You loved almost everything about “Wicked” the movie: the soaring musical numbers, the eye-popping special effects, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
But there was one thing missing: you.
You sat politely in the darkness, sipping your soda and nibbling your popcorn, when what you really want to do was belt out the tunes you know by heart. And soon you can.
Universal Pictures this week announced that approximately 1,000 theaters across the United States — including several in the Chicago area — will offer “sing-along” screenings of “Wicked” on Christmas Day. The show opened in theaters Nov. 22.
Jim Orr, president of domestic theatrical distribution for Universal Pictures, said in a statement that the screenings will “offer fans a unique opportunity to become part of the story they’ve embraced so enthusiastically. There’s something extraordinarily special about experiencing this beloved musical together as a community, and we’re thrilled to create that opportunity this holiday season.”
And if you only know, say, the chorus to “Popular,” the screenings will also feature subtitles.
Until this week’s announcement, AMC Theatres had made it clear, with a movie-specific pre-show announcement, that it didn’t want patrons singing along during “Wicked.”
“At AMC Theatres, silence is golden. No talking, no texting, no singing, no wailing, no flirting and absolutely no name-calling,” says an announcer over snippets of the movie.
For more information about specific theaters offering sing-along showings, go to wickedmovie.com
There was no singing — or any other visible forbidden behavior such as painted faces — at an afternoon showing the Chicago Sun-Times took in a couple of weeks ago.
“I did appreciate that there was no singing. When you go to the movies, you should be there to watch. … If people want to paint their faces green, why not?” said movie-goer Jane Hyland, 22, visiting from Boston.
According to some movie-goers on social media, there have been problems with folks applying green face paint to try to look like the character Elphaba, played by Erivo.
One TikTok video features a young woman painting her face green before heading out to an AMC theater, where she says she was told to remove her makeup.
“This the dumbest rule I’ve ever heard,” the woman says on the video.
But go to AMC’s website and that rule is spelled out: “We love it when our guests dress up for the occasion, however, no weapons, even ‘prop’ weapons, can be brought in. Also, face paint, helmets, masks (except for standard face masks used explicitly for health and safety reasons), or anything that covers the face are prohibited.”
Movie theaters across the United States banned face paint, masks and prop weapons following a 2012 screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colorado, in which James Holmes — dressed head to toe in body armor — killed 12 people and wounded dozens of others. Holmes went on trial and was later convicted on all charges. He is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Plenty of folks also have been pulling out cell phones and posting videos of parts of “Wicked” online.
“We have no problem with singing, but cell phone videos would be an issue for copyright reasons,” said Chris Johnson, CEO of Classic Cinemas, a small theater chain headquartered in Downers Grove.
ELMONT, N.Y. — When the puck squirted out of a battle in the corner of the Blackhawks’ defensive zone, nobody was there to grab it.
This instance was back on Dec. 1 against the Blue Jackets — one of Luke Richardson’s final games as Hawks coach — and the problem was that everyone was correctly playing their positions. While Alex Vlasic and Taylor Hall battled in the corner, Alec Martinez hung by the goal post, Philipp Kurashev covered the upper slot and Connor Bedard covered the lane to the point along the boards.
Martinez got to the loose puck first, but it took him a couple strides to get there. By then, the Jackets had converged. Martinez’s attempted pass to Kurashev to start a breakout went awry, and the Hawks conceded another high-danger scoring chance seconds later.
Now that Anders Sorensen has taken over as Hawks interim coach, he has implemented changes to the system that should make the team better-suited to handle situations like that Dec. 1 example moving forward.
Sorensen’s biggest objective is to open up the Hawks’ offense, and his two most-publicized system adjustments — switching to a 2-1-2 forecheck and encouraging defensemen to jump up in the rush or pinch in from the blue line more aggressively — are designed to accomplish that objective.
Quietly, however, he has also tweaked things in the defensive zone. The main idea is Sorensen wants the Hawks more compact around their net and the lower portion of the zone, protecting the most dangerous areas.
Most notably, he wants the winger who previously covered the passing lane to the point — Bedard in the example — to instead help cover the slot. There are times when all five Hawks are within 30 or 40 feet of the goal in this arrangement.
“[We’re] protecting the ‘good ice’ — the dangerous areas — first and foremost,” Sorensen said Wednesday. “We can handle point play. If they want to shoot from the point, we’re good with that. We want to make sure we protect the slot and have good numbers there.”
At first glance, it sounds like a more conservative defensive system, but it’s actually not. Due to the extra coverage support in the slot, either the weak-side defenseman or the center has a green light to jump into the battle, changing it from a two-on-two stalemate to a three-on-two in the Hawks favor.
