What’s New

Streets are being shut down around Grant Park this week for the Lollapalooza music fest that starts Thursday and ends Sunday.

• Balbo Drive from Columbus to DuSable Lake Shore Drive is closed from Monday through Friday, Aug. 6. Balbo to Michigan Avenue will be closed from 8 p.m. Monday through Aug. 2.
• Jackson Drive from Columbus to DuSable Lake Shore Drive is also closed through Friday, Aug. 6. Jackson to Michigan Avenue will be closed from 8 p.m. Monday to Aug. 2.
• Columbus from Monroe to Roosevelt will be closed from 8 p.m. Monday through Aug. 2. Columbus to Randolph Street will be closed from Monday night through Aug. 2. Northbound center lanes on Columbus, from 13th Street to Roosevelt Road, will be closed from 8 p.m. Monday through Aug. 2.
• Ida B. Wells/Circle will be closed from Michigan to Columbus from 8 p.m. Monday through Aug. 2.
• Monroe Street from Michigan to DuSable Lake Shore Drive will be close from 8 p.m. July 28 through 6:30 a.m. Aug. 2.

Read More

Kanye West has been living inside an Atlanta stadium while working on his new album.

A representative for the performer said Monday that West planned to remain inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium while working to complete “Donda,” his 10th studio album. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

West held a massive listening session at the stadium Thursday and was seen on social media attending a soccer match over the weekend.

“Donda,” which was slated to release last Friday, is now due Aug. 6.

The Grammy winner’s album was named after his mother, Donda West, who died at the age of 58 following plastic surgery complications in 2007.

West unveiled “Donda” in front of a sold-out crowd at the venue after he announced two days before that the first public listen of his highly-anticipated album would take place. He barely said a word while introducing his new music during the event, which brought out several big names including Rick Ross, Khloe Kardashian and his estranged wife Kim Kardashian West, who showed up in a red jumpsuit with their kids.

West’s new project is a follow up to his 2019 gospel-themed album “Jesus is King,” which won a Grammy for best contemporary Christian album.

Last year, West announced on Twitter — with colorful cover art and a track list — that he would release his latest album. At the time, his tweets indicated that his project would release on the same day as his rival Taylor Swift’s project “Folklore,” but his album was postponed.

Read More

The political divide in this country grows ever more menacing, even as the crises facing us — exemplified by the fires raging in the West and the resurgence of the COVID variant across the country — grow more destructive.

With the Congress and the voters divided, the mainstream media keeps urging bipartisan cooperation to move forward. But that assumes that both parties have a good faith stake in making progress. The plain reality is that Donald Trump and his Republican followers are stoking rebellion, not cooperation.

Trump continues to deny that he lost the 2020 election. Across the country, Republicans are reinforcing his big lie with utterly brazen efforts to spread rumors about fraud, even though Republican state election officials, Republican judges, Trump’s own attorney general have all exposed the claims of fraud as bogus.

Now, in states with Republican legislatures, Trump partisans are passing bills to strip the election officials of their authority, and to sponsor partisan “audits” of votes — but, as in Texas, only in counties that Trump lost, arguing there is no need to look at counties that he won. They are pushing a package of restrictive voting laws designed to make it harder to vote — and often targeted specifically on African Americans, Latinos and the young who voted against Trump by large margins.

The result is to feed extremist anger against American democracy. When masses of people believe the lie that the election was stolen, they will question the result of any election where their candidate loses. If they think the democracy is rigged, the likelihood that they will turn to rebellion and to violence increases as we witnessed on Jan. 6 when Trump partisan sacked the Capitol.

Trump partisans in the Congress refuse even to support an independent investigation of that horror. Republicans blocked creation of an independent commission. Now they are seeking to sabotage the special House investigation. They simply don’t want an honest inquiry which will detail Trump’s responsibility for the riot that sought to stop Congress from certifying the results of the presidential election. They don’t want to expose the complicity of Republican operatives in organizing the mob and the complicity of Republican legislators in stoking the insurrectionary anger.

Trump partisans want Biden to fail, even if it costs American lives. They have worked to discredit U.S. public health officials, to support resistance to sensible measures like wearing a mask and now to spread the rumors and lies that have helped fuel resistance to the vaccine. The direct result is that the new variant is spiking among the unvaccinated across the country, with the U.S. death toll rising once more. Even a pandemic that threatens us all could not bring them to join together in support of responsible action.

