Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill aimed at fixing pensions for thousands of Chicago firefighters on Monday, rejecting Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s call to veto the legislation that she called “highly problematic.”

The governor argued the pension fix ensures “certainty and fair treatment” for hardworking firefighters, but Republican lawmakers and fellow Democrat Lightfoot counter that it will sock already strapped taxpayers with another property tax increase.

The new law removes the “birth date restriction” that prohibited roughly 2,200 active and retired firefighters born after Jan. 1, 1966 from receiving a 3% annual cost of living increase.

Instead, those firefighters got half that amount, 1.5% — and it is not compounded.

Pritzker said he’s “always believed that hardworking men and women who have earned their pension shouldn’t pay the price for local or state budget challenges.”

In his statement, the governor said the new law “creates a system that gives all firefighters certainty and fair treatment. And to make sure that the city can meet its obligations, my administration is working to sell the James R. Thompson Center, which will return to the city’s property tax rolls and is projected to generate $45 million annually for the city and its sister agencies.”

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file

Lightfoot issued her own statement, saying she was “disappointed” that Pritzker signed “a bill that will result in a deeper financial burden to the taxpayers of Chicago.”

While first responders deserve to be “appropriately compensated for their work both now and into retirement” signing off on this “unfunded mandate into law is the exact wrong way to accomplish this goal,” the mayor’s statement continued.

“A key missing element is an accompanying revenue stream from Springfield to pay for this $18-30 million annual new financial obligation,” Lightfoot said. “This bill is fiscally irresponsible and validates a Springfield practice of cutting back room deals without full transparency and debate.

“As Mayor, I have a responsibility to ensure a stable financial future for our city and this bill substantially undercuts those efforts. This is a time where we must continue to be hyper-diligent around our present and future financial wellbeing. Springfield must start listening to cities.”

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file

Back in February, the mayor sent Pritzker a letter urging him to veto the bill, arguing that it’s “highly problematic to implement this change at a time when 10 percent of Chicagoans have lost their jobs, many of whom have faced difficulty putting food on the table and are housing insecure.”

“This huge increase in unfunded liabilities would necessarily mean another property tax hike for Chicagoans, which would regrettably add to the overwhelming economic duress that so many or our neighbors are facing,” Lightfoot wrote at the time.

Lightfoot’s $12.8 billion budget for the fiscal year includes a $94 million property tax increase, followed by annual increases tied to the consumer price index.

State Sen. Robert Martwick — a frequent foe of Lightfoot’s — introduced the legislation, which was passed with few hours remaining in the General Assembly’s January lame duck session.

The Northwest Side Democrat told the Sun-Times the bill actually protects taxpayers by forcing city officials to face and deal with unpleasant realities.

Ted Schurter/The State Journal-Register via AP

The city is “sprinting towards the edge of the cliff with no idea how to slow down,” Martwick said. He cautioned that the “best thing for taxpayers is — always has been, and always will be — confronting your problems as they exist and not kicking the can down the road.”

“What this bill does is it makes the city confront necessary, albeit really difficult, decisions about what they need to do with their finances, so that they can live up to the commitment to fund their pensions properly,” Martwick said.

“The firefighter fund sits at 17% funded, functionally almost insolvent,” he said. “If you’re looking to protect taxpayers, the best thing that you can do for them is stop the practices that put you in this big fiscal hole in the first place. In other words, you know you’re going to be on the hook for these benefits, you might as well put the money in timely.”

But Republicans agreed with Lightfoot.

“Chicago taxpayers are on the hook for an additional $850 million thanks to Governor Pritzker signing HB2451 into law today,” House Deputy Minority Leader Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, said in a statement. “As if the $44 billion in pension debt they already owe wasn’t enough, today’s action by Governor Pritzker makes a property tax increase inevitable.

“Further, the Governor continues his bad habit of spending hypothetical revenue by suggesting that the sale of the James R. Thompson Center will be the magic cure for yet another financial problem.”

Read More

SPRINGFIELD — Four years after the Illinois race for governor broke national records for self-financing candidates, next year’s contest is shaping up to be another duel of the deep pockets.

Millionaire businessman Gary Rabine notified state election officials over the weekend that he had donated enough of his own cash to his newly minted gubernatorial campaign to lift all fundraising caps on the race.

The $250,390.04 the suburban Republican has kicked in pales in comparison to the $35 million that Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker pumped into his own war chest last month.

But under Illinois’ arcane campaign finance laws, Rabine’s contributions triggered the lifting of the caps, because they were made within a year of the 2022 primary. Pritzker’s fell just outside that window.

And while the trigger that Rabine tripped is designed to help other candidates in the race without personal fortunes, it also benefits Rabine, allowing him to accept contributions of any amount from other donors — and sending a signal of its own.

