One case in the quarterly report involves the city’s scandal-scarred Department of Water Management.
A motor truck driver who exposed himself and masturbated inside a Department of Water Management truck in broad daylight while parked in a residential neighborhood.
A ChicagoFire Department lieutenant who repeatedly sexually harassed a restaurant employee while on duty in uniform and a battalion chief who tried to cover it up.
An animal care inspector who sent unprovoked communications to a co-worker’s spouse alleging the co-worker was having an affair on the job.
Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s latest quarterly report includes allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment, including one involving the city’s scandal-scarred Department of Water Management.
“A Department of Water Management truck driver, while on duty, exposed themselves and masturbated inside a DWM truck. The motor truck driver performed these acts in the daytime while parked in residential neighborhood,” Ferguson wrote.
“The motor truck driver’s public indecency was observable to nearby members of the public, as indicated by a video an individual recorded, which showed the MTD masturbating.”
During an interview, the accused driver repeatedly lied to investigators by falsely claiming that he had “spilled a drink on themselves” and, later, that he was “urinating into a bottle,” according to the inspector general’s report.
The driver has been fired but is appealing the discharge.
In 2017, a shake up triggered by racist, sexist and homophobic emails swept out then-Water Management Commissioner Barrett Murphy and top deputies William Bresnahan and Paul Hansen, brother of former Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th).
A Chicago Fire Department lieutenant has been discharged after being accused of sexually harassing a restaurant employee for months “numerous times a week” while on duty and in uniform.
“While at the restaurant, the lieutenant singled out the employee and made unwanted and inappropriate comments, saying the victim was pretty, calling the victim ‘baby’ and ‘sweetie’, stating, ‘I’m gonna marry you someday,’ and, ‘Are you gonna make my food with love?’” Ferguson wrote.
“The unwanted attention caused the employee to move to the kitchen area whenever the lieutenant entered the restaurant. The sexual harassment culminated one afternoon when the lieutenant approached the restaurant employee and kissed them on the cheek without consent or invitation.”
The lieutenant was accused of lying to investigators. Ferguson further accused the lieutenant’s supervisor, a battalion chief, of conducting an “unsanctioned investigation” into the alleged misconduct “despite the close personal relationship between them.”
The battalion chief was further accused of threatening co-workers by saying, “No one better talk to the media about this or I’ll kick their teeth in.”
The lieutenant was fired but is appealing the discharge. The battalion chief received a written reprimand and anti-sexual harassment training.
The city employee accused of directing an associate to mail an anonymous letter to a co-worker’s spouse alleging an on-the-job affair worked as an inspector for the Commission on Animal Care and Control.
“In addition, the Animal Care investigator was involved in sending an anonymous email alleging the affair, alongside a LinkedIn request associated with an escort service to the spouse’s work email address,” the report states.
“By engaging in threatening conduct and going to great lengths to conceal their involvement in such conduct, [the inspector] demonstrated that they were unfit to continue their employment.”
Ferguson recommended that the inspector be fired, but the accused employee resigned before being terminated.
Rodon jumps for joy after out No. 27. | Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images
Carlos Rodon’s no-hitter — the 20th by a White Sox pitcher — was a reminder that baseball offers anyone who plays it the chance to show up on any given day and have the best damn day of his life.
Carlos Rodon wasn’t about to shut off the thank-you spigot Wednesday night after his no-hitter against the Indians at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The White Sox lefty thanked his parents, his wife, his kids, his in-laws, an aunt, an uncle, some cousins and coaches. Teammates, too, of course.
“I’m blessed to still be able to play this game,” he said.
Blessed to throw a no-no. Blessed to still be chasing his dream. Blessed to have major shoulder and arm trouble — Tommy John surgery in 2019, people — behind him, with whatever is left of the promise of a No. 3 overall draft selection in 2014 still in front of him.
This is a pitcher the Sox all but gave up on after the 2020 season. They brought him back for a song.
“A lot of work,” he said, water just having been dumped all over his head. “A lot of people. A lot of help went into this comeback. I’m just happy I’m here again.”
It was beautiful. It was history. It was sports standing up and declaring that, yes, even in a pandemic, what we do around here is important. It was a reminder that baseball, especially, offers anyone who plays it the chance to show up on any given day and have the best damn day of his life.
So let’s talk about no-hitters. Let’s talk about the magic of such occurrences.
“That was the most incredible thing that I’ve ever been a part of,” said Sox catcher Zack Collins.
A first-round pick in 2016, Collins, 26, has heard critics say throughout his pro career that he isn’t much of a receiver at all. Maybe they should ask Rodon — who didn’t shake off Collins on a single pitch — about that. There’s a whole who’s-who of backstops yet to go where Collins has now gone.
