MINNEAPOLIS — White Sox TV play-by-play voice Jason Benetti will miss the team’s upcoming broadcasts after a breakthrough positive test for the coronavirus, the team announced Monday.

Benetti just called the Olympic baseball semifinals and finals for NBC and is recovering at home in Chicago.

Benetti said on his Twitter account that he is mildly symptomatic and plans to return soon. In the meantime, Mike Monaco will take his place alongside analyst Steve Stone. Monaco is a play-by-play announcer for ESPN and its ACC Network and fills in on Red Sox games for NESN.

The Sox open a three-game series against the Twins on Monday night at Target Field.

This is Benetti’s sixth season on the Sox’ broadcast team and third as the full-time play-by-play TV voice. While the Sox’ radio broadcast team of Len Kasper and Darrin Jackson are calling games from visiting ballparks, as well as Guaranteed Rate Field, Benetti and Stone have not traveled with the team on the road this season.

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The late Aretha Franklin herself made it clear she wanted Jennifer Hudson to tell her story on the big screen, and who are we to argue with the Queen of Soul?

It’s the perfect casting choice. A superstar in her own right, Hudson won best supporting actress for her film debut in “Dreamgirls” some 15 years ago and has turned in some solid work in a number of other films since then, but this is the most layered, most complex, most formidable and most enthralling performance of her career. Hudson kills it in the performance numbers (where she’s singing live), she kills it in the recording and writing sessions, and we would be remiss to overlook her strong dramatic work as she portrays Franklin from a teenager filling a Baptist church in Detroit with the sound of her once-in-a-generation voice through her slow climb to stardom to her struggles with alcoholism and abusive relationships, to her triumphant comeback, which brought her full circle back to church.

Directed by Liesl Tommy (a stage and TV veteran making her feature debut) from a sprawling, comprehensive screenplay by Tracey Scott Wilson, “Respect” is a formulaic biopic of the already well-chronicled life and times of Franklin, and there are instances when the non-musical segments drag on for a beat too long — but then it’s back to the music, with Hudson turning in a remarkable performance that doesn’t come across as an impersonation but sounds a little bit different from Jennifer Hudson and always, always feels authentic to the soaring and piercing and exhilarating signature vocals of Franklin. It’s an absolute wonder to behold.

“Respect” kicks off with an extended prologue set in the 1950s, where young Aretha (an infectiously charming Skye Dakota Turner, who has a beautiful voice) is regularly trotted out by her music-loving preacher father, C.L. Franklin (the magnificent Forest Whitaker) to sing at his legendary Saturday night parties for an audience that would often include R&B legends such as Dinah Washington (Mary J. Blige). Early on, we see the complexity of her relationship with C.L., a walking contradiction who clearly loved Aretha and preached the Bible but indulged in alcohol and affairs with women — and didn’t protect his daughter, who was raped in her home and became pregnant at age 12.

Cut to a half-dozen years later, with Hudson now playing Aretha, who is a sensation singing in church and has attracted the attention of record label executives in New York City — but year after year, album after album, Aretha has only middling success and can’t figure out a formula to make chart-topping hits. Meanwhile, Aretha’s first husband and manager, Ted White (Marlon Wayans, reminding us he can be a terrific dramatic actor), a hot-headed playboy and small-time player on the music scene, clashes with C.L., who is horrified her daughter is not only putting her career in Ted’s hands, but has married him. Alas, C.L.’s instincts turn out to be right, with Ted becoming ever more controlling, contentious and violent. This film never shies away from the turmoil and the messiness that plagued Aretha in her personal life.

United Artists

“Respect” reaches new heights in the middle section, as Aretha teams up with innovative R&B producer Jerry Wexler (a well-cast Marc Maron), who gets her in the studio with the legendary session musicians of Muscle Shoals, Alabama — a bunch of accountant-looking white guys who quickly found a groove with Aretha and followed her lead. Director Tommy does a splendid job of capturing Hudson’s magic as she performs renditions of “Think,” “Chain of Fools,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and of course the title number.

With a running time of 2 hours, 25 minutes, “Respect” has room to devote considerable time to Franklin’s devotion to civil rights activism; her penchant for self-destructive behavior, whether it’s through alcohol abuse or skipping concert dates — and her relationship with God and faith. Tituss Burgess delivers a grounded and invaluable performance as the Rev. Dr. James Cleveland, the gospel pioneer who was a key figure in getting Aretha (and her music) back to church.

