A 17-year-old boy was shot April 16, 2021 in West Garfield Park. | Adobe Stock Photo
The teen boy was standing on the sidewalk about 1 p.m. in the 4100 block of West Washington Boulevard when he was a person approached him and fired shots, police said.
A 17-year-old boy was hurt in a shooting Friday in West Garfield Park.
The teen boy was standing on the sidewalk about 1 p.m. in the 4100 block of West Washington Boulevard when he was a person approached him and fired shots, Chicago police said.
He was struck in the hand and was taken in good condition to Rush University Medical Center, police said.
Are you visiting Chicago and looking for a unique stay in the heart of a great neighborhood? Do you live in the area but want to stay downtown for the weekend in a luxurious space? Make yourself at home at one of these extra-special, extra-beautiful spaces with the best Chicago Airbnb listings on the market.
Located in the upscale Gold Coast neighborhood, this rehabbed apartment includes a king-size bed, updated kitchen, and a Ms. Pac-Man arcade cabinet. Building amenities include a rooftop patio, a pool, and a gym making it one of these most upscale Chicago Airbnb listings on here.
Enjoy amazing views from the balcony of this “loft-style” Airbnb apartment in Chicago. When you’re not sight-seeing, take advantage of the pool table in the living room, the in-wall fireplace, or the comfy queen-size bed.
Emil Bach House is not only an “architectural treasure,” but a great place to stay overnight as well. This Chicago Airbnb listing itself is sizable and impressive, looking out onto beautiful gardens which sit adjacent to a Japanese tea house.
Experience hip city living at this penthouse in Fulton Market. 15-foot ceilings and large windows make this a spacious Airbnb location in Downtown Chicago to take a breather from all of the nightlife and outdoor dining you’ll be enjoying in the neighborhood.
Stretch out in this South Loop penthouse and make the most of a well-equipped game room. With over 4000 arcade games, a pool table, foosball, karaoke, and more, you’ll never get bored.
This Airbnb townhouse near Wrigley Field in Chicago is a visually stunning stay. With murals recreating Van Gogh’s Starry Night and the Morton Salt girl, a handmade mosaic shower, and eclectic home accents, the house is truly unique.
This apartment just north of downtown is decorated with lots of rock n’ roll memorabilia, and is conveniently located just above a “trendy restaurant.” Enjoy a large canopy bed, full kitchen, and exposed brick walls during your stay.
This townhouse in Lincoln Park is pure luxury. 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms give guests tons of room, the design is clean and contemporary, and both the bar and fireplace are ready for a date night in this Chicago Airbnb listing.
This industrial-style apartment comes with a full kitchen, pool table, private rooftop space with amazing views, and access to the building’s gym. Get away from home while simultaneously enjoying all of its comforts.
Experience the hip aesthetic of “artist” loft living without the “starving” part when you rent this Artist’s Loft in the trendy West Loop. With industrial accents, a spiral staircase, beautiful large bedrooms and a full kitchen, you’ll start to feel more artsy in no time.
While the pandemic hurt and closed down a lot of industries, the weed business in Illinois continues to boom. The state topped $1 billion in weed sales in 2020. And with continued interest and the city opening up this Spring, weed has become the go to recreational substance. Chicago is home of many of America’s largest weed corporations boasting a current total of 17 shops in the city and another 46 in the surrounding suburbs. Here are 5 of the top weed dispensaries in Chicago to get your hands on the best hash. And of course, you must be 21+ to legally purchase marijuana.
This longtime medicinal dispensary has recently been given the greenlight to service recreational customers, which means their 317 products are now available for everyday stoners to enjoy. The company prides itself on customer care and offers a full suite of items from the state’s leading cannabis companies like Verano and Cresco Labs alongside family-owned farms like Nature’s Grace & Wellness.
River North recently welcomed its newest marijuana dispensary when this neighborhood outpost opened its doors this spring. It marks Chicago-based parent company PharmaCann’s third entry into Illinois since 2020, joining additional locations in Rosemont and Galena. The shop offers 211 product inventory of gummies, resin cartridges, popcorn, and more. With so many cannabis products, brands, and consumption methods they’re here to guide you on your cannabis journey. They work with you to establish a holistic understanding of your needs, wants and desires to ensure a positive and successful experience.
