Engel homers, Abreu delivers pair of RBI doubles as White Sox win series, improve to 38-24

Dallas Keuchel shook off a mental blunder by third baseman Yoan Moncada, pitching six innings of two-run ball against a tough Blue Jays lineup, and the Sox responded to a sloppy loss the night before and news that Nick Madrigal will be out for an extensive time by pouncing on the Blue Jays with three runs in the first inning en route to a 5-2 victory Thursday at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Yasmani Grandal and Adam Engel homered, Jose Abreu had an RBI double in the first against left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu and another double in the eighth for his 48^th RBI, and relievers Evan Marshall, Codi Heuer and Liam Hendriks (AL leading 16^th save) each pitched a scoreless inning to help the Sox (38-24) take a series win over a 31-29 team.

“More fun than anything, especially when you’re good and know you can win night in and night out,” Keuchel said. “That’s where we’re at. Against a tough lineup, we need these types of games to push us to October.”

Keuchel retired the first eight batters he faced and notched a season-high eight strikeouts but had to work extra because Moncada thought there were two outs when Randal Grichuk hit a double play ground ball at him in the sixth inning. Instead of throwing to second, Moncada threw to first to retire Grichuk, then took a couple steps toward the Sox dugout.

Noticeably perturbed, Keuchel gave up an RBI single to Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

“If I would make a mistake, I would hope somebody would get on me,” Keuchel said. “He’s a good enough player, he knows what happened. Hopefully he won’t make that mistake again.”

Keuchel said he also was “very frustrated” with himself for giving up a single to Gurriel.

Yermin Mercedes, batting second for the first time in one of Nick Madrigal’s customary spots in his return to the lineup after a day on the bench, had two hits including a double in the first.

Keuchel (5-1, 4.14 ERA) allowed two runs on six hits and two walks.

“He made some hellacious pitches to shut them down,” manager Tony La Russa said. “It was artistic, really.

“It was a really important win base on what happened yesterday, that was a tough day.”

Kopech update

Right-hander Michael Kopech, who hasn’t pitched since May 26 because of a hamstring strain will resume throwing bullpens “in the coming days” and possibly a sim game, general manager Rick Hahn said.

“We want to see how those go first before we decide whether it makes sense for him to go out on a rehab assignment or we’re able to get enough work done here to be able to just activate him back to the roster,” Hahn said. “So he’s making progress, and that’s the next phase that he’s moving into now.”

Rash of injuries

Nick Madrigal is the latest Sox to suffer a hamstring injury, joining Adam Engel, Tim Anderson, Michael Kopech and Billy Hamilton to be sidelined this season. And Luis Robert is out with a hip flexor strain.

The Sox aren’t the only team hit by the rash of soft tissue injuries but Hahn, chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, vice president Ken Williams and Sox sports performance personnel are examining internally what the causes might be.

“We don’t have any conclusions yet but it’s an extremely fair question,” Hahn said.

“It’s not just a White Sox problem per se,” Hahn said. “There also is the element of bad luck or bad clustered luck of these things piling on top of each other.”

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After offseason of unknowns, Cubs will be playing meaningful games this summer and will likely add at the trade deadline.

There was no telling how the Cubs’ front office would handle what was thought to be a “year of transition”. Following Theo Epstein’s departure, Jed Hoyer’s promotion to team president and the team’s superstars entering the regular season with no contract extensions, it appeared as if things were going to be drastically different in 2021.

Many were resigned to what was thought to be the fate of the team, blowing up what remained of their core and starting a rebuild. But what was going to happen at or near the July trade deadline was always going to be up to the team’s play on the field and being somewhere in the middle wasn’t going to make the decisions any easier.

But with a 35-27 record through 62 games and sitting atop the National League Central in a tie for first place with the Brewers, the Cubs have been pointing upward for over a month.

“I think we’re pretty damn good, yeah,” manager David Ross said last week. “I think these guys believe that. I think they know that.”

The Cubs entered this month playing some of the best baseball in the league before embarking on what was going to be a tough West Coast trip against the NL West-leading Giants and second-place Padres. The road trip didn’t start as planned, as the Cubs went 1-3 in San Francisco and after dropping the first game in San Diego, it didn’t look like they would have much luck.

