One Cause At A Time

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Firefighters extinguish a roadside wildfire in Goleta, California on Oct. 12. | AP Photos

You’ve had decades to clean up the cesspool you’ve made of my once pristine planet. Such a shame. Nice try with windmills, the solar panels, the electric cars, the bans on plastic straws and such.

How dense are you people? Can’t you take a hint from me, Mother Nature?

Because of you, fires are burning out of control, hurricanes have increased in severity, more of my precious wildlife are endangered or extinct, you’re experiencing record-breaking temperatures everywhere, you’re poisoning my fish, and my ice caps are melting so fast that some of your cities will soon be under water. Not to mention that my poor polar bears are wandering around, trying to figure out where to live.

And now you’ve got a plague, thanks to yours truly. Viruses are easy for me, what with the variants and all. Remember 1918?

I hope you don’t think the coronavirus is going away anytime soon. Mutation is why you’re here. And you’ve been very helpful in prolonging it by producing a new phenomenon — anti-vaxxers. Well done. Herd immunity? Maybe for cows and sheep but not for you. LOL. And my goodness, most of you idiots still don’t get it. I, Mother Nature, made the virus.

You’ve had decades to clean up the cesspool you’ve made of my once pristine planet. Such a shame. Nice try with windmills, the solar panels, the electric cars, the bans on plastic straws and such. Composting? That one’s pretty amusing. But sorry folks, it’s just too little too late.

And forget about going to Mars. Do you honestly think I’m going to let you destroy another planet? Hell, I’m surprised you haven’t built casinos on the moon yet.

Frankly, I feel that you just don’t respect me enough, that preserving my creations is just too … inconvenient for you, that you’d rather make oodles of money and leave the clean-up to the next generation. By the way, why do you need so much money?

And don’t make excuses — it’s not about flatulent cows. There have always been flatulent cows and everything was fine. It’s about oil and greed and you know it. If you really think the methane produced from flatulent cows are the problem, spray the fields with a digestive enzyme.

You know what’s interesting? During the pandemic lockdowns, there were clearer skies again in Beijing and Los Angeles. Some of my oceans were starting to look like … well … oceans again. Turtles could lay their eggs in peace on the beaches again.

And can you guess why all this great stuff was happening? Because you humans weren’t going outside for a while.

I suppose I could have done something else to wake you Earthlings up, something really spectacular. I put together a pretty amazing flood for Noah but you have nuclear submarines now. Before you know it, Manhattan will look worse than Venice, the one in Italy. Will that grab your attention? I’m guessing no.

Of course, I could do an asteroid. They’re really spectacular and very effective. Got rid of the dinosaurs in no time. By the way, it was a big mistake making the dinosaurs. I thought bigger would be better than smarter. But smarter hasn’t exactly been a roaring success either. At least the dinosaurs didn’t litter the beach with soda cans and plastic bottles. But, at the end of the day, they were kind of boring.

But in spite of everything, I kind of like you Earthlings. Most of you anyway. You’ve done some amazing things with the raw materials I made for you. I had no clue you could construct skyscrapers or spaceships or the Mona Lisa. And most of you have your hearts in the right place.

It’s the climate change deniers I don’t understand. If your house is floating in the bay because of a hurricane in the middle of a drought while an apocalyptic typhoon is headed your way and it happens every year but it didn’t used to, don’t you think there just might be something wrong with the climate?

John Blumenthal, an author and former magazine editor, has also written for Salon and Huffington Post.

Send letters to [email protected].

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U.S. Attorney John Lausch speaks about the efforts and impact of the investigation during a news conference at the FBI Chicago Field Office to announce arrests and federal charges in connection with the shooting and murder of FBG Duck, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

The rapper was shot dead and two others were wounded in the targeted afternoon attack in the first block of East Oak Street. Shoppers were on the sidewalk when a pair of vehicles pulled up and two gunmen got out and opened fire.

A newly unsealed federal racketeering indictment accuses five alleged members of the South Side O-Block street gang of committing last year’s brazen Gold Coast murder of rapper FBG Duck.

Charged with murder in aid of racketeering are Charles “C Murda” Liggins, 30; Kenneth “Kenny” Roberson, 28; Tacarlos “Los” Offerd, 30; Christopher “C Thang” Thomas, 22; and Marcus “Muwop” Smart, 22. The charge carries a minimum of life in prison and a potential death sentence.

The men are also charged with assaulting two additional unnamed victims in aid of racketeering, as well as firearm offenses.

Chicago Police Supt. David Brown and U.S. Attorney John Lausch told reporters they hope the charges send a strong message to other gang members that they will be held accountable to the full extent of the law.

