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Home Run Inn y la Municipalidad se unen para regalar 5,000 pizzas congeladas a los refugios de Chicago

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December 11, 2024

Home Run Inn y la Municipalidad se unen para regalar 5,000 pizzas congeladas a los refugios de Chicago

El mejor lugar para cobertura de noticias y cultura latina en Chicago. | The place for coverage of Latino news and culture in Chicago.

Estar en el negocio durante 100 años es como “un milagro” para Home Run Inn. Por eso, cuando pensaban en cómo devolver algo a la comunidad que la había apoyado durante un siglo, la empresa familiar se asoció con la Municipalidad para regalar pizzas durante las fiestas a los refugios para personas sin hogar administrados por la ciudad.

“Uno de nuestros valores fundamentales es regresar algo a las comunidades a las que servimos”, dijo Gina Perrino Bolger, vicepresidenta sénior de Home Run Inn y miembro de la familia de cuarta generación. “La ciudad de Chicago ha sido muy buena con nosotros durante más de 100 años. Esto es lo mínimo que podemos hacer”.

El martes, en la tienda original de la empresa ubicada al oeste de 31st Street en La Villita, Home Run Inn y los empleados del Departamento de Servicios Familiares y de Apoyo (DFSS, por sus siglas en inglés) de Chicago regalaron más de 5,000 pizzas que se destinarán a más de 30 refugios para personas sin hogar en todo Chicago como parte de su tercer evento anual “Milagro en la calle 31”.

Con más de 400 cajas que contenían 12 pizzas congeladas cada una, los autos hicieron fila en el estacionamiento del local de Home Run Inn en La Villita para recoger las pizzas para sus respectivos refugios. Los cantantes de The Caroling Connection tocaron para la multitud que esperaba.

Dreezy Claus, que se autodenomina “el Santa Claus negro de Chicago”, hizo una aparición para ayudar a cargar las cajas de pizza los vehículos.

Las pizzas, que son todas donadas por Home Run Inn, son muy útiles, dijo Kecya Thurman, gerente del refugio North Side Housing and Supportive Services, ubicado en el 7464 N Clark St. en Rogers Park. El refugio abrió el lunes.

“Nuestro cocinero aún no ha comenzado a cocinar, por lo que [los residentes del refugio] pueden comer esto para la cena o el almuerzo”, comentó. “A los residentes del refugio les gusta la pizza. La Municipalidad les dijo que iban a comer pizza el martes, por lo que estaban muy emocionados”.

Brandie V. Knazze, comisionada de DFSS, dijo que el departamento se comunica con los refugios de toda la ciudad y ofrece pizzas a cualquiera que las necesite o las quiera.

Dijo que la ayuda de las empresas de Chicago a estos refugios es fundamental para la ciudad, el personal y para quienes buscan refugio.

“Todavía hay buenas personas. Todavía hay corporaciones que están regresando algo a la comunidad”, aseguró. “Queremos asegurarnos que nuestras familias, nuestros residentes y nuestros refugios sepan que son queridos”.

LaDonna Kelly, que estaba recolectando pizzas para el Primo Center for Women and Children ubicado en Austin, dijo que la comida llega cuando ven una multitud de nuevos residentes que buscan refugio conforme bajan las temperaturas.

Las pizzas congeladas también son convenientes y accesibles para los residentes, agregó Kelly.

“A veces nuestras familias no llegan hasta las 12 o la 1 a.m.”, dijo Kelly. “Esto es esencial para nosotros porque no pueden subir las escaleras y preparar una comida completa. Es simplemente útil… es increíble”.

Bolger dijo que este tipo de respuestas son la razón por la que Home Run Inn ha mantenido el evento en marcha.

“Cuando hacemos esto, podemos dar sonrisas”, compartió. “Es una especie de milagro que hayamos estado aquí durante 100 años y podamos apoyar a esta comunidad durante tanto tiempo”.

Traducido por Gisela Orozco para La Voz Chicago

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White Sox select right-hander Shane Smith with No. 1 pick of Rule 5 Draft

Jane Wells

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December 11, 2024

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White Sox select right-hander Shane Smith with No. 1 pick of Rule 5 Draft

DALLAS — With the first pick in the Rule 5 draft, the White Sox selected right-hander Shane Smith from the Milwaukee Brewers.