There have been 20 no-hitters by Sox pitchers, second only to the Dodgers’ 26. The Cubs are close behind with 16. At the other end of the spectrum are the Padres — around since 1969 — who got their first-ever no-hitter last weekend from hometown boy Joe Musgrove.
“It feels so incredible,” Musgrove said.
Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito wasn’t nearly as in touch with his feelings after no-hitting the Pirates last August.
“Oh, my God,” Giolito said then. “I don’t feel anything.”
It’s one thing for Giolito, who has ascended into the role of staff ace, to have such a big day. The last Sox pitcher before him to throw a no-hitter — and a perfect game on top of it — was Philip Humber in 2012. Humber had been the No. 3 overall pick, taken by the Mets, in 2004, but by 2012 he was a journeyman when he took the mound on a fateful April afternoon in Seattle.
“I can’t even put it into words,” he said after his perfecto. “I’m just so happy.”
He won only four games after that all season and lost his spot in the rotation, relegated to long relief. After 2012, Humber never won another big-league game. Artifacts bearing his name are in Cooperstown, New York, just the same.
Last September in Milwaukee, Alec Mills threw the Cubs’ first no-hitter since Jake Arrieta’s second one in 2016.
“I don’t really know what to say,” Mills said afterward. “I think it’s kind of hit me now — it’s very overwhelming, a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing.”
Especially if your team doesn’t give you 30 cracks at it each year. Mills, a pro’s pro who takes the ball and does whatever is asked of him, is viewed by the Cubs as a Swiss-army-knife type, meaning long relief, spot starts and, frankly, a whole lot of not getting to do what he wishes he were doing. But one day last year, at least, he wasn’t a jack of all trades. He was a master.
Mills’ catcher for the major league’s 305th no-hitter was Victor Caratini. A mere 208 days later, Caratini caught No. 306: Musgrove’s.
“I think it’s pretty rare to find yourself in those situations,” Caratini said.
Rare? No one had ever caught consecutive no-nos on the big-league list for different teams. This was beyond rare.
“It’s really awesome,” he said, and that was the truth.
Rodon may never not pile up All-Star honors and individual awards on the South Side. On a one-year deal — after being non-tendered in December — he could be gone at season’s end. But he sure gave us something to remember him by, didn’t he? Digging extra-deep on the mound in short sleeves on a cold night, he was part pitcher, part wild animal, part 1985 Bears offensive lineman.
It was magic.
“Holy crap,” he said when it was over. “I just can’t believe it. I can’t.”
Just leave the spigot open. This one lasts forever.
Public health officials on Friday announced Illinois’ second-most productive COVID-19 vaccination day yet with 166,885 doses going into arms statewide.
Nearly a quarter of all Illinoisans are now fully immunized against the coronavirus after Thursday’s shot effort, which came a week after the state set a record with almost 176,000 administered doses.
Illinois is now averaging about 130,000 shots per day as Chicago vaccine providers prepare to expand eligibility to all residents 16 and older starting Monday.
A federal pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine means there won’t be as many appointments available as officials might have thought a week ago, but the state has downplayed that obstacle. J&J doses only account for about 8% of Illinois’ vaccine supply.
Most appointments at city-run sites will go ahead as scheduled next week after shuffling around some doses, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Mass vax sites at the United Center and Chicago State University will use Pfizer doses instead of J&J, as will the off-site Walgreens clinics that are scheduled to distribute doses at houses of worship this weekend, officials said Friday. The city’s program for homebound residents has switched to Pfizer, too.
2:50 p.m. How to politely ask whether someone has gotten the COVID-19 vaccine
Have the people you know and might be around been vaccinated? Many of us aren’t quite sure how to ask.
It’s a seemingly simple question whether you’re asking before going on a date with someone new or planning a long-awaited hangout with friends. But it can feel uncomfortable to ask.
Partly that’s because of polarizing opinions the pandemic has prompted.
“Not everyone places the same value on being vaccinated,” says Lynn F. Bufka, the American Psychological Association’s senior director of practice transformation and quality. “There are people who are quite clear that they do not want to be vaccinated.”
1:05 p.m. Bulls’ Zach LaVine expected to miss several games in coronavirus protocol
Coby White appears to be lost in his bench role.
Lauri Markkanen looks like he already signed elsewhere.
Patrick Williams seems to have gone headfirst into the rookie wall.
Factor in two embarrassing losses in less than a week to the last-place Timberwolves and the tanking Magic, and, well, there’s seemingly no way things could get worse for the Bulls.
