LOS ANGELES — In the euphoria of the Rams’ dramatic comeback to beat the Carolina Panthers in their playoff opener, it was easy to overlook the fact that the first step on Los Angeles’ postseason journey wasn’t supposed to be nearly this difficult.

The Rams (13-5) stamped themselves as a Super Bowl contender while rolling to an 11-3 start to the regular season, and they were double-digit favorites over the sub-.500 Panthers.

Los Angeles then jumped out to a 14-0 lead in Charlotte — but then got outscored 31-13 through the next two-plus quarters, and they needed another vintage fourth-quarter comeback orchestrated by Matthew Stafford to survive.

“What I was proud of is that we found a way to finish,” coach Sean McVay said Monday. “There’s been some instances (when) we established leads and we weren’t able to sustain that momentum and make those critical plays to be the difference. I thought that was the positive takeaway from (Carolina), even though I think that we can play a lot better, and I expect us to play a lot better. In spite of all those things, we still found a way to overcome, and that’s what this is about at this point in the season.”

Before the Rams visit the Chicago Bears (12-6) on Sunday for a spot in the NFC championship game, McVay is determined to address his team’s proliferating flaws, from overall defensive shortcomings and more specific offensive mistakes to dismal special teams play.

He realizes the league hasn’t forgotten Los Angeles was in position for the NFC’s overall No. 1 seed when it had a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter at Seattle just a month ago, only to end up possibly spending the entire postseason on the road.

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua, bottom, is tackled by Carolina Panthers defensive end Derrick Brown during the second half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)

McVay also isn’t losing track of the fact that winning is what matters, not the Rams’ less-than-dominant performances against every opponent other than woebegone Arizona down the stretch.

McVay knows there’s plenty to fix for a team that just isn’t executing as crisply as it did from September through November. That’s unusual for McVay’s teams, which typically improve and surge as the season goes on.

The Rams’ struggles are exemplified in their nine penalties for 83 yards in Carolina — a whopping number of flags for the NFL’s least-penalized team during the regular season.

The NFL’s best offense in the regular season has continued to produce points at a high clip, but the defense hasn’t been great lately.

After a 16-game stretch over the past two seasons in which the Rams held eight opponents to 10 points or fewer, they’ve allowed at least 27 points by every opponent other than the Cardinals since Thanksgiving.

“I think there’s some things we can look at,” McVay said. “We’ve played some good teams and they made some good plays, but I know the standards for what we can do defensively. … I think we can play better.”

Los Angeles Rams running back Kyren Williams, right, scores a touchdown during the second half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Carolina Panthers, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Rusty Jones)

What’s working

Despite some isolated errors, the offensive line had another solid game in Charlotte. Stafford was sacked only once and hit six times, while the rushing game put up 116 yards on 27 designed runs. Stafford had enough time and space to lead the winning drive. The line could get much better if RG Kevin Dotson returns from injury this week.

What needs help

The season-long special teams woes that prompted McVay’s first in-season firing of an assistant haven’t gone away. Late in the fourth quarter, longtime practice squad member Tanner Ingle didn’t hold his block on Carolina’s Isaiah Simmons, who blocked Ethan Evans’ punt and created the short field for the Panthers’ go-ahead touchdown with 2:39 to play.

“This is a player that I believe in, and he made a mistake,” McVay said. “We learn from it and we grow.”

Stock up

Safety Quentin Lake returned from a two-month injury absence and played every snap, finishing with six tackles and two passes defensed. He wasn’t perfect, but the Rams have no choice but to lean heavily on their versatile captain.

Stock down

The Rams’ secondary didn’t make a play much bigger than Cobie Durant’s first-quarter interception while Bryce Young passed for 264 yards. With Ahkello Witherspoon now out for the season, the group faces a much tougher test from the Bears attack cooked up by coach Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams.

Injuries

Stafford isn’t expected to wear a splint on his sprained index finger. … Dotson has “a good chance” to return from his three-game absence with a sprained ankle, McVay said.

Key number

11 — The number of reported interview requests, as of Monday morning, for Rams assistant coaches for open NFL head coaching jobs. McVay isn’t worried about the focus of coordinators Chris Shula and Mike LaFleur and pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase, since early interviews typically are just getting-to-know-you chats: “It’s a tremendous credit to those guys. They’re well-deserving. We’ve got a bunch of capable, great leaders on our coaching staff.”

Next steps

The weather will be a second formidable opponent in Chicago, with an arctic front predicted to drop temperatures to zero with possible snow. A year ago, the Rams barely lost to eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia in the divisional round amid sub-freezing conditions and snow.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/los-angeles-rams-nfl-playoffs-vulnerabilities/ 

Ben Johnson’s “F−−− the Packers” postgame declaration after the Chicago Bears’ wild-card win over Green Bay was fiercely debated on the Monday morning hot take circuit.

Was Johnson a meatball head coach lacking in sportsmanship, or just an honest guy expressing his opinion about a rival he doesn’t like?

The answer, of course, depended on your feelings about the Bears, the NFL’s new “it” team after their wild playoff win over Green Bay.

On a busy Monday morning at Halas Hall, as the Bears prepared for Sunday’s divisional-round game against the Los Angeles Rams, Johnson addressed the viral video and his phony postgame handshake with Packers coach Matt LaFleur.

“Like I said before, there’s a rivalry that exists between these two teams, something that I fully recognize and I’m a part of,” Johnson told reporters. “And, yeah, I just, I don’t like that team. So George and I have talked, and we’re on the same page.”

That would be Bears Chairman George McCaskey, who no doubt approved of the message Johnson was delivering after years of watching coaches he hired lose to those Packers. McCaskey is definitely a meatball owner, though I don’t recall him saying anything derogatory about Green Bay out loud, which would be very un-owner-like and considered undignified by his fellow billionaires.

Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson speaks in a news conference after an NFL wild-card playoff game against the Green Bay Packers on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Huh)

But he’s apparently OK with Johnson saying it, and most Bears fans applauded the coach for saying what they all think, and what many have said on numerous occasions. If you’ve ever walked through the tunnel from Soldier Field to the Roosevelt L station after games, you know the “Packers suck” chant is heard after every Bears win, no matter the opponent.

The only way Johnson could ingratiate himself more with Bears fans would be to pull a Diego Pavia and make a video of himself urinating on Lambeau Field.

