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MILWAUKEE — Jerry Narron, a manager for five major league seasons with the Rangers and Reds and a bench coach for 13 seasons with five teams, has been impressed watching White Sox manager Tony La Russa in action in the pair’s first season together in the dugout.

“I’ve been fortunate to be in the game for long time and a lot of years,” Narron told the Sun-Times. “And it’s been awesome working with Tony. Just watching him, how he prepares for a game and runs through a game, it’s impressive.”

A former catcher, Narron’s title is major league instructor, and while his primary duty is overseeing the catchers, he wears a variety of hats with various responsibilities on La Russa’s staff, as most of the coaches do. Bench coach Miguel Cairo, for example, isn’t La Russa’s right-hand man as some bench coaches are for the manager.

“The way he does it, we all have different jobs on the bench,” Cairo said. “That’s the way he runs it, everyone has specifics. He uses everyone in different ways.

“I’m learning so much from Tony and Jerry. All the little details and things Tony covers in a game, it’s amazing.”

La Russa, 76, is the second-winningest manager of all time behind Connie Mack. Narron says he’s seeing why first-hand.

“I’d like to tell you some things [he excels at] but I don’t want to give away any trade secrets from a Hall of Famer,” Narron said. “But he has a pretty good idea who’s going to be on the mound every night, from now till the end. It’s pretty impressive. He’s pretty sharp.”

Harrelson’s Day

Ken Harrelson watches the White Sox on TV whenever he can.

But not Saturday.

The longtime Sox broadcaster is in Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame Awards Presentation, which will be broadcast as a television-only event on MLB Network at 11 a.m. Sunday, featuring the 2020 and 2021 award winners.

Harrelson was the 2020 winner of the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasters.

The event will also be livestreamed on MLB.com and at facebook.com/baseballhall. MLB Network will re-air it at 7 p.m. and will air Hawk: The Colorful Life of Ken Harrelson at 9 p.m.

Harrelson will return to watching his first-place Sox soon.

“I’ll tell you what, I’m having fun watching these kids play,” he said.

“I’ve never seen so many injuries in my whole career. But it’s given these kids like [Andrew] Vaughn a chance to show they are for real. Vaughn has a chance to be a stud. He reminds me of me when I was playing. He goes up there ready to hit, and he’s strong.

“And all of a sudden you get Luis Robert and Eloy [Jimenez] back. It’s going to be interesting how Tony works it out. But it’s a nice problem to have.”

Jimenez soon

Jimenez’ 20-day maximum stay for his minor league rehab stint runs out Wednesday when the Sox are in Kansas City. Robert just started his this week.

“We’ve got a lot to think about,” La Russa said when asked when Jimenez might return. “Been in touch with our front office, and I know they’ve gotten reports back from [Triple-A manager Wes [Helms] about not only Eloy’s progress but Jake [Lamb] is there playing well. At this point, everything is all go forward, but I haven’t heard a deadline.”

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An Iowa man arrested during the Fourth of July weekend with a rifle, scope and pistol at a downtown Chicago hotel told police officers he accidentally brought the guns with him, according to video from Chicago police officers’ body-worn camera obtained by the Sun-Times.

Keegan Casteel was unclothed when officers arrived at his room at Hotel W, 644 N. Lake Shore Dr., after a housekeeping employee tipped off police there were weapons and ammunition in his room. Casteel insisted he accidentally brought the bag with him after packing and leaving late at night.

“It’s my gun bag and we just packed late at night,” 32-year-old Casteel said. “I emptied most of it.”

Casteel said they had spent the day in an Iowa hospital before leaving for Chicago and had a late start to packing. He thought he removed most items from the bag and believed the rifle was in its case.

Body-worn camera video shows police on the scene befuddled at what they found. They seemingly didn’t believe Casteel would carry out a violent attack but also believed they may have just prevented a mass shooting.

