The Blackhawks on Wednesday announced that ceremonies for four longtime players will be held this season.

Patrick Kane’s milestone of 1,000 NHL games played — which he achieved last season without fans in the building — will be honored Oct. 21 against the Canucks, two days after the regular-season home opener against the Islanders.

Additionally, the Hawks will hold “legacy nights” to honor the recent retirements of Andrew Shaw, Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson later in the season.

Shaw’s ceremony will be Jan. 13 against the Canadiens, his other former team, while Seabrook’s will be Jan. 31 against the Canucks. And March 3 against the Oilers, Hjalmarsson — the most recent of the three to retire — will don a Hawks sweater for the first time since his 2017 trade to the Coyotes.

The NHL flipped two April home games earlier Wednesday: the Hawks now host the Kings on April 12 and the Sharks on April 14. The Sharks game will include a celebration of the career of retiring play-by-play broadcaster Pat Foley.

Other notable 2021-22 special nights include Native American Heritage Night (Nov. 7 vs. Predators), Military Appreciation Night (Nov. 12 vs. Coyotes), Hockey Fights Cancer Night (Nov. 28 vs. Sharks), a St. Patrick’s Day celebration (March 8 vs. Ducks) and Pride Night (April 12 vs. Kings).

The team’s often popular training camp festival will not be held this season. The preseason starts Sept. 29 against the Red Wings.

Single-game tickets will go on sale next Tuesday, Sept. 14, at noon. All fans ages 12 and older will need to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to enter the United Center this season.

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The state’s legislators are too far from Chicago for the city’s inhabitants to really care, giving city leaders more power and Downstate politicians more room to hide.Read More

As I sit here contemplating all the things that could go right or wrong for the Bears this season, I can’t shake the nagging suspicion that there should be more to my life. That somewhere along the line, a man of so many accumulated years must have gotten seriously off track to be this concerned with what are, in the grand scheme of things, trivial matters. That while other people wrestle with the really important, really adult stuff — health insurance, the hereafter, black shoes and brown belts (fashion sin or fashion revelation?) — I wonder if Allen Robinson is OK. Is the wide receiver’s head in the right place? Has he been wronged contractually too many times by the Bears?

Such questions give a person pause about the trajectory of his life. Then the person says to himself, “If the Bears’ defense doesn’t have gap control this season, all is lost.”

Most of the “expert” predictions for the 2021 season have the Bears going 7-10, 8-9 or 9-8. Those predictions are based on the team’s 8-8 record each of the past two seasons and the idea that very few of the new additions to the roster offer hope that things will be much different this year. The NFL’s tacking on of a 17th game only means that the Bears can’t be the numeric definition of mediocre anymore.

So they’re going to have to make do with what they have, starting Sunday night against the Rams. And that’s how the question of likelihood elbowed its way into my thoughts. I wondered what was more feasible — all the dice landing right for the Bears this season or the opposite, which is to say, everything going down the drain.

Let’s start with the positive, a scenario in which all that the team touches turns to gold. What would that look like? It would look like a very good quarterback, something the Bears haven’t had in … I believe the word is “forever.” That means either veteran Andy Dalton has close to a career year or his replacement, rookie Justin Fields, is the exciting, productive quarterback so many Bears fans are sure he is.

The possibility of that happening is tied to the offensive line thriving. It’s tied to the idea that the left tackle, 39-year-old Jason Peters, can still protect the quarterback’s blind side. It’s incumbent on the line, which didn’t play well in preseason games, getting its act together. We’ve seen it happen before, where an O-line gels as a season progresses, going from a hands-over-the-eyes horror story to a well-choreographed success.

The everything-goes-right scenario has Robinson and Darnell Mooney turning into the best receiver combo in the league. It has running back David Montgomery turning in his best season to date, the Bears’ clot of tight ends playing well and whoever is calling the plays from coach Matt Nagy’s playbook turning into a creative genius.

It has the Bears’ defense bouncing back from an underwhelming 2020 and getting back to being its excellent self.

Ten victories and a taste of postseason success, baby!

The odds of all that happening?

Um.

Er.

Not good.

