Stellantis Shares Crash On 22 Billion Euro Charge Tied To Miscalculating EV Demand

Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/06/2026 – 07:20

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stellantis-shares-crash-22-billion-euro-charge-tied-miscalculating-ev-demand 

Pope Leo XIV, an avid tennis player and sports fan, marked the start of the Winter Games on Friday by extolling the positive values of sport and fair play while warning that the pursuit of profits and performance risked corrupting sport entirely.

In a message entitled “Life in Abundance” issued on the same day as the Milan Cortina opening ceremony, Leo traced the history of Christian philosophers and popes who identified sports and leisure activity as beneficial for both physical and spiritual development.

And he repeated his call for world leaders to respect the ancient tradition of an Olympic truce.

But drawing on his own experience as an athlete, Leo delved into a nuanced exploration of the value of sports and the risk when the “dictatorship of performance” posed by doping, match-fixing and other forms of corruption win out over fair play.

“Such dishonesty not only corrupts sporting activities themselves, but also demoralizes the general public and undermines the positive contribution of sport to society as a whole,” he warned.

He called for sport to be accessible, to both poor people and women especially, and for fans to refrain from turning sport into a fanatical religion. Athletes, too, he said, must refrain from narcissism and becoming obsessed with their image and success.

“The cult of image and performance, amplified by media and digital platforms, risks fragmenting the person, separating body from mind and spirit,” he warned.

True sport, he said, calls for a “shared ethical accord” between competitors, where the rules of the game are accepted and the integrity of the contest is respected.

“Accepting the limits of one’s body, the limits of time and fatigue, and respecting the established rules means recognizing that success comes from discipline, perseverance and loyalty,” he said.

A sporty pope

Popes have a long history of engaging the sporting world to promote values of peace, solidarity, and friendship, with the Olympics offering them regular opportunities to recall the ancient tradition of an Olympic truce.

On Sunday, Leo called for an Olympic truce to accompany the Games, urging especially world leaders to take the opportunity of the Games to “make concrete gestures of detente and dialogue.”

Leo, 70, is famously sporty: He religiously plays tennis and swims at his country house where he escapes from Monday to Tuesday each week, and is a longtime fan of the Chicago White Socks baseball team.

Before becoming pope, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost would also work out at the Vatican-area Omega gym two to three times a week, with hourlong sessions focusing especially on posture and cardiovascular health, according to his personal trainer at the time. Prevost’s workouts, described as suitable for a man in his 50s, would last up to an hour and focus especially on the treadmill and exercise bike, trainer Valerio Masella told The Associated Press last year.

When Leo was elected, the Italian Open was underway and one of Leo’s first audiences was with former No. 1 tennis player Jannik Sinner of Italy, who gave him a racket.

Leo drew on his experience as a tennis player in his message Friday, noting the cultural and spiritual benefits of the so-called “flow experience,” of being challenged beyond one’s level, that both fans and players alike can experience in a prolonged tennis rally.

“The reason this is one of the most enjoyable parts of a match is that each player pushes the other to the limit of his or her skill level,” Leo wrote. “The experience is exhilarating, and the two players challenge each other to improve; this is as true for two ten-year-olds as it is for two professional champions.”

A history of popes engaged in sport

But Leo’s athleticism and attention to the spiritual and social values of sport is nothing new.

St. John Paul II, who was elected pope at the age of 58, was an avid skier and mountain trekker.

Pope Benedict XVI preferred solitary walks in the mountains. Pope Francis wasn’t athletic at all – he was known as “hard foot” as a child because of his poor soccer skills — but he was a lifelong fan and member of the Argentine soccer club San Lorenzo.

Francis also spoke out frequently a bout the positive values of teamwork and camaraderie in sport, especially for young people, and during his pontificate the Holy See began fielding track and cycling athletes in international competitions as team Atletica Vaticana.

Last year, on the occasion of the 2025 Holy Year, the Giro d’Italia passed through the Vatican.

