Bette Midler, Berry Gordy among Kennedy Center honoreesAssociated Presson July 21, 2021 at 4:51 pm

WASHINGTON — The Kennedy Center Honors will return in December with a class that includes Motown Records creator Berry Gordy, “Saturday Night Live” mastermind Lorne Michaels and actress-singer Bette Midler. Organizers expect to operate at full capacity, after last year’s ceremony was delayed for months and later conducted under COVID-19 restrictions.

This 44th class of honorees for lifetime achievement in the creative arts is heavy on musical performers. The honorees also include opera singer Justino Diaz and folk music legend Joni Mitchell.

All will be honored on Dec. 5 with a trademark program that includes personalized tributes and performances that are kept secret from the honorees.

Deborah Rutter, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, said the current plan is to pack the center’s opera house to full capacity and require all attendees to wear masks. But the plans remain fluid and Rutter said they’re ready to adapt to changing circumstances depending on the country’s COVID-19 situation.

“We don’t know for sure what it’s going to be like,” Rutter said in an interview. “But don’t you think we all deserve to have a party?”

The 43rd Kennedy Center Honors class was delayed from December 2020 as the center largely shut down its indoor programming. A heavily slimmed-down ceremony was finally held in May of this year, with a series of small socially distanced gatherings and pre-taped video performances replacing the normal gala event.

“We know how to do it now. We will make whatever adjustments we need,” Rutter said. “We’re going to be wearing masks right up until we don’t have to.”

Midler, 75, has won four Grammy Awards, three Emmys, and two Tony Awards, along with two Oscar nominations. Her albums have sold over 30 million copies. In a statement, Midler said she was “stunned and grateful beyond words. For many years I have watched this broadcast celebrating the best talent in the performing arts that America has to offer, and I truly never imagined that I would find myself among these swans.”

Mitchell, 77, emerged from the Canadian coffee shop circuit to become one of the standard-bearers for multiple generations of singer-songwriters. In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine declared her 1971 album “Blue” to be the third-best album of all time. In a brief statement, Mitchell, said, “I wish my mother and father were alive to see this. It’s a long way from Saskatoon.”

The Dec. 5 ceremony will be the centerpiece of the Kennedy Center’s 50th anniversary of cultural programing. The center opened in 1971 and a young Diaz, now 81, actually performed at the grand opening of the opera house.

“It’s a very special thing,” said Diaz, a bass-baritone from San Juan, Puerto Rico. “It’s such a great privilege to be able to say I shared this space with all these geniuses.”

Gordy, 91, founded Motown Records — the Detroit-based hit factory that spawned what became known as the Motown Sound and launched the careers of a huge list of artists, including Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Ritchie, Marvin Gaye and Martha and the Vandellas.

Gordy said in an interview that he always held President John Kennedy as one of the greatest leaders in American history.

“So to be honored in his name just means the world to me,” he said.

Michaels, 76, is a comedy institution unto himself — creating and producing “Saturday Night Live” since 1975 and producing dozens of movies and television shows, including “Wayne’s World,” “Kids in the Hall” and “Mean Girls.” He received the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Award for lifetime achievement in comedy in 2004.

Not normally an on-stage performer, Michaels recalls the Mark Twain evening as “mostly nerve-wracking” because he spent the evening dreading the traditional end-of-night speech he had to deliver.

But the Kennedy Center Honors bring no such pressures, and Michaels said he intends to sit back in the special honorees box at the opera house and see what surprises the organizers have in store.

“You don’t have to give a speech at the end, which is huge,” he said. “You’re just there with your friends.”

___

Follow Khalil on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ashrafkhalil

Bette Midler, Berry Gordy among Kennedy Center honoreesAssociated Presson July 21, 2021 at 4:51 pm Read More »

Last chance for Chicago public school teachers, administrators.on July 21, 2021 at 4:05 pm

The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor

Last chance for Chicago public school teachers, administrators.

Last chance for Chicago public school teachers, administrators.on July 21, 2021 at 4:05 pm Read More »

It feels like starting over…with Neurologist number threeon July 21, 2021 at 4:10 pm

I’ve Got The Hippy Shakes

It feels like starting over…with Neurologist number three

It feels like starting over…with Neurologist number threeon July 21, 2021 at 4:10 pm Read More »

Sue Bird and Eddy Alvarez will carry U.S. flag at Tokyo Olympics opening ceremonyDoug Feinberg | Associated Presson July 21, 2021 at 3:02 pm

Four-time Olympic women’s basketball gold medalist Sue Bird and baseball player Eddy Alvarez were chosen as U.S. flag bearers for the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday night.