Their focus on making Biden fail led congressional Republicans to vote in lockstep against the Rescue Plan that was vital to helping the economy recover and providing a life preserver for the millions displaced when the pandemic forced the shutdown of much of the economy.

Similarly, even as extreme weather savages communities across the country, Trump partisans impede steps to address the real and present danger of climate change. The price of any Republican support for the infrastructure bill was to strip out virtually all measures to accelerate the transition to renewable energy, while blocking any increase in taxes on the wealthy and corporations to help pay for rebuilding the country. Now Republicans in the Senate seem intent on voting in lockstep against the Child Tax Credit that helps families with children, against universal pre-K, against support for childcare, against paid family leave, against expanding Medicare to cover dental and eye care.

Trump has led his followers closer to sedition than to bipartisan cooperation. They spread the big lie about the election and seek to limit the right to vote. They fan fears about the vaccine, and smear public health efforts amid a pandemic. They oppose efforts to help families as the economy reopens and begins to recover. They stand perversely in the way of even the first steps to address climate change.

The most costly war in American history was the Civil War, which broke out when the South seceded to protect the spread slavery to new states joining the Union. Now Trump is fanning the flames of revolt among the minority of Americans that support him. With the economy just beginning to recover, climate change and pandemic threatening us, entrenched racial disparities dividing us, it is time for the majority to act — not to allow an aroused minority and cowed elected officials to stand in the way.

Send letters to [email protected].

Read More

Days after Attorney General Merrick Garland came to Chicago to promote a new program to combat gun violence in part by targeting so-called straw purchasers, a federal judge handed down an eight-month prison sentence in what the feds called a “case study” in the problem.

Federal prosecutors say Eric Blackman bought a 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol for someone who was underage in August 2019 from a licensed firearms dealer in Oak Forest. They said he later told investigators, “I just figured, what’s the worst that could happen?”

But the feds say that gun was ultimately linked to a Dec. 22, 2019 mass shooting on the South Side that injured 13 people in the 5700 block of South May Street. Of the 31 cartridge casings found at the home where the shooting happened, 13 came from the gun Blackman purchased.

By buying the gun, Blackman played the role of the so-called straw purchaser — using his lack of criminal history to purchase a gun for someone who wasn’t supposed to have it.

Before U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman handed the eight-month sentence to Blackman on Monday, Blackman told the judge, “It was basically a mistake that was made that I wish I could really take back.”

Blackman’s defense attorney, Michael Leonard, tried to underscore Blackman’s lack of criminal history and said that Blackman is “not the guy we’re looking for to solve the gun problem.”

But Gettleman noted that Blackman’s lack of criminal history helped him commit his crime.

The judge noted that Blackman didn’t seem to commit his crime for money — distinguishing his from other straw-purchasing cases. But Gettleman also said guns have “destroyed so many lives in our city” and “stray bullets are killing children almost every week in this community.” The judge rejected a request from Blackman’s attorney for no prison time.

The person Blackman purchased the gun for was caught with it a little more than a week after the mass shooting when officers saw him walking with what appeared to be a gun handle sticking out of his right coat pocket, according to court records. The feds say the firearm was loaded and had an obliterated serial number.

That person was not accused of participating in the shooting, the judge said during Monday’s hearing.

Jon Seidel/Sun-Times

Garland paid an overnight visit to Chicago last week to tout a new Justice Department program meant to combat gun violence in Chicago and in other cities across the country, in part by targeting straw purchasers.

Asked about people who consider straw-purchasing a “paper crime” because it involves lying on a form — Blackman pleaded guilty to lying about a firearm sale — Garland called that characterization “unfortunate.”

“We do not regard this as a minor matter,” Garland said. “We regard this as a major matter.”

The question of gun violence in Chicago came up again Monday at the White House, where Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the Justice Department is focused on the selling of guns “that are getting into the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.”

Meanwhile, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Wong wrote in a recent court memo that, “The straw purchaser plays a significant role in the gun violence that has continuously troubled the city of Chicago and threatened the public safety of its residents.”

Wong called the Blackman case “representative of the harmful ripple effect that straw-purchased firearms can have,” and she wrote that Chicago “has been inundated with violence from the actions of individuals who illegally possess firearms and then use those firearms to commit crimes.”

