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K9 Riggs and Deputy Tifft. | Kenosha County sheriff’s office

The suspect ran from a stolen car after deputies found him at the Benson Corners gas station in Bristol, Wisconsin, police say.

A police dog is being called a “hero” for taking a bullet from a Chicago murder suspect who was then shot and wounded by Kenosha County sheriff’s deputies Thursday morning.

Chicago police tipped off deputies that a suspect driving the murder victim’s vehicle was at the Benson Corners gas station off of Highway 50 in Bristol, Kenosha County Sheriff David G. Beth said.

As deputies confronted on him at 11:15 a.m., the man ran off while holding a gun, Beth said. A police dog named Riggs leapt after the man and took him down as he was approaching the nearby highway.

The man then shot Riggs once in the forehead, wounding him, Beth said. The German Shepard “trotted off” and was taken to an Illinois emergency center, Beth said. Riggs, who has spent five years on the force, was expected to recover.

At least two deputies then fired on the man, striking him in the abdomen and leg, Beth said. The man was taken to a hospital for treatment and was undergoing surgery.

Beth said the dog likely prevented further harm in the incident.

“In a lot of ways, he’s a hero today. He took the suspect down and kept him from running onto Highway 50,” Beth said. “Who knows if he would’ve tried to carjack someone on the highway.”

Police did not say what murder in Chicago the car was connected to. The Racine County sheriff’s office was investigating the shooting.

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The American Athletic Conference is adding UAB, Texas-San Antonio, Rice, North Texas, Charlotte and Florida Atlantic to the league, replacing Cincinnati, Houston and Central Florida. | David J. Phillip/AP

The AAC hopes the move will stabilize the conference in the short term and allow it to withstand future poaching of its members by wealthier leagues.

Major college football is settling into a strange period with lame duck memberships and frayed allegiances that could last another season or even two as conferences sort out the latest shifts and turns of realignment.

The American Athletic Conference on Thursday became the latest to act in the trickle down effect from Texas and Oklahoma’s announced move to the Southeastern Conference.

The American is adding UAB, UTSA, Rice, North Texas, Charlotte and Florida Atlantic to replace three schools that are leaving for the Big 12 Conference — eventually.

“I think they will definitely take great advantage of the exposure and the platforms that are going to be provided by this conference,” AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco said. “So we look forward, down the road, and we’re not certain when they’re going to come in yet. That’s still to be decided.”

Pinning down an ETA for the AAC’s new additions is complicated because the conference doesn’t realistically have room for the newcomers until the outgoing schools have left.

Those within the AAC believe 2023 is a realistic target for the transition to a 14-team conference after swiping six schools from Conference USA.

But it all starts with Texas and Oklahoma. The Longhorns and Sooners are contractually obligated to the Big 12 until July 2025. The SEC has made it clear that while it is looking forward to having Texas and OU on board, the league is also fine with waiting until then.

Breaking the contract would cost Texas and Oklahoma tens of millions of dollars in exit fees paid to the Big 12, but it is understood that everybody involved would benefit from not stringing out this broken relationship for three more seasons.

The Big 12, after all, already has replacements lined up. The conference in September announced BYU and three AAC powers, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, would be joining — eventually.

BYU, an independent in football with other sports in the West Coast Conference, is preparing to join the Big 12 in 2023. The three American schools are required to give the conference 27 months’ notice and pay $10 million exit fees. The Big 12 said it expected them to join by no later than summer of 2024. And it left the door open to add more schools down the road.

“We’re living in a very fast-changing athletic environment, and we will be at 14 for a while, we will drop back to 12, and as there are targets of opportunity or as there are situations that dictate that we change composition, we’ll be prepared to do those things,” Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said in September.

Aresco conceded growing to 14 was a way for a conference that has become a feeder league for the Power Five to be prepared for future poaching.

“We decided that there was strength in numbers,” Aresco said. “We also looked around and said you know there are some schools that we might be interested in later on, why not, you know, think about taking them now?”

C-USA and the Sun Belt are next up in realignment. With only eight remaining members, Conference USA needs to both protect its assets and add on. A request for comment from Conference USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod was not immediately returned.

The Sun Belt continues to publicly say it will explore its options, but Commissioner Keith Gill told AP the conference is feeling no pressure to act now that the American has made its move.