“On the one hand, now his poker buddies can kick in a couple 100 grand apiece, and he can try to get somewhere close to what Pritzker’s got,” said Chris Mooney, a professor of Illinois state politics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “On the other, he’s trying to scare people off in the Republican primary. He’s making the bet that he can get more rich people to donate to him than all the other candidates.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file

The caps were part of a series of reforms enacted after former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office.

So that others in the race can fairly compete against uber-wealthy self-financing candidates, state law says once any gubernatorial hopeful kicks in more than $250,000, all candidates in the race — including the wealthy one — can accept donations of any amount.

Mooney calls the reforms a “paper tiger” and said the caps “are some of the loosest in the country, and that is by design.”

“The caps that do exist are easy to break, and then candidates can just loan their own campaign whatever the limit is for that particular office, and they break the cap, and then they can get as much money from big donors as they want,” he said.

And even though the $35 million that Pritzker contributed on March 12 didn’t lift the caps, it signaled that the billionaire hotel heir is preparing for another costly battle.

Pritzker spent a record-breaking $171.5 million in his 2018 bid for governor, breezing past Republican Meg Whitman, who set the previous self-financing record of $144 million in 2010 for her failed bid for California governor.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times file

Rabine is not signaling any plans to challenge those records.

A campaign spokesman has said the Bull Valley businessman is willing to spend up to a million dollars of his own money.

When he launched his bid for governor last week, Rabine had donated $250,000 to his campaign, but decided to donate another $390.04 last week. That removed all caps from the race and allowed Rabine and his opponents to court big checks from wealthy donors throughout the campaign.

“I’m self-funding a very small part of our overall campaign budget to get things off the ground,” Rabine said in a statement Monday. “I’ve made a lot of friends in Illinois and across the country over the years. I’m confident people are willing to invest significant financial resources to support my vision to cut property taxes, create thousands of jobs, and serve Illinois families.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file

Whether Rabine’s move leads to big bucks from big donors remains to be seen. But so far, it’s not scaring off any of his GOP rivals.

State Sen. Darren Bailey said he’s “outraised every Republican in this race so far.” According to state election filings, the Republican hopeful from downstate Xenia has raised $503,714.29, just short of double Rabine’s $278,390.04 total.

“We all know no one spends money better than Governor Pritzker, and it’s going to take a lot of work, not just money to win,” Bailey said in a statement. “My campaign is building a grassroots movement to fight for working Illinoisans. We’ve had thousands of people join us across the state who are tired of high taxes and out-of-control spending — people who feel forgotten by political elites and country club politicians, and they want change.”

Facebook

“We have been traveling across the state meeting voters face to face, and I can guarantee no one in this race will outwork me and we will fire Pritzker next November.”

The third announced candidate, former state Sen. Paul Schimpf of Waterloo, has raised $179,529, calling the sum “tremendous” in a statement and saying he will “not have to rely on self-funding” to win.

Read More

A man was shot to death Monday in West Pullman on the Far South Side.

Two people fired shots at the 21-year-old about 3:50 p.m. as he ran south in the 12000 block of South Lowe Avenue, Chicago police said.

The man was struck multiple times in the body and taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office said the man died at the hospital less than an hour after he was shot. His identity has not been made public.

Area Two detectives are investigating.

Read More

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis police chief testified Monday that now-fired Officer Derek Chauvin violated departmental policy — and went against “our principles and the values that we have” — in pressing his knee on George Floyd’s neck and keeping him down after Floyd had stopped resisting and was in distress.

Continuing to kneel on Floyd’s neck once he was handcuffed behind his back and lying on his stomach was “in no way, shape or form” part of department policy or training, “and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values,” Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said on Day Six of Chauvin’s murder trial.

Arradondo, the city’s first Black chief, fired Chauvin and three other officers the day after Floyd’s death last May, and in June called it “murder.”

While police have long been accused of closing ranks to protect fellow members of the force charged with wrongdoing — the “blue wall of silence,” as it’s known — some of the most experienced officers in the Minneapolis department have taken the stand to openly condemn Chauvin’s treatment of Floyd.

As jurors watched in rapt attention and scribbled notes, Arradondo testified not only that Chauvin, a 19-year veteran of the force, should have let Floyd up sooner, but that the pressure on Floyd’s neck did not appear to be light to moderate, as called for under the department’s neck-restraint policy; that Chauvin failed in his duty to render first aid before the ambulance arrived; and that he violated policy requiring officers to de-escalate tense situations with no or minimal force if they can.

“That action is not de-escalation,” the police chief said. “And when we talk about the framework of our sanctity of life and when we talk about our principles and the values that we have, that action goes contrary to what we are talking about.”

Arradondo’s testimony came after the emergency room doctor who pronounced Floyd dead said he theorized at the time that Floyd’s heart most likely stopped because of a lack of oxygen.