Francis also warned of the downside of sport, especially at the professional level, often calling out doping, match-fixing and corruption that he said had tarnished people’s trust in fair play.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/06/pope-an-avid-athlete-extols-physical-and-spiritual-benefits-of-sport-in-olympic-message/ 

It just wouldn’t feel like the Super Bowl for them if they weren’t all there. And this might be the last time they all do it.

That’s what three old friends were coming to grips with just before this year’s Super Bowl. The trio of octogenarians are the only fans left in the exclusive “never missed a Super Bowl” club.

Don Crisman of Maine, Gregory Eaton of Michigan and Tom Henschel of Florida were back for another big game this year. But two of them are grappling with the fact that advancing years and decreasing mobility mean this is probably the last time.

This year’s game pits the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday. Crisman, a Patriots fan since the franchise started, was excited to see his team in the game for a record-setting 12th time.

“This will definitely be the final one,” said Crisman, who made the trip with his daughter, Susan Metevier. “We made it to 60.”

Getting older, scaling back

Crisman, who first met Henschel at the 1983 Super Bowl, turns 90 this year. Meanwhile, Henschel, 84, has been slowed by a stroke. Both said this is the last time they’ll make the increasingly expensive trip to the game, although members of the group have said that before. For his part, Eaton, 86, plans to keep going as long as he’s still physically able.

Eaton, who runs a ground transportation company in Detroit, is the only member of the group not retired. And he’d still like to finally see his beloved Detroit Lions make it to a Super Bowl.

Even so, all three said they’ve scaled back the time they dedicate each year to the trip. Crisman used to spend a week in the host city, soaking in the pomp and pageantry. These days, it’s just about the game, not the hype.

“We don’t go for a week anymore, we go for three or four days,” Crisman said.

Eaton, too, admits the price and hype of the big game have gotten to be a lot.

“I think all of them are big, they’re all fun. It’s just gotten so commercial. It’s a $10,000 trip now,” he said.

Friendly rivalries over the years

Henschel said this year’s Super Bowl would be the most challenging for him because of his stroke, but he was excited to see Eaton and Crisman one more time.

Eaton met Crisman and Henschel in the mid-2010s after years of attending the Super Bowl separately. And Henschel and Crisman have a long-running rivalry: Their respective favorite teams — the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots — are AFC rivals.

The fans have attended every game since the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, as the first two Super Bowls were known at the time, in 1967. They have sometimes sat together in the past, but logistics make it impossible some years.

But this year it was just about being able to go to the game at all, Henschel said.

“I don’t talk or walk good,” he said.

An ever-shrinking club

The club of people who have never missed a Super Bowl once included other fans, executives, media members and even groundskeepers, but as time has passed, the group has shrunk. Photographer John Biever, who has shot every Super Bowl, also plans to let his streak end at 60.

The three fans spin tales of past games that often focus less on the action on the field than on the different world where old Super Bowls took place. Henschel scored a $12 ticket for the 1969 Super Bowl the day of the game. Crisman endured a 24-hour train ride to Miami for the 1968 Super Bowl. Eaton, who is Black, remembers the many years before Doug Williams became the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl in 1988.

Metevier, Crisman’s daughter, was born the year of the first Super Bowl and grew up with her dad’s streak as a fixture in her life. She’s looking forward to going to one last game with him.

“It’s kind of bittersweet. It’s about the memories,” Metevier said. “It’s not just about the football, it’s something more.”

Crisman’s son, Don Crisman Jr., said he’s on board with his dad making the trip for as long as he’s still able, too.

“You know, he’s a little long in the tooth, but the way I put it, if it was me and I was mobile and I could go, I would damn sure go,” he said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/06/3-fans-60-super-bowls/ 

Authorities in Norway have opened an investigation into former prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland on suspicions of corruption following revelations of his ties with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Norwegian Economic Crime Investigation Service, a mixed unit of police and prosecutors, announced Thursday that it would look into whether gifts, travel or loans were received by Jagland in connection with his positions.

Jagland was Norway’s prime minister between 1996 and 1997. He also served as a Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and was Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the continent’s largest intergovernmental human rights body.

The files revealed years of contact between the politician and Epstein. Emails in the files indicate that he made plans to visit Epstein’s island with his family in 2014, when he was chairman of the Nobel committee, with an Epstein assistant organizing the flights.

