Yarbor allegedly entered a home in the 6100 block of South Carpenter Street and unleashed gunfire, shooting Wylie-Hill multiple times in the head and body, police said.
It was not immediately clear whether there was any relationship between the Yarbor and Wylie-Hill, but the incident was not investigated as a break-in or home invasion, according to police.
Yarbor was arrested Wednesday in Roseland. He is scheduled to appear in bond court Friday.
Join Draft Dr. Phil and Shayne “The Smartest Man” for Keepin It 100 as they look for the real truth in Pace and Nagy’s game plan. Plus the guys are joined by ESPN 1000’s David Kaplan as they navigate the choppy quarterback waters with free agency looming next week!
The owner of the Iron Pen and rising media superstar Rob Schaefer jumps on the Big Red Bus for a lively discussion on the future of the Bulls including Zach LaVine, Lauri, Thad Young, and potential changes to the roster.
Saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh has spent the better part of 30 years forging connections among jazz, Persian artistic concepts, and free music. This has resulted in a clutch of albums that ping-pong between gutsy postbop and meditative duets, the latter of which come into focus on his new album, Facets (Pi).…Read More
Despite a 1952 smash for Chess Records, pianist Willie Mabon was soon overshadowed by labelmates such as Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters.
Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of ChicagoMusic to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place.…Read More
The new artistic director wants to take ‘amazing feats of storytelling’ into more diverse realms; Rick Bayless wants to give more money to local theaters.
The story of House Theatre mirrors that of so many other legendary ensembles in Chicago. A group of friends meet in college and decide to start a company, doing shows aiming to bring originality and verve and epic vision to the stage by breaking fourth walls and questioning the traditional models of dramatic storytelling.…Read More
Don Cooper looks on during his final season with the Sox. | Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Cooper said on AM-670, “It’s not fun when people you really look up to and admire and care for — care for, that’s the best way to put it — don’t care for you quite as much.”
Eighteen years as White Sox pitching coach. Over three decades in the Sox organization. Thick as thieves with chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.
You’d better believe it stung Don Cooper to get fired. Cooper, 65, put it all out there Thursday in an appearance on 670-AM’s Parkins & Spiegel Show.
“I spent more than half my life there,” he said, “and it’s not fun when people you really look up to and admire and care for — care for, that’s the best way to put it — don’t care for you quite as much.”
Who didn’t care for him?
“Obviously nobody,” he said.
Cooper expressed his gratitude for all those years on the South Side and said the Sox’ pitching remains important to him. He called the years after the trades of starters Chris Sale to the Red Sox and Jose Quintana to the Cubs “painful,” though he agreed the rebuilding phase probably was necessary.
That doesn’t mean moving on with Ethan Katz in and him out is the way Cooper would’ve drawn things up.
“The bottom line is it hurt,” he said. “When you’re no longer a part of something, it hurts. But I’m over the hurt and, trust me, I’ve moved on.”
Sliders on the menu
Lucas Giolito established himself among baseball’s best right-handers in 2019 and 2020, but he wants to take his game up another notch. Adding a plus slider to his riding fastball and changeup can do that.
“The big focus of mine in the offseason and spring right now is command of my sider,” Gioito said. “Over the course of the 2020 season, I was able to refine my slider and shape. The consistency out of my hand, moving the way I want it to, that showed later in the season when we were going slider more and more — especially that playoff game [against the Athletics].”
In Game 1 of the Wild Card series, Giolito had three pitches working. The result? A perfect game into the seventh inning.
“The next step is, OK, I own the slider,” he said. “I know how it needs to move, and the next step is cementing it to where I can always go to it and feel confident in it. I’ll throw the changeup in a 3-0 count. I can’t say the same for the slider, but that’s where I want it to be.”
Giolito is scheduled to make his third spring start Friday at the Rangers.
Gambler threatened Rays, Sox
In July 2019, the Sox went to Tampa, Florida, and took two out of three from the Rays. A sports gambler from Napa, California, allegedly took to anonymous Instagram accounts after one of the games and posted violent threats to several Rays players and at least one from the Sox. Benjamin Tucker Patz, 24, pleaded guilty in Tampa federal court. According to reports, he sent similar threats to athletes on various teams across sports.