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Sunnyside is the retail arm of Cresco Labs, the largest marijuana operator in Illinois and one of the biggest cannabis companies in the entire US. Two of their nine Illinois locations call Chicago home, including the original orange-and-white walled Lakeview location sitting just steps from Wrigley Field. In 2020, the company brought weed to River North when they opened a second Sunnyside in the upscale neighborhood.
Chicago’s first cannabis operator is also one of the city’s most beloved. The smartly-designed Uptown location showcases a soothing nature motif complemented by tasteful art. And their love for the good green is clearly evident—Chicago’s “most passionate” dispensary, they’ve gained legions of loyal fans since opening as a medical facility way back in 2015. Getting in on the action closer to downtown, Dispensary 33 also operates a second spot in trendy Fulton Market.
With 37 facilities spanning 12 states plus Washington DC, Columbia Care is a large-scale international operator known for introducing the country’s first legal credit card for cannabis purchases. Located in Jefferson Park near the Jefferson Park Blue Line, take a second to admire the store’s sleek black and white minimalist design while you browse recreational delights like face mints, gelatos, CBD drops, and pre-rolled dog walkers.
The brand new immersive Artopia experience in West Loop is providing an escape for Chicagoans to explore, indulge, and enjoy futuristic art beginning April 16th.
Throughout the pandemic, artists have had to find new ways to draw inspiration and ultimately inspire us during the these most dire of times. Thus, we’ve been treated to a vast array of unique art exhibits, with a few other larger art installations planned for the summer. These works of iconic street art are stunning and often times have a way of transplanting us from the current state of desolate unknown we are in. However, this latest Year 3000-esque exhibition is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. Even Neil deGrasse Tyson would be proud.
Per the event’s website, “This unique experience, hosted in the gorgeous 32,000 square foot venue in Chicago’s West Loop, invites you to step into the universe of large scale light art installations and sculpture work from some of the most talented street artists around the country. And last but not least, the tour ends at The Artopia Lounge, where VIP & Icon ticket holders can stay to enjoy drinks in the exhibit.”
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Important Info For Attending
Date: April 16th, 2021 until whenever
Artopia West Loop Hours of Operation: Time Slots run Every Half Hour Thursday & Friday: 4pm-10pm Saturday & Sunday: 11am-10pm
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Duration: Roughly 60 to 90 minutes long
Location: Morgan Manufacturing, 401 N Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60642
Additionally, the exhibit will snake through like Ikea in a one-way system, masks are mandatory, and there’s limited capacity to ensure that the exhibit is as safe as possible for everyone.
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This is the one, Chicago. There are so many neat art instillation in the city but the brand new Artopia Exhibit in West Loop is primed to be the best one we’ve seen in sometime. Between this, the Van Gogh Experience, and the potential for Sunday’s on State, art is booming in Chicago. Be sure to get your tickets now and enjoy this while it’s in town!
Police stand near the scene where multiple people were shot at the FedEx Ground facility early Friday morning, April 16, 2021, in Indianapolis. | Michael Conroy/AP
The shooter was identified as 19-year-old Brandon Scott Hole of Indiana, two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter told The Associated Press.
INDIANAPOLIS — Police scoured a Fedex facility in Indianapolis and searched the suspected gunman’s home Friday looking for a motive for the latest mass shooting to rock the U.S., as family members of the eight victims spent agonizing hours awaiting word on their loved ones.
The shooter was identified as 19-year-old Brandon Scott Hole of Indiana, two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter told The Associated Press. The investigators searched a home in Indianapolis associated with Hole and seized evidence, including desktop computers and other electronic media, the officials said. The officials could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Indianapolis police said earlier that they had not yet discovered the gunman’s motive for opening fire with a rifle late Thursday night at a FedEx processing center near the Indianapolis airport.
Indianapolis Deputy Police Chief Craig McCartt said the gunman started randomly shooting at people in the parking lot and then went into the building and continued firing. He said the shooter apparently died by suicide shortly before police entered the building.