That converts the extra coverage support in the slot into extra support in the battle, and “it allows you to trust your battle when you feel bodies closer to you,” defenseman Connor Murphy said.
Sorensen places more decision-making responsibilities on the defensemen in every regard, and that includes in the defensive zone. The defenseman not tied up in the battle — Martinez in the example — doesn’t have one specific assignment but rather has freedom to determine how he can help most.
“He can push into the pile if he wants, he can stay low [or] he can be an option at the net,” forward Jason Dickinson said. “He’s got the options to see the ice and see what’s needed. It’s not as black-and-white as, ‘You have to be here.’ [He should] see where their third guy is, see where their second guy is and push the pile in a certain direction to really dictate for the rest of us.”
And then, if the puck squirts out, the Hawks should have the time and numbers to transition to offense quicker. One of the two defensemen therefore might be more involved in the rush from the start, allowing him to easily provide a trailing option in the neutral and offensive zones.
“There’s a flow to it that makes sense: ‘We do this, because it’ll open up this, and then we can do this,’” Dickinson added. “It’s all flowing in a nice chain that progresses up the ice.”
Psychological effects
The Hawks’ defensive coverage has gotten more and more compact in recent years.
Murphy mentioned how the scheme used by ex-coach Jeremy Colliton — now a Devils assistant whom the Hawks will face Saturday — led to all five Hawks getting alarmingly spread out at times. Richardson’s system was more compact than Colliton’s, and now Sorensen’s system is more compact than Richardson’s.
“When Colliton was here and we had more man-on-man, some guys were getting on islands defending, where you would be up against a top forward in a corner and your guys aren’t even within 20 feet,” Murphy said. “Every system has its advantages and disadvantages, but this one is nice [because you] know you have support.”
Some of this immediate affinity for and success with Sorensen’s systems is purely psychological, though. It’s the reason why “new coach bumps” are so common around the NHL. Simply having so much to learn forces the Hawks to dial in.
“When you get to a point where your coach is let go, it’s not because of systems; it’s because of performance, energy and commitment,” Murphy said. “Sometimes a little tweak in the system can get guys out of their heads and into just playing. [It can] divert your focus away from being in a slump to getting into productive days and trying to get better.”
Dickinson had the same thought.
“[Sorensen is] bringing all of the minor details that sometimes get overlooked over time because it’s just been so natural,” Dickinson said. “He’s breaking it right down to the very basics, like, ‘This is what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and how we’re going to work.’ Whereas sometimes, when you start doing things over and over again, you forget the ‘why’ or the ‘how.’
“But you always had the same message. It’s just a matter of the details coming in so fresh and so hot right now.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Front Row Motorsports, one of two teams suing NASCAR in federal court, accused the stock car series Thursday of rejecting the planned purchase of a valuable charter unless the lawsuit was dropped.
Front Row made the claim in a court filing and said it involved its proposed purchase of the charter from Stewart-Haas Racing. Front Row said the series would only approve it if Front Row and 23XI Racing dropped their court case.
“Specifically, NASCAR informed us that it would not approve the (charter) transfer unless we agreed to drop our current antitrust lawsuit against them,” Jerry Freeze, general manager of Front Row, said in an affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court of Western North Carolina.
The two teams in September refused to sign NASCAR’s “take-it-or-leave-it” final offer on a new revenue sharing agreement. All other 13 teams signed the deal.
Front Row and 23XI balked and are now in court. 23XI co-owner Michael Jordan has said he took the fight to court on behalf of all teams competing in the top motorsports series in the United States. NASCAR has argued that the two teams simply do not like the terms of the final charter agreement and asked for the lawsuit be dismissed.
Earlier this week, the suit was transferred to a different judge than the one who heard the first round of arguments and ruled against the two teams in their request for a temporary injunction to be recognized in 2025 as chartered teams as the case proceeds.
The latest filing is heavily redacted as it lays out alleged retaliatory actions by NASCAR the teams say have caused irreparable harm.
Both Front Row and 23XI want to expand from two full-time cars to three, and have agreements with SHR to purchase one charter each as SHR goes from four cars to one for 2025. The teams can still compete next season but would have to do so as “open” teams that don’t have the same protections or financial gains that come from holding a charter.
Freeze claimed in the affidavit that Front Row signed a purchase agreement with SHR in April and NASCAR President Steve Phelps told Freeze in September the deal had been approved.
But when Front Row submitted the paperwork last month, NASCAR began asking for additional information. A Dec. 4 request from NASCAR was “primarily related to our ongoing lawsuit with NASCAR,” Freeze said.
