The Chicago Blackhawks are the center of the hockey world right now for off-ice reasons. The coverup of alleged sexual assault by a former assistant coach has led to the exit of several executives and speculation that former employees, such as Joel Quenneville, might lose their current jobs. What’s happening with the Chicago Blackhawks is […] Chicago Blackhawks: A fan’s lament on the situation – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

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Southern Illinois University at Carbondale has partnerships with Chicago-area community colleges to help student earn a bachelor’s degree. | Provided photo

It’s important for colleges and universities to clear whatever hinders students from attaining their full potential.

This month, Southern Illinois University Carbondale opened more pathways to Chicagoland community college students with limited options, thanks to our new agreements with Harold Washington College (part of City Colleges of Chicago), Harper College and Oakton Community College.

The agreements vary, but they all allow place-bound students to get a bachelor’s degree in select programs from a doctoral research university. Harper and Oakton colleges are the latest to join Saluki Step Ahead, an agreement between our university and the Illinois Community College Board to provide place-bound students with a bachelor’s degree at a lower cost. If students can’t move to Southern Illinois to complete their education, we will bring SIU Carbondale to them.

These agreements are another example of the steps universities must take to improve access and remove barriers for all students. This issue is personal to me.

When I left high school over 30 years ago, I had a scholarship to play basketball at a junior college in Texas. The only idea I had was to stay for two years and get exposure, then play in Division I. When those plans didn’t work out, I knew I needed to complete my undergraduate education.

But I faced a major obstacle: I couldn’t afford a college education in my native state of New Jersey. Fortunately, I was able to earn my bachelor’s degree in Oklahoma, which was less expensive. With that degree, along with a master’s and a doctorate, I have a career I love, helping students pursue their dreams.

Broader access for students who need it most

Today, with millions of jobs lost to COVID-19 and the need for highly skilled professionals expected to grow, the issue of access to higher education becomes more urgent. All the opportunities that come from a college degree cannot benefit a student who believes college is beyond their reach. Too often, high school graduates and adult learners are deterred from even applying because they think they don’t have the right test scores or fear unmanageable debt.

At SIU Carbondale, we’re proud of the distinctive education we offer. Students receive hands-on learning and personal attention. Undergraduates can do research often reserved for graduate students. At SIU, we believe it’s our responsibility to provide access to those opportunities, whether they can take in-person classes on our beautiful campus or are place-bound.

Many SIU students do not come from privileged backgrounds. About 40% are the first in their families to attend college, and nearly 80% receive financial aid.

They might not be able to afford expensive classes to maximize their scores on standardized tests, and studies have shown GPA is a more accurate predictor of student success. So we removed an obstruction for many qualified students and no longer require SAT and ACT test scores for admission and most scholarships.

And even students without the best grades in high school have the potential to do college-level work. They deserve a chance. That is why we relaunched the Dr. Seymour Bryson Future Scholars program. Students take summer classes and receive academic coaching, advising, mentoring and tutoring. In the past, the program has assisted students from diverse races and communities.

At SIU, we are also lifting financial barriers between students and their education.

Out-of-state students pay the same tuition rate as Illinois residents. For new students from Illinois who meet the criteria, we have started two exciting initiatives: the Saluki Commitment and the Saluki Transfer Commitment. If a student’s financial aid package does not completely cover tuition and mandatory fees, we pledge to close the gap.

It’s important for colleges and universities to clear whatever hinders students from attaining their full potential. It is in the best interest of our students, our institutions and our society.

Austin A. Lane is chancellor of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

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The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to a New York law that shows the racist roots of gun control laws, Jacob Sullum writes. | J. Scott Applewhite / AP Photos

Black gun rights groups are among those challenging a New York law that demands applicants show “proper cause” to obtain a license to carry a firearm.

After his home was bombed in 1956, Martin Luther King Jr. applied for a permit to carry a gun. Despite the potentially deadly threats that King faced as a leader of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, the county sheriff, Mac Sim Butler, said no.