“There was no confrontation with anyone that was there,” he said. “There was no disturbance, there was no argument. He just appeared to randomly start shooting.”
McCartt said four people were killed outside the building and another four inside. Several people were also wounded, including five who were taken to the hospital.
The carnage took just a couple of minutes. “It did not last very long,” he said.
Officials with the coroner’s office began the process of identifying victims Friday afternoon, a process they said would take several hours.
Police Chief Randal Taylor noted that a “significant” number of employees at the facility are members of the Sikh community, and the Sikh Coalition later confirmed that members of the community were among the wounded and killed.
The coalition, which identifies itself as the largest Sikh civil rights organization in the U.S., said in a statement that it expected authorities to “conduct a full investigation — including the possibility of bias as a factor.” The coalition’s executive director, Satjeet Kaur, noted in the statement that more than 8,000 Sikh Americans live in Indiana.
The families’ agonizing waiting was exacerbated by the fact that most employees aren’t allowed to carry cellphones inside the FedEx building, making contact with them difficult.
“When you see notifications on your phone, but you’re not getting a text back from your kid and you’re not getting information and you still don’t know where they are … what are you supposed to do?” Mindy Carson said early Friday, fighting back tears.
Later Friday morning, Carson said she had heard from her daughter Jessica, who works in the facility and that she was OK. She was going to meet her, but didn’t say where.
FedEx said in a statement that cellphone access is limited to a small number of workers in the dock and package sorting areas to “support safety protocols and minimize potential distractions.”
FedEx Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frederick Smith called the shooting a “senseless act of violence.”
“This is a devastating day, and words are hard to describe the emotions we all feel,” he wrote in an email to employees.
The killings marked the latest in a string of recent mass shootings across the country and the third mass shooting this year in Indianapolis. Five people, including a pregnant woman, were shot and killed in the city in January, and a man was accused of killing three adults and a child before abducting his daughter during at argument at a home in March. In other states last month, eight people were fatally shot at massage businesses in the Atlanta area, and 10 died in gunfire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the community must guard against resignation and “the assumption that this is simply how it must be and we might as well get used to it.”
President Joe Biden said he had been briefed on the shooting and called gun violence “an epidemic” in the U.S.
“Too many Americans are dying every single day from gun violence. It stains our character and pierces the very soul of our nation,” he said in a statement.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was “horrified and heartbroken” by the shooting and called for congressional action on gun control.
“As we pray for the families of all affected, we must work urgently to enact commonsense gun violence prevention laws to save lives & prevent this suffering,” the Democratic leader said in a tweet.
A witness said he was working inside the building when he heard several gunshots in rapid succession.
“I see a man come out with a rifle in his hand and he starts firing and he starts yelling stuff that I could not understand,” Levi Miller told WTHR-TV. “What I ended up doing was ducking down to make sure he did not see me because I thought he would see me and he would shoot me.”
A man told WTTV that his niece was sitting in the driver’s seat of her car when the gunfire erupted, and she was wounded.
“She got shot on her left arm,” said Parminder Singh. “She’s fine, she’s in the hospital now.”
Gov. Eric Holcomb ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until April 20, and he and others decried the shooting.
Chris Bavender, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Indianapolis office, said the bureau is helping with the investigation.
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Associated Press reporter Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report. Casey Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, Coast Guard Station Grand Isle 45-foot Response Boat-medium boat crew members attempt to throw a hammer at the hull of the SeaCor Power. The crew was attempting to make contact with potential survivors inside the vessel. The Seacor Power, an oil industry vessel, flipped over Tuesday, April 13, 2021 in a microburst of dangerous wind and high seas. | AP
Six people were rescued shortly after the vessel capsized Tuesday, one other body was recovered from the water Wednesday and 11 are still missing. The second body was found in the water near the partially submerged Seacor Power lift boat Thursday night.
PORT FOURCHON, La. — The Coast Guard said Friday that it has found the body of a second dead worker from the lift boat that capsized off Louisiana’s coast earlier this week.
Rescuers in the air and the sea have been searching for the 19 workers who were aboard the vessel when it overturned Tuesday in rough weather about 8 miles from the Louisiana coast.
