Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs an executive order on combatting gun violence during a news conference on the West Side on Monday. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Pritzker was joined by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and other elected officials, including the General Assembly’s Democratic leaders and members of the City Council to announce the state’s “next step in the pursuit of violence reduction.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday declared gun violence a “public health crisis” and pledged to funnel $250 million over three years to reducing and interrupting shootings, a move he said is “about children who are being gunned down among us.”

Along with the executive order making the declaration and the funding, the governor announced the formation of a new state office for firearm violence prevention that will seek to curb gun crimes.

Pritzker was joined by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and other city and state elected officials to announce the state’s “next step in the pursuit of violence reduction.”

“Gun violence is devastating communities, neighborhoods, blocks and families. Mothers, fathers, brothers, friends are experiencing senseless tragedies in the deaths and serious injuries of their loved ones,” Pritzker said. “This work is urgent. This is about children who are being gunned down among us as it is about so many others.”

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, left to right, and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle attend a news conference at Breakthrough FamilyPlex on the West Side on Monday.

The plan to reduce violence includes a commitment to invest $250 million over the next three years to implement the Reimagine Public Safety Act, a plan meant to “directly reduce and interrupt violence in our neighborhoods,” and create the state’s Office of Firearm Violence Prevention,” the governor said.

The act passed during the Legislature’s fall veto session, which wrapped up last week. It has not yet been signed into law.

The funding for Illinois’ gun violence reduction plan includes federal monies as well as $50 million from the state’s 2022 budget. Pritzker’s administration plans to work with state legislators to earmark $100 million for anti-violence work in the next two fiscal years.

In the next few weeks, the violence prevention office will announce a process for organizations to receive grant funding focused on technical assistance for violence prevention and youth development and intervention, according to a news release on the funds.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks during a news conference on Monday.

Pritzker’s executive order requires state agencies focused on gun violence to work with the new violence prevention office to address the systemic causes around the issue and develop strategies that take into account equity and trauma.

The order also lays out a four-pronged approach to violence prevention that includes intervention programs for high-risk youth, violence prevention services — such as street-based violence interruption work and emotional or trauma-related therapy — after school and summer programming to increase youth school attendance and reduce contact with the criminal justice system and trauma-recovery services for young people.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks Monday during a news conference at Breakthrough FamilyPlex on the West Side before Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs an executive order declaring gun violence a public health crisis in the state.

Lightfoot said she and other leaders have “got to be in concert together.”

This is a long fight, not a short fight,” Lightfoot said. “This is a fight that we must think [about] and reimagine at every single level, be nimble and thinking about how we can help our residents feel safe.”

At an unrelated news conference later in the day, Lightfoot acknowledged that she started treating Chicago violence “like a public health crisis” even before she took office in May 2019 so the declaration “is not new” but the statewide designation is important, she said.

As for what the funds will mean, Lightfoot said “the jury’s out. But it has the potential to really be transformative. … My hope is that a lot of Chicago-based organizations are gonna be able to get access to those grants.”

“We made a commitment that we will provide the technical assistance on the front end so they have the capacity to comply and be competitive and then on the back end to help them realize and utilize those resources,” Lightfoot said.

The first-term mayor is determined to “do everything that we can” to make certain that Chicago-based street outreach and intervention organizations “get access to those funds.”

Shootings have been on the rise this year with at least 630 people fatally shot, and at least 3,165 others wounded in Chicago through Oct. 30, according to an analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times. Through that time, compared to 2020, the city has seen a 9% increase in shooting victims and an almost 69% increase compared to 2019. Those figures put the city on track to have one of its deadliest years since the mid-1990s.

When it comes to community safety, Chicago “can’t just make up a plan on the fifth floor of City Hall and hope for the best,” the mayor said. City officials need to be “deep in with community” residents.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Gov. J.B. Pritzker looks on as Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference at Breakthrough FamilyPlex on the West Side on Monday.

Lightfoot urged the state to “continue to be in conversation” with the city around issues of community safety.

“It can’t be a policy that’s cooked up in Springfield, then spread out to the rest of the state,” Lightfoot said.

State legislation that Pritzker signed earlier this year declared violence a public health problem and tasked the state’s departments of public health and human services with studying how to create a process to identify high-violence areas and infuse them with state dollars to help address the underlying causes of crime and violence. The departments are required to file a report on that process with the General Assembly by the end of the year.

Pritzker pointed to violence in the city as part of the impetus behind the Monday announcement.

“We will do what it takes individually, and collectively, to address the immediate violence on our streets and invest in fighting the underlying causes that create too much despair, too much addiction, too little mental health treatment and too few opportunities,” Pritzker said.

Contributing: Andy Boyle

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Kyle Rittenhouse looks back at the potential juror pool during the jury selection process at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., Monday, Nov. 1, 2021. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha, last year. | AP

By early evening, at least 29 of the 150 or so prospective jurors summoned had been dismissed, about a dozen of them because they had strong opinions about the case or doubts they could be fair.

KENOSHA, Wis. – The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse opened Monday with the challenging task of seating jurors who hadn’t already made up their minds about the young aspiring police officer who shot two people to death and wounded a third during a night of anti-racism protests in Kenosha last year.

The jury that is ultimately selected in the politically charged case will have to decide whether Rittenhouse acted in self-defense, as his lawyers claim, or was engaged in vigilantism when he opened fire with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

By early evening, at least 29 of the 150 or so prospective jurors summoned had been dismissed, about a dozen of them because they had strong opinions about the case or doubts they could be fair. Some also expressed fear about serving on the jury because of public anger but were not immediately let go.

