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The Dallas Stars ruined Patrick Kane’s 1,000th game, steamrolling the Hawks for a 6-1 victory.

The post Hawks Steamrolled by Stars in Kane’s 1,000th Game first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More

Today’s update is a 5-minute read that will brief you on the day’s biggest stories.

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and a high near 68 degrees. Tonight, more rain is in the forecast, along with a low around 53 degrees. Tomorrow will bring more showers, mainly before 11 a.m., with a high near 58 degrees.

Top story

Fingers crossed, Chicago aldermen authorize full calendar of special events for 2021

A City Council committee today authorized a full calendar of the special events Chicagoans treasure — including Taste of Chicago and the Air and Water Show — hoping the city’s $1.8 billion share of new federal stimulus funds can help bankroll those large-scale summer gatherings.

With vaccinations surging and coronavirus cases dropping, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has asked the Chicago Police Department to prepare security plans for Lollapalooza and other massive events.

Just this week, the mayor delighted Cubs and Sox fans by allowing them to return to Wrigley Field and Guaranteed Rate Field, though at 20% of capacity.

The City Council’s Special Events Committee authorized the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events to hold the “full calendar” of events it normally puts on. That includes everything from Taste of Chicago to the Air and Water Show to the Blues, Jazz and Gospel festivals.

“We are continuing with our discussions with the fifth floor [mayor’s office]. And we are hopeful that there may be in the [Biden stimulus] bill when it’s passed some additional support for arts and culture,” said Mark Kelly, Chicago’s commissioner of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

“I will say that, even though we have a 49% [budget] cut, we’ll be making some announcements in the next several weeks that speak to an ambitious agenda for arts and culture as we, hopefully, emerge” from the pandemic.

Read Fran Spielman’s full story on how Chicago continues to prepare for the potential of large events being held in the city later this year.

More news you need

1. As the city continues to ramp up its COVID-19 vaccination efforts, officials opened registration for appointments at the United Center to all residents in a handful of South Side ZIP codes today. Anyone living in the 60608, 60619, 60620, 60649 or 60652 ZIP codes can sign up for a vaccine now.
2. The social distancing requirement at Illinois schools will be reduced from 6 feet to 3 feet for students and fully vaccinated staff, state education officials announced today. The move will help make it easier for schools to reopen, officials said.
3. Mike Hamernik, a WGN-TV meteorologist, died of lung cancer this morning at age 60. The Chicago native, who joined CLTV in 2002 before moving to WGN three years later, died at home “surrounded by love and at peace,” his sister said.
4. Under pressure from Black female aldermen, the “Anjanette Young Ordinance” to reform Chicago’s search warrant process will get a committee hearing. Ald. Maria Hadden said it’s “good to hear” a hearing will happen, but she wants a specific date — and soon.
5. Former pot regulators and politicians are cashing in on the exploding industry in Illinois — and a proposed crackdown won’t stop all of them. Tom Schuba explains how the state plans to further tackle conflicts of interest in the legal marijuana industry.
6. Sharone Mitchell, the director of the Illinois Justice Project, has been chosen to be the next Cook County public defender. Mitchell will be appointed at a special meeting Friday.
7. One comes away from the emotionally exhausting “The Father” wondering if Anthony Hopkins has ever been better than this. He’s that good, our Richard Roeper writes. Read Roeper’s full review of the film and Hopkins’ “brilliant, career-crowning performance” here.

A bright one

Giant lemon can snag you a free bike from Goose Island Beer

Find a giant lemon? Win a bike.

It’s that simple.

Goose Island Beer Co.. is giving away 50 bicycles to celebrate “312 Day” on March 12, to anyone who can find and redeem one of 50 giant lemons strategically scattered across Chicago.

The giveaway coincides with Goose Island’s launch of 312 Lemonade Shandy, “a new beer inspired by Chicago’s classic street corner Italian ice stands.” The 312 Lemonade Shandy is lemony, crisp and refreshing, balanced by acidity, Goose Island said.

Goose Island

All “lucky lemon finders” can redeem the giant citrus at the Fulton Street Taproom (1800 W. Fulton) on Friday for one bicycle (one bike per person/lemon); fans (21+over) will be able to check out the new beer at the official 312 Lemonade Shandy stand/taproom as well.

Read Miriam Di Nunzio’s full story on the Goose Island promotion here.

From the press box

Blackhawks fans lucky enough to be in Dallas last night cherished the chance to watch Patrick Kane’s 1,000th NHL game in person. Some of them discussed what it was like watching Kane pass such a big milestone with our Ben Pope.

