As the 14 playoff-bound teams set their sites on a Super Bowl title, the rest of the teams in the NFL are already on to the 2026 season.

With six teams already looking for new coaches, this month will require several top assistants on playoff teams to balance in both worlds.

The New York Giants, Tennessee, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Cleveland and Arizona have already fired their head coach, setting off searches for replacements that will include playoff-bound assistants.

The NFL has strict rules on when — and how long — those coaches can talk to other teams while their seasons are still alive. Here’s a look at some of the protocols in place for the coaching searches.

When can the interviews begin?

Teams can start interviewing candidates not employed by another organization as soon as they have an opening. But for coaches employed by other teams, the process is more formal.

Teams were able to start making interview requests for coaches under contract to another team beginning Monday.

For teams that didn’t make the playoffs, their coaches can be interviewed virtually three days after their final game — Tuesday for coaches on Tampa Bay, or Wednesday for any other non-playoff team.

The process is different for assistants on playoff teams. For the two teams with a bye, those virtual interviews can be held this week with Seattle’s assistants available starting Tuesday and Denver’s on Wednesday. Those interviews can be conducted through wild-card weekend and are limited to three hours in length.

For assistants coaching on wild-card weekend, they can have a virtual interview of up to three hours beginning Jan. 13, except for coaches on Houston and Pittsburgh, who must wait until Jan. 14 because they play Monday night.

What comes next?

In-person interviews with assistants who are under contract with other teams can begin on Jan. 19, unless those teams are still alive for the conference title games.

Those coaches must wait until Jan. 26, when either they were eliminated from the playoffs or have a bye week before the Super Bowl. Coaches on the Super Bowl teams are allowed to be interviewed through Feb. 1 but are forbidden from talking to other teams after that until Feb. 9, the day after the Super Bowl.

Coaches on the Super Bowl teams are not allowed to interview in person with other teams during the bye week if they hadn’t done an initial virtual interview earlier in January.

No coach can either sign a contract or agree to sign a contract until their season is completed.

What’s the Rooney Rule?

Teams must abide by the Rooney Rule, which was first implemented in 2003 to boost minority hiring. Before hiring a new head coach, teams are required to conduct in-person interviews with at least two diverse — minority or female — candidates who don’t currently work for the team.

The rules are the same for all coordinator positions and clubs must interview one diverse candidate for any quarterback coach job.

What about GMs?

The rules are a little different for interviewing candidates for general manager. Teams could start seeking permission on Monday to interview candidates from other organizations who weren’t the primary decision maker.

Teams must conduct in-person interviews of at least two minority or women candidates from outside the organization to satisfy the Rooney Rule.

A GM candidate from a team in the playoffs can accept the job before their season is over if their current team provides written permission.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/06/nfl-rules-interviews-coaching-search/ 

Vistra Jumps After Buying 10 Nat Gas-Fired Power Plants For $4 Billion

Tyler Durden
Tue, 01/06/2026 – 09:25

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/vistra-jumps-after-buying-10-nat-gas-fired-power-plants-4-billion 

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Monday an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of the NATO military alliance. Her comments came in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed call for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island to come under U.S. control in the aftermath of the weekend military operation in Venezuela.

The dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas to capture leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife early Saturday left the world stunned, and heightened concerns in Denmark and Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of the Danish kingdom and thus part of NATO.

President Donald Trump says the US ‘needs’ Greenland for Arctic security. Here’s why.

Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens Frederik Nielsen, blasted the president’s comments and warned of catastrophic consequences. Numerous European leaders expressed solidarity with them.

“If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2 on Monday. “That is, including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War.”

20-day timeline deepens fears

Trump called repeatedly during his presidential transition and the early months of his second term for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has not ruled out military force to take control of the island. His comments Sunday, including telling reporters “let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days,” further deepened fears that the U.S. was planning an intervention in Greenland in the near future.

Frederiksen also said Trump “should be taken seriously” when he says he wants Greenland. “We will not accept a situation where we and Greenland are threatened in this way,” she added.