Norwegian authorities are also looking to lift Jagland’s immunity, which he enjoys because of his past as a diplomat.

His legal representative told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that Jagland is cooperating with the investigation.

Jagland’s is one of several Norwegian public figures whose reputations have been impacted by revelations from the recent release of over 3 million pages of documents on the millionaire financier and sex offender Epstein released last week by the U.S. Department of Justice. Epstein killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually abused underage girls at his homes in the U.S.

The World Economic Forum, the organizer of an annual high-level business summit in Davos, also announced on Thursday that it was opening an internal review into its CEO Børge Brende to determine his relationship with Epstein, after the files indicated the two had dined together several times and exchanged messages.

Brende served as Norway’s minister of foreign affairs between 2013 and 2017.

He told NRK that he is cooperating with the investigation, that he only met Epstein in business settings and he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal background.

Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit also faces renewed scrutiny over her past contacts with Jeffrey Epstein just as her son went to trial this week for multiple offences including charges of rape.

The Epstein files contained several hundred mentions of the crown princess, who already said in 2019 that she regretted having had contact with Epstein, Norwegian media reported. The documents, which include email exchanges, showed that Mette-Marit borrowed an Epstein-owned property in Palm Beach, Florida, for several days in 2013. NRK reported that the stay was arranged through a mutual friend, which was later confirmed by the royal household.

Mette-Marit said in a statement that she “must take responsibility for not having investigated Epstein’s background more thoroughly, and for not realizing sooner what kind of person he was.” She added: “I showed poor judgment and regret having had any contact with Epstein at all. It is simply embarrassing.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/06/norway-investigates-former-prime-minister/ 

TORONTO — Jaden Ivey and Anfernee Simons are still catching their breath.

The pair of guards barely had time to stop their heads from spinning in the hours between their respective trades — Ivey from the Detroit Pistons, Simons from the Boston Celtics — as they caught up with their new team to make their Chicago Bulls debut Thursday night against the Toronto Raptors. The turnaround afforded just enough time to practice with the team during shootaround in the morning and meet with coach Billy Donovan during the afternoon break.

Those initial meetings shared a common theme: Get ready to run.

The Bulls are the fourth-fastest team in the NBA. That won’t change despite the fact they parted ways with eight players ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline, completely overhauling the majority of the roster. Donovan doesn’t believe the Bulls can afford to switch up their style to accommodate new personnel.

Chicago Bulls made 7 deals and parted with 8 players: Recapping their NBA trade deadline moves

For Simons — who previously played for the Boston Celtics, the slowest-paced team in the league — it was a harsh adjustment.

“I was pretty tired out there today,” Simons, 26, said. “Really tired. And Billy was just telling us to play faster.”

Ivey played 33 minutes in the 123-107 loss, his longest stint in an NBA game in more than two years.

“This was probably the longest minutes I’ve played in a while,” Ivey, 23, said. “Praise god that I was even able to play the whole game.”

Simons made a strong impression on the Bulls this season during two meetings against the Celtics. He dropped eight 3-pointers on the Bulls in their first matchup on Jan. 5 and another five in a rematch on Jan. 24, averaging 24 points in the two games.

“I’m glad I put on a good show,” Simons said with a laugh.

The Bulls’ Anfernee Simons, right, defends the Raptors’ Brandon Ingram during the second half Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Toronto. (Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press via AP)

The Bulls are still determining a role for Simons, who started (and knocked down six 3-pointers) against the Raptors. Simons was a starter during his last four seasons in Portland but moved into the sixth-man role with the Celtics. This was a successful shift for the guard, who still averaged 14.2 points and 2.4 assists in 24.5 minutes per game.

Simons might not fit into the Bulls starting lineup when the team is fully healthy. But with Josh Giddey and Tre Jones still in and out of the lineup, the Bulls will need to lean on him heavily throughout the final stretch of the season.

“I think I found success in both — coming off the bench and starting,” Simons said. “Whatever role I get put in, I feel like I’m going to be successful. To me, it doesn’t matter. As long as we building to win and be a competitive team, that’s all that matters.”

