Chicago will begin its overnight parking ban Thursday, with 107 miles worth of main streets set to be impacted by the annual run of restrictions.
According to the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation, vehicles parked in prohibited areas between 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. will be towed in an effort to keep the roads clear of snow and ice throughout April 1, 2023.
The parking ban will be enforced whether or not there’s snow on the ground, the city warns.
Signage is posted permanently along the affected routes, and the department has placed flyers on cars as additional reminders before the restrictions are issued shortly.
A map of the streets impacted by the ban can be found on the city’s website.
Owners of cars that are towed for violating the ban will face a minimum fee of $150, a ticket that will start at $60 and a storage fee of $25 per day.
Vehicles will be towed to one of two impound lots, located at 10301 S. Doty Ave. or 701 N. Sacramento Blvd. Motorists can also visit chicagoshovels.org or call 311 to find out if their vehicle was towed due to the ban.
The U.S. men’s team celebrates its victory over Iran at the World Cup.
Ashley Landis/AP
DOHA, Qatar — The U.S. women’s team will make at least three times more from the men’s World Cup than they received for winning the 2019 women’s tournament, thanks to a new deal to split World Cup earnings.
A 1-0 win by the men over Iran on Tuesday night increased their World Cup prize money to approximately $380,000 for each player in the squad.
The same applies to players on the U.S. roster for the 2023 Women’s World Cup because of the new collective bargaining agreements between the U.S. Soccer Federation and the men’s and women’s unions.
Under those deals, 90% of the World Cup prize money paid by world soccer body FIFA to the USSF will be pooled and shared equally between the players on this year’s men’s World Cup roster and next year’s Women’s World Cup roster.
Men’s rosters were increased to 26 this year, and the size of rosters for next year’s Women’s World Cup currently is listed as 23 in FIFA’s regulations. If women’s rosters also are increased to 26 per squad, the prize money share for each player would come to $380,769.
The American women’s received a $110,000 bonus for winning the 2019 World Cup.
FIFA is awarding $440 million in prize money to the 32 nations at this year’s World Cup. It awarded $30 million for the 24 teams at the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
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It’s been more than a decade since Casey Anthony’s name dominated headlines around the country. Now, she is finally speaking out in her first on-camera interview since she was famously acquitted in 2011 of charges of murder, manslaughter and child abuse following the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
“Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies,” a three-part limited docuseries, premiered Nov. 29 on Peacock. Peacock is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.
In the series, Anthony maintains some of the same claims her legal team made in her defense all those years ago — including that she was sexually abused by her father, George Anthony, and that he lied to cover up Caylee’s death. George Anthony previously denied both of those claims in court.
Caylee was last seen on June 16, 2008, investigators have said. Cindy Anthony, Caylee’s grandmother, reported the child missing on July 15, 2008 — 31 days later. The next day, police arrested Casey Anthony on child neglect charges. At the time, she told investigators the toddler had been taken by a babysitter.
Six months later, Caylee’s skeletal remains were found less than a mile away from her grandparents’ Orlando home.
In her bombshell interview with Alexandra Dean, showrunner and director, Casey Anthony makes several other revelations.
She lied to investigators
Anthony was eventually convicted of four misdemeanor counts of lying to investigators who were looking into her child’s 2008 disappearance.
She incorrectly told investigators her daughter had disappeared with a babysitter, whom she later said did not exist, and said that she worked at Universal Studios in Orlando when she did not.
“It was the right guilty verdict. I did lie to law enforcement, I admitted that I lied to law enforcement, so I am a convicted liar. It’s the truth,” she said in the new series.
In an attempt to explain why she had lied, Anthony said it stemmed from being abused as a child and still following her father’s instructions — even after seeing her daughter’s limp body.
“I lied to everyone because that was my whole life up until that point,” she said in the series. “Acting like everything’s OK but knowing nothing was OK. I’ve had years of therapy and I’m trying to analyze my own behavior and explain my own behavior, all of this is a reaction of trauma.”
“I made myself look crazy. And gave law enforcement absolutely no reason to believe or trust anything that I said,” she continued.
“I get why from an outside perspective all of this seems so …” she trailed off. “Because even for me, it still feels that way. As far as I am concerned, there’s no justifying my actions or behavior, except to say that I was doing what I was conditioned to do.”
“When I was 8 years old, my father started to come into my room at night,” she said. “I was physically hurt, scared because I was physically hurt and I ‘can’t tell mommy what happened (or) she’ll get mad at me.’ That’s what I was told.”
George Anthony declined to be interviewed for the Peacock series. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment by TODAY.com.
She alleges Caylee was a product of rape when she was 18
In the documentary, Anthony said her family also asked her to hide that she was pregnant at the age of 18.
She said she was raped at a house party after being drugged.
“(I) had a couple beers, completely lost my memory because I was drugged,” she said. “I woke up with my top on, my jeans on the floor with my underwear, and my bra still inside of my shirt but up over my breasts.”
