Early Saturday morning, two males approached a group standing on the sidewalk in the 7500 block of South Prairie Avenue and opened fire, fatally striking a 29-year-old woman and wounding nine others.

At least three people have been killed and 43 others wounded in shootings across Chicago since Friday night, including a mass shooting Saturday morning in Chatham that left one dead and nine others hurt.

Just after 2 a.m, two males approached a group standing on the sidewalk in the 7500 block of South Prairie Avenue and opened fire, Chicago police said.

A 29-year-old woman was struck in the leg and abdomen and transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was pronounced dead, police said.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified her as Kimfier Miles of South Shore.

Nine more victims, ranging in age from 23 to 49 years old were transported to area hospitals all in fair or good condition, according to police. There is no one in custody.

South Loop homicide

A 22-year-old man was fatally shot Saturday afternoon in South Loop.

About 1:20 p.m., the man was parked on the street in the 600 block of South Wells Street when someone in a passing vehicle fired shots, police said.

He was struck multiple times and taken to Stroger Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. The medical examiner’s office identified him as Dearl Butler Jr.

Woman shot dead in Brighton Park

A 20-year-old woman was killed in a shooting Friday night in Brighton Park on the Southwest Side.

Fhee Hernandez-Castillo was sitting in a vehicle with her boyfriend about 8:50 p.m. when a gunman approached them while yelling gang slogans in the 4700 block of South Rockwell Street, Chicago police and the medical examiner’s office said.

Hernandez-Castillo was sitting in the passenger seat when she was struck in the neck and hand, police said.

After the shooting, her boyfriend drove off and pulled over at a Shell gas station, 4658 S California Ave., where Chicago Fire Department paramedics arrived.

Hernandez-Castilo was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital and later pronounced dead, police said.

Nonfatal shootings

A 16-year-old girl was listed in critical condition after a shooting Sunday night in Lawndale that also left a 46-year-old man seriously wounded.

— The man and the teen were outside in the 3900 block of West 13th Street when they were shot about 11:20 p.m., police said. The teen suffered three gunshot wounds and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, police said. The man was struck in the buttocks and lower back and taken to the same hospital in serious condition, police said. Witnesses told officers they saw a male fleeing the scene of the shooting, according to police.

A 14-year-old boy was wounded in an attack Saturday in West Woodlawn.

— The teen boy was playing with his friends on the sidewalk about 6:45 p.m. when someone opened fire in the 6500 block of South Champlain Avenue, police said. He suffered a graze wound on the neck and was transported to Comer Children’s Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, police said.

Two more teens were hurt in a drive-by shooting Saturday in Little Village on the Southwest Side.

— The boys, both 17, were in the alley about 3:25 p.m. when a light-colored vehicle drove past them and someone from inside fired shots in the 3500 block of West Cermak Road, police said. One boy was shot in the shoulder and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition, police said. The other suffered a graze wound to the arm and was taken in good condition to the same hospital.

In the weekend’s first reported shooting, two men were wounded in an attack in South Shore.

— They were on the sidewalk about 6:50 p.m. Friday when someone fired shots in the 7500 block of South Kingston Avenue, police said. The 33-year-old was struck in the arm and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition, police said. The other, 29, suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the body and was taken to the same hospital in good condition.

At least 27 more people were hurt in shootings since 5 p.m. Friday.

Last weekend nearly 60 people were shot in Chicago.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

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The pair have asked a Cook County judge to appoint a receiver to “wind down” their shared business interests, essentially a third party to oversee their financial divorce.

Their once jovial relationship has become a fiery crash, with debris strewn across courtrooms and cable television, and now the two personalities who made “Windy City Rehab” a hit have agreed to seek an unbiased observer to sift through and sort out the wreckage.

