A gunman killed one central Illinois police officer and wounded another before he was fatally shot during a shootout at an apartment complex early Wednesday, authorities said.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A gunman killed one central Illinois police officer and wounded another before he was fatally shot during a shootout at an apartment complex early Wednesday, authorities said.

The officers went to the complex in Champaign shortly after 3 a.m. in response to a report about a domestic disturbance and encountered the armed suspect, police said. An exchange of gunfire followed in which both officers and the suspect were shot.

Officer Chris Oberheim, 44, died of his wounds, the city’s police chief, Anthony Cobb, said in a statement. The wounded officer was hospitalized in stable condition, the department said.

The suspect killed in the shootout, Darion Marquise Lafayette, 24, of Champaign, was pronounced dead at the scene, the Champaign County coroner said. Autopsies on Oberheim and Lafayette are scheduled for Thursday.

Champaign County court records show Lafayette had previous arrests for domestic violence and drug possession, The (Champaign) News-Gazette reported.

Police have not released the name of the wounded officer.

Champaign officers have been equipped with body cameras since 2017, and those cameras are supposed to be activated when an officer responds to service calls or is engaged in any law enforcement-related encounter, according to the department’s website.

The department didn’t immediately reply to Associated Press requests for further information about the shootout, including what the officers’ body cameras captured.

Cobb said Oberheim joined the police force in Champaign in 2008. Before that, he spent seven years on Decatur’s police force. Champaign is 125 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of Chicago,

“His only intention was to serve, protect and help provide care before he was senselessly fired upon and killed,” the chief said.

Monticello Schools Superintendent Vic Zimmerman said in a statement that Oberheim had four daughters, including three who attend the district’s schools, and that he was very involved in their lives.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time,” Zimmerman said.

The News-Gazette reported that days earlier Cobb said he feared that a shooting involving police could happen because the city of about 85,000 has been dealing with an increase in gun violence.

Oberheim is the third Champaign police officer to be killed in the line of duty. The other two were killed in 1913 and 1967, the newspaper reported.

The Illinois State Police will lead the investigation into the shooting, with assistance from Urbana police, the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office and the University of Illinois Police Department, Champaign police said.

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There’s plenty to see and do online and in-person around Chicago in the week ahead.

Films from Japan

The inaugural Japanese Film Festival, presented by the Chicago Japan Film Collective and advertised as the first of its kind in the Midwest, features nine contemporary Japanese films: “Our festival is designed to bring the American Midwest into conversation with Japanese culture,” says co-founder Sakamoto Yuki. Among the films are Hayashi Kaizo’s “Bolt,” a drama about the earthquake that resulted in the Fukushima nuclear disaster; “All About Chiaki Mayumura (provisional),” a drama about a musical celebrity who is much more than meets the eye; “Videophobia,” a cyber thriller; “Alone Again in Fukushima,” a documentary about a man who stayed behind after the disaster and evacuation to care for abandoned animals, and “The House of Seasons,” a family drama about a teen who overcomes mental health issues. The festival runs May 25-31. Tickets: $10 for one film; $15 access to all the films. Visit cjfc.us.

A writer’s life

AP file

The American Writers Museum has reopened with a new exhibit, “Ray Bradbury: Inextinguishable,” a retrospective that explores the writings and influence of the legendary science-fiction author. Included in the exhibit are books, letters, Bradbury’s desk and typewriter and many more items borrowed from the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University. Bradbury grew up in suburban Waukegan, and his Midwest childhood remained central to his life. Armed with a vivid imagination, he played in the ravine near his home, frequented the local cinema, roamed through visiting carnivals and hung out at the library. “These were the things at the center of my life,” he told the Sun-Times in 2006. “It was the beginning of everything.” The exhibit continues through May 2022. Admission: $14 ($4 off through May 31). Visit americanwritersmusuem.org.

Finding connections

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago completes its virtual season with Robyn Mineko Williams’ “Half of Us.” The filmed piece is a 16-minute meditation on human connection and the many ways we experience it. Original music is by OHMME, an eclectic Chicago experimental rock duo comprised of Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart. The film streams free at 7:30 p.m. May 20, 22 and 2 p.m. May 23. Visit hubbardstreetdance.com.