During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Wong told the judge, “Saving this city starts by sending a message.”

Contributing: Lynn Sweet

Read More

With Lollapalooza just days away, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is saying she won’t hesitate to return to a mask mandate if Chicago’s daily rate of coronavirus cases is “consistently going over” 200.

“If we get back into an area where we feel like we’re in a red zone, which we are working very hard to make sure that our daily case rate is below 200, if we start to see consistently going over that, we’re not only going to look at a mask mandate, but we’re going to look back at other tools that we’ve been compelled to use,” the mayor told Kara Swisher on the New York Times’ “Sway” podcast, posted online Monday.

Later Monday, Lightfoot told reporters she would consult with organized labor before reinstating safety mitigations. She advised both vaccinated and unvaccinated Chicagoans to wear masks indoors.

“Everybody’s got to make their decisions about what makes the most sense for them. But if we see a surge anything like we’ve seen in the past couple of cycles, then everything is on the table,” she said

“Right now, I feel confident with the measures that are in place. But everything is subject to change, based upon the data and the science.”

Lea este articulo en espanol en La Voz Chicago, un servicio presentado por AARP Chicago.

The current daily case rate in Chicago is 130. That’s up 76% from 74 cases a day just a week ago.

Throughout the pandemic, Lightfoot has alternated between implementing mitigations that are even tougher than Gov. J.B. Pritzker and criticizing the governor for going too far at times, particularly in terms of closing schools and banning indoor dining at restaurants.

More recently, Lightfoot has sounded the alarm about the Delta variant and the rise in cases among the large number of unvaccinated Chicagoans, while also saying she has no regrets about green-lighting Lollapalooza’s return to Grant Park this weekend with hundreds of thousands of young people jammed together, in front of multiple stages, dancing, singing and swaying to the music.

To be allowed to enter Grant Park, attendees must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test no older than 72 hours.

At an unrelated news conference Monday afternoon, the mayor said she has no second thoughts about green-lighting the city’s marquee music festival.

That’s because the event is outdoors and because, as the mayor put it, Lollapalooza organizers have done “a tremendous job of educating” their “core” patrons about “the necessity of getting vaccinated.”

“If I thought for a moment that shutting down Lolla would prevent further spread in the way that we’re seeing it, then I wouldn’t hesitate to do that. But it’s outdoors. We’ve been having large-scale events all over the city since June without major problems or issues,” she said.

“The Lolla team has been phenomenal. They’ve hired their own public health experts who’ve been working hand-in-glove with us since we started these discussions back early in the spring. … So, God bless the critics standing on the sidelines. But I feel confident that the Lolla folks have a good solid plan in place. And we’re gonna obviously hold them accountable to make sure that plan is enforced.”

Lightfoot’s “critics standing on the sidelines” include University of Chicago epidemiologist Dr. Emily Landon, who has said it’s a “bad idea” to hold the jam-packed event, which she said is “all about the money.”

“God bless Dr. Landon. I don’t agree with her. She’s said a lot of things over the course of this last 16 months which I don’t agree with. Who I have confidence in is Dr. Allison Arwady, our director of public health, who has been working with the folks at Lolla for some time now — and particularly over the last few weeks — to understand what their plan is … and that we’re all on the same page about what’s needed,” the mayor said.

During the podcast interview, Lightfoot told Swisher the Delta variant has her incredibly concerned. So does the fact that vaccine “uptake” in some South Side neighborhoods was “in the high-teens” not too long again, she said, and is still under 40%.

“When I see statistics like 97% of the people that are getting sick or 97% of the people that are dying are folks who are unvaccinated, that is alarming. The southern part of our state is starting to really catch fire with new COVID infections. I’m worried about a surge there. So I’m concerned. We’re sounding the alarm. And we’re going to be looking closely at how the data progresses,” Lightfoot said.

Swisher noted Los Angeles County has already restored an indoor mask mandate. That county’s vaccination rate is “similar to” Chicago’s, she added, with about 70% of eligible adults having received at least one dose. The mayor was asked whether she was considering reinstating a mask mandate.