An attorney representing Donovan Eckhardt filed an emergency motion in Cook County court last week asking a judge to allow a third party to take control of and provide a full accounting of the limited liability companies that he and Alison Victoria — whose real name is Alison Victoria Gramenos — created to purchase and renovate homes featured on the HGTV show. The two rehabbed at least 11 homes in the first season of the show and partnered on several more before their relationship went bust.

And the motion contains an admission: the splashy, remodeled homes weren’t big money makers.

“Ultimately, each of the renovation projects at the properties went over budget,” it reads. “The projected profits did not materialize once the properties began to sell.”

According to the motion, Victoria is on board with the request and agrees a receiver is needed because their relationship “has deteriorated” and “the two are currently unable to effectively communicate or cooperatively manage” their shared interests.

“Ms. Gramenos seeks to wind down her business entanglement with Mr. Eckhardt in a professional manner. The motion for receiver is a cooperative effort between Ms. Gramenos and Mr. Eckhardt towards that end,” her attorney, Daniel Lynch, said in an email sent Friday.

The latest legal maneuver was in response to a lawsuit brought by a north suburban man and his family who invested $3 million in the pair’s reality TV venture and are now seeking to claw back funds. They accused Victoria and Eckhardt of gross mismanagement that resulted in “bungling” nearly every home flipping project they took on.

Both have denied the allegations in the suit but say they need a neutral party to help them split up.

“Mr. Eckhardt is moving on from his previous business relationship, and both he and Ms. Gramenos are in agreement that the appointment of a receiver is the most appropriate and professional means to wrap up their business,” Eckhardt’s attorney, James Skyles, said in an email.

Legal move ‘a joke,’ opposing attorney says

The lawsuit was filed last summer by Michael Ward Jr. — a Lake County resident and onetime friend of Eckhardt — his brother Thomas Ward, also of Lake County, and their father, Michael Ward Sr., a Cook County resident.

“I think it’s a joke,” attorney John F. Kennedy, who represents the Wards, said of the emergency motion.

“I think the fact that Ms. Gramenos and Mr. Eckhardt are seeking a receiver for an accounting over the very company they control is a sham and a pretext to hide their misconduct. It’s shameful and designed to hide their own breaches of fiduciary duties they owe to the Ward family.”

Kennedy said the real “question is, what did Gramenos and Eckhardt do with the $3 million the Wards provided to them for the rehab projects? Will they voluntarily turn over their financial records to a receiver and account for the money[?]” His suspicion: not until “hell freezes over.”

Victoria’s attorney fired back, calling the accusations “head spinning.”

“The Wards’ accusation that Ms. Gramenos has withheld financial records that pertain to the Donovan Eckhardt projects from them is simply false,” Lynch said in an email. “Even before their baseless claims against her were filed, Ms. Gramenos willingly produced hundreds of pages of financial records on those projects; she has no more, and hell is still hot.”

Should a receiver be allowed to take over the two one-time “Windy City Rehab” co-hosts’ business affairs, the motion requests that he or she be charged with hiring a new attorney to defend their limited liability companies because their previous attorney quit.

Despite agreeing the two need a neutral third party to resolve their differences, Victoria has not changed her tune on Eckhardt.

During episodes of Season Two, Victoria labeled Eckhardt an untrustworthy villain, an unreliable builder and a cheat who pocketed construction funds.

“Ms. Gramenos stands by the truthfulness of her statements made on the air in WCR Season 2. The fact that these truthful statements make Mr. Eckhardt uncomfortable is reflective of what he knows about his own conduct,” Lynch said Friday.

For his part, Eckhardt has denied the allegations; he filed a separate defamation lawsuit against the show’s producers that seeks $2.2 million. He has since parted ways with the show.

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The teen girl and the man were outside Sunday when they heard shots fired in the 3900 block of West 13th Street.

A 16-year-old girl and a man were hurt in a shooting Sunday night in Lawndale on the West Side.

The teen girl and the man were outside about 11:20 p.m. when they heard shots fired in the 3900 block of West 13th Street, Chicago police said.

The girl suffered three gunshot wounds to the body and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, police said.