But after winning the last two games against the Padres with a fraction of their lineup to finish the trip with a 3-4 record, they have to be returning to Wrigley Field this weekend feeling pretty good.

“It was a nice way to finish up [the road trip]. We know we got a lot of good teams in this stretch,” Ross said. “I think the goal every time you play a series is to get a win and try to win that series. That’s what we did here in San Diego. . . . That’s a nice finish after the way the road trip started.”

It’ll be interesting to see what happens over the next month as it appears that the Cubs’ superstars aren’t going to be on the move this season. And if the team isn’t looking to subtract from the roster, it makes adding the only real alternative. Increased capacities at Wrigley Field and improved revenues make possible additions more realistic.

“I don’t put any much thought into [rumors]. It’s wasted energy,” Kris Bryant said. “Whatever happens is going to happen. But, it’s cool to hear, when I’m running out to the outfield in Wrigley, all the fans saying they want me. It definitely makes me feel much better.”

“As far as flexibility, we’ve had these projections for a little bit and feel like we’re a bit ahead of schedule,” Hoyer said last month. “There’s definitely flexibility to make moves in-season if the right thing presents itself.”

All throughout baseball this season teams have had to navigate a barrage of injuries, and when it comes down to who will win the division, it’s who stays the healthiest will likely be a major deciding factor.

The Cubs and Brewers, who are tied for first place in the division, both have managed to stay afloat despite dealing with major injuries. The Cardinals, who start a three-game series next against the Cubs, have had injuries to their starting pitching and are in a downward spiral.

For the Cubs, the fact that they’ve been able to win consistently and do it against quality opponents without having their full lineup shouldn’t be ignored.

And while they’ve found success with the help of rookie sensation Patrick Wisdom’s red-hot June, some bounce-back performances from the starters and continued success of the bullpen, things won’t stop with a series against the Mets in New York and one with the Dodgers in Los Angeles before closing the month against the Brewers.

“I feel like we’re just starting, honestly,” Bryant said. “We kind of just started and then we were done [in 2020]. Last year was a completely different situation than we have right now. It’s cool to compare the two and realize that, ‘Hey, we still have over 100 more games.’ ”

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Tyrese Taylor is the 11th child aged 15 and younger to be gunned down in Chicago this year.

As his family packed to move to a safer place in the suburbs, a 14-year-old boy was shot and killed in Lawndale on the West Side Thursday afternoon.

The teen was shot several times around 1:45 p.m. on a sidewalk in the 1100 block of South Karlov Avenue, not far from a U-Haul van the family had been loading.

The boy was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and pronounced dead, police said.

He was identified as Tyrese Taylor by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

No one was in custody.

Police taped off the U-Haul moving truck, next to Frazier International Magnet Elementary School, as they worked the scene late into the afternoon.

The boy’s mother was moving the family to the suburbs to let him live in a calmer environment, according to a neighbor who said he knew the teen well.

Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

“He was a good kid. Sometimes he got mixed up with the wrong crowd, but he was a good kid,” said the man, who asked not to be named.

The man said he saw a white car drive up and someone fire shots at the boy.

The boy’s aunt, Dorothy Taylor, said the boy “loved to game” on his XBox. She said he was smart and went to Webster Elementary, a block north of where the shooting happened.

The boy had three sisters and five brothers, she said. “He was the baby.”

Ten other children aged 15 or younger have been shot dead so far this year, according to Sun-Times records. That’s more than the number killed in all of 2019.

The most recent fatal shooting of a child happened June 2 in Back of the Yards on the South Side. Savanah Quintero, 14, was shot in the head after three young gang members asked which gang she was affiliated with. After she said she wasn’t, the attackers chased her and opened fire.

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

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Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Bronzeville is among five Black South Side parishes set to close at month’s end. It merges with four other churches into one new Our Lady of Africa parish.

When Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Bronzeville — and four sister Black Catholic churches on the South Side — close at month’s end, a chapter in the history of Black Catholics in Chicago closes with them.

Corpus Christi, at 4920 S. King Drive, along with St. Ambrose, St. Anselm, St Elizabeth and Holy Angels churches, will merge July 1 into one new “Our Lady of Africa” parish, under the Archdiocese of Chicago’s “Renew My Church” initiative, ongoing since 2018.