United Artists

The period-piece production design, wardrobe, hair and makeup help to set the tone, whether we’re in the late 1950s, the height of the tumultuous 1960s or the early 1970s. “Respect” is filled with memorable supporting turns, including Audra McDonald as Aretha’s mother and Saycon Sengbloh and Hailey Kilgore as her sisters, who were often in the background in more ways than one — but an old-fashioned show-business biopic such as this rises and falls on the talents of the lead, and it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world doing more justice to the legacy of Aretha Franklin than Jennifer Hudson.

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The former CEO of a Schaumburg tech firm appears set to become the first Illinoisan to plead guilty to federal charges in connection with the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol breach, records show.

A plea agreement hearing for Bradley Rukstales, of Inverness, has been set for Tuesday afternoon. He is charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

Rukstales’ defense attorneys did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Monday.

The feds have so far charged at least 13 Illinoisans in connection with the Capitol breach, which they say has led to what will likely be the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history.

Rukstales was the first person from Illinois to face federal charges as part of that investigation. Rukstales was discovered amid a crowd of people inside the U.S. Capitol who were making loud noises, kicking chairs, and throwing an unknown substance at officers, according to a charging document filed Jan. 7.

Officers at the Capitol had ordered members of the crowd to leave, but they responded by shouting and cursing at police, according to the document. Six people, including Rukstales, were near the front of the crowd and refused to leave, it alleged.

Rukstales later apologized in a statement in January. “In a moment of extremely poor judgment following the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, I followed hundreds of others through an open set of doors to the Capitol building to see what was taking place inside,” he said.

“My decision to enter the Capitol was wrong, and I am deeply regretful to have done so. I condemn the violence and destruction that took place in Washington.”

Rukstales had been CEO of the Schaumburg tech firm Cogensia but was fired by the board.

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The teen boy was on the sidewalk Monday in the 200 block of West Pershing Road when a dark-colored vehicle pulled up and and someone from inside fired shots.

By

Sun-Times Wire

Aug 9, 2021, 6:12pm CDT

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Illinois will take a first step toward reducing the use of firefighting foam containing harmful “forever chemicals” under a bill signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker Friday.

The measure aims to curb the use of one source of PFAS chemicals that are tied to a host of health threats, largely through a limitation on using the foam for anything other than emergencies. Fire departments that want to conduct emergency drills or test the foam have to take precautions that prevent the chemicals from reaching waterways through sewer systems, for instance.

The bill, a compromise between environmental groups, an association of fire chiefs and industry groups, does not restrict any use in an emergency. The foam is used for serious industrial fires like those that can occur at a refinery, chemical plant or another source of flammable liquids.

Separately, state officials found more than 100 drinking water systems across Illinois with some PFAS contamination, the Sun-Times recently reported. The chemicals are used in a number of products, from stain-resistant clothing to non-stick pans.

Environmentalists called the reduction a first step.

“This new law is a foothold in moving Illinois in the right direction on one of the most frightening threats to our clean water,” Iyana Simba, city programs director at the Illinois Environmental Council said in an emailed statement.

Business groups originally opposed the bill, saying deadlines initially proposed would phase out an effective product before a comparable one was created, said Mark Denzler, chief executive of the Illinois Manufacturers Association.

Local fire departments used to train often with PFAS foam but began using alternatives for those drills largely because of the cost of using the specialty foam on anything other than a true disaster, said John Buckley, who works on legislative issues for the Illinois Fire Chief Association.

In addition to limiting the foam’s use in training exercises, departments will be required to report to the state any discharge or disposal of the product.

A Chicago Fire Department spokesman said he wasn’t able to quantify how much foam the city uses or stockpiles but said the department will adhere to the required documentation.

Brett Chase’s reporting on the environment and public health is made possible by a grant from The Chicago Community Trust.

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Federal prosecutors say a massive international gambling ring based around Chicago reached into the campus of Illinois State University, where a key player in the ring allegedly “ran a significant bookmaking operation.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Kinney insisted in a court memo Monday that Matthew Namoff, 25, deserves to spend time behind bars, pointing in part to Namoff’s alleged venture at Illinois State. The prosecutor also wrote that Namoff brought a “deep-pockets” gambler and a police officer into the ring once led by Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice.

“Matthew Namoff played an important role in DelGiudice’s illicit business — as an agent, he ran DelGiudice’s bookmaking operation on a college campus, which facilitated gambling by underage students,” Kinney wrote.

An Illinois State spokesman did not comment on the claim Monday when contacted by the Chicago Sun-Times. Darryl Goldberg, Namoff’s defense attorney, wrote in his own memo Monday that Namoff had difficulty making friends in high school and began making small bets with other students in order to bond with his peers.

Goldberg wrote that Namoff — while drunk and dealing with an undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder from a violent robbery — bragged that he knew of DelGiudice and his gambling website.

