Mayor Brandon Johnson’s fight with aldermen about the 2026 budget continued Wednesday as a City Council majority said they are organizing themselves to monitor his administration’s execution of the spending plan that passed over his objections.

The announcement from 28 aldermen who labeled themselves the “Budget Accountability Coalition” came as Johnson delivered a defiant speech vowing to implement the package responsibly and stay the course on his tax-the-rich agenda.

The aldermen said in a statement they were concerned Johnson might not carry out provisions of their $16.6 billion plan, which passed in a historic December vote following a heated fight.

Johnson, who opted to neither sign nor veto the budget, has denied his administration is subverting it. Yet he again Wednesday cast doubt on the financial projections baked into it.

“I am monitoring this budget closely,” the mayor said during his speech at the City Club of Chicago.

Asked afterward about his council foes’ latest move, the mayor defended his approach during the last budget cycle but did not say whether his administration will engage with the new coalition.

“Look, when we went through this entire process, it was a very open and collaborative process,” Johnson said. “There are projections that our team has assessed that have been overly projected and has caused some great deal of concern, right, in implementing this budget. And getting it right, that’s the most important thing, and I’m doing that.”

The coalition is set to include 11 separate working groups tasked with tracking the most controversial plans to cut spending and raise revenue. The 28 members who signed on were almost all “yes” votes on the budget that passed, and include progressive Aldermen Ronnie Mosley and Ruth Cruz.

Ald. Andre Vasquez speaks about the city’s 2026 spending plan during a City Council meeting on Dec. 20, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)

The groups will have no legislative authority or official staff, but could serve as a way for opponents of the mayor to organize themselves to criticize the way Johnson enacts the budget.

Sticking points they plan to watch include the sale of debt owed to the city to raise nearly $90 million, new advertisements aldermen want placed on city bridges and the legalization of video gambling terminals in neighborhood bars, according to a statement from the group.

“The budget process does not end when the vote is over,” Ald. Pat Dowell, who Johnson appointed Finance Committee chair in 2023, said in the news release announcing the groups. “If we are going to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, the Administration must execute on the budget as passed.”

Ald. Pat Dowell presides over a Finance Committee meeting in City Council chambers at Chicago City Hall on Feb. 11, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Johnson and aldermen alike promised the 2026 budget would be a “living document” as they rushed to pass it before an end-of-December deadline to avert a government shutdown. Since then, the mayor’s oversight of the spending plan has troubled his council opponents, who are also eager to flex their newfound muscle.

But Johnson steered clear of the budget fracas Wednesday at the City Club, highlighting instead ways he said his administration is delivering.

He first took a political victory lap on Chicago meeting his goal of dropping under 500 homicides last year, though he cautioned that more work is to be done.

Chicago has sustained three years of declines in crime, matching a trend in cities across America after a historic spike in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and murder of George Floyd. The mayor has argued that’s a result of his administration’s “holistic” approach to the city’s gun violence epidemic.

In his remarks, Johnson expressed frustration that he isn’t getting credit despite facing campaign attacks over his public safety messaging.

“When we drive violence down, we’re saving Black lives. Can we just be real for a moment? This is not to check anybody’s motives, but you at least need to understand mine,” Johnson said. “Aren’t our children worth investing in? Do Black lives really matter?”

He also thanked Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling for their work together fighting crime, notably omitting Cook County state’s attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke. Their offices are in a spat over Johnson’s executive order pitched as a tool to prosecute federal immigration agents.

Meanwhile, the unusual announcement from his aldermanic foes was another signal of the deep mistrust at City Hall.

Responding to their complaints in a City Council hearing Monday, Johnson administration officials pinned a decision to initially pay only the first half of a $260 million advanced pension payment on a late transfer of property tax revenues from Cook County while promising to pay the full amount.

The mayor continues to say he’s opposed to the broad legalization of video gambling terminals in Chicago restaurants, bars and other establishments that the budget included. Asked Tuesday why he hadn’t formally alerted the state to the legalization plan, he told reporters “a number of alders” share his concerns and that he hopes to significantly change the plan.

“A decision hasn’t been made just yet,” he said. “It’s imperative that we get this right.”

Johnson and his top finance leaders have continued to say the budget is not well-balanced and could lead to unplanned midyear cuts and layoffs. The mayor has also asserted his discretion as the city’s chief executive in enacting the budget.

