The Aurora City Council has approved a city budget for 2026 that includes cuts to funding across city departments, including the loss of around 140 positions.

The roughly $688 million budget for 2026 is far smaller than this year’s nearly $760 million budget, but most of that change can be attributed to a one-time increase in revenue from bonds the city took out this year for big construction projects.

However, the $253 million general operating budget for 2026 is also down roughly $2 million over this year’s — and it still has a deficit of around $3.3 million.

Contributing to funding cuts included in the 2026 budget — which have sparked concern among elected officials, city staff and the public — is an effort by city officials to fix what they’ve called structural issues with past years’ budgets. Aurora has been spending more than it brings in, and in the past money was moved from long-term needs to cover operational costs, city officials have said.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the Aurora City Council voted 8–4 to approve the budget. Voting against were Alds. Jonathan Nunez, 4th Ward; Carl Franco, 5th Ward; Patty Smith, 8th Ward; and Shweta Baid, 10th Ward.

Aurora Mayor John Laesch has said, both to reporters and in public statements, that budget cuts won’t mean a reduction in services for residents.

Protecting core services and public safety was a priority during the 2026 budgeting process, according to a joint statement from Laesch, former Fire Chief David McCabe and Police Chief Matt Thomas meant to address claims that the city was making “significant cuts to public safety.”

All departments saw some level of cuts through the budgeting process, the statement said, but police and fire saw the smallest percentage reductions. Plus, the police department’s 2026 budget is $7.1 million higher than it was this year, and the fire department’s 2026 budget is $1.5 million more than it was this year, according to the joint statement.

“Our residents will not see a reduction in the services they depend on,” Laesch said in the statement. “Response times, emergency services and fire protection remain fully secured. Correcting our financial course is difficult, but we are doing it in a responsible manner that does not compromise safety.”

The International Association of Firefighters Local 99, which represents Aurora firefighters, has publicly disagreed with what was said in the city’s joint statement.

“There is no scenario where fewer firefighters, less training support, fewer officers and fewer trucks on the street equates to the same level of safety, readiness or service,” Local 99 recently said in its own statement posted to Facebook. “To claim otherwise is irresponsible.”

Instead, the budget will mean “an increase in unnecessary risk to every citizen and firefighter,” Local 99 President Rob Deubel said in the statement.

Fire department officials and Laesch have said that they will be monitoring call response times and firefighter overtime throughout the year. Based on those metrics and on how many employees are lost over the course of the year, a ladder truck and a fire engine may need to go unstaffed, according to a presentation given by interim Fire Chief Kevin Nickel and Assistant Fire Chief Michael Kaufman at the City Council meeting on Tuesday.

The positions cut from the Aurora Fire Department’s budget include two Emergency Management Agency specialists, 18 firefighters, three battalion chiefs, a training officer and the entire cadet program, the presentation on Tuesday showed.

The Aurora Police Department also saw staffing cuts, with 35 less positions in the now-approved 2026 budget. Nine are sworn police officers while the rest are non-sworn professional staff, including the department’s 12-person cadet program.

Although positions are being cut from the police and fire departments’ budgets, only a single person is actually being laid off. The city just won’t hire new people to take the place of employees in cut positions who retire or leave.

The development services, law and public facilities departments saw the largest percentage cuts over this year’s budget, with reductions of around 20% to 30% to the portion of their budgets coming from the city’s general operating account, called the general fund.

The fire department and police department saw increases to their budgets year-over-year — as did the Mayor’s Office, community services department and communications department, but those increases may be misleading.

That’s because the 2026 budget totally eliminates the community affairs department, splitting its functions between the community services and communications departments, plus moves economic development and the clerk’s office under the Mayor’s Office.

Public facilities was also moved to be under the public works department.

Mayor Laesch has been putting a particular focus on the city’s budget since the first moments he took office. During his inauguration speech in May, he said the city was left in “serious debt” because of past mayors’ investment in revitalizing Aurora’s downtown, and that his administration’s number one priority would be to get the city’s “financial house in order.”

