Tina Fey, in New York, pretends to reach across the split screen to touch Golden Globes co-host Amy Poehler, in Beverly Hills, California, during the Sunday awards ceremony. | NBC
Hosts zing the HFPA for its much-discussed lack of Black members.
It didn’t take long for Golden Globes co-hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to address the white elephant in the room.
With Poehler at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and Fey at the Rainbow Room in New York City, the opening monologue included the following explainer:
Poehler: “The Golden Globes are awards given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.”
Fey: “The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is made up of around 90 professional, no-Black journalists who attend movie junkets each year in search of a better life. We say, ‘around 90’ because a couple of them might be ghosts, and it’s rumored that the German member is just a sausage that somebody drew a little face on.”
Three feet apart or 3,000 miles apart, Fey and Poehler are awards-show-host first ballot Hall of Famers.
With the Globes under fire for its lack of a single Black member and for excluding Black films such as “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Da 5 Bloods,” “One Night in Miami” and “Judas and the Black Messiah” from best picture nominations, it was something of a welcome surprise when the first two winners of the night — both very deserving — were Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) for best performance by an actor in a movie supporting role and John Boyega (“Small Axe”) for best performance by an actor in a television supporting role. On Twitter, Scott Feinberg of the Hollywood Reporter noted, “We’re 15 minutes in and this year’s Golden Globes has two more Black winners than Black voters.”
With a safely limited amount of first responders and essential workers as the in-person attendees (nice touch) and the nominees tucked away in hotel rooms or their living rooms or home offices, it didn’t take long for the Globes to fall prey to the same types of technical snafus we’ve all experienced in the Video Chat Era. When Kaluuya was announced as the winner, we couldn’t hear him at first and the show was about to cut to commercial when the sound problem was fixed and they returned to Kaluuya.
And as Catherine O’Hara (“Schitt’s Creek”) gave her acceptance speech, her husband Bo Welch kept playing with his cell phone, which seemed to be blaring the kind of “wrap it up” music we hear at awards shows. Whatever the joke was supposed to be, it lost everything in translation.
The first part of the telecast was also filled with fantastically awkward and therefore entertaining reaction shots, e.g., Poehler cracking, “ ‘The Undoing’ was a sexy and dramatic mystery where Nicole Kidman’s coat is suspected of murdering her wig,’ ” followed by a shot of Kidman, her husband Keith Urban and their two daughters at home, with Urban cracking up, Kidman looking confused and the girls looking like they were counting the minutes until they could go to their rooms and get back to texting with their friends.
We also had some pretty cool video moments, as when David Fincher (“Mank”) reacted to losing out on best director to Aaron Sorkin (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”) by taking a shot of an adult beverage, and when winner Mark Ruffalo (“I Know This Much is True”) gave a heartfelt and moving speech about the world coming together as one and his fellow nominees Jeff Bridges, Bryan Cranston, Ethan Hawke and Hugh Grant looked on with empathy. For a moment at least, an awards show didn’t seem to be just about the awards.
Corliss (6-0): Harvey Jones has changed everything for the Trojans. They’ve been one of the area’s best programs since he took over in 2017. Jones is one of several Public League coaches that play it close to the vest. He doesn’t pump his team up in the preseason or complain about rankings. Corliss just goes out and wins its way in. That’s exactly what happened this week. The Trojans dominated Clark on Saturday.
Hersey (10-2): High-scoring senior Ethan Roberts is one of the season’s best stories. The Hawks have only lost to Glenbrook South and Rolling Meadows.
Richards (6-0): Bulldogs senior Anthony Taylor hasn’t received much attention yet, but he’s clearly one of the area’s most dynamic scorers. He’s scored more than 21 points in every Richards game this season and had 37 points and 11 rebounds against Evergreen Park on Thursday.
Dropping out
Downers Grove North (6-1): It was a one-week stay for the Trojans, who lost to York.
Lake Forest (8-3): The Scouts lost to St. Patrick and Mundelein. Certainly no shame in that, those are two really good teams. But they are out for now. Sophomore Asa Thomas was excellent against the Shamrocks.
Thornton (2-2): Starting guard Sean Burress has to sit out for another few days. He played in Indiana for a few months. The Wildcat should be much improved when he’s back. They lost to Young and Kankakee this week.
The week ahead
There’s a tremendous amount of basketball this week now that the Public League and all of the suburbs are in full swing. These two teams have especially challenging weeks.