Instead, Johnson simply uttered the inflammatory words to his players in the celebratory clubhouse, knowing it would become a “Ben thing.” Johnson’s postgame speeches after wins are now considered “must-see” video, just as Bears fans always had to watch “The Mike Ditka Show” on Channel 2 before games to see what Da Coach had to say about his upcoming opponent.

But even Ditka never said “F−−− the Packers” on video. He once said the Bears players of the 1960s called them the “Red Bay Packers” because “every time we said Green Bay, our coaches choked.” That tradition was revived in the 2010s. The Packers went 28-4 against the Bears from 2009 until the meaningless final game of last season.

Choking was a thematic motif for the Bears until Johnson met LaFleur, so a little trash talking after Saturday’s miraculous comeback was probably inevitable, even if Johnson decided to go nuclear.

It wasn’t that long ago that whatever a coach told his players after a game was considered off the record. Back in 2017, after a Pittsburgh Steelers playoff win over Kansas City, Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown got into hot water for putting coach Mike Tomlin’s postgame speech on Facebook Live. Tomlin was telling his players to get ready for the New England Patriots, who had played a day earlier.

“We just spotted these a−−holes a day and a half,” Tomlin said. “They played yesterday. Our game got moved to tonight. We’re going to touch down at 4 o’clock in the f−−−ing morning. So be it. We’ll be ready for their ass. But you ain’t got to tell them we’re coming.”

Tomlin called Brown’s undercover video “foolish,” “selfish” and “inconsiderate,” while adding he needed to clean up his language. New England quarterback Tom Brady sniffed that such an incident would never happen under Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

“When we’re inside of our stadium or inside of our walls there has to be a degree of privacy,” Brady told a Boston radio station at the time. “What’s done in the locker room should stay in the locker room.”

Oh, what a different world it was back in ’17. We’ve come a long way, baby.

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams walks to the locker room wearing coach Ben Johnson’s high school jersey before playing the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Those days are over, and now several coaches enjoy mugging for the team’s videographers, knowing whatever they say will quickly be posted on the team’s social media accounts for extended viral viewing pleasure. Johnson is one of those coaches, though his hatred of the Packers apparently was not acting.

The Bears dutifully posted the speech in a tweet after the game that read “Not. Done. Yet.” They bleeped out the profanity, but it was obvious what he said: “F−−− the Packers. F−−− them. I f−−−ing hate those guys.” The players went wild, and President and CEO Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles were seen smiling and applauding in the background.

This is all good stuff for the media and fans, and added another chapter to one of the sport’s greatest rivalries.

We do love to hate our rivals. Former Cubs manager Dusty Baker was still beloved in Chicago in 2003 when he was caught on WGN-Ch. 9 cameras yelling “F−−− you” to St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa during a heated game during the pennant race at Wrigley Field. Watching a Cubs manager fire back at the sanctimonious Cardinals leader was considered a breath of fresh air at a time when the Cubs were trying to change their culture. It worked for a while, and when it didn’t, Baker was gone.

Related Articles

Rivalries bring out the best and worst in our sports leaders, and sometimes it means giving up the pretense of being a “good sport.” Sure, Johnson could’ve congratulated the Packers on a well-fought game, like coaches always do after big games. He could’ve shook his hand for more than a nanosecond and said a few words.

But his obvious animosity toward LaFleur prevented him from doing so. Or maybe LaFleur deserved it for being a pretentious human being. Who knows?

Still, it was funny to hear Cubs fans reacting so positively to Johnson’s comments after getting upset over the Milwaukee Brewers posing with an “L” flag after beating the Cubs in the division series last October.

If the Brewers’ players lacked class by trolling the Cubs, as many fans suggested, why was Johnson’s “F−−− the Packers” speech OK?

Like any made-in-America controversy, it all depends on what side of the fence you’re on. Bulls fans hated Dennis Rodman when he played for the “Bad Boys” in Detroit, but revered him when his antics helped the Bulls win three more titles. Alex Bregman was booed everywhere but Houston when he was revealed to be part of the cheating Astros team that won the 2017 World Series, but now he’s the new savior of the Cubs.

That’s the way the sports world turns, and like the rest of the world, it’s turning so fast now it’s hard to keep up with what’s considered acceptable behavior.

Either way, Johnson clearly hit a nerve, and he’ll be a villain in Green Bay forevermore. And if he wins a Super Bowl in Chicago, they may erect a statue of him giving the Packers the finger.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/chicago-bears-ben-johnson-trolling/ 

The Chicago Bulls rescheduled their postponed game, and the Illinois and Notre Dame women’s teams hosted special guests this week in the Chicago basketball report.

Every Tuesday, Tribune writers will provide an update on what happened — and what’s ahead — for the Bulls, Sky and local college basketball teams. Want more? Sign up for our Tribune sports newsletter.

Bulls reschedule postponed Heat game

Chicago Bulls guard Jevon Carter warms up as workers move mops across the floor as a game delay takes place due to condensation issues before a scheduled game between the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat at the United Center in Chicago on Jan. 8, 2026. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

The Bulls shifted their schedule to accommodate last Thursday’s game against the Miami Heat, which was postponed due to playing conditions. An abnormally warm and humid day caused the ice rink under the basketball court — which was utilized for a Blackhawks game the night before — to create severe condensation on the hardwood. After a two-hour delay, the NBA and both teams agreed to postpone the game to a later date.

The makeup game will take place at the United Center on Jan. 29. All tickets to the originally scheduled game will be honored for this new date. Additionally, the Bulls will move a previously scheduled road game against the Heat from Jan. 30 to Jan. 31. This means the Bulls and the Heat will play three times in four days on Jan 29, Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.

This scheduling anomaly reflects the constricted nature of both teams’ schedules. The Heat will be on the second game of a back-to-back when they travel to Chicago, adding two back-to-backs to that weekend. The Bulls will only gain one more back-to-back as a product of this rescheduling, but they will now play nine games in the final 15 days before the All-Star break.

“I think it would have been too unsafe for those guys to play, I think the decision that was made was the right one, but you’re obviously going to pay somewhere in the schedule with that,” coach Billy Donovan said. “We’re going to play them three times in a short period of time. I really don’t remember ever doing that much unless it’s been a playoff series.”

A’ja Wilson shows support for Illini women

Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson speaks during a news conference on receiving the 2025 WNBA Most Valuable Player award before Game 1 in the semifinals of the WNBA basketball playoffs Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Candice Ward)

The No. 25 Fighting Illini had a little extra motivation for last Wednesday’s game against Ohio State when four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson pulled up courtside to show some support for the program.

