Author: chicagoinquirer

by Mark Gonzales CHICAGO — Kevin Porter Jr. scored a season-high 36 points and the Houston Rockets used a 17-1 run in the third quarter to beat the Chicago Bulls 133-118 on Monday night, snapping a five-game losing streak. Alperan Sengun added 25 points and Jalen Green had 24 for Houston, which scored the first 10 points of the game but blew an 18-point lead before its third-quarter spurt. “This was definitely one of those games where you saw the result of us learning and getting better,” Porter said. DeMar DeRozan scored 31 for the Bulls, who won their previous…

by Andrew Seligman LAKE FOREST, IL -Matt Eberflus insisted the Chicago Bears won’t shut down quarterback Justin Fields for the remaining two games. Fields was hobbling at the end of Saturday’s 35-13 loss to the Buffalo Bills after someone stepped on his foot. His nonthrowing, left shoulder — the same one he separated last month — also bothered him during the game. But Eberflus said Monday sitting him the rest of the way is “absolutely not” a consideration. Why not? “Because we’ve got to get better,” the coach said. “We want to improve. We want to see where we are.…

by Andrew Dalton LOS ANGELES  — “Avatar: The Way of Water” sailed to the top of the box office in its second weekend, bringing in what studios estimate Sunday will be a strong $56 million in North America — a sign that the sequel may stay afloat into the new year and approach the massive expectations that met its release. James Cameron’s digital extravaganza for 20th Century Studios has made $253.7 million domestically in its first 10 days of release, compared to $212.7 million in the same stretch for 2009’s first “Avatar,” which would go on to become the highest-grossing…

by Hannah Fingerhut WASHINGTON  — President Joe Biden celebrated a quiet Christmas with his family at the White House and spoke with service members stationed around the world. “They’re away from their families to protect us,” Biden said in a tweet. “And they have the thanks of a grateful, indebted president.” The White House said Biden and the first lady, Jill, called members of the Army stationed at Panama City, Panama; the Navy aboard the USS The Sullivans in the Arabian Sea; the Marine Corps at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego; the Air Force at Okinawa, Japan; the Space…

by Jaques Billeaud PHOENIX  — Republican Kari Lake didn’t offer evidence to back her claims of widespread, intentional misconduct on Election Day at her two-day trial challenging her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs in Arizona governor’s race, lawyers for the state said Thursday. Lake also never established her claim that printer problems at Maricopa County polling places were intentional acts that would have changed the race’s outcome had they not occurred, said Abha Khanna, a lawyer representing Hobbs, who ultimately won the race by just over 17,000 votes. At the trial’s closing arguments Thursday, Khanna said Lake’s claims were based…

WASHINGTON  — Three buses of recent migrant familiesarrived from Texas near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in record-setting cold on Christmas Eve. Texas authorities have not confirmed their involvement, but the bus drop-offs are in line with previous actions by border-state governors calling attention to the Biden administration’s immigration policies. The buses that arrived late Saturday outside the vice president’s residence were carrying around 110 to 130 people, according to Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, a relief agency working with the city of Washington to serve thousands of migrants who have been dropped off in…

by Andrew Seligman CHICAGO  — Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills came into the season with soaring expectations and their sights set on a deep playoff run. They earned one big prize by clinching their third straight division title. It’s just the next step in what they hope is a path toward their ultimate goal. Devin Singletary and James Cook ran for long touchdowns in the third quarter, and the Bills locked up the AFC East title by beating the Bears 35-13 on Saturday in one of the coldest games played in Chicago. Allen ran for a TD and threw…

by Francis D’emilio VATICAN CITY  — Recalling Jesus’ birth in a stable, Pope Francis rebuked those “ravenous” for wealth and power at the expense of the vulnerable, including children, in a Christmas Eve homily decrying war, poverty and greedy consumerism. In the splendor of St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis presided over the evening Mass attended by about 7,000 faithful, including tourists and pilgrims, who flocked to the church on a warm evening and took their place behind rows of white-robed pontiffs. Francis drew lessons from the humility of Jesus’ first hours of life in a manger. “While animals feed in their…

by Barbara Surk NICE, France — Tunisia’s increasingly authoritarian president appears determined to upend the country’s political system. The strategy is not only threatening a democracy once seen as a model for the Arab world, experts say it is also sending the economy toward a tailspin. The International Monetary Fund has frozen an agreement meant to help the government get loans to pay public sector salaries and fill budget gaps aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine. Foreign investors are pulling out of Tunisia, and ratings agencies are on alert. Inflation and joblessness are…

by Carolyn Thompson and Jake Bleiberg BUFFALO, N.Y. — A battering winter storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the United States on Saturday, left millions more to worry about the prospect of further outages and crippled police, fire departments and an airport in snow-blown New York state. Across the country, officials have attributed at least 17 deaths to exposure, icy car crashes and other effects of the storm, including two people who died in their homes outside Buffalo, New York, when emergency crews couldn’t reach them amid historic blizzard conditions. New York Gov.…