chicagotribune--2020-01-15--There’s no such thing as too much information for the analytically minded coaches on David Ross’ Cub

There’s no such thing as too much information for the analytically minded coaches on David Ross’ Cubs staff

“ When you have an opportunity to get someone who is at the very top of the industry ( with @ @ @ @ @ proven track record ( who helped ) transform some of the most accomplished framers in @ @ @ @ @ said , `` I think that ’ s something you have to pounce on .
@

Cubs President Theo Epstein has lived up to his declaration at his 2019 end-of-the-season news conference when he said, “You’re likely to see change.”
But for fans eager to see roster upgrades less than a month before the first spring workout for pitchers and catchers, that change primarily consists of four coaching newcomers tasked with assisting new manager David Ross.
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“I want as much as experience as I possibly can because I’m going to need help in a lot of areas,” Ross said last month at the winter meetings in San Diego.
Some assumed a well-traveled former manager would be added to help Ross. New bench coach Andy Green served only four seasons as manager of the lowly Padres, but he already as gained Ross’ trust while helping organize spring-training plans and preparing him for “some of the stuff ahead.”
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“He has been probably my most important hire so far, for me,” Ross said.
The majority of the talent that helped the Cubs win the 2016 World Series remains on the roster. But Ross, who replaced Joe Maddon, hasn’t managed a game.
Some sloppiness has crept in since the Cubs’ championship, especially last season. The defense was charged with 117 errors — second most in the National League — and rated minus-12 in defensive runs saved, according to Sports Info Solutions.
On the bases, the Cubs were doubled off 16 times, third most in the majors.
Changes to the coaching staff appeared imminent after Epstein conducted a fiery meeting with the coaches late last season, two sources said.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 94 Cubs manager David Ross yells at the home-plate umpire after a strike call against Jake Marisnick in the ninth inning against the Brewers on April 24, 2021, at Wrigley Field. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
After the season, Epstein spoke of changes designed to apply data and technology to help players raise their performance and “facilitate their work” with the rest of the coaching staff, Epstein said.
Kyle Evans, who has spent 14 seasons of his post-pitching career in scouting and player evaluation, will be involved in those duties as senior director of major-league data and development.
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Evans won’t be in uniform, but his tasks won’t be much different than those handled by Mike Borzello, the Cubs’ longest-tenured coach who serves as associate pitching, catching and strategy coach. Epstein wants to add a new dynamic to player improvement, and Evans is a big part of that.
The hiring of Craig Driver as first base/catching coach shouldn’t be viewed exclusively as an effort to improve the receiving skills of All-Star catcher Willson Contreras.
Driver, who recently served as the Phillies bullpen coach and arrives with a strong teaching reputation, should help Contreras and top catching prospect Miguel Amaya, who will participate in his first major-league spring training.
“When you have an opportunity to get someone who is at the very top of the industry (with) proven results, a proven track record (who helped) transform some of the most accomplished framers in the game," Epstein said, "I think that’s something you have to pounce on.”
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The Cubs thought enough of Chris Young to hire him as their bullpen coach to replace popular and long-tenured Lester Strode despite Young being fired as Phillies pitching coach in October.
Young, a former Padres and Astros scout, is familiar with data-tracking machines and should blend well with second-year pitching coach Tommy Hottovy.
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Cubs fans are more familiar with Green, who called out Cubs slugger Anthony Rizzo for violating the home-plate collision rule after knocking out Padres catcher Austin Hedges in 2017, and new quality-assurance coach Mike Napoli, a cult hero with the 2013 Red Sox World Series title team and a member of the Indians team that lost to the Cubs in the 2016 Series.
Ross said he and Green, 42, have been in “constant communication” since his hiring.
Such dialogue wasn’t necessary with Napoli, who played with Ross with the Red Sox and “checks a lot of boxes” as a former catcher who converted to first base and provided lineup protection for slugger David Ortiz.
Ross indicated that Napoli will work primarily with the hitters and on game planning with returning hitting coach Anthony Iapoce and assistant Terrmel Sledge.


chicagotribune--2020-01-17--Metra tells customers to make sure they pay their fare, or risk being booted off train

Derwinski said the increased fare collection is partly an effort to gather data to present to the board , as @ @ @ @ @ in new fare-collection technology .
Derwinski said Metra is planning to replace some vending machines @ @ @ @ @ security features , and also is looking at machines that take cash .

Metra put leaflets on trains Friday morning to remind customers to pay their fare or risk being booted off the train.
Leaflets placed on seats on the commuter railroad told riders that there would be “stepped-up efforts by Metra staff this year to make sure everyone is paying what they should be paying.”
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Metra also reminded riders that if a customer does not produce a paper or mobile ticket or refuses to pay the fare on board with cash or via the Ventra app, “Metra may remove that customer from the train and police may issue citations for state and/or county offenses,” the leaflet said.
The railroad said Metra police will be complementing the efforts of conductors to validate fare collection. Metra CEO Jim Derwinski said the railroad has added more conductors to help with the collection effort. Metra also will be posting signs throughout the system about fare compliance and potential penalties.
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Derwinski said the increased fare collection is partly an effort to gather data to present to the board, as the railroad prepares to invest in new fare-collection technology. Derwinski said Metra is planning to replace some vending machines with devices with the latest security features and also is looking at machines that take cash.
“We’re listening to our conductors and conductors on other systems,” Derwinski said.
Flyers on every seat of my train this morning. https://t.co/KvnxJSkhzH pic.twitter.com/Io6nNuHK2W — Peter Kendall (@pkendalltribune) January 17, 2020
Derwinski said Metra wants to reduce the number of cash transactions on trains that slow conductors and prevent them from verifying other fares. Metra hopes to eventually eliminate cash transactions from trains. Derwinski said Metra staff will bring new fare collection data to the Metra board in two or three months.
The CTA uses turnstiles and a “tap-on” card system to help make sure people can’t get on the train unless they pay. But Derwinski said this would be not be “feasible” at Metra, which has 242 different train stations.
Metra does not have an estimate of how much it loses on fare evasion, said spokesman Michael Gillis. Customers have complained that when trains are crowded, not all fares are collected, which is unfair to those who pay.
mwisniewski@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-01-17--Review: Mac Miller posthumous album is heartbreakingly full

“ Woods , ” which flows on a bed of airy synths , is Miller at his most seductive , @ @ @ @ @ ’ s remarkable to look back and listen to his cluttered and more juvenile stuff @ @ @ @ @ .
Miller ’ s evocative voice even tries at a tender falsetto in “ Surf @ @ @ @ @ lines : “ Until we get old/There ’ s water in the flowers/Let ’ s @ @ @ @ @ ’ t get a chance to grow himself is a tragedy that this album only @ @ @

“Why does everybody need me to stay?” Mac Miller asks on the first single from his latest release. He answered his own question with the superb posthumous “Circle.”
Miller's 12-track album is heartbreakingly sublime, a portrait of a wry and honest musician acknowledging his demons but looking past them. “I’m here to make it all better with a little music for you,” he sings.
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Miller died of an accidental drug overdose in 2018 at 26 and was working on “Circles” as a sort of companion album to his Grammy-nominated “Swimming.” Producer Jon Brion, who worked on “Swimming” and also produced for Kanye West and Dido, was asked to finish Miller's work.
“Circles” shares the appealing confessional lyrics of “Swimming” but is more airy, more muted and understated. Miller was always an idiosyncratic artist, mixing hip-hop beats and samples with soul and warm funk, even jazz. Here, he is low-key, moody, spacey and anesthetized. He sings more than he raps. There's nothing flashy. Everything's thoughtful.
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“Circles” is both spare but somehow full. A tiny hesitating sample serves at the backbone to “Blue World,” a lazy drum and piano do the same for “I Can See.” A repeated “eh-uh” runs through “Hands” and “Complicated” at first seems too simple but subsequent listens reveals a jewel-like construction.
The first single, “Good News,” is addictive and must surly be a defining song for an artist taken far too soon. Delicate guitar plucking accompanies Miller's hangdog lyrics. “Runnin' out of gas, hardly anything left,” he sings. "So tired of being so tired." Brion is rightly in no rush to end it, and lets Miller go for more than 5 1/2 minutes.
Listeners will naturally focus on the references to death and they are definitely there. “Everybody’s gotta live/And everybody’s gonna die," he sings on “Everybody.” But he's OK, too. “I’ve been alright” and “I’m feelin’ fine.” His advice to others? “Do not be afraid” and “take a little time for yourself.”
“Woods,” which flows on a bed of airy synths, is Miller at his most seductive, funky and mature. It’s remarkable to look back and listen to his cluttered and more juvenile stuff of just seven years ago. Miller’s evocative voice even tries at a tender falsetto in “Surf,” with the optimistic lines: “Until we get old/There’s water in the flowers/Let’s grow.” That he didn’t get a chance to grow himself is a tragedy that this album only somewhat alleviates.
Mac Miller, “Circles” (Warner)


chicagotribune--2020-01-17--8 things to know about the Astros sign-stealing scandal, including a former White Sox pitcher’s earl

8 things to know about the Astros sign-stealing scandal, including a former White Sox pitcher’s early suspicions

A March 2018 memorandum included : “ Electronic equipment , including game feeds in the Club replay room and/or video @ @ @ @ @ used during a game for the purpose of stealing the opposing team ’ s signs @ @ @ @ @ MLBR 1-1 expressly provides that ‘ under no circumstance may electronic equipment or devices be @ @ @ @ @ stealing signs or conveying other information designed to give a Club a competitive advantage.
’ @ @ @ @ @ use of any equipment in the clubhouse or in a Club ’ s replay or @ @ @ @ @ opposing Club ’ s signs during the game violates this Regulation .
( Emphasis in @ @ @ @ @ and Club employees ) who are found to have utilized equipment in the replay or @ @ @ @ @ during a game will be subject to discipline by the Commissioner ’ s Office .
@

