Jamari Dent remembered as a sweet, playing kid during his funeral Tuesday on the South Side.

Teirra Black bent down to kiss her son’s forehead again and again — as though she couldn’t bring herself to say a final goodbye.

And then she told 13-year-old Jamari Dent that one day, “in Heaven,” they would go to the mother-son dance she’d missed when he was alive.

Black also had a message for other mothers: “If you know that your child is being bullied, please report it.”

Jamari died last week. He’d suffered permanent brain damage as a result of a suicide attempt when in he was in fourth grade, his family has said. On Feb. 18, 2019, Jamari’s 9-year-old sister found him hanging from a coat hook with a bed sheet tied around his neck inside their home. He could no longer walk or talk and needed a breathing tube, Black has said.

A lawsuit filed by the family claims Jamari’s suicide attempt could have been prevented if officials hadn’t ignored his mother’s pleas to protect her son. At Evers Elementary and later at Carter G. Woodson Elementary, Jamari suffered bullying that Chicago Public Schools faculty and the administration either ignored or contributed to, according to a federal lawsuit, which is still pending.

Chicago Public Schools has not commented on the ongoing lawsuit and could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Jamari was remembered Tuesday, during a funeral service at Greater Harvest Baptist Church on the South Side, as an affectionate child who loved to dance, play with his many cousins and bounce on his pogo stick. A montage of photographs and videos of Jamari — playing with friends, making scrambled eggs — played on a huge overhead screen during the service.

Jamari was dressed all in white, with a bright green bow tie. Many family and friends came dressed in green — Jamari’s favorite color.

Rev. Eric Thomas said Jamari’s death was “something that should not have happened.”

Thomas urged the young people in the audience to use Jamari’s example as “fuel for your fire.”

“Bullying is never, ever cool,” he said. “God said we should love each other. What we need now is for you to be all that you can be so that this doesn’t happen to anybody else.”

After the service and after Jamari’s casket was closed, his mother said she’s managing to cope — out of necessity.

“I have three other children I have to care for so I’m holding up the best I can,” Black said.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Rashad Verner was a scholar and a star on his high school’s football team, family and friends said during a memorial service after his death.

Urban Prep Academy senior Rashad Verner allegedly drove with a friend to an apartment in South Shore last year to buy a gun.

But the seller was actually planning to rob Verner, a star football player and scholar at the Bronzeville school. He gunned Verner down for the $350 he brought and the gun he had on him, according to Cook County prosecutors.

Two men — Justin Jones, 19, and Jasper Price, 25 — face murder charges for participating in the killing of 18-year-old Verner. The alleged gunman remains uncharged.

Verner and an 18-year-old man who was wounded in the attack had left early Sept. 28 to purchase the weapon in the 7000 block of South Paxton, prosecutors said. When the pair pulled up around 1:20 a.m., they allegedly video-chatted with someone on Facebook and showed the $350 they brought.

The two left the car and entered a vestibule of an apartment where they were told the sale would happen.

Inside, they met Jones and Price and were asked if they had any weapons, prosecutors said. Verner said he had a gun, and Jones and Price each showed weapons they were carrying.

A gunman approached from behind and said “Don’t move” before firing, prosecutors said.

Verner’s acquaintance ran from the building to the car and realized he was shot in the back, prosecutors said. Verner was hit several times and fell on the stairwell inside. He died at the University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.

When police arrived, Verner’s gun was missing, allegedly stolen by Jones and Price. Three 9mm and one .45-caliber shell casings were recovered from the scene.

Detectives learned that Jones lived in the building and was being investigated for a similar incident a month earlier in which a person was shot, prosecutors said.

Investigators searched Jones’ Facebook account and found photos of the alleged gun for sale and photos of Jones in the vestibule where the murder happened, prosecutors said.

Jones allegedly had conversations on Facebook shortly after the shooting in which he questioned whether he should stay in the building. He also allegedly shared a photo of the crime scene and a message indicating officers had left.

Police searched Jones’ home in the building and recovered two weapons, prosecutors said.

Detectives also searched the Facebook account of another person who had communicated with the victims and set up the ruse transaction, prosecutors said. On that account, police found photos of a person who matched the victim’s description of Price.