Under Renew My Church, struggling churches and schools are being closed or consolidated, to cut costs for aging infrastructure, as well as to address a priest shortage.

And while many parishes continue to struggle with challenges from the changing demographics of Catholic mass and school attendance, the sense of loss from closings and consolidations remains the same. Optimism is a seed that struggles to sprout.

“Some are resigned to the change. Some are sad. Some are mad about it, and feel like, ‘Could this not have been prevented?’ So the emotions of parishioners flow all over the place,” said Corpus Christi’s pastor, the Rev. Edmund Nnadozie.

“And I respect all those emotions. That to me is how it should be when you are talking about a church that has been here more than 120 years. There’s a whole lot of history tied up here, so it’s going to take time for people to get over it. As for me, I’m at peace with it.”

This Sunday, the church will host a parish reunion mass, and RSVP phone calls and emails from current and former parishioners have been flying for one of three masses until closing.

Courtesy of Corpus Christi

“We call it our celebratory mass. It’s not the last mass in the parish. That will be the 27^th. But what we’re celebrating, really, is us. It’s the opportunity to come and to cry and to laugh, you know, and share memories, all of that,” said Nnadozie, pastor since October 2019, and a member of the Houston-based Missionaries of St. Paul, founded in Nigeria.

“We’ll still have two more Sundays to come back and worship and have a last look, if you will. We have a a lot of people calling in about this Sunday. And I tell you, if all those people do indeed come to that service, I just hope we have enough space.”

Fortunately, the sanctuary will be able to welcome well wishers at capacity Sunday, following Friday’s full reopening of both Chicago and the rest of Illinois, based on continued improvement in COVID-19 metrics and vaccine uptake.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

In the pews Sunday will be the Williams family, part of the parish for 70 years.

Eleven siblings of parents who came up during the Great Migration — the matriarch from Rosehill, Mississippi, the patriarch from Baton Rouge, Louisiana — the family has celebrated dozens of baptisms, weddings, funerals, Holy Communions and confirmations here.

“I’m the youngest. My parents were very spiritually rooted people. And it’s just been a love affair with God and a love affair with the Catholic Church, and a cherished relationship with the Franciscan sisters and priests who ran the church and school over the years,” said Anthony Williams, 60, of Washington Park.

A brother still lives at the home they grew up in at 47th & Langley. And just two Sundays ago, two great-grandchildren, fifth generation, became the last Williams family members to be baptized here — following the lead of over 40 family members before them.

Ivy Hall

“My daughter lives in Columbia, Ohio, and she decided to get her daughter baptized here before it closed, because she was baptized here,” said one of the sisters, Katie Williams Hall.

“She then convinced her cousin, who also was baptized here and who had had her oldest child baptized here, to do a joint baptism of her younger child. It was very bittersweet.”

This year alone has brought consolidation of 13 churches and five schools in Rogers Park, Edgewater, Jefferson Park, Portage Park, Avondale and Old Irving Park, with more planned as the archdiocese continues to assess the future of its 344 Chicago-area churches.

The new parish serving the five South Side churches will be sited at the current Holy Angels, 615 E Oakwood Blvd. It’s the newest structure among them, rebuilt in the wake of a 1986 fire that gutted the home of the famed, late priest George Clements.

St. Ambrose is located at 1012 E 47th St., St. Anselm at 6045 S Michigan Ave., and St. Elizabeth at 50 E. 41st St.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

A church closing reverberates beyond its community. Corpus Christi, for example, plays host to a bimonthly mass for Chicago’s citywide Nigerian community, in their language, followed by a potluck in the church’s huge social hall.

“There’s some anxiety there. They’re feeling, ‘What’s going to happen to us?’ And I’m not sure that is resolved. They still have to find their ground, and when you’re stepping into a new place, there’s the question of, ‘How will I be received?’” Nnadozie said.

“But they already know they need to find a space. They will go to that new place and make it a home, and hopefully it will work out. It always does,” he said.

Parishioner Larry Cope, 61, of The Gap neighborhood, agrees with his pastor on the inevitability.

The Cope family has been members since his parents came up in the Great Migration to live with aunts who owned a greystone at 45th & Prairie, chopped up into kitchenette apartments, as was the norm in what was then known as the Black Belt.