Hawks captain Jonathan Toews also made his first public appearance of sorts in 2021 by giving Kane some love in a tribute video the team posted. “Wish I was there to celebrate with you. See you soon, man,” Toews, who remains sidelined due to unspecified health issues, said.

And Cubs legend Billy Williams, who’s scheduled to receive his second COVID-19 shot soon, is torn on what to do next: Should the 82-year-old go to spring training in Mesa? Is it safe? Is it the right thing to do?

Your daily question ☕

Which major Chicago event do you hope you can attend this summer?

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: With the news that Chicago traffic was ranked third-worst in the country, what’s the most congested street in your neighborhood? Here’s what some of you said…

“Sheridan Road. People from the suburbs use it as a de facto extension of Lake Shore Drive as they commute between downtown and the North Shore.” — Dennis Fritz

“Lights on 87th, Pulaski, Southwest highway and Metra tracks.” — Mary Sweeney

“The light at Lawrence and Harlem is what I call a coffee and cake light, for obvious reasons.” — Bob Chiarito

“Halsted St., Cicero Ave. and Western Ave.” — Mo’ease E. Shegog-Winters

Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

Sign up here to get the Afternoon Edition in your inbox every day.

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The coronavirus recession could mean that demand for people in such jobs as waiters, cashiers, front-desk clerks and ticket takers might never regain its previous highs.

Esther Montanez’s housecleaning job at the Hilton Back Bay in Boston was a lifeline for the 31-year-old single mother of a 5-year-old son.

The pay was steady and solid — enough to pay her bills and have money left to sock away for a savings account for her child. Montanez liked her co-workers and felt pride in her work.

But when the coronavirus pandemic hit a year ago, igniting a devastating recession, it swept away her job along with many tens of millions of others.

Since then, in desperation, Montanez has siphoned money from her son’s savings to pay her bills.

At Christmas, she turned to charities to provide presents for him.

She’s getting by on unemployment aid and, for the first time, has applied for food stamps.

“I want my job back,” said Montanez, who, with her former colleagues, is working through their union to press the hotel to reinstate their jobs.

Getting a lost job back could be a struggle for her and millions of other unemployed people around the world. Even as vaccines increasingly promise a return to something close to normal life, the coronavirus seems sure to leave permanent scars on the job market.

At least 30% of the U.S. jobs lost to the pandemic aren’t expected to come back — a sizable number of them at employers that require face-to-face contact with consumers: hotels, restaurants, retailers, entertainment venues.

The threat to workers in those occupations, many of them low-wage earners, marks a sharp reversal from the 2008-2009 Great Recession, when middle- and higher-wage construction, factory, office and financial services workers bore the brunt of job losses.

No one knows exactly what the job market will look like when the virus finally ends its rampage.

Will consumers feel confident enough to return in significant numbers to restaurants, bars, movie theaters and shops, allowing those businesses to employ as many people as they did before?

How much will white-collar professionals continue to work from home, leaving downtown business districts all but empty during the week?

Will business travel fully rebound now that companies have seen the ease with which co-workers can collaborate on video platforms at far less cost?

“Jobs are changing — industries are changing,” said Loretta Penn, chair of the Virginia Ready Initiative, which helps workers develop new skills and find new jobs. “We’re creating a new normal every day.’’

The habits that people have grown accustomed to in the pandemic — working, shopping, eating and enjoying entertainment from home — could end up being permanent for many. Though these trends predated the virus, the pandemic accelerated them. Depending on how widely such habits stick, demand for waiters, cashiers, front-desk clerks and ticket takers might never regain its previous highs.

In a study, Steven Davis of the University of Chicago, José María Barrero of Mexico’s ITAM Business School and Nick Bloom of Stanford University concluded that 32% to 42% of COVID-induced layoffs will be permanent.

University of Chicago

The consulting firm McKinsey & Co. estimates that the United States will lose 4.3 million jobs in customer and food service in the next decade.

The U.S. Labor Department estimated last month that, if the ’s lasting economic effects were limited mainly to increased work from home, job growth over the next 10 years will slow to 2.9%.

But if the pandemic exerts a deeper, longer-lasting impact — with many consumers going less frequently to restaurants, movie theaters and shopping centers — job growth would slow to just 1.9%, the department predicted. In that worst-case scenario, itestimated, employment would tumble 13% for waiters and waitresses, 14% for bartenders, 16% for fast-food cooks and 22% for hotel desk clerks.

The coronavirus recession has been especially cruel, victimizing people at the bottom of the pay scale. Lael Brainard, one of the Federal Reserve’s governors, said last month that the poorest 25% of American workers were facing “Depression-era rates of unemployment of around 23%” in mid-January — nearly quadruple the national jobless rate.