The man, 46, was struck in the lower back and buttocks and was taken to the same hospital, where his condition was serious, police said.

No one was in custody as Area Four detectives investigate.

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Neither Heyward nor Anthony Rizzo, who said Friday that he isn’t vaccinated, considered themselves anti-vaccine. But both think receiving the shot is an individual choice.

Jason Heyward became the second Cubs player to reveal publicly that he hasn’t received a COVID-19 vaccination. On Friday, Anthony Rizzo said on ESPN 1000 that he hasn’t been vaccinated.

Heyward told reporters Sunday that, with the state of Illinois allowing full capacity at Wrigley Field, fans are at greater risk of contracting the virus than players, who are tested multiple times per week. He also said enforcement of protocols for fans was lacking from the start.

“To me, it feels like a lot of wasted concern on a group of people that is pretty much checked off on almost every single day,” Heyward said.

Neither Heyward nor Rizzo considered themselves anti-vaccine, but both think receiving the shot is an individual choice.

“It’s just taking more time to see the data on all of it,” Rizzo said after the game Friday. “There’s definitely personal reasons, as well, but it’s just one of those things where as we continue to get more data, I’ll continue to be more educated on it.”

The Cubs are one of eight major-league teams that remains below the 85% threshold to ease restrictions, including wearing masks in the dugout and limiting mobility on road trips. Team president Jed Hoyer has expressed pessimism about the Cubs reaching the mark.

“I believe the science was clearly behind [the vaccine], but obviously not everyone agrees with that,” Hoyer said. “If everyone did agree, we’d be well above 85%.”

There’s a possible competitive disadvantage to staying below the vaccination threshold, and Rizzo said his choice was a very tough one.

“This is bigger than baseball,” Rizzo said. “This is a life decision, this isn’t a career decision, and it definitely weighed hard.”

Though the players are maintaining a united front, there clearly are chasms in the Cubs’ clubhouse. Before the game Friday, Javy Baez said he received a vaccination to protect his children. He added that while other vaccinated players respect their teammates’ choices, they have discussed the matter in the clubhouse.

“If you want to call it, we argued about it,” Baez said. “But at the end of the day, we are all men here. We respect each other.”

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Larson held off a hard-charging Brad Keselowski during the final 10-lap shootout after a slippery three-wide pass to get back in front and win the $1 million prize.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Kyle Larson was back in the NASCAR All-Star race, and got another $1 million by winning it again.

Larson held off a hard-charging Brad Keselowski during the final 10-lap shootout at Texas on Sunday night, after a slippery three-wide pass to get back in front and push Hendrick Motorsports to its second consecutive win, and 10th overall, in the annual non-points race with a seven-figure prize.

Defending All-Star winner and reigning Cup champion Chase Elliott, who started the sixth and final segment out front, didn’t stay there long. Larson pushed his teammate, then got in front on the outside through the fourth turn. They were three-wide while Keselowski pulled ahead briefly at the line before Larson finally got ahead to stay for the last eight laps.

“That last restart worked out exactly how I needed it to. I wanted Chase to not get a good run down the back,” Larson said.

“Thankfully, I think (Keselowski) got to his inside, and I just shoved him down the back and he probably thought I was going to just follow him and I was like, there’s got to be enough grip where we’d be running for one corner,” he said. “It was a little slick up there but I was able to get it and hold him off from there. I can’t believe it.”

There were no points on the line, but Larson went to Victory Lane for the third weekend in a row and the fourth time overall this season.

Keselowski said running second to Hendrick cars these days is somewhat of an accomplishment.

“They’re just stupid fast, and I had him off of Turn 4 but they just have so much speed,” Keselowski said. “He just motored right on back by me, like damn.”

Larson was with Chip Ganassi Racing when he won the 2019 All-Star race, but missed last year’s big event at Bristol while serving a six-month suspension after using a racial slur during the livestream while in a virtual race during the pandemic. That nearly cost him his career, but Hendrick gave him an opportunity this season to get back into the Cup Series.