Let’s look at the likelihood of everything going wrong for the Bears. It would entail Dalton being so bad that Fields takes over almost immediately and struggles like a rookie quarterback might. It would entail Peters looking every bit like a beat-up 17-year veteran and right tackle Germain Ifedi looking every bit like Germain Ifedi. It would entail the offensive line backing up Pro Football Focus’ appraisal that the Bears have one of the worst units in the league.

In this empty glass scenario, the defense continues its downward trend, Khalil Mack falls off even farther as a pass rusher and opposing offenses take advantage of new coordinator Sean Desai.

It means five to seven victories and a pair of powerful binoculars to watch the playoffs from afar. Bears chairman George McCaskey finally gives Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace the heave-ho. (What does a true-blue Bears fan root for here?)

Given the so-so talent level on the roster, the odds of all that bad stuff happening are better than the odds of everything going right for the Bears.

A football season isn’t an either/or proposition, of course. The likeliest scenario is the middle ground of those two extremes. It’s what happens when an unexceptional team asks a first-round draft pick to make everything better. Maybe Fields can do that eventually, but it’s hard to see it happening this season.

An 8-9 record sounds about right. It sounds unexciting. It sounds like a recipe for having the GM and the coach back for another season.

As I said earlier, how does a person get to a point where these are the issues that dominate his thoughts, especially when there are so many other weightier topics to ponder? Like the economy.

And special teams.

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Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office will investigate the Joliet Police Department for evidence of a pattern of civil rights abuses, a move that comes more than a year after a suspect died in police custody.

Raoul on Wednesday announced the probe of the southwest suburban department will be a “pattern and practice” investigation of department policies, training, disciplinary system, uses of force and other areas, a review similar to the one conducted by the Justice Department of the Chicago Police Department after the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald.

Raoul said his office began a “preliminary investigation” in the summer of 2020 at the request of Joliet Mayor Bob O’Dekirk and city council members. Raoul declined to say what that review turned up, but the AG said his investigators would not be looking into specific incidents such as the 2020 death of drug suspect Eric Lurry, who died of a fentanyl overdose after being suffocated and having a baton forced into his mouth by Joliet police officers while in the back of a police cruiser.

“We will not be making specific findings about one incident or any one Joliet Police Department officer,” Raoul said Wednesday during a news conference at the Thompson Center. “The investigation will look at the larger picture in an effort to prevent future incidents from happening rather than looking back and trying to penalize the Joliet Police Department or specific officers.”

The Joliet city manager’s office issued a statement after the news conference. “The city of Joliet is aware the Illinois Attorney General’s Office has opened a civil investigation concerning possible patterns or practices of unconstitutional or unlawful policing by the Joliet Police Department. … The city of Joliet remains committed to serving the community and will continue to cooperate with the Attorney General’s Office during the investigation.”

The investigation is the first undertaken by the office under investigative powers provided under a package of police reform laws passed earlier this year as the SAFE-T Act, Raoul said.

The DOJ pattern and practice investigation of CPD in 2016 lasted some 16 months and produced a scathing report that was used by Raoul’s predecessor, Lisa Madigan, as the basis for a civil lawsuit that led to a consent decree and federal oversight of CPD. A public meeting, the first of several to be hosted by the AG’s office as part of the agency’s fact-finding, is scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Joliet Area Historical Society in downtown Joliet.

Raoul would not say how long the state-level investigation of the Joliet PD might take, nor what the outcome might be. O’Dekirk requested an investigation in June 2020 not long after video was leaked of Lurry in the back of the squad car before his overdose death.

An investigation by police and Will County prosecutors found that Lurry’s death was an accidental overdose, and that the officers’ actions were not to blame. Joliet police would later move to fire a police sergeant who leaked the video. No charges have been filed in Lurry’s death. No representative from Will County or Joliet was present at the news conference.

Raoul said his probe will be a civil investigation, but his office would be able to refer out findings to other agencies for potential criminal charges as the AG does in investigations of scams or environmental pollution. Raoul would not say if his investigation was likely to lead to the sort of federal lawsuit that led to the CPD consent decree, stating he did not want to appear to have a predetermined outcome in mind.

