chicagotribune--2020-02-11--Oak Brook hires company to remove coyotes in the village

“ We began to hear more unofficial reports , as well as inquiries from residents on what could be done @ @ @ @ @ “ That , along with the media reports of an increase in activity in the @ @ @ @ @ take a look at it and engage an expert to investigate whether there was a @ @ @ @ @ , be able to mitigate it before an innocent person or pet was injured .
@

A resident of the first block of Lambeth Court in Oak Brook took this photo of coyotes the morning of Jan. 25. (Ed Burke)
The Oak Brook Police Department, in response to community concerns regarding coyote sightings, has hired a company with expertise in mitigating the animals.
“We really wanted to be proactive with this,” Police Chief James Kruger said. “And we need all of our residents to make sure they report any sightings.”
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Kruger said there have been only five calls over the past two years to 911 about coyote sightings. He said the relatively low call volume was because people knew police don’t have the tools or expertise to resolve the issue.
“We began to hear more unofficial reports, as well as inquiries from residents on what could be done,” he said. “That, along with the media reports of an increase in activity in the region, caused us to take a look at it and engage an expert to investigate whether there was a problem and, if so, be able to mitigate it before an innocent person or pet was injured.”
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The village hired Scientific Wildlife Management, an urban coyote specialist that has successfully worked with other communities in the area.
“It took them about two weeks to solve the problem in Villa Park,” Kruger said.
Anyone who sees a coyote in the village is asked to file an online form with Scientific Wildlife Management and click on the tab for Coyote Sightings.
Residents who have questions about the online reporting process can contact the police department at 630-368-8700. Kruger said because coyotes are wild animals, residents should never actively seek them out.
Oak Brook has agreed to pay Scientific Wildlife Management $600 for the tracking of coyotes and use of its website to report sightings. An additional $500 will be paid for each coyote removed from the village, Kruger said.
“I’m all for it,” said resident Kathy Miller, who has seen coyotes near her house on the first block of Lambeth Court. “I hope to keep them away from my house. I have a small dog.”
Kruger said once the alpha males and females are removed from an area, remaining coyotes usually leave.
Coyotes and other animals have become very adept at living in close proximity to humans, using their homes and buildings for shelter, eating the food put out for pets and threatening those pets, according to information from Scientific Wildlife Management.
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“It seems that people either love or hate the coyote, but the fact of the matter is that some coyotes that are habituated to the urban environment can pose a real danger to you and your pets,” said Rob Erickson of Scientific Wildlife Management. “It is these coyotes that need to be dealt with in a safe efficient manner by experienced professionals.”
Erickson said not feeding coyotes is the key to keeping them away from the area.
“Feeding is always bad," he said. “They become habituated quickly. Many times that’s because people feed them. Many times the animals are diseased."
Erickson said coyotes considered to be a problem are removed from the area. They are captured in traps and euthanized, before being necropsied to determine if health conditions, such as heartworm, distemper or rabies were the possible cause of the animals’ behavior.
“We can tell if the animal has been fed and then try to track down the source of the feeding and try to have that stopped,” he said.
Erickson said his company does not relocate coyotes after they have been captured.
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Relocating coyotes isn’t the answer to the problem, according to Wildlife Illinois, which mentions several reasons on its website not to do so.
Moving the coyotes to another urban area likely would result in someone else inheriting the problem. In addition, handling and transporting a wild animal can be dangerous and any diseases or pests that the relocated animal carries have the potential to spread to the new location.
Also, relocation does not guarantee the animal will survive because the new location already will have animals using food, water, and shelter there that will protect their home from relocated animals.


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--Depression affects 1 in 5 pregnant and postpartum women. A Northwestern program is gaining national

Depression affects 1 in 5 pregnant and postpartum women. A Northwestern program is gaining national attention for tackling the issue.

Miller presented unpublished research at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine ’ s annual meeting in Texas last week showing that @ @ @ @ @ the program were more likely to be screened for depression , and those who screened @ @ @ @ @ get treatment than women who saw the same obstetricians and midwives before the program launched @

Jenny Mason-Frey plays with her 3-month-old son Jack at home on Feb. 4, 2020, in Chicago. Mason-Frey is part of the Compass (Collaborative Care Model for Perinatal Depression Support Services) program, which helps new moms with support and treatment for stress, depression and anxiety. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Jenny Mason-Frey had experienced panic attacks before — sudden waves of anxiety that set her heart racing, her head spinning and made her feel as if she was going to die.
The Lakeview woman learned to cope over the years by disengaging from whatever was occupying her. But when she had a panic attack a week after the birth of her son, she knew that would no longer work.
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“I can’t just leave the situation,” said Mason-Frey, 29, whose son Jack is now 3 months old. “I have to work through it because I have a son who’s relying on me now.”
Rather than looking for a psychiatrist on her own, Mason-Frey called a therapist at Northwestern Medicine whose name she received from her midwife during her pregnancy. The therapist worked with Mason-Frey’s midwife and a psychiatrist at Northwestern to see her that week and put her on medication immediately.
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The first-time mom is part of a Northwestern program grabbing national attention for what some experts call a novel approach to treating expectant and new mothers with depression. As many as 20% of mothers experience perinatal depression, which strikes before and after pregnancy, but only about 3% to 5% get adequate treatment, said Dr. Emily Miller, a maternal-fetal medicine subspecialist and assistant professor at Northwestern University who created the program.
Jenny Mason-Frey cares for her 3-month-old son Jack on Feb. 4, 2020, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
The 3-year-old program, called Compass, screens patients regularly for depression, and connects them with in-house care managers, therapists and psychiatrists in their health insurance networks, who meet weekly to discuss treatments. The care manager, typically a social worker, uses a registry to track patients’ progress, contacting them every few weeks.
The team communicates with the patients’ obstetricians and midwives about their care plans. The program serves women receiving prenatal and postnatal care at Northwestern who are referred by their doctors or midwives or who seek it out for themselves. Nearly 1,600 women have gone through the program.
Compass is funded by Friends of Prentice, which works with Northwestern Medicine Prentice Women’s Hospital to raise money for research into women’s health. It’s the biggest project Friends of Prentice has funded in its more than 30-year history, said President Michael Borders. The group has put $840,000 toward the project, which includes funding for care managers and designing a database.
This kind of collaborative care has been used in other types of medicine, such as primary care, but it hasn’t been used much in care for women having babies, Miller said.
“It’s reimagining completely how we’re delivering care,” Miller said.
[ Nurse practitioners have nearly tripled in Illinois, where they can now practice independently. Some even use the title ‘doctor.’ Should you be worried? ]
Many obstetricians refer patients experiencing depression to outside therapists or psychiatrists, meaning patients might have to wait weeks or longer for appointments, she said. They might also have trouble finding therapists or psychiatrists covered by their health insurance plans. Putting those providers in the same space can eliminate wait times and confusion over insurance coverage, Miller said.
The program requires patients be screened for depression at least twice during pregnancy and again after birth. Not all obstetricians screen patients that often, Miller said, though Illinois law requires those providing care before and after birth to offer screenings.
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Miller presented unpublished research at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s annual meeting in Texas last week showing that pregnant women who went through the program were more likely to be screened for depression, and those who screened positive were more likely to get treatment than women who saw the same obstetricians and midwives before the program launched.
[ Second U.S. baby to be born from a dead donor’s uterus is delivered ]
Dr. Erika Werner, a board member for the society, said the Northwestern program is one of the first in the U.S. to use collaborative care to handle psychiatric disorders in pregnancy, an approach that is “sorely needed.”
“Being a new mom is inherently stressful, and asking moms to deal with that stress while they’re also dealing with untreated psychiatric disorders is a setup for failure,” Werner said.
Dr. Amanda Yeaton-Massey, assistant professor of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, said she’s looked to the Northwestern program for inspiration as the health system looks to improve coordination between obstetricians and mental health professionals.
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“It’s a better way to care for moms, and I think a lot of services, when you put them outside the four walls of the clinic, are harder to access,” Yeaton-Massey said.
Jenny Mason-Frey plays with her 3-month-old son Jack at home in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
The University of Pittsburgh departments of psychiatry and obstetrics are also working with Northwestern’s Miller to develop a research proposal that would allow them to use the Compass program.
“We know that there are a lot of barriers for women to get mental health treatment,” said Eydie Moses-Kolko, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Western Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “We can offer them mental health treatment in a way that’s more convenient.”
[ Northwestern Memorial Hospital plans to spend $78 million on project to relieve overcrowding in its ER ]
Raquel Pendleton, 34, of Chatham, said the Compass program has made a big difference in her life. After Pendleton had her son in September, “I was experiencing something I never experienced before.”
She didn’t want to get out of bed, eat or leave the house. “My child was the only thing I wanted to be bothered with,” she said.
When those feelings lasted more than two weeks, she knew it was more than the baby blues. She contacted her doctor at Northwestern, and that same week, she met with a Northwestern therapist.
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She began to feel better. Now, she’s getting out of the house again with her 4-month-old son, grocery shopping and visiting relatives.
“They’ve got me on a regimen that helps me get back to myself,” she said.
lschencker@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--The White Sox splashed the cash in the offseason. The Cubs stayed still. Here’s how PECOTA projects

The White Sox splashed the cash in the offseason. The Cubs stayed still. Here’s how PECOTA projects each team’s season.

PECOTA was kinder to the Cubs this year than last , when the North Siders were picked to finish fifth @ @ @ @ @ 80-82 record .
That didn ’ t quite come to fruition , but the Cubs @ @ @ @ @ first time since the 2014 season after finishing 84-78 .