Nielsen, in a news conference Monday, said Greenland cannot be compared to Venezuela. He urged his constituents to stay calm and united.

“We are not in a situation where we think that there might be a takeover of the country overnight and that is why we are insisting that we want good cooperation,” he said.

Nielsen added: “The situation is not such that the United States can simply conquer Greenland.”

Ask Rostrup, a TV2 political journalist, wrote on the station’s live blog Monday that Mette previously would have flatly rejected the idea of an American takeover of Greenland. But now, Rostrup wrote, the rhetoric has escalated so much that she has to acknowledge the possibility.

Trump slams Denmark’s security efforts in Greenland

Trump on Sunday also mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.

“It’s so strategic right now,” Trump had told reporters Sunday as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. “Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”

He added: “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

But Ulrik Pram Gad, a global security expert from the Danish Institute for International Studies, wrote in a report last year that “there are indeed Russian and Chinese ships in the Arctic, but these vessels are too far away to see from Greenland with or without binoculars.”

U.S. space base in northwestern Greenland

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled this weekend by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON.”

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark’s chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump’s influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

The U.S. Department of Defense operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland. It was built following a 1951 defense agreement between Denmark and the United States. It supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.

On Denmark’s mainland, the partnership between the U.S. and Denmark has been long-lasting. The Danes buy American F-35 fighter jets and just last year, Denmark’s parliament approved a bill to allow U.S. military bases on Danish soil.

Critics say the vote ceded Danish sovereignty to the U.S. The legislation widens a previous military agreement, made in 2023 with the Biden administration, where U.S. troops had broad access to Danish air bases in the Scandinavian country.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/06/us-takeover-greenland-nato/ 

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — From the smoldering wreckage of two catastrophic world wars in the last century, nations came together to build an edifice of international rules and laws. The goal was to prevent such sprawling conflicts in the future.

Now that world order — centered at the United Nations headquarters in New York, near the courtroom where Nicolás Maduro was arraigned Monday after his removal from power in Venezuela — appears in danger of crumbling as the doctrine of “might makes right” muscles its way back onto the global stage.

Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro says ‘I was captured’ as he pleads not guilty to drug trafficking charges

U.N. Undersecretary-General Rosemary A. DiCarlo told the body’s Security Council on Monday that the “maintenance of international peace and security depends on the continued commitment of all member states to adhere to all the provisions of the (U.N.) Charter.”

U.S. President Donald Trump insists capturing Maduro was legal. His administration has declared the drug cartels operating from Venezuela to be unlawful combatants and said the U.S. is now in an “armed conflict” with them, according to an administration memo obtained in October by The Associated Press.

The mission to snatch Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from their home on a military base in the capital Caracas means they face charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, defended the military action as a justified “surgical law enforcement operation.”

The move fits into the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy, published last month, that lays out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a key goal of the U.S. president’s second term in the White House.

But could it also serve as a blueprint for further action?

Worry rises about future action

On Sunday evening, Trump also put Venezuela’s neighbor, Colombia, and its leftist president, Gustavo Petro, on notice.

In a back-and-forth with reporters, Trump said Colombia is “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.” The Trump administration imposed sanctions in October on Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade. Colombia is considered the epicenter of the world’s cocaine trade.

Analysts and some world leaders — from China to Mexico — have condemned the Venezuela mission. Some voiced fears that Maduro’s ouster could pave the way for more military interventions and a further erosion of the global legal order.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the capture of Maduro “runs counter to the principle of the non-use of force, which forms the basis of international law.”

He warned the “increasing number of violations of this principle by nations vested with the important responsibility of permanent membership on the United Nations Security Council will have serious consequences for global security and will spare no one.”

Here are some global situations that could be affected by changing attitudes on such issues.

Ukraine

For nearly four years, Europe has been dealing with Russia’s war of aggression in neighboring Ukraine, a conflict that grates against the eastern flank of the continent and the transatlantic NATO alliance and has widely been labeled a grave breach of international law.