Wilson attended the game with her partner Bam Adebayo ahead of his scheduled game with the Miami Heat against the Bulls on Thursday. Coach Shauna Green welcomed the star into the Illinois locker room after the game, where Wilson offered advice from her recent championship run with the Las Vegas Aces.

“The effort, the hustle, the intangibles, the ones that don’t really show up on the stat sheet — those are the ones that are really winning championships,” Wilson said in a video the team posted to social media.

Wilson doled out advice to Illinois players after the final buzzer, but it was Ohio State guard Jaloni Cambridge who stole the show during the game, scoring 41 points to edge out Illinois in a 78-69 win for the Buckeyes.

Cambridge is a Wilson superfan who once gave an interview detailing how she “needed” the Aces star to come out to one of her games at some point in her collegiate career. The guard told reporters after the game that she didn’t immediately recognize Wilson because she doesn’t wear contacts or glasses on the court, but once she confirmed that her favorite player was courtside, she turned up the intensity on her game.

“That’s literally a dream come true,” Cambridge said.

A Notre Dame celebration

Purdue’s Katie Douglas ends up on the bottom of a battle with Notre Dame’s Niele Ivey for a loose ball during the NCAA Women’s Championship in St. Louis on Sunday, April 1, 2001. (Jay L. Clendenin/The Hartford Courant)

No. 23 Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey coached her team to a big win in front of her former teammates and coach Sunday.

During the Irish’s 73-50 win over then-No. 22 North Carolina, Notre Dame celebrated the 25th anniversary of the 2000-01 women’s basketball team that won the program’s first national championship under coach Muffet McGraw.

Ivey was a senior on the team that beat Purdue in the final before returning to Notre Dame in 2007 to be an assistant under McGraw. Ivey said she views McGraw as someone who made her better by holding her accountable and challenging her.

“She was somebody that really coached with integrity,” Ivey said at her postgame news conference. “She just did things the right way. She was super bright, and I learned a lot of life lessons from her, just by the way she ran a program, what she taught me on and off the court, even as an assistant. I’ve been a sponge for the last 25 years, so I’m super grateful for the lessons that she taught me.”

Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo, who had 31 points, eight rebounds, seven steals and six assists against the Tar Heels, said the 2001 team visited the locker room after the game to talk about what their experience was like in South Bend.

“I think the biggest thing for me is that family that they feel, that they still have that connection they had, and how important it is to be tight-knit,” Hidalgo said. “Everybody has to do their role in order for it to fit. Because at the end of the day, it’s a puzzle, and every piece has to fit perfectly in order for the picture to be complete. When everybody plays their role and does that, then nobody is in our way.”

The win was the second straight for the Irish (12-4, 4-2) after back-to-back losses to Georgia Tech and Duke, and they returned to the rankings at No. 23.

Number of the week: 54

Chicago Bulls forward Matas Buzelis blocks a shot by Cleveland Cavaliers guard Jaylon Tyson on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Dermer)

The blocks just keep coming for Matas Buzelis.

The forward has recorded 54 blocks in 38 games for the Bulls this season. That is the 12th-largest tally of any player in the NBA, a statistic led by Indiana Pacers center Jay Huff, who has blocked 84 shots this season. Buzelis averages 1.4 blocks per game, the highest rate on the Bulls roster and the 20th highest in the league.

Blocking shots is only one piece of the defensive game plan for Buzelis — and it’s often not the most important piece of the puzzle for the second-year star — but coach Billy Donovan feels this recent stretch of shot blocking is reflective of a greater overall development for the forward.

“He’s seeing things happen before they’re happening and he’s putting himself in a position to make those plays,” Donovan said. “That’s probably the biggest growth I’ve seen in him so far defensively.”

Week ahead: Bulls

Tuesday: @ Rockets, 7 p.m., CHSN
Wednesday: Jazz, 7 p.m., CHSN
Friday: @ Nets, 6:30 p.m., CHSN
Sunday: Nets, 6 p.m., CHSN

The Bulls play one of their two final back-to-backs before the All-Star break this week, heading to Houston to face the Rockets on Tuesday before returning home to host the Jazz on Wednesday.

Week ahead: Best college basketball games

Wednesday: No. 13 Illinois men at Northwestern, 7:30 p.m., Big Ten Network
Thursday: No. 25 Illinois women at No. 8 Michigan, 6 p.m., Peacock
Thursday: No. 9 Louisville women at No. 23 Notre Dame, 5 p.m., ACC Network
Saturday: No. 8 Nebraska men at Northwestern, 3 p.m., Big Ten Network
Sunday: Northwestern women at No. 25 Illinois, 2 p.m., Big Ten Plus

Illinois and Northwestern meet each other on the men’s and women’s sides in the next week, the first of two meetings this season for both. It would take an upset on Northwestern’s part to get a win in either game, as both the Illini teams are now ranked.

The NU men then will face an even bigger test Saturday, hosting No. 8 Nebraska. The Cornhuskers are still undefeated entering Tuesday’s game against Oregon.

What we’re reading this morning

3 takeaways from the Bulls’ dominating 125-107 win, including Coby White’s groove and an uncertain injury
Yuki Kawamura re-signs with the Bulls after a monthslong recovery from a blood clot in his leg
No. 16 Illinois builds a big early lead, then holds off No. 19 Iowa 75-69 for its 3rd Big Ten road win
Unrivaled’s 2nd season provides key gathering place for WNBA players during CBA negotiations
Bulls-Heat game postponed because of condensation on United Center court
DePaul falls to No. 4 UConn 72-60 for its 21st consecutive loss in the series
Steve Kerr’s mom ‘terribly disappointed’ with Warriors coach after his outburst led to an ejection

Quote of the week

“It’s amazing when he’s that dialed in how his offense comes along and his rebounding. But Kylan’s unique. He’s got a great, great base. He’s got great strength, and he’s got ultra-quick hands. … He finds a way to annoy. He’s strong. He picks your pocket. He fights over screens. And it wasn’t just him, but it was him setting the tone. He’s just a veteran. He’s got tremendous skills and can do that to a lot of people.” — Illinois coach Brad Underwood on guard Kylan Boswell’s defense. Boswell helped hold Bennett Stirtz to 12 points in Illinois’ 75-69 win at Iowa.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/chicago-basketball-bulls-illinois-aja-wilson/ 

The Chicago Bears erased an 18-point halftime deficit against the archrival Green Bay Packers on Saturday night. Days later, the city still is reveling in the high of the franchise’s first playoff victory in 15 years.