Then Thursday hit.
A noon practice was quickly cancelled after Zach LaVine entered the NBA’s health and safety protocol with a positive coronavirus test, according to a source.
The hope is LaVine only will be out a handful of days, but with the Bulls scheduled to play five games in the next seven days and with only 18 games left in the regular season, that could be the difference between holding on to the final play-in spot or sitting in a lottery position and praying for lottery luck.
12:15 p.m. US setting up $1.7B national network to track virus variants
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is setting up a $1.7 billion national network to identify and track worrisome coronavirus mutations whose spread could trigger another pandemic wave, the Biden administration announced Friday.
White House officials unveiled a strategy that features three components: a major funding boost for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health departments to ramp up coronavirus gene-mapping; the creation of six “centers of excellence” partnerships with universities to conduct research and develop technologies for gene-based surveillance of pathogens; and building a data system to better share and analyze information on emerging disease threats, so knowledge can be turned into action.
“Even as we accelerate our efforts to get shots into arms, more dangerous variants are growing, causing increases in cases in people without immunity,” White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt told reporters. That “requires us to intensify our efforts to quickly test for and find the genetic sequence of the virus as it spreads.”
10:45 a.m. After contracting COVID-19, ex-Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club boss Orvie Cochran gets early prison release
After Outlaws Motorcycle Club boss Orville “Orvie” Cochran survived a shooting outside the biker gang’s South Side clubhouse in 2000 — he slipped on some ice and fell, thus avoiding a hail of bullets — a former friend described him as “- – – damn lucky.”
Cochran’s luck still hasn’t run out.
Arrested in 2017 after being on the run for 16 years to avoid racketeering charges, he caught a break on his sentence. And now — after contracting the coronavirus in prison — Cochran has gotten a federal judge to free him from prison six months early.
The judge ordered a “compassionate” release for Cochran, who had asked for that even before getting infected because, he said, he was afraid he would and had health problems that could make COVID especially dangerous for him.
9 a.m. What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and will you need one?
What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and will I need one?
“Vaccine passports,” or vaccine certificates, are documents that show you were vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus. They could help you get into places such as stadiums or even countries that are looking to reopen safely.
The certificates are still being developed, and how and whether they’ll be used could vary widely around the world. Experts say they should be free and available on paper, not just on apps, since not everyone has a smartphone.
In the U.S., federal officials say there are no plans to make them broadly mandatory. In some states, Republican governors have issued orders barring businesses or state agencies from asking people to show proof of vaccination.
8:30 a.m. Pause on Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine won’t affect United Center appointments, city’s top doc says
Appointments at the United Center’s COVID-19 mass vaccination site will go on as scheduled next week with Pfizer doses being administered instead of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that’s been shelved nationwide, officials said Thursday.
The city’s most prominent mass vax site has been doling out Pfizer since it launched a month ago in a parking lot across the street from the Near West Side arena.
That’ll still be the case Monday, which is when the federally run site had been scheduled to switch to J&J doses — until a handful of extremely rare blood clots tied to that vaccine prompted a temporary suspension this week while experts investigate.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide additional Pfizer doses in its place, meaning plans won’t change for anyone with a United Center appointment, according to Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
“Everybody who has an appointment from Monday on at the United Center can keep that appointment. You do not need to do a thing. You will just receive Pfizer instead of Johnson & Johnson,” Arwady said during an online Q&A.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 3,581 new cases of the disease were diagnosed Wednesday among 105,661 tests to keep the state’s average testing positivity rate at 4.2%.
About one quarter of Illinois residents have been fully vaccinated so far, with 138,538 doses administered Tuesday. The state also reported 3,536 new cases and 31 more deaths.
Staff member of state House Speaker Emanuel ‘Chris’ Welch tests positive for COVID-19. The staff member was tested Monday as part of the Legislature’s required protocols to return to in-person work in the Capitol.
On April 5, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed legislation banning gender-confirming treatments or surgery for transgender youth. The state legislature voted to override his veto. | AP Photos
It’s the fundamental unseriousness of right-wing culture war posturing that astonishes: taking militant stands against imaginary threats.
How can somebody like me possibly live in darkest Arkansas, well-meaning correspondents sometimes want to know. And when the state legislature is in session, I do sometimes wonder.
All I can say is that I’m glad Arkansas is a state, not a country. Because I’m stuck on the place, mostly for personal reasons having nothing to do with politics.
“Thank God for Mississippi,” people here used to say, on the grounds that our neighbor to the east had an even more embarrassing history.