Both Chicago Police Supt. David Brown and Mayor Lori Lightfoot seemingly believed the latter; both touted the arrest, with Brown saying police “likely prevented a tragedy from happening,”

Casteel, an auto mechanic from Ankeny, Iowa, told officers he was visiting Chicago for the weekend to “have fun” with his family. His two children and girlfriend were with him in the room when officers arrived.

As Casteel’s children shouted and cried, an officer rounded up the weapons and ammunition. He stood at the foot of one bed disarming a handgun as a bullet flew out the chamber. On the bed sat five rifle magazines next to a children’s doll.

Screenshot from police body-worn camera video

The officer tried to calm the kids; they could trust him, he told the children, because he’s a police officer.

“We just got to talk to daddy really quick, OK? He’s not in any trouble, OK? We just got to talk to him, we just got to make sure the guns are OK, OK?,” the officer said. “You guys are OK. … There’s no need to cry.”

The hotel room was filled with stuffed animals, a pillow cover adorned with Disney princesses, stuffed animals, and a Spiderman boogie board. Snacks, clothes, Nintendo Switch video games and fireworks sat on a desk underneath two hotel TVs.

The officer told him it was imperative for Casteel to do his research before bringing his firearms with him on a trip. He noted even the hotel had stickers indicating firearms weren’t allowed on the property.

“Brother, I wish you didn’t bring any of this sh– with you,” the officer told him. “It kills me that your kids are here.”

During an interrogation back at the station, Casteel said he had planned to go to the beach and they needed a bag to take there. When he began making room in the bag, that’s when he first noticed the rifle and pistol were still in it. He “obviously wasn’t going to have it in the bag” with them at the beach so he took them out and placed them somewhere in the room — which is where the housekeeper found it.

The officers’ biggest concern, they told each other on the scene, was the view from Casteel’s room. It overlooked Lake Michigan and Navy Pier. It was also Fourth of July weekend.

A second batch of officers came to the room after Casteel and his family were escorted out. As they stood in the hallway, they seemed concerned with what they found in the hotel room — passing around rifle magazines to each other.

On several occasions officers said “it could’ve been a Las Vegas thing” if they didn’t get there in time — referencing the deadliest mass shooting committed by one person in the United States, in which a gunman fired from a hotel onto an outdoor concert. The final tally there: 60 people killed, 411 others wounded.

“I’m just saying, like it’s too much of a high risk. … Holy f—,” one officer says before a rifle magazine is handed to her to look at.

“That’s not weapons or ammo that you carry for protection,” that officer said later in the video.

The officers tried to search every inch of the hotel room. They lifted the mattresses, looked inside the hotel’s ice bucket, pulled back the shower curtains and even inside the washroom’s toilet.

While searching through Casteel’s book bag one last time, they found another magazine for a pistol.

At the end of the search, two officers stood at the window overlooking Lake Michigan and Navy Pier.

“It’s scary, though,” one officer said.

“This doesn’t make sense,” the other officer responded looking out the window. “Why would you come with your family to do all that?”

“It’s not like it hasn’t happened before,” the other officer replied. “It is crazy though.”

Screenshot from police body-worn camera video.

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COVID-19 cases have almost quadrupled across Illinois over the past month, nearly a quarter of counties have hit a coronavirus warning level, and more patients are filling hospital wards.

Troubling figures released Friday by the Illinois Department of Public Health suggest the state’s latest coronavirus surge is showing no signs of letting up days before daily crowds of 100,000 and up descend on Grant Park for Lollapalooza.

City officials have insisted the massive festival will be safe — and Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said he’ll be there himself — but University of Chicago epidemiologist Dr. Emily Landon called it “a bad idea” to move forward with the jam-packed event, especially with the more infectious Delta variant looming.

“Lolla is too crowded. That’s the bottom line,” she said, acknowledging odds are slim Mayor Lori Lightfoot would pull the plug on the lucrative attraction.