But the Bears have to turn the page quickly. Next up is coach Sean McVay, quarterback Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams. This will be another tough test for coach Ben Johnson’s Bears.

The Tribune’s Bears reporters tackle five pressing questions heading into the divisional round of the playoffs.

1. Ben Johnson doubled down on his “F−−− the Packers” quote Monday. Fill in the blank, preferably without profanity: Johnson pouring fuel on the rivalry fire is _________?

Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson looks on in the second quarter of a game against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field in Chicago on Jan. 4, 2026. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Biggs: Clearly what he wants to do. One suspects it might make Chairman George McCaskey a little giddy. Rivalries are at the heart of why we love sports, and the most significant thing the Bears have done to rekindle theirs with Green Bay is actually win on the field, beating the Packers twice in 22 days to end their season.

Johnson is now 2-1 as head coach against Green Bay, and quarterback Caleb Williams is 3-2 against the Packers. Their counterparts — Matt LaFleur (12-3 vs. Bears) and Jordan Love (4-3) — could make this a juicy NFC North battle for years to come. Postseason meetings make it even more exciting.

Most of the comments that have sparked conversation, over the last decade anyway, have been prompted by the Bears. Johnson got in a dig at LaFleur in his introductory news conference last January. Some point to Aaron Rodgers announcing to fans in the southwest corner of Soldier Field, “All my life, I still (expletive) own you!” during a 2021 game.

Of course, that was four years after the Bears’ low-rent trolling of Rodgers on social media the day after he broke up with girlfriend Olivia Munn in 2017. The post included a photo of a downtrodden Rodgers, eyes shut, with the hashtag “#FridayFeeling.”

“It’s OK, man,” Rodgers said when I asked him about it. “I don’t mind that kind of stuff. I like playing in Soldier Field. They have fantastic sports fans down there, and we’ve also won down there a lot. Leave (the post) up.”

The Bears, possibly oblivious to their own quarterback dilemma at the time, deleted the post the same day. Maybe the team even recognized that it contradicted requests it makes on occasion to respect the personal lives of its players.

Hammond: Fun. To Brad’s point, rivalries are what make sports … well, sports. Who are the Red Sox without the Yankees? Who are the Celtics without the Lakers? Who are the Bears without the Packers? When did it become so taboo to say you want to beat your opponent? That’s the whole point of playing the games.

Will Johnson’s comments come back around when the Packers inevitably beat the Bears down the line? Of course! They should. Packers fans wouldn’t be holding up their end of the bargain if they didn’t.

Thompson: Intriguing. “A bold move, Cotton,” as the meme goes. With every comment, from “beating Matt LaFleur twice a year” to “F−−− the Packers,” Ben Johnson ratchets up the stakes every time they meet. Good! What has playing it safe ever gotten the Bears, particularly where this rivalry’s concerned? Now the players — including any free agents or draft picks that walk into Halas Hall — know the standard from here on out. If Johnson’s mouth continues to write big checks, it’s up to his players and staff to cash them.

2. Saturday marked the first time the Bears won this season without a takeaway. Over or under 1.5 takeaways against the Rams in the divisional round?

Chicago Bears defensive end Montez Sweat and safety Kevin Byard III celebrate after Byard intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter of a game against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field in Chicago on Jan. 4, 2026. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Biggs: Under. The Rams tied for fourth in the NFL with 15 turnovers during the regular season, four more than the Bears, who were tops in the league. Stafford was intercepted once in the wild-card victory at Carolina. The Bears have seven takeaways in the last six games, and three were interceptions of Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders. Dennis Allen’s defense ought to be able to get one Sunday. The goal will be more. If they rush Stafford like they got after Love in the second half, maybe they’ll have a chance.

Hammond: I’m leaning under as well. The Bears feasted on some bad quarterback play in the regular season. It wasn’t just Sanders. Throw in Geno Smith, Joe Flacco, Spencer Rattler, J.J. McCarthy. They won’t see quarterbacks like those in the postseason. The takeaways will be harder to come by, especially against Stafford.

Thompson: I would say under: maybe one turnover. For three of the last four regular seasons, Matthew Stafford has thrown just eight interceptions. He has thrown just one interception in his last three postseason trips, though that one pick came Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. Running back Kyren Williams does have a history of putting the ball on the carpet, though he has been better this season.

3. Linebacker T.J. Edwards and left tackle Ozzy Trapilo went down with season-ending injuries. Which absence will be harder to overcome for the remainder of the playoffs?

Chicago Bears offensive tackle Ozzy Trapilo works to protect quarterback Caleb Williams in the second quarter against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Soldier Field on Nov. 23, 2025, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Biggs: Trapilo. The Rams have a pair of talented outside linebackers in Jared Verse and Byron Young, and no matter how they move them around, there will be a real threat on the left side of the offense. Young had 12 sacks during the regular season and Verse added 7½, and Los Angeles can generate a real push from the interior as well. The good thing is it won’t be a new assignment for Theo Benedet, who played plenty of left tackle this season. Expect the game plan to feature ways to help him, though. On defense, D’Marco Jackson has proved capable of filling in for Edwards.

Hammond: I’m going with Edwards. Johnson has done a great job providing help for his young left tackles, whether it was Trapilo or Benedet. He can continue to do that with extra pass protectors in the form of tight ends or running backs. Benedet’s addition to the lineup even could be a boost in the running game, where Bears coaches love his abilities. If the Bears can establish the run, that, in theory, would lead to fewer obvious passing situations. Edwards is a leader on defense. Jackson is a capable backup — he won NFC Defensive Player of the Week this season — but losing one of your best defenders before taking on a top-tier offense is a major concern.

Thompson: Trapilo’s. The linebacker group has managed to persevere through multiple injuries, including Edwards, Tremaine Edmunds and Noah Sewell being out at the same time. Special teamer D’Marco Jackson has shown himself to be capable in that role. However, Theo Benedet has more to prove. His earlier struggles are part of why Trapilo took over the left tackle job in the first place. And pass rushes only get more challenging in the playoffs.