Six people were rescued shortly after the vessel capsized Tuesday, one other body was recovered from the water Wednesday and 11 are still missing. The second body was found in the water near the partially submerged Seacor Power lift boat Thursday night, according the Coast Guard news release.
Divers searching for survivors prepared to enter the vessel Friday, a rescue effort complicated by daunting technical challenges and continued bad weather. The hope is that the 11 missing people have found air pockets to survive inside the Seacor Power.
Steven Walcott, whose brother was on the capsized boat, told The Associated Press that the Coast Guard told family members about the second body during a briefing Friday.
“Right now, we’re hoping for a miracle,” Walcott said.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Carlos Galarza said early Friday that as long as weather permits, divers will try to get into the vessel. But Dawn Saddler, sister of Gregory Walcott, said families were told during the meeting that divers did not get onto the boat Friday morning because of rough weather.
“They were supposed to go this morning,” she said. “They’re trying to find the right way to go in.”
The large housing structure above the deck of the lift boat will likely pose significant challenges for divers, naval architect David Bourg said.
“Imagine if you take a four-story building with multiple rooms in it, turn it upside down and put it in the water and try to navigate it with a flashlight — that’s what you’re looking at here,” said Bourg, who is also an adjunct professor at the University of New Orleans’ School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.
Two of the missing worker had been communicating with rescuers by two-way radio Tuesday after the ungainly platform ship flipped over in hurricane-force winds that day. They were spotted clinging to the overturned hull but returned to seek shelter inside after a third man fell into the water and was lost. There have not been any signs of life since then, officials said.
Time is of the essence because air pockets will eventually become depleted of oxygen, said Mauritius Bell, diving safety officer at the California Academy of Sciences.
“It would be somewhat analogous to breathing in and out of a paper bag,” he added. “At some point, it’s not survivable.”
On Thursday, searchers knocked on the ship’s hull without response.
Relatives of the missing gathered at a fire station at Port Fourchon, a sprawling base for much of the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico. The port, busy with cranes, cargo and heavy equipment, is where workers from across Louisiana and beyond load up on a fleet of helicopters and ships that take them to the rigs for long stretches of work.
Marion Cuyler, who is engaged to crane operator Chaz Morales, wavered between optimism and fear after the relatives got closed-door briefings from Seacor executives and the Coast Guard.
“Hopefully, they are all in one room, and they can just rescue them all in one day,” she said.
The families expressed frustration during the briefing, and want answers to their questions about why the boat ventured out to sea despite warnings of an approaching storm, she said.
“I asked, ‘Who gave the orders’ and of course — silence,” she said. Cuyler said she’d told her husband-to-be that he shouldn’t be going out in such weather. “And he knew they shouldn’t have been going out.”
Walcott, who has also worked on lift boats, echoed that frustration about conditions. He said the boats are not designed for travel in rough weather.
The first Coast Guard ship arrived at the scene at 5:10 p.m, about 40 minutes after the initial distress signal, and spotted five men clinging to the hull, Galarza said.
A helicopter crew from the Bristow marine company lowered life vests and two-way VHF radios to them, he said. Two of the men dropped into the water and were picked up by the Coast Guard. About the same time, Good Samaritan vessels rescued four other people, he said.
The Coast Guard was able to talk to the three people still on the ship’s hull using the radios, but the sea was too rough to reach them. Later Tuesday night, the Coast Guard was notified that one person had fallen in the water and wasn’t seen again.
Shortly before 10 p.m., the two remaining people told the Coast Guard they were going back inside, and that was the last time the Coast Guard spoke with them, Galarza said.
One case in the quarterly report involves the city’s scandal-scarred Department of Water Management.
A motor truck driver who exposed himself and masturbated inside a Department of Water Management truck in broad daylight while parked in a residential neighborhood.
A ChicagoFire Department lieutenant who repeatedly sexually harassed a restaurant employee while on duty in uniform and a battalion chief who tried to cover it up.
An animal care inspector who sent unprovoked communications to a co-worker’s spouse alleging the co-worker was having an affair on the job.
Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s latest quarterly report includes allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment, including one involving the city’s scandal-scarred Department of Water Management.