Next week, the Supreme Court will consider a challenge to a New York law similar to the Alabama statute that empowered local officials like Butler to decide who could exercise the constitutional right to bear arms. The briefs urging the Court to overturn New York’s statute include several from African American organizations that emphasize the long Black tradition of armed self-defense, the racist roots of gun control laws, and their disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities.

“I went to the sheriff to get a permit for those people who are guarding me,” King told fellow protest organizers at a February 1956 meeting. “In substance, he was saying, ‘You are at the disposal of the hoodlums.'”

At the time, it was illegal in Alabama to carry a pistol “in any vehicle” or concealed on one’s person without a license. The law said a probate judge, police chief or sheriff “may” issue a license “if it appears that the applicant has good reason to fear injury to his person or property, or has any other proper reason for carrying a pistol.”

Nowadays, Alabama, like most states, requires law enforcement officials to issue a carry permit unless the applicant is legally disqualified. New York, by contrast, demands that applicants show “proper cause,” an amorphous standard that is not satisfied by a general interest in self-defense.

As the National African American Gun Association notes in its Supreme Court brief, Southern states historically used that sort of discretionary carry permit law to disarm Black people, leaving them at the mercy of white supremacist violence. African Americans who defied the law risked arrest for exercising their Second Amendment rights.

That remains true in New York, as the Black Attorneys of Legal Aid and several other public defender organizations note in their brief. “Each year,” they say, “we represent hundreds of indigent people whom New York criminally charges for exercising their right to keep and bear arms,” nearly all of whom are Black or Hispanic.

That situation is unsurprising, the brief says, given the origins of New York’s gun licensing regime. The Sullivan Act of 1911, which required a license to own handguns and “gave local police broad discretion to decide who could obtain one,” was enacted after “years of hysteria over violence that the media and the establishment attributed to racial and ethnic minorities — particularly Black people and Italian immigrants.”

A brief from Black Guns Matter argues that New York’s law is of a piece with the firearm restrictions that Southern states imposed after the Civil War. When the 14th Amendment prohibited explicitly racist laws, white supremacists switched to facially neutral rules that, in practice, made it difficult or impossible for Black people to defend themselves.

Black Guns Matter emphasizes that “armed self-defense has always been vitally important to the African American community” — a tradition that stretches from the struggle against slavery through the civil rights movement. Until relatively recently, as Fordham University law professor Nicholas Johnson details in his 2014 book “Negroes and the Gun,” mainstream Black organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People steadfastly upheld that tradition.

Not anymore. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which grew out of a fundraising campaign based on the successful defense of Black people who used guns to resist racist aggression, supported the local handgun bans that the Supreme Court overturned in 2008 and 2010.

In the New York case, the organization argues that the state’s virtual ban on public carry is an “important tool” in addressing urban violence. It does not even entertain the possibility that armed self-defense might be an important tool in responding to the same problem.

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine. Follow him on Twitter: @JacobSullum

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Kenny Leon accepts the award for best revival of a play for “A Soldier’s Play” during the 74th Annual Tony Awards at Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 2021, in New York City. | Getty Images for Tony Awards Pro

Kenny Leon, the Tony Award winning director for the Broadway revival production of “A Raisin in the Sun” in 2014, will be helming Steppenwolf Theatre’s world premiere production of “King James,” it was announced Wednesday.

“King James,” written by Steppenwolf ensemble member Rajiv Joseph (“Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo”) in a co-commissioned production with Center Theatre Group, will debut in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater next March. Told through the eyes of two sports superfans, the play looks at the life and career of NBA superstar LeBron James’ reign in Cleveland, and the impact that sports and athletes in general have on the lives their fans and communities. Former Steppenwolf artistic director Anna D. Shapiro, who announced in May that she was stepping down from the post, was initially slated to direct “King James.”