All that money the White Sox spent in the offseason? It won’t translate to a huge turnaround if the annual PECOTA projections are true.
Baseball Prospectus predicts the South Siders to finish third in the American League Central with 83 wins despite the acquisitions of Yasmani Grandal, Dallas Keuchel, Edwin Encarnacion and Gio Gonzalez.
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An 83-win season would be an improvement for the Sox, who finished 72-89 last season after being projected to win 70 games, but would fall short of the expectation manager Rick Renteria and general manager Rick Hahn have set for 2020.
The Twins (93 wins), who notably added Josh Donaldson and Kenta Maeda this offseason, are expected to win the division again, with the Indians (86) coming in second. The rebuilding Tigers (69) and Royals (68) are projected to sandbag the Central.
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Meanwhile, the Cubs (85 wins) are projected to finish second in the National League Central, one game behind the Reds (86) but with a comfortable gap ahead of the Cardinals (80) and Brewers (79).
Despite a lack of major additions, the Cubs have a 51.5% chance of reaching the playoffs and a 32.6% chance of winning the division, according to PECOTA.
PECOTA was kinder to the Cubs this year than last, when the North Siders were picked to finish fifth in the division with an 80-82 record. That didn’t quite come to fruition, but the Cubs missed the postseason for the first time since the 2014 season after finishing 84-78.
PECOTA — which stands for player empirical comparison and optimization test algorithm — analyzes players’ past performances and projects the most likely outcome for the upcoming season.
Here’s how PECOTA projects the Centrals:
AL Central
1. Twins (93 wins)
2. Indians (86)
3. White Sox (83)
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4. Tigers (69)
5. Royals (68)
NL Central
1. Reds (86 wins)
2. Cubs (85)
3. Cardinals (80)
4. Brewers (79)
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5. Pirates (70)


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--‘Tinder for your taste buds’: Tock restaurant-reservation system upgrades with a ‘digital concierge’

Making its debut later this year will be the Tock Time Digital Concierge , a digital assistant that will help @ @ @ @ @ experiences ( winery tours , for example ) and last-minute reservations .
Features include a @ @ @ @ @ far into the future ( note time , day/days and party size , and the @ @ @ @ @ a table the moment one becomes available ) and InstantBook , which displays available tables @ @ @ @ @ based on your preferences and history ( one swipes through the available restaurants , which @ @ @ @ @ “ Tinder for your taste buds ” ) .

The Tock restaurant reservation system was founded by Grant Achatz, from left, Brian Fitzpatrick and Nick Kokonas. The new features will include a universal preferences registry, track your restaurant-visit history, offer restaurant suggestions based on past experiences and allow you to share views — privately — with other members. (E. Jason Wambsgans, Chicago Tribune/2014)
Aiming to dominate the online-reservation world like no other service, the Tock system is rolling out new features that will allow customers to register their dining preferences and restrictions, instantly view available tables within the next week and even create restaurant wish lists — to be filled automatically — for near or distant future visits.
Tock Time, an adjunct to the Tock system created by Nick Kokonas, Brian Fitzpatrick and Grant Achatz, will consist of three distinct services, all to be rolled out in 2020.
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Available now, and free to anyone with a Tock account, is a new Diner Profile Page. Features include a universal preferences registry, in which your dining restrictions, allergies and preferences (such as booth versus table and still versus sparkling water) are automatically conveyed to every restaurant you book. The page also tracks your restaurant-visit history, offers restaurant suggestions based on past experiences and allows you to share views — privately — with other members.
That “privately” part is crucial; Kokonas vowed that Tock “will not publish your ratings or opinions, ever. Conflicts of interest inherent in Yelp, Open Table and other sites that both publish reviews and sell bookings will not exist.”
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Making its debut later this year will be the Tock Time Digital Concierge, a digital assistant that will help members secure hard-to-get reservations or experiences (winery tours, for example) and last-minute reservations. Features include a Wishlist to book special-occasion tables far into the future (note time, day/days and party size, and the service will “hold” a table the moment one becomes available) and InstantBook, which displays available tables in the coming days, based on your preferences and history (one swipes through the available restaurants, which is why Kokonas dubs it “Tinder for your taste buds”).
There also will be a Timeline that organizes one’s past, present and future dining; sends reminders about old favorites and supplies reminders of upcoming birthdays and the like.
To learn about features, pricing, introductory offers and more, go to exploretock.com/time.


chicagotribune--2020-02-12--Maybe you’d like to know real cold? Chicago winter and ‘Call of the Wild’ are reminders of Jack Lond

Maybe you’d like to know real cold? Chicago winter and ‘Call of the Wild’ are reminders of Jack London

Now , there are times in winter when weather deserves extensive coverage .
But having lived through the famous blizzard @ @ @ @ @ “ polar vortex ” or two , I consider myself quite beyond winter whimpering .
@ @ @ @ @ every season , I gain some additional immunity by rereading Jack London ’ s short @ @ @ @ @ Fire.
” In it there is this : “ When it is 75 below zero @ @ @ @ @ fail in his first attempt to build a fire .
This is especially true if @ @ @ @ @ If his feet are dry , and he fails , he can run along the @ @ @ @ @ to keep his blood moving .
But the blood in wet and freezing feet can @ @ @ @ @ running when it is 75 degrees below .
No matter how fast he runs , @ @ @ @ @ even harder .
”

The weather news these days is bleak. Many are scared. There is talk of a few inches of snow and temperatures in the single digits.
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Look, this is Chicago. It gets cold in winter. It snows. But so loud is the panic peddling— “blizzard watch,” “deep freeze,” “bitter cold” and on and hyperbolically on — of TV, radio and, yes, even newspapers that we lose perspective. Memories of winters past mysteriously vanish and many of us turn into winter crybabies.
Now, there are times in winter when weather deserves extensive coverage. But having lived through the famous blizzard of 1967 and withstood a “polar vortex” or two, I consider myself quite beyond winter whimpering. At the first snowfall of every season, I gain some additional immunity by rereading Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire.” In it there is this: “When it is 75 below zero, a man must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire. This is especially true if his feet are wet. If his feet are dry, and he fails, he can run along the trail for half a mile to keep his blood moving. But the blood in wet and freezing feet cannot be kept moving by running when it is 75 degrees below. No matter how fast he runs, the wet feet will freeze even harder.”
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Or, a few pages later, this: “He was losing his battle with the frost. It was moving into his body from all sides. This thought drove him forward. But he ran no more than 100 feet, when he fell head first. It was his last moment of fear. When he had recovered his breath and his control, he sat and thought about meeting death with dignity.”
Jack London knew cold. Once the most famous writer in the world, his best novel is “The Call of the Wild.” H.L. Mencken, a perceptive critic, wrote: “No other popular writer of his time did any better writing than you will find in 'The Call of the Wild’ ... Here, indeed, are all the elements of sound fiction: clear thinking, a sense of character, the dramatic instinct, and, above all, the adept putting together of words — words charming and slyly significant, words arranged, in a French phrase, for the respiration and the ear."
It is a powerful book, the story of a dog (half Saint Bernard/half Scotch Collie) named Buck, kidnapped from his “big house in the sun-kissed” Santa Clara Valley in California and propelled into the harsh and frozen north and the savage characters of the Klondike Gold Rush, there to come under the gentle hand of gold prospector John Thornton and eventually discover his ancient roots.
It has been the basis for many movies, the first in 1923 The latest cinematic version (the ninth) arrives Feb. 21. This “The Call of the Wild” stars Harrison Ford, looking particularly scraggy in a white beard as Thornton. The dog? It is not real. It is a CGI creation, “played” by actor Terry Notary via that technological device known as “motion-capture.”
This may not be the only liberty taken. There are some things in the trailer for the film that are not in the book: a massive avalanche and Buck’s rescue of a woman who falls through the ice on a frozen lake. There is also a fight with a bear, barely noted in the novel. Oh, Hollywood.
But allow me to push you toward the work of Jack London.
If you are afflicted with of short attention span, “To Build a Fire” is not a long story. There are two versions of it, one written in 1902 and the other in 1908. I prefer the latter because it features a dog and it is colder and there is death. It is only 6,708 words long.
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I gave a copy of the story to noted local writer Peter Ferry, who has written two fine novels, “Travel Writing” and “Old Heart.” He too had read it before and upon rereading it told me, “I had forgotten just how cold ‘To Build a Fire’ makes you. I am turning up the heat.”
Jack London never knew of wind chill factors, but he knew the cold. He was only 21 in 1897 when, after some miserable California years as an oyster pirate and hobo, he made his way to Alaska in search of gold. He never found any but did accumulate the material for short stories and for “The Call of the Wild” (1903) and such other novels as “White Fang” (1906). He was wildly prolific, writing 1,000 words a day, and ever traveling.
He was a major celebrity and there is little doubt that he influenced such future writers as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and Upton Sinclair. But his views on politics and race compelled one of his biographers, James L. Haley, to write in 2010’s “Wolf: The Lives of Jack London” (Basic Books) that London was “the most misunderstood figure in the American literary canon.”
He died in 1916 at the age of 40 and though his books still sell and are taught in schools, he remains, as Haley puts it, “the most-read revolutionary socialist in American history, agitating for violent overthrow of the government and the assassination of political leaders — and he is remembered now for writing a cute story about a dog."
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The new “The Call of the Wild” movie is sure to draw some to the book, where they will read: “When the long winter nights come on and the wolves follow their meat into the lower valleys, he may be seen running at the head of the pack through the pale moonlight …”
Enjoy. But know, if and when you watch the movie, that the entire film was shot in California.
Oh, well. So it goes. Winter will be over, so I am told, in a few weeks.
rkogan@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-02-12--This winter, a flurry of 5 new Chicago writers and their fiction debuts