The Mets announced Thursday that Carlos Beltran will not be their manager, the latest fallout from Major League Baseball’s sign-stealing scandal featuring the Astros.
The Mets became the third team to begin the search for a new manager last week. The Astros fired manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow on Jan. 13.
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The Red Sox and manager Alex Cora “mutually agreed to part ways,” according to a team statement Tuesday. Cora was the bench coach for the Astros in 2017.
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Here’s a breakdown of story that has rocked the sport.
1. How did the news break?
Four people who were with the Astros in 2017, including pitcher Mike Fiers, alleged in a Nov. 12 article from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich that the Astros stole signs during home games with the assistance of a camera positioned in the outfield.
The Astros won the World Series that season.
According to the article, a camera at Minute Maid Park was connected to a television monitor in the tunnel between the Astros dugout and clubhouse. Team employees or players would communicate expected pitches by banging a trash can with a bat to signal off-speed pitches.
Fiers confirmed the setup to The Athletic and said he passed the information on to his next teams, the Tigers and Athletics.
“I had to let my team know so that we were prepared when we went to go play them at Minute Maid,” he told The Athletic.
Fiers’ allegations were mentioned in the first sentence of Commissioner Rob Manfred’s statement regarding the Astros’ case and ruling on Jan. 13.
2. Wasn’t former White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar one of the first to notice the Astros were up to something?
Yes. Farquhar pitched for the Sox twice at Minute Maid Park in 2017 — on Sept. 19 and Sept. 21 — and he told The Athletic that “there was a banging from the dugout, almost like a bat hitting the bat rack every time a changeup signal got put down. After the third one, I stepped off. I was throwing some really good changeups and they were getting fouled off. After the third bang, I stepped off.”
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He said “the banging stopped" after the Sox switched to more complex signals.
Danny Farquhar pitches for the White Sox against the Astros on Friday, April 20, 2018 at Guaranteed Rate Field. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
According to MLB’s investigative report released Monday, “There was a sense of ‘panic’ in the Astros dugout after Farquhar appeared to notice the trash can bangs. Before the game ended, a group of Astros players removed the monitor from the wall in the tunnel and hid it in an office.”
Farquhar, now a minor-league pitching coach for the Sox, suffered a brain hemorrhage during a game against the Astros at Guaranteed Rate Field in 2018 and did not pitch again in the majors.
Sox general manager Rick Hahn spoke generally about the topic when asked about it at the general managers meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz., on the day the story broke.
“Look, most of this stuff, let’s call it club-on-club crime so to speak, that usually gets handled pretty quietly between the two clubs and the league involved if need be,” Hahn said on Nov. 12. “I know over the last couple years the league has been very diligent in this category of sign-stealing, and certainly any concerns that the White Sox or any other club has had over that period time have been heard."
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3. Is sign-stealing illegal?
Stealing signs always has been a part of the game. But some actions cross the imaginary line that divides gamesmanship from cheating.
In August 2017, the Red Sox were caught transmitting sign information from their replay-review room to individuals in the dugout wearing smart watches. They were fined that September.
“A memorandum that same day to all clubs reiterating the rules regarding the use of electronic equipment to steal signs, and putting all clubs on notice that future violations would be taken extremely seriously by my office,” Manfred said in Monday’s statement.
A March 2018 memorandum included: “Electronic equipment, including game feeds in the Club replay room and/or video room, may never be used during a game for the purpose of stealing the opposing team’s signs. In this respect, MLBR 1-1 expressly provides that ‘under no circumstance may electronic equipment or devices be used for the purpose of stealing signs or conveying other information designed to give a Club a competitive advantage.’ To be clear, the use of any equipment in the clubhouse or in a Club’s replay or video rooms to decode an opposing Club’s signs during the game violates this Regulation. (Emphasis in original.) Clubs (and Club employees) who are found to have utilized equipment in the replay or video rooms for such purposes during a game will be subject to discipline by the Commissioner’s Office.”
4. What were the findings?
MLB’s Department of Investigations interviewed 68 witnesses, including 23 current and former Astros players, according to Monday’s statement from Manfred. Emails, Slack communications, text messages, video clips and photographs also were reviewed.
According to Monday’s statement, Astros employees in the team’s replay room attempted to decode signs using a center-field camera at the start of the 2017 season. A player would act as a “runner” to bring the information to the dugout, where a signal would be sent to a baserunner on second. The runner would decode the catcher’s sign and signal the batter. At times, an employee in the replay room would pass along the information by text message to the watch or phone of a staff member on the bench.
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Cora began calling the replay room for the information early in the season. Two months into the season, a group of players that included Beltran discussed how to improve the system, and Cora arranged for a video monitor of a center-field camera to be installed next to the dugout. Players would communicate pitches by banging a bat or massage gun on a trash can. Generally, it was one or two bangs for certain off-speed pitches and no sound for fastballs.
For parts of 2018, the Astros replay-review room staff continued to decode signs using the live center-field camera feed, and to transmit the signs to the dugout through in-person communication.
5. What was the fallout for the Astros?
Manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for a year by Major League Baseball on Jan. 13. Later that day, the Astros owner Jim Crane announced the two had been fired.
The Astros were fined $5 million, the maximum allowed under the Major League Constitution, as punishment. They also will forfeit their first- and second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts.
No Astros players will be disciplined, Manfred said, because he decided in September 2017 to hold a team’s manager and general manager responsible for sign-stealing infractions.
6. How does this compare to the Black Sox scandal?
Last year was the 100th anniversary of the White Sox team that threw the 1919 World Series against the Reds, and people are still talking about it.
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Will people in 2120 be talking about the Astros sign-stealing scandal?
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 38 Game action during a World Series game between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds at Redland Field in Cincinnati in 1919. (MLB Photos, Getty Images)
“The Astros will now carry the stigma of cheaters, of course, and be used as an example of how not to play the game,” Paul Sullivan wrote in the Tribune. “While the Black Sox scandal may remain a black mark in baseball history, the upcoming ‘Field of Dreams’ game pitting the White Sox and Yankees playing in an Iowa cornfield proves the legend is still marketable in MLB’s eyes.”
The Sox had trouble recovering from the scandal, which led to the banning of eight players by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis after the 1920 season. They had only one winning season in the next 15 years and didn’t return to the World Series for 40 years.
The Astros still have a lineup filled with All-Stars, many of whom apparently were involved in the sign-stealing scheme, not to mention a rotation with Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke, two of the game’s best starters.
7. Isn’t there buzz about a buzzer?
The Astros were back in the news Thursday with a fresh allegation.
Speculation picked up steam on Twitter that some players wore buzzers inside their uniform as another device to gain a hitting edge, with Jose Altuve’s walk-off home run in Game 6 of the 2019 American League Championship Series and his refusal to let teammates tear off his jersey as apparent evidence.
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Responding to a tweet, Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer wrote he had heard that was the case “from multiple parties too."
I’ve heard this from multiple parties too, for what it’s worth... https://t.co/zDlp0x4bKs — Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) January 16, 2020
According to the New York Post’s Joel Sherman, MLB responded: "MLB explored wearable devices during the investigation but found no evidence to substantiate it.”
8. What’s next?
MLB is investigating a report from The Athletic centering on the Red Sox and their possible use of a replay room during their 2018 World Series championship season.
Cora became the team’s manager that season.
According to an MLB.com report, the Astros’ list of managerial candidates could includes Cubs coach Will Venable and Astros coach Joe Espada. Both were in the running this offseason for the Cubs job that went to David Ross.
With pitchers and catchers set to report to spring training in less than a month, the chaotic story will continue to be a major topic at spring training camps.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.


chicagotribune--2020-01-17--Column: Enjoy the Blackhawks’ run at the playoffs, but with a tougher schedule ahead, brace yourself

Column: Enjoy the Blackhawks’ run at the playoffs, but with a tougher schedule ahead, brace yourself for more disappointment

Yes , it would .
Not because of a first-round loss but because with Robin Lehner in goal the Hawks @ @ @ @ @ steal any playoff series .
To be clear , the Hawks aren ’ t in @ @ @ @ @ season when the Blues went from worst to first and won the Stanley Cup .

