of 32 new works. She also introduced us to Dramatic Publishing Company, who promptly put three of our plays into print.

The next year, we expanded our ranks to include local scribes Robyn Dana Guest, Richard Strand, and Kathleen Thompson. For our second Summer Shorts Festival, we programed two evenings of plays and monologues that featured Sally’s Pagan Day and One Wolf; Nick’s Hail Mary II and Father; Kathleen’s Opalina and Kindness; and Robyn’s Readin’, ‘Ritin’ & ‘Rithmetic. Richard’s Can You Hear Me, Mr. Szczepanski? and David’s Times with Lorenzo were presented on alternate nights along with my farce Detective Sketches.

This was a remarkable outpouring of work from our collective and none of it could have happened without Sally’s fortitude and ingenuity. She kept us centered. And she kept us moving ahead. It is a rare thing to meet someone who is happy being a playwright among playwrights. Sally was one of those people.

Eventually she needed to step back from her responsibilities and so turned the reins over to Nick, which was a prudent choice. Chicago New Plays, as we were now called, would continue to coproduce full productions, partial productions, and readings with the Commons Theatre. We also took part in another marathon event when seven of our full-length plays received readings at The Open Eye New Stagings Lab in New York City. We continued to meet. We continued to talk about each other’s work. We stayed friends.

Scott would go on to write Marvin’s Room. Nick would write An Uncertain Hour. And Sally’s play Mill Fire would have its premiere at the Goodman Theatre, while Spinning into Blue would be produced at Victory Gardens Theater and Holy Days would open in London. She received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, as well as a new play commission from South Coast Repertory.

Eventually Sally moved to Los Angeles, where she started writing for television. Her work on the series Law & Order won awards from the American Bar Association and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (now called Evident Change). In 2006, Knopf published her first novel, a work for young adults called The Heights, the Depths, and Everything in Between. And somehow she found time to teach and to remain an activist for her community.

I will always remember Sally as a vibrant, smart, full-hearted, and talented woman. I owe her a lot. She is a part of my personal history. And she is a part of the Chicago theater movement and what continues to make this city such a great place to be a playwright. v

Remembering Sally NemethDouglas Poston August 10, 2021 at 4:30 pm Read More »

Arizona Bowl skips traditional TV, signs broadcasting deal with Barstool SportsDavid Brandt | APon August 10, 2021 at 6:06 pm

PHOENIX — The seven-year-old Arizona Bowl has wrestled with how to stand out on television when there are dozens of postseason college football games flooding the airwaves in late December and early January.

So in an unexpected twist, game officials won’t even try.

The Arizona Bowl recently announced a partnership with Barstool Sports for its Dec. 31 game in Tucson, Arizona. The multiyear deal with the digital sports platform — notable for its occasional off-color humor and brash founder Dave Portnoy — not only includes naming rights but also broadcasting rights, which means the game won’t be on ESPN or CBS.

Instead, it’ll be streamed on Barstool’s multiple platforms like its website, app and social media. The game pits members of the Mountain West Conference and Mid-American Conference.

“This is something I think the college football world is ready for,” Arizona Bowl executive director Kym Adair said.

It’s an intriguing pairing but also comes with some risk. The security of playing on ESPN or CBS over the holidays ensures that eyeballs will find the game. Even though TV ratings across most sports have been on a steady decline, last year’s Arizona Bowl drew about 1.77 million viewers on CBS.

It’s likely that the Barstool deal means the Arizona Bowl will have considerably fewer viewers.

What they lose in sheer numbers, they hope to make up for in interaction and engagement.

“We’re not inhibited by a traditional way of doing things at Barstool Sports, so we can re-imagine the experience in a way that makes it more interactive and entertaining for fans,” Barstool CEO Erika Nardini said in an email. “The chance to bring our audience, our humor, our love of the game is something we’re very fired up about and we promise to deliver sports fans a reason to watch.”

The Arizona Bowl isn’t the only college sporting event exploring online-only options: Notre Dame’s football season opener on Sept. 11 against Toledo will stream exclusively on Peacock, which is NBC’s streaming service.

Adair said there are several reasons she’s excited about the Barstool partnership.