Like all 11 Williams siblings, Cope and his four brothers and sisters all attended Corpus Christi Elementary, now long shuttered. And all siblings went on to attend Catholic high schools, the boys matriculating to Hales Franciscan High, run by the same order.

Courtesy of Corpus Christi

“Three of us remain members of the church. My wife and I were married here, and I’m actively involved in the parish council,” Cope said.

“Whenever you close a church, it’s like a death in the family. But I have prepared myself for this eventuality, because the writing was on the wall. We had low membership. We had debt and we had an aging church, which costs so much money just to maintain and repair.”

So there’s the resignation.

The seed of optimism must follow. The new church opens July 1.

“I have to remind people over and over that what we are closing is the structure, not the church. The structure can go down, but the people of God keep on moving,” Nnadozie said.

“Just as I told those gathered at the last baptism of Williams family, we thank God that we are receiving this last one into this structure, but we hope it’s not the last we will receive into the house of God.”

Ivy Hall

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Samantha Cerrone, a sophomore at New Trier High School, decided to walk along the Purple Line tracks with a friend

A 16-year-old girl, out for a walk with a friend during a sleepover, died after falling on the electrified third rail along CTA tracks in Evanston early Wednesday.

Samantha Cerrone, an incoming junior at New Trier High School, stumbled and fell just north of the Central Street station around 2:30 a.m., according to Evanston Police Cmdr. Ryan Glew.

Cerrone, of Winnetka, was taken by paramedics across the street to Evanston Hospital, where she was pronounced dead nearly an hour later, Glew and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Cerrone had a friend sleeping over when the two decided to walk along the Purple Line tracks early in the morning, Glew said. They started near Isabella Street, where the tracks are at ground level, he said.

After Cerrone fell, her friend tried to pull her off the third rail and suffered minor injuries, Glew said.

Autopsy results have not been released.

An online obituary for Cerrone notes that she “lived to not be ordinary and encouraged others to have the confidence to do the same.

“She loved music and self-expression. A true goal setter. She was an advocate for others and had an impactful spirit across all age groups,” her obituary reads. “Samantha valued her time and strived to live life to the fullest each day. She will forever be missed by all that knew her.”

New Trier Winnetka Campus Principal Denise Dubravec announced the death to students and staff in an email Wednesday.

“It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that one of our students, sophomore Samantha Cerrone, has passed away following a tragic accident,” Dubravec wrote.

“Our thoughts, prayers, and love go out to her parents and all of her friends and family during this extraordinarily difficult time,” she said.

Greg Hartman, Cerrone’s club swim coach, described her as a tough competitor with an “electric smile” and a “quirky sense of humor.”

“She really did a good job embracing her friends and made a couple very close friends on this program that were directly impacted by her death,” Hartman said. “As a community, we’re trying to rally with this because we know that Samantha valued that so much.”

Though Hartman only coached Cerrone for the past couple years, they forged a close bond. “I feel like I lost one of my own,” he said.

Hartman said flowers are now being laid close to her home “to honor her and the life that once was.”

A visitation is scheduled for Saturday at Donnellan Family Funeral Home in Skokie. Cerrone’s obituary notes that “an act of kindness towards one another is requested each day in Samantha’s memory.”

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With Nick Madrigal’s serious hamstring injury that landed him on the 60-day disabled list Thursday, one third of what was supposed to be the Sox’ Opening Day lineup will miss most of the season.

How much more can the White Sox withstand?

With Nick Madrigal’s serious hamstring injury that landed him on the 60-day disabled list Thursday, one third of what was supposed to be the Sox’ Opening Day lineup will miss most of the season.

Somehow, some way the Sox have maintained their grip on first place in a very winnable American League Central and are, in the view of many, the team to beat in the entire AL.

But Madrigal’s loss will be felt. He was playing his best baseball of the season and “is a big, big part of our club,” manager Tony La Russa said.

If the Sox do meet their goal of getting to the World Series they might have to get there without the two-strike hitting master who swings “a magic wand” as La Russa puts it, but won’t be able to use it because of a proximal right hamstring tear.

With a complete tear of a tendon connected to the hamstring and a partial tear of another tendon, season-ending surgery is possible. It will be a week before a path to Madrigal’s recovery can be determined.

“We’re exploring options,” Hahn said.