Rittenhouse was 17 when he traveled to Kenosha from his home in Illinois, just across the Wisconsin state line, during unrest that broke out in August 2020 after a white Kenosha police officer shot and wounded Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back. Rittenhouse said he went there to protect property after two previous nights marked by arson, gunfire and the ransacking of businesses.

The now-18-year-old Rittenhouse faces life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him, first-degree homicide.

As jury selection got underway, Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder stressed repeatedly that jurors must decide the case solely on what they hear in the courtroom, and cautioned: “This is not a political trial.”

“It was mentioned by both political campaigns and the presidential campaign last year, in some instances very, very imprudently,” he said.

The judge said Rittenhouse’s constitutional right to a fair trial, not the Second Amendment right to bear arms, will come into play, and “I don’t want it to get sidetracked into other issues.”

Among those dismissed by the judge were a man who said he was at the site of the protests when “all that happened” and a woman who said she knew one of the potential witnesses in the case well and would probably give more weight to that person’s testimony.

Another woman who said she watched a livestream video of what happened was dismissed because she wasn’t sure if she could put aside what she saw. One person was dropped from the case after she said she believes in the Biblical injunction “Thou shall not kill” even in cases of self-defense. A man who said he had “been commenting consistently on news feeds and Facebook” was also excused.

A man said his son is friends with the person who bought the gun that Rittenhouse later used in the shooting. He was not immediately dismissed by the judge.

Under questioning by prosecutor Thomas Binger, some prospective jurors said they left town during the unrest. Others took precautions by moving vehicles or boarding up businesses. One said she got a gun to protect herself and her family.

“After all of that — neighbors yelling that I shouldn’t have my flag hanging, my United States of America flag should not be up for whatever reason — I left it up and I got a gun,” the woman said.

The prosecutor also moved to dismiss a woman who said that she has a biracial granddaughter who participated in some of the protests and that she could not be impartial. Rittenhouse’s attorneys had no objection.

Binger asked if any of the jurors had donated money to support Rittenhouse, or if they knew anyone who did. None said so.

Rittenhouse has been painted by supporters on the right as a patriot who took a stand against lawlessness by demonstrators and exercised his Second Amendment gun rights. Others see him as a vigilante and police wannabe who never should have been armed in Kenosha in the first place.

Rittenhouse is white, as were those he shot, but many are watching his trial as the latest referendum on race and the American legal system, in part because the protesters were on the streets to decry police violence against Black people.

Rittenhouse’s attorney got a prospective juror dropped after she said she would find Rittenhouse guilty of all charges just because he was carrying an assault-style weapon. “I don’t think a weapon like that should belong to the general public,” the woman said.

Two prospective jurors said they would be nervous about serving, though the judge assured them precautions would be taken to keep them safe.

“My fear is walking out of any of the days of court and just wondering what we’re walking out to,” said one. “What are our cars going to look like when we’re going out to them? Are they going to be slashed? Are they going to be damaged? Am I going to be able to get home safe?”

The other said she did not want to serve on the Rittenhouse jury because “either way this goes you’re going to have half the country upset with you and they react poorly.” She said: “I don’t want people to come after in their haze of craze.”

The start of jury selection was briefly delayed in the morning for unexplained reasons. During the delay, the judge played a mock game of “Jeopardy!” with prospective jurors in the courtroom, something he sometimes does as attorneys get organized.

Schroeder told the potential jurors he would select 20 of them — 12 jurors and eight alternates — to hear the case, which is expected to last about two weeks. He said he will almost certainly not sequester the jury.

Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, after Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse across a parking lot and threw a plastic bag at him shortly before midnight on Aug. 25. Moments later, as Rittenhouse was running down a street, he shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, a protester from Silver Lake, Wisconsin, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, a protester from West Allis, Wisconsin.

Bystander video captured Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse but not the actual shooting. Video showed Huber swinging a skateboard at Rittenhouse before he was shot. Grosskreutz had a gun in his hand as he stepped toward Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse faces two homicide counts and one of attempted homicide, along with charges of reckless endangering and illegal possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.

Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin, Forliti from Minneapolis. Associated Press writer Tammy Webber contributed from Fenton, Michigan.

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Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 members and their supporters protested against COVID-19 vaccine mandates outside City Hall last week. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

A ruling issued Monday stays the Dec. 31 city mandate for police officers to get a shot, sending the issue back to the bargaining table.

A Cook County judge on Monday effectively sent city attorneys and the Chicago Police Department’s labor unions back to the bargaining table to resolve a dispute over the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate — but also told the city it can’t require officers to get vaccinated by year’s end.

Those unions had sought to stop the city from enforcing its order requiring all city workers to share their vaccination status on an online portal and submit to twice-weekly testing if they are not fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The case “presents two competing public interests, but one interest need not be scuttled in favor of another,” Judge Raymond Mitchell wrote in his ruling. “The City’s public health objective and the police union’s desire to pursue their grievances are not wholly irreconcilable.”

Mitchell, who heard arguments in the case last week by attorneys for the Fraternal Order of Police and the city, left intact the requirement that CPD officers report their vaccine status and the city’s current policy requiring multiple weekly tests for unvaccinated officers. But Mitchell’s order does stay the Dec. 31 deadline for all officers to be vaccinated, urging the city and union to pursue arbitration.

“The reporting obligation itself is a minimal intrusion,” Mitchell wrote, “particularly considering that police officers already are obligated to provide medical information to their employer.”

Though the judge left the reporting requirement in place, he said the deadline to be vaccinated was different.

“‘Obey now, grieve later’ is not possible,” Mitchell wrote. “If every union member complied and was vaccinated by December 31 … they would have no grievance to pursue and there would be no remedy an arbitrator could award. An award of back pay or reinstatement cannot undo a vaccine. Nothing can.”

