It orders more factory shutdowns or productions cuts to deal with a shortage of microchips.

Ford’s Chicago assembly plant, 12600 S. Torrence Ave., will be closed for two additional weeks as the company deals with a shortage of microchips.

The company said Wednesday the plant, which closed this week, will also be shut the weeks of April 19 and 26. About 5,800 people work there to build the Ford Explorer, Lincoln Aviator and Police Interceptor SUV.

A global shortage of microchips that run the electronic systems has forced all automakers to curtail production. A fire at a chip supplier in Japan has worsened the situation, Ford said.

The company ordered similar shutdowns for the last two weeks in April at plants in Flat Rock, Michigan, and Kansas City, Missouri. Flat Rock produces the Ford Mustang and Kansas City turns out the F-150 pickup.

Ford also said its truck plant in Louisville will be closed the weeks of April 26 and May 3 and will have reduced production for most of May. Certain production lines at a plant for medium- and super-duty trucks in Avon Lake, Ohio will be idle the weeks of April 19 and 26.

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In the day’s first reported shooting, two people were shot in an alley in the 2400 block of West Grenshaw Street, in Lawndale on the West Side.

Two people were killed and 11 others wounded Tuesday in Chicago including a 20-year-old man who was fatally shot in Chatham on the South Side.

Nykere Curtis was in the street about 7 p.m. in the 300 block of East 86th Street when someone opened fire, striking him in the chest, Chicago police said.

Curtis was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 7:17 p.m., police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

An hour earlier, a man was found shot to death in Hegewisch on the Far South Side.

About 6:06 p.m., the 43-year-old was found wrapped in a quilt in the 12400 block of South Torrance Avenue, Chicago police said. He had been shot multiple times in the head and his death was ruled a homicide.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office hasn’t released his name.

In nonfatal attacks, a 20-year-old man was shot to in Chicago Lawn on the Southwest Side.

About 11:50 p.m., he was on the sidewalk in the 6200 block of South Troy Street, when he heard shots and felt a pain, Chicago police said. He was struck in the right hand, grazed by a bullet on his head, and brought to Christ Medical Center in good condition.

A man was hurt in a shooting in West Lawn on the Southwest Side. He was on the sidewalk about 9:30 p.m. in the 3800 block of West 64th Street, when someone fired shots from a black sedan, police said. The 30-year-old was grazed in the head and taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in good condition.

A 17-year-old boy was shot in Gresham on the South Side. The boy was on the sidewalk about 6:50 p.m. in the 7700 block of South Aberdeen Street, when a person approached and fired shots, police. He suffered a gunshot wound to the left arm and was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition.

A man was shot in Chatham on the South Side. He was in a park about 4:35 p.m. in the 300 block of East 79th Street, when someone opened fire, striking him in the foot, police said. The 38-year-old was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition.

A woman was shot in Albany Park on the Northwest Side. About noon, the 30-year-old was near the sidewalk in the 4000 block of North Kimball Avenue, when two unknown males approached and fired shots, police said. She was struck in the hand and brought herself to Swedish Convenient Hospital in good condition.

Minutes prior a man was shot while he was driving in Lawndale on the West Side. About 11:40 a.m., he was driving when shots were fired in the 1900 block of South Ridgeway Avenue, police said. He drove to the 1900 block of South Avers Avenue, and was brought to Mt. Sinai Hospital in critical condition with a gunshot wound to his chest.

A man was critically wounded in a shooting in Pullman on the Far South Side. The 36-year-old was sitting in a parked vehicle about 8:50 a.m. in the 12300 block of South Parnell Avenue, when someone approached on foot and fired shots, police said. He suffered gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition.

A 33-year-old man was shot in Burnside on the South Side. About 3:05 a.m., he was sitting in a parked vehicle in the 9300 block of South University Avenue, when shots were fired, police said. He was struck in the back and rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center in serious condition.

Less than an hour prior an 18-year-old woman was wounded in a drive-by in Chatham on the South Side. About 2:15 a.m., she was a passenger of a vehicle when a passing black SUV fired shots in the 400 block of West 81st Street, police said. She was struck in the left foot and brought to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition.