The aldermen who now hope to pressure him to put their plan into action continued to blast the mayor’s claims in their announcement.

Johnson also yet again was coy on Wednesday about his reelection plans for 2027 and stuck to his script of demanding progressive revenue from Springfield. He questioned why, if something is “the right thing, but perhaps you may not agree with the entire approach or maybe you don’t believe I’m the right person,” leaders would not focus on getting it done regardless.

“Why are you mad at me for doing what the people of Chicago elected me to do? I’ve kept every single promise,” Johnson said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/11/aldermen-opposed-mayor-brandon-johnson-budget-accountability-commission/ 

Eleven days after the mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie vanished from her home in the foothills outside Tucson, Arizona, investigators had yet to identify a suspect or even a person of interest Wednesday.

What seemed like a major break Tuesday — when authorities detained a person for questioning — fizzled when the man was released hours later. The detainment followed another potential break earlier in the day when investigators released video footage showing a masked and apparently armed man at Nancy Guthrie ’s doorstep the night of her disappearance.

The overall lack of progress has generated pressure and questions for local and federal investigators who haven’t held a news conference in days. From the outside, it might seem like solving the case and finding the 84-year-old Guthrie is growing unlikely, but investigators may be further along than they let on.

It’s not uncommon for cases to seem dead in the water at the outset and still eventually get solved, said Mary Ellen O’Toole, a former FBI profiler who worked on the yearslong search for the “Unabomber.”

So how do investigators tackle cases like this?

The masked figure and the Unabomber

Surveillance footage released Tuesday showed a person on Guthrie’s porch wearing a ski mask, backpack and what looked like a holstered handgun.

It offered the best opportunity yet for the public to help identify the suspect, said O’Toole, thinking back to the hunt for Ted Kaczynski, known as the “Unabomber,” who was caught in 1996 after a yearslong search.

Kaczynski, who carried out a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, wrote a manifesto that was published in The New York Times and The Washington Post before he was caught.

His brother recognized Kaczynski’s tone in the screed, tipped off the FBI, and Kaczynski was arrested in a cabin outside Lincoln, Montana.

Similarly, Luigi Mangione, who allegedly shot the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in New York, was arrested five days later when someone recognized him at a McDonalds and called in a tip.

In Guthrie’s case, the release of the surveillance footage and Savannah Guthrie’s plea for the public’s help is the same strategy, O’Toole said.

Someone who knows the suspect may have noticed them acting unusual, such as not going to work, following the news closely or making offhand comments about the case.

If they recognize anything familiar about the masked person on camera, that could confirm their suspicions and lead them to tip off investigators, O’Toole said.

DNA and the University of Idaho murders

Investigators said DNA from blood on Guthrie’s porch matched her, and O’Toole said investigators will still be casing the area for DNA from a possible suspect, including hair or fingerprints, which have helped solve other cases.

Bryan Kohberger, the criminology student who sneaked into a home and stabbed four University of Idaho students to death in 2022, was arrested after trace DNA was found on a knife sheath left on one of the victim’s bed.

That DNA didn’t yield any results from standard law enforcement databases, so investigators turned to publicly available genealogy services, searching for possible relatives.

After homing in on Kohberger by tracking his car using surveillance footage near the crime scene, investigators got a Q-tip from the trash outside his family’s home and tested the DNA.

It matched the father of the person whose DNA was on the knife sheath.

Strange encounters and the Brown University shooting

In the days after a shooter killed two people at Brown University in 2025, investigators didn’t appear any closer to identifying the suspect.

When police eventually shared images of a person of interest, a man started posting on Reddit that he recognized the person and that police should look into a gray Nissan.

The source, named only as “John” in a police affidavit, told investigators that he’d bumped into a man in the bathroom and thought his clothing was “inappropriate and inadequate for the weather.” John saw him again outside acting nervous and jumpy near the Nissan.

John’s tip about the car helped identify the shooter, Claudio Neves Valente, six days later, leading investigators to a storage unit where he was found dead from suicide.

It’s unclear if John took the $50,000 reward for information that was offered in the case. The FBI is offering the same amount for information in Guthrie’s apparent abduction and hoping a tipster like John may come forward. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday that they have received nearly 18,000 calls since the day Guthrie was reported missing.

