“Dilbert” creator Scott Adams revealed on Thursday that his health is worsening and that the chances of him recovering from advanced prostate cancer are “essentially zero.” He suggested he could die within the month.

During a livestream of his podcast Real Coffee with Scott Adams, the controversial cartoonist said he had spoken to his radiologist a day earlier “and it’s all bad news.”

“The odds of me recovering are essentially zero,” Adams, 68. “I’ll give you any updates if that changes, but it won’t.”

“Things are changing fast,” Adams added, saying that January would likely “be a month of transition one way or the other.” He plans to keep working, to follow the news and to use his podcast and social media to comment on American and international politics “for as long as it makes sense.” He said he likes to stay engaged, even though he knows he “has much bigger problems.”

Adams’ revelation comes two months after he publicly appealed to President Donald Trump for help in getting his health care provider, Kaiser of Northern California, to schedule an appointment so that he can receive life-extending treatment for metastasized prostate cancer. The East Bay-based author later opined that Trump was the “best president ever” because he had taken time away from running the country and “a part of the world” to help him get his appointment.

But Adams reported another setback last month when he revealed that he had become “paralyzed below the waist” due to a tumor that had grown around his spine, the New York Post reported. At the time, he said he hoped radiation would help him regain strength in his legs. However, on Thursday, Adams said he was still no feeling in his legs and no chance of getting it back. Of most concern, he said, was that he was experiencing heart failure, which made it difficult for him to breath during the day, especially if he had a coughing fit.

“At the moment I can breathe and I’m not in any pain,” Adams said. He explained that he’s open to using painkillers if he needs them and is at the stage in his disease when “there’s no real limit to what I can take.” He added” “I’ll probably smoke massive amounts of marijuana because it actually puts me into a kind of a stupor while feels kind of good.”

In May, Adams announced he had the same kind of aggressive prostate cancer as former President Joe Biden, a day after Biden shared his diagnosis publicly. Adams also said that his disease — like Biden’s — has metastasized to his bones and that he thought he might be dead by summer. At that time, he said the disease had already become intolerable. “I can tell you I don’t have good days,” he said.

“I’m in pain, and I’m always in pain, and the pain moves around to different parts of my body,” Adams continued. “I’ve been using a walker or months now.” However, he said, he remains tough mentally. “The mental part, you know, I got that under control.”

In acknowledging his grim prognosis, Adams also said he could reach a point where he would take advantage of California’s End of Life Option Act (EOLOA), which allows terminally ill adults with a life expectancy of six months or less to end their life with a medication prescribed by a physician.

Adams created “Dilbert,” a popular comic strip which sends up office culture, in 1989. At its peak, his comic strip was one of  the most popular in the country and appeared in more than 2,000 newspapers at its peak. But it was was dropped by hundreds of newspapers in 2023 after he called Black Americans a “hate group” and said that white people should “just get the hell away” from them. He later defended his remarks.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/02/scott-adams-dilbert-cancer-dying-paralysis/ 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/02/daily-horoscope-for-january-03-2026/ 

Arthur Zards is stepping down from his role as founder, executive director and curator for TEDxNaperville, ending Naperville’s version of the popular speaker series to shift to a new venture focused on artificial intelligence.

“The event has been quiet for some time now, and it feels right to mark this moment as a sunset rather than let it drift without acknowledgment,” Zards wrote in a newsletter sent out Tuesday.

In a conversation with the Naperville Sun on Wednesday, Zards said the primary reason behind his decision was financial.

“The hard part is that nobody ever gets paid for it. A lot of people don’t know that nobody gets paid for TEDxNaperville. Speakers don’t get paid. I don’t get paid. Nobody on the leadership team where the volunteers get paid,” Zards said. “That also led to me having to exit because I need to focus on revenue for myself or for my family and the volunteers.”

Funding the TEDxNaperville events has become more difficult in recent years. Zards’ storytelling company Lab Z would subsidize part of the speaker events, but sponsors and partnerships would also play a big role in financially supporting the events.