A lifelong Midwesterner, Ivey feels at home moving to Chicago. The son of Notre Dame women’s coach Niele Ivey and former Notre Dame wide receiver Javin Hunter, Ivey was born in South Bend, Ind., and played his college ball for Purdue before the Pistons drafted him in 2022.

Column: Artūras Karnišovas finally gave the Chicago Bulls a complete makeover. But does he have a plan?

Still, the transition to Thursday’s game felt like whiplash. Ivey said he did not expect to be traded until he received the call Wednesday while spending time at home with his three children. He has yet to begin the laborious process of moving his family away from their home in Detroit.

Throughout the last two days, Ivey centered himself in faith and gratitude — two grounding principles for a player whose career was derailed in January 2025 by a gruesome leg injury. Ivey shattered his left fibula in a collision with then-Orlando Magic guard Cole Anthony, an injury that required nearly a year away from the court and multiple surgeries. That recovery process reshaped Ivey’s perspective on the game.

“It was a long journey in my life,” Ivey said. “During that journey, there was a lot of rehab, a lot of time when I didn’t think I could push through it but somehow I struggled to keep my faith and stay on top of that. I never imagined I’d have two surgeries at this point. I’ve been healthy this year, I’ve played 33 games. I’m grateful.”

Here’s what to know about the rest of the new players.

Guerschon Yabusele

France’s Guerschon Yabusele dunks over Team USA’s LeBron James during a gold-medal game at the Summer Olympics on Aug. 10, 2024, in Paris. (Mark J. Terrill/AP)

Age: 30
Height: 6-foot-7
Position: Power forward
Acquisition: Feb. 4 trade with New York Knicks for Dalen Terry
Contract details: In first year of two-year, $11.3 million contract (declined player option for 2026-27)
NBA experience: Fourth season
2025-26 stats: 2.7 points, 2.1 rebounds, 0.4 assists

Although he isn’t tall enough to classify as a center, Yabusele — nicknamed “Dancing Bear” or “Le Bear” — is a powerful force on the low block who will help the Bulls frontcourt weather the rest of the season. He declined his player option for the 2026-27 season before the trade from the Knicks, making him a short-term pickup.

Basketball fans might know Yabusele best for posterizing LeBron James with a monster dunk for France in the gold-medal game of the Paris Olympics. His performance in that tournament launched the renaissance of his NBA career — he lasted two seasons with the Boston Celtics after the selected him with the No. 16 pick in the 2016 draft — earning a contract with the Philadelphia 76ers after a five-year hiatus from the league.

Yabusele provided a crucial presence off the bench for the 76ers last season before signing last summer with the Knicks, with whom his role diminished behind a stacked frontcourt. He had 15 points and 11 rebounds Thursday in his Bulls debut.

Rob Dillingham

Timberwolves guard Rob Dillingham looks on during the second half against the Nets on Dec. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. (Bailey Hillesheim/AP)

Age: 21
Height: 6-2
Position: Point guard
Acquisition: Feb. 5 trade with Minnesota Timberwolves for Ayo Dosunmu and Julian Phillips
Contract details: In second year of four-year, $28 million deal (team option in 2027-28)
NBA experience: Second season
2025-26 stats: 3.5 points, 1.7 assists, 1.2 rebounds, 36.4% 3-point percentage

The No. 8 pick in the 2024 draft, Dillingham has been a victim of the pecking order in the Timberwolves backcourt, averaging only 10 minutes in 84 games across two seasons. The lack of playing time leaves a cloud of uncertainty around the point guard, who was considered to be a decent playmaking prospect at Kentucky.

As one of the only non-expiring contracts the Bulls picked up this week, they will have a longer runway to assess whether Dillingham fits into their long-term plans.

Collin Sexton

Hornets guard Collin Sexton reacts against the Spurs on Jan. 31, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)

Age: 27
Height: 6-3
Position: Guard
Acquisition: Feb. 5 trade with Charlotte Hornets for Coby White and Mike Conley Jr.
Contract details: In final year of four-year, $70.95 million deal
NBA experience: Eighth season
2025-26 stats: 14.2 points, 1.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists

Sexton was considered one of the more promising young guards on the market when the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted him at No. 8 in 2018, but he never fit into the team’s development project. The Cavaliers traded Sexton to the Utah Jazz in 2022 as a cornerstone of the trade that brought Donovan Mitchell to Cleveland. He spent three seasons with the Jazz until he was traded to the Hornets last summer as part of a deal for Jusuf Nurkić.