Outfielder Brian Goodwin was called up from Triple-A Charlotte, which will allow outfielder-infielder Leury Garcia to play more second base. Danny Mendick played second in Thursday’s game against the Blue Jays, and the pair will split time, La Russa said.

Hahn will also explore trade options. The Pirates’ Adam Frazier, the Rangers’ Brock Holt and Tigers’ Jonathan Schoop are just three names that could be available from teams in sell mode as the July 31 trade deadline approaches. Hahn would have been in talks to improve the team anyway, but Madrigal’s injury shifts the focus to new area of need.

“It’s June 10,” Hahn said. “This is still a little bit early for things to be getting done, but the talks will become a little more focused here.

“We could well have an interesting next few months leading up to the trade deadline.”

Madrigal’s is the latest in a series of impactful injury blows to the Sox, who are playing without left fielder Eloy Jimenez (torn pectoral muscle), center fielder Luis Robert (hip flexor strain) for most of the season. Getting them healthy and sharp in time for the postseason is a possibility that keeps the Sox in good stead.

“Their trajectories are both good and we remain optimistic on both returning at some point this year,” Hahn said.

With neither cleared for baseball activities yet and several weeks away from rehab assignments, late August or September are the most optimistic return projections, however.

“Only when they are headed for a rehab assignment am I going to give a satisfying answer when can we expect them back,” Hahn said.

In the meantime, the Sox trudge along in first place with a four-game lead in their division entering Thursday.

“What we’re dealing with is a first place team that has overcome numerous challenges already this season,” Hahn said.

“We’ve proven we can handle it,”La Russa said. “Play as hard as we can and as good as we can with the guys we have.”

Even without Jimenez and Robert, the Sox rank second in the majors in weighted runs created. Their starting pitchers led the majors with a 2.98 ERA and the bullpen ranks among the best.

Put it all together and you have a Sox team that, at 37-24 through Wednesday, was off to its best start since 2006 (38-23).

Plowing ahead without Madrigal, a No. 4 overall draft pick in 2018 who was batting .305/.349./425 and playing his best baseball of the season offensively and defensively, presents the next challenge.

Madrigal was batting .359/.412/.551 with nine extra-base hits and 10 RBI over his last 21 games before he got hurt running out a ground ball.

“Never give in, never give up,” La Russa said. “Look at the lineup today, that’s a quality starting lineup. Quality starting pitcher, quality bullpen. I’m really more concerned about somebody who enjoys the game so much who’s not playing. Same thing with Eloy and Luis and to a lesser extent Michael [Kopech]. It’s harder on them than us.”

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Last year, Luis Centeno remembered, he thought a weeklong shutdown of his gym was a good thing if it meant saving lives and mitigating the spread of COVID-19.

“Everyone thought it was going to be just a one-or-three-week lockdown. Then it turned into a month. Then, almost a-year-and-a-half later, and we are just barely coming out of it,” said Centeno, founder of Fit Results.

On Friday, Chicago will end a year of restrictions on crowd size, indoor gatherings and the like caused by a global pandemic which has claimed millions of lives, including nearly 600,000 in the United States.

But reopening doesn’t mean an end of the pandemic or a complete return to normal. Artifacts of a pandemic world will remain, such as mask-wearing in certain settings, hand sanitizer pumps at business entrances or clear plastic guards in separating customers from store cashiers. But it will mean people can freely gather en masse.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said moving to unrestricted crowd size should be welcomed as a sign of the sacrifices made to keep people safe. It was time, she said, to rebuild and support the local economy.

“Our city cannot fully bounce back from the pandemic until the cultural, retail and financial engines that power our economy are able to return at full capacity,” Lightfoot said Thursday.

Closing streets to keep businesses open

The city is taking every opportunity to celebrate the reopening.

On Thursday, it announced the Central City Recovery Roadmap to help revitalize downtown businesses. That includes working with private groups to boost foot traffic with occasional closings of Michigan Avenue, LaSalle Street and State Street.

“Meet me on the Mile,” is intended to lure residents and tourists to shop, dine and check out “Instagrammable” installations along the Magnificent Mile. “Lunch on LaSalle” will create pop-up dining for downtown workers, residents and visitors on the street with the iconic view of the Board of Trade building.