“The goal was to make enough money that we don’t lose money and we just eat that out, because we put on a pretty big production,” he said. “And our heyday before COVID, you know, it’s an 850-person event with high level, top quality food, entertainment … the video production costs were huge.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Zards said he had up to 20 sponsors he was working with, but those sponsorships started to drop off drastically after the pandemic.

“It’s a labor of love. But you know, as people in nonprofits and volunteers know, energy and passion and love will link it just so far. You need to be financially viable,” Zards said.

Launched in 2010, TEDxNaperville for years had attracted hundreds of people to town to hear from and interact with local figures of note ranging from astronauts and artists to doctors and musicians.

Zards started TEDxNaperville because he would always see articles about Naperville being one of the top cities to live in and one of the best places to raise a family, but did not see any information about the projects or ideas people in Naperville were pursuing.

“I was ticked off at all these stupid corporate events and trade shows I’d go to where everybody’s trying to sell you something, everybody’s got an agenda,” Zards said. “And I’m like, ‘What if I create an event where … you do everything you can to get people to be human.’”

TEDxNaperville is a local version of events like it held across the globe. Independently run and organized, TEDx events — as had been the case for Zards’ installation — feature live speakers and recorded talks. They operate under a free license granted by the nonprofit TED, which has a long list of programs and initiatives all focused on a central mission to discover and spread ideas. TED talks receive billions of views on YouTube.

TEDxNaperville has faced challenges in recent years. Typically, TEDxNaperville hosts a major speaker conference in the fall. In 2020, the pandemic forced the annual conference to go virtual.

“I would argue that even during COVID, we were at our peak, because what happened in the industry in 2020 and 2021 is a lot of people just shut their events down or they put them on pause, and we actually doubled down. We said, ‘No, our community needs to have an event,’” Zards said.

For the next two years, the event returned to in-person but in a smaller, more conversational format. In 2023, the annual fall conference was canceled, but the TEDxNaperville team at the time said they would bring back the event the following year, promising a bigger and better event.

But once 2024 rolled around, the event was canceled once again. At the time, Zards said he was the only one working on the TEDxNaperville team, a significant drop from the 12-person leadership team and 75 volunteers that would help out. Despite the cancellations, TEDxNaperville would occasionally host smaller speaker salons, but a fresh start for the program was needed.

Now, Zards has decided that he wants to shift his focus elsewhere. He is launching a new endeavor similar to TEDxNaperville called Vibe with AI.

“I have a heavy tech background and I’ve done a lot of speaking on AI and communication, and there’s a lot of fear and anxiety across the board around artificial intelligence,” Zards said. “The best cure for that is to get people together, to talk about it, to network together, to learn together. And I’m doing a similar, inspired format from the TED world.”

Hosted in partnership with Benedictine University in Lisle, the first event will be on Jan. 27. It will include a mix of short talks, interactive workshops and guided conversations.

“I really think Naperville can be a focal point for, ultimately, an AI conference similar to TEDxNaperville, where we have the best and brightest, young and old, that come here and share their ideas on what’s happening with artificial intelligence,” Zards said.

As for the future of TEDxNaperville, Zards said he tried to work with other entities to try to take it over, but none of them panned it out. He is still open to the idea of someone else taking over TEDxNaperville.

“If there’s some benefactor who wants to come in with some money to fund it, it could definitely come back pretty quickly,” he said.

cstein@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/02/tedx-naperville-zards-ending-ai/ 

Beverly Sussman was an award-winning middle school science teacher in Buffalo Grove for 25 years before beginning a second act on the Buffalo Grove Village Board, where she served as a village trustee for six years and then for another two terms as village president.

During her time leading the village, Sussman pointed with pride to numerous developments in town that she championed, including a Woodman’s grocery store and the Shops of Buffalo Grove retail project, along with a commitment to increased transparency and modernized infrastructure.

“She cared deeply about the village,” said former Buffalo Grove Trustee Andy Stein. “He cherished the fact that she was able to give back to a community that gave so much to her and her family.”