Here’s the latest news on how COVID-19 is impacting Chicago and Illinois.
On the same day President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion relief bill, he also announced he would direct states to make all American adults eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine by May 1.
Andrew Harnik/AP PhotoPresident Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks before signing the American Rescue Plan, a coronavirus relief package, in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, March 11, 2021, in Washington.
WASHINGTON — One year after the nation was brought to a near-standstill by the coronavirus, President Joe Biden is outlining his plan Thursday evening to make all adults vaccine-eligible by May 1 and get the country “closer to normal” by the Fourth of July. He’s using his first prime-time address to offer Americans fresh hope and appeal anew for their help.
Speaking in the White House East Room, Biden will announce moves to speed vaccinations, including directing that all states make all adults eligible for doses by May 1. Previewing his remarks, senior administration officials said Biden would also announce steps to expand the number of places and categories of people who can give shots, aiming to let Americans gather at least in small groups for the Independence Day holiday.
Biden is marking one year since the onset of the pandemic that has killed more than 530,000 Americans and disrupted the lives of countless more.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity to preview Biden’s remarks, officials said Biden would announce that he is deploying an additional 4,000 active-duty troops to support vaccination efforts and will allow more people — such as medical students, veterinarians and dentists — to deliver shots. He is also directing more doses toward some 950 community health centers and up to 20,000 retail pharmacies, to make it easier for people to get vaccinated.
6:04 p.m. Pop-up vaccination site visits Maywood senior home
Linda Blunt sat anxiously in the lobby of the Garden House Apartments in Maywood on Thursday, awaiting her turn to receive the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
She chatted merrily with her neighbors, bounced her legs and held her registration papers tight. Blunt, 65, was more than ready to move on, a year after the pandemic led to a lockdown that has kept her away from her family.
“I just want to see this over with and I want to see us finally get back to normal,” Blunt said. “At least with this we can get halfway to normal because we want to get back to visiting our families and enjoying ourselves.”
5:46 p.m. After COVID vaccine mix-up, South Side patients wait for second shots
About 150 people who were scheduled to get their second COVID-19 shots at South Shore Hospital this week will have to wait a few days after a vaccine ordering snafu.
The hospital had to call patients who were scheduled for their second and final doses of the Moderna vaccine Wednesday through Friday to let them know they didn’t have the shots on hand, Chief Executive Tim Caveney said.
The second Moderna dose is key to make sure the vaccine is more than 90% effective warding off the virus, researchers have said.
Small community hospitals like South Shore receive their COVID vaccines from the city’s Public Health Department, and a hospital employee didn’t send the order in time last week, Caveney said.
4 p.m. Soldiers staffing United Center vax site not getting enough food; Army working to fix problem with vendor
Soldiers running the mass vaccination site at the United Center have been hungry because they haven’t been fed enough food, a problem the Army says it’s aware of and trying to fix.
There are 222 soldiers, most from the 101st Airborne Division, who are staffing the vaccination site that opened Tuesday.
The soldiers arrived in Chicago on Friday and the food that’s been supplied to them since through a vendor hasn’t been adequate, Capt. Harpa Magnusdottir, an Army spokeswoman, acknowledged Wednesday.
“We are aware of the food contract being dissatisfactory to some of our soldiers. The leadership onsite, along with the contracting team, raised the issue with the vendor as soon as they were made aware. The vendor is working expeditiously to address these issues, and we expect them to be resolved quickly,” Magnusdottir said in an email.
“Soldiers’ well-being and readiness is our top priority,” Magnusdottir said.
Military spokesman Tim Lundberg said the issue arose because the contract with the vendor “wasn’t in firm enough language to ensure the food requirement was being met.”
The contract was rewritten on the fly and soldiers were to begin receiving hardier meals Wednesday.
Lundberg said the misstep “falls under the honest mistake category.”
3:40 p.m. Americans’ $1,400 stimulus checks may arrive soon after Biden signs relief plan into law
WASHINGTON — The White House says the $1,400 direct payments for most Americans funded by the American Rescue Plan will start showing up in bank accounts as early as this weekend.
Press secretary Jen Psaki says the government will make the first direct deposits this weekend. She says payments will continue throughout the next several weeks.
President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in the Oval Office on Thursday.
