A federal judge sentenced a man who has already spent more than 14 months in jail to time served Thursday for being in illegal possession of a gun amid the Chicago looting in June 2020.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin told Gustavo Luna-Barrios “I think you deserved every day of the 14-and-a-half months you served.” But prosecutors say Luna-Barrios is a Mexican citizen illegally residing in the United States, and he will next be handed over to immigration authorities, the judge noted.

“You contributed to the social unrest,” Durkin told Luna-Barrios. “There was anarchy in the city. It was ridiculous.”

Luna-Barrios, in a lengthy statement before learning his sentence, apologized to his family, community and to the judge. He said, “I caused a lot of grief, pain and suffering to myself and loved ones for making this bad decision.”

But Durkin said Luna-Barrios should instead “apologize to the Chicago police” who had to arrest him while trying to keep others from being injured and shot.

Chicago police caught Luna-Barrios, 34, with a loaded semiautomatic handgun after they checked on a looting call around 12:30 a.m. at O’Reilly Auto Parts in the 3200 block of South Ashland on June 1, 2020, according to federal prosecutors.

When police arrived, they spotted Luna-Barrios and another person climbing through a broken window to get out of the store and then running to a nearby vehicle, court records show. The pair fled when officers approached, the feds say.

A Chicago detective caught the other person near the front of the store, but prosecutors say a sergeant had to chase Luna-Barrios in the parking lot. The police said they found the gun in Luna-Barrios’ front waistband after placing him under arrest.

Luna-Barrios’ sentencing is the latest in federal court to stem from last summer’s rioting in Chicago. Late last month, U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall gave a one-year prison sentence to Brandon Pegues, who was caught downtown May 31, 2020, with a hammer and a loaded gun he was not legally allowed to have. A few days after Pegues’ sentencing, the same judge gave a year-and-a-half in prison to Javonte T. Williams, who was caught with a gun illegally during the looting in August 2020.

A federal judge in Minnesota handed a hefty prison sentence of nearly nine years Tuesday to Matthew Lee Rupert of Galesburg, who burned down a store in Minneapolis in May 2020 before moving on to Chicago, where he was arrested. But U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman in Chicago also gave probation to Jacob Fagundo, who admitted setting fire to a CPD SUV during the May 2020 riots — a sentence defense attorneys have begun to point to as they seek leniency for their clients.

Luna-Barrios pleaded guilty in May to unlawful possession of a firearm. Prosecutors asked the judge last month to sentence him to 18 months in prison.

“Nothing good could have possibly come from [Luna-Barrios’] illegal possession of a loaded firearm,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kalia Coleman wrote in a court memo. “In a city plagued by traumatic injuries and death from bullets being indiscriminately sprayed on the street, the public is truly fortunate that Chicago Police officers were able to interdict [Luna-Barrios] and seize the firearm before anyone was harmed.”

Coleman wrote that immigration officials previously gave Luna-Barrios until March 4, 2015, to leave the United States, but he did not do so. He also did not present himself to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials as he was later asked to do so.

He was then charged in 2018 with resisting a peace officer, pleaded guilty in that case and was on bond when he was caught at the auto parts store on June 1, 2020, the prosecutor wrote.

Luna-Barrios’ defense attorney, Phillip J. Oliver, wrote in his own memo that Luna-Barrios is a lifelong Chicago resident who was brought here when he was 18 months old to escape danger in Mexico.

Oliver wrote that Luna-Barrios has a cinematography and film business, helps elderly residents on his block with chores, runs coat and canned-food drives and is “well-regarded among those who know him.”

The defense attorney also wrote that Luna-Barrios told court officials, “This is not who I am, I hope it doesn’t characterize who I am, I am not a criminal.”

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Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be mostly sunny with a high near 88 degrees. Tonight will be mostly cloudy with a low around 70 and a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Tomorrow is expected to be mostly sunny with a high near 83.

Top story

Lollapalooza not ‘super-spreader’ event, says city’s top public health official

Two weeks after the opening day of Lollapalooza, the music festival shows no signs of having been a “super spreader event,” the city’s top public health official said Thursday.