“A Department of Water Management truck driver, while on duty, exposed themselves and masturbated inside a DWM truck. The motor truck driver performed these acts in the daytime while parked in residential neighborhood,” Ferguson wrote.
“The motor truck driver’s public indecency was observable to nearby members of the public, as indicated by a video an individual recorded, which showed the MTD masturbating.”
During an interview, the accused driver repeatedly lied to investigators by falsely claiming that he had “spilled a drink on themselves” and, later, that he was “urinating into a bottle,” according to the inspector general’s report.
The driver has been fired but is appealing the discharge.
In 2017, a shake up triggered by racist, sexist and homophobic emails swept out then-Water Management Commissioner Barrett Murphy and top deputies William Bresnahan and Paul Hansen, brother of former Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th).
A Chicago Fire Department lieutenant has been discharged after being accused of sexually harassing a restaurant employee for months “numerous times a week” while on duty and in uniform.
“While at the restaurant, the lieutenant singled out the employee and made unwanted and inappropriate comments, saying the victim was pretty, calling the victim ‘baby’ and ‘sweetie’, stating, ‘I’m gonna marry you someday,’ and, ‘Are you gonna make my food with love?’” Ferguson wrote.
“The unwanted attention caused the employee to move to the kitchen area whenever the lieutenant entered the restaurant. The sexual harassment culminated one afternoon when the lieutenant approached the restaurant employee and kissed them on the cheek without consent or invitation.”
The lieutenant was accused of lying to investigators. Ferguson further accused the lieutenant’s supervisor, a battalion chief, of conducting an “unsanctioned investigation” into the alleged misconduct “despite the close personal relationship between them.”
The battalion chief was further accused of threatening co-workers by saying, “No one better talk to the media about this or I’ll kick their teeth in.”
The lieutenant was fired but is appealing the discharge. The battalion chief received a written reprimand and anti-sexual harassment training.
The city employee accused of directing an associate to mail an anonymous letter to a co-worker’s spouse alleging an on-the-job affair worked as an inspector for the Commission on Animal Care and Control.
“In addition, the Animal Care investigator was involved in sending an anonymous email alleging the affair, alongside a LinkedIn request associated with an escort service to the spouse’s work email address,” the report states.
“By engaging in threatening conduct and going to great lengths to conceal their involvement in such conduct, [the inspector] demonstrated that they were unfit to continue their employment.”
Ferguson recommended that the inspector be fired, but the accused employee resigned before being terminated.
Rodon jumps for joy after out No. 27. | Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images
Carlos Rodon’s no-hitter — the 20th by a White Sox pitcher — was a reminder that baseball offers anyone who plays it the chance to show up on any given day and have the best damn day of his life.
Carlos Rodon wasn’t about to shut off the thank-you spigot Wednesday night after his no-hitter against the Indians at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The White Sox lefty thanked his parents, his wife, his kids, his in-laws, an aunt, an uncle, some cousins and coaches. Teammates, too, of course.
“I’m blessed to still be able to play this game,” he said.
Blessed to throw a no-no. Blessed to still be chasing his dream. Blessed to have major shoulder and arm trouble — Tommy John surgery in 2019, people — behind him, with whatever is left of the promise of a No. 3 overall draft selection in 2014 still in front of him.
This is a pitcher the Sox all but gave up on after the 2020 season. They brought him back for a song.
“A lot of work,” he said, water just having been dumped all over his head. “A lot of people. A lot of help went into this comeback. I’m just happy I’m here again.”
It was beautiful. It was history. It was sports standing up and declaring that, yes, even in a pandemic, what we do around here is important. It was a reminder that baseball, especially, offers anyone who plays it the chance to show up on any given day and have the best damn day of his life.
So let’s talk about no-hitters. Let’s talk about the magic of such occurrences.
“That was the most incredible thing that I’ve ever been a part of,” said Sox catcher Zack Collins.
A first-round pick in 2016, Collins, 26, has heard critics say throughout his pro career that he isn’t much of a receiver at all. Maybe they should ask Rodon — who didn’t shake off Collins on a single pitch — about that. There’s a whole who’s-who of backstops yet to go where Collins has now gone.
