Michael O’Brien and Joe Henricksen’s weekly breakdown of Illinois high school basketball.
In this episode we highlight five teams that have made it to mid-December unbeaten: Geneva, Hersey, Wheaton Academy, McHenry and Downers Grove North.
We also give our Two Takes and discuss all the latest news in high school basketball.
The podcast is on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please subscribe.
Advocate Health Care is broadening its South Side presence through a $1 billion investment that includes expanding outpatient care and building a new hospital on the old U.S. Steel site.
The new, 52-bed hospital will replace Advocate Trinity Hospital, a 263-bed hospital that’s been on the South Side since 1895.
The hospital system hopes the investment closes Chicago’s 30-year life expectancy gap between residents on the South and North sides, Advocate Trinity Hospital President Michelle Blakely told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Over the next 10 years, we hope to change the trajectory of health outcomes on the South Side,” Blakely said. “We are striving to create health and wellness opportunities in a community that has been underserved and suffers from health disparities.”
The new facility will include 36 surgery beds, four ICU beds, eight observation beds, a four-bed dialysis unit and an emergency room with 16 bays.
The $300 million project will sit on 23 acres on the old U.S. Steel South Works site south and west of Lake Shore Drive and north of 81st Street.
An aerial photo shows where the new Advocate hospital will be built on the old U.S. Steel site.
Advocate hopes to break ground on the new hospital late next year. The 115-year-old Trinity Hospital at 2320 E. 93rd St. will remain open until the new hospital is complete. Advocate plans on then demolishing the site and putting in a green space.
“This is transformative for the 7th Ward, especially for the South Shore and South Chicago communities,” Ald. Greg Mitchell (7th) told the Sun-Times. “This vacant site has stood as a symbol of disinvestment and missed opportunities that have deeply impacted the entire Southeast Side.”
The investment also includes a $25 million workforce development program that will lead to 1,000 jobs for South Siders within the next three years, Blakely said.
A total of $700 million will go toward expanding primary care and outpatient services. Advocate will open 10 neighborhood care sites in existing community organizations like churches and YMCAs. Advocate plan to open three sites a year over the next few years.
Those sites will help with everyday health services like treating the flu or the common cold, managing chronic diseases, giving yearly physicals and refilling prescriptions. Staff will also connect patients to primary care providers and help them access food, housing and transportation to medical appointments.
“What the community wants is for us to bring the resources to them, and that’s what we’re doing here,” Blakely said.
Advocate will also offer more OB-GYN services and appointments, create a free prescription program for qualifying patients and deploy a mobile medicine vehicle that will provide primary care services throughout the community.
The hospital system will expand its existing Imani Village outpatient clinic at 901 E. 95th St. Advocate will extend the clinic’s hours and add doctors, appointments and services like imaging, specialty care and medication refills.
“This is really exciting because if we have a model focused on prevention first, we’re addressing the root causes of chronic diseases,” said Tony Hampton, a primary care doctor with Advocate.
Hampton said patients without a reliable, nearby primary care clinic often go to the hospital for routine care, an expensive and often unnecessary choice.
“Reducing hospital admissions lowers the cost of health care and improves patient outcomes,” Hampton said. “The ambulatory care model is about reshaping how we think about health care and focusing on why you got sick in the first place and showing you how to prevent diseases and put diseases into remission.”
The best rookie quarterbacks shine regardless of circumstances. That’s what C.J. Stroud did for the upstart Texans last season and what Jayden Daniels is doing with the Commanders.
Daniels walked into a rebuild when the Commanders drafted him No. 2, and while Dan Quinn and Kliff Kingsbury deserve credit, he’s the one completing 70% of his passes. He’s the runaway Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Here’s a look at all four active first-round quarterbacks:
No. 1 overall pick: Bears QB Caleb Williams
It has been volatile for Williams, whose offensive coordinator and coach got fired in-season and whose own performance has been erratic. He had a 65.3 passer rating his first three games, 122.8 the next three, 64.7 the next three, 99.2 the next three and now hasn’t reached 200 yards in either of the last two.
No. 2 overall pick: Commanders QB Jayden Daniels
Daniels is fourth in the NFL in completion percentage (70.5), 10th in passer rating (101.2) and has the Commanders closing in on a wild-card spot. He has thrown for 17 touchdowns and rushed for six.