Of the approximately 385,000 people who attended, 203 attendees have been diagnosed with COVID-19, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady said Thursday during a news conference at City Hall. As of Wednesday, none of those who tested positive have had to be hospitalized or have died, Arwady said.

“The bottom line is we’ve not seen anything that has surprised us related to the Lollapalooza outbreak,” Arwady said.

Of the 203 cases, 127 were among vaccinated attendees and 76 were among unvaccinated attendees.

Fifty-eight of the cases are Chicago residents, she said; of those, 13 people reported attending Lollapalooza on or after their symptoms began, Arwady said.

Stefano Esposito has more on the findings following Lollapalooza here.

More news you need

1. Chicago remains the third-largest city in the U.S. despite worries about population loss, according to census data released today. The new data will be used by officials to redraw the lines that determine the state’s political maps.
2. CPS plans to offer cash payments to families whose disabled children were wrongly denied special education services between 2016 and 2018. The payments to the families of up to 12,000 current and former students could cost the school district as much as $22 million.
3. An electronic device that warns divers of diminishing air supplies would have benefitted a CFD diver Juan Bucio the night he tried to rescue a boater who’d fallen in the Chicago River, according to a new report. Bucio, a 46-year-old firefighter who specialized in diving, lost contact with his partner as they attempted the rescue in 2018.
4. Marcus Boggs, who the feds say stole money from a man who received a settlement after being wrongly convicted of a crime, was sentenced today to three and a half years in federal prison. Boggs stole more than $800,000 of the settlement as part of a 10-year-, $3 million scheme, the feds said.
5. If the House approves the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill the Senate passed this week, Illinois could receive more than $15 billion for projects, officials say. Lynn Sweet breaks down what’s in the bill for Illinois and the rocky road ahead in Congress for Democrats.
6. While nearly four in five Illinois lawmakers say they’re vaccinated, two legislative blocs are unwilling to reveal if they’ve been jabbed — Black Democrats and downstate white Republicans, WBEZ reports. Those blocs represent some of the least-inoculated parts of the state, explain reporters Dave McKinney and Tony Arnold.
7. More than 9,000 anti-Asian incidents have been reported since the start of the pandemic, with reported incidents expected to surpass last year’s numbers, according to a new Stop AAPI Hate report. More than 63% of the incidents were submitted by women, roughly 31% took place on public streets, and 30% at businesses.
8. Cook County has created an education program aimed at helping fill a three-month learning gap brought on by the pandemic. Dubbed Project Rainbow, the early education initiative plans to roll out free and accessible video content and repurposed learning materials.
9. Gov. Pritzker announced a $250 million grant program for small businesses yesterday, aiming to stimulate economic growth statewide and helping businesses recover from the pandemic. Starting next Wednesday, business owners will be able to submit applications for the grants.

A bright one

Adult sports leagues offer safe outdoor options to socialize

This summer, Tiana Theiss is back to doing what she loves — diving into the sand to bump the ball for her beach volleyball team.

She started a new league this summer for Players Sport & Social Group, which she joined five years ago. They are among hundreds of players once again packing Montrose Beach on Wednesdays.

It’s all so different from last summer, when the lakefront — and leagues — were shut down.

“Right now, I think people are just happy to be here, and they’re not as much concerned with winning games,” said Theiss, 33, of Wicker Park. “We’ve all had such direly different experiences from the pandemic, and we’re all kind of grieving what we’ve passed through and celebrating a resurgence of normalcy.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Chicago Sports and Social Club, Players Sport & Social Group and Simply Social Sports all offer adult volleyball, kickball and softball leagues — and all weathered tough times during the pandemic.

Sports is the best way to meet new people and make friends, many players say.

Chicago Sports and Social Club has registered roughly 25,000 members this year, with most sign-ups occurring since the city’s full reopening, according to president Chris Hastings.

