Chicago sees ‘quantum leap’ in COVID-19 cases — widening Lightfoot-Pritzker split over vaccine plans
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Illinois’ COVID-19 uptick took another jump Wednesday as Chicago’s “quantum leap” in cases raised more concerns of a potential third surge of the virus, officials said.
Another 2,592 residents across the state were diagnosed with the virus among 77,727 tests, which lowered Illinois’ average positivity rate to 3.3%, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
But that key metric has shot up 57% overall in under three weeks, while COVID-19 hospitalizations have jumped 24% over the same time frame. More than 1,400 beds were occupied by coronavirus patients Tuesday night, the most the state’s hospitals have treated since Feb. 24.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot agree the uptick has halted any talk of further reopening — but they’re still far apart on when all adults should be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine dose.
The governor voiced concern Wednesday over the city’s timetable for that move, saying “I think that they will want to do that sooner than they are currently planning to.”
9:24 a.m. James Taylor kicking off rescheduled 2021 tour at the United Center
Live music may be returning to the United Center this summer.
James Taylor on Wednesday announced his postponed world tour with special guest Jackson Browne will kick off at the Chicago venue on July 29.
Tickets purchased for the original dates will be honored for the trek that wraps up Nov. 1 in San Diego. (The tour was originally slated for a stop June 9 the United Center; refunds are available at point of purchase for those unable to make the new date.)
Taylor postponed the tour last April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down all live music/theater venues across the country. Browne contracted coronavirus last March, revealing at the time he suffered only minor symptoms and recuperated while quarantining at home.
“(Jackson and I/James and I) want to thank all those who have graciously held onto their tickets; we appreciate your continued patience as we navigate these unchartered waters. We didn’t want to have to cancel this tour that we’ve been waiting so long to perform together, so we’ve been working to get these dates rescheduled to a time period when the U.S. is reopened and safe to gather for a concert,” the two legendary singer-songwriters said in a joint statement.”
Mulit-dimensional big man with a terrific feel for the game. Averaged 25.5 points, 11.5 rebounds and three assists. Set a school record with 42 points against Tinley Park and with 21 rebounds against Richards. Is on pace to break school’s all-time scoring record despite COVID-19 shortened season.
Isaiah Barnes, SimeonProvided
Isaiah Barnes, Simeon, 6-7, G, Sr.
Michigan recruit. All-City selection. Took his game to a new level after transferring from Oak Park, developing into a consistent three-point threat. Averaged 18 points, eight rebounds and three assists. One of the area’s best athletes capable of taking over games for long stretches. Helped Wolverines to 9-1 record and first-place finish in Red-South/Central.
Timaris Brown, St. PatrickProvided
Timaris Brown, St. Patrick, 6-5, F, Jr.
All-City selection. Averaged 16.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.3 steals despite deferring to senior teammates. Impressive shooting long range and getting to the basket. Helped lead Shamrocks to 8-3 season and invitation to the Chipotle Clash of Champions.
AJ Casey, Tinley ParkProvided
AJ Casey, Young, 6-8, F, Jr.
All-City and two-time All-Area selection. Didn’t miss a beat after transferring back to the Public League from Tinley Park. One of the top 30 players in the national Class of 2021 and has offers from a dozen major college programs including Ohio State, Kansas, Michigan, Gonzaga and Illinois.
Max Christie, Rolling MeadowsProvided
Max Christie, Rolling Meadows, 6-7, G, Sr.
Michigan State recruit. McDonald’s All-American and Sun-Times Player of the Year. Three-time All-Area selection. Averaged 24 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks. All-time leading scorer in school and Mid-Suburban League history with more than 2,000 points. Led Mustangs to MSL title and 15-0 season.
Kam Craft, Buffalo GroveProvided
Kam Craft, Buffalo Grove, 6-5, G, Jr.
Two-time All-Area selection. Averaged 27.1 points, a school record. Also led the team in rebounds (7.4) and steals (2.9). Shot 53% from the field and 41% from three. Has scored 1,694 points in his career. Currently has offers from Maryland, Nebraska, Xavier, DePaul and more.
