The mayor could have led on this issue from the start. It’s not too late.

It’s mystifying to us why Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who campaigned on a promise to treat all neighborhoods with fairness and equity, would even consider allowing known polluter General Iron to set up shop on the Southeast Side.

But after community protests, a hunger strike and intervention from by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the mayor is now asking a question she could have posed from jump: Is a metal scrapping facility needed in an area of the city already overburdened with a host of environmental issues?

Lightfoot announced last week that the city’s health department will explore whether the cumulative impact of pollution in an area can be considered a factor in whether to approve an industrial operation moving to a community — particularly neighborhoods of color that are already heavily impacted.

A “cumulative impact” city ordinance could come out of this, possibly by the end of the year, Lightfoot said.

That’s a good sign of a better city approach to General Iron, though we’ll have to wait on the particulars as the new law comes together.

Ordinance to protect ‘vulnerable communities’

The proposed ordinance would be based on laws already on the books in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and other cities where Black and Brown communities have been overly impacted by industrial pollution.

A group of environmental and social activists in New Jersey is using that state’s cumulative impact law in an attempt to stop the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission from building a fracked-gas power plant at a sewage processing facility in The Ironbound, a working-class and immigrant Newark neighborhood.

“Anything that uses fracked gas should be scrapped, full stop,” Newark Environmental Commission Co-Chair Cynthia Mellon said in a statement last week. “Our pollution-burdened city and neighborhoods are already at the limit of what human health can withstand.”

The Chicago ordinance “would require an assessment of the additional environmental impact of an industrial business operation on the surrounding community when reviewing a permit application,” Lightfoot said in a statement. “We are also exploring additional policy steps the city can take to protect our most vulnerable communities from pollution as this ordinance is being developed.”

This proposed new measures come on the heels of Lightfoot’s decision earlier this month to halt the permit approval process to allow General Iron to operate a new facility, built on a 178 acres at 116th and Burley, along the Calumet River in the South Deering community.

General Iron is moving from its long-time home at 1909 N. Clifton Ave., on the western edge of Lincoln Park.

“If General Iron isn’t wanted in a rich white neighborhood, why is it wanted in a poor Brown community?” Evan St. Germaine, a member of the Chi-Nations Youth Council, said during a protest last fall against the move.

For its part, General Iron’s parent company RMG promises the company will be a better actor in the new facility. But given its history, residents are justifiably skeptical.

“We know they have a record of dangerous fires and explosions,” said Gina Ramirez, a member of South East Coalition to Ban Petcoke, which helped organize Saturday’s event, expressing her concerns about air pollution and safety. “We don’t want it anywhere near our schools or homes.”

Lightfoot might well have listened more closely from the beginning to the protests of Southeast Siders, whose health has been harmed for decades by the historic toxic industries in and surrounding their neighborhoods.

Time for mayoral leadership

Lightfoot began to pivot on the issue earlier this month after receiving a letter from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan in which he wrote that General Iron’s relocation should be studied more to make sure it doesn’t adversely affect the health of Southeast Side residents.

“Substantial data indicate the current conditions facing Chicago’s Southeast Side epitomize the problem of environmental injustice, resulting from more than a half century of prior actions,” Regan wrote.

Regan also said the city should conduct an environmental justice analysis that includes a Health Impact Assessment

“Because of these well-known degraded environmental conditions, the siting of this facility in Chicago’s Southeast Side has raised significant civil rights concerns,” Regan said. “EPA believes the issues raised by the HUD complaint deserve your careful consideration as the city weighs its environmental permitting decision on the RMG facility.”

The shove from the feds is appreciated.

Lightfoot could have led on the issue of General Iron from the start. It’s not too late.

Send letters to [email protected].

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As Markkanen’s time with the Bulls likely winds down, the Wizards’ victory Friday eliminates the team from the play-in chase.

The stat line reminded everyone what Lauri Markkanen could be once again.

Actually, what he always should have been.

And that’s the frustration.