His story : Drain taught some at University of Illinois at Chicago , a bit at Chicago State , a @ @ @ @ @ Pullman .
“ I hated teaching , ” he said , “ But I was @ @ @ @ @ attended Southern Illinois University , then entered law school at Louisiana State University .
One @ @ @ @ @ he quit his job as a paralegal for a downtown Chicago law firm , he @ @ @ @ @ I didn ’ t know what to do with myself , and you may not @ @ @ @ @ picked up a pen and started .
I was riding a train north — this @ @ @ @ @ see they ’ re knocking down Stateway and I wonder what it must be like @ @ @ @ @ home down .
Romantic as it sounds , I got off the train , went @ @ @ @ @ of the CTA platform ) , took the next train home , sat and started @ @ @ @ @ had a book .
”

Author Jasmon Drain near the intersection of State and 37th Streets, near the site of the former Stateway Gardens public housing projects in Chicago. His new book is "Stateway’s Garden." (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
This month, next month — and probably long into the future — if you pay any attention at all to the Chicago literary landscape, you’re going to need to acquaint yourself with a handful of fresh names. No fewer than five debut novels by Chicago authors arrive on shelves this winter, an unusually strong showing. All are talented fiction writers and all have landed healthy deals with major publishers. They tell tales from the Stateway Gardens housing projects, and about women linked mysteriously across centuries. They write about a forgotten science-fiction novelist, and about growing up in South Shore, and about the toxic history between a mother and daughter.
Some have left Chicago, some still live here.
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But more important, not one of their books reads like the beginning of a minor career.
Consider this an introduction.
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Jasmon Drain, ‘Stateway’s Garden’
Vitals: 44, grew up in Englewood, now lives in Kenwood.
It’s about: The interlocking trajectories of a handful of tenants in the now-demolished State Street housing project. Set in the 1980s, and ending with Stateway’s demolition in 2007, reminiscent of story collections from Raymond Carver and Gloria Naylor, this elegant first book begins with a shy child named Tracy, spirals outward to his distracted mother, then gravitates towards an older brother, then their neighbors; by the final story, we’re reading a furious history of an enormous slab of concrete (“a grayish-white color that looked like dirty sheets bleached repeatedly”) that shared a single quality with the millionaire homes on Lake Shore Drive, “condo views of the city” — albeit, without ever feeling as welcome to that city.
His story: Drain taught some at University of Illinois at Chicago, a bit at Chicago State, a little at Olive-Harvey College near Pullman. “I hated teaching,” he said, “But I was good at it.” He attended Southern Illinois University, then entered law school at Louisiana State University. One day, not long after he quit his job as a paralegal for a downtown Chicago law firm, he was feeling distraught. "I didn’t know what to do with myself, and you may not believe this, but I picked up a pen and started. I was riding a train north — this is 2007 — and I see they’re knocking down Stateway and I wonder what it must be like to see someone knock your home down. Romantic as it sounds, I got off the train, went to the other side (of the CTA platform), took the next train home, sat and started writing. Eventually, I had a book.”
If only the rest went so smooth.
He said he never wanted to be a writer; watching his father struggle as a freelance musician, he wanted something more certain than a creative life. “But it is who I am, so I do it.” For years he tried to sell the stories that make up “Stateway’s Garden.” He sold a couple to literary journals for less than $100, total. But, inspired by reservation tales of Sherman Alexie (“the first writer I read who did not run from reality”), and Steinbeck, he continued: “Something’s happened in every book, an overarching narrative affecting its characters. Maybe the characters don’t see it. Maybe we don’t. But if a book is set in ’64, ’78, whenever, something’s there. That’s Steinbeck to me, writing about the time, rather than just having characters go through feelings. He wrote fiction resonant of its time, and I want that.”
What’s next: He’s working on a novel, but Drain admits he’s still uncertain if he wants the life of a writer. “Right now working on something new is the last of my thoughts. I just have to want to do it again first. Someone asked me for advice for aspiring writers of color, and I said, ‘Don’t do it if it’s not who you are.’ You’ll find who are you anyway. But this job will test you.”
Drain will appear Madison St Books 3/3 and Pilsen books 3/19
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Author Rita Woods at a wellness center in Mokena; she is a family doctor and the director of the center. Her new book is "Remembrance." (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Rita Woods, ‘Remembrance’
Vitals: 62, from Homer Glen, where she is a family physician and medical director of the Wellness Center in Mokena serving the Pipefitters Local 597.
It’s about: Four women, linked by the legacy of African-American slavery — and their supernatural powers. Pinging across 300 years, from 1791 Haiti to a contemporary nursing home in Cleveland, it’s a historical epic rooted in the horrors of the slave trade, with an intriguing bit of X-Men-like uncanniness attached. One slave develops the power to manipulate space, starting an encampment for the underground railroad sealed off with a force field. No whites allowed. Until the priestess ages, and the town, Remembrance, frays.
Her story: Woods never planned, of course, to wait until her 60s to become a debut novelist. She had grown up in Detroit, wanting to write for magazines, but “my parent’s rule was smart black girls go into professions.” So she became a doctor; at one time, she was on the staff of four hospitals simultaneously. She put in so many hours as a family doctor, there was no time to write, for years. She even trained seriously as a bodybuilder (then decided not to compete).
About a decade ago, she realized “I had worked 20 years to create this career and it’s not the one I wanted as a kid, and it’s kept my kids in dance and paid the mortgage and paid for vacations, but it was brutal and there was no bandwidth left (for writing). I couldn’t sustain it." She wrote during early morning hours and self-imposed weekend retreats.
“I realized I didn’t want to just tell a straightforward underground railroad story. Anyone who had the courage to run away from slavery had something else in them anyway. I don’t know if it would be called magic, but certainly a strength of character. On some level though I wanted them to be able to weaponize those abilities, and not necessarily in an offensive way.”
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She pictured Remembrance beneath an invisible dome, subject to “an odd physics, where the people inside could walk 50 miles, or could go fishing — as long as they were inside the dome, the space inside was infinite. It was its own world, a parallel universe of sorts.”
She began attending writers conferences and pitching to agents — one of whom assumed the Underground Railroad was an actual railroad. (“He wanted to know if you sat or stood.”) But the very next agent she talked to acquired the book. Then couldn’t sell it. Woods heard it was reminiscent of influential sci-fi novelist Octavia Butler, one of the few African-American women in the genre, but that Butler (who died in 2006) never actually sold that well during her lifetime. Not surprisingly, after the success of Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad,” the book sold. Now Woods has a nationwide book tour (a rarity today for a freshman novelist) and multiple bookings on NPR (every debut writer’s dream).
What’s next: Woods is already a hundred pages into her second book. “I’m already getting the ‘We need the next book, we need the next book ...' — but I’m never home.”
Author Michael Zapata at the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago. His debut work of fiction is "‘The Lost Book of Adana Moreau." (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Michael Zapata, ‘The Lost Book of Adana Moreau’
Vitals: 40, from Old Irving Park, lives in Lincoln Square.
It’s about: A New Orleans boy named Maxwell Moreau whose father is a pirate and mother, Adana, a Dominican immigrant, writes a surprise best-selling sci-fi novel. Before she dies, she burns the manuscript of her follow-up. Still, nearly a century later, a Chicago man locates an unexpected copy of that lost book in his grandfather’s papers and heads in search of a now-elderly Maxwell, traveling into a New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
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His story: It’s not so unusual for a first-time novelist to write an entire book (or a few), then throw away the work and start again on something new. Zapata, using a grant from the Illinois Arts Council and money he received after his car was totaled by a drunk driver, moved to Ecuador for a year, rented an apartment in the Andes, in a small town that had been founded by his great-grandfather. He knocked out several hundred pages quickly, over five months. But he decided it was awful. First he erased the novel from his computer, then he hiked to the top of a volcano with a print-out of the book and threw the manuscript into a crevice. “I didn’t want to return to Chicago and dwell on it and try to redo it for years. I wanted to start again.”
The manuscript burned?
“The volcano was dormant.”
So he littered, then?
“It’s so unromantic when you put it like that!”
The good news is, after returning to Chicago — where he is an academic advisor at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, after years of teaching drop-outs in Chicago Public Schools (and also co-founding the long-running Make Literary Magazine) — Zapata began writing “The Lost Book of Adana Moreau.” The first line he came up with is still the first line in the book.
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“I was always an avid science-fiction reader when I was young, but when I am not writing I tend to think materially in a way about how economics affects people. I lean democratic socialist and I thought a lot about my experiences teaching sometimes brilliant people who dropped out. When I sat to write I wanted to tell a story about people between things, not quite accepted. I think a lot of Latin Americans don’t feel fully American or Latin American. I am in constant contact with family in Ecuador (where his father emigrated from) so there’s not the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of a classic immigrant experience. I also think of New Orleans as the northern-most Latin American city. I lived there and it feels viscerally like a parallel universe.”
The result is a evocative blend of folklore, realism and oral tradition (he’s a Studs Terkel fan).
What’s next: His dad worked on Jewelers Row in the Loop, so he’s thought about setting a novel there. But first, “I’m starting work on a book about Chicago in 2050. I won’t give it away, but it’s about a first-generation Ecuadorian who is a census taker and he’s telling a long monologue to an ant at a black site in Chicago — after a revolution.”
Gabriel Bump is the author of "Everywhere You Don't Belong." (Jeremy Handrup photo)
Gabriel Bump, ‘Everywhere You Don’t Belong’
Vitals: 28, from South Shore, now teaching at the University of Buffalo.
It’s about: Claude McKay Love, a South Shore kid, abandoned at five by his parents and raised by a grandmother, yet quintessential ordinary, easily overlooked, polite, obedient, headed for college and uncertain of his place. After a riot, after watching friends shot by Chicago police, then leaving the city for undergraduate world he can’t relate to, what it means to be young and black gathers heartbreaking shape. Bump wrote recently: “I wanted to write a novel for the teenagers riding the Jeffery Local with their headphones on, their hats tuned straight, their minds on girlfriends and forever love, their unfinished algebra worksheets crumpled in their backpacks, their dreams about belonging to a peaceful world.”
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His story: “Everywhere You Don’t Belong” reads like something of a response to the history of great literature set on the South Side. Bump read Gwendolyn Brooks, and Richard Wright, but he wondered, rightly, where’s the great South Side literature since the mid-20th century? “Then as an undergraduate (at University of Missouri), I found Stuart Dybek and loved his style, the way his characters popped. Until (Dybek, who made his name writing stories about working-class communities around Pilsen) I hadn’t read the Chicago I knew.” Which is what Bump tells his own students: “‘Look for blind spots in the canon where you feel you can add something.’ Myself? I wanted something on South Shore.”
Bump, like his hero, Claude, is from Euclid Avenue, in the Highlands of South Shore; Bump, like Claude, took a No. 15 Jeffery to school; and Bump, like Claude, attended University of Missouri to study journalism and left early. But this isn’t auto-fiction: “I was never recruited to be in a gang, and unlike Claude, I didn’t flee for my life from Missouri.” Unlike Claude, Bump didn’t go to school in South Shore; he went to Hyde Park’s University of Chicago Laboratory Schools; his mother is a pediatric nurse, his father is a doctor. (Coincidentally, his parents bought their home from the family of Carlo Rotella, a famed journalist from South Shore.)
While at school in Missouri — after a couple of years of being asked “What’s Chiraq like?” — he decided to return to Chicago, where he studied creative writing at School of the Art Institute of Chicago; then left again to get his MFA at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. The first draft of his new novel was his UMASS thesis. “These days, I don’t know how I feel when I return to South Shore. It’s a strange place. Maybe it’s always been true, but it feels darker now than I remember, but then maybe that’s just because I’m a decade older.”
What’s next: Bump has a two-book deal with Algonquin. He recently handed in the first draft of “The New Naturals,” his follow-up, about an underground group of black academics who start a utopian society in New England. (He’s also about halfway through his third book.)
Stephanie Wrobel is the author of "Darling Rose Gold." (Simon Way photo)
Stephanie Wrobel, ‘Darling Rose Gold’
Vitals: 33, from Darien and Lemont, lives in London.
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It’s about: A teenager named Rose Gold who spent most of her childhood being told by her mother that she was so sick she needed a wheelchair, so allergic and ill and full of cancer that she required constant hospitalization. This mystery of sorts picks up five years after Patty, the mom, has done prison time for child abuse. She returns to her Midwest town as a pariah, but then moves in again with her daughter, who appears now to be weirdly forgiving.
Her story: Wrobel, like many first-time novelists, thought writing fiction as a career was an impractical and uncertain way to earn a living. “It was always more of a dream than a plan, so the closest I could get was advertising.” She worked for several years as a copywriter at a pair of Chicago agencies, writing TV and radio commercials for blue-chip brands such as Coors and Capital One. “As far as writing tight copy goes, when you are used to having five words for a billboard, (that job) taught me the economy of language, but it was also good for me on a skin-thickening level. I am so used to having creative directors draw big slashes through my copy that, comparatively, book editors are pleasant with your feelings.”
The rest has been fast. She got her MFA from Emerson College in Boston, where “Rose Gold” was her thesis. She submitted it to book agents only two years ago, and now publishing rights have been sold in 19 countries. That’s very quick for a first-timer. She plans to stick with suspense, though “I’m less interested in a who-dunnit than a why-they-dunnit.”
Her novel began with a mention of Munchausen syndrome: a friend who works as a school psychologist said she suspected that some of her student’s parents were feigning illness to see a doctor. “I was intrigued, then shocked to learn the perpetrators are often mothers, but there aren’t many first-hand accounts from the perpetrators, only the victims. The tricky thing with people with this mental illness is the general public doesn’t often have much sympathy, so the key to writing Patty was showing that she could be funny and charming and relatable.”
What’s next: Movie rights haven’t been optioned yet but that’s inevitable. (It’s hard reading “Darling Rose Gold” without picturing another screen-eating Frances McDormand turn.) Meanwhile, Wrobel has a two-book deal with Berkley (a Penguin imprint) and is already on the second draft of her next book, about a wellness center “with cult-like tendencies.”
cborrelli@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-02-12--Second man arrested after firefighter was shot in leg while responding to a fire, police say

