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This offseason, the Chicago Bears took an unorthodox method to becoming a better football team. It started with general manager Ryan Pace looking as though he was going to rip apart this roster. Cutting an All Pro cornerback in Kyle Fuller was not a move that resonated well with fans, and it almost looked like […]

Chicago Bears: 5 potential surprise veteran cuts to pursue – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & More

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Under the name Colleen, French composer and multi-instrumentalist Cécile Schott has spent the past two decades traversing musical styles: She explored hypnagogic looped samples on her 2003 debut, Everyone Alive Wants Answers, dulcet folktronica on 2005’s The Golden Morning Breaks, and chamber-music ambience on 2007’s Les Ondes Silencieuses. Schott’s work is consistent in its arresting simplicity, but her pieces aren’t so much minimal as they are featherlight.…Read More

If four-on-the-floor club music doesn’t move you, try Dengue Dengue Dengue’s omnivorous tropical fusion.

When the Reader’s music staff launched the Listener almost a year ago, we hoped that you, the great reading public, might come to see it as a weekly way to hear from your imaginary friends who always have a new band or record they’re excited to tell you about.…Read More

DEAR ABBY: I am an active 90-year-old grandmother who every year treats my family to a week’s vacation at a beach house. We have a lovely time together.

Two years ago, my grown son, “Robert,” brought his girlfriend, “Gennifer,” and her teenage son, “Jackson.” After the trip I was shocked to hear Jackson had killed the family kittens “to see how it felt.” I was horrified, but knowing he was in therapy, I eventually agreed to allow him to join us on the trip last year.

We are now looking forward to our trip this summer. However, it was recently mentioned that Jackson has been hearing voices instructing him to kill a human. While I am sympathetic to his mental illness, I am extremely frightened for myself and for other family members who are coming. I do not want Jackson to come this year.

I am concerned that if I approach the subject with Robert, he will be upset and I will lose all contact with him. Because he lives out of state, our visits are limited as it is. Please help me, because the trip is in about four weeks. — SLEEPLESS SEASIDE

DEAR SLEEPLESS: Clearly, Jackson is seriously disturbed. Because you are fearful that you or some other family member could be hurt — or worse — talk to your son about it. That boy’s mother should not take him anywhere without first clearing it with his psychiatrist. You should not be expected to entertain him as a houseguest unless you can be assured that he won’t present a danger to himself or to others.

DEAR ABBY: I’m pleased and proud that so many people fly our American flag. However, it makes me sad and angry when I see flags that are torn and tattered. People, please. If your flag is in bad shape, take it down and dispose of it properly. Many organizations, police departments, fire departments, Girl and Boy Scouts, the VFW and American Legion collect worn and damaged flags and hold proper disposal ceremonies. Abby, please remind your readers who are proud of our country to be respectful of our flag. — FLAG WAVER IN INDIANA

DEAR FLAG WAVER: There are rules for appropriately displaying and disposing of our American flag, some of which proud Americans either choose to break or are ignorant about. (One that comes to mind addresses wearing clothing such as T-shirts, bathing suits — and face masks — bearing the likeness of the flag.) Many American Legion posts hold ceremonies once a year so people can dispose of flags that have “seen better days.” For those who are interested in learning more, and there is plenty more to learn, go online and type in a search for “U.S. flag code.”

DEAR ABBY: Should a spouse stay in a marriage with minor children involved if they have fallen out of love and are no longer sexually attracted to their spouse? — JUST WONDERING IN CALIFORNIA

DEAR JUST WONDERING: I don’t think so, because under those circumstances, the relationship is likely at some point to implode. The important issue is that the children be provided for financially and co-parented by two loving, supportive adults who can function as a team, even if they are living apart.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Abby shares more than 100 of her favorite recipes in two booklets: “Abby’s Favorite Recipes” and “More Favorite Recipes by Dear Abby.” Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $16 (U.S. funds), to: Dear Abby, Cookbooklet Set, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

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Five people were killed and at least 53 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago over the weekend, including an 11-year-old girl who was shot Sunday night in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side.

Witnesses told officers someone opened fire from a red car about 9 p.m. in the 11700 block of South Michigan, according to Chicago police. The girl was hit in the lower back, police said. A family member drove her to Roseland Community Hospital, where she was listed in serious condition.

On Sunday morning, eight people who were wounded after two gunmen opened fire in Burnside on the South Side.

The group was standing on the sidewalk about 4 a.m. when two people in a silver car opened fire in the 8900 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, police and Fire officials said.

A 33-year-old man was shot in the chest, police said. Another man, 28, was struck in the leg.

Two men, both 31, were also shot, police said. One was struck in the buttocks and the other was shot in the back and leg. Two other men, 28 and 29, were hit in the back, police said.