Markkanen came off the bench in the Bulls’ victory Thursday against the Raptors to notch 20 points, seven rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block in 25 minutes on his way to finishing a team-high plus-15. He performed so well that it cut into starter Patrick Williams’ playing time, limiting him to 18 minutes.

But, like too many of Markkanen’s good moments, it came with an asterisk: The Raptors basically were fielding a G-League team, choosing to fold up the tents last week and lock in their spot in the draft lottery.

Was shooting 6-for-9 from three-point range, as Markkanen did, impressive? No doubt. But his offensive skills never have been questioned.

His ability to play with physicality for his 7-foot size and, more important, to show up consistently have been.

So while Markkanen reminded the Bulls of what he could do, it couldn’t keep them from finally being eliminated in the battle for the final spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament when the Wizards beat the visiting Cavaliers on Friday.

It didn’t change Markkanen’s standing with the Bulls, either. Barring a complete change of heart, he likely will be playing his last two games in a Bulls uniform Saturday at the Nets and Sunday against the Bucks before becoming a restricted free agent this summer. That writing has been on the wall since March.

Since the trade deadline, Markkanen has gone from starting at power forward and getting some minutes at center to coming off the bench at small forward, a position he hasn’t fully embraced and really doesn’t have the defensive ability to play.

So while the Bulls haven’t completely shoved Markkanen out the door, he has endured a series of demotions because of other players they consider to be more in their plans.

Executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas said he was behind Markkanen at the start of the season and just after the trade deadline, but playing time and role changes now indicate otherwise.

‘‘I haven’t had any conversations with Arturas or [general manager] Marc [Eversley] on that,’’ coach Billy Donovan said of Markkanen’s future. ‘‘I would just say this: I really, really love Lauri as a player. He’s a great guy. And he has been an incredible teammate. And he has sacrificed a lot. And I do think when the [trades for Nikola Vucevic and Daniel Theis] did happen, he was a guy who was playing center and [power forward], and now it’s gone from [power forward] to [small forward]. It’s really changed a lot.

‘‘I’ve just appreciated the way he has come in every day and tried to be a team guy and done the best he can in managing the minutes that he’s gotten.’’

The Bulls will have the final say in Markkanen’s future this offseason. Whether they figure out a sign-and-trade or decide to match any offer he gets as a restricted free agent, it will be in their hands.

Markkanen said last week his intention will be to sign with a team that will give him a chance to start again. It doesn’t sound as though that opportunity will be there with the Bulls.

That’s why these last two games could be a reminder of why the Bulls deemed Markkanen a pillar of their rebuild in 2017 — and of how he never lived up to that expectation.

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The incidents with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez add to a portrait of the activist-turned-lawmaker who has shown little interest in governing, but has instead used her platform to float conspiracy theories, push Donald Trump’s false claims about a stolen 2020 election and further her own notoriety.

WASHINGTON — A year before her election to Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene searched for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at her Capitol office, taunting the New York Democrat to “get rid of your diaper” and “talk to the American citizens,” as shown in video unearthed Friday by CNN.

“I am an American citizen. I pay your salary through the taxes that you collect from me through the IRS,” Greene says through the mail slot of a locked door. “I am a woman. I am a female business owner and I’m proud to be an American woman. And I do not support your socialist policies.”

The Georgia Republican continued: “If you want to be a big girl, you need to get rid of your diaper and come out and be able to talk to the American citizens.” Two men appear along with her in the video, also mocking Ocasio-Cortez and her staff through the mail slot.

The release of the since-deleted video, which was initially broadcast in February 2019 on Facebook Live, came the same week that Greene followed Ocasio-Cortez off the House floor, shouting that the Democrat supported “terrorists” and doesn’t “care about the American people,” as first reported by The Washington Post. She has been challenging Ocasio-Cortez to a debate on Twitter, entreaties that Ocasio-Cortez had been ignoring.

The incidents add to a portrait of the activist-turned-lawmaker who has shown little interest in governing, but has instead used her platform to float conspiracy theories, push Donald Trump’s false claims about a stolen 2020 election and further her own notoriety. Her combativeness toward colleagues has only grown after an unprecedented rebuke where the House stripped her of committee assignments, effectively ending her ability to shape legislation.