Last year, Leon earned a best director Tony nomination for “A Soldier’s Play,” which won the award for best revival of a play. In accepting the Tony for the production, Leon emphasized the need for increased inclusivity and diversity in theater, including the scope of works. “No diss to Shakespeare, no diss to Ibsen, to Chekhov, to Shaw — they’re all at the table,” he said, “but the table’s got to be bigger.”

His critically acclaimed career also includes television, most notably his Emmy-nominated turn as director of “Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia” for the Lifetime network.

In 2006, Leon directed Goodman Theatre’s production of August Wilson’s “Radio Golf.” He is currently the senior resident director for the New York City-based Roundabout Theatre Company.

Tickets for “King James” are currently part of Steppenwolf’s membership series; single tickets will go on sale at a later date.

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Former Blackhawks video coach Brad Aldrich assaulted a player during the 2010 playoffs, an investigation found. | Sun-Times file photo

Despite filing Tuesday new supports to their motions to dismiss two lawsuits, the Blackhawks seemingly intend to follow through on CEO Danny Wirtz’s call for a “fair resolution.”

Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz, discussing on Tuesday the condemnatory results of an investigation into the organization’s handling of a 2010 sexual assault, said he’d instructed Hawks lawyers to reach a “fair resolution” in two related lawsuits.

Hours later, facing coincidentally timed Tuesday court deadlines, Hawks lawyers nonetheless filed new documents supporting their already-pending motions to dismiss both lawsuits.

But the team insists those filings were simply legal requirements and they’ve already scheduled settlement talks with Susan Loggans, the lawyer representing the victims of former Hawks video coach Brad Aldrich.

“Consistent with Danny Wirtz’s public statement, Blackhawks litigation counsel reached out to Ms. Loggans yesterday to begin discussions, [and] a call is scheduled for early next week,” the Hawks said in a statement Wednesday to the Sun-Times.

“As to the filings yesterday, in compliance with the Court’s established briefing schedule, we filed our replies in support of our pending motions to dismiss in the ongoing lawsuit on yesterday’s deadline. Both cases remain pending, but we will engage in good faith efforts to fairly resolve these matters to rectify the harm John Does have suffered to the extent possible.”

The lawsuits pertain to former Hawks video coach Brad Aldrich. The first claims the Hawks negligently addressed Aldrich’s sexual assault of a Hawks prospect (identified as “John Doe 1”) during the 2010 playoffs. The second claims the Hawks helped Aldrich get a job at Houghton (Michigan) High School, where he later assaulted a 16-year-old (“John Doe 2”) in 2013.

The lawsuits’ filings this year helped bring the Aldrich allegations to light. The Jenner & Block investigation that concluded Tuesday, costing Hawks general manager Stan Bowman and executive Al MacIsaac their jobs, indeed concluded the Hawks covered up Aldrich’s behavior for three weeks to preserve “team chemistry” during the Stanley Cup Final — and during that time, Aldrich assaulted another team employee.

The Hawks’ Tuesday filings acknowledge receipt of the investigation report, but claim in footnotes it “actually strengthens [the Hawks’] statute of limitations defense” in the Doe 1 case and “strengthens [the Hawks’] defense that [they] did not provide a job recommendation to Houghton High School” in the Doe 2 case.

The new filing footnotes also include the following language, however, subtly hinting at the team’s shift away from endlessly battling the cases over legal technicalities in court.

“The overall conduct described is not acceptable to [the Hawks], and [the Hawks’] response to the alleged sexual misconduct did not live up to the team’s values or standards,” the filing states. “[The Hawks have] implemented organizational and administrative safeguards to ensure that these values and standards are observed.”

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Three people were shot, one fatally, in Humboldt Park Oct. 27, 2021. | Sun-Times file

They were on the sidewalk about 1:25 p.m. in the 700 block of North Trumbull Avenue when someone unleashed gunfire, Chicago police said.

A man was killed and two others were wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon in Humboldt Park on the West Side.

They were on the sidewalk about 1:25 p.m. in the 700 block of North Trumbull Avenue when someone unleashed gunfire, Chicago police said.

