What’s New

Here’s the latest news on how COVID-19 is impacting Chicago and Illinois.

Latest

CPS is getting $1.8B in federal relief funding. Parents and students are demanding a say in how it’s spent

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Rocio Almazan, a sophomore at Curie High School, is part of a student committee that listens to classmates’ concerns and suggestions for the school, including thoughts about remote learning over the past year.

The student group advocates for its classmates, sending letters and petitions. The problem is they’re rarely heard — and that’s an issue that needs to be fixed as Chicago Public Schools officials figure out how to spend $1.8 billion in federal pandemic relief funding, she said.

“CPS has excluded all stakeholders since the pandemic and continues to do so,” Rocio said.

The district has said it’ll use the money to support students through pandemic challenges moving forward, but families want a say in that process. The Chicago Teachers Union has also turned its attention to the issue now that high school reopening negotiations are complete and all district schools are clear to resume in-person learning.

Members of parent group Raise Your Hand, the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council and other community organizations held a virtual town hall Friday to share how they want the funds to be used. Among their top priorities are the hiring of additional special education staff to meet those students’ needs and funding housing vouchers for the 17,000 CPS children without permanent housing.

The groups also suggested closing the digital divide with working computers and internet for all students, providing additional resources for immigrants and children whose first language isn’t English, hiring restorative justice coordinators at all schools and opening school-based health centers.

Advocates were clear on what they didn’t want the money to go toward: paying off pre-pandemic debt.

Nader Issa has the full story here.

---

News

10:37 a.m. Worldwide COVID-19 death toll tops 3 million

The global death toll from the coronavirus topped a staggering 3 million people Saturday amid repeated setbacks in the worldwide vaccination campaign and a deepening crisis in places such as Brazil, India and France.

The number of lives lost, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Kyiv, Ukraine; Caracas, Venezuela; or metropolitan Lisbon, Portugal. It is bigger than Chicago (2.7 million) and equivalent to Philadelphia and Dallas combined.

And the true number is believed to be significantly higher because of possible government concealment and the many cases overlooked in the early stages of the outbreak that began in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019.

When the world back in January passed the bleak threshold of 2 million deaths, immunization drives had just started in Europe and the United States. Today, they are underway in more than 190 countries, though progress in bringing the virus under control varies widely.

While the campaigns in the U.S. and Britain have hit their stride and people and businesses there are beginning to contemplate life after the pandemic, other places, mostly poorer countries but some rich ones as well, are lagging behind in putting shots in arms and have imposed new lockdowns and other restrictions as virus cases soar.

Worldwide, deaths are on the rise again, running at around 12,000 per day on average, and new cases are climbing too, eclipsing 700,000 a day.

Read the full story here.

9:04 a.m. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Obamas and other celebrities make a stand for COVID vaccines on TV special

President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama and a slew of celebrities including Billy Crystal, Jennifer Hudson and Lin-Manuel Miranda are part of a special aimed at boosting COVID-19 vaccination rates.

“Roll Up Your Sleeves,” airing at 6 p.m. Sunday on NBC, will feature Matthew McConaughey interviewing Dr. Anthony Fauci to help separate “fact from fiction” about the vaccines, the network said.

Biden will make a direct appeal in support of the effort, while Obama will be joined by basketball greats Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal to reinforce the role of vaccines in allowing Americans to get their lives back on track.

Former first lady Michelle Obama will team with Miranda, Faith Hill and Jennifer Lopez in support of shots during the hour-long special hosted by spouses Russell Wilson, the NFL quarterback, and actor-singer Ciara.

Read the full story here.

---

8:15 a.m. Stuck outside U.S. during pandemic, burst pipe floods suburban home, and Allstate won’t pay

The COVID-19 pandemic has messed with people’s lives in countless ways, but I hadn’t heard anything quite like the travails of Floyd and Betsy Rogers.

It’s a complicated story, so settle in.

The Rogerses are retirees.

He’s 78 and used to work at IBM before retiring early to help his brother operate a now-defunct garden center. She’s 79 and went back to school for her Ph.D. after her daughters went away to college, then worked for a time as a consultant retraining industrial workers.

The Rogerses have lived since 1975 in a two-story frame home near Glen Ellyn where they raised two daughters.