The previously-announced “Sundays on State” will close that street to vehicles, from Madison to Lake streets, for live music and other performances every Sunday, starting July 11.

Also, the city is partnering with museums to stay open late on Friday.

Opportunity Insights’ Economic Tracker has monitored the impact of COVID-19 on local economies since the pandemic began. It reported that at the end of May, the number of small businesses open in Chicago dropped by 40% since January 2020.

For Centeno, “it’s about time” the city ends those restrictions, because he’s seen businesses around him collapse. He is ready to return to how his gym operated before the pandemic, with packed workout classes.

“We aren’t ever getting rid of hand sanitizer and we have this full airflow system we installed and will keep using,” Centeno said. And he will still require customers to wear masks in his facility, “but if they show us their card that they’re vaccinated, then they don’t have to wear a mask.”

Mask-wearing, Centeno said, shouldn’t be stigmatized, since it is customary in many other countries.

Get the parties started

Gabriel Dellatorre, owner of Grand Terrace Banquets, 6010 W. Grand Ave., has hosted only three events over the last year, with quinceaneras and weddings on hold. His venue has two rooms — one holds 300 people, the other 200 — but those three parties were limited to just 40 people each.

“We are packing our space to capacity if we can and we are ready to do it safely,” Dellatorre said. “I am booked every week for the rest of the year, with most if not all of the events originally scheduled for 2020.”

“We need this badly. We need to make money,” Dellatorre said.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Humboldt Park restaurant owner Zoraida Rivera-Tanon said the reopening couldn’t come at a better time.

“We are going full capacity but we will keep the requirements for wearing a mask when not eating or drinking,” said Rivera-Tanon, who owns La Bruquena. “I’m really excited about this because it feels like New Year’s Eve for me. I’m anxious to see how things look after Friday.”

At churches, stores some changes will linger

Churches also will adjust, with limits on crowd size removed and many practices returning to normal.

The Archdiocese of Chicago announced churches will ease most restrictions, welcoming full-capacity Mass without a mask mandate for vaccinated people.

Parishioners can also begin receiving Holy Communion on the tongue again but wine still will not be shared from a cup. Hand sanitizer will still be available and its use will be encouraged.

Grocery shopping will change, as well.

At Jewel, for instance, shoppers will see the return of hot bars, wing bars and bakery items sold in bulk. Also returning are seating areas for those food bars and Starbucks locations in stores will also reopen.

Those floor decals promoting social distancing and one-way aisles also will be going away.

A staple of pandemic life that will remain at Jewel and likely at other stores are the sneeze guards separating cashiers from customers.

Not in a rush

But not every Chicago establishment is rushing to a full reopening.

Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center is in Hermosa, an area hard-hit by COVID-19 and one where at times, both infection rates and deaths led the city. The center promotes Latin American art but during the pandemic, it was used for COVID-19 testing and later as a vaccination site for the community.

“I can tell you, we are in no rush to fill our space,” said Omar Torres-Kortright, executive director of the center, 4046 W. Armitage Ave. “We appreciate the city giving us that option to do so but we want to make sure we are safe and putting the needs for the community first.”

Torres-Kortright said the center can hold over 230 people for theatrical shows, but this summer, he doesn’t expect more than 60 people will gather for any inside events. Their focus, he said, is providing a more intimate experience for indoor shows while putting together more outdoor shows and events.

“We have to work all this out still with our community to see what is best for everyone, so we aren’t rushing into anything,” Torres-Kortright said. “Maybe by the end of the summer, when we can no longer hold outdoor events and the pandemic is really behind us, we will revisit going back to normal.”

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Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has been a blight on the already-beleaguered U.S. Postal Service from the moment he took office a year ago this month.

The Trump appointee slowed mail delivery during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, then — in a bid move to help his boss’s re-election changes — yanked mail sorting equipment and refused to seek federal funding to help the postal service deal with the deluge of Democratic-leaning mail-in ballots expected in last November’s presidential election.

What followed was a disaster of delay, affecting both the election and Christmas season deliveries. A full third of first-class mail was late over the holidays, with packages piling up in distribution centers.

That alone, as we have argued before, should have been enough to send DeJoy packing. And now comes word the FBI is investigating DeJoy’s political fundraising activities at the North Carolina company he owned and operated before becoming postmaster general.