This summer, Players Sport & Social Group had close to 20,000 participants in its volleyball, beach volleyball and kickball leagues. An average year, including all seasons, typically registers about 40,000 participants, said Dave Reid, vice president of sports and business.

Games and bar activities after playing are not the only highlights of these leagues. Most offer special programs and events throughout the year, like Chicago Sports and Social Club’s recent Volleywood, a music festival and volleyball tournament on North Avenue beach.

Nichole Shaw has more on the sports leagues here.

From the press box

• The Cubs’ rocky reunion with pitcher Jake Arrieta has come to an end. The team released the 2015 Cy Young Award winner on Thursday.
• Bears coach Matt Nagy plans to send rookie quarterback Justin Fields into the game early Saturday against the Dolphins and play extensively — possibly even into the fourth quarter.
• ICYMI: Fox has special plans for its broadcast of tonight’s Field of Dreams game between the White Sox and Yankees.
• Our high school football preview continues with a look at No. 10 Maine South.

Your daily question ?

What’s the best book you’ve read so far this summer? Tell us why.

Reply to this email (please include your first name and where you live) and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: “Jeopardy!” today announced its two new hosts: Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik. What do you think of the show’s new Alex Trebek replacements? Here’s what some of you said…

“Mike Richards was a good choice. Mayim Bialik was a safe choice.” — Gale Watson

“I’m very disappointed. I will probably not watch as much.” — Tye Anthony

“I Love Mayim! I think she adds a great personality to the hosting!” — Robin Renwick Cummings

“Mayim is perfect for the show and can stand alone.” — Nancy Sanders

“Both are equally qualified and have good stage presence.” — Richard Daniel

“It was LeVar Burton or Ken Jennings for me.” — Lesa Paczesny

“Mike Richards might maintain some fans of the show, but he sure won’t earn any new ones.” — Keith Lewis

“I do not like either of them. I did not especially care for Alex Trebek, who has been canonized by the show. Art Fleming was by far the best. Jeopardy is a great game and needs a great host.” — Frank Collins

Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

Sign up here to get the Afternoon Edition in your inbox every day.

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A 43-year-old man was killed in a shooting Wednesday in Englewood on the South Side.

Tyrane Seals was in an alley about 4:15 p.m. in the 6200 block of South Laflin Street when a dark-colored vehicle pulled up and someone inside fired shots, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Seals was struck in the face and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, officials said. An autopsy ruled his death a homicide. He lived in Back of the Yards.

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

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Tony Bennett has canceled his fall and winter 2021 tour dates.

The legendary crooner is pulling out of concerts in New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Arizona, Oklahoma and Canada. Ticket holders should check with the local venues for information regarding refunds.

Bennett, who just turned 95, teamed up with Lady Gaga for two nights at New York’s Radio City Music Hall last week. The concerts were filmed for broadcast at a later date.

Lady Gaga and Bennett previously collaborated on the song “The Lady Is a Tramp” for Bennett’s 2011 “Duets II” album. Their collaborative album “Cheek to Cheek” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Album charts and earned them a Grammy for “Best Traditional Pop Vocal.”

Earlier this year, Bennett’s family revealed that the 19-time Grammy-winner was diagnosed with dementia in 2016.

The singer performed in Chicago hundreds of times over his 70-year career. He has performed more than 30 engagements at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, including a two-night, sold-out run with Lady Gaga in 2016. In 2019, Bennett and Gaga returned to the recording studio for a followup to “Cheek to Cheek.”

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Some two weeks after the opening day of Lollapalooza, the music festival shows no signs of having been a “superspreader event,” the city’s top public health official said Thursday.

Of the approximately 385,000 people who attended, 203 attendees have been diagnosed with COVID-19, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady said Thursday during a news conference at City Hall. As of Wednesday, none of those who tested positive have had to be hospitalized or have died, Arwady said.

“The bottom line is we’ve not seen anything that has surprised us related to the Lollapalooza outbreak,” Arwady said.

Of the 203 cases, 127 were among vaccinated attendees and 76 were among unvaccinated attendees, Arwady said. That translates to about four in 10,000 among the vaccinated and 16 in 10,000 for those who were unvaccinated, Arwady said.