Younger daughter Becky Ackermann is a paleoanthropologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where she lives with her husband Kurt and their 11-year-old son, the Rogerses’ only grandchild. Their older daughter died of a blood clot in 2002.

Like many people their age with their only surviving child and grandchild far, far away, the suburban couple make annual visits to their daughter’s family in Cape Town, over time gradually extending their stays to months at a stretch.

That’s where they were in February 2020, scheduled to return that April, when Betsy Rogers broke her pelvis, requiring a long, difficult rehabilitation during which she could not be on an airplane.

That meant they were still in South Africa when the pandemic struck.

There were no flights back to the U.S. for a while. By the time there were, it wasn’t really safe to fly from a COVID standpoint, so they settled in for Betsy to recuperate.

That’s why the couple was still in South Africa this past Jan. 22 when they were informed a DuPage County sheriff’s deputy had spotted water running down their driveway. A cracked pipe in an upstairs bathroom had flooded the house, destroying much of the interior and furnishings: 213,000 gallons escaped, according to the water bill they later received.

All very sad, but that’s why people have homeowners’ insurance. Right?

That’s what the Rogerses were thinking. But Allstate denied their claim, citing an exception in their policy for plumbing that freezes while a building is vacant or unoccupied “unless you have used reasonable care” to maintain the heat or shut off the water supply and drain the system.

Read Mark Brown’s full column here.

---

New cases & vaccination numbers

• The Illinois Department of Public Health reported Friday 3,866 more cases were diagnosed among the latest 93,602 tests, keeping the state’s seven-day average positivity rate at 4.2% — twice as high as it was in mid-March, but the fourth straight day it’s fallen or held steady.
• Hospitals took on an additional 15 COVID-19 patients with 2,058 beds occupied Thursday night. That’s nearly a thousand more coronavirus patients than were admitted March 12.
• The state also reported 21 more deaths, including that of a Cook County man in his 40s, raising Illinois’ pandemic toll to 21,630.
• Officials on Friday announced Illinois’ second-most productive COVID-19 vaccination day yet with 166,885 doses going into arms statewide.
• Nearly 1.3 million residents have contracted the virus over the past year, compared to about 3.2 million who are now fully vaccinated.
• Nearly a quarter of all Illinoisans are now fully immunized against the coronavirus after Thursday’s shot effort, which came a week after the state set a record with almost 176,000 administered doses.
• Illinois is now averaging about 130,000 shots per day as Chicago vaccine providers prepare to expand eligibility to all residents 16 and older starting Monday.

Read More

Read More

Read More

Shyla Heal isn’t your average rookie.

She’s young, yes. At 19, she was one of the youngest players selected in the 2021 WNBA Draft. But her experience has her playing well beyond her years.

That experience comes from a lifetime of training with her dad, Shane, who had a storied basketball career of his own, and a professional basketball career that began before she was old enough to drive.

”My dad coached the Southeast Queensland Stars,” Heal said. ”Erin Phillips got injured, and we were really short on guards. I was going to be a developmental player that season, but I stepped in as the 10th man and played about 14 games when I was 14.”

Heal casually noted that becoming the Stars’ 10th woman at 14 made her the youngest player to play in the Women’s National Basketball League in Australia.

Heal moved a lot growing up, but a constant for her was playing basketball and training with her dad. They worked on her game every day. Heal learned two lessons from her dad that have had the most substantial impact on her game: always outwork your competitors and never back down.

Her dad played for the Australian national team in the NBL and had a couple of stints in the NBA with the Timberwolves and Spurs. He’s known to many U.S. fans for his infamous on-court feud with ”Dream Team” star Charles Barkley during warmups at the Summer Olympics in 1996.

When Heal was selected with the eighth overall pick Thursday by the Sky, following in the footsteps of Liz Cambage and Lauren Jackson as Australian women selected in the top 10 of the WNBA Draft, Barkley had a message for his old foe.

”Shane Heal, I want to congratulate you on your daughter,” Barkley said on ”Inside the NBA” on TNT. ”But you are so lucky I didn’t kill your ass over at the Olympics.”

Heal plays with the same grit and toughness her dad did. It’s one of the qualities that attracted Sky general manager and coach James Wade to the 5-6 point guard. That and her basketball IQ, among a list of other qualities.