Then, at a town hall meeting with residents in July, Laesch said the city was facing a “significant hole” between revenue and expenses in 2026 based on early budget analysis. That gap was later said to be nearly $30 million.

Aurora Director of Fiscal Integrity and Operations Management Brian Caputo has said that expenses outpaced revenue, but past budgets were balanced by moving money typically set aside for long-term needs like insurance and capital projects into the general fund, so the “fundamental financial structure of the city” doesn’t work.

Aurora Chief Financial Officer Stacey Peterson previously outlined some of the funds officials have said haven’t been getting enough support.

One such fund, the Property and Casualty Fund, was budgeted to receive around $5.2 million this year. However, nearly $9.7 million has been spent from the fund this year, wiping out its starting balance of $3.4 million and putting it over $1 million in the hole.

Another fund she highlighted, Employee Compensated Benefits, was budgeted to receive $1.1 million in 2025 but has seen $4.3 million in expenses this year, which has taken the balance of that fund into the negative, too.

However, the Employee Health Insurance Fund was actually budgeted for more support than it needed, and is set to end the year with a $3.6 million balance.

Some, including Ald. Franco and former Mayor Richard Irvin, have questioned city officials’ claims of a budget crisis.

“I’m not very happy that the funds, in my opinion and a couple of other people’s opinions, were excessively funded from the general fund to maybe create a deficit,” Franco said at Tuesday’s meeting. “I still think we have questions about how that happened.”

Irvin, who was mayor for eight years before Laesch, previously told The Beacon-News that claims money was moved around to cover operational costs are “absolutely incorrect.” Laesch’s philosophy, he said, is to manufacture a crisis and fall back on that “as an excuse to not do anything.”

However, Laesch has said that this 100% is a budget crisis and that “numbers don’t lie.” The city has taken as balanced of an approach as possible to address the issue, he said.

The Aurora City Council this year has taken a number of steps to increase or stabilize revenue across its various funds, including an increase to the city’s hotel tax, an increase to parking fees at the city’s two Metra stops, an increase in the number of gambling machines businesses are allowed to operate and the local continuation of a grocery tax set to otherwise expire statewide at the end of the year.

A major source of revenue for the city is property taxes. The Aurora City Council on Tuesday also approved the levy for this year at $103.7 million, an increase of $11.1 million over the previous year’s.

However, the part of that levy going toward city operations isn’t seeing an increase. Instead, the rising property taxes were attributed to required funding levels for police and firefighter pensions plus to higher debt payments.

The levy was raised in years past, but the newly-approved increase will also raise the tax rate for the first time in years. The tax levy is the total amount the city of Aurora is looking to get in property tax revenue next year, but the rate is the percentage of a property’s assessed value that the owner has to actually pay in taxes.

City staff previously said that the tax levy wouldn’t be considered for final approval by the City Council until Dec. 16, but it was included on the Tuesday meeting’s agenda and approved after the budget with a 7–5 vote. Alds. Nunez, Franco, Smith, Baid and Juany Garza, 2nd Ward, voted against it.

A new tax was proposed during the meeting’s lengthy budget discussion — a $1 tax on tickets sold by the Aurora Civic Center Authority. Ald. Mike Saville, 6th Ward, proposed the tax alongside an increase to the budget of $400,000, the amount expected to be made through the tax, as funding for the Civic Center Authority.

The change to the budget was approved at the Tuesday meeting with a 9–3 vote, with Alds. Ted Mesiacos, 3rd Ward; Javier Banuelos, 7th Ward; and Keith Larson, at-large, voting against. The related, proposed tax still needs to be approved by the Aurora City Council at a later date.

The $400,000 payment now included in the 2026 budget will be in addition to $2 million the city has already promised the Aurora Civic Center Authority, which operates the Paramount Theatre and other local venues, to plug a hole in that organization’s 2026 budget.

rsmith@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/10/aurora-city-council-approves-2026-city-budget-with-funding-and-staffing-cuts/ 

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan fired football coach Sherrone Moore on Wednesday, saying a university investigation had found evidence of an “inappropriate relationship with a staff member.”