He asked the judge to spare Namoff from prison.

So far, a February 2020 gambling indictment that included charges against Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher has only led to prison time for one of the 10 people charged. U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall sentenced veteran Chicago Police Officer Nicholas Stella last month to 15 months behind bars for his role as a bookie in the gambling ring.

Donald Trump pardoned Urlacher during the final hours of his presidency last January. Urlacher is the brother of Chicago Bears great Brian Urlacher.

Namoff is set to be sentenced Aug. 23. He pleaded guilty to a gambling conspiracy in April.

DelGiudice, who pleaded guilty in February, once boasted that Namoff had worked with him for more than three years, had 60 gamblers and was a 50/50 partner with DelGiudice, Kinney wrote in his memo. The prosecutor also wrote that Namoff “recruited and managed student gamblers” at Illinois State and “supplied them with log-ins and passwords which he acquired from DelGiudice so they could place wagers through DelGiudice’s website.”

Finally, Kinney wrote that Namoff wanted to recruit a friend who was a police officer into the ring in January 2019. DelGiudice allegedly told Namoff he had city workers, police and firefighters betting through him. He also allegedly told Namoff about Stella’s role in the ring.

Namoff vouched for the police officer, and DelGiudice told him to “keep him on a short leash,” Kinney wrote.

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It had been almost exactly 30 years since I’d seen my favorite gorgon. I’d left him where he lived, on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, in the bottom half of Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment. His name is Charon, and he is charged with herding damned souls across the Styx–with a snarl that’s the stuff of nightmares. Charon, a monstrous embodiment of an Old Testament afterlife, has haunted me since I visited the Sistine Chapel in 1991.

I never imagined the Ferryman and I would next meet in the husk of an abandoned Sears deep in western suburbia. But there he (?), was, horrific as ever, part of an immersive exhibit that allows visitors to see both Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment and the magnificent frescoes of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, all from a vantage point that’s nearly impossible to achieve if you visit the art in their Vatican home.

At the Vatican, you have to elbow and push like a linebacker to get within eyeshot of Charon. In the old Sears, you can see him in all his otherworldly context. He’s one of some 400 characters in the massive painting; some being swept up into heaven and others cast down into Hell. All are depicted in SEE Global Entertainment’s pragmatically titled “Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel,” an exhibit large enough to fill a big-box store.

Among abandoned mannequin plinths and forgotten dressing room mirrors, you’ll find The Last Judgment as well as frescoes from the chapel ceiling transformed into walls of tapestry-sized, high-resolution images. An audio guide provides insight and context to the art. A word about religion: far from pandering to his audience, Michelangelo embedded his paintings with the 16th-century version of Easter eggs. Portraits of those who antagonized him and those he loved can be spotted throughout his art. And while the frescoes show a cinematic visual depiction of various tales of the Old Testament, there are also the sibyls: images of the female divine, oracles from ancient Greece.

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Viewers wandering the cavernous space will encounter a gallery of biblical terrors. (Judith beheading Holofernes is deeply satisfying and The Flood will give you nightmares, especially given recent events in Germany and China.) But there are wonders too: God literally shows His ass in The Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants and the Delphic Sibyl originates the art of the side-eye when her oracle reading is interrupted.

The touring installation (there are other iterations of the show currently on display in San Antonio, Charlottesville, and Charleston) is the brainchild of Martin Biallas, who had a less-than-optimal experience trying to see the Sistine Chapel.

“It was unpleasant,” he recalls. “Long lines. And once you’re finally in after a six-hour wait, you’re rushed through. You’re surrounded by 2,000 other people. There’s 50 guards looking at you like if you’re even thinking about taking a picture, they’re going to tackle you. And the view–it’s almost like looking at a stamp, you’re so far away.”

He continues, “I wanted to make it all more accessible. I wanted this to look like you were walking right under the ceiling.”

Spectacle has captivated Biallas since 1975, when he arrived in the United States from West Germany as a student, just in time for this country’s Bicentennial fever. “It was just everywhere, the red, white, and blue, everyone was celebrating,” he says of the year positively drenched in showily performative patriotism.

More than 40 years later, Biallas’s resume is littered with outsized endeavors: He created “Star Trek–The Tour,” a 30th-anniversary international touring exhibition for Paramount; brought Egyptian sacred relics to the world via “Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures”; and created the “Titanic Official Movie Tour,” which opened at Wembley Stadium in 1999. He’s got designs on bringing a massive Banksy exhibit to life, and wants to “do something with American history,” eventually.

