Baez went through agility drills, took ground balls and batting practice before Wednesday’s game against the Braves.
ATLANTA – After a few days of wondering if Javy Baez would have to go on the 10-day injured list or not, the Cubs got some good news with their star shortstop.
Baez did around 40 minutes of on-field agility work several hours before Wednesday’s game in front of a contingent that included head athletic trainer PJ Mainville and manager David Ross. The plan is for Baez to be back in the lineup for the series finale against the Braves.
“Really good [feedback],” manager David Ross said. “He was moving well. We’ll put him through the full [pregame]. He’ll take ground balls and hit today. Move around and see how he feels tomorrow. All signs are good as long as he’s healthy. He’ll be available off the bench today. If everything goes well and he’s not sore tomorrow, we’ll put him in there.”
Things went well for Javy, according to David Ross. He will take BP and infield with the team. If things go well with that, he’ll be available off the bench tonight. Likely in the lineup tomorrow. https://t.co/qV1XP17DTk
First baseman Anthony Rizzo getting time as a lead-off hitter has always provided fans with some enjoyment, but usually provides the Cubs with a spark offensively. While Ross looks to shake things up while regular lead-off man Ian Happ gets himself on track, Rizzo doesn’t mind taking over the role for a game or two.
“Just want to win ballgames,” Rizzo said. “That’s it. Hitting first, second, third or fourth. Obviously, I like hitting third and fourth the most, but if he calls on me to be hitting first today, he calls on me to be hitting first today, and I’ll be ready.
“Rossy mentioned it to me and just asked how I felt about it. I said, ‘Yeah, I’m all for it.’ Whatever helps, whatever it takes. And hopefully, it’s one of these things where it jumpstarts me a little bit and jumpstarts our team.”
You can’t blame Ross for following one of the trends his predecessor, Joe Maddon, began a few seasons ago. In 60 games hitting leadoff, Rizzo has a .327/.420/.585 slash line with 14 homers and a 162 wRC+.
“I think just you know with [Happ] out and scuffling a little bit is just trying to mix some things up at the top,” Ross said. “[Rizzo] has done a good job up there in the past to jumpstart the offense a little bit. I think we’ve been swinging the bat pretty good outside of yesterday. … Trying to find the right slot up there at the top and [Rizzo] feels comfortable or has done a really nice job up there and he was okay with giving us some at bats here tonight.”
Romine has MRI on left wrist, out ‘a little while’
Catcher Austin Romine will be out with a severe left wrist sprain. Romine was placed on the 10-day injured list on Monday, his MRI revealed a significant sprain of the wrist, according to Ross. The Cubs don’t have a timetable on Romine and it will be several weeks before he can return to baseball activities.
Another network TV show is coming to Chicago: “The Big Leap,” a Fox series about would-be ballet dancers on a reality show.
Fox confirmed Wednesday that it has ordered a full season of the one-hour drama, which imagines a group of down-in-their-luck dancers agreeing to be filmed while putting together a production of “Swan Lake.” An actual reality series like that, “Big Ballet,” aired in Britain in 2014.
Scott Foley of “Scandal” and “Felicity” leads the cast, which also includes Piper Perabo (“Covert Affairs”), Teri Polo (“The Fosters”), Kevin Daniels (“Sirens”) and Jon Rudnitsky (“Saturday Night Live”)
The series pilot was shot in the Chicago area in late 2020 and early 2021 at locations including the historic Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet. Production shut down temporarily when someone involved in the series tested positive for COVID-19.
Fox confirmed cast and crew will return to Chicago to film the series.
The lineup of current national series that shoot here includes NBC’s Dick Wolf triumverate of “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago P.D.” and “Chicago Med” and Showtime’s “The Chi” and “Work in Progress.” Two new series — AMC’s “61st Street” and Starz’s “Power Book IV: Force” — also are in the works in Chicago for a future debut.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — While Ohio’s capital city has made significant progress enacting changes to its police department, the city needs additional help because of “fierce opposition” to reform within the agency, city leaders said Wednesday as they requested a Justice Department investigation following a series of police killings of Black people and other controversies.
The request by Mayor Andrew Ginther and City Attorney Zach Klein — both Democrats — capped several painful months for the city, culminating most recently with the April 20 fatal shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant as she swung a knife at a woman. Bryant was Black and the rookie officer who shot her was white.