She added she was “lethargic” and “extremely disoriented” from the drugs and “could feel like (she’d) had forcible sex.”
She said she initially claimed the baby was her ex-boyfriend’s but he eventually got a paternity test and discovered he wasn’t the father.
“I lied to everyone,” she said. “That’s what i’m saying, it’s so f—-d up, it’s just years of feeling like I needed to live a certain life or show people I lived a certain life, because I didn’t want people to pity me and I didn’t want my kid to grow up thinking she was the product of something so bad and that I didn’t want her.”
I lied but no one asked why. No one cared why I lied.
Casey Anthony
What she remembers about that fateful morning: ‘It’s not much’
Anthony recounted the morning her daughter likely died for the cameras. She said that morning she woke up to make her daughter breakfast but “wasn’t feeling that great.” She went back to bed, turned on the TV and Caylee laid in bed with her.
“I’ve been a light sleeper my entire life,” she said in the documentary. “Because I’m used to someone opening the door while I’m asleep. I am used to being on alert, especially with my child next to me. It’s part of the reason she slept in bed with me so much.”
She said she knew her dad was home but she fell asleep and “was asleep for a while.”
The next thing she remembers, she said, is her father shaking her, asking where Caylee was. She said it “didn’t make sense” to her because she thought her toddler had been next to her in the bed.
Anthony added that her daughter “would never even leave my room without telling me, even if she had to go to the bathroom.”
“She knew she wasn’t allowed to just be in the house by herself,” she said.
Anthony said she started searching around the house and then in the yard for her daughter. By the time she came back from searching outside around the house, she said, her dad was “standing there with her.”
“She’s soaking wet,” she said, tearfully. “I can see him standing there with her in his arms and handing her to me and telling me that it’s my fault. That I did that. That I caused that.”
She said she “collapsed” with Caylee’s body in her arms, which felt “heavy” and “cold.”
Instead of calling 911 or trying to revive Caylee, Anthony said her father took Caylee and told her it was “going to be OK.”
“I don’t know how long I sat outside, I don’t know where he went, he took her from me and he went away,” she said. “I don’t know where he went and I don’t know what he did.”
Why she didn’t call 911
Anthony said she understands people will question why she didn’t call 911 or waited to tell her mom.
“I know people are going to question why didn’t I make a phone call, why didn’t I call 911, why did even I wait to tell my mom anything, but I didn’t tell her anything, why lie?” she said. “Knowing that I failed to protect my child and I kept failing her even after that. I failed her again and again and again. Because I still protected the person who hurt me.
“It was like I was brainwashed. And it wasn’t until much later that I started to really realize why,” she said. “It’s like I had Stockholm syndrome.”
Anthony believed her daughter was OK until her body was found
“During the 31 days, I genuinely believed that Caylee was still alive. My father kept telling me that Caylee was still OK,” she recounted in the new docuseries. “There were no threats, I just knew that I had to do what he wanted me to, the same reason I knew that since the time I was 8 years old. Just do what he wants, it worked before, do it now. I did what I needed to do to survive.”
She added that her father would tell her Caylee was “fine” and to just “keep doing what I’m telling you to do … You guys will be reunited soon. That’s what sticks with me — he told me at one point we would be reunited soon.”
Anthony said that she was “conditioned” by her father and wanted to believe her daughter was alive.
“I really wanted to believe him, and maybe that’s the disassociation. Maybe that’s trying to protect myself from the pain of having known deep down, all along, that something happened and I didn’t want to confront it,” she said. “I wish it were a simple answer and a simple explanation but nothing about trauma or abuse is ever simple because you’re just trying to survive.
“That whole time he told me she was going to be OK. It’s what I chose to accept, because there was that little girl inside of me that wanted to believe he wouldn’t hurt her the way he hurt me.”
Anthony says she still doesn’t know ‘what the truth is’
Anthony never outright said in the new Peacock series what she thinks happened that morning and directly says that she doesn’t “know what the truth is.”
“It’s why all of this is so hard. I live with that guilt of feeling like I failed her and didn’t keep her safe and protect her. I’ve always wanted the truth because I’ve lived so long without it,” she said. “But I don’t know if I can handle all of it. I don’t know if it would be better to know or just keep not knowing. Because I don’t know what the truth is. All I know is that something happened.”
What’s next?
In the years since her trial, Anthony has been working for her defense lawyer, Pat McKenna. She also said in the docuseries that she lived at his home with his family following her trial as she got back on her feet.
She said she will always wonder what could have been if she handled her daughter’s death differently.
“It’s a hard thing to live with everyday, because nothing’s going to bring her back,” she said, emotional. “Even if I someday get the answers that I need, it’s never going to be enough. It’s never going to be enough.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.COM. More from TODAY:
A man was shot to death Monday afternoon on the South Side.
Sun-Times file
A man was fatally shot Monday afternoon in Chatham on the South Side.