Sussman, 84, died of a heart attack on Dec. 6, said her son, Richard. She had lived in Buffalo Grove since 1971.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1941, Sussman graduated from Samuel J. Tilden High School in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood. She then earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brooklyn College.

Sussman moved to Buffalo Grove with her husband after his job transferred him to the Chicago area. In 1978, she took a job teaching science to sixth graders at Ivy Hall School, later Twin Groves Middle School, in Buffalo Grove.

While at Twin Groves in 1992, Sussman developed and served as “commander” of a space shuttle program for the school’s Space Shuttle Club — including three-day simulated space missions in a Quonset hut in the school’s gym known as the “Habitat”— to help teach astrophysics.

Using walkie-talkies, students clad in white space jumpsuits staffed the makeshift space shuttle — known as Endurance — in six-hour or eight-hour shifts, while others took part in mission control. NASA contributed to the effort, providing meteorites and moon rocks that students would study while in the habitat, and also offering the students the ability to chat with astronauts who had flown on actual space shuttles. The project started with a simulated takeoff and concluded with a simulated splashdown.

“I don’t believe in teaching from a book,” Sussman told the Tribune in 1994. “I use activities and experiments.”

Before retiring from teaching in 2004, Sussman was honored with the Buffalo Grove-Long Grove Elementary District 96 Foundation for Education Excellence’s 2003 Crystal Apple award, and she was also one of four Illinois teachers in 1994 honored with a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching.

“I try to find learning situations anywhere and everywhere I can find them,” Sussman told the Tribune in 1993. “Everything in life is science, not just that 46 minutes (of class). There’s no room or doubt in my mind about being anything else but a teacher. I have never had a regret.”

Arlen Gould, a board member in Wheeling-based Community Consolidated District 21, recalled Sussman teaching his son about space and astronomy in the mid-1990s.

“Her patience and commitment to learning made her a marvelous teacher,” he said.

Sussman’s involvement with village government started in the mid-1990s, when she and her husband, Martin, noticed people improperly parking in handicapped parking spaces. They found it both illegal and galling, as her husband struggled to walk and sometimes would return home empty-handed when he could not find parking near a store. So they approached the village’s Rick Kahen Commission for Residents with Disabilities, and soon afterward, she joined the commission.

Sussman also served on Buffalo Grove’s 50th anniversary committee. After 15 years on the disabilities commission, Sussman ran for village trustee in 2009 and won. She won reelection as trustee in 2013.

Two years into her second term as trustee, Sussman decided to run for village president in 2015 against incumbent Village President Jeffrey Braiman. Sussman ran in part after a controversial, 65-acre built-from-scratch “downtown” project on Lake-Cook Road had been proposed but never approved the prior year after village leaders made clear they would not provide the level of financial assistance that the developer had desired. Sussman had opposed that project due to its likely impact on nearby homes and the fact that the land was in a flood plain.

Sussman defeated Braiman in 2015. In her first term, one of her biggest wins was working with the rest of the Village Board and village staff toward the approval and opening of a 240,000-square-foot Woodman’s grocery store at the northwest corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Deerfield Parkway. The store opened in September 2018.

“That piece of property at Milwaukee Avenue and Deerfield Parkway had been vacant for more than 35 years,” Sussman told the Tribune in 2018. “I remember for years there was always a sign on the property saying, ‘Coming Soon.’ But ‘coming soon’ did not come soon enough.”

The southwest corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Deerfield Parkway was also developed with the Shops of Buffalo Grove strip shopping center during Sussman’s first term.

“Those are not my accomplishments,” Sussman told the Tribune in 2019, referring to developments at that intersection. “They are everyone’s accomplishments, the trustees, the staff, all of us.”

Sussman narrowly won reelection in 2019. During her second term, initiatives that she was part of reviewing, approving and supporting included Northwest Community Healthcare’s new four-story medical office building on Lake-Cook Road, a new WJ Golf indoor golf facility and a new Vin90 restaurant on Half Day Road. She also oversaw planning for the village’s new Public Works Department facility, and championed revitalizing streets, water pipes and sanitary sewers.