Health officials have estimated about 90% of those who attended the four-day event in Grant Park were vaccinated. To get inside, concert-goers had to show proof of being vaccinated or having tested negative for the coronavirus within the previous three days.

“We obviously will continue to do further investigation if necessary. … Any person diagnosed with COVID-19 on or after attending Lollapalooza is included in the analysis,” Arway said. “So these cases may or may not have resulted from transmission at Lolla itself. We’ve been very broad here. Anybody who is potentially associated, we want to investigate.”

Fifty-eight of the cases are Chicago residents, she said; of those, 13 people reported attending Lollapalooza on or after their symptoms began, Arwady said.

“This is a really important reminder that we need everybody in Chicago not to ignore symptoms, assume it’s a summer cold, regardless of your vaccination status because we know the vaccines aren’t 100% protective,” she said.

In the days leading up to Lollapolooza — despite a spike in cases caused by the delta variant — Arwady said she was comfortable with the event going ahead as planned because of the precautions organizers were taking, including air ventilation for any indoor spaces and making sure backstage workers were vaccinated.

Arwady said Thursday that despite the prevalence of the Delta variant, Chicago isn’t seeing the kind of surge that some Southern states are experiencing.

“If we were in New Orleans, … I don’t think we would have been able to move ahead with this event,” she said.

Contributing: AP

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We all should have a sense of humor like former Bears quarterback Jim Miller’s.

Most Bears fans remember the hit he took in the divisional playoff against the Eagles after the 2001 regular season. On the return of an interception he threw, Miller took a cheap shot from then-Eagles defensive end Hugh Douglas that separated Miller’s throwing shoulder – and basically sunk the Bears.

After winning 13 games, with Miller leading much of the way, the Bears lost 33-19. The painful memory for fans was a painful reality for Miller, who underwent several surgeries on the shoulder and took years to recover. He hasn’t seen Douglas since, but he has an open invitation for him.

“There is an offer for a cage match whenever he accepts,” Miller joked.

For the last 15 years, Miller has put his sense of humor and football knowledge to work in broadcasting. On Saturday, he’ll join TV play-by-play voice Adam Amin for the Bears’ preseason opener against the Dolphins at Soldier Field (noon, Fox-32, 780-AM, 105.9-FM).

Miller, 50, has been the Bears’ preseason TV analyst since 2012. In the regular season, he appears on the Bears’ pre- and postgame shows on Fox-32 and co-hosts the weekly “Bears All Access” on The Score. He also co-hosts “Movin’ the Chains” daily on SiriusXM NFL Radio with Pat Kirwan.

His second career began innocently. The week before the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit – about a half-hour south of Miller’s home near Auburn Hills – then-WXYT program director Dan Zampillo invited Miller to Radio Row to go on the air. Zampillo had worked at The Score and was familiar with Miller’s candor.

Steve Cohen, who then was the head of SiriusXM NFL Radio programming, listened to Miller and liked what he heard. Cohen asked if Miller had considered taking up talking as a career. Miller hadn’t. Undeterred, Cohen invited Miller to the SiriusXM studios in New York to give it a try.

“So me, Jerry Rice and [Daryl] ‘Moose’ Johnston all tried out for Sirius that year,” Miller said. “I went there dressed up in a suit thinking it was some big job interview. [Cohen] said, ‘We’re just gonna throw you on the air, see if you can survive for four hours.’ “

Cohen hired all three, but Rice and Johnston didn’t last long. Miller didn’t just last – he thrived. Later that year, he became the radio analyst for Michigan State, his alma mater, which led to work for the Big Ten Network.

He held the MSU job through 2012 before choosing to concentrate on the NFL.

“My bread and butter, my true love, is NFL football,” Miller said. “So I wanted to downsize the college stuff and really focus on the NFL because there’s so much going on. It’s year-round. You gotta stay up to date with everything.”