The man, 49, was traveling in a vehicle about 4 p.m. in the 400 block of East 87th Street when he was shot in the head, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center initially in critical condition but died hours later, officials said.
No one was in custody.
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One day after Iran and Wales were eliminated at the World Cup, FIFA finally gave a public assurance Wednesday that rainbow items and banners supporting protests in Iran will be allowed into stadiums.
Stadium security staff organized by Qatari authorities had seized items with rainbow colors and slogans such as “Women. Life. Freedom” to stop them from getting inside stadiums.
In the first week of the tournament, seven European teams including Wales lost the fight to wear multi-colored “One Love” armbands during World Cup matches and some fans complained they weren’t allowed to bring items with rainbow colors, a symbol of LGBTQ rights, into the stadiums of the conservative Islamic emirate.
The match between Iran and the United States on Tuesday was charged with emotion among Iranian fans, some of whom had come to Qatar not only to support their team, but the protest movement back home with banners and flags.
“FIFA is aware of some incidents where permitted items were not allowed to be displayed at stadiums,” soccer’s world body said in a statement on Wednesday, more than a week after some incidents were reported at World Cup stadiums. “FIFA has received assurances by authorities that venue commanders have been contacted in relation to the agreed rules and regulations for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.”
FIFA’s assurances that have seemed to be overridden by Qatari authorities.
Wales and Iran will not play any more games at the World Cup after results late Tuesday sent England and the United States from their Group B into the knockout rounds.
“FIFA continues to work closely with the Host Country to ensure the full implementation of related regulations and agreed protocols,” FIFA said.
Christian Pulisic opened the scoring for the Stars and Stripes in the 38th minute against Iran in their Group B finale on Tuesday.
Weston McKennie’s deep lob through ball to right back Sergino Dest opened up Iran’s low block, and Dest crossed it back into the penalty box where Pulisic put it home.
Unfortunately for the U.S., Pulisic got hurt on the play as Iran’s goalkeeper’s knee collided with Pulisic in the build up to the goal. Pulisic stayed on the field to play through it, but he wasn’t moving as freely.
If the result holds, the U.S. would advance to the round of 16 regardless of the England-Wales result, which is tied 0-0 at halftime.
Packers QB Aaron Rodgers (right) figures to start against the Bears, but Justin Fields (left) is an unknown.
Matt Ludtke/AP
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is still hurting from a rib injury, but expects to start Sunday against the Bears.
“We’re not eliminated, [and] I got good news with the scans yesterday, so I plan on playing this week,” he said Tuesday in his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
The Bears, meanwhile, are still evaluating whether Justin Fields will be able to play through a separated non-throwing shoulder. He was out against the Jets, leaving Trevor Siemian to start, and coach Matt Eberflus said Monday his status remained in question.
Rodgers left the Packers’ 40-33 loss to the Eagles in the fourth quarter after completing 11 of 16 passes for 140 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Jordan Love replaced him and completed 6 of 9 for 113 and a touchdown.
At 4-8, the Packers sit three games out of the final NFC playoff spot with five to go. A win against the Bears would keep them on the fringe heading into their bye week.
Rodgers said his intent is to “go to one of my favorite places to play, Chicago, and hopefully get a big win, get into the bye week and get healthy.”
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After 12 years in business near the California Blue Line station in Logan Square, local pizza and beer spot The Boiler Room has permanently closed.
Images on social media showed a sign announcing the permanent closure of a Logan Square staple of the past decade.
Initially, the restaurant announced they would be closed from Thanksgiving through Sunday in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Wednesday, Nov. 23 was the final day of business for The Boiler Room.
The Boiler Room was perhaps best known for its iconic “PB&J” deal, offering a slice of any pizza, a 16 oz. can of Pabst Blue Ribbon and a shot of Jameson whiskey for $12.50.
In addition to pizzas, beer and cocktails, The Boiler Room also offered desserts, salads and appetizers consisting of standard bar fare.
More details surrounding the cause for the restaurant’s closure are currently unknown.
David Wiersma was sentenced to probation for entering the Capitol on Jan. 6.
U.S. District Court records
A federal judge sentenced a suburban man Tuesday to 18 months of probation and 100 hours of community service for entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot there and walking into a senator’s office.
David Wiersma, 68, was arrested in Posen and charged along with Dawn Frankowski in September 2021. He pleaded guilty in late August to misdemeanor parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
The FBI was tipped off to Wiersma by someone who worked with him at PCI Energy Center, a division of Westinghouse Electric, in Lake Bluff, court records show. The feds say Wiersma and Frankowski spent only 11 minutes in the Capitol during the riot.
But during that time, they entered the private hideaway office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, and the Senate Spouse’s Lounge. Merkley later found his office had been ransacked by rioters and shared a recording of the damage on social media.