Sussman also noted that in her second term, Buffalo Grove residents did not see a tax increase, and she made meetings more accessible by streaming village meetings live on Facebook and regularly posting a village newsletter.

In her second term, Sussman also helped endorse the village’s first-ever gay pride parade, which had been organized by 13-year-old Molly Pinta.

“We have people with different nationalities and religions, we have the whole spectrum of diversity in Buffalo Grove and this is another phase of being diverse,” Sussman told the Tribune in 2019. “Here’s a young lady who wants everyone to accept and respect each other. How can you find anything wrong with someone who wants that? For a 13-year-old girl to say that, I think that’s very commendable.”

Gould said that as village president, Sussman “listened to all.”

“She wanted to know what the real issues were and was dedicated to finding solutions that could work for all,” he said. “Her sense of humor, energy, humanity and incredible dedication to do the right thing for the community always were her strengths. Beverly was an expert in getting people to collaborate. And … that collaboration coupled with her demand for mutual respect and a willingness to handle news, good and bad, moved Buffalo Grove into the future with hope and civility.”

Pete Panayiotou, a longtime friend who owns the Continental Restaurant in Buffalo Grove, recalled Sussman seeking his input on business issues related to the village.

“She talked to everybody and respected everybody,” Panayiotou said. “She was so smart and so intelligent.  She was an amazing human being.”

Sussman chose not to seek reelection in 2023. She told the Tribune in 2023 that in 29 years of service to the village, she missed only three meetings — twice when she was in the hospital and once during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I won’t go anywhere if it means missing a meeting, so I won’t go on trips…if they interfere with meetings,” she told the Tribune. “And my husband and I have reached a point where we’d like to be able to say, ‘Let’s go to such-and-such place,’ and get in the car and go, or to be able to make reservations and go, which I haven’t been able to do in all these years. It’s time to get back to normal life and do what we want to do when we want to do it.”

After retiring as village president, Sussman spent time in Florida with her husband, her son said.

In addition to her son, Sussman is survived by her husband of 65 years, Martin; two other sons, Howard and Robert; eight grandchildren; and a sister, Gladys Goldsmith. Services were held.

Whether as village president or afterward, Sussman was a perpetually enthusiastic ambassador of her community, her colleagues said.

“I always say Buffalo Grove is a great place to live, work and raise a family,” she told the Tribune in 2023.

Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/02/beverly-sussman-teacher-turned-buffalo-grove-village-president-dies-at-84/ 

Brookfield Enters Data Center Game With Its Own Nuclear Power

Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/02/2026 – 18:50

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/brookfield-enters-data-center-game-its-own-nuclear-power 

A Highland woman was charged with battery and various drug charges after using a stun gun in a road rage incident on Dec. 26.

Megan Witvoet, 47, of Highland, is charged with battery by means of a deadly weapon, a Level 5 felony; intimidation, a Level 5 felony; and misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, possession of paraphernalia and disorderly conduct.

She bonded out of the Lake County Jail on Dec. 29; her initial hearing is set for Jan. 12, according to court records.

Around 1:41 p.m. on Dec. 26, Schererville Police were dispatched to investigate a battery incident at Indianapolis Boulevard and U.S. 30, according to the probable cause affidavit. The victim told police that she was driving west on U.S. 30 and in a turn lane for southbound Indianapolis Boulevard when she noticed a bug in her drink. She proceeded to dump it out her car window, but as she did, a woman approached her and started screaming for her not to litter in her own town, court records state. She tried explaining that she doesn’t normally litter, but the situation got heated and Witvoet threatened to use her pink stun gun on the victim, including showing her how it works. Witvoet then used the stun gun, which struck the victim in the left chest, records state. It left a rip and burn in the victim’s jacket.