TORONTO — Go ahead and embrace the latest Blackhawks revival.
Don’t just stick your toe in and test the waters. Dive right in and enjoy the fact that the Hawks are in the playoff hunt. There’s no reason not to.
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Because chances are it will all be over soon enough.
The Hawks did exactly what they needed to do in their last three games in beating the mediocre Ducks, the lowly Senators and the how-sad-is-it-that-this-Original-Six-franchise-is-rarely-any-good Canadiens.
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They did all they could in taking all six points that were available to them. Now they have to be a whole lot better, and that’s the problem.
Nearly 50 games worth of evidence is in and nothing about the Hawks indicates they will be able to rip off a bunch of wins in a row against the NHL’s better teams. And, to be sure, those teams are out there hungrily awaiting them.
Remember how you looked at the schedule and salivated at the thought of the Red Wings, Ducks, Senators and Canadiens on the horizon? Well, that tender piece of meat is what the Hawks are to the Bruins, Oilers, Blues and Lightning, just a few of the teams they’ll face over the next few weeks.
That doesn’t mean the Hawks can’t win some of those games, but they aren’t in a position to just win a select few. They have to win a ridiculous amount of their remaining 34 games.
To get to 95 points, the likely magic number to get into the playoffs, the Hawks need another 45 points. So even with their three-game winning streak, the Hawks need to go 20-9-5 just to get the minimum point total the postseason likely will require.
Being just four games out of the final Western Conference wild-card spot, which is where the Hawks stood heading into Thursday’s games, is dandy, but it’s also fool’s gold. They still have to jump two teams, not including the Predators, who have a better points percentage than the Hawks despite having fewer points.
The Maple Leafs are next up Saturday in what should be an incredibly entertaining game. The last seven meetings have been decided by one goal with five ending in overtime or a shootout. In their last three games against each other, they’ve combined for 31 goals.
So prepare for a slugfest and expect Patrick Kane to get the two points he needs to hit 1,000 for his career. With his jersey being retired Friday night in a ceremony being held by his junior team, the London Knights, this could be a memorable weekend for Kane.
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Go inside the locker room after Corey Crawford and the #Blackhawks defeated the Canadiens in Montreal.#CHIvsMTL pic.twitter.com/R8pvWSwRQ0 — Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) January 16, 2020
Brandon Saad and Dylan Strome have been sidelined by right ankle injuries. Saad could return Saturday, but Strome was placed on injured reserve Thursday. For those expecting them to give the Hawks a boost when they return, consider that they are 7-4 since losing Saad and 3-1 since losing Strome.
They’re good players the Hawks will gladly welcome back. But they aren’t the difference-makers the Hawks need to go on a sustained run over the next 2½ months.
There is a wild card to the Hawks’ bid for a wild-card berth, and that’s the roughly $11 million in cap space created by season-ending injuries to Brent Seabrook and Calvin de Haan. Last week, general manager Stan Bowman said no trades were close, but that can change in an instant.
The question will be whether Bowman is willing to part with anything resembling a short-term asset to try to drag the Hawks into the playoffs. Would it be worth giving up a decent prospect or a second-round draft pick — don’t worry, Bowman isn’t trading a first-round pick — just to get blown out in the first round?
Yes, it would. Not because of a first-round loss but because with Robin Lehner in goal the Hawks would have a chance to steal any playoff series. To be clear, the Hawks aren’t in the same situation as last season when the Blues went from worst to first and won the Stanley Cup.
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The Hawks haven’t been underachievers. They’re an average team that has dealt with a bunch of injuries. That’s who they are.
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And to the “Let’s Tank For A Better Shot At The No. 1 Overall Pick” crowd, did you learn nothing from last year’s draft? Put that opinion away and don’t ever take it out again.
Even the worst team in the league only has an 18.5% chance of winning the top pick in the draft, which next year appears to be Canadian forward Alexis Lafreniere. He looks like a franchise player, but is he a generational talent like Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid? No, he seems more in the mold of a Kane or Nathan MacKinnon.
The Hawks would love to have Lafreniere, but sacrificing whole seasons and angering your fan base just to slightly increase your chances at getting him is a ridiculous way to run a franchise.
One thing you can count: The Hawks aren’t going to stop trying to get to the playoffs. Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith want to return to what seemed to be their birthright, and Connor Murphy, Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome and others desperately want to experience the postseason for the first time.
It still could happen, which is why these next few games — starting Saturday against the Maple Leafs — are so important.
So buckle up and enjoy the ride — but keep a box of hankies handy. You’re going to need them sooner or later.


chicagotribune--2020-01-17--How bitter cold winter blasts and a warming planet will chew up the Lake Michigan shoreline, faster

How bitter cold winter blasts and a warming planet will chew up the Lake Michigan shoreline, faster and faster

Juanita Irizarry , of Friends of the Parks , which has advocated for a public lakefront , said there ’ @ @ @ @ @ beauty and privilege of living on the water and what comes with that .
“ @ @ @ @ @ wants to be sensitive to people ’ s immediate pain , but we also hope @ @ @ @ @ to engage people about what climate change might mean in the long term and what @ @ @ @ @ for long-term planning for that space , ” she said .

