Latest news with #Hopkins
Chicago Tribune
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Alderman pledges to fight Mayor Brandon Johnson's curfew veto, won't ‘twist arms'
As Mayor Brandon Johnson promises to veto the teen curfew ordinance passed by aldermen, the measure's lead sponsor says he will keep fighting to make it law. Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, won out over Johnson in the City Council Wednesday when his plan to give Chicago's police superintendent power to declare teen curfews anytime, anywhere passed in a 27-to-22 vote. But his victory could be fleeting. Johnson quickly pledged to cast a rare mayoral veto, the city's first since 2006. The planned move means Hopkins must garner votes from 34 aldermen to overrule the mayor, a high bar that would require him to flip as many as seven council members. Still, Hopkins said Thursday morning he will move ahead in July with a City Council vote on Johnson's anticipated veto. He plans to keep making the case for his ordinance, but added that he will not be heavy handed. 'I'm going to keep pushing back on the deceptive spin, but I'm not going to call my colleagues and twist arms. Everyone is going to vote their conscience on this,' the downtown alderman said. The Wednesday vote and veto pledge marked decisive steps in Hopkins' two-year push to give police more power to curb the so-called 'teen takeover' youth gatherings that have sometimes ended in high-profile violence, including two Streeterville shootings in Hopkins' ward in recent months. Youth activists and civil rights groups have criticized the curfew measure as an unfair and unconstitutional crackdown that especially harms Black and Latino teens from poor neighborhoods that offer little safe fun. They also argue that those same teens have been left out of the debate and that aldermen should instead invest money in youth jobs, violence prevention and safe activities. 'Our children are gathering to escape the violence in their neighborhoods, the trouble at home and other conditions that they have no control over,' said Abierre Minor, a 25-year-old appointed by Johnson last year to the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. Minor recalled speaking after the vote with her 15-year-old sister, who argued media coverage of 'teen takeovers' has been sensationalized and that all people should have the right to gather as they see fit. The police oversight commissioner said she was 'disheartened' by the City Council majority's decision, but praised Johnson's 'swift and strong' response. 'Every year, our decision-makers propose repressive, ineffective policies to address community violence that does nothing but cause confusion and community harm,' Minor said. 'This year, something different happened. We had a leader who decided to break the cycle.' The Cook County Public Defender's Office and progressive groups have also backed Johnson's stance. Just after the measure passed, Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates urged the mayor, formerly a CTU organizer, to veto it, likening the curfew ordinance to Jim Crow segregation laws. 'The people of Streeterville don't need the police to keep Black youth out of their neighborhood. The people of Chicago need policies and programs that serve and center Black youth,' Davis Gates wrote. Johnson's administration is currently drafting veto language and plans to officially veto the measure soon. The mayor had long shared tentative criticism of the potential curfew, but ramped up his opposition to the proposal this week. He argued after pledging a veto that the curfew ordinance would harm 'trust within communities' as the city's violent crime rates sharply drop, and compared the measure to crime laws 'that have overwhelmingly led to the criminalization and the incarceration of poor people and particularly people of color.' 'Offering up extended police power, without any check or balance, has not boded well for Black people and Brown people in this country,' he said. Hopkins argued Thursday the 'snap curfew' label Johnson and others have used to describe the measure is a misnomer. The measure requires police to give 30 minutes notice onsite before a curfew is implemented. It also requires the superintendent to consult others to declare a curfew, but gives the top cop final say. Superintendent Larry Snelling said in court last week he would not use any power allowing him to declare sudden curfews, but suggested he could use the ordinance to declare preemptive curfews days in advance when police learn of planned, potentially chaotic gatherings. He has carefully distanced himself from the political debate in statements. Johnson has argued he and Snelling are aligned on the matter, but said future superintendents should not have the technical ability to quickly declare curfews with little or no oversight. A final vote ought to move forward in July, without legislative trickery from either side, Hopkins said. 'That'll put the matter to bed, and I'd rather do that briefly than have it degrade into a parliamentary mud fight,' he said. 'I think at this point I am done having persuasive conversations with my colleagues.' Much could happen before a mid-July vote that might pressure aldermen to change sides, he added. He cited, as he did during City Council floor debate Wednesday, reports of a large and chaotic teen gathering at North Avenue Beach earlier this week. Police said they arrested five teens at the beach Tuesday, including three minors, for misdemeanors and citations including battery, resisting arrest and possessing alcohol.