“We’re not there yet, but I am very concerned about what we’re seeing in the uptick in our cases,” Lightfoot said. “We’re still in a good place as we are speaking. But we’re seeing an uptick in daily cases. We’re starting to see a slight uptick in hospitalizations. You know, the deaths are kind of a trailing indicator. That’s steady for now.”

Read More

There’s a mystery behind the deaths of three popular beavers that made their home at the Evanston campus of Northwestern University.

“They were getting regular visits. A lot of people in Evanston were excited about them,” said Margaret Frisbie, director of Friends of the Chicago River.

When the beavers were found dead recently, their bodies were too decomposed for veterinarians to test for a cause of death, Northwestern University spokesman Jon Yates said in an emailed statement.

It’s unclear if there were any surviving beavers. They reportedly began living on campus in 2018. “We plan to work with the county in the future should this unfortunate situation occur again,” Yates said.

The beavers had likely migrated from the Chicago River and settled around the Lakefill on campus, according to Frisbie. She said beavers are making a comeback in the Chicago area.

“There’s some real enthusiasm about beavers. Beavers can have real impact on their environments, particularly in rivers,” she said.

Beavers can help shore up water levels in drought-prone areas out west. And wetlands created by beavers can help fight wildfires. In the Midwest, beavers can be most helpful by creating wetlands to combat flooding.

“They’re extraordinary. And there’s good reason to leave beavers alone,” she said.

But despite their importance in the ecosystem, beavers are considered a nuisance by some because they chew on trees and dam up running water, Frisbie said.

In nearby Glenview, one of the community’s beavers was recently found dead — and some feared it was killed.

“There was speculation they were poisoned,” Rachel Siegel, a founder of Glenview Beavers Fan Club and the president of the Illinois Beaver Alliance.

The beavers had made enemies with a nearby homeowner association after chewing on the local vegetation, Siegel said. Someone had even made a group on social media calling for the killing of the beavers, she said.

“They are controversial and the homeowner association wished they would go away. But if they had just wrapped their trees, the beavers would be harmless,” Siegel said.

Beavers are an “urban success story” and a key to combating the effects of climate change, Siegel said.

“Pre-settlement, North America was teeming with beavers — with ten times what he have today. Because of that, rivers were different then, a complex river wetland corridor. But we’ve lost 80% or 90% of our wetlands since then,” she said.

And then hunters nearly trapped beavers out of existence, followed by farmers who pumped away water from the wetlands, she said.

“And here we are in Illinois, we want everything to be predictable so we don’t tolerate the ecosystem engineers (i.e. beavers). But with climate change we’re getting more rainwater in shorter and more intense bursts. And our water infrastructure isn’t made for it,” she said.

Although beaver dams create a level of uncertainty in our water infrastructure, they slow the flow of water and lessen the risk of flooding, she said.

“Our river system is designed to remove water from the area as fast as possible, but a slower system (created with the help of beavers) with many channels and wetlands would be healthier,” she said.

Providing spaces for beavers to thrive would go a long way toward restoring that ecosystem, Siegel said. “If humans learned to live with beavers, we’d solve our problems.”

Read More

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 sunny with a high near 92 degrees. Tonight will be mostly clear with a low around 71. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny with a high near 93.

Top story

FOP board approves eight-year contract, setting stage for rank-and-file vote

The executive board of the Fraternal Order of Police has overwhelmingly approved a new eight-year contract, setting the stage for a ratification vote by rank-and-file Chicago police officers in line for a 20% pay raise, more than half of it retroactive.

FOP President John Catanzara pegged the cost of the retroactive pay raise alone at $600 million. The retroactive pay raise for firefighters and paramedics cost taxpayers $96 million, and “we’re three times their size and we got an extra year,” he noted.

“It’s not because we’re taking ’em to the cleaners. It’s because we waited four years for the money,” Catanzara said today.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, however, continues to play cat-and-mouse about the new contract, refusing even to acknowledge the existence of a tentative agreement the FOP board already has approved by a 14-to-1 vote. The union also has received a signed copy from the city and started mailing out copies for the rank-and-file to ratify.

“I think we will ultimately get there. But we’re gonna do it on a timeline that makes sense for our city, for our taxpayers, for the members” of the City Council, Lightfoot told Kara Swisher on the New York Times’ “Sway” podcast, which was posted online this morning.