Before he learned his sentence, Wiersma spoke to the judge and compared himself to President John F. Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., boxer Muhammad Ali and activist Rosa Parks. He said he felt that “unanswered questions” about the 2020 election had not been properly addressed at the time of the riot.
He said he “would never advocate resorting to violence as a means to an end,” and he claimed he first learned the extent of what happened at the Capitol when he returned to his hotel room and turned on the TV.
Prosecutors said Wiersma walked by smashed glass when he entered the Capitol, where an alarm was blaring, though Wiersma said Tuesday he heard no alarm.
Before entering the Capitol, prosecutors said Wiersma and Frankowski attended then-President Donald Trump’s nearby rally. While there, Wiersma made a recording of himself while Trump spoke in the background. Wiersma allegedly said, “Our country is being stolen from us — what are we going to do?”
Wiersma told the judge he was “speaking to people back home about being involved in government.”
Later, after leaving the Capitol, Wiersma allegedly wrote in a message to a friend that “everyone is a passive until they get pinched [sic] in the nose. The fact the DOJ and FBI refused to look at evidence before they refuted it lite [sic] the fuse. People have had enough. It is going to get worse.”
On Jan. 12, 2021, Frankowski allegedly sent Wiersma a message asking him to “erase my pic.” In a reply, Wiersma allegedly wrote, “We were never inside the Capitol if you remember correctly. I bragged that we were to people because I thought it was funny.”
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson took that to mean Wiersma was suggesting a “false cover story.” And in her remarks Tuesday, the judge pushed back on the idea that people who rioted at the Capitol were “patriots.”
“I doubt JFK would think so,” Jackson said. “Patriotism is loyalty to the country. Loyalty to the Constitution. That’s what Martin Luther King, that’s what Rosa Parks wanted.”
Frankowski is set to be sentenced Wednesday.
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Nurses at one of Chicago’s most prestigious hospitals are at odds with management after receiving what some described as anti-union messaging.
Leaders of Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago told nurses they “don’t need a union” to speak for them and that hospital administration is “concerned about how unions can impact work culture,” according to a letter signed by the hospital’s chief nursing officer and assistant chief nursing officer that was obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The letter, dated November 9, follows a tumultuous few years at Lurie and hospitals across the country as the COVID-19 pandemic tested the health care system. Staffing shortages, higher-than-normal patient-to-nurse ratios and burnout became common, nurses told the Sun-Times.
A copy of the letter discouraging unions sent to nurses at Lurie Children’s Hospital was obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Provided
“You feel as if you’re a bad nurse because you are limited in the time you can spend with each of your patients,” said a Lurie nurse who has worked at the hospital for more than 16 years and asked not to be named publicly. “Lurie nurses strive to give the best care we can give, and that really hits us at our heart when we feel like we can’t give that.”
A spokesperson for Lurie said the hospital “respects the right” of employees to organize but said unionization can have a “profound impact” on the work environment.
“Like most pediatric healthcare organizations, Lurie Children’s has faced challenges that have made nursing harder, but we remain committed to working directly with our workforce to address concerns and to continue to foster a culture built on mutual respect and shared dedication to providing a healthier future for every child,” spokesperson Julianne Bardele wrote in an email to the Sun-Times.
Bardele didn’t answer specific questions about the situation, including how hospital leadership will address nurses’ concerns if they don’t unionize.
When attempting to discuss staffing issues and improving work conditions, managers and directors disregarded the concerns, prompting conversations among staff about the possibility of unionizing, two nurses said.
“Every month we will sit down and go through issues,” said a Lurie nurse of six years who asked not to be publicly identified. “I brought up some issues that I was concerned about and my director was … I wouldn’t say yelling, but she got very short with me.”
The nurses described feeling disheartened and “threatened” by senior leadership after receiving the letter and said they wished it would have included possible compromises.
“[Some of the phrases used in the letter] really made us feel little because many of us have spoken and continue to speak and have gone those routes and avenues that they talked about in that letter and then it’s crickets afterwards,” the 16-year Lurie veteran said.
The circumstances come amid a surge of labor activism nationwide. Workers at corporations including Starbucks and Amazon have begun organizing, and more than 15,000 nurses in Minnesota went on strike for three days in September.
While she wouldn’t comment on the specific situation at Lurie or the contents of the letter from management, spokesperson for National Nurses United Rachel Berger said unionization could improve wages, equity, job security and safety.
“Importantly, analyzing union versus nonunion wages alone likely grossly underestimates the material benefit that union nurses can win through collective bargaining,” Berger said in an email.
The nurses who spoke with the Sun-Times wouldn’t go into detail about what could come next for nurses at Lurie but said discussions are ongoing.
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Winter is coming, and so is Chicago’s overnight parking ban.
The Department of Streets and Sanitation’s annual parking prohibitions across 107 miles worth of streets will start Dec. 1 and remain in effect until April 1, 2023.
Vehicles stationed in banned areas between 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. will be towed in an effort to prevent build-up of snow and ice. The parking ban will be enforced whether or not there’s snow on the ground, the city warns.