NBC Sports
17 hours ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Rashod Bateman says Ravens receivers benefit from veteran presence of DeAndre Hopkins
DeAndre Hopkins is 33 years old and his production has declined in recent years, with a career-low 10.9 yards per catch average last season. But fellow Ravens wide receiver Rashod Bateman still brings plenty to Baltimore. Bateman said on NFL Network that Hopkins, who signed a one-year contract with the Ravens in March, has been teaching the younger wide receivers 'You could just definitely tell that he's been in the game a while and done a lot of great things,' Bateman said of Hopkins. 'A lot of people respect what he's done and what he brings to the table. But as far as right now, he's been a very good veteran for us, giving all of us advice -- not even just myself -- he's been very vocal about that. All of us are much younger so [our] ears are open and we're taking all the advice we can get from him. He's done great things, so hopefully we can take that, add it to our game, add it to our personalities to go help this team. He's been good for us and I know he's going to be big for us this season.' The Ravens are Hopkins' fifth NFL team, and perhaps the team that can put a Super Bowl ring on his Hall of Fame résumé.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
How an up-and-coming NFL agent (in Minneapolis!) finds his footing in a cut-throat league
HOPKINS, Minn. — It's early in the morning at a local country club, and Blake Baratz is sipping a hot coffee on the patio. A longtime friend spots him. 'Blake!' the man hollers. 'What's up, dude?' Baratz responds. 'I heard you're bringing out a prospective new member today,' the man says. Baratz laughs. Word travels fast. Jonathan Allen, the Minnesota Vikings' new defensive tackle, will soon arrive at the well-manicured golf course to crank tee shots alongside Baratz, his longtime agent. Advertisement The glamour of being a big-time sports agent never wears off in the eyes of others. 'Jerry Maguire' tossed gasoline on the already-romantic image, and Baratz, a Minnesota native, gets the allure. With free agency and the NFL Draft finished by this Saturday in May, the 45-year-old has just finished several months of daily phone calls with NFL general managers, college coaches and the families of some of football's most heralded prospects. Who wouldn't sign up for that? When it comes to being a sports agent, rarely does anyone speak about how the sausage gets made. It's too messy. Ask one question about how it works, and the answers reveal themselves like nesting dolls. To comprehend this, you must understand this. Soon, you're swimming in some gnarly minutiae: recruiting dynamics, how the contract is written, percentages agents take from their clients. Baratz differs from most in that he's willing to broach all of these subjects. This shouldn't surprise. Here is a guy bold enough to base a sports agency in Minneapolis. 'Team IFA,' which Baratz launched in 2009, has not only survived but also established a foothold in an industry dominated by behemoths like Creative Artists Agency, William Morris Endeavor and Athletes First. Sixteen years later, IFA is small enough to provide a personalized feel and educate players, but large enough to employ other agents in addition to staff members around the country. Rarely does Baratz have the time and serenity to appreciate his agency's climb. But as the driving range is filling up in front of him on this sunny Saturday, that's what he's doing. He compliments his staff. He tells stories about the clients — like Allen — who have entrusted him with their care. The reflections don't last long. After some time, he's back to pondering the future, explaining what's possible with the industry at an inflection point, especially considering all of the changes in college football. 'Right now,' he says, 'we have a real opportunity. A whole new world is opening up.' In 2009, one afternoon in Los Angeles, Baratz huddled in an office with one of his bosses, a more senior agent at their startup firm. Baratz had been urging his superiors to recruit a Tulane running back named Matt Forte. 'Go after him,' Baratz begged. 'I promise.' Finally, his superiors agreed to hear him out. Advertisement 'Let's call a general manager and see what they have to say.' The voice of then-Chicago Bears GM Jerry Angelo blasted through the speakerphone on the other end of the line. They exchanged pleasantries, then Angelo was asked to give a scouting report on Forte. 'Don't waste your time,' Baratz remembers Angelo saying. 'Probably undrafted.' By this time, Baratz had been in the business long enough to know his eye for talent was far from infallible. He had played college tennis at Wisconsin. It takes more than five years to become a football scouting savant. Angelo's feedback quieted Baratz, at least for a while. But then he watched Forte run for more than 2,000 yards and 23 touchdowns as a senior before dominating in the Senior Bowl. Once Angelo, of all people, eventually drafted Forte in the second round, Baratz raced to the offices of his colleagues, throwing his hands to the sky. 