Of course, if Arkansas legislators didn’t have the federal courts to hide behind, they might be forced to act like adults instead of staging a spectacle for the backwoods churches. Because that’s all it is: a political puppet show. It’s the fundamental unseriousness of right-wing culture war posturing that astonishes: taking militant stands against imaginary threats and passing laws that have no chance of passing constitutional muster.
And it’s happening all over the South and rural Midwest. Anywhere white rural voters predominate, it’s the same story.
The Arkansas legislature has outdone itself this year, prompting even mild-mannered Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson to veto a particularly mean-spirited piece of legislation forbidding medical treatment to transgender adolescents — and never mind their doctors and parents. “The Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act,” they call it.
Hutchinson’s no liberal. For example, he’d previously signed a bill forbidding transgender girls from competing in girls’ high school sports — a situation that has arisen in the state exactly never. Right-wing imagineers envision a mortal threat to women’s athletics everywhere.
Meanwhile, the University of Arkansas fields nationally ranked teams in women’s basketball, softball and other sports. World-class identical twin pole vaulters recently graduated from the Fayetteville campus and began pharmacy school while continuing to train — a veritable wonder to behold.
But that’s mere reality, of little interest to zealots.
The governor also signed a law allowing health care professionals to refuse treatment to any patient whose real or suspected sexual proclivities they disapprove of. Something else that is going to happen rarely, if ever, in real life. Arkansas doctors do subscribe to the Hippocratic Oath.
Gov. Hutchinson called the bill forbidding treatment to transgender youth both cruel and unnecessary. Possibly he has a close friend or relative with a child of ambiguous gender. That’s often all it takes to make people act decently. He told a reporter for The New York Times that fellow Republicans too often acted “out of fear of what could happen, or what our imagination says might happen, versus something that’s real and tangible.”
Yes, exactly.
Hutchinson’s was a futile political gesture. Arkansas governors have no real veto power. It requires only a majority vote to overturn them, which the legislature did within 24 hours by a 3-to-1 ratio. The Arkansas ACLU has vowed to challenge the law in federal court. (The bill also says that insurance companies can refuse to cover such treatments in adult patients.)
Elsewhere, it’s been one bill after another aimed directly at federal courts. In March, Arkansas passed a near-total abortion ban. Hutchinson told reporters he’d have preferred a law that made exceptions for rape and incest, which the new law doesn’t. Nor for fetal anomalies.
In short, if a 14-year-old girl is impregnated by her drunk uncle, she must carry even a gravely deformed fetus to term regardless. The penalty is 10 years in prison.
Appearing with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union,” Hutchinson admitted that the new law “is not constitutional under Supreme Court cases right now. I signed it because it is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade … I think there’s a very narrow chance that the Supreme Court will accept that case, but we’ll see.”
Arkansas legislators also have declared all federal gun laws null and void within the state, a direct challenge to the Constitution’s supremacy clause that is absolutely certain to fail. Serious gun nuts don’t care. They don’t expect to win. They just want their collective amygdala massaged — the fight-or-flight organ buried deep in the limbic brain.
Pretty much the reason they’re gun nuts to begin with.
Which is closely related to the reason the legislature brought biblical creationism back, mandating a law permitting fundamentalist theology to be taught in public school science classes. This one I take personally, as I covered the 1981 trial in Little Rock federal court over the “Balanced Treatment of Creation-Science and Evolution Science Act,” when eminent scientists like Stephen Jay Gould convinced federal judge William Overton that the Arkansas law represented an unconstitutional “establishment of religion.”
Same as it ever was.
Look, it’s pretty basic. A large proportion of America’s rural white folks lost it over Barack Obama, and they ain’t come back yet. They thought Trump was going to return America to 1954, but now he’s gone, and they’re still hiding out in the woods.
“Justice 4 Daunte” is projected onto a residence as people take part in a protest near the Brooklyn Center Police Department over Sunday’s fatal shooting of Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, Thursday, April 15, 2021, in Brooklyn Center, Minn. | AP
Mayor Mike Elliott, who is Black, said at a news conference that “gassing is not a human way of policing” and he didn’t agree with police using pepper spray, tear gas and paintballs against demonstrators.
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — Elected leaders in the Minneapolis suburb where a police officer fatally shot Daunte Wright want officers to scale back their tactics amid nightly protests, leaving some law enforcement called in to assist asking whether the city still wants their help.
Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered outside the heavily guarded Brooklyn Center police station every night since former Officer Kim Potter, who is white, shot the 20-year-old Black motorist during a traffic stop on Sunday. Protesters have shouted profanities and at times shaken a security fence police erected outside the building and lobbed water bottles at officers. Police have driven away protesters with tear gas grenades, rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades and long lines of riot police.