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Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office will investigate the Joliet Police Department for evidence of a pattern of civil rights abuses, a move that comes more than a year after a suspect died in police custody.

Raoul on Wednesday announced the probe of the southwest suburban department will be a “pattern and practice” investigation of department policies, training, disciplinary system, uses of force and other areas, a review similar to the one conducted by the Justice Department of the Chicago Police Department after the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald.

Raoul said his office began a “preliminary investigation” in the summer of 2020 at the request of Joliet Mayor Bob O’Dekirk and city council members. Raoul declined to say what that review turned up, but the AG said his investigators would not be looking into specific incidents such as the 2020 death of drug suspect Eric Lurry, who died of a fentanyl overdose after being suffocated and having a baton forced into his mouth by Joliet police officers while in the back of a police cruiser.

“We will not be making specific findings about one incident or any one Joliet Police Department officer,” Raoul said Wednesday during a news conference at the Thompson Center. “The investigation will look at the larger picture in an effort to prevent future incidents from happening rather than looking back and trying to penalize the Joliet Police Department or specific officers.”

O’Dekirk did not immediately respond to a call seeking a comment.

The investigation is the first undertaken by the office under investigative powers provided under a package of police reform laws passed earlier this year as the SAFE-T Act, Raoul said.

The DOJ pattern and practice investigation of CPD in 2016 lasted some 16 months and produced a scathing report that was used by Raoul’s predecessor, Lisa Madigan, as the basis for a civil lawsuit that led to a consent decree and federal oversight of CPD. A public meeting, the first of several to be hosted by the AG’s office as part of the agency’s fact-finding, is scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Joliet Area Historical Society in downtown Joliet.

Raoul would not say how long the state-level investigation of the Joliet PD might take, nor what the outcome might be. O’Dekirk requested an investigation in June 2020 not long after video was leaked of Lurry in the back of the squad car before his overdose death.

An investigation by police and Will County prosecutors found that Lurry’s death was an accidental overdose, and that the officers’ actions were not to blame. Joliet police would later move to fire a police sergeant who leaked the video. No charges have been filed in Lurry’s death. No representative from Will County or Joliet was present at the news conference.

Raoul said his probe will be a civil investigation, but his office would be able to refer out findings to other agencies for potential criminal charges as the AG does in investigations of scams or environmental pollution. Raoul would not say if his investigation was likely to lead to the sort of federal lawsuit that led to the CPD consent decree, stating he did not want to appear to have a predetermined outcome in mind.

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ZURICH — The global group of national soccer leagues said Wednesday it will oppose FIFA’s plans to play the men’s World Cup every two years.

“A biennial World Cup would negatively disrupt the football economy and undermine players’ welfare in a calendar that is already overloaded,” the World Leagues Forum said in a statement.

The leagues joined European clubs and European soccer body UEFA in resisting the proposal being pushed by FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, and shaped by its director of global development, Arsene Wenger.

“FIFA’s leadership cannot be able to turn something exceptional into a commonplace event purely to serve their short-term interests,” said the Zurich-based leagues group, which includes the most influential leagues in soccer’s five major continents.

Playing every two years would also “dilute the historical and traditional values of a competition that means so much to fans and players,” the leagues said.

Wenger will detail the biennial plans Thursday after a two-day conference of retired soccer greats hosted by FIFA in Qatar, the 2022 World Cup host nation.

The former Arsenal coach has said a decision could be made as soon as December, though the next FIFA congress of 211 member federations is likely in May.

Infantino has said FIFA must improve the quality of play and opportunities for soccer outside the stronghold of Europe and has already overseen an expansion of the tournament from 32 teams to 48 at the 2026 World Cup in North America.

The World Leagues Forum said it “will ensure FIFA is not allowed to make unilateral decisions on the future of football against the interests of leagues, clubs, players and fans.”

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Lake Central High School | Google Maps

Officers responded to the school about 10 a.m. at 11033 W. 93rd Ave. in St. John.

Lake Central High School in northwest Indiana was put on lockdown Wednesday morning after reports of an active shooter, but police said no shots were fired and no one was injured.