Forever young

Mark Seliger

Celebrate Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday (May 24) with “May Your Song Always Be Sung,” a livestreamed event at 7 p.m. May 20 that also is a benefit for The Human Needs Food Pantry in Montclair, New Jersey. The lineup features live performances of Dylan’s music by Bettye LaVette, Richard Thompson, Nils Lofgren, Robyn Hitchcock, Lucy Kaplansky, Amy Helm, Bill Frisell, Low Cut Connie and many more. Free, donations encouraged. Visit outpostintheburbs.org. … Also Steve Dawson and Michael Miles join forces for “Bob Dylan’s 80th Birthday Tribute Concert” streaming at 8 p.m. May 23 via The Hideout. Tickets: $5-$20. Visit hideoutchicago.com.

Tap it out

Philamonjaro

Chicago Tap Theatre and M.A.D.D. Rhythms join together to celebrate National Tap Dance Day on May 22. The daylong online event (10 a.m.-6 p.m.) includes intermediate and advanced tap classes, a lecture on the history of tap and a performance by Chicago Tap All-Stars featuring Billy Siegenfeld, Chicago Tap Theatre, Jenai Cutcher, Jimmy Payne Jr., Kendra Jorstad, Marty and Jessica Bronson, M.A.D.D. Rhythms, Matt Crowle, Nico Rubio, Patti Vickerman, Rich Ashworth, Stephen Spanopoulos and Tre Dumas. Tickets: $15, $25 for performance; $55, $95 for classes. Visit chicagotaptheatre.com.

Indoor/outdoor performances

Michelle Reid

The adventurous Pivot Arts Festival returns with live events May 21-June 6 in the Edgewater neighborhood. Titled “Reimagining Utopia,” the ninth annual event features performances at both indoor and outdoor spaces. Twelve artists and companies were selected to create small works of theater, dance or music as well as video installations responding to the global health crisis and the Black Lives Matter movement. Among the performers are SoIAR*, Propelled Animals, Ishti Collective, Christin Eve Cato, Danielle Ross, the Puppet Wonder Wagon, KAIA String Quartet and Laksha Dantran. Tickets: $5-$30. For a complete schedule of performances, visit pivotarts.org/festival.

Virtual stage

Northlight Theatre

Northlight Theatre presents a 20th anniversary reunion celebration of “The Last Five Years,” Jason Robert Brown’s musical that debuted at the theater in 2001. The original creative team — Brown, director Daisy Prince and cast members Norbert Leo Butz and Lauren Kennedy — reunites to talk about the landmark musical with artistic director BJ Jones. Streams free at 6:30 p.m. May 23. Visit northlighttheatre.org. … “We Are Out There,” a digital prologue to the new musical “It Came from Outer Space,” which will debut next year at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, streams free May 24-June 20. Visit chicagoshakes.com. … Black Ensemble Theater streams its eighth annual fundraiser, Jackie Taylor’s “Soul of a Powerful Woman (Her to Save the World)” at 6 p.m. May 23. Free, donations encouraged. Visit blackensembletheater.org.

Mary Houlihan is a Chicago freelance writer.

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Mayor takes on an issue that has plagued newsrooms for decades.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to “exclusively” provide one-on-one interviews to journalists of color ahead of her two-year anniversary set off a firestorm on Twitter, and in the city’s newsrooms.

“This is beyond disappointing. It’s disgusting. We are going backwards in this country on race relations,” wrote one commenter.

While another person replying to @MaryAnnAhernNBC had a different take:

Many whites are throwing fits bc of their white privileges [sic] challenged. This is called leveling the playing field, more equity-minded practice.

Lightfoot’s manifesto, delivered midway through a challenging first term marked by a deadly pandemic, rising homicide rates, at least two questionable police shootings and a dehumanizing police raid, have some accusing Lightfoot of trying to boost her image by taking a longstanding race-related issue that shocks those unfamiliar with the press corps.

“I have been struck since my first day on the campaign trail back in 2018 by the overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps, and yes, the City Hall press corps specifically,” Lightfoot said in a two-page letter dated May 19 that was sent to the major news outlets in the city to explain her decision to offer Black and Brown journalists a rare interview opportunity.

“While there are women of color who sometimes cover my administration, there are zero women of color assigned to the City Hall beat. Zero. I find this unacceptable,” the mayor said.