The European Union relies deeply on U.S. support to keep Ukraine afloat, particularly after the administration warned that Europe must look after its own security in the future.

Vasily Nebenzya, the Russian ambassador to the U.N., said the mission to extract Maduro amounted to “a turn back to the era of lawlessness” by the United States. During the U.N. Security Council’s emergency meeting, he called on the 15-member panel to “unite and to definitively reject the methods and tools of U.S. military foreign policy.”

Volodymyr Fesenko, chairman of the board of the Penta think tank in Kyiv, Ukraine, said Russian President Vladimir Putin has long undermined the global order and weakened international law.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “Trump’s actions have continued this trend.”

Greenland

Trump fanned another growing concern for Europe when he openly speculated about the future of the Danish territory of Greenland.

“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump told reporters Sunday as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement that Trump has “no right to annex” the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the U.S., a fellow NATO member, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.

Taiwan

The mission to capture Maduro has ignited speculation about a similar move China could make against the leader of Taiwan, Lai Ching-te. Just last week, in response to a U.S. plan to sell a massive military arms package to Taipei, China conducted two days of military drills around the island democracy that Beijing claims as its own territory.

Beijing, however, is unlikely to replicate Trump’s action in Venezuela, which could prove destabilizing and risky.

Chinese strategy has been to gradually increase pressure on Taiwan through military harassment, propaganda campaigns and political influence rather than to single out Lai as a target. China looks to squeeze Taiwan into eventually accepting a status similar to Hong Kong and Macau, which are governed semi-autonomously on paper but have come under increasing central control.

For China, Maduro’s capture also brings a layer of uncertainty about the Trump administration’s ability to move fast, unpredictably and audaciously against other governments. Beijing has criticized Maduro’s capture, calling it a “blatant use of force against a sovereign state” and saying Washington is acting as the “world’s judge.”

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the United States had “wantonly trampled on Venezuela’s sovereignty and security.”

The Mideast

Israel’s grinding attack on Gaza in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas underscored the international community’s inability to stop a devastating conflict. The United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, vetoed Security Council resolutions calling for ceasefires in Gaza.

Trump already has demonstrated his willingness to take on Israel’s neighbor and longtime U.S. adversary Iran over its nuclear program with military strikes on sites in Iran in June 2025.

On Friday, Trump warned Iran that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the U.S. “will come to their rescue.” Violence sparked by Iran’s ailing economy has killed at least 35 people, activists said Tuesday.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the “illegal U.S. attack against Venezuela.”

Europe and Trump

The 27-nation European Union, another post-World War II institution intended to foster peace and prosperity, is grappling with how to respond to its traditional ally under the Trump administration. In a clear indication of the increasingly fragile nature of the transatlantic relationship, Trump’s national security strategy painted the bloc as weak.

While insisting Maduro has no political legitimacy, the EU said in a statement on the mission to capture him that “the principles of international law and the U.N. Charter must be upheld,” adding that members of the U.N. Security Council “have a particular responsibility to uphold those principles.”

But outspoken Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close Trump ally, spoke disparagingly about the role international law plays in regulating the behavior of countries.

International rules, he said, “do not govern the decisions of many great powers. This is completely obvious.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/06/trump-capture-nicolas-maduro/ 

Deaths of on-duty law enforcement officers in the U.S. decreased by nearly 25% in 2025, according to an annual report.

The report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, shared with The Associated Press ahead of its release Tuesday, shows a drop in all categories of fatalities, from 148 total deaths in 2024 to 111 last year.

Officer firearm fatalities dropped to 44, a 15% decrease from 52 in 2024 and the lowest number in at least a decade, according to the Fund’s previous annual officer fatality reports.

“I always like to see that firearms deaths are down. They are the tip of the spear for egregious acts,” said Bill Alexander, the chief executive officer of the Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that works to memorialize fallen officers, educate the public about the profession and improve officer safety.

Traffic-related deaths also decreased nearly 23% between 2024 and 2025, including both fatal traffic accidents and officers killed after being struck by a vehicle — usually during traffic stops.