In a separate lawsuit, a federal judge on Friday had denied a bid for a temporary restraining order blocking the city’s vaccine mandate. That request came from a group of Chicago firefighters and other city employees.

Mitchell’s order would not appear to alter the status of officers who so far have refused to divulge their vaccination status, in violation of an Oct. 15 deadline imposed by the department.

Later Monday, the city released its latest data on employee response to the vaccine mandate. It showed about 87% of all employees have reported their status, and of those, 82% are fully vaccinated. The reporting rate for CPD continues to be the lowest of all city departments, with 73% responding, and 80% of those saying they were vaccinated.

Noting that “judicial intervention in labor disputes is disfavored,” Mitchell wrote, “my intention is to enter to narrowest possible order to preserve the unions’ right to a meaningful arbitration. The balance of the City’s vaccination policy remains fully in effect, including the reporting and testing obligations.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot chose to focus not on the judge eliminating the vaccination deadline, but on his upholding the reporting requirement.

“The mandate continues. … Our lawyers are looking at the judge’s ruling. They’re looking at what our legal options are. But what I know is, we cannot stop. … This is about saving peoples’ lives,” the mayor said later Monday.

Lightfoot said the city has tried to negotiate a compromise with the FOP since August, but the union is hell-bent on running out the clock.

“How many more members have to die before you come to the table? … If you’re serious about it, come to the table every single day, starting today, and let’s get a deal done,” she said.

“What they’re serious about is obstructing, obfuscating and telling half-truths. … I do not want people to die in my city when there is a life-saving, free, safe vaccine readily available.”

Lightfoot was asked whether the judge’s ruling is a “validation” of both the vaccine mandate and the reporting mandate.

“If you look at what’s happening in court cases all across the country — whether it’s firemen, police or others that are challenging these mandates — I’m not aware of a single instance in which a mandate put in place has been invalidated,” she said.

“The silent, overwhelming majority of folks in city government recognize the need for the vaccine and, frankly, don’t want to work next to somebody who they don’t know what their vaccine status is.”

Although thousands of police officers still have not reported their vaccination status, only 30 have been placed on no-pay status.

Still, the mayor insisted the city is moving with “deliberate speed” — painstakingly explaining the mandate one last time and giving non-compliant officers one more chance to report their vaccination status.

“This isn’t quick work. Sometimes, it takes multiple hours,” she said, arguing that the vast majority of officers “sign up on the spot.”

Lodge 7 of the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents rank-and-file officers, was joined in its lawsuit by smaller unions representing CPD sergeants, lieutenants and captains.

Ahead of that Oct. 15 deadline to report their vaccination status, Lodge 7 President John Catanzara had urged his members to defy that order, warning that if enough officers landed on no-pay status for refusing, the police force would be hobbled.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara addresses a group of union protesters and their supporters at a rally against COVID-19 vaccine mandates outside City Hall last week.

Joel D’Alba, the police union’s attorney, had argued last week that the city should be ordered to stop enforcing its mandate entirely until the matter is resolved. D’Alba declined to comment on Monday’s ruling. Catanzara could not be reached for comment.

Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st), one of the police unions’ staunchest City Council allies, said the judge’s decision to stay the Dec. 31 vaccine deadline until the FOP’s grievances can be arbitrated is “a lot more American” than Lightfoot’s mandate from on high.

“This is a terrific. … Instead of forcing people to do something, you bring it to a conversation and arbitration,” Napolitano said.

“The fundamentals of the contract have been denied. A collective bargaining agreement is just that. You collectively bargain for what you’re going to do to members. That was never done. That’s why this needs to go to arbitration.”

Monday’s ruling applies only to the police unions. But Napolitano said opposition to the vaccine mandate is coming from all city unions, not just those representing first-responders.

“I’m just hoping that this is kind of the segue to all other unions filing suits and having the same results,” he said.

Another lawsuit was filed against the vaccine mandate on Sunday, before Mitchell’s ruling. The 13 named plaintiffs, all union members, work in various areas, including the Department of Streets and Sanitation, the Department of Transportation and CPD.

Some in that suit say they have complied with the reporting requirement, but only under duress. The suit, filed in federal court, argues that “the vaccine will not stop the spread of COVID-19 among city of Chicago workers nor in the city.”

In that new lawsuit, some plaintiffs also said they had either been exposed or tested positive, had symptoms and recovered, so they “may have natural immunity.” One plaintiff claimed he “got better” after taking ivermectin, a cheap drug used to kill worms and other parasites in humans and animals, but which has not been approved for use against the coronavirus.

Napolitano said he would have preferred a more sweeping temporary restraining order that also stayed the requirement that police officers report their vaccine status.

“That’s a big push in this, too. People don’t want to share that information. So, baby steps. Hopefully, that’s the next move,” Napolitano said.

“A lot of people have fought for many, many, many years — way before COVID — for the right to govern their own body. … And that has been completely stripped from city workers. And when it’s done through an executive order, it takes us out as a City Council and it’s a forced ruling.”

Napolitano has served the city as both a police officer and a firefighter. He represents a far Northwest Side ward that is home to scores of police officers.

Another former police officer on the Council, Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), chairman of the Committee on Public Safety, strongly disagreed with Mitchell’s ruling.

“I don’t believe that the contract requires that every policy that’s implemented by executive order be a contract issue. The mayor is the chief executive of every single department within the city,” Taliaferro said.

Now that the Dec. 31 vaccination deadline for city workers has been lifted, Taliaferro said he’s concerned the incentive for CPD officers to get the shot has been removed.

“I hope those that are not vaccinated really take a deep look and see the good and the science behind this vaccination, [and] see … that they can preserve their lives, their family’s well-being and others as well,” Taliaferro said.