A 24-year-old man suffered gunshot wounds to his arm and side. He was taken to Norwegian American American Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Another man, 27, was shot in the torso and back, police said. The third man, 23, was struck in the chest. Both were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition.

No arrests have been reported. Area Four detectives are investigating.

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Bears coach Matt Nagy said he will stay positive while in quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus. “It makes things a lot easier,” he said. | Nam Y. Huh/AP

The Bears’ head coach thrives on in-person communications — “It kills me that I’m not able to do that,” he said. But he’s confident his staff will fill the void. Special teams coordinator Chris Tabor would be acting head coach Sunday against the 49ers if Nagy can’t be there.

Matt Nagy is day-to-day on multiple levels as head coach of the Bears. But the most urgent one Wednesday was his status for Sunday’s game against the 49ers after being put on the sidelines because of a positive test for the coronavirus.

Not surprisingly, he offered few details, other than revealing that special teams coordinator Chris Tabor would be the acting head coach if Nagy is unable to attend Sunday’s game at Soldier Field.

“Just like when you go through protocol, they have a process, and that is what we work through day-by-day,” Nagy said in a Zoom press conference from an undisclosed location. “So I’m just following and listening to all the guidelines they give me.

“In the meantime, we have these contingency plans set, which we actually went through last year, so it’s helped in that regard.”

Nagy will conduct meetings with players and coaches via Zoom and watch practice through a tablet computer. He will have to test negative twice over a 48-hour span to be cleared to rejoin the team. He said he did not know the earliest he could be cleared.

“We’ve been able to meet together virtually on Zoom [and] it’s been a heck of a lot better than it was last year — I guess we’ve advanced in that process,” Nagy said. “[I] appreciate that from the guys and coaches, so we’re going to continue to roll and adapt through this process.

“This is why it’s very important when you have your staff that you believe in and you’ve gone through this, you’ve prepared. Just like when there’s an injury, it’s next-man-up … I have a lot of faith and trust in the players and coaches while I’m not there in person.”

Still, this can’t be easy for Nagy. He thrives on in-person and one-on-one communication. He can’t do that this week.

“One of my strengths is the relationships with the players and being able to connect with them and be there for them and support them,” Nagy said. “So it kills me that I’m not able to do that.

“But that’s life. And one of the biggest things as we go through what we’re going through right now — whether it’s as a team sitting at 3-4 or me personally being positive for COVID and how it affects my family etc. — what I have to do, which is to my core, is stay positive. When you stay positive it makes things a lot easier. And it also helps others out. Whatever it is … I’m going to stay positive. And then we’ll see what happens.”

At least for one week, Nagy’s absence isn’t likely to make a big difference for the 3-4 Bears.

“It hasn’t made that much of a difference, just because our meetings are all on Zoom,” quarterback Justin Fields said. The first difference would be this week just him not being out at practice. Other than that, stuff has been pretty much the same.”

If Nagy misses Sunday’s game against the 49ers, the Bears actually have tough acts to follow. When Browns coach Kevin Stefanski missed a wild-card playoff game against the Steelers because of the coronavirus last season, the Browns won 48-37 on the road. This season, Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury missed a road game against the Browns on Oct. 17 because of the coronavirus, and the Cardinals won 37-14.

Nagy said he has studied the Browns example for tips on how to handle this week.

“They’ve done a really good job with that. You’ve got to credit them,” Nagy said of the Cardinals. “The biggest thing is that we continue to talk through this process and everyone over-communicates — we adapt, we stay positive and we do everything we can to get a win this weekend.”

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Hamptons International Film Festival Chairman Alec Baldwin at the world premiere of National Geographic Documentary Films’ ‘The First Wave’ at Hamptons International Film Festival, Oct. 7, 2021. | Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images

To parse the so-called “politics” of the right wing’s morbid schadenfreude over an innocent woman’s accidental death is an exercise in futility and frustration.

He’s, admittedly, a fairly unsympathetic figure.

