What’s New

Just how broke is Chicago, you ask? Well, here is your answer. Chicago traffic cameras will now be ticketing drivers $35 for driving 6-10 miles per hour over the posted limit. If you’re caught going 11+ miles per hour over the limit, you can expect a $100 fine to arrive in your mailbox. This is just another example of the Mayor’s office ‘nickel and diming’ its citizens.

As if 2020 hasn’t hurt Chicagoans enough financially, now we can’t even drive over the horrifically paved roads the city refuses to repair six miles per hour faster than before. Maybe Mayor Lightfoot is saving us from ourselves because starting at the beginning of this week, go ahead and add $35 onto the $2000 of undercarriage damage driving down Ashland already gets you.

The Mayor’s office claims this is in response to the increased number of car accidents in Chicago the past year. Per the Chicago Department of Transportation, traffic fatalities were up 35 percent through the end of 2020 with 120 such fatalities. There were 89 reported during the same time period in 2019. However, this also comes less than a year after the state announced “…that they [the state of Illinois] will stop collecting fines against drivers who are caught on camera violating red lights…adding that the system is both unfair to low-income Illinoisans…”

So, why is this any different? And why do we feel the need to mask it in statistics about fatalities when this is clearly a move to grab revenue the city has been struggling to get otherwise. The city is broke as a joke, we get that. Hell, we’re using COVID relief money to pay off the city police force in a time where half the city doesn’t trust the police to begin with. It’s the way of Chicago, time and time again, where if money comes knocking we’ll answer the door with open arms—even if that means shutting the door on a few of its citizens in the process.

For more information on where you can find Chicago traffic cameras near you, use this trusty map put together by our friends at Block Club Chicago.

Featured Image Credit by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay 

The post Chicago Traffic Cameras to Issue Tickets For Drivers For Going 6+ MPH Over the Limit appeared first on UrbanMatter.

Read More

Read More

The Dingers Crew talk manly mustaches and Cubs with Alex Cohen, Director of Broadcasting for the Iowa Cubs!

The post Dingers- A Chicago Cubs Podcast: Mustaches and Prospects with Iowa Cubs Broadcaster Alex Cohen first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More

The crown jewel of Chicago nightclubs lives on at the Newberry Library and in an upcoming documentary.

Back when nightclubs were smoke-filled rooms, where people dressed up for a night on the town, and before the 1980s explosion of comedy rooms like Zanies (and various other Ha-Ha Huts, Laugh Lodges, and Chuckle Chambers featuring generic brick walls and a lone mike onstage), there was Mister Kelly’s.The legendary Chicago Rush Street establishment, owned and operated by brothers and Hyde Park natives Oscar and George Marienthal, ran for 22 years (1953-1975), during which time it endured two fires and the cultural upheaval of the 1960s. Richard Pryor was booked there during the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination, which according to some accounts started him on the path to more controversial and “blue” comedy that didn’t sit right with George Marienthal; at any rate, he never worked at Kelly’s again.…Read More

Although initial reports indicated a person was trapped inside, the building was actually empty and no one was injured.

A vacant apartment building in Aurora was destroyed Tuesday in a blaze so intense that firefighters retreated several times from the raging flames inside.

“It was a pretty labor-intensive fire,” Aurora Fire Department Battalion Chief Jim Rhodes said, adding that firefighters were forced to exit the home a couple times when the fire became too dangerous.

“We were ultimately able to get back in there and put out the fire,” he said.

Although initial reports indicated a person was trapped inside, the building was actually empty and no one was injured, Rhodes said.

Aurora Fire Department/Facebook

The fire spread quickly through the three-and-a-half story wooden frame apartment building in the 200 block of West Downer Place, Rhodes said.

Neighbors called 911 about 7 a.m. after noticing the fire, he said. Firefighters saw smoke billowing from the home soon after they left the station and found flames shooting from the side of the home when they arrived.

Crews were still on scene at 9:30 a.m. at the home, which Rhodes said was a total loss.

Neighboring homes were undamaged by the flames, he said.

Read More

The vote was 84-15. Raimondo, 49, was the first woman elected governor of Rhode Island and is serving her second term.

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to confirm Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo to serve as President Joe Biden’s commerce secretary and help guide the economy’s recovery during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

The vote was 84-15.

Raimondo, 49, was the first woman elected governor of Rhode Island and is serving her second term. She is a Rhodes Scholar and a graduate of Yale Law School who went on to become a venture capitalist before turning to politics.

Raimondo will be responsible for promoting the nation’s economic growth domestically and overseas. Republican opposition to her confirmation focused on concerns that she would not be forceful enough in confronting the Chinese government’s efforts to gain an economic and technological edge through espionage.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in particular said he was concerned that she declined during her confirmation hearing to commit to keeping Chinese telecom giant Huawei on the department’s Entity List. U.S. companies need to get a license to sell sophisticated technology to companies on the list.