Conor Enright, MundeleinProvided/Michael Moenning
Conor Enright, Mundelein, 6-2, G, Sr.
Drake recruit. Dynamic, always active guard that partnered with SIU recruit Scottie Ebube to lead Mustangs to 43-6 record the last two seasons. Averaged 14.5 points, six rebounds, four assists and shot 46% from three. Led team to North Suburban Conference title and a spot in the Chipotle Clash of Champions.
Brandon Hall, ThorntonProvided
Brandon Hall, Thornton, 6-4, G, Sr.
East Tennessee State recruit. Strong and athletic force that helped lead the Wildcats to two extremely successful seasons, including a run to the sectional finals last season cut short by COVID-19. Excellent three-point shooter and a rebounding force despite playing mostly on the perimeter. Averaged 24 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Chaz Harvey, BrooksProvided
Chaz Harvey, Brooks, 6-2, G, Sr.
Uncommitted. All-City selection. Smart, smooth guard broke out of the shadows of the White Division to lead the Eagles to a fourth-place finish in the powerful Red-South/Central. Averaged 20 points, 6.8 rebounds and two steals. Scored 25 against Simeon, 29 against Corliss and 27 against Curie.
Bryce Hopkins, FenwickProvided
Bryce Hopkins, Fenwick, 6-6, G, Sr.
Kentucky recruit. Two-time All-Area selection. Lawless Award winner in Catholic League. Averaged 24.4 points, 12.5 rebounds, three assists, 1.8 steals, 1.5 blocks and shot 59%. Made game-winning plays in the final minute against DePaul Prep, Loyola, St. Ignatius and Leo.
Braden Huff, Glenbard WestProvided
Braden Huff, Glenbard West, 6-10, F, Jr.
Emerged as one of the state’s most dominant all-around players. Put up 17.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 blocks while averaging just 22 minutes a game. Led Hilltoppers to 16-1 season and West Suburban Silver co-championship.
TY Johnson, DePaul PrepProvided
TY Johnson, DePaul Prep, 6-2, G, Sr.
Loyola recruit. Two-time All-Area selection. All-City selection. Led Rams to Chipotle Clash of Champions tournament title. Averaged 20.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.9 steals and shot 51%. The undisputed leader and top player on the area’s top-ranked team.
Louis Lesmond, Notre DameProvided
Louis Lesmond, Notre Dame, 6-5, F, Sr.
Harvard recruit. East Suburban Catholic Player of the Year. Led Dons to 15-3 season. Averaged 17.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and two assists. Was a dominant force on defense as well, regularly shutting down the opposition’s best guard or wing player.
Nick Martinelli, Glenbrook SouthProvided
Nick Martinelli, Glenbrook South, 6-7, F, Jr.
Stepped into his older brother Dom’s shoes as an all-around star and All-Area selection. Led Titans to 16-2 season. Averaged 21.8 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists while shooting an incredible 67.5% from the field and 57.7% from three.
Blake Peters, EvanstonProvided
Blake Peters, Evanston, 6-1, G, Sr.
Princeton recruit. Leading scorer in school history with 1,585 points. Key factor in the Wildkits’ incredible run over the past four seasons. Averaged 17.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists. Made national headlines with his 3/4 court buzzer-beater as a freshman, one of several game-winners in his career.
Ethan Roberts, HerseyProvided
Ethan Roberts, Hersey, 6-5, G, Sr.
Uncommitted. Emerged as a star player in the Mid-Suburban League after one season of adjusting to the league after transferring from Memphis. Averaged 20.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists. Led Huskies to 13-3 season.
Julius Rollins, HillcrestProvided
Julius Rollins, Hillcrest, 6-6, F, Sr.
Recently decommitted from Kent State. Averaged 17.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.6 steals in limited minutes on a squad loaded with potential Division I players. Led Hawks to 13-0 season and South Suburban Blue title.
Jaden Schutt, Yorkville ChristianProvided
Jaden Schutt, Yorkville Christian, 6-4, G, Jr.