2:16 p.m. Vaccinations rising statewide, health officials say
Illinois Public Health officials said Thursday the state’s seven-day average for vaccine shots reached a high of 98,166 doses.
Two weeks ago, the rolling average was 69,736 doses a day.
The highest single day number is 134,239, all administered March 5. On Wednesday, 112,776 doses were administered in Illinois.
The state Department of Public Health also reported 1,700 new cases of COVID-19 and 55 additional deaths. Thirty people in Cook County died of the virus, including a woman in her 20s and another woman over 100 years old.
The new cases were diagnosed from 89,893 tests and lowered Illinois’ average positivity rate to 2.2% — hovering near the lowest it’s ever been.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are as low as they’ve been since July, with 1,118 beds occupied Wednesday night. Of those, 231 patients were in intensive care and 102 patients were on ventilators.
The state’s average daily fatality rate over the past week is 28, down from 53 a month ago.
More than 1.2 million Illinois residents have been infected since the pandemic began a year ago.
1:28 p.m. Biden set to sign $1.9T relief bill before speech to nation
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to sign into law Thursday the $1.9 trillion relief package that he says will help the U.S. defeat the virus and nurse the economy back to health.
He originally planned to sign the bill on Friday. But the White House moved that up to Thursday afternoon, hours before the president plans to give his first prime-time address to the American public on the one-year anniversary of the pandemic.
Chief of staff Ron Klain tweeted that the bill actually arrived at the White House late Wednesday, more quickly than than anticipated. “We want to move as fast as possible,” he said.
He added, “We will hold our celebration of the signing on Friday, as planned, with congressional leaders!”
Previewing his remarks, Biden said he would “talk about what we’ve been through as a nation this past year, but more importantly, I’m going to talk about what comes next.”
Biden’s challenge Thursday night will be to honor the sacrifices made by Americans over the last year while encouraging them to remain vigilant despite “virus fatigue” and growing impatience to resume normal activities given the tantalizing promise of vaccines. Speaking on the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of a pandemic, he’ll mourn the dead, but also project optimism about the future.
“This is a chance for him to really beam into everybody’s living rooms and to be both the mourner in chief and to explain how he’s leading the country out of this,” said presidential historian and Rice University professor Douglas Brinkley.
12:07 p.m. From job cuts to online commerce, virus reshaped US economy
WASHINGTON — At first, it was expected to be brief. At least that was the hope.
Instead, a once-in-a-century pandemic has ground on for a year, throwing millions out of work and upending wide swathes of the American economy. Delivery services thrived while restaurants suffered. Home offices replaced downtown offices. Travel and entertainment spending dried up.
The job losses were swift and harsh. But they hardly fell equally across the economy. Black and Hispanic workers fared worse than others. And many women, mostly mothers, felt compelled to quit the workforce to care for children being schooled online from home. Despite the job cuts, Americans as a whole socked away a record level of savings, buoyed by government aid to the unemployed and income that higher-paid workers, hunkered down at home, managed to squirrel away.
After a year of ghostly airports, empty sports stadiums and constant Zoom meetings, growing signs suggest that the economy is strengthening. Hiring picked up in February. Business restrictions have eased as the pace of viral infections has ebbed. Yet the economy remains far from normal.
11:40 a.m. 1 in 5 in US lost someone close in pandemic: poll
WASHINGTON — About 1 in 5 Americans say they lost a relative or close friend to the coronavirus, highlighting the division between heartache and hope as the country itches to get back to normal a year into the pandemic.
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research illustrates how the stage is set for a two-tiered recovery. The public’s worry about the virus has dropped to its lowest point since the fall, before the holidays brought skyrocketing cases into the new year.
But people still in mourning express frustration at the continued struggle to stay safe.
“We didn’t have a chance to grieve. It’s almost like it happened yesterday for us. It’s still fresh,” said Nettie Parks of Volusia County, Florida, whose only brother died of COVID-19 last April. Because of travel restrictions, Parks and her five sisters have yet to hold a memorial.
Parks, 60, said she retired from her customer service job last year in part because of worry about workplace exposure, and now she is watching with dread as more states and cities relax health rules.
Only about 3 in 10 Americans are very worried about themselves or a family member being infected with the virus, down from about 4 in 10 in recent months. Still, a majority are at least somewhat worried.