“It’s about harm reduction. You have to make the decision for yourself. These cases that happen because of Lolla aren’t likely to be a huge drag on the health care system. But will we see a bump? Yes, and Delta will probably make it higher,” Landon said.

“A bunch of people are going to get COVID at Lolla, but a lot of people are getting it from other places now, too.”

Santiago Covarrubias/For the Sun-Times

They’re getting it across the state, especially in downstate counties with lower vaccination rates. Cases started rising a few weeks after the state fully reopened June 11.

Nearly 8,000 Illinoisans tested positive over the past week alone, an average of 1,140 new cases every day. The state was logging just 294 cases per day at the start of the month, and 238 per day in mid-June.

Since then, the average statewide case positivity rate has increased fivefold, from a pandemic low of 0.6% up to 3.3% — the highest it’s been since the first week of May. Hospitals were treating 670 coronavirus patients Thursday night, the most they’ve seen since early June.

Graph not displaying properly? Click here.

State public health officials on Friday singled out 25 of the state’s 102 counties for being at a coronavirus warning level. DuPage is the first Chicago-area county to land on that list in several months, due to an increase in hospital visits for COVID-like symptoms.

Most of the other warning-level counties are in central and southern Illinois, where vaccination rates are sometimes less than half the statewide rate. About 72% of all Illinoisans have gotten a shot, with about 56% fully vaccinated.

Illinois Department of Public Health

Even though Lollapalooza takes place in the heart of Chicago, it could have a devastating impact on far-flung areas, said Landon, who urged attendees to “assume you’ve been exposed” and get tested afterward.

“It can amplify the spread in areas with low vaccination rates. The people who go home to some south suburbs, to central Illinois, to Missouri — they’re going to set off little wildfires,” she said.

But as far as personal risk, Lollapalooza “can be done safely,” according to Dr. Vishnu Chundi, chairman of the Chicago Medical Society’s COVID-19 Task Force.

“Outdoors is the safest place you can do it,” Chundi said. “If you’re vaccinated, you’re safe. If you’re vaccinated and masked, you’re really safe. If you’re not vaccinated and not masked, you’re not safe.”

Attendees at the four-day music festival, which opens Thursday, have to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test from within three days of entrance, according to Lollapalooza.

Anyone who is unvaccinated will be required to wear a mask while attending the event. And even those who got the shot are urged to consider masking up.

Chundi said the check-in process could actually result in more transmission than other parts of the fest.

“The bathrooms themselves are porta-potties, the vendors, they’re open-air — that all is basically OK. It’s getting huge crowds of people in and then getting them out of these choke points that causes concern,” he said.

Erin Brown/Sun-Times file

Still, Chundi said the likelihood of Lollapalooza turning into a super-spreader event “is very low.” He expects cases to keep rising in the short term no matter what.

“You’ve got 30,000 people going to Sox games, Cubs games and soon Bears games. In the U.S., we’ve decided the decision about getting vaccinated is your personal responsibility and your right. That’s getting us into some trouble,” Chundi said.

“If we could get everyone to just mandate vaccination, we could get out of this whole mess. But that needs to happen at a national level. … It’s not rocket science. Everyone knows how this works by now.”

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LOS ANGELES — LeVar Burton’s quest to become the new host of “Jeopardy!” has been a confident, upbeat effort by the actor and those who rooted him on with a petition drive.

But when the day came to tape the first of his week’s share of episodes as one of a succession of guest hosts, the show’s pace and the challenge of following in Alex Trebek’s much-admired footsteps threw Burton off stride.

It made for a rough start to the five back-to-back tapings that begin airing Monday, said the veteran actor known for “Roots,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Reading Rainbow.” He turned for advice to wife Stephanie Cozart Burton, who as his makeup artist was on hand to play coach during a production break.

“Being at home, it feels like a really relaxed half-hour, but it’s not relaxed at all,” he said. “You can’t let your focus drop for a nanosecond.”