Connor Hagan, a spokesperson for the FBI, said in a previous statement: “Someone has that one piece of information that can help us bring Nancy home.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/11/nancy-guthrie-investigation-leads/ 

Watch: Bondi Explodes Over Epstein During Shouting Match With Massie And Top Dems

Tyler Durden
Wed, 02/11/2026 – 17:20

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-bondi-explodes-over-epstein-during-shouting-match-massie-and-top-dems 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Pistons center Isaiah Stewart was suspended for seven games by the NBA on Wednesday, while three other players also were penalized for their roles in a fight during a Detroit-Charlotte Hornets game.

Hornets forwards Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabaté were each suspended for four games for fighting and escalating the altercation, while Pistons center Jalen Duren got two games for initiating the altercation and fighting, the league announced.

But the heaviest penalty went to Stewart, with the league saying it was based in part on his “repeated history of unsportsmanlike acts.” The league said he left the bench area, aggressively entered an on-court altercation and fought during Monday night’s game.

The suspensions will begin immediately, with Stewart and Duren missing Wednesday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors. Bridges and Diabaté will be out Wednesday night as the Hornets play host to the Atlanta Hawks.

Stewart has been suspended five times, including once for an altercation with LeBron James in 2021. He was suspended twice last season, including in April for an altercation with the Minnesota Timberwolves that spilled over into the stands.

Diabaté, Bridges, Duren and Stewart were all ejected from the Pistons’ 110-104 win following a melee in the third quarter.

Duren was driving toward the basket when he was fouled by Diabaté. Duren turned around to get face-to-face with Diabaté and the two appeared to butt heads. Duren then hit Diabate in the face with his open hand and things escalated from there.

While Pistons forward Tobias Harris was holding Diabaté back, Diabaté threw a punch at Duren. Duren walked away and Bridges got involved by charged at him, throwing a left-handed punch. Duren retaliated with a punch. Diabate attempted to charge again at Duren and had to be held back.

Stewart left the bench to confront Bridges, who responded with a punch, and the players tussled. At one point, Stewart rushed to throw a punch at Bridges and missed, but Stewart appeared to get Bridges in a headlock and delivered mutiple left-handed blows toward his head.

Duren spoke after the game, calling it an “overly competitive game,” adding that “emotions were flaring. At the end of the day, we would love to keep it basketball, but things happen. Everybody was just playing hard.”

Following practice on Tuesday, Diabaté apologized to the Hornets organization and to the fans for his role in the altercation and vowed not to let it happen again.

“When he put his hand in my face, that’s when I think I lost control of it,” Diabaté said.

Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff defended his players after the game.

Lee was ejected and had to be restrained by Hornets guard Brandon Miller while yelling at officials for a no-call after Charlotte’s Grant Williams collided with Detroit’s Paul Reed.

The Pistons are in first place in the Eastern Conference. Charlotte is fighting for a playoff spot and had won nine straight games — one shy of tying a franchise record — before losing to the Pistons.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/11/detroit-pistons-charlotte-hornets-brawl-suspensions/ 

Not to be outdone by competitors in Arlington Heights, Hammond, Gary and even Iowa, Portage officials made their pitch Wednesday to lure the Chicago Bears away from Soldier Field with a $5 billion stadium.

“We’re prepared to give them everything they want with no taxpayer dollars,” Portage Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Andy Maletta said.

Financier Lou Weisbach, who has stadium-building experience, is in Portage’s playbook.

“We offered it in a way that has never been done before,” he said.

WeCreate Media CEO Wade Breitzke helped quarterback Wednesday’s news conference at Marina Shores on the city’s north side, within sight of the site where the stadium would be built. The city is calling the proposed site Halas Harbor.

Shovels could be in the ground as soon as June 2026, he said. “When you’re ready to act, there’s nothing standing in the way.”

Visitors gather around a rendering of a proposed stadium and development area during a news conference concerning a plan to attract the Chicago Bears to Portage on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)

June is extremely optimistic, considering the construction drawings for a new stadium haven’t been drafted, but the hyperbole fit the optimistic mood at Wednesday’s news conference.

“This stadium is not about fitting into an existing footprint,” Breitzke said. The city’s Redevelopment Commission owns hundreds of acres where the stadium could be built.

“When that snow melts, you’d better get your shovels out, because we’ll be ready,” Breitzke said.

He spun a tale of walkable retail and dining options, condominium buildings connected to the stadium by tunnel, and a stadium “designed and ready to host the Super Bowl.”