Cellphone records show Price was in the area of the murder at the time and that he left shortly afterward, prosecutors said. Price’s Facebook account also allegedly shows him selling Verner’s gun four hours after the murder.

Both Jones and Price were already in custody for earlier crimes when charges in Verner’s murder were filed: Jones for the ruse gun sale and shooting, Price for a carjacking in February.

The pair are each charged with murder, murder during a forcible felony and armed robbery.

Judge John F. Lyke Jr. ordered them both held without bail.

They were expected in court again July 12.

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Students at the city’s lowest-income high schools have received an alarming number of failing grades, and that’s real reason to worry about their future.

It’s been crystal clear for months that the pandemic has wreaked havoc with education, as with the rest of society, and our kids will need every ounce of support schools can muster to get back on track academically.

We already knew, for instance, that large numbers of students initially failed to log on regularly to the Chicago Public Schools’ virtual learning platform, though the numbers improved over time. Still, some students rarely or never logged on at all, and we’re convinced that online learning — always a distant second-best to in-person teaching — was just too frustrating. In some cases, a lack of reliable internet access was a problem.

Hundreds of students, perhaps thousands, likely just gave up on school altogether.

We know, as well, that online attendance has never been as high as classroom attendance before the pandemic.

And once schools began to reopen in late February, the majority of parents did not send their children back to the classroom. Lingering fears about the continued spread of the coronavirus were just too great.

A flurry of F’s

Now, just as the school year is drawing to a close, there’s more alarming evidence of the pandemic’s negative impact: At the 40 lowest-income high schools, which serve mostly Black and Latino children on the South and West sides, one in five grades in math and English was an F, a WBEZ analysis of CPS data on third-quarter grades found. Far more students are failing multiple classes than in previous years.

Attendance was poor, as well: On any given day, WBEZ found, a quarter of students in these schools didn’t show up for class, either online or in person.

Indeed, teachers struggled with giving out so many failing grades, knowing that students were stressed out. Maybe a father lost his job. Maybe a mom got sick or even died of COVID-19. Maybe the teen had to get a part-time job to help pay the family bills.

But in the end, teachers knew they couldn’t honestly allow a student to pass if he or she hadn’t finished the assignments or showed up to class regularly.

“So that is the battle I have every day,” as Kelly High School teacher Anna Lane told WBEZ.

All hands on deck

One semester with an alarming number of F’s may not sound like cause for alarm. But down the road, the city’s hard-won uptick in high school graduation rates is at stake. Landmark research by the University of Chicago has shown that every failing grade given to a freshman puts that student at much higher risk for eventually dropping out.

“Given what we know about freshman year, this means that there are a lot of freshmen, more than in previous years, who are failing, failing multiple classes,” as Alex Seeskin of the University of Chicago’s To&Through Project, which help high schools keep students on track to graduate, told us.

“From what we know about the predictive nature [of grades], this could mean a decrease in graduation,” he said. “There is every reason to be concerned.”

CPS has released details of its plans to address students’ social and emotional needs and get them back on track academically in the coming months. The district has $1.8 billion in federal education funding that must be used for these COVID-19 recovery efforts.

Summer school programs will be expanded, for one. Summer programs are voluntary this year, but there’s a strong case to be made that, with so many students lagging behind, more students should sign up to attend.

Another initiative will send $525 million to schools in communities that experienced the worst of the pandemic, to provide more social and emotional programs, mental health support and other resources.

Getting students re-engaged

All in all, CPS’ educational recovery plans make sense, Seeskin noted. But it’s worth emphasizing another point he made: Extracurricular activities will be essential to get students re-engaged in school — and ultimately, earning better grades.

“I’m a big believer that at least part of the answer lies outside [focusing on] traditional core subjects,” Seeskin told us. “Put a lot of money in extracurricular activities so they come back strong, so students have the opportunity to engage in activities they find most meaningful, like sports, arts, the chess club.”

“Make sure there’s time, that adults [in charge] are paid, that there’s opportunity for them to re-engage” with school, he said.