'He actually believed what he told us in real time,' Baratz says now, 'but he probably hadn't even watched the player. That type of thing kept happening time and time again, and all of my trust and faith went out the door.' Baratz had kept tabs on the Wisconsin football players he'd grown close with in Madison. The most committed ones, the players who took it most seriously, carved out lengthier NFL careers. These examples, cherry-picked as they may have been, formed a philosophy. Good player? Important. Good character? More important. He was 28 when he decided to put his beliefs into practice. Using Minnesota as his home base offered an immediate network and easy access to schools throughout the Midwest and on both coasts. The build began slowly. He drove to Ohio State, met with safety Kurt Coleman in a conference room at the team hotel and spoke bluntly about the draft process as well as Coleman's draft prospects. Coleman appreciated the candor. Advertisement 'I don't need the fluff,' Coleman says. 'Sometimes, you just need to shoot it straight. That's what it felt like.' That was 2010, and the train really started to roll the following year when IFA inked first-round defensive end Adrian Clayborn. Adam Thielen came several years later, and by the time Allen's draft class came around in 2017, IFA found itself in the most competitive of territories. This is where the industry's truths live. Where agents (and ancillary figures called 'runners') cozy up to trainers, coaches and family members in an attempt to curry favor. Where flights are supplied. Where players are pitched curated pamphlets and presentations explaining why it makes sense to sign with them. Where some agents propose taking a smaller percentage of prospects' contracts than other agents would to sweeten their submission. Most NFL players can tell stories about being bombarded by potential advisers in college. Allen directed all of the suitors to his father. Baratz earned his trust when he suggested that Allen return to Alabama for his senior year, following shoulder surgery, rather than immediately entering the NFL Draft. Others recommended the opposite. The sooner Allen started the clock on his second and third contracts, the quicker the agents could make their coveted return on investments paid in the form of pre-draft training and, in some instances, money advancements before the prospects had played an NFL down. 'I was just trying to make the best decision for me and my family,' Allen says, 'and not just chase the money.' Securing the services of a player like Allen is a feat in itself, but even his inclusion did not elevate IFA beyond its status as a mid-sized shop. It didn't have the glitz of a CAA, which is renowned for its foothold in the entertainment industry, where agents work out of a sleek property in Century City on Avenue of the Stars. IFA, on the other hand, occupies an office down the block from a restaurant with exceptional chili called 'The Loon Cafe.' 'You sign with us because you know us as people,' Baratz says. 'You understand our offering. You're not getting inundated with the bulls—. And even then, it's still hard. I still have to fend off the wolves.' For years, that was the challenge: maintaining and, specifically, building a fence around the state of Minnesota. It was fun and competitive, absolutely, but in many ways repetitive and taxing. Then the 2020s arrived, and legislation opened a door that had previously been sealed shut. A couple of years ago, Baratz received a call from one of IFA's employees in Dallas. Other agencies were putting the finishing touches on proposals for Duncanville (Texas) High quarterback Keelon Russell, who was widely regarded as the top quarterback recruit in the country. Did IFA want to toss its hat in the ring? Advertisement Baratz reacted with skepticism. A high school kid? Really? Before dismissing the idea, Baratz contacted Howard Skall, a recent hire who worked for more than a decade with the NFL Players Association, then for 16 years as a senior marketing agent at CAA. If anybody could decipher a high school player's promotional value for leading brands, it'd be Skall. After doing some quick digging, Skall replied with almost jarring feedback. The number of commas (at least two) in the amount Russell could be worth blew Baratz away. 'That changed my perspective,' he says. IFA had already dipped its toes in the college football waters. The space had become ripe for hangers-on, folks who did not have to earn certification the way you do in the NFL. Other players allowed their parents to orchestrate deals, resulting in some major problems. (See: Iamaleava, Nico.) Baratz observed the landscape and recognized the opportunity. Why not take the professional model IFA had cultivated for more than a decade and see if it yielded similar value for players and families with even less knowledge about the world they were entering? IFA would also benefit from being able to create relationships with players and families earlier. And there was value in making agreements on the front end. Baratz believes that IFA's contract negotiation experience, combined with a full marketing team led by Skall and a PR arm run by former Denver Nuggets director of media relations Tim Gelt, strengthens kids' chances of maximizing their worth. Ultimately, Russell and his mother, April Moore, saw the vision. IFA's size allows for nimbleness, so once Skall appraised Russell's future prospects, Baratz pursued the youngster as a client. The current University of Alabama quarterback has become one of IFA's more than 40 non-NFL clients, and he has already partnered with Panini America on a multi-year trading card arrangement. Advertisement Still sitting on the patio at the country club, Baratz discusses what it's going to take to keep Russell. He constantly asks himself questions: How do you maintain the individualized feel while scaling? How do you ensure you're targeting the same qualifying level of person that got you here in the first place? A mountain of a man approaches as he's mulling these subjects. It's Allen. Their tee time is approaching. At least for a few hours, Baratz can enjoy the comforts that come with being a sports agent. (Top illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; all photos courtesy of IFA)