Criticism has included not just fatal police shootings but also the department’s reaction to last summer’s protests over racial injustice and police brutality following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. A report commissioned by city council and released earlier this week criticized both the police department and city leaders, saying Columbus was unprepared for the size and energy of the protests.
“This is not about one particular officer, policy, or incident; rather, this is about reforming the entire institution of policing in Columbus,” Ginther and Klein said in Wednesday’s letter. “Simply put: We need to change the culture of the Columbus Division of Police.”
It’s not unusual for mayors or local law enforcement leaders to ask the Justice Department to review an agency’s record. Those requests sometimes are made when city officials anticipate a federal probe is looming regardless of their wishes.
When the Justice Department does launch such a review, city officials can do little to stop it, so they generally welcome the investigations, at least in public. The mayors of Minneapolis and Louisville, Kentucky, quickly endorsed the reviews the Justice Department recently announced of those cities’ police departments following the killings of Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
It’s likely that the recent police killings in Columbus combined with the mayor’s push for changes would make the city’s request appealing to the Justice Department, said Ayesha Hardaway, a Case Western Reserve University criminal law professor.
“I imagine that Columbus will be considered a good opportunity to make lasting change,” said Hardaway, who has worked with Cleveland’s police department in the wake of Justice Department involvement after the 2014 shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
A message was left with the Justice Department seeking comment.
The request by Columbus leaders came the same day that the attorney representing the family of Bryant requested a federal investigation into her death and the state’s foster care system.
Columbus remains an outlier among other American cities under Justice Department scrutiny, with multiple initiatives launched over the last few years to address complaints about the police department, pushed by Ginther and the city’s all-Democratic city council.
In 2016, shortly after Ginther took office, the city spent millions of dollars to buy police body cameras for the first time and is now in the process of spending millions more to upgrade them. The city recently created its first-ever civilian review board in a 2020 voter-approved measure pushed by Ginther and the city council.
Despite these efforts, “the City has been met with fierce opposition from leadership within the Columbus Division of Police,” Wednesday’s letter said, which also suggested the Justice Department could use court-ordered measures to force the local police union to comply with changes.
Columbus officers “are always willing to work with any entity to improve policing in the communities they protect and serve,” Jeff Simpson, executive vice president of the local union, said in a statement. “Politicians constantly vilifying officers breeds contempt for authority, emboldens the criminal element and has led to a mass exodus of law enforcement officers from the profession.”
Even with its initiatives, Columbus — the country’s 14th largest city — has recorded a number of contested police shootings.
The most recent cases include Bryant, the April 12 killing of 27-year-old Miles Jackson in a hospital ER room, and 47-year-old Andre Hill. The white police officer who fatally shot Hill Dec. 22 has pleaded not guilty to a number of charges made against him by the state’s attorney general’s office.
The case of Casey Goodson Jr., a 23-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy in early December in Columbus, has widened criticism of policing in the city to include the county sheriff’s office.
In January, interim Columbus Chief Thomas Quinlan was forced out after Ginther said he’d lost confidence in the chief’s ability to make needed changes to the department.
Before the recent police shootings, the city was sued over the 2016 shooting of Henry Green, a Black man, by two undercover white police officers working in an anti-crime summer initiative.
Later in the same year, a white officer fatally shot 13-year-old Tyre King, who was Black, during a robbery investigation. In 2017, a video showed a Columbus officer restraining a Black man lying on the ground and preparing to handcuff him when an officer — Zachary Rosen — who was also involved in the Green shooting arrived and appeared to kick the man in the head.
The city fired Rosen, but an arbitrator ordered him reinstated, angering many in the community while underscoring the challenge that police union contracts can pose for cities trying to hold officers accountable.
Records show that Black residents, about 28% of the Columbus population, accounted for about half of all use-of-force incidents from 2015 through 2019.
The agency — like many big-city departments — is juggling calls for internal change even as it battles street violence. Columbus saw a record 174 homicides in 2020 and has recorded 62 so far this year, a figure not reached until early July of last year.
Federal involvement in the Columbus police department over allegations of officer misconduct isn’t new.
In 1999, the Justice Department sued the city, accusing officers of routinely violating people’s civil rights through illegal searches, false arrests and excessive force. A year later, the government added a racial profiling complaint, alleging that from 1994 to 1999, Black people in Columbus were almost three times as likely as whites to be the subject of traffic stops in which one or more tickets were issued.