A 32-year-old woman suffered a graze wound to the head while another woman, 38, was shot in in the leg, police said.

Six of the victims were taken in critical condition to hospitals, fire officials said. Two others were transported in good condition. They were taken to Stroger Hospital, the University of Chicago Medical Center and Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to fire officials.

Fatal shootings:

— A man was killed in West Englewood Saturday on the South Side. The 26-year-old was on the street about 4:50 p.m. in the 6400 block of South Hoyne Avenue when someone fired shots from a vehicle, Chicago police said.

The man was struck in the chest, hip and neck, police said. He was pronounced dead at Holy Cross Hospital.

— Earlier, a man was killed and another wounded in a shooting in Austin on the West Side. Officers found Gerald Collymore, 39, unresponsive about 1:30 a.m. with gunshot wounds to his head and chest in the 1300 block of North Mayfield Avenue, police said. He was pronounced dead the scene.

A 26-year-old man was hit in the ankle and went to West Suburban Hospital. He was transferred to Loyola University Medical Center, where he was in fair condition, police said.

— On Friday, a man was killed in another shooting in Austin, police said. Michael Cooper was in a backyard in the 5200 block of West Le Moyne Street when someone approached and opened fire about 7:25 p.m., striking him in the head, authorities said. The 23-year-old was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

— A man was fatally shot in West Englewood on the South Side, police said. Jermaine Sanders, 27, was on the sidewalk in the 5600 block of South Marshfield Avenue about 9:20 p.m. Friday when someone fired from a white sedan, authorities said. He was struck in the head and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

— Less than an hour later, a man was found fatally shot in University Village on the Near West Side. Latrell Goodwin, 24, was found with gunshot wounds to his head and chest in a car about 10 p.m. in the 1300 block of West Roosevelt Road, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

At least 43 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago between 5 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday.

Thirty-seven people were shot, three fatally, last week over Memorial Day weekend.

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A drive-by shooting left an 11-year-old girl seriously wounded Sunday night in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side.

Witnesses told police someone opened fire from a red car about 9 p.m. in the 11700 block of South Michigan, according to Chicago police. The girl was hit once in the lower back and a family member drove her to Roseland Community Hospital, where she was listed in serious condition.

She was among more than 50 people hit by gunfire over the weekend across Chicago.

Officers taped off the intersection of 117th place and Michigan Avenue. A handful of evidence markers littered the road.

Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Ashley Santiago said she was enjoying the night breeze in her car in front of her home when she saw a woman walking down Michigan with her kids. Suddenly, she heard gunshots.

“They just went off. I ducked down in my car and I was like, ‘That’s not fireworks,’ ” she said. “I heard someone got shot, and I thought, ‘I hope it’s not the lady that I just seen with the kids.’ “

Ashley’s aunt, Alexandra Santiago, said she heard the shots from inside their home. She told her young children to get away from the windows and get on the floor.

The women say shootings in the area are “an everyday thing, without fail. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is.”

Alexandra Santiago said the violence in the area concerns her greatly, not only for herself, but for her loved ones.

“I worry for my mom. When I step out or go to work, I worry for myself. These are our windows right here,” she said. “We’re all the time throwing ourselves down, saying, ‘Go into the other room, go into the dining room.’ ”

The two mothers lamented not being able to let their children out to play whenever they want.

“We can’t really let our kids come out and come play because stuff like this is happening,” Ashley Santiago said.

No one was in custody for the shooting.

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Chicago Bulls: 3 players that could heavily impact 2021 offseason by Ryan Heckman

A few days ago, you couldn’t turn around on the internet Chicago White Sox Twitter without seeing some sort of “on this day in history!” when it came to the trade that sent Fernando Tatis Jr. to the Padres back in 2016. A then 17-year-old Tatis Jr. was shipped over to San Diego so the Sox could milk the few possibly decent seasons out of James Shields’ right arm. It did not work out very well as the White Sox continually found themselves in baseball purgatory in the latter part of the 2010s.

The Chicago White Sox don’t really need Fernando Tatis Jr. anymore and that is good.

Trades like this are infamous throughout baseball history with countless famous All-Stars like Jeff Bagwell, Pedro Martinez, and Kenny Lofton being brought up seemingly every trade deadline as a stark reminder. Locally, the Chicago Cubs grabbing Aramis Ramirez in 2003 for some spare parts that were sent to the Pirates and even netting Kyle Hendricks as part of the Ryan Dempster deal in 2012.

The Cubs were so desperate to make any move in 2013 that they sent Scott Feldman along with backup catcher Steve Clevinger to the Baltimore Orioles for Pedro Strop and some middling starting pitcher named Jake Arrietta.