DePaul Prep: It’s possible the Rams are ranked a little too low right now. We should find out this week. They host Loyola on Monday, Mount Carmel on Wednesday and play a Fenwick on Friday.
Kenwood: JJ Taylor is a revelation. The sophomore is probably posting the best numbers in the area. But he hasn’t faced any top-tier competition yet. That changes this week. The Broncos play at Simeon on Tuesday and host Curie on Thursday.
Eastern Illinois looked even rustier than one would expect from a 463-day layoff caused by the worldwide pandemic.
Southeast Missouri State breezed to an easy 47-7 win over the Panthers in Sunday’s Ohio Valley Conference opener for both teams.
“We didn’t expect this. We expected much better,” EIU head coach Adam Cushing said in the postgame. “That’s a really, really good football team that we lined up across from. They’re a ranked team that played like a really good football team. I’m going to give them all the credit in the world. I’m not going to shortchange them a bit.
“But, that doesn’t mean that we played well. We didn’t play well at all. We didn’t give ourselves an opportunity to make plays.”
Three things Prairie State Pigskin learned from Sunday’s game:
EIU’s offense struggles continue
The Panthers had difficulty moving the ball in 2019 and those woes continued in the season opener.
EIU managed only 114 first-half yards, 72 on which came on one play. Twice the Panthers failed on fourth-and-short yardage attempts; EIU also turned the ball over twice and went 0-for-7 on third downs in the first two quarters. The Panthers were just 2-of-15 by game’s end.
“We’ve got to go get first downs on offense,” Cushing said. “We were just having so many zero yard plays.”
Veteran quarterback Harry Woodbery was just 5-for-18 for 32 yards in the first half. He also threw an interception that led to a SEMO touchdown. He finished the day 10-of-26 for 101 yards with two interceptions.
As a result, 21st-ranked Southeast Missouri enjoyed favorable field position for much of the first half and built a 34-0 lead and cruised to the easy victory.
The Skyhawks broke the game wide open with a 27-point second quarter. SEMO, which lost its only fall game 20-17 at Southern Illinois, made the FCS playoffs in 2018 and ’19 under seventh-year head coach Tom Matukewicz.
SEMO ran 54 plays in the first half and amassed 333 yards and 14 first downs.
2. Special team woes
A familiar bugaboo returned for the Panthers as SEMO blocked a punt and set up the Skyhawks’ second touchdown on a short field.
“Allowing the blocked punt early, that changed the game,” Cushing said. “That set the tone for some bad things to slide.”
EIU has been plagued by poor special teams play for the past several seasons.
SEMO had several positive kickoff and punt returns, while Eastern mostly struggled in its return game.
“Their specialists did a great job of switching the field for them, and we didn’t execute in switching the field on our special teams,” Cushing said.
Many of EIU’s Stone Galloway’s punts were low line drives directly at the returner. He averaged 35.1 yards per punt.
3. Youth will be served
Eastern is in a rebuild mode in Cushing’s second year at the Panther helm.
The staff has clearly made the decision to give younger players meaningful experience.
The Panthers started five freshmen and three sophomores on defense and three sophomores in the offensive line.
Kendi Young
Freshman running back Kendi Young broke loose for a 72-yard touchdown on just his second career carry in the waning minutes of the first half. The Thornton Fractional North graduate led EIU with 88 yards on 11 carries.
Redshirt sophomore Dwayne Cooks led EIU with five receptions for 62 yards.
Sophomore Anthony Shockey tied for the team lead with nine tackles including one for loss.
True freshman Colin Bohanek from Chicago Marist recorded six tackles (four solo) in a reserve role.
News and notes
Receiver Isaiah Hill and defensive end/linebacker Dytarious Johnson were each named to the preseason All-OVC squad, but neither appeared in Sunday’s game. Cushing said that Hill is injured and likely won’t play next week . . . SEMO quarterback Andrew Bunch passed for 302 yards, 229 in the first half alone . . . SEMO outgained EIU 474-286 in total yards . . . Eastern turned the ball over four times, three coming off interceptions . . . true freshman quarterback Otto Kuhns played much of the fourth quarter.
What’s next?
Eastern returns to OVC action Sunday, March 7 at UT-Martin. This is a makeup date for a game that was originally scheduled to open the season but postponed by severe winter weather.