The stunning announcement said Moore’s alleged conduct was a “clear violation of university policy.”

Moore, the team’s former offensive coordinator, was promoted to the top job in January 2024 to replace Jim Harbaugh. The Wolverines (9-3, 7-2 Big Ten) are set to play Texas in the Citrus Bowl in a few weeks.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/10/michigan-fires-sherrone-moore/ 

Republican Senators did not have to cast initial votes related to Indiana’s mid-census redistricting Wednesday as the three Democratic amendments were voted on by voice vote.

House Bill 1032, which addresses mid-census redistricting and gives Republicans an advantage in all nine congressional districts, moves on without Senate amendments for final Senate consideration Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Senate heard the bill on second reading, which means Senators can present amendments to the bill. The amendment authors didn’t call for a roll-call vote — which would’ve recorded how each Senator voted on the amendment — so each amendment was voted on with a voice “aye” or “no” vote.

Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, proposed an amendment that would’ve removed the language in the bill and added language that would prohibit mid-census redistricting of Congressional districts.

“Hoosiers did not send us here to do a mid-decade redistricting of Congressional seats,” Qaddoura said.

Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton, the Senate sponsor of the bill, urged the Senate to vote against the amendment because it is a “strip and insert” amendment.

Sen. J.D. Ford, D-Indianapolis, proposed an amendment that would’ve required each county clerk to send the state comptroller an itemized report of the cost of implementing new Congressional maps for reimbursement, which Gaskill urged the Senate to vote against because it creates an appropriation “which you all know would procedurally kill the bill.”

Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, proposed an amendment that would remove the portions prohibiting county-level judges from issuing orders preventing the proposed maps from going into effect and that any legal challenges immediately go to the Indiana Supreme Court. The amendment also would remove language about splitting precinct boundaries. Gaskill urged the Senate to vote against the amendment because the section related to restraining orders and the Indiana Supreme Court ensure any lawsuits are “expeditiously” heard by the Indiana Supreme Court.

During the redistricting process, precinct lines get skewed, Gaskill said. But, precincts can be redrawn after redistricting is completed, he said.

All three amendments failed in voice votes. Senate Republican and Democratic leadership spokeswomen did not immediately respond to questions about why the amendments were voted on via voice vote.

Before the bill was heard on second reading, Sen. Michael Young, R-Indianapolis, shared his support for redistricting because, speaking about Democrats, “what they get to do, we should get to do.”

“We did a good job. We did a very good job, and they’re fair,” Young said about the proposed maps.

The bill advanced out of the Senate Elections Committee Monday evening in a 6-3 vote, with one Republican voting against the bill.

Committee member Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, tearfully expressed his opposition to the bill because he said he wouldn’t be intimidated by the swatting call he received after it was reported that the Senate doesn’t have the votes to pass the bill.

“I will not normalize that kind of behavior,” Walker said. “I fear for this institution. I fear for the state of Indiana, and I fear for all states, if we allow intimidation and threats to become the norm.”

Committee chair Gaskill said Monday he supports the bill because while “political gerrymandering is uncomfortable,” Indiana should act because Democratic states have been redistricting to their advantage.

“This is a very small part that we can play in rebalancing the scales on a national basis,” Gaskill said.

Republican Senators Stacey Donato, Linda Rogers and Greg Goode all said in committee they voted in favor of the bill, so that it can be discussed by the full Senate.

“I take the importance of listening very seriously and will continue to listen with an open mind,” Goode, R-Terre Haute, said in a statement after the vote.

Donato, R-Logansport, and Rogers, R-Granger, said they may change their votes when the Senate takes up the measure.

The Senate has been a hurdle to Indiana’s mid-census redistricting efforts after Senate leadership stated in October that the chamber doesn’t have the votes to pass new maps.

Gov. Mike Braun called for a special session to address redistricting after months of overtures by Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance. The Trump administration has asked Republican-led states to undertake mid-census redistricting to maintain the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In response to Trump’s request, Texas conducted mid-census redistricting to give Republicans five more seats, to which California responded with voter-approved redistricting to create five more Democratic-leaning seats.

