The subpoena, served on the company in April, came to light this week after the media company filed documents in federal court asking a judge to quash the subpoena.

WASHINGTON — The FBI issued a subpoena demanding U.S. newspaper giant Gannett provide agents with information to track down readers of a USA Today story about a suspect in a child pornography case who fatally shot two FBI agents in February.

The subpoena, served on the company in April, came to light this week after the media company filed documents in federal court asking a judge to quash the subpoena. The Justice Department’s actions were immediately condemned by press freedom advocates.

The news comes as the Justice Department has disclosed in recent weeks that it seized the email and phone records of reporters in at least three separate instances during the Trump administration. It raises questions about what liberties federal authorities are taking in using news organizations, journalists and their work as investigative tools.

The subpoena asks for information about anyone who clicked on the article for a period of about 35 minutes on the day after the shooting. It seeks the IP addresses — which can sometimes be used to identify the location of a computer, the company or organization it belongs to, and where it was registered — along with mobile phone identification information of the readers.

While the subpoena doesn’t ask specifically for the names of those who read the story, such identification information could easily lead federal agents to the readers.

It is unclear why the FBI was seeking information about the USA Today story in particular, even though numerous others news organizations, including The Associated Press, had reported extensively on the Florida shooting, one of the bloodiest days in the FBI’s history.

The suspect opened fire on the agents when they arrived to serve a federal search warrant in a child exploitation case. The two agents, Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger, were killed and three others were wounded.

Maribel Perez Wadsworth, the publisher of USA Today and president of the USA Today Network, said the government wants the news organization to hand over “private information” about its readers and said it was fighting the subpoena to protect the relationship between its readers and journalists. The company also contacted the FBI before asking a judge to quash the subpoena but did not receive “any substantive reply nor any meaningful explanation of the asserted basis for the subpoena,” she said.

“We intend to fight the subpoena’s demand for identifying information about individuals who viewed the USA Today news report,” Wadsworth said in a statement. “Being forced to tell the government who reads what on our websites is a clear violation of the First Amendment.”

The FBI agent who signed the subpoena to Gannett has worked for years on child exploitation cases and has testified in several criminal cases related to child pornography offenses, newspaper accounts and other public records show.

The subpoena — first reported by Politico — says the information is needed as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Federal officials would not provide additional details about the investigation.

“This is an extraordinary demand that goes to the very heart of the First Amendment. For good reason, the courts have generally refused to give the government access to this kind of sensitive information except in the most unusual circumstances,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

The Justice Department in recent weeks disclosed that investigators secretly obtained call records of journalists at The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN in an effort to identify sources who provided national security information that was published in the early months of the Trump administration. President Joe Biden has said the Justice Department would not seize reporters’ phone records, though it remains unclear if that promise can be kept.

“This subpoena, especially when viewed alongside the subpoenas that the Justice Department served under the Trump administration in an effort to obtain journalists’ records, strongly suggests we need more robust protection for records that implicate the freedoms of speech and the press,” Jaffer said.

The Justice Department — in both Republican and Democratic administrations — has struggled to balance the media’s constitutionally protected rights against the government’s interests in safeguarding classified information and collecting information for criminal cases.

During a 2007 investigation, an FBI agent impersonated an Associated Press journalist while investigating bomb threats at a high school in Washington state. The agent portrayed himself as an AP journalist when he communicated with the suspect online and then sent a link to a fabricated AP news article that, when clicked, allowed the FBI to pinpoint the suspect’s location.

The ruse was made public in 2014 and two years later the FBI imposed restrictions on the ability of agents to masquerade as reporters — but it stopped short of ruling out the practice.

In 2013, federal investigators secretly seized two months of phone records for Associated Press reporters and editors that included 20 telephone lines of both AP offices and the journalists, including their home phones and cellphones.

After that, the Justice Department, under then-Attorney General Eric Holder, announced revised guidelines for leak investigations, which require additional levels of review before a journalist could be subpoenaed.

