What are some things to watch as the ChicagoBulls prepare for draft night?
Later this evening, Chicago Bulls fans will have an opportunity to sit back and enjoy a night of excitement as they watch the 2020 NBA Draft unfold. Frankly, it’ll be a welcome change from the trainwreck that has been the Chicago Bears and the news that Theo Epstein is leaving the Chicago Cubs.
But enough with the bad news. Let’s focus on the good news, which is the Bulls, for once don’t have the seventh overall pick! Instead, they currently sit in the fourth position. However, that could change as there have been a number of rumors swirling around the league heading into tonight’s draft.
Now it’s important, as always, to remember these rumors must be taken with a grain of salt. However, let’s take a quick look at some of the rumors to keep an eye on tonight as you watch the draft.
Rumor has it that if the Bulls made such a move, their target would be James Wiseman out of the University of Memphis. There are rumors that the Charlotte Hornets, currently at No. 3 overall, also like Wiseman, so if that’s the Bulls guy, they’ll have to work a deal with the Warriors.
It would be interesting if the Bulls gave up on Carter so soon, considering he was neither used nor developed properly by Jim Boylen. However, they may prefer Wiseman’s upside. Stay tuned.
Could the Chicago Bulls be eyeing Kemba Walker?
There is another rumor, albeit with a little less meat on the bone, that the Bulls have at least kicked the tires on Boston Celtics guard Kemba Walker. While appearing on OMF on WEEI, NBA insider Kevin O’Connor confirmed as much, though he did not necessarily provide details on what the price would be.
You’d have to think it would include the fourth pick, but that seems like a steep price for an aging guard, despite how good Walker has been. This one may need to be filed under the “Bulls are just doing their due diligence” because it would be hard to see them give up so much for Walker.
Wild card in the mix with the Chicago Bulls?
One team that has also been looking to move up in the draft is the New York Knicks. The Knicks currently hold the eighth overall pick. Interestingly enough, they have already made a move to acquire the No. 23 overall pick from the Utah Jazz in exchange for No. 27 and No. 38.
While the Knicks are looking to move up to No. 2, it is unclear who their top target might be. It is possible that their target is still available when the Bulls are on the clock at No. 4. If so, could the Knicks try to make a move with the Bulls in exchange for their two first-round picks?
I’m Jerry Partacz, happily married to my wife Julie for over 40 years. I have four children and eleven grandchildren. I’m enjoying retirement after 38 years of teaching. I now have an opportunity to share my thoughts on many things. I’m an incurable optimist. I also love to solve crossword puzzles and to write light verse. I love to read, to garden, to play the piano, to collect stamps and coins, and to watch “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.
It took the U.S. Supreme Court to do it, but some Cook County property owners now will be able to challenge their tax assessments in federal court.
That became an issue because those Cook County taxpayers believed they were being unfairly denied an effective means in state courts to challenge tax breaks that were available to certain other taxpayers.
In Pappas v. A.F. Moore & Associates Inc., the high court let stand a 7th circuit federal appeals court decision that allowed the plaintiffs to exercise their 14th Amendment equal-protection right to challenge the methodology used by the Cook County tax assessor. The unanimous decision by the appeals was written by then-appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett before her elevation to the Supreme Court.
Some local governments opposed the right of the plaintiffs to argue their case before a federal court, warning that it would cost millions of dollars in refunds to small businesses and others that believed they were excluded from using the same appeal process as other, more favored taxpayers.
Barrett wrote in her opinion that the plaintiffs should have access to the federal court because they were denied an adequate state court remedy.
Here and here are more details of the legal action and its history.
How sad is it that people who live, work and own property in Cook County have to again turn to the federal government for redress from the local muck. Just like it is up to the federal Justice Department to ferret out the deeply rooted public corruption.
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THERMAL, Calif. — It was when Scott Speed, Subaru Rallycross driver, drifted into the second hairpin on the Desert track at the Thermal Club that I giggled. The 2022 Subaru BRZ was so light and so balanced, I’d say it floated around the track if it didn’t feel so glued to the pavement.