Ahead of Organization Day, Nov. 18, Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, said the Senate didn’t have the votes to pass new maps and canceled the Senate’s December session.

In response to Bray’s announcement, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, calling out Bray and Goode “for not wanting to redistrict their state, allowing the United States Congress to perhaps gain two more Republican seats.”

Hours after Trump posted his comment, Goode received a false swatting call. After Organization Day, when the Senate voted to reconvene in January, at least nine more state senators — Dan Dernulc, Spencer Deery, Rick Niemeyer, Kyle Walker, Greg Walker, Linda Rogers, Andy Zay, Ron Alting, Mike Bohacek — received swatting calls and threats.

The threats moved Bray to call the Senate into session on Dec. 8, following the Dec. 1 start of the House session.

House Bill 1032, authored by State Rep. Ben Smaltz, would allow the legislature to amend congressional districts “at a time other than the first regular session of the general assembly convening immediately following the United States decennial census.”

The bill states that the current Congressional Districts won’t expire before Nov. 3, 2026.

During a House committee hearing last week, Smaltz, R-Auburn, said Indiana is taking up mid-census redistricting because of that action across the country. The map was drawn by the National Republican Redistricting Trust using data from the last three presidential elections and the last two Indiana U.S. Senator, Secretary of State and attorney general elections, Smaltz said.

“These maps were drawn for political purposes and advantage,” Smaltz said.

akukulka@post-trib.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/10/indiana-senate-on-verge-of-passing-redistricting-bill/ 

Japan, South Korea Scramble Jets After Russian-Chinese Bomber Flight: ‘Acts Of Intimidation’

Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/10/2025 – 16:55

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/japan-south-korea-scramble-jets-after-russian-chinese-bomber-flight-acts-intimidation 

Federal health officials on Wednesday expanded an outbreak of infant botulism tied to recalled ByHeart baby formula to include all illnesses reported since the company began production in March 2022.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said investigators “cannot rule out the possibility that contamination might have affected all ByHeart formula products” ever made.

The outbreak now includes at least 51 infants in 19 states. The new case definition includes “any infant with botulism who was exposed to ByHeart formula at any time since the product’s release,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most recent illness was reported on Dec. 1.

No deaths have been reported in the outbreak, which was announced Nov. 8.

Previously, health officials had said the outbreak included 39 suspected or confirmed cases of infant botulism reported in 18 states since August. That’s when officials at California’s Infant Botulism Treatment and Prevention Program reported a rise in treatment of infants who had consumed ByHeart formula. With the expanded definition, the CDC identified 10 additional cases that occurred from December 2023 through July 2025.

ByHeart, a New York-based manufacturer of organic infant formula founded in 2016, recalled all its products sold in the U.S. on Nov. 11. The company, which accounts for about 1% of the U.S. infant formula market, had been selling about 200,000 cans of the product each month.

News that ByHeart products could have been contaminated for years was distressing to Andi Galindo, whose 5-week-old daughter, Rowan, was hospitalized in December 2023 with infant botulism after drinking the formula. Galindo, 36, of Redondo Beach, California, said she insisted on using ByHeart formula to supplement a low supply of breast milk because it was recommended by a lactation consultant as “very natural, very gentle, very good for the babies.”

“That’s a hard one,” Galindo said. “If there is proof that there were issues with their manufacturing and their plant all the way back from the beginning, that is a problem and they really need to be held accountable.”

ByHeart officials did not immediately respond to questions about the expanded outbreak.

Lab tests detected contamination

The FDA sent inspectors last month to ByHeart plants in Allerton, Iowa, and Portland, Oregon, where the formula is produced and packaged. The agency has released no results from those inspections.

The company previously reported that tests by an independent laboratory showed that 36 samples from three different lots contained the type of bacteria that can cause infant botulism.

Inspection documents showed that ByHeart had a history of problems with contamination.

In 2022, the year ByHeart started making formula, the company recalled five batches of infant formula after a sample at a packaging plant tested positive for a different germ, cronobacter sakazakii. In 2023, the FDA sent a warning letter to the company detailing “areas that still require corrective actions.”