Dr. Bradford Langenfeld, who was a senior resident on duty that night at Hennepin County Medical Center and tried to resuscitate Floyd, took the stand as prosecutors sought to establish that it was Chauvin’s knee on the Black man’s neck that killed him.

Langenfeld said Floyd’s heart had stopped by the time he arrived at the hospital. The doctor said that he was not told of any efforts at the scene by bystanders or police to resuscitate Floyd but that paramedics told him they had tried for about 30 minutes and that he tried for another 30 minutes.

Under questioning by prosecutors, Langenfeld said that based on the information he had, it was “more likely than the other possibilities” that Floyd’s cardiac arrest — the stopping of his heart — was caused by asphyxia, or insufficient oxygen.

Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death May 25. The white officer is accused of pressing his knee into the 46-year-old man’s neck for 9 minutes, 29 seconds, outside a corner market where Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill for a pack of cigarettes.

Floyd’s treatment by police was captured on widely seen bystander video that sparked protests around the U.S. that descended into violence in some cases.

The defense has argued that Chauvin did what he was trained to do and that Floyd’s use of illegal drugs and his underlying health conditions caused his death.

Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, asked Langenfeld whether some drugs can cause hypoxia, or insufficient oxygen. The doctor acknowledged that fentanyl and methamphetamine, both of which were found in Floyd’s body, can do so.

The county medical examiner’s office ultimately classified Floyd’s death a homicide — a death caused by someone else.

The report said Floyd died of “cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” A summary report listed fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use under “other significant conditions” but not under “cause of death.”

Prosecutor Steve Schleicher noted that while some people may become more dangerous under the influence of drugs or alcohol, some may actually be “more vulnerable.” Arradondo agreed and acknowledged that this must also be taken into consideration when officers decide to use force.

Before he was pinned to the ground, a frantic Floyd struggled with police who were trying to put him in a squad car, saying he was claustrophobic.

Arradondo said officers are trained in basic first aid, including chest compressions, and department policy requires them to request medical assistance and provide necessary aid as soon as possible before paramedics arrive.

“We absolutely have a duty to render that,” he said.

Officers kept restraining Floyd — with Chauvin kneeling on his neck, another kneeling on Floyd’s back and a third holding his feet — until the ambulance got there, even after he became unresponsive, according to testimony and video footage.

The officers also rebuffed offers of help from an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter who wanted to administer aid or tell officers how to do it.

Langenfeld testified that for people who go into cardiac arrest, there is an approximately 10% to 15% decrease in survival for every minute that CPR is not administered.

Nelson noted on cross-examination that department policies direct officers to do what is reasonable in a given situation. He asked whether officers need to take the actions of a crowd into account, and Arradondo agreed. Nelson has suggested that onlookers — many of whom were shouting at Chauvin — might have affected officers’ response.

Nelson also questioned whether Chauvin’s knee was on Floyd’s neck, playing a few seconds of bystander video side-by-side with footage from an officer’s body camera that Arradondo agreed appeared to show Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s shoulder blade.

But prosecutors quickly got Arradondo to note that the clip played by Nelson depicted only the few seconds before Floyd was moved onto a stretcher.

Minneapolis police Inspector Katie Blackwell, commander of the training division at the time of Floyd’s death, also took the stand Monday.

She said Chauvin, whom she’s known for about 20 years, received annual training in defensive tactics and use of force, and would have been trained to use one or two arms — not his knee — in a neck restraint.

“I don’t know what kind of improvised position that is,” she said, after being shown a photo of Chauvin with his knee on Floyd’s neck.

She said Chauvin also was a field-training officer, receiving additional training so he would know what prospective officers were learning in the academy.

The city moved soon after Floyd’s death to ban police chokeholds and neck restraints. Arradondo and Mayor Jacob Frey also made several policy changes, including expanded reporting of use-of-force incidents and attempts to de-escalate situations.

Read More

The Bears and Panthers sit near each other on the NFL’s most miserable merry-go-round — quarterback-starved and poring through other franchises’ trash cans to try to solve the most elusive riddle in sports.

The Bears traded for Nick Foles last year — a backup whose contract is now a liability — and signed Andy Dalton to a one-year, $10 million deal last month.

One year and two weeks ago, the Panthers handed free agent quarterback Teddy Bridgewater a three-year, $63 million contract. Monday, the Panthers gave up on him after 15 starts, trading three draft picks — a sixth-rounder this year and second- and fourth-round picks in 2022 — for Jets passer Sam Darnold.

Darnold is the most tempting of the four. He won’t turn 24 until June, making him seven months younger than Joe Burrow, last year’s top selection. The former No. 3 draft pick from USC has the pedigree, but a price tag that comes with it. The Panthers will certainly pick up Darnold’s fifth-year option for 2022, a fully guaranteed $18.9 million.