“There is no timetable,” Gill said.

He declined to comment on reports the 10-football member Sun Belt is eyeing some of C-USA’s remaining schools such as Southern Mississippi, Marshall and Old Dominion along with FCS powerhouse James Madison.

No matter. The map is unlikely to be redrawn for 2022, which means another full season of potentially uncomfortable moments that have already started to play out.

Earlier this week, Bowlsby told The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman newspaper Oklahoma and Texas secretly planning to leave the Big 12 felt like a “personal betrayal.” He added the Longhorns’ recent issues in football had nothing to do with the conference in which they play.

No. 3 Oklahoma is on target to play in yet another Big 12 title game in December. A seventh straight conference championship for the Sooners could make for an awkward trophy presentation with the commissioner at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Same goes in the American, where No. 2 Cincinnati is positioned be the first team from outside the Power Five to make a serious run at the College Football Playoff.

Aresco did not attend Cincinnati’s game against Notre Dame earlier this month, but is not about to disown the unbeaten Bearcats.

“Cincinnati if, you know, we don’t know what’s gonna happen, but if they make the playoffs or they do something remarkable, they will have done it in the American Athletic Conference,” he said.

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Firearms on display at at Marengo Guns in Marengo in January. | Brian Rich/Sun-Times file.

State Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis wrote that the taxes violate the constitution’s uniformity clause and “impose a burden on the exercise of a fundamental right protected by the second amendment.”

Two Cook County taxes targeting firearms and ammunition are in jeopardy after the Illinois Supreme Court found they violate the state constitution.

In a 6-0 decision, Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis wrote in an opinion filed Thursday the county’s firearm and ammunition tax ordinances violate the constitution’s uniformity clause, and the taxes “impose a burden on the exercise of a fundamental right protected by the second amendment.”

“While the taxes do not directly burden a law-abiding citizen’s right to use a firearm for self-defense, they do directly burden a law-abiding citizen’s right to acquire a firearm and the necessary ammunition for self-defense,” Theis wrote.

“Under the plain language of the ordinances, the revenue generated from the firearm tax is not directed to any fund or program specifically related to curbing the cost of gun violence,” she wrote.

“Additionally, nothing in the ordinance indicates that the proceeds generated from the ammunition tax must be specifically directed to initiatives aimed at reducing gun violence. Thus, we hold the tax ordinances are unconstitutional under the uniformity clause.”

That opinion, in the case of non-profit Guns Save Life Inc. versus Cook County, the county’s director of the department of revenue, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, partially reverses decisions from the Cook County Circuit and state appellate courts that upheld the taxes and sends the case back to the circuit court for summary judgment in favor of the non-profit.

Chief Justice Anne Burke took no part in the decision of the case, according to the opinion. In a separate opinion, Justice Michael Burke largely agreed with his colleagues but expressed concern that the majority opinion “leaves space for a municipality to enact a future tax — singling out guns and ammunition sales — that is more narrowly tailored to the purpose of ameliorating gun violence.”

Members of Guns Save Life did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was not immediately clear what the decision will mean for the county’s taxes.

In a statement, a spokesman for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said the county is “disappointed” in the Illinois Supreme Court’s recent decision.

“We intend to meet with our legal counsel and determine any next steps that may be warranted,” the spokesman said. “It is no secret that gun violence continues to be an epidemic in our region. … Addressing societal costs of gun violence in Cook County is substantial and an important governmental objective.

“We continue to maintain that the cost of a bullet should reflect, even if just a little bit, the cost of the violence that ultimately is not possible without the bullet. We are committed to protecting County residents from the plague of gun violence with or without this tax.”

The spokesman pointed to recent data from the Chicago Police Department that shows the number of shootings in Chicago are up nearly 10% over the last year with almost 2,900 shooting incidents this year.

“The use of guns have had a significant impact on the County’s public safety, health and general expenditures,” the spokesman’s statement reads in part.

The county’s Firearm Tax Ordinance, which was enacted in 2013, imposes a $25 tax on the purchase of a firearm from a retailer in Cook County.

The county later enacted a separate tax on ammunition — $0.05 per cartridge for centerfire ammunition, typically used for rifles, shotguns and handguns, and $0.01 per cartridge for rimfire ammunition, which are popular for small-game hunting or sport shooting, according to the self defense and competition shooting site Target Barn.