Burton has been watching and assessing the other guest hosts — in other words, his competition for the position that the Canadian-born Trebek held from 1984 to shortly before his November 2020 death from cancer at age 80. Art Fleming was the quiz’s show’s original and only other host, in the 1960s and ’70s.

Although Burton had made the show’s producers aware of his interest in being considered, his addition to the roster came after a petition backing him as the new “Jeopardy!” host caught fire (with more than 250,000 signatures to date).

He faces other openly eager would-be hosts — including NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers — but the actor, director and education and literacy advocate sees himself as a solid match for a game show that rewards knowledge.

Burton spoke with The Associated Press about his wife’s on-point advice, why diversity matters for “Jeopardy!” and what he thinks of his chances for the job expected to be filled this summer, before next season’s taping begins. Remarks have been edited for clarity and length.

Q. What was the guest-host experience like?

A. Scary. Really, really, really scary. Did I mention it was scary?

Q. How so?

A. I’ve jumped out of airplanes. I’ve walked over hot coals. This was a real challenge. First of all, because (‘Jeopardy!’) is singular in the culture and what it means to people as a part of their daily lives. And the fact that there are only two hosts who have ever stood in that spot. The pressure, the natural tendency was to want to live up to Alex’s example, his legacy. I had, like all of the hosts, one day of rehearsal and the following day I shot five episodes of ‘Jeopardy!’ I came backstage after taping the first episode and I said to Stephanie, ‘Well, how did I do?’ She said, ‘ehhh.’ Now, this is a woman who loves me enough to tell me the truth. She said it wasn’t me.

Q. How did you adjust?

A. I made it my business for the next four chances at bat to just be myself, to forget about the procedure, to forget about the process, stop trying, stop focusing on the wrong thing. You’re not going to be smooth as Alex, let go of that. But what you can bring to the table is you. So that became my point of focus. And when it did, I started having fun.

Q. Why do you consider the show and the host’s role as worthwhile?

A. I’ve been about education my entire career, and I definitely believe in the medium (of television) as one where more than simply entertaining is the order of the day. I try and use the medium in a way that brings something else to the table as often as I can. I think that ‘Roots’ and ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Reading Rainbow,’ they all have that commonality about them, that common thread of entertainment, yes — and informational, inspiring, enlightening, educational, uplifting. We can do so much more than just sell each other stuff with the medium.

Q. There’s significant diversity among the guest hosts. Would there be value in ‘Jeopardy!” having its first person of color or woman as host?

A. There’s nothing like ‘Jeopardy!’ in the cultural consciousness. It’s not that I’m trying to put it on the same level, but I liken it to Barack Obama being elected president in the United States in 2008. I personally never thought I would see that happen in my lifetime. Did his election mean that we were in a post-racial America? Obviously not at all. But it was an important step. Every time we reach that milestone of a first, it does say something about us. It also tells us something that we continue to have these moments of firsts…. that white is the normative default. The reason that white is the default is the conversation that we are trying to have in this country now, that there’s so much resistance to.

Q. How optimistic are you about being picked as host?

A. I am a preternaturally optimistic person. Look, if I don’t get this job, will it be devastating to me? No. I mean, it will hurt, I’ll be disappointed. And I’ll be fine, because what I know about my life is that which is supposed to be for me comes my way. And that which is not mine, doesn’t. The most important thing is that I went for it and my passion was rewarded. I got what I wanted, which was an opportunity to compete for the job. If I don’t get the gig, it’s not immaterial, but it certainly is secondary. I got what I was after. The chance — get me in the room.

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Federal prosecutors in New York say a crisis manager for R&B star R. Kelly bribed a clerk in Cook County to get information about the singer’s legal trouble following the release of the Lifetime documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly.”

The new allegation surfaced in a lengthy court filing in which prosecutors asked a judge permission to admit allegations of uncharged crimes — including sexual abuse of minors, unlawful imprisonment, hush-money payments and physical abuse — during Kelly’s racketeering trial in Brooklyn, set to begin next month.