4. How concerned should Bears fans be that the running game has not been as efficient in the last three games?

Chicago Bears running back Kyle Monangai finds an opening in the defense in the first quarter of an NFC wild-card game against the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field in Chicago on Jan. 10, 2026. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Biggs: Something seems a bit off because the running game hasn’t been as precise as it was earlier in the season. I don’t think it’s alarming, though, because all three games presented situations that made the passing game a good choice. The San Francisco 49ers have really struggled defending the pass and can’t rush the quarterback at all. The Detroit Lions secondary was a bunch of spare parts due to injuries. Trailing the Packers 21-3 at halftime, the Bears had to throw their way back into the game. That being said, a boost in the running game would really help against the Rams, who also have a susceptible secondary. They have poured their defensive resources into the front. If Williams has time to throw, there will be plays to make.

Hammond: The Rams allowed 4.3 yards per carry in the regular season (ranked 19th). They’ve had good games and bad in that area. The Bears have shown they are resilient and can beat anybody despite adverse situations. If the running game comes out slow again, it’s not a huge concern for any one game. But I do think if this Bears team is going to reach its full potential in the postseason — and at this point the sky is the limit with this team — the running game has to play at a high level at some point.

Thompson: Very. I refrain from saying “extremely concerned” because who knows what crazy plays Caleb Williams or the Bears defense or special teams can pull out of their hats to pull off a miraculous win. But, honestly, the running game is the foundation of what they do offensively, and the time of possession a strong running game creates also helps a leaky defense.

5. What’s the key to disrupting Rams QB Matthew Stafford on Sunday?

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford calls a play during the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff game against the Carolina Panthers, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)

Biggs: The best answer is always to get home with four linemen and cover with seven. If that doesn’t work — and the Bears have struggled in this endeavor — Allen will have to get creative. He’s going to have to pressure Stafford, and that might require disguising the pressures and matching coverage on the back end. If the Bears let Stafford sit back in the pocket without pressure, he could have a field day.

Hammond: This is quite a conundrum. The Bears can’t seem to get much pressure when they rush only four. Stafford has a 125.4 passer rating with 32 touchdowns and one interception when facing the blitz. While Allen threw a lot of blitzes at Love in the second half Saturday, I think he’ll be a little more selective about when he does it against the Rams. The fact is, the Bears will have to try to blitz Stafford from time to time and hope their secondary holds up when they do.

Thompson: That’s a hallmark of Sean McVay, as well: “Please blitz me.” Normally, I would suggest the bend-but-don’t-break strategy, but the Rams are seventh in red zone offense. You could try mixing up looks (with occasional blitzes and stunts thrown in) to try to throw Stafford off balance and make him leave the pocket, though he’s a 17-year veteran who has probably seen a little of everything. So, in conclusion? Beats me.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/chicago-bears-pressing-questions-divisional-round/ 

Orsted Shares Jump After Judge Allows Trump-Halted Wind Project To Resume

Tyler Durden
Tue, 01/13/2026 – 06:55

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/orsted-shares-jump-after-judge-allows-trump-halted-wind-project-resume 

Por WAFAA SHURAFA y SAMY MAGDY

DEIR AL-BALAH, Franja de Gaza (AP) — Una adolescente, dos mujeres y un hombre murieron durante la noche en Gaza después de que varios muros colapsaran sobre sus tiendas mientras lluvias y fuertes vientos azotaban el territorio costero, dijeron las autoridades hospitalarias el martes.

Las peligrosas condiciones de vida se han vuelto habituales en el territorio palestino, después de más de dos años de devastadores bombardeos israelíes y la falta de ayuda. Hay un alto el fuego en efecto desde el 10 de octubre, pero los grupos de ayuda dicen que los gazatíes carecen en general del refugio necesario para soportar las frecuentes tormentas invernales.

Los muertos eran dos mujeres, una niña de 15 años y un hombre de 72 años, según el hospital Shifa, el hospital más grande de la ciudad de Gaza, que recibió a las víctimas.

Una de las dos mujeres murió cuando una pared se derrumbó sobre su tienda en la parte occidental de la ciudad, dijo. La otra mujer, la niña y el hombre eran de la misma familia. Murieron cuando una pared se desmoronó sobre su tienda en un área costera a lo largo de la orilla del Mediterráneo de la ciudad de Gaza, dijo el hospital. Al menos otras cinco personas resultaron heridas en ese colapso.

En la ciudad central de Zawaida, imágenes de Associated Press mostraron tiendas inundadas el martes por la mañana mientras la gente trataba de reconstruir sus refugios.

Yasmin Shalha, una mujer desplazada de la ciudad norteña de Beit Lahiya, se enfrentó al viento que agitaban las lonas de las tiendas a su alrededor mientras cosía la suya con aguja e hilo. Dijo que había caído sobre su familia la noche anterior, mientras dormían.

“Los vientos eran muy, muy fuertes. La tienda se derrumbó sobre nosotros”, dijo la madre de cinco hijos a la AP mientras cosía una sábana desgarrada por el viento. “Como puede ver, nuestra situación es desesperada”.

Mohamed al-Sawalha, un hombre de 72 años del campo de refugiados del norte de Jabaliya, criticó las condiciones que sufren la mayoría de los gazatíes.

“No funciona ni en verano ni en invierno”, dijo sobre la tienda. “Dejamos atrás casas y edificios (con) puertas que se podían abrir y cerrar. Ahora vivimos en una tienda. Ni siquiera las ovejas viven como nosotros”.

La mayoría de los palestinos viven en tiendas improvisadas desde que sus hogares fueron reducidos a escombros durante la guerra. Ahora, cuando las tormentas golpean el territorio, los trabajadores de rescate palestinos advierten a las personas que no busquen refugio dentro de edificios dañados, diciendo que podrían caer sobre ellos.

Los grupos de ayuda dicen que no están entrando suficientes materiales de refugio en Gaza durante la tregua.

La campaña de bombardeos de Israel ha reducido barrios enteros a escombros y estructuras medio derrumbadas. Los residentes no pueden regresar a sus hogares en las áreas controladas por Israel de la Franja de Gaza.

La población del territorio palestino, de más de dos millones de personas, ha luchado por mantener a raya el clima frío, incluidas las lluvias y tormentas severas, mientras escasea la ayuda humanitaria e Israel prohíbe la entrada de caravanas que son muy necesarias durante los meses de invierno. Es el tercer invierno desde que la guerra entre Israel y Hamás comenzó el 7 de octubre de 2023, cuando milicianos irrumpieron en el sur de Israel y mataron a alrededor de 1.200 personas y llevaron a 251 cautivos a Gaza.