“If this gives pause to them then we’re doing something good,” Lausch said at a news conference at the FBI Chicago Field Office.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
U.S. Attorney John Lausch speaks about the efforts and impact of the investigation during a news conference at the FBI Chicago Field Office to announce arrests and federal charges in connection with the shooting and murder of FBG Duck, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021.

Meanwhile, Brown acknowledged concern for retaliation in the form of “street justice” following the charges.

“We are going after gangs in this city,” Brown emphasized several times at the news conference.

Liggins, Offerd, Thomas and Smart were arrested early Wednesday morning and appeared in court later in the afternoon. Their attorneys pleaded not guilty on their behalf, and a Friday detention hearing was set only for Offerd. Attorneys for the other three said they’d likely seek their release at a later time. All four will remain in custody for the time being.

Roberson was already in the custody of the Cook County Department of Corrections. He is charged with murder in the Jan. 30 shooting of Lorenzo Moore in Dolton, according to Cook County court records. They show he’s also facing separate gun possession charges from 2019.

Cook County Sheriff’s Office
Kenneth Roberson

FBG Duck, whose real name was Carlton Weekly, was shot to death the afternoon of Aug. 4, 2020, in the first block of East Oak Street as shoppers milled about. Police said he was on the retail strip around 4:37 p.m. when two vehicles pulled up and four people exited before opening fire. The 26-year-old was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Another man and woman were also wounded.

The rapper’s mother said he was shopping for a birthday present for his son — one of his four children — when he was killed. She later went to the scene of the murder to ask that no one commit any retaliatory shootings in his name.

On social media, FBG Duck had recently made “derogatory statements toward deceased members of the Black Disciples” — a possible motive for his fatal shooting in the heart of the luxury shopping district on Oak Street, police said.

FBG Duck associated with a faction of the Gangster Disciples street gang called Jaro City, which was based near 62nd Street and Vernon Avenue in West Woodlawn, police said at the time. But on social media, he identified himself as a member of the Gangster Disciples faction called STL/EBT, which is in the same area and mostly friendly with Jaro City.

Police also said last year there was a “high threat level” in an ongoing conflict between those Gangster Disciples and the O-Block faction of the Black Disciples from the Parkway Gardens apartments near 63rd Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.

Odee Perry, a member of a Black Disciples faction in Parkway Gardens, was shot to death in 2011, and the faction was dubbed O Block in his honor. Perry’s killing sparked a series of retaliatory shootings — including the 2014 murder of Gakirah Barnes, who police say was a female gang assassin for a Gangster Disciples faction in the neighborhood.

FBG Duck was also affiliated with the Fly Boy Gang, a group of rappers.

According to a Chicago Sun-Times story in 2017, his brother Jermaine Robinson was a rapper who went by FBG Brick. He and a friend, Stanley Mack, were shot to death in Woodlawn in July 2017.

Contributing: Frank Main and Matthew Hendrickson

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The Leighton Criminal Courthouse. | Sun-Times file

Marvin White, 50, “burned to death” when his car caught on fire in Sunday’s crash.

A truck driver charged in a deadly DUI crash that claimed the life of a 50-year-old man on the Kennedy Expressway was ordered held on $250,000 bail Wednesday.

Marvin White “burned to death,” in Sunday night’s crash on the Interstate 90 near Natoma Avenue, Cook County prosecutors said.

White had slowed down while he was driving north around 11:15 p.m. because of construction and a separate crash ahead, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said.

But Reny Ramirez Orts, who was driving a box truck, didn’t slow down and barreled into the back of White’s car at 40-70 mph, Murphy said.

That impact led to several other vehicles being struck, Murphy said.

White’s car burst in the flames and he was trapped inside, Murphy said.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Eight other people were also injured, including two people who remained hospitalized Wednesday, Murphy said.

Orts also was hospitalized. He refused a DUI kit but blood and urine tests taken at the hospital revealed his blood-alcohol level was 0.13 — almost twice the legal 0.08.

He remained hospitalized Wednesday and did not appear at his bond hearing.

Orts, who was recorded getting out of the truck by a responding Illinois state trooper’s dash cam, has been charged with nine counts of DUI, Murphy said.

An assistant public defender said Orts had no criminal background and asked Judge David Navarro to release Orts on his own recognizance with an order forbidding him from driving.

Navarro called White’s death “horrifying” and said Orts couldn’t drive and would be placed on electronic monitoring if he is able to post bond.

Orts is expected back in court Nov. 1.