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A 17-year-old boy was wounded Oct. 21, 2021, in Rogers Park on the North Side. | Sun-Times file

About 2:30 p.m., he was on the sidewalk in the 1700 block of West Morse Avenue, when a light-colored vehicle pulled up to him and someone inside fired shots.

A 17-year-old boy was wounded in a drive-by Thursday in Rogers Park on the North Side.

About 2:30 p.m., he was on the sidewalk in the 1700 block of West Morse Avenue, when a light-colored vehicle pulled up to him and someone inside fired shots, Chicago police said.

The boy was struck in the buttocks and taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where his condition was stabilized, police said.

Area Three detectives are investigating.

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Bears rookie quarterback Justin Fields (1) was sacked four times last week in a 24-14 loss to the Packers at Soldier Field. | David Banks/AP

Building confidence with big throws against a bad defense like the Lions doesn’t get you very far. The only lessons for most — if not all — rookie quarterbacks in the NFL are hard ones.

Hard to believe it was just three years ago that Mitch Trubisky torched the Buccaneers defense in one of the best quarterback performances in Bears history.

Trubisky threw six touchdown passes without an interception that day at Soldier Field. He threw for 354 yards. His 154.6 passer rating was the third-best in franchise history. He had pass plays of 47, 39, 35, 33, 31 and 30 yards. He threw touchdown passes to wide receivers, a tight end and a running back. He scrambled for gains of 26 and 23 yards. He won, 48-10.

He did everything — but learn.

As it turned out, picking on bad defenses did nothing for Trubisky in the long term. He threw for 355 yards and three touchdown passes without an interception against the Lions in 2018. He threw three touchdowns without an interception against the Lions in 2019. He threw three touchdown passes without an interception against the Texans last season. But his momentum from all those glorious days lasted only until the next good defense he faced. Then he was just another struggling young quarterback trying to figure things out.

That’s where Bears rookie quarterback Justin Fields is today, but with a much different opportunity against the Buccaneers defense Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.

With just two starters remaining from the unit that Trubisky destroyed — linebacker Lavonte David and pass rusher Jason Pierre-Paul, the Bucs’ defense has been transformed into championship-caliber force that tormented Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl and comes at you from all directions.

It’s just what Fields needs. Whether the rookie succeeds or fails, lessons learned from a battle against a good defense is more valuable than the fool’s gold of a banner day against a bad defense. That’s one of several lessons learned during the Trubisky era.

Fields had his best passing day against the Lions in Week 4 — averaging 12.3 yards per attempt with completions of 64, 32, 28 and 27 yards. It didn’t take him to a new level. Fields threw for 111 yards the next week against the Raiders and 174 against the Packers.

This is not the ’85 Bears he’ll be facing, but a defense the will challenge him to learn. The Buccaneers are No. 1 in the NFL in rush defense, but 27th in pass defense. Patriots rookie Mac Jones completed 31-of-40 passes for for 275 yards, two touchdowns, one interception and a 101.6 passer rating against the Buccaneers in Week 4 — and has a 105.0 rating in two games since.

Bears offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said it’s a challenge for Fields “to be disciplined to stay within your rules.” Much more than against the Lions, it’s a test of how well he’s been taught, and how well he learns.

“It’s a great learning lesson for him,” Lazor said. “That, ‘Hey, this is why we install the way do in the offseason; this is why you have OTAs and [why] you’re here in May and June to learn all the rules, and get everyone together and you repeat it in training camp.

“Throughout the season, you’re gonna face some teams where their blitz schemes are small amounting and you can really zero in. You’re gonna face some teams like this where they have a wide variety and you just have to stay within your rules. It’ll be good learning for him.”

Fields’ improvement through four starts has been difficult to quantify — his confidence; his resilience; his command of the huddle; going through his progressions.

“Being able to communicate how he sees things and how he likes things — not just with the coaches but with the players. The quarterback’s opinion matters — it’s just fact,” Lazor said. “His play speed just keeps getting better and better. That shows up in practice quite a bit and sometimes on game day.”

Sunday’s game will be another big test. Fields might learn some hard lessons, but in the NFL there don’t seem to be any easy ones.