A federal judge in 2002 dismissed the lawsuit after the city, which had fought it, made changes on the use of police force and handling of complaints against officers.
In Wednesday’s letter, Ginther pledged to give the Justice Department the city’s full cooperation if the agency agrees to take on the review.
“We want to be partners with the DOJ to bring about meaningful, sustainable and significant reforms,” he wrote. “Not only is the elected leadership in the City of Columbus aligned with this request, but the residents of Columbus unquestionably share the same goal.”
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The story has been corrected to show that voters approved the civilian review board in November 2020, not 2019.
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Farnoush Amiri 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.
Large commencements with hundreds of cheering parents, siblings and grandparents might not return for some time, but this year’s 8th graders and high school seniors will be able to take part in more traditional ceremonies than last year.
Both indoor and outdoor graduations and other end-of-year events can be held this spring with some capacity restrictions, Chicago Public Schools officials announced at Wednesday’s virtual Board of Education meeting.
“As we look for ways to honor our graduates after what’s been a very difficult year, the district developed a plan to celebrate graduates while ensuring the safety of each school community,” Bogdana Chkoumbova, CPS’ chief of school management, told the school board.
“Schools will have the option to hold indoor, outdoor or virtual graduation events where students can obtain their diplomas and take pictures in their caps and gowns,” Chkoumbova said. “Graduations can either be social events, where mingling can occur, or spectator events that are ticketed and seated with no mingling.”
Ticketed graduations — held in auditoriums, stadiums, fields, courts or other sports venues — will be allowed at 50% capacity with no more than 50 attendees, unless the ceremony is held at an outdoor venue that typically can safely hold more than 200 people. In those scenarios, 25% capacity is allowed — such as 250 people in a venue that holds 1,000.
Schools opting for social events where people are expected to walk around and mingle can host their students and families in a ballroom, banquet, restaurant or other indoor or outdoor venues with 50% capacity, officials said. No more than 50 people will be allowed if those are held indoors, while a maximum of 100 people can attend outdoors.
Principals have already received the district’s guidance, and families should expect to hear more about their schools’ plans in the coming weeks, officials said.
CPS rules for graduations were released at Wednesday’s board meeting.CPS
Rarely heard operatic gems are on the roster for the latest edition of Lyric Opera’s Rising Stars in Concert, which features an ensemble of artists who have trained at Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center. The performers are sopranos Maria Novella Malfatti and Denis Velez; mezzo-sopranos Katherine Beck, Katherine DeYoung and Kathleen Felty; tenors Martin Luther Clark and Lunga Eric Hallam; baritones Leroy Davis and Ricardo Jose Rivera; bass-baritone David Weigel, and bass Anthony Reed. Accompaniment is provided by a chamber ensemble of Lyric Opera Orchestra members and Ryan Opera Center pianist Chris Reynolds; Christopher Allen conducts. The concert streams at 7 p.m. April 29 and then on demand. Visit lyricopera.org.
Sea songs
Tom KastleJeff Vrstal
Suddenly sea shanties are a thing. The genre has been trending online and awakening interest in these work songs that originated on large merchant sailing ships. For decades Tom Kastle has been traveling the world, collecting and performing these maritime songs and stories while also captaining sailing ships on the Great Lakes. The Madison, Wisconsin-based singer performs shanties and more in a livestreamed concert at 8 p.m. April 29 via the Old Town School of Folk Music. Tickets: $20. Visit oldtownschool.org.
Sporting news
Toni GinnettiSun-Times file
Chicagosports fans can catch the annual Ring Lardner Awards Ceremony when the event streams live at 7 p.m. April 29. The awards, presented by Union League Boys & Girls Clubs, honor excellence in sports journalism. This year’s honorees are former Chicago Sun-Times sportswriter Toni Ginnetti; WGN-Channel 9 sports anchor Dan Roan and, posthumously, former Chicago Tribune sports editor Cooper Rollow. Featured are panel discussions about their experiences in sports journalism and a silent auction of sports memorabilia with proceeds benefiting Union League. Visit ulbgc.org/events/ringlardner2021/.
Out of this world
Julie Proudfoot (left) and Shariba Rivers in “Goods.”Artemisia Theatre
Lauren Ferebee’s new play “Goods,” a sci-fi adventure about two intergalactic trash collectors, recently won the 2021 Planet Earth Arts Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. The play now receives its virtual world premiere via Artemisia Theatre. Julie Proudfoot and Shariba Rivers star as the trash collectors who embark on a mysterious mission in their small and dingy spaceship; E. Faye Butler directs. “Goods” streams May 5-30. Tickets: $30. Visit artemisiatheatre.org.