Wall Street Journal
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘The Manifesto House' Review: Living the Architect's Dream
The critic Paul Goldberger, voicing a sentiment many know intuitively to be true but have perhaps never articulated, described architecture as 'the only art that we have no choice but to engage with.' You can avoid museums, concert halls and screens big and little, but buildings, like the poor, will always be with us. And so it follows that to understand buildings, it can be useful to understand the thought processes behind them. In 'The Manifesto House,' the writer and curator Owen Hopkins is eager to get into the minds of architects whose residential buildings, in the words of his subtitle, 'changed the future of architecture.' In 21 chapters divided into three somewhat overlapping subcategories—'Looking Back,' 'Looking Out' and 'Looking Forward'—Mr. Hopkins seeks to explore houses that do not 'reflect received or prevailing ideas that have become internalised among architects, builders and clients/users, and are held and enacted almost unconsciously.' The houses featured here sprang from the minds of disparate figures across time, from the Georgian neoclassicist John Soane to the postmodernist Robert Venturi, and the book includes widely known figures such as Frank Lloyd Wright and those who will likely be unfamiliar even to adepts, such as the contemporary Senegalese firm Worofila. Any architect can imagine a daring design, and many have. Yet, as the author notes, few 'manifesto houses' exist, for the simple reason that 'it is so rare for architects to get the opportunity to put what are ultimately polemics into practice.' Clients, those pesky people who actually have to live in most houses, won't allow it. That is why 'manifesto houses,' in Mr. Hopkins's definition, tend to be built by architects for themselves to occupy, or otherwise for genuflecting admirers with 'deep interests in architecture and what it can do.' Mr. Hopkins's definition has two aspects, which presents potential hazards: For inclusion, he states, houses should contain a polemical element and also have changed the course of architectural history. It's not clear, though, that all his chosen examples adhere to these criteria. Who can doubt that Andrea Palladio's Villa Rotonda (1566–ca. 1590), the home outside of Venice that is the subject of the book's first chapter, changed the future of architecture? Its strident symmetry and extended loggias continue to echo in buildings today, not least in the neoclassical public architecture constructed in the nascent American republic.
The National
12-06-2025
- Politics
- The National
Peaceful protest announced for Katie Hopkins Edinburgh gig
Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) Edinburgh have invited those who wish to join their peaceful protest 'against the airing of obnoxious views' to attend the BMC Social Club in the capital, where Hopkins is set to perform a comedy gig on June 19. Hopkins, a former columnist for the Mail Online, The Sun and Canadian far-right website The Rebel Media, has garnered continued criticism for her extremist views on the disabled, migrants and Muslims since her appearance on The Apprentice in 2005. READ MORE: Refugee festival exhibition showcases work by displaced artists Q Manivannan, the Scottish Greens candidate for the upcoming Fountainbridge-Craiglockhart byelection, said: 'Our country is built upon care, hospitality, and tolerance. Not the hate that Katie Hopkins brings, mocking disabled people, calling for a racist 'final solution', and fat-shaming. 'Her hate is recognised worldwide with her readers in Exeter voting to dump her, the likes of Piers Morgan calling her 'despicable', being held guilty of libel in a court of law, being deported from Australia, and impressing the world with her life of distrust. 'Scotland rejects such hate and racism. It has no room in our local communities." READ MORE: UK 'currently' training Israeli soldiers on UK soil, Labour Government admits Steve West, an independent socialist candidate for the byelection, added: "I share Stand Up To Racism's disgust that the BMC Club is hosting the racist, so-called comedian Katie Hopkins, who has also insulted disabled people. 'The club needs to be given a clear message that this is unacceptable. Edinburgh has a proud record of inclusivity and we need to keep it that way." SUTR recently held a successful counter-demo to the 'Great British National Strike' and have garnered the support of major trade union organisations, as well as several Scottish public figures like Frankie Boyle, Humza Yousaf and Aamer Anwar.