The death of George Floyd, a Black man at the hands of Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, and the COVID-19 pandemic that exposed inequities in our health care system pushed the “diversity, inclusion and equity” issue from vague discussions to bold actions.

Corporate boards opened up. Industries aggressively pursued Black people to join the C-Suite and newsrooms quietly began to address this issue.

The Sun-Times held a session to educate reporters on implicit bias; expanded efforts to recruit journalists of color; and established a People of Color caucus within the newsroom so that journalists could safely air their concerns.

Still, the work seems to inch along at a snail’s pace.

By now, everyone should know Lightfoot barrels down on problems like a freight train. That kind of leadership style has won her both fans and foes.

But to be fair, this isn’t a policy. Nor is it the first time a politician has set aside time to talk specifically to Black journalists in a group about issues concerning Black Chicago. Those concerns are often different from matters raised by white reporters.

Lightfoot’s predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, often met with the Black press behind closed doors for off-the-record chats.

And one of the first groups to meet privately with President Obama during his first term was Black columnists.

Lightfoot’s mistake was not going directly to the heads of the newsrooms, TV and radio stations and having a conversation about that lack of diversity and the need for racial inclusion.

After all, the press didn’t turn overwhelmingly white overnight. It has been going that way for years.

The small steps toward diversity, however, get harder to maintain as newsrooms shrink and writers of color move on to more lucrative professions.

An article posted at niemanlab.org, “The moral argument for diversity in newsrooms is also a business argument…,” written by Nicole A. Childers, cites a 2018 Pew Research Center Analysis using 2012-2016 data that shows only 23% of newsroom employees are people of color despite being 40 percent of the population.

A 2019 Radio Television Digital News Association found that 14.5 percent of radio employees are people of color and 25.9% of local TV news employees are people of color, according to Childers.

But of even more concern, “Over the past decade newsroom employment in the U.S. has dropped by a staggering 23 percent,” the writer found.

The lack of diversity is a subject that newsrooms have wrestled with for decades.

Lightfoot just dragged it out into the light of day for the public to see.

Now it’s on newsrooms to deal with.

After all, we are purveyors of the truth, and this truth is staring us in the face every day.

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The Chicago Blackhawks have had a fair amount of success in the NHL Draft Lottery in the last 15 years. For one, they won the lottery in 2007 when they selected Patrick Kane with the first overall pick. Back then, only the first overall pick was determined by the lottery. Later, the Hawks took advantage […]

Chicago Blackhawks: We now know their interesting lottery odds – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & More

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Tony La Russa made headlines on Tuesday evening for not defending Yermin Mercedes.

The post Tony La Russa’s Recent Comments Sparking (More) Outrage from White Sox Fans first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More

Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Joffrey Ballet announce in-person 2021-2022 seasons.

At a joint press conference today on the stage of the opera house, Lyric Opera and the Joffrey Ballet announced their 2021-2022 seasons—the first for Joffrey at Lyric, after more than two decades at the Auditorium Theatre. Noting that most of the world’s great opera houses regularly offer ballet, Lyric general director Anthony Freud welcomed the dancers as Lyric’s new “roommates.”  …Read More

The biopic comes out Aug. 13, only in theaters.

In a scene in the trailer for the much-awaited new Aretha Franklin biopic, the singer is seen as a girl sitting at a piano alongside her mother (Audra McDonald), who advises her, “What’s most important is that you are treated with dignity and …”

Guess what word comes next.

It’s “Respect,” a movie in the works long before Franklin’s death in 2018. The Queen of Soul had offered extensive suggestions about the script and handpicked Jennifer Hudson to play her.

Hudson, the pride of Englewood, is heard in the trailer giving her takes on the Franklin anthems “Think” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and in one sequence she works on making Otis Redding’s “Respect” her own by dropping in repetitions of her nickname: “Ree, ree, ree, ree …”

“Respect” is scheduled for an Aug. 13 release that will be in theaters only and won’t stream, unlike many other high-profile films during the age of COVID-19.

“My dream for the film — and for Aretha and her legacy — was to create a piece of cinema that feels like a classic you have to see in a movie theater,” director Liesl Tommy said in a studio statement. “You have to see it on a big screen because her life was so big it deserved that.”