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)
On a tucked-away South Shore beach, there once were cool shallows to swim and buried shells to dig up. For those living feet away, there was the sound of the water, the constant, gentle splash on sand.
Then the lake began to rise. With each inch came nearly 790 billion gallons of water. The beach disappeared. Its music changed.
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“Once upon a time, you could stand on the deck out there and see fish. It was so clear and the water was low,” said Charlotte Mitchell, who has lived in a nearby condo building for four decades. “Not now.”
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Since 2013, the lake has risen nearly 6 feet, going from a record low to near-record high levels last summer. On Saturday, waves nearing 20 feet pummeled an already drowning shoreline.
A 3-foot wave can pack the power of a small car. A 20-foot wave? Maybe a freight train.
As scientists predict more extreme weather fueled by climate change, Chicago is trying to keep its lakefront intact.
Longtime condo residents Charlotte Mitchell and husband John Hayes view Lake Michigan from their condo on South Shore Drive near 75th Street in Chicago on Jan. 6, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Powerful storms in recent years have punched holes in a large-scale shoreline project that was authorized more than two decades ago and is nearly complete. Other parts of the lakefront that fall outside the project — like some areas in Rogers Park and South Shore — are vulnerable. And some of the emergency work undertaken in the past two months failed to withstand last weekend’s storm.
Long-term solutions — dependent on more studies, additional funding and a complicated bureaucratic dance — are uncertain.
Meanwhile, beaches have been consumed. A South Side portion of the Lakefront Trail was shut down after a storm on Veterans Day and isn’t expected to reopen until spring. At one community meeting about erosion, a science teacher stood at the microphone and called the situation a “five-alarm fire.”
A damaged and closed portion of the Lakefront Trail is shown along South Lake Shore Drive and East Hyde Park Boulevard in Chicago on Jan. 14, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
During last weekend’s storm that closed portions of South Shore Drive, water surged above the retaining wall near the garage of Mitchell’s home, sending up towering spouts exploded by the wind. Mitchell’s husband, John Hayes, who remembered cars floating in the garage after a monster 1987 storm, said Saturday’s storm was “in a different category altogether.”
“The sound, the sound was so loud,” Mitchell said. “With the waves crashing up against the terrace.”
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“Boom.”
Large waves crash on the terrace of Charlotte Mitchell and John Hayes' condo building on South Shore Drive near 75th Street in Chicago on Jan. 11, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Profound failure
Last year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received 31 requests for technical assistance relating to shoreline protection by July, with 29 alone coming from the Chicago Park District — an increase that Army Corps Outreach Manager David Bucaro called “unprecedented.”
In recent months, beaches were filled with boulders. More than 5,000 feet of jersey barriers and 1,000 feet of sandbags were installed along the shore to protect roadways from flooding.
The Chicago Department of Transportation is evaluating the impacts of the storm at Morgan Shoal from 48th to 50th streets and working with the Army Corps to install boulders, according to spokesman Michael Claffey. The work is expected to begin in the coming months.
“In the meantime, the City will continue to monitor and assess the situation to implement proactive measures and respond appropriately in the event of extreme weather,” Claffey said in an email.
On a freezing afternoon in late December, heaps of lopsided stone and poking rebar slouched against the city’s skyline past 47th Street. That stretch, a sunken graveyard, is what more of the shoreline would look like without the protections implemented in the last two decades, Bucaro said.
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“The amount of erosion and, really, failure of that existing revetment is pretty profound,” Bucaro said, referring to the protective structure. “And if we wouldn’t have implemented this project, that would be pervasive up and down the shoreline. It would be in really, really tough shape."
Lake Michigan waves batter the area where Fargo Beach was, in Rogers Park on Jan. 12, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Three unprotected North Side beaches experienced severe damage following two fall storms. Emergency work estimated at $3 million was completed at Juneway and Howard beaches, with Rogers Beach almost completed.
After last weekend’s storm, Juneway looked largely the same as it did on a mild afternoon in early December. The horizon glowed above the murky water and boulders were piled up where the beach used to be. The triangular Quantum Dee sculpture stood upright.
But additional protections are now planned for Rogers and Howard beaches, where the shoreline was hammered again. Like Juneway, these beaches will now be replaced with rock, and work is expected to be completed in February.
“Standing at Rogers was like standing in a wind tunnel. It was just a constant, howling gale," said Ald. Maria Hadden, 49th.
“It was a different type of storm,” Hadden said. “Different direction. Different waves. Areas that hadn’t been as impacted before were severely impacted.”
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Tom Elliott had one of his first dates with his fiancee at Rogers Beach, and they later rented a nearby unit. Now they’re reconsidering whether they should try to buy in the building — at a time when the lake is rising and first-floor residents have put up materials like plexiglass and plywood to keep windows from breaking and water from coming in.
“And it just makes you wonder if this is climate change literally knocking at our back door — telling us this is a serious issue, you should pay attention to what’s going on in the world,” Elliott said. “Or if this is more of an ebb and flow that happens over a period of time.”
Struggling shoreline
Some shoreline protections, revetments of stone blocks and wooden posts constructed a century ago, eventually collapsed and rotted. Areas bolstered with steel sheeting fared better, but most of the shoreline was built with the fatal mix that failed to account for Lake Michigan’s fluctuations. Without the walls, the Tribune reported in the years leading up to the large-scale protection project, 20 feet of land could disappear each year.
As lake levels rose to record highs in the mid-1980s and the revetments failed, the Tribune reported on studies from the Army Corps in January 1987 warning that within the decade, Chicago could lose parts of Lake Shore Drive, first to flooding and then erosion.
A month later a storm with 14-foot waves shut down parts of the expressway.
“A foot of water in a bathtub isn’t much,” Mike Royko wrote. “But in a giant lake, it’s more than enough to float all the world’s rubber ducks.”
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In the following decade, the Army Corps tested more than a dozen models, simulating harrowing storms like one from February 1979 with oceanlike waves. Revetments with steel sheet piles were eventually chosen as a solution that was more access-friendly and visually appealing than rubble mounds.
Meanwhile, the shoreline struggled.
“It looks terrible,” a chief planner in the Army Corps’ Chicago office told the Tribune in 1993 about the South Side’s Burnham Park, one of the hardest hit locations. "The North Side is falling apart, but the South Side has already failed.”
In 1996, Congress authorized the Chicago Shoreline Protection Project and three years later, the federal and local partnership began work across more than 9 miles of the lakefront to protect Lake Shore Drive from flooding and the shoreline from erosion.
The protection project was expected to be completed in less than 10 years, the Tribune reported, and came with a price tag of $300 million.
A person steps over a broken section of the Lakefront Trail south of Fullerton Avenue on Jan. 14, 2020, following last weekend's storm. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
The Army Corps finished the federal share of the project in 2014 but two decades later, Morgan Shoal and Promontory Point are still incomplete. Morgan Shoal is one of the longest reaches in the project and is costly, officials said, while Promontory Point encountered opposition from the community over the revetment’s design.
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The entire project’s cost has risen to $536 million, but officials estimate its annual benefits at $194 million.
Now there’s a push for a study that reevaluates the shoreline, backed by local and federal agencies, along with congressional representatives, which could potentially bring aid to unprotected areas including the Rogers Park beaches and South Side locations like La Rabida Children’s Hospital.
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, a Chicago Democrat, who convened a recent community meeting to provide information and address concerns about erosion, is among the officials advocating for the study — and for renewed attention on some South Side locations he said were not prioritized.
Hadden agreed. “We need to make sure that we’ve got an equitable plan as we move forward in this next assessment,” the alderman said, “... not solely weighted on North Side, or even, in this case, central downtown communities, which is kind of what happened last time.”
They’ll find out next month if funding will be approved.
If the study is funded this year, the best-case scenario is that construction would start in four to five years, the Army Corps’ Bucaro said.
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“We’re doing the best we can with what we’ve been given,” Bucaro said. “We have been seeking to do this study for at least six years now. And when the lake levels were low, there was no interest in doing preemptive planning to address these issues.”
'Enormous forces’
Human activity is changing the planet’s climate faster than at any time in modern civilization, heralding costly and, in some cases, life-threatening consequences, scientists concluded in a comprehensive 2018 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For every 1 degree of warming, the atmosphere can hold 4% more water vapor that can turn into precipitation.
As the planet warms and additional moisture sticks in the air, we could see more frequent and stronger storms.
“They’re coming more often and when they arrive, they’re huge,” said Guy Meadows, professor of sustainable marine engineering at the Great Lakes Research Center at Michigan Technological University.
Storms raise lake levels and allow towering waves to hit farther up on the beach, causing erosion. As sand clears out, the lake bed deepens, allowing for even taller waves, continuing the cycle. For areas already hit by erosion, it’s a one-two punch.
City worker Alonzo Owens takes pictures of waves crashing on East 73rd Street as his crew works a flooded area near South Shore Drive in Chicago on Jan. 11, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
“You’re talking about enormous forces,” Meadows said — like Saturday’s waves and surges that cracked trees, dislodged asphalt and upended sediment.
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“Even if you’re getting hit by a 3-foot wave,” Meadows said, “It’s the equivalent of getting hit by a Volkswagen.”
In addition, hardened shorelines, like those in Chicago, can decrease the dissipation of bigger waves.
The worst storms typically come in the fall and winter seasons, Meadows said.
“I think we’re going to see much more variability in the next few decades,” Meadows said. “So what can you do about it? You just need to be prepared for big rainstorms, big floods, big shoreline erosion, big waves. Followed by episodes where all the equipment you bought last year sits in the barn and you wait for it to happen again.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expects Lake Michigan levels to remain high over the next several months and to potentially break monthly records in January and February.
Lake levels fluctuate on multiple scales, but climate change could be contributing to more pronounced variations, according to University of Michigan associate professor Drew Gronewold.
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Global effects on precipitation are almost impossible to predict a year out, Gronewold said.
But as temperatures and precipitation increase annually, “the oscillations between water levels and extremes are likely to change in ways that we haven’t seen before,” Gronewold said. He pointed to the more than 4-foot swing from 2013 to 2016, one of the highest rates of water level rise during a three-year period ever for Lake Michigan. Above-average precipitation was the dominant factor in the increase, but below-average evaporation was also a factor — which can be caused by the freezing of the lake from a polar vortex.
“Does it make a difference to a community or to a planning group or to someone putting in infrastructure if you hit high water conditions every 10 to 15 years, or if you hit them every two to five years?” Gronewold said. “At what point does it become too frequent for people to tolerate?”
The Park District is sharing drone footage of the shoreline with other agencies to verify what residents and workers are seeing on the ground.
Erosion issues are evident along the sea wall at the lakefront near 49th Street on Dec. 30, 2019. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
“No one agency can really tackle this on our own,” said Heather Gleason, the Park District’s director of planning and development. “So we need to partner up with everyone.”
The footage, collected over sunny summer days and expected to be shared at future community meetings, shows the general stability of newer revetments — and what’s happened to those that are unguarded.
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The city’s Transportation Department is also working with the Park District and the Army Corps to assess the impacts of last weekend’s storm and determine how the existing shoreline protection plans need to be adjusted, said Claffey, the department spokesman.
There is also the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study, which would look at future variability and design parameters to use going forward across all the Great Lakes, also backed by the Army Corps, but it has yet to be federally funded.
“We recognize that variability is going to be a challenge going forward, and we want to get ahead of it,” Bucaro said.
Running out of time
Even if a new study is approved, residents like Charlotte Mitchell who live on swaths of private property in South Shore and Rogers Park have been told they’re largely on their own. Their condo boards are hiring engineers and beginning permit processes and have been given contact information for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Joyce Brown, a resident in Mitchell’s building, showed up at a recent community meeting exasperated. She was frustrated with the lack of answers on how the board could raise the retaining wall to prevent flooding, and felt that the South Side was being neglected.
“I left that meeting more concerned than when I walked through the door,” Brown said. “It might be a little easier for me to pack up and move, but not for everybody in this building. We’ve got a lot of seniors who are retired now, bought their condos years ago.”
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Juanita Irizarry, of Friends of the Parks, which has advocated for a public lakefront, said there’s a balance between the beauty and privilege of living on the water and what comes with that. “Friends of the Parks certainly wants to be sensitive to people’s immediate pain, but we also hope that this is an opportunity to engage people about what climate change might mean in the long term and what we might want to do for long-term planning for that space,” she said.
Bucaro said the Army Corps’ mission has always been to address public infrastructure and federal funds can only be spent on public property. If residents want to place material below the ordinary high-water mark, it requires a permit from the corps. But there will be expedited permitting for affected residents.
But some residents worry time is running out.
At Richard Carthew’s Rogers Park condo, sandbag barriers and a fence were wiped out by Saturday’s storm. Waves crashed over the retaining wall, washed up on to the terrace and filled the garage, soaking multiple cars.
“The driveway acted like a giant bathtub,” he said.
Frank McCoy pumps lake water from a flooded parking garage at the Breakers residential building in Rogers Park on Jan. 12, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Carthew said there’s an irony to private property owners having to work through the Army Corps if they want to place something in the water. “They have the authority to control the water, even if it’s privately owned, but they’re no longer taking responsibility for protection of that shoreline,” he said.
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The building’s management is now in talks with engineering firms to find a solution, Carthew said, but the building’s proximity to a public beach — which they can’t touch — poses a challenge. Carthew worried any potential permits could get held up with red tape.
But his larger fear came true Saturday — “That we’re going to have one heck of a bad storm and it’s going to cause great damage. And, really, there’s very little we can do about it.”
mgreene@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-01-17--Feds investigating Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci in red-light camera probe, sources say

A 2017 Chicago Tribune investigation documented how , as chairman of the powerful Senate Transportation Committee , Sandoval intervened on @ @ @ @ @ push state transportation officials to change their stance and allow the company ’ s cameras @ @ @ @ @ relatively safe intersection of Illinois 83 at 22nd Street in Oakbrook Terrace .

Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci recently paid $30,000 from his campaign fund to a lawyer representing him amid an ongoing federal corruption probe, according to campaign finance records and sources.
Ragucci is among several elected officials and politically connected contractors embroiled in a federal investigation involving SafeSpeed LLC, a controversial company that operates lucrative red-light cameras at intersections in dozens of Chicago-area suburbs, including Oakbrook Terrace, two sources with knowledge of the probe told the Chicago Tribune.
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The $30,000 payment to attorney Thomas Crooks was made Nov. 29 and marked as “legal fees,” according to Ragucci’s quarterly campaign financing statement filed Wednesday with the Illinois Board of Elections.
Crooks could not immediately be reached Thursday but declined to comment on the ongoing investigation in a brief telephone conversation last week.
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Ragucci’s interest to federal investigators comes amid a much broader series of public corruption probes that have sent shock waves from City Hall to Springfield over the past 14 months, beginning with the raid of Chicago Ald. Edward Burke’s offices in November 2018.
The investigation of SafeSpeed first came to public light in September when the FBI and IRS agents raided the offices of then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval, Lyons Mayor Christopher Getty and Jeffrey Tobolski, the mayor of nearby McCook who doubles as a Cook County commissioner.
Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci (City of Oakbrook Terrace)
After those raids, Ragucci told the Tribune that he had not been questioned by agents and the city had not received any requests for information from federal authorities on the red-light camera controversy.
The mayor has since avoided all inquiries from the Tribune, including on Thursday.
On Tuesday evening, Ragucci was a no-show at the monthly City Council meeting that he typically presides over. A clerk told a Tribune reporter that the mayor had been at City Hall earlier in the day but was not feeling well.
SafeSpeed and its owners and officers have been among Ragucci’s heaviest political donors over the years, election records show.
Earlier this month, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the FBI seized $60,000 from a safe in Ragucci’s home in October, although the reason for the seizure was not disclosed.
No one involved in the SafeSpeed investigation has been charged with any wrongdoing.
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Ragucci, 64, was a police officer in Oakbrook Terrace for 25 years before being elected mayor in 2009. He won a third term in 2017 and would be up for reelection again in 2021.
In his biography on the city’s website, Ragucci touted his quarter century with a badge as prepping him for life as an Illinois mayor.
“There are few experiences better than law enforcement for learning about politics, the issues, the local businesses and what needs to be done,” he was quoted as saying.
There are indications, however, that Ragucci is not planning on running again. Earlier this month, he filed an amendment changing his campaign committee’s status from a candidate-supporting fund to an “independent expenditure committee,” according to state election records.
The amended committee now states its purpose as simply to “Promote Good Government,” according to the filing.
Ragucci’s campaign filing this week stated his committee has just over $75,000 in funds.
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Ragucci’s relationship with SafeSpeed has long been controversial.
A 2017 Chicago Tribune investigation documented how, as chairman of the powerful Senate Transportation Committee, Sandoval intervened on SafeSpeed’s behalf to push state transportation officials to change their stance and allow the company’s cameras to be installed at the relatively safe intersection of Illinois 83 at 22nd Street in Oakbrook Terrace.
The push came even though IDOT’s policies required that cameras target dangerous corners to improve safety.
Meanwhile, SafeSpeed and its owners collectively donated tens of thousands of dollars to Sandoval’s campaign coffers, including one contribution for $10,000 in September 2016 that at the time was the largest single donation the firm had given anyone.
Oakbrook Terrace’s 2020 budget projects the two red-light cameras in operation there — both provided by SafeSpeed — will bring in $5 million in revenue over the current fiscal year.
SafeSpeed in turn charges Oakbrook Terrace about $2.3 million to operate the cameras, plus an additional $2,000 a month in “service fees,” according to the budget posted on the city’s website.
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The site also features a link to information touting the red-light cameras as a boon to safety, not blatant cash grabs as they’re often criticized.
“Red Light Cameras are only a cost to those who break the law so please respect the rules of the road!” the site says.
The search warrants served on Sandoval’s office as well as Lyons and McCook showed agents seized evidence on SafeSpeed founder Omar Maani and his development firm, Presidio Capital, which has built government-subsidized housing in Summit and Cicero.
SafeSpeed’s owner, Nikki Zollar has said the company does “not tolerate wrongdoing or public corruption and we support efforts to root it out.”
“We base our culture on safety and partnering with law enforcement and we conduct our business ethically and with integrity. We do not condone any departure from these core values,” said the statement sent last year by company spokesman Dennis Culloton.
Chicago Tribune’s Joe Mahr contributed.
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jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
dheinzmann@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-01-17--Anthony Rizzo, still recovering from a sprained ankle, says he prefers to hit 3rd or 4th for the Cub

