See Red Fred and the Podfather Doug Thonus discuss the state of the team after the big bounceback win in Boston.
The post The Big Red Bus – Episode 62 – Bounceback in Boston first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More
The Big Red Bus – Episode 62 – Bounceback in BostonNick Bon April 21, 2021 at 2:32 pm Read More »
Get the latest news on how COVID-19 is impacting Chicago and Illinois. Follow here for live updates.
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday she expects Bulls and Blackhawks fans will be allowed to watch home games at the United Center this season, barring a turn for the worse in COVID-19 cases.
“We feel like we might be plateauing and even, dare to dream, going down,” Lightfoot said of COVID-19 cases during an unrelated news conference. “Going down is the right time to have that conversation. So we’ll continue with that, and I expect before seasons end there will be fans in the United Center.”
The Bulls and Blackhawks each have seven regular-season home games on their schedules.
A limited number of fans have been able to attend home games for the Chicago Cubs and White Sox, but those fans are at a decreased risk of COVID-19 transmission because seats are in an open-air setting. Fans were allowed into Soldier Field to watch the Chicago Fire home opener on Saturday, too.
Read Mitch Dudek’s story here.
Budweiser is the latest brand to raise awareness for the COVID-19 vaccines by offering free beer to those who get vaccinated.
The Anheuser-Busch beer brand has brought back its popular Budweiser Clydesdales and a puppy for the commercial called “Reunited with Buds,” which posted to YouTube Thursday and is scheduled to run on national television April 26, the company told USA TODAY.
Set to the tune of Queen’s hit “Don’t Stop Me Now,” the ad “celebrates our favorite bars as they start to reopen and reminds people to safely return to them once they have been vaccinated,” the company said.
To help encourage more to get vaccinated, there’s also a contest with 10,000 free beers up for grabs.
Now through May 16, or while supplies last, U.S. residents 21 and older can enter the “Reunite with Buds” giveaway at ABeerOnBud.com with proof of vaccination.
10 places everyone’s talking about (in order of heat)Read More
The 10 Hottest Restaurants in Chicago Right NowLynette Smithon April 21, 2021 at 3:25 pm Read More »
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The fatal shooting of a knife-wielding Black teenage girl by police in Columbus, Ohio, came within minutes of the verdict in George Floyd’s killing — causing outrage by some in the community over the continued police use of lethal force.
Officials with the Columbus Division of Police released footage of the shooting Tuesday night just hours after it happened, a departure from protocol as the force faces immense scrutiny from the public following a series of recent high-profile police killings that have led to clashes.
The 10-second clip begins with the officer getting out of his car at a house where police had been dispatched after someone called 911 saying they were being physically threatened, Interim Police Chief Michael Woods said at the news conference. The officer takes a few steps toward a group of people in the driveway when the girl starts swinging a knife wildly at another girl or woman, who falls backward. The officer shouts several times to get down.
The girl with the knife then charges at another girl or woman who is pinned against a car.
From a few feet away, with people on either side of him, the officer fires four shots, and the teen slumps to the ground. A black-handled blade similar to a kitchen knife or steak knife lies on the sidewalk next to her.
A man immediately yells at the officer, “You didn’t have to shoot her! She’s just a kid, man!”
The officer responds, “She had a knife. She just went at her.”
The race of the officer wasn’t clear and he was taken off patrolling the streets for the time being.
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The girl was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said. It remains unclear if anyone else was injured. Police did not identify the girl or her age Tuesday. One family member said she was 15, while another said she was 16.
Woods said state law allows police to use deadly force to protect themselves or others, and investigators will determine whether this shooting was such an instance. Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation is now reviewing the killing following an agreement with the city last summer for all police shootings to be handled by the independent investigators under Attorney General Dave Yost’s office.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther mourned the loss of the young victim but defended the officer’s use of deadly force.
“We know based on this footage the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community,” he told reporters.
The shooting happened about 25 minutes before a judge read the verdict convicting former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin of murder and manslaughter in the killing of Floyd. It also took place less than 5 miles from where the funeral for Andre Hill, who was killed by another Columbus police officer in December, was held earlier this year. The officer in Hill’s case, Adam Coy, a 19-year veteran of the force, is now facing trial for murder, with the next hearing scheduled for April 28.