The Fed also reported last month that employment in the lowest-paid jobs was running 20% below pre-pandemic levels. For the highest-paying jobs, by contrast, the shortfall was just 5%.

Services workers had long been thought to be safe from the threats that menaced factory employment: foreign competition and automation. More and more, though, as employers have tried to save money in a time of uncertainty and promote social distancing in the workplace, machines are reaching beyond the factory floor and into retail, restaurants and hotels.

Tamura Jamison came back to a changed job when she was recalled to work in June as a front-desk agent at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, owned by Caesars Entertainment. Her hours were cut from 40 to about 32 a week, resulting in a pay cut of about $700 a month.

Just 26 of 45 workers on her team were brought back. Existing self-service kiosks used to be optional for guests checking in. No longer, Now, agents must direct guests to the kiosks and intervene only if needed. That means fewer commissions for room upgrades, which guests can request on their own.

As a union shop steward, Jamison knows that her missing colleagues won’t likely be recalled.

“At this point,” she said, “they have to move on with their lives.”

Jamison wonders whether the front-desk operation eventually will be eliminated altogether, the jobs lost to automation. Guests will soon have keys on their smartphones, allowing them to go directly to their rooms.

“This is the start of a new Vegas,” Jamison said. “The front desk doesn’t really have to be there. There are ways to eliminate our jobs.”

In a study last month, Stefania Albanesi of the University of Pittsburgh and Jiyeon Kim of the Korea Development Institute warned that many companies could replace employees with machines rather than redesign workspaces to facilitate social distancing and reduce the threat of infection in a world still fearful of the virus or other health threats.

The services occupations that have absorbed the biggest job losses, they say, “have high susceptibility to automation.” That “raises the prospect that, as the economy recovers, at least some of the jobs lost may not be reinstated.’’

Few places have been hurt more ruinously by the pandemic than Las Vegas, whose economy is powered by out-of-town visitors and live entertainment. Until 12 months ago, Sharon Beza was among 283,000 workers in the city’s tourism and hospitality field. She had worked as a cocktail waitress at Eastside Cannery hotel-casino from the time it opened in 2008 to the day she was furloughed a year ago. Over the summer, her job was eliminated.

Now a part-time cashier at an Albertsons grocery store, Beza is still seeking full-time work in the restaurant industry, in which she worked for 37 years. She’s holding out hope that Las Vegas will rebound and that tourists will return to restaurants, hotels and casinos. But it might be impossible, she knows, for laid-off workers like her to land jobs that offer the kinds of solid wages, tips and benefits they used to enjoy.

In Europe, government jobs programs have prevented a devastating rise in unemployment. Unemployment in January was 8.1%, up only modestly from 7.4% a year earlier. Yet an economic reckoning has begun, with companies in the worst-hit sectors envisioning years of reduced demand.

Consider commercial airlines. Lufthansa’s workforce shrank from 138,000 to 110,000 in 2020. British Airways plans to cut 12,000 jobs from its 42,000-strong workforce. The United Kingdom-based regional airline Flybe took 2,000 jobs with it when it collapsed a year ago.

Germany’s hotel and restaurant association says that, despite government support to help maintain payrolls, employment sank from 2.45 million pre-pandemic to 2.09 million. Holger Schaefer, a labor economist with the German Economic Institute in Cologne, said that behavioral changes — more digital meetings, for example, and less business travel — would result in permanent job losses in some companies.

But some other sectors of the economy should benefit from pent-up demand once the virus is defeated, Schaefer thinks. He’s optimistic about restaurants, for one.

“There is a fundamental demand for such services,” he said. “I can’t imagine that when everyone is vaccinated and it’s safe, that there will still be problems in that area.”

In Xuzhou, a Chinese city northwest of Shanghai, Guan Li, a convenience store owner, said he hired four out-of-work relatives but had to lay them off after sales fell by half. Now, he and his wife run the shop themselves.

“People just don’t want to buy,” said Guan, who is close to 60.

He and his wife plan to retire because the shop’s income might no longer cover their costs. Owners of two similar shops nearby also plan to close, he said.

In Egypt, Mohammed Gamal used to earn a decent living working six days a week at a café in Giza, the twin city of Cairo. But pandemic restrictions and dwindling business shrank his workweek and slashed his income by more than half. It didn’t help when the government banned “sheesha,” the hookah water pipe that’s popular across the Middle East and is a major moneymaker for cafes.