There have been 20 no-hitters by Sox pitchers, second only to the Dodgers’ 26. The Cubs are close behind with 16. At the other end of the spectrum are the Padres — around since 1969 — who got their first-ever no-hitter last weekend from hometown boy Joe Musgrove.
“It feels so incredible,” Musgrove said.
Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito wasn’t nearly as in touch with his feelings after no-hitting the Pirates last August.
“Oh, my God,” Giolito said then. “I don’t feel anything.”
It’s one thing for Giolito, who has ascended into the role of staff ace, to have such a big day. The last Sox pitcher before him to throw a no-hitter — and a perfect game on top of it — was Philip Humber in 2012. Humber had been the No. 3 overall pick, taken by the Mets, in 2004, but by 2012 he was a journeyman when he took the mound on a fateful April afternoon in Seattle.
“I can’t even put it into words,” he said after his perfecto. “I’m just so happy.”
He won only four games after that all season and lost his spot in the rotation, relegated to long relief. After 2012, Humber never won another big-league game. Artifacts bearing his name are in Cooperstown, New York, just the same.
Last September in Milwaukee, Alec Mills threw the Cubs’ first no-hitter since Jake Arrieta’s second one in 2016.
“I don’t really know what to say,” Mills said afterward. “I think it’s kind of hit me now — it’s very overwhelming, a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing.”
Especially if your team doesn’t give you 30 cracks at it each year. Mills, a pro’s pro who takes the ball and does whatever is asked of him, is viewed by the Cubs as a Swiss-army-knife type, meaning long relief, spot starts and, frankly, a whole lot of not getting to do what he wishes he were doing. But one day last year, at least, he wasn’t a jack of all trades. He was a master.
Mills’ catcher for the major league’s 305th no-hitter was Victor Caratini. A mere 208 days later, Caratini caught No. 306: Musgrove’s.
“I think it’s pretty rare to find yourself in those situations,” Caratini said.
Rare? No one had ever caught consecutive no-nos on the big-league list for different teams. This was beyond rare.
“It’s really awesome,” he said, and that was the truth.
Rodon may never not pile up All-Star honors and individual awards on the South Side. On a one-year deal — after being non-tendered in December — he could be gone at season’s end. But he sure gave us something to remember him by, didn’t he? Digging extra-deep on the mound in short sleeves on a cold night, he was part pitcher, part wild animal, part 1985 Bears offensive lineman.
It was magic.
“Holy crap,” he said when it was over. “I just can’t believe it. I can’t.”
Just leave the spigot open. This one lasts forever.
Public health officials on Friday announced Illinois’ second-most productive COVID-19 vaccination day yet with 166,885 doses going into arms statewide.
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.
A federal pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine means there won’t be as many appointments available as officials might have thought a week ago, but the state has downplayed that obstacle. J&J doses only account for about 8% of Illinois’ vaccine supply.
Most appointments at city-run sites will go ahead as scheduled next week after shuffling around some doses, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Mass vax sites at the United Center and Chicago State University will use Pfizer doses instead of J&J, as will the off-site Walgreens clinics that are scheduled to distribute doses at houses of worship this weekend, officials said Friday. The city’s program for homebound residents has switched to Pfizer, too.
2:50 p.m. How to politely ask whether someone has gotten the COVID-19 vaccine
Have the people you know and might be around been vaccinated? Many of us aren’t quite sure how to ask.
It’s a seemingly simple question whether you’re asking before going on a date with someone new or planning a long-awaited hangout with friends. But it can feel uncomfortable to ask.
Partly that’s because of polarizing opinions the pandemic has prompted.
“Not everyone places the same value on being vaccinated,” says Lynn F. Bufka, the American Psychological Association’s senior director of practice transformation and quality. “There are people who are quite clear that they do not want to be vaccinated.”
1:05 p.m. Bulls’ Zach LaVine expected to miss several games in coronavirus protocol
Coby White appears to be lost in his bench role.
Lauri Markkanen looks like he already signed elsewhere.
Patrick Williams seems to have gone headfirst into the rookie wall.
Factor in two embarrassing losses in less than a week to the last-place Timberwolves and the tanking Magic, and, well, there’s seemingly no way things could get worse for the Bulls.
