Firefighters battled a blaze early Sunday morning at a building in Lawndale on the West Side.
The fire broke out after 1 a.m. in the 3500 block of West 13th Place, according to Chicago fire officials.
All occupants of the building were able to escape and no injuries were reported, fire officials said.
Crews battle building fire in Lawndaleon January 31, 2021 at 12:30 pm Read More »
We are entering our first week of limited indoor dining and beer drinking throughout the Chicago area. Just in time to recover from the latest weekend snowstorm. A lot of reopenings or events had to be postponed Saturday, so some may show up here or for next weekend. Meantime, I will try to list pre-orders for Valentine dinners at home.
Monday, February 1
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Chicago Indoor (and Outdoor) Beer Events, February 1-4on January 31, 2021 at 6:21 am Read More »
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The shootout unfolded about 6:11 p.m. in the 4800 block of South Halsted Street, according to Chicago police.
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Jan 30, 2021, 7:50pm CST
Maybe you remember the Big Snow of 1967. The photo above is from the Chicago Tribune Archives, from that snow storm in 1967. The storm in the forecast for Saturday night-Sunday morning doesn’t have a name or snow totals, yet, but it is forecast to be a big one.
Do you remember the Ground Hog Day blizzard of 2011–ten years ago?
I remember shoveling snow for days. It was surreal how much snow there was. Here’s a post I wrote about it five years ago. Yes, the storm had many names–Snowzilla, Snowmageddon, the Snowpocalypse, too!
What name will we have for the storm that is coming this evening? Are we prepared for up to 9-10 inches of heavy, wet snow?
Yes, some folks will be out playing in this stuff. I hope so! It should be good packing snow, snowman making snow.
As I write this at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon, here comes the snow. I will be out there shoveling it, and if you are, too, take it slow. I’ll have an update on Sunday.
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I am originally a country girl from downstate Illinois. I was a Chicago girl in Rogers Park by the Lake. Now I live in Oak Park, by the Blue Line and the Congress Expressway. I write about the weather and other things.
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Saturday Night Snow!on January 30, 2021 at 9:34 pm Read More »
Tuscola hosted a high school basketball game on Friday. That’s a simple sentence and it used to be a common occurrence. But to fans all over the state it seemed incredibly unlikely just a week ago.
TUSCOLA, IL—Friday was my first trip to Tuscola. It’s a city of 4,000 people just a short drive south of Champaign, and it now has a permanent spot in the part of my brain reserved for high school basketball memories.
Tuscola hosted a high school basketball game on Friday. That’s a simple sentence and it used to be a common occurrence. But to fans all over the state it seemed incredibly unlikely just a week ago.
Illinois went 323 days without high school basketball. More than 19,000 residents have died from COVID-19 since the last game. Shockingly and suddenly, high school basketball is back. And Tuscola was ready to play almost immediately.
Ryan Hornaday, the athletic director at Tuscola High School, is the kind of guy that asks to shake your hand during a global pandemic. That boldness wasn’t surprising considering what Hornaday had pulled off. Only two schools, Tuscola and Flanagan, were ready to play this quickly.
“It’s all about [Hornaday],” Kevin Quinn, the grandfather of Tuscola star junior Jalen Quinn, told me at halftime. “He was ready to go whenever [the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois High School Association] pulled the string on this. He’s amazing. It is awesome.”
Hornaday said Tuscola was actually ready to play on Thursday, but couldn’t find another team with the required seven practices. Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond (ALAH) was ready to go on Friday though.
Tuscola had local-bank sponsored bottles of hand sanitizer at the entrance, right next to the rosters. I used some after shaking Hornaday’s hand.
All the players and coaches wore masks during the game. The officials did not. The few spectators were spaced out in the bleachers in the gym’s balcony. No one sat within 20 feet of me.
There is a 50-spectator limit under the new guidelines. The first game was a hot ticket, so I was lucky to be invited. There aren’t normal entry procedures these days. Katie Wienke, the school social worker, saw me waiting outside and let me into the school.
Made it to Tuscola. Still kinda in shock that there is a high school basketball game tonight. pic.twitter.com/UJuFA4cS9f
— Michael O’Brien (@michaelsobrien) January 29, 2021
High school sports are important in Chicago. But visits outside of the metro area drive home how crucial they are in smaller towns.
Shane Pangburn, a Tuscola grad that lives in Los Angeles, summed his hometown up in a tweet during the game: “No surprise that my high school would be the first in Illinois to restart basketball. It’s a good school with excellent admin and planning combined with a sports zealotry that haunts and shapes me to this day, twenty years out.”
The local newspaper’s photographer, Dan Chamness, offered to take pictures for the Sun-Times when he heard I was coming. Steve Fiscus, the Tuscola principal, came by in the fourth quarter to plan a post-game press conference. Tuscola is proud of what it accomplished on Friday.
“We are very blessed to be in this community,” Jalen Quinn said. “They did a really good job of giving us an opportunity to play.”
Quinn scored 18 points to lead the Warriors to a 58-43 win. Senior Grant Hardwick added 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Hardwick’s dad, Rob, said his son “kept level-headed and didn’t get too up or down” during the long period away from high school sports. Hardwick’s favorite sport is football, but he plays basketball because all of his friends do.
“I’m afraid things may slide backwards and they may say this is too much too soon and we have to pinch her back down,” Rob Hardwick said. “If that happens it may impact football season.”