Reconnect with hope
Dylan Gutierrez and Jeraldine Mendoza in “Under the Trees’ Voices.”Matt de la Pena
The Joffrey Ballet’s Studio Series continues with “Under the Trees’ Voices,” a new work choreographed by the company’s rehearsal director Nicolas Blanc. Featuring 15 Joffrey artists, the piece is set to “Symphony No. 2” by Italian composer Ezio Bosso. Blanc was listening to the piece in the spring of 2020 as he walked along Lake Michigan and was inspired to create the new work as he noticed the changes in people’s moods as the weather began to improve. “It was so nice to reconnect with nature, which is such a powerful component in our lives as it helps us regain more profoundly our inner self,” Blanc says. “The piece is definitely meant to be hopeful.” “Under the Trees’ Voices” streams free at 7 p.m. April 30 and then on demand. Visit joffrey.org.
Drive-in chills
“Midsommar”A24
We’re halfway to Halloween, so what better time for “Half-O-Ween: Horror Weekend at the Drive-In,” a mini-fest featuring five classic horror films presented by the Music Box Theatre and Creepy Co. The lineup features “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” (April 30), “Midsommar” and “Alucarda” (May 1), “Friday the 13th, Part III” and “Sleepaway Camp” (May 2). Enjoy the chills at Chi-Town Drive-In, 2343 S. Throop. Tickets: $30/car for single feature, $45/car for double feature. Visit musicboxtheatre.com.
Celebrating Martha
Xin Ying (left) and Lloyd Knight in “Saraband.”Brigid Pierce
The Martha Graham Dance Company celebrates its 95th anniversary with “GrahamFest95,” a three-day virtual festival featuring an array of Graham’s classic works (including “Saraband,” “Deep Song” and “Conversations of Lovers”), the company premiere of Elisa Monte’s “Treading,” four solo works by Sir Robert Cohan, a duet from Troy Schumacher’s “The Auditions” and more. The festival wraps up with a closing night Zoom event with the dancers. Streams from April 30-May 2. Tickets: $30/program; $95 festival pass; closing night party $40. For more information, visit marthagraham.org.
Virtual stage
“Vancouver”Ma-Yi Theater Company
Ma-Yi Theater Company and Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival present “Vancouver,” a puppet play about a mixed-race family who relocate from Japan to the Pacific Northwest. Streams at 6 p.m. April 30. Free, donations appreciated. Visit ma-yistudios.com or chicagopuppetfest.org. … American Blues Theater’s reading series continues with Karissa Murrell Myers’ “On the Greenbelt,” a drama about a woman who can’t shake the memories that haunt her. Tickets: pay-what-you-can. Visit americanbluestheater.com. … Ghostlight Ensemble presents a reading of Victoria Benedictsson’s “The Enchantment.” Streams at 2 p.m. May 2. Tickets: pay-what-you-can. Visit ghostlightensemble.com. … Del Shores’ “Southern Baptist Sissies” is featured in a reading by Pride Arts. Streams at 7 p.m. May 4. Tickets: $10. Visit pridearts.org.
Michael Bussan considers himself a tough guy, but the Uber driver couldn’t help crying as he rushed a wounded man and his brother to a hospital after they crashed their car while fleeing from a shooting.
“His brother is screaming, ‘I’ve got you bro, I’ve got you bro,'” Bussan said. “I’ve never seen two people care so much about each other.”
Bussan said he had dropped off a passenger in the South Loop when he saw the crash in the 1000 block of South Clark Street around 11:30 p.m.
The brothers and another person had been riding in a silver Chevrolet Malibu when someone in another car fired at them around 11:20 p.m., hitting one of the brothers several times in the abdomen in the 2900 block of South Indiana Avenue.
The driver of the Malibu continued driving to get to a hospital, but crashed into a Jeep Wrangler, police said. Coming on the scene, Bussan said he asked what happened and was told a man had been shot but that an ambulance was still several minutes away.
People were staring at the scene from a distance with their phones out, said Bussan, 46. “They wouldn’t get out of their cars. And I’m like, ‘Are you going to help him?’