In mid-2020, he sent his wife and two children back to his parents’ house in Beni Mazar, south of Cairo. Now, he shares a room with a friend to save on rent.

“I just work three days a week, and this is not enough even for a single person,” said Gamal, 31.

In Mexico City, Gerardo González, wearing a suit, a black mask and a plastic face shield, waited recently on the sidewalk outside the delivery service Didi. He had hoped to find work a month after he lost his job at a bakery where he did cleaning and displayed merchandise,

He’s applied for jobs at five companies.

“I can’t get anything,” said González, 51, who supports his wife and two young children. To meet his family’s expenses, he’s burned through his savings.

“We hope that with the vaccine, things will start going back to normal,” he said.

Melinda Harmon lost a job she loved as a bartender at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum last year. First, she found work as a health care aide for $9.25 an hour. Even after getting a raise to $10, she struggled to support her two sons. Frustrated, she resigned and took a job as a security guard for $12 an hour. She’s been switching off lights to save money for electricity and has had to delay haircuts for her two beloved Pomeranians.

Yet she remains optimistic that the Fiserv Forum will reopen and that she one day will be mixing drinks for Bucks fans again.

“I do believe things will go back,” said Harmon, 39.

In New York, Bill Zanker is also envisioning a comeback after being forced to close Grit Bxng, his luxury gym. He’s raising money to launch an at-home fitness business in the fall, which eventually will mean hiring to support a online business, including customer service and supply specialists.

Rick Bowmer / AP

Still, Zanker is hopeful that his Manhattan gym, known for its cocktail bar and backed by billionaire Tony Robbins and others, will come roaring back. Before the pandemic forced its closing, Zanker said, classes would be booked for the entire week within two hours each Monday morning. With the bar typically packed, he had been on the verge of opening a second location.

“There is so much pent-up demand,” Zanker said. “People after class are going to want to hang out and socialize. It’s like after Prohibition: Party like there’s no tomorrow.”

However things shake out, the pandemic disruption to the job market is likely to require millions of workers to find new careers. Reviewing the job outlook in eight major economies, McKinsey estimated that 100 million workers — one in 16 — will need to change occupations by 2030. In the United States, McKinsey said, workers who will need retraining are most likely to have a lost low-income job and to be Black, Hispanic or female.

Getty Images

“You can take people in these unskilled positions and teach them,” said Susan Lund, an author of the consultancy’s report on the jobs of the future. But in the United States, she said, “The problem is, we have not scaled it up. We do not a have a national program to do it.’’

The United States spends a fraction of what other rich countries do on programs that are designed to help workers make career transitions. And a bewildering web of employment and training programs often leaves workers confused. The programs tend to focus on helping laid-off factory workers — not the unemployed chefs and sales clerks who are likely to be most in need in the pandemic’s aftermath.

“We make people jump through insane hoops just to get advice on getting a new job,” said Annelies Goger, who studies training programs as a fellow at the Brookings Institution. “We make it extremely challenging.’

In a paper last year, David Autor and Elisabeth Reynolds of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology warned that dwindling demand for low-paid workers without college degrees won’t coincide with job opportunities for “these same workers in middle-paid jobs… Those displaced may suffer significant hardship as they seek new work, potentially in occupations where they have no experience or training.”

Contributing: David McHug, Frances D’Emilio, Maria Grazia Murru, Joe McDonald, Yu Bing, Zen Soo, Chen Si, Sam Magdy, Sam Metz, Fabiola Sánchez

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Paramedics picked up two gunshot victims Wednesday near the 3200 block of South Indiana Avenue.

A man and woman were shot Wednesday near the Illinois Institute of Technology campus on the South Side.

Paramedics picked up two gunshot victims about 2:20 p.m. at 32nd Street and Indiana Avenue, according to Chicago fire spokesman Larry Langford.

A man, shot in his chest, was taken in critical condition to the University of Chicago Medical Center, Langford said.

A woman with a graze wound went to the same hospital in good condition, he said.

Chicago police did not immediately release details about the shooting.

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

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Law enforcement agents were “being pulled into the crowd and trampled, assaulted with scaffolding materials, and/or bear maced by protesters,” wrote Arlington County firefighter Taylor Blunt in an after-action memo. Some couldn’t walk, and had to be dragged to safety.

Two firefighters loaned to Washington for the day said they were the only medics on the Capitol steps Jan. 6, trying to triage injured officers as they watched the angry mob swell and attack police working to protect Congress.

Law enforcement agents were “being pulled into the crowd and trampled, assaulted with scaffolding materials, and/or bear maced by protesters,” wrote Arlington County firefighter Taylor Blunt in an after-action memo. Some couldn’t walk, and had to be dragged to safety.