It would have been fascinating had the Bears tried the same tack, giving coach Matt Nagy a chance to revive Darnold’s career. But trading picks — even those a year into the future — runs counter to the Bears’ current approach of trying to support a middling quarterback with draft help. For all the criticisms of Dalton, he merely cost them money.

Removing Darnold from the Jets circus — former Bears coordinator Adam Gase oversaw what might be the two-year nadir of the franchise — will make Darnold better. Of the four starting quarterbacks traded this offseason, Darnold was the most polarizing; a sampling of league sources earlier this offseason produced more non-believers than intrigued parties.

Monday’s trade, though, can still impact the Bears’ quarterback picture.

The Panthers are set to draft eighth later this month; they likely determined their preferred college quarterback wasn’t going to last until then. If one of the five likely first-rounders does, the Panthers could trade the pick to a quarterback-needy team. To get from the Pick 20 to 8, though, might prove too costly for the Bears.

Unless the Seahawks change their minds about Russell Wilson or the Deshaun Watson’s legal problems are settled quickly. Bridgewater could be be the last significant quarterback traded this offseason. The Bears checked in on him last offseason, and he’s now eminently available.

“We’re going to find the right place [for him,]” Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer told reporters Monday, “whether it’s here or somewhere else.”

The Bears certainly wouldn’t consider trading for Bridgewater unless they reworked his contract to lower his $17 million base salary. They did something similar with Foles last year. Remember him? Foles would have to be traded if the Bears wanted Bridgewater. Even if the cap-strapped Bears could afford Bridgewater, that’s a lot of financial gymnastics to acquire a player who won as many games in 15 starts last year as Dalton did in nine.

The Jets, meanwhile, will jump back on the same merry-go-round; only three years after taking Darnold third, they’re certain to pick a quarterback with the No. 2 overall pick.

Read More

The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor

• Home
• Why “The Barbershop?”
• Check out my new website
• My Chicago Tribune archives
• Order my historical novel, “Madness: The War of 1812”
• Contact me

CBS 60 Minutes plants a shiv in Florida’s Gov. DeSantis in a wildly biased report

Leave a comment

Tweet

By Dennis Byrne,
today at 3:21 pm

The death of journalism III

Another in a continuing series

CBS’s 60 Minutes is a reliably progressive/liberal/Democratic apologist, but on Sunday it wildly outdid itself with its hit piece on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The “reporter,” Sharyn Alfonsi, accused DeSantis of a pay-for-play scheme by rewarding the Publix grocery store chain a deal to handle COVID-19 vaccinations because it gave $100,000 to his PAC. (See video below.)

I put quotes around reporter because Alfonsi is anything but. She’s a propagandist, a pawn of the Democratic party, someone who has no professional ethics or shame, allowing herself to be so abused by political interests.

At a press conference, she tried to portray DeSantis as an unapologetic opportunist who put campaign donations ahead of poor, black, senior citizens by turning over the state’s vaccination program to Publix.

The report unabashedly selectively edited out DeSantis’ explanation. It took a Democrat, Jared Moskowitz,, Director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, to call out 60 Minutes for its malpractice.

On Twitter, he called the report Twitter “absolute malarkey.”

In further explanation, DeSantis told conservative writer A.G. Hamilton:

“First of all, the first pharmacies that had [the vaccine] were CVS and Walgreens and they had a long-term care mission, so they were going to the long-term care facilities. They got the vaccine in the middle of December, they started going to the long-term care facilities the third week in December to do LTCs,” DeSantis told Alfonsi. “So that was their mission, that was very important and we trusted them to do that. As we got into January, we wanted to expand the distribution points.

Molly Hemmingway, writing in the Federalist accused 60 Minutes of trying to “invent a scandal:”

To push the false narrative and protect its favored governors, “60 Minutes” refused to interview people who disputed its false narrative, selectively edited video to hide facts, and omitted data that debunked its thesis and accurately describe Florida’s success.

Publix in a statement called the notion that it received special access “absolutely false and offensive.”

The irresponsible suggestion that there was a connection between campaign contributions made to Governor DeSantis and our willingness to join other pharmacies in support of the state’s vaccine distribution efforts is absolutely false and offensive. We are proud of our pharmacy associates for administering more than 1.5 million doses of vaccine to date and for joining other retailers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia to do our part to help our communities emerge from the pandemic.

Compounding this outrage, other media picked up the CBS report wholesale without Maskowitz’ explanation or the critical backlash the report generated. (Here and here.)

Expect more of these groundless attacks on DeSantis. Democrats are getting an early start to a coordinated campaign against DeSantis who, because of his common sense and handling of the pandemic in Florida, is getting mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2024.

[embedded content]

Filed under:
Uncategorized

Tweet

• Advertisement:

• Advertisement:

• 
  

  Welcome to ChicagoNow.