There’s no denying the chaos caused by the pandemic. But there’s every reason to believe that, with the right support, kids can overcome.

“Don’t meet students with a deficit mindset,” Seeskin said. “Value the learning they did do during the pandemic— not just the learning they did about themselves, but about their families and the world.”

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A 15-year-old boy was wounded in a shooting Tuesday in Washington Park on the South Side.

He was standing outside about 2 p.m. in the 300 block of East 56th Street when a dark-colored vehicle pulled up and someone inside opened fire, Chicago police said.

The teen was struck in the leg and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in good condition, police said.

Area One detectives are investigating.

On Monday, a 4-year-old boy and a teen were wounded in a possible accidental shooting in an apartment in Woodlawn.

Earlier in June, the Sun-Times reported that children are dying of gun violence in Chicago at a rate three times higher than last year.

Eleven children aged 15 or younger have been shot dead so far this year, according to Sun-Times records.

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Touted as the team with the highest winning percentage in the history of professional sports, the Harlem Globetrotters are looking to test their basketball skills against the best of the best: the NBA.

The Globetrotters, founded in 1926, say it’s been 72 years since they last played an NBA team, beating the reigning champion Minneapolis Lakers in 1949.

Now, after all that time apart, the Trotters want the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver to acknowledge their influence on how the game is played today and make them an official NBA team.

“Based on what we’ve already proven, we can field a team of talent on par with the pros of today, and we want the chance to do that,” the team said in a statement. “As a world renowned and legendary professional basketball team, we petition Commissioner Adam Silver, the NBA governors and the powers that be to grant The Original Harlem Globetrotters an NBA franchise. Not now, but right now.”

While recognizing the efforts the NBA has made in fighting against social injustice, the Globetrotters noted that one of their former members, Nat Sweetwater Clifton, was the first Black player to sign an NBA contract in 1950, while another alum, Earl Lloyd, became the first Black player to play in the NBA that same year.

“As the NBA grew, you were able to attract the best Black players, but we remember who helped the NBA get it all started,” the statement said. “(B)asketball would not be what it is today without us.”

Adding another team to the NBA is on Silver’s mind too. He hinted at the idea of the league expanding back in December. Globetrotters general manager Jeff Munn said on Tuesday that his team is, “ready to negotiate for a franchise.”

Read more at usatoday.com

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Chicago’s baseball teams apparently have impeccable fashion sense.

A national survey of 2,000 baseball fans conducted by Play USA ranked the Cubs with the best home uniform in Major League Baseball and the White Sox with the fourth-best home uniform.

The Cubs also had the second-best team colors in MLB, according to the survey and the fourth-best logo.

The top five home uniforms, according to the survey, are:

• Cubs
• Yankees
• Red Sox
• White Sox
• Cardinals.

The Twins’ uniforms were in last place.

The best team colors are:

• Orioles
• Cubs
• Braves
• Diamondbacks
• Red Sox.

The top logos are:

• Blue Jays
• Yankees
• Orioles
• Cubs
• Diamondbacks.

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“The potential and the sadness and beauty of big empty spaces” inspires Lucky Plush’s The Map of Now.

For over a year, the Harris Theater has loomed like an abyss in the center of the Loop, darker and more cavernous than it’s ever been: no drinks in the lobbies, no coats in the checkroom, no tickets ripped, no programs leafed and loosed on the floor. No hum of human gathering, no line out the restroom door, no echo of exhaust in the parking structure, no us.…Read More

Today’s update is a 5-minute read that will brief you on the day’s biggest stories.

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 75 degrees. Tonight will be mostly cloudy with a low around 61. Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and a high near 80.

Top story

Mother of 2 dies after brazen Puerto Rican Day Parade shooting that killed boyfriend

A mother of two died Tuesday after being shot over the weekend in a brazen attack during the Puerto Rican Day Parade in Humboldt Park that left her boyfriend dead.

Yasmin Perez, 23, and her boyfriend, 24-year-old Gyovanni Arzuaga, were driving in the 3200 block of West Division Saturday night when they were involved in a minor crash and were ambushed, according to Chicago police.

Several people beat Perez and then shot her, according to Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan. When Arzuaga came to her aid, he was shot by a second person “almost execution style,” Deenihan said.