She subsequently told senators she had no reason to believe that companies on the list should not be there. But that answer failed to satisfy Cruz. He said it would have been a simple matter for Raimondo to commit to keeping Huawei and others on the Entity List.

“She refused to do so, repeatedly,” Cruz said before the vote. “This appears to be part of a pattern of a systemic decision to embrace communist China.”

Biden has said China is in for “extreme competition” from the U.S. under his administration, but that the new relationship he wants to forge need not be one of conflict.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China, has also strained the relationship between the two countries with members of both U.S. political parties working to highlight any accommodations they see the other side making toward China.

Much of Raimondo’s work will be focused on regional economic issues. Lawmakers from coastal states want help protecting valuable fishing industries. Lawmakers from rural states want greater investment in broadband. She confirmed her interest in working with them on those issues during her confirmation hearing and emphasized the need to tackle climate change. She noted as governor that she oversaw construction of the nation’s first offshore wind farm.

“We’re looking for someone who can come in and help, with private sector experience, to really move the agenda of this administration forward. So, for me, Gov. Raimondo’s private sector experience really means a lot,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. “She knows how to invest in new technologies and things that are going to help us grow jobs for the future, and she knows how to match up a workforce with those job opportunities.”

The Commerce Department comprises a dozen bureaus and agencies, including the National Weather Service, the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Raimondo would oversee the work of more than 40,000 employees.

Read More

Wailer formed The Wailers in 1963 with late superstars Bob Marley and Peter Tosh when they lived in a slum in the capital of Kingston.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Bunny Wailer, a reggae luminary who was the last surviving member of the legendary group The Wailers, died on Tuesday in his native Jamaica. He was 73.

Wailer, a baritone singer whose birth name is Neville Livingston, formed The Wailers in 1963 with late superstars Bob Marley and Peter Tosh when they lived in a slum in the capital of Kingston. They catapulted to international fame with the album, “Catch a Fire” and also helped popularize Rastafarian culture among better-off Jamaicans starting in the 1970s.

“Jah-B was a vanguard, always pushing the boundaries of expression, whether in song, in style or in spoken word,” said Brian Paul Welsh, a local reggae musician known as Blvk H3ro. “There was and can only ever be one Neville Livingston.”

Wailer died at Andrews Memorial Hospital in the Jamaican parish of St. Andrew of complications from a stroke in July, manager Maxine Stowe told The Associated Press.

His death was mourned worldwide as people shared music, memories and pictures of the renowned artist.

“The passing of Bunny Wailer, the last of the original Wailers, brings to a close the most vibrant period of Jamaica’s musical experience,” wrote Jamaica politician Peter Phillips in a Facebook post. “Bunny was a good, conscious Jamaican brethren.”

Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, also paid tribute to Wailer, calling him “a respected elder statesman of the Jamaican music scene,” in a series of tweets.

“This is a great loss for Jamaica and for Reggae, undoubtedly Bunny Wailer will always be remembered for his sterling contribution to the music industry and Jamaica’s culture,” he wrote.

While Wailer toured the world, he was more at home in Jamaica’s mountains and he enjoyed farming while writing and recording songs on his label, Solomonic.

“I think I love the country actually a little bit more than the city,″ Wailer told The Associated Press in 1989. ″It has more to do with life, health and strength. The city takes that away sometimes. The country is good for meditation. It has fresh food and fresh atmosphere — that keeps you going.″

A year before, in 1988, he had chartered a jet and flew to Jamaica with food to help those affected by Hurricane Gilbert.

“Sometimes people pay less attention to those things (food), but they turn out to be the most important things. I am a farmer,″ he told the AP.

He was the third and last remaining Wailer. Marley died in 1981 of a brain tumor at the age of 36, and Tosh was fatally shot in Jamaica in 1987 at 42 years old.

Read More

Carter may absolutely be miscast as a center in certain matchups. He admitted on Tuesday that he’s undersized in a lot of situations. But until the Bulls can find a generational talent that erases opposing game plans, the warts on this team will continue to standout against the NBA’s best.

It’s easy to kick around Wendell Carter Jr. on Tuesday.

Heck, the Bulls center was at the front of the line doing it to himself.

“I’m a competitor,’’ Carter said in a Zoom call, before the team flew out to New Orleans. “For me to go out there and have those types of performances that I had, for us to lose, I kind of feel like it’s all on me.’’

Not even close, but for a player that is overly hard on himself like Carter has been going back to his high school days, it’s easy to see why he feels that way.

