NEW YORK — A judge began instructing the jury at R. Kelly’s sex trafficking trial on the law Friday after it heard a prosecutor give a fiery rebuttal to the defense’s closing arguments, which portrayed him as a victim of false accusations.

Kelly “believed the music, the fame and the celebrity meant he could do whatever he wanted,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Shihata said in federal court in Brooklyn.

But, she added, “He’s not a genius, he’s a criminal. A predator.” She added that his alleged victims “aren’t groupies or gold diggers. They’re human beings.”

After Shihata finished, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly started her final instructions in anticipation jurors would get the case later in the day.

The 54-year-old Kelly, perhaps best known for the 1996 smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly, ” has pleaded not guilty to racketeering charges accusing him of abusing women, girls and boys for more than two decades.

He is also charged with multiple violations of the Mann Act, which makes it illegal to transport anyone across state lines “for any immoral purpose.”

Prosecutors say their evidence proves how Kelly, with the help of some loyal members of his entourage, used tactics from “the predator playbook” to sexually exploit his victims.

The tactics included isolating them in hotel rooms or his recording studio, subjecting them to degrading rules like making them call him “Daddy” and shooting video recordings — some seen by the jury at trial — of them having sex with him and others as a means to control them, prosecutors said.

In his closing, defense attorney Deveraux Cannick told the jury that testimony by several accusers was full of lies, and that “the government let them lie.”

Cannick argued there was no evidence Kelly’s accusers were never forced to do anything against their will. Instead, Cannick said, Kelly’s girlfriends stuck around because he spoiled them with free air travel, shopping sprees and fancy dinners — treatment that belied the predator label.

“He gave them a lavish lifestyle,” he said. “That’s not what a predator is supposed to do.”

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If you’ve noticed that a certain loopy, line-drawn breast motif has become as boob-iquitous as color-coded bookshelves to the millennial aesthetic, you’re onto something: The last few years have seen a noticeable lift in busty fashion and decor. Here in Chicago, it’s a trend that dates back to 2015, the year of Dallas Maynard’s boob ring. “When I first made it, I just thought it was cute,” recalls the local jewelry designer. “Who doesn’t love boobs?” The ring, a solid gold bosom-shaped band studded with sparkling gemstone “nipples” (including ruby, emerald, sapphire, and citrine), was picked up by Chicago retailer Asrai Garden. “When they shared it on social media, it literally broke their Instagram,” says Maynard. Six years later, the concept has evolved into a jewelry collection and a serious symbol of empowerment that resonates with breast cancer patients and survivors, feminists, body positivity activists, nursing mothers, and boob-o-philes alike. From $260. dallasmaynard.com

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NEW YORK — A veteran TV news executive says CNN anchor Chris Cuomo sexually harassed her by squeezing her buttocks at a party in 2005.

Shelley Ross said in an opinion piece in The New York Times on Friday that Chris Cuomo, who had formerly reported to her at ABC News, greeted her with a bear hug “while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock” while she was at a party with her husband.

Ross said Cuomo told her, “I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss,” and she responded, “No you can’t,” pushing him off while stepping back to reveal her husband, who had witnessed the episode.

Cuomo sent an email shortly afterward saying he was “ashamed.” He mentioned a celebrity who had been arrested for similar behavior recently, and apologized to Ross and her husband.

Asked for comment, Cuomo told the Times, “As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature. It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC. I apologized to her then, and I meant it.”

Cuomo, the host of “Cuomo Prime Time,” has faced criticism for his role in advising his brother, Andrew Cuomo, who resigned as New York governor last month over allegations of sexual harassment from multiple women.

Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has denied touching any of the women inappropriately.

Chris Cuomo told CNN viewers last month that he had advised his brother to be contrite. “I was there to listen and offer my take,” Cuomo said. “And my advice to my brother was simple and consistent — own what you did, tell people what you’ll try to do to be better, be contrite. Finally, accept that it doesn’t matter what you intended, what matters is how your actions and your words are perceived.”

Ross said in her essay in the Times that Chris Cuomo should have been ashamed for his conduct with her, “But my question today is the same as it was then: Was he ashamed of what he did, or was he embarrassed because my husband saw it?”