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Family and friends identified the man killed Thursday as Winston Boogie Smith Jr., a 32-year-old father of three.

MINNEAPOLIS — Authorities said Friday that a man wanted on a weapons violation fired a gun before deputies fatally shot him in Minneapolis, a city on edge since George Floyd’s death more than a year ago under an officer’s knee and the more recent fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright in a nearby suburb.

Family and friends identified the man killed Thursday as Winston Boogie Smith Jr., a 32-year-old father of three. Shelly Hopkins, who was in a longtime relationship with Smith, told The Associated Press that despite any mistakes Smith has made, he didn’t deserve to be killed.

“I wasn’t there.” she said of Thursday’s shooting. “I don’t know exactly what happened. But I know him. And he didn’t deserve that… He had the best heart out of anybody I’ve ever met in my life.”

Members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force were trying to arrest Smith on a warrant for allegedly being a felon in possession of a gun, authorities said. The Marshals Service said in a statement Thursday that Smith, who was in a parked vehicle, didn’t comply with law enforcement and “produced a handgun resulting in task force members firing upon the subject.”

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Friday that two sheriff’s deputies — one from Hennepin County and one from Ramsey County — fired their weapons, striking Smith. The state investigators also said evidence indicates Smith fired his gun, saying a handgun and spent cartridge were found inside the car.

Smith died at the scene. State investigators said Smith’s passenger, a 27-year-old woman, was treated for injuries from glass debris.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said the U.S Marshals Service does not allow body camera usage for officers on its North Star Fugitive Task Force and there is no squad camera footage of the shooting. But the U.S. Marshals Service said that while deputy marshals do not wear body cameras, the Department of Justice permits state, local and tribal task force officers to do so.

Waylon Hughes, a close friend of Smith, told reporters that Smith loved music, writing comedy skits and posting them on social media. Hughes said he didn’t know Smith to carry a gun, and Hopkins also said she didn’t know that he had one.

Family and friends called for the release of all footage from security and surveillance cameras in the area along with information about the officers involved. Department of Public Safety spokesman Bruce Gordon said no surveillance video has been identified, but authorities are still investigating.

“This man had a family, and he’s just like anybody else,” said Kidale Smith, Winston Smith’s brother. ”(People) always try to pin something on a man and try to identify him as a criminal, especially if he’s Black.”

Smith also questioned the police account of what happened.

“You’ve got seven unmarked cars and you shoot a man in his car. You don’t even give him a chance to get out… You’re the U.S. Marshals,” he said. “You’re supposed to be highly trained men, and you can’t handle a simple situation?”

According to online court records, Smith was wanted for allegedly being a felon in possession of a firearm in 2019.

The felony stems from a 2017 assault and robbery of Smith’s ex-girlfriend. Smith pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery for attacking his ex-girlfriend while another woman took her purse. Smith was sentenced to two years in prison, but the prison sentence was stayed for three years, provided he didn’t break the law.

With the felony conviction, Smith was barred from possessing a firearm. In December 2019, he was charged in Ramsey County with two counts of illegally possessing a firearm. According to the complaint, officers arrested Smith on a probation violation and found a handgun under the driver’s seat of the car he had been in earlier.

Smith was also charged with fleeing police in Hennepin County last year. According to the complaint in that case, officers in Bloomington began chasing Smith at a high speed, but stopped when he started driving the wrong way on a highway.

Hopkins said Smith was a spiritual man who prayed before every meal. “The two biggest things he cared about in this world was making people happy and being there for his kids,” she said.

Hopkins said she knew Smith had some court issues, but said police “tried to make a case against him that didn’t exist.” She said Smith had been harassed by police for years and had numerous cars impounded. She said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from his interactions with police.

After Thursday’s shooting, some people vandalized buildings and stole from area businesses, police said. Nine people were arrested on possible charges including suspicion of riot, assault, arson and damage to property. Graffiti reading “Mpls still hates cops” and “No trial for them” marked the building next to the parking ramp where Smith was shot.