“I’m like, ‘I’ll take you, both of you,” Bussan said he told the 21-year-old gunshot victim and his brother. “Take care of your brother while I’m driving.”
Bussan said the brother called his mother, a nurse, who told him to remove his shirt and apply pressure on the wounds. “Just push your hands against his stomach and hold in as much blood as you can,” Bussan recalled her saying.
“I was doing like 100 mph down Columbus to get to that hospital,” he said. “And when I entered there, I was yelling, ‘I’ve got a kid with bullet wounds and he’s dying. He’s got minutes.'”
Bussan said doctors stabilized the man’s condition, but he remained on a ventilator due to the trauma and blood loss. Police said the man was listed in critical condition.
The brother’s mother showed up to the hospital and thanked Bussan for “giving them an opportunity to fight for their lives,” he said.
Bussan said he teared up while witnessing one brother care for the other. “I’m a bodybuilder, powerlifter, and I’m Polish and Russian. If we sit there and cry, they’d say man up,” Bussan said.
“Last night, everyone who called me said, ‘God was on your side,'” he added. “That’s the first time I’ve seen bunch of 300-pound men say, ‘God was with you, bro.’ Everyone had a soft side last night. And I’m like, this is the only night we’re sharing this, otherwise we’re a bunch of tough guys.”
“Why you shooting me?” Anthony Alvarez, wounded on the pavement, asks the officer. “You had a gun,” said the officer.
Video released Wednesday shows a Chicago police officer fatally shoot Anthony Alvarez as he ran from police with a gun in his hand in the Portage Park neighborhood.
A Chicago police officer yells “Drop the gun! Drop the gun!” before firing five shots from close range, according to the police bodycam video released by the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates police shootings.
Alvarez, 22, collapses onto the front sidewalk of a home on the 5200 block of West Eddy Street in the early-morning hours of March 31.
A gun can be seen in Alvarez’s right hand in the footage captured by the body camera of the officer who pulled the trigger.
Video from a camera mounted to a home feet from where Alvarez collapsed shows a gun drop from his hand as he falls to the pavement.
“Why you shooting me?” Alvarez asks the officer.
“You had a gun,” said the officer, who then tells his partner to place handcuffs on Alvarez.
“No, I’m going to render aid,” his partner says before applying a tourniquet and administering chest compressions.
The video doesn’t show Alvarez pointing a gun at the officers in pursuit.
Pat Nabong/Sun-TimesA memorial for Anthony Alvarez is set up at North Laramie Avenue and West Eddy Street in the Portage Park neighborhood, near the spot where Alvarez was fatally shot by a Chicago police officer.
Alvarez was wounded twice, once in the right side of his back with an exit wound in the upper right chest, and once in his right thigh, according to a police document released Wednesday. He was pronounced dead at Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
The Chicago Police Department and COPA said Alvarez ran off as tactical officers approached him at a gas station, leading to a foot chase. What the officers wanted from Alvarez wasn’t disclosed.
However, at an unrelated news conference before the video was released, Mayor Lori Lightfoot referred to it as “a minor traffic offense,” saying: “We can’t live in a world where a minor traffic offense results in someone being shot and killed. That’s not acceptable to me and shouldn’t be acceptable to anyone.”
COPA announced Wednesday it had recommended the officer who shot Alvarez be relieved of police powers during the investigation, which would mean the officer would be placed on paid desk duty after a standard 30-day leave.
Police Supt. David Brown said Wednesday at a news conference that he hadn’t been notified of the COPA recommendation.
Brown declined to share additional details of the shooting, what led to it or his thoughts on it, saying it was important he refrain from sharing his opinion so COPA could conduct a “clean and clear” investigation.
The 30-year-old officer who fired the fatal shots joined the force in 2015, according to the Invisible Institute, which tracks police discipline. The Institute’s website says the officer was accused of misconduct in a South Side traffic stop in 2017, but the case was closed without being sustained. The Sun-Times isn’t naming him because he isn’t officially accused of wrongdoing.
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said the shooting was justified.
“It’s a 100% good shooting,” he said, adding that, in his opinion, Alvarez was turning, gun in hand, to face the officer when the shooting occurred.
“The offender was trying to turn to the left, you don’t wait until the guy turns all the way around and squares up to you until you shoot,” he said.
Catanzara said the officer, in fear for his life, moved left to seek cover behind nearby parked cars when he fired his weapon.