Second in points with 10 races to go before the playoffs, Larson now only the eighth driver to be a two-time All-Star race winner.

Elliott finished third with Joey Logano fourth, ahead of Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman. William Byron, Aric Almirola, Kyle Bush and Kurt Busch rounded out the top 10 in the 21-car field.

Hendrick drivers Elliott, Byron and Larson started the final segment 1-2-3. Elliott had moved from third to first during the 30-lap fifth segment that included a required four-tire stop and $100,000 prize for his crew that had the fastest stop.

Byron won the fourth segment, and had the lowest cumulative finish through the first four 15-lap segments. Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman finished in front for the first three segments.

Larson, who won the last two Cup races, was on the pole by a random draw and was still in front at the end of the first segment. After a random inversion of the top 12 finishers in that first stage, Blaney was moved from 12th to first to start the next 15 laps.

Blaney stayed in front, even holding on after wiggling because of contact from behind by Ross Chastain, one of three drivers who advanced to the main event from the earlier open qualifying race.

After a full-field inversion going to the third stage, Aric Almirola, who also got in through the qualifying race, went from last to first, but it was Bowman — after getting pushed up from 17th to fifth — in the lead after that 15 laps.

On a hot night deep in the heart of Texas, drivers emerged through the saloon doors on a huge facade during prerace introductions while their cars were rolled through a corral gate. Drivers did their warmup laps while Sammy Hagar performed “I Can’t Drive 55” from the stands, ending right at the green flag.

It was 97 degrees with the sun still shining when the race started, with a heat index of 106 Fahrenheit. The track temperature had been in the mid-140s during the earlier open qualifying race, though there were some areas of shade by time the main event started.

Texas is the third different track in three years for the All-Star race. It was moved last summer from Charlotte, which hosted 34 of the first 35 All-Star races, because of COVID-19 restrictions in North Carolina.

The All-Star race at Texas served as a sendoff and full-circle finish for old-school NASCAR promotor Eddie Gossage, the Texas Motor Speedway president working his last day for Speedway Motorsports.

Gossage, now 62, had considering stepping down for at least two years. He was chosen by Speedway Motorsports founder Bruton Smith to oversee the 1,500-acre complex since its groundbreaking in 1995, two years before the first Cup race at the track that included a big crash in the first turn of the first lap.

He was a young public relations director at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1992 when, during a news conference to promote NASCAR’s first nighttime All-Star race, one of his stunts literally set Smith’s hair on fire. When Smith threw the giant light switch rigged by Gossage to highlight the Charlotte speedway’s new lighting system, sparks flew.

Three decades after he thought he was headed for the unemployment line, Gossage is going out on his own terms. He planned to spend Monday at the pool with his three grandchildren.

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Kimfier Miles, 29, was killed in a mass shooting early Saturday on the South Side that also wounded nine others.

Fearful of the gun violence that’s long plagued her native South Side, Kimfier Miles was careful in how she moved around the city.

But this weekend, the mother of three decided to enjoy a night out with some girlfriends, her cousin Takita Miles told the Sun-Times.

The group headed to a bustling business district on 75th Street, which features well-known restaurants, including Lem’s Bar-B-Q and Brown Sugar Bakery, the latter of which was visited earlier this year by Vice President Kamala Harris.

A week earlier, she heard another gathering along the strip in Chatham had remained peaceful, so Kimfier Miles and her friends felt safe, her cousin said.

“Everyone was confident that it was chill last week, and maybe we can go out and kick it this time. And maybe this is the summer that we can really chill,” Takita Miles said. “But it wasn’t like that.”

Instead, Miles and nine others were wounded when two males opened fire on a group of people about 2 a.m. in the 7500 block of South Prairie, Chicago police have said.

Struck in her leg and abdomen, Miles was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center and pronounced dead, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The others were listed in good to fair condition.

