Read More

Nance pitched for the Windy City Thunderbolts of the Frontier League in 2015 before signing with the Cubs in ‘16.

It’s been a while since the Cubs have had this many young pitchers contribute at the big league level, but the moment doesn’t seem to be too big for the team’s rookie relievers.

Left-hander Justin Steele and right-hander Keegan Thompson have both made a big impact on the Cubs’ bullpen during their first stints in Chicago and have begun to get more opportunities in higher-leverage situations.

“It just makes me smile and laugh and takes me back to the great memories that I have of when I first made that same journey and all the things that were going through my head, manager David Ross said. “You just love to see you guys have success and I’m proud of those guys for embracing those moments to get out there and succeeding.”

The latest pitcher to make his presence felt in the big leagues is right-hander Tommy Nance, who’s had a long journey while trying to get his shot to reach the Majors, including a few injuries.

“I don’t have kids right now, but when I have kids one day, they ask me, ‘Why did you stop [playing]?’ I didn’t want to not have an answer, or not have a good answer. So for me, that also pushed me forward,” Nance said. “It was everything I imagined and more. It was always my dream to suit up and step on a major-league diamond.”

Nance, 30, is older than your average rookie, but after going undrafted and even playing independent ball for the Windy City Thunderbolts in Crestwood, he finally got the moment he’s waited his entire baseball life for.

Nance made his Major League debut on Monday pitching a 1-2-3 ninth inning in the Cubs’ 7-3 win over the Nationals and throwing a slider past Josh Harrison for his first major-league strikeout.

“That’s one of those [moments] where you smile when you come off and get to shake the hand of a guy making his debut to close out a four-run lead,” manager David Ross said. “Stuff was nasty. 96, throwing strikes. The breaking ball, it’s real.”

“When I came up the tunnel and up the stairs and stepped onto the field, it was a whole different atmosphere,” he said. “I think even more so when I got the call to go into the game and stepped out of the bullpen going through those doors. It’s just lights, like lights on me, I can hear the fans behind me, calling my name and I’m jogging out to the mound. It’s just an unbelievable experience and atmosphere.”

Cubs send Maybin to the Mets

The Cubs have traded outfielder Cameron Maybin to the Mets for cash considerations. Maybin had been playing at Class AAA Iowa and was not on the team’s 40-man roster. The Cubs acquired Maybin at last year’s trade deadline and re-signed him this offseason. Maybin had a .250/.304/.365 slashline in 18 games with the Cubs.

Read More

City officials “strongly advise businesses to verify that individuals are fully vaccinated,” but it’s up to them how to do that. Dr. Allison Arwady acknowledged many of them “may not have the capacity to do that,” so they’re advised — but not required — to keep masking policies in place until Chicago lifts all pandemic restrictions. 

Chicago’s top doctor would love for fully vaccinated residents to keep wearing their masks, but she’s not telling them they must.

Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady on Tuesday announced the city will follow the state by falling in line with controversial new guidelines set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that allow immunized people to roam restaurants, stores and most other settings without a mask — even though there’s no surefire way to verify a person’s vaccination status.

“Enforcement is a challenge,” Arwady said at a City Hall news conference. ”Part of the decision here around moving from a mask mandate to a mask advisory is recognizing that much of the country at this point has really moved away from mandates. … At some level here, we are really needing folks to be doing the right thing.”

That means the honor system will be in place for most venues except buildings owned by the city of Chicago, plus health care settings, schools, public transit and other “congregate settings” where masks are still required for all.

City officials “strongly advise businesses to verify that individuals are fully vaccinated,” but it’s up to them how to do that. Arwady acknowledged many of them “may not have the capacity to do that,” so they’re advised — but not required — to keep masking policies in place until Chicago lifts all pandemic restrictions as expected later this summer.

“We ask businesses and other settings to post a sign on the door letting the public know their current masking policy, so the public can choose whether to enter,” Arwady said.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

About 48% of all Chicagoans have gotten at least one shot, and only 38% are fully vaccinated, and “many of our communities that have been the hardest-hit by COVID-19 have even lower vaccination rates,” she said.

So if you want to keep wearing that mask — as Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Arwady have said they will — the commissioner urges you to keep covering up.