The document also alleges Kelly had a member of his entourage pay an Illinois state employee $500 to create a fake ID in 1994 for Kelly’s then-protege, the singer Aaliyah Haughton, who was 15 at the time.

The feds say they want to introduce evidence of Kelly’s sexual abuse of Aaliyah to show he had motive to marry her so she could not be forced to testify against him. Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001.

Another claim made in the document involves Kelly’s alleged sexual abuse of boy he met at a McDonald’s in 2006, when the boy was 17. It said Kelly invited the boy to his studio, purportedly to help the boy with his musical aspirations. Kelly allegedly asked the boy what he would do to succeed in the music business and then had sexual contact with the boy.

The feds say the boy then introduced Kelly to a close male friend who was 16 or 17. They said Kelly started a sexual relationship with that person several years later.

Meanwhile, the bribery of the Cook County clerk allegedly occurred around February 2019. That’s when someone claiming to be a crisis manager for Kelly told him he had “two people” who “know a lot” and told Kelly to “figure out what you can do for them.”

Kelly allegedly replied, “What you do, man, is write something on a piece of paper and give me what I should tip the bailiff. What I should tip the, uh, the valet. Like when my uncle come up here and say ‘Rob, the valet guy, he parked the car over there.’ I say, ‘So what should I give him?’ He say, ‘Well, 20, 30, 30 dollars.’ I gave him 30 dollars. So what I’m saying is I don’t know that number.”

Later during that same conversation, the crisis manager allegedly told Kelly he had paid a Cook County clerk $2,500 and obtained a “burner” phone for the clerk to help get information about Kelly’s legal trouble. Cook County prosecutors charged Kelly with aggravated criminal sexual abuse in February 2019.

“That’s done,” the crisis manager allegedly said of the payment to the clerk. “You don’t know nothing.”

Kelly allegedly replied, “Exactly.”

The feds say they recovered a recording of the conversation by searching Kelly’s phone.

Kelly’s indictment in Brooklyn alleges he led an “enterprise” made up of his managers, bodyguards, drivers and other employees who helped him recruit women and girls for illegal sex. A federal indictment filed against him in Chicago also alleges child pornography and obstruction of justice.

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The Blackhawks’ pursuit of a No. 1 defenseman has reportedly culminated Friday with the acquisition their No. 1 pursuit: Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones.

In a draft-day blockbuster, the Hawks acquired the 26-year-old Texan and will sign him next week to an eight-year, $76 million contract extension, per multiple reports. The trade and contract make Jones the centerpiece of the team’s defense in the post-Duncan Keith era.

To make it happen, however, Hawks general manager Stan Bowman surrendered a massive package of assets.

Adam Boqvist — the 20-year-old heralded for the past two years as the Hawks’ top defenseman-in-grooming — went to the Jackets alongside the 12th and 44th overall picks and next year’s first-round pick. The Hawks received the relatively insignificant 32nd and 165th picks along with Jones.

Bowman also committed a massive chunk of the Hawks’ future cap space — $9.5 million annually — to fit Jones.

The contract drastically reduces the Hawks’ financial flexibility not only now, when they have a relatively decent amount to work with, but also years down the line, when the situation could be far different. Jones will become the NHL’s third highest-paid defenseman.

It’s a gamble that may define Bowman’s post-Stanley Cup-era tenure as GM — if his possible involvement in the alleged 2010 sexual assault cover-up doesn’t end that tenure promptly — and determine whether or not the Hawks return to contention in the next decade.

Jones has established himself as one of the league’s most prominent defensemen over his eight seasons and counting, averaging more than 25 minutes per game each of the last three in Columbus.

He became a face of the otherwise obscure Jackets franchise after he was acquired from the Predators in 2016, finished fourth in Norris Trophy voting in 2018 and helped the Jackets win a playoff series for the first time ever in 2019.

But his results took a downward turn in 2021, both in terms of points — he tallied 28 in 56 games — and especially in his underlying numbers.