Blog co-authors Barry Bottino and Dan Verdun bring years of experience covering collegiate athletics. Barry has covered college athletes for more than two decades in his “On Campus” column, which is published weekly by Shaw Media. Dan has written four books about the state’s football programs–“NIU Huskies Football” (released in 2013), “EIU Panthers Football (2014), “ISU Redbirds” (2016) and “SIU Salukis Football” (2017).
The Chicago White Sox return to the field in 2021 as Spring Training officially begins. The Good Guys Talk Back podcast breaks down everything you need to know plus more on Tim Anderson and Tony LaRussa!
Here’s the latest news on how COVID-19 is impacting Chicago and Illinois.
Latest
Another 79,000 coronavirus vaccines administered as Illinois’ pandemic death toll surpasses 20,500
Illinois reached another grim milestone Sunday as the state’s pandemic death toll surpassed 20,500 fatalities.
State health officials reported an additional 22 people have succumbed to COVID-19, bringing the number of virus-related deaths to 20,516. Eight of Sunday’s 22 fatalities were reported in the Chicago area and included three Cook County men in their 60s.
This comes as the state continues to make progress in its unprecedented vaccine rollout, giving a glimmer of hope for the future.
State health officials announced 79,266 coronavirus vaccines were injected into the arms of Illinois residents Saturday, marking the seventh-highest single day total.
After Illinois saw a drop in vaccine distribution two weeks ago in part due to heavy snow and delayed shipments from the federal government, the state averaged an all-time high of 79,140 doses doled out per day over the last week, which included a two-day streak of six-figure vaccination totals.
In total, more than 2.7 million vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois. About 11.7% of those shots were given to people at long-term care facilities.
3:38 p.m. 83K more COVID-19 shots given in Illinois as positivity rate nears all-time low
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Public health officials on Saturday announced 1,780 more Illinoisans were diagnosed with COVID-19 as more than 83,000 vaccine doses went into arms across the state.
A total of 83,048 shots were administered Friday, breaking a two-day streak of six-figure vaccination totals, including Illinois’ all-time high of more than 130,000 doled out Wednesday.
But the state’s rolling average of shots given per day has climbed to a new high of 69,736 over the past week. As that rate steadily rises, daily tallies of new infections have fallen precipitously. The Illinois Department of Public Health has reported roughly 1,800 positive coronavirus tests each day over the last week, down from an average of about 3,500 new daily cases at the end of January.
2:33 p.m. Far fewer students, classrooms without teachers and learning on laptops: How many Chicago schools will look starting Monday
Chicago Public Schools is taking its largest step toward a return to normalcy Monday, a full 349 days after the pandemic closed schools and upended education as families and educators knew it. But school, for the foreseeable future, will still look nearly unrecognizable.
The vast majority of the 421 elementary and middle schools welcoming students back over the next week — more than 92% — will be less than half full, and 42% will be less than a quarter full. Teachers across the city are expecting single-digit students per class, including some with no children returning at all. Schools have split their returning students into Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday cohorts, with Wednesdays reserved for school cleaning and remote learning for all.
Principals have been frank with parents in school meetings over the past few weeks and months. At many schools, the focus will be causing as little disruption as possible to remote learning. Which for most in-person students means their return to classrooms could feature a similar educational experience to the one at home.
Though every school is free to tailor the district’s plans to its needs, educators will largely work with in-person and remote students simultaneously. Most teachers will sit at a computer at the front of the classroom and provide virtual instruction as they have this whole school year. For large portions of the day, students will sit at socially distant desks either following along on their own devices or a projector screen.
12:51 p.m. Bulls game called off Sunday because of Raptors’ ongoing virus issues
The Toronto Raptors’ issues with the coronavirus have worsened, prompting the NBA to call off their game scheduled for Sunday night against the Bulls.
The league said the Raptors are dealing with positive test results, without disclosing how many, and that combined with ongoing contact tracing issues meant they would not have the league-required eight players available to play.
Toronto played Friday without head coach Nick Nurse, several other assistants and staffers and starting forward Pascal Siakam because of virus-related issues. Assistant coach Sergio Scariolo coached the team to a win over Houston and was in line to coach again Sunday.
WASHINGTON — Looking beyond the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, President Joe Biden and lawmakers are laying the groundwork for another top legislative priority — a long-sought boost to the nation’s roads, bridges and other infrastructure that could run into Republican resistance to a hefty price tag.
Biden and his team have begun discussions on the possible outlines of an infrastructure package with members of Congress, particularly mindful that Texas’ recent struggles with power outages and water shortages after a brutal winter storm present an opportunity for agreement on sustained spending on infrastructure.