Alvarez, who won a silver medal in speedskating at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and Bird were chosen by a vote of fellow U.S. athletes. They are the first duo to share the honor of leading the delegation into the ceremony.

Bird is the second U.S. women’s basketball player to carry the flag, joining current coach Dawn Staley, who did it at the 2004 games. Those were the first that Bird participated in.

“It’s an incredible honor to be selected the flag bearer for Team USA,” Bird said. “I know what that means, because I got to witness Dawn Staley go through it when she was selected in 2004. It’s an honor that is bigger than the moment in that you’ve been selected by your fellow Team USA athletes to represent the entire delegation, and it will last forever.”

Bird will be trying to win an unprecedented fifth gold medal with teammate Diana Taurasi, which would give them the most in golds in women’s basketball history.

Alvarez becomes the first baseball player to carry the flag for the U.S. The sport returned to the Games at the request of Japan after being absent from the previous two Olympics.

He made his major league debut last year with the Miami Marlins, but has been in the minors this year. If the U.S. baseball team were to medal, he’d be the only the third American to medal in both the Winter and Summer Games, joining Eddie Egan (boxing and bobsled) and Lauryn Williams (track and field and bobsled).

Sue Bird and Eddy Alvarez will carry U.S. flag at Tokyo Olympics opening ceremonyDoug Feinberg | Associated Presson July 21, 2021 at 3:02 pm Read More »

City Council poised to approve civilian police oversightFran Spielmanon July 21, 2021 at 3:14 pm

It’s been a long time coming and a rocky road along the way. But, civilian oversight pivotal to restoring public trust between citizens and police is finally coming to Chicago.

The City Council is poised to deliver it on Wednesday, clearing the 34-vote hurdle needed to approve any ordinance involving the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. The ordinance does that by electing three-member councils in each of Chicago’s 22 police districts.

Prior to the final vote, Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara denounced the district councils and the appointed, seven-member oversight board as “useless redundancy” that would further demoralize rank-and-file police officers retiring in droves because they don’t feel the city has their back.

Catanzara noted the FOP has already agreed to a host of accountability measures sought by Mayor Lori Lightfoot as part of a tentative, eight-year contract. The mayor has repeatedly refused to acknowledge that agreement — and she won’t, sources told the Sun-Times, until after the Council vote on civilian oversight.

Noting the new contract includes a four-year, retroactive raise for rank-and-file officers, Catanzara said: “You’re patting ’em on the back while you’re stabbing `em with the other hand.”

Catanzara pointed to the multiple layers of police oversight already provided by the Police Board, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the Chicago Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division, the federal monitor and the Il. Attorney General’s office.

“Another layer of oversight is just ridiculous. It’s only going to make coppers more pissed off because more oversight means, `You’re doing something wrong. You need to be watched because you’re not doing something right,’ ” he said.

“It’s blaming the police for what’s wrong in this city. … And we know that numbers don’t lie. Police are not the problem in this city. Criminals are the problem in this city and the politicians who defend the criminals.”

Civilian oversight was a pivotal recommendation by the Task Force on Police Accountability co-chaired by Lightfoot in the furor after the court-ordered release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video.

Lightfoot campaigned on a promise to empower a civilian oversight board to hire and fire the police superintendent and be the final arbiter in disputes over police policy and the Chicago Police Department’s budget. She promised to deliver civilian oversight within the first 100 days of her administration.

What she managed to deliver — 26 months into her four-year term — falls far short of that promise.

The final language would empower a seven-member commission to take a vote of no-confidence in the Chicago police superintendent. The commission also could take no-confidence votes for the chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and any Police Board member. Such votes would need the support of at least five of the seven members to pass.

A no-confidence vote by the commission would trigger a vote by the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety within 14 days — and then a full City Council vote at its next monthly meeting. If two-thirds of aldermen agree with the no-confidence vote, the chief administrator of COPA “shall be removed.”

However, no-confidence votes in either the CPD superintendent or Police Board members would not be binding on the mayor. Instead, the mayor “shall respond in writing within 14 days after adoption of the resolution, explaining the actions that the mayor will take in response.”