Hasta el lunes, al menos seis niños de apenas siete días murieron de hipotermia desde el inicio del invierno, según el Ministerio de Salud.

El ministerio, parte del gobierno dirigido por Hamás, dijo que 442 personas fueron asesinadas por fuego israelí y sus cuerpos llevados a hospitales desde que el alto el fuego entró en vigor hace poco más de tres meses. El ministerio mantiene registros detallados de víctimas que son considerados generalmente confiables por agencias de la ONU y expertos independientes.

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Samy Magdy informó desde El Cairo.

___

Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/fuertes-vientos-derriban-muros-en-campamentos-de-gaza-y-dejan-cuatro-muertos/ 

The other day the author Sara Levine asked me to meet her at a dog beach in Evanston. I didn’t have a hard time finding her. She said she would be wearing an orange cap and she was. The problem — and here is where I felt as though I slipped suddenly into a Sara Levine novel — was that the beach was padlocked and Levine arrived without her dog. Also, at the very moment we met, Northwestern University’s Emergency Notification System began to boom out a test, which sounds like a tornado siren with the addition of a deep male voice imploring you to stay calm, no emergency is occurring.

In a Sara Levine novel — and so far, she’s only written two in 25 years — the heroine would likely take that as a sign, like some kind of cosmic irony that an emergency was definitely occurring.

Levine suggested we meet at a dog beach because “The Hitch,” her new novel — her first since “Treasure Island!!!,” Levine’s beloved 2012 cult classic — centers on a dog attack in Evanston that leaves a corgi dead and a 6-year-old boy certain he’s possessed by the dead dog’s soul. But like “Treasure Island!!!,” it’s also funny and unhinged and so relatable you wonder if Levine, who chairs the writing department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, has been slowly making a case for the lost art of the literary comedy novel.

Indeed, Levine’s characters are so queasily recognizable, this wasn’t even the first time in recent months that I felt as if I had stepped unwittingly into a Sara Levine story. By some twist of completely off-the-wall fate, the same week I was reading an early copy of “The Hitch,” I was bitten several times by a dog. Seriously. It was bonkers. I was walking through a restaurant patio on the North Shore and a dog launched itself onto my calf like I was sirloin. My first thought: Why me? I felt like that guy in a movie who hasn’t yet become a werewolf but all of the neighborhood dogs know he’s a werewolf and start barking. And yet, it wasn’t even the dog attack that reminded me of Levine — it was the way diners glared at me, as if I interrupted their burgers. I felt a weird shame.

When I told Levine this — and that I was not that excited to hang out at a dog beach anyway, considering — she told me about the attack in Evanston that led to “The Hitch.”

“So I was walking my dog by (Evanston Township High School) and he’s a little goldendoodle and this dog — no leash, but with a pink collar — suddenly appears in the alley. It’s a pit bull. I’m not anti-pit bull and I don’t mean to stereotype. She’s a little pit, but pits do have strong jaws and she attacks my dog. This was 2020. I have these horrible voice memos with my dog wailing. Anyway, now I’m in a crisis, and what am I doing to do? I’m terrible in a crisis. I also don’t want to hurt the other dog. If I let my dog off the leash he might get hit by car, so I’m frozen there, and I’m also trying to separate them, but I’m also thinking I can’t kick this dog — even with what’s happening in front of me, I couldn’t do it. The house on the corner has a Newfoundland standing in the yard, and the woman at the house sees me. She tells me to run for her car, but it’s actually a truck with a flatbed. She grabs a shovel and starts swinging at the dog, and my legs at this point are jelly but we make it into the flatbed and the pitbull is just launching itself at us, just like Cujo. My first thought was, Did I make this happen? I had started writing about a dog, so: Did I bring this on? That’s nutty, but it’s how you feel at times when things happen.”

Sara Levine’s new novel “The Hitch.” (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Levine’s novels feel right for early January, for this gray period when we’re all expected to reassess our lives, make changes and emerge in the spring with clearer heads. The way certain works of fiction can do, her books could double as perverse self-help, starring heroines who go out of their ways to show how not to conduct your life. Her writing voice, sardonic, breezy, chimes with Joy Williams and Donald Barthelme, but it’s hard not to hear “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and even “The Office” — that nexus where unraveling people lacking self-awareness stumble across empathy.

The heroine of “Treasure Island!!!” — a 25-year old clerk of a “pet library” — reads Robert Louis Stevenson’s legendary adventure and quickly reassess her narrow timid life, deciding there and then to live by a credo culled from Stevenson: Boldness, Resolution, Independence, Horn-blowing. But by the end, she kills a parrot and is so obsessed with “Treasure Island,” family and friends stage an intervention between her and the novel. The heroine of “The Hitch” could be related, if only tangentially: Her name is Rose Cutler and she is an Evanston yogurt company CEO (as well as “antiracist, secular Jewish feminist eco-warrior”). Rose is also perilously up her own keister. She does not want children (“not for one atom-spitting second”) but she is never so shy with opinions about the way her brother and sister-in-law raise their own kid. When they go on vacation, Rose jumps at the chance to play aunt for a week — which is when the dog attack occurs, her nephew decides (cheerfully) the dog’s soul leapt bodies, and worse.

Rose is a micromanager, and lousy in a crisis. It spoils nothing to say the closest she gets to enlightenment is a brief ah-ha: “Sometimes my mind gets active as a prairie dog and I build elaborate tunnels underground, room after room of judgement and justification.”

The writer Roxane Gay — who once included Levine’s work in an essay on unlikeable women characters (“Not Here to Make Friends”) — said that just after she landed her own imprint (Roxane Gay Books) at Grove Atlantic, she sought out Levine and asked what she was working on: “It had been some time since ‘Treasure Island!!!’ and Sara did not disappoint. The writing voice I fell in love with was still there, but she had grown, and though this Rose character was older, you’re reminded that sometimes we don’t really outgrow our lesser selves — that sometimes we just learn to live with them, you know?”

Levine told Gay that not every reader is a fan of unlikeable woman characters. She told Gay about the (smallish) subset of Goodreads reviewers who describe her women as “utterly unlikeable” and “irredeemable.” Gay told me, “I don’t know why writers are so willing to expose themselves to Goodreads. Some people have a parasocial relationship with book characters, and it meets a puritanical streak where people decide they don’t like a character who is a ‘bad person,’ forgetting flawed people exist. Rose is convinced she knows the right way to do things and her ethics are in the right place — bless her heart.”