“She was only 29; in the prime of her life,” Takita Miles said. “She hasn’t even experienced life. She just started traveling. It’s unfortunate. It’s really bad.”

A graduate of Kenwood Academy High School, Kimfier Miles was a social butterfly had recently started work at a security firm, but hoped to one day open her own clothing boutique, Takita Miles said.

Her cousin’s three young daughters were always dressed to the nines and their hair neatly styled, she added.

“Most of the time when something like this happens, they always want to portray the victim as this awful person,” Takita Miles said. “But she wasn’t like that. She was humble, her laugh was contagious, she was goofy and she just loved hanging out with her family.”

Miles’ mother has started an online fundraiser seeking $10,000 to cover her funeral expenses. Meanwhile, her family is still searching for answers about her killing.

Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6^th) said he had learned police had obtained video surveillance footage “that seems to have good potential identification of the offenders.”

Takita Miles said she’s concerned her cousin’s killing may result in another “cold case file.”

A spokesman for police declined to provide additional information, but said no arrests had been made as of Sunday evening.

Miles’ cousin said was was also upset that Saturday’s mass shooting hasn’t received the same national attention as attacks elsewhere.

“Our African American community is getting the short end of the stick of everything,” she said. “When it comes to catching serial killers and suspects and mass shooters, we’re definitely treated differently.”

What’s more, she said it feels like the “senseless acts of violence” in Chicago have been “normalized now, like it’s nothing.”

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An Oscar nominee for ‘Network,’ he was an actor whose name moviegoers may not have known but whose face they always recognized.

Ned Beatty, the indelible character actor whose first film role as a genial vacationer brutally raped by a backwoodsman in 1972’s “Deliverance” launched him on a long, prolific and accomplished career, has died. He was 83.

Beatty’s manager, Deborah Miller, said Beatty died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by friends and loved ones.

After years in regional theater, Beatty was cast in “Deliverance” as Bobby Trippe, the happy-go-lucky member of a male river-boating party terrorized by backwoods thugs. The scene in which Trippe is brutalized became the most memorable in the movie and established Beatty as an actor whose name moviegoers may not have known but whose face they always recognized.

“For people like me, there’s a lot of ‘I know you! I know you! What have I seen you in?’ ” Beatty remarked without rancor in 1992.

Beatty received only one Oscar nomination, as supporting actor for his role as corporate executive Arthur Jensen in 1976′s “Network,” but he contributed to some of the most popular movies of his time and worked constantly, his credits including more than 150 movies and TV shows.

Beatty’s appearance in “Network,” scripted by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet, was brief but titanic. His three-minute monologue ranks among the greatest in movies. Jensen summons anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) to a long, dimly lit boardroom for a come-to-Jesus about the elemental powers of media.

“You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it!” Beatty shouts from across the boardroom before explaining that there is no America, no democracy. “There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.”

He was equally memorable as Otis, the idiot henchman of villainous Lex Luth0r in the first two Christopher Reeve “Superman” movies and as the racist sheriff in “White Lightning.” Other films included “All The President’s Men,” “The Front Page,” “Nashville,” and “The Big Easy.” In a 1977 interview, he had explained why he preferred being a supporting actor.

“Stars never want to throw the audience a curveball, but my great joy is throwing curveballs,” he said. “Being a star cuts down on your effectiveness as an actor because you become an identifiable part of a product and somewhat predictable. You have to mind your P’s and Q’s and nurture your fans. But I like to surprise the audience, to do the unexpected.”

He landed a rare leading role in the Irish film “Hear My Song” in 1991. The true story of legendary Irish tenor Josef Locke, who disappeared at the height of a brilliant career, it was well reviewed but largely unseen in the United States. Between movies, Beatty worked often in TV and theater. He had recurring roles in “Roseanne” as John Goodman’s father and as a detective on “Homicide: Life on the Streets.”