True to form, Miller has been on Sirius XM’s tour of training camps. This week, he and Kirwan visited the Washington Football Team, Ravens, Buccaneers and Jaguars. Next week, they’ll visit the Raiders and Seahawks before Miller pays the Bears another visit.

Whether it’s a Bears game or NFL Radio, Miller prefers talking hard-core football to educate his audience.

“When I watch some of the pregame stuff, it’s a lot of fluff,” he said. “I just think fans are beyond that now. They’re thirsting for that type of knowledge. They wanna know about the gaps, the numbering system for calling offensive plays.

“We always do a playbook session every spring with the listeners [on SiriusXM]. They call in or email us, ‘Hey, could you teach us about this?’ Every year has gotten better and better; fans are more educated. And Pat and I are trying to give them that fix they’re looking for.”

Miller is preparing to give Bears fans their fix. He and Amin joined general manager Ryan Pace on Wednesday night to get his thoughts on the players suiting up. Miller said he’ll be especially prepared to talk about rookie quarterback Justin Fields to give viewers a deep analysis.

Miller will work with Amin for the first time since August 2019 after last preseason was wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic. Miller enjoyed the casual nature of the broadcasts and came away very impressed with Amin, who also calls Bulls games and does MLB and NFL games for Fox.

“Adam’s a true pro,” Miller said. “I’m amazed at what those guys can do when they call games. They are like the first superhuman computers. It really amazes me the amount of information that Adam or anybody calling a game is able to retain.”

When Miller isn’t talking about football, there’s a good chance he’s playing it with his three boys. Manny, 14, is trying out for his high school’s junior-varsity team. KJ, 7, and Asa, 4, play flag football.

“They now do 4-year-old flag-football leagues,” Miller said. “He’s starting earlier than I did. I didn’t start playing football till 9, and that was Pop Warner.”

After 17 surgeries related to football – including two hip replacements, one of which had to be redone – Miller is thrilled to be able to share with his kids what he shares with his audience.

“I feel terrific now,” he said. “I’m able to throw with my sons. That’s really what it’s about. I wanna be able to function with my kids and enjoy the things that I enjoyed as a kid and teach them how to do it.”

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The run was always the same on NFL Sundays last year: 2.34 miles.

One of the NFL’s fastest players before he opted out because of the coronavirus to be with his newborn baby, Marquise Goodwin went from sprinting down sidelines to jogging to the 7-Eleven near his home in DeSoto, Texas. He’d use his smartwatch to buy a watermelon BodyArmor drink, turn around and run back home to his family.

“It was the same route,” he said Friday. “I ran that every Sunday and then I would watch ball.”

His new teammate, running back Damien Williams, took in games from the couch, too. Williams opted out because of the virus — he went to San Diego to take care of his mother, who had cancer — and watched more football than he ever did as an active player. If he liked a certain play, he’d make a note of it and text a friend he knew on the team for the play design: “‘Hey, open your playbook real quick.”

He ate burnt hot dogs — “If it ain’t burned, I don’t want it,” he said — and popcorn while watching NFL games.

Saturday, both will be back on the football field –who says preseason games don’t matter? — for the first football contest after a season away. Williams hasn’t played since his star turn in Super Bowl LIV on Feb. 2, 2020. Goodwin hasn’t played a game since Nov. 11, 2019, when he had two catches for the 49ers against the Cardinals.

Both figure to be important pieces for a Bears offense looking for contributors — Goodwin as a speedy outside receiver and Williams as a pass-catching running back. Presuming, of course, they can knock off the rust this preseason after spending a year away from the game .

“I felt like a retired guy in a sense, just sitting home and watching guys I used to play with who were my teammates but I didn’t get to physically be around,” Goodwin said. “Just being around in the locker room and feeling that, I feel like I bring a sense of appreciation.”

The game felt different to Williams after he signed a one-year deal with the Bears.

“I’s like, ‘Oh man’ — I forgot how heavy the helmet was,” said Williams, only player to run for more than 100 yards and catch two touchdowns in the Super Bowl. “All of [the pads] on together, I forgot how heavy it all was.”