The site is 45 minutes by highway, with both Indiana Toll Road and Interstate 90/94 exits nearby, he said. By South Shore Line trains, it’s a 55-minute ride from downtown Chicago, or 85 minutes by boat, he said,

“You’ve heard of tailgating, but have you heard of sail-gating,” Breitzke said.

Specifics are still fuzzy; Portage is selling a concept rather than a fully designed stadium. It would be at least 70,000 seats, which is a Bears requirement.

“This is rent-free to the Chicago Bears,” Breitzke said.

While the city’s Redevelopment Commission owns the land now, the future ownership would be determined after the Bears pick the site as their final choice, Mayor Austin Bonta. Right now, Portage officials are still salivating over the prospect, not nailing down all those details. “We are open to negotiating everything that would be the best deal for the Bears,” he said.

Portage Mayor Austin Bonta speaks during a news conference concerning the proposed Chicago Bears stadium and development in the city on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)

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“We have the land, we have the water, we have the location, we have the financing,” Bonta said.

“We feel we’ve got as good a chance as anybody,” Maletta said, though when the Bears initially chose Arlington Heights, Portage officials hit the snooze bar for dreams of bringing the Bears to Portage.

“The Bears are definitely aware” of the Portage proposal, Bonta said, but didn’t have an obvious presence at the news conference Wednesday.

He didn’t know whether Portage was a stop on the tour when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was in Chicago for the Bears-Packers playoff game Jan. 10. Before the game, Goodell joined Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren and Chair George McCaskey on a tour of the Arlington Heights site the team already owns and sites in Northwest Indiana, including one near Wolf Lake in Hammond.

Portage began working on the stadium pitch Dec. 17, Bonta said.

Maletta wouldn’t give a figure on how much the pitch cost. “It wasn’t cheap, I can tell you that.”
From the beginning, Bonta said, Portage’s pitch wasn’t going to depend on the Indiana General Assembly passing any law favorable to attracting the stadium.

“We absolutely appreciate the state of Indiana is as gung-ho about it as we are,” he said.

Weisbach said his team has filed patents on the securitization plan to finance the stadium. “It’s really the financing plan of the future,” he said.

The plan would give the Bears full revenue opportunities, Weisbach said.

Like Soldier Field, the proposed stadium would be used for more than a handful of Bears games over the course of a year. Concerts and other big events would be held there as well.

Before making the pitch for the stadium, the Redevelopment Commission was working on connectivity in the area, including a bridge over Burns Waterway. Burns Parkway would be extended to facilitate development there.

“The Bears give us the opportunity to have the development and the connectivity happen simultaneously,” Bonta said.

An area of woods that would be part of a proposed development to attract the Chicago Bears to Portage can be seen beyond the docks at Marina Shores on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)

He considers Portage a part of Chicagoland and solid Bears country. The Indianapolis Colts are far more distant than the Bears. During Bears/Packers games, “It’s a violation of city ordinance to wear Packers hats,” he quipped.

The prospect of 70,000 people visiting Portage excites Bonta. But Chicagoans are already familiar with Portage, flocking to the Indiana Dunes National Park beaches in the city.

“West Beach is a very, very attended beach,” and Portage Lakefront Park is the most-visited beach in the national park, he said.

“Every summer, our beaches get full of people coming from Chicago,” Bonta said. West Beach’s parking lots often fill up on hot summer days.

“There’s a strong muscle memory to get to the region,” Bonta said.

The area where the stadium would be built is already zoned for residential and commercial use. The proximity to the South Shore Line station puts a transit development district – especially a tax increment financing district on steroids – where the stadium would go.

Almost all of Portage’s residents live south of Interstate 94. North of there is primarily industrial and commercial. The proposed location is along the Burns Waterway, where U.S. Steel’s Midwest plant in Portage spilled 300 pounds of hexavalent chromium in 2017.

The undeveloped land, part of which was planned for a SportResort that never got off the ground, is close to the national park and the South Shore Line station, making it a prime location for an inn serving the national park as well as residential and commercial developments.

“It really is a new city, something that can be based around the train,” Bonta said. “It really is a distinct part of our city,” Bonta said.

Hammond’s pitch for the stadium includes noting that George Halas’ first professional football team was in Hammond. Gary has sites that would work, too.