A ByHeart plant in Reading, Pennsylvania, was shut down in 2023 just before FDA inspectors found problems with mold, water leaks and insects, inspection documents show.

Infant botulism is rare

Infant botulism is a rare disease that affects fewer than 200 babies in the U.S. each year. It’s caused when infants ingest botulism bacteria that produce spores that germinate in the intestines, creating a toxin that affects the nervous system. Babies are vulnerable until about age 1 because their gut microbiomes are not mature enough to fight the toxin.

Baby formula has previously been linked to sporadic cases of illness, but no known outbreaks of infant botulism tied to powdered formula have previously been confirmed, according to research studies.

Symptoms can take up to 30 days to develop and can include constipation, poor feeding, loss of head control, drooping eyelids and a flat facial expression. Babies may feel “floppy” and can have problems swallowing or breathing.

The sole treatment for infant botulism is known as BabyBIG, an IV medication made from the pooled blood plasma of adults immunized against botulism. California’s infant botulism program developed the product and is the sole source worldwide.

The antibodies provided by BabyBIG are likely most effective for about a month, although they may continue circulating in the child’s system for several months, said Dr. Sharon Nachman, an expert in pediatric infectious disease at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital.

“The risk to the infant is ongoing and the family should not be using this formula after it was recalled,” Nachman said in an email.

Families of several babies treated for botulism after drinking ByHeart formula have sued the company. Lawsuits filed in federal courts allege that the formula they fed their children was defective and ByHeart was negligent in selling it. They seek financial payment for medical bills, emotional distress and other harm.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/10/botulism-outbreak-byheart/ 

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount with the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

Using U.S. forces to seize an oil tanker is incredibly unusual and marks the Trump administration’s latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States. The U.S. has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The campaign is facing growing scrutiny from Congress.

“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House, later adding that “it was seized for a very good reason.”

Trump said “other things are happening,” but did not offer additional details, saying he would speak more about it later. When asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump said, “Well, we keep it, I guess.”

The seizure was led by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official added that the seizure was conducted under U.S. law enforcement authority.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day. Locked out of global oil markets by U.S. sanctions, the state-owned oil company sells most of its output at a steep discount to refiners in China.

The transactions usually involve a complex network of shadowy intermediaries, as sanctions have scared away more established traders. Many are shell companies, registered in jurisdictions known for secrecy. The buyers deploy so-called ghost tankers that hide their location and hand off their valuable cargoes in the middle of the ocean before they reach their final destination.

Maduro did not address the seizure during a speech before a ruling-party organized demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. But he told supporters that the country is “prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary.”

Maduro, flanked by senior officials, said only the ruling party can “guarantee peace, stability, and the harmonious development of Venezuela, South America and the Caribbean.”

Maduro previously has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.

During past negotiations, among the concessions the U.S. has made to Maduro was approval for oil giant Chevron Corp. to resume pumping and exporting Venezuelan oil. The corporation’s activities in the South American country resulted in a financial lifeline for Maduro’s government.

The seizure comes a day after the U.S. military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela in what appeared to be the closest that warplanes had come to the South American country’s airspace. Trump has said land attacks are coming soon but has not offered more details.

The Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign, which has killed at least 87 people in 22 known strikes since early September, including a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit.

Some legal experts and Democrats say that action may have violated the laws governing the use of deadly military force.

Lawmakers are demanding to get unedited video from the strikes, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional leaders Tuesday he was still weighing whether to release it. Hegseth provided a classified briefing for congressional leaders alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

It was not immediately clear Wednesday who owned the tanker or what national flag it was sailing under. The Coast Guard referred a request for comment to the White House.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/10/oil-tanker-venezuela/ 

Por MARK KENNEDY

NUEVA YORK (AP) — Detrás del Mago de Oz en las dos partes de las películas de “Wicked” había personas realmente moviendo los hilos. Prepararon el escenario para las exitosas películas de doble impacto mucho antes de que las cámaras comenzaran a rodar: los directores de casting ayudaron a elegir quién llegaría a Oz.