As for police policy, the commission would be empowered to “initiate a policy either by drafting a policy itself or making a written request” to the Chicago Police Department, COPA or the Police Board.

CPD, COPA or the Police Board would then have 14 days to “accept or decline. If the answer is no, there must be an explanation in writing. If recommendation is accepted, the policy must be drafted within 60 days.

“If the Department, COPA or the Police Board does not respond, declines the request or accepts the request, but fails to draft a policy within sixty calendar days or any extension thereto, the commission may take its request to the mayor, who shall review the parties’ positions and either direct the superintendent, chief administrator or police board president to take appropriate action or explain why in writing the mayor has concluded that no action is warranted,” the ordinance states.

A referendum giving the seven-member commission even more power was stripped out of the compromise ordinance because it would never have attracted the 34 votes needed for passage.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) introduced a separate referendum ordinance. But it also is unlikely to clear the two-thirds hurdle.

Lightfoot has been under heavy political pressure to deliver civilian oversight, particularly after changing her tune on an elected school board bill approved by the Illinois General Assembly over her strenuous objections.

She can now scratch that off her progressive agenda to-do list, even though the final version doesn’t go nearly as far as she promised. Aldermen have been under similar pressure to do something dramatically different to stop the bloodbath on Chicago streets. They now can claim they have, before the Council’s traditional summer recess.

The complex process established by the ordinance calls for the immediate seating of an interim, seven-member commission. The mayor would chosen from 14 people nominated by the Council’s Rules Committee. The North, South and West Sides of the city would each get four nominees.

The first full slate of permanent commissioners will be seated in 2023. District council members would serve on a nominating commission that would recommend people to serve as permanent commissioners. The mayor would then pick the commissioners from that list.

Three of the seven board members would serve two-year terms. The rest would serve four-years. The North, South and West Sides of the city would each get two seats.

City Council poised to approve civilian police oversightFran Spielmanon July 21, 2021 at 3:14 pm Read More »

Kenwood’s JJ Taylor is a star in the makingJoe Henricksonon July 21, 2021 at 3:38 pm

When you get into that top 10 conversation, it’s just a different type of prospect.

The hype and expectations surrounding them is different. Their recruitments are different. And, most definitely, they often look and play different. Both the physical attributes and talent level scream one thing: “obvious.”

The state of Illinois had grown accustomed to players ranked among the nation’s best, players who were coveted from coast to coast, national recruits with the early upside which boasted NBA potential.

The start of this century churned out Darius Miles in 2000, Eddy Curry in 2001, Shannon Brown in 2003, Shaun Livingston in 2004, Julian Wright in 2005 and Derrick Rose in 2007 — all consensus top 10 prospects in the country.

Anthony Davis finished as the nation’s top-ranked player in 2011. Jabari Parker was a consensus top five player in 2013. Jahlil Okafor and Cliff Alexander followed that up in 2014 as a pair of top five prospects in their class.

There have been highly-ranked players since, including a few who were consensus top 20 prospects: Tyler Ulis in 2014, Jalen Brunson in 2015 and Max Christie in 2021.

But not since the Class of 2014 has there been a bonafide top 10 player in the country from Illinois.

Kenwood’s JJ Taylor is hoping to end that drought.

The long, wiry, uber-athletic 6-7 sophomore is the highest ranked young player the state has featured since Okafor and Alexander finished ranked No. 1 and No. 4, respectively, seven summers ago.

Rivals has elevated Taylor to No. 4 in its Class of 2023 rankings. ESPN has Taylor No. 6 in the country while 247Sports has him ranked No. 8.

“The shot, the handle, the length and athleticism … with how he’s playing right now, at this age, he’s one of the best all-around talents I’ve ever coached,” said Kenwood coach Mike Irvin.

Taylor is a highlight reel waiting to happen. He can score from all over the floor but needs to polish various parts of his game, just as any star high school talent must do. But he’s an electric athlete who flies to the rim and finishes in impressive fashion while showcasing a jumper out to the three-point line. Taylor is devastating in transition.

Said one high-major assistant coach while watching Taylor play during the June live period, “He’s the type of player you don’t have to worry about bringing your head coach to see him play and wondering if he’s talented enough.”