Heal’s time in the WNBL includes being named Youth Player of the Year and leading the Townsville Fire to the finals against Cambage’s Southside Flyers. Last season, she averaged 25.3 points and 7.3 assists and shot 31% from three-point range and 85.5% from the free-throw line. She also dropped 30 points on the Flyers in the semifinals.

Cambage, Jackson and Penny Taylor are a few Australian players whose careers in the WNBA have inspired Heal along the way. Before the draft, she was able to speak to Cambage and Jackson a couple of times.

Jackson pulled her aside during the WNBL season and told Heal she loved the fearless way she plays the game, and Cambage told her she was the future of Australian basketball.

Heal is joining a championship-caliber roster, but she doesn’t feel pressure from that. She’s confident in her ability to create for her teammates and command the second unit. What she’s most looking forward to is improving her game under the tutelage of Sky starter Courtney Vandersloot.

”The fact we have another thinking point guard [in Vandersloot] that can show her the way and matches her style will allow her to learn a lot,” Wade said.

Heal will be arriving in Chicago sometime in the next week. It will be her first time in the United States since she was a young girl, which she said she doesn’t remember much.

For someone who has spent most of her life away from home, chasing her dream of playing in the WNBA, this move across the world is nothing but a dream come true.

”This is going to be a brand-new experience,” Heal said. ”I knew coach Wade was trying to build a championship team, and I believe in it.”

Read More

The first week of the National Women’s Soccer League Challenge Cup produced thrilling moments that fans have been waiting desperately for but concerning ones as well.

Here are three things we learned after the first week of the tournament.

NWSL attempts to set new standards for anti-discrimination as clubs take their own stances

The league’s first week of play was overshadowed by claims from Red Stars defender Sarah Gorden that she and her boyfriend were racially profiled by a member of the BBVA Stadium’s security staff following Chicago’s scoreless draw against the Dash.

The league formally opened an investigation under its anti-discrimination policy on Tuesday.

The league also announced in a list of findings by the league’s disciplinary committee that it would be fining the Red Stars for a violation of a league directive. Grant Wahl reported it the fine was related to partial team owner Sarah Spain’s tweet of support for Gorden after the league sent its board of governors notice directing them not to comment. Wahl also reported Gotham FC general manager Alyse LaHue was fined for the same reason.

Many fans expressed on social media that they took the league’s response to the showings of support for Gorden as censorship.

As the league’s investigation progresses, individual clubs and players made it clear where they stand, and that’s with Gorden. Red Stars players and the Black Women’s Players Collective shared posts condemning racism and discrimination in the league. The BWPC post also acknowledged that Gorden’s experience was not an isolated incident in the NWSL.

Thursday night, the entire team arrived at SeatGeek Stadium ahead of their match against the Portland Thorns wearing shirts that read “Believe, Support, Protect Black People.” The Red Stars also elected not to play the national anthem ahead of the match.

Portland Thorns threaten the Red Stars hopes of winning it all

While players and coaches frequently discuss the parity within the league, the Portland Thorns are certainly the greatest threat to the Red Stars’ hopes of winning the Challenge Cup title. Dames has said that he schedules the Thorns every preseason because of the challenge it presents to his team and the weaknesses the Thorns expose. Unable to schedule that preseason match this year, Dames got his team ready playing multiple collegiate programs, including Loyola and Notre Dame.

Following the scoreless draw against the Houston Dash in the tournament’s opening match, Dames said the attack was able to get into areas of the field that they wanted to, but decision making was an issue. The team faced similar issues in the second match of the Challenge Cup against the Thorns at SeatGeek Stadium. This match was marked as an early decider of which team would come out on top of the western division, and the Red Stars fell to the Thorns 1-0, exposing their lack of an established striker in the process.

Preview of what competition will look like during the Olympics

Through the first two weeks of the Challenge Cup, teams are getting a glimpse at what competition will look like when their national team players are competing in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in July and August. The Red Stars are in a good position because of their depth but still struggled to find a rhythm in the attacking third in their first two games of the Challenge Cup. It isn’t likely that the Red Stars will lose any players from their attack to Vlatko Andonovski’s 18-player Olympic roster. With over two months before they lose Alyssa Naeher, Julie Ertz and most likely Tierna Davidson, there is more than enough time for the team to settle in. A key in winning every trophy available this year will be taking advantage of weakened rosters during the Olympic period.