“Nuestro trabajo es conocer a los actores que están ahí fuera o saber cómo encontrar a los actores que no conocemos”, dice Bernard Telsey, uno de los pesos pesados en el mundo del casting, quien, junto con Tiffany Little Canfield, pobló ambas películas de “Wicked”.

El casting recibirá algo de amor en los Oscar el próximo año. En marzo se añadió un nuevo premio por logros en casting a los Premios de la Academia, un paso que los directores de casting creen que se ha demorado mucho. La 98ª edición de los Premios de la Academia se transmitirá en vivo por ABC el 15 de marzo de 2026.

“Es realmente difícil para la gente entender lo que hacemos porque es muy privado”, dice Telsey. “Solo va a hacer que la profesión sea mucho más fuerte y que la gente sea mucho más consciente de lo que hacemos”.

‘Se siente invisible’

Los Emmy tienen tres categorías para el casting, y los Critics Choice Awards acaban de añadir un trofeo de casting este año. La industria del casting tiene su propio premio, los Artios Awards, que se celebraron por primera vez en 1985. Pero los Globos de Oro y los Premios Tony no reconocen la profesión.

“Cuando el casting es excelente, a veces se siente invisible. Porque está tan bien hecho, no ves las huellas”, dice Destiny Lilly, presidenta de la Sociedad de Casting, que cuenta con 1.200 miembros y también trabaja con Telsey.

“Creo que ha tomado tiempo obtener reconocimiento por ese arte porque gran parte del trabajo que hacen los directores de casting ocurre antes de que se incorpore al resto del equipo de producción”.

Telsey, junto con su equipo en The Telsey Office, realiza castings en todos los medios, desde las películas “Mary Poppins Returns” y “Kiss of the Spider Woman” a programas de televisión como “The Gilded Age” y “Only Murders in the Building.” Se formó en el teatro, realizando el casting de ganadoras del Premio Tony como “Maybe Happy Ending”, “Kinky Boots” y “Hairspray”.

“Wicked” y “Wicked: For Good” (“Wicked: Por siempre”) representaron uno de los mayores desafíos para su equipo, llenando cientos de roles y papeles de bailarines durante más de un año de filmación y a través de continentes.

Aunque puede haber parecido inevitable que Cynthia Erivo fuera una Elphaba natural y Ariana Grande fuera una elección segura para Glinda, eso se ve en retrospectiva. Como todas las decisiones de casting, fue un poco una apuesta.

“No fue hasta que estuvieron en la sala que dijiste: ‘Oh, esto es magia. Esto tiene que ser. No hay nadie más para interpretar el papel que ellas dos’”, dice. “Realmente no lo sabes hasta que lo ves”.

Para mantenerse al tanto de tantos actores como sea posible, Telsey va al teatro cuatro o cinco noches a la semana y pasa los fines de semana tratando de ponerse al día con la televisión y las películas. Dos veces por semana, él y su personal se reúnen para intercambiar consejos sobre a quién están viendo y hacer recomendaciones.

“Todos los días sientes que estás atrasado y hay otros cien actores que no conozco y ¿cómo voy a conocerlos y cómo voy a verlos? Así que es una carrera constante”, dice.

Un golpe de casting

Los directores de casting primero hablan con los directores, guionistas y productores para tener una idea de cuál es su visión para el proyecto y luego consiguen que los actores adecuados hagan audiciones. Telsey lo compara con cómo un diseñador de vestuario debe conocer todos los diferentes tejidos y colores potenciales que existen.

Lilly recientemente logró un golpe al sugerir que el comediante Bill Burr se uniera a la última reposición en Broadway de “Glengarry Glen Ross” de David Mamet junto a Kieran Culkin y Bob Odenkirk. Fue el debut de Burr en el escenario, pero el diálogo explosivo de Mamet parecía encajar perfectamente.

“Creo que hay muchas personas que no han hecho teatro que realmente pueden brillar. Solo necesitan que se les dé la oportunidad adecuada y el proyecto correcto y tener al director adecuado trabajando con ellos”, dice.