“NASCAR informed us on December 5, 2024, that it objected to the transfer and would not approve it, in contrast to the previous oral approval for the transfer confirmed by Phelps before we filed the lawsuit,” Freeze said. “NASCAR made it clear that the reason it was now changing course and objecting to the transfer is because NASCAR is insisting that we drop the lawsuit and antitrust claims against it as a condition of being approved.”
A second affidavit from Steve Lauletta, the president of 23XI Racing, claims NASCAR accused 23XI and Front Row of manufacturing “new circumstances” in a renewed motion for an injunction and of a “coordinated effort behind the scenes.”
“This is completely false,” Lauletta said.
Front Row is owned by businessman Bob Jenkins, while 23XI is owned by retired NBA Hall of Famer Jordan, three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin and longtime Jordan adviser Curtis Polk.
NASCAR had been operating with 36 chartered teams and four open spots since the charter agreement began in 2016. NASCAR now says it will move forward in 2025 with 32 chartered teams and eight open spots, with offers on charters for Front Row and 23XI rescinded and the SHR charters in limbo.
The teams contend they must be chartered under some of their contractual agreements with current sponsors and drivers, and competing next year as open teams will cause significant losses.
“23XI exists to compete at the highest level of stock car racing, striving to become the best team it can be. But that ambition can only be pursued within NASCAR, which has monopolized the market as the sole top-tier circuit for stock car racing,” Lauletta said. “Our efforts to expand — purchasing more cars and increasing our presence on the track — are integral to achieving this goal.
“It is not hypocritical to operate within the only system available while striving for excellence and contending for championships,” he continued. “It is a necessity because NASCAR’s monopoly leaves 23XI no alternative circuit, no different terms, and no other viable avenue to compete at this level.”
The Moviegoer is the diary of a local film buff, collecting the best of what Chicago’s independent and underground film scene has to offer.
Curiosity is a key factor of being a cinephile—maybe the most important one. In an effort to appreciate and to understand cinema (try as we might), the mind must be open to exploring all it has to offer.
For this reason, I watch all kinds of movies: popular movies, not-so-popular movies, movies by filmmakers I like, movies by filmmakers I don’t. If I think that it can in some way advance not just my understanding of the art form but others’ appreciation of it, I’m interested by default. Some may take longer for me to pursue (for example I’m sure I’ll see Wicked eventually . . . ), but I generally try to leave no avenue unexplored.
Then there are those thoroughfares that I tread often. Ernst Lubitsch is one director whose films I’m happy to explore over and over again, gleaning more and more each time I see them. Thus, I was thrilled to see Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner (1940), presented by the Chicago Film Society, last Monday at the Music Box Theatre. My favorite Lubitsch film would be whichever one I’m watching at the moment; he’s said to have had a singularly charming, urbane touch that’s recognizable but not entirely definable. Many have sought to articulate what makes a Lubitsch film so distinctive, but I’ve yet to come across such a characterization that epitomizes the feeling of actually watching his films.
A still from The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Credit: Chicago Film Society
It’s what I felt while watching The Shop Around the Corner, starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as adversarial salespeople in a Budapest leather goods store, Matuschek and Company, who are unknowingly courting each other by mail. More than just achingly romantic, it situates the workplace as a home away from home, which normally I would detest, but that’s the magic (and, quite frankly, the power—I can’t think of another artist who could make that believably palatable) of Lubitsch.
How does he do it? I ask myself. It’s something I also wondered while spending Sunday viewing experimental films at Sweet Void Cinema (Reader contributor Joshua Minsoo Kim presenting Unknown Nostalgia, the first complete retrospective of filmmaker Will Hindle) and Doc Films (the final screening in the Devotional Cinema of Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler series). I went in unknowing to the Hindle and Hiler films; I’m more familiar with Dorsky’s work, but I hadn’t seen what was screening. Still, all around, it was an enlightening way to spend an otherwise scary Sunday pre-workweek. (I may appreciate the way Lubitsch finds sophisticated humanity in the workplace, but I realize it’s merely an illusion of movie magic.)
It was also fun to spend a day with a group of experimentally inclined moviegoers going from one program to the other. It’s kind of like Matuschek and Company, in a way, except we work not for a capitalist overlord (admittedly a benign one—there are no “bad” guys in Lubitsch’s films) but for the satiation of our curiosity and the expansion of our souls.
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Dee Robinson grew up with the words of civil rights icon John Lewis firmly imprinted in her long-term memory, though she didn’t know it at the time. She first heard them from her mother.