This back-and-forth series of trades is reflective of Sexton’s production, which has been consistent yet underwhelming based on the expectations of his early career. At 27, the guard is on the absolute cusp of the age range the Bulls are looking to include in their youth project — but he does fit well with the concept of “experienced young players” that Artūras Karnišovas favors.

Nick Richards

Suns center Nick Richards (2) dunks beside Bulls guard Coby White on Feb. 22, 2025, at the United Center. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Age: 28
Height: 6-11
Position: Center
Acquisition: Feb. 5 three-team trade to send Ousmane Dieng (also acquired this week) to Milwaukee Bucks
Contract details: In final year of three-year, $5 million contract
NBA experience: Sixth season
2025-26 stats: 3.2 points, 3.3 rebounds, 0.3 assists

Richards is a crucial short-term addition alongside Yabusele to help the Bulls close the season with a limited center group. Due to Zach Collins’ injury status, Richards might see a steep increase in playing time in Chicago.

Richards served as a starting center for the Phoenix Suns last season after being sent west on a trade-deadline move from the Hornets. He moved down the depth chart this season following the acquisition of Nurkić but remains a dependable center who can carry starting minutes when the need arises.

Similarly to Sexton, Richards is somewhat outside the preferred age group for the Bulls young core — but he’s an inexpensive frontcourt option who will use the remaining games of the season as an audition, both with the Bulls and elsewhere.

Leonard Miller

Timberwolves forward Leonard Miller looks on before a game against the Nets on Dec. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. (Bailey Hillesheim/AP)

Age: 22
Height: 6-10
Position: Small forward
Acquisition: Feb. 5 trade with Timberwolves for Ayo Dosunmu and Julian Phillips
Contract details: In third year of four-year, $8.3 million contract (team option in 2026-27)
NBA experience: Third season
2025-26 stats: 2.3 points, 1.3 rebounds, 0.3 assists

The Bulls don’t need much from Miller, a deep rotational forward who hardly cracked the rotation with the Timberwolves. At 610, he offers some much-needed size to a frontcourt decimated by trades and injuries. His brother Emanuel played for the Bulls as a two-way player before he was traded in Saturday’s three-way deal with the Sacramento Kings and the Cavaliers.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/06/chicago-bulls-trade-deadline-additions/ 

The start of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy is here.

The torch relay is nearly complete and some of the top athletes are already making headlines. There are 16 sports in all, including some never seen before, and 116 gold medals are waiting to be awarded.

Milan’s San Siro stadium is the venue for Friday’s opening ceremony, which is usually the most viewed moment of the Games as millions around the world will watch on official broadcasters. U.S. pop star Mariah Carey, crossover tenor Andrea Bocelli are among the performers. It begins at 8 p.m. local time (1 p.m. Central).

This will be the most spread-out Winter Games in history: The two primary competition sites are the city of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the winter resort in the Dolomites that is more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) away by road. Athletes also will compete in three other mountain clusters besides Cortina, while the closing ceremony will be in Verona, 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Milan.

Preliminary heats began on Wednesday. Check here for a daily schedule.

Key dates to know

Competition runs Feb. 4-22. Here are some of the dates to mark on your calendar:

Feb. 4: Competition begins (curling)
Feb. 6: Opening ceremony
Feb. 7: First gold medal events
Feb. 8: Gold medal, women’s Alpine skiing downhill
Feb. 13: Gold medal, men’s figure skating
Feb. 18: Gold medal, women’s Alpine skiing slalom
Feb. 19: Gold medal, women’s figure skating. Gold medal game, women’s ice hockey. First gold medals in ski mountaineering, a new Olympic sport.
Feb. 22: Gold medal game, men’s ice hockey. Closing ceremony.