Even deals between the two teams like Jose Quintana for Dylan Cease and Eloy Jimenez will be weighed back and forth for the rest of the decade. You can’t really put a stamp on “who won” these types of deals but it still looks like the White Sox have a slight edge, especially if Cease pans out. Quintana did all right in a Cubs uniform but never quite had the results he did on the South Side.

It isn’t fair to handcuff the White Sox about the Shields deal. Yes, there wasn’t much left in his arm but it would not have mattered with the team record during those few seasons. The team had also not quite built up the armada of international prospects like Luis Robert and or high draft picks like Andrew Vaughn or Nick Madrigal. With Chris Sale’s litany of arm injuries, in a few years, the White Sox may have very well have had their own reverse version of the Shields deal seeing how well Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech have been playing.

Hot: Anthony Rizzo and Willson Contreras have words over the weekend

Lastly, even though it is sad to see Tatis Jr. put up All-Star numbers, nobody could have predicted that explosion. More importantly, it doesn’t financially handcuff the White Sox for the rest of the decade. They are getting really good production from their left side of the infield in Yoan Moncada and Tim Anderson for a third of the price. That leaves tremendous flexibility to be able to acquire better talent and lock up their own for cheap. Having one of the best records in baseball is a testament to that.

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Six men and two women were hurt early Sunday after two suspects opened fire in the 8900 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue.

Five people were killed and at least 53 others wounded in shootings across Chicago since Friday night, including an 11-year-old girl who was shot Sunday night in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side.

Witnesses told police someone opened fire from a red vehicle about 9 p.m. in the 11700 block of South Michigan, according to Chicago police. The girl was hit in the lower back, police said. A family member drove her to Roseland Community Hospital, where she was listed in serious condition.

Sunday morning, eight people who were hurt after two suspects opened fire in Burnside on the South Side.

The group was standing in the sidewalk about 4 a.m. when two people inside a silver-colored car opened fire in the 8900 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, police and Fire officials said.

A 33-year-old man was shot in the chest, police said. Another man, 28, was struck in the leg.

Two men, both 31, were also shot, police said. One was struck in the buttocks and the other was shot in the back and leg. Another two men, 28 and 29, were struck in the back, police said.

A 32-year-old woman suffered a graze wound to the head while another, 38, was shot in in the leg, police said.

Six of the gunshot victims were taken in critical condition to hospitals in the area, fire officials said. Two others were transported in good condition. All gunshot victims were taken to Stroger Hospital, the University of Chicago Medical Center and Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to fire officials.

In the most recent fatal attack, a man was killed in West Englewood Saturday on the South Side.

The 26-year-old was on the street about 4:50 p.m. in the 6400 block of South Hoyne Avenue when someone fired shots from a vehicle, Chicago police said.

The man was struck in the chest, hip and neck, police said. He was pronounced dead at Holy Cross Hospital.

Earlier, a man was killed and another wounded in a shooting in Austin on the West Side.

Officers found a man unresponsive about 1:30 a.m. with gunshot wounds to his head and chest in the 1300 block of North Mayfield Avenue, police said. He was pronounced dead the scene.

He was identified as Gerald Collymore, 39, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Another man was also hurt in the shooting. The 26-year-old was shot in the ankle and self-transported to West Suburban Hospital. He was later transferred to Loyola University Medical Center, where he was in fair condition, police said.

Earlier Friday, a man was killed in another shooting in Austin, police said.

Michael Cooper was in a backyard about 7:25 p.m. in the 5200 block of West Le Moyne Street when someone approached and opened fire, striking him in the head, authorities said.

The 23-year-old was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

In another incident, a man was fatally shot in West Englewood on the South Side, police said.

Jermaine Sanders, 27, was on the sidewalk about 9:20 p.m. in the 5600 block of South Marshfield Avenue when someone fired shots at him from a white sedan, authorities said.

The man was struck in the head and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Less than an hour later, a man was found fatally shot in University Village on the Near West Side.

Latrell Goodwin, 24, was found unresponsive with gunshot wounds to his head and chest in a vehicle about 10 p.m. in the 1300 block of West Roosevelt Road, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

At least 43 others were hurt in citywide shootings between 5 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday.

Thirty-seven people were shot, three fatally, last week over Memorial Day weekend.

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The profit came out of $91.6 million in meter revenue in 2020, down 33% from the year before, a new audit shows. With 62 years to go on a 75-year lease, the private company has already recouped its entire $1.16 billion investment and $500 million more.

Chicago parking meter revenues should bounce back to pre-pandemic levels and then some as the city roars back to life and installs hundreds of new meters in Montrose Harbor and busy neighborhood streets tied to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2021 budget.

