An infant was critically hurt in a Friday morning crash that shut down the Jane Byrne Interchange ramp from the northbound Dan Ryan to westbound Eisenhower.
Four adults were also injured in the two-car crash, which happened about 7 a.m., according to preliminary information from Illinois State Police spokeswoman Elizabeth Clausing.
The ramp from Interstate 94 northbound to Interstate 290 westbound was closed until about 12:30 p.m., according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
A citizen attempted to drive the infant to the hospital themselves, but then pulled over and awaited an ambulance, which took the infant in critical condition to Stroger Hospital, according to Chicagofire spokesman Larry Merritt.
Merritt said four other adults, three male and one female, were taken in either fair or serious condition to Stroger and Mount Sinai Hospitals.
Thirteen-year-old Eli Coustan from Evanston succeeded where adults with more than a year to prepare failed: He created ILVaccine.org, a database that pulls in open COVID-19 shot appointments from all available locations, eliminating the need to check dozens of websites ad infinitum. So we wondered: What other inexplicably convoluted processes would we like to see him hack next?
■ Transferring money from one Ventra card to another
■ Getting to the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in Tinley Park without a car
■ Registering for Chicago Park District summer camps
■ Finding restaurant patios where you can bring your dog
■ Obtaining legal records from the Circuit Court of Cook County
■ Navigating the zoned parking in Wrigleyville
■ Identifying which forest preserves in Cook County have bathrooms
It took four episodes, but you can finally cross “Green Bay” off your bingo card.
Aaron Rodgers gave a nod to his NFL city during his opening segment as guest host on Thursday’s episode of “Jeopardy!” It was the first time Green Bay came up since his 10-episode hosting stint began on Monday.
“Being here is really personal for me. I truly am a ‘Jeopardy!’ fan, and the people who know and love me understand not to call me at 6 o’clock, because that’s when ‘Jeopardy!’ airs in Green Bay,” he said. “I’m so happy to be here, and I hope you’re enjoying this as much as I am.”
That was just the warmup for the Vince Lombardi namedrop that would come when Rodgers chatted up Pasquale Palumbo, a contestant from Hawhorne, New York, who explained he and the Green Bay Packers quarterback share a football connection.
Deep breath …
Palumbo said he played and coached football at White Plains High School, where his head coach was Mark Santa-Donato, who was coached by Ralph Friedgen Sr., who was coached by Earl “Colonel Red” Blaik at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, who had Lombardi on his coaching staff from 1949 to 1953.
“So we’re football cousins,” Palumba said.
A stretch, for sure, but an A for effort.
“OK, that’s a good four degrees of separation there,” Rodgers said, laughing.
“Hey, it’s better than six,” Palumba replied.
Props to Rodgers for getting Panzerkampfwagen Maus, the name of the heaviest tank ever built, to somehow roll off his tongue during a clue under the Heavy Metal category. But perhaps a missed opportunity not to have a little more fun than he did with the lyrics to “Smelly Cat” from “Friends” for the Funny TV Songs category?
Rodgers did sound excited, however, to be able to read this clue: “The Princess Bride,” 1987: This leading man whose name was not Inigo Montoya.”
When returning champ Brandon Deutsch incorrectly answered Mandy Patinkin, Rodgers, a huge “Princess Bride” fan, seemed to take some delight in telling him that Patinkin was Inigo Montoya. (Correct answer: Cary Elwes.)
Coincidentally, “The Princess Bride” came up in an Instagram story Rodgers did with fiancee Shailene Woodley on Monday, in which she encouraged viewers to watch “Jeopardy!” She asked him what people should expect from his time as guest host.
“There’s some laughs, maybe some tears, excitement, mystery,” Rodgers said. “… It’s like ‘The Princess Bride’ — fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, miracles, true love. You never know.”
Rodgers has frequently mentioned the romantic comedy classic in interviews as one of his all-time favorite movies and has been known to blurt out quotes from it around his Packers teammates. He appeared on the “Chips, Dips and Dorks” podcast a few years ago for an episode devoted to the film. He talked about watching it as a kid and everybody taking parts as the characters (Westley has the best lines, he said) and enjoying its “subtle humor” as an adult.
So if you’re keeping track at home of some of Rodgers’ favorite pop culture things that have popped up on “Jeopardy!” so far, add “The Princess Bride” to a list that also includes Ewoks and Turd Ferguson. Still plenty of time for a “Game of Thrones” or “The Office” moment.
Rodgers earned another $9,799 Thursday for his charity of choice, the North Valley Community Foundation in his hometown of Chico, California.
A driver died after he was shot and then crashed into a light pole late Thursday morning on Interstate 57 near Halsted Street.
The man, 24, was shot by someone in another vehicle about 11 a.m. as he drove in the northbound lanes, Illinois State Police said in a statement.