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LaSheena Weekly, mother of slain Chicago rapper FBG Duck, holds a press conference in the first block of East Oak Street in the Gold Coast in August 2020. Weekly asked that there be no retaliatory shootings to her son’s death. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

The rapper was shot dead and two others were wounded in the targeted afternoon attack in the first block of East Oak Street. Shoppers were on the sidewalk when a pair of vehicles pulled up and two gunmen got out and opened fire.

A newly unsealed federal racketeering indictment accuses five alleged members of the South Side O-Block street gang of committing last year’s brazen Gold Coast murder of rapper FBG Duck.

Charged with murder in aid of racketeering are Charles “C Murda” Liggins, 30; Kenneth “Kenny” Roberson, 28; Tacarlos “Los” Offerd, 30; Christopher “C Thang” Thomas, 22; and Marcus “Muwop” Smart, 22. The charge carries a minimum of life in prison and a potential death sentence.

The men are also charged with assaulting two additional unnamed victims in aid of racketeering, as well as firearm offenses.

Chicago Police Supt. David Brown and U.S. Attorney John Lausch told reporters they hope the charges send a strong message to other gang members that they will be held accountable to the full extent of the law.

“If this gives pause to them then we’re doing something good,” Lausch said at a news conference at the FBI Chicago Field Office.

Meanwhile, Brown acknowledged concern for retaliation in the form of “street justice” following the charges.

“We are going after gangs in this city,” Brown emphasized several times at the news conference.

Liggins, Offerd, Thomas and Smart were arrested early Wednesday morning and appeared in court later in the afternoon. Their attorneys pleaded not guilty on their behalf, and a Friday detention hearing was set only for Offerd. Attorneys for the other three said they’d likely seek their release at a later time. All four will remain in custody for the time being.

Roberson was already in the custody of the Cook County Department of Corrections. He is charged with murder in the Jan. 30 shooting of Lorenzo Moore in Dolton, according to Cook County court records. They show he’s also facing separate gun possession charges from 2019.

Cook County Sheriff’s Office
Kenneth Roberson

FBG Duck, whose real name was Carlton Weekly, was shot to death the afternoon of Aug. 4, 2020, in the first block of East Oak Street as shoppers milled about. Police said he was on the retail strip around 4:37 p.m. when two vehicles pulled up and four people exited before opening fire. Weekly, 26, was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Another man and woman were also wounded.

The rapper’s mother said he was shopping for a birthday present for his son — one of his four children — when he was killed. She later went to the scene of the murder to ask that no one commit any retaliatory shootings in his name.

On social media, FBG Duck had recently made “derogatory statements toward deceased members of the Black Disciples” — a possible motive for his fatal shooting in the heart of the luxury shopping district on Oak Street, police said.

FBG Duck associated with a faction of the Gangster Disciples street gang called Jaro City, which was based near 62nd Street and Vernon Avenue in West Woodlawn, police said at the time. But on social media, he identified himself as a member of the Gangster Disciples faction called STL/EBT, which is in the same area and mostly friendly with Jaro City.

Police also said last year there was a “high threat level” in an ongoing conflict between those Gangster Disciples and the O-Block faction of the Black Disciples from the Parkway Gardens apartments near 63rd Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.

Odee Perry, a member of a Black Disciples faction in Parkway Gardens, was shot to death in 2011, and the faction was dubbed O Block in his honor. Perry’s killing sparked a series of retaliatory shootings — including the 2014 murder of Gakirah Barnes, who police say was a female gang assassin for a Gangster Disciples faction in the neighborhood.

FBG Duck was also affiliated with the Fly Boy Gang, a group of rappers.

According to a Chicago Sun-Times story in 2017, his brother Jermaine Robinson was a rapper who went by FBG Brick. He and a friend, Stanley Mack, were shot to death in Woodlawn in July 2017.

Contributing: Frank Main and Matthew Hendrickson

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Craig Kimbrel prepares to pitch against the Twins at Target Field on August 11, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images) | Getty

Right field, second base, starting pitching, defensive shortcomings, Kimbrel’s contract under review

White Sox pitchers and catchers report to spring training in exactly four months.

Too soon?

For everyone in the organization and for fans still licking wounds from an ALDS beating from the Astros, who outscored the Sox 26-5 in the three defeats, that reminder could have waited. Everyone needs to decompress after seeing an otherwise entertaining season fueled by ambitious postseason dreams.

But in reality, the Sox can’t get to Glendale, Ariz., soon enough to begin cleaning up the issues that crept up throughout the regular season and were even more glaring during the superior Astros’ three-games-to-one triumph that sent the Sox home well before they could accomplish their goal of a World Series appearance.