“Even one officer fatality is too many, and our ultimate goal is to have none. But we’re heartened by any decrease in those numbers,” Alexander said.

Alexander said the reduction in traffic-related officer deaths likely can be attributed to an increase in the national conversation around officer safety on the road. More states around the country have passed “move-over” laws requiring drivers to move out of the lane closest to traffic stops or accidents while passing them. There have been increased efforts to direct officers to approach the passenger side of cars during traffic stops, removing them from travel lanes, Alexander said.

The reason behind the decrease in firearm fatalities is harder to define. While many departments have offered increased safety training and have better equipment for firearm injuries, Alexander said luck and other unquantifiable factors also play a role.

“Some of it could come down to an officer being shot close to a hospital or maybe the officers had a tactical emergency kit or better blood stopping equipment,” he said.

Fewer fatalities also doesn’t mean fewer instances of officers being shot or being shot at, he said.

The National Fraternal Order of Police tracks the number of officer shootings, both fatal and non-fatal. That report does not include incidents where officers were shot at and not struck by gunfire.

The 2025 FOP report, released this week, showed there was a small increase in officers shot while on-duty last year — increasing from 342 in 2024 to 347 in 2025.

Among the high-profile shooting deaths in 2025 was Andrew Duarte, a West York Borough Police Department officer who was shot and killed in February while responding to a man who had taken several people hostage in a York, Pennsylvania hospital. And law enforcement officers from around the country attended funeral services Monday for Delaware State Trooper Matthew “Ty” Snook, who was shot and killed while he was working an overtime shift at a DMV office on Dec. 23, after pushing a DMV employee out of the way of the gunman.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund’s fatality report also showed no on-duty officer fatalities in 17 states and Washington D.C., and none at the nation’s federal and tribal law enforcement agencies last year.

It also showed a 37% drop in the “other” fatalities category that includes physical or medical issues from on-duty incidents and most other fatalities like stabbings, drownings or plane crashes. The number dropped from 52 in 2024 to 33 in 2025, and includes 14 officers who died last year from illnesses related to responding to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Previous annual reports included COVID-19 deaths, which increased fatality numbers significantly in 2020 and 2021, but Alexander said COVID deaths have not been included as on-duty fatalities in the last two years. The report also does not include officers who committed suicide, though Alexander said the group is having conversations about how to honor and include those officers.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/06/deaths-law-enforcement-officers/ 

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will gather with House Republicans on Tuesday to ensure they’re aligned on their agenda at the start of a critical midterm election year that could alter the course of his final two years in office.

GOP lawmakers are hosting a daylong policy forum at the Kennedy Center, the performing arts venue on the other side of Washington from the Capitol. Its board, which is stacked with Trump loyalists, recently voted to rename it the Trump Kennedy Center, though that move is being challenged in court.

House Republicans are convening as they launch their new year agenda, with health care issues in particular dogging the GOP heading into the midterm elections. Votes on extending expired health insurance subsidies are expected as soon as this week, and it’s unclear whether the president and the party will try to block its passage.

Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., are trying to corral Republican lawmakers when GOP leaders have a thin majority in the chamber. Meanwhile, rank-and-file lawmakers have felt increasingly emboldened enough to buck Trump and the leadership’s wishes, such as on the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

With Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation taking effect at midnight Tuesday, Republican leaders now have a 219-213 majority in the House.

The meeting also comes after the Trump administration’s dramatic capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, which occurred after a monthslong U.S. campaign to pressure the now-deposed leader by building up American forces in the waters off South America and bombing boats alleged to have been carrying drugs.

The Maduro capture is reigniting the debate about Trump’s powers over Congress to authorize the campaign against Venezuela, though House Republican lawmakers have largely been supportive of the administration’s efforts there.

Among the topics likely to be discussed on Tuesday are promoting and implementing the GOP’s marquee tax-and-border legislation, as well as a broader affordability agenda and midterm politics, according to a Republican official who was involved in the planning of the meeting and insisted on anonymity to discuss it.

