North Carolina announced Thursday that Hall of Fame basketball coach Roy Williams is retiring after a 33-year career that includes three national championships.

The decision comes two weeks after the 70-year-old Williams closed his 18th season with the Tar Heels after a highly successful run at Kansas. Williams won 903 games in a career that included those three titles, all with the Tar Heels, in 2005, 2009 and 2017.

UNC lost to Wisconsin in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in his final game, which was Williams’ only first-round loss in 30 tournaments.

Williams spent 10 seasons at his alma mater as an assistant coach to late mentor Dean Smith before leaving to take over the Jayhawks program in 1988. He spent 15 seasons there, taking Kansas to four Final Fours and two national title games.

He passed on taking over at UNC in 2000 after the retirement of Bill Guthridge, but ultimately couldn’t say no a second time and returned as coach in 2003 after the tumultuous Matt Doherty era that included an 8-20 season.

Williams immediately stabilized the program and broke through for his first national championship in his second season with a win against Illinois, marking the first of five Final Four trips with the Tar Heels. His second title came in 2009 with a team that rolled through the NCAA Tournament, winning every game by at least a dozen points, including the final game against Michigan State played in the Spartans’ home state.

The third title was delivered by a team that included players who had lost the 2016 championship game to Villanova on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. This time, the Tar Heels beat a one-loss Gonzaga team for the championship.

Williams won three Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament titles with the Tar Heels after winning seven league tournament titles with the Jayhawks.

Along the way, Williams had just one losing season — an injury-plagued 14-19 year in 2019-20 — and otherwise missed the NCAA Tournament only in his first season at Kansas when he inherited a program on probation and in 2010 with a UNC team that reached the NIT final.

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MINNEAPOLIS — George Floyd’s girlfriend cried on the witness stand Thursday as she told the story of how they first met in 2017 at a Salvation Army shelter where Floyd was a security guard with “this great Southern voice, raspy.” She also recounted how they both struggled with opioid addiction.

“Both Floyd and I, our story, it’s a classic story of how many people get addicted to opioids. We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck and his was in his back,” 45-year-old Courteney Ross said on Day Four of former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.

“We both had prescriptions. But after prescriptions that were filled and we got addicted and tried really hard to break that addiction many times.”

Prosecutors put Ross on the stand as part of an effort to humanize Floyd in front of the jury and portray him as more than a crime statistic, and also apparently explain his drug use to the jurors and perhaps get them to empathize with what he went through.

Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter, accused of killing Floyd by kneeling on the 46-year-old Black man’s neck for 9 minutes, 29 seconds, as he lay face-down in handcuffs last May. The most serious charge against the now-fired white officer carries up to 40 years in prison.

The defense has argued that Chauvin did what he was trained to do and that Floyd’s death was caused instead by Floyd’s illegal drug use, underlying health conditions and the adrenaline flowing through his body. An autopsy found fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system.

Ross began by telling how the two of them met.

“May I tell the story?” she asked. “It’s one of my favorite stories to tell.”

Ross said she had gone to the shelter because her sons’ father was staying there. She said she became upset because the father was not coming to the lobby to discuss their son’s birthday. Floyd came over to check on her.

“Floyd has this great Southern voice, raspy. He was like, `Sis, you OK, sis?'” Ross recalled. “I was tired. We’ve been through so much, my sons and I, and (for) this kind person just to come up and say, ‘Can I pray with you?’ … it was so sweet. At the time, I had lost a lot of faith in God.”

Minnesota is a rarity in explicitly permitting such “spark of life” testimony about a crime victim ahead of a verdict. Defense attorneys often complain that such testimony allows prosecutors to play on jurors’ emotions.

Ross described how both she and Floyd both struggled with an addiction to painkillers throughout their relationship.

She said they also took the prescriptions of others, as well as illegal drugs. In March 2020, Ross drove Floyd to the emergency room because he was in extreme stomach pain, and she later learned he overdosed.

“Addiction, in my opinion, is a lifelong struggle. … It’s not something that just kind of comes and goes. It’s something I’ll deal with forever,” she said.

The testimony came a day after prosecutors played extensive video footage: Security-camera scene of people joking around inside a convenience store, and bystander and police bodycam video of officers pulling Floyd from his SUV at gunpoint and struggling to put him in a squad car before they put him on the ground. It also showed Floyd being loaded into an ambulance.

Floyd’s struggle with three police officers trying to arrest him, seen on body-camera video, included Floyd’s panicky cries of “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” and “I’m claustrophobic!” as the officers tried to push Floyd into the back of a police SUV.

At one point, Floyd bucks forward, throwing his upper body out of the car. Officers eventually give up, and Floyd thanks them — and then is taken to the ground, facedown and handcuffed. Chauvin knee pins his neck, another officer’s knee holds his back and a third officer holds his legs, with the officers talking calmly about whether he might be on drugs.