There are defensive issues to address, positions to upgrade via free agency or trades, defensive shift positioning to re-evaluate and decisions to be made on contracts of Craig Kimbrel and Cesar Hernandez.

Starting pitching, second base and right field need attention. The Sox could hang their hat on Andrew Vaughn in right field, a position they tried shoring up on the cheap with Adam Eaton last season. Signed for $7 million when better and more expensive options were out there, Eaton was DFA’d on July 7.

Spending more to, once and for all, to put a power hitting option in right shouldn’t be an unreasonable ask for a team with a manageable and nicely cost controlled payroll (15th in the majors at $126 million in 2021, eighth at $143 committed for 2022) for the long term.

Hernandez, acquired at the trade deadline to fill the void left by traded second baseman Nick Madrigal, was benched in favor of Leury Garcia in the first two games of the ALDS. His $6 million team option with no buyout may easily be left alone. Eduardo Escobar, a better, more versatile choice thought to be coming in a trade when Hernandez arrived instead, is a free agent. So is another former Sox, Marcus Semien, who hit 45 home runs for the Blue Jays in 2021.

Starting pitchers Lance Lynn and Rodon faded in the second half, both fighting injuries. Lucas Giolito improved but, like every other Sox starter including Dylan Cease, failed against the Astros. Dallas Keuchel was left off the postseason roster. Rodon is a free agent. The free agent market beckons for a rotation that was one of baseball’s best but didn’t have a clear Lance McCullers-type No. 1.

Then there’s the Craig Kimbrel decision. Acquired in a trade at the deadline for Nick Madrigal and Codi Heuer that looked like a huge score at the time, Kimbrel pitched to a 5.09 ERA for the Sox after a spectacular first half with the Cubs. His option is for 2022 is $16 million. The Sox’ options? Re-sign and bring him back to the bullpen, pick up the big price or sign and explore trade options.

The Sox ranked 26th in defensive runs saved and were anything but air tight defensively in the outfield, infield and behind the plate. Some of the issues are more fixable than others.

The Astros, 27th in the major leagues in stolen bases, swiped four bags in their 10-1 victory in Game 4 because it was easy pickings against a team that didn’t hold runners well. Manager Tony La Russa admitted his team’s defense against the steal was “atrocious” this season and vowed to address it in camp. It needs to be — with results.

It was a season of 93 wins despite an avalanche of injuries to key players, a championship in an easily winnable division and steps forward for young talents such as budding superstar Luis Robert, Vaughn and Gavin Sheets. There is no shame in losing in the postseason in a sport that sees the best team lose, but the Sox were clearly not the best team in the ALDS.

The good thing about that? The front office and La Russa can’t be fooled by what they saw, what they have and what they need. Contention windows, already two years in with two quick knockouts, are precious indeed and to be capitalized on.

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Adele poses with her awards for “25” in the press room at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in 2017. | Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

With giant hits like “Rolling in the Deep” and “Hello,” both of her previous two albums rank among the 50 biggest-selling in music history.

NEW YORK — Six years after her last album, Adele revealed Wednesday that her new project, “30,” will be released on Nov. 19.

An initial single, “Easy on Me,” is coming out on Friday.

The British singer, who was divorced in 2019, said in a lengthy Instagram post that after “throwing myself into a maze of absolute mess and inner turmoil,” she’s feeling better.

“I’m ready to finally put this album out,” she wrote.

With giant hits like “Rolling in the Deep” and “Hello,” both of her previous two albums rank among the 50 biggest-selling in music history.

The disc “21” (she names her projects for her age while writing most of the music) was released in 2011 and has sold an estimated 31 million copies worldwide. The album “25” came out in 2015, and sold 22 million copies.

With streaming services like Spotify now dominant, there’s no way Adele or anyone will reach those sales figures again. Yet she’s in a stratosphere of popularity that only someone like Taylor Swift can approach in the music business.

She’s also been away for six years from a medium where tastes change from month to month.

In an interview with Vogue recently, Adele said “there isn’t a bombastic ‘Hello.’ But I don’t want another song like that. That song catapulted me in fame to another level that I don’t want to happen again.”

She and her former husband, Simon Konecki, have a 9-year-old son. Adele’s 33 years old now.

“I’ve learned a lot of blistering home truths about myself along the way,” Adele wrote on Instagram. “I’ve shed many layers but also wrapped myself in new ones. Discovered genuinely useful and wholesome mentalities to lead with, and I feel like I’ve finally found my feeling again. I’d go so far as to say that I’ve never felt more peaceful in my life.”

Vogue describes “Easy on Me” as a “gut-wrenching plea of a piano ballad.”