“A person has a right to be able to choose whether or not to be vaccinated. But there’s consequences and those consequences may be personal. There’s a lot people that are still dying from this virus.”

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Marilyn Manson performs at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago in 2018. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

The shock rocker has renounced Christianity in the past and is facing lawsuits alleging sexual assault and abuse.

One of the celebrity guests at Ye’s Sunday Service sparked controversy over the Halloween weekend: Marilyn Manson, who is currently facing several lawsuits alleging sexual, emotional and physical abuse.

The hourlong service kicked off with the choir singing Ye’s “No Child Left Behind” off his “Donda” album as members dressed in all white stood in a circle with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), Justin Bieber, Roddy Rich and Manson in the middle.

Midway through Sunday Service, Ye and Manson flanked Bieber as he led a prayer.

“Thank you for your forgiveness, thank you for your Holy Spirit that dwells in us, thank you for your majesty,” Bieber said as Ye and Manson bowed their heads. “God thank you for your people … wrap us with your love, show us who you are … thank you Jesus.”

He continued: “We cast out any demonic activity that would try to steal our peace today, or steal our joy.”

Manson holds an honorary priesthood in San Francisco’s First Church of Satan. While his actual role in the Church of Satan has been disputed over a number of years, it’s undeniable that Manson’s career has had a strong anti-Christian lean. Once, while speaking at the MTV VMAs, he referred to Christianity as “oppressive” and “fascism.”

This isn’t Manson’s first time accompanying Ye during one of his events. He made a surprise appearance at Ye’s controversial “Donda” listening party at Soldier Field in August which also included DaBaby, who has faced backlash for spewing homophobic comments, on a song that originally featured Jay-Z. Manson is also given a songwriting credit for Ye’s song “Jail pt 2.”

Manson’s presence at Ye’s Sunday Service comes amid allegations of sexual assault and abuse levied against the artist.

In June, Ashley Morgan Smithline became the fourth person to file a lawsuit against Manson. Smithline is among more than a dozen women who have alleged abuse committed by Manson. Three others, including “Game of Thrones” actress Esme Bianco, Manson’s former personal assistant Ashley Walters and a woman who has chosen to remain anonymous, have brought lawsuits against the shock rocker.

And in February, “Westworld” actress and Manson’s ex-fiancee Evan Rachel Wood claimed the musician “horrifically abused me for years.”

Sunday Service is a weekly worship event that started in January 2019. It brings together a group of attendees — with celebs including Paris Jackson, Courtney Love, Rick Rubin, Kid Cudi, Busy Philipps and Diplo in the audience — to watch Ye lead a choir and perform new compositions of his old and new hits. Ye sings, often standing in front of a keyboard, as the guest vocalists provide backup in gospel rearrangements of his songs.

Read more at usatoday.com

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A police car sits outside a house Sunday evening where more than 12 people were wounded, two of them fatally, in a shooting early Sunday at a Halloween party in Joliet Township. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

The gunfire erupted early Sunday near a DJ booth set up in the backyard of a home, authorities said. Witnesses reported two gunmen opened fire “from an elevated position on a porch looking down over the crowd” of more than 200 people.

Police had been called three times about excessive noise at a Halloween party on a normally quiet block in Joliet Township but had not tried to disperse the crowd of more than 200 people before gunfire erupted, killing two and wounding nine others.

Elizabeth Arias, a neighbor who said she was a relative of the people who threw the party, said the officers were “just out here waiting for them to leave.”

“This could’ve been avoided,” added Arias, whose son and niece were at the get-together.

The two people killed were identified by the Will County coroner’s office Monday as 22-year-old Joliet residents Holly Mathews and Jonathan Ceballos. They each died of a single gunshot wound.

The shooting erupted about 12:40 a.m. near a DJ booth set up in the backyard of a home in the 1000 block of East Jackson Street, according to the Will County sheriff’s office. Witnesses told detectives that two gunmen opened fire from an elevated position on a porch looking down over the crowd.

A patrol sergeant already in the area for complaints about the noise heard as many as 12 gunshots near Jackson and Walnut streets and began investigating, the sheriff’s office said. The sergeant saw over 100 people rushing east on Jackson from the home.

Police found wounded partygoers in the backyard and at nearby home, the sheriff’s office said. Authorities heard more shots as they were investigating in the area.

Police said the shooting appeared to be gang-related, but offered no details.

“Detectives have collected a substantial amount of evidence and are continuing to interview witnesses. Some victims and partygoers are being uncooperative,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Nine of the wounded were taken by paramedics to hospitals. Five were released by Monday, three remained hospitalized and were expected to survive and one was still in critical condition, the sheriff’s office said.

Mathews and Ceballos were pronounced dead at the scene.

News of the Halloween gathering had spread on social media, attracting a larger crowd than what the organizers had expected, according to police.

Several neighbors knew something wasn’t right when they saw parked cars lined both sides of the streets in what is typically a quiet neighborhood. At least three people said they had called the police to report loud music and ask for crowd control.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Police tape blocks access to the house where more than 12 people were wounded, two of them fatally, in a shooting early Sunday at a Halloween party near the 1000 block of Jackson Street in Joliet Township.

Arias’ son told her that organizers had shut the music off and told people that the police were on their way in an attempt to get people to leave. But that didn’t happen.

Another woman who lived near the event said she heard the gunshots while she was in bed. When she got to her porch she saw a chaotic scene of a stampede of young people running, leaving behind crushed red cups and beer cans.

“It was crazy, kids running everywhere screaming. But police were here, they were on it,” the woman said.

Arias and her neighbor took in some of the rattled partygoers who were seeking shelter. “You could hear more shots being fired,” she said.