Less than three weeks before Hill was killed, a Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy fatally shot 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. in Columbus. The case remains under federal investigation.
Last week, Columbus police shot and killed a man who was in a hospital emergency room with a gun on him. Officials are continuing an investigation into that shooting.
Kimberly Shepherd, 50, who has lived in the neighborhood where Tuesday’s shooting took place for 17 years, said she knew the teenage victim.
“The neighborhood has definitely went through its changes, but nothing like this,” Shepherd said of the shooting. “This is the worst thing that has ever happened out here and unfortunately it is at the hands of police.”
Shepherd and her neighbor Jayme Jones, 51, had celebrated the guilty verdict of Chauvin. But things changed quickly, she said.
“We were happy about the verdict. But you couldn’t even enjoy that,” Shepherd said. “Because as you’re getting one phone call that he was guilty, I’m getting the next phone call that this is happening in my neighborhood.”
Columbus police officer fatally shoots teenage girlon April 21, 2021 at 2:26 pm Read More »
Let’s talk Exelon Corporation. The Loop-headquartered energy company with a comic-book villainous name is enormous. As in: $34 billion in annual revenue, 10 million utility customers, one of the largest owner-operators of nuclear power plants in the United States, with six in Illinois (two will close this fall). It also has six utility companies across the Midwest and mid-Atlantic regions, including northern Illinois’s favorite frenemy, Commonwealth Edison, unpopularly known as ComEd.
ComEd, an Exelon subsidiary since 2000, is the only electricity provider in Chicago. It doesn’t make power — it simply transports it from plants to your home. Consumer rights advocates have long argued that Exelon owning ComEd is a conflict of interest: The power generator has every incentive to overcharge the power provider, right?
In February, Exelon announced it would split into two separate companies: one for its regulated utilities (ahem, ComEd) and one for its unregulated generation of nuclear, natural gas, solar, and wind power. It’s aiming to complete this conscious uncoupling by the first quarter of 2022.
Why now? It’s not totally clear. Exelon says its customers expect it to “continuously innovate to stay ahead of growing demand for clean energy.” While Governor Pritzker has vowed to make Illinois carbon-free by 2050, there’s no indication that his plan informed Exelon’s decision to split, so J.B. doesn’t deserve all that much credit. Some suspect it’s an attempt to boost shareholder confidence after the ComEd bribery scandal broke in the summer of 2020 — ComEd is accused of paying off Mike Madigan’s cronies for legislative help (real classic Chicago stuff!) — though that’d be a pretty drastic move, considering Chicagoans can’t ditch ComEd even if they wanted to. But likely it’s still a way to appease investors.
Exelon is a peculiar investment because energy producers and providers have different business models. ComEd has a predictable, reliable one: It’s a regulated monopoly, everyone needs electricity, and power use doesn’t fluctuate wildly each year. But with Springfield and D.C. issuing carbon reduction goals and directives, energy production companies are changing course. Exelon says isolating its power generation business will give it the dexterity to innovate new forms of clean energy. In that transition away from nuclear fuel, Exelon could strike gold or, you know, fail spectacularly.
Right now, buying Exelon stock means you’re investing in a stable, boring company and a high-risk, high-reward one. Which is … financially confusing! Splitting into two distinct entities might encourage new investors who want to be more targeted with their money. Both of these companies will still be run by actual humans, not Lex Luthor.
Abe Scarr, director of the nonpartisan consumer rights advocacy group Illinois PIRG, has a relatively optimistic take on this corporate split. ComEd will have more leeway to buy energy on the free market — potentially, Scarr says, lowering customer bills. The dissolution could also mean that ComEd, now separate from Exelon’s nuclear plants, could get greener. “ComEd’s PR talks about clean energy all the time,” says Scarr. “But in Springfield, they’ve been fighting clean energy for years because clean energy is a competitor to Exelon’s nuclear plants.” (Wait, are multibillion-dollar corporations … not … honest with consumers?)