No. 3 overall pick: Patriots QB Drake Maye
Maye is showing promise on a terrible team and has completed 81.1% of his passes and posted a 98.1 passer rating over his last two games.
No. 12 overall pick: Broncos QB Bo Nix
Nix leads all rookies with 20 touchdown passes and has the Broncos in position to clinch a playoff berth this week for the first time since 2015.
In the premiere episode of the whip-smart and cheerfully dark half-hour comedy series “Laid,” we’re treated to a scene that might sound simple and almost inessential, but there’s something brilliant and daring in the execution.
Stephanie Hsu’s Ruby has learned that Brandon, a man she briefly dated in college, has died. Even though Ruby hadn’t seen Brandon in 15 years, she decides to attend the memorial services, and finds herself in a car with Brandon’s parents (Miriam Smith and Michael Q. Adams), his girlfriend (Melanie Chan), who resents Ruby because Brandon apparently never got over her, and a giant dog.
Ruby requests some tunes. Dad turns on the radio, and we hear Paul Simon’s “Graceland.” Ruby begins to sing along — softly at first, but then really getting into it, as if she’s in an episode of “Carpool Karaoke.” The silent but disparate reactions from everyone else in the car, dog included, are fantastic, right up until the moment when Ruby sings, “And she said, losing love is like a window in your heart” as mom fumbles for her tissues from her purse. It’s a ridiculous scene, and it’s hilarious and it’s also kind of sweet — and it goes on for a full 90 seconds. That’s comedic risk-taking right there, and it pays off.
Adapting the 2011 Australian series of the same name, co-showrunners and executive producers Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna have teamed up with a great cast led by Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and Zosia Mamet to create one of the most creative and consistently funny new series of the year.
Sporting a kind of glossy, generic rom-com look (filming took place in Vancouver), the Peacock series opens with a prologue that foreshadows the morbid humor ahead, before we flash back three months earlier, to Hsu’s Ruby on a third date with an amiable guy named Jason that ends with subpar sex, in part because the guy didn’t spring for ad-free Spotify, which means ads for “Elsbeth” kept interrupting the mood.
The next morning, Ruby reports to her roommate and best friend AJ (Zosia Mamet) that it’s not going to work out with Jason.
“No!” exclaims AJ. “We were so excited for Third Date Jason.”
“Now ‘Bad Sex Spotify Ads Jason,’ I’m afraid,” comes the reply.
Hsu and Mamet have a rat-a-tat-tat rapport that reflects their BFF status—even as AJ’s slacker-gamer boyfriend Zack (a hilarious Andre Hyland) weighs in with unfiltered observations, e.g., telling Ruby, “Is it possible that you still think being alone is the fault of thousands of guys and a fair share of girls, and you’re not at all to blame? I mean, possible, yeah. Likely, no.”
If news of the death of College Fling Brandon isn’t unsettling enough, more of Ruby’s exes start kicking their respective buckets in rapid and alarming fashion, as when a baseball player gets struck in the temple with a foul ball while in the on-deck circle on live TV, with Ruby and AJ watching in horror. WHAT. IS. HAPPENING.
This is the bloody thread fueling “Laid.” (Get it? Double meaning? “Laid,” as in getting laid, and “Laid,” as in “Laid to rest.) Ruby’s exes keep dying, and she teams up with true-crime buff AJ and puts together quite the murder board — titled “RUBY’S SEX TIMELINE” — to investigate this madness and to try to prevent more exes from dying. Complicating matters: Ruby, who works as an event planner, falls hard for the hunky and sensitive Isaac (Tommy Martinez) as she helps him stage a 40th anniversary party for his parents and Isaac seems to have feelings for Ruby, but he’s dating a “marine biologist who’s also a gamer and does tons of charity work.” Plus, if Ruby did sleep with Isaac and they broke up, does that mean he would die?
The pop culture references in “Laid” are fast and furious and often deep cuts, whether it’s AJ reassuring Ruby there’s still time for her to meet someone because after all, “Holland Taylor didn’t meet Sarah Paulson until she was 66,” or Ruby wondering why a certain ex assumed she was single: “He could have asked me when I texted him after ‘Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids’ TV’ came out. He had a small part in all that. Nothing happened, he was fine.”