People were running through a wooded area near the home, using cellphone flashlights to see where they were going. Some jumped over a fence. “It was so scary,” Arias said. “It was something out of the movies.”

Arias said she had never seen anything like what happened Sunday morning. “That’s why I refuse to move because it’s so quiet here,” she said.

Another woman said she had moved to the area three years ago from the West Side of Chicago to get away from gun violence. “This is the first time” something like this happened, she said. “This is crazy.”

One of the suspected shooters was described as a Hispanic male with facial hair and a medium build who was seen wearing a red hooded sweatshirt, a black flat-billed hat and dark pants, the sheriff’s office said.

The other suspect, who donned a ski mask, was described as a male — possibly Hispanic or Black of a light complexion — with a medium build, the sheriff’s office said. He was seen wearing a yellow hooded sweatshirt.

The sheriff’s office asked for help identifying the shooters.

“With the amount of attendees at this party, we are most certain that several people know who committed this atrocious and deadly shooting,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement Monday.

Anyone with information, including cellphone photos or video of the party, can contact Detective Danielle Strohm at (815) 727-8574 or [email protected].

Tipsters who wish to remain anonymous can contact the sheriff’s office’s website or contact Will County Crime Stoppers at (800) 323-6734 or its website.

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Bears wide receiver Allen Robinson (12) has 26 receptions for 271 yards (10.4 avg.) and one touchdown this season. | David Banks/AP Photos

While Broncos general manager George Paton had a Mack-like commodity in Miller, he also had something that Ryan Pace does not have — time. Paton is in his first season as the Broncos’ GM. Pace is in his seventh with the Bears.

Eight-time Pro Bowl pass rusher Von Miller expressed surprise when the Broncos traded him to the Rams for second- and third-round draft picks Monday. But the deal wasn’t all that shocking in today’s NFL landscape. Trade deadline deals — historically a baseball thing — have become a reality in the NFL as well.

One move often begets in another in these situations, so the Broncos’ big move puts just a little more focus on general manager Ryan Pace and the Bears heading into Tuesday’s trade deadline. The Bears are 3-5 after Sunday’s 33-22 loss to the 49ers at Soldier Field — and looking less and less like a playoff team as the defense withers while Justin Fields develops step by step.

If they were a baseball team, they’d be targeted as sellers, like the 2021 Cubs. But in the second floor offices of Halas Hall, Pace and right-hand man Joey Laine more likely think they’re the Braves. That might be their only hope.

The Bears have tradeable commodities — not only spare parts like backup quarterbacks Nick Foles and Andy Dalton, but key contributors such as wide receiver Allen Robinson, defensive end Akiem Hicks, outside linebacker Khalil Mack, tight end Jimmy Graham, linebacker Danny Trevathan and maybe even running back David Montgomery.

But while Broncos general manager George Paton — a former Bears pro personnel honcho — had a Mack-like commodity in Miller, he also had something that Pace does not have — time. Paton is in his first season as the Broncos’ GM. Pace is in his seventh.

It must be excruciating for Pace. He desperately needs cherished draft picks. After trading his first- and fourth-round picks in 2022 to the Giants to move up last year’s draft to get Fields, he has just two picks in the first four rounds of the 2022 draft and five picks overall (a second, a third, two fifths and a sixth). But he might need victories and a playoff berth even more. What does he do?

Maybe something low level, but probably not a white-flag level sell-off that would signal a rebuild, even with his defense showing signs of advancing age. Both Pace and coach Matt Nagy probably don’t have time to take another step back.

Nagy spoke only in generalities when asked if he had spoken to Pace — and chairman George McCaskey and team president Ted Phillips, for that matter — about the trade deadline.

“We always communicate. We’re always discussing the status of our team every week, and where we’re at,” Nagy said. “Obviously with the trade deadline coming up, we’ll go through different scenario and situations.”

But at 3-5, Nagy has bigger problems.

“For me and my role, we are completely entrenched in the Steelers right now,” Nagy said. “I’ll be in on discussions with Ryan, as those guys [in the personnel department] go through where we stand. That’s always a fluid conversation — which is like that for probably every coach and GM and ownership at this point.

“I have a ton of belief in the partnership that Ryan and I have working together. And him being the general manager and going through all that [trade-deadline] stuff, I know they’re holding all that down. Ryan has been phenomenal with me in trying to allow me to be the best head coach I can be, and take things off my plate. I’m always there to help when I can and give opinions and suggestions. I think that’s what’s most important.

It’s a difficult situation for everyone at Halas Hall — a hole they dug all by themselves. At 3-5, with a defense that has dropped to 15th in yards and tied for 20th in points, a slowly developing Justin Fields in the 32nd-ranked offense in the NFL is not only Pace’s and Nagy’s best hope, but maybe their only hope. Trade deadline be damned.

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David Strathairn stars as the title character in “Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. | Teresa Castracane Photography

Oscar-nominated actor’s one-man show ‘Remember This’ shines a light on Polish resistance fighter Jan Karski.

Oscar-nominated actor David Strathairn has never shied away from portraying complex historical figures, with roles ranging from White Sox pitcher Eddie Cicotte (“Eight Men Out”) and Police Chief Sid Hatfield (“Matewan”) to Edward R. Murrow (“Good Night, and Good Luck”), Secretary of State William Seward (“Lincoln”) and outspoken novelist John Dos Passos (“Hemingway & Gellhorn”).

Also a seasoned Broadway actor, Strathairn has found one of his most challenging portrayals on stage in “Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski,” which is making its Chicago debut at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. The goal of the one-man show is to shine a light on Karski, a World War II Polish resistance fighter, whose legacy is little known today.