Even the attackers sought medical help, and Blunt and his colleague Nathan Waterfall treated those who were passing out or had been hit. But some “feigned illness to remain behind police lines,” Blunt wrote.

The memo is one of hundreds of emails, texts, photos and documents obtained by The Associated Press. Taken together, the materials shed new light on the sprawling patchwork of law enforcement agencies that tried to stop the siege and the lack of coordination and inadequate planning that stymied their efforts.

The AP obtained the materials through 35 Freedom of Information Act requests to law enforcement agencies that responded to the Capitol insurrection.

“We were among the first mutual aid teams to arrive and were critical to begin the process of driving protestors off the Capitol,” wrote Blunt. Other emergency medical personnel also responded to incidents at the U.S. Capitol, including on the Capitol steps earlier in the day.

Five people died in the attack, including a police officer. Two other officers killed themselves after. There were hundreds of injuries and more than 300 people, including members of extremist groups Proud Boys and Oathkeepers, have been charged with federal crimes. Federal agents are still investigating and hundreds more suspects are at large. Justice Department officials have said they may charge some with sedition.

The Arlington firefighters ended up at the Capitol because, two days earlier, Washington Metro Police Chief Robert J. Contee had formally asked the Arlington County Police Department, along with police departments from Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland, and Arlington County in Virginia, to lend them some officers trained for protests and riots, according to the documents.

Arlington’s acting police chief Andy Penn said they’d send help for the “planned and unplanned first amendment activities,” according to emails.

At the time, the Capitol Police department had issued a security assessment warning that militia members, white supremacists and other extremists were heading to Washington to target Congress in what they saw as a “last stand” to support President Donald Trump.

Federal agencies not responding were also preparing for potential violence. On Jan. 4, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said staff should try to telework for the week.

Two days later, it was 3:39 p.m. when Penn emailed county officials that he had “just been notified” that Arlington officers were responding to the Capitol attack and had been absorbed into the overall response led by Capitol Police.

That was almost 90 minutes after the mob first busted into the Capitol and more than an hour after the medics began treating injured police on the steps.

Members of Congress, who were locked down or rushed to safety that day as the attackers approached the House and Senate chambers, are holding hearings this week to get to the bottom of what went wrong with the law enforcement response that allowed the crowd to enter and ransack the Capitol building.

One question they are looking to answer is why the Capitol Police didn’t have more help on hand early in the day, before the rally near the White House devolved into insurrection at the Capitol.

The emails obtained by AP — hastily written and including misspellings and incomplete sentences — show that nearby police agencies were alerted two days earlier that there might be trouble and were prepared to help.

The night before the breach, after hours of rallies and speeches across the city, Federal Protective Service officers, who protect federal property, had noticed protesters trying to camp out on federal property and were “being vigilant for any suspicious activity,” according to an email from the agency.

They were expecting large crowds, and by the next morning they were monitoring them closely.

At 9:45 a.m. a protective service liaison to the Capitol Police wrote, “Good morning Sir, what I have is the Ellipse is permitted for 30k but they expecting for there to be much more. Freedom Plaza original permit was 5k and it was raised to 30k, the permit outside Sylven Theater is permitted for 15K.”

The agents were particularly interested in the right wing extremist group, Proud Boys. They noted how many were in Washington, that they were staying at a downtown hotel, and what they planned.

In a briefing at noon on that day, just as Trump was encouraging supporters to “ fight like hell,” a Federal Protective Service email said about 300 Proud Boys were at the U.S. Capitol.

“No incidents at this time,” the email said. But then it warned, “The Proud Boys are threatening to shut down the water system in the downtown area, which includes government facilities.”

The email noted there was a man in a tree with what appeared to be a rifle near the Ellipse, and about 25,000 people were around the White House, including some who were hiding bags in bushes outside the building.

“Together we stand!” the officer signed off.

About 20 minutes later, a protective service officer whose name was redacted sent an email that read, “POTUS is encouraging the protesters to march to capitol grounds and continue protesting there.” POTUS stands for president of the United States.

In a series of emails that followed, protective service officers messages offered a blow-by-blow account of the march to the Capitol from the rally where Trump spoke.

“Protesters moving towards the capitol down Pennsylvania, Constitution and Madison in numbers estimated 10-15,000,” read an email sent at 12:28 p.m.

The officers tracked them across the city and at 12:57 p.m. a message read, “Large group just breached the USCP barricade on the West Front,” referring to the Capitol Police barriers on west side of the Capitol Building.