Signage is posted permanently along the affected routes, and the department will place flyers on cars as additional reminders before the restrictions are issued. A map of the streets impacted by the ban can be found on the city’s website.
Any car parked on the designated roadways when the ban begins will be towed, and owners will face a minimum fee of $150, a ticket that will start at $60 and a storage fee of $25 per day. Vehicles will be towed to one of two impound lots, located at 10301 S. Doty Ave. or 701 N. Sacramento Blvd.
Motorists can also visit chicagoshovels.org or call 311 to find out if their vehicle was towed due to the ban.
Jose Abreu’s time with the White Sox has ended. The former AL MVP agreed to a new deal with the Houston Astros.
Quinn Harris/Getty Images
First baseman Jose Abreu’s time on the South Side is officially over.
The White Sox slugger, who had played his entire nine-year career in Chicago since signing out of Cuba before the 2014 season, is reportedly in agreement on a three-year deal with the World Series champion Houston Astros.
It had become increasingly apparent since the end of the season that the Sox were prepared to part ways with Abreu, 35, and move on with Andrew Vaughn moving from the outfield to his customary position. Vaughn was drafted as a first baseman with the first pick in the 2019 draft as a first baseman. The Sox also have numerous designated hitter options, including Eloy Jimenez and Yasmani Grandal.
In losing Abreu, the Sox say goodbye to one of their most productive hitters of all time. He batted .292/.354/.506 with 243 homers and 863 RBI in a Sox uniform.
Abreu had six seasons with 25 or more home runs and six with more than 100 RBI but recorded 15 homers and 75 RBI this season while batting .304/.378/.446. He signed a six-year, $68 million contract to leave Cuba for the Sox and just completed the third year of a $50 million contract.
For the Astros, Abreu’s signing brings an end to Yuli Gurriel’s tenure as their full-time first baseman.
Besides his value as a hitter, Abreu was a fan favorite and respected teammate. At the general managers meetings in Las Vegas last month, GM Rick Hahn spoke of Abreu’s accomplishments and value in the clubhouse as a tireless worker who led by example. Abreu was often the first player to show up for work, arriving around noon for night games, and he often played hurt.
“If he’s not with us next year he’ll be missed,” Hahn said. “It’s good that we’re insulated from a production standpoint against that departure. But certainly would never disrespect the importance he’s meant to this organization.”
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Various headstones are vandalized with red swastikas at the Am Echod Jewish Cemetery in Waukegan on November 15.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
The Jewish cemetery in my hometown of Waukegan, Illinois is so small that I recognize the names of almost everyone there. Many of them danced at my Bar Mitzvah, or played mahjong with my mother. All of them were members of a thriving Jewish community in Waukegan that has since disappeared.
The Kanye message was accompanied by red swastikas painted onto 16 headstones. According to police, more than 20 other headstones were tagged with non-specific graffiti.
The headstone for my parents, Morris and Dorothy Yellen, was one of those displaying a large, blood-red swastika. It partially covered the words that described my dad as a “beloved husband and father,” and my mom as a “beloved wife and mother.”
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As I stood in a heavy autumn snowfall and assessed the damage, my thoughts turned to the first time I had come face-to-face with such hatred.
In 1999, working as a TV reporter in Chicago, I interviewed Matthew Hale, the self-professed “Pontifex Maximus” of the World Church of the Creator. Operating from his father’s East Peoria home, Hale was little more than a small-town purveyor of hate, with no nationwide following. But his story intrigued me because he had recently completed law school and was awaiting word on his controversial application to practice law in Illinois.
After inviting me to step on the Israeli flag which he used as a doormat, Hale told me, “It’s time for us to fight the Jewish control of the country.” He said he anxiously awaited a future when a “racial holy war” would cleanse the world of non-whites and Jews.
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When Hale’s law license was denied, one of his disciples, Benjamin Smith, shot and wounded nine Orthodox Jews on Chicago’s North Side. Smith also shot and killed Ricky Byrdsong, an African American who was the men’s basketball coach at Northwestern University.
As we sat on the front porch of his home, I asked Hale whether he had compassion for Smith’s victims. “In our church,” he told me, “compassion for non-whites is like having compassion for an animal that dies, particularly. Or an insect or something.”
Six years after Smith’s shooting spree, Hale was sentenced to 40 years in prison for soliciting the murder of a federal judge who happened to be Jewish and had ruled against him in a copyright case. He remains at the federal correctional center in Marion, Illinois.
The hate crimes at the Am Echod Cemetery were apparently inspired by the famous Chicago rapper who has gained additional notoriety for his antisemitic views. At first, it seemed easy enough to accept that such antisemitism, now spreading nationwide, had finally ravaged my own family.
But as I reflect on my family’s past, it seems that too many Jews who came to the United States to escape persecution and pogroms have found antisemitism to be an unsettling, pervasive and constant threat.