Anthony Rizzo, still recovering from a sprained ankle, says he prefers to hit 3rd or 4th for the Cubs despite his success as a leadoff hitter

“ We taped it up , ” said Rizzo , who went 8-for-20 with a home run after returning .
@ @ @ @ @ the best position not to re-injure it .
There was definitely that chance .
I @ @ @ @ @ able to play at a speed where I won ’ t make that irrational play @

Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo poses for a photo with his wife, Emily Vakos, and other attendees during his foundation’s Laugh-Off for Cancer fundraiser. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
New manager David Ross said he’s examined candidates for the leadoff spot as closely as any aspect of the Cubs roster.
One option is slugger Anthony Rizzo, who has a .426 on-base percentage in 244 career plate appearances at the top spot in the lineup. In 2019 Rizzo had an even .500 OBP in 46 leadoff plate appearances.
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Rizzo hosted his fifth annual Laugh-Off to raise money for pediatric cancer patients and research Thursday night at TAO Chicago. While he acknowledges his success as a leadoff hitter and is willing to do so, he prefers batting in the run-producing positions.
“I’ve done well batting leadoff, but my true love is hitting third or fourth,” Rizzo said. “Whatever Rossy comes up with, I’m obviously all-in with.”
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Ross will try to find ways to gain more production from the top of the order. One of the 2019 Cubs’ downfalls was their National League-worst .294 on-base percentage.
Ross believes in a true leadoff hitter and remembers how his former teammate Jacoby Ellsbury set the tone at the top of the order for the 2013 World Series champion Red Sox.
But Ross is ready to adjust to his roster.
“We got enough talent to win, whether we have a true leadoff guy or not,” Ross said.
The Cubs suffered several costly injuries toward the end of the season. Rizzo said the right ankle he severely sprained Sept. 15 has yet to fully heal.
“Hopefully by Feb. 15,” Rizzo said. “I would say I’m at 90 percent. I’m pretty much doing everything. There are a few limitations, only because I know it’s there. But other than that, every progression I’ve hit, I’ve been fully impressed.”
Rizzo does not regret returning to the Cubs lineup four days after the injury, a Grade 2 lateral sprain, and playing six games before the Cubs were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
“We taped it up,” said Rizzo, who went 8-for-20 with a home run after returning. “We put it in the best position not to re-injure it. There was definitely that chance. I told them I’m able to play at a speed where I won’t make that irrational play.
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“I’m happy I played. I did everything I can. We did everything we could. We just fell short.”


chicagotribune--2020-01-17--Flu warning: ‘Parents of young children need to take it particularly seriously this year.’ One Chica

Flu warning: ‘Parents of young children need to take it particularly seriously this year.’ One Chicago child has already died.

Experts predicted this year ’ s flu season in the U.S. might be particularly rough because it was a difficult @ @ @ @ @ the Southern Hemisphere , where the season starts six months earlier .
But the predominant @ @ @ @ @ was H3N2 , which has not been one of the most common strains in the @ @ @ @ @

CVS nurse Jerusha Steed holds a bottle of the influenza vaccine in her office on Jan. 16, 2020, where she treats patients on South State Street. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
This year’s flu season is shaping up as a harsh one in Chicago and across the country, particularly for children.
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More than 900 lab tests in Chicago for the flu have come back positive since the end of September, compared with 240 during the same time period last year, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health. The actual number of flu cases is likely much higher because not everyone gets tested.
That’s the second highest number of positive flu tests reported by the city’s health department in the last five years, surpassed only by the severe flu season from two years ago.
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One of the most common strains this season — a Type B influenza — is hitting children especially hard, said Dr. Marielle Fricchione, medical director of the immunization program at the city’s Public Health Department.
This is the first time in decades influenza B has been the most common type of flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Parents of young children need to take it particularly seriously this year,” Fricchione said. “This is going to be a tough year for children, and making sure they’ve been vaccinated, if they haven’t yet been, will help protect them.”
Experts are urging anyone over the age of 6 months to get a flu shot. The flu season can start in October and last as long as May, though it peaks in December, January and February.
The flu usually comes on suddenly and can include symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, vomiting and diarrhea. Young children, adults ages 65 and older, and people with certain health issues, such as diabetes, asthma and cancer, are especially at risk of developing complications.
One child in Chicago has died from the flu this season.
Nationally, 32 children have died, and 21 of those deaths were associated with influenza B viruses, the CDC said. A year ago at this time, 16 children had died.
Across the country, levels of patients visiting doctors with flu-like illnesses remain high, and so far there have been about 4,800 flu deaths, according to the CDC.
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CDPH is reporting the first flu-related pediatric death of the 2019-20 flu season in Chicago and Illinois. Overall, influenza activity is high and at its peak. The single best way to protect yourself and your family against the flu is to get vaccinated.https://t.co/CYcvtVxz9Z — ChiPublicHealth (@ChiPublicHealth) January 9, 2020
But even though a high number of people are reporting flu-like symptoms, the number of hospitalizations and deaths has been relatively low, the CDC said. That’s likely because most hospitalizations and deaths are among people over age 65, and some of the most common flu strains this year are more likely to affect children.
Vaccines are developed in advance of flu season, and severe flu seasons often occur when strains that emerge don’t match the ones that vaccines protect against, said Dr. Julie Holland, vice president of pediatric primary care for the Chicagoland Children’s Health Alliance. The alliance is a pediatric partnership between Advocate Aurora Health, NorthShore University HealthSystem and University of Chicago Medicine.
It’s too early to predict how effective this year’s vaccines are, but they might not be a great match for the most common B strain now circulating, the CDC has said.
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Experts predicted this year’s flu season in the U.S. might be particularly rough because it was a difficult flu season in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere, where the season starts six months earlier. But the predominant virus in the Southern Hemisphere was H3N2, which has not been one of the most common strains in the U.S., Fricchione said.
Still, medical experts say it’s important to get vaccinated.
“It is not perfect,” said Dr. Allison Bartlett, associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Chicago Medical Center, of the vaccine. “It does not completely prevent disease, but it does often lead to an illness that is less severe.”
It’s crucial to get vaccinated to help protect others at greater risk of complications from the illness, such as the elderly, and those who can’t get vaccinated, such as babies younger than 6 months, experts say.
Area hospitals have witnessed the effects of the elevated flu season. In December, the University of Chicago Medical Center had 163 patients test positive for the flu, compared with 63 last year, Bartlett said.
Lurie Children’s Hospital has seen a 28% increase in emergency room visits, mostly from patients coming in with flu-like symptoms, so far this month, compared with the same time frame last year.
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Between Dec. 28 and Jan. 11, Rush University Medical Center’s ER tested 459 people for the flu, and 22% tested positive. The ER administered half as many tests during the same period last season with a 12% positive rate.
RSV, a common virus in children, is also now circulating, Fricchione said. Children who’ve had RSV recently might be more at risk for complications from the flu.
Sixty-three Chicago residents have been admitted to hospital intensive care units with the flu this season, compared with 32 at about the same time last year, according to the city’s Department of Public Health.
People who feel ill should contact their doctors as soon as possible. Some may be prescribed certain medications, such as Tamiflu, that can lessen the severity of the illness, but Tamiflu generally must be given in the first few days of sickness to be effective, Holland said.
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Those who have the flu should stay home to recover and avoid spreading it.
“If you are sick, stay home,” Bartlett said. “It’s a tough thing to abide by. No one wants to disappoint their colleagues at work or miss out on school, but really, if you’ve got the flu, you need to be resting up for your own recovery and limiting the spread of infection to others.”
Chicagoans can visit chicagoflushots.org to find locations to get flu shots. Those who are uninsured or underinsured may get free shots at the city’s walk-in immunization clinics.
lschencker@chicagotribune.com
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chicagotribune--2020-01-17--25 people have applied to be Chicago’s next top cop. Most of them from outside CPD

Earlier this week , the board said 23 candidates applied for the job this time around .
But on Thursday @ @ @ @ @ board accepted two more applications it received in the mail after the 5 p.m. Monday @ @ @ @ @ were originally scheduled for delivery before the deadline , he said .