Irvin has been around a whole lot of highly-ranked players while coaching the Mac Irvin Fire club program. He’s watched his brother Nick Irvin lead a star-studded Morgan Park program for the past decade. He recognizes Taylor’s elite ability, just as he did with so many previous big-named Chicago products. But he also sees a difference.

Irvin believes it’s more than just raw basketball ability. Taylor’s coach is going to add focus and cognitive basketball skills to the mix, along with a work ethic.

“I think what makes him a little different than those other guys is that at this age he studies the game,” said Irvin. “He’s a student of the game who really studies the details of the game. He’s always watching, and he has a work ethic. He’s always in the gym. He’s the first in the gym and the last to leave type of player.”

While Taylor was a big name as soon as he entered Morgan Park as a freshman, it took time to showcase — from a production standpoint — why he was such a hot name and top-ranked player in the class. He didn’t make an impact at the varsity level as a freshman. But he’s taken off since.

Kenwood coach Mike Irvin coaches JJ Taylor (1) during the game against Clemente.

This past winter in an abbreviated season following the Covid shutdown, Taylor regularly put up 30-plus points a game. He tapped into that world of upside talent, put up numbers and has continued to open eyes all spring and into the summer.

“The jump he made from eighth grade to his freshman year was good,” said Irvin. “But the jump he made from his freshman year to sophomore year was huge.”

Irvin actually credits the Covid shutdown for Taylor turning himself from big-time prospect to productive player as a sophomore. Simply put, with so little to do the coach believes there just wasn’t anything else for his star player to focus on during Covid.

“I think the reason for the jump he showed is that he was training non-stop,” said Irvin. “He was working out two or three times a day. There wasn’t much to do, so he worked in the gym and his training really ramped up. That time was a big benefit for him, and he took advantage of it.”

Taylor himself believes that the layoff may have been the best thing for his game. While the absence of real competition was frustrating and going up and down the court was missed, the ultra-talented player was able to refine his game in workouts, alone, in the gym.

“I took it as an opportunity to get better,” Taylor said of those months without any organized basketball being played. “I was thirsty to get in the gym, so why not make the best of it and take advantage of whatever I could? I felt like it was a blessing, actually, that I was able to get in a gym when so many couldn’t. I went to work.”

He said he worked on his whole arsenal but specifically focused on his mid-range jumper and post-up moves to further diversify his game.

Watching Taylor play, it’s easy to see growth in his game, both in his understanding and with his consistency as he matures as a player.

“The thing he has is he’s hungry,” said Irvin. “He know there is a lot more basketball to be played. He has all the tools.”

He has the tools and the early hype having already established himself as a coveted top 10 prospect. But there is another short list of Chicago and Illinois prospects over the years, one of young players who have been ranked extremely high as freshmen and sophomores and fell considerably by the time they were seniors.

So even though Taylor has the name and recognition as the top prospect in Illinois, this is still a big July for him as he is seen and evaluated in EYBL play. He knows there is a lot at stake and the expectations are high. But he says he welcomes it.

“It’s very important for me to be that player, to live up to it,” Taylor said of his top 10 national status. “It means something. There is some pressure that comes with that, and I know and expect people to come at me. But I am ready for it and want that. I have to keep working to maintain it, live up to it, to represent Chicago. I know I’m being watched.”

Top 10 players from Chicago since 2000

Since the Class of 2000 graduated over two decades ago, the state has produced 11 consensus top 10 prospects in the country. Here is a list of players with the year they graduated and their consensus national ranking at the conclusion of their high school career.

Jahlil Okafor, Young – 2014 (No. 1)

Cliff Alexander, Curie – 2014 (No. 4)

Jabari Parker, Simeon – 2013 (No. 3)

Anthony Davis, Perspectives – 2011 (No. 1)

Derrick Rose, Simeon – 2007 (No. 5)

Julian Wright, Homewood-Flossmoor – 2005 (No. 6)

Shaun Livingston, Peoria Central – 2004 (No. 2)

Shannon Brown, Proviso East – 2003 (No. 3)

Eddy Curry, Thornwood – 2001 (No. 1)

Darius Miles, East St. Louis – 2000 (No. 3)

Kenwood’s JJ Taylor is a star in the makingJoe Henricksonon July 21, 2021 at 3:38 pm Read More »

From financial albatross to economic engine: City Council poised to turn Michael Reese site into $4 billion developmentFran Spielmanon July 21, 2021 at 3:44 pm

The City Council will move Wednesday to turn a financial albatross on Chicago taxpayers into an economic engine with potential to generate $3.1 billion in new tax revenue for the city and create nearly 10,000 jobs.