In the day’s first reported shooting, two people were shot in Lawndale on the West Side. About 1 a.m., they were in an alley in the 2400 block of West Grenshaw Street, when someone approached them and fired shots, police said. One man, 25, was struck in the back and the other man, 23, was struck in the right side of his body. They were both brought to Mt. Sinai Hospital in serious condition.

Sixteen people were shot, one fatally, Monday citywide.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

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Both bills seek to reform and improve the FOID card, which Illinois residents must have to legally own firearms or ammunition. But each side accuses the other of missing the target.

SPRINGFIELD — Dueling gun control bills are heading for a showdown on the floor of the state Legislature.

One would require potential gun owners to be fingerprinted to obtain a Firearm Owner Identification Card, entail more frequent renewal of the card and mandate background checks for the private sale of firearms.

The other bill is designed to lessen the strain on gun owners and the Illinois State Police by automatically renewing and digitizing FOID cards in Illinois. It has the backing of the police agency, which issues the cards and handles background checks for gun purchases.

Both bills seek to reform and improve the FOID card, which Illinois residents must have to legally own firearms or ammunition. But each side accuses the other of missing the target.

Supporters of the more stringent measure named it the Block Illegal Ownership Bill. They call the competing bill a “gun-lobby backed” measure that “guts critical background checks” included in their legislation.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file.

The Illinois State Police director fired backed that the FOID card system, which the Block Illegal Ownership Bill fortifies, is “antiquated, outdated, inefficient, and ineffective.”

The stricter bill was first introduced after the 2019 shooting in Aurora in which the shooter obtained a firearm even though his FOID card had been revoked and he had felony convictions in other states.

“That’s why we need the fingerprints and background checks for all gun sales,” said Kathleen Sances, President of Gun Violence Prevention PAC Illinois. “We see weaknesses in our licensing system that allow people who are not lawfully allowed to have guns get their hands on them, and they’re killing people.”

State Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, sponsor of the tougher bill, said that the Aurora shooting illustrates why the state needs to remove firearms from those who have their FOID card revoked.

“Right now, more than 27,000 Illinoisans may still be armed despite losing their right to own a gun. And that is a direct result of not making sure that the Illinois State Police has the resources they need to make sure … people that shouldn’t have firearms don’t,” Villivalam said.

Rich Hein/Sun-Times file

The bill passed the House in 2019, but didn’t advance during last year’s pandemic-truncated legislative session.

The bill would also require FOID card holders to renew the card every five years instead of 10, increase fees for that renewal, and fund support for mental health services of communities affected by gun violence.

Richard Pearson, president of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said his firearm owners’ rights organization would “fight this bill tooth and nail” in the Legislature and in the courts.

“There is no other civil right where you have to offer up your finger to exercise it,” he said. “If a $2 poll tax is too much to pay for the civil right of voting, then … this is certainly too much.”

Pearson said the bill would also add a “mountain of paperwork” for the Illinois State Police, which his organization is already suing for not approving FOID card applications in the time required by state law.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file

But Villivalam said his bill would actually “break through the bureaucracy” and help the Illinois State Police, because if the agency “has someone’s fingerprints, it is much easier for them to ensure who that person is, and what their background is, and if they should legally own a firearm.”

The competing bill set its sights more squarely on the issues plaguing the state police.

State Police Director Brendan Kelly and a bipartisan group of legislators held news conference on Wednesday to promote the measure.

Their bill would automatically renew FOID cards for those obtaining a concealed carry permit or voluntarily submitting their fingerprints, allow the use of an electronic FOID card, and create a prohibited persons portal to help the police identify those who have revoked FOID cards.

“Our goal is to ensure that we are keeping firearms out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and others,” said state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, the bill’s sponsor. “Our goal is not, however, to hassle safe, responsible gun owners. Through the modernization and streamlining of the FOID card process, I believe we can successfully accomplish both of our objectives.”

Research by the Illinois State Police helped craft the bill, Kelly said.