The Des Moines Register reported Tuesday on a state Senate bill unveiled that day that would expand one of Iowa’s biggest economic programs to bait the Bears, providing financial incentives for a National Football League team to build a stadium in Iowa.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun “is determined to get the Bears here” in Indiana, Bonta said.

Illinois legislators are working on legislation that would make it easier for the bears to negotiate with local governments over property taxes, sources told the Chicago Tribune.

The Indiana legislation would require an NFL team to enter into a lease of at least 35 years for a new stadium. At the end of the lease, the team would have the option to purchase the stadium for $1 if certain conditions are met.

The Bears said the Indiana legislation is “a significant milestone in our discussions around a potential stadium development in Chicagoland’s Northwest Indiana region.”

“We’re not naïve. We know they ideally would like to stay in Illinois,” Maletta said.

But Indiana has its attractions, including a business-friendly tax climate. Then there’s the location. “We are part of Chicagoland. We always have been,” he said.

Portage Mayor Austin Bonta speaks to financier Lou Weisbach during a news conference concerning the proposed Chicago Bears stadium and development in the city on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)

The fight isn’t over in Illinois.

As competition for a new Chicago Bears stadium intensifies, suburban fans and leaders planned to rally Wednesday night to bring the team to Arlington Heights — with a new urgency to fight off a bid from Indiana.

The Indiana Senate recently passed a bill to create a northwest Indiana sports stadium authority to finance, build, and lease an arena.

Rolling Meadows Mayor Lara Sanoica, who supports bringing the Bears to neighboring Arlington Heights, issued a statement that the proposed Indiana law would be a bad deal for workers.

“Indiana’s sales pitch is that you can build a world-class stadium by shortchanging the workers who build it,” Sanoica said. “Illinois doesn’t work that way. We know our families deserve better than a race to the bottom.”

The Indiana bill prohibits project labor agreements on the stadium project. Such agreements, Sanoica said, ensure that construction workers receive union-scale wages, retirement benefits and apprenticeships. The Indiana Senate also eliminated participation goals for minority-owned and women-owned businesses.

In contrast, the Illinois Mega Projects Bill that the Bears want requires a project labor agreement and a goal of awarding 20% of contracts to minority-owned businesses.

The Mega Projects bill would allow the Bears, or any other sponsor of a major development, to negotiate long-term property taxes with local taxing bodies.

It wouldn’t cost the state a dime. The Bears propose paying for their own $2 billion enclosed stadium. But team officials want the state to help pay for an estimated $855 million in infrastructure costs for things like new roads, rail access and water mains.

Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia said he thinks Illinois lawmakers are making progress to counter Indiana’s offer.

“This is no longer Arlington Heights versus Chicago,” he said. “This is about doing what we need to keep the Bears here in Illinois.”

Chicago Tribune reporter Bob McCoppin contributed.

Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/11/portage-makes-pitch-to-host-bears/ 

NYU Prof: Trump’s Whole Milk Push Is ‘Dog Whistle To Far-Right’

Tyler Durden
Wed, 02/11/2026 – 17:00

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nyu-prof-trumps-whole-milk-push-dog-whistle-far-right 

Por ANDREW DESTIN

SEATTLE (AP) — Ernest Jones IV soltó algunas palabras subidas de tono mientras elogiaba a sus compañeros de la defensa, a su línea ofensiva, a su quarterback y a la ciudad de Seattle el miércoles antes del desfile de la victoria del Super Bowl de los Seahawks.

Al igual que el resto de los Seahawks, el líder de la célebre defensa conocida como “Dark Side” de Seattle tenía una excusa para usar palabras altisonantes durante una presentación matutina del trofeo en Lumen Field. En el escenario había un barril de Bud Light para ofrecer una bebida a los jugadores, y Jones —como muchos de los que hablaron antes que él— dio sorbos a un vaso de cerveza mientras se dirigía a la multitud.

El linebacker expresó lo que quedó más que claro para todos los que vieron cómo Seattle desmanteló el domingo en el Super Bowl 29-13 a los Patriots de Nueva Inglaterra en Santa Clara, California.

“No solo tenemos la mejor defensa del mundo”, afirmó Jones, “tenemos el mejor equipo del mundo”.

El artífice de esa defensa, el presidente de operaciones de fútbol americano John Schneider, también estaba de buen humor, con un vaso rojo de plástico en la mano, antes de que iniciara el desfile después de que los Seahawks ganaran el segundo título en sus 50 años de historia. Seattle ganó su primer campeonato hace 12 años.