“My sister Pearl, the oldest—if my mom told her to go right, she went left,” Robinson says. “Ten years later—surprise—twins were born. My mom used to say to us [that] the only kind of trouble we could get in was good trouble, because Pearl got in all the rest. But it was the late 60s. She was also teaching us how to show up in the world.”
It’s a story Robinson tells often: in interviews, in the 2022 motivational book Courage by Design, and on the back cover of her cookbook, Stirring Up Good Trouble, published the same year. She wears a sparkling, gold-plated pavestone pendant that spells out the word “TROUBLE.”
And now the words are branded on bottles filled with Kentucky straight bourbon, aged more than four years in new, charred, white-oak barrels—coming soon to a cocktail bar or liquor store near you.
Good Trouble bourbon Credit: Dimitry Loiseau
Stroll down the American whiskey aisle of your favorite well-stocked liquor store and every bottle has a story behind it—some real, most imaginary. Eyes glaze over at the old-timey fonts hinting at some venerable but vaguely rebellious early American distilling legacy, washed in bullshit-tinted branch water.
It’s all marketing, often disguising the fact that many of these bottles have been produced through contract distilling. There’s nothing wrong with that—distilleries have been making whiskey for outside clients since the dawn of the industry. But stating outright on the label that your venerable Old Daddy Barrelbilge originated in a massive 80-acre factory complex in southern Indiana rather than in your great-great-grandpappy’s cornfields might keep it from jumping off the shelves.
For a long time, it was a practice brands preferred to keep consumers in the dark about. Just ask Iowa’s Templeton Rye, forced by class action lawsuit to remove the words “Small Batch” and “Prohibition Era Recipe” from its labels after it was revealed their juice came from MGP, that Indiana distilling behemoth.
Robinson’s Good Trouble bourbon is also produced under contract, but her brand tells a different story. First, there’s a relatively uncommon degree of transparency. It states on the label that it was produced at DSP-KY-10, aka Owensboro’s Green River Distilling Company, Kentucky’s tenth oldest distillery. Its mash bill—the combination of grains used to make it—is printed on the front as well (70 percent corn, 21 percent rye, 9 percent malted barley).
What’s not on the label—though she planned to include it—is that she developed the recipe in collaboration with Jacob Call, Green River’s former master distiller, whose family truly has been making whiskey for eight generations. More on that later.
There is a lot more to unpack from Good Trouble’s label and bottle design, all meant to support a particularly uncommon story that Robinson wants to sell: that bourbon can be a catalyst for conversation, connection, and the kind of positive social change the late, oft-quoted Atlanta congressman meant when he talked about “good trouble, necessary trouble.”
None of this would mean much if the whiskey weren’t good. But it is. At 46 percent alcohol, it is shockingly smooth, satiny, and light-bodied, and you might be tempted to think of it as a beginner’s bourbon if it didn’t blossom across the palate with caramel notes and bakery spices.
“You can’t be called Good Trouble and be bad,” says Robinson, one of those broadly accomplished people whose range of experience and interests will make you lose your balance if you step a few feet back from her bio. “I knew we wanted to bring people into the category with something approachable from day one. A lot of people say they don’t like bourbon, because they had a bad first experience. I liken it to the first cigarette. Nobody likes their first cigarette. It doesn’t have that heat.”
She grew up in Cleveland with her twin brother, her sister, Pearl, and her mother, Helen Hill, who worked a number of jobs to keep the family afloat but who also loved to cook. Robinson picked up that passion, learning at her mom’s side, but she also absorbed her entrepreneurial drive, helping her roast peanuts to sell during Indians games.
But education was the priority. After attending boarding school in Massachusetts, Robinson studied economics at Penn, earned an MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, then embarked on a corporate career that started in banking and ended in marketing at Leo Burnett. Through it all, she became an accomplished home cook in her own right, which gradually made her realize that her heart wasn’t really in her day job.
She loved to cook and throw dinner parties, and she thought her heart might be in the kitchen, but that wasn’t quite right either. A one-night turn as a guest chef at Charlie Trotter’s further helped her realize that she didn’t have the necessary passion to be a professional chef. What she really wanted was to be a restaurant owner.
Robinson struck out on her own, naming her company Robinson Hill, for her mother, and franchising a Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop at Midway Airport and then later at Navy Pier. She formed retail partnerships with Hudson News at O’Hare, followed over the next two decades by an exponential growth in retail- and restaurant-licensing agreements at airports across the country.
Today, at O’Hare alone, Robinson Hill operates outposts of Frontera Grill, Big Bowl, Intelligentsia, Tocco, Hub 51, R.J. Grunts, Wow Bao, and Urban Olive.