Alec Baldwin, the actor, short-time talk show host, Donald Trump impersonator and longtime blowhard and villain of the right, has said and done some pretty lamentable things over the past few decades. He’s been sued for assault in several attacks on paparazzi. He was arrested for punching a man in the face during a parking spot dispute. He’s used homophobic slurs, for which he was reportedly fired by MSNBC. And even left scathing voicemail for his then-11-year-old daughter, in which he called her a “rude, thoughtless little pig.”

His anger issues are well-documented, as is his politics. He alone is to blame for his reputation and public image.

He is not to blame, however, for a tragic and horrific accidental shooting on the set of a movie he was working on.

That’s according to witnesses and court documents that describe the incident, in which cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was injured. (Authorities say they haven’t ruled out charges, but it seems highly unlikely that Baldwin has any true culpability here.)

Production has been halted, Baldwin is cooperating fully, and news of ongoing safety complaints and other on-set shooting accidents has opened a startling new conversation about gun safety on film sets. It’s an important conversation — as Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show” pointed out, “Hollywood movies love using fake versions of real things for everything, except guns.”

But for some on the right, Baldwin’s tragic accident is an opportunity — a grotesque kind of comeuppance for being, well, a jerk, and more to the point, a jerk who openly supports more gun control. Somehow, to them, it’s just too delicious to resist driving home the point that someone who wants to restrict other people’s access to firearms has accidentally killed someone with a prop gun. Apparently, they think this is ironic.

Don Trump Jr. was quick to mock — and profit off of — the tragedy, posting pro-gun memes and even selling a T-shirt on his website that reads “guns don’t kill people, Alec Baldwin kills people.”

To his detractors, Trump had this to say: “Screw all the sanctimony I’m seeing out there. If the shoe was on the other foot Alex [sic] Baldwin would literally be the first person pissing on everybody’s grave trying to make a point. F–k him!”

Other right-wing personalities, from Candace Owens to Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance, piled on, using the opportunity to presumably rile up and delight their fans on Twitter — Owens said the incident was “poetic justice” — all while Hutchins’ family prepared to bury her.

Baldwin’s daughter Ireland took to Instagram to pointlessly, I’m sure, remind Owens, “A woman’s life was lost. Your tweets, lack of information, and ignorance are hurting people.”

To parse the so-called “politics” of the right wing’s morbid schadenfreude over an innocent woman’s accidental death is an exercise in futility and frustration.

Of course, Baldwin’s gun control stance isn’t weakened but affirmed by this incident, in which real guns and real ammunition were inappropriately handled by the armorers and prop masters who should have been responsible for them.

Responsible gun owners don’t delight in accidental shootings; we lament them.

No matter how much one dislikes Alec Baldwin for his pugnacity or his politics, it’s hard not to feel for him and his family in this difficult time. He’s responsible for accidentally killing a colleague, a wife, a mother to a 9-year-old son. Who could live with that kind of guilt?

Then again, there’s little compassion left in conservatism, at least the kind Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush liked to espouse. To many on the right, there’s one and only one objective these days: to own the libs, to grind them into the dust, even if that means hollowing out your own moral code in the process. That was evidenced in the giddy jig the movement’s current leader performed on Colin Powell’s grave just last week. Former President Trump blasted the war hero as a “RINO,” and sociopathically ended his cruel rant by shrugging, “But anyway, may he rest in peace!”

Earlier this year, when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke of a past sexual assault and hiding during the Capitol insurrection, wondering if she’d live to be a mother one day, right-wing nuts called her a liar, and accused her of needing “coddling.”

Sure, the left has its own cruelty toward Republicans, but not much that approaches quite this level of nastiness, reveling in other people’s pain.

Apparently there are no actual people in politics anymore, just avatars. And unfortunately for Baldwin, he isn’t a victim in this tragedy, but merely an avatar — one that deserves, apparently, to be kicked when he’s down. Why? Because, again, to steal Adam Serwer’s perfect summary of the Trump approach to politics, the cruelty is the point.

S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.

Send letters to [email protected].