When officers tried to arrest Williams on Thursday , he rammed a sergeant ’ s car with the vehicle he @ @ @ @ @ over an officer ’ s foot , Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said earlier this @ @ @ @ @ out of his car and ran away before he was caught .

A second man has been charged in connection to a shooting on the Northwest Side earlier this month where a Chicago firefighter was caught in crossfire and hit in the leg, according to Chicago police.
Jermaine White, 29, of the Albany Park neighborhood, is facing one felony charge of aggravated battery with a firearm, police said. He was arrested at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the 2200 block of Bensley Avenue in Lansing, Illinois, which is about 30 miles south of where the shooting took place, police said.
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Jermaine White
White was identified as the person who shot an on-duty firefighter, who was responding to a nearby call of a car fire, just after 1 a.m. Feb. 2 in the 3300 block of West Wilson Avenue in Albany Park, police said.
White’s arrest comes less than a week after Hollis Williams, 29, of Ravenswood Manor, was arrested and charged with four felonies, including unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, aggravated battery of a firefighter, aggravated battery of a police officer and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in connection to the shooting, police said. He also faces multiple traffic violations.
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A judge denied bail for Williams during a hearing Saturday afternoon at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
Hollis Williams
When officers tried to arrest Williams on Thursday, he rammed a sergeant’s car with the vehicle he was in and then ran over an officer’s foot, Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said earlier this week. Williams then got out of his car and ran away before he was caught.
The incident started when firefighters were called to a car fire around 1 a.m. in the 3400 block of West Wilson Avenue, police said.
Detectives learned that two people had set the car on fire, hoping to draw out individuals who lived in the building, Deenihan said. Four people came out of the building, including a woman who got into another vehicle and began driving away.
Two unknown people began shooting at the woman, and two men who were with the woman returned fire, hitting the firefighter in the crossfire, Deenihan said.
Police said Williams was one of the shooters who came out of the building with the woman.
After the shooting, narcotics officers who were familiar with the building used tactics such as undercover buys to help detectives begin to identify those involved. Police are still searching for the others involved in the shooting, Deenihan said.
The 36-year-old firefighter with six years of service was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center after he was shot and is expected to make a full recovery.
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pfry@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--Ask Amy: DNA match creates cousin confusion

You could force this issue into the open by saying to your relatives : `` I have been contacted by @ @ @ @ @ a DNA site .
She is eager to reach out to other family members .
@ @ @ @ @ communicating with her , let me know and I will give you her contact information @ @

Dear Amy: A relative contacted me on an ancestry site after learning that we were cousins (most likely first cousins, once removed).
We had no knowledge of each other and excitedly exchanged information about ourselves and our families. Eventually, though, she wanted specific names of male relatives who, presumably, might be her birth father.
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She was not adopted and was raised by two parents (presumably, the father who raised her didn't know he was not her biological father).
At that point I explained that I did not feel comfortable giving names and asked if she could speak with her mother about this, however uncomfortable that might be.
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I truly felt I'd gone as far as I could, ethically speaking.
My cousins (one of whom might be her biological father) are married, and I had their lives to consider in this genetic search process.
After declining to provide names of family members, I never heard from her again, which grieves me.
Now I'm left wondering: In this age of DNA discoveries, what are our obligations to family members, whether they be known or hidden? What is ethical here?
— Curious Cousin
Dear Curious: This is a great question, and it -- and others like it -- are emerging as DNA discoveries unearth family secrets.
I agree with how you've handled this. You chose to register on this site and communicate with this long-lost cousin. Your other relatives have not made the same choice, and you don't have the right to reveal their identities without permission.
You could force this issue into the open by saying to your relatives: "I have been contacted by a previously unknown cousin through a DNA site. She is eager to reach out to other family members. If you are interested in communicating with her, let me know and I will give you her contact information."
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I'm not advocating for this approach, but it is an option that offers your relatives the same choice you have faced.
You could also reach out to your cousin again in order to stay in touch, without changing your own choice about disclosure.
Dear Amy: My co-workers all have children or grandchildren. My husband and I never had children (medical issues).
Most of my friends and co-workers were determined to get out of school, get married and have a baby! Me? I wanted to travel and do things I wanted to do before I got married. And I did!
Having a baby was never on my radar. Oh, I figured I would want a baby one day, but it wasn't a priority.
I'm the type of person where I see dogs that are around me before I see the cute baby. And, please, don't show me a video of your kid learning to run or dancing. No thanks!
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My problem is that when my friends talk about babysitting their grandchildren (which I think they do too often -- they can't seem to say no to their kids!) my eyes tend to glaze over, and I zone out.
At work when co-workers start talking about their kids or grandkids, I have the same reaction. Usually I just go back to my office.
What is wrong with me? Why don't I like kids?
— M
Dear M: I don't know why you don't like kids. I don't assume that you actually dislike human children, but that you are bored by a topic that you don't see as relatable.
Perhaps if you pretended that children were dogs, you could at least feign an interest in them. Maybe not.
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There is a high likelihood that I wouldn't be overly interested in your photos from your most recent travel adventure. But if you showed these photos to me, I would politely engage with you, because your travels and your pooches are important to you.
Friendship and collegiality confer a certain amount of benign politeness. You might not be overly interested in a friend or colleague's golf game, her kids' soccer score, or her grandbaby's first steps, but a nod and a smile are all that is required; then you can go back to your office.
Ask Amy Daily No-nonsense advice for better living delivered to your inbox every morning. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >
Dear Amy: Thank you, thank you for your response to "Tightrope Walker," whose co-worker had survived a suicide attempt.
Yes, after a crisis, it is such a relief to interact with people in a "normal" capacity. Not directly addressing the crisis isn't being in denial. It is demonstrating that you see the survivor as more than their illness.
— Been There
Dear Been There: Re-entry is so hard after a personal crisis. Thank you for your wisdom.
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(You can email Amy Dickinson at askamy@amydickinson.com or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or Facebook.)
Copyright 2019 by Amy Dickinson
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester collapses on the bench, game vs. Ducks postponed

Ducks and Blues players gathered to see what was wrong before Bouwmeester was taken away .
Both teams then went @ @ @ @ @ and the game was called off a few minutes later tied at 1 .