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. PIRG thinks the split only scratches the surface of the sordid alliance of ComEd, Exelon, and Springfield. The group is still calling for utility policy reform and customer restitution, postscandal. So don’t worry, there’s no reason to get too optimistic about Illinois’s climate future!
What the Exelon Split Might Mean for Your Electric Billon April 21, 2021 at 2:30 pm Read More »
It’s hard to believe it’s been 16 years since Madison stoner giants Bongzilla dropped a studio album—surely at least a few people rocking out to their brand-new Weedsconsin LP were in diapers back then. The band, formed as a four-piece in 1995, had a lengthy run as one of the midwest’s finest purveyors of slow, sludgy metal before going on hiatus in 2009.…Read More
Columbus police shot and killed a teenage girl who swung at two other people with a knife Tuesday, according to bodycam footage from the officer who fired the shots just minutes before the verdict in George Floyd’s killing was read.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus police shot and killed a teenage girl who swung at two other people with a knife Tuesday, according to bodycam footage from the officer who fired the shots just minutes before the verdict in George Floyd’s killing was read.
Officials with the Columbus Division of Police showed a segment of the footage Tuesday night just hours after the shooting took place in a neighborhood on the city’s east side. The decision to swiftly release the video was a departure from protocol as the force faces immense scrutiny from the public following a series of recent high-profile police killings that have led to clashes.
The 10-second clip begins with the officer getting out of his car at a house where police had been dispatched after someone called 911 saying they were being physically threatened, Interim Police Chief Michael Woods said at the news conference. The officer takes a few steps toward a group of people in the driveway when the girl, who was Black, starts swinging a knife wildly at another girl or woman, who falls backward. The officer shouts several times to get down.
The girl with the knife then charges at another girl or woman who is pinned against a car.
From a few feet away, with people on either side of him, the officer fires four shots, and the teen slumps to the ground. A black-handled blade similar to a kitchen knife or steak knife lies on the sidewalk next to her.
A man immediately yells at the officer, “You didn’t have to shoot her! She’s just a kid, man!”
The officer responds, “She had a knife. She just went at her.”
The race of the officer wasn’t clear.
The girl was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said. It remains unclear if anyone else was injured.
Police did not identify the girl or her age Tuesday. One family member said she was 15, while another said she was 16.
The shooting happened minutes before the verdict in the killing of George Floyd was announced. Protesters who had gathered peacefully after that verdict to call for police reform and accountability quickly shifted their focus to the killing of the girl. The crowd of about 100 could be heard chanting outside police headquarters as city officials offered their condolences to the family and acknowledged the rarity of showing bodycam footage so soon after a police shooting.
Woods said state law allows police to use deadly force to protect themselves or others, and investigators will determine whether this shooting was such an instance.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther mourned the loss of the young victim but defended the officer’s use of deadly force.
“We know based on this footage the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, outside the briefing, hundreds of protesters pushed past barriers outside police headquarters and approached officers as city officials were showing the bodycam video inside. Many chanted, “Say her name!” While others signified the victim’s age by yelling, “she was just a kid!” Officers with bicycles pushed protesters back and threatened to deploy pepper spray on the crowd.
The shooting happened about 25 minutes before a judge read the verdict convicting former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin of murder and manslaughter in the killing of Floyd. It also took place less than 5 miles from where the funeral for Andre Hill, who was killed by another Columbus police officer in December, was held earlier this year. The officer in Hill’s case, Adam Coy, a 19-year veteran of the force, is now facing trial for murder, with the next hearing scheduled for April 28.
Less than three weeks before Hill was killed, a Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy fatally shot 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. in Columbus. The case remains under federal investigation.
Last week, Columbus police shot and killed a man who was in a hospital emergency room with a gun on him. Officials are continuing an investigation into that shooting.
Kimberly Shepherd, 50, who has lived in the neighborhood where Tuesday’s shooting took place for 17 years, said she knew the teenage victim.
“The neighborhood has definitely went through its changes, but nothing like this,” Shepherd said of the shooting. “This is the worst thing that has ever happened out here and unfortunately it is at the hands of police.”