On my mother’s side, I have relatives who in 1967 were members of Congregation Beth Israel in Jackson, Mississippi, when it was dynamited by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Likewise, one of my wife’s great uncles was once president of The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. In October 2018, a gunman there killed 11 people and wounded six others in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.
In Waukegan, city workers quickly power-washed the headstones, erasing the physical stain of the cowardly act. Years from now, the Am Echod swastikas will probably be just another footnote to a treatise on hate crimes in America.
But for my own family, the stain of hatred toward Jews will remain forever. It will reappear on Memorial Days, or Veterans’ Days, when we stand among the graves and recall how my father heroically dropped bombs on the Nazis, and how my mother devoted her life to her husband and five children.
Maybe, as Matthew Hale hoped, a “racial holy war” does lie in our future. But having seen the desecration of the Jewish cemetery in my hometown, it’s clear that for some, the war is already underway.
Larry Yellen is a former investigative reporter and legal analyst for Fox 32 News.
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The Brazilian midfielder showed up in a big way for the Seleçao in their match against Switzerland on Monday. Known more as a defensive-minded player, the 30-year-old netted Brazil’s lone goal of the day and was instrumental in securing his country a spot in the knockout round.
After 83 scoreless minutes, Casemiro hit a perfect strike past Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer to the top right corner of the net.
This was Casemiro’s sixth international goal and his first at a World Cup.
His game-winner even earned the respect of Brazilian soccer legend Ronaldo Nazário, who was watching from the stands.
Earlier in the half, Casemiro nearly got on the stat sheet with an assist to Vinicius Junior in the 64th minute. That goal was called back for offsides in the buildup to the play after a video review, leaving the game at 0-0.
He continued to lead a Brazilian offense that was playing without forward Neymar, who is sidelined with an ankle injury sustained in the opener in Qatar. Team doctors have not yet given a timetable on his return.
With Casemiro’s goal and the win, Brazil sits atop the Group G standings. A win or draw would over Cameroon would guarantee its place as the top seed out of the group. Brazil could even maintain the top spot with a loss and a Switzerland win, depending on how many goals the Swiss are able to get past Serbia.
Merriam-Webster’s definition of “gaslighting,” its 2022 Word of the Year.
AP
NEW YORK — “Gaslighting” — behavior that’s mind manipulating, grossly misleading, downright deceitful — is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year.
Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. But something else happened. There wasn’t a single event that drove significant spikes in curiosity, as it usually goes with the chosen word of the year.
The gaslighting was pervasive.
“It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s unveiling.
“It was a word looked up frequently every single day of the year,” he said.
There were deepfakes and the dark web. There were deep states and fake news. And there was a whole lot of trolling.
Merriam-Webster’s top definition for gaslighting is the psychological manipulation of a person, usually over an extended period of time, that “causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.”
More broadly, the dictionary defines the word thusly: “The act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage.”
Rounding out this year’s Top 10 are:
— “Oligarch,” driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
— “Omicron,” the persistent COVID-19 variant and the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet.
— “Codify,” as in turning abortion rights into federal law.
— “Queen consort,” what King Charles’ wife, Camilla is newly known as.
— “Raid,” as in the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
— “Sentient,” with lookups brought on by Google canning the engineer who claimed an unreleased AI system had become sentient.
— “Cancel culture,” enough said.
— “LGBTQIA,” for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, and asexual, aromantic or agender.
— “Loamy,” which many Wordle users tried back in August, though the right word that day was “clown.”Gaslighting is a heinous tool frequently used by abusers in relationships — and by politicians and other newsmakers. It can happen between romantic partners, within a broader family unit and among friends. It can be a corporate tactic, or a way to mislead the public. There’s also “medical gaslighting,” when a health care professional dismisses a patient’s symptoms or illness as “all in your head.”
Despite its relatively recent prominence — including “Gaslighter,” The Chicks’ 2020 album featuring the rousingly angry titular single — the word was brought to life more than 80 years ago with “Gas Light,” a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton.
It birthed two film adaptations in the 1940s. One, George Cukor’s “Gaslight” in 1944, starred Ingrid Bergman as Paula Alquist and Charles Boyer as Gregory Anton. The two marry after a whirlwind romance and Gregory turns out to be a champion gaslighter. Among other instances, he insists her complaints over the constant dimming of their London townhouse’s gaslights is a figment of her troubled mind. It wasn’t.
The death of Angela Lansbury in October drove some interest in lookups of the word, Sokolowski said. She played Nancy Oliver, a young maid hired by Gregory and told not to bother his “high-strung” wife.
The term gaslighting was later used by mental health practitioners to clinically describe a form of prolonged coercive control in abusive relationships.
“There is this implication of an intentional deception,” Sokolowski said. “And once one is aware of that deception, it’s not just a straightforward lie, as in, you know, I didn’t eat the cookies in the cookie jar. It’s something that has a little bit more devious quality to it. It has possibly an idea of strategy or a long-term plan.”