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Brady is 5-1 with a 105.3 passer rating against the Bears for his career. | AP Photos

After congratulating Aaron Rodgers for owning the Bears, Brady got a veiled shot in at his old college rival Thursday.

The shots just keep coming for the Bears.

Buccaneers star Tom Brady has enjoyed subtly jabbing them ahead of their game in Tampa on Sunday. He started the week by congratulating Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers for being “part owner” of Soldier Field and playfully zinged Bears rookie quarterback Justin Fields on Thursday.

Brady began his college football career at Michigan in 1995, four years before Fields was born, and Fields just wrapped a great career at Ohio State. When a reporter mentioned that it would be Brady’s first time facing an Ohio State quarterback in the NFL, he picked at a longstanding source of exasperation for the Buckeyes.

“How about that?” Brady mused. “I’m not gonna say anything too inflammatory about Ohio State, if that’s what you’re getting at.

“That’s interesting. Why is there not a lot of Ohio State quarterbacks in the pros? There’s a lot of Michigan guys over the years, but not a lot of Ohio State guys.”

Brady doesn’t miss much, so maybe he heard Fields’ remark last week that his favorite part of the rivalry was “beating them” and felt he owed him one.

That subject surfaced last week for Fields as a parallel to the Bears-Packers series, but now Fields steps into an even bigger rivalry: Brady vs. the rest of the NFL. He has beaten every team in the league while stacking up seven championships, and that includes a 5-1 record against the Bears.

Brady suffered his lone loss to the Bears this time last year, when the Bucs were still staggering to a 7-5 start. They closed the regular season with four consecutive wins, then marched through the playoffs to win the Super Bowl.

The Bears game was a low point for Brady, who got sacked three times and played one of his worst games of the season, then lost track of what down it was at the end. As the Bucs drove for a potential game-winning field goal, Brady threw incomplete on fourth-and-five at his own 41-yard line, then looked around bewilderedly thinking he had one more play.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been as confused as I was in [that] moment,” Brady said. “Look at that face.”

It was a rare lapse in his sparkling 22-year career.

For comparison, Mitch Trubisky set the Bears’ passer rating record for a full-time starter in 2018 at 95.4; Brady has exceeded that in 11 of his 19 full seasons. They’ve never had a quarterback make the Pro Bowl more than three times; Brady made 14.

The totality of what he has accomplished is overwhelming, but what he’s done in his 40s alone would make him the best quarterback in Bears history. He also has won more Super Bowls after 40 (two) than they have in their existence (one). While they’ve been trying to recapture the glory of 1985, Brady set and met his goal of winning more championships than Michael Jordan.

In four full seasons after turning 40, Brady would’ve set or tied the Bears single-season record for touchdown passes three times, their passer rating record four times and yardage record four times. He’s on pace to blow away all those numbers again this season at 44.

Apparently, there was a chance he’d actually break those franchise records. The Bears were one of three finalists to sign Brady, NBC’s Dan Patrick reported, when he left the Patriots in 2020. That would have made sense, in part, because the Bears were stacked with an elite defense, but Brady’s decision seems to have worked out just fine.

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Ben Page, (from left as Jude), Ian Maryfield (as Boris) and Alex Morales (as Iggy) are among the cast of “Recipe for Disaster.” | Kyle Flubacker Photo

Windy City Playhouse — and Rick Bayless — present the latest foray into interactive theater, this time with a gourmet meal included.

Over its nearly seven-year history, Windy City Playhouse has made a name for itself with uniquely immersive plays. Most memorable were productions of “Southern Gothic,” set at a 1960s cocktail party where the audience was allowed to move around the set as the hidden secrets of four couples in the show played out; and Matt Crowley’s landmark gay play, “The Boys in the Band,” which positioned the audience in and around the drama as a group of friends gather for a birthday party.

Windy City’s newest production, “A Recipe for Disaster,” is a wildly different addition to this growing list, giving new meaning to the term dinner theater. The fast-moving farce, a collaboration from Chicago chef Rick Bayless (Frontera Grill, Topolobampo), artistic director Amy Rubenstein and associate artistic director Carl Menninger, includes a menu of tastings that stars alongside the capable cast directed by David H. Bell.

The unfolding restaurant hijinks, which move at a breakneck speed, are inspired by Bayless’ real-life experiences. Bayless is no novice when it comes to theater collaborations. In 2012 and 2014, he teamed with Lookingglass Theatre for “Cascabel,” a story-meal combo about food’s capacity to change lives.