Though I didn’t get the opportunity to drive the next-gen BRZ, being a passenger with a pro driver is the next best thing – especially since the 2022 model is improved in virtually every way.
After a one-year hiatus, the rear-wheel drive sports coupe returns leaner, meaner and smoother.
So, what’s new on the 2022 BRZ other than everything?
New engine
Other than the sleek new design, probably the biggest change to the BRZ will be the engine. It gets an all-new 2.4-liter, 4-cylinder naturally aspirated Boxer, which will deliver 228 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque.
This is an increase of 23 horsepower and 28 pound-feet of torque.
Because the engine sits low in the chassis, it has an ultra-low center of gravity – even lower than the previous generation – which along with the near-perfect weight balance creates that glued-to-the-pavement feeling I felt on the track with Speed.
2022 Subaru BRZ (Photo by Jill Ciminillo)
It keeps the MT
Even as many automakers are ditching the manual transmission, Subaru is keeping its 6-speed manual as the base transmission in the 2022 BRZ with an automatic available as an option.
While I can’t say I’m usually a fan of an automatic, this one at least sounds kind of cool. It’ll come with a new sport mode, which delivers automatic throttle blipping and holds lower gears during hard cornering.
If Subaru stays true to previous-gen pricing, the automatic will be a $1,100 option.
2022 Subaru BRZ (Photo by Jill Ciminillo)
Meant to be an every-day driver
The BRZ is called a 2+2 sports car, which means it has a back seat that is largely unusable for humans. But what this back seat does is allow for more cargo storage with the rear-seats folded flat.
As Dominick Infante, director of corporate communications for Subaru of America, pointed out during the reveal in Thermal, you can fit four race tires in the back (presumably with the seats flat), so you can track it.
If race tires will fit, luggage for a road trip will, too.
But other than stowage space, what makes the 2022 BRZ an every-day driver is the easy-to-drive nature of the vehicle. Plus, the new 8-inch infotainment screen comes with standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Oh, and Subaru’s Eyesight safety suite is standard on the automatic version of the vehicle. (Note: it’s not available on the manual version.)
2022 Subaru BRZ (Photo by Jill Ciminillo)
Available in fall 2021
Since the BRZ skipped a model year, you can imagine Subaru is anxious to get the next-gen version out as soon as possible. While we couldn’t pinpoint an exact date, we did get a general statement of delivery, which is next fall.
Though Covid-19 has wrought havoc on a lot of production schedules, since we’re a year out, this one seems doable. So, look to see the 2022 BRZ sometime between September and November of 2021.
2022 Subaru BRZ (Photo by Jill Ciminillo)
No word on pricing, but …
Because actual production is still a ways off, some of the finer details, like pricing, are still hazy. However, more than one exec confirmed this next-gen BRZ would be similarly priced to the current generation and under $30k.
For comparison, the 2020 BRZ starts at $28,845 for the Limited trim and $31,495 for the tS trim.
The 2022 BRZ will have Premium and Limited trims, so expect the Premium to start around $29k, and the Limited to ring in at about $32k.
The pictures of the 2022 Subaru BRZ don’t do it justice. It has creases and lines in all the right places and all of the aerodynamic features are functional. To help with weight and balance the hood, fenders and roof are all aluminum, and the curb weight should ring in just less than 2,900 pounds.
While the interior won’t be the most tech-forward thing you’ve ever seen, it’s solid with quality seating surfaces. Plus, standard CarPlay/Auto removes a lot of ills from the infotainment system.
My time in the jump seat with Speed behind the wheel was all too brief, but it was enough to know it’ll bring a heck of a lot of fun – and a lot more giggles – to any owner’s driveway.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter, TikTok and Instagram at @jillciminillo for more car photos and videos.