Those tactics have not sat well with Brooklyn Center city officials.
Mayor Mike Elliott, who is Black, said at a news conference that “gassing is not a human way of policing” and he didn’t agree with police using pepper spray, tear gas and paintballs against demonstrators. Elliott didn’t respond to multiple messages Friday morning.
Protests continued after Potter was charged with second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday. The former police chief in the majority nonwhite suburb said Potter fired her pistol when she meant to use her Taser, but protesters and Wright’s family say there’s no excuse for the shooting. Both Potter and the chief resigned Tuesday.
The Brooklyn Center City Council on Monday passed a resolution banning the city’s officers from using tear gas and other chemicals, chokeholds and using police lines to arrest demonstrators. The resolution also allows protesters to videotape police.
But Brooklyn Center police aren’t dealing with protesters on their own. Other agencies, including the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department and the Minnesota National Guard, have provided support at the city’s request in a joint effort dubbed Operation Safety Net. The city’s resolution isn’t binding on those agencies.
Sheriff David Hutchinson asked Elliott in a letter on Wednesday to clarify whether he still wanted the department’s help.
“The city’s actions since Sunday evening have created significant confusion,” Hutchinson wrote. “In order to maintain peace and safety, it is critical that the City of Brooklyn Center communicate with its State, County, and local law enforcement partners regarding its ongoing need for mutual aid.”
Tensions in the area were already high amid the nearby trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in the death last year of George Floyd. The release Thursday of graphic police body camera footage showing a Chicago officer fatally shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo, a Hispanic boy, in March has further enflamed the situation.
Brooklyn Center has instituted a curfew each night, but in the last few nights, the gatherings have been declared unlawful well before then.
Local Progress Minnesota, a group of liberal-leaning local elected officials, echoed the call for an end to using tear gas and said curfew declarations should also end.
“The last few nights have been marred with unconscionable acts of oppression,” the group said in a letter. “This is not how we build a safer place for one another.”
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who doubles as commander-in-chief of the Minnesota National Guard, said at a Thursday news conference that he’s concerned about tactics but that police are trying to protect the community.
He said protesters might have burned down the police station and other buildings if police hadn’t intervened — lessons he learned after a Minneapolis police station burned during protests last year over Floyd’s death. Those demonstrations damaged more than 1,000 buildings across the Twin Cities area.
“I’ve learned from the past,” Walz said. “(The Brooklyn Center station) would have been burned down, and my fear is the surrounding apartments would have been burned, too. I trust our safety officials to be very judicious and think about this.”
Police say Wright was pulled over for expired tags, but they sought to arrest him after discovering he had an outstanding warrant. The warrant was for his failure to appear in court on charges that he fled from officers and possessed a gun without a permit during an encounter with Minneapolis police in June.
Body camera video shows Wright struggling with police after they say they’re going to arrest him. Potter, a 26-year veteran, pulls her service pistol and is heard repeatedly yelling “Taser!” before firing. She then says, “Holy (expletive), I shot him.”
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Richmond contributed from Madison, Wisconsin.
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Mohamed Ibrahim 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.
The Lakers’ Kobe Bryant (left) patterned his game after the Bulls’ Michael Jordan. | VINCENT LAFORET/AFP via Getty Images
If there hadn’t been an MJ, there wouldn’t have been a Kobe as we knew him.
Lots of people could do a lovely job of presenting the late Kobe Bryant at his enshrinement ceremony for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. If you played in the NBA as long as Bryant did (20 seasons), won as many NBA titles (five) and played in as many All-Star games (18), you’d have countless admirers with countless good thoughts. Teammates. Coaches. Competitors.
If a different route was favored, his wife could speak eloquently about him.
If there hadn’t been an MJ, there wouldn’t have been a Kobe Bryant as we knew him. There wouldn’t have been Kobe’s fadeaway jumpers or hang-time dunks. There wouldn’t have been Kobe’s hands bunching up the hem of his shorts while he leaned on his knees to catch a breath. There wouldn’t have been Kobe’s icy glare or his Jordan-like speech pattern and talking points, right down to acknowledgments of “my supporting cast.’’ All of it borrowed/stolen from Michael.
There would have been a great Bryant without Jordan, a Hall of Fame Bryant, but probably not one who reached the level he eventually reached. There wouldn’t have been a Jordan 2. So if Kobe long ago picked Michael as the player he wanted to be, Michael should be the one to talk about the player Kobe became.