She said she sees the apology as “an attempt to provide himself with legal and moral coverage to evade accountability.”

Asked for comment about Ross’ essay on Friday, a CNN spokesperson referred to Cuomo’s statement to the Times.

Ross has written previously of being sexually harassed by Roger Ailes, who was ousted from Fox News Channel over harassment complaints and died in 2017.

Recounting the 1981 encounter in her New York Times piece, Ross said Ailes apologized to her for insisting on a “sexual alliance” as a condition of a pending job offer at NBC’s “Tomorrow” show.

Ross said she accepted Ailes’ apology, naively thinking she could “help reform the workplace one predator at a time.”

Ross said she is not asking for Chris Cuomo to be fired from CNN, but would like to see him “journalistically repent: agree on air to study the impact of sexism, harassment and gender bias in the workplace, including his own, and then report on it.”

She suggested a series of town hall meetings titled “The Continuing Education of Chris Cuomo.”

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The latest viral fitness trend has people reaching for a surprising snack before their workouts: Rice Krispies Treats.

The craze has recently taken off on TikTok, inspiring people to share their results, good and bad, on social media. But experts say while reaching for a Rice Krispies Treat before your workout is actually not a horrible option, it might not be the best choice.

One of the most popular videos showcasing the trend was posted by TikTok user @Ko0maa who claims the snack gives you “an insane pump” at the gym. The clip goes on to show him besting his personal weight-lifting record after downing a pre-workout Rice Krispies Treat. The post garnered more than 175,000 views and 14,000 likes.

“Trust me when I say it, Rice Krispies gonna make you have the best workout,” Twitter user @s_terrazas said.

Others are skeptical.

“Tried the Rice Krispies Treat before a workout thing. Don’t get it. 30 min of sugar high then a sugar crash that ruined the back end of my workout. Not for me,” user @RickSegall wrote.

By textbook nutrition standards, you ideally want to eat a well-rounded meal with carbohydrates, proteins and fat about three hours before a workout, says Abbie E. Smith-Ryan, an associate professor of exercise physiology at the University of North Carolinsa Chapel Hill who does research in sports nutrition and exercise performance.

If eat right before your workout, it’s best to focus on carbs and protein.

“A Rice Krispies Treat would be mostly carbs, but it’s a quick easily digested, so it’s not going to cause GI distress,” Smith-Ryan says.

But it would be best to also add some protein, she says: “So, for example, like a Greek yogurt. Or that’s where the protein shakes come in.”

While Rice Krispies Treats before a workout might not be harmful, Dr. Michael Daignault, an emergency physician and chief medical adviser for Reliant Health Service, doubts the trend is effective.

He suspects the touted energy boost “is related to a brief sugar high plus a placebo effect from a perceived performance enhancement.”

Daignault sayst each person’s metabolism is different, so the best pre-workout meals can vary.

“We know that there is certainly a benefit to having post-workout protein in the form of a smoothie or meal,” he says. “But, as far as pre-workout, athletes’ preferences vary and can include training on an empty stomach, eating a small meal of protein and good fat like avocado or using a pre-workout supplement.”

Deciding what’s best also depends on what kind of workout you’ll be doing, Smith-Ryan says.

“If I’m going to lift weights, I can probably stomach more than if I’m going to go run,” she says.

Read more at usatoday.com

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The fatal shootings occurred on the South and West Sides.

By

Sun-Times Wire

Sep 24, 2021, 6:48am CDT

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‘”This is a great town. It’s got everything.” – Sun-Times columnist Ernie Souchak (John Belushi), describing his beloved Chicago in “Continental Divide.”

Even in 1981, Chicago Sun-Times news columnist Ernie Souchak was something of a throwback — a pavement-pounding, notebook-wielding investigative journalist who wore a terrible porkpie hat, almost always had a cigarette dangling from his lips, could throw down drinks with the best and worst of ’em at the Billy Goat Tavern and was constantly at odds with his gruff managing editor, who also happened to be his best friend.