About a half hour later, they reported several police officers were injured, and then at 2:14 a message screamed “CAPITOL HAS BEEN BREACHED. PROTESTERS ARE NOW INSIDE THE CAPITOL.” Two minutes later they reported the House and Senate chambers were being locked down.

“Shots fired 2nd floor house side inside the capitol,” read a message at 2:45, probably the moment when a Capitol Police officer fatally shot Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter who tried to hurl herself through a broken interior window into the Speaker’s Lobby just outside the House chamber where lawmakers were taking cover.

Intelligence agents used Facebook to monitor dozens of protests planned for Jan. 6 and beyond, according to emails. These rallies had names such as the “Yugest Trump Parade of All (45 Exclamation Points)!,” “Fight for President Trump and Your Rights,” and “Wild Protest for Donald Trump (The Republican Mandate).” Some events were permitted, others were not.

Officers in the Virginia suburb of Vienna were already on edge two days before the Capitol breach after a video of a small, half-hour protest at the home of Republican Sen. Josh Hawley __ a Trump supporter __ attracted more than 100,000 pageviews.

“They claim they are coming back tonight,” Vienna Deputy Chief Daniel Janickey said in Jan. 5 emails to Fairfax County officials.

“WE will have some officers out there tonight monitoring in case (the) group shows up,” Janickey wrote. “Hawley and his staff have hired armed private security for (the) next 48 hours.”

Those protesters didn’t return. But within 24 hours, Fairfax County, Virginia, officials realized their Washington counterparts had much more trouble on their hands.

At 3:10 p.m. on Jan. 6, Fairfax County’s deputy county executive, Dave Rohrer, emailed more than 25 county officials: “Subject: Awareness – Police Mutual Aid Request U.S. Capitol Police.”

That was about two hours after the first windows had been broken.

The U.S. Capitol had been breached, he said.

“It is obvious to me based on my experience and knowledge that an emergency exists,” said Rohrer. He said he had authorized the Fairfax County Police Department to send Civil Disturbance Unit officers and commanders “to assist gaining control for safety reasons.”

He added that they were monitoring the deployment closely. The redacted email refers to an early June episode when police from several jurisdictions used tear gas to violently break up a peaceful and legal protest in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House.

On Jan. 6, Rohrer said he reminded commanders on the scene “that they are to cease operations if at any point they determine they are being used in an inappropriate, unethical, illegal manner, or are not under a competent authority… Maintaining life safety, regaining and establishing a safe perimeter, etc., should be the initial focus.”

Just 12 minutes later, Rohrer had an update: They were suspending any fire, rescue or emergency service transportation to hospitals in the District of Columbia and “upgrading response and command structure.”

For hours, Fairfax County’s police monitored Metro stations and acted as back up to Washington police, according to the emails. They were also checking with hotels where some in the mob were staying. Rohrer noted that many had been staying in Alexandria and Arlington..

The hotels “reported some problems with crowds and disorderly conduct the past few nights,” he said.

That evening, at 8:31 p.m., a Federal Protective Service memo alerted “there is a report of an armed militia group headed to dc from west Virginia. Query ongoing.”

As midnight approached, Rohrer emailed again. Although the Capitol was quiet, “Intel will be monitored throughout the night and, unfortunately, PD and US Capitol Police are investigating several threats targeting residences of Capitol VIPs or family members received late tonight.”

By Jan. 7, Fairfax County Police Department Major Shawn Bennett was bristling at former Capitol Police Chief Terry Gainer’s critique of the police response.

“Gainer throws a lot of shame but he doesn’t offer any answers to what ‘specifically’ he would have done differently to keep the initial group from breaking down the barriers,” emailed Bennett.

Also on Jan. 7, Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill was thanking his staff.

“Our Police Department’s Civil Disturbance Unit answered the call yesterday, and as much as I hated to activate you, it was an activation to preserve our republic,” he wrote. “I am hopeful we will never again see what we witnessed yesterday, but I am most hopeful that yesterday’s events will galvanize our county and our nation as we do our best to vaccinate, maintain calm and create a sense of unity.”

___

Associated Press writers Colleen Long in Washington and Garance Burke in San Francisco contributed to this story.

___

Contact AP’s Global Investigations team at [email protected].

___

This story has been corrected to show Terry Gainer is a former Capitol Police chief, not the current Capitol Police chief. It also clarifies that in addition to the Arlington County firefighters, other emergency medical personnel also responded to incidents at the U.S. Capitol, including on the Capitol steps earlier in the day.