Widely regarded as one of the state’s best shooters, Schutt improved in all facets this season including playmaking and attacking the rim. Averaged 26.2 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 3.6 steals. Shot 55% from the field and 40% from three.
Ben Schwieger, Waubonsie ValleyProvided
Ben Schwieger, Waubonsie Valley, 6-5, G, Sr.
Loyola recruit. One of the state’s most efficient players, averaging 17 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks while shooting 67.1% from the field and 48.6% from three with a 2-1 assist to turnover ratio.
JJ Taylor, KenwoodProvided
JJ Taylor, Kenwood, 6-8, G, So.
The state’s top-ranked sophomore became a legitimate star this season, averaging 28.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.5 blocks. Teamed with fellow sophomores Darrin Ames and Davius Loury to lead a very young team with a first-year head coach to 12-2 overall record and third place in the rugged Red-South Central.
In 2017, state Rep. Will Guzzardi introduced a bill to overturn the state’s ban on rent control. It didn’t get out of committee.
In 2019, Guzzardi introduced the bill again. Same result.
This year, though, the bill passed the House’s new Housing Committee, which Guzzardi chairs, and is headed to the floor for a vote by the full body.
Illinois has prohibited municipalities from adopting rent control since 1997, when Republican Gov. Jim Edgar signed the Rent Control Preemption Act, a measure promoted by the free market American Legislative Exchange Council. The bill addressed a non-existent issue, since rent control has never been imposed anywhere in the state.
The economic calamity that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, though, seems to have created an acceptance of government intervention in the housing market. Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued an eviction moratorium which is currently set to expire April 3. The state used federal coronavirus relief funds to launch emergency rental and mortgage assistance programs, which have paid out $324 million to 56,000 households. In this environment, rent control may be another tool to prevent economically stressed Illinoisans from losing their homes.
“We need to have a few more tools in our toolbox, especially coming out of this pandemic, to stabilize the housing market,” said Roderick Wilson, executive director of the Lugenia Burns Hope Center in Bronzeville and legislative coordinator of the Lift the Ban Coalition, which has been lobbying for Guzzardi’s bill. “Once that moratorium is ended, people still owe what they owe. With rent control, it doesn’t cost [the state] a dime.”
Guzzardi also believes that COVID has contributed to the advancement of his bill. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the pandemic has put 30 to 40 million Americans at risk of eviction.
“The pandemic has brought to the foreground a housing crisis that has been lingering in the shadows,” he said. “You saw how little it took, because of fragile economic circumstances, limited savings, it didn’t take long for this to become a crisis. It really helps us make the case that our hands have been tied.”
Guzzardi’s bill, HB116, is only seven words long: “The Rent Control Preemption Act is repealed.” Its passage alone would change nothing about the housing market. It would simply allow cities to pass rent control ordinances. As a state official, Guzzardi has no opinion on what those should look like. (“That’s kind of none of my business.”) Wilson, though, is a community organizer who was priced out of Bronzeville, and now lives on the West Side. He thinks rent control in Chicago could look like Oregon, which in 2019 passed a statewide rent control law limiting rent increases to no more than 7 percent annually, plus the rate of inflation. (Oregon’s law applies only to multi-unit buildings more than 15 years old, which would cover most Chicago renters.)
The strongest opposition to the bill comes from Illinois REALTORS, a real-estate industry group. “Government price controls on rentals have been empirically proven to reduce the number and quality of affordable rental units in the areas they are imposed. In areas where there are existing housing shortages, rent control imposed by local governments has dramatically worsened the shortages. Worse yet, policies like government-imposed pricing in housing has been proven to increase segregation and continue patterns of disinvestment along racial lines,” REALTORS said in a statement. “As of February 2021, available housing inventory for sale in Illinois was down over 49% year-over-year. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois was over 100,000 units short of enough affordable housing units that were needed and fell over 60% behind the number of necessary affordable rental units. H.B. 116 would allow proponents to shift millions of dollars of housing costs onto neighboring properties.”