How to watch

Dozens of countries will stream or air each day’s events, with some of them delaying broadcasts until prime time depending on the time zone. That will be the case in the U.S., where Central time is seven hours behind Milan and Cortina. NBC will carry showcase events at night while streaming sports on Peacock.

Top storylines

Athletes to watch

Two of the most decorated Alpine skiers in history, 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, opened the World Cup season in dominant form. Vonn still plans to compete despite rupturing her ACL last week. Eileen Gu is back in freestyle skiing, as is Chloe Kim in snowboarding. NHL players are back on Olympic ice for the first time since 2014, so watch for the likes of Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid.

After torn ACLs and 10 surgeries, Chicago’s Sarah Warren makes the US Olympic speedskating team
Entering his 4th Olympics, Oak Park speedskater Emery Lehman nears the finish line
Figure skater Deanna Stellato-Dudek — a Park Ridge native who represents Canada — out of Olympic team event

Venues

All eyes are on the hockey arenas in Milan, which were still under construction in January; the main rink will be about 3 feet shorter than NHL and PWHL players are used to. And the athletes’ village in Cortina is a collection of more than 350 mobile homes.

Russian athletes

A handful of Russians are competing as neutral athletes — after they were cleared by an independent review to ensure that they have not publicly supported the war in Ukraine and are not affiliated with Russia’s military or other forces.

What’s new

Ski mountaineering will make its Olympic debut while skeleton has added a mixed team event, luge has added women’s doubles and large hill ski jumping added women’s and men’s super team events.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/06/winter-olympics-what-to-know/ 

House Launches Investigation Into ‘Discriminatory’ South Korean Regulators After Trump Hits Seoul With 25% Tariff

Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/06/2026 – 06:55

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/house-launches-investigation-discriminatory-south-korean-regulators-after-trump-hits 

The house on Pratt Boulevard goes by many names.

Most neighbors call it Candyland. The Rogers Park kids who once flocked here every day after school for art classes thought of it as the clubhouse of the Battling Butterfly Brigade. Others walk past its pastel stripes and think of it as the Easter House. Once, after that paint began cracking and the old Victorian no longer seemed so eye-popping, a small girl and her grandmother approached owners Joe Bergantino and Ricky Gonzalez and asked, earnestly: “Is this the trash house?”

The reputation of their home had long ago preceded it.

Long before the producers of HGTV’s “Ugliest House in America” ever called.

The good news — in a sense, at least according to the show, which aired its finale Thursday night — is that the house on Pratt was not declared the absolute ugliest in the nation. The bad news is that Bergantino and Gonzalez could have used the $150,000 in renovations that came with that title.

On the other hand, this is a place full of mixed feelings.

When Daniel Hymanson heard last summer that a cable TV makeover series was going to shoot at the house and probably make fun of it — a house for which he had served as the caretaker, a house that he later made a documentary about, a house once owned by two beloved artists who regarded their home as an extension of their art works — he bristled at anyone thinking it was “ugly.”

He said, “I knew what would happen on the show, that anything eccentric would get called ‘ugly,’ so it seemed very insulting to the legacy of that house and the great people who once lived there.”

HGTV, after all, is the home of “Help! I Wrecked My House” and “Fix My Frankenhouse” and “Cheap A$$ Beach Houses” and “Scariest House in America.” They considered this one of the ugliest in the nation? After Hymanson was asked to talk about the house on the show, he knew what he had to do: “I’d get confrontational on camera, I’d have like a whole spiel prepared and really give it to them. And then, as soon as I saw no one (on the show) took it all that seriously, despite all of my personal history with this place, I just could not do it with a straight face.”

Candyland, after all, is strange — inspiring, cherished and definitely strange.

Rogers Park has long embraced strange.

There are no shortage of offbeat homes in these largely middle-class streets. There’s the house painted with leopard spots. The house that used its flagpole for monthly art exhibits. The house on Lunt that filled its yard with mirrors and trash sculptures (likely the house that little girl was looking for), not to be confused with the house on Lunt that filled its yard with cowboy dolls and toy horses.