From the first wordless vocal incantation on “The Pre-Dawn Light,” which opens Jordan Reyes’s new Sand Like Stardust, it’s clear you’re about to embark on an auditory vision quest; as the Chicago multi-instrumentalist and vocalist slowly adds layers of chants at different pitches, the sound evokes a sunrise ritual. In the album’s promotional materials, Reyes says he conceived it as “a journey through human expression over the course of one day,” and it certainly unfolds as such. The second cut, “Drifter,” meanders into the morning rays with trance-inducing keyboard and dusty guitar, which made me imagine Cluster’s rustic drones with Ry Cooder hopping aboard. Reyes wears many hats in the music world: he owns the label American Dreams, plays in legendary Chicago band Ono, and he occasionally writes for the Reader. As he heads into new terrain yet again, he’s got another hat–a cowboy hat–to match his current vibe. Reyes has taken to the plains in search of the primordial beginnings of American music and the ancient traditions that bind together the blues, country, folk, and even experimental music. While his 2019 album Closer relied mostly on modular synthesizers, a rural vibe rolls through this avant-garde acid-western soundtrack, which explores Reyes’s Tejano heritage with bluesy lap-steel guitar and Morricone-esque layers of vocals (and even a whistle or two) on tracks such as “Dusted” and “A Grain of Sand.” Reyes situates those rootsier sounds side by side with synth gurgles and drum-machine beats in a fusion that evokes the image of the modern, post-everything cowboy, which he brings to life in the video for the album’s first single, “Rebirth at Dusk.” Harsh electronics that recall Reyes’s early recordings threaten to take over the dark “An Unkindness,” but Reyes balances that energy with the serene “As the Sun Dips” and the starkly ambient closer, “Centaurus,” which comes on like the primitive/futurist “Fourth World” work of composer Jon Hassell–and also includes the first lyrics of the entire LP. This lullaby of sorts recalls the sparse, dreamy music of Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis or the avant-garde compositions of Arthur Russell, and could suggest Reyes’s future aesthetic direction. For now, cue up your grainy VHS dub of El Topo with the sound off, hit play on Sand Like Stardust, and get ready for a journey to the wild west within. v
GOODYEAR, ARIZONA – MARCH 07: Javier Baez #9 of the Chicago Cubs throws a ball to fans during a spring training game against the Cleveland Indians at Goodyear Ballpark on March 07, 2020 in Goodyear, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
The Chicago Cubs might be willing to trade some superstars if they want to rebuild properly.
According to a lot of people, the Chicago Cubs are going to start to remove themselves from the contender conversation. Theo Epstein is going to be gone as he leaves the organization. Jed Hoyer is going to be the new President of Baseball Operations for the Cubs and that might cause them to allow some popular players to go.
This team has known nothing but success since 2015 but they have underachieved at the same time. They built an organization that should have been able to compete for a long time but they failed to get to the World Series more than once. They are lucky that they won that game seven against the Cleveland Indians because if they didn’t, the Theo Epstein era would be a major failure.
Now, they are going to see some change happen to their organization and there might be some casualties to superstar players as a result. If some of those star veterans are all of the sudden gone, there is a good chance that they aren’t that good of a baseball team in 2021 and beyond.
They would, for most of them, get a very good return for those guys but it would take a long time to re-develop young talent and get them producing at the MLB level. It isn’t fun to think about rebuilding a team with a core that has given you so much, but they seem to have no choice. At this point, the 2016 World Series is long in the rear view and the honeymoon is over. Change is coming, whether we want to admit it or not. These are the five veteran stars that they might consider trading:
The 2020 NBA Draft is upon us, and the ChicagoBulls may be ready to do something big.
Tonight, much of the discussion and anticipation leading up to the 2020 NBA Draft is going to be about the Chicago Bulls and which direction they choose to go with the number four overall pick.
The Bulls have not been in this position for a long time. Chicago is used to picking lower in the draft than they deserve for the last three years. Alas, a little bit of luck.
Most experts agree there is a top three in terms of prospects. But, after LaMelo Ball, James Wiseman and Anthony Edwards, it’s anyone’s guess who will be picked going forward. Even with those top three guys, there’s some question whether or not a team could get a star.
That’s what makes this year’s draft so intriguing. A lack of a sure fire star means that teams are shooting more for upside than anything else. Predicting the future is hard enough as a general manager, but it’s even tougher with a draft class like this one.