Chicago Police Board President Ghian Foreman, second from left, at a board meeting on Jan. 16, 2020, discussed the demographic breakdown of Chicago's top cop applicants: Fewer than half of them either currently work for the Police Department or once spent much of their law enforcement career there. (Jeremy Gorner / Chicago Tribune)
Fewer than half of the people vying to become Chicago’s next top cop currently work for its Police Department or once spent much of their law enforcement career there, a city official said Thursday night.
Chicago Police Board President Ghian Foreman disclosed the demographic breakdown of the 25 people who applied for the job, a pool that included mostly white and African American candidates and an overwhelming number of men.
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Eleven of the 25 applicants either currently work for the Chicago Police Department or “spent a significant amount of their career” there, Foreman said at the board’s monthly meeting at police headquarters. The other 14 applicants work outside of Chicago.
In a statement earlier this week, Foreman indicated the board received applications from around the country to lead the nation’s second largest police force.
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During the Thursday night meeting, Foreman said 21 of the applicants were men and four were women. He also said 13 applicants were white, 11 were African American and one was Latino.
The names of the applicants were not disclosed. But Foreman and the eight other board members were now tasked with reviewing the applications, interviewing the candidates and presenting Mayor Lori Lightfoot with three finalists for her consideration.
The names of finalists will be released publicly before Lightfoot chooses one of them as her next superintendent within a few months.
In 2016, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel bypassed the Police Board’s three finalists and had the City Council pass a special ordinance to allow him to hire Eddie Johnson as his superintendent, though he didn’t apply for the job. Lightfoot, who was Police Board president at that time, has pledged to make her selection based on the board’s finalists.
Earlier this week, the board said 23 candidates applied for the job this time around. But on Thursday night, Foreman said the board accepted two more applications it received in the mail after the 5 p.m. Monday deadline. The two applications were originally scheduled for delivery before the deadline, he said.
In December 2015, 39 candidates applied to be superintendent when the job was last open. That was after then-police Superintendent Garry McCarthy’s firing as part of the fallout of the Laquan McDonald shooting scandal.
This time, the board opened the application process Nov. 21 after Johnson announced plans to retire by the end of the year. Lightfoot announced his temporary successor would be former Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck.
But that all changed Dec. 2 when Lightfoot abruptly fired Johnson, saying he had intentionally misled her about his conduct after a late weeknight out in October when he was found asleep in his running vehicle near his South Side home. Beck flew in from LA that afternoon to run the department until Lightfoot announces a permanent successor to Johnson.
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jgorner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-01-17--Eminem releases surprise album, advocates changes to gun laws

The Detroit rapper ’ s new music video for “ Darkness , ” one of the album ’ s 20 @ @ @ @ @ at a concert .
The lyrics and storyline of the video specifically allude to the @ @ @ @ @ music festival in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead , making it the deadliest @ @ @ @ @ history .
It closes with audio and video footage of news broadcasts from other recent @ @ @ @ @ and an appeal to register to vote .

Eminem performs at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on Saturday, June 9, 2018, in Manchester, Tenn. (Amy Harris/Amy Harris/Invision/AP)
Rapper Eminem once again dropped a surprise album, releasing “Music to Be Murdered By” on Friday — along with a video that calls for changes to gun laws.
The follow-up to 2018′s “Kamikaze” — also released without warning — was announced on Twitter just after midnight.
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The Detroit rapper’s new music video for “Darkness,” one of the album’s 20 tracks, depicts a shooting at a concert. The lyrics and storyline of the video specifically allude to the 2017 mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. It closes with audio and video footage of news broadcasts from other recent mass shooting around the U.S. and an appeal to register to vote.
“When will this end? When enough people care," reads the text at the end of the video. "Register to vote at vote.gov. Make your voice heard and help change gun laws in America.”
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A link to the music video on Eminem’s website encourages viewers to contact or visit several gun violence prevention organizations, including Everytown for Gun Safety and Sandy Hook Promise.
The cover art features blood spatter and a bearded Eminem clad in a suit and fedora and holding a shovel. An alternate cover features the same splatter, with a now hatless Eminem holding both a hatchet and a gun to his head in an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 album of the same name: “Inspired by the master, Uncle Alfred!” Eminem tweeted.
“Music to Be Murdered By” is Eminem's 11th studio album, according to his website.
Among many collaborators, the album features Ed Sheeran, Skylar Grey, Anderson .Paak and Juice WRLD, the 21-year-old rapper who died in December.


chicagotribune--2020-01-17--Guerin Prep in River Grove to close after 59 years amid declining enrollment

“ Holy Cross was across the driveway and we ’ d have some classes where the boys would come to @ @ @ @ @ we ’ d go there .
It was such a great education .
You knew @ @ @ @ @ , ” Tarczynski said .
“ Private schools are hardly able to be found anymore @ @ @ @ @ you get the better education .
I think the public schools are so over-populated and @ @ @ @ @ control the students .
”

After educating high school students for almost 60 years, Guerin Prep in River Grove will close its doors for good at the end of the school year.
In a press release Thursday, the Catholic school’s president Tom Bednar said the school’s board of directors made the difficult decision to cease operations, which he described as a “very sad and difficult decision.”
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Bedmar cited three major factors that led to the decision: a steady decline in enrollment, increasing need for student financial aid and lower-than-expected fundraising results.
The school’s announcement took Jim Dohoney of Elmwood Park, whose son Jimmy is the junior class president and captain of the school’s basketball team, by surprise.
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“This is a very trying time for my family," Dohoney said, adding that the school did not give the parents advance notice.
Dohoney, who works as a building engineer with Local 399, said if he had had notice, he would have paid more money to save the school.
“I would have gotten two more jobs and did whatever I had to do. I would have stood on Belmont and Harlem with a coffee can begging for money. Just to keep the school open for another year.”
He added that he attended a meeting at the school Thursday evening with his wife Dorothy, who is a Guerin alum, about the announcement, but officials didn’t say more than what was in the press release.
“They didn’t even give us a chance to fight. I asked if they could siphon it out, maybe stop taking in freshmen, but they just looked at us. Now 90 kids [in his son’s class] are heartlessly getting dumped out into the street for their senior year. ”
Calls to the school Thursday were not immediately returned.
Guerin Prep was known as Mother Theodore Guerin for most of its existence, and was an all-girls high school until 2004, when the neighboring all-boys Holy Cross High School closed. Guerin leaders decided to make the school co-ed, and changed its name to Guerin College Prep in 2005.
Since 1961, when the school was founded by the Sisters of Providence, more than 20,000 young women and men from Northwest Chicago and the surrounding suburbs graduated from Guerin, Bednar said in the press release.
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One of the many graduates was 49-year-old Karen Tarczynski, who grew up in Chicago’s Galewood neighborhood and graduated in 1989 when the school was all girls. She said today’s announcement, which she first saw on Facebook, was “devastating” and recalled the good education she received there.
“Holy Cross was across the driveway and we’d have some classes where the boys would come to our school and some where we’d go there. It was such a great education. You knew everybody, everybody knew you,” Tarczynski said. “Private schools are hardly able to be found anymore and that’s where you get the better education. I think the public schools are so over-populated and the teachers can’t control the students.”
Tarczynski also said she didn’t know the school was in bad financial shape.
“I thought they were doing a lot better, especially once they transformed to Guerin Prep and took the boys on.”
Developers are planning to build townhouses and condos on a portion of the former Holy Cross High School’s land.
With Thursday’s announcement, students who are not graduating this year will have to find a new school next year. To assist them, transition teams will be available, the press release said. Additionally, assistance will be provided to help staff in their job search.


chicagotribune--2020-01-17--Women’s March Chicago: What you need to know about Saturday’s event from those who’ll be marching

“ I felt so connected with everyone else who was marching , ” he said .
“ Many of us @ @ @ @ @ of the 2016 election , and we wanted the world to know .
Everyone at @ @ @ @ @ with a tremendous amount of respect , and although it was wildly busy and energetic @ @ @ @ @ incredibly safe environment .
”