Republicans are also mulling a potential second tax bill that could be passed with just party line votes while confronting the possibility of a potential partial government shutdown at the end of the month.

It is unclear why House Republicans chose the Kennedy Center venue for their off-campus session. House GOP meetings are generally held in the Capitol or a nearby site off campus if they are discussing political matters. The speaker’s office did not respond to a request for further comment.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/06/trump-house-republicans-election-agenda/ 

Several European leaders pushed back Tuesday on U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments seeking an American takeover of Greenland.

The leaders issued a statement reaffirming the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island “belongs to its people.”

President Donald Trump says the US ‘needs’ Greenland for Arctic security. Here’s why.

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in defending Greenland’s sovereignty in the wake of Trump’s comments about Greenland, which is a self-governing territory of the kingdom of Denmark and thus part of the NATO military alliance.

“Greenland belongs to its people,” the statement said. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said Monday that Greenland should be part of the United States in spite of a warning by Frederiksen that a U.S. takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of NATO.

“The president has been clear for months now that the United States should be the nation that has Greenland as part of our overall security apparatus,” Miller said during an interview with CNN Monday afternoon.

His comments came after the Danish leader, together with Greenland’s prime minister and other European leaders, firmly rejected Trump’s renewed call for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island to come under U.S. control in the aftermath of the weekend U.S. military operation in Venezuela.

Trump has argued the U.S. needs to control Greenland to ensure the security of the NATO territory in the face of rising threats from China and Russia in the Arctic.

“It’s so strategic right now,” he told reporters Sunday.

“Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump said. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Miller wondered during his interview Monday whether Denmark can assert control over Greenland.

“What is the basis of their territorial claim,” Miller said. “What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark?”

However, it was not necessary to consider whether the U.S. administration was contemplating an armed intervention, he said.

“There is no need to even think or talk about this in the context that you are asking, of a military operation. Nobody is going to fight the U.S. militarily over the future of Greenland,” he said.

Greenland holds strategic importance

Greenland had been a colony of the Danish kingdom for hundreds of years, becoming an integral part in 1953. The U.S. government recognized Denmark’s right to the whole of Greenland at the beginning of the 20th century.

Legislation in 2009 that extended self-government to Greenland also recognized a right to independence under international law, an option favored by a majority of Greenlanders.

Greenland sits off the northeastern coast of Canada, with more than two-thirds of its territory lying within the Arctic Circle. That location has made it crucial to the defense of North America since World War II.

The U.S. Department of Defense operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland. Constructed after a 1951 defense agreement between Denmark and the U.S., the base supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.

Greenland also guards part of the GIUK Gap, named for the initials of Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom, where NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic.

Greenland also has large deposits of rare earth minerals needed to make everything from computers and smartphones to the batteries, solar and wind technologies that will power a transition away from fossil fuels. The U.S. Geological Survey also has identified potential offshore deposits of oil and natural gas.

Dispute creates major anxiety

What started out as a social media post on Saturday by Miller’s wife over the weekend quickly turned into something that Denmark now perceives as a real threat.

Katie Miller, a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, posted an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the U.S. flag accompanied by the caption: “SOON.”

Trump’s comments Sunday, including telling reporters “let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days,” deepened fears that the U.S. was planning a Greenland intervention in the near future.

Frederiksen said Monday that Trump’s comments about Greenland “should be taken seriously.”

“If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2. “That is, including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War.”

Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen insisted on the need for good relations with the US

“We are not in a situation where we think that there might be a takeover of the country overnight and that is why we are insisting that we want good cooperation,” he said Monday night.

U.S. Reps. Steny H. Hoyer and Blake Moore, co-chairs of the bipartisan Congressional Friends of Denmark Caucus, issued a joint statement Monday urging calm.

“Sabre-rattling about annexing Greenland is needlessly dangerous,” they said. “An attack on Greenland — a crucial part of that alliance — would tragically be an attack on NATO.”