Además de elogiar al entrenador de segundo año Mike Macdonald, Schneider brindó por el fallecido propietario Paul Allen.

Hace dos semanas, ESPN informó que los Seahawks saldrían a la venta después del Super Bowl. Pero el miércoles se trató de celebrar lo que Seattle logró bajo Jody Allen, quien es dueña del equipo desde que su hermano murió en 2018 a los 65 años.

“Jody”, dijo Schneider. “Paul estaría tan orgulloso de ti, por la manera en que lideraste esta organización y nos permitiste estar donde estamos. Por Jody Allen”.

Sam Darnold también reconoció a Allen, a Schneider y a Macdonald durante su breve discurso. Jones defendió con vehemencia a Darnold después de que tuvo un partido de cuatro intercepciones a mediados de noviembre, que resultó ser la última derrota de los Seahawks en la temporada. El Super Bowl fue su décima victoria consecutiva.

“Mucha gente no creyó en mí”, expresó Darnold, “pero no importó porque los que están cerca sí creyeron en mí, incluidos ustedes”.

Darnold tuvo muchos detractores incluso mientras guio a los Seahawks a 14 victorias en la temporada regular y ayudó a Jaxon Smith-Njigba a establecer récords de la franquicia en yardas por recepción (1.793) y recepciones (119).

Smith-Njigba, el Jugador Ofensivo del Año de la AP, atribuyó su éxito a sus compañeros y entrenadores, como lo hizo durante toda la temporada.

“Somos los mejores del mundo. Los mejores del mundo”, dijo Smith-Njigba. “Sam Darnold, Mike Macdonald, no importa. La mejor defensa del mundo. Teníamos un objetivo, y era traer esto a casa. Y eso fue lo que hicimos. Para los mejores aficionados del mundo, esto es para ustedes”.

Funcionarios de la ciudad estimaron que hasta 1 millón de aficionados se dieron cita a lo largo de la ruta del desfile de 2 millas, que al final tuvo que ampliarse debido a la enorme asistencia. Algunos niños se subieron a los árboles para ver mejor a su querido equipo, incluso después de que el Distrito de Escuelas Públicas de Seattle anunciara que sus escuelas permanecerían abiertas y que asistir al desfile no se consideraría una ausencia justificada.

Los desfiles de campeones han sido algo poco frecuente en Seattle. Los SuperSonics de la NBA —que desde entonces ya dejaron la ciudad— ganaron el título en 1979. El Seattle Storm de la WNBA tuvo desfiles después de tres de sus cuatro títulos. Ni los Mariners (MLB) ni el Kraken, equipo de expansión de la NHL, han ganado un campeonato.

___

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

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/11/seahawks-elogian-al-mejor-equipo-del-mundo-en-seattle-antes-de-festejar-con-su-aficin/ 

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Pitcher Erick Fedde and catcher Korey Lee had a brief conversation during a bullpen session Wednesday afternoon at Camelback Ranch.

Fedde executed the next pitch to Lee’s liking.

“Yeah,” the catcher said, approving of Fedde’s adjustment.

Fedde and Lee were Chicago White Sox teammates for a portion of the 2024 season. They were working together again Wednesday, a day after Fedde officially agreed to a one-year, $1.5 million deal with the Sox.

“It’s exciting,” Fedde said of wearing a Sox uniform again. “It’s just been lots of great memories to remember. Everyone has been so kind in saying hello. It’s good to see old faces. It’s been a good couple of days.

“It just reminds me of times when things were good. In ’24 we weren’t the best team in the world but had some guys who were just breaking into the league. Seeing their excitement and seeing guys like (pitcher Jonathan) Cannon and Lee — threw to Lee today — it was like old times. But it was just cool to be back and love being in Arizona.”

Fedde went 7-4 with a 3.11 ERA in 21 starts for a 2024 Sox team that wound up losing a modern-record 121 games before he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals as part of a three-team, eight-player trade that July. He pitched last year for the Cardinals, Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers.

Reports of his return to the Sox first surfaced on Monday.

“It was kind of a quiet free agency for a while there, and then right as it got close to spring training, kind of heated up,” Fedde said. “Had a few offers, but the White Sox made the best one and a place where I felt very comfortable. Knew some faces and had some success. Felt like a great place to start back up again.”