Gina McCarthy, Biden’s national climate adviser, told The Associated Press that the deadly winter storm in Texas should be a “wake-up call” for the need for energy systems and other infrastructure that are more reliable and resilient.
“The infrastructure is not built to withstand these extreme weather conditions,” said Liz Sherwood-Randall, a homeland security aide to the president. “We know that we can’t just react to extreme weather events. We need to plan for them and prepare for them.”
A White House proposal could come out in March.
“Now is the time to be aggressive,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former South Bend, Indiana, mayor who knows potholes.
9:12 a.m. Plunging demand for COVID-19 tests may leave US exposed
WASHINGTON — Just five weeks ago, Los Angeles County was conducting more than 350,000 weekly coronavirus tests, including at a massive drive-thru site at Dodger Stadium, as health workers raced to contain the worst COVID-19 hotspot in the U.S.
Now, county officials say testing has nearly collapsed. More than 180 government-supported sites are operating at only a third of their capacity.
“It’s shocking how quickly we’ve gone from moving at 100 miles an hour to about 25,” said Dr. Clemens Hong, who leads the county’s testing operation.
After a year of struggling to boost testing, communities across the country are seeing plummeting demand, shuttering testing sites or even trying to return supplies.
The drop in screening comes at a significant moment in the outbreak: Experts are cautiously optimistic that COVID-19 is receding after killing more than 500,000 people in the U.S. but concerned that emerging variants could prolong the epidemic.
“Everyone is hopeful for rapid, widespread vaccinations, but I don’t think we’re at a point where we can drop our guard just yet,” said Hong. “We just don’t have enough people who are immune to rule out another surge.”
The Illinois Department of Public Health has reported roughly 1,800 positive coronavirus tests each day over the last week, down from an average of about 3,500 new daily cases at the end of January.
A total of 83,048 shots were administered Friday, breaking a two-day streak of six-figure vaccination totals.
Analysis & Commentary
9:14 a.m. Lessons from COVID-19 that are worth remembering, like not becoming numb to it all
Like gun fatalities and car crashes, you could become numb to the 500,000 coronavirus deaths and to what that number means to the families of COVID-19 victims.
Indeed, we shouldn’t dwell on the misery the deadly virus has caused, if only for the sake of our mental health.
It helps to look on the bright side.
Forced to stick close to home, many of us found joy in simple pleasures like learning how to bake the perfect apple pie.
But as President Joe Biden said at a ceremony for the nation to pay our respects to those we have lost to the pandemic: “We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blur.”
There are lessons from COVID-19 that should stay with us for the rest of our lives.
In the interest of saving lives, most of us willingly went on lockdown and took refuge behind masks. But we all had some aspect of the shutdown that we didn’t like.
For many, it was enduring the indignity of churches being closed while liquor stores and weed shops flourished.
And there was the pain of teachers knowing that, for children whose only escape from danger at home was the classroom, the pandemic was the boogeyman in the closet.
When the pandemic touches us individually, we feel the sharp sting of its grip. Last week, my daughter’s wonderful mother-in-law suffered a catastrophic stroke and was airlifted to Loyola University Medical Center, where she remains in a coma.
Except for one brief moment, her son and daughter have been unable to sit by her bedside because of COVID restrictions. They are beside themselves with worry.
Somewhere between very good and great, at least on paper. Last season, it was very good.
This year? It could be great.
Health is an obvious key, and knowing the variance relievers are prone to from year to year is a potential stick in the eye, but to look at the arms in the White Sox bullpen is supremely fascinating.
It starts at the end, with newly signed closer Liam Hendriks, the American League Reliever of the Year.
It continues with eighth-and seventh-inning setup men Aaron Bummer, one of the best lefty relievers in baseball, veteran righty Evan Marshall, and 26-year old upper 90s righty Codi Heuer, who earned “potential closer” stripes with a 1.52 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 23 2/3 innings.
Throw in command-maven and multi-innings option Matt Foster, 26, who was 6-1 with a 2.20 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings in his first season last year and you have the guts of a pen that generally ranked in the top fourth of baseball’s bullpens in 2020, with Hendriks replacing Alex Colome this season as the closer. Granted, a 60-game season against a Central division schedule doesn’t build a case-closed projection base, but it’s substantial enough.