Another officer stopped Witvoet and asked her what had happened and whether she was in an accident, the affidavit states. She denied it, but said she was “having a terrible day” and to leave her alone. She started to roll up her window, so the officer ordered her to exit, which she agreed to do, court records state. The officer detected the smell of marijuana coming from her vehicle, so he asked her how much marijuana was inside. She pointed to a container of it on the driver’s side floorboard, records state.

She said that she wouldn’t give him permission to search her vehicle, but the officer said that he had probable cause to conduct a search due to the smell.

He found a clear jar labeled “Blazy Susan” purple cones with pre-rolled joints, as well as two bags of cannabis-infused edibles, the affidavit states. There was also a pink bong in the console. Police also found a makeup bag containing Psilocybin, THC wax and two green pipes, court records state.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/02/highland-woman-accused-of-using-stun-gun-in-road-rage-incident/ 

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the unraveling of a $2.9 million computer chips deal that he concluded threatened U.S. security interests if the current owner, HieFo Corp., remained in control of the technology.

The executive order cast a spotlight on a business deal that drew scant attention when it was announced in May 2024 during President Joe Biden’s administration. The deal involved aerospace and defense specialist Emcore Corp. selling its computer chips and wafer fabrication operations to HieFo for $2.92 million — a price that included the assumption of about $1 million in liabilities.

But Trump is now demanding that HieFo divest that technology within 180 days, citing “credible evidence” that the current owner is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China.

HieFo was founded by Dr. Genzao Zhang and Harry Moore. According to a press release that came out after the deal closed, plans for the technology acquired from Emcore were to be overseen by largely the same team of employees in Alhambra, California.

Zhang, who was a vice president of engineering at Emcore before becoming HieFo’s CEO, pledged to “continue the pursuit of the most innovative and disruptive solutions” with technology designed for purposes that would include artificial intelligence.

HieFo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Trump’s order.

Emcore was a publicly traded company at the time of the HieFo deal, but was taken private last year by the investment firm Charlesbank Capital Partner.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/02/trump-divestment-chips-deal/ 

Minnesota officials have until next week to provide the Trump administration with information about providers and parents who receive federal child care funds or risk losing potentially millions of dollars in federal funding, state officials said Friday.

In an email sent Friday to child care providers shared with The Associated Press by multiple providers, Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families said it has until Jan. 9 to provide a set of verifying information about recipients. The announcement earlier this week by the Trump administration that it would freeze child care funds to Minnesota and the rest of the states comes after a series of fraud schemes at Minnesota day care centers, many run by Somali residents. The move came after a right-wing influencer alleged there were widespread abuses.

The Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides $185 million in child care funds annually to Minnesota, federal officials have said.

The email instructed providers and families who rely on the frozen federal child care program to continue the program’s “licensing and certification requirements and practices as usual.” It does not say that recipients themselves need to take any action or provide any information.

“We recognize the alarm and questions this has raised,” the email said. “We found out about the freezing of funds at the same time everyone else did on social media.”

The state agency added that it “did not receive a formal communication from the federal government until late Tuesday night,” which was after Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill posted about the freeze on X. All 50 states will have to provide additional levels of verification and administrative data before they receive more funding from the Child Care and Development Fund, which is designed to make child care affordable for low-income families.

Minnesota is a target

The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing Wednesday to discuss the allegations of fraudulent use of federal funds in Minnesota. An HHS spokesperson said that the child care fraud hotline put up by the federal agency earlier this week has received more than 200 tips.

Minnesota has drawn ire from Republicans and the Trump administration over other fraud accusations.

Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex Adams told Fox News on Friday that his agency sent Minnesota a letter last month asking for information on the child care program and other welfare programs by Dec. 26, but didn’t get a response. The state did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler posted Thursday on X that the agency suspended 6,900 Minnesota borrowers of COVID-19 era loans because of suspected fraud. Trump has also targeted the state’s large Somali community with immigration enforcement actions and called them “garbage.”