“It’s sensitive for me, this record, just in how much I love it,” Adele told the magazine. “I always say that ’21’ doesn’t belong to me anymore. Everyone else took it in their hearts so much. I’m not letting go of this one. This is my album. I want to share myself with everyone, but I don’t think I’ll ever let this one go.”

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Jose Altuve (27) and Carlos Correa celebrate after the Astros beat the White Sox 10-1 Tuesday to win their American League Division Series. | Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Something was missing in the ALDS for the Sox after a wonderful regular season.

The difference between the Astros and the White Sox, besides a million runs, is attitude.

The Astros don’t care whom they’re playing or where they’re playing. They don’t care who’s pitching against them or what the pitcher is throwing. They don’t care what you’re saying about their past sins or how colorfully you’re saying it.

They don’t give a whit. They just hit.

The Sox could use some of that.

Now, please don’t misunderstand. This is not a plea for the Sox to start cheating to win a World Series, the way Houston did in 2017. No one needs to see or hear Yoan Moncada banging a garbage can in the dugout to tip off Sox hitters about what pitch is coming next.

This is a recognition that the Sox are missing something besides a better right fielder or a more productive second baseman or the reliever who used to be Craig Kimbrel.

They’re lacking steel-reinforced confidence and a complete disregard for opponents’ emotional well-being. The Sox don’t kill for fun. The Astros do, with sadistic hitting. That’s how you separate these two teams. That and a 3-1 American League Division Series triumph for Houston.

You’d be right to ask how one could extrapolate all that from four postseason games. The Sox won 93 games and the AL Central title. Clearly, they did something right during the regular season.

Baseball is weird. We all get that. Trying to understand why one team is hitting and one isn’t is like trying to grab a handful of smoke. All I know is that none of the following Sox had extra-base hits in the series, which is to say, when it mattered: Jose Abreu, Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert and Moncada. You’re not going to win like that. I know, I know: It’s a small sample size. Guess what? That’s what the playoffs are.

Add small sample sizes to the things the Astros don’t care about.

The most fire the Sox showed was when manager Tony La Russa, angry that the Astros had plunked Abreu in Game 4, accused Houston of doing it intentionally. Never mind that it made no sense for the Astros to do such a thing in the eighth inning of a game they were leading 7-1. La Russa had finally found a hair in his soup. He was off to the rages.

I don’t measure a team’s attitude by how many emotional outbursts it has. But something was missing for the Sox. The Astros seemed to take special pleasure in two-strike hits. The Sox couldn’t seem to buy a hit with men on. Both of those situations come with extra pressure. One team reacted well. The other didn’t.

The White Sox showed a lot of heart by coming back from a 5-1 deficit to beat the Astros at home in Game 3, but it’s a lot easier to do that when there are 40,000 of your fans, most dressed in team black, cheering you on. Where was that resolve in Game 4 when Houston was stockpiling runs as if a global shortage was forecast? Or in Games 1 and 2 on the road?

A team that knows it’s good doesn’t care if it’s playing in hostile territory. Maybe all the abuse the Astros have taken from fans since the sign-stealing scandal has hardened them. Nothing about a playoff game in Guaranteed Rate Field concerned them.

The Sox aren’t there yet.

How do they get there?

The best-case scenario for the Sox is that what we saw, or didn’t see, in the ALDS was a result of youth and inexperience. Maybe more veteran leadership is what’s needed here. Simplistic? Not very analytical? All I know is that there’s something about Astros star Jose Altuve that’s contagious, and it goes beyond his ability to hit a baseball.

How does Sox general manager Rick Hahn add something as hard to find as ruthlessness? The Sox clearly have gobs of talent, but is there a store that specializes in leadership? And what’s it going to take to buy some?

Or is he going to wait for the young, extremely talented players on his team to get “it.” Risky business.

After an 11-year absence from the playoffs, the Sox now have played in the postseason two years in a row. Last season was looked upon as a learning experience, a good one. This one, not so much. This one lacked the strides many of us predicted for them.

The next step might be the hardest one. Your move, Mr. Hahn.

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A man was shot dead Oct. 12, 2021, in Marquette Park. | File photo

Marquis Talley, 50, was in his vehicle about 8:41 p.m. in the 7200 block of South Troy Street when someone fired shots from a dark-colored SUV, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

A man was killed in a shooting Tuesday in Marquette Park on the South Side.

Marquis Talley, 50, was in his vehicle about 8:41 p.m. in the 7200 block of South Troy Street when someone fired shots from a dark-colored SUV, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Talley was shot in the chest and torso. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead, officials said.

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

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