Read More

LAS VEGAS — Carmine Bianco observes a Raphael Wicky interview and swears he’s listening to Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool boss who guided the Reds to the English Premier League crown last season.

WagerTalk’s ace soccer handicapper, Bianco does double takes when he beholds Wicky, the second-year Chicago Fire FC coach who, like Klopp, wears spectacles and often sports facial scruff.

Bianco has difficulty distinguishing the Swiss Wicky from the German Klopp.

“[Wicky] actually sounds like Klopp,” Bianco says from his Toronto-area home. “He’s very deliberate, like Klopp, very monotone. His mannerisms, he’s like a carbon copy.”

The Fire (5-10-8 last season) would fare well by mimicking 2019-20 Liverpool (32-3-3), which won the EPL crown by 18 points over Manchester City.

Liverpool, however, also endured a recent six-match losing streak at its vaunted Anfield, the worst home slide in its 128-year history. That came amid a seven-game run in which it scored only once on its own pitch.

Klopp, alas, is mortal.

In this space, though, we’re only interested in profiting from such stellar runs or sorry slides. The Fire’s new season begins Saturday against New England at Soldier Field, and the Fire figure into two potential money-making angles.

“Wicky’s first season didn’t go very well,” says Bianco, 51. “There was a defensive indifference on that team. It might be good on offense this season. From a gambling point of view, I might have to look at Over on Fire totals early.

“That was them last season. They could score goals, they just made some errors which cost them games.”

TAKE ROAD FOE

Wicky, 43, was known as a combative defensive midfielder in a career that included time in the German Bundesliga and La Liga in Spain.

In the 14-team Eastern Conference last season, only Montreal (43) and D.C. United (41) allowed more than the Fire’s 39 goals. Showing defensive combativeness will be imperative in 2021.

And of the 26 MLS squads, only the Fire (0-5-6) did not win a road match.

In handicapping this season, that’s salient. A bettor using $100 as a unit, or usual wager, betting on the opposition plus half a goal — to cover a win and draw — in the Fire’s 11 away matches would have made $551.95, a nifty 50.2% return on investment.

That factors some heavy favorite odds (of -448 at Orlando, -435 at Columbus and -407 at Kansas City, for example) to be expected with securing bets that reward home-side draws, as insurance.

A $100 wager, for instance, on Philadelphia plus half a goal at home, at -340, against the Fire returned $29.41 on Oct. 28, when the Union won 2-1. Had Chicago knotted it late, no matter, the bet wins.

A 29.4% return for such security is not minor, and all 11 of those away matches paid a dividend. Bianco agrees that it’s wise to employ that angle this season.

“And I’m looking at their totals, too. After the MLS Is Back tournament, Chicago played 18 games and 14 of them had at least three goals. Another good angle.”

A 2.5 total-goals figure is typical in soccer matches, with -110 odds that incorporate a 10% vigorish (or vig) associated with such a side bet. A unit becomes a $110 wager. Fourteen won, paying $1,400. The four losses cost $440.

So betting Fire games Over netted $960 over that stretch, a 48.5% ROI.

Combined with the opponent plus a half-goal in Fire away matches, and $3,080 in wagers netted $1,511.95 in profit, a 49.1% return.

For anyone leery of paying a price higher than -200, those 11 wagers become four, $400 that would have netted $348.73. Add the Over action, and that’s $1,308.73 profit on a $2,380 investment, a 55% return.

Bianco also taps LAFC (+400 at Draft-Kings), defending-champion Columbus (+500), Orlando (10-1) and Atlanta (16-1) as worthy future plays to win the MLS Cup.

Components of a soccer portfolio that, with guile and tact, will be expanded as we monitor the season. We’ll update with additional action, and records, accordingly.

And we’ll furnish an occasional HammerLock selection — Sunday, in Bergamo, Italy, it’s Juventus at Atalanta, -111 on Over 3 goals.

EXPECT GOALS

Past performance, of course, never guarantees a windfall. However, Bianco enjoyed seeing at least three goals being tallied in four of the Fire’s five preseason matches against MLS foes.

And that’s without Bulgarian winger Stanislav Ivanov (left-knee surgery) and German midfielder Fabian Herbers (right knee). Kiwi midfielder Elliot Collier (left ankle) has been shelved for four weeks.