This story will be updated.

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Chicago Blackhawks: 3 draft day trades to consider making by Vincent Parise

The Chicago Blackhawks have been connected to Seth Jones for a few weeks now. He told the Columbus Blue Jackets earlier in the offseason that he would not be resigning with them so that began all of the speculations. When the Hawks entered the conversation, things started to get interesting. They aren’t close to contention but adding someone like him would help them along. Well, now he is coming to Chicago via a Draft Day trade.

Seth’s younger brother Caleb Jones came back in the trade that sent Duncan Keith to the Edmonton Oilers. Now it is a family affair on the Blackhawks blue line. Jones is officially the team’s new number one defenseman. Upon his arrival, he has an extension with the Hawks for eight years. He is going to get 9.5 million as an average annual value.

Jones is everything you want from a defenseman. He is 26 years old and is already a good number one defenseman. He will help their roster in every way. Everyone else on the defense will slot into better roles with a player like this on the roster. All of the forwards will benefit as well as Jones is as good as anyone at breaking out plays from his own end. This is a great move by the Chicago Blackhawks.

It is a hefty cap hit for the Hawks. If he does live up to his potential, however, he will be worth it. The cap is going to go up once the new TV deal money comes in along with expansion money. He could be a Norris Trophy-type guy as he has shown in the past. He had a down year in the 2020-21 season but the Columbus Blue Jackets didn’t do much to help him. Expect a big bounce-back going forward.

The Chicago Blackhawks are going to be well off with Seth Jones in the lineup.

Seth Jones is being traded to the Chicago Blackhawks, sources tell ESPN.

— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) July 23, 2021

Adam Boqvist is going to Columbus

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) July 23, 2021

Final tally. $76 million https://t.co/nwQ5aPKMKr

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) July 23, 2021

It took a while for the return to be announced when it came out that Jones was coming to Chicago. They are also getting a first-round pick (32nd overall) as a part of the deal along with Columbus’s 6th in 2022. Adam Boqvist is believed to be a part of the package going to Columbus in the deal along with the Hawks’ first-round pick.

Related Story: There is one draft pick that would be perfect

There are going to be a lot of people that don’t like this trade because they like Adam Boqvist and that they are going to sign Jones for a lot of money. The truth about Boqvist is that he isn’t very good. He is very one-dimensional and the one thing he is good at isn’t even on an elite level. This is actually a very good trade for the Hawks and Jones will be loved in short order.

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Javier Baez homered, Robinson Chirinos went deep twice, Zach Davies earned his first win since a combined no-hitter last month and the Cubs beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-3 on Friday at Wrigley Field.

Baez gave the Cubs a 3-0 lead in the first inning with his long three-run homer to left. The Cubs added three more in the third, capped by Nico Hoerner’s two-run single.

Chirinos made it 7-0 leading off the fourth against Zac Gallen (1-5). He also homered to start the sixth against Matt Peacock after Arizona scored two in the top half, helping Chicago win for just the sixth time in 23 games since Davies and three relievers no-hit the Dodgers in Los Angeles on June 24.

In between, the Cubs fell from a first-place tie with Milwaukee in the NL Central to nine games back of the Brewers at 47-50 entering this one.

Davies (6-6) threw 107 pitches in 5 1/3 innings, allowing two runs and seven hits. The 28-year-old right-hander struck out a season-high eight while walking two, and came away with the win after going 0-2 in his previous four starts.

Davies exited leading 7-0 with runners on second and third before Daulton Varsho greeted Adam Morgan with a two-run double.

Rookie Keegan Thompson worked the final three innings for his first career save.

Varsho also homered in the ninth. But the Diamondbacks, owners of baseball’s worst record, came up short after matching a season high with four straight wins.

Gallen tied a career high by allowing seven runs and matched a season worst with six hits in four innings. The 25-year-old right-hander is 0-5 in eight starts since beating Atlanta on April 25.