On the final day of the winter meetings Wednesday, the Sox’ last order of business was to tab Smith, 24, who owns a 2.69 ERA in 73 games over three minor league seasons in the Brewers organization.

In 32 games between the Brewers Triple-A and Double-A levels in 2024, half of them starts, Smith pitched to a 3.04 ERA while averaging 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings. He struck out 113 batters while walking 29 over 94 1/3 innings.

The 6-4 Smith’s repertoire includes a mid-90s mph fastball, slider and curve.

Smith was an undrafted free agent signed by the Brewers out of Wake Forest in 2022. He didn’t play as a freshman due injury, had his sophomore season cut short by COVID-19 and underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021, so he has been an under-the-rader prospect.

There’s a good chance Smith is part of the Sox’ pitching staff in 2025. Rule 5 picks go on a team’s 26-man roster and must be placed on outright waivers if removed. If waived, Smith must be offered back to the Brewers for $50,000 and can be outrighted to the minors only if the Brewers decline to reacquire him.

The Rule 5 draft allows players left off 40-man rosters who are blocked by their current clubs to get opportunities with another organization. Any players 18 and under at the time
of their original signing with five professional seasons, and players who signed at 19 or older at signing with four professional seasons who are not on a club’s 40-man roster can be selected.

Clubs draft in reverse order of the standings from the previous season. The Sox (41-121) set the modern day record for losses in a season in 2024.

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Illinois should keep investing in electric vehicle manufacturing

Jane Wells

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December 11, 2024

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Illinois should keep investing in electric vehicle manufacturing

Gov. JB Pritzker should be lauded for his support of electric vehicles and efforts to create EV manufacturing jobs right here in Illinois.

Today China is way ahead of the U.S. in making and selling EVs and is taking over the world market, in large part because incoming President Donald Trump rolled back Obama-era fuel economy standards that would have accelerated American electric car manufacturing. With its open hostility towards electric vehicles, it’s unclear how Trump’s next federal government will support or attack the billions of dollars already invested in retooling and building American EV factories to compete in the global marketplace.

Walking away from EVs now automatically cedes U.S. leadership to China. Illinois leaders should never side with those who would sell out America and American workers.

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Though the news of layoffs at Lion’s electric school bus factory is disappointing, it still plans to revive production. And, contrary to a statement published in a letter in the Sun-Times, electric car-maker Rivian is not “basically bankrupt.” In fact, Wall Street thinks Rivian is well-positioned to take a significant share of the massive emerging opportunity for electric vehicles over the next decade. That’s why both Govs. Bruce Rauner and JB Pritzker supported efforts to grow a company that has produced more than 100,000 EVs and created thousands of jobs right here in Illinois.

Moving Illinois to a zero-emissions transportation future will protect us from tailpipe pollution and save hundreds of lives and millions of dollars in associated costs every year. People and businesses want cleaner, more reliable electric vehicles that don’t cost an arm and a leg to fuel and maintain. The state is investing over $250 million in building the charging networks we need. And if Illinois adopted EV sales requirements for vehicle manufacturers like 12 other leading states have done, people could get the vehicles they want even faster and more affordably.

Ensuring that automakers sell cleaner, quieter and money-saving EVs here will give Illinois residents healthier air, more consumer choice and greater cost savings. Gov. Pritzker should uphold his clean air commitments and implement the zero-emission car and truck standards to secure Illinois’ record as a clean transportation leader.

Brian Urbaszewski, director, Environmental Health Programs, Respiratory Health Association, Chicago

Year of the dictator

What a year for dictators! One in Syria flees for his life. Another in Russia threatens to set off World War III. And here at home, yet another prepares to be inaugurated. Who’s next?

Dan McGuire, Bensenville

Working as a family for a better future

The holidays are a good time for families to be grateful for what we have in common. Sitting around a plentiful spread of food, it is easy to forgive and focus on being thankful for what we have. But what if there is not enough food, or no table, or not even a roof over your head?

We can work together as a family to help those experiencing poverty, by volunteering at the food bank, making donations to charity, and calling on those who represent us in Congress to pass needed legislation. The expanded child tax credit needs to be renewed; it cut child poverty by nearly half. The SNAP program needs to be strengthened, not cut, since it is our number one tool against hunger. Affordable housing needs to be funded. Lawmakers should pass these and other ladders out of poverty.