Padded practices, he said, helped him grow comfortable wearing something that used to feel like a second skin.

For Goodwin, the transition back to football was eased by the Bears’ training camp setup. He was used to being “secluded” in camp, he said. After long days, he can go home to his 17-month-old daughter, Marae, and his wife Morgan, a former nine-time All-American hurdler at Texas.

“Usually I would be on Facetime with my wife while I’m studying and working on football and she would be there in the presence through the phone — now she’s there in person,” he said. “Just getting that skin-to-skin, face-to-face contact, it’s better. …

“I mean, a year ago this time I’m standing in the backyard playing catch with my wife. Now, I’m catching passes from NFL quarterbacks. So, I appreciate every moment that I get, just showing so much gratitude, thank god for the opportunity. I’m just glad to be back out here playing football.”

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Even if you’re not familiar with the stylings of Chance the Rapper and your musical tastes run more along the lines of “Take a Chance On Me” by Abba or “Chances Are” by Johnny Mathis or “While You See a Chance” by Steve Winwood, I urge you to watch Chance’s performance of “Blessings” in the theatrical release of “Magnificent Coloring World” and I think you’ll thank me, for it is a transcendent and beautiful thing to behold. With Chance backed by a jazzy band and a full choir of young people singing to the skies, the song goes, in part:

I gon’ praise Him, praise Him til I’m gone…

When the praises go up,

The blessings come down

Are you ready for your blessings?

When the praises go up, the blessings come down

Are you ready for your miracle, are you ready?

We are at a concert, but it feels like church.

Already this summer we’ve had a couple of great documentaries capturing the concert experience. The brilliant “Summer of Soul” took us back to 1969 and the Harlem Cultural Festival, where the likes of Sly & the Family Stone, the Staples Singers and Stevie Wonder electrified the crowds. Meanwhile, HBO’s “Woodstock 99” showcased performers such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica and Alanis Morrisette — but the real story was the nightmare unfolding beyond the stage, where things got ugly.

CTR LLC

Now comes Chance the Rapper’s “Magnificent Coloring World,” which offers a very different experience — a unique, ultra-cool, visually striking and musically uplifting journey, every inch of it with a pure Chicago vibe. Conceived and written by Chance and directed with cinematic style and a smooth, flowing rhythm by Jake Schreier, “Magnificent Coloring World” is not a filmed concert but a mapped-out, intricately planned concert film, and the difference is striking.

This is not a recorded documentation of a typical concert stop, with cameras capturing a live performance in real time; it was a singular event, filmed on five specially constructed stages at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios back on April 8, 2017, with an audience of 1,500 specially selected Chance fans who knew they were attending some sort of Chance-related event but didn’t know it was a live performance until they entered the concert space. (The initial plan was to stream the film, but Chance decided to hold on to the project because he wasn’t happy with the edit. Some four years later, he made a direct deal with the AMC Theaters chain.)

Clocking in at a little more than an hour, “Magnificent Coloring World” kicks off with interviews with Chance and a number of behind-the-scenes contributors, from the tour manager to the choreographer to the production designer. That’s all interesting enough — but the real fun kicks off when the live performance begins, with Chance at the piano with his life-size puppet friend “Wendy,” doing a duet of “Same Drugs.” Microphones were placed above the audience, and before we even see the crowd, we hear them singing along — something that happens throughout the performance, with Chance’s encouragement.

As the show continues with one song morphing directly into the next, director Schreier’s cameras swirl about and pull back to reveal various sets and scenarios, e.g., a storefront for “Sunday Candy,” a group of clubgoers being told to go home in “All Night.” Chance has a veritable army of backup, from the tight band featuring the pace-setting rhythms of drummer Gregory “Stix” Landfair and the outstanding and piercing trumpet work by Nico Segal; to a small orchestra with woodwinds and strings; to the smiling, energetic and gloriously lush-sounding young singers of the Chicago Children’s Choir, to a set of wonderfully kinetic Broadway style dancers in denim overalls who add to the theatricality of the experience.