“He wouldn’t get out of the car. He just wasn’t following instructions,” Officer Thomas Lane was recorded saying. Lane also asked twice if the officers should roll Floyd on his side, and later said he thinks Floyd is passing out. Another officer checked Floyd’s wrist for a pulse and said he couldn’t find one.

The officers’ video was part of a mountain of footage and witness testimony Wednesday showing how Floyd’s alleged attempt to pass a phony $20 bill at a neighborhood market escalated into tragedy.

When Floyd was finally taken away by paramedics, Charles McMillian, a 61-year-old bystander who recognized Chauvin from the neighborhood, told the officer he didn’t respect what Chauvin had done.

“That’s one person’s opinion,” Chauvin could be heard responding. “We gotta control this guy ’cause he’s a sizable guy… and it looks like he’s probably on something.”

Floyd was 6-foot-4 and 223 pounds, according to the autopsy. Chauvin’s lawyer said the officer is 5-foot-9 and 140 pounds.

Floyd’s death, along with the harrowing bystander video of him gasping for breath as onlookers yelled at Chauvin to get off him, triggered sometimes violent protests around the world and a reckoning over racism and police brutality across the U.S.

Events spun out of control earlier that day soon after Floyd allegedly handed a cashier at Cup Foods, 19-year-old Christopher Martin, a counterfeit bill for a pack of cigarettes.

Martin testified Wednesday that he watched Floyd’s arrest outside with “disbelief — and guilt.”

“If I would’ve just not tooken the bill, this could’ve been avoided,” Martin lamented, joining the burgeoning list of witnesses who expressed a sense of helplessness and lingering guilt over Floyd’s death.

Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.

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WASHINGTON — The Opening Day baseball game between the Nationals and Mets was postponed hours before it was scheduled to begin Thursday night because of coronavirus concerns after one of Washington’s players tested positive for COVID-19.

The Nationals issued a statement saying “ongoing contract tracing involving members of the Nationals organization” was the reason for scrapping the game at their stadium.

The contest was not immediately rescheduled, even though Friday already had been set up as an off day that could accommodate a game pushed back from Thursday if there were a rainout, for example.

The Nationals said in a statement the game “will not be made up on Friday.”

Washington general manager Mike Rizzo said Wednesday that one of his team’s players had tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, before the team left spring training camp.

Rizzo said four other players and one staff member were following quarantine protocols after contract tracing determined they were in close contact with the person who tested positive.

Rizzo did not identify any of those involved.

“We’re still in the process of finding out exactly what their status is,” Rizzo said Wednesday. “They’re certainly out for tomorrow’s game.”

The 2019 World Series champions — who finished tied for last in the NL East in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season — were supposed to send Max Scherzer to the mound to face New York’s Jacob deGrom in a matchup between pitchers who own a total of five Cy Young Awards.

“We will certainly have some roster decisions to make, depending on how this all shakes out,” Rizzo said Wednesday.

Word of the positive test came a little after 1 a.m. Wednesday, he said.

The team flight from Florida to Washington was where there was close contact between the five people who are quarantining and the player who tested positive.

Scherzer said he was not on that team flight and traveled separately with his family.

The Nationals — who had planned to have a workout at their stadium on Wednesday, before it was called off because of rain — did not have a single player test positive during their six weeks of spring training camp in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to Rizzo.

“We’ve done so well in spring training,” Scherzer said. “Everybody across the game — we had seen so few positive cases across spring training as a whole. It just shows you how quickly that can turn. It can turn on a dime. We have to face it, and we have to overcome it.”

Rizzo said the team underwent a new round of COVID-19 tests Wednesday, as was previously scheduled — a combination of rapid tests and MLB-mandated saliva tests.

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In Episode 17 of Gourmet To-Go, a series on restaurants and chefs who’ve pivoted, we visit Koya, a revamped Japanese spot now serving a deconstructed take on sushi rolls.Read More

You don’t have to go far to read intergalactic poetry and you can even stay home to go to Expo Chicago.Read More

Welcome the Rose family to their newest home—Replay in Lincoln Park—as Schitt’s Creek is the latest pop-up at the popular North Side bar. Anyone who is a fan of Schitt’s Creek, myself included, was thrilled to hear that Replay will be bringing this experience to Chicago.

For those who have not seen the show, Schitt’s Creek is a beloved Canadian comedy show about a family of unlikable (but still extremely lovable) rich people who are forced to move to a town they own and adjust to their new surroundings after losing their fortune. The show offers a ton of laughs and some heartfelt moments that will definitely make you want to binge.