ANAHEIM, Calif. — St. Louis defenseman Jay Bouwmeester collapsed on the bench during a break in play in the first period, prompting the Blues and Anaheim Ducks to postpone their game Tuesday night.
Bouwmeester appeared to be awake and alert as he was being transported out of the arena to a hospital.
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Teammates Vince Dunn and Alex Pietrangelo immediately called for medical help after Bouwmeester slumped over with 7:50 left in the first period.
After a couple of minutes, Bouwmeester was taken out on a stretcher through a tunnel next to the Blues bench and transported to a hospital.
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Bouwmeester appeared to be grabbing a drink of water when he began to slowly fall. Emergency medical personnel rushed to the Blues bench.
Bouwmeester's father was at the game as part of the team's annual Dads Trip.
Ducks and Blues players gathered to see what was wrong before Bouwmeester was taken away. Both teams then went to their dressing rooms, and the game was called off a few minutes later tied at 1.
Players from both teams met for hugs and well-wishes after changing out of their gear. The game will be made up at a later date.
The 36-year-old Bouwmeester is in his 17th NHL season and has for that time been known for his strong skating and conditioning. He helped the Blues win the Stanley Cup last season and won an Olympic gold medal with Canada in 2014.
Bouwmeester was skating in his 57th game this season, the 1,241st of his NHL career. He skated 1:20 in his last shift before collapsing and logged 5:34 of ice time in the game.
The Blues in April signed the veteran defenseman to a $3.25 million, one-year deal for this season.
Bouwmeester held one of the longest ironman streaks in NHL history with 737 consecutive regular season games played until a lower-body injury in 2014. He missed time in 2015-16 with a concussion, and a hip injury ended his 2017-18 season.
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He played all but four games last year and hasn't missed a game this season.
The last player to collapse on an NHL bench was Dallas forward Rich Peverley in 2014. Peverley had an irregular heartbeat, and the quick response of emergency officials made sure he was OK.
The NHL has pages of emergency medical standards that spell out in specific detail that at least two doctors must be in attendance for every game and one must be within 50 feet of the bench. A defibrillator, which was used when Detroit’s Jiri Fischer collapsed in 2005, must be available, along with a triage room and ambulances.
Associated Press writer Stephen Whyno contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--No. 22 Illinois makes a massive rally but falls to Michigan State 70-69 as Ayo Dosunmu is injured on

No. 22 Illinois makes a massive rally but falls to Michigan State 70-69 as Ayo Dosunmu is injured on the final play

It was an emotional night for the coach in the orange jacket — and for everyone else in State Farm @ @ @ @ @ 22 Illini trailed by as many as 20 points , mounted a furious rally to @ @ @ @ @ lost 70-69 to Michigan State .

Illinois guard Ayo Dosunmu grabs his knee after losing his footing on the final play against Michigan State. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
CHAMPAIGN — The sellout crowd’s roar as it attempted to direct Illinois to a furious comeback turned silent in an instant.
It was as if someone had pressed a mute button Tuesday night at the State Farm Center.
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Suddenly, the result — a 70-69 loss to Michigan State — didn’t matter. Star guard Ayo Dosunmu was crumpled on the court in pain as the clock expired.
Fans watched as his left knee buckled awkwardly when he slipped while racing upcourt for a potential last-second game-winner. The band didn’t play. The PA announcer didn’t speak.
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The handshake line paused as a few Michigan State players congratulated each other. Illinois coach Brad Underwood checked on the sophomore, and his teammates hovered. Dosunmu was helped off the court without putting weight on his left leg.
“The game becomes secondary,” Underwood told reporters.
The news was a little better Wednesday as Illinois announced an MRI showed no structural damage to Dosunmu’s leg. The school did not disclose specifics about the injury, but Underwood said in a statement that the team’s medical staff “will work with him around the clock on treatment and recovery.”
Dosunumu, meanwhile, tweeted Wednesday: “Today it’s back to work. Be back soon ...”
Dosunmu scored all but two of his 17 points after halftime as No. 22 Illinois (16-8, 8-5 Big Ten) sought to avenge a 20-point road loss to the Spartans earlier this season. The Illini now have lost three straight after winning seven in a row.
Michigan State (17-8, 9-5) snapped a three-game skid.
The Illini fell behind by 20 early in the second half but found a spark as they honed in on defense. It helped that Spartans star guard Cassius Winston was on the bench for long stretches because of foul trouble.
Illinois took a 61-60 lead with 5 minutes, 28 seconds remaining — its first of the game — on a Dosunmu layup as part of a 10-0 run.
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Freshman center Kofi Cockburn — a 68.2% free-throw shooter — went to the line with 19.1 seconds and sank both for a 69-68 edge. On the next possession, Xavier Tillman rebounded a missed layup by Winston and dunked for the decisive points.
Dosunmu, on the game-ending play on which he was injured, turned the ball over with three seconds left.
Here are four takeaways from Illinois’ loss.
1. What’s next if Ayo Dosunmu can’t play Saturday?
Despite the positive news Wednesday on Dosunmu, there’s no guarantee he’ll be available for Illinois’ next game Saturday at Rutgers. If not, the Illini need to find a way without their leading scorer.
More pressure would fall on guards Andres Feliz and Trent Frazier, but they’ve shown they can handle it. Feliz scored 15 points — all but three after halftime — against Michigan State. He’s averaging 11.3 points and has been a spark off the bench.
“We’ll figure all that out,” Underwood said Tuesday night. “Everyone’s got to do a little bit more when you replace a guy of Ayo’s stature. But at this point, I don’t know if we have to replace him or not.
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“I can only coach who I have. You make adjustments and you get into practice and it’s the next-man-up mentality. I like our group and we’ll figure that out.”
2. Brad Underwood wasn’t pleased with a late call.
Dosunmu was called for a foul going for a loose ball with three minutes left and Illinois trailing 64-63.
Underwood looked like he might pass out from disbelief, putting both hands on his head and yelling, “Oh, my God!” His assistant coaches intervened before Underwood convinced them to let him speak to official Courtney Green.
He was nose-to-nose making his case, but Green didn’t tag him with a technical foul. Underwood turned to the scorer’s table as play was about to resume and said, “That was the worst call I’ve ever seen.”
Illini coach Brad Underwood in the first at State Farm Center against Michigan State. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Asked to elaborate after the game, Underwood was more cautious.
“We practice loose-ball drills,” he said. “I’ve never seen that call. I’ve never seen that. When a young guy dives on the floor for a loose ball, to not get rewarded because the other kid does it and tries to reach down and pick it up … I’ll leave it at that. With three minutes left in the game?”
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Underwood shrugged.
3. Giorgi Bezhanishvili needs to get back on track.
Underwood started Alan Griffin in the second half ahead of Bezhanishivili, who played one of his more confounding games.
The sophomore forward tied a career low with two points in a career-low 13 minutes. Bezhanishvili finished with a minus-19 rating after shooting 1 of 7, including missing all three of his 3-point attempts.
He showed frustration on the court, chirping at an official before Underwood put him on the bench. Before he checked into the game in the second half, he hollered to Underwood, “Watch! I’ve got you, Coach!” and then slapped his coach on the rear.
A few minutes later he picked up his third foul on an illegal screen and came to the bench despondently, asking Underwood, “Was that a foul?”
Underwood acknowledged that Bezhanishvili’s boundless energy needs to be better channeled and his production needs to improve.
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“We try to find that perfect balance,” Underwood said. “We’ve seen G at his very best. Right now, things are a little tougher for him. You can try too hard. You can put too much pressure on yourself. We need him. We’ve got to get him back in a position to help our ball team down the stretch.”
4. Illinois can’t afford slow starts.
The Big Ten schedule is brutal. And that means Illinois needs to hustle from the start.
That wasn’t the case against the Spartans.
Michigan State took a 20-point lead early in the second half, but really, the Spartans were in control from tipoff. They claimed a double-digit lead in the first nine minutes as Illinois appeared disjointed and hapless.
By halftime, Michigan State led 37-20, bringing back memories of its 20-point victory in East Lansing, Mich., earlier this season.
“It was a tale of two halves,” Underwood said. “I have yet to figure out why we can’t play hard. We do that at times. I literally asked the (assistant) coaches (before the game), ‘Are we ready?’ It was almost like a somber funeral.”
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He said the team was too amped before Friday’s loss to Maryland. So Underwood has to figure out how to manage the team’s mood swings.


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--Lincoln Park High School student sues Chicago Board of Ed over alleged sexual assault; CPS briefs Lo

Lincoln Park High School student sues Chicago Board of Ed over alleged sexual assault; CPS briefs Local School Council members on misconduct investigations

At one point during the students ’ interaction , the girl went to the bathroom , and the teen boy @ @ @ @ @ a hallway when she came out , according to police sources .
The two went @ @ @ @ @ it was then that the boy allegedly sexually assaulted the girl after pulling down her @ @ @ @ @ to the police sources .