Merriam-Webster, which logs 100 million pageviews a month on its site, chooses its word of the year based solely on data. Sokolowski and his team weed out evergreen words most commonly looked up to gauge which word received a significant bump over the year before.
They don’t slice and dice why people look up words, which can be anything from quick spelling and definition checks to some sort of attempt at inspiration or motivation. Some of the droves who looked up “gaslighting” this year might have wanted to know, simply, if it’s one or two words, or whether it’s hyphenated.
“Gaslighting,” Sokolowski said, spent all of 2022 in the top 50 words looked up on merriam-webster.com to earn top dog word of the year status. Last year’s pick was “vaccine.”
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Wisconsin is preparing to hire Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell as its new football coach.
AP
Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell informed his team on Sunday that he is leaving the school, paving the way for him to become the next head coach at Wisconsin.
A person with knowledge of Fickell’s decision told The Associated Press that Fickell was leaving and veteran assistant coach Kerry Coombs was being named interim coach of the Bearcats.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because Wisconsin was still finalizing approval of Fickell’s contract.
Wisconsin’s Board of Regents scheduled a special closed meeting for Sunday afternoon “to consider employment and additional compensation agreements for the UW-Madison head football coach,” according to a meeting notice posted online.
Another person familiar with the situation told the AP earlier Sunday that Wisconsin and Fickell were progressing in negotiations toward a deal.
Fickell, 49, has posted a 57-18 record in six seasons at Cincinnati and helped the Bearcats earn a College Football Playoff berth last year. The former Ohio State linebacker went 6-7 as the Buckeyes’ interim head coach in 2011, after Jim Tressel’s resignation.
Fickell will take over for interim coach and former Badgers star player Jim Leonhard, who replaced Paul Chryst on Oct. 2.
Chryst went 67-26 in 71⁄2 seasons. He was fired one day after the Badgers lost 34-10 at home to an Illinois team led by former Badgers coach Bret Bielema.
Wisconsin (6-6, 4-5 Big Ten) is awaiting its bowl assignment. A loss in their bowl game would cause the Badgers to finish below .500 for the first time since 2001.
Leonhard was promoted from defensive coordinator after Chryst’s firing and led Wisconsin to a 4-3 record over the final seven games of the regular season. Leonhard said Saturday after the Badgers’ 23-16 home loss to Minnesota that he had interviewed with athletic director Chris McIntosh earlier in the week.
“I think whoever hires coaches is going to be an idiot if they don’t hire coach Leonhard,” safety John Torchio said after the Minnesota game. “I don’t know if I should say that, but I’ll say it.”
The Badgers instead are hiring the guy who led Cincinnati to the first CFP berth for any Group of Five school. Fickell won several national coach of the year awards last season for helping Cincinnati go 13-0 before losing to Alabama in a Cotton Bowl semifinal.
That 2021 Cincinnati team produced nine draft picks for the third-highest total of any school, behind only Georgia’s 15 and LSU’s 10. Five Cincinnati players were selected among the top 100 overall picks.
After replacing all that NFL talent, Cincinnati has gone 9-3 this season. The Bearcats didn’t qualify for the American Athletic Conference championship game that takes place Saturday.
Cincinnati went 4-8 in Fickell’s debut season of 2017 but has gone 53-10 since.
Fickell’s Cincinnati players also succeeded in the classroom. Heading into this season, Cincinnati had a 100% graduation rate among players who had stayed in the program for four years under Fickell.
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Alex Stalock skated with the Blackhawks on Sunday, nearly a month after suffering a concussion.
Michael Reaves/Getty Images
The concussion Blackhawks goalie Alex Stalock suffered Nov. 1 against the Islanders has turned out to be a longer-term issue than initially thought. He has missed almost a month now.
But his absence might be finally nearing its end. Stalock joined Petr Mrazek — who started against the Jets — and Arvid Soderblom as full participants in Hawks morning skate Sunday, his first time practicing with the team since the injury.
“He’s a great voice in the dressing room, [so] him just being healthy again and around the guys, it’s a huge boost for this team,” coach Luke Richardson said. “It’s nice to have him back. But [it was his] first day on the ice, we’ll see how he feels with shots and everybody out there.”
Stalock impressed in October, going 3-2-1 with a .914 save percentage. Goaltending hasn’t really been the Hawks’ issue this season, even during his absence, but his return should help nonetheless. Soderblom will likely return to Rockford at that point.
Tinordi injured
The Hawks’ second defensive pairing of Jarred Tinordi and Connor Murphy was broken up Sunday for essentially the first time all season, albeit not voluntarily.
Tinordi missed the game because he “banged up” a lingering, preexisting injury, Richardson said. The journeyman defenseman has found a stable role in Chicago, tallying five points in 20 games while averaging 17:30 of ice time.