There has been tension between police and residents since the deaths of Floyd, a Black man who died last year after he was pinned to the ground by Minneapolis officers, and Wright, a Black motorist who was fatally shot in April by an officer in the nearby suburb of Brooklyn Center.

Tensions in Minneapolis already had risen Thursday after crews removed concrete barriers that blocked traffic at a Minneapolis intersection that has become a memorial to Floyd. Crews cleared artwork, flowers and other items from 38th Street and Chicago Avenue where Floyd was killed, informally known as George Floyd Square, but community activists quickly put up makeshift barriers.

___

Mohamed Ibrahim is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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While the nation focuses on a racial reckoning, communities of color are still losing too many lives to gang shootings.

If a child were drowning in Lake Michigan, an adult would jump in to help without a second thought.

Nothing is more urgent than saving the lives of our children.

But we can’t figure out how to save children growing up in neighborhoods in the grip of gang violence?

That seems absurd.

At this moment, when the nation’s focus — at least the focus of those people who want to change the world for the better — is on healing the racial wounds inflicted on Black and Brown people, we are still losing too many lives in communities of color due to gang violence.

And before you go there, it’s not Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s fault or the Chicago Police Department’s fault or the alderman’s fault that the gang structure still exists in Chicago.

During the past three decades, the city has tried targeting gang members with measures including the passage of the Chicago Gang Congregation Ordinance, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled was unconstitutional, finding that it violated the 14th amendment and due process.

After the feds’ sweeping prosecution of Chicago’s gang leaders on drug conspiracy charges in the early 1990s, things seemed to get worse, not better.

With open-air drug markets flourishing on the West Side and South Side and territorial disputes being settled with guns, the city’s aggressive policing strategy led to taxpayers being out millions of dollars to settle police brutality lawsuits.

Now, children as young as toddlers are getting caught in gang crossfire.

The latest victim of this gang violence is a 14-year-old girl who was with her boyfriend walking her dog Wednesday in Back of the Yards when three gang members confronted her, asking whether if she was in a gang.

When she answered no but that a relative is in what turned out to be a rival gang, they chased her down, and one of them shot her in the head. The girl remained hospitalized in critical condition Friday.

Is this really the best we can do?

Young people trying to navigate the pitfalls in their neighborhoods too often are at risk because of other young people who have chosen a different path.

What about them? What more can be done to help them? Don’t they deserve more of a chance to reach their dreams?

We’ve heard enough about gang culture to know that neglected or abused children are at risk for joining a gang.

Unfortunately, some children are growing up in homes where the gang culture is passed down as an inheritance, and others join a gang for the street protection it offers.

But like poor housing, lack of jobs and bad schools, gang violence is turning people away.

On Wednesday evening, I celebrated my granddaughter’s 14th birthday with family at an excellent restaurant in the suburbs. A couple of years ago, the celebration would have taken place at a downtown or neighborhood restaurant.

But when something as horrible as the 14-year-old girl being shot in the head happens, it brings you face to face with your own vulnerability.

I have never heard of gang members shooting a girl over a gang affiliation, let alone one who said she’s not a gang member.

Throughout the dinner, I kept thinking about how blessed I am. My granddaughter is safe. But I worry: For how long?

I don’t have the answers to ending gang violence. The only people who might are the people involved.

What I do know is that when children feel they are loved and protected at home, they are less likely to pick up a gun in the street.

I salute Ald. Ray Lopez (15th), who has stood up and confronted gang violence in his ward even though that could put him in the line of fire.

It takes courage to put your own well-being at risk to save someone else.

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Chicago’s landmarks commission has broadened its mandate in recent years by designating structures of historical as well as architectural importance. That has helped draw attention to overlooked sites within the city’s Black neighborhoods,

The late bluesman Muddy Waters — who he was and the music he created — is as much a part of Chicago as the writings of Carl Sandburg or the comedic legacy of Second City.

To that end, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks deserves a hearty blues shout for granting a preliminary designation this past week to the North Kenwood neighborhood home where Waters once lived — and jammed.