“Jan Karski was an extraordinary person,” Strathairn says. “The story of his life needs to be told and retold and kept fresh in the minds of people who are grappling with questions of how to bear witness with what is going on in our world today.”

Karski (1914-2000) was an eyewitness to Nazi atrocities, and the information he smuggled out of Poland included some of the earliest accounts of the Holocaust that were met with disbelief by leaders in London and Washington. After the war he earned a Ph.D. from Georgetown University, where he would spend four decades on the School of Foreign Policy faculty.

Karski didn’t talk much about his wartime exploits until 1985, when he was asked to participate in “Shoah,” director Claude Lanzmann’s nine-hour documentary about the Holocaust. He was later named to the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, and honored posthumously in the United States with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

As a professor of theater and performance arts and co-director of The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown, Derek Goldman was familiar with Karski’s legendary status as a professor. But it wasn’t until Karski’s centennial birthday when he was asked to develop a piece about him that he began to dig into his full story and became “fixated on its power and resonance.”

Goldman, along with co-writer Clark Young, began collaborating on the project in 2014, basing the script on interviews, archives and Karski’s memoir, “Courier from Poland: The Story of a Secret State.”

Goldman, also the play’s director, immediately reached out to his friend Strathairn, a collaborator on several previous projects: “I had an immediate feeling that David’s particular humility and approach and spirit would be a fit. There’s a technical virtuosity here but also what I think of as a spiritual virtuosity in terms of the different registers of humanity that David goes through.”

The setting is Karski’s classroom and the audience his students as he recounts his timeline during the war from serving in the Polish army to his escape from a Soviet labor camp to his service in the Polish underground and his later trips to London, where he met with British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, and to the U.S., where he met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Teresa Castracane Photography
David Strathairn as real-life World War II hero Jan Karski in “Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski,” written by Clark Young and Derek Goldman.

“Karski’s story is almost James Bondian,” says Strathairn. “And he was very demonstrative in his anecdotes and his teaching, and we thought that could dovetail with the theatricality of a one-man show.”

“Remember This” (a film version is due out next year) began as an ensemble work with Strathairn and students at Georgetown but morphed into its solo incarnation only after the creative team spent time in Krakow with student actors who brought their very physical skills to the workshop.

By the end of that week, they started to stage moments with a much more intense physicality than what is normally thought of in a one-man show, and the role began to morph into a very physical one for the 72-year-old actor whose performance is now anything but static.

On a minimalist set with few props, Strathairn’s physicality (a tumble from a moving train, Gestapo beatings, etc.) became key to the storytelling, says Goldman, who admits he was at first resistant to a one-man show.

“But we started to see how the piece could be active and alive and carry us through the events of the younger man’s life through the older man’s body in a really evocative way,” Goldman says. “We saw that this could have a visceral impact on the audience. David’s performance is a physical feat but also an incredibly textured emotional feat.”

Strathairn and Goldman both hope that the play sparks a dialogue, one that finds resonance in today’s world.

“It’s not often that you get the chance to pursue this kind of character, to pursue this kind of story in a dramatic form where we all felt the application was something more than just entertainment,” explains Strathairn. “We are hoping that the questions that surround Karski’s legacy are entertained in a very serious and thoughtful way.”

Goldman adds that “this is not simply a play about looking back on history.

“But rather one that resonates with a moment and the status of truth and what it means to bear witness. Karski spoke to this notion of individual responsibility, the idea that individuals can make an impact on the world around them. This is a project that we hope can bring people together in difficult dialogue rather than make a case for one thing over another thing.”

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Kyle Rittenhouse looks back at the potential juror pool during the jury selection process at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., Monday, Nov. 1, 2021. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha, last year. | AP

Judge Bruce Schroeder told attorneys he thinks picking the 20-member jury pool from 150 prospective jurors can be accomplished in a day.

KENOSHA, Wis. – The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse opened Monday with the challenging task of seating jurors who hadn’t already made up their minds about the young aspiring police officer who shot two people to death and wounded a third during a night of anti-racism protests in Kenosha last year.

The jury that is ultimately selected in the politically charged case will have to decide whether Rittenhouse acted in self-defense, as his lawyers claim, or was engaged in vigilantism when he opened fire with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

By late afternoon, at least 28 of the 150 or so prospective jurors summoned had been dismissed, about a dozen of them because they had strong opinions about the case or doubts they could be fair. Some also expressed fear about serving on the jury because of public anger but were not immediately let go.

Rittenhouse was 17 when he traveled to Kenosha from his home in Illinois, just across the Wisconsin state line, during unrest that broke out in August 2020 after a white Kenosha police officer shot and wounded Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back. Rittenhouse said he went there to protect property after two previous nights marked by arson, gunfire and the ransacking of businesses.

The now-18-year-old Rittenhouse faces life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him, first-degree homicide.

As jury selection got underway, Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder stressed repeatedly that jurors must decide the case solely on what they hear in the courtroom, and cautioned: “This is not a political trial.”

“It was mentioned by both political campaigns and the presidential campaign last year, in some instances very, very imprudently,” he said.

The judge said Rittenhouse’s constitutional right to a fair trial, not the Second Amendment right to bear arms, will come into play, and “I don’t want it to get sidetracked into other issues.”

Among those dismissed by the judge were a man who said he was at the site of the protests when “all that happened” and a woman who said she knew one of the potential witnesses in the case well and would probably give more weight to that person’s testimony.

Another woman who said she watched a livestream video of what happened was dismissed because she wasn’t sure if she could put aside what she saw. One person was dropped from the case after she said she believes in the Biblical injunction “Thou shall not kill” even in cases of self-defense. A man who said he had “been commenting consistently on news feeds and Facebook” was also excused.