On Broadway he won critical praise (and a Drama Desk Award) for his portrayal of Big Daddy in a revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” a role he had first played as a 21-year-old in a stock company production. He created controversy, however, when he was quoted in The New York Times on the skills of his young co-stars, Ashley Judd and Jason Patric.

“Ashley is a sweetie,” he said, “and yet she doesn’t have a lot of tools.” Of Patric, he remarked: “He’s gotten better all the time, but his is a different journey.”

His more recent movies included “Toy Story 3” in 2010 and two releases from 2013, “The Big Ask” and “Baggage Claim.” He retired soon after.

Ned Thomas Beatty was born in 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in Lexington, where he joined the Protestant Disciples of Christ Christian Church. “It was the theater I attended as a kid,” he told The Associated Press in 1992. “It was where people got down to their truest emotions and talked about things they didn’t talk about in everyday life. … The preaching was very often theatrical.” For a time he thought of becoming a priest, but changed his mind after he was cast in a high school production of “Harvey.”

He spent 10 summers at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia, and eight years at the Arena Stage Company in Washington, D.C. At the Arena Stage, he appeared in Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” and starred in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” Then his life changed forever when he took a train to New York to audition for director John Boorman for the role of Bobby Trippe. Boorman told him the role was cast, but changed his mind after seeing Beatty audition.

Beatty, who married Sandra Johnson in 1999, had eight children from three previous marriages.

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“I don’t mess around with the stuff,” Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks said. “But I would say that is the sticky situation, no pun intended — they don’t know where the line should really be drawn.”

Pitchers have for years used substances to make sure they get a good grip on the ball, and as things like spin rate have become easier to track, many of them are seeing the appeal of finding ways to go beyond grip and have started using substances to increase their spin.

They might have gone too far. Entering Sunday, the major-league batting average was .238, the lowest since 1968.

As a result, the league is planning to crack down on the use of substances that do more than enhance grip. But whether there’s a clear line between what’s allowed and what’s not isn’t yet clear.

“I don’t think there really is, to be honest with you,” Kyle Hendricks said. “I don’t mess around with the stuff, so I don’t know as much about it as some other people, but I would say that is the sticky situation of the whole thing, no pun intended, but they don’t know where the line should really be drawn.”

That’s always been a gray area, and for years the policy in baseball has been for the opposing manager to call out when the other team’s pitcher was using something illegal on the mound.

The problem with that is no manager was going to call out another team’s pitcher if he knew guys on his team were doing it, too.

That is, until Cardinals pitcher Giovanny Gallegos had his hat confiscated on May 26, and manager Mike Schildt voiced his frustration with a situation that had been brewing in baseball for some time and brought it to the national discussion.

“I think it was bound to come out regardless,” Hendricks said. “Because as far as I know, from the start of the year, they’ve been taking baseballs and stuff like that, so I think they just needed a period to gather their info, and see what is really going on, and how bad is this, or what is the problem. And now they’ve gotten enough data, I think, where they realize now something needs to be done about it.”

How new rules would be enforced is still taking shape. Hendricks said he has heard it could be checks in the bullpen, clubhouse, or dugout between innings. Even if it involves in-game mound visits, the main concern for pitchers is that they know what to expect.

“As long as the rules were out there on what it was supposed to be, and this is what’s going to happen, and we know what to expect,” Hendricks said. “If we’re in the dark about it, and things are just being thrown at us, that’s different.”

Not much Chicago spin

The Cubs rank near the bottom of the league in average spin rate and velocity, but that’s of little concern to manager David Ross.

“I think we try to get people out,” Ross said. “I don’t correlate spin rate with outs. I know that it helps. Our guys get outs. I don’t care how hard they throw or what their spin rate is. I like outs.”

Javy reinjured thumb

Javy Baez was a late scratch from Sunday’s lineup. He re-aggravated his right thumb, likely diving for a foul ball in Saturday’s game. Issues with his right thumb kept Baez out of all three games in San Diego June 7-9.

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