“A mask is mostly about protecting others: I wear my mask to protect you, you wear your mask to protect me,” Arwady said. “It helps keep my germs to myself, but it is a tangible sign that I’m thinking about somebody besides myself. I’m thinking about the greater good, and masks and distancing and hand washing have gotten us this far.”

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file.

And to those who do decide to go bare faced: “Please be kind,” Arwady said. “Regardless of mandates, we expect many Chicagoans to continue to wear masks in public spaces for a variety of reasons,” like protecting fellow residents with underlying health conditions.

The unmasking comes as COVID-19 infection rates fall to their lowest points in two months across the city and the rest of the state.

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,495 new cases were diagnosed among 58,222 tests, lowering the average statewide positivity rate to 2.3%. That figure suggests the virus is spreading at its slowest rate since St. Patrick’s Day.

Graph not displaying properly? Click here.

Metrics have improved significantly in most other states, too, meaning Chicagoans now have more flexibility to travel without quarantining or showing proof of a negative test, as advised by the city’s public health department.

The agency updated its emergency travel quarantine order to include just seven states considered hot spots, from which travelers must self-isolate or have a clean test upon arrival in Chicago: Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, Florida, Maine, West Virginia, and Washington.

The quarantine order — which hasn’t resulted in any fines in almost a year since it was implemented — doesn’t apply to people who are two weeks removed from their final vaccine dose.

Chicago Department of Public Health

But fewer people are signing up for shots each day. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported just 25,936 vaccinations were performed Monday, the state’s lowest one-day total in two weeks.

That’s partly because a data reporting issue left out some doses administered at pharmacies, but vaccine demand has shrunk by more than half in Illinois since mid-April.

The state hit an all-time high seven-day average of nearly 133,000 shots given per day April 12. That rate is now just 56,593 — as low as it’s been since the end of February, back when scarce supply was the biggest issue facing the state.

Arwady said she hopes the new mask guidance “spurs confidence in vaccine and encourages you if you’ve been on the fence. Now’s the time.”

The virus is still claiming dozens of lives per day. The state reported 21 additional COVID-19 deaths, raising Illinois’ death toll 22,466 since last March.

To sign up for a vaccine appointment in Chicago, visit zocdoc.com or call (312) 746-4835.

For suburban Cook County sites, visit vaccine.cookcountyil.gov or call (833) 308-1988.

To find providers elsewhere, visit coronavirus.illinois.gov or call (833) 621-1284.

Read More

A three-judge panel in the Illinois First District Appellate Court decided the prosecution failed to prove McCormack’s mental disorder would likely cause him to reoffend, according to court records filed Tuesday.

A state appeals court overturned a trial judge’s finding that convicted child molester and defrocked priest Daniel McCormack can be held longer than his sentence.

A three-judge panel in the Illinois First District Appellate Court unanimously decided the prosecution failed to prove McCormack’s mental disorder would likely cause him to reoffend, according to court records filed Tuesday.

McCormack, one of Chicago’s most notorious and recent offenders in the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, completed his five-year sentence in 2009 for molesting five boys in St. Agatha’s parish, where he worked as a priest, teacher and basketball coach. He has remained in custody at a downstate detention facility for sex offenders since.

In 2017, Judge Dennis Porter declared McCormack a sexually violent person who should remain indefinitely in a state facility for sex offenders.

But the Circuit Court of Cook County reversed that decision, saying prosecutors “failed to prove McCormack’s mental disorder renders him substantially likely to reoffend.”

During the 2017 bench trial, Dr. Angelique Stanislaus, a psychiatrist and the state’s witness, and Dr. Raymond Wood, a psychologist who served as the defense expert, both concluded that McCormack had pedophilic disorder.

But while Wood said that McCormack had a “below average” risk of reoffending, Stanislaus said the former Chicago priest’s likelihood of reoffending is “substantially probable, meaning much more likely than not,” according to the court’s filing.

McCormack’s defense argued that the prosecution failed to prove the former priest qualifies as a sexually violent person in two ways: One, it didn’t prove how any mental disorder McCormack may have would create a risk for him to reoffend, and two, if his mental disorder does create a risk, the prosecution didn’t prove “substantial probability” that he would commit future sexual violence acts.

The three-judge panel ruled the prosecution “left too much to inference when questioning Stanislaus.”