CTR LLC

All manner of musical genres influences Chance’s work, but gospel is dominant, and he wears his faith on his sleeve, at one point exclaiming to the crowd, “Y’all know it’s Palm Sunday tomorrow, right?” There are times when his vocals show the strain of his all-out style as he swirls about while working through some intricate and tricky and funny and insightful lyrics, but the choir and the audience are always there to flesh out the sound. On a number of occasions, the cameras pull back to reveal the entirety of the performance area, including the band, the choir, the dancers and the mini-orchestra — as well as the adoring, tightly packed crowd that seems to almost float against a stark black backdrop.

In “All We Got,” Chance raps: I get my word from the sermon, I do not talk to the serpent, that’s the holistic discernment, Daddy said I’m so determined … You gotta fight for your way, and that don’t take nothing away, cause at the end of the day, music is all we got …

Great music, plus some memorable visuals. That’s more than enough.

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The Census Bureau on Thursday issued its most detailed portrait yet of how the U.S. has changed over the past decade, releasing a trove of demographic data that will be used to redraw political maps across an increasingly diverse country.

The census figures have been eagerly awaited by states, and they are sure to set off an intense partisan battle over representation at a time of deep national division and fights over voting rights. The numbers could help determine control of the U.S. House in the 2022 elections and provide an electoral edge for the next decade. The data will also shape how $1.5 trillion in federal spending is distributed each year.

The figures show continued migration to the South and West and population losses in the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia and smaller counties that lost people to larger counties. The numbers also indicate that the white population is aging and has fallen to its smallest share of the total population on record, though there are some exceptions. The share of the white population actually grew in coastal communities in the Carolinas and Virginia, as well as in counties stretching through the midsections of Georgia and Alabama. The population under age 18 is increasingly diverse.

The data comes from compiling forms filled out last year by tens of millions of Americans, with the help of census takers and government statisticians to fill in the blanks when forms were not turned in or questions were left unanswered. The numbers reflect countless decisions made over the past 10 years by individuals to have children, move to another part of the country or to come to the U.S. from elsewhere.

The release offers states the first chance to redraw their political districts in a process that is expected to be particularly brutish since control over Congress and statehouses is at stake. It also provides the first opportunity to see, on a limited basis, how well the Census Bureau fulfilled its goal of counting every U.S. resident during what many consider the most difficult once-a-decade census in recent memory.

“The data we are releasing today meet our high quality data standards,” acting Census Bureau Director Ron Jarmin said.

Even before it began, the headcount was challenged by attempted political interference from the Trump administration’s failed efforts to add a citizenship question to the census form, a move that critics feared would have a chilling effect on immigrant or Hispanic participation. The effort was stopped by the Supreme Court.

The information was originally supposed to be released by the end of March, but that deadline was pushed back because of delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The start of the 2020 census for most U.S. residents coincided with the spread of the coronavirus last year, forcing the Census Bureau to delay operations and extend the count’s schedule. Because census data is tied to where people were on April 1, 2020, the numbers will not reflect the loss of nearly 620,000 people in the U.S. who died from COVID-19.

On top of the pandemic, census takers in the West contended with wildfires, and those in Louisiana faced repeated hurricanes. Then, there were court battles over the Trump administration’s effort to end the count early that repeatedly changed the plan for concluding field operations.

Back in April, the Census Bureau released state population totals from the 2020 census showing how many congressional seats each state gets.

“Certainly, the pandemic played a big role, but we can’t forget the political interference we saw,” said Terry Ao Minnis, an official with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an advocacy group. “I think we know that all has played a role in whether people participated or not, whether it was from fear created about participating or sheer confusion about, ‘Who is at my door? … Should I not open my door because of COVID? Should I not open my door because of the government?'”

Communities of color have been undercounted in past censuses. The Census Bureau likely will not know how good a job it did until next year, when it releases a survey showing undercounts and overcounts. But Thursday’s release allows researchers to do an initial quality check, and it could lead to lawsuits alleging that the numbers are faulty. The Census Bureau has a program that allows elected officials to challenge the data, but it does not apply to apportionment or redistricting.