Video shows the couple lying in the street next to their car as the attackers ran off.

Arzuaga was taken to Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center and pronounced dead, while Perez was rushed to Stroger Hospital in critical condition. Perez died there Tuesday morning, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Perez had lived in suburban Hanover Park and had two children with Arzuaga.

Yesterday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed to track down those involved in the “horrific” shooting, which was captured on surveillance video that was circulated widely online and in the media.

Read Tom Schuba’s full story here.

More news you need

1. Aldermen sponsoring an ordinance to rename Outer Lake Shore Drive in honor of Jean Baptiste Point DuSable have the votes needed, a mayoral ally said today. Mayor Lightfoot, who is against the move, will now have to decide whether to veto or not.
2. A group of Chicago aldermen plan to introduce an emergency ordinance this week that would ensure the city quickly spends $1.8 billion in federal relief on social services. Lightfoot wants to use more than half of that money on debt.
3. ComEd hopes to restore power to all customers by the end of the day after a brutal storm swept through the Chicago area, leaving tens of thousands in the dark Sunday night. As of this afternoon, fewer than 1,000 customers remain without power.
4. CPS officials don’t want administrators and teachers to call the police on students in non-emergencies, and they’re advising school staff to tell children their rights before any interactions with police. That’s according to the district’s revised code of conduct made public yesterday.
5. CPS also said yesterday that the cleaning and maintenance of its 600-plus buildings will be back under district control in October. This comes after years of outsourced management that led to filthy schools and slow service response times.
6. A program launched a year ago to help more CPS students access the internet from home is being expanded and will now allow CPS graduates to get free internet while attending City Colleges of Chicago. High school grads will be guaranteed three more months of free internet while City Colleges students would get three years.
7. An ordinance filed yesterday could allow a flood of new cannabis dispensaries to move into a downtown “exclusion zone,” where Lightfoot has blocked pot sales. The proposal would also allow dispensaries to bypass some of the onerous zoning requirements for cannabis businesses.

A bright one

BaseHit BBQ & Catering co-owner dishes on beloved menu, secret sauce

BaseHit BBQ & Catering co-owners Anthony Garland Sr. and his son Anthony Garland Jr. always took pride in manning the smoker and grill at their annual family picnic. They adored the smiles their barbecue would bring to their 60-plus loved ones.

“What happened was everyone was saying, ‘Hey, you guys need a restaurant, your barbecue is good,’” Garland Jr. said. “And yeah just kind of ran with it from there.”

The Father and son duo started a catering business out of a small banquet hall kitchen in Berwyn in 2015 before opening their first brick-and-mortar spot in Galewood in April 2019.

Brian Rich/Sun-Times

What makes the Garlands’ barbecue unique is their signature wet rub and sauce that they periodically brush onto their meats throughout the cooking process to develop deep layers of flavor, called “Base.”

What’s in it?

“I can’t give away none of that, my father would kill me if I did that,” Garland Jr. said with a laugh. “I would just say, there’s a lot of love put behind everything that we do and what we put it that way.” Oh, and some brown sugar and a handful of seasonings, too; Garland Jr. said he could share that much.

The result is a perfect blend of sweetness and spice.

Read Madeline Kenney’s latest installment of Dishin’ on the Dish here.

From the press box

• Did David Ross make the correct call benching Javy Baez after a baserunning blunder last night? Steve Greenberg says it’s not about right or wrong, but about why Ross made the decision.
• White Sox outfielder Adam Engel is back on the 10-day injured list with a strained right hamstring. The Sox recalled outfielder Luis González from Triple-A Charlotte before opening a two-game series with the Pirates tonight (6:05 p.m. CT).
• After three days at the Riverside-Brookfield Shootout and the Midwest Crossroads Showcase at Normal West, Joe Henricksen looks at 10 local high school basketball players who stood out.
• The Supreme Court’s 9-0 ruling against the NCAA yesterday rightly shot down the laughably indefensible concept of ‘‘amateurism,” Rick Telander writes.