Visitors to the pop-up will be able to take photos in front of replications of actual locations from the show, including the infamous Rosebud Motel, Cafe Tropical, Moira’s iconic Wig Wall and the welcome to Schitt’s Creek sign. There is also a pop-up shop run by The Chicago Makers that depicts the Rose Apothecary which will be selling artisanal items and merch created by local artists.

As part of Cafe Tropical, the menu features food and cocktails that you might recognize: Ahn-chiladas, Lovebird Wings, Rosebud Cinnamon Buns and Schitt Fries. When you reserve your spot, you will receive two cocktails and access to more than 30 vintage arcade machines. While walk-ups are welcome, it is recommended that you make a reservation so you don’t potentially miss out on the fun. The Schitt’s Creek pop-up is running through the end of this week until April 4th.

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In its 50th year the center continues telling women’s untold stories.

From the outside, 2109 N. Humbolt looks like a typical Logan Square home, with a handsome red brick exterior and a small patch of greenery to the side. While the address may seem ordinary, inside is a wealth of information—like manuscripts and serials—pertaining to women’s history.…Read More

The man was extradited Wednesday from Louisiana to Chicago.

A man was charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting two women and a man during an argument February in the South Shore neighborhood.

Larry Sistrunk, 27, was extradited Wednesday from Louisiana to Chicago, according to Chicago police.

Police said he was identified as the shooter who wounded three people Feb. 21 in the 7800 block of South Muskegon Avenue. The victims were two women, ages 24 and 60, and a 53-year-old man, police said Thursday.

At the time of the shooting, police said someone opened fire during an argument and struck the 24-year-old woman. The other two, standing near the front of a home, were also wounded.

Sistrunk, of the Austin neighborhood, was expected to appear in court Thursday on three counts of attempted murder and three counts of aggravated battery with a firearm.

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

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A series of court records open the widest window yet into the gambling case involving Gregory Paloian.

Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to hand a stiff prison sentence to a bookie with purported mob ties, insisting he tried to sell a “fantasy” to the judge about a fun and fair gambling ring that, while illegal, aimed never to exploit anyone.

In reality, Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Kinney wrote in a court filing Wednesday that Gregory Paloian and his agents hounded gamblers for payments as they lost tens of thousands of dollars, and even prompted one gambler who couldn’t pay his debts to “burst into tears.”

Kinney wrote that Paloian and his agents referred to gamblers in the ring as “goof, goofball, idiot, ‘f*&#%g little pu$%y’, little c&%*sucker and other descriptive monikers.” Paloian also allegedly referred to one gambler as “an annuity,” a “dumb f#%k” and “an idiot and he pays.”

Paloian defense attorney Joseph Urgo last week asked U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow to spare Paloian from prison. Urgo wrote that prosecutors had not found one example where a “customer” or “agent” of Paloian’s gambling ring suffered financial hardship or exhibited signs of problematic gambling habits.

He wrote in a court memo that Paloian “conducted that business in as ‘clean’ a manner as possible, the goal being to never financially exploit anyone, never allow anyone to gamble beyond their means. And safeguards were developed and utilized to ensure this.”

But Kinney, in his own memo Wednesday, wrote that Urgo’s memo was “more fantasy, tall tales, and wishful thinking than reality.” The prosecutor asked Lefkow to give Paloian a prison sentence at the higher end of a range laid out by federal sentencing guidelines. Paloian’s plea agreement estimated that would be around three years, but prosecutors may challenge that.

Kinney also made note of Paloian’s criminal history, which included a racketeering conviction involving a large gambling enterprise that ran from 1985 until 1998.

The court records, along with recently unsealed search warrant affidavits, open the widest window yet into the case against Paloian, who was first charged last October. When Paloian pleaded guilty in January to running an illegal sports gambling operation, Kinney hinted at wide-ranging evidence that included “a large number” of recordings.

The following month, Kinney tied Paloian’s case to another gambling case involving Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice, who has admitted running a sports bookmaking business from 2016 to 2019 around Chicago. That case also led to charges against Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher, the brother of Chicago Bears great Brian Urlacher who was pardoned in January by Donald Trump in the final hours of Trump’s presidency.

Urgo wrote that FBI agents confronted Paloian about their investigation into his gambling ring on Dec. 9, 2019, at a Starbucks in Melrose Park. Urgo wrote that Paloian “immediately made very excellent decisions and has continued to make excellent decisions ever since those first moments in Starbucks.” He also wrote that Paloian “immediately unlocked his smartphone so the agents could have easy access, and he then surrendered the phone.”

One of those agents wrote in an affidavit seeking a search warrant in March 2020 that agents immediately put Paloian’s phone in “airplane mode” after seizing it so it could not be remotely accessed. Even though the phone initially appeared to contain relevant text messages, “a subsequent review of the phone several days later revealed that its data had been erased.”

Urgo declined to comment on the case Thursday morning.