Elvia Malagón, Rosemary Sobol, Morgan Greene

A Lincoln Park High School student has sued the Chicago Board of Ed over an alleged sexual assualt at the school. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
The father of a Lincoln Park High School student has sued the Chicago Board of Education, alleging the school did not do enough to prevent his 15-year-old daughter from being sexually assaulted by another student, according to court records.
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The lawsuit was filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court and centers around an incident that happened Jan. 13. The father alleges in the lawsuit that the school failed to provide adequate security, failed to implement appropriate policies to prevent the sexual abuse of minors on school property and failed to prevent the other student from having inappropriate contact with his daughter, according to the lawsuit.
Michael Passman, a spokesman for Chicago Public Schools, said in an email that the district is unable to comment on the pending lawsuit, but he said the district is committed to helping the high school through “this challenging time.”
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“Protecting students is our highest priority, which is why it was necessary for the district to take a series of personnel actions at Lincoln Park High School in response to serious allegations of recent adult and student misconduct,” Passman said in the email.
[ Lincoln Park High School scandal has sparked 5 investigations and top leaders’ removal. Here is how it unfolded. ]
The father and the girl were not named in the lawsuit, and won’t be named in court proceedings, according to an order filed last week. A hearing in the case is scheduled for April 7.
The lawsuit comes at a time of turmoil for Lincoln Park High School where, since early January, several administrators and basketball coaches have been removed or reassigned amid a spate of misconduct complaints against staff and students that has prompted five internal investigations. CPS officials have said investigators have uncovered multiple serious violations, including allegations of sexual misconduct, improper student discipline, recruiting violations, retaliation against witnesses and financial misconduct.
One of the internal investigations stems from the same alleged sexual assault referenced in the civil lawsuit.
[ Column: Secrecy by CPS has made a bad situation worse at Lincoln Park High School ]
That alleged sexual assault happened near the end of the school day after the girl mentioned to a male student that she needed to charge her phone and the boy led her into a classroom, according to police sources. The two began kissing, but she asked him to stop when he began to touch her in the hip area, according to police.
At one point during the students’ interaction, the girl went to the bathroom, and the teen boy was waiting for her in a hallway when she came out, according to police sources. The two went back into the classroom and it was then that the boy allegedly sexually assaulted the girl after pulling down her pants and underwear, according to the police sources.
[ Lincoln Park High School local council says it was ‘completely blindsided’ by leaders’ removal but Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says CPS has ‘done a good job’ handling alleged misconduct ]
The Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Student Protections and Title IX opened an investigation into the incident the next day. Chicago police have since confirmed officers are also investigating what happened inside the classroom but that no charges have been filed in the case.
At least one of the other internal investigations related to Lincoln Park High stems from late December when the boys basketball team took an overnight trip to Detroit that district officials later called “unauthorized.” The varsity boys basketball team later forfeited its city league playoff game and were withdrawn from the state postseason tournament.
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[ Players from suspended Lincoln Park High team fail in last-ditch effort to enter city playoffs as misconduct scandal engulfs school ]
The leadership changes at the school have led to heightened tensions among the student body. Students organized walkouts, sit-ins and there were also reports of physical fights inside the school. Many students, parents and members of the Local School Council have complained that CPS officials have not released enough information about what prompted the apparent firing of the interim principal and an assistant principal, the reassignment of a school dean and the suspension of the varsity boys basketball team.
But Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said she supports the decisions made during the school leadership shakeup.
On Monday, Lincoln Park High parents received an email from officials saying there weren’t any incidents to report from that day. The district also told parents it had conducted a security review and created a “refreshed plan for all of our security staff.”
“We will continue to maintain a strong adult presence in supporting a positive school climate,” the email stated.
Late Tuesday, members of the Local School Council emerged from a meeting with CPS Chief Education Oficer LaTanya McDade where council member Amy Zemnick said they were briefed on “some of the allegations surrounding” the school, without alleged victims named.
“Of course, CPS’s allegations are serious and it is terrible to think of the students who suffered. Any student who has been harmed must be protected,” she said. She added the council still has questions about CPS’s handling of the investigations but has a lot to process and has agreed to take the information back to the council, which is due to meet Thursday.
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“The way in which CPS has engaged in its investigations remains unclear,” Zemnick said.
emalagon@chicagotribune.com
rsobol@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--With Chicago’s shoreline threatened, protection may have to wait as feds delay money for study

“ While we have worked extensively over the past four months to address damage and mitigate erosion , a full @ @ @ @ @ needed to fully understand and respond to the extent of its vulnerabilities , ” the @ @ @ @ @ we are incredibly disappointed to learn that the Trump administration ’ s budget fails to @ @ @ @ @ effort — we will continue to work alongside the Illinois Congressional delegation and Army Corps @ @ @ @ @ ”

Waves continue to batter the lakefront on Jan. 12, 2020, causing erosion near the South Shore Golf Course after storms passed through Chicago. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Chicago will have to wait at least another year for a study that could kick-start long-term shoreline protection.
A report reevaluating the Chicago shoreline was not funded in the Army Corps of Engineers’ 2020 work plan. With lake levels expected to remain high, boulders enveloping beaches, conditions exacerbated by climate change and residents wondering what to do as water creeps up to their homes, the study could have begun a yearslong process to guard sections of the shoreline jeopardized by erosion.
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Last week, Mayor Lori Lightfoot called recent damage from high waves and flooding “climate change in action right here in our city” and requested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency declare a lakefront emergency.
The mayor’s office released a statement Tuesday that said the shoreline is “being decimated” by the lake level and recent storms, like those in January that caused $37 million in damage in Chicago and Cook County, and expressed disappointment at the study’s delay.
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“While we have worked extensively over the past four months to address damage and mitigate erosion, a full study of the lakeshore is needed to fully understand and respond to the extent of its vulnerabilities,” the statement said. "While we are incredibly disappointed to learn that the Trump administration’s budget fails to provide federal funding for this effort — we will continue to work alongside the Illinois Congressional delegation and Army Corps to repair the shoreline.”
The reevaluation study would determine if sections of the shoreline not included in a large-scale project authorized more than two decades ago could receive federal funding. The study could lead to aid for struggling areas, like Rogers Park beaches hit hard by fall and winter storms, and South Side locations like La Rabida Children’s Hospital.
“The District will continue to work with the City and State to respond to high lake levels using current authorities and funding,” Patrick Bray, a spokesman for the Army Corps’ Chicago district, said in a statement. “We also look forward to working with the City and the State to develop long term solutions to shoreline challenges.”
In a December letter to the Army Corps, members of Congress requested that funds be put toward the reevaluation study.
The letter said the city had taken “substantial emergency action to reduce further damage to failed shore protection revetments and threats to life safety.”
“However, the extent of damage experienced over just a few short months has underscored the need for a more comprehensive and long-term solution,” the letter said.
Some who signed the letter expressed frustration Tuesday at the lack of funding.
“As the Great Lakes shoreline faces the most serious environmental threat in decades, the Army Corps’ work plan fails to provide funding for its protection,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who joined Lightfoot in the request to declare a federal disaster, said in a statement. “Ignoring the urgency of this threat to Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes guarantees this President will face a fight.”
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Sen. Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky also voiced disappointment over the decision.
“We should be doing all we can to protect and restore our beautiful shorelines in Chicago and I’m disappointed that the Trump Administration shortchanges Chicago in the U.S. Army Corps’ 2020 work plan by not including critical shoreline protection funding,” Duckworth said in a statement.
Faced with Lake Michigan’s highs and lows, some shoreline protections, including revetments of stone blocks and wooden posts constructed a century ago, eventually failed. In the years leading up to the large-scale project, the Tribune reported the loss of protections could mean 20 feet of land eaten away each year.
Congress authorized the Chicago Shoreline Protection Project in 1996, and three years later the federal and local partnership began work across more than 9 miles of the lakefront.
The Army Corps finished the federal share of the project in 2014, but the Morgan Shoal stretch and Promontory Point are still incomplete. The project’s cost has risen to $536 million, but officials estimate its annual benefits at $194 million.
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Construction resulting from the reevaluation study could start in four to five years after the study is funded, according to David Bucaro, an outreach manager for the Army Corps.
Additionally, the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study was not funded. That study would examine the entirety of the Great Lakes’ coastal areas, identifying vulnerable spots, gathering information for design parameters and looking at future variability.
The Lake Michigan water level reached a record high for the month of January, averaging about 4 inches above the previous January high set in 1987. In much of the Great Lakes region, the month saw higher than normal temperatures and wetter conditions, meaning increased runoff and less evaporation.
Levels are expected to remain high in the coming months.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a state disaster proclamation Thursday, allowing municipalities to apply for federal funding for damages from the Jan. 10 storm. And on Monday, the Chicago City Council Environmental Committee passed a resolution declaring a “climate emergency.”
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mgreene@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--Bulls hope for the returns of injured starters Otto Porter Jr. and Wendell Carter Jr. shortly after

Bulls hope for the returns of injured starters Otto Porter Jr. and Wendell Carter Jr. shortly after the All-Star break

Both forward Otto Porter Jr. , who has not played since November because of a fractured left foot , and @ @ @ @ @ out since Jan. 6 because of a high right ankle sprain , have made visible @ @ @ @ @ without a boot and participating in shooting drills this week to close practice .
Boylen @ @ @ @ @ exact expectations on either , but he was hopeful they could return to practice shortly @ @ @ @ @ the Bulls host All-Star festivities this weekend they return to action Feb. 20 against the @ @ @ @ @ .