He crashed into a pole and was taken in critical condition to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, state police and fire officials said. He later died of his injuries, according to State Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. His name hasn’t been released.
All inbound lanes were closed at 111th Street until 2:15 p.m. for an investigation, state police said.
Kaylee Cong, 32, whose Vietnamese father was attacked, poses for a portrait outside a nail spa she manages in the Logan Square neighborhood, Saturday afternoon, March 27, 2021. Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
The coronavirus pandemic sparked a mental health crisis. For Asians and Asian Americans also facing a rise in hate incidents across the country, it’s been “trauma upon trauma,” says Anne Saw, a Chicago psychologist.
“A lot of our communities are experiencing so many pandemic stressors that are then compounded by a lot of anti-Asian discrimination that we’re also experiencing,” says Saw, who teaches at DePaul University and directs the Chicago Asian American Psychology Lab.
“It’s tough to, like, get your head above water and get some room to breathe when every day we’re confronted with new traumas,” she says.
We talked to seven Chicagoans about how anti-Asian violence coupled with the pandemic have affected their mental health and their everyday lives. Among them was Kaylee Cong, 32, of Uptown, who manages a nail spa.
On March 20, four days after the Atlanta shootings, Cong says, her 60-year-old Vietnamese father was punched in the head as he walked alone that night near Broadway and West Ainslee Street. He turned to run, saw a white man holding a baseball bat watching him and called 911.
“We’re really scared,” says Cong, who’d been talking with her father about the Georgia shootings the day before he was attacked. “What if the person come back and do revenge? My entire life living here, it was so peaceful. There was no violence like this.”
She says her father hasn’t wanted to leave the house since that happened.
Older Asian Americans “just want to keep quiet and don’t want to make waves,” Cong says. “I have really different mentality. We deserve to, you know, feel safe. And we shouldn’t be afraid to stand up for ourselves.”
11:05 a.m. Aldermen move to prevent parade permit infighting
With 500 permits issued every year, it’s safe to say that Chicago loves a parade.
On Thursday, the City Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs and Special Events proved that love by providing a bit of post-pandemic protection.
At Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s behest, aldermen endorsed an ordinance that preserves permit priority for “traditional parades” scheduled at around the same time along the same route “in connection with a specific holiday or consistent theme for at least the prior five years.”
That priority status would remain even though those “traditional parades” were canceled last year because of the coronavirus — and even though none have been held so far this year, either.
Deputy Transportation Commissioner Mike Simon said the goal of the mayor’s ordinance is to prevent the temporary hiatus from opening the door to post-pandemic feuds between parade organizers vying for permits on the same day.
9:56 a.m. CPS high school reopening agreement remains elusive
A final high school reopening agreement remains elusive between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union just days before high school teachers are due to return to classrooms — and the union president said Thursday the next few days of negotiations will determine whether workers show up on Monday.
Though the range of issues is smaller and disagreement over those items is not as severe as the hostile K-8 negotiations in February, there are still a few unresolved concerns the union is expressing as COVID-19 infections once again rise in the city.
CPS officials have directed 5,350 high school teachers to return to buildings Monday with or without a CTU agreement, and about 26,000 students in grades 9-12 are expected back the following week.
Whether or not that timeline sticks is dependent on “how outrageous the board’s positions are as we go ahead,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey told a few hundred members at a virtual meeting Thursday that was closed to the public.
“I’ve heard people say, ‘Sharkey, I want a really definitive answer, am I going in on Monday?'” he said. “And my really definitive answer is, it depends on where we’re at.”
8:08 a.m. Spike in COVID-19 cases causes University of Chicago to announce stay-at-home period for students
University of Chicago announced a stay-at-home period for students Wednesday evening following the largest COVID-19 outbreak at the university since the start of the academic year.
After more than 50 cases of the coronavirus were detected among undergraduates in recent days, the university announced that students living on-campus must observe a week-long stay-at-home period immediately.
“We expect this number to increase,” university officials said in an email sent to members of the university community Thursday.
All undergraduate classes will be fully remote for at least a week starting Thursday and students can only leave their residence halls for food, medical appointments and short walks for exercise.
Illinois’ infection rate is still less than a third of what it was during the worst days of the pandemic last fall — but it’s doubled in the last four weeks.
A mosaic at the Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center on the Far North Side tells the story of Jewish immigration to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Titled “Fabric of Our Lives” and created in 1980, its images and words portray challenges they faced, coming to Chicago and elsewhere, typically from Eastern Europe, with little money, no jobs and often no grasp of English.
Chicago’s murals & mosaics
This is part of an ongoing series of stories on public art in the city and suburbs. More murals are being added every week.
The 15-feet-tall, 13-feet-wide, glass-tile mosaic had suffered from the onslaught of decades of Chicago winters but restored in October at a cost of about $8,000 by Miriam Socoloff and Cynthia Weiss, the artists who originally had assembled the work in 1980.