Moreover, Djordje Mihailovic, who had an MLS-best seven assists last season, was released, inked by Montreal.

The Fire did add 20-year-old Nigerian striker Chinonso Offor to complement Robert Beric, whose 11 goals represented an MLS-high 35% of his team’s total last season.

Bianco also likes that the Fire returned to the Kentucky bluegrass of Soldier Field, which begins 2021 with a 7,000-fan cap.

“That’s good for the players,” he says. “Foreigners, especially, don’t want to play on artificial turf. And 7,000 fans in that stadium will probably sound like 30,000 or 40,000.

“Can Raphael get them to play his system, play better defensively? The playoffs should be their goal. They’ll battle Montreal, Inter Miami and New England for that eighth spot. When they play those teams, they need to get full points.”

Should Wicky hone the Fire into a playoff side, a few more people just might mistake him for Klopp.

Read More

The Fire have done a lot recently to set themselves up for the future. They have returned to Soldier Field, gotten their games on WGN and are trying to undo their notorious logo mistake while becoming a bigger factor in a crowded sports market.

With investments in scouting, infrastructure and young players, they also think they’ve laid the groundwork for success on the field. But what about 2021?

Their opener Saturday night against the New England Revolution begins the second season of the Joe Mansueto-Georg Heitz-Raphael Wicky era. The first year was an underwhelming failure. The remade Fire finished 11th in their conference and missed a 10-team East postseason behind two expansion clubs.

But after a somewhat quiet offseason during which they maintained that continuity will equal success, the Fire are looking for better results.

“The expectations are higher this year,” Mansueto said. “We need to make the playoffs, that’s pretty black and white, and then hopefully have a deep playoff run. We were good last year, but we need to be even better this year, and I’m confident that that will be the case.”

Indeed, the Fire will have to be better this year, and not just by a little bit.

The only reason they were even close to the playoffs in 2020 was the expanded format. The postseason is back to seven teams in each conference, meaning the Fire will have to improve in all facets. The inconsistent finishing must be more dependable, and the lapses that led to demoralizing goals need to be corrected.

The Fire picked up exactly a point per game last year, which would’ve been good for 34 points in a normal season. In 2019, seventh-place New England had 45; Montreal picked up 46 in 2018.

Will the Fire improve enough to gain at least 10 points and return to the playoffs for the first time since 2017? And what happens if they don’t get considerably better and show real improvement?

The answers to both questions are unclear, but they think they’ve gotten better just by staying intact.

Wicky, whose contract has a club option for 2022, said he’s excited the core of the team is back. Unlike last year, the Fire aren’t starting from scratch and trying to get players into the country just as the season begins. There probably won’t be pandemic-related stoppages, and Wicky wants to build off what they worked on last year.

“We said that we believe in continuity; we believe in this group,” Wicky said. “That’s also why we didn’t change too many players. I’m excited we are not starting like a year ago from scratch. Most of the players know what we want, how we operate, how we are as human beings and also as coaches, and then the other way, as well.

“We know the players better. We know the strength and the weaknesses of the players better.”

New winger Stanislav Ivanov will miss half the season with a knee injury, and it’s unclear how much the Fire can depend on fellow young newcomers Jhon Espinoza or Chinonso Offor this year as they get acclimated to a new league. Jhon Jader Duran, perhaps their most exciting signing, won’t join the Fire until 2022 after he turns 18.

That means any progress the Fire made in 2020 will have to continue, though Heitz said that was difficult to quantify.

“It was simply also the impression that they left during the games, you know, the number of chances that we created grew in my opinion, increased throughout the season,” Heitz said. “So I think overall, it was really a fact that we were better in the second half, but we have to admit we were not good enough to make the playoffs.”

The Fire’s offseason strategy left behind questions. With three designated players under contract and a pretty full roster, perhaps they didn’t have room to make more changes and bring in instant-impact talent. But at the same time, it’s fair to wonder how they’ll fare if they suffer more injuries or improvement doesn’t come.

They also won’t be able to use a pandemic, a rebuilt roster or a stop-start season as a crutch. It’s clear what they view as the bare minimum for success in 2021.

“There aren’t any excuses,” defender Miguel Navarro said. “We are focused on having a good season, and we are ready to go. We know that this year there aren’t any excuses for not getting into the playoffs.”