“The officer actually even raises his left hand almost to his face, almost trying to block a bullet, it goes to the mindset of where the officer was,” he said.
Lightfoot and attorneys representing the Alvarez family issued a joint statement Wednesday morning asking for people who wish to “express themselves” in response to the video “do so peacefully and with respect for our communities and the residents of Chicago.
The shooting happened two days after an officer shot and killed Toledo on March 29 in Little Village. Toledo’s killing also happened during a foot chase, prompting Lightfoot to direct CPD to draft a new foot pursuit policy.
Ashlee Rezin Garcia | Sun-TimesA protest march earlier this month in and around Logan Square was sparked by the fatal shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, but some participants also wanted to call attention the police shooting of Anthony Alvarez.
WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO
The mayor said Wednesday the police department is making progress on her directive to revise the foot chase policy.
“As I’ve said before, it’s one of the most dangerous activities that officers engage in. Dangerous for themselves. Dangerous for the person being pursued. And it’s dangerous for members of the public.”
Lightfoot urged everyone to “look at both the raw footage” of the Alvarez shooting “at real speed” as well as the “frame-by-frame” of what happened.
“I understand, having investigated many of these shootings, that officers are, in many instances, called upon to make split-second decisions, particularly in instances like this one where there’s a gun,” said Lightfoot, a former Police Board president.
“Nonetheless … a traffic incident … should not result in the death of anyone. So we have more work to do to be sure.”
Lightfoot said she hopes to have that new foot chase policy ready for public review sometime next month.
But, she said, it’s got to be done “the right way” with plenty of input.
“What I’ve encouraged the department to do is to make sure they’re engaging on the front-end with key stakeholders, not the least of which is line police officers who are gonna be responsible for implementing whatever the new policy is. We have to have their voices, as well as community voices, in those discussions … and reflected in the new policy,” the mayor said.
“It’s really important that we get it right,” Brown said of the policy.
Brian Rich/Sun-Times fileThe iconic lion statues wear face masks outside the The Art Institute of Chicago last May, one day ahead of a statewide mandate requiring masks in public places.
Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady on Tuesday said the city will launch a COVID-19 vaccination passport program next month for admission to select concerts geared toward young people, in another effort to “incentivize” residents to get their shots.
For now, the city is working with club organizers on setting up shows and other events with “a youth flavor,” Arwady said, but the “Vax Pass” concept could end up applying to other venues, too.
“As we build vaccine confidence and convenience, we’re interested in thinking about ways to incentivize people to get the vaccine,” Arwady said. “I would hope that for most people their main incentive is to be able to stay healthy, keep their families healthy, keep their communities healthy — but we also know, younger people in particular may be excited about the idea of getting into events, for example, that might be limited to people who are vaccinated.”
Arwady stressed, “We are never going to require vaccination for all Chicago residents. That will never be a requirement, but I think increasingly, where people are wanting to do things and lower their risk, vaccination is going to be your ticket to doing some of that.”
4:36 p.m. ‘Preferred seating’ at events like Lollapalooza could be used as vaccination incentive, mayor says
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday said the proposal to create a coronavirus vaccine passport for Chicago events is “very much a work in progress” but that preferred seating at those events could be one way to urge vaccination.
The concept is to use the “Vax Pass” as a carrot, instead of a stick, to bolster vaccination rates among young people most likely to attend outdoor music events like Lollapalooza and Riot Fest.
“We’re gonna be looking at ways in which we can incentivize people to get vaccinated and do that by looking at preferred seating. Preferred admission,” she said.
Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady on Tuesday had said the city will launch the vaccination passport program next month, but stopped short of saying large summer events such as Lollapalooza are officially back on.
Lightfoot discussed the program Wednesday at an unrelated event in Bronzeville, where she also sounded the alarm once again about the need to get vaccinated.
Vaccine “uptake among Black Chicagoans still lags behind every other demographic,” the mayor said, and that needs to change, particularly among African-Americans between the ages of 18 and 44.
“We need you to get vaccinated. Do it, of course, for yourself, but [also] for your family, for your grandparents. When you get vaccinated , it’s gonna be an easier return to a different life. I won’t say a normal old life because I don’t think that’s ever coming back. But I think the opportunities for opening up the city increase with the number of people who get vaccinated,” the mayor said.