  Meet
  our bloggers,
  
  post comments, or
  
  pitch your blog idea.

  Sign in
  Pitch your idea
  Play games

• Facebook

• Visit my new website

  I’m a freelance writer, editor and author. I can help you with a wide variety of projects. Check out my new website at www.dennisbyrne.net

• Subscribe to The Barbershop

  Enter your email address:

  Delivered by FeedBurner

• Dennis Byrne’s Facebook Fan Page

  [embedded content]

• Blogroll

  The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor’s favorite blogs
  • Blithe Spirit
  • Center for Media and Public Affiars
  • Chicago Daily Observer
  • Forgotten Chicago
  • Pat Hickey’s “With Both Hands”
  • QT brought to you by Zay Smith

• Like me on Facebook

  [embedded content]

• Blogroll

  The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor’s favorite blogs
  • Blithe Spirit
    Assorted commentary offered in lieu of organized commentary that is not yet organized
  • Center for Media and Public Affiars
  • Chicago Daily Observer
    Intelligent commentary about Chicago politics
  • Forgotten Chicago
    A great site featuring what Chicago used to be and how it got to what it is now.
  • Pat Hickey’s “With Both Hands”
  • QT brought to you by Zay Smith
    Chicago’s wittiest columnist

• Our National Debt

• Twitter

• Tags

  • politics (269)
  • Illinois (164)
  • Chicago (157)
  • Obama (105)
  • COVID-19 (78)
  • Barack Obama (76)
  • Obamacare (72)
  • elections (69)
  • Donald Trump (65)
  • health care (62)
  Show more tags »

• Recent Comments

  • 

    jnorto

    53 minutes ago

    In reply to Richard Davis:

    I has nothing to do with reparations. It addresses your feeble argument concerning the liability of political parties for insurrections.…
    Read the story | Reply to this comment
  • 

    Richard Davis

    2 hours, 12 minutes ago

    In reply to jnorto:

    The events on January 06 have nothing to do with the topic of reparations. I thought you enlightened Dems knew…
    Read the story | Reply to this comment
  • 

    HSPARKS

    5 hours, 33 minutes ago

    Reparations…oh yes…I forgot to mention that I think any Black contestant who makes it to the bonus round on Wheel…
    Read the story | Reply to this comment
  • 

    Aquinas wired

    10 hours, 7 minutes ago

    No, I am not. But you didn’t respond to the questions in my previous comment.
    Read the story | Reply to this comment
  • 

    jnorto

    22 hours, 24 minutes ago

    In reply to Richard Davis:

    What about January 6?
    Read the story | Reply to this comment

• 

• /Users/dennisby/Desktop/trailer.mp4

• Recent posts

  • CBS 60 Minutes plants a shiv in Florida’s Gov. DeSantis in a wildly biased report »

    Dennis Byrne on The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor
    Posted today at 3:21 pm

  • Washington Post gives Biden four Pinocchios for Georgia voting law blarney »

    Dennis Byrne on The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor
    Posted today at 1:07 pm

  • The case for reparations »

    Dennis Byrne on The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor
    Posted Friday at 5:16 pm

  • Should cultural cancelers get cancelled? »

    Dennis Byrne on The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor
    Posted March 27, 2021 at 1:53 pm

  • Lickspittles in the White House press corps prop up Joe Biden »

    Dennis Byrne on The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor
    Posted March 26, 2021 at 3:04 pm

• Latest on ChicagoNow

  • Game Post 4/5

    from Cubs Den by Sean Holland
    posted today at 6:29 pm

  • CBS 60 Minutes plants a shiv in Florida’s Gov. DeSantis in a wildly biased report

    from The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor by Dennis Byrne
    posted today at 3:21 pm

  • Washington Post gives Biden four Pinocchios for Georgia voting law blarney

    from The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor by Dennis Byrne
    posted today at 1:07 pm

  • Coming off unscheduled bye week, SIU jumps two spots in national FCS poll

    from Prairie State Pigskin by Dan Verdun
    posted today at 12:59 pm

  • It’s the game every college basketball fan has been waiting to see: Gonzaga vs Baylor for the title. Who ya got?

    from I’ve Got The Hippy Shakes by Howard Moore
    posted today at 11:57 am

• Posts from related blogs

  • 

    Margaret Serious

    Most recent post: What’s Maundy Thursday?

  • 

    The Quark In The Road

    Most recent post: An Ode to National Crayon Day

  • 

    The Chicago Board of Tirade

    Most recent post: Antifa: Why aren’t you a member, Ron Johnson?