“I actually believe that many people would drink bourbon if they knew how to love it.”
The leap from airport restaurateur to craft distiller happened about nine years ago, when Robinson developed a liking for good bourbon at a tasting held by the Chicago chapter of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs gastronomical society.
“I learned about the complexities of the bourbons themselves with all those flavors bursting into your mouth. I learned to trust my palate, and I really leaned in and started buying different bottles.
“When I decided I loved it, I was curious enough to figure out what it meant to be a craft distiller.” Robinson took courses offered by the trade organization Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, and she began to visit distilleries.
“I was fascinated by the operational side: How do you build a mash bill?” she says. “But also, when I decided that I wanted to make a bourbon, I wanted it to be bourbon with a purpose. When I started talking to different distilleries, if they didn’t understand that I wanted to find a way to bring more joy and equity in the world, why would I bother? I always knew I had a responsibility to give back.” Robinson wanted her bourbon to support a charitable foundation and do just that.
In 2018, she visited Green River, which opened around the turn of the 19th century but had lain dormant for decades. By then, it was four years into a comeback under Jacob Call. He and Robinson hit it off. “We connected on kitchens; my home kitchens and his kitchen, which of course is the distillery. He understood my mission for the brand and my desire to make the world better.”
Call began pulling samples from barrels aging in the Green River rickhouses, and Robinson began tasting, eventually narrowing it down to two that she took around to bars and sampled among her friends until the right one rose to the top.
She also designed labels featuring a Native American vision of Lady Liberty astride a raging bull, meant to represent hate, misogyny, and racism, superimposed over the gold-embossed motto “A SPIRITED CONVERSATION,” representing the idea that the lubricative power of bourbon could be leveraged as a tool to spark dialogue and overcome difference.
She also intended to feature her master distiller’s name on the label, she says, but not long after Green River launched its own whiskey, the distillery was purchased by Chicago’s venture firm Pritzker Private Capital, and Call left to build his own operation.
The transfer in ownership also postponed Good Trouble’s projected launch by about a year. The four-year age statement on the label is actually closer to five because of the delay. Robinson took advantage of the time by taking bottles around the country, racking up gold and silver medals at spirit industry competitions (winning a few bottle design awards along the way) and collecting florid tasting notes from judges that just so happen to integrate well into a marketing campaign.
“Clear light, amber color. Aromas and flavors of salted corn bread, caramel apple, creme brulee with chocolate powder and orange zest,” declared one. “There are pleasing aromas of caramel cookies, saddle leather, and baking spice on the nose,” ruled another.
But Robinson’s biggest challenge had been finding a distributor who wanted to take a chance on a small, fledgling brand. She eventually signed on with Elmhurst-based Maverick Beverage Company, covering markets in Illinois, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, and Texas. The official Chicago soft launch began last month, and right now you can find Good Trouble on shelves at Hyde Park’s A&S Beverages Wine & Spirits and Printers Row Wine Shop. They’re trying to get it into Binny’s before the end of the year.
Good Trouble Bourbon Bars and liquor stores across Chicagoland goodtroublebourbon.com
It’s begun to pop up at restaurants too. Chef John Manion is a fan, stocking it behind the bar at Brasero and El Che, where he hosted a four-course dinner with Good Trouble cocktail pairings last week. It’s also at Lettuce Entertain You’s Bub City, and the Drake is pouring an exclusive, almost six-year-old custom blend.
Meanwhile, you can buy it through Robinson’s site, along with Good Trouble–branded baseball hats and T-shirts and a line of jewelry signaling her intention to build the bourbon brand into a lifestyle brand. It’s in support of her Shine Your Light Foundation, which in turn will donate a portion of sales to, among others, the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation, naturally. “We’ll be working with them to celebrate his 85th birthday in February,” she says. She’s also a golfer and a trustee with the PGA of America REACH Foundation, where “we are trying to bring more women and minorities in the game,” particularly through youth initiatives like the Chicago State University golf program.
Most of all, she’s trying to achieve those ends by flipping people who aren’t whiskey drinkers yet. “I actually believe that many people would drink bourbon if they knew how to love it. I think that I can expand the category by just bringing people into the conversation.”
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Mayor Brandon Johnson is in danger of losing an executive budget vote for the first time in recent memory or being forced to cast the tie-breaking vote to save it — and he has himself largely to blame.
Among the factors:
• A 14% approval rating that has emboldened his opponents and sent his own allies running for cover.
• A two-week budget delay that put alderpersons behind the eight-ball after his first budget was balanced with one-time revenues.