1:50 p.m. Pritzker considering vaccine requirement for students returning to state universities
Students returning to public universities in Illinois might need to receive their COVID-19 vaccination before they’re allowed to return to campuses this fall, but it’s up to them — for now.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s health team has already deployed mobile vaccination units to many state schools to encourage inoculations, but he didn’t rule out a statewide mandate Wednesday as vaccine demand starts to wane across Illinois.
“We want everybody to get vaccinated, there’s no doubt. As to whether we would require people to get vaccinated in order to come back on campus, that’s something that’s under some discussion around the nation,” Pritzker said during an unrelated news conference at Heartland Community College in downstate Normal.
Some private universities have already announced vaccine requirements, including three in Chicago: Columbia College, DePaul University and Loyola University Chicago. The public university system in Massachusetts announced a mandate earlier this week.
10:45 a.m. Expected COVID baby boom may be baby bust: analysis
NEW YORK — When most of the U.S. went into lockdown over a year ago, some speculated that confining couples to their homes — with little to entertain them beyond Netflix — would lead to a lot of baby-making. But the statistics suggest the opposite happened.
Births have fallen dramatically in many states during the coronavirus outbreak, according to an Associated Press analysis of preliminary data from half the country.
The COVID-19 baby boom appears to be a baby bust.
Nationally, even before the epidemic, the number of babies born in the U.S. was falling, dropping by less than 1% a year over the past decade as many women postponed motherhood and had smaller families.
But data from 25 states suggests a much steeper decline in 2020 and into 2021, as the virus upended society and killed over a half-million Americans.
Births for all of 2020 were down 4.3% from 2019, the data indicates. More tellingly, births in December 2020 and in January and February 2021 — nine months or more after the spring 2020 lockdowns — were down 6.5%, 9.3% and 10% respectively, compared with the same months a year earlier.
December, January and February together had about 41,000 fewer births than the same three-month span a year earlier. That’s an 8% decline.
“When there’s a crisis, I don’t think people are thinking about reproduction,” said Dr. John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health who reviewed the AP’s analysis.
8:15 a.m. Closed by COVID-19, hotel overlooking riverwalk sends ‘message of hope’ through window designs
Driving North on Michigan Avenue, the image became clearer near Wacker Drive.
Yup. That definitely looks like a tulip on the south exterior of the Sheraton Grand Chicago hotel. And that must be a sun with a spray of sunrays in the left corner.
If you’ve driven through downtown this past year, you’ve likely seen other images: a heart at the peak of the pandemic; a gingerbread man at Christmas; a martini glass at New Year’s.
Or maybe the nods to Chicago institutions: a Cubs “W,” the “LU,” when Loyola University progressed in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
“I’ll send an idea to the general manager and say, ‘What do you think?’ Then armed with a map of the building, the targeted windows and the room numbers, we unleash our fantastic engineering team,” said Sheraton’s chief engineer, Mike Dukelow.
7 a.m. CDC says many Americans can now go outside without mask
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its guidelines Tuesday on the wearing of masks outdoors, saying fully vaccinated Americans don’t need to cover their faces anymore unless they are in a big crowd of strangers.
And those who are unvaccinated can go outside without masks in some cases, too.
The new guidance represents another carefully calibrated step on the road back to normal from the coronavirus outbreak that has killed over 570,000 people in U.S.
For most of the past year, the CDC had been advising Americans to wear masks outdoors if they are within 6 feet of each other.
The change comes as more than half of U.S. adults have gotten at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, and more than a third have been fully vaccinated.
More people need to be vaccinated, and concerns persist about variants and other possible shifts in the epidemic. But Saag said the new guidance is a sensible reward following the development and distribution of effective vaccines and about 140 million Americans stepping forward to get their shots.
Miguel Cabrera reacts after hitting a solo home run against the White Sox during the first inning Tuesday, April 27, 2021, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski) | AP Photos
Miguel Cabrera took issue with White Sox rookie Nick Madrigal’s accusations Wednesday, saying the second baseman’s warnings to pitcher Lucas Giolito and catcher Yasmani Grandal that signs were being stolen Tuesday night were unfounded.
Tigers star Miguel Cabrera took issue with White Sox rookie Nick Madrigal’s accusations Wednesday, saying the second baseman’s warning to pitcher Lucas Giolito and catcher Yasmani Grandal that signs were being stolen during the Tigers’ 5-2 win over the Sox Tuesday at Guaranteed Rate Field were unfounded.