Guzzardi and Wilson both believe rent control can stabilize neighborhoods, and perhaps prevent some of the population loss that has made Illinois the nation’s second-fastest shrinking state. Guzzardi’s Northwest Side district, which includes Logan Square, Hermosa, Avondale, and Old Irving Park, has seen “a huge displacement of Latinx families” as a result of rising rents and property values.
“That’s why I’ve been working on this bill in the first place,” he said. “I know a lot of the tenants who tried to organize at this building around the corner from me where the developer bought the building and they slapped a new coat of paint on there and they said, ‘Your rent just went up by 50 percent, and you’ve got until the end of the month to figure it out.’”
During his 2018 campaign, Gov. J.B. Pritzker supported repealing the rent control ban. However, Pritzker has not taken a position on HB116, and his spokeswoman, Jordan Abudayyeh, did not respond to a question about whether he would sign it.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot may be a bigger obstacle. In the 2019 mayoral campaign, rent control was one of the few significant policy differences between Lightfoot and her runoff opponent, Toni Preckwinkle. Lightfoot was opposed to rent control, preferring to build affordable housing instead; Preckwinkle thought it would be a “solution to the problem of Chicago’s rising rents that are pushing families out of their homes and communities.”
That was two years ago, though, before the pandemic that may have forever changed our views of government’s role in the housing market.
It’s been a long spring, coming after a long winter, and a long fall (with just a short stint of fall baseball for the Cubs), and a long summer…
It’s been a forever 13 months. For everyone. As Cubs fans, we’ve had little to cheer about, despite the fact our team managed to win the Central Division in 2020. It was an ugly win, with many of the team’s star players failing to put up their usual numbers. The Cubs were a flawed team, despite their victories, and most sensed the Cubs stint in the playoffs would be short lived. Any hope for an overhauled roster during the offseason quickly dissipated when the Cubs traded away their one star player who burned brightest last season.
I can understand if some fans feel the 2021 season will just be more of the same. The offense remains mostly intact, without the “fix” we’ve been promised the last couple of offseasons. The pitching staff is aging, and is without the staff ace and closer from last year. No prospects managed to force their way on to the Opening Day roster, save Adbert Alzolay, who has been around long enough that a bit of the unknown element has been eliminated from his game.
It would be easy to look at a roster with half of the players set to become unrestricted free agents next winter, and no players under the age of 26, and feel deflated.
Hope can be difficult to muster, even during the time of the year when it springs eternal. But at least for today, I urge all to stay positive, to find hope where you can and grasp it.
Remember, sports are supposed to be fun. This is entertainment. And today is a time to celebrate that.
I know from my end of things I am super excited to get Minor League Baseball back, even if it is in an altered form. Not only do the Cubs have an exciting batch of young players set to make their organizational debuts this year, but the Cubs former top boss has also set up some experiments for new rules throughout organized ball with the hope of kindling more excitement within the game.
I’m also curious how the roster evolves over the course of the season. Changes are coming. The thought of losing some great players makes me sad, but it is also energizing. For whatever reason, the mix hasn’t worked as well since 2016, and time is almost up for this core. Today marks both a beginning and an end for this group of Cubs players. Service time demands it, and age is an opponent no one has managed to conquer yet.
If you can, I would urge you to find as much hope and pleasure from the start of this new season as you can. And hold onto it as long as possible. You deserve it. We all do.
Bassist and vocalist Margaret McCarthy began releasing music as Moontype while enrolled in Oberlin’s music conservatory. She began with a 2017 self-released EP called Fan Music, in which drifty singing, plucking, and strumming are barely audible through what sounds like the hum of a box fan.…Read More
Two women were killed and a man was seriously injured in a house fire April 1, 2021, in the 5200 block of West 64th Place. | Adobe Stock Photo
Two women, 60 and 41, were taken to the hospital in serious condition, but later died.
Two women died and a man was seriously injured in a house fire early Thursday in Clearing on the Southwest Side.
Authorities responded to a house fire about 2:10 a.m. in the 5200 block of West 64th Place, Chicago police said.
A man and woman from the residence, 57 and 60, were taken to Holy Cross Hospital in serious condition, and the woman was later pronounced dead, police said. A third woman, 41, was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where she was pronounced dead.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office has not yet released the details of the fatalities.
An investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
Back in the day when you could play stickball in the street without having your mother cited by Social Services for child neglect, a bleacher seat at Wrigley Field sold for 50-cents. In 1952, the cost was up to 60-cents, which caused considerable complaint.
Today a season ticket in the bleachers will gut-punch you for a fast $3,464, or $42.75 a game for eighty-one home games.
Inflation can’t be the reason; four bits and a dime when Phil Cavarretta was in the dugout converts to about $6.00 in today’s currency.
It has more to do with these astounding figures. Back in the fifties the nondescript CEO sitting next to you cheering for the Cubs earned about 15 times more than the pay envelope your dad brought home. Today, that coifed chief exec earns a minimum of $14.5 million and about 320 times more than the rank-and-file worker who took a vacation day to see the game.
Our country has devolved into two societies. The days of going to the ballpark and sitting by chance next to a fellow fan who happened to be the president of the bank, are long gone. Average Joes rubbing shoulders at the old ball game is a Norman Rockwell poster. The Chairman is at the game alright, in the corporate box. You’re the dude in the top row of the upper deck next to the scoreboard.
The disparity is obscene. A flippant fashion page in this month’s Vanity Fair offered up a pair of Dior slippers for a mere $6,400, or about 750 hours behind the grill at McDonald’s. What’s in-between is a shrinking middle class forced into a combative adversarial corner to fight for what’s left of the myth of democracy.
To the right are the obscenely rich and the seemingly oblivious descendants of Jefferson Davis and Scarlet O’Hara. To the left are Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, blacks and browns, unions and people who still buy hard covered books. Two irreconcilable sides separated by an ideological moat.
There has been pigment added to the group photos of government officials and corporate boards, but the optics overall are cringeworthy. Mostly white men in their fifties and sixties enabled by centuries of male entitlement, sneering at the audacity of any challenge to their economic empires and privileged role as arbiters of morality. And equally horrifying, their cadres of craven, sycophant Bobbleheads nodding in approval as they wait in line for their turn to preside.
Where do these princes of privilege incubate? Read Caitlin Flanagan’s article in the April issue of The Atlantic and learn how their path to the throne is clearly marked, and make no mistake about it, they are the ruling class.
Compare your public high school to Phillips Exeter Academy, endowment $1.15 billion. Or Groton with bequests equal to $100,000 per student. Or Deerfield Academy, on a 330 acre campus comprised of athletic fields, tennis courts, a fitness center, and a 5,900-square-foot boathouse along the Connecticut River.
These are three of the elite prep schools that feed into the elite colleges. It comes as no surprise they overshadow their classmates when they get there. Rhodes Scholars, the prestigious Sachs Scholarships… just under fifty percent of the winners of academic awards were given to students attending private schools, leading to a grotesquely outsize role in determining who gets to claim a coveted spot in the winners’ circle in the race to the top.
The yearly tuition at Hamilton College where David Solomon, Chairman of Goldman Sachs graduated, is $72,390. Jeff Bezos graduated from Princeton University. Marc Zuckerberg and Bill Gates attended Harvard. You get the picture. Today the country is governed by a political/economic system that serves the need/greed of the one percent, the people who wield power and amass wealth. It’s undeniable; the wealthy and the so-called working class are living in different worlds.
Which brings us back to Wrigley, a microcosm of the America I’ve described, the air-conditioned corporate boxes separated from the sun-scorched bleachers.
The components are more sophisticated, but we are returning to the society of Medieval Europe, when serfs eked out a subsistence by cultivating a plot of land that was owned by a lord.
If there is hope for Americans to move forward together as a country, somewhere in the bog there is a leader who can articulate a cause, more like a crusade, that can rally the populace to join in a shared identity and a greater common good.
It sure as hell wasn’t Trump. He commandeered a coat of arms that British aristocracy had granted, and quickly replaced “Integritas,” the Latin word for integrity, with “Trump.”
Maybe it will be Joe Biden, the average Joe from Scranton, Pee-A, who will emerge as the man of the people.