For starters, it allows the Arizona Bowl to keep its desired slot on New Year’s Eve. Though broadcast rights are important, ticket sales and community engagement matter, too. Adair said she wants college football fans in Arizona to know the game will always be played on Dec. 31, allowing families to plan vacations and family gatherings and build a tradition.

Adair also said Barstool does remarkably well with the coveted 18- to 35-year-old demographic, which is notoriously tough to reach.

“Advertisers can’t find them but Barstool has them,” Adair said. “There’s incredible energy surrounding the bowl right now and fans can’t wait to see Barstool’s take on a bowl game.”

Nick Carparelli is the executive director at Bowl Season, a nonprofit which promotes the tradition of college football’s postseason system. He’s worked in the NFL and for the Big East Conference, Under Armour and Notre Dame at various times in his career, giving him a broad understanding of trends in college football.

He said he’s intrigued by the Arizona Bowl’s partnership with Barstool. He added that it should also be attractive to NCAA student-athletes, who consume sports and media much differently than previous generations.

“There are some newer bowls that are trying to grow, develop a strong presence in their community, and they’re in position to be a little more creative in how they market and brand themselves,” Carparelli said. “The Arizona Bowl fits in that category. I thought it was very creative to partner with Barstool Sports.

“It certainly engages a different type of audience then the traditional college football audience, which is good for the game in general.”

Arizona Bowl skips traditional TV, signs broadcasting deal with Barstool SportsDavid Brandt | APon August 10, 2021 at 6:06 pm Read More »

Brothers charged in fatal shooting of Chicago police officer denied bailStefano Espositoon August 10, 2021 at 6:22 pm

Emonte Morgan, accused of killing Chicago Police Officer Ella French, and his older brother who was also charged in connection to the shooting were ordered held without bail Tuesday.

Emonte Morgan, 21, and his brother, Eric Morgan, 22, face a litany of felony charges in the Saturday shooting in West Englewood that killed French and left her partner fighting for his life at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

About three dozen police officers, many in uniform, packed into the courtroom for Emonte Morgan’s bail hearing.

Prosecutors said both men gave statements to police.

Emonte Morgan told investigators “that he admitted to drinking and to possessing a gun in the front of his waistband,” said Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney James Murphy.

Emonte Morgan also admitted “he might have shot the girl and boy cop,” Murphy said during a hearing before Judge Arthur Willis.

Murphy said the gray SUV was initially pulled over because of expired license plates, then the officers noticed an open container of alcohol in the SUV.

French’s partner was shot twice in the head and once in his right shoulder, Murphy said.

Emonte Morgan was shot twice — in the abdomen and in his left arm — and taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

In denying bail, Willis said Emonte Morgan had “callously” shot at the officers whose weapons, prosecutors said, were holstered before Morgan opened fire.

Willis also noted the events were captured on police body cameras, including the fact that the officers’ weapons were holstered before being fired upon.

Eric Morgan was ordered held without bail at a later hearing by Judge Charles Beach.

Right after the second hearing, dozens of cook County sheriff’s deputies stood saluting, lining the hallway as CPD officers filed out of the courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse.

Emonte Morgan was charged with first-degree murder of a peace officer, two counts of attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, according to the Cook County state’s attorney office. Eric Morgan was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and obstruction of justice, the state’s attorney office said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

A Chicago police officer wears a blue and black band on her badge as she walks into the Leighton Criminal Courthouse to attend the Tuesday bond hearings for two brothers charged after the fatal shooting of Chicago Police Officer Ella French.

Brothers charged in fatal shooting of Chicago police officer denied bailStefano Espositoon August 10, 2021 at 6:22 pm Read More »

Socialist aldermen fire back at colleagues who said they have ‘blood on their hands’ for Ella French deathFran Spielmanon August 10, 2021 at 6:11 pm

Socialist aldermen fired back Tuesday against colleagues’ accusations that their “defund and disrespect movement” set the stage for “brazen acts of violence against police officers,” including the weekend slaying of Officer Ella French.