Jordan it will be then, front and center, when Bryant gets enshrined posthumously next month into the Hall. Bryant, along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others, died in a helicopter crash 15 months ago in Calabasas, Calif. He was 41. It was as shocking a development as the sports world has seen, with a legendary player being yanked from this life out of thin air. The photos and video of a sobbing Jordan speaking at Bryant’s memorial won’t be forgotten for a long time.
If you were looking for the perfect basketball player when Kobe was growing up, it was Jordan you found. Years later, if you were looking for someone who patterned his career almost perfectly after Jordan’s, someone who created a wax museum lookalike, you ran smack into Bryant. For some Bulls fans, the very idea of it was obnoxious. Hey, buddy, develop your own game. But as time went on and Kobe’s abilities simply couldn’t be denied, what could you do? Everything in sports is derivative. Bryant had simply torn off a piece of tracing paper, put it over Jordan and taken his own game to another level. Simple? You try it and see how close you get. Bryant was phenomenal, and so what if it looked familiar? If fans couldn’t have Jordan anymore, why not feast eyes on his dunk-elganger?
Jordan, too, was annoyed by Bryant’s copycat ways, by the phone calls, by his constant questions about what it takes to be great. But he eventually caved in, impressed by Bryant’s drive and doggedness. He started thinking of him as his “little brother.’’ They were more like twin brothers born 15 years apart. Same height, 6-foot-6, with Bryant maybe 15 pounds heavier.
So who better to capture Kobe in a Hall of Fame induction speech than Michael? No one.
I hope Jordan finds time to mention the trouble Bryant got into as a player, because that’s a part of the former Laker great, too. In 2003, he was accused of sexually assaulting a hotel worker, but when the alleged victim refused to testify in court, charges were dropped. Bryant apologized publicly but wouldn’t admit guilt, though he did settle out of court after the woman filed a civil suit. If we’re trying to paint a full picture of the man, all of that matters, just as Jordan surely will decide that mentioning the good work Bryant did off the court matters, too. To not mention his past troubles at this point in history, in an era when women’s rights are front and center, would be insensitive.
I haven’t looked at social media, but I’m guessing there are jokes that Jordan will look for a way to rip the late Jerry Krause during his Bryant speech, the way he ripped the former Bulls general manager during his own Hall speech in 2009. That would be taking the Michael-Kobe symmetry a bit too far, but with MJ, never say never.
I envision a gracious speech. I envision a speech in which, at one point, we forget who’s talking, Jordan or Bryant. That would be the ultimate praise for a late, great twin brother.
Former NBA champion and All-Star Dwyane Wade has become a member of the Utah Jazz ownership group. | Wilfredo Lee/AP
“Not only is this group focused on building a championship franchise, they are also committed to using their platform to do good and actively create a more inclusive, equitable world,” Wade said.
SALT LAKE CITY — Dwyane Wade is an NBA owner.
The Utah Jazz announced Friday that the 13-time NBA All-Star will join the youngest ownership group in the league.
The group is headed by technology entrepreneur Ryan Smith, who along with his wife, Ashley, acquired majority interest in the Jazz in late 2020.
Wade and Smith have known each other for several years and had discussed working with each other in various capacities.
“Dwyane is not only a basketball legend, he is also a great leader, businessman, and human being,” Smith said in a statement. “As we continue to build on the incredible legacy of the Utah Jazz franchise, we are excited to add Dwyane’s experience and expertise to the equation. Utah is an amazing place and I couldn’t be more thrilled about the future of the franchise and the future of this state. Dwyane’s influence will be important to both.”
Wade played 16 NBA seasons with Miami, Chicago and Cleveland before retiring after the 2018-19 season. He won three NBA titles and had his No. 3 jersey retired by the Heat last month.
“Partnering with Ryan and the Utah Jazz is the perfect fit as we share the same vision and values,” Wade said. “Not only is this group focused on building a championship franchise, they are also committed to using their platform to do good and actively create a more inclusive, equitable world. We share a lot of the same goals and are trying to go the same places in life.”
Wade talked about entering into NBA ownership in the final seasons of his career and said in 2019 that he wanted to discuss the potential of joining the Heat leadership group. The sides talked later that year, with no agreement, and it’s not known if the conversations ever resumed.
“I want to congratulate Dwyane on his recent announcement,” Heat managing general partner Micky Arison said Friday. “We had discussed having him join our ownership group after his retirement but he was not prepared to commit at the time. Of course I am disappointed that he didn’t reconsider.
“Having said that I wish him good luck and much success with the Jazz. To me Dwyane will always be a Heat lifer.”
Yolanda Delgado receives her first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine last week at a site near Wrigley Field. About 3.2 million Illinois residents have been fully vaccinated. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Nearly 1.3 million residents have contracted the virus over the past year, compared to about 3.2 million who are now fully vaccinated — nearly a quarter of the population.