“This uniquely significant structure was an epicenter of Chicago’s contributions to modern blues, serving as Muddy Waters’ home for nearly two decades and providing temporary lodging and rehearsal space for countless household names that defined the art form,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement.

Waters, born McKinley Morganfield in 1913, owned the two-story brick Victorian home at 4339 S. Lake Park Ave., from 1954 to 1973. He created much of his best-known music while living there, including “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “I’m Ready” and “Mannish Boy.”

Musicians Otis Spann, Howlin’ Wolf and Chuck Berry walked his home’s wooden floors.

The home was already protected from demolition, at least in theory, because it sits in the existing North Kenwood Chicago landmark district. But singling out the building for an individual designation undoubtedly adds a level of protection — the vacant and somewhat rundown home still wound up on the city’s demolition list years ago — while bringing attention to its important cultural history.

City landmarks officials now will work out a permanent designation for the home, to be presented before the City Council later this year.

The move is also a vital assist to efforts by Waters’ great-granddaughter Chandra Cooper to turn the house into the MOJO Museum, honoring the famed bluesman.

We applaud Cooper’s effort, and that of the landmarks commission and staff, which is equitably broadening its mandate by designating structures of historical as well as architectural importance. That pivot has helped draw attention to overlooked sites within Chicago’s Black neighborhoods, especially, such as the modest Woodlawn two-flat where Emmet Till and his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, lived.

“Oftentimes, our history does get erased,” landmarks commissioner Tiara Hughes told Block Club Chicago after giving Waters’ house the thumbs-up. “It means a lot to me that these modest structures are being saved and shared, so that we can educate and continue to pass our stories down.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Send letters to [email protected].

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“Seeing them graduate to shootings is unfortunate,” Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) said of the younger rival.

The shooting of a 14-year-old girl in the Back of the Yards is believed to be linked to an ongoing conflict between a long-entrenched gang and one that is relatively new to the area, according to Chicago police sources.

The girl, who remains in critical condition, was with her boyfriend in the 1700 block of West 48th Street when members of the Party People walked up Wednesday evening and asked what gang she belonged to, according to Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th), who said he got those details from police.

The seventh grader said she was not in a gang but a relative belonged to the rival Almighty Saints, Lopez said. One of the gang members fired twice, hitting her in the head.

“It was 100% gang-related,” the alderman said.

A classmate of the girl said the Party People had been moving into the area recently, with members in both high school and middle school in the Southwest Side neighborhood.

The classmate said she has seen them on the block where the girl was shot, talking to young people about the new gang.

“She was friends with everyone and tried to be if she could, even people who were affiliated with the old and the new gang,” the classmate. “I think it’s related to that.”

Lopez said the Saints have decades-long roots in Back of the Yards and are believed to be responsible for much of the violence, including the 2018 shooting of an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who was doing surveillance of a house near 43rd and Wood streets.

Saints member Ernesto Godinez is serving a 200-month federal prison sentence for the shooting.

Lopez said the Party People are relatively new to the area, with a stronghold at 47th and Damen, a half-mile from where the 14-year-old was shot. A video posted on YouTube about a year ago showed Party People members taunting the Saints.

The members are young and have been involved in vandalism, the alderman said. “They’ve been a nuisance more than anything,” he said. “Seeing them graduate to shootings is unfortunate.”

While the Back of the Yards neighborhood has seen a sharp drop in homicides from last year, residents said there have been more shootings recently. Lopez said officers are keeping a close eye on the neighborhood to prevent retaliatory violence.

Police have released few details of Wednesday evening’s shooting, including a description of the gang members and the SUV they fled in. It may have been a Chevy Tahoe, a police spokesperson said.

The girl was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head, police said. She underwent surgery that night.

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Heritage Auctions announced in a tweet that the ring will become available in August.

Ben Zobrist apparently will soon be down to only one World Series ring.

Heritage Auctions announced in a tweet that the World Series ring Zobrist won with the Cubs in 2016 will go up for auction in August.

No other details about the auction or why the ring is being sold were available on the auction house’s website Friday afternoon.