WASHINGTON — Reinforcements could be on the way for the Bulls shortly following the All-Star break. Coach Jim Boylen is encouraged after a few of his injured starters took steps toward returning to the court during the last few days.
Both forward Otto Porter Jr., who has not played since November because of a fractured left foot, and center Wendell Carter Jr., out since Jan. 6 because of a high right ankle sprain, have made visible signs of progress, walking without a boot and participating in shooting drills this week to close practice. Boylen was hesitant to place any exact expectations on either, but he was hopeful they could return to practice shortly after the break. After the Bulls host All-Star festivities this weekend they return to action Feb. 20 against the Hornets at the United Center.
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Forward Lauri Markkanen, diagnosed with a right pelvis injury on Jan. 24, is a little further behind Carter and Porter, but Boylen believes Markkanen still is on track to return near the start of next month.
“From what I can see, and from the feedback I’m getting, and from (Monday’s) practice, they’re on time,” Boylen said. “They’re moving forward. They seem to be advancing a little bit every day. It’s funny, sometimes they progress at a glacial pace and sometimes they jump from day-to-day.
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“I feel like they all had jumps the last couple days. What that means? It doesn’t change our timetable, but it’s encouraging to our staff, to us and to them."
The Bulls, who had lost five straight games entering Tuesday’s game against the Wizards, could use the boost to their lineup.
They are missing four of their top rotation players, with Carter, Porter and Markkanen joined by guard Kris Dunn, their best perimeter defender, who is recovering from a sprained MCL in his right knee. Dunn is shut down from basketball activities until the swelling in his knee goes down.
Their lineup is stretched even thinner with rookie center Daniel Gafford nursing an injured left ankle and guard Denzel Valentine out for the third consecutive game because of a hamstring injury.
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But if the Bulls’ trio of injured starters continues to improve in the next week or 10 days, Boylen says the team has plans for them to receive additional MRIs before they are cleared for practice and ultimately game action.
“Sometimes a guy can feel real good, but the scans show one thing,” Boylen said. “We don’t want to put anybody in jeopardy. I’d love to have a few more bodies for Tuesday’s practice and Wednesday’s practice. That would be encouraging for the homestand."
Injuries have clouded and defined the second half of this season for the Bulls, leading to a quiet trade deadline while the organization struggles with how to evaluate some of their key players.
The Bulls have just 27 games remaining after the All-Star break, which will leave them with optimistically about 20 or so games to evaluate their lineup together. Since trading for Porter at the trade deadline last season, their building blocks of Zach LaVine, Porter, Carter and Markannen have played just nine games together.
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So while Boylen is not sure the final 20 games would be enough of a sample to make an accurate assessment, it’s all the Bulls have to prove their rebuild has not gone stagnant.
"The pieces are going to have to play together,” Boylen said. “Are we going to have to look at some different lineups when that comes up? We will. So I think all those decisions and evaluations will be made as we go and then made as we see what we have.
“Twenty games is the sample size. I don’t know if that’s a good one or enough of one."


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--4 takeaways from Cubs spring training Tuesday, including Jason Kipnis expected to be added to the mi

4 takeaways from Cubs spring training Tuesday, including Jason Kipnis expected to be added to the mix at second base on a minor-league contract

“ I would be an absolute fool to try to try to deal with the experience they have or try @ @ @ @ @ decision , '' Ross said .
“ They got a bigger picture they ’ re @ @ @ @ @ m looking at win totals , and championships is what I ’ m looking at @ @ @ @ @ Bryant helps us win games , but I do rely on them to do the @ @ @ @ @ and the organization because I want this to be a spot for winning for a @ @ @ @ @ and they ’ ve had a track record of doing that .

The Cubs officially open spring training Wednesday with the first workout for pitchers and catchers. Here are three takeaways from camp Tuesday.
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1. Jason Kipnis is expected to be added to the mix at second base.
The competition at second base became more intriguing with the potential addition of Jason Kipnis.
Kipnis, a Northbrook native who has hit 70 home runs the last four seasons, is expected to join the Cubs on a minor-league contract pending his passing of a physical examination, according to a source.
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Kipnis, 32, would give the Cubs a strong left-handed hitting option. The two-time American League All-Star hit 17 home runs with 65 RBIs while slashing .245/.304/.410 in 458 at-bats in 2019 for the Indians, who didn’t pick up his $16.5 million option.
Kipnis could join a second base group that includes September sensation Nico Hoerner, David Bote, Carlos Asuaje, Hernan Perez and Daniel Descalso.
Jason Kipnis of the Indians hits a three-run home run against the Cubs in the seventh inning of Game 4 of the World Series on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016 at Wrigley Field. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
2. Anthony Rizzo is a candidate to hit leadoff.
Manager David Ross wouldn’t name his list of candidates for the leadoff spot but acknowledges that slugging first baseman Anthony Rizzo hasn’t been ruled out.
Rizzo has a lifetime .426 on-base percentage in 244 plate appearances from the leadoff spot, including a .500 mark in 46 plate appearances in 2019.
The Cubs’ .294 OBP from the leadoff spot in 2019 was the lowest in the National League, but they’re likely to address the spot internally.
“There’s a handful of guys you guys can say or can speculate, but I think ‘Rizz’ is definitely a viable option if I want to go with a professional at-bat to lead it off,” Ross said Tuesday at a news conference.
Ross plans to elaborate more on his candidates after he conducts individual meetings with each player this week.
3. David Ross is sweating the small stuff.
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Manager David Ross wants to clean up many of the mistakes and shortcomings that haunted the Cubs last season and emphasized paying attention to small details in workouts.
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Ross cited the need to eliminate base-running mistakes and work quality at-bats.
“Some things have maybe gone awry in the last year,” Ross said. “Nothing earth-shattering. I think it's just a focus to attention to detail and working together, getting back to respecting one another and being accountable.”
Ross said the Cubs will use more live batting practice with an umpire to intensify the work.
4. David Ross is sticking to his managerial duties.
Ross said he did not lobby to keep third baseman Kris Bryant out of respect for the jobs of President Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer.
“I would be an absolute fool to try to try to deal with the experience they have or try to sway them into a decision," Ross said. “They got a bigger picture they’re looking at. I’m looking at win totals, and championships is what I’m looking at, and players. Kris Bryant helps us win games, but I do rely on them to do the best job for the group and the organization because I want this to be a spot for winning for a long, long time, and they’ve had a track record of doing that.
“I just stay out of that area. Obviously, if Theo calls me and asked me, ‘Do you want Kris Bryant on your team?’ I would tell them yes.”


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--Column: As a new Cubs era begins, old wounds resurface between Joe Maddon and Theo Epstein

“ I guess I ’ ll just say that this is my 29th season in Major League Baseball , ” @ @ @ @ @ is my 18th running a team .
And I can guarantee you I ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ in running the clubhouse .
I ’ ve never wanted to infringe on a manager @ @ @ @ @ ’ ve never told a manager that he had to hire or fire a coach @ @ @ @ @ exception , due to some off-field issues I had to get involved . ''

MESA, Ariz. — When it became apparent in September that Joe Maddon was not returning as Cubs manager, I predicted a conscious uncoupling between Maddon and team President Theo Epstein.
No blame. No regrets. No hard feelings.
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Just two friends ending a business relationship in a professional manner — the baseball equivalent of a no-fault divorce.
And when Epstein pulled the plug on the final day of the season in St. Louis, the two stood side by side during the announcement and assured us they mutually agreed it was time for a change.
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A little more than four months later, as the David Ross era officially kicked off Tuesday at the newly named Nike Performance Center, Epstein was forced to react to a bombshell Maddon dropped in an ESPN.com interview in which the now-Angels manager called the Cubs front office “controlling” and cited “philosophical differences” that made him decide he wanted to leave during last season.
Maddon told ESPN “when I started there — ’15, ’16, ’17 — it was pretty much my methods. And then all of a sudden, after ’18 going into ’19, they wanted to change everything."
Just do it? Joe just did it.
At the opening news conference of spring training, Epstein said he was going to “take the high road here” because of his “love” and “respect” for Maddon. He repeated his statements from the fall — that no one else could’ve done what Maddon did as Cubs manager and that Maddon would enjoy great success in his new job.
“I guess I’ll just say that this is my 29th season in Major League Baseball,” Epstein said. “This is my 18th running a team. And I can guarantee you I’ve never wanted to get involved in running the clubhouse. I’ve never wanted to infringe on a manager’s authority. I’ve never told a manager that he had to hire or fire a coach, I guess with one exception, due to some off-field issues I had to get involved."
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 166 Cubs President Theo Epstein watches Game 1 of the wild-card series against the Marlins on Sept. 30, 2020, at Wrigley Field. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Epstein apparently was referring to last year’s firing of pitching coach Jim Hickey.
“And I’m a firm believer that it’s the manager who has to help define the culture around the major-league team," Epstein continued. "The manager has to be the leader of the clubhouse, set expectations and to hold players accountable to basic organizational standards for preparation and for work and for behavior.”
In those 18 years as a general manager of the Red Sox and president of the Cubs, Epstein said only two times did he feel he needed to get involved because those organizational standards “were not being met.” Though he wouldn’t name Maddon as one of the two instances, Epstein conceded “Joe indirectly alluded to it in some of his comments.”
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Epstein insisted he had “no interest in usurping a manager’s power or authority or place running the team," and preferred to “empower” his managers.
So why did Maddon choose to reveal his true feelings now? He’ll probably have to address that question when Angels camp begins.
Epstein told Maddon he needed to change his style after the 2018 season to get more out of his players, including more hands-on teaching. That request led to Maddon’s admission last offseason that he had studied the book “Managing Millennials for Dummies.”
Maddon said often during the 2019 season that he embraced the changes Epstein asked him to make. But in the end it couldn’t save Maddon from his fate. The Cubs’ late-season collapse only made it easier for Epstein to rationalize his decision to move on.
With no significant roster moves this offseason, it seems obvious the “reckoning” Epstein had threatened was just a threat. His real problem, it appears, was with Maddon’s alleged lack of accountability.
“Again, I love Joe, and nothing is going to get in the way of that,” Epstein said. “I don’t think he meant any ill will by his comments. I think it might be his interpretation in hindsight of how he thinks things went down.”
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Epstein said he feared an “organizational complacency” had seeped in, adding the Cubs took different approaches to combat it. Ross’ offseason mantra of having his players work out together instead of individually is one of those changes Epstein sought, so we’ll soon see if it makes any difference.
Cubs players love Ross, a former teammate and mentor to many. And while they also professed their love of Maddon, they at times felt he got too much credit for the team’s success.
During spring training last year, one player asked me what Maddon had talked about with the media that day.
“Take a guess,” I said.
“Himself?” he replied.
That’s not a huge surprise. Maddon was charming and chatty and shared many stories of his days managing in the minors. He wasn’t much different in that respect than former Cubs and current Astros manager Dusty Baker, who was known to regale us with a Ralph Garr story or two over the years.
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While Maddon sold the Cubs brand better than anyone since Sammy Sosa, some in the organization felt he was really selling Joe Maddon more than the team.
Epstein admitted he and Maddon disagreed on one thing during tough times.
“His approach was more that things will work themselves out — (that) these are great players, let them play (and) these things will work out,” Esptein said. "But from my perspective there was a little bit more cause for concern.
"It was not an everyday thing where I would try to step in and offer feedback or help or a reminder about expectations. But when we’re falling short, not in results but in how we’re going about things … (the) work and preparation that I think should be expected in a big-league situation, I don’t think I’d be doing my job if I didn’t step in.”
Maddon said he still likes Epstein and agreed five years was probably enough for him in Chicago.
“A five-year shelf life in Chicago is almost equivalent to five to 10 somewhere else,” he said. “At the end of the day, man, there’s nothing to lament there. That was the most successful five years that the Cubs have ever had.”
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But the “most successful five years” in Cubs history couldn’t save Maddon, and now the conscious uncoupling is unraveling as a new era begins.