Minnesota Democrats say the Trump administration is playing politics and hurting families and children as a result. Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families said in a press release Friday that inspectors conduct regular oversight activities for the child care program, noting that there are 55 related open investigations involving providers

It is unclear how recipients will be impacted

Maria Snider, director of a child care center in St. Paul and vice president of advocacy group Minnesota Child Care Association, said providers currently get paid at least three weeks after services are provided. Some 23,000 children and 12,000 families receive funding from the targeted child care program each month on average, according to the state.

“For a lot of centers, we’re already running on a thin margin,” she said. “Even centers where 10 to 15% of their kids are on childcare assistance, that’s a dip in your income.”

Any child who attends a child care center with attendees who receive federal funding could be impacted, Snider said.

According to the Friday email from Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families, HHS sent a letter to Minnesota asking for data from 2022 to 2025, including identifying information of all recipients of the child care funds, a list of all providers who receive the funds, how much they receive and “information related to alleged fraud networks and oversight failures.” It’s unclear whether Minnesota already has the data the administration is asking for.

HHS said five child care centers that receive funds from the child care program or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families would have to provide “specific documentation” such as attendance, inspections and assessments, according to the email.

HHS said it would provide Minnesota with more information by Jan. 5, but the state agency wrote that it’s unclear what kinds of funding restrictions it faces.

“Our teams are working hard to analyze the legal, fiscal, and other aspects of this federal action,” the email says. “We do not know the full impact.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/02/minnesota-child-care-fraud-documents/ 

MN Lawmaker: Walz Team Threatened Whistleblowers With “Racism” & “Islamophobia” Slurs To Hide Somali Fraud

Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/02/2026 – 18:25

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/mn-lawmaker-walz-team-threatened-whistleblowers-racism-islamophobia-slurs-hide-somali 

During one of the recent holiday homily sermons at our small rural All-Saints Catholic Church in San Pierre, Rev. Terry Bennis shared his holiday recollections of growing up in LaPorte.

This Sunday of the first weekend of January is observed in our Catholic faith as the Solemnity of the Epiphany, celebrating the arrival of the Magi to worship the birth of Jesus in the manger. Also referred to as “the astrologers,” “the wise men” and “the three kings,” the true designated date for the Feast of Epiphany 2026 is on Tuesday, Jan. 6.

Bennis, 77, recalled the elaborate “live” nativity scene that mesmerized him in his youth in the late 1970s and early 1980s as imagined by Hoosier sports claim-to-fame Charlie Finley at his 260-acre estate along Johnson Road and U.S. 35 in LaPorte.

Finley, who died on Feb. 19, 1996, from a heart ailment just three days before his 78th birthday, was the owner of the MLB team the Oakland A’s, purchased Dec. 19, 1960, while still named the Kansas City Athletics following the sudden death of then-owner Arnold Johnson at age 54. Though born in Birmingham, Alabama, Finley was raised by his parents in Gary, Indiana, and made his fortune by selling insurance and creating the first group medical policies to protect those in the medical profession. The 40-story insurance building high-rise in downtown Chicago was one of his proud monuments to his success.

After his purchase of the team, he soon replaced the existing elephant mascot with his own creation, a mule he dubbed “Charlie O.” He loved to parade the live animal incarnation around the baseball grounds as well as indoors at parties, press conferences and public events. By 1968, Finley had moved the ball team to Oakland, California, where they remained until last year while pondering a relocation to Las Vegas.

But Finley always preferred to keep his own home base in La Porte, where he purchased a ranch in 1942 along Johnson Road and just north of the shores of Pine Lake. He opted to expand the working cattle ranch and he let his hired help live in the existing 1800s 11-room colonial house nestled among nine large barns. He had a much larger and grander mansion constructed with even more stately white columns and lofty porticoes, with many comparing the architectural design with the White House.

He had “Home of the Oakland A’s” painted on the roof of the barns (to be visible to traffic along the adjacent Indiana Toll Road) as well as carefully carved into the perfectly manicured hedges along the estate’s signature white wash fencing surrounding the grounds.

Deemed eccentric and difficult to wrangle with by the media, other baseball team management and the MLB officials, Finley was often accused of “running a professional baseball team the same way he successfully sold insurance,” using showmanship, gimmicks and pricey promotions.