• An inexperienced mayor who calls himself “collaborator-in-chief” but has, too often, kept City Council in the dark while making up parliamentary rules as he goes along.
• A head-scratching string of self-inflicted staffing wounds.
All those and more have Johnson in an unprecedented political mess that could trigger Chicago’s first budget shutdown in anyone’s memory.
“It really comes down to trust. Chicago doesn’t trust the mayor today and alders are feeling that when they go back to their wards,” said Southwest Side Ald. Marty Quinn (13th).
“This is a career-defining vote. … If they intend to vote `yes’ and haven’t supplied constituents with a ‘why’ and can justify it, they will have allowed their residents to finish the sentence. You voted for a property tax increase because what?”
Side deals complicate process
The deep distrust between the mayor and Council was on display this week when Johnson tried to lock down the budget votes of two leadership team members — Police Committee Chair Chris Taliaferro (29th) and Housing Chair Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) — by adding more than $80,000 to each of their committee budgets.
Critics scouring the amended budget also discovered Johnson’s plan to use the water fund to bankroll a security team for City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, which had been stripped away by Mayor Lori Lightfoot. It looked to them like an attempt to curry favor with the treasurer’s husband, Budget Chair Jason Ervin (28th).
South Side Ald. David Moore (17th) said he voted for the budget at the committee level after the administration “committed to working with me” to prioritze a new, $30 million field house for Ogden Park.
City Treasurer of Chicago Melissa Conyears-Ervin is married to Ald. Jason Ervin (left). Funding for her security detail was included in next year’s budget. Some critics of Mayor Brandon Johnson see that move as an attempt to lock up Ervin’s vote for the mayor’s proposed budget.
Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Andre Vasquez (40th), blind-sided by the mayor’s side deals, helped to kill those for Taliaferro and Sigcho-Lopez.
“It feels like, every single day, the Johnson administration is doing something else to complicate the situation or frustrate the City Council,” Vasquez said.
He slammed the city for wasting “time and energy in Springfield talking about a stadium rather than figuring out money” for its budget. He also cited its failure to secure an expected $40 million in revenue from a tax on pre-paid cell phones and phone cards that needed state approval.
“There’s a laundry list of items and it continues to grow,” Vasquez said. “That makes it much harder for people who want the budget to move forward to do so in a way that instills confidence.”
Rahm got Council to make tough choices
Mayor Rahm Emanuel started with a Council that distrusted and opposed him but left as a beloved political figure. He worked to build relationships with all 50 alderpersons, using his political muscle to force the Council to deal with the looming pension crisis.
The result: Chicago’s property tax levy was more than doubled to fund police, fire and teacher pensions. Two telephone tax hikes went toward the Laborers pension fund. A phased-in 29.5% surcharge on water and sewer bills now bankrolls the Municipal Employees pension fund, the largest of the four.
“When you need an alderman to do something difficult and politically unpopular where they’ll pay a price for it, you can’t create that relationship in that moment. It has to be pre-existing. … There’s no substitute for it.,” said Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), Johnson’s Public Safety Committee Chair.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel leaves the City Council chamber after delivering his final budget speech in October 2018.
Aldermen are getting an earful from their constituents at every community meeting, Hopkins said.
“What we want to know from the mayor is [that] he’s gonna have our back. He’s gonna help us get through this politically unpopular route that he has charted for us— and clearly, he hasn’t done that. He did not shore up those relationships in advance. He did not give his key allies enough warning. ”
Council dean Ald. Walter Burnett (27th), vice-mayor and Zoning Committee chair, also serves as Johnson’s de-facto floor leader. He said Emanuel had the benefit of experience built while serving as a political operative for former President Bill Clinton, then White House chief-of-staff for former President Barack Obama and as chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
“ Rahm knew this stuff inside and out. He was very early with this kind of stuff. He could see the writing on the wall because he’d been doing it a hundred years,” Burnett said.
Mayor’s approach ‘evolving,’ floor leader says
Burnett argued Johnson is “evolving to be that way, too.” But the transition will take time for a former teacher-turned-paid organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union who has never held an executive position and spent just four years as a Cook County commissioner.
“Whether he likes it or not, he’s getting that way because he has to aggressively communicate with all of these guys,” Burnett said, referring to his Council colleagues.
“He’s not just telling his staff to talk to people. He’s talking to guys personally. Guys who like him and guys who don’t like him. He’s trying to convince them to come on board. … I think he’s gonna be a stronger mayor because of this because next year is not gonna be pretty. Next year is gonna be just as challenging. He’s got to start working on next year now.”