  More from News: Opinion

• Read these ChicagoNow blogs

  • 

    Cubs Den

    Chicago Cubs news and comprehensive blog, featuring old school baseball writing combined with the latest statistical trends
    • Game Post 4/5
  • 

    Pets in need of homes

    Pets available for adoption in the Chicago area
    • Migaloo — Petraits Rescue
  • 

    Hammervision

    It’s like the couch potato version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
    • Movie Review: Nomadland

• Read these ChicagoNow Bloggers

  • 

    Candace Jordan

    from Candid Candace:
    We got our first Covid-19 shot and this is what happened
  • 

    Dennis Byrne

    from The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor:
    CBS 60 Minutes plants a shiv in Florida’s Gov. DeSantis in a wildly biased report
  • 

    LeaGrover

    from Becoming SuperMommy:
    Grieving Love with Intention
• Advertisement:

ChicagoNOW

• About ChicagoNow
• •
• FAQs
• •
• Advertise
• •
• Recent posts RSS
• •
• Privacy policy (Updated)
• •
• Comment policy
• •
• Terms of service
• •
• Chicago Tribune Archives
• •
• Do not sell my personal info

©2021 CTMG – A Chicago Tribune website –
Crafted by the News Apps team

Read More

Cubs Den

• About Staff
• Stats Glossary
• The Den Podcast
• About the Logo
• About Cubs Den
• Top prospects lists

Game Post 4/5

Leave a comment

Tweet

By Sean Holland,
today at 6:29 pm

Watch/Listen

Monday: 6:40 PM CT on Marquee/670AM

Lineups

Brewers

1. Kolten Wong (L) 2B

2. Keston Hiura (R) 1B

3. Christian Yelich (L) LF

4. Avisail Garcia (R) RF

5. Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) CF

6. Luis Urias (R) SS

7. Omar Narvaez (L) C

8. Orlando Arcia (R) 3B

9. Brett Anderson (L) P

Cubs

1. Ian Happ (S) LF

2. Willson Contreras (R) C

3. Kris Bryant (R) RF

4. Anthony Rizzo (L) 1B

5. Javier Baez (R) SS

6. David Bote (R) 2B

7. Jake Marisnick (R) CF

8. Matt Duffy (R) 3B

9. Trevor Williams (R) P

via baseball press

Starting Pitchers

Filed under:
Uncategorized

Tweet

• Advertisement:

• Advertisement:

• 
  

  Welcome to ChicagoNow.

  Meet
  our bloggers,
  
  post comments, or
  
  pitch your blog idea.

  Sign in
  Pitch your idea
  Play games

• Subscribe by Email

Completely spam free, opt out any time.

Facebook

Tweets by @Cubsden

Recent Comments

• 

  Jonathan Friedman

  18 minutes ago

  In reply to 44slug:

  You’re so right. If Kimbrel is on, that could make a huge difference this year.
  Read the story | Reply to this comment
• 

  44slug

  1 hour, 34 minutes ago

  In reply to Jonathan Friedman:

  Top teams win close games. Kimbrel could make a big difference there. Other pen guys as well. The uncertainty of…
  Read the story | Reply to this comment
• 

  Jonathan Friedman

  2 hours, 3 minutes ago

  I’d like to see the Cubs rebuilding but on the fly like the Blackhawks are doing. They are incorporating young,…
  Read the story | Reply to this comment
• 

  cubs09

  5 hours, 18 minutes ago

  In reply to Naujack:

  To my mind, you hit the key point: the Cubs are rebuilding. It is inevitable. It’s just whether it starts…
  Read the story | Reply to this comment
• 

  Naujack

  5 hours, 35 minutes ago

  In reply to stix:

  If the Cubs keep their players this season, & try to compete, or have a big time mid-season selloff. Both…
  Read the story | Reply to this comment

Latest on ChicagoNow

• Game Post 4/5

  from Cubs Den by Sean Holland
  posted today at 6:29 pm

• CBS 60 Minutes plants a shiv in Florida’s Gov. DeSantis in a wildly biased report

  from The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor by Dennis Byrne
  posted today at 3:21 pm

• Washington Post gives Biden four Pinocchios for Georgia voting law blarney

  from The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor by Dennis Byrne
  posted today at 1:07 pm

• Coming off unscheduled bye week, SIU jumps two spots in national FCS poll

  from Prairie State Pigskin by Dan Verdun
  posted today at 12:59 pm

• It’s the game every college basketball fan has been waiting to see: Gonzaga vs Baylor for the title. Who ya got?

  from I’ve Got The Hippy Shakes by Howard Moore
  posted today at 11:57 am

Posts from related blogs

• 

  The Cubs In Haiku

  Most recent post: It’s time to change how pitchers get “W”s

• 

  Waiting4Cubs

  Most recent post: Rizzo’s home run depressed me.