And maybe Kyle Hendricks will pitch a no-hitter against the Pirates.
In the course of a long business career I held many titles familiar to the corporate world. But as I quickly learned the lofty nameplates no longer apply when your career comes to a close and you move from the corner office to a corner of the den. The challenge was to stay vital and active rather than idling on the sidelines. I had to create a new foundation upon which to build life’s purpose and joy.
I stopped adding up my stock portfolio as a measure of my net worth and developed a healthy self esteem independent of applause from others.
I am the co-author of The In-Sourcing Handbook: Where and How to Find the Happiness You Deserve, a practical guide and instruction manual offering hands-on exercises to help guide readers to experience the transformative shift from simply tolerating life to celebrating life. I also am the author of 73, a popular collection of short stories about America’s growing senior population running the gamut of emotions as they struggle to resist becoming irrelevant in a youth-oriented society.
The Chicago Bulls lost their fifth-straight game to the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night, 121-116 without three important players.
There was no Zach LaVine, Coby White, nor Garrett Temple due to injury and the Bulls only lost by five points to the second-best team in the Western Conference. This is the first step in confidence-boosting the new squad.
The starting lineup for tonight included Tomas Satoransky, Patrick Williams, Thaddeus Young, Lauri Markkanen, and Nikola Vucevic. The second rotation started with Denzel Valentine, Daniel Theis, Troy Brown Jr., and Ryan Arcidiacono. No sighting of Al-Farouq Aminu (for the second straight game) nor Javonte Green.
Team Offense. The Bulls shot below average from the field as a team, making 43 of their 99 field goal attempts, which averages 43.4 percent. They shot 33 percent from three, cashing in 11 of their 33 attempts. They moved the ball well, racking up 27 team assists.
Dominating the Paint. The Bulls really dominated the paint, scoring 56 points in the paint against the Suns’ 44 points. This aggression contributed to an above-average night in free throw attempts with 21 attempts from the charity stripe. The Bulls made 19 of those attempts for an impressive 90.5 percent. Markkanen deserves a shoutout for playing aggressively and finishing through contact.
Williams stepped up to play shooting guard for LaVine tonight while Donovan made the frontcourt bigger with Vucevic, Markkanen, and Young. Williams scored 16 points on 7/11 shooting from the field, adding three rebounds and one assist to his repertoire. He also put a monster block on Deandre Ayton. His night ultimately proved he is a positionless player that can help on both ends of the floor at any position.
Valentine attributed greatly to keeping the Bulls in the game, as they trailed the Suns for most of it. He scored 19 points off the bench, making 8/18 shots from the field and 3/9 from behind the arc. Valentine added six rebounds and four assists to his box score tonight too. The confidence he took with his shot was encouraging and a reason why he closed the game with the starting lineup. He could see a future with the Bulls with games like these.
Offensive rebounds. A large reason the Bulls stayed in contention was their work on the offensive glass. The Bulls grabbed 18 offensive rebounds against the Suns. The starting lineup accumulated for 14 of them. Young led the way with six on the night, giving the Bulls excess opportunities and creating the gap in shot attempts from the Bulls’ 99 to the Suns’ 81 attempts.
Team Defense. The defense looked miserable again, allowing the Suns to shoot open shots and apply hardly any pressure on them. The Suns were shooting > 60 percent from the field for plenty of the night but ended the game at 56.8 percent shooting. They cashed in 44 percent of their three-point attempts. A positive for the Bulls was the fact that the Suns committed 10 turnovers, the same amount as the Bulls.
The Suns’ pick-and-roll offense between either Chris Paul and Dario Saric or Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton looked too easy. The drop coverage in pick-and-roll situations for the Bulls has to end! They do not have the athletic bigs to do that and the only Bulls’ big man who has shown flashes of success in this method has been Theis.
Transition defense was a huge problem for the Bulls. Booker constantly wore the Bulls down by running the floor and playing unpredictably on fast breaks. The Suns recorded 14 fast-break points, which doesn’t seem like a lot but they kept the Bulls in check while getting back on defense.