Souchak was a man of the people, exchanging pleasantries with the local newsstand guy, cabdrivers, sex workers and even muggers he’d encounter on the gritty streets of the Loop, as newspaper trucks zipped by bearing the slogan, “ERNIE SOUCHAK: ONE REASON PEOPLE TURN TO THE BRIGHT ONE!” Then it was off to the paper, where he’d pen columns with leads such as, “Good Afternoon, Chicago: Ald. Yablonowitz has his finger in another sticky City Hall pie …”

What a time it was, and what a character was Ernie Souchak.

When we think of John Belushi’s most memorable roles in his tragically brief movie career (just seven feature films), the one-two punch of John “Bluto” Blutarsky in “National Lampoon’s Animal House” and Joliet Jake in “The Blues Brothers” will always be mentioned first. But Belushi delivered his most authentic and grounded performance as a sardonic and cynical but big-hearted ink-stained wretch in “Continental Divide,” which hit theaters 40 years ago this month — just six months before Belushi died of a drug overdose at the Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood, California, at the age of 33.

Re-watching the film is a bittersweet experience, as we delight in Belushi’s quick-witted comments and his slapstick pratfalls as well as his nimble moves, as when Souchak hangs gracefully from the back of a train and doffs his hat while saying goodbye but not farewell to the love of his life. On a much less profound but still impactful level, “Continental Divide” holds a special place in my heart, as it would only be a half-dozen years before I would be walking into the same Sun-Times newsroom (in the old, squatty building at 401 N. Wabash) featured prominently in the movie, learning the ropes from some of the great reporters and editors in the country, pounding the Flintstones-looking keyboard and learning the Atex computer system with its green-on-black lettering and its station-to-station Messaging capabilities, which we thought was pretty damn futuristic at the time.

Director Michael Apted (The “Up” documentary series, “Coal Miner’s Daughter”) and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (writer of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” and director of such films as “The Big Chill” and “Grand Canyon”) fashioned “Continental Divide” as an homage to classic newspaper-themed screwball comedies such as “Woman of the Year” and “His Girl Friday,” with Belushi as the workaholic bachelor with outdated views of women and the wonderful Blair Brown (who looks and sounds a bit like a young Katharine Hepburn) as Dr. Nell Porter, a renowned but reclusive researcher who has been conducting studies on the endangered American bald eagle for several years in the Rocky Mountains.

Souchak almost never leaves Chicago and Nell is content to live in a remote cabin with just the magnificent peaks and the eagles and the occasional bear or mountain lion to keep her company, so how do these two even meet? Plot device! Souchak’s ongoing investigation into the criminal wrongdoings of the powerful, pinkie-ringed Ald. Yablonowitz (Val Avery) leads to a couple of corrupt cops beating him up and someone blowing up his apartment — so Souchak’s editor, Howard McDermott (Allen Garfield), tells him to get out of town for a while and pursue an interview with Nell.

OK, that’s a stretch, but we go with it. When Souchak is left stranded at Nell’s cabin high in the mountains for a two-week period until his crusty mountain guide will return and guide him to safety (Souchak would clearly die if he tried to make the trek alone), Nell reluctantly agrees to let Souchak stay with her, lest he starve to death or get eaten by a bear. When Nell discovers Souchak had planned to write a story about her, she exclaims, “Did it ever occur to you to ask permission? Of all the unmitigated, presumptuous gall!”

“Oh, there’s no call to use big words,” comes the deadpan reply.

Ernie Souchak stays in a mountain cabin with wildlife researcher Nell Porter (Blair Brown) while attempting to interview her.Universal Pictures

So, we have a classic fish-out-of-water adventure, with a budding romance between two opposites who have nothing in common but quickly become friends and then lovers — all within two weeks, because this is the movies. Eventually the action returns to Chicago, with more scenes shot inside the gloriously shabby Sun-Times newsroom, as well as inside the Billy Goat and at the old Chicago & Northwestern Terminal (now the Richard B. Ogilvie Transportation Center).

“Continental Divide” is not a great newspaper film on par with films such as “All the President’s Men” or “Spotlight.” For one thing, we spend as much time in the country as we do in the city. But as Souchak himself might say, it’s a damn solid picture about a damn good journalist, and there’s a helluva love story in there as well.

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