“This bill will make it harder for the bad guys and simple and safe for the good guys,” the police agency chief said.

Following the news conference, the Gun Violence Prevention PAC released a scathing statement against Koehler’s bill.

Brian Rich/Sun-Times filr

“Senator Koehler’s gun lobby-backed bill guts real universal background checks in exchange for nothing,” said Sances.

The Illinois State Rifle Association denied backing Koehler’s bill, saying that they were “neutral.”

But Pearson’s group is firing blanks, said a spokesperson for the gun control PAC.

“The gun lobby speaks pretty loudly on just about every piece of gun legislation under the sun, so their silence or claims of neutrality on this bill is deafening,” the spokesperson said.

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Art festival online

It feels as if we’re awakening from a deep, uneasy sleep as Chicago begins to take tentative steps to return bit by bit to a wary, new normal. Street festivals may or may not be back this summer but hopes are high. The organizers of the 57^th Street Art Fair, one of the best fairs of the summer, are hoping to produce a safe in-person event on June 5-6 if the city gives the OK. In the meantime, a virtual edition of the fair is available online, featuring more than 40 artists and their creations including paintings, photography, ceramics, jewelry, woodworking, printmaking, fiber, furniture and more. Find artists and links to their websites at 57thstreetartfair.org/virtual-fair.

Drive-in film fest

Provided

Asian Pop-Up Cinema presents its sixth annual spring film festival showcasing 10 movies from across Asia, this year spotlighting work from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. The screenings begin with Chiu Sin-hang’s “One Second Champion” (April 15), a story of a single father with the power to see one second into the future; Cheng Yu-chieh’s “Dear Tenant” (April 16), which explores nontraditional family love; Lik Ho’s “I Still Remember” (April 17), a drama which follows several characters as they discover running a 10K can help them through their ups and downs, and “One Summer Story” (April 18), the story of a young girl’s search for her biological father. Also on the roster is Korean-American director Lee Isaac Chung’s Oscar-nominated film “Minari” (April 29, May 1). The films, running through May 2, screen at Lincoln Yards Drive-In, 1684 N. Throop. Tickets: $15 (several of the films are free — first come, first serve). For more information, visit asianpopupcinema.org/12drivein.

From Carnegie Hall

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Since 2004 City Winery founder Michael Dorf has presented an annual Carnegie Hall concert called “Music of…” and has donated 100% of its proceeds to organizations that provide music education programs and opportunities to underserved youth. This year’s livestreamed show features a lineup to please many musical tastes: Patti Smith, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Glen Hansard, Keb’ Mo’, Rosanne Cash, Shawn Colvin, Raul Malo, The Mountain Goats, Marc Cohn, Martin Sexton, Joseph Arthur, Bettye Lavette and many more. The concert streams at 7 p.m. April 15. Tickets: $25. Visit citywinery.com/chicago.

An artist’s vision

Horace Perry/Courtesy of Alabama State Council on the Arts

Bill Traylor has been called “the greatest artist you’ve never heard of.” Jeffrey Wolf’s new documentary “Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts” wants to change that by exploring the life of the unique American artist. Born into slavery in 1853 in rural Alabama and later residing in Montgomery, he lived a hardscrabble life, and it wasn’t until his late 80s that Traylor began to draw and paint. Between 1939-1942, he made well over 1,000 strikingly modern paintings and drawings inspired by the profound social and political changes he witnessed during his life. This original and powerful vision would bring him acclaim as one of America’s greatest self-taught artists. The film streams beginning April 16 via the Music Box Theatre. Tickets: $12. Visit musicbox.com.

Classical concerts

Provided

Pianist Wael Farouk joins the New Philharmonic for a performance of Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concertos No. 1, 2 and 3.” Streams at 7:30 p.m. April 17 and on demand to June 15. Tickets: $40. Visit atthemac.org. … Tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Imogen Cooper perform songs of love and longing by Beethoven and Robert Schumann. Streams at 7 p.m. April 16. Tickets: $15. Visit tickets.uchicago.edu. … The Orion Ensemble returns for a limited in-person and virtual performance of Michele Mangani’s “Sonata for Clarinet and Piano” and Anton Arensky’s “Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 32.” At 3 p.m. April 18 at PianoForte Studios, 1335 S. Michigan. Tickets $25, virtual access is free. Visit orionensemble.org.