In a related affidavit filed in December 2019, the agent wrote that law enforcement sought to tap Paloian’s phone Feb. 27, 2019, and conducted physical surveillance of Paloian and another individual March 15, 2019, as they visited The Dome at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Des Plaines.

Kinney wrote that authorities “know now that Paloian was running a bookmaking operation as early as 2012 and continuing until shut down by the FBI.” He wrote that the ring included 60 gamblers and wrote that “one of his most prolific agents” was “a veteran police officer from a local police department.”

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“May I tell the story?” 45-year-old Courteney Ross asked on Day Four of former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial. “It’s one of my favorite stories to tell.”

MINNEAPOLIS — George Floyd’s girlfriend cried on the witness stand Thursday as she told the story of how they first met in 2017 at a Salvation Army shelter where Floyd was a security guard with “this great Southern voice, raspy.”

“May I tell the story?” 45-year-old Courteney Ross asked on Day Four of former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial. “It’s one of my favorite stories to tell.”

Prosecutors put her on the stand as part of an effort to humanize Floyd in front of the jury and portray him as more than a crime statistic.

Ross said she had gone to the shelter because her sons’ father was staying there. She said she became upset because the father was not coming to the lobby to discuss their son’s birthday. Floyd came over to check on her.

“Floyd has this great Southern voice, raspy. He was like, `Sis, you OK, sis?’” Ross recalled. “I was tired. We’ve been through so much, my sons and I, and (for) this kind person just to come up and say, ‘Can I pray with you?’ … it was so sweet. At the time, I had lost a lot of faith in God.”

Ross also explained that both she and Floyd struggled to overcome opioid addiction.

Minnesota is a rarity in explicitly permitting such “spark of life” testimony ahead of a verdict. Defense attorneys often complain that such testimony allows prosecutors to play on jurors’ emotions.

The testimony came a day after prosecutors played extensive video footage: Security-camera scene of people joking around inside a convenience store, and bystander and police bodycam video of officers pulling Floyd from his SUV at gunpoint and struggling to put him in a squad car before they put him on the ground. It also showed Floyd being loaded into an ambulance.

Chauvin, 45, who is white, is charged with murder and manslaughter, accused of killing the 46-year-old Black man by kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes, 29 seconds, as he lay face-down in handcuffs. The most serious charge against the now-fired officer carries up to 40 years in prison.

Floyd’s struggle with three police officers trying to arrest him, seen on body-camera video, included Floyd’s panicky cries of “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” and “I’m claustrophobic!” as the officers tried to push Floyd into the back of a police SUV.

At one point, Floyd bucks forward, throwing his upper body out of the car. Officers eventually give up, and Floyd thanks them — and then is taken to the ground, facedown and handcuffed. Chauvin knee pins his neck, another officer’s knee holds his back and a third officer holds his legs, with the officers talking calmly about whether he might be on drugs.

“He wouldn’t get out of the car. He just wasn’t following instructions,” Officer Thomas Lane was recorded saying. Lane also asked twice if the officers should roll Floyd on his side, and later said he thinks Floyd is passing out. Another officer checked Floyd’s wrist for a pulse and said he couldn’t find one.

The officers’ video was part of a mountain of footage and witness testimony Wednesday showing how Floyd’s alleged attempt to pass a phony $20 bill at a neighborhood market last May escalated into tragedy.

When Floyd was finally taken away by paramedics, Charles McMillian, a 61-year-old bystander who recognized Chauvin from the neighborhood, told the officer he didn’t respect what Chauvin had done.

“That’s one person’s opinion,” Chauvin could be heard responding. “We gotta control this guy ’cause he’s a sizable guy… and it looks like he’s probably on something.”

Floyd was 6-foot-4 and 223 pounds, according to the autopsy, which also found fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system. Chauvin’s lawyer said the officer is 5-foot-9 and 140 pounds.

Floyd’s death, along with the harrowing bystander video of him gasping for breath as onlookers yelled at Chauvin to get off him, triggered sometimes violent protests around the world and a reckoning over racism and police brutality across the U.S.

The defense has argued that Chauvin did what he was trained to do and that Floyd’s death was not caused by the officer’s knee, as prosecutors contend, but by Floyd’s illegal drug use, heart disease, high blood pressure and the adrenaline flowing through his body.

Events spun out of control earlier that day soon after Floyd allegedly handed a cashier at Cup Foods, 19-year-old Christopher Martin, a counterfeit bill for a pack of cigarettes.

Martin testified Wednesday that he watched Floyd’s arrest outside with “disbelief — and guilt.”

“If I would’ve just not tooken the bill, this could’ve been avoided,” Martin lamented, joining the burgeoning list of witnesses who expressed a sense of helplessness and lingering guilt over Floyd’s death.

___

Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.

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