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) chats with a reporter during a Chicago City Council meeting at City Hall in 2023.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file
The mayor’s late lobbying effort is complicated by the large number of newly-elected alderpersons, including some of Johnson’s own progressive allies, Burnett said. They are “very insecure about doing something that’s going to make their constituents upset,” like raising property taxes.
Johnson’s stumbles and anemic approval ratings have also triggered a surprisingly early start to the 2027 mayoral sweepstakes. The early jockeying is affecting the budget stalemate, with Burnett counting “five or six” Council members who would “like to run for mayor” and up to ten other wannabes outside the Council.
Hopkins said there’s no question Johnson made a series of “strategic missteps,” including “starting the process late, playing year-end brinksmanship” and ignoring the festering financial crisis in his first city budget.
Johnson’s missed chance, future opportunity
“Everyone told him last year he had a moment of goodwill that he could have capitalized on. He could have forced some of the more unpopular decisions then with three more years to recover. … But he didn’t want to do that. So, here we are,” Hopkins said.
Despite all that, Johnson still could emerge from the budget stalemate relatively unscathed, Hopkins said.
“If he pulls this off and passes this budget under these conditions with this amount of political resistance and treachery going on, that’ll be an achievement. A win is a win. Even if it’s a razor-thin win,” he said.
Burnett, who’s counting heads, offered no prediction.
“It’s gonna be close. Either he’s gonna have to vote for it [to break a tie] or we’re gonna be one or two votes over,” Burnett said.
Asked if Johnson could lose the most important Council vote of the year, Burnett said: “I hope not. … That means we’ve got to find more money. We have to cut more things and raise more taxes. … Everybody in the city loses if we don’t get it.”
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams said he has faith that general manager Ryan Poles to help turn the franchise around.
“You see how much he cares about the right things, that being us and our development and all those things …” Williams said Thursday after a Bears walk-through. “The amount that he cares about us, the Chicago Bears and wanting to win is why my faith is in him. Believing in him and making sure we get it right. That’s the short answer to it.”
Poles used the No. 1 overall pick on Williams in April.
“I think he’s done a good job,” Williams said.
The Bears are in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, though, something Williams admitted was difficult for him to deal with. He said he’s asked teammates who have been in similar slumps for ways to cope.
“There’s belief, hope and faith that we’re gonna get this right, however it may happen,” he said.
Last week, president/CEO Kevin Warren said Poles would be the “point person” for the team’s coaching search. Warren will be heavily involved, too.
“Ryan Poles is the general manager of the Chicago Bears and he will remain the general manager of the Chicago Bears,” Warren said. “Ryan is young. He’s talented. He’s bright. He’s hard-working. He has done everything in his power on a daily basis to bring a winner to Chicago. And I’m confident in Ryan. My faith remains strong in Ryan.”
The 2025 Chicago Marathon has seen a surge in popularity.
On Thursday, the marathon will inform runners if they’ve been selected. An event-record 160,000 people have applied for the opportunity to cross the finish line in Grant Park, according to organizers.
The increased interest means that more than 53,000 participants are expected to cross the finish line. In 2024, more than 81,000 participants finished the race. This year marks the final year of the Bank of America Chicago Distance Series, including the Shamrock Shuffle 8K and the Bank of America Chicago 13.1. At least 2,700 people completed all three events last season.
Because of increased interest and enthusiasm in the three events, the organizers said they will unveil a new look for the series, complete with new logos as well.
“Today we welcome a new field of participants to the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and launch the next chapter of the Bank of America Chicago Distance Series,” executive race director Carey Pinkowski said in a statement. “When we started the series in 2023, our goal was to celebrate the Chicago running community, from individuals discovering the sport for the first time to our longtime participants. We continue to be humbled by the running community’s enthusiasm and embrace of the events and we’re excited to launch a new look that celebrates Chicago and the spirit of each race.”
The 2025 Chicago Marathon — which will be held on Oct. 12 — is expected to sell out. Runners not selected in the lottery can still participate through the Bank of America Chicago Charity Program. If runners elect to run for a charity, they are required to raise a minimum of $2,100.
Runners guaranteed entry are “Bank of America Chicago Marathon legacy finishers, time qualifiers, international tour group participants, charity runners, 2024 Bank of America Chicago Distance Series finishers,” according to event organizers.
The 2024 Chicago Marathon raised approximately $500 million for the city, according to Chicago president for Bank of America Rita Cook. It’s become a mainstay for Chicago and one of the tentpole events for the city.
A climate-related mishap eighty-sixed the black truffle bourbon chocolate chunk cookies.
“I’ve been making that cookie a good while now,” says Ryan Cofrancesco. “It was constantly changing. I definitely gained a lot of pounds creating that cookie.”