A man said his son is friends with the person who bought the gun that Rittenhouse later used in the shooting. He was not immediately dismissed by the judge.

Under questioning by prosecutor Thomas Binger, some prospective jurors said they left town during the unrest. Others took precautions by moving vehicles or boarding up businesses. One said she got a gun to protect herself and her family.

“After all of that — neighbors yelling that I shouldn’t have my flag hanging, my United States of America flag should not be up for whatever reason — I left it up and I got a gun,” the woman said.

One woman told Binger she feared there would be friction in her marriage if she came to a verdict that went against her husband’s opinion. The judge put her questioning aside for the time being without dismissing her.

The prosecutor also moved to dismiss a woman who said that she has a biracial granddaughter who participated in some of the protests and that she could not be impartial. Rittenhouse’s attorneys had no objection.

Binger asked if any of the jurors had donated money to support Rittenhouse, or if they knew anyone who did. None said so.

Rittenhouse has been painted by supporters on the right as a patriot who took a stand against lawlessness by demonstrators and exercised his Second Amendment gun rights. Others see him as a vigilante and police wannabe who never should have been armed in Kenosha in the first place.

Rittenhouse is white, as were those he shot, but many are watching his trial as the latest referendum on race and the American legal system, in part because the protesters were on the streets to decry police violence against Black people.

Rittenhouse’s attorney got a prospective juror dropped after she said she would find Rittenhouse guilty of all charges just because he was carrying an assault-style weapon. “I don’t think a weapon like that should belong to the general public,” the woman said.

Two prospective jurors said they would be nervous about serving, though the judge assured them precautions would be taken to keep them safe.

“My fear is walking out of any of the days of court and just wondering what we’re walking out to,” said one. “What are our cars going to look like when we’re going out to them? Are they going to be slashed? Are they going to be damaged? Am I going to be able to get home safe?”

The other said she did not want to serve on the Rittenhouse jury because “either way this goes you’re going to have half the country upset with you and they react poorly.” She said: “I don’t want people to come after in their haze of craze.”

The start of jury selection was briefly delayed in the morning for unexplained reasons. During the delay, the judge played a mock game of “Jeopardy!” with prospective jurors in the courtroom, something he sometimes does as attorneys get organized.

Schroeder told the potential jurors he would select 20 of them — 12 jurors and eight alternates — to hear the case, which is expected to last about two weeks. He said he will almost certainly not sequester the jury.

Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, after Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse across a parking lot and threw a plastic bag at him shortly before midnight on Aug. 25. Moments later, as Rittenhouse was running down a street, he shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, a protester from Silver Lake, Wisconsin, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, a protester from West Allis, Wisconsin.

Bystander video captured Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse but not the actual shooting. Video showed Huber swinging a skateboard at Rittenhouse before he was shot. Grosskreutz had a gun in his hand as he stepped toward Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse faces two homicide counts and one of attempted homicide, along with charges of reckless endangering and illegal possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.

Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin, Forliti from Minneapolis. Associated Press writer Tammy Webber contributed from Fenton, Michigan.

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs an executive order on combatting gun violence during a news conference on the West Side on Monday. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Pritzker was joined by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and other elected officials, including the General Assembly’s Democratic leaders and members of the City Council to announce the state’s “next step in the pursuit of violence reduction.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday declared gun violence a “public health crisis” and pledged to funnel $250 million over three years to reducing and interrupting shootings, a move he said is “about children who are being gunned down among us.”

Along with the executive order making the declaration and the funding, the governor announced the formation of a new state office for firearm violence prevention that will seek to curb gun crimes.

Pritzker was joined by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and other city and state elected officials to announce the state’s “next step in the pursuit of violence reduction.”

“Gun violence is devastating communities, neighborhoods, blocks and families, mothers fathers, brothers, friends are experiencing senseless tragedies in the deaths and serious injuries of their loved ones,” Pritzker said. “This work is urgent. This is about children who are being gunned down among us as it is about so many others.”

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, left to right, and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle attend a news conference at Breakthrough FamilyPlex on the West Side on Monday.

The plan to reduce violence includes a commitment to invest $250 million over the next three years to implement the Reimagine Public Safety Act, a plan meant to “directly reduce and interrupt violence in our neighborhoods,” and create the state’s Office of Firearm Violence Prevention,” the governor said.

The act passed during the Legislature’s fall veto session, which wrapped up last week. It has not yet been signed into law.

The funding for Illinois’ gun violence reduction plan includes federal monies as well as $50 million from the state’s 2022 budget. Pritzker’s administration plans to work with state legislators to earmark $100 million for anti-violence work in fiscal years 2023 and 2024.

In the next few weeks, the violence prevention office will announce a process for organizations to receive grant funding focused on technical assistance for violence prevention and youth development and intervention, according to a news release on the funds.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks during a news conference on Monday.

Pritzker’s executive order requires state agencies focused on gun violence to work with the new violence prevention office to address the systemic causes around the issue and develop strategies that take into account equity and trauma.

The order also lays out a four-pronged approach to violence prevention that includes intervention programs for high-risk youth, violence prevention services — such as street-based violence interruption work and emotional or trauma-related therapy — after school and summer programming to increase youth school attendance and reduce contact with the criminal justice system and trauma-recovery services for young people.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks Monday during a news conference at Breakthrough FamilyPlex on the West Side before Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs an executive order declaring gun violence a public health crisis in the state.

Lightfoot said she and other leaders have “got to be in concert together.”

This is a long fight, not a short fight,” Lightfoot said. “This is a fight that we must think [about] and reimagine at every single level, be nimble and thinking about how we can help our residents feel safe.”