Another confrontation Friday involved a member of her staff.

Rep. Eric Swalwell on Friday said that a staffer for Greene yelled at him to take his mask off after stepping off the House floor, an unusual of breach of decorum. Though the CDC has relaxed mask-wearing guidelines for those who have been vaccinated, many lawmakers continue to wear them, and they are still required on the House floor.

“I had a mask on as I stepped off the Floor. An aide with @mtgreenee yelled at me to take my mask off. No one should be bullied for wearing a mask,”’ Swalwell tweeted. “So I told the bully what I thought of his order.”

Greene’s behavior has alarmed some members of Congress, where feelings remain raw after the deadly Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters intent on overturning the outcome of the 2020 election.

“This is a woman that’s deeply unwell and clearly needs some help,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters Friday. “Her kind of fixation has lasted for several years now” and the “depth of that unwellness has raised concerns for other members, as well.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Greene’s behavior was “beyond the pale” and raised the possibility of an ethics investigation.

“This is beneath the dignity of a person serving in the Congress of the United States and is a cause for trauma, and fear among members, especially on the heels of an insurrection,” Pelosi said Thursday..

Yet so far, Republicans have shown little appetite for punishing Greene. They rallied around her in February after some of her past comments came to light, including her endorsement of calls to assassinate leading Democrats. That left it to Democrats, who were joined by 11 Republicans, in voting to strip her of her committee assignments.

As a congressional candidate, Greene posted a photo in 2020 of herself with a gun next to images of Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

Before her election, she also supported Facebook posts that advocated violence against Democrats and the FBI. One suggested shooting Pelosi in the head. In response to a post raising the prospect of hanging former President Barack Obama, Greene responded that the “stage is being set.”

In one 2018 Facebook posts, she speculated that “lasers or blue beams of light” controlled by a left-wing cabal tied to a powerful Jewish family could have been responsible for sparking California wildfires.

And in February 2019, Greene appeared in an another online video filmed at the U.S. Capitol, arguing that Omar and Tlaib weren’t “really official” members of Congress because they didn’t take the oath of office on the Bible. Both women are Muslim.

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Outfielder Nick Martini, right-hander Jason Adam and left-hander Brad Wieck were optioned to Class AAA Iowa in corresponding moves.

DETROIT – The Cubs activated starter Jake Arrieta (right thumb cut), infielder Nico Hoerner (left forearm strain) and Dan Winkler (right triceps tendinitis) from the 10-day injured list before Friday’s game against the Tigers. Outfielder Nick Martini, right-hander Jason Adam and left-hander Brad Wieck were optioned to Class AAA Iowa in corresponding moves.

“It’s nice,” manager David Ross said. “Each time you get your guys back, feeling healthy and back in the lineup, it’s nice. But you also appreciate the hard work that the guys that you send out give you. The effort they give you, it’s a mixed feeling from this seat. You’re happy to get those guys back, for sure. But it’s also tough conversations when you send guys down.”

Getting Hoerner back will be an extra boost for a Cubs lineup that has started to find its footing, ranking third in OPS as a club in May. The 24-year-old infielder has had a strong start slashing .389/.500/.556 with six doubles, eight walks, and three stolen bases in 11 games.

“It’s not ideal, but it really helped that the team was home for a couple of series against the Dodgers and Pirates,” Hoerner said. “Just makes a difference being able to stay in the flow of the season with the team even though I’m not playing, just still being in the dugout of the game.

“The timing of it all worked out well. The training staff was awesome. It stinks to miss time, but all things considered, [Ian] and I are both healthy and ready to play baseball.”

Heyward fightin’ the funk

As the Cubs have started to come out of their team-wide slump as the calendar has flipped from April to May, right fielder Jason Heyward is still searching to get himself going offensively.

During the 60-game season, the 31-year-old outfielder had arguably his best offensive season as a Cub, slashing 265/.392/.456 with a 131 wRC+. This year, Heyward has a .171/.246/.315 with three homers and a 58 wRC+.