Booker was too much for the Bulls to contain. He scored a season-high 45 points on the night, shooting a spectacular 17/24 from the field. He added four rebounds and four assists. Booker was able to get nearly any matchup he wanted in his offense which the Bulls need to make adjustments on going forward.
Daniel Theis is becoming a bigger piece of the defensive pie already and he needs to see more tick. He saw just 20 minutes of action tonight, in contrast to Young (28 minutes), Markkanen (34 minutes), and Vucevic (34 minutes). Ideally in the future, Theis gets paired up with Markkanen on the bench to make for a healthy balance of offensive and defensive power in the frontcourt.
The Bulls’ recurring theme of fouling three-point shooters continues. They committed two fouls on three-point shooters tonight, Theis being the first of the two to do so. Contesting is important but over-contesting and fouling are detrimental.
The Bulls should bring a zone defense into the mix of their defensive scheme. The man-to-man might need a break because the Bulls are a bigger lineup now with weaker defensive players. Donovan has flashed his 2-3 zone a few times this season, and maybe it’s time to try it again. After seeing Paul drop 14 assists helping the Phoenix Suns slice up the Bulls’ interior defense, it could be time for a change.
This loss should be a confidence booster for the Bulls. They just competed with the second-best team in the Western Conference without their best player. They also didn’t play extremely great offense (shooting just 44 percent from the field) and their defense was unwatchable. They have adjustments to make but when they fix their defensive game and continue to hit shots they will succeed.
BONUS: If LaVine has to sit out now to get healthy, he should do so. Forcing himself to play through an ankle injury could hurt his chances of playing further than the regular season. Let him rest now so the Bulls can get him back fully healthy.
The Bulls trek forward with the hope they will have the few players returning from injury to dig them out of this hole. The Bulls travel to Utah to play the Jazz on Friday at 8 p.m.
President Joe Biden told ESPN on Wednesday it was a mistake for the Texas Rangers to allow full capacity at their ballpark for their first game.
Speaking on the eve of Opening Day, Biden also said he supports discussions between Major League Baseball and the players’ union on moving the All-Star Game from Atlanta over concern about legislation adopted in Georgia restricting voting rights.
Fans are set to return to major league stadiums on Thursday after they were kept out during the regular season last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Capacity will be limited to about 12% in Boston and Washington. Twelve teams are at 20%, Colorado at about 43% and Houston at 50%.
The only team higher is Texas, at 100%. The Rangers’ Globe Life Field can seat 40,300 people.
“Well, that’s a decision they made. I think it’s a mistake,” Biden told ESPN. “They should listen to Dr. (Anthony) Fauci, the scientists and the experts. But I think it’s not responsible.”
Major League Baseball is encouraging everyone involved with the sport to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible. A three-page memorandum from MLB and the players’ association sent to players and staff on Monday says some restrictions will be eliminated when 85% of major league players and primary field staff are vaccinated against the coronavirus.
But Major League Baseball isn’t requiring the vaccine for players or staff. Asked how he would advise players who might feel hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccine, Biden said: “I would say I’m President of the United States and I got vaccinated. I don’t have an unimportant job. Would I take the vaccine if I thought it was going to hurt me? We have done incredible research on the vaccines and they have shown that they work. We have to get to the point where enough people have taken the vaccine so we diminish the possibility for it to spread.”
The Nationals announced Wednesday that they had a player test positive for COVID-19, and four teammates and a staff member had been quarantined after contact tracing. They are scheduled to host the Mets on Thursday night.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and union head Tony Clark also are discussing the possibility of moving the All-Star Game because of the legislation adopted in Georgia restricting voting rights. Manfred said Wednesday he is talking to “various constituencies within the game” about the issue.
Georgia’s new law adds a photo ID requirement for voting absentee by mail, cuts the amount of time people have to request an absentee ballot and limits where drop boxes can be placed and when they can be accessed. It also bans people from handing out food or water to voters waiting in line and allows the Republican-controlled State Election Board to remove and replace county election officials while curtailing the power of the secretary of state as Georgia’s chief elections officer.