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This past May, Illinois House Deputy Majority Leader Jehan Gordon Booth, D-Peoria, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker worked out a deal with some key state business groups to mandate seven days of paid leave per year for every employee in Illinois. Workers wouldn’t have to give any reasons for the guaranteed paid leave.

But organized labor, in particular some Chicago union leaders, angrily came out against it, arguing that the bill’s home rule preemption language would prevent Chicago from eventually enacting an even broader ordinance.

I asked Gov. Pritzker the other day if he planned to bring the paid leave bill back next year.

“I want to expand paid leave,” the governor said. “We’ll continue to work with legislators to make sure that we’re overcoming the hesitancy. But yeah, I’m not going to stop fighting for more paid leave for people across the state.”

I had talked to some downstate legislators and labor folks after the bill fell apart and they were clearly upset because the legislation would’ve been a boon to workers in their part of the state.

“It’s been deeply concerning to me that when you get outside the City of Chicago, and particularly when you get to central, southern Illinois, paid leave is non-existent. Non-existent,” Pritzker said, repeating himself for emphasis.

“Nothing happens instantaneously, usually, in Springfield,” Pritzker said. “And sometimes it takes a session or two to get something done, and sometimes more than that, but I’m impatient. So, I’m going to keep working.”

Pritzker’s Springfield recent news media interviews to kick off his reelection campaign were held at the downtown office of the Laborers Union. Early union support was crucial to his 2018 primary victory and Pritzker has trumpeted their causes.

But some cracks beyond the paid leave proposal emerged during the spring session. A small union local held up an important bill for the state’s burgeoning data center industry over the hiring of a tiny handful of non-union workers. Labor had targeted a non-union contractor at a refinery a few years ago, then agreed to set aside their bill, but when it reemerged this year a host of industries were targeted by what some business groups labeled as “forced unionization.”

And, of course, organized labor has put a brick on the climate/energy bill that Pritzker wants passed over worries that coal and gas-fired electric power plants will be closed. Almost two months after talks broke down, little to no progress has been made.

So, I asked Pritzker how he can maintain his relationship with organized labor while still saying, “Folks, maybe you’re going a little too far here.”

As expected, Pritzker claimed he has an “excellent” relationship with organized labor. “We talk all the time. And I think that having a good relationship means that you say what you really think, and you share your concerns with one another. And we do that with one another. So, there are going to be disagreements that occur, and you got to work through these things.”

On the climate/energy bill, Pritzker said he believes there’s a “misunderstanding about whether we’re talking about 2035 or 2045” for his decarbonization goals.

“The reality is that the industry itself, the coal industry for example, has said that they can get [carbon] sequestration to 90 percent by 2035. They’re the ones who volunteered that to begin with. And so, we want to make sure that happens. But we’re not trying to close them down in 2035, we want to go to 2045, 24 years from now.”

I’m pretty sure it’s far more complicated than that, and I’ve been hearing from some very depressed folks in the past week when I’ve asked about the prospects for a deal anytime soon.

When an energy bill was negotiated while the anti-union Bruce Rauner was governor, the unions agreed to drop their demands for some all-important prevailing wage language in order to get a deal done to save a couple of nuclear power plants. Now, the unions have prevailing wage in this new bill, but are also pushing the pro-union Pritzker hard to stand with them against his own stated desires to eventually decarbonize the electric power industry.

Union leadership isn’t as cohesive as it was when they were all banding together against Rauner. And now that Michael Madigan is no longer the House speaker, there’s nobody in Springfield with the authority and might to convince the politically powerful unions to back down a bit. Pritzker has to find a different, uncharted way.

Send letters to [email protected].

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.

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Over a few days last week, the promise and peril of life in Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods came into stark relief for participants and staff of the READI Chicago program.

Tuesday, with cheerful officers from Chicago Police Department’s 10th District and the furry mascots of Chicago’s major sports teams looking on, READI participants painted the program’s slogans — REAL TALK. REAL LOVE. REAL HOPE. BE BOLD — in 3-foot-tall letters on a mural behind St. Agatha’s Catholic Church in North Lawndale.