“I think [Jason] is at a point where he may be chasing some hits a little bit,” Ross said. “Last year, I thought he had our most consistent at-bats among the group and right now, I think he’s just getting a little bit outside of what he does well, and I’ve talked to him about that.

“I feel like that he just at times is getting a little bit outside of what [he does well]. Swinging at the pitches that he doesn’t really do damage on. Trying to get him back to staying within himself and recognizing what other teams to do and instead of trying to hit that pitch just trying to lay off it a little more.”

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In a season full of uncertainty for the Chicago Cubs, one thing has become clear and that is the team can count on Adbert Alzolay to be a part of the starting rotation for years to come. It is nice to see that the Chicago Cubs might have finally developed their own pitcher. After short […]

Chicago Cubs: The Adbert Alzolay breakout is finally happening – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & More

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If Annette Nance-Holt’s nomination by Mayor Lori Lightfoot is approved by the City Council, she will be the first woman to serve as fire commissioner in the department’s 162-year history.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot nominated Annette Nance-Holt — a Black woman — to lead the Chicago Fire Department.

If Nance-Holt’s nomination is approved by the City Council, she will be the first woman to serve as fire commissioner in the department’s 162-year history.

The 30-year CFD veteran was named acting fire commissioner after former Commissioner Richard Ford II retired in April.

“…In a time where more work remains in order to eliminate discrimination, racism and sexism from the firefighter profession, Commissioner Holt’s history-making appointment as the first woman and Black woman to lead as Fire Commissioner couldn’t have come at a better moment,” Lightfoot said in a statement.

Nance-Holt was named first deputy commissioner by Ford in 2018, making her the first woman to hold the department’s number two spot.

Nance-Holt, in a statement, said the department “must have membership and leadership that mirrors the communities it serves every day.”

“As a child, I never laid eyes on either a female firefighter or a firefighter of color,” Nance-Holt’s statement reads in part. “There were no role models who looked like me, and so I never thought that becoming a firefighter, which was my dream, would be a possibility for me. As Fire Commissioner, I intend to show the next generation of young black women that they too can achieve any and everything they set their minds and hearts to.”

Along with her long career in the CFD, Nance-Holt is also the founder of two nonprofits, Purpose Over Pain and the Blair Holt Scholarship Foundation, which focus on gun violence.

The second nonprofit is named for her son, a 16-year-old honor student at Julian High School who was shot to death on his way home from school by a reputed gang member in 2007.

Once Nance-Holt formally takes helm of the CFD, she will have a host of matters to address.

Last month, an audit by the city’s inspector general revealed that 73 out of 285 male and female CFD members reported they experienced sexual harassment “at least once.”

Even more troubling is the rate of sexual harassment among women in the department. Of the 45 women who answered survey questions, 28 of them — or 62% — reported they were sexually harassed on the job.

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Militaries around the world have long used deception and trickery against their enemies.

JERUSALEM — Early Friday, just after midnight, the Israeli military put out an ominous statement to the media: “IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.”

The terse statement set off frenzied speculation that Israel had launched a ground invasion of Gaza — a much-feared scenario that would mark a bloody escalation of this week’s operation against Hamas militants. Some reporters were even told outright the incursion had begun.

Hours later, the military issued a “clarification.” There were no troops inside Gaza. But by then, several major news outlets had erroneously reported the ground offensive was under way.

While the army attempted to play down the incident as a misunderstanding, well-placed Israeli military commentators said the media had been used as part of an elaborate ruse to lure Hamas militants into a deadly trap that may have killed dozens of fighters.

“They didn’t lie,” said Or Heller, a veteran military correspondent on Israel’s Channel 13 TV. “It was a manipulation. It was smart and it was successful.”

This is how it unfolded:

Late Thursday, after days of airstrikes, Israel announced it was calling up thousands of reservists and amassing troops along the border ahead of a possible ground invasion. In another sign of escalation, Israeli tanks stationed along the border opened fire at targets inside Gaza.