Candyland, though, had been an unofficial landmark for many decades, a neighborhood institution. It’s such a part of Rogers Park that when Bergantino and Gonzalez bought it in 2022, they figured they paid significantly under the asking price because artist Jackie Seiden, the owner, wanted to insure that the home she and her late husband, artist Don Seiden, transformed into an architectural pinwheel would retain its character.

They told Seiden they would make changes, but they would keep Candyland weird.

Still, it is their home now.

The Rogers Park home of Joe Bergantino and Ricky Gonzalez, which is part of this season of HGTV’s Ugliest Home in America, on Jan. 19, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

So when HGTV contacted them about potentially including the place on “Ugliest House in America,” Bergantino and Gonzalez had a very awkward call. “The woman on the phone from the show took forever to get to the point,” Gonzalez recalls. “We thought it was a scam for a bit,” Bergantino added. “She would ask us, ‘So do you want to be on our show,’” Gonzalez said, “and we’d be like, ‘OK, yes, but wait, what show are you talking about?’ And then she would go on and on: ‘So the idea behind the show is,’ and we’d interrupt: ‘What show?’ We asked this several times. Finally, she goes, ‘Look, do not be offended by this but …’”

“We just laughed,” Bergantino said.

“Yeah, I mean, winners would get a $150,000 renovation,” Gonzalez said, “and for $150,000 you can call my house whatever you feel like — you could call my mom ugly!”

That house on Pratt is not, by any measure, the ugliest in all 50 states. There’s way uglier in Rogers Park alone. There are structures throughout the Chicago area — all of that development around Wrigley Field, I’m thinking of you — far less interesting. The facade of the house on Pratt is yellow and pink and (I think) green. Tie-dyed bunting drapes over the porch. The walkway is cracked and the color of (somewhat) pink Peeps. Is it a sketchy day care? The world headquarters of the Original Rainbow Cone? After Bergantino and Gonzalez bought the house, they heard stories: They’d heard that it had been, indeed, an unofficial neighborhood daycare, but also an unofficial art studio, an unofficial dance studio, an unofficial work of art installation and a social hub.

“We knew we would always play side characters to a place like this,” Bergantino said.

“The house is certainly the star,” Gonzalez said. “We get people who knock on the door and ask for a tour! Seriously. Out of the blue. I’m like, “No! Please be normal!” And that was before HGTV.”

Nevertheless, I got a tour the other day, and here’s some of what you would see: A living room floor covered in plywood the hue of old mayonnaise. An aquarium net hanging in the foyer. Some of the windows are rectangular, but many others are ovals, resembling cruise ship portals. There’s a piano painted pink and green — actually, most of the inside of the house matches the colors of the outside. Except that the inside walls are also covered in glitter. The ceiling is covered in glitter. There are places where a floor was painted one color and places where that same floor is not painted at all. The staircase is pink. The attic bedroom is actually relatively contemporary, with shiny hardwood floors and plumbing cleverly doubling as stair railing. But then there is a working toilet up there that’s not behind any walls or hidden by a door; it’s just plopped there, a few feet from the foot of the bed. In another bedroom, paint is torn off walls to reveal splatters of floral wallpaper beneath.

Most of this was the (intentional) work of the Seidens, and their flourishes remain so extensive throughout the four floors of the house that Bergantino and Gonzalez figure, without that HGTV award money, the house will probably take about a decade to restore to something uniquely theirs.

Don Seiden, who died in 2019 at 91, was a pioneer of art therapy and the founder of the art therapy program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. But many of the quirks of the house came via Jackie Seiden, who taught art classes for children at SAIC and is now in her late 80s and residing in senior living. For years, she maintained a room that had no practical purpose other than somewhat resembling an ornate bedroom of British royalty. She wallpapered the kitchen with the fortune slips of fortune cookies. “Rooms sort of bled into each other,” Hymanson remembers. Jackie would add layer upon layer of spackle to every surface — archways, radiators — then toss fistfuls of glitter at it before the compound could dry. Don created a life-size rhino out of metal, duct tape and tin foil and installed it in the backyard. Jackie made sure every green was the emerald of hospital walls and every pink echoed the pink Edgewater Beach Apartments building on Lake Shore Drive.