The familiar faces included senior adviser to pitching Brian Bannister. The two chatted during Fedde’s workout Wednesday.

“He showed me a video right away and was like, ‘Hey do you remember doing this?’ I was like, ‘OK, yeah,’” Fedde said. “He said, ‘Let’s get back to this.’ It was a little mechanical thing. Just a few things to work on in catch every day and try to, brick by brick, get back to being good.”

Fedde looks to rebound after going a combined 4-13 with a 5.49 ERA in 32 appearances (24 starts) for the Cardinals, Braves and Brewers in 2025.

“It definitely kicked my butt into working shape for the offseason,” Fedde said. “For seam shift guys, if the ball isn’t spinning perfect, it makes it really tough. Just getting me back to where the ball is coming out of my hand clean and get the seams moving left and right.”

Fedde has eight years of big-league experience with the Washington Nationals (2017-22), Sox (2024), Cardinals (2024-25), Braves (2025) and Brewers (2025). He spent 2023 in the KBO League in South Korea, where he earned Most Valuable Player honors.

Sox manager Will Venable sees ways Fedde can aid the Sox on and off the field.

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“Certainly, a guy that has been there and performed well in this league,” Venable said Wednesday. “One, to have his ability on our team, and which we can depend on, is great.

“But also, as an example to these young guys about how to go about their business and build the things on a daily basis that can lead to long-term success is huge for our group too.”

Cannon felt Fedde’s impact in 2024, calling him “a guy we all kind of looked up to a little bit and asked for a lot of advice.”

Fedde, who turns 33 on Feb. 25, embraces the role.

“It’s crazy, you blink and you go from the young guy to the old guy really quick,” Fedde said. “But I’m going to try to just do what the older guys did for me when I was a National and trained behind some Hall of Fame-quality guys with (Max) Scherzer, (Stephen) Strasburg, (Patrick) Corbin. It’s just about teaching the right way to go about things, what it looks like to be a professional.”

Fedde also is embracing the competition this spring for a role in the Sox rotation.

“Competition is healthy,” he said. “It’s not something I haven’t done before. But as long as it brings the best out of all of us, that’s important. In the end of the day, we are going to put the best players out there and try to win a bunch of ballgames.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/11/chicago-white-sox-erick-fedde-reunion/ 

Hong Li Yang said she closes her eyes and is pulled back into the moment when her husband’s body collapsed to the ground in a pool of blood.

On Feb. 9, 2020, she was coming back from dinner when a gunman shot and killed her husband, Weizhong Xiong, 38, and their friend Huayi Bian, 37, in Chinatown as she took cover underneath the vehicle.

“Every night, I wake from nightmares gasping for air, my heart pounding as if I were still there, because I am,” she said in court Wednesday, through an interpreter. “Like him, I cannot walk away from this.”

Cook County Judge Neera Walsh ordered a sentence of natural life in prison for the man convicted in the killings, Alvin Thomas, 26, following a sentencing hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. She found that, though Thomas was young at the time of the shooting, he exhibited “escalating criminal behavior” leading up to the attack.

“He … destroyed part of the family that the surviving witness was able to build at that time,” Walsh said.

The sentencing hearing unfolded almost exactly six years after the slaying that rattled the tight-knit Chinatown community just a month before much of the world shut down at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Supporters of the victims attended the hearing, as well as family members for Thomas, who audibly cried when Walsh ordered the punishment.

Kim Tee, left, Hongli Yang and Zhidong Wang talk to reporters at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago on Feb. 11, 2026, after Alvin Thomas was sentenced in a double homicide. Hongli Yang’s husband at the time was one of the victims. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

After the proceedings, Yang said the life sentence offered her a measure of closure.

“Finally, I can tell my late husband somewhere up there that we did it,” she said.

A jury in November convicted Thomas of first-degree murder in the killings, despite the man’s arguments that the shootings were in self-defense.

In a short statement to the court, Thomas said: “I do believe that I honestly am innocent.”

A relative of Thomas’ told the Tribune after the hearing that Thomas was intoxicated and approached the victims for help, not meaning any harm.

The two friends and Xiong’s wife were returning from dinner and shortly after 2 a.m. were in a parking lot outside Bian’s apartment in the 2000 block of South Wells Street.

Xiong and Bian were outside of a car, guiding Xiong’s wife into a parking space, when Thomas approached and shot Xiong repeatedly in the face and head, according to prosecutors.