Officers responded to the school about 9:30 a.m. at 11033 W. 93rd Ave. in St. John after receiving a call a shooter, said Roger Patz, spokesman for the St. John Police Department.

No shots were fired and no injuries were reported, he said, adding that officers were conducting a secondary sweep of the school’s campus.

“Everyone is safe,” Patz said.

Two students were taken in for questioning, according to a message from the school to the community.

Police were expected to released further details at a news conference at St. John Police Department headquarters at 3 p.m., Patz said.

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Al Michaels no longer has to subtly refer to the point spread if a game comes down to the wire on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.”

Now he can refer to it directly without worrying about drawing a comment from NFL officials in New York.

Three years after the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and allowed states to legalize sports betting, the NFL has embraced gambling as part of the landscape.

Nowhere will that be more apparent than during pregame shows, the occasional mention during games and commercials as the point spread is no longer a taboo subject.

“We’re in a brave new world of sorts. I’ve always had fun by being the guy who could play a little bit of the rascal role because the perception of the fan was that the league didn’t want any references to gambling,” Michaels said.

“So what I would do through the years is I would come in the back door, sometimes I would come in the side door, and now I guess they’re allowing me to come in the front door, which is not as much fun as doing it subtly.”

It also brings a smile to the face of Brent Musburger, who did prediction segments with the late Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder on CBS’ “The NFL Today” for 12 years. Musburger left ESPN in 2017 to help launch the Vegas Stats & Information Network.

“I guess I am a little bit surprised at how quickly the league’s transition from being completely anti-gambling, at least publicly, to being now complete partners with the entire operation,” he said.

Much like discussions of analytics and Next Gen Stats, gambling topics during pregame shows or even games will be in moderation.

Christopher Halpin, the NFL’s Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer, said networks can reference betting lines in pregame shows, but only to help contextualize game analysis or a broader storyline. There can also be limited displays of lines during pregame in graphics and the bottom scoreboard updates.

The NFL was the last of the four major U.S. professional sports leagues to partner with sportsbooks even though it commands the most interest and dollars.

According to Play USA, estimates are nearly $12 billion will be wagered this season on NFL games at legal sportsbooks.

The league has also partnered with seven sportsbooks, including Caesars Entertainment, which has a partnership with ESPN, NBC partner PointsBet and FOX Bet.

DraftKings, FanDuel, MGM and WynnBet are also among those who can advertise during games and other league media platforms.

The biggest change viewers will see is during commercials. NBC, CBS, FOX, and ESPN will be allowed to make up to six spots available for sportsbooks during each game — one during pregame, one per quarter, and one at halftime.

Halpin said there is a limit because the league doesn’t want to see games oversaturated with legal sportsbook ads as they saw six years ago with daily fantasy sports games.

Marc Ganis, the co-founder of Chicago-based consulting group Sportscorp, projects sportsbooks will join automobile companies, fast food, beer, and soft drinks among the large advertising spenders.

“The people watching the games make up the market, a very targeted market, that the sports gambling companies need to recruit. So this becomes just a cost of customer acquisition,” Ganis said.

FOX, NBC, and ESPN have all experimented with gambling-oriented features the past couple of seasons. FOX and NBC have run free-to-play prediction games offering cash prizes, while ESPN had a gambling spin during one of its MegaCast presentations of a playoff game last season.

ESPN “Daily Wager” host Doug Kezirian said the betting aspect on last year’s MegaCast shows that the NFL has come a long way in a short amount of time in changing its stance.

So far, 31 states and the District of Columbia have approved sports gambling. Arizona is on track to be the 24th state to accept bets when their approved sportsbooks plan to go live on Thursday.

“I give them a lot of credit, how open-minded they’d been and how progressive they’ve been in just a short time window,” he said. “So in three years, they’ve gone from something that’s, you know, against the law, embraced it understood it, kept an open mind about it.”

Of all the networks, CBS remains an outlier as it has not partnered with a sportsbook. CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said gambling information will not be a part of game broadcasts for various reasons.