Virtual stage

Maureen Janson

Northlight Theatre’s free reading series continues with Jeffrey Hatcher and Eric Simonson’s “Wright/Rand,” a drama about the friendship between architect Frank Lloyd Wright (BJ Jones) and Ayn Rand (Tracy Michelle Arnold). Streams at 6:30 p.m. April 18 and on demand to April 22. Visit northlight.org. … Chicago Shakespeare Theater presents two radio plays: Henry Godinez’s adaptation of “Measure for Measure” and Barbara Gaines’ adaptation of “Twelfth Night.” Both stream April 19-May 16. Visit chicagoshakes.com. … A free stream of Noah Haidle’s “Smokefall” is available through April 25 at the Goodman Theatre. Visit goodmantheatre.org. … Pride Arts presents a reading of Stephen Karam’s dark comedy “Speech and Debate” at 7 p.m. April 20. Tickets: $10. Visit pridearts.org. … Ghostlight Ensemble offers readings of Alice Dunbar Nelson’s “Mine Eyes Have Seen” and Marion Craig Wentworth’s “War Brides.” Streams at 2 p.m. April 18. Tickets: $5. Visit ghostlightensemble.com.

Mary Houlihan is a Chicago freelance writer.

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For those families that have suffered the devastating blow of losing a teen, the grieving never goes away.

The hurt remains an open wound for the rest of their lives. These mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles go on, but that gaping place is never filled.

So it is with Adam Toledo’s family.

On March 29, a Chicago police officer fatally shot the 13-year-old after a foot chase. The teen was with a 21-year-old male, but he was the one allegedly armed with a handgun.

The boy’s mother didn’t learn of her son’s death for a couple of days because he did not have identification on him at the time of his death.

No amount of time will erase the pain of those circumstances.

Several years ago, I was sitting in a family’s living room when police knocked on the door and asked the father to identify a photograph. It was his son. The teen had been shot, his body dumped in an alley behind my garage.

I will never forget the sound of his mother’s wails coming from the bedroom.

Adam’s mother has waited patiently for answers, supported by a small group of peaceful protesters that demanded the release of video from the police officer’s body camera.

On Tuesday, the Toledo family was finally allowed to view that video.

“The experience was extremely difficult and heartbreaking for everyone present and especially for Adam’s family,” attorneys for the family said in a statement.

There is no escaping that hurt, even if the tragic events depicted on the video unfold exactly as police have described.

Adam Toledo was a 13-year-old boy, and his violent death should make us recoil in horror.

Out of deference to his family’s grief, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability decided to delay the release of the police body-cam video until Thursday.

Under the city’s Video Release Policy, video and audio recordings “shall be released to the public no more than 60 calendar days from the date of the incident unless a request is made to delay the release.”

Such requests are usually from investigating agencies or families of persons injured by police.

“[W]hile it is acutely sensitive to the family’s grief and their desire to avoid public release of materials related to Adam’s tragic death, COPA is mandated to comply with the City’s Video Release Policy,” COPA said in a statement Tuesday.

The public has a right to know what happened in a Little Village alley that night, just as it had a right to know what happened in 2014 when Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times.

It took more than a year before the city released a dash-cam video of the shooting. That long delay led to the ouster of former Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, and likely to former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to not seek a third term.

How Adam’s case is handled will give the public some insight into how police reform is actually working and answer the questions that activists are asking:

Is the Chicago Police Department more transparent? Are police officers following the training? Is there more that could have been done to disarm a 13-year-old with a gun?

So far the protests over this police shooting have been peaceful, and Adam’s family has asked for “privacy” as they mourn this loss.

But COPA has shown a lot of courage.