“Respect” is the screen debut of Tommy, a Tony Award nominee for directing the Broadway play “Eclipsed.” It’s the year’s second major screen bio of Franklin, following the March premiere of “Genius: Aretha,” starring Cynthia Erivo, on the National Geographic channel.

Also seen in the trailer are Forest Whitaker as Franklin’s father, Mary J. Blige as singer Dinah Washington, Marlon Wayans as manager Ted White and Marc Maron as producer Jerry Wexler.

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Mayor Lori Lightfoot will deliver her own plan for civilian police oversight on Thursday, a plan almost certainly stripped of policymaking, budgeting and hiring and firing powers coveted by police reform advocates.

After months of broken promises, Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety, said “the mayor’s team” has told him “I should have something in hand on Thursday.”

Taliaferro said he hasn’t seen or been briefed on the mayor’s version and has no idea how it will read.

But he has no doubt Lightfoot is determined to retain the final say on disputes over police policy along with the power to determine the Chicago Police Department’s budget and hire and fire the police superintendent, COPA chief and Police Board president.

“She had concern about not being able to weigh in on policymaking when it comes down to policies that affect police officers. The other ordinances essentially took her out of the process. And any mayor would be somewhat cautious of not being able to hire or fire a superintendent, chief administrator [of COPA] and Police Board members. Our mayor is apprehensive about that as well,” Taliaferro said.

“The mayor will have to wear the hat, no matter who appoints. As the chief executive of the city, any mayor would have to wear the hat of what goes wrong and what goes right with our police department. So, it would be this mayor’s contention — and mine as well — they should be involved in the process.”

Sun-Times file

A former Chicago police officer, Taliaferro emphatically denied the mayor’s version would be tantamount to “gutting” the powers of a civilian oversight panel. To the contrary, he portrayed it as preserving the separation of powers.

“We cannot converge all the powers of city government on one authority. Because then, the fight or the comments down the road will be, ‘Why does this organization have so much power? Why isn’t this power dispersed? Where are the checks-and-balances?’ Taliaferro said.

“If you convey the power to hire, the power to fire, the power to create budget, the power to do everything in one organization, where are the checks-and-balances?”

Earlier this week, the City Council’s Black Caucus joined the Hispanic and Progressive caucuses in endorsing a civilian police oversight plan summarily rejected by Lightfoot.

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), chairman of the Black Caucus, said then that aldermen were tired of waiting for Lightfoot to honor a campaign promise to deliver civilian police oversight — with the power to hire and fire the police superintendent and be the final arbiter in policy disputes — within her first 100 days in office.

“We definitely need some level of civilian oversight and accountability in the police department in addition to what we have today. This is what our residents have asked for. …This is an ordinance that delivers that,” Ervin told the Sun-Times.

“If the mayor sees something different, she’s obligated to put something on the table. To date, nothing has been put on the table. … We, as a City Council, have been waiting on that for a number of months. She definitely has an opportunity to put something on the table to have a conversation. But you can’t negotiate against yourself.”

The compromise endorsed by the three major caucuses would ask Chicago voters in the 2022 primary to approve a binding referendum empowering a civilian police oversight commission to hire and fire the police superintendent, negotiate police contracts and set CPD’s budget.

Lightfoot would lose the power to hire and fire the police superintendent. Her Law Department and hand-picked negotiators would lose the power to negotiate police contracts.

And Lightfoot and aldermen would lose their power to establish the CPD budget. That power would be held by an 11-member civilian oversight commission — nine elected, two appointed by the mayor.

Even if voters reject the binding referendum, the 11-member commission would have final say in disputes over police policy unless two-thirds of the Council decides otherwise. The commission also would be empowered to take a vote of no-confidence in the superintendent and hire and fire the chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

Lightfoot has said she “wears the jacket” for Chicago violence and she’s not about to “outsource” control of the Chicago Police Department to a civilian police oversight commission.

The support of that compromise from three major caucuses could set the stage for Lightfoot’s first City Council defeat.

But, Taliaferro said: “If the mayor proposes an ordinance, it certainly would put everything else up in the air. Remember, most of our caucuses do not vote in bloc whenever a vote is taken. Even though the caucus may support it, you may not have the individual vote of every single member.”

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