2021 FIRE
2020 record
5-10-8, 23 points (11th in Eastern Conference).

Key Additions
RB Jhon Espinoza, M Stanislav Ivanov, F Chinonso Offor.

Key Subtractions
M Djordje Mihailovic, F CJ Sapong.

Best-case Scenario
The Fire didn’t add much to their roster because they believe continuity will bring success, and that’s proven true in 2021 as Alvaro Medran and Mauricio Pineda take another step forward. The late-game mistakes that cost them points in 2020 won’t be made this year because of that familiarity, while the young players add elements that were missing. Not only will the Fire make the playoffs while playing an attractive style of soccer, but they won’t have to sweat their spot.

Worst-case scenario
Already beaten up from an injury-riddled preseason, the Fire’s depth won’t be enough to overcome any further injuries to key players. Because of the injuries and a lack of top-end talent, the Fire won’t be able to take advantage of a first-half schedule that’s predominantly at home, forcing them to search for points on the road later in the year. And that won’t end well, leading to hard questions about the plan put in place by Georg Heitz and Raphael Wicky.

Prediction
The Fire simply didn’t do enough this offseason to make up ground in the Eastern Conference. Yes, they narrowly missed the 2020 playoffs, but that was a 10-team field. This year, it’s back to seven, and it’s hard to see the Fire leaping into the postseason. Instead, they’ll finish 10th in the East.

Read More

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The grass isn’t always greener somewhere else.

For Chicago’s Houston Griffith, it took 18 days in the transfer portal in January to realize that before the talented safety ultimately opted to return for his senior season at Notre Dame. Three weeks into spring practice, that turn of events seems to be playing out to the benefit of both him and the program.

“I felt like two things needed to happen for Houston: opportunity and then making the best of the opportunity,” Irish coach Brian Kelly said. “What is making the best? What does that equal? I think a lot of that has been just an awareness of the situation that he’s in and using what I think is outstanding athletic ability and applying it to the particular situation.”

Griffith, whose father, Howard, starred at Illinois and won two Super Bowl rings during an eight-year NFL career as a fullback, has underachieved so far in his college career. A four-star recruit out of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, the former Mount Carmel standout made just two starts last season while mostly sitting behind sixth-year player Shaun Crawford.

After losing ground to fellow reserve DJ Brown down the stretch in 2020, Griffith was ready to explore other opportunities. He put his name in the transfer portal Jan. 4, shortly after the Irish fell to Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinal.

Four days later, the Irish won a high-profile battle with LSU for former Cincinnati defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman. That timing proved pivotal.

Over the next two weeks, Freeman joined Kelly in a series of phone discussions with Griffith. The re-recruitment went better than anyone could have expected, frustration gradually giving way to possibility, both on and off the field.

The chance to complete work toward his Notre Dame degree loomed large. So did hearing the energy from a new voice in the mix — Freeman’s — after three years of failing to launch in Clark Lea’s defense.

Pass-defense coordinator Terry Joseph, who coached Notre Dame’s safeties, also moved on after the season. So it truly seemed to be a clean slate for the 6-foot, 204-pounder who decommitted from Florida State to enroll early at Notre Dame in 2018.

“I’ve never been afraid of competition,” Griffith said. “Having that conversation with coach Freeman and coach Kelly, just knowing that I got a home and it’s something they really want — me to come here and just compete — I couldn’t turn that down.”

Kelly and Freeman made it clear throughout those talks in January: The responsibility to make this reboot work ran in both directions.

“Houston and I had a conversation,” Kelly said. “There were no promises. We didn’t promise him a starting position. All we said was that we believe this is the right place for you and we want you to be here.”

In the end, that was enough to lure Griffith back to familiar turf and a newfound leadership role.

“Myself and Marcus talked to him on the phone and said, ‘We want you to be part of what we’re doing here in 2021,’ ” Kelly said. “Both of us [were] really clear that he’s part of our plans. Then [it was] him making the decision, ‘OK, if they want me and I’m part of the plans, then I’m staying at Notre Dame.’ That’s kind of how that went down.”

Both Kelly and Griffith used the term “football IQ” several times in assessing the player’s improvement this spring. No longer, Kelly said, is Griffith “using a hammer when he needed to use a screwdriver.”