From “Graceland” singalongs to asides about a recent and disturbing reality series to ex-boyfriends dropping like flies, “Laid” might be an acquired taste and could be accused of being less than tasteful, but it’s funny as hell and even kind of sweet in its own warped way.
Four housing choice voucher holders and nonprofit HOPE Fair Housing Center filed a class-action lawsuit against Mac Properties on Tuesday, following years of complaints against the property management company that controls a wide swath of the apartments in Hyde Park.
The complaint, filed in federal court, alleges Mac Properties systemically discriminates against voucher holders looking to rent in Mac’s newer, high-rise apartments in Hyde Park, steering them toward outdated buildings that often lack the amenities of their desired properties.
In some instances described in the suit, plaintiffs said they were denied apartment applications or tours of certain Mac buildings once leasing agents learned of their housing voucher. Other voucher holders said agents falsely told them that their desired property did not have any available units, only for non-voucher holders to inquire about the same units with success.
Lawyers representing voucher holders and HOPE said the class could grow to be “quite large” because of the size of Mac’s portfolio. The suit estimates Mac owns about 100 apartment buildings in or surrounding Hyde Park, totaling to more than 5,000 units. Mac also owns and manages buildings in Kansas City and St. Louis.
A draft of the complaint, which was provided to the Sun-Times, estimates the class could include more than 40 voucher holders who experienced income discrimination by Mac starting on or after Dec. 17, 2021.
“Mac has effectively controlled most of the Hyde Park rental market, and that makes them a big player in the Chicago South Side rental market,” said Tory Tilton, a lawyer with Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd. who represents the class. “We’re troubled to hear about the repeated complaints from voucher holders and tenants.”
The Sun-Times has reached out to Mac Properties for comment about the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. This is a developing story that will be updated.
HOPE, a nonprofit whose mission is to create housing opportunities for all through education, is a plaintiff in the suit alongside the voucher holders.
HOPE’s executive director, Michael Chavarria, has worked in housing advocacy for about 11 years. Mac has been on his radar for almost his entire career, he said.
Repeated complaints about Mac spurred an investigation from HOPE, which verified the experiences of voucher holders, according to Chavarria.
Plaintiffs Sheliah Ayanwale, Cadeidga Coleman, Janishia Fleming and RySheena Moore are all Black women with housing vouchers who were looking for apartments in Hyde Park.
Ayanwale, a Chicago native who lives in Texas with her daughter, wanted to move back to Chicago to be closer to family. Mac Properties’ 5252 Apartments, a building at South Cornell Avenue and East 53rd Street, had amenities she was looking for, like a gym, and was close to her cousin, she said.
Ayanwale said she reached out to Mac “almost a million times” after taking a video tour of the building — and multiple leasing agents evaded her requests for an application. One leasing agent discouraged her from applying with a voucher, according to the complaint.
“It felt like I was calling, and [as] soon as I mentioned my voucher, I would get hung up on. I would get convinced that I couldn’t rent there without them asking the important questions, like, ‘What’s your voucher amount?’” Ayanwale said. “I just was persistent in calling, because … I thought these were call center reps who were having a bad day — they weren’t directly with Mac or something — until I started to use tactics like having my cousin call and see if she’d get a different reaction. And then I knew it was wrong.”
After a leasing agent with Mac claimed no units at 5252 Apartments were available, Ayanwale asked her cousin to call and ask about studio apartments. A leasing agent confirmed units in Ayanwale’s price range were available, according to the complaint.
“Mac Properties had lied to Ms. Ayanwale again,” the complaint says.
RySheena Moore, a U.S. Army veteran, is among the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against Mac Properties for how it treats housing voucher holders.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Moore, a U.S. Army veteran, had a similar experience with Mac Properties.
She contacted the property manager in February 2023 about renting an apartment in Kenwood’s Regents Park Apartments at East Hyde Park Boulevard and South East End Avenue and mentioned her voucher. She was excited about being close to the lake, the nearby schools and having a pool for exercise to help manage her PTSD.
A leasing agent agreed to show Moore an apartment there on Feb. 17, 2023, but never told her a time, according to the complaint. He responded days later and told Moore there were no apartments available in her price range.
The agent also sent Moore a separate email suggesting she tour apartments in different areas of the neighborhood. The apartments didn’t have the amenities Moore was looking for and were further from the lake.
Moore visited Regents Park and Mac Properties’ leasing office in-person after her initial frustrations, she said, and she also was denied tours and the ability to rent at Regents Park.