Xiong’s wife ducked underneath the car and saw her husband collapse on the pavement.

Thomas ran off, leaving a trail of bloody footprints that led police straight to him at the nearby Chinatown Square outdoor mall, prosecutors said.

When police arrested him, according to prosecutors, he was wearing bloody shoes and a gun was sticking out of his right pants pocket.

“All of this was ripped away from us by a gunshot, leaving behind a shattered heart, a black hole where the sun used to be, an empty future,” Yang said.

She called on people to truly understand the toll gun violence takes from loved ones. She said she avoids crowds and is triggered by noises on the street and slamming car doors.

Her son lost his father, the person who would have “stood proudly at his graduation and cried at his wedding,” she said.

“A shooting does not end when the gunfire stops. It continues, in the nightmares of the survivors, in the empty seat at the dinner table, in the echo of his presence in every moment of the future,” she said. “We don’t need to heal and we don’t need to forget. What we need is understanding, support and the courage to make sure tragedies like this never happen again.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/11/chinatown-murder-sentencing/ 

Producer and director Carrie Bedwell has crowned year No. 8 for this spring’s annual Northwest Indiana stage presentation of “Listen to Your Mother” as something “wicked.”

“We’re promoting a ‘Motherhood is Wicked’ theme as a nod to the movie and musical for this year’s ‘Listen to Your Mother’ production, with our traditional promise of a well-crafted, 90-minute afternoon of diverse true stories about motherhood,” Bedwell said.

Bedwell will be a guest at 10 a.m. next Tuesday, Feb. 17, on my weekly Of Notoriety radio show on WJOB 1230 AM, with all of the details of this annual charity theatrical performance, which gives back so much to the community in so many ways. Bedwell, who has worked as an English teacher for 31 years, was first cast in one of the productions in 2014 and then took over producing the annual event in 2018.

This year’s performance is at 3 p.m., May 3, at Hobart Art Theater.

But FIRST! Bedwell needs her stable of presenters for this year, eligible to both men and women, to share their stories in this series of live original readings and performances by local artists and talents about the universe that is motherhood.

For virtual auditions, join the organization’s Facebook group at LTYM NWI 2026 for all of the audition details, or email ltymnwi@gmail.com before March 1 for more information and details about how to submit a virtual audition to be considered.

Selected talent for this year’s event will be notified by the second week in March in time for the first practice and promotional headshots, all from 9:30 a.m. to noon at Spare Room Studios in Chesterton. A second practice and final run-through is scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon April 25 at the Art Theater in Hobart in preparation for the May 3 performance.

Melissa Marshall of 219 Social Co. is serving as the emcee for this year’s show.

Tickets start at $25 available at www.ticketleap.com, at the door, by calling 219-942-1670, or at www.brickartlive.com. High top table seating and VIP area seating range from $35 to $55. A portion of all funds raised this year benefits Meals on Wheels Northwest Indiana.

The stage idea for the annual production came from creator Ann Imig, who “gave motherhood a microphone” and is credited with founding the concept for “Listen to Your Mother,” which debuted with the first performance on Mother’s Day 2010 at the Barrymore Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin. She and 11 other local writers read their original true stories of motherhood before an audience of 300 people.

Within less than a decade, the show became a localized hit as word spread via creative producers and a growing grassroots movement, which now spans 50-plus cities and 250 productions staged across North America, still adhering to the key of donating a portion of ticket sales to local nonprofit organizations supporting women and families in need.

In April 2015, G.P. Putnam and Sons published a 256-page hardcover titled “Listen to Your Mother: What she said then, what we’re saying NOW” (2015 Putnam Books $25.95) edited by Imig as an in-print companion to the live stage show experience.

“The goal of every ‘Listen to Your Mother’ production is to take the audience on a journey of true stories about motherhood from being a mom, having a mom and losing a mom to finding a mom, as there are many interpretations on the theme of mothering as you can imagine,” said Imig, whose theatrical work is legally produced through Miracle or 2 Licensing.

“From hilarious and heartwarming, to emotionally intense and profound, ‘Listen to Your Mother’ entertains, energizes, brings community together and leaves everyone feeling a little less alone and a little more understood.”

Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and radio show host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at PhilPotempa@gmail.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/11/of-notoriety-nwi-annual-listen-to-your-mother-gets-wicked-in-2026/