Buttons for the 2020 Women's March Chicago were available for all attending a sign-making party at the DuPage Township Democratic Organization office on Jan. 12, 2020, in Bolingbrook. (Mark Black / Chicago Tribune)
When Women’s March Chicago kicks off at Grant Park on Saturday, Eric Tenfelde plans to march alongside his wife and daughters to be “part of humanity and making history," he said.
This will be his third Women’s March, and he describes the event as a visceral experience:
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“Being outside in January and feeling warm on the inside from energy and people around me expressing their American freedom. Expressing myself with costume and signage and witnessing and celebrating everyone else’s expressions. Praising others and being praised. Leading chants and shouting the chants of others.”
Among the crowd at every Women’s March are the many men and boys who attend as allies, supporting the movement’s many causes including gender equality, climate change and access to health care.
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Andrew Clancey also plans to march Saturday. The 30-year-old from the Rogers Park neighborhood recalled attending the first Women’s March at Grant Park in 2017. Clancey said he held a sign with the slogan “I (heart) Nasty Women,” and one of his favorite march memories was taking a picture with a woman wearing a shirt that said “Nasty Woman” on it.
“I felt so connected with everyone else who was marching,” he said. “Many of us were angry about the results of the 2016 election, and we wanted the world to know. Everyone at the march treated one another with a tremendous amount of respect, and although it was wildly busy and energetic, it felt like an incredibly safe environment.”
Women’s March Chicago organizers have planned a revival of the January march at Grant Park after a hiatus in 2019. The event has attracted hundreds of thousands and shut down parts of the Loop in the past. The march will be held in concert with similar events and rallies across the nation and globe.
City officials say that with thousands expected to attend the event, parts of downtown will be closed to traffic in the morning and afternoon. From 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, closures are expected from Columbus Drive to Monroe Street to Ida B. Wells Drive, as well as Columbus to Lake Shore Drive.
Then once the march begins at 11 a.m., rolling closures will be implemented along Michigan Avenue from Randolph to Van Buren streets, and closures on Jackson Street are anticipated as far west as LaSalle Street. Additional street closures may be implemented to ensure public safety, city officials said.
“As always, the city will ensure the First Amendment rights of those participating in the march as well as the safety and security of residents and visitors in the area,” said Executive Director of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications Rich Guidice.
Four Chicago Transit Authority warming buses will be available in the area if weather conditions warrant them, according to Emergency Management and Communications officials.
March organizers predict that many supporters will be inspired to attend this weekend’s march by “just about anything you hear on the news."
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“Immigration, separating children from parents, children dying at the borders, tariffs affecting small family-owned farms, sexual predators in government, business (and) entertainment‚” said Women’s March Chicago organizer Ann Scholhamer. “There is a long list.”
This year’s local event will honor marchers with disabilities, who will lead the procession to Federal Plaza. Volunteers will help marchers needing assistance by clearing paths, walking alongside participants with disabilities and escorting them to transportation hubs or meeting points, organizers said.
The march will also be led by many elected female politicians, including Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Illinois Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford.
Unlike past Women’s March events, the one on Saturday won’t include a rally or any scheduled programming before the march at Grant Park.
The 2020 march will feature a new format, which organizers call the “Gallery of Issues.” Women’s March Chicago selected five major topics to focus on this year: the 2020 census, climate change, gun violence prevention, health care access and encouraging voting in the 2020 elections. Organizers say each block of the march route will be dedicated to a different cause.
“As marchers move block by block through the route, they will learn more about these key issues and ways they can effect change,” according to the Women’s March Chicago website. “During this lively and interactive ‘Gallery of Issues’ experience, our partner organizations will cheer on marchers, display banners and signage, engage in text message campaigns, hand out branded swag and more.”
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The first local Women’s March in January 2017 unexpectedly brought an estimated 250,000 supporters to Grant Park, shutting down parts of downtown, following the inauguration of President Donald Trump. The event was held in solidarity with other women’s marches internationally.
An anniversary march in January 2018 — at the height of the #MeToo movement — topped attendance with some 300,000 marchers in Chicago.
Then Women’s March Chicago organizers hosted a solely local march in October 2018, to encourage midterm election voting, and opted to forego the traditional January march at Grant Park in 2019, citing the high costs of crafting two events so close together. Instead, supporters were encouraged to host their own community-based events dispersed around Chicagoland.
Around the same time, several leaders of a separate national women’s march group had faced claims of anti-Semitism and infighting, in part over ties to Louis Farrakhan, whose Chicago-based Nation of Islam is considered to be an anti-Semitic hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The national organization recently established a new board that "consists of leaders from a wide variety of communities, disciplines, ethnicities, religious beliefs, gender identities and experiences,” and the more controversial original leaders have stepped down.
Local organizers say they don’t believe the absence of a 2019 march in Chicago — or the national controversy — will dampen enthusiasm for the event this weekend.
“Our marchers know that we are an independent organization, solely dedicated to the issues in our communities, and supported by organization and marchers locally,” Scholhamer said.
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Women’s March Chicago also plans to host another local event in mid-October to encourage voting.
As for Clancey, he said he’s excited for this weekend’s event.
“I want to support the women and all of their allies and advocates who are marching," he said, “and voice my frustrations with the way we vote and how it can leave so many people feeling left behind and unrepresented.”
eleventis@chicagotribune.com
Details
What: Women’s March Chicago 2020
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When: Saturday. Grant Park opens for the event at 9 a.m. and the march begins at 11 a.m. (This year’s event is a march-only format, with no formal rally or other programming preceding the march.)
Where: Main entrance at Ida B. Wells and Columbus drives. Accessible entrance at Columbus Drive and Monroe Street.
March route: The march will begin at Columbus Drive and Jackson Street, ending at Federal Plaza. The city has asked that marchers disperse immediately afterward.
Social media: #WomensMarchChicago2020, #WomensMarchChi2020, #MakeItCount
March route: Participants will gather on Jackson Street at Columbus Drive. They will march west on Jackson to Michigan Avenue, then north to Adams Street and then west on Adams to Federal Plaza. Organizers expect marchers to disband at Federal Plaza.
Street closures: Columbus Drive from Monroe Street to Ida B. Wells Drive, and Columbus to Lake Shore Drive will be closed from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, according to the city. Once the march begins, rolling closures will be implemented along Michigan Avenue from Randolph Street to Van Buren Street, and closures on Jackson Street are expected to be implemented as far west as LaSalle Street. Additional street closures might be implemented to ensure public safety.
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Public transportation: Metra isn’t adding any service but conductors have been notified that more patrons with disabilities might be traveling. The Chicago Transit Authority will have longer trains on the Brown, Blue, Orange, Green and Purple lines, as well as more frequent service on the Red Line. There will be additional bus service on the 147 Outer Drive Express route.
ADA Paratransit drop-off/pick-up: The location for participants with disabilities is on Monroe Street, east of Columbus Drive.
Ride services: Drop-offs and pickups are prohibited on Lake Shore Drive, and the city says this will be strictly enforced. Ride-share vehicles can’t stop, stand or park in bus or bike lanes, sidewalk crossings, bridges or any other areas.
Weather: Forecasts say several inches of snow accumulation is possible Friday. On Saturday, the high temperature is expected to be 37 degrees, with rain possibly mixed with snow showers before 2 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. The city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications has arranged for four CTA warming buses to be available at the event if conditions warrant.
Security: The Chicago Police Department will have uniformed and plainclothes officers at the event to ensure the safety of participants, pedestrians and motorists. The Office of Emergency Management and Communications will also be monitoring the event.
For more information: www.womensmarchchicago.org


chicagotribune--2020-01-17--Bears’ decision to move training camp to Lake Forest a ‘devastating’ blow to Bourbonnais after 18 ye

Bears’ decision to move training camp to Lake Forest a ‘devastating’ blow to Bourbonnais after 18 years as team’s summer home

The Bears announced the decision Tuesday , pledging that the summer camp at Halas Hall in Lake Forest will remain @ @ @ @ @ of charge .
It is not clear , however , if the team ’ s @ @ @ @ @ to accommodate the same number of fans as the expansive playing fields at Olivet Nazarene @

A water tower in Bourbonnais, Ill., that touts the village as the summer home of the Chicago Bears is seen June 26, 2019. The Bears' summer training will now be in Lake Forest. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago / Chicago Tribune)
For 18 years, thousands of Bears fans flocked to Bourbonnais each summer for training camp, an annual pilgrimage that substantially boosted the once-obscure Kankakee County village’s economy and image.
Now, in the wake of the team’s decision to move the training camp to its recently expanded facilities in Lake Forest, Bourbonnais is suddenly facing a loss of revenue, a potential identity crisis and a much quieter summer for bars, restaurants and other businesses.
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“Everyone is just devastated,” said Tina Vasilakis, manager of the family-owned Brickstone Brewery, a trendy Bourbonnais brewpub that drew Bears players and fans during training camp. “We definitely saw a boost. We’ll miss that.”
The Bears have been holding training camp at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais since 2002, shifting it from their previous summer home in Platteville, Wisconsin. That decision put Bourbonnais, a village of 18,000 people about 60 miles south of Chicago, on the map for football fans.
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Last summer, more than 60,000 visitors made the trek down Interstate 57 from Chicago, pumping about $1.8 million into the local economy during the two-week training camp, according to Staci Wilken, executive director of the Kankakee County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Those numbers were up substantially from 2018, when nearly 40,000 visitors generated about $1.2 million in economic impact.
The team’s departure will certainly decrease traffic on the Bourbonnais exit this summer.
“It will have an impact on our businesses,” said Bourbonnais village Administrator Mike Van Mill. “Businesses during that time won’t see the revenue that they had in the past.”
The Bears announced the decision Tuesday, pledging that the summer camp at Halas Hall in Lake Forest will remain open to visitors and free of charge. It is not clear, however, if the team’s training facilities will be able to accommodate the same number of fans as the expansive playing fields at Olivet Nazarene.
“The timing is right for this club decision due to the multi-million dollar investments the organization has made in our facilities here in Lake Forest,” Bears spokesman Brandon Faber said in an email. The team unveiled a 162,500-square-foot addition in August, along with two more practice fields.
When the Halas Hall expansion was announced in 2017 — essentially doubling the size of the training facility — it immediately fueled speculation that the Bears would move training camp to Lake Forest. The Bears had a nine-year contract extension in place to stay at Olivet Nazarene through 2022, but with an annual option to cancel, Van Mill said.
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Faber declined to discuss the terms of the contract with Olivet Nazarene, but said the decision to move to camp “was a thorough process and just recently made” after discussions with Lake Forest officials and other key parties.
Remote training camps, once the norm, have become something of an anachronism in the NFL. Last summer, only 10 teams continued the practice, including the Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys.
Before setting up shop in Bourbonnais, the Bears held camp in remote locations including Platteville, Wisconsin; Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana; and St. John’s Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin.
The team stayed close to home from 1975 to 1983, running training camp at Lake Forest College.
In 2001, the Bears chose Olivet Nazarene from among 12 Illinois sites as part of a deal the team made with legislators to bring its training camp back to the state while seeking to rebuild Soldier Field, a $632 million project substantially funded through tax dollars.
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Bourbonnais was once so obscure that the state passed a resolution in the 1970s urging people to stop mispronouncing its name, which had deteriorated to “Burr-bone-us” among the locals. The correct pronunciation, according to the resolution and widespread current usage, is, of course, “Burbo-nay.”
Everything changed when the Bears made Bourbonnais a household name for Chicago football fans.
“Obviously the village has been able to leverage the Bears being here,” Van Mill said. "It has been great for our community.”
Van Mill said Bourbonnais has experienced “huge economic growth” in recent years, which he didn’t attribute directly to the Bears. But the end of the annual media convergence for training camp will lower the village’s profile going forward, he said.
Brickstone Brewery, a former diner that converted to a brewpub in 2006, was a direct beneficiary of Bears training camp, with fans, players and coaches regularly mingling there after practice, providing a significant boost to revenue and Brickstone’s cachet.
“It was the most fun time of the year,” Vasilakis said. “You’d see a lot of new faces, but those new faces became townies for those weeks.”
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It was also among the busiest times of the year for Brickstone, which would staff up in anticipation of the arrival of the Bears and their fans. This summer, Vasilakis said she doesn’t anticipate needing extra help when camp begins in Lake Forest, about 90 miles away, on the North Shore of Chicago.
Beyond the seasonal economic loss, the exodus of the Bears is a blow to the village’s year-round pride. The team had become so integral it inspired the de facto motto, “Bourbonnais, Summer Home of the Chicago Bears,” which is emblazoned on the village’s water tower.
Van Mill said Bourbonnais is “very resilient,” and while the community is disappointed, it will persevere after the Bears are gone.
But, he added, some new paint for the water tower is in the works.
“We were just joking about putting the word ‘former’ on there,” Van Mill said. “But it’s going to have to be addressed.”
rchannick@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-01-16--Ask Amy: In-laws seek a favor and are shown the door