Wednesday, a READI participant was among the eight people wounded in a pair of mass shootings that took place just blocks from the church. Fifteen-year-old Damarion Benson was killed and two others wounded when a gunman opened fire near the intersection of Douglas Boulevard and Christiana Avenue around 6 p.m. Five more people were wounded in a chaotic shootout on Douglas near Ridgeway Avenue, including a 19-year-old who was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the chest.

The READI teen suffered a gunshot wound to the arm and graze wound to the head, but was later released from the hospital, organizers said.

But when READI’s Thursday morning therapy class began, the teen gamely logged onto the online session. READI organizers, wary of the danger of being on the street in the aftermath of the shooting, had canceled in-person classes that day.

“This is the population, the people we are trying to help, the ones who are at the greatest risk,” said Senior Director Eddie Bocanegra, who was among the city leaders who met at St. Agatha’s with Merrick Garland during the U.S. Attorney General’s visit to Chicago to announce a new federal gun violence task force.

READI is one of a growing network of anti-violence programs in the city that targets residents — mostly young, Black men involved in gangs — who are at the greatest risk of being shot, or shooting someone else. On average, READI Chicago participants have been arrested 18 times, and three-quarters of them have been victims of violent crime. They are 45 times more likely to be shot than the average Chicagoan, READI officials said.

The 12-month program begins with 100 hours of cognitive behavioral therapy, paid employment as READI outreach workers, and preparation for employment. Despite COVID restrictions that made near impossible the one-on-one outreach and the “relentless engagement” that are key program features, more than 600 participants have graduated, with more than 70% finding employment. A 2019 report found the program had reduced participants’ likelihood of getting shot by 32%, and 80% avoid arrest or charges for violent crime while enrolled.

There are about 60 people involved currently, down from about 130 in 2019 after participation fell off dramatically during the pandemic.

Participants spent months planning the design with artist Haman Cross III, alongside their usual slate of cognitive behavioral therapy sessions and job training intended to steer participants from high-risk lives on the street into steady jobs, said Eddie Bocanegra, senior director of the program.

Brian Rich/Sun-Times

“Hearing the young men go through the planning, sharing anecdotes from their lives, was heartbreaking at times, but also so rejuvenating,” said Bocanegra, a 45-year-old former gang member who grew up a few blocks away from St. Agatha’s in South Lawndale.

“They were really proud to be able to tell their story.”

That story includes a few tragic chapters. The mural, which sits outside one of the classrooms used for READI classes at St. Agatha’s, includes the names of eight “fallen soldiers”– program participants that have been killed since READI began in 2017, including two who died this spring.

Bernida Davenport-McWhite, known as “Mrs. B” or “Mama B” to READI participants, has a locket with a picture of Devon Taylor, one of her former charges who was killed two years ago as he headed home from morning classes.

“It is a daily struggle not to relive those memories,” Davenport-McWhite said. “These boys have seen a lot of loss in their lives.”

After mugging for photos Tuesday with the mascots of the Bulls, Blackhawks, Bears, Cubs and Sox — all part of program sponsor Sports Alliance — 24-year-old Darryl Robinson said the program had helped him get his life on track after he picked up a gun charge.

“It started off just as a way to get off house arrest,” Robinson said. He began the program skeptical of components like cognitive behavioral therapy but quickly came around.

“I actually liked the cognitive behavioral therapy. It helps me maneuver like I want to in situations.”

Program staff provided him and his girlfriend with baby supplies and groceries during the pandemic, even as classes moved to the internet.

“I was ugly when I came in here. … I probably would have been thrown under the jail,” said Robinson, who said he’s assembling his transcripts in order to enroll at Chicago State University. “You come around when you see that they don’t want to do nothing but help you.”

Brian Rich/Sun-Times

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