Their decision to release the body-cam video now was tough given the violent protests in Brooklyn Center, Minn., over another shocking police shooting. A white female police officer fatally shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, during a traffic stop. Kim Potter allegedly fired her weapon when she intended to fire her Taser.

The images of the fatal shot have been shown repeatedly on news broadcasts.

While police bodycams allow the public to view videos of deadly police encounters, they have a down side.

We can turn these images off in our minds and in our hearts. But after Thursday, and for days thereafter, the Toledo family will be forced to relive the worst day of their lives.

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A bold plan to convert a shuttered downstate movie house into a den of all things dank is beginning to take shape — and the businessman behind the idea believes it can be replicated nationwide.

If everything falls into place, an old AMC theater at 3025 Lindbergh Blvd. in Springfield will be transformed into a cannabis co-op housing a dispensary, a greenhouse and a lounge to get high.

The first piece of the puzzle is a pot shop operated by Maribis, which is expected to open Saturday. The dispensary — Maribis’ fourth in the state — will occupy the former concession stand and two of the cineplex’s eight theaters.

Dan Linn, general manager of the Summit-based firm, said the idea is ultimately to create a kind of “craft brewery but with cannabis.” Linn said those involved are “leaning on the idea that down the road the regulations will be a little bit relaxed so you can actually have tours of the craft grow.”

Provided/Dan Linn

Springfield lobbyist Chris Stone said he started developing the concept around the time he launched HCI Alternatives, a pot firm that earned licenses to operate two downstate dispensaries in 2016.

“I don’t know of any co-located operation like this in the country,” said Stone, now a senior adviser to Ascend Wellness Holdings, a Massachusetts-based company that bought out HCI last year following an earlier merger deal.

Shuttered theaters could be perfect place to house the operation, he said.

“Because the way movie theaters are built — they’re all concrete blocked, they all have really good HVAC and exhausts and they all have really high electrical need because of the old projectors — you have everything that you need,” he added.

Stone is so high on the idea that he’s looking at AMC theaters across the country to see where the company is “liquidating and selling off their assets just because people aren’t necessarily going to as many movies.”

He intends to create a fund to acquire five more AMC theaters in states that don’t currently allow the sale of marijuana in any form. Then he plans to work with local legislators “to help enact cannabis legislation with the idea that … we hope to get a license.”

“But even if we don’t get licensed, I got a feeling that there’s going to be people that do get licensed that would want to look at these assets,” he said.

At the Springfield site, Stone hopes to ultimately use two of the theaters to set up an on-site consumption lounge and bar, which would be outfitted with “luxury boxes” to look in on flowering plants and a massive “TV wall” to screen movies. For now, those spaces would have to be separated because consumption lounges aren’t currently allowed to serve booze.

“Hopefully in due time we could open up that wall to combine them,” said Stone, who hopes legislation will be passed to change the rules.

Lawmakers labored over a provision in state law that tightly regulates public consumption spaces, but none have opened and only a few have earned local approval. Last year, Stone was instrumental in getting the go-ahead for a planned consumption lounge at a Springfield dispensary now operated by Ascend.

Stone said the four other theaters would be used to grow cannabis, though it’s unclear who will run the operation because the state’s 40 upcoming craft cultivation licenses have been delayed indefinitely along with all the state’s other outstanding pot permits.

Twitter/Illinois Supply & Provisions

Stone said he assisted groups on more than a dozen applications for the new cultivation licenses, though he acknowledged that state law prohibited him from joining more than one of them as an owner. While one of those teams has already expressed interest in growing at the theater, Stone said “it doesn’t matter what cultivation group would go in the back side.”

He hopes a portion of the grow operation can be used to cultivate designated plants for specific customers, an idea he co-opted from the marijuana programs in Oregon and Colorado.

“The people that are buying the product can actually see their product being grown from the time it was a clone all the way to the time that it was harvested,” Stone said of the process, which he believes is in line with the “farm-to-table” philosophy.

Though Maribis is already setting up shop at the theater, the rest of the audacious plan remains in its early phases. Still, both Stone and Linn remained confident.

“It sounds like the city’s on board,” said Linn.

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