Filip Roos, who’d previously been scratched for all but one game since Nov. 14, assumed Tinordi’s spot in the lineup. Forwards Sam Lafferty (upper body) and Tyler Johnson (ankle) remained out.
Kane’s shootout drought
As of Dec. 4 last year, Patrick Kane’s career shootout resume was stellar. He had converted 49 of 117 career attempts, good for a sparkling 41.9% conversion rate — well above the NHL average.
But since then, Kane has uncharacteristically had seven consecutive shootout attempts saved. His attempt Friday wasn’t even technically saved; he just hit the side of the net after running out of time and space.
Jonathan Toews, whose career shootout numbers are even better, is also an unremarkable 2-for-9 since the start of last season. The Hawks, as a team, still went 6-2 in shootouts last season but are 0-2 this season (entering Sunday).
Kane and a handful of other Hawks forwards love their tradition of post-practice games of “two puck,” which are basically scaled-down shootouts. With all those opportunities to try out new moves, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them eventually improve in the shootouts that count.
Dickinson speaks up
Richardson told an interesting story Sunday about Hawks forward Jason Dickinson that sheds light on his mindset.
“He’s a quiet guy,” Richardson said. “But the other night, I told him to go out and take a short shift. It was four-on-four and then we were going to go into a penalty kill. He came to me and goes, ‘I want that kill.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, but I need you to go out and finish this four-on-four.’ He’s like, ‘No, I want that kill.’ And I go, ‘I heard you, but I need you out there for 20 or 30 seconds, and then come back and I’ll get you back on the kill.’
“He wanted a little redemption. Maybe [he had] a bad game before, and he wanted to get back on the pressure side of our penalty kill and kill it off. It’s good to see [that] drive in a player like that. You’re not sure if it’s there or not when a guy is quiet.”
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At least four individuals have been taken to area hospitals after an SUV slammed into a business in suburban Des Plaines on Sunday afternoon.
According to police, officers were called to the 400 block of East Northwest Highway at approximately 12:15 p.m. after an SUV struck a building.
Fire officials say that at least four people were transported to area hospitals after the crash, but did not have an update on the condition of those injured.
Broadway Street and State Street were both closed in the aftermath of the crash, according to officials.
In what has become a yearly tradition, the Salvation Army of Chicagoland has received its first gold coin donations into its iconic red kettles, with at least two valuable coins donated in the Chicago suburbs.
According to officials, an anonymous donor dropped a 1-ounce American Buffalo coin, valued between $1,900 and $2,000, into a red kettle outside of a Jewel-Osco store in Batavia on Saturday.
Another valuable coin, a 1-ounce fine gold Standing Liberty Coin valued between $1,900 and $2,000, was dropped into a kettle at a Starbucks in suburban Geneva on the same day, officials said.
“These gifts will allow us to show support and love to families who are struggling to stay in their homes, put a warm meal on the table, and provide Christmas gifts for their children,” Salvation Army Lt. Scott Smith said in a statement.
The donation of gold and silver coins has become an annual tradition in the Chicagoland area, with most gift-givers remaining anonymous.
The coins donated in Batavia and Geneva will go toward funding services at the Salvation Army’s Tri-City Corps Joe K. Anderson Community Center, according to the organization.
Mount Carmel players hoist the IHSA Class 7A state trophy after beating Batavia.
Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times
Mount Carmel ends the season right where it began, on top.
Caravan coach Jordan Lynch has his program firing on all cylinders. Saturday night after his second state title win he highlighted how important the recently build on-campus Barda-Dowling Stadium has been to the program’s revitalization.
“We call it the House that LaCount built, after our athletic director that got that thing going,” Lynch said. “It’s the best place to play in the state. Mount Carmel has some special kids but we have great coaches and mentors and that’s what it is about. My staff is the best in the state. There are guys still there that coached me. It’s a special place and the culture is built.”
Here’s a look at the final rankings. Postseason success is weighted heavily in the final rankings. The number after the record is where the team was ranked in the preseason, way back in August.
Final Super 25 for 2022
With record and preseason ranking
1. Mount Carmel (14-0) 1
2. Loyola (13-1) 3
3. Lincoln-Way East (13-1) 2
4. Batavia (10-4) 4
5. St. Rita (10-3) 6
6. York (12-1) NR
7. Glenbard West (11-2) 7
8. Lemont (12-1) 25
9. Crete-Monee (9-3) 15
10. Lake Zurich (11-2) NR
11. Maine South (9-3) 13
12. Warren (10-2) 9
13. Lyons (9-3) NR
14. St. Charles North (10-2) NR
15. Prairie Ridge (12-2) 8
16. Nazareth (10-4) NR
17. Sycamore (12-1) NR
18. Hersey (10-1) NR
19. Prospect (9-2) 18
20. Providence (9-5) NR
21. IC Catholic (13-1) NR
22. Morris (10-3) NR
23. Marist (7-4) 12
24. St. Ignatius (10-3) 16
25. Simeon (10-1) NR
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