“In addition to our strong feelings for the themes of the mosaic, it was profoundly meaningful and satisfying to repair something,” says Weiss, 67, amid a year marked by the coronavirus pandemic and loss. “2020 was such a hard year. There was so much devastation.”
The Horwich JCC, at 3003 W. Touhy Ave., is in a neighborhood that’s fairly heavily Jewish.
One of the tenets of Judaism is that people should work to repair the world. That made it even more meaningful to painstakingly restore the mosaic, Weiss says.
After 40 years, the “Fabric of Our Lives” mosaic outside of the Bernard Horwich JCC, 3003 W. Touhy Ave., was in poor condition. Artists Miriam Socoloff and Cynthia Weiss restored it in October.Provided
Socoloff, 71, says the weather hadn’t damaged the faces of any of the figures in the mosaic, but there was damage to some key parts of the work.
For one thing, the letters had fallen away from a sign a woman bears that calls for “a living wage for all” — meant to represent the labor union movement of the early 20th century, a time when many Jewish immigrants worked in sweatshops, toiling at tasks such as sewing garments for little pay. Socoloff says that’s a message that’s “still very much pertinent today.”
Before starting work on the mosaic four decades ago, “I didn’t know the history of Jewish labor,” Socoloff says. “This was all new to me, learning about the sweatshops, even though it was the history of my own family.”
One of her grandmothers immigrated to the United States and lived in New York tenements while working in a sweatshop before moving to Chicago.
Weiss had a grandfather who lived in Philadelphia and helped Jewish immigrants there adjust to their new country and find jobs.
Artist Cynthia Weiss sits on the scaffolding used to repair the top part of the “Fabric of Our Lives” mosaic at the Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center.Provided
The mosaic includes a musician, a Yiddish theater actor, someone holding newspapers representing the Yiddish press and a writer, for all of the “sweatshop poets and intellectuals,” according to the artists.
Sweatshop imagery takes up a big portion of the artwork. Three women are shown working on sewing machines, their fabric flowing into Maxwell Street, the historic first stop in Chicago for many Jews coming from Eastern Europe.
A woman and a child make a purchase from a pushcart salesman at the old Maxwell Street market. Kyle Brown / Sun-Times
Maxwell Street — the last of which was destroyed in a Mayor Richard M. Daley-era move to create the new University Village near the University of Illinois at Chicago, much as it had been chopped up decades earlier to make way for the Dan Ryan Expressway — was home to many Jewish immigrants in the early 20th century and, continuing long beyond that, to its eponymous, bustling open-air market.
The mosaic also offers another nod to Maxwell Street with a scene of a woman and a child making a purchase from a man offering his wares from a Maxwell Street pushcart.
Along the base of the mosaic is the line: “From deep within my soul’s despair arose a striving reaching high.” That’s repeated in Yiddish.
Three women working in a sweatshop in the “Fabric of Our Lives” mosaic outside the Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center.Kyle Brown / Sun-Times
There also are symbols of Jewish papercuts — a form of folk art that involves cutting images and sayings from paper — that include religious symbols and the tools of laborers, like a hammer and tile nippers.
“Those three ideas of culture coming from everyday experience, mutual aid and organizing for a living wage for all — those are the three ideas that are really meaningful to me,” Weiss says.
Artist Miriam Socoloff when she was working on restoring the “Fabric of Our Lives” mosaic 40 years after its creation.Provided
Weiss and Socoloff — who’ve known each other since they were neighbors in Chicago in the late 1970s — were trying something new when they created “Fabric of Our Lives.”
“We had never made a mosaic,” Socoloff says. “So in a way, the whole thing was an act of faith.”