And when the Sox throw 21-year-old left-hander Garrett Crochet, the 2020 first-rounder who looked unhittable over five late September appearances, and right-hander Michael Kopech, 24, another young, electric arm with huge upside into the group, whoa. Both are projected as long-term starters, the Sox say, but will find their way in the bullpen in 2020, perhaps as soon as Opening Day in Anaheim.
Crochet featured 101-102 mph velocity, averaging 101.2, and a nasty slider. Kopech, who hasn’t pitched in two seasons because of Tommy John surgery and then opting out of 2019, has 100-mph and a hard slider in his holster, too.
Can you say double barrel shotgun action warming up in the White Sox bullpen?
Veteran catcher Jonathan Lucroy certainly had those two in mind when he called the staff a “Lamborghini pitching staff.”
If Carlos Rodon beats out Reynaldo Lopez for the fifth-starter spot, Lopez would transition to a long-relief, multi-inning role. Another power arm who, for stretches, was the Sox’ best starter in recent years.
Throw it all together and the Sox have what FanGraphs ranks as second (tied with the Mets) only to the Yankees in the majors.
If starters Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel, Lance Lynn and Dylan Cease get into the sixth or seventh inning, the Sox should be in good shape.
“For a bullpen to really excel they should be really working off a starting rotation that consistently gets into the last part of the game because it’s a long season,” manager Tony La Russa said. “If you have that as a given, there are a lot of weapons. And I’ll just jump ahead … there are a lot of really impressive arms here beyond the guys who are getting a lot of attention. The answer is we have the chance to have an outstanding bullpen.”
Waiting in the wings, for depth, are 2017 first-rounder Zack Burdi, Jimmy Lambert and Tyler Johnson, all power armed prospects, as well as Jimmy Cordero. There’s also experienced lefty Jace Fry, due back in May after recovering from a microdisectomy procedure in his back.
So there is some depth.
“I look out from eight [pitchers] down in our bullpen, and I fully believe that all eight of us will be able to give high leverage innings whether or not we need a break or somebody needs a day off,” Bummer said. “We won’t be taking our foot off the gas by using someone else.”
Gas, indeed.
“Garrett had never pitched in the bullpen before and he goes out and he was able to dominate,” Bummer said. “And so I fully expect Michael and Garrett to continue doing those things. Just continue to give us leverage innings.”
The show deals with the assorted and asserted, by Bailey, miscues of Gov. Pritzker ‘s unnecessary shutdown of much of IL’s economy and K-12 public schools for most of the last year.
Senator Bailey (R-Louisville, 55th Dist) also argues Gov. Pritzker’s priorities in his vaccine roll-out have been badly misplaced and motivated by politics and/or ignorance, and neither by good public health public policy nor a fair reading of the data and relevant science.
Further, GOP Gov candidate Bailey accuses Pritzker’s administration and his Illinois State Board of Education (“ISBE”) of generating improper “Cultural Education standards.” Senator Bailey, who farms with the help of fourteen other families, 12,000 acres downstate, also is critical of Governor Pritzker for supporting legislation that has resulted in virtually unlimited availability of procedures to abort healthy embryos and the unborn.
Part 1 of the Bailey interview by Public Affairs show host Jeff Berkowitz can also be watched 24/7 by clicking here. The show deals with cutting property taxes, government pension benefits, state spending and much more.
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You can watch the two-part interviews with two of the other GOV candidates by clicking the following links with the two GOP GOV primary candidates likely to join Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo) and Sen. Bailey (R-Louisville) in the March, 2022 race: ditchdigger CEOGary Rabine, part 1 & part 2 & legal plummer Richard Porter, part 1 and part 2.
You can learn more about Sen. Bailey, whose downstate IL Sen. District is a 3 ½ hour drive southeast of Chicago, by using or connecting with the below social media handles:
Officers were shot at while responding to an incident early Sunday in Austin on the West Side.
About 3:10 a.m., officers were responding to a ShotSpotter alert in the 5100 block of West North Avenue when someone shot at them as they entered a courtyard, Chicago police said.
The officers were not struck and did not return fire, police said. No injuries were reported.
A woman and 12-year-old girl died in a house fire early Sunday in Gresham on the South Side.
About 4 a.m., firefighters responded to a blaze at a home in the 8600 block of South Hermitage Avenue and rescued six people, the Chicago Fire Department said.
A girl and a woman were transported to Little Company of Mary Hospital, where they were pronounced dead, Chicago police and fire officials said.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office has not yet released details on their deaths.
Two other women and two men were taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn for treatment, police said.
No smoke detectors were heard in the home, according to fire officials.
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