“A Recipe for Disaster” begins in the lobby bar of The Contumacious Pig (contumacious, as in “stubbornly disobedient” or more to the point, ahem,”pig-headed”), an up-and-coming eatery hosting an influencer night in hopes of upping its online profile. Audience members — serving as the influencer crowd — mingle with Loren and Kiki (Kierra Bunch and Carley Corelius, respectively), two self-serving, opportunistic and very funny social media influencers, as restaurant manager Shelley (Emma Jo Boyden) scurries around putting out fires.

Kyle Flubacker
Shelly (Emma Jo Boyden) and Iggy (Alex Morales) serve up tasty fare from Chef Rick Bayless during a performance of “Recipe for Disaster.”

Once seated inside The Contumacious Pig (in the lower level of Petterino’s restaurant on Dearborn) sturm and drang are on the menu along with Bayless’ plates of tasty small bites and wine tastings.

“I heard this is better than Frontera Grill,” Loren confides to several audience members.

Miffed over a laudatory profile of the restaurant’s sous chef, Jude (Ben Page), the restaurant’s chef is a no-show; and the whole pig, a mainstay of the menu, also is missing, and the illegal menu stand-in — a pig minus a USDA stamp — proves to be problematic thanks to a nosy health inspector (Ryan Reilly) prowling the premises.

Meanwhile, as a flustered Jude steps into the missing chef’s shoes, his confidence needs a boost from girlfriend Shelly and line cook Iggy (Alex Morales) and his bottles of “vitamins.” (“Feel the soul of the soup,” Iggy councils.) Adding to the chaos, a competing restaurant has sent a spy — a lurking intern namd Boris (Ian Maryfield) — who is up to no good.

All the performers skillfully ratchet up the choreographed craziness as the story unfolds, but it is juggler and acrobat Daniel Trinidad as busboy Felix who steals the show as he scurries about trying to hide that darn pig from the health inspector. His role requires some fancy cavorting around the set replete with flying saucepans and some dangerous juggling made to look easy.

Kyle Flubacker
Daniel Trinidad as Felix in a scene from “Recipe for Disaster.”

As is typical with a farce, it’s a head-spinning experience with, in this case, action taking place in several locations at once — in the open kitchen, a storeroom, the restroom and among the audience. The audience, seated at small tables, is encouraged to move around to catch all the action but to return to their seats at the sound of a gong for the next course. The set-up seems a bit awkward for all the moving about.

Bayless’ menu, an interesting mix of flavors, begins with pre-dinner bites (roasted dates stuffed with smoky gorgonzola and pita chips with hummus, tomatoes and olives) and a tequila-based cocktail. The dinner menu includes a wild mushroom soup (beware the Malort!), herb pasta with crab and artichokes, and a surprising potato creation that saves the day for the restaurant known for its pork dishes. The desert offering, an avocado-chocolate mousse, serves up a delightful end to the evening.

With its exaggerated, ridiculous and absurd situations, comedic farce can be an acquired taste and “A Recipe for Disaster” is no different. So, if you’re looking for a relaxing evening of theater this may not fit the bill. This is nonstop, hilarious bread and circus hijinks dialed up to 11.

Note: For COVID-19 protocols and safety measures, visit the theater’s website.

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It is difficult to describe the current state of the Chicago Bears. Six games into the 2021 season, the Bears sit at 3-3. Many fans are of the attitude that it could be better, and it could also be worse. Their record is pretty much who they are right now — an average team, overall. […] Trading these players would be in Chicago Bears’ best interest – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

File photo

The suspect ran from a stolen car after deputies found him at the Benson Corners gas station in Bristol, Wisconsin, police say.

Kenosha County sheriff’s deputies shot and wounded a man they say shot a police dog as they confronted him for driving a stolen car wanted in a murder in Chicago.

The suspect ran from the stolen car when deputies found him around 11:15 a.m. at the Benson Corners gas station, 19942 75th St. in Bristol, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

The man shot a K9 dog during the chase, police said. Deputies then fired at the man and took him to a hospital for his injuries.

Police did not say what murder in Chicago the car was connected to. The Racine County sheriff’s office was investigating the shooting.

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