“They’re letting their guard down and they shouldn’t,” Parks said. “People are going to have to realize this thing is not going anywhere. It’s not over.”
11:07 a.m. Cook County launches rental assistance program for suburban residents
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Thursday launched a program that will provide millions in rental assistance to residents of suburban Cook County.
The COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program will disburse $65 million to help renters facing eviction and allow landlords to apply for relief on behalf of their tenants.
“We know that working families in the suburbs are suffering,” Preckwinkle said Thursday morning at a virtual news conference. “Unpaid rent, evictions, foreclosures and other debts can have a lasting negative impact on a person’s life and future…we’re here to help.”
People seeking help can visit www.cookcountyil.gov/recovery to begin the application process. The deadline is April 2.
The millions in financial relief is from federal COVID-19 relief funds.
Preference will be given to households that earn between 50% and 80% of area median income, as well as to people who’ve become unemployed within 90 days of applying.
The maximum amount available to applicants seeking rental assistance is $15,000.
Applicants can also seek to tap an additional $8 million available for utility assistance and services to help with foreclosures and other debt burdens.
“During this time and over the past year, I have seen endless constituents coming to our office asking for any type of help, whether it’s a lead in a job opportunity or any other cash assistance,” Cook County Commissioner Alma E. Anaya said. “Programs like this make a real impact in people’s lives.”
9:02 a.m. Family of Illinois’ 1st COVID-19 death reflects on pandemic anniversary: ‘I wish you never knew us’
March 2 would have been the late Wanda Bailey’s 64th birthday.
Bailey’s sister, the late Patricia Frieson, would have been 62 on Nov. 27, had the retired nurse not succumbed on March 16, 2020, to the novel coronavirus, a disease declared a global pandemic five days earlier.
Frieson, the sixth daughter in an African American family of nine siblings from Chicago’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood, became the first person to die of COVID-19 in Illinois.
The nation’s first known COVID death had occurred 51⁄2 weeks earlier, in California.
Tragically, on Mar. 25, just nine days after Frieson’s passing, her sister, Bailey, succumbed to a virus that by then had claimed 26 lives in Illinois — COVID fatalities about to escalate nationwide at an astronomical rate. By the end of May, it had claimed 100,000 lives.
“I wish you never knew us,” said Frieson’s brother, Anthony Frieson, 58, of the South Side, with whom we’d spoken last year after the death of his first sister.
“At the same time, I hope the story you wrote concerning my family made others more aware to do the things they needed to do so that hopefully none of their family members got sick. I hope that it helped others follow protocol and helped them get through it,” he said recently, in an exclusive interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.
He chatted while preparing for a small family gathering planned that evening at the home of a niece — masked, of course, and socially distanced — both to celebrate Bailey’s birthday and to remember both sisters on this somber anniversary.
He’s not alone, as every NBA coach will be dealing with load management and trying to find practice time, but Donovan said on Thursday that it will be a feel thing for all the coaches.
There was no shootaround on Thursday morning.
There won’t be a shootaround on Friday, either.
The next logical practice day? Maybe on Monday, and that’s written in pencil, not pen.
The NBA coaching manual has a lot of information in it, but five games over a seven-night span and a lot of the same throughout the second half of the season? There’s no chapter on how to navigate that.
That’s what Bulls coach Billy Donovan, and really all the NBA coaches, have to figure out.
“There’s three parts to that; just your eyes what you are watching to see how guys are moving and playing,’’ Donovan said, when asked how he and his staff will try and load manage. “The other part is taking their inventory, how they are feeling, what they are going through physically, mentally, emotionally. And then the medical part plays a big piece just in terms of the loads, managing that and looking at the numbers and how they are feeling, so obviously if guys are ok and able to play and want to play, we certainly want to do that.
“I think it’s extremely important that players are honest about how they are feeling and what they are going through. We should be as most teams maybe fresher physically in just having some time off but obviously a little bit rusty in some other areas. But as this second half unfolds and the number of games we have, I think there has to be a daily check in to see where guys are at physically and is it a wise choice to maybe have somebody sit out a game to kind of recuperate and get ready for the next one.’’
What Donovan has on his side with this roster is options.
He’s been very creative in combinations and matchups throughout the first half, unconcerned with how deep he’s gone with his bench.