The lack of predictability also means we could see more trades today than ever before, and the Bulls are one of the main teams to watch.
Wednesday morning, Bulls fans woke up to a juicy rumor involving Chicago and Golden State.
Sources: The Warriors and Bulls have discussed a trade that’d send the second pick in exchange for the fourth pick and Wendell Carter Jr.
There is little doubt the Warriors will deal their no. 2 overall pick. With a healthy Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, this is a team ready for more titles. That second overall pick can be used to snag another piece to the puzzle via trade, and it looks like the Bulls might be their partner.
If Chicago trades Wendell Carter Jr. to the Warriors along with the fourth overall pick, it would seem likely that Arturas Karnisovas wants to go after Wiseman. But, will Wiseman be there? We might not know the answer to this rumor until Golden State is on the clock.
Carter would be an ideal big man to add for Golden State. He immediately makes them a favorite out West in many eyes, even with the Lakers’ star-studded cast.
For the Bulls, this move would be totally about ceiling. It’s all about upside — a word you will hear more today than in the next 364 days combined. Chicago is building for the future, and Wiseman very well could present more of a ceiling than Carter if we’re thinking long-term.
The seven-footer presents opponents with an ability to create his own shot, even off the dribble. His skill set is very unique and the athleticism is certainly there. Picturing Wiseman on the floor with Zach LaVine and Coby White is a fun thought. Will it happen? Buckle up.
The ChicagoBears need to fire Ryan Pace before they reach the 2021 NFL calendar year.
The Chicago Bears are an embarrassing franchise. If they didn’t have a defense that was good enough to win them a few games, they would be right there with the New York Jets at the bottom of the league. They are so pathetic on offense that they need to make big changes to their organization and fast. By the time that the NFL changes its calendar to 2021, they need to fire Ryan Pace before things get even worse (if that is possible).
Yes, he built a great defense. The Eddie Jackson, Kyle Fuller, and Roquan Smith draft picks amongst a few others were awesome. The Khalil Mack trade has its cons but he is an all-world player on a very good defense. There are many great players on that side of the ball but it makes it even worse for Ryan Pace the way he has left them out there to dry.
They are great but they are out there too much because of the fact that the offense is so bad. They can’t move the ball at all and it comes down to Ryan Pace’s decision-making. The offensive line is so bad and even though there are injuries, that is no excuse because it wasn’t that good, to begin with.
Did they need to add to their pass rush by adding Robert Quinn this past offseason? No, they did not. He hasn’t even been good anyway so it clear that the money was spent in the wrong areas. This line needs to be fixed before anything and Pace shouldn’t be the guy who is given that job.
Of course, the biggest mistake of Pace’s Bears tenure is the Mitchell Trubisky draft pick. He moved up from pick three to pick two to select Trubisky out of North Carolina where he only made 13 starts. Pace took Trubisky with Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson on the board. Now, Trubisky is a backup at best and the other two guys are all-world players with Hall of Fame trajectories.
That mistake set the Bears back by half a decade or more. If they had a quarterback like Mahomes or Watson paired with this defense, they would legitimately be Super Bowl contenders and could have even won one by now. It is such a bad look to have an offense that bad supporting a defense that is that good.
Pace also handpicked Matt Nagy to be the new head coach. It looked like he was the guy after 2018 but things have gone south from there. They have been an awful pair together and it is time to see them both go. Pace deserves to take most of the blame because he assembled a team that just isn’t good. He needs to be gone before the 2021 season gets underway.
Tan and Jonathan are fun and friendly, seven-month-old, male guinea pig brothers looking for a loving guardian together.
The boys get along well and jump for joy (adorable) and make wonderful wheeks and whistle sounds.
Guinea pigs eat a diet of unlimited timothy and orchard hays – in fact, hay should be the majority of their diet. They can have limited pellets, and a variety of fresh vegetables daily including romaine, red leaf and green leaf lettuces, cilantro, carrots, and a little bit of fruit as a treat: oranges, apples, etc.
Guinea pigs like humans need a source of vitamin C in their diet which they can get from a one-inch square piece of sweet red pepper, kale, chard and other greens, or you can use vitamin C treats made for guinea pigs.