But back to (hello darkness) my old friend Charon. You can practically smell the sulfur as he raises his paddle to smash the skull of any lost soul who might try to escape. Michelangelo painted The Last Judgment between 1535 and 1541; the ceiling came much earlier, with the artist actually living in the scaffolding while he labored over it from 1508 to 1512.

“He was very secretive, kept things covered up,” Biallas says before telling an apocryphal story: “The Pope tried to get in to see it a few times, and Michelangelo would throw pieces of scaffolding at his head to make him leave.”

Visitors tend to initially gravitate toward the (arguably) most recognizable fresco, Biallas said.

“Of course the first thing people will try to spot is The Creation of Adam,” he says of the iconic image of a white-haired, buff, Old Testament God pointing toward Adam, their outstretched fingers sparking the creation of mankind.

“It’s a stunning, iconic image, but I was always more fascinated by The Last Judgment,” he continues. “It’s a perfect representation of our constant temptation, the battle between doing good and not. My dad was a Lutheran minister, so I learned a lot about the church and the bible growing up. But the painting was much more personal to me. I thought the message was timeless: so many things are not good for us or our world, yet we do them anyway,” he says.

“The Last Judgment is also the only place where Michelangelo put his self-portrait. He was like an early Hitchcock, giving himself this cameo.” (You can find the artist’s self-portrait in the flayed skin of St. Bartholomew.)

Among the ceiling frescoes, Biallas has his favorites.

“The image of God creating the sun and the planets. There’s one guy who is showing his rear end to everyone in that fresco and that’s God. Seriously. That’s a message,” he said.

Biallas is intent on figuring out a U.S. history installation, “. . . something that could take people from 1776 to today.” It’s a concept the Hannover native has been mulling since he experienced Bicentennial fever as an undergrad at the University of Michigan.

“When we were being raised (in Germany), we were raised without that kind of patriotism, because of Hitler and what he did in the name of nationalism. We couldn’t really be proud to be a German. So to me, it was fascinating how enthusiastic and devoted U.S. citizens were,” he says. “When I got my first car here, a Ford, I got a special Bicentennial license plate with it. It made me fall in love with this country.”

As for the gorgon, I pity him more than fear him. Of all the terrible jobs in the world, pushing people into a fiery pit has to be among the most terrible. I’ll have to come back in another 30 years to see if he has changed, again. v

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Patrick Williams gave himself about six days off when the 2020-21 regular season came to a conclusion.

In the eyes of the Bulls forward, that was more than enough for a summer vacation.

Then it was back to the Advocate Center, getting in the lab to once again add more to the game.

Did the second-year Williams look like a finished product in his Summer League debut on Monday? Not even close, and that’s what was scary about it as far as what opponents of the Bulls will have to deal with.

Still only 19, the No. 4 overall pick from the 2020 draft appeared confident in the 94-77 loss to New Orleans, had an improved ball-handling/play-making mentality, and maybe more importantly, was an aggressive presence on the offensive end, having no issues hunting his own shot.

At least in the first half.

The second half was a bit different, and much more frustrating, as Williams got passive, and had serious issues with ball security. Obviously, he’s still a work in progress.

Williams finished with 15 points, but that came on a 6-for-20 shooting game, including putting up 13 shots in the first half. There were only five games all of last season in which Williams shot 13 or more times for an entire contest.

He also had 10 rebounds, but did have five turnovers, as the game got away from the Bulls in the second half.

A second half in which Williams chose to be passenger over driver.

If there was a knock on Williams in his rookie campaign, it was just that. Too much talent to go through too many moments of playing passive basketball.

That was the message from Thad Young to Williams at the end of the season, and even though Young is now a Spur, the message carried weight.

It was Young who told the media of a private discussion he had with Williams at the end of the season, simply asking him, “Do you want to be great?”

“He said, ‘Yes, I do want to be great,’ ” Young said. “He asked, ‘What do I need to do to be great?’ ”

Young pointed out to Williams the regular-season finale in which there was no Zach LaVine or Nikola Vucevic available, and Milwaukee was switching smaller players onto the 6-foot-8 Williams.

Yet, he was accepting of it, rather than demanding the ball in the mismatch.

“If you want to be great that’s what the great players do,” Young said. “They impose their will on the game at all points in the game … he’s shown us and the Bulls fans so much in this first year of what he can be to the point where his standards should be set even higher next year, and he should want to be a top two or three guy on this team next year.”

He looked very much like the top guy in that first half, on both ends of the floor, insisting that the Pelicans made some adjustments on him in the second half, and it’s his job to learn how to adjust to that “on the fly.”

“Fatigue definitely sets in,” Williams said of his performance. “It’s a learning experience for sure. I’m just excited to go back, watch film, and get better.”