Levine’s sweet spot is what literary scholars have long called “unreliable narration” — she even taught a class at Brown University (where she got her Ph.D. in English) on the topic. Levine said: “My father’s a psychiatrist and he tells me we’re all unreliable narrators. But in a novel, it means there’s a deficit of comprehension from the character telling the story and that deficit is part of the story. But when I hear from people who hated ‘Treasure Island!!!,’ often they think I’m the narrator. My feelings get hurt. But maybe they don’t understand that gap. It took me a long time to realize it.

“Or maybe ‘unreliable’ is the wrong term for this. Should I just refer to my characters as ‘difficult women’? No, maybe not — I was at a party recently and told someone I write about ‘difficult women’ and this person said, ‘OK, wait, what do you mean by difficult …?’”

Sara Levine sits in home writing space on Jan. 9, 2026, in Evanston. Levine is the chair of the writing department at School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a novelist whose new book, “The Hitch,” follows her 2011 novel Treasure Island. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Horror novelist Paul Tremblay — whom Levine consulted to get a sense of how to handle the possession part of “The Hitch” — is a big fan of Levine, and included “Treasure Island!!!” on his ballot for the New York Times poll of the best books of the 21st century. Part of that appreciation, he said, is “how she is reviving an old tradition of first-person a-hole narrators. Think of ‘Confederacy of Dunes,’ or the novels of Sam Lipsyte, except publishers don’t like books by women who go there. Readers are getting more literal, I think. It can feel like a risk to just include any moral uncertainty in a novel now. I hear this especially from younger readers, who want to know what the moral is, and the thing is we are not writing to bestow morals but explain what it means to be human, which can be dark and uncomfortable — all words I would use to describe Sara’s books.”

You could also argue the long afterlife of “Treasure Island!!” — a perpetual word-of-mouth bookseller favorite, handed down to friends who can relate to spiraling exhaustion — is a mirror of contemporary America. Or at least indie culture: Rose Byrne is likely to grab an Oscar nomination soon for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” as a stressed mother who makes a series of bad decisions; she’d slide neatly into Levine’s books. Levine is one of your favorite literary writers’ best-kept secrets: Blurbs for “The Hitch” came from Elizabeth Gilbert, Rumaan Alam, Adam Levin and Chicagoan Michael Zapata, who told me: “Blurbs can be blurby, but the one I wrote was truly sincere.” “Treasure Island!!!,” which has yet to be adapted to TV or film (but probably will be one day), has already been developed (and dropped) by Natalie Portman and James Franco.

Levine sounds almost naive about the depth of this love.

She told me another established screenwriter got pretty far with “Treasure Island!!!” but then appeared to bail and never signed their contract; Levine never heard from the woman again. One day, during a class at SAIC, she projected an email exchange between her and the writer as an illustration of professional etiquette. “I had to explain how she opted out of the project, and as students do, one took out his phone and googled the woman’s name and a minute later replied, ‘Oh, Sara, no — that woman had died. That’s probably why she never got back to you.’”

Sounds like a Sara Levine story, I said.

“It does?” she asked.

Sara Levine sifts through a box of drawings from 2012 that she created in the early stages of writing her novel “The Hinge” at her home on Jan. 9, 2026, in Evanston. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

To be frank, the biggest disappointment about Sara Levine is that she’s not nuts. I anticipated erratic and flighty and I got calm and rational. James McManus, author of the poker memoir “Positively Fifth Street,” who taught alongside Levine for 25 years, said: “She is as sane and responsible an adult as they come. In fact, (SAIC) wanted her to move into even more active leadership roles, but that can be a time suck, creatively.”

She has long gray hair and large cartoon eyes and comes across as naturally funny. She said people do expect her to be a wacko. “Someone introduced me at a party recently as ‘one of the most sane people’ at the Art Institute, or maybe it was ‘the least insane.’”

Levine, who is 55, grew up outside Cleveland and wrote a couple of plays that were produced when she was still a teenager (one professionally, for a Cleveland theater group). She went to Northwestern for theater only to find her way to creative writing. She then bounced from Brown to the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa to SAIC, which she joined in 2000. She describes herself as “ornery” that entire time. She threatened to drop out of Brown, refused to start a novel, moved to Iowa to teach non-fiction, only to decide, “‘I don’t want to live here, I don’t want to teach this my whole life’ — it was like looking into my coffin.”

She found she was more interested in “‘hysterical’ voices, the more obstreperous personalities of fiction.” “Treasure Island!!!,” which she began to see if she could write a novel after years of short stories and nonfiction academia, took a decade, but she found that she was more ambitious than she knew. She also learned she had a knack for describing everyday suburbia with cutting precision: “The Hitch” is filled with Evanston parents who over-schedule kids so much you wonder if they “can’t sit still in a room” with children. Doctor’s offices offer “six televisions playing six different channels.” Vast expanses of Illinois contain “a strip of road that featured an abandoned movie theatre, a discount shoe store, and a cemetery bordered by a six-foot high metal fence capped with snow,” as well as a hospital “founded in affiliation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church and rooted in the belief that all persons were created in the image of God, a hospital that had not in the past five years received higher than a two-star Yelp review.”

Sara Levine sits in her home writing space with her dog Lenny on Jan. 9, 2026, in Evanston.(Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

After “Treasure Island!!!,” she wrote a big sprawling novel titled “Leave It,” a more lyrical and somber kaleidoscope of Evanston characters; she didn’t want to follow one “difficult woman” with a second. She gave it to her agent, but then soon after, she pulled it back and shelved it.

“I was worried I was reinforcing the ‘hysterical’ woman thing, so I wrote something else, but that something else? Other people do that book well. So I have this narrow track. Twyla Tharp talks about knowing your own creative DNA, and that helped me. I’ve always had teachers who said you need to keep growing, you’ve got to keep pushing, that there is a natural aesthetic restlessness where you should never repeat yourself. I really bought into that. But what if it’s helpful to focus on one form and go very deep into only that? Look at Monet, who spent a lifetime painting haystacks …”

“‘Compares self to Monet,’” I interrupted, joking, pretending to jot that in my notebook.

“Oh, and also Nabokov!” she said, laughing. “And of course Jane Austen! Write that down.”