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Then-Blackhawks president John McDonough hoists the Stanley Cup after his team beat the Flyers to win the 2010 title. | Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

The franchise’s cover-up of the alleged sexual assault of a young player from that team takes the shine off the trophy.

We love our anniversaries in sports, don’t we? A team wins a championship and 20 or 25 years later there’s a celebration of the achievement. Players and coaches return to the scene of the wonderful time and take turns waving to a stadium full of adoring fans. Stories are told and smiles shared.

Few things are warmer in life than good memories.

The 20th anniversary of the Blackhawks’ 2010 Stanley Cup title is less than 10 years off, and it’s going to be very difficult to honor an accomplishment that now carries so much pain and ugliness.

How can you separate that championship and the organizational cover-up of a sexual assault perpetrated by a Hawks video coach on a young hockey player that season? You can’t. And you won’t be able to in 2030, either, not if you’re a feeling human being.

Legacies are ruined, as they should be. The sin of choosing to protect a brand over players’ safety should be written in indelible ink on the foreheads of all involved. That includes former team president John McDonough, former general manager Stan Bowman and former coach Joel Quenneville. According to the team’s own investigation, the three men knew that a prospect accompanying the team during the playoffs that year had accused former video coach Brad Aldrich of sexually assaulting him, yet the matter was buried until the season was over. Why? They didn’t want it negatively affecting the team’s pursuit of a Stanley Cup.

That’s beyond sickening.

Bowman was a first-year general manager that season, which doesn’t excuse his silence on the allegation back then, but he did make it clear in his statement Tuesday that he had relied on McDonough to take action. McDonough didn’t report Aldrich’s conduct to the Hawks’ human-resources department until three weeks after a May 23, 2010, meeting in which McDonough, Bowman, Quenneville and other team officials discussed the alleged sexual assault.

“I promptly reported the matter to the then-President and CEO who committed to handling the matter,” Bowman said. “I learned this year that the inappropriate behavior involved a serious allegation of sexual assault. I relied on the direction of my superior that he would take appropriate action. Looking back, now knowing he did not handle the matter promptly, I regret assuming he would do so.”

I’m sure a lot of the people involved have a lot of regrets, and they’re going to have to live with them. But if you’re vile enough to try to cover up something like this, even temporarily, is it more likely you regret the decision to do so or that the cover-up was revealed? I’d argue for the latter.

Let’s not forget that after Aldrich resigned on June 16, 2010, he allegedly went on to assault two young men at Miami University and then a 16-year-old boy at a Michigan high school. Whether the Hawks provided Aldrich with a positive reference that allowed him to get jobs at those two stops is a point of contention between the franchise and lawyers for the alleged victims.

Still, put it all together, and a likable team, the one that created so many good memories in Chicago, isn’t so likeable anymore.

Maybe some of you will be able to look back fondly on the 2010 championship and the two other titles that followed. You’ll focus on the players who made it all possible – Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Corey Crawford, etc. You’ll ignore the possibility that the players knew what had happened to their young teammate at the hands of Aldrich. You’ll ignore the possibility that those players could have spoken up but didn’t.

But how will you forget that Quenneville, as beloved a coach as there has been in this city, was part of the dirty business of hiding the truth, according to the team’s investigation? Do you want him, McDonough and Bowman at a public reunion of the 2010 team?

Oh, and another question for you: Is Quenneville, a lock for the Hall of Fame before the facts of this case came out, still a certainty for enshrinement? Depends how bad a look you think a conspiracy is.

Time has a way of healing wounds or numbing pain, so I’ll leave open the possibility that I’m wrong about the difficulty of separating the 2010 team from this scandal. I’ve seen American fan bases forgive all sorts of terrible behavior.

But the clear thinking among us, the ones whose tolerance for bad behavior ends at abuse of any kind, won’t forget. I’m certain the victim won’t. If there’s an anniversary to celebrate that Stanley Cup team in coming years, will he show up to honor an organization that let him and others down? I sure wouldn’t.

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