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Teachers from the Old Town School of Folk Music on Wednesday announced support from across the Chicago music industry — including the backing of Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy — in their effort to secure a union contract that includes four seats on the nonprofit organization’s board.

Tweedy and his son, Spencer Tweedy, who’s also a musician, were among 70 people who signed a letter supporting the teachers, union leaders announced Wednesday.

Others who signed the letter include Frank Hamilton, who co-founded the Old Town School in 1957 but is no longer affiliated; Ray Quinn, owner of the music venue Martyrs’; and Dan Apodaca, talent buyer at Schubas Tavern, another North Side music hall.

The letter reads, in part: “Democracy in the workplace is a foundational and cherished idea for teachers and students drawn to a school that arose from the pro-worker legacies of Woody Guthrie and Ella Jenkins, Bess Lomax Hawes and Win Stracke. The Old Town School of Folk Music should be a shining example of democratic governance for arts organizations everywhere.”

During a virtual news conference Wednesday, Hamilton called the teachers the “lifeblood of the school” whose voices on the board would benefit everyone.

“Some of them have been here a long, long time and they know the workings of the school better than almost anybody,” he said.

The board is composed of 19 members and five officers.

Old Town School CEO Jim Newcomb expressed concern that designating board seats for teachers would affect the board’s independence.

“We want to have a body that is separate, that is able to thoughtfully oversee strategic and financial decisions,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday.

A possible alternative, Newcomb said, would be forming “working groups” that would allow teachers to join “small groups charged with looking into and solving a specific problem.”

Chris Walz, a teacher at the school who also leads the union, said the board seats were a “linchpin” of contract negotiations that have been ongoing for 18 months. A mediator recently joined the negotiations.

“We feel that teacher input and teacher advice and teacher perspective on all levels is only going to be helpful to the overall decision-making process of the school, making it a stronger, more viable, more vibrant institution going forward,” Walz said. “We see this as an absolute necessity, and it is the thing we are going to continue working towards in order to form a true, complete partnership with the administration and the board of directors.”

In January 2019, teachers at the school voted 141-7 in favor of forming a union under the umbrella of the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

The school employs as many as 300 teachers, depending on class offerings. The union refused to say how many teachers are members.

The union also is negotiating over pay and benefits.

The Old Town School of Folk Music holds a warm spot in the hearts of thousands who’ve attended concerts there or learned to play an instrument at the school.

The school has two main locations, one in Lincoln Park and one in Lincoln Square.

Leadership at the school faced a backlash in 2019 when it considered selling the Lincoln Park location.

Walz held the controversy up Wednesday as an example of a decision-making process that would have gone completely differently had teachers been on the board and part of the process.

At the moment, the school’s classes are mostly held online due to the pandemic.

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The Allegations

In one corner, we have Smartmatic, a London-based tech company that produces election software used all over the world. In the other, we have Fox News and a parade of Trump-worshiping characters: birther conspiracy theorist Lou Dobbs, “Money Honey” (ugh) Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine “Democrats Are Demon Rats” Pirro, alleged QAnon follower Sidney Powell, and, of course, Four Seasons Total Landscaping orator Rudy Giuliani.

Days after the 2020 election, Giuliani went on Fox to say that Smartmatic software was flipping votes from red to blue. He also claimed the company had been founded by Hugo Chavez, which, lol, no. The accusations spread rapidly, first on Fox News, then to other right-wing media organizations like Newsmax and OAN. According to Smartmatic’s complaint, by promoting these “demonstrably false and factually inaccurate” allegations, the network “decided to make Smartmatic the villain in their story.” Fox News and the mentioned anchors and surrogates have all filed motions to dismiss the suit, citing First Amendment protection.

Smartmatic claims its business has crumbled and is charging Fox News and the Trump cheerleaders $2.7 billion for the damages. And for that, it’s called on a couple of Chicago attorneys: J. Erik Connolly and Nicole E. Wrigley of the law firm Benesch.

The Attorneys

Connolly is so Chicago that he pronounces the case “Smartmatic vs. Fax News.” He grew up in “a big industrial park surrounding O’Hare,” he says, and has lived within a 20-mile radius of the airport his whole life, including his undergrad and law school years at Northwestern. Wrigley, too, is an Illinois native, with magna cum laude degrees from Urbana-Champaign. Before joining Benesch in 2018, the two had next-door offices at powerhouse firm Winston & Strawn, where they developed a working partnership in “bet the company” litigation — that is, cases in which a company’s existence hinges on the outcome (as with Smartmatic). New York attorney Edward C. Wipper is teaming with Connolly and Wrigley on this case.