Talking to media on a zoom call Wednesday, Cabrera, who hit a 445-foot home run in the first inning, jawed with Madrigal during the sixth inning while Robbie Grossman was on second base.
“It was the second baseman,” Cabrera said. “He tried to tell the catcher and the pitcher that we passed the signs. I mean, come on, that’s some bulls—t. I don’t play that game. You need to respect the game. You don’t need to show up me or the runner on second, trying to say we passed the sign from second. Come on, get the f— out of here.”
Tigers manager AJ Hinch was fired by the Astros and suspended by MLB in 2020 for his role, as the team’s manager, in an elaborate video sign-stealing scandal. It was suggested to Cabrera that Hinch’s history might have heightened the Sox’ awareness of stealing signs, even from the bases.
“I don’t care why they’re doing it, but they need to stop because we don’t play that game,” Cabrera said. “That’s why I said something to him right away.”
Cabrera said his concern Tuesday was that the Tigers might face retaliation at the plate on Wednesday.
“Everybody is paranoid about [sign-stealing] right now, but [the Sox] are over the limit. They need to respect that. If we didn’t say that, the next day we’re going to be hit by a pitch or something like that. And we don’t play that game, we respect the game.”
Asked about it Wednesday, Sox manager Tony La Russa said he respected Cabrera’s take but also said it’s Madrigal’s job as a middle infielder to be vigilant about sign stealing.
Family of Ahmaud Arbery embrace at the Glynn County Courthouse during a protest of the shooting death of Arbery on May 8, 2020 in Brunswick, Georgia. | Getty
The criminal case charging the three men in connection with the death Arbery is the most significant civil rights prosecution undertaken to date by the Biden administration Justice Department.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department brought federal hate crimes charges Wednesday in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, charging a father and son who armed themselves, chased and fatally shot the 25-year-old Black man after spotting him running in their Georgia neighborhood.
Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory, were charged along with a third man, William “Roddie” Bryan, with one count of interference with civil rights and attempted kidnapping. The McMichaels are also charged with using, carrying and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.
The case is the most significant civil rights prosecution undertaken to date by the Biden administration Justice Department and comes as federal officials have moved quickly to open sweeping investigations into troubled police departments as civil rights takes center stage among the department’s priorities.
The indictment charges that the McMichaels “armed themselves with firearms, got into a truck and chased Arbery through the public streets of the neighborhood while yelling at Arbery, using their truck to cut off his route and threatening him with firearms.” It also alleges that Bryan got into a truck and then chased Arbery, using the vehicle to block his path.
Arbery, 25, was killed on Feb. 23, 2020, by three close-range shotgun blasts after the McMichaels pursued him in a pickup truck as he was running through their neighborhood. Arbery had been dead for more than two months when a cellphone video of the shooting was leaked online and a national outcry erupted.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case the next day and swiftly arrested Travis McMichael, who fired the shots, his father, and Bryan, a neighbor who joined the pursuit and took the video. The three men remain jailed on state murder charges and are due back in court in May.
The McMichaels’ lawyers have said they pursued Arbery, suspecting he was a burglar, after security cameras had previously recorded him entering a home under construction. They say Travis McMichael shot Arbery while fearing for his life as they grappled over a shotgun.
Local prosecutors have said Arbery stole nothing and was merely out jogging when the McMichaels and Bryan chased him.
The Justice Department alleges that the men “used force and threats of force to intimidate and interfere with Arbery’s right to use a public street because of his race.”
At the time Arbery was killed, Georgia was one of just four U.S. states without a hate crimes law. Amid the outcry over his death, Georgia lawmakers quickly passed a law allowing for an additional penalty for certain crimes found to be motivated by a victim’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, or mental or physical disability.
The men charged with murdering Arbery won’t face hate crime penalties at the state level because the law was changed after the killing.
Attorneys for Travis McMichael said they were disappointed “that the Justice Department bought the false narrative that the media and state prosecutors have promulgated.”
“There is absolutely nothing in the indictment that identifies how this is a federal hate crime and it ignores without apology that Georgia law allows a citizen to detain a person who was committing burglaries until police arrive,” attorneys Bob Rubin and Jason Sheffield said.
Gregory McMichael’s attorneys, Frank and Laura Hogue, did not immediately respond Wednesday to an email seeking comment and Bryan’s attorney, Kevin Gough, said he had no immediate comment because he had not read the federal indictment.
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
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