But even before that comeback, private investors who leased Chicago’s parking meters managed to survive the darkest days of the pandemic and still make a $13 million profit.

Even as many city residents kept their cars close to home as they worked remotely, Chicago’s parking meter system generated $91.6 million in revenue in 2020, a new audit shows. That’s only down 33% from the $138 million the year before.

With 62 years to go on the 75-year lease, Chicago Parking Meters LLC has already recouped its entire $1.16 billion investment and $500 million more.

What’s more, four underground city-owned parking garages took in $16.2 million, down from $34.8 million in 2019. Thanks to another increase in tolls, the privatized Chicago Skyway generated $84.8 million, down just 7.8% from $92 million the year before, separate audits of those assets show.

Not a penny of those revenues went to ease the burden on Chicago taxpayers forced to absorb a $94 million property tax increase in 2021 and annual increases after that tied to the consumer price index.

That’s because all three assets were unloaded by former Mayor Richard M. Daley, who used the money to avoid raising property taxes while city employee pension funds sunk deeper in the hole.

Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Deal dates to 2008

Of the three deals, the 2008 parking meter deal has been the biggest political nightmare for the two mayors who inherited it and for Chicago aldermen who gave it lightning-fast approval.

There were steep rate hikes initially, including to park downtown, which went from $3 an hour in 2008 to $6.50 an hour in 2013. Those meters are now $7 an hour.

Motorists were initially so incensed by the rate hikes, they vandalized and boycotted meters, leading to a dramatic drop in on-street parking. Revenues recovered until the pandemic.

The latest financial report by KPMG provides even more proof of how great the deal was for the private investors who hail from as far away as Abu Dhabi.

Although Chicago Parking Meters LLC lost a third of its annual revenue last year, the system still generated enough money to spin off a $13 million distribution to investors. The revenue total was way higher than the $23.8 million in meter payments in 2008, the year before CPM took over the system.

The company’s operating costs dropped during the pandemic — from $7.3 million to $4.7 million. And investors were able to recoup another $6.8 million through a provision of the contract that requires the city to reimburse investors for every space taken out of service.

That’s in part because throughout the pandemic, the city has closed streets and taken scores of meters out of service to allow restaurants to serve customers outside after they were forced to stop serving patrons indoors during the height of the pandemic.

Still, it’s less than those “true-up payments” were before, like in 2012, when they added nearly $27 million to the meter company’s bottom line before then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel was able to tweak the fine print in 2013.

Rich Hein/Sun-Times

$2.1 billion and counting

Factoring in the newly reported figure for 2020, private investors have already extracted $2.1 billion from the deal, in part by refinancing three times. The latest refinancing — for $1.2 billion — was completed in 2019.

If, as expected, parking revenues return to $100 million-a-year levels, the company should end up making nearly six times more than investors put in.

Results of the latest audits were provided to the Chicago Sun-Times by attorney Clint Krislov. As the director of IIT Chicago-Kent’s Center for Open Government Law Clinic, Krislov has reviewed dozens of transactions to date and provides an annual analysis of each year’s results.

“People looking for fast cash usually get a bad deal — and they did get a bad deal on all three of these,” Krislov said Friday.

“These sales of assets have already cost the city $5 billion to this point and will, over the course of the deals, deprive the city of two or three times that. Cash the city needs and could have had for itself. That’s the most infuriating part. The city could have hired the same people to do this for them and financed the improvements itself.”

Skyway deal worse, lawyer says

Although the parking meter lease is the deal aldermen and their constituents love to hate, Krislov argued it “pales by comparison” to the Skyway deal.

A decade after investors gave the city more than $1.83 billion to lease the Skyway for 99 years, the rights to run the privatized highway and pocket escalating tolls were sold to a consortium of three Canadian pension plan for $1 billion more than the original price.

“That was a $1 billion profit over 10 years that the city would have had,” Krislov said.

“They’re making a 23% annual return on their initial investment. And that has 85 years to go.”

Krislov tried to get the meter and garage deals declared illegal on grounds the city can’t legally sell the public way.

He further claimed the garage deal both restricted development in the Loop and subjected the city to giant penalty payments, like the $62 million the city spent to compensate the owners of the Millennium Park and Grant Park garages for allowing the Aqua building, 225 N. Columbus Dr., to open a competing garage.

Both lawsuits were thrown out after the Emanuel administration defended the deals.

Shortly before taking office, then-Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot vowed to take a fresh look at the parking meter deal and try to find some way to either break the lease, shorten it or sweeten the sour terms for taxpayers.

She called it a “burr under your saddle” that “keeps rubbing and rubbing,” but her administration has since done nothing to remove it.

Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

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