“We agree there is a probability that McCormack’s mental disorder could cause him to reoffend, but Stanislaus failed to offer an explanation as to why the risk is ‘substantial,’” the court said in its decision. “Even taking the evidence in light most favorable to the State, it fails to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that McCormack is a sexually violent person as defined in the Act.”

McCormack’s attorney Michael Johnson said he was “grateful that the appellate court followed the law and… held the State to standards for appellate review of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The court’s decision won’t be final until a mandate is issued, which will be in 35 days, Johnson said. During that time, the attorney general could file a petition for a leave to appeal the ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court.

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office didn’t return the Chicago Sun-Times’ request for comment.

The archdiocese has paid out more than $20 million to settle lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by McCormack, the Sun-Times previously reported.

Read More

The 56 units, most at subsidized rents, would go up next to another city-approved project for a commercial kitchen and event space.

City officials are moving forward with approvals of an affordable housing development in Englewood that would arise alongside other improvements near the community’s traditional crossroads of 63^rd and Halsted streets.

The housing proposal would cover parcels along Halsted southwest of 61^st Street. The vacant land has been city-owned for decades. A Housing Department report said it has environmental challenges because a car repair and painting shop operated there long ago.

Officials have struck a deal with Keith B. Key Enterprises, a developer based in Columbus, Ohio. In a $20.9 million proposal, Key has agreed to build a five-story building containing 56 apartments, all but 16 subsidized to appeal to lower-income renters.

The city is essentially giving the parcels to Key. They’ve been appraised at $80,000 and officials said any sales agreement would absolve the city of costs for environmental work. A Housing Department spokeswoman said the cleanup might cost $200,000.

Chicago’s Community Development Commission endorsed the terms of the property sale May 11. On Thursday, the Chicago Plan Commission is due to review a zoning change to accommodate the project. Both approvals are needed before the matter gets to the City Council.

The building would be a neighbor of another stage of the city’s long-term plans for “Englewood Square,” a reimagining of the old shopping hub. The city’s planning department has approved developers’ plans for a $10.3 million “eco-food” center, converting an old firehouse into a commercial kitchen. A business incubator and event space are promised in a later phase.

The projects seek to capitalize on the 2016 opening of a Whole Foods-anchored shopping plaza and 63^rd and Halsted streets. The area also got a boost with the 2007 opening of a new campus for Kennedy-King College.

Key Enterprises is a minority-owned firm that lists projects in Pittsburgh, New Orleans, New York City and Columbus, Ohio. The city has agreed that the project qualifies for low-income housing tax credits, and it also can get a long-term loan of up to $2 million from the Housing Department.

The building would be followed by another, similarly sized apartment structure next door in a later phase, city documents show.

Keith Key, the CEO, could not be reached Tuesday. The project is within the 16^th Ward of Ald. Stephanie Coleman, who also could not be reached. However, city documents list her and key neighborhood groups, such as the Greater Englewood Community Development Corp., as backing the project.

Asiaha Butler, CEO of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood, praised the development in a letter to the city. “Englewood needs additional high-quality affordable housing, but it also needs to establish market-rate housing to stimulate private-sector investment,” Butler said. “This project will provide both elements and build upon the retail investment made at Englewood Square to strengthen the Halsted Street corridor and help create a positive environment for additional real estate investment.”

Read More

The hype surrounding Chicago Bears first round selection quarterback Justin Fields has been growing by the day, but it appears there may be some reason to hamper expectations according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. 

The post Is Justin Fields a Long Shot to Start Week 1? first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More

Read More

The author takes a deep dive into the culture of the lifestyle and his personal connection to it.

What do you think of when you hear the word skateboarding? A kid with bleached hair hiding half his face, in long shorts and a long-sleeve crewneck shirt with a loud graphic, pushing a board hard, then leaping to straddle a park stair railing?…Read More

Children are being subjected to extensive trauma in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. For some, it’s trauma they’ve seen repeatedly throughout their short lives.

GAZA CITY, Gaza — Suzy Ishkontana hardly speaks or eats. It’s been two days since the 7-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble of what was once her family’s home, destroyed amid a barrage of Israeli airstrikes. She spent hours buried in the wreckage as her siblings and mother died around her.

Children are being subjected to extensive trauma in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. For some, it’s trauma they’ve seen repeatedly throughout their short lives.