Shepherd and her neighbor Jayme Jones, 51, had celebrated the guilty verdict of Chauvin. But things changed quickly, she said.
“We were happy about the verdict. But you couldn’t even enjoy that,” Shepherd said. “Because as you’re getting one phone call that he was guilty, I’m getting the next phone call that this is happening in my neighborhood.”
___
Kryska reported from Hoboken, New Jersey.
When it comes to Patrick Kane, the NHL’s third-leading scorer this season, it’s difficult to ask for anything more.
But the Blackhawks have no choice but to do so.
The Hawks likely will need seven or eight wins over their final 10 games to qualify for the playoffs, and all 10 are against teams above them in the standings — including four against the Predators and Stars, the two teams they must catch.
They’ll need heroic performances from all of their best players to pull it off, and that list unquestionably starts with Kane.
“He wants to score,” coach Jeremy Colliton said Sunday, before the Hawks fell into a deeper hole with Monday’s 5-2 loss. “He puts a lot of pressure on himself to come through for the team. It’s only natural to be wanting more. But he has had his chances. Hopefully . . . he can use [his goal Saturday] to get going again.”
Kane scored his milestone 400th career goal Feb. 28, the Hawks’ 23rd game of the season. At that point, he had already tallied 11 goals and 23 assists for 34 points.
He has now played exactly 23 games since then, too, yet registered only four goals and 19 assists for 23 points.
Many NHL players long for a point-per-game pace like that. But the rebuilding Hawks rely so heavily on Kane right now that they objectively need more from him in order to survive.
The huge drop-off in goals is the biggest area of concern, and while bad luck has contributed — opposing goalies’ save percentage against Kane has ballooned from .866 in the first segment to .947 in the second — Kane feels the pressure.
“For the most part, I’ve had my chances,” he said Sunday. “It just hasn’t really been there for me, the finish lately. That’s been disappointing because that’s something I usually feel I’m pretty good at.”
Digging deeper into the analytics reveals some genuine reasons for concern regarding Kane’s second-half decline, even if it is understandable for a 32-year-old forward playing a condensed season with a less-than-loaded supporting cast.
At even strength, Kane took 105 shot attempts through Feb. 28. He has taken only 73 since. Of those attempts, the percentage credited as scoring chances has dropped from 58.1% to 54.8%.
Those individual declines mirror the Hawks’ team statistics during Kane’s ice time. They took 338 cumulative even-strength shot attempts, of which 53.3% were scoring chances, during his first 23 games. They’ve taken only 307, of which only 45.0% have been scoring chances, during his last 23.
The end result is that Kane’s underlying stats for the 2021 season are now among the worst of his career.
His individual shot attempts rate is the lowest since his second NHL season; his individual scoring chances rate is his second-lowest since his rookie season (only 2015-16 was lower). The Hawks’ shot attempt and scoring chance rates during Kane’s ice time, meanwhile, are both the lowest since his rookie season.
The Hawks now must hope Kane finds a hidden energy tank for their backs-against-the-wall stretch run.
Perhaps Vinnie Hinostroza, Kane’s new linemate the last few games, can be the spark. They’ve shown promise so far, with a 3-1 goal differential and 11-8 scoring-chance differential together, and Kane recently said he has “always liked playing” with Hinostroza.
Perhaps some regression to the mean will also kick in. Colliton, for one, is praying it will.
“He’s going through a stretch where he’s not converting,” Colliton said recently. “That’s not going to carry on. He’s going to finish. He’s had some really good looks. He’s hit some people. Our own guy blocked a couple that were going in. He’s had some other ones that typically he finds a way to finish.
“We know he’s going to come through. We got some big games coming up, so it’d be a good time for that shooting percentage to even out.”
When Jeffrey P. Haydon took over as president and chief executive officer of the Ravinia Festival in early September, six months into the devastating coronavirus pandemic, he did not have the luxury of a soft landing.
The seasoned arts administrator had to immediately help stabilize the venerable Highland Park event’s shaky finances and begin determining if there were a way it could present much-desired, in-person performances in 2021.
The big news is that Ravinia will present a live season this summer that will have about the same duration as usual but will likely feature 80-85 classical, jazz, pop and family events compared to the 110-120 that typically take place in a normal year. The schedule is expected to be announced in early May.