All that extra film study with Freeman and new safeties coach Chris O’Leary is paying early dividends. Griffith’s devotion has carried over to the classroom, as well.

“This offseason, I’ve really challenged myself as a football player and academically to really become a student of the game and to finish up my degree,” Griffith said. “Right now my main focus is just being present where my feet are.”

The grass beneath them is greener than ever.

Read More

By now, one would like to think White Sox No. 1 starter Lucas Giolito has cemented his status as an ace. Dallas Keuchel and Lance Lynn have walked in those shoes before. Dylan Cease has obvious gifts, if not a track record to speak for them.

And that Carlos Rodon fellow? He can be kind of good, too. You know, if a no-hitter counts for anything.

Just how good is this Sox rotation? That led things off in this week’s “Polling Place,” your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter.

We also asked about the Cubs’ monumentally struggling offense, certainly a less-pleasant subject. And we asked — just for fun — which would be the biggest dream experience for a sports fan: to belt three roundtrippers, light the lamp three times or mess around and get a triple-double.

Commented @fuduran, “Hat trick: 99.9% certainty your team will win. Three homers: 85%-ish. Triple-double: 51%?”

Your guesses are as scientific as ours. On to the polls:

Poll No. 1: In the wake of Carlos Rodon’s no-hitter, which best captures your take on the White Sox’ pitching rotation?

Upshot: Clearly, respondents are riding the brakes a bit. But Giolito spun a gem his last time out. Lynn already has a shutout under his belt. Rodon one-upped both of them. This is a rotation that has enviable balance, with three righties and two lefties and an array of individual pitch arsenals. The ceiling for this group is World Series-caliber high, which doesn’t guarantee a thing about how it’ll all play out.

Poll No. 2: In light of their futility at the plate thus far, which best captures your take on the Cubs’ offense?

Upshot: Small sample size, only two weeks, “that’s baseball” — line up the excuses and the apologist rationalizations. Fact is, these Cubs are going where almost no collection of Cubs hitters has gone before. Yes, in a bad way. If the bats don’t come around soon, a negative storyline will set in earlier and louder than it has with any Cubs team in memory. Hey, no pressure.

Poll No. 3: For one night, you’re a superstar. Which accomplishment are you picking?

Upshot: “I don’t watch baseball,” wrote @Jbird_H. “But I’d like to smash three dingers in a game, thank you.” It doesn’t sound so bad at all. Then again, some of us have never donned ice skates. Some of us peaked on the diamond at, oh, 11 or so. Some of us were 6-3 entering high school and, dang it, why did we only get wider, but not a millimeter taller, from there? But we digress.

Read More

An 18-year-old man was killed in a shooting Friday at a Lawndale business.

One person has been killed and four others wounded in shootings across Chicago so far this weekend.

A shooting Friday night at a Lawndale business left an 18-year-old man dead and a woman wounded, according to police.

About 7 p.m., a person entered the business in the 3600 block of West 16th Street and began firing shots, Chicago police said.

The man was struck in the chest and face and transported to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified him as Jawon L. Ward, a resident of Englewood.

The woman, 44, was shot in the shoulder and back and was taken in good condition to the same hospital, police said.

Early Saturday, a man was critically hurt in a shooting in Morgan Park on the Far South Side.

The 25-year-old was riding in a vehicle about 2:45 a.m. in the 11800 block of South Marshfield Avenue when a male in a silver or white SUV fired shots, police said.

He was struck in the chest, arm and hand and driven to Franciscan Health in Olympia Fields where he was listed in critical condition, police said.

A 25-year-old man was shot Saturday in Fifth City on the West Side.

He was driving about 12:20 a.m. in the 300 block of South Kedzie Avenue when a male inside of a passing dark-colored Nissan Rogue fired shots, police said. The man was struck in the back and drove himself to Mt. Sinai Hospital where he was listed in fair condition, police said.

About 20 minutes earlier, a 20-year-old man was injured in a shooting in Park Manor on the South Side.

The man was walking just after midnight in the 7100 block of South Michigan Avenue when he heard shots and felt pain, police said.

He was struck in the hand and brought himself to Jackson Park Hospital where he was listed in good condition, police said.

Last weekend, 28 people were shot, 4 fatally, in Chicago.

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

Read More