Ever since elite big man Joel Embiid took Carter to the woodshed with a 50-point, 17-rebound clinic less than two weeks ago, it’s been ugly for the Bulls center.

Getting outplayed by Embiid or watching Nikola Jokic go for 39 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists like he did in Denver’s Monday night win, isn’t ideal, but isn’t out of the ordinary for players with that size and skillset to make any NBA center look bad.

What’s concerning is Carter has also recently been out-played by the likes of Hassan Whiteside, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Deandre Ayton since the Embiid game. Towns? Understandable because of his skillset, but Carter should have easily won the physicality aspect against the Timberwolves big man, who has a reputation of being more like a roll of Charmin in the toughness department.

That’s why Bulls coach Billy Donovan was asked about the idea that Carter – who is listed at 6-foot-10, but that feels like a stretch – gets overwhelmed at that position too often because he is undersized.

Donovan agreed with that assessment to a certain degree, and also said that’s one of the reasons they were trying to get Carter to improve on his outside shot and range, so that he can transition to the four more easily in certain matchups and be a threat at that spot.

Even Carter admitted on Tuesday that there’s some tough situations he’s been thrown into, and will continue to be thrown into.

“I’m a center,’’ Carter said. “There are a lot of centers in this league 7 foot or over. I mean, it’s just physics. I’m shorter. I don’t necessarily think I’m not as strong but I’m just shorter. Whenever they can get a hook shot in, they’re usually shooting over me. What I have to do a better job of is using my strength, pushing catches out to make it more difficult for them to get to those areas around the rim. But that’s just physics. I’m shorter than them. That’s the end of the statement right there.’’

But there’s a bigger statement going on than Carter likely being in the wrong position in certain matchups. What the losses to Philadelphia and Denver are reminders of are the fact that the Bulls still lack a superstar talent.

Sure, Zach LaVine is taking strides in that direction, but in Year 7 for him, there’s still nothing promised. There’s a reason the Bulls have struggled against playoff teams since the rebuild began, and entered Tuesday 4-12 against teams above .500 this season [2-14 at the time that they played them].

Star power matters, and until the Bulls find that then picking on Carter being undersized or Coby White not being a true point guard doesn’t solve the obvious.

“I try not to take the approach of, ‘Hey, listen, if we don’t have one of those [superstars] it’s all for nothing. We just can’t compete,’ ‘’ Donovan said, when asked if the Bulls can only go so far without a generational-type player. “Our roster, our team, how do we get this group better instead of maybe having the approach of ‘Geez, if we don’t get one of these guys it’s going to be really hard.’ I mean, listen, you go against the Clippers, you go against the Lakers, you go against Denver, yeah, you’re having to deal with those guys.’’

Six-foot-10 or not.

Read More

Read More

Chung Ha’s unmistakable ferocity is palpable immediately upon hearing her music or watching her videos. She’s among the biggest K-pop artists of the moment, and her rise to stardom wasn’t exactly a surprise. She was introduced to the world on the reality show Produce 101, and her first audition was a major highlight–the judges immediately recognized her as a star in the making. Chung Ha eventually became one of the program’s 11 winners and ended up in the resulting K-pop group, I.O.I. Since 2017, when I.O.I disbanded, Chung Ha has been better able to flaunt her talents through solo work, and on her debut album, Querencia (MNH Entertainment), she takes every opportunity to showcase who she is on 21 tracks that employ a multitude of genres. On lead single “Bicycle,” fluttering synth chords and dramatic horns highlight the ease with which Chung Ha can maneuver between nonchalant and forceful–and in both modes, her voice drips with an assertive cool. Of the album’s four singles, “Stay Tonight” is most alluring; its nocturnal, invigorating synth pulses buoy her impassioned cries for a lover to continue their tryst rather than leave in the night. Querencia is split into four parts (“Noble,” “Savage,” “Unknown,” and “Pleasures”), which makes the album a more digestible listen, though the songs within each section don’t seem tied together by any strong sonic or thematic thread. The production on the majority of these songs is unassailable, but about a third of them feel bloodless; Latin-influenced tracks such as “Masquerade” and “Demente” sound especially predictable in their crossover attempts. But when Chung Ha is on her A game, the results are lustrous: “All Night Long” is sumptuous R&B for sultry slow dances, “Bother Me” is all disco-tinged gloss, and “Flying on Faith” vacillates between serrated electro-pop and piano balladry. The most delightful track is “Unknown,” a brief frenetic jungle instrumental interlude that’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard on a mainstream K-pop album. For better or worse, Chung Ha pulls no punches on Querencia, and what it lacks in consistency it makes up for in excitement–it’s a thrill to watch her stretch herself outside a group context and flex her potential as a solo artist. v

Read More