“We’re trying to thread the needle with respect to how much gambling information that we should put in our studio shows. What is useful to the gambler but not obtrusive to the non-gambler. And I think that’s a delicate balance right now,” he said. “When we think it’s appropriate, and it makes the telecast more enjoyable and more informative for our viewing audience, we will add more information when we think that’s important.”

Not everyone is happy, though, with the league’s new relationship with sportsbooks. During an NBC Sports conference call last week, Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy said that the NFL shouldn’t be in a position where it promotes gambling, especially among young people.

“It’s a great game. I know people gamble. I know it’s legal. I don’t want to see the NFL promoting it,” he said. “I understand times change, but again, for me, it’s just a personal opinion.”

Viewers looking for gambling-centric information will find it on other shows besides the noon pregame shows. ESPN and FS1 have daily gambling shows and are also increasing their digital content. VSIN, which started with five hours a day of live shows in 2017, has jumped to 21 hours this season.

Even staunch gambling supporters know that distributing gambling information remains a delicate balance and that the approach of a steady rollout makes the most sense.

“There’s still a big percentage of the population that will never put a bet down, and you don’t want to tick that crowd off. But you can’t put your head in the sand and pretend that there aren’t billions of dollars at stake based on the outcomes of these games, so it’s a tricky balance,” said VSIN co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Brian Musburger.

“I still think that the primary broadcast feeds will remain relatively pure to the sport. You don’t need to overdo it with sports betting. There are other ways for that audience to be served.”

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WASHINGTON — The justices are putting the “court” back in Supreme Court.

The high court announced Wednesday that the justices plan to return to their majestic, marble courtroom for arguments beginning in October, more than a year and a half after the in-person sessions were halted because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The justices had been hearing cases by phone during the pandemic but are currently on their summer break. The court said that oral arguments scheduled for October, November and December will be in the courtroom but that: “Out of concern for the health and safety of the public and Supreme Court employees, the Courtroom sessions will not be open to the public.”

“The Court will continue to closely monitor public health guidance in determining plans,” the announcement said.

The court said that while lawyers will no longer argue by telephone, the public will continue to be able to hear the arguments live. Only the justices, essential court personnel, lawyers in the cases being argued and journalists who cover the court full-time will be allowed in the courtroom.

The court that returns to the bench is significantly different from the one that left it.

When the justices last sat together on the bench at their neoclassical building across the street from the U.S. Capitol on March 9, 2020, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the court’s most senior liberal and conservatives held a narrow 5-4 majority. But Ginsburg died in September 2020, and her replacement by conservative Amy Coney Barrett in the final days of the Trump administration has given conservatives a significant 6-3 majority.

Because of the pandemic, Barrett has yet to be part of a traditional courtroom argument, with the justices asking questions of lawyers in rapid succession, jockeying for an opening to ask what’s on their minds. The arguments the court heard by telephone were more predictable and polite, with the justices taking turns asking questions, one by one, in order of seniority. That often meant the arguments went longer than their scheduled hour.

It also meant that lawyers and the public heard from the previously reticent Justice Clarence Thomas in every telephone argument. Before the pandemic Thomas routinely went years without speaking during arguments and had said he doesn’t like his colleagues’ practice of rapid-fire questioning that cuts off attorneys. “I don’t see where that advances anything,” he said in 2012.

One change from the remote arguments will stay for now. The justices said they will continue their practice during the pandemic of allowing audio of oral arguments to be broadcast live by the news media. Before the pandemic, the court would only very occasionally allow live audio of arguments in particularly high profile cases. That meant that the only people who heard the arguments live were the small number of people in the courtroom. The court releases a transcript of the arguments on the same day but, before the pandemic, only posted the audio on its website days after.

Like much of the country, the court essentially shut down to the public by mid-March of 2020. The court was closed to visitors and arguments scheduled for that month postponed. April’s arguments also were postponed before the court announced it would hear 10 cases by telephone beginning May 4, 2020.

In the term that began in October 2020, the court heard all of its arguments remotely. During the justices’ absence from the courtroom, they heard a total of 68 arguments by phone. The court announced in early March that all the justices had been vaccinated and they resumed holding their private conferences in person.