Then Thursday hit.
A noon practice was quickly cancelled after Zach LaVine entered the NBA’s health and safety protocol with a positive coronavirus test, according to a source.
The hope is LaVine only will be out a handful of days, but with the Bulls scheduled to play five games in the next seven days and with only 18 games left in the regular season, that could be the difference between holding on to the final play-in spot or sitting in a lottery position and praying for lottery luck.
12:15 p.m. US setting up $1.7B national network to track virus variants
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is setting up a $1.7 billion national network to identify and track worrisome coronavirus mutations whose spread could trigger another pandemic wave, the Biden administration announced Friday.
White House officials unveiled a strategy that features three components: a major funding boost for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health departments to ramp up coronavirus gene-mapping; the creation of six “centers of excellence” partnerships with universities to conduct research and develop technologies for gene-based surveillance of pathogens; and building a data system to better share and analyze information on emerging disease threats, so knowledge can be turned into action.
“Even as we accelerate our efforts to get shots into arms, more dangerous variants are growing, causing increases in cases in people without immunity,” White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt told reporters. That “requires us to intensify our efforts to quickly test for and find the genetic sequence of the virus as it spreads.”
10:45 a.m. After contracting COVID-19, ex-Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club boss Orvie Cochran gets early prison release
After Outlaws Motorcycle Club boss Orville “Orvie” Cochran survived a shooting outside the biker gang’s South Side clubhouse in 2000 — he slipped on some ice and fell, thus avoiding a hail of bullets — a former friend described him as “- – – damn lucky.”
Cochran’s luck still hasn’t run out.
Arrested in 2017 after being on the run for 16 years to avoid racketeering charges, he caught a break on his sentence. And now — after contracting the coronavirus in prison — Cochran has gotten a federal judge to free him from prison six months early.
The judge ordered a “compassionate” release for Cochran, who had asked for that even before getting infected because, he said, he was afraid he would and had health problems that could make COVID especially dangerous for him.
9 a.m. What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and will you need one?
What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and will I need one?
“Vaccine passports,” or vaccine certificates, are documents that show you were vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus. They could help you get into places such as stadiums or even countries that are looking to reopen safely.
The certificates are still being developed, and how and whether they’ll be used could vary widely around the world. Experts say they should be free and available on paper, not just on apps, since not everyone has a smartphone.
In the U.S., federal officials say there are no plans to make them broadly mandatory. In some states, Republican governors have issued orders barring businesses or state agencies from asking people to show proof of vaccination.
8:30 a.m. Pause on Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine won’t affect United Center appointments, city’s top doc says
Appointments at the United Center’s COVID-19 mass vaccination site will go on as scheduled next week with Pfizer doses being administered instead of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that’s been shelved nationwide, officials said Thursday.
The city’s most prominent mass vax site has been doling out Pfizer since it launched a month ago in a parking lot across the street from the Near West Side arena.
That’ll still be the case Monday, which is when the federally run site had been scheduled to switch to J&J doses — until a handful of extremely rare blood clots tied to that vaccine prompted a temporary suspension this week while experts investigate.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide additional Pfizer doses in its place, meaning plans won’t change for anyone with a United Center appointment, according to Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
“Everybody who has an appointment from Monday on at the United Center can keep that appointment. You do not need to do a thing. You will just receive Pfizer instead of Johnson & Johnson,” Arwady said during an online Q&A.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 3,581 new cases of the disease were diagnosed Wednesday among 105,661 tests to keep the state’s average testing positivity rate at 4.2%.
About one quarter of Illinois residents have been fully vaccinated so far, with 138,538 doses administered Tuesday. The state also reported 3,536 new cases and 31 more deaths.
Staff member of state House Speaker Emanuel ‘Chris’ Welch tests positive for COVID-19. The staff member was tested Monday as part of the Legislature’s required protocols to return to in-person work in the Capitol.
On April 5, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed legislation banning gender-confirming treatments or surgery for transgender youth. The state legislature voted to override his veto. | AP Photos
It’s the fundamental unseriousness of right-wing culture war posturing that astonishes: taking militant stands against imaginary threats.