• 

  Cubs Prospect Watch

  Most recent post: 2017 Cubs Convention: Down on the Farm

More from Sports: Cubs

Read these ChicagoNow blogs

• 

  Cubs Den

  Chicago Cubs news and comprehensive blog, featuring old school baseball writing combined with the latest statistical trends
  • Game Post 4/5
• 

  Pets in need of homes

  Pets available for adoption in the Chicago area
  • Migaloo — Petraits Rescue
• 

  Hammervision

  It’s like the couch potato version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
  • Movie Review: Nomadland

Read these ChicagoNow Bloggers

• 

  Candace Jordan

  from Candid Candace:
  We got our first Covid-19 shot and this is what happened
• 

  Dennis Byrne

  from The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor:
  CBS 60 Minutes plants a shiv in Florida’s Gov. DeSantis in a wildly biased report
• 

  LeaGrover

  from Becoming SuperMommy:
  Grieving Love with Intention

Advertisement:

ChicagoNOW

• About ChicagoNow
• •
• FAQs
• •
• Advertise
• •
• Recent posts RSS
• •
• Privacy policy (Updated)
• •
• Comment policy
• •
• Terms of service
• •
• Chicago Tribune Archives
• •
• Do not sell my personal info

©2021 CTMG – A Chicago Tribune website –
Crafted by the News Apps team

Read More

The governor argued the pension fix ensures “certainty and fair treatment” for hardworking firefighters, but Republican lawmakers and fellow Democrat Lightfoot counter that it will sock already strapped taxpayers with another property tax increase.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill aimed at fixing pensions for thousands of Chicago firefighters on Monday, rejecting Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s call to veto the legislation that she called “highly problematic.”

The governor argued the pension fix ensures “certainty and fair treatment” for hardworking firefighters, but Republican lawmakers and fellow Democrat Lightfoot counter that it will sock already strapped taxpayers with another property tax increase.

The new law removes the “birth date restriction” that prohibited roughly 2,200 active and retired firefighters born after Jan. 1, 1966 from receiving a 3% annual cost of living increase.

Instead, those firefighters got half that amount, 1.5% — and it is not compounded.

Pritzker said he’s “always believed that hardworking men and women who have earned their pension shouldn’t pay the price for local or state budget challenges.”

In his statement, the governor said the new law “creates a system that gives all firefighters certainty and fair treatment. And to make sure that the city can meet its obligations, my administration is working to sell the James R. Thompson Center, which will return to the city’s property tax rolls and is projected to generate $45 million annually for the city and its sister agencies.”

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file

Lightfoot issued her own statement, saying she was “disappointed” that Pritzker signed “a bill that will result in a deeper financial burden to the taxpayers of Chicago.”

While first responders deserve to be “appropriately compensated for their work both now and into retirement” signing off on this “unfunded mandate into law is the exact wrong way to accomplish this goal,” the mayor’s statement continued.

“A key missing element is an accompanying revenue stream from Springfield to pay for this $18-30 million annual new financial obligation,” Lightfoot said. “This bill is fiscally irresponsible and validates a Springfield practice of cutting back room deals without full transparency and debate.

“As Mayor, I have a responsibility to ensure a stable financial future for our city and this bill substantially undercuts those efforts. This is a time where we must continue to be hyper-diligent around our present and future financial wellbeing. Springfield must start listening to cities.”

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file

Back in February, the mayor sent Pritzker a letter urging him to veto the bill, arguing that it’s “highly problematic to implement this change at a time when 10 percent of Chicagoans have lost their jobs, many of whom have faced difficulty putting food on the table and are housing insecure.”

“This huge increase in unfunded liabilities would necessarily mean another property tax hike for Chicagoans, which would regrettably add to the overwhelming economic duress that so many or our neighbors are facing,” Lightfoot wrote at the time.

Lightfoot’s $12.8 billion budget for the fiscal year includes a $94 million property tax increase, followed by annual increases tied to the consumer price index.

State Sen. Robert Martwick — a frequent foe of Lightfoot’s — introduced the legislation, which was passed with few hours remaining in the General Assembly’s January lame duck session.

The Northwest Side Democrat told the Sun-Times the bill actually protects taxpayers by forcing city officials to face and deal with unpleasant realities.

Ted Schurter/The State Journal-Register via AP

The city is “sprinting towards the edge of the cliff with no idea how to slow down,” Martwick said. He cautioned that the “best thing for taxpayers is — always has been, and always will be — confronting your problems as they exist and not kicking the can down the road.”

“What this bill does is it makes the city confront necessary, albeit really difficult, decisions about what they need to do with their finances, so that they can live up to the commitment to fund their pensions properly,” Martwick said.

“The firefighter fund sits at 17% funded, functionally almost insolvent,” he said. “If you’re looking to protect taxpayers, the best thing that you can do for them is stop the practices that put you in this big fiscal hole in the first place. In other words, you know you’re going to be on the hook for these benefits, you might as well put the money in timely.”