When Bergantino and Gonzalez moved in four years ago, they found a window completely covered in the plastic grass from old Easter baskets. They found a wedding dress hanging from the ceiling. They found a car in the backyard filled with old children’s clothing. They found a pair of men’s underwear stapled to a wall. On an episode of “Ugliest Houses in America,” they noted the “clam bisque reds” and “smoker’s yellows” found throughout the house.

The documentary that Hymanson shot here — 2020’s “So Late So Soon,” largely about the Seiden’s marriage, with support from the Sundance Institute — opens with Jackie creating an elaborate weave of strings across the kitchen sink, to support a small plastic cow. In the next scene, she is carefully arranging an art installation of open antique suitcases. “Jackie was a brilliant artist and the house itself was her life’s work,” Hymanson said. “It was a singular vision of a particular person, and constantly evolved. It reflected literally what it means to fully integrate art into everyday life.”

The house was built in 1893; the Seidens arrived in the early 1970s.

“It was once a generic house, painted green, before they got there,” said Dawn Brown, a niece of Jackie. “I remember, at first, they had painted everything white, then lots of pink. They made it look like a fairyland, and it became a gathering place for the family, who really did appreciate it as a work of art itself. Everyone did. As Jackie got older, grown men, members of the Butterfly Brigade who took art classes at the house years ago, they would run up to her on the street and hug her.”

Joe Bergantino plays tug-of-war with his dog Bean in his Rogers Park home which he owns with his husband Ricky Gonzalez on Jan. 19, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Bergantino and Gonzalez paid $465,000 for the home, about $140,000 below the initial price, partly because it would require upgrades, and partly because Seiden had been assured that they wouldn’t entirely gut the spirit of the place. Gonzalez wrote her a letter explaining as such, that they knew the house was her artwork and vowed to keep it unusual. One married couple was passing their home to another married couple, who see it in the 20th century tradition of “painted ladies,” the name given colorfully retooled Victorians. Hymanson, who had known Jackie since he was her 5-year-old art student, is pleased that she has something of a small relationship with Bergantino and Gonzalez: “It was kind of a relief in the end because I think they really are the perfect owners.”

Bergantino, 36, manages tech coders; Gonzalez, 42, is a software engineer. They say they had never picked up a power tool until they started making changes, remodeling a bathroom here, reinstalling a tiled floor there, showing their progress through an Instagram account called HomosWithHammers. They even added some glitter to the walls of their home offices, as homage.

HGTV found them on Instagram.

Last summer, a director scouted the ugliest rooms to use on the show, only to decide: “OK, everywhere.” Ultimately, the home was on an episode titled “The Midwest Brings the Ugly.” The comedian Retta of “Parks and Recreation,” the host, quipped that the house was where “colors come to die.” She went wide-eyed at the quirks and cringed at the glitter. She said she wondered how a family home could stand out “in a city literally built by architectural legends, but now I see how.”

When I asked Jackie if she was insulted that her home was called one of the ugliest in the nation, she sighed. “I don’t have expectations,” she said. “The word ‘insult,’ it doesn’t fit this at all, because that home was like a soul or another being I got along with — their insults can’t touch me at all.”

Brown, who is close with her aunt, said: “By the time she gave up the house, she had come to terms with it. She doesn’t mourn it, she doesn’t look back — I think, if anything, she mourns being older and everything that comes along with that. She’s now a city artist stuck in the suburbs.”

Bergantino and Gonzalez heard Jackie was not thrilled. But they had made plans in case they won. As part of their contract with HGTV, they designated parts of the house off-limits to any changes.

And yet, they want to be clear: “What Jackie built was so inspiring it helped us throw out the rule book of what this house could become next,” Bergantino said. “We’re not going to restore it to a new version of the same thing. We’re going to make it contemporary, and yet keep the character.

“A home is not a museum, it’s a home.”

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/06/rogers-park-ugliest-house-hgtv/ 

Spain’s Far-Left Government Threatens To “Limit And Likely Ban” X

Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/06/2026 – 06:30

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/spains-far-left-government-threatens-limit-and-likely-ban-x