At an unrelated news conference later in the day, Lightfoot acknowledged that she started treating Chicago violence “like a public health crisis” even before she took office in May 2019 so the declaration “is not new” but the statewide designation is important, she said.

As for what the funds will mean, Lightfoot said “the jury’s out. But it has the potential to really be transformative. … My hope is that a lot of Chicago-based organizations are gonna be able to get access to those grants.”

“We made a commitment that we will provide the technical assistance on the front end so they have the capacity to comply and be competitive and then on the back end to help them realize and utilize those resources,” Lightfoot said.

The first-term mayor is determined to “do everything that we can” to make certain that Chicago-based street outreach and intervention organizations “get access to those funds.”

Shootings have been on the rise this year with at least 630 people fatally shot, and at least 3,165 others wounded in Chicago through Oct. 30, according to an analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times. Through that time, compared to 2020, the city has seen a 9% increase in shooting victims and an almost 69% increase compared to 2019. Those figures put the city on track to have one of its deadliest years since the mid-1990s.

When it comes to community safety, Chicago “can’t just make up a plan on the fifth floor of City Hall and hope for the best,” the mayor said. City officials need to be “deep in with community” residents.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Gov. J.B. Pritzker looks on as Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference at Breakthrough FamilyPlex on the West Side on Monday.

Lightfoot urged the state to “continue to be in conversation” with the city around issues of community safety.

“It can’t be a policy that’s cooked up in Springfield, then spread out to the rest of the state,” Lightfoot said.

State legislation that Pritzker signed earlier this year declared violence a public health problem and tasked the state’s departments of public health and human services with studying how to create a process to identify high-violence areas and infuse them with state dollars to help address the underlying causes of crime and violence. The departments are required to file a report on that process with the General Assembly by the end of the year.

Pritzker pointed to violence in the city as part of the impetus behind the Monday announcement.

“We will do what it takes individually, and collectively, to address the immediate violence on our streets and invest in fighting the underlying causes that create too much despair, too much addiction, too little mental health treatment and too few opportunities,” Pritzker said.

Contributing: Andy Boyle

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NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said Monday that the league, and the Blackhawks, knew about the “threatened litigation” from Kyle Beach in December 2020. | Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Hawks and NHL executives knew about Kyle Beach’s allegations in December 2020, four months before his lawsuit was filed and brought the allegations to light, yet did nothing even in that time.

More than four months before Kyle Beach’s lawsuit — alleging the Blackhawks covered up his sexual assault — was filed in court, current leadership of the Hawks and the NHL knew about his allegations.

Team lawyers contacted the league in late December 2020 to provide a “heads-up” about the “threatened litigation,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Monday in a press conference alongside commissioner Gary Bettman.

Yet the league took no action at that time (or any other time) before Beach’s lawsuit, filed May 7, brought former Hawks video coach Brad Aldrich’s alleged actions and Hawks management’s gross mishandling of the situation to light.

Daly said that’s because the Hawks told them: “‘There’s potential civil litigation, we’ve looked into the matter and there’s no merit to it.'”

“I’m not sure there’s anything we could’ve done differently or faster based on the knowledge that we had,” Bettman added. “In retrospect, based on the knowledge that everybody has [now], I wish we knew about this in 2011. But we didn’t. What we may have thought the club was telling us — or the club thought the situation was — before the lawsuit was actually filed, and what ultimately it turned out to be from the report, that wasn’t [the same].”

The NHL’s inexplicable choice to take the Hawks’ word for it and never seek any details themselves, however, exemplifies the stark lack of responsibility taken throughout this entire process.

(The NHL evidently didn’t even confirm the Hawks had looked into it, as they claimed, because the Hawks actually hadn’t: Included in Aldrich’s resignation was a Hawks promise that the matter would not be investigated, the Jenner & Block investigation found.)

Certainly, no accountability was shown in 2010, when the Hawks let Aldrich remain around the organization for three weeks beyond the John McDonough-led meeting discussing his alleged assault.

But the accountability demonstrated in 2021 hasn’t been nearly strong enough, either — no matter how much the involved parties tout how hockey culture’s progress over the past decade.

Before Hawks chairman Rocky Wirtz and CEO Danny Wirtz admirably wiped the organization clean last week, the Hawks’ clear top priorities all summer were deflection and self-preservation, not honesty and justice.

Their May 13 statement, shortly after the lawsuit was filed, could not possibly look worse in hindsight. Its key sentence — “Based on our investigation, we believe the allegations against the organization lack merit and we are confident the team will be absolved of any wrongdoing” — purported blatant lies in every phrase.

The two-month delay between the lawsuit’s filing and the investigation’s beginning looks lazy at best, and suspicious at worst. Only once the public firestorm of anger proved its staying power did the Hawks pull the trigger to commission the investigation, and only after more criticism did they commit to making the results public.

Both comments ex-general manager Stan Bowman squeezed into his July 22 press conference — that he did “not condone or tolerate harassment or assault of any type” and that he was “eager to speak about this [situation] in more detail in the future” — aged poorly, too.

And while nothing has indicated the Wirtz family was aware in 2010 of the coverup, their decision to let Bowman and fellow executive Al MacIsaac continue to not only operate in their roles this offseason and preseason but also make franchise-altering hockey transactions — while the investigation was actively occurring — now appears egregiously reckless.

Beach himself, in his TSN interview last week, described the need for a system where “somebody…who has no skin in the game” deals with future sexual assault allegations.

It’s a great point. His alleged assault was originally covered up by Hawks executives with skin in the Stanley Cup pursuit. And his lawsuit and its allegations this summer were wrongly downplayed by Hawks and NHL executives with skin in the reputation game.

That must change moving forward.

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