“When I encountered that, I was thoroughly shocked and appalled,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I can’t believe they’re doing this. And if they’re doing that to me, they’re doing that to other people.’”
HOPE started investigating Mac Properties in 2023 after complaints like Ayanwale’s and Moore’s piled up.
HOPE’s focus is on educating and preventing housing discrimination from happening, Chavarria said, and it investigates claims of discrimination.
Hope’s main methodology was fair housing testing, in which trained testers pose as applicants and inquire about properties.
Several testers sent by HOPE contacted Mac Properties about available apartments — some mentioning using a voucher and others not.
The housing choice voucher program is a federal program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that helps low-income, elderly and people with disabilities afford quality housing. Families with vouchers find their own housing, and local housing authorities manage the program and funds. In Chicago, the Chicago Housing Authority manages the program.
Families with vouchers contribute about 30% of their income toward rent and utilities. In Chicago, CHA pays the remainder of the rent.
The testers who mentioned vouchers were given “different information” and treated worse than nearly identical testers with the same budget who did not mention vouchers, according to the complaint.
The investigation verified what HOPE was hearing from voucher holders, Chavarria said.
“It took a theory rooted in individual experiences and gut instincts, and through our rigorous testing and investigation, we were able to demonstrate that this is a repeatable, demonstrable practice — that there is clearly some sort of directive that was passed down from higher up to the leasing agent staff to erect barriers and prevent voucher holders from having access to the recently renovated or amenity-rich buildings that our testers were inquiring about,” Chavarria said.
“That is an important piece to us when we’re investigating this: Is it just a bad apple? Is it a leasing agent, and they need to be corrected through some outreach and advocacy, some education that we offer? In this case, no matter who you call, you run into the same sort of practice of erecting barrier after barrier.”
The plaintiffs are being represented by Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym.
The Chicago Lawyers’ Committee has seen an escalation of calls and complaints regarding Mac Properties in the last three years, according to MacKenzie Speer, program counsel at the committee.
Speer said the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee and partners like HOPE prioritize those claims because of the economic and racial impacts, in addition to Mac’s history of complaints.
About 89% of voucher holders in Chicago are Black, according to data from CHA cited in the complaint. Black renters are 46 times more likely than white renters to be affected by Mac Properties’ alleged discrimination against voucher holders, according to the complaint.
Speer said Mac is also a priority because its apartments are concentrated in Hyde Park — one of the Chicago Housing Authority’s “mobility areas.”
Mobility areas are those with below-average poverty rates and crime levels, according to CHA. Families in mobility areas can get more assistance with rent, in addition to personal counseling that helps families find housing that best suits their needs.
Hyde Park is a desirable neighborhood for many Black voucher holders because they can live in a diverse neighborhood with a significant Black population that also has the resources a mobility area provides, Speer said.
Chicago has had protection against income discrimination in place since 1990. As of 2023, the Illinois Human Rights Act also protects against income discrimination.
The lawsuit alleges violations of the Illinois Human Rights Act on counts of income and racial discrimination, in addition to the federal Fair Housing Act and Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
Speer said most of the complaints against Mac Properties are from people who are so frustrated with the company that they no longer move in — they just want Mac Properties’ practices to stop. HOPE also is seeking compensation for its investigation.
Moore said she would still like to move to the Hyde Park area. But knowing how many of the properties Mac owns there, the thought of moving fills her with anxiety.
“I hope that voucher holders are treated just like any other market-rate renter,” Moore said. “That’s my biggest thing: there should be no discrimination based on source of income. Regardless of your income, you should be able to rent at that place if you qualify.”
Police in Canada’s capital city say they have identified the suspect in a fatal stabbing that happened almost three decades ago. The suspect, a man from Vancouver, British Columbia, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder after advanced DNA testing helped authorities link him to the crime.
Lawrence Diehl, now 73, is accused of killing 22-year-old Christopher Smith on April 12, 1996, according to Ottawa Police. Smith was stabbed to death on the Portage Bridge, which connects Ottawa, the Canadian capital, to Gatineau in the neighboring province of Quebec.
“Advances in forensics and DNA have allowed police to identify the perpetrator and the matter is now before the court,” Ottawa Police said in a statement.