“The board and I had a very passionate conversation where we all agreed that we wanted to open up Ravinia if it were safe to do so,” Haydon said. “Everyone realized that we have a mission and we need to fulfill that mission by bringing live music to people.”
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Ravinia is the longtime summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and a highlight of this year’s season will be a full six weeks of performances by the ensemble, with the maximum number of on-stage musicians capped at around 50 because of COVID-19 safety protocols. Seven concerts will be led by Marin Alsop in her first season as Ravinia’s chief conductor and curator.
Because Ravinia was not able to present a summer season in 2020, the organization suffered a $6 million deficit in its fiscal year ending Sept. 30. It made up that loss by borrowing from its endowment fund, the investment earnings from which it normally uses to help subsidize its operations.
“You’re robbing a little bit from the future when you do that,” Haydon said. “But I think everybody felt confident that was one of those one-time rainy-day moments where it made sense to do that.”
Haydon, a San Francisco Bay area native who grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, always loved music but didn’t want to be a professional musician. When he attended the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, he became involved with a student-run performing arts series, and arts administration has been his passion since.
He has enjoyed a varied career that included a three-year stint in the development department at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, he served eight years as chief executive officer of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, New York. It presents an annual summer festival, which, though smaller than Ravinia, has a somewhat similar multi-genre thrust, including classical, jazz and roots music.
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Haydon decided to seek the Ravinia position in part because of his long admiration of the event. His wife is a fourth-generation Chicagoan, and when the two were discussing marriage, she took him on a tour of her favorite places in Chicago and one them was Ravinia.
“Obviously, the facilities here are second to none,” he said, “and seeing what Welz [Kauffman, former president and CEO of Ravinia] had done over the years to broaden the impact of Ravinia not only as a concert presenter but also in the community, that was a huge opportunity to say yes.”
Kauffman held the chief executive position for 20 years and oversaw $65 million in infrastructure improvements, including construction of the RaviniaMusicBox, an immersive multimedia space set to open this season. Haydon, who comes across on first meeting as even-keeled and down to earth — a seeming contrast to Kauffman’s sometimes outsized personality — had nothing but praise for his predecessor.
“I’ve really appreciated the guidance and mentorship that he’s given over the years. He has huge footprints to step into here, and I was really humbled by the opportunity to follow in those footsteps.”
With his hands full trying to reopen the festival in 2021, Haydon said it is too soon to discuss his longer-range vision for the festival. But he did voice strong support for the Steans Music Institute, Ravinia’s well-regarded summer training program, and its community education initiative, Reach Teach Play.
“The fact,” he said, “that Ravinia values its work in the community as an advocate for the importance of music as an equal part of its mission to me is very inspiring, and very few other arts organizations have that.”
The festival has delayed the announcement of this season’s line-up in part because of last-minute determinations of what performers will be available.
“We have a number of pop artists that are booked already,” Haydon said. “I would say the big, big headliners, those are all circling around right now. Just in the last couple of weeks, they are more seriously trying to figure out how they might tour.”
At the same time, the festival is dealing with the many COVID-19 safety measures that have to be considered. It has partnered with Northwestern Medicine and consulted with an array of other organizations that present outdoor events from the Chicago Cubs to the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Mass.
If current Illinois Department of Public Health protocols hold, seating capacity will be 25 percent when tickets go on sale for the first half of the season. But Ravinia officials hope that maximum will be relaxed to some degree by then as vaccinations increase or at least by early July when the second round of tickets are expected to become available.
“You can’t create a 100 percent risk-free environment — it wasn’t that beforehand and it won’t be that afterward,” Haydon said. “But how do we do it where people feel comfortable?”
Kyle MacMillan is a local freelance writer.
The Chicago White Sox got the bats hot with 11 hits, winning 8-5 against the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night on the road. The Chicago White Sox need their best hitters to start to get going more. The White Sox saw four homers on 11 of their hits against the Indians. On a more exciting […]
Chicago White Sox: Top sluggers finally driving in runs against Indians – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & More