“This is our first opportunity to see if there’s any indication of an unprecedented undercount,” said Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). “There always is an undercount. This census will be no different, but our concern is to make sure this isn’t hugely out of proportion to undercounts we have seen in prior censuses.”

For the first time, the numbers will not be entirely accurate at the smallest geographic levels due to a new privacy method used by the Census Bureau. The method inserts controlled errors into the data at small geographic levels, such as neighborhood blocks, in order to protect people’s identities in an era of Big Data.

Jarmin has warned that the process may produce weird results, such as blocks showing children living with no adults or housing units not matching the number of people living there.

___

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

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A member of the so-called Dixmoor 5 told a judge Thursday he doesn’t trust a lot of people after going to prison for a vicious crime for which he would later be exonerated — but he said he trusted Marcus Boggs.

Boggs, once a financial adviser at Merrill Lynch, offered to help Shainne Sharp manage the $5 million settlement Sharp received after he was cleared through DNA evidence of the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl.

Then the feds say Boggs stole more than $800,000 of that money from Sharp as part of a 10-year, $3 million scheme that on Thursday landed Boggs a three-and-a-half-year federal prison sentence from U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland. Prosecutors said Boggs spent the money on international travel, expensive dinners and on multiple apartments in Chicago.

Rowland told Boggs he was “just living high — just living way, way, way beyond your means. And that’s just wrong.” The judge also said Boggs’ decision to steal from Sharp “really hurts. Because Mr. Sharp has suffered enough.”

Before he was sentenced, Boggs told the judge “I’ve dishonored myself and my reputation” and “what I did was wrong, there is no excuse.”

“Words can’t express how immensely sorry, remorseful and overcome with shame I am,” Boggs said.

But Sharp told the judge that Boggs “destroyed my life. I gave him every dime that I had. We sat up there — we planned out my whole life, for the rest of my life.” He said Boggs “needs to get what he deserves” and be “prosecuted to the fullest.”

Defense attorneys David S. Weinstein and Kenneth E. Yeadon argued that Boggs stole just 16.3% of Sharp’s settlement and Boggs shouldn’t be held entirely responsible for Sharp’s financial situation. They also noted that Merrill Lynch later compensated Sharp, and its payment “far exceeded” the money Boggs stole.

Boggs pleaded guilty to wire fraud last March, more than a year after federal prosecutors first leveled criminal charges against him in August 2019. A Merrill Lynch spokesman said then that all victims in the case had been compensated.

The spokesman said Boggs worked for the firm from 2006 until 2018, when he was fired. Sharp previously confirmed he was among Boggs’ otherwise unnamed victims but spoke publicly during Boggs’ sentencing hearing Thursday. He spoke along with two other victims who also told the judge about the trust they had placed with Boggs.

The criminal complaint filed against Boggs in 2019 explained how Sharp was awarded the $5 million wrongful conviction settlement and turned to Boggs to manage the money. In a court memo filed last month, Assistant U.S. Attorney John D. Mitchell wrote that Boggs’ theft from Sharp stood out as “particularly egregious.”

Mitchell wrote that Boggs “amazingly” stole more than $800,000 from Sharp, knowing that Sharp had received that money “due to his wrongful incarceration for a rape and kidnapping” Sharp had not committed.

Though Sharp had thought the money would last his entire life, he told authorities that Boggs contacted him in May 2018 to tell him the bulk of the money was gone and his accounts would be closed. Though Sharp didn’t think he had spent the entire settlement, he said he trusted Boggs and believed him. That’s when he said he “hit rock bottom,” prosecutors said.

A lawsuit brought by Sharp, Robert Taylor, Jonathan Barr, James Harden and Robert Veal alleged that Illinois State Police teamed up with Dixmoor cops to frame the men — who were then teenagers — for the 1991 rape and murder of 14-year-old Cateresa Matthews.

The group became known as the Dixmoor 5.

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