“We already have access to everything we could need from Greenland,” the congressmen said, noting Denmark has previously given the U.S. a green light to deploy more forces or build additional missile defense infrastructure in Greenland.

Ulrik Pram Gad, a global security expert at the Danish Institute for International Studies, questioned Trump’s characterization of the Russian and Chinese presence in the region.

“There are indeed Russian and Chinese ships in the Arctic, but these vessels are too far away to see from Greenland with or without binoculars,” he wrote.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/06/european-leaders-push-back-on-trumps-comments-about-a-us-takeover-of-greenland/ 

A male victim was injured and displaced overnight in a fire on the Far South Side in the Roseland neighborhood, Chicago police said.

About 2 a.m., police and firefighters were called to a fire in the 11100 block of South State Street where the fire was extinguished and a male victim was discovered. The victim was taken to UChicago Medicine in serious condition, police said.

The man’s exact injuries were unknown, but the cause of the fire was under investigation.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/06/fire-roseland-neighborhood/ 

A woman and a man were stabbed Monday night during a fight on a CTA platform in the Grand Crossing neighborhood, Chicago police said.

Shortly before 11 p.m., officers responded to a call of people stabbed on a CTA platform in the first block of West 69th Street. A preliminary investigation revealed a 17-year-old girl and a 37-year-old woman were involved in a fight with someone who pulled out a sharp object and attacked the victims, police said.

The 37-year-old woman suffered wounds to the right chest and was taken to UChicago Medicine and listed in fair condition. Officers also located a 24-year-old man who was stabbed to the upper back and was taken in fair condition to the same hospital, police said.

No one was in custody and detectives were investigating.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/06/cta-platform-grand-crossing-stabbing/ 

Kamelya Alexan sat in a ballroom at the Beverly Hills Hilton, awaiting the announcement of the awards at the Beverly Hills Film Festival this spring. It wasn’t quite the Oscars — although her film did make the “long list” for Oscar documentary nominations —but it was about as close to it as the filmmaker  had yet experienced.

Her film, about an Evanston native who’s a serious athlete  despite being blind, was up against some Hollywood heavyweights, including a documentary on film legend Martin Scorsese. When the announcement came for the audience choice award, though, Alexan’s name was called.

“It was unbelievable,” said, who also grew up in Evanston. “It’s just crazy that this little film won. But it shows you that if you truly put your heart and soul into something, and you have really good intentions, you will be rewarded.”

Her film, “I’m Only Blind,” is a profile of 66-year-old Tim Paul, a visually impaired man who competes in marathons and triathlons and hasn’t let his blindness deter him from living his life to the fullest. Both Alexan and Paul continue to call the Chicago area home.

Alexan has worked in the film industry in and around Chicago most of her adult life since graduating from Columbia College in 2007. She’s often involved with Hollywood productions that come to town, but she also enjoys working on smaller projects.

Her first film was “Changing the Disciple,” about a Chicago man who escaped gang life. “I do these passion projects, and I like underdog stories,” she says. “These are the stories that really fuel me.”

Tim Paul, an Evanston native and subject of the documentary “I’m Only Blind,” is shown finishing the 2025 Chicago marathon with guide Brendaa Valdivia. Filmmaker Kamelya Alexan, who also grew up in Evanston, won a Beverly Hills Film Fest award for the documentary. (Kamelya Alexan)

Her friend at the gym told her that he knew of a great subject, Tim Paul, a blind man who worked at the Chicago Lighthouse, who has run more than 20 marathons. He thought they should meet.

“And I thought, how does a man work at a lighthouse who’s blind,” Alexan recalls. “I thought he was talking about a lighthouse on Lake Michigan.”

It was, in fact, the Chicago Lighthouse, an organization founded in 1906, that provides vision care and social services to help visually impaired people and their families. “So I feel pretty silly,
but still, I love this story. I think, if half the stuff he’s telling me about this guy is true, the world deserves to know about him.”

Alexan arranged to meet Paul for coffee. The two ended up talking for six hours, and she knew at that point that this was a person worth putting on film.