Your daily question ☕

What’s the best part about summertime in Chicago? 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: How has the pandemic changed how you plan for your future? Here’s what some of you said…

“Get out and enjoy every bit of life, it just may disappear in the blink of an eye.” — Maureen Vanderbilt

“It has taught me the lesson that nothing is permanent, patience, and to plan ahead for a situation like this.” — Ivan Ruíz

“Right now, I’m in a state of waiting! Waiting until the U.S. finally lifts the ridiculous travel ban from Europe. That’s all I can do right now. My life changed to a state of waiting.” — Angela Brauchle

“It has made me realize even more not to take anything for granted. Especially summer activities: festivals, going out, eating out, grilling more, etc. Summer is way too short here in the Midwest regardless. If you’re lucky you can have six decent months. Not wasting them anymore” — Brice Notardonato Ellett

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

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What Happens When Your Company Car Gets Into an Accident?

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By Martin Banks,
today at 1:26 pm

Whether you’ve been given a company car in order to carry out the functions of your job or you’re the owner of the company — and therefore, the owner of the cars your employees drive — it may have crossed your mind a time or two that an accident in your company car might be an odd situation to sort out. 

While the car may belong to the company, the driver is an independent person with their own driver’s license. This begs the question, what happens when your company car gets into an accident?

While each situation is unique and the circumstances of the accident itself definitely play a role in the outcome of any car accident, you can be prepared for anything that happens in your company car. 

If you’re wondering how to handle an accident in your company vehicle — whether you’re just researching or the ding has already happened — here’s what you need to know.

Did the Accident Happen On the Job?

The first question — and likely, the most important — is whether the accident happened in the course of employment. This means that it happened while carrying out a vital function of the job, during work hours. 

While commuting can sometimes be considered a part of this at some workplaces, most workplaces don’t consider the commute to be company time, and therefore the employee would be liable for damages and injuries caused in the course of the accident.

Employee or Independent Contractor?

Due to the nature of the “gig” economy, whether an employee is considered an actual employee of the company by technical standards is often up for debate. Independent contractors are a form of outsourced labor — often the same as a freelancer — which means that they pay their own taxes and don’t have access to the benefits that traditional employees often do such as health insurance. 

This also means that companies often don’t cover legal damages for accidents that happen, even during the vital parts of a workday. Therefore, even if the company owns the car, the employee might still be liable for damages and injuries if they’re an independent contractor.

Who Is At Fault?

Arguably, this might also be considered the most important question. That’s because it could void any conversation about liability between employer and employee. 

If the accident was caused by another party or driver on the road, that entity is liable, regardless of whether the employee was on duty, off duty, carrying out the functions of the job or using the car for personal time. The same rules of the road apply, so if someone hits your company car and is at fault for the accident, they’re responsible.

Smaller Damages

When it comes to smaller damages like dents and dings, you can contact the insurance company and make claims to fix things, or you can take care of the damages yourself. Especially in situations where you aren’t entirely sure where the damages came from. Having a paint pen or suction cup on hand to deal with dings and small dents can be a lifesaver, and helps to avoid long processes with insurance.

More Serious Accidents

When it comes to more serious accidents, especially when another person or vehicle is involved, it’s always important to contact the insurance company and make sure the workplace and superiors are aware of the situation. Especially when dealing with accidents in which damages or injuries have occured, it’s important to deal with everything above-board.

Dealing With Insurance

When it comes to dealing with the insurance company, you’ll need to go one of two routes — if the employee was carrying out a basic function of the job when the accident occured, you’ll likely go through the company’s insurance completely. 

However, if the vehicle was being used for personal use, the employee may need to file a personal insurance claim, as well. Additionally, the accident will likely show up on the employee’s driving record regardless of the time of the accident.

What to Do With a Company Car Accident

Really, a company car accident is just like any standard car accident. As long as nobody is hurt, you can take care of the issue and get back to work in no time at all. Whether you deal with insurance independently or on a company level, there are ways to take care of an accident in the company car.

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The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor

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The Covid-19 pandemic has been a bureaucrat’s wet dream

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By Dennis Byrne,
today at 2:37 pm

Regulations to issue. Guidances to promulgate. Manuals to draft. Conduct to control. Codes to enforce. Forms to sign. Committees to organize. Mandates to decree. Expectations to lower. Businesses to stifle. Jobs to kill. Fear to spread.