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--Theo Epstein says there are no hard feelings between the Cubs and Kris Bryant after his unsuccessful

Theo Epstein says there are no hard feelings between the Cubs and Kris Bryant after his unsuccessful grievance case against the team

On the eve of the first workout for pitchers and catchers under new manager David Ross , Epstein said Tuesday @ @ @ @ @ message to Bryant , whose argument filed by the Major League Baseball Players Association failed @ @ @ @ @ after the 2020 season .
Bryant , the National League ’ s rookie of the @ @ @ @ @ most valuable player in 2016 , will be a free agent after the 2021 season @

MESA, Ariz. — Cubs President Theo Epstein did his best to make sure no bitterness remains after Kris Bryant lost his service-time grievance against the team two weeks ago.
On the eve of the first workout for pitchers and catchers under new manager David Ross, Epstein said Tuesday he reached out via text message to Bryant, whose argument filed by the Major League Baseball Players Association failed to earn him free agency after the 2020 season. Bryant, the National League’s rookie of the year in 2015 and its most valuable player in 2016, will be a free agent after the 2021 season.
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“There were no bad feelings on either side," Epstein said, "and he’s just really excited to show up here later this week and start the process of having a great season as a team and individually.
“And he’s got a big life milestone coming up as well (with his first child due in April), so he’s in a great place.”
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Nevertheless, there will be some awkwardness when Bryant arrives at the Cubs’ spring training complex by early next week. All winter, speculation that he would be traded took place as the Cubs look to address long-term needs while coping with a payroll threatening to zoom past the competitive-balance threshold for a second consecutive season, which would result in a luxury tax.
For now, Epstein says the respect between the Cubs and Bryant remains mutual, and that Ross plans to start Bryant at third base and place him near the top of the batting order.
The start of spring training won’t prevent the Cubs from looking to improve their long-term fortunes — especially since Bryant, Kyle Schwarber and Javier Baez can become free agents after the 2021 season.
The Cubs are looking for fair compensation — especially young impact pitching with starters Jon Lester and Jose Quintana destined for free agency after 2020 — in any deal for an established player.
“I think the reason we weren't active in trades is just the desire not to force change, and we didn't find deals that we thought made us better at this point, or we haven't to this point,” Epstein said.
The Cubs hope the trade market finally will accelerate after the blockbuster deal that sent Mookie Betts and David Price from the Red Sox to the Dodgers in a three-team trade involving the Red Sox and Twins for Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong.
“I'll be honest,” Epstein said. “There hasn't been as much turnover as we expected.”
Finding a trade partner in a Bryant deal might be challenging. The pitching-prospect-rich Braves signed outfielder Marcell Ozuna to a one-year, $18 million contract. The Nationals lost third baseman Anthony Rendon to the Angels via free agency but might not be willing to part with the prospects to satisfy the Cubs.
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The Phillies don’t have the young impact pitching to satisfy the Cubs, although owner John Middleton was involved heavily last spring in the signing of Bryce Harper, Bryant’s Las Vegas buddy.
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Bryant, who will earn $18.6 million in 2020, is the Cubs’ biggest trade chip. So far the Cubs have taken a thrifty approach to replacing free-agent relievers Pedro Strop, Steve Cishek and Brandon Kintzler. With left-hander Cole Hamels now with the Braves, the Cubs will try to contend with the same rotation they fielded in 2018, with Tyler Chatwood likely returning as the fifth starter after a productive year in the bullpen.
After a disappointing 2019 that resulted in a parting of ways with manager Joe Maddon, Epstein strongly hinted at change on the roster.
Epstein spoke in general terms Tuesday about “being mindful of your budget.”
“All we're trying to do is position ourselves.”
Epstein said he was confident the Cubs wouldn’t lose Bryant’s grievance against them. The MLBPA charged that the start of Bryant’s service-time clock was manipulated in 2015 so he wouldn’t become eligible for free agency until after the 2021 season.
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“If you read the arbitrator’s decision, I think our actions and approach were validated,” Epstein said. “But there were no hard feelings on either end, and I don’t resent Kris or hold it against him in any fashion.
“In fact, I respect that he was willing to do that even though it probably wasn’t easy.”


chicagotribune--2020-02-11--Family and friends remember store owner shot during robbery in South Side’s Park Manor: ‘He was alwa

Family and friends remember store owner shot during robbery in South Side’s Park Manor: ‘He was always helping out everyone'

His 14-year-old nephew , also named Mohammed , said his uncle would often take him out to restaurants and to @ @ @ @ @ he saw his uncle , they played pool together , his uncle helping him improve @ @ @ @ @ was actually really good , ” said Mohammed , who did not want to give @ @ @ @

A relative of Mohammed Maali stands over his casket during a funeral at Hann Funeral Home in Bridgeview on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. Maali, a store owner died in a hospital last week following an armed robbery in the Park Manor neighborhood. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Moose Maali arrived at the hospital in time to say goodbye to his younger brother.
He had been working his job at a grocery store when he heard his brother, Mohammed Maali, 33, had been shot Friday afternoon at the South Side store he owned. He rushed to the hospital, hoping to learn his brother would survive the attack.
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When he got there, his brother was lying in bed with a breathing tube, unable to talk. Maali believes his younger brother could hear his voice and feel his presence, even though he couldn’t communicate.
“I just have a feeling,” Moose Maali said.
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His brother died later that night.
A photograph of Mohammed Maali is seen during a visitation at the Hann Funeral Home in Bridgeview on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Family members gathered Tuesday to remember and bury Mohammed Maali, who was shot early Friday afternoon during a robbery at his store at 68 E. 71st St. Dozens of people came for a visitation at a Bridgeview funeral home and a ceremony at a local mosque. They hugged each other and cried, praying quietly in a room at the funeral home.
Family, friends and customers described Mohammed Maali as a generous businessman who would give diapers to families who couldn’t afford them and extend credit to people who were short on cash for necessities. Maali, nicknamed Omar by some customers, owned the convenience store in the Park Manor neighborhood.
“He was just a beautiful person,” said Debra Harris, a frequent customer at the store. “He was always helping out everyone.”
About 1:45 p.m. Friday, four people walked into the store and announced a robbery. When one of them grabbed the cash register, Maali pulled out his gun and shot two of the robbers, who returned fire, hitting him, police said.
Surveillance video showed the robbers exiting the back of the store with garbage bags that they placed in a car parked nearby, police said. Officers arrested four suspects: Sammy Trice, 34, his cousin, Anthony Carter, 17, and two of Trice’s nephews, 13 and 15. Trice and Carter both suffered gunshot wounds.
A judge ordered Trice and Carter held without bail on first-degree murder and armed robbery charges during a hearing on Sunday. The youngest two boys were charged as juveniles with first-degree murder and armed robbery with a firearm and were also ordered held in custody by a juvenile court judge.
Prosecutors said Trice, on parole for a felony drug conviction, recruited the boys for the robbery. Police are still searching for a fifth person who they say participated in the robbery.
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The casket carrying the remains of Mohammed Maali arrives at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Mohammed Maali was the youngest of five children, born to parents who came to the United States from Palestine. He grew up on Chicago’s Southwest Side surrounded by a large, extended family.
His 14-year-old nephew, also named Mohammed, said his uncle would often take him out to restaurants and to arcades. The last time he saw his uncle, they played pool together, his uncle helping him improve his game. “He was actually really good,” said Mohammed, who did not want to give his last name.
He was shocked to learn two of the suspects in his uncle’s killing were around his age. “I don’t imagine myself doing what they did,” he said. “It’s a shame to see little kids involved in violence.”
Now, family members are pulling together to help Maali’s wife and children. He was father of 5-year-old twins, a girl and a boy with cerebral palsy whose birthday is later this month.
Family members say they are trying to comfort the children. The girl is distraught that her father won’t be there for her birthday.
mabuckley@chicagotribune.com