This is the fourth time in 12 years Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers have gone to war. Each time, Israel has unleashed heavy airstrikes at the densely populated Gaza Strip as it vows to stop Hamas rocket barrages launched toward Israel.

According to Gaza health officials, at least 63 children are among the 217 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza since the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas began on May 10. On the Israeli side, 12 people have been killed by Hamas rockets, all but one of them civilians, including a 5-year-old boy.

Israel says it does everything it can to prevent civilian casualties, including issuing warnings for people to evacuate buildings about to be struck. As Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, most of them intercepted by anti-missile defenses, Israel’s military has pounded hundreds of sites in Gaza, where some 2 million people live squeezed into a tight urban fabric.

Videos on social media from Gaza have shown the grief of survivors from families wiped out in an instant.

“They were four! Where are they? Four!” wailed one father outside a hospital after learning all four of his children had been killed. Another showed a young boy screaming “Baba,” as he ran to the front of the funeral procession where men were carrying his father’s body to burial.

The Ishkontana family was buried under the rubble of their home early Sunday, after massive bombing raids of downtown Gaza City that Israel said were targeting a Hamas tunnel network. The strikes came without warning.

Riad Ishkontana recounted to The Associated Press how he was buried for five hours under the wreckage, pinned under a chunk of concrete, unable to reach his wife and five children.

“I was listening to their voices beneath the rubble. I heard Dana and Zain calling, ‘Dad! Dad!’ before their voices faded and then I realized they had died,” he said, referring to two of his children.

After he was rescued and taken to the hospital, he said, family and staff hid the truth from him as long as they could. “I learned about their deaths one after another,” he said. Finally, Suzy was brought in alive, the second-oldest of his three daughters and two sons, and the only survivor.

Though she had only limited physical bruising from her seven hours under the rubble, the young girl was in “severe trauma and shock,” said pediatrician Dr. Zuhair Al-Jaro. The hospital was unable to get her the psychological treatment she needs because of the ongoing fighting, he said.

“She has entered into a deep depression,” he said. Only today, he said Tuesday, did she eat something after she was allowed briefly outside the hospital and saw her cousins.

As her father spoke to the AP, Suzy sat on the bed next to him, silent and studying the faces of the people in the room but rarely making eye contact. When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she turned away. When her father started to answer for her, saying she wanted to become a doctor, the girl began sobbing loudly.

Ishkontana, 42, who recently stopped working as a waiter because of coronavirus lockdowns, said Suzy is smart and tech-savvy and loves smartphones and tablets. “She explores them, she has more experience dealing with them than I do,” he said. She also loves studying and would gather all her siblings into a play “class,” taking the role of their teacher, he said.

The Ishkontanas were just one family destroyed that day.

The strikes Sunday targeted Hamas tunnels running under Gaza City, the Israeli military said. The warplanes pounded al-Wahda Street, one of the city’s busiest commercial avenues, lined with apartment buildings with stores, bakeries, cafes and electronics shops on the ground floors.

Three buildings collapsed, and multiple people from at least three families were killed. In all 42 people died, including 10 children and 16 women.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, called the situation that led to the deaths “abnormal.” He said in one location the airstrikes caused a tunnel to collapse, bringing houses down with it, “and that caused a large amount of civilian casualties, which were not the aim.”

He said the military was analyzing what happened and “attempting to recalibrate” its ordnance to prevent a reoccurrence.

He said the bombing campaign targeting tunnel networks would be expanded to more areas of Gaza and that the military tries when possible to hit tunnels under roads rather than under houses.

Israel and Hamas have fought similar conflicts in 2009, 2012 and 2014, each time wreaking heavy destruction

The Norwegian Refugee Council said that 11 of the children killed so far in this war had been going through its psycho-social programs helping children deal with trauma — a sign of how children repeatedly are victimized by the violence. Among them was 8-year-old Dana, Suzy’s sister.

“It’s the fourth time for many of them to experience” bombardment around their homes, said Hozayfa Yazji, the refugee council area field manager.

Parents in Gaza desperately try to calm their terrified children, as bombs rain down, telling the youngest ones it’s just fireworks or trying to put up a cheerful front.

The violence “will of course affect the psychology of these kids,” he said. “We are expecting that … the situation will be much worse and more children will need more support.”