Clark has said he “would look forward” to discussions around moving the Midsummer Classic out of Truist Park, and Biden said he would “strongly support” such a decision.
“People look to them,” Biden said, referring to professional athletes. “They’re leaders. Look at what happened with the NBA, as well. Look what’s happened across the board. The very people who were victimized the most are the people who are the leaders in these various sports, and it’s just not right. This is Jim Crow on steroids what they’re doing in Georgia and 40 other states.”
The coho rushed the south side of Montrose Harbor so fast I lost feel of it Sunday as I hand pulled line. But Jason Le and crew assured me it was still on and I landed my first fish on a powerline.
I’ve wanted to fish with Le for a long time, partly for his fishing skills, but mainly for his eye in combining fishing and art in custom-painted lures, Instagram, YouTube and self-designed gaiters.
“Fishing is what we do every week on our days off,” said Le, who manages a small business and is off Tuesdays and Sundays. “Even if you go out and don’t catch fish, you still have fun.”
Sunday the group included Le’s friend Donnie Nguyen, uncle Mai Nguyen and brother Ricky Le.
I met Le at 5:30 a.m. at Park Bait, where he bought night crawlers and large fatheads. Because of the wind, we stayed at Montrose Harbor instead of going to one of his isolated powerline spots.
“I look at the wind before I go,” he said.
Sunday, northerly winds did what he predicted, curling around to a calmer area on the harbor’s south side.
“We’ll catch fish today, as long as the wind doesn’t go crazy,” he said.
He waited until light came around 6:19 a.m., so he could point his pipe in the right direction. Le uses 12 Owner 5315 No. 4 or 2 hooks, spaced at least six feet apart. Up to 50 hooks are allowed when powerlining. He thinks 12 is enough.
Jason “Special” Le fires his weight Sunday to powerline for coho at Montrose Harbor. Dale Bowman
“Twelve hooks is faster and you can only catch five [salmon daily],” he said. “And it only takes me 10 minutes to get set up.”
Le alternated between crawlers and fatheads on his line. On Sunday, all our coho came on fatheads. His brother used crawlers. Donnie Nguyen alternated squid and minnows.
Le had good reason for powerlining.
“It is the only way we can catch them, they are way out,” he said.
I didn’t powerline before because I thought it was ethically the same as longlining in the ocean. Le helped me rethink that.
Powerliners evolved in what they use to propel the weight. In days of yore, it was whirling a railroad spike around, then letting it fly. Next came using a plumber’s helper. Now a fire extinguisher blasts the weight out (75 yards or more).
Four minutes after Le blasted out his weight, the closest group–powerliners were spaced the length of the harbor’s south side–landed a coho.
Le’s uncle caught our group’s first at 6:38.
Jason Le documents the first coho our group caught Sunday while powerlining at Montrose Harbor to be used in one of his YouTube videos Sunday.Dale Bowman
At 6:50, we had our first hit. Le had me bring it in. The hard part was walking out the hooks when pulling the line in, so as not to end up with a mess. Even with the coho charging, the Owner hooks did their job and held.
At 8 a.m. I caught my second coho, then came a lull and I learned Le came to fishing naturally. His father fished and had a boat when living on an island off Vietnam.
“I think that is where I get it from,” said Le, who left Vietnam at 7.
He earned the nickname Jason Special when a friend used one of Le’s custom-painted lures in Wisconsin for fall Chinook and “Boom” it worked.
After that, it became the “Jason Special” lure.
“Everyone who uses the lure catches fish,” Le said. “They love it.”
Le became Jason Special One on Instagram. His YouTube channel is Jason Special. His gaiters are designed around Jason Special.
At 9:30, Le’s uncle and I doubled up with coho. At 9:50, I caught my fourth. Le thought I would get a limit. But I ran out of energy by 11.
It was time.
On Monday, I baked coho whole with olive oil, soy sauce, lemon and garlic, then served them with lemon wedges and dill-yogurt sauce, delicious and heart healthy.
Coho baked whole with lemon, olive oil, soy sauce and garlic, then presented with lemon wedges and a dill-yogurt sauce.Dale Bowman
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