In previous rounds of fighting, ground incursions have resulted in widespread destruction in Gaza and heavy casualties on both sides.

That set the stage for the late-night deception. According to Heller, Israel began scrambling forces along the border in what appeared to be final preparations for an invasion. Then came the announcement to the media, issued simultaneously in Hebrew and Arabic on Twitter. There followed alerts in major outlets that the invasion was under way.

The Israeli moves sent Hamas fighters rushing into defensive positions in an underground network of tunnels known as the Metro, according to Heller and other Israeli reports.

Israel called in 160 warplanes and bombarded the tunnels for 40 minutes, the military said. Heller said it was his understanding that scores of militants had been killed, though he said it was impossible to say.

“What we saw tonight was a very sophisticated operation that had a media aspect to it,” Heller said.

Hamas has not commented on the incident, and it was impossible to confirm the Israeli reports.

Heller said veteran Israeli correspondents, who have close ties to the military and in many cases have served themselves, knew that there was no way Israel was sending troops across enemy lines at this stage. Heller and other military correspondents even put out statements on Twitter assuring the jittery public that there was no ground operation.

The Associated Press, based on its analysis of the army’s statement, phone calls to military officials and on the ground reporting in Gaza, concluded there was no ground incursion and did not report there was one.

But others said the military had misled them or even lied when asked to clarify, turning the foreign media into an accessory of sorts.

Felicia Schwartz, correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, said she alerted news of a ground offensive after receiving explicit confirmation from Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman.

In a statement posted on Twitter, she said Conricus “told me directly, `There are ground troops in Gaza.’ That was the basis for a first story saying so. He retracted that statement two hours later and I changed the story to reflect that, and that is noted in the text and will be corrected.”

Speaking to reporters on Friday morning, Conricus blamed an “internal miscommunication.”

“These things can sometimes happen in the midst of a complex operation with many moving parts and with an unclear picture of what was happening,” he said. “As soon as I understood that I had the wrong information, I updated the relevant people with a clarification.”

Militaries around the world have long used deception and trickery against their enemies. Two years ago, the Israeli military reportedly faked the injuries of soldiers at the scene of a Hezbollah missile strike, going so far as to evacuate them to a hospital in a helicopter.

According to reports at the time, the army staged the injuries to trick Hezbollah into thinking it had inflicted casualties and therefore would agree to a cease-fire.

Friday’s misleading statement further strained what has often been a rocky relationship between the IDF and the foreign media.

Peter Lerner, a former military spokesman to the foreign media, said the Israeli public in general has long felt the international media focus too heavily on the Palestinian side of the story while minimizing Israeli concerns and suffering — and the army is similarly inclined.

Lerner said he felt it was unlikely the military intentionally lied, but damage was done regardless.

“Your currency is credibility,” he said. “I think this is a crisis of that credibility in the way it’s being portrayed.”

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Sunday, on the road against the Portland Thorns at 6 p.m. the Red Stars begin their pursuit of the NWSL Shield and a league title.

At the start of 2021 NWSL play, which kicked off with the Challenge Cup tournament, the Red Stars said they had the goal to bring home every trophy available this season.

They already fell short, but there are still three titles up for grabs.

Sunday, on the road against the Portland Thorns at 6 p.m., they begin their pursuit of two of them: the NWSL Shield and a league title.

“Portland has not been a kind place for us to go to in the past,” Dames said.

The team took a week off following its disappointing fourth-place finish in the Challenge Cup tournament’s western division.

Kealia Watt and Danny Colaprico said ahead of Sunday’s match that it was a critical break. The Thorns are coming off a week break after beating Gotham FC in the Challenge Cup Final in a penalty kick shootout.

Dames said it’s a great opportunity to start the season off against Portland. Facing an opponent like that at the top of the schedule exposes a team’s weaknesses. If the Red Stars plan to be competing for a championship in the fall, they need to be exposed early.

“One of our coaches said, ‘However this game goes is going to set the tone of the season,’” Watt said. “He’s right. We need to go in, play well and get a win. That’s a must for us.”