Public health officials on Friday announced Illinois’ second-most productive COVID-19 vaccination day yet with 166,885 doses going into arms statewide.
Nearly a quarter of all Illinoisans are now fully immunized against the coronavirus after Thursday’s shot effort, which came a week after the state set a record with almost 176,000 administered doses.
Illinois is now averaging about 130,000 shots per day as Chicago vaccine providers prepare to expand eligibility to all residents 16 and older starting Monday.
A federal pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine means there won’t be as many appointments available as officials might have thought a week ago, but the state has downplayed that obstacle. J&J doses only account for about 8% of Illinois’ vaccine supply.
Most appointments at city-run sites will go ahead as scheduled next week after shuffling around some doses, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Mass vax sites at the United Center and Chicago State University will use Pfizer doses instead of J&J, as will the off-site Walgreens clinics that are scheduled to distribute doses at houses of worship this weekend, officials said Friday. The city’s program for homebound residents has switched to Pfizer, too.
Three other city efforts are at a full stop for now, including the O’Hare Airport vaccination site for transportation workers and a series of Illinois Restaurant Association events. The city’s “vaccination bus” is out of service, too.
COVID-19 infections have been on the rise for the past month even while the vaccine effort picks up momentum — but officials have expressed optimism the state might be flattening its latest curve.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 3,866 more cases were diagnosed among the latest 93,602 tests, keeping the state’s seven-day average positivity rate at 4.2% — twice as high as it was in mid-March, but the fourth straight day it’s fallen or held steady.
Hospitals took on an additional 15 COVID-19 patients with 2,058 beds occupied Thursday night. That’s nearly a thousand more coronavirus patients than were admitted March 12.
The state also reported 21 more deaths, including that of a Cook County man in his 40s, raising Illinois’ pandemic toll to 21,630.
Nearly 1.3 million residents have contracted the virus over the past year, compared to about 3.2 million who are now fully vaccinated.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady have urged residents to get shots wherever they can find them. Thousands of appointments are available through the weekend and into next week at a federally run vaccination site in Gary, Indiana, which is open to Illinois residents.
For help finding a vaccine appointment in-state, visit coronavirus.illinois.gov or call (833) 621-1284.
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered by day
Graphic by Jesse Howe and Caroline Hurley | Sun-Times
Public health officials on Friday announced Illinois’ second-most productive COVID-19 vaccination day yet with 166,885 doses going into arms statewide.
Nearly a quarter of all Illinoisans are now fully immunized against the coronavirus after Thursday’s shot effort, which came a week after the state set a record with almost 176,000 administered doses.
Illinois is now averaging about 130,000 shots per day as Chicago vaccine providers prepare to expand eligibility to all residents 16 and older starting Monday.
A federal pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine means there won’t be as many appointments available as officials might have thought a week ago, but the state has downplayed that obstacle. J&J doses only account for about 8% of Illinois’ vaccine supply.
Most appointments at city-run sites will go ahead as scheduled next week after shuffling around some doses, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Mass vax sites at the United Center and Chicago State University will use Pfizer doses instead of J&J, as will the off-site Walgreens clinics that are scheduled to distribute doses at houses of worship this weekend, officials said Friday. The city’s program for homebound residents has switched to Pfizer, too.
1:05 p.m. Bulls’ Zach LaVine expected to miss several games in coronavirus protocol
Coby White appears to be lost in his bench role.
Lauri Markkanen looks like he already signed elsewhere.
Patrick Williams seems to have gone headfirst into the rookie wall.
Factor in two embarrassing losses in less than a week to the last-place Timberwolves and the tanking Magic, and, well, there’s seemingly no way things could get worse for the Bulls.
Then Thursday hit.
A noon practice was quickly cancelled after Zach LaVine entered the NBA’s health and safety protocol with a positive coronavirus test, according to a source.
The hope is LaVine only will be out a handful of days, but with the Bulls scheduled to play five games in the next seven days and with only 18 games left in the regular season, that could be the difference between holding on to the final play-in spot or sitting in a lottery position and praying for lottery luck.
12:15 p.m. US setting up $1.7B national network to track virus variants
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is setting up a $1.7 billion national network to identify and track worrisome coronavirus mutations whose spread could trigger another pandemic wave, the Biden administration announced Friday.
White House officials unveiled a strategy that features three components: a major funding boost for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health departments to ramp up coronavirus gene-mapping; the creation of six “centers of excellence” partnerships with universities to conduct research and develop technologies for gene-based surveillance of pathogens; and building a data system to better share and analyze information on emerging disease threats, so knowledge can be turned into action.