Zobrist, who last played in the major leagues in 2019, is a two-time World Series hero. His RBI in the 10th inning of Game 7 gave the Cubs the lead over the Indians, and the team would hold on for an 8-7 victory and end the 108-year championship drought. He was named World Series Most Valuable Player.

A year earlier, he scored in the 12th inning of Game 5 of the 2015 Series to help the Royals defeat the New York Mets and capture the baseball title for Kansas City.

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A band of Chicago bird lovers has shown us how to preserve and rejuvenate our natural world. The accretion of thousands of seemingly insignificant efforts, like rallying around a couple of plovers, can make all the difference.

It was a bad week for Monty and Rose. A skunk attacked their nest on Montrose Beach and ate all four of their eggs.

Do piping plovers mourn? We wouldn’t put it past them. If only they had also heard the happy news that one of their offsprings from last year, Nish, is now working on a family of his own in Ohio. But plovers don’t make phone calls.

From the moment Monty and Rose first arrived at Montrose Beach in June of 2019, their survival has been iffy. Great Lakes piping plovers are an endangered species. Trying to reproduce and raise chicks on a public Chicago beach, a thump away from any wayward volleyball, didn’t seem promising.

But a passionate band of Chicago bird lovers showed how the preservation and rejuvenation of our natural world can work best. It’s all well and good to set aside millions of acres of protected lands, as they do out West. But in crowded urban areas, it is the accretion of thousands of seemingly insignificant efforts — like rallying around a couple of plovers — that can make the difference.

Volunteers fenced off Monty and Rose’s nesting area. They stood watch with binoculars day and night. They finagled to have a summer music concert relocated elsewhere. They worked with the Chicago Park District to expand the birds’ area of protection by three acres.

They gave Monty and Rose every chance possible, and it has paid off.

In the summer of 2019, Monty and Rose fledged two chicks. Last summer, they fledged three more: Nish, Hazel and Esperanza. Now Nish, as reported on Wednesday, has paired up with a plover from Pennsylvania to build a nest — holding one egg and counting — in Maumee Bay State Park near Toledo. They are the first plovers to nest in Ohio in 83 years.

In the early 1980s, there were only 13 pairs of piping plovers in the Great Lakes region, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Today, there are about 64 pairs.

Monty and Rose lost four eggs last week, which is a tragedy only in the eye of the beholder. A skunk’s gotta eat, too. But they went right back to building a new nest.

And you can bet that a dedicated band of Chicagoans will watch over them more than ever.

Send letters to [email protected].

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Chicago House Athletic Club, Chicago’s newest professional soccer team, announced the signing of four Chicagoland area players to their roster; Midfielders Damon Almazan (Joliet, IL) and Michael Kozielek (Chicago, IL), defender David Abidor (Chicago, IL) and Goalkeeper, Mike Novotny (St. Charles, IL).

“We’re keeping our focus on the Chicagoland area. All four of these players grew up in Illinois, developed through local youth programs, and we’re excited to now give them the opportunity to play for a professional hometown club,” says Head Coach C.J. Brown. “I am excited about all the different personalities and playing styles. I look forward to watching them play the game together at a high level in front of their friends, family, and our fans and supporters!”

Damon Almazan is one of two midfielders signed by Chicago House AC on Friday. Most recently, Almazan spent the 2020 season with Steel City FC in the Midwest Premier League. He also played one season of NCAA Division I Soccer in the Horizon League with Purdue-Fort Wayne during the 2019-2020 collegiate season.

During his senior season in high school, Almazan served as a captain, seeing 13 appearances and recording 14 goals and seven assists. He led his team to its first PepsiCo championship and regional championship, while breaking team records for goals and wins in a season. Almazan was selected to the All-Conference team. Almazan has been a part of two state championships in two different states; a Wisconsin State Cup Champion with Wisconsin Red Star in 2017 and an Illinois State Cup Champion with Chicago Magic.

We’re Gonna Need A Bigger House; Chicago House AC Adds Four Players!