“We need to make sure that the dollars that they propose make sense. We’ve obviously got to think about what are the revenue sources for that. And we’re fly-specking all of the reform measures that we’ve advocated for to make sure that we’ve gotten everything that I know that we need to be able to move forward. We’re doing our diligence.”

Fran Spielman’s got the latest on the FOP contract.

More news you need

1. Will Lightfoot run for a second term as mayor? She says “it’s not a gimme.” Spielman has more on Lightfoot’s comments about her political future.
2. The straw purchaser of a gun later linked to a December 2019 mass shooting has been handed an eight-month prison sentence by a federal judge. Feds call the sentencing a “case study” in targeting the problem of straw purchases.
3. The proposed $30 billion merger of business insurers Aon and Willis Towers Watson won’t go through after both sides walked away amid pressure from antitrust regulators. The deal would’ve raised questions about the name of Chicago’s tallest building, which will remain Willis Tower.
4. Mayor Lightfoot also said during her podcast appearance she won’t hesitate to return to a mask mandate if Chicago’s daily rate of coronavirus cases is “consistently going over” 200. The city’s daily case rate is currently 130 — days before the start of Lollapalooza.
5. Streets are beginning to shut down for the week as Lollapalooza takes over the area around Grant Park. Get the details on which streets are closing and when they’ll be off limits for vehicles.
6. Showtime, which airs popular series “The Chi,” says it donated $500,000 to the city’s Greencorps Chicago green job training program and the Chicago Public Art Group. Mayor Lightfoot, executives from the network and stars from the show announced the grant funding today.

A bright one

West Garfield Park’s new outdoor roller rink draws steady crowd on opening day

Ten-year-old Susanna Aderotimi had been roller skating only once before last Friday.

But after a few laps around a new outdoor rink in West Garfield Park, she already was planning a return visit.

“I like that you get to move around,” said Susanna, who attended the rink’s opening day with a group of Chicago Park District day campers. “It’s like exercising.”

The rink, at 4008 W. Madison St., is only a temporary structure, built on one of many empty lots along the neighborhood’s main commercial corridor.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Along with the rink, there’s a community plaza — a project that some residents hope is the start of rebuilding the West Side.

The main attraction is the outdoor roller rink, where attendees can borrow skates at no cost if they don’t bring their own.

Besides dozens of day campers, there also were some Chicago police officers taking spins around the rink.

Reporter Cheyanne M. Daniels has more on this popular new attraction.

From the press box

Your daily question ?

The National Sports Collectors Convention is in town this week. Do you collect anything? What and why?

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

On Friday, we asked you: With COVID-19 cases on the rise, how do you feel about the city hosting Lollapalooza next week? Here’s what some of you said…

“Let it happen. Can’t keep rolling back the clock everytime cases spike up a bit. People have the choice to be vaccinated, if they do then great, if not it’s their own risk.” — Justin Griletz

“I have mixed feelings about it because the COVID-19 cases are slowly rising in Chicago’; however, I got to applaud their efforts in trying to put the proper protocols in place to keep everyone safe during the event.” — Charlotte Yolanda

“Since you have to be vaccinated to go or be tested multiple times which is a pain I’m totally fine with it. Let the unvaccinated stay home this time.” — Missy Porter Badynee

“It should not be happening. We will see numbers rise tremendously. It’s so unnecessary just because the city wants to make money. People’s health is so much more important vaccinated or not.” — Sheri A. Mendez

“I think we are crazy if we don’t cancel. Do we all want to be stuck in our houses again? Do we want our health care workers at risk again.” — Linda Chariton Goodall

“What many forget is that you can be a carrier of the virus and the new variants regardless of vaccine status. Hosting Lollapalooza is irresponsible, especially considering the latest travel orders that have developed in the last couple of weeks.” — Amber Nicole Alvarado

“The Democrats are never gonna let this go away. There will continue to be more variants forever. Best for anyone concerned to get vaccinated and wear masks. Anyone who is not concerned should be able to do whatever they choose. Enough of this tyrannical nonsense.” — Ken Gaspar

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.

Read More

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The final victim of the condo building collapse in Florida has been identified, a relative said Monday, more than a month after the middle-of-the-night catastrophe that ultimately claimed 98 lives.

Estelle Hedaya, an outgoing 54-year-old with a love of travel, was the last victim identified, ending what her relatives described as a torturous four-week wait.