Before adjourning for the summer, aldermen laid the groundwork for a development team to build a seven-million-square-foot, mixed-used development on the site once occupied by Michael Reese Hospital.

In a rapid-fire series of votes, the City Council is poised to:

o Sell the 48.6-acre site to the Farpoint Development-led team known as GRIT Chicago for at least $96.9 million.

o Earmark $60 million from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s $3.7 billion capital plan to repay developers of the project known as “Bronzeville Lakefront” for new and improved roads and a two-acre park at the site that stretches from 26th Street south to 31st Street and from Lake Park Avenue west to Vernon Avenue.

o And authorize zoning for nearly 8 million square feet of residential and commercial uses.

The first phase of the roughly $4 billion project is to include a research facility operated by Israel’s highly regarded Sheba Medical Center, plus senior housing and a community welcoming center on the southern portion of the property.

Plans ultimately call for 4,800 residential units, with 20% set aside at reduced rents for people with lower incomes. The developers also are required to pay $25 million toward expansion of nearby schools once they’ve completed 3 million square feet of construction.

At the first of three committee hearings this week, local Ald. Sophia King (4th) said the massive project will bring “billions of economic development dollars into our city, back into our tax base.”

She credited the Michael Reese Advisory Committee for “a lot of the community benefits that you see.” That includes “20% on-site affordable housing,” a senior building, a $25 million commitment for education and a “20% write-down on 10% of all the retail” for local businesses.

“We’re gonna have a Bronzeville welcoming center/digital museum which will pay homage to the Bronzeville community, the storied history that’s there that has impacted the world. We’ll be able to have people come in locally and world-wide to see that

“There’s design guidelines throughout the entire development that will make sure that we pay homage to Bronzeville and the Michael Reese site. Each sub-area has to at least include $25,000 to that. We’re also making sure that the community center is sustainable. There’s 50-cent impact fee that will go to the operating costs for that.”

King said the project has literally been a labor of love.

“That first building to the north of Prairie Shores — that was my first home in Chicago. So, it’s kind of full-circle. That was about 35 years ago. And both of my kids were born at Michael Reese. So, it’s personal — not only to me, but obviously to the community,” King said.

The infrastructure work must be designed, engineered and completed to city standards within three years at a cost of no more than $60 million. If the final tally is higher, GRIT Chicago must eat those costs.

Chicago taxpayers will also be asked to bankroll $31 million to remove hazardous waste left behind by a radium processing plant that had been on the northern end of the property more than 100 years ago. That money is expected to come from a nearby tax increment financing district.

Deputy Planning and Development Commissioner Tim Jeffries has argued new roads are needed for a campus “fairly disconnected from the rest of the grid” with few access points.

“This configuration may have been appropriate at one point — especially for a closed campus like Michael Reese. But it’s just not consistent with the requirements of modern development,” he said.

Bronzeville Lakefront project is the “largest and only multi-billion- dollar private project planned in a minority community,” Jeffries said.

“The project and the investment it represents, however, cannot proceed without the basic infrastructure necessary for development to occur. This agreement would provide this critical and required first step.”

Thirteen years ago, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley convinced the City Council to borrow $85 million to purchase the site of the shuttered hospital to pave the way for construction of an Olympic Village. But it never was built, and the price of the property rose to $91 million after the city’s stunning first-round knockout in its bid for the 2016 Summer Games.

When the property was not unloaded to private developers within five years, the price rose to $96 million and the city was forced to start making payments on the loan.

Chicago taxpayers had been assured there was no chance of that happening, as top mayoral aides said they were certain Chicago would host the 2016 Olympics — and even if the city didn’t, developers surely would gobble up the land.

Daley and his team turned out to be wrong on both counts. Rio de Janeiro won the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. And the Michael Reese property — cleared of all buildings except the 72,800 square-foot Singer Pavilion — has remained vacant and a drain on the city’s taxpayers.

That financial albatross has now been replaced by the dream of a brighter future — never mind that the ambitious project will take at least 20 years to build.

From financial albatross to economic engine: City Council poised to turn Michael Reese site into $4 billion developmentFran Spielmanon July 21, 2021 at 3:44 pm Read More »