Millions of Americans will be grateful, we strengthen our democracy in the process, while creating a better future for all.

Willie Dickerson, Snohomish, Washington

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Fingerprints matching UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione found on water bottle in NYC

Jane Wells

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December 11, 2024

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Fingerprints matching UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione found on water bottle in NYC

UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect fighting extradition to New York

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NEW YORK — Fingerprints belonging to Luigi Mangione, the man charged in last week’s murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, match those found on a water bottle recovered not far from the scene of the deadly shooting, police said.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch spoke about the evidence in the case Wednesday afternoon.

“We were also able, at our crime lab, to match the person of interest’s fingerprints with fingerprints we found on the water bottle and the KIND bar near the scene of the homicide in Midtown,” she said.

It is the first positive forensic match tying Mangione to the scene where Thompson was gunned down outside the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel on Dec. 4, sources say.

Investigators believe they have also recovered a coffee cup the suspected gunman may have used at a Manhattan Starbucks before the shooting, and have dusted it for fingerprints, a high-ranking police source said.

Mangione was arrested on Monday in Pennsylvania and charged with forgery and firearms violations, and is being held without bail. He appeared in court on Tuesday and contested his extradition to New York, where he will face second-degree murder charges.

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot and killed

Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two, was shot and killed outside a hotel where UnitedHealthcare was scheduled to hold its annual investors conference.

Tisch called it a “premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack,” saying the gunman had been lying in wait for several minutes before shooting Thompson in the back and leg.

Police launched a manhunt for the suspect and started piecing together a timeline. Investigators said he fled the scene on a bike and rode up to Central Park, where sources said they later found a backpack that contained a jacket and Monopoly money, but not the murder weapon.

The biggest break in the case came from an Upper West Side hostel where the gunman was believed to have stayed in the days before the shooting. He was seen in surveillance images lowering his mask after sources said the woman at the front desk asked to “see his pretty smile.”

Police later released more images showing him inside a taxi, which they believe he took to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Upper Manhattan and boarded a Greyhound. Investigators believe he left the city immediately after the shooting and had been traveling around Pennsylvania before he was caught.

He was spotted on Monday inside a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 300 miles away from the crime scene. A customer recognized him and alerted an employee, who called police.

Mangione was found in possession of a fake New Jersey ID, believed to be the same one he used to check into the hostel, and was initially taken into custody on a forgery charge. Police searched his belongings and found a 3D printed ghost gun consistent with the one used in the shooting, along with a U.S. passport, $8,000 in cash and a handwritten note.

Sources tell CBS News investigators are referring to the note as a claim of responsibility. They believe the suspect’s grievances toward UnitedHealthcare and other health insurance companies are what motivated the murder.

In addition to the note, sources said shell casings found at the scene had the words “delay” and “deny” written on them, believed to be a reference used by critics of the insurance industry.

Who is Luigi Mangione?

CBS News has learned the 26-year-old comes from a prominent Maryland family. He graduated valedictorian from a private high school and got his Masters in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

“Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione. We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” his family said in a statement after his arrest. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news.”

Mangione had been staying at a co-living space called Surfbreak in Hawaii up until 2022, when a spokesperson for the community said he left due to a lifelong back injury that was exacerbated by surfing and hiking. The spokesperson also said they believe Mangione returned to Hawaii in 2023 and started a book club, which several members left over “discomfort in book choices.”

Sources tell CBS News back pain was a major factor in his life and it appeared to be a source of frustration.

“We’re learning that he did possibly suffer an accident that caused him to visit the emergency room back on July 4, 2023,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CBS News New York’s Marcia Kramer.

In recent months, posts tagging Mangione on social media imply he lost touch with friends, with some asking where he was and what he was doing, wishing him the best and hoping that he was OK. His mother filed a missing persons report in November in San Francisco amid concerns he was not communicating.

Pat Milton

contributed to this report.

Renee Anderson

Renee Anderson is a digital producer at CBS New York, where she covers breaking news and other local stories. Before joining the team in 2016, Renee worked at WMUR-TV.