During his decades in charge, he changed the team uniforms to “Kelly Green, Fort Knox Gold and Wedding Gown White.” He forced his way into the 1964 Beatles’ U.S. tour and secured a Sept. 17 concert date for his then-Kansas City Municipal Stadium by paying an unprecedented $150,000 to the singers, which is the equivalent of more than $1.5 million in today’s coin.

In 1972, Finley was pushing the idea of “a return to vintage baseball,” and he offered each of his players $300 bonuses to grow mustaches for the 1972 season, with his relief pitcher Rollie Fingers sporting the most impressive waxed handlebar “cookie duster.” By 1975, he was hawking the idea of his invention of “orange, glow-in-the-dark baseballs,” which he touted as “perfect for night games,” a campaign which landed him on the Aug. 18, 1975, cover of Time Magazine. And he insisted on a “mechanical rabbit” (similar to what was used as a running lure for racing greyhounds along betting tracks), which Finely dubbed “Harvey” that “popped up at home plate” to deliver new balls to the umpires as needed.

By the time Finley had sold his professional ball team in 1980, he had funneled his showmanship and promotional tactics for the benefit of his community in Northwest Indiana, with his favorite emphasis being the holidays.

At Christmastime, he opened the perimeters of his estate in LaPorte to all to behold with an incredible holiday display of lights, decorated trees and an impressive finale of the Holy Family depicted with a “live nativity.”

Press clippings from the earlier incarnation of what was United Press International Wire Service in 1983 describe as many as 10,000 cars crowding the surrounding roads and intersections with onlookers eager to gander at the amazing displays and décor.

Life-sized Magi on camels, all carved from wood, are described as pointing in the sky to a 17-foot illuminated “Star of Bethlehem” mounted on the chimney of Finley’s mansion. The wire story dated Dec. 20, 1983, also describes “a live herd of 30 white sheep and one lone black sheep” grazing a field and tended by real dogs and a man dressed as a shepherd. The finale explained is “a hay-lined creche with live actors as Mary and Joseph cradling baby Jesus.”

Our priest said the tradition was lost later in the 1980s as Finley aged and the LaPorte County Police found it more and more difficult to control crowds and traffic.

Another of Finley’s “discoveries” was one of his young “ball girls” for the Oakland A’s team, by the name Debbi Jane Sivyer, born and raised in Oakland. She had a talent for baking scrumptious cookies, especially chocolate chip cookies, which she would bring to Finley to sample. Soon, Finley had Debbi parading with platters of her freshly baked cookies to share with the game umpires. By 1977, now married to Randall Fields, Debbi developed her own brand and business, known today as the Mrs. Fields Cookies empire. Debbi, who will celebrate her 70th birthday this year in September, sold her brand and business to Z Capital Partners in 2013, but she continues to serve as the brand ambassador and founder.

When Debbi published her first cookbook, “The Mrs. Fields Cookie Book: 100 Recipes from the Kitchen of Mrs. Fields” (1992 Time Life Books $19.99), the media press kit folder mailed to food journalists, including myself, shared her recipe for “Mrs. Fields’ Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookie,” a recipe fit for Finley and royal recipe homage.

Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is a weekly radio show host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at PhilPotempa@gmail.com or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.

Mrs. Fields’ Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 2 dozen cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup salted butter 2 sticks

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well with a wire whisk. Set aside.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, blend sugars at medium speed. Add butter and mix, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

Add eggs and vanilla extract, and mix at medium speed until just blended.

Add the flour mixture and chocolate chips, and blend at low speed until just mixed.

Scoop cookie dough using a large, rounded scoop onto a baking sheet.

Place cookie dough balls on a baking sheet, 2 inches apart with room for about 6 cookie balls per batch.

Bake for 18 minutes or until golden brown. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a baking rack or cool surface.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/02/from-the-farm-epiphany-sunday-and-charlie-finleys-live-nativity-in-laporte/