Club’s Roster More Than Doubles With Friday’s Addition of Four Local Talents.

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— Chicago House AC (@ChicagoHouse_AC) June 4, 2021

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“Damon is a young player who will bring a lot of personality to the team on, and off the field,” says Coach Brown. “We look forward to helping him develop and show the soccer community his talent. He will fit in multiple positions in the midfield, and will be fun to watch.”

“It honestly feels amazing to be signed to Chicago House AC, for many reasons. I knew as a kid that one day I’d be signing my first professional contract due to my mindset and work ethic,” says Almazan. “I practically grew up in SeatGeek Stadium watching Fire play, and the thought of stepping on that pitch representing Chicago and house music brings chills to my body. C.J. Brown and Peter Wilt see the potential in me and are taking me under their arms. I’m going to do my part and work hard for the love of my team and city.”

The other midfielder signed by Chicago House AC is Michael Kozielek. Most recently, Kozielek spent time with FC Kristina, a third-division Club in Finland during the 2019 season. In 2018, Kozielek spent the season with Beaumaris FC in Australia League 1, where he scored four goals and six assists. From 2016 to 2017, he competed with Nordvarmlands in Sweden Division 2, recording one goal and eight assists.

Prior to playing professionally, Kozielek played four years of NCAA Division I Soccer. From 2012 to 2013, he played with DePaul University in Chicago, IL where he took home the Freshman of the Year award. He moved on to play at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN where he was a two year starter and a Captain his senior season.

Kozielek got his start at the (Chicago) Fire PDL, where he was a three-year starter and was a part of the Chicago Fire Academy from 2009-2011.

“Koz is a natural leader on the field,” says Coach Brown. “He is a hard working technically sound #8, and has the energy to cover a lot of ground and help build our attack.”

“I’m beyond excited to sign with Chicago House AC this season, and I can’t wait to finally play back in my home city for the first time in almost six years,” says Kozielek. “I’m ready to get to work and hopefully help build some fun footy for our fans to watch.”

David Abidor is the first defender added to Chicago’s rapidly growing roster. Abidor began his professional playing career with Dalkurd FF, a Swedish Division 1 club before returning to the United States in 2016 to join the USL’s Tulsa Roughnecks. During his lone season with Tulsa, he appeared in 29 matches scoring 1 goal.

In 2017, Abidor signed with New York Red Bulls II after joining the team for a preseason trial. During the 2018 season Abidor joined FC Haka in the Finish 2nd tier Ykkönen. After playing in Israel in 2019, Abidor returned to the United States to join his most recent club, Oakland Roots SC.

Prior to playing professionally, Abidor played four years of college soccer, three at Dayton University from 2011 to 2013, and his senior year at Creighton University 2014. During his college playing career, Abidor competed in the Premier Development League with both Jersey Express, and IMG Academy Bradenton.

“David will be a smart center back with a little bite when needed,” says Coach Brown. “He has good feet to build out if needed and he is smart enough to know when to play direct.”

“After spending so many years away from home, I’m ecstatic to return and share this moment with my family and friends,” notes Abidor, who was born and raised in Chicago. “I look forward to reconnecting with the diverse soccer community here in the Chicagoland area and inspiring the talented future generation of soccer players in Chicago.”

Mike Novotny becomes the first goalkeeper signed in Chicago House AC history. Novotny played for Hartford Athletic of the USL Championship league during the 2020 Season, seeing two appearances and recording one shutout. He spent the 2018 season with Stöde IF in Sweden where he started five games, recording four shutouts and only allowing one goal during this time.

Novotny also played with AFC Ann Arbor of the NPSL, where he spent the 2018 season, starting nine games, with six shutouts and only four goals allowed, good for the fewest in the league. During his time with AFC Ann Arbor, Novotny was named a National Team of the Week GK twice and was selected to the ISN National Team Of the Year.