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The Mets sign Juan Soto to a — gasp! — $765 million contract, and somehow the world doesn’t end

Jane Wells

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December 11, 2024

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The Mets sign Juan Soto to a — gasp! — $765 million contract, and somehow the world doesn’t end

I know that, on some level, I’m supposed to be angry about Juan Soto’s $765 million land mass of a contract with the Mets. In a former life, I might have been. I can hear the younger me howling: Bad for the game! The haves having their way again! Competitive balance being force-marched to the fiction section of the baseball library!

But acceptance, if not wisdom, often wins out as you get older. And so I ask myself the most hands-off, laissez-faire question of all about Soto’s big day: So what? Or, in more selfish terms: This affects me how?

If the Mets want to spend that much money on one player, bless them. Maybe it will make the big-market teams that don’t spend like big-market teams start acting the part. In the case of the Cubs, it probably won’t. Shame hasn’t worked yet.

In the case of small-market teams, well, sorry, this is how the marketplace works. If you can’t keep up, sell your team to someone who can. Or find some big-pocket investors who want the ego gratification that comes with saying you’re a part owner. Surely there’s a warm-and-cuddly private equity firm out there that can relieve White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf of his, and our, burden.

It’s the Mets, the Yankees and the Dodgers. And then there’s everybody else. It’s on everybody else to catch up.

Mets owner Steve Cohen believes that Soto is worth $51 million a year over 15 years, with none of the money deferred. That means he is worth it. There’s really no deeper meaning, no need for a ritual what’s-wrong-with-society-these-days wringing of hands. It’s an ungodly sum, to be sure, but it’s an ungodly sum that someone is willing to pay. Get over it.

We’ll see if the Mets are right. But one thing is indisputable: They ponied up to find out if they are.

We keep hearing that baseball’s popularity continues to drop because our fast-paced world, addicted to action, doesn’t appreciate a slower sport the way it once did. Maybe so. But Major League Baseball is starting to come around to the idea of star power – about 20 years late, but at least there are signs of life. Soto hits a lot of home runs, walks a lot and strikes out a lot, which makes him the Ideal Man in today’s game. He helped fill seats at Yankee Stadium last year, not that the franchise needs much assistance in that department. But he’s a star, and the Mets didn’t need a telescope to see that.

Shohei Ohtani is a star, too, which is why the Dodgers gave him a 10-year, $700 million contract last year. In 2024, he became the first player to hit 50 home runs or more and steal 50 bases or more in a season. He also happens to be a superstar pitcher when his arm is not recovering from surgery. Thus, every at-bat and every windup is an event. Fans want to see it.

Teams like the Mets and the Dodgers are not the enemy for spending big money on superstars. They know their fans expect a winning product. The more insidious enemy is the teams that have a lot of money but don’t spend it, even as their ballparks are full of paying customers. I can think of one local baseball team that might fit that category. Can you?

There is, of course, a trickle-down effect. Big contracts eventually find their way into the cost of tickets, concessions and parking. So you, the consumer, end up paying more. But if you want prices to stop going up, there’s a solution: You can stop consuming. Don’t buy tickets. Maybe that will bring player salaries down throughout baseball.

Fans have power. But many can’t help themselves. Even as they’re bemoaning skyrocketing ticket prices, they’re still going to games, especially to NFL games. Several times over the years, I’ve written that Bears fans should boycott Soldier Field to show their dissatisfaction with the product. To date, they haven’t. It must be a disease. Or a hereditary condition. But you get what you pay for, which in this case is one playoff victory since the 2006 season.

To the Mets, Yankees and Dodgers, teams that are hugely profitable, stars are important because they show a demanding fan base that they’re doing everything they can to win. Signing big-ticket free agents doesn’t automatically lead to success, but it does send a message to the fan base that, hey, we’re serious about this winning thing.

Competitive imbalance isn’t the issue. Owners unwilling or unable to spend money is. The answer? Better owners.

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Trump calls himself ‘tariff man,’ but has no idea how tariffs actually work

Jane Wells

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December 11, 2024

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Trump calls himself ‘tariff man,’ but has no idea how tariffs actually work

“I’m a big believer in tariffs,” President-elect Donald Trump said this week, not for the first time. “I think they’re beautiful.”