“Even as we accelerate our efforts to get shots into arms, more dangerous variants are growing, causing increases in cases in people without immunity,” White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt told reporters. That “requires us to intensify our efforts to quickly test for and find the genetic sequence of the virus as it spreads.”
10:45 a.m. After contracting COVID-19, ex-Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club boss Orvie Cochran gets early prison release
After Outlaws Motorcycle Club boss Orville “Orvie” Cochran survived a shooting outside the biker gang’s South Side clubhouse in 2000 — he slipped on some ice and fell, thus avoiding a hail of bullets — a former friend described him as “- – – damn lucky.”
Cochran’s luck still hasn’t run out.
Arrested in 2017 after being on the run for 16 years to avoid racketeering charges, he caught a break on his sentence. And now — after contracting the coronavirus in prison — Cochran has gotten a federal judge to free him from prison six months early.
The judge ordered a “compassionate” release for Cochran, who had asked for that even before getting infected because, he said, he was afraid he would and had health problems that could make COVID especially dangerous for him.
9 a.m. What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and will you need one?
What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and will I need one?
“Vaccine passports,” or vaccine certificates, are documents that show you were vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus. They could help you get into places such as stadiums or even countries that are looking to reopen safely.
The certificates are still being developed, and how and whether they’ll be used could vary widely around the world. Experts say they should be free and available on paper, not just on apps, since not everyone has a smartphone.
In the U.S., federal officials say there are no plans to make them broadly mandatory. In some states, Republican governors have issued orders barring businesses or state agencies from asking people to show proof of vaccination.
8:30 a.m. Pause on Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine won’t affect United Center appointments, city’s top doc says
Appointments at the United Center’s COVID-19 mass vaccination site will go on as scheduled next week with Pfizer doses being administered instead of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that’s been shelved nationwide, officials said Thursday.
The city’s most prominent mass vax site has been doling out Pfizer since it launched a month ago in a parking lot across the street from the Near West Side arena.
That’ll still be the case Monday, which is when the federally run site had been scheduled to switch to J&J doses — until a handful of extremely rare blood clots tied to that vaccine prompted a temporary suspension this week while experts investigate.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide additional Pfizer doses in its place, meaning plans won’t change for anyone with a United Center appointment, according to Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
“Everybody who has an appointment from Monday on at the United Center can keep that appointment. You do not need to do a thing. You will just receive Pfizer instead of Johnson & Johnson,” Arwady said during an online Q&A.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 3,581 new cases of the disease were diagnosed Wednesday among 105,661 tests to keep the state’s average testing positivity rate at 4.2%.
About one quarter of Illinois residents have been fully vaccinated so far, with 138,538 doses administered Tuesday. The state also reported 3,536 new cases and 31 more deaths.
Staff member of state House Speaker Emanuel ‘Chris’ Welch tests positive for COVID-19. The staff member was tested Monday as part of the Legislature’s required protocols to return to in-person work in the Capitol.
Less than a month after making his varsity football debut, Maine South’s Chris Petrucci is a Power Five recruit.
Less than a month after making his varsity football debut, Maine South’s Chris Petrucci is a Power Five recruit.
The junior tight end and linebacker announced Wednesday on Twitter he has committed to Northwestern, which extended a scholarship offer the day before.
Petrucci, a three-star prospect ranked ninth among Illinois juniors by 247Sports.com, is the Wildcats’ second recruit in the class of 2022. He joins Naperville Central receiver Reggie Fleurima, who is ranked fifth among Illinois juniors.
“He checks all the boxes,” Maine South coach Dave Inserra said of Petrucci, a 6-5, 210-pounder. “Work ethic, family, grades — everything. He’s got the size, he’s got intangibles.”
What Petrucci didn’t have was varsity experience, until this pandemic-delayed season.
“That was maybe the question some had,” Inserra said. “‘That was at the sophomore level. What about at the varsity level?’”
But Petrucci clearly has erased any doubts during the Hawks’ 4-0 start. He has 15 offers, including Illinois. Iowa and Minnesota in the Big Ten; Kentucky in the SEC; and Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale in the Ivy League.
“He creates mismatches because of his size, and he runs well,” Inserra said.
And that size also had two SEC programs looking at Petrucci on defense.
“Kentucky and Tennessee were recruiting him that way because he’s so long,” Inserra said.
Petrucci will be the second Hawk on the Northwestern roster. He joins offensive lineman Peter Skoronski, who not only started as a true freshman last fall but also was named a Freshman All-American by the Football Writers Association of America and second-team All-Big Ten.
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