I asked Hardwick if he was worried about his son playing high school sports. He paused for a second before answering, it was clearly something he’d considered.
“I’m not worried,” Hardwick said. “[Grant] has a good head on his shoulders. He doesn’t want to get sick either.”
The game was sloppy, as high school games usually are early in the season. That felt like a return to normal.
ALAH sophomore Kaden Feagin dunked in the third quarter. Normally, the crowd would have erupted. I’m guessing that Knights fans watching on the live stream at home did.
There wasn’t an audible reaction in the gym, but it sent a shock through me. Everything up until that point was awkward, odd and socially-distanced. Feagin’s dunk was the first bright reminder that high school basketball, something so many of us love dearly, was back.
“We take a lot of pride in the fact that we were able to do this safely and successfully,” Tuscola coach Justin Bozarth said. “That is a testament to our administration for having a plan in place and the confidence in all of us. The amount of behind the scenes work that went into this to make tonight happen is just tremendous.”
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Did they pull it off safely? It is too soon to know. That same experiment is about to be attempted in cities all over the state.
There will be programs shut down after positive COVID-19 tests. That’s inevitable. Is it smart to be gathering inside for sports right now? The jury is still out on that.
It’s a cliche that you don’t know how much you value something until it is gone. This past year, that happened to high school sports fans in Illinois. There was no state basketball tournament. There wasn’t a football season this fall.
Pro and college sports figured out ways to start up fairly quickly after COVID-19 hit. It’s been a long, political and emotional process to get high school sports back. I don’t know if it is smart to be playing, that’s not my area of expertise. But I know how much the return of high school sports means to communities, from the West Side to Tuscola. And so does Jalen Quinn, who never considered moving across the border to play in a neighboring state back in November.
“I never thought about it one time,” Quinn said. “I grew up here and I love this community.”
While the Ricketts family may be loosening up the purse strings a bit, the Chicago Cubs are clearly still working within a tight budget this offseason. If they are going to make significant improvements over the offseason, they are going to have to take a chance on undervalued players who bring some high upside to the table.
The Cubs have consistently been connected to low-cost starting pitchers who come with plenty of risk, but could get back on track and help the team immediately. Guys like Jake Arrieta, Chris Archer, Jeff Samardzija and Carlos Rodon all fit the bill here, and each makes plenty of sense for the team, but Mike Foltynewicz stands out as the most logical target for the Cubs.
(Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images)
It is relatively surprising to see the Chicago Bears roll it back with general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy for another season. Neither Pace nor Nagy has been particularly impressive with the team and allowing Pace to lead another offseason could hurt this organization in a big way down-the-line.
That being said, Pace is clearly on thin ice and is unlikely to be around much longer unless he can inject some serious life into this franchise. With his job on the line, do not be surprised to see Pace and the Chicago Bears get aggressive this offseason, especially in the draft. In this seven-round 2021 NFL mock draft, we are going to try to get aggressive and find an opportunity for the Bears trade up from their pick at No. 20 overall and land a potential legitimate franchise quarterback.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at a complete seven-round 2021 NFL mock draft for the Chicago Bears.
Note: This 2021 NFL mock draft was completed using The Draft Network’s Mock Draft Machine.
QB North Dakota State
With Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson and Justin Fields going off of the board within the first four picks of this 2021 NFL mock draft, Trey Lance quickly stood out as the premier trade target for the Chicago Bears.
After trying to make a move up with a few other teams to acquire Lance, the Bears finally get the Dallas Cowboys to bite at No. 10. In exchange for moving up to No. 10 from No. 20, the Bears send Dallas two second-round picks (one in 2021 and one in 2022) and receive a fourth-round selection from the Cowboys. An aggressive move up like this could be exactly what Pace needs to do to save his job.
Lance is the exact kind of player who could come in and give the Chicago Bears some hope. He is an incredibly gifted quarterback prospect whose combination of size, arm talent and athleticism is legitimately special.
Lance can make any throw on the football field and is a dangerous weapon with the ball in his hands. His dual-threat ability is exciting and makes Lance a strong fit for the modern NFL. Lance’s decision-making needs some work and his accuracy is inconsistent, but with proper coaching and stable development, he has a chance to become an absolute star at the next level.
The Chicago Bears would be wise to make an aggressive move up for Lance and then bring along slowly. Build an offensive attack around his strengths as a player and allow him to develop behind Nick Foles or Mitchell Trubisky for at least the first half of his rookie season. Once Lance is ready, they can unleash him, and the young quarterback would give this franchise some much-needed hope.
The Chicago Blackhawks went into the 2021 season with a big question mark in goal. It looked like Malcolm Subban and Collin Delia would split the net with a spot start for Kevin Lankinen here and there. However, Delia and Subban were pretty bad to start the season so Lankinen got a chance earlier than we thought and has stolen the show. He is making a case for himself to be the team’s number one goalie for the rest of the season and potentially beyond.
The Chicago Blackhawks ended their five-game point streak with a 2-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was the only game on the NHL slate so all hockey watching eyes were on this game. It was a game that Kevin Lankinen and Joonas Korpisalo dominated as the goaltenders for each team. The Blue Jackets went up 2-0 which made it unreachable for the Blackhawks. It is hard for them to score in bunches and if their top line or power play doesn’t dominate, they don’t win.
Chicago Blackhawks: Kevin Lankinen has been fantasticon January 30, 2021 at 3:00 pm Read More »
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