Please read up on guinea pig care and diet before adopting by visiting this excellent web site http://www.guinealynx.info/.
Most cages marketed for guinea pigs are way too small. Guinea pigs need appropriate room to roam and separate spaces for a nest, bathroom area and food and water. No animal is meant to live in a cage all the time, so make sure to provide your pig with proper exercise outside of a cage with a romp around the home or exercise pen.
https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/guinea-pig-housing
They would love a home with people who will handle them daily, keep them well fed, and keep their habitat nice and clean.
If you’re interested in meeting and possibly adopting Jonathan and Tan, please fill out an adoption application at https://friendsofpetraits.com/guinea-pig-adoption-application/ and follow up by contacting [email protected] to set up an appointment to meet them.
They are being fostered in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.
Their adoption fee as a pair of $75 benefits the Friends of Petraits Rescue. For an additional $75, we’ll include a starter kit of absolutely everything you need to care for them including pellets, large cage, hay, hidey huts and water bottle.
If someone were to build the perfect way to feed a community, I think it’d look a lot like a farmer’s market.
Douglas Callegario would be there with freshly baked breads. All Grass Farms would have a table with eggs, milk, tons of fresh produce. You’d pickup what you needed and then meet with Leyla and Ahmet from Black & Caspian who’d show you how to make an incredible meal. The whole thing would somehow be free and everyone in the neighborhood would have access to healthy food, from great chefs, never going to bed hungry.
That would be the pie-in-the-sky dream. And on Saturdays at the Nettlehorst Market in Lakeview East or Green City Market in Lincoln Park, that dream is pretty close to reality (minus the free part). Even grocery stores like Mariano’s or Trader Joe’s, I take it for granted, but it’s pretty close to the dream too – fresh food, close by, easy to get there.
The nightmare scenario is, unfortunately, what played out this summer in the food deserts of Chicago. A food desert is an area where residents have to travel more than a mile to reach a supermarket (oftentimes it’s 3-5 miles away). Over 23 million Americans live in food deserts. In some of these neighborhoods, residents have been without a nearby supermarket for 10+ years.
In Chicago, the main way to travel out of the food desert is via public transit. This became dangerous during the pandemic, especially since these were the same areas most highly impacted by COVID-19.
And if that wasn’t challenge enough, come May and June, the few grocery stores around were temporarily closed after significant damage from riots and looting.
“We are worried it could take months for businesses to assess the damage, pick up the mess, bring their people back as they assess the safety conditions of their employees,” Felicia Slaton-Young, Executive Director of the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce said in a Chicago Tribune article from June 5th.
Danielle Davis, who’s from the South Side of Chicago, couldn’t take her mind off this situation.
“I was on a weekly work call where we talk about current events and happenings of the areas that we live in,” Davis said. “And I was so incredibly bothered by all of the looting that happened over the course of that weekend. I got on the call and I started to cry. And if you know me personally, I’m not a crier, I’m not really emotional. But I’ve been so bothered, and I think it was just kind of built up. There’s no way that I can sit here at this table, on my computer, in my home eating my food when there are so many kids that don’t have anything and their parents can’t help them either.”
Danielle messaged her boss, asked if she could take the afternoon off. Her boss said yes and Danielle went right to work.
“I went to Costco with my dad and we bought $1,000 worth of food,” Davis said. “I called up a couple of my friends that I knew would be interested in helping, and we just went and did it.”
The idea was to create school lunches for children so their families could easily come pickup food. Danielle shared the news on Instagram and her efforts quickly caught the attention of her friend Cam Dangerfield, Chef and Owner of Meltt Cafe in Atlanta.
“Cam called me and he’s like, ‘Hey, I saw what you’re doing. I think it’s a great idea,” Davis said. “‘What if we take it up a notch and let’s do home cooked meals for kids instead of just a basic sandwich, chips, juice box. They’ll be able to experience something that maybe they haven’t eaten before.'”
Cam is also from Chicago and was visiting family for two weeks.