“The killing of anybody is wrong. That’s No. 1. The problem is, when the police do it, it’s overlooked. But, when they get killed, it takes two-point-five seconds to find and catch somebody,” said always outspoken Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th).

“In the history of … people being murdered by the cops, only two cops in the entire country have been indicted. That’s Laquan McDonald’s killer and George Floyd’s. What does that say about this system? Even when we have it on video — even when we have all the witnesses.

“This is not one against the other. This is about, if you take a life, you deserve to get caught. That’s not what happens when you kill everyday folks.”

What set Taylor off were the remarks of two aldermen who are among the City Council’s staunchest defenders of Chicago police officers: Anthony Napolitano (41st) and Nick Sposato (38th).

In arguing that Mayor Lori Lightfoot did not deserve the cold shoulder she got from rank-and-file police officers at the University of Chicago Hospital or the tongue lashing that the retired police officer father of French’s critically-injured partner gave her, both aldermen pointed the finger at their socialist and progressive colleagues in the City Council.

“This blood is on their hands without a doubt. They’re the ones who created this whole anti-police movement that has made these brazen acts of violence against police officers [possible]. … this is created by them. This whole defund and disrespect movement that they have started. These pieces of s–t are the ones that created this and talk anti-police,” Napolitano said.

Sposato agreed “some of the Commies are just constantly bashing the police and saying bad things about ’em and want to defund ’em.”

A police officer leaves flowers at the memorial erected to honor Officer Ella French. A vigil was held at the memorial Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. — A police officer leaves flowers at the memorial erected to honor Officer Ella French. A vigil was held at the memorial Monday night.

To say Taylor was furious would be understating it.

“Who are the socialists and the progressive aldermen in the City Council? They’re Black and Brown. He’s racist all day long for saying some crap like that,” Taylor said of Napolitano.

Taylor said her ward and Napolitano’s are a “tale of two cities.” She challenged him to see for himself by making a temporary move from the Far Northwest Side ward to her impoverished South Side ward. He wouldn’t last a week, she said.

“Come and be at a job where he makes $10-an-hour, his rent is $800 and he don’t pay his lights or gas or he can’t buy his kids some shoes because he’s trying to pay his rent. His privilege allows him to say stuff like that,” Taylor said.

“Try trying on this Black skin.. … Walk around and be me for a day. … I dare him to say the blood is on our hands. No. The blood is on the people who pulled the trigger.”

She added, “Jon Burge. … What is his excuse for that?” Taylor was referring to the notorious CPD commander accused of using torture to extract false confessions.

“Laquan McDonald, Rekia Boyd. Where’s the moral there? This ain’t about anti police. This is about people who have power and abuse it. Don’t act like police haven’t abused their power. Defund talks about stop putting so much money in the police because it does not make our community safe.”

Chicago police work the scene where two police officers where shot during a traffic stop in the 6300 block of South Bell Avenue in West Englewood on Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021. — Chicago police work the scene where two police officers where shot during a traffic stop in the 6300 block of South Bell Avenue in West Englewood on Saturday.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), chairman of the Socialist Caucus, branded Napolitano’s claim that socialist and progressive aldermen have “blood on their hands” as “utterly ridiculous.”

“Most Chicagoans — reasonable Chicagoans — would reject it as unhinged and not connected to reality,” Ramirez-Rosa said.

In rejecting the anti-police narrative, Ramirez-Rosa argued the “vast majority” of federal coronavirus relief funds went toward police payroll.

He also pointed to $500 million in police misconduct settlements the city has shelled out over the last decade and to the tentative agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police that will give rank-and-file officers a 20% raise over eight years.

“I don’t think there’s a city hall that does more to support its police than the city of Chicago. To say that there’s not enough support for police is pretty asinine,” he said.

“Do they want people to wrap themselves in a Blue Lives Matter flag and spout out empty platitudes? We need real solutions in this moment. Now’s not the time to be engaging in right-wing talking points that are just red meat for your base. It’s about coming together as a city to figure out, how do we solve the crisis that we’re in?”

Socialist aldermen fire back at colleagues who said they have ‘blood on their hands’ for Ella French deathFran Spielmanon August 10, 2021 at 6:11 pm Read More »