But Republicans agreed with Lightfoot.

“Chicago taxpayers are on the hook for an additional $850 million thanks to Governor Pritzker signing HB2451 into law today,” House Deputy Minority Leader Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, said in a statement. “As if the $44 billion in pension debt they already owe wasn’t enough, today’s action by Governor Pritzker makes a property tax increase inevitable. Further, the Governor continues his bad habit of spending hypothetical revenue by suggesting that the sale of the James R. Thompson Center will be the magic cure for yet another financial problem.”

Read More

North Carolina has reached an agreement with assistant coach Hubert Davis to take over the storied men’s basketball program, a person with knowledge of the situation said Monday.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the school hasn’t commented publicly about the search.

The 50-year-old Davis played for the Tar Heels under Dean Smith before a long NBA career, and he had spent the past nine seasons working under Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams. Williams retired last week after 18 seasons at his alma mater in a career that also included 15 years at Kansas and 903 overall victories, while all three of his NCAA championships came with the Tar Heels.

The school has long had a history of turning to people with UNC ties to lead its program, which owns six NCAA championships and ranks among college basketball’s all-time wins leaders. It has worked before, with longtime assistant Bill Guthridge taking over after Smith’s 1997 retirement and leading the Tar Heels to two Final Fours, as well as Williams’ return from Kansas in 2003.

But it didn’t work during the three-year tumultuous tenure of Matt Doherty — including an 8-20 season in 2002 — after Williams turned down the job following Guthridge’s retirement in 2000.

The Tar Heels are staying in the “Carolina family” again, this time by turning to a trusted former player who has never been a college head coach.

Davis had been on Williams’ staff since 2012 as a bench coach, recruiter and scout, including a run to the 2016 NCAA title game and then the championship a year later. He had also served as head coach of the UNC junior varsity program and oversaw the program’s charitable endeavors.

Davis, the nephew of former UNC player and NBA All-Star Walter Davis, played for Smith from 1988-92 and still holds the program record for career 3-point percentage (.435). He went onto become a first-round NBA draft pick by the New York Knicks and spent a dozen seasons in the league.

After his playing career, Davis spent seven years with ESPN as a college basketball analyst until Williams asked Davis to join his staff in 2012 — which Davis said at the time was “a total surprise.”

Now it’s up to Davis to keep the Tar Heels among the nation’s elite programs.

Read More

A reputed gang member has been charged with gunning down a 37-year-old woman as she made her way home from church with her husband on the Northwest Side.

Cook County prosecutors Monday said it was still unclear why Maria Reveron was shot to death on March 24 but they theorized that it was a case of mistaken identity.

Marco Pulido, 29, had left a party in his friend’s BMW X5 to pick up more alcohol. While on his liquor run, Pulido allegedly started tailgating the Reverons white four-door sedan in the 2600 block of North Long Avenue.

From the BMW, Pulido fired one round into the window of the vehicle Reveron’s husband was driving “for reasons, at this point, that are unknown,” Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said.

The shooting caused the couple’s car to crash.

Reveron, who suffered a gunshot wound to the back of her head, was taken to the hospital and died two days later, Murphy said.

Less than an hour after the shooting, Pulido returned to the party less without alcohol. Witnesses noted that Pulido “appeared nervous and his hands were shaking,” Murphy said.

While surveillance video showed the black BMW following the white sedan and showed the BMW fleeing the area, it didn’t capture the shooting, Murphy said.

It would have been impossible for someone else to get out of the BMW during the brief minute the car was in a blind spot, Murphy contended.

Assistant public defender Mark Douglas argued that “if there are somebody getting in or out of that car, it wouldn’t … take a long time.”

Right after the shooting, Pulido was also caught on surveillance video at a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru, Murphy said.

Pulido, a self-admitted Maniac Latin Disciple, identified himself in a still image at the business, but he denied his involvement in the shooting, Murphy said. The owner of the BMW — which has a broken taillight, damaged roof rack and sticker in the windshield — also identified Pulido in the still photo, Murphy said.

Pulido was taken into custody Saturday.

Detectives saw that messages from March 24 on Pulido’s cellphone were deleted, Murphy said.

Investigators are still awaiting information on the geographical location of Pulido’s phone the night of the shooting, although they did find a video of him holding a 9mm handgun that day at 10:44 p.m., Murphy said. A 9mm shell casing was recovered from the scene of the shooting, Murphy said.

Pulido has two prior felony convictions, including a 2010 burglary. He also had a warrant for his arrest for a domestic battery, according to court testimony.

Pulido lives with his mother, uncle and cousin and cares for his three sons — all under 8, Douglas said. He also works full-time at a Northwest Side barbershop and is working to get his GED, the assistant public defender added.

Pulido was ordered held without bail for Reveron’s murder.

He is expected back in court on April 23.

Read More