As for the rest of the Bulls that could push for a spot on the roster, 2020 second-round pick Marko Simonovic had a few moments, showing a physicality inside the paint on his way to 13 points and five rebounds, while point guard Devon Dotson led the Bulls with 16 points.

Chicago’s own Ayo Dosunmu, who the Bulls selected in the second round last month, struggled in his debut, going 2-for-8 and finishing with six points.

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Masks are back, some hospitals are filling up again, and there’s little question who’s causing the latest resurgence of COVID-19.

Unvaccinated Americans are rapidly becoming sick from the ultra-contagious delta variant, and they often get extremely ill. More than 97% of people hospitalized for he coronavirus in mid-July were unvaccinated, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s a tragically predictable outcome, leading some to unload their frustrations on the unvaccinated. High levels of infections among unvaccinated people increase the risk to everyone, and headline after headline has documented the ensuing rage of the vaccinated. Unvaccinated Americans have been called “arrogant,” “selfish” “stupid,” “idiots” and worse for refusing to get the shots.

Public health experts say such anger is understandable but unproductive. They worry that shaming and blaming the unvaccinated could backfire — entrenching their decision rather than persuading them to get the shots.

“If you’re going to call me an idiot … that isn’t encouragement,” says Stephanie McClure, an assistant professor of biocultural medical anthropology at the University of Alabama. “You usually don’t get anywhere by attacking people.”

Shaming and insulting people is “not a very effective way to promote adoption of a behavior,” says McClure, who leads the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, team for CommuniVax, a national alliance advocating for historically underserved Black, Indigenous and Latino populations amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As a primary care physician, Dr. Marlene Millen shares the exhaustion of the vaccinated as cases rise.

“I’m tired, I’m burnt out,” Millen says. “Lately, I’ve gotten to the end of my rope.”

But pointing fingers doesn’t help, says Millen, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Shedoesn’t like the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” moniker used by federal health authorities because it creates a gulf between vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Gleb Tsipursky, who has a doctorate in the history of behavioral science, also doesn’t like the term.

“You’re fixing them into these groups,” says Tsipursky, who is chief executive officer of Disaster Avoidance Experts and wrote a book about the risks of returning to the office amid a pandemic.

Though some Americans are actively anti-vaccine, many who haven’t gotten the shots are held back by factors that can be addressed, says Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health.

In an opinion piece for The Daily News in Newburyport, Massachusetts, McClure wrote that the term “vaccine hesitancy” can lump together the complex reasons some people haven’t gotten vaccinated. She says many people are afraid, misinformed or mistrustful of authorities.

McClure’s conversations with unvaccinated people have revealed some have misperceptions that can be corrected if someone takes the time to listen.

African Americans have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and feel the U.S. healthcare system doesn’t treat Blacks and whites equally, McClure says, which fuels mistrust. But insults, she says, are “not going to motivate you to think differently.”

She worries the frustration she sees among the vaccinated could be a precursor to dismissiveness, a sense of: “We might as well not try.”

“Then, people just stay in their camps,” she says.

Tsipursky says all major demographics of unvaccinated people don’t respond well to authorities telling them what to do. Blame and insults are particularly counterproductive when dealing with people who might see the vaccine as a political issue, he says. That tone creates a defensive response in which they are likely “lash out against authority,” he says — even if it puts them at a greater risk.

Tsipursky prefers positive language: Vaccinated people are doing their civic duty; they’re patriots; they’re protecting their families.

Millen says family members can make a big difference. It’s especially effective to limit in-person gatherings with unvaccinated family until they get the shots, she says.

She hopes Americans will have patience with one another, especially amid the deluge of news about the delta variant.

“I have a medical degree,” she says, “and I’m having trouble keeping up.”

Millen doesn’t want a simple message to get lost in that noise, which is: “The vaccines are working to prevent hospitalizations.”

Read more at USA Today.

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Three teenage boys and a man were hurt in a shooting Monday afternoon in the Near North Side.

They were on the street about 3:30 p.m. when four people got out of a vehicle with guns and opened fire in the 1300 block of North Hudson Avenue, Chicago police said. The suspects then got back inside the vehicle and fled the scene, according to police.

Two boys, 16, were shot in the leg and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in fair condition, police said. A 14-year-old struck in the foot and transported in good condition to Laurie Children’s Hospital.

The man, 63, suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was stabilized, police said.

Crime tape blocked off a portion of Hudson with officiers concentrated around an entrance to the Marshall Fields Garden apartments.

“It’s crazy out here,” one woman said as she walked by the street.

No one is in custody as Area Three detectives investigate.

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