President Joe Biden lacks the legal authority to dismiss DeJoy. Only the postal service’s board of governors can do that. But in light of the FBI investigation — on top of everything else — getting rid of DeJoy is important enough that Biden should exercise the nuclear option that would allow him to appoint new governors committed to replacing DeJoy.

An FBI probe

The FBI is looking into allegations that current and past employees of New Breed Logistics, a now-defunct company once owned by DeJoy — a prolific GOP fundraiser — were reimbursed with on-the-job bonuses for donating to Republican candidates.

If proven true, that’s a federal crime. DeJoy has been subpoenaed by the FBI, and investigators are interviewing New Breed employees.

Through a spokesman, DeJoy denies any wrongdoing and is cooperating with the probe.

However, the allegations seem to fit a pattern. Last year, the Washington Post reported that New Breed employees said they had been encouraged by DeJoy or his associates to make political donations and attend fundraisers at his North Carolina home in return for bonuses or reimbursement from the company.

Given that DeJoy was unqualified to be postmaster general, his ownership and management of New Breed was used by his supporters and enablers to justify his appointment to lead the postal service. But now the agency is on fire, and it looks as if smoke is coming from his old company as well.

“For nearly a year, I have been clear that Postmaster General DeJoy would not be in his job if he worked for any other company,” U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, a DeJoy critic, said this week. “If these allegations are true and Postmaster General DeJoy violated campaign finance laws, he must resign immediately or the [postal service] board of governors must remove him.”

Housecleaning needed

But DeJoy is not likely to resign. “Get used to me,” DeJoy told his critics at a congressional hearing earlier this year.

And the postal governing board, which solely has the power to fire DeJoy, supports him.

“Right now, I think he’s the proper man for the job,” Board of Governors Chairman Ron Bloom, a Democrat appointed by Trump, told The Atlantic. “He’s earned my support, and he will have it until he doesn’t. And I have no particular reason to believe he will lose it.”

The Senate has approved three Biden nominees to fill vacancies on the board, but that’s not enough. Bloom and the five other board members who stood silent as DeJoy wreaked havoc over the past year should be out, too. Under law, they can be dumped for grave dereliction of duty; we would argue that allowing DeJoy’s actions would fall under that category.

And the first order of business for the new board should be to bring in a new postal service boss who has a better plan to improve the $4 billion agency.

Until then, we’re all stuck with a floundering and ineffectual postal service.

And one that will grow worse and more expensive to customers as long as DeJoy is in charge. The postmaster has unveiled a 10-year plan that includes raising postage costs and lengthening delivery times.

An absolute housecleaning is needed. And fast.

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A man who refused to wear a mask over his face on a CTA bus allegedly threatened to kill the driver before opening fire Tuesday evening on the Far South Side.

Fred White told the driver, “I’ll blow your f—— head off” as he was kicked off the bus in the 300 block of West 119th Street in West Pullman, Cook County prosecutors said Thursday.

White then fired three shots from a 9mm gun he had been carrying in a black plastic bag, striking the bus twice as it pulled away, Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin DeBoni said. He missed the driver and the only passenger on board.

The confrontation began around 10:50 p.m. when White, 38, boarded the bus without wearing a mask, DeBoni said. The driver asked White to put on a mask, and White allegedly took one out of his pocket and placed it near his face but didn’t cover his nose or mouth.

He said he would place it over his face after paying his fare, DeBoni said.

But he paid his fare and sat down near the driver, still without wearing the mask, DeBoni said. The driver and White continued arguing until the driver demanded he exit the bus.

When White stepped off the bus, he allegedly took out a handgun and opened fire. One bullet hit the front door of the bus and exited a window, lodging in a fence. Another shot hit the front door, DeBoni said. The third missed.

Police responded to a call of gunfire and found White nearby, DeBoni said. Officers allegedly saw him throw a 9mm handgun over a fence and arrested him. Three shell casings were recovered from a sidewalk.

The bus driver identified White as the shooter, and the shooting was captured by surveillance video, DeBoni said. White had a valid FOID and concealed carry license.

White has eight children, lives with his girlfriend in Chicago and is unemployed, his defense attorney said.

Judge Arthur Wesley Willis denied White bail on an attempted murder charge. White also has an ongoing aggravated DUI case from April.

White was expected in court again June 16.

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