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Fifty-five years after “Star Trek” aired its first episode on Sept. 8, 1966, the culture-altering sci-fi TV series continues to hurtle through galaxies.

Star Trek Day arrives Wednesday, after Paramount announced a “Star Trek” movie for 2023, the fourth in the new timeline, with “WandaVision” director Matt Shakman and J.J. Abrams producing.

Meanwhile, 90-year-old William Shatner, the seemingly dilithium crystal-charged OG Enterprise captain, is celebrating the release of the first four “Star Trek” movies in 4K, while also speaking out about “Star Trek,” love and loss on his introspective new spoken word album, “Bill” (out Sept. 24), which features musical guests such as Brad Paisley and Joe Jonas.

The cancellation of TV’s “Star Trek” in 1969 was “a low point in my life,” Shatner says. “It was the last chapter as far as I was concerned at that time. But as life does, sometimes, what is down comes up.”

Shatner discusses the universal upsides that followed and pays tribute to his friend and co-star Leonard Nimoy, who died in 2015.

“I agree with you. We need to see a Prime Kirk 55 years after the fact, and maybe 20 pounds heavier. How would you explain that? That’s their dilemma,” Shatner says.

“What you’ve just said (about the movie) is news to me and I’m delighted to hear it. But my (studio) connection is frayed. Not afraid. Although I’m a little afraid of being frayed.”

Q. On your new album, you discuss watching coverage of the historic 1969 Apollo moon landing one month after the “Star Trek” cancellation. How was that?

A. I had been to Cape Canaveral as Captain Kirk, with the red carpet treatment. I had signed something saying, “See you on the moon.” When our “Star Trek” ratings went up, they appropriated more money for the space program. So I felt a part of this. And there was Neil Armstrong, walking on the moon. This incredible moment for humanity.

And I’m lying on a bed in an RV, looking through a window at the moon, watching this on a little four-inch black-and-white television set on my belly. I’m in a pasture on Long Island doing summer stock theater. I’m at a very low point watching this high point.

Q. “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” came out in 1979. There’s a really long scene — like 10 minutes — of Kirk lovingly inspecting a substantially improved Enterprise. How refreshing were real movie special effects?

A. It was wonderful. The whole newness. We had been canceled and all of a sudden, there was all this money poured into the production. We thought, we’re off and running into the major movie arena. We weren’t. The movie wasn’t the success we hoped it would be.

But the special effects, even the ship itself, were so primitive in the television show. You look at it now, it’s almost laughable. And we were discovering things as we went along. It’s like the rushes would come in after shooting, and we’d say, “Oh, no! We’re falling the wrong way on the bridge.” Until we found the results, we were fumbling.

Q. Do you ever correct people wearing “Beam me up, Scotty” T-shirts by telling them Kirk actually never said that line?

A. No. I’d like them to believe the fantasy and let them buy the T-shirts, for which I have no financial interest.

Q. A lot of questions on this online. Do you correct the people who believe Kaley Cuoco is your daughter from those Priceline commercials?

A. They plucked a hair from her body and did a DNA test. It didn’t turn out. No, Kaley Cuoco is not my daughter. I’d rather they didn’t believe that because I’ve got three beautiful daughters. But if they want to believe that Kaley Cuoco is related, she’s a beautiful, lovely young lady. I would be delighted to have her as a member of our family.

Q. Once again, the autobiographical album. You speak about Leonard Nimoy dying, missing the funeral, and swallowing your tears. Was it cathartic to write about this in a song?

A. I actually got that out. Leonard was being buried on a Sunday morning, and I had agreed to (attend) a Red Cross charity thing at Mar-a-Lago that year. I had to decide. I decided for the charity. I said to the people at the charity that there’ll be things erected for Leonard – but they’re all ephemeral. Everything dies. Everything turns to dust. The only thing that remains are our good deeds, that’s the legacy.

Q. The song does seem to be a signal to the universe that you still think about your friend.

A. It was that signal, no question, to all life in the universe. Or a signal to buy the album, I guess.

Read more at usatoday.com

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