How can somebody like me possibly live in darkest Arkansas, well-meaning correspondents sometimes want to know. And when the state legislature is in session, I do sometimes wonder.
All I can say is that I’m glad Arkansas is a state, not a country. Because I’m stuck on the place, mostly for personal reasons having nothing to do with politics.
“Thank God for Mississippi,” people here used to say, on the grounds that our neighbor to the east had an even more embarrassing history.
Of course, if Arkansas legislators didn’t have the federal courts to hide behind, they might be forced to act like adults instead of staging a spectacle for the backwoods churches. Because that’s all it is: a political puppet show. It’s the fundamental unseriousness of right-wing culture war posturing that astonishes: taking militant stands against imaginary threats and passing laws that have no chance of passing constitutional muster.
And it’s happening all over the South and rural Midwest. Anywhere white rural voters predominate, it’s the same story.
The Arkansas legislature has outdone itself this year, prompting even mild-mannered Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson to veto a particularly mean-spirited piece of legislation forbidding medical treatment to transgender adolescents — and never mind their doctors and parents. “The Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act,” they call it.
Hutchinson’s no liberal. For example, he’d previously signed a bill forbidding transgender girls from competing in girls’ high school sports — a situation that has arisen in the state exactly never. Right-wing imagineers envision a mortal threat to women’s athletics everywhere.
Meanwhile, the University of Arkansas fields nationally ranked teams in women’s basketball, softball and other sports. World-class identical twin pole vaulters recently graduated from the Fayetteville campus and began pharmacy school while continuing to train — a veritable wonder to behold.
But that’s mere reality, of little interest to zealots.
The governor also signed a law allowing health care professionals to refuse treatment to any patient whose real or suspected sexual proclivities they disapprove of. Something else that is going to happen rarely, if ever, in real life. Arkansas doctors do subscribe to the Hippocratic Oath.
Gov. Hutchinson called the bill forbidding treatment to transgender youth both cruel and unnecessary. Possibly he has a close friend or relative with a child of ambiguous gender. That’s often all it takes to make people act decently. He told a reporter for The New York Times that fellow Republicans too often acted “out of fear of what could happen, or what our imagination says might happen, versus something that’s real and tangible.”
Yes, exactly.
Hutchinson’s was a futile political gesture. Arkansas governors have no real veto power. It requires only a majority vote to overturn them, which the legislature did within 24 hours by a 3-to-1 ratio. The Arkansas ACLU has vowed to challenge the law in federal court. (The bill also says that insurance companies can refuse to cover such treatments in adult patients.)
Elsewhere, it’s been one bill after another aimed directly at federal courts. In March, Arkansas passed a near-total abortion ban. Hutchinson told reporters he’d have preferred a law that made exceptions for rape and incest, which the new law doesn’t. Nor for fetal anomalies.
In short, if a 14-year-old girl is impregnated by her drunk uncle, she must carry even a gravely deformed fetus to term regardless. The penalty is 10 years in prison.
Appearing with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union,” Hutchinson admitted that the new law “is not constitutional under Supreme Court cases right now. I signed it because it is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade … I think there’s a very narrow chance that the Supreme Court will accept that case, but we’ll see.”
Arkansas legislators also have declared all federal gun laws null and void within the state, a direct challenge to the Constitution’s supremacy clause that is absolutely certain to fail. Serious gun nuts don’t care. They don’t expect to win. They just want their collective amygdala massaged — the fight-or-flight organ buried deep in the limbic brain.
Pretty much the reason they’re gun nuts to begin with.
Which is closely related to the reason the legislature brought biblical creationism back, mandating a law permitting fundamentalist theology to be taught in public school science classes. This one I take personally, as I covered the 1981 trial in Little Rock federal court over the “Balanced Treatment of Creation-Science and Evolution Science Act,” when eminent scientists like Stephen Jay Gould convinced federal judge William Overton that the Arkansas law represented an unconstitutional “establishment of religion.”
Same as it ever was.
Look, it’s pretty basic. A large proportion of America’s rural white folks lost it over Barack Obama, and they ain’t come back yet. They thought Trump was going to return America to 1954, but now he’s gone, and they’re still hiding out in the woods.
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