Austin Reaves scored the winning layup with one second left after Stephen Curry tied it on a 31-foot 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining, LeBron James had 31 points and 10 assists playing in his NBA-record 19th Christmas Day game, and the Los Angeles Lakers held off the Golden State Warriors 115-113 on Wednesday night.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy surprised a pizza place in Baltimore with a $60,000 donation to prevent it from shutting down.
As part of his ongoing series of pizza reviews, Portnoy recently stopped at TinyBrickOven on Light Street in Baltimore. As owner Will Fagg was working behind the counter, he explained to Portnoy that his inability to acquire a liquor license meant the restaurant was no longer financially sustainable. Because of this, he planned to close TinyBrickOven on Christmas Day.
“Well, we’re just not making any money, man,” he told Portnoy in the video posted Monday. “It’s been crazy… The thing is, our politicians gave this market down here their liquor license, but they won’t give us ours. It’s been crazy, man. It’s been totally crazy.”
Portnoy then told Fagg that he hoped the pizza would be great so that the exposure could lead to more business. A few minutes later, Portnoy stepped outside to finally try it.
“OK, this is a reheat and very good,” Portnoy said after taking a few bites. “Thin, New York kinda style. I really like it… There’s no way this place should be going out of business. None.”
Portnoy walked back into the restaurant and asked Fagg a question.
“How much money do you need to stay open for like a year?” he said.
Fagg couldn’t give a firm answer, so Portnoy asked again.
“Well, if there was somebody super rich who was in the pizza business, and by serendipity was like, ‘What do you need to stay open for a year?’ you gotta give him some figure because then he’s gonna walk away.”
Fagg estimated it’d cost around $60,000, prompting an immediate “done” from Portnoy as the two shook hands.
“Oh my god!” Fagg exclaimed. “That is unbelievable!”
As the scope of the consent decree that governs Chicago’s public safety reforms has grown, so, too, has the city’s legal tab.
From 2019 through 2023 — the first five years of the consent decree — the independent monitoring team responsible for assessing compliance billed the city 35% more than was initially quoted. The nearly $5 million in extra bills came while the Chicago Police Department continued its slow pace toward compliance, a Tribune data analysis found.
In this image provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on Dec. 25, 2024, firefighters work on a site of an apartment building destroyed by a Russian attack in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service)
Russia launched a massive missile and drone barrage targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure yesterday, striking a thermal power plant and prompting Ukrainians to take shelter in metro stations on Christmas.
The strikes on Ukrainian fuel and energy sources included 78 air, ground, and sea-launched missiles as well as 106 Shaheds and other types of drones, Ukraine’s air force said. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones, with 52 more drones being jammed.
Uncle Sam, a 25-year-old bald eagle, sits on his perch in front of a U.S. flag before the Extreme Raptors Show at the Permian Basin Fair in the Ector County Coliseum fairgrounds in Odessa, Texas, on Sept. 11, 2013. (Edyta Blaszczyk/Odessa American via AP)
The bald eagle, a symbol of the power and strength of the United States for more than 240 years, earned an overdue honor this week: It officially became the country’s national bird.
An empty parcel of land, top, is all that remains of the former U.S. Steel South Works site on Oct. 22, 2024, in Chicago. PsiQuantum has plans to anchor the new Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park, a 128-acre quantum campus, on the site. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Google recently announced a major breakthrough in quantum computing when its Willow processor solved an equation that would take a conventional computer practically forever. But PsiQuantum, the company planning to build in Chicago one of the world’s first commercially viable quantum computers, is taking a different path.
Herscher school district students get off the electric school bus at their school in Kankakee County on Dec. 17, 2024. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
Illinois is third in the country for electric school buses, behind California and New York, with the state’s school districts committing to about 700 school buses, more than 200 of which are already on the road, according to Electric School Bus Initiative Director Sue Gander.
Supporters say that electric buses protect kids and communities from exposure to diesel exhaust, which can lead to asthma and respiratory illnesses and worsen existing heart and lung disease, especially in children and the elderly, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Jeannette Byrd cares for one of her two grandchildren placed with her through the foster system at her home in west suburban Berkeley on Dec. 16, 2024. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Legislation that would make it easier for relatives to get licensed as foster parents and receive assistance is expected to be considered in early January by the state House, having already passed through the Senate. Gov. JB Pritzker has said he will sign the measure if it gets to his desk.
About 60% of family members caring for children under the auspices of DCFS could gain access to additional financial help through provisions in the bill, according to the Illinois ACLU, which has helped shepherd the bill through the General Assembly. That could bring additional resources to thousands of families statewide.
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams rolls out of the pocket in the second quarter against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field on Dec. 22, 2024. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
The Chicago Bears are working through another quick turnaround this week, preparing to face the Seattle Seahawks tonight. Coming off three consecutive blowout losses, the Bears will need to be much sharper in their home finale to prevent their losing streak from reaching 10. That would match the franchise record for the longest skid within a single season.
The Bears held a walkthrough and meetings on Christmas Eve at Halas Hall. Here are four things we’ve learned since Sunday’s 34-17 loss to the Detroit Lions.
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Alex Caruso (center) and Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic say hello after a Thunder victory over the Bulls at the United Center in Chicago on Oct. 26, 2024. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Alex Caruso cashed in this week on a trade that has aged more poorly with each passing month for the Chicago Bulls.
Six months after the Bulls traded their best defensive player — and arguably one of the best defensive players in the NBA — to Oklahoma City in a rare one-to-one trade for point guard Josh Giddey, the Thunder made a long-term commitment. Caruso signed a four-year, $81 million extension that solidly etched him into the competitive future the Thunder are building around their young core of Chet Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
New Yorker Losel Yauch based “Procession Immemorial” on her grandfather’s memories of growing up in eastern Tibet. Her horses, currently on view in “Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now” at Wrightwood 659, are sculpted from willow branches, recycled sari silk, brass bells, raffia and cotton. (Michael Topea)
“Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now” is an exhibition that pairs art by 28 living artists of the Himalayas and its diaspora with traditional religious objects from Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and surrounding areas, writes Lori Waxman
. The historical objects belong to the collection of New York’s Rubin Museum, which curated the show as the final one in its physical space before its doors closed last fall. It’ll be on view in Chicago at Wrightwood 659 through mid-February.
Conservator Corrine Long, of Dover, N.H., restores nearly 300-year-old painted angels on walls of Old North Church, Dec. 18, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Straddling the scaffolding high up in a historic Boston church, murals conservator Gianfranco Pocobene is working to uncover eight angels that were hidden under layers of paint for more than a century.
The painted angels — with round childlike faces and wings — once were among the defining features of Old North Church when they were painted around 1730. But officials at the church, a seminal location of the Revolutionary War, painted over the angels in 1912 with thick coats of white paint, part of an austere renovation that restorationists are trying to reverse.
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson in the erotic drama “Babygirl.” (Niko Tavernise / A24)
As a table-turning riff on sexual thrillers with a male gaze, and as a portrait of one woman’s sensual fulfillment, “Babygirl” is pretty compelling, writes Tribune film critic Michael Phillips
.
The final countdown to the end of 2024 is here, which means it’s time to figure out how you’re going to welcome 2025. However you want to celebrate, these 70 restaurants and bars will make this New Year’s Eve a night to remember.