A lo largo de los años, Telsey ha visto cómo las barreras entre el cine, la televisión y el teatro se desvanecen a medida que los actores cambian de medio libremente. No suscribe la creencia de que las habilidades teatrales son muy diferentes de las habilidades en pantalla.

“Es un mito que son diferentes. Son técnicamente diferentes, pero son lo mismo. La buena actuación es buena actuación”, dice. “Glenn Close puede hacer un musical, una obra de teatro, un programa de televisión y una película y ser nominada en cada … categoría. Esas cosas han cambiado en los últimos 20 años”.

Telsey, cuyo primer gran éxito en el casting fue el espectáculo “Rent” —“solo un pequeño musical que nadie quería hacer”, bromea— también ha visto cómo la tecnología cambia el trabajo, especialmente a medida que las audiciones se trasladan en línea, la televisión en streaming explota y el negocio del cine se vuelve más global.

“Creo que siempre estamos educando a nuestros equipos sobre la necesidad de que el casting sea más grande y cubra más terreno”, dice. “En la mayoría de los proyectos solo tienes un corto período de tiempo para encontrar un elenco. El tiempo no está de nuestro lado. Esto simplemente se va a volver más ajustado a medida que los presupuestos se reduzcan en el futuro”.

___

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/2025/12/10/los-scar-reconocen-el-casting-por-primera-vez-destacando-un-papel-clave-en-el-cine/ 

Even though Joe Buck is more widely known these days as the voice of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” his broadcast career is rooted in baseball, including calling the most World Series games on television.

On Wednesday, Buck received a call that he thought was at least a few years down the line when he found out he received the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting by baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Buck is not only the 50th winner of the Frick Award, he joins his father, Jack, to become the only father-son duo to win the honor. Jack Buck — who broadcast St. Louis Cardinals games from 1954 until 2021 and was the lead announcer on CBS’ baseball package in 1990 and ’91 — received the award in 1987.

“I am shocked in many ways. I didn’t think this was coming right now,” Buck said. “I was saying to the group that called to tell me that my best memory of my father as a Major League Baseball broadcaster was in 1987 in Cooperstown, N.Y., and what it meant to him, what it meant to our family to see him get the award. To see the joy and the pride that he had for what he had done.”

Joe Buck will receive the award during the Hall’s July 25, 2026, awards presentation in Cooperstown, a day ahead of induction ceremony. At 56, Buck becomes the second-youngest Frick Award winner, trailing only Vin Scully, who was 54 when he was named the 1982 winner.

Buck grew up in St. Louis and called games for the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds in 1989 and ’90 after graduating from Indiana University. He joined his father for Cardinals broadcasts in 1991, a job Joe held through 2007. Jack Buck died in June 2002 at age 77.

“I was lucky to call Jack Buck my dad and my best friend,” Joe Buck said. “I’m lucky that I’m Carol Buck’s son. I tend to downplay awards and what have you because of always feeling like I had a leg up at the start of my career and I did. I’m the first to admit it. But I am happy that when I was a kid I paid attention and I wanted to be with him. I think the greatest gift my dad gave me was allowing me to be in the room with him. I’d like to think there’s still some stuff out in front of me, but this is the greatest honor I could receive. And to know what he would be thinking and feeling on this day, that’s the part what makes it special.

“I recall him saying (during his speech) that he was honored to be the eyes and the ears for Cardinal fans, wherever the Cardinals went, and he was very proud of being the conduit between wherever the Cardinals were playing and those fans that were listening. That always resonated with me.”

Buck joined Fox Sports when it started doing NFL games in 1994. Two years later, it got the rights to Major League Baseball, and Buck was made the lead announcer with Tim McCarver as the analyst. McCarver retired from broadcasting after the 2013 season and received the Frick Award in 2021.

Buck was 27 when he called his first World Series in 1996. He would go on to do the Fall Classic in 1998 and then annually from 2000-21. His 135 World Series games makes him one of six U.S. play-by-play announcers to reach the century mark calling either the Fall Classic, NBA Finals or Stanley Cup Finals. Scully had 126 World Series games on radio and television.