Her younger brother, Ikey Hedaya, confirmed the identification to The Associated Press. The news comes just days after rescuers officially concluded the painstaking and emotionally heavy task of removing layers of dangerous debris and pulling out dozens of bodies.

“She always mentioned God anytime she was struggling with anything,” he said. “She had reached a different level spiritually, which allowed her to excel in all other areas.”

Her brother said he is drawing strength from God, just as he’d seen his sister do in troubling times. A funeral was scheduled for Tuesday.

The site of the June 24 collapse at the oceanside Champlain Towers South has been mostly swept flat, the rubble moved to a Miami warehouse. Although forensic scientists are still at work, including examining the debris at the warehouse, authorities said there are no more bodies to be found where the building once stood.

In the end, crews found no evidence that anyone who was found dead had survived the initial collapse, Fire Chief Alan Cominsky has said.

Search teams spent weeks battling the hazards of the rubble, including an unstable portion of the building that teetered above, a recurring fire and Florida’s stifling summer heat and thunderstorms. They went through more than 14,000 tons of broken concrete and rebar before finally declaring the mission complete.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s urban search-and-rescue team pulled away from the site Friday in a convoy of firetrucks and other vehicles, slowly driving to their headquarters. The fire chief saluted their bravery, saying they had worked 12-hour shifts while camping out at the site and also dealing with the heavy emotional burden.

Linda March, a 58 year-old attorney and fellow former New Yorker, was close friends with Hedaya. Oddly the two were the last three victims to be identified, along with 24-year-old Anastasia Gromova of Canada.

Leah Sutton, who knew Hedaya since birth and considered herself a second mother to her, said she and March were both “forces to be reckoned with.”

“My two beautiful amazing fearless friends saved for last, have to believe there was a reason for them to be last,” she said Monday. “Estelle’s love of God was unbelievable and unwavering.”

The dead included members of the area’s large Orthodox Jewish community, the sister of Paraguay’s first lady, her family and their nanny, along with an entire family of four that included a local salesman, his wife and their two young daughters, 4 and 11, who were buried in the same coffin.

Meanwhile, it’s unclear what will happen at the collapse site. A judge presiding over several lawsuits filed in the collapse aftermath wants the property sold at market rates, which would bring in an estimated $100 million or more. Some condo owners want to rebuild, and others say a memorial should be erected to remember the dead.

Read More

Chicago Bears News: Jesse James brings excellent skill set by Ryan Taylor

Over the weekend, the Chicago Bears traded Anthony Miller to the Houston Texans. It was a good move for the Bears as they don’t need him as a distraction on the team right now. They already have enough issues going on with the wide receiver room.

He is a highly skilled player but he never seemed to get it done in the biggest moments for the Bears. Unfortunately, it seems now like this trade has opened the door for the Green Bay Packers to have Aaron Rodgers this season.

Trey Wingo reported that Aaron Rodgers coming back to Green Bay would require them to trade for an old friend. He wants them to trade for Randall Cobb who is currently a member of the aforementioned Houston Texans. It does seem possible that this could get done (if the rumor is true) because of the fact that the Bears traded Miller there.

Cobb is now more expendable because of the fact that the wide receiver room just received another notable player. Cobb isn’t the player he once was but he is capable of making Aaron Rodgers happy which is the number one issue in Green Bay right now. If he is happy, he will play well. If he plays well, they have a chance to win the Super Bowl.

The Chicago Bears are seeing a lot of news coming out about their biggest rivals.

Hearing Rodgers coming back to GB hinging on trading for former teammate Randall Cobb . If Cobb is in Green Bay it looks like Rodgers will be too

— trey wingo (@wingoz) July 26, 2021

Shortly after this rumor came out, ESPN’s Adam Schefter came out with a report that is bad news for Bears fans. There were already reports from earlier in the day that they were going to have Rodgers for this season. Then, Schefter reported that Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are close to a deal that is going to bring in more money for Rodgers. The Packers are giving in and giving him what he wants is what it sounds like. The Chicago Bears are going to have to face Rodgers in 2021.

Packers are offering concessions and are close to an agreement that would bring Aaron Rodgers back to Green Bay for at least this season, sources tell ESPN. Deal is not done but it is close.

