High School Sports

Billy Joel was right

By Steve Tucker

Movin’ Up could be a theme for next week’s state playoff pairings

Steve Soucie of the Kankakee Daily Journal, who does playoff pairing for my friend Tim O’Halloran at edgytim.com, and does them better than anyone I know, said that he expects the field for the state playoffs to be pushed up. If he is correct, you are likely to see schools like York and Loyola Academy in the Class 8A field and Joliet Catholic and Cary-Grove pushed up into 7A

Soucie also told me that he expects a record number of 5-4 teams, perhaps 10 or more, to miss the state playoffs based on their tiebreaker points (the number of wins by opponents).

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The Latest

A Chicago building at 1130 S. Wabash Avenue.

Columnists

South Loop had a hybrid car dealership — a century ago. Now it’s headed toward demolition.

But a building that beckoned towards the future, housing the former Woods Motor Vehicle Co., shouldn’t be consigned to the past, architecture critic Lee Bey writes.

By Lee Bey

A photo of Matt Eberflus reacting to a play in a game.

Bears

Answering the Bears’ biggest questions on the bye week, with 5 games left

A look at what’s at stake for Matt Eberflus, Justin Fields, Ryan Poles and more over rest of the season.

By Jason Lieser

Michael Tilson Thomas leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Thursday night at Symphony Center.

Music

Michael Tilson Thomas triumphs at Symphony Center in exuberant program of Brahms, Mozart

Tilson Thomas delivered a performance that will stand up to any in this hall this season.

By Kyle MacMillan - For the Sun-Times

GardaWorld, the controversial contractor picked by the city to build Mayor Brandon Johnson’s “winterized base camps,” begins pitching the first of its tents at the Brighton Park construction site at 3710 S. California Ave., Wednesday, Nov. 29.

Photography

Picture Chicago: This week’s 17 can’t miss Sun-Times photos

Public officials celebrated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new American Blues Theater on the Northwest Side, activists held a vigil for people who have died while detained at Cook County Jail, and construction workers began framing a “winterized base camp” for asylum-seekers in Chicago.

By Sun-Times staff

Prosecutors say this image depicts retired Chicago firefighter Joseph Pavlik on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Crime

Two months in prison for retired Chicago firefighter who helped with ‘Tunnel’ siege at U.S. Capitol

Joseph Pavlik spent 33 years as a firefighter before retiring in 2013, prosecutors said. He went to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with a tactical vest, helmet, goggles, a gas mask and a can of chemical spray.

By Jon Seidel