Buck also worked 21 All-Star Games and 26 League Championship Series for Fox before joining ESPN in 2022 as the voice of “Monday Night Football.”

Since going to ESPN, Buck called a game on opening day last season and worked a Cardinals game with Chip Caray in 2023. Buck said there is the possibility of doing a few more games for ESPN in the future.

“I think of myself as a baseball announcer probably first because that’s what I was around the most. I love the game. I’m a fan of the game,” he said. “I still dream as a baseball announcer at night. I think all announcers have the same nightmare where you show up at a game and you can’t see anybody on the field, you don’t know anybody’s name and you’re trying to fake your way through a broadcast. Those are all baseball games in my dreams. So it’s in my genetics, it’s in my DNA. I grew up at Busch Stadium as a kid and yeah, baseball is always kind of first and foremost in my heart.”

Buck also becomes the sixth broadcaster to win both the Frick Award and the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, joining Jack Buck, Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy, Al Michaels and Lindsey Nelson.

A broadcaster must have 10 continuous years of experience with a network or team to be considered, and the ballot was picked by a subcommittee of past winners that includes Marty Brennaman, Joe Castiglione and Bob Costas, along with broadcast historians David J. Halberstam and Curt Smith. At least one candidate must be a foreign-language broadcaster.

Voters are 13 past winners — Brennaman, Castiglione, Costas, Ken Harrelson, Pat Hughes, Jaime Jarrín, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Michaels, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Dave Van Horne and Tom Hamilton — plus historians Halberstam, Smith and former Dallas Morning News writer Barry Horn.

John Rooney of the Cardinals and Brian Anderson of the Milwaukee Brewers were ballot newcomers this year, joining returnees Skip Caray, Rene Cardenas, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Duane Kuiper and John Sterling. Buck was on the ballot after being dropped last year, and Dan Shulman was on for the third time in four years.

Associated Press reporter Ronald Blum contributed.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/10/joe-buck-hall-of-fame-frick-award/ 

ORLANDO, Florida, EE.UU. (AP) — El béisbol de las Grandes Ligas confirmó el miércoles el plan para realizar en 2026 una serie de dos juegos entre los Diamondbacks de Arizona y los Padres de San Diego en el estadio Alfredo Harp Helú de la Ciudad de México el 25 y 26 de abril.

La serie se anticipó cuando se anunció el calendario de la temporada regular en agosto, pero no se confirmó hasta el miércoles. Arizona será el equipo local para ambos juegos.

“Estamos muy ilusionados de mostrar nuestra marca internacionalmente una vez más y agradecer a MLB por seleccionarnos”, dijo Derrick Hall, presidente, CEO y socio general de los Diamondbacks.

Esta será la tercera serie de juegos de temporada regular en la Ciudad de México después de que los Padres barrieron a San Francisco en 2023 y Houston hizo lo mismo con Colorado en 2024, ambas en series de dos juegos.

Los juegos programados en San Juan, Puerto Rico, y la Ciudad de México en 2020 fueron cancelados debido a la pandemia de coronavirus y los juegos contemplados para 2025 fueron descartados por razones financieras.

Se escenificaron partidos de temporada regular en Monterrey, México, en 1996 (Padres y Mets de Nueva York), 1999 (Padres y Rockies), 2018 (Dodgers de Los Ángeles y Padres) y 2019 (Cincinnati y San Luis, y Houston y los Angelinos de Los Ángeles).

El acuerdo colectivo de MLB también contemplaba juegos en París en 2025 y en Londres el próximo año, pero el viaje a Francia fue cancelado por la falta de un promotor y la serie en Gran Bretaña debido a problemas de programación con el Estadio Olímpico de West Ham y la cadena de etelevisión Fox. El contrato contempla juegos en San Juan en 2026, pero no se ha anunciado ninguno.

___

Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/deportes

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/10/mlb-confirma-serie-de-dos-juegos-en-ciudad-de-mxico-entre-diamondbacks-y-padres-en-abril/