Trump claims the heavy tariffs he plans to impose during his second term are “going to make us rich,” at no cost to American businesses or consumers. That is a dangerous fantasy.

Trump’s position on tariffs begins with his long-standing misconceptions about international trade, which he erroneously views as a zero-sum game with rules that are rigged against the United States. “We’re subsidizing Canada to the tune (of) over $100 billion a year,” he told Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.” “We’re subsidizing Mexico for almost $300 billion.”

Trump was referring to U.S. trade deficits with those countries, which are about half as big as he claimed. Those gaps between exports and imports are not subsidies; they reflect goods that Americans voluntarily purchase, which means they get something of value in exchange for their money.

As Trump sees it, however, trade deficits are inherently bad, and he aims to eliminate them by imposing tariffs. Although that is feasible only if tariffs raise the cost of imports, making them less competitive with domestically produced alternatives, Trump contradicts that logic by insisting that tariffs do not raise prices.

“Americans are not paying for the Tariffs” on Chinese goods, Trump averred in 2019. “They are being paid for compliments of China.”

Trump, the self-described “Tariff Man,” clearly does not understand how tariffs work. They are taxes collected from importers, not from the exporting country. In theory, exporters could respond by cutting prices, or importers could swallow the additional cost. But one study after another has found that the cost of tariffs is paid mainly by American buyers of intermediate goods and finished products.

“U.S. tariffs continue to be almost entirely borne by U.S. firms and consumers,” Mary Amiti, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and two coauthors reported in 2020. That finding is consistent with the results of prior and subsequent studies.

The Tax Foundation estimates that the tariffs Trump imposed during his first term, which the Biden administration generally kept in place, cost Americans nearly $80 billion a year — “one of the largest tax increases in decades.” And that’s without considering the impact of retaliatory tariffs, “lost output, lower incomes, and loss in consumer choice.”

When Welker noted that “your previous tariffs … cost Americans some $80 billion,” Trump was unfazed. “They cost Americans nothing,” he insisted. “It didn’t cost this country anything. It made this country money.”

Since Trump refuses to admit that tariffs are taxes paid by Americans, it is not surprising that he sees no downside to the additional tariffs he has promised to impose in his second term. They include a “universal baseline tariff” of 10% or possibly 20%; a tariff of 60% or maybe more on Chinese goods, plus “an additional 10% Tariff”; and a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, which Trump promises to impose on his first day in office.

Trump says the 25% tariff, which would wreak havoc with cross-border supply chains for American manufacturers and raise prices for goods such as food, clothing and cars, “will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens” stop entering the United States. Forever, in other words, which makes sense if you believe that such taxes “are going to make us rich.”

Those tariffs, together with the 10% levy on Chinese goods that Trump improbably claims will suppress the illicit fentanyl supply by encouraging China’s government to execute drug traffickers, would amount to a $1.2 trillion tax increase over a decade, the Tax Foundation projects. “In the long run,” it adds, “we estimate the tariffs would reduce GDP by 0.4 percent and employment by 344,900 jobs.”

As is often the case with Trump, we have to hope he does not mean what he says.

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine.

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White Sox trade ace left-hander Garrett Crochet to Red Sox

Jane Wells

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December 11, 2024

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White Sox trade ace left-hander Garrett Crochet to Red Sox

DALLAS — As the winter meetings were winding down Wednesday, the White Sox made a big splash.

They traded left-hander Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox, who will send minor league catcher Kyle Teel and three other prospects as part of the deal, which is pending a physical.

This story will be updated.

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Fingerprints matching UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione found on water bottle in NYC, sources say

Jane Wells

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December 11, 2024

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Fingerprints matching UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione found on water bottle in NYC, sources say

UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect fighting extradition to New York

02:48

NEW YORK — Fingerprints belonging to Luigi Mangione, the man charged in last week’s murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, match those found on a water bottle recovered not far from the scene of the deadly shooting, law enforcement sources tell CBS News.

It is the first positive forensic match tying Mangione to the scene where Thompson was gunned down outside the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel on Dec. 4, sources say.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch spoke about the evidence in the case Wednesday afternoon.

“We were also able, at our crime lab, to match the person of interest’s fingerprints with fingerprints we found on the water bottle and the Kind bar near the scene of the homicide in Midtown,” she said.