All of that will be in play over the next few months.
What will initially be difficult is finding practice time to build up the conditioning of both Lauri Markkanen {right shoulder} and Otto Porter Jr. (back), who had missed a significant number of games entering the break.
Both returned against the 76ers, but both were admittedly rusty.
“If a guy is feeling good and he wants to play, I think you have to side with the player,’’ Donovan said of his mentality. “I think just for myself or medical to say, ‘No, you are not playing tonight. This is our decision and you are going to sit.’ I don’t think that’s good because I think you want a competitive group.’’
Otto-pilot
Porter had no reaction to rumors that he could be headed for a buyout, insisting that the business of basketball goes through his representation, and all has been quiet on that end.
“I have no idea, to be honest with you, I have no idea,’’ Porter said of a buyout scenario. “Like I said, I’ve just been in the gym every day, trying to get my body back, and whatever is going on out there, I have no idea about. My agent would probably tell me if something was going on, but he hasn’t said anything.’’
Porter was making $28.4 million this season, but headed for free agency this summer. Asked if he was putting an emphasis on showcasing his talent the second half, especially after a mostly-injured first half, Porter downplayed that as well.
“I’m just focused on the team right now,’’ Porter said.
It’s never a bad time for a “W” when you’re Tony La Russa. | AP Photos
“Bad managing,” he said. “Because the guys are trying hard, so I’ll manage better. Or try to.”
Spring training is all about working out the kinks. Getting back into the swing. Finding a groove. Ramping up. Not screwing up. That last one, especially, during a pandemic.
Here’s what it isn’t about: winning and losing. That stuff can wait for the regular season, when every move counts and every blunder threatens to leave a nasty mark in the standings.
Look, they don’t call it the Cactus League because the White Sox and 14 other teams just happen to be playing their spring baseball in Arizona. Wait, did you really think that was the reason?
Fine, it is. But it might as well be because who wins and who loses is about as riveting as watching a scaly, spiny, leafless plant do a whole lot of just standing around in the desert.
All of which is to say: Nobody really cares.
Correction: Nobody really cares as much as back-again Sox manager Tony La Russa.
“That’s actually the first thing at the top of [my] list,” La Russa said Thursday as the Sox — 1-6-3 — prepared for a game against the Reds in Goodyear. “That’s why you keep the score.
“Six times that we’ve been losers, it has messed up the rest of the day. You try to draw some positives because work got in, all that stuff, but you’ve just got to manage better. [It has been] bad managing. Because the guys are trying hard, so I’ll manage better. Or try to.”
By the sounds of it, the return of La Russa, 76, has been nothing less than an unmitigated disaster. That isn’t actually true, mind you. How could it be? The man just climbed back into a uniform. And did we mention it’s spring training?
“Professionally, the game dictates how you feel,” he said.
One supposes that’s simply the nature of La Russa, known far and wide for the extent of his competitive burn. Losses have always eaten at him. It must be one of the not-so-secrets to his vast pile of managerial successes.
But maybe he’s pulling our legs a bit on the spring thing?
“I was always taught — my dad said — ‘You get confused, keep it simple.’ Our team plays their team, and they’re keeping score. So the people that pay you to manage or coach or play, they want to win the game.”
OK, maybe he isn’t. Holy cacti, he cares a lot.
The Sox lost three straight heading into Thursday, and it was kind of ugly going by the scoreboard. They were shut out in two of those games and really haven’t started hitting yet on the whole. They faced three starting pitchers — the Rockies’ German Marquez, the Dodgers’ Julio Urias and the Padres’ Blake Snell — who combined for eight shutout innings.
“Great practice,” La Russa said, “because they’re seeing guys who seem to me like they’re opening-season ready. So it’s good for us, and we’re working on it, and I think we’re going to get better and better.”
Ready for Opening Day? That’s more than doubtful. Nobody is ready yet. The people who lay the foul lines, rake the mound and wash the uniforms aren’t ready.
But at least La Russa used the words “great” and “good” in regard to his own team, a team that happens to be more than a little talented.
“At some point,” he said, “based on what I’ve seen, we’re going to improve and improve, and I believe we’ll be tough to play. We’re going to win our share. More than our share, hopefully.”
By that, he meant once the games start counting for real — during the season.
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