Diehl was arrested in Vancouver on December 10, police said. Investigators returned the suspect to Ottawa within the week, and he made his first appearance in court over the weekend.
Multiple law enforcement agencies from across Canada worked since 2020 to solve Smith’s cold case, including the national police force. Diel was identified through investigative genetic genealogy, where scientists and investigators use a combination of genetic testing and genealogy research to build a family tree for the individual whose sample is being evaluated.
DNA Solves/Othram Inc.
In Smith’s case, scientists used genome sequencing to build a DNA profile for the murder suspect, according to Othram Inc., a labratory that specializes in forensic genetic genealogy to assist law enforcement. Otram’s findings allowed police working the case to develop new leads and pursue a renewed investigation, which culminated in Diehl’s identification.
Diehl’s arrest marked the closure of Ottawa Police’s oldest cold case, and the first time the department used genetic genealogy to solve a crime.
“By bringing these charges, the Ottawa Police Service demonstrates once again that we will never stop working for victims of crime and their loved ones,” said Ottawa Police Chief Eric Stubbs in a statement. “We will continue to embrace innovative techniques to solve cases, and I commend the members of our Homicide Unit for ensuring that no case is ever forgotten, and no effort is spared.”
Stubbs said police have connected with Smith’s family to inform them of the new developments in his case. Investigators have asked anyone to contact the Ottawa Police Service’s homicide unit with information about Diehl and time in Ottawa, as detectives learned he was there for work-related reasons at the time of the murder.
An argument escalated into a gunfight early Tuesday when an intruder opened fire inside a Washington Park neighborhood home and a man returned fire.
Around 5:10 a.m., a woman and a man, both 26, were inside a home in the 6200 block of South King Drive when someone they knew forced their way inside, Chicago police said.
After an argument, the home invader opened fire and the man — who has a valid firearm owner’s identification card and concealed carry license — returned fire, police said.
The woman was shot in the right thigh and she was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was in good condition, officials said.
No other injuries were reported and the intruder fled and was not in custody.
Area 2 detectives are investigating.
Jim Opoka arrowed a big eight-point buck with his crossbow in Cook County last month.
“Sure feels good to share the nice buck of my younger brother!” Joseph Opoka emailed.
Outdoors is a family affair for them. Jim Opoka helped coach the Brother Rice fishing club in past years and his son Luke, who took big bass honors at the Wolf Lake sectional nearly 15 years ago, earned Buck of the Week honors five years ago.
It also sure feels good that there is still huntable land in Cook County.
BOTW, the celebration of bucks and their stories (the stories matter) around Chicago outdoors and beyond, runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times.
To make submissions, email ([email protected]) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), X (@BowmanOutside), Instagram (@BowmanOutside) or Bluesky (@BowmanOutside.bsky.social).
MINNEAPOLIS — The Bears got yet another reminder of how far away they are from fulfilling general manager Ryan Poles’ goal to “take the North and never give it back” when the Vikings beat them 30-12 Monday at U.S. Bank Stadium.
With the loss, the team is now 2-14 in the NFC North since Poles made that comment at his introductory press conference. They weren’t cohesive offensively, and their defense looks very vulnerable ahead of the upcoming home game against the dominant Lions.
Here’s what went wrong against the Vikings:
Pitiful start
When the game’s getting away from the Bears by the time they hit halftime, there’s not much more to say. They were down two scores, this time 13-0 to the Vikings, at halftime for the third consecutive game and trailed at halftime by a combined score of 53-0 in those contests. The Bears were 0 for 5 on third down at the half and had just 107 yards of offense.
Williams withering?
Not only did quarterback Caleb Williams lose a fumble for a critical turnover in the first half that led to a Vikings touchdown, but he brought little to the table as a downfield passer. He threw just one pass five yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage in the first half.
Draft watch
The Bears have reached a point where the standings are relevant only as they pertain to their draft slot. With three games left, they’re slotted ninth. They will have had a top-10 pick all three years under Poles.
Two handguns were recovered from a speeding car that struck a Chicago police squad car early Tuesday in Portage Park on the Northwest Side.
Around 2:05 a.m., a Toyota sedan was speeding in the 5100 block of West Sunnyside Avenue when it side-swiped the squad car and two other parked vehicles, police said.
Two guns were found inside the Toyota, carrying four occupants who fled on foot after the wreck.
No one was arrested and no injuries were reported.