Prior to playing professionally, Novotny played four years of NCAA Division I college soccer at Eastern Illinois University. As a four-year starting goalkeeper, Novotny started a total of 65 games and played a total of 5,915 minutes, recording 287 total saves. During the 2017 season, Novotny was named to the All-Conference, First Team and took home the Conference Goalkeeper of the Year award. During the 2015 and 2016 seasons he was selected to the All-Conference, Second Team. Novotny is also a seven-time Summit League Defensive Player of the Week.

“Mike is a big presence in goal, communicates well and has leadership qualities that will be needed to direct our back line,” says Coach Brown. “He will be a big voice in the locker room.”

“It is a big honor to be part of Chicago House AC. Growing up in the area (St. Charles), it has always been a dream to play in my home state in front of my friends and family,” explains Chicago House AC’s newest ‘keeper. “It’s very exciting to be part of something new and building that foundation, having experienced that with Hartford. With the quality players announced, soon to be announced and CJ at the head of the pack, this will be a special year for the House.”

Pending registration approval from NISA and USSF, Damon Almazan, David Abidor, Michael Kozielek and Mike Novotny join Drew Conner, Keegan Thompson and Wojciech Wojcik to bring Chicago House AC’s roster to seven players:

Chicago House AC Roster (as of June 4th, 2021):

Forwards (1): Wojciech Wojcik

Midfielders (4): Damon Almazan, Drew Conner, Michael Kozielek, Keegan Thompson

Defenders (1): David Abidor

Goalkeepers (1): Mike Novotny

Chicago House AC Transactions – June 4th, 2021:

• Chicago House AC signs defender David Abidor to their active roster on June 4th, 2021.
• Chicago House AC signs midfielder Damon Almazan to their active roster on June 4th, 2021.
• Chicago House AC signs midfielder Michael Kozielek to their active roster on June 4th, 2021.
• Chicago House AC signs goalkeeper Mike Novotny to their active roster on June 4th, 2021.

Chicago House AC has Open Tryouts #2 this weekend June 5th and 6th, for more information check the link as follows. 

The post I’m Coming Home: Chicago House Athletic Club Adds Four New Homegrown Players appeared first on UrbanMatter.

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Check out this awesome Jose Abreu Chicago White Sox city connect bobblehead from Forever Collectibles.

The post Chicago White Sox Jose Abreu City Connect Bobblehead now available first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More

“Fifty percent of the people wouldn’t want to live in a Trump building for any reason … but then there are guys like me,” says Lou Sollecito, a car dealer who recently bought a two-bedroom unit with views of the Empire State Building. “It’s a super buy.”

NEW YORK — The building has stunning Manhattan skyline views, its spa offers deep-tissue massages, and the fancy restaurant off the lobby serves up prime steaks. Best of all, many apartments at the Trump World Tower are selling at a deep discount — assuming the buyer doesn’t mind the name over the door.

“Fifty percent of the people wouldn’t want to live in a Trump building for any reason … but then there are guys like me,” says Lou Sollecito, a car dealer who recently bought a two-bedroom unit with views of the Empire State Building. “It’s a super buy.”

The purchase price was $3 million, nearly a million less than the seller paid in 2008.

Bargain hunters are swooping in to take advantage of prices in Trump buildings that have dropped to levels not seen in over a decade, a crash brokers attribute to a combination of the former president’s polarizing image and the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a stunning reversal for a brand that once lured the rich and famous willing to pay a premium to live in a building with Trump’s gilded name on it.

An Associated Press review of more than 4,000 transactions over the past 15 years in 11 Trump-branded buildings in Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas and New York found prices for some condos and hotel rooms available for purchase have dropped by one-third or more.

That’s a plunge that outpaces drops in many similar buildings, leaving units for sale in Trump buildings to be had for hundreds of thousands to up to a million dollars less than they would have gone for years ago.

“They’re giving them away,” says Lane Blue who paid $160,500 in March for a studio in Trump’s Las Vegas tower, $350,000 less than the seller paid in 2008. It was his second purchase in the building this year and may not be his last.

Just how much the Trump name is to blame is impossible to say. Many units for sale are in cities that were hit hard by the pandemic or in hotels that had to shut down or in condo buildings much older than their competitors, making comparisons difficult.