“He was like, ‘Well, I’m not doing anything. I’ll just cook the first 20 meals while we figure out where we’re gonna get the rest of them.”
Cam went to the kitchen, started to do what he does best, creating home-cooked meals from scratch. He put in the same attention to detail that he does with his catering company.
“Cook the food, style it,” Cam described in an ABC7 news feature video. “And not just any food, we’re doing gourmet, exquisite meals for these people in need.”
One of Danielle’s friends who works as a social worker provided a list of families. They started with 10 families, then found 15 more by the end of the week.
Their dream and vision didn’t stop there.
“We started to just tag random chefs on Instagram like, ‘Hey, what are you doing? Can you help make us meals?” Davis said. “We’ll start you off with your first donation, $75, if you can make a meal for a family of five. And once you do that, pass it on to another chef.”
Danielle and Cam started out in the Chatham neighborhood and expanded over to Auburn Gresham, two of the most severe food deserts in all of Chicago. Some of the grocery stores were closed down for two weeks, so Danielle did food delivery for a little over a month and a half. They kept tagging more chefs in different cities and over the course of four weeks, the effort expanded to feed over 250 families across the country.
“The chefs we reached out to were so willing and so happy to do it,” Davis said. “I hardly got pushback from anyone.”
Of all the families served, one of the dropoffs that stands out most in Danielle’s memory was when she visited a pregnant woman with five children who needed help taking the food upstairs.
“I was carrying the boxes upstairs and I looked around and their apartment was bare bones, no furniture. They were all sleeping on the floor,” Davis said. “And she was so appreciative and so thankful. She started to cry. And that made me start to tear up because she was just so thankful. Her kids were so excited for the fruits and vegetables, because that’s also not something that is easily available within their area.”
Danielle always wanted to start a non-profit and this situation gave her the push to go out and do it. She launched Good Vibes Only Chiwith three friends and their work has included providing these meals along with diaper/wipes/formula/food pickups for new moms and a school supply drive with 250 backpacks + Chromebooks for kids on the South Side.
“We’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing,” Davis said. “And we are where we’re supposed to be at this time.”
For the holiday, Danielle is doing a Chefs For Change Thanksgiving edition. They’ll be distributing meals on Monday, November 23rd at Butler College Prep High School located at 821 E 103rd St from 6-8:30 PM in the Pullman neighborhood. The goal is to feed 25-35 families.
Ways to help and participate are through monetary donations (you can reach out on to good.vibes.only_chi on Instagram or to [email protected]) or continue to spread the word on social media using the #ChefsForChangeChallenge hashtag.
“I just want to add a thank you to everyone that has supported us, whether that is with time, or donations, or attending an event that we’ve had,” Davis said. “Every little bit of support is very appreciated, and it does not go unnoticed. We wouldn’t have made it this far without our community, so we just want to say thank you to everyone.”
I go back to that pie-in-the-sky dream at the beginning of this article, the fictional farmer’s market with fresh food prepared by incredible chefs, free of charge, and for as idyllic and far-fetched as that scene sounded, it’s exactly what Danielle and Cam created. And they did it in neighborhoods who were facing the exact opposite grocery shopping scenario.
It’s amazing to see what they accomplished, what they’re continuing to build, and to remember it all started with an idea during a work meeting, a chef, a kitchen, and one homecooked meal at a time.
If you scratched your head about the Douglas Callegario, All Grass Farms, and Black & Caspian references in the opening paragraph, those are part of an ongoing series this year featuring local restaurants and businesses all around Chicago. I’ve been amazed at how the themes of these different stories are tying together and I’m just continuing to follow where these stories go.
To catch up on some of the previous posts and read about great local spots, here they are below:
I was born and raised in Midland, Michigan and moved here to Chicago a couple years ago after graduating from Hope College. I live in the city with my beautiful wife Ashley.
A little bit about me – I go to bed early, I enjoy greasy food and would wear sweatpants everyday if I were allowed to. I just signed up for a year-long Divvy membership, but could very well be the slowest bicyclist in Chicago.
I write the Medium Rare blog and will have a new post up every Monday.
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