“I couldn’t get enough of Tim,” she said. “And that inspired me to go out for a run the next day. And when I found a lucky dollar on the floor, I thought, I have to make this movie. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. But we’ll figure it out.”

Tim Paul and Kamelya Alexan appeared at a December screening of the film, “I’m Only Blind,” at Columbia College in Chicago. Alexan produced the film about Paul, who skis and runs marathons despite his blindness. (Jeff Banowetz)

Convincing Paul didn’t take too long. He was game to have someone with a camera following him around, on and off, for the better part of two years.

“I thought from the start it was a really nice thing for her to be interested in my life,” Paul said. “We got along well from the start, so I never really had any doubts about the project. I felt like I could trust her.”

“I just love his optimistic personality,” Alexan said. “He always has a smile on his face. He doesn’t allow anything to stop him, and he has a heart that I’ve never seen in any soul.”

For Alexan, working on the film also helped her overcome some of her own difficulties.

“When I met Tim, I was in a dark place in my life,” she said. “I was getting a divorce and just had surgery, and felt like it was one of the lowest moments of my life.

“I would think to myself how I’m alone, by myself and in the dark. And here comes Tim, who’s by definition living in the dark, and he’s able to thrive,” she said. “He gave me so much inspiration and helped me get out of a dark place, and I wanted others to see that, too. I wanted more people to see the light that he brings to life. That’s why I thought this film was so important.”

The film is an inspiring look at Paul’s accomplishments, but it’s also a love letter to the city of Chicago and the community that has supported him and his athletic interests.

“I’m very proud that we’re able to highlight this beautiful city,” Alexan said. “This is a locally made film. It’s all local talent and produced and directed here.”

The film, which debuted at the Beverly Hills Film Festival, has been screened more than 40 times since, mostly in Chicago area theaters. She and Paul have attended many of the screenings together for Q&As and Alexan has received overwhelmingly positive responses to the film.

“It’s a family-friendly movie, made for everyone,” she said. “And getting to talk to people afterwards and hear their stories has just been a joy.”

At one event, a 12-year-old girl got up to let Paul know she was losing vision in her left eye and was worried about the other.

“She told Tim, ‘you’re my hero,’” Alexan said. “Moments like that just get you as a filmmaker. I put in two years of work on this film, and then you hear something like that and how your work can influence another person — it’s all you could ever ask for.”

Alexan chronicled Paul competing in the Chicago Triathlon, snow skiing, water skiing and even co-piloting an airplane.

For his endurance events, he runs and swims tethered to a guide, who also provides instructions to help him navigate the other athletes. (They ride a tandem bike in the triathlon). When skiing, a guide skis behind Paul and provides instruction, telling him when to turn and advising him of the conditions ahead.

“I’ve always thought, why not try it,” Paul said. “You only have one life. Why let anything hold you back? I’ve been lucky that there are people who have always been willing to help me learn to ski or go on a run… I just take advantage of what I can do.”

“You see what Tim is able to do by believing in himself, and you can’t help but be changed… You may be going through some struggles in your life, and this helps remind you that you could do a little bit better. You don’t have to let your problems stop you from taking control.”

The film was on a list of about 200 documentaries eligible for this year’s Academy Awards. It did not, however, make the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ short list of 15 potential nominees, announced Dec. 16, making an actual nomination unlikely. But simply getting on the long list far exceeded Alexan’s expectations.

“The fact that we made the long list is just amazing,” Alexan said. “I still can’t believe it.”

No matter what happens during the awards season in the months ahead, Alexan expects to offer more screenings throughout the Chicago area in 2026 and hopes to eventually find interest from a streaming service for wider distribution.

Those interested in a screening can find out more information at the film’s website, alexanproductions.com.

“I hope it’s able to find a wide distribution so more people can see it,” she says. “Tim is an inspiring person, and I want more people to meet him. I want everyone to meet Tim.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/06/blind-athlete-evanston-native-film-fest-award/