With more than 1.3 million people in Chicago having already gotten vaccinated against COVID-19, we asked readers what’s changed for them since getting their shots. Some answers have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
“I’m a registered nurse and have had a couple of dozen patients who had COVID. I worry a lot less since getting my two Pfizer doses in February. I’m looking forward to visiting my parents, who are 78 and 82 and had both of their shots, and giving them big hugs.” — Brian Peterlinz
“It has reduced my anxiety a lot. But I still wear a mask and practice social distancing.” — Charlotte Deutsch Meyer
“I attended a delicious Easter dinner at a friend’s home on Sunday, and there were eight of us. All of us were fully vaccinated. It was a glimpse of life before COVID-19, and it was wonderful.” — Carson Bording
“I’ve gathered indoors with a pod of my fully vaccinated, over-65-year-old friends. I feel safer around my grandchildren. I always wear a mask around people I don’t know. I’m sleeping better and have less anxiety.” — Colleen Green
“Having lost someone dear to me — my dad, 62 — I’m relieved that I’m less likely to spread this virus. I’m most relieved that my loved ones are getting the vaccine.” — Alexis Marie
“I got my shots back in December and January. I still follow COVID restrictions such as social distancing and wearing a mask. But, since I’ve been vaccinated, I feel safer.” — Nadine Harper Rosier
“Nothing. I’m vaccinated but still wear a mask and social distance.” — Catherine Jo Downing-King
“I’m four weeks past my second shot. Won’t change my safety protocol — masks, distancing, sanitation. But did feel comfortable enough to go to the mall briefly to pick up something, where before I would have had it delivered. We’re not out of the woods yet, by any means.” — Ayani Good
“So relieved. Still wear masks and social distance. Do all this, and we will beat this COVID together.” — Judy Laubscher
“My husband and I have been fully vaccinated. We’re still careful around others but are feeling much safer. We’ve even started planning our vacation!!” — Sandy Champion
“I am a teacher and have been fully vaccinated. Nothing has changed for myself or my family. Being vaccinated does not mean I am immune. I can still get sick. I’m grateful for the added layer of protection. But I won’t be rushing out to movie theaters or restaurants anytime soon.” — Tanya Carver
NEW YORK — DMX, the raspy-voiced hip-hop artist who produced the songs “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem” and “Party Up (Up in Here)” and who rapped with a trademark delivery that was often paired with growls, barks and “What!” as an ad-lib, has died, according to a statement from his family. He was 50.
The Grammy-nominated performer died after suffering “catastrophic cardiac arrest,” according to the hospital in White Plains, New York, where he died. He was rushed there from his home April 2.
A statement from relatives said he died “with his family by his side after being placed on life support for the past few days.”
The rapper, whose real name is Earl Simmons, had struggled with drug addiction since his teenage years. His lawyer, Murray Richman, had earlier said he could not confirm reports that DMX overdosed.
DMX made a splash in rap music in 1998 with his first studio album, “It’s Dark and Hell is Hot,” which debuted No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The multiplatinum-selling album was anchored by several hits including “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem,” “Get At Me Dog,” “Stop Being Greedy” and “How It’s Goin’ Down.”
DMX followed up with four straight chart-topping albums including “… And Then There Was X,” “Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood,” “The Great Depression” and “Grand Champ.” He released seven albums, earned three Grammy nominations and was named favorite rap/hip-hop artist at the 2000 American Music Awards.
DMX arrived on the rap scene around the same time as Jay-Z, Ja Rule and others who dominated the charts and emerged as platinum-selling acts. They were all part of rap crews, too: DMX fronted the Ruff Ryders collective, which helped launch the careers of Grammy winners Eve and Swizz Beatz, and relaunch The Lox, formerly signed to Bad Boy Records. Ruff Ryders had success on the charts and on radio with its “Ryde or Die” compilation albums.
Along with his musical career, DMX paved his way as an actor. He starred in the 1998 film “Belly” and appeared in 2000?s “Romeo Must Die” with Jet Li and Aaliyah. DMX and Aaliyah teamed up for “Come Back in One Piece” on the film’s soundtrack.
The rapper would later open Aaliyah’s tribute music video, “Miss You,” alongside her other friends and collaborators, including Missy Elliott, Lil’ Kim and Queen Latifah, after Aaliyah’s 2001 death in a plane crash at age 22.
The rapper also starred in 2001?s “Exit Wounds” with Steven Seagal and 2003?s “Cradle 2 the Grave” with Li.
But while DMX made his mark as one of hip-hop’s most recognizable names for his rap artistry and as an actor, the rapper was personally stifled by his legal battles — he was repeatedly arrested and jailed within a decade — and drug addiction. His addiction first took hold at age 14 when smoked a marijuana cigarette that was laced with cocaine.
DMX pleaded guilty in 2004 after he posed as an undercover federal agent and crashed his SUV through a security gate at New York’s Kennedy Airport. He was arrested in 2008 on drug and animal cruelty charges following an overnight raid on his house in Phoenix. He tried to barricade himself in his bedroom but emerged when a SWAT team entered his home.
In 2010, he was sentenced to a year in prison for violating terms of his probation. After he was admitted to rehab numerous times over the next year, he said he had finally beat his drug addiction.
First responders helped bring DMX back to life after he was found in a hotel parking lot in New York in 2016. The rapper said he suffered from asthma.
A couple years later, DMX was sentenced to a year in prison for tax fraud. Prosecutors said he concocted a multiyear scheme to hide millions of dollars in income from the IRS and get around nearly $2 million in tax liabilities.
After his release, DMX planned a 32-date tour to mark the 20th anniversary of “It’s Dark and Hell is Hot.” But the rapper canceled a series of shows to check himself into a rehab facility in 2019. In an Instagram post, his team said he apologized for the canceled shows and thanked his fans for the continued support.
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