This request was a major one on your in-laws ' part .
Even though it seems that you and your @ @ @ @ @ , you could have handled it differently by offering a truthful and respectful response : @ @ @ @ @ sorry , but we have to pivot toward our work week , and wo n't @ @ @ @ @ .
I wish you had asked earlier ; we might have been able to work @ @ @ @

Dear Amy: This Christmas, my husband's parents and their baby daughter came to stay with us.
The plan was that they would stay with us for three days and leave on Friday morning, as my husband and I both had to return to work on Monday.
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On Christmas night they asked if I wouldn't mind babysitting their infant on Saturday, so they could make some personal visits in town.
This plan would have extended their stay for two more days and nights.
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I looked at my husband and (on my behalf) he offered to put them up in a hotel for those nights.
Instead of agreeing to this, they left Thursday night instead of Friday morning, and his mother left behind the perfume I had given her as a gift.
The truth is that I wasn't in the mood to host them in the first place. I didn't want visitors over Christmas, but we made sure it was nice for them.
I get the side-eye when I tell this story. Was I wrong? How should I have handled this?
— Side-eyed
Dear Side-eyed: You need to realize that anyone can ask anything of you. But you shouldn't punish them for asking, when you have the option to respond with a respectful "no."
This request was a major one on your in-laws' part. Even though it seems that you and your husband did agree to babysit, you could have handled it differently by offering a truthful and respectful response: "Oh, I'm sorry, but we have to pivot toward our work week, and won't be able to do that. I wish you had asked earlier; we might have been able to work something out."
Or you could have declined to sit on Saturday but offered to sit on Friday until noon, so they could see some friends and then leave in the afternoon.
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You present the offer of a hotel as a kindness of sorts, but it really was a tacit invitation for your in-laws to leave, and they took the hint.
You have definitely established yourself as someone who is not to be trifled with. If that was your goal, you have achieved it.
Dear Amy: My daughter recently got engaged and is planning her wedding. Her future in-laws have recently divorced and are not really speaking.
We have no relatives in this country, so it's just the three of us. They come from a large European background with many distant and local relatives.
We are supporting whatever they want (and they are doing their homework).
Both families will be pitching in, and the future father-in-law is happy letting them make their choices.
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However, the groom's mother wants a spreadsheet with comparisons of what they have already investigated, as well as a day looking at other venues with her son. She has decided that since they have the larger family, they should have the say.
The groom is trying hard to manage the middle ground, but it is creating a huge void, and I fear losing loving relationships going forward.
We have decided to have a meeting (with us, the couple, and the father-in-law) in a few weeks. We will invite the mother-in-law.
Any suggestions on how to tackle this challenge?
— Worried Parents
Dear Worried: Calling a meeting sounds like a good idea, and yet ... what you are actually doing is inviting yourselves -- and these other parents -- into a process that should be controlled by the marrying couple. Ask yourselves, very seriously, what you hope to achieve and then ponder, very frankly, the likely outcome.
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There might be cultural issues or traditions you want to honor, but -- generally speaking, modern marrying couples should make all of the major decisions regarding the wedding together, as a couple. Both sets of parents can be involved -- sometimes very involved -- but this should be at the behest of the couple.
The groom should never agree to look at venues without the bride.
This young man is going to have to do more than try to plow middle ground. Letting his mother run the show, and cutting his fiancee out of this process, establishes a terrible precedence.
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: "K in Colorado" was upset because, at the age of 68, some people assume he is his young son's grandfather.
Thank you for pointing out that many grandparents are raising young children. My husband and I are in that group. We are tired, lonely, and we feel invisible.
— Gram
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Dear Gram: I see you. You are heroes to your family.
Get the latest no-nonsense advice for better living delivered to your inbox every morning with our Ask Amy newsletter. Sign up here.
(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--2020-01-16--Anthony Rizzo wants to stay with the Cubs long term but knows he could end up elsewhere: ‘It’s as cu

Anthony Rizzo wants to stay with the Cubs long term but knows he could end up elsewhere: ‘It’s as cutthroat as ever right now’

`` My focus will be just be on this team winning and for ( manager ) David Ross because this @ @ @ @ @ .
You ’ re playing for one of your best friends .
And I ’ @ @ @ @ @ grow as a manager , and he ’ s going to help me continue to @ @ @ @ @ ”

This weekend could mark the final time slugger Kris Bryant — the center of trade speculation all offseason — participates in a Cubs Convention as a player.
And Anthony Rizzo, the thickest pillar of the franchise, didn’t rule out the possibility he could end up playing elsewhere, too, before his storied career ends.
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“It would be naive for me not to,” Rizzo said Thursday, five weeks after he learned the Cubs wouldn’t continue discussions on a contract extension.
The first baseman signed a seven-year, $41 million deal in 2013 with team options for 2020 and 2021. The Cubs picked up the $16.5 million option for this season; Rizzo would receive a $2 million buyout if the Cubs decline the $16.5 million option for next year.
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“It’s something I’ve stated before, that I wanted to be here," Rizzo said. "Obviously that’s (an extension) not in the plans right now. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to be. For me, it’s new territory. ...
"My focus will be just be on this team winning and for (manager) David Ross because this is a dream come true. You’re playing for one of your best friends. And I’m going to see him grow as a manager, and he’s going to help me continue to grow in my career.”
Ross, Rizzo and several other Cubs distributed sports equipment to youngsters Thursday morning at the Horner Park field house as part of their annual community service day.
Rizzo, 30, has become one of the most popular players in franchise history, based on his production — averaging 103 RBIs in his last five seasons and earning three All-Star and Gold Glove selections apiece — his community service ... and helping the Cubs end a 107-year championship drought.
But Rizzo is aware of the business side of baseball, with the Cubs facing the possibility that All-Star shortstop Javier Baez, Bryant and Rizzo could become free agents after 2021 with several needs to address and currently no wiggle room to stay under the competitive-balance salary threshold unless they deal a prime player such as Bryant and his $18.6 million salary in 2020.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 10 Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo poses for a photo with his wife, Emily Vakos, and other attendees during his foundation’s Laugh-Off for Cancer fundraiser. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
After learning that the Cubs tabled extension talks, Rizzo preferred to keep his feelings “in-house.”
“I’ve stated how much I love this place,” Rizzo said. “It’s like home to me and my wife and family. But this is a business. I said this in August. It’s as cutthroat as ever right now. We’re talking about trading the 2016 MVP (Bryant) who has done a lot for this franchise. It’s a whole different ballgame we’re working with right now.”
The Cubs have tendered contract extensions to several young stars over the last few winters, with only pitcher Kyle Hendricks (four years, $55.5 million) agreeing to a deal last spring.
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The Cubs hold a team-friendly $16.5 million option on Rizzo for 2021, and he understands why many of his teammates would decline signing a long-term deal.
“You’re having guys who haven’t seen Triple A yet getting $60 million guaranteed,” Rizzo said. “A couple good years in this league will get you a lot, a lot of money. You block that out as a player when you get on the field, but this is our living too.”
Rizzo has maintained a friendly relationship with team President Theo Epstein dating to their days with the Red Sox organization in 2007, and Rizzo understands the stalemate isn’t personal.
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“It would be naive of us players to not know that they have a business to run,” Rizzo said. “And we’re part of their business and a part of that too.
"We’re players. We know this game doesn’t really know any names. We’re just another piece to the puzzle. If I’m not playing first base, someone else will be. That’s the way it is.”
Bryant is expected to meet the media before the convention’s opening ceremony Friday night at the Sheraton Grand Chicago. Rizzo said the third baseman is in “a good place” after a trip to Hawaii and with his first child due in April.
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Bryant’s trade value will become clearer after an arbitrator rules on a grievance that will decide whether he can become a free agent after 2020 or 2021.
For now, Ross is operating as if his roster will remain intact — including Bryant.
“I’m always going to love that guy, whether he’s a Cub or puts on a different uni,” Ross said. “That’s how baseball works sometimes. Right now he’s on my team, and I’m excited about it.
“If KB gets traded, if (Kyle) Schwarber gets traded, those are things I’m not privy to in conversation. I plan on going to spring training with Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Jon Lester, Yu Darvish.”