More on NFL Live at 4.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 26, 2021

If this happens and the Cobb news comes true, the Bears can’t blame themselves. It did make him easier to trade but nobody would have ever seen this coming. At this point, for the Bears, the most important thing has to be developing their new young quarterback. Aaron isn’t going to be there for most of Justin Fields’s career so just worry about that.

Having Anthony Miller gone should be a good thing for the team in the long run anyway. If bringing back an aging wide receiver is what Green Bay needs to do to keep Rodgers happy, that is okay with us. Hopefully, the Bears can start worrying about themselves and that could lead to more winning.

Related Story: Will Charles Tillman go to the Hall of Fame?

Read More

The Bears’ plan for this season is perfect — as long as everything goes exactly right.

Like a wild, multi-team parlay in Las Vegas, it’s more hopeful than prudent. That’s why Vegas, by the way, gives them the same odds of winning the Super Bowl as the Atlanta Falcons at 50-to-1.

When players report to Halas Hall for training camp Tuesday, it’ll be much different than two years ago when they rolled into Bourbonnais talking about a dynasty. The tone will be more measured, but it’s a given that general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy will open camp by telling everyone they feel “really good” about the team they’ve built.

The truth is, this is a bridge season to Justin Fields taking over as full-time starting quarterback in 2022. And while the Bears don’t want to waste this season altogether, especially when they don’t have a first-round pick next year, they’ll need all their dreams to come true in order to make the playoffs.

That starts with quarterback Andy Dalton, the consolation prize after the Bears weren’t able to trade for Russell Wilson or any of the other big names who were thought to be available in the offseason.

Dalton, 33, is a household name because he has been in the NFL a long time, not because he’s a star. The Bengals spent nine years trying to decide whether he was good enough.

Nobody pounced on him to be their starter when they cut him after the 2019 season, and in 11 games for the Cowboys when Dak Prescott was injured, he had a lower passer rating (87.3), touchdown-to-interception ratio (1.8) and yards-per-game average (197.3) than Mitch Trubisky. Their career numbers are remarkably similar, too.

Nagy has raved about Dalton’s accuracy and ability to read defenses — two major frustrations for Trubisky — but Pro Football Reference charted him at 78% on-target passes last season and 72% in 2019. Trubisky and Nick Foles were both at 76% last season.

So the Bears’ bet is that, four seasons removed from his last Pro Bowl, they can squeeze playoff-caliber football out of a quarterback who has been adequate most of his career and looks like he’s close to retirement.

And that’s assuming they’ve solved their offensive line, where they’ll likely turn to rookies Teven Jenkins and Larry Borom at left and right tackle, respectively.

It also assumes they’ll supply Dalton with enough threats despite Allen Robinson being the only sure thing at wide receiver, tight end Cole Kmet being unproven and running back David Montgomery still developing.

Lately, the Bears’ overwhelming defense has offset the offensive shortfalls. The thinking inside Halas Hall has been that if the offense can be merely league-average, the defense can make the Bears a contender. But that’s no longer a certainty, and the team is taking significant risks on that side of the ball.

The Bears are still a good defense, but this blueprint requires them to be great. The defense must be what it was in 2018, when it allowed the fewest points in the NFL, forced the most turnovers and were third in sacks. The Bears haven’t had that level of ferocity since.

The decline was most noticeable against the pass last season, and the Bears took a step backward by releasing star cornerback Kyle Fuller for salary-cap reasons. Now they’re banking on second-year player Jaylon Johnson to take over as their No. 1 corner.

That’s fine. He’s ready for it. But there are vacancies at the other outside corner and at nickel, and the options are shaky. Desmond Trufant is 30 and hasn’t played a full season since 2018. Duke Shelley played just 19% of the defense snaps last season, and Kindle Vildor played 13%. Artie Burns is coming off a torn ACL.

That group would look better if the Bears got their pass rush rolling, but that’s another wild card. Pace signed Robert Quinn to a $70 million contract last year and he began his Bears career with two sacks in 548 snaps. He was out during minicamp last month because of a back injury. The Bears are counting on not only production from him, but the ripple effect of Quinn drawing attention away from Khalil Mack.

Some of what the Bears sketched out as a best-case scenario surely will materialize this season, but it’s awfully ambitious to expect all of it to break their way. And that’s probably what they’ll need.

Read More