You know Cofrancesco. He’s the mastermind behind the Morgan Street Snacks pop-up, prepping for a three-month takeover at Kimski beginning in January. It was that freak heat wave late last September that foiled him from bestowing this powerful cookie upon a sweaty but otherwise satisfied crowd gathered at a certain half-century-old dive bar in Avondale.
The good news is that the cookie is finally coming this December 16 when Morgan Street Snacks returns to Monday Night Foodball, the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at Frank and Mary’s Tavern.
The cookies in question, Morgan Street Snacks Credit: Ryan Cofrancesco
Apart from holding it down as sous chef at Kimski, Cofrancesco continues to workshop his upcoming menu, and he’s previewing it just for you.
He’s taking the same Makowski sausage on the menu in Bridgeport, but bedding it on brioche, with bourbon mustard, wasabi sesame seeds, and a relish of classic Chicago-dog toppings, with Torres jamón ibérico potato chips on the side.
There’s a trio of pan-fried potato-cheese pierogi on mushroom pâté, with apple chutney, thyme-kissed sour cream, and cranberry gelee.
He’s tweaked his gorgeous beet-cured salmon tartine into a tostada with truffle cream cheese, pickled fennel, and fried garlic. And he’s raising it with an Australian wagyu steak and egg tostada with chimichurri, pickled fennel, fried shallots, and a cured yolk snow shower.
Will he continue to freestyle like Phife Dawg between now and Monday and January 2? Probably, but that cookie? It’s locked down.
Come for it this December 16, at 2905 N. Elston in Avondale, starting at 6 PM until sellout.
There are two more Foodballs this year before a brand-new 2025 schedule drops: Dhuaan BBQ on December 23 and Loud Mouth on December 12.
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Mike Sula (he/him) is a senior writer, food reporter, and restaurant critic at the Chicago Reader. He’s been a staffer since 1995.
His story about outlaw charcuterie appeared in Best Food Writing 2010. His story “Chicken of the Trees,” about eating city squirrels, won the James Beard Foundation’s 2013 M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. “The Whole Hog Project,” and “What happens when all-star chefs get in bed with Big Food?” were nominated for JBF Awards.
He’s the author of the anthology An Invasion of Gastronomic Proportions: My Adventures with Chicago Animals, Human and Otherwise, and the editor of the cookbook Reader Recipes: Chicago Cooks and Drinks at Home.
His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, NPR’s The Salt, Dill, Harper’s, Plate Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Eater. He’s the former editor in chief of Kitchen Toke.
He lives in Chicago and is the curator of Monday Night Foodball, a weekly chef pop-up hosting Chicago’s most exciting underground and up-and-coming chefs.
A Chicago man is accused of trying to steal more than $500,000 in unclaimed property from the state treasurer’s office.
Shaheed Tamir, 41, is charged with three counts of theft of government property over $100,000 and 14 counts of forgery for attempting to receive unclaimed property that belonged to two companies he had no relation to, the Illinois attorney general’s office announced Wednesday.
Unclaimed property is cash or assets forgotten or abandoned by the owner. It can be anything from a dormant bank account to a refund from an overpaid bill. In Illinois, if no one claims these items after three years, the bank or business holding it must turn it over to the state.
Illinois holds the money or asset until the owner or rightful heir claims it through a process with the Illinois Treasurer’s Office.
“Anyone who fraudulently claims property through Illinois’ Unclaimed Property Program is stealing from the people of Illinois as well as the rightful owners of that property,” state Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a news release.
Tamir allegedly claimed to be a manager at Botta Capital Management LLC and New Edge LLC between April 2018 and February 2021. After filing annual reports for both companies to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office, Tamir then allegedly filed fraudulent unclaimed property claims with the treasurer’s office.
The investigation began after the treasurer’s office flagged the claims, which had already been paid, as potential fraud.
Tamir was charged in April in another unclaimed property fraud case, that time involving Wittek Corp. He was charged with theft of government property over $100,000, two counts of forgery, two counts of wire fraud and two counts of mail fraud. The attorney general’s office told the Sun-Times that case is still pending.
His next court date is set for Feb. 6.
State Treasurer Michael Frerichs — who detailed to the Sun-Times in October about steps his office takes to detect unclaimed property fraud — said this case shows efforts to limit fraudulent claims are working.
“We take our duty to guard unclaimed property seriously,” Frerichs said in a news release. “I appreciate the professionalism of Attorney General Raoul to bring this case to justice and the General Assembly for providing us the resources to upgrade our fraud prevention systems.”