The refugee council works with 118 schools in Gaza, reaching more than 75,000 students through its Better Learning Program. The program trains teachers to deal with traumatized children and organizes fun exercises to relieve stress. It also does home-checks on children to provide help.

The refugee council works with 118 schools in Gaza, reaching more than 75,000 students through its Better Learning Program. The program trains teachers to deal with traumatized children and organizes fun exercises to relieve stress. It also does home-checks on children to provide help.

The council’s secretary-general, Jan Egeland, called for an immediate cease-fire, saying, “Spare these children and their families. Stop bombing them now.”

But he said, longer term, an end to the blockade on Gaza and occupation of Palestinian territory is necessary “if we are to avoid more trauma and death among children.”

Read More

The Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association wants Mayor Lori Lightfoot to earmark $75 million in federal coronavirus relief to help Chicago hotels staff up for a full reopening. That’s roughly $1,500-per-room at every hotel in the city.

The return of Lollapalooza is a huge boost for Chicago tourism. But if hotels are to take full advantage — by rehiring a full staff — they need federal help, an industry trade group said Tuesday.

Michael Jacobson, president and CEO of the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association, is pushing for a hotel-only version of the Payroll Protection Program that helped restaurants survive the pandemic.

Jacobson is asking Mayor Lori Lightfoot to earmark $75 million of the $1.9 million avalanche of federal coronavirus relief on its way to the city to help Chicago hotels staff up for a full reopening. That’s roughly $1,500-per-room at every city hotel.

To provide that same help to hotels outside Chicago, Jacobson is urging Gov. J.B. Pritzker to set aside $250 million in federal relief.

“These hotels that are now reopening — they’ve gone a year without a penny in revenue. Just to open their doors, they need 100-to-200 people rehired. And they don’t have the capital on hand after being closed for a year to get those paychecks up and running,” Jacobson said, suggesting “a bridge program” to help hotels rehire those workers.

“Then business will pick up with Lollapalooza and with conventions to sustain those paychecks. We just need that initial influx. We just need a little boost because hotels haven’t gotten a penny of support from the city of Chicago throughout this all.”

Jacobson said the size of the city and state requests was based on a similar program in Washington D.C. last fall, bankrolled by the first round of federal stimulus funds.

The mayor’s office and the governor’s office had no immediate comment.

What happens if both the city and state say no?

“It’ll just slow the rehiring process. Hotels will be forced to do more with less,” he said.

A pending “Right to Return to Work” ordinance would require Chicago hotels to rehire employees based on seniority, regardless of skills. Jacobson argued it would slow the pace of rehiring.

Hotels need and deserve the right to rehire employees to fill the jobs they need immediately. They need to be nimble to meet travel demands. They don’t need to be saddled with a logistical nightmare just when they’re trying to get back on their feet, he said.

“We’re not opposed to the concept. We want the people [who] are trained and are loyal to our hotels back first. It’s just the way it’s actually written that’s unworkable. It doesn’t take into account what department they were laid off from,” Jacobson said.

“If a position opens up in the kitchen as a cook and a housekeeper is next on the list in terms of seniority, according to the ordinance, we’d have to hire a housekeeper to go work as a cook. That just doesn’t make sense.”

Hotel owners have offered to sit down with Unite Here Local 1 and negotiate the final language for the last six months, but those offers have been rejected, Jacobson said.

Union officials could not be reached for comment.

Hotel occupancy rates are “hovering in the high 20% range,” Jacobson said. That’s a vast improvement from the “single digits” of a year ago, but well below the occupancy rates well “in the 70’s” hotels normally enjoy in the days leading up to Memorial Day.

The Westin River North is scheduled to reopen later this week. The Sheraton Grand follows suit June 7. The Palmer House Hilton, mired in bankruptcy, plans to reopen in mid-June, Jacobson said.

It’s no accident the sleeping giant of an industry started to reawaken after Pritzker and Lightfoot announced McCormick Place would reopen with the return of the Auto Show in July.

“That’s what we were saying all along. That we just needed some long-term planning to put them at ease that, if they were going to go through the process of reopening their 1,500-room hotel, that they were gonna have the business to sustain it,” Jacobson said.

“If you look at the various festivals and events throughout this city, there’s very few that generate as much tourism to the city as Lollapalooza. It’s thousands and thousands of visitors coming to Chicago. That’s what we need to reopen some of these bigger hotels.”

Read More