Watt said the Challenge Cup gave the team a chance to figure out their identity. Despite a disappointing loss in Seattle to finish the tournament, Watt said that was their best game in terms of cohesiveness.

The team will be without Morgan Gautrat in the midfield against the Thorns. The league gave her a one-game suspension for unsportsmanlike conduct against OL Reign in the 56th minute of play during their April 27 match. Dames said he encourages Gautrat to play with more physicality.

Colaprico said it will be challenging to replace her, but the midfield is deep. In situations like this, they can rebound. Everybody else on the roster will be available to play, except for Emily Boyd.

The NWSL completed its independent anti-discrimination investigation on May 4 into Sarah Gorden’s claims that she and her boyfriend were racially profiled by a BBVA security guard following the team’s opening match of the Challenge Cup in Houston. Players took to social media to express their outrage at the league’s decision to close the investigation and take no disciplinary action.

As a team, Dames said they are committed to making sure Gorden is supported even if she wasn’t supported by the league.

“The people within our locker room certainly didn’t need an investigation to tell us what did or did not occur or if it was or was not ok,” Dames said. “Regardless of what any investigation turns up, it doesn’t change the way [Gorden] was made to feel.”

Dames did not detail Mallory Pugh’s status and whether or not she will be playing on a minutes restriction in Sunday’s match. He did say Pugh has continued to make progress week to week.

As a whole, it’s been a good week of training, the team said, which was critical as the Red Stars have a challenging start to the season. After playing on the road against the Thorns, the team’s season opener against Gotham FC on May 22 kicks off a three-game stretch in eight days.

The core group within this organization has been in Chicago for a considerable amount of time, and Dames said they help keep emotions at a moderate level. Still, expectations surrounding this team remain high.

“I do think when it’s all said and done [the Red Stars and the Thorns] will be two teams standing when it counts,” Dames said.

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Smoke can be seen billowing from several windows in the building in video of the fire posted to Twitter by fire officials. 

A cat put one of its nine lives to the test Thursday after it jumped out of a fifth-floor window to escape a fire in Englewood.

The blaze broke out at an apartment building about 3 p.m. in the 6500 block of South Lowe Avenue, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.

Smoke can be seen billowing from several windows on the fifth floor of the building in video of the fire posted to Twitter by fire officials.

While crews were working to extinguish the fire, onlookers on the sidewalk began pointing at one of the open widows as the cat approached a ledge, Langford said.

“It was looking out for quite a while,” Langford said. “After a couple of minutes the cat got closer to the edge and it looked like she was getting ready to go and she just did.”

The cat can be seen stretching out its paws as it leaps from the window and narrowly misses hitting a wall on its way down, according to the video. The cat appears to bounce a single time off of a patch of grass before strolling away.

“It went under my car and hid until she felt better after a couple of minutes and came out and tried to scale the wall to get back in,” Langford said.

The cat was not injured, Langford said, adding that he was still trying to track down its owner.

The blaze was put out by 3:25 p.m. and was contained to a single unit, officials said. No one was injured.

Elizabeth Thomas, who lives above the unit where the fire started, was in her apartment when she smelled smoke and started to get worried.

“I’m sitting there thinking this ain’t nobody BBQing, this smells a little bit more like a grease fire or something that’s getting out of hand,” said Thomas, 49.

She exited her apartment and walked outside of the building, where she says she saw smoke coming out of the unit below hers. Other residents joined her outside.

Thomas said she didn’t see the cat make the leap, but heard everyone around her react to its daring escape.

“Everybody was like, ‘Oh my god, oh my god,’ thinking that it might be hurt but eventually we saw it get up and go limping away,” she said.

Thomas said the cat was seen walking near the building after firefighters left, possibly trying to get back inside. However, later Thursday evening she and other residents were unsure where the cat had gone; the owner of the unit that caught fire could not be reached.

“I’m just glad no one got hurt. Thank god that cats do have nine lives. I hope I got nine,” Thomas said.

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