Antidefamation suits constitute only about a third of Connolly and Wrigley’s cases, but they’ve made a name for themselves taking on broadcast news outlets. In 2017, Connolly and Wrigley negotiated the largest settlement in the history of American media defamation, $177 million on behalf of Beef Products, whose meat ABC News reporters repeatedly referred to as “pink slime.” They’re currently representing SmileDirectClub in a $2.85 billion suit against NBCUniversal Media for claiming that the company sells “do-it-yourself dentistry” that flouts federal safety regulations.

The Brief

Have you ever been absolutely riveted by a legal brief? Me neither, until I read the opening lines of the Smartmatic v. Fox News complaint: “The Earth is round. Two plus two equals four. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election for President and Vice President of the United States. The election was not stolen, rigged, or fixed. These are facts. They are demonstrable and irrefutable.” Frankly, Shakespeare could never.

“At the end of the day, legal briefs are still writing,” Connolly says. The intro came to Connolly in a spark of inspiration while getting ready for work one morning, and his team didn’t change a word after his first draft. “You still have an audience that you’re writing to — it just happens to be that I have a judge that I’m writing to.”

The Stakes

Remember facts? Remember when we expected our news outlets to report verified truths? That’s what Connolly and Wrigley’s team is attempting to establish: Facts exist, and unsubstantiated rumors have no place in media. “We’re not talking about a potential difference of opinion, we’re not talking about shades of gray,” Connolly told me. “Some things are just black and white.” So retro!

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Illinois meets fifth-seeded Northwestern in the second round on Wednesday.

INDIANAPOLIS — Aaliyah Nye scored a career-high 17 points, Kennedi Myles had a double-double and 12th-seeded Illinois defeated No. 13-seed Wisconsin in the first game of the Big Ten Conference tournament on Tuesday.

Myles had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Jeanae Terry had 11 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals for the Illini (5-17). who ended a six-game losing streak.

Illinois meets fifth-seeded Northwestern in the second round on Wednesday.

Sydney Hilliard and Imani Lewis both had 11 points for the Badgers (5-19), who end on a five-game losing streak. Lewis also grabbed 11 rebounds for her 12th double-double.

After the game, Wisconsin fired coach Jonathan Tsipis.

“I appreciate Coach Tsipis’s efforts during his five years with us, but we feel it is time for a new direction for our women’s basketball program,” Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez said. “I wish Jonathan the best as he moves forward.”

Illinois scored the first 17 points of the game and led 24-2 after one quarter as Nye closed it out with two of her four 3-pointers. The Badgers were 0 for 18 from the field.

Wisconsin scored its first field goal at 7:52 of the second quarter and scored the first nine points but the Badgers missed their last 10 shots of the half and trailed 32-12.

Wisconsin, which won the regular-season meeting 69-57, was 0 for 7 from 3-point range and shot 12% (4 of 33) in the first half. The Badgers finished 1 of 13 behind the arc and 16 of 64 overall. Illinois was 8 of 25 from distance and 24 of 60 from the field.

— Associated Press

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Kane also spoke about Toews on Tuesday, saying he’s “talked to him quite a bit throughout the season.”

Jonathan Toews made his first public appearance since last season on Tuesday, albeit not live or in person.

The Blackhawks posted a 24-second video Toews took of himself congratulating longtime teammate Patrick Kane on his 1,000th career NHL game, one of numerous videos recorded by various hockey greats congratulating Kane.

“You’ve hit a few milestones lately, but this is a big one,” Toews said in the video. “I hope you enjoy it with the boys [and] your family. I’m proud of you, buddy. It’s been a special ride to be a part of it since day one, since we were rookies.

“Wish I was there to celebrate with you. See you soon, man.”

Toews hasn’t played a game this season since taking a medical leave of absence in December, stating at the time he was experiencing symptoms leaving him “feeling drained and lethargic.” He hadn’t made an appearance since — not even at the Hawks’ home opener in January, for which numerous other injured players were present.

Despite swarms of rumors about Toews’ possible conditions, Hawks general manager Stan Bowman said in February that the team does not have any “additional information that we’re holding back.”

Kane was also asked and spoke about Toews before the game Tuesday, saying they’ve spoken with each other “quite a bit” this season.

“He’s always been one of the first ones to congratulate me or check in on a team, whatever it might be throughout the year,” Kane said. “We wish he was here, no doubt. He’s a great player, great leader. Just a big presence to have around for the team and in the locker room.

“Sometimes things are a little bit more important than hockey, and you have to be feeling right. We just reiterate that we wish him the best and hopefully he’ll be back soon. But let him take care of himself first.”

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