Bureaucrats are having a field day, busily molding directives out of piles of nonsense, as never before. Whoever in his right mind a couple of years ago would have thought that Americans would willingly take the advice of bureaucrats who “recommend” that we must show our Covid-19 vaccination “passports” to move around town, attend a sports event or travel domestically?

Or–remember this?–require that Americans must not leave their homes? Ooooh, that must have prompted happy endings in bureaucratic offices around the country.

Bureaucrats are all over, not just in government, but also in corporations, religious and non-profit institutions, athletic organizations and wherever two or more people are gathered. So many share a gawd-awful, smarter-than-thou conviction that they’re corralling us for our own good.

Even though I’m living in a free state called Florida, I was starkly reminded of bureaucratic power last week when we went to the Amateur Athletic Union’s junior girls volleyball national championships in Orlando.

We were required to sign a “waiver and release” to get in. If you read it here, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that this was written by a lawyer/bureaucrat straight out of short-story writer Franz Kafka’s descriptive nightmare of “incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers.”

That qualified us (after buying tickets) to wear a wrist band confirming our membership in the herd. Next we had to show a picture ID at a table of inquisitors in order to proceed to the next station at the top of the escalators, where a sign informed us that he had to show the wristband again.

Onto the floor of the gigantic Orlando convention center where girls were competing on more than 60 volleyball courts. Thousands of people sitting, standing and playing next to each other. Of course, some players and spectators were wearing masks, as required by some anonymous but all-knowing bureaucrat. Instead of the competing teams hand-slapping as was the custom, the bureaucrat required that the girls instead wave at each other from opposite sides of the court. Can’t touch hands, you know, because of the (unscientific) fear that the girls will transmit the virus to one another–even though they’ll all touching and slapping the same ball for hours on end.

What motivates bureaucrats? Here I suggest Barton Swaim’s Wall Street Journal essay, “Why Shutdowns and Masks Suit the Elite.” I’m not sure he’s got the right answer, but it’s worth a read. He writes:

Is the benefit of not contracting Covid-19 worth the cost of going without the bodily presence of, say, one’s children and grandchildren for months on end? Put that way, I suspect most Americans’ answers would range from “probably not” to “hell, no.” But in 2020 public-health experts and their defenders in the media proceeded as though “yes” were the only conceivable answer. That suggests our cultural elites and policy makers haven’t thought deeply, or at all, about what the human person is. 

His explanation is thoughtful and complex, sometimes challenging to follow. But it’s easy to understand what he says are the costs of the failure to involve “what the human person is”:

…the bizarre and at times perverse response of prosperous Western nations to the pandemic: the long discontinuation of economic life, the belief that pixelated screens can facilitate human relationships, the prohibitions on ordinary social interactions, the fetishization of masks. These policies and practices weren’t handed down from the ether by Reason and Science but bore the weight of contemporary assumptions about…what it means to be human.

Precisely said. In setting down their dictates, bureaucrats who have taken over our lives for the past year and a half have either forgotten or ignored what it means to be human.

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  • 

    Get out of IL now!

    1 hour, 53 minutes ago

    In reply to jnorto:

    Get real. Edgar left office in the last century. He was abetted by Michael Madigan and Emil Jones. Republicans, including…
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    jnorto

    3 hours, 49 minutes ago

    In reply to jnorto:

    Sorry, that’s the “Edgar Ramp.”
    Read the story | Reply to this comment
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    jnorto

    3 hours, 51 minutes ago

    I know your game is to blame it all on Democrats, but the biggest increase in pension indebtedness is attributable…
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  • 

    Get out of IL now!

    21 hours, 19 minutes ago

    In reply to jnorto:

    Did you read the article? The numbers don’t come from IPI, IPI cites Moody’s and they say $317 billion. IPI…
    Read the story | Reply to this comment
  • 

    Richard Davis

    22 hours, 27 minutes ago

    In reply to jnorto:

    And your schtick is obfuscation and diversion.
    Read the story | Reply to this comment

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