Still, Trump’s red-meat rhetoric and policies haven’t helped. Within a year into his presidency, hotels and condo buildings in Panama, Toronto and Manhattan that paid millions to use his name started stripping it off their facades.

After Trump was accused of whipping up the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, things got really bad. Banks vowed not to lend to him, the PGA canceled a tournament at his New Jersey golf course, and New York City fired him as manager of a public course in the Bronx. Several brokers say many potential buyers won’t even look at Trump buildings now.

“I’d be happy if his name was taken off,” says Gary Gabriel, who owns an apartment in Trump Palace on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “It’s embarrassing.”

It’s also an opportunity.

“We can see the river. We can see the lake. It has a downtown view,” says Nilufar Kabir, who bought a one-bedroom unit in Trump’s Chicago condo-hotel in February for $680,000, nearly one-fifth less than what the seller paid. “It’s a bargain.”

Other condos in Chicago’s Trump International Hotel and Tower have dropped even more, down 34% during the four years of his presidency, according to Gail Lissner, a managing director at the consulting firm Integra Realty Resources. That compares with a 6% drop over the same period at 18 nearby luxury condo buildings of similar age.

Says Lissner, “You can live in a luxury building for a non-luxury price tag.”

Prices fell even more for units in the 96-story Chicago building that are set aside for hotel guests, a category hit hard by pandemic travel restrictions. But Lissner leaves them out of her analysis because there are no similar hotel units in nearby buildings to compare them against.

In Las Vegas, prices at Trump’s hotel have fallen 4% since he took office four years ago, while average prices for three dozen other hotels in the city that also sell condominiums and rooms rose 14%, according to data collected by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices broker Forrest Barbee. Since the Trump building opened a dozen years ago, prices per square foot have fallen 66%.

And in Manhattan, Trump-branded buildings have fallen so far, down to 15-year lows, that they have lost their premium for the first time, selling at lower prices per square foot than the average for all condo buildings, according to research firm CityRealty.

“I have never seen buildings plummet so dramatically,” says Ondel Hylton, senior content director at CityRealty, which has a webpage tracking the eight Manhattan buildings still bearing the Trump name. “It seems like this is a bottom.”

Some buyers are thinking the same.

“Ten years from now people will forget about him,” says a New York banker who asked for anonymity to talk about a second Trump World apartment he bought last month for $2.1 million, a two-bedroom overlooking the United Nations. “The name will mean less.”

Or disappear completely.

“Does it get bad enough that they rebrand?“ asks the new owner of a Trump hotel room steps from Hawaii’s Waikiki Beach, though he figures it won’t matter given the bargain price — $505,000, which is over $300,000 less than the seller paid. “It’s got an ocean view!”

It had the same view when Trump took office, and prices at the Trump International Hotel in Waikiki plunged 23% over the next four years, according to broker Rachel Bradley of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. The nearby Ritz-Carlton also got hit hard, down 20%, but Trump fared far worse when compared with a broad sample of three dozen Honolulu hotels that also sell rooms: Their prices over four years fell only 3%.

Trump Organization Executive Vice President Eric Trump declined to comment.

The exact hit to Trump’s company is hard to know. It sold most of the units it owned in his branded buildings years ago, though it still has dozens in Chicago and Las Vegas worth much less now.

The bigger damage is likely to be to the former president’s image and future branding. Developers who used to pay him millions to use his name won’t strike deals with him if they think it could sink prices.

Those golden five letters over the door once attracted buyers like Derek Jeter, Johnny Carson and Liberace but now are so controversial that many people who bought recently refused to allow their names to be used in this story, worried that the boycotts against Trump could hurt them.

Vegas buyer Blue, who runs an air freight company in California, doesn’t care. He calls Trump “one of the greatest presidents ever” and thinks anger directed at him will blow over.

“Stuff washes out. People forget. People move on,” he says.

AP investigative researcher Randy Herschaft contributed from New York.

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