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/whats-like-got-to-do-with-it-evanstons-sara-levine-on-the-art-of-difficult-women/ 

RFK Jr. Alleges Germany Targeting Doctors For Legitimate Vaccine, Mask Exemptions

Tyler Durden
Tue, 01/13/2026 – 06:30

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/rfk-jr-alleges-germany-targeting-doctors-legitimate-vaccine-mask-exemptions 

Por GHAITH ALSAYED

ALEPO, Siria (AP) — El ejército sirio declaró el martes como “zona militar cerrada” un área al este de la ciudad norteña de Alepo, lo que podría apuntar a otra escalada de la violencia entre las fuerzas gubernamentales y combatientes de las Fuerzas Democráticas Sirias lideradas por los kurdos.

Varios días de enfrentamientos la semana pasada en la ciudad de Alepo, que desplazaron a decenas de miles de personas, llegaron a su fin durante el fin de semana con la evacuación de combatientes kurdos del barrio disputado de Sheikh Maqsoud.

Desde entonces, los funcionarios sirios han acusado a las FDS de aumentar sus fuerzas cerca de las ciudades de Maskana y Deir Hafer, unos 60 kilómetros al este de la ciudad de Alepo, algo que las FDS negaron.

La agencia estatal de noticias SANA informó que el ejército había declarado el área como una zona militar cerrada debido a la “movilización continua” por parte de las FDS “y porque sirve como punto de lanzamiento para drones suicidas iraníes que han atacado la ciudad de Alepo”.

El sábado por la tarde, un dron explosivo impactó el edificio de la gobernación de Alepo poco después de que dos ministros del gabinete y un funcionario local celebraran una conferencia de prensa sobre los acontecimientos en la ciudad. Las FDS negaron estar detrás del ataque.

El comunicado del ejército el martes indicó que los grupos armados deberían retirarse al área al este del río Éufrates.

Las tensiones surgen en medio de un estancamiento en las negociaciones políticas entre el estado central y las FDS.

El gobierno en Damasco que dirige el presidente interino Ahmad al-Sharaa firmó un acuerdo en marzo con las FDS, que controlan gran parte del noreste, para que se fusionen con el ejército sirio para finales de 2025. Ha habido desacuerdos sobre cómo se llevaría a cabo.

Algunas de las facciones que componen el nuevo ejército sirio, formado tras la caída del expresidente Bashar Assad en una ofensiva rebelde en diciembre de 2024, fueron anteriormente grupos insurgentes respaldados por Turquía que tienen una larga historia de enfrentamientos con las fuerzas kurdas.

Las FDS han sido durante años el principal socio de Estados Unidos en Siria en la lucha contra el grupo Estado Islámico, pero Turquía considera a las FDS una organización terrorista debido a su asociación con el Partido de los Trabajadores del Kurdistán, o PKK, que ha llevado a cabo una insurgencia de larga duración en Turquía. Ahora está en marcha un proceso de paz.

A pesar del apoyo prolongado de Estados Unidos a las FDS, el gobierno de Trump en Estados Unidos también ha estrechado lazos con el gobierno de Al Sharaa y ha presionado a los kurdos para implementar el acuerdo de marzo.

Shams TV, una estación con sede en Irbil, la sede de la región kurda semiautónoma del norte de Irak, tenía previsto emitir una entrevista con Al Sharaa el lunes, pero luego anunció que se había pospuesto por razones “técnicas” sin dar una nueva fecha para su emisión.

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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/el-ejrcito-sirio-declara-zona-militar-cerrada-al-este-de-alepo-ante-tensiones-con-kurdos/ 

Oak Park officials and business owners are welcoming news of Barnes & Noble’s plans to open in the downtown district.

The national bookseller earlier this month announced plans to open four stores in the Chicago area by summertime. In addition to a location in Oak Park, Barnes & Noble will be opening stores in Hyde Park, Skokie and on State Street in Chicago.

The Oak Park store will be at 1144 Lake Street, which once housed a Marshall Field’s store. The building, which last was home to a Borders bookstore, has been vacant for 12 years.

Barnes & Noble will take up about 25,000 square feet on the first and lower levels of the building, said John C. Melaniphy, Oak Park’s assistant village manager of economic vitality.

Melaniphy said the property owner is making a significant investment to upgrade upgrade building systems and other improvements in the building, which was granted landmark status in November by the Oak Park Village Board.

“The village sees this as a positive redevelopment of the property,” Melaniphy said.

He said the bookstore is expected to open as early as May.

Though there are other bookstores in the downtown district, Melaniphy said Barnes & Noble will be a benefit to the shopping district.

“Every single business adds to the vitality of the community and we’re hopeful that Barnes & Noble will draw consumers from a wide area and assist in drawing additional consumers to our other bookstores,” he said.

Some of the village’s other bookshop owners agreed.

“I’m a firm believer that the more bookstores there are in an area, the more book lovers will visit all of them,” said Steve Kirshenbaum, owner of The Looking Glass, a used bookstore in the downtown district celebrating its 12th anniversary this year.

Barnes & Noble’s announcement comes about a year after The Book Table, a popular Oak Park bookshop, closed. The Book Loft Oak Park opened five months ago in the space vacated by The Book Table.

While Barnes & Noble will bring some competition, owners of The Book Loft said each of the village’s book stores offers something different for customers.

“Our community can still support both,” aid Heather Nelson, who co-owns The Book Loft with Sophie Schauer Eldred. “As someone who lives here, I’m happy to see that building coming back to life.”

Filling a 25,000 square foot space, Melaniphy said, Barnes & Noble will take the downtown district’s largest vacancy off the market. Most of the other vacant spaces offer 4,000 square feet or less for retailers.

Amelia Dellos, marketing director for the Downtown Oak Park Business Alliance, also was excited about the Barnes & Noble plan.

“Of course, we are thrilled to see that the vacant storefront has been rented after so many years, not only in a marquee spot on Harlem and Lake but also in a historic building that has been lying dormant,” she said. “We know that Barnes & Noble will increase foot traffic and business throughout our business district.”

Melaniphy added that the landlord will receive property tax benefits over the next 12 years as he improves the building. And though the landlord will get a break on property taxes, the village will see an increase in sales tax revenue once the store opens.

“We’re going to enjoy